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Fll-IATRKAUUT, ^cibll«H«r 812, Oralg Street, 812 189S. dS^ HMD miiriifllkc j^i »Hlpiww wbid^ tbo ^ikf^^ hM of! M^^^tait And MtfaktingiiieMd woMhip, , ::^^ li«|A17»: OF TBa ptim ■ ' 1 wi^ •vr^ioh' H toMto oorWrtlgiooa oere-j -'" *" itti€%Tto the holy hiraMSBoiiiish tft#~ nM»|4 wm HHftiiuiitMLm •nd I8t ^ Mater of sCi i< . . . xi6 .W*>Ttt t-;-«« ..«^-^ >*' j;^^' !■ .^;'l,.i, if. 'iJ!'"rS. r^t^^'tn^^f^' ■S^^'^^t '■•'HW^ , AU PAYS DES EUINES Wm GLERIGALES (ENGLISH EDITION) if Th« people is a great logician that never foils to draw conclusions, Frlix Pyat. Translated by a graduate of Oxford University. MONTREAL : A. FIL.IATREAUl.T', RubllsH^r 812, Graig Street, 312 1893. Enterfd according to Act of Parliament of Canada, in thel year one thousand eight hundred and ninety-three, byl A. FiUATRBAULT, in the office of the Minister of Agrij culture. EDITOR'S NOTICE This book is not published in any spirit of animosity towards the clergy of Canada : it tends merely to show the abuses which have crept into a system, good in itself, but which has degenerated into a terrible power for evil, and is a source of constant danger to the country. The French-Canadian people has been told so often, from time immemorial, that his clergy has done everything for the welfare of the country that he has fully made up his mind, long ago, that it must be true. So long as the French clergy has worked in the interest of the people, no one had a word to say against it. So long as it re- mained poor, it managed to help rather than crush the Canadians. But now that gold fills its coffers, it finds that, in order to keep its boundless power, it must pressure the people, and to what extent it does it is onlv known to the few. The object of this book is to show by what means our people have been systema- tically kept in ignorance, and penned up by *. 1- 1 ▼i EDITORS NOTICE themselves, instead of being allowed to work side by side with their fellow-countrymen and help to build a grand nation. But no, that would not suit the purpose of our masters, who know quite well that when the majority of French-Canadians are practically educated, there will be an end to their nefarious influence in matters temporal. We do not wish to injure the clergy, as we have been accused of so often, but we want to limit its action to the spiritual wel- fare of the souls, and to let us take care of the bodies. The only way to do this is to educate the people and demonstrate that the action of the clergy, outside of spiritual matters, is fraught with danger to the whole commu- nity. Others who will follow in our wake will reap the benefit of the campaign we have undertaken a few months ago, and finally an era of prosperity and satisfaction will be inaugurated in our midst, and hand in hand, the descendants of the two greatest nations on earth will work admirably to* gether in the common interest, and make of this Dominion one of the greatest countries in the world. The Editor. PEEFACE. There is here no question of religion, not- withstanding the efforts that some will make to enlist it once more in the service of a sys- tem, which has from time immemorial been the bane of true religion. If religion were what the selfi&,u traffickers in holy things wish to make of it, it would long since have been banished from all civi- lized countries. It is because it is superior to these manipulations that it lies at the bottom of the heart of all humanity. Keligion is as necessary to man as the air that he breathes, or the beating of his heart ; and those who, struck by a peculiar kind of madness, imagine that God and the Immor- tality of the Soul are mere inventions of man, have arrived at that opinion only be- cause, in the disorder of their faculties, they have thought to find another God than that of their fellow-creatures. Who, then, would be mad enough to deny I vni PREFACE i II! to a fellow-man the right to worship God in his own way, since each one has God in his heart, even when he forgets to pay to him in public all the homage which he owes him ? And if each one, armed with his own belief, wishes to impose it on his neighbor by means which do not convince his reason, Eeligion, instead of being man's chief conso- lation and refuge amid the bitter troubles of the outer world, becomes the constant originator of conflicts between man and man, of civil wars, and cf national struggles. The religion which passes from the action of the heart and reason to that of a brutal propagandism in external formalities — that religion, instead of forming between men a bond of love and of benevolent tolerance, becomes the instigator to crime, without excepting even fratricide and parricide, as all history teaches — and is converted into the scourge of humanity. To this religion of hatred and proscription we do not belong. On the contrary we belong to that religion which has said : Pax hominibtia honce voluntatis ; that is, " Peace to men of good-will " : a verse which so many people sing every Sunday without under- standing its meaning. PREFACE We are of that religion of peace which does not invoke the cWil law to oppress, but to protect all men against oppression. What ! because for fifteen years we have submitted to all kinds of aggression without repulsing the attack — because for fifteen years, having confidence in the teachings of that religion of peace, and in the institutions of our country, we have scorned the extra- vagances of traders in religion, they thought that we had been reduced to the condition of helots, or of lambs that hold out their necks to be sacrificed to intolerance! A mistake 1 We were only sleeping in the calmness of conscious strength. We suffered the surrounding atmosphere to be laden with unwholesome vapors, because they lightly touched only the outer skin, and caused nothing but an unpleasant buzzing near our ears. TiiC poisonous fly of intolerancehad not yet dared to settle upon any one of us. When it pricks us, we awaken with a start, and we crush the fly ! l; !i Joseph Doutre. insTDjEx: I 111 Editor's Notice ^ 5 Preface ... » • • 7 The Eeligious Situation ...... , n The Jesuits .... o^ The Castor \ ^j Undue Influence Aa Mysticism and Chastity gj Terrorism i«l The Cathedral „ g^ Inexorable Cruelty . , gg Censures and Excommunications iqq The Education of the Priest. ....... H? The Priest and money i.»5 Knaves and Fools jog Priests Among Themselves I45 Clergy and "CanadarRevue" 155 if\ ••••.. . 