PENSION
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PENSION
until his death in 1699, and was succeeded by other
priests of the same seminary until 1703, when this
mission, like that on the Kennebec, was transferred to
Jesuit control, under which it continued, although
under (Mnistantly greater difficulties, until the fall of
Canaihi iii 17ii:;. The most noted incumbent of this
earlirr iirn.id was Fr. Eticnne Lauveyat (1718-1729).
From the outbreak of King Philip's war in 1675 up nearly to the close of the French period in 1763 the history of the Abnaki tribes was one of almost unceas- ing bloody struggle against the English advance. On the side of the English it was a war of extermination, with standing bounties for scalps (or heads), increas- ing from five pounds in 1675 to forty pounds in 1703 for every scalp of a male above ten years, and at last in 1744 one hundred pounds for the scalp of every male above twelve years of age and fifty for that of a woman or child. Prisoners were sold as slaves (see William- son). In 1706 Governor Dudley reported that he had not left an Indian habitation or planting field unde- stroyed. Shortly afterward it was estimated that one- third of the Abnaki had been exterminated by war, disease, or exposure within seven years. In 1722 three hundred men were appointed to destroy the village at Penobscot and four liundred others to ravage con- stantly throughout the whole Abnaki country. To draw off the Indians fron the French interest, efforts were twice made by the Enghsh authorities of Massa- chusetts to persuade them to receive Protestant mis- sionaries, but the offer was rejected. Three times the mission at Norridgewock on the Kennebec, under the devoted Fr. Sebastian Rasles, was attacked and de- stroyed, and the third time the missionary himself was among the slain. The final result was that the Abnaki who survived withdrew to St. Francis or other mission settlements in Canada, with the exception of the Penobscot, who made a separate treaty of peace in 1749, thus saving themselves and their territory, but forever alienating the affection of their kinsmen by whom they were thenceforth regarded as traitors to the confederacy.
On the outbreak of the Revolution in 1775 the Penobscot, under their chief, Orono, tendered their ser- vices to the American cause, at the same time asking that a priest be sent to them, they having then been for nearly forty years without religious instruction. Their offer was accepted and they gave good service through- out the war, but the Massachusetts Government was not then able to find them apriest, owing to the fact that Jesuits and other missionaries had for years been out- lawed from New England. When the war was ended the Penobscot made another appeal, this time by a delegation to Bishop Carroll of Maryland, to whom they presented the crucifix of the murdered Fr Rasles, with the result that in 1785 the Penobscot mission at Oldtown was re-established under Fr. Francis Ciquard, a Sulpician, sent from France for that purpose. He continued with it until 1794, going then to the neigh- bouring Etchimin (Malisect). Orono died at Oldtown in 1802. Of later missionaries the most noted is the Jesuit Fr. Eugene Vetromile, stationed at Oldtown from about 1855 to about 1880, author of a small his- tory of the Abnaki and of several works in the lan- guage, the most important of which is a manuscript Abnaki Dictionary, now with the Bureau of American Ethnology. The other great dictionary of the lan- guage, that of Father Rasles and plundered from the mission in the second attack (1722), was deposited in Harvard University and published in the Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Cam- bridge, 1833).
The principal existing Penobscot village, officially known as Oldtown, is on an island in Penobscot river, a few miles above Bangor, and, as indicated by the Indian name, about on the ancient site. The church, dedicated to Saint Anne, is served by a secular priest.
In their aboriginal condition the Abnaki tribes were
semi-sedentary, dwelling in villages of communal wig-
wams covered with bark or woven mats, each village
having also a larger central town-house for public
gatherings. They cultivated corn and other vege-
tables, and understood the use of manure. They had
also game and fish from the woods and waters. They
had the clan system, with fourteen clans (Morgan).
Polygamy was rare and tribal government simple.
They buried their dead. In general character they
were comparatively mild and tractable and not given
to extreme cruelty as were the Iroquois. What re-
mains of their mythology has been brought together
by Leland in his "Algonquin Legends of New Eng-
land". The modern Penobscot are entirely Chris-
tianized and civilized in habit of living, deriving
subsistence by lumbering, boating, hunting, some
farming, and the making of Indian wares for sale.
They are in friendly touch with their neighbours, the
Passamaquoddy band of the Maliseet. See also Mis-
sions, Catholic Indun, of tbe U. S.; Maliseet
Indians; Rasles; Saint Francis Mission.
Leland. Algonquin Legends of New England (Boston, New York, 18S5); the Acadia volumes of the Jesuit Relations, ed. Thwaites (73 vols., Cleveland, 1896-1901); Maine Hid. Soc. Colls, (first series, 10 vols., Portland and Bath, 1831-1S9I; second series, 10 vols., Portland, 1890-1899); Maukault, His- toire des Abenakis (Quebec, 1866); Vetromile, The Abnakis and Their History (New York, 1866); Williamson. Hist, of Maine (2 vols., Hallowell, 1832); Shea, Catholic Missions (New York, 1854).
Jambs Moonby.
Pension, Ecclesiastical, the right to a certain sum of money to be paid yearly out of the revenues of a church or benefice to a cleric, on account of just reasons approved by an ecclesiastical superior. The term is derived, according to some, from the Latin word pendeo, ' ' to depend ' ' ; according to others, from the word pendo, "to pay". The term pcnsio is some- times used as synonymous with a certain species of benefice, as when a cleric, by the authority of a supe- rior, receives a perpetual vicarship in a church and is sustained by its revenues. This is looked on as the conferring of a real benefice. In its ordinary accepta- tion, however, it does not connote the bestowal of a benefice, but refers to the money paid, for a certain time, to a third person from the fruits of a benefice belonging to another, acting under the authorization of an ecclesiastical superior. The obligation to pay such a pension may be incumbent on either the holder of a benefice or on the benefice itself. If the first, then the burden does not pass to his successor; if the sec- ond, the obligation lasts as long as the pensioner lives.
As the pope has full power over all benefices, he may impose a pension on any benefice whatsoever, even though it belong to a patron. If, however, the patron- age belongs to a royal person, the pope does not usu- ally impose the pension without the patron's consent. For validity, it is not necessary that the pontiff give any cause for his act.
As to the bishop, or anyone inferior to the pope, he may not, generally speaking, impose a perpetual pen- sion on a benefice or increase one already existing, nor may he, in conferring a benefice, make a reservation of a pension to be paid to a third party. It is within the bishop's power, however, to impose a pension, for a reasonable cause, to last for a certain time, even for the life of the holder of the benefice, if he himself con- sents. In this case, the pension is not imposed upon the benefice, but on its incumbent. The canons forbid the bishop to constitute a pension out of a certain quota of the fruits of a benefice, as a half or a third part, because this has the appearance of a division of the benefice. Just causes for the constitution of a pension by the bishop are: for the sake of peace; for the education of a poor student; for the utility of the Church; for the relief i'>f [laupers: for some pious object; for a reward of services rendered; and for the support of a person who resigns a benefice, in which
