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“Pirates, Nobles and Missionaries; the French in the North of , 1612-1615”

Silvia Castro Shannon, St. Anselm University “Lost ” Conference, March 26-27, 2004

(Please do not cite, quote, or circulate without written permission from the author)

On Thursday March 28, 1613, at eleven o'clock, the Capuchin Claude d'Abbeville and four Tupinamba Indians from Brazil were solemnly received at the abbey of Montivilliers.1 A short distance from Havre, Montivilliers was an old Benedictine abbey.2 Abbess Louise de l'Hopital invited the travelers from Brazil and arranged for a reception to greet the Tupinamba catechumens at the cemetery of St. Sauveur at the door of the abbey. The cemetery of St. Sauveur was the starting point of the two annual solemn processions of Ascension and Pentecost. As an abbess of an abbey of exemption, Louise de l'Hopital had the right to require of the clergy these two processions. The Registre Journalier of the Abbey of Montivilliers notes that she requested the doyen (or dean) of her ecclesiastical court and the clergy of the three parishes to participate in an extraordinary solemn procession to receive the catechumens and lead them to the abbey church. The Te Deum laudamus was sung by the abbey choir. This was followed by a number of other prayers and songs by her religious. She ordered the doors of the cloister, which she had just enclosed, to be opened for this event so that she could greet her guests and her nuns could observe the events. Following the prayers, she even invited the Tupinamba and the Capuchins to join her for dinner at the lower court. Following the solemn reception, the Tupinamba and the Capuchins left for on their way to Paris and the cloister walls of Montivilliers were closed. A few months after the visit, the

1 Claude d'Abbeville, Histoire de la Mission des Frères Capucins en l'Isle de Maragnan et Terres Circonvoisines,(Austria, 1963),337; Registre journalier des choses mémorables et dignes de remarques arrivées en l'abbaye de Montivilliers, 28 Mars, 1613, n.p; B.F.P. ms. 2012, 114. 2 For general histories of the abbey see Montivilliers: Histoire d'une ville et son abbaye, 950e anniversaire,(St.Leger-du-Bourg-Denis, 1985); and Ernest Dumont, Histoire de la ville de Montivilliers (Fecamp, 1886.)

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abbess completed the cloistering of her abbey by reinforcing the enclosure with keys and iron bars.3 This little mentioned episode raises an important question: Why would a Benedictine abbess open the newly cloistered walls of her abbey so that her nuns could greet the Tupinamba of Brazil? When one considers that Louise de l'Hopital had spent twenty years severing one by one the ties between her religious sisters and the outside world, the visit becomes increasingly significant to our understanding of the French expedition of 1612-1615 to the North of Brazil, or to Maranhão. This paper will argue that the expedition to the north of Brazil was an important moment for the flowering Catholic Reformation in France. While the explicit purpose of the Capuchin expedition to the North of Brazil was to convert to Christianity the Tupinamba tribe, in France the conversion of the Tupinamba was also used to "convert" French Catholics to the Catholic Reformation. The Capuchin mission to Maranhão brought together devout members of the French nobility at the center of the French Catholic Reformation who were willing to sponsor the establishment of the second French in Brazil.4 While the colony itself officially surrendered to the Portuguese on November 4, 1615, the perceived success of the conversion efforts in Brazil shaped future French colonial enterprises in the . 5 And yet one must remember that when in the early seventeenth century Henry IV authorized the establishment of a French colony in the North of Brazil, there was no indication that his purpose was to create a Christian mission in Maranhão. The expedition was to establish a fortified colony for the exploration of the Amazon for treasures of silver and gold and to protect the Tupinamba from the Portuguese. By the end of the

3 On the visit see Registre journalier, n.p.; and B.F.P. ms. 2012 dos. F. The Registre journalier, Septembre 1613, describes the "cloture" "a fait fermer à clef toutes les portes, et clore avec barreaux de fer toutes les fenetres de l'enceite du cloitre, basse court, cuisine et infermerie afin que tenant tout le couvent sous clef depuis sept heures et demie du soir, qu'on sonna la retraite, ainsi jusqu'a six heures du matin." 4 The first colony was established in in 1556 and fell to the Portuguese in March 1560. That colony is the subject of my essay “Polyphemus and Cain of America: Religion and Polemics in the French New World” in Changing Identities in Early Modern France ed. by Michael Wolfe (Duke, 1997.) 5 Laura Fishman raises some serious questions regarding the success or the long term results of the conversion efforts in her article"Claude d'Abbeville and the Tupinamba: Problems and Goals of French Missionary Work in Early Seventeenth Century Brazil," Church History, March 1989. J.F. Bosher discusses the links between the Catholic Reformation and the French efforts in in his “Business and Religion in the Age of , 1600-1760”, Canadian Scholar's Press, 1994, but he does not consider the impact that the French experience in Brazil may have had on Richelieu or Razilly.

