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MARIA MONK.
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THE TRUE HISTORY
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MARIA MONK.
It is nearly sixty years since Maria Monk's Awful Disclosures first appeared, and a year after its appearance a complete refutation of the story was published in the Dublin Review (May 1836). The story, however, was too much according to the taste of an anti-Catholic public to be given up for so trifling a consideration as its proved falsity j and a notorious shop in Paternoster Row, as well as others established under Protestant auspices, still continues to print and disseminate it. The character of the work appeals also to another class of readers, and it may usually be found in quarters in which more or less indecent publications are exposed for sale. It is not easy to believe that a book of this kind can be accepted as authentic by decent and well-meaning Protestants ; yet we are assured that such is the case. To them, therefore, we now offer (i) a reprint of the Dublin Review article j (2) some further evidence on the subject which has come to light since that date; (3) an account of her death. We ask a careful perusal and an attentive hearing for the evidence we offer, and we shall be surprised if our readers are not convinced that the "True History" is a tissue of lies.
I. THE DUBLIN REVIEW ARTICLE.
A book bearing the title of * Maria Monk's Awful Disclosures ' has just appeared in London. It is a verbal reprint from the original edition published in New York in January last (1835), and its object is to calumniate the members of the Catholic religious establishments of Montreal in Lower Canada, and thereby to cast discredit and obloquy on the professors of that faith generally.
'•iA
The True History
^
H
Let us hear how this precious nun introduces her 'awful disclosures.*
" It is hoped that the reader of the ensuing narrative will not suppose that it is a fiction or that the scenes and persons that I have delineated had not a real existence. It is also desired that the author of this volume may be regarded not as a voluntary partici- pator in the very guilty transactions which are described ; but receive sympathy for the trials which she has endured and the peculiar situation in which her past experience and escape from the power of the Superioress of the Hotel Dieu Nunnery at Montreal, and the snares of the Roman priests in Canada, have left her. My feelings are frequently distressed and agitated by the recollections of what I have passed through; and by night and by day I have little peace of mind,
and few periods of calm or serious reflection
I have given the world the truth so far as I have gone, on subjects of which I am told they are generally ignorant; and I feel perfect confidence that any facts which may yet be discovered will confirm my words, whenever they can be obtained. Whoever shall ex- plore the Hotel Dieu Nunnery at Montreal, will find unquestionable evidence that the descriptions of the interior of that edifice given in this book were furnished by one familiar with them ; for whatever alterations may be attempted, there are changes which no mason or carpenter can make and effectually conceal, and therefore there must be plentiful evidence in that institution of the truth of my description. There are living witnesses also who ought to be made to speak, without fear of penances, tortures, and death ; and possibly their testimony at some future time may be added to confirm my state- ments. .... It would distress the reader should I repeat the dreams with which I am often terrified at night; for I sometimes fancy myself pursued by my worst enemies; frequently I seem as if shut up again in the convent ; often I imagine myself present at the repetition of the worst scenes that I have hinted at or described. Sometimes I stand by the secret place of
of Maria Monk,
interment in the cellar ; sometimes I think I can hear the shrieks of helpless females in the hands of atrocious men ; and sometimes almost seem actually to look again upon the calm and placid countenance of Saint Frances as she appeared when surrounded by her murderers."— {Preface.)*
Thus the authoress confesses that she is afflicted with terrific dreams, — that she imagines herself to be pursued by enemies, — shut up again in the * black convent,*— present once more at the hideous scenes she describes,— about to be conveyed to the * secret place of interment in the cellar, — that she hears 'the shrieks of helpless females in the hands of atrocious men.' Well then, if the lady be subject to visions of this description, is it not just possible that some of them might have found their way into her book ? A glance at her early history, as it stands recorded by herself, will throw some further light upon her character. Her parents, she tells us, were both from Scotland, and resided in Lower Canada. She was born at St. John's, and has spent the most of her life in Montreal. Her father was an officer under the British Government. He is dead, and her mother has a pension. The latter is a Protestant. Our heroine, when about six or seven years old, went to a school kept by a Mr. Workman, a Protestant, who taught her to read and write, and arithnrt Sc as far as division. A number of girls of her acquaintance went to school (as day scholars) to the establishment of the Congregational Nunnery, or Sisters of Charity, as they are usually called.
When she was ten years old, being anxious to learn French, she obtained permission to attend the schools of the Sisters of Charity. The * terrible Black Nunnery ' is adjacent to that of the Sisters of Charity, being separa- ted from it only by a wall. The Black Nunnery ** professes to be a charitable institution for the care of the sick, and the supply of bread and medicines for the poor ; and something is done in these departments of charity f although but an insignificant amount compared
* All quotatioDS from Maria Monk are from the book above mentioned.
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1
4 T/ie True History
with the size of the buildings and the number of the in- mates." This is the institution which Maria Monk and her confederates have thought fit to libel. It is called the * Black Nunnery * from the colour of the dress worn by the inmates.
" From all that appears to the public eye, the nuns of these convents are devoted to the charitable objects appropriate to each, the labour of making different articles known to be manufactured by them, and the religious observances which occupy a large portion of their time. They are regarded with much respect by the people at large; and now and then, when a novice takes the veil, she is supposed to retire from the tempta- tions and troubles of this world into a state of holy seclusion, where, by prayer, self-mortification, and good deeds, she prepares herself for heaven " (p. 14).
Now here it is admitted that these establishments, which have existed at Montreal for upwards of half a century, are regarded with much respect by the people of that place, although we shall presently learn from the evidence of Maria Monk, that one of them at least is the perpetual scene of every crime that can degrade religion, and disgrace human nature. But let us proceed. While Maria was at the school of the Sisters of Charity, priests regularly attended to instruct the pupils in the Catechism. With a view to forward them in the essential part of Catholic education, a small catechism in common use amongst us was put into their hands. * But, says Maria :
"The priests soon began to teach us a new set of answers which were not to be found in our books, from some of which I received new ideas, and got, as I thought, important light on religious subjects, which confirmed me more and more in my belief in the Roman Catholic doctrines. These questions and answers I can still recall with tolerable accuracy, and some of them I will add here. I never have read ihem^ as we were taught them only by word of mouth. Question : Why
* [The English Catechism of Christian Doctrine^ can be obtained from 21 Westminster Bridge Road, S.E., price id., by post i^.]
of Maria Monk.
did not God make all the commandments? Answer: Because man is not strong enough to keep them. Question : Why are men not to read the New Testa- ment? Answer: Because the mind of man is too limited and weak to understand what God has written. These questions and answers are not to be found in the common catechisms in use in Montreal, and other places where I have been, but all the children in the Congrega- tional Nunnery were taught them, and many more not in these books."
