38 pages • 1 hour read
Brian MooreBlack Robe
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1985A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 2, Chapters 11-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2, Chapter 11 Summary
In the Ihonatiria Jesuit mission, Father Jerome walks through empty rooms that seem “like exhibits in some museums of former times” (141). The priests had been among the first to fall sick, and the locals mistrusted the isolation the priests sought in which to heal. Jerome had recovered in 14 days, his fellow priest in “half that time” (142). However, the fever then spread to the rest of the village; the people consider the fever a curse, “the Blackrobes’ revenge” (142) against those who resisted conversion. While the people planned what to do, Jerome suffered a “second and crippling stroke” (142). They killed the other priest. Jerome’s left side is paralyzed. Now, the villagers will not go near him. As he shivers in the cold, he hears a voice. Laforgue enters the village alone. He sees smoke from the habitations but no one greets him. He sees the Jesuit residence and enters, calling for his fellow priest. The Huron leaders call a council on hearing that a Blackrobe has arrived in their village. Ondesson, the war chief, says that “both Blackrobes must be killed” (146) but Taretande, the council chief, asks for a vote. The vote confirms the plan.
Jerome instructs Laforgue to bury his dead colleague. Laforgue digs a shallow grave in the floor of the chapel and places the body inside. A Huron man appears behind him and bids Laforgue to follow him, helping Jerome to the front door. There, other Huron are waiting. They begin yelling and shouting, surrounding the priests and marching them to the longhouse. Inside, a sickly Jerome asks Ondesson to pause and listen. Ondesson refuses. Taretande announces that 53 Huron have died and “every night more sicken and die” (148). He accuses the priests of being witches and says “they must be killed as a witch is killed” (148).
Ondesson shouts for the torturing to begin; before it can being, the light dies “as though someone had blown out a candle” (149). Jerome leads Laforgue out past the suddenly uneasy crowd. Outside, Laforgue sees the eclipse. Jerome calls it “an act of God” (149) but Laforgue cannot bring himself to offer thanks. Jerome warns the Huron not to harm them, as they “have seen the hand of God” (149). The villagers disperse. Laforgue and Jerome bury the dead priest. Laforgue reflects on the nature of martyrdom. He does not understand why he has stopped praying. That night, he lays Jerome down to rest and steps outside. It will be his mission to convert the Huron while they are dying. He knows that God has not chosen him to be a martyr because he is “unworthy of that fate” (151).
Part 2, Chapter 12 Summary
The next day, Taretande’s wife has the fever, as do other Huron. He has no choice but to treat with the Blackrobes, he decides. The council agrees. The priests sit with the council in the longhouse; they refuse tobacco and presents, worrying Taretande. He asks the priests to cure the sickness. Jerome speaks and says that the only option is for the whole village to convert: “All must be baptized” (154). The Huron are reluctant; an old man tells Jerome that the Jesuits’ ways “are not our ways […] we cannot live as you do” (154). The Huron exit to discuss the matter.
The priests return to their residence. Jerome knows he will die soon; the Huron will return, he says, and “either they give us a great harvest of souls or they will put us to death” (155). Jerome sees God’s hand in the fever but Laforgue cannot. He believes that it is “sophistic” (155) to baptize the Huron without educating them first. The next morning, some sick people recover. The council agrees that “it is the Blackrobes who have done this” (156). They must decide between dying of fever and keeping their beliefs or being saved by the Blackrobes and being baptized.
Daniel and Annuka head to the Huron village. She dresses Daniel as an Algonkin; when they enter the village, she says, Daniel must pretend to be Algonkin. He has “killed the Norman in [him]” (157), she says. Laforgue awakes to find the Huron making noise. In the night, Jerome has suffered another stroke and has also lost feeling in his other leg. Taretande, Ondesson, and the village sorcerer ask to speak to Jerome and Laforgue leads them inside: “More than a hundred” (158) wish to be baptized, they announce. Laforgue wants to teach them about Christianity first but Jerome says there is no time. The Huron agree with Jerome. They will baptize the sick first. Laforgue fetches water from a well, where he is met by Annuka and Daniel (who he does not recognize at first). On hearing that the village is being baptized, Annuka wants the same, so that she can marry Daniel. When Laforgue returns to the residence, he finds a warrior being chased through the streets. Laforgue runs into the priests’ house.
Inside, Jerome has been murdered. Ondesson enters and apologizes, offering protection. Laforgue asks for time to think. His crisis of faith deepening, Laforgue begins to pray. An old man enters an says that he will be “speaking against you today” (161) out of fear for his people. The Christian Hurons enter and thank Laforgue, offering to pray for Jerome. Taretande enters and demands that Laforgue begin the baptisms. Laforgue refuses and then relents, beginning to dress for the ceremony. He steps outside to see the sick Huron gathered around. Laforgue signals for Daniel and the boy runs out to help. Laforgue begins to baptize the sick. He does not know whether it is “true baptism or a mockery” (163). As he thinks about how he will spend his life among these people, a “true prayer” (163) comes to him at last and he asks God to spare the Huron.
Part 2, Chapters 11-12 Analysis
As the novel draws to a close, the structure becomes more important. The narrative is split into two distinct parts: the journey along the river and the time spent in the town of Ihonatiria. By segmenting the story as such, the novel draws attention to the different challenges faced in each part. The first part is a difficult voyage into the unknown. The river functions as a metaphor, carrying the Europeans further away from civilization (as they understand it) and presenting them with a rising sense of danger. The further they travel along the river and the worse the weather becomes, the more likely it seems that the Algonkin will betray them, the more Daniel falls in love with Annuka, and the closer they travel toward the cannibalistic Iroquois.
The first part of the narrative is tied to the journey along the river, while the second part dwells on what happens when the journey reaches its end. In the town of Ihonatiria, Laforgue discovers that the local people have died of an unnamed sickness. They blame the Christian priests for this, though fear the priests’ sorcery. The two chapters that form the final part of the novel are self-contained. Laforgue is no longer voyaging into the unknown; he has arrived and must put into practice everything he has learned along the way.
Unfortunately, the long journey down the river has coincided with a crisis of faith for the Jesuit priest. The man who dreamed of being martyred in a foreign land no longer believes himself worthy of God’s love. As such, whereas the first part of the novel is the story of Laforgue losing his faith and questioning his role as a priest, the second part shows the necessity of this rediscovery. Faced by a terrible situation, Laforgue is almost unable to baptize the Huron. They beg of him and—at the moment of his utmost urgency—he begins to hear God speak to him again. The separation of the narrative into distinct parts is an analogy for the loss and potential rediscovery of Laforgue’s faith, though the uncertain note on which the novel ends suggests that the priest’s newfound faith might well be short-lived.
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