I handed this writing to Mr. Dunn, and said:
"What do you think of this act of submission?" He quickly
read it and answered:
"It is just what we want from you."
"All right," I rejoined. "But I fear the bishop will not accept
it. Do you not see that I have put a condition to our submission?
I say that we will submit ourselves to the bishop's authority,
but only according to the Word of God and the gospel
of Christ."
"Is not that good?" quickly replied Mr. Dunn.
"Yes, my dear, Mr. Dunn, this is good, very good indeed," I
answered, "But my fear is that it is too good for the bishop and
the Pope!"
"What do you mean?" he replied.
"I mean that though this act of submission is very good, I
fear lest the Pope and the bishop reject it."
"Please explain yourself more clearly," answered the grand
vicar. "I do not understand the reason for such a fear."
"My dear Mr. Dunn," I continued, "I must confess to you
here, a thing which is known only to God. I must show you a
bleeding wound which is in my soul for many years: A wound
which has never been healed by any of the remedies I have applied
to it. It is a wound which I never dared to show to any
man, except to my confessor, though it has often made me suffer
almost the tortures of hell. You know well that there is not a
living priest who has studied the Holy Scriptues and the Holy
Fathers, with more attention and earnestness, these last few years,
than I have. It was not only to strengthen my own faith, but
also, the faith of our people, and to be able to fight the battles of
our church against her enemies, that I spent so many hours of
my days and nights in those studies.
"But, though I am confounded and ashamed to confess it to
you, I must do it. The more I have studied and compared the
Holy Scriptures and the Holy Fathers with the teachings of our
church, the more my faith has been shaken, and the more I have
been tempted to think, in spite of myself, that our church has,
long ago, given up the Word of God and the Holy Fathers, in
order to walk in the muddy and crooked ways of human and
false traditions. Yes! the more I study, the more I am troubled
by the strange and mysterious voices which haunt me day and
night, saying:
"Do you not see that in your Church of Rome, you do not
follow the Word of God, but the lying traditions of men?"
"What is more strange and painful is that, the more I pray
to God to silence these voices, the louder they repeat the same
distressing things. It is to put an end to those awful temptations
that I have written this conditional submission. I want to
prove to myself that I will obey the Word of God and the gospel
of Christ, in our church, and I shall be happy all the rest of
my life, if the bishops accept this submission. But I fear it will
be rejected." Mr. Dunn promptly replied:
"You are mistaken, my dear Mr. Chiniquy. I am sure that
our bishop will accept this document as canonical, and sufficient
to show your orthodoxy to the world."
"If it be so," I replied, "I will be a most happy man." It
was agreed that on the 25th of March, I would go with him to
Dubuque, to present my act of submission to the administrator of
the diocese, after the people had signed it. Accordingly, at 7
p. m. on that day, we both took the train at Chicago for Dubuque,
where we arrived next morning. At 11 a. m., I went to the
palace of the bishop, who received me with marks of the utmost
cordiality and affection. I presented him our written act of submission
with a trembling hand, fearing he would reject it. He
read it twice, and throwing his arms around me, he pressed me
to his heart. I felt his tears of joy mixed with mine, rolling
down my cheeks, as he said:
"How happy I am to see that submission! How happy the
Pope and all the bishops of the United States will be to hear of
it, for I will not conceal it from you; we feared that both you
and your people would separate from the church by refusing to
submit to her authority."
I answered that I was not less happy to see an end to those
painful difficulties, and I promised him that, with the help of
God, our holy church would not have a more faithful priest than
myself.
While engaged in that pleasant conversation, the dinner hour
came. He gave me the place of honor on his right, before the
two grand vicars, and nothing could be more pleasant than the
time we spent around the table, which was served with a good
and well prepared, though frugal meal. I was happy to see that
the bishop, with his priests, were teetotalers. No wine nor beer
to tempt the weak. Before the dinner was over, the bishop said
to Mr. Dunn.
"You will accompany Mr. Chiniquy to St. Anne, in order
to announce, in my name, to the people, the restoration of peace,
next Sabbath. No doubt it will be joyful news to the colony of
Father Chiniquy.
"After so many years of hard fighting, the pastor and the
people of St. Anne will enjoy the days of peace and rest which
are now secured to them."
Then, addressing himself to me, the bishop said:
"The only condition of that peace is that you will spend fifteen
days in retreat and meditation in one of the religious houses
you will choose yourself. I think that, after so much noise
and exciting controversies, it will do you good to pass those days
in meditation and prayer, in some of our beautiful and peaceful
solitudes.
