t himself with the nature of
Frontenac's correspondence.

Having displeased the Sulpicians and attacked the Jesuits, Frontenac
made amends to the Church by cultivating the most friendly relations
with the Recollets. No one ever accused him of being a bad Catholic.
He was exact in the performance of his religious duties, and such
trouble as he had with the ecclesiastical authorities proceeded from
political aims rather than from heresy or irreligion.

Like so much else in the life of Canada, the strife between Frontenac
and Laval may be traced back to France. During the early years of
Louis XIV the French Church was distracted by the disputes of Gallican
and Ultramontane. The Gallicans were faithful Catholics who
nevertheless held that the king and the national clergy had rights
which the Pope must respect. The Ultramontanes {56} defined papal
power more widely and sought to minimize, disregard, or deny the
privileges of the national Church.

Between these parties no point of doctrine was involved,[2] but in the
sphere of government there exists a frontier between Church and State
along which many wars of argument can be waged--at times with some
display of force. The Mass, Purgatory, the Saints, Confession, and the
celibacy of the priest, all meant as much to the Gallican as to the
Ultramontane. Nor did the Pope's headship prove a stumbling-block in
so far as it was limited to things spiritual. The Gallican did,
indeed, assert the subjection of the Pope to a General Council, quoting
in his support the decrees of Constance and Basel. But in the
seventeenth century this was a theoretical contention. What Louis XIV
and Bossuet strove for was the limitation of papal power in matters
affecting property and political rights. The real questions upon which
Gallican and Ultramontane differed were the {57} appointment of bishops
and abbots, the contribution of the Church to the needs of the State,
and the priest's standing as a subject of the king.

Frontenac was no theorist, and probably would have written a poor
treatise on the relations of Church and State. At the same time, he
knew that the king claimed certain rights over the Church, and he was
the king's lieutenant. Herein lies the deeper cause of his troubles
with the Jesuits and Laval. The Jesuits had been in the colony for
fifty years and felt that they knew the spiritual requirements of both
French and Indians. Their missions had been illuminated by th