IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) /> V .rd ? Where does God say read " parts" of the Bible? No ; He says, "search the Scriptures;" not a part of them, but all of them, so that you may know what God wishes you to believe. And what man shall dare for- bid you to do what God Himself has told you to do } Why, the inspired Apostle Paul says that even if an angel from heaven should preach another Gospel than that which he preached, let him be accursed. Hence the Church of Rome actually curses herself when she preaches to you that you may not " search the Scriptures," since it is the very command of God in the Bible that }0u should do so. Few Protestants have the least idea how entirely ignorant even the best educated Roman Catholics are of the Bible. I was often surprised to find that very few of the sisters knew anything of the Scriptures. They knew nothing of them, in fact, except the short extracts from the New Testament to be found in the Prayer Books they are allowed to use. It is wise to keep people in ignorance when you desire to deceive them. I have been often asked how it was that I re- mained so many years in the Roman Church, when I ought to have known that it was a corrupt Church, The question is a fair one, and it has direct reference to what I am now saying. It was because I was kept in ignorance. I had read history as most people read it, in a general way. I was well informed \ili PREFACE, as to the history of England, u{ Ireland, of Scotland, of ancient Rome, of Greece, oi* Eastern, and of pagan nations ; but I had not read the history of Rome under the Popes. Possibly it was thought, if the subject was considered at all, that the study was an unfi^ one for a young girl. Here, then, is another example cif t' • danger of ignorance. If, in my early years, I thought at all about the Popes, it was to suppose that they were much like other princes, and that their personal history was a matter of little importance. So ignorant are Roman Catholics of the true history of their own Church, that it comes to them as an overwhelming shock when they first hear that many of the Popes were bad men. They are indignant with their informant ; they will not believe him ; all of which shows how wise the teachers of their Church are in keeping them in ignorance. And their indignation is equally great when they are shown the plain teaching of the Scripture from their own Douay Bible, which, notwithstanding all the corrections of its translation the Roman Church has given it in this nineteenth century, is so plainly Protestant. Surely it is time for people of intelligence to ask ^hemselves what kind of religion is this which depends for its existence on the ignorance of its followers } Why is it, if this religion is Divine, that it fears the light of history, of the Bible, or even of every- day facts } If the Church is so sure of her infallibility, why does she take so many, and even PREFACE, ix Scotland, , and of istory of ought, if :udy was another iny early : was to ces, and of little lolics of omes to rst hear 'hey are believe hers of And ley are m their all the rch has Dlainly to ask which of its e, that ven of of her even > X *' such violent means to prevent her claiins from being fairly questioned or canvassed ? I was long in the Roman Churc-x before I knew anything of the evil lives of priests or Pv^pcs, and, I may add, of the priests and the Popes of the present day. Some years since I wrote a life of Pius IX., .*^ho, I then believed, was a persecuted saint. I believed this because I was told so, and because I nad no means whatever of knowing the contrary. See again the great ii^*^ortance of keeping people in ignorance. No boo ..i'e allowed to be read, no papers are allowed to be seen, above all in convents or colleges, where the young are educated (?), wiiich will give the least idea of the f.icts of daily life, if those facts are supposed to be in any way adverse to the Roman claims. And this is religion. The priests of Greece and ancient Rome have been the models of the priests of to day in this and other respects. Keep the people ignorant, and they will believe. What I will they believe truth ? No ; for ihey must at all hazards be prevented from knowing "\ Again, we ask, if the teaching of the Roman Church is so true, and so Divine, why is it that the priests are so afraid lest the people should know anything to its disadvantage } What a strange religion ! It boasts of its Divine origin, yet strives to conceal all damaging facts, in order that it may /etain its hold upon the people, it boasts that it was foui)ded by Christ Himself, and PREFACE. yet it will not allow the plain commands of Christ to be obeyed. It " teaches for doctrines the com- mandments of men," a thing expressly forbidden in the Bible. But to return to my own case. I believed that Pius IX. was a persecuted saint until I learned later, that his own people, who certainly ought to have known him best, could not support his tyranny and oppressions, which may have been foreign to his own nature, but which he was obliged to carry out in submission to the Jesuits who ruled his court, and ruined his life. Later in this work I shall tell of my experience in Rome, and show that the old proverb is but too true, — " The nearer to Rome the farther from God." If Rome is not pure, rather we should say if Rome is corrupt, what can the Church under the rule of Rome be } I learned, even before I went to Rome, that Pius IX. had for his dearest friend and guide, a man whose immoralities were so well known in Rome, that even after his death no one was surprised when one of his illegitimate children went to law with the Papal authorities for a share of his immense property. How could a man be a saint if his chosen friend was one who violated not only the law of God, but what is of far more importance to the Roman Catholic, the laws of his Church, which requires, nominally at least, purity in its ministers } And we may well ask, if, in this so-called enlightened nineteenth century, Cardinals can retain their para- I- \ PREFACE. xi 3 of Christ 1 1 the com- 1 )rbiddcn in lleved that I learned I ' ought to I is t} ranny I foreign to f 1 to carry \ his court, erience in too true, :^od." If '^^ Rome 2 rule of o Rome, id guide, :novvn in surprised t to Jaw mmense s chosen | law of I to the , which nisters ? jhtened ir para- I I I mours and concubines unreproved, what may not have been done by the Cardinals of past ages ? We live in startiint^ times, in which the prophecies of Scripture are being rapidly fulfilled. For our- selves and for our children it behoves us to ''know the signs of ihe times/' and to study them carefully. If wc fail to do this, we are without excuse, and we n list take the consequences of our indifference or our folly. J shall show in this book that Rome is the true "mystery of iniquity," from facts within my own personal knowledge, and which cannot be controverted. I shall even use Roman Catholic nu horities to prove this; for there is a vast and almost unknown field of information on such subjects which, as far as possible, has been sternly repressed by Romanists, but which exists all the same. In this field may be found statements of facts of the most startling character, which have been published (dcsi)ite the Inquisition), and clearly prove the utter corruption of the Roman Church, not only in centurcs past, but even in the present day. These damnatory facts are vouched for — not by Protestants, but by Roman Catholic (so called) saints ; so that Rome has approved these condemnations of herself, and, therefore, out of her own lips she is judged and condemned. What a terrible, what an amazing fact this is, and how seriously it should be considered by Protestants, especially by those who are so liberal to the enemy which would, and is bound, according xu PREFACE. to her most solemn teaching, to burn them at the stake, if slic only had the pcnvcr. Who is there who would sign his own death warrant, and hand it to his enemy for execution ? Surely such an one would be either a fool or a lunatic ; and yet men who help Rome to obtain the political power for which she clamours incessantly, are committing this very folly. The prophecies must be fulfilled. They arc a part of the inspired word of God, and in view of this undeniable fcict, it is amnzing how those who profess to love and believe in the Scriptures should be blinded to its plain predictions. It is this in- difference which gives Rome its power, — indiffcrcncj which cloaks it elf under the name of a false charit}', and which is a crime against God and man. How can the true Christian be indifferent to the interests of the Kingdom of God -^ How can he be in- different to the true interests of his fellow-men, for \\hom Jesus died .^ Oh, fat-d folly! oh, fatal blindness! which can for one moment approve, even by silent toleration, that which God Himself has condemned. I Ihink that there will be evidence of a satis- factory character found in this book, that there is at present a great stir in the Roman Catholic Church. Romanism is practically dead in France and Italy ; and except for its political power it would have been dead long since in Spain. In Ireland the power the Pope is shaken as it has never been before, by tl of ic ^ r^^ PREFACE, x\\\ at the J re who -1 it to an one ct men vcr for 112: this arc a /icw of sc wlio sliould his in- Tcrciicj :harit}', How itc rests be in- if has conduct of the present Pope, his political interfer- ence, and his r; any poHlical vacillations, w .ii have not increased the respect of tlie Irish people for his decisions. As it is of importance that proof efflux should be on record, and available at any moment, I have gone into the subject fully. In England the directly spiritual — but not the political — po.ver of Rome is decreasing, and would soon be a dead let»^^cr if Protestants were true to their principles, and stood up with courage for the right of every man to a free Bible, and to liberty of conscience. In America and in Canada the polillca! power of tlie Pope is daily increasing, and 1 believe it will increase until it becomes so stronc^, with the usual result of being more and more intolerant, that at last the mass of the people will rise, and once for all claim freedom. At present the outlook is deplorable. Secret societies are permitted to do their evil work of assassination and denioralisation; because they are principally manned by Roman Catholics and Irish, and the politician finds their help necessary, and therefore buys it, though at the expense of principle. Roman Catholics of the upper class are received in society, and courted because of their enormous wealth and political influ- ence. The wealth of the American and Canadian bishops, priests, and sisters, gives them the power which wealth will always give. Proof of all this '.vill be found, on evidence which cannot be disputed, in the present work. The demoralisation and xiv