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CT 8V
A ROMAN CATHOLIC CANARD.
A Fabricated Account of a Scene at the Death
bed of Thomas Paine. Did Bishop
Fenwick Write It?
“I have lived an honest and useful life to mankind; my time
has been spent in doing good, and I die in perfect composure
and resignation to the will of my creator God ” (Will of Thomas
Paine, Jan. 18, 1809).
Several newspapers, religious and secular, have
lately published a long and libelous account of “The
Last Hours of the Great Infidel Thomas Paine,” pur
porting to be a letter signed “ ^Benedict, Bishop of
Boston.” The Bight Bev. Benedict Joseph Fenwick,
D.D., was born in St. Mary’s county, Meh, Sept., 3,
1782, was bishop of Boston in 1825, and died Aug,
11, 1846. The letter, if authentic, was written to his
brother Enoch, who died in 1828. It begins thus,: ?
‘■'A short time before Paine died I was sent for by him. He
was prompted to this by a poor Catholic woman who went to see
him in his sickness, and who told him among other things that
in his wretched condition, if anybody could do him good it would
be a Roman Catholic priest. This woman was an American con
vert (formerly a shaking Quakeress), whom I had received into
the church only a few weeks before. She was the bearer of this
message to me from Paine. I stated the circumstance to
Ffather] Kohlman at breakfast, and requested him to accompany
me. After some solicitation on my part he agreed to do so, at
which I was greatly rejoiced, because I was at the time young
and inexperienced in the ministry, and glad to have his assistance,
as I knew from the great reputation of Paine that I should have
to do with one of the most impious as well as infamous of men.”
Father Fenwick at this time had been a Jesuit priest
about one year, was not yet twenty-seven years.old,
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A ROMAN CATHOLIC CANARD.
and was sent in that very year from Georgetown, D.C.,
with Father Kohlman, another Jesuit, to take charge
of the only Catholic church in New York city. Now
there were two classes of men that Paine hated
above all others, namely, Scotch tories and Catholic
priests. But the writer of this letter tells us unequiv
ocally and repeatedly that Paine sent a poor shaking
Catholic Quakeress to invite a Eomish priest to visit
him, and that she accordingly went and summoned a
young Jesuit father who had just become pastor of
the only Catholic church in New York. Credat Jesuiticus cum pelle caudce /
Arriving at the house where Paine lodged, the two
priests were met at the door by a “decent-looking,
elderly woman,” who inquired if they were the Cath
olic priests. “For,” said she, “Mr. Paine has been so
much annoyed of late by ministers of other denom
inations calling on him that he has left express orders
with me to admit no one to-day except the clergymen
of the Catholic church.”
Poor pestered Paine ! Parsons Milledollar and Cun
ningham had been there, and the latter had said to
him, “ You have now a full view of death ; you cannot
live long, and whosoever does not believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ will assuredly be damned.” And to this
pious and polite address Paine had replied : “ Let me
have none of your popish stuff. Get away with you.
Good morning, good morning.” And when Mr. Mille
dollar attempted to address him he was interrupted
with the same language. And when they were gone
Paine said to Mrs. Heddon, an elderly woman em
ployed to wait on him, “Don’t let’em come here
again; they trouble me” (Sherwin’s Paine, 220).
Other clergymen had spoken to him in a similar man
ner, and were similarly repelled. But after all this we
are told that Paine sent for a Jesuit and gave orders
to his pious Protestant attendant to let in none that
day but Catholics ! Credat holy friar!
�A ROMAN CATHOLIC CANARD.
3
The two priests entered the parlor. Paine was
asleep, and the housekeeper said it wouldn’t do to
wake him, it made him so cross. Mr. Sherwood, a
neighbor, who frequently visited Paine in his illness,
says that old Mrs. Hedden was a religious bigot, and
never let slip an opportunity of teasing Paine with
her clattering tongue, and that she was artfully sent
by priests to attend on him during his illness. She
would frequently read the Bible to him, but to this he
paid no attention (Sherwin’s Paine, 222, 226).
The Jesuits resolved to wait until Paine awoke.
Meanwhile the woman said to them :
“ Gentlemen, I really wish you may succeed with Mr. Paine,
for he is laboring under great distress of mind ever since he was
informed by his physician that he cannot possibly live, and must
die shortly. He sent for you to-day because he was told that if
■any one could do him good you might.”
Credat Joseph Cook !
The next sentence of this woman’s reported conver
sation is remarkable:
“Possibly he may think you know of some remedy which his
^physicians are ignorant of.”
