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diff --git a/20120.txt b/20120.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..731ed83 --- /dev/null +++ b/20120.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5987 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Priest, The Woman And The Confessional, by +Father Chiniquy + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Priest, The Woman And The Confessional + +Author: Father Chiniquy + +Release Date: December 16, 2006 [EBook #20120] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CONFESSION *** + + + + +Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Keith Edkins and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions +(www.canadiana.org)) + + + + + +THE PRIEST, THE WOMAN + +AND + +THE CONFESSIONAL. + +By FATHER CHINIQUY. + +Montreal: + +F. E. GRAFTON, BOOKSELLER. + +CORNER CRAIG ST. AND VICTORIA SQUARE. + +1875. + + * * * * * + +ENTERED according to the Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year +One +thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, by F. E. GRAFTON of +Montreal, in the Office of the Minister of Agriculture. + + * * * * * + +CONTENTS. + +CHAPTER I. + +THE STRUGGLE BEFORE THE SURRENDER OF WOMANLY SELF-RESPECT IN THE +CONFESSIONAL + +CHAPTER II. + +AURICULAR CONFESSION A DEEP PIT OF PERDITION FOR THE PRIEST + +CHAPTER III. + +THE CONFESSIONAL IS THE MODERN SODOM + +CHAPTER IV. + +HOW THE VOW OF CELIBACY OF THE PRIESTS IS MADE EASY BY AURICULAR CONFESSION + +CHAPTER V. + +THE HIGHLY EDUCATED AND REFINED WOMAN IN THE CONFESSIONAL.--WHAT BECOMES OF +HER AFTER HER UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER.--HER IRREPARABLE RUIN + +CHAPTER VI. + +AURICULAR CONFESSION DESTROYS ALL THE SACRED TIES OF MARRIAGE AND HUMAN +SOCIETY + +CHAPTER VII. + +SHOULD AURICULAR CONFESSION BE TOLERATED AMONG CIVILIZED NATIONS? + +CHAPTER VIII. + +DOES AURICULAR CONFESSION BRING PEACE TO THE SOUL? + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE DOGMA OF AURICULAR CONFESSION A SACRILEGIOUS IMPOSTURE + +CHAPTER X. + +GOD COMPELS THE CHURCH OF ROME TO CONFESS THE ABOMINATIONS OF AURICULAR +CONFESSION + +CHAPTER XI. + +SOME OF THE MATTERS ON WHICH THE PRIEST OF ROME MUST QUESTION HIS +PENITENTS.--A CHAPTER FOR THE CONSIDERATION OF LEGISLATORS, HUSBANDS, +FATHERS, &C. + + * * * * * + + +PREFACE. + + * * * * * + +EZEKIEL. + +CHAPTER VIII. + +1 And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth _month_, in the fifth +_day_ of the month, _as_ I sat in mine house, and the elders of Judah sat +before me, that the hand of the Lord GOD fell there upon me. + +2 Then I beheld, and lo a likeness as the appearance of fire; from the +appearance of his loins even downward, fire; and from his loins even +upward, as the appearance of brightness, as the color of amber. + +3 And he put forth the form of an hand, and took me by a lock of mine head; +and the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought +me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate that +looketh toward the north; where _was_ the seat of the image of jealousy, +which provoketh to jealousy. + +4 And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel _was_ there, according to the +vision that I saw in the plain. + +5 Then said he unto me, Son of man, lift up thine eyes now the way toward +the north. So I lifted up mine eyes the way toward the north, and behold +northward at the gate of the altar this image of jealousy in the entry. + +6 He said furthermore unto me, Son of man, seest thou what they do? _even_ +the great abominations that the house of Israel committeth here, that I +should go far off from my sanctuary? but turn thee yet again, _and_ thou +shalt see greater abominations. + +7 And he brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold a +hole in the wall. + +8 Then said he unto me, Son of man, dig now in the wall; and when I had +digged in the wall, behold a door. + +9 And he said unto me. Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they +do here. + +10 So I went in and saw; and behold every form of creeping things, and +abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, pourtrayed +upon the wall round about. + +11 And there stood before them seventy men of the ancients of the house of +Israel, and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, with +every man his censer in his hand; and a thick cloud of incense went up. + +12 Then said he unto me. Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of +the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his +imagery? for they say, The LORD seeth us not; the LORD hath forsaken the +earth. + +13 He said also unto me, Turn thee yet again, _and_ thou shalt see greater +abominations that they do. + +14 Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the LORD'S house which +_was_ toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz. + +15 Then said he unto me, Hast thou seen _this_, O Son of man? turn thee yet +again, _and_ thou shalt see greater abominations than these. + +16 And he brought me into the inner court of the LORD'S house, and, behold, +at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, +_were_ about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the +LORD, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward +the east. + +17 Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen _this_, O Son of man? Is it a light +thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they +commit here? for they have filled the land with violence, and have returned +to provoke me to anger; and, lo, they put the branch to their nose. + +18 Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither +will I have pity; and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, _yet_ +will I not hear them. + + * * * * * + +CHAPTER I. + +THE STRUGGLE BEFORE THE SURRENDER OF WOMANLY SELF-RESPECT IN THE +CONFESSIONAL. + + * * * * * + +There are two women who ought to be the constant objects of the compassion +of the disciples of Christ, and for whom daily prayers ought to be offered +at the mercy-seat--the Brahmin woman, who, deceived by her priests, burns +herself on the corpse of her husband to appease the wrath of her wooden +gods; and the Roman Catholic woman, who, not less deceived by her priests, +suffers a torture far more cruel and ignominious in the confessional-box to +appease the wrath of her wafer-god. + +For I do not exaggerate when I say that for many noble-hearted, +well-educated, high-minded women to be forced to unveil their hearts before +the eyes of a man, to open to him all the most sacred recesses of their +souls, all the most sacred mysteries of their single or married life, to +allow him to put to them questions which the most depraved woman would +never consent to hear from her vilest seducer, is often more horrible and +intolerable than to be tied on burning coals. + +More than once I have seen women fainting in the confessional-box, who told +me, afterwards, that the necessity of speaking to an unmarried man on +certain things, on which the most common laws of decency ought to have for +ever sealed their lips, had almost killed them! Not hundreds, but thousands +of times I have heard from the dying lips of single girls, as well as of +married women, the awful words: "I am for ever lost! All my past +confessions and communions have been as many sacrileges! I have never dared +to answer correctly the questions of my confessors! Shame has sealed my +lips and damned my soul!" + +How many times I remained as one petrified by the side of a corpse when, +these last words having hardly escaped the lips of one of my female +penitents, she was snatched out of my reach by the merciless hand of death, +before I could give her pardon through the deceitful sacramental +absolution! I then believed, as the dead sinner herself believed, that she +could not be forgiven except by that absolution. + +For there are not only thousands, but millions, of Roman Catholic girls and +women whose keen sense of modesty and womanly dignity are above all the +sophisms and diabolical machinations of their priests. They never can be +persuaded to answer "Yes" to certain questions of their confessors. They +would prefer to be thrown into the flames, and burnt to ashes with the +Brahmin widows, rather than to allow the eyes of a man to pry into the +sacred sanctuary of their souls. Though sometimes guilty before God, and +under the impression that their sins will never be forgiven if not +confessed, the laws of decency are stronger in their hearts than the laws +of their cruel and perfidious Church. No consideration, not even the fear +of eternal damnation, can persuade them to declare to a sinful man sins +which God alone has the right to know, for He alone can blot them out with +the blood of His Son shed on the cross. + +But what a wretched life that of those exceptional noble souls, which Rome +keeps in the dark dungeons of her superstition! They read in all their +books, and hear from all their pulpits, that if they conceal a single sin +from their confessors they are for ever lost! But, being absolutely unable +to trample under their feet the laws of self-respect and decency which God +Himself has impressed in their souls, they live in constant dread of +eternal damnation. No human words can tell their desolation and distress +when, at the feet of their confessors, they find themselves between the +horrible necessity of speaking of things on which they would prefer to +suffer the most cruel death rather than to open their lips, or to be for +ever damned if they do not degrade themselves for ever in their own eyes by +speaking on matters which a respectable woman will never reveal to her own +mother, much less to a man! + +I have known only too many of these noble-hearted women, who, when alone +with God, in a real agony of desolation and with burning tears, had asked +Him to grant them what they considered the greatest favour, which was to +lose so much of their self-respect as to be enabled to speak of those +unmentionable things just as their confessors wanted them to speak; and, +hoping that their petition had been granted, they went again to the +confessional-box, determined to unveil their shame before the eyes of that +inexorable man. But, when the moment had come for the self-immolation, +their courage failed, their knees trembled, their lips became pale as +death. Cold sweat flowed from all their pores! The voice of modesty and +womanly self-respect was speaking louder than the voice of their false +religion. They had to go out of the confessional-box unpardoned--nay, with +the burden of a new sacrilege on their conscience. + +Oh, how heavy is the yoke of Rome--how bitter is human life--how cheerless +is the mystery of the cross to those deluded and perishing souls! How +gladly they would rush into the blazing piles with the Brahmin women, if +they could hope to see the end of their unspeakable miseries through the +momentary tortures which would open to them the gates of a better life! + +I do here publicly challenge the whole Roman Catholic priesthood to deny +that the greater part of their female penitents remain a certain period of +time--some longer, some shorter--under that most distressing state of mind. + +Yes, by far the greater majority of women, at first, find it next to +impossible to pull down the sacred barriers of self-respect which God +Himself has built around their hearts, intelligences, and souls, as the +best safeguard against the snares of this polluted world. Those laws of +self-respect, by which they cannot consent to speak an impure word into the +ears of a man, and which shut all the avenues of their hearts against his +unchaste questions, even, when speaking in the name of God--those laws of +self-respect are so clearly written in their conscience, and they are so +well understood by them to be a most Divine gift, that, as I have already +said, many prefer to run the risk of being for ever lost by remaining +silent. + +It takes many years of the most ingenious (I do not hesitate to call it +diabolical) efforts on the part of the priests to persuade the majority of +their female penitents to speak on questions which even pagan savages would +blush to mention among themselves. Some persist in remaining silent on +those matters during the greatest part of their lives, and many prefer to +throw themselves into the hands of their merciful God and die without +submitting to the defiling ordeal, even after they have felt the poisonous +stings of the enemy, rather than receive their pardon from a man who, as +they feel, would have surely been scandalized by the recital of their human +frailties. All the priests of Rome are aware of this natural disposition of +their female penitents. There is not a single one--no, not a single one of +their moral theologians, who does not warn the confessors against that +stern and general determination of the girls and married women never to +speak in the confessional on matters which may, more or less, deal with +sins against the seventh commandment. Dens, Liguori, Debreyne, Bailly, +&c.