Why priests should wed / by Justin D. Fulton

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Why Priests Should Wed
By
Justin D. Fulton, D.D.
Press of The Jeffersonian Pub. Go.
Thomson, Georgia 1913
UNIVERSITY of G.
ATMEN& GEORGIA

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and ninety-four, in the office of the Librarian at Washington, D. C.

CONTENTS
PAGE
Introduction ........................................ 9-14 Romish Priests little known.--Anthony Comstock's Letter. --The Wicked One Hidden.--Romanism the Religion of the Natural Heart.--Threat of ilons. Capel.--Worship in the Roman-Catholic Church a Senseless Procedure.-- Harlot of the Tiber.--Fifty Millions of People with No Surrender.--Victory on the Way.
CHAPTER I. Can We Uncover the Practices of Romish Priests? .......... 15-28
Destiny of Millions Hinges on Answer to this Question.-- Romanism dressed as an Angel of Light.--Its Seeming and its Deception.--Rome hates the Book.--Duke of Guise.--Wonderful Truth.--Romanism described in Scripture.--The Pope a Prisoner in the Vatican.--Could Priests marry, it would revolutionize Society.--Slander, what it is and what it is not.--Peril of Women.--Euro pean Statstics show double the amount of Prostitution among Roman Catholics.--Father Chiniquy's Question.-- Truth should be uncovered.--Dens and Liguori ought to ' be made to.speak out.--Their Works in Latin known to Priests only.--Described by Millman, Lea, and Hogan.-- Terrible Revelations.--What ought to be done.--Com mission by Legislature.--Priests should be judged by the same Rule that prevails in Evangelical Denominations.-- One thing all can do, tell the Truth about Rome.
CHAPTER H. Why Priests Should Wed. The Question Answered, ........ 29-37
Question opens to Dark Passages of Life in Europe and America.--Homes in Peril.--Millions of Women and Girls asked Questions by Priests, which, if taken upon the Lips of Christian Ministers, "would ruin them.-- Should Romanists be tolerated in doing this, more than Christians, Jews, or Infidels?--Hogan's Terrible Charge against the Catholics of Albany.--Michelet's Auricular Confession.--The Invisible Enemy.--The Priest a Plague. Celibacy Unnatural and Unwise.--The Unmarried Con fessor described by Paul Louis Courier.--Confessing Women.--Priest's Opportunity.--Llorente uncovers the Conduct of a Capuchin Friar.--Priestly Adulteries covered up destroy the Hopes of American Life.
CHAPTER HI. History of the Fight with Celibacy ...................... 38-56
Celibacy in Antagonism with the Teaching of God's Word first enjoined by Pope Siricius, 384 to 398.--Its Effect
3)
GENERAL LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY of GEORGIA
VTHFM'r .'.

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CONTENTS.

PAGE
on Morals.--Clement of Alexandria.--The Fight In Eng land.--Edgar in his Variations of Popery reveals the Dark and Dirty Side of Celibacy.--Origen, Jerome, Chrysostom, Benedict, detail Sad Experiences.--Clemens, Augustine, Chrysostom, Calmet, praise Matrimony.-- Domesticism. -- Concubinage. -- Romish Priests now marry.--Walsh, Trappist Monk, Bishop Hogan, charg ing the Priesthood with Drunkenness.

CHAPTER IV.
The Priest and the Confessional ........................ 57-72
Priest and Penitent.--Children's Confession.--Chiniquy's Experience.--Commandments, and the Seven Sacra- , ments.--Women in the Confessional.--Confession of a Dying Priest.--Abominations of Auricular Confession.-- Liguori excuses the Priest who falls once a Month.--The Penitent Forever Lost.

CHAPTER V.
Why Priests do not Wed; or, The Priests' Substitution for Marriage ............._.....:................... 73-96
Pio Nono's Invention.--Pope's Income.--Blessed Creatures. Qualificaions for Membership.--Perversions of Scripture. --Music Hall Experience of a Husband.--No Priest allowed to be Married.--Priests and Bishops may sin.-- Father Quinn's Question.--Virgin Mary Protectress of the Organization.--Badges of the Order.--The Book.-- Places and Arrangements.--Lavish Expenditures of Bish ops.--Protestants too Generous in patronizing Romish Fairs.--Dissipation.--Apartments in Nunneries.--Privi leges of Bishops.--Romanist described.--Special Cases. --The Inquisitorial Method.--A Martyr to Virtue.--A Priest's Peril.--Why cannot such Deeds be enacted?

CHAPTER VI.
Priests in Nunneries and Convents ..................... 97-110 Priests work in Darkness.--Bound to the Vatican.--The Italy of Monks, Habitation of Devils.--Without Popery, Italy a Garden of Delights.--Abuses.--Scipio di Ricci.-- Leopold.--Suppression of Monasteries and Nunneries.-- Confession in Convent.--Miss Henrietta Caracciolo's Experiences.--Nuns love a Priest.--Garibaldi's Testi mony.--Inside of a Convent.--Present Nunneries a Growth.--The Slaughter of the Innocents.--American Husbands ought to be on Guard.--Infanticide tolerated in Convents, punished in Daily Life.--Priests can get rid of Women.--How the Mother Abbess kills Infants.-- Nunneries should be examined.--The Truth should be told.
CHAPTER VH.
Maria Monk's Awful Disclosures Corroborated .......... 111-127 In 1836 the Story of Maria Monk broke upon the world.-- Nunneries Poor Schools.--Nuns Poor Teachers.--Opposed

CONTENTS.

5

PAGE
to the Bible.--Perils of jrirls.--Out of the Coffin into Shame.--Carnal Indulgence of Priests defended by Nuns. --Infants murdered by Nuns.--Messina, Italy its Festa. --Children slain with Consent of Priests.--Maria Monk assaulted.--How Priests can enter Nunneries.--No Respect for Confession.--Priests canvassing a Town in the Interest of Lust.--Romish Retreats a Drunken Revel. --Cover taken off by Father Chiniquy.--Awful Disclo sures of Maria Monk corroborated.

CHAPTER Vm
Inquisitorial Torture In Nunneries and Elsewhere ....... 128-142
Judas Iscariot Progenitor of the Inquisition.--The Holy Office a Place of Barbarity.--Born in 1198, lives wherever Romanism thrives.--Murder of a Virtuous Woman by Nuns and Priests.--Cells in Cellars for Purposes of Tor ture.--Cruel Penances.--Children born in Nunneries.-- To save her Child, Maria Monk fled.--Her Daughter, a Child of a Priest, went to the bad.

CHAPTER IX.
The Convent Burned In Charlestown, Mass., ............ 143-159 Six Months in a Convent, published in 1835.--The Pioneer. --Nsw England stirred.--In 1831 Miss Reed entered Mount Benedict.--A Servant's Influence.--How won from Protestantism to Romanism.--Deception all the way.-- Professing a Religion without Christ.--How they pass a Day.--Rules by the Reverend Mother.--Death-bed Scene.--Funeral of a Sister.--Escape of Miss Reed from Mount Benedict.--The Riot.--Its Cause.--The Press championing Rome.--Miss Josephine M. Bunkley tells of the Morals of St. Joseph's Convent in Maryland.-- Assaulted by a Priest.--Mount Benedict in Bad Repute. --Truth denied.--Maria Monk not an Imposter, but a Truthful Woman.--The Story she told deserves a Resur rection.--It is getting it.

CHAPTER X.

Are Roman-Catholic Priests Improving In Character?. . . . .160-177

The Dream that America was to Americanize the Roman-



Catholic Church is being exploded.--Romanists are

Romanists.--They reject the Bible and Progress.--In

Educational Methods they cling to the Past.--The Inside

of a Training School.--Bible cast out, Fable brought in.

--Father McCarthy pronounces the School System a

National Fraud.--A Catholic replies.--Rev. Florence

McCarthy assaults an Organist and a Servant, and stays

in the Church.--Bishop and Priest treat Public Opinion

with Contempt.--Chickens come Home to roost.--Mayor

of Allegneny City, Penn.--Fight with a Bishop.--Count

Joseph de Maistre's book.--Purity of Irish Catholic.

Females disputed.--E. H. Walsh, his Attack on Romish

Priests.--Our Duty: warn, exhort entreat.

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CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XI.

PAGE

The Recoil and the Resolve; or, The Scales fall from the Eyes of the Priest, and Rome's Power Dies ............. 178-193
Out of the Swamp to Plateau.--Story of a Priest who did not fall.--The Bible saved him.--Value of the Scriptures. --Tempted by Priests and Women.--A Minister and his Wife an Example.--Love for a Penitent fought.--Ques tions that he answered.--He saves a Nun.--His Resolve. --His Escape.--Another Priest married and then con verted.--Out of tha Confessional into Christ.

CHAPTER XII.
Liguori and Dens .................................. 194-207
Names Synonymous for All that is Vile.--Lessons that they taught.--Americans Asleep.--Priest should have his Own Wife and not the Wifs of Some One Else.--Nineteen Ways of Solicitation.--Priest's Illegitimate Children.-- Penalty of accusing a Priest.--Woman a Slave.--Priest the Master.--Concubines of the Clergy.--Priests and Women.--Prostitutes sanctioned.--The Quintessence of Popery concealed.--Dens worse than Liguori.--Too Bad for Description.--We close the Book. .

CHAPTER XIII.
Xo Surrender to Rome .............................. 208-217 The Beneficent Ministry of Rome to Mankind, though praised by a Presbyterian Divine, a Delusion and a Snare. --Stupidity not Innocence.--Romanism the Pet Error of the Devil.--Persecution of Protestants in France and in Ireland.--The Statesmanship of Rome undeserving of Praise.--The Battle raging above Washburn's G-rPs.t Speech.--Dr. McGlynn tells the Truth,--Rome ready fo.r the Death Grapple.--Are the Lovers of God ready? If not, get ready.
CHAPTER XIV.
How Priests Invade the Home. ......................... 218-233 Priests invade the Homes of Protestants, Catholics, and All. --In the Vatican Three Hundred Women.:--For what?--
. Monasteries and Nunneries built in Close Proximity-- why?--Vice tolerated Pollutes.--Mexico and bar Deliv erance.--David A. Well's Study.--Rome as a Foe to Freedom.--Orangemen, their Origin and their Work.-- Run, Romanism, and Rebellion.--An Old Curse.--How China resisted the Spiritual Control of Romanism.-- America the Land of Homes.--Fight for it.--Victory at the Door.
CHAPTER XV.
A Priest in the Toils ............................... 234-246 Roman Catholic Priest in the Toils.--The Priest on the Train to Chicago with his Woman.--Prof. J. T. Townsend's charge of Priestly Immorality.--The trouble at

CONTEXTS.

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Saltillo, Mexico.--The Trouble in Brooklyn.--Father Yodyzus Arrested.--E. H. Walsh and Father Chiniquy's Commendatory Words.

CHAPTER XVI. A Priest Wrecked by Hopeless love ................... 247-253
Charles Reade and "The Cloister and the Hearth."--A Mother's sad Wail.--Father Ley den and Steasea Curamings' Deathbed Scene.--The Mother's Remonsrance.-- The Nephew of Bishop Loughlin.--Influence of Priestly Turpitude Invades the Schools.--Will Americans Take Warning?
CHAPTER XVII. Fighting Priests, Frightened Romanists, Nothing . on the
Blotter ...................................... 254-261 Fathers McDonald and Hill.--Their Fight.--Gossip intro
duces a Woman.--Father Corrigan in Jersey City.-- Father Corbett in Lincoln, Neb.--The Trouble is the Religion of Christ is Unknown in the Roman Catholic Church.--Our Duty.
CHAPTER XVIII.
is American I/berty Imperiled by Romish Priests? ...... 262-272 In Politics Priests have Rule.--Priest's Oath, Bishop's Oath, Cardinal's Oath and Jesuit's Oath.--Tom Sherman.--To Tolerate Romanism is to Betray Liberty.

Where asterisks are used, they indicate where sentences have been omitted.

INTRODUCTION
ROMISH priests are little known, and less understood. Con nected with an oath-bound system, run as a political machine. worked for all they are worth to undermine the foundations of the Republic, wreck our school system, and throttle liberty, the average politician resolves to court them instead of fight ing them, work with them rather than against them. For this reason, Romanism has been talked about as a power, and not as a plague. Few think of Romish priests in society, because they do not meet them. They are apart and away. They may be a nuisance where they plant and plough; but. as they belong to a so-called Church, false notions regarding religions and soul liberty cause the many to feel that they should be left to themselves, to teach what they like, and to live as they choose. Xothing but a desire to serve the helpless women and girls, enslaved in the Roman-Catholic Church, would induce me ever to spell Romanism again. I would retire to a pas torate, seek to win souls to Christ, and lead some church into the green pastures of God's Word, and so relieve those loved at home and elsewhere of seeing the name they honor and love, linked with a work which exposes immoralities of a character so gross, so sensual, so devilish, that a faithful description of the facts would render one liable to be indicted. and tried before the courts, for the violation of the laws con cerning obscene literature. This is a terrible charge to be brought against Rome. To shield Rome, history must be belied, and the truth must remain untold. For. be it remem bered. I do not make facts, but quote them. Every line in the book, so stoutly opposed as improper, is taken from publi cations, which, with the usual restrictions, may be obtained in our larger and best libraries.
It is possible to be true, and work inside the lines of the law governing the circulation of improper literature. Because of my desire to convince others of this fact, and yet not betray the truth. I carried so much of the copy as I had in my possession to Anthony Comstock.--that brave and fearless champion of purity,--and asked his opinion concerning it. The interview gladdened and strengthened me. He recognized the purity of my motives, and the honesty and fidelity of my work. He saw that I had left out what would excite the las-

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INTRODUCTION.

civious, and. at the same time, recognized the need of some thing being said by a man true, strong, and brave enough to face the consequences of being fearless for the right. The following is his letter:--

The New York Society for the Suppression of Vice,

150 Nassau Street, Room 9, New York,

* Rev. Justin D. Fulton, D. D.

Dec. 15, 1887.

Reverend and Dear Sir: Having examined a part of the MSS.

which you submitted to me, I desire to state,--
First, That I believe your motives and intentions are absolutely honest and right.

Second, That the facts which you have collected are absolutely

true, as supported by living witnesses. I have taken some of the original works which are published, and now in print, from which

you have quoted. I find that much that is gross and infamous has

been left out. At the same time, if you will pardon me a sugges tion, I would like to call your attention to one or two things. First, the law does not regard your motive in putting forth a book, if the tendency of such work would be to deprave or to corrupt public

morals. I do not say that what I have seen would do that. 1' simply express a single proposition at law: that your motive does not affect the character or tendency of this book, so far as affecting public

morals, or so far as affecting the law of this land. I would suggest that you keep out from your MSS. any thing that would be con

strued as sensational, or any description of the secret doings of either priest or nun. \Vhile I would state sufficient to emphasize the evil, I would guard very carefully against anything of a prurient

nature, or that would cater to those who would look for filthy details rather than for the outrages being perpetrated.

Very truly yours,

ANTHONY COMSTOCK.

It will be seen by the above that he held the books in his hands. He read what I have not written, and what I do not propose to write. Today Romanism cannot be uncovered unless a man is ready to stand fine and imprisonment. It is
a shame that this is true, yet true it is.
To save the country from the devastations of Popery and from its polluting doctrines, they should be made known; and yet such a book is an impossibility while the law exists against ' literature calculated to deprave and debauch the mind of the
person into whose hands it might fall. The courts judge of a work by its 'probable effect, not at all by the intent of the writer. ''Why Priests Should Wed" is no longer a sealed commission. Xot a fact has been altered or erased. All has hot been told. It will, as far as it can. expose the practices of priests and the errors of Popery. The cup of shame has risen once more, as when Wicliff stirred up the monks by his fear less exposures. Possibly many will cry out against disturbing
so much filth; but the filth is there all the same, and, as

INTRODUCTION.

II

another has said. "The scavenger can scarce do all his work at
night when men are asleep/' If there be doubts concerning
these exposures, they can be set at rest by unlocking the pages
of history. The celibacy of the religious orders under the
papacy has for centuries been a source of infinite scandals,
and in the sixteenth century these materially aided the
Reformers. They vrill do similar work now. Thousands are letting go of Rome, and are taking hold of Christ. The facts in the book deserve a resurrection. They are bound now to have it. It is not an obscene book. A book is obscene which is immoral in purpose, indecent in language, causing lewd thoughts of an immoral tendency. This book does nothing of the kind, but will work the opposite result. The peril in uncovering and describing the corrupt practices of priests and nuns, of detailing the conversation in the confessional, was apparent. For this purpose I made myself acquainted with the law, and have worked inside its restrictions. But it remains true that there ought to be some way devised by which Liguori's and Dens' theologies, so called, might be spread before the people. Millions of women and girls would be shamed out of the Roman-Catholic Church, were this done. It would then be seen that a church that countenances houses of prostitution, that rents places to them and pockets the money, that takes a revenue from every rum-shop, that sends her Sisters of Charity to the race-course to solicit funds, lives a life in her priesthood which the pen cannot write and which the tongue cannot describe.
The wicked one was hidden. Has not the time come to reveal him? Paul said it would come. Three words describe Romanism: "mystery of iniquity" Every one knows of the iniquities of Romanism in the past. The mystery is. that these iniquities should be tolerated in the present. The time is at hand when their undoings shall be unroofed. "And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and destroy with the brightness of His coming." The word consume is expressive. Those who witnessed the Chicago and Boston fires understand its mean ing. They saw a tongue of flame reach across a street, touch a massive block, 'and in the twinkling of an eye it was con sumed. It disappeared. It was gone. So shall it be with Romanism. Truth shall consume it. as sunshine scatters mist.
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, was separated unto the gospel of God. That was his glory, and is his praise. In him God had a man, from the moment of his conversion to his death, ready to do what was necessary to be done, whether to endure stripes, to have his feet fast in the stocks, and sing

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INTRODUCTION.

with thanksgiving to God, until the earthquake ministered to his needs and opened a path to liberty and to usefulness; or to
stand on the deck of a ship, without sun or stars for days, the personification of faith in God's provident care, and so the foremost man about, capable of calmly taking command of
ship and crew, and giving orders in the name of God, because he saw Him who is invisible. The prince of the power of the air tries to match Paul, in devotion and in endurance, with Roman Catholic priests. As in the olden time, when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, Satan
came also, so now when the Church of Christ has through ministers and missionaries wrought as never before, Romish priests come, and put forth their counterfeit Christianity, and with it deceive many.
As when Aaron with his wonder-working rod came before
Pharaoh, the magicians came in like manner, and threw down rods as long arid as lively, and seemed to be able to cope with this man chosen of God. Our hope lies in the sequel. Rome has her papers, her Bibles with notes to deaden or explain away the truth, her Sabbath-schools, missions for the unfor tunate, and it all looks as if Romanism was a match for Chris tianity. But "Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods." It shall be so again. Can it not be so now?

The Trouble with Romanism
is: There is no separation in it to Jesus Christ. They do not believe in the new birth, in the new creation in Christ Jesus. Father Hecker of the Paulist Fathers says, "My father was a member of the Dutch Reformed Church, and believed in the decrees. My mother was a Methodist. I could not believe that a man or a child could be a devil one moment, and a saint the next; or that he must wait for God's call. So when Romanism was explained to me, which by baptism saves, and by sacraments perfects, it fitted into my nature, and I took it."
Romanism is Hie religion of the natural heart. Hence Paganism finds a place in it, and a home; and the new birth is rejected. It comes to a man, and bids him save himself. This flatters the pride, no matter what torture or flagellation or penance it demands or costs. Romanism permits sin to be enjoyed, and yet promises salvation not through Christ, but through man. It is a man-made religion from beginning to end. Romanism ministers to the pride of intellect. Behold the freedom she gives to push Christ and the Bible and the teachings of the Holy Spirit aside, and to substitute the prod ucts of man to take their place, so that in pride she can say. "Behold the Babvlon I have built." "How much she hath

INTRODUCTION.

13

glorified herself, and lived deliciously: for she saith iu her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sor row." (Rev. xviii. 7.)
Romanism ministers to the ambition of men.
Think of Monsignor Capel saying in Chicago. "The time is not far away when the Roman Catholics of the Republic of the United States at the order of the Pope will refuse to pay their school-tax, and will send bullets to the breasts of the
government agents, rather than pay it. It will come- as quickly as the click of the trigger, and it will be obeyed, of course, as coming from God Almighty Himself.'''' The hier archy of Rome rejoices chat the Pope, or the cardinal his rep resentative in America, can sell the Roman-Catholic vote as a quantity, and can keep one party in line through fear, and make the other through love do its bidding.
Romanism is not empty-handed, and men of prominence and seekers after power feel it. They who seek for victory through such means count out God, who declares, ''Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death and mourning and famine, and she shall be utterly burned with fire; for strong is the Lord God, who judgeth her. and judgeth those who bow clown to her." Rome's pride is fanned by seeing the dupes that give up the claims of intellect, of manhood and woman hood, and fall down and worship a cheat and a sham.

Enter a Roman-Catholic Church
at vespers. Was there ever a more senseless procedure ? Some boys burning incense; the priest, with his back to the congre gation, mumbling over prayers in Latin; the choir singing a Latin chant; and thousands of people on their knees, without a thought for the hopper of reflection, and without an inspi ration for the soul.
The time is coming when the mists will clear away, and this absurdity will appear; and then good-by to the power and the deceptions of Romanism. Two young ladies, reared in a convent, heard me describe vespers, went to the church in the afternoon, saw the lie. rose and went out, and called upon a lady, asking for a Bible; and gave up Romanism forever.
Rome not only ministers to the pride of man, and to his ambition, but to the lusts of the flesh.
The substitute for marriage for the priests, which Father Quinn, late of Kalamazoo, Mich., declares to be the invention of Pio Xono, for the purpose of holding the priesthood nomi nally to celibacy, while the widest door is opened for the gratification of lust, uncovers the depths of infamy quite as

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INTRODUCTION.

much as does the translation of Dens' Theology, a book which every Koman-Catholic priest is supposed to understand. It proves Rome to be joined to the

Harlot of the Tiber.
Her wantonness is terrible in America at this hour. The natural man has full swing. There is a place for intellect, for the love of power, and for the pleasures of the flesh. Hence the need of sounding out the perils of Romanists. They are in the broad road to hell. They must be warned to flee from the wrath to come, or they are forever lost. "For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father." (1 John ii. 16.) So it will ever be. Fifty millions of people, started in the roadway of an infinite purpose to build up a nation that shall be the light-house of the world, will never surrender to the Pope of Rome and his adherents.
The man who crawls into bed with the harlot of the Tiber for political promotion will degrade and destroy himself in the estimation of thinking men. Truly has it been said, and should be remembered, "Xo statesman ever trafficked with Rome, except at the sacrifice of his country; no American politician ever intrigued with the papal power, who did not intend to betray some important constitutional privilege, and permit this church to take one progressive step in the direction of dominance over the civil power." (The Argonaut, Aug. 13, 1887).

WHY PRIESTS SHOULD WED
CHAPTER I.
AN WE UXCOVER THE CORRUPT PRACTICES OF ROMISH PRIESTS?
CAN we uncover the corrupt practices of Romish priests? is a question pressing itself upon the attention of mankind as never before. On its answer hinges the destiny of millions now living and of millions yet imborn. There are h'inderances in the "way. It is perilous to reputation, and destructive of the prospect of securing the favor of the unthinking multi tude, to attempt to uncover Romanism as it was and is. An air of sanctity and solemnit3T envelops the system of error. Like the whited sepulchre which Christ described. Romanism is white without, while within it is full of dead men's bones and worse.
The Psalmist confronted a terrible iniquity in his day. and cried. "Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth. for the faith ful fail from among the children of men." (Ps. xii. 1). These words reveal the need of Divine help for the man at this hour who outlines the character, describes the conduct, and uncovers the corrupt practices of the representatives of that hierarchy of Rome which is opposed to liberty, which is the foe of virtue and the corrupter of youth. "They speak vanity with flatter ing lips, and with a double heart do they speak."' (Ps. xii. -2.) "For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel, for Sat(t)i himself is transformed into an angel of lie/Jit. There fore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be accord ing to their works." (2 Cor. xi. 13-15.) Notwithstanding that millions know this to be the truth, there are very many occupying positions of place and power in the community, who will not look beyond the seeming to what actually exists. They refuse to explore the seething sea of pollution in which Romish priests disport themselves and revel at pleasure: or to contemplate the disgraceful and degrading conduct of these so-called religious teachers, who are" blackening the character of our national life, undermining the purity of our homes, and destroying the hopes of millions of the boys and girls who are "identified with us in interest and in hope."
15

16

WHY PRIESTS SHOULD WED.

Romanism dresses like an angel of light,
and claims to represent Christ Jesus our Lord. The RomanCatholic Church profess to find their ritual in the fourth and fifth of Revelation. Blunt points out the resemblance: "The veiled door leading from the choir into the nave of the church, \vhich is only opened when the sacrament is administered,"-- this is his language; behold how it is calculated to captivate the unwary--''the opening of this door brings into view the
altar, and the divine mysteries being celebrated there. When St. John looked through the door, 'behold, a throne was set in heaecn. . . . and round about the throne were four and twenty seats, and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold, . . . and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, . . . and before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal."
"Here," says Blunt, "is exactly represented an arrangement of the altar familiar to the Eastern Church, to the early Church of England, and to the churches of Italy. France, and Germany at the present day, in which it occupies the centre of an Apse (the semi-circular or many-sided end of a church or chancel, and commonly forms the sanctuary) in front of the seats of the bishop and clergy, the latter being placed in the curved part of the' wall. And although there is no reason tothink that the font ever stood near the altar, yet nothing appears more likely than that 'the sea of glass like unto crys tal,' mystically represents the laver of regeneration through
which alone the altar can be spiritually approached."
"Another striking characteristic of the ancient Church was. the extreme reverence shown to the book pf the Gospels, which was always placed upon the altar and surmounted by the cross." "$<? in the midst of the throne and round about the throne St. John saw those four lining creatures which have been universally interpreted to repi'esent the four Evangelists oi' the four Gospels; their position seeming to signify that the Gospel is ever attendant upon the altar, penetrating, pervad ing, and embracing the highest mystery of divine worship, giving glory and honor and thanks to Him that sat upon the
throne, who liveth for ever and ever. In the succeeding chap ter St. John beholds Him for whom the altar is prepared. '/ beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne, and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes which a-i'e the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.'1 It cannot be doubted that this is our blessed Lord in that human nature on which the septiformis gratia was poured without

WHY PRIESTS SHOULD WED.

17

measure; and that His appearance in the form of the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing, represents the mystery of His prevailing sacrifice and continual intercession. (The Con gregation in Church, pp. 10 and 11.) Around this living sac rifice there is gathered all the homage of an elaborate ritual." It is this which is seen in the Roman-Catholic Church which attracts, which awes, which captivates.
"Experience has taught Roman Catholics that the use o f this ritual forms a most effectual means of bringing large con gregations regularly to church, and so of making converts to the faith." "Experience proves," says the same writer, "that the only way of attracting and gaining a hold on the vast uneducated masses of our towns and cities is by a worship addressed not merely to the ear. but to the eye."
"Ritualism," says one of its defenders, "is the object lesson of religion. Services conducted in grand and beautiful build ings, brilliantly lighted, with splendid vestments, touching music, costly decorations, and every outward token of rever ence and solemnity, will impress the young and the poor as nothing else can." (Congregation in Church, p. -21.)
That is Romanism in its deception, in its hypocrisy, in its infamy; a painted ship on a painted ocean, unreal, having literally "stolen the licery of heaven to serve the Devil in."
Shame on them, for neglecting to quote the concluding verse of the fourth chapter of Revelation, which ignores the dead ifary, and glorifies the living Christ, saying. "Thou art worthy, 0 Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created."1 They ignore also that terrific prophecy of the fifth of Revelation, when the cry sounded in the dark ages through the world. "Who shall open the book?" There was weeping because there was no one to open the book. In spite of Romanism the book was opened. For one of the elders said. "Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah. ihe Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof."
Rome chained the Bible to the altar. There Luther found it. Christ Jesus gave the book to the people, and loosened th? .seals thereof. Then came the Son of God into the view of mankind. "And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, hav ing every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odors which are the prayers of saints. And they sang a new song, saying. Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to
2p

18

WHY PRIESTS SHOULD WED.

God by thy blood, out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation, and hast made us unto God priests, and we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beasts and the elders; and the number of them vras ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands; saying vrith a loud voice. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain," not the holy virgin whom Rome worships, but the Lamb that was slain. "He is worthy to rcceice power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.''1 That is our victory in spite of Rome. Jens is worthy to take tlie book. Say it. every creature in heaven; shout it. ye redeemed of earth. Let all say, "blessing and honor and glory and power be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever."
Rome hates the Bool:

God's children love it. "Bring out the Book," said the Duke of Guise. It is brought. The Bible is handed the Duke. He takes it into his hands, dripping with the blood of the slain witnesses for Christ. He opens it. He looks at the title page. "This the Bible ?" he asks. "It is fifteen hundred years and more since the Scriptures were made, and these were printed within a year."
Wonderful Truth.
The Bible is ever walking out in new garb. It is old, and yet it is new. It was the boast of Xapoleon, that he made way for the talents. But such talents! "Talents wriggling to heights where the lion could scarcely find a foothold, or the eagle a place to perch." It was and is the Bible that opens the way for the talents. Because of this, redemption has come; and where the Bible is welcomed and read and loved and obeyed, there is prosperity. Life tells. God takes care of His own. It is the man with the Bible in his heart and on his lips that is the opponent of Romanism. It is this truth which Rome sees, hence the parochial school from which the Bible is excluded. Hence a religion that appeals to the eye, but that finds no thoroughfare in the ear to the human soul. No one can enter a Roman-Catholic church, see the deluded wor shippers bowing down to a man-made Deity, believing that Jesus Christ tabernacles in a wafer which the priest holds between his thumb and finger, listening to prayers in a foreign tongue, watching the smoke of the incense, and having the hopper of reflection emptied of thought, and the soul barring out the Christ, and giving place to mummeries without end

WHY PRIESTS SHOULD WED.

19

and to superstitions born in the caves of Paganism, nurtured by ignorance, and sustained by the corruptions of a carnal heart.--no one can see all this without feelings of pity and commiseration, that the immortal powers of the mind can be so prostituted to satanic uses and selfish aims. Put over against cardinals, bishops, priests, and what not. Christ with the book, with the assurance that "as many as receive Him. to them gives He power to become the sons of God. even to them that believe on His name." and the power can be seen which is
to conquer the world, and bring all to worship Christ as King of kings and Lord of lords.
Rome ministers to the eye. and to the corruptions of the
human heart. Men of no religion can turn into her courts, and come away undisturbed and unrebuked. The drunkard can enter the Roman-Catholic Church, and hold on to his rum,; the man given up to lust worships before her altar, and is ministered unto by a man as vile as himself. Rome is_the playhouse of the Devil. It is the gateway to the broad road through which millions are passing to the retributions of
despair.
There are some passages . of Scripture which describe Rome, in Revelation. Here she is in her glory. "And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked
with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup
in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her forni cation; and upon her forehead was a name written: Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the' earth.'1' This is the church whose cardinals flame in red. This is the church drunk with the blood of saints. (Rev. svii. 4,5.)
There is Scripture that describes Romanism in her vileness and shame, outside of Revelation. Turn to the prophet Ezekiel, the eighth chapter, and you see a door opening into
a room as vile and full of shame as is the sacristy used by the priests as an assignation house as described by William
Hogan. "Behold a door. And he said unto me. Go in, and
behold the wicked abominations that they do here. So I went in." There yvere creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel. "Then said he unto me.
Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? for they say, The Lord seeth us not, the Lord hath forsaken the earth. . . . And he brought me into the inner
court of the Lord's house, and behold, at the door of the tem ple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men with their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, and they worshipped

20

WHY PRIESTS SHOULD WED.

the sun toward the east. Then he said unto me. Hast thou seen this. O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah. that they commit the abominations which they com mit here? for they have Piled the land with violence, and have returned to provoke me to anger; therefore will I also deal in fury; mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity; and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.'" (Ezek. viii. 12-18.)
It requires no stretch of the imagination to make this lan guage apply to Eome. PeA'ond the "apse" is the sacristy. There is kept the idol. There are practised infamies, to be described farther on. For Rome has become, in this and
other lands, the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. Take off the cover, let in the light, and Romanism dies. "For then shall the Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall con sume with the spirit of his mouth, and destroy with the brightness of his coming." (2 Thess. ii. 8.)
Truth proclaimed is the hope of humanity. Truth locked up in Bibles unread, in histories piled up in libraries, lying as silent as Egyptian mummies in ancient pyramids, is valueless. Truth confined in metal or in men is dead. Truth spoken,
truth printed, truth propelled from the uncapped cannon of God's moral artillery, is mighty to the pulling-down of the strongholds of error, and levelling with the earth the bastions behind which Satan trains his dupes and assaults the faithful and the true.
1. Romanism has a right to fear the truth. Truth is the death of this foe of Christianity. It is said, "the devil trem bles when he sees a saint upon his knees," hence Romanism quails before an exposure of its doings and undoings. Because of this. Rome seeks to suppress the truth. It delights to kill the messenger, that it may destroy the message. In vain.
Rome is broken. The Pope is a prisoner in the Vatican. Romanists all over the world are compelled to let him stay there until his end shall come, which will not be long. Already the cry is heard, "Come out of her. my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. JRcicard he)1 even as she
rewarded you. and double unto her double according to her works; in the cup which she hath filled, fill to her double." This command is being obeyed in France, in Italy, in many of the South American States, and it will yet find its way to the peoples of all lands and dimes; and then the end of Rome shall come, and the strong voice shall be heard saying. "Baby lon the great is fallen." ( Rev. xviii. 1-6.)

WHY PRIESTS SHOULD WED.

21

It was the truth that broke the power of the Devil when he assailed the Lord Jesus Christ in the wilderness. Our Lord hit the prince of the power of the air wuh a text of Scripture; and the arrow drawn from God's quiver went home to the heart of the King's enemy, and rankles there, and will
destroy the adversary.
It was a simple proclamation of truth that enabled Abra ham Lir.coln to give freedom to millions of oppressed bond men. Let the truth get wing that is being gathered up and made into a thunderbolt, in "Why Priests Should Wed." and auricular confession must die, and the priests must either marry, or they will be banished the realm.
Put these terrible pictures behind the altar of the Church of Rome, and read the sacristy scene described by William Hogan, and what is duty ? What will the American people do about it? What will they say of a man who knows this. and dares not sound out the warning? Will they tolerate this disgrace, or remedy the difficulty, and take away the oppro brium ?
Paul said, "Because of fornication let each man have his own wife and let each woman have her own husband." (1 Cor. vii. 2.) For hundreds of years the priests of Rome enjoyed this boon. In Greece today Roman-Catholic priests marry. In the Russian Church, the marriage of priests is the rule.
Could priests be permitted to marry in America, it would
revolutionize society. It would give the husband in the Roman Catholic home his rightful place as the head of the
house. To tell the truth about the priesthood, is to slander them,
we are told. What is slander? To slander is to injure by falsehood maliciously uttered.
To injure by telling the truth, for the good of the people, is not slander, but the reverse. Duty compels a man to speak the truth, if he be faithful to his trust. God says. "Son of man. I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel:
therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warn ing from me. When I say unto the wicked. Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn
the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand." The wicked shall die. though not warned; but in such a case not only does he die. but his blood is required at the hand of the man who failed to sound the alarm. In other words--Roman Catholics unwarned, if they die without Christ, die without hope; and we that know their peril, and refuse to tell them of it, incur peril.

22

WHY PRIESTS SHOULD WED.

On the other hand, if we warn them, and they turn not
from their wickedness, they shall die in their iniquity; but the
faithful watchman has delivered his soul. (Ezek. iii. IT-19.)
This principle has a wide application. To ignore it is 'to imperil the life of the nation. The American people are asleep regarding the encroachments of Romanism. While
papists are rocking the cradle, singing their hypocritical songs of peace and safety, endeavoring to grasp the reins of
government and take the highest offices of the nation, the watchmen refuse to warn of the approaching enemy, or to support one more brave or more faithful than themselves.
It has been charged, that no exception from the sweeping onslaught has been made. That is untrue. In the sermon, "Why Priests Should Wed," this language is found:--
"The theory that a woman may obey the priest in every thing he commands her to do, ^nd that she can never be called
to account to God for any action she may have performed to please her priest, compels millions to go wrong." The peni
tents are compelled to answer questions of the most revolting character, and then it was distinctly stated that it is noi charged that all Roman Catlwlic priests are dissolute. But it is charged that erery one is compelled by his oath to pollute the minds and -the hearts of the mothers, wires, an<1 daughters
with whom he comes in contact; and that it is impossible, in the Church of Rome or elsewhere, to take such thoughts into the mind without being polluted by them. As a result, no thoughtful mind is surprised at the rapid downfall of. any nation that is under the yoke of Rome. "The public statistics of the European, as well as of American nations, show that
there is among Roman Catholics nearly double the amount of prostitution, bastardy, theft, perjury, and murder, that is found among Protestant nations." In Rome, where Roman ism is the so-called prevailing religion, virtue is almost unknown; bastardy is the rule, and children born in wedlock
are the exceptions. Father Chiniquy asKs, (Fifty years in the Church of Rome. p. 143) "Where must we. then, look for the cause of these stupendous facts, if not in the corrupf teach ings; of the theology of Rome? How can the Roman-Catholic
nations hope to raise themselves in the scale of Christian dig nity and morality, as long as there remain two hundred thou sand priests in their midst, bound in conscience every day to
pollute the minds and the hearts of their mothers, their wives,
and their daughters?" Is it r-tranjre that priests are asking. "Would we not be
more chaste and pure by living with our lawful wives, than by daily exposing ourselves in the confessional in the company of women whose presence will irresistibly drag us into the
shameful pit of impnrit}"?"

WHY PRIESTS SHOULD WED.

2:<

"As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.'' (Prov. xxiii. 7.)

These words cover \vith night the priesthood of Rome. Xo

matter about their vow of chastity, before the seducing pres

ence of a woman it is valueless. '"Men," said a priest, "may

think me an angel of purity; but in God's sight and in my

own, I am but a skillful hypocrite. For. according to all the

theologians, the confessional is the tomb of the chastity of

priests; a tomb well painted and gilded on the outside, but

within full of corruption." (Fifty Years in the Church of

Rome, p. 147.)

To say this, is to anger the millions of Roman Catholics

who are desperate and wholly under the control of the priests

whose enormities are exposed'. This is but the beginning. By

telling the truth about Rome, you strip off the veil, take off the

paint^ s>nd leave Romanism in its nakedness to be hated and

despised. Now. it is a strange fact, that millions are willing

to be humbugged and deluded who object to being laughed at

and ridiculed.

Hence. Episcopalians on the way to Rome, establishing

their confessionals, and lighting their candles, object to hav

ing their folly pointed out. The field is not an inviting one

for the timid or the sensitive.

2. To imcoi'cr the corrupt practices of Popixh priests, is o-

(Intij, despite the charge of obscenity which may be raised.

For printing a translation of Dens' Theology, an authority

with every Roman-Catholic priest, an English printer is now

in an English jail.

In some way or other, the whole truth should be brought

out. The safety of the American people requires it. The best

interests of women and girls now under their control require

that their attention be called to the corrupt practices of

Romish priests, and that they be told of the more excellent

way marked out in the Gospel of Christ. At the present time..

Dens' and Ligiiori's Theologies. so called. (-.1111101 be tran.--

lated from Latin, which priests read and enjoy, into English,

so that the people under their control might know whaf cor

rupting and disgusting suggestions and insinuations fill their

minds, and influence their lives.

The books which exhibit the true genius of Popery an.'

written in Latin and never translated. They are to be found

nowhere but on the shelves of priests. Consequently the pen-

pie are kept in ignorance. It is alarming that men of brai::

and culture in the Roman-Catholic Church will consent to

this state of things.

.

For the shame and confusion of Romanists. Dens" The

ology and Lignori's Instructions ought to be translated, and

24

WHY PRIESTS SHOULD WED.

placed within reach of the parents of those children now exposed to peril. An evil thought pollutes the soul. Proofs
of the result have been set forth in these pages. Ma}7 God bless the truth to tnose who read it! Already the people are aware that Romanism is filthy and debasing. ''Let them eschew evil, and do good. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous.'' The author of the synopsis of Liguori's writings asks the question. "Would it not be a pit}' to conceal things that ought to be known from many, because they are
too indecent to be exhibited to all?" Rome hides behind this hw forbidding the approach to obscenity, to conceal her ^lame. To pour out all the pollutions of the doctrines of Rome, would be to make a book too indelicate to appear in public. To protect the innocent, the guilty are permitted to ro scot-free. To protect Rome, history has to be emasculated,
jiiid the conduct of her spiritual teachers has to remain undescribed.
In some way or other, society must organize against "this horrid iniquity. It has been claimed that no charges have been brought against the priesthood and nunneries, except they were made by ex-priests or nuns. Milman. the author of "Latin Christianity," is not an ex-priest. Henry C. Lea. author of "An Historical Sketch of Sacerdotal Celibacy.' published by Houghton, ilitflin & Co.. in 1884, is not an tx-priest; and yet he says as hard things against Rome as have ever been uttered by priest or nun. He says,--
"The Church is unquestionably violating die precept, Thou shalt not tempt.7 (Sacerdotal Celibacy, p. G24) when in its reliance that the gift of chastity will accompany ordina tion, it confers the sub-diaconate at the age of twenty-two, and the priesthood at twent3T-h've,--or even earlier, by special dispensation.--and then turns loose young men at the age
when the passions are the strongest, trained in the seminary, ami unused to female companionship, to occupy a position in which they are brought into the closest and most dangerous relations with women who regard them as beings gifted with
supernatural powers, and holding in their hands the keys of heaven or hell. Whatever may have been the ardor with
which the vows were taken, the youth thus exposed to temp tations hitherto unknown finds his virtue rudely assailed, when, in the confessional, female lips repeat to him the story of sins and transgressions, and lie recognizes in himself
instincts and passions which are only the stronger by reason of their whilom repression. That a youthful spiritual direc tor, before whom are thrown down all barriers with which the prudent reserve of society surrounds the social intercourse
of the sexes, should too often find that he has over-estimated !;i< self-control, is more than probable."

WHY PRIESTS SHOULD WED.

2=,

Residence of Women*
"Few priests have the self-denial to live without female companionship. Indeed, the census-paper, officially filed in the Vatican and returned in January. 1882. stated the popula tion of the palace to be five hundred, of which one-third were women. While of course it does not follow that the relations between these women and the grave dignitaries of the papal court may not be perfectly virtuous, still, considering' the age
at which ordination is permitted, it would be expecting too much of human nature to believe that in at least a large num ber of cases among parish priests, the companionship is not as fertile of sin as we have seen it in every previous age since
the ecclesiastic has been deprived of the natural institution of marriage." (Sacerdotal Celibacy, p. 0:2 7.) "The 'niece.' or other female inmates of the parsonage, throughout Catholic
Europe is looked upon as a matter of course by the parish ioners; while the prelates, content if public scandal be avoided, affect to regard the arrangement as harmless."
Priests may not wed. but may live in open violation of God's commands, is what Henry C. Lea says as boldly as Wil
liam Hogan. Abbe Helsen. who for twenty-five years was a popular
preacher in Brussels, calls upon his bishop "to banish the women who are universally inmates of the houses of priests,
and thus put a stop to the sin and scandal which destroy the influence of the Church, and spread immorality among the faithful." Another said. "If women were forever banished
from the houses vowed to celibacy. I think we should not see so great a number of prostitutes who ply their trade at night in our great cities, nor so many illegitimate children who curse their destiny as they multiply more and more around us." (Sacerdotal Celibacy, p. 629.) Is not that equal to any
utterances of a Maria Monk or of a Father Chiniquy I Again, Henry C. Lea says. "This sort of veiled concubin
age is. in fact, a fruitful source of prostitution." "The ordi
nary custom is, when one of these priest's servants becomes pregnant, and cannot be saved by a prudent absence, to dis
miss her. and take another, perhaps younger and more attrac
tive; and this may occur repeatedly, without the ecclesiastic being subjected to any special annoyance or supervision-- unless, indeed, he is so ill-advised as to take pity on the unfor tunate girl, and refuse to send her away. In that case he becomes a public concubinarian. liable to the canonical pen alties, with which he is sometimes disciplined."" (Sacerdotal
Celibacy, p. 029.) That is. the priest may ruin as many
women as he desires: but if he loves one. and treats her as a wife, he must suffer for it.

26

WHY PRIESTS SHOULD WED.

The scandal of the Countess Lambertini, who sued for a share of her father's estate, Cardinal Antonelli, is proof "that lust in Italy is not disgraceful." Sixteen bishops urged the marriage of the priests, -'to reduce the number of bastards whose existence degrades the Church." (Sacerdotal Celibacy, p. 631.)
In a similar mood, D. Marco Petronio, a priest of Pirano,
in Istria, declares "that the boasted chastity of the priesthood has filled the Church with demons in place of angels, who lead their flocks to ruin by their acts and example;" and
Panzini describes the Church as "a brothel filled with men, ruined bv the attempt to deprive them of marriage." (Sacer dotal Celibacy, p..632.)

The Church shields the Guilty, and suppresses Scandal.
How powerful and unscrupulous its influence appears in numerous instances given. "In 1817, at Availles in France, the sacristan complained to the mayor that his daughter was received every night by the cure, to the scandal of the people. The mayor, thus invited, entered the priest's house one night suddenly and found the girl in dishabille, hidden in a corner. He drew up an official statement of the facts, and forwarded it to the authorities; and the response to this was his sum mary dismissal from office on the ground of having violated the domicile of the cure, and increased the scandal." (Bouvet. p. 510.) There is justice for 3"ou. Is it not a type of what we may expect in America, when once Rome gets control? "A priest sickened of a devout married young woman. He mur dered her. cut her to pieces with his pocket-knife, and threw them into the river Isere, escaped to Savoy, and was provided for as a persecuted saint." (Sacerdotal Celibacy, p. 635.) "Similarly, in 1877. the Abbe Debra. condemned at Liege in default for no less than thirty-two offences, was. after proper seclusion in a convent, given a parisli in Luxembourg by the bishop of Xamur. A canon of Cnmbray seduced three young Jewish girls, and procured their confinement in convents under the pretext of laboring for their conversion. One of his victims lost her reason in consequence of her suffering-, and the court of Douay condemned him to six years at hard labor: and Rome calls him a martyr." (Sacerdotal Celibacy, p. (>3i>.) That was in France. In Brooklyn. X. Y.. a caw quite as aggravating, where the organist was assaulted by the priest. (Sacerdotal Celibacy, p. (>35) the jury brought him in guilty and fined him six cents, whereupon the lecherous priest went back to his altar and to his shame.
In Lowell. ilass.. in Biddeford, Me., in Charlestown,

WHY PRIESTS SHOULD WED.

27

Mass., women who have fled Rome pronounce her iniquities worse than we have painted them, and claim that the 'half has not been told.
Rev. William Chauncey Langdon. who had long residence in Italy as agent of the American Episcopal Church, said. "1 learned to regard a priest who lived all his mature life openly and faithfully with a woman to whom he had not of course been married, by whom he had children grown up. and for all of whom he was faithfully providing.--with a relative respect, as one who had greatly risen above the morality of
the Church and of the society around him. and whose life might be considered, on the dark moral background behind, a source of relative light." (Report to the Italian Committee
of the American Episcopal Church. Sept. 11. 1867; in Sacer dotal Celibacy, p. 635.)
These facts deserve to be pondered by Romanists in America. The frequency with which the councils command that the confessions of women shall not be heard, save in case of infirmity, except in church; that, when heard elsewhere, it shall always be with open doors: and that in church the con fessional shall be in a spot publicly visible, with a grating between the confessor and his penitent.--shows that the risk is fully recognized, and requires constant watchfulness. (Sacerdotal Celibacy, p. 633.)
3. What may be done? The Legislature can touch and handle this subject through a commission, and break up the iniquitous hold which this polluting despotism has upon mil lions of our fellow-citizens. There are thousands who would be willing to testify against the iniquity. The people have a right to demand that priests should be judged by the same rules that prevail in evangelical denominations. It will not avail our enemies to reply to our charges against the priests
of Rome,--

i

"You are Another."'

It is not true. If a Baptist defalcates, and robs the people, he finds a home in State-prison. What Ro;nish priest has looked out from behind the bars, though money has been squandered, banks wrecked, and costly churches have been built out of the money taken from the trusting and devoted subjects of this terrible despotism? If a minister lapses from virtue, his pulpit is denied him until the stain from his char acter is effaced. There is no reason why this should not b? made true.of Roman-Catholic bishops, and priests as well.
The conduct of priei-rs in nunneries ought to be investi gated. Nunneries should be examined, and every nun should

28

WHY PRIESTS SHOULD WED.

be permitted to see a representative of the State alone, and apart from the surveillance of her keepers or companions, once a year. Because this was insisted on in Germany, the convent, system was abandoned. It might be so here.

One Thing cell can do,
Every man and woman opposed to the degrading influence of Romanism can protest against its enormities in private and in public. Nothing will destroy it sooner than for men and women to make it their business to tell what they know, and circulate documents that expose its infamies and corruptions. A society should be supported that will take this work in
hand. The gospel of Jesus Christ is essential to the life of the
people. "Give glory to the Lord your God before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark moun tains." is the command of the most high God. Do this, and "the Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake; but the Lord will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel. So shall ye know that 1 am the Lord your God, dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain; then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more."
America is given as a trust to the children of the Highest. Let our cry be, "Help. Lord, for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men." Let it be our endeavor to be all and to do all in our power, then shall (i-id'f great purpose revealed in our national life find realiza
tion Mnd fulfilment.

WHY PRIESTS SHOULD WED.

- 2}

CHAPTER II.
WHY PRIESTS SHOULD WED. THE QUESTION ANSWERED.
Ix answering the question why priests should wed. there are reasons and there are reasons.
A few of them shall be given, not in malice, not in innu endo, not from love of nastiness and obscenity, but because Americans owe it to themselves to read what shall be written, and, if they choose and will, to read between the lines as well. Naturally, one recoils from such work as this. There is noth ing in it but a record of shame and sorrow. It is uncovering the sewer of out- American life, and showing what is being dumped into it ot badness from beyond the sea. It opens the dark passages of European life, and reveals the priesthood to the eyes of all. not alone as they have long been seen in Rome, in Italy. Spain. France, and elsewhet-e. but as they are living in our midst, as they have power to live in the Old World, and be the pestilence' of Christianity, the plague-spot of mor ality, and the outrageous exception to much they might be and ought to have been. Paul described them as men "who love themselves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, with out natural affection, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For^of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, ever learning, and never coming to the knowledge of the truth."' (2 Tim. iii. 1-7.) Because of these characteristics of the Roman-Catholic priesthood, perilous times have come to these last days.
America is the land of homes. What blesses them, help* everybody. What curses them, injures everybody. It is be cause the homes of millions are invaded and imperilled by the conduct of priests, that attention should be called to some of the many reasons why priests should wed. Because Roman Catholic priests, the minions of a foreign oath-bound despot ism, are doing their utmost, not to build up the Republic in the faith of our fathers, but to sap the foundations they laid, and despoil the people of their legitimate hopes. storm-signal-; should be raised, and warnings must be sounded out from pul pit, press-room, and platform, as never before.
The Cold Fact Stated.
A million of women, 'and more than a million of srirls. are

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WHY PRIESTS SHOULD WED.

asked questions by over two hundred thousand priests, which, if taken upon the lips of any so-called Christian min ister in the presence of wife and daughter, would debar him his pulpit, place on his reputation an ineffaceable stain, and, if persisted in. would lead to banishment if not to summary punishment. Why should priests in America be permitted to say and do what other religious teachers could not be tolerated in doing? Is there any reason why there should be one standard for Romanists, and another for Christians, Jews, or infidels? Have Romish priests a right to invade virtue, tram ple on justice, degrade womanhood, and despoil her of all that makes life valuable? Many are fond of reckoning Roman Catholics as a part of the Christian world. Let such demand that the priest marry, and get out of the home as a marplot, and enter it only as a religious teacher. Could they do so, it would revolutionize society, give the husband his place as the head of the household, and bar the path to almost universal licentiousness. The theory that a woman may obey the priest, and, without sin, be to him all he desires, and that she can never be called to account to God for any action she may have performed to please him, compels millions to go wrong.
In 1845 prostitution among Romanists in Albany, N. Y., was charged by William Hogan, once a priest in Albany, and chaplain of the Legislature. He said, (Auricular Confession and Popish Nunneries, p. 46.) "The Roman Catholics of Al bany had, during about two years previous to my arrival among them, three Irish priests alternately with them, oc casionally preaching, but always hearing confessions. . . . As soon as I got settled in Albany, I had, of course, to attend to the duty of auricular confession, and, in less than two months, found that those three priests, during the time they were there, were the fathers of between sixty and one hundred children, besides having debauched many who had left the place previous to their confinement. Many of these children were by married women, who were among the most zealous supporters of these vagabond priests, and whose brothers and relatives were ready to wade knee-deep in blood for the holy,
immaculate, infallible Church of Rome"
The following statement compels us to ask if priests believe?
"There is a circumstance connected with this," says Mr. Hpgan, "that renders the conduct of these priests almost frightfully atrocious. There are in many of the Roman Catholic churches, things--as Michelet properly calls them, 'sentry-boxes'--called confessionals. These are generally sit uated in the body of the church, and priests hear confessions

WHY PRIESTS SHOULD WED.

Gl

in them; though the priest and lady-penitent are only sep arated by a sliding-board, which can be moved in any direc tion the confessor pleases, leaving him and the penitent ear to ear, breath to breath, eye to eye. lip to lip, if he pleases. There were none of them in the Romish church in Albany, and those priests had to hear confessions in the sacristy of the church. This is a small room back of the altar, in which the eucharist, containing, according to the Romish belief, real body and blood of Christ, is kept while mass is not celebrat ing in the chapel. This room is always fastened by a lock and key of the best workmanship, and the key kept by the priest day and night. In the sacristy containing the wafer, which the priests blasphemously adore, the lecherous priests committed habitually those acts of immorality and crime." (Auricular Confession and Popish Xunneries. by William Hogan, p. 46) : If this was so in Albany in 1815. why may it not be so there and elsewhere at this hour? Do Americans think at all of that state of society which exists in this country where priests rule? Popery has not to be in the ascendant in this country, that priests may rule. Who interferes with their damnable acts? Romanists on the jury refuse to convict a priest. Women uphold him in wrong doing. No matter what he does, he goes back to his altar and to his adulteries and debaucheries, and Americans say it is none of their business. But it is their business. Sin, palliated and condoned, lowers the standard of morality, and injures society. The loose ideas of marriage and wedlock come largely from the influence exerted by priests. If a priest can take a man's wife to his room, or to a hotel, and enjoy her society, a husband can do the same. It is pitiable; it is terrible; and there must be an appeal and a remedy. . One sabbath afternoon, in Music Hall, a converted nun handed in this request: "Pray for my poor, benighted rela tions who are yet in the bonds of iniquity and the gall of bit terness. My poor little niece, who is now in Boston, out of work, was put into a convent when three years of age, and has been since then the mother of two children before she was nineteen years of age, one living and one dead. She was living
with a priest when these children were born; is now turned out upon the world, without work, without a home, and can neither read nor write." This is but a specimen of hundreds of letters which reveal the extent of this iniquity, about which the American people know so little and care less. The priest is in the way.
In M. Michelet's "Auricular Confession and Direction," we find this:
"The family is in question; that home where we would all

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fain repose, after so many useless efforts, so many illusions destroyed. We return home very wearied,--do we find repose
there? We must not dissimulate. We must frankly confess to ourselves the real state of things. There exists in the bosom of society, in the family circle, a serious dissension,-- nay. the most serious of all dissensions."
"We may talk with our mothers, our wives, or our daugh
ters, on all those matters, about which we talk with our ac quaintances, on business, on the news of the day, but not at all on matters nearest the heart.--on religion, on God, on the soul."
"Take the instant when you would find yourself united with your family in one common feeling, in the repose of the evening, round the family table. There in your home, at your own hearth, venture to utter a word on these matters.
Your mother sadly shakes her head; your wife contradicts you; your daughter, although silent, disapproves. They are on one side of the table, you on the other alone."
"It would seem as if in the midst of them, opposite you, sat an invisible enemy to contradict what you say."
"The invisible enemy here spoken of is the priest." Is that true? If it is true, ought it to remain true?
God's word says, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him." (Gen. ii. 18). "For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh." (Eph. v. 31). "Wherefore [said Christ] they are no more
twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined to gether let no man put asunder." (Matt. xix. 6). Romanism sets aside all these commands. The priest comes between the man and his wife, between parents and their children. The relation is in defiance of God's word and the welfare of the home, and should be opposed and abrogated.

The Priest a Playue.
As confessor, the priest possesses the secret of a woman's soul: "he knows every half-formed hope, every dim desire, every thwarted feeling. The priest, as spiritual director, ani mates that woman with his own ideas, moves her with his own will, fashions her according to his own fancy. And this priest is doomed to celibacy. He is a man, but is bound to pluck from his heart the feelings of a man. If he is without fault, he makes desperate use of his power over those con fiding in him. If he is sincerely devout, he has to struggle with his passions, and there is a perilous chance of his being defeated in that struggle. And even should he come off vie-

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torious, still the mischief done is incalculable and irreparable, The woman's virtue has been preserved by an accident, by a power extraneous to herself. She was wax in her spiritual director's hands; she has ceased to be a person, and is become a thing. The priest is the cause of all this, and is a plague."

Celibacy Unnatural and Un-wtse.
There is something diabolical in the institution of celibacy. The history of its origin is a story of brutality seldom matched. Imagine the ministry of today compelled to sep arate from their wives, see them rated as bad; also from their children, and behold them rated as bastards. Can any thing be more infamous, more cruel, more unnatural?
The battle against marriage in the priesthood culminated in 1073, during the reign of Pope Gregory VII.. known as Hildebrand. His character has been outlined by innumerable pens. His austere virtue, simple piety, vast knowledge, and ability to rule men; his well-known intrepidity, which seemed to delight in confronting the most powerful; a stern singleness of purpose, and yet a subtle policy which bordered on craft, --gave him the support and confidence of those who were ruled by his imperious will.

The Object He Had in View.
was the absolute independency of the clergy and of the Pope; of the great prelates throughout Latin Christianity, down to the lowest functionary, whose person was to be sacred. The clergy were to become a separate and inviolable caste. It is a saa story. Who can depict the bitterness and the sorrow of heart, when husbands and fathers were compelled by a cruel edict to separate from wives and children, in opposition to the teachings of the Scripture and the promptings of hu man nature? The act was cruelty personified. No wonder that some of the wives committed suicide, others died in their beds from grief or by their own hands, and others fought for their rights against fearful odds. With many of the clergy, it was a matter of deliberate conviction that they ought to marry, founded not only on the authority of the Apostle Paul, on the usage of the primitive Church justified by the law of Eastern Christendom, and asserted to rest on a conscientious assurance of the evils resulting from enforced celibacy. They believed that marriage was God's own ap pointment of man's true happiness, the propagation of the race; and the propensity to obey that law is so strong, that, without compliance, health is impaired, morality is weakened.
3p

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and the voice of religion disobeyed. It is a well-established
fact that health, the foundation of happiness, is best insured by the marriage relation. There is a mysterious, magnetic bond which, binds husband and wife together, unknown to those in celibacy--like the needle to the pole it rules--and is
explained by saying, it is the law of God. "Celibacy leaves men and women liable in daily intercourse
to be enticed, drawn magnetically by natural impulses into the vortex of animal passions, which, unrestrained, beromt sin of a corroding deadly nature, proving clearly it is not
good for man to be alone, and that to obey God's law is the sure path to true happiness as surely as sunshine produces
health and growth." (Moore Russell Fletcher, M. D.)

The Unmarried Confessor
has been set forth by Paul Louis Courier in words that ought to be read and pondered.
"What a life, what a condition, is that of our priests! Love is forbidden them,--marriage especially: women are given up to them. They may not have one of their own, and yet live familiarly with all, nay, in confidential, intimate privity of
their hidden actions, of all their thoughts. An innocent girl first hears the priest under her mother's wing: he then calls her to him, speaks alone with her, and is the first to talk of sin to her before she can have known it. When instructed, she marries; when married, he still confesses and governs her. He has preceded the husband in her affections, and will always maintain himself in them. What she would not ven ture to confide to her mother, or confess to her husband, he, a priest, must know it, asks it, hears it, and yet shall not be her lover. How could he, indeed? Is he not tonsured? He hears whispered in his ear, by a young woman, her faults, her passions, desires, weaknesses, receives her sighs without feeling agitated, and he is five and twenty! .
"To confess a woman! Imagine what it is. At the end of a church a species of closet, or sentry-box, is erected against the wall, where the priest awaits, in the evening after vespers, his young penitent, whom he loves, and who knows it: love cannot be concealed from the beloved person. You will stop me there--his character of priest, his education, his vows. .... I reply that there is no vow which holds good; that every village cure, just come from the seminary, healthy, robust, and vigorous, doubtless loves one of his parishioners. It can not be otherwise: and, if you contest this, I will say more still; and that is, he loves them all--those, at least, of his own age: but he prefers one, who appears to him, if not

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more beautiful than the others, more modest and wiser, and whom he would marry; he would make her a virtuous, pious
wife, if it were not for the Pope. He sees her daily, and meets her at church or elsewhere, and, sitting opposite her in the winter evenings, he imbibes, imprudent man! the poison of her eyes.
"Now I ask you, when he hears that one coming the next day, and approaching the confessional, and when he recog
nizes her footsteps, and can say, It is she, what is passing in the mind of the poor confessor? Honesty, duty, mere resolu tions, are here of little use without peculiarly heavenly grace.
I will suppose him a saint; unable to fly, he apparently groans,
sighs, recommends himself to God; but, if he is only a man, he shudders, desires, and already, unwillingly, without know
ing it, perhaps, he hopes. She arrives, kneels down at his knees before him whose heart leaps and palpitates. You are young, sir, or you have been so: between ourselves, what do. you think of such a situation for your daughter or your wife, and such a man? Alone most of the time, and having these walls, these vaulted roofs, as sole witnesses, they talk--of what? alas! Of all that is not. innocent! They talk, or rather murmur, in low voice; and their lips approach each other, and their breaths mingle. This lasts for an hour or
more, and is often renewed. "Do you think I invent? This scene takes place such as I
describe it; is renewed daily by thousands of young priests, with as many young girls whom they love, because they are men; whom they confess in this manner, because they are priests; and whom they do not marry, because the Pope is
opposed to it. ... "The priest has the spiritual care of her he loves; her
soul is in his hands. He is connected with her by the most sacred ties; his interest in her he disguises to himself under the cloak of spiritual anxiety. He can always quiet the voice of conscience by an equivoque--the mystic language of re ligion; and what guilt is shrouded under this equivoque, the history of priestcraft may show. Perler I'amour, c'est faire Vamour. To speak love is to make love, especially when this man is a priest, that is to say, a mediator between the woman and God, and who says, 'God hears you through me: through me he will reply.' This man whom she has seen at the altar, and there invested with all the sacred robes and sacred as
sociations of his office; whom she has visited in the con fessional, and there laid bare her soul to him; whose visits she has received in her boudoir, and there submitted to his direction; this man, whom she worships--is supposed to be an ideal, a priest; no one supposing him to be a man, with a man's

GENERAL LIBRARY
UNIVERSJTY ^ GEORGIA
4lMfr-N& GEORGIA

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WHY PRIESTS SHOULD WED.

passions!" (Auricular Confession, by William Hogan, p. 40.)
Llorente ( 111, ch. 88, art. 2, ed. 1817) relates that, when he was secretary to the Inquisition, a Capuchin was brought
before that tribunal who directed a community of beguines and had seduced nearly all of them by persuading them that, by yielding to his solicitations, they were not leaving the road to perfection. He told each of them, in the confessional, that he had received from God a singular favor. "Our Lord,"
he said, "has deigned to show Himself to me in the sacrament, and has said to me, 'Almost all the souls that thou dost direct
here are pleasing to me, but especially such a one [the Ca puchin named her to whom he spoke]. She is already so perfect that she has conquered every passion except carnal desire, which torments her very much. Therefore, wishing
virtue to have its reward, and that she should serve me tran quilly, I charge thee to give her a dispensation, but only to be made use of by thee. She need speak of it to no
confessor; that would be useless, as with such a dispensation she cannot sin.'
"Out of seventeen beguines, of which the community was composed, the intrepid Capuchin gave the dispensation to
thirteen, who were discreet for some length of time; but at last one of them fell ill, expected to die, and discovered every
thing, declaring that she had never been able to believe in the
dispensation, but that she had profited by it." "I remember," said Llorente, "having said to him, 'But,
Father, is it not astonishing that this singular virtue should
have belonged exactly to the thirteen young and handsome ones,
and not at all to the other four, who were ugly and old?' He coolly replied, 'The Holy Spirit inspires where it listeth.'"
The same author, in the same chapter, while reproaching
Protestants with having exaggerated the corruptions of confessors, avows that "in the sixteenth century the In
quisition had imposed on women the obligation of denouncing guilty confessors; but the denunciations were so numerous
that the penitents were declared dispensed from denounce ment." (Hogan's Auricular Confession, p. 40.)
It was William Hogan who said, "The title of Christian
land should not be given to this nor to any country which permits the cowl to shelter adulteries of this sort. Are the
sons of freemen," he asks, "required to countenance, nay,
asked to build impassable walls around, a licentious, lecher ous, profligate horde of foreign monks and priests, who
choose to come among us and erect little fortifications, which
they call nunneries, for their protection, and for the
gratification of their passions? Shall *,hey own, by law

WHY PRIESTS SHOULD WED.

