I finished, at the College of Nicolet,
in the month of August, 1829, my classical course of study which I had begun
in 1822. I could easily have learned in three or four years what was taught
in these seven years.
It took us three years to study the Latin grammar, when twelve months would
have sufficed for all we learned of it. It is true that during that time we
were taught some of the rudiments of the French grammar, with the elements of
arithmetic and geography. But all this was so superficial, that our teachers
often seemed more desirous to pass away our time than to enlarge our understandings.
I can say the same thing of the Belles Letters and of rhetoric, which we studied
two years. A year of earnest study would have sufficed to learn what was taught
us during these twenty-four months. As for the two years devoted to the study
of logic, and of the subjects classed under the name of philosophy, it would
not have been too long a time if those questions of philosophy had been honestly
given us. But the student in the college of the Church of Rome is condemned
to the torments of Tantalus. He has, indeed, the refreshing waters of Science
put to his lips, but he is constantly prevented from tasting them. To enlarge
and seriously cultivate the intelligence in a Roman Catholic college is a thing
absolutely out of the question. More than that, all the efforts of the principals
in their colleges and convents tend to prove to the pupil that his intelligence
is his greatest and most dangerous enemy that it is like an untamable animal,
which must constantly be kept in chains. Every day the scholar is told that
his reason was not given him that he might be guided by it, but only that he
may know the hand of the man by whom he must be guided. And that hand is none
other than the Pope's. All the resources of language, all the most ingenious
sophisms, all the passages of both the Fathers and the Holy Scriptures bearing
on this question are arranged and perverted with inconceivable art to demonstrate
to the pupil that his reason has no power to teach him anything else than that
it must be subjected to the Supreme Pontiff of Rome, who is the only foundation
of truth and light given by God to guide the intelligence and to enlighten and
save the world.
Rome, in her colleges and convents, brings up, or raises up, the youth from
their earliest years; but to what height does she permit the young man or woman
to be raised? Never higher than the feet of the Pope!! As soon as his intelligence,
guided by the Jesuit, has ascended to the feet of the Pope, it must remain there,
prostrate itself and fall asleep.
The Pope! That is the great object towards which all the intelligence of the
Roman Catholics must be converged. It is the sun of the world, the foundation
and the only support of Christian knowledge and civilization.
What a privilege it is to be lazy, stupid, and sluggish in a college of Rome!
How soon such an one gets to the summit of science, and becomes master of all
knowledge. One needs only to kiss the feet of the Pope, and fall into a perfect
slumber there! The Pope thinks for him! It is he (the Pope) who will tell him
what he can and should think, and what he can and should believe!
I had arrived at that degree of perfection at the end of my studies, and J.B.
Barthe, Esq., M.P.P., being editor of one of the principal papers of Montreal
in 1844, could write in his paper when my "Manual of Temperance" was
published: "Mr. Chiniquy has crowned his apostleship of temperance by that
work, with that ardent and holy ambition of character of which he gave us so
many tokens in his collegiate life, where we have been so many years the witness
of his piety, when he was the model of his fellow-students, who had called him
the Louis de Gonzague of Nicolet."
These words of the Montreal Member of Parliament mean only that, wishing to
be saved as St. Louis de Gonzague, I had blindly tied myself to the feet of
my superiors.
I had, as much as possible, extinguished all the enlightenments of my own mind
to follow the reason and the will of my superiors. These compliments mean that
I was walking like a blind man whom his guide holds by the hand.
Though my intelligence often revolted against the fables with which I was nurtured,
I yet forced myself to accept them as gospel truths; and though I often rebelled
against the ridiculous sophisms which were babbled to me as the only principles
of truth and Christian philosophy, yet as often did I impose silence on my reason,
and force it to submit to the falsehoods which I was obliged to take for God's
truth! But, as I have just confessed it, notwithstanding my goodwill to submit
to my superiors, there were times of terrible struggle in my soul, when all
the powers of my mind seemed to revolt against the degrading fetters which I
was forced to forge for myself.
I shall never forget the day when, in the following terms, I expressed to my
Professor of Philosophy, the Rev. Charles Harper, doubts which I had conceived
concerning the absolute necessity of the inferior to submit his reason to his
superior. "When I shall have completely bound myself to obey my superior,
if he abuses his authority over me to deceive me by false doctrines, or if he
commands me to do things which I consider wrong and dishonest, shall I not be
lost if I obey him?"
He answered: "You will never have to give an account to God for the actions
that you do by the order of your legitimate superiors. If they were to deceive
you, being themselves deceived, they alone would be responsible for the error
which you would have committed. Your sin would not be imputed to you as long
as you follow the golden rule which is the base of all Christian philosophy
and perfection humility and obedience!"
Little satisfied with that answer, when the lesson was over I expressed my reluctance
to accept such principles to several of my fellow-students. Among them was Joseph
Turcot, who died some years ago when, I think, he was Minister of Public Works
in Canada.
