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Conversion Testimony of a Former Catholic Priest

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

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

Chapter 1

 The Bible and the priest of Rome

Chapter 2

 My first schooldays at St. Thomas
 The monk and celibacy

Chapter 3

 The confession of children

Chapter 4

 The shepherd whipped by his sheep

Chapter 5

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

Chapter 6

 Festivities in a parsonage

Chapter 7

 Preparation for the First Communion
 Initiation to idolatry

Chapter 8

 The First Communion

Chapter 9

 Intellectual education in the Roman Catholic college

Chapter 10

 Moral and religious instruction in the Roman Catholic colleges

Chapter 11

 Protestant children in the convents and nunneries of Rome

Chapter 12

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

Chapter 13

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

Chapter 14

 The vow of celibacy

Chapter 15

 The impurities of the theology of Rome

Chapter 16

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

Chapter 17

 The Roman Catholic priesthood, or ancient and modern idolatry

Chapter 18

 The dogma of transubstantiation
 The old paganism under a Christian name

Chapter 19

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

Chapter 20

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

Chapter 21

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

Chapter 22

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

Chapter 23

 Canadian masses sold in Paris for a discount

Chapter 24

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

Chapter 25

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

Chapter 26

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

Chapter 27

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

Chapter 28

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

Chapter 29

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

Chapter 30

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

Chapter 31

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

Chapter 32

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

Chapter 33

 The god of Rome eaten by rats

Chapter 34

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

Chapter 35

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

Chapter 36

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

Chapter 37

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

Chapter 38

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

Chapter 39

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

Chapter 40

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

Chapter 41

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

Chapter 42

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

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

Chapter 45

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

Chapter 46

 Intrigues, impostures, and criminal life of the priests in Bourbonnais
 Indignation of the bishop
 The people ignominiously turn out the criminal priest from their parish
 Frightful scandal
 Faith in the Church of Rome seriously shaken

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

Chapter 51

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

Chapter 52

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

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

Chapter 55

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

Chapter 56

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

Chapter 57

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

Chapter 58

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

Chapter 59

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

Chapter 60

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

Chapter 61

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

Chapter 62

 Bird's eye view of the principal events after my conversion
 My narrow escapes
 The end of the voyage through the desert to the Promised Land