Well might Maria say that she had never read these questions and answers, and that they are not to be found in the common catechism. The first question is an absurdity in itself, and the propriety of the second may be judged of by those who take the trouble to look into the Missal used by the Catholic laity, which they will find almost wholly composed of extracts from the New Testament.
We now begin to see a little of this lady's character. Her first acquaintance with the Black Nunnery arose from a service it conferred upon her.
" In the Black Nunnery is an hospital for sick people from the city, and sometimes some of our boarders, such as were indisposed, were sent there to be cured. I was once taken ill myself and sent there where I remained a few days. There were beds enough for a considerable number more. A physician attended it daily ; and there is a number of the veiled nuns of that convent who spend most of their time there. These would also sometimes read lectures and repeat prayers to us " (p. 20).
Such are the practices — attending the sick, reading lectures to them, repeating prayers with them, spending most of their time with them — of the Black Nuns whom nevertheless we shall, by and by, find charged by this grateful patient with the perpetration of the most horrid crimes !
The only opportunity she appears ever to have had of becoming acquainted with the interior of the nunnery in question was that which she enjoyed on this occasion: and yet she has the audacity, as well as the ingratitude,
The Trice History
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to put forth as a test of the truth of her narrative, the knowledge of the localities which she acquired during the period she received from the sisterhood the most kind, the most beneficial attentions. She proceeds : —
" After I had been in the Congregational Nunnery about two years, I left it and attended several schools for a short time; but I soon htcsiTcxQ dissatisfiedj having many and severe trials to endure at home which my feelings will not allow me to describe ; and as my Catholic acquain- tances had often spoken to me in favour of their faith, I was inclined to believe it true, although, as I have before said, I knew little of any religion. While out of the nunnery I saw not hitig of religion. If I had, I believe I should never have thought of becoming a nun " (p. 21).
According to her own account, Maria was now about twelve or thirteen years old. Suddenly she takes it into her head to become a black nun ; she was introduced, she says, by an old priest, to the superior of the convent to whom she explained her wishes; and accordingly, after a short delay, she says, "at length, on Saturday morning I called about 10 o'clock and was admitted into the Black Nunnery as a novice, much to my satisfaction " (p. 23). She states (p. 28) and not incorrectly, that the usual period of the noviciate is about two years and a half, which is sometimes abridged, and yet we find her commencing her fourth chapter in these terms : —
"After I had been a x\o\\ct four or five years yiha-i is, from the time I commenced school at the convent, one day I was treated by one of the nuns in a manner which displeased me, and because I expressed some resentment, was required to beg her pardon. Not being satisfied with this, although I complied with the command, nor with the coolness with which the superior treated me, I determined to quit the cotivefit at once^ which I did without asking leave. There would have been no obstacle to my depar- ture, I presume, novice as I then was, if I had asked permission ; but I was too much displeased to wait for that, and went home without speakifig to anyone on the subject" (p. 33).
Therefore we find that according to her own account,
of Maria Monk.
i»
her noviciate was double the ordinary length of the period of probation; that from her thirteenth to her eighteenth year she spent in the ' Black Nunnery' in the first instance; and that, then, she quitted it without asking leave of anybody.* We next behold her as assistant teacher in a school at St. Denis. And, lest we might be charged with mutilating her narrative by condensing it, we shall permit her to tell her own story.
" While engaged in this manner I became acquainted with a man who soon proposed marriage ; and, young and ignorant of the world as I was, I heard his offers with favour. On consulting with my friend, she expressed a friendly interest for me, advised me against taking such a step, and especially as I knew little about the man except that a report was circulated unfavourable to his character. Unfortunately I was not wise enough to listen to her advice and hastily married. In a few weeks, I had occasion to repent of the step I had taken, as the report proved true — a report which I thought justified and indeed required our separation. After I had been in St. Denis about three months, finding myself thus situated and not knowing what else to do, I determined to return to the convent and pursue my former intention of becoming a Black Nun could I gain admittance. Knowing the many inquiries that the superior would make relative to me during my absence before leaving St Denis, I agreed with the lady with whom I had been associated as a teacher (when she went to Mon- treal, which she did very frequently) to say to the Lady Superior, I had been under her protection durifig my absence j which would satisfy and stop further inquiry ; as I was sensible, should they know I had been married^ I should not gain admittance " (pp. 35, 36).
Here then we have a novice who ran away from her convent, married to a man of bad character; having nothing else to do, she resolves again to become a nun, and in order to shield herself from inquiry on that subject, deliberately fabricates a false statement, in
* [The article in the Dublin Review might also have noticed the absurd age when Maria Monk asserts she was clothed, &c.]
8
TJte True History
which she gets another person to join her, and back she goes to the nunnery with this lie upon her lips, conceal- ing too, the fact of her marriage, which, without a legal separation sanctioried by the Church, is utterly incon- sistent with the vows into which a nun must enter. But this is not ail. Having, as she asserts, obtained permission to take up her abode again in the convent as a novice, she proceeds to give us the following piece of information, which, even upon her own showing, would be enough to disqualify her as a witness in any court of justice in the world.