--in a word, all the theologians of Rome--own that this is one of the +greatest difficulties which the confessors have to contend with in the +confessional-box. + +Not a single Roman Catholic priest will dare to deny what I say on this +matter; for they know that it would be easy for me to overwhelm them with +such crowd of testimonies that their grand imposture would for ever be +unmasked. + +I intend, some future day, if God spares me and gives me time for it, to +make known some of the innumerable things which the Roman Catholic +theologians and moralists have written on this question. It will form one +of the most curious books ever written; and it will give an unanswerable +evidence of the fact that, instinctively, without consulting each other, +with an unanimity which is almost marvellous, the Roman Catholic women, +guided by the honest instincts which God has given them, shrink from the +snares put before them in the confessional-box; and that everywhere they +struggle to nerve themselves with a superhuman courage against the torturer +who is sent by the Pope to finish their ruin and to make shipwreck of their +souls. Everywhere woman feels that there are things which ought never to be +told, as there are things which ought never to be done, in the presence of +the God of holiness. She understands that, to recite the history of certain +sins, even of thoughts, is not less shameful and criminal than to do them; +she hears the voice of God whispering into her ears, "Is it not enough that +thou hast been guilty once, when alone, in My presence, without adding to +thine iniquity, by allowing that man to know what should never have been +revealed to him? Do you not feel that you make that man your own accomplice +the very moment that you throw into his heart and soul the mire of your +iniquities? He is as weak as you are; he is not less a sinner than +yourself; what has tempted you will tempt him; what has made you weak will +make him weak? what has polluted you will pollute him; what has thrown you +down into the dust will throw him down into the dust. Is it not enough that +My eyes had to look upon your iniquities? must my ears to-day listen to +your impure conversation with that man? Were that man as holy as My prophet +David, may he not fall before the unchaste unveiling of the new Bathsheba? +Were he as strong as Sampson, may he not find in you his tempting Delilah? +Were he as generous as Peter, may he not become a traitor at the +maid-servant's voice?" + +Perhaps the world has never seen a more terrible, desperate, solemn +struggle than the one which is going on in the soul of the poor trembling +young woman, who, at the feet of that man, has to decide whether or not she +will open her lips on those things which the infallible voice of God, +united to the no less infallible voice of her womanly honour and +self-respect, tell her never to reveal to any man! + +The history of that secret, fierce, desperate, and deadly struggle has +never yet, so far as I know, been fully given. It would draw the tears of +admiration and compassion of the whole world, if it could be written with +its simple, sublime, and terrible realities. + +How many times I have wept as a child when some noble-hearted and +intelligent young girl, or some respectable married woman, yielding to the +sophisms with which I, or some other confessor, had persuaded them to give +up their self-respect, their womanly dignity, to speak with me on matters +on which a decent woman would never say a word with a man! They told me of +their invincible repugnance, their horror of such questions and answers, +and they asked me to have pity on them. Yes! I often wept bitterly on my +degradation when a priest of Rome! I felt all the strength, the grandeur, +the holiness of their motives for being silent on those defiling matters. I +could not but admire them. It seemed, at times, that they were speaking the +language of angels of light; that I ought to fall at their feet, and ask +their pardon for having spoken to them of questions on which a man of +honour ought never to converse with a woman whom he respects. + +But, alas! I had soon to reproach myself and regret these short instances +of my wavering faith in the infallible voice of my Church; I had soon to +silence the voice of my conscience, which was telling me, "Is it not a +shame that you, an unmarried man, dare to speak on those matters with a +woman? Do you not blush to put such questions to a young girl? Where is +your self-respect? where is your fear of God? Do you not promote the ruin +of that girl by forcing her to speak with a man on such questions?" + +I was compelled by all the Popes, the moral theologians, and the Councils +of Rome, to believe that this warning voice of my merciful God was the +voice of Satan; I had to believe, in spite of my own conscience and +intelligence, that it was good, nay, necessary, to put those polluting, +damning questions. My infallible Church was mercilessly forcing me to +oblige those poor, trembling, weeping, desolated girls and women to swim +with me and all her priests in those waters of Sodom and Gomorrha, under +the pretext that their self-will would be broken down, their fear of sin +and humility increased, and that they would be purified by our absolutions. + +In the beginning of my priesthood, I was not a little surprised and +embarrassed to see a very accomplished and beautiful young lady, whom I +used to meet almost every week in her father's house, entering the box of +my confessional. She used to go to confess to another young priest of my +acquaintance, and she was looked upon as one of the most pious girls of the +city. Though she had disguised herself as much as possible, that I might +not know her, I thought that I was not mistaken--she was the amiable Mary +* * * * + +Not being absolutely sure of the correctness of my impressions, I left her +entirely under the hope that she was a perfect stranger to me. At the +beginning she could hardly speak; her voice was suffocated by her sobs; +and, through the little apertures of the thin partition between her and me, +I saw two streams of big tears trickling down her cheeks. + +After much effort, she said: "Dear Father, I hope you do not know me, and +that you will never try to know me. I am a desperately great sinner. Oh! I +fear that I am lost! But if there is still any hope for me to be saved, for +God's sake, do not rebuke me! Before I begin my confession, allow me to ask +you not to pollute my ears by the questions which our confessors are in the +habit of putting to their female penitents. I have already been destroyed +by those questions. Before I was seventeen years old, God knows that His +angels are not more pure than I was; but the chaplain of the Nunnery where +my parents had sent me for my education, though approaching old age, put to +me in the confessional a question which, at first, I did not understand; +but, unfortunately, he had put the same questions to one of my young +class-mates, who made fun of them in my presence, and explained them to me; +for she understood them too well. This first unchaste conversation of my +life plunged my thoughts into a sea of iniquity, till then absolutely +unknown to me; temptations of the most humiliating character assailed me +for a week, day and night; after which, sins which I would blot out with my +blood, if it were possible, overwhelmed my soul as with a deluge. But the +joys of the sinner are short. Struck with terror at the thought of the +judgments of God, after a few weeks of the most deplorable life, I +determined to give up my sins and reconcile myself to God. Covered with +shame, and trembling from head to foot, I went to confess to my old +confessor, whom I respected as a saint and cherished as a father. It seems +to me that with sincere tears of repentance I confessed to him the greatest +part of my sins, though I concealed one of them through shame, and respect +for my spiritual guide. But I did not conceal from him that the strange +questions he had put to me at my last confession were, with the natural +corruption of my heart, the principal cause of my destruction. + +"He spoke to me very kindly, encouraged me to fight against my bad +inclinations, and, at first, gave me very kind and good advice. But when I +thought he had finished speaking, and as I was preparing to leave the +confessional-box, he put to me two new questions of such a polluting +character that I fear neither the blood of Christ nor all the fires of hell +will ever be able to blot them out from my memory. Those questions have +achieved my ruin; they have stuck to my mind as two deadly arrows; they are +day and night before my imagination; they fill my very arteries and veins +with a deadly poison. + +"It is true that, at first, they filled me with horror and disgust; but, +alas! I soon got so accustomed to them that they seemed to be incorporated +with me, and as though becoming a second nature. Those thoughts have become +a new source of innumerable criminal thoughts, desires, and actions. + +"A month later, we were obliged, by the rules of our convent, to go to +confess; but this time, I was so completely lost that I no longer blushed +at the idea of confessing my shameful sins to a man; it was the very +contrary. I had a real, diabolical pleasure in the thought that I should +have a long conversation with my confessor on those matters, and that he +would ask me more of his strange questions. + +"In fact, when I had told him everything, without a blush, he began to +interrogate me, and God knows what corrupting things fell from his lips +into my poor criminal heart! Every one of his questions was thrilling my +nerves, and filling me with the most shameful sensations. After an hour of +this criminal _tete-a-tete_ with my old confessor (for it was nothing else +but a criminal _tete-a-tete_), I perceived that he was as depraved as I was +myself. With some half-covered words, he made me a criminal proposition, +which I accepted with covered words also; and during more than a year, we +have lived together in the most sinful intimacy. Though he was much older +than I, I loved him in the most foolish way. When the course of my convent +instruction was finished, my parents called me back to their home. I was +really glad of that change of residence, for I was beginning to be tired of +my criminal life. My hope was that, under the direction of a better +confessor, I should reconcile myself to God and begin a Christian life. + +"Unfortunately for me, my new confessor, who was very young, began also his +interrogations. He soon fell in love with me, and I loved him in a most +criminal way. I have done with him things which I hope you will never +request me to reveal to you, for they are too monstrous to be repeated, +even in the confessional, by a woman to a man. + +"I do not say these things to take away the responsibility of my iniquities +with this young confessor from my shoulders, for I think I have been more +criminal than he was. It is my firm conviction that he was a good and holy +priest before he knew me; but the questions he put to me, and the answers I +had to give him, melted his heart--I know it--just as boiling lead would +melt the ice on which it flows. + +"I know this is not such a detailed confession as our holy Church requires +me to make, but I have thought it necessary for me to give you this short +history of the life of the greatest and the most miserable sinner who ever +asked you to help her to come out from the tomb of her iniquities. This is +the way I have lived these last few years. But last Sabbath, God, in His +infinite mercy, looked down upon me. He inspired you to give us the +Prodigal Son as a model of true conversion, and as the most marvelous proof +of the infinite compassion of the dear Saviour for the sinner. I have wept +day and night since that happy day, when I threw myself into the arms of my +loving, merciful Father. Even now I can hardly speak, because my regret for +my past iniquities, and my joy that I am allowed to bathe the feet of my +Saviour with my tears, are so great that my voice is as choked. + +"You understand that I have for ever given up my last confessor. I come to +ask you the favour to receive me among your penitents. Oh! do not reject +nor rebuke me, for the dear Saviour's sake! Be not afraid to have at your +side such a monster of iniquity! But before going farther, I have two +favours to ask from you. The first is, that you will never do anything to +know my name; the second is, that you will never put me any of those +questions by which so many penitents are lost and so many priests for ever +destroyed. Twice I have been lost by those questions. We come to our +confessors that they may throw upon our guilty souls the pure waters which +flow from heaven to purify us; and, instead of that, with their +unmentionable questions, they pour oil on the burning fires which arc +already raging in our poor sinful hearts. Oh! dear father, let me become +your penitent, that you may help me to go and weep with Magdalene at the +Saviours feet! Do respect me, as He respected that true model of all the +sinful but repenting women! Did Our Saviour put to her any question? did He +extort from her the history of things which a sinful woman cannot say +without forgetting the respect she owes to herself and to God? No! You told +us, not long ago, that the only thing our Saviour did was to look at her +tears and her love. Well, please do that, and you will save me!" + +I was a very young priest, and never had any words so sublime come to my +ears in the confessional-box. Her tears and her sobs, mingled with the so +frank declaration of the most humiliating actions, had made upon me such a +profound impression that I was, for some time, unable to speak. It had come +to my mind also that I might be mistaken about her identity, and that +perhaps she was not the young lady that I had imagined. I could, then, +easily grant her first request, which was to do nothing by which I could +know her. The second part of her prayer was more embarrassing; for the +theologians are very positive in ordering the confessors to question their +penitents, particularly those of the female sex, in many circumstances. + +I encouraged her, in the best way I could, to persevere in her good +resolutions by invoking the blessed Virgin Mary and St. Philomene, who was +then the _Sainte a la mode_, just as Marie Alacoque is to-day, among the +blind slaves of Rome. I told her that I would pray and think over the +subject of her second request; and I asked her to come back, in a week, for +my answer. + +The very same day, I went to my own confessor, the Rev. Mr. Baillargeon, +then curate of Quebec, and afterwards Archbishop of Canada. I told him the +singular and unusual request she had made that I should never put to her +any of those questions suggested by the theologians, to insure the +integrity of the confession. I did not conceal from him that I was much +inclined to grant her that favour; for I repeated what I had already +several times told him, that I was supremely disgusted with the infamous +and polluting questions which the theologians forced us to put to our +female penitents. I told him, frankly, that several young and old priests +had already come to confess to me; and that, with the exception of two, +they had all told me that they could not put those questions and hear the +answers they elicited without falling into the most damnable sins. + +My confessor seemed to be much perplexed about what he could answer. He +asked me to come the next day, that he might review his theological books +in the interval. The next day, I took down in writing his answer, which I +find in my old manuscripts; and I give it here in all its sad crudity:-- + +"Such cases of the destruction of female virtue by the questions of the +confessors is an unavoidable evil. It can not be helped; for such questions +are absolutely