they are to me. I see not, however, any other mode in which I can give
Americans anything like a correct idea of that state of society which
must be expected in this country, should the period ever arrive when
Popery and Popish priests shall be in the ascendant. There are portions
of Europe, and of South America, where parents well know that the
children, who take their name, whom they are obliged to support,
are only their legalized, but not their legitimate offspring; but so
entirely brutalized are their feelings and notions of morality by the
predominance of Popery among them, that these things are considered
matters of little moment. I saw an instance of this very recently at
a place called Hailappa, in Mexico. I met there a gentleman, a man of
wealth, some distinction, and one who had travelled a good deal. Knowing
that I intended leaving the place next day, he said he would introduce
me to two Dominican friars, who were going to Vera Cruz, and were
to travel in the same stage with me. In the course of conversation I
observed to him, that the reputation of Dominican friars and Jesuits for
morality, was not good in some parts of Europe which I had visited, and
I wished very much to know how it stood in Mexico. He frankly replied,
in very good Latin,--a language more familiar to me than the Spanish, or
perhaps any other,--"they are not considered as a body very moral men in
Mexico, but these reverend gentlemen to whom I will introduce you, bear
a high character for morality. They do not trouble their neighbors'
wives and daughters; they have for years kept their _female friends_,
and provided for their children." "Are they married, sir?" said I;
though I of course knew the reverse from the fact of their being
priests. "Oh no, sir," replied my Mexican acquaintance; "our _holy
church_ does not allow that, but they are _chaste_ men." "What do you
mean by chastity?" said I. "Living an _unmarried_ life," answered
he promptly. In the course of that evening, I met with a respectable
American citizen, a native of New Jersey; I asked him whether he knew
these priests, naming them. He told me he did; that one of them kept
_three sisters_, the eldest not over twenty-five years old, and that _he
had children by each of them_, but was still reputed a good priest, and
was, as far as he could discover, one of the best of them. The next day
I obtained an introduction to these worthies, and travelled with them to
Vera Cruz. They were dressed in their appropriate garb of sanctity,
the crown of their heads being shaved close, and bearing marks of
sanctimoniousness. It is well known that in the city of Mexico, and
throughout that sham republic, Romish priests live habitually and
publicly with the mother and daughter at the same time.
These are the men, and their code of moral law is that which Americans
are fostering and encouraging, by contributing their money to the
building of convents and Romish chapels throughout the United States.
Previous to my leaving Albany, many overtures were made to me by Roman
Catholics to continue among them; but I peremptorily declined. The
reader may well imagine the awkwardness of my position, and state of
my feelings on this occasion. I could give the people no reason for my
leaving them; my lips were sealed, my hands were bound, my voice was
silent. I saw many worthy families on the brink of ruin, and I could not
put forth a hand to save them. I saw their children almost in the jaws
of the lion, but I dared not warn them of their danger. I saw their
foes, in the garb of friends and moral guides, leading them into the
recesses of guilt and crime, and I dared not utter a warning cry. I knew
all in the _confessional_, and of course I was silent. The only resource
left me was to leave these scenes, where the occurrences which I have
stated had taken place; and I accordingly decided to make another trial
of Popery, by proceeding on to Philadelphia, a city which, at that
time, was preeminently distinguished for the virtues and morality of its
people.
