CCHA. Study Sessions, 50 (1983) 437-452
“The Sword in the Bishop's Hand”
Father William Peter MacDonald,
A Scottish Defender of the Catholic Faith
in Upper Canada*
by Stewart D. GILL
University of Guelph
The
Scottish contribution to the Catholic church in Canada has usually been
associated with the Highlanders who settled in large numbers in Glengarry, in
eastern Ontario, Prince Edward Island and eastern Nova Scotia. Most historians
in writing about the Scottish influence or tradition in the Canadian church
have concentrated by and large on the Glengarry settlement and its most eminent
religious figure, Alexander Macdonell.1 Recently, Macdonell has come under attack because of
his apparent Scottishness and lack of sympathy for Irish Catholics.2 He is portrayed as a Tory with his roots sunk
deep in the soil of Glengarry who had little contact with the urban based,
reform minded Irish Catholics of Toronto.
One of Macdonell’s Scottish priests who
played a prominent role in the establishment of the Catholic faith in Upper
Canada, in the years of transition, while Scottish influence gave way to Irish,
was William Peter MacDonald. After emigrating to British North America in 1826
he became the defender of the Catholic faith in the Upper Province and it is
his role as “the sword in the Bishop’s hand,” or Macdonell's troubleshooter,
that this paper will address.3 In 1828 he became vicargeneral
to the Bishop in Kingston and two years later, in order to parry any attacks
against the Church he commenced, with Macdonell, publication of a Catholic
newspaper, The Catholic.
As editor of The Catholic he was
ready to cross swords with any critics of the Church. The paper “being an
exposition of the Catholic doctrine, designed to repel the calumnies and
misrepresentations, which though so often refuted, have been constantly
reiterated in the sectarian papers in the provinces.”4 As vicar-general
the Bishop sent William Peter to support Father Patrick McDonagh against the
revolt of William O’Grady.5 Later he was sent to Bytown to work among
Irish lumberjacks and he ended his days as vicar-general to Bishop Michael
Power in Toronto.
He was born on March 25, 1771 in the Parish
of Eberlow, Banffshire. His parents were Thomas MacDonald and Ann Watt but
apart from these facts little is known of his early life until he appeared as a
student at Douay in France. He was raised in an area of Scotland where
Catholicism had gained a stronghold during the eighteenth century under the
patronage of the Gordon family. Concentrated in the north east, it has been
estimated that sixty five percent of the Catholics of the Lowland Vicariate, in
1780, lived on the Duke of Gordon’s estates, and that one third of all Lowland
Catholics lived in the Enzie district of Banffshire.6
He would have completed his seminary
training at Douay but for the intervention of the French Revolution which
closed the College. He was initially dispatched to Scotland and then sent to
the Scots College in Valladolid, Spain, in December 1794, where he was ordained
on July 17, 1798.7 He was not regarded as being of sound
character by the Spanish school as the author of the Register of Students
speculated what had become of him:
Dec. 1794.
Gulielmus MacDonald. Philosophian et theologiam corrfecit, ordinatus est, et
missionem petiit 17 Julii 1798. Ad tempus ibi remansit, sed postea aut illam
deseriut, aut propter levitatem demissus est.8
On being ordained his first charge was the
mission station of Deecastle situated on the River Dec. The station was small
and poor, with few Catholics. Nevertheless, it was while in Deecastle that
MacDonald found time to write his first work on the Catholic Church. Written in
a mode that he was to follow in his Canadian writings, he first attacked the
“inheritors” of the Reformation:
Ever since (the
Reformation) we have had nothing but reformations of the reformation; but so
many new schemes and opposite systems of religion, brought forward by a set of
religious Boufoons (sic) who are daily appearing upon the stage, and exciting
by their loud and outrageous declarations the admiration of the ignorant
multitude.9
The remainder of the work is a theological
treatise defending the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church.
In 1801 he was moved to the seminary for
the Lowlands at Aquhorties near Inverurie, Aberdeenshire.10 Aquhorties had
been acquired in 1797 by Bishop George Hay. It opened in 1799 replacing the
colleges closed by the Continental war. MacDonald entered the college only two
years after its birth while it was still experiencing teething pains. As a
professor he gained a reputation as a thorn in the side of his superior, Bishop
Hay. He constantly bombarded Hay with letters outlining what he perceived to be
wrong with the college and with requests to change its rules and regulations.