necessary in the greatest part of the cases with which we +have to deal. Men generally confess their sins with so much sincerity that +there is seldom any need for questioning them, except when they are very +ignorant. But St Liguori, as well as our personal observation, tells us +that the greatest part of girls and women, through a false and criminal +shame, very seldom confess the sins they commit against purity. It requires +the utmost charity in the confessors to prevent those unfortunate slaves of +their secret passions from making sacrilegious confessions and communions. +With the greatest prudence and zeal, he must question them on those +matters; beginning with the smallest sins, and going, little by little, as +much as possible, by imperceptible degrees, to the most criminal actions. +As it seems evident that the penitent referred to in your questions of +yesterday is unwilling to make a full and detailed confession of all her +iniquities, you cannot promise to absolve her without assuring yourself, by +wise and prudent questions, that she has confessed everything. + +"You must not be discouraged when, through the confessional or any other +way, you learn the fall of priests into the common frailties of human +nature with their penitents. Our Saviour knew very well that the occasions +and the temptations we have to encounter, in the confessions of girls and +women, are so numerous, and sometimes so irrepressible, that many would +fall. But He has given them the Holy Virgin Mary, who constantly asks and +obtains their pardon; He has given them the sacrament of penance, where +they can receive their pardon as often as they ask for it. The vow of +perfect chastity is a great honour and privilege; but we cannot conceal +from ourselves that it puts on our shoulders a burden which many cannot +carry for ever. St Liguori says that we must not rebuke the penitent priest +who falls only once a month; and some other trustworthy theologians are +still more charitable." + +This answer was far from satisfying me. It seemed to me composed of +soft-soap principles. I went back with a heavy heart and an anxious mind; +and God knows that I made many fervent prayers that this girl should never +come again to give me her sad history. I was hardly twenty-six years old, +full of youth and life. It seemed to me that the stings of a thousand wasps +to my ears would not do me so much harm as the words of that dear, +beautiful, accomplished, but lost girl. + +I do not mean to say that the revelations which she made had, in any way, +diminished my esteem and my respect for her. It was just the contrary. Her +tears and her sobs, at my feet; her agonizing expressions of shame and +regret; her noble words of protest against the disgusting and polluting +interrogations of the confessors, had raised her very high in my mind. My +sincere hope was that she would have a place in the kingdom of Christ with +the Samaritan woman, Mary Magdalene, and all those who have washed their +robes in the blood of the Lamb. + +At the appointed day, I was in my confessional, listening to the confession +of a young man, when, I saw Miss Mary entering the vestry, and coming +directly to my confessional-box, where she knelt by me. Though she had, +still more than at the first time, disguised herself behind a long, thick, +black veil, I could not be mistaken; she was the very same amiable young +lady in whose father's house I used to pass such pleasant and happy hours. +I had so often heard, with breathless attention, her melodious voice when +she was giving us, accompanied by her piano, some of our beautiful Church +hymns. Who could see her without almost worshipping her? The dignity of her +steps, and her whole mien, when she advanced towards my confessional, +entirely betrayed her and destroyed her incognito. + +Oh! I would have given every drop of my blood, in that solemn hour, that I +might have been free to deal with her just as she had so eloquently +requested me to do--to let her weep and cry at the feet of Jesus to her +heart's content! Oh! if I had been free to take her by the hand, and +silently show her her dying Saviour, that she might have bathed His feet +with her tears, and spread the oil of her love on His head, without my +saying anything else but "Go in peace: thy sins are forgiven!" + +But there, in that confessional-box, I was not the servant of Christ, to +follow His divine, saving words, and obey the dictates of my honest +conscience. I was the slave of the Pope! I had to stifle the cry of my +conscience, to ignore the inspirations of my God! There, my conscience had +no right to speak; my intelligence was a dead thing! The theologians of the +Pope, alone, had a right to be heard and obeyed! I was not there to save, +but to destroy; for, under the pretext of purifying, the real mission of +the confessor, often in spite of himself, is to scandalize and damn the +souls. + +As soon as the young man, who was making his confession at my left hand, +had finished, I, without noise, turned myself towards her, and said, +through the little aperture, "Are you ready to begin your confession?" + +But she did not answer me. All that I could hear was, "Oh, my Jesus, have +mercy upon me! Dear Saviour, here I am with all my sins; do not reject me! +I come to wash my soul in Thy blood; wilt Thou rebuke me?" + +During several minutes, she raised her hands and her eyes to heaven, and +wept and prayed. It was evident that she had not the least idea that I was +observing her; she thought the door of the little partition between her and +me was shut. But my eyes were fixed upon her; my tears were flowing with +her tears, and my ardent prayers were going to the feet of Jesus with her +prayers. I would not have interrupted her, for any consideration, in this +her sublime communion with her merciful Saviour. + +But, after a pretty long time, I made a little noise with my hand, and, +putting my lips near the opening of the partition which was between us, I +said, in a low voice, "Dear sister, are you ready to begin your +confession?" + +She turned her face a little towards me, and said, with a trembling voice, +"Yes, dear Father, I am ready." + +But she then stopped again to weep and pray, though I could not hear what +she said. + +After some time of silent prayer, I said, "My dear sister, if you are +ready, please begin your confession." + +She then said, "My dear Father, do you remember the prayers which I made to +you, the other day? Can you allow me to confess my sins without forcing me +to forget the respect I owe to myself, to you, and to God, who hears us? +And can you promise that you will not put to me any of those questions +which have already done me such irreparable injury? I frankly declare to +you that there are sins in me that I cannot reveal to any man, except to +Christ, because He is my God, and that He already knows them all. Let me +weep and cry at His feet, and do forgive me without adding to my iniquities +by forcing me to say things that the tongue of a Christian woman cannot +reveal to a man!" + +"My dear sister," I answered, "were I free to follow the voice of my own +feelings I would be too happy to grant you your request; but I am here only +as the minister of our holy Church, and bound to obey her laws. Through her +most holy popes and theologians, she tells me that I cannot forgive you +your sins, if you do not confess them all just as you have committed them. +The Church tells me also that you must give the details which may add to +the malice or change the nature of your sins. I am also sorry to tell you +that our most holy theologians make it a duty of the confessor to question +his penitent on the sins which he has good reason to suspect have been +voluntarily or involuntarily omitted." + +With a piercing, cry she exclaimed, "Then, O my God, I am lost--for ever +lost!" + +This cry fell upon me as a thunderbolt; but I was still more +terror-stricken when, looking through the aperture, I saw she was fainting; +and I heard the noise of her body falling upon the floor, and of her head +striking against the sides of the confessional-box. + +Quick as lightning, I ran to help her, took her in my arms, and called a +couple of men, who were at a little distance, to assist me in laying her on +a bench. I washed her face with some cold water and vinegar. She was as +pale as death, but her lips were moving, and she was saying something which +nobody but I could understand,-- + +"I am lost--lost for ever!" + +We took her to her disconsolate family, where, during a month, she lingered +between life and death. + +Her two first confessors came to visit her: but, having asked every one to +go out of the room, she politely but absolutely requested them to go away +and never come again. She asked me to visit her everyday, "for," she said, +"I have only a few more days to live. Help me to prepare myself for the +solemn hour which will open to me the gates of eternity!" + +Every day I visited her, and I prayed and I wept with her. + +Many times, with tears, I requested her, when alone, to finish her +confession; but, with a firmness which then seemed to me mysterious and +inexplicable, she politely rebuked me. + +One day when, alone with her, I was kneeling by the side of her bed to +pray, I was unable to articulate a single word, because of the +inexpressible anguish of my soul on her account; she asked me, "Dear +Father, why do you weep?" + +I answered, "How can you put such a question to your murderer? I weep +because I have killed you, dear friend." + +This answer seemed to trouble her exceedingly. She was very weak that day. +After she had wept and prayed in silence, she said, "Do not weep for me, +but weep for so many priests who destroy their penitents in the +confessional. I believe in the holiness of the sacrament of penitence, +since our holy Church has established it. But there is, somewhere, +something exceedingly wrong in the confessional. Twice I have been +destroyed, and I know many girls who have also been destroyed by the +confessional. This is a secret, but will that secret be kept for ever? I +pity the poor priests the day that our fathers will know what becomes of +the purity of their daughters in the hands of their confessors. Father +would surely kill my two last confessors, if he could know how they have +destroyed his poor child." + +I could not answer except by weeping. + +We remained mute for a long time; then she said, "It is true that I was not +prepared for the rebuke you have given me, but you acted conscientiously as +a good and honest priest. I know you must be bound by certain laws." + +She then pressed my hand with her cold hand and said, "Weep not, dear +Father, because that sudden storm has wrecked my too fragile back. This +storm was to take me out from the bottomless sea of my iniquities to the +shore where Jesus was waiting to receive and pardon me. The night after you +brought me, half dead, here to father's house, I had a dream. Oh, no, it +was not a dream, it was a reality. My Jesus came to me; He was bleeding. +His crown of thorns was on His head, the heavy cross was bruising His +shoulders. He said to me, with a voice so sweet that no human tongue can +imitate it, "I have seen thy tears, I have heard thy cries, and I know thy +love for Me: thy sins are forgiven. Take courage; in a few days thou shalt +be with Me!'" + +She had hardly finished her last word when she fainted, and I feared lest +she should die just then when I was alone with her. + +I called the family, who rushed into the room. The doctor was sent for. He +found her so weak that he thought proper to allow only one or two persons +to remain in the room. He requested us not to speak at all, "For," said he, +"the least emotion may kill her instantly; her disease is, in all +probability, an aneurism of the aorta, the big vein which brings the blood +to the heart; when it breaks she will go as quick as lightning." + +It was nearly ten at night when I left the house, to go and take some rest. +But it is not necessary to say that I passed a sleepless night. My dear +Mary was there, pale, dying from the deadly blow which I had given her in +the confessional. She was there, on her bed of death, her heart pierced +with the dagger which my Church had put into my hands! And instead of +rebuking, cursing me for my savage, merciless fanaticism, she was blessing +me! She was dying from a broken heart, and I was not allowed by my Church +to give her a single word of consolation and hope, for she had not yet made +her confession! I had mercilessly bruised that tender plant, and there was +nothing in my hands to heal the wounds I had made! + +It was very probable that she would die the next day, and I was forbidden +to show her the crown of glory which Jesus has prepared in His kingdom for +the repenting sinner! + +My desolation was really unspeakable, and I think I would have been +suffocated, and have died that night, if the stream of tears which +constantly flowed from my eyes had not been as a balm to my distressed +heart. + +How dark and long the hours of that night seemed to me! + +Before the dawn of day I arose, to read my theologians again, and see if I +could not find some one who would allow me to forgive the sins of that dear +child without forcing her to tell me everything she had done. But they +seemed to me more than ever unanimously inexorable, and I put them back on +the shelves of my library with a broken heart. + +At nine a.m. the next day I was by the bed of our dear sick Mary. I cannot +sufficiently tell the joy I felt when the doctor and the whole family said +to me, "She is much better; the rest of last night has wrought a marvelous +change indeed." + +With a really angelic smile she extended her hand towards me, that I might +press it in mine; and she said, "I thought, last evening, that the dear +Saviour would take me to Him, but He wants me, dear Father, to give you a +little more trouble; but be patient, it cannot, be long before the solemn +hour of the appeal will ring. Will you please read me the history of the +sufferings and death of the beloved Saviour which you read me the other +day? It does me so much good to see how He has loved me, such a miserable +sinner." + +There was a calm and a solemnity in her words which struck me singularly, +as well as all those who were there. + +After I had finished reading, she exclaimed, "He has loved me so much that +He died for my sins!" And she shut her eyes as if to meditate in silence, +but there was a stream of big tears