Father de Quen explained his temporizing acquiescence in a manuscript letter, in Latin to the general of the society, of September 3, 1658. "It is true that I did not wish to exercise any act [of jurisdiction, as a vicar general] from that day on which M. l'Abbé Queylus laid his letters patent of authority before me lest any evil should thence arrive; however, I could not, nor would not, yield my jurisdiction (potestatus et res) until I became certain that it had been revoked by his Eminence the Archbishop of Rouen, who had granted it to me." Thus the Jesuit acted constitutionally and wisely. Rouen would now be approached by him.
In the meantime, after having been recognized as "grand vicaire" M. de Queylus with the Sulpicians proceeded to Ville Marie. On August 12th Père Claude Pijart, the missionary, gave over the exercise of his ministry to M. Gabriel Souart who now became the _curé_ or parish priest. Father Pijart remained in Montreal for some time, but, on September 3rd, he was in Quebec, where he was appointed to take the place of Père Poncet, in the charge of the parish church. Père Poncet, though a zealous and enterprising man, had shown himself a difficult subject, and his obedience and his spirit of independence had been already called in question in a letter to Rome. As this may be accounted the beginning of the ecclesiastical trouble between Montreal and Quebec we will follow Père Pijart.
On arriving at Quebec, Père Pijart found that the injudicious Père Poncet had been deposed from his office by his superior, Père de Quen, as a consequence of his promulgation of the bull left behind by the grand vicar, announcing the opening of the jubilee for August 12th. Père de Quen, now no longer acting as grand vicar, but still the superior of the Jesuit missions of Canada, had apparently been ignorant of the arrival of this bull, and he considered that as his religious superior and that of most of the clergy in the country he should have had notification of it and he deposed the parish priest, Père Poncet,--a power which he had arranged with M. de Queylus to retain as a religious superior according to acknowledged ecclesiastical etiquette. The position was a new one. Time only could straighten out the inevitable difficulties arising in a double régime now commencing. Père Poncet meanwhile, appointed to the Indian mission of Onondaga started the year previously, left Quebec on August 28th and, passing by Montreal, informed the "grand vicaire" of the loss of his parish. The latter impetuously prevailed on him to suspend his journey, forgetful that in his inexperience he was committing a new breach of church etiquette in interfering with the orders of the Jesuit superior to his own subject, and together they arrived, with M. d'Ailleboust and the deacon, M. d'Allet, acting as Queylus' secretary, at Quebec on September 12th.