195 THE RELIGIOTO SITUATION. The people is a great logician that never fails to draw conclu> sions » F^ux Pyat. The Catholic Church in Canada, and above all, in the Province of Quebec, is at present passing through a crisis of painful intensity, the causes of which are so serious that it is necessary to probe and investigate them, if it were only to leave, in the evolution which is going on, some traces of the agitated period in which we live, and some docu- ments for the benefit of those, who. Inter on, will have to write our nai.onal and religious history. Eusebius, Bishop of Csesareia, be£[an his history by declaring that " he would say all that would be to the glory of the Church, and would keep silent on all that would be to its shame." It is usually in this way that religious history is written : but ,we shall not adopt this method. Since we have quoted an ecclesiastical authority,^ we may be permitted to go back to an earlier time, and to seek our guide in a still more elevated sphere. We do not wish to strike a blow at anybody, we have no hatred of anybody : we are only desiroua of shewing what free men are. It is written in the Qospel : " If ye continue in my word Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John VIII, 31, 32. St. Athanasius has developed this thought in noble language : " We must speak freely, because M 12 AU PAYS DE8 RUINES ■I li we have not received a spirit of slavery which begets fear : it is to liberty that the spirit of God has called us." Ecclesiastical historians do not, perhaps, admire, as they ought to do, this truly admirable man. Saint Athanasius defied all-powerful emperors, and, sooner than bend the knee, went away to live on roots in the depth of the deserts of the Thebaid. It was from there that he governed his diocese, to the great rage of Julian, the Apostate, who wrote to him : " I learn that Athanasius, with his usual audacity, has put himself in possession of what he calls the Episcopal Throne. The wretch ! he dares, during my reign to confer baptism ! He, a man of obscure origin, glories in braving death ! '* There is no death for us to brave, and we are aware of the fact ; but it must be confessed that, in our country, we must, nevertheless, have a certain amount of boldness to attempt to tell the truth. It is a hard resolution to form, and the struggle is very dramatic. Man has a proud and glorious object in view — to defend his beliefs, and fight for his convictions; but he has, also, a terrible restrainer, a leaden shackle which fastens him to the ground, and prevents his progress. Like the prisoner of the Baron des Adr^ts, he advances to the edge of the tower, questions space with his glances, and flings himself back, murmuring : " Good heavens ! what a leap ! " On the advice of some friends, we have decided to speak out, and express our opinion of the situa- tion. We have conquered the prejudices, which restrained us, and have pushed back, as it were, with our elbow all those who muttered in our ears words of fear and aflright, and we are here I In every phase of evolution, and in every move- ment of essential modification, we mast carefully discriminate between the ultimate and the imme- diate causes. RUINE8 CLERICALE8 28 Throughout the whole of this work we shall study the ultimate causes ; but we have only to enumerate the immediate causes, so well are they known. The Catholic clergy lived with us for twenty-five years past in a calm existence which augured well — which softly flattered the faithful, and called forth from the whole world an admiration that has been daringly turned to profit — when all of a sudden a series of frightful scandals breaks out. Even in the city of Montreal, a priest gives him- self up to the most degrading saturnalia with one of his feminine devotees. At Sorel, an ecclesiastic is guilty of the most indecent conduct to a respectable old man. At Montreal again, a priest is arrested in com- pany of a strumpet, who was helping him to manufacture illicit whiskey. At Black Lake, a priest had a corpse which was still warm opened in order to baptize an infant ; while at Chambly another priest refused to baptize an infant unless the tithes were paid. At M(iskinong6, a Bedemptorist demoniac, so to speak, provokes a schism by cursing a whole parish ; and foui'teen families become Protestant to escape the insults of this dotard. In open service at the church of Notre-Dame, a woman whips with her beads her spiritual director, with a mystical jealousy of whom she felt herself seized. All these scandalous events happening unexpect- edly within about three months have caused the burst of indignation, for which we have undertaken to assign the real causes. Some one used to say : " Contemporary persecu* tions are rather chastisements than trials." These words have a broad foundation of truth. Tes ! we believe, and numbers of priests also believe thai 14 AV PATS DBS BUINES the 'present commotion, like the great Revol/iUion, is an expiation. We do not wish to throw any fresh stones at the clergy, who have aUready received so many ! Neither will we commit the folly of show- ering on the whole clerical body the faults of one, or of several of its members, and we know, also, in the words of a famous infidel that " the lives of laymen have always been more vicious than those of priests, but the licentious conduct of the latter has always been more noticeable on account of its contrast with the rule of clerical life." Such is our opinion, and we add that our conviction, like that of Fdouard Drumont, {La demilre bataille) is, that "of all officially constituted bodies of men, the clerical body is the worthiest." Thus thinks, and thus reasons every educated man. But the crowd is not obliged to reason in the same manner ; it res^ons about priests, as we find the reasoning in Virgil : ah uno d%sce omnes, that is, *' Learn the character of all from the criminality of one." A single act, in the eyes of the crowd, constitutes habit, and what one priest does the others can do, and often do. Hence the disesteem into which, on account of the criminalitv of one of its members, the whole clerical body falls. It is true that people are very exacting in regard to a priest. Father Caussette said one day : " We should never see the priest but at the altar." This would certainly be a wise measure to prevent his ever being degraded in the eyes of the world. Oh ! w€ understand perfectly the fascination produced on the mind by these rare solemnities, in the midst of the glitter of countless decorations, of gold inundated with light, of waves of harmony, and the silvery modulations of the chime of bells, of variegated and perfumed clouds of incense rifling in a twisted column from the steps of the BUINES CLEBICALES 15 altar to rejoin one another, coiling themselves above the tabernacle, and forming around the pontiff a transparent nimbus : angels bending with their burning torches: veils of velvet and silk festooned around the sanctuary, baskets of lilies always i>i bloom and always fragrant ; the light, soft, many-colored, and filtered through bay-win- dows of exquisi^iely stained glass, adorned with saints clad in azure and purple, reflecting on their radiant faces hope and love, — the sight of all this would convert a temple into heaven, and a priest into a God. But when the priest goes out of the sanctuary, and re-enters his every-day life, and abandons his spiritual rdle to fill that which he has adopted, viz., the part of an educator, we are obliged first of all to establish that " with a good clergy, you will have a passably good people ; with a passably good clergy you will have a bad people; and with a bad clergy you will have Sodoms, Gomorras, or Babylons. ' This is the translailjion of the thought of Saint Vincent de Paul, a great trainer and educa- tor of priests : " If the people are bad, it is the fault of us, the priests. It is we who form them, and it is by their virtue that ours must be rated." Let us go farther back, let us make the deduction more complete, and let us say this : " If the clergy are bad, it is because the educators of the clergy are inferior men." The people are tainted to the very marrow : that is an undoubted fact. The clergy, therefore, are bad, and if they are bad, what are their educators ? What have they done ? Here is what they have done. They have heaped ruins on ruins, and these ruins, which we are going to study, have hastened the general breaking up that must ensue, which is only the end of the movement brought about in the whole world — a movement that might here have been avoided by the exercise of a little wisdom. 