rolling down her cheeks. + +I knelt down by her bed with her family to pray, but I could not utter a +single word. The idea that this dear child was there, dying from the cruel +fanaticism of my theologians and my own cowardice in obeying them, was as a +mill-stone to my neck. It was killing me. + +Oh! if by dying a thousand times I could have added a single day to her +life, with what pleasure I would have accepted those thousand deaths! + +After we had silently prayed and wept by her bed-side, she requested her +mother to leave her alone with me. + +When I saw myself alone, under the irresistible impression that this was +her last day, I fell on my knees again, and with tears of the most sincere +compassion for her soul, I requested her to shake off her shame and to obey +our holy Church, which requires every one to confess their sins if they +want to be forgiven. + +She calmly, but with an air of dignity which no human words can express, +said, "Is it true that, after the sin of Adam and Eve, God Himself made +coats of skins, and clothed them, that they might not see each other's +nakedness?" + +"Yes," I said, "this is what the Holy Scriptures tell us." + +"Well, then, how is it possible that our confessors dare to take away from +us that holy, divine coat of modesty and self-respect? Has not Almighty God +Himself made with His own hands that coat of womanly modesty and +self-respect that we might not be to you and to ourselves a cause of shame +and sin?" + +I was really stunned by the beauty, simplicity, and sublimity of that +comparison. I remained absolutely mute and confounded. Though it was +demolishing all the traditions and doctrines of my Church, and pulverizing +all my holy doctors and theologians, that noble answer found such an echo +in my soul that it seemed to me a sacrilege to try to touch it with my +finger. + +After a short time of silence, she continued, "Twice I have been destroyed +by priests in the confessional. They took away from me that divine coat of +modesty and self-respect which God gives to every human being who comes +into this world, and twice I have become for those very priests a deep pit +of perdition, into which they have fallen, and where, I fear, they are for +ever lost! My merciful Heavenly Father has given me back that coat of +skins, that nuptial robe of modesty, self-respect, and holiness, which had +been taken away from me. He cannot allow you, or any other man, to tear +again and spoil that vestment which is the work of His hands." + +These words had exhausted her; it was evident to me that she wanted some +rest. I left her alone, but I was absolutely beside myself. Filled with +admiration for the sublime lessons which I had received from the lips of +that angel, who, it was evident, was soon to fly away from us, I felt a +supreme disgust for myself, my theologians, and--shall I say it? yes--I +felt, in that solemn hour, a supreme disgust for my Church, which was so +cruelly defiling me and all the priests, in the confessional-box. I felt in +that hour a supreme horror for that auricular confession, which is so often +such a pit of perdition and supreme misery for the confessor and the +penitent. I went out, walked two hours on the Plains of Abraham, to breathe +the pure and refreshing air of the mountain. There alone I sat on a stone, +on the very spot where Wolf and Montcalm had fought and died, and wept to +my heart's content on my irreparable degradation, and the degradation of +all the priests through the confessional. + +At four o'clock in the afternoon I went back again to the house of my dear +dying Mary. The mother took me apart, and very politely said, "My dear Mr. +Chiniquy, do you not think that it is time that our dear child should +receive the last sacraments? She seemed to be much better this morning, and +we were full of hope; but she is now rapidly sinking. Please lose no time +in giving her the holy viaticum and the extreme unction." + +I said, "Yes, Madam; let me pass a few minutes alone with our poor dear +child, that I may prepare her for the last sacraments." + +When alone with her, I again fell on my knees, and, amidst torrents of +tears, I said, "Dear sister, it is my desire to give you the holy viaticum +and the extreme unction; but tell me, how can I dare to do a thing so +solemn against all the prohibitions of our holy Church? How can I give you +the holy communion without first giving you absolution? and how can I give +you absolution when you earnestly persist in telling me that you have +committed sins which you will never declare either to me or any other +confessor? + +"You know that I cherish and respect you as if you were an angel sent to me +from heaven. You told me the other day that you blessed the day that you +first saw and knew me. I say the same thing. I bless the day that I have +known you; I bless every hour that I have passed by your bed of suffering; +I bless every tear which I have shed with you on your sins and on my own; I +bless every hour that we have passed together in looking to the wounds of +our beloved, dying Saviour; I bless you for having forgiven me your death! +for I know it, and I confess it a thousand times in the presence of God, I +have killed you, dear sister. But now I prefer a thousand times to die than +to say to you a word which would pain you in any way, or trouble the peace +of your soul. Please, my dear sister, tell me what I can and must do for +you in this solemn hour." + +Calmly, and with a smile of joy, such as I had never seen before, nor have +seen since, she said, "I thank and bless you, dear father, for the parable +of the Prodigal Son, on which you preached a month ago. You have brought me +to the feet of the dear Saviour; there, I have found a peace and a joy +which surpass anything which human heart can feel; I have thrown myself +into the arms of my heavenly Father, and I know He has mercifully accepted +and forgiven His poor prodigal child! Oh, I see the angels with their +golden harps around the throne of the Lamb! Do you not hear the celestial +harmony of their songs? I go--I go to join them in my Father's house. I +shall not be lost!" + +While she was thus speaking to me, my eyes were really turned into two +fountains of tears, and I was unable, as well as unwilling, to see +anything, so entirely overcome was I by the sublime words which were +flowing from the dying lips of that dear child, who was no more a sinner, +but a real angel of Heaven to me. I was listening to her words; there was a +celestial music in every one of them. But she had raised her voice in such +a strange way, when she had begun to say, "I go to my Father's house," and +she had made such a cry of joy when she had let the last words, "not be +lost," escape her lips, that I raised my head and opened my eyes to look at +her. I suspected that something strange had occurred. + +I got upon my feet, passed my handkerchief over my face, to wipe away the +tears which were preventing me from seeing with accuracy, and looked at +her. + +Her hands were crossed on her breast, and there was on her face the +expression of a really superhuman joy; her beautiful eyes were fixed as if +they were looking on some grand and sublime spectacle; it seemed to me at +first that she was praying. + +In that very same instant the mother rushed into the room, crying, "My God! +my God! what does that cry 'lost' mean?"--for her last words, "not be +lost," particularly the last one, had been pronounced with such a powerful +voice that they had been heard almost everywhere in the house. + +I made a sign with my hand to prevent the distressed mother from making any +noise, and troubling her dying child in her prayer, for I really thought +that she had stopped speaking, as she used so often to do, when alone with +me, in order to pray. But I was mistaken. That redeemed soul had gone, on +the golden wings of love, to join the multitudes of those who have washed +their robes in the blood of the Lamb, to sing the eternal Alleluia. + + * * * * * + +CHAPTER II. + +AURICULAR CONFESSION A DEEP PIT OF PERDITION FOR THE PRIEST + + * * * * * + +It was some time after our Mary had been buried. The terrible and +mysterious cause of her death was known only to God and to me. Though her +loving mother was still weeping over her grave, she had soon been +forgotten, as usual, by the greatest part of those who had known her: but +she was constantly present to my mind. I never entered the confessional-box +without hearing her solemn, though so mild, voice telling me, "There must +be somewhere something wrong in the auricular confession. Twice I have been +destroyed by my confessors; and I have known several others who have been +destroyed in the same way." + +More than once, when her voice was ringing in my ears from her tomb, I had +shed bitter tears on the profound and unfathomable degradation into which +I, with the other priests, had to fell in the confessional-box. For many, +many times, stories as deplorable as that of this unfortunate girl were +confessed to me by city as well as country females. + +One night I was awakened by the rumbling noise of thunder, when I heard +some one knocking at the door. I hastened out of bed to ask who was there. +The answer was that the Rev. Mr. ---- was dying, and that he wanted to see +me before his death. I dressed myself, and was soon on the highway. The +darkness was fearful; and often, had it not been for the lightning which +was almost constantly tearing the clouds, we should not have known where we +were. After a long and hard journey through the darkness and the storm, we +arrived at the house of the dying priest. I went directly to his room, and +really found him very low; he could hardly speak. With a sign of his hand +he bade his servant-girl and a young man who were there go out, and leave +him alone with me. + +Then, with a low voice, he said, "Is it you who prepared poor Mary to die?" + +"Yes, sir," I answered. + +"Please tell me the truth. Is it the fact that she died the death of a +reprobate, and that her last words were, 'Oh, my God! I am lost'?" + +I answered: "As I was the confessor of that girl, and we were talking +together on matters which pertained to her confession, in the very moment +that she was unexpectedly summoned to appear before God, I cannot answer +your question in any way; please, then, excuse me if I cannot say any more +on that subject: but tell me who can have assured you that she died the +death of a reprobate." + +"It was her own mother," answered the dying man. "She came, last week, to +visit me, and when she was alone with me, with many tears and cries, she +said how her poor child had refused to receive the last sacraments, and how +her last cry was, 'I am lost!'" She added that that cry, 'Lost!' was +pronounced with such a frightful power that it was heard through all the +house." + +"If her mother has told you that," I replied, "you may believe what you +please about the way that poor child died. I cannot say a word--you know +it--about that matter." + +"But if she is lost," rejoined the old, dying priest, "I am the miserable +one who has destroyed her. She was an angel of purity when she came to the +convent. Oh! dear Mary, if you are lost, I am a thousandfold more lost! Oh, +my God, my God! what will become of me? I am dying; and I am lost!" + +It was indeed an awful thing to see that old sinner tearing his own hands, +rolling on his bed as if he had been on burning coals, with all the marks +of the most frightful despair on his face, crying, "I am lost! Oh, my God, +I am lost!" + +I was glad that the claps of thunder, which were shaking the house and +roaring without ceasing, prevented the people outside the room from hearing +those cries of desolation from that priest, whom every one considered a +great saint. + +When it seemed to me that his terror had somewhat subsided, and that his +mind was calmed a little, I said to him, "My dear friend, you must not give +yourself up to such despair. Our merciful God has promised to forgive the +repenting sinner who comes to Him, even at the last hour of the day. +Address yourself to the Virgin Mary, she will ask and obtain your pardon." + +"Do you not think that it is too late to ask pardon? The doctor has +honestly warned me that death is very near, and I feel I am just now dying! +Is it not too late to ask and obtain pardon?" asked the dying priest. + +"No, my dear sir, it is not too late, if you sincerely regret your sins. +Throw yourself into the arms of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph; make your +confession without any more delay, and you will be saved." + +"But I have never made a good confession. Will you help me to make a +general one?" + +It was my duty to grant him his request, and the rest of the night was +spent by me in hearing the confession of his whole life. + +I do not want to give many particulars of the life of that priest. I will +only mention two things. First: It was then that I understood why poor +young Mary was absolutely unwilling to mention the iniquities which she had +done with him. They were simply surpassingly horrible--unmentionable. No +human tongue can express them--few human ears would consent to hear them. + +The second thing that I am bound in conscience to reveal is almost +incredible, but it is nevertheless true. The number of married and +unmarried females he had heard in the confessional was about 1500, of which +he said he had destroyed or scandalized at least 1000 by his questioning +them on most depraving things, for the simple pleasure of gratifying his +own corrupted heart, without letting them know anything of his sinful +thoughts and criminal desires towards them. But he confessed that he had +destroyed the purity of ninety-five of those penitents, who had consented +to sin with him. + +And would to God that this priest had been the only one whom I have known +to be lost through the auricular confession! But, alas! how few are those +who have escaped the snares of the tempter compared with those who have +perished! I have heard the confessions of more than 200 priests, and, to +say the truth, as God knows it, I must declare that only twenty-one had not +to weep over the secret or public sins committed through the irresistibly +corrupting influences of auricular confession! + +I am sixty six years old; in a short time I shall be in my grave. I shall +have to give an account of what I say to-day. Well, it is in the presence +of my great Judge, with my tomb before my eyes, that I declare to the world +that very