M. C. Burritt - "Apple Growing"

Anonymous - "The Fox Jumps Over the Parson's Gate"

G. A. Henty - "Through Three Campaigns"

Ernest Belfort Bax - "German Culture Past and Present"

Editorial
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

Awful Disclosures

M >> Maria Monk >> Awful Disclosures



Produced by David Moynhan, Lee Dawei, Marvin A. Hodges,
Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.




[Note from the etext editor: The original page scans used to create this
text were illegible in places; the notation [illegible] has been used in
the text to indicate these places. Additionally, Chapter XIV was missing
from both the table of contents and the book; presumably this is a
printing error as opposed to an actual missing chapter.]




AWFUL DISCLOSURES,

By

MARIA MONK,

Of the

HOTEL DIEU NUNNERY OF MONTREAL.

Containing, also, Many Incidents Never Before Published.




PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.


This volume embraces not only my "Awful Disclosures," but a continuation
of my Narrative, giving an account of events after my escape from the
Nunnery, and of my return to Montreal to procure a legal investigation
of my charges. It also [illegible] all the testimony that has been
published against me, or every description, as well as that which has
been given in confirmation of my story. At the close, will be found a
Review of the whole Subject, furnished by a gentleman well qualified for
the purpose; and finally, a copious Appendix, giving further particulars
interesting to the public.

I present this volume to the reader, with feelings which, I trust, will
be in some degree appreciated when it has been read and reflected upon.
A hasty perusal, and an imperfect apprehension of its contents, can
never produce such impressions as it has been my design to make by the
statements I have laid before the world. I know that misapprehensions
exist in the minds of some virtuous people. I am not disposed to condemn
their motives, for it does not seem wonderful that in a pure state of
society, and in the midst of Christian families, there should be persons
who regard the crimes I have mentioned as too monstrous to believed. It
certainly is creditable to American manners and character, that the
people are inclined, at the first sight, to turn from my story with
horror.

There is also an excuse for those who, having received only a general
impression concerning the nature of my Disclosures, question the
propriety of publishing such immorality to the world. They fear that the
minds of the young, at least, may be polluted. To such I have to say,
that this objection was examined and set aside, long before they had an
opportunity to make it. I solemnly believe it is necessary to inform
parents, at least, that the ruin from which I have barely escaped, lies
in the way of their children, even if delicacy must be in some degree
wounded by revealing the fact. I understand the case, alas! from too
bitter experience. Many an innocent girl may this year be exposed to the
dangers of which I was ignorant. I am resolved, that so far as depends
on me, not one more victim shall fall into the hands of those enemies in
whose power I so lately have been. I know what it is to be under the
dominion of Nuns and Priests; and I maintain, that it is a far greater
offence against virtue and decency to conceal than to proclaim their
crimes. Ah! had a single warning voice even whispered to me a word of
caution--had even a gentle note of alarm been sounded to me, it might
have turned back my foot from the Convent when it was upon the
threshold! If, therefore, there is any one now bending a step that way,
whom I have, not yet alarmed, I will cry _beware!_

But the virtuous reader need not fear, in the following pages, to meet
with vice presented in any dress but her own deformity. No one can
accuse me of giving a single attraction to crime. On the contrary, I
intend my book shall be a warning to those who may hereafter be tempted
by vice; and with the confidence that such it will prove to be, I
commend it to the careful examination of virtuous parents, and am
willing to abide by their unbiased opinion, with regard both to my
truth, my motives, and the interest which the public have in the
developments it contains.

I would now appeal to the world, and ask, whether I have not done all
that could have been expected of me, and all that lay in my power, to
bring to an investigation the charges I have brought against the priests
and nuns of Canada. Although it was necessary to the cause of truth,
that I should, in some degree, implicate myself, I have not hesitated to
appear as a voluntary self-accuser before the world. While there was a
hope that the authorities in Canada might be prevailed upon to bring the
subject to a legal investigation, I travelled to Montreal in a feeble
state of health, and with an infant in my arms only three weeks old. In
the face of many threats and dangers, I spent nearly a month in that
city, in vain attempts to bring my cause to a trial. When all prospect
of success in this undertaking had disappeared, and not till then, I
determined to make my accusations through the press; and although
misrepresentations and scandals, flattery and threats, have been
resorted to, to nullify or to suppress my testimony, I have persevered,
although, as many of my friends have thought, at the risk of abduction
or death.