As if Dr. Manley and other regular physicians were
to be superseded by the medical skill of a youthful
priest who had recently arrived from the Jesuit col
lege of Georgetown, D. C. Oredat ex-Surgeon-General
Hammond!
But now comes a sentence for which we happen to
hav a prior parallel in a letter written Sept. 27, 1809,
by Paine’s physician, Dr. Manley, at the request of
the malignant libeler, Cheetham, and published that
same year. Here are the parallel sentences:
From Dr. Manley’s Letter, 1809.
From, the Fenwick Letter, 1819.
He would call out during his
paroxysms of distress, without
intermission, ‘O Lord, help me!
God help me! Jesus Christ
help me!” etc., repeating the
same expressions without the
least variation, in a tone of voice
that would alarm the house.”
“‘0 Lord, help me!” he
will exclaim in his paroxysms of
distress, ‘ God help me ! Jesus
Christ help me ! ” repeating the
same expression without the
least variation, in a tone of
voice that would alarm the
house.”
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A ROMAN CATHOLIC CANARD.
Here is a sentence of thirty-seven words plagiarized
from Dr. Manley’s letter. The only words that differ
from Manley’s are “will exclaim in” for “would call
out during.” Four words are transposed and two
omitted by the literary thief. This evidence alone
stamps the Fenwick letter as a fabrication. Its first
publication was in the United States Catholic Magazine
for 1846, and in the Catholic Herald, Oct. 15, 1846.
That was the year Bishop Fenwick died, and was
eighteen years after the death of the brother to
whom it purports to have been addressed. And now
the question for the Catholic church in America to
answer is, Did Bishop Fenwick write it? Credat Leo
XIII.
But now we propose to prove that Dr. Manley’s
statement is untruthful. It is certainly a gross per
version of the facts. He says he was called upon by
accident to visit the patient on the 25th of February,
1809; that the next day he related his condition to
two of Paine’s friends, one being an executor of his
estate (the will is dated Jan. 18th, and the executors
named are Walter Morton, Thomas Addis Emmett,
and Mrs. Bonneville, all legatees), and being requested
to pay him particular attention, he from that time
considered Paine under his care. It certainly looks
as if Dr. Manley sought to be employed, and his
whole conduct was, to say the least, unfair and de
ceitful. Soon after writing that letter he joined the
church. It was written at the solicitation of Paine’s
enemy and calumniator Cheetham, to be incorporated
into Cheetham’s “Life of Paine,” then preparing for
the press. The author solicited Dr. Manley’s observa
tions on Paine’s “temper and habits, the cause and
nature of his disease, the kind of persons by whom
he was visited during his illness, their general con
versation with him respecting his Deistical works, his
own remarks, opinions, and behavior” (Cheetham’s
Paine, 300). Five days after the date of that re
�A ROMAN CATHOLIC CANARD.
5
quest Dr. Manley has an answer completed, filling
eleven pages of Cheetham’s lying biography. The
doctor says:
“ I hasten, in conformity to your wishes, to communicate the
information I possess respecting its subject. Though my oppor
tunity has been great, you will, no doubt, observe my knowledge
to be very limited ” (Ibid).
The house where Paine died was owned by Amasa
Woodsworth, who was living as late as 1839 in East
Cambridge, Boston. In that year he made an author
ized statement to Gilbert Vale about Paine’s last
days, in which he characterizes Dr. Manley’s pub
lished account as false. He says that he visited
Paine every day for six weeks before his death, fre
quently sat up with him, and did so on the last two
nights of his life. He was always there with Dr.
Manley, assisted him in lifting Paine, and was pres
ent when the doctor asked him if he wished to be
lieve that Jesus Christ was the son of God, and heard
Paine’s emphatic answer, “ I have no wish to believe
on that subject” (Vale’s Paine, 156).
Now at that very time Dr. Manley says he intro
duced the subject to Paine by saying :
“ ‘ Why do you call on Jesus Christ to help you? Do you be
lieve he can help you? Do you believe in the divinity of Jesus
Christ? Come, now, answer me honestly. I want an answer
from the lips of a dying man, for I verily believe that you will not
live twenty-four hours.’ I waited some time at the end of every
question; he did not answer, but ceased to exclaim in the above
manner. Again I addressed him: ‘Mr. Paine, you have not an
swered my questions. Will you answer them? Allow me to ask
again, “ Do you believe, or, let me qualify the question, Do you
wish to believe, that Jesus Christ is the son of God?’” After
a pause of some minutes he answered, ‘ I have no wish to be
lieve on that subject’” (Cheetham’s Paine, 307).