few--yes, very few--priests escape from falling into the pit of +the most horrible moral depravity the world has ever known, through the +confession of females. + +I do not say this because I have any bad feelings against those priests: +God knows that I have none. The only feelings I have are of supreme +compassion and pity. I do not reveal these awful things to make the world +believe that the priests of Rome are a worse set of men than the rest of +the innumerable fallen children of Adam. No, I do not entertain any such +views; for, everything considered and weighed in the balance of religion, +charity, and common sense--I think that the priests of Rome are far from +being worse than any other set of men who would be thrown into the same +temptations, dangers and unavoidable occasions of sin. + +For instance, let us take lawyers, merchants, or farmers, and, preventing +them from living with their lawful wives, let us surround each of them from +morning to night by ten, twenty, and sometimes more, beautiful women and +tempting girls, who would speak to them of things which can pulverize a +rock of Scotch granite, and you will see how many of those lawyers, +merchants or farmers will go out of that terrible moral battle-field +without being mortally wounded. + +The cause of the supreme--I dare say incredible, though +unsuspected--immorality of the priests of Rome is a very evident and +logical one. By the diabolical power of the Pope, the priest is put out of +the ways which God has offered to the generality of men to be honest, +upright, and holy[1]. And after the Pope has deprived them of the grand, +holy, I say Divine (in this sense that it comes directly from God) remedy +which God has given to man against his own concupiscence--holy marriage, +they are placed unprotected, unguarded in the most perilous, difficult, +irresistible moral dangers which human ingenuity or depravity can conceive. +Those unmarried men are forced to be, from morning to night, in the midst +of beautiful girls, and tempting, charming women, who have to tell them +things which would melt the hardest steel. How can you expect that they +will cease to be men, and become stronger than angels? + +Not only are the priests of Rome deprived by the devil of the _only_ remedy +which God has given to help them to stand up, but they have, in the +confessional, the greatest facility which can possibly be imagined for +satisfying all the bad propensities of fallen human nature. In the +confessional _they know_ those who are strong, and they know those who are +weak among the females by whom they are surrounded; they know who would +resist any attempt from the enemy; and they know who are ready--nay, who +are longing after the deceitful charms of sin. If they still retain the +fallen nature of man, what a terrible hour for them! what frightful battles +inside the poor heart! What superhuman efforts and strength would be +required to come out a conqueror from that battle field, where a David, a +Samson, have fallen, mortally wounded! + +It is simply an act of supreme stupidity on the part of the Protestant, as +well as Catholic public, to suppose, or suspect, or hope, that the +generality of the priests can stand that trial. The pages of the history of +Rome herself are filled with the unanswerable proofs that the great +_generality_ of the confessors fall. If it were not so, the miracle of +Joshua, stopping the march of the sun and the moon, would be a childish +play compared with the miracle which would stop and reverse all the laws of +our common fallen nature in the hearts of the 100,000 Roman Catholic +confessors of the Church of Rome. Were I attempting to prove by public +facts what I know of the horrible depravity caused by the confessional-box +among the priests of France, Canada, Spain, Italy, England, I should have +to write many big volumes in folio. For brevity's sake, I will speak only +of Italy. I take that country because, being under the very eyes of their +infallible and most holy (?) Pontiff, being in the land of daily miracles, +of painted Madonnas, who weep and turn their eyes left and right, up and +down, in a most marvellous way, being in the land of miraculous medals and +heavenly spiritual favors, constantly flowing from the chair of St. Peter, +the confessors in Italy are in the best possible circumstances to be +strong, faithful, and holy. Well, let us hear an eye-witness, a +contemporary, an unimpeachable witness about the way the confessors deal +with their penitent females, in the only holy, apostolical, infallible (?) +Church of Rome. + +The witness we will hear is of the purest blood of the princes of Italy. +Her name is Henrietta Carracciolo, daughter of the Marshal Carracciolo, +Governor of the Province of Bari, in Italy. Let us hear what she says of +the Father Confessors, after twenty years of personal experience in +different nunneries of Italy, in her remarkable book, "Mysteries of the +Neapolitan Convents," pp. 150, 151, 152: "My confessor came the following +day, and I disclosed to him the nature of the troubles which beset me. +Later in the day, seeing that I had gone down to the place where we used to +receive the holy communion, called Communichino, the conversa of my aunt +rang the bell for the priest to come with the pyx.[2] He was a man of about +fifty years of age, very corpulent, with a rubicund face, and a type of +physiognomy as vulgar as it was repulsive. + +"I approached the little window to receive the sacred wafer on my tongue, +with my eyes closed, as it is customary. I placed it upon my tongue; and, +as I drew back, I felt my cheeks caressed. I opened my eyes, but the priest +had withdrawn his hand, and, thinking I had been deceived, I gave it no +more attention. + +"On the next occasion, forgetful of what had occurred before, I received +the sacrament with closed eyes again, according to precept. This time I +distinctly felt my chin caressed again; and on opening my eyes suddenly, I +found the priest gazing rudely upon me, with a sensual smile on his face. + +"There could be no longer any doubt: these overtures were not the result of +accident. + +"The daughter of Eve is endowed with a greater degree of curiosity than +man. It occured to me to place myself in a contiguous apartment, where I +could observe if this libertine priest was accustomed to take similar +liberties with the nuns. I did so, and was fully convinced that only the +old left him without being caressed! + +"All the others allowed him to do with them as he pleased; and even, in +taking leave of him, did so with the utmost reverence. + +"'Is this the respect,' said I to myself, 'that the priests and the spouses +of Christ have for the sacrament of the Eucharist? Shall the poor novice be +enticed to leave the world in order to learn, in this school, such lessons +of self-respect and chastity?'" + +Page 163, we read, "The fanatical passion of the nuns for their confessors, +priests, and monks, exceeds belief. That which especially renders their +incarceration endurable is the illimitable opportunity they enjoy of seeing +and corresponding with those persons with whom they are in love. This +freedom localizes and identifies them with the convent so closely that they +are unhappy when, on account of any serious sickness, or while preparing to +take the veil, they are obliged to pass some months in the bosom of their +own families, in company with their fathers, mothers, brothers, and +sisters. It is not to be presumed that these relatives would permit a young +girl to pass many hours each day in a mysterious colloquy with a priest, or +a monk, and maintain with him this continual correspondence. This is a +liberty which they can enjoy in the convent only. + +"Many are the hours which the Heloise spends in the confessional, in +agreeable pastime with her Abelard in cassock. + +"Others, whose confessors happen to be old, have in addition a spiritual +director, with whom they amuse themselves a long time every day, +_tete-a-tete_, in the parlatorio. When this is not enough, they simulate an +illness, in order to have him alone in their own rooms." + +Page 166, we read:--"Another nun, being somewhat infirm, her priest +confessed her in her own room. After a time, the invalid penitent found +herself in what is called an interesting situation, on which account, the +physician declaring that her complaint was dropsy, she was sent away from +the convent." + +Page 167:--"A young educanda was in the habit of going down every night to +the convent burial-place, where, by a corridor which communicated with the +vestry, she entered into a colloquy with a young priest attached to the +church. Consumed by an amorous impatience, she was not deterred from these +excursions either by bad weather or the fear of being discovered. + +"She heard a great noise one night near her. In the thick darkness which +surrounded her, she imagined that she saw a viper winding itself around her +feet. She was so much overcome by fright that she died from the effects of +it a few months later." + +Page 168:--"One of the confessors had a young penitent in the convent. +Every time he was called to visit a dying sister, and on that account +passed the night in the convent, this nun would climb over the partition +which separated her room from his, and betake herself to the master and +director of souls. + +"Another, during the delirium of a typhoid fever, from which she was +suffering, was constantly imitating the action of sending kisses to her +confessor, who stood by the side of her bed. He, covered with blushes on +account of the presence of strangers, held a crucifix before the eyes of +the penitent, and in a commiserating tone exclaimed,-- + +"'Poor thing! kiss thy own spouse!'" + +Page 168:--"Under the bonds of secrecy, an educanda, of fine form and +pleasing manners, and of a noble family, confided to me the fact of her +having received, from the hands of her confessor, a very interesting book +(as she described it), which related to the monastic life. I expressed the +wish to know the title, and she, before showing it to me, took the +precaution to lock the door. + +"It proved to be the Monaca, by Dalembert, a book, as all know, filled with +the most disgusting obscenity." + +Page 169:--"I received once from a monk, a letter in which he signified to +me that he had hardly seen me, when 'he conceived the sweet hope of +becoming my confessor.' An exquisite of the first water, a fop of scents +and euphuism, could not have employed phrases more melodramic, to demand +whether he might hope or despair." + +Page 169:--"A priest who enjoyed the reputation of being an incorruptible +sacerdote, when he saw me pass through the parlatorio, used to address me +as follows:-- + +"'Ps, dear, come here! Ps, Ps, come here!' + +"These words, addressed to me by a priest, were nauseous in the extreme. + +"Finally, another priest, the most annoying of all for his obstinate +assiduity, sought to secure my affections at all cost. There was not an +image profane poetry could afford him, nor a sophism he could borrow from +rhetoric, nor wily interpretation he could give to the Word of God, which +he did not employ to convert me to his wishes. Here is an example of his +logic:-- + +"'Fair daughter,' said he to me one day, 'knowest thou who God truly is?' + +"'He is the Creator of the Universe,' I answered drily. + +"'No,--no,--no,--no! that is not enough,' he replied, laughing at my +ignorance. 'God is love, but love in the abstract, which receives its +incarnation in the mutual affection of two hearts which idolize each other. +You, then, must not only love God in His abstract existance, but must also +love Him in His incarnation, that is, in the exclusive love of a man who +adores you. _Quod Deus est amor, nec colitur, nisi amando._' + +"'Then,' I replied, 'a woman who adores her own lover would adore Divinity +itself?' + +"'Assuredly,' reiterated the priest over and over again, taking courage +from my remark, and chuckling at what seemed to him to be the effect of his +catechism. + +"'In that case,' said I hastily, 'I should select for my lover rather a man +of the world than a priest.' + +"'God preserve you, my daughter! God preserve you from that sin!' added my +interlocutor, apparently frightened. 'To love a man of the world, a sinner, +a wretch, an unbeliever, an infidel! Why, you would go immediately to hell. +The love of a priest is a sacred love, while that of a profane man is +infamy; the faith of a priest emanates from that granted to the holy +Church, while that of the profane is false,--false as the vanity of the +world. The priest purifies his affections daily in communion with the Holy +Spirit: the man of the world (if he ever knows love at all) sweeps the +muddy crossings of the street with it day and night. + +"'But it is the heart, as well as the conscience, which prompts me to fly +from the priests,' I replied. + +"'Well, if you cannot love me because I am your confessor, I will find +means to assist you to get rid of your scruples. We will place the name of +Jesus Christ before all our affectionate demonstration, and thus our love +will be a grateful offering to the Lord, and will ascend fragrant with +perfume to Heaven, like the smoke of the incense of the sanctuary. Say to +me, for example, "I love you in Jesus Christ; last night I dreamed of you +in Jesus Christ;" and you will have a tranquil conscience, because in doing +this you will sanctify every transport of your love.' + +"Several circumstances not indicated here, by the way, compelled me to come +in frequent contact with this priest afterwards, and I do not therefore +give his name. + +"Of a very respectable monk, respectable alike for his age and his moral +character, I inquired what signified the prefixing the name of Jesus Christ +to amorous apostrophes. + +"'It is,' he said, 'an expression used by a horrible sect, and one +unfortunately only too numerous, which, thus abusing the name of our Lord, +permits to its members the most unbridled licentiousness.'" + +And it is my sad duty to say, before the whole world, that I know that by +far the greater part of the confessors in America, Spain, France and +England, reason and act just like that licentious Italian priest. + +Christian nations! if you could know what will become of the virtue of your +fair daughters if you allow secret or public slaves of Rome to restore the +auricular confession, with what a storm of holy indignation you would +defeat their plans! + + * * * * * + +CHAPTER III. + +THE