In his demands he was unsuccessful and,
apparently still discontented, in 1804 he was moved to Auchindoun near Dufftown.11 Here he spent five
years manifestly at conflict with his superiors.12 MacDonald was
probably justified in his complaints as Dufftown was a poor mission station,
ill furnished for the task it was built. It was however no worse than other
charges in the Scottish mission. Portrayed in correspondence with his Bishop as
a rebellious priest he soon attempted to remedy his impecuniosity by raising
financial support outside of the Church. He provided accomodation for two
boarders, and in 1809 wrote and published a volume of poetry which, despite
vigorous efforts on his own part, would not sell. He heaped coals upon his head
when, in 1806, he caused a scandal in his parish by dancing at a party and was
on another occasion accused of being drunk at a funeral he was conducting.13
Most of his correspondence for the period
at Auchindoun concerns his lack of money which was a disease common to Scottish
priests.14 By 1807 he resolved that it would be no sin for him to leave the
mission as he could not live on his allowance. He blamed Bishop Alexander
Cameron for not assisting him financially and for the subsequent two years,
between 1807 and 1809, the relationship between the two men grew worse. In 1809
he was transferred to Elgin where he wrote to the Reverend Charles Maxwell in
Edinburgh:
I have been removed
to Elgin, Bishop Cameron at our meeting, has, you will no doubt have heard,
treated me in a most scurrilous, insulting and unchristian manner. It were no
doubt to his own honour to make the one of his clergy who dares to disapprove
most of what is blameable in his conduct, little in the eyes of his Brethern. I
have reason to think this is not rash judgement. On this account I am just now
hesitating about accepting a proffered mission in America, where I may work out
my Salvation with peace and quietness.15
The Offer of a placement in America was as a
missionary at Miramichi, New Brunswick. He did not relish the idea of going so
far from Scotland but, he insisted, if it meant an escape from poverty and a
situation in which he was made out to be a liar by the Bishop then he would go.16 Cameron gave him
permission to leave, probably thankful that he had ridded himself of a sore
that continued to fester.
On leaving Elgin, in early 1810, he made
his way to Aberdeen where he was distracted from the Miramichi mission by
Father James Robertson, a priest employed by the British Government. Robertson
offered him a large amount of money to go to London and join Government
service. In a letter from Father Charles Gordon of Aberdeen to James Kyle of
Aquhorties mention is made of an expected five thousand pounds that MacDonald
would receive immediately to be followed by a pension of three hundred pounds
for life; neither of which came to pass.17
For the following few years the whereabouts
of MacDonald were a mystery to his friends in the Scottish mission. Many
thought they had seen the last of him and that he had certainly relinquished
any call to the priesthood. The priest at Auchinhalrig, George Matheson, wrote
to Charles Maxwell in Edinburgh:
The poor Catholics
in Miramishee (sic) are still anxious for a Scotch missionary to settle among
them, Mr. Wm. once proposed going there, but I expect his missionary life is at
an end...18
The years from 1810
until his departure for North America were spent in pursuits that were far
removed from the duties of a priest in a small Scottish mission station. There
have been numerous speculations as to what happened to MacDonald in this
period much of which remains obscure. He did enter British government service
and was involved in some capacity with an expedition to liberate Ferdinand VII
of Spain from the clutches of Napoleon in 1810. He recounted in a letter to
Charles Maxwell that he made friends with members of the Spanish and British
nobility through taking part in such an episode.19
After a brief time in Spain as tutor to the
son of the secretary to the Spanish Embassy at the British Court he found
conditions not as favourable as he had hoped and obtained the aid of the
British Embassy in Cadiz to return to London.20 From 1812 until
1819 most of his energy was directed towards raising a pension from the
government.21 A letter from Kensington Palace in 1814 warned against him pushing too
hard for recompense but recommended Canada as a suitable country for him to
emigrate to, as it was “almost a Catholic country.”22
From 1819 until 1826 it appears as if
MacDonald lived in deep obscurity until “discovered” by Bishop Alexander
Macdonell and invited to emigrate to Canada. There is the suggestion that he
may have given up the priesthood while in London and may even have married.
Alexander Cameron, Rector of the Scots College in Valladolid wrote to the
Reverend James Machallie at Auchinhalrig: “Who is William MacDonald that has
gone to Canada? If it be the poet, in what capacity does he go, and if he has
got free on matrimony?”23 There is however no clear evidence for this
speculation.