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and by charter, places where to bury, hidden from the
public eye, the victims of their lust, and the murdered off spring of their concupiscence? Beware, Americans! There are bounds beyond which sinners cannot go. Bear in mind the fact that the same God who can limit the sphere of an in
dividual's crimes, can also limit those of a nation. You have flourished. Take heed lest you begin to decay before you come to full maturity. Already, can I see the hectic flush
of moral consumption upon the fair face of America; already can I see a demon bird of ill omen, plunging its poisoned beak into the very vitals of your national existence, stopping here, and stopping there, only to dip his wings in the life-stream of your national existence, with the sole view of giving its
speed more momentum, until it encompasses the whole length
and breadth of your country."
The decay of nations is brought about by infidelity to the God of nations; and how can this country prosper if it aids
Popery with its idolatries? It cannot be. A nation, to pros
per, must be rectw in curia, right at least before God. The warning is needed. Will it be heeded ?

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CHAPTER III.
THE HISTORY OF THE FIGHT WITH CELIBACY.
IN turning thought to the history of the fight for the celibacy of the priesthood of the Roman Catholic Church, one is impressed with the truth that what is unwritten and is known only to God. and is remembered by Him, is far more terrible and atrocious than what is written. Up to the present time no one has dared to put into English the truth concern ing celibacy. It blackens the page of history, it degrades peo ples, curses the home, and spreads its blight over every hope and aspiration of those who rest under its shadow, or are af flicted by its presence.
Celibacy is in direct antagonism to the teachings of the word of God. That ought to be sufficient with people who believe that the word of God is a lamp to our feet, and a light to our path.
"A bishop," says Paul, ''must be blameless, the husband of one wife." (I Tim. iii. 2). In the Douay Version, is this note on the words, "the husband of one wife? The meaning is, '''that no one should be admitted to the holy orders of bishop, priest, or deacon, who had been married more tJian once." Then, surely, it is not the meaning that a bishop, priest, or deacon should never be married. Peter led about a wife. For more than three centuries every pastor of the church was allowed to marry.
Pope Siricius, 384-398. first enjoined the celibacy of the clergy, and attempted to harden into inflexible statute that which had been left before to usage and opinion. Marriage was by him interdicted, and he wrote in the tone of one who supposed the usages of the Church of Rome were to be re
ceived as those of Christendom. This law, while it implied the ascendancy of monastic opinions showed likewise that there was a large part of the clergy who could only be coerced into celibacy by law. Temporary concessions were made to those who confessed it was a fault, but pleaded ignorance of the statute. This law was one of the characteristics of Latin Christianity. It separated the sacerdotal order from the rest of sock-ty. from the common human sympathies, interests and affections. It justified them to them.-elves in assuming a dignity superior to the rest of mankind, and secured their title to enforce acknowledgement and reverence for that su perior dignity. The monastic principle, admitting virtually, at least, almost to its full extent the Mamchicnn tenet of the innate sinfulness of all sexual intercourse as partaking of the

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inextinguishable impurity of matter, was gradually wrought
into the general feeling. Whether marriage was treated as in itself an evil, perhaps
to be tolerated, but still degrading to human nature, as by Jerome and the more ascetic teachers; or honored, as by
Augustine, with specious adulation, only to exalt virginity to a still loftier height above it,--the clergy were taught to assert it at once as a privilege, as a distinction, as the consumma tion and the testimonv to the sacredness of their order. Not withstanding this, the celibacy of the clergy was openly op posed. In many regions the married clergy formed the ma jority, and, always supporting married bishops by their suf frages and influence, kept up a formidable succession. Throughout the whole period, from Pope Siricius to the Re formation, the law was defied, infringed, eluded.
"The married clergy were the more moral, though ac cused of living in concubinage." (Milman: Latin Christianity,
vol. v, p. 232.) This was the least evil.

Its Effect on Morals.
Celibacy, which was the vital energy of the clergy, was. at the same time, their fatal irremediable weakness. Onehalf, at least a large portion, of humankind could not cease to be humankind. The universal voice, which arraigns th? state of morals as regards sexual intercourse among the clergy, is not that of {heir enemies only: it is their own. Th? unmarried clergy were distinguished for their licentiousness "Henry, Bishop of Liege, was a monster of depravity. Hi-lust was promiscuous. He kept as a concubine a Benedictine abbess. He boasted in a public banquet that in twenty-two months he had fourteen children born. This was not the worst: there was foul incest, and with nuns."
Hardly less repulsive, in some re.-pects more so. as it erabraces the clergy and some of the convents of a whole pro vince, is the disclosure, as undeniable and authentic, of sac erdotal morals, in the Register of the Visitations of Euclr's Rigaucl. Archbishop of Rouen, from 12-i8-l-2('9. There is on? convent of females which might almost have put Boccaccio to the blush. (Milman: Latin Christianity, vol. v. p. -23-2.) Nepotism became at once the strength and the infirmity, the glory and shame, of the Papacy. This is uot different at this hour. In one of our cities, as terrible charges are made against a late bishop as any that were brought against the Bishop of Liege. It is painful to reflect at how early a period unscriptural notions in relation to celibacy and marriage began to prevail among the professed followers of Christ. These un-

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WHY PRIESTS SHOULD WED.

scriptural opinions were owing in part to the superstitious notions which began to prevail at a very early period, in rela tion to the influence of malignant demons. It was the general opinion that married men were more under their influence than celibates. The natural consequence was, unmarried men were regarded as far more suitable for the office of the sacred ministry than such as had .contracted the defilement of matri mony.
Clement of Alexandria
protested against this shocking fanaticism, pointing it out as a characteristic of Antichrist, and of the apostasy of the latter days, that there- should be those who would forbid to marry, and command to abstain from meats. "What!" says he, "may not self-command be preserved under the conditions of married life? May not marriage be used, and yet contin ence be respected, without our attempting to sever that which the Lord hath joined? God allows eoery man, whether he be bishop, priest, or deacon, to be tfi.e husband of one wife, and to use matrimony, and not be liable to censure.'1'

The Fight in England was terrific. In 960 the former Abbot of Glastonbury was made Archbishop of Canterbury, and, assured of the favor of King Edgar, prepared to execute the grand design which he had long meditated--of compelling the secular canons to put away their wives, and become monks; or of driving them out, and introducing Benedictine monks in .their room. With this view he procured the promotion of his intimate friend, Oswald, to the See of Worcester, and of Ethewala to that of Winchester-- two prelates who were themselves monks, and animated with the most ardent zeal for the advancement of their order. The trio of bishops, the great champions of the monks, and enemies of the married clergy, now proceeded by every possible method of fraud or force, to drive the married clergy out of all the mon asteries, or compel them to put away their wives and children. Rather than consent to the latter, by far the greatest number chose to become beggars and vagabonds, for which the monkish historian gave them the most opprobrious of names. To coun tenance these cruel and tyrannical proceedings, Dunstan and his associates held up the married clergy as monsters of wick edness for cohabiting with their wives, magnified celibacy as the only state becoming the sanctity of the sacerdotal office, and propagated a thousand lies of miracles and visions to its honor. In 969 a commission was granted to expel the married canons out of all the cathedrals and larger monasteries. At

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this time King Edgar made a flaming speech, in which he thus addressed Dunstan: "I know, O holy father Dunstan! that you have not encouraged these criminal practices of the clergy.
You have reasoned, entreated, threatened. From words it is now time to come to blows. All the power of the crown is at your command. Strike boldly; drive these irregular livers out of the Church of Christ, and introduce others who will live according to rule." "And yet this furious champion for chastity had, some time before the delivery of this harangue, ravished
a nun, a young lady of noble birth and great beauty, at which his holy father confessor was so much offended, that he en joined him, by way of penance, not to wear his crown for seven
years; to build a nunnery, and to persecute the married clergy with all his might,--a strange way of making atonement for his own libertinism, by depriving others of their natural rights and liberties." (Dowling's History of-Romanism, p. 235.)

The History of Clerical Celibacy
may be divided into two periods. The one begins with the edict of Siricius in 385, and ends at the popedom of Gregory. The other commences with the papacy of Gregory, and con tinues until the present time.
It will be noticed that celibacy produces contamination and pollution. The very effort to abstain from it produces a mor bid feeling which absorbs the thought, and inflames the pas sions. Hence the difference in the appearance of priests of Rome and ministers of Christ. In the confessional, in the con vent, and in the home, a priest is a conspirator against virtue, and the ally of all that is debasing. Hence priests should wed. In Milan, Italy, the battle was even more fierce than in Eng land. Ambrose led in it. He was respected by all, and loved by the majority, of priests and people. The priests, as a rule, stood with him, and resisted to the death the decree command ing them to break up their homes, and permit their wives to be called harlots and their children bastards. Because of this fact, the clergy of that famed portion of the Church held a proud place in the regard of mankind.
It would be well if the laity of the Roman Catholic Church would turn their attention to that page of history. They would behold the benefits resulting from the marriage of the priest hood. The men of the Roman Catholic Church owe it to themrelves, to their position as the God-appointed head of the home, to see to it that the command, "Let no one come between hus band and wife," be obeyed, and that the priest who has crept into the'home, and held possession of the secrets of the house hold, be shut out from the sanctuary of the affections.

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Edgar, in his "Variations of Popery," uncovers the dark and the dirty side of the celibacy of the clergy. He says, "The celibacy of the clergy has for a long series of time been estab lished in the Romish communion. The bishop, the priest, and the deacon are. in the popish theology, forbid to marry. This connection is indeed allowed to the laity. The institution in the system of Catholicism is accounted a sacrament, and there fore the sign and means of grace and holiness. The Council of Trent, in its twenty-fourth session, declares this ceremony one of the sacraments, by which, according to its seventh session, all real righteousness is begun and augmented." But, wonder ful to tell, the Council, as well as the Catechism, prescribes, iu sheer inconsistency, a renunciation of an institution which con veys true sanctity, as a necessary qualification for the priest hood.
The advocates of Romanism, however, vary on the decision of the question whether this celibacy be a divine, or human, or even useful, injunction. One party in the popish community account the interdiction a divine appointment. These make the prohibition a matter of faith and moral obligation, which unlike a question of mere discipline, neither the Pope nor the universal Church can change or modify. Commanded by God, and sanctioned by His almighty fiat, no earthly power can re
peal the enactment, which, according to this system, must remain forever without alteration. This opinion was patron ized by Jerome. Siricius, Innocent, and others. A second party reckons the celibacy of the clergy a human institution. These in general esteem the prohibition a, question not of faith, but of discipline, prescribed not by God, but by man*, and capable of beiny altered, or even repealed, by human authority. Aquinas, Bellarmine. Bossuet. Du Pin. Milner. and others sup ported tins view.
A third party account sacerdotal celibacy not only unecclesiastical, inhuman, but useless and hurtful. The op position to the prohibition, even in the bosom of the Romish communion, has in every age been persevering and powerful.
The privation has been discountenanced by many of the ablest patrons of Romanism, such as Erasmus. Polydorus, Alvaruw, and Pins. The celibacy of the clergy, says Pius the Second, is supported by strong reasons, but opposed by stronger. The edicts of Siricius and Innocent, by which the privation was first enforced, were rejected by many of the clergy. Gregory's
tyranny on this topic met with decided hostility. Many chose to renounce the priesthood rather than submit to pontific'l despotism, violate their conjugal engagements, or relinquish the object of their affections.
The German emperor and clergy supplicated Pius IV. for

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a repeal of the enactments against sacerdotal matrimony, and supported their petition with the most irrefragable arguments, such as the novelty of privation, and its dreadful consequences on morality.
Augustine, the Bavarian ambassador at Trent, petitioned against clerical celibacy, which he declared was not of divine right as commanded by God. His speech on the occasion met, even in the Council of Trent, with attention and even applause. The French king and clergy at Paissy issued a similar petition to the Pope in 1561, saying, ''Many of the popish errors, in deed, may, in theory, be absurd as clerical celibacy. But none in practice has been attended with such odious and appalling effects in the demoralization of man." The rankest and most disgusting debauchery, originating in the unnatural interdic tion, has, in the Romish communion, disgraced sacerdotal dig nity, and stained the annals of civil and ecclesiastical history.
"The celibacy of the clergy, in all its forms, is a variation from the Jewish theocracy delivered in the Old Testament. The Jews countenanced neither celibacy nor maidenhood, and the Jewish nation contained neither unmatrimonial priests nor cloistered nuns. The patriarchs Abraham. Isaac, and Jacob were married, and had a numerous offspring. Prior to Moses, the first-born of the Hebrews possessed both civil and eccles iastical authority, and was prince and priest, but was not de barred connubial enjoyments. Moses, the celebrated legislator of Israel, was married, and had a family. The holy prophets of Leviticus, such as Xoah. Joseph, Samuel. David. Isaiah, and Ezekiel, formed this connection, and became the parents of sons and daughters. The Levitical priesthood were allowed the same liberty^ Matrimony among the Israelitish clenry could hardly be called a permission, but amounted in one sense to a command. The priesthood among the descendants of Abraham was hereditary. The sons of the Aaronical priests succeeded, in consequence of their birth-right, to the adminis tration of the sacerdotal functions." (Edgar's Variations of Popery, p. 528.) This implied marriage and children.
The Christian dispensation affords express precept and ex ample for the'marriage of the clergy. Paul, addressing Tim othy and Titus, represents the bishop as "the hxslcnd^of one
wife" The same is said of the deacon. Matrimony, there fore, according to the book of God. does not disqualify for the episcopacy or the cleaconship. The inspired penman al-o characterizes "forbidding to marry" as the doctrine of flcr}!*. The interdiction of the conjugal union, according to apostolic-:: 1 authority, emanated not from God. but from Satan. The pro hibition, and its effects upon the Romish clergy, are worthy of
their author. All who are acquainted with manuals of sacer-

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dotal celibacy reflect with disgust on an institution which in
its progress has been marked with scenes of filthiness that have
disgraced ecclesiastical history, the popish priesthood, and our common species. "Take away honorable wedlock," says Ber
nard, ''and you will fill the Church with fornication, incest,
sodomy, and all pollution."" Erasmus, who was well acquainted with its effects, compared it to a pestilence. These authors have drawn the evil with the pencil of truth, and emblazoned
the canvas with a picture taken from life. The apostles have
left examples as well as precepts in favor of matrimony. All the apostles, says Ambrosius, except Paul and John, were
married. The Saviour healed the mother of Peter's wife, the
pretended viceregent of heaven. Tradition favors the marriage of the clergy. The interdiction of sacerdotal matrimony is unknown to the oldest monuments of the Church, the moulder ing fragments of Christian antiquity, and the primeval records of ecclesiastical history. No vestige of the prohibition is to
be found in the long lapse of three hundred years after the
era of redemption. Clemens, the catechist of Alexandria, says, "God allows every man, whether priest, deacon, or layman, to be the husband of one wife, and to use matrimony without reprehension. What can the enemy of matrimony say against
procreation when it is permitted to a bishop, who ruleth well his own house, and who governs the church ?"
Origen abstained from matrimony, and used a remedy in his own person, contrary to all law, human and divine.
"The fifth apostolical canon pronounces excommunication,
and, in case of contumacy, deposition, against the bishop,
priest, or deacon, who, under pretext of religion, puts away his wife."
Because of the march of superstition, celibacy obtained in
the West, though always rejected in Eastern Christendom. Clerical celibacy is the child not of religion or Christianity, but of superstition and policy. Its votaries in every age have,
by an affected singularity and ascetic contempt of pleasure, continued to attract the eye of superstition, deceive themselves, or amuse a silly world. Austerity of life, and abstinence from lawful as well as unlawful gratifications, the heathen accounted the summit of perfection. The Romans, though their Pontifex Maximus was a married man, had their vestal virgins who pos sessed extraordinary influence and immunity. The admiration
of virginity began at an early period in Christianity. The reason of this arose from the difficulty of abstinence. Virginity Jerome admits, "is difficult, and therefore rare."
"The monk of Palestine was a living example of this dif
ficulty. Sitting, the companion of scorpions, in a frightful
solitude, parched with the rays of the sun, clothed in sackcloth,

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pale with fasting, and quenching his thirst only from the cold spring; the saint, in his own confession, wept and groaned while his blood boiled with the flames of licentiousness. Ber nard prescribes fasting as a necessary remedy for the wantonness of the flesh and the inflammation of the blood. Chrysostum makes similar concessions of difficulty. The passion, in
deed, which prompts the matrimonial union, being necessary for the continuation of the species, has by the Creator been deeply planted in the breast, and forms an essential part of the constitution. The prohibition is high treason against the laws of God, and open rebellion against the springtide of human nature, and the full flow of human affection. An
attempt, therefore, to stem the irresistible current, must ever recoil with tremendous effect on its authors. But the affecta tion of singularity, the show of sanctity, and the profession of extraordinary attainments, which outrage the sentiments of nature, will, like Phaeton's attempt to drive the chariot of the sun, attract the gaze of the spectator, gain the applause of superstition, and figure in the annals of the world."
"Jerome and Chrysostom say that continency may always be obtained by prayer. Others, to counteract the movements of the flesh, cased the body in steel, put on sackcloth, ran to the mountains, spent night and day in fasting, vigils, and in all the rigor of severity. Shunning the company of women, the whole sex were forbidden access to their solitary retreat. All this self-mortification, however, could scarcely allay the re bellion of their blood."
The difficulty of continence, if reports may be credited, was not peculiar to Chrysostom's day. Succeeding saints felt the arduousness of the mighty attempt.
"The seraphic Francis, the father of the Franciscans, who lived in the thirteenth century, though devoted to chastity, and brimful of the spirit, was, it seems, sometimes troubled with the movements of the flesh. An enemy that wrought within was difficult to keep in subjection. His saintship, on the?e oc casions, adopted an effectual way of cooling this internal flame, and allaying the carnal conflict. He stood in winter to the neck in a pit full of icy water. One day, being attacked in an extraordinary manner oy the demon of sensuality, he stripped naked, and belabored his importunate back with a disciplin arian whip; and, then, leaving his cell, he buried his body, naked as he was, in a deep wreath of snow. The cold bath, the knotted thong, and the snowy bed were necessary for dis charging the superabundant caloric of his saintship's constitu tion." (Edgar's Variations of Popery, p. 535.) This was when resistance was the rule. Now there is indulgence and prostitu tion.

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WHY PRIESTS SHOULD WED.

"Godic. an English hermit, was troubled with the same complaint, and had recourse to the same remedy. He was a native of Norfolk, had visited Jerusalem, wept over the sacred sepulchre, and kissed, in holy devotion, the tomb of Emmanuel and the monument of redemption. He lived on the banks of the Werus. and was the companion of the bear and the scorpion, which were gentle and obliging to the man of God. But he had to contend, even in his solitude, with temptation. Satan, assuming the form of a lion or a wolf, endeavored to allure him from his duty. These outward trials, however, were nothing compared with the inward conflicts arising from the ferment of concupiscence and 'the lusts of the flesh.' He counteracted the rebellion of his blood, however, by the rigor of discipline. The cold earth was his only bed; and a stone, which he placed under his head, was his nightly pillow. The herb of the field and the water of the spring were his meat and drink, which he used only when compelled by the assaults of hunger and thirst. Clothed in haircloth he spent his days in tears and fasting. JL he hermit, with these applications in keeping the body under, used a sufficiently cooling regimen. During the wintry frost ana snow, he immersed himself in the stream of Werus, where, pouring forth prayers and tears, he offered himself a living victim to God. The flesh, it is likely, after this nightly dip, was discharged of all unnecessary heat, and became duly cool. But the Devil, it seems, played some pranks on the hermit, while he was enjoying the cold bath, and freezing his body for the good of his soul. Satan sometimes ran away with Godric's clothes, which were on the banks. But Godrich terrified Beel zebub with shouts, so that affrighted, he dropped his haircloth garment and fled." (Edgar's Variations of Popery, p. 536.)
Ulric's history is of a similar kind. He was born near Bristol, and fought the enemies of the human race for twenty years. He was visited, notwithstanding, with the demon of licentiousness. He fought the demon by the cola bath, and fasted till his skin wras the only remaining covering of his
bones. He nightly descended into a vessel filled with freezing water, and during the hours of darkness continued, in this com fortable place, which constituted his headquarters, to sing the
Psalms of David. "Thomas Aquinas, the Angelic Doctor, required angelic aid
to counteract the natural disposition of the mind, or rather of the flesh. He was born of a noble family, "and enjoyed the benefit of a Parisian education. His friends opposed, but in vain, his resolution of immuring himself in the retreats of monkery. He resisted their attempts with signal success, though it seems not always with spiritual weapons. He chased one woman, who opposed his resolution, with a firebrand. 'The

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blessed youth,' says the Roman Breviary, 'praying on bended knees before the cross, was seized with sleep, and seemed,
through a dream, to undergo a constriction of a certain part by angels, and lost from that time forward all sense of con cupiscence.' (The same. p. 537). His angelic saintshiprs natural
propensity required supernatural power to restrain its fury. The grasp of angels was necessary to allay his carnality, and confer continence.
''Benedict, in his necessity, had recourse to a pointed remedy.
This saint, like Aquinas, was born of a noble family. Ke was educated at Rome, and devoted himself wholly to religion or rather to superstition. He lived three years in a deep cave, and in his retreat wrought many miracles. 'He knocked the Devil out of one monk with a blow of his fist. :inu out of an other with the lash of his whip.' But Satan, actuated by malice, and envious of human happiness, appeared to Benedict in the form of a black bird, and renewed in his heart the image of a woman whom he had seen at Rome. The Devil in this matter rekindled the torch of passion, and excited such a con flagration in the flesh, that the saint nearly yielded to the temptation. But he soon, according to Mabiilon. discovered a
remedy. Having undressed himself, he rolled his naked body
on nettles and thorns, till the lacerated carcass through pain lost all sense of pleasure. The lather of the Benedictines, it appears, had his own difficulty in attempting to allay the fer
ment of the flesh." (The same, p. 537.) "An Irish priest actuated by a carnal propensity had recourse
to a different remedy. The holy man lived near St. Patrick's purgatory in Ireland, and spent his days in official duty and in
works of charity. Rising early each morning, he walked round the adjoining cemetery, and preferred his orisons for those whose mortal remains mouldered in the clay, and mingled with
their kindred dust. His devotion did not place him beyond the reach of temptation. Satan, envying his happiness, and hating
his sanctity, tempted the priest in the form of a beautiful girl. He was near yielding to the allurement. He led the tempter
into his bed-chamber; when, recollecting himself, he resolved to prevent the sinful gratification for the present and in fu turity. He seized a scalpellum, and adopting, like Origen, the
remedy of amputation, he incapacitated himself for such sen suality in time to come. Adhelm, bishop of Sherburn, had two ways of subduing the insurrections of the flesh. One consisted in remaining, during the winter, in a river which ran past his monastery. He continued for nights immersed in this stream, regardless of the icy cold. The frosty bath stopped the ebulli tion of his rebellious blood. The other remedy seems to have been a rather dangerous experiment. When the pulse began

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to beat high, his saintship called for a fair virgin, who lay in
his bed till he sung the whole order of the Psalms, and over came by this means the paroxysm of passion. The sacred music and this beautiful maid, who notwithstanding her virginity
was very accommodating, soothed the irritation of the flesh, and castigated the oscillations of the pulse, till it beat with philosophical precision and Christian regularity." (Variations
of Popery, p. 538.)
A second reason for the preference of virginity arose from
the supposed pollution of matrimony. Some have represented marriage as a means of purity, and some of pollution. Clemens, Augustine, Chrysostom. Calmet, and others speak of matri mony as an institution of holiness, sanctity, honor, and utility. The Council of Gangra anathematized all who should reproach wedlock, and this sentence has been incorporated into the
canon law. Others have represented the popish sacrament, especially in the clergy, as an appointment of pollution and degradation.
Origen reckoned conjugal intercourse inconsistent with the
presence of the Holy Spirit. Jerome, if possible, surpassed Origen in bitterness. Marriage, according to this casuist, ef
feminates the manly mind. "A man, says the monk, cannot pray unless he refrain from conjugal enjoyments." (Variations of Popery, p. 530.)
"These theologians on this topic entertained the grossest conceptions. Their own filthy ideas rose no higher than the
gratification of the mere animal passion, unconnected with re finement or delicacy. Their views on this subject were de
tached from all the comminglings of the understanding and
the heart, and from all endearments of father, mother, and child. Their minds turned only on scenes of gross sensuality, unallied to any moral or sentimental feeling, and insulated
from all the reciprocations of friendship or affection. Celibacy and virginity which were unassociated with their carnal grati
fications, and which affected a superiority to their allurements,
became, with persons of this disposition, the objects of admira tion, (p. 540).
"Matrimony, however, though it were gross as the concep
tions of these authors, is far purer than their language. The sentiments and phraseology of the Roman saints on virginity
are in point of obscenity beyond all competition." "These saints must have had a practical acquaintance with the subject, to which they have done so much justice in description. Spec ulation, without practice, would never have made them such
adepts. Their sanctified contamination is so perfect in its
kind, that it could not be the offspring of mere theory with out action." This charge against their saintships may be sub-

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stantiatecl by many quotations from their works, which, how ever, for the sake of decency is left in the obscurity of the original Greek and Latin, where it may stay. "The diction as well as the ideas of Chrysostom, Jerome. Augustine, and Basil, would call the burning blush of shame into the cheek of a Juvenal, a Horace, or an Ovid." (Ibid. p. 540).
"Dens in modern times has outrun Basil and all the saints of antiquity on the stadium of nastiness. His Theology, in which contamination lives and breathes, is a treasury of filthiness which can never be surpassed. He has shown an un rivaled genius for impurity; and future discovery can. in this
department of learning, never eclipse his glory, nor deprive this precious divine of his well-earned fame and merited' im mortality. The philosophy of Newton has been improved. His astronomy, notwithstanding its grandeur, has received many accessions from other discoverers. But the sublimated obscenity of Dens, finished in its kind, admits of no advance ment or progression. This doctor does not bear his blushing honors alone. The popish prelacy of America, by adopting his refined speculations to promote the education of the priest hood, share in his triumphs; and the inferior clergy, who are doomed to study his divinity, will no doubt manifest the value of his system by the superiority of their theological and holy attainments." (Variations of Popery, p. 541).
"A third reason for the injunction of sacerdotal celibacy arose from pontifical policy. Cardinal Rodolf. arguing in a Roman consistory in favor of clerical celibacy, affirmed that the priesthood, if allowed to marry, would transfer their at
tachment from the Pope to their family and prince: and this would tend to the injury of the ecclesiastical community. The holy see. the cardinal alleged, would by this means be soon limited to the Roman city. The Transalpine party in the
Council of Trent used the same argument. The introduction of priestly matrimony, this faction urged, would never the clergy from their close dependence on the popedom. and turn their affections to their family, and consequently to their king and country. Marriage connects men with their sovereign and trlth tin-, land of their natirity. Celibacy, on the contrary, transfers the attention of the clergy from his Majesty and the state, to his Holiness and the Church. The man who has a wife and children is oound by conjugal and paternal attach ment to his country, and feels the warmest glow of parental love, mingled with the flame of patriotism. His interests and affections are intwined with the honor and prosperity of his native land; and this, in consequence, he will prefer to the aggrandizement of the Romish hierarchy or the grandeur of the Roman pontiff. The dearest objects of his heart are em-
4p

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WHY PRIESTS SHOULD WED.

braced in the soil that gave them birth, the people among
whom they live, and the government that affords them pro
tection." "Celibacy, on the contrary, precludes all these engagements,
and directs the undivided affection of the priesthood to the
Church and its ecclesiastical sovereign. The clergy become
dependent on the Pope rather than on their ruler, and en deavor to promote the prosperity of the papacy rather than
their country. Such are not linked with the state by an off
spring whose happiness is involved in the prosperity of the
nation. Gregory VII.. accordingly, the great enemy of kings, was the distinguished patron of sacerdotal celibacy. He suc
ceeded, to a great extent, in the suppression of priestly mar
riage. He summoned a council, and issued canons, separating the married clergy from their partners, and forbidding the
ordination of any who would not vow perpetual continence.
He prohibited the laity from hearing mass when celebrated by a married priest. These enactments he enforced with his usual obstinacy and with his usual success. The laity seconded his efforts, and refused the communion and baptism from the married clergy/' (Variations of Popery, p. 542.)
Such, in brief, is the history of celibacy as recorded by dif ferent ecclesiastical historians. Celibacy is the Devil's own, and will hold its place until he is beaten and broken by the power of God. The effect on the clergy was terrible. The law ran counter to the tide of human nature and to the stream
of human affection. The clergy, in many instances, resisted the mandate; and the exaction of obedience became a difficult
task. A variet3r of plans were invented to evade or violate its severitj'. One variety took the name of

"Domesticism."
"This consisted in keeping female inmates in the dwellings of the priests. These were women devoted in profession, though not. by vow. to virginity. Their ostensible duty was to superintend the domestic concerns of the house. The clergy enjo3'ed their society, while these maidens in return shared the clergy's bed and board. Forbidden to marry, they converted their homes into orothels. Cyprian, Jerome, and Chrysostom depicted the cohabitation of these holy domestics with a bold but faithful pencil. Cyprian mentions in language of strong condemnation their domestic familiarity by day, and their occupation of the same bed at night. The adultery and forni cation of the clergy degenerated, in many instances, into incest and other abominations of the grossest kind. Some priests, according to the Council of Mentz in 888, had 'sons by their

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51

own sisters.' The Council of Xicsea and some other of a later date, through fear of scandal, deprived the clergy of all female company, except a mother, a sister, or an aunt. It did no good. The means intended for prevention were the occasion of more accumulated scandal and more heinous criminality. The interdiction was the introduction to incestuous and un natural prostitution."' (Variations of Popery, p. 553.)
Is there a reason to suppose that this state of things does not now exist? Kecently. at a dinner given after the funeral of a priest had been attended, some one hundred priests were
present. The caterer was a Baptist. He said that after the wine began to flow, their conversation became so filthy that the waiting-girls were shocked: and the brutes revelled in tales
of what they enjoyed with the domestics in their homes, offer ing to share their pleasures, like brute beast?, with their fel lows; and this in America, the land of the free.

"Concubinage"
was another mode of evading the canons. This was a natural result of the unnatural regulations against wedlock. The ac counts on this subject, transmitted b}T the historians of these times, are appalling. Profligacy prevailed among the clergy, who practised all kinds of lewdness. Atto declares that the clergy kept filthy harlots in their houses. These, in a public manner, bedded and boarded with their consecrated paramours. Fascinated with their wanton allurements, the abandoned clergy conferred on the partners of their guilt the superintend ence of their family and all their domestic concerns. These courtesans, during the lives of their companions in iniquity, managed their households; and at their death inherited their property. The ecclesiastical alms and revenues in this manner descended to the accomplices of vile prostitution. The hire lings of pollution were adorned, the Church wasted, and the poor oppressed, by men who professed to be the patrons of purity, the guardians of truth, and the protectors of the wretched and the needy. Damian represents the guilty mis tress confessing to the guilty priest. This presented another absurdity, and an aggravation of the crime. The formality of confessing what the father confessor knew, and receiving for giveness from a partner in sin, was an insult to common sense, and presented one of the many ridiculous scenes which have been exhibited on the theatre of the world. Confession and absolution in this way were, after all. very convenient. The fair penitent had not far to go for pardon, nor for an oppor tunity of repeating the fault which might qualify her for an other course of confession and remission. Her spiritual father

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WHY PRIESTS SHOULD WED.

could spare her blushes, and his memory could supply any deficiency of recollection in the enumeration of her sins. A minute recapitulation of time, place, and other circumstantial trifles, would be unnecessary. The rehearsal of the delicious sin might, to both, be very amusing. The sacrament of con fession, in this manner, would be recalling the transaction to mind, become very edifying, and afford a renewal of this en joyment. The confessor, in the penance which he prescribed on these occasions, exemplified the virtues of compassion and charity. Christian commiseration and sympathy took the place of rigor and strictness. The holy father, indeed, could not be severe on so dear a friend; and the lady could not refuse to be kind again to such an indulgent father." (Variations of Popery, p. 556.)
This language, so descriptive of what is horrid, and yet so insensible to the sin and wickedness of the transactions chron icled, proves the hopelessness of the attempt to reform Roman ism. In the estimation of the writers it is little more than a caricature of Christianity, at variance with morality, destruc tive of piety, a sink of iniquity, a barrier to progress, and the foe of all that is elevating and ennobling in literature, in art, or religion.
"A third variety for the evasion of the canonical interdic tion was clandestine or avowed matrimony. Some of the priests, though they could ill afford it. wished to keep a con science. These, of course, would shudder at the commission of fornication or adultery, and had recourse, therefore, to the honorable institution of heaven for the prevention of such pollution. These, intrenched behind the authority of God, withstood the commandments of men. The number of these continued to increase, in opposition to the decretals of the popes, the canons of council, and the prepossessions of the people. (Variations of Popery, p. 55C.)
Such was the state of clerical matrimony at the accession of Hildebrand to the popedom in 1073. He determined to destroy clerical marriage, let come what might to morality, to virtue, to domestic happiness. The fight was very bitter while it lasted. Its influence is still felt.
At this point a fact might be stated which throws light upon the possibilities within reach of Romanists. A married priest is living in this country, identified with the Roman Cath olic Church. His name is Rev. John Wolanski. a Ruthenian or Greek of Little Russia: a Maronite. admitted to the Romish communion by the bull of Pope Benedict XIV. in 1741. So it comes to pass, that even the popes recognize a married clergy,
and Greek rites, and the service in vulgar tongues, as quite consistent with the unitv of the Roman communion.

WHY PRIESTS SHOULD WED.

53

"Why, then," asks Bishop A. Cleveland Coxe. (Independent, Oct. 20, 1887) in his article on "The Model Roman Catholics," "why, then, do the bolder spirits in America, who are at tached to the Papacy, but who also wish to be Americans, fail to see their opportunity? If Edward McGlynn. D.D.. would leave his land theories to laymen, and devote his abilities and energies to exacting of the Roman court in behalf of Roman Catholics here, what the Pope concedes to them in Lithuania, he would perform a work worthy of a lifetime, and would be entirely consistent with his profession as a priet. He would emancipate hundreds of his brethren, and would entitle him self to the everlasting gratitude of those who. like him. adhere to the Papacy, but are equally determined to be true Americans. He would soon find, as did the Maronites. that the court of Rome, with all its 'great swelling words." will exhibit only abject submission and servility when once boldly confronted by those who know their rights and dare to mninta'in them. Among those rights he ought to know. that, with the AngloSaxon forefathers, it was a sacred principle that not even eccle siastics should be summoned out of their own country to an swer for alleged offences, even those strictly religious and not political. And all Americans ought to know. that, in order to make the court of Rome omnipotent among its subjects here, th'e whole body of Americans who profess the Trent faith, as well laity as ecclesiastics, are denied the position of a na tional Church, having rights under the canon law. and are held as mere missions, under the untempered despotism of a foreign principality, administered, in the case of the parish priests, with a degree of severity and cruelty which they keenly fet-1. but dare not resent."
"The spirit of Rome is seen in the fight waged with "\Volanski. When he arrived in Philadelphia he called at the cathedral, then in charge of Vicar-General Walsh. with whom he had an interview. This interview was abruptly broken off when the Vicar learned that his priestly visitor was a married man. and had his wife with him. In Shenandoah he received much the same sort of reception from the priests. Alas, how little they care for the Scriptures! Cardinal Antonelli. if he did not have a wife, has a daughter now connected with a scandal. He was for years the bosom friend of Pio Xono. His better half was not a wife, and that entitled him to daily fel lowship with the Pope, and to give new dogmas in his name to the universe." It is so here. Father Wofanski might have had a woman not his wife, and been welcomed to the cathedral palace. Obey God. and Rome shuts the door in your face. Disobev God. and the door stands wide open for promotion.

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Cardinal Gibbons and other prelates are invited to con
sider how the Papal bull of 1741 conflicts with the practices
of the Church at this hour. Where is the unity, then? Let
Roman ecclesiastics demand the same proprieties of life to be
conceded to them as Americans, which are guaranteed to these
Russians and Hungarians. If not. by what rule of consistency is the right refused ? Rev. E. H. Walsh, once a Trappist monk in the monastery of Bardstown, Ky., saj's:
"I have been as thrilled and electrified by the revelations in 'Why Priests Should Wed' as any one in the land. Fre quently, in the past, I have thought within myself in regard to these vile priestly doings, 'Are they going to be covered for ever, because, for some reason or other, men will not dare expose the perfidy and criminality of ecclesiastics who are in high places, and are unscrupulous in the means employed.to defeat the ends of those they hate ? I am thankful to God that there is somebody who possesses the courage to tell the world what is being done in these sinks of iniquity, under the cloak of religion, and in the name of Christ. In the city of Boston are men who violate their solemn vows with impunity. I have been in pastors' houses where the curates protested against their having women in their private parlors at the most unsea sonable hours; and I have known" priests to spend Sundays card-playing and drinking, in the company of young women, who varied the monotony, by way of penance imposed by some holy father on his confreres, with a period of osculation, which was passed around the circle. My own family, when I returned from Kentucky to this city--not knowing that I was disafffected--flung in my face the profligate lives of priests who visited hotels in their control, in company with young girls whom they introduced as their sisters, and run up large bills for turkey suppers and champagne, remaining until the small hours of the morning.
"And when they reasoned with me afterwards in New York to induce me to come back again to the fold of Rome. I said, 'Do you want me to confess my sins to such men as those who spent nights in your hotel in the society of harlots? Would 3you have me even associate with such men as Father --------, who has had the unblushing boldness to have females in his house (under the very eye of his curates) whose characters were of the most questionable sort? Tell me a single priest of your acquaintance into whose charge I would commit my soul: those who have been drunk in your office and house, and of whom such unsavory things are reported?' Alongside of our monastery was an institution which one of our monks fiercely denounced on one occasion to a visiting prelate as a

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'devilish place' that ought to be torn down; and when the im morality of the inmates became a settled fact, these saintly prostitutes who lived in the closest intimacy with the Trappi.st celibates (the Kt. Kev. Father in God, the abbot, being tlie principal and most conspicuous actor in this vile drama) were turned adrift, which resulted in drawing from the coffers of the monks ten thousand dollars for hush-money. The super ioress of this so-called nunnery was the wife of a man who was in the Kentucky Penitentiary, and the girls were largely off the public streets in Louisville. Who will ever tell the fiendish transactions of that place, by these monsters of iniquity, the many innocent lives that were taken to hide the sin of celibates, and cover the shame of women, who, under the hideous mask of piety and chastity, committed the foulest sins, and degraded utterly their womanhood? Mam7 things came out in the con flict between abbot and bishop, that Romanists wished had never seen the light of day. The bishop was accused of wrong doing in the same line that the abbot and some of the monks were exposed for, ana crimination and recrimination between priest and monk seemed to be the order of the day; for when rogues and hypocrites fell out. the truth was uncovered, and facts that filled the Papists with horror were as numerous as stars of a wintry night."
"It is a fact, that some of the best priests that ever of ficiated at Romish altars were known to have their own wives and children, though on the sly; and it is also a fact that the most profligate and vile among them are the loudest in their hypocritical professions of chastity and celibacy."
"The St. Louis Republican" of June 20. 1887. printed a letter from Bishop Hogan of the Catholic diocese of St. Joseph. Mo., which was brought out in court, and was never intended for publication; but it reveals a sad state of affairs.
The bishop appointed a German priest over an Irish con gregation. This gave so great offence to some parties, that the letter in question was written in self-defence. His defence is, that the priests of his diocese were such a drunken lot that he was compelled to supply the parish as he did. He then gives a list by name of twenty-tiro priests, that were received into the diocese from ISfil) to 1876, whom he was compelled to dis miss on account of immorality, especially drunkenness. Some of them are described as "constantly drunk;" one is "now going round fx-om city to city a drunken wreck." So disgraceful was the state of affairs, that he was compelled at last to "turn over a new leaf." He saj's:
"The constant, shameful, public and sacrilegious drunken ness of the last three mentioned priests, who were by my side

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at the cathedral, determined me to wipe them and their kind out of my jurisdiction. Herbert, after repeated drunkenness, went into a spree for a week in my house; was in the house, broke out at night, got into a house of disreputable women in
his drunkenness, and was thrown out into the street, picked up drunk, recognized, and taken into a house and made sober, and put into a carriage and taken to my house. That evening. Galvin and Kiley were told by me to prepare for the proper celebration of the feast of the patronage of St. Joseph for Plaster Sunday. On Saturday night they staid up all night, drinking, carousing, and shouting. Kiley fell down, blacken ed and almost broke his face in falling. Of course the two sacrilegious priests said mass the next day;- and Kiley went into the pulpit and preached, with his blackened and bruised face, to tlie people of the cathedral. This was on the feast of the patron of the diocese, and of the universal church. It was time for me to begin a reformation/"
The bishop began to purge his diocese, and of course met with resistance from the drunken priests and their friends. But what a revelation of the secrets of a diocese this is!
Let every American insist upon a married priesthood, -ind for a pure Christian home rule. Let the husband become the head of the home, with no shadow of a priest coming between him and his household, and the cloud that darkens the path of liomanists will be chased away, and millions will find their way back to the halcyon days of Ambrose, before the shadow of the iron sceptre of Hildebrand darkened the world. Then confidence shall take the place of suspicion, and the priesthood of the Romish Church shall join with the ministry of evan gelical denominations in seeking an ennobling civilization for the land we love, and the God we serve.

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<

CHAPTER IV.
THE PRIEST AND THE COXFESSIOXAL.
'THROUGH the confessional an unfathomable abyss has been dug by the Church of Rome between the heart of the wife and the husband. The confessor is the master, the ruler, the king of the soul: the husband, as the graveyard-keeper, must be satisfied with the corpse.'"
"In the Church of Rome it is utterly impossible that the husband should be one with the wife, and that the wife should be one with the husband. A monstrous being has been put between them both, called the confessor. Born in the darkest ages of the world, that being has received from hell his mission to destroy and contaminate the purest joys of the married life. --to enslave the. wife, to outrage the husband, and to cheat the world. The more auricular confession is practised, the more the laws of public and private morality are trampled under foot." (Priest. Woman, and the Confessional, by Father Chiniquy. p. 125.)
It is recorded that the anaconda takes its victim to its place of retreat, covers it with slime, and then swallows it. "I now declare, most solemnly and sincerely, that after living twenty-live years in full communion with the Roman Catholic Church, and officiating as a Romish priest, hearing confessions and confessing myself. 1 know not another reptile in all animal nature so much to be shunned and loathed and dreaded by females, both married and single, as a Roman Catholic priest or bishop who practises the degrading and demoralizing office of auricular confession. Auricular confession is nothing but a systematic preparation for the ruin of the soul of the guile less and guiltless scholar." So said William Hogan. (Hogan's Auricular Confession, p. 32). "Let me."' said this converted priest, "give American Protestant mothers just a twilight glance at the questions which a Romish priests asks those females who go to confession to him. and they will become convinced that there is no poetry in what I say.
''First, let the reader bring before the mind a picture of a young lady between the age of from twelve to twenty, on her knees, with her lips nearly close pressed to the cheeks of the priest, who. in all probability, is not over twenty-five or thirty years of age. Let it be remembered that the young priests are. as a rule, extremely zealous in the discharge of their sacerdotal duties, especially in hearing confessions, which all Roman Catholics are bound to make under pain of eternal damnation. When priest and penitent are placed in the above attitude, let

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us suppose the following conversation taking place between them:
"COXFESSOR: What sins have you committed?
"PEXITEXT: I don't know any, sir."
"Cox. Are you sure you did nothing wrong? Examine yourself well.
"PEX. Yes; I do recollect that I did wrong; I made faces at school at Lucy A.
'"Cox. Nothing else?
"PEX. Yes; I told mother that I hated Lucy A., and that she was an ugly thing.
"Cox. (scarcely able to suppress a smile in finding the girl so innocent). Have you had any immodest thoughts?
"PEX. What is that, sir? "Cox. Have you been thinking about men? "PEX. Why, yes, sir. "Cox. Are you fond of any of them ? "PEX. Why, j-es! I like cousin A. or R. greatly. "Cox. Did vou ever like * * * "PEX. Oh, no! "Cox. How long did these thoughts about him continue ? "PEX. Not very long. "Cox. Had you these thoughts by dav or by night ? "PEX. By --------
"In this strain-does this reptile confessor proceed, till his half-gained prey is filled with ideas and thoughts to which she has been hitherto a stranger. He tells her that she must come tomorrow. She accordingly comes, and he gives another twist to the screw which he has now firmly fixed upon the soul and body of his penitent. Day after day. week after week, and month after month, does this hapless girl come to confession, until this wretch has worked up her passions to a tension almost snapping, and then becomes his easy prey. I can not detail the whole process by which a Romish confessor de bauches his victims in the confessional; but if curiosity, or any other motive, creates in the public mind a desire to know alf the particulars, I refer them to Dens' treatise, 'De Peccatis? which is taught in Maynooth College and elsewhere. In this, and in Antoine's 'Moral Theology,' they will find the obscene questions which are put by priests and bishops of the Romish Church to all women, young and old, married or single: and if any married man. father, or brother will, after the perusal of these questions, allow his wife or daughter or sister ever again to go to confession. I will only say that his ideas of mor ality are more vague and loose than those of the heathen or the Turk." (Popish Nunneries, by William Hogan, p. 35).

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Protestants think that confession is a dread to Romanists. Far from it. It is. with many, a time for love-making, for prurient scandal, for plotting against the peace of the com munity. The very idea of it is made a delight, rather than a dread.
The Children's Confession,
which occurs about the middle of Lent, illustrates very truth fully the way in which Rome sweetens the pill that is to poison the soul.
"Xotice is given to the congregation the Sabbath before, that every father of a family may send his children, both boys and girls, to church, on the da%T appointed, in the afternoon. The mothers dress their children the best they can that day, and give them the offering-money for the expiation of their sins. That afternoon is a holy day in the parish, not by pre cept, but by custom; for no parishioner, either young or old, man or woman, misseth to go and hear the cliildren's con fessions. For it is reckoned among them a greater diversion than a comedy, as you may judge by the following account."
"The day appointed, the children repair to church at three o'clock, where the priest is in waiting for them with a long reed in his hand; and when all are together (sometimes one hundred and fifty in number, and sometimes less) the Reverend Father placeth them in a circle round himself, and then kneel ing down (the children also doing the same) makes the sign of the cross, and says a short prayer. This done, he exhorteth the children to hide no sin from him. but to tell him all they have committed. Then he strikes with his reed the child whom he designs to confess the first, and asks him the following ques tions :
COXFESSOH. How long is it since you last' confessed ? BOY. "Father, a whole year, or the last Lent." Cox. "And how many sins have you committed from that time till now ?" BOY. "Two dozen." Now the confessor asks round about: Cox. "And you?" BOY. "A thousand and ten." "Another will say, 'A bag full of small lies, and ten big sins;' and so one after another answers, and tells many childish things." Cox. "But pray, you say that you have committed ten big sins: tell me how big?" BOY. "As big as a tree." Cox. "But tell me the sins."

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BOY. "There is one sin I committed, which I dare not tell your reverence before all the people; for somebody here present will kill me if he heareth me."
Cox. "YT11. come out of the circle, and tell it me." "'They both go out. and with a loud voice he tells him thatsuch a day he stole a nest-full of sparrows from a tree, of an other boVs. and that if he knew it he would kill him. Then both come again into the circle, and the Father asks other boys
and girls so many ridiculous questions, and the children an swer him so many pleasant, innocent things, that the congrega
tion laughs all the while. One will say that his sins are red; another, that one of his sins is white, one black, and one green; and in these trifling questions they spend two hours' time.
When the.congregation is weary of laughing, the confessor gives the children a correction, and bids them not to sin any more, for a black boy takes along with him the wicked chil dren. Then he asks the offering, and after he has got all from them, gives them the penance for their sins. To one he says. 'I give you for penance to eat a sweet cake;' to another, not to go to school the day following; to another, to desire
his mother to buy him a new hat; and such things as these, and pronouncing the words of absolution, he dismisseth the congregation with Amen, so be it. every year." (Master Key to Popery. By Rev. Anthony Gavin. p. 20. 21.)
These are the first foundations of the Romish religion for youth. From seven to fifteen there is no extraordinary thing, unless some girl begins at twelve years a lewd life, and then
the confessor finds business and pleasure enough when she
comes to confess.

-1 P/'ifftte Confession of a Child
is described by Father Chiniquy. (Fifty Years in Church of Rome, f). 22). "On the Sabbath previous the priest had said, 'Make your children understand that this act of confession is one of the most important in their lives, and that for every one of them it will decide their eternal happiness or misery. Fathers or mothers, if through your fault or his own your child is guilty of a bad confession--if he conceals his sins, and commences lying to the priest, who holds the place of God Himself--this sin is often irreparable. The Devil will take possession of his heart: he will become accustomed to lie to his father confessor, or rather to Jesus Christ of whom he is a representative. His life will be a series of sacrileges; his death and eternity, those of the reprobate. Teach him. therefore, to examine thoroughly his actions, words and thoughts, in order to confess without disguise."

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"At last the moment came. Young Chiniquy knelt at the side of his confessor, and repeated the prayer. 'I do confess to Almighty God. to the blessed Mary, always a Virgin, to the blessed Archangel Michael, to the blessed John the Bap tist, to the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, all the saints, and to thee, O Father, that I have too much sinned by thought, word and deed, by my fault, by my greatest fault. Therefore I beseech the blessed Mary, always a Virgin, the blessed Arch angel Michael, the blessed John the Baptist, the holy Apostles
Peter and Paul, all the saints, and thee. O Father, to pray to God our Lord for me. Amen." This clone, the penitent raises him from his prostration to his knees, and touching
with his lip either the ear or cheek of the spiritual father, begins to discover his sins by the Ten Commandments. And
here we give a translation of the Ten Commandments, word for word. ''The commandments of the law of God are ten: the three first do pertain to the honor of God. and the other seven to the benefit of our neighbor.
I. Thou shalt love God above all things.
II. Thou shalt not swear. III. Thou shalt sanctify the holy days. IV. Thou shalt honor thy father and mother.
V. Thou shalt not kill. *
VI. Thou shalt not commit fornication. VII. Thou shalt not steal.
VIII. Thou slialt not bear false witness, nor lie. IX. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife.
X. Thou shalt not covet the things which are an other's." "The last commandment i.s divided into two to make out the number. The sixth with Koine is the seventh in the Bible. The second is dropped out.
"The commandments of the Holy Mother Church are seven. 1. To hear mass on Sundays and Holy days. -2. To
confess at least once in a year, and oftener if there be danger of death. 3. To receive the eucharist. 4. To fast. 5. To pay tithes, besides the tenth, one-thirtieth part of the fruits of the
earth, towards the repair of the church and the vestments."

The Set-en Safffimfittft A/-c
"1. Baptism. 2. Confirmation. 3. Penance. 4. The Lord's Supper. 5. Extreme Unction. (>. Holy Orders. 7. Matri mony. Amen."
Then came the confession of sins. Young Chiniquy had laughed at the priest. He confessed it. He says. "When I had confessed all the sins I could remember, the priest began to ask me the strangest questions on matters about which my

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pen must be silent. I replied, 'Father, I do not understand what you ask me.'
" 'I question you on the sixth commandment [seventh in the Bible]. Confess all. You will go to hell if through your fault you omit any thing." Thereupon he dragged my thoughts to regions which, thank God. had hitherto been unknown to me.
"I answered him, ;I do not understand you,' or 'I have never done these things.'
"Then skilfully shifting to some secondary matter, he would soon slyly and cunningly come back to his favorite subject, namely, sins of licentiousness. His questions were so unclean that I blushed, and felt sick with disgust and shame." Remember, young Chiniquy had doubtless been converted when a child. He had read the Bible, despite the priest, through again and again, and had committed to memory vast portions of it. which he was accustomed to repeat in the hearing of his neighbors. He was trained by a noble Christian mother. He said. "More than once I had been, to my regret, in the company of bad boys; but not one of them had offended my moral nature so much as this priest had done. Not one of them had ever approached the shadow of
the things from which that man tore the veil, and which he placed before the eye of my soul. In vain did I tell him that I was not guilty of such things; that I did not even under stand what he asked me: he would not let me off. Like the, vulture bent upon tearing the poor bird that falls into his claws, that cruel priest seemed determined to defile and ruin my heart.-
"At last he asked me a question in a form of expression so bad that I was really pained. I felt as if I had received a shock from an electric battery: a feeling of horror made me shudder. I was so filled with indignation that, speaking loud enough to be heard by'many, I told him. 'Sir, T am very wicked; I have seen, heard, done many things which I regret; but I never was guilty of what you mention to me. My ears have never heard any thing so wicked as what they have heard from your lips. Please do not ask me any more of these questions; do not teach me any more evil than I already know.' He gave me a short penance, and dismisned me." (Fifty Years in Church of Rome, p. 27). '
Chiniquy left the confessional humbled, disgraced in his own eyes, and outraged. He went to his uncle's house, who had the name of being a Roman Catholic, yet who did not believe a word of the doctrines of the Roman Church. He laughed at the priests, their masses, their purgatory, and

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especially their confession. He did not conceal that when young he had been scandalized by the words and actions of a priest at the confessional. "He spoke to me jestingly: 'Yr>u will now be a good boy. But if you have heard as main
things as I did the first time I went to confess, you are a very learned boy.' and he burst into laughter.
"I blushed, and remained silent. My aunt who was a devoted Roman Catholic, said to me, :Your heart is relieved,
is it not, since you confessed all your sins?" I gave her an evasive answer, but I could not conceal that sadness over
came me. I thought I was the only one from whom the priest had asked these polluting questions. But great was my sur
prise, on the following day, when going to school. I learned that my fellow-pupils had not been more fortunate than I had been. The only difference was. that instead of being grieved, they laughed at it. 'Did the priest ask you such
and such questions?' they would demand, laughing boister
ously. I refused to reply, and asked: ;Are you not ashamed
to speak of such things?' " 'Ah! ah! how very scrupulous you are.' continued they.
'If it is not a sin for the priest to speak to us on these mat ters, how can it be a sin for us?' I soon perceived that even the young school girls had not been less polluted and scandal
ized by the questions of the priest than the boys. I should be misunderstood were it supposed that I mean to convey the
idea that this priest was more to blame than others, or that he did more to fulfill the duties of the ministry in asking these questions. He was obeying the Pope and his theolo gians. He was. as I have been myself, bound hand and foot
at the feet of the greatest enemy that the holiness and truth
of God have ever had on earth: the Pope. The priest of Rome is an automaton--a machine which acts, thinks, and speaks in matters of morals and of faith, only according to
the order and the will of the Pope and his theologians. He had read Liguori, Dens, Debreyne. authors approved by the
Pope, and he was obliged to take darkness for light." (Fifty
Years, etc., p. 30).
Can Americans realize that the children of Romanists are exposed to this demoralizing influence, and not feel that something ought to be done to let in the light upon this ter
rible night of darkness and of death ?

Two Methods are Practised
because there are two classes of people to be confessed--the learned and the unlearned. The learned confess by these three general heads thought, word, and deed, reducing them into all

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sorts of sins. The unlearned confess by the Ten Command ments discovering by them all the mortal sins which they have committed since their last confession. Venal sins or sins of small matter are washed away by the sign of the cross or
by sprinkling the face with the holy water. To the discovery of the mortal sins the father confessor doth very much help
the penitent: for he sometimes out of zeal but most commonly out of curiosity asks then: many questions to know whether they do remember all their sins or not. "By these
and the like questions the confessors do more mischief than good, especially to the ignorant people and young women; for perhaps they do not know what simple fornication is; what voluntary or involuntary pollution; what impure desire;
what simple motion of our hearts; what relapse, re-incidence, or reiteration of sins: and the like; and then by the con fessor's indiscreet questions the penitents learn things of which
they never had dreamed before, and they go home with light, knowledge, and an idea of sins unknown to them before."
(Master Key to Popery. Rev. A. Gavin. p. 1C). Take this an as illustration of the method and the mischief.

A Young Womtrn Enters the Confefutional.
COXFESSOR. after asking Mary to give the commandments of the holy Church, and the sacraments, then taking up the commandments, asks. "How long is it since you last con fessed ?"
MARY. "It is two years and two months." COXFESSOI?. "You see in the second commandment of the Church and in the third among the sacraments, that you are obliged to confess every year. Why. then, have you neglected so much longer time to fulfill tlie precepts of the holy mother!;" She gives a reason, a shameful act with a man now dead, and she now determines to retire to a monastery. The confessor urges her to make a clean breast of her sins, which she does. Cox. "Have you constantly frequented the assemblies of the faithful, and heard mass on Sundays and holy days?" MARY. "No. Father. Sometimes I have been four months without going to church." Cox. "You have done a great injury to your soul, and you have given a great scandal to your neighbors." Her sin in living in adulterous intercourse with Don Francisco is not even referred to. Cox. "Did it come into your mind that God would punish you for your sins?" MARV. "Yea. father, but the Virgin Mary is 1113' advo-

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cate. I kept her image by my bedside and used to address my prayer to her every night, before I went to bed. and I always had a great hope in her."
CON. "If your.devotion to the Virgin Mary is so fervent, you must believe that your heart is moved to repentance by her influence and mediation, and I charge you to continue the" same devotion while you live, and fear nothing after wards."
MARY. "That is my design."
CON. "Go on." The confessions of the several command ments are trivial.
The sixth commandment (the seventh in the Bible) was broken. Speaking of her friend, she said. "For two years we loved in innocence; but at last he discovered to me one clay, when our parents were abroad, the great inclination he had for me; and that having grown to a passion, and this to an inexpressible love, he could no longer hide it from me: that his design was to marry me as soon as his father died, and that he was willing to give me all the proofs of sincerity and unfeigned love I could desire from him. To this I answered that if it was so, I was ready to promise never to marry an other during his life. To this he took a sign of the crucifix in his hands, and, bowing down before an image of the Virgin Mary, called the four elements to be witnesses of the sin cerity of his vows, nay, all the saints of the heavenly court to appear against him in the day of judgment, if he was not true in heart and words, and said, that by the crucifix in his hands, and by the image of the Virgin Mary, then present, he promised and swore never to marry another during my life. I answered him in the same manner: and ever since we have lived with the familiarities of husband and wife. The effect of this reciprocal promise was the ruin of my soul, and the beginning of my sinful life: for ever since I minded noth ing else but to please him. and myself when I had an op portunity."
Cox. "How often did he visit you?"1
MARY. "The first year he * * *:'
Cox. "Did any effect of these visits come to light I"
MARY. "Xo, father. It would, had I not been so barbar ous and inhuman as to prevent it. by a remedy I took which answered my purpose."
Cox. "And how could you get the remedy, there being a rigorous law against it ?"
The answer introduces the reader to a friar, a cousin by relation, who gave her the medicine, and because of her obligation to him she was compelled to * * *
5p

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CON. "Do you design to continue the same life with your cousin for fear of being discovered?"
MARY. "No, father, for he is sent to another convent to be professor of divinity for three years; and if he comes back again, he shall find me in a monastery, and then I will be free and safe from his wicked attempts."
CON. "Have vou transgressed the fourth commandment of the Church?"
MARY. "Yea, father."
Cox. "Have you taken the bull of indulgences?"
MARY. "Yea, father."
CON. "Have you visited five altars, the days appointed for his Holiness to take a soul out of purgatory?"
MARY. "I did not for several days."
CON. "Now, to show your obedience to God and our mother the Church, you must perform the following penance. You must fast every second day, to mortify your lusts and passions, and for the space of two months; you must visit five altars every second day and one privileged altar, and say in each of them five times Pater Noster, etc., and five times Ave Mary, etc. You must say, too, every day for two months time, three and thirty times, the Creed, in honor and memory of the three and thirty years that our Saviour did live upon the earth; and you must confess once a week; and by the continuance of these spiritual exercises, your soul may be preserved from several temptations, and may be happy forever."
MARY. "I will do all that with the help of God." CON. "Say the act of contrition by which 1 absolve you." MARY. "(5 God, my God! I have sinned against thee. I am heartily sorry."
CON. "Our Lord Jesus Christ absolve thee; and by the authority given me, I absolve thee."
Here we see forms and words take the place of repentance, and acts of the individual do away with faith in the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ; and this is Romanism at its best.
Take now this story as told by a Jesuit priest. It is the private confession of Father Garca, a Jesuit: "A woman of thirty-three years of age came to confess to me, and told me that from sixteen years of age until twenty-four, she had com mitted all sorts of lewdness, only with ecclesiastical persons, having in every convent a friar, who, under the name of cousin, did use to visit her. At last she dreamed that the Devil was free with her, and she was delivered of a boy, and that she knew no man for fourteen months. This so distressed her that she threatened to lay hands on herself. The inquisitors sent

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for the woman and her maid, and discovered the story. It was this. Father Canchillos, Victorian friar, was in love with the woman, but she could not bear the sight of him. That he gained the maid, putting some opium into her mistress' sup per; she fell fast asleep, and the said father did * * * So the child is not the son of the Devil, but of Father Canchillos. The friar was put into the Inquisition for having persuaded the maid to tell the mistress that it was the Devil; for she had been under the same fear, and really she was in the same condition." (Master Key to Popery, p. 35).
This private confession of a priest is an eye-opener for those who believe in the immaculate character of the priest hood.
Don Paulo says, "Since God Almighty is pleased to visit me with this sickness, I ought to make good use of the time I have to live, and I desire of you to helj> me with your prayers, and to take the trouble to write some substantial points of my confession, that you may perform, after my death, whatever may enable me to discharge my duty towards God and men. When I was ordained priest. I made a general confession of all my sins. I have served my parish sixteen years, and all my care has been to discover the tempers and in clinations of my parishioners; there are in my parish sixteen hundred families, and more or less I have defrauded them all
some way or other.
"My thoughts have been impure ever since I began to hear confessions; my words have been grave and severe with them all, and all my parishioners have respected and feared me. I have had so great an empire over them, that some of them, knowing of my misdoings, have taken my defence in public. I have omitted nothing to please them in outward appearance, but my actions have been the most criminal of mankind; for. as to my ecclesiastical duty, what I have done has been for custom's sake.
"As to the confessions and wills I have received from my parishioners at the point of death, I do confess I have made myself master of as much as I could, and by that means I have gathered together all my riches. As to my duty towards God. I am guilty to the highest degree, for I have not loved Him; I have neglected to say the private divine service every day. I have procured by remedies sixty abortions, making the fathers of the children their murderers, besides many others intended, though not executed, by some unexpected accident. I confess that I have frequented the parish club twelve years. We were only six parish priests in it, and then we did con sult and contrive all the ways to satisfy our passions. Each

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had a list of the handsomest women in the parish; and when one had a fancy to see any woman remarkable for her beauty in another's parish, the priest of the parish sent for her to his own house; and having prepared the way for wickedness, the other had nothing to do but to * * * and so we have served one another these twelve years. Our method has been, to persuade the husbands and fathers not to hinder them any spiritual comfort, and to the ladies to persuade them to be subject to our advice and will; and that in so doing they should have liberty at any time to go out on a pretence of communicating some spiritual business to the priest. And if they refused to do it. then we should speak to their husbands and fathers not to let them go out at all, or, which would be worse for them, we should inform against them to the holy tribunal of the Inquisition. And by these diabolical persua sions they were at our command, without fear of revealing the secret. I have spared no woman of my parish, whom I had a fancy for. and many other of my brethren's parishes; but I cannot tell the number. I have sixty nepotes alive of several women; but my principal care ought to be of those that I have by two 3*oung women I keep at home since their parents died. Both are sisters, and I had by the eldest two boys, and by the youngest one. The one I had by my own sister is dead. Therefore I leave to my sister five thousand pistoles, on condition that she enter St. Bernard's Monastery, and upon the same condition I leave two thousand to the young women, and the rest to the three boys." This is the confession of a priest in 1710, (Master Key to Popery, p. 38), who died the same day, and went to the judgment bar of God in that con dition.
The Abominations of Auricular Confession
baffle description. ''There are two women who ought to be constant subjects of the compassion of the disciples of Christ: the Brahmin, who, deceived by her priests, burns herself on the corpse of her husband; and the Roman Catholic woman, who. not less deceived by her priest, suffers a torture far more cruel and ignominious in the confessional box. to appease the wrath of her wafer-god. For I do not exaggerate when I say. that for many noble-hearted, well-educated, high-minded women, to be forced to unveil their hearts before -the eyes of a man. to open to him all the most secret recesses of their souls, all the most sacred mysteries of their single or married life, to allow him to put to" them questions which the most de praved woman would never consent to hear from the vilest seducer, is often more intolerable than to be tied on burning coals.