PREFACE, degradation of the lower class of Roman Catholics will also be described. Lannentable and itidisputable facts will be given to prove all that is advanced on these subjects. I shall feel, great as my sufferings have been at the hands of men who profess to be holy, and demand the veneration, if not the worship of their followers, that it has not been in vain if I have stirred up Protestants, and thinking men of all denominations, to realise the evil and to promptly seek a remedy. In concluding this Preface it may be well to say something of the painful experiences which I have had, since I wrote my autobiography, of the treachery and deccilfuhiess practised in the Roman Church. For myself it matters little, but it matters a great deal for others. What has been done to mc may be done in a future time, and with far greater severity, to others. My case, if people would only consider it, is simply a carrying out of the practices of persecu- tion, which never ha\e ceased, and never will cease, as long as Rome has power to persecute. It is amazing that men should be found who are willing to place the rod of persecution in the hands of those who have never failed to use it Rome sometimes finds it convenient to say she does not persecute; and there are liberal Protestants, who are so indifferent to the peace and happiness of the next generation, that they care little for the certain results which must follow their present liberality to Rome. If they think that Rome does not persecute now, wliat have PREFACE. «y «if« they to say to my case, and to that of Dr. McGlynn ? The matter is too senV as to pass it over h'ghtly. In the case of Dr. McGlynn, it may be said that the Church had a right to excommunicate him, as he had disobeyed tlie Church. Granted that this is so, but the question arises. Why does Rome ex- communicate at all, when she declares that she no longer upholds persecution or penalty ? All that, she tells those who will believe her, belongs to a past age. But if Rome excommunicates, will she not carry out the consequence of excommunication \ If she excommunicates Dr. McGlynn would she not, if she could, take the next step, and hand him over to the civil power for execution } for the execution of the excommunicated person is the duty of the State when the State is under the control of the Pope. The torture and the execution of every excommunicated person is a duty of the Roman Church ; and it is a duty in which it never fails when there is the least chance of success. But let it be remembered that every insult and indignity possible was shown to Dr. McGlynn by this so-called Christian Church. His persecutors were devoid of even one thought of mercy, or of justice. How any one could study the faots connected with his case, and read of the gratuitous insults to which he was subject, and yet believe that Rome has changed from, or abandoned her policy of persecution, is incomprehensible. It may be the duty of a judge to pass sentence, XVI PREFACE. and of the executioner to inflict the sentence ; but there never was a criminal executed in New York who was treated with the open insult and exultatioii over his fate, which was shown to this blameless priest. I have given some details on this subject in the present work, to which I ask attention. As regards my own case, the very law of the land has been set at defiance in order to heap injuries on me ; and so strong is the power of Rome, that I have appealed in vain for protection. I warn the public that what has been done to me is a mere trifle to what will be done later when Rome has all the political power she is seeking for. When we arc not touched personally, we are very often indifferent to what happens to others ; but the con- sequences of giving power to those who know neither justice nor mercy, will make themf^lves felt in the end. I only wish the reader could have had personal knowledge of the difference between the way in which I acted towards the sisters, and the way in which the sisters were compelled to act towards me. I say the way in which they were compelled to act, because I can prove from their letters to me that they would have acted very differently if they had been left to their own sense of justice and affection. I took every care that nothing should be done which would cause them, I will not say any loss, but even the least inconvenience. It should be remembered that I was the founder of the Order ; and I may truly say PI! E FACE. TVll that it was my personal influence which made it a success, so far as a success couUl be made in the face of the opposition of priests and bishops, who were too if:;norant to realise how much the work was needed for workinrr-girls, and who had so little respect for the Pope himself as to pay not even the sliyjitest attention to his approbation. For years I had a very lar^e correspondence all over, I might say, the world, especially in Amercia, Enc^land, and Ireland. Many comparatively poor persons had contributed to the work which I had bcp,un, and I was anxious to show them that I had not given it up from any caprice, or without grave cause. I wote to the sisters to send .ne the book in which I had kept the addresses of all my corre- spondents, but it was refused ; and the sister who refused to send to it me, said that she had consulted the priest, as of course she was bound to do, and that it would be against her conscience to give it to me. The Kcnmare sisters had done the very same thing, without even this excuse. They refused to send me my address book ; and when at last I compelled them to give me a list of the names in it, they only sent a few. Their object was to prevent me from telling any of my numerous correspondents that I had left Kenmare, as they knew well that very little money would be sent there when it was known that I had left. Their conduct was specially reprehensible, because Uure v.as not even the excuse of religious motives. Their motive was simply selfish. What made their • •• PREFACE, conduct inexcusable was tliat the name of Kenmare would never have been well known beyond the county- Kerry if it had not happened that the lan^e circu- lation of my writings had brouglit it into notice everywhere. My name brouj^jht, and still brinjT<;, large sums of money to the Kenmare sisters, which they enjoy, but without one word of even the commonest thanks to the one who procured it for them. On the contrary, they !iave left nothin;T undone to calumniate and injure me ; and this is religion according to Rome. Thank God it is not religion according to the Gospel. I need not say that the Kenmare sisters and the priests and bishops, whose treacherous conduct, I have proved from their own letters, was the cause of the failure of my efforts to do what even the Pope had authorised me to do, were in great fear that the truth about their treatment of me should be publicly known. Rome ever dreads the light; and this is one o{ the greatest proofs that her deeds are evil. If tliese bishops had done nothing wrong they would not have 1 cen afraid of my having the addresses of those pcr- ; (JUS to whom I had been writing for so many years. lUit this is not all. I notified to the postmaster of i-.rsey city, where my letters were to be sent after I It ft the sisters, but not one was sent. I know that a lumber of letters were addressed to me at the convent, ut not one did I receive. From this it will be seen •Jiat the post-office in the United States is not free iVon^ the gontrpl of the Papacy \ for it is the Pope PRJ^FACE, x1« who governs when such injustice can be accomphshed at the demand of sisters or priests. I recently received a letter from a gentleman who lives in Pittsburg, to say that he had written to me a letter addressed to the convent, but as he had not received a reply, he 'inspected that 1 had not re- ceived it. He \\c\ quite a stranger, but he wanted to tell me how truly and sincer.ly he sympathised with me in my efforts to work for the poor, and in the trials which I had undergone in the Roman Catliolic Church. I told him that I had not received his letter nor any others addressed to me since I left the sisters, and he at once wrote to them, and threatened them with public exposure if his letter was not sent back to him at once. By return mail they sent him the letter, dirty, torn, and of course opened. Would to God that Protestants realised from these things that Rome will do all the injustice which she dares; and that it is only want of power, and not 'vant of inclination, which restrains her. Even the law of the land will not protect me from such injustices, for I never even received a reply from the postmaster at Washington, when I appealed to him. Most of the public oflkials in the United States, no matter what their private religious opinions may be, feel it safest to have Rome on their side, and they act accordingly. Perhaps their children will not arise and call them blessed when they have to feel the power of that Rome rule which their parents have helped to establish. . XX PREFACE. Again I ask, if the bishops and others who per- secuted inc, as I have said and proved in my book, were not afraid that the truth would be known, why did tlicy take so many and such dishonest pre- cautions to prevent me from stating my case ? I considered that the public had a right to know tlic facts ; and most assured!)', especially after I had left the Roman Catholic Church, no one in it had a right to prevent mc from justifiying my action ; but I know that hundreds of those whom I wished to have communicated with will never know the truth, and I am sure that hundreds are longing for a letter from me. It would of course have been impossible for me to remember so many names and addiesses. If this book should fall into the hands of any of those who were my old and constant correspondents, they will now know the cause of my silence, but we may well ask if we are living in a free country, or in the nineteenth century ; when a person can be deprived of the means of communicating with her friends by the priests of Rome, and when the subjects of the Pope can thus interfere with private correspondence and the acts of public officials. I observe that some Irish Member of Parliament is making a great noise because he says that a letter addressed to him from Washington was tampered \\ ith. But no one will trouble himself when the Roman Catholics take possession of my private correspondence. I have had to bear yet another injustice. Not only PREFACE, xA arc my letters kept from mc, but I am also deprived of ail means of support, and obliged at my advanced age to earn my own living, notwithstanding all the property which I have left in the Church of Rome. If I starved it would matter little to those who are now living in comfort, on an income which should have been mine. I know so well how Rome hardens the heart and destroys all natural affection, and I may truly say all Christian charily, that I believe it would be a subject of rejoicing, even to those whom I have benefited so much, if I had to endure all possible privations. Such is the teaching of Rome. Burn, but if you cannot burn the heretic, inflict all the sufferings possible. And yet Rome claims to be a Christian religion ! I may add that those who wish for special infor- mation can always •'each me by letter, by addressing their communications to the publisher of thi:3 work, who will take care that they shall all be forwarded to me prom.ptly. M. F. CUSACK (" The Nun of Kenniare "). CONTENTS. CHAPTER 1. THE CELIBACY OF THE CLERGY PAGE « • I CHAPTER II. THE MORAL EFFECTS OF THE CELIBACY OF THE CLEIiGY OF THE PAST AND IN THE PRESENT , • • .34 CHAPTER III. THE CELIBACY OF THE CLERGY IN THE MIDDLE AGES . 