"The money usually required for the admission of novices had not been expected from me ; I had been admitted the first time without any such requisition; but now I chose to pay for my readmission. I knew that she (the Superioress) was able to dispense with such a demand as well in this as the former case, and she knew that I was not in possession of anything like the sum she required. But I was bent on paying to the nunnery, and accustomed to receive the doctrine, often repeated to me before that time, that when the advantage of the Church was consulted, the steps taken were justifiable, let them be what they would ; I therefore resolved to obtain money on false pretences^ confident that if all were known, I should be far from displeasing the Superior. / went to the Brigade Majors and asked him to give me the money payable to my mother from her pension, which amounted to about thirty dollars; and without questioning my authority to receive it in her name, he gave me it. From several of her friends, I obtained small sums under the name of loans, so that altogether I had soon raised a number of pounds, with which I hastened to the nunnery, and deposited a part in the hands of the Superior. She received the money with evident satisfaction, though she must have known that / could not have obtained it honestly ; and I was at once readmitted as a novice" (pp. 36, 37).
We shall only add one other trait of tliis woman's character, as described by herself:
" The day on which I received Confirmation was a dis-
of Maria Monk,
tressing one to me. I believed the doctrine of the Roman Catholics, and, according to them, I was guilty of three mortal sins : concealing something at confession ; sacri- lege in putting the Body of Christ in the sacrament under my feet, and by receiving it while not in a state of grace ; and now, I had been led into all these sins in conse- quence of my marriage, which I never had acknowledged, as it would have cut me off from being admitted as a nun " (p. 40).
It was about a year after this period, that Maria (as she says) became a nun, by taking the veil, hav- ing still concealed the circumstance of her marriage, and consequently committed sacrilege, under all its most aggravated forms. No sooner did she take the veil than she was at once initiated in all the crimes which she says the nuns are in the habit of committing. * From that moment,' she declares, *I was required to act like the most abandoned of beings;' then for the first time, she heard, that 'all her future associates were habitually guilty of the most heinous and detestable crimes * (p. 47). It will not be required of us to go through the dark catalogue of offences which she imputes to the sisterhood. There is one alleged crime, however, which we cannot pass unnoticed. It is told with much of cir- cumstance, and involves a deliberate murder, in which she says that she herself took a part, and of which if there was one tittle of foundation for her story, the authorities of Montreal would have easily disposed, by having the alleged murderers brought to public trial.
In page loi of her Disclosures she prefers a charge of deliberate murder against the Bishop of Montreal, the Superioress of the convent, and five priests, three of whom are named Fathers Bonin, Richards, and Savage. The facts are as follows : a certain nun, called * Saint Frances,' because she would not take part in the alleged criminal acts of the sisters, is hurried up before the five priests and the Bishop, sentenced to death, and im- mediately is bound and gagged, tied face upwards to a bedstead and mattress, other beds are thrown upon her, and all the five priests with the nuns jump upon
lO
The True History
the bed and literally crush the *■ poor victim ' to death. She is then unbound and buried in quicklime in a cellar, where in a very short time all vestiges of this alleged murder are destroyed.
The person who records this deed says that she cannot even think of it now without shuddering. She has no kindly feelings towards the parties who, she says, were guilty of this murder. There were other witnesses of it besides herself. Why then did she not, at least after quitting the convent, of which she asserts she was at one time an inmate, go before the King's Attorney General, and denounce the murderers? Simply because she knew that the whole scene is a fabrication of her own brain, or of some other brain more steeped in falsehood than her own.
We need not pursue this narrative any further. It will be sufficient to add that Maria confesses that even after she had taken the veil, she twice quitted the convent, and that eventually the necessity she was under of preparing for her own accouchement^ as she confesses, obliged her to run away altogether. She found refuge, as she informs us, in an alms house at New York.
Such is the story of this abandoned woman as told by herself, or at least by others with her 'sanction, abstract- ing from its truth or falsehood. We ask any reason- able being, is it a story that deserves the slightest credit? We might leave the work to its tislte upon the evidence we have brought against the alleged author out of her own pages ; but fortunately for the cause of our religion and of truth, we happen to have in our hands the means of proving that it is from beginning to end a tissue of the most unalloyed f 'sehoods ever penned or uttered. The sources whence .ve derive our evidence of the utter falsehood of the book, are : i. The universal testimony of the Protestant press at Montreal. 2. The affidavits of individuals of character residing at Montreal, and amongst the rest, that of Maria Monk's own mother, who appears to be a respectable woman.
The first publication of this calumny against the priest- hood and nuns of Montreal appeared in a New York
of Maria Monk,
II
* religious (?) ' paper called the Protestant Vindicator, The number in which the infamous libel appeared, was dated 14th October, 1835, three months previous to the appearance of the book; it reached Montreal four or five days later, and was met by immediate and unanimous con- tradiction from the whole of the Protestant press of the Province. These contradictions are of the most un- qualified character; and as the parties from whom they emanated are, for the most part, politically opposed to the section of the population to which the priests belong, they are at once honourable to the good feelings of the witnesses themselves, and of course the more valuable as evidence. We shall commence with the evidence of the Montreal Herald^ in favour of the unimpeachable character of the calumniated persons. After a paragraph which it is not necessary to quote, the Herald (in its issue of 20th or 2ist(?) October, 1835), proceeds as follows :
" . . . . The first editorial article is entitled * Nun- neries,' and is intended to be an exposure of debauchery and murder said to have taken place in the Hotel Dieu in this city. We will not disgrace our columns nor dis- gust our readers by copying the false, the abominably false, article. Though of a different religious persuasion from the priests and nuns, we have had too many op- portunities of witnessing their unwearied assiduity and watchfulness and Christian charity during two seasons of pestilence, and can bear witness to the hitherto unim- peached and unimpeachable rectitude of their conduct, to be in the slightest degree swayed in our opinion by a newspaper slander; but we would respectfully inform the conductors of the Protestant Vindicator that there never existed a class of men who are more highly respected and more universally esteemed by individuals of all persuasions than the Roman Catholic Priests of Montreal. The ' Sisters of Charity,* are equally respected and are the means of effecting important services to the community. They practise Christianity by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, protecting the orphan, and ministering to the sick, the afflicted, and the dying, —
1:1
The True History
' pursuing the noiseless tenour of their way,' courting no popular applause, and seeking their sole reward in * conscience void of offence towards God and man.' We do not pretend to be defenders of the Roman Catholic Religion, or of any of its particular institutions. We are Protestants and glory in being so; but we will not so far forget the precepts of our Divine Master as to connive at traducing the character of individuals, who are exemplary members of society, although they are of a different religious persuasion from ourselves."