These were Paine’s last words, and were uttered in
the hearing of Dr. Manley and Amasa Woodsworth.
we now quote from the latter’s authorized statement in
1839, made to Paine’s biographer, Vale :
“He informs us that he has openly reproved the doctor for the
falsity contained in the spirit of that letter, boldly declaring before
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A ROMAN CATHOLIC CANARD.
Dr. Manley, who is yet living, that nothing which he saw justi
fied his (the doctor’s) insinuations.”
The fact was, as Woods worth, states, that Paine was
too ill and too much tortured to converse on abstract
subjects. And anyone can see that Dr. Manley was
impertinent and cruel in insisting upon an answer to
such a question from a dying man. And his re
peated . statement about Paine’s calling on Jesus
Christ to help him is a gross perversion. For this
same Woodsworth in 1842 was asked by Philip
Graves. M.D., if Paine recanted and called upon God
to save him. And Woodsworth replied :
“ No. He died as he had taught. He had a sore upon his side,
and when we turned him it was very painful, and he would cry
out, ‘ 0 God!’ or something like that. But that was nothing,
for he believed in a God ” (Ingersoll’s Paine Vindicated, Truth
Seeker Tract No. 123, p. 21).
Another probable source of this perversion of facts
is an extract from the journal of Stephen Grellet, a
Quaker preacher, made in the fall of 1809. He re
cords the falsehoods of Mary Roscoe. We quote
the last few lines:
“ She told him [Paine] that when very young his ‘ Age of
Reason ’ was put into her hands, but that the more she read in it
the more dark and distressed she felt, and she threw the book into
the fire. ‘ I wish I had done as you,’ he replied, ‘ for if the devil
ever had any agency in any work, he has had it in my writing
that book.’ When going to carry him some refreshments, she
repeatedly heard him uttering the language, ‘0 Lord!’ ‘Lord
God!’ or ‘Lord Jesus, hav mercy on me!’” (Ibid, pp. 13, 14).
The reader will now begin to see the probable
source of the Manley inspiration. Cheetham wanted
evidence of Paine’s recantation. The lying Mary
Roscoe, who probably never visited Paine, was re
porting to her Quaker brethren that Paine regretted
his Deistical work and called on Jesus to have mercy
on him.
Ten years later, when Mary Roscoe had become
Mary Hinsdale, another Quaker, Charles Collins, learn
ing that William Cobbett contemplated writing a life
�A ROMAN CATHOLIC CANARD.
7
of Paine, went to him and wanted to persuade him
that Paine had recanted. Cobbett laughed at him,
and sent him away. The wily Quaker came again
and again; he wanted Cobbett to say, “ It was said
that Paine recanted.” “No,” said Cobbett; “but I
will say that you said it, and that you tell a lie, unless
you prove the truth of what you say. Griv me proof,
name persons, state times and precise words, or I will
denounce you as a liar.” Friend Charley was posed,
but something had to be done. He at last brought a
paper cautiously and craftily drawn up and signed
with initials. Cobbett compelled him to give the full
name : it was Mary Hinsdale. As soon as practicable,
Cobbett called on Friend Mary. She shuffled, evaded,
equivocated. It was so long ago she could not speak
positively of anything; she had never seen the paper ;
had never given Friend Charley authority to say any
thing in her name. And finally she said:
“I tell thee that I have no recollection of any person or thing
that I saw at Thomas Paine’s house ” (Vale’s Paine, 183, 184).
The falsehood about Paine’s recantation is now so
apparent that no intelligent and reputable person pre
tends to believe it The following letter, therefore,
from the Rev. A. W. Cornell, of Harpersville, N. Y.,
to the New YoxkWorld in 1877, will be highly amus
ing to those who never read it before:
“I see by your paper that Bob Ingersoll discredits Mary Hins
dale’s story. . . . Ingersoll is right in his conjecture that
Mary Roscoe and Mary Hinsdale was the same person. Her
maiden name was Roscoe. . . . My mother was a Roscoe,
a niece of Mary Roscoe, and lived with her for some time. I
have heard her relate the story of Tom Paine’s dying remorse, as
told her by her aunt, who was a witness to it. She says (in a
letter I have just received from her) ‘he (Tom Paine) suffered
fearfully from remorse, and renounced his Infidel principles,
calling on God to forgive him, and wishing his pamphlets and
books to be burnt, saying he could not die in peace until it
was done’” (Ingersoll’s Paine Vindicated, Truth Seeker Tract
No. 123, p. 57).
Reader, what do you think about the case now ?
