whose worshippers address him as "Vicegerent of God on earth." Of course
his words must convince them, if ours do not: "Vitam lascivam ducunt, et
nimium dissolutam." "Swine Priory," in 1303, had a Prioress named
Josiana, whose conduct made the name of her house quite appropriate. In
France, in the Council of Troyes, A. D. 999, the Archbishop said, "In
convents of monks, canons, and nuns, we have lay abbots residing with
their wives, sons, daughters, soldiers and dogs;" and he charges the
whole clergy with being in a deprived and sinful state. But the
particulars now before us, of such shameful things in Germany, Italy,
&c., for ages, would fill a larger volume than this.

Now, let the defenders of nunneries repeat, if they dare, their
hackneyed denunciations of those who deny their sanctity. Here stand
some of their own bishops and popes before us; and the anathemas must
fall first upon mitres and tiaras! Americans will know how much
confidence to place in the pretended purity of institutions, whose
iniquity and shame have been thus proclaimed, age after age, in a far
more extensive manner than by this book. But we can at any time shut
their mouths by the mere mention of "_Den's Theology_," which they
must not provoke us to refer to.



AWFUL DISCLOSURES.




CHAPTER I.