51 CHAPTER IV. THE OUTSIDE TEACHING AND THE INSIDE PRACTICE OF THE CHURCH OF ROME 63 CHAPTER V. IMPORTANCE OF UNDERSTANDING THE ROMAN CATHOLIC DOCTRINE OF INFALLIBILITY CLEARLY . , . .77 CHAPTER VI. THE FALLIBILITY OF INFALLIBILITY • • . 102 CHAPTER VII. THE HISTQRICAL FJIAUD? OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC (PHURCH U6 XXIV CONTENTS. CIIAPTFR VI 11. PACE now THE roPE was made infalld le in the nixeteentii CENTURY 146 CHAPTER IX. THE TEACHING OF THE LIBLE AND 'I HE TEACHING OF THE CHURCH 183 CHAPTER X. CONVENT LIFE HI CHAPTER XI. "BY THEIR FRUITS YE SHALL KNOW IIIEM" , , 24S CHAPIER XII. SOME ROMAN DIFFICULTIES WHICH TROTl'.STANTS SHOULD CONSIDER 279 CHAPTER XIII. PROTESTANT SUFPORT OF ROMAN CATHOLIC FAILURES . 3OI CHAITER XIV. THE EFFECTS OF ROMAN CATHOLIC TEACHING— ROMAN CATHOLIC UNIVERSITIES AND HIGHER EDUCATION. . 323 CHAPTER XV. THE CONFESSIONAL AND THE LIVES OF THE POPES . . 366 CHAPTER XVI. ROMAN CATHOLIC LFILRAIURE AND ROMAN CATHOLIC HIGHER LLLCATION APPENDIX , ♦ , 3S7 399 TACE . 146 . 211 24S 279 301 3^-3 387 399 CHAPTER I. TIf£ CELIBACY OF THE CLERGY. "A bishop must be blamclcs?, the husband of one wife."— i TiM.iii. 2, I HAVE been convinced for many years that the ceh'bacy of the Roman Catholic clergy is the source of nearly all the moral evil in the Roman Church. If this unchristian observance wari abolished, the moral tone of the whole Church of Rome would at once be raised and purified. The enforced celibacy of the Roman priesthood has been, and i? at present, the fruitful source of much crime. It has '-een fraught with the greatest moral danger to Rome, while the doctrine of the infallibility of the Church has proved the greatest spiritual danger. The enforced celibacy of the priesthood would long since have been abolished if it was not found to be necessary for the support of t^ ": Church, no matter what the moral evil which it causes. The laity would long since have risen up against it, and have forbidden it, if the Koman Catholic Church had not kept them in such ignc ranee of Scripture and of history. Where shall we iind a Roman Catholic, no matter how well educated, who is conversant with the teaching of Scripture on this subject ? Where shall we find a Roman Catholic who knows anything of the history of celibacy in the Roman Church ? As fpr Scripture, the fact that St, Peter v:as 2^ INSIDE T^'E CHURCH OF ROME. married man, and that our Divine Lord had so special an interest in his family as to have made the heah'ng of his mother-in-law one of His recorded miracles, should be in itself sufficient for every Christian. We have in this an evid( nee which cannot be disputed, that vows of celibacy are not of Divine institution for the Christian priesthood; and Rome acts wisely in keeping, as far as possible, the Bible from her folliwers, lest they should ascertain for themselves even the one fact, that he who they claim to be the first infallible head of their Church was a married man. It is quite true that St. Paul speaks of the celibate ^taie as a higher state ; but it should he well noted that he draws a marked line in this matter. He says truly, that for thoso to whom God has given the call to vir- ginity', t'.e life of virgin love and devotion to God is the higher ; but he makes, almost prophetical!}', the plain statement, that he had "no commandment of the Lord" (l Cor. vii. 25) on this subject ; and in fact so plain is all Scripture teaching on this point, that the Roman Church in eniorcing celibacy on her priesthood has been obliged to fall back on her infallibility as her only justification for requiring this vow from her priests, i he other texts of Scripture which deal with this subject are so plain, and so well known to Protestants, that it would not be necessary to call attention to them here, if it were not that this work is intended, amongst ether objects, to be a handy manual of explanation for controversial purposes ; and it may be well for even Protestants to have at hand all the help possible on .'.ny point of discussion with Rome. It is also most important that children should be carefully instructed < n such subjects, and armed for future trials. We are apt to read Scripture mechanically, or even when THE CELIBACY OF THE CLERGY. '1 nein ven on ost :ted are tien studying it to pass over the significance of certain texts ; and we do not realise all their value in dis- puted subjects, as I know now myself to my grievous cost. In considering St. Paul's recommendation of celibacy it should be remembered that he is speaking to the uliole Church, and that there is not even the remotest hint that he is speaking only to priests. If, therefo: e, his recommendation has any present value, it is of equal importance to all Christian people. I knew personally a Roman Catholic bi-hop, the L-te Dr. McCarthy of Kerry, who to.d me himself that he thought St. Paul's recommendation was intended to be of universal appli- cation, and that no one should marry. Tiiis opinion, like m.any others more or less sensible, he took care not to express in public, as it is dangerous for the clergy of the Ron'ian Church to ventilate any ojinion, no matter how well considered, on that subject. Such is tlie miserable want of charity in that Church, that there are always n.en on the watch to take hold of anything which may serve to disgrace or discredit a " brother," espOLiaily if that brother is a person of any prominence, when jealous}' linds an easy way to gratify ilseh. I shall return to this point later, when entering on some recent developments of disjn.te in the Roman Church ; and I have given e\idence in my autobio- graphy* of the way in which the good works in which I was engaged were frustrated by the petty jealousy cf ecclesiastics. The good bishop was once asked what was to become of the world if, by common consent, all men and women remained celibate? Me smiled, and repl cd that he did * "The Nun of Kenniare." An Autubiograpliy. With Por- trait. Crown 8vo, cloth, ^s. C:d. London ; Hodder & Stoughton. INSIDE THE CHURCH OF ROME. 'M not think it would be much loss to the world if it came to an end. But there was a reason for St. Paul's recommendation of celibacy which does not exist at present. The early Christians, and the apostles, were looking for a speedy termination of this life, by tliC second coming of their Lord. To them this world mattered so little, and the world to come mattered so much. To us, absorbed as we are in the things of time, ail is dilTe!"ent, and we are more inclined to ask, " Where are the S'gns of His coming?" than to expect it. To us it seems as if all things go on as they ever have done, and as if there had been no changes since the fathers fell asleep. To the Christians of St. Paul's day, wrongly interpreting, as we know tl:ey did, certain of our Lord's words, it seemed as if at any moment t!ie things of time might pass into the things of eternity. They did not ask, " Where is the promise of His com- ing ? " for at every moment they expected that coming. Why, then, should they not sit loose to the things of time atid sense ? Why should the}' sow when they did not expect to reap? Why should they concern them- selves, or embarrass tiiemselves with wives or children, when they daily and hourly expected t':e opening of the uates of the City where there is neither marrvins: nor giving in marriage But to the hapless Roman Catholic of the presenl ('ay, who is kept in wilful and deliberate ignorance uf tie Scriptures, the real meaning of St. Paul's advic: on the subject of marriage is unknown. He knov. , ( nly just so much of the letter as may "kill," but he 1 n ows nothing of the spirit which quickens. St. P..i '. I iearly bases his advice, or rather his suggestion, on ti • fubject of marriage, on the ground of the shortnes-^ time, — alluding evidently to the popular hope and e.«.- : > \ TtlE CELIBACY OF THE CLERGY. % pcctation of the immediate coming of the Lord. "The time is short ; " and doubtless this sense of the nearness of tl e second coming of the Lord was of no Httle help to the early Christian, surrounded as lie was with temptations and persecutions. We should remember, too, tliat the expectation of martyrdom was hourly before the mind of the Christian of St. Paul's time as an ever-present hope, and that it was a hope constantly realised. The man or the woman who was freed from worldly ties, however blessed they might be under other circumstances, was much more likely to suffer generously than one who was bound by ties of flesh and blood. But as we have said, how can the poor Roman Catholic of to-day know this ? He is only allowed to know that St. Paul recommended virginity in the strongest terms, he is not allowed to know the circumstances; nor indeed, if became to know them, would it avail him, for he is bound to interpret the Bible only as the Church aliovvs. Nor may he know that in the very next chapter St. Paul claims for himself the right to marry, as St. Peter had done, if he pleases. 