CONFESSIONAL IS THE MODERN SODOM. + + * * * * * + +If any one wants to hear an eloquent oration, let him go when the Roman +Catholic priest is preaching on the divine institution of auricular +confession. There is no subject, perhaps, on which the priests display so +much zeal and earnestness, and of which they speak so often. For this +institution is really the corner-stone of their stupendous power; it is the +secret of their almost irresistible influence. Let the people to-day open +their eyes to the truth, and understand that auricular confession is one of +the most stupendous impostures which Satan has invented to corrupt and +enslave the world; let the people desert the confessional-box to-day, and +tomorrow Romanism will fall into the dust. The priests understand this very +well; hence their constant efforts to deceive the people on that question. +To attain their object, they have recourse to the most egregious +falsehoods; the Scriptures are misrepresented; the holy Fathers are brought +to say the very contrary of what they have ever thought or written; the +most extraordinary miracles and stories are invented. But two of the +arguments to which they have more often recourse are the great and +perpetual miracles which God makes to keep the purity of the confessional +undefiled, and its secrets marvellously sealed. They make the people +believe that the vow of perpetual chastity changes their nature, turns them +into angels, and puts them above the common frailties of the fallen +children of Adam. + +Bravely and with a brazen face, when they are interrogated on that subject, +they say that they have special graces to remain pure and undefiled in the +midst of the greatest dangers; that the Virgin Mary, to whom they are +consecrated, is their powerful advocate to obtain from her Son that +superhuman virtue of chastity; that what would be a cause of sure perdition +to common men is without peril and danger for a true son of Mary; and, with +amazing stupidity, the people consent to be duped, blinded, and deceived by +those fooleries. + +But here let the world hear the truth as it is, from one who knows +perfectly everything inside and outside the walls of that Modern Babylon; +though many, I know, will disbelieve me and say, "We hope you are mistaken. +It is impossible that the priests of Rome should turn out to be such +impostors. They may be mistaken; they may believe and repeat things which +are not true, but they are honest; they cannot be such impudent deceivers." + +Yes! though I know that many will hardly believe me, I must say the truth. + +Those very men who, when speaking to the people in such glowing terms of +the marvellous way they are kept pure in the midst of the dangers which +surround them, honestly blush, and often weep, when they speak to each +other (when they are sure that nobody except priests hears them). They +deplore their moral degradation with the utmost sincerity and honesty. They +ask from God and men pardon for their unspeakable depravity. + +I have here in my hands, and under my eyes, one of their most remarkable +secret books, written, or at least approved, by one of their greatest and +best bishops and cardinals, the Cardinal De Bonald, Archbishop of Lyons. + +The book is written for the use of the priests alone. Its title is in +French, "Examen de Conscience des Pretres." At page 34 we read:-- + +"Have I left certain persons to make the declarations of their sins in such +a way that the imagination, once taken and impressed by pictures and +representations, could be dragged into a long course of temptations and +grievous sins? The priests do not pay sufficient attention to the continual +temptations caused by the hearing of confessions. The soul is gradually +enfeebled in such a way that, at the end, the virtue of chastity is for +ever lost." + +Here is the address of a priest to other priests when he suspects that +nobody but his co-sinner brethren hear him. Here is the honest language of +truth. + +In the presence of God, those priests acknowledge that they have not a +sufficient fear of those _constant_ (what a word--what an +acknowledgment--constant!) temptations, and they honestly confess that +those temptations come from the hearing of the confessions of so many +scandalous sins. Here the priests honestly acknowledge that those constant +temptations, at the end, destroy _for ever_ in them the holy virtue of +purity![3] + +Ah! would to God that all the honest girls and women whom the devil entraps +into the snares of auricular confession could hear the cries of distress of +those poor priests whom they have tempted--_for ever destroyed!_ Would to +God that they could see the torrents of tears shed by so many priests +because, from the hearing of confessions, they had _for ever_ lost the +virtue of purity! They would understand that the confessional is a snare, a +pit of perdition, a Sodom for the priest; and they would be struck with +horror and shame at the idea of the _continual_, shameful, dishonest, +degrading temptations by which their confessor is tormented day and +night--they would blush on account of the shameful sins which their +confessors have committed--they would weep over the irreparable loss of +their purity--they would promise before God and men that the +confessional-box should never see them any more--they would prefer to be +burned alive, if any sentiment of honesty and charity remained in them, +rather than consent to be a cause of _constant_ temptation and damnable sin +to that man. + +Would that respectable lady go any more to confess to that man if, after +her confession, she could hear him lamenting the continual, shameful +temptations which assail him day and night, and the damning sins which he +has committed on account of what she has confessed to him? No--a thousand +times no! + +Would that honest father allow his beloved daughter to go any more to that +man to confess if he could hear his cries of distress, and see his tears +flowing because the hearing of those confessions is the source of constant, +shameful temptations and degrading iniquities? + +Oh! would to God that the honest Romanists all over the world--for there +are millions who, though deluded, are honest--could see what is going on in +the heart, the imagination of the poor confessor when he is, there, +surrounded by attractive women, and tempting girls, speaking to him from +morning to night on things which a man cannot hear without falling! Then +that modern but grand imposture called the Sacrament of Penance would soon +be ended. + +But here, again, who will not lament the consequence of the total +perversity of our human nature? Those very same priests who, when alone in +the presence of God, speak so plainly of the constant temptations by which +they are assailed, and who so sincerely weep over the irreparable loss of +their virtue of purity, when they think that nobody hears them, will yet in +public deny with a brazen face those temptations. They will indignantly +rebuke you as a slanderer if you say anything to lead them to suppose that +you fear for their purity when they hear the confessions of girls or +married women. There is not a single one of the Roman Catholic authors who +have written on that subject for the priests, who has not deplored their +innumerable and degrading sins against purity on account of the auricular +confession; but those very men will be the first to try to prove the very +contrary when they write books for the people. I have no words to say what +was my surprise when, for the first time, I saw that this strange duplicity +seemed to be one of the fundamental stones of my Church. + +It was not very long after my ordination, when a priest came to me to +confess the most deplorable things. He honestly told me that there was not +a single one of the girls or married women whom he had confessed who had +not been a secret cause of the most shameful sins in thoughts, desires, or +actions; but he wept so bitterly over his degradation, his heart seemed so +sincerely broken on account of his own iniquities, that I could not refrain +from mixing my tears with his. I wept with him, and I gave him the pardon +of all his sins, as I thought, then, I had the power and right to give it. + +Two hours afterwards, that same priest, who was a good speaker, was in the +pulpit. His sermon was on "The Divinity of Auricular Confession;" and, to +prove that it was an institution coming directly from Christ, he said that +the Son of God was making a _constant_ miracle to strengthen His priests, +and prevent them from falling into sins, on account of what they might have +heard in the confessional! + +The daily abominations, which are the result of auricular confession, are +so horrible and so well known by the popes, the bishops, and the priests, +that several times, public attempts have been made to diminish them by +punishing the guilty priests; but all these have failed. + +One of the most remarkable of those efforts was made by Pius IV. about the +year 1500. A Bull was published by him, by which all the girls and the +married women who had been seduced into sins by their confessors were +ordered to denounce them; and a certain number of high church officers of +the Holy Inquisition were authorized to take the depositions of the fallen +penitents. The thing was at first tried at Seville, one of the principal +cities of Spain. When the edict was first published the number of women who +felt bound in conscience to go and depose against their father confessors +was so great that, though there were thirty notaries and as many +inquisitors to take the depositions, they were unable to do the work in the +appointed time. Thirty days more were given, but the inquisitors were so +overwhelmed with the numberless depositions that another period of time of +the same length was given. But this, again, was found insufficient. At the +end, it was found that the number of priests who had destroyed the purity +of their penitents was so great that it was impossible to punish them all. +The inquest was given up, and the guilty confessors remained unpunished. +Several attempts of the same nature have been tried by other popes, but +with about the same success. + +But if those honest attempts, on the part of some well-meaning popes, to +punish the confessors who destroy the purity of their penitents, have +failed to touch the guilty parties, they are, in the good providence of +God, infallible witnesses to tell to the world that auricular confession is +nothing else than a snare to the confessor and his dupes. Yes, those Bulls +of the popes are an irrefragable testimony that auricular confession is the +most powerful invention of the devil to corrupt the heart, pollute the +body, and damn the soul of the priest and his female penitent! + + * * * * * + +CHAPTER IV. + +HOW THE VOW OF CELIBACY OF THE PRIESTS IS MADE EASY BY AURICULAR +CONFESSION. + + * * * * * + +Are not facts the best arguments? Well, here is an undeniable, a public +fact, which is connected with a thousand collateral ones to prove that +auricular confession is the most powerful engine of demoralization which +the world has ever seen. + +About the year 183--, there was in Quebec a fine-looking young priest; he +had a magnificent voice, and was a pretty good speaker.[4] Through regard +for his family, which is still numerous and respectable, I will not give +his name, I will call him Rev. Mr. D----. Having been invited to preach in +a parish of Canada, about 100 miles distant from Quebec, called Vercheres, +he was also requested to hear the confessions during a few days of a kind +of Novena (nine days of prayer), which was going on in that place. Among +his penitents was a beautiful young girl, about nineteen years old. She +wanted to make a general confession of all her sins from the first age of +reason, and the confessor granted her request. Twice every day she was +there, at the feet of her handsome young spiritual physician, telling all +her thoughts, her deeds, her desires. Sometimes she was remarked to have +remained a whole hour in the confessional-box, in accusing herself of all +her human frailties. What did she say? God only knows; but what became +hereafter known by the entire of Canada is that the confessor fell in love +with his fair penitent, and that she burned with the same irresistible +fires for her confessor, as it so often happens. + +It was not an easy matter for the priest and the young girl to meet each +other in as complete a _tete-a-tete_ as they both wished, for there were +too many eyes upon them. But the confessor was a man of resources. The last +day of the Novena he said to his beloved penitent, "I am going to Montreal, +but three days after I will take the steamer back to Quebec. That steamer +is accustomed to stop here. At about twelve a.m., be on the wharf, dressed +as a young man. Let no one know your secret. You will embark in the +steamboat, where you will not be known, if you have any prudence. You will +come to Quebec, where you will be engaged as a servant-boy by the curate, +of whom I am the vicar. Nobody will know your sex except myself, and we +will there be happy together." + +The fifth day after this there was a great desolation in the family of the +girl, for she had suddenly disappeared and her robes had been found on the +shores of the St. Lawrence river. There was not the least doubt in the +minds of all relations and friends, that the general confession she had +made had entirely upset her mind, and, in an excess of craziness, she had +thrown herself into the deep and rapid waters of the St. Lawrence. Many +searches were made to find her body, but all in vain; many public and +private prayers were offered to God to help her to escape from the flames +of Purgatory, where she might be condemned to suffer for many years, and +much money was given to the priest to sing high masses, in order to +extinguish the fires of that burning prison, where every Roman Catholic +believes he must go to be purified before entering the regions of eternal +happiness. + +I will not give the name of the girl, though I have it, through compassion +for her family; I will call her Geneva. + +Well, when father and mother, brothers, sisters, and friends were shedding +tears on the sad end of Geneva, she was in the rich parsonage of the Curate +of Quebec, well paid, well fed and dressed; happy and cheerful with her +beloved confessor. She was exceedingly neat in her person, always obliging, +ready to run and do what you wanted at the very twinkling