chief town, bore the proud title of the capital of New
France. Yet it contained barely seventy houses with about
five hundred and fifty inhabitants. Then, as now, it
consisted of a lower and an upper town. In the lower town
were to be found the king's stores and the merchants'
shops and residences. The public officials and the clergy
and members of the religious orders lived in the upper
town, where stood the principal buildings of the
capital--the Chateau Saint-Louis, the Bishop's Palace,
the Cathedral, the Jesuits' College and Chapel, and the
monasteries of the Ursulines and of the Hotel-Dieu sisters.

Francois de Laval de Montmorency, bishop of Petraea and
vicar apostolic for Canada, was the spiritual head of
the colony. He had arrived from France six years earlier,
in 1659, and was destined to spend the remainder of his
life, nearly half a century, in the service of the Church
in Canada. Because of his noble character and many virtues,
his strong intellect, and his devotion to the public
weal, he will ever rank as one of the greatest figures
in Canadian history. His vicar-general was Henri de
Bernieres, who was also parish priest of Quebec and
superior of the seminary founded by the bishop in 1663.
The superior of the Jesuits was Father Le Mercier. The
saintly Marie de l'Incarnation was mother superior of
the Ursulines, and Mother Saint Bonaventure of the
Hotel-Dieu.

It may be interesting to recall the names of some of the
notable citizens of Quebec at that time, other than the