The Coldest Harbour in the Land: Simon Stock and Lord Baltimore’s Colony in Newfoundland, 1621-1649

256 Pages·1988·14.224 MB·English

by  Luca Codignola

The Coldest Harbour of the Land
Simon Stock and Lord Baltimore's Colony in
Newfoundland,
1621-1649
In 1624 Simon Stock, a missionary priest of the Discalced Carmelite
order in England, began correspondence with the recently founded
Sacred Congregation "de Propaganda Fide" in Rome in an attempt to
interest it in the establishment of a novitiate for English priests of his
order. While Propaganda was unwilling to do this, Stock was encour-
aged to continue his correspondence because of the information it pro-
vided on Lord Baltimore's attempts to found a colony in North Amer-
ica. Luca Codignola draws on these letters of Simon Stock and material
in archives in Rome (Propaganda Fide and the Carmelite order) and
London to present a fascinating picture of seventeenth-century Catho-
lic colonization.
Lord Baltimore planned to establish his Avalon colony in New-
foundland and to provide its settlers with Catholic missionaries. Stock,
however, was concerned with much more than providing a single col-
ony with missionaries: because of his belief in the existence of a north-
west passage, he saw "Avalon" as a gateway to China, India, and Japan,
and to the establishment of other Catholic colonies. Despite his repeated
appeals for aid, Propaganda was slow to react and Stock's letters leave
no doubt about his sense of frustration. However, as Propaganda's
main source of information on North America, Stock had an impor-
tant influence on the development of their colonization policy.
The second half of the book provides full translations or summaries
of all Simon Stock's letters and enclosures during 1622 to 1649. These
letters are particularly important in detailing his activities as a priest,
giving his perception of events in England during this period, and
providing new information on the Avalon colony. Stock's letters and
Codignola's essay greatly expand our knowledge of the Catholic com-
munities and their reaction to colonization.
Luca Codignola is a member of the Department of History, University
of Pisa.

Luca Codignola
THE
COLDEST
HARBOUR
OF THE
IAND
Simon Stock and Lord Baltimore's
Colony in Newfoundland,
1621-1649
TRANSLATED BY
ANITA WESTON
McGill-Queen's University Press
KINGSTON AND MONTREAL
McGill-Queen's University Press1988
ISBN 0-7735-0540-7
Legal deposit 1st quarter 1988
Bibliotheque nationale du Quebec
Printed in Canada
Printed on acid-free paper
This work was originally published in Italian in 1982 by Marsilio Editori
under the title Terre d'America e burocrazia romana: Simon Stock,
Propaganda Fide e la colonia di Lord Baltimore a Terranova, 1621-1649.
This translation has been published with the help of a grant from the
Canadian Federation for the Humanities, using funds provided by the
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Cover illustration: Peter Rindisbacher, A Drifting Iceberg Strikes the Ship
in the Night of June 19, 1821. (Public Archives of Canada, C-1904.)
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Codignola, Luca, 1947-
The coldest harbour of the land
Translation of: Terre d'America e burocrazia romana.
Includes letters by Simon Stock to the Congregation
"de Propaganda Fide" in Rome.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7735-0540-7
i. Catholic Church - Newfoundland - History - 17th
century. 2. Stock, Simon. fl. 1621-1649.
3. Baltimore, George Calvert, Baron, 1580-1632.
i. Stock, Simon, fl. 1621-1649. n. Title.
6x1422^406313 1988 282'.718 087-094336-7
For Federica
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
Illustrations xvi
Preface to the English Edition ix
Preface and Acknowledgments xi
Abbreviations xiv
PART ONE: Simon Stock, Propaganda Fide, and Lord
Baltimore's Colony in Newfoundland
1 Introduction 3
2 Simon Stock, Discalced Carmelite, Meets Lord Baltimore,
1621-24 6
3 Sir Arthur Aston, Adventurer, Agrees to Embark for
Newfoundland, 1625 14
4 Simon Stock Learns about the New World, 1625 23
5 The Search for the Northwest Passage, 1626 32
6 Lord Baltimore's Pleasant Summer in Avalon, 1627 41
7 Lord Baltimore Decides to Settle in Avalon for Good,
1628 46
8 The Tragic Ending of an Adventure, 1629-30 51
9 Conclusion 58
PART TWO: The Letters of Simon Stock
Introductory Note 65
List of Stock's Letters 69
Letters 73
Notes to Part One 141
Notes to Part Two 173
Bibliography 191
Index 219
Preface to the
English Edition
Preparing the English translation of this book with my
friend and colleague Anita Weston provided me with the
opportunity to double-check and revise the Italian text, pub-
lished in March 1982 by Marsilio Editori of Venice.
I have added two documents to those published in the Ital-
ian edition and corrected a few inconsistencies and errors
pointed out by colleagues and friends. Otherwise, this version
is the same as the original. All documents and citations in the
text have been translated into English. The Italian edition
will still be useful to those who wish to check the English
translation against the original documents.
Little has appeared on the topic in the interval between
this and the Italian edition. The bibliography has been
updated, and includes a number of books and articles pub-
lished between 1982 and 1986, as well as others I did not know
about at the time the original version was published. Some of
these works are very important. They include all of John
Krugler's articles, except "Calvert's Resignation" (1973)
which I referred to earlier, David Quinn's New American
World (1979), Gillian Cell's Newfoundland Discovered
(1982), and John Smith's Complete Works edited by the late
Philip Barbour (1986). My own Calendar 1622-ijgg of Prop-
aganda Fide documents was published in microfiche (1983),
as was my general interpretation of the relationship between
the history of early North America and the Holy See which
appeared as "Rome and North America 1622-1799. The
Interpretive Framework" (1984).
Finally, I wish to acknowledge, with deep gratitude, Jane
Fredeman's help in the production of the Canadian edition of