The Institut Canadien de Montréal
The Institut Canadien de Montréal, created in 1844, can be thought of as an early think tank, or, in modern terms as a bubble, a small group of like-minded people living in the belief that they were representative, that everyone could see their self-evident truths and not fail to agree with them. Its members maintained a library and a room for debates. Some of the best secular minds of Lower Canada (subsequently Quebec) were members. It gave rise to the Parti Rouge, a political movement that opposed the forced amalgamation of Upper and Lower Canada and fought for separation of church and state as well as for universal suffrage. It wanted the government to be solely responsible for education and it opposed confederation, favouring the American model of a republic to the point of encouraging annexation. Almost all of its goals ran against the interests of the Church.
Among the Institut’s early members were Louis-Antoine Dessaules (nephew of Louis-Joseph Papineau), Jean-Baptiste-Eric Dorion, Francis Cassidy, and Joseph Papin, all co-founders, as well as men such as François-Xavier Garneau, author of the first history of Canada. After the turbulent years of the 1830s, the Institut Canadien was what remained of Quebec secular society. It appealed to neither the Church nor the English Protestant business community, yet most of its ideas were forward-looking and were already realities in the United States. It took until the end of the 20th century for many of the ideas debated within its halls to succeed in becoming public policy here. Its members were Catholic but most had grown up under the Gallican form of Catholicism and considered the Church answerable to the State. Like the British, they seem to have completely missed Bishop Lartigue’s sleight of hand.
Monseigneur Ignace Bourget became Bishop of Montreal in 1840. During his 36-year tenure, he changed the way Catholics perceived themselves. In spite of his location in the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, being only the Bishop of Montreal, he was a favourite of Pope Pius IX. The pope, originally considered sympathetic to the liberal movements sweeping Europe, granted amnesty to revolutionaries in the Papal States, but he became increasingly authoritarian as his status as Sovereign of the Papal States continued to be challenged. He became ever more authoritarian to the point of proposing the concept of Papal Infallibility at the First Vatican Council in 1868. Bishop Bourget also tried to work with the Parti Rouge through the Institut Canadien but soon turned against them, perceiving their secular values as a threat to the authority of the Church.
During this same period, the political reformers of the Province of Canada, led by Robert Baldwin and Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine, were fighting a different battle. It had become clear that if a majority of any single party were elected to the Assembly, the governor would be obliged to acquiesce to the Assembly, creating a representative democracy by vesting ministerial authority on the representative group. The Lower Canadian opponents of Lafontaine and Baldwin, the Parti Rouge, pushed instead for the separation of the Province of Canada into its component parts and the creation of a republic. Coupled with their secular agenda, their ideas drove the Church to support the Reformers, who in turn acquiesced to most of the Church’s demands. In Canada West, Assembly members who were opposed to the Reformers were composed of the old guard who obliged the governor and in return received favours and the illusion of authority. In 1848, the Reformers won the election, creating the parliamentary democracy model that continues today. In response, the Parti Rouge and the members of the Institut Canadien fought to maintain their secular agenda, especially against the ever more powerful Roman Catholic Church, and had no appreciation of realpolitik, believing that their truth would become self-evident, that Lafontaine was, effectively, in bed with the English in spite of the fact that the English community of Montreal burned the Parliament Building in an angry rebellion against the authority given to the new government.
Among the Institut’s early members were Louis-Antoine Dessaules (nephew of Louis-Joseph Papineau), Jean-Baptiste-Eric Dorion, Francis Cassidy, and Joseph Papin, all co-founders, as well as men such as François-Xavier Garneau, author of the first history of Canada. After the turbulent years of the 1830s, the Institut Canadien was what remained of Quebec secular society. It appealed to neither the Church nor the English Protestant business community, yet most of its ideas were forward-looking and were already realities in the United States. It took until the end of the 20th century for many of the ideas debated within its halls to succeed in becoming public policy here. Its members were Catholic but most had grown up under the Gallican form of Catholicism and considered the Church answerable to the State. Like the British, they seem to have completely missed Bishop Lartigue’s sleight of hand.
Monseigneur Ignace Bourget became Bishop of Montreal in 1840. During his 36-year tenure, he changed the way Catholics perceived themselves. In spite of his location in the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, being only the Bishop of Montreal, he was a favourite of Pope Pius IX. The pope, originally considered sympathetic to the liberal movements sweeping Europe, granted amnesty to revolutionaries in the Papal States, but he became increasingly authoritarian as his status as Sovereign of the Papal States continued to be challenged. He became ever more authoritarian to the point of proposing the concept of Papal Infallibility at the First Vatican Council in 1868. Bishop Bourget also tried to work with the Parti Rouge through the Institut Canadien but soon turned against them, perceiving their secular values as a threat to the authority of the Church.
During this same period, the political reformers of the Province of Canada, led by Robert Baldwin and Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine, were fighting a different battle. It had become clear that if a majority of any single party were elected to the Assembly, the governor would be obliged to acquiesce to the Assembly, creating a representative democracy by vesting ministerial authority on the representative group. The Lower Canadian opponents of Lafontaine and Baldwin, the Parti Rouge, pushed instead for the separation of the Province of Canada into its component parts and the creation of a republic. Coupled with their secular agenda, their ideas drove the Church to support the Reformers, who in turn acquiesced to most of the Church’s demands. In Canada West, Assembly members who were opposed to the Reformers were composed of the old guard who obliged the governor and in return received favours and the illusion of authority. In 1848, the Reformers won the election, creating the parliamentary democracy model that continues today. In response, the Parti Rouge and the members of the Institut Canadien fought to maintain their secular agenda, especially against the ever more powerful Roman Catholic Church, and had no appreciation of realpolitik, believing that their truth would become self-evident, that Lafontaine was, effectively, in bed with the English in spite of the fact that the English community of Montreal burned the Parliament Building in an angry rebellion against the authority given to the new government.