Gift of Francis Janssens, Archbishop of New Orleans, in the 1890s.
Catholic Church. Archdiocese of New Orleans (La.) Collection (ANO), University of Notre Dame Archives (UNDA), Notre Dame, IN 46556
Chiefly papers of bishops Luis Penalver y Cardenas, 1793- 1810; Louis Guillaume-Valentin Dubourg, 1815-1826; Joseph Rosati, CM, apostolic administrator, 1827-1829; Leo Raymond de Neckere, 1829-1833; Anthony Blanc, 1835-1860; Jean Marie Odin, 1861-1870; Napoleon J. Perché, 1870- 1883; Francis X. Leray, 1883-1887; and Francis Janssens, 1888-1897.
Other correspondents include the Capuchin bishop, Cyril Antonio Sieni, better known as Bishop Cyril of Barcelona, who was the first resident bishop to have jurisdiction over Louisiana, 1784-1793; Rev. Thomas Hassett, administrator of Louisiana, 1801-1803; Father Antonio de Sedella, auxiliary vicar and pastor of the parish of St. Louis, New Orleans, who was a leader in the power disputes that plagued the new diocese in the first years of the 19th century; and Frederick Lacheze of Guadelope, West Indies (1820s & 1830s).
Also a microfilm copy of a diary kept by Archbishop Jean Marie Odin.
A microfilm edition (12 reels) of the records of the Diocese of Louisiana and the Floridas (1576-1803) with an accompanying guide has been published by the University of Notre Dame Archives (1967).
Established in 1793 as the Diocese of Louisiana and the Floridas, it took in all the territory from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean and from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico except the territory of the Diocese of Baltimore (i.e., territory belonging to the United States). Before 1793 Louisiana had been under the juristiction of the Diocese of Santiago de Cuba, before 1762 under the authority of the Diocese of Quebec.
Early in the 1880's Professor James F. Edwards, librarian of the University of Notre Dame,aware that irreplaceable items pertaining to the history of Catholicism in America wereconstantly in danger of being lost through neglect, carelessness or willful destruction, beganto implement a plan which he had conceived for establishing at Notre Dame a nationalcenter for Catholic historical materials. The frail but hard-working Edwards set aboutacquiring all kinds of relevant items, including relics and portraits of the bishops and othermissionary clergymen, a reference library of printed materials, and an extensive manuscriptcollection.
To the manuscript collection, in which he hoped to include all the existing diocesan archivesas well as the papers of outstanding Catholic clergymen and laymen, he gave the designation"Catholic Archives of America." Prominent clergymen such as Archbishop William HenryElder of Cincinnati, Archbishop Francis Janssens of New Orleans, and Father IgnatiusHorstmann of Philidelphia, and laymen like Martin I.J. Griffin, editor of the AmericanCatholic Historical Researches, and John Gilmary Shea, the pioneering historian of theCatholic Church in the United States, lent their active and very helpful assistance.Thousands upon thousands of items which have been a boon to historians were acquired.
Unfortunately, Edwards had not the time, nor the money, nor the health necessary to bringhis project to completion. Although the collection has been augmented under successors,Father Paul J. Foik, C.S.C., and Father Thomas T. McAvoy, C.S.C., the present Archivistof the University of Notre Dame, the ambitious scheme for an official American Catholicarchives had to be given up in 1918 when Canon Law was changed so as to require eachbishop to maintain his own archives.
The Records of the Diocese of Louisiana and the Floridas (1576-1803), subject of thismicrofilm publication, are part of a larger group of papers pertaining to the Archdiocese ofNew Orleans down to 1897. The collection was acquired in the 1890's by Edwards throughthe generosity of Archbishop Janssens. Everything for the period in question, exceptphotostatic copies made for use in the Notre Dame Archives and duplicates of a few items,has been filmed. The material relating to the period after 1803 has not been filmed becausethere are restrictions upon its use. It may be consulted, however, at the Archives with thepermission of the Archivist.
Although the first two items in the collections are dated 1576 and 1633, respectively, andthere are a number of items for the period from 1708 to 1783, the great bulk of materialpertains to the years 1786 through 1803. Consulted until now mainly by historians of theCatholic Church, it should prove useful also to secular historians because of the closeconnection between Church and State which existed during both the French and Spanishcolonial regimes in Louisiana and Florida. Photostatic copies of all the items in thecollection, as well as photostatic copies of the calendars for those portions that have alreadybeen calendared, are in possession of the New Orleans Archdiocesan Archives.
According to a tradition, most of the papers of Bishop Penalver, as well as those of hissuccessor, Bishop DuBourg, were destroyed during the Civil War. Bricked up in a chimneyfor safekeeping when New Orleans was threatened by Union troops, it was discovered laterthat someone had neglected to close the chimney at the top and that, consequently, rain hadpoured in and turned the papers into a mass of pulp. Whether copies of at least some of theitems thus lost have survived in the dossiers pertaining to Penalver's administration of thediocese or whether the papers destroyed were personal papers or official papers which dealtwith other matters is not known.
