The Institut canadien de Montréal (, ) was founded on 17 December 1844, by a group of 200 young liberal

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who work (human activity), works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the partic ...

s in Montreal, Canada East, Province of Canada. The Institute provided a public library and debating room for its members. At the time, there were no French-language universities nor public libraries in Montreal. Between 1845 and 1871, some 136 lectures were held inside the Institute's walls. The Institute eventually came into conflict with the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

over the contents of its library. Partly as a result of the dispute with the Church, the Institute eventually folded in the 1870s.

Origins

The Institute was founded in 1844 as a literary and scientific institution, for the purposes of providing a library, reading-room, and other educational purposes. Joseph Papin was the first president. In 1853, it was incorporated by an Act of the Province of Canada. At the time of incorporation, the Institute had over 500 members, a library of over 2000 volumes, and a reading-room with newspapers and periodical publications. The Institute was the source of the ideas defended by the ''

Parti rouge The (, "Red Party"; or , "Democratic Party") was a political group that contested elections in the Canada East, Eastern section of the Province of Canada. It was formed around 1847 by radical French-Canadians; the party was inspired by the ideas ...

''. One of its mottos was: ''Justice pour nous, justice pour tous; Raison et liberté pour nous, raison et liberté pour tous'' (Justice for us, justice for all; reason and liberty for us, reason and liberty for all). The library contained literary works by French romantic authors, such as

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo, vicomte Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romanticism, Romantic author, poet, essayist, playwright, journalist, human rights activist and politician. His most famous works are the novels ''The Hunchbac ...

and

Alphonse de Lamartine Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine (; 21 October 179028 February 1869) was a French author, poet, and statesman. Initially a moderate royalist, he became one of the leading critics of the July Monarchy of Louis-Philippe, aligning more w ...

, and Enlightenment authors, such as

Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778), known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' Voltaire (, ; ), was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, philosopher (''philosophe''), satirist, and historian. Famous for his wit ...

and

Diderot Denis Diderot (; ; 5 October 171331 July 1784) was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer, best known for serving as co-founder, chief editor, and contributor to the along with Jean le Rond d'Alembert. He was a prominent figure during t ...

, whose writings were judged immoral by the Catholic Church. Between 1845 and 1871, some 136 lectures were held inside the institute's walls.

Dispute with the Church

In 1858, an issue arose about the contents of the library. At a meeting of the Institute, some members proposed establishing a committee to review the library and to make a list of books which should not be allowed to remain in the library. This proposal was defeated by a considerable majority, which instead passed a resolution that the Institute's library did not contain any improper books, that the Institute was the sole judge of the morality of the books in the library, and that the existing committee of management was sufficient. Following this motion, a group of 158 members left the institute to found the '' Institut canadien-français de Montréal'', which opted to obey the doctrine of the Catholic clergy and did not lend books which the Church judged immoral. On 13 April 1858, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Montreal, Mgr

Ignace Bourget Ignace Bourget (; October 30, 1799 – June 8, 1885) was a Canadian Roman Catholic priest who held the title of Bishop of Montreal from 1840 to 1876. Born in Lévis, Quebec, in 1799, Bourget entered the clergy at an early age, undertook several ...

, published a pastoral which was read in all the churches of his diocese. In the pastoral, he referred to the proceedings at the Institute and praised the conduct of the minority. He stated that the majority had fallen into two great errors: by declaring that the members of the Institute were the proper judges of the morality of the books in their library, contrary to the declaration at the

Council of Trent The Council of Trent (), held between 1545 and 1563 in Trent (or Trento), now in northern Italy, was the 19th ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. Prompted by the Protestant Reformation at the time, it has been described as the "most ...

which held that judging the morality of books is a function of the bishop; and by declaring that the library contained no immoral books, when in fact it contained books on the Church's Index of Prohibited Books. He pointed out that the Council of Trent had held that anyone who read or kept heretical works would incur sentence of

excommunication Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to deprive, suspend, or limit membership in a religious community or to restrict certain rights within it, in particular those of being in Koinonia, communion with other members o ...

