Old Sulpician Seminary
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Transcript
The Saint-Sulpice Seminary is among Montréal's oldest surviving buildings. The Sulpicians became seigneurs of the island in the seventeenth century and exercised religious, educational and landholding authority for generations.
New France's seigneurial land system organized property through grants, rents and obligations. The Sulpicians were priests and landlords at the same time.
After the British conquest, Catholic institutions remained powerful despite the change of empire. That continuity helped preserve French-language society, but it also concentrated authority.
Old Montréal often sells stone as atmosphere. Here, the more revealing story is administrative: who controlled land, schooling and religious life, and how long that control endured.