Note 10 — Chapter III
Reading edition
Through the influence of Talon, the king was induced in the year 1668 to sign a decree permitting the Récollets to return to Canada, and reinstating them in their former possessions. Père Leclercq, Récollet, says they were very much wanted. "For thirty years," to quote his words, "complaint was made in Canada that consciences were being burdened; and the more the colony increased in population the greater was the outcry. I sincerely hope that there was no real occasion for it, and that the great rigour of the [Jesuit] clergy was useful and necessary. Still the Frenchman loves liberty, and under all skies is opposed to constraint, even in religion."