The Rev. A. W. Cornell says in another part of his
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A ROMAN
CATHOLIC CANARD.
letter, “ No one who knew that good lady [Mary Ros
coe Hinsdale] would for one moment doubt her ve
racity, or question her testimony.” Credat Cornell!
But let us return to the Fenwick letter. The talk
of the old housekeeper to the Jesuit priests con
tinues ;
“Sometimes he cries, ‘0 God ! what have I done 'to suffer so
much?’ Then shortly after, ‘But there is no God!’ And again
a little after, ‘Yet, if there should be, what will become of me
hereafter ?’ ”
The original of this falsehood will be found in the
journal of the Quaker Greliet in 1809, as quoted
above. Mary Roscoe said that she repeatedly heard
Paine say, “ O Lord I” “ 0 God I” or “ Lord Jesus, have
mercy on me.” And Parson Cornell says her veracity
was beyond question. But it so happens that the
Quaker merchant and preacher Willet Hicks, whose
standing was beyond reproach, discredits Mary’s story
altogether. He was in the habit of visiting Paine,
and sending little delicacies to him by his daughters,
one of whom afterward stated that their hired girl
Mary Roscoe “ once wished to go with her but was
refused” (Vale’s Paine, 177-178).
In 1841 Gilbert Vale interviewed the venerable
Willet Hicks, concerning the last hours of Paine. The
old gentleman said that his servant Mary Hinsdale
never saw Paine to his knowledge. After Paine’s
death, the Friends annoyed and pressed him to say
something detrimental to Paine. He was beset by
them here and in England, where he went soon after.
They wished to convict Paine of calling on Jesus, and
they would say: “Did thee never hear him call on
Christ?” And he added:
“You cannot conceive what a deal of trouble I had; and as for
money, I could have had any sums if I would have said any
thing against Thomas Paine, or if I would even have consented to
remain silent. They informed me that the doctor [Manley !] was
willing to say something that would satisfy them if I would
engage to be silent only. But, they observed, he (the doctor)
knows the standing of Willet Hicks, and that lie knows all about
�A ROMAN CATHOLIC CANARD.
9
Paine, and if he (Hicks) should contradict what I say [i. e., what
the doctor says] he would destroy my [i. e., the doctor’s] tes
timony.”
The reader will perceive from this that Dr. Manley’s
testimony might have been still more false but for the
fear of Willet Hicks.
In conclusion, Mr. Hicks said to Mr. Vale, who took
down the words and published them:
“Thomas Paine was a good man—an honest man.”
And with great indignation he added :
“He was not a man to talk to Mary Hinsdale” (Vale’s Paine,
178, 179).
When Cobbett had got from Mary Hinsdale a re
cantation of the falsehood that Paine had recanted, he
sought to bring Friend Charley’s nose to the grind
stone; but Charley had left town for fear of the yel
low fever, and Cobbett soon returned to England.
Some years afterward this same Collins called at the
house of Gilbert Vale to beg him not to leave the
Beacon at his house. Mr. Vale then asked Collins
what induced him to publish the account of Mary
Hinsdale. Collins said he thought it true ; he believed
she had seen Paine, who might confess to a girl what
he would not to Willet Hicks. He knew that Hicks
and many other respected Friends did not believe it,
but yet it might be true. Vale asked him what he
thought of her character now He replied: “ Some
of our Friends believe she indulges in opiates, and do
not give her credit for truth.” “ Do you believe they
are justified in their opinions?” said Vale. “ Oh, yes,”
said Collins; “ I believe they speak the truth, but this
does not affect her testimony when a young woman ;
she might then have spoken the truth ” (Ibid, 185,186).
No more need be said on the question of the verac
ity of Mary Roscoe Hinsdale, or whether the dying
Deist said in her hearing, “Lord Jesus, have mercy on
me.” Nor will any intelligent reader of Paine’s “Age
of Reason ” believe that he ever cried out in the hear
�10
A ROMAN CATHOLIC CANARD.
ing of his housekeeper, “ But there is no God ! ” Or
that he ever said in his senses, “Yet if there should
be, what will become of me hereafter? ” Credat Mrs.
Partington !
The old housekeeper continued her talk to the Jes
uits. as reported in the Fenwick letter:
“Thus he will continue some time, when on a sudden he will
scream as if in terror and agony, and call out to me by name.
On one of these occasions, which are very frequent, I went to
him and inquired what he wanted. ‘ Stay with me,’ he replied,
‘for God’s sake, for I cannot bear to be left alone.’ I then ob
served that I could not always be with him, as I had much to at
tend to in the house. ‘ Then,’ said he, ‘send even a child to stay
with me, for it is hell to be alone.’ I never saw, she concluded,
a more unhappy, a more forsaken man; it seems as if he cannot
reconcile himself to die.”