In addition to this collection in the University of Notre Dame Archives, there are numerousother collections both in the United States and in foreign countries which pertain to theecclesiastical as well as to the secular history of colonial Louisiana and Florida. Although fartoo numerous to list here, references to these collections may be found in Philip M.Hamer's Guide to Archives and Manuscripts in the United States (Yale University Press,1961), the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections, Roger Baudier's TheCatholic Church in Louisiana (New Orleans, 1939), Jean Delanglez's The French Jesuitsin Lower Louisiana (1700-1763) (Loyola University of New Orleans, 1935), CharlesEdwards O'Neill's Church and State in French Colonial Louisiana: Policy and Politics to1732 (Yale University Press, 1966), Caroline Mays Brevard's two-volume History ofFlorida from the Treaty of 1763 (Florida State Historical Society, 1934), Michael V.Gannon's The Cross in the Sand: The Early Catholic Church in Florida 1513-1870(University of Florida Press, 1965), and Michael J. Curley's Church and State in theSpanish Floridas (1783-1822) (Catholic University of America Press, 1940). The FloridaState Historical Society has published in several volumes a number of manuscripts anddocuments pertaining to the history of their State. Documents edited by Manuel Serrano ySanz and pertaining to both Florida and Louisiana may be found in Documentos Historicosde la Florida y la Luisiana Siglos XVI al XVIII (Madrid, 1912). For Louisiana itself thereare James Alexander Robertson's two-volume edition, Louisiana under the Rule of Spain,France, and the United States 1785-1807 (Cleveland, 1911), and a recently publishedcollection of items edited by Jack D.L. Holmes, Documentos Ineditos para la Historia dela Luisiana 1792-1810 (Madrid, 1963), which forms volume XV in the ColeccionChimalistac de Libros y Documentos acerca de la Nueva Espana.
Editorial Procedure
The Records of the Diocese of Louisiana and the Floridas had been arrangedchronologically and calendered prior to the inception of the present microfilm project.Where the particular item is a simple letter or document it was calendared as such.However, where, as often occurs, the particular item consists of a large dossier ofdocuments or copies of documents and accounts of various proceedings, it was given aspecific date -- often that of the last document or notation contained therein -- and a singleinclusive calendar was drawn up for the entire dossier. Such dossiers will be found on themicrofilm under the date assigned to them in the calendars although they quite often containmaterial for earlier years. Specific documents within each dossier appear in the same orderthat summaries of them appear in the calendars.
In a number of instances particular documents are so badly mildewed, water-stained orfaded that it has been impossible, without risking the complete destruction of certaindocuments, even to separate various pages for filming. Under these circumstances targetshave been used to explain the difficulty, the calendars for the items in question have thenbeen filmed and, finally, whenever possible, the items themselves have been filmed, takingparticular care to secure as readable an image as circumstances permit. In referring to thecalendars the user is cautioned that they were prepared as an aid to research not as asubstitute for the documents themselves, and that, consequently, the University of NotreDame Archives does not guarantee their accuracy.
Since the particular dates of various items often do not appear on the face of the itemsthemselves and since documents of various dates are often filmed together under one datebecause calendared under that date, targets bearing the date under which they werecalendared have been prepared and filmed before each such item or group. Items dated onlyby month and year appear at the beginning of that month. Items dated only by year appearat the beginning of that year. In addition, an alphabetical list, which appears both in thisGuide and on the first roll of microfilm and which includes the names of the authors of thevarious items to be found in the collection as well as the names of particular persons orplaces under which various dossiers have been calendared, has been prepared as part of thepresent microfilm project. This list, used in conjunction with the calendars which have beenfilmed on the first roll of microfilm and the date targets which appear before each item orgroup of items, should enable the researcher to locate quickly any particular item of interest.
As an aid to indentification and citation, each frame on each roll has been given a specificnumber which will be found on the lower right-hand corner of the frame. No matter howcareful the editors and filmers are, there are bound to be cases where, after a whole roll hasbeen filmed, it becomes necessary to either add or delete a frame. Obviously, this throwsoff the numerical sequence of the frame numbers. To meet this difficulty we haveemployed the following technique: when a frame has had to be added, we have used thenumber of the preceding frame and added an "A" to it; when a frame has had to be deleted,the number assigned to that frame simply does not appear. While these procedures are acompromise with perfection, they are realistic in terms of the problems which unfortunatelyarise in microfilming, especially when the alternative might well involve several refilmings ofan entire roll. Throughout the microfilm targets have been used to identify various items andpoint up special problems that have arisen in microfilming the collection. Targets have notbeen used in cases, such as for torn or stained pages, where particular defects should bereadily apparent.