I expected that in a community so remarkably distinguished for the
observance of all law, human and divine, as the city of Penn was, that
even Papist priests and Jesuits might, at least, observe the externals
of correct deportment; and, full of better hopes and brighter
prospects, I hastened among them, and was received with a cordiality and
hospitality truly flattering. Fortunately for this people, they had no
bishop for some time previous to my arrival. The diocese was under the
superintendence of a Vicar-general, a Jesuit, I think from Switzerland,
named De Barth. This reverend gentleman had been settled in the interior
of the State; and having there a _housekeeper and some nieces_, to whom
he was _attached_, he visited the city of Philadelphia but seldom; owing
to this circumstance, and to the fact that three or four friars and one
Irish curate, who was in the city, had their own way in everything, the
Popish congregation was comparatively quiet. American Protestants knew
nothing of their private lives, knew nothing of the plans and schemes
which they were laying to entrap their children, by suppressing the
reading of the Bible, to perpetuate amongst them the seeds of moral
death. Here, at least, I expected to find Popery as I fancied it
before I was ordained a priest. Notwithstanding what I had witnessed
immediately after my ordination in Europe; and though the death-knell,
which announced the departure to the grave of a young and virtuous
friend, had scarcely ceased to reverberate in my ears; though the
knowledge that a human soul was launched into eternity by Jesuit lust
and poison, and that within the walls of a nunnery, was yet fresh in
my mind; though all that occurred in Albany, under my own eye, and
witnessed by the testimony of my own senses, the one twentieth of which
I have not even alluded to; I still expected that I might find Popery
what my early education represented to me, or, at least, that I might
contribute to render it so, in this free country, by casting to the
winds the legends and silly traditions of the Romish holy fathers, and
substituting in their place the Word of God.
I little thought that there lived a Romish priest or bishop, who, in a
land of free thought and noble deeds, such as this was then, would dare
prohibit the circulation of the Word of God. I little dreamed that the
first opposition I should meet in my efforts to circulate the Bible
should be in Philadelphia. Who could even fancy that Papists were
so devoid of prudence, or so utterly reckless of consequences, as to
proclaim, in the city of Penn, we will have no Bible? Though I knew well
that Popery boasts of being always the same, that it never changes, I
also knew that the _infallible church_ always yielded to _expediency_;
and I thought, as a matter of course, ===that Americans were too
courageous, and too virtuous a people, to permit Papists to proceed
so far, at that early period of American history, as to close up the
fountain and the source even of their political existence as a nation,
and consequently that I should meet with no opposition from Papists
in any effort which might bear upon the face of it any evidence of my
intention to advance the cause of morals. But I was mistaken. Americans
were not then free. They are, not free now. They had, it is true,
shaken off the yoke of foreign dominion, but even then they were tamely
harnessing themselves in stronger chains to a heavier yoke; even then
they were passively submitting to the dictation of Rome, and to the
insolent bravado of Irish priests and bishops. I repeat it; they were
not free then. They made their country free, as we are told by history,
but it was not for themselves they made it free. It was done for
foreigners; it was done for Papists, for Jesuits, for Dominicans, and
their courtesans, Popish nuns. The day is not far distant,--I may not
live to see it, nor do I desire to witness it,--when some historian may
well apply to Americans that sentence in Virgil, which that beautiful
pastoral poet applied to the yoked oxen: "_Sic vos non vobis jujum
feratis boves_" Well indeed may this be applied to Americans; they have
borne the yoke, they have toiled with it upon their necks in cultivating
their fair fields of freedom, but, like the poet's oxen, the crop is not
theirs. It belongs to foreign Papists and their _lord_, the Pope, King
of Rome. Nor should I be in the least surprised, if, in less than
thirty years, that thing called the Host, made of flour and water, and
converted, by the mumbling of a few Latin words by a priest, into the
God of glory, should be conveyed through that city, under a canopy of
satin, supported by Popish priests, and guarded by a file of Popish
dragoons, preceded by a trumpeter, announcing its approach, in order
that the populace may uncover their heads, and fall upon their knees to
adore this god of Popish manufacture. Base idolatry! And history will
say of Protestant Americans,--Base people, to tolerate such profanations
among you!
But, on reflection, why blame Americans? They knew little or nothing of
Popery, except from history, and, in some histories, the picture given
had two sides to it. One was fair and seductive; the other was stern and
true. The former was exhibited with industry and care. It was sought for
and gazed at with pleasure. The latter had comparatively but few worldly
attractions, had no admirers but the votaries of truth, and, alas!
they were but few. Under these circumstances, how were Americans to be
blamed? Knowing them well, I cannot become their accuser, but I can,
without any disrespect towards them, pity them, and mourn over the
delusion under which they labor, even though that delusion should be in
part well earned.
