PLESSIS, Joseph Octave,
Canadian R. C. bishop, born near Montreal, Canada, in 1768; died in Quebec, 4
December, 1825. He studied classics in the College of Montreal, but refused to
continue his education, and his father, who was a blacksmith, set him to work at
the forge. After a short experience at manual labor, he consented to enter the
Petit Seminaire of Quebec in 1780. On finishing his course he taught
belles-lettres and rhetoric in the College of Montreal, and, notwithstanding his
youth, became secretary to Bishop Briand.
He was ordained priest on 29 November, 1786. Shortly after
his ordination he was made secretary to Bishop Hubert, and he exercised so much
influence over this prelate that he really filled the functions of
coadjutor-bishop. In 1792 he was appointed cure of Quebec. Bishop Denault named
him his grand vicar in 1797, and at the same time announced his intention of
choosing him for coadjutor.
The popularity of Plessis with the French Canadians excited
the hostility of the English party, and General Prescott, the governor of the
province, opposed the appointment, but he finally yielded to the demands of
public opinion. Plessis was consecrated bishop in the cathedral of Quebec on 25
January, 1801, in presence of the governor and officials of the province. The
death of Bishop Denault raised him to the episcopal see of Quebec in 1806.
He began his administration under difficult circumstances.
Efforts were made to appropriate the property of the Jesuits and of the Seminary
of Montreal to the uses of the state, to organize an exclusively Protestant
system of public instruction, and to give a power of veto on the nomination of
priests and the erection of parishes to the English crown. An unsuccessful
attempt was made to prevent him from taking the oath of allegiance in his
capacity of bishop of Quebec.
In 1810 Governor Craig sent a messenger to England to
complain of the bishop's conduct; but the authorities adopted a conciliatory
policy, Craig was recalled, and Sir George Prevost was sent to replace him. The
new governor had several interviews with the bishop, who refused to make any
concessions, and finally all his demands in behalf of the Roman Catholic Church
in Canada were conceded.
The part that he took during the war of 1812 in exciting
the loyalty and warlike spirit of the French Canadians gained him the good-will
of England. He received letters from the government recognizing his title and
jurisdiction as Roman Catholic bishop of Quebec, and granting him a pension of a
thousand louis a year with a seat in the legislative council.
Bishop Plessis was the first to introduce the gospel into
the vast territory of Red river, and founded religious and educational
institutions in Upper Canada and the provinces along the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
His great work was the organization of his church in Canada. In 1818 he was
nominated archbishop of Quebec, and the rest of British America was formed into
four suffragan sees.
In the legislative council he was an ardent defender of the
religious and civil rights of his co-religionists, and in 1822, when the English
government tried to force a union between Upper and Lower Canada, his energetic
resistance counted for much in the failure of the plan.
The reformation and development of Canadian education
formed the great end of his life. He resisted successfully efforts to weaken the
force of French-Canadian nationality through the medium of a system of popular
education. The Colleges of Nicolet and St. Hyacinth were founded through his
encouragement, and schools and academies were established in every direction.
He spent his time and income in searching out young men and
educating them at his own expense. Some of the most eminent men of Canada owed
their training to him. The passage of the education law of 1824 was to a great
extent his work, and his correspondence with Lord Bathurst on this subject
proves him a man of great diplomatic force.
Edited Appletons Encyclopedia by John Looby, Copyright © 2001 VirtualologyTM