Explanation of the Calendar
(1) 1758 Nov. 15
(2) Rochemore, Vincent Gaspard Pierre de, Chevalier, Councilor of the King in Council,Commissaire general of the Marine, Ordinateur of La. (3) New Orleans, (Louisiana)
(4) Appoints Monsieur (Louis Alexandre) Dolaunay, church warden of the church of St.Louis in New Orleans to examine and finish the accounts of the old churchwardens and toexamine old matters concerning the property of the same church. (5) IV-4-a (6) A.D.S. 1p. 8vo. (French) (7) 3
1. Date of the Document
This can be either the date appearing in the text of the document or, in the absence of sucha date, a date based upon some other evidence and supplied by those who calendared theparticular document. In the latter case it would appear in parentheses. A document datedsimply by month and year is filed before other documents for that month, and one datedsimply by year is filed before other documents for that year. In the case of a large dossier, adate appearing in this position on the card would indicate the date under which particulardossier will be found. Other dates which might be found further on in the calendar wouldindicate merely the specific dates of the documents within the particular dossier.
2. Author of the Document
Parentheses around this item or portions of it would indicate that the information soappearing had been supplied by the person who calendered the particular document.
3. Point of Origin
Parentheses around this item or portions of it would indicate that the information soappearing had been supplied by the person who calendared the particular document.
4. Summary of the Text
The summary, depending upon the length of the text and the material covered therein,might well run over onto successive cards. In such a case the information appearing at thefoot of this card would appear only at the foot of the last card in the set. Items in thesummary which appear in parentheses have been supplied by the person who calendaredthe document.
5. Location of the Document
This notation indicated where in the Notre Dame Archives this particular document will befound. The Roman numeral indicates the cabinet, the Arabic numeral the shelf, and thesmall letter the box. In this particular case the item would be found in the first box on shelffour of cabinet four.
6. Information about the Document
The notations given here indicate the nature of the particular item, the language in which itis written, the number of pages, and the size of those pages. For example, this item is asigned autograph document, written in French, and consisting of one octavo size page. Ifthe document had been written in English, rather than French or some other foreignlanguage, no language indication would have been given. The abbreviation A.D. wouldindicate an autograph document which had not been signed. D.S. would indicate simply asigned document. A.L.S. would indicate an autograph letter signed, A.L. would indicate anautograph letter, and L.S. would indicate a signed letter.
7. Number of Cross References
This number indicates the number of duplicate copies which have been made of thecalendar.
Although the Diocese of Louisiana and the Floridas, later to be known as the Diocese ofNew Orleans, was formally erected only on April 25, 1793, by Pope Pius VI, the areaembraced within its confines had had a long ecclesiastical history prior to that time.Following the discovery of Florida by Ponce de Leon in 1513, Spain made several attemptsto explore and tame the wild lands of southeastern North America. Acting by virtue of thePatronato Real de Indias or Royal Patronage of the Indies -- a recognition accorded to theSpanish sovereigns by the Roman Pontiffs of extensive control over and responsibility forthe ecclesiastical administration of the Indies -- King Charles I, pending approval from theHoly See, provided for the erection of a Diocese of Florida which was to embrace thewhole territory along the Gulf coast from the Cape of Florida to the Rio Grande.
The proposed See, however, never actually materialized, and the Fransiscan, Juan Suarez,who had been chosen to be its bishop, perished while accompanying the ill-fated deNarvaez expedition to the area. Following the failure of De Soto's expedition (1539-1543),Spain made no further effort to conquer and colonize the lands bordering the Mississippi.Instead, she confined her efforts to Florida and the southwest.
The French, solidly established in Canada by the mid-seventeenth century, soon began toencroach upon the territory to the south which had been claimed initially by Spain. After LaSalle and his party reached the mouth of the Mississippi in 1682, Louisiana becamedefinitely French territory. Here, as in the Spanish domains, Church and State were boundclosely together with the French monarch exercising considerable control over and bearingconsiderable responsibility for ecclesiastical affairs. After an initial attempt to establish anindependent Viciariate Apostolic for the area failed because of the opposition of Bishop St.Vallier of Quebec, Louisiana in 1688 was recognized formally as belonging within theDiocese of Quebec.
In 1699 the priests of the Seminary of Quebec, an outgrowth of the Seminary of ForeignMissions at Paris, began their priestly labors in the area. They were soon joined by theJesuits. In 1712 Louisiana became a proprietary colony under the wealthy Antoine Crozatwho had obtained a fifteen-year lease from the French crown. Finding the venture to beunprofitable, Crozat relinquished his lease in 1717. The colony then reverted to the Frenchcrown which turned it over to John Law's Company of the West. The obligation ofproviding for the religious needs of the territory, which included the nomination andmaintenance of priests as well as the building of churches, devolved upon Law's Company.