of your eye. Her +new name was Joseph, by which I will now call her. + +Many times I have seen the smart Joseph at the parsonage of Quebec, and +admired his politeness and good manners; though it seemed to me sometimes +that he looked too much like a girl, and that he was a little too much at +ease with Rev. Mr. D----, and also with the Right Rev. M----. But every +time the idea came to me that Joseph was a girl, I felt indignant with +myself. The high respect I had for the Coadjutor Bishop made it impossible +to think that he would ever allow a beautiful girl to sleep in the +adjoining room to his own, and to serve him day and night; for Joseph's +sleeping-room was just by the one of the Coadjutor, who, for several bodily +infirmities, which were not a secret to every one, wanted the help of his +servant several times at night, as well as during the day. + +Things went on very smoothly with Joseph during two or three years in the +Coadjutor Bishop's house; but at the end it seemed to many people outside +that Joseph was taking too great airs of familiarity with the young vicars, +and even with the venerable Coadjutor. Several of the citizens of Quebec, +who were going more often than others to the parsonage, were surprised and +shocked at the familiarity of that servant-boy with his masters; he really +seemed sometimes to be on equal terms with, if not somewhat above them. + +An intimate friend of the Bishop, a most devoted Roman Catholic, who was my +near relative, took one day upon himself to respectfully say to the Right +Rev. Bishop that it would be prudent to turn out that impudent young man +from his palace; that he was the object of strong and deplorable +suspicions. + +The position of the Right Rev. Bishop and his vicars was not a very +agreeable one. Their barque had evidently drifted among dangerous rocks. To +keep Joseph among them was impossible, after the friendly advice which had +come from such a high quarter, and to dismiss him was not less dangerous; +he knew too much of the interior and secret lives of all those holy (?) +celibates to deal with him as with another common servant-man. With a +single word of his lips he could destroy them; they were as if tied to his +feet by ropes, which at first seemed made with sweet cakes and ice-cream, +but had suddenly turned into burning steel chains. Several days of anxiety +passed away; many sleepless nights succeeded the too-happy ones of better +times. But what to do? There were breakers ahead; breakers on the right, on +the left, and on every side. But when every one, particularly the venerable +(?) Coadjutor, felt as criminals who expect their sentence, and that their +horizon seemed surrounded absolutely by only dark and stormy clouds, on a +sudden, a happy opening presented itself to the anxious sailors. + +The curate of "Les Eboulements," the Rev. Mr. ----, had just come to Quebec +on some private business, and had taken his quarters in the hospitable +house of his old friend, the Right Rev. ----, Bishop Coadjutor. Both had +been on very intimate terms for many years, and, in many instances, they +had been of great service to each other. The Pontiff of the Church of +Canada, hoping that his tried friend would perhaps help him out of the +terrible difficulty of the moment, frankly told him all about Joseph, and +asked him what he ought to do under such difficult circumstances. + +"My Lord," said the curate of the Eboulements, "Joseph is just the servant +I want. Pay him well, that he may remain your friend, and that his lips may +be sealed, and allow me to take him with me. My housekeeper left me a few +weeks ago; I am alone in my parsonage with my old servant-man. Joseph is +just the person I want." + +It would be difficult to tell the joy of the poor Bishop and his vicars, +when they saw that heavy stone they had on their neck removed. + +Joseph, once installed into the parsonage of the pious (?) parish priest of +the Eboulements, soon gained the favour of the whole people by his good and +winning manners, and every parishioner complimented his curate on the +smartness of his new servant. But the priest, of course, knew a little more +of that smartness than the rest of the people. Three years passed on very +smoothly. The priest and his servant seemed to be on the most perfect +terms. The only thing which marred the happiness of that lucky couple was +that, now and then, some of the farmers, whose eyes were sharper than those +of their neighbours, seemed to think that the intimacy between the two was +going a little too far, and that Joseph, was really keeping in his hands +the sceptre of the little priestly kingdom. Nothing could be done without +his advice; he was meddling in all the small and big affairs of the parish, +and the curate seemed sometimes to be rather the servant than the master in +his own house and parish. Those who had at first made those remarks +privately began little by little to convey their views to the next +neighbour, and this one to the next. In that way, at the end of the third +year, grave and serious suspicions began to spread from one to the other in +such a way that the Marguilliers (a kind of Elders) thought proper to say +to the priest that it would be better for him to turn Joseph out than to +keep him any longer. But the old curate had passed so many happy hours with +his faithful Joseph that it was as hard as death to give him up. + +He knew, by confession, that a girl in the vicinity was given to an +unmentionable abomination, to which Joseph was also addicted. He went to +her and proposed that she should marry Joseph, and that he (the priest) +would help them to live comfortably. Joseph, in order to continue to live +near his good master, consented also to marry that girl. Both knew very +well what the other was. The banns were published during three Sabbaths, +after which the old curate, blessed the marriage of Joseph with the girl +his parishioner. + +They lived together as husband and wife in such harmony that nobody could +suspect the horrible depravity which was concealed behind that union. +Joseph continued with his wife to work often for his priest, till after +sometime that priest was removed, and another curate, called Tetreau, was +sent in his place. + +This new curate, knowing absolutely nothing of that mystery of iniquity, +employed also Joseph and his wife several times. One day when Joseph was +working at the door of the parsonage, in the presence of several people, a +stranger arrived, and inquired of him if the Rev. Mr. Tetreau, the curate, +was there. + +Joseph answered, "Yes, sir. But as you seem to be a stranger, would you +allow me to ask you whence you come?" + +"It is very easy, sir, to satisfy you. I come from Vercheres," replied the +stranger. + +At the word "Vercheres" Joseph turned so pale that the stranger could not +be but struck with his sudden change of colour. + +Then, fixing his eyes on Joseph, he cried out, "Oh, my God! what do I see +here? Geneva! Geneva! I recognize you, and here you are in the disguise of +a man!" + +"Dear uncle (for it was her uncle), for God's sake," she cried, "do not say +a word more!" + +But it was too late. The people who were there had heard the uncle and +niece. Their long secret suspicions were well-founded--one of their former +priests had kept a girl under the disguise of a man in his house! and, to +blind his people more thoroughly, he had married that girl to another one, +in order to have them both in his house, when he pleased, without awakening +any suspicion!! + +The news went almost as quick as lightning from one end to the other of the +parish, and spread all over the northern country watered by the St Lawrence +river. + +It is more easy to imagine than express the sentiments of surprise and +horror which filled every one. The justices of the peace took up the +matter; Joseph was brought before the civil tribunal, which decided that a +physician should be charged to make, not a _post-mortem_, but _ante-mortem_ +inquest. The Honourable L----, who was called and made the proper inquiry, +declared upon oath that Joseph was a girl! and the bonds of marriage were +legally dissolved. + +During that time the honest Rev. Mr. Tetreau, struck with horror, had sent +an express to the Right Reverend Bishop Coadjutor of Quebec, informing him +that the young man whom he had kept in his house several years, under the +name of Joseph, was a girl. + +Now, what were they to do with the girl, after all was discovered? Her +presence in Canada would for ever compromise the holy (_?_) Church of Rome. +She knew too well how the priests, through the confessional, select their +victims, and help themselves, in their company, in keeping their solemn +vows of celibacy! What would have become of the respect paid to the priest, +if she had been taken by the hand and invited to speak, bravely, boldly, +before the people of Canada? + +The holy (?) Bishop and his vicars understood these things very well. + +They immediately sent a trustworthy man with L500 to say to the girl that, +if she remained in Canada, she could be prosecuted and severely punished; +that it was her interest to leave the country, and emigrate to the United +States. They offered her the L500 if she would promise to go and never +return. + +She accepted the offer, crossed the lines, and we have never since heard +anything of her. + +In the providence of God, I was invited to preach in that parish soon +after, and I learned these facts accurately. + +The Rev. Mr. Tetreau, under whose pastorate this great iniquity was +detected, began from that time to have his eyes opened to the awful +depravity of the priests of Rome through the confessional. He wept and +cried over his own degradation in the midst of that modern Sodom. Our +merciful God looked down with compassion upon him, and sent him His saving +grace. Not long after, he sent to the Bishop his renunciation of the errors +and abominations of Romanism. + +To-day he is working in the vineyard of the Lord with the Methodists in the +city of Montreal, where he is ready to prove the correctness of what we +say. + +Let those who have ears to hear, and eyes to see, understand, by this fact, +that Pagan nations have not known any institution so depraving as Auricular +Confession! + + * * * * * + +CHAPTER V. + +THE HIGHLY EDUCATED AND REFINED WOMAN IN THE CONFESSIONAL.--WHAT BECOMES OF +HER AFTER HER UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER.--HER IRREPARABLE RUIN. + + * * * * * + +The most skilful warrior has never had to display so much skill and so many +_ruses de guerre_; he has never had to use more tremendous efforts to +reduce and storm an impregnable citadel, as the confessor who wants to +reduce and storm the citadel of self-respect and honesty which God Himself +has built around the soul and the heart of every daughter of Eve. + +But, as it is through woman that the Pope wants to conquer the world, it is +supremely important that he should enslave and degrade her by keeping her +at his feet as his footstool, that she may become a passive instrument in +the accomplishment of his vast and profound scheme. + +In order perfectly to master women in the higher circles of society, every +confessor is ordered by the Pope to learn the most complicated and perfect +strategy. He has to study a great number of treatises on the art of +persuading the fair sex to confess to him plainly, clearly, and in detail, +every thought, every secret desire, word, and deed, just as they occurred. + +And that art is considered so important and so difficult that all the +theologians of Rome call it "the art of arts." + +Dens, St. Liguori, Chevassu, the author of the "Mirror of the Clergy," +Debreyne, and a multitude of authors too numerous to mention, have given +the curious and scientific rules of that secret art. + +They all agree in declaring that it is a most difficult and dangerous art; +they all confess that the least error of judgment, the least imprudence or +temerity, when storming the impregnable citadel, is sure death (spiritual, +of course) to the confessor and the penitent. + +The confessor is taught to make the first steps towards the citadel with +the utmost caution, in order that his female penitent may not suspect at +first what he wants her to reveal; for this would generally induce her to +shut for ever the door of the fortress against him. After the first steps +of advance, he is advised to make several steps back, and to put himself in +a kind of spiritual ambuscade, to see the effect of his first advance. If +there is any prospect of success, then the word "March on!" is given, and a +more advanced post of the citadel must be tried and stormed if possible. In +that way, little by little, the whole place is so well surrounded, so well +crippled, denuded, and dismantled, that any more resistance seems +impossible on the part of the rebellious soul. + +Then the last charge is ordered, the final assault is given; and if God +does not perform a real miracle to save that soul, the last walls crumble, +the doors are beaten down! Then the confessor makes a triumphant entry into +the place; the very heart, soul, conscience, and intelligence, are +conquered. + +When once master of the place, the priest visits all its most secret +recesses and corners; he pries into its most sacred chambers. The conquered +place is entirely, absolutely in his hands; he does what he pleases within +its precincts; he is the supreme master, for the surrender has been +unconditional. The confessor has become the _only_ infallible ruler in the +conquered place--nay, he has become its only God--for it is in the name of +God that he has besieged, stormed, and conquered it, it is in the name of +God that, hereafter, he will speak and be obeyed. + +No human words can adequately give an idea of the irreparable ruin which +follows the successful storming and unconditional surrender of the once so +noble fortress. The longer the resistance has been, the more terrible and +complete is the destruction of its beauty and strength; the nobler the +struggle has been the more irretrievable are the ruin and loss. Just as the +higher and stronger the dam is built to stem the current of the rapid and +deep waters of the river, the more awful the disasters which follow its +destruction, so it is with that noble soul. A mighty dam has been built by +the very hand of God, called self-respect and womanly modesty, to guard her +against the pollutions of this sinful world; but the day that the priest of +Rome succeeds, after long