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sixteenth century, the Tupinamba were in a desperate situation. Identified as enemies of the Portuguese and allies of the French, the Tupinamba were subject to enslavement and their villages to destruction by the Portuguese. Many of the Tupinamba tribes who had first encountered the French along the coast of Rio de Janeiro in the mid sixteenth century had migrated north seeking places where the Portuguese had no settlements.6 As the Tupinamba and their allies moved north they continue to encounter French traders and sailors who, much to the dismay of the Portuguese, were willing to arm them and encourage their resistance to Portuguese domination. Sixteenth century Portuguese sources chronicle the long standing alliance between the Tupinamba and the French and that the Portuguese were often thwarted by the French in their efforts to settle along the coast of Brazil. The French-Tupinamba alliance had been based on mutual self interest. The French were desirous of many natural resources found in Brazil, especially the highly profitable Brazil-wood used in the red dyes of luxury European textiles. French ships would arrive at the coast of Brazil, where the Tupinamba befriended them, providing them food, hospitality and the labor that was required to bring the wood from the forests to the ships. While French woodcuts and carvings portrayed the Tupinamba sprightly carrying the wood to French ships, this was an activity that required tremendous physical exertion. Jean de Léry who went to Brazil in 1557 wrote that “some trees are so thick that three men could not embrace a single trunk.”7 The trees had to be carried long distances, on the bare shoulders of the Tupinamba, “there being no horses, donkeys or other beasts to carry, cart, or draw burdens in that country.”8 Without the Tupinamba, Léry tells us that the French would have been unable to load a medium size ship in a year. 9 French sailors were aware of the vital necessity of Tupinamba hospitality and labor since the ships tended to remain only a few days off the coast of Brazil. In exchange for the food

6 The French had been in Brazil since the early sixteenth century when French ships from established a trade relationship with the Tupinamba for Brazil-wood. In 1555, Henry II authorized the establishment of a colony in Rio de Janeiro. The major account of the peaceful interaction between the French and the Tupinamba can be found in Jean de Léry,Histoire d’un voyage faite au Brésil (Paris, 1578) edited and translated into English by Janet Whatley as History of a Voyage to the Land of Brazil, Otherwise Called America,(California, 1990.) I have used the Whatley edition in the notes. 7 Léry, 100. 8 Léry,100. 9 Léry, 100

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and labor, the French provided the Tupinamba with axes, knives, flints, scissors and hooks. These were extremely valuable to the Tupinamba since the tribe had not used any iron implements prior to the arrival of the Europeans. The Tupinamba were aware of the value of an ax, or a fishing hook or a pair of scissors. While the French were probably aware that in European values, this may have been an unequal trade, the Tupinamba were very conscious of the true value of their exchange. In fact it is possible that the Tupinamba thought that they were besting the Europeans. Jean de Léry tells us that he had a conversation with an old Tupinamba who could not understand why the French and the Portuguese traveled so far for wood and who asked him: “is there none in your own country?” And when Léry explained to him the merchants’ desire for Brazil-wood, the old man concluded that “…you Mairs (that is Frenchmen) are great fools; must you labor so far cross the sea, on which (as you told us) you endured so many hardships, just to amass riches for your children or for those who will survive you? Will not the earth that nourishes you suffice to nourish them?” 10

The items that the French brought raised their standard of living and allowed them to compete with other tribes; items that the Tupinamba could only gain from the French. Since the arrival of the Portuguese in Brazil, the Portuguese had allied themselves with the Margaiats and other tribes who were mortal enemies of the Tupinamba. Just as the Tupinamba would not have tolerated French trade with their enemies, the Indian allies of the Portuguese would not have allowed trade with the Tupinamba. By the middle of the sixteenth century, the Portuguese routinely described the Tupinamba as their enemies and were waging war with them. The Portuguese had already concluded that the only way to subdue the Tupinamba was to defeat and resettle them in Christian “aldeias.” Unlike the forced labor sought by the Portuguese in their sugar mills, the French paid for their labor. The French were careful in their treatment of the Tupinamba since they knew it was not wise to cheat a tribe known for its cannibalism. As most Amerindians, the Tupinamba had long memories for remembering gifts given and wrongs done to them. In the words

10 Léry, 102

220 of André Thevet, the French knew that the Tupinamba would be courteous and hospitable as long as “one does not attempt to tyrannize them.”11 The French had cultivated the alliance by leaving young Frenchmen inside Tupinamba villages to learn the language and to live as members of their families. These truchements, or Norman interpreters, became skilled the Tupinamba language and often adopted their customs. The Portuguese Jesuit José de Anchieta described these French as: “eating, drinking, dancing and singing with them, painting themselves with black ink and red, decorating themselves with feathers, walking naked at times, and killing enemies like the Indians, taking new names with them, so that the only thing missing is eating human food. In addition, they incite them (the Tupinamba) that they fight wars against us” 12