1 he words are well worth noting. He says, " Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well a^; other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas?" (i Cor, ix. 5). Here we find the very fact of St. Peter having a wife brought forward, not as a reproach, but as a fact, and one which could be used as an argument why "other Apostles" might do the same thing. But this argument would scarcely be needed if the facts of history were belter known. The Roman Church had made its claims to supremacy for several centuries before any attempt was made to enforce the cehbacy of the clergy. And the history of the lives of 6 INSIDE THE CHURCH OF ROME, the clergy after this enactment was put in force is at once the best proof of its miserable results, and that the Ronian C hurch, of all others, has the least claim to he calk d "holy." I shall give from Roman Catholic authorities only some of the statements on this subject made in synods and councils of the Roman Church. There is no doubt that the canon of the Roman Church which bound its priests to celibacy was a n asterpiece of human diplomacy. If it was a Divine neceFsity it would have been proclaimed as such by the Foun.U r of Christianity. Admitting even that it v\as a cfHinscl of perfection, that it was a higher degree in the Christian life to be a virgin than to marry, it is peifectly clear from the very words of Christ, and from th(.' teaching of St. Paul, that it was not a coun-el intended for all. We have St. Paul's distinct statement, that the Apostles, like St. Peter, had a riglit to have a wife if they so desired ; and let it be noted that a right vh^ch is merely a toleration, or to which any penalty or discredit is attached, is not a right in the sense evid( ntly intended here. An unmarried clergy might be a support to the Church in a time of persecution. A married clergy, for V. hom special counsel is given in the Gospel, is the normal condition of the Church, and intended to be an ( xampleand a strength to the Church in times of peace. Where is the priest who dares to preach on the words of St. Paul to Timothy, in which he so expressly ; t'ltes the duties of the Christian piiesthood as regards iheir wives ? How any Church calling itself Christian tould forbid the maniage of its clergy, with the Scriptures and especially the instructions of St. Paul in regard to the family life of the ministers of the Gospel, THE CELIBACY OF THE CLERGY. is a mystery of the perversity of human nature, and like all attempts to be wiser than God, it has ended in disnstroiis failure. The bishop, says St. Paul, ''must be bla?Tiele5S, the hnsbnnd of one wife." What word could be plainer ? And then the plain practical inference is drawn to make the edification to be derived from marriage yet more clear. " For if a man know not how to rule his own Iiousc, how shall he take care of the Church of God ? " (l Tim. iii. 5). Words could not express more clearly or more v\isely the duty of a Cliristian ninister, and we shall see presently how this enforced and unchristian law of celibacy has acted, just as the Scriptures imply it would act. The p:iest of the Church of Rome, not having a household of his own to rule, has " not !:no\vn how to rule the Church of God." Instead of becoming the father of his people, he is the tyrant of his people. It was not long before I left the Church of Rome that a priest higli in the Roman Church in New York said to me, " The bishops t3Taniiife over us, and we in turn tyrannise over the people." He spoke these words in all sober truth, and in sad earnestness. And those who know anything of the inside life of the Roman Church at the present day, know but too well the truth of these words, while the past history of the Roman Church is simply one long cry for power at the expense of Gospel truth. Let us look at the prsition of the unmarried priest. Me is a rn:n with all the God-given passions of a man. The first instinct of man is to propagate his species. To this end Gcd h<.s given him the desire to do so, a gift of infinite love, the results of which are of the highest benefit to the human race. 'I his was God's precept in the Jewish disj ensation, appioved in the Christian dispeniation, and sanctified in it to a degree unknown INSIDE THE CHURCH OF ROME, before Apostolic days. The priest, being a man, has these God-given instincts. He desires to propa- gate his species, but he is told that to do this by marriage is to commit a deadly sin. How awful is his case ! God has given him certain instincts, law- ful, Divine, because God-given, and man says, " Tiiou shalt not profit by them. I, the human head of the Church, forbid you to do what God, the Founder of the Church, has permitted you to do." For, let it be well noted, even the Roman Church has not ventured to say that this forbidding to marry is a Divine command. No, it is a command only of the " Church," which claims a right, and — oh, the pity of it ! — is allowed power, through the folly and sin of man, to do exactly what God has forbidden to be done. Again, is it not St. Paul himself who has said, "The Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith" (l Tim. iv. l) ? and has he n< t said that one of the signs of this departure ''om the faith is "forbidding to marry" (verse 3)? and is there any Christian Church to which this accusation applies except to the Church of Rome ? The man, then, who is for ever at war with his God- given nature, and with the instincts which his God has given him, is not fit to be a leader of men ; and this is, above all, what a priest should be, and what God intended him to be. If he keeps his vow of enforced celibacy he is for ever in the misery of fear, lest he should be tempted to break it. His very vow, far from helping him, is a most terrible hindrance to him. The teaching of the Roman Church that his vow will protect him in temptation is a fallacy, as all history, even history according to Roman Catholic historians, goes to prove. How can a vow help, when li ■> % THE CELIBACY OP THE CLERCV. \ it is a vow to do what God has said shall not be done ? He makes a vow which pledges him not to have the very opportunity of doing just the very thin.,^ which an inspired Apostle declares a minister of the Gospel should do. How can he fulfil the Scripture precept of "ruling" his family well, as the first step towards ruling well the Church of God, when he has no family to rule ? How can he have " faithful children," when the only children he may have are the fruit of his own unfaithfulness to a most solemn vow? No wonder that the priest, in his despair and his loneliness, takes refuge in drink, and tries to forget his misery in dis- sipation and sin. The fatal and diabolical policy of his Church deprives him of all Divinely sanctioned privileges, and drives him to the indulgence of unholy gratification, binding him by unnatural vows to an unnatural life. One of two things must happen ; either he keeps his vow, or he breaks it. If he keeps it, his life is one long misery of fear and self-repression. Far be it from me to say that all priests break their vow of chastity; and it may be said that there are some men, as there are certainly many women, who are not desirous of married life. To such, remaining by choice, or a providential neces- sity, in a state of virginity, the grace of God is an all-sufficient protection against sin. But such cases are the exception and not the rule ; and there can be no possible comparison between the case of such persons and the case of a minister of the Christian dispensation who takes a vow that he will not marry, when the Bible, the source of Christianity, and of instruction for Christian people, has given express directions not that priests should remain unmarried, but how they can fulfil the end for which God insti- 10 IKS/DE THE CHURCH OF ROME, tilted mnnirgc, to the edification of the Church to wl ich they have been called to minister. Me would be a bold man who would deny that priests are intemperate as a class. It is true that there are honourable exceptions ; but the Church of Rcme looks with toleration on the sin of intemperance, hence its half-hearted efforts in the cause of temperance. There has probably never been a more urgent advocate of trmperance than Cardinal Manning, and to myself he said, on one occasion, when I was deploring the intemperate habits of Irish priests, " I need temperance for my priests more than for my pcopje ; " nor did I take this to mean a reflection on the priests of his own diocese more than others. It was a statement of an incontrovertible fact, that intemperance is the besetting sin of the priest every- where. It is curious how this evil is condoned by Roman Catholics. If a word is said to imply that a priest dees not keep his vow of chastity, no matter how flagrant the case of his fall may be, the Roman Catholic is excited to the wildest anger. It seems a liltle matter whether he knows the accusation to be true or not. It is the accusation and not the doing of the evil which angers him. And this is because the vow of the priest to remain celibate is one of the great sources of power in the Roman Church ; and the Roman Calholic from childhood has been taught to corsider this vow so sacred, that he looks upon a breach of it as the greatest scandal which can befall a priest. It is a source of power in more ways than is generally suppcsed. Hence it is that when a priest '•" vcs the Church of Rome, every effort is made to disgrace him in the eyes of Roman Catholics, by saying that he wants to break his vow and get married. The I I THE CELIBACY OF TFIE CLERGY. II II -m persistence with which false charges arc continued, despite all proof to the contrary, is one and not the least serious evidc nre that this Church needs fjischood and slander for its support. No amount of profli^^acy which a priest could commit in the "Church" would shock a Roman Catholic so much, or at all, in com- parison with an honest following of God's law, and the Apf stle's advice, to become the husband of one wife. It needs a personal and intimate knowl dgc of Roman Catholics to understand this strange perver- sion of rij:ht and wrong, which has been in^: tilled into them from chiMliood. I cannot easily forget the horror c^ a well-educated Roman Catholic to whom I was sp'viki ng of a p.icst who had left the Roman Church, ; - s ) many have done of late 3'eais, and who had married some years afterwards. It could not be said of him tiiat he liad left the Roman Church to marr}', thc)ug!i of course the fc,l?ehood of a charie against one who leaves Rome never hinders a Roman Catholic from making it. It was many years after he had done so that he took a wife ; but w hen I pointed out to her that he had only followed the cxamp'e of St. Peter, whom Roman Catholics claim as tlie head of their Church, though they are s-;o very unwilling to imitate his example, her astonishment was unlimited, and her perplexity was S(^ great, that I trust it ma}* lead her to inquire in how many other things Roman Catholics have failed to r< l!ow the example and the precepts of the great Apostle for whom they prcfc ss so much honour. Ciciming his headship as they i\c^, they might at least do him the respect to follow his example. The confessional; as practised in the Roman Church; ta IKSIDE THE CHURCH OF ROME. I is a cesspool of iniquity for the temptation of the priest. It is all very well, and true, to say that the laity may escape clanger, but most certainly the priest cannot do so. He is obli^^,cd, by the most sacred obligations of his oflice, to probe to the bottom of every evil thought as well as to the ( nd of every act. Those who have not been guilty of gross sins may think the priest has only to hear a few of the little faults of which they have been guilty. In this case it may be said, as in the case of the celibacy of the clergy, that if it was of Divine ordinance, God would protect the priest from the evil ; but no fair- minded man who has read, I will not say the Bible, but the *' Fathers," of whom tlie Ron an Church boasts so much, can assert that they ever inculcated or practised confession as it is practised to-day in the Church of Rome. I do not myself think that there is so much harm done at