When Frontenac came to Canada he found that the ecclesiastical field was largely occupied by the Jesuits, the Sulpicians, and the Recollets.  Laval had, indeed, begun his task of organizing a diocese at Quebec and preparing to educate a local priesthood.  Four years after his arrival in Canada he had founded the Quebec Seminary (1663) and had added (1668) a preparatory school, called the Little Seminary.  But the three missionary orders were still the mainstay of the Canadian Church.  It is evident that Colbert not only considered the Jesuits the most powerful, but also thought them powerful enough to need a check.  Hence, when Frontenac received his commission, he received also written instructions to balance the Jesuit power by supporting the Sulpicians and the Recollets.

Through his dispute with Perrot, Frontenac had strained the good relations which Colbert wished him to maintain with the Sulpicians.  But the friction thus caused was in no way due to Frontenac’s dislike of the Sulpicians as an order.  Towards the Jesuits, on the other hand, he cherished a distinct antagonism which led him to carry out with vigour the command that he should keep their power within bounds.  This can be seen from the earliest dispatches which he sent to France.  Before he had been in Quebec three months he reported to Colbert that it was the practice of the Jesuits to stir up strife in families, to resort to espionage, to abuse the confessional, to make the Seminary priests their puppets, and to deny the king’s right to license the brandy trade.  What seemed to the Jesuits an unforgivable affront was Frontenac’s charge that they cared more for beaver skins than for the conversion of the savages.  This they interpreted as an insult to the memory of their martyrs, and their resentment must have been the greater because the accusation was not made publicly in Canada, but formed part of a letter to Colbert in France.  The information that such an attack had been made reached them through Laval, who was then in France and found means to acquaint himself with the nature of Frontenac’s correspondence.

Having displeased the Sulpicians and attacked the Jesuits, Frontenac made amends to the Church by cultivating the most friendly relations with the Recollets.  No one ever accused him of being a bad Catholic.  He was exact in the performance of his religious duties, and such trouble as he had with the ecclesiastical authorities proceeded from political aims rather than from heresy or irreligion.

Like so much else in the life of Canada, the strife between Frontenac and Laval may be traced back to France.  During the early years of Louis XIV the French Church was distracted by the disputes of Gallican and Ultramontane.  The Gallicans were faithful Catholics who nevertheless held that the king and the national clergy had rights which the Pope must respect.  The Ultramontanes defined papal power more widely and sought to minimize, disregard, or deny the privileges of the national Church.