Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 17.djvu/647

 BELATIONS 631 BEUGIOITS

ABSociatioQ of St. Joseph for deceased clergy^ an Over and above this, ahnost all of them set to work Association of Priest-Aaorers, and an altar society, at making dictionaries and elaborating grammars of Among the laity a great number of societies are these miknown tongues, which had no cognate con- organized for the young, both boys and girls; circles nection with any of the European languages; while all of study, patronages and sodalities; the confer- of them differed from each other in their forms of ence of St. Vincent de Paul and the Third Order speech.

of St. Francis for men; the association of Chris- The composition of these "Relations," says

tian Mothers, the Third Order of St. Francis. Thwaites, "excites wonder that they could be written

Ladies of Mercy and various societies for good at all. Nearly always the style is simple and direct,

works among the women. Before the war there Never does the narrator descend to self-glorification,

were many foreigners, mostly Belgians and Ger- He never complains of his lot, but sets forth his

mans, foimd in this diocese, but since then the experience in the most matter of fact phrases. Not

foreign element has been composed chiefly of the only do these devout missionaries, whose personal

workmen engaged in reconstruction. The popula- heroism has never been surpassed in any field, live

tion now nimibers about 524,340. and breathe in these "Relations," but we have in

them our first competent account of the red Indian at

BelationB, Jesuit. — What are commonly styled a time when relatively uncontaminated by contact

the "Jesuit Relations" are transcripts of letters with Europeans." Seven of these great contributors

written by the first Jesuit missionaries among the to science were butchered by the Indians, and one of

Algonquins, Abenakis, Iroquois, Hurons, Illinois, and them survived torture almost miraculously. They

other Indian tribes of North America. These letters were Jogues, Br^beuf, Chabanel, Gamier, Daniel,

were sent down to Quebec when the opportunity Buteux, and Bressani.

presented itself, and after being carefully collated and The first 40 volumes of the "Relations" that were

edited were transmitted to France and issued annually published in France, were known as the "Cramoisy,"

in book form from 1632 to 1672. There they were reprints of which followed later in Paris and Lyons,

stopped by an order from Rome forbidding all There were iasues in Rome and other cities of Italy,

descriptions of missionaiy work in any part or the and also partial ones in the "Mercure Frangais" and

world. The reason of this iniunction was the fact "LittersB Annuse Societatis Jesu." In the United

that the discussion about the liceity of the Malabar States interst in the "Relations" was excited by D.

Rites in India had become so animated that it was O'Callaghan's "Documental History of New York."

thought wise to resort to this drastic measure in order Shea's various histories were based on the three

to prevent similar controversies elsewhere. The sus- large octavo volumes printed bv the Canadian Gov-

pension of the "Relations" incensed Louis XIV and emment, at the instance of Father Martin, S. J., the

was not therefore due to the enmity of Frontenac, founder of St. Mary's College, Montreal. Parkinan

who would not have dared to set himself in drew on these copiously. The publication of 72

opposition to His Majesty. Unfortunately the letters volumes by the Burrowes Brothers of Cleveland

and maps of Marquette arrived in 1673 and could not surpasses and sums up the work of all others. This

be made public until circumstances arose which made edition is in alternate pages of French and En^ish,

their publication imperative. and has had the advantage of the vast fund of mfor-

The "Relations" are invaluable as historical docu- mation of the old archivist of St. Mary's, Montreal,

ments. Indeed they are almost the only source of our Father Arthur E. Jones, who contributed to each

knowledge about the aboriginal inhabitants of what volume severed pages of precious notes and explana-

is now the United States and Canada. From them tions of the text, which for many readers would

we learn, at first hand, all about their mode of life, have been otherwise unintelligible. The whole is

their traditions, '' * -•-•-_ ^i-_- i.-_-,. , . . . _ « _ .•_j

practices, their mgs, their wars,

government, their tribal relations, their language, etc. There is an added value to them inasmuch as they Belationsliip (cf. C. E., XII — ^731c). — Spiritual were written under the most adverse conditions; in relationship arises now only in three cases: (a) be- canoes, in fetid wigwams^ on rocks or fallen trees: tween the baptizer and the person baptized^ (b) be- often at the ride of the life of the chronicler; amid tween the sponsor and the person baptized; (c) drunken or crazy Indians, for whom note- taking by between the sponsor and the person confirmed. It those mysterious white strangers was like witchcraft, is now a matrimonial impediment (minor) only when whose spell they dreaded and which they had a right arising from baptism; formerly the relationship to ward off by a blow of the tomahawk. The writers existed also between the sponsors and the recipient's themselves were often overcome with fatigue or parents and was a bar to marriage, hunger or disease, or were crippled by the wounds,. r>> ^ ^tt ^-ojx t^ received at the hands of their neophytes. Apart from BeUgions Life (cf. C. E., XII— 748d) .-— Expres- their scientific value these "Relations" are also, at sions like "religious life," "religious order," or times, personal psychological revelations of the highest "nuns" are frequently used in ordinary conversation order. The letters of de Brebeuf and Jogues, for or writing in a wider sense than is customary with instance, are of intense interest in this respect; and it theologians or canonists. As might be expected the would be diflScult to find anything to surpass Bres- Code in the preliminary canons dealing with religious sani's study of his emotions before, durine, and after lajrs down the meaning to be given to those and the terrible tortures inflicted on him by the savages, kindred terms when used in canon law as follows: Besides their contributions to ethnology, sociology, A religion, or religious institute in general, is any and the aboriginal religion, they have made the society approved by legitimate ecclesiastical au- geographers of the world their debtors. It was thority, whose members according to the special laws Marquette who first traced the course of the Missis- governing their society make public vows, whether sippi and first saw the Missouri and Ohio' rivers; de perpetual or temporary, to be renewed, if temporary, Brebeuf mapped out the whole north shore of Lake after the lapse of a specified time, and thus tend after Erie from Niagara to Detroit; AUouez and Dablon evangelical perfection. An order is a religion in made the circuit of Lake Superior and located the which solemn vows are made: a monastic congre^a- copper deposits; Le Moyne found the salt springs of tion is a union of several self-governing monasteries Syracuse; du (^uen discovered I-ake St, John, ete. under one superior; an exempt religion is an institute