He answered me: "The more I study what they call their principles of Christian
philosophy and logic, the more I think that they intend to make asses of every
one of us!"
On the following day I opened my heart to the venerable man who was our principal
the Rev. Mr. Leprohon. I used to venerate him as a saint and to love him as
a father. I frankly told him that I felt very reluctant in submitting myself
to the crude principles which seemed to lead us into the most abject slavery,
the slavery of our reason and intelligence. I wrote down his answer, which I
give here:
"My dear Chiniquy, how did Adam and Eve lose themselves in the Garden of
Eden, and how did they bring upon us all the deluge of evils by which we are
overwhelmed? Is it not because they raised their miserable reason above that
of God? They had the promise of eternal life if they had submitted their reason
to that of their Supreme Master.They were lost on account of their rebelling
against the authority, the reason of God. Thus it is today. All the evils, the
errors, the crimes by which the world is over flooded come from the same revolt
of the human will and reason against the will and reason of God. God reigns
yet over a part of the world, the world of the elect, through the Pope, who
controls the teachings of our infallible and holy Church. In submitting ourselves
to God, who speaks to us through the Pope, we are saved. We walk in the paths
of truth and holiness. But we would err, and infallibly perish, as soon as we
put our reason above that of our superior, the Pope, speaking to us in person,
or through some of our superiors who have received from him the authority to
guide us."
"But," said I, "if my reason tells me that the Pope, or some
of those other superiors who are put by him over me, are mistaken, and that
they command me something wrong, would I not be guilty before God if I obey
them?"
"You suppose a thing utterly impossible," answered Mr. Leprohon, "for
the Pope and the bishops who are united to him have the promise of never failing
in the faith. They cannot lead you into any errors, nor command you to believe
or do something contrary to the teachings of the Gospel, God would not ask of
you any account of an error committed when you are obeying your legitimate superior."
I had to content myself with that answer, which I put down word for word in
my note-book. But in spite of my respectful silence, the Rev. Mr. Leprohon saw
that I was yet uneasy and sad. In order to convince me of the orthodoxy of his
doctrines, he instantly put into my hands the two works of De Maistre, "Le
Pape" and "Les Soirees de St. Petersburgh," where I found the
same doctrines supported. My superior was honest in his convictions. He sincerely
believed in the sound philosophy and Christianity of his principles, for he
had found them in these books approved by the "infallible Popes."
I will mention another occurrence to show the inconceivable intellectual degradation
to which we had been dragged at the end of seven years of collegiate studies.
About the year 1829 the curate of St. Anne de la Parade wrote to our principal,
Rev. Mr. Leprohon, to ask the assistance of the prayers of all the students
of the College of Nicolet in order to obtain the discontinuance of the following
calamity: "For more than three weeks one of the most respectable farmers
was in danger of losing all his horses from the effects of a sorcery! From morning,
and during most of the night, repeated blows of whips and sticks were heard
falling upon these poor horses, which were trembling, foaming and struggling!
We can see nothing! The hand of the wizard remains invisible. Pray for us, that
we may discover the monster, and that he may be punished as he deserves."
Such were the contents of the priest's letter; and as my superior sincerely
believed in that fable I also believed it, as well as all the students of the
college who had a true piety. On that shore of abject and degrading superstitions
I had to land after sailing seven years in the bark called a college of the
Church of Rome!
The intellectual part of the studies in a college of Rome, and it is the same
in a convent, is therefore entirely worthless. Worse than that, the intelligence
is dwarfed under the chains by which it is bound. If the intelligence does sometimes
advance, it is in spite of the fetters placed upon it; it is only like some
few noble ships which, through the extraordinary skill of their pilots, go ahead
against wind and tide.
I know that the priests of Rome can show a certain number of intelligent men
in every branch of science who have studied in their colleges. But these remarkable
men had from the beginning secretly broken for themselves the chains with which
their superiors had tried to bind them. For peace' sake they had outwardly followed
the rules of the house, but they had secretly trampled under the feet of their
noble souls the ignoble fetters which had been prepared for their understanding.
True children of God and light, they had found the secret of remaining free
even when in the dark cells of a dungeon!
Give me the names of the remarkable and intelligent men who have studied in
a college of Rome, and have become real lights in the firmament of science,
and I will prove that nine-tenths of them have been persecuted, excommunicated,
tortured, some even put to death for having to think for themselves.
Galileo was a Roman Catholic, and he is surely one of the greatest men whom
science claims as her most gifted sons. But was he not sent to a dungeon? Was
he not publicly flogged by the hands of the executioner? Had he not to ask pardon
from God and man for having dared to think differently from the Pope about the
motion of the earth around the sun!
Copernicus was surely one of the greatest lights of his time, but was he not
censured and excommunicated for his admirable scientific discoveries?
France does not know any greater genius among her most gifted sons than Pascal.
He was a Catholic. But he lived and died excommunicated.