16 AV PAYS DES RUINES i ! ■yf\ Few thinkers thoroughly appreciate the grave causes which have led to the rapid decline and fall of contemporary Catholicism. We see honorable men expending immense zeal and ardor in the bosom of a society which is profoundly unbelieving. Writers, professors, preachers, curia, all religious orders, everybody, in fact, is toiling and exhaust- ing himself ; but he does so, while turning his back to the future, and taking the wrecks of the past to reconstruct Catholicism minutely, such as our fathers saw it, and such as in their hours of uncontrollable anger, they tried to overturn it for ever. It is in this that the true antagonism consists. That men should be mistaken is easily imagined. It is the fate of their weakness. To bring them slowly to the light is the work of time. An hour comes when they are undeceived. The masses are often mistaken in this manner. But they have not adopted any fixed opinion, and, quite quietly, they allow themselves to inhale the pure breezes of reason that refresh them amid the bright rays by which their eyes are gradually enlightened. In Catholicism its unchangeableness is not a weak- ness of the moment, or an aberration of some obtuse intellects, but it is the fettering caused by caste» and a system of safety. In religious matters, the absolute is always the objective point of the mind. And as the priesthood, by insensible degrees, came to constitute themselves the visible and infallible representatives of God. they arrived at the conclu- sion, with an imperturbable logic from which it does not suit them to withdraw, that the observance and the manner of exhibiting religion and dogma, by worship and habits of discipline — that all this, i say, is as perfect, as divine, and incumbent on humanity in as absolute a degree, and with the same claims to submission, as the very faith pro- mulgated by the divine legislator. RUINES CLERIC ALES 17 From this colossal error, and this incredible pre- tension, it follows as a necessary consequence that the Church proclaims throughout the world its absolute unchangeableness. If it changes, it thinks that it admits having done ill now, or having done less well formerly. An individual feels no repugnance in recognizing that he may have acted badly hitherto, and that it is good for him to act better hereafter. It is upon this princijple that the gr'^at idea o£ progress is based. Our fathers desired what is good, and effected it as well as they were able. We speak of their humble and loyal conquests, and we set our- selves to work vigorously to do still better. They have bequeathed us a treasure, and we will add to it, and, in our turn, bequeath it to posterity. Nothing is more simple or logical than this theory. It is the creator of civilization. Sacerdotal castes are drawn away to reason against the theory of that periodic amendment and advancement, which we call progress. They have acted on the world, and swayed the consciences of men, only by the proclamation of a symbol, outside of which, they declared, salvation could not exist. On this symbol, to make it, in some degree, visible, they organized a form of worship, a kind of out- ward manifestation, as speech is the outward manitestation of thought. When this symbol and this worship were once formulated, the different influences of places, races, and climates formed the ordinary discipline. The whole of this combination was a complete code of legislation. In Eastern civilizations where everything is at a complete stand-still, where the man of the nine- teenth century is an exact reproduction of the man of prehistoric times, the system of religious lack of progress, promulgated and carried out by the priest- hood, is very easily explained, and is, as it were, 2 18 AU PAIS DKS HCIXES n^'l 1 1 i : r' J ; 1 i i \ ! 1 i : never justified by the social conditions which change. But people may well ask themselves : Is it the same on our continent which is accomplishing its social transformation, having known only through tradition the civilization of the past, that history xlescribes to us under the name of the m.iddle ages ? The reply is not doubtful. A civilization, entirely Tiew, conforming to the religious manners of a period when humanity was in a state of infancy, was an evident contradiction of law. To bring it to pass that the men of the nineteenth century should adore, that is to say, should surrender himself completely to the religious instinct, and, at the same time, to the forms of worship which suited the men of the twelfth century, would be to satisfy our refined literary tastes with the puerile historj^ of " The Four Sons of Aymon" or the ballad of *' The Wandering Jew!* v£Jlericalism is evidently hastening in a dizzy •career to a frightful abyss. The well-known law of the greater the mass, the greater the velocity, is this case of forcible application. The more m powerful the mass, the more rapid the movement, and the more grinding and crashing the last shock produces. This will be the fault of the higher priesthood. It persists in attempting a radical impossibility, that is, in striving to bring back the modern world to an administrative system under -which the Church was dominant, and exercised despotic authority over the sceptre-bearers of the whole earth. If these men understood history better, they would know that this regime can never be re-established. Kings and people have alwaj^s resisted it. But, for all that, the ideal of the Ohurch has not changed, and this w^ill be its everlasthing ideal. To cherish this dream any longer is an ineffable absurdity. To say to the RUINES CLERIC ALES 10 world, as God says to the sea : " There thou shalt break thine impetuous billows," requires an inintel- ligent audacity, or the frenzy of madness. Never- theless, the priesthood of the present day are content with this frenzy, and give themselves up to this madness. All this starts from a false point of view. If we look from too great a distance at a tower which is square, it seems to us perfectly round. The history oi the Catholic priesthood is similar ; its religious dogma is unchangeableness. The theological doct 'ne is humanity shut up in an inflexible circle ; God in heaven, the Pope on the earth ; the infallible power everywhere in the country where Catholics are dominant ; passive obedience among the believing masses who must never dispute anything ; the eternal repetition of a liturgy in a dead language, until the day of judgment when the difierent languages of humanity will have undergone count- less changes ; the human family restriched to the monotony of a Latin service ; the people, docile, the clergy, richly endowed ; the churches glittering with gold and marble, and ecclesiastical pomp ; not one movement in humanity, not a new idea that can excite doubt in the soul ; not a discovery which can incommode the traditional teaching ; not a will or a murmur in that well-informed Church, which, a quarter of an hour before the final day must have still heard the Dominus vohiscum, and the Bene- dicat V08. With this doctrine thoroughly accepted, as though it came from God himself, all the rest can be easily understood. Whoever interferes with the realization of this ideal is an enemy, were he the highest potentate on earth. To speak in books of the march of civilization, or of getting out of the old rut — to break once seriously with the middle ages, which are politically and socially dead — this would il 20 A U PA YS DES RUINES 1 t I ii II! !i logically be the conduct of enemies in the eyes of the advocates of unchangeableness. As for movement — why, that is a novelty, and a novelty, however insignificant it may be in appearance, is contrary to the traditional teaching. Xihil innovetur. Let no change be made. As for breaking with the middle ages, — why they were the most glorious period of the Church's existence — the " great ages, " as M. de Montalem- bert has said. In point of fact, at that time every- thing from the Church was accepted without dispute, even to those terrible autodafSs (acts of faith), which stifled beneath their flames all revolt against the infallible word. We, who desire that the Church should make progress, are revolutionaries And Rome will eventually denounce as heresy every idea of reconciliation with the movements of liberty and science which constitute modern society, because it would ^)e to license examination, and examination is the refusal of passive obedience to traditional teaching. That is what Rome has done in the famous Syllabus. How will all this end ? The Church will not yield. When we speak of the Church, we mean the oflicial Church ; that is to say, the priesthood. Never in history has any priesthood yielded to a movement which would have swept away its worship, and made a ruin of its temple. Priests, taken in isolated cases, follow diflerent directions. In the first days of Christianity, the Jewish priests joined the disciples of Jesus ; Egyptian priests, and the priests of pagan temples, also, became christians. But whole bodies of priests never yielded, but held out until the last moment, when the law which had protected them suppressed them along with their temples, or when the indifference of different peoples left them alone in tlie depth of their sane- R VINES i LERICALES 81 tuary which lacked all offerings. Under whatever civilization we study the priesthood, we find it always fatally riveted to the chain of unchange- ableness. A priesthood, by the law of its constitu- tion, logically arrives at a dread of all change which reforms it, as an old man, towards the end of his days, arrives at a dread of the emotion and noise which may possibly trouble his final hours. If the official Church is under the fatal law of unchangeableness, from which she cannot free her- self without thinking that she is killing herself, it is absurd to ask her to submit contentedly to even the slightest change which she would regard as a signal of death. Moreover, old institutions are always so constituted. It is in accordance with the nature of all human affairs, and is not a special weakness of the Church. But what is not absurd, is to ask the educated Church to draw herself aloof from the anti-pro- gressiveness of her priesthood ; and the thing is pos- sible without any rude shock. Even to-day, when the Jesuit body has acquired such strength, if the believing laity, assisted by some courageous men among the clergy, seriously desired a religious renovation, which is alone able to check the fall of Catholicism, — if this laity, I say, had a consciousness of its strength, it would, at no distant day perchance, accomplish this change in the Church. And here is the reason : By a singular phenomenon little noticed, the men who say non poasumua however intractable they may be with those who wish to reform them, always feel, more than they think, the influence of the masses whom they believe they direct. Paganism has weighed heavily on the Christian worship, and in how many things has the Church taken into considera- tion rooted beliefs, superstitions, and the habits which we call morals. In Canada, priests usually forbid the theatre, and 22 AU PAYS DES RUINE8 they aro sufficiently powerful to prevent a woman setting her foot in a theatre during her whole life, because her confessor would immediately refuse her absolution. At Rome, where the Cardinal- vicar can shut all theatres with a stroke of his pen, they are allowed to exist. Delegates in violet-colored stockings have had their box in the theatres of the small towns of the Pontifical States, just as other people have at the Opera. The habits of the Roman people did not allow of their dispensing with public shows. Everywhere, where the priesthood find a powerful and resisting will among the mass of the faithful, they teniporize with it. The fifteenth century introduced into the New World the hateful system of slavery which, with so much reason, was a cause of reproach to the Old World. Some Popes made a noise against it, and condemned slavery in their bulls. But not one of them ever dared to command the clergy to refuse the sacraments to every slave-owner. In the country of slaves, bishops and priests owned slaves, and Rome was not ignorant of the fact. With the power of the Church which was then uncontested, the matter was extremely simple. But no ! large interests were involved, and the priesthood tolerated the violation of a natural law ! The lay element of the believing public has, then, i^reat power; and, if it were willing, and were sufficiently enlightened, the result would be that without any pamful revolt or violent separation, like that of the sixteenth century, the priesthood would bo induced to shake off their swaddling- clothes, and to enthrone a new spiritual order in a new social organization. All men, who, by their words and their writings, can exercise any influence on their age, should do everything in their power to lead it on to this healthful act of resistance. RriXES CLERIC ALES 23 It wonld bo the means uf avoiding the religious revolution which will crush Latin clericalism. Instead of having to suffer a revolution, clericalism would quietly obtain a transformation. With the system of unchangeableness religious evolution is logically connected with the future. It is the infallible result of the struggle of the priesthooil against all modern movement. This evolution is predicted : and we must not cease pointing it out to the priesthood, as threaten- ing it constantly from one day to the other. The work is difncult. But efforts made with the aim indicated cannot in any case be useless. It is always a good thing to prepare the world, in order that the evolutions which fatal faults bring in their train may be accomplished with less violence, and cause less destruction. We know what took place at the marvellous revolution which inaugurated Christianity. I'he Jewish priesthood, with the exception of some individuals, persisted in the unchangeableness of its traditions and of its worship. Two centuries after Christ, the Synagogue slept calmly in its ordinary life without any mistrust that the