Shortly it is argued that if the sister or penitent is to see "God in superiors," that "in nakedness" she is to follow Christ, that she should not "recoil from degradation," but freely give herself up to every trial, “however humiliating and "degrading," it is not impossible, seeing it is practised by the Roman priesthood, but most probable, that in the Ritualistic sisterhoods of enclosed orders the identical acts are committed which have reached daylight from the Romish nunneries, and that there are, unknown yet to the world, Ritualist St. Elizabeths not of Hungary but of Britain. Let England look to it. Again and again has the prayer gone forth to have an inspection of convents and sisterhoods, even so late as 1892, but, alack! the Roman and Ritualist interest is too strong. But courage! Arise, Mothers, Sisters, Wives, and Daughters, agitate and plead with your sons, brothers, husbands, and fathers that, if they be true Englishmen, they will arise from their lethargy and demand and insist that the privilege of this land be accorded to all; that religion shall not build and keep prisons into which it is sacrilege to enter, where the lynx eye of the law does not penetrate, where, guarded and secluded from garret to cellar or dungeon cell, the Habeas Corpus Act is a dead letter for the poor nun or sister. O! have mercy on her, and, if it so please her, free from the influence of priest or mother superior, she shall be free to quit her dreary abode and return, if she be minded, to the highest and purest attributes of womanhood, the most ancient and the most glorious, those of WIFE AND MOTHER. And now we must turn and see what say Romanist and K Ritualist if the novice or sister, finding out what the inside of the prison is, wishes to return to the world :— "St. Cyril, when explaining, these words of Jesus Christ to the young man with whom he was speaking, 'That he who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is not fit for the kingdom of God.' comments on them thus, 'That he who loses time in consulting with his parents respecting his vocation is one of those whom the Lord has declared unfit for the Kingdom of God.""-A. LIGUORI'S Instructions and Considerations on the Religious State, p. 25. "The temptations by which the devil most frequently endeavours to induce novices to abandon their vocation are the following: Ist. He tempts them by the tenderness of their parents. To resist this we must remember that Jesus Christ has declared that 'No one is worthy to follow Him who loves father or mother more than Him," and He declares that He came not to send peace but war. I came not to send peace but a sword; for I came to set a man at variance against his father, and a daughter against her mother, etc.' And wherefore is this great desire to separate relations from each other? Because our Lord well knew the injury which arises from such intercourse, and that as the affairs of our salvation, especially about our religious vocation, we have no greater enemies than our relations, as He says in the words following those I have just cited, 'A man's foes shall be those of his own household,' and quotes Matt. xix. 29."— Ibid., pp. 63 and 75. * "My dearest Child, -I have not studied Roman Catholic systems, and therefore cannot tell you whether I agree with them on the subject of Obedience or not. But this I know, that I must have cheerful, loving, confiding Obedience, and I must have it from the heart, or I will have none. You bound yourself to me by a sacred tie, and that bond will stand at the Day of Judgment, let Satan and your own heart gloss it over now however successfully. THESE TIES, SPIRITUAL AND NOT NATURAL, ARE ETERNAL! You are deceiving yourself. It is not your conscience that rebels, it is a very different spirit. You have not been told to do anything against which your conscience ought or could rebel; but you have been reproved for the spirit in which you acted, and have been warned against loving home, relations, and the world more than Christ. Again I repeat to you, as I shall have to answer for the words I have said to you at the Day of Judgment, those solemn words of Christ, 'He who putteth his hand to the plough and looking back is not fit for the Kingdom of God. If any man love father and mother more than Me he is not worthy of Me.' The watchword of this society is-Love and Obedience, and obedience whole, and trustful, and filial, and entire.”—Anglican Sister, pp. 148, 149. There is evidence of a novice wishing to leave, but feeling bound to stay. "After she became a sister she again *Then apparently Mother A. must have been inspired to introduce Jesuit authors like Rodriguez, and to insist on the context. wished to leave, but she was told by the Lady Superior that she could not do so, and that she was bound to the sisterhood for life. On another and later occasion she was not allowed to leave, although she wished to do so."-Allcard v. Skinner, summing up of Lord Justice Lindley.