Explanation of the Calendar
(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 to examine old matters concerning the property of the same church. (5) IV-4-a (6) A.D.S. 1p. 8vo. (French) (7) 3
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3. Point of Origin
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This notation indicated where in the Notre Dame Archives this particular document will be found. The Roman numeral indicates the cabinet, the Arabic numeral the shelf, and the small letter the box. In this particular case the item would be found in the first box on shelf four of cabinet four.
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Although the Diocese of Louisiana and the Floridas, later to be known as the Diocese of New Orleans, was formally erected only on April 25, 1793, by Pope Pius VI, the area embraced 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 attempts to explore and tame the wild lands of southeastern North America. Acting by virtue of the Patronato Real de Indias or Royal Patronage of the Indies -- a recognition accorded to the Spanish sovereigns by the Roman Pontiffs of extensive control over and responsibility for the ecclesiastical administration of the Indies -- King Charles I, pending approval from the Holy See, provided for the erection of a Diocese of Florida which was to embrace the whole 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 de Narvaez 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 to encroach upon the territory to the south which had been claimed initially by Spain. After La Salle and his party reached the mouth of the Mississippi in 1682, Louisiana became definitely French territory. Here, as in the Spanish domains, Church and State were bound closely together with the French monarch exercising considerable control over and bearing considerable responsibility for ecclesiastical affairs. After an initial attempt to establish an independent 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 the Diocese of Quebec.
In 1699 the priests of the Seminary of Quebec, an outgrowth of the Seminary of Foreign Missions at Paris, began their priestly labors in the area. They were soon joined by the Jesuits. In 1712 Louisiana became a proprietary colony under the wealthy Antoine Crozat who had obtained a fifteen-year lease from the French crown. Finding the venture to be unprofitable, Crozat relinquished his lease in 1717. The colony then reverted to the French crown which turned it over to John Law's Company of the West. The obligation of providing for the religious needs of the territory, which included the nomination and maintenance 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 remote control through a local vicar general. Although a Frech Capuchin, Louis-Francois Duplessis de 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 a renewed interest in the westen part of the territory and a mission, staffed by Spanish Franciscans, was established at Los Adayes, twenty-one miles from Natchitoches. In 1720 French Carmelites were introduced into the territory but they were soon replaced by French Capuchins from the Province of Champagne under an agreement between the Company of the West, the Capuchins, and Bishop de Mornay. The Capuchins were to serve the French posts in the territory while the Jesuits were to continue serving the Indian missions.
Unfortunately, years of friction ensued between the two missionary groups until the