This acceptance of Tupinamba lifestyle was the most shocking aspect of the French-Tupinamba interaction to the Portuguese and yet the most significant factor in explaining the success of the French in establishing a century long alliance with the Tupinamba. The Tupinamba knew that the ships would always leave, and that those the French left behind lived with them as members of their families or as son. One hundred years later, the Capuchin Yves d’Evreux noted that the Tupinamba greeted the arriving French with offers of a place to live, food and an unmarried daughter in exchange for knives, axes, scissors and swords. The Capuchin Yves d’Evreux advised future travelers to Brazil to choose well his “compère,” preferably one who owned a canoe, slaves and a dog.13 While Yves was not advocating a total acceptance of the Tupinamba lifestyle, he was willing to accept the French living among them. He was even willing to recommend that the Frenchman forgo his Christian name and accept a new name given by his host. Unlike the Portuguese Jesuit Anchieta who was shocked at Christians who abandoned

11 André Thevet, Les singularitez de la France Antarctique. 12 Jose de Anchieta, Letter to Gen. Lainez, São Vicente, January 1565. Jean de Léry was also shocked at the extent of assimilation by some of the Norman interpreters “who lived eight or nine years in that country, accommodating themselves to the natives and leading the lives of atheists, not only polluting themselves by all sorts of lewd and base behavior among the women and the girls…, but some of them surpassing the savages in inhumanity, even boasted in my hearing of having killed and eaten prisoners” Léry, 128. 13 Yves d’Evreux, Voyage au Nord du Brésil, fait durant les années 1613 et 1614,(Paris, 1864),215.

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their given names, Yves d’Evreux saw the renaming as a sign of affection and acceptance of the French by the Tupinamba.14 By the middle of the sixteenth century, the French had established a good solid working relationship with the Tupinamba. When in 1555, the French decided to build a fort in Rio de Janeiro to protect the shipping interests of the French against the Portuguese, they were welcomed by the Tupinamba and Tamoio tribes living along the coast. This permanent presence of the French was reassuring to the Tupinamba who were becoming fearful of the growing presence of Portuguese settlements along the Brazilian coast. While the commander of the fort, Nicolas de Villegagnon, was a tough task master requiring labor of local Indians to build the fort, he was perceived as being fairer in his dealings with the Amerindians than the Portuguese.15 Villegagnon was a strict disciplinarian but his laws applied more to the French than to the Tupinamba. When the Portuguese attacked the fort in 1560, the Tupinamba stuck with the French and paid a severe price for their loyalty. And despite this defeat, the Tupinamba remained loyal to the French protecting and sheltering them from the Portuguese throughout the rest of the sixteenth century. Since the Wars of Religion raged through France during the second half of the sixteenth century, the French Crown did not officially sponsor a French presence in Brazil. Private entrepreneurs, or pirates as the Portuguese called them, were constantly spotted by the Portuguese throughout the north of Brazil. The most dreaded of all pirates was Jacques Riffault, who specialized in attacking ships in northeast Brazil.16 As the wars of Religion came to an end, Henry IV was willing to help shipping and commercial interests of Normandy and Brittany, two areas that had maintained trading contacts with the Tupinamba of Brazil who now had migrated to the north of Brazil. 17 By this time French explorers, among them De Vaux, had discovered the island of Maranhão,

14 Yves d’Evreux, p. 221. Jean de Léry wrote:” My interpreter had warned me that they wanted above all to know my name; but if I said to them Pierre, or Guillaume, or Jean, they would have neither been able to retain it or pronounce it… So I had to accommodate by naming something that was known to them”, 162. 15 The third Portuguese Governor of Brazil, Mem de Sá, who had few kind words to say about the French, actually admitted that was the French had better relations with the Indians than the Portuguese. 16 Bernardo Perreira de Berredo, Annaes historicos do Estado do Maranhão ( Maranhão, 1849), 38-9. 17 There has been great discussion as to whether the Tupinamba were migrating in a search for the “terra sem mal” or the “land without evil” or whether the tribe was just seeking to find land where the Portuguese had not yet settled. The Brazilian historian Ronaldo Vainfas discusses this topic extensively in his A Heresia dos Indios, Catolicismo e rebeldia no Brasil colonial,( São Paolo, 1995.)