I have, I think, afforded every opportunity that could be reasonably
expected, to judge of my credibility. I have appealed to the existence
of things in the Hotel Dieu Nunnery, as the great criterion of the truth
of my story. I have described the apartments, and now, in this volume,
have added many further particulars, with such a description of them as
my memory has enabled me to make. I have offered, in case I should be
proved an impostor, to submit to any punishment which may be proposed--
even to a re-delivery into the hands of my bitterest enemies, to suffer
what they may please to inflict.

Now, in these circumstances, I would ask the people of the United
States, whether my duty has not been discharged? Have I not done what I
ought--to inform and to alarm them? I would also solemnly appeal to the
Government of Great Britain, under whose guardianship is the province
oppressed by the gloomy institution from which I have escaped, and ask
whether such atrocities ought to be tolerated, and even protected by an
enlightened and Christian power? I trust the hour is near, when the dens
of the Hotel Dieu will be laid open--when the tyrants who have polluted
it will be brought out, with the wretched victims of their oppression
and crimes.



CONTENTS

* * * * *

CHAPTER I.

Early Life--Religious Education neglected--First School--Entrance into
the School of the Congregational Nunnery--Brief Account of the Nunneries
in Montreal--The Congregational Nunnery--The Black Nunnery--The Grey
Nunnery--Public Respect for these Institutions--Instruction Received--
The Catechism--The Bible

CHAPTER II.

Story told by a fellow Pupil against a Priest--Other Stories--Pretty
Mary--Confess to Father Richards--My subsequent Confessions--Left the
Congregational Nunnery

CHAPTER III.

Preparations to become a Novice in the Black Nunnery--Entrance--
Occupations of the Novices--The Apartments to which they had Access--
First Interview with Jane Ray--Reverence for the Superior--Her Reliques
--The Holy Good Shepherd, or nameless Nun--Confession of Novices

CHAPTER IV.

Displeased with the Convent--Left it--Residence at St. Denis--Reliques--
Marriage--Return to the Black Nunnery--Objections made by some Novices--
Ideas of the Bible

CHAPTER V.

Received Confirmation--Painful Feelings--Specimen of Instruction
received on the Subject

CHAPTER VI.

Taking the Veil--Interview afterward with the Superior--Surprise and
horror at her Disclosures--Resolution to Submit

CHAPTER VII.

Daily Ceremonies--Jane Ray among the Nuns

CHAPTER VIII.

Description of Apartments in the Black Nunnery, in order.--1st Floor--2d
Floor--The Founder--Superior's Management with the Friends of Novices--
Religious Lies--Criminality of concealing Sins at Confession

CHAPTER IX.

Nuns with similar names--Squaw Nuns--First visit to the Cellar--
Description of it--Shocking discovery there--Superior's Instructions--
Private Signal of the Priests--Books used in the Nunnery--Opinions
expressed of the Bible--Specimens of what I know of the Scriptures

CHAPTER X.

Manufacture of Bread and Wax Candles carried on in the Convent--
Superstitions--Scapularies--Virgin Mary's pincushion--Her House--The
Bishop's power over fire--My Instructions to Novices--Jane Ray--
Vaccillation of feelings

CHAPTER XI.

Alarming Order from the Superior--Proceed to execute it--Scene in an
upper Room--Sentence of Death, and Murder--My own distress--Reports made
to friends of St. Francis

CHAPTER XII.

Description of the Room of the Three States, and the pictures in it--
Jane Ray ridiculing Priests--Their criminal Treatment of us at
Confession--Jane Ray's Tricks with the Nuns' Aprons, Handkerchiefs, and
Nightgowns--Apples

CHAPTER XIII.

Jane Ray's Tricks continued--The Broomstick Ghost--Sleep-walking--Salted
Cider--Changing Beds--Objects of some of her Tricks--Feigned Humility--
Alarm--Treatment of a new Nun--A nun made by stratagem

CHAPTER XV.

Influencing Novices--Difficulty of convincing persons from the United
States--Tale of the Bishop in the City--The Bishop in the Convent--The
Prisoners in the Cells--Practice in Singing--Narratives--Jane Ray's
Hymns--The Superior's best Trick

CHAPTER XVI.

Frequency of the Priests' Visits to the Nunnery--Their Freedom and
Crimes--Difficulty of learning their Names--Their Holy Retreat--
Objections in our minds--Means used to counteract Conscience--Ingenious
Arguments

CHAPTER XVII.