On arrival in Upper Canada he was appointed
to the seminary at St. Raphael in Glengarry. In 1828 he wrote a letter to
Bishop Alexander Paterson in Edinburgh during the course of which he suggested
that the Canadian mission left much to be desired.24 One of his major
concerns appeared to be a lack of fellow priests and he requested that Paterson
should send “some zealous labourers into the Vineyard.”
In contrast to his failures in Scotland, he
advanced quickly up the colonial Catholic hierarchy, becoming Macdonell’s
vicar-general in Kingston in 1829. The cause of his rapid success may have been
due to the money that he gave Macdonell.25 On the other hand,
Macdonell may have been influenced by MacDonald being Scottish and having
attended the same schools. In any case it appears as if an appointment as
vicar-general carried little authority as the Bishop did not envisage the
position as being autonomous in any way from himself.26
Nevertheless, Macdonell expressed the view
that William Peter was someone in whom he could confide and assured him that he
had confidence in him above all his fellow workers “to promote” the cause of
Catholicism.27 The Bishop used MacDonald’s name liberally in applications to Rome as
he was known, “if not personally at least by character,” by the rector of the
Scotch College at the Holy See.28 (One can only hope that his character report
came from other than Bishop Cameron of the Scottish mission.) James King, a
Toronto Irish-Canadian journalist, who had a great enmity towards Macdonell,
took it upon himself to attack MacDonald's character.29 He decried him as
having been on one occasion carried home drunk and naked in a cart from a party
at Kingston’s officers’ mess and in such a state having attacked his superior.30 Macdonell came
quickly to his Scottish friend’s defence probably seeing the attack as much a
slight against his own name and that of the Scots as against MacDonald.31 The Bishop
insisted that MacDonald had never attacked him, “but on the contrary,” he
wrote, “I can attest with great truth and sincerity that on all occasions I
received from you every respect and deference that was due to me, and often
times more than I could wish.”32
Within six months of King’s attack,
MacDonald was making complaints, as he had in Scotland, to the lack of money.
He wrote to Bishop Macdonell:
Your Lordship must
be well convinced from my uniform conduct that I came not into your Diocese
with the view of bettering my Fortune. Had I done so, would I have asked you
for an Assistant, were none had been before; or accepted one at the high terms
you were pleased to designate? Nor would I as I have done, laid out all I am
nearly worth for what I imagined the furtherance of religion. Fortunate however
it now begins to appear for me that (go where I may) I have still that left,
which together with my mite of half pay, will put me above want, and the
needful dependance on any unfeeling Superior.33
The Bishop in reply
was displeased at rumours to the effect that William Peter was spreading
stories as to how much be had done for Macdonell at his own expense.34 Friendship, it
appeared, was not so much governed by nationality as by the size of the purse.
The Bishop in correspondence with his vicar-general reminded him to keep his
temper and that:
There is none of my
clergy with whom I am half so anxious to help on good terms as with you, and I
believe you will allow that I have incurred much ill will and jealousy by
displacing others to settle you in Kingston and removed more than one
clergyman, to please you, whom I sent to you as vicars.35
William O’Grady, an Irish priest, and
Macdonell’s vicar-general in Toronto, considered MacDonald’s relationship with
the Bishop as being central to the state of the Upper Canadian Diocese. The
Irishman wrote to his scottish colleague in Kingston: “You have already made
important sacrifices to promote the sacred cause of religion and yet it is to
you alone that we must look to for the solution of that question, What is to
be done?”36 Both vicar-generals were aware that Macdonell in his old age could not
administer his large diocese in the same manner as he had the old missionary
church.37 In many of the Bishop’s letters throughout the 1830’s, especially those
to MacDonald, there is reference to settling down with his own people in
Glengarry. He particularly looked forward to spending his last years in the
company of MacDonald.38 The latter it appears did not share the same
affection for his Bishop since when asked by Bishop Gaulin to preach at
Macdonell’s funeral his first concern was to how much money would it cost him.39
As in the poverty sticken Scottish mission,
one of the major problems for the Bishop of Upper Canada was finance, raising
money not only to build churches but also to pay for priests. This money was
often obtained from Macdonell’s Scottish friends, like William “Tiger” Dunlop
and John Gait of the Canada Company.40 More often however
he looked upon the “close fisted Scotsmen” in contrast to the “liberality of
open hearted Irishmen.”41 The Irish nevertheless presented the most
difficult problem for the Bishop.