This is borrowed from Dr. Manley, who says :
“He would not be left alone night or day; he not only required
tohave some person with him, but he must see that he or she was
there, and would not allow his curtain to be closed at any time;
and if, as would sometimes unavoidably happen, he was left
alone, he would scream and holla until someperson came to him.”
The doctor had previously said that at first Paine
was satisfied to be left alone during the day, but later
he was afraid he should die when unattended. And
though he professed to be above the fear of death,
some parts of his conduct were with difficulty reconcilable with his belief. But he further states that
Paine’s expressed anxiety was concerning the disposal
of his body, an application being pending for an inter
ment in the Friends’ burying-ground, which was at
last rejected, And in this conversation the doctor re
ports Paine as saying, what one may well imagine
he would, “ I think I can say what they make Jesus
Christ to say—‘My God, my God, why hast thou for
saken me ? ’ ” Such expressions may be used by sick
or distressed people, and it is easy to torture them into
profanity. But Paine was never charged with pro
fanity of speech, and Dr. Manley introduced the sub
ject of religion to him by saying:
�A ROMAN CATHOLIC CANARD.
11
“ You have never been in the habit of mixing in your conver
sation words of coarse meaning; you have never indulged in the
practice of profane swearing.”
We now return to the Fenwick letter. Paine hav
ing awoke, the two Jesuits were conducted into his
room :
“On entering we found him just getting out of his slumber.
A more wretched beingin appearance I never before beheld. He
was lying in a bed, sufficiently decent of itself, but at present
besmeared with filth.”
O holy mother! Did the “decent-looking elderly
woman,” who was expecting the priests to call that
day, introduce them to the dying man in a bed be
smeared with filth ? Why did not Dr. Manley or the
executors discharge such a nasty nurse ? Credat Lord
Dundreary !
“His look was that of a man greatly tortured in mind; his eyes
haggard, his countenance forbidding, and his whole appearance
that of one whose better days had been one continual scene of
debauch.”
Paine was troubled in mind about his burial, just
as Voltaire was before him. Dr. Manley argued with
him that that should be a matter of least concern.
Paine answered “ that he had nothing else to talk
about, and that he would as lief talk of his death as
of anything; but that he was not so indifferent about
his corpse as I appeared to be.” The description of
Paine’s person in the Fenwick letter is borrowed from
various accounts by his lying adversaries in those
times. Credat Dr. Talmage!
“His only nourishment at this time, we are informed, was
nothing more than milk punch, in which he indulged to the full
extent of his weak state.”
Did the scholarly bishop of Boston, ex-president of
Georgetown College, commit the solecism, “ only
nothing more than ? ” Credat Artium Magister !
When Dr. Manley first saw Paine he had been dis
pensing with the usual quantity of stimulus, which
privation seemed to make him worse, and he had just
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A ROMAN CATHOLIC CANARD.
resumed it. And the doctor further says, “ He never
slept without the assistance of an anodyne.”
The Fenwick letter proceeds :
“He had partaken, undoubtedly, but very recently of it, as the
sides and corners of his mouth exhibited very unequivocal traces
of it, as well as of blood which had also followed in the track and
left its mark on the pillow. His face to a certain extent had also
been besmeared with it.”
Shame on such a nurse! At this time Paine’s ex
ecutors were paying $20 a week for the sick man’s
board and attendance. Why didn’t this “decent
looking ” nurse wipe her patient’s face before bring
ingin these two priests ? Credat Mark Twain!
Dr. Manley says that, about a fortnight after his
first attendance on the patient,
“ He became very sore, the water which he passed in bed ex
coriating the parts to which it applied, and this kind of ulcera
tion, which was sometimes very extensive, continued in a greater
or less degree till the time of his death. ... In this deplor
able state, with confirmed dropsy, attended with frequent cough,
vomiting, and hiccough, he continued growing from bad to worse,
till the morning of the 8th of June, when he died. . . . Dur
ing the last three weeks his situation was such that his decease
was confidently expected every day, his ulcers having assumed a
gangrenous appearance, being excessively fetid, and discolored
blisters having taken place on the soles of his feet, without any
ostensible cause, which baffled the usual attempts to arrest their
progress; and when we consider his advanced age, the feebleness
of his constitution, his constant practice of using ardent spirits
ad libitum, till the commencement of his last illness, so far from
wondering that he died so soon, we are constrained to ask, How
did he live so long ?”