Galileaa dissenters who had abandoned it, would rob it of it» dogmas, its holy books, or all. that it had seriously good in its pa^t history, in order to leave it only the rabbinical formalism in which it was sinking. The same causes will bring about the same results. . From the ordinary Catholicism, such as the Roman Church understands it, there must logically arise, by means of a slow but inevitable evolution, a Christianity more than reformed, a Christianity transformed, almost in the same manner as Christianity caused a radical transformation in Judaism. It will be a singular sight, but it will take place. F ■ /I'-li.. THE JESUITS Peace, peace ; when there is no pence. Jeremiah viii. II Every one who has followed the history of our country during the last fifty years will admit that, since the introduction of the Jesuits into Canada, and their underhanded incorporation under the fictitions name of St. Mary's College in 1854, this association has succeeded in imposing itself on the public as the only true expression of Catholic ideas. At that period the Parliament of Canada, ond even the French Catholic representatives would never have sanctioned an Act to incorporate the order of the Jesuits. The ideas which then pre- vailed among the intelligent class of our population were entirely hostile to them. Popular traditions were opposed to them, and it was thus that they were forced to introduce themselves under a disguised name to avoid provoking discussion. The leading objection raised against them among men of liberal and enlightened education was that of all civilized Europe. They were reproached with being dangerous, with constantly intriguing in secret among all classes of society to obtain control over the public mind, and assure themselves political power, always with the aim of establishing a despotic system for their own profit. In short, every- body knew that they were directing an incessant and merciless war against all liberal ideas. Immediately after their admission, the meml^ers of this new corporation individually applied all their energy to the production of historical and literary work . RUTXES CLERIC ALES 25 At first, they established a modest school, and obtained donations and grants under different pre- texts. They exerted all their influence to secure a resting-place and a College, where their reputation as professors could attract to them a large share of the patronage of the richest members of Society. They introduced into the country eloquent preacl ers who belonged to their Order, and soon they gathered around them a large number of admirers who belonged to the wealthiest class of the community. Finding that educated young people were for the most part republicans, and admirers of free speech and free examination, they organized a debating club under the name of the Instil ui-Canadien. The mem- bers of the Order devoted special attention to the young association, offered their services as lecturers at the meetings, and shewed themselves very active in spreading abroad ideas about science and history. They persuaded two members of the Order of St. Sulpice, the reverend Messieurs de Charbonnel and Pinsonneault, to assist them in their work. These gentlemen shewed themselves afterwards devoted friends of the Jesuits, and, notwithstanding the obligations by which they were bound to their Order, waged perpetual war against those Sulpi- cians who refused to encourage the Jesuits by subscriptions or other^^ ise. They succeeded in driving from Montreal the Superior of the Sulpi- cians, Mr. Quiblier, who was excommunicated, or at least suspended by Bishop Bourget, and died of grief in England. M. de Charbonnel offered his services to the Inatitut-panadien. All contemporaries remember that he delivered a lecture on George Washington in St. James' Church, St. Denis Street, and that the Church was I i :ti'ii • 1 !! A U PA rs DBS RUINES !:ii; filled on that occasion. It was there that he declared that in his eyes Washington was a saint, and that he would have no hesitation in saying a mass for the repose of his soul. This discourse was followed by several others that Father Martin delivered at St. Mary's College on various interesting subjects. During the course of these works Reverend Fathers de Charbonnel and Pinsonneault tried several times to have one of the two accepted by the members of the Inatitut-Canadien as spiritual director of that society ; but the youngf people positively refused the offer. It is from that time that W8 may date the opposition to the Inatitut- Canadien, and the persecution inspired by the Jesuits, and carried on by Mr. Pinsonneault, which resulted in its final destruction. During this period the Order of the Jesuits had considerably increased its wealth and influence. They had built their college and their church, and had availed themselves of all sorts of attractions, such as theatres, concerts, etc., to induce the wordly part of the population to be on their side. They had obtained absolute control over the feminine part of the Catholic aristocracy, and from the outset of their installation they managed and directed Bishop Bourget, to whom they owed their existence. It was then that the war of the Bishop began against alleged Galilean ideas. The dress of the clergy wa.« changed ; the use of the Roman cloak and hat was proscribed. In the church, the old ornaments of the churchwardens* pew, the crucifix, and the candelabra, were laid aside hy order of the bishop, who characterized them as mummeries. I'he oi d French ritual was suppressed, as well as the ancient Galilean ceremonies. Every thing that could recall the remembrance of the Gallican Church was removed, to gi \'e place to Roman and ultramontane dresses and ceremonies. RUINES CLERIC ALES 27 The revolution, in external forms, was accom- panied by a fierce war against all independent control of the laity over the revenues of the Church. The fabrique was a national institution, a municipal body, as it were, electing its own officers. No expenditure could be ordered without their .sanction, and every disbursement of more than a hundred franc** had to be submitted to the sanction of all the parishioners. Every violation of the laws entailed a penalty. The English courts, with the French tribunals, had always respected the administrations of the different churches, and never thrown any doubt on their authority in these matters. All these old laws, institutions, and customs were found to offer a serious obstacle to the exercise of absolute and arbitrary power, and became the object of perpetual attacks under the pretext of herdfey and anti-religious principles. The history of our jurisprudence offers the best proof of the success of the ultramontane party inspired and directed by the Jesuits. The legis- lature was forced to submit to their direction, and its statutes prove its servility. There remain only some scraps of ancient institutions, and our courts have no other mission than to record their death- sentence. The principle at present admitted is that the Bishop has absolute power to dispose of the funds of the Church. The election of churchwardens has become a farce, and in many parishes it is even entirely dispensed with. On the arrival of the Jesuits many colleges were entrusted to their direction, and they formed