Description

Author: Charles Chiniquy

As a child, Chiniquy memorized scriptures at his mother's knee and developed a deep love for God. Becoming a priest, he wanted desperately to place full trust in his "church", but was hit by waves of doubt as his "church" claimed adherence to the Gospel, yet violated it at every turn. His jealous superiors falsely accused him, but Abraham Lincoln, a young lawyer from Illinois, defended him and saved his reputation. Chiniquy proves that it was the Jesuits who later killed Lincoln, and explains why.

Finally, after twenty-five years as a priest in the Roman Catholic Church, his bishop demanded that he give up his precious Bible, and pledge blind obedience to the "church. After a dark night of struggle, he emerged gloriously saved, and led almost the entire Catholic population of St. Anne, Illinois to trust in Christ alone. Here is the finest work ever written to show, from the inside, what Catholicism really is. You will feel Chiniquy's broken heart for Catholics, even as he clearly refutes Catholicism's errors. Now, abridged from the 1886 edition, it is even more readable than before!

Sample Pages

Table of Contents:

Chapter 1

The Bible and the priest of Rome

Chapter 2

My first schooldays at St. Thomas
The monk and celibacy

Chapter 3

The confession of children

Chapter 4

The shepherd whipped by his sheep

Chapter 5

The priest, purgatory, and the poor widow's cow

Chapter 6

Festivities in a parsonage

Chapter 7

Preparation for the First Communion
Initiation to idolatry

Chapter 8

The First Communion

Chapter 9

Intellectual education in the Roman Catholic college

Chapter 10

Moral and religious instruction in the Roman Catholic colleges

Chapter 11

Protestant children in the convents and nunneries of Rome

Chapter 12

Rome and education
Why the Church of Rome wants to destroy the common schools of the United States
Why she objects to the reading of the Bible in the schools

Chapter 13

Theology of the Church of Rome: its anti-social and anti-Christian character

Chapter 14

The vow of celibacy

Chapter 15

The impurities of the theology of Rome

Chapter 16

The priests of Rome and the Holy Fathers; or, how I swore to give up the Word of God to follow the word of men

Chapter 17

The Roman Catholic priesthood, or ancient and modern idolatry

Chapter 18

The dogma of transubstantiation
The old paganism under a Christian name

Chapter 19

Vicarage and life at St. Charles, how the Church survives the immorality and dabauchery of its priests

Chapter 20

Blue devils at the grand dinner of the priests
The maniac sister of Rev. Mr. Perras

Chapter 21

I am appointed vicar of the curate of Charlesbourgh
The piety, lives and deaths of Fathers Bedard and Perras

Chapter 22

Simony
Strange and sacrilegious traffic in the so-called body and blood of Christ
Enormous sums of money made by the sale of Masses to retrieve souls from purgatory
The Society of Three Masses abolished, and the Society of One Mass established

Chapter 23

Canadian masses sold in Paris for a discount

Chapter 24

Quebec Marine Hospital
The first time I carried the "Bon Dieu" (the wafer god) secretly in my vest pocket

Chapter 25

Dr. Douglas
My first lesson on temperance
Study of anatomy
Working of alcohol in the human frame
The murderess of her own child
I forever give up the use of intoxicating drinks

Chapter 26

Coversions of Protestants to Romanism
Rev. Parent's peculiar way of finding and converting Protestants
How he spies on the Protestants through the Confessional
I persuade ninety-three families to become Catholics

Chapter 27

The murders and thefts in Quebec from 1835 to 1836
The night excursion with two thieves
The restitution
The dawn of light

Chapter 28

Chambers and his accomplices condemned to death
Asked me to prepare them for their terrible fate
A week in their dungeon
Their sentence of death changed into deportation to Botany Bay
Their departure for exile
I meet one of them a sincere convert, very rich, in a high and honorable position in Australia in 1878

Chapter 29

Miracles
Attack of typhoid fever
Apparition of St. Anne and St. Philomene
My sudden cure
The curate of St. Anne du Nord almost a disguised Protestant

Chapter 30

My nomination as curate of Beauport
Degradation and ruin of that place through drunkenness
My opposition to my nomination useless
Preparation to establish a Temperance Society
I write to Father Mathew for advice

Chapter 31

The hand of God in the establishment of a Temperance Society in Beauport and vicinity

Chapter 32

Foundation of temperance societies in the neighboring parishes
I am ordered to drink wine by my bishop
Monsignor De Forbin Janson, Bishop of Nancy publicly defends me against the Bishop of Quebec and forever breaks the opposition of the clergy

Chapter 33

The god of Rome eaten by rats

Chapter 34

Visit of a Protestant stranger
He throws an arrow into my priestly soul never to be taken out

Chapter 35

Sent to succeed Rev. Mr. Varin, Curate of Kamouraska
Stern opposition of that curate and the surrounding priests and people
Hours of desolation in Kamouraska
The Good Master allays the tempest and bids the waves by still

Chapter 36

Organization of temperance societies in Kamouraska and surrounding country
The girl in the garb of a man in the service of the curates of Quebec and Eboulements
Frightened by the scandals seen everywhere, I give up my parish of Kamouraska to join the "Oblates of Mary Immaculate of Longueuil"

Chapter 37

Novitiate in the monastery of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate of Longueuil
Some of the thousand acts of folly and idolatry in the life of a monk
The spy system
The deplorable fall of one of the fathers and the Grand Vicar Quiblier
Sick in the Hotel Dieu of Montreal
Sister Urtubise: confirms Maria Monk
The two missionaries to the lumber men
What one of the best Father Oblates thinks of the monks and the monastery