[The Dublin Review then adds extracts from the Montreal Gazette and the Rucher Mercury^ belonging both to the same date Oct. 21, 1835. These are omitted here for want of space, but they testify with the same cordiality to the respect and even veneration felt by citizens of all denominations for the character and heroic labours of the clergy and nuns.]
These general testimonies in favour of the Roman Catholic clergy and religious ladies of Montreal, and in contradiction to the sweeping accusations against them, contained in the paper already named, produced no retractation or apology on the part of the editor of the Protestant Vindicator. On the contrary, in a subsequent number of that paper, dated the 4th November, 1835, the calumnies v/ere reiterated and insisted upon, in the violent and bitter language of ignorant fanaticism, on the single authority of the unfortunate creature whose name is attached to the book (which is the object of this criticism). In the meantime, some of the Protestant inhabitants of Montreal had voluntarily instituted an inquiry into the origin of the accusations, and the result was the perfect establishment of the falsehood of the statements which have since been woven into the book under notice.
The first piece of evidence we shall offer is the sworn affidavit of Dr. Robertson, a physician of long standing, and a Justice of the Peace. It is not the first in chronological order, but it is the first in importance, as it gives a connected history of Maria Monk for a considerable time previously. The document we give
of Maria Monk,
13
entire, invit.ng the reader's especial attention to the passages which we have printed in italics : —
" William Robertson of Montreal, doctor in medicine, being duly sworn on the Holy Evangelists, deposeth and saith as follows : On the 9th of November, 1834, three men came up to my house, having a young female in company with them, who they said was observed, that forenoon, on the bank of the canal, near the extremity of the St. Joseph's suburbs, acting in a manner which induced some people who saw her to think that she intended to drown herself. They took her into a house in the neighbourhood, where, after being there some hours, and interrogated as to who she was, &c., she said she was the daughter of Dr. Robertson. On receiving this information they brought her to my house. Being from home when they came to the door, and learning from Mrs. Robertson that she had denied them, they conveyed her to the watch-house. Upon hearing this story, in company with G. Aiildjo, Esq., of this city, I went to the watch-house to inquire into the affair. We found the young female, whom I have since ascertained to be Maria Monk, daughter of W. Monk of this city, in custody. She said that, although she was not my daughter, she was the child of respectable parents, in or very near Montreal, who from some light conduct of hers {arising from temporary insanity^ to which she was at times subject from her infancy) had kept her confined and chained in a cellar for the last four years. Upon examination, no mark or appearance indicated the wearing of manacles or any other mode of restraint She said, on my observing this, that her mother always took care to cover the irons with soft clothes, to prevent them injuring her skin. From the appearance of her hands she evidently had not been used to work. To remove her from the watch-house, where she was confined with some of the most profligate women of the town, taken up for inebriety and disorderly conduct in the streets, as she could not give a satisfactory account of herself, I, as a Justice of the Peace, sent her to gaol as a vagrant.
14
The True History
"The following morning I went to the gaol, for the purpose of ascertaining if possible who she was. After considerable persuasion, she promised to divulge her story to the Rev. H. Esson, one of the clergy- men of the Church of Scotland, to whose congrega- tion she said that her parents belonged. That gentle- man did call at the gaol and ascertain who she was. In the course of a few days she was released, and I did not see her again until the month of August last, when Mr. Johnson, of Griffin-town, joiner, and Mr. Cooley, of the St. Ann suburbs, merchant, called upon me about ten o'clock at night, and after some prefatory remarks, mentioned that the object of their visit was to ask me as a magistrate to institute an inquiry into some very serious charges which had been made against some of the Roman Catholic priests of the place, and the nuns of the General Hospital, by a female who had been a nun in that institution for four years, and who had divulged the most horrible secrets of that establish- ment, such as the illicit and criminal intercourse between the nuns and the priests, stating such particulars of depravity of conduct, on the part of these people in this respect, and their murdering the offspring of these criminal connections as soon as they were born, to the number of from thirty to forty every year. I iitftantly stated that I did not believe a word of what they told me, and they must have been imposed upon by some evil-disposed and designing person. Upon inquiry who this nun, their informant, was, I discovered that she answered exactly the description of Maria Monk whom I had so much trouble about last year, and mentioned to these individuals my suspicion and what I knew of that unfortunate girl. Mr. Cooley said to Mr. Johnson : * Let us go home, we are hoaxed.' They told me that she was then at Mr. Johnson's house, and requested me to call there and hear her story.
** The next day, or the day following, I did call, and saw Maria Monk at Mr. Johnson's house. She repeated in my presence the substance of what was mentioned to me before, relating to her having been in the nunnery
of Maria Monk.
15
for four years ; having taken the black veil ; the crimes committed there ; and a variety of other circumstances concerning the conduct of priests and nuns. A Mr. Hoyte was introduced to me, and was present during the whole of the time that I was in the house. He was represented as one of the persons who had come in from New York with this young woman, for the purpose of investigating into this mysterious affair. I was asked to take her deposition, on her oath, as to the truth of what she had stated. I declined doing so, giving as a reason, that from my knowledge of her character, I considered her assertions upon oath were not entitled to more credit than her bare assertion, and that I did not believe either ; intimating at the same time, my willing- ness to take the necessary steps for a full investigation, if they could get any other person to corroborate any part of her solemn testimony, or if a direct charge were made against any particular individual of a criminal nature.
