Institut canadien de Montréal
Encyclopedia
The Institut canadien de Montréal was founded on 17 December 1844, by a group of 200 young liberal
professional
s in Montreal
, Quebec
, Canada
. The Institute was a public library and debating room for the literary and scientific society, which would later come into conflict with the Roman Catholic Church
.
The Institute was the source of the ideas defended by the Parti rouge
. Once of its motto 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
and Alphonse de Lamartine
, and Enlightenment authors, such as Voltaire
and Diderot, whose writings were judged immoral by the Catholic Church. At the time, there were no French-language university nor public library in Montreal.
In 1858, 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 it judged immoral. In 1859, Mgr Ignace Bourget
condemned the institute and excommunicating its members. On July 7, 1869, Rome added the institute's Annuaire for the year 1868 to the Catholic Church's Index of prohibited books
.
In 1869, Bourget refused to let Henrietta Brown, widow of typographer Joseph Guibord, bury her husband's remains in the Côte-des-Neiges Catholic cemetery 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 Privy Council
on November 28, 1872. (See: Guibord case
.)
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 Catholic Church. Between 1845 and 1871, some 136 lectures were held inside the institute's walls.
In 2006, the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec
(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 1855. Among the precious books of the collection were two editions of the Œuvres complètes de Voltaire (1785–1789), 36 volumes of L'Encyclopédie by Diderot
and d'Alembert
(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.
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
professional
Professional
A professional is a person who is paid to undertake a specialised set of tasks and to complete them for a fee. The traditional professions were doctors, lawyers, clergymen, and commissioned military officers. Today, the term is applied to estate agents, surveyors , environmental scientists,...
s in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. The Institute was a public library and debating room for the literary and scientific society, which would later come into conflict with the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
.
The Institute was the source of the ideas defended by the Parti rouge
Parti rouge
The Parti rouge was formed in the Province of Quebec, around 1848 by radical French-Canadians inspired by the ideas of Louis-Joseph Papineau, the Institut canadien de Montréal, and the reformist movement led by the Parti patriote of the 1830s.The party was a successor to the Parti patriote...
. Once of its motto 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 Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
and Alphonse de Lamartine
Alphonse de Lamartine
Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine was a French writer, poet and politician who was instrumental in the foundation of the Second Republic.-Career:...
, and Enlightenment authors, such as Voltaire
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire , was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, free trade and separation of church and state...
and Diderot, whose writings were judged immoral by the Catholic Church. At the time, there were no French-language university nor public library in Montreal.
In 1858, 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 it judged immoral. In 1859, Mgr Ignace Bourget
Ignace Bourget
Ignace Bourget was a French-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 courses of religious study, and in 1837 was named co-adjutor bishop of the newly...
condemned the institute and excommunicating its members. On July 7, 1869, Rome added the institute's Annuaire for the year 1868 to the Catholic Church's Index of prohibited books
Index Librorum Prohibitorum
The Index Librorum Prohibitorum was a list of publications prohibited by the Catholic Church. A first version was promulgated by Pope Paul IV in 1559, and a revised and somewhat relaxed form was authorized at the Council of Trent...
.
In 1869, Bourget refused to let Henrietta Brown, widow of typographer Joseph Guibord, bury her husband's remains in the Côte-des-Neiges Catholic cemetery 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 Privy Council
Privy council
A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a nation, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the monarch's closest advisors to give confidential advice on...
on November 28, 1872. (See: Guibord case
Guibord case
Brown v. Les Curé et Marguilliers de l'oeuvre et de la Fabrique de la Paroisse de Montréal, better known as the Guibord case, was a famous decision in 1874 by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in an early Canadian legal dispute over the relationship between church and state...
.)
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
Institut canadien de Québec
The ' was founded by Marc-Aurèle Plamondon on January 17, 1848, 4 years after the founding of the Institut canadien de Montréal. Originally a library open to its members, it became public in 1897. The institute currently manages the public library network of Quebec City.-See also:*Institut canadien...
, founded four years after that of Montreal, survived the Church's censorship by getting rid of certain works prohibited by the Catholic Church. Between 1845 and 1871, some 136 lectures were held inside the institute's walls.
In 2006, the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec
Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec
Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec is the Crown corporation acting as the provincial library and archives of Quebec...
(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 1855. Among the precious books of the collection were two editions of the Œuvres complètes de Voltaire (1785–1789), 36 volumes of L'Encyclopédie by Diderot
Denis Diderot
Denis Diderot was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer. He was a prominent person during the Enlightenment and is best known for serving as co-founder and chief editor of and contributor to the Encyclopédie....
and d'Alembert
Jean le Rond d'Alembert
Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert was a French mathematician, mechanician, physicist, philosopher, and music theorist. He was also co-editor with Denis Diderot of the Encyclopédie...
