Bronwen McSHEA. Apostles of Empire: The Jesuits and New France. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2019. xxix + 331 pp., ISBN: 978-1-4962-0890-3, $60.00, hardcover. Reviewed by Patrick J. HAYES, Redemptorist Archives, Philadelphia.

This title in the University of Nebraska Press’s “France Overseas” series flips the standard history of Jesuit labors in New France between 1611 and 1764 from one of glorious martyrdom and adventure, to a full-steam effort at funding their missions to extend the refined customs of French elites to North America’s “savages.” The hegemonic nature of their activities is made plain, in part through McShea’s meticulous retrieval of their own words in the Jesuit Relations de la Nouvelle France, an annual printed from 1632 to 1673. The imprint of French culture on New France was necessarily assisted by various actors—trappers, tradesmen, seafarers, and so on. But Jesuit missionaries were also important builders of empire, and McShea’s text—a revision of her 2011 Yale dissertation—is a persuasive argument for their religious, political, and social machinations.

The author begins with the relation of Paul Le Jeune, SJ, writing from Eastern Canada, where he had just arrived in 1632 as a new missionary intent on winning souls for Christ. He became an active writer and redactor of the Relations, but also an advocate for New France on the policy and financial front. By 1635, he could write to Cardinal Richelieu in Paris asking him to increase colonization and funding in New France in order to produce generations that would be “loyal to His Majesty and to Your Eminence” (Relations, VII, 243). Le Juene and his Jesuit confreres also learned to rely on Sébastian Cramoisy, the publisher of the Relations, who gave material aid to the missions in New France in addition to his support as their chief propagandist. Together the first hundred pages of the book is dedicated to their foundational work—both in Paris and in Northeast Canada.

What is striking about the enormity of the effort in Christianizing this part of the world is that it was done through a vast network of Jesuit-affiliated people and institutions. McShea plumbs the depths of familial relations or Jesuit allies to reveal how the levers of power were moved, by whom, and when. Charitable activities do not burst forth without a certain amount of orchestration and in McShea’s telling, the admixture of civil strife and the winds of political change often provided opportunities for such endeavors. But it was on account of the financing of relatives or well-placed social elites that kept New France present to Frenchmen, who then also enjoyed the benefits of knowing that commerce and culture were being ensconced among the natives even in remote outposts.

Jesuits were not always beholding to the vicissitudes of French officials to help Christianity’s increase any more than they relied on French expatriates in the new world. Often their main appeal was to the Iroquois’ own leaders. The Jesuits learned early on that if they wished to multiply their flock, the chiefs or warriors of a tribe could rally others to the Gospel. McShea calls this band of converts an “indigenous colonial aristocracy” who were favored by the Jesuits as model Christians and the principal vehicle for observant and loyal behavior that could be emulated by all. Marriage seemed to be the only sticking point, and McShea notes how local custom among the natives was often impenetrable. That their missionary zeal was often rewarded can be gleaned by their participation in fierce offensive battles against the British. Additionally, the martyrdom of several Jesuits also proved that their zeal on behalf of Christ and King were not without peril. They soon became the object of hagiography and the utility of their deaths were often as potent as their ministrations in life.

This is a major contribution to French Atlantic studies. It supplies a bold new understanding of the role of religion in empire building, dispels any myth about Jesuit innocence in that project, and adds to the history of Christian inculturation efforts among the indigenous people of Eastern Canada.