Guide to Documents Relating to French and British North America in ...

It is in any case more difficult to know with precision which original documents were used in a
General Congregation.
2. SOCG
The SOCG series contains the original documents reported and dealt with in the General
Congregations -- letters, memoranda, petitions, short notes, documents meant for Propaganda's internal
use. They came from individuals and institutions, from missionaries, vicars apostolic, bishops, nuncios,
cardinals, from kings and queens, from pontifical agents around the world and from secret agents active
in foreign lands.
All documents are bound in volumes that are numbered progressively from 1 to 906 (the last
volume of the eighteenth century; the whole series, up to 1892, consists of 1,044 volumes). In all, 908
volumes were examined (from vol. 1 to vol. 906).
SOCG was once subdivided into two parts, the first running from vol. 1 to vol. 417 (1622-
1668), the second from vol. 418 to vol. 1044 (1669-1892). The main difference between the two parts
is that the first is arranged along geographical lines, the second in chronological order.
Part One
Running from vol. 1 to vol. 417, the first part of SOCG was once known and referred to as
Lettere Antiche. It must not be confused with another series, Lettere, which contains the copies of the
letters written by Propaganda officials. Documents are here arranged according to their country of origin
(for example, vol. 259 deals with America), or to the matter treated (for example, vol. 180 deals with
the heresies of Cirillo Lucari). Some sub-series formerly considered on their own must now be regarded
simply as part of SOCG. They were:
- Cause, vols. 311-322;
- Collegi, vols. 361-381;
- Memoriali, vols. 382-417.
Cause contains questions concerning all countries. Collegi refers only to matters pertaining to various
colleges around the world. Memoriali contains copies of petitions on various matters; a good number
of them are also to be found in the series Congregazioni Particolari. The whole first part, however,
must now be referred to simply as SOCG.
The first part of SOCG is considered very difficult for the following reasons:
_ Oassification according to geographical areas required a good knowledge of the geography of the
world. This was not always the case with Propaganda officials, who often confused America with
Africa, and the West Indies with the East Indies. 4 North, Central, and South America were often
confused, and Acadia, Canada, Maryland, New England, Newfoundland and Virginia were often used
to indicate a place very far away from the modem location of the former colonies. It is obvious,
however, that the international outlook of the officials of Propaganda made their geographical awareness
much better than that of the common people of the time. Moreover, their knowledge of world
geography improved toward the end of the seventeenth century, and may be considered sufficiently
good in the eighteenth century.
_ Different countries were often filed in the same volumes. For example, vol. 106 deals with England,
Georgia (in Europe), Ireland, Persia, Scotland, Spain and Tartary in the year 1637.
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