their plans, and drew up their programme, for the edu- cation of youth in the Province. Absolute power was the only true principle of government. Democratic, or constitutional ideas were infamous heresies. The absolute supremacy 28 AU PAYS DES RUINES \X\\ M inii 3|i ; IIP' of the Church, the complete immunity of the clergy, and their entire independence of the civil authority, were laid down as articles of faith, and every con- trary proposition entailed excommunication : in that consisted the whole safety of society. All ideas of progress and liberty, universal suffrage, the liberty of the press, and freedom of speech, were things to be abhorred and rooted out. The massa- cre of St. Bartholemew, the Inquisition, the Rev^o- cation of the Edict of Nantes, were justified as tending to the real good of religion and civiliza- tion. The most extravagant ideas of the French ultramontanists were proclaimed as the only true Catholic principles. These new doctrines, disinterred from the middle ages, had found able advocates in France at the beginning of this century, when the same attacks had been directed against the Gallican Church and its principles. The French clergy revolted in alarm, the great majority of the French Cardinals, Arch- bishops and Bishops issued a manifesto, which condemned these tactics in the most explicit terms. After having deplored the propagation of impious and infidel doctrines, the manifesto contained what follows : " Why should the success which the clergy had a right to expect be compromised by attacks, of another nature, it is true, but which still could not but arouse new dangers for the religion of the State ? Principles sanctioned by the Church of France are openly denounced as injurious to the rlivine constitution of the Catholic Church, as the work of schism and heresy, as a proclamation of political atheism. But that which astonishes and afflicts us most is the obstinacy with which it is sought to revive an old opinion of ancient times, conceived in the midst of the anarchy and confusion which were prevailing in Europe, — an opinion which has constantly been rejected by the French RViNES CLERIC ALES 29 Clergy, and had fallen into complete oblivion. Tliis opinion is that the authority of the Sovereign remains subject to the spiritual power, even to the point of freeing subjects from the oath of allegiance. In consequence of this, we, the undersigned Cardi- nals, Archbishops, and Bishops, declare that we owe it to France, to the divine ministry, that has been entrusted to us, and to the true interests of religion in the different Christian centres, to proclaim that we repu Mate the terms that have been employed to tarnish and dishonor the principles and the memory of our predecessors in the Episcopate, and that we preserve inviolate the doctrines that they have trans- mitted to us on the rights of Sovereigns, and their complete and absolute independence, in temporal matters, of all ecclesiastical power, direct or indirect." Notwithstanding these protestations the ultra- montane school continued its work — the Jesuits assured themselves of their superior weight, and persisted in their war against liberal ideas. In France they had attained the summit of their power under the pontificate of Pius IX, when Louis Veuillot was their mouth-pieco. France, finding her- solf in a position of legitimate defence, and obliged to escape from despotism and ecclesiastical domina- tion, once more expelled the Jesuits. This measure which at the time made so much noise, and has been impudently taken advantage of in Canada, was perhaps wrong in being too general : but strong action was evidently needed, for, without this, the fate of republican and democratic institutiohs was sealed. Montalembert, Mgr Dupanloup,and all the enlight- ened and liberal Catholics had* been denounced as worse than infidels. Veuillot, the most violent, brutal, and fanatical writer of modern times, — a man who denounced and attacked all scientific pro- gress — was proclaimed by the Jesuits to be the only true propagator of Christian ideas. ;■ I 30 AU PAYS DES RUINES With the aim of arriving at the diffusion of their ideas beyond the circle of their own pupils, and of reaching the people in general, the Jesuits formed a pretended debating society or club, under the name of the Catholic Union, which was intended to enli.st all the young people who professed the true Catholic principles. Every boy who knew how to read and write was requested to join the association, and for months and years, Jesuits w^' . to be met diving into every place, offices and sb ops alike, with the view of enlisting members for ^.his society, which naturally soon assumed large propor- tions. When it was incorporated, each of the mem- bers became a devoted worker in the interests of the association, and of the Jesuits who directed it. A Jesuit was President, and was present at each oi the meetings : no debate was allowed except upon subjects which had been previously submitted for consideration, and the arguments to be employed on the points of discussion were communicated and examined in advance, so that orthodoxy was always triumphant. At last, a journal, the Nouveau- Monde, was founded to extol the aims of the Society. This organ, which, of course, was directed by the Jesuits, engaged in a constant and pitiless war against everything which bore the name of liberal or Gal- ilean. It was a short time after the hatching of this combination that the Institut-Canadien was excommunicated. The Guibord trouble, of which we speak elsewhere, accomplished the destruction of the best library, and of the most useful French literary institution that has ever existed in Montreal. Its members, consisting, almost exclusively, of French Canadians, were ostracized, and threatened with excommunication. They were put under the ban of their families, and finally compelled to give in, and to submit, at any rate in appearance, to this tyrannical despotism. RUINES CLERIC ALES 3i The clergy throughout the whole Province fol- lowed the same line of conduct and became the faithful followers, if not the enthusiastic advocates, of this programme. All the members of the liberal professions were obliged to bend their heads to the yoke, and to enter the ranks of this new faction, under the penalty of losing their means of subsis- tence. The most violent and better discourses were everywhere preached against liberal ideas, until at last the people were convinced that religion and liberal political principles were irreconcilable things. In order that some idea may be formed of the violent struggle undertaken by the friends of the Jesuits, who were driven wild by the ultramontane propaganda, we think it will be a curiosity to re- produce here an article which appeared in 1872, when in the town of Three Rivers, the centre of the anti-gallican, anti-modern, and anti-liberal cam- paign, the D^silets took possession of the Journal des Trois-RivQves to anathematize at their ease all the opponents of ttie famous programme. This document, which made much noise at the time, translates under a biblical form the insolent pre- tensions of the lay clique that undertook to reform, at its will, and for its own benefit, the catholic reli- gion in the Province of Quebec. Here is the text of this article, now rarely to be met with, which is entitled : " The first Epistle of Aoimeluch to the Trifluvians." The fictitious names are sufficiently transparent for men who have followed the political history of tlie last twenty years to recognize at once the per- sons who are represented. I -1!' 