The Church of Rome boasts of Bossuet, the Bishop of Meaux, as one of the greatest
men she ever had. Yes; but has not Veuillot, the editor of the Univers, who
knows his man well, confessed and declared before the world that Bossuet was
a disguised Protestant?
Where can we find a more amiable or learned writer than Montalembert, who has
so faithfully and bravely fought the battle of the Church of Rome in France
during more than a quarter of a century? But has he not publicly declared on
his death-bed that that Church was an apostate and idolatrous Church from the
day that she proclaimed the dogma of the Infallibility of the Pope? Has he not
virtually died an excommunicated man for having said with his last breath that
the Pope was nothing else than a false god?
Those pupils of Roman Catholic colleges of whom sometimes the priests so imprudently
boast, have gone out from the hands of their Jesuit teachers to proclaim their
supreme contempt for the Roman Catholic priesthood and Papacy. They have been
near enough to the priest to know him. They have seen with their own eyes that
the priest of Rome is the most dangerous, the most implacable enemy of intelligence,
progress and liberty; and if their arm be not paralyzed by cowardice, selfishness,
or hypocrisy, those pupils of the colleges of Rome will be the first to denounce
the priesthood of Rome and demolish her citadels.
Voltaire studied in a Roman Catholic college, and it was probably when at their
school he nerved himself for the terrible battle he has fought against Rome.
That Church will never recover from the blow which Voltaire has struck at her
in France.
Cavour, in Italy, had studied in a Roman Catholic college also, and under that
very roof it is more than probable that his noble intelligence had sworn to
break the ignominious fetters with which Rome had enslaved his fair country.
The most eloquent of the orators of Spain, Castelar, studied in a Roman Catholic
college; but hear with what eloquence he denounces the tyranny, hypocrisy, selfishness
and ignorance of the priests.
Papineau studied under the priests of Rome in their college at Montreal. From
his earliest years that Eagle of Canada could see and know the priests of Rome
as they are; he has weighed them in the balance; he has measured them; he has
fathomed the dark recesses of their anti-social principles; he has felt his
shoulders wounded and bleeding under the ignominious chains with which they
dragged our dear Canada in the mire for nearly two centuries. Papineau was a
pupil of the priests; and I have heard several priests boasting of that as a
glorious thing. But the echoes of Canada are still repeating the thundering
words with which Papineau denounced the priests as the most deadly enemies of
the education and liberty of Canada! He was one of the first men of Canada to
understand that there was no progress, no liberty possible for our beloved country
so long as the priests would have the education of our people in their hands.
The whole life of Papineau was a struggle to wrest Canada from their grasp.
Everyone knows how he constantly branded them, without pity, during his life,
and the whole world has been the witness of the supreme contempt with which
he has refused their services, and turned them out at the solemn hour of his
death!
When, in 1792, France wanted to be free, she understood that the priests of
Rome were the greatest enemies of her liberties. She turned them out from her
soil or hung them to her gibbets. If today that noble country of our ancestors
is stumbling and struggling in her tears and her blood if she has fallen at
the feet of her enemies if her valiant arm has been paralyzed, her sword broken,
and her strong heart saddened above measure, is it not because she had most
imprudently put herself again under the yoke of Rome?
Canada's children will continue to flee from the country of their birth so long
as the priest of Rome holds the influence which is blasting everything that
falls within his grasp, on this continent as well as in Europe; and the United
States will soon see their most sacred institutions fall, one after the other,
if the Americans continue to send their sons and daughters to the Jesuit colleges
and nunneries.
When, in the warmest days of summer, you see a large swamp of stagnant and putrid
water, you are sure that deadly miasma will spread around, that diseases of
the most malignant character, poverty, sufferings of every kind, and death will
soon devastate the unfortunate country; so, when you see Roman Catholic colleges
and nunneries raising their haughty steeples over some commanding hills or in
the midst of some beautiful valleys, you may confidently expect that the self-respect
and the many virtues of the people will soon disappear intelligence, progress,
prosperity will soon wane away, to be replaced by superstition, idleness, drunkenness,
Sabbath-breaking, ignorance, poverty and degradation of every kind. The colleges
and nunneries are the high citadels from which the Pope darts his surest missiles
against the rights and liberties of nations. The colleges and nunneries are
the arsenals where the most deadly weapons are night and day prepared to fight
and destroy the soldiers of liberty all over the world.
The colleges and nunneries of the priests are the secret places where the enemies
of progress, equality and liberty are holding their councils and fomenting that
great conspiracy the object of which is to enslave the world at the feet of
the Pope.
The colleges and nunneries of Rome are the schools where the rising generations
are taught that it is an impiety to follow the dictates of their own conscience,
hear the voice of their intelligence, read the Word of God, and worship their
Creator according to the rules laid down in the Gospel.
It is in the colleges and nunneries of Rome that men learn that they are created
to obey the Pope in everything-- that the Bible must be burnt, and that liberty
must be destroyed at any cost all over the world.