Fifty Years in the Church of Rome

Charles Chiniquy (1809-1899) was a Canadian Catholic priest who left the Catholic Church and became a Protestant. He is known for his writings and sermons against the Roman Catholic Church. In the period between 1885 and 1899 he was the focus of a great deal of discussion in the United States of America. During the 1880s his conspiracy theories included the claim to have exposed the Jesuits as the assassins of President Abraham Lincoln, and that, if unchecked, the Jesuits could eventually politically rule the United States. Chiniquy was born in 1809 in the village of Kamouraska, Quebec. He lost his father at an early age and was adopted by his uncle. As a young man, Chiniquy studied to become a Catholic priest at the Petit Seminaire (Little Seminary) in Nicolet, Quebec. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1833. After his ordination, he served his Church in Quebec and later immigrated to Illinois. During the 1840s, he led a very successful campaign throughout Quebec against alcohol and drunkenness. Later, Chiniquy claimed that he was falsely accused by his superiors (and that Abraham Lincoln had come to his rescue), that the American Civil War was a plot against the United States of America by the Vatican, and that the Vatican was behind the Confederate cause, the death of President Lincoln and that Lincoln's assassins were faithful Roman Catholics ultimately serving Pope Pius IX. After leaving the Catholic Church, Chiniquy dedicated his life to trying to win his fellow French Canadians, as well as others, from Catholicism to the Protestant faith. He wrote a number of books and tracts pointing out the errors in the faith and practices of the Roman Catholic Church. His most influential works are "Fifty Years in The Church of Rome", "The Priest, and "The Woman and The Confessional." These books raised concerns in the United States about the Catholic Church.