32 AU PAYS DES R VINES First Epistle of Abimelaeii to tlie Trifluvians. At that time the Spirit of Darkness had enveloped all the country of Jonathan, and a great portion of the country of Stadacona and Hochelaga ; and there remained only a small group aroud the town of the Trifluvians. God resolved to take vengeance on his people ; accordingly, he caused war to burst forth, along with plague, famine and other scourges. A great black- ness, that lasted for three days, covered the valley of the St. Lawrence ; many perished, but the hardened people did not repent.. " Do penance," cried the prophet Magloire ; " if ye repent not," repeated Masson, the magi- cian, "ye shall all perish." But the people remained deaf, and refused to recognize in this chastisement the hand of God." All sorts of errors had taken root in these hardened hearts, and their blindness was at its climax. The great men of the land, the ministers, the doctors of the law, and even the people, adopted impious and destructive doctrii^es which flattered their passions and their tastes. The higher clergy suffered themselves to be drawn into the vortex where everything must inevitably be swal- lowed up. The most gross and immoral errors consti- tuted law everywhere ; anti-programmism, Pallicanism, progressivism, and moderantism were the order of the day. The number of true believers had become so small, that fear was entertained that God, repenting of having created man, would annihilate his work. Nevertheless, in consideration of a few faithful ones in the district of Three- Rivers, he made a last trial. There was then living on the banks of the St-Law- rence, in a modest hamlet of the village of Cape Made- leine, the holy man, Luke, a true Christian after God's own heart, gentle in heart and mind. He had been pu- rified by the rudest experiences, like the holy man Job' in old times. All kinds of moral, physical and mental maladies had, in their turn, undermined his delicate or- ganization, without ever shaking his faith. L. RUINES CLEBICALES 33 God sent him His angel, while he was asleep. All of a sudden the room was filled with light, and the angel of the Lord cried to him. " Luke ! Luke ! Luke ! where art thou 1 " But Luke did not hear him. Then, the an- gel, shaking Luke on the side, awakened him, and said to him : " O Luke, thou art Luke, and by thee there shall be (Lux) light, for God hath chosen thee to enlighten his people." Luke said : " Lord ! thou honorest faith- fully those who love thee : Thou givest them great power." " Arise quickly," replied the angel, " and fol- low me. Leave behind thy crook and thy flock, put on thy cap and thy boots ; thy breeches and thy hood." Luke followed the angel, quickly crossing the moun> tains and passing over the hills, like a roebuck or & fawn : and when they had reached the town, the angel showed him a door, and vanished. Luke entered, and at the same instant the whole assembly, that was united in prayer, bowed to him saying : " Hie est Luc, et lux erW* There, there were gathered together, Gideon, son of D^silets, Alfred, son of the same, Magloire of the tribe of MacLeod, and Philip, called Masson and surnamed the Magician. All were clothed in white robes, and held palms in their hands. Luke lifted up his voice, and said to them. " The Lord hath spoken to me by his an- gel, and has entrusted to me the mission of regenera- ting his people. Praise ye the Lord ! " The servants of God bowed done again, and said : " We will aid your efforts, O Luke ! Alleluia ! Alleluia ! " Then Luke resumed : ** I have found Gideon and Alfred my servants, and I have anointed them with my oil. My pen shall aid them, and my unction shall strengthen them. Leave behind legal papers and old books ! He who does not take his pen and follow me is not worthy of me. Every one must be at his post, night and day on watch, for the enemies are numerous and bold, and we must distrust their wiles. There is nothing hidden which must not be revealed, and noth- ing secret which must not be known. Tell in full day that which I tell you in darkness, and preach on the rr^ 84 AU PAYS IJES RUINES I;. 'i.-'i^ house-tops whatever shall have been whispered in your ear. Fear not the wiched : the spirit which strength- nes me shall accompany you. In place of the torch which illumines, take the torch which burns ; oppose vi- gorously, and by all means in your power, those impious doctrines which are called gallicanism, anti-programmism and progressivism. Protect property against the usurpers, who wish to seize upon everything in the name of the majority ; say to the vapor, thus far thou shalt go, and no farther ! Behold on all sides those masses of smoke which whirl in the air, and those complicated machines invented by the spirit of evil. The worship of matter, under the name of progress, contracts every day the ranks of the true disciples of the Gospel. Each one wishes to have a share of that vile metal which is called gold, and in order •to procure it, people burrow into the very entrails of the earth. Each one thinks that he has shining in him the light which he calls reason. Let us cause the true light to shine ; let us tell them that this light must be subject to us, and that, in order not to lead them into error, it must be kindled at the light which has been trans- mitted to you from above. I have marked for your ven- geance those shameless men. who are named Cauchon, G^rin, David, Turcotte, Emile Rousseau , those minis- ters of the Glrospel who make common cause with error; and that Umversity of Laval, the den in which mode- A rantism and tolerantism are born." Thus spoke Luke ; and his face was lighted up, and rapt in ecstasy. Then, questioning his disciples, he asked of them : "Who say ye that I am?" Masson, called the magician, having risen, said : " Some say that you are not a prophet, others that you are only Luke." Magloire, of the tribe of MacLeod, taking up his para- ble, said : " You are Luke, son of D^silets, shepherd of the Souls of Cape Madeleine, and the light of the Most High is in you. The timid dove of Cape Madeleine shall destroy the ravenous crows of Cape Diamond." " You are happy, Magloire, to have believed in me, and mar./ sins shall, therefore, be forgiven you. Rejoice, let your gladness break forth, for a great reward is pre- pared for you in the County of St. Maurice." RUINES CLERICALES Alfred, Son of D^silets, rose and said : *' O Luke, the spirit of good which inspires you strengthens me, and gives me courage to overcome the greatest dangers. I have been tried like gold in the furnace — I have been sacrificed like a victim in a holocaust. I expected to go to my friends, and they have not received me. I wished them to listen to the; counsels of wisdom, and they re- jected me. Nevertheless, armed with strength, J will break through all obstacles — the gates will be opened before me — the light will appear — and justice will shine forth, like the sparks which consume the reeds." *' And I," said Gideon, the Son of the same man, '' will