To Benjamin Franklin from Jérôme-Marie Champion de Cicé, 27 December 1783
From Jérôme-Marie Champion de Cicé5
ALS: Library of Congress
paris le 27. xbre. 1783
J’ay reçu, Monsieur, la lettre que vous m’avez fait l’honneur de m’ecrire au sujet des Catholiques americains.6 Vous pouvez etre Sur en Cette occasion Comme en toute autre de mon empressement à Seconder vos vües tant par rapport à vos Catholiques dont il est facile d’assurer le Service, qu’en faveur de M. L’abbé de la Roche que j’estime et aime. J’aurois besoin dans le moment de quelques ecclaircissements qu’il est sans doute en votre pouvoir de me procurer;7 je voudrois savoir
1° Comment S’est fait jusqua present le Service des Catholiques
2° Si les pouvoirs des pretres Catholiques venoient directement de Rome, ou Si l’Ev. [Evêque] de quebec avoit quelque jurisdiction en amerique
3° Si la Subsistance des ministre Catholiques est assurée et par quels moyens.
Ces ecclaircissements me mettront en etat de vous proposer mes Vües pour l’avenir.
Ne doutez jamais je vous prie du Sincere et Respectueux attachement avec lequel j’ay l’honneur d’etre Monsieur Votre très humble et très obeissant Serviteur
† J. M. arch. de Bordeaux
5. Champion de Cicé (1753–1810), a liberal and reformer, had been archbishop of Bordeaux since 1781: DBF. An English translation of his letter is published in Jules A. Baisnée, France and the Establishment of the American Catholic Hierarchy: the Myth of French Interference (1783–1784) (Baltimore, 1934), p. 58.
6. This now-missing letter appears to have been similar to the one BF wrote to Vergennes on Dec. 15. Champion de Cicé described its contents in a letter to Vergennes written on the same date as the present letter: BF proposed the appointment of a French ecclesiastic to oversee the Catholic Church in America. The archbishop urged Vergennes not to miss this opportunity to strengthen the Catholic faith as well as ties between the United States and France. Before he answered BF, Champion considered it his duty to seek Vergennes’ advice. Vergennes replied on Jan. 8 that he had already written to the bishop of Autun on this matter: Baisnée, France and the Establishment of the American Catholic Hierarchy, pp. 59–61. For the bishop’s response see the annotation of BF to Vergennes, Dec. 15.
7. We have no record of BF’s response. On Jan. 31, 1784, La Luzerne, the French minister in Philadelphia, wrote Vergennes, warning that American Catholics would not be pleased with a foreign bishop. This letter was received on April 23: Baisnée, France and the Establishment of the American Catholic Hierarchy, pp. 63–7, 79.