present to the young in the confessional as some would suppose. Of course there are priests so evil-minded as to ask young women questions on subji cts on which they are, and should be, absolutely ignorant. I know that an English con- vert priest, since dead in the odour of sanctity, gave a young girl her first knowledge of evil in the con- fessional ; but from what she told me, I think that he did not know the fcarfLil liarm he was doing. But he should have known it; and I know that it was long years before that lady recovered from the shock which she received. It must be remembered that all this, and even worse, far from being made a reproach to a priest by his Chui ^h, would be considered a matter rf duty. A priest is like a man who is always handling inflammable materials. He knows theoretically that he may be blown up some day, and that he may, by the THE CELIBACY OF THE CLERGY. «3 least want of caution, cause f arful injury to others. Using explosive material has led to practical indilT rcnce to danger, and too c^ftcn lie pays the ['.cnalty, or makes others pay it. So it is in the confessional. A priest may not be perEonally evil or inclined to evil, hut he is handling inllininiable material all the lime, and the result in the spiritual life is even more likely to he fatal than in the temporal. I must confess for niy-elf that the wonder to n:e is not that there are so many priests who drown t!i' ir misery in drink, but that any escape. Hour after hour, for long weary hours, they arc seated in th^j con- fessional listening to tales either of the most con- temptib'e petty squabbles and scruples, or to m'iis of the bla'kest hue. Hour after hour they have to give the same mechanical absolution, and the same stereo- typed advice. Hour after liour they have to sit in a constrained po-ition, often productive of terrible disease, and to inhale the breath of the drunken, the dissolute, and the diseased. Often, too, these hours have u be spent fasting altogether from food, as in many places the priest has to "hear" his penitents before saying mass, and of course while he is fastin;r. With an unnaturally weakened body, there must be an un- naturally weakened mind. Where, tlien, is tlie wonder if there is a fall? Where is the wonder that the Roman Church is sickened with the bodies of tho .'Iain, who have made shipwreck in this 5-tream of pollution ? Wearied, worn in body and n-ind, the I riest goes to his cheerless home, if home it can be • ailed; and what comfort does he find there? Often ; e has a long office to say before he retires for the i.'ght, which must be said still fasting, as at the late I our when he leaves the confessional there is no one ''A »4 INSIDE THE CHURCH OF ROME. to give liim a meal, and often the obligation of a fast day would forbid its being taken. What more natural than that he should drink to obtain a temporary relief from his terrible burden, and that at last drijik should become a habit ? What wonder if, craving human sympathy, and having none that is lawful for him to seek, he should have recourse to that which is unlawful. The housekeeper, the niece, is at hand, with the natural compassion of woman, and with the added reve;ence of a Romanist for the "priest." A litil: familiarit}^, a little affectionate sympathy, and the end is not far to seek; and when the pri^bt falls, he lalis, like Lucifer, never to ri£e again. Sometimes, too often, it is the schoolmistress who is the victim, and I speak of what I know. It was my ir.finitely sad lot to have been asked by an English bishop, and by an English cardinal, to take chaige of a mission where the priest had ruined four cf his schcolmistrtsses, one after tne otlier. His last victim had a child whom she could not support, and so her pitiful story came out. The priest was sent, not into banishment, as would have been done if he had com- mitted any sin "against the Church," or offended his bishop. As he had only sinned against God, he was simply removed from one diocese to another, where he retaii-ed his rank and his honours. If such things are done in the green tree, what has been done in the dry ? If such deeds as these are done, and even condoned in Englar.d to-day, wh'it will be done in L'ngland when the Churcli has the power to shield evildoers ? And I have reason to know that this is not an uncommon case. I have heard the sad tale of many girls, teachers, who are under the absolute control of the priest, who have been led on step by step to evil, THE CELIBACY OF THE CLERGY, IS and no hand was stretched out to save them, because none dared to intejfcrc with the priest who led them lo ruin. I have heard their weary story of shame and sin, and how they were condoled and silenced in the confessional ; for with the infatuation of Roman Cathohc teaching they would, even in their miser}', seek absolu- tion from the very authors of their slianie. Could tiie horrors of Pagan rites afford more terrible instances of depravity ? And all this is happening in ihe England, and in the America, of to-day, and all must be hidden at the peril of the ruined wuman, because the sinner is " a priest," and because the " Church'' teaches, by cxnmple and custom, that it is a far greater sin to accuse a priest of sin, than to sin with a priest. I know that it will be said indignantly by Roman Catholics that the Church does not sanction t'lese evils, but what use denials, whtn facts are all the other way ? No one can possibly be intimate with Roman Catholics in private life without knowing how they fear and silence the least word of scandal where a priest is concerned. A Church which finds it necessary to hide or deny evil which is well known to exists must rest on a very insecure foundation. And it is a curious ciicumstance, that while Roman Catholics will talk quite freely about priests who are guilty of intem- perance, and seem to think it a matter of very liLtle consequence, they will shrink w'wh. horror from con- necting the name of a priest with immorality. Yet the one sin is most assuredly the parent of the other. I might fill a volume if I re'ated the many instances which I have known of prit sts who drank to excess, and still remained honoured members of the Church. More than one bishop and priest are at present in lunatic asylums in the United States, who have been i6 INSIDE THE CHURCH OF ROME. the victims of this crime, and of still greater crime. I do not ask that my word shall be taken for these statcmcnf«=5- It is not so long since the whole world Wc:s made aware of the moral condition of one diocese in America by the highest possible authority in the dicccsc, (he lis hop himstif. The St. Louis Republican of June 20th, 1S87, printed a letter frcm Bishop Hcgan, of ihe Roman 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. In June, 1887, the Bishop had placed a German priest over an Irish con- gregation. The Irish people were indignant at this proceeding; and, as we shall show later, from Roman Catholic sources, there is no small fear on the pait of certain American ecclesiastics lest there shoui be an open rupture between the German and Irish element in the Ren an Catholic Church in the United States, where the Church is far from being in the condition of religious haimony which the rulers of the Papacy would like the woild to suppose. At last a gentleman interfered in the interests of peace, and the bishop was obliged, or at least tliought it wise, to justify himself. His defence was that ihe priests of his diocese were such a drunken lot that he was compelled to supply the parish as he did. Me then gives a list by name of twenty-two priests who were received into his diocese from 1869 to 1 876, but whom he was compelled to disrr.iss on account of immorality and drunkenness. Scm.e of them are described as "constantly drunk;" one is " now going arcund from city to city a drunken wreck." The Bishop wrote : — " The constant shameful public and sacrilegious drunkenness of the three last-mentioned priests who I f I- THE CELIBACY OF THE CLERGY. «7 I were by my side at the cathedral determined me to 1 ut them and their kind out of n.y jurisdiction. H after repeated drunkenness, went on a spree for a week in my house ; while in my house broke out at night, got into a house of disreputable women in his drunken- ness, and was thrown out into the street, picked up druiik, recognised, and taken into a house and made sober, and put into a carriage and taken back to my house. That evening G and K ^were told by me to prepare for the proper celebration of the Feast of the Patronage of St. Joseph for Easter Sunday. On Saturday night they stayed up all night drinking, carousing, and shouting. K fell down, blackened, and almost broke his face in falling. Of course the two sacrilegious priests said Mass the next day ; and K, went into the pulpit and preached with his blackened and bruised face to the 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." From personal knowledge of several dioceses I must add that this state of things is far from uncommon. In the western states of America the conditions of life are freer, and priests are more careless in their public conduct. I can only say that the very same condition of things, I have reason to believe, exists in other places, but hidden from public view. Since my arrival in America priests have often come to beg from me while they were in a state of intoxica- tion, saying, that they came because it was well known I never refused a priest anything. This was true until I found out how my kindness was imposed upon. A priest who had treated both myself and the sisters most shamefully in England, was sent with a high !WsSWE»wiraS>»a i8 INSIDE THE CHURCH OF ROME, cliaractcr *o America by his bishop, who wanted to get rid of liim, and he also came to beg from me. I know that there are priests who are living by their wits in every part of the world, the wretched victims of drink and immorality, diseased beyond description, and supported by the poorest of the people, who have a superstitious respect for a priest, no matter how degraded. ■ And the above is the condition of a large and important diocese in the United State?, where we hear, ad nnnscaiu, that the Roman Catholic Church is making rapid advances. Certainly if building immense Churches, and not paying for them, notwithstanding the millions of money yearly wrung from the poor, isa sign of advancement, it is advancing. Certainly if building and establishing Roman Catholic convent schools, which are piincipally filled by Protestant children, is a sign of advancement, the Church is advancing. In one sisters' school in Toronto, Canada, there are sixty Protestant pupils against forty Roman Catholics, and it is much the same everywhere. There are Roman Catholics who will not trust their children to convent teaching, but Protestants supply the deficiency. In Roman Catholic nations the Roman Catholic Church is deprived of all temporal power. In Protestant countries it rides triumphant. No wonder that the Pope boasts that he rules America, and that an American bishop boasts that if the people of America are not yet all Catholics, they are Papists in their love of the Pope, and in obedience to his orders. If Bishop Hogan had not spoken out about the con- dition of his diocese it might have been pointed out as a model diocese, where sin was unknown. Who can suppose for a moment that these priests, abandoneci THE CELTDACY OF THE CLERGY. 