Mark the language—“ using ardent spirits ad libitum
till the commencement of his last illness." The doctor is
unwilling to attest the ad libitum indulgence during the
last sickness, and what did he know about prior in
dulgence? It looks as if Cheetham had a hand in the
draft of the Manley letter. The doctor evidently
stopped the diet of milk punch and prescribed mor
phine, for he says the patient never slept without the
assistance of an anodyne.
The stories about Paine’s beastly intemperance are
�A ROMAN
CATHOLIC CANARD.
13
all lies. They were started by Cheetham, the con
victed libeler, and were continued by Grant Thorburn,
who after Paine’s death was compelled by advice of
his counsel, the late Horace Holden, to retract a libel
about Mrs. Bonneville, if we remember rightly, but
incidentally about the deceased Infidel. Perhaps the
most plausible authentic testimony against Paine’s so
briety was given by Carver, who invited him to board
at his house. Nothing was said about charging for
board, and Paine remained with him some months.
While there Paine had a stroke of apoplexy, and
for a while had to have a nurse. Carver got straitened
for money, and sent Paine a bill for board for himself
and nurse. Paine was indignant, and was going to pay
it and cut Carver’s friendship. But his friends said
the charge was exorbitant and persuaded him to resist
payment. Then Carver wrote a scurrilous letter in
which he accused Paine of helping himself too freely
from Carver’s demijohn of brandy, and pretending
that it was a stroke of apoplexy that caused him to
fall down stairs. But that it was apoplexy appears
from Dr. Manley’s letter, who says he found the pa
tient in a “ fever, and very apprehensive of an attack
of apoplexy, as he stated that he had had that disease
before, and at this time felt a degree of vertigo.” And
in August, 1806, Paine wrote to his farm tenant Dean,
saying that he had a stroke of apoplexy, Sunday, Aug.
15th, the fit taking him on the stairs, that he was sup
posed to be dead at first, and had not been able to get
out of bed since. “ I consider the scene I have passed
through,” he writes, “ as an experiment on dying, and
I find that death has no terrors for me.”
For a complete refutation of the libels about Paine’s
intemperance, see Vale’s “ Life of Paine,” and Inger
soll’s “Vindication of Paine,” Truth Seeker Tract No.
123. Paine intended to make Carver one of his lega
tees, but after this affair he renounced him. The bill
was amicably settled by Paine’s friends, and Carver
�14
A ROMAN CATHOLIC CANARD.
confessed that he wrote in anger. But he was angrier
still some years later to see the correspondence repub
lished by Grant Thorburn, and cut it out of the book.
He said that Cheetham first printed the letter without
his consent for base purposes. And when Paine was
on his death-bed Carver wrote him a tender letter of
apology and sympathy, which is published in the pref
ace of Vale’s “Life of Paine.” Jarvis, the celebrated
portrait painter, with whom Paine lived after leaving
Carver, says that Paine was neither dirty in his habits
nor drunken.
In a compendium of the “Life of Paine” by the
same author (New York, 1837) Mr. Vale says:
“In reply to a query which we recently put to Col. Burr,
as to Mr. Paine’s alleged vulgarity, intemperance, and want of
cleanliness, as disseminated by those who wished it true, he re
marked, with dignity: ‘Sir, he dined at my table!’ Then, am I to
understand that he was a gentleman? ‘Certainly, sir,’replied
Col. Burr; ‘I always considered Mr. Paine a gentleman, a pleas
ant companion, a good-natured and intelligent man, decidedly
temperate, and with a proper regard to his personal appearance,
whenever I saw him.’”
But to return to the Fenwick letter:
“As soon as we had seated ourselves F[ather] Kohlman, in a
very mild tone of voice, informed him that we were Catholic
priests and were come on his invitation to see him. Paine made
no reply.”
They had come on his'invitation, and he had in
structed the housekeeper to admit that day none but
Catholic priests, and yet they said to him : “We are
Catholic priests, come on your invitation!” Credat
tonsured monk !
“After a short pause Ffather] Kohlman proceeded thus, ad
dressing himself to Paine in the French language, thinking that
as Paine had been in France he was probably acquainted with
that language (which however was not the fact) and might better
understand what he said, as he had at that time greater facility,
and could express himself better, in it than in the English.”
Perhaps Father Kohlman, whose name is a German
one, could talk French better than English ; but when
the writer says that Paine, who had lived nine years
�A ROMAN CATHOLIC CANARD.
15
in Paris, was not acquainted with, the French language,
Credat Ollendorf!