Actual ecclesiastical supervision over the territory continued to be exercised by remotecontrol through a local vicar general. Although a Frech Capuchin, Louis-Francois Duplessisde Mornay, was chosen coadjutor to Bishop St. Vallier of Quebec in 1713 and, as such,entrusted with the care of Louisiana, he never visted the colony. In 1717 Spain showed arenewed interest in the westen part of the territory and a mission, staffed by SpanishFranciscans, was established at Los Adayes, twenty-one miles from Natchitoches. In 1720French Carmelites were introduced into the territory but they were soon replaced by FrenchCapuchins from the Province of Champagne under an agreement between the Company ofthe West, the Capuchins, and Bishop de Mornay. The Capuchins were to serve the Frenchposts in the territory while the Jesuits were to continue serving the Indian missions.
Unfortunately, years of friction ensued between the two missionary groups until theeventual suppression of the Jesuits in the colony in 1763 following their suppression inFrance. In 1727 a band of French Ursuline Nuns arrived in New Orleans where theyestablished a convent and a school for girls and began the task of attending to the RoyalHospital. In 1731 the colony again changed hands as the Company of the West relinquishedits lease and returned it to the direst supervision of the French crown. There it remaineduntil it was ceded to Spain by the secret treaty of Fontainebleau in 1762. The actualtransfer, however, was not completed until 1769 when Spanish forces Captain-GeneralAlexander O'Reily succeeded in putting down a rebellion of a segment of the Frenchpopulation.
Meanwhile, Florida, which from the time of its discovery had remained Spanish territory,was passing into the hands of England, having been ceded to her by the Treaty of Paris in1763. There, St. Augustine had been founded in 1565 and missionary activity had beenundertaken first by secular clergy, then by Jesuits, and finally by Franciscans. Although theFranciscans had succeeded in establishing a number of flourishing missions among theIndians, these were dealt a blow from which they never recovered by the destructiveEnglish raids of 1702-1704 led by onetime Governor James Moore of Carolina. In 1709Dionisio Resino was named auxiliary to the Bishop of Santiago de Cuba, the diocese towhich Florida belonged, and entrusted with the care of Florida. After three weeks' residencein the territory he was so disheartened by the conditions prevailing there that he returned toCuba.
In 1735 Francisco de San Buenaventura y Tejada, appointed auxiliary to the Bishop ofSantiago de Cuba in 1731, finally arrived in Florida. When he was translated to the See ofYucatan in 1745, Pedro Ponce y Carrasco was named his successor but did not sail toFlorida until nine years later. Once there, he remained only nine months. In 1762-1763, onthe eve of its cession to England, the territory received an impromptu episcopal visitation byBishop Pedro Augustin Morrell of Santiago de Cuba as he was returning from Englishcaptivity by Charleston, South Carolina.
While acquiring Florida from Spain, England in 1763 also acquired from France a thin stripof territory extending westward along the Gulf to the Mississippi. By a royal proclamationof the same year two royal colonies were formed of the territory thus acquired: EastFlorida, which extended west to the Charrahoochee River and had St. Augustine as itscapital, and West Florida, which extended west from the Chattahoochee River to theMississippi and had Pensacola as its capital. Although the British sovereign pledged to allowCatholics freedom of worship insofar as the laws of Great Britain permitted, a wholesaleexodus of the Spanish population took place, and as a result Catholicism all but disappearedfrom the area. A small revival came five years later when Andrew Turnbull, a Scottishphysician turned colonizer, established a plantation composed largely of Catholic Minorcansat New Smyrna on the Atlantic coast, seventy-four miles south of St. Augustine.
Before long the territory was once again in Spanish hands. In 1779 Spain officially threw inher lot with the American revolutionaries and attacked British West Florida. Mobile fell toher in 1780 and Pensacola in 1781. The remainder of the Floridas was returned to her bytreaty in 1783. Once again under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Bishop of Santiago deCuba, the Church in the territory was confronted with a twofold task: the reduction ofSpaniards, Minorcans and French to ecclesiastical unity under the Spanish Patronato Realand the conversion of Anglo-American settlers. While Bishop Santiago Joseph deHechavarria y Elguezua of Santiago de Cuba was primarily responsible for ecclesiasticalaffairs in these remote areas of his diocese, the actual supervision was entrusted to twovicarios, Father Thomas Hassett, an Irish priest from Spain, who was sent to reside at St.Augustine and care for East Florida, and Father Cirilo Sieni de Barcelona who resided inNew Orleans and was charged with the care of the joint province of Louisiana - WestFlorida.