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uninhabited by the Portuguese, and an entryway to the Amazon.18 They had also encountered a very large settlement of Tupinamba in the same region. Claude d’Abbeville claims that the Tupinamba offered to become subject of the French king and Christians in exchange for protection from the Portuguese.19 Daniel de la Touche, sieur de la Ravardière, went with De Vaux in 1604, and upon his return to France, persuaded Henry IV to fund a new expedition and a new French colony. Since this expedition was planned after the Edict of Nantes, which had accorded religious toleration to the in France, the command of the expedition was given to the Huguenot noble, Daniel de la Touche, sieur de la Ravardière. There does not seem have been any plan to bring missionaries to the north of Brazil at this point. Before the expedition left in 1610, Henry IV was murdered. When the ships finally left in 1612, the Huguenot La Ravardière shared command with a Catholic nobleman François de Razilly.20 Four Capuchins traveled with them to establish a mission for the conversion of Tupinamba. In 1613, François de Razilly and the Capuchin Claude d'Abbeville returned to France to solicit more funds and more Capuchins for the thriving mission.21 In addition, the travelling party was composed of six Tupinamba catechumens who were brought to France to be baptized at the French court. In 1614, nine Capuchins were added to the mission in Brazil. By 1614 then, the Capuchins had transformed the trade colony into a mission to convert the Tupinamba cannibals of Brazil. Many French documents and letters of 1613-1614 referred to the colony as a sacred enterprise. The Catholic success was so significant that the Huguenot commander La Ravardière had planned to abandon the colony and to leave the Catholic commander, François de Rasilly, in charge. The major French commanders witnessed a document written by La Ravardière on December 1, 1612 that stated: “knowing how much the diversity of chiefs has the habit of stirring confusion in a state, not only among the French who are variable in their nature and subject to change but also between those of this country who might divide their affections seeing two or three chiefs… So to prevent all obstacles and so that this colony can

18 Berredo, 45. 19 Claude d’Abbeville, 13. 20 In the lettre de patentes of September 16, 1611 Marie de Medici granted equal power to both men. The original letter granted by Henry IV had made La Ravardière the lieutenant general. See Razilly, Genealogie de la famille de Razilly,( Laval, 1903), 285. 21 For accounts of the Capuchin mission see d'Abbeville, Histoire; Yves d'Evreux, Suite de l'Histoire des choses plus Mémorables Advenues en Maragnan, (Paris, 1615.)

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better flourish in peace and tranquility… I am retiring to France of my pure and free will when monsieur de Razilly returns. 22

While the document could be referring just to the existence of two equal lieutenants in one colony, Portuguese sources indicate the major problem had been the existence of religious division in the leadership of the colony. 23 This emphasis on conversion of the Tupinamba in Maranhão was a departure from the one hundred-year old policy of the French not to alter the culture of the Tupinamba. In fact, the French had not attempted to convert the Tupinamba Indians from their cannibalism, polygamy, nakedness or paganism prior to this expedition to Maranhão. 24 Historians have not adequately explained this shift in French policy nor have they examined the reshaping of the expedition to the north of Brazil by the Capuchins. Court documents and dispatches are silent on what led Marie de Medici to alter the colony from a purely commercial enterprise to a Christian settlement. But the financial records of the French colony are quite revealing. The Crown was a minimal financial backer of the colony. Marie de Medici promised that if the first voyage succeeded that she would “furnish them in the future all that would be necessary.”25 Furthermore she designated an agent for them, M. Beaulieu-Bouju, who was to gather the required funds for them. The evidence suggests that the principal investors were very prominent Catholics.26 What was very significant about these investors was that they were not the traditional investors in maritime ventures, but individuals associated with the budding French Catholic Reformation in Paris and in Normandy. These investors lead us to the heart of the French Catholic Reformation and eventually to the Benedictine abbey of Montivilliers and to its reforming abbess Louise de l'Hopital.

22 The text of act that stated the transfer of power is reprinted in Genealogie, 292-3. 23 Jornada do Maranhão, 1615 (Lisbon, 1812), 101. Before the transfer of power occurred, the French were expelled from Maranhão by the Portuguese. 24 The change in interaction was the subject of my paper; "From Trade to Conversion: Changing Patterns of French Interaction with the Tupinamba of Brazil, 1500-1615" presented at the Making Contact Conference, University of Alberta, October 1998. 25 Genealogie, p. 286 26 For the financial records, see Documents relatifs à la marine normande, (Rouen, 1876), 206-7; for investors, look at Genealogie, p. 280.