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"More than once I have seen women fainting in the con fessional box, who told me afterwards that the necessity of speaking to an unmarried man on certain things, on which the most common laws of decency ought to have forever sealed their lips, had almost killed them. Xot hundreds, but thou sands of times, I have heard from the lips of dying girls, as well as married women, the awful words: ;I am forever lost! All my past confessions and communions have been ?o many sacrileges. I have never loved to answer correctly the ques tions of my confessors. Shame sealed my lips, and damned my soul.' (Fifty Years in Church of Borne, p. 580.)
"How many times God has spoken to me. as He speaks to all the priests of Kome, and said with a thundering voice, 'What would that young man do, could he hear the questions you put to his wife? Would he not blow out your brains? And that father, would he not pass his dagger through your breast, if he could know what you ask from his poor trembling daughter? Would not the brother of that young girl put an end to your miserable lile. if he could hear the unmentionable subjects on which you speak with her in the confessional?"* (Fifty Years in Church of Rome, p. 585). With one more story, told by Father Chiniquy, we dismiss the subject:
"In the beginning of my priesthood, I was not a little sur prised and embarrassed to see a very accomplished and beauti ful young lady, whom I used'to meet almost every week, en tering the box of my confessional. She had been used to con fess to another young priest of my acquaintance: and she was always looked upon as one of the most pious girls of the city. She disguised herself, and began by saying:
" ;Dear father, I hope you do not know me. and that you will never try to know me. I am a desperately great sinner. Before I begin my confession, allow me to ask you not to pollute my ears by questions which our confessors are in the habit of putting to their female penitents: I have already been destroyed by these questions. Before I was seventeen years old, the chaplain of the nunnery, where my parents had sent me for my education, though approaching old age, put to me. in confessional, a question which, when understood, plunged my thoughts into a sea of iniquity till then absolutely un known to me.' As a result, she was ruined. She became the counterpart of the priest. She fell so low that she declared. 'I had a real pleasure in conversing with my priest on these matters, and enjoyed his asking me more of his strange ques tions. The hour in the confessional was but a criminal tetea-tete. I perceived that he was as depraved as myself. With some half-covered words he made a * * * which I accepted

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with covered words also; and during more than a year we
have lived together in the most sinful intimacy. When the
course of my convent instruction was finished, my parents
called me back to their home. I was really glad of the change of residence, for I was beginning to be tired of my criminal life. My hope was that, under the directions of a better con fessor. I should reconcile nmelf to God and begin a Christian life. Unfortunately for me, my new confessor, who was very young, began also his interrogation. He soon fell in love with me, and I loved him in a most criminal way. I have done with him things which I hope you will never request me to reveal to you; for they are too monstrous to be repeated even in the confessional, by a woman to a man. It was my fault. I believe he was a good priest before he knew me; but the questions he put to me, and the answers I had to give him, melted his heart--I know it--just as boiling lead would melt the ice on which it flows.
" 'You understand, I have given up my last confessor. I have two favors to ask. One, that you will never seek to ascertain my name; second, that you will never put to me any of those questions by which so many penitents are lost, and so many priests forever destroyed. Twice I have been lost by those questions. We come to our confessors that they may throw upon our guilty souls the pure waters which flow from heaven to purify us; but, instead of that, with their unmen tionable questions, they pour oil on the burning fires which are already raging in our poor simple hearts. Oh, dear father, let me become your penitent, that you may help me to go with Magdalene, and weep at the Saviour's feet! Do respect me, as He respected that true model of all the sinful but re penting women! Did He extort from her the history of things which a sinful woman cannot say without forgetting the respect she owes to herself and to God? No! You told us, not long ago, that the only thing our Saviour did was to look at her tears and her love. Well, please do that, and you will save me.'" (Fifty Years in Church of Rome, p. 590). Can not Romanists see this? Christ, without a priest, as the
Saviour. Father Chiniquy encouraged her as best he could, and went to his confessor, afterwards Archbishop of Canada, and asked if he might forego the questions. His reply was in the negative. "Such cases of the destruction of female virtue by the questions of the confessors.is an unavoidable evil. Such questions are necessary. . . .
'You must not be discouraged when, through the confes sional or any other way, you learn the fall of priests, into the common frailties of human nature with their penitents. Our

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Saviour knew very well that the occasion and the temptations we have to encounter in the confessions of girls and women, are so numerous and irresistible that many would fall. But He has given them the holy Virgin Mary, who constantly asks and demands their pardon; He has given them the sacrament of penance, when they can receive their pardon as often as they ask for it. The vow of perfect chastity is a great honor and privilege; but we cannot conceal from ourselves that it puts on our shoulders a burden which many cannot carry for ever. St. Liguori says that we must not rebuke the penitent priest tcho falls once a month; and some other trustworthy theologians -are still more chwitdble.'" (The same. p. 591.)
As a result, the young woman sought to make confession without hearing or answering the questions. As a priest. Father Chiniquy was compelled to say that it could not be done. With a piercing cry. she exclaimed. "Then. 0 my God! I am lost, forecer lost" and fainted away. She was carried home. On her death-bed Christ came to her in answer to prayer, and gave her a peace that passeth knowledge. With out the help of the priest she fought the battle, saying, "I shall not be lost." "On one occasion she calmly, but with an air of dignity, asked. 'Is it true. that, after the sins of Adam and Eve. God himself made coats and skins and clothed them, that they might not see each other's nakedness J" "Yes." I said. 'This is what the Holy Scripture tells us.'
' 'Well, then, how is it possible that our confessors dare to take away from us that holy divine coat of modesty and selfrespect \ Has not Almighty God himself made, with His own hands, that coat of womanly modesty and self-respect, that swien?m'"ight be to vou and to ourselves a cause of shame and
Her words demolished the traditions of the Church, and pulverized the doctrines of her theologians.
"After a time she continued. 'Twice I have been destroyed by priests at the confessional. They took away from me that; divine coat of modesty and self-respect which God gives to every human being who comes into this world, and twice I have become for those very priests a pit of deep perdition into which they have fallen, and whe're I fear they are for ever lost. My merciful Father has given me back that coat of skins, that nuptial robe of modesty, self-respect, and holiness, which had been taken away from me. He cannot allow you or any other man to tear again and spoil that vestment which is the work of His hands.1
"The revelation of the unmentionable corruptions directly and unavoidably engendered by auricular confession, had

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come to me from the lips of that young lady, as the first rays of the sun which were to hurl back the dark clouds of night by which Kome had wrapped my intolligence on that subject.
"Had this young person been the only one to tell me that,
I might still have held some doubt about the diabolical origin of that institution. But thousands and thousands before and after her have shown me that auricular confession, with very few exceptions, drags both confessor and his female penitents into a common and irreparable ruin." (Fifty Years, etc.. p. G02). Hence a law ought to be passed making auricular con fession a crime, and then woman in the Roman Catholic Church would be emancipated.

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CHAPTER V.
WHY PRIESTS Do NOT WED,- OR. THE PRIESTS' SUBSTTTUTIOX
FOR MARRIAGE.
AURICULAR confession is bad. It is believed by those who know most about it. to be the plot of the Devil against virtue and against the home. There is this that makes it to be tol erated and endured: millions think it linked with the salvation of the soul; they believe that they cannot be saved apart from it or without it; that they must confess their sins to a priest, no matter how vile, how polluted, or how much he be opposed to virtue, in order that they may obtain absolution. To strike auricular confession, is to interfere, in the opinion of many, with the religion of their fellow-men--a right which it is claimed is guaranteed to them by the Constitution: as though" the Constitution of the United States, or of any other country, could guarantee to a man the right to be damned. The Con stitution guarantees to every man the right to be saved--the right to believe the truth, and to be blessed by it. The right to believe a lie that they may be damned, belongs to no one. since God Almighty sits on the throne of His universe, and Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son. is the one Mediator be tween God and man. The command is. "Go preach the gospel that saves, to every creature. He that believes and is baptized shall be saved; he that believeth not shall be damned/' Xo man has a right to commit suicide. "Cut him down before he breathes his last," is the manifest duty of everybody when he sees the victim of madness suspended by the neck. Nor have men and women the right to exchange Christ the Saviour for man the priest; the "Come unto me. ye heavy laden." of the God-man, for the command which makes millions throng the confessional. Tell this truth, tell it now. tell it here, tell it everywhere; it is a God-given right to publish it. and so to save men. It is not any man's right to withhold it. and suffer the lost unwarned to go down to hell.
Auricular confession is bad. and yet for the sake of false views concerning religious liberty it is tolerated. But
Substitution for Marriage
is without excuse, unless the American people consent to allow millions to sink into the mire of filthy abominations, without a protest and without warning. There are things about it from which the pure in heart draw back in horror.
There are many reasons why priests should wed. They

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are men; and God says "it is not good for man to be alone." "Marriage is honorable for all, and the bed undefiled"--for priests, as well as for ministers of the gospel, or other men. The vow of celibacy is proven to be deceptive and vain. His tory with trumpet tone declares that priests do not keep the vow. The theologians of the Roman Catholic Church palliate their crime, and cover their lapses of virtue with the mantle woven out of the alleged weaknesses of human nature, matched by temptations which are unparalleled. For this, marriage is"a remedy. Priests know it; priests say it. Priests to gratify their carnal appetites, are compelled to find their warrant to sin in the violation of the plainest and most positive teachings of the Word of God. Here Romanism baffles us and beats us. The victim of superstition hides behind indulgences granted by pope or bishop, and goes on to ruin.
As a rule the man who hints, who deals in innuendoes, is to be despised. To tell the truth about the corruptions dis closed through the attempt to find a substitution for marriage, in the invention of Pio Xono, and to uncover the filth, the turpitude, the devilish ingenuity of the vile, seems to be im possible. As we have said, so we repeat.
Auricular confession is bad. But "Substitution for mar riage for priests" reveals a deeper depth of shame, a more diabolical plot against virtue, and a wantonness on the part of these professed leaders of millions, which may be imagined, but cannot be described.
Father Quinn, formerly pastor of the Roman Catholic Church in Kalamazoo, Mich., was the man who uncovered the rascality and robbery of Archbishop Purcell. That was much. The writing of this book, and the horrid revelations he makes of the turpitude and infamies of the priesthood, would be beyond belief were it not for such statements as have been made by Rev. Anthony Gavin, an Episcopal minister of Eng land, William Hogan. an ex-priest of Rome, and many more. Father Quinn publishes these .facts that all persons, who desire to know, may know, what perils threaten the people of America by lowering the standard of morality. He feels that all loving their families, friends, neighbors, and country, ought to be thoroughly informed on this question of vital importance.
The institution is thus described: "In the year 18C(>, Pope Pius IX. sanctioned the establishment of one of the most appalling institutions of immorality and wickedness ever countenanced under the form and garb of religion, virtually adding another plague-spot to that vile bod}r, the mother of harlots, Papaltsm, and thus giving to his clergy the right.

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(which they had already taken in various ways) to use this 'substitution for marriage."-' (Substitution for Marriage, P- 1 >- .
"This organization, then, with all its glaring indecencies, its frightful operations, its unlicensed privileges, its revolting and heart-rending outrages, is one more outgrowth of celibacy, one more hell-trap set for the unwary by the pious frauds of a system rotten with the accumulated iniquity of ages--a sj'stem which can flourish only through the ignorance of its followers, the blindness and indifference of Protestants, and the patience of God, before whose laws and teachings it must fail."
"Many good charitable people revered the late Pope as a saint, believed the many false reports issued from Rome con cerning his virtues and poverty, and contributed generously to the appeals made frequently by his hired tools all over the country; though his purity was no better than his pretended poverty, who died with a fortune of twenty-three millions of dollars in one bank, over thirty millions in other banks, and real estate, with sundry stocks, to the value of sixty millions or more."*
"Poor old man! Pious fraud,Who worshipped gold far more than God."
"And yet the only heritage he left was this substitution for marriage] to be handed down as the Pope's invention to save the Church from public scandal, and prevent heretics from discovering, if possible, the rottenness prevailing amoiTg priests from the lowest in office to the highest old gray-headed wolf in the fold. Accordingly the best, safest, and most expeditions plans were thought out and adopted for the en slavement of women, by making them "Blessed Creatures,"' or consecrated prostitutes, to be used as vessels of election by the "reverend fathers in God."
' ''Thus, in many cities of the United States and Canada
*The Pope's Income.--The Pope can certainly manage to get through on his allowance. Pope Leo XIIL derives his income from three sources. One is the interest of the vast sum left by Pius IX. in the pontifical treasury, invested chiefly in English consols. (That he should prefer the securities of a Protestant to a Roman-Catholic nation--say France, Spain or Mexico--is significant.) This interest amounts to about $625,000 a year. Another source is the Peter'spence contribution, which in spite o very great reductions in late years, averages about $415,000 annually. The third source is the Apostolic Chancery, the receipts of which include sums received for titles and decorations, privileges of the altar, private chapels, etc., and aggregate about $520,000 a year. The entire annual income of Leo Xl'IL, therefore, is about $1,560,000.

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are flourishing societies, having the sanction of the Pope, and bearing the name of 'Kosary,' 'Compline,' 'Sacred Heart,' 'Im maculate Conception,' or such pious titles as may be calculated to awaken no suspicion." (Substitution for Marriage, p. 12). Only those are initiated into the secret order of the "Blessed Creatures" "who are especially fitted by disposition, training and selection, to join the order." The many are called, but few are chosen. The proofs of this order are said to be abun dant. "The first evidence came through the confessional, from some of the women who had been members, and who had left their former homes to get rid of the burden of such a life. In all cases examined, the badges, pictures, instruments, and printed matter were invariably the same; also the statements made were identical (in substance) throughout. There are now in safe keeping three copies of the book which is it-sed as the (/trifle or manual of the confraternities" (The same, p. 13.) and stamp the order as the monstrosity of the nine teenth century.
Q notifications.
The priest who becomes a member of these societies must have served in the priesthood, at least seven years. This is the general rule. There are exceptions made because of favor itism gained by wealth, power, flattery, or praise for their superiors, some of whom are as low in deceit and injustice as the cruel and dishonest Purcell of Cincinnati, charged with robbing his people of seven million dollars. (The same, p. 10).
"The female, to be a suitable candidate for membership, must be perfectly pliant, docile, and obedient. She must be sound and healthy in mind and body, free from scrofula and all impurity, as nothing diseased can touch the sacred bodies of these 'holy fathers.' She must be considered good-looking,' if not really handsome, at least so held in the estimation of these priestly judges. She must be satisfied with all proofs given in favor of the societies, and feel honored with the privileges and duties thereof. She must be above want or poverty, if not wealth}'. She must be willing to support, if need be, any father who may be poor (or reckoned poor), as compared with some others. She must, if not sick, go at every call to minister to the father, or any of the fathers who hold the office of president, secretary, treasurer, or grand chaplain. She must submit * * *
"She must, if posible. attend all the society masses, and take part in keeping the altar, sanctuary, and vestments in good order, and must also pay her portion for the purposes of the altar when requested, besides paying twenty-five cents

WHY PRIESTS SHOULD WED.

<7

a month, or that sum-every week, if at all convenient. This money is paid by all who are not 'B. C.'s." but who are mem bers of those religious societies, so that the B. C.'s have to do likewise to keep up this deception, and pay the priest for the honor conferred." Can such things be. and overcome us as a summer cloud without our wonder?
She must be subservient to the will of her masters at all times. '''One great principle pervading the tchole membership
is that every ~B. {?.' must deny the knowledge or existence of
such a society, life, or body of women in the Church (should she be accused}, under pain of persecution and death." (Sub stitution for Marriage, p. 18).

The Penalties
of the societies imposed on faithless members vary according to circumstances. Fasting a certain number of days, attend ing the sanctuary a certain number of times, extra fee?, are among them. Should any "B. C."' become obstinate. she is punished until she submits. "If a nun is a member of this society, and confesses that she has * * *
As a penalty she must seek an early opportunity of com plying with the wishes of the father, as delay would be sin ful/ (The same, p. 19.)

Reasons for Joining.
''The inducements held out for joining these societies are complex and varied, as different modes are required to suit the character and disposition and bearing of the ladies selected; but as priests make women a special study, and have become conversant with the duplicity, artifice and cunning of human nature (by means of the confessional), it is only a question of time, as the victim is bound, sworn, and delivered to the tender mercies of her spiritual adviser. After the emo tional nature has been worked up. as it were, to the concert pitch, the sexual or passionate is then attacked: and success is in nine cases out of ten assured, as priests know exactly the kind of material they work upon." Human nature run by the Devil makes a success in the Romish Church. How carefully, and with what specious arguments, these smooth-tongued villians ingratiate themselves into the favor of their flock, the initiated alone can tell: suffice it to say. they rule, they sway the bodies and souls of their dupes, touching as with a magic wand the secret springs of passion and lust. till, like a mighty chorus, the spirits of evil seem to congregate about them, and revel in villiany such as never before was perpetrated under

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the sanction of any religion claiming to be Christian, thus rivalling in enormity the worst and most licentious institu tions of paganism. (Substitution for Marriage, p. 21).
The Church obtains control over the women in various ways. "Some are naturally so full of passion and lust that they gladly avail themselves of the means of gratification, so protected and secured by religion. For a people who can
be led to believe that they eat and drink the soul and divinity of Jesus Christ can be led to believe any thing."
Their perversion of Scripture, and what Romanists regard as holy, enable them to accomplish their hellish purposes. The ornaments in the chapel are made to have a special significance and a hidden meaning for these societies. "The Church or the clergy obtain complete control of the female's will, mind, heart, or conscience, and then lay claim to facts (which the ladies admit) that the papal Church is the true Church of God, established by Jesus and His apostles to govern and teach all who wish to be saved; that there is also much mys tery connected with this divine Church and its practices, and that it is the conscientious duty of every one, male and female, to yield a willing and hearty obedience to the voice of the priest, who is the true representative of Jesus, and the inter preter of God's Church, God's will, and God's mysteries." Would you see the lost and the damned playing at religion, read this. "The cushion on which the woman kneels represents that on which Mary knelt to receive the heavenly message from God through the mouth of His angel."
"Everjr female, in being persuaded to join, must count herself as highly honored and exalted as Mary was, and must consider herself as promoted to a celestial dignity far above the other women of the parish or city to which she belongs, as Mary was promoted to be the mother of Christ by opera tion of or the on-coming of the Being called the Third Person of the Trinity."
"At first the female may be a little timid, and somewhat surprised to learn that the priest or bishop requires the un usual, apparently wrong, mysteriously right, service from her; and she may object, as Mary did, in her innocent fear, when she said on hearing the unusual announcement. 'How can this be? for I know not a man.' But the priest, repre senting God's angel in this office, gently soothes the mind and quiets the fears of his future spouse by saying to her, 'He who will come upon thee is not man, but is the holy one of God, and this union is pleasing to Him; it will be holy and blessed: therefore I say unto thee as the angel said unto Mary, Fear not.' After this, the woman, being convinced by the

WHY PRIESTS SHOULD WED.

7)

language of heaven's messenger, that all is right, gives the priest complete assurance of her willingness to submit by say ing, as Mary said to the angel, ;Be it done unto me according to thy word.'
"Then there are a few mumbled words in Latin, a sprink ling of holy water, a blessing asked, and the feast is ready for the priest, who has accomplished by mock prayers and cere monies what ought to send a pang through his accursed heart.
"There is a picture hanging opposite the cushion, repre senting the Holy Ghost in the shape of a white dove, signify ing to the soul of the woman the approval of Heaven, and the perfect purity of her submission in this relation to the priest, and coming as a voice from above to bless their union, and saying, 'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye him, obey him, as he desires, as did the holy women of old serve Jesus.'"
"Another picture shadows forth the angel bearing to her the commission to become honored among women by joining this holy family. Would they like to see the picture of that God who says, Tlwu shalt not commit adultery?'1'
"There is also a statue of the Virgin Mary to signify the exalted position these females will occupy in the Church and in the life to come, for their fidelity in this matter." Can impiety go farther? Will God tolerate it?
"The flowers denote the beauty, simplicity, and sweetscented fragrance, arising from and adorning the consecrated relations existing between these 'Blessed Creatures' and the Fathers."
"The lights represent not only the joys of heaven, but the many bright spirits above looking down with beaming and sparkling eyes to behold these hoty beings in the courts of God consummating this divinely appointed act, which renders them pure and holy forever."
"The holy water signifies the grace of God which passeth *all understanding,' purifying their bodies, deeds, and souls, as members of this sacred order."
"The book in the priest's hand denotes the authority and sanction of heaven. The altar typifies the throne of God. The missal or Bible betokens the voice of God. pronouncing a bless ing on the heads of his devoted children. The priest assumes to be a substitute for the angel, the Holy Ghost, or the per son of Jesus. The surplice which he wears in this connection indicates the purity of the Holy Spirit of Mary. The stole around his neck represents the power of Christ and the bond of perfect union between 'Jesus Christ and himself, and as binding the female who serves him to God. through Jesus, so

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that by this tie of close union the woman and the priest are one. Jesus and the priest are one, as Jesus and the Father are one; thus the union of oneness is perfected." (Substitution for Marriage, p. 27).
''If all this be right, then Protestant ministers and other men have indeed made a sad mistake in being encumbered with wives and children. Why not join the Papal Church, and swell the number of fathers not husbands, who have a plurality of wives or spouses in Jesus, and then palm off their offspring to be supported by charitable institutions, instead of rearing and caring for them as true God-fearing parents?" (The same, p. 27).
''Many arguments from the Scriptures are then introduced to persuade these women as to the propriety and godliness of this institution; and it will be seen by the following examples how they pervert certain passages to their own destruction, and the defilement of many; but if the blind follow the blind, then surely they will fall into the pit of papal corruption." (The same, p. 28).
"Now, these fathers and their Church teach these deluded women that Jesus used, in this peculiar manner. Mary Mag dalene and other women, because they had loved and served Him in this manner during His earthly sojourn. These men, althougn they honor and praise Him in public, thus ascribe to Him, in private, an immorality and passion such as so-called infidels have rarely, if ever, mentioned in connection with His career as a social reformer. But to justify their course of in iquity, and to convince their favorite female slaves that they are right, they maintain that, as Jesus acted so with Mary Magdalene and others, such actions on their part are virtuous.'' (Thesame..p. 28).
Without intending it. they show why priests ought to marry, and give the Scripture for it. ''They adduce, as an argument in their favor on this point, the fact that Peter, a great saint, was a married man. retained his wife, and begat children while acting as one of the apo.stles of Jesus; claiming that Christ approved of Peters cohabiting with his wife, when he went, as recorded by the Evangelist, and healed Peter's mother-in-law. They quote the following words from the eighth chapter of Matthew, as found in their own Testa ment: 'And when Jesus was come into Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother lying sick of a fever; and he touched her hand, and the fever left her. and she arose and ministered unto them."' (Substitution for Marriage, p. 29).
"They assert that the clergy, from the days of Christ to the present, have used women in this way. who were married

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to them privately, and blessed for their special comfort, though the majority of the people have been taught that such was wrong, and therefore not allowed. Then, as a further proof, they read the language of St. Paul, as found in 1 Cor. ix. 5: 'Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas [Peter] ? or I only and Barnabas, have we not power to do this*'
"Again, they say the Virgin Mary had many children, and prove it by the statements of her neighbors, and as is reported in Mark vi. 3: 'Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joseph and Jude and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us?' In this they are right, and overthrow the doctrine of the immaculate conception.
''Besides, they produce the example of Solomon, who had several hundred wives and concubines; and of the patriarchs and prophets who were servants of God though they too had several women that served them in this most ancient, natural, and divine style of wedlock." What a plaything this Church and her priests make of woman, Scripture, God and religion!
For instance, they quote Paul's words to Titus, (Epistle of Paul to Titus, i. 5), in which he speaks of him as "his own son:" "For this cause I left thee in Crete, that thou shouldst set in order the things that are wanting, and shouldst ordain priests, as I also appointed (ordained) thee; if any be without crime the husband of one wife, having faithful chil dren." "Then they make such comments on these words, which are generally unknown to the majority of the people, as will cancel all doubt concerning the authorized marriage of priests." (The same, p. 31.) .They make a very extensive use of Paul's writings to Timothy and Titus.
To prove that the bishops of the true Church were mar ried men, they quote the words as found in 1 Tim. iii. 1: "It behooveth a bishop to be blameless, the husband of one wife, one who ruleth well his own, house, having his children in subjection with all chastity." Then, to show that deacons ought to be married men, they refer to the twelfth verse of the same chapter and Epistle. "Let deacons be the husbands of one wife, who rule well their own children and their own houses'1' The eleventh verse of the same chapter and Epistle is then introduced, to prove the right of faithful women, who must be considered chaste while serving the clergy.
To accomplish their purpose, th* Douay Version substitutes the word "women" for wives. In the Protestant Version, it is written, 1 Tim. iii. 11: "Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things." In the Roman
6p

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Catholic or Douay version it reads: "The 'women? in like manner chaste, not slanderers; but sober, faithful in all things." In this manner is the wife put away from the priest. "Portions of the fourteenth and fifteenth verses of the same chapter and Epistle are then added as evidence that this was practiced in the true Christian Church: 'These things I write to thee, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to be have thyself in the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.' Then the whole of the sixteenth verse is finally read with great emphasis and solemnity, giving the key or explanation of such service and mysterious godliness;
and, evidently, 'Great is the mystery of godliness, which was manifested in the flesh, justified in the spirit, appeared unto the Gentiles [women converted from Protestantism], is be lieved in the world, is taken up in glory.'" (Substitution for Marriage, p. 32).
It will be noticed how much of Scripture they ignore. In Tit. i. 10, it is declared "that there are many disobedient vain talkers, and seducers." No reference is made to this fact while they ply their arts for the destruction of the simple.
"They say that their secret association is the mystery of godliness, and that the deacons and priests and bishops of the Church of Jesus were chaste while married and begetting chil dren, and that each of these clergymen was authorized to have one wife and several women as consecrated mistresses who ren dered him this peculiar service, which was according to the flesh." (The same, p. 33). They do not add Paul's words: "Because of fornication, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband." (1 Cor. vii. 2).
' ''They admit that the Papal Church made a great mistake in trying to enforce celibacy, which, being contrary to nature and the laws of God, has been the source of shocking corrup tion and scandal; but they maintain that this Church has, by divine authority, substituted this blessed institution, rather than let the people discover that she .had been deceiving them, for ages on this vital question.'1'1 (The same, p. 34).
Furthermore, they also admit that the explanation of the words "one wife," as given by their Church, in their own New Testament, is so full of absurdity that it would destroy the inspiration, and bring swift disgrace upon her, if it were
followed throughout, and properly brought to the notice of her subjects; she thinks it best, therefore, to keep their at tention away from that and other parts of Scripture, thus leaving them in ignorance of her many deceptions.
When taking the language of their Church in her explana tion of these two words, they show how it really destroys the

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true doctrine of Paul, and leaves it both silly and senseless.
To make all this clear and satisfactory to the minds of their
ladies elect, they repeat the words of the Papal Church, as ex
plaining the expression (or words) "one wife," saying they
mean that "no one shall be admitted to the holy order of bishop, priest, or deacon, who has been married more than once." Now, if that be the true and correct meaning and in terpretation of those two words, "one wife," it must, then, be equally correct and just to construe, or pervert, the remaining parts of the verse, and say, no one shall be admitted to these orders who has been "blameless" more than once, '"sober"' more than once, "prudent" more than once, "of good behavior"' more than once, "chaste" more than once, "given to hospital ity" more than once, or "a teacher" more than once; but this rendering would manifestly contradict and overturn all that people have believed on the subject since the beginning, as may be seen by the honest reading and view of the whole verse or passage. This places the Papal Church in a frightful dilemma before her own followers, and before all the intelli gent people of the world; for she must admit that she has given a wrong explanation of these words, "one wife," to up
hold her false doctrine on celibacy, or she must admit that, according to her explanation, no one is to be ordained as a priest, bishop, or deacon, if he has been blameless, sober, chaste, hospitable, etc., etc., more than once; but as this would
imply and mean that a man, to be qualified for admission to any of these orders, should have been impure, inhospitable, illbehaved, incompetent to teach, etc., etc., it would make her, in the estimation of all sensible people, a very dangerous guide, an unsafe and most fallible teacher.
These and other false explanations of the Papal Church, if discovered by her people, would cause them to revolt against her, and abandon her teachings as pernicious, as unchristian; but as her numerous perversions and corruptions must, at all hazards, be screened and defended, her clergy feel justified in denying or concealing the fact that she has departed from the apostolic doctrines and practices, or else they carefully observe
a complete silence on all questions which, if duly investigated, would drive her to destruction, and bring upon her the odium and contempt she has earned by a long, unscrupulous course of avarice, hypocrisy, deceit, and carnage. (Substitution for Marriage, pp. 35-37).
Without entering further into this disgusting recital, is it not patent to all that the marriage of priests is a necessity for
the preservation of the Koman-Catholic Church in America? Can the rotten stench be tolerated in its present state? We

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know that with heartless' arrogance they protect themselves and the wickedness of their Church system. Their ungovernable avarice subverts in them fidelity, integrity, all principles of honor, and fills them with impudence, cruelty, irreligion, lust, and gross venality.
Initiation.
To make the impression lasting, and give the form of sacredness and solemnity to the affair with its obligations, the Papal Church requires both the priest and the female to ob serve many ceremonies at the time of initiation. Some of the pomp, shows, music, pictures, candles, incense, bells, holy water, together with all the paraphernalia used by the Church on important occasions, is now brought into requisition to mystify and impress the victim.
"The priest who is to bless or receive the female is robed in cassock, surplice, and stole. The female usually wears a white veil; kneels on a cushion before the officiating clergyman who has power to bless and consecrate her for such holy uses, hold ing in her hand a lighted candle, while the priest asks her the usual questions; she answers all promptly, and swears to obey and perform all enjoined." (Substitution for Marriage, p. 38).
She swears implicit obedience to all clergymen who are members of the society, especially to him who shall be her pastor, and also to be most faithful in the discharge of all duties, particularly in not revealing the secrets, duties, or in signia of the society. She swears to watch the conduct and language of every female member, and to report the same to any of the priests or bishops having control. She swears to take part in opposing and pursuing, even to death, every mem ber who may become dissatisfied with the requirements of the clerical members. She swears to defend every clergyman who is a member, on all occasions, and deny under oath, if need be, every charge or statement made against him by any member who may report to the outside world, find fault, or complain of the society or its proceedings. She swears to submit tp pun ishment herself in case she should displease her superiors in any of their demands. If she is a married woman, when she is admitted into this order, she promises to be faithful to her pastor, and to consider him, if a member, and serve him in all things, as her only true and lawful husband, blessed before God and his Church, and also agree to abstain from, serving her ostensible husband, as the laws of the Church are more binding than the laws of man. (The same, p. 40.)
Note. In Music Hall, on Sabbath afternoon, Dec. 18, 1887, a Roman Catholic sent this word to the writer: "The priest wished

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She agrees to get what money she can from her apparent husband for the support of the priest and Church, and to per suade him that she, though living in the same house with him,
can no longer live as a wife to him, but has to consecrate her whole being to the service of God and his holy Church by trying to live a life of virtue and holiness, saying she would displease God, and defile her body, by being his wife in that one respect, and that it would be contrary to the vow she took when she became a member of one of the "Blessed Confra ternities" belonging to the Church. (Substitution for Mar riage, p. 40).
Some husbands have actually believed all this, and, out of respect for the apparent religious wishes and scruples of their wives,, have lived and are now living in the same house, sup
porting and caring for them, supposing that God, conscience, purity, and religion are the only motives actuating their once loving and truthful companions, whom they wedded in all con fidence and love. As to the marriages of heretics, the Papal .Church holds, both theoretically and practically, as far as possible, that they are null and void, and that the offspring of such marriages are illegitimate, or, in the language of the priests, are bastards. (The same, p. 41).
"The Papal Church maintains that no clergyman belong ing to her can be married, and does not consider the bishops and priests who have left her, and married, as being at all married; yet secretly she allows her chief priests and bishops, who are members of these infamous societies, to make these deluded women believe that they, as members, are truly and honorably married, and so much so that they are not per mitted to live as wives with their husbands. (The same, p. 42). While they are not permitted to have wives of their own, the Pope permits them to have somebody's else wife, and so. de bauch woman, and wreck the home.
"When the females have duly vowed to serve the clergy, who represent Christ and the Holy Spirit, and have bound themselves to observe all obligations laid upon them, by giving every assurance that henceforth they will serve all priests and bishops, obey, honor, and respect them as the pure, holy repre sentatives of Jesus--for, in fact, they consider all priests and bishops thus joined to them in holy wedlock as Jesus or as the Holy Ghost--then the officiating clergyman concludes the cere-

me to subscribe five thousand dollars to a certain object. I could not do it, and did not. My wife went to the confessional, and was told by the priest to deny me all rights as a husband until I sub scribed the money." This is taking charge of the home with a vengeance.

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mony by sprinkling the initiated with holy water, and bestow ing upon her the name of the 'Blessed Creature.' And thus
by the initials 'B. C.' at the top or end of a note or letter, they frequently make themselves known to each other." (Sub stitution for Marriage, p. 43).
Well does Father Quinn ask, "If this be right for some, why not for all? If clergymen can have several women, mar ried or single, why may not laymen indulge in this manner?"
Is it not possible that this accounts for the prostitution in Roman Catholic circles? The commandments, "Thou shalfc not commit adultery," "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife," are trampled into the dust. "When a church becomes
a leper on the body of the community, it should be avoided." The Papal Church poisons all who come under her influence.

Insignia of UB. C."
"These 'Blessed Creatures' have certain badges of insignia, by which they can easily be recognized as members by the Fathers at home or abroad. That which is considered of the most importance is the image of the Virgin Mary with the Child Jesus in her arms." (The same, p. 44).
"A brass or silver case, with a tiny glass door or window in front, encloses the image; a covering of leather, morocco, or silk, is frequently used as an outside casing or protection for the more solid and costly one, lest it be damaged or broken. The Virgin Mary is the protectress of the entire organization. These B. C's. pray to Mary to help them to be perfectly re signed to the will of the Fathers, as she was to the will and demand of God, and the operation of the Holy Ghost, as well as to Joseph.
''They ask her to prevent conception, or, if that must take place, to assist them in pregnancy and childbirth." (The same, p. 46).
"They implore her to guard their bodily health, and to restore it if at any time it should suffer from any duty or service in the confraternity. They believe in the Virgin's willingness to shield them from scandal, exposure, disease, or death, while undergoing the operation necessary to produce abortion." (The same, p. 45).
"They are required to keep one of these images constantly in the house, and as near their persons as practicable, so that they may look through the little door or window, and see the Virgin and Child, and pray to her for aid and protection." (The same, p. 46).
"Another badge is a pair of silken mittens, generally very white and knit by hand. They cover the fingers from the

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middle joint up over the hand, wrist, and half the fore-arm. If a 'B. C.' is a special favorite by reason of her beauty, etc., she is honored by a present of a very beautiful pair from the highest officer, for the purpose of making her known to the Fathers when in a strange home or country." (The same, P- 47).
"Then each 'B. C.' is provided with a ring which is plain, and worn on the third finger of the left hand as the wedding ring; or it may be worn on the corresponding finger on the right hand. These are the articles generally used in public, and by them, or any one of them, with a certain grip of the hand, a 'B. C.' can make herself known to any of the Fathers, without detection by strangers. But the most private and cherished articles of insignia are the twelve napkins or hand kerchiefs. * * *
The Book.
"If any change is made in the grips, insignia, letters, etc., the old features are retained until all are instructed. Books containing the insignia are circulated in a guarded manner. The Fathers can recognize a 'B. C.' in Europe, in Canada, or the United States, as easly as they can count their beads/'

Places and Arrangements.
"A list of the females is usually kept in the vestry or priest's house, where the 'B. C.' may see it every morning after mass. There is a frame with a wooden back having many squares or blocks marked upon it, like a checker-board, and on each square the name of one of the 'B. C.'s is written or printed. A hole is bored in each block, and in it a little peg is inserted. When the peg is out, the 'B. C.' whose name is in that square knows that she is required. * * * * When the 'B. C.' is absent, her name is removed from the frame. In some parishes, however, the order of using the peg is reversed." (Substitution for Marriage, p. 54). The Father, before leaving the sanctuary, notices where these 'B. C.'s have pews, makes his selection, and having taken off his vestments, and made a mock thanksgiving halt, takes the peg out, or in some unsuspicious manner makes known his good pleasure to the one elected, who gladly * * * Every "B. C." knows the day or week of * * * and if weakness, sickness or company prevents, she communicates the fact to the Holy Father." (The same, p. 55).
The priest's housekeeper, or so-called niece, even when she is a member, often becomes jealous of these favorite "B. C.'s"

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and manifests much reluctance if in any way she is to.show
courtesy or kindness while they are present; and many a tem
pest is raised in the priest's house by these fair inmates. So priests, as well as other men, are made to feel that "hell has no fury like a woman scorned." (The same, p. 56). * * * and well enough to attend to his duties, this one included." (The same, p. 56).
A common place for the performance of these special obli gations is a room in the Father's house which is kept for that purpose, and is frequently taken care of by his housekeeper if she be a member; otherwise the "B. C." who serves that day cleans and regulates it to suit herself. Sometimes there is a room in the parish school-house, whenever that can be done without awakening suspicion or creating scandal. A neat little bed, called a bed of the family, is blessed by one of the Fathers, and consecrated to this use. A statue of Mary, with the Infant Jesus in her arms, covered with a white veil, stands in one corner of the room. Two or more blessed candles are burning at the foot of the statue, or on a small altar which is usually kept in these rooms, or in rooms in the homes of these "B. C.'s." There are rooms elegantly and sumptuously furnished for this purpose in the homes of the higher dignitaries, in which these officials entertain for a considerable time their most favored and beautiful "B. C.'s.' Some of the titled ambassadors of the Pope spend 'many an hour on their knees, * * * revelling dulciana. Many thousand dollars have been expended on these women, and many a time has the chant, with the words so often sung at the offertory of the mass, been poured into the ear of these adorable darlings. "The choir may not understand the meaning of the words; but the Fathers do know and express their full deep meaning, with all fire of passion and lust, when singing or interpreting them for the amusement of the 'B. C.'s' whose presence thrills and inspires these lecherous priest-s, who rapturously translate in the quiet of the 'blessed room,' 'O sponsa mea, dilecta veni, amplecti te desidero.' Then they ask, 'Do you understand, my darling, all these words imply 5' when they receive the answer 'No,' they then say, * * *
"These words are sacred, and are used by the holy Church of God to express the intense love and heartfelt desire I now have, at this moment, for you, and to embrace you as my true spouse in the Lord Jesus Christ; for the Church desires that the clergy as married people ought to show and feel the same burning affection and admiration for Jesus, for his people, for his elect and cherished daughters, of whom you are the

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most worthy, my own blessed creature and lovely spouse."
(Substitution for Marriage, p. 58).
"Such is a fair specimen of the language used by these pious Fathers when making over, or transforming, their flock of sheep, which in time become shorn of all power of resistance, and as pliable as wax or putty." (The same, p. 58.)
"Protestants, together with Papists, have been very gener ous in patronizing big fairs, and swelling the treasury of this Church by liberal donations for the ostensible purpose of building a 'new cathedral.' 'orphan asylum,' or the support of seminaries and various institutions of supposed charity; when, in reality, a large portion of such money has been expended on the persons or for the entertainment of these ;B. C-'s,' while the remainder is retained for various uses, such as buying the favor of the Pope, for real estate speculations, for sundry securities, bonds, and the many popular stocks that are put upon the market, to say nothing of the large supplies of 'Holland gin, choice Madeira, first-class Cognac brandy, pure Bourbon, old Irish and Scotch whiskey,' strong enough and fiery enough to send a torchlight procession through their brain and stomach. These supplies are generally of more con sequence to a genuine papal priest or bishop than the presence of the grace of God. Imagine one of these apostles, one of these poor, humble, abstemious representatives of the Church, having constantly in his cellar vault from three hundred to three thousand dollars' worth of such stuff, while hundreds of his parishioners are starving for bread." (Substitution for Marriage, p. 59).
"Apartments are often fitted up in some favorite convent for one of these lordly Fathers, where he can spend a few days in private pleasure and meditation with his chosen ;B. C.' The excuse assigned for these episcopal visits is the giving of the veil, or receiving the vows of females who have aban doned this wicked world, and are prepared to devote theirremaining days to God or to that Church in a nunnery. Some of the nuns are members of this secret organization, and are bound to * * * as the 'B. C-V who are still in the. world. Many of the nuns, like many of the priests, and few of the bishops, are not members, and know nothing concerning its existence, oaths, and duties. Sisters and nuns are not allowed to become members of this secret society before they have spent four years in the convent, after 'making their profession;' they are not usually admitted, in fact, before serving five, six, or seven years, after they have taken their final vows, and have received all the insignia peculiar to the sisterhood which they join. The

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parents or friends of the young ladies about to become nuns
attend the grand ceremony or wedding of these brides of Jesus Christ, which wedding may be only the foreshadowing of the real marriage, when, blessed anew, they become privileged to enter into the joy awaiting them in their union with these Fathers who are the true messengers in their eyes of Jesns. Many priests of the diocese and vicinity are invited to par ticipate in the festivities. A grand dinner or repast is fur nished. The young ladies who attend school at the convent are given a holiday, and the sisters spare no pains to make all things pleasing and attractive. During the afternoon the visitors return home. Some of the nuns resume their ordinary duties, others, with the pupils, continue the relaxation and merriment to a late hour, while to the eye of the public the whole affair is solemn and impressive.
"The lordly celebrant, who at times was jolly, prayerful, and evidently absorbed in deep thought, suddenly becomes very much fatigued, and quietly withdraws to the apartments so tastefully, and in some respects gorgeously, arranged for his
special ease and pleasure. Nothing more is known to the public, unless the newsapers write up the remarkable event;
and remarkable it is to find free women in this America, vow themselves, body, brain, reason, will, soul, and all, into that life of slavery, not knowing what may be required of them in the years to come by these spiritual vultures, not knowing the day when they may be dismissed in disgrace, or poisoned in secret, as many good women have been, for no other reason than that the bishop or superioress desires it for the gratifica tion of personal anger, revenge, jealousy, or self-interest, which last is the ruling passion or motive in many instances." (Sub stitution for Marriage, p. -62).
"But to return to the giving of the veil. Every thing is done to make the episcopal visitation pleasing and successful. The silver for the table, with many rich ornaments for the rooms, the best and most palatable food, the choicest wines and liquors, wait the coming of his lordship. At the table all is joy. Some fair Cecilia in a room near by performs upon the harp or piano, and sings a few classic pieces. They fill up with music and with wine." (The same, p. 63).
"Dinner over, he climbs to his throne. Up come the fair and bow. An address is read filled with fulsome praise. Night prayers are said. The bishop goes to his rooms, which are adapted to his tastes, wants, and privacy. A fair supply of choice things to eat and drink is left on table. The 'Blessed Creature,' whether nun or woman of the world. * * * All is hushed, even the gentle footsteps of the sisters, passing

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and repassing to extinguish the lights and examine the doors before they retire for the night." (Substitution for Marriage,
p. 67).
"It frequently happens that, instead of a nun, some "B. C.' who is a convert from Protestanism is invited by his lord ship to meet him there, to spend some days and nights with him. When that is the case, the preparations are almost as on the occasion of giving the veil; and the sisters belonging to the convent, who know the whole secret, manage to disturb or visit him as little as possible. The excuse which the bishop gives for spending so much time with this 'B. C.' is. that she, being a convert, needs much private instruction on many mat ters of importance pertaining to their religion; and of course he is supposed to be employed in making plain all difficult points of doctrine and practice."
"When the bishop wishes one of these converts to meet him at the convent, his own palace, or elsewhere, for the purpose described, he usually supplies her with all the money she requires for jewelry and other ornaments of dress to make her attractive. Such a favorite has often received from one thous and to five thousand dollars for one such visit. One of those B. C.'s had fifteen thousand dollars a year while she endured the service, and continued faithful; another obtained the neat sum of thirty thousand dollars one year, but then she was. in the estimation of the bishop, the very pink of perfection. She had a cultivated mind, a fine physique, a classic head, and was a descendent of a family that once had rank, wealth, and social influence. She became a member of the 'B. C.'s', and * * * The letters of love and confidence which she and others received from some of these Fathers were rare specimens. Some teemed with amorous quotations from the pens of Byron, Shelley, and others, and were sanctified by the touching whispers of the Old Testament, particularly the gushing Song of Solo
mon. This "B. C." had a trunk filled with such epistles, rich
ornaments, and valuable trinkets which she had received while so highly esteemed as a member of this organization.
This woman was, like many others of the "B. C.'s," full of passion, enthusiastic, intensely emotional, having in her nature powerful elements of the romantic, sentimental, and visionary. Her feelings overruled reason, and "she loved not wisely, but too well." (Substitution for Marriage, p. 72).
"Her constitution was wrecked by indulgence. She grew ill. The clammy touch and chill of death crept towards her. In this condition, with terrible uninterrupted pain of remorse gnawing at her heart-strings, the accumulated guilt of years

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resting like a heavy weight upon her conscience, she thought of her husband and children, whom she loved and honored
before she gave herself to the Papal Church, and whom she had neglected and disgraced secretly. She grew to hate Rome, to despise the priesthood, and resolved to expose 'the substitu
tion of marriage' and the Church that upheld it and accom plished her ruin. The letters, badges, books, etc., were placed in the hands of a trusted physician, and an exposure was resolved upon. She left the city with her family, and sought another home. In speaking of the enormities, she has no mercy for the system, and its principal leaders, who have drawn so many of their subjects into such abnormal, unnatural, and
dangerous conditions by their false teachings and baneful deal ings. She warns Protestants against the wiles of Eome spread for them in convent schools and elsewhere.

Her Infamies
and that of others surpass belief. She confesses to have * * * Another lady, a convert from Protestantism, was induced
to become a 'B. C.,' and "This indulgence brought severe prostration and sickness
upon her; and death finally put an end to all her sufferings, and removed her from her devoted family, who never mis trusted her virtue." (Substitution for Marriage, p. 77).
"Another lady who had always been a Papist, and whose husband is yet a: subject of the Papacy,
She suffered much in trying * * * ' but by good nursing and medical treatment partially recovered her health. She abandoned the society, and persuaded her husband to leave the State." (The same, p. 77).
"One relates that she was afraid to keep a lounge or settee or sofa in her room, lest one of these strong, burly, passionate Fathers might call when somewhat intoxicated, and force her to comply with his desires. So great was her fear, that she took the keys out of the doors, when two or more of these fathers called together, and kept the doors open, pretending to be engaged in some important work."
"Two unmarried ladies, sisters, were initiated, and * * * So we might go on page after page. Is it not enough? Does this not teach us that Romanism is the mystery of iniquity? We know that Romanists do not believe in a change of heart. The natural man, full of passion, seems to have been set on fire of hell. A Romanist is described in these words. "The works of the flesh are these: Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lascieiousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, van-

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once, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such, like, of the which I teU you before, as I have told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." (Gal. v. 19-21).
"Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled; but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge." (Heb. xiii. 4). "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the king dom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of them selves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God." (1 Cor. vi. 9, 10). This proves that Roman Catholic priests, as a rule, are in danger, not of purgatory, for there is no such place, but of an eternal, hell. What Christ said to Nicodemus, he says to them: "Ye must be born again." The life of God in the soul changes the nature, quenches the glow of passion, and compels the individuals to walk in harmony with the teachings of the word of God. Hence, where the word of God rules, there is virtue. The home is respected. But where it is banished from the mind and heart, there all kinds of wickedness abound.
Chapter eight tells of abortions and cruelties which result from these criminal marriages, which sicken and sadden the heart. Roman Catholic priests become skilled in the medi cines to be used, and, when these fail, in the use of the forceps, which kills the child, while the priestly consolation offered to the mother is, that the infant has received a baptism of blood, and is therefore happy in heaven. (Substitution for Marriage, p. 81). Others born are provided for in foundling asylums, orphanages, or other places of refuge, with which Rome
abounds because in such institutions priests can be screened from infamy. Romanism deserves to be studied not only in its history, but in its purpose and plan as revealed in its daily life. A Roman Catholic starts wrong, goes wrong, keeps wrong, dies deceived, and goes down to pitiless wrath without God and without hope.
A lady acquainted with the infamies of the priests rebuked some of them for their profligate doings, and asked them how they could say mass while leading such criminal lives. They laughed at her, and said, "What is the confessional for, if we cannot get absolution as well as other men?"
"Many of the 'B. C.'s,' having been demoralized by the clergy, become dissipated, and are often sent to places of reform and punishment. They know if they were to speak out as they ought concerning the Fathers, they would be

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denounced by their own people, and by the clergy, and con
sidered insane or worse. The fear of persecution and of death seals their lips, though their wrongs burn like fire."

Special Cases.
Among the special cases mentioned is that of a beautiful girl; seduced by priestly cunning and Church influence, who became a "B. C." Her beauty and educational accomplish ments made her exceedingly attractive to a large number of the fathers, * * * had been sick several times, through the brutality of these men, she became so disgusted with the society and its horrid crimes, that she finally complained to some of the members, who, of course, reported her murmurs to the leading pastor. He paid a little attention to these reports, and soon asked the young lady: * * * *
This she refused, when he coolly told her that she knew the terms. Then came

The Inquisitorial Method.
"She was seized by the priests, carried up to the garret, bound with a strong rope round the wrists to a post, and, fearing that she might escape, they procured a chain, and fastened her to a large beam, and thus left her to her own reflections, thinking that she would repent and submit. But in this they were disappointed, for they found they had to deal with a spirit as invincible for the right as they were for the wrong." (Substitution for Marriage, p. 86.)
"They brought her barely enough bread and water to keep her alive, had she partaken of the miserable allowance; but she, the once loved and petted idol, neither ate nor drank, and constantly reiterated her determination to expose and denounce the whole crowd; until finally the over-burdened mind gave way, and she became sick and crazed in that temporary prison." (Substitution for Marriage, p. 86).
''In her fury and insanity she tore her long and beautiful hair out of her head, and cursed it as being one of the beauties admired by the Fathers. She also tore the clothing from her body into shreds, and sat there raving, cursing, crying, pray ing, while the fiends, Fathers and 'B. C.'s' invited a few of their associates who were a little wavering or fault-finding, to witness the sufferings and punishment of that poor girl, as a specimen of what they might expect, should they venture to threaten, leave, or speak against the confraternity; and, what is truly surprising, not one of these women either by look or word expressed the slightest pity or commiseration for the

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"poor victim before them. On the contrary, some said, 'Oh, itis good enough for her, for talking as she did. and refusing to obey the blessed Father! It serves her right.' (The same. p. 87). There is no telling how vice, -when presented in the garb of religion, may harden and destroy every fibre of human sympathy or Christian charity in the hearts of men and women. For this reason the cruelty of the Roman Catholic Church has brought mourning and* ruin to millions. This unfortunate girl lingered but a few days, when death released the tried and worn-out spirit. Then the scene changes.
"In a dimly lighted chapel, with the smoke and aroma of incense floating through the air, the altar draped in mourning, lies the heart-broken, abused girl, all unconscious of the mock prayers and empty ceremonies performed seemingly for her benefit, but in reality to show that nothing is wrong, that all is well, all is proper, all is religion, all is in honor of the dead and living. There are no relatives present: no fond mother, whose keen, loving eyes might have discovered something wrong in the appearance of her child; no proud father to mourn over the object his whole heart was wrapped up in; no brother or sister to mingle tears of love. All is strange mockery and deception." (Substitution for Marriage, p. 88.)
A certain priest, who knew the particulars of these and many other cases, as well as the criminal conduct of this bishop with two other nuns, has had a very narrow escape from death by poisoning. Three times within two years have these at tempts been made.
"One priest died from a loathsome disease, caused by his excessive indulgence with the 'B. C.V and others. When on his death-bed, he declared to some of the members, that he believed his soul would certainly be lost, not only for the life of impurity and intemperance which he had lived, but for con tinuing to teach people what he knew was wrong. He said he was. sorry that he had ever heard of that Church which was his final ruin. He had been a Protestant minister before enter*ing the priesthood, and gave as his dying conviction, that min isters who become priests are, as a rule, among the most im moral, bigoted, dangerous men of that Church; they leave Protestantism without fear of persecution, but they have neither the conscience nor courage to abandon Papalism, which they know to be false. He died in dreadful agony of mind, requesting two of his consecrated mistresses to leave the society and have it destroyed, if at all possible. Another priest had no less than twenty-four of these women, some of them nuns. Though a profligate and intemperate man, he still continues in charge of a large parish, and drives occasionally, in grand

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style, past the houses of some of the 'B. C.'s,' who, with their

husbands, bow to him with all the reverence due a saint.

One of the sisters teaching in the parish school has been a

favorite for more than five years, and has been obliged three

times from

to *

retire **

from

duty

and

public

view

while

being

freed

"This priest fairly steams with liquor, but is allowed to con
tinue as pastor, as he gives money in abundance to the bishop,
and is a violent upholder of the Church in all its demands.".
Is there any thing about this statement which makes it difficult to give credence to it? Does it not look natural that there should be some such invention as a "substitution for mar riage" with the priests? The press teems with reports of their scandals; but little is made of them, because the Roman Catholic Church is regarded rather as a sewer in which to drain off the scandals and loathsome deeds of society, than as a representative of the Christ who went about doing good. The time has come to cut loose from this sink of corruption, turn on it the eye of public investigation, and compel it by strenuous laws to behave, or suffer the consequences.

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CHAPTER VI.
PRIESTS IN NUNNERIES AND CONTEXTS.
PRIESTS work in darkness. They prefer darkness to light, because their deeds are evil. They are not the innocents at home or abroad, that many seem to suppose. If God writes a legible hand in tracing the character of men by their looks and appearance, then Roman Catholic priests show by their own downcast look, their lack of frankness, their unwilling ness to look you in the eye, the absence of cordiality in their greeting, their separation and remove from men even while they move among them, that, though with us, they are not of us. A tie unseen, but not unlmown, binds them to the man in the Vatican. They are in America, and yet utterly un-Ameri can. A foreign and an oath-bound despotism claims them, holds them, and runs them.
If there is any place connected with the Roman Catholic Church that people suppose is removed from sin and strife, from impurity, from worldliness. from the gratification of the flesh, it is the nunnery, convent, or monastery. The facts prove that if there is any place which is next door to hell, in more ways that can be described in language, it is found in the convent, monastery, or . nunnery. These are words--empty words if unsustained by facts. Let facts weigh them. If nunneries, convents, and monasteries are a blessing, the people of Italy ought to know it. If they are pronounced a curse by the people of Italy, their verdict ought to pass current in other lands. They have pronounced them a nuisance, and barrier to progress. Nothing can be more foolish than the respect shown these nuns and sisters with their white bonnets and black cloaks, crowding our street cars, and filling great overgrown establishments in all our cities. They are whited sepulchres, beautiful in appearance, but within--let others describe them.
The Italy of the monks and popes has been made by them the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. Beautiful for situa tion, embracing one hundred thousand square miles, being in size about equal to New England and New York, if her people were Christianized she would be the glory of Europe. Alas! sin has reigned there. Every prospect pleases, and only man is vile. Rome, with its wolfish progenitor which suckled Romulus and Remus, the rape of the Sabine women who came at her invitation, were captured and held as captives for the gratification of lust, are but prophecies of the story which

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blackens the page of history, and when read in the sunlight of
truth offends the world.
Whoever has gazed upon the hills and vales of Italy covered
with villas and vineyards, her plains fruitful and cultured, her
palaces attesting to the wealth, the genius, and the taste of
men, obtains a conception of what Italy might have been, had not Romanism, which is baptized Paganism, taken out of her that healthful life that glorifies our own free land, and filled her with all unrighteousness and wickedness and envy and murder. Assassination and suicide were the portion of her rulers, while the people were left to be the prey to cruelty and robbery. In the past, on almost every delightful eminence was a monastery or a convent perched like a bird of prey, and casting shadows dread and drear over what otherwise would be transcendently beautiful. Monks with their coarse habits, nuns with their cloaks and veils, told of everything but the free spirit of the gospel of love. From dawn to dark they went, until Louis Napoleon was compelled to withdraw the support that upheld the hand which held the crosier. As Romanism withdrew, freedom advanced. Take faith in the Lord Jesus Christ out of a community, and you subtract its power, and leave a residue of men without the life of God. Add this faith to a people, and you panoply them with strength, soul them with a great purpose, give them up to the control of God, who causes them to will and to do according to a purpose which harmonizes with all that is noblest and best for the immortal nature. In this land it is difficult to understand it. Here there is freedom and recklessness. The American people are afraid of neither Pope nor Devil. Perhaps they ought to apprehend, because of their unconcern, danger from both. It is very difficult to believe that the Romanism we see is like the Romanism of which we read. No martyr's fire has shed its glare across our path. It was not so in Italy. Persecution the worst, cruelty the most implacable and fiendish, has charac terized the land and the city nearest to, and most directly under the control of, the Pope. Justice fell in the streets. Men who loved Christ in spirit and in truth had been banished the realm. Some had gone direct to God, through the open door of a martyr's death; others had journeyed by slower stages, through exile and through sorrows, to the rest prepared for those who love God.
Death characterizes the Italy of the monks and nuns. There are processions, feast-days, saint-days, holy days, without num ber. "Is not this a sign of faith?" asks the unthinking inquirer. Whatever takes hold of God is faith, whatever rejects him is unbelief. The Italians and Romanists in general

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are taught to reverence the crucifix, to pray to the Virgin and to the saints, to trust in relics; but between them and Jesus Christ, the one Mediator between God and man, is the Virgin Mary, the rosary, the blind formula, so full of doubt and despair. Christ's words--
"Have Faith in God?
which sheared through the night of Jewish tradition and Pagan superstitution. are essential to the life of Italy.
Henrietta Caracciolo, linked by birth to one of the noble families of Italy, driven to a convent by a mother's oppression, has opened the doors of the cloisters, and bade us look with our own eyes into them. Her womanly delicacy has partly con cealed the hideousness which she has not nakedly disclosed; still no reader of "The Mysteries of the Neapolitan Convents," of ordinary penetration, can fail to see the awful sufferings of which these places are the abodes, and the shameful wicked ness enacted within their walls. In the convent there is no moral light and air; and to expect love to blossom in a convent is like expecting color in the darkness, or life in a sepulchre. The heart, finding nothing without, turns in upon itself, and becomes the seat of foul desires, or of evil passions. Paul described the inhabitants of this pandemonium in these words: "Without natural affections, implacable, unmerciful." In stead of a paradise of purity, as the uninitiated dream, it is filled with people who hiss and sting like serpents, and tor ment one another like furies. Their vow, which makes their sufferings perpetual, leaves them with no hope of escape, except in the grave. "Xever was there on earth slavery more foul and bitter, and never was there a decree more humane andmerciful than that by which Italy declared that this bondage should no longer disgrace its soil, or oppress its children." (John Dowling, D.D., in the Introduction to Neapolitan Con vents, p. 17).
Attempts had been made to reform the abuse. At the close of the last century, Scipio di Kicci, an Italian Roman Catholic bishop, at the command of Leopold, Grand Duke of Tuscany, tried to root out these terrible abominations. Among the disclosures is this letter from the aged Flavia Peraccini, prioress of the Convent of Catherine of Pistoia. She says, "The priests are the husbands of the nuns, and the lay brothers of the lay sisters. . . . Everywhere it is the same; every where the same abuses prevail." (Mysteries of Neapolitan Convents, p. 19).
Garibaldi, born and bred amid these scenes, knew whereof he affirmed when he said, "In the midst of Italy, 'at its very

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heart, there is a cancer called Popery--an imposture called Popery. We have a formidable enemy; the more formidable because it exists among the ignorant classes, where it rules by falsehood, because it is sacrilegiously covered with the
cloak of religion. Its smile is the smile of Satan. This enemy is the Popish priests." (The same, p. 21).

The Suppression of Monasteries and Nunneries
began in 1864, when the Chamber of Deputies, led by Count Cavour, enacted, "that the religious orders should be no longer recognized by the State; that their houses should-be suppressed and their goods placed under an ecclesiastical board; and that the members of the suppressed corporations should acquire their civil and political rights from the date of the publication of this law." (The same. p. 21). The number of these institu tions existing in Italy at the time of the suppression sur passes belief, and should startle Americans who are fostering the curse. The Old World is spewing them out as uesless and corrupt: shall the New World give them welcome? The Italian States compel the lazy orders to work or starve: the United States permit them to beg from door to door, build their colossal establishments that they may impoverish us. Taxation of Church property is a duty which points to the safety of the State. The number of convents actually sup pressed in Italy was 2.382. Of these 1,506 were male convents, or monasteries, and 876 were female convents, or nunneries.
The value of property possessed by them was about eight millions of dollars. The number of useless drones who inhabited these swarming hives was 15.494 monks and 18,198 nuns, 4,468 lay brothers and 7,671 lay sisters, besides 13,441 monks of the mendicant orders, and 3,976 lay brothers; making a total of 60,239 persons. In Naples alone, eleven convents of monks and six of nuns were suppressed during the first half of 1865. Thus did Italy seek to get rid of an incubus that cursed and crushed her. (Mysteries of Neapolitan Convents, p. 22). Would that Americans could realize the peril of youth who are being enticed to enter these pitfalls of ruin! Poli ticians would find it not for their advantage to sell themselves to Kome, and buy Catholic votes with subsidies drawn from the pockets of Protestant tax-payers to these un-American popish institutions.

The Inside of a Benedictine Convent.
of Naples, called San Gregorio Armeno, is revealed. In it were fifty-eight'nuns, belonging to the most conspicuous families of

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Naples. "From the selfishness of unnatural parents and brothers, they had been destined, while yet in their swaddling clothes to bring their minds, hearts and personal charms in this solitude, and to immolate, less to religion than to the avarice of relatives, all their affections, even to filial love; and to make a solemn and inviolable renunciation of the duties and the rights which bind the individual to the family, to the nation, and to humanity, without the least regard to the social inclinations, to the igneous temper, or to the fickleness of their hereditary characters." Educated with such motives; taught to avoid every thing that would by any chance expand the sphere of their ideas, or discipline or fertilize their minds, or socialize their habits; informed on no other subjects in the world than of legends, miracles, visions, and the various phan tasmagoria of ascetics, drawn from the reading of the musty old books which the "Index Expurgatorium" has conceded for family reading; never by any chance permitted, either in or out of the house, to come in contact with any other than the members of their own families, or their own confessors--the nuns are as" much wanting in the qualities which, dis tinguish the well-born woman, as they are destitute of .those which, in other more civilized society, render the religious character so estimable. (Mysteries of Neapolitan Convents, p. 139).
The Present Nunnery a Growth.
"At the outset the vows were temporary. The oblates (lay sisters) renewed their vows each year. At the end of the year they could select any other condition. They maintained themselves at their own expense until they took their veil, after which the establishments provided for them. At this time they enjoyed the reputation of being virtuous. But under the reign of Ferdinand the Catholic, and of Charles V., a marked change came over the relations which the nuns maintained with the people of the world. ... It was then that the most potent, those who were invested with distinctions and resplen dent with the brilliancy of courts, were permitted to seduce these pious women." (The same, p. 142).
Then came the Aulic Council. The Archbishop of Naples and the Nuncio had their own prisons, in which they kept those they sought. * * * Every church, convent, and feudal palace enjoyed the privileges of a sanctuary, and retained in its pay the most notorious bravos. Then came the Sicilian Vespers and the dark deeds. Morality was banished. Intrigue, deception, and conspiracies, the blackest and the worst, were hatched. A father, inhuman, capricious, and

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his daughter whose support caused him embarrassment, or the wife whose fidelity was suspected, into a convent. In those days the condition of women was worse than in Turkey. "The
mere shadow of suspicion; a calumnious accusation; a hallu cination begot by jealousy; the false deposition of a rejected lover--sufficed to assemble, in all haste, a family council, under the same mysterious circumstances in which the Spanish In
quisition was wont to envelop its tribunal, when it would
thunder against the accused that sentence which, according to the prejudices of the period, could alone wipe off the stain
from the family escutcheon in the public eye. Nor, to wash
away the stain, often imaginary, did they know, or seek to know, any other means than through blood. Conformably to
this barbarous code, the woman, if living in the house, was
stabbed or strangled in her own bed, if marriageable; or she was condemned to the civil death of convent seclusion." (Mys
teries of Neapolitan Convents, p. 144).

"The Confessional
in the convent was constructed like small closets, carefully cur tained on all sides, and furnished with a stool on which the penitent could sit at her ease. 'Why the stool?' asked Miss Caracciolo. 'Because it is not possible for a nun ro remain two or three hours on her knees.' 'Why are two or three hours required to tell the confessor that you have not wished to com mit a sin during the two or three days of cloister life?' 'It is the custom of the world to make a confesison of only a few moments; but we not only acknowledge our little sins, but we intend, besides, that our confessor, the person in whom we confide, and whom we have chosen for that purpose, should direct in us all the duties of our daily life. To him we confide our thoughts and business and purposes--he being our sole friend, and our only mediator between heaven, the world, and the cloister, which a nun is permitted to have. While separated from the world, we find, in the intimacy which subsists be tween us, a personification of the universe in compensation for our solitude. In short, after God, the confessor is all in all for us.' " (Mysteries of Neapolitan Convents, p. 150).
"The next day he told me that in the convent it was im perative to take the communion every day, and that it re quired nearly the whole day. I begged a release. Later in the day the priest, about fifty, very corpulent, with a rubicund face and a type of physiognomy as vulgar as it was repulsive, put the wafer on my tongue, and caressed my chin. On open ing my eyes suddenly, I found the priest gazing rudely upon me, with a sensual smile upon his face." (The same, p. 151).