By this time, the Spanish authorities had come to recognize the need for a resident bishopon the mainland. A proposal was drawn up for the appointment of an auxiliary to theBishop of Santiago de Cuba to reside in New Orleans. The plan was approved by Romeand in 1781 King Charles III of Spain asked Bishop Hechavarria to propose Father Cirilofor the post. Although Cirilo was officially notified of this appointment on July 18, 1782,bulls were not issued by Pope Pius VI until June 6, 1784, and Cirilo's consecration did nottake place until March 6, 1785.
Meanwhile, it had become evident that the administrative work of the vast Diocese ofSantiago de Cuba was too great a burden for its bishop. Eventually, by a consistorial decreeof September 10,1787, that diocese was split in two and the new Diocese of St.Christopher, with its episcopal seat at Havana, was erected. The mainland territories ofLouisiana and the Floridas were placed under its jurisdiction. Bishop Felipe JosephTrespalacios of Puerto Rico was transferred to the new diocese and Bishop Cirilo becamehis auxiliary. Subsequent events, marred by friction between the two bishops, soondemonstrated the unfeasibleness of such a division of authority. By 1791 King Charles IVhad decided upon a further division of the Diocese of St. Christopher. Rome was consultedand on April 25, 1793, Pope Pius VI issued a bull establishing the Diocese of Louisiana andthe Floridas. Auxiliary Bishop Cirilo was recalled and Luis Ignacio Maria de Penalver yCardenas, a forty-four-year-old native of Havana, was named bishop.
Consecrated at Havana on April 25, 1795, Bishop Penalver arrived in New Orleans on July17 and took formal possession of his See on July 24. He was confronted immediately with amultitude of distressing problems. A general spirit of indifference and even scorn forreligion, fostered in part by the spread of Voltairianism and revolutionary ideologies fromFrance, combined with the perennial shortage of priests, the distinct aversion of the Frenchpopulation for everything Spanish, and the deeply rooted moral abuses that had developedunder pioneer colonial conditions to burden the bishop during his six-year administration ofthe diocese. Eventually, even his great zeal could no longer sustain him in the face of suchappalling conditions and he petitioned the king for a change to some other diocese. Hisrequest was granted. On July 29, 1801, Rome formally announced his appointment to theArchdiocese of Guatemala. Envisioning only a brief interval before the arrival of asuccessor, he appointed Father Thomas Hassett administrator and Father Patrick Walshassistant administrator before leaving Louisiana in November of that same year.
Events were to prove Penalver's prognostication wrong and to undermine the arrangementshe had made for the interim administration of the vacant See. Louisiana was to be without abishop for the next fourteen years. Although Francisco Porro y Peinado, a Spanish Minim,was selected for the post early in 1801, rumors of the impending transfer of Louisiana fromSpain to France caused him to delay his departure. Eventually in 1803, before he had everformally taken possession of the diocese, he was transferred to the Diocese of Tarazona inSpain. The unexpected duration of the period of administration and the complicationscreated by the retrocession of the Louisiana Territory to France and its subesequent sale tothe United States in 1803, which brought to an abrupt end the close relationship that hadexisted between Church and State, combined to create for Father Hassett unexpecteddifficulties, not the least of which was an end to the financial subsidies which the state hadgranted to the Church under both the Spanish and French regimes.
The situation worsened upon the death of Hassett in 1804. Although Father Walsh thenclaimed authority by virtue of his appointment as assistant administrator, his claim wasdisputed by Father Anthonio de Sedella, the Capuchin rector of the Cathedral, whounfortunately had a substantial popular following. Likewise, in 1806 Bishop Juan Jose Diasde Espada of Havana disputed Walsh's authority in Florida which had remained Spanishterritory. Although Rome in 1806 had authorized Bishop John Carroll of Baltimore toassume temporary supervision of the vacant See, the extent of his jursidiction was notspecifically spelled out, and as a result it was not clear whether Florida was included in theterritory entrusted to him. The Bishop of Havana continued to exercise jurisdiction overFlorida, and in Louisiana the authority of the administrators appointed by Carroll continuedto be challenged by Father Sedella and his followers. Finally, in 1815Louis-Guillaume-Valentin DuBourg, who had been acting as administrator, was namedbishop. Although even his authority was contested at times by Sedella and although thequestion of Florida remained unsettled until the transfer of the territory to the United Statesin 1821, the diocese once again had a bishop.
Brief general accounts of the Catholic Church in colonial Louisiana and Florida may befound in the first two volumes of John Gilmary Shea's pioneering four-volume History ofthe Catholic Church in the United States (New York, 1886). Although now outdated,Shea's work still contains a wealth of information.
More specifically relating to the Church in Louisiana are Roger Baudier's The CatholicChurch in Louisiana (New Orleans, 1939), Jean Delanglez's The French Jesuits in LowerLouisiana (1700-1763) (Loyola University of New Orleans, 1935) and Charles EdwardsO'Neill's Church and State in French Colonial Louisiana: Policy and Politics to 1732(Yale University Press, 1966), all of which contain extensive bibliographies citing bothpublished and archival sources. A special supplement to Catholic Action of the South, XI(July 29, 1943), no. 35, edited by Roger Baudier and published in celebration of thesesquicentennial of the Diocese of New Orleans, has been very helpful and informative.