Chapter 38

I accept the hospitality of the Rev. Mr. Brassard of Longueuil
I give my reasons for leaving the Oblates to Bishop Bourget
He presents me with a splendid crucifix blessed by His Holiness for me, and accepts my services in the cause of temperance in the diocese of Montreal

Chapter 39

Preparations for the last conflict
Longueuil the first to accept the great reform of temperance
In 200 Parishes 200,000 people take the pledge
Gold medal
Officially named Apostle of Temperance in Canada

Chapter 40

My sermon on the Virgin Mary
Compliments of Bishop Prince
Stormy night
First serious doubts about the Church of Rome
Faithful discussion with the bishop
The Holy Fathers opposed to the modern worship of the Virgin
The branches of the vine

Chapter 41

The Holy Fathers
New mental troubles at not finding the doctrines of my Church in their writings
Purgatory and the sucking pig of the poor man of Varennes

Chapter 42

Letter from the Rev. Bishop Vandeveld, of Chicago
Vast project of the Bishop of the United States to take possission of the rich valley of the Mississippi and the prairies of the West to rule that great republic
They want to put me at the heart of the work
My lectures on temperance at Detroit
Intemperance of the bishops and priests of that city

Chapter 43

My visit to Chicago in 1857
Bishop Vandeveld
His predecessor poisoned
Magnificent prairies of the West
Return to Canada
Letter encouraging emigration
Bad feelings of Bishop Bourget
I decline sending a rich woman to the nunnery to enrich the bishop

Chapter 44

The plot to destroy my reputation
The interdict
The retreat at the Jesuit's college
The lost girl, emplyed by the bishop, retracts
The bishop confounded, sees his injustice, makes amends

Chapter 45

I arrive at Chicago
I select the spot for my colony
I build the first chapel
Great success of the colony

Chapter 46

Intrigues, impostures, and criminal life of the priests 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

Chapter 47

Colony grows
New chapel burned by arsonists
Bishop Vandeveld replaced by O'Regan
The bishop demands my house and garden

Chapter 48

Pope Pious IX declares new dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary
My parishioner asks some hard questions

Chapter 49

My beautiful penitent teaches me the abominations of auricular confession

Chapter 50

Misconduct of the priests at the ecclesiastical retreat
The bishop forbids me to distribute the Bible

Chapter 51

Public acts of simony
Thefts and brigandage of Bishop O'Regan
General cry of indignation
I determine to resist him to his face
He employs Mr. Spink again to send me to jail
Abraham Lincoln defends me
My dear Bible becomes more than ever my light and my counselor

Chapter 52

Bishop O'Regan's tyranny of the French Canadians of Chicago
He determines to turn me out of my colony and send me to Kahokia
He publishes that he has interdicted me
My people send a deputation to the bishop
His answers
The sham excommunication by three drunken priests

Chapter 53

My people ask me to remain
I am tried in Urbana for immorality
Abraham Lincoln's anxiety
My distress
Miss Philomene Moffat sent by God to save me
Lebel's confession and distress
My innocence acknowledged
Noble words and conduct of Abraham Lincoln

Chapter 54

The bishop's plot to dominate the cities
Rome the implacable enemy of the United States

Chapter 55

My first visit to Abraham Lincoln to warn him of the plots I knew against his life
The priests circulate the news that Lincoln was born in the Church of Rome
Letter of the pope to Jeff Davis
My last visit to the president
His willingness to die for his nation's sake

Chapter 56

Abraham Lincoln a true man of God
The assassination by Booth, the tool of the priests
Mary Surratt's house the rendezvous of the priests
John Surratt secreted away by the priests
News of the assassination known in St. Joseph, Minnesota, three hours before it occurred

Chapter 57

Two priests, Brassard and Desaulnier, sent by the bishops of Canada to persuade us to submit to Bishop O'Regan
They acknowledge publicly that the bishop is wrong and that we are right
I consent to withdraw from the contest on certain conditions
Desaulnier turns false and betrays us, to be put at the head of my colony
My last interview with them

Chapter 58

Mr. Desaulnier is named Vicar-General of Chicago to crush us
Our People more united than ever to defend their rights
Letters of the bishops of Montreal against me, and my answer
Mr. Brassard forced, against his conscience, to condemn us
My answer to Mr. Brassard
He writes to beg my pardon

Chapter 59

I send Pope Pius IX and Napoleon, Emperor of France, the legal and public documents proving the bad conduct of Bishop O'Regan
Grand-Vicar Dunn sent to tell me of my victory at Rome
I go to Dubuque to offer my submission to the bishop
The peace sealed and publicly proclaimed by Grand-Vicar Dunn the 26th March, 1858

Chapter 60

Excellent testimonial from my bishop
My retreat
Grand-Vicar Dunn writes me about the new storm prepared by the Jesuits
I refuse to remove the "Word of God" from my pledge
I am freed from the priesthood
Vision: Christ offers Himself as a gift
Back to my people
More than one thousand enter the Promised Land

Chapter 61

I gently lead my people out of their superstitions
We give up the name of Roman Catholic
Dismay of the Bishops
Duggan, coadjutor of St. Louis, comes to St. Anne to persuade the people to submit to his authority
He is ignominiously turned out and runs away in fear for his life

Chapter 62