“My dear Chiniquy,” answered Mr. Brassard, “did I not tell you, when you bought the Holy Fathers, that you were doing a foolish and dangerous thing? In every age, the man who singularises himself and walks out of the common tracks of life is subject to fall into ridicule. As you are the only priest in Canada who has the Holy Fathers, it is thought and said in many quarters, that it is through pride you got them; that it is to raise yourself above the rest of the clergy, that you study them, not only at home, but that you carry some wherever you go. I see with regret, that you are fast losing ground in the mind, not only of the bishop, but of the priests in general, on account of your indomitable perseverance in giving all your spare time in their study. You are also too free and imprudent in speaking of what you call the contradictions of the Holy Fathers, and their want of harmony with some of our religious views. Many say that this too great application to study, without a moment of relaxation, will upset your intelligence and trouble your mind. They even whisper that there is danger ahead for your faith, which you do not suspect, and that they would not be surprised if the reading of the Bible and the Holy Fathers would drive you into the abyss of Protestantism. I know that that they are mistaken, and I do all in my power to defend you. But, I thought, as your most devoted friend, that it was my duty to tell you those things, and warn you before it is too late.”
I replied: “Bishop Prince told me the very same things, and I will give you the answer he got from me; ‘When you ordain a priest, do you not make him swear that he will never interpret the Holy Scriptures, except according to the unanimous consent of the Holy Fathers? Ought you not, then, to know what they teach? For, how can we know their unanimous consent without studying them. Is it not more than strange that not only the priests do not study the Holy Fathers, but the only one in Canada who is trying to study them, is turned into ridicule and suspected of heresy? Is it my fault if that precious stone, called 'unanimous consent of the Holy Fathers’ which is the very foundation of our religious belief and teachings, is to be found nowhere in them? Is it my fault if Origen never believed in the eternal punishment of the damned; if St. Cyprien denied the supreme authority of the Bishop of Rome, if St. Augustine positively said that nobody was obliged to believe in purgatory, if St. John Chrysostom publicly denied the obligations of auricular confession, and the real presence of the body of Christ in the eucharist? Is it my fault if one of the most learned and holy Popes, Gregory the Great, has called by the name of Antichrist, all his successors, for taking the name of supreme pontiff, and trying to persuade the world that they had, by divine authority, a supreme jurisdiction and power over the rest of the church?’”
“And what did Bishop Prince answer you?” rejoined Mr. Brassard.
“Just as you did, by expressing his fears that my too great application to the study of the Bible and the Holy Fathers would either send me to the lunatic asylum, or drive me into the bottomless abyss of Protestantism.”
I answered him, in a jocose way: “that if the too great study of the Bible and the Holy Fathers were to open me the gates of the lunatic asylum, I feared I would be left alone there, for I know that they are keeping themselves at a respectable distance from those dangerous writings.” I added seriously. “So long as God keeps my intelligence sound, I cannot join Protestants, for the numberless and ridiculous sects of these heretics are a sure antidote against their poisonous errors. I will not remain a good Catholic on account of the unanimity of the Holy Fathers, which does not exist, but I will remain a Catholic on account of the grand and visible unanimity of the prophets, apostles and the evangelists, with Jesus Christ. My faith will not be founded upon the fallible, obscure and wavering words of Origen, Tertullian, Chrysostom, Augustine or Jerome; but on the infallible word of Jesus, the Son of God, and His inspired writers; Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter, James and Paul. It is Jesus, not Origen who will now guide me; for the second was a sinner, like myself, and the first is forever my Saviour and my God. I know enough of the Holy Fathers to assure your lordship that the oath we take accepting the Word of God according to their unanimous consent, is a miserable blunder, if not a blasphemous perjury. It is evident that Pius IV., who imposed the obligation of that oath upon us all, never read a single volume of the Holy Fathers. He would not have been guilty of such an incredible blunder, if he had known that the Holy Fathers are unanimous in only one thing, which is to differ from each other on almost everything; except we suppose that, like the last Pope, he was too fond of good champagne, and that he wrote that ordinance after a luxurious dinner.”
I spoke this last sentence in a half-serious and half-joking way.
The bishop answered: “Who told you that about our last Pope?”
“Your lordship,” I answered, “told me that, when you complimented me on the apostolical benediction which the present Pope sent me through my Lord Baillargeon, ‘that his predecessor would not have given me his benediction for preaching temperance because he was too fond of wine!’”
“Oh yes! yes! I remember it now,” answered the bishop. “But it was a bad joke on my part, which I regret.”
“Good or bad joke,” I replied, “It is not the less the fact, that our last Pope was too fond of wine. There is not a single priest of Canada who has gone to Rome, without bringing that back as a public fact, from Italy.”