" During the first interview with Messrs. Johnson and Cooley, they mentioned that Maria Monk had been found in New York, in a very destitute situation by some charitable friends, who administered to her neces- sities, being very sick. She expressed a wish to see a clergyman, as she had a dreadful secret which she wished to divulge before she died; a clergyman visiting her, she related to him the alleged crimes of the priests and the nuns of the General Hospital at Montreal. After her recovery, she was visited and examined by the Mayor and some lawyers at New York, afterwards at Troy, in the State of New York, on the subject ; and I understood them to say that Mr. Hoyte and two other gentlemen, one of them a lawyer, were sent to Montreal with her, for the purpose of examining into the truth of the accusations thus made. Although incredulous as to the truth of Maria Monk's story, I thought it incum- bent on me to make some inquiry concerning it, and have ascertained where she (Maria Monk) has been residing a great part of the time she states having been an inmate of the nunnery. During the summer of 1833
i6
The True History
she was at service at William Henry; the winters of 1832-3, she passed in this neighbourhood of St. Ours and St. Denis. The accounts given of her conduct that season, corroborate the opinions I had before entertained of her character.
"W. Robertson." "Sworn before me, at Montreal, this 14th day of Nov. 1835.
" Benjamin Holmes.
"Justice of the Peace."
So strong is the evidence of Dr. Robertson, in proof of the mingled insanity and depravity of Maria Monk, that we might safely rest upon it, the case of the clergy and nuns. In the first place, she represented herself as the daughter of Dr. Robertson. Finding from the per- sonal attendance of Dr. Robertson, that this story could not be maintained, she substituted for it a statement to the effect that her parents resided near Montreal, and that they kept her chained in a cellar for the last four years. At a subsequent period she gives up the cellar story for one which seemed likely to become more profitable, and she then represented herself as having been an inmate of the Hotel Dieu during the very four years that she had previously said she had been chained in a cellar by her parents.
But although each of these stories contradicts the other, and all of them completely destroy the general credibility of the witness, we have further, the direct testimony of Dr. Robertson, that during the four years in question, she was neither chained in a cellar, nor out- raged in a nunnery. In 1832 she was at William Henry — a town about forty-five miles below Montreal, and in the winter of 1832-3 sh j was living in the same neighbourhood, namely, at St. Ours or St. Denis, two villages lying south and inland of the town just named.
We now come to the affidavit of the mother of Maria Monk. It is of great length, and contains many minor details which do not materially strengthen the evidence, though they would do so were that evidence of a less
of Maria Monk.
17
decided character. Many of those details we shall therefore omit, giving only the most important passages. The affidavit was sworn on the 24th October, 1835, before Dr. Robertson, whose own evidence the reader has just perused. Mrs. Monk declares in this affidavit:
"That, wishing to guard the public against the deception which has lately been practised in Montreal by designing men, who have taken advantage of the occasional mental derangement of her daughter^ to make scandalous accusa- tions against the priests and nuns in Montreal, and afterwards to make her pass herself for a nun who had left the Convent."
She proceeds to state that in August, 1835, a man named Hoyte, who stated himself to be a Minister of New York, called upon her and informed her: —
•* That he had lately come to Montreal with a young woman and child of five weeks old; that the woman had absconded from him at Goodenough's Tavern, where they were lodging, and left him with the child. He gave me a description of the woman ; I un- fortunately discovered that the description answered my daughter; and the reflection that this stranger had called upon Mr. Esson, our pastor, and inquiring for my brother, I suspected that this was planned ; I asked for the child, and said that I would place it in a nunnery ; to that, Mr. Hoyte started every objection, in abusive language, against the nuns."
Subsequently the child was delivered to her. Mrs. Monk then sent an acquaintance, a Mrs. Tarbert, to seek for her daughter, who was found, but she refused to go to her mother's house. The only fact of impor- tance in this portion of the affidavit, is * that Maria Monk had borrowed a bonnet and shawl, to assist her to escape from that Mr. Hoyte at the hotels and she request- ed Mrs. Tarbert to return them to the owner. We now proceed to quote a further portion of Mrs. Monk's affidavit: —
" Early in the afternoon of the same day, Mr. Hoyte came to my house with the same old man, wishing me to make all my efforts to find the girl, in the meantime
i8
The True History
speaking very bitterly against the Catholics, the priests, and the nuns ; mentioned that my daughter had been in a nunnery, where she had been ill-treated. I denied that my daughter had ever been in a nunnery; that when she was about eight years of age she went to a day-school ; at that time came in two other persons, whom Mr. Hoyte introduced; one was the Rev. Mr. Brewster; I do not recollect the other reverence's name. They all requested me, in the most pressing terms ^ to try to make it out my daughter had been in the nunnery, and that she had some connexion with the priests of the seminary, of which nunneries and priests she spoke in the most outrageous terms; said that should I make that out, myself, my daughter and child, would be protected for life. I expected to get rid of their importunities in relating the melancholy circumstances by which my daughter ivas frequently deranged in her head, and told them that when at the age of about seven years, she broke a slate pencil in her head ; that since that time, her mental faculties were deranged, and by times much more than at other times, but that she was far from being an idiot ; that she could make the most ridiculous, but most plausible stories ; and that as to the history that she had been in a nunnery, it was a fabrication, for she was never in a nunnery ; that at one time I wished to obtain a place in a nunnery for her, that I had employed the influence of Mrs. De Montenach, of Dr. Nelson, and of our pastor, the Rev. Mr. Esson, but without success .... After many more solicitations to the same effect, three of them retired, but Mr. Hoyte remained adding to the other solicitations; he was stopped, a person having rapped at the door; it was then candle-light. I opened the door, and I found Dr. McDonald, who told me that my daughter Maria was at his house in the most distressing situation ; that she wished him to come and make her peace with me ; I went with the doctor to his house in McGill Street. She came with me to near my house, but would not come in, notwithstanding I assured her that she would be kindly treated, and that I would give her her child ;
of Maria Monk,
'9
she crossed the parade ground and I went into the house and returned for her; Mr. Hoyte followed me. She was leaning on the west railing of the parade; we went to her; Mr. Hoyte told her: My dear Mary, I am sorry you have treated yourself and me in this manner ; I hope you have not exposed what has passed between us; nevertheless I ivill treat you the same as ever, and spoke to her in the most ajfectionate terms ; took her in his arms ; she at first spoke to him very cross, and refused to go with him, but at last consented and went away with him, absolutely refusing to come to my house. Soon after Mr, Hoyte came and demanded the child ; I gave it to him.
