Biography
Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography stated that Plessis "studied classics in the College de 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 labour, 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 Nov., 1786."
Shortly after his ordination he was made secretary to Bishop Jean-Francois Hubert, and he exercised so much influence over this prelate that he really filled the functions of auxiliary bishop. In 1792 he was appointed Curé of Notre-Dame at Quebec.
Bishop Pierre Denaut, Hubert's successor, named Plessis his grand vicar in 1797, and at the same time announced his intention of appointing him coadjutor bishop. The popularity of Plessis with 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 21 January 1801, in the presence of the governor and officials of the province. The death of Bishop Denault raised him to the episcopal sea 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 as bishop of Quebec. In 1810 Gov. 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 goodwill 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 of Lower Canada.
Read more about this topic: Joseph-Octave Plessis
Famous quotes containing the word biography:
“The death of Irving, which at any other time would have attracted universal attention, having occurred while these things were transpiring, went almost unobserved. I shall have to read of it in the biography of authors.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A biography is like a handshake down the years, that can become an arm-wrestle.”
—Richard Holmes (b. 1945)
“A great biography should, like the close of a great drama, leave behind it a feeling of serenity. We collect into a small bunch the flowers, the few flowers, which brought sweetness into a life, and present it as an offering to an accomplished destiny. It is the dying refrain of a completed song, the final verse of a finished poem.”
—André Maurois (1885–1967)