A SUCCINCT AND ACCURATE ACCOUNT OF THE SYSTEM OF DISCIPLINE, EDUCATION, AND THEOLOGY, THE POPISH COLLEGE OF MAYNOOTH. BY EUGENE FRANCIS O'BEIRNE, LATE STUDENT OF MAYNOOTH COLLEGE. HEREFORD: W. H. VALE; LONDON: SIMPKIN AND MARSHALL; 1840. 56. PREFACE. THE AUTHOR sends the following work forth to the country, with the fervent hope that the important and painful truths which it undeniably contains may not fail of awaking public attention to the state of an Institution for the support of which it is taxed, without knowing the demoralizing, vicious, and abominable principles inculcated therein. In the following pages little is said of the religious errors taught in the institution which forms their subject matter. He has confined himself to the practical principles of a pernicious tendency there maintained, which affect the rights, liberties, and lives of his Protestant fellowsubjects, and prove so detrimental to the peace, tranquillity, and well-being of his unhappy country. The Author, having vainly attempted to arouse the attention of the legislature, by numerous petitions, (the only proper and legitimate mode by which it can or ought to be approached,) to the state of Maynooth College, feels it now a duty which he owes both to the cause of religion and morality to appeal to the resistless tribunal of public opinion, entertaining and cherishing a strong hope that the appeal will not be made in vain. He cannot bring himself to believe that the people of England, who made such noble and virtuous effortsefforts finally crowned with success-to emancipate the negro captives, will not use some exertions to rend asunder the still more oppressive chains forged in the demoniacal workshop of Maynooth, over which Satan himself seems to preside. The Author thinks it right to state that the several pages of his book which a sense of delicacy prohibited him from translating, form only a part of the system of education in obscenity and vice in which the students are daily trained. He would not have sullied his pages with such abominations, although even shrouded in a dead language, had not a conviction of duty, both to himself and the public, demanded, at all hazards, their exposure, and a sacrifice of his own personal feelings. The people of this country cannot be expected to approach the legislature with the expression of their opinion, abhorrent of the system of education pursued at May nooth College, without first having some previous knowledge of the secrets of the prison-house. Let any father, husband, or brother, take the following work and translate the questions which the Maynooth class books prescribe and enjoin to be put, by unmarried priests, to daughters, to wives, and to sisters, and the Author is fully convinced, if he does not greatly mistake the character of Englishmen, that, after the perusal, no language would be able to convey their feelings of merited indignation at so vile, so unrighteous, so diabolical a system. The Author invites inquiry and challenges investigation-he challenges any man to invalidate or refute any of his statements, or prove him to have maligned the College of Maynooth, or to have exaggerated its system of discipline, education, or theology. He has avoided all allusions which might be deemed political, lest he should give offence to any party and thus prejudice them against a question, not of party or of faction, not of Whig, Tory, or Radical, not of Churchman or Dissenter, but solely of education and morality. By a fearless and faithful exposure of a vicious system of education, the enormities of which are unparalleled even in heathen coun |