How, for instance, could it be expected that American Protestants should
believe what is related of the capuchin friar by Michelet, whom I have
quoted in one of the preceding pages? Can an American Protestant suppose
it possible that a Romish priest could _persuade all the nuns_ in
a convent that he had a revelation from God, commissioning him,
especially, to tell those nuns individually, that it was their duty to
have a criminal connexion with himself, under pain of eternal damnation?
Such a thing would only excite the risible faculties of an American
Protestant; even the male portion of Roman Catholics will not believe
such a thing possible. There was a period when I would not believe
it myself, and when the idea of a Popish priest seducing a nun, or
administering poison to get possession of a man's wife, or his daughter,
or his property, was impossible, though history informed me of such
things being done in the Romish church; and, had I not become a Roman
Catholic priest, and been myself a confessor, I should, until this day,
turn a deaf ear to the relation of such facts. I should look upon Popish
priests and bishops, who were charged with them, as persecuted men,
and probably extend to them that sympathy and support, which Protestant
Americans are now doing throughout this country.
Were any one to come to me before I was a Romish priest and confessor,
and tell me that the Protestant young lady to whom I have so often
alluded, should go to a school kept by Popish nuns,--that they would
convert her from the religion of her birth, make her a Papist, cause her
to go to confession,--that the confessor would seduce her, and that
the superior mother abbess would cause her death in trying to procure
abortion,--I would not have believed him. I should have looked upon
him as some fanatic, or some evil-disposed person, actuated by malice
against Romish priests and nunneries; but after becoming a priest
myself, and a confessor, I not only believed such a thing possible, but
witnessed it. And though I could weep, I could not prevent it, such was
the nature of my sacerdotal oath of secresy; such were my obligations to
support the Pope and the honor of his _infallible church_.
Poisoning is a practice of ancient date in the Romish church: and I tell
you, Americans, it is still in full force, and you will taste of its
fruits before you are aware of it. Let me give you a well authenticated
instance of this. It is related in the fifth volume of Sanuto,
an eminent Popish writer. Pope Alexander the Sixth, _graciously_
condescended to inform one of his cardinals, Adrian de Corneto, that
he intended to visit him at his vineyard, and that he, the Pope, would
bring his supper with him. The cardinal, being himself a priest and a
confessor, suspected that the _holy Pope_ intended to poison him, with
a view of possessing his fortunes and a lovely _sister_ of his. The
cardinal's fortune was great, and the lady in question was beautiful. He
well knew his fate, unless something could be done to avert it, and he
knew of but one way of doing that. He sent for the Pope's carver, and
prevailed upon him to accept and keep, "for his sake," ten thousand
ducats, with large sums beside, which he had not then in cash, but which
he would have in a short time. "You know," said the cardinal to the
carver, "that the Pope has _compassed_ my death by poison at your hand,
wherefore, I beseech you, have pity on me, and spare my life." The
carver, yielding to compassion, promised to save him, and explained the
mode in which the _holy Pope_, the vicegerent of the Lord of Heaven,
and, as some Catholics will have it, not only the infallible, but even
the impeccable head of the church, intended to put him to death.