The history of Catholicism in Florida has been traced recently in Michael V. Gannon's TheCross in the Sand: The Early Catholic Church in Florida 1513-1870 (University ofFlorida Press, 1965). An earlier but still very useful account of a more limited period of thathistory os Michael J. Curley's Church and State in the Spanish Floridas (1783-1822)(Catholic University of America Press, 1940). Both Gannon and Curley also supplyextensive bibliographies.
Finally, among the many useful secular histories are Alcee Fortier's four-volume History ofLouisiana (Paris, 1904), Henry E. Chamber's three-volume History of Louisiana(American Historical Society, 1925), and Caroline Mays Brevard's two-volume History ofFlorida from the Treaty of 1763 (The Florida State Historical Society, 1924).
This list contains the names of the authors of the various items to be found in the collection,as well as the names of particular persons and places under which various dossiers in thecollection have been calendared. Dates have been given in the same chronological sequencein which the items themselves have been microfilmed. Where the item is dated only bymonth and year, it will be found at the beginning of that month. Where it is dated only byyear, it will be found at the beginning of that year. In a few instances, namely in the case ofenclosures and certain items which were filed and consequently have been calendared andfilmed with other items, two dates have been given: first, the date of the item itself, andsecond, in parentheses, the date of the item with which it has been filmed. For example,Saturnino Domine's letter of March 12, 1796 is listed thus: 1796 March (encl'd in 1796March 22, Archbishop Despuig y Dameto to Bishop Penalver y Cardenas). On themicrofilm the letter will be found by referring to the date of the item in parentheses. Wherethe particular item is a simple letter or document, not part of a larger dossier, the date givenis that of the letter or document itself. However, where the item -- in many cases merely acopy of the original -- is to be found in a larger dossier, the date given is that under whichthe dossier has been calendared and, consequently, filmed. In most cases this is actually thedate of the last item in the particular dossier. In order to avoid any confusion that this mightcause, targets bearing the date of the calendar have been filmed before each item or groupof items which is the subject of a specific calendar. To locate the various items withinparticular dossiers more specifically, reference should be made to the calendars which havebeen filmed on the first roll of microfilm in the same chronological order in which thedocuments themselves have been filmed. By using this list in conjunction with the calendarsand the date targets, the researcher should be able to locate quickly any particular items ofinterest.
The major portion of this roll in composed of the University of Notre Dame Archives'calendars for the Records of the Diocese of Louisiana and the Floridas, 1576-1803. Thesecalendars typed on 3" by 5" index cards, have been placed in chronological order and filmedeight cards to a frame. Those who refer to them are particularly cautioned that they havebeen filmed as an aid to the use of the microfilm and not as a substitute for the documentsthemselves. Consequently, the University of Notre Dame Archives guarantees neither theaccuracy nor their completeness.
On this roll are to be found the earliest documents in the Collection. Although the initial itemin dated May 27, 1576, for the period up to 1786 there are only forty items. The great bulk-- one hundred and thirty-four items -- pertains to the years 1786-1790. In general thematerial on this and succeeding rolls relates to ecclesiastical affairs and includes itemspertaining to marriages, funerals, dispensations, grants of indulgences, the assignment andtransfer of priests, and ecclesiastical finances. Throughout the film there are variousdocuments relating to matters of concern to both Church and State which are indicative ofthe close relationship which existed between the two.
Items of special interest include: a printed brochure contained two letters, dated respectively1632 and 1633, from Father Estevan de Perea, Guardian of the Province of New Mexico,to Father Fransisco de Apodaca, Commissary General of all New Spain, relative tomissionary activities; a partial list under date of Dec. 13, 1737, of those killed by theNatchez Indians at Natchez and the Yazoos; two items, dated Feb. 28, 1757, and Nov. 30,1758, respectively, relative to the finances of the Charity Hospital at New Orleans; severalitems, dated respectively May 6, 1786, July 6 1786, Aug. 11, 1787, and Mar. 28, 1788,relative to quests for sanctuary by fugitives from justice; a general summary, dated 1788, ofthe registry of persons in Louisiana, at Mobile, and at Pensacola; a letter of Mar. 28, 1788,from Father Valiniere to Father Sedella relative to religious requirements for the settlementof Americans in Spanish territory; a Nov. 6, 1789, copy of a royal decree for theestablishment of a Maritime Fishing Company in Louisiana; and an Aug. 17, 1790, dossiercontaining various royal and papal decrees relative to a tax on ecclesiastical income. Inseveral instances, on this and succeeding rolls, where particular documents are so badlystained, faded or deteriorated that it has been impossible to obtain a completely legibleimage, the applicable calendar has been also filmed before such documents.
