The book of Mr. Jones was published, and consisted of affidavits, &c.,
obtained in Canada, including those which had previously been
published, and which are contained in the Appendix to this volume. Many
of them were signed by names unknown, or those of low persons of no
credit, or devoted to the service of the priests. Evidence was
afterwards obtained that Mr. Jones was paid by the Canadian
ecclesiastics, of which there had been strong indications. What
rendered his defeat highly important was, that he was the editor of
_L'Ami du Peuple_, the priests' newspaper, in Montreal, and he was "the
author of everything which had been written there against Maria Monk,"
and had collected all "the affidavits and testimony." These were his
own declarations. An accurate report of the interview was published,
and had its proper effect, especially his exclamation--"This is not
Fanny Johnson!"
The exciting controversy has long passed, but the authentic records of
it are imperishable, and will ever be regarded as an instructive study.
The corruptions and crimes of nunneries, and the hypocrisy and
chicanery of those who control them, with the varied and powerful means
at their command, are there displayed to an attentive reader, in colors
as dark and appalling as other features of the popish system are among
us, by the recent exposures of the impudent arrogance of the murderer
Bedini, and the ambitious and miserly spirit of his particular friend,
the Romish Archbishop of New York.
Among the recent corroborates of the "Awful Disclosures," may be
particularly mentioned the two narratives entitled "Coralla," and
"Confessions of a Sister of Charity," contained in the work issued this
season by the publishers of the present volume, viz.: "_The Escaped
Nun_; or, Disclosures of Convent Life," &c. Of the authenticity of
those two narratives we can give the public the strongest assurance.
After the city of Rome had been taken by siege by the French army, in
1849, the priests claimed possession of a female orphan-asylum, which
had something of the nature of a nunnery. The republican government had
given liberty to all recluses, and opened all _secret institutions_.
(When will Americans do the same?)
Subsequently, when the papists attempted to reinstate the old system,
the females remonstrated, barred the doors, and armed themselves with
knives and spits from the kitchen, but the French soldiers succeeded in
reducing them by force. During the contest the cry of the women was,
"We will not be the _wives_ of the priests!"
In one of the convents in that city, opened by the republicans, were
found evidences of some of the worst crimes mentioned by Maria Monk;
and in another were multitudes of bones, including those of children.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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