take boldness as my breastplate ; my infallible judc^ment as my helmet, and my brother Luke as my buckler." Then Luke, raising his eyes, said : " As nothing common or unclean should find place amongst us, it is necessary that each one of us should confess his faults. As for you, Gideon, Son of D^silets, and Alfred, Son of the same, your past history is known to me, but I am ignorant of that of Magloire." At this unexpected question, Magloire, of the tribe of MacLeod, stammered some unintelligible words : I re- member that near a river that there was flowing by, — the desire — the opportunity." — Then recovering himself with firmness, he said, " O Luke ! my master, I was purified in the waters of the Gatineau." Luke replied : " Come, brother Magloire, recollect the time when, after having been baptized in the waters of the Gatineau, you encountered great conflicts amid many deceptions, saw your subsidies carried away forcibly, and your hopes deceived ; but do not lose confidence, for your reward is not of this world." Luke, turning to his disciple Philip, named Masson, and sumamed the Magician, said : " If any one will come with me, let him renounce himself, let him share our burden, and let him follow us. He who would save his reward shall lose it, and he who would lose his reward for the love of nie, shall find it again in the kingdom of heaven. My dearest Philip, do not abandon us ; you ask for a reward, but do you not know that any remuneration will cause you to lose the merit of your works ? Man d6 ^1 U PA YS DES RUINES ♦ does not live by bread alone. Besides, the proprietorship of the Journal des Trois- Rivieres belongs to us, and a property is a sacred thing. Would you believe, then, that property is theft ? My brother Alfred will not give any salary. Gideon and myself cannot force his will. There is nothing legal without unanimous con- sent ; you ought to understand me better, and you appeal to me upon these particular points." Masson, leaning towards Magloire, said : " I am much afraid that one day, Gideon, (I tell you it to you quite low) will throw me clear overboard. But let us not anticipate." " Enough has already been done," said Magloire. "They have chiselled you, and you may believe me." Gideon, son of D^silets, whom his perfect experience marked out for authority, arose and said : " Let your loins be girded up, and your lamps lighted in your hands. Take with you your cymbals, your lanterns, and your old books. The hour has come." Then he prepared the attack, and distributed the trumpets, and the torches enclosed in large earthen vessels. The impetuous Alfred took his old books. At a given signal all broke their earthen vessels, sounded their trumpets, rang their little bells, and called out, " The sword of Gideon ! " Then, Peter, the notary of the tribe of the D^silets, hearing this great noise, and believing his well-beloved Gideon to be in danger, unsheathed his valiant sword, and ran to his aid. Near the door there came up G^rin, the anti-programmatist, of the race of the Midianites, and the enemy of his race. Peter, before this formidable enemy did not hesitate, but brandished his sword close to the ear of G^rin, who called out to him in a stento- rian voice : " Little Peter, put up again thy sword into its place." (Mathew : XXVI, 52.) "Abimeluch." The Land of the Midianites, 25th of March, 1872. The Jesuits, with all this influence, offered their support to the political powers of the time, and it nUINES CLERIC ALES ^ ^ ^^'as naturally accepted without even any discussion of the conditions. Besides threats, they knew how to offer to a young man, however independent he might be, seductions that were almost irresistible. Every individual, however incapable he might be, who passively submitted to their influence, and consented to become their servant, was lauded to the skies, and proclaimed an inborn legislator. With the influence which the society possessed over the whole population, it was easy to find constituencies (|uite ready to accept their favorites, and forthwith each cur6 became an intriguer for the Jesuits, in the pulpit, or in the confessional. The control of the order over many families was unlimited. Every time tliat there was a rich heiress to be settled in life, they had immediately among their pupils a candi- date to ofler who would ensure the happiness of tlie two parties. It was thus that they secured for themselves the gratitude of the happy couple, and a guarantee for the future of still more effective sup- port. The Jesuits at the same time published that famous pamphlet entitled : La source du mal, the object and result of which were to gain the unanim- ous and servile vote of the representatives of the J^rovince of Quebec for the success of their plans, and it may easily be conceived that supported by the solid vote of sixty-five Canadians in the Commons, any political man whatever, of even moderate intel- ligence, could direct the destinies and legislation of Canada. When Sir Georges Cartier saw that it was time for him to oppose this dictatorial power, he opposed the wishes of Bishoo Bourget with regard to the dismemberment of the parish of Montreal. The Avhole system was violently shaken, but the Jesuits took care not to yield, ana organized the struggle to annihilate this intruder. The fact is that in an underhand way they employed against him all the w \ i i 38 AU PAYS DES BUINES weapons that they could handle, even those of liberalism ; and the electoral defeat that terminated the political career and existence of this powerful statesman was in a large measure due to their management. If we study the influence of the Jesuits on the elementary education of the people we find the same disastrous results. Until the time of their arrival in the country, we had free schools and colleges, professing doctrines that were comi^r- atively liberal. Our parishes were under the direc- tion of an entirely national clergy, in harmony with the feelings of the people, and desirous of assuring them the advantages of a good substantial education. The priests of the parishes were well educated, had the means of living comfortably, were in general independent, and did not fear to express their opinions to their Bishop. Here was a serious difficulty to overcome, but Bishop Bourg^et, inspired by thv^ Jesuits, suggested a very simple system ; and the parishes were subdivided. Every priest who showed the slightest sign of independ- ence was immediately removed and deprived of the means of subsistence, each subdivision of the parishes naturally impoverishing the cur6 who depended on their revenues for existence. The cur6 in consequence became entirely the slave of the Bishop's will. The parishioners were called upon to build at great expense new churches, for which the clergy had the right to levy taxes on the real estate of the parish. The plans had to be sub- mitted to the Bishop, and the poorest class of the population was compelled to pay for the most extravagant buildings. When the dismembered portions of the old parishes had built these imposing churches, the ecclesiastical authorities immediately condemned as inadequate and unsuitable the churches which re- \ liUINES CLERIC ALES mained in the old portions of the parishes. Although the majority of the parishioners or freeholders ha