A Brief History of Law and Religious Institutions in Canada

• Author: M.H. Ogilvie
• Pages: 33-57

Chapter

Two

A

Brief

History

of Law and

Religious Institutions

in

Canada

A.

INTRODUCTION

The

history

of

religious institutions

and the law in

Canada was,

until

the

late

twentieth

century,

the

history

of

Christianity

in

Canada

in its

many

forms,

its

relationships with governments (whether

foreign,

colonial,

federal,

or

provincial)

and

with

the

society

in

which

it

found

itself

and

whose shape

it

influenced

in

fundamental

ways. Indeed,

the

assumption

brought

to the New

World

by

most

of the

Christian communities

of

post-

Reformation

Europe

was

that

the

alliances

of

church

and

state

enjoyed

in

the

originating states

in

Europe would

be

replicated

in the New

World,

as

would

the

societies

of

Western Europe, newly purged

of

their undesir-

able

characteristics. While

the

motives

for the

establishment

of

overseas

colonies were primarily economic, political,

and

strategic,

it was

also

widely

accepted

by

contemporaries

not

only that

the

familiar

patterns

of

Christendom would

be

continued

in the New

World

but

also that

this

was

necessary

to

civilize

the New

World

and

advance

the

kingdom

of

God

throughout

the

whole world.

Once

the

major

states

of

early modern Europe

had

laid claim

to

their

overseas

colonies,

the

inevitable inter-colonial rivalries, whether eco-

nomic,

political,

or

military, grew

up,

reflecting

not

only local annoy-

ances

but

also European-based

rivalries,

including inter-state religious

frictions.

In

addition, since many overseas colonies comprised settlers

of

33

34

RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS

AND THE LAW

rival

religious denominations within Europe,

intra-colonial

religious dis-

putes

and

manoeuvring

for

supremacy also inevitably occurred.

In

the New

World

as in the Old

World,

the

division between Roman

Catholic

and

Protestant remained

the

major

fault-line along which states

would

be

built, outranking

in

social

and

political importance

the

divi-

sions

of the

Protestant

Reformation;

Anabaptist, Anglican,

and

Reformed,

whose European rivalries also continued

in

North America. Indeed,

much

of

Canadian political

and

social history

from

the

founding

of New

France

to the era of the

Charter

can be

written

as the

history

of

Christian-

ity

in

Canada,

its

religious institutions,

and the

state,

so

profound

has the

role

of the

Christian churches been directly

on

national

life

but

also indi-

rectly

through

the

peculiar ways

in

which social

and

political issues have

been

framed

for

much

of the

history

of

both public

and

private

life

in

Canada.

While

the

sectarian disputes

of the

nineteenth century were

explicitly framed

as

denominational

rivalries,

the

secular debates

of the

twentieth

century

on

major

social issues retained

a

theological undercur-

rent about

how

best

to

order

a

moral society

in the

northern part

of the

Western hemisphere.

It

is

impossible

to

write

a

thorough

history

of

religion

in

Canada

in

one

chapter suitable

as an

introduction

to

that subject

and as

background

to

a

legal text. This chapter will survey superficially

the

major

events

insofar

as

they

are

related

to the

legal topics

to

which this book

is

prima-

rily

devoted.1

1

This chapter

is

based

on

several general histories

of

religion

in

Canada

and not

on any

original research. General

histories

of

religion

in

Canada

are

rare,

although

the

recent revival

of

interest

in the

subject amongst Canadian histori-

ans,

as

evidenced

by the

large number

of

special topic books published

in the

past

two

decades,

suggests that

this

history will become better understood.

Reference

to

some

of

these

relevant works will

be

made

in

footnotes below

as

appropriate

to the

text.

The

general histories

in

chronological order

are as

fol-

lows: H.H. Walsh,

The

Christian

Church

in

Canada

(Toronto: Ryerson, 1956);

H.H.

Walsh,

The

Church

in the

French

Era

(Toronto: Ryerson, 1966); John

S.

Moir,

The

Church

in the

British

Era

(Toronto: Ryerson, 1972); John Webster

Grant,

The

Church

in the

Canadian

Era

(Toronto: Ryerson,

1972);

updated

and

expanded edition

by

John

G.

Stackhouse

(Vancouver: Regent College, 1998);

Robert

T.

Handy,

A

History

of

the

Churches

in the

United

States

and

Canada

(Oxford:

Oxford

University Press, 1976);

Mark

A.

Noll,

A

History

of

Christiani-

ty

in the

United

States

and

Canada

(Grand Rapids,

MI:

Eerdmans, 1992);

and

Terrence

Murphy

and

Roberto Perm, eds.,

A

Concise

History

of

Christianity

in