Part 14 (2/2)
This Ubaldus has a brother, like minded with himself, also a member of the same misnamed order of monks, who has recently effected his escape froelist Borzinski was a physician in the convent of the Brothers of Mercy at Prague He is a scientific and cultivated man By the study of the Psalms and Lessons from the New Testament, which make up a considerable part of the Breviary used in cloisters, he was first led into Protestant views He had been for seventeen years resident in different cloisters of his order, as sick-nurse, alatherer, student, and physician, and knew the conventual life out and out As he testifies: ”There was little of the fear of God, so far as I could see, little of true piety; but abundance of hypocrisy, eye-service, deception, abuse of the poor sick people in the hospitals, such love and hatred as are co vices of every kind”
He now felt disgust for the cloister life, and for the Rorace, to attain to the new birth through the Word of God Speaking of his change of views to a Prussian clergyman, he thus describes his conversion: ”Look you, it was thus I became a Protestant I found a treasure in that dustheap, and went aith it” This treasure he prized ht within hiht, what an illumination he must receive if he could read and understand the whole Bible
He did not, however, betray his dissatisfaction, but devoted hience He ht still have remained in the Order, his life hid with Christ in God, had not the hierarchy, under pretence of lected statutes of the Order, brought in such changes for the worse as led him to resolve to leave the order, and the Ro his convictions, and the advice of a faithful but very cautious clergyman, he betook himself to the territories of Prussia, where, on the 17th of January, 1855, he was received into the national church at Petershain, by Dr Nowotny, hireat efforts had been et his person into the power of his adversaries
As he had now left the church of Roed ht venture to return to his own country Taking leave of his Prussian friends, to whoreatly endeared himself by his modesty and his lively faith, he went back to Bohemia, with a heart full of peace and joy
He lived for some time amidst many perplexities, secluded in the house of his parents at Prosnitz, till betrayed by some elt in the same habitation On the 6th of March he was taken out of bed, at eight, by the police, and conveyed first to the cloister in Prosnitz, where he suffered ue Here the canon Dittrich, ”Apostolical Convisitator of the Order of the Brothers of Mercy,” justified all the inhuman treatment he had suffered, and threatened him orse in case he refused to recant and repent
Dittrich not only deprived hi over to Protestantisreater crime than if he had plundered the convent of two thousand florins He was continually dinned with the cry, ”Retract, retract!” He was not allowed to see his brother, confined in the same convent, nor other friends, and was so sequestered in his cell as to otten by all the world
He h soet a letter conveyed occasionally to Dr Nowotny These letters were filled with painful details of the severities practised upon him In one of theloomy walls around me” He was transferred to a cell in the most unwholesome spot, and infested with noisome smells not to be described Close by him were confined some poor maniacs, sunk below the irrational brutes
Under date of April 23d he writes: ”Every hour, in this frightful dungeon seems endless to me For many weeks have I sat idle in this durance, with no occupation but prayer and communion with God” His appeals to civil authority and to the Priary procured him no redress, but only subjected hied father, a h of sound understanding, locked up aed toto do with it, and returned the same day to his sorrowful home As he had been notified that he was to be imprisoned for life, he prayed most earnestly to the Father of mercies for deliverance; and he was heard, for his prayers and endeavors wrought together The sinking of his health increased his efforts to escape; for, though he feared not to die, he could not bear the thought of dying imprisoned in a e of his ive out that he had returned to the bosoht be considered as an insane person, and his renunciation of Roement of mind Several plans of escape were projected, all beset with er The one he decided upon proved to be successful
On Saturday, the 13th of October, at half-past nine in the evening, he fastened a cord rate did not extend to the top Having climbed over this, he lowered himself into a small court-yard He had now left that part of the establishment reserved for the insane, and was now in the cloistered part where the brethren dwelt But here his fortune failed hi with a light; and with aching heart and treain He returned to his cell, concealing his cord, and laid hi Monday, he renewed his efforts to escape He lowered hi weak in health and much shaken in his nervous system by all he had suffered in body and mind, he was seized with palpitation of the heart and trembled all over, so that he could not walk a step He laid down to rest and recover his breath He felt as if he could get no further ”But,” he says in his affecting narrative, ”My dear Saviour to whom I turned in this time of need, helped racious and co presence, and believed, in that disrace is sufficient for thee; for th is made perfect in weakness”
Borzinski now arose, pulled off his boots, and though every step wasto the first story
