Mr. _Samuel B. Smith_, who has been not only a Roman Priest, but has
had several _cages of nuns_ under his sole management, questioned Maria
Monk expressly respecting those affairs, customs and ceremonies, which
appertain only to nunneries, because they cannot be practiced by any
other females but those who are shut up in those dungeons; and, after
having minutely examined her, he plainly averred that it was manifest
she could not have known the things which she communicated to him
unless she had been a nun; not merely a scholar, or a temporary
resident, or even a novice, but a nun, who had taken the veil, in the
strictest sense of the appellative. This testimony is of the more
value, because the conclusion does not depend upon any conflicting
statements, of partial or prejudicial witnesses, but upon a fact which
is essential to the system of monachism; that no persons can know all
the secrets of nunneries, but the Chaplain, the Abbess, and their
accomplices in that "mystery of iniquity." Mr. Smith's declaration in
one other respect is absolutely decisive. He has declared not only that
Maria Monk has been a nun, but also that the descriptions which she
gives are most minutely accurate.
Mr. Smith also testifies that the account which Maria Monk gives of the
proceedings of the priests, the obscene questions which they ask young
females, and their lewd practices with them at auricular confession,
are constantly exemplified by the Roman Priests; and he also confirms
her statements, by the testimony of his own individual experience, and
actual personal acquaintance with the Canadian nunneries, as well as
with those in the United States, and especially of that at Monroe,
Michigan, which was dissolved by Mr. Fenwick, on account of scandalous
impurity, several years ago.
Mrs. ----, a widow lady now in New York, who formerly was a Papist in
Montreal, and was recently converted to Christianity, solemnly avers,
that the Priest Richards himself, conducted her from the Seminary
through the subterraneous passage to the nunnery, and describes the
whole exactly in accordance with the statement of Maria Monk.
_Mr. Lloyd_, who was in business a number of years adjacent to the
nunnery, and who is intimately acquainted with those priests, their
characters, principles, and habits, avows his unqualified conviction of
the truth of the "Awful Disclosures."
_Mr. Hogan_, who was eighteen months in the Jesuit Seminary at
Montreal, and in constant intercourse and attendance upon Lartigue and
his accomplices, unequivocally affirms, that Maria Monk's complex
description of those Priests are most minutely and accurately true.
One hundred other persons probably can be adduced, who, during their
residence in Canada, or on their tours to that province, by inquiries
ascertained that things in accordance with Maria Monk's delineations
are the undoubted belief of each class of persons, and of every variety
of condition, and in all places which they visited in Lower Canada.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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