The newspaper copy of this letter omits the French.;
we supply it from the lives of “ Deceased Bishops,”
published by O’Shea, New York, 1872.
“‘Mons. Paine, j’ai lu votre livre intitule L’Age de la Raison,
ou vous avez attacque l’ecriture sainte avec une violence, sans
bornes, et d’autres de vos ecrits publies en Prance, et je suis per
suade que’”—•
“Paine here interrupted him abruptly, and in a sharp tone of
voice, ordering him to speak English thus : “ Speak English,
man ; speak English.’ ”
As if Paine could not understand French ! for that
is not only the inference but the fact alleged by the
writer. As if Paine had to wait until forty words of
a foreign language were spoken before he interrupted
the speaker! And as if Father Fenwick many years
afterward could report the very words spoken in
French, and remembered that Father Kohlman was
interrupted at the particle que ! Credat notre Dame I.
The apocryphal character of the Fenwick letter is
now so apparent that perhaps further comment will
be superfluous. The writer translates the beginning
of the sentence, and has Father Kohlman complete it
with variations, thus :
‘“Mr. Paine, I hav read your book entitled, the “Age of Rea
son,” as well as your other writings against the Christian religion,
and am at a loss to imagin how a man of your good sense could
hav employed his talents in attempting to undermine what, to
say nothing of its divine establishment, the wisdom of ages has
deemed most conducive to the happiness of man. The Christian
religion, sir—’ ”
“ ‘That’s enough, sir, that’s enough,’ said Paine, again inter
rupting him. ‘I see what you would be about; I wish to hear no
more from you, sir. My mind is made up on that subject. I
look upon the whole of the Christian scheme to be a tissue of ab
surdities and lies, and J. C. [sic] to be nothing more than a cun
ning knave and an impostor.’ ”
Any one who bas read the “ Age of Reason ” knows
that Paine never could have said that Jesus Christ
was a knave and an impostor. JJredat ignoramus !
The next three paragraphs being omitted in the
�16
A ROMAN CATHOLIC CANARD.
newspaper copy, we supply them from the book.
canard is incomplete without them:
The
“Ffather] Kohlman here attempted to speak again, when
Paine, with a lowering countenance, ordered him instantly to be
silent, and to trouble him no more. ‘ I hav told you already
that I wish to hear nothing more from you.’
_ “ ‘ The Bible, sir,’ said F. Kohlman, still attempting to speak,
‘ is a sacred and divine book, which has stood the test and criti
cism of abler pens than yours—pens which have at least made
some show of argument, and—’
“‘Your Bible,’ returned Paine, contains nothing but fables;
yes, fables, and I have proved it to a demonstration.’
“All this time I looked upon the monster with pity mingled
with indignation at his blasphemy. [Here the newspaper copy
begins again], I felt a degree of horror at thinking that in a very
short time he would be cited to appear before the tribunal of his
God, whom he so shockingly blasphemed, with all his sins upon
him.. Seeing that F. Kohlman had completely failed in making
any impression upon him, and that Paine would listen to nothing
that came from him, nor would even suffer him to speak, I finally
concluded to try what effect I might have. I accordingly com
menced with observing:
“ ‘ Mr. Paine, you will certainly allow there exists a God, and
that this God cannot be indifferent to the conduct and action of
his creatures.’
“ ‘ I will allow nothing, sir,’ he hastily replied. ‘I shall make
no concessions.’
“ ‘.Well, sir, if you will listen calmly for one moment,’ said I,
‘ I will prove to you that there is such a being, and I will demon
strate from his very nature that he cannot be an idle spectator of
our conduct.’
“ ‘Sir, I wish to hear nothing you have to say. I see your
object, gentlemen, is to trouble me; I wish you to leave the
room.’
“ This he spoke in an exceedingly angry tone, so much that he
foamed at the mouth.
“ ‘Mr. Paine,’ I continued, ‘I assure you our object in coming
hither was purely to do you good. We had no other motive.
We had been given to understand that you wished to see us, and
we are come accordingly, because it is a principle with us never
to refuse our services to a dying man asking for them. But for
this we should not have come, for we never obtrude upon any
individual.’
“ Paine, on hearing this, seemed to relax a little. In a milder
tone than he had hitherto used he replied:
“‘You can do me no good now; it is too late. I have tried
different physicians, but their remedies have all failed. I have
nothing now to expect’ (this he spoke with, a sigh) ‘but a
speedy dissolution. My physicians have indeed told me as much.’
“ ‘You have misunderstood,’ said I, immediately, to him; ‘we
�A ROMAN CATHOLIC CANARD.