Many of the items on this roll are actually large dossiers containing various documentsrelating to specific subjects. For example, the only item for 1791 is a dossier under date ofJune 30 of documents concerning the building of brick houses to be rented for the benefit ofthe Church of St. Louis in New Orleans. Other items of interest include: an April 10, 1793,dossier containing royal instructions in regard to marriages among Protestants and betweenProtestants and Catholics; a Dec. 21 1793, dossier of instructions for Father Joaquin dePortillo, Vicar Forane of Louisiana, and for Father Theodoro Thirso Henrique Henriquez,Advocate of the Royal Court of Mexico and Santo Domingo, Vicar General Auxiliary to theBishop of Havana, Vicar Forane of Louisiana, and Ecclesiastical Judge for the Province ofLouisiana; and a Jan. 24, 1795, copy of Governor Carondelet's report to Spain giving andaccount, which includes census figures, of the various parishes in Louisiana.
A large number of items on this roll reflect the presence of Luis Penalver y Cardenas, firstBishop of Louisiana and the Floridas, who arrived at New Orleans in July 1795. Items ofspecial interest include: an Aug. 24, 1795, dossier pertaining to the accounts for the periodfrom 1785 to 1791 of Antonio Ramis, majordomo of the fabrique of the Church of St.Louis in New Orleans; a Sept. 19, 1795, dossier relative to Bishop Penalver's visitation ofthe Hospital of Charity of San Carlos at New Orleans; a 95-page dossier, dated Oct. 8,1795, of proceedings, indicative of the red tape that might be entailed under the Spanishsystem of administration, carried on by Pedro Marin Argote in order to obtain possession ofseveral slaves allegedly erroneously listed in the inventory of Father Antonio de Sedella'sgoods; an Oct. 9, 1795, dossier relative to an audit of the accounts of the Church of St.Louis for the period from January 1791 to July 1795; a Dec. 22, 1795, dossier giving anaccount of Bishop Penalver's episcopal vistitation of New Orleans; a copy of the regulationsissued by King Charles IV on Jan. 1, 1796, in regard to pensions for widows and unmarriedwomen; a 172 page dossier under date of Jan 15, 1796, of documents relative to an officialinvestigation, conducted in 1790, of the accounts of the Church of St. Louis; and a Feb. 5,1796, dossier relative to a quest for sanctuary in the parish church at St. Augustine, Floridaby Santiago Duarte, a Spanish grenadier who had been convicted of high treason forconspiring to deliver the fortress of San Marcos to some French prisoners incarceratedtherein. In addition to the foregoing, a number of informative census reports for variousparishes in the diocese are scattered throughout the roll.
Once again, there are to be found scattered throughout this roll a good number ofinformative parish census reports including an Oct. 1, 1796, report of parishes under thecare of Father Pierre Josef Didier in Illinois and Missouri. Other items of special interestinclude: a 175-page Mar. 30, 1796, dossier pertaining to an audit of the accounts of theParish of St. Gabriel at Iberville for the period from Oct. 21, 1785, to July 21, 1796: adossier of Sept. 28, 1796, pertaining to a quest for sanctuary in the church at Mobile; and aNov. 21, 1796, account of Bishop Penalver's visitation of Rapides, the village of theApalachee Indians, and Avoyelles. Finally, there is a dossier under the date of Oct. 6, 1796,which contains a list of sixty-three instructions for pastors in the diocese and a report onconditions in the Cathedral Parish of New Orleans which embraced a large area surroundingthe city as well as the city itself. Unfortunately, many of the pages of the last item are badlyfaded and very difficult to read and, as a result, in many instances it will be impossible toobtain clear, legible images on the film.
Among the items of special interest on this roll are: several parish census reports; Easterduty reports of Aug. 18 and Aug. 19 listing the names of members of the Second Battalionof the Infantry of Mexico; an Easter duty report of Sept. 16 for the First and SecondBattalions of the Infantry of Louisiana; a dossier of Oct. 4, 1797, containing a 108- pageaccount, with supporting documents, of the administration of Antonio Ramis, majordomo ofthe fabrique of the New Orleans Cathedral, for the period from 1785 to 1797; an Oct. 21dossier of documents relative to the accounts for the period from 1787 to 1797 of JuanGradenigo, majordomo of the fabrique of the church at Opelousas; and a 202-page dossierunder date of Oct. 27 relative to proceedings against Father Paul de Saint Pierre, pastor ofSaint Genieve, Missouri.
