Bugnion, Francois-Louis (1822-1880)
Louis-François Bugnion, itinerant immigration agent, was a restless traveler, an itinerant preacher, energetic, often a seeker of high social connections, and an extoller of Australian immigration and to other lands. In his activities he commonly sought favours and help from governments and promoted his own self constructed ideas of Christianity. However, many aspects of his life and intentions are unknown and puzzling. His most persistent mission in the years 1873-1880 was to get the Australian government to bring Russian Mennonites and other immigrants to Australia. In spite of his efforts, he failed and no Mennonites came to Australia in the 19th century.
Bugnion, was born 25 November 1822 in the French speaking Belmont-sur-Lausanne area of Switzerland. He first qualified as a teacher and in 1843 accepted a position in Shabo, Bessarabia, Russia, in the newly established wine producing area settled by Swiss immigrants. Two years later he returned to Switzerland and retrained as a Reformed (Calvinist) Church minister and retuned to Shabo. There he became attracted to the writings of Emanual Swedenborg and was influenced by pietism and mysticism resulting in opposition from Russian Reformed church leaders who found him unorthodox. He left his Swiss wife and remarried and in 1859 fled Russia for the French Island of La Reunion and the British colony of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. Here he attached himself to the New Church whose religious ideas were based on Swedenborg. As in Russia, he formed his own community, called himself a bishop, frequently preached in nonconformist churches, wrote and distributed pamphlets and was opposed by the local established church authorities.
India in 1864 was Bugnion’s next location. He purchased a hill station intending to grow coffee and was joined by his brother Marc-Francoise Bugnion. Tragically, this activity ended with the death of his wife and two of his six children. He next traveled to Europe and the United States. In England he made contacts with New Church officials and with the Liberal statesman William Cowper-Temple and in the USA with the spiritualistic prophet Thomas Lake Harris and discussed bringing in Swiss immigrants. In October 1873 he arrived in Sydney, Australia which was wide open to European immigrants and began discussions with government officials about getting land and bringing to Australia his followers from Mauritius, India and the Swiss colony in Shabo, Bessarabia. In Australia Bugnion promoted himself not as a Swedenborgian but as a leader and Bishop of his self named Brotherhood of the New Life. He also frequently sought financial support from the government for his immigration activities. About four months later he traveled to the Northern Territory, seeking employment as a pastor and attempting to secure land for settlement. These efforts failed and off he was to Ceylon.
Returning to Sydney near the end of 1875 Bugnion became aware of the Russian government’s efforts to remove military exemptions from their immigrants. From his time in Shabo, Bessarabia, Russia Bugnion knew of Mennonites in Russia and the effect the removal of military exemptions had on them. Immigration and settlement were important topics in Australian newspapers causing them to carry many reports informing readers about Mennonites, their beliefs and practices, and that they were already implementing moves to Canada and the USA. Alerted to the start of Russian Mennonite immigration Bugnion began to petition Australian colonial governments to get his Swiss friends and Russian Mennonites to come to Australia.
On the 7 April 1876 the premier of South Australia, James Penn Boucaut, announced a new policy to develop South Australia’s Northern Territory. At a political meeting he announced that his government and the Right Reverend Bishop Bugnion had signed an agreement to permit the Bishop’s followers to settle in the Territory. These he identified as Mennonites supposedly a branch of the Greek Church of which Bishop Bugnion “is the founder.” Mennonites, he stated were “like the Quakers, [who] object on principle to fighting” and as they “found the military service in Russia hard upon them … their Bishop … had sufficient influence with the Russian Government to get the concession made that his co-religionists might emigrate”.[1] Some had already moved to Canada where it was too cold and so they wished to come to Australia. Boucaut reported that “the Almighty” had revealed to Bishop Bugnion the Northern Territory as a place of religious freedom and the government would support the immigration of 40,000 Mennonites to the region. Bugnion next traveled to the USA supposedly to gather followers for immigration to Australia, however he never contacted any American Mennonites and didn’t even seem to collect any immigrants. Unfortunately, a change in government in South Australia in 1878 nullified this agreement.
Back in Australia in 1877 Bugnion moved to Rockhampton in the Queensland colony. Here he acquired some land, built a chapel for his church called “Sions Chapel”, invited in his small congregation and his brother Marc-Francoise and began to plan an agricultural colony for his followers. In September 1879 he began negotiations with the government to bring into Queensland 50 families from South Russia like the “well known Mennonites” with costs paid by the government and with the immigrants forming a compact agricultural colony. Shortly after this agreement Bugnion headed to Europe to collect his immigrants. However, Bugnion died on 17 May 1880 off the coast of Naples on the steamship Euxin, thus ending all his immigration plans.
Bugnion discussed bringing Mennonites and his followers to Australia and never denied a Mennonite connection suggested by others or noted in reports. Interestingly none of the governments of South Australia or Queensland took the trouble to authenticate Bugnion’s Mennonite connections nor did they verify his credentials. Perhaps favorable reports of Mennonites as immigrants made them headless. Curiously any mention of Bugnion or of immigration to Australia is totally absent from all Russian or American Mennonite literature, correspondence and diaries of this period. Indicating that Bugnion never contacted any Mennonites and there was among Mennonites a total ignorance of Bugnion or of Australia’s interest in them as immigrants.
Bibliography
Mayer, Jean François, L'évêque Bugnion ou les voyages extraordinaires d'un aventurier ecclésiastique vaudois. Lausanne, Editions 24 heures. 1989
Urry, James and Victor G. Wiebe. “Bishop Bugnion, The Mennonites and Australia: The Immigration-that-never-was, 1873-1980.” Journal of Mennonite Studies 32 (2014): 175-209.
| Author(s) | Victor G Wiebe |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 10 September 2023 |
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Wiebe, Victor G. "Bugnion, Francois-Louis (1822-1880)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 10 September 2023. Web. 27 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Bugnion,_Francois-Louis_(1822-1880)&oldid=177501.
APA style
Wiebe, Victor G. (10 September 2023). Bugnion, Francois-Louis (1822-1880). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 27 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Bugnion,_Francois-Louis_(1822-1880)&oldid=177501.
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- ↑ The text of the speech is given in full in the South Australian Register, 7 April 1876: 5.