Treatment of young Infants in the Convent--Talking in Sleep--Amusements
--Ceremonies at the public interment of deceased Nuns--Sudden
disappearance of the Old Superior--Introduction of the new one--
Superstition--Alarm of a Nun--Difficulty of Communication with other
Nuns

CHAPTER XVIII.

Disappearance of Nuns--St. Pierre--Gags--My temporary Confinement in a
Cell--The Cholera Season--How to avoid it--Occupations in the Convent
during the Pestilence--Manufacture of War Candles--The Election Riots--
Alarm among the Nuns--Preparations for defence--Penances

CHAPTER XIX.

The Priests of the District of Montreal have free access to the Black
Nunnery--Crimes committed and required by them--The Pope's command to
commit indecent Crimes--Characters of the Old and New Superiors--The
timidity of the latter--I began to be employed in the Hospitals--Some
account of them--Warning given me by a sick Nun--Penance by Hanging

CHAPTER XX.

More visits to the imprisoned Nuns--Their fears--Others temporarily put
into the Cells--Reliques--The Agnus Dei--The Priests' private Hospital,
or Holy Retreat--Secret Rooms in the Eastern Wing--Reports of Murders in
the Convent--The Superior's private Records--Number of Nuns in the
Convent--Desire of Escape--Urgent reason for it--Plan--Deliberation--
Attempt--Success

CHAPTER XXI.

At liberty--Doubtful what to do--Found refuge for the night--
Disappointment--My first day out of the Convent--Solitude--
Recollections, fears, and plans

CHAPTER XXII.

Start for Quebec--Recognised--Disappointed again--Not permitted to land
--Return to Montreal--Landed and passed through the city before day--
Lachine Canal--Intended close of my life

CHAPTER XXIII.

Awake among strangers--Dr. Robertson--Imprisoned as a vagrant--
Introduction to my mother--Stay in her house--Removal from it to Mrs.
McDonald's--Return to my mother's--Desire to get to New York--
Arrangements for going

CHAPTER XXIV.

Singular concurrence of circumstances, which enabled me to get to the
United States--Intentions in going there--Commence my journey--Fears of
my companion--Stop at Whitehall--Injury received in a canal boat--
Arrival at New York--A solitary retreat

CHAPTER XXV.

Reflections and sorrow in solitude--Night--Fears--Exposure to rain--
Discovered by strangers--Their unwelcome kindness--Taken to the Bellevue
Almshouse.

CHAPTER XXVI.

Reception at the Almshouse--Message from Mr. Conroy, a Roman priest in
New York--His invitations to a private interview--His claims,
propositions, and threats--Mr. Kelly's message--Effects of reading the
Bible

CHAPTER XXVII.

Proposition to go to Montreal and testify against the priests--
Commencement of my journey--Stop at Troy, Whitehall, Burlington, St.
Alban's, Plattsburgh, and St. John's--Arrival at Montreal--Reflections
on passing the Nunnery.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

Received into a hospitable family--Fluctuating feelings--Visits from
several persons--Father Phelan's declarations against me in his church--
Interviews with a Journeyman Carpenter--Arguments with him

CHAPTER XXIX.

A Milkman--An Irishwoman--Difficulty in having my Affidavit taken--Legal
objection to it when taken

CHAPTER XXX.

Interview with the Attorney General of the Province--Attempt to abduct
me--More interviews--A mob excited against me--Protected by two
soldiers--Convinced that an investigation of my charges could not be
obtained--Departure from Montreal--Closing reflections The truth of the
work demonstrated

APPENDIX--Reception of the work--Affidavits--Criticisms of the press,
&c.




PREFACE.


Here is the reprint of one of the most formidable books against
Nunneries ever published. It has produced powerful impressions abroad,
as well as in the United States, and appears destined to have still
greater results. It is the simple narrative of an uneducated and
unprotected female, who escaped from the old Black Nunnery of Montreal,
or Hotel Dieu, and told her tale of sufferings and horrors, without
exaggeration or embellishment. Though assailed by all the powers of the
Romish priesthood, whom she accused, and by the united influence of the
North American press, which, with very small exceptions, was then
unenlightened by the discoveries of the present day, the book remains
unimpeached, and still challenges the test of fair and open examination.

