e earth can prove before any
court of justice in America that I have not always endeavored to live
an exemplary life and rigidly taught the doctrines of the Catholic
faith, although at times my whole life rebelled at being compelled to
do so, but my whole training and long association would invariably
get the master of my reason and better judgment, and I would be
forced by my superstitious training back into the mystified
labyrinths of my childhood's education.

I stood it until I became tortured day and night by the prod of
reason, then I quietly left the church and bade farewell to the
heathen Scapular and the ten thousand other trinkets of blind
paganism, and resolved to break the chain of this "_slave of the
soul_" and "_tyrant of reason_."

In this chapter we want to give the reader some idea of the
nonsensical and unreasonableness of the claims of Catholicism, so
that you may more fully understand how disgusting it is for a man who
endeavors to use his God-given abilities to submit to such
abominations.

The Catholic Church depends more upon the saving power of the
Scapular than it does upon the saving power of Jesus Christ. Now,
this is a broad expression, but I know whereof I speak and I am
prepared to back up the assertion with facts.

The Scapular is a veil or cape, which covers the shoulders. It was
worn as such by Monks and Nuns, over their dress, but which is best
known among Catholics as two little pieces of cloth worn out of
devotion, under ordinary garments, and connected by a string which
goes around the neck and hangs down, allowing this "trinket" to rest
upon the breast.

Catholic children, from their infancy, are taught that this trinket
is a preventative against accident and disease, and they actually
believe it, and should they lose this "nothing" they at once become
miserable and will undergo any hardship to possess another.

It was through the Carmelites (Monks) that this devotion began and I
believe that the history that I will relate in regard to it is the
first history ever repeated in this or any other country by an
ex-priest that ever lived or died.

A man by the name of Simon Stock was elected to the generalship of
the Carmelite Order, and this same Simon Stock was considered a
Saint, and it is taught by Catholicism that the Virgin Mary appeared
to Simon Stock in a vision and exhibited this Scapular and gave Stock
to understand that it was to be worn by the Catholic world in the