19 as tlicy were to intemperance, were not also abandoned to immorality ? Would lo God that the Roman Cntholic laity, and e?pecially men, — for it is their duty to act and protect the weaker sex, — inquired for themselves as to the real moral condition of the Romnn Catholic prie^thood. I have met many Roman Catholir men, both before and since I left the Chuich of Rome, who quite frankly avowed tiiat tie priests of their Church were, as a claims, drunkards. It certainly stems amazing that they cannot see the inevitable consequences. Even according to the very lax teaching of the Roman Church drunkenness is a sin. thouch it is only venial wnen men do not drink to tiie un- consciousness of complete intoxication. Wl,at, then even according to Roman Catholic the logy, is the condition of a priest who drinks habiuially ? Is he not already fallen? Will he make nice distinction about crime, or think it more sinful to break one command- ment than another? Will he be in a state of mind to resist ard avoid evil, and above all an evil which needs all the grace or the resolution which he possesses, even when he is in what his Church would consider a state of grace ? And does not the priest know well how safely he may sin ? The laity are so terrorised into silence, that it is but very rarely they dare say one word, no matter how flagrant his offence may be. As I have said, I was asked to take sisters to a l^nrish in England, where it was well and publicly known that the priest lived in sin with his school- nislress for many years. As the evil was too notorious to be concealed, the people at last lost all faith in leligicn, and left the Church, so that scarcely more than live or six families remained in communion with it. To get them back was the one object of the bishop 20 INSIDE THE CHURCH OF ROME. 1.-', of the diocese, \\\\o seemed to me to concern himself very liltle about the cliaracter of the priest, so that the Church did not suOlt numerically from his sin. I made it a condition of going to this place that the priest should leave before I brought sisters there. And here I have a right to say, that if Protestants choose to listen to the petty sneers that priests have to say about me it is their own loss. It was but yesterday that a Protestant gentleman said to me, "Oh, the priests sny that you always wanted your own way when you were a sister, and that when you could not get it you left the Church." I am sorry for Protestants w ho can be so easily deceived. The charge, in one sense, is true. No priest can say with truth that I ever did any one act while I was in the Roman Catholic Church contrary to the orders, or even the known wishes of those who were then my superiors. If I liad done tb.is, Protestants may be very sure that the world would have heard of it again and again. But there were some po'nts on which I was firm , and as they happened to be points on which no objection could be raised, for very shame, the bishops concerned did not oppose me, though it is convenient now to make it appear as if I was always in opposition to their wishes. Certainly I objected to go to this place or to bring young sisters there until the priest was removed. I knew that the bishop considered me a little fastidious, and I know my action in this and many other matters did not improve my position in the Church, and was the cause of much of the unmanly persecution which I endured. Still my action in these matters could not b}'' any possibility be construed as being that of one who wished to place herself in opposition to her ecclesiastical superiors. But long 4 ; ■■I ! Tim CEUBACY OF THE CLERGY, St experience has shown me how very easy it is to deceive Protestants, and how slow they often are, to their own loss, to realise the truth as to the deliberate deceit and treachery which is practised in the Church of Rome. If they only knew how miuh amusement is given to Roman Catholics when they accept their version of affairs, it would not help to increase their respect for that Church, or even for their own wisdom in such ready belief. I was perfectly within my rights, and within the line of duty as a good Catholic, in refusing to take this mission until the priest was removed. But, as I have said, my action in this and similar matters was not one which was likely to make me very acceptable to ecclesiastical authority, and of course in all such cases I was the person to be blamed. In this case I must give the bishop in question the due credit of not having made any opposition to my wishes. But I was desired by iiim, as the case was an important one, to listen to all that I could hear when I went on the mission. In fact, the bishop did not expect much thanks from Rome for his interference. It is the policy of Rome to prevent the only thing which passes as "scandal" in that Church, the exposure of the fault of a priest, as much as possible. The fault, if it can be hidden, is not considered a scandal. I had indeed a difficult position. This priest was a person of great influence in the town which was the scene of his disgrace Protestants only laughed, but there was one Catholic family where the matter was taken seriously. The last of his victims had been engaged to a young man of good position, and whose friends were old residents of the town, I believe he sincerely and truly loved the erring girl. It may be well believed that his 22 INSIDE THE CHURCH OF ROME, !. i ,8! • indignation knew no bounds. If he had been a "good Calh.olic " he might have married her, and saved the Church. But great as his love had been, he was not a CalhoHc of the type which will shield the priest at his own expense. He spoke out plainly, refused to have anything to do with the girl, and threatened summary chastisement even on the priest. Mis courage, however, fell short of actually inflicting it. To strike a priest, no matter what the aggravation, is a crime too terrible for a Roman Catholic even to contemplate. Public opinion was well roused, as the 5'oung man did not see that he was bound to keep silence on a subject on which every one was but too well informed. 1 had to listen to a flood of recrimination and scandal when at last I arrived. I did my best as peace- maker, and tried to bring the people back to the almost deserted church. I had also orders from the bishop, who was in deadly fear as to the view which Rome might take in regard to his interference with so influential an ecclesiastic, to ascertain all the particulars and gain all the proof I could of the criminality of the priest. The deserted church was bu'lt by a convert who had left it free of all debt, a marvel for a Roman Catholic church ; for notwithstanding its enormous wealth, there are few churches which are free from debt, — a curious commentary on the great boast which is made of reverence for the altar. The young man never returned to the Roman Church. He and his parents joined some body of Protestants, which, I do not remember. The rest of the congrega- tion stayed at home. I was told by " good Catholics " that this priest said Mass during his every-day career of ^vil, and left his paramour in his room when he \ TITE CELIBACY OF THE CLERGY. descended to offer up the sacrifice, which, according to the teaching of the Church, is of so subhme a character, that angels might fear to approach it. These good people did not know that the Roman Church before now has sanctioned the profligacy of her ministers, and that, as I shall show in the history of celibacy in the Roman Church, every sin against chastity which a priest can commit is provided for by a legular scale of indulgence. But this history of my experience, miserable as it is, does not end here. I was staying with some of the sisters waiting until should be removed to another diocese, where he was received with all the honours due to his position in the Church, and naturally I was anxious as to who would be appointed to take his place. That also was soon provided for. I was introduced to a priest who was certainly more kind and considerate in his manner than the generality of priests are to sisters. I hoped we had found one who would give us some peace after our long experience of, I must say, brutality and unchristian conduct. I expressed to the sisters my satisfaction. Unhappil}', it did not last long. We were in the act of preparing for our departure when Canon rushed into my room, and asked me if I knew the kind of priest the bishop was sending to t^ke the place of the priest who had been so quietly removed. I was amazed at his excitement, little knowing the cause. " Why," he said, " this man is not long out of gaol. He was arrested in the streets, and locked up there for being drunk and disorderly;" and he added signifi- cantly, " he has a housekeeper." I only wish that those persons, whether Protestants or Roman Catholics, who \ 24 INSIDE THE CnURCII OF ROME. are anxious to criticise my conduct while in the Church of Rome, had been placed in my position for one hour. What to do I knew not. It seemed as if I was destined to suffor from priests, and then to be blamed as if I had been the cause of the trouble. I knew priests so well by this time, that I had not a doubt that the object of this communication was to get me into trouble with the bishop, who would certainly have been very angry if I had complained of his arrange- ments. I felt that the bishop had acted very badly to me, to say the least, in not having put me on my guard as to the person to whom he was sending me; but I knew too well that the very priests who were trying to make me have a disagreement with the bishop would be the very first to blame me and not him. I say again it is simply impossible for any one who has not some such experience as mine to have even the least idea of the wickedness and misery of the inner lives of priests and sisters ; and I can well understand how those who have not had such an experience may be slow to believe that such things can be. My distress and despair can be well imagined by any Christian heart. I had left Knock, hunted out, as I have told in my autobiography, by the injustice of priests, and people acting under the permission and under the control of priests. I had come to England hoping, or rather feeling sure, that here at least there would be some spiritual good, some true religion. I soon found, what a wider experience has since con- firmed, that the Roman Catholic Church is every- where the same. How can it be otherwise when it never admits the necessity for reform, and when there THE CELIBACY OF THE CLERGY. 