VICTIMS OF THE MONKS DESTROYED. "Wherever the Catholic (Popish) Church prevailed, there true liberty followed."-Paul Cullen. NUNNERIES. 66 66 THE flagrant opposition of Popery to the Word of God is in nothing more clearly evident than in her doctrine in regard to the celibacy of priests. "It is not good for man to be alone," says God. "It is absolutely essential that priests should be unmarried," says the Popish Church. Marriage is honourable in all," says the Word of God. Marriage is eminently dishonourable in priests," says the Church of Rome. And by a singular stretch of inconsistency, whilst Peter is the only Apostle whose "wife" is mentioned in the Scripture, all his pretended successors are forced to be unmarried men. But this is not the worst of it. It is quite impossible to set at defiance a law of God without entailing a vast amount of complicated mischief. The priestly celibacy of Popery finds its appropriate counterpart in the system of nunneries. It has been said that "if all the priests in the world would marry all the nuns," an immense amount of evil would be prevented. But as the matter stands at present, only think what a concentration of Satanic contrivance to degrade and ruin poor human nature is implied in the whole system of Popish celibacy. A great number of men are forced to remain without wives. A corresponding number of women are forced to remain without husbands. The unmarried men aforesaid are the only men who are allowed to hold intercourse with the unmarried women, whilst they have access to nunneries at all times. The unmarried women are forced to kneel before the unmarried men, and to lay open to them all their most secret feelings, desires, and purposes. All this takes place often, secretly, in the case of persons pampered in idleness, and not only destitute of true Christian principle, but with their consciences drugged with opiates, and taught to believe that these same priests can forgive sins, however enormous. This takes place in the case of hundreds of thousands of priests and nuns in all parts of the world. It would be an insult to the common sense of the most stupid of mankind to imagine that such a system could be productive of any but the most fearful results. Hence the experience of all Popish countries proves that pollution, murder, and many other evils, are the inevitable fruits of this system; and it is remarkable that parents should ever suffer their children to go near such dens of evil, and that the Government should not either insist on their entire suppression, or on their strict supervision. As it is the most monstrous evils may go on within their high walls unchecked. Bishop Burnet, in his History of the Reformation, gives some appalling statements in regard to the state of the English nunneries in the olden time. For example: "But for the lewdness of the confessors of nunneries, and the great corruption of that state-whole houses being found almost all with child-for the dissoluteness of abbots and the other monks and friars, not only with prostitutes, but married women-and for their unnatural lusts and other brutal practices,-these are not fit to be spoken of, much less enlarged on in a work of this nature. The full report of this visitation is lost; yet I have seen an extract of a part of it concerning one hundred and forty-four houseshouses that contain abominations in them equal to any that were in Sodom." "All the historians of that time tell us that the report which the visitors made to the King was read in Parliament, which represented the manner of these houses so odiously that the Act was easily carried. The preamble bears that small religious houses under the number of twelve persons had been long and notoriously guilty of vicious and abominable living, and did much consume and waste their churches, lands, and other things belonging to them; and that for above two hundred years there had been many visita tions for reforming their abuses, but with no success-their vicious lives increasing daily; so that except small houses were dissolved, and the religious put into greater monasteries, there could be no reformation expected in that matter," &c. But to come down to our own day. Mr. Hogan of America has published a book on Popish nunneries. He was a Popish priest educated at Maynooth, and is now, if still alive, an American barrister. He gives the main reason for his leaving the Church of Rome in the following startling narrative :— "When quite young, and but just emerging from childhood, I became acquainted with a Protestant family living in the neighbourhood of my birth-place. It consisted of a mother (a widow lady) and three interesting children, two sons and one daughter. The mother was a widow, a lady of great beauty and rare accomplishments. The husband, who had but recently died, one of the many victims of what is falsely called honour, left her as he found her, in the possession of a large fortune, and, as far as worldly goods could make her so, in the enjoyment of perfect happiness. But his premature death threw a gloom over her future life, which neither riches nor wealth, nor all worldly comforts combined together, could effectually dissipate. Her only pleasure seemed to be placed in that of her children. They appeared-and I believe they really were-the centre and circumference of her earthly happiness. "In the course of time the sons grew up, and their guardian purchased for both, in compliance with their wishes, and to gratify their youthful ambition, commissions in the army. The parting of these children-the breaking up of this fond trio of brothers and sister, was to the widowed mother another source of grief, and tended to concentrate, it possible, more closely, all the fond affections of the mother upon the daughter. She became the joy of her heart. Her education while a child was an object of great solicitude, and having a fortune at her command, no expense was spared to render it suitable for that station in life in which her high connexions entitled her to move when she should become of age. The whole family were members of the Protestant Church, as the Episcopal Church is called in that country. As soon as the sons left home to join their respective regiments, which were then on the Continent, the mother and daughter were much alone, so much so that the fond