Many an American female, no doubt, is now living, who might justly
acknowledge that she was saved from exposure to the suffering, or even
the ruin, often the consequences of a Convent education, by the
disinterested warning given in this book; while its author, disheartened
at length by the powerful combination of Protestants and Papists against
her, led to distrust even the few who remained her friends, destitute of
the means of living, and alternately persecuted and tempted by her ever
watchful and insidious enemies, died some years since, under
condemnation (whether just or unjust) for one of the slightest of the
crimes which she had charged against them--thus falling at last their
victim.

American parents have here a book written for the salvation of their
daughters; American patriots, one designed to secure society against one
of the most destructive but insidious institutions of popery; American
females, an appeal to them of the most solemn kind, to beware of
Convents, and all who attempt to inveigle our unsuspecting daughters
into them, by the secret apparatus of Jesuit schools. The author of this
book was a small, slender, uneducated, and persecuted young woman, who
sought refuge in our country without a protector; but she showed the
resolution and boldness of a heroine, in confronting her powerful
enemies in their strong hold, and proved, by the simple force of truth,
victorious in the violent conflicts which were waged against her by the
Romish hierarchy of America and the popular press of the United States.

The publishers have thought the present an opportune period to place
this work again in the hands of American readers, with such information,
in a preface, as is necessary to acquaint readers of the present day
with the leading circumstances attending and succeeding its original
publication. They have examined most of the evidence supporting the
truth of the narrative, of which the public can judge as well as
themselves. The details would be voluminous, even of those portions
which have been collected since the heat of the controversy which the
book long ago excited. Suffice it to say, that undesigned and collateral
evidence in corroboration of it has been increasing to the present day;
and that the following brief review of some of the early events will
afford a fair specimen of the whole.

In the year 1835, Maria Monk was found alone, and in a wretched and
feeble condition, on the outskirts of New York city, by a humane man,
who got her admitted into the hospital at Bellevue. She then first told
the story in outline, which she afterwards and uniformly repeated in
detail, and which was carefully written down and published in the
following form:--she said she was a fugitive nun from the Hotel Dieu of
Montreal, whence she had effected her escape, in consequence of cruelty
which she had suffered, and crimes which were there committed by the
Romish priests, who had the control of the institution, and to which
they had access, by private as well as public entrances. Having
expressed a willingness to go to that city, make public accusations, and
point out evidences of their truth in the convent itself, she was taken
thither by a resolute man, who afterwards suffered for an act of great
merit; but she was unable to obtain a fair hearing, apparently through
the secret opposition of the priests. She returned to New York, where
her story was thought worthy of publication; and it was proposed to have
it carefully written down from her lips, and published in a small
pamphlet. Everything she communicated was, therefore, accurately written
down, and, when copied out, read to her for correction. But the amount
of important material in her possession, proved to be far greater than
had been supposed, and many pages of notes were accumulated on numerous
topics brought up to her attention in the course of conversation and
inquiry. All those were submitted to persons fully competent to decide
as to the reliability of the evidence, and the strictest and most
conscientious care was taken to ascertain the truth.

There were but very few Protestants in the United States acquainted with
the condition or history of convents in different countries, the
characters of those who control and direct them, the motives they have
for keeping them secret, the occupations often pursued within their
walls, in short, the shameful practices and atrocious crimes of which
they have been proved to be the theatres, in modern and ancient times,
by Romish ecclesiastics and even popes themselves. The public were,
therefore, quite unprepared to believe such accusations against men
professing sanctity of life, and a divine commission to the world,
although Miss Harrison and Miss Reed of Boston had published startling
reports respecting the character of the priests and nuns in that
vicinity.

The following were some of the considerations which were kept in view by
those who proposed the publication of the narrative:--

"If the story is false, it must have been forged by the narrator or some
other party. There must have been a motive in either case; and that may
be either to obtain notoriety or money, to injure the reputation of the
priests accused, or ultimately to remove the unfavorable impressions
thrown upon them by their former accusers, by first making charges of
atrocious crimes, and then disproving them. On the other hand, the story
may perhaps be true; and if so, the world ought to know it. In the
meantime, here is an unprotected, and evidently unfortunate young woman,
of an interesting appearance, who asks to be allowed to make her
complaint, voluntarily consenting to submit to punishment if she does
not speak the truth. _She must be allowed a hearing._"

It is but justice to say that the investigation was undertaken with
strong suspicions of imposture somewhere, and with a fixed resolution to
expose it if discovered. As the investigation proceeded, opinions at
first fluctuated, sometimes from day to day; but it became evident, ere
long, that if the story had been fabricated, it was not the work of the
narrator, as she had not the capacity to invent one so complex and
consistent with itself and with many historical facts entirely beyond
the limited scope of her knowledge. It was also soon perceived that she
could never have been taught it by others, as no part of it was
systematically arranged in her mind, and she communicated it in the
incidental manner common to uneducated persons, who recount past scenes
in successive conversations.