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In 1605, Henry IV had given patent letters to La Ravardière.27 These were renewed in 1610. But upon Henry IV's death, Marie de Medici refused to fund the expedition. All evidence indicates that Marie de Medici's reluctance in 1610 was due to financial reasons. She did not cancel the expedition and she allowed the Huguenot La Ravardière to seek investors for the enterprise.28 The investors that came forward were for the most part individuals with very strong ties to the French Catholic Reformation, old Catholic League families and the Capuchins. François de Razilly was to be the pivotal partner. While historians have been unable to determine how Razilly and La Ravardière met, documents indicate that they had known and worked well together prior to the expedition to Maranhão. 29 Razilly contributed large sums of money to the expedition. He had committed 30,000 livres of his own into the colonial venture.30 Many of the French workers who were captured by the Portuguese in 1615 stated that they had been hired and paid by Razilly for their services in connection to the construction of the Capuchin mission.31 François also brought with him two of his brothers: Claude and Isaac Razilly. François de Razilly was also the man that would link the expedition to the Capuchins and to the Catholic Reformation. Razilly came from a very prominent Catholic family from Chinon. His father had been a member of the Catholic League who opposed the accession of Henry IV. His father had been closely connected to Henry of Joyeuse, one of the Catholic noble leaders who resisted Henry IV.32 Henry of Joyeuse was also known as Père Ange de Joyeuse, one of the most famous of the early Capuchins of the Convent of St. Honoré.33 While there had been some reconciliation between Henry IV and the Catholic League, a number of noble families were still excluded from the court. Razilly's family was one of them. After Razilly's father's death, the Capuchin Ange de Joyeuse protected Razilly and his brothers. François de Razilly was a frequent guest at the Convent of St. Honoré in Paris. After

27 The texts of the lettres patentes can be found in the Genealogie p.284-7. 28 Genealogie, p.285 29 Genealogie, p. 285 30 He complained to Marie de Medici that he was financially ruined since she never reimbursed him for these expenses as promised. Copies of his letters can be found at the BFP ms. 393. 31 Biblioteca Nacional do Rio de Janeiro, Ms. Interrogatórios dos prisoneiros franceses em Guadaxuba. 32 Genealogie, part 6 traces the activities of Razilly's fathers during the Wars of Religion and his relationship with Henry de Joyeuse. 33 Jacques de la Brousse, La vie de Ange de Joyeuse, Paris, 1621.

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Henry IV's death, Razilly's cousin Anne de Montafié, the countess of Soissons (wife of Charles de Bourbon) was able to convince Marie de Medici to accept his participation in the expedition.34 From all indications, Razilly and the devout Anne de Montafié were responsible in persuading Marie de Medici to send a letter to Père Leonard de Paris, the provincial of the Capuchins Convent of St. Honoré in Paris requesting that Capuchins to accompany the French expedition to Brazil. On April 23, 1611 the chapter met to hear her request that “pour demander quelques Pères pour envoyer aux Indes Occidentelles pour tacher de planter de Foy dans les Pays des sauvages.”35 The response was so overwhelming that forty-two Capuchins volunteered to go. On August 20, 1611 four were selected for the initial voyage.36 The expedition was comprised of three ships, Régente commanded by La Ravardière and Razilly, Charlotte commanded by the Baron of Sancy, and Sainte-Anne commanded by Isaac Rasilly, three hundred soldiers, over one hundred artisans, and the four Capuchins. The enterprise was a costly one, estimated at 70,000 livres and so other investors were sought. One of the major investors was Nicolas de Harlay, the Baron de Sancy, a former finance minister of Henry IV. Harlay's conversion to Catholicism in 1597 had caused a scandal at court. While some Huguenots doubted the sincerity of his conversion, his wife was a devout Catholic. And his daughter, Charlotte de Harlay, the marquise de Breaute, was one of the first Carmelites in France. Harlay contributed 12,000 livres, a very substantial sum, and despite his sixty years, actually commanded one of the ships to Brazil. Among the other prominent members was du Plessis de Richelieu, the future cardinal's brother. 37 In 1613, when Razilly returned to France, he found that Marie de Medici even more reluctant to fund the expedition than she had previously. At the baptism of the catechumens she had pledged 24,000 livres. She promised that she would ask the pope to

34 The relationship between François de Razilly and Anne de Montafié and her husband Charles de Bourbon was a close one as can be seen in B.N. Nafr. 9389. Charles de Bourbon and Anne de Montafié were witnesses to François de Razilly's marriage contract 35 Mazarine 2419, Chapitre Provinciaux des capucins de Paris (1594 a 1705), volume 1, p. 82. The text of her letter is also recorded in the registers of the Convent. 36 Mazarine 2419, p. 83-5. 37 The connection between the Razilly family and the du Plessis antedated the expedition since many of the family documents of the Razilly family refer to a long association between them. There are very few