"Next morning Mr. Hoyte returned, and was more pressing than ever in his former solicitations, and requested me to say that my daughter had been in the nunnery ; that should I say so, it would be better than one hundred pounds to me; that I would be protected for life ; and that / should leave Montreal, and that / would be better provided for elsewhere ; I answered that thousands of pounds would not induce me to perjure myself ; then he got saucy and abusive to the utmost; he said he came to Montreal to detect the infamy of the priests and the nuns."
What follows is not important, except that Mrs. Monk heard, a few days after, that her daughter was at one Mr. Johnson's, a joiner at Griffin-town,* with Mr. Hoyte; that he passed her for a nun who had escaped from the Hdtel Dieu nunnery; and on further inquiry she found that her daughter had subsequently gone off with the said Hoyte.
To the above ample testimony we shall only add the most material portion of the evidence of Mrs. Tarbert, the female who was requested by Mrs. Monk to seek out her daughter : —
** I know the said Maria Monk ; last spring she told me that the father of the child she was then carrying, was burned in Mr. OwsterHs house. She often went away in the country, and at the request of her mother, I accompanied her across the river. Last summer she came back to my
* Griffin-town is the western suburb of Montreal
20
The True History
lodgings and told me that she had made out the father of the child; and that very night left me and went away. The next morning I found that she was in a house of bad fame, where I went for her, and told the woman keeping that house, that she ought not to allow that girl to remain there, for she was a girl of good and honest family. Maria Monk then told me that she would not go to him (alluding, as I utiderstood, to the father of the child), for that he wanted her to swear an oath, that would lose her soul for ever, but jestingly said, would make her a lady for ever. I then told her (Maria) : do not lose your soul for money."
Here then, not only have we abundant proof of the utter falsehood of Maria Monk's * Awful Disclosures,' but the whole character of this abominable conspiracy is unfolded. It is quite clear that Maria Monk had been living in a state of concubinage with Hoyte, and there is every reason to believe that the infant alluded to was the fruit of their intercourse. Hoyte probably belongs to to one of those sects of fanatics, so common in some por- tions of the United States, who will not scruple to resort to any means, however criminal, to bring discredit on the professors either of the Catholic or of the Episcopalian faith. This, at least, is the only mode of accounting for his conduct, and for that of the other wretches associated with him.
But little now remains to be added. Touching the character of the Catholic clergy and nuns of Canada, we might add the testimony of several persons now in London, * whose opportunities of observation have been ample, having resided many years in Canada, during the whole of which period not even a whisper was ever uttered against the servants of the Gospel; on the contrary, the spotless purity of their lives was universally acknowledged. Living in the midst of a populous city, their residences open to any visitor, constantly mixing with the inhabitants, they may be said to be perpetually under the public eye ; hence it would
* [That is, in 1836, when this Dublin Review article appeared.]
of Maria Monk
21
be quite impossible that any irregularity of conduct could be practised without attracting attention and leading to exposure. Most of the individuals named in Maria Monk's book are specially known for the practice of every active virtue. With reference to education particularly, both priests and nuns have secured the enduring gratitude of the community of Lower Canada. The seminaries of Montreal and Quebec are the only public schools of any note in Lower Canada, and there is scarcely an individual of education in the province who is not indebted for his mental acquirements to one or other of these excellent establishments.
The same may be said of the Nunneries as places of education for girls. So deservedly popular are they, that the Protestant English are in the habit of sending their daughters to those institutions for elementary education and as the Quebec Mercury very properly observes, when these daughters in their turn become mothers, it is seldom that they do not evince their confidence in the purity of the lives and conduct of the members of these establish- ments, by committing their own daughters to their care. .... That any persons of a (respectable) station in life should be found so destitute of all sense of religion, as to republish known calumny, the falsehood of which was demonstrated, might indeed create the extreme of sur- prise, if anti-Catholic and ultra-Protestant bigotry had not furnished multitudinous instances of the total aban- donment of all shame, of such an utter disregard of veracity, that Charles James Fox's expression of " a good Protestant lie " is not so familiar as to suppress every angry emotion, and to cause a smile of contempt to take the place of a more legitimate resentment.
n. FURTHER EVIDENCE.
Here we part company with the Dublin Review article. Here also we might finish, were it not that soon after the article in question was written, addi- tional evidence came to light, still further showing the utter worthlessness of the book and of the unhappy woman who was concerned in its publication. A thorough in-
22
The True History
vestigation of the whole aflfair was made by Col. W. L. Stone, Editor of the New York Commercial Advertiser. This gentleman, a Protestant, and previously an ardent believer in the veracity of Maria Monk's story, went over to Montreal, fully determined to search the convent in question in confirmation of his belief, and after- wards to publish for the benefit of the public whatever result might come from his visit. He was accompanied by Mr. A. Frothington, President of the Bank of Montreal, and Mr. Duncan Fisher, another Protestant gentleman of the same city. They obtained permission from the Bishop, visited the convent together, and searched it from garret to cellar. Every hole and corner, every cellar and passage, was explored by them. They interviewed the nuns, and questioned them, but none of them ever knew of such a person as Maria Monk as ever having been a member of that sisterhood. They never heard of such an individual as Jane Ray, though Maria Monk's book contains such pathetic and gloomy stories concerning the "awful sufferings" of this same person. We shall see afterwards of what institution Jane Ray was an inmate. They knew not any nun called Sister " Frances 'Partridge " or " Sister Frances." The result of Col. Stone's inspection of the convent was the firm conviction, and in fact, the certain knowledge, that the whole account of Maria Monk's Disclosures was a pure fiction, and Maria Monk herself an arrant imposter. The whole of this Protestant gentleman's experience may be seen in a little book, entitled Refuta- tion of the Fabulous History of the Arch-Impostor Maria Monk (Art and Book Company, Leamington, price 3d.). Our account of Col. Stone's investigation has been taken from it.
Not only were no such persons as are mentioned in Maria's book known to the Sisters, but the very description given so minutely by her, of the convent, and the pas- sages and doors she asserts that she passed through to make her second escape ; the very position of the con- vent, the alleged underground passages leading from the seminary to the convent, all these were found to
of Maria Monk.