From the 1820s Macdonell failed to
appreciate the significance in the growth of the Irish in Toronto and was
therefore caught unprepared when his Irish clergy and laity rebelled under the
leadership of William O’Grady.42
MacDonald had consistently advised Macdonell to recruit Irish priests
for Toronto but even after the O’Grady case he was intent on withdrawing rather
than increasing the number of clergy in the Toronto area.43 As in Scotland,
where by 1829 Irish Catholics dominated Scottish Catholicism and changed it
from a rural into an urban phenomenon, so the same happened in Upper Canada
during the 1830s and, especially, the 1840s. Scottish priests in Canada merely
reflected the views of their brothers in Scotland with regard to the Irish.
Priests raised in the settled rural communities of north east Scotland were
used to a well educated congregation whereas the Irish tended to be poor and
itinerant. John Davidson, a priest at Greenock, reported to Bishop Cameron:
...the Irish
Catholics hold, at least practically, part of the Presbyterian doctrine and
seem to think that while they stick to the true faith they may safely neglect
every other moral and religious duty which it prescribes. They are not only
wretchedly ignorant of their duty, but seem perfectly careless about using the
means of attaining the necessary knowledge of it.44
Coming out of this Scottish background and
having been a military chaplain during the suppression of the Irish Rebellion
of 1798, Macdonell carried with him to Canada ideas of the Irish that were
prejudicial to a harmonious relationship with them. He reflected Davidson’s
view, describing Irish Catholics as “grossly ignorant of the principles of
their Religion, and of the discipline of the Catholic Church.”45 It was out of this
concern over the ignorance of the Catholic population that MacDonald commenced
publication of The Catholic to refute, as the Bishop wrote, “The
professors of every other sect (who) are so industrious, active and united to
seize upon every opportunity and avantage that present itself to propagate
their errors and delusions...”46
On October 22, 1830 the first edition of The
Catholic appeared, printed at the Patriot Press in Kingston. The paper,
subtitled “A religious Weekly Periodical,” had three purposes: first, two
negatives, the repudiation of what Protestants believed, and second, what
Protestant journals wrote; third, a positive factor, the education of Catholics
as to what their faith was. In fact most of the articles were borrowed from
other journals.
Throughout every issue of the first volume
there were articles attacking the different denominations within Protestantism.
Britain’s ‘established’ churches were frequently singled out for special
mention:
The Presbyterian
believes his Kirk of Scotland the only true church of Christ and Scotland the
exclusively happy corner of the world, where it is established. A like belief is
entertained by the Anglican of his parliamentary church, and of his country,
exclusively blest with its establishment. But neither of them have any
scripture for this belief...47
The authority of scripture and its
interpretation became the centre of debate in every issue of the periodical.
MacDonald contributed most of the articles
as editor and also wrote letters under the pseudonym of “Camillus.”48 Under the latter
he was particularly concerned about the methods adopted by the evangelical
faiths to win over Catholics. He wrote:
You are not perhaps
aware of the insidious methods resorted to, in this town by our would-be sole
Orthodox and Evangelical gospellers, in order to decoy into their Sabbath
schools and screaming conventicles the children of our poor Irish Catholics...
The Catholics on such occasions, could be but the lookers on; as they are never
seen to mingle in such evangelizing contests...49
Having thrown down the gauntlet to the
Protestant press it was quickly picked up by The Christian Guardian. MacDonald
wrote in a rebuttal to an attack by the latter paper:
In that
heterogeneous of cant and fanaticism the Christian Guardian; that
loathsome compost of mental ordure, raked together from all quarters to force a
soil, which stubborn nature has refused; and render fertile an unconvertible
caput mortum of sear and cauterized ignorance...50
Egerton Ryerson of The
Christian Guardian was no less gentle in his attacks upon the writers of The
Catholic. He assumed that the latter paper was the official organ of the
Roman Catholic Church but was incredulous that “the members of that numerous
and respectable body either cherish the feelings or entertain all sentiments,
or approve of the denunciations of the Editors.”51 The Anglican Christian Sentinel, under
A.H. Burwell, and The Canadian Watchman were quick to join Ryerson in a
scriptural condemnation of MacDonald’s articles.52
The success of the paper did not lie in the
hands of the Protestant press but with its Catholic subscribers. Agents were
distributed throughout North America but, because of the theological nature of
the contents, circulation appears to have been substantially limited to