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These overtures meant much. "It occurred to me to place my self in a contiguous apartment, where I could observe if this libertine priest was accustomed to take similar liberties with
the nuns. I did so, and was fully convinced that the old only left him without being caressed. All the others allowed him to do with them as he pleased; and even in taking leave of
him did so with the utmost reverence."

This Opened the Eyes of Miss Caracciolo,
and she determined never to take the veil. Efforts were made to change her mind. A young priest was given her as a con fessor. He questioned her as to her loves and of her history. She confessed to having been forsaken. Then came the priest to her side. He said, "The world has abandoned you. The heavenly Spouse opens the doors of His house to you. offers to embrace you in His arms with tenderness, and anxiously awaits you, to make you forget, in the sublime comforts of His love, the discords of men. Remember, the priest is the representa tive of Christ," and proposed to embrace her with his arms. She scorned and upbraided him. Some nuns hate, while others love. He continued a long time, playing upon the same pipe, which she thought tedious and stupid. Finally she interrupted him by saying, "Is it, or is it not. true that man was created for humanity? If, as you say. the family of Christ be re stricted to this little community, why was the Son of God crucified for the salvation of the whole human race? It is said, that, to be contented with solitude, it is necessary to be either God or brute. Now, I have not arrived at the elevation of the Deity, nor yet to the condition of the brute. I love the world, and take pleasure in the society of my friends. Besides, I do not believe that you yourself have a horror of human society; because, if it were so, you would, ere this, have become a monk at least, if not an anchorite."

Then Came a Scene.
A Madalena,. thinking that Miss Caracciolo had captured her priest and lover, on meeting her became livid in the face, and rudely turned her back upon her. Another came and said, "She forced her confessor upon you, and now she is crying and desperate with jealousy." Miss Caracciolo dismissed the new canonico. He would not be dismissed. She begged him to give his attention to others. He revealed his intention to dis miss the other nun. The result was, that in the afternoon she heard a great noise in the corridor. On going out, she found that the Madalena was in the centre of a group of excited nuns,.

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waving a letter. The noise increased; the whole community assembled. In the confusion of the revolt, but one single word could be distinguished, and that, a thousand times repeated, was the word "canonico"
Meanwhile the old abbess, leaning upon the arm of one of the educande, came up to the scene of the riot to appease Madaleria, and promised her that the canonico should no longer confess Miss Caracciolo, and that she herself would find an other confessor for her.
"Will you give me your word for that?" cried the infuriated Madalena, whilst the seventy other mouths around her re mained closed awaiting in silence the answer. "Hold me pledged," replied the abbess.
"Bravo! Bravo!" exclaimed the nuns in chorus, while the Madalena exclaimed, ''It was insupportable for me to see him shut up in the confessional with another." That is a picture of the best side of convent life in Italy. Priests and nuns passed whole days in each other's company, in love-making and in lazy enjoyment. (Mysteries of Neapolitan Convents, p. 161).
"Another nun had loved a priest ever since he had served in the church as an acolyte. Arriving at the priesthood, he was made sacristan; but, his companions denouncing him for the intimacy which subsisted between him and this nun, he was forbidden by his superior ever to pass through the street in which the convent was situated. The nun remained faithful, wrote him every day, sent presents to him, and managed to meet from time to time secretly in the parlatorio. The supe rior being finally changed, the nun, although she now had arrived at mature age, succeeded in securing him for a confes sor." "She celebrated the event as she would a marriage, gave gifts and flowers to her patron saint, and built at her own expense a confessional where she might have him to herself whenever they were inclined." (Mysteries of Neapolitan Con vents, p. 165).
A letter sent by one of "the spouses of Christ" to a priest was dropped in the street. A gentleman picked it up, and said, "A common courtesan would make use of more modest language." (The same, p. 165).
'I have received myself, from an impertinent monk, a letter in which he signified to me that he had hardly seen me, when he conceived the sweet hope of becoming my confessor. An exquisite of the first water, a man of scents and euphuism, could not have employed phrases more melodramatic, to demand whether he might hope or despair." (The same, p. 169).

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" 'Fair daughter,' said a priest to me one day. 'knowest thou who God truly is?' 'He is the Creator of the universe,' I answered dryly.
" 'No, no, no, no! that is not enough,' he replied, laughing at my ignorance. 'God is love, but love in the abstract, which receives its incarnation in the mutual affection of two hearts which idolize each other; you then must not only love God in His abstract existence, but must also love Him in His incar nation; that is, in the exclusive love of a man who adores you.' 'Then,' I replied, 'a woman who adores her own lover, would adore Divinity himself.'
" 'Assuredly,' reiterated the priest, over and over again, taking courage from my remark, and chuckling at what seemed to him to be the effects of his catechism.
" 'In that case,' said I hastily, 'I should select for my lover rather a man of the world than a priest.'
" 'God preserve you, my daughter! God preserve you from that sin! To love a man of the world, a sinner, a wretch, an unbeliever, an infidel! Why, you would go immediately to hell! The love of a priest is a sacred love, while that of the profane is infamy; the faith of a priest emanates from that granted to the Holy Church, while that of the profane is false--false as is the vanity of the century. The priest purifies
his affection daily in communion with the Holy Spirit; the man of the world, if he ever knows love at all, sweeps the muddy crossings of the street with it day and night.' "But
it is the heart as well as the conscience which prompts me to fly from the priests,' I replied.
" 'Well, if you will not love me because I am your con fessor, I will find means to assist you to get rid of your scruples. We will place the name of Jesus Christ before all our affectionate demonstrations; and thus our love will be a grateful offering to the Lord, and will ascend fragrant with perfume to heaven, like the smoke of the incense of the sanct uary. Say to me, for example. I love you in Jesus Christ; this night I dreamed of you in Jesus Christ; and you will have a tranquil conscience, because, in doing this, you will sanctify every transport.'" This is in line with the priests' substitution for marriage.
"Of a very respectable monk, respectable alike for his age
and moral character, I inquired what signified the prefixing of Jesus Christ to amorous apostrophes.
"'It is,' said he, 'an expression used by a horrible com pany, unfortunately only too numerous, which, thus abusing the name of our Lord, permits to its members the most un bridled licentiousness.'" (Mvsteries of Neapolitan Convents,
p. 171.)

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WHY PRIESTS SHOULD WED.

Thus it appears that in Italy in the olden time the priests had a substitution for marriage, as they have at this time in our land. And why not? It is the same tree there as here. Why not bear the same kind of fruit?
Garibaldi had entered Naples in triumph. While the priests of San Gennaro, in order to avoid the solemnity of a Te Deum, and to escape the customary prayers, "Save thy people and thy patrimony, O God," (The same, p. 482), detained Garibaldi, Henrietta Caracciolo took off her veil from her head, and deposited on the altar that had been given her twenty years before. (Mysteries of Neapolitan Convents, p. 484). A free woman she went forth into a free world, uncontaminated by priests because by God's help she stood her ground against them. Finally she met a man to love and to be loved. They were married, and she writes: "I find myself in the state in which God placed woman at the close of His first week of the creation. Why, fulfilling the offices of a good wife, of a good mother, of a good citizen--why may I not aspire even to the treasury of the Divine Confession?" (The same, p. 484).
She stepped out of the convent. The curse remains. It is the same at this hour wherever they exist in fact as in name. As a prioress said, "The priests deceive the innocent, and even those that are more circumspect; and it would need a miracle to converse with them and not fall. Poor creatures! Many of them think they are leaving the world to escape danger, and they only meet with greater danger. Do not suppose this is the case in one convent alone. Everywhere it is the same; everywhere the same disorders, everywhere the same abuses, prevail. Let the superiors suspect as they may, they do not know even the smallest part of the enormous wickedness that goes on between the monks and the nuns." (The same, Intro duction, p. 19).
"Such was the profligacy of priors 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 in quisitors, 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 com manding 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 informa tion, if any they had, against all priests, Jesuits, monks, priors, and confessors." (Popish Nunneries, by William Hogan, p. 60). "The Pope got more than he bargained for. Supposing

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that the licentiousness of his priests did not extend beyond
women of ill-fame, he summoned all to come. Disobedience
was heresy, and heresy was death. The accusers came, not
singly, but in battalions. The number who made their appear
ance to lodge information, in the single city of Seville. 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 re-assembled, 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 country was found to be one vast area of pollution." (The same, p. 60). This Church, so polluted and so vile, is reckoned by many as one of the religious denominations. These priests, and priests as debased and vile, are called in the United States, by so-called Christians, "ministers of God!" The ignorance of the average professing Christian in America concerning Romanism, what it was and is, surprises those who have studied the character of Papal life, and the blindness of the people who ought to be better informed. It will not do to say that this belonged to a past age. Priests, nuns, and confessors are the same now that they were in the fifteenth century all over the world. Whoever visits Paris will find a lying-in hospital attached to every nun nery. The same is to be seen in Madrid and the principal cities of Spain, in Mexico, and in Dublin, Ireland. What is the object of these hospitals? Let William Hogan, the ex-priest, answer.
"The object is 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 that the crime of procuring abortion--a crime which our laws pronounce to to be felony--is a common offence in Popish nunneries. In Kings County Penitentiary is a woman who has been in prison twenty years for infanticide, and who is con demned to stay there for life. That which is a crime in the State is a practice in the convents. Luther, in his 'Table Talk,' says that in his time a pool was cleaned out in the vicinity of a convent, and the bottom was almost literally paved with the bones of infants."
Any scoundrel tired of a woman can embrace the religious

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state, enter a monastery, and be rid of her, though he has ruined her under promise of marriage. Statistics prove that in no city is there so great a number of children born out of wed lock as in Rome; and it is in Rome also that the greatest num ber of infanticides take place. This must ever be the case with a wealthy unmarried priesthood and a poor and ignorant popu lation.
In Rome there are from thirty to forty thousand monks and nuns condemned to the material interests of the Vatican, to an impossible chastity, to violence against nature, for which she avenges herself by treading under her feet morality, and compelling families and the State to bear the consequences of this condition of violence in which the Church has placed it. Humanity and morality are paying the cost in Europe of eight centuries of temporal power, of the ambition of the pontificate, and from it come the blood-stains that disgrace the Eternal City.
The Slaughter of the Innocents
receives the sanction of Rome. "The modus operandi is this. The infallible Church teaches that without baptism even in fants cannot go to heaven. The holy Church, not caring much how the aforesaid infants may come into this world, but anx ious that they should go out of it according to the ritual of the Church, insists that the infant shall be baptized. That being done, and its soul being thus fitted for heaven, the mother abbess generally 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 to state, from my own personal knowledge through the confessional, that the father is, in nearly all cases, the individual who baptizes it. I desire to assert nothing of a character as frightful and dis gusting as this on my own authority: I could give numberless instances; let this suffice."
Llorenti, in his "History of the Inquisition," relates the following. "There was among the Carmelite nuns of Lerma a mother abbess called Mother Aguecla, who was accounted a saint. People came to her from all the neighboring country to be cured of their respective diseases. Her mode of curing all diseases was this. She had in her possession a number of small stones, of which she said she was de livered in all the pains of childbirth. She was delivered of them periodically for the space of twenty years, according to her own statement; and, by the application of these stones to any diseased person, he was forthwith cured. Rumor, how ever, got abroad that the mother abbess 'was no better than she

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ought to be,' and that in place of bringing forth stones, she and the other nuns of the convent were bringing forth children
for the friars of the Carmelite order, who arranged all her miracles for her, and enabled her for twenty years to impose upon the public as the lady prioress of a nunnery and fashion
able boarding-school. Whenever she was confined and de livered of a child, the holy nuns strangled it, and burned it. All the other nuns did likewise, and probably would have con tinued to do so through their successors until this day. had not
the niece of the mother abbess, in a moment of anger, arising from maltreatment, let fall some' observations which excited the suspicions of the public authorities. The burying-ground of the nuns was examined; the spot where the strangled in
fants were buried was pointed out by the niece of the mother abbess, and the bodies found." (Popish Xunneries. by William Hogan, p. 63).
It is said that a chemical process has been discovered by which the bones, as well as the flesh of infants, are reduced in
a little time almost to perfect annihilation. This helps on the iniquity. Maria Monk will tell how this was managed in Montreal.
"Virtuous ladies," says William Hogan. "into whose hands this statement will come, will exclaim on reading it. "This can not be true. If even nuns had witnessed such things, how ever depraved they may be, they would fly from such scenes;
or. at all events, no nun who has ever been once guilty of such conduct, would consent a second time.' Here, again, we see how little Americans know of popery and of the practices of priests and nuns. The fact is, Koman Catholic laymen know almost as little of popery as Protestants. When a female goes to the confessional, she virtually binds herself to answer every
question which her confessor proposes, and that the conceal ment of any thought or deed which she committed was a mortal sin. hateful to God. and deserving of an eternal hell.
She believes that the priest sits in the confessional as God, and is divested of his humanity and acts not as man. but as
God. Xothing, then, is easier, if he has the least fancy for the penitent, than to act his pleasure with her. There have
been instances--and there are now thousands of them in Europe and in this land--where a priest tells any good-looking woman who goes to confession to him, that it is her duty * * * * "Be not startled, American husbands," says William Hogan. "I make not these statements to hurt or outrage your feelings.
I make it in an earnest desire for you. to prevent you. if pos sible, from permitting your wives and daughters to go In future to these dens of vice called confessionals." (Popish
Xunneries, p. 65).

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Who heeds this warning? A few years since, the world was horrified by revelations made concerning the internal workings of several European convents. Germany refused to permit any religious establishment to exist, except it should be inspected four times a year by the government inspector, who went alone, visited every cell and every part of the establishment, and, if persons were confined there that desired their liberty, they
were brought out. and there was none to say to them nay. The convents, compelled to submit to this, or disband, pre ferred this latter course, afraid of the light, and remained closed until Bismarck submitted to the Pope, and now they are again opened. Such a law is essential for the Church estab lishments in the Xew World. In all of them may be some one wanting the light, who is disgusted with the sensualism of the priests, and who desires the purity of a home and the free life of a Christian in the world.
In the name of liberty, in the name of humanity, why will not the American people awake to their duty ? We have reached the time when the proposed plans of the Papacy laid down in the long ago, are being put into practice and pushed with de termination and power. Lands are given to great ecclesiastical establishments, free from taxation. Priests and nuns, monks and lay sisters, abound. In Europe we see what they were and are. Let us turn over a leaf in American history, and read their biography where, it was our dream, that the free light of
liberty would kill out the superstitions of papal lands.

WHY PRIESTS SHOULD WED.

Ill

CHAPTER VII.
MARIA MOXK'S AWFCL DISCLOSURES CORROBORATED.
IT was in 1836 the story of Maria Monk broke upon the world. A refugee from the Black Nunnery of Montreal, Can ada, had found shelter in the alms-house of Xew York, where a Bible came to her. That Bible introduced her to the one Mediator, Jesus Christ. He plead her cause not only before the Father, but before men. He entered her soul, and gave her power to become a child of God. The Holy Spirit, her Com forter, became a helper, introduced her to the chaplain, to friends, and to the brotherhood of man. Error opposed the truth. Rome was powerful. People and the press under her control fought the helpless woman. Maria Monk had only the voice of the wronged and suffering, who confessed to having lived a life with priests, full of shame and sorrow. It became fashionable to reject her testimony. Few gave her story wel come. But it is impossible to kill out the truth. Her story is finding corroboration. It deserves study. She became a Koman Catholic because she knew no better. She was without religious instruction at home. (Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk, p. 20). All. the education she ever obtained was pro cured in a school kept by a Protestant, when she was six or seven years of age, where she remained several months, and learned to read and write, and arithmetic as far as.division. "All the progress I ever made," she said, "in those branches, was gained in that school, as I have never improved in any of them since." A good commentary on the schools in convents is thus furnished, where, as a novice, she remained five years, and learned nothing of science or of letters. When ten years of age she was sent to the nunnery. She relates her experience. She was then a Protestant. On Xotre Dame street she came to the gate of the establishment. Opening it, with her young companions, she walked some distance along the side of the building until she came to the door. A bell was rung, the door was opened, and she passed to the schoolroom. On enter ing, the superior met her, and said, "First of all you must dip your fingers into the holy water, cross yourself, say a short prayer." This was required of Protestant and Catholic chil dren; (Maria Monk, p. 21) as in the nunnery school in Biddeford, Me., the children repeat the prayers, and as they go out say, "There is only one holy and Catholic Church."
The time was given, not to study, but to needle-work, which was performed with much skill. The nuns had no very regular parts assigned them in the management of the schools. They

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were rather rough and unpolished in their manners, often ex claiming. It is a lief Their writing was quite poor, and it was not uncommon for them to put a capital letter in the middle of a word (and yet Protestants praise their schools). "The only book on geography which we studied was a catechism on geog raphy, from which we learned by heart a few questions and answers. We were sometimes referred to a map, but it was only to point out Montreal, or Quebec, or some other prominent name; while we had no instruction beyond." In Montreal were three nunneries:
1. The Congregational Nunnery, devoted to the education of girls.
2. The Black Nunnery, professedly for the sick and the poor.
3. The Grey Nunnery, with apartments for insane persons and foundlings. (Maria Monk, p. 23).
"In all these convents there are certain apartments into which strangers can gain admittance, but others from which they are always excluded. The nuns are regarded with much respect. When a novice takes the veil, she is supposed to retire from the temptations and troubles of this world, into a state of holy seclusion, where, by prayer, self-mortincation and good deeds, she prepares herself for heaven. Sometimes the superior of a convent obtains the character of working miracles, and when such a one dies, it is published through the country, and crowds throng the convent, who think indulgences are to be derived from bits of clothing or other things she has possessed; and many have sent articles to be touched to her bed or chair, in which a degree of virtue is thought to remain. Some of the priests of the seminary often visited the nunnery, and both catechised and talked with us on religion. The superior of the Black Nunnery adjoining came in, and enlarged on the advan tages we enjoyed in having such teachers, and dropped some thing now and then relating to her own convent, calculated to make us entertain the highest ideas of it, and to make us sometimes think of the possibility of getting into it."
"Among the instructions of the priests, some of the most pointed were those directed
Against the Protestant Bible.
They often enlarged upon the evil tendency of that book, and told us that but for it many a soul now condemned to hell, and suffering eternal punishment, might have been in happiness. They could not say any thing in its favor; for that would be speaking, in their opinion, against religion and against God. In the catechism taught the children, are these questions:

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"Question. Why did not God make all the command ments?
"Ansvxr. Because man is not strong enough to keep them. "(? Why are not men to read the Xew Testament ? "JL Because the mind of man is too limited and weak to
understand what God has written. "These questions are not in the common catechism, but all
the children in the Congregatibnal Nunnery were taught them,
and many more not found in these books." (Maria Monk. p. 26).

The 'Peril of Girls.
"In this nunnery was a girl of thirteen years of age. whom the priest tried to persuade he could not sin, because he was a priest, and that any thing he did to her would sanctify her. Doubtful how to act, she related the conversation to her mother, who expressed neither anger nor disapprobation, but only en joined it upon her not to speak of it. and remarked to her. as priests were not like men. but holy, and sent to instruct and save us. whatever they did was right."" "Other children were treated in the same manner. It was not long before I became used to such language, and my views of right and wrong were shaken by it." (The same, p. 28).
"A young squaw, .called La Belle Maria, had been seen going to confession at the house of a priest, who lived a little out of the village. La Belle Maria was afterwards missed, and her body found in the river. A knife was also found, cov ered with blood, bearing the priest's name. Great indignation was excited among the Indians, and the priest immediately absconded and was never heard from. A note was found on his table, addressed to him. telling him to fly if he was guilty." "These stories struck me with surprise at first, but gradually I began to feel differently, even supposing them true, and to look upon the priests as men incapable of sin; and it was not until the priests became more bold, and were indecent in their questions and even in their conduct in the sacristy, that I saw
them in their true light. "This subject. I believe, is not understood nor suspected
among Protestants; and it is not my intention to speak of it very particularly, because it is impossible to do so without saying things both shameful and demoralizing." (Maria Monk,
p. 29). "I will only say here, that when quite a child I heard from
the mouths of priests at confession what I cannot repeat, with treatment corresponding; and several females in Canada have assured me that they have repeatedly, and, indeed, regularly, been required to answer the same and similar questions, many
8p

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of which present to the mind deeds which the most iniquitous and corrupt heart could hardly invent." (The same, p. 29).
"After I had been in the Congregational Nunnery about two years. I left it; but having many and severe trials to endure at
home, and as my Catholic acquaintances had often spoken to me in favor of their faith, I was inclined to believe it true, although I knew little of any religion." While out of the
nunnery she married, gave birth to a child, and was deserted by her husband. She said, "I saw nothing of religion. If I had. I believe I should never have thought of becoming a nun" (The same, p. 31). Here is a lesson which should not be for gotten: thousands around us are waiting to be led to Christ; they are out of Rome, and are unsaved.

Maria Entered the Black Nunnery,
so called from the color of the dresses worn by the nuns. After having been in the convent as a novice for the proper time, she took the veil. Before doing so she was ornamented for the ceremony, and was clothed in a rich dress, belonging to the convent, which was used on such occasions, and placed not far from the altar in the chapel, in the view of a number of spec tators who had assembled, in number about forty. "Being well prepared with a long training and frequent rehearsals for what I was to perform, I stood waiting in my long flowing dress for the appearance of the bishop. He soon presented himself, en tering by a door behind the altar. I then threw myself at his feet, and asked him to confer upon me the veil. He expressed his consent. I then, turning to the superior, threw myself prostrate at her feet, according to my instructions, repeating what I had done at rehearsals, and made a movement as if to kiss her feet. I then kneeled before the holy sacrament, a large round wafer held by the bishop between his forefinger and thumb, and made my vows.
"This wafer I nad been taught to regard with the utmost veneration as the real body of Jesus Christ, the presence of which made the vows uttered before it binding in the most solemn manner."
"After taking the vows, I proceeded to a small apartment behind the altar, accompanied by four nuns, where was a coffin prepared with my nun name upon it,
Saint Eustace.
My companions lifted it by four handles attached to it, while I threw off my dress and put on that of a nun, and then we all returned to the chapel. I proceeded first, and was followed

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by the four nuns, the bishop naming a number of worldly pleasures in rapid succession, in reply to which I as rapidly repeated, 'I renounce,' 'I renounce.' The coffin was then placed in front of the altar, and I advanced to place myself in it. This coffin was to be deposited, after the ceremony, in an out house, to be preserved until my death, when it was to receive my corpse. I stepped in, extended myself, and lay still. A pillow had been placed at the head of the coffin to support my head in a comfortable position. A large, thick, black cloth was then spread over me, and the chanting of Latin hymns im mediately commenced. My thoughts were not the most pleasing during the time I lay in that situation. The pall had a strong smell ol incense, which proved to be almost suffocating. I recollected of hearing of a nun thus placed who, on the removal of the covering was found dead." This was not exhilarating. "When I was uncovered, I rose, stepped out of my coffin, and kneeled. Other ceremonies then followed. These over. I pro ceeded from the chapel and returned to. the superior's room followed by the other nuns, who walked two by two in their customary manner, with their hands folded on their breasts and their eyes cast down upon the floor. The nun who was to be my companion in future then walked at the end of the pro cession. On reaching the superior's door they all left me, and I entered alone, and found her with the bishop and two
priests.
"The superior now informed me, that, having taken the black veil, it only remained that I should swear the three oaths customary on becoming a nun, and that some explanations would be necessary from her. I was now, she told me, to have access to every part of the edifice, even to the cellar where two of the sisters were imprisoned, for causes which she did not mention; I must be informed that one of my great duties was to obey the priests in all things, and this I soon learned, to my utter astonishment and horror, was to live in the practice of criminal intercourse with, them,. I expressed some of the feel ings which this announcement excited in me, which came upon me like a flash of lightning; but the only effect was to set her to arguing with me in favor of the crime, representing it as a virtue, acceptable to God and honorable to me." (Maria Monk, p. 56). .
The reason for carnal indulgence with priests is thus set forth:
"The priests," she said, "were not situated like other men, being forbidden to marry; while they lived secluded, laborious., and self-denying lives for our salvation. They might indeed be considered our saviors, as without their services we could

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not obtain pardon of sin, and must go to hell. Now it was our solemn duty, on withdrawing from this world, to consecrate our lives to religion, to practice very species of self-denial.
We could not become too humble, nor mortify our feelings too far; this was to'be done by opposing them, and acting con trary to them; and what she proposed was therefore pleasing in the sight of God. I now felt how foolish I had been to place myself in the power of such persons as were around me-"
"From what she said, I could draw no other conclusion, but that I was required to act like the most abandoned of beings, and that all my future associations were to be habitually guilty of the most heinous and detestable of crimes. When I repeated my expressions of surprise and horror, she told me that such feelings were very common at first, and that many other nuns had expressed themselves as I did, who had long since changed their minds. She even said, that on her entrance into the nun nery she had felt like me." (The same, p. 57). "Priests, she insisted, could not sin. It was a thing impossible; every thing they did and wished was of course right. She hoped I would see the reasonableness and duty of the oaths I was to take, and be faithful to them." (The same).

IIow Infants Were Murdered.
"She gave me another piece of information which excited other feelings in me, scarcely less dreadful. Infants were sometimes born in the convent; but they were baptized, and immediately strangled. This secured their everlasting happi ness; for the baptism purified them from all sinfulness, and being sent out of the world before they had time to do any thing wrong, they were at once admitted into heaven. 'How happy,' she exclaimed, 'are those who secure immortal happi ness to such little beings! Their little souls would thank tho1* who kill their bodies if they had it in their power.'" (Maria Monk, p. 58).
This book was printed in 1836. It was pronounced untrue in fact and in detail. It was in the air to denounce any thing that uncovered popery to the ej'e of the people in all its enor mities. The Mount Benedict Convent, in Charlestown, had been.burned down because of enormities practiced within its curtained walls. Before the convent was carried to -Charlestown, not a little scandal had fallen upon it, in public estima tion, by the reported conduct of a priest and nun, who, it was understood, had carried into practice St. Liguori's convenient doctrine of the Church concerning angelic intercourse. The book is unfit to be translated anywhere this side of pande monium ; but the substance of the doctrine, as far as it can pos-

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sibly be set forth, is that demons are able to assume the forms of men (of priests, for instance) from air, and to attach to other elements the similitude of flesh and palpableness, and a kind of heat of the human body, and in this shape indulge desires; that a natural birth may be the result, in which the child will resemble the man whose form the demon assumed to effect his purpose, although the man, so represented, was en tirely innocent and in, "a quiet steep" when, it happened. (Liguori: Theol. Praxis Confessarii, torn, viii, cap. vii. sec. 7). It is related that as late as 1781 a nun was publicly burnt to death, in'the Inquisition at Seville, in Spain, for having had this pretended connection. It was in Boston in 1830 this doc trine was welcomed, and under its cover liberties were enjoyed in a convent built to educate Protestants. (Supplement to Sis Months in Convent, p. 72). At this time Boston bowed the knee to Rome to an extent little understood at the present, and the revelations of Maria Monk were rejected with scorn as being unworthy of credence. After that. in. 1845, came the exposures of William Hogun, a lawyer of eminence, a man who
had been chaplain of the House of Representatives in the Legis lature in Albany,, and a priest of one of the most popular Roman Catholic churches in Philadelphia; and he told how "the mother abbess took the nostrils of the infant between her consecrated thumb and fingers, and in the name of the in fallible Church consigned it to the care of the Almighty, claim
ing that the strangling and putting to death of infants is a common every-day crime in popish nunneries." (Popish Nun neries, by William Hogan, p. 61). The fact is, Maria Monk only averages up to the revelations of horrible iniquities prac
ticed in Europe and in America. The way infants were murdered in the Black Nunnery is
thus described by Maria Monk: "'The priest first put oil upon the heads of the infants, as is the custom before baptism. When he had baptized the children, they were taken one after another, by one of the old nuns, in the presence of all; she pressed her hand upon the mouth and nose of the first so tight that it could not breathe, and in a few minutes when the hand was removed it was dead. She then took another, and treated it in the same manner. No sound was heard, and both the children were corpses. The greatest indifference was shown by all present, during this operation; for all, as I well knew, were accustomed to such scenes. The little bodies were then taken into the cellar, thrown into the pit. and covered with a quantity of lime." (Maria Monk, p. 175). Afterwards she saw, without doubt, her own child treated in the same manner. "No attempt was made to keep any of the inmates in ignorance of the murder of children." (The same, p. 175).

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Rome's Indifference to ChMdren
is best shown by this account of the barbarities exercised in Messina, Italy, on the festa in honor of the assumption of the Virgin, beginning on August 12 and ending on August 15 of each year. This celebration is a singular mixture of the sacred and profane; of Christianity and idolatry; of European and of savage customs. It always attracts many people from all
the surrounding countries, and makes Romanism rank with the degraded rites of Hindooism, where widows are burned and infants are cast into the Ganges.
"Two enormous figures of horses, made of pasteboard, on. which are two giants made of the same material, are placed in the piazza. Two men of the common people are then covered with a camel's skin, in such a way as to represent that animal to a certain extent. This skin is called by the Messinese, 'blessed? and this supposed animal then goes around among the storekeepers of the city, soliciting goods to pay the ex penses of the festa. Into the open mouth of the begging quad ruped, these contributions are thrown, and the goods are sub sequently converted into money. The most imposing part of the solemnity consists in the procession, which passes through the principal streets of the city, and is preceded by an enormous car, drawn by a team of buffaloes, on which is erected a series of wheels, horizontally arranged, one above the other--large at tne bottom and diminishing in size as they ascend--which are put in rotary motion, and on them are placed figures made to symbolize the heavenly bodies, as the sun, the moon, and the stars."
"Beautifully and sumptuously adorned is this machine, built and put in motion in honor of her who gave birth to the God of charity! But in reality it reminds one rather of the furious car of Juggernaut, or the execrable hectacombs of the Druids; and at the sight of it, with its living, innocent victims, im molated on its machinery, one's heart is shocked, and it would seem to be impossible to abstain from crying out against such barbarities.
"On the extreme rays of the sun and moon, and on the ex treme rims of the wheels, suckling infants are bound, whose un natural mothers are induced in this vile way to gain a few ducats which are paid them, for the use of their babies, by theimpressario of the spectacle. The children are designed to symbolize the angels, who accompany the Virgin on her way to heaven." These innocent little creatures--not otherwise culpable, save for being born of such inhuman mothers, and for having unfortunately come into this world in a country unaer the dominance of superstition and Romanism--are taken

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down from the fatal wheel at the conclusion of the parade, many of them either dead or dying, after having been kept revolving in the air seven long hours.
"At the termination of the festa, or more properly the sac rifice, there is a scramble for the children. The women come in crowds, hauling and pushing each other, this one beating that, and all impatient to learn, from actual examination, whether their own children are alive or dead. Then begins a scene of a different kind, which is sometimes only concluded by an effusion of blood. It not being easy for a mother to recognize her own child among the survivors, the one disputes with the other for the fruit of her own womb; while the im precations of the disputants and the lamentations of the most agonized are mixed up with the deafening derisions of the spectators and the hissing of the mob."
"Those who belong to the Church return to their own homes deprived of their children, and console themselves, under the instruction of their priests, with the thought that the Virgin, fascinated with these prepossessing little angels, has taken them with her to paradise. Convinced of this, they regale them selves on their ill-gotten gains, feasting with their feminine friends until the money received from the impressario for the lives of their children is entirely squandered, not doubting but that they will obtain from the priest further succor in memory of their little angels who have so gloriously found their way into heaven." (Mysteries of Neapolitan Convents, pp. 70-73).
Romanism that degrades the people in Italy after this fashion will do the same for the people anywhere over whom. she has absolute control. A religion that will tolerate
The Slaughter of Innocents
like that, and through their priests say that they die, after revolving seven hours on a wheel, because the Virgin, fascinated with these prepossessing little angels, has taken them with her to paradise, is ready to prepare priests to sprinkle their own offspring, and then see them strangled and committed to the care of God.
Call off the hounds that have been baying on the track of Maria Monk, and hear her awful story.
Maria Monk declares that, after she witnessed the murder of infants, "the convent stood out in its true light. She saw the nuns, lady superior and all. associating with base and pro fligate men who were admitted into the nunnery whenever pas sion impelled them in that direction, where they were allowed to indulge in the greatest crimes, which they and others called virtues.

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"After having listened for some time to the superior alone, a
number of the nuns were admitted, and took a free part in the conversation. They concurred in every thing which she had told me, and repeated without any signs of shame or com
punction things which criminated themselves. I must ac knowledge the truth, and declare that all this had an effect upon my mind. I questioned whether I might not be in the wrong, and felt as if their reasoning might have some just foundation. I had been for several years under the tuition of Catholics, and was ignorant of the Scriptures, and unaccus tomed to the society, example, and conversation of Protestants;
I had not heard any appeal to the Bible as authority, but had been taught both by precept and example to receive as truth every thing said by the priests.' I had not heard their au
thority questioned, nor any thing said of any other standard of faith but their declaration. I had long been familiar with the corrupt and licentious expressions which some of them use at confessions, and believed that other women were also. All around me insisted that my doubts proved only my own ignor ance and sinfulness; that they knew by experience they would soon give place to true knowledge and an advance in religion,
and I felt something like indecision." (Maria Monk, pp. 58, 59).
In the afternoon of the day after the conversation related took place, while she was sitting in the community-room, "Father Dufrene called me out, saying he wished to speak with me. I feared what was his intention, but I dared not disobey. In a private apartment he treated me * * * I was com
pelled to remain in company with him until morning." (The same, p. 62). Now, why may not this sort of thing be going on in every convent in America? Have not priests this indul gence as a substitution for marriage ? Will the American peo
ple consent to these establishments remaining in our cities, poisoning the streams of social influence, and making religion
the cover for prostitution of the vilest and most bestial kind? "The nuns were taught to dissemble, and they who could
manufacture a good religious lie to deceive friends and parents were praised. Over and over again, they were taught that the
priests under the direct sanction of God could not sin. Of course, then, it could not be wrong to comply with any of their requests, because they could not demand any thing but what was right." (Maria Monk, p. 92).

Th Burial Place for Infants
is thus described: "It was in the cellar. The earth appeared as if mixed with some whitish substance, which was found to

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be lime--the secret burying place of slain babes. Here, then,
I was in a place which I had considered as the nearest imita tion of heaven to be found on earth, among a society where deeds were constantly perpetrated which I had believed to be
most criminal, and had now found the place in which harmless infants were unfeelingly thrown out of sight, after being mur dered." (The same, p. 96).

How Priests Can Enter Nunneries.
"Among the first instructions I received from the superior were such as prepared me to admit priests into the nunnery from the street at irregular hours. It is no secret that priests enter and go out as they choose; but if they were to be watched by any person in St. Paul's Street all day long, no irregularity might be suspected, and they might be supposed to visit the convent for the performance of religious ceremonies merely. (The same, pp. 93, 99).
"But if a person were near the gate about midnight, he might sometimes form a different opinion; for when a stray priest is shut out of the seminary, or is otherwise put in need of seeking a lodging, he is always sure of being admitted in the Black Nunnery."
"Xobody but a priest can even ring the bell at the sick room door, much less can any but a priest gain admittance. The pull of the bell is entirely concealed somewhere on the outside of the gate."
"He makes himself known as a priest by a peculiar kind of hissing sound made by the tongue against the teeth while they are kept closed and the lips open. The nun within, who delays to open the door until informed what kind of an applicant is there, immediately recognizes the signal, and replies with two inarticulate sounds, such as are often used instead of 'res,' with the mouth closed. The superior seemed to consider this part of my instructions quite important, and taught me the signals. A priest in the nunnery was permitted to go where he pleased." (Maria Monk, p. 98).

No Room for the Bible in- That Inn.
"I never saw a bible in the convent from the day I entered as a novice until I made my escape. The Catholic Xew Testa ment, called 'The Evangel,' was used, and extracts read to us about three or four times a year.
"The superior directed the reader what passages to select, but we never had it in our hands to read what we pleased. I often heard the Protestant Bible spoken of in bitter terms as

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a most dangerous book, and one which never ought to be in the hands of common people." (The same, p. 99).
From the Black Nunnery to the Congregational Xunnery is a secret underground passage, so that the nuns and priests can go from one to the other. (The same. p. 104).

The Priests Have No Respect for Confession.
"The first time I went to confession after taking the veil, I found abundant evidence that the priests did not treat even that ceremony, which is called a solemn sacrament, with respect enough to lay aside the detestable and shameless character they so often showed on other occasions." The confessor sometimes sat in the bishop's room, fqr the examination of conscience, and sometimes in the superior's room, and always alone except the nun who was confessing. He had a common chair placed in the middle of the floor, and instead of being placed behind a grate or lattice, as in the chapel, had nothing before or around him. The nuns usually confessed the same day. All dreaded it. Each one tried to make the other go first. It is unnecessary to describe what occurred. "Suspicion," sa37s Maria Monk, "cannot do any injustice to the priests, because their sins cannot be exaggerated." (Maria Monk. pp. 123-125).
"A young Canadian girl took the veil. Xight came. The nuns had retired to bed, and were almost asleep, when the most piercing and heart-rending shrieks were heard." They came from the cell of the new nun. "I heard a man's voice mingled with the cries and shrieks of the nun. Father Qniblier, of the seminary, I had felt confident, was in the superior's room at the time when we retired, and several of the nuns assured me afterwards that the priest was with her. The superior soon made her appearance, and in a harsh manner commanded silence. I heard her threaten gagging her, and then say, 'You are no better than anybody else, and if you do not obey you * * * *'" (Maria Monk, p. 150). There is Christianity for you. American Protestants who insist upon speaking of the Roman Catholic Church as of a part of the Church of Christ, can here behold the character of the institution they praise.
The Bishop and Lady Superior
enjoy love. "One night not long after I was introduced into the lady superior's room for the purpose of sleeping.on a sofa, the alarm-bell from without, which hangs over the superior's bed, was rung. She told me to see who was there, and going down I heard the signal given. The door was opened. It was Bishop Lartique. He said to me, 'Are you a novice, or a

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received nun?' I answered, 'A received.'' 'Conduct me to the superior's room.' It was done. He went to the bed. drew the curtains behind him, * * * and he took his departure." (The same, p. 156). This is the pious fraud set apart to educate the children of Protestants.

Frequency of the Priests' Visits to the y winery.
'Some of the priests from the seminary were in the nun nery every day and night, and often several at a time. I have
seen nearly all of them at different times, though there are
about one hundred and fifty in the district of Montreal. There was a difference in their conduct, though I believe every one of them was guilty of licentiousness; while not one did I ever* see who maintained a character any way becoming the pro fession of a priest. Some were gross and degraded in a degree which few of my readers can ever have imagined. . . . Few imaginations can conceive deeds so abominable as they prac ticed, and often required of some of the poor women under the fear of punishment, and even of death. I do not hesitate to say with the strongest confidence, that although some of the nuns became lost to every sentiment of virtue and honor, especially one from the Congregational Xunnery, the greater part of them loathed, the practices to which they were com pelled to submit by the superior and priests, who * * * Some of the priests retire on what is called a 'lioly retreat? This is a term which conveys the idea of a religious seclusion from the world for sacred purposes. On the re-appearance of a priest, after such a period, in the church or the streets, it is natural to feel a peculiar impression of his devout character, --an impression very different from that conveyed to the mind of one who knows matters as they really are. Suspicions have been indulged by some in Canada on this subject, and facts are known by at least a few. "I am able to speak from per sonal knowledge, for I have been a nun of Soeur Bourgeoise. The priests are liable, by their dissolute lives, to occasional attacks of disease which render it necessary, or at least prudent, to submit to medical treatment."
"In the Black Nunnery they find private accommodations, for they are free to enter one of the private hospitals whenever they please, which is a room set apart on purpose for the ac commodation of the priests, and is called a 'retreat' room. But an excuse is necessary to blind the public, and this they find in the pretence they make of being in a holy retreat. They are very carefully attended by the superior and old nuns, and their diet consists of vegetable soups, etc., with but little meat

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and that fresh. I have seen an instrument of * * * (Maria Monk, pp. 169,170).
Imagine such a man, with such a training, placed over a parish, with the charge of the young given up to him. While his higher nature is undeveloped, his lower has been brutalized and degraded. This was in 1834, in Montreal. Come to Chicago in 1855, and
See Priests in Association
with each other, as described by Father Chiniquy, who, on the 1st of August, 1855, received from the Bishop of Chicago a request to attend a spiritual retreat for the clergy of the diocese of Chicago and Quincy, to commence on Tuesday, Au"gust 18, and continue until the following Sunday. (Fifty Years in Church of Rome, pp. 603-616). He went early to study the personnel of that Irish clergy, of which Bishop Vandeveld had told such frightful things. Our theory of such a meeting is a place for self-improvement and prayer. It proved to be a place of recreation and dissipation.

The Ooner is Taken Off by Father Chiniquy.
He says, "I went to St. Mary's University two hours ahead of time. Never did I see such a band of jolly fellows--their dissipation and laughter; their exchange of witty, and too often unbecoming, expressions; the tremendous noise they made in addressing each other at a distance. Their 'Hello, Patrick!' 'Hello, Murphy!' 'Hello, O'Brien!' 'How do you do?' 'How is Bridget?' 'Is Marguerite still with you?' the answer, 'Yes, yes! She will not leave me;' or, 'No, no! The crazy girl is gone,' were invariably followed by outbursts of laughter. Though nine-tenths of them were evidently under the influence of intoxicating drinks, not one of them could be said to be drunk. But the strong odor of alcohol, mixed with the smoke of cigars, soon poisoned the air and made it suf focating. I had withdrawn into a corner alone in order to observe every thing. AVhat stranger, in entering this large hall, would have suspected that these men were about to begin one of the most solemn and sacred actions of a priest of Jesus Christ? With the exception of five or six, they looked more like a band of carousing raftsmen than priests. About an hour before the opening of the exercises I saw one of the priests, with hat in hand, accompanied by two of the fattest and most florid of the band, going to every one, collecting money; and with the utmost liberality and pleasure each one threw his bank-bills into the hat. I supposed that this collection was to

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pay our board during the retreat, and I prepared fifteen dollars
I was to give. When they came near me, the big hat was literally filled with five and ten dollar bills. Before handing
my money to them, I asked, 'What is the object of that collec tion?'--'Ah, ah!' they answered with a hearty laugh, 'is it possible that you do not know it yet? Don't you know that
when we are so crowded as we will be here this week, the rooms
are apt to become too warm, and we get thirsty ? then a little drop to cool the throat and quench the thirst is needed.""
They insisted on obtaining drink. Father Chiniquy remon strated. They had their way. Five hundred dollars were
spent for intoxicating liquors. The drinking began about nine o'clock, after sermons, meditations, and confessions. Some
were handing the bottles from bed to bed. while others were
carrying them to those at a distance,--at first with the least noise possible, but half an hour had not elapsed before the alco hol was beginning to unloose their tongues and upset the brain: ' then the witty stories were followed by the most indecent and
shameful recitals. Then the songs followed by the barking of dogs, the croaking of frogs, and the howling of wolves, in a
word, the cries of all kinds of beasts, often- mixed with the most
lascivious songs, the most infamous anecdotes, flying from bed to bed, from room to room, until one or two o'clock in the
morning. One night three priests were taken with delirium tremens almost at the same time. For three days Father Chini
quy stood it. and then in disgust went to Bishops Spaulding and O'Reagan with his complaints. It was then declared that
the first night six prostitutes dressed as gentlemen, and on a subsequent night twelve, came to the university after dark, and
went, directed by signals to those who had invited them. Policemen reported the condition of affairs to the bishop.
He replied, ''Do you think I am going to come down from my dignity of bishop to hear the reports of degraded policemen
or vile spies? Shall I become the spy of my priests? If they want to go to hell let them go. I am not more obliged or more able than God Himself to stop them. Does God stop them?
Does He punish them ? No. Well, you cannot expect from me
more zeal, more power, than in our common God." (Fifty Years in Church of Kome. p. G10.)
''Thirteen priests had been taken to the police station? from houses of ill-fame, where they were rioting and fighting." (The same, p. G13). In these extracts, we can see the educa tion received by the priests. It is not strange that they prac
ticed what, they learned in the retreat, when they reached the world outside. Father Chiniquy declares that his next neigh bor had been banished because he had ruined a servant-girl and
brought public disgrace upon the parish.

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Priest and nun alike see that with priests and nuns the appearance of sanctity is simply a blind to conceal such prac tices as would not be tolerated in any decent society in the world; and as for peace and joy, it cannot be found in the homes of priests or nuns.
"To name all the works of shame of which priests were guilty in that retreat, would require much time and space. Secure against detection by the world, and believing that the nuns shut up could only find egress by the grave, they con sidered themselves safe in perpetrating crimes in our presence,
and in making us share in their criminality as often as tney chose, and conducted more shamelessly than even the brutes. The debauchees would come in without ceremony, concealing
their names, both by night and day. Being within the walls of that prison-house of death where the cries and pains of the injured innocence of their victims could never reach the
world for relief or redress for their wrongs, .without remorse or shame, they would glory not only in sating their brutal pas sions, but even in torturing in the most barbarous manner the feelings of those under their power, telling us at the same
time, that this mortifying the flesh was religion, and pleasing
to God. The more they could torture us or make us violate our own feelings, the more pleasure they took in their unclean
revelling; and all their brutal obscenity they called meritorious before God." (Maria Monk, p. 202).
"We were sometimes invited to put ourselves to voluntary
sufferings in a variety of ways, not for a penance, but to show our devotion to God. A priest would sometimes say to us, 'Now, which of you love Jesus Christ enough to stick a phi through your cheeks?' Some of us would signify our readi
ness, and immediately thrust one through up to the head. Sometimes he would propose that we should repeat the opera
tion through several times on the spot, and the cheeks of a
number of nuns would be bloody." "There were other acts occasionally proposed, too * * *
How they could have been invented, it would seem almost im
possible to conceive. Things were done, worse than the entire * * * though this was occasionally required of several at once, in the presence of priests."
"The superior of the seminary would sometimes come and
inform us that he had received orders from the Pope to request that those nuns who possessed the greatest devotion and faith should be requested to perform some particular deeds, which
he named and described in our presence, but of which no moral person could even endure to speak, and some deluded women were found among us who would comply with these requests."
(The same, pp. 203, 204).

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"Maria opened a book (The same, p.-218). * * * Because Maria Monk could not bear to give birth to an
other child and have it murdered, she fled the institution, came to New York, and in the almshouse gave birth to a child. Because she dare not trust her child to the persecuting hate of Father Phelan, priest of the parish church, Montreal, she
refused to hold conversation with Roman Catholics. At last, opening a Bible, she saw her sins in the light of God's Word, gave herself to Christ, and became, a new creature in Christ Jesus. Her story was printed under the head of--

Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk.

Though the half has not been told, the story surpassed belief. It will yet be understood. No wonder that her life was made wretched. She could never divorce herself from the
scenes with which she had been identified. A priest was to her a miscreant and a scoundrel. A nun was a harlot, polluted and self-immolated on the altar of lust. At night, the scenes through which she passed came to her in her dreams. She often imagined herself present at the repetition of the worst scenes. "Sometimes she stood by the secret place of interment
in the cellar," Maria Monk, Preface, p. 14) sometimes heard the shrieks of helpless females in the hands of atrocious men, and she saw and realized why priests should wed. It would have~made them chaste and virtuous. Celibacy makes them
brutal and vile.

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CHAPTER VIII.
INQUISITORIAL TORTURE IN NUNNERIES AND ELSEWHERE.
JCDAS ISCARIOT was the progenitor of the Inquisition. His betrayal of the Son of God with a kiss was a type and a proph ecy of the whole concern. Rome has good names for devilish and inhuman practices. The word ''Inquisition" means "in quiry, investigation." Nothing could be more harmless than the term; nothing more terrible and infamous than the deeds worked under the name, and through the processes, of this terrible conspiracy. The word in history means inhumanity, hellish cruelty, cold-blooded torture, low cunning, and pious seeming. Deception and hypocrisy furnish it a mask. The tiger spirit characterizes its heart. Judas' kiss is the hiss of the serpent before the adder-fang of this imp of darkness strikes its victim.
"The Holy Office" is the title it assumes for its place of business. With saintly look it poses before the public eye, as with merciless cruelty the prince of the power of the air walks the burning maw of hell, and with delight listens to the wail of the damned. So these trained instruments of treachery do their work with the persistence of the sleuth-hound, and the bloodthirstiness of the savage.
"Run with your nose to earth; Run, bloodhound, run, and scent out The lovers of truth, the doers of righteousness. Plunder, flag, hang; nay, take your tackling with you, For these shall hold them fast: hang, hang the slaves To the mid region in the sun. Plunder, begone, vipers, asps, adders."
Of the Inquisition born in 1198 to kill out the truth, no detailed history is necessary. It is still in existence wherever the power of Rome can assert itself. It is doing its work in nunneries, monasteries, churches, priestly homes, and else where. In a note received I read these words: "A beautiful girl has been captured by a priest and the lady superior, car ried to the nunnery; and she has just taken the black veil." That fact, read in the light of the experiences of Maria Monk, tells that the priest has another victim to despoil, or the girl is to be crushed by a power she cannot resist. Here is the story of what may befall her--
In the Murder of a Beautiful Woman,
"It was about five months after I had taken the black veil,"

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said Maria Monk, "when the superior sent for me and several other nuns to come to her room. The weather was cool: it was an October day. We found the bishop and some priests with her; and, speaking in an unusual tone of fierceness and au thority, she said, 'Go to the room for the examination of con science, and drag St. Frances up-stairsS Nothing more was necessary than this unusual command, with the tone and man ner which accompanied it, to excite in me the most gloomy anticipations. It did not strike me as so strange that St. Frances should be in the room to which the superior directed us. It was an apartment to which we were often sent to pre pare for the communion, and to which we involuntarily went whenever we felt the compunctions which our ignorance of duty and the mismstructions we received inclined us to seek relief from self-reproach. Indeed, I had seen her there a little before. What terrified me was, first, the superiors angry man ner; second, the expression she used, being a French term, whose peculiar use I had learnt in the convent, and whose meaning is rather softened when translated into 'drag;' third, the place to which we were directed to take the interesting young nun, and the persons assembled there, as I supposed, to condemn her. My fears were such concerning the fate that awaited .her, and my horror at the idea that she was in some way to be sacrificed, that I would have given any thing to be allowed to stay where I was. But I feared the consequences of disobeying the superior, and proceeded with the rest towards the room for the examination of conscience.
''The room to which we were to proceed from that was in the second story, and the place of many a scene of a shameful nature. It is sufficient for me to say that things had oc curred there which made me regard the place with the greatest disgust.
''St. Frances had appeared melancholy for some time. I well knew that she had cause, for she had been repeatedly sub ject to trials which I need not name--our common lot.
"When we had reached the room which we had been bidden to seek. I entered the door, my companions standing behind me, as the place was so small as hardly to hold five persons at a time. The young nun was standing alone, near the middle of the room. She was probably about twenty years of age, with light hair, blue eyes, and very fair complexion."' (Maria Monk, p. 113).
Think of it. She resembled in appearance one that was the light of a boyhood home I well knew. She was some one's child, and by her devotion to Christ, resistance to crime, and loyalty to virtue, must have been worthy of love. She
9p

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had been true to the highest instincts of an immortal nature, and for this was to die.
The narrative proceeds: "I spoke to her in a compassionate voice, but at the same time with such a decided manner that she comprehended my full meaning--
lSt. Frances, We Are Sent for You.''
"Several others spoke kindly to her, but two addressed her very harshly. The poor creature turned round with a look of meekness, and without expressing any unwillingness or fear, without even speaking a word, resigned herself to our hands. The tears came into my eyes. I had not a moment's doubt that she considered her fate as sealed, and was already beyond the fear of death. She was conducted or rather hurried to the staircase, which was near by, and then seized by her limbs and clothes, and in fact almost dragged up-stairs, in the sense the superior had intended. I laid my own hands upon her--I took hold of her, too--more gently indeed than some of the rest; yet I encouraged and assisted them in carrying her. I could not avoid it. My refusal would not have saved her, nor pre vented her being carried up; it would only have exposed me to some severe punishment, as I believed some of my companions would have seized the first opportunity to complain of me.
"All the way up the staircase, St. Frances spoke not a word, nor made the slightest resistance. When we entered with her the room to which she was ordered, my heart sank within me. The bishop, the lady superior, and five priests were assembled for her trial. When we had brought our prisoner before them, Father Richards began to question her; she made ready but calm replies. I cannot pretend to give a connected account of what.ensued: my feelings were wrought up to such a pitch, that I knew not what I did, or what to do. I was under a ter rible apprehension that if I betrayed the feelings which almost overcame me I should fall under the displeasure of the cold blooded persecutors of my poor innocent sister; and this fear on the one hand, with the distress I felt for her on the other, rendered me almost frantic. As soon as I entered the room, I had stepped into a corner on the left of the entrance, where I might partially support myself by leaning against the wall between the door and window. This support was all that prevented me from falling to the floor; for the confusion of my thoughts were so great, that only a few of the words I heard spoken on either side made any lasting impression upon me. I felt as if I was struck with some in supportable blow; and death would not have been more fright ful to me. I am inclined to the belief that Father Richards

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wished to shield the poor prisoner from the severity of her
fate, by drawing from her expressions that might bear a favor
able construction. He asked her, among other things, if she
was not sorry for what she had been overheard to say (for she
had been betrayed by one of the nuns), and if she would not prefer confinement in the cells to the punishment which was threatened her. But the bishop soon interrupted him, and it was easy to perceive that he considered her fate as sealed, and was determined she should not escape. In reply to some of the questions put to her, she was silent; to others I heard her voice reply that she did not repent of words she had uttered, though they had been reported by some of the nuns, who had heard them, that she still wished to escape from the convent; and that she had firmly resolved to resist every attempt to
com/pel her to the commission, of crimes she detested. She added that she would rather die than cause the murder of harmless babes. 'THAT is ENOUGH, FINISH HER!' said the bishop. Two nuns instantly fell upon the young woman, and in obedi ence to instructions and directions given by the lady superior, prepared to execute her sentence. She still maintained all the calmness and submission of a lamb. (p. 116).
"Some of those who took part in this transaction, I believe were as unwilling as myself; but of others I can safely say that I believe they delighted in it. Their conduct certainly exhibited a most bloodthirsty spirit. But above all others present, and above all human fiends I ever saw, I think St. Hippolyte was the most diabolical. She engaged in the horrid task with alacrity, and assumed from choice the most revolting parts to be performed. She seized a gag, forced it into the mouth of the poor nun, and when it was fixed between her extended jaws so as to keep them open at their greatest pos sible distance, took hold of the straps fastened at each end of the stick, crossed them behind the helpless head of the victim, and drew them tight through the loop prepared as a fastening.
"The bed which had always stood in one part of the room still remained there; though the screen wnich had usually been placed before it, and was made of thick muslin, with only a
crevice through which a person behind might look out, had been folded up on its hinges in the form of a W, and placed in a corner. On the bed the prisoner was laid, with her face upward, and then bound with cords, so that she could not move. In an instant another bed was thrown ppon her; one of the priests sprung like a fury first upon it, and stamped upon it with all his force. He was speedily followed by the nuns, until there were as many upon the bed as could find room, and all did what they could, not only to smother but to bruise her.

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"Some stood up and jumped upon the poor girl with their
feet, some with their knees, and others in different ways seemed to seek how they might best beat the breath out of her body
and mangle it, without coming in direct contact with it, or seeing the effects of their violence. During this time, my feel
ings were almost too strong to be endured. I felt stupefied, and scarcely was conscious of what I did, still fear for myself
remained in a sufficient degree to induce me to some exertion, and I attempted to talk to those who stood next, partly that I might have an excuse for turning away from the dreadful scene.
"After the lapse of fifteen or twenty minutes, and when it was presumed that the sufferer had been smothered or crushed to death, the priest and the nuns ceased to trample upon her, and stepped from the bed. All was motionless and silent be neath it." (Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk, p. 118).
"They then began to laugh at such inhuman thoughts as
occurred to some of them, rallying each other in the most un feeling manner, and ridiculing me for the feelings which I in vain endeavored to conceal. They alluded to the resignation
of our murdered companion, and one of them tauntingly said,
'She would hace made a good Catholic martyr T After spend ing some moments in such conversation, one of them asked if the corpse should be removed. The superior said it had better
remain a little while. After waiting some time longer, the feather bed was taken off, the cords unloosed, and the body was taken by the nuns and dragged down-stairs. I was informed that it was taken into the cellar, and throwA unceremoniously
into the hole, covered with a great quantity of lime, and after wards sprinkled with a liquid of the properties and name of
which I am ignorant." (The same, p. 117).
What is there in this transaction that would prevent its repetition in every nunnery in the land ? In the terrible stories of the Inquisition, there is the same horrible spirit. Behold the
helplessness of the victim, the cruelty of her persecutors, and
the bondage of those who assisted in doing the terrible deed.

The Cells in the Cellar, and Their Inhabitants.
Beneath the Black Nunnery was a cellar divided into various apartments. In one was the hole where murdered infants and nuns were thrown, and covered with lime.
"In another was a row of cells. The door shut into a small recess, and was fasteped with a stout iron bolt on the outside, the end of which was secured by being let into a hole in the stone-work which formed the posts. The door, which .was of wood, was sunk a few inches beyond the stone-work, which rose and formed an arch overhead. Above the bolt was a small

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window supplied with a fine grating, which swung open, a
small bolt having been removed from it on the outside. The
nun, I had observed, seemed to be whispering with some person within through the little window; but I hastened to get my coal, and left the cellar, presuming that was the prison. When I visited the place again, being alone, I ventured to the spot, determined to learn the truth, presuming that the imprisoned nuns would answer. I spoke at the window where I had seen the nun standing, and heard a voice reply in a whisper. The aperture was so small, and the place so dark, that I could see. nobody; but I learnt that a poor wretch was confined there a prisoner. I feared that I might be discovered, and after a few words which I thought could do no harm, withdrew.
"My curiosity was now alive to learn every thing I could about so mysterious a subject. I ascertained that they were confined for refusing to obey the lady superior, bishop, or priest. They had been confined there several years without
having been taken out; but their names, connections, offences, and every thing else relating to them, I could never learn. Some conjectured that they were heiresses, whose property was
desired for the convent, and who would not consent to sign deeds of it. I often spoke with one of them in passing near their cells, but never ventured to stay long, or press my in quiries very far. Besides, I found her reserved and little dis posed to converse freely--a thing I could not wonder at, when I considered her situation and the characters of persons around her. She spoke like a woman of feeble health and of broken spirits. I occasionally saw other nuns speaking, to them, paritcularly at meal times, when they were regularly furnished with food, which was such as we ourselves had."
"Their cells were occasionally cleaned, and then the doors were opened. I never looked into them, but was informed that the ground was their only floor, and straw their bed. I once in
quired of one of them whether they could converse together, and she replied that they could through a small opening be tween their cells. They were able to converse both in French and English." (Maria Monk, pp. 159, 160). In one of the cellars beneath one of the Roman Catholic churches in Boston are cells in the walls. In the cellar of a Roman Catholic church in a small town in Maine, the reporter for the gas company stumbled upon a cell not wide enough for a man to lie down in; at the top is a bolt in which is a ring that can be opened, and placed upon the neck of the victim.
"I am unable to say how many nuns disappeared when I was in the convent. There were several who were gagged. Some of the old nuns seemed to take delight in oppressing

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those who fell under their displeasure. They were ready to
recommend resort to compulsory measures, and ever ready to
"run for the gags. I have seen a half-dozen lying gagged and bound at once.
"I have been subjected to the same state of involuntary silence more than once; for sometimes I became excited to a state of desperation by the measures used against me, and then conducted in a manner not less violent than some others. My hands have been tied behind me, and a gag put into my mouth, sometimes with such force and rudeness as to lacerate my lips, and cause the blood to flow freely. Treatment of this kind is apt to teach submission, and many times I have acquiesced under orders received or wishes expressed, with a fear of a recurrence to some severe measures." Are such schools fit places for our American girls?
"One day I had incurred the anger of the superior in a greater degree than usual: I was ordered to the cells. A scene of terrible violence commenced. After exhausting my strength by resisting as long as I could against several nuns, I had my hands drawn behind my back, a leathern band passed first round my thumbs, then round my hands, and then round my waist, and fastened. This was drawn so tight that it cut through the flesh of my thumbs, making wounds the scars of which never disappeared. A gag was forced into my mouth, after which I was taken by main force and carried down into the cellar, and brought to a cell. The door was opened, and I was thrown in with violence and left alone, the door being im mediately closed and bolted on the outside. The bare ground was under me, cold and hard as if it had been beaten down even. I lay still in the position in which I had fallen, as it would have been difficult for me to move; and the shock of my fall, and my wretched state of desperation and fear, disin clined me from any further attempt. I was in almost terrible darkness, there being nothing perceptible except a slight glim mer of light which came in through the window far above me.
"How long I remained in that condition, I can only con jecture. It seemed to me a long time, and must have been two or three hours. I did not move, expecting to die there, and in a state of distress which I cannot describe from the tight band age about my hands and thegag holding my jaws apart at their greatest extension. I am confident I must have died before morning if, as I then expected, I had been left there all night. By and by, however, the bolt was drawn, the door opened, and Jane Ray spoke to me in a tone of kindness. She had taken an opportunity to slip into the cellar unnoticed on purpose to see me. She unbound the gag, took it out of my mouth, asked

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the superior to come to see me, who asked if I repented in the sight of God for what I had done, and if I would ask the pardon of the Virgin Mary and of all the nuns. Replying in the affirmative. I was released, and, kneeling before all the sisters in succession, begged the forgiveness and prayers of each." (Maria Monk, p. 189).
The penances were in many cases the personification of cruelty.
''Kissing the floor is a very common penance; kneeling and kissing the feet of the other nuns is another, as are kneeling on hard peas, and walking with them in the shoes. We had repeatedly to walk on our knees through the subterranean passage leading to the Congregational Nunnery, and sometimes to eat our meals with a rope round our neck. Sometimes we were fed only with such things as we most disliked. Garlic was given to me because I had a strong antipathy against it. Eels were repeatedly given to some of us because we felt an unconquerable repugnance to them on account of reports wehad heard of their feeding on the dead carcasses in the River St. Lawrence. It was no uncommon thing for us to be required to drink the water in which the lady superior had washed her feet. Sometimes we were required to brand ourselves with a hot iron so as to leave scars; at other times, to whip our naked flesh with several small rods before a private altar until we drew blood.
"One of our penances was to stand for a length of time with our arms extended, in imitation of the Saviour on the cross. Sometimes we were obliged to sleep on the floor in the winter, with nothing over us but a single sheet; and sometimes to chew a piece of window-glass to a fine powder in the presence of the superior. We had sometimes to wear leathern belts stuck full of sharp metallic points round our waists and the upper part of our arms, bound on so tight that they penetrated the flesh, and drew blood. Some of the penances were so severe that they seemed too much to be endured; and, when they were imposed, the nuns who were to suffer them sometimes showed the most violent repugnance. They would often resist, and still oftener express their opposition by exclamations and screams. (Maria Monk, p. 198).
"One of the worst punishments which I ever saw inflicted was that with a cap; and yet some of the old nuns were per mitted to inflict it at their pleasure. I have repeatedly known them to go for a cap, when one of our number had trans gressed a rule, sometimes though it were a very unimportant one. These caps were kept in a cupboard in the old nuns' rooms, whence they were brought when wanted.

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"They were small, made of a reddish-looking leather, fitted
closely to the head, and fastened under the chin with a kind of buckle. It was the common practice to tie the nun's hands
behind and gag her, before the cap was put on, to prevent noise and resistance. I never saw it worn by any one for one moment without throwing them in severe sufferings. If per
mitted, they would scream in the most shocking manner, and always writhed as much as their confinement would allow. I can speak from personal knowledge of this punishment, as I
have endured it more than once; and yet I have no idea of the cause of the pain. I never examined one of the caps, nor
saw the inside, for they are always brought and taken away quickly; but although the first sensation was that of coolness, it was hardly put on my head before a violent and indescrib
able sensation began, like that of a blister, only much more insupportable, and this continued until it was removed. It
would produce such an acute pain as to throw us into con
vulsions, and I think no human being could endure it for an hour. After this punishment, we felt its effects for days.
Having once known what it was by experience, I held the cap in dread; and whenever I was condemned to suffer the punish ment again, felt ready to do anything to avoid it. But when tied and gagged, with the cap on my head again, I could only
sink upon the floor, and roll about in anguish, until it was taken off." (Maria Monk. p. 200). And all this in the name of religion. Poor, deluded creatures! They dream that this
punishment is to add to their store of good deeds, and cal culated to shorten the duration of purgatory.
It is claimed that such punishments render them docile;
they fear to disobey the commands of the priests. Imagine a company so trained, under the lash of discipline that knows no pity, exposed to the brutal instincts of a demoralized priest hood, who seek to gratify their passions, and are willing to leave their victims to suffer any pain or any shame that may result therefrom, and you imagine a place not far removed from hell. It is not strange that those who have been the in
quisitors want some one near them constantly, and cannot bear to be left in the dark. Think of a nun being gagged, and left to starve in the cells, or having the flesh burnt off her bones with red-hot irons. (Maria Monk, p. 208).

Suppress the Truth^, Lest You Shame the Devil.
Many resemble the Chinese in one thing: they try to wor ship God so as to keep the right side of the Devil. They dare not make open war with him. A leading evangelist said, "It is my policy to preach so that I may not anger Satan."