25 never was a Church wherein reform was so sorely needed, as its indisputaSle history proves too well. A fow moments* reflection made me consider what could be Canon *s ohject in this sudJcn com- munication. I was well aware tiiat he knew, for at least a week previous, that this priest to whom he gave such a bad character, was to ta've the place of the gentle and honourable exiled " canon." " Why, I asked myself, "did he not speak before? Why did he give such s:)lemn injunctions 'not to tell the bishop' that he had spoken to me ? Why, if he was so zealous for our welfare, did he not speak to the bishop him- self?" All these thoughts flashed through my mind with unhappy rapidity, and still I did not see my way to act. I saw at once that if I said a word of objec- tion, the bishop would be sure to ask who was my informant ; and I never could bring myself to adopt the Roman Catholic custom of betraying others, after the most solemn promises of secrecy. In fact, a great deal of my trouble in the Roman Church arose from my having different ideas of truth and honour from those who were opposed to me. An honest man is a poor match for a rogue, even when he suspef - ■■ the rogue ; and it was very long before I learned to suspjct priests. I thought also that it was very unmanly of Canon to come and tell me all this under a pledge of secrecy, and not to go himself to the bishop, and speak to him on the subject. But I knew that it was always a dangerous thing for a priest to make any representation to a bishop, no matter how grave the case might be. I can only say that I went to only to find that the canon was right. The good-natured priest had been in gaol for public disturbance and drunkenness a 26 INSIDE THE CHURCH OF ROME. sliort lime previous, and as prit.'Sts are always well po&tecl on each other's affairs, I found the whole story was true, even to the existence of a " housekeeper." The priest was Irish, and had been all over the world ; but as the bishop said afterwards, and as many American bishops have said, if a bishop is too par- ticular, what is he to do for priests? He must take them as they come. The result was what might have been expected. I was at last obliged to write to the bishop, and tell him that the whole town knew of the previous character of the priest, who had been sent to minister to a people who already had almost lost faith in God and man, in con- sequence of the scandalous conduct of his predecessor, and that the " housekeeper " was evidently an institu- tion, as she had lived with him for years. I heard, to her ciedit, that she tried all she could to keep him from drink. But — alas for me! — here was another flagrant instance of " my inability to agree with my ecclesias- tical superiors." Very little was thought of the dis- creditable conduct of the priest. I had seen him intoxi ^^ on the altar, but admit cheerfully that he va'- A the very few priests I ever met who had word for ire, except when I had plenty of money i<_ ^\^Q them. If 1 had consulted mv own peace of mind I should have let things go just as they were; but unfortunately I thought that such men ought not to be allowed to administer the Sacraments. He also was " honourably removed " to a country place, where it v\'as supposed his delinquencies would be less noticed, especially if lie kept out of debt; and for all I know he may be there still. Before 1 pass to other instances of the same unhappy kind; I may say that the priest sent to take his place /M THE CELIBACY OF THE CLERGY, «7 was a you til just come from collcg>^, whose ignorance was sul'h ''S might he exjicrted from the way in which lie had been advanced l»cyond his station, and the small amount of brains which he had to balance his advancement. He was sober as far as I knew, but the secret life of a priest gives ihcm so many oppa*- tiinitics fi)r intemperance, that it is difficult to know ulio abstains and wId exceeds. I was also informed !)y thi' same "canon " who Isad warned me about his pr. (Itcessor, th.'it he had bciMi a servant in the bishop's liniic in , aiul tli.U the b'sliop had taken a iai'.cy t > hiin, as I e lia 1 shown con-idjrab!e aptitude tor (•( rciiioiiic.--. S'Uiit." !i h );)S will make any sacr'fice t . 1 rc.mote sucli nuMi, as tiicse things attract Protest- ,:i is to th' ir church's, a'ld make: converts of people \ ho hoxc not iiittdi'Tt enough to di:,cern the difference Ittwcjn show and nal'ty. This boy, for he was little ehe, thought he could ;i(id to his dignity by .n\'iling me with contempt, ^^ i ich at least was a pr »of that he was not a gentle- Mian e\en by edii cation, as he mii^ht have been, if he was not such by birth. I soon found that there was 1 ttU^ dii]( rcui^e anv ng the priests. Our new " pastor " K ft n<^thing undone to an.nn^/ the sist<;rs ; and I could < ccupv pa^:es with tli ii letters of complaints, all but t(jo well hivmded, written tn me after my arrival in America. For pe;ty annoyances and petty persecu- tion, as a ^ enerai rul% priests are une>]ualled. Whit else can be exfected wlun the life they lead is con- ! idered? This boy's f.;ther was Irish, and had been a common soldier; yet he was so as' amed of his nation- . lity that he made th.e most ridiculous attempts to hide it, as well as to conceal the humble origin of his father. There was another priest who lived in the neighbour- 28 INSIDE THE CHURCH OF ROME, hcod to whom I showed many kindnesses. He repaid me by giving me all the annoyance in his power. At length he got so deeply in debt, and the bishop had so many complaints of him, that he was shipped off to America, the refuge of priests who cannot be got rid of at home. I heard that the bishop gave him the highest testimonials. I know that he had the coolness to ccmc to me in Jersey city, and to ask me to pay his expenses to Canada. I refused even to see him ; and no doubt he hns said all he can against me in consequence. I nuist admit, however, that 1 was amused at the coolness with which he came to me for mone}', after the w'ay in which he had treated me and the sisters in England. But priests are so much in the habit of having their sins overlooked, that probably he considered he paid me an honour in asking my help. God help those to whose spiritual necessities he has gore to minister 1 I could give many more instances of the profligacy and tyrannical character of priests ; but I will only mention two other cases in ^hich evil was actually going on before my very eyes, and I did not see it. One of these was the case of the officious canon who was £0 anxious to warn me against the bishop's favourites. I did many kindnesses for him, but the influence of his housekeeper was against me. This V. cman went by the name of the "canoness." A great deal has been said by Roman Catholics about the wives of Protestant clergymen interfering in the affairs of their \v oands' parishes; but it would need another Antl.ony Trollope to describe the feats of the '• cancness " in this line. Whenever the canon was absent the " canoness " took his place, and did every- thing but say Mass. The curates rebelled again and 1 .1 again agsinst her tyrannical lulc. S^he dictated the hour of rising and rest ; and if they did not pLase her by telling her all the affairs of the paiish, spiritual and temporal, she had a handy way of punishing them by cutting off the food supplies. As for her Interference \\ith ihc sisters, her attempts in this direction vveie ludicrous, and would have b^en mischievous, if th-y had not kept her, in some degree, in her place. At last the young priests rcse in retelliin. The sisters wrote to me that the bishop, worn out with ceaseless com- plaints of the "canoness"' interference, gave the canon his choice between parting with the " canoness " or dividing his parish, so that he would not need a curate. The canon kept the " canoness," and sub- mitted, with as good a grace as he could, to the loss of the greater part of his parish. If only cne-half of the affairs of this sort, which are of daily occurrence in the "Holy" K lan Catholic Church, were known to the world at large, what a revolution there would be. But such things are kept secret. Sisters know a great deal of the inside life of priests, but they hnd it best to be silent; and it can easily be seen that they could do no good by speaking. The Church alone can reform the Church, and that is the last thing \\hich she can or will do, embar- rassed as she is by her own infallibility. To her may well be applied the reproach made to the Church of the Laodiceans, "Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked : I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich ; tnd white raiment, that ihou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear ; and 30 INSIDE THE CHURCH OF ROME. M ij?t' anoint lliine ej-es with eycsalve, that thou mayest see" (Rev. iii. 17, 18). When I had but just entered the Roman Church, I was equally shocked and surprised by the way in which a 3'oung French lady spoke of the Jesuit who was the parish priest of the mission to which we were then altaclied. She talked of certain familiarities which ifhe resented, and of a very pretty girl who was a great deal at the priest's l.ouse, helping the priest's house- keeper, and who I believed, on that account, to be above all suspicion. The girl was certainly very like the priest, who was a very good-looking man. The remai ks of the French governess were not taken in good part by the ladies whose ears they reached. For myself I was too shocked, at whai I supposed to be French lightress, to Lelieve one word the young lady said ; and tke n-,attcr ended in her being dismis':ed from her situa- tion as a gossip and a detractor. At that time I supposed tkiat the French were a devoted Catholic people, and wondered much at a French hidy criticising the character of a priest, and above all of a Jesuit. I soon dismissed the subject from my mind. It was pleasanter to believe that the girl was accusing the nriest falsely, than to suppose that he had dtnie wro. g ; for like all con- verts, I believed thr piiests were immaculate, and that it \\::s a sin even to suppose them otherwise. It took a long experience to undeceive me; and that fact has made me understand how so many Reman Catholics liave fi rmed an ideal of a priest quite different from the reality, and how they will shut their eyes to any- thing which threatens to break the charm. On the day of my recej tion into Newry convent, a young priest, who I learned long years after was a confirmed drunkard, acted very strangely. So high THE CELIBACY OF THE CLERGY. 