Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 2.djvu/869

 BRISACIER

789

BRISBANE

of the Society is that no one shall be elected siiyt-iioi for more than three consecutive years, he filled this charge alternately with Louis Tiberge. He \\as also one of eight of its members who in 1698 com- posed the rules for its government which are still in force.

Madame de Maintenon asked him to become the associate of Bourdaloue and F^nelon, in compiling the regulations for the school of Saint Cjt, vhich she had just founded. So pleased was she \\ith his wisdom and judgment that she asked him again, in connexion with Bourdeloue and M. Froiison, superior of Saint Sulpice, to give his opinion on the books of Madame Guyon and upon Quietism. On this point, however, the director of the Society of the Foreign Missions did not agree with the views of F^nelon. He took a very prominent part in the discussion on Chinese ceremonies. After having asked the advice of F^nelon and Bossuet on this question, Brisacier did not hesitate to declare him- self of an opinion different from that of the Jesuits. The Bishop of Meaux wrote him three letters on this subject (30 August, 1701; 8 and 12 September, 1701). Brisacier, however, did not wait for these letters to declare himself. On 20 April, 1700, he published a pamphlet entitled "Lettre de MM. des Missions 6trangeres au Pape, sur les idolatries et les super- stitions chinoises, avec une addition a la dite lettre, par MM. Louis Tiberge and Jacques Charles de Brisacier". Brisacier pronounced the funeral orations of the Duchesse d'Aiguillon and also of Mile de Bouillon, both benefactresses of the Foreign Missions.

Latjn'at, Hialoire generale de la society des Missions etran~ gh-es (Paris, 1894); Hisloire de Fenelon, XI, 29.3.

A. FOURNET.

Brisacier, Jean de, controversialist, b. at Blois, France, 9 June, 1592; entered the Society of Jesus in 1619; d. at Blois, 10 September, 166S. On the completion of his studies, he gave himself to preaching for many years, with great zeal and success. After- wards he was in turn Rector of the colleges of Aix, Blois, and Rouen, Visitor to the province of Portugal, Procurator of the Society for Foreign Missions and Superior of the Professed House in Paris. His love for missionary work was such that shortly before his death, he remarked that he counted as nothing all the years he had not spent in it. Brisacier was an ardent opponent of Jansenism, and never lost an opportunity of attacking it. In a sermon preached at Blois, in 16.51, he denounced the deceit practised by the Jansenists, particularly in the district around his native town, wnere the cur6 of Cour-Cheverny, M. L'Abb^ Callaghan, was very active in promoting the heresy. This gave rise to a spirited controversy, in which Brisacier displayed activity and courage. In reply to the Jan.senists' answer to his sermon, he repeated his indictment, and offered proof of it, in a publication entitled "Le jans^nisme confondu dans I'advocat du sieur Callaghan, par Ic P. Brisacier, avec la deffense de son sermon fait h. Blois, le 29 Mars, 1651, contre la response du Port Royal". This work was quickly condemned by Jean Franc^ois de Goiidi, .Archbishop of Paris, because of its personal attacks directed especially against the Jansenistic religious of Port Royal. After this censure the dispute continued for some time, and called forth a long scries of pamphlets. As late as 1S62, the controversy was kept up by Abb6 Pletteau and G. Bordillon.

.SoMMKRVOGEL. Bibl. de la c. de J., II, 180; BBrcKER in Dicl. de thiol, cath,, 8. v.; Hdrter, N omenclalor, II, 70.

R. H. TiERNET.

Brisbane, Archdiocese op, compri.ses that part of the State of Queensland, Australia, which lies south of the 24th parallel of .south latitude. The area is about 200,000 square miles. Brisbane, the cathedral city, is the capital of Queensland. The population II.— 50

Brisbane from the Obsebvatort

at the census of 1901 (metropohtan area) was 119.907.

History. — Queensland (known till 1859 as the .VIoretori Bay District of New South Wales) was first settled in 1825 as a con\'ict station, was \-isited by Father Therry and abandoned after three yeais. Permanent col- onization be- gan when it was thro w n open to free settlers in 1842. In 1843, four Passionist Fa- thers establish- ed a mission for aboriginals on Stradbroke Island, but abandoned it for lack of pro- visions and other causes in 1846. The work of evan- gelizing the Queensl an d blacks was af- terwards car- ried on by other missionaries, the most successful of whom were Father Luckie and the later and still more noted apostle of the aboriginals. Father Duncan McNab. Missionarj' work among the blacks was, however, hampered to an almost hopeless degree by the bad example, the brutalities, and the communicated vices and diseases of degraded whites. In 1S43, a rude shanty, hastily constructed during Dr. Folding's visit to Brisbane in that year, was the only building in the Moreton Bay District that stood for a church. There was no school, and the white population of the whole District was only 2,257 souls. Fathers McGinnety and Hanly arrived there in De- cember, 1843. They were, says Cardinal Moran, "the first priests stationed for ordinary missionary work in the Moreton Bay territory". In 1859, the year in which the Moreton Bay District became a separate colony under the name of Queensland, it was erected into the Diocese of Brisbane. Its first bishop was the Right Rev. James O'Quinn, who was consecrated in Dublin on the 29th of June, 1859. In 1860 there were only two priests, two churches, two small schools, and 7,676 Catholics, out of a total population of 28,056, in his vast diocese of 668,497 square miles. He arrived in Brisbane, with five priests and six sisters, in 1861, and launched forth- \^-ith into the work of organization, carrying on for years long and exhausting visitations, in which the bare earth was often his only bed, and sardines and "damper" his principal food. With the sanction of the Government, he organized the Queensland Immi- gration Society, which brought settlers (chiefly Irish Catholics) to the colony. Considerable numbers of these were placed on land granted for the purpose by the Government. Racial and sectarian passions took alarm. A clamour arose that the colony was being inundated with Irish Catholics, and that it would .soon deserve to be called, not "Queensland", but "Quinn's Land". The Immigration Society bent before the storm and dissolved in 1865, after ha\ang enriched Queensland with ten shiploads of picked colonists.

Dr. 0'(Juinn was a man of ripe intellectual culture and of much foresight and administrative wisdom. He established a Catholic paper, "The Australian", founded two orphanages and an industrial school, wTought strenuously in the matter of church- and