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2017 The Fight Against 'Satan's Dominion': An Examination of Jesuit Missions in New France Through the Lens of the Jesuit Relations Adam Michael Moran
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COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
THE FIGHT AGAINST ‘SATAN’S DOMINION’:
AN EXAMINATION OF JESUIT MISSIONS IN NEW FRANCE
THROUGH THE LENS OF THE JESUIT RELATIONS
By
ADAM MICHAEL MORAN
A Thesis submitted to the Department of History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts
2017
Adam Moran defended this thesis on April 13, 2017. The members of the supervisory committee were:
Jonathan Grant Professor Directing Thesis
Jennifer Koslow Committee Member
Rafe Blaufarb Committee Member
The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members, and certifies that the thesis has been approved in accordance with university requirements.
ii
I would like to offer my profound thanks to my committee members, my wife Laura, my parents,
Jim and Janet, and my many supportive friends who helped me through this process.
iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Special thanks are due to my thesis committee members: Dr. Grant, Dr. Koslow, and Dr.
Blaufarb; Dr. Grant, as the advisor for my major field of study, Early Modern Europe; Dr.
Koslow, as the advisor for my minor field of study, Public History; and Dr. Blaufarb, for the support and encouragement given me throughout my Master of Arts program. The never-ending support and guidance given by all three of these professors is greatly appreciated.
iv TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract ...... vi
1. INTRODUCTION ...... 1
2. THE SUPPORT OF THE FRENCH COLONIAL HIERARCHY ...... 17
3. BENEFACTORS AND OTHER FORMS OF SUPPORT ...... 41
4. OPPOSITION TO THE JESUITS IN NEW FRANCE ...... 57
5. THE REDUCTION & CONCLUSION ...... 76
References ...... 92
Biographical Sketch ...... 93
v ABSTRACT
This thesis examines the Jesuit mission to New France in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The various sources of support and opposition are described using the lens of the massive set of primary documents preserved in The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, translated and compiled under the direction of Reuben G. Thwaites between 1896 and 1901. The central argument of this thesis is that the Jesuit reductions of New France, where Amerindian converts of various tribes lived together, acted as microcosms of the broader French-Canadian colonial milieu. Each of the sources of support and opposition for the Jesuit missions can be found in these reduction towns. This approach to the Jesuit missions in New France could also have a broader use for historians examining similar colonial contexts.
vi CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Europe were filled with turmoil. Religio- political warfare caused the destruction of central Europe in the Thirty Years’ War. Hundreds of thousands of lives were lost and cities were laid waste. Western Europe’s internal power structures were still reeling after the religious and political revolutions caused by Reformation ideas in the sixteenth century. Simultaneously, European nations who had managed to coalesce widespread support sought to spread their influence to the Americas in the form of colonial enterprises. European explorers and colonists sought whatever natural resources that were available as well as the elusive northwest passage to bypass the Americas on the way to lucrative
Asian trade routes.
While Spain focused its efforts on the central and southern areas of the American continent, the Dutch, Eng