During the seventeenth century, England preserved a war-like attitude towards Catholics.  A Catholic was not eligible for a public office, and the learned professions were closed to them, neither could a Catholic act as a tutor or as an executor to a will.  Prejudice was carried still further, and even the books treating of their faith were suppressed, while relics or religious pictures were forbidden.  These were only a few of the persecutions to which they were subject.

As far back as 1621 Champlain had requested the king to forbid Protestant emigration to Canada, but his petition was not granted, because the company was composed of mixed creeds.  The company formed by Richelieu, however, was solely Catholic, and there were no difficulties on this score.  The result of this policy was soon manifest.  There were no more dissensions on board the vessels as to places of worship, and the Catholics were, as a consequence, enabled to observe their religious duties without fear of annoyance.  The beneficent influence of this policy extended to the settlement, where the people lived in peace, and were not subject to the petty quarrels which arose through a difference in creed.

In the Relation of 1637 we find evidence of this:  “Now it seems to me that I can say with truth that the soil of New France is watered by so many heavenly blessings, that souls nourished in virtue find here their true element, and are, consequently, healthier than elsewhere.  As for those whose vices have rendered them diseased, they not only do not grow worse, but very often, coming to breathe a salubrious air, and far removed from opportunities for sin, changing climate they change their lives, and a thousand times bless the sweet providence of God, which has made them find the door to felicity where others fear only misery.

“In a word, God has been worshipped in His houses, preaching has been well received, both at Kebec and at the Three Rivers, where Father Buteux usually instructed our French people; each of our brethren has been occupied in hearing many confessions, both ordinary and general; very few holidays and Sundays during the winter have passed in which we have not seen and received persons at the table of our Lord.  And certain ones, who for three, four and five years had not confessed in old France, now, in the new, approach this so salutary sacrament oftener than once a month; prayers are offered kneeling and in public, not only at the fort, but also in families and little companies scattered here and there.  As we have taken for patroness of the Church of Kebec the Holy Virgin under the title of her Conception, which we believe to be immaculate, so we have celebrated this festival with solemnity and rejoicing.

“The festival of the glorious Patriarch Saint Joseph, father, patron and protector of New France, is one of the great solemnities of this country....  It is, in my opinion, through his favour and through his merits, that the inhabitants of New France who live upon the banks of the great river Saint Lawrence, have resolved to receive all the good customs of the old and to refuse admission to the bad ones.