clergymen.53 Bishop William Fraser of Nova Scotia, a friend, formerly from the
Scottish mission at Braemar, enjoyed The Catholic and encouraged his
clergy to subscribe. He was particularly delighted with the way in which
MacDonald challenged the editors of The Canadian Watchman and The
Christian Guardian.54 The Auxiliary Bishop of Quebec, Jean-Jacques
Lartigue was also convinced of the necessity of the periodical for the success
of the Catholic religion in Canada.55 It even continued
to find success in the Lower Province one year after it had stopped being
published.56 William O’Grady also wrote letters of encouragement to MacDonald as to
the usefulness of his publication.57
The most inspiring letters of encouragement
came not from Bishops or vicar-generals but two priests. The Reverend M. Lalor
of St. Catherines wrote to MacDonald addressing him as one would a mentor. He
informed him of the invaluableness of The Catholic to his ministry. He used it
as a text book “in order to be able on the Sundays to explain the Mysteries of
our Religion to a crowed church of Methodists.”58 From St. Andrews,
New Brunswick, the Reverend T. O’Meara wrote that The Catholic provided
the substance for his sermons and exhortations.59
By October 1831 the paper was bankrupt
because of a lack of subscribers, not surprising perhaps when one considers the
nature of the articles and the audience it was addressing. Within a few years,
however, Macdonell offered MacDonald the opportunity to recommence publication
of a journal “conducive to the interests of the Catholic Religion.”60 The Bishop pleaded
poverty and an inability to pay for the re-establishment of the press but
demanded complete control of the paper as a requirement of his support. He was
concerned that his vicar-general’s approach “may appear to injure rather than
benefit the cause.”61 Perhaps he had a greater fear of alienating
himself from his Presbyterian friends.
MacDonald attempted to revive The
Catholic with the assistance of Bishop Gaulin but the subscriptions raised
were too small to support the venture.62 He became
disgusted at the apathy shown by Catholics towards having their own paper. They
appeared to have no appreciation of the power of the press and while
Protestants had papers in every township, MacDonald wrote to Bishop Gaulin, the
Catholics could not even unite to support one. “How different,” he continued,
“is the case in the United States; where every Bishop has his press; and where
therefore our holy Religion is bearing down all before it...”63
The first edition of volume two did not
appear until September 15, 1841 and was printed in Hamilton. The aim of the
paper was similar to the first volume and was set out in the opening editorial:
In offering once
more to the Public our Weekly Periodical, The Catholic, we wish it to be
understood that it is not our intention to make it a work of polemical discussion
or religious disputation; except when forced, in self defence, to repel the
wanton and unmerited attacks of others – to expose the ignorant or wilful
misrepresentations of the Catholic doctrine; and, when calumniated, to set
ourselves right in the general estimation.64
Within six months of the first issue the editor
was once again complaining to Bishop Gaulin of the Catholic population’s
failure to support one paper against the Protestant journals.65 In 1842, however,
Bishop Michael Power, on his accession, took over the paper to use as his
personal organ. Although still under the editorship of MacDonald, there were
articles of a more popular nature and news from the “old country.”
William Fraser once again took out a
subscription for himself and the priests in his diocese while acting as agent
for the paper in the Maritimes.66 The Maritimers’ allegiance to it appears to
have been based upon a personal loyalty to MacDonald. When it was sold in 1844
and became The Liberal Fraser wrote to MacDonald expressing that since
the paper was no longer under his management the Maritime subscribers requested
that they be withdrawn from the subscription list of the new paper.67
In 1844 MacDonald moved from Hamilton to
Toronto and new responsibilities as vicar-general to Bishop Power and Dean at
St. Michael’s Palace. His last few years were devoted to building St. Michael’s
Cathedral, and in his will he bequeathed all his possessions to the building
fund. Appropriately, when he died on Good Friday, April 2, 1847 he was buried
in the unfinished Cathedral.
MacDonald had been involved in the Scottish
mission during the early years of the nineteenth century when it was still by
and large dependant upon the benevolence of Catholic landlords. In the period
1680 to 1800 the Roman Catholic population of Scotland decreased from fifty to
thirty thousand.68 The
reduction was caused partly by persecution following the Whig Revolution of
1688, the failure of the 1715 and 1745 rebellions and, the most important
reason usually given, the Highland Clearances. All of these factors led to
emigration overseas, especially to Britain's North American colonies.