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No wonder that additions brought into the Church by such leadership are weak and puny. The times demand men and
women not afraid to battle with the prince of the power of the air in the name of Christ, to whom all power is given in
heaven and on earth. To the truth, then. ''There are three rooms in the Black Nunnery which I never
entered. I had enjoyed much liberty, and had seen, as I sup
posed, all parts of the building, when one day I observed an old nun go to a corner of an apartment near the northern end of the western wing, push the end of her scissors into a crack in the panelled wall, and pull out a door. I was much sur prised, because I never had conjectured that any door was
there; and it appeared, when I afterward examined the place,
that no indication of it could be discovered on the closest scrutiny. I stepped forward to see what was within, and saw three rooms entering into each other; but the nun refused to admit me within the door, which she said led to rooms kept as
depositories.
"She herself entered and closed the door, so that I could not satisfy my curiosity; and no occasion presented itself. I
always had a strong desire to know the use of these apartments, for I was sure they must have been designed for some use of which I was intentionally kept ignorant, otherwise they would never have remained unknown to me so loug. Besides, the old nun evidently had some strong reason for denying me admis sion, though she endeavored to quiet my curiosity.
"The superior, after my admission into the convent, had
told me that I had access to every room in the building; and I had seen places which bore witness to the cruelties and crimes
committed under her commands or sanction; but here was a succession of rooms which had been concealed from me. and so constructed as though designed to be unknown to all but a few. I am sure that any person who might be able to examine
the wall in that place, would pronounce that secret door a surprising piece of work. I never saw anything of the kind
that appeared so ingenious and skilfully made. I told Jane Ray what I had seen, and she said at once, 'We will get in,
and see what is there;' but I suppose she never found an oppor tunity. I naturally felt a good deal of curiosity to learn whether such scenes, as I had witnessed in the death of St.
Frances, were common or rare, and took an opportunity to inquire of Jane Ray. Her reply was, 'Oh, yes; and there were many murdered, while you were a novice, whom you heard
nothing about.' This was all I ever learnt about the subject; but although I was told nothing about the manner in which
they were killed, I supposed it to be the same which I had seen practised; viz., by smothering.

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''I went into the superior's parlor one day for something, and found Jane Ray there alone, looking into a book.
"Some time after this occasion, I was sent into the superiors room with Jane to arrange it, and as the same book was lying out of the case, she said: 'Come, let us look into it.' I immedi ately consented, when she said, 'There, you have looked into it, and if you tell of me, I will of you.'
"The thought of being subjected to a severe penance, which I had reason to apprehend, fluttered me very much; and although I tried to overcome my fears, I did not succeed very well. I reflected, however, that the sin was already com mitted, and that it would not be increased if I examined the book. I. therefore, looked a little at several pages, though I still felt a good deal of agitation. I saw at once that the volume was a record of the entrance of nuns and novices into the convent, and of the "birtlis that had taken place in the convent. Entries of the last description were made in a brief manner on the following plan. I do not give the names or dates as real, but only to show the form of entering them.

St. Mary, delivered of a son,

March 16, 1834.

St. Clarice "

" daughter, April 2,

St. Matilda "

"

"

" 30,

Etc.

"Xo mention was made in the book of the death of the children, though I well knew not one of them could be living at that time.
"Now I presume that the period that the book embraced was about two years, as several names near the beginning I knew; but I can form only a rough conjecture of the number of infants born, and murdered of course, record of which it contained. I suppose the book contained at least one hundred pages, and that one-fourth were written upon, and that each page contained fifteen distinct records. Several pages were devoted to the list of births. On this supposition, there must have been a large number which I can easily believe to have been born there in the course of two years."

Her Escape.
Her situation was becoming alarming to herself; either she must remain, and be a party to another murder, or flee to some place where she could be delivered of a child, and protect its life. She resolved to fly, cost what it might. How she man aged to get through the secret passages, and find her way to the outside world, is succinctly told, but is not important for our purpose. She came to New York, and was introduced to the

WHY PRIESTS SHOULD WED.
almshouse, where, she says, "I was treated with kindness and care, and, as I hoped, was entirely unknown. But when I
had been some time in that institution, I found that it was reported that I was a fugitive nun; and not long after an Irish woman employed in the institution came in and told me that Mr. Conroy was below, and had sent to see me. I was in
formed that he was a Roman priest who often visited the house, and he had a particular wish to see me at that time, having come, as I believe, expressly for that purpose. I showed unwillingness to comply with such an invitation, and did not go. The woman told me further, that he sent me word that I need not think to avoid him, for it would be impossible for me to do so. I might conceal myself as well as I could, but I should be found and taken. No matter where I went, or what hiding-place I might choose, I should be known; and I had better come at once. He knew who I was; and he was authorized to take me to the Sisters of Charity, if I should prefer to join them. He would promise that I might stay with them if I chose, and be permitted to remain in New York. He sent me word further, that he had received full power and authority over me from the superior of the Hotel Dieu Nun nery of Montreal, and was able to do all that she could do; as her right to dispose of me at her will had been imparted to him by a regular writing from Canada. This was alarming information for me, in the weakness in which I was at that time. The woman added that the same authority had been given to all the priests; so that, go where I might, I should meet men informed about me and my escape, and fully em powered to seize me wherever they could, and convey me back to the convent from which I had escaped. Under these cir cumstances, it seemed to me that the offer to place me among the Sisters of Charity, with permission to stay in New York was mild and favorable. However, I had resolution enough to refuse to see the priest Conroy.
"Not long afterward I was informed by the same messenger^ that the priest was again in the building, and repeated his request. I desired one of the gentlemen connected with the institution, that a stop might be put to such messages, as I wished to receive no more of them. A short time after, how ever, the woman told me that Mr. Conroy wished to inquire of me whether my name was not St. Eustace while a nun, and if I had not confessed to Priest Kelly in Montreal. I answered that it was all true; for I had confessed to him a short time while in the nunnery. 1 was then told again that the pnest wanted to-see me, and I sent back word that I would see him in the presence of Chaplain T. or Mr. S., which, however, was

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not agreed to; and I was afterward informed that Mr. Conroy
had spent an hour in a room and a passage where I had fre
quently been; but through the mercy of God I was employed
in another place at that time and had no occasion to go where
I should have to meet him. I afterward repeatedly heard that Mr. Conroy continued to visit the house, and to ask for me, but I never saw him. I once had determine^, to leave the in stitution, and go to the Sisters of Charity; but circumstances occurred which gave no time for further reflection, and I was saved from the destruction to which I should have been ex. posed/"
After her sickness she found it difficult to" give up her religion. She says, "I was then a Roman Catholic, at least a great part of my time; and my conduct, in a great measure, was according to the faith and motives of a Roman Catholic. Notwithstanding what I knew of the conduct of so many of the priests and nuns, I thought that it had no effect on the sanctity of the Church, or the authority or effects of acts per formed by the former at the mass, confession, etc. I had such a regard for my vows as a nun, that I considered my hand as well as my heart irrevocably given to Jesus Christ, and could never have allowed any person to take it. Indeed, to this day, I feel an instinctive aversion to offering my hand, or taking the hand of another person, even as an expression of friendship. 1 also thought that I might soon return to the Catholics, although fear and disgust held me back. I had now that in fant to think for, whose life I had happily saved by my timely escape from the nunnery; and what its fate might be if it ever fell into the power of the priests, I could not tell. I had, however, reason for alarm. Would a child destined to destruction, like the infants I had seen baptized and smothered, be allowed to go through the world unmolested, a living me morial of the truth of crimes long practised in security, be cause never exposed ? What pledges could I get to satisfy me that I, on whom her dependence might be, would be spared by those whom I had reason to think were wishing then to sac rifice me? How could I trust the helpless infant in hands which had hastened the baptism of many such m order to hurry them to the secret pit in the cellar? Could I suppose that Father Phelan, priest of the parish church of Montreal, would see his own child growing up in the world, and feel willing to run the risk of having the truth exposed? What could I expect, especially from him, but the utmost rancor, and the most determined enmity against the innocent child, and its abused and defenceless mother?
"Yet my mind would sometimes still incline in the opposite

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direction, and indulge the thought that perhaps the only way
to secure heaven to us both was to throw ourselves back into
the hands of the Church, to be treated as she pleased. When,
therefore, the fear of immediate death was removed, I re
nounced all thoughts of communicating the substance of the facts in this volume. It happened, however, that my danger was not passed. I was soon seized with very alarming symp toms, then my desire to disclose my story revived. I had before had an opuportunity to speak with the chaplain in private; but, as it was a time when I supposed myself out of danger, I had deferred for three days my proposed communication, thinking that I might yet avoid it altogether. When my symptoms, however, became more alarming, I was anxious for Saturday to arrive, the day which I had appointed; and when I had not the opportunity on that day which I desired. I thought it might be too late. I did not see him till Monday, when my prospects for surviving were very gloomy; and I then in formed him that I wished to communicate to him a few secrets, which were likely otherwise to die with me. I then told him that while a nun in the convent of Montreal. I had witnessed the murder of a nun, called St. Frances, and of at least one of the infants which I have spoken of in this book. I added some few circumstances, and I believe disclosed, in general terms, some of the other crimes I knew of in that nunnery.
"My anticipations of death proved to be unfounded, for my health improved afterward; and had I not made the con fessions on that occasion, it is very possible that I never might have made them. I, however, felt more willing to listen to in struction, and experienced friendly attentions from some of the benevolent persons around me, who, taking an interest in me on account of my darkened understanding, furnished me with a Bible, and were ever ready to counsel me when I desired it. I soon began to believe that God might have intended that His creatures should learn His will by reading His Word, and taking upon them the free exercise of their reason, and acting under responsibility to Him.
"It is difficult for one who has never given way to such argu ments and influences as those to which I had been exposed, to realize how hard it is to think aright after thinking wrong. The iScriptures always affect.me powerfully when I read them, but I feel, that I have just begun to learn the great truths in which I ought to have been early and thoroughly instructed. I realize in some degree how it is that the Scriptures render the people of the United States so strongly opposed to such doctrines as are taught in the Black and the Congregational Nunneries of Montreal. The priests and nuns used often to

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declare, that, of all heretics, the children from the United States were the most difficult to be converted; and it was thought a great triumph when one of them was 'brought over to the 'true faith.' The first passage of Scripture that made any serious impression upon my mind was the text on which the chaplain preached on the Sabbath after my introduction into the house: 'Search the Scriptures.'"
By obeying the divine command she found Christ precious to her soul, as is elsewhere told. (Chapter vii.)

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CHAPTEE IX.
THE COXVEXT BURXED ix CHARLESTOWX, MASS.
"Six MOXTHS ix A COXVEXT" is the title of a book published in Boston in 1835. It was the pioneer. Its going-forth reminds one of the shot of a cannon over a quiet lake, that brings to the surface the dead body quietly reposing beneath the waves. This book revealed how Boston and New.England were being surrendered to Rome. It also uncovers the American spirit, which, though it sleeps, may awake, and when roused breaks through all opposition. It disclosed the sycophancy of Pro testants, only matched by their ignorance of the true spirit of the harlot of the Tiber, and the boldness of Papists when un checked and unhindered by the proclamation of the truth. Its going-forth recalls the treatise which Luther wrote in the mid dle of the year 1520, in which he addressed the Emperor and German nobility on the necessity of the reformation of the Church. Luther was then a Roman Catholic. His eyes had been opened to the truth, and his heart had been warmed by the love of Christ. He hoped to do good in the Church. His friends saw in it the signal for war. He was one man against millions. The Pope, Leo X., issued the famous damnatory bull against the Reformer, which proved to be the beginning of a movement that ushered in the Reformation. The falling of a pebble into a bay of the ocean creates a ripple that moves across the broad expanse, and writes its record on every shore. The note of a flute played in the Alps may rise in echoes up to the topmost cliff, topple off a snowflake, which gives birth to an avalanche that may ingulf a town in ruin. It is won derful what truth can do. We see it when we trace the his tory of a movement, and chronicle what truth has done.
In August, 1831, a young lady residing in Charlestown. Mass., became an inmate of the community of nuns, estal> lished at Mount Benedict, and voluntarily submitted to a course of study and discipline designed to prepare her to be come a teacher in the convent, and a religious recluse for life, of the Ursuline order. Her escape and history opened many eyes.
Her story in brief is as follows. It furnishes suggestive reading. "In the summer of 1826, while passing the nunnery of Mount Benedict, in company with my schoolmates, the question was asked by a young lady, who afterwards proved to be a Roman Catholic, how we would like to become nuns? I replied, after hearing her explanation of their motives for retirement. "I should like it well/ " Shortly after, the Ursu-

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WHY PRIESTS SHOULD WED.

line Community took possession of their building on Mount
Benedict. The pupils had permission to look at them as they passed. "'One of the scholars remarked that they were Roman Catholics, and that our parents disapproved of their tenets. The young lady who asked how we would like to become nuns, was affected even to tears in consequence of what passed,
and begged us to desist, saying they were saints, God's people, and the chosen few; that they secluded themselves that they
might follow the Scriptures more perfectly, pray for the con version of sinners, and instruct the ignorant or heretics in the
principles of religion." That "following the Scriptures" is
good, when we remember that a Bible was not allowed in the
institution. The seed was being sown. At the age of thirteen years and four months, Miss Reed asked her parents if she might become an inmate of the convent. Her parents treated
the proposition as visionary, and sent her to New Hampshire;
there she nursed her desire to enter the cloister.

-.-1 Domestic Now Appears.
Rome knows whom to send, and when to send them. The mother of Miss Reed is dead. Then a Miss H---- came to the house, and asked for employment, saying she had walked a long distance for the purpose of seeing a gentleman who had moved away. This was in the fall of 1830. After consultation with the father, she was employed. "After family prayers were ever, and I was about retiring. I stepped from my room to see if Miss H---- had extinguished her lamp, when, to my surprise, I found her kneeling and holding a string of beads. I asked her what she was doing. She did not speak for some time. When she did. she said xhe van saying her Hail Mary, which is as follows: 'Hail. Mary! full of grace. Our Lord is with thee! Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus! Holy Mother of God. pray for us, sinners, now and at the hour of death. Amen.' She then said, 'I say my prayers on these beads to the Blessed Virgin.' She then showed me an MI/JIM* Deif Lamb of God, a small piece of wax sewed up in silk in the form of a heart, which she wore to preserve herself from the temptations of Satan." The error found congenial soil, and the work of this Jesuit, sent there with the approbation of the superior of the con vent, was telling upon this young life. The first pleasant day, Miss Reed asked the servant to accompany her to the superior. They went. When there, the superior asked to see the servant alone. Then having learned the true condition of affairs, com ing in she embraced MissReed with much affection, asked about the death of her mother; whether she ever attended the

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145

Catholic Church, or knew anything of the principles of her religion; what she had heard of their order; her views of it; what progress she had made in her studies; whether she had attended much to history; knew any thing of embroidery, drawing or painting, or any other ornamental work; whether she had ever assisted in domestic, affairs. The superior in quired in what capacity she desired to enter' the institution, whether as a recluse or a scholar; whether she had done at tending school, etc. (Six Months in Convent, p. 55).
In reply, she said, that she did not consider her education complete; desired to enter the institution on the same terms as other pupils until she had made sufficient progress to take the veil and become a recluse; that her father was averse to her becoming a nun, but she was of the opinion he would con cur with her Episcopal friends in not objecting to her becom ing a pupil. "She then insisted that I ought to make any sac rifice, if necessary, to adopt the religion of the Cross, repeat ing the words of our Saviour, 'He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.'" etc.
"At a subsequent interview, I was asked to see the bishop . or the clergy, remarking she believed I had a vocation for a religious life, and the bishop would tell me whether I had or
not, and that the bishop would consult with my father, and reconcile him to Catholicity."
Then they plied her with Scripture texts: "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock," etc., desiring that she should secrete the paper containing the texts. Finally she is introduced to the bishop. He asked her if she knew the meaning of the word "nun;" how long she had thought of becoming a nun; and then put questions which surprised her; and which were unpleasant
for her to answer. (The same, p. 59).
She took her leave of the bishop, very little edified by the conversation, and unresolved what to do. A catechism was
bought her, which she did not accept. The next time she saw the bishop, he conversed in the most solemn manner, and "after learning that my full name was Rebecca Theresa Reed, said, 'Is it possible that you have a saint's name?' and gave me St. Theresa as my namesake, a beautiful wax figure habited as an Ursuline nun." (Six Months in Convent, p. 60).
Then came the persuasion of friends, the kindness of the bishop, in presenting Her with books, a holy cross, the deser tion of home, and at last entering the convent after taking the following obligation: "I do, with the'grace and assistance of Almighty God, renounce the world forever, and place myself under your protection, from this day to consecrate myself to
His honor and glory, in the house of God, and to do whatever

10 p



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obedience prescribes, and tell no one of this obligation T>ut Mr.
B---- in confession." (The same, p. 71).
"After this the superior summoned two of the choir
religieusej who conducted me to the garden, where they left
me to amuse myself. Presently the superior joined me, wish
ing to know how I liked the garden and the flowers, etc. Ob serving a pocket album in my hand, she asked what I had hoarded up there--some worldly goods? She took it, and examined it; desired to know if I wished to keep some money I had in it (fifteen dollars). I replied, No; as 1 was going to join them, I would intrust it to her care. She also requested me to sing one tune. I complied, and sang, 'There is nothing true but heaven.' Her observation was. she would wish me to commence immediately with music."
Miss Reed then left the convent, and attended the sacra ments of confession and communion; and on Sabbath morn ing, August 7. 1831, she entered the convent. A lay sister welcomed her, led her into the parlor, where she was requested to kneel, and continue her devotions until the superior made her appearance. "She soon came, and made a sign for me to follow her. She led the way into a long room, darkened, at one end of which stood a large crucifix made of bones, which I was afterwards informed was made of the bones of saints. The superior told me in a whisper, it was the time of silence. But after arranging my dress, she took from her toilet a religious garb, which she placed upon my head and bade me kiss it, saying it had been blessed by the bishop. She then pro nounced a short Latin prayer while I was kneeling, at the same time giving me her blessing. After this she conducted me into another apartment, where was a stranger whom she called a postulant (or a candidate for a recluse), and. giving me permission to speak, left the room. A lay sister then entered the room with refreshment, after partaking of which we had permission to walk in one particular path in the garden. This stranger picked up a pear and ate it, and invited me to do the same, which I declined, being acquainted with the rules of the convent, which are very strict. She did not regard the rules so strictly as the superior required; who, being made acquainted with her conversation by separately questioning us, sent her away. The bell rang, when we were immediately conducted to the religieuse's choir; nd here the superior caused me to kneel three4 times before I could suit her. After the performances were 'over, which consisted of the office of adoration to the Blessed Virgin, and prayers to the saints, repeated in the Latin tongue, of which I knew nothing, we' proceeded to the refectory, where we partook of our portions.

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After saying Latin, we kneeled and kissed the floor, at a signal given by the superior on her snuff-box. Before eating, one of the religieuses said, 'In nomine Domini nostri Jesu Christi,' all making the sign of the Cross and responding
Amen. When opportunity offered, I asked the superior to ex plain the meaning of the Latin. In a very solemn manner, she replied, 'You must not give way to curiosity. Do you not recol lect, it is against the rules for a religieuse to do so?' I an swered, 'Yes, ma -mere] and complied at once, by kissing the floor, when she observed, 'A relif/ieuse should never have a will
of her own; as she grows in perfection in the order, she will understand what these words mean; it will be revealed to you when you are deserving.' She taught me to believe that the Office of the Blessed Virgin (which was in Latin, and which we all repeated without understanding it) was none other than
that chanted in heaven by the saints around the throne of the Almighty, and called the sweet communion of 'All Saints.''
"After receiving our portions, we performed several devo tions, such as kissing the floor, and repeating Latin while the Angelus was ringing. We then went immediately to the 'community.' On entering this room, the 'novices' kneel, and
repeat the 'Ava Maria,' kiss the floor, and seat themselves for recreation, according to the rules given by the superior, entitled
'Rules by the Reverend Mother,' enclosed in a gilt frame and suspended in the community; and it is the duty of every novice to read them at least once a week:
"1. To rise on the appearance of the superior.
"2. When reprimanded, to kneel at once, and kiss the floor, until the signal be given to rise.
"3. When speaking of the superior, to say, 'our mother;' when speaking to her, and to the professed choir religieuse, ma mere,- to say 'sister' when speaking to the novices; of them, 'Miss;' and of the professed choir, 'Mrs.;' to say our or
ours, instead of my or mine. "4. To say 'Ave Maria' every time we enter a community. "o. Before entering any room, to give three knocks on the
door, accompanied by some religious ejaculation, and wait until they are answered by those from within.
"6. 5lot to life our eyes while walking in the passageways; also, never to touch each other's hands.
"7. To stand while spoken to by the bishop or superior, and kneel while speaking to them; to speak in a particular tone.
"8. If necessary to speak to the superior during a time of
silence, approach her kneeling, and speak in whispers. "9. Never to leave a room without permission, giving at
the same time our reasons.

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"10. To rise and say the Hour: 'O sacred heart of Jesus I always united to the will of thy Father, grant that ours may be sweetly united in thine. Heart of Mary, our asylum in the land of our captivity, procure for us the happy liberty of the
children of Jesus. May the souls of the faithful departed, through the merits of Christ and mercies of God, rest in peace. Amen.' These are different, one for each of the twenty-four
hours in the day. They are written and placed in two gilt frames over the mantle-piece; twelve over the heart of Mary in
one, and twelve over the heart of Jesus in the other. Every
time the clock strikes, the one whose turn it is to lecture rises and says one of them. In this way slavish fear takes the place of honest intent and a desire for the acquisition of knowledge.
The Kules and Penances of our Holy Father, St. Augustine, together with those of St. Ursula, are read at the refectory table every week. They are in part as follows:
"1. To kneel in the presence of the bishop, until his signal to rise.
"2. Never- to gratify our appetites except with' his holiness the bishop's or a father confessor's permission.
"3. Never to approach or look out of the windows of the
monastery.
"4. To sprinkle our couches every night with holy water.
"5. Not to make a noise in walking in the monastery. "6. To wear sandals and hair-cloth; to inflict punishment upon ourselves with our girdles, in imitation of a saint. "7. To sleep on a hard mattress or couch, with one coverlet. "8. To walk with pebbles in our shoes, or walk kneeling until a wound is produced. Never to touch any thing without permission.
"9. Never to gratify our curiosity, or exercise our thoughts on any subject, without our spiritual director's knowledge and advice.- Never to desire food or water between portions.
"10. Every time on leaving the community, to take holy water from the altar of the Blessed Virgin, and make the sign of the cross, etc., etc.

A Day in the Convent.
"Up at 3. While the Angelus (the bell rung while repeat ing the three salutations and three Hail Marys); at 5 A. M., we were called to attend Compline (the last prayer before retiring), and Prime (the first prayer in the morning), until half-past six; then litany to the saints. After litany, the bell rang for diet in the refectory every morning except Friday, on which day we assembled for confession to the superior, in

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which they 'tell of lifting their eyes while walking1 in the pas
sageways; in neglecting to take holy water on entering the
community and choir; failing in respect to the superior, and
veneration to the bishop; or in religious decorum; or in respect
to our vows of poverty and obedience; for which we most
humbly ask pardon of God, penance, and forgiveness.' As
each one finishes, the 'Holy Mother' gives her advice and penan
ces and her blessing; they then kiss her feet, and sometimes make the cross with their tongues on the floor; then making their inclination, they retire to the choir to perform the penances. At 8 o'clock they receive their portion, sitting on the floor. The bell rings at 8:30 for recreation. Then studies until a quarter before eleven; then bell rings for examination of con science for half an hour; then for diet. The diet consisted of the plainest kind of food, principally of vegetable-soup, Indian puddings, and very seldom meat. Our tea was made of herbs, sometimes of the bitterest kind. We partook of this diet in imitation of the holy Fathers in the desert, to mortify our ap petites. - The services at the diet are, after repeating the Latin, first they seat themselves in order upon a bench, then crossing themselves, in their appointed places on one side of a long table; the superior enters, and passes along to her table at the head of the room, the nuns making their inclination as she passes. She then makes a signal on her snuff-box, and the religieuse whose turn it is to speak says 'BenedicteS The superior answers lBenedictef and so it continues in a similar manner from one to the other. The efficient who repeats prayers, and officiates during the office and serves at mass, repeats a Latin prayer. Then comes the lecture, when a religieuse whose turn it is to do so, after kissing the floor as a token of humility, takes from the drawer a white apron and a basket containing a napkin, and after putting on the apron, brushes the fragments from the tables into the basket, and takes the napkin, making an inclination to each one. She then takes the articles off the superior's table one by one, in a nap kin, in a solemn manner. If any eatables fall on the floor, they must be taken up with the napkin, and not by any means with the bare hands.
"After this the superior makes a signal, and the lecturess and before-mentioned religieuse, kneel in the middle of the floor and kiss it, and immediately rise and join the others in repeating the Latin prayers, after which the lecturess rings the Angelus. During this ringing they all kneel and repeat a prayer, then assemble in the community for 'recreation.' Dur ing this they are permitted to converse with one another, but, in a particular and low tone, and only on such subjects as the

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superior shall give them. If she be absent, the conversation is usually on the subject last read at the table, and they work during the time. After recreation a lecture is read aloud, and at one o'clock the bell rings for 'visitation' to the altar, which, with the vespers, occupies an hour and a half; then the rosary is said. On hearing the bell again, all assemble in the com munity, when there is a 'point of prayer' read. Then lessons occupy them until five; meditation and reflection half an hour longer; then the bell rings for diet, where they go through the observances before named; then recreation for forty-five min utes; then the Benedictus rings, and the lay sisters come up into the choir. Matins, lauds, and prayers continue from seven until nine o'clock, when all retire while the bell is,ringing, except those who attend the lessons and penances. This con cludes a day and its services." The same course is pursued every day except Fridays and Sundays, when there is some variation. Remember, this school was established to educate the children of Protestants. Is this the education Americans desire for their children ?
Then come the austerities and penances, until the health fails. The bishop talked to them of Satan, of the temptations incident to the flesh; never of the love of Christ, or of en nobling truth. Without any reason, Miss Reed was ordered to the "infirmary," and commanded to take an emetic. The day after, orders were given for her to take medicine, which she was averse to; and on her declining, the infirmarian, who tends upon the sick, after making the sign of the cross a num ber of times, said it was the superior's orders. She was com pelled to take a part of it, and to remain in the infirmary two days without a fire during extremely cold weather. Then, having permission to go to the choir, she fainted; and was again chided, and told that she ought not to have any feel
ings.
Then come revelations of cruelty in the treatment of some of the inmates, which are witnessed in all similar institutions. This is a specimen: One day Sister Magdalene, who nine months before entered the convent in health, found that con sumption had fastened upon her. Austerities and penances had weakened her, so that she was hardly able to ascend the stairs. Miss Reed offered to assist her. The superior rebuked her, claiming that the sickness was feigned, and that the pity given her was false pity. She then said to Sister Magdalene, in a tone of displeasure, if she did not make herself of use to the "community" she would send her back to Ireland; on which Sister Magdalene arose and said, "Ma mere, I would like"-- "The superior cut her short by stamping upon the floor, and

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demanding who gave her permission to speak, and imposed on
her the penance of kissing the floor." The bishop asked her
when she thought of going to that happy place. She replied,
"Before the celebration of our divine Redeemer's birth, my
lord." He said she ought to be very thankful that she was
called so soon. From this time every thing is done to hurry
her to the tomb, nothing to manifest love, or make life desir
able. Her case-is not exceptional.
This is Romanism. No sympathy with the suffering or the sorrowful, but austerity, penances, and a martyr's death. Let this illustrate the process. She is to take the black veil. In stead of placing her in a coffin, as is usually the case. Sister Magdalene retired to her couch. The religieuses walked to the room in procession. Sister St. Clair held a wax taper blazing at her feet, and the superior knelt at her head with the vows, which were copied on a half-sheet of paper. The bishop then came in with both sacraments, all of the nuna prostrating as he passed. After putting the tabernacle upon the little altar which had been placed there for that purpose, he read from a book a great many prayers, all responding. He asked her a number of questions about renouncing the world, which she answered. The superior gave her the vows; and after pro nouncing them she was anointed, Sister St. Clair laying bare her neck and feet, which the bishop crossed with* holy oil, at the same time repeating Latin. He then gave her the eiaficum, and ended the ceremony as he commenced, with saying mass, and passed out, all prostrating. But as she did not die as soon as was expected, her penances were not remitted, but increased. No one preached Christ to her. Without a Bible, without religious instruction, she tried to find peace by tortur ing her body, and would frequently prostrate herself all night in the cold infirmary, saying her rosary, and other penances, one or two of which deserve mention. She wore next her heart a metallic plate, in imitation of a crown of thorns, from which she suffered a sort of martyrdom. Another penance was reclining upon a mattress more like a table than a bed. The bishop called one day, and asked her if she felt prepared to die. She replied, "Yes, my lord, but with the permission of our mother, I have one request to make." "Say on." She ex pressed a desire to be anointed before death. "On one con dition--that you will implore the Almighty to send down from heaven a bushel of gold, for the purpose of establishing a col lege for young men on Bunker Hill." He said he had bought the land for that use, and that all the sisters who had died had promised to present his request, but had not fulfilled their obligations; and says he, "You must shake hands with all the

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sisters who have gone, and be sure and ask them why they have not fulfilled their promise, for I have waited long enough; and continue to chant your office while here on earth, which is the sweet communion of saints." She gave her pledge, and kissed his feet. (Six Months in Convent, p. 128).

The Death Scene.
It was recreation hour, but Mary Magdalene was at work in the refectory. She had burned her treasures that she might escape purgatory. (The same, p. 125). When she came to the community she appeared like a person in spasms; she tried to say "Ave Maria," and fainted. All were alarmed, but no one could go to her assistance. "When I retired," said Miss Eeed, "I felt much hurt to see Mary Magdalene in the cold infirmary, but did not dare to express my feelings. Next day the superior, mother assistant, and Mrs. Mary Benedict made a short visit to Mary Magdalene, and on returning they told us she was better. . . . The next day I had an opportunity of looking at Mary Magdalene. Her eyes were partly open, and her face very purple; she lay pretty still. I did not dare to speak to her, supposing she would think it a duty to tell of it, as it would be an infraction of the rules. The next night I lay thinking of her, when I was suddenly startled, hearing a rat tling noise, as I thought, in her throat. Very soon Sister Martha (the sick lay nun) arose, and, coming to her, said 'Jesus! Mary! Joseph! receive her soul,' and rang the bell
three times. The spirit of the gentle Magdalene had departed. Sister Martha had whispered to us to rise, and the superior, observing my agitation, said, 'Be calm, and join with us in prayer; she is a happy soul.' I knelt accordingly, repeating the Litany until the clock struck two, when we all assembled in the choir, in which was a fire and wax tapers burning. After meditations, matins, lauds, and prayers, and a novena (a particular supplication that our requests might be granted), we assembled for diet, and for the first time we had some toasted bread. We also had recreation granted in the time of silence. The superior sent for us, and instructed us how to appear at the burial of Sister Mary Magdalene, and accom panied us to view tne corpse. She was laid out in the habit of a professed nun. in a black vett; her hands were tied together, and her vows placed in them. The superior remarked that this was done by the bishop's request. At the evening recrea tion the bishop appeared in high spirits, and rejoiced that so happy a soul had at last arrived in heaven; and commenced the 'Dies Iras' on the pianoforte, accompanied by the voices of the others. He told me I should have Miss Mary Magdalene

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for my intercessor, for she was to be canonizecr. The mother superior permitted me to embrace the sisters, and gave me the mother assistant for my mother. She then presented us with the relics of saints, that, by their means, we might gain in dulgences. She mentioned a 'retreat' as being necessary for our perseverance in a religious life,"

The Funeral of a Sister.
The second day after, the coffin was placed in the choir, and the funeral services were performed. A priest sang the office, while the bishop chanted it. Another priest officiated at the altar. Four or five of the altar-boys were present, and dressed in altar-robes; two of them held wax tapers, a third holy water, a fourth a crucifix. One swung incense in the censer over the corpse, and another at the same time sprinkled holy water upon it. The remainder sang the 'Dies Irse.' The corpse had swollen, and was too large for the coffin. No mat ter. The lid was put on and forced down by two Irishmen, who carried it to the tomb. The bishop and others followed, singing, and carrying lighted tapers and a large crucifix. After depositing, the coffin in the tomb, the clergy returned to dinner, and gave themselves to the pleasures of the feast. The sisters were permitted to hear the clergy converse. The next evening the bishop came, and with song and jest attempted to chase away the thought of death. In the confessional he asked questions deemed by Miss Reed improper. This, with her dis like of the cruelty of the superior and scenes witnessed in the convent, caused her to flee. She pushed out. through the gate, over a fence, falling from which she bruised herself, made her way to a house, and thanked God for freedom. While at the house, finding a looking-glass, she was surprised and fright ened at her pale and emaciated appearance.
Her escape flew like the wind. It revived recollections of dark deeds that had been 'enacted in the convent in the past, and of a despotism that needed only to be known to be ab horred. The question began to force itself upon public atten tion, Why should Roman Catholics build and endow monastic institutions for educating Protestant children? Many influential citizens were proposing to abandon all Pro testant schools, and send their children to be educated in Roman Catholic cloisters, when this story arrested attention, and opened eyes to the peril confronting youth. Romanists knew that the truth told about such institutions would destroy them. The superior and the bishop testified that the property cost them sixty thousand dollars. It was easy to see that it was not built for the ten

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women who had taken on them the vow of poverty. It was
built as a seminary for the education of the daughters of
Protestants. This was proved by the public advertisements of
the superior, and the agencies established in New Orleans and
other cities, to procure Protestant pupils for the Charlestown
nunnery. If it was a mere school it had no claim to sanctity,
and should be open to examination like the schools of Protes
tants. If it was a religious institution, designed to make con verts to Romanism, then let it be so declared. It was so de clared. When it came to be known that the convent was a secret institution, and that no adult Protestant was permitted to visit any of its apartments except a common parlor; that it was wholly foreign, having been founded in 1820 by two for eigners, who imported four Ursuline foreigners of doubtful reputation for that purpose, and in 1826 and 1827 built the nunnery, out of foreign money; that the nunnery was under the management of a foreigner, directed by the spiritual subr jects of a foreign potentate, the Pope, who could appoint or remove the agencies at his pleasure; an institution managed with an air of mystery and concealment, pushed into the midst of a decidedly Protestant people, pretendedly tor the purpose of educating young ladies in a community distinguished above all others for its liberal advantages--can it be thought strange that such an institution became an object of dread by those who remembered the words of Washington, who said, ''against the insidious wiles of FOREIGN INFLUENCE, the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake?''' (William Hogan's charge in Popish Nunneries.)
Miss Josephine M. Bunkley. the escaped novice, ten years later tells of the morals of St. Joseph's, in Maryland. This is her language: "Infractions of moral duty and departures from rectitude are the legitimate consequences of the system from which they spring, and whatever errors are committed by the sisters are justly chargeable to the reverend guides who teach them that it is not a mortal sin for a religieuse to yield to the solicitation of the priest." The story of Miss Bunkley does not differ from the stories of Maria Monk or Miss Eeed. She says, "My recollections of my novitiate at St. Joseph's will ever be associated with a feeling of contempt and abhor rence for these men, who use their advantage of rank and position to the basest ends; and with deep thankfulness for my escape -from their insidious snares. It was a contemplation of the peril to which I was exposed that first suggested the idea of escape. I could have borne toil, privation, and bodily mal treatment, as the consequence of my own rashness and illadvised impetuosity; but the future wore too dark and

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rible an aspect, that I should resign myself to its horrors." (Miss Bunkley, p. 143). "A priest who had been engaged in exercising his pastoral functions at St. Joseph's was about to depart. All the sisters went to the room singly to receive the benediction. When my turn came, I went in, with down cast
eyes and clasped hands as required, and knelt to receive the expected benediction. But instead of the pressure of the hand upon my head. I felt the impression of a kiss upon my forehead. Startled and confused by a salutation so unexpected and inappropriate, I staggered to my feet, and ejaculated, almost unconsciously, the words. 'O Father!' But before I could recover my composure, seizing my wrist with his left hand, and encircling my waist with his right arm, he drew me
toward him, and impnnted several kisses on my face before I was able to break from his revolting embrace. Yet I was com
pelled, from prudential fears of the consequences, to be silent respecting this insulting treatment. What could I do? To whom could I go for redress and protection? If I had gone
to the superior, I would have been denounced as a base caluminator of the holy Father, and punished for the offence. To fly was my only hope." (The same, p. 144).

Mount Benedict Was in Bad Repute.
Before the convent had been removed to Charlestown, not a little scandal had fallen upon it, in public estimation, by the reported conduct of a priest and a nun. * * *
Under the shelter of this infamous theory, the priest and nun lived together in the nunnery. A child was born. Such conduct was condemned. The priest went back to Europe. After this came the flight of Miss Reed in 1832. In 1834 Miss Harrison, the mother assistant, the second trustee and owner of the property on Mount Benedict, fled because there were transactions within its walls totally inconsistent with personal freedom. Finally, being over-persuaded by the bishop, and being assured that, if she desired it, she could depart in two or three weeks, and being urged by her relatives, she returned to the convent. On Wednesday, July 30, the day after her return, four Protestant friends of Miss Harrison, who had kindly protected and sheltered her, called at the convent, and desired to see her. They were all refused, and the reason as signed by the superior and bishop for this denial was that Miss Harrison was insane.
This was the first hint or suspicion of insanity that had arisen from any quarter. Here was a great surprise. The people were not convinced. On the eve of the 9th of August, a Mr. Fitch Cutler and brother called at the convent to see

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Miss Harrison, in order that they might be able to disabuse the public mind respecting her insanity. On being informed of the object, the superior replied, "No, you shan't see her; I'll not gratify you so much. You may bring on your mob as soon as you please. Yes, Mr. Cutler, you have applied to the select men for a mob to tear down our buildings. But there will be a retaliation. The bishop has twenty thousand of the vilest Irishmen at his command, and there will be retaliation. You will have your houses torn down over your heads; and you may read your Riot Act until your throats are sore, but you'll not quell them."
Then Came the Question: Can a Convent
be made into a prison ? Public feeling was aroused. The right of search was insisted on, and was denied by the superior and the bishop. They believed themselves master of the situation, and thought no danger could come to them. They were mis taken. On the llth of August, 1834, a mob gathered, deter mining to see whether the lady superior and the bishop of Boston could set at defiance the American sentiment demand ing the right of search in a so-called religious institution, which they claimed was being used as a prison in which the innocent were incarcerated. They came in their might. The children and the nuns were invited to retire. The cry arose, "A sick nun is confined to her room." The committee went from room to room. Even the lady superior declared all were out, and then they gave the Romish nest up to the flames.

The Howl Arose Against Mob Violence.
The Charlestown mob was characterized as a deliberate, systematized piece of brutality, without a parallel in history. American newspapers filled their pages with these perversions of the truth. "No parallel in history to the burning down of a large brick building by one hundred and fifty men, who first took particular care to see that every one of its inmates had been driven from it? The writer of this hperbole could never have read Catholic history. Look at Mexico, where Cortez roasted Guatemozin by a slow fire to make him confess where the gold was hid, and where a hundred thousand were butch ered by a man zealous for the Roman Catholic religion. His tory tells of the murder of thirty thousand Protestants by order of Catherine de Medicis of France, who pretended to grant the Huguenots an advantageous peace, and, to cement it. proposed a marriage of her daughter to Henry, the young king of Navarre, a Protestant. The heads of the Protestants were all invited to the palace to attend the wedding on St. Barthol-

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omew's Day; and in the midst of the festivities the great bell
of the palace struck, the concerted signal for the butchery of
all Protestant guests. No warnings were given, no oportuni-
ties to escape were offered; but Admiral Coligni, the guest of Charles IX. the king, was killed in the palace, his head was severed from his body, every indignity was heaped upon the body, and at last, while hanging feet upward until the bloated carcass, festering and rotting, filled the air with the poisonous effluvia, Charles IX. and his mother rode beneath it, and ex claimed, l T<he smell of a rotting Protestant is good.' No paral lel in history! Look at Spain putting to death two millions of her children. In 1835 the people of Lisbon, having thrown off the rule of Don Miguel, took it into their heads that the monks had poisoned their wells; and they went and demol ished their monasteries and slew the monks. On the 3d and 4th of July, 1835, a riot occurred at Saragossa, Spain, which threw the whole city into commotion. The archbishop had issued an interdict against a monk for some crime. He gath ered a mob, tried to assassinate the archbishop, but. failing in this, attacked the priests, slew twelve of them, with the brother of the archbishop. This in Catholic Spain!" (Intro duction to Six Months in Convent, pp. 23-36).
Because this institution, in which infamies were practised,
had been burned down, the City Council of Boston appointed a committee, the Legislature appointed another, and all went to work, not to find out what Rome had done or was doing, but to poultice the wound given to her pride, and to show to all the world that Romanism was safe in Boston. Remember, the Vicar-General, the Right Rev. Frederic Reze, D. D.. of Detroit, himself a foreigner, a subject of Rome, and an agent of Austria (for at that time Austria was the right hand of the Papacy, and the Society for the Suppression of Chris tianity found its headquarters there), this man wrote. "We shall see the truth triumph, the temple of idols overthrown, the seat of falsehood brought to silence, and all the United States embraced in the same unity of that Catholic Church wherein dwells truth and temporal happiness." (Supplement to Six Months in a Convent, p. 11).
Another Catholic in the Middle States said, "Within thirty years the Protestant heresy in the United States will come to an end. If we can secure the West and South, we will take care of New England."
Well, Rome is taking care of New England now. and Pro testants are holding the stirrup of the saddle for Romanists to mount to power in New England. In every great paper are Roman Catholics holding positions on the staff, and this may

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be said of them: Some of them show less bigotry and more liberality than do some of the nominal Christians who hold
places of trust on the same paper. A Roman Catholic mayor was elevated to the place of trust, and received Protestant sup
port, though he championed Romanism. In 1834 it was openly declared that it was "through the system of cloister education that the Propaganda of Rome and the Leopold foundation in Austria look to see the Protestant heresy in the United States come to an end in thirty years." Is the prophecy being ful filled?
Nothing equal in atrocity to burning down a brick build ing ! The Bastille in Paris was crowded with citizens promised protection, all of whom were betrayed and massacred. Among the utterances sent to Europe was the charge of Judge Peter Oxenbridge Thatcher, in which he used this language, "Such a scene of popular madness and culpable official neglect can hardly find a parallel in the period of the French Revolu tion."
Among the thousand frightful scenes of that revolution, let one suffice as a tolerable parallel in atrocity to the burning down of an empty brick building. It was on the night of the 6th of October. A vast multitude of women, and of men dressed as women, surrounded the palace. They howled for the blood of the queen. They rushed into the palace. They seized two of the life-guards, and in a bungling way severed their heads from their bodies with a dull axe. The ruffians, reeking with the blood of the sentinels, whom they had left for dead on the stairs, rushed into the queen's chamber, with threats too horrid to be recited, and with their bayonets pierced the bed, whence the persecuted queen had just fled almost naked, starting at the sound of the pistols, and crying to the guards, "O my friends, save my life! save my children!" The attendants ran to the children's apartments, and brought them away half naked, to place them under the protection, of the king. Finally the king and his family were obliged to set out for Paris, in the custody of the mob. Two gentlemen were selected from the king's body-guard, and beheaded in the court of his palace. Their heads were stuck upon spears, and led the procession, whilst the royal captives followed in the train, and were compelled to witness this spectacle in a slow march. This is history. And yet it stood uncontradicted in the daily papers of Boston.
It was at this time the "Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk" appeared. No one championed her cause. She was left to utter her cry and disappear. Her story is terrible. It is un contradicted. She opened the Black Nunnery to the gaze of

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mankind. Her picture of. what occurred after taking the black veil horrified the world.

The Truth is Denied.
"An answer to 'Six Months in a Convent.' exposing its Falsehoods and Manifold Absurdities," was signed by the lady superior, and published. It simply denies. It does not refute a single statement. She denies what Miss Reed wrote in a lump, and then charges at particulars. Page after page is referred to with' a statement like this: "I .can only say that I am deceived as to the degree of intelligence her readers possess, if it is believed." In this condescending tone the pretended reply is written. In vain. "Six Months in a Convent" pre pared the way for the "Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk," which were corroborated and sustained by the "Mysteries of Neapolitan Convents," by the story of Miss Bunkley. Miss O'Gorman, Father Chiniquy, and multitudes besides. Maria Monk was not an impudent impostor, but a truthful woman, and the story she told deserves a resurrection. Mrs. St. John Eckel, her daughter and the daughter of a lecherous priest, carried into life the spirit of her father, and brought shame and sorrow upon a noble name. But her life confirms, rather than disproves, her mother's story. The light of the burning convent shed its glare upon the world. It opened the eyes of the people to the foe intrenching himself behind the barri cades of liberty, threatening the nation's peace and prosperity, opposing liberty of opinion, and deriding the liberty of con science. The book did good. Its work is not ended.

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CHAPTER X.
ARE ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIESTS IMPROVING ix CHARACTER?
IT was the dream of many in the past, that an American Catholic Church would be the result of Romanists coming in contact with the life of the New World. Our schools and col leges, it was thought, would exert a liberalizing influence upon the Roman Catholics who should obtain in them an education. Rome saw it before Americans realized the entire truth, and headed against it with desperate energy. Our public schools were fought. The education of Roman Catholic youth in our American institutions of learning became an exception rather than a rule. The parochial school was established for the younger portion, and the American College in Rome was pro vided for those who desired advanced training. Every thing in the power of Rome to separate her youth from ours has been attempted, and with signal success. Rome holds her own despite the life of the Republic. The Roman Catholic schools and colleges are of an inferior grade; which is much. They are anti-American from centre to circumference, from bottom to top, which is more. They do not want their people to be Americanized. Rome is a government within a govern ment, a despotism seeking to obtain despotic power in the very heart of a republic. A man educated for the priesthood is detached from family, separated from home ties and associa tions, and is taught to believe that growth in grace comes from torturing the body, and separating himself from those as sociations which brighten the. path and cheer the hearts of the young men and women given to Christ and a religious life. From morning till night they speak of the necessity of mortifying the flesh, of taming the body, of destroying the "old Adam," the "old man." Such is the foundation of all the Catholic virtues; such is their doctrine, received from and taught by Manes, the most romantic of all the impostors, which degrades man below beasts, or elevates him, sometimes, above humanity. It is because Romanists are carried into the dark ness of papal night, that they remain in darkness. Educa tion makes them what they are, and what they seem. Fastings, bad food, mortifications, long meditations in the morning, at noon, and evening; confession of sin every week, and much oftener; habits of a slavish submission to the most ludicrous practices; the study of a ridiculous theology; the idea which those ignorant young men receive of God, of his severity, or rather cruelty, of the duties of a priest, of his eternal chastity, the hardness of discipline; all that, and many

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other practices which no one desires to recall, is so well mixed,
directed, managed, that the pupils become as a rule stupid,
fanatic, slavish, and quite like clay in the hands of the potter.
Not one book is allowed to be read but theology and the works
of a blind piety. Every discussion against popery is so severely forbidden, that he who reads any, incurs excom munication, "ipso facto;" therefore the students are unaware of the doctrines of other religions, and of the charges which they lay against popery, save that the teachers repeat that the followers of other churches are damned because they shut their eyes to the light, and they remain out of the pale of the Church. Ignorant of the great throbbing world, and of its needs, thinking only of itself, Komanism builds on a de praved, not upon a renewed nature. In such a faith there is a charm for an ungodly man or woman. They have a form of godliness, while they deny the power thereof.
A priest does not profess to be a renewed man. Entering
a car, a priest sat alone in his seat, and I sat down beside him. He took out his Latin Prayer-book, and began reciting words in the usual way. I asked him, "Have you a Bible?" "Xot with me."" "Why do you not carry a Bible instead of that Latin book?" He replied, "We are compelled to say so many prayers; we are not commanded to read the Bible." "Don't you think God infinitely wise?" "Yes." "Well, then, why do
you not read His Word, and make it the lamp to your feet, and the light to your path?" He frankly said he was not inter ested in it. Then I said, "Tell me your experience; were you ever converted?" He did not understand the question. I told him my own experience; he became interested; then open ing my Bible, I showed him what promises blessed my life. All day we talked. At night he said. "I never heard of this life before, and never traversed these paths." The Bible was to him an unknown book. He had never explored its mines of wealth, nor revelled in its beauties, nor drank from its
streams of joy. As a result he was without the love of Christ, which is the mainspring of action in the redeemed. He chose
the work and life of a priest for reasons entirely removed and
apart from those experiences which control the students in our theological seminaries.
As a rule, priests come from the ranks of the humble. They desire heaven. They view a religious life, not as a con dition of enjoyment, but of sncrifice. The joy of the Lord is not their strength, but rather the misery of the body and the agony and unrest of mind. We wonder how they can be up at early masses, because we forget their training. The parents glory in the distinction of having a child become a priest, and
UP

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stand in the place of God, create the Lord Jesus Christ in the
wafer, pardon sins, say masses for the living and the dead,
grant indulgences, and perform services incident to the office.
The boy leaves home, goes to school, and graduates. He
enters the so-called theological school. There he comes in
contact with others like himself. There is no knowledge of
God communicated. Nothing is said of a soul's needs, of its
peril without Christ. No prayer meetings are held, where
heart touches heart, where experiences light up the path, and
appeals come to the soul. Instead is the monotony of forms and ceremonies. We wonder at the seclusion of the priest. We will wonder less when we see how priests are brought up to be a part of the machine with their manhood destroyed. Enter a school for priests. Behold a company of young men who at the outset believed they were to secure the salvation of their souls, not by exercising a faith in Christ's atoning blood, not by a consecration of life to the proclamation of the truth, but by submitting to torture, to self-denial, to fasting, to wakefulness. He enters the institution. Impenetrable silence is the rule. Mystery enshrouds every thing. He takes the vows of celibacy, obedience, and poverty, and in due time learns to break them all. He begins his life. Let us go through a day. All arise at 1:30 a. m., and assemble in the choir to sing Latin canticles known as matins. These are chanted in a low and monotonous tone for one hour and a quarter. After fifteen minutes silent meditation on some pious subject, they again retire, and meet at six o'clock in the chapel. Two masses are read, and further meditations are indulged in, requiring altogether one and a half hours. The rooms are now put in order. Then breakfast is announced. Twelve minutes are now allowed for this meal, which is eaten standing, and consists of dry bread and one cup oi coffee. From 8:15 to 9, he engages in reading in the room. During the next three-quarters of an hour they perform the necessary household work; then examination of conscience, one quarter hour. At 10, study and recitation one hour. At 11, all gather in the choir, and devote one hour to Latin prayers. During the half-hour allowed for dinner, a spiritual book is read aloud. At 12:30, recreation and rest in room two hours. At 2:30, vespers in choir onehalf hour. The windows are now darkened, and all sit in silent meditation one hour. Now the rosary is said; this con sists of the Creed, six repetitions of the Lord's Prayer, fiftythree Hail Marys, and as many pious ejaculations. At 4:15, spiritual readings in rooms one-half hour, then one hour's study. At 5:45, each goes to arrange his room. At 6, recrea tion one-half hour. At 6:30, chanting in choir one-half hour.

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From 7 to 8:45, supper and recreation. The day closes with another rosary. On Sunday the studies are omitted, and on that day and on Thursday the time after vespers is given to recreation. We have here six and three-quarter hours occupied by devotions, so called, which consist solely in the repetition of words. Of the two hours assigned to study, one is oc cupied with Latin grammar, the other is passed in translating into English a few Latin verses of Scripture daily selected for them. Their knowledge of Latin is, of course, extremely lim ited, and the Bible in that tongue is almost a sealed book. The institution has a good library; but no novice has access to it, for, as a priest puts it, "Many books should be read only by
those who understand them." How one is to understand them without reading them, passes comprehension. How can they understand it except they read it? "Don't know," replies the so-called infallible teacher, "but don't forget the command." Besides, those who can read can spend but little time in the library. By the time one is interested, the bell calls to the choir, the chapel, or to other duties. The Bible in the common tongue, history, fiction, and newspapers of every description are rigidly excluded. The novice is absolutely confined to his spiritual reading--a few purely devotional books, mainly the lives of saints. To these are devoted, including the noon, about
one and three-quarter hours daily.
Let us open the biography of "St. Paul of the Cross," an Italian monk of the last century, and founder of the Passionist Order. After describing on p. 225, Paul's delights in early youth, such as long prayers, fasting, sleeping on the bare floor, scourging himself to blood, drinking gall, etc., we are told on p. 227, in Gaeta there is preserved a belt of iron set with points, three or four inches wide; and a discipline of cords with seven thongs, each of which has at the end a ball of lead with six iron points round it all stained with blood.
In his cell at the Ketreat of Vetralla may be seen a cross set with a hundred and eighty-six iron points, which he used to wear on his naked breast. Elsewhere were found a heart of iron, full of sharp points, a ball set with longer points, and several disciplines prepared in a similar way. All these in struments were stained with blood pressed out of his body.
Of the saint's voluntary poverty we read on p. 230: "It was really edifying to see him oftentimes leave his place in the refectory, go round the table, and humbly ask of the religious who were seated at it, a little bread for charity; and this he ate modestly, kneeling on the floor by the door."
In a long chapter entitled, "His most unsullied Purity," Paul himself says (p. 234), "I had rather have my eyes

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plucked out by the hangman than fix them on the face of a
person of the other sex." On p. 236, "Our Lord was pleased
to recompense the spotless purity of His servant by a sweet
fragrance which came from his virginal body. In the Re
treat of Tascanella his room preserved this heavenly fra grance for about six months." Surely that was the odor of sanctity.
Page 222 informs the reader that often the saint's room
was filled with devils, who woke him in terror by their hisses and other horrible noises, as if there were discharged several pieces of artillery. Sometimes they violently pulled off his bedclothes, sometimes walked over his bed in the form of cats, often appeared like enormous dogs, or hateful-looking birds, or as enormous giants, tormenting and vexing him for the defeats they underwent from him. On p. 249 a miracle is described: "In the city of Handi a hen is preserved be cause of a miracle recorded by a witness on his oath. He was stopping in that city, at the house of Senor Gaffredi. His very kind benefactors, wishing to treat the servant of God with due respect, sent out and bought a hen for his dinner. When St. Paul saw it on the table, he said to the lady of the
house, 'You have done wrong to kill that poor animal, be cause, with her eggs, she was the support of the poor woman to whom she belonged. Let us do an act of charity. Open that window.' The window is opened. He now blesses the animal, already cooked as she was, in the name of the Trinity. He had hardly pronounced the words, when the hen returned to life, was covered with feathers, took wing, and went scream
ing through the window, to the house of the poor widow from whom she had been stolen by the man who sold her." A hen already cooked, restored to life, re-feathered, flying home, and beginning to lay eggs for her owner, is a first-class miracle. The feat was performed by a saint, recorded by an eye-witness, and sworn to by a Romish oath, which settles the question of its reliability. This St. Paul, Pio Nono, on June 29, 1867, indorsed, and declared to be a saint to be in voked and prayed to by the whole Catholic world. In this school the Bible is banished as an unsafe book to read, and such fables as have been described are given the novices being trained as the leaders of the Roman Catholic host. They will not endure strong doctrines. They turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. (2 Tim. 3, 4). Not only do the priests study these biographies, but they form the choice literature of Roman Catholics.
Are men thus educated fitted for the responsibilities of our American life? Why is such education given? There is

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method in this madness. By means such as these, every
vestige of common sense is carefully eradicated, every spark
of independence or feeling of manhood is completely ex tinguished. Rome believes that ignorance is the mother of devotion. This training was not given in France, nor in Ireland, but in Allegheny City, Penn. It is not a sketch drawn from the past, but from the living present. Its design, end, and aim is to make in America, Roman Catholic priests
as bigoted, as superstitious, as fanatical, as were those who groped in the dark ages. The purpose is not to lift up, but to drag down. Their breviary is their Bible, their God the Pope. His voice they hear, his commands they obey.
Rev. F. J. McCarthy, S. J., in December, 1887. in a lecture at the Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Boston, pro nounces the American public school system a, national fraud. The Father that does not defend the children of the Church antagonizes the interests of every child in the State. Why? Because of his education. What will American Romanists do about it? Well has a Roman Catholic said:
"You say the common school system is a national fraud, that it is contrary to the common weal, that it is against the interests of the citizen, and cannot be a national institution any longer; it must cease to exist, and the day will come when it will cease to exist." Do you call a system of education that places the poor man's child and the rich man's child side by side in the schoolroom, with the same books, with the same teacher for instructor, and starts them equally on the path to knowledge, a fraud, and contrary to the common weal? Do you pronounce the law a fraud, and against the interest of the citizen, that compels the children of the ignorant, the children of the vile and degraded, who care nothing for edu cation or law, to go to school where they can learn knowledge and purity, and aspire to the highest honors in the State? And do you pray for the time when such benign laws and beneficent institutions shall cease to exist ?
"Allow me to tell you, reverend sir, that when they do cease to exist, the free institutions of this country will cease to exist, for the public schools are the palladium of our free institutions. You declare there are some eight millions of Catholics in this country now who protest against this in stitution. I deny it. Take away the fear and thunder of the clergy, and you will not find a Catholic--a citizen of these United States who is interested in education--protesting against this institution. I admit there are some recent im portations of Catholics who would like to Germanize, Irishize, and whiskeyize America. Go down into the Catholic rum-

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shops, and drag those lazy, drunken, villainous rumsellers from behind their counters, and make them stop selling their vile, poisonous liquor, and you will stop three-quarters of the poverty and wretchedness and crime in your cities, and you will then be able to gather the children of your parish into the Sunday schools.
"No, Father McCarthy, your fears are groundless. Leave the public schools alone. Let this munificent institution be your devotion by day and your prayers by night. Love and cherish it, and exhort your people to make the most of its
advantages. It has been a great blessing to the Catholics and to the country, and extends its liberal and beneficent aid to all. It stands a bulwark between the State and the evils of the Irish rumseller and the German beer-garden. Today how many Catholics in Boston bless the public schools for the in fluence they lent in advancing their children to places of wealth and honor!" (S. Rogers, Pembroke, Me., Dec. 27,
1887).
As a writer in "The Journal of Education," Boston, Mass., in January, 1888, said, "Methods must be determined by the logic of events: by some means to be developed by circum stances they will establish as great American principles, (1) that it is un-American for any class to be exclusive in their education; (2) that it is ruinous to the individuals of any faith that establishes class distinction in American society; (3) that the common school system is largely responsible for making America what she is; (4) that it was our universal education as contrasted with very general home ignorance, that first attracted many of her people to our shores; (5) that they owe more to our schools than to any thing else in this country; (6) that Rome has never furnished universal education in any country; (7) that there is no ground for suspicion that she would so furnish it in America if it were not for the purpose of withdrawing the children from the common schools; (8) that America is jealous-of the common school idea, and will resent any movement that would de throne it; (9) that it is not the voice of the American
Romanists, who have been, and still are, loyal to the system at heart."
Lastly and chiefly, America objects to this attack upon her common school system, because it comes from Rome.
Men wonder that such a church prospers. Wonder no more. The foundations of its success are laid not in a redeemed nature, but in human nature, and carnal at that. The work of salvation is taken out of God's hands, and put into the hands of men who, outside of their vestments, are

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like other men, touched with a feeling of the infirmities of others, because they have them. They are not like our Christ, tempted in all points like as we are. yet without sin, but tempted, yet with sin. A drunkard sees at the altar a man who drinks, who gives way to appetite, who lives a life of sensual delight. The sinner who cannot go to God through Christ without repentance and without making the attempt to break off his sins by righteousness, can go to him and confess and cling to sin, and go on and out from the con fessional box as if the play was real. As if that man at the altar was God, and as if the man taking the wafer-God and eating it was redeemed by what was done outside, not by what is done within by the cleansing of the blood and the washing of the soul.

The Priesthood is on a Par With the People.
The people in Rome here are like the people in Rome, in Ireland, in Europe, anywhere. They tolerate wrong-doing as it could not and would not be tolerated in any evangelical church. Let a breath of scandal touch an evangelical min ister, and he is set aside and silenced until the stain is removed. In Romanist circles this is not the rule. Take the case of
Rev. Florence McCarthy.
He was pastor for many years of St. Cecilia. a large, fashionable Roman Catholic church, situated on Xorth Henry and Herbert streets, Brooklyn, X. Y. His organist came to his room to inquire about some tickets. A little boy was with her. The priest tells the boy to stay down-stairs, and invites the organist to his parlor, near which is his study and sleeping room. The door is closed. Without warning he leaps upon her like a beast, attempts to bear her down upon the sofa and commit an assault. She shrieks for help, and gets away from him. Her hair is disturbed, her bonnet is awry and one-sided, her face is flushed, and she passes by the servant into the street, after the Father begs of her to say nothing about it, and offers her a brush and comb to make herself presentable. Does that ruin him, even in her estima tion? She goes on and plays. By and by, months after wards, she tells her parents as an excuse for not going to confession. There is a scene in St. Cecilia. The irate Irish mother rises in a crowded service, and denounces the priest, saying, "You hare insulted my daughter.' Meddle with her again-, and / 'trill xtioot you!'' The father leaps upon his feet,

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and shakes his fist at him. Both are arrested for disturbing a service. The priest is master. Does such notoriety do him harm? Not at all. The services are just as crowded. The priest laughs at the opposition, says the organist had been dis missed, when, in fact, she gave up the keys because of the insults she received and the fear she endured. She carried the case to the bishop. Nothing was done. Did it make the man more careful? Not at all. He drank as deeply, and in a little time called up to him a girl whom he took out of an orphan asylum when twelve years of age, brought to his priest's house, where he assaulted her as a girl, and without doubt did as he chose after it, and, in a short time after the assault upon the organist, accomplished an assault upon his servant, then eighteen years of age, again and again, until one day. in his drunken wildness, he struck her and knocked her against an ice-chest, when she ran out into the yard, climbed over the fence, and made her escape. When she, too, went to Bishop Laughlin, the man of power in the town, he expressed his disapprobation at the conduct of Priest Mc Carthy, said these complaints were constantly coming to him, and yet, in compliance with his Jesuit oath, furnished the priest the best lawyer money could procure, and stood by him as if innocence was being betrayed. The poor girl was ac cused of stealing, and sent to jail. No one went on her bail bond; while the priest, who had been sent to the lock-up, was bailed out at once. The trial came on. The girl told her story. The priest denied it, doubtless with a mental reservation, say ing doubtless to himself, "I deny it, though it is true; I deny it to others in word, though I admit it to myself as a fact," which St. Liguori allows him to do. The case is adjourned. Arrested as a thief, the poor girl tells her story, and is ac quitted. The case of assault comes on. At length, because she did not scream while he held a hand over her mouth, or scratch the adulterer's face, the court decided against her. This is
Justice Naeher's Decision.
He said the only question for the court to decide was whether there was probable cause to believe that the alleged crime was committed- by the defendant. While Kate Dixon's account of the transaction was very minute, and she declared that she made resistance, yet the law required that there should be the utmost resistance on the part of the person thus as saulted. She declared that she was dragged by force from the parlor into the bedroom, and yet during this alleged violence she did not scream aloud. The court said it could

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not believe it was impossible for the prosecutrix to free her
hands from the grasp of the defendant, and make use of them, as the law requires. According to the evidence, there was not a mark of violence either on the prosecutrix or the de fendant after the alleged assault. The court then went into details regarding the assault * * * that the complainant had not used all the means in her power to protect her honor. Her statement, said Justice Xaeher, that the defendant made her take an oath not to reveal the crime, might account for her not revealing it immediately, in consequence of her religious fear. She was not affected thereby at the time of the alleged commission of the crime.
The opinion of this court is that a girl outraged as the com plainant declares she was would have shown some excitement in her bearing or speech so shortly after the perpetration of the crime upon her.. Upon these grounds the court finds that the crime has not been committed*, and that there is not prob able cause to believe defendant guilty. TJie complaint is here by dismissed, and the prisoner discharged.
Notice, not a word is said in condemnation of the lecherous priest, not a word disapproving the act, but only that the girl yielded too readily. This occurred in Brooklyn. X. Y., and the trial took place July 9, 1883. Was the priest set aside? By no means. He went on with his duties as priest, and in January, 1884, was tried for his assault upon his organist, and the jury unanimously convicted him, and he was fined six cents. This shows that the standard is extremely low for the Roman Catholic Church in public estimation, and evi dences that here, as in the Old World, priests are indifferent to public opinion. The paper that champions Romanism, and is its swift apologist, was compelled to enter its protest against this conduct of bishop and priest, and say, "Is it creditable that two Roman Catholic young women should separately charge this priest with the same offence, which was alleged to have been successful in the case of the servant, but only at tempted in that of the organist* What could induce these young women to swear away their characters if he was in nocent?" This is not new in Romish circles. In Spain, in France, in Mexico--wherever the opportunity has been given, the brutality of the priesthood has brought forth a mighty cloud of witnesses against them.
"The remarkable thing to the public has been that the bishop has made no sign, and that, with a criminal charge against him, <he has suffered the priest to administer the sacra ments, and continue to receive young -women as penitents at confession. It is now impossible for his ecclesiastical superior

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to avoid taking action. A jury of twelve citizens of Brooklyn
have found him guilty of a criminal assault. It is an affront
to the whole Catholic population." Not a bit of it. The
Catholic population made no sign. The priest continued to
minister at the altar, until other offences combined to drive
him forth to pastures new. Another priest, riding with a
harlot, falls-from his carriage because of intoxication, is ar rested, carried to the station-house, and sent to his church.
It was such facts as these, spread upon the printed page day
after day. that demanded that some one with a character un
stained and a reputation unsullied should permit the wrongs
of a poor nun, compelled to flee for her life and the life of her
child from the Black Nunnery of Montreal to the alms-house,
New York; the statement of a priest, who, revolting against
the iniquities he saw and shared, gave up position and liveli
hood for honor; the wail of the poor, helpless women and
girls outraged in the confessionals, and rising up to God, and
crying aloud for deliverance from the terrible cruelty and
barbarities of the priesthood--to find voice in human speech
as he should take these terrible truths, forge them into a livid
thunderbolt, and, standing across the track of Rome, should hurl it with might and main into the face of that power that has beggared and degraded Europe, and that seeks to despoil America of her birthright, and leave the proud inheritance of our fathers to become the play and the sport of these enemies of liberty.
In marriage there is a remedy for these evils. A good wife in the St. Cecilia parish would have furnished protection to servant and organist. Besides, a priest needs the companion ship of an ennobling helpmeet, whose brain is cultured, whose heart is filled with love, to brighten and bless his life. What saith the Word of God ? "Let a bishop be the husband of one wife;" and in the first part of Genesis we read, "It is not good for man to be alone." Though forbidding to marry is a char acteristic of the apostasy, yet it is said the Pope issued a dispensation permitting the Puseyite clergymen to enter the Roman Church with their wives. This is done on the ground that they come in as men not apostolically ordained. (Ameri can Protestant, vol. i., p. 117). If this can be done for English men, and if it be true that priests are men with like passions with prophets, apostles, and patriarchs, all of whom were free to marry, why may it not be possible for priests in America to have their own wives, as do the priests of Greece and the Maronites of Russia, who joined the Roman Catholic com munion, and have been permitted to retain their wives?

