Page 142 - Transcriptions d'actes notariés - Tome 20 - 1682-1686

Joseph Israel Tarte : Relations between the
French Canadian Episcopacy and a French
Canadian Politician
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(1874 1896)
Laurier L. LAPIERRE, M.A.

No political history of French Canada after Coniederation is
complete if it fails to diaeuss the relations of Freiieh Canadian politiciaiis
with the Freneh Canadian episcopacy. Here, political issiies find their
proper perspective and the influence of tlie orle clement upon the other
comes to light. Eepecially is this so when the politician involved ie
Joseph Israel Tarte, the pugnacioua edilor of Le Canadien and perhaps
the inost astute politician of hie era. Conlroiiting hiin, at times, thougIi
not often, agreeing with hjm, and constantly halliing him, were a battalion
of some of the most iorinidable churchmen in Canadian history, church-
incri with the courage, dedication and initiative which produce saint5
and pioneers.
It i5 hardly necessary to point out that the discussion of sucIi
relations is a dificult task. This difficulty is accentuated when the
Iiistorian is a French Canadian nnd a Roman Catholic. lnspired by
respect for his subject, he is bound to be affected by the divisions aiid
needless arguments whieh sapped the vitality of his
Church. Certain ~oIitieianfi will imnress him bv their people erv dedication- and -,
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the wealtIi oi thei;genius and the dlpth of iheir iornpreheniion. Others
will strike hirn ae demagoenes who hid self-seeking aiins under the
protective inantle of respeetful oliedience.
The bishops theinselves prefieiit hiin rvith a startling problein and
unless he is willing to consider thern only a3 historical entities hc may
as well abandoii this ta& and chose another topic of discussion. A
Laflèchc, a Bourget, or a Langeviii inay dernonstrate the perlect pictnre
of holinese and detachment {rom the things of the world; yet the
hicltorian cannot escape the eonviction that in spite of al1 their sanetity
they were responsjble for a great misrepresentaiion in Canadian history.
He may be teinpted, if not deierinined, to insist that the bishops were
not indulging in politics when they mercjlessly attacked Liberale. How-
ever, he will find it alinost impossible to reconcile this idea with the
historical facts; maiiy of the epixopacy and clergy, as Roine so oiteu
charged, iailed to treat bolh polilical par tiec; with the saine impariialily.

This writer hclieves that the causes of the politico-rdigious difficultics
of the latcr half of the nineieenth eentury are to be found first, in the
necesoary strategy of political warfare, secondly, in a false conception
of the place of the Roman Catholic Chureh in Confederation, and