Page:Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk (Truslove & Bray).djvu/13

11 tendency of that book, and told us that but for it many a soul condemned to hell, and suffering eternal punishment might have been in happiness. They would not say anything in its favour; for that would be speaking against religion and against God. They warned us against its woe, and represented it as a thing very dangerous to our souls. In confirmation of this they would repeat some of the answers taught us at catechism; a few of which I will here give. We had little catechisms, put in our hands to study; but 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 in my belief in the Roman Catholic doctrines. Those questions and answers I can still recall with tolerable accuracy, and some of them I will add here. I never have read them as we were taught them only by word of mouth.

"Question. Why did not God make all the commandments?"—"Response. Because man is not strong enough to keep them."

And another; "Q. Porquoi l'homme ne lit pas l'Evangile?"—"R. Parce que l'esprit de l'homme est trop borne et trop faible pour comprendre qu'est ceque Dieu a ecrit."

"Q. Why are men not to read the New Testament?"—"R. 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 catechisms in use in Montreal and other places where I have been, but all the children in the Congregational Nunnery were taught them, and many more not found in these books.