"Thus not only the city but the entire Island of Montreal today possesses an ecclestiastico-civil status, that is now denied even to Rome. This circumstance must never be overlooked, for it has been far-reaching in its influence. Montreal's first lessons in Christian civilization were taken under the auspices I have just described—among the best, it may safely be said, that the France of the period could furnish—and every Protestant church, as well as every other institution in the city, has felt the powerful sway of the gentlemen of the Seminary."
The position of the Catholic Church in the city with its many beautiful churches and educational establishments stands largely as a monument to the important seeds sown in this coming in 1657.
M. de Queylus did not stay long in Ville Marie, for on September 3rd he started for Quebec, as said, to assume the control of the parish church.
On October 25, 1857, the Sulpicians were to experience their first taste of war, for they had three burials in one day in the same sepulchre. On this day, Nicholas Godé was building his house at Point St. Charles, assisted by his son-in-law, Jean Saint Père, the notary, and Jacques Noël, their hired assistant, when several of a band of Indians who had been in the neighbourhood, approached the house and were hospitably treated. After a meal the three had gone unarmed on the roof, which they were covering, when their guests treacherously fired at them, and their hosts came toppling off the roof like wounded sparrows. Nicholas Godé and Jacques Noël they scalped, but cutting the head off Jean Saint Père, they fled with it, to exhibit his handsome headpiece to their braves.
Dollier de Casson, who arrived in Montreal later, says that he heard the following story from the lips of trustworthy persons, among them a man, whom Marguerite Bourgeoys in her memoirs names a M. Cuillérier, who having been a prisoner among the Iroquois spoke their language, and had heard the story from the savages themselves, that the head of Jean Saint Père proved a trouble to them, for he reproached them in very good Iroquois in such words as these: "You kill us, and you do many cruel things to us; you wish to wipe out the French in this country. You will not come to your wish. You will have to take care, for one day we shall be your masters and you will obey us." And this, although the deceased knew no word of Iroquois; wherever they were, day and night, they heard the voice; in their vexation they scalped the head and threw the troublesome skull away, but they still heard the accusing voice. Dollier de Casson believed the story and thought he must not pass it over in obscurity. A modern historian would explain that the frightened Indians only heard subjectively the voice of their accusing conscience.
Not ignoring this sign of the approaching outbreak of hostilities, d'Ailleboust, at Quebec, gave instructions, on November 1st, that all Iroquois approaching the forts should be seized, looking upon the late act as a declaration of war.
Two Iroquois had been seized by de Maisonneuve, one of them an Onondagan, but not wishing by these arrests to compromise the Jesuits at the mission at Onondaga he sent this Indian with three letters addressed to them, asking them to explain the massacre at Point St. Charles and telling them that the prisoners were being retained in honourable custody, until it was learned whether the late attack had been made by their people or not.
Amid such anxious times the new church, begun in 1656, was rapidly nearing completion, assisted by the funds provided by the Sulpicians. It was a modest building of wood and stood on the corner of St. Joseph (St. Sulpice Street of today) and St. Paul. There it stood till 1678, the first "parish" church, till it was given over entirely to the hospital for the sick.
The church at Montreal now took on parochial airs and pretentions although it was not canonically erected as a parish till 1678, and it must have its marguilliers, or church wardens. Accordingly at an election held November 21, 1657, Louis Prud'homme, Jean Gervaise and Gilbert Barbier were appointed. This day must be taken as the birthday of the foundation of the parish of Montreal. The parish or at least the establishment of the "Fabrique" or corporation for the management of the temporals of the church school was next to be set up. A stable in stone, 36 by 18 feet, situated near the hospital, with a plot of playing ground of forty-eight perches, was donated by the Company through Maisonneuve by act of January 22, 1658. "The present concession made to be of service for the instruction of the girls of Montreal as well as for the dwelling for the said Marguerite Bourgeoys, and after her decease, to perpetuity," this latter being inserted because it was understood that Marguerite would found a body to continue the work after her. She was then thirty-eight years of age. The donation was accepted and witnessed by the chief officers of the community: M. Souart, curé; M. Galinier, vicaire; the then church wardens; Marin Jannot, syndic; Lambert Closse, "major of the island," Mademoiselle Mance, administratrice of the hospital, and Charles Le Moyne, storekeeper of the Company.