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proclaim a jubilee to raise the necessary revenues. But Marie de Medici had been pressured by Spain not to support the expedition to Maranhão. Consequently, she only gave Razilly 6,000 livres. As the Crown withdrew its financial backing, the Capuchins and their friends took over most of the funding for the second mission. This time the Capuchins would send nine additional missionaries described as “five preachers and four priests”38 Cardinal de Joyeuse, the uncle of the duchesse de Guise, contributed 10,000 livres for the construction of a seminary for Tupinamba boys in Brazil.39 Many devout lay and religious noblewomen contributed to the expedition to Brazil. Among the many contributors was the abbess of Montivilliers. Louise de l'Hopital's first donation occurred in 1611. She gave the Capuchins relics of the Saint Martyrs of Montmartre for their church in Brazil. She also contributed significant money and staples for the voyages of 1612 and 1614. In 1614 alone she contributed almost 600 livres.40 But why did a Benedictine abbess contribute to the Capuchins in Brazil? The answer to this question leads us to the Catholic Reformation. The Capuchins were the great reforming Catholic order established in France in the late 16th century. The convent of St. Honoré in Paris was one of the centers of the Catholic Reformation. Louise was well acquainted with the Capuchins since they had offered her moral and spiritual support when she began to reform her monastery. Louise de l'Hopital had acquired the abbey of Montivilliers in 1596 when she was 25 years old. The abbey of Montivilliers was an unreformed abbey that had fallen into hard times during the Wars of Religion in France. The young abbess had been installed in an abbey that had no Rule, no hours, no prayers, no refrectory, and no dormitory. The nuns lived with their servants in separate apartments where they dressed in finery and ate off silver plates. The abbess herself had a separate apartment. In contrast with the splendor of the living quarters, the rest of the abbey was in shambles. The Huguenots had sacked the

modern works on the Razilly family, the most recent is Leon Deschamps, Un colonisateur au temps de Richelieu, Isaac Razilly,Revue Geographique, 1887, p.5. 38 Mazarine 2419, p. 110. 39 Henriette Catherine, duchesse de Guise, was Ange de Joyeuese's daughter. She embroidered an altar covering for the Capuchin Church in Brazil. The duchesse was also interested in furthering the Catholic Reformation. When her three year son, Henri, became abbot of the abbey of Fecamp, she was horrified with the laxity of the monastery. She was responsible for the reform of the abbey in 1617. Anne and Louise shared many of the same spiritual advisors among them Anselme de Rolle. 40 Registre journalier, Mars 26, Mai 8, 1614, n.p.

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Church, the altar was bare, and the economic base of the abbey was destroyed. Louise spent the first few years just reacquainting the nuns to the idea of the mass, communion and confession. Even though Louise had been brought up in the convent of Poissy, she found it very difficult to reform her convent until she herself underwent a "conversion" in 1601. It is important to remember that 17th century France was the great age of conversions. Not only were individuals converting from Protestantism to Catholicism, Catholics were converting to the Catholic Reformation. The story that is told of Louise's conversion begins with a trip to Paris. Louise went to Paris to visit her well-connected older sister. One evening at a soiree at the house of Huguenot Duke of Sully, Louise encountered the Cardinal of Perron and the devot Theophraste de Beaulieu whom she had known in Poissy. Louise in a moment of little banter said:

"Monsieur, a devot and at the house of a heretic! What are you doing here?"

To which he replied: "And you, abbess?" 41

The following day, Louise began her conversion to the Catholic Reformation. She went to the house of Mme Acarie where she met all of the leading figures of the Catholic Reformation in Paris including Berulle, Gamache and a number of Capuchins. She stayed in Paris for three months undergoing a total conversion. She returned to Montivilliers and began to live an exemplary life. She sold her silver and tapestries. She moved out of the apartment into a dormitory. With the money from the sale of her silver, she began to repair the abbey and to build the common areas. Louise began first by reforming herself, and by example persuading the nuns to convert. Conversion in 17th century France implied a total transformation. The Catholic Reformation set very high standards

41 This incident is recounted in Mere Jacqueline de Blemur, Eloges de plusiers illustres de l'ordre de St. Benoist decedées en ces derniers siècles, Tome 2, Paris, 1679, p 185-206. Blemur recounts the exchange between Louise and Theophraste de Beaulieu at Sully's house : "Monsieur, un devot chez un heretique, que faites vous ici? His response: "Et vous, Madame, qui estes abbasses." The significance of Louise de l'Hopital to the Catholic Reformation has been ignored by modern historians. But the evidence for her significance can be uncovered by examining her biographical profile in Blemur, the entries of the Registre journalier , in the documents of the BFP, and in P. Gallemant, Vie du Venerable Prestre M. Jacques de Gallemant, (Normandie, 1654), and other primary sources works on prominent Catholic figures of her time.