The carver was instructed by the Pope, to have two boxes of lozenge
confectionary prepared, and to present one to himself and the other
to the cardinal. That to the cardinal was to contain poison. His
_holiness_, the Pope, according to engagement, came to sup with the
cardinal at his vineyard, but matters being arranged between the carver
and the latter, the poison which the Pope intended for the cardinal was
given to himself; he was taken sick and died. This occurrence, which
took place centuries ago, though it may appear incredible to many
readers of this book, is as well authenticated by history, and is as
demonstrable therefrom, as it will be in some future generation,
that such a city as Boston, where this book is written, had ever an
existence. But it will be said, that such things might have existed in
ancient times; that popes might have poisoned cardinals; that cardinals
might have poisoned popes, and that popes might have poisonfed each
other; that priests might have seduced their _penitents_, and then
caused them to be poisoned, to save the honor of the _holy church_;
but that no such thing has ever occurred in these United States. Fatal
delusion, this; and thrice fatal will its consequences be to you,
American Protestants, as well as American Catholics, if you do not give
ear to my statements, and full credit to my word and warning, when I
tell you that such an event has taken place in the city of Philadelphia,
to my own personal knowledge; and that the reverend wretch, who seduced,
and subsequently caused to be poisoned, an innocent and virtuous orphan
daughter of a worthy American citizen, was a few months ago, and is now,
for aught I know, officiating as a Romish priest and confessor in the
city of Dublin, Ireland.
No wonder, I repeat it, that American Protestants should not believe
these things. No wonder that Americans who have joined the Popish
church, should not believe them. No wonder that some honorable and
high-minded young men in the United States, who have been decoyed by the
sophistry, apparent sanctity and _liberality_ of Romish priests, from
the faith of their Protestant forefathers, should disbelieve those
things, and feel indignant against all who advance such accusations.
But let them pause. Let them not be too precipitate in judging of the
motives of others. Some of these young men, like myself, in the days of
my youth, may take it into their heads to become Romish priests, and, I
understand that, even now, there are several of them in Rome preparing
to do so. Let them proceed. They will soon find, as I did, that such
facts as I here relate, horrible and revolting as they seem, are matters
of daily occurrence in the Church of Rome.
During every vicissitude in the history of the Popish church; during
every fluctuation, and every rise and fall of successive popes; during
all the metamorphoses and changes that took place in their lives, and
successive pretensions to power, their iniquitous practices were never
abandoned. Let us raise the veil which hides the past from our eye;
we shall find, if we do not permit ourselves to be misled by faithless
historians, that the only thing in which they never differed, was the
sanctioning of the crimes of plunder and rapacity for the aggrandizement
of the power of Rome, and that murder, rape, and even incest, lost
their atrocity when committed by priests and bishops of the _infallible
church_, who are her sworn and devoted supporters.
The power of the popes has often been shaken, yet they have stood every
shock. Their system of policy is such, that they have kept and are
keeping the nations of the earth engaged in some civil or ecclesiastical
broils among each other, and thus divert their attention from the
stealthy march of Papal power amongst them; and while nations are thus
engaged, they are enveloping the people in ignorance and darkness, so as
to blind them to their own atrocities and crimes.
This country is now a fair field for Popish manoeuvring. Rome has
seen this for the last twenty years, and has made her preparations
accordingly. While this new country was busy in forming her alliances
abroad, regulating her commerce, and making her treaties with foreign
powers; while she was dividing her states, settling her domestic
territorial disputes, regulating their laws, and defining their
boundaries; Rome was awake,--her spies were amongst you. They walked
carefully round the citadel of your freedom; they saw that it was
not sufficiently manned, that it was accessible from many points, and
accordingly, they poured into it platoon after platoon, regiment after
regiment, of the Pope's troops, until they had sufficient force to take
possession whenever they deemed it necessary and they now tell Americans
that the Pope is their legitimate sovereign, and that Americans are
but the "cowardly sons of cowardly pirates." They even go further; they
perpetrate the grossest outrages upon every law, moral and civil, in
utter defiance of American jurisprudence. They keep their _nunneries_,
or rather seraglios, in the very midst of them, surround them with
ramparts, and not only deny to their civil magistrates the right of
entrance, but defy them to do so. This every American citizen knows
to be a fact; at least, it is known in the city of Boston, where I now
write. No one was admitted within the walls of the Ursuline convent,
which an indignant populace reduced to ashes, without special permission
from the mother abbess,--allowing the nuns within to assume the
appearance of decency and propriety before they showed themselves,
however flagrant their conduct might have been. Time was given to them
and to the priests to assume their usual sanctimoni-appearance; but then
all the cells were never seen at the same time. Many were reserved
for hidden and criminal purposes, and when some of those nuns were
apparently cheerful and happy, leaving on the visitor's mind an
impression that nothing but happiness reigned throughout the whole
nunnery, there were probably some of them, unseen and unheard by
strangers, writhing in the agonies of childbirth. This is no fancy
sketch. Read Llorenti's History of the Inquisition, and you will find
that the picture I give is far short of the reality. Such was the
profligacy of friars and nuns, as Llorenti informs us, in the fifteenth
century, that the Pope, from very shame, had to take notice of it. He
had to invest the inquisition with special power to take cognizance of
the matter. The inquisitors, in obedience to orders from their sovereign
Pope, entered immediately upon the discharge of their duties. They
issued, through their immediate superior, a general order, commanding
all women, nuns and lay sisters, married women and single women, without
regard to age, station in life, or any other circumstance, to appear
before them and give information, if any they had, against all priests,
Jesuits, monks, friars and confessors.