mother soon discovered that her too great affection for her child, and the indulgence given to her, were rather impeding than otherwise her education. She accordingly determined to remove ter governess, who up to this period was her sole instructress, under the watchful eye of the fond and accomplished mother herself, and send her to a fashionable school for young ladies. There was then in the neighbourhood, only about twenty miles from this family, a Nunnery of the order of Jesuits. To this nunnery was attached a school superintended by nuns of that order. The school was one of the most fashionable the country. The nuns who presided over it were said to be the most accomplished teachers in Europe. The expenses of an education in it were extravagantly high, but not beyona the reach of wealth and fashion. The mother, though a Protestant, and strict and conscientious in the discharge of all the duties of her Church, and not without a struggle in parting with her child and consigning her to the charge of Jesuits, yielding in this case to the malign influence of fashion, as many a fond mother does even in this our own land of equal rights and far-famed though mock equality-sent her beautiful daughter, her earthly idol, to the school of these nuns. Let the result speak for itself. "Up to the departure of the sons for the army, and this daughter for the nunnery, I had been ever from my infancy acquainted with this family, and had for them the highest respect and warmest attachment. The elder brother was about my own age, and only a few years between the eldest and the youngest child. "Soon after the daughter was sent to school, I entered the College of Maynooth as a theological student, and in due time was ordained a Roman Catholic priest, by particular dispensation, being two years under the canonical age. An interval of some years passed before I had an opportunity of meeting my young friend again; our interview was under peculiar circumstances. I was ordained a Romish priest, and located where she happened to be on a visit. There was a large party given, at which, among many others, I happened to be present; and there meeting with my friend, and interchanging the usual courtesies upon such occasions, she-sportively, as I then imagined-asked me whether I would preach her reception sermon, as she intended becoming a nun and taking the white veil. Not even dreaming of such an event, I replied in the affirmative. "I heard no more of the affair for about two months, when I received a note from her, designating the chapel, the day, and the hour she expected me to preach. I was then but a short time in the ministry, but sufficiently long to know that up to the hour of my commencing to read Popish theology, especially that of Dens and Antoine de Peccatis, I knew nothing of the iniquities taught and practised by Romish priests and bishops. "On the receipt of my friend's note, a cold chill crept over me; I anticipated, I feared, I trembled, I felt there must be foul play somewhere. However, I went, according to promise, preached her reception sermon at the request of the young lady, and with the special approbation of the Bishop, whom I had to consult on such occasions. "The concourse of people tnat assembled or this occasion was very great. The interest created by the apparent voluntary retirement from the world of one so young, so wealthy, and so beautiful, was intense, and accordingly the chapel in which I preached was filled to overflowing with the nobility and fashionables of that section of the country. Many and large were the tears which were shed when this beautiful young lady cut off her rich and flowing tresses of hair. Reader, have you ever seen the description which Eugene Sue, in his Wandering Jew, gives of the lustrous luxuries and rich head of hair worn by Adrienne de Cardoville, and shorn from her head by Jesuits under the pretence that she was insane? If you have not, take the Wandering Jew, turn over its pages till you find it, and you will see a more accurate description of that shorn from the head of the young lady to whom I allude than I can possibly give. "Turn back to the picture given by this same Eugene Sue of the personal beauty, piety, charity, and many virtues of Mademoiselle de Cardoville, and you will have a correct portrait of this young lady of whom I speak. You may therefore easily judge, from her immolation upon the altar of fanaticism, or, more properly speaking, her personal sacrifice to the idol of Popish and Jesuit lust, the nature of that feeling which such an event must have produced in the mind of every Christian believer. "Having no clerical connexion with the convent in which she was immured, I had not seen her for three months following. At the expiration of that time, one of the lay sisters of the convent delivered to me a note. I knew it contained something startling. "These lay sisters among Jesuits are spies belonging to that order, but are sometimes bribed by the nuns for certain purposes. As soon as I reached my apartments, I found that my young friend expressed a wish to see me on something important. I, of course, lost no time in calling on her, and being a priest, I was immediately admitted; but never have I forgot, nor can I forget, the melancholy picture of lost beauty and fallen humanity which met my astonished gaze in the person of my once beautiful and virtuous friend. I had been then about eighteen months a Romish priest, and was not without some knowledge of their profligate lives; and therefore I was the better prepared for and could more easily anticipate what was to come. After such preliminary conversation as may be expected upon occasions of this kind, the young lady spoke to me to the following effect, if not literally so. I say literally, because so deep, and strong, and lasting was the impres sion made upon my mind, that I believe I have not forgotten one letter of her words. "I sent for you, my friend, to see you once more before my death. I have insulted my God and disgraced my family; I am in the family way, and I must die.' After a good deal of conversation, which it is needless to repeat, I discovered from her confession the parent of this pregnancy, and that the mother abbess of the convent advised her to take medicine which would effect abortion; but that she knew from the lay