3« WTiS my reverence for a priest, that it never even entered my iicad that h.e was not sober on the solemn occas'on. Even when I heard his sister lamenting, as she did loudl}' and perioc^' ally, the misery of a priest who had fallen from giace, I never suspected that her own brother was the source of her trouble, and I fear that the disgrace of the family was a great deal more felt by her than the sin against God. And what has been gained to the world, or to the Church, by enforcing this law of celibacy ? It is one of those burdens grievous to be borne, which has most certainly caused more sin than sanctity. We know, on indii^putable histoi ical authority, that the result in the ages when Rome had all the power which she craved, was that the Church which would not allow or bless the honest wedlock of the priests was driven to permit concubinage. Could there be possibly a more terrible charge against any Christian body ? Surely one would think that the results of this " infallible" interference with the laws of nature, and with the express direction of Sciipture, as to the manner of life by which God's priests should be distinguished, would have been suffi- cient to condemn Rome for ever. Rome is ever craving for power to enforce all her demands. It would be well if those who are anxious to increase her power would ask what has she done when she has had all the power she craved ? What was the state of Italy in the Middle Ages? We hear a great deal at the present day of the injustice done to the Pope in depriving him of temporal dominion, but how did the Popes live when they were free to rule as they pleased ? Did they benefit hu- 'manity? Did they preach the Gospel? Did they even live good moral 1' ves ? Did they reform their ^M^^^'^'^^*l^- »> ^>!^f^^<^Sfi^^^-.^ 32 INSIDE THE CHURCH OF ROME. clergy ? Rather, we may ask, were their priests good men, who Hved for their God and for His poor? Alas ! all history proves that they were a curse rather than a blessing. And what of the effects produced by the celibacy of the clergy at the present day ? What is its effect on the Church at large ? It is just what might be expected. An unmarried clergy must inevitably be a selfish clergy. It is supposed that celibacy lifts a man to heaven, and detaches him from the things of earth. Can any one who knows the clergy of the Romish Church say that their vow has had this effect ? Is it not well known that they are grasping, avaricious, oppressive to the poor, whose cries do not reach the ear of the world, but nevertheless do reach the ear of God ? Is it not well known that they often leave large sums of money to relatives, all of which has heen obtained from God's poor, who, worshipping the ideal of the priest, know little of the reality. Even with all the precautions which Rome uses, and with all the secrecy which she can conuiiand, she is not able to hide altogether, as she could have hidden in earlier ages, the demoralised condition of so many of her priests. It is true that very liltle comes before the public, for the press is under a control which compels silence, but facts are told in private which one day will be remembered, and told in public. It is true that this careful guarding of the press has left the so-called upper class-in utter ignorance of the true state of affairs, and consequently they give all the weight of their influence to uphold a system which they would denounce unsparingly if they knew it as it is. They see the priest on the altar and in society, where he is on his guard, and they do not know him as he is elsewhere. They see his zeal for the Church, but \ \ THE CELIBACY OF THE CLERGY. 33 they do not know that he has had his hours of agony, and of deep and bitter despair, which he has drowned in drink, or driven away as best he could in active work for the Churchi which has been the cause of all his misery, but from which he sees no escape. ^: \ s CHAPTER II. t.. THE MORAL EFFECTS OF THE CELIBACY OF THE CLERGY IN 'J HE PAST AND IN THE PRESENT. "After my ckprjiturc shall gTi(;vou<5 wolves enter in an ong yon, rot si>aiin- llic llodr. Also of your own selves sliall men aris -, speaking- pci verse tli.ngs,"'— Acts xx. 29, 30. IT must never be forgottt n that the Church of Rome makes I cr holiness a special ground on which she claims a diviix'ly given authority. She claims not only to be "holy," but to be "the" holy Catholic Cliurch. And people aie 5=0 apt to take her, as they so often take others, at her own valuation. Rome says she is "holy," and the world, too lazy, or too ignorant to test her claims, arquie;>ces, and is duly impressed. Peihaps theie was never a greater fraud practised on the credulity of mankind than this. Probably of all Christian Churches iheix is net one Church which has so little to show of the fruits of the Spirit as Rome ; and yet she is believed by millions to be the one Church vhieh has an cxtiac idinary record of good works. If only Roman Catholics were allowed to read history, end if only Protectants would read its pages (and they can read then.), what a re\ elation they would find of the supposed sanctity of Rome. We shall return to this subject later. Here we are chiefly concerned with evidence on one point only viz.. that Rome is very far MORAL EFFECTS OF CELIBACY OF THE CLERGY. 35 II fif m being a holy Church, The chief ground for this < hiim of pre-eminent hohncss is, that her cchbate priest- hood are, of all those who minister at God's altars, thr mo«t perfect in their conduct, and the most self-sacrificing in t'.ieii lives. And at the fust gl.mce it looks as il tliis claim was well foundv_d. Here we have men who (••itninly n^nke a vow wliich deprives them of all the comforts of fimily life. Here we have men who are, to all appearance, leading a life of su[)erhuman self-sacrifice. And from tifue to time eveiUs occur whic'i appear to verify this claim of Rome to a sel!- sacrifijing priesthood. We need not go beyond the currejit news of the day for an example, and a fair rne, of ihe way in which Rome estahii: hcs and per- petuates 1 er claim to an exceptionally holy piitsthood. Who lias not I card of Father Daniien, the priest who has so noMy Faciificcd his life in the sacred cause of humanity ? The admiring Protestant gives his sacrifice the meed of praise it c'eserves ; but the admiring Protestnnt does not stop to think, or does net know, that the noble deed which Father Damien has done is being done every day in the year, and was done long before he ever thought of following the example cf the Protectant ladies who first devoted themselves to the leper. For many years there has been an institution for lepers outside the walls of Jerusalem, attended by German Protestant deaconesses, who have called no special attention to (luir work, but have gone on the even tenor of their way, year af er year, being infected by the horrible disease, and dying by inches in its loatlisome tortures. We do not say this as any depre- ( iation of Father Damien's work. But the " capital " (there is no other word lor it) which Roman Catholic papers acquire out of such things makes it incumbent on 36 INSIDE THE C nunc IT OF HOME. .1 Prolcstnnts, or rather I should say on all who value ti uth, to make the truth known. Let us give honour to Father Damien ; but all the honours do not belong to him. And yet Roman Catholic paper?:, and to my know- ledge one under the special patronage of Archbishop Corrigan, edited by the late dynamitr, F breaks into wild cries of childish anger because a New York paper ventured to allude to this fact. The New York paper will no doibt be more careful in the future how it offends Roman Catholic sensibilities, by stating any fact which, [lowevcr true, seems to 1 jssen the glory of a priest. The simple stating of this fact about these German deaconesses is called by this (late) dynamite advocate " a mean fFng at the dead hero." It is ever thus that the Church of Rome supports her claim of exceptional holiness by fabe pretences. It is a cringe, to be punished with the most severe penalties, if o:ie word is said either in public or in private of the fault of a priest, or of the oppressive conduct of a li-^hop. New York society w'as ringing with suppressed laughter at the " ten dollars or ten days," joke, made on the way in which Archbishop Coriigan punished an unfortunate priest who had dared to say one word of fact as to the way in which Dr. McGlynn was treated by the orders of his ecclesiastical superior. But the laughter had to be low, for even Protestants could be made to feel the weight of episcopal displeasure, if the echo of their niirlh reached the archiepiscopal ear. And in the case of any priest whose name can be brought forward in the cause of science or humanity, .'ill the glory must be given to the "Church" as the source of his inspiration. It matters little that the deed or the discovery for which he is honoured is common to many others. Even the least hint that MORAL Effects of CEunACY dF the clercv. 37 ,• I the glory does not belong exclusively to Rome is treated as an injustice to tli.it much-belauded Church. A hundred deaconesses who may have sacrificed iheir lives in the cause of the leper are as a mere nothing in comparison with the one priest who his only followed their example. And, as I hive said, the world takes the Church at her own valuation. I do not deny that the unnatural life of a priest is a true martyrdom ; but there are many men, and many missionaries amongst Protestant denomination?, who live quite as hard a life, as Hir as privation of the comforts of life is con- cerned, and there have been many Protestant ministers who have sacrificed their lives in time of pestilence as freely as any priest of the Roman Church. It is so also in the case of sisters. I do not deny that the life of a sister is often one of great privation, but there are many sisters who live far more comfortably in the convents than they ever lived in their own homes. This, however, does not, to my mind, detract from the reality of their suffering, for they surrender their liberty, which makes all else of litde value them. But the Church of Rome is ever making " c«pitaV especially for the benefil: of Protestants, out of the self-sacrificing lives of the sisters, while there arc many women who live quite as great a life of self- sacrifice who never saw the interior of a convent. The secrecy and romance of the life of a nun prepaies Protestants to give unlimited credit to any cl:iim that may be made for the admiration of sisters; and, as in the case of Father Damien, they do not stop to think how many self-sacrifi.ing lives are spent in their own denominations. There are many ministers' wives who not only bring up their little ones in the love and fear of their Creator, but who spend, and arc spent, 3S msjDE THE CHURCH OP ROME. I J' ■ "^" li] d;iy after day in the service of the poor; nnd yrt there is never a dcmuid for pinisc of th(.'ir sclf-saci ifico. I^ '■- time th't nil this claim to exceptional sanctity, in the r'hurch of Rf mo, on the ground of the cxclii'-ivc practice of frood works, should be disproved and silenced forever. I know not whether to think it a providence, or to call it a pcv uliar coincidence, but I have had occa'^ion to see a friend, the wife of a Methodist minister, betwceiT writing; the la-t sentence and that 0,1 which I am ni>\v