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The other Point of your letter on which I could not answer in my last is that in which you mention ye Spiritual to be so connected with the temporal as sometimes not to be able to be divided. This Proposition requires some Explanation as it is what may much contribute to the well or ill being of the Inhabitants. Under pretence of this connection the Missionarys have often usurp'd the power to make themselves the Sovereign judges & arbitrators of all causes amongst the People; for example, a Parishioner complains to the Priest that his Neighbour owes him or detains such a thing from him, the Priest Examines the Neighbour in the way of Confession. The man denies his owing or detain'g such a thing unjustly. The Priest doth not stop where he should but calls & Examines Witnesses & then decides in a judicial manner & condemns the party to make restitution, & to oblige him thereunto refuses to administer the Sacraments, by which if the man is Persuaded that it is in the Priests Power to grant or withold the pardon of his sins he is in a wofull case & must rather Submit to be de-
* Jean Bte. Desenclaves came from France to Canada in the year 1728. He was parish priest at Annapolis for many years. M. Tasherea, in his M.S. notes on Missions in Acadia, quoted by Dr. O'Calaghan in the 10 vol. of New York Documents, says he returned to France soon after 1753, worn out by age and labour. He was, however, officiating to the Acadians at Annapolis in 1754, as appears by his letter of that year to Mr. Cotterell, at Halifax, respecting the site of a new Chapel which he was then building. And Governor Pownall of Boston, in a letter to Governor Lawrence in 1759, mentions his being then a prisoner with other French Acadians in Massachusetts. M. Desenclaves appears in the latter period of his life to have meddled less with secular affairs than the other priests in Acadia, and consequently was not much in favour with Lutre and Germaine.
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