(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
Napoléon Joseph Charles Paul Bonaparte
Napoléon Joseph Charles Paul Bonaparte, Prince Français, Count of Meudon, Count of Moncalieri ad personam, titular 3rd Prince of Montfort was the second son of Jérôme Bonaparte, king of Westphalia, by his wife Catherine, princess of Württemberg...
to the Institut canadien.
Members
- Marc-Aurèle PlamondonMarc-Aurèle PlamondonMarc-Aurèle Plamondon was a Canadian lawyer, journalist, publisher, and judge.He was one of the founders of the Institut canadien de Montréal and the Institut canadien de Québec. From 1855 to 1859, he was co-owner and co-editor of the newspaper, Le National of Quebec...
- Francis CassidyFrancis CassidyFrancis Cassidy QC was a Canadian lawyer and politician, the Mayor of Montreal, Quebec for three months in 1873, until his term was cut short by death....
- Jean-Baptiste-Éric DorionJean-Baptiste-Éric DorionJean-Baptiste-Éric Dorion was a journalist and political figure in Canada East.He was born in Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade, Lower Canada in 1826, the son of Pierre-Antoine Dorion. In 1842, he found work as a clerk in a store at Trois-Rivières. He was editor and publisher of a small newspaper there,...
- François-Xavier GarneauFrançois-Xavier GarneauFrançois-Xavier Garneau was a nineteenth century French Canadian notary, poet, civil servant and liberal who wrote a three-volume history of the French Canadian nation entitled Histoire du Canada between 1845 and 1848.Born in Quebec City, Garneau argued that Conquest was a tragedy, the consequence...
- Antoine-Gérin-Lajoie
- Joseph Doutre
- Louis-Antoine DessaullesLouis-Antoine DessaullesLouis-Antoine Dessaulles was a Quebec seigneur, journalist and political figure.He was born in Saint-Hyacinthe, Lower Canada in 1818, the son of Jean Dessaulles, and studied at the Collège de Saint-Hyacinthe and the Petit Séminaire de Montréal...
- Arthur Buies
- Napoléon Aubin
- Victor HugoVictor HugoVictor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
(external member)
In English
- "Institut canadien", in The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Foundation, 2008
- Robertson, Nancy Susan. The Institut canadien. An Essay in Cultural History, (Master Thesis in History), University of Western Ontario, 1965, 187 p.
In French
- Lajeunesse, Marcel (2004). Lecture publique et culture au Québec, Quebec: Presses de l'Université du Québec, pp. 160–163 (ISBN 2760512983) (preview)
- Lamonde, Yvan (2000). Histoire sociale des idées au Québec, 1760-1896, Montréal: Éditions Fides, 576 p. (ISBN 2-7621-2104-3) (online)
- St-Louis, Martin. "Le prix Condorcet 1997 à l'Institut canadien", in Laïcité, Bulletin du Mouvement laïque québécois, Winter 1998
- Champagne, André (1996). Le Québec des XVIIIe et XIXe siècles, Sillery: Septentrion, pp. 113–129 (ISBN 2894480458) (aperçu)
- Lamonde, Yvan (1994). Louis-Antoine Dessaulles, 1818-1895 : un seigneur libéral et anticlérical, Saint-Laurent: Fides, 369 p. (ISBN 2-7621-1736-4)
- Lemire, Maurice (1991). La vie littéraire au Québec, Quebec: Presses Université Laval, 671 p. (ISBN 2763774059) (preview)
- Lamonde, Yvan (1990). Gens de parole : conférences publiques, essais et débats à l'Institut canadien de Montréal, 1845-1871, Montréal: Boréal, 176 p. (ISBN 2890523691)
- de Lagrave, Jean-Paul (1976). Le combat des idées au Québec-Uni, 1840-1867, Montréal: Editions de Lagrave, 150 p.
- Dumont, Fernand, Montminy, Jean-Paul, and Hamelin, Jean ed. (1971). Idéologies au Canada français, 1850-1900, Québec: Presses de l'Université Laval, 327 p.
- Father Hudon, Théophile. L'Institut Canadien de Montréal et l'affaire Guibord : une page d'histoire, Montréal: Beauchemin, 1938, 172 p. (online)
- Boisseau, A. (1870). Catalogue des livres de la bibliothèque de l'Institut-canadien, Montréal: Alphonse Doutre, 47 p. (online)
- Lafontaine, J. L. (1855). Institut-canadien en 1855, Montréal : Sénécal & Daniel, 225 p. (online)
- Institut canadien de Montréal (1852). Catalogue de la bibliothèque de l'Institut-canadien, février 1852, Montréal: W.-H. Rowen, 39 p. (online)