The Pope was not fully aware of what he did, when he granted the
aforesaid power to the inquisition. He supposed that the licentiousness
of his priests did not extend beyond women of ill fame; but in this his
_holiness_ was mistaken, as he subsequently discovered. All were obliged
to obey the summons of the inquisition. Disobedience was heresy--it
was death. The number who made their appearance, to lodge information
against the priests and confessors, in the single city of Seville,
in Spain, was so great that the taking of depositions occupied twenty
notaries for thirty days. The inquisitors, worn out with fatigue,
determined on taking a recess, and having done so, they reassembled
and devoted thirty days more to the same purpose; but the depositions
continued to increase so fast, that they saw no use in continuing them,
and they finally resolved to adjourn and quash the inquiry. The city of
Seville was found to be one vast area of pollution. But Americans will
still say, this occurred in the fifteenth century; no such thing can
take place now. The whole social system is different now from what it
was then. I tell you again, Americans, that you are mistaken in your
inference. Priests, nuns and confessors are the same now that they were
then, all over the world. Many of you have visited Paris, and do you not
there see, at the present day, a _lying-in hospital_ attached to every
nunnery in the city? The same is to be seen in Madrid, and the principal
cities of Spain. I have seen them myself in Mexico, and in the city
of Dublin, Ireland. And what is the object of those hospitals? It is
chiefly to provide for the illicit offspring of priests and nuns, and
such other unmarried females as the priests can seduce through the
confessional. But it will be said, there are no lying-in hospitals
attached to nunneries in this country. True, there are not; but I say,
of my own knowledge and from my own experience through the confessional,
that it would be well if there were; there would be fewer abortions,
there would be fewer infants strangled and murdered. It is not generally
known to Americans, that the crime of procuring abortion,--a crime which
our laws pronounce to be felony,--is a common every-day crime in Popish
nunneries. It is not known to Americans,--but let it henceforward be
known to them,--that strangling and putting to death infants, is common
in nunneries throughout this country. It is not known that this is done
systematically and methodically, according to Popish instructions. The
_modus operandi_ is this. The _infallible church_ teaches that without
baptism even infants cannot go to heaven. The holy church, not caring
much now the aforesaid infants may come into this world, but anxious
that they should go from it according to the ritual of the church,
insists that the infant shall be baptized. This being done, and its soul
being thus fitted for heaven, the mother abbess gently takes between
her holy fingers the nostrils of the infant, and in the name of the
infallible church consigns it to the care of the Almighty; and I beg
here to state, from my own knowledge through the confessional, that the
father is, in nearly all cases, the individual who baptizes it; thus
literally verifying what Erasmus has said in sheer irony,--"_Patres
vacantur et Sepe sunt_." I desire to assert nothing, of a character so
frightful and disgusting as this, on my own unsupported authority. I
could give numberless instances of the truth of my assertions, but let
one suffice.
[Illustration: The Mother Abess Strangling the Infant p295]