And they began, seriously, to suspect that the great powers of the pope and his bishops were nothing but a sacrilegious usurpation. I was not long without seeing that the reading of the Holy Scriptures by my dear countrymen was changing them into other men.
Their minds were evidently enlarged and raised to higher spheres of thought. They were beginning to suspect that the heavy chains which were wounding their shoulders were preventing them from making progress in wealth, intelligence and liberty, as their more fortunate fellow-men, called Protestants.
This was not yet the bright light of the day, but it was the blessed dawn.
Chapter LII.
On the 20th of May, 1852, I received the following letter from Bishop Vandeveld:
Rev. Mr. Chiniquy.
My Dear Mr. Chiniquy:—The Rev. Mr. Courjeault is just returned from Bourbonnais, where he ought never to have gone back. He has told me of his complete failure and ignominious exit. I bitterly regret having allowed him to go there again. But he had so persuaded me that his criminal conduct with his servant girl was ignored by the people, that I had yielded to his request.
I feel that this new attempt, on his part, to impose himself on that honest people, has added to the enormity of his first scandal. I advise him now to go back to France, where he can more easily conceal his shame than in America. But one of the darkest features of that disgusting affair is that I am obliged to pay the $500 which the girl asked, in order to prevent Mr Courjeault from being dragged before the civil tribunal and sent to jail.
The malice of that priest against you has received its just reward. But my fear is that you have another implacable enemy here in Mr. Lebel, whose power to do evil is greater than Mr. Courjeault’s.
Before you began your great work of directing the flood of Roman Catholic emigration towards this country, to secure it to our holy church, he was in favor of that glorious scheme, but his jealousy against you has suddenly changed his mind.