Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/195

 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 135 eated and there were many persons within the district who were hostile to him, on account of the fact that he was a Jesuit. He was not in very good standing with the Spanish of- ficials, though, the fact that an exception had been made in his favor shows him to have been appreciated at least to a degree by them. Meurin did not confine his labors to Ste. Gene- vieve, but ministered to the settlers on the east side of the river, also. He visited Kaskaskia, Fort Chartres. Fort St. Phillip and the settle- ments in the mining regions in Missouri. He was not only a missionary priest, he had been commissioned as vicar general of Louisiana, and this commission, which he attempted to exercise, resulted in a discussion concerning the authority under which he was commis- sioned. At the time of the transfer of Lou- isiana to Spain, the territory was under the spiritual jurisdiction of the bishop of Que- bec, and it was from him that Meurin had re- ceived his commission. While the question of sjjiritual jurisdiction seems to have been a religious one, it was not so regarded at that time. The Spanish authorities considered it to be a political question, and they refused to concede that an appointee of the bishop of Quebec could exercise any spiritual authority in the territory of Spain. They no longer re- garded the bishop of Quebec as the spiritual ruler of the territory, but conceived that place to be held by the bishop of San Domingo. In 1776 they asked for and obtained a formal transfer of the territory from the authority of the bishop of Quebec to the bishop of San- tiago de Cuba. Later this was transferred to the bishop of New Orleans, Cardenas. This dispute over jurisdiction and the existing hos- tility to the order to which he belonged, made the work of Father Meurin a difficult and la- borious one indeed. Of the men mentioned as having been in charge at Ste. Genevieve, two, at least, deserve a more extended account. Father Gibault was a missionary who came to the Illinois country from Canada, about the year 1768. He bore with him a passport issued by Guy Carleton, lieutenant governor and comman- der-in-chief of the i^rovince of Quebec. Fa- ther Gibault lived in Kaskaskia, but he served as the priest of the church in Ste. Genevieve from 1768 until 1776, and again from 1778 until 1784. He did not confine his work to Ste. Genevieve, but seems to have visited Old Mines, La Salinas and, in fact, all the settle- ments on both sides of the river. Gibault de- serves a place in history because of the service which he rendered to George Rogers Clark, on the occasion of Clark's cajjture of Vin- cennes. The priest went with Clark from Kaskaskia to Vincennes, and used his influ- ence among the French people at that place to secure their submission to the authority of the United States and their adherence to its gov- ernment. That this influence was very great, we may well suppose, Clark specially ac- knowledged the obligation he was under for the service rendered. In 1792 Father Gibault removed from Kaskaskia to New Madrid where he seems to have served as priest un- til his death in 1802. He was a man of con- siderable ability and energy. He was indus- trious and devoted to the work of preaching among all of the people of the territory. lie was most probably a man of very tender heart and great sympathy, for we find that he was reproved at times by his superior. Father IMaxwell, the vicar general of Upper Louisi- ana, for his failure to collect funds for mar- riages and other services. This reprimand came from Maxwell because he was entitled to a part of these fees.