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"Chickens Come Home to Roost?
is an old proverb which it will do well for the people of this free land to consider. Over and over again it has been said that theology of Rome tolerates lying, stealing, and all crimes. The people do not realize it. Some saw it when this priest, McCarthy, was proven on the stand to have lied. He got out of it by claiming that he spoke with a mental reservation. Again, when on his oath, he denied flatly what had been proven. The lawyer asked:
"Do you ever testify under reservation ?" FATHER MCCARTHT.--I do.
LAWYER.--Do you say this girl did not come voluntarily, and deliver up the keys?
FATHER MCCARTHT.--No. LAWYER.--Is this a mental reservation? Question ruled out as trenching on religious belief. LAWYER.--Were you, on June 12, under the influence of liquor. FATHER MCCARTHY.--No. LAWYER.--Is this a mental reservation 1 Question ruled out. LAWYER.--How many times have ladies and girls com plained to your bishop of your assaults? Ruled out. LAWYER.--How many bottles of whiskey did you drink while professedly sick?
Ruled out. This is the man, drunken, lecherous, vile, who passed from his assaults on the helpless to the altar, and was tolerated be cause Romanism is what it is. From such examples and in fluences, harm and only harm can come. These are the edu cators of the youth. They pose before them as representatives of the Christ who offers us salvation. Their characters are disgraced and degraded, as a rule. Today they are sowing to the wind; tomorrow we shall reap the whirlwind. Our cities are filling up with hoodlums, and our prisons and alms-houses are being crowded with these representatives of a church that panders to vice, making a jest of virtue and a plaything of religion. It becomes the people to remember that America is surrendering to Rome, and in this surrender there is greater peril than they apprehend.
It is a well-established fact, that parochial schools, under the guardianship of the priests and bishops, are valueless. The exercises are made up principally of the rudiments of theology, and are such as lead the boys to shun the processes to which they are subjected in the schoolroom. Hence they become

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truants, not permitted to attend the public schools, and acquire
vicious habits in their wanderings about the city. The result
is, that scarcely a boy can be found in the Catholic schools of
our large cities to exceed fourteen years of age. It has been
well said that "no one will deny the right of any sect to estab
lish schools among themselves for the instruction of their
children." But while this is true, it would be equally absurd to approve of a course calculated to weaken our influence over the masses that are thronging our shores. They learn, in sec tarian schools, to regard themselves as a distinct sect, a people with scarcely a single interest in common with their neighbors. They grow up foreigners, though invested with the functions of citizens. It is notorious that the range of studies in these Church schools is very restricted, and that children confined to them cannot attain the generous culture which our public schools afford. Such children are not taught what it most concerns them to know. They are not instructed in reference to the nature of our institutions; but, what is more, they are inspired with the most active jealousy, if not filled with the most bitter hatred, of all other denominations. They are led to make it a matter of conscience to support their Church, at whatever pecuniary sacrifice to themselves, and at whatever risks to the interests of the Commonwealth. The question to
be decided by the citizens of the Republic is this: How shall Americans be educated? Doubt history,'ye who can; but if the past is capable of teaching useful lessons, if the experience of a thousand years is worth any thing, it shows that it is not
safe to intrust the measureless interests of education to that church which created the deep, dense gloom of the dark ages.
The nunneries of this land are particularly deserving of attention. They are placed in the hands of the Church for propagating the faith among Protestants. For this reason they will educate Protestant children at less expense than
Catholics. Every attention is bestowed upon them. The Sis ters of Charity, by kindness, flattery, and insinuating acts of devotion, exercise an influence over them, which oftentimes destroys their confidence in the Bible, and produces an im
pression upon their minds which is only deepened by re monstrance and advice. Every part of the great machine
called Popery is of such a nature as requires to be fully under stood. Protestant parents cannot believe that there is danger in allowing children to receive their education from Catholic hands. They will not believe it until they find them, in secret, counting their beads, and performing orisons to the Virgin Mary. Instances innumerable could be given to substantiate this position. The disclosures of convent life have been sub-

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stantiated. They are real facts, occurring in the history of hundreds of young women, fascinated by the quiet beauty that characterizes the exterior of these institutions. But when it is shown that they have lost not only their happiness, but their virtue, then the charm is dissipated.
"On July 7, 1854, William Adams, mayor of Allegheny City, Penn., took a deposiiton from a young lady, possessed of great wealth, who had been placed in the palace of the bishop. She testified to the course of the bishop * * * * that her person was violated, and that when she resisted she was told 'not to resist a bishop or priest, because, if she did, she would not get a reward in the other world, and escape the torments of purgatory.' She also told of the results of the illicit intercourse with the Sisters of Charity, made apparent by the stench of the dead bodies of babies put to death to avoid detection."
"Nunneries occupy a conspicuous place. The Church of Rome is composed, to a great extent, of servant girls and poor day-laborers, who are unable to read, and who commit their souls' keeping to the Church. Many of the girls look forward with joyous anticipation to a place in a convent or nunnery. There they learn to care for the sick in hospitals; they admin ister to the passions of the priests, and the menial wants of the higher orders. The system of Romanism provides servants, who, like the frogs of Egypt, come into our very bread-troughs. They report secrets learned at the fireside. Music teachers gain access to our parlors and drawing-rooms; Jesuits pour into every nook and corner of society; each and all reporting all that will further the interests of the organization."
Many Protestants think that they ought to regard papists as belonging to one of the many fraternal Christian sects. But in this stretch of their liberality they do not seem to recognize the fact that the papists refuse to acknowledge Protestants as in any sense Christians. They are unwilling to be put on a level with them. They have no part or lot with them. They regard them as sons of Belial, and children of perdition without God or hope.
Is it strange that priests and people educated in this man ner in character, in purpose, and in conduct, become similar to the servile tools of popery in Italy or Austria ?
Count Joseph de Maistre, in his book entitled ''The Pope," says:
"The government of the Church (the papal) must be monarcMcal; and if monarchical, as it certainly and invincibly is, what authority shall receive an appeal from its decisions?
"Without the sovereign Pontiff there is no real Christianity.

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Christianity is wholly based upon the sovereign Pontiff, and without the sovereign Pontiff the whole edifice of Christianity is undermined.
"The will of man goes for nothing in the establishment of government.
"The sovereign Pontiff, in absolving subjects from their oath of fidelity, would do nothing contrary to divine right.
"Would to God the faithful were all as well persuaded as the infidels of this great maxim, 'that the Church and the Pope are all one!'
"The opposite of the foolish assertion, lMan is born freej is the truth.
"All civilization commences with the priesthood by re ligious ceremonies, by miracles even whether true or false.
"Monarchy is the best and most durable of governments, and the most natural to man."
In accordance with the sentiments given above, all of which are reliable extracts from a volume indorsed by the Komish Church, the highest official of that Church in America--the Cardinal--upon assuming his office swore unalterable fidelity to the following as part of his creed: "I do give my allegiance, political as well as religious, to the Bishop of Rome. Heretics, schismatics, and rebels to our lord the Pope, I will, to my utmost, oppose and persecute."
Yet in the face of this oath, and the declaration of prin ciples which we have quoted above, Cardinal Gibbons, in his letter accepting the invitation to officiate at the Constitutional Centennial, says, "The Constitution of the United States is worthy of being written in letters of gold."
With the oath of allegiance to the Pope resting on his con science, how can this cardinal, with any sincerity or con sistency, eulogize the Constitution of a Republic which was begotten by Protestant prayers, and which is now sustained and carried forward by Protestant piety and Protestant brains?
"We are very strongly tempted," says Rev. R. H. Nevin, "to believe, in this case, that what was condemned in the Epistle of James many centuries ago has been illustrated in these modern times by the Baltimore cardinal: 'Out of the same mouth pfoceedeth blessing and cursing.'"
Are men thus taught and ruled becoming Americanized in character? The reverse is true. Their back is to the future. Their face is to the past.
The Romish priesthood is retrograding rather than ad vancing. One who was for a time identified with mission work on Blackwell's Island, and is cognizant of the condition of affairs in Roman Catholic circles, sadly says:

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"We have often sighed and wept over the polluting prac
tices of priests, and the baleful effects on confessors and peni tents alike of the things prescribed by the Church for the
salvation and guidance of both. Nobody who has made a careful study of the degrading effects of the Romish system upon the morals of the female portion of the community can
fail to be moved with indignation or contempt at the lying boast of superior purity that is so frequently made by the priests of Rome in behalf of themselves and their male and
female dupes. It is absurd to think or expect that men and women who are knee-deep in moral pitch every time they enter the sin-box of Rome can escape defilement. It is foolish to expect that any young blood of a priest, whose ears are the
cesspool of unbounded and unmentionable infamy, will escape contamination, when the word of God expressly says that 'evil communications corrupt good manners.'
"We often hear of the purity of Irish Catholic females; but little is said of the thousands and tens of thousands of them, in New York and elsewhere, who live lives of shame, with the scapula of the Virgin around their necks, and in many instances a rosary of beads in their pockets with which to count their Hail Marys, or machine prayers, to the so-called mother of God, when they have not the boldness to approach
Jesus, because they have crucified Him afresh, and are cal loused, wilful reprobates at heart, who have no desire to turn from their vile and perverse ways, and whose polluted souls it
is impossible to renew again.
"We asked a missionary who was instrumental in reaching four hundred fallen women, what proportion of them were Catholics; and were informed that ninety-five per cent, of them were accustomed to bend the knee to a priest, and be questioned in the most unblushing manner by these sacerdotal celibates.
"In the city of Boston are priests whose lives, if laid bare to public gaze, would be a most striking object lesson to the denizens of Catholic households and the citizens generally of the Hub. We know whereof we affirm. We have seen these things with our own eyes, and not through blue glasses either, for we were then admirers of the scarlet woman of Revelation.
Doctors have told us a thing or two of the diseases that af flicted these ecclesiastical saints. Hotel keepers have told us of the many times these chaste angels of Rome came to their place in the society of women whom they introduced as their sisters, and remained until the small hours of the morning drinking wine, smoking cigars, and devouring1 turkey and chicken-salad till their brains were very much muddled, and
their eyes stuck out with fatness.

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''The Romish Church has contravened the law of God and nature by this impious dogma that prohibits its priests and bishops marrying; but, nevertheless, nature will have its fling somehow, and if they can't do as the gospel advises, they'll pluck the forbidden fruit.
'We were told by a priest of Rome that the best priest of his acquaintance was married, and the father of seven bright, happy little ones. Could that be so? Well, in the city of Brooklyn was a priest who, while officiating at the altar of Rome, hearing confessions and pardoning sins, marrying men and women, and baptizing their children, was lawfully mar ried by a Protestant minister across the river, and now and then occupied the same apartments with the wife whom he loved, and in the face of the most awful and trying persecutions
clung to.
'We knew of another (just passed away to his eternal re ward) who confessed to a brother in this work that not less than sixty-five young ladies in his congregation were victims of his fiendish lust.
"Where we spent a portion of our time in wretched seclusion was an institution ruled by the abbot of the monas tery, in which common prostitutes held high revel with the holy Fathers who had sworn before God to be chaste. This we were told by the chancellor of that diocese.
"During a portion of our time in New York we came in contact with a Protestant young lady who was educated in a convent; and she confessed that for years she had been the concubine of a Boston priest who every two weeks came on here to spend a little time with this miserable girl whom he influenced in the convent while she was yet in her teens.
"We could bring a crowd of witnesses to show that if there is an unchaste set of men on the face of the earth, who, to avoid fornication, ought to have their own wives, it is Romish priests. We could bring the McCarthy's, O'Connells, and O'Donnells. the Ryans, O'Briens, and Finnigans to bear testimony to the truth, of the statement we make. And how can it be otherwise? Ask any priest who has ever studied the theology concerning the relations of the sexes, if it is possible
for any man to wade through such filth without having his imagination corrupted and his soul defiled? We stranded on that rock, and refused to deluge our brain with facts so abominable and filthy. If there is any man on the face of the globe who ought to shun the perusal of such things and the study of such subjects, it is the celibate priest, monk, or nun.
"The facilities Rome has to hide the vileness of its priests, hinder the onward march of a work of downright opposition

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to the Church. They have their Magdalen Homes and Or phan Asylums--institutions which have been a hiding-place for rascals, a refuge for the weak victims of their insatiable lust, and a help rather than a hinderance to crime and im morality. It is a sin to erect an institution that is avowedly for the purpose of sheltering in its widespread arms the fruit of secret wrong. It were better for America or any other country that such an institution never existed, because to a certain extent the safeguards, that fear of exposure places around the young, are entirely removed.
"Has it slipped the memory of the people, that several priests of the most secret, oath-bound, and terrible system that ever dominated the thought or cursed the liberty of humanity have been exposed in the near past, and proved to be moral monstrosities?" (Rev. E. H. Walsh, in Primitive Catholic, December, 1887).
Romanism is not improving. A few Romanists are coming to the light, and such are being helped. But for those who stay in Rome, and bow down to her idols, and worship her images, there is no progress. They are chained to a body of death. Their end is destruction, their future is eternal night. If they are to be saved, Cr-ristians must undertake for them, and they must do it now. These about us are to be saved through our instrumentality, or they are to pass beyond the bounds of hope; and God hath said. "This shall the)/ hare at my hand, they shall lie down in sorrow.'1' "Who preaches to them ? Who prays for them, believing that the love of Christ will constrain and save them? Employ it, and the blessing is sure to come. Roman Catholic priests who stay in Rome, and yield to its -temptations and fascinations, are making a mock of religion; they are gambling with the hopes of immortal souls; they believe a lie. They practice what they believe, and will be damned unless they repent of their sins, and turn to God through Jesus Christ, the one Mediator between God and man. accept of His offer of help, and are saved. Ameri cans, awake to this truth, and act. Speak out to those next to you.
Warn, Exhort, Entreat.
Let the open Bible be your unfurled banner, proclaim the truth essential to the salvation of the lost; and you shall save souls from death, build up the true, glorify God. and help your fellow-men.

12p

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CHAPTER XL
THE RECOIL AXD THE RESOLVE; OR, THE SCALES FALL FROM THE
EYES OF THE PRIEST, AXD ROME'S POWER DIES.
LET us come out of the swamp of pollution, up to the plateau of hope. There is a way out from Rome. Christ is the door, the truth, the light, and the Holy Ghost the helper. These forces can pass through walls and bars as in Peter's time, can strip off the fetters and leave the guards asleep, and can permit the victim to come out and find the way to the Church of Christ, where there is a welcome and love for all.
The stories of two priests have appeared. They are full of good cheer. They tell how God's Spirit can work, and how man's agency may be blessed. Let us reproduce them, and pray that God's blessing attend them. One comes to us from France. There he met a Protestant minister who, with his beloved wife, lived in happiness in a town full of enemies-of the faith he cherished, and yet. having a world of love in his home, was quite independent of the world outside. Like Father Chiniquy. he had obtained access to the Bible; and that held him back from evil, and caused him to consecrate his powers to the services of what was right and good. It is marvelous what the Word of God can do. A copy of the Scriptures given to Admiral Coligni. in his prison, made him a new man in Christ Jesus, and gave to Protestantism a leader and to Chris tianity a martyr. The Bible chained to the altar, which Luther read, opened his eyes to the errors of Romanism, and caused him to find in the words, "The just shall live by faith," the evangel of a new life, entering which he became the reformer of his time. It was the Bible read by this French priest, when he turned from the sickening and polluting theology of Rome, that filled his soul with the joy of Christ, and made him an heir to all the promises. He loved the Bible. He learned much of it by heart, and the whole time not given to other occupations was given to a beloved study of the Word of God. He says, ';7 have not the least doubt but that I owe ' my conrcrsion to this reading.'1'
He Leaves' the Seminary,
and becomes a priest. He says, "The day in which, inflamed by twelve years of ecclesiastical studies, prejudices, natural en thusiasm, long fastings, and mortifications, the day in which I bade farewell to the world, to earth, to all that was human, to consecrate myself to God. I experienced a rapture above

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all description." In leaving the holy house where a dirty theology had repelled him, he became a vicar among a people celebrated for its fine society and good manners.
Up to this moment he had worshipped God. He had loved Him. He had found solace in clinging to the belief that as a celibate he would never need more to love or confide in. He had married, in his thought and faith, Jesus Christ. He was a part of his bride. Marriage in the seminary had been spoken of as a weakness, from which the true saints in every situation must abstain, and which it is a horrible crime for a priest ever to think of. "I had never thought, of course, how irrational it was to promise that which it is beyond the power of man to perform, and which he is continually in danger of violating. I had never reflected that this impious vow of celibacy, instead of turning me into an angel as I intended, would well-nigh turn me into a demon for long years."
"A conversation with an old priest alarmed me. He avowed to me frankly, that lie had never kept Ms vows of celibacy more
than three or four years, because he had found celibacy an absurd and immoral institution. He asked me if I was not already tired of the same vows. I answered in the negative,
in great simplicity and astonishment. cDo you not think of marriage since your promotion to the priesthood?" ;Xever.'
answered I: 'it would be a monstrosity to a priest.'--'But. sir,' replied he, 'do you not deem sometimes that it is not good for a man to be alone, and that your vows are against nature?"-- 'Never; this thought never entered mv mind.'
" 'How old are you ?'
' 'Twenty-five years, nearly.' " ;Hum. hum; wait some years, Pome months perhaps, and
you will tell me what has become of your religious enthusiasm, of your joy, of your vow. Like others, you will put nature above falsehoods and lies, and you will trample your foolish promise under your feet. But not yet; you are too young: the power of the instruction of your teachers is yet too strong, too
vivid, on your mind; you submit yourself to the yoke. But by and by nature, indeed, will resume her rights.'
"'What do you mean, sir? Explain yourself. For. if it
is so, why in the seminary has nobody warned me ? why have they not instructed me upon the gravity of such an obligation ? It was but justice to enlighten my ignorance." The old man came near me, seized my arm. and whispered in my ear with an air of great mystery, '// the suj>crio>-s of the seminary u-eiv
frank enough to tell young men the truth, there would not be a single priest except those who desire to make use of the reil of religion to indulge their -passionsP and as if afraid of hi? confi dence, he withdrew in great haste.

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"Such revelations were, however, somewhat useful to me.
They increased my diffidence of my own strength. I sought in
God what I wanted in myself. I became, if possible, more
pious, more mystic, more superstitious. My prayers, and, above
all. those to the Holy Virgin, became longer, my privations and
mortifications harder. A hundred times I besought God to
take my life rather than permit me to be so unfaithful. But all my prayers proved unavailing, because, doubtless, God does
not listen to prayers which are against His will and laws." (Confessions of a French Catholic priest, p. 32.)
"My life rolled away amidst the usua1 occupations of a Catholic priest, filled by the exercises of my ministry, the administration of the sacraments, prayers, discourses, etc. During this time, more than once, when I pronounced the sacramental words of marriage upon young people, and called upon them the heavenly blessing, the feeling of my own loneli ness was brought to my mind with a kind of envy of their presumed happiness. More than once, in the confessiona.1, when a young lady revealed her conscience to me, her spiritual Father of twenty-six or seven years of age, I indulged in this
forbidden idea, that she would have made me happy had she been my wife. But all those and such other ideas were mo mentary. I drove them away like temptations. I said to myself. 'Kemember, thou art no more a man; thou art dead to this life; women are thy greatest enemies.' However, these strange thoughts "were renewed stronger and stronger as days passed. The more I endeavored to crush human nature, the more it rebelled against the yoke. Every thing in the world recalled to me the great law of marriage, and my heart more
than all. Sometimes, while reading the Holy Scriptures, I surprised myself, involuntarily, in revery, and before I was aware, upon the picture of the happiness of our first parents in paradise, upon their tender love, upon the kindness of God
who created them for each other. To those words of the Lord, 'It is not good for man to be alone,' methought my heart an swered, 'True, it is not good; I begin to feel it. Why, then, am I alone?' One evening I was lost in such musing, and I went so far as to ask myself, ''Why does man contradict the very institution of his Creator?' But I became quite troubled at my impious questions, and I answered, 'That our mother, the Catholic Church, was infallible; and that, inspired by the Holy Ghost, she had decided the celibacy of priests.' My reflections, although smothered under a thousand prejudices,
were renewed, in spite of all my endeavors, by the spectacle of a married Protestant minister of the English Church. He was the curate of a few Protestant families scattered in and around

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the town. He was, indeed, an amiable man, but. through our
fanaticism, he was despised among the Catholic population,
and pointed at as a propagator of error. In the beginning I
scorned him heartily; for this opinion is enjoined upon us in
the seminary, that among all the Protestant ministers there t not one honest and true man--not one who knows not well the falsehood of his religion, and the truth of the Catholic Church. I had become acquainted with him by chance, in visiting a sick Catholic servant of a Protestant family. I allowed the mistress of the home to present me to the clergyman and his wife, in the hope of finding some way to their conversion. I saw them,
and was very much pleased. My prejudices gave way for want of any foundation.' Every time I met them I never failed to
say to myself in a true feeling of compassion, 'Is it not un fortunate that so amiable a couple should be in heresy, and lost in the next world?' From the very beginning of our
acquaintance I had an ardent desire of converting them, but two reasons prevented me from the attempt. The first was this: He knows well the falsity of his tenets, and it is useless to speak to him about them. The second reason was the con
sciousness of my own ignorance of Protestantism; for I had studied it very slightly, while he appeared to be a learned scholar. I was too fond of my own religion to cast a shame
upon her by my defeat. His young wife was beautiful, and they loved each other tenderly. Thej seemed so happy, not withstanding their distance from their country and family, that I almost envied them their felicity. I compared his fate with mine; his religion, which allowed him the society of a wife, with mine, which prevents it as the greatest crime in a
priest. One evening I went secretly to take tea with them-- secretly, because, had my bishop been aware of it, he would have reproved me, and perhaps interdicted me, for he de tested Protestants.
"The clergyman and his wife received me most kindly. Tea passed off cheerfully, and in the midst of a gay conversa tion, excited by their pleasant blunders in the French lan guage, the husband said to me, 'Sir, we have never spoken about
religious matters, although we teach quite contrary to each other in many things.' 'True, sir,' answered I, blushing; 'more than once I have had a mind to enter upon this matter, but I
know that religious discussions are too often useless. You have your opinion, and I have mine; we probably could not change each other. At all events,' added I, as a warning to him, 'I think that God will not condemn a man who is in an involuntary error.' Hereupon he smiled, and said, 'Take care, sir, you have just set aside a great maxim of your Church:

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"Out of the pale of the Church,.no salvation.'1' But no matter; will you give me leave to say to you, with the frankness of your countrymen, what I often think of you?' 'Willingly,'
replied I, laughing. 'I think, then,' said he, 'it is a great pity
that you should be a Catholic priest. You are not fit for that situation at all. It is easy to see that you do violence to your
self, to your temper, and to nature.' 'Sir,' answered I, 'with the same liberty, it is precisely the opinion I have of you. Every day I lament that you should be a Protestant minister instead of a Catholic priest.' Hereupon he, his wife, and myself
could not refrain from laughing very heartily and friendly together. 'Between ourselves,' continued he, his wife being
gone out, 'what do you think of the celibacy of your religion? As for me, had I only that against it, that alone would pre vent me forever from being reconciled to it. Is it not against nature? Do you deem that your fellow-priests keep their vows? I speak not of you; and it is precisely for this reason that you are able to answer me more conveniently.' I under
stood too well his question to give any answer which would have been either against my religion or against truth. 'Listen,*
said he, as I remained silent; 'here is a page of an author whose name I will not now tell you, lest it should influence your mind.' He translated from English into French a passage
which I have since found in the 'Life of Luther:' ;It is almost as impossible to dispense with female society as it is to live without eating or drinking. The image of marriage is found in all creatures, not only in the animals of the earth, the air,
and the water, but also in trees and stones. Every one knows there are trees, such as the apple and pear trees, which are like husband and wife, and which prosper better when planted to gether. Among stones the same thing may be remarked,
especially in precious stones--the coral, the emerald, and , others. The heaven is husband to the earth; he vivifies her
by the heat of the sun, by the rain and the wind, and causes
her to bear all sorts of plants and fruits.'
" 'This, is a new thought to me,' said I, prepossessed and musing. 'It is truly beautiful if not true, whoever the author
may be,'--'He is a man horribly slandered by your Church,
represented as a monster of corruption; it is Luther. I never understood that passage better than now. Here I am at a
thousand miles from my country, family, and acquaintances (he was an Englishman), but my wife supplies the place of all. In this South of France, where I am despised, and persecuted som'etimes, where the Catholics are my enemies, I should not
be able to bear the situation if I were alone, as you are. You answer not; perhaps I grieve you. I will not speak of it any more.'" (Confessions of a French Catholic Priest, pp. 33-36).

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He Becomes Enamoured With a, Penitent.
One day a young lady came to his vestry, and asked him if he would confess her. He complied with her request. "In the
intimate relation of confessor and penitent, in those repeated
conversations in which a young female of nineteen opens her
heart every week, in every matter, to a young man of twenty-
seven, who feels and laments his loneliness, it was not difficult to foresee what would naturally happen. She spoke to me so openly, so candidly; her confession displayed so fair a charac ter, such artlessness, so much innocence--that by and by, with out any attention or reflection, but by a natural course of things, my heart was caught, and I fell in love with her. I took heed not to give her the least hint of it, because it was worse than useless, since I was prevented from being married by my vow, and by ecclesiastical rules. I thought not an in stant of abusing my ministry on her account, which, however, would have been the easiest thing in the world. It remained then for me but to smother this involuntary love. At first I tried to believe it only the effect of my imagination too much kindled. Vain illusion! The more I endeavored to trample down this feeling, the more I strengthened and increased it every day. My virtue, indeed, could prevent me from giving my consent, but it could not prevent my suffering its effects-- the mental agony of the conflict. Ere long I saw the futility of my exertions against it, and I thought I could not do better than resign myself to the will of God, in the hope that He would, doubtless, help me in my struggles, since I fought for His glory, His Church, and my vows. My first thought, of course, was of removing the danger by refusing any longer to confess her. My aim is to show in this history the immorality of the Catholic Church in requiring celibacy from her priests, and at the same time establishing so many intimate relations between them and women. To go back to my experience: in the next confession I suggested a change of confessors, alleging some Jesuitical and apparent reason. She answered me, ^Father, I gave you my whole confidence, I opened to you my heart, I unveiled to you my most secret thoughts with the candor of a child, that you might direct me better. You know me as well as I know myself. I do not ask the reasons why you propose to me to exchange you for another; but if you deny me your ministry, I must renounce the confession altogether.' I could not tell her the true reason of my conduct, for my sake and for her own. On the other hand, I was very superstitious, be lieving heartily that confession was necessary to the salvation of the soul. Could I then, with these views, assent to the loss

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of her soul? However, in a matter of so great importance I
feared to direct myself, and so went to our confessor to be ruled by him. I looked to him as to my father and the repre sentative of God. He listened to my singular declaration, and to my purpose of renouncing her confession if he thought best. He laughed at me; and, notwithstanding all my explanations, he could not, or would not, understand me. He at length told me my love for her was far from being a reason for depriving her of my ministry. There then remained no doubt in my mind, and I thought that God Himself had ordered it so. But to diminish the danger, I resolved to avoid any intercourse with her, except in the confessional; and henceforth I ceased to pay any visit to her family, where I was formerly a fre quent visitor, for fear of seeing her and increasing my fatal attachment, for the Holy Bible says, 'Whosoever loves danger shall perish in it.' Her mother, astonished at my sudden de sertion, asked me if they had offended me as a family, and why I came no longer to their home? I avoided the question, and thus banished myself from a family where all the desire of my heart carried me. In speaking of what I suffered in repressing my feelings. I shall scarcely be understood by men who act unreservedly, and obey the just dictates of nature, instead of having been inured to despise them and trample upon them. These men know not with what violence this sea of human passion ferments, gushes out, when every issue is denied to it; how it increases, swells, overflows, bursts the heart, till it has torn away its bounds and dug for itself a channel." (Confessions of a French Priest, pp. 36-39).
This is the story of a priest who did not yield to sin, who did not seduce a woman, and who did not marry. His fight was terrible. It reminds us of Jerome, of Chrysostom, of Origen, and others. Forbidden to love, he sought relief in the tenets of his religion. He read over the books of his theology.
"This is," said he, "a corporeal temptation which cannot be vanquished by prayers alone, not even by a common mortifica tion; it requires an extraordinary one." Consequently he, with all the violence of his temper, began his work of destruc tion against the body, as a mad, young, misled man, who de clares a war of extermination against himself. His heart be came a field of battle between fanaticism on the one hand, and nature on the other. His senses became his foes. At first as an enemy shut up in a besieged town, he cut off the provisions and starved the body. It did no good. Love did not die. He then slept on the floor, wore haircloth with small points about the loins. He avoided parties of pleasure, female society, music, and all companionship. He deprived his eyes of their

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natural use by looking constantly down. He refused the fragrance of flowers and the warmth of fire. He grew poor in flesh, and sad at heart. He drank tea made of the bitterest of herbs, and spoiled his health. The presumed merit of his mortifications encouraged him in saying mass. For since he had become a lover of another being than God, although against his will, he was ashamed to mount the altar, to call from heaven with the same mouth which was sometimes ready to pronounce a profane name, to introduce him into a heart where a worldly idol was introduced in spite of himself. He courted death by visiting the victims of pestilence, but did not die. His Protestant friend worked as hard as he, was as faithful, and with his loved wife sailed a sea of pleasure heavenward. Things seemed wrong in the Church. His fellow-priests laughed at him. When alone with them, their words and deeds scandalized his ignorance, and offended the natural respect that every honest man feels. Many of them spoke of the most disgusting matters with such lightness, such jests, that he was first stunned, and then appalled. His Bible was his refuge that opened his eyes to his great need, and to their terrible ruin.
"They drank to excess and used the strongest coffee, the most heating wines, liquors, spirits, and, above all, brandy in astounding quantity. They spoke about their mistresses as freely as of theology, and one of them boasted of having one in'each parish. One day, one of these worthy priests checked the others for speaking so freely before the younger priests; for in the ecclesiastical body it is exactly as in a regiment, where the raw recruits are scorned by the veterans who have made fifteen campaigns. But the others, yielding to the in fluence of good wine, which unties the tongue, answered that we were not the men to betray them, or to denounce them to the bishop; and so they continued their revelries.'1 (Confes sions of a French Catholic Priest, p. -45).
The subject of religion was treated with no more respect by them. That faith the least article of which he worshipped, was indecently laughed at. in its most sacred tenets, either by a real impiety or jesting. Turning to history previous to the Revolution of 1793, he learned of the inconceivable corruption of the clergy, although the half of the truth is not told. In studying the code of laws he saw. a chapter about the "Sons of Priests" This discovery was quite a nonplus; but afterwards he learned that things were as bad in the nineteenth century as in the eighteenth, for he knew beyond all doubt some children whose fathers were the sacred members of the Catholic Church. In the confessional he listened to the con-

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fession of those who were in relations with them. The dis covery of their licentiousness, with the knowledge of their doc trine respecting falsehood, duplicity, mental reservations, and
their thousand forms of lies more or less disguised, which is indubitably the exclusive appendage of the Roman clergy, made him ashamed of his company, and convinced him that the way these men walked led to hell rather than heaven.
In the reteat in France, as in the retreat described by Father Chiniquy in Chicago, the scenes of immorality were terrible to contemplate. Then and there his eyes were opened to the truth that Romanism is a deception and a lie suited only to knaves, who know well that if the dupes could learn the whole truth, they would despise and detest their absurd belief. Catholic priests fear nothing more than the revelation of those mysteries, and of what passes in those gloomy abodes so care
fully shut from profane eyes.
Questions like these came to him, and were answered as follows:
For example, let us ask Popery who instituted the belief of
the real presence of God in the wafer ? He will answer: Christ Himself, when He said in His last supper, "This is my body.n
They know that He was in the flesh, that He handled the bread, and said, in fact, "This bread typifies my body." Popery knows it, but it establishes mass, which produces immense sums to the whole priesthood.
"Popery establishes purgatory, because priests are the only
channel through which people can succor souls in purgatoryr and they can work this infamous error to the profit of the
trade."
"Indulgences find a warrant not in Scripture, but in the in genuity of men, and are clung to because Popery coins money from their sins, and to sell at high prices what is worth noth
ing. "Why has Popery said that the confessor was the represen
tative of God, that his advice is divine advice, his decision
divine decision? "In appearance, that he might have more power to rule
in a good way, and impress the minds of his penitents the stronger with virtue; and besides, he asserts that confession is founded upon the Bible. But in reality, it is that the con fessor might be all-powerful in the minds of his penitents, turn them at his will for the execution of his wicked designs, or
the satisfaction of his lust." "Why is so deep the secrecy of confession? "In appearance, because it is a continual miracle of God,
Who prevents it from being revealed. But in reality, the reve-

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lations, few in number, it is true, are carefully concealed, to make people believe that 'the finger of God is here,' and the ignorant and duped priests believe this firmly.
"Why has Popery obliged its priests and monks to take the three great vows of obedience, poverty, and chastitj' ?
"In appearance, because priests are more perfect than other people. But in reality, the vow of obedience is required that they might become the slaves of their superiors; and the other two vows, that they might under this hypocritical veil indulge freely, and with less suspicion, in the contrary passions-- covetousness and lasciviousness.
"Why has Popery especially institute'd the celibacy of the priests, a particular garb for them, particular customs and manners?
"In appearance, because they are of a superior race, almost heavenly beings. But in reality, they wish to get rid of the embarrassments of marriage, that they may live without con trol with every woman they can get.
"Why has Popery instituted those thousand corporal mor tifications?
"That they may sell dispensations to many people who have neither courage nor desire to practice mortifications.
"Why has Popery established those intimate relations be tween saints and men upon the earth through relics, images, adorations, and a thousand other superstitions?
"In appearance, to help us in the great work of our salva tion. In reality, to place itself as an intermediate between saints and men, and to sell their intercession; to make money with all these practices and beliefs, and root more deeply its power in each mind.
"Why has Popery fought learning?
"In appearance, because Popery is very careful of the salvation of souls endangered by these books. But in reality, because its superstitions and deceptions would be discovered by this reading, and it would lose its followers."
"Why has Popery, above all, shut the Holy Bible from the people?
"In appearance, because there are passages above common understandings and dangerous to the ignorant. But in reality, because its alterations of the sacred Book would be disclosed.
"Why has Popery burnt heretics?
"In appearance, to save their souls, and keep pure the Word of God. But in reality, to get rid of those who ceased to obey its commands; for, as Baxter quaintly said, 'There is nothing like stone dead, with a Papist.'

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"Why does Popery condemn to hell all the followers of other religions?
"In appearance, because it is itself the only true religion of God, and others but errors and lies. But in reality, to retain in its- chains, or to drag into them, timid and ignorant people, the greatest part of mankind.
"Why has Popery scattered its missionaries, monks, friars, nuns of every description, upon the face of the earth?
"In appearance, because Roman Catholics seek to save the \vorld. In reality, to make an immense network with a thous and meshes, to entangle mankind; to hold it by this net, every thread of which meets at Rome, in the hand of the Pope.
"Why has Popery claimed infallibility?
"That Catholics may be taught to receive every command as an order of God, of whom the Pope is vicegerent. That the Pope may trample upon the necks of the people and kings; crush the former, depose the latter, and make both the tools of his purposes.
"Why has the Pope declared himself, his priests and monks, sacred persons, whom no one can injure without a horrible crime, whatever the provocation may be?
"In appearance, because they are the Lord's anointed. In reality, that they may execute all their cruel and tyrannical designs, without any man daring to oppose them.
"It is thus that every thing, every institution of Popery, has its double face! Nothing is more true than that the Roman Church is a pantomime, a theatrical play, comedy or tragedy, played by knaves or dupes, to cheat mankind; a vast stage from which we must tear the veil, that we may learn the true
characters of its actors." These were the words of the priest who fled from Popery
for the saving of his soul. How he came to see the truth, and get out of the clutch of error, is now to be told.

He Saves a Nun.
It is just here the story becomes of thrilling interest. It shows what men who are still in the Romish Church and are cognizant of its errors can do to help others. Let them speak the truth where they are: this is duty. To a convent he went. To honor him who was praised as a pure and chaste priest, he was asked to say mass, at which the whole house assisted. During this mass it was the custom for the novitiates to sing canticles; and this office was performed by those who, endowed with a fine voice and knowledge of music, could acquire some celebrity for the holy house. Among the voices, he says, "One

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of them struck me sensibly. She celebrated the happiness of one who serves God in solitude, the vanity of earthly things, according to popish exaggeration, which always seduces young and inexperienced hearts. It seemed to me that in this voice there was a melancholy, a sadness, an infallible evidence of suffering and heart-sickness. But it was so sweet, so capti vating, that saddened by its sadness and enchanted by its soft melody, I forgot the mass which required my whole atten tion." He nearly failed in his performance of the solemn ritual.
Having made a short address to the community, after mass, he was told that a young novice asked to see him in the parlor.
The demand was so uncommon that he thought it his duty to tell the almoner of it, and beg permission to see her. He replied, "It is the young novice who sang at your mass. Do not fail to encourage her to become a nun. She is a precious subject; her name, her beauty, her musical talent, her knowl edge, her family, and her dowry, all are a good fortune to our house. Were she to leave us. all these would be lost. Go. holy priest as you are, and warm her zeal."
Entering the parlor he found the singer and learned the cause of the melancholy that infected the tones of her beautiful and cultured voice. When he talked with her he learned that she had tired of the cloister. She said, "I have been three years in the convent as a pupil and a novice. I shall soon be of the proper age to take my vows. I need not tell you how happy I was in the beginning. You, perhaps, during your novitiate, experienced the same feelings. Such a state of union with God, of unspeakable sweetness, lasted for fifteen months, in which my body only was on the earth, my heart being in heaven. But, alas! those ecstasies have ceased; my imagina tion has become calm; my exercises of piety, which fill the whole day, please me less and less. They do not disgust me, but they tire me. And. sir, I will tell you all. Previous to my coming here, I had been acquainted with a young gentleman who wooed me for his wife. My mother refused him. for he had not fortune enough. Soon after family considerations in duced my mother to persuade me to enter into this house, where at first, wholly given up to God. I thought little of my
lost lover; but in proportion as my devotion diminishes, the recollection of him .returns: his memory has become agreeable to me, and I often find myself asking if I should not be happier with him than in these walls. This question, which I first feared to answer, is almost resolved in the affirmative. Such is my situation. What must I do? Speak to me. Your decision will be a light to me, for my confessor reiterates but

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one thing, and that is that I must be a nun; and he does not clear up my difficulties."
Her story was his story; with this difference, she could go back, he could not, for with him it was too late. While she explained her mind, every word was like an arrow piercing his soul, recalling his own unhappiness. He then advised her to go back to her old love, and to the world she had parted from through mistaken notions of duty. Through the physician of the convent he had her sent home for her health. In the meantime he wrote to her lover, explained the situation; they met. they married. Some time after, he paid them a visit. The husband and wife bade him welcome, and expressed their gratitude. It openeu a new world to him.

His Resolve.
The recoil had come. The resolve was forming. His heart had become attached to a person of whom his vow forbade him to think. A revolution was begun which must end either in emancipation from Rome or in a surrender to vice. Doubts of the truth of his faitn disturbed him; darkness, sadness, and chaos became his portion. Love for a woman, instead of being, as it is intended by God, a source of pure enjoyment, was his tormentor. His heart rebelled against the chain of his iron vow, that sealed him to the cold stones of the altar. He had confessed a woman who was a part, a counterpart, of his better self. He longed for her. His soul cried out for her soul. Love desired and demanded a mate. It was not passion, it was love. There was in him something he knew not, an other being which was not himself. Against this new being he exerted all his powers. Life was robbed of its charm. All was hollow emptiness. The woman that he loved came be tween him and God, and caused in him a feeling of unspeak able bitterness. In France a priest is condemned by civil, as well as by ecclesiastical law, to celibacy. This was the result of policy and hypocrisy in the Catholic Church, but there was no remedy. It was necessary that in the capacity of priest he should turn again the point of a dagger to his heart. The relation of confessor brought him face to face with the object of his love. Separated by only a wicket, he was compelled to listen to the most secret thoughts of a young lady he wor shipped. Breathlessly he received her words. He heard the very pulsations of her heart.
Thus they were together and apart, with mouth to mouth and ear to ear, and yet at an infinite remove. Can this be right? Can this be duty? Romish priests! answer No. It

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is not right. It ought not to endure. Why make a hell of earth, if true, or deserve hell by being false? Priests should
wed. Then the heart finds its mate. Not two. but one. This
one enjoyed, held, had, possessed, and lived with, makes man
and woman true to other men and women who enjoy love.
They do not envy them their bliss. They rejoice that they
have it, and are enriched because of it.
To return to the story. He forgot himself. At length,
astonished at his silence, she would say, "Father, have you not heard me?" This title of Father from her voice brought
him back. He says, "I addressed my counsels to her with a
trembling voice. She had so great confidence in me, that I
could turn her mind whichever way I wished. Then and there
I was convinced, beyond all doubt, of the great impropriety
and the awful dangers of confession to the fair penitent, if the confessor be wicked; and to himself, if he be virtuous. When her confession, so painful to me, was over, I dismissed her. Sometimes, when I was no more master of my imagination, I drove pins into my body, in order that, occupied by my pains, I could not follow her or think of her. My fellow-priests see ing me fatigued, harassed, and exhausted, said. 'You are too scrupulous;' and then they gave me advice which it were ruin to follow." At this moment came his peril. "To love God with all the strength of one's soul, to desire to serve Him according to His will; to have been fifteen years learning, studying, and devouring what was believed to be the truth, and after all to doubt if it be not false; to worship truth, and not be able to make one step toward it without fear of damnation; to be imprisoned, shut up in a narrow circle, out of which it is not possible to go without drawing down all the thunders of the Church; to be compelled to doubt whether one's creed is not absurd, and to have at the same time the conviction that the shadow of a doubt is a mortal sin, deserving all the fires of hell; to wish to believe, and yet not be able to do so; to feel each article, one by one, 'uprooted by a superior strength, and to make the most strenuous exertions to retain them, as a man drawn between four horses gathers all his power to resist; to do all in one's power to answer objections, to remove doubt, and yet not be able to find any means, nor any good answer; to feel that one loves God, heaven, truth, one's own soul, and to have no friendly bosom into which one can pour one's mind, and unburden its pains and sufferings."--this was his situation. They who think an honest Roman Catholic priest, just awaken ing from the night of error, does not have a hard time, make a fearful mistake.

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See Him at Mass.
He is at the foot of the altar. He begins to act a lie. To stop is to be ruined. To go on is to be false to self. When the consecration arrived, and he was to pronounce the sacra mental words. "Hoc est corpus meum? "This is my body," he hesitated, not daring to utter the words. But the altar-boys and the people were there. He could not, he dare not, stop. On he went, and fainted, and was carried into the sacristy.
How the heart cries out for some one to tell such a man of Christ, to open the "Word of God to him! At this hour, sick, discouraged, he turns to his Bible, and finds words of good cheer, believes them, and is saved. He must now flee. He comes to the Xew World, and finds a land where, he can preach the truth, and live the truth. He walks alone and apart. Rome has robbed him-of his heart's treasures, of his country, of his family, of his livelihood: but. blessed be God, there Rome must stop.
The Other Story
traverses much of the same ground. This priest was Ameri can-born, educated in our public schools. He desired to be a business man. He loved, when a boy. the girl that walked beside him. whose books he carried, and whose joys he shared. His parents were ambitious that he should become a priest. He was over-persuaded. He goes through college and the seminary, and enters the priesthood. Then he meets tempta tions. Though taught by Dens' Theology the terrible pollu tions of the priesthood, he did not understand them until he saw them. Then his nature revolted against the degradation of his manhood, and the pollution incident to his office. This was true of a priest in America. He saw priests passing from the altar to the brothel, revelling the livelong night, drinking and carousing, and returning to handle the wafer-God, and celebrate mass.
Into a retreat he went. There priests carried large quan tities of whiskey and other liquors, and passed the nights in roistering and boisterous mirth, and in the indulgence of passion, that it would be a shame to relate it. This was not religion. It was acting a part. It was not the Bible that saved him. for he knew nothing of its contents. On the one side was manhood, a pure love, a life of sobriety, of virtue; and on the other was slavish obedience to a power that crushed but did not help, a letting-go of every conception of what he dreamed a priest should be, a plunging into the mire of pollu tion, and a yielding to temptation dishonoring to soul and

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body. Besides, he loved a woman that filled out the ideal conception he cherished of a womanly nature. There was for him but this one woman. She seemed made for him. Into the confessional she came. There she told the story that thrilled his heart. The spark of love ignited the flame in his own being. He turned with loathing from Romanism to romance, from grossness to grace. Thomas Davis, the Irish poet, in his poem entiled "Fanny Power," describes him:
"He dreamed of her the livelong day; At evening, when he tried to pray, Instead of other saints, he'd say,--
'O Holy Fanny Power!' How happier seemed an exile's lot, Than living there unloved, forgot; And, oh, best joy! to share his cot, His own dear Fanny Power.
'Tis vain to strive with Passion's might: He left the convent walls one night, And she was won to join his flight Before he wooed an hour. So, flying to a freer land, He broke his vow at Love's command, And placed a ring upon the hand
O' happy Fanny Power!"

The path outlined by the poet has been pressed by the feet of thousands who have through the gate of marriage passed out of the cloister into the world.
Did the priest do wrong to many? Is there a good and valid reason why his heart should die because of the vows? Is not marriage better than prostitution? What say the American people ? The Pope says "Xo/1 "Do as you choose." But the Word of God makes marriage a privilege and a bless ing. It was instituted in Eden, and it survives the fall.
Our priest married, and found his reasons for his conduct in the Word of God. That introduced him to Jesus Christ
the one Mediator. Approaching Him. he came to feel His need. He bowed at His feet. He accepted the offer of salvation, be came a new man in Christ Jesus; and his good wife bears him
company as he traverses the path of duty, and becomes obedi ent to the heavenly calling. Priests have the right to obey God. They have no right to disobey Him because of their fear of man, be he pope or priest.

13 p

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CHAPTER XII.
LIGTJORI AND DENS.
THESE names are synonyms of all that is vile and polluting in Roman Catholic literature. Notwithstanding this, Liguori was canonized as a saint by Pio Nono, and Dens is an authority in the Church, praised by popes and bishops. To give the people a conception of what every priest is compelled to know, and not become guilty of an immorality, is the difficult task assigned to any one who seeks the good of the million, at the risk of imperilling the safety of the individual.
To touch pitch and not be defiled, to write of pollution and not become polluted, is thought by many to be impossible. It were so if it were not that behind the attempt there shines out a purpose so good, so beneficent, and so ennobling, that it sanctifies the effort, and makes it a labor of love. Millions be lieve in Romanism who would not do so if they could see what it was arid is. The Romanism'that poses as a religious organ ization is one thing; Leo XIII. in his semi-centennial jubilee represents that. The Romanism that despoils its worshippers of virtue, that takes from them their Christ, and surrenders them to the wiles of the wicked one, is quite another. This deserves to be studied. Why was auricular confession in vented? Why were these and other filthy dissertations, on the
Nature of Confession, and the Obligation of the Seal,
written? There can be but one answer. The one Was in vented, and these terrible books and others like them were written, that millions of lost men and women might be de livered over to the power of the adversary, that they might be lieve a lie, that they may all be damned. There are but two great forces in the universe. At the head of one is an infinitely holy and loving God, "who so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." At the head of the other is that Devil that tempted Christ, whose mouth is full of promises, who offers favors he can never grant and never means to grant, that he may deceive, if possible, the very elect, and increase the population of hell. The Devil is a factor in this great conspiracy. He is doing his best. His time is short. Truth furnishes arrows that pierce his armor. If we will do our duty, we can break his power in Romanism, and deliver millions from his grasp and control. Before this is accom-

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plished there must be a mighty and a general uprising against
error, and in behalf of the truth. Ministers, churches, and
freemen must be brought face to face with the peril that
threatens the peace of society and the purity of the home.
We legislate against the Mormons. They are far away. We seek to deliver concubines from the control of the perfidious scoundrels who despoil them, and think we do well. The story is told of Randolph, the great Virginia statesman, who re turned home while the war in Greece was raging. It was fashionable to aid the cause by making garments for the Greeks. As the statesman walked up his path, he saw a halfdozen nearly naked negroes, of whom no one thought, and for whom no one cared. Randolph was greeted by the ladies. He saw them busy with their needles and garments, and in quired, "Ladies, what are you doing?' "Making garments for the Greeks." "Ladies, come here." They gathered about him. Pointing to the half-naked Africans, he said, "Ladies, the Greeks are at your door" Americans do not realize it. We talk of and oppose the Mormons. They are not here. They have not yet a vote. Xo one cares to patronize them. But if
the half we would like to tell, if the half of what ought to be. told, could be written and published, no one who could read it and would believe it, would doubt that Romanism--with its confessional and with its priests, usurping the husband's place, and despoiling others of the virtue which teachings (such as Liguori and Dens communicate) have taken from them--is a foe greater, nearer, more desperate, more powerful, more de termined, than Mormonism.

The American People are Asleep
regarding this peril darkening their sky. From boyhood up I have read of Romanism; but with thousands of others, I believed schools were to disintegrate its power, and a pro claimed gospel was to take off the bandages from the eyes. It was not until I had my attention called to the trial of Florence McCarthy, and learned that it was admitted that he gave himself up to drink, that he made vile women his com panions, and that after a fair trial for "assault," he was acquitted, not because of his innocence, not because of any doubt regarding his criminal connection with his servant and other women, but because there is. nothing better expected of priests in Brooklyn, no more than there is of priests in Cuba; that the justice dismissed the suit, claiming that the poor girl did not "resist" enough--that I -saw the peril of the people. Can we realize it? It was the priest who was on trial, not the

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woman. It was the priest's character that was to be weighed. It was weighed. It was proven to be worthless. Did this fact drive him from his Church? ]No. He ministered at the altar as before. Bishop, priest, people, were alike in their toleration of evil, and in the character which made such tolera tion possible. Then the sermon,

"Why Priests Should Wed,"
was written, and read before the Clerical Union of Brooklyn. The facts startled and surprised them. In my church I delivered it. Just prior to beginning the delivery, a friend came and said, "Do you see that group of men yonder in a cluster?" "Yes." "Well, they are Roman Catholics; and some of them are desperate characters." "Thank God!" I said; "they will hear some plain truths."
I preached the sermon. When done. I was told they wanted to see and talk with me. I went over to them. One said, "I am the brother of Fattier So-and-So, and I want to say, every word you luzve said is trite,- and it ought to be told, and I pray God it may be spoken to the people of this continent." Little did I think then that his prayer would be so wonderfully an swered. Another one of the group stepped up, and gave me his hand. He was elegantly dressed. He wore a sad face. He said. "So long ago I married a beautiful woman. She was a Roman Catholic. So am I. Friends told me that my intended was the favorite of Father --------. I did not think that a fault. We were married by that priest. I now find that she is in her heart and in her life his wife, and not mine. There is no divorce in the Church." "I tell you, sir. priests should wed, and have their own wives, and not steal the wives of other men." "The sermon tells a needed truth. I am not alone. If priests are allowed two or three women each month, that means that some one's wife or some one's daughter is being ruined by this devil, in the guise of a saint, and who at the confessional and before the altar stands in the place of Jesus Christ."
When the American people become convinced that the con fessional is simply a soul-trap of Satan, and the well of all spiritual pollutions, the popular mind will revolt, and the sys tem will be overthrown. It is known, and it is admitted by Roman Catholics, that the office of hearing confession is per verted to the ruin of souls by impious men under the influence of their lusts. In saying this it is needless to decry the priests. The fountain is poisoned. The stream is unsafe because of it. The priests and the people are puppets in the hands of a power that controls. By education they are made vile. Their carnal

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19?

nature is not subdued nor redeemed. Into this world of in
iquity they are brought. Their nature is set on fire of hell. The result is terrible beyond the power of description.

Alphonsus de Liguori,
Patrician of Naples, bishop of St. Agatha of the Goths, and founder of the congregation of the Holy Redeemer, was canon ized as a saint by Pio Xono. and is an authority in the Roman Catholic Church. He declares ''auricular confession to be necessary for the remission, of sitis." The voice of the priest, who is legitimately constituted a minister for the remission of sins, is to be heard as that of Christ Himself, Who said to the lame man, "Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee." (Catechism Council of Trent, p. 180; Smith's Synopsis, p. 16). "Form of Penance. Penance is the channel through which the blood of Christ flows into the soul, and washes away the stains contracted after baptism." The form of the absolution or pardon granted by the priest is this, "/ absolve &hee.n (Smith's Synopsis, p. 16).
'"The priest represents the character and discharges the functions of Jesus Christ" and must be obeyed in preference to God." (The same, p. 228). All are bound to obey the priest. "The penitent must submit himself to the judgment of the priest, who is the vice-gerent of God." (Id., p. 183).
Let a woman or girl in the Roman Catholic Church believe this, and it is easy to be seen, how wholly she is in the power of the priest.
The education of the priest is little short of being infernal in character and purpose. Imagine a young man, desiring salvation. He is misled. He is made to believe, that suffering here will save him from suffering by-and-by. He fasts, he sleeps on the floor, he beats himself, he wears steel-pointed plates next his heart, he dresses in haircloth, and comes to imagine himself as representing Christ. Before him come suppliants, who see in this minister of God, sitting in the tribunal of penance, a legitimate judge. The worshiper "ven erates the power and person of our Lord Jesus Christ; for in the administration of this, as in that of the other sacraments, the priest represents the character and discharges the function of Jesus Christ." (Smith's Synopsis, p. 17).
Liguori teaches, "That penance remits all sin; that all are bound to obey the priest, whom they are taught to believe is the vice-gerent of God, and holds the keys of heaven." "Priests and penitents are bound to secrecy." (The same, p. 20). "Eternal life depends, they are taught, on confessing to a

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priest." (The same. p. 45). Open now to "practical instruc tions for the confessor in order that he may hear confessions properly," and see how his theology tolerates sin and favors wickedness. He teaches "how to curse without sin." Swear ing is made easy by Liguori. "To curse the living is a mortal sin, when it is formal, that is. when he who curses intends and wishes a grievous evil to befall the one he curses; but it is no mortal sin to curse the living when the curse pronounced is merely material." (The same, p. 50). Swearing is, then, in
order in the Roman Catholic Church.
"Excuses for violating the Sabbath" are given. "A Roman Catholic must attend mass in the morning, and may do as he
chooses after that." (The same, p. 52).
"On stealing." If small amounts are stolen, it is a venial sin. "Servants may be easily excused who steal from their mas ters." (Smith's Synopsis, p. 55). They are excused, as many know. "Stealing to pay for masses" is allowed. (The same, p. 55;.
"Lying is no lying when a mental reservation is made." He can say "I only made this up in my head since all words which proceed from the mind be said to come from the head,
since the head is taken for the mind." (The same, p. 56).
On the "confession of priests to priests," much is written. All have to confess to a priest, even the Pope himself. Among other things, the priest is to be asked "if he ever solicited female penitents." Rome specifies nineteen different ways in which advantage can be taken of the system of the confessional as a means of solicitation and of seduction. These nineteen cases are subdivided and classified as follows:
1. Solicitation during the act of confession, five cases. 2. Solicitation before the act of confession, two cases. 3. Solicitation immediately after confession, three cases. 4. Solicitation to which confession furnishes an occasion, four cases. 5. Solicitation under the pretext of confession, two cases. 6. Solicitation in the confessional, although no confession is made, one case. 7. Solicitation in any other place beside the confessional, if it is used for purposes of confession, two cases. Who can read this and not be impressed with the extensive applicability of the confessional for purposes of seduction? By the celibacy of the clergy, the priests are led into the highest degree of temptation, and then by the confessional there is offered every opportunity to gratify their desires. What more is needed to secure their ruin? "sin, the danger of confession, gluttony, drunkenness, miscellaneous." Let him read this from

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Liguori, "Conditions Requisite to Sin." "In order to constitute sin," observes the saint, "three conditions are required. 1st. That it be voluntary; that is, that it be committed with the consent of the will. 2d. That it be free; or in the power of him who commits it, to do it or not to do it. 3d. That the thoughts be turned to the motive of it. Hence, if the first con dition, that it be committed with the consent of the will, like a carnal desire even." * * * Then he goes on to explain "consent," and voluntary and involuntary ignorance, so as to
furnish an excuse for sin. (Lig.. Lib. V., n. 3). He says, "Some books are for the people,- others for the priests." "Popery is known," he says, "by none but the priest."1'
Samuel B. Smith, late a Popish priest, published a synopsis of the works of Liguori; and this translation was indorsed by David R. Gilmer. D.D., Duncan Dunbar, D.D.. John Dowling, D.D., and others. I quote from this, because none can object to translations thus indorsed:
"Priestly liberties with females." He says, "It is lawful for confessors cautiously to speak to women when it is neces sary, and to kiss and embrace them according to the custom of the country, if by refraining from it they would be considered uncivil." * * * (Lig., Lib. III., n. 381; Smith's Svnopsis, p. 222).
* * * The latter part of this (Id. ib. n- 483) (suppressing what we blush to translate) we now give in English: "It is lawful for confessors to hear the confessions of women, and to read treatises on immodest subjects. It is also lawful for others to converse with women, to kiss and embrace them,
according to the custom of the country, to wait upon them in baths, and such like things." (Smith's Synopsis, p. 223). "The virtue of obedience, when in doubt whether the thing commanded is against God. The subject is bound to obey the priest, because, although it be against God, nevertheless, on account of the virtue of obedience, the subject does not sin." (Page 22T).
"Children who wish to enter a religious state (that is. to become monks or nuns) are not bound to consult their parents, because in this their parents have no experience; but for their own convenience they become their children's enemies." (Ib. p. 231). Thus is the commandment, "Honor thy father and thy mother," abrogated by the command of a priest.
"Perpetual imprisonment of a nun who is guilty of a griev ous or pernicious crime is enjoined, rather than that she be expelled." In the museum in Mexico is the skeleton of a nun, and between her feet the skeleton of a babe, born while she. the mother, was walled up alive in the tomb of a monastery. This

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and other skeletons were found when the authorities dug streets through the monasteries and convents. That nun was con fined in perpetual imprisonment, in accordance with such teach ings as Liguori gives.
Gambling is allowed. (Liguori, Lib. III., n. 879). "Abso lutely speaking, it is lawful to bet concerning a future event. A person who by reproaches and threats induces another to gamble, and wins his money, is not bound to restore it, because, absolutely speaking, such a person gambles voluntarily." (Id. ib.. n. 880).
"Gambling, according to the definition of the Romish Church, is a contract by which those who gamble mutually agree to give him who wins that which is bet." That is the understanding of men of the world. Is it strange that gamblers and drunkards and whoremongers find a congenial home in the Church of Rome ?
"Sin," says Liguori. ''is to be permitted. Of two evils," says the saint, "the lesser is to be permitted in order to avoid the greater." (Lig., Lib. VI., n. 610).
"Sinners are to be left in sin, when there is no hope of fruit, or danger of scandalizing others, or fear of the loss of character." (Smith's Synopsis, p. 293).
"Priests' Illegitimate Children.--It is prohibited by the con stitution of Pius V. for any clergymen to leave by will any
thing to his illegitimate children. (Smith's Synopsis, p. 293). "Concubines of the Clergy.--A bishop, however poor he
may be, cannot appropriate to himself pecuniary fines without the license of the Apostolical See. But he ought to apply them to pious uses. Much less can he apply those fines to any thing else but pious uses, which the Council of Trent has laid upon non-resident clergymen, or upon those clergymen who keep
concubines" The Pope enriches his coffers by the fines which he receives from the profligates of the clergy. If they keep concubines, they must pay a fine for it; but if they marry they must be excommunicated! This accounts at once for the cus
tom in Spain, and other countries, and especially on the island of Cuba and in South America, where about every priest has
concubines. These abandoned men give themselves up to the gratification of their lusts to an extent that could hardly be believed. A friend just returned from Mexico says the
notorious profligacy of the priesthood is everywhere seen. In one town a bishop was praised as a man, though his conduct with women cannot here be set forth.
"The penalty of accusing .a priest unjustly of solicitation is very great. Such are cut off entirely from the hope of obtaining absolution, except in the end of life," but for indulg-

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ing with a priest there is no punishment, but quick absolution. (Smith's Synopsis, p.' 298).
Priests and Women.--Decrees against decrees, striving to reconcile repugnant doctrines. A former decree of a Jttoman Pontiff, granting a general permission of any thing, is not to be considered as violated by subsequent decrees, which in par ticular cases may limit that former decree. Innocent III., for instance, in cap. A, nobis 9, concerning the cohabiting of priests and women, says, "Women are not allowed to live or dwell in the same house with clergymen, unless perchance they be per sons who are naturally so unsightly and unpleasant that there can be no ground for suspecting the perpetration of any out rageous crime."
In opposition to this decree stands that of the Council of Nannet, the constitution of which was inserted in the compila tion of the decrees of Gregory IX. By this Council it was decreed that even a mother, or aunt, or a sister should not live in the same house with a son, nephew, or brother, if he be a clergyman; that is. if his morals be depraved and the woman's character be suspicious. Therefore as Benedict XIV. remarks, the decretal of Innocent III. constitutes a general rule, to be observed in ordinary circumstances; but the decree of Nannet, sanctioned by Gregory IX., supposes a limitation to the rule, and that it is to be applied only in certain special cases. (Smith's Synopsis, p. 317). In consequence of this, it was found possible to drive a coach and four through the decretal, and as a result the priest keeps his woman as a concubine or as a niece, and the Roman Catholic Church sanctions the positive violation and abrogation of God Almighty's com mands, and plants the heel of her condemnation on the mar riage of the priests, which would bring the priesthood into line with the ministry of Christ, and make them the defenders of virtue rather than the open opponents of it, and the panderers to vice.
''Prostitutes sanctioned." "It is asked," says Liguori,
"whether prostitutes are to be permitted." "In regard to this, he observes, they are to be permitted, because, as a dis tinguished priest says, 'Remove prostitutes from the world,
and all things will be disordered with lust.' Hence in large cities, prostitutes may be permitted." (Ligor.. Lib. III. n. 434). "Concubines are allowed when the priest cannot turn away the woman without scandal or infamy." (Id., n. 435).
Even those who live in concubinage "are allowed to partake of Easter communion rather than that the Church should be
deprived of the advantage of their membership by the sentence of excommunication." (Smith's Synopsis, p. 323).

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Can any system of iniquity match this Church of Kome for the dethronement of virtue, the degradation of the priesthood, and the destruction of the home? Answer it, American citizens
in the light of existing peril, and fight the monster because of what j'ou owe to God and man.

