My task is now to tell my readers, how the God of Truth, and Light and Life, broke, one after another, all the charmed bonds by which I was kept a slave at the feet of the Pope; and how He opened my eyes, and those of my people, to the unsuspected and untold abominations of Romanism.
Chapter LI.
INTRIGUES, IMPOSTURES, AND CRIMINAL LIFE OF THE PRIEST IN BOURBONNAIS—INDIGNATION OF THE BISHOP—THE PEOPLE IGNOMINIOUSLY TURN OUT THE CRIMINAL PRIEST FROM THEIR PARISH—FRIGHTFUL SCANDAL—FAITH IN THE CHURCH OF ROME SERIOUSLY SHAKEN.
“Please accompany me to Bourbonnais; I have to confer with you and the Rev. Mr. Courjeault, on important matters,” said the bishop, half an hour before leaving St. Anne, after having blessed the chapel.
“I intended, my lord, to ask your lordship to grant me that honor, before you offered it,” I answered.
Two hours of good driving took us to the parsonage of the Rev. Mr. Courjeault, who had prepared a sumptuous dinner, to which several of the principal citizens of Bourbonnais had been invited.
When all the guests had departed, and the bishop, Mr. Courjeault, and I, were alone, he drew from his trunk, a bundle of weekly papers of Montreal, Canada, in which several letters, very insulting and compromising for the bishop, were published, signed R. L. C. Showing them to me, he said:
“Mr. Chiniquy, can I know the reason you had for writing such insulting things against your bishop?”
“My lord,” I answered. “I have no words to express my surprise and indignation, when I read those letters. But, thanks be to God, I am not the author of those infamous writings. I would rather have my right hand cut off, than to allow it to pen such false and perfidious things against you, or any one else.”
“Do you assure me that you are not the writer of the letters? Are you positive in that denegation; and do you know the contents of these lying communications?” replied the Bishop.