ABSTRACT
The Jesuits began their work in New France with the clear under-standing that Christian behaviour, morals and beliefs could be adopted by the people of New France because they were, in fact, humans. The Jesuits were part of a humanist movement that saw all ‘races’, all ‘nations’, as human and as capable of instruction. It was a matter of education and not of humanity that separated the ‘Savages’ of New France from the civilized people of Old France. ‘There is no nature so wild’, wrote Father Vimont from New France, ‘that gentleness, grace, and education cannot polish…. There is no doubt that if the means were at hand to lodge a number of them, they would be made as dexterous and as well-mannered as our Europeans’ (Thwaites 1896–1901, 22:183–5). As humans capable of instruction, of education and of being made to have written ‘upon their hearts the love and fear’ of God, the people of New France were fit to be moulded into good Christians.