sister who delivered me the note, and who was a confidential servant in the convent, that the medicine which the mother abbess would give her should contain poison, and that the procuring abortion was a mere pretext. I gave her such advice as I could in the capacity of a Romish priest. I advised her to send for the bishop and consult him. I cannot do it,' said she. My destroyer is my confessor.' I was silent. I had no more to say. I was bound by oath to be true to him. In vain did the noble sentiment even of the Pagan occur to me-a sentiment sanctioned almost by inspiration itself. It fled from my mind as smoke before the wind. I was one of the priests of the infallible Church, and what was honour, what was honesty to me, where the honour of that infallible Church was concerned? They were of no account; not worthy the consideration of a Romish priest for a second. The almost heavenly sentiment of the noble Pagan, Fiat justitia, ruat cœlum,' 'let justic be done, even if the heavens were to fall,' fled from my mind. I retired, leaving my frien to her fate, but promising, at her request, to return in a fortnight. 66 According to promise, I did return in a fortnight, but the foul deed was done. She was no more. The cold clay contained in its dread embrace all that now remained of that being which, but a few months before, lived and moved in all the beauty and symmetry of proportion; and that soul, once pure and spotless as the dew-drop of heaven, ere its contact with the impurities of earth, which a fond mother confided to the care of Jesuit nuns, had been driven in its guilt and pollution into the presence of a just but merciful God, All, all the work of Jesuits and nuns ! "This was the first check my Popish enthusiasm met with; and now for the first time did a doubt of the infallibility of the Church of Rome enter my mind. After witnessing these events, I could not help asking myself, can a Church which sanctions and countenances such flagitious iniquities as I have just witnessed, be a Christian Church? Can a body of men who individually practise such deeds of blood, treachery, and crime as those which I have seen, be, collectively, infallible? Are these the men whom the Saviour commissioned, in a particular manner, to preach the gospel to every creature? Are these the men, as a body, with whom He promised to be always, even to the consummation of the world? Are these the men who collectively constitute an infallible Church? If so, unprofitable indeed has been my life. It is high time to come out from among them; and if I cannot live the life of luxury and ease, of sin and crime, which a Romish priest can live, let me, at least, live that of an honourable man and a useful member of society." -Auricular Confession and Popish Nunneries. Fifth Edition. Pp. 19-28. POPISH MIRACLES. FATHER NEWMAN'S OPINION OF THEM AFTER AND BEFORE HIS PERVERSION. "The only real miracle which the Popish Church has ever wrought is the miracle of imposing upon the world so long."—Gavazzi. THE Church of Rome has always claimed a power of working miracles, and has been accustomed to appeal to the possession and exercise of this power, as a proof of her right to be regarded as the only true Church-" the mother and mistress of all Churches." Cardinal Bellarmine represents "the glory of miracles" as one of the notes or marks of the true Church, and professes to give specimens of miracles wrought in the Church of Rome in every age from the first to the sixteenth century. (De Eccles. L. iv. c. 14.) Bishop Milner, in his "End of Religious Controversy," (Letter 23,) declared that “God has wrought many incontestable miracles in favour of the Catholic Church and her doctrines and practices, from the age of the Apostles down to the present age ;" and then he gravely and minutely records three miraculous cures effected in England in 1805, 1809, and 1814. No evidence that can be satisfactory to a rational mind, has ever been adduced in support of any miracles alleged to have been wrought "in favour of the Catholic Church and her doctrines and practices.' Protestants have always regarded this claim on the part of the Church of Rome, and the means by which it has been supported, as a fulfilment of prophecy-as one of the Scriptural proofs that the Papacy is "the wicked one, whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders." (2 Thess. ii. 9.) It is one of the most obvious and undeniable characteristics of the Church of Rome, as exhibited in its history, that its priests have invented and propagated, and that its subjects, of course, have believed, an immense body of contemptible and fraudulent legends of miracles. Many of these have not been formally sanctioned by the Church ; but their general prevalence through the efforts, or with the concurrence, of the ecclesiastical authorities, may be fairly regarded as an important and peculiar feature in the character of the Romish Church-a leading department in that marvellous system of fraud and falsehood which she has constantly employed for the accomplishment of her purposes. Papists in general, in modern times, have become ashamed of the legends about miracles which used to pass current in the Romish communion, and have been anxious to escape from the responsibility of believing and defending them. Some of them have asserted that they are under no obligation, as subjects of the Church of Rome, to believe any miracles except those which are recorded in the Sacred Scriptures. This assertion can, we think, be disproved; for it can be shewn, that, upon principles generally held by Romanists, the Church of Rome is responsible for the miracles adduced by the second Council of Nice as arguments for image-worship, and for those recorded in the Breviary which is sanctioned and enjoined as a daily manual for the priesthood. But even if it could be shewn, that there are no miracles except those which are recorded in or sanctioned by Scripture, for the truth of which the Church of Rome has made herself formally responsible, it would still be not the less true, that the fact of the invention and propagation of such a mass of lying legends by the priesthood, constitutes a distinguishing feature in the character and history of that Church, and is a fulfilment of scriptural predictions which afford a conclusive argument against all her claims. |