228 especially for members of religious orders. Since Louise's diocesan bishop was not eager to impose the decrees of Trent, it was Louise who brought the Catholic Reformation to Normandy. She brought to Montivilliers the best Catholic Reformation preachers: Capuchins, Jesuits and Oratorians. Louise did not use force with her nuns; she pensioned off those who had been unwilling to accept the new rules. Her abbey became the first reformed Benedictine abbey in Normandy. Her nuns followed her example: they began to wear black habits, they learned how to sing the Te Deum laudamus, sold their silver and donated their wealth to the poor. Louise converted her nuns, the town of Montivilliers and a number of Benedictine abbeys throughout France to the Catholic Reformation, The Capuchins had been “successful” in converting the Tupinamba of Brazil because they did not use any force or coercion. Unlike the Portuguese who engaged in mass baptisms of Indians and African slaves, the Capuchins reached out with deep charity to the Indians and only after they thought the Tupinamba understood Christianity were they willing to baptize. The same spirit that had inspired Louise and her nuns to convert, was now at work in Brazil among the Tupinamba to convert the sauvages. And there could be no more challenging prospective Catholics than the Tupinamba well known in France for the fierce warlike behavior. The French believed that the Capuchins had won them over through prayer and gentle preaching. 42 And just as the Catholic Reformation required a total commitment from the abbess and her religious sisters, the Capuchins saw conversion of the Tupinamba as an acceptance of Christian European civilization. The baptism of the Tupinamba in Paris demonstrated the success of the Capuchins in Brazil. It was a significant triumph for the Capuchins and for the Catholic Church in France at the same time the Catholic Reformation was still actively seeking to convert Huguenots and to gain a deeper religious commitment from Catholics. It is undeniable that there was also practical reason for the trip of the six Tupinamba to France and their public baptism. It was intended to foster support for the mission to the north of Brazil and to gain more funding for the enterprise. The Tupinamba drew enormous crowds in Rouen

42 My paper " Sauvages or Gentle Cannibals; Changing Images of the Tupinamba of Brazil, 1500-1615" presented at the Sixteenth Century Conference, Toronto, 1998, argues that while we are more familiar with ways the Huguenot’s used the images of the Tupinamba for polemical purposes that the Capuchins also

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and in Paris. The Capuchins had prepared well for their arrival through published letters. The Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris has at least two prints which were produced for sale as a souvenir of the baptism. One of them shows the Tupinamba dressed performing a dance with their maracas. The other print is of the solemn baptism of the catechumens in front of Louis XIII, Marie de Medici, the French court, and the Capuchins. For almost a century, the Tupinamba had been often portrayed naked, fighting wars and even engaging in acts of cannibalism. Now the sauvages were depicted dressed in European clothing devoutly kneeling at the altar in front of the French court. And to reinforce the message, the caption praised the achievements of the Capuchins by emphasizing the sauvagerie of the cannibals and their peaceful transformation into Christian subjects of France. But the baptism was also intended to be a spiritual moment for Catholics as well.43 Claude d’Abbeville's book on the mission to Maranhão was printed in 1614. There is no doubt that the book was intended to impress and inspire French Catholics with the story of the mission to the cannibals of Brazil. The triumphant baptism of the Tupinamba in front of Louis XIII and Marie de Medici is the final chapter of his book. D’Abbeville wrote: “the scent of their conversion to the Christian faith spread in an instant throughout France… and propelled by the wind spread across the Alps and perfumed all of Italy.”44

Perhaps this explains why the Tupinamba were allowed into the cloister of Montivilliers. By 1606, the cloistering of the abbey had begun.45 In 1613, Abbess Louise was still trying to "convert" her own nuns to fully accept the total cloistering of their community. What better way than having her nuns see for themselves the power of faith that could turn the Tupinambas from cannibals to Christians. From the few accounts that we have, the visit was a deeply moving experience. It allowed the nuns to see what their donations and prayers had achieved, but also to confirm in them their own conversion.

manipulated images of the Tupinamba. In fact the Catholics played off the traditional image to their advantage. 43 The accounts of the baptism can be found in great detail in the Mercure Français, tome III and in Claude d'Abbeville, p.338-381. 44 D’Abbeville, 397. 45 Archives Departmentales Generales, G 5324, 1606 " Il est interdit a aucune personne de quelque noblesse, sexe, condition ou age d'entrer en la cloture des religieuses, sous peine d'encourir par le fait d'excommunication, si ce n'est par la license du superieur porte par ecrit, laquelle ne se doit bailler sinon en cas de necessite."

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Claude d'Abbeville wrote that the visit was intended to console them by having them see “these new plants that through baptism would lose their savage nature."46 We tend sometimes to look at missionary activities in terms of the impact on the convert, but it is undeniable that it has a spiritual impact on the missionary or on those who witness the conversion of others. The Capuchins and the Razilly brothers believed that the mission to the North of Brazil was succeeding in converting the Tupinamba to Christianity. According to the Capuchins, the solemn baptism at the Church of the convent of St. Honoré was seen as “prelude to the baptism by our fathers of a hundred thousand other indians who had asked for it but (the baptism) did not occur because the colony passed to the Portuguese in 1614.”47