He went along the passage way until he ca into corridors where the cloister brethren lodged But the treuish, as he sought to open the door with a key hich he had been furnished He soon rallied again, and, like a spectre, gliding by the doors of the brethren, who occupied the second and third corridors, , he came with his boots in one hand, and his bundle in the other, to a fourth passage way, in which was an outside as trying to reach The cord was soon fastened to theframe, yet still in bitter apprehension; for this as seldom opened, and opened hard, and with some noise It was also only two steps distant from the apartht, and it wasof the , he would rush out and apprehend the fugitive However the as opened without raising any alar below; for though the spot is not very much frequented, yet the streets cross there, and people approach it fro these critical , and poor Borzinski tarried shi+vering in thefor near a quarter of an hour before he ventured to let hi his opportunity he heard the clock strike the third quarter after nine and knew that he had but fifteen minutes to reach the house where he was to conceal himself, which would be closed at ten When all was still, he calledthe cord, slid down into the street He could scarce believe his feet were on the ground Treratitude rather than fear, he ran bareheaded to his place of refuge, where he received a glad welcoarb, and tarried till three o'clock in the h the gloomy old capital of Bohemia, he reached the Portzitscher Gate, in order to pass out as early as possible Just then a police corporal let in a wagon, and Borzinski, passed out unchallenged It is needless to follow hih, of his history to prove that conventual establisherous alike to liberty and life AMERICAN AND FOREIGN CHRISTIAN UNION
In place of labored argu as strikingly illustrative of the spirit of Romanism at the present day
APPENDIX VII
NARRATIVE OP SIGNORINA FLORIENCIA D' ROMANI, A NATIVE OF THE CITY OF NAPLES
I was born in the year 1826, of noble and wealthy parents Our es, sacred paintings, and a neatly furnished mass altar My father was a man of the world He loved the society of fashi+onable men As he lived on the rents and income of his estates, he had little to do, except to amuse himself with his friends My mother, as of as mild and sweet disposition, loved my father very dearly, but was very unhappy the most of the ti with his dissolute co, and in balls, parties, theatres, operas, billiards, &c Father did not intend to be unkind to old, horses, carriages and groo, that his wife should be as happy as a princess Such was the state of society in Italy that ht their wives had no just reason to co as they were furnished with plenty of food, raiment and shelter
One of my father's most intimate friends was the very Rev Father Salvator, a Priest of the order of St Francis; he wore the habit of the order, his head was about half shaved The sleeves of his habit were very large at the elbow; in these sleeves he had small pockets, in which he usually carried his snuff box, handkerchief, and purse of gold This priest was , play cards, and tell adh in their chains
Such was the influence and power this Franciscan had over my father and mother, that in our house, his as law He was our confessor, knew the secrets and sins, and all the weak points of every ht e As I was the only child, I was much petted and caressed, indeed, such was my mother's affection for ht There was a handsoany confessional in our own chapel
When the priest wanted any member of the household to come to hi outside the chapel door, saying that he would hear confessions at such a time to-morrow
Thus, ould always have time for the full examination of our consciences Only one at a time was ever admitted into the chapel, for confessional duty, and the priest always took care to lock the door inside and place the key in his sleeve pocket My ed to confess once a week; the household servants, generally once aLent, when all the inhabitants of seven years, and upwards, are obliged to kneel down to the priests, in the confessional, and receive the wafer God under the severest penalties Woe to the individual who resists the ecclesiastical e, I was sent to the Ursuline Convent, to receive overness or a competent teacher to teach me at home but her as but a mere straw in the hands of our confessor and priestly tyrant It was solely at the recommendation of the confessor, that I was imprisoned four years in the Ursuline Convent As my confessor was also the confessor of the convent, he called hiuardian and protector, and recommended me to the special care of the Mother Abbess, and her holy nuns, the teachers, who spent much of their tih price, quarterly, forwas of the best kind, and I always had wine at dinner The nuns, my teachers, took much more pains to teach me the fear of the Pope, bishops and confessors, than the fear of God, or the love of virtue In fact, with the exception of a little Latin and embroidery, which I learned in those four years, I canorant as I was before, unless a little hypocrisy s on earth, none can teach hypocrisy so well as the Ro ladies seldom have much to complain of, unless they are charity scholars; in that case the poor girls have to put up with very poor fare, and e and even heavy blows; how irls, who are treated s, because they are orphans, and poor
Yet they in justice are entitled to good treatment, for thousands of scudi (dollars) are sent as donations to the convents for the support of these orphans, every year, by benevolent individuals So that as poor and unfortunate as these girls are, they are a source of revenue to the convents
For the first three years of my convent life, I passed the time in the school departhtless,to ah I treated all the school-mates with kindness, and true Italian politeness, I becairl, from the dukedom of Tuscany She made me her confidant, and told me all her heart Her parents ealthy, and both very strict members of the Romish Church But she had an aunt in the city of Geneva, as a follower of John Calvin, or a member of the Christian church of Switzerland This aunt had been yearly a visitor at her father's house She being her father's only sister, an affectionate inti a very pious, amiable woman, felt it her duty to impress the ion of the holy bible over popish traditions; and the truth of the Scriptures soon found its way to the heart offriend But her confessor soon found out that so on in her mind, and told her father There were only tays to save her soul froive her absolution and kill her before she got entirely out of the holy mother church; the other, was to send her to the Ursuline convent at Naples, where by the zeal and piety of those celebrated nuns, she ht be secured from further heresy
From this, the best friend of my school days, I learned more about God's word, and virtue, and truth, and the value of the soul, than froh wall, in which we frequently walked, and whispered to each other, though we trembled all the while for fear our confessor would by some means, find out that we looked upon the Romish church as the Babylon destined to destruction, plainly spoken of by St John the revelator