25
have no existence, nor ever at any time to have existed. Another Protestant gentleman named Mr. W. Perkins, of Montreal, had also obtained episcopal sanction and visited this convent, searching it all over and with a like result. (This also is recorded in Col. Stone's book.) These gentlem.en determined to shame Maria Monk by publicly confronting her. Several public interviews took place between Col. Stone and Maria Monk. The result was in each case, that she made some glaring blunders regarding the convent and its inmates which Col. Stone and his friends from their actual experience were able to contradict on the spot. Maria Monk's friends made another effort to save her " reputation." They introduced for the first time a certain so-called " nun " who asserted she had been since Maria Monk's time, an inmate of the " Black Nunnery." The supporters of Maria Monk looked upon the advent of this new confederate as a godsend, and a godsend it really proved itself to be, in a manner that completely overthrew the cause of the "Father of lies." " In ten minutes," writes Col. Stone, "in the presence of half-a-dozen other friends, clerical and laical, was the imposture unmasked." Frances Partridge forgot herself completely, and in describing the convent, located it on the wrong side of a very large block of buildings, quite in a different direction from its actual position ; giving an entrance leading to it which completely contradicted the one given by Maria Monk, her prompter, as well as the actual one seen by Col. Stone with his own eyes in visiting the convent. This w"as no lapsus lingucRy writes the Colonel, for time was given Frances to
recover herself; Maria Monk gave her a "hint" or two, but she did not "take." Three times did she repeat the same fatal mistake, so that Col. Stone exposed her and denounced her to her face, together with Maria Monk as an arrant fraud. There stood at the same time as the Hotel Dieu Convent, another institution for the reclaiming of prostitutes to a life of virtue, known as the " Magdalen Asylum," and kept by Mrs. McDonnell. This lady has sworn an
24
The True History
affidavit before a public notary at Montreal, that Maria Monk was never a nun at all, but had always led the life of a prostitute. She states that the names of "Fougnde," mentioned in the Awful Disclosures, were in reality the names of the Misses Fournier, her assistant directresses in the Magdalen ^. sylum, and that " Howard, Jane McCoy, Jane Ra, and Reed," introduced into the same narrative, so far from ever having been nuns, were reclaimed prostitutes, living in the Asylum at the very time Maria Monk was under probation for an amendment of her wicked and infamous career. More- over Mrs. McDonnell states that the description given of the Hotel Dieu Convent is alone applicable to the Magdalen Asylum. The following is the affidavit:—
"Province of Lower Canada, district of Montreal.
" Before me, Adam L. MacNider, one of His Majesty's Justices of the Peace for the district of Mon- treal, appeared Agatha Henrietta Huguet Latour, widow of the late Duncan Cameron McDonnell, who after making an oath on the holy Evangelists, declared that for six years past she had conducted and managed an institution in the city of Montreal, commonly known and distinguished as the Magdalen Asylum ; that about the close of the month of November, 1834, Maria Monk, daughter of Mrs. W. Monk, housekeeper of the Govern- ment House in the city of Montreal, entered the Asylum and became an inmate thereof; and she understood that the said Maria had for many years led the life of a stroller and prostitute, and that she received her into the Asylum with the hope of effecting her reformation ; that in the progress of her acquaintance with the character of the said Maria, she found her to be very uncertain and grossly deceitful; but that she nevertheless did persevere in her efforts to reclaim her to the paths of virtue and morality.
"And deponent further declared that having been informed that the said Maria held conversation with a man who had reached the yard of the Asylum by scaling the enclosures, she sent for the said Maria,
of Maria Monk.
25
and severely reprimanded her, pointing out that her conduct in holding such conversation was in direct violation of the rules of the institution, and did more- over indicate a disposition to relapse into her former vicious courses; that the said Maria was not touched by the remonstrances addressed to her, but became more indecorous in her conduct every day, and that finally, deponent was obliged to dismiss her from the Asylum; that the said Maria before her dismissal did appear discontented with her residence there, but deponent would not consent to her withdrawal, without the consent of the said Mrs. Monk, who was accordingly informed of her daughter's conduct, and her desire to withdraw from the Asylum. And deponent further de- clared that she had reason to believe that the man with whom the said Maria communicated during her stay at the Asylum was .... having been informed thus by the said Maria herself.
" And deponent further declared that she had reason to believe that the said Maria was in a state of pregnancy at the time she entered the Asylum ; and deponent further declared that the said Maria was dismissed from the Asylum at the beginning of the month of March, 1835, and withdrew, as this de- ponent has been informed, to her mother's house. And deponent further declared that she had read the pamphlet entitled, " Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk," and that deponent was thereby informed for the first time, that the said Maria had been at any time the in- mate of a convent ; that the said Maria, at the time she was in the Magdalen Asylum, did never pretend to deponent or anyone else, according to the information and belief of the deponent, that she had been an inmate of the Hotel Dieu Convent, or of any convent whatever; but that deponent had always understood and believed that she had for many years led the life of a vagrant and disorderly person. And deponent further declared that she had reason to believe that the name " Fougn^e " mentioned in the said Disclosures^ is mis-spelt for '< Fournier." That at the. same time the said Maria
26
The True History
was at the Asylum, Miss Hypolite Fournier and Miss Clotilde Fournier, two sisters, were assistants to deponent in the management of the Asylum, and that deponent believed them to be identical with the persons mention- ed in the Disclosures as the two Misses "Fougndes." "And deponent further stated that she had reason to believe the person named "Miss Howard" in the Disclosures to be identical with a person bearing that name who lived in the Asylum contemporaneously with the said Maria, and deponent further declared that she had reason to believe and therefore did believe the person named "Jane McCoy" in the said Disclosures to be identical with a person bearing that name who lived contemporaneously with the said Maria, and deponent further declared that she had reason to believe and did believe the person designated in the said I)isclosures as "one of my cousins who lived at Lachine named Reed" to be identical with a per- son bearing that name who lived contemporaneously with the said Maria, and deponent further declared that many ot the rules and habits of conventual life were in use and practice before, since, and at the time the said Maria Monk was an inmate thereof, and that she had reason to believe and did believe that the description given in the said Disclosures of the interior of the H6tel Dieu Nunnery is an incorrect description of the apartments of the said asylum, of which the said Maria was for some time an inmate, as is hereinbefore mentioned ; and further deponent declareth not.