The abandonment of the colony by the French Crown was criticized by François de Razilly and his brother, Isaac.48 François Razilly wrote a number of letters to Marie de Medici and to the new king Louis XIII complaining about the unwillingness of France to reclaim Maranhão. François de Razilly was responsible for finding the sole existing copy of Yves d’Evreux’ s book.49 He presented the book to Louis XIII as a way of vindicating the colony in the North of Brazil. In the dedication to Louis XIII he claimed that the book had been “suppressed by fraud and impiety” by those who sought to abandon a colony that he described as “the most pious and honorable enterprise in the New World.” He claimed that two lies had been spread to undermine the colony; that the land in Brazil was infertile and that the “Indians were incapable of Christianity.” 50 Yves d’Evreux’s book was a stirring testimonial to the success of the mission and the willingness of the Tupinamba to become Christian and French.51 In his introduction he tells the king that the Indians “naturally love the French and hate the Portuguese.” 52 Isaac Razilly was

46 D'Abbeville,337. 47 BFP, ms 1952. 48 See. BFP ms. 393 for François de Razilly; and B.N.mss Mémoire de chevalier de Razilly au cardinal de Richelieu, 1626 for Isaac da Razilly's views. B.N.Ffr.4826, folio 1-4 49 Geneologie, p. 299 50 A Roy, dedication by François Razilly to Louis XIII in Yves D’Evreux. 51 Yves D’Evreux believed that in some ways it was easier to civilize the Tupinamba than French peasants, D’Evreux, 78-9 52 Yves d’Evreux, Preface to his Histoire

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convinced that Brazil was a terrestrial paradise where Christianity had been successfully planted.53 Since the French Crown was not disposed to challenge in the north of Brazil, in the 1620's Isaac and Claude Razilly devoted themselves to fighting the Turks, freeing Christian hostages and providing maritime assistance to the Capuchin missions to the Levant. Isaac and Claude Razilly became Père Joseph's partners in his efforts to establish Capuchin missions overseas. Père Joseph was not only a very pious Capuchin but he was related to Mme Acarie and to Berulle, two key figures of the early French Catholic Reformation. The service that Isaac and Claude Razilly performed for the Capuchins and the Knights of Malta gave them the practical experience at sea that brought them to Richelieu's attention. One tends at times to see Richelieu as a man opposed to the Catholic devout party in France because of his conflict with the Queen Mother Marie de Medici. And yet, Richelieu was very much a supporter of the Catholic Reformation in France in the 1620's. The rebellion of the Huguenots in the 1620's gave Isaac and Claude Razilly the opportunity to serve Richelieu directly. In 1626, Isaac Razilly wrote a lengthy Mémoire to Cardinal Richelieu advising him on the future of French colonial activities. Razilly saw French colonial expansion linked to French missionary activity. In this address to Richelieu, Isaac Razilly stated that one of the reasons the three French colonial ventures of "rivier de Genève, La Floride et le Maragnan" had failed was due to the "diversité de religion.” 54 He advised Richelieu that a colony should have only one leader and one religion to prevent dissent. The lessons learned in Maranhão are very obvious to a careful reader of the Mémoire. Richelieu must have agreed with Isaac's advice since the French Crown decided that Canada was to be settled only by Catholics. The Company of New France contained many prominent Catholics. Among the names, one finds that of Isaac Razilly and Achille de Harlay, bishop of St. Malo and son of the Baron of Sancy who had travelled to Brazil. In 1632, Richelieu entrusted Isaac Razilly with the charge to found a French colony in and oversee the founding of Capuchin mission. Capuchin Arsène de Paris who had been

53 In his Mémoire to Richelieu, Isaac Razilly describes Brazil as a land of incredible wealth and where the Indians would never abandon the French. 54 Mémoire. f.3

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Brazil with Razilly went with him to Acadia.55 But while Razilly’s effort there failed, the perceived success of the Capuchins in Brazil had served to forge an enduring link between French maritime colonial activity and missionary activities by Catholic religious orders.

55 Leon Deschamps's article Un colonisateur is one of the few biographical accounts of Isaac Razilly. Isaac's trip to Maranhão commanding the ship Sainct-Anne is unknown to Deschamps. Isaac Razilly is portrayed as a patriot and colonial visionary but his religious devotion is virtually ignored by the author. A surprising omission since Razilly's Mémoire is filled with passages highlightong his religious commitment. For example Razilly writes:" aultant que...vaisseaux pouront faire des grandes conquetetes pour le temporel, il convoyent travaliller principalement pour le spirituel, qui est dans l'Afrique et l"Amerique, ou il y plusieur million d'ames qui ne respirent, sinon d'estre instruits de la vraye religion. Isaac Razilly bemoans the fact that people in France are too devoted to money and that the King should offer incentives to encourage" sainctes enterprises." For the Acadia expedition, see Lauvriere, Pages Glorieuses de l'Epopée Canadienne, (Paris, 1927.)