chief personages, a third came from the Church. In the
annals of New France there is no more prominent figure
than the bishop. Francois de Laval de Montmorency had
been in the colony since 1659. His place in history is
due in large part to his strong, intense personality,
but this must not be permitted to obscure the importance
of his office. His duties were to create educational
institutions, to shape ecclesiastical policy, and to
represent the Church in all its dealings with the
government.

Many of the problems which confronted Laval had their
origin in special and rather singular circumstances. Few,
if any, priests had as yet been established in fixed
parishes--each with its church and presbytere. Under
ordinary conditions parishes would have been established
at once, but in Canada the conditions were far from
ordinary. The Canadian Church sprang from a mission. Its
first ministers were members of religious orders who had
taken the conversion of the heathen for their chosen
task. They had headquarters at Quebec or Montreal, but
their true field of action was the wilderness. Having
the red man rather than the settler as their charge, they
became immersed, and perhaps preoccupied, in their heroic
work. Thus the erection of parishes was delayed. More
than one historian has upbraided Laval for thinking so
much of the mission that he neglected the spiritual needs
of the colonists. However this may be, the colony owed
much to the missionaries--particularly to the Jesuits.
It is no exaggeration to say that the Society of Jesus