After the Union of the Scottish and English
Parliaments in 1707 all of England’s colonies were opened up for exploitation
by the Scots. Following the American Revolution, British North America became
increasingly attractive to British emigrants and in particular, the Scots. In
religious terms, Scottish Protestant clergy discovered that Canada provided a
means of employment until a better charge could be obtained in Britain, and the
Catholics found greater toleration and freedom through the French presence.
When Alexander Macdonell arrived in Upper Canada in 1804 there were only two
areas populated by Catholics – the Scots of Glengarry and the French at
Sandwich – and he was often the only priest serving the whole of Upper Canada.69
MacDonald paralleled the career of Macdonell
both having been educated on the Continent. Discontented with the Scottish
Catholic hierarchy the former was transferred around north east Scotland until
he found, like Macdonell, some satisfaction in government service. In 1826,
having been called by Macdonell to serve in Canada he found to his
disappointment that the colonial mission was as impecunious as the Scottish and
often depended upon the Bishop’s contacts with members of the Family Compact.
While the Canadian Church was as much governed by the purse as the Scottish,
nevertheless there was room for advancement in the colony. He quickly became
the Bishop’s right hand and was given responsibility for publication of a
Catholic newspaper.
Dr. Murray Nicholson has portrayed
Macdonell’s choice of MacDonald over O’Grady to be editor as Scottish
discrimination against the Irish by creating a paper that “was Tory in politics
and lacking in Irish content.”70 Not
only was there no Irish content there was no Scottish. The paper was by and
large a theological work with an absence of political or ethnic content. It was
printed by Thomas Dalton, publisher of the Patriot and apologist for the
Family Compact, and there were a few political comments which took a Tory line
as, for example, an appeal to the loyalty of home grown religions as opposed to
American Methodism.71 Politics was, however, not the main thrust of
the paper. Macdonell expressed concern that the constant attacks upon the Protestant
press would injure the success of the paper. While the Bishop probably had in
mind his own friendship with Protestant and government leaders being
jeopardised by slanderous articles, its failure can probably be traced to the
contents which were aimed at an educated clerical and lay audience and not
directed to win the affections of an ethnic group.
Alexander Macdonell has become for most
historians the stereotype of the Scottish Roman Catholic in Upper Canada.72 The Reverend
William Peter MacDonald has been described by William Perkins Bull in his
history of the Church in Upper Canada as “the sword in the Bishop’s hand.”73 Seen in such a
light, MacDonald could be described merely as an appendage of the Bishop. He
had been however a thorn in the flesh of the Scottish Church and while he did
become a sword in the hands of the Canadian, as far as publication of The
Catholic was concerned, the sword was double edged, as quick to attack the
faults of the Bishop as the Protestant Faith.
While corresponding with old friends from
the Scottish Church, like Bishop Fraser and Bishop James Kyle, MacDonald did
not have the same affection for the Scots in Upper Canada as his Bishop.74 Unlike Macdonell
he had no constituency among the Scots of Glengarry. Professor R. MacLean has
written of the Catholic Highlanders in Glengarry that they shared basic
traditions with the Presbyterians.75 According to
MacLean, their common heritage that they rediscovered on the frontier of Upper
Canada forced them to forget their native animosity and encouraged greater
tolerance.76 Macdonell was at the forefront
of this movement while his vicar-general, through the medium of The Catholic
publically attacked and antagonised the Protestant press.
In looking at a Scottish tradition in the
Roman Catholic Churches in Canada it is important to bear several facts in
mind. First, Macdonell, portrayed as the archetype Scottish priest, was by the
1830s trying to maintain control on the basis of Scottish ethnicity with the
appointment of priests like MacDonald, when the majority of Catholic adherents
were Irish. Second, not all Scottish priests were like their Bishop, as being
Scottish did not imply an affinity for the Scots. MacDonald having spent a
major part of his life on the Continent or in England demonstrated no
particular affection for the Scots in Upper Canada. Third, after the 1840s it
was impossible to speak of Scottish dominance anywhere in the Church except in
Glengarry.
MacDonald’s influence in the Catholic Church in Canada was to help in a transition period between Bishop Macdonell and a rural based mission and the formation of an urban based, reform minded institution which saw the necessity for newspapers as a mean of communication. MacDonald demonstrated a belief in the future and power of the press in the prospectus for The Catholic. He wrote: “Quod semper, quod ubique, quod ad omnibus creditum est” (What always, and every where and by all is believed). The Scottish period in the Roman Catholic Church in Upper Canada, although short lived, was at the very base of the heritage of Catholicism in Canada. It was not entirely a conservative and inhibiting factor as some would suggest in looking at Macdonell as there were men like MacDonald who while building on the past looked forward to the faith of future generations.