(Signed) " Agatha Henrietta Huguet Latour. " Widow of D. C. McDonnell.
"Sworn before me, the 27th day of July, 1836. (Signed)
"Adam L. MacNider,
" Justice of the Peace."
of Maria Monk,
27
III. MARIA MONK'S DEATH.
Maria Monk furnishes a dreadful illustration of the saying, " As a person lives, so will he die." She found her way several times into gaol. At length when arrested for the last time on a charge of stealing from a wretched paramour of hers, and cast into prison, she ended there her miserable career. The account of her death may be found in DolmatCs Register of October 9th, 1849. "Two months ago or more, the police book recorded the arrest of the notorious but unfortunate Maria Monk whose book of Awful Disclosures created such excite- ment in the religious world some years since. She was charged with picking the pocket of a paramour in a den near the Five Points. She was tried, found guilty and sent to prison, where she lived up to Friday last, when death removed her from the scene of her sufferings and disgrace. What a moral is here indeed!"
[Note to new edition, April, 1895.] As adding to the evidence in this tract it is only right to mention a little book of which we were not aware when first writing, but which contains still fuller proofs of the imposture. An Awful Exposure of the Atrocious Plot formed . . . through the intervention of Maria Monk (Jones and Co., Montreal, 1836) traces step by step and authenticates with eighteen affidavits from her successive employers, etc., the places where Maria Monk was in fact residing during the years when according to her story she was in the H6tel Dieu, at Montreal.
Still, although there is this fuller evidence to be had the present tract contains more than enough to convince every sane mind that Maria Monk^s Awful Disclosures is a bare-faced and slanderous fiction. What then are we to think of publishers, who, like Mr. Kensit, of Pater- noster Row, still continue to circulate it with the object of prejudicing English minds against Catholic Convents? What are we to think of the Committee of the Protestant Alliance, who, notwithstanding their active support of
28
Maria Monk
this gentleman's publications, have never yet felt called to administer to him an indignant rebuke ? What are we to think of Mr. Walter Walsh — the prominent ultra- Protestant lecturer and editor of the Protestant Observery a cherished organ of this self-same party, who, in his issue for April, 1895, admits a letter in defence of the imposture under the title of "The Story of Maria Monk, New Evidence?" And what are we to think of the Nestor of ultra- Protestant lecturers, the octogenarian Pastor Chiniquy, who, if " Chase Roys," the writer of the aforesaid letter in the Protestant Observer is to be believed, assured the latter that, only a few years after the events he had himself been told by a nun in the Hotel Dieu of Montreal, when she had first exacted from him a promise to reveal nothing till after her death, that " Miss Monk's statements in that book were true,"" and that "she had seen worse things done here than anything she has told." Well, there is one thing which we must think, and which we can think with great satisfaction. It is that these gentlemen are over- shooting their own mark, and are doing good service to the Catholic Church by making it so palpable to all that their persistent vilification of her doctrines and institutions is not due to any very remarkable love of truth or justice.
[Cardinal Newman's lecture, called " True Testimony unequal to the Protestant View," containing much infor- mation upon similar Protestant calumnies, may be had from 21 Westminster Bridge Road, S.E., price 2d, by post 2 Jd. : see also " Calumnies against Convents," by the Rev. S. F. Smith, S.J.]
60^37
WHAT CATHOLICS BELIEVE.
Frioe One Fenny eaoh.
Before and After the Reformation.
The Continuity of the English Church. By
the Very Rev. Canon Croft. The Popes and the English Church. By the
Rev. W. Waterworth. The Old Religion In England. By Rev. P. Lynch. Before and After Gunpowder Plot. By E.
Healy Thompson. The Faith of the Ancient English Church.
concerning the Holy Eucharist. By the
Very Rev. Provost Northcote. The Faith of the Ancient English Church
concerning the Blessed Virgin. By the same. Henry VIII. and the English Monasteries.
By Cardinal Manning. The Church Catholic. By B. F. C. CostelloCk. The Mass. By the same. The First Experiment In Civil and Relli?l-
ous Liberty. By James Carmont. A Scriptural Life of the Blessed Virgin.
With notes by the Rev. W. H. Cologan. dateohlsm of Christian Doctrine. [Vaughan. The Conversion of England. By Cardinal What Is the Bible? By the Rev. W. H. Anderdon. -Confession to a Priest. By the same. [S.J.
The Catholic Church and the Bible. <2uestlons and Answers. Comprising: —
Friendly Advice, is lOO.
Why I am a Roman Catholic, is. lOO.
Why are you a Protestant? is. lOO.
What Joes the Bible say? is. lOO.
How can I find God's true Church? is. lOO.
What do Catholics believe? is. lOO.
Questions for one whom it concerns. 6d. loa
How " the Church of England Washed her Face." By the Rev. Sydney F. Smith, S.J.
The Spanish Inquisition. By the same.
Mr. CoUette as a Historian. By the same.
Blessed Peter and the English People. By Cardinal Vaughan. [Loughnani S.J.
St. Bartholomew's Day. By the Rev. W.
The Huguenots. By the same.
The Catholic Church. By the Rev. Dr. Gildea.
Catholic Truth Socibtv, i8 Wbst Square, London, S.E.
n
EVERT PROTESTANT SHOULD READ
ALL ABOUT MONKS AND NUNS
ELLEN GOLDING
C- ' THE '-
"RESCUED NUN
fH
CALUMNIES AGAINST CONVENTS.
THE IMMURING OF
NUNS.
Mr. RIDER HAGGARD
AND
THE MYTH OF THE WALLED-UP NUN.
21 Westminster Bridge Road, London, S.E.: 22 Paternoster Row, E.C.
Pn'ce One Penny each ; post-free^ Three-halfpence ; or the five for Sixpence,
IS. G
I.
55
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