“Well, well!” answered the bishop, “let us drop that matter forever.”
He uttered this short sentence with such an evidence of sincerity and honesty, that I saw he really meant it. He had, at a glance, seen that his ground was untenable, in the presence of priests who knew their rights and had a mind to stand by them.
My joy was great indeed at such a prompt and complete victory. I again fell at the bishop’s feet and asked his benediction before taking leave of him. I then left to go and tell the curates and vicars the happy issue of my interview with the bishop of Montreal.
From that time till now, at the death of every priest, the Clerical Press never failed mentioning whether the deceased priest belonged to the “Three” or “One Mass Society.”
We had, to some extent, diminished the simoniacal and infamous trade in masses, but unfortunately we had not destroyed it; and I know that to-day it has revived. Since I left the Church of Rome, the bishops of Quebec have raised the “Three Mass Society” from its grave.
It is a public fact, that no priest dare deny, that the trade in masses is still conducted on a large scale with France. There are in Paris and other large cities in that country public agencies to carry on that shameful traffic. It is, generally, in the hands of booksellers or merchants of church ornaments. Every year their houses send a large number of prospectuses through France and Belgium and other Catholic countries, in which they say that, in order to help the priests, who having received money for their masses, don’t know where to have them said, they offer a premium of twenty-five or thirty per cent. to those who will send them the surplus of the money they have in hand, to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
The priests who have such surplus, tempted by that premium, which is usually paid with a watch or chain, or a chalice, disgorge a part or the whole of the large sums they possess into the hands of the pious merchants, who take this money and use it as they please.
But they never pay the masses in money, they give only merchandise. For instance, that priest will receive a watch if he promises to celebrate one or two hundred masses, or a chalice to celebrate three or four hundred masses. I have, here in hand, several of the contracts or promissory notes sent by those merchants of masses to the priests. The public will, no doubt, read the following documents with interest. They were handed me by a priest lately converted from the Church of Rome:
Rue de Reimes—Paris.
Ant. Levesques, editor of the works of Mr. Dufriche—Desgenettes. Cure of Notre Dame des Victoires.