*The
author wishes to express his appreciation to the Rev. Dr. Mark Dilworth and Dr.
Christine Johnson of the Scottish Catholic Archives for providing cups of
coffee and much help in finding material and also the staff of the Archdiocese
of Toronto Archives.
1William
Perkins Bull, Fron Macdonell to McGuigan: The History of the Growth of the
Roman Catholic Church in Upper Canada, Toronto, The Perkins Bull
Foundation, 1939. R. MacLean, “The Highland Catholic Tradition in Canada,” in
W.S. Reid, ed., The Scottish Tradition in Canada, Toronto, McClelland
and Stewart, 1976. Marianne McLean, “Peopling Glengarry County: The Scottish
Origins of a Canadian Community, in Canadian Historical Association
Historical Papers, 1982. J.E. Rea, Bishop Alexander Macdonell and the
Politics of Upper Canada, Toronto, Ontario Historical Society, 1974. R.
Sunter, “The Scottish Background to the immigration of Bishop Alexander
Macdonell and the Glengarry Highlanders,” Study Sessions of the Canadian
Catholic Historical Association, 1973
2Murray
W. Nicholson, “Ecclesiastical Metropolitanism and the Evolution of the Catholic
Archdiocese of Toronto,” Histoire sociale / Social History, XV (May 1982),
pp. 129-156.
3William Perkins
Bull, From Macdonell to McGuigan.
4The Catholic, A
Religious Weekly Periodical, October 22, 1830
5On O’Grady see M.W.
Nicholson, “The Catholic Church and the Irish in Victorian Toronto,” vol. 1,
Ph. D. Thesis, University of Guelph, 1980.
6Christine Johnson, Developments
in the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland, 1789-1829, Edinburgh, John
Donald Press, 1983, pp. 81-82.
7Records of the
Scots College at Douai, Rome, Madrid, Valladolid and Ratisbon, vol. 1, Aberdeen,
Printed for the New Spalding Club, 1906.
8Ibid., p. 211.
9William Peter
MacDonald, “Treatise on the Catholick Church” (handwritten copy). Scottish
Catholic Archives (S.C.A.).
10Rev. William James
Anderson, ed., “The College for the Lowland District of Scotland and Scalan and
Aquhorties,” Innes Review, XIV, 2, p. 170.
11William Peter
MacDonald to the Right Rev. Dr. Alexander Cameron, March 31, 1804. S.C.A.,
Blair Letters (B.L. )
12MacDonald to the
Bishops and Administrators of the Scottish Mission, July 31, 1804; MacDonald to
Cameron, August? 1804, August 21, 1804, December 3, 1804. S.C.A., B. L.
13MacDonald to
Cameron, December 8, 1806, S.C.A., B.L. MacDonald to Cameron, October 19, 1807,
November 27, 1809. S.C.A., Preshome Letters (P.L.)
14C. Johnson, op.
cit., pp. 132, 140.
15MacDonald to Rev.
Charles Maxwell, September 18, 1809. S.C.A., P.L.
16MacDonald to
Cameron, September 29, 1809. S.C.A., P.L.
17Charles Gordon to
James Kyle, January 15, 1810. S.C.A., P.L.
18George Matheson to
Maxwell, April 26, 1810. S.C.A., P.L.
19MacDonald to
Maxwell, November 10, 1810. S.C.A., B.L.
20MacDonald to
Matheson, July 27, 1811; MacDonald to Maxwell, January 27, 1811. S.C.A., B.L.
21Captain Alexander
Cameron to MacDonald, August 15, 1812; Morris Forsyth to MacDonald, August 29,
1812; Louis-Philippe D’Orleans to MacDonald, November 6, 1813; Kensington
Palace to MacDonald, March 31, 1814; Lt. General Wetherall for the Duke of Kent
to MacDonald, May 3, 1819. Archives, Archdiocese of Toronto (A.T.A.), Macdonell
Papers (M.P.)
22Kensington Palace
to MacDonald, March 31, 1814. A.T.A., M.P.
23Cameron to Rev.
James Machallie, April 19, 1828. S.C.A., B.L.
24MacDonald to Bishop
Alexander Paterson, June 21, 1828. S.C.A., B.L.
25Bishop Alexander
Macdonell to MacDonald, November 20, 1826. A.T.A., M.P.