I answered him: "If your lordship had not offered me the
favor of those days of perfect and Christian rest, I would have
asked you to grant it. I consider it as a crowning of all your
acts of kindness to offer me those few days of calm and meditation,
after the terrible storms of those last three years. If your
lordship has no objection to my choice, I will go to the beautiful
solitude where M. Saurin has built the celebrated Monastery,
College and University of St. Joseph, Indiana. I hope that
nothing will prevent my being there next Monday. After going,
next Sabbath, in the company of Grand Vicar Dunn, to proclaim
the restoration of the blessed peace to my people of
St. Anne."
"You cannot make a better choice," answered the bishop.
"But, my lord," I rejoined, "I hope your lordship will have
no objection to giye me a written assurance of the perfect restoration
of that long-sought peace. There are people who, I know,
will not believe me, when I tell them how quickly and nobly
your lordship has put an end to all those deplorable difficulties.
I want to show them that I stand, to-day, in the same relation
with my superiors and the church in which I stood previous to
these unfortunate strifes."
"Certainly," said the bishop, "you are in need of such a document
from your bishop, and you shall have it. I will write it
at once."
But, he had not yet written two lines, when Mr. Dunn
looked at his watch and said: "We have not a minute to lose,
if we want to be in time for the Chicago train.
I then said to the bishop: "Please, my lord, address me that
important document to Chicago, where I will get it at the postoffice,
on my way to the University of St. Joseph, next Monday;
your lordship will have plenty of time to write it, this afternoon."
The bishop, having consented, I hastily took leave of him,
with Mr. Dunn, after having received his benediction.
On our way back to St. Anne, the next day, we stopped at
Bourbonnaise to see the grand vicar Milloux, one of the priests
who had been sent by the bishops of Canada to help my lord
O'Regan to crush me. We found him as he was going to his
dining room to take his dinner. He was visibly humiliated by
the complete defeat of Bishop O'Regan, at Rome.
After Mr. Dunn told him that he was sent to proclaim peace
to the people of St. Anne, he coldly asked the written proof of
such strange news.
Mr. Dunn answered him: "Do you think, sir, that I would
be mean enough to tell you a lie?"
"I do not say that you are telling me a lie," replied Mr.
Mailloux, "I believe what you say. But, I want to know the
condition of that unexpected peace. Has Mr. Chiniquy made
his submission to the church?"
"Yes, sir," I replied, "here is a copy of my act of submission."
He read it, and coldly said: "This is not an act of submission
to the church, but only to the authority of the Gospel, which is
a very different thing. This document can be presented by a
Protestant; but, it cannot be offered by a Catholic priest to his
bishop. I cannot understand how our bishop did not see that at
once."
Mr. Dunn answered him: "My dear grand vicar Mailloux,
I have often been told that it does not do to be more loyal than
the king. My hope was that you would rejoice with us at the
news of the peace. I am sorry to see that I was mistaken. However,
I must tell you that if you want to fight, you will have nobody
to fight against; for Father Chiniquy was, yesterday, accepted
as a regular priest of our holy church by the administrator.
This ought to satisfy you."
I listened to the unpleasant conversation of those two grand
vicars, with painful feelings, without saying a word. For, I was
troubled by those mysterious voices which were reiterating in
my mind the cry: "Do you not see that in the Church of Rome,
you do not follow the Word of God, but only the lying traditions
of men?"
I felt much relieved, when I left the house of that so badly
disposed confrere, to come to St. Anne, where the people had
gathered on the public square, to receive us, and rend the air
with their cries of joy at the happy news of peace.
The next day, 27th of March, was Palm Sunday, one of the
grand festivities of the Church of Rome; there was an immense
concourse of people, attracted not only by the religious solemnity
of the feast; but also by the desire to see and hear the deputy
sent by their bishop to proclaim peace. He did it in a most elegant
English address, which I translated into French. He presented
me a blessed palm, and I offered him another loaded with
beautiful flowers, in the presence of the people, as a public sign
of the concord which was restored between my colony and the
authorities of the church.
That my Christian readers may understand my blindness, and
the mercies of God towards me, I must confess here, to my
shame, that I was glad to have made my peace with those sinful
men, which was not peace with my God. But, that great God
had looked down upon me in mercy. He was soon to break that
peace with the great apostate church, which is poisoning the
world with the wine of her enchantments, that I might walk in
the light of the Gospel and possess that peace and joy which
passeth all understanding.