Items of special interest on this roll include: various parish census reports; a record underdate of Dec. 17, 1797, of marriages and burials at Cabahanoce for 1796; a 120-page dossierof April 18, 1798, in regard to a quest for sactuary in the church at Mobile; a July 2, 1798,dossier relative to the appointment of a pastor for St. Charles in the Illinois country; a July22, 1798, dossier of documents, which are unfortunatountry badly water-stained,concerning the establishment of parishes at Avoyelles, Rapides, and Ovachita; an Aug. 7,1798, dossier relative to the removal of Father Francis Lennan to Bayou Sara consequent tothe surrender of Natchez, where he had been serving, to the United States; and an Aug. 22,1798, dossier of 112 pages relative to the accounts of the fabrique of the New OrleansCathedral for 1797.
Items of special interest on this roll include: an extensive dossier of Oct. 1, 1798, containingvarious original documents, manuscript copies, and photostats from the Library ofCongress, all of which pertain to an investigation of the conduct of Father Juan Delvauxwho had been charged with inciting seditious principles: a dossier of Dec. 31, 1798,containing several parish census reports; a Jan. 17, 1799, report on the finances of theParish of St. Landry at Opelousas for the years 1791 to 1798; an April 22, 1799, report onthe finances of the New Orleans Cathedral; and a dossier of Nov. 19, 1799, containing anadditional group for parish census reports as well as a statement by Bishop Penalver inregard to the finances of the New Orleans Charity Hospital.
Among the items of special interest on this roll are: various parish census reports, includinga dossier of Dec. 1800 which contains reports for Upper Louisiana; a dossier of Mar. 25,1800, which consists of various royal dispatches, including one in regard to a tax levy tomeet the expenses of the war in Europe and one relative to the conduct of ecclesiasticalaffairs pending the election of a successor to Pope Pius VI; a May 23, 1800, dossier ofcorrespondence with Father Miguel de Andino of Puerto Rico in which Bishop Penalverreveals his feelings about conditions in the Diocese of Louisiana and the Floridas; anddossiers of July 14, 1800, and Feb. 25, 1801, relative to the finances of the Cathedral.
Among the items of special interest on this roll are: a number of parish census reports; adossier of Aug. 31, 1801, which contains an inventory drawn up upon the appointment of anew archivist, of documents in the archives dating back to 1771 and relating to marriagesand lawsuits; documents under date of Sept. 16, 1801, in regard to a royal levy of certainexcise taxes; correspondence of Sept. 30, 1801, and Nov. 11, 1801, between BishopPenalver and Manuel de Salcedo, the Vice Royal Patron, in regard to the financial affairs ofthe New Orleans Charity Hospital; a dossier of Oct. 17, 1801, containing Bishop Penalver'scontroversial decree nominating Father Thomas Hassett to serve as administrator of thediocese and a related dossier of documents under date of Feb. 10, 1802, upon whichoccasion Penalver acknowledged receipt of his bulls as Archbishop of Guatemala andrelinquished control of the diocese to Hassett; and a Mar. 11, 1802, dossier of testimony inregard to a quest for sanctuary in the church at New Orleans by Matias Santa Iniesta of theRoyal Artillery who had been accused of killing another soldier, Antonio Suarez.
The material on this roll reflects Father Thomas Hassett's administration of the diocesepending the appointment of a new bishop. Items of special interest include: a May 31dossier in regard to the financial accounts of the Cathedral; an Aug 18 account of thefinances of the Charity Hospital; and three dossiers of Nov. 5 in regard to quests forsanctuary. Rumors of an impending retrocession of Louisiana to France are reflected in adossier of Nov. 18 concerning repairs to the roof of the Cathedral and in a dossier of Nov.26 in regard to the financial accounts of the Cathedral.
The material on this roll reflects Father Hassett's continuing administration of the diocese aswell as the problems created by the retrocession of the province to France in 1803. Items ofspecial interest include: several parish census reports; a number of dossiers which containinventories of the goods of the various parishes in the diocese along with a declaration bythe respective pastors as to whether or not they wished to remain in the province after itstransfer to France; several dossiers in regard to the disposal of slaves by the Ursulines inview of the impending transfer; documents under date of April 2 and April 4, 1803,pertaining to the surrender of church vestments and vessels to French authorities by relgiouscommunities; a May 4, 1803, dossier of accounts for the Cathedral for the last two monthsof 1802; May 26 and May 27, 1803, dossier in regard to a quest for sanctuary in the churchat New Orleans; a Nov. 29, 1803, set of instructions for the ceremonies scheduled for thenext day for the transfer of the province from Spain to France sent to Father Hassett byManuel de Salcedo, the Spanish Governor, and Sebastian Calvo de la Puerta y O-Farrill,Marquis de Casa Calvo, the official designated by the King of Spain to make the actualtransfer; and another dossier of Nov. 29, 1803, the contents of which include declarationsof intent to remain in or to leave the province by the clergy of New Orleans as well as aprinted copy of the actual transfer proclamation setting forth the limits of the territory andprovisions for individuals, for pensions, for ecclesiastics, and for religious houses.