The Difference Between Book and Real Popery
can be seen in Liguori's treatise ana in the life led by priests. He says, "Priests are not allowed to converse with nuns, not even with those subject to them, without the express license not only of the superior order but of the bishop." (Smith's Synopsis, p. 341). "Miss Caracciolo, an ex-Benedictine nun, tells of the priest spending hour after hour with his favorite nun. of his solicitation and license."
Liguori says, "Priests are prohibited from entering nun neries;" and yet all history shows they enter them as they choose, and have control of such nuns as they choose to select.
Liguori says the lady superior shall watch the priest while he confesses a nun. Why? "For the sake of decency and safety." (The same, p. 340). Why? Because a good"priest is eery rare. "Among the priests who live in the world, it is rare and very rare TO FIND ANY that are good.'''1
Says the author of this Synopsis, himself an ex-priest, "What must we think of the female penitents who uncover their lives to men pronounced by Liguori to be bad? What must we think of mothers who thus expose their daughters to danger so imminent? or of the daughters? Where is the modesty of their sex? In regard to husbands, where is their prudence, thus to relinquish the fond partners of their bosoms to men who pry. as we have seen, into all their most inward secrets, to men who question them in regard to all that tran spires in the married life, in order, as they pretend, to form a correct judgment of their consciences? Do they think that there is aught that happens in the domestic circle to which the confessor is a stranger? Let me tell them, No. The priest knows all, and much more than the husband." (The same,, p. 346).
The story is told of a husband who came to mistrust his wife and priest. He had the priest called away. He crept into the confessional in his stead, being dressed in his robe and cap. He heard her tell of his own life with his own wife; the filthiest descriptions were given.
He then made an appointment. He went there, and found his wife dressed in her best style, expecting to receive the priest. The husban'l entered. In due time he explained all,

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and then besought her to abandon such a faith, such a life, and to flee with him to another State. They are now members of an evangelical church. The husband is head of his own house, and no priest dares cross the threshold.

The Popery of Books Differs from Real Popery.
In instilling the poison of popery into the minds of the sub
jects, great precaution is a necessity. That which drops from the lips of the priesthood in public is one thing, and that which is whispered into the ears at the secret tribunal of the confession is quite another. What issues from the pulpit in Protestant countries, is very different from that which is poured out among the people in Popish countries. The secret tribunal of the confession is the place where popery uncovers its hand. Should she do it in the pulpit, the flood of corrup tion would sicken the world, and compel it to spew popery out of its mouth. In the confessional the priest is himself. Here he and his penitent are alone and apart. Here he can fashion his discourse to suit the taste of both. All that tran spires in the dark recess of this tribunal is forever locked up under the seal of inviolable secrecy in regard both to con fessor and penitent. As respects the confessor, he, having the keys, lets out the secret whenever he finds it expedient. The poor penitent is bound fast.

The Quintessence of Popery is Concealed.
The dark arcana of the doctrine are wrapped up in a language which their people do not understand, or are trans mitted orally from pope to pope, from priest to priest, the whisper of which is never heard beyond the scholastic cloisters or monkish cells. Take the cover off, let in the light; and in the light popery, which is darkness, dies.

From Liguori Turn to Dens.
"Dens," said Edgar in his "Variations of Popery," "hi modern times has outrun Basil and all the saints of antiquity on the stadium of blackguardism. His Theology, in which con tamination lives and breathes, is a treasury of filthipgss that can never be surpassed or exhausted." (Edgar's Variations of Popery, p. 541). This statement will be understood after reading extracts from the theological works of the Rev. Peter Dens, D.D., on the Xature of Confession and the Obligation of the Seal, translated by E. Zosinius, a monk of La Trappe.

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The Book Was Indorsed
at a meeting of the Eoman Catholic prelates of Ireland, held on the 14th of September, 1808, when it was unanimously agreed that Dens' "Complete Body of Theology" was the best book on the subject that could be republished. The same indorsement was afterwards renewed.
He asks, "What is the seal of sacramental confession?" Answer.--"It is the obligation or duty of concealing those things which are learned from sacramental confession." "Can a case be given in which it is lawful to break the sacramental seal?" Ans.--"It cannot, though life be forfeited, or a common wealth be destroyed." "What answer, then, ought a confessor to give when ques tioned concerning a truth which he knows from sacramental confession only?" Ans.--"He ought to answer, that he does not know it, and, if it BE NECESSARY, TO CONFIRM THE SAME WITH AN OATH." (Nature of Confession, p. 8).
How Seduction Is Provided For.
If a girl has been seduced by a priest, she may write to the bishop, or get some one to write for her. In the meantime, confessors are advised not lightly to give credit to any woman whatsoever accusing their former confessor, and to show them for denouncing a priest unjustly they commit an unpardonable sin. If the priest then denies, and proof can be given, the penitent loses not only her case, but her soul. The peril is therefore great, and the priest is screened.
"Speaking to a girl is a proximate occasion (of sin) to him who out of every ten times is wont to fall twice or thrice a month into carnal sin."" (The same, p. 30).
"Daily frequenting a tavern with a girl is considered a proximate occasion (of sin) in respect of him who on that account falls twice or thrice a month into like mortal sin." (The same, p. 30).
This twice or thrice a month occurs very frequently, and proves that chastity is not expected, and that gratification of desire is provided for.
"Are the married to be at any time asked in confession about denying the marriage duty?"
Answer.--Yes, particularly the WOMEN, who through ignor ance or modesty, are sometimes silent on * * * whether any thing followed contrary to conjugal * * * (Nature of Confession, p. 33).

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"Are man and wife bound to render each other matrimonial duty?"
Ans.--Each is bound under a mortal sin of injustice to render matrimonial duty to his or her partner, whilst it is expressly required, unless there should occur a legitimate reason for refusing. That is manifest from 1 Cor. vii. . . . Hence the parish priest, either himself personally in the tribunal of the Confessional or by the agency of the pious matron, ought to inform married women of what they should observe with respect to this matter. For instance, it may be asked * * * (The same, p. 33).
It is remarked that women may be guilty * * * (The same, p. 35). ,
Imagine such language being brought to the attention of a young man in full blood, at the age of twenty-five, and think of him in the confessional brought face to face with one who will delight in his ruin.
First, the men sin who * * * (Xature of Confession, p. 37).
Second, the women sin who endeavor to * * * (p. 37). Here let the confessor take note, that the married, lest their children should multiply too * * * (p. 37).
"Should woman fail in her duty, she is not to be absolved/' Prudent confessors are wont, and lay it down regularly, to ask from all the young women going to be married, whether f*ro*m *occ*asio(pn. o3f8)t.heir approaching marriage there occurred
Page after page follows, which shows not only that the theologian is acquainted with every form of lecherous desire, but knows how to ascertain whether the penitent be experi enced in sin.
Think of a married woman being asked if she exercises the conjugal act, partly for the due end. namely * * * (Nature of Confession, p. 44).
"Is it lawful to ask conjugal duty solely with the end or view of avoiding incontinence in one's self, and without the concurring end of generating offspring or of rendering duty?"
Aiis.--"Pontius and many others say. Yes; but it seems better to say, No."
"About what can young men be specially examined at the age of about twenty years? Sufficiently vigorous * * *
Ans.--"Whether the penitent frequents * * * (p. 45).
A paragraph is given "on the carnal sins which man and wife commit with one another." It is shown how they can sin, how * * *

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Sodomy is described, and it is shown how a man and wife may be guilty of this crime.
"And all this being ascertained by the confessor must be severely censured." (Mature of Confession, p. 49).
The word "pay" imports * * * (pp. 50, 51). All this is taught the young priest before he is set apart to his work.
Perhaps enough windows have been raised to see what perils threaten the women and girls of any land, who are com pelled to come in contact with, and be shut up in the society of, men thus schooled.
In "The Garden of the Soul," printed with the approbation of John Hughes, Archbishop of New York, are the following questions :
"Have you been guilty of fornication, or adultery, OE incest, or any sin against nature, either with a person of the same sex, or with any other creature? How often? Or have you designed or attempted any such sin, or sought to induce others to it? How often?
"Have you * * * others, or given or taken wanton kisses, or embraces, or any such liberties ? How often ?"
"Have you abused the marriage bed by any actions con trary to the law of nature? Or by * * * in order to hinder having children? How often?" * * * (p. 59).
"Have you debauched ? * * * (p. 59). "Have jrou taught any one evil, that he knew not before? or carried any one to lewd houses?" "Have you taken pleasure in * * * or not endeavored to resist them ?" (p. 59).

We Close the Book.
We could not have opened it, only to show (1) to what perils the priests are exposed, no matter how virtuous they may be in heart and purpose; (2) to place before the people their reason for gratitude that the young men trained for the evangelical ministry are led by men of pure thought, of ennobling motives; that the theological works they study, from beginning to end, are calculated to lead the soul to the con templation of truth, of duty, and of the needs of life, which result in purity, in consecration, and in devotion to all that is improving and elevating in the world.
(3) To call attention once more to the dangers threaten ing the women and girls in the Roman Catholic Church, who are exposed to the perils threatening them in every confes-

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sional, because of the instructions received by the priests, from Liguori, Dens, and others.
(4) Because the people of this land ought to demand of the Congress of the United States, the appointment of a commis sion to ascertain if what I have said and have left unsaid be true; and, if so, that la\vs should be passed without reference to the false views urged concerning religious freedom, which should shut up the confessionals of the Roman Catholic Church, or print the lecherous and obscene lessons taught to the priests in their seminaries, and by them taught to the people, who are to be helped or hindered in their march with
us by the lessons they receive in the home, in the school, and in the Church. The truth would kill the confessional, and rid us of the Romish curse.
(5) Because it shows all that it is unsafe to let the Roman Catholic Church alone. It is idle to say that "if they lose confidence in the Roman Catholic Church, before they get con fidence in the Church of the future, they will go to infidelity
and atheism." The Church founded by Jesus Christ is the Church of the future. Romanists cannot see Romanism until it be uncovered to the eye, and its deformities and iniquities are exposed to men. It is false to say that "we need the Roman Catholic Church as a check on the impulses of those who are influenced by it, and as a help to those who can not derive aid elsewhere as yet." Admit that, and the
Devil becomes a help in promoting piety, and the brothel is made to be the ally of the sanctuary. Those who claim that the twentieth century will dispose of the Papacy, know not what they write. It is not the twentieth century, or any other century, that did or will dispose of Popery. It is the truth of the gospel proclaimed by those who believe the truth, and who proclaim it. feeling that those who know the truth shall be helped by it. and the truth shall make them free.

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CHAPTEE XIII.
Xo SURRENDER TO ROME.
"THE beneficent ministry of Rome to mankind" is a delusion <tnd a snare. Let us say it, and knowing what we know, and seeing what we have seen, unite in saying No sur render. The cost of a surrender to Rome deserves considera tion. It is in the air to worship the beast, because the Devil inhabits the air. He is called "the prince of the power of the air.''' The Devil inhabits Romanism. The Devil is at home in Romanism. The world loves its own; and hence the world, beastly in its proclivities, bows down to the "'beast" as to its God. Emperors, presidents, kings, all without God, worship the beast. Romanism is a monstrosity. It is inconceivable in extent, in purpose, and in plan, because it is the creation of that being cast down from heaven to hell, and doing his utmost to capture the race, and whelm it in ruin. Romanism is a diabolical plot. By its aid millions on millions have been ruined, ami millions more are on the way. Nothing but the gospel of Christ can save them. Every surrender to Rome injures them. The truth alone can redeem them. As a system of error, Romanism is more to Satan than is Mohammedanism, Brahmanism, or any other of the great systems of error that have found on this earth a theatre for operation, and in the soul of man a place for habitation. Rome stays longer. It holds a larger place in prophecy. It has in it more brain, more skill, more wit. and more wisdom. In the service of Rome, at this hour, are some of the mightiest intellects of the race. Pity it is that it is true. To Macaulay it was a mystery that a man who had balanced worlds, and weighed them, that was familiar with science and literature, could starve and dwarf his soul so as to make a god out of a wafer which he could eat. and which a rat could eat as well. God is angry with men because of this. Stupidity is not innocence. God says, "If ye will not hearken to me. to walk in my law, which I have set before you. then will I make this house like Shiloh. and will make this city a desolation." To the individual and to the city or country that bows down to Rome, there is peril. Though the peril of this surrender has been put into language. Satan closes the ears and blinds the eyes. Though it is known that popery has made Rome a den of shame, and Italy the home of paupers, yet thousands wecome it here, though they are aware that it is contributing more to the decay of religious and even political ethics than any other combina tion organized in the history of the human race.

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To worship the beast, is to stand with the supporters of Home. Men cannot serve God and Baal. Recently this lan guage was used by one who ought to have known better and ought to have done better: "It is said that there are among us those who are alien in religious thought and feeling, and pur pose and corporate action, who are aiming a blow at the foundation of our institutions and our civilization, by striking at the public school system. / hare no religious prejudices" said this distinguished divine. ''No religious prejudices!" Does he mean by this that those who fight Rome are ruled by prejudice? Prejudice is an opinion formed without due knowl edge. This man stultifies himself, for he says, "I recognize its beneficent service to humanity during the Middle Ages." That would have the appearance of being a religious prejudice of the most baneful kind. What service did Rome render to humanity in the Middle Ages? By persecution. bjT fire and fagot, by casting God's children into boiling vats of oil. by throwing others over the precipice, by putting to death mil lions of the lovers of Christ, Rome extinguished the lights of Christianity, and then sank into such depths of shame that by universal consent the times in which her rule prevailed are
called the Dark Ages.
In Piedmont in 1160 the AValdenses found a home. Though they were harmless in their behavior, inoffensive in their con versation, and paid tithes to the Romish clergy, yet the latter could not be contented, but wished to give them some disturb ance ; they accordingly complained to the archbishop of Turin, that the TValdenses of the valley of Piedmont were heretics,
for these reasons:
1. That they did not believe in the doctrines of the Church of Rome.
2. That they made no offerings for prayers for the dead.
3. That they did not go to mass.
4. That they did not confess, and receive absolution. 5. That they did not believe in purgatory, or pay money to get the souls of their friends out of it. Upon these charges, the archbishop ordered a persecution to be commenced, and thousands and thousands were slain. Rome had religious prejudices, and acted on them, and blood ran in streams through the valleys of Piedmont. At length they flew to arms, and resisted the invaders. After this, the Nuncio of the Pope called on the Duke of Savoy, who was a Papist, and told him he was surprised that Protestantism had not been rooted out of Piedmont, that he could not help look ing upon such conduct with a suspicious eye, and that he really thought him a favorer of the heretics, and should report the
HP

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affair according to his Holiness the Pope. "Stung by this reflection, and unwilling to be misrepresented to the Pope, the duke issued express orders for all the Waldenses to attend mass regularly on pain of death. This they resolutely refused to do; on which he entered the Piedmontese valley, with a formidable body of troops, and began a most furious persecu tion, in which great numbers were hanged, drowned, ripped open, burned, stabbed, racked to death, tied to trees and pierced with prongs, thrown from precipieces, crucified with their heads downwards, worried by dogs, etc. Those who fled had their goods plundered, and their houses burnt to the ground. They were particularly cruel when they caught a minister or a schoolmaster, whom they put to such exquisite tortures as are almost incredible to conceive." (Mysteries of Romanism, p. 165). "The Roman Catholic inhabitants of the valley of St. Martin likewise did all they could to vex and torment the neighboring Waldenses; they destroyed their churches, burned their houses, seized their properties, stole their cattle, con verted their land to their own use, committed their ministers to the flames, and drove the Waldenses to the woods, where they had nothing to subsist on but wild fruits and the bark of trees." (The same. p. 166).
Turn to Ireland,
and gain a conception of the "beneficent ministry of Rome" by looking at some scenes in the Irish massacre.
"Though the various attempts made by the Irish against the English usually go under the name of rebellion, yet they deserve more properly the epithet persecution, as all their destructive efforts were particularly levelled at the Protestants only, whom they were determined, if possible, totally to extir pate from the kingdom. In 1641 came the O'>ieal conspiracy, in which it was planned to murder every Protestant in Ireland. The day fixed was October 23, 1641, the feast of Ignatius Loyola. Men and women were put to every form of cruelty which the devilish ingenuity of man could devise. In the Castle of Lisgool a hundred and fifty men, women and children were burned together. At the Castle of Moneah not less than one hundred were put to death by the sword. Some of them were laid with the centre of their backs on the axletree of a carriage, with their legs resting on the ground on one side, and their arms and heads on the other. In this position one of the savages scourged the wretched object on the thighs, legs, etc., while another set on furious dogs who tore to pieces the arms and upper part of the body; and in this dreadful man ner were they deprived of their existence. Great numbers were

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fastened to horses' tails, and the beasts being set on full gallop by their riders, the wretched victims were dragged along till they expired. Others were hung on lofty gibbets, and a fire being kindled under them, they finished their lives partly by hanging and partly by suffocation. Nor did the more tender sex escape the least particle of cruelty that could be projected by their merciless and furious persecutors. Many women of all ages were put to deaths of the most cruel nature. Some, in particular, were fastened with their backs to strong posts, and, being stripped to their waists, the inhuman monsters cut off their right breasts with shears, which, of course, put them to the most excruciating torments, and in this position they were left till, from loss of blood, they expired."
"Such was the savage ferocity of these Romanists, that even unborn infants were dragged from the womb to become vic tims to their rage. Many unhappy mothers, who were near
the time of their delivery, were hung naked on the branches of trees, and their bodies being cut open, the innocent offspring were taken from them and thrown to dogs and swine. And to increase the horrid scene, they would oblige the husband to be a spectator before he suffered himself." (Mysteries of Roman ism, p. 222). Such are the boasted ministeries of Rome. That the Romish clergy were behind all these persecutions, goes without saying. Their treacherous and disloyal behavior to Queen Elizabeth was no greater and no more marked than it was to Queen Victoria. A full description of the barbarities they incited would require volumes. They ought to be read and pondered.
Rome's ministry to Spain has been so bad, that her people have become so poor, so ignorant, so ill-fed, that the pestilence feeds and fattens on them as nowhere else in the world. Thomas of Cantinpre, one of the early lights of the Dominican order, is authority for a legend, which represents the Devil
as thanking the prelates of the Church "for conducting almost all Christendom to hell" (History of Sacerdotal Celibacy, by H. C. Lea, p. 354). Such is "the beneficent ministry of Romanism" to mankind. Romanism as a police force is being applauded. It is said, "I know that I am securer in person and property. I know that my daughters are safer today, be cause of the Roman Catholic Church." If this be so, it is be cause Rome knows her man.
As a police force, Rome is not a success. Enter Paris on the night of St. Bartholomew. All was peace. Coligni and the leaders of the Protestant party were in the town as guests of the King, invited there to attend the nuptials of Henry of Navarre. The clock strikes. Conspirators and murderers sally

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forth. Over thirty thousand are slain in Paris, and thousands on thousands throughout France. The same was true in New York, when Archbishop Hughes was accused of inciting the riot which tore down the Colored Orphan Asylum, and trampled out the young lives of the children.
As a police force it does not make us feel more secure when we read in Liguori that stealing is permitted, and that lying is a fine art.
The Statesmanship of Rome is Praised.
How sickening are such panegyrics! Statesmanship is identified with the upbuilding of states. Look at Italy, with eighty per cent, of her population unable to read and write! Look at countries where Romanism is supreme. You find the wheels of progress still. Rome panders to every thing that is vile. If Rome is described by the word "beast" then the things done are beastly. That the tendency of Romanism is in this direction is evident to all who study it and know it.
Men who drink, and want some kind of a religion, can join Rome. A drunkard can bow down at one end of the church, and be ministered unto by a drunkard at the altar. If one goes to heaven, the other will; and so the blind lead the blind, and both shall fall into the ditch of destruction at last. The beastly has rule. A man who trifles with virtue.finds a con genial home in the Church of Rome. Says one who was once with them, "The sober American people will scarcely believe what I have to say about the intemperance of the priests, although I shall not say all the truth. They feast almost daily; they drink to excess; they gamble; and, when their money is gone, they GAMBLE THEIR MASSES. The winner says to the loser, 'You will say ten, twenty masses for me.' He therefore keeps for himself the money he has received from some deluded woman, and the loser has to say them. Priests call their days of revelling after some notable battle. Empty bottles they call corpses. They often quarrel on- their Marengo or Austerlitz day when drunk, and roll among their bottles in utter helplessness." (Confessions of a French Catholic Priest, p. 108),
God holds the American people responsible for flattering wrong-doing. They know better, or might know better. "If any man worship the beast, he shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God." If it curses to worship the beast and to be come beastly, it blesses to worship Christ and to become Christly. As the former Christians of Egypt, who at the peril of their lives penetrated into the temples of idolatry, searched in the bosom of a gloomy sanctuary for the pretended divinity

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offered by the priesthood to the worship of a deceived people, and carried to the light, instead of the god the ignorant im
agined was within, the horrible monster they found, and held it up to them, pointing them to Christ; so let Christians draw from the darkness the idol of popery, and, showing it to man kind, shout with a voice which shall ring throughout the land, "We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and was, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and has reigned." (Rev. xi. 17).
God inhabits the truth. To stand with God is the highest wisdom. Whoever does that is identified with all that is ennobling, helpful, life-giving, in the universe. Liberty, soul liberty, liberty to grow, to believe the truth, to reject error, finds in God its author. Civilizations are the product of the seed-sowing of truth.
There are battles being fought above us. The battle of Lookout Mountain was fought above the clouds by men who were trained on the earth.

The Battle now raging above
is being fought by the angels of God and by the minions of Satan. It is our privilege to stand with the angels of God, and to share in the shout of a universal victory when it comes, as come it will. Then the earth will be lightened with the glory of God.
Today the world's need is a man that will not surrender to JtJome. Can we say that in all" the land such a man has appeared ? The age waits for him. How few knights-errant there are ready to ride out into the field and level their lances at Rome, and in the eye of the world fight for God and the right!
In contrast with the Presbyterian divine praising the "beneficent ministry of Rome," read these words of L. K. Washburn, in a speech delivered in Boston, Mass. He says:
"We may as well face the fact that the Catholic Church intends to educate her own children, and to educate them to suit herself. The fear that the influence of popular education upon the mind of the Catholic youth would be fatal to the authority of the priesthood, has been realized; and the Catholic parent has been urged to support the parochial school, and threatened to the extent of ecclesiastical punishment if he
refused. "Catholicism has reached its crucial period, and it has
acknowledged that it cannot contend in the open arena of the intellect with the forces of modern civilization. In a few years

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the Church would become a thing of the past, were the tducating and emancipating power of scientific knowledge and liberal
ideas allowed to influence the mind. There is but one purpose in establishing separate schools for Catholic children, and that
is, to make Catholics. It is not to give the child a better education, to teach what cannot be had in the public schools, that the already heavily-taxed parents are commanded to con
tribute towards the maintenance of parochial schools, but that
the priest may have the power to mould the mind of the child in the doctrines of the Church. Can we afford to have in this State, or in this country, an ecclesiastical education that is
directly oposed to the spirit of our government, that makes war upon our free institutions? It seems to me that every man who lives in the United States should be first an American citizen; that he should be concerned first in those things that
will make his country prosperous, and that will secure to his children the blessings of liberty which he enjoys."
"The establishment of Catholic schools does not mean the desire for a better or higher education. Catholicism does not rest upon enlightenment, it does not flourish where there is knowledge, it does not conquer where there is freedom. This
ecclesiastical vampire has fastened to our nation, to suck its life-blood, and to fatten upon the growth of our land.
"Dr. McGlynn tells the truth when he says, 'It is not risking
too much to say, that if there were no public schools there would be very few parochial schools, and the Catholic children, for all the churchmen would do for them, would grow up in
brutish ignorance of letters.'
"It might be queried whether a priest would tell the truth about Catholicism, but it is safe to say that he would--after he had quit the Church. The question whether attendance at a parochial school will answer the reqirements of the statute respecting compulsory education, needs to be answered.
Whether all supervision of these Catholic schools is to be left to the Church, is another matter to be decided. If it is, we may rest assured that no education that will make the pupil more than a good Catholic will be permitted. The State should
say to every citizen within her borders: ;If you cannot sup port our public institutions, you had better emigrate.' I do not believe that this government was founded to give aid and comfort to the enemies of political or religious liberty. I do not believe that the United States can afford to invest in any more population that cannot read or write; and I do not believe that any organization that is opposed to the education
received in our public schools has any business in this country.
"We do not need and we do not want people here who

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demand the liberty to establish a despotism. We have no room
for a Church that is afraid of knowledge, that declares that the secular schools of the United States 'cannot be frequented with a safe conscience,' that they are full of 'deadly peril.' I agree fully with Mr. Carrigan of the State Board of Educa tion. He says, 'Our institutions are purely American, and
those who object to them we can well afford to lose.' But the difficulty is. you cannot get rid of them. Archbishop Williams,
in an address to the clergy of his diocese, a short time ago, urged them to 'establish Catholic schools in every parish.' He should have urged them to see that their parishioners sent their children to some school, and saved the State from the
disgrace of having a hundred and twenty-one thousand persons ten years of age and' over who are unable to read and write. It is a fact that nearly the whole nine thousand persons in Fall River who are 'unable to read and write in any language' are Catholics, or children of Catholic parents.
"The Catholic Church knows that the' effect of education is to make man independent of priestly control. For this church to educate her subjects, in any fair sense of the word, would be to commit suicide. The Catholic school is simply a
device to keep education away from the mind of the child.
"Catholicism has expressed its fear of popular education and popular knowledge. It has acknowledged, that, if it keeps up with civilization, it must leave behind its theology. It knows that science is its executioner. Every natural fact is a witness against it. It has no hope, only in prolonging dark ness. It dies at the sunrise of truth in the soul. The whole stock in trade of Romanism is superstition. It has nothing else to preach, nothing else to teach. It is a dead religion, and fitly reads its prayers in a dead language. Instead of letting
in the light of the future, it shuts out the light of the present. Xone of its products are worthy of this age. Its dogmas, instead of being guideboards on the road of life, are only
scarecrows.
"One teacher is worth a thousand priests, one wife and. mother, a thousand nuns: one husband and father, a thousand monks; and one MAX, a thousand Catholics. Catholicism makes a pretentious use of the word 'morality' today, and lays particular emphasis upon the necessity of moral-education for the young. The moral trimming on the religious gown of the Catholic Church is very scant and narrow. There are nine
parts of theology to one part of morality in its creed. "I cannot believe that this age is to be turned backward,
that what has been done for freedom is to be undone, that all
that the world is working for is never to be realized. Man

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stands today at the wheel of liberty. His hand is on the plough of reform. His foot is on the stair of progress. In his grasp he carries the banner of hope; and he goes forward, not to be nailed to the cross of defeat, but to win for his brow the crown of victory.
''I believe in this country, in the Declaration of Independ ence, in the Constitution of the United States, and in every amendment to the Constitution. I believe in free thought, free speech, and a free press; and I never want to see any power in this land that shall forbid the mind to think, the lips to speak, or that shall control the newspaper--this product of the nineteenth century--in the interest of priestcraft." (L. K. Washburn, Investigator, Dec. 28, 1887).
These words denote the ground-swell for freedom. The wave will rise higher and higher, until Romanism shall be submerged, and her people carried to the table-land of a new era, where education and enlightenment shall become the in heritance and the watchword of her people.
Rome plots the breaking up of the British Empire. Car dinal Manning boldly avows this purpose. "We have," said he, "to break or bend that will which nations have found in vincible and inflexible." Were England, the stronghold of Protestantism, overthrown, Protestantism, says Cardinal Man ning, would be conquered throughout the world. The fight in Ireland against England means Popery against religion. It declares that the Pope has found in Ireland a fulcrum on which to plant the lever of his hellish intent to subvert the altar of hope for humanity. Romanism in England and in America must be crippled and held and restrained, that there may be progress.
Religious liberty is now to be discussed through all its
moods and tenses. There is a difference between religious and devilish liberty, between a liberty to do right and a liberty to do wrong. Religious liberty is the pennant which flies from the mast-head of the Ship of State as it sails out upon the sea gf a world's troubled life--liberty to worship God. not to serve the Devil; liberty to be true, not false.
The Pope as a prisoner in the Vatican seeks deliverance, and claims that the Holy See ought to be independent of what ever terrestrial authority, that the Church is a divine institu tion, and that to try to reduce its interests to a question of the laws of Italy can only be the result of most deplorable blind ness. (Pope Leo's Speech to the Pilgrims at his semi-centen nial Jubilee in Rome, Jan. 3, 1888). Opposed to him is the free-spirit of the world. Let the good and true of all parties, who love their God and Bibles and country, and upon whose

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strong arm and bold heart rests the question, whether hu
manity shall be free to worship God, or become the slave of the Pope--determine that the Scriptures shall be circulated, that the press shall be kept unmuzzled, that the pulpit and the
school shall be free, so that the spiritual may be trained and fitted to be the dome of the mental and physical and spiritual nature. Then shall the old refrain of "Glory to God in the
highest, peace on earth, and good vrill to men," be sung again,
as darkness disappears, and the sun of truth is unveiled to our eyes.
Eome is ready for the death-grapple. Are the lovers of
God ready ? If not, then get ready. They have not a moment to lose. There is peril in betraying truth. There is safety and happiness in proclaiming it. In the olden times men fought their great naval battles on the sea, while their wives and chil
dren, from the rocky heights of the shore above them, gazed down upon them. They fought under their eye. If their cour age failed, they looked above and were made strong. Today
heaven's ramparts are crowded with witnesses of what we do and of what we seek to achieve. In their centre is Jesus Christ, and the cloud of witnesses. Let us play the part of men, and be true, and we shall have the help of God and the
blessing of the true and the noble of the earth.

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CHAPTER XIV.
How PRIESTS INVADE THE HOME.
PRIESTS do invade the homes of the Protestants, of the Catholic, and of the infidel. They poison the atmosphere which all breathe. They lower the standard of public opinion. They make war on morality and virtue. They countenance wrong doing. They tolerate evil, and reward vice. "Evil communica tions corrupt good manners," (I Cor. xv. 33) in America as in Europe or elsewhere, in our time as in Paul's time. The celebrated Dean Swift having preached a sermon against sleep ing in church, began his application in this manner: "These arguments may have weight with men awake, but what shall we say of the sleeper? By what process shall we arouse him to a sense of his danger?" These words form a good introduc tion to the consideration of the methods by which priests invade the home. Some who are awake know that homes are invaded, but thousands ignore the fact that popery is the religion of depraved human nature. What Toplady said of Arminianism is applicable to it. Every man is born a Papist. Eome would not go far wrong if she counted in her member ship every man, woman, and child in the broad road to an eternal hell. Every Papist comes into the world not only in a state of alienation from God, but with an innate propensity to trust in himself, or in something done by himself, or by his fellow-creatures, to obtain the favor or remove the dis pleasure of God.
Christianity reveals a Saviour Who has obeyed and suffered in the room of the guilty; who has, in short, done every thing that was necessary to reconcile sinners to their offended Creator, and every sinner who believes in Him is so reconciled. This reconciliation is necessarily and invariably accompanied by a radical change in the character as well as the state of the individual. He becomes a new creature. He commences a new and spiritual life; or, to use the emphatic words of our Saviour, "/i is born again." And without this no man can see the kingdom of God. The future life of such a person is charac terized by a hatred of sin, and a daily opposition to it in all its motions and operations in his own heart, together with a love of righteousness, and an earnest desire to please and serve God. It requires nothing less than the power of the Holy Spirit to produce this change, and nothing short of this will be recognized by the righteous Judge as Christianity. This fits an individual for our home or any other home, and brings him into such relations with God, that, because of

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\vhat has been wrought within the soul, he loves the things God loves, and hates the things God hates. He stands with the right against the wrong, not because he may. but because he must.
Popery ignores all this. By the sacrament of baptism a priest claims to have the power to regenerate the sinner. This requires no subjugation or surrendering of the will, no repent ance of sin, no confession of Christ. By baptism he is told that all his sins are taken away. Do we believe it? Turn to any Romish catechism, and read this question and answer. Question.--"What are the effects of baptism?" JLn.--"A total remission of original and actual sin, with the pains due them."
By the sacrament of penance all the sins committed after baptism are forgiven; and by extreme unction, when he comes to die, he is assured of everlasting happiness, after a little of purgatory, which will be made as short as possible if the money is forthcoming to pay for masses. All the time, from baptism until death, the person is unconscious of any change having taken place in the state of his heart towards God or holiness. His affections are carnal; he is in love with sin, and he continues to live in it, flattering himself that his soul is safe because he observes all the prescribed forms of his religion.
To rule such a man, no religion is required, if by religion we mean a binding a man back to God. A Romanist is loosened from God, and has the sanction of his Church in going to the Devil. He pleases himself; he can swear, break the Sabbath, dishonor his parents, lie. steal, commit adultery, and whatever else lies in his way, or is prompted by his heart, and get on nominally in a church whose head is pollution and whose body is a body of death. Do we doubt this? Be it known, then, "that Paul III. in the third year of his papacy granted a bull for publicly licensing brothels, and gave an indulgence for the commission of lewdness, provided the man paid a certain fine to the Holy See. and the woman a yearly sum for her license, and entered her name in the public register. In the days of this pope there are said to have been forty-five thous and such women in Rome; and, besides the amount of the annual license which each took out for the privilege of pros titution, the Church received a part of their weekly income/"
"Each brothel had an iron chest fixed into the wall, into which every man put his offering: and three agents of the Holy See went round weekly to open the chests, and divide what was found in them. One-third part went to the house, one-third to the women, and one-third to the holy Church, for

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the purpose, it was pretended, of redeeming captives of the Romish religion from the Turks. If any man chose to be wicked in a more private manner, and went to a person or a house unlicensed, he was, on discovery, to be excommunicated, or to pay seven times the price which his sin would have cost in a lawful way."
Such is the holy church. In the Vatican dwell three hun dred women. For what ? Monasteries and nunneries are built in close proximity. Why? In a Florida town is a convent that owns a rumshop, where sometimes a score of priests warm up with wine, whiskey, and brandy, and then under a covered archway pass to the nunnery, and spend the residue of the night in a bacchanalian revel. In Dubuque, Iowa, the bishop
openly lets houses for prostitution, and pockets the proceeds for the Church. In St. Louis, prostitution was licensed; and
Paul III. and the teachings of Romanism furnished the example and the authority.
It is pitiable, it is terrible, that, if any one will but implicitly submit to all the impositions of the Church, he may live as wickedly as he pleases, and be assured of heaven at last. Charles II. of England died with prostitutes about him, a disgrace to England and to himself; and Rome gloried in him as a convert. The more of man and the less of God in Rome, the more Romanism is praised by those who prefer a lie to the truth. Romanism is a fact. It walks in darkness, and opposes the truth. Though there are more than seven millions of Roman Catholics sheltered beneath the aegis of the Republic of the United States, and two hundred and fifty millions in the world deluded by error and shrouded in the folds of Papal if not of Pagan night, yet, such is the tendency of Churchanity to usurp the place of Christianity, that many believe that because these millions belong to a so-called church, they are
not only housed from danger, but are harmless if not helpful factors in religious work. As a result, men who take high
rank in the Church as well as in the world, give money to suport their protectories and asylums, help them to found colleges, build and maintain convents, forgetful that they who
help error and encourage it become its slaves. Vice tolerated pollutes and stains the soul. Hence God says, "Abhor that which is evil." Eject it. Cast it from you. "Have no fellow ship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them." "For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by this light, for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. Wherefore God saith, Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." (Eph. v. 11-14).

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A young man enters a hotel. In the passage-way he is met by a wretch in the shape of a well-dressed book-agent. He invites the young man to look for a moment at a book. It is opened. His eye rests on a lascivious picture placed there to excite and capture him. "What does he do? Does he wel come it? Does he take the book in his hands, and turn over its pages, and look at the various pictures until his passions are
aroused, and he is ready to accept the invitations lodged be tween its pages inviting him to a brothel ? If so he is ruined; the ruin had been brought before; now it reveals itself. But
if he is indignant; if his soul abhors the evil; if he pushes the man aside, dashes the book to the floor, and grinds it with his heel, then he passes into the hotel a self-respecting man. Because of what had been wrought in his soul, he is safe.
He is incased in armor, because his heart is the home of purity. The value of the religion of Christ is seen in what it works
in a man, and does for a man. It makes him a "new creature in Christ Jesus; old things are passed away; all things have become new." How will this uncovering of the pollutions of Rome be received ?

It Is a Momentous Question.
Romanism is being tolerated. The universal toleration of Romanism would mean the sounding-forth of the knell of hope. Religion dies where Romanism thrives. Education is abandoned; virtue loosens its belt, and vice takes the reins, and drives wherever inclination and passion may direct.

Look at Mexico,
A country less known to the people of the United States than is any State in Europe. Romanism had full swing. As a result, ignorance was the rule. Crime went unchecked. To virtue the people were strangers. To poverty, to degradation, to criminal living, they were to the manor born. The war of the Rebellion had begun. Louis Napoleon desired to found a Latin empire on this Western continent, making Mexico its capital, and uniting to it the southern half of the Republic of the United States, then in rebellion against the ascendency of freedom, and the supremacy of the stars and stripes. The Pope, the Roman Catholic Church, and eevry lover of despotism in the world was with him. Against him were the lovers of liberty and the haters of Romanism in Mexico, led by Benito Juarez, a Zapotec Indian, a race that were of the mountainous portions of the country, and who had never been fully conquered by the Spaniards. As far back as 1856, when

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a member of the Cabinet of Alvarez, Juarez had been instru mental in the adoption of a political constitution, which was based on the broadest republican principles, and which pro vided for free schools, a free press, a complete subjugation of the ecclesiastical and military to the civil authority. Hitherto, members of the army, and all the ecclesiastics, could only be
tried for offences b> privileged and special tribunals, com posed of members of their own orders; but the constitution of Jiiarez abolished all that, and proclaimed, for the first time in Mexico, the equality of all men before the law.
This government was overthrown by force, and Maximilian of Austria was, by the power of the Papal Church, installed as emperor. The priests were against the people, and the enemies of liberty. Maximilian was a man of elegant pres ence, winning manners, and of much refinement and culture; and these qualities, with undoubted personal courage, con tributed to give him a certain amount of personal popularity and sympathy. But he was an absolutist, and in devotion to the Roman Catholic church an extremist to the point of fanaticism. The first is seen in his establishing a court, with orders of nobility, decorations, and minute ceremonials; the construction and use of an absurd state carriage, modelled after the style of Louis XIV., and still shown in the National
Museum; and more, by the proclamation and execution of an order (which subsequently cost Maximilian his own life), that all republican officers taken prisoners in battle by the im perialists should be summarily executed as bandits. The second charge is proven by his walking barefoot, on a day of pilgrimage, all the way over some two or three miles of dusty, disagreeable road, from the City of Mexico to the shrine of the virgin of Guadalupe. (David A . Wells: Study of Mexico, p. 79).
As the overthrow of the rebellion in 18G5 made it certain
that Louis Napoleon and his Latin empire must seek safety in flight, at any rate must turn from the Western continent, the French forces were withdrawn from Mexico. Maximilian should have gone with them. The Church party persuaded him to remain, pledging him their support. Maximilian
returned to the City of Mexico, and went to his doom. The republican forces trmmped over despotism, Maximilian was executed, and Benito Juarez became president of the republic. What did he find? This: the Church had despoiled Mexico of
hope, of honor of faith, of religion; Romanism must get out of the way, that the republic might live. Get out of the way it did. The entire property of the Church was confiscated to the use of the State. "Every convent, monastic institution,

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or religious house was closed up, and devoted to secular uses." (Study of Mexico, D. A. Wells, p. 81). Streets were dug through the foundations; and then and there the inquisitorial hate, as it wreaked its vengeance upon hapless victims, was uncovered. Walled-up graves, dungeons, and horrid imple ments of torture, were revealed. Romanism in Mexico was
the same as Romanism in Rome and, everywhere. It is as bad as it can be, wherever opportunity is furnished it to exchange freedom for despotism, education for ignorance, and super stition for Christianity.
Mexico had more than enough of homes wrecked, of prop erty grasped, of the people being tyrannized by it: hence the members of every religious society, from the Jesuits to the Sisters of Charity who served in the hospitals, or taught in the schools, were banished, and summarily sent out of the country. As a result, no convent or monastery now openly
exists in Mexico; and no priest, or sister, or any ecclesiastic can walk the streets in any distinctive costume, or take part in any religious parade or procession; and this in towns and cities where, twenty years ago or less, the life of a foreigner or
sceptic who did not promptly kneel in the street at the "pro cession of the host" was imperilled. Again, while Catholic worship is still permitted in the cathedrals and in a sufficient
number of other churches, it is clearly understood that all these structures, and the land upon which they stand, are absolutely the property of the Government, liable to be sold and converted to other uses at any time, and that the officiating clergy are only "tenants at will." Even the ringing of the church bells is regulated by law. All those rites, furthermore, which the Catholic Church has always classed as among the holy sacraments and exclusive privileges, and the possession of which has constituted the chief source of her power over society, are also now regulated by civil law. The civil authority registers births, performs the marriage ceremony,
and provides for the burial of the dead; and while the mar riage ceremonies are not prohibited to those who desire them, they are legally superfluous, and alone have no validity. (See Report on Church and State in Mexico, by Consul-General Strother, December, 1883). This achievement was as momen
tous to Mexico as was the abolition of slavery to the United States. Romanism was worse in Mexico, morally, financially, and intellectually, than was slavery to the Republic of the United States.
Romanism had eaten out the life of the nation. The people saw it. When the uprising for liberty came, the Roman Catholic Church stood across the track, and went down be-

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cause of th'e triumph of free thought. The invasion of the
home by the priesthood had despoiled it. The rule of the
priesthood had impoverished the people. The Church held property to the amount of three hundred million dollars, and derived a revenue of over twenty-two millions, or more than
the aggregate of all the revenues which the State derived from its customs and internal taxes. Some of this property thrown into the market was bought by Protestant denominations. Thus the former spacious headquarters of the order of Fran ciscans, with one of the most elegant and beautifully propor tioned chapels in the world within its walls, and fronting in part of the Calle de San Francisco, the most fashionable street in the City of Mexico, was sold to Bishop Riley and a wellknown philanthropist of Xew York, acting for the American Episcopal Missionary Association, at an understood price of thirty-five thousand dollars, and is now valued at over two hundred thousand. In like manner the American Baptist Home Missionary Society whose motto is "North America for Christ.'7 have gained an ownership and control in the city of Pueblo, of the old Palace of the Inquisition, and have a large printing establishment, school, and flourishing church in Mexico. The former Palace of the Inquisition in Mexico is
now a medical college while the Plaza de San Domingo, and where the unto de fe was once held, is now used as a market place. A former magnificent old convent, to some extent recon
structed and repaired, also affords quarters to the National Library, which, in turn, is largely made up of spoils gathered from the libraries of thie religious ''orders" and houses. Is it not possible that Americans will yet strip Rome in the United States, and leave her naked among her enemies? It will be done as soon as freemen comprehend her true character.
Would you see how priests invade the home, read the official report of the Mexican Government in 1879. It says, "The Mexican nation was for a long time dominated by the Roman Catholic clergy, which came to establish the most absolute fanaticism and the most complete intolerance. Not only was the exercise of any other religion save that of the Roman Catholic faith permitted, but for a long time the Inquisition prevailed, with all its horrors; and all those not
professing the Roman Catholic faith were considered as men without principle or morality. The exercise of any other worship, and still more, the propagation of any other religion except the Roman Catholic, would have occasioned in Mexico, up to a little more than twenty years ago, the death of any one attempting to undertake such an enterprise, inasmuch as it was considered an act meritorious in the eyes of the Divinity,

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the extermination of those who pretended to make proselytes in favor of any other religion." (Study of Mexico, p. 89).
The attitude of the government towards the Protestant sects is seen in the answer of the governor of one of the im portant states of Mexico, to a Protestant clergyman who had made application for military protection for his church against a threatened mob:
"Sir, I willingly give you the desired protection, as it is my duty to see that the laws are respected; and, while I feel no interest whatever in your religious forms or opinions, we are all interested in encouraging the organization of a body of clergy strong enough to keep the old Church in check." "Whether the Catholic Church will accommodate itself to the new order of things, and be content to live peaceably side by side with liberty and full religious toleration; or whether, smarting under a sense of injustice at its spoliation, and rest less under the heavy hand of an antagonistic government, it waits its opportunity to array itself against the powers that be--is yet to be determined."
"They may be illustrated," says ex-Consul Strother. "by a glance at the grand plaza of the city, across an angle of which the palace of the Liberal Government and the old cathedral stand looking askance at each other. On the one hand, at the guard-mounting, the serried lines of bayonets and the rattling drums appear as a daily reiterated menace and warning. On the other, we might naturally expect to hear from the cathedral towers a responsive peal of indignant pro test and sullen defiance. Yet we remember that it is not the clergy, but the government, which holds the bell-rope?
It will not be disputed that under this policy more has been done for the regeneration and progress of Mexico than in all former 3rears. "Not only has freedom for religious belief a^id worship been secured, but a system of common schools has been established; the higher branches of education are being fos tered; brigandage, in a great degree, has been suppressed, an extensive raiload and telegraph system constructed, postage reduced, and post-office facilities extended; the civil and mili tary law codes revised and reformed; the payment of interest upon the national debt in part renewed, and general peace, at home and abroad, maintained. And all this under difficulties, which, when viewed abstractly and collectively by a foreign observer, seem to be appalling and insurmountable." (Study of Mexico, p. 220).
Is the Roman Catholic Church pleased with this prosperity ? Let these facts answer. A recent writer says. "In no country on earth does the hatred against Protestantism burn more fierce
15 p

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than in Mexico. Three Protestants, were recently murdered in
the State of Guerero by a mob of Komanists. Then a lady school-teacher was poisoned to break up her school in Paraiso.
In Comalcalo two church organs have been burned, and Pro testants have been fired on under cover of darkness. In Tubasco a Protestant has been assassinated, and a minister's life threat ened." "True charity," says a Roman Catholic paper in Mex
ico, "is to wound and kill, if it be done for the Church." "Faithful Mexico!" is the applauding shout of a Roman Catholic paper in New York. The system that does what Romanism has accomplished for Mexico deserves to be opposed.
It is not different in Ireland, which, in the southern poriton, is little more or less than a Roman Catholic reservation. It is Rome rule, rather than Home rule, which is being battled for by priests and papists. Home rule has Romanism for its corner-stone, and the Pope for its master. Where the religion of Christ rules the hearts of the people in Ireland, there is
thrift, the supremacy of the law is recognized, and the people are loyal to the empire.

Rome as a Persecutor.
Cardinal Manning has recently said that "Romanists never persecuted Protestants." It is a popish lie, told to bolster up a popish movement, in helping to re-establish "Rome rule in Ireland," and put forth without a blush in the face of the most reliable history. In 1172 Nicholas Breakspear, an Englishman, was elected to the See of Rome under the name of Adrian IV. He gave Ireland to Henry II. of England, under the condition that the Romish faith be forced upon the people, and that the Pope receive one penny from each house annually. This is the origin of,Peter's Pence.
The annals of Ulster tell of the horrible persecutions and massacres that followed on. The Pope, the King, and the army were against the truth. From 1500 to 1534 is a bloody page. Space forbids our transcribing it in full. As a specimen of the cruelties and barbarities that distinguish Rome whenever and wherever she gets the power, and as a presentation in tangible form of the dread of the Irish people of any movement which proposes to surrender them to Papal rule, read this, that Sir William Temple wrote. He uncovers the practices of Rome, and shows that three hundred thousand Protestants were mas sacred before Cromwell came to the rescue of the people. He says, "North, south, east, and west, Protestant blood flowed in rivers; houses were reduced to ashes, villages and towns all but 'destroyed; the very cattle of the Protestants were inhumanly tortured; the only burial allowed to the martyrs was the burial

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of the living, and their persecutors took fiendish delight in hearing their groans and cries issuing from the earth. Popish
children were taught to pluck out the eyes of Protestant play mates; and some were forced to murder their own relations,
and then butchered themselves over the bleeding remains, the last sounds that reached their dying ears being the savage assurances of the priests, that their agonies were but the com mencement of eternal torment."
Dublin alone escaped, and became a refuge for the dis tressed; but all the Popish inhabitants were forbidden, under pain of the direct curse, to afford the slightest succor to the sufferers. Thousands died of cold and hunger, thousands more emigrated. In Armagh four thousand Protestants were drowned. In Cavan the road for twelve miles was stained by
the blood of the fugitives. Sixty children were abandoned in the flight by their parents, fiercely hunted by the bloodhounds of the Papacy, who declared that any one who helped or even buried their little ones should be burned by their sides. Seven teen adults were buried alive at Fermanagh, and in Kilkenny seventy-two. In the province of Munster alone, a hundred and fifty-four thousand Protestants were massacred, or expelled
from Ireland. And yet Cardinal Manning declares in June,
1886. that Romanists never persecuted Protestants; and we are told by a Protestant minister in Boston, in 188T. of the bene ficent ministry of Romanism,.
In 1643 Pope Urban VII. granted full and absolute remis sion of all sins to those who had taken part in gallantly doing what in them lay to extirpate and wholly root out the pestifer
ous leaven of heretical contagion.
Under Elizabeth, the Irish lords and commons recognized and generally supported the English Crown.
"James II.,a Roman Catholic, betrayed England, and turned to the Papists of Ireland for support. Priests thronged the court and ruled the king. Ireland was given up to the Papacy. Towns in which almost every householder was an English Pro testant were, under Rome rule, placed under the government of Irish Roman Catholics. The civil power was transferred from
the Saxon to the Celtic Population. Six thousand Protestants were turned out of the army, and their places were supplied by Roman Catholics. The new soldiers never passed an Eng lishman without cursing him, and calling him foul names." (Macaulay's History of England, vol. iii., p. 104).
Out of this conflict came the organization of Orange lodges to oppose what were called "the Defenders" whose oath reads as follows: "/ swear that I will never pity the moans or groans of the dying from the cradle to the crutch, and that I will wade

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knee-deep in Protestant blood. I swear that I am to bear my right arm to be cut off before I will waylay or betray or go into court to prosecute a brother, knowing him to be such." A man acting contrary to this oath was to be put to death as soon as possible. On September 18, 1795, five hundred of these socalled Defenders came from Tyrone into Armagh, and, having raised the rebel flag, proclaimed their purpose of extirpating the Protestants. Then came the Orangemen for defence, who took their name from William III., Prince of Orange, whose memory they cherish, because that by him God delivered their country from Popery and tyranny. Orangemen hold that when bad men conspire for the destruction of life, property, and Christianity, good men should combine to protect them. An Orangeman should be a Protestant in reality and truth--not merely by profession or education--and should be distinguish ed by sincere love and veneration for his Almighty Creator, for his steadfast faith in the Saviour of the world, the only Mediator between God and man. humble reliance on the guid ance and purifying power of the Holy Spirit, and the constant practice of truth and justice, brotherly kindness and charity, loyalty and obedience to the laws. He should honor and study the Holy Scriptures, making them the rule of his belief and life, uphold and defend by all legitimate means the Protestant faith in Church and State, protest against and oppose the erroneous and dangerous doctrines and practices of the Church of Eome, and resist the power, ascendency, encroachments, and extension of the Papacy.
Orangemen believe that the people of Great Britain are not ready to surrender to ftopery; and they have faith in God's purpose in affairs as communicated to mankind through His Word, in education along lines that reject superstition and the blighting influences of the Papacy, and that Ireland's curse now, as in the past, lies in--
Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion. '
Macaulay says, it is easy to explain why there is a fear of trusting Roman Catholics. They think themselves free from all the ordinary rules of morality. The massacre of St. Bar tholomew, the murder of the first William Prince of Orange, are justified and praised. Falsehood, robbery, and every crime in the calendar, are supported and sustained, if they be com mitted for the good of the Church. Romanism here and every where is the enemy of morality and of piety. "The Irish," says Froude, "will be loyal and obedient if firmly but justly governed." Over two hundred thousand Irishmen, says John Bright, are neither discontented, miserable, nor disloyal. Give

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Ireland a rest from popish plotting, and prosperity will come back, and come to stay. Despite all this, the rule of the priest is tolerated. In the Roman Catholic home, here as in Ireland, the priest is master, comes between the husband and wife, be tween parents and children. Until one studies Romanism, and descends into the depths of the subject, beholds the iniquities, the barbarities, the pollutions, the degradation incident thereto, much of the Word of God remains a mystery. Romanism in its purpose and life throws light on passages that without it would seem obscure. Romish priests contaminate the homes where their influence is supreme. In their conversation they drift towards vileness and lasciviousness. Their imagination broods over forbidden pleasures and ungratified desires. Sin ful by nature, they are screened in wrong-doing as is no other class. Should a priest insult or attempt an assault upon a woman, she dare not reveal it under pain of damnation, except to another priest in confession, who is not only bound to secrecy, but in honor to help out his confrere. Bishops and priests and all females of the Roman Catholic Church are bound to protect each other in wrong-doing. Virtue is on sale. The priests can pardon the woman or child for sinning, and then absolve each other, in this infallible Church of Rome.
Into the Protestant home, the priest's shadow comes. Through the influence of servants over whom they exercise an almost supreme control, they give tone and character to the minds and thoughts of the young committed to their charge. A lady of wealth was compelled to put her child to bed, because her servant had been called away. On reaching the room, the little girl, not older than five, ran to the bed, pulled out a string of beads, and began saying her "Ave Maria." The mother was astounded and amazed. Without a word of reproof, she saw the little child bow and cross herself; and when she was through, she said, "Now let us say our prayer, 'Our Father who art in heaven,'" and then ended with the
"Now I lay me down to sleep,"
and, kissing her child, waited until she saw her eyes close in sleep, and then bowing down, asked her God for forgiveness, and the next day secured a Christian attendant for her child.
The influence of Roman Catholic servants is against free
dom in the home. Priests insist upon young mothers being churched. This is
done by the repetition of a few prayers in Latin, a sprinkling of holy water, and the giving of a good fee. And the woman who does not submit to this mummery is believed by many a Roman "Catholic nurse whom she may employ to be eternally damned,

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together with her child. They go so far as to say the very ground on which the unchurched mother walks is cursed, that the house in which she lives is accursed, and that all she says and does is accursed. Until this ceremony is performed, none of her Catholic neighbors will hold any intercourse with her. Of course, every Protestant mother and child is under the ban,
and the nurse knows it, and perhaps acts it. (Popery as it was
and is, by William Hogan, p. 50). In this way does the priest invade the home.
Through schools attached to nunneries, a great influence
is gained in homes by the priest. Priests, by their opposition
to the Bible, have banished it largely from the schoolroom, and thus have invaded the spiritual life of all homes from
which come the children of the public school. Priests, by their opposition to the Bible, make the servants
unfit trainers for the children of the home. Every child is
influenced more or less by the hired help. The old-fashioned girl, who was as much a companion as a servant, was a treasure. To the mother she was counsellor and friend, to children guide
and companion. Her open Bible, or big-lettered Testament, what a treasury of wisdom, what a fountain of life and love, it was! Who can forget the Bible stories with which she charmed the ear, while she watched the corn popping over the
fire, or the molasses cooking for the candy-pull ? Who ever yet
shook off the influence of such a teacher ? She had to do with forming the minds and shaping the destinies of men and
women who how rank highest in the world's regard. In the kitchen where the Romish servant is head, the Bible is ban ished. "The Garden of the Soul," a charming name for a
book full of error, may have taken its place; but the trend of that portion of the home is, almost without an exception, against Christ and His Word. Many a Jesuit of culture enters
the kitchen as a servant, to give the priest power in the home. Romish priests invade the home through the ballots which they control. Warnings enough were sounded out against woman suffrage. It was said then that the priest could control the
Roman-Catholic working women, and by them elect the boards of education, and so get control of our schools. The warnings were unheeded. The mischief is now apparent in the lack of a majority on the School Board, ana the giving of the schools over to Rome. Teachers that love God's word are pushed out, and the places are given to those who make the "sign of the cross.'1' This is but the beginning of the end. Books full of
praise for Protestant statesmen are exchanged for books which lift to the front devotees of Rome. Today Romanists seek to prove that America was discovered by Roman Catholics; that
freedom was obtained by their aid; and that for all we are,

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or may hope to be, we are under obligation to Rome. This country is to be brought, we are told, under
The Spiritual Control of Rome.
"Spiritual" with Rome means things real and tangible, such as real estate, the conveying it from the rightful owner under the laws of the land to another under the laws of the Pope. This thing was tried in China. The Jesuits were sum moned before the commissioner; and when their real purpose was ascertained, the emperor instantly issued an order direct
ing that every Roman Catholic bishop, priest, friar, Jesuit, monk, and nun quit the country within a given time on pain of losing their heads. Many of them disobeyed the order, and were executed, and their churches were levelled with the ground. The Chinese had no objection to Papists worshipping God according to the dictates of their own consciences; but as soon as it was discovered that they owed allegiance to a foreign power, and were working in his interest, the Chinese saw their peril, and struck at it with haste and fierceness; as was done in Europe, in Mexico, and as will be done in the United States. Americans will yet resist this priestly intrusion, and will insist that the men who vote, and who hold office, shall be Americans, and that the tie binding them to the Vatican be severed in
order that they may give their love, thought and support to the institutions that shelter them.
When priests shall wed, they will become the head of homes. Xoble women will share their heart love and their toil. They will exchange impurity for purity; a woman without a name,
and without a place of respectful regard, for the wife of a pastor, who in the Church is a helpmeet as in the home she is a partner.
America is the land of homes. Romanists are becoming Americanized. Among her clergy are a great many men better than the system which would degrade and fetter them. They owe it to the people, they owe it to themselves, they owe it to. human nature that should not be despoiled, to marry, and to claim and contend for the right of marriage. If the papacy needs a degraded and a degrading priesthood to perpetuate its power, then we do not need, and ought not to tolerate or lend our support to, the papacy. Romanists are competitors for fame, for position, and for power. In art, in science, and in literature, her votaries find congenial pursuits. All that ele vates ennobles; all that degrades disgraces. Out from the Roman Catholic Church are coming many of her noblest and best priests, because they cannot'be true to their higher natures^ and go through the degrading ritual of the confessional. As a result, another and an inferior class are taking their places..

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some of the poorest and worst, rather than of the noblest and best. As at present organized, it is not possible for a priest to secure for his home a pure and chaste woman. The value of such a woman should not be overlooked. For companionship
they are driven to the vile. It is because of this, "the Substi tution for Marriage" was invented. It is because of this,
priests are so frequently found with harlots in their terrible drunken revels, whether in nunneries or hotels. Without im proving society in the home, with their thoughts turned into
impure channels in the confessional, where they come into the presence of women, we can see how utterly they lack the
help and support enjoyed by those whose lives are blessed by the companionship of a woman of heart, of culture, and of piety.
What is bad for the priest is terrible for the women. Noth ing can be worse, nothing more corrupting, than the law which forces the female to tell her thoughts, her desires, and most secret feelings and actions, to an unmarried priest. American Catholic women deserve emancipation from this
thraldom. The confessional is a school of pollution. Let it be closed. It is not more a necessity in a Roman Catholic than in a Baptist Church. Acquaint the law-makers of the land with the polluting and degrading influences imperilling the life of women through the confessional, and they would by the most stringest laws prohibit auricular confession as a crime against society. The best remedy is for the priest to marry. Then the wifely influence would make short work of a priest being closeted hour after hour with women, convers
ing on topics which could not be tolerated before a third per son, and which disgrace and degrades those who thus lay siege to and plot the ruin of the soul.
Then the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church would become American rather than Italian in sympathy, and they would build up their people in morality and purity. To achieve this result, the help is required of the better portion of the priesthood, and of the brainy and noble Roman Catholics who are interested in the elevation and disinthralment of mankind. Then no longer will the reproach come upon them of having their wives and daughters associating"
with men who keep company with harlots, and who go unblushingly from the brothel to the altar; but they will mingle with men of pure lives, and of noble purposes. It is for Americans breathing the free air of liberty, whose children are being educated with their sons and daughters in the public schools, to demand a married priesthood for the Roman Catholic Church in this New York.
With the evangelical portion of the community, the home

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has been the transcendent glory of their lives. In the North and South, in the East and West, the home is a man's castle, and cursed be he who invades it. In common with others, Roman Catholics need to share in this blessing.
Opposed to this purity is the confessional, that bottomless sea of iniquity, in which the blind priests of Rome have to swim day and night. It ought not to exist in the world. Let the true men and women in the Roman Catholic Church, and outside of it, contend for a pure Christian home, and the boon will be secured, and a victory will be won that shall scatter the cloud that darkens the path of Romanists, and millions will find their way back to the halcyon days of Ambrose, before the shadow of the iron sceptre of Hildebrand cursed the world. Then confidence shall take the place of suspicion, and the priesthood of the Romish Church shall join with the ministry at large to secure an ennobling civilization for the land we love, and the God we serve.
Those who have climbed the snow-clad peaks of the Alps know how much depends upon the guide, and understand the value of the steel points on the shoes and at the end of his alpenstock. They see him bind a rope about himself, which is fastened to those that follow him, so that, if the feet of one traveler go out from beneath him, all the rest may unite in holding him up. There is a sure guide in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the captain of our salvation. Where He leads, it is safe to follow. Rome needs His help, and so do we all. Let us demand that God's Book--Christ's New Testament-- have its rightful place. Let us speak put.
"They are slaves who fear to speak For the fallen and the weak; They are slaves who will not choose Hatred, scoffing, and abuse, Rather than in silence shrink From the truth they needs must think."
God says, "Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they dwell with me." "He that walketh in a perfect way shall serve me." The home should be earth's trainingplace for heaven. Let not the lecherous priest invade it. Hold it for the pure. Make it the resting-place for the gc>od. Have in it an altar. On it place the open Bible. Round it gather the household, and from it look across the flood, and catch glimpses of the eternal gates. Beyond them is the city of God. The unclean cannot enter there, and yet it is thronged by a multitude no man can number, who have come up out of great tribulations, and have had their robes washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb.

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CHAPTER XV.
A PRIEST IN THE TOILS.
ROMAN CATHOLJTC priests are in the toils of Rome and the fact hurts them. An incident that came to my notice illus trates the peril of the priesthood and became to me an object lesson which I would gladly place before the eyes of all. It
was July 2, 1892. I took the sleeper at Binghamton. New York, for Chicago. All were in their bedsi I was given a berth, and in the night heard terrible profanity, and became conscious that in the section next to mine, a tremendous con flict was going on. A woman's pleadings were heard saying: "Do get out quietly, don't make a scene." A man in reply cursed and swore that he would not be disturbed. The next morning I asked the porter what was the trouble, when he replied with a merry twinkle in his eye, "We want some more of 'Why Priests Should Wed' here." Then he explained that a well-known priest came in and took two lower berths for Chicago, and when the woman came to retire, they occupied his berth. About 12 M. she went into her own berth, and in a little time the priest followed, when because of their con duct the conductor determined to compel him to get back into his own place. Then came the disgraceful scene. In the morning there sat the priest and his woman, in the palace car. Whatever may be said about the rights of priests and nuns to go wrong, in nunneries and in homes, men who knew what had transpired in the car were indignant that they should be allowed to remain in the car, and they were finally compelled to go into another, where he occupied one seat and she another. After they had gone, a friend said, "Why don't you try and convert this priest?" I replied, "He is a dirty scoundrel, I do not want to touch him." The reply was, ''He is no worse than others." The conductor told us that this* was not an exceptional case. Every month priests go with women to New York and remain two or three days and come home and do not always go with the same women. A woman of respect able apearance said boldly and unblushingly, "I regard it as the honor of my life to be privileged to minister to a priest's wishes, as I can commit no sin. if I do as he desires."
Liguori taught that a priest is entitled to two women a month. He did not tell what women were to be thus used. Alas! they are somebody's women. Here was a fine-looking woman going down to ruin, trusting to the power in the priest to rescue her from the consequences of sin. Could she be

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aroused and saved? It was worth trying. Thousands of priests believe in the wife theory, and have one woman, who is a wife to them except in name. In Ontario is a priest who has been twenty-five years in one parish, and has a woman with four children by him, and no priest is more respected, because it is believed that he is true to this woman and all others. In Brazil, where there is so little virtue that it seems impossible to find anything substantial on which to rest the beams of Republican hope, priests recognize their children as much as do other parents, and marry them into the best families, and seek to give them prominence in the state, claim ing a kind of nobility for the children of priests. What shall be the future of priests in this land! It is time to speak. As a result I went and sat down beside the priest and said: "You know you have produced a very sad impression upon the minds of the passengers of this train by your conduct of last night."
At once he began to show fight, when I asked him if he knew who I was? "No." "My name is Fulton." "What! Dr. Fulton of 'Why Priests Should Wed.'" "Yes." "That is a good book; I have read it." "You ought to put it into practice."
"Easier said than done"
Then he told me of the toils woven about the limbs of the priesthood. In the priesthood there is no place for love, though there are abundant opportunities for the gratification of desire. I then referred to what had been said to me regard ing the belief of Roman Catholics. His reply was, "It can not be denied." There sat the woman behind us but within hearing of the conversation. When I considered how her faith had blinded her and was ruining her, I resolved to speak fearlessly the truth.
Then I said, "There is but one thing that can help you and enable you to save this woman whom you ought to love
and protect." Their eyes met. There was a kind look exchanged as he
asked, "What is that?"
"The religion of Jesus Christ. That would compel you to renounce your sin, and to repent in dust and ashes because of your wrong-doing. Your worst sin is found in your rejec tion of the atoning blood of Christ, to wash your sins away, and the giving of your heart and self to Him, who died that you might live."
"We reach the goal in another way," he replied. "In vain," was my reply: "Peter said 'Neither is there

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salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." That ought to be good authority with you. The trouble with you priests is, you have never been born again. You are trusting to a man-made religion. You are a sinner. God is angry with you. The passengers on this train feel outraged. What do you suppose God thinks of your conduct? Romanism is a deception and a fraud, as you can see."
"What would you have me do?"
"Give your heart to God, renounce this false system which impoverishes your soul and is dragging you, and this woman
with you, down to hell."
"Sir," said he, "you know little of our environment. Where would I go if I left Rome? Where would this woman go? Who would receive her after what occurred last night? would you do it?"
"I would," was my reply; "and if you will abandon this hellish system, that is poisoning the fountains of our religious and national life, and come out from it, I will marry you in Chicago tonight, take you with me to church tomorrow, and we will take what may come to us in the path of duty."
He turned to the window and sobbed like a child, and after awhile said it is in vain. "I go to South Dakota and perhaps may find a way out of the toils there," but before closing thanked me for my kind endeavor to save him, stating that he had not realized before that there was such love for Roman Catholics as I had evidenced by my words and deeds. When I assured him that there were thousands, in the churches, ready to help him and all who might seek deliverance, for a moment he seemed to be staggered by the fact, but turned from the offer of help, for sin held him. Peter had it right when he said, "For of whom a man is overcome, of .the same is he brought in bondage." As I saw him pass into the night followed by his woman, I remarked to the friend, who was witness to the facts, "That priest is in the toils, and there are thousands suffering with him. the torments of condemnation
and with no bright outlook beyond."