, and that anyone who read or kept books forbidden on other grounds would be subject to severe punishment. He concluded by making an appeal to the members of the Institute to alter their resolution, stating that otherwise, no Catholic would continue to belong to it. The Institute did not rescind the resolution. In 1865, several members of the Institute, including Joseph Guibord, appealed to Rome against this pastoral, but received no answer. On July 7, 1869, Rome added the institute's ''Annuaire'' for the year 1868 to the Catholic Church's Index of prohibited books. Bishop Bourget published another pastoral letter, drawing attention to this decision and pointing out the Church had decreed that no Catholic was to belong to the Institute while it taught pernicious doctrines, nor to keep, publish or read the 1868 Annuaire. He stated that any person who persisted in keeping or reading the Annuaire, or in belonging to the Institute, would be deprived of the sacrament, "''même à l'article de la mort.''" In response, the members of the Institute on 23 September 1869 passed a resolution declaring that it did not teach any pernicious doctrine, and that the members of the Institute, having learnt of the condemnation of the 1868 Annuaire, declared that they would submit purely and simply to this decree. Bishop Bourget responded in a letter condemning these resolutions as hypocritical, stating that the Institute had simultaneously passed a secret resolution in favour of religious tolerance, and stating that there would be no absolution for those who remained members of the Institute.

The Guibord Case

One of the founding members of the Institute was a printer and typographer named Joseph Guibord. In 1869, Guibord died. Bourget refused to let Henrietta Brown, Guibord's widow, bury her husband's remains in the Catholic section of the

Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery (, ) is a rural cemetery located in the borough of Côte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, which was founded in 1854. The entrance and the grounds run along a part of Côte-des-Neiges Ro ...

because he was a member of the Institute. The widow did not accept the decision and decided to bring the case to court. Henrietta Brown's lawyer, Joseph Doutre, also a member of the Institute, ultimately won his case before the

Judicial Committee of the Privy Council The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) is the highest court of appeal for the Crown Dependencies, the British Overseas Territories, some Commonwealth countries and a few institutions in the United Kingdom. Established on 14 August ...

, at that time the court of last resort for the British Empire, including Canada, on November 21, 1874. The Guibord case became a point of great political and religious controversy.

Closure of the Institute

The ''Institut canadien'' of Montreal closed the doors of its debating room in 1871, and the library closed in 1880. Only the '' Institut canadien de Québec'', founded four years after that of Montreal, survived the Church's censorship by getting rid of certain works prohibited by the Roman Catholic Church. In 2006, the

Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec The (; ; abbr. BAnQ) is a Quebec government agency which manages the province's legal deposit system, national archives, and national library. Located at the Grande Bibliothèque in Montreal, the BAnQ was created by the merging of the Biblioth ...

(BAnQ) concluded a deal with the Fraser-Hickson Institute on the donation and transfer of property of the collection of the Institut canadien de Montréal. The latter had preserved it since 1885. Among the precious books of the collection were two editions of the ''Œuvres complètes de Voltaire'' (1785–1789), 36 volumes of '' L'Encyclopédie'' by

and

d'Alembert Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert ( ; ; 16 November 1717 – 29 October 1783) was a French mathematician, mechanics, mechanician, physicist, philosopher, and music theorist. Until 1759 he was, together with Denis Diderot, a co-editor of the ''E ...

(1778–1781), 12 volumes of ''L'Esprit des journaux français et étrangers'' (1787–1792) and four volumes of ''Réunion des Tuileries au Louvre'' (1852–1857), a particular gift of Prince Napoléon to the Institut canadien.

Members

Regular members

Napoléon Aubin Napoléon Aubin (9 November 1812 – 12 June 1890), christened Aimé-Nicolas, was born from a Swiss family in Chêne-Bougeries, a district of Geneva, at the time a territory of France. He was a journalist, writer, publisher, scientist, musi ...

* Joseph-Guillaume Barthe *

Alfred Boisseau Alfred Boisseau (1823–1901) was an American/Canadian artist who was born in Paris, France. He was known as a painter and photographer, who specialized in paintings of North American Natives and the West. As a young man in his 20s, Boisseau immig ...

* Arthur Buies * Francis Cassidy * Louis-Antoine Dessaulles *

Jean-Baptiste-Éric Dorion Jean-Baptiste-Éric Dorion (September 17, 1826 – November 1, 1866) was a journalist and political figure in Canada East. He was born in Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade, Quebec, Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade, Lower Canada in 1826, the son of Pierre-A ...

* Joseph Doutre * François-Xavier Garneau * Antoine Gérin-Lajoie * Joseph Guibord * Joseph Papin * Marc-Aurèle Plamondon

External member

Awards

* Prix Condorcet, awarded posthumously in 1997St-Louis, Martin.
Le prix Condorcet 1997 à l'Institut canadien
", in ''Laïcité'', Bulletin du Mouvement laïque québécois, Winter 1998

References

External links

Website for the Institut canadien de Québec
{{DEFAULTSORT:Institut Canadien De Montreal Educational organizations based in Quebec History of Catholicism in Quebec Literary societies Liberalism in Canada 1844 establishments in Canada