* (Moral force was used in Sister M. A.'s Convent. See Nunnery Life.) So that the reader must perceive there is a moral stigma attached to the sister who desires to leave the so-called holy retreat, which undoubtedly in many instances has the desired effect, and secures her lifelong endurance of this "holy obedience" principle. There is, however, another point that deserves attention, for some assert that, whatever the austerities in Roman, there are none in Anglican con vents. Here is Rodriguez's teaching for Sister Maude : "2. These mortifications are reduced to four heads: to fasts, hair cloths, disciplines, and watchings. Hair cloths are of various kinds; some are made of strong or coarse hair, the others are bands or chains of brass or iron wire. The former may be injurious to persons of delicate constitutions: they inflame the flesh and weaken the stomach by drawing its natural heat to the external surface of the body. The latter may be worn on the arms, legs, or shoulders, without injury to the health; but not on the breast, or around the body. Disciplines of flagellations are a species of mortifications strongly recommended by St. Francis de Sales, and universally adopted in religious communities of both sexes."-Spouse of Christ, A. LIGUORI, p. 288. "The exercise of mortification more particularly regards religious persons, because in effect we left the world and entered into religion for no other end than to mortify ourselves."-Vol. II., p. 21. "Do you desire, my daughter, that humiliation, rejection, contempt, contradiction, sharp words, imperious orders, proud looks, rebuffs, unjust correction, slander, and calumny should have no power to disturb your soul? I will teach you the secret. Mentally place yourself beneath the feet of all your sisters, reflect that you are only worthy to be cast into Hell, and cover yourself with confusion since, notwithstanding all your sins, you are allowed to dwell among such holy souls. Ceaselessly call to mind that you are the servant and spouse of a God who was covered with igno * Miss Allcard was rich, and was introduced to Miss Skinner by the latter's confessor, Rev. Dr. Nihill. miny, and remember that Religious are called above all others to follow the counsel of the saintly author of the 'Imitation,'-'Love to be despised and trodden under foot.""-Religious Life for Sisters of Mercy, R. M. BENSON, p. 59. See pp. 100-2. Rodriguez quotes on the subject of Penances and Chastisement the following (remembering always that the priest or superior is in the person of God). "For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth."-Prov. iii. 12. "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore and repent."-Rev. iii. 19. "Correction is grievous unto him that forsaketh the way: and he that hateth reproof shall die."-Prov. xv. 10., and Heb. xii. 6 and 7. "For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening God dealeth with you as sons: for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?" But the reader should peruse the following verses likewise. 66 66 And if Dr. Johnson be consulted, he will shew that the sense in which these words "mortify," chasten," correction" should be taken is not that of self-infliction, but done by order of or by the superior or priest himself. Hence how many suffer both shame and corporal punishment (the same as the worst criminal) has been carefully concealed from us, and it is only here and there, as in the case of Sister Mary Agnes, that we get a glimpse of how Holy Obedience is enforced! Now let us turn to the covert murders committed in these holy abodes of Christ and his spouses! "I have now come to that part of my narrative in which I must again speak of the sufferings of Sister Magdalene. One day she came from the refectory and being so much exhausted as to be hardly able to ascend the stairs, I offered to assist her, and the superior reprimanded me for it, saying her weakness was feigned and that my pity was false pity: she then said to Sister Magdalene, after we were "Whether at Miss Sellon's or any other nunnery, if a friendship between two of the members be discovered they are at once carefully separated. (This is borne out by Sister M. A.) À dying sister at Plymouth said: 'I sit and think of home until I fear that I am going mad. Go and request Sister to come to me, that she may ask the Lady Superior again to let me go home while ་ seated, in a tone of displeasure, if she did not make herself of use to the Community' she would send her back to Ireland. On which Sister M. Magdalene rose and said 'Ma mère, I would like—' The superior cut short what she was going to say by stamping on the floor, etc., and after this imposed hardships which she was hardly able to sustain, frequently reminding her that she had but a short time to work out her salvation."-Six Months in a Convent, by R. REED, pp. 46-7. The same sister would often ask permission to take a little water as she was very thirsty (suffering from dropsy): the Superior always refused it; but still the obedient Magdalene replied: 'Ma mère, I thank you."-Ibid., p. 57. "It is here understood that Sister M. M.was in a consumption, and had entered the convent nine months before in perfect health. She was worn out with austerities and died."-Ibid., note, p. 41. I have strength: I cannot die day, instead of When the cook It appears the sister was removed to a different branch for a time, and on the day of her death pleaded for her allowance of bread and milk twice in the once, it being the only thing she relished. took the milk she said she was dying, and so frightened the good-natured cook that she ventured in to the superior's regions and called a senior sister, who came attended by the same benevolent holy sister, who again remarked: “You must rouse yourself, dear; it is only a fainting fit!!!" "The dying girl smiled sweetly, and ere the smile had flitted from her face her soul had entered where sorrow and sighing are done away."-p. 16. "Many years after, she learned that poor Freda had caught cold from wearing boots which let in water and died of consumption, sadly neglected to the last.". Sister Maude, note, p. 114. |