Priest Charles Flaherty of Mt. Morris, N. Y.,
furnished in his trial a terrible illustration of the depths of infamy into which priests drag their victims.
He ruined a young orphan girl named Mary Sweeny, who in court swore, despite all the threatenings of the priestly scoundrel, that he was the father of her child, and that she yielded to his solicitation because she had been taught by the

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priest that it was not sin to submit, and that it was right for her to gratify his desires, and if sin was committed, it would be for him to atone tor it, and not for her. The priest evidently designed to intimidate the child by placing himself near, so he could look directly into her face. The report says: "Mary Sweeney did not seem to see him, but went on with her tale of shame and disgrace with downcast eyes and flushed cheeks, and detailed her relations with the priest between February, 1892, and her sixteenth birthday, July 4. :He told me,' she explained, 'that he could do no wrong because he was a priest. Hwerosnagid.'"he knew better than I what was right and what was
Such is the fiendish depravity of the majority of the Eoman Catholic priesthood. Many of them teach that it is an honor for a young girl to be seduced by them. This is the talk among the lowest of the order.
After he was sentenced to State prison, Romanists who believed in this abhorrent doctrine obtained a stay, and two hundred of his church in sympathy with him and in their hearts condoning his crime, went with him to Rochester, to make an appeal to Bishop McQuade, but the sun was too high and he shut the door in his face, and months after this same priest, out of prison, came before his congregation and pointed out the man that came to the help of his victim and blamed him for bringing him into a position where he had been deprived of his office, and had been compelled to serve behind the bars.
The threat did not scare Cornelius Leary. the friend of the helpless girl, and rising in his place said that if any trouble came from the priestly incitement, they might pre pare for a funeral. The priest is silent, but his parish wel comes the disgraced man back to his parish and they give him a donation to show their views regarding his conduct.

Priestly Immorality
is seen in the East as in the West. Prof. L. T. Townsend lifted up the proof before the eyes of a congregation in Boston, showing that one hundred and one Roman Catholic priests of the diocese of Archbishop "Williams of Boston had been dismissed, suspended and otherwise disqualified, and who, taken together, were guilty of every crime in the calendar. Does that injure Romanism in the estimation of the majority of the professed Christian people of the land? Do they not say that there are things occurring in every denomination that are wrong? Admit it; but before you place evangelical

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denominations on tne same footing with the Roman Catholic
machine, recall the fact that there is not an evangelical
denomination in existence that could condone wrong doing.
When John Y. McKane, a Sunday-school superintendent, was
convicted of crime, the Methodist church, in its representative
meeting, at once took ground against the crime and the
criminal. On another occasion, when a bright young minister
was accused of visiting a house of ill repute, though there
were mitigating circumstances and though there were grave
doubts as to his being guilty of wrong intention or practice, yet the man was advised to step down and out for the sake of the cause, and down and out he stepped; and when out in one place that means out in all.
Contrast such a statement with the conduct of Roman Catholics as witnessed in Booklyn. Look at this picture. A talented young priest, the nephew of Bishop Loughlin^ is in the confessional. In comes a beautiful maiden. There he sits, a man full of lustful desires. He has a right according to the teachings of the Roman Catholic church to ask her questions which start trains of thought damning in their influence and calculated to lead her astray. She informs him that she is anxious to enter a convent.
He promises her help and invites her to come to his house. When she comes he drugs some wine, gives it to her and accomplishes her ruin. She goes away to weep and wail over her condition. Three months pags, she becomes alarmed, goes to him to ask for help. He procures an abortionist for her, and she is treated in such a manner that her health is ruined, and for a long time her life is despaired of. Her brother in ignorance pays her board and at last she gets around. In the meantime the priest, because of his conduct, is transferred to St. Stephens, New York.
Thither goes the poor girl. They meet in the confessional. He again invites her to come to his house and asks her to come and live with him. She declines. Broken in heart and hope she desires to hide her shame behind convent walls, and asks him to intercede in her behalf. He promises to do so and invites her to come to his house, and learn the result in the evening at eight o'clock.
She goes to her doom, drawn by a power of evil, that it seems imossible to resist. The blinds are drawn. The help less girl is with her father confessor, in his home, where the laws of hospitality should have screened her from harm. He again overcomes her, gratifies his lust, and in despair the poor child, cast off by priest and relatives, sues the priest,

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and the horrible business is ventilated in the courts. Did this harm the standing of the priest ? It did not. Shame!
The city of Saltillo. Mexico, is being much stirred up over an attempt made on the night of August 14, 1893. by a party of Catholics who sought to release Father Arrogave, the wellknown and popular priest, who was imprisoned by order of the mayor, charged with preaching an obscene sermon before
a large audience, principally composed of young ladies. He took for his text the sixth commandment of the church, relative to marriage, which he explained in the most foul and immoral language. He was arrested on the following day
and lodged in jail. They preach obscenity not always in public but always in private. Shall this conduct be toler
ated?

The Wickedness of Supporting Romanism is seen When the True Character of this Incarnation of Satan is held up to View.
Rome substitutes for an infinite and holy God a fallible man, called the Pope; for Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary; for the Holy Ghost, the Priesthood and the Sacraments; for the Word of God, tradition; and is in utter rebellion to the Lord Jesus Christ. In New England as in Quebec and Mex ico, Bible burning by the priests is a business, if not a pastime. All along the track of the colporteurs follow the priests, and wherever they find a Bible they destroy it if it is in their power.
The Fruits of Romanism.
"Would you see the fruits of Romanism? Look at Cuba. For more than three hundred years, Romanism has been abso lute master of the "Gem of the Antilles." As a result, the Sabbath is unknown. Theatres and brothels bring in a rev enue to the church. Bull-fights and circuses change the Sab bath of the Bible into
The Gala-day of Rome.
Prostitution is the rule. The priests trample on the com mands of the "Word of God and lead the people in wicked practices; schools are of the poorest sort, the education of the people is opposed, and children grow up in ignorance and superstition. Romanism is in charge. What is the result? In the scale of civilization, she is lower down than either China, where the religion of Confucius is rested on. or India, where Brahmanism is in the ascendant.

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Th# Truth about Romanists must be Told.
In Brooklyn, N. Y., the most terrible revelations were made concerning a priest, and these were published in the daily papers. It did not exclude the priest from his place until his crime was illustrated and told in ''Why Priests Should Wed." Then he was removed to a pleasant church on Staten Island.
Since then a priest by the name of Father Matthias de M. Yodyzsus has been again and again in the press as a drunkard and worse. In the Xew York World of February 16, 1892, is this account:
'"The friends of Father Matthias de M. Yodyzsus were in a majority yesterday at a meeting called in the Palace Rink, Williamsburg, to protest against his conduct as pastor of St. George's Lithuanian Roman Catholic Church, in North Tenth street. Every time anything was said that in any way reflected on the priest, the speaker was interrupted by shouts and threats. George Miller was called upon to make a state ment of the grounds of complaint against Father Yodyzsus. He began with the history of the formation of the society out of which St. George's Church was developed. He said the Lithuanians were all Catholics and loved their religion. They went to church to be purified of their sins, and they looked upon a priest as the embodiment of their religion. They were willing to support a priest who would help them on the right way. but did not want one who persisted in courses that brought scandal on the community.
' 'Father Yodyzsus--' Simon Czajewiez here interrupted.
''William Werbiski threatened unheard of things if Mr. Miller talked any more. Simon Czajewiez said that all were brothers in religion, and had worked hard for the good of the church. They had no fault to hnd with the priest. He was the I'eliffwn -and could do no harm. If he did a thing it must be right, because he did it.
"John Kennowsky shouted, 'Was the way he treated my "sister right?'
"Kennowsky is a brother of Mrs. Barbara Dilginnis, whom Father Yodyzsus is accused of having kept locked in his private apartments for two days.
"Frank Bartschinsky was the next speaker. He said:
" 'You people came here but a short time ago and do not know of the terrible things done by the head of our religion in this church. You did not put money in it. We did, and we worked hard- for that money. Three years ago we started

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to build that church. We bought the land. We began to build. There was money in the treasury. Then Father Yodyzsus came. Soon there was no money, no church, only a half-finished building, and a piece of land belonging to Father Yodyzsus. Who gave it to him? No one. He stole it from bur savings. Now the bishop tells us that we can do nothing. It is not our church. It is Father Yodyzsus'. He has got it by taking advantage of our pockets when we trusted him, as he took advantage of the honor of the women who believed in him.'
"That reflection on the priest settled Mr. Bartschinsky. He was not allowed to say another word. William Marrski said that the priest was a good man, and if he wanted to amuse himself with the women and they let him they -were in fault, as the priest being the priest could do no wrong.
"John Kennowsky jumped to his feet and said he was not a man like that. His women were for him and not for a dissolute priest. Father Yodyzsus had betrayed his sister, Barbara Dilginnis, and then because Dilginnis was poor and afraid of having absolution refused him. he had accepted $150 to drop all prosecution. Now. whenever Father Yodyz sus wanted to see Mrs. Dilginnis, all he had to do was to send her husband a message and he would bring her to him.
"Such a clamor and clatter broke out at this juncture that the chairman could not make himself heard. . After hammernig on the table for some time he put his gavel in his pocket and left the hall. The police stopped several scrimmages and the meeting was over.
"Father Yodyzsus refused to be interviewed last evening. He celebrated mass at nine and eleven o'clock, but the gates of the church were not open at noon."
Can we afford to give support to a church in which it is said and believed, a priest cannot sin?

The Theory that Romanism is a Religion
is to be fought. It is quite common to concede to Roman Catholics the same right to their religion as it concedes to Episcopalians, Methodists, Baptists and others, so long as it is in harmony with the spirit of the constitution, but when it is found planning the destruction of the nation, then the right to fight it to the bitter end is claimed. This is as far as politicians perhaps can go. Here is where the Pauline Pro paganda begins. It is felt to be a duty to oppose the Roman Catholic religion because of what it is and does. It is a system that destroys millions of souls. They are as much lost
16 p

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in Rome as if they made no pretension to religion. To them, in some way or other, the truth is to be proclaimed, believing that if they come to know the truth, the truth shall make them free. Says Dr. Joseph Parker, of London, "a man has a perfect right to be a Roman Catholic;" to this the Pauline Propaganda dissents. A man has no right to lie against God, or to believe a lie, or even to be damned. Because he has no right, he is condemned in sin and the wrath of God abides on him.

Romanism Must be Uprooted as a Faith, or it will Uproot All Other Faiths.
It resembles weeds that overrun fields. It does more than simply live. It makes it impossible for anything else to live where it thrives.
To fathom the mystery the light of God's word is essential. To understand the doom that awaits it, the teachings of prophecy are required. It is the gigantic sin of the age. Let the members of Young Men's Christian Association, Chris tian Endeavor Societies and kindred organizations, take this work to their heart, and it will put backbone into them, and call into requisition manliness, courage, knowledge of the scripture and the qualities which enter into and adorn the true soldier of Christ.

The Influence of Priestly Example
deserves consideration. It pervades society to an extent seldom thought of. In the schools we find it in the conduct of teachers who follow the example of Monsignore Capel, whose conduct with little boys caused Cardinal Manning to place him under the ban, and deprive him of the privilege of ministering at the altar in England; but it did not keep him from coming to America and being received by a government vessel, and welcomed to the platforms and homes of the peo ple, until the truth was told about him, when he went to California where he broke up the home of a friend, and though a priest lived with another man's wife and remained a Roman Catholic in good standing. In this manner children are tampered with in the parochial schools and there is no redress. As an illustration look at the condition of affairs in Lake Linden, Mich., where the children of forty families were found to be tampered with by the teachers of a parochial school. The facts were brought out after the most vigorous questioning. Imagine Romanists horror-stricken and talking freely of a rope and a short shrift for the guilty, lascivious,

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degraded wretch who has desolated a score of families and
poisoned the minds and bodies of dozens of sweet children. . The monster who is answerable for this state of things is
one George Gignac, Professor of St. Ann's academy at this place, to which nearly all the Koman Catholics, and many
of the better class or Protestants, sent their children. He was a protege of Priest Mesnard, who has charge of the parish.
Of the same infamous stripe, are Vandestine and Thibeau. two other teachers at the same institution and likewise enjoy ing the friendship and confidence of the Priest Mesnard.
The story of their bestial crimes is that all the three brutes already mentioned have been practicing upon the children, ranging in years from 8 to 13, the most vile and
destructive bestiality. Children of both sexes have been the
prey of these vicious, unnatural fiends. They had been guilty of the most atrocious proceedings against their persons.
It is needless to add that Gignac stood not on the order
of his going, but took the 5 o'clock train for parts unknown. Proofs were unearthed that over twenty-five other cases,
both girls and boys, had been so used by these teachers, strik ing some of the most respectable families of Lake Linden.
These children range in age from 8 to 13 years. This work has been going on for four years. Gignac has been assisted in his horrible work by two teachers named Vandestine and Thabeau. The latter is now in Canada. In addition to these atrocities Gignac nas even advised the children that it was"
no harm to commit incest, and in two cases his hellish advice
has been acted upon by children under 10 years of age. Vandestine seems to have paid more especial attention to the girls, and not only the little girls from 8 to 12 came under his bane ful influence, but older daughters of respectable families have
been his toys. This terrible event recalls to the minds of citizens in this
vicinity a case that occurred over a year ago at Eed Jacket, Houghton county, in which Priest Ottis figured as the prin cipal. This man was arrested upon a charge of rape, pre ferred against him by a young girl, who stated upon the witness stand that the priest had inveigled her to his house and after chloroforming her, had committed the offense as stated. One of the most pathetic incidents in the trial was
the evidence of the child in relation to her mother. The lat
ter had told her, when the child complained to her of the conduct of the priest upon several occasions, that THE PRIEST COULD DO XO WEOXG. A jury of papists disagreed upon the verdict, and the case was nolle prose-
quied.

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Oh, parents! citizens! legislators! How long will you permit these fiendish outrages to be perpetrated in your midst without raising a hand to prevent them?
What a lesson it should be to Roman Catholic parents against sending their pure little ones to these parochial dens which mask their bestiality and their vileness under the cloak of their religion--and what a religion--what a system it is that permits such a fearful-condition of things!
In the freedom and broad light of investigation in which the public school stands, such a terrible state of affairs would be absolutely impossible.
And Priest Mesnard! Will he dare to tell the world that for four.years he has been confessing these dear children, and has never, during that time received a clew to the villainy that was being perpetrated?
The idea is improbable, preposterous, and absurd. If he knew of these things and was kept silent by the seal of the confessional, no argument could be stronger for the enactment of a law that will tear from the church the confessional and from the lips of the priest the gag that Rome has placed thereon, in order that families may be broken up, tender chil dren debauched, and morality corrupted for .the entertain ment of priests and Romish school teachers.
We trust that the day is not far distant when the pile of debris of confessional boxes will tower as high as Olympus, and that the hand of a mother shall fire the pile.
The deep need of scattering the truth contained in "Why Priests Should Wed" is apparent. Every Protestant should know its contents, and every Roman Catholic should be asked to read it. Thousands have read it and it has delivered them from the bondage of a degrading despotism where the night of superstition reigns. In support of this position hear Romanists.
i
Rev. E. H. Walsh, Editor of the Primitive Catholic, says'.
"Romanists, like their priests, have many of them roundly hated the book as well as the author, but both have survived the shock. Deluded ones have burned it and felt happy over the thought that they could cast the book into the blaze while they gnashed their teeth at the distinguished author whom they dare not molest. Protestants and even ministers have taken up the popular cry and condemned 'Why Priests Should Wed' before they had perused its pages.
"We met one such person recently who in course of con versation asked us if we believed in the book. We asked him if he believed in it and got a reply in the negative.

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"Then we questioned him as to the part or parts he con demned, and discovered that he had never read the volume, and so the book 'Why Priests Should Wed' was condemned on the basis of hearsay and lying gossip, which Romanists are adepts at circulating.
"Then we were asked a second question as to our reasons for commending a book with so many vile things in it, and if we had such confidence in Dr. Fulton as to swallow the almost incredible things to be found between its covers?
"Dr. Fulton, said we, does not ask you to believe him, though he has more right to be belfeVed than the slanderous bigots, who threaten and revile him. because he dared to stand for the right and aimed to emancipate his deluded fellows. Dr. Fulton has never been in a convent or a monastery, he has never been in the Romish church, he never heard con fessions, but he heard the story of woman's wrongs and man's debauchery from the lips of ex-priests, ex-monks, ex-nuns, and ex-Romanists, yea, and from those who never left the foul precincts of Popery.
" 'Why Priests Should Wed' is a consensus of opinion, it is a cloud of witnesses, it is a piece of historical dynamite and a very arsenal of facts. Dr. Fulton has spread before the American public the dark records of Rome's misdeeds and supplied them with proper adjectives with which to give expression to their indignation at the terrible wrongs inflicted on humanity by a cruel and despotic machine.
"To read it is to be convinced, and if the devil himself wrote the book we could not give him the lie or call him a fraud, because to do so would be to impeach history and deny authentic facts. We would advise those who lightly denounce the book to curb their own bigoted and unfair impulses and do as a convert whom we met recently in Boston did, who before she looked upon its pages threw it into the blazing fire, and then in a second and better thought wrenched the book from the fiery flame, read it, lost faith in Rome and found faith in a living Christ Who could save to the uttermost all who come to Him, and what we say to any senseless, narrow-minded simpleton who is disposed to condemn the book on mere hearsay: 'Go thou and do likewise.'"
Rev. C. Chiniquy, in congratulating the author for the glorious victory won through the instrumentality of the book, says of it: "It is one of the most deadly blows ever given to Romanism in this country. Though jealous enemies may try to shut.their eyes to the truth, those who like myself, have been called on the battle field when you were fighting the giant foe, know very well that it is to you more than to any

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other man, that Komanism owes its defeat." "The great Captain of our salvation has undoubtedly guided your
thoughts and enlightened your understanding when you were
denouncing that most implacable and unreconcilable enemy of our church civilization. He has strengthened your arms
when you gave him the death blows which have brought Mm down to the dust. Go on to victory, brave and fearless fol lower of Christ. Continue to fight for truth and righteous
ness and the eternal crown of the Master shall be yours. Ora pro fratre."

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CHAPTER XVI.
A PRIEST WRECKED BY HOPELESS LOVE.
IF THERE is one class for whom there ought to be sym pathy and in whose behalf a battle should be fought, it is the priests of Rome, in the United States, and in all lands where the gospel of Christ is exerting its influence. The priest is a man with the nature of a man. The entire system of Roman ism tends to his destruction. He cannot manifest the love he feels. The story of Charles Reade, in "The Cloister and the Hearth," uncovers the peril. Gerard loved Margaret and wanted to marry her; he was hindered, and so he ruined the one he loved. That, Rome cares not for. Disobey God, and Rome pardons the wrongdoing. Seek to obey God, and Rome fights the obedient and pours on him all inquisitorial tortures, as if there was no sin comparable to walking in the path marked out by the teachings of the gospel. Romanists begin to see this but know not how to meet the difficulty. In the following story, entitled "Priestly Perfidy," is an illustration brought from the realm of daily life, which deserves to be pondered by Roman Catholics and Protestants alike.
A Mother's Sad Wail is Heard in the Land.
On February 18, 1894, as the choir of the Roman Catholic Church of Aurora, 111., was singing the first anthem, a determined-looking woman appeared at the door of the sac risty, where she was met by Father Leyden.
"Do you intend to hold service?" she asked. ''I do," replied the priest. At this the woman went to the front door and walked swiftly to the altar. The acolytes and incense-bearers passed through the door and stepped within the altar railing with Father Leyden. The great organ sounded, and the choristers were singing the processional music. The priest started up the steps. A shrill scream was heard. The woman flushed with excitement cried:
"Keep Down! You Shall Not Hold Services!"
Instantly there was complete silence. "You ruined my beauti ful daughter, and no such false-hearted man shall step into this sacred place." That the priest was expecting his visitor was evident when he signaled a policeman who was in wait ing. He' led the white-haired mother from the church. Turn-

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ing to the congregation Father Leyden denounced the affair
as a conspiracy, and mentioned another man as the guilty person.
Among the flock of Father Leyden was Pearce Cummings, an honest and industrious man who died some months ago. On his deathbed he.gave into the keeping of the priest his three daughters: Steasea, aged 20; Elizabeth, aged 18, and Margaret, aged 15. "Protect them and save them from all harm," implored the dying man, and the priest stopped pray
ing Jong enough to say, "I will."
The eldest daughter has been ruined by him. With her he lived in Chicago last summer. The priest has been ar rested. In the report given of the occurrence this is said: "The publication of the pitiable story has caused much excite ment. It has long been common gossip, but had never before obtained any conspicuous publicity. The male portion of Father Leyden's parishioners are united in their denunciation of him, but many of his female parishioners defend him
aggressively.

A Priest Wrecked by Hopeless Love.
Such is the story in outline. Is it not a significant fact "that the women of the parish defend him aggressively?" Does it not open to all eyes the terrible character of the con fessional, and show that the trend is to the degradation and the damnation of the victims, soul and body? Thousands of Roman Catholics are free to say that something must be done to have clean priests as evangelical churches have clean min isters or the system must be set aside.

Father Leyden
is one of the foremost priests of Illinois. His home has everything to gratify the taste, and bring comfort to the heart excepting the love of woman. That he is deprived of, by the decree of the church and the conventionalities of life. Yet love comes to him as it has come to millions more and comes to stay. What will he do with it? That he ought to crush it out and go on without it, is said by the church. This he does not do and perhaps cannot. His nature is aflame. He loves, thought forty-eight years of age; he finds in Steasea Cummings the nature that meets his soul-want, and because he is a priest cannot enjoy connubial bliss. Romanism may teach that the priest may not go wrong, but the enlightened sentiment of the people, wherever the light of God's word shines, makes a priest responsible to a rule above the Pope

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and above Romanism. This Father Leyden is finding out. Think of
His Victim.
Steasea Cummings as a child gave promise of the beauty that now is fully developed. She was a. bright, intelligent girl, and had many superior advantages at home. Father Leyden gave her a place of prominence in the choir and in Sunday-school work. He made her superintendent of the classes and gave her such other little dignities as would most please a young girl.
Two years ago he first began wooing her, and in his fas cinating way wooed well. He made such advances that indicated the tendency of his passion without giving her any opportunity to take offense that would lead her to gossip.
Flattered by the attentions of a man all others almost deified, and petted into an affectionate regard, she listened to his constant instructions in discretion and kept her secret to herself alone. For a long time she resisted, but at last in June he completed his work of love. Stimulating her faith and love in him with subtle promises he led her to yieid her virtue into his keeping.
He was tender, gentle and kind and treated her with the greatest affection. He had secured for her through his in fluence a position as typewriter in Chicago, but at her solicita tion obtained through Congressman A. J. Hopkins a situation in the microscopic pork inspection department of the stock yards. She boarded on Michigan avenue, while there em ployed, and was visited by the priest in the evenings.
Along in August she was given a short vacation, and with her father, who was in failing health, went to Champaign county. While there, Father Leyden wrote her frequently. One of these letters read as follows:
AUBORA, ILL., August 24. "Miss STEASEA CUMMINGS:
"My Dearest Steasea--Your most affectionate and longexpected letter reached me yesterday morning, and its arrival and the reading of its contents pleased me more than any lan guage of mine could adequately express. With your letter also came one from your father. After reading them especialy yours, which I read more than twenty times, I called over to your home and read them to your mother (of course, leav ing out the love part of it). Your poor mother is of course lonesome, but she is happy and encouraged under the cir cumstances to know your father is no worse and that your own dear self is improving in health."

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What we wish to call attention to is the fact, that the love portion of the letter should be kept from the mother. Can not Romanists see their peril while 'they consent to such a state of things? No wife is to her husband what God's word provides she should be.
"Fear not, my dearest love, for I will stay by you; through
thick and thin, in joy and in sorrow. There is no one on earth I love and cherish so much as I do you, my dearest Steasea. It makes my very heart bleed when I am compelled to say anything to you but words of tenderness and love.
''I have seen some joys and sorrows since my advent to Aurora. I have labored hard, and during the constant respon sibilities of my ministy I have made many friends, but none so kind, none so true, none to whom I feel so grateful as I do to you, and I sincerely hope that you and I will continue always to love each other as we do today, and that nothing will ever break the golden chain of love that unites us so closely together."
When she returned she knew of her condition and went to him, but he calmed her fears. About this time Steasea began to hesitate about carrying on the amour, but her unsuspecting parents, little knowing what they did, forced her to go to the priest as often as he sent for her. She began staying late in the night and left the house on two or three occasions as late as 11 and 12 o'clock.
February 2d, Father Leyden, with English, called on Steasea. She was nervous and agitated. They talked forcibly to her and she agreed to marry English at 3 o'clock that after noon. The two hurried down town, secured a marriage license and went back to the hospital.
Mrs. Cummings and Lizzie, hearing of the coup, arrived in time, and when Father Leyden and English arrived^ Steasea refused to be married and violently denounced English.
The priest then returned to Aurora and this led up to a series of the most dramatic happenings that little city has ever borne.
It was cold and snowy in Aurora that Saturday night. The wind whistled fiercely, and the snow blew down the streets in gusts. But a hardy old Celt, James Connolly, left the warm fire of his sister's home and started out on his mission, of denunciation. He faithfully plodded through the snow
that was piled, upon the sidewalks until he reached the splendid residence of Father Leyden. Then he began walking up and down, waiting for the priest to appear.
From within Father Leyden saw the familiar figure and

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hastily dispatched a messenger through the rear door for Chief of Police Demmer. The latter came up at once and tried to pacify Connolly, but the latter forced his way into the priest's residence and there vigorously denounced him. While inside little Margaret came to the door crying and sobbing for admittance, but the door was kept closed. Just as Connolly was quieted and all were standing on the porch Mrs. Cummings came up and aided in the public denuncia tions.
The scandal is on the tongue of every one in Aurora. Even the children discuss it and the sympathizers with Father Leyden are few and far between. Many talk freely and openly, and from a dozen reliable sources come the assertions that the residents in the vicinity of the pastoral residence knew of the priest's liaison long ago, when Steasea was seen leaving his house late at night.
Young English has repeatedly said he was to get money from Father Leyden, as well as to be given all of Steasea's money, for marrying her.' At times he denies this, but his conflicting stories leave little room for doubt. He has no money and no position, and, having nothing to lose, has much
to gain.
In the fashionable hospital at 3014 Calumet avenue the fair daughter of Aurora talked at night to a reporter for The Dispatch. She had no hesitancy whatever in telling of her amour, but bore herself with modesty throughout. She did not speak hardly of the priest, but when telling of his kindness and his love she buried her pretty face in her cold white hands and wept piteously. She said she loved him and would love him still had he not thrown her over so ruth lessly.
Her sister Elizabeth, a bright, witty girl, told of the priest's futile efforts to see Steasea after he heard there was no hope for his further protection and how he had repeatedly given evidence of his guilt, not only before her but before others.
A home has been blighted. A fair life is shattered. The trust of a dead man is thrown to the winds. Two young women are borne down by a sister's shame. A mother's heart is broken. A congregation is divested of its confidence in a well-loved pastor. A supposed holy man is shorn of his cloak of righteousness. A taint is cast upon an escutcheon that can
but illy afford to give up its surface to anything but that which is fairest.
Americans need only see what has resulted from this state of things in Italy, Spain, and elsewhere to resolve that

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the sanctity of the home shall be preserved, if the liberties of the priests be put under restraint. Homes are being invaded, virtue dethroned, and lives ruined under the sanction of the church.
Demand that the priests of Borne be ruled by a code of morality that is recognized as sound in the evangelical world, and the cloud of peril will disappear.
The celibacy of the priesthood should be opposed by Boman Catholics, because of the destructive influence it exerts upon the home. This is being done in Quebec. Says a Boman Catholic writer, "An immediate and firm and vigorous reform is needed. Our wives and daughters must be left alone. You, as priests, choose to leave the world, remain then outside the world. We have no need of you in our parlors, especially when we are not there to watch. You do not need to be intimate with your female penitents, to give them absolution. It is better that you should not know with whom you are dealing when confessing. You travel too much, and play too much the part of young men. In other words, let the clergy keep away from the women, and religion and the Catholics will only be better off. This must be done and at once."--
Canadian Review, Sept. 10, 1893.
For this utterance the Review was put under the ban.
Would it not be better to remember that "Marriage is honorable and the bed undefiled, but whore-mongers and. adul terers God will judge." God's law opens a way out of the difficulty. Priests are described by Paul as men who are "lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blas phemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof; from such turn away; for of this sort are they which creep into houses and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.';--II Tim. iii. 2-7.
"A bishop must then be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach; not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous; one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity."--I Tim. iii. 2-4. That scripture is binding on Boman Catholics as on Protestants.
If priests are to be delivered from the toils, the truth must be told them and an atmosphere must be created in the Boman

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Catholic world that shall make women see their peril and
fight their seducers in the home, the convent, and the con fessional.
Let the home be the training place for work, and let the priest become the husband of one wife, and let not his shadow,
as now, come between husband and wife, and the Roman Catholic Church will throw off the incubus of the confes sional, and become a factor in American civilization.

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CHAPTER XVII.
FIGHTING PRIESTS, FRIGHTENED ROMANISTS, WITH NOTHING ON THE BLOTTER.
FIGHTING priests, despotic bishops, and a recalcitrant clergy, refusing to wear the Romish yoke, present object les sons to the American people deserving of study. When Ed ward McGlynn was cast out in 1887, because he would not build a parochial school in St. Stephen's parish, or accept the iron rule of Archbishop Corrigan and deny the father hood of God, and the brotherhood of man, and when priests stood by him it became a question whether the tyranny of Rome could find a habitation and a home in the United States. Things went on from bad to worse until Satolli came and took a hand in the dispute, and gave the excommunicated McGlynn back to the church, when, because of the hate of a Corrigan, he becomes a priest without a parish, shut away from the altars, proving that Rome has to be reconstructed if it is ever to harmonize with the principles of the gospel or with our republican institutions.
Latterly, fighting priests in Jersey City, N. J., Lincoln, Neb., and Brooklyn. N. Y., show that the fight in Rome is quite as marked as is the fight with Rome.
Dr. Burtsell, the greatest authority in Roman canonical law, and who was turned out of his parish in New York be cause he stood by Dr. McGlynn, has won his case before the sacred college and scores another victory over Archbishop Corrigan.
The readers of the newspapers were amazed Monday morning, February 12, 1894, with the startling headlines tell ing of an assault made by Father Patrick McDonald upon Priest W.- J. Hill in St. Paul's Church, corner Court and Congress streets, Brooklyn, N. Y., on February 11, at morning mass, and that the congregation was so paralyzed with fear that it kept them from going to the help of their priest because of the superstition, that to enter the sanctuary would cause their death.
There Lay the Prostrate Priest,
There stood the people, no one daring to go to his help, for getful of the truth that since the rending of the veil of the temple, at the death of Christ on Calvary, the only sacred place has been the human soul, tenanted by the Holy Ghost.
Priest McDonald, having punished his enemy, gossip says

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for the sake of a woman, proceeded calmly to his work, and

turning to the altar took the gold chalice from the receptacle

and calmly proceeded to read the creed.

;

Father Hill rose, and, stepping up to Father McDonald,

laid his hand upon his shoulder.

"You have desecrated the sanctuary," he said, "and you

must not continue the service. Let me read the creed."

As Father Hill held out his right hand to receive the

chalice, Father McDonald drew himself up, and raising his

clenched fist, struck Father Hill a heavy blow just behind the

left ear.

Father Hill reeled and toppled over and down the steps,

falling headlong against the rail.

Father McDonald then laid the chalice upon the altar and

leaped upon Father Hill, whom he kicked and beat with his

fists.

Wild excitement now prevailed among the congregation.

Reverence and respect for their surroundings had held them

in restraint up to this time. Now those in front leaped over

pews to the rescue of their pastor. It was manifest that

Father McDonald was very angry and that Father Hill was

completely at his mercy. Members of the congregation sprang

upon Father McDonald and literally wrenched him from off

Father Hill. Women and children screamed and persons in

the rear of the church made a rush for the street.

Policeman Reynolds of the Third Precinct was on duty

in front of the church and he ran into the edifice. He was

quickly at the side of Father McDonald, who was surrounded

by a dozen men.

Father Hill, with bleeding forehead and swollen face,

spoke to the congregation, telling them the services would not

be continued and asking them to leave the church as quietly

as possible. He was then escorted to the rectory on Congress

street.

Father McDonald was led to the vestry and told to take

off his priestly garments. This he refused to do. and he was

seized and stripped of them. He protested vigorously against

this, and his captors had a struggle with him. The task was

finally accomplished and Father McDonald was taken to the

rectory and up to his apartments, where he became calmer.

Father Hill notified Bishop McDonnell of the affair, and

the bishop instructed Vicar-General McNamara to call upon

Father McDonald and act as he deemed best for the interests

of the church. When he had learned the story from Father

Hill the Vicar-General suspended Father McDonald, and

ordered him to be taken as a prisoner to St. Peter's Hospital.

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Father McDonald offered no resistance to this order. After he had been taken to the hospital, however, he became violent, and a messenger was dispatched to Police Headquarters forassistance to restrain him. A policeman was sent to the hos
pital form the Third Precinct. The police of the Third Precinct made no report of the
affair to Police Headquarters, arid when newspaper reporters questioned them about jt the sergeant in charge denied all knowledge of it. He said no record of such a case had been
entered on the blotter. Father McDonald is about thirty years old. and was edu
cated in Eome. The attempt was made to prove McDonald insane. He
denies that he was insane, and when seen by a reporter a few days after the occurrence, he said: "I am no more insane than you are, and the newspapers have grossly misrepresented me in the matter of my trouble with Father Hill/' He said that had he seen any representative of the press on that memorable Sunday he would have given his version of. the affair, "which," he added, "would have created one of the greatest scandals in church circles known for a long time."
Said Priest Hil: "I suppose he was brooding over the notice he received in December to leave the diocese. After he first assaulted me I saw that he had excommunicated himself by his act and could not lawfully go on with the mass. When I saw the chalice in his hands I took it. and he tried to prevent me and struck me. I felt bound at all hazards to prevent his continuing the mass, because, if insane, he was unfit to cele brate the mass, and if sane, he had committed so great a crime and had given rise to such a grave scandal, that he was unworthy to offer the divine sacrifice. The act of striking me was a sacrilege, and the instant the act was committed he was excommunicated from the Catholic c.hurch. The altar will not have to be reconsecrated, as no blood was shed. Had blood been shed we would have had to consecrate the altar
the second time." The fact remains that blood was shed, but there has been
an evident attempt to hush up the matter. There are a few facts that should be considered.

1. Priests Are Unconverted Men.
They are in the darkness of papal night. Fights are of frequent occurrence in priestly homes. The late Father Corrigan had been engaged in such a conflict just a little while before his death, and for all said to the contrary it may have had much to do with his taking off. The letter from St.

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Joseph, Mo., recently published, charging the priests with fighting to an extent that made it improper to have them serve at the altar, ought to show the American people that there is deep need of their being brought to the knowledge of their condition without God and so without hope.

2. Romanism is Built, on the Ritualism of Judaism and the Errors of Paganism.
It was because of this that Romanists bow down to the wafer when elevated with the chalice before the altar. In the olden times the Holy of Holies was sacredly guarded and only the priest dressed and properly sanctified could enter there, and then only once a year to make expiation for the sins of the people.

3. The Priest Thought of the Desecrated Sanctuary, but the
World Thinks of the Pummeled Man,.
A man is more precious than fine gold, in the eye of God and ought to be in the eye of all.
Priest Hill was said to have been taken up bleeding. He now says, had blood been drawn the altar would have had to be reconsecrated. Could a drop of blood have added to the brutality of the scene, which was a disgrace, not because it occurred in a church, but because it reveals the animus of the men that professedly minister at the altar of sacrifice? Away with such nonsense. The religion of Jesus Christ is essential to the welfare of Romanists. This infuses a new life. This changes the heart and transforms men into the similitude of Christ. Then love takes the place of hate, and the charge that the priest was seeking to belittle him would disappear and would have given him reason for praying for him who had despitefully used him. "Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake." Romanists need the gospel. Bishops, priests and all.
.Look in at Lincoln, Neb., where a priest sued his bishop for criminal libel, where Father Phelan. of St. Louis, the best judge of canon law in the West, after stating the case turned to the bishop and said dramatically. u The anointed lips have lied."
The bishop's lawyer asks: "Why do you send for him to come and tell one of our honored and respectable citizens, and in a court of justice, that he is a liar? We haee a king Jiere for whom there is no law, and can be no law.'1'
"Because it is true," interjected Father Corbett.
17 p

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Then came the question of jurisdiction. The court decided to try the case, and then Phelan continued with earnestness: "We purpose to show this king, this usurper, that he is amen able to the civil as well as church law."
Hence, when the bishop was beaten, Satolli writes:
"I am deeply grieved on account of the deplorable events which have lately occurred in your diocese against your authority and dignity. I wrote to Father Corbett that it is his duty to obey your lordship ordering his transfer from Palmyra forever. If he had reason for feeling aggrieved at your action, and. therefore, had the intention to appeal to higher authority, this could not excuse him from obeying your orders.
"Language fails to express how deeply I deplore and con demn the action of Father Corbett in citing before the civil court the sacred person of his own bishop, the more so as your letter had not even the semblance of a libel, it being in conformity with the practice of the church authorities the world over, even in Rome, where, as I well know, notices of
priests having been suspended are publicly affixed to all the churches of that city.
"Therefore, Father Corbett's actions so grievously offend ing his bishop's dignity and authority deserve the highest
censure, and also ecclesiastical punishment. And I believe that the sentiments of profound sorrow and of the highest reprobation which I feel are likewise felt, not only by all Catholics, but also by all honest citizens, and this feeling of reprobation, which I trust is universally shared by all citi zens, is intensified by the fact that this scandal, almost unheard of in the history of the Church, is the greater on account of the action of another priest, who, if we can rely on what has appeared in the public press, being called by the civil court as an expert in canon law to explain the Church's legislation with regard to suspension, went beyond the sphere assigned him to become the defender of Father Corbett and the assailant of your lordship.
"Be pleased, then, right reverend and dear sir, to accept the sincerest expression of my condolence, and my solemn protest against all that has been done to your sacred person, dignity
and authority by a priest who, besides trampling under foot the ecclesiastical laws, dared to take advantage of the civil conditions existing in this country to cause so much scandal
among all Catholics and before the whole country--nay, before the whole world--as if there was not higher ecclesiastical autliorities"
So the bishop has to resort to the civil law to control his

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priests. Out of the church into the world is the place for Romanists.
"I will earnestly pray God that He may console your lordship by the fullness of His divine grace, and that your authority and dignity may soon be vindicated, as it is meet and just for the good of your diocese, for the splendor of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, and for universal edification."
This is America, Satolli!

Father Corbett is Defiant.
LINCOLN., XEB., Feb. 27, 1894.--Bishop Bonacum has stirred up matters once again. This time he has issued an order of excommunication against Father Corbett, sentencing him to three years' suspension from participation in the Eucharist, and to undergo a penance of that length in a mon astery near Montreal, Canada. This sentence has been passed without a trial being accorded the accused, his offense being the bringing of the bishop into a civil court on a criminal charge. Father Corbett has refused to obey this sentence also, and the bishop has begun suit in a justice's court in Palmyra, to eject the priest from the parish residence.--Chicago Inter Ocean.
Priests have rights which bishops and archbishops are bound to respect or suffer the consequences, as Archbishop Corrigan is slowly finding out. Think of the archbishop of New York being rebuked in a court in Brooklyn for speak ing disrespectfully of a penniless and helpless priest who is suing his bishop for his infringement of American rights.
The need of the religion of Jesus Christ ought to be apparent to all, and yet we are ready to send missionaries to Spain, Mexico, Brazil and other Roman Catholic countries and neglect the millions perishing at our doors.
It is a significant fact that when the reporter went to police headquarters for information concerning the case, he was informed,
"There is Nothing on the Blotter."
Is it not a typical fact concerning Romanism in America that we do not judge priests by the same rule ministers are judged? Suppose such a statement as this was published about evangelical clergymen, what would be done about it?

He Knows the Priests.
Bishop Durier, of Louisiana, has just sent out a circular to his priests--which circular is printed in "L'Observateur

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Louisianais," a church paper edited by a priest. Here are
two extracts from the circular:
"First Decree.--We strictly forbid any priest, after three
months from date,.from living under the same roof with any-
woman, unless there be no means of communication within
the house between the sleeping room of that woman and such
part of the house as is set apart for the use of the priest. An exception will be made in behalf of the mother or the
sister of the priest, but not for any other woman, no matter
how she is entitled to be living at the priest's.
'''Second Decree.--We strictly forbid under penalty of suspension ipso facto any priest from taking a ride with a woman living with him, either alone with her, or alone with that woman and her children. An exception will be made in behalf of the mother or the sister of the priest, but not for any other woman, no matter how she is entitled to be living at the priest's."
This goes out and it produces but a slight impression. In the public mind there is nothing on the blotter.
It was the vote of the Roman Catholics, given in obedi ence to the behests of their Pope, that cast the Nation down from the height of such prosperity as was never enjoyed before, to such a depth of misfortune as was never known when thousands of starving men were crowding our cities, and yet few dared to tell the truth concerning the cause of the disaster. Indeed there was nothing on the blotter that condemned this lifelong traitor to liberty. A church that in spite of the most eloquent and astute politicians living, can hold its membership and compel them to vote for a man they hate, because the church demands it, is to be feared as a political power, and if the Catholic vote cannot be divided, as was the hope of James G. Blaine and other patriotic Americans, there must in the near future be grown an Ameri can party that shall be anti-Roman, or the Sun of Liberty must go into the night to leave the land in darkness until there shall be an- uprising in behalf of freedom, country and the principles of righteousness which furnished a foundation for the superstructure of Republican hope.

Organized Effort Essential. Let us organize for this work. It cannot be successfully prosecuted without it. To achieve this desired result let us lay on the altar the brightest and the most generous element in our churches. We need

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A House of Refuge for Priests
to which they who would flee from the persecuting hate of Rome might find protection. Not all have friends in case of need as had McGlynn.
Sisterhoods Composed of Women Willing
to wear a distinctive badge and who will undertake a special work for nuns and others who wish to fly the hell of a nun nery and get to a place of safety. The battle is coming on and we need our ambulance corps and hospital service. The Master wants women who will gladly serve womanhood in a kind way, which is more than Borne has at this hour. Rome works for money and not for love, and it is time Protest antism awoke to the fact. Consecrated sisterhoods not neces sarily unmarried, but sisterhoods with hearts filled with love and ready to visit prisons, and minister to the stranded souls, are a necessity. In Romanism superstition keeps the people in darkness, but in the great Protestant establishments of Germany and of England, the Bible is proven to be the foun tain source of instruction and the sheet-anchor of a people's hope, and from those institutions go forth trained workers to ameliorate the condition of mankind.
In one of the terrific battles of our late war the commander-in-chief desired that the flag of a certain regiment be placed in advance of the main line. The command was obeyed and the flag was unfurled. Bullets and cannon balls flew thick about the flag-bearer. At length the colonel shouted, "Bring back your colors."
'Wo," shouted the hero, "Bring up your Men." Today the Christian people who are timid and for one cause or another are calling, "Bring back your colors," need to have it said to them in prayer-meetings and in business places, in homes and in politics, "Bring up your men."

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CHAPTEE VIII.
Is AMERICAN LIBERTY IMPERILED BT EOMISH PRIESTS?
THE danger signal has been raised, and attention has been called to the conduct of priests in the confessional, where they are poisoning the minds of youth and demoralizing by their conduct and character the American home.
In politics they are the leaders of the vile and vicious classes, and so liberty is cramped, good government injured,, and there is open war waged with the plain and positive com mands of Almighty God.
The Roman Catholic Church is a colossal despotism. The Pope is absolute master and the priests are obedient servant* of his will. He can send them where he chooses and work them in any way that may suit his pleasure.
If the oaths that are circulated are correctly given, then are they pledged to do what in fact they perform. The fol lowing extracts show the animus of these conspirators against liberty, whether or no they be the oaths taken:
A Priest's Oath.
"I, __ ____, now in the presence of Almighty Gody the blessed Virgin Mary, the blessed Michael the Archangel, the blessed St. John the Baptist, the Holy Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul and the Saints and the Sacred Host of Heaven, and to you, my Lord, I do declare from my heart, without mental reservation, that the Pope is Christ's vicar-general and is the true and only head of the Universal Church throughout the earth, and that, by virtue of the keys of bind ing and loosing given to his holiness by Jesus Christ he has power to depose heretical kings, princes, states, common wealths and governments, all being illegal without his sacred confirmation, and that they may safely be destroyed. There fore to the utmost of my power, I will defend the doctrine of His Holiness' rights and customs against all usurpers of the Protestant authority whatsoever, especially against the now pretended authority and church in England and all adherents,, in regard that they be usurpal and heretical, opposing the Sacred Mother, the Church of Rome.
"I do denounce and disown any allegiance as due to any Protestant king, prince of state, or obedience to any of their inferior officers. I do further declare the doctrine of the Church of England, of the Calvinists, Huguenots and other

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Protestants, to be damnable and those to be damned who not forsake the same.
"I do further declare that I will help, assist and advise all or any of His Holiness' agents, in any place wherever I shall be, and to do my utmost to extirpate the Protestant doc trine and to destroy all their pretended power, regal or other wise, I do further promise and declare that, notwithstanding I may be permitted by dispensation to assume any heretical religion (Protestant denominations) for the propagation of the Mother Church's interest, to keep secret and private all her agents' counsels as they entrust me. and not to divulge, directly or indirectly, by word, writing or circumstances what soever, but to execute all which shall be proposed, given in
charge or discovered unto me by you, my most Reverend Lord and Bishop.
"All of which I, ---------------- , do swear by the blessed Trinity and Sacrament which I am about to receive, to per form on my part, to keep inviolably, and do call on all the Heavenly and Glorious Host of Heaven to witness my real intentions to keep this my OATH.
"In testimony whereof, I take this most holy and blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist, and witness the same further with my consecrated hand, in the presence of my holy bishop and all the priests who assist him in my ordination to the priesthood."
Remember that the priest's oath binds the priest; the
bishop is bound by the oath of both the priest and bishop, and the cardinal is bound by all three.

A Bishop's Oath.
'"I, ----------,_ --, elect of the _______ Diocese, from henceforward will be faithful and obedient to St. Peter the Apostle and to the Holy Roman Church and to our Lord, the Holy Pope of Rome, and to his successors, canonically entering; I will neither advise, consent nor do anything that they may lose life or member, or that their persons may be seized, or nands in any wise laid upon them, or any injuries offered to them, under any pretense whatsoever. The counsel with which they shall intrust me by themselves, their messengers or letters, I will not knowingly reveal to any, to their prejudice. I will help them to defend and keep the Roman Papacy, and the royalties of St. Peter against all men. The legate of the apostolic see, going and coming. I will honorably treat and help in his necessities. The rights, honors, privileges and authority of the Holy Roman Church
of our Lord the Pope and his aforesaid successors, I will

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endeavor to preserve, defend, increase and advance. I
not be in any counsel, action or treaty, in which shall be plotted against our said Lord and Roman Church, anything to the hurt or prejudice of their persons, rights, honor, state or power, and, if I know any such thing to be treated or agitated by any whatsoever, I will hinder it to my utmost, and as soon as I can I will signify it to our said Lord. The ordinance and mandates of tjie Pope I will observe with all
my might and cause to be observed by others. "Heretics, schismatics and rebels to our said Lord or his
successors, I will to my utmost persecute and oppose"

The Cardinal's Oath.
"I. _____ ______, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, do promise and swear that, from this time to the end of my life I will be faithful and obedient unto St. Peter, the holy apostolic rtoman Church, and -our most Holy Lord, the Pope of Rome ana his successors, canonically and lawfully elected; that I will give no advice, consent or assistance against the pontifical majesty and person; that I will never knowingly and advisedly, to their injury or disgrace, make public the counsels entrusted to me by themselves, or by messengers or letters; also that I will give them any assistance in retaining, defending and recovering the Roman Papacy and the regalia of Peter, with all my might and endeavor, so far as the rights and privileges of my order will allow it, and will defend them against all their honor and state and I will direct and defend, with due form and honor, the legates and nuncios of the apostolic see, in the territories, churches, monasteries and other benefices committed to my keeping; and I will cor dially co-operate with them and treat them with honor in their combining, aiding and returning, and that I will resist unto blood all persons" whatsoever, who shall attempt anything against them. That I will, by every way and by every means strive to preserve, augment and advance the rights, honors, privileges, the authority of the Holy Roman Bishop, our Lord the Pope and his before-mentioned successors; and that, at whatever time' anything shall be decided to their prejudice, which is out of my power to hinder as soon as I shall know that any steps or measures have been taken in the matter I will make it known to the same our Lord, or his successors, or some other person by whose means it may be brought to their knowledge. That I will keep and carry out and cause others to keep and carry out the rules of the Holy Father, the decrees, ordinances, dispensations, reservations, provisions, apostolic mandates and constitutions of the Holy Father Sextus, of

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happy memory, as to visiting the thresholds of the apostles at certain prescribed times, according to the tenor of that which
I have just read through. That I will seek out and oppose, persecute and fight (omni conatu persecuturum et impugaturum) against heretics and schismatics who oppose our Lord, the Pope of Rome, and his heretofore-mentioned successors, and this I will do with every possible effort."
(Signature), then sent to the Pope.

The Jesuit's Oath.
The oath of the Society of Jesus is said to embrace all the above and adds:
"I do further declare that I will help, assist, and advise all or any of His Holiness' agents, in any place wherever I shall be, in Switzerland, Germany. Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, England, Ireland or America, or in any other kingdom or territory I shall come to, and do my utmost to extirpate the heretical Protestant or Liberal doctrines, and to destroy all their pretended powers, regal or otherwise.
"I do futher promise and declare that, notwithstanding I am dispensed with to assume any religion heretical from the propagation of the mother church's interest, to keep secret and private all her agents' councils from time to time, as they intrust me, by word, writing or circumstances whatever, but to execute all that shall be proposed, given in charge, dis covered unto me, by you my ghostly father, or any of this sacred convent.
"I do further promise and declare that I will have no opinion or will of my own or any mental reservation whatso ever, even as a corpse or cadaver (perinde ac cadaver), but will unhesitatingly obey each and every command in the militia of the Pope and of Jesus Christ.
"That I will go to any part of the world whithersoever I may be sent, to the frozen regions of the North, the burning sands of the desert of Africa, or to the jungles of India, to the centers of civilization of Europe, or to the wild haunts of the barbarous savages of America, without murmuring or repin ing, and will be submissive in all things whatsoever com municated to me.
"I do furthermore promise and declare that I will, when opportunity presents, make and wage relentless war, secretly and openly against all heretics, Protestants and Liberals, as I am directed to do, to extirpate them from the face of the whole earth, and that I will spare neither age, sex or con dition, and that I will hang, burn, waste, boil, flay, strangle and bury alive these infamous heretics; rip up the stomachs

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and wombs of their women, and crush their infants' heads against the wall, in order to annihilate their execrable race. That when the same cannot be done openly, I will secretly use the poisonous cup, the strangulating cord, the steel of the poniard or the leaden bullet, regardless of the honor, rank, dignity or authority of the person or persons, whatever may be their condition in life, either public or in private, as I at any time may be directed to do by any agent of the Pope or Superior of the Brotherhood of the Holy Father of the Society of Jesus.
"In confirmation of which I hereby dedicate my life, my soul and all my corporeal powers and with this dagger, which I now receive, I will subscribe my name, written in my blood, in testimony thereof: and should I prove false or weaken in my determination, may my brethren and fellow soldiers of the militia of the Pope cut off my hands and feet, and my throat from ear to ear, my belly opened and sulphur burned therein, with all the punishments that can be inflicted upon me on earth, and my soul be tortured by demons in an eternal hell forever.
"All of which I, ------------------, do swear by the Blessed Trinity, the Blessed Sacrament, which I am now to receive, to perform, and on my part to keep inviolably; and do call the heavenly and glorious host of heaven to witness these my real intentions to keep this, my oath.
"In testimony whereof, I^ake this most holy and blessed sacrament of the eucharist, and witness the same further, with my name written with the point of his dagger, dipped in my own blood, and seal in the face of this holy convent."
Is it strange that Priest A. Lambert, one of the most active missionary priests of the Kedemptorist Order of the Roman Catholic Church, has withdrawn from his former connections and has announced his conversion to Protestantism? Father Lambert was born in Belgium and was ordained to the priest hood there. He has for many years been engaged in "giving missions" under the auspices of the Redemptorists. The mis sionary priests are selected from among the ablest speakers and workers to do a kind of evangelical work for the church. The following letter has been forwarded to the Superior General of the Redemptorist Order at Rome. It reads as follows: "VERY REV. FATHER RATJS, C. S. S. R.
"Reverend Sir: I deem it my duty to inform you that from today, my canonical standing being perfectly regular and unquestioned, as you well know, I freely and deliberately withdraw from the priesthood and communion of the Roman

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Catholic Church. The decision I now take is the outcome of a long mental struggle and much thought. It is not without sorrow I have taken this step, for it is hard to sever the rela tions of twenty-one years, but I could not forever resist the voice of my conscience. I had to obey it at last, and the logical consequence of that obedience is the step I now take. Know ing what I know, having seen what I saw and learned, what I heard in the Roman Catholic Church. I cannot any longer force my mind into submission to the Vatican, nor can I any longer admit the claim of the Roman Catholic Church and clergy to rule, not only in religious questions, but also in purely scientific, social and even political matters.
"The intolerance and duplicity which, almost from the day of my ordination to the priesthood, I found and met in the Roman Catholic Church, have become utterly unbearable to me. Having also come to the conclusion that there is only one Hight Priest, the God-man, Jesus Christ, and only one sacrifice for sin, not to be repeated; and in consequence doubt ing my powers and faculties as a priest, I could not act other wise than I do here and now. Had I remained any longer in the Roman Catholic Church after coming to this decision I would have debased my manhood, and that I could not do, and with God's help never shall do."
Can it be supposed that cardinals, bishops and priests of Rome, after taking the oaths above given, can be good and loyal citizens of any government where their lot may be cast? Are they the proper persons to dictate laws for the Republic or any other government where the rights of the people are respected ? Shall they be permitted to manipulate and control elections i
The Jesuit's Oath
carries the sting and is loaded with a threat which injures free institutions here and throughout the world. Adopting the principle that the end justifies the means, they scruple at no measure calculated to entrap the people. In "Washington in the Lap of Rome" the character and conduct of Jesuits are set forth (pp. 36-53, 100-114).
After the above oaths, the so-called A. P. A. oath, as it is given out. seems almost insipid. This is what it is claimed to be:
Alleged A. P. A. Oath.
"I do most solemnly promise and swear that I will use my influence to promote the interests of all Protestants, every where in the world; that I will not employ a Roman Catholic

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in any capacity if I can procure the services of a Protestant; that I will not aid in building, or in maintaining, by any resources, any Roman Catholic church or institution of their sect or creed whatsoever, but will do all in my power to retard and break down the power of the pope; that I will not enter into any controversy with a Roman Catholic upon the subject of this order, nor will I enter into any agreement with a Roman Catholic to strike or create a disturbance, whereby Roman Catholic employees may undermine and substitute the Protestants; and that in all grievances I will seek only Pro testants and counsel with them to the exclusion of all Roman Catholics, and will not make known to them anything of any nature matured at such conferences; that I will not counte nance the nomination, in any caucus or convention, of a Roman Catholic, for any office in the gift of the American people; and that I will not vote for, nor counsel others to vote for any Roman Catholics; that I will endeavor at all times to place the political positions of this government in the hands of Pro testants. To all of which I do most solemnly promise and swear, so help me God. Amen."
Pascal proved that Jesuitism is utterly subversive of all true principles of morality, religion and civil government. In Germany, where Jesuits were banished and where the attempt is made to have them restored to power, 1,800 Evangelists met and sent to the Kaiser and Chancellor the following: "The Jesuits, through their principles, poison the morals of our people and endanger through their teachings the ideas of duty and truthfulness among our people. The Jesuit order is a secret institution, foreign in all respects to our principles, rights, and social and civic life. The Jesuits imperil our free dom by the confessional which is necessary to such an order, and it should not. be brought back into the homes of Ger many."
Is it more safe for other nations than for Germany? Mexico thinks not and banishes them from the Republic. In the United States alone is this work permitted to rave undis
turbed. How long shall this state of things be tolerated? Latterly through Tom Sherman the Jesuits have been seeing how much the people will endure. In speaking of ex-priests telling the truth concerning the confessional, he said: "These
ex-priests are anarchists of the worst kind. They appeal to free speech. If free speech means the right to debauch the minds of women and children at pleasure, then for one I say
better free bullets than free speeoh." It is not ex-priests that debauch women, but priests in the
confessionals who are doing this, here and everywhere, and as

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a result there is getting to be a very strong feeling that a halt
must be called, no matter at what cost. The Roman Catholic pulpit is being used as a place of
assault against all that is dear to the American heart. Think of such an utterance as this from Priest Ferdinand Stick of Pana, 111.: "The Y. M. C. A. is a hell-hole. Mothers, I implore you to keep your sons from going to such places." In regard to Protestants in general, he said: "There is not a good, moral young man in Pana that is a Protestant. The only good young men are Catholics. I had rather stand up with a gambler, a saloon-keeper, or a drunkard, on the judg ment day, than with a Protestant, for they will all go to hell
together. No Protestant can go to heaven." These utterances are denied by Stick, as were the utter
ances by Priest Sherman. but a Roman Catholic editor of the town tells the truth and holds him up to public execration, demanding his removal from the parish, as his influence for good is at an end, saying: "When the fear of public opinion becomes so great that a priest of a Catholic Church will call God to witness that he does not hold and never held such ungentlemanly. unchristian and uncatholic sentiments, when many regular attendants at the mass cannot deny that he has time after time given utterance to them, it is enough to make
the very angels weep and hide their heads in shame." All this is hopeful. In the Republic the state is on top and Rome
must behave herself or lose caste and position. Such liberty as is enjoyed in America dawned dimly upon
the minds of prophets in the olden times, when beyond the Babylonian, the Persian.- the Macedonian and the Roman empires they saw these pillars of Republican hope rising into view, which was to support a world-wide beneficence, that was to enrich humanity, and build on the shores of a then forest continent the lighthouse of the future.
God has guarded the principle. Religious liberty has been enjoyed by all. Romanists have been left alone and as a result have fallen behind in moral and spiritual development. Priests have reveled in wantonness and inebriety to an alarming
extent. Latterly the cover has been taken off and the Romanism of America has proven to be as bad as is the Romanism of Italy or Mexico. Whatever the principle of
evolution may do for other countries, it does not help or touch Romanism.

To Tolerate Romanism, is to Betray Liberty.
To expose and undermine the foundations on which it rests is to subserve the highest interests of society. We are

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what we tolerate. If we countenance lying as a people we become a nation of liars. If we ignore the adulterous conduct of the priests, and permit them unrebuked to invade the mar
riage bed of the poorest, we weaken the hold of virtue in the
community. If we consent to see the ballot trifled with, to its being bought and sold, and to having so-called American
citizens driven to the polls, and compelled to vote for men selected by their priests, and who may be distasteful to them
selves and we acquiesce in it, we become guilty of a crime that imperils America. Romanism and Republicanism are
antagonistic from the principles that underlie them. The
spirit of Romanism is to be fought in America.
It was in January 30, 1829, the Leopold Foundation was
organized to break up the Republic of the United States. Their hope was in the immigration to this country of the scum of Europe, followed by priests as degraded as the people. These
were massed in the large cities, and by their help Rome gained control of them. As a result Rome holds more than half of the offices in the gift of the people. She plunders the pocket, turns American workmen out of employment, drives out Pro testant teachers from the public schools, organizes military companies exclusively of her own adherents and has over 700,000 men armed, drilled and officered in our large cities, all ready to do her bidding. She largely controls the army and
navy and the municipal police force of the country. These and a multitude more things has Rome done and is doing in the United States as the authorized agent of the Jesuits of Rome. No wonder a Roman Catholic priest boasts, saying: "The American press is in our hands. We are well organized,
you may rely on our ability to rule the republic. Let the battle
commence. We are ready. Our Catholic schools have not been idle. Our boys are drilled, and will not hold back when
the time comes for action, but will die to a man and woman in defense of our holy church, so help us God." To be fore warned is to be forearmed.

A Beautiful Legend
relates that Jesus Christ came back to earth when Rome was in the ascendant, and showed himself at a great Auto de Fe in Seville, where hundreds of his devoted followers had been burned. Christ walked about in the ashes of the martyrs. The chief inquisitor caused Him to be arrested and at midnight visited Him in His cell. "You are wrong," said the inquisitor, "in coming again to earth to interfere in the work of the church. You were wrong not to accept the offer of the tempter, wrong to undertake to convert the world by silent

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and spiritual forces. It has been necessary for the church to correct Your vrork and supplement it with the sword of the
Caesars. You also tomorrow shall be burned." This legend brings out into sharp contrast the difference
between Komanism and Christianity. Christ answered not a word but looked at the inquisitor with His mild gaze and stooped and kissed Him on his bloodless mouth.. The inquisitor was broken, and, trembling, opened the door and bade the Master depart, never to-return. Romanism is to be broken up by Christ's constraining love, as ice glaciers are melted by
summer suns. This land has been sown with the winnowed seed of centuries and it becomes us not to be satisfied with a harvest that is not calculated to help mankind.
The necessity for the exercise of supreme faith in God's almightiness increases with our responsibility. It has been said that at present there is no American politician who dares declare against the increasing power of Rome in this country. Shall a party be formed who dares? Mighty forces are gather ing. A continent is the stake for which Rome plays. Acknowledge and prepare for the onset. The battle is God's. That Being who slew the hosts of Senacherib has again and again come to the help of the American people. Our business is to tell the truth. "And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his month and destroy with the brightness of his coming." The trust committed to the freedom-loving people of this land is simply awe-inspiring. Our banner is recognized as the ensign of liberty and it is being unfurled from the flagstaff of all public schools, despite the hatred of Rome, and the Irish flag is lowered and compelled to give way *ven on St. Patrick's day to Old Glory, that waves in triumph from ocean to ocean and from the lakes to the gulf. Our political life is permeating the vast realm of human thought. While at the ballot-box all votes weigh alike, we ought to remember that life tells upon destiny, that the hope of the righteous shall be gladness and the expectation of the wicked shall perish.

Here are the Principles of the A. P. A. in Public Political Life--AH Loyal American Citizens Heartily Indorse Them.
1. Nationality is not a bar to membership in the order. N0 man is asked where he was born.
2. We interfere with no man's partisan politics. 3. We attack no man's religion, so long as he does not attempt to make his religion an element of political power. 4. We unite to protect our country and its free institu-

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tions against the secret, intolerant and aggressive efforts that

are persistently being set forth by a certain religio-political

organization, to control the government of the United States

and destroy the blood-bought civil and religious liberty.

5. We are in favor of preserving constitutional liberty,

and maintaining the government of the United States.

6. We regard all religio-political organizations as the

enemies of civil and religious liberty.

7. It is in our opinion unwise and unsafe to appoint or

elect to civil, political or military office in this country, men

who owe supreme allegiance to any foreign king, potentate

or ecclesiastical power, and who are sworn to obey such power.

8. We are in favor of maintaining the principle of OXE

general unsectarian free school organization, and will oppose

all attempts to supplant it by any sectarian institution.

9. We are opposed to all attempts, local or national to

use public funds for any sectarian purpose.

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10. We are in favor of laws taxing all church property.

11. We are in favor of changing our immigration laws

in such manner that they will protect our citizen laborers

from the evil influences of cheap pauper and criminal labor,

which through the instrumentality of European propagandist

societies, and in this country by the aid of strikes and the

subtle influence of priests, are rapidly supplanting our free

and educated American citizens in every line of industry.

12. We believe there should be an educational qualifica

tion to the elective franchise that will require every "Ameri

can citizen" to -be Americanized.

13. We are in favor of putting into office honest and true

patriots, who are the best qualified to fill the position regard

less of political parties.

14. We are willing to be governed by these principles in

our future political action.

Our mission is to awaken the people of free America from

their lethargy, indifference and over-confidence. "Eternal

vigilance is the price of liberty," yet the Protestants of this

Republic have ceased to be vigilant, and in conscious strength

are either intently chasing the almighty dollar, or quietly

dozing, while we swiftly drift toward a more tremendous and

terrible crisis than this country has yet known.