As soon as the priests, who had nailed this document to the
door of our chapel, had gone away at full speed, I went to see
it, and found, what I had expected, that it was not signed by the
bishop, neither by his grand vicar, nor any known person, and
consequently, it was a complete nullity, according to the law
of the church. Fearing I would prosecute him, as I threatened
he shrank from the responsibility of his own act, and had not
signed it. He was probably ignorant of the fact that he was
himself excommunicated, ipso facto, for not having signed the
document himself, or by his known deputies. I learned afterwards,
that he got a boy 12 years old to write and sign it. In
this way, it was impossible for me to bring that document before
any court, on account of its want of legal and necessary forms.
That act was also a nullity, for being brought by three priests
who were not mentis compos, from their actual state of drunkenness.
And again, it was a nullity, from the evident falsehood
which was its base.
It is alleged that the bishop had interdicted and suspended me
on the 19th of Aug., for canonical causes. But he had declared
to the four deputies we had sent him: "That Mr. Chiniquy was
one of my best priests, that nothing had been proved against
him," consequently, no canonical cause could exist for the allegation.
The people understood very well that the whole affair
was a miserable farce, designed to separate them from their pastor.
It had just, by the good providence of God, the contrary
effect. They had never shown me such sincere respect and
devotedness as since that never-to-be-forgotten day.
The three priests, after leaving, entered the house ot one of
our farmers, called Bellanger, a short distance from the chapel,
and asked permission to rest a while. But after sitting and
smoking a few minutes, they all went out to the stables. The
farmer finding this very strange, went out after them to see what
they would do in his stables: to his great surprise and disgust,
he found them drinking the last of their whiskey. He exclaimed:
"Is it not a shame to see three priests, in a stable, drinking
rum?"
They made no answer, but went immediately to their carriage
and drove away as quickly as possible, singing with all
their might, a bacchanalian song! Such was the last act of that
excommunication, which has done more than anything else to
prepare my people and myself to understand that the Church of
Rome is a den of theives, a school of infidelity and the very
antipodes of the Church of Christ.