17
are not come to prescribe any remedies for your bodily com
plaints; we only come to make you an offer of our ministry for
the good of your immortal soul, which is in great danger of being
forever cast off by the Almighty on account of your sins, and es
pecially for the crime of having vilified and rejected his word
and uttered blasphemies against his Son. ’
“ Paine, on hearing this, was roused into a fury; he gritted his
teeth, turned and twisted himself several times in his bed, utter
ing all the while the bitterest imprecations.”
Dr. Manley does not describe the patient as able to
turn and twist in his bed, and he expressly says he
was not a profane man. But this writer says he ut
tered the bitterest imprecations. CredatAnthony Com
stock !
“ I firmly believe that such was the rage in which he was at
the time that if he had a pistol he would have shot one of us,
for he conducted himself more like a madman than a rational
creature.”
What a lucky escape for Father Fenwick! Just
think of the youthful priest being sent straight to
paradise by a pistol shot from the trembling hand of
the dying Infidel ! Credat George Francis Train!
“ ‘Begone !’ said he, ‘and trouble me no more. I was in peace,’
he continued, ‘till you came.’
“ ‘ We know better than that,’ replied F. Kohlman; ‘ we know
that you cannot be in peace; there can be no peace for the wicked;
God has said it.’ ”
And why didn’t he add, “Your housekeeper has
confirmed it?” Credat Judge Benedict!
“ ‘ Away with you, and your God, too; leave the room instantly,’
he exclaimed; ‘all that you have uttered are [sic] lies, filthy lies,
and if I had a little more time [and strength ?] I would prove it,
as I did about your impostor Jesus Christ.’ ”
In the “ Age of Beason ” Paine says of Jesus Christ,
“ He was a virtuous and amiable man.” Now he tells
the Jesuits that he was an impostor! Credat Beelze
bub !
“ ‘ Monster !’exclaimed F. Kohlman in a burst of zeal; ‘you
will hav no more time; your hour has arrived. Think rather of
the awful account you have already to offer, and implore pardon
of God. Provoke no longer his just indignation upon your head.’
�18
A ROMAN CATHOLIC CANARD.
. “ Paine here again ordered us to retire in the highest pitch of
his voice, and seemed a very maniac with his rage and madness.
‘ Let us go,’ said I to F. Kohlman, ‘ we have nothing more to do
here; he seems to be entirely abandoned by God; further words
are lost upon him.’ ”
Yes, of course; and why should not the Jesuits
have discovered that at first? Was it not evident to
the dullest mind ? And how thin the pretense that
after repeatedly refusing to hear any argument about
the Bibie and Christianity Paine relaxed when told
that they had come purely to do him good, and at his
own invitation, and that he then expected them to
prescribe some remedy for his disease! Their per
sistence was far greater than that of the hypocritical
Manley. The insolent priests did not go until ordered
to do so some six times. Credat Diabolus ridens !
“Upon this we both withdrew from the room, and left the un
fortunate man to his thoughts. I never before or since beheld a
more hardened wretch. This you may rely upon; it is a faithful
and correct account of the transaction.”
Credat Baron Munchausen !
The newspaper copy adds what the book does not,
to wit:
“I remain your affectionate brother,
“ f Benedict, Bishop of Boston.”
Gloria patri Benedicto !
And now we challenge the dignitaries of the Cath
olic church to produce the original' letter and prove
who wrote it We do not believe that Bishop Fen
wick ever saw it. It is a fabrication, like the Decre
tals of the primitive popes, and the apocryphal gos
pels of the early Catholic church. By such forgeries
Christianity was propagated through the Dark Ages;
but they only serve a contrary purpose now.
“And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the
beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed
their tongues for Paine ” (Rev. xvi, 10}.
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Victorian Blogging
Description
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Title
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A Roman Catholic canard. A fabricated account of a scene at the deathbed of Thomas Paine. Did Bishop Fenwick write it?
Creator
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Burr, William Henry
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: New York
Collation: 24 p. ; 18 cm.
Notes: Publisher's list on last six pages. From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Date of publication from KVK. Concerning an account of "The last hours of the great infidel, Thomas Paine", published in several newspapers and purporting to be a letter written by Bishop Fenwick of Boston to his brother Enoch, describing a visit to Paine shortly before his death.
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[Truth Seeker Publishing House]
Date
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[1883]
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CT82
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<img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /><br /><span>This work (A Roman Catholic canard), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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Text
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English
Subject
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Catholic Church
Benedict Joseph Fenwick
Conway Tracts
Thomas Paine