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

The most important calendar of the archives of Propaganda relating to the history of the United
States is still being published by the Academy of American Franciscan History. Ten volumes have
appeared to date, plus an Index for vols. 1-7. 48 Although edited by Kenneally, United States Documents
in the Propaganda Fide Archives is mostly the work of the archivist. Anton Debevec, who singlehandedly
found, translated, summarized and ordered all documents calendared. 49 Vol. 1 is prefaced by
Kenneally, who explains the scope and the aims of the calendar. Then the introduction, by Antonine
Tibesar, briefly surveys the history of Propaganda and lists the main archival series of Propaganda,
pointing out the major difficulties encountered during the early phase of research. (No other volumes
of the First Series have introductions).
The seven volumes of the First Series (l622-c.1865) present 15,347 summaries ("letters") of
documents. Each "letter" consists of a serial number, the numbers of the original folios, the number
and title of the archival volume containing the document, the document's title or the names of the
writer and addressee, the date and place of origin, a short summary of the contents, a list of the
persons mentioned, and a note of the language used. The work of locating, reading, translating, ordering
and summarizing the documents has been performed with great care.
Nevertheless, some editorial choices are open to criticism. The tables of contents (except those
of vols. 1 and 2) are useless. The indexes that conclude each volume, and the general Index to vols.
1-7, are insufficient and sometimes incorrect. A distinction should have been made in the indexes
between those documents that were actually written or received by a person, and those in which the
person is only mentioned. Anonymous letters (sometimes more important that the signed ones) and
letters of the apostolic nuncios are listed only under the names of the persons mentioned (the nuncios,
who were all archbishops, signed only by the name of their see, though sometimes adding their
Christian name); letters of the nuncios should mention the place of their appointment and their first and
family names. The indices could have been expanded to include other items of significance, such as
names of religious orders or dioceses. No abbreviations have been used, though there are many
recurring words (bishop, archbishop, vicar apostolic, nuncio, procurator general, etc.), with consequent
waste of much space. Cross-references are incomplete or non-existent.
Furthermore, on account of its geographical scope (the United States within their modem-day
borders), most of the documents dealing with Canada were not included in Kenneally's calendar. As
will be shown in Chapter Six, this is misleading. Until well into the second half of the eighteenth
century, there was no practical distinction between the French and British territories of North America.
Apart from these editorial flaws, this calendar is an important enterprise of great significance for the
history of the Catholic church in the United States as well as for American history in general, and
completely supersedes Fish's Guide. Since this Calendar does not include documents dealing with the
area of the United States that from 1622 to 1799 was under Spanish rule, these will be found in
Kenneally. On the other hand, Kenneally's United States Documents presents only 529 entries relating
to French and British North America in the years 1622-1799, compared to the 2,441 entries of the
present Calendar.
3. STUDIES
I shall now describe a number of works written by historians who have used the archives of
Propaganda in relation to North America in the years 1622-1799. Documents published at random and
works only occasionally citing documents of Propaganda will not be discussed here, since they do not
stem from larger and consistent projects of research.
One must surely begin this survey by recalling the collective work, entitled Sacrae
Congregationis de Propaganda Fide Memoria Rerum, edited by Metzler, that was published between
46