As she declared from the first that she had been trained to habits of
deception in the Convent, and accustomed to witness deceit and
criminality, no confidence could be claimed for her mere unsupported
declarations; and therefore a course of thorough cross-questioning was
pursued, every effort being made to lead her to contradict herself, but
without success. She told the same things over and over again in a
natural and consistent manner, when brought back to the same point after
intervals of weeks or months. In several instances it was thought that
contradictions had been traced, but when called on to reconcile her
statements, she cleared up all doubt by easy and satisfactory
explanations. The course pursued by the priests of Canada and their
advocates, was such as greatly to confirm the opinion that she spoke the
truth, and that they were exceedingly afraid of it. The following were
some of the contradictory grounds which they at different times assumed
in their bitter attacks upon her, her friends, and her books:

That she had never been in the nunnery.

That she had been expelled from it.

That she had fabricated everything that she published.

That several pages from her book, published in the New York "Sun," were
copied verbatim et literatim from a work published in Portugal above a
hundred years before, entitled "The Gates of Hell Opened."

That there never was a subterranean passage from the seminary to the
nunnery.

That there was such a passage in that direction, but that it led to the
River St. Lawrence.

That the drawings and descriptions of the nunnery, and especially of the
veiled department, were wholly unlike the reality, but applied to the
Magdalen Asylum of Montreal.

That several objects described by her were in the nunnery, but not in
those parts of it where she had placed them. (This was said by a person
who admitted that he had been lost amidst the numerous and extensive
apartments when he made his observations.)

That the book was fabricated by certain persons in New York who were
named, they being gentlemen of the highest character.

That the book was her own production, but written under the instigation
of the devil.

That the author was a layman, and ought to be hung on the first lamp-
post.

That the nunnery was a sacred place, and ought not to be profaned by the
admission of enemies of the church.

After a committee had been appointed to examine the nunnery and report,
and their demand for admission had been published a year or more, the
editor of _L'Ami du Peuple_, a Montreal newspaper, devoted to the
priests' cause, offered to admit persons informally, and did admit
several Americans, who had been strong partisans against the
"Disclosures." Their letters on the subject, though very indefinite,
contained several important, though undesigned admissions, strongly
corroborating the book.

One of the most common charges against the book was, that it had been
written merely for the purpose of obtaining money. Of the falseness of
this there is decisive evidence. It was intended to secure to the poor
and persecuted young female, any profits which might arise from the
publication; but most of the labor and time devoted to the work were
gratuitously bestowed. Besides this they devoted much time to efforts
necessary to guard against the numerous and insidious attempts made by
friends of the priests, who by various arts endeavored to produce
dissention and delay, as well as to pervert public opinion.

The book was published, and had an almost unprecedented sale, impressing
deep convictions, wherever it went, by its simple and consistent
statements. In Canada, especially, it was extensively received as true;
but as the American newspapers were soon enlisted against it, the
country was filled with misrepresentations, which it was impossible
through those channels to follow with refutations. Her noble sacrifices
for the good of others were misunderstood, she withdrew from her few
remaining friends, and at length died in poverty and prison, a victim of
the priests of Rome. Various evidences in favor of its truth afterwards
appeared, with which the public have never been generally made
acquainted. Some of these were afforded during an interview held in New
York, August 17th, 1836, with Messrs. Jones and Le Clerc, who had came
from Montreal with a work in reply to "Awful Disclosures," which was
afterwards published. They had offered to confront Maria Monk, and prove
her an impostor, and make her confess it in the presence of her friends.
She promptly appeared; and the first exclamation of Mr. Jones proved
that she was not the person he had supposed her to be: _"This is not
Fawny Johnson!"_ said he; and he afterwards said, "There must be two
Maria Monks!" Indeed, several persons were at different times
represented to bear that name; and much confusion was caused in the
testimony by that artifice. The interview continued about two hours,
during which the Canadians made a very sorry figure, entirely failing to
gain any advantage, and exposing their own weakness. At the close, an
Episcopal clergyman from Canada, one of the company, said: "Miss Monk,
if I had had any doubts of your truth before this interview, they would
now have been entirely removed."

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