26M.W. Nicholson,
“Ecclesiastical Metropolitanism,” p. 135.
27Macdonell to
MacDonald, July 11, 1832. A.T.A., M.P.
28Macdonell to
MacDonald, August 30, 1832 (marked private and confidential). A.T.A., M.P.
29M.W. Nicholson,
“Ecclesiastical Metropolitan ism,” p. 134.
30Macdonell to
MacDonald, August 25, 1833. A.T.A., M.P.
31Ibid.
32Ibid.
33MacDonald to
Macdonell, January 31, 1834. A.T.A., M.P.
34Macdonell to
MacDonald, February 9, 1835. A.T.A., M.P.
35Macdonell to
MacDonald, March 20, 1834. A.T.A., M.P.
36William O’Grady to
MacDonald, no date, possibly July 1831. A.T.A., M.P.
37M.W. Nicholson,
“Ecclesiastical Metropolitanism,” pp. 132-136.
38Macdonell to
MacDonald, April 28, 1834; March 22, 1838. A.T.A., M.P.
39MacDonald to Bishop
Gaulin, May 8, 1840. A.T.A.
40Macdonell to
MacDonald, June 13, 1827; July 7, 1827. A.T.A., M.P.
41Macdonell to
MacDonald, November 6, 1829, A.T.A., M.P.
42See Macdonell
Papers on O’Grady. For MacDonald’s involvement see especially Macdonell to
MacDonald, February 26, 1833; April 20, 1833; June 6, 1833; December 12, 1833;
April 28, 1834. A.T.A., M.P.
43Macdonell to
MacDonald, July 8, 1835. A.T.A., M.P.
44John Davidson to
Bishop Cameron, April 25, 1809. S.C.A., B.L. Quoted in C. Johnson, op. cit.,
p. 137.
45Macdonell to
MacDonald, July 8, 1831. A.T.A., M.P.
46Ibid.
47The Catholic, April 8, 1831, p.
189.
48For confirmation of
pseudonym see Bishop William Fraser to MacDonald, June 28, 1831. A.T.A., M.P.
49The Catholic, March 4, 1831
50The Catholic, December 3, 1830.
51The Christian
Guardian, April 16, 1831
52The Christian
Sentinel, August 5, 1831; September 2, 1831. The Canadian Watchman, No.
31.
53See list of agents
in copies of The Catholic. Included agents from throughout Upper and
Lower Canada and the United States, eg. Rev. Camusky of New York and Rev. Dr.
Puree], President of St. Mary’s College, Emmet’s Burgh, Maryland.
54Bishop Fraser to
MacDonald, June 28, 1831. A.T.A., M.P.
55Bishop Jean-Jacques
Lartigue to MacDonald, January 16, 1831. A.T.A., M.P.
56Macdonell to
MacDonald, November 14, 1833. A.T.A., M.P.
57O’Grady to
MacDonald, May 17, 1831. A.T.A., M.P.
58Rev. M. Lalor to
MacDonald, February 23, 1833. A.T.A., M.P.
59Rev. T. O’Meara to
MacDonald, June 19, 1833. A.T.A., M.P.
60Macdonell to
MacDonald, March 10, 1835; February 5, 1838. A.T.A., M.P.
MacDonald to
Captain MacMillan, January 16, 1838. A.T.A., M.P.
62MacDonald to Bishop
Gaulin, December 7, 1839; January 21, 1840. A.T.A., M.P.
63MacDonald to Bishop
Gaulin, January 21, 1840. A.T.A., M.P.
64The Catholic, September 15, 1841.
65MacDonald to
Gaulin, February 23, 1842. A.T.A.
66Bishop Fraser to
MacDonald, July 19, 1842; December 23, 1842. A.T.A.
67Fraser to
MacDonald, August 2, 1844. A.T.A.
68James Darragh, “The
Catholic Population of Scotland Since the Year 1680,” Innes Review, IV,
p. 51.
69M.W. Nicholson,
“Ecclesiastical Metropolitanism,” p. 131.
70M.W. Nicholson,
“The Catholic Church and the Irish,” p. 31
71The Catholic, April 8, 1831
72See note 1.
73W.P. Bull, From
Macdonell to McGuigan
74MacDonald to Bishop
Alexander Paterson, June 21, 1828. S.C.A. Also letters to Fraser and Kyle in
the S.C.A. and A.T.A.
75R. MacLean, “The
Highland Catholic Tradition,” p. 95.
76Ibid.