efforts, in destroying it, the soul is carried by +an irresistible power into unfathomable abysses of iniquity. Then it is +that the once most respectable lady will consent to hear, without a blush, +things against which the most degraded woman would indignantly shut her +ears. Then it is that she freely speaks on matters for repeating which a +printer in England has lately been sent to jail. + +At first, in spite of herself, but soon with a real sensual pleasure, that +fallen angel will think, when alone, on what she has heard and what she has +said in the confessional-box. In spite of herself, the vilest thoughts will +at first irresistibly fill her mind; and soon the thoughts will engender +temptations and sins. But those vile temptations and sins, which would have +filled her with horror and regret before her entire surrender into the +hands of the foe, beget very different sentiments now that she is no more +her own self-possessor and guide, under the eyes of God. The conviction of +her sins is no more connected with the thought of a God, infinitely holy +and just, whom she must serve and fear. The conviction of her sins is now +immediately connected with the thought of the man with whom she will have +to speak, and who will easily make everything right and pure in her soul by +his absolution. + +When the day of going to confess comes, instead of being sad and uneasy and +bashful, as she used to be formerly, she feels pleased and delighted to +have a new opportunity of conversing on those matters, without impropriety +and sin to herself; for she is now fully persuaded that there is no +impropriety, no shame, no sin, nay, she believes, or tries to believe, that +it is a good, honest, Christian, and godly thing to converse with her +priest on those matters. + +Her most happy hours are when she is at the feet of that spiritual +physician showing him all the newly made wounds of her soul; explaining all +her constant temptations, her bad thoughts, her most intimate secret +desires and sins. + +Then it is that the most sacred mysteries of the married life are revealed; +then it is that the mysterious and precious pearls which God has given as a +crown of mercy to those whom He has made one body, one heart, one soul, by +the blessed ties of a christian union, are lavishly thrown before swine. + +Whole hours are thus passed by the fair penitent in speaking to her Father +Confessor with the utmost freedom on matters which would rank her among the +most profligate and lost women, if it were only suspected by her friends +and relatives. A single word of those intimate conversations would be +followed by an act of divorce on the part of the husband, if it were known +by him. + +But the betrayed husband knows nothing of the dark mysteries of auricular +confession; the duped father suspects nothing; a cloud from hell has +obscured the intelligence of both, and made them blind. It is just the +contrary: husbands and fathers, friends and relations, feel edified and +pleased with the touching spectacle of the piety of Madam and Miss ----. In +the village, as well as in the city, every one has a word to speak in their +praise. Mrs. ---- is so often seen humbly prostrated at the feet, or by the +side, of her confessor! Miss ---- remains so long in the confessional-box! +they receive the holy communion so frequently; they both speak so +eloquently and so often of the admirable piety, modesty, holiness, +patience, charity, of their incomparable spiritual Father! + +Every one congratulates them on their new and exemplary life; and they +accept the compliment with the utmost humility, attributing their rapid +progress in Christian virtues to the holiness of their confessor. He is +such a spiritual man! who could not make rapid strides under such a holy +guide? + +The more constant the temptations are, the more the secret sins overwhelm +the soul, and the more airs of peace and holiness are put on. The more foul +the secret emanations of the heart, the more the fair and refined penitent +surrounds herself by an atmosphere of the sweetest perfumes of a sham +piety. The more polluted the inside of the sepulchre is, the more shining +and white the outside will be kept. + +Then it is that, unless God performs a miracle to prevent it, the ruin of +that soul is sealed. She has drunk in the poisonous cup filled by "the +mother of harlots," and she has found the wine of her prostitution sweet. +She will henceforth delight in her spiritual and secret orgies. + +Her holy (?) confessor has told her that there is no impropriety, no shame, +no sin, in that cup. The Pope has sacrilegiously written the word "Life" on +that cup of "Death." She has believed the Pope: the terrible mystery of +iniquity is accomplished! + +"The mystery of iniquity doth already work ... whose coming is after the +working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all +deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they +received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this +cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: +that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure +in unrighteousness" (2 Thess. ii. 7-12). + +Yes: the day that the rich, well-educated lady gives up her self-respect, +and unconditionally surrenders the citadel of womanly modesty into the +hands of a man, whatever be his name or titles, that he may freely put to +her questions of the vilest character which she must answer, she is lost +and degraded, just as if she were the humblest and poorest servant-girl. + +I purposely say "the rich and well-educated woman," for I know that there +is a prevalent opinion that the social position of her class places her +above the corrupting influences of the confessional, as if she were out of +reach of the common miseries of our poor fallen and sinful nature. + +So long as the well-educated lady makes use of her accomplishments to +defend the citadel of her womanly self-respect against the foe--so long as +she sternly keeps the door of her heart shut against her deadly enemy--she +is safe. But let no one forget this: she is safe only so long as she does +_not_ surrender. When the enemy is once master of the place, I emphatically +repeat, the ruinous consequences are as great, if not greater, and more +irreparable than in the lowest classes of society. Throw a piece of +precious gold into the mud, and tell me if it will not plunge deeper than +the piece of rotten wood. + +What woman could be nobler, purer, and stronger than Eve when she came from +the hands of her Divine Creator? But how quickly she fell when she gave ear +to the seducing voice of the tempter! How irreparable was her ruin when she +complacently looked on the forbidden fruit, and believed the lying voice +which told her there was "_no sin_" in eating of it! + +I solemnly, in the presence of the great God who ere long will judge me, +give my testimony on this grave subject. After 25 years' experience in the +confessional, I declare that the confessor himself encounters more terrible +dangers when hearing the confessions of refined and highly-educated ladies, +than when listening to those of the humbler classes of his female +penitents. + +I solemnly testify that the well-educated lady, when she has once +surrendered herself to the power of her confessor, becomes, as a general +rule, at least as vulnerable to the arrows of the enemy as the poorer and +less educated. Nay, I must say that, once on the down-hill road of +perdition, the high-bred lady runs headlong into the pit with a more +deplorable rapidity than her humbler sister. + +All Canada is witness that a few years ago it was among the highest ranks +of society that the Grand Vicar Superior of one of the richest and most +influential colleges of Canada, was choosing his victims, when the public +cry of indignation and shame forced the Bishop to send him back to Europe, +where he soon after died. Was it not also among the higher classes of +society that a Superior of the Seminary of Quebec was destroying souls, +when he was detected, and forced, during a dark night, to fly and conceal +himself behind the walls of the Trappist Monastery of Iowa? + +Many would be the folio volumes which I should have to write, were I to +publish all that my twenty-five years' experience in the confessional has +taught me of the unspeakable secret corruption of the _greatest_ part of +the so-called respectable ladies who have unconditionally surrendered +themselves into the hands of their holy (?) confessors. But the following +fact will suffice for those who have eyes to see, ears to hear, and an +intelligence to understand. + +In one of the most beautiful and thriving towns along the St. Lawrence +River lived a rich merchant. He was young, and his marriage with a most +lovely, rich, and accomplished young lady had made him one of the happiest +men in the land. + +A few years after his marriage, the Bishop appointed to that town a young +priest, really remarkable for his eloquence, zeal, and amiable qualities, +and the merchant and the priest soon became connected by links of the most +sincere friendship. + +The young, accomplished wife of the merchant soon became the model woman of +the place, under the direction of her new confessor. + +Many and long were the hours she used to pass by the side of her spiritual +Father, to be purified and enlightened by his godly advices. She soon was +seen at the head of the few who had the privilege of receiving the holy +communion once a week. The husband, who was a good Roman Catholic himself, +blessed God and the Virgin Mary that he had the privilege of living with +such an angel of piety. + +Nobody had the least suspicion of what was going on under that holy and +white mantle of the most exalted piety. Nobody, except God and His angels, +could hear the questions put by the priest to his fair pentitent, and the +answers made during the long hours of their _tete-a-tete_, in the +confessional-box. Nobody but God could see the hellish fires which were +devouring the hearts of the confessor and his victim! For nearly one year, +both the young priest and his spiritual patient enjoyed, in those intimate +and private secret conversations, all the pleasures which lovers feel, when +they can speak freely to each other of their secret thoughts and love. + +But this was not enough for them. They both wanted something more real, +though the difficulties were great and seemed even insurmountable. The +priest had his mother and sister with him, whose eyes were too sharp to +allow him to invite the lady to his own house for any criminal object, and +the young husband had no business at a distance which could keep him long +enough out of his happy home to allow the Pope's confessor to accomplish +his diabolical designs. + +But when a poor fallen daughter of Eve has a mind to do a thing, she very +soon finds the means, particularly if high education has added to her +natural shrewdness. + +And in this case, as in many others of a similar nature which have been +revealed to me, she soon found how to attain her object without +compromising herself or her holy (?) confessor. A plan was soon found, and +cordially agreed to, and both patiently awaited their opportunity. + +"Why have you not gone to mass to-day and received the holy communion, my +dear?" said the husband: "I had ordered the servant-man to put the horse in +the buggy for you as usual." + +"I am not very well, my beloved; I have passed a sleepless night from +head-ache." + +"I will send for the physician," replied the husband. + +"Yes, my dear; do send for the physician--perhaps he will do me good." + +One hour after, the physician called. He found his fair patient a little +feverish, pronounced that there was nothing serious, and that she would +soon be well. He gave her a little powder, to be taken three times a day, +and left; but at nine p.m., she complained of a great pain in the chest, +and soon fainted and fell on the floor. + +The doctor was again immediately sent for, but he was from home: it took +nearly half an hour before he could come. When he arrived the alarming +crisis was over--she was sitting in an arm-chair, with some neighbouring +women, who were applying cold water and vinegar to her forehead. + +The physician was really at a loss what to say of the cause of such a +sudden illness. At last he said that it might be an attack of the "ver +solitaire" (tape-worm). He declared that it was not dangerous; that he knew +how to cure her. He ordered some new powder to be taken, and left, after +having promised to return the next day. Half an hour after she began to +complain of a most terrible pain in her chest, and fainted again; but +before doing so she said to her husband,-- + +"My dear, you see that the physician understands absolutely nothing of the +nature of my disease. I have not the least confidence in him, for I feel +that his powders make me worse. I do not want to see him any more. I suffer +more than you suspect, my beloved; and if there is not soon a change I may +be dead tomorrow. The only physician I want is our holy confessor; please +make haste to go and get him. I want to make a general confession, and to +receive the holy viaticum (communion) and extreme unction before I grow +worse." + +Beside himself with anxiety, the distracted husband ordered the horse to be +put in the buggy, and made his servant accompany him on horseback, to ring +the bell, while his pastor carried "the good god" (_Le Bon Dieu_) to his +dear sick wife. + +He found the priest piously reading his _breviarium_ (his book of daily +prayers); and admired the charity and promptitude with which his good +pastor, in that dark and chilly night, was ready to leave his warm and +comfortable parsonage at the first appeal of the sick. In less than an hour +the husband had taken the priest with "the good god" from the church to the +bedroom of his wife. + +All along the way the servant-man had rung a big hand-bell to awaken the +sleeping farmers, who, at the noise, had to jump, half naked out of their +beds and worship, on their knees, with their faces prostrate in the dust, +"the good god" which was being carried to the sick. + +On his arrival, the confessor, with every appearance of sincere piety, +deposited "the good god" (_Le Bon Dieu_) on a table, richly prepared for +such a solemn occasion, and, approaching the bed, leaned his head towards +his penitent, and inquired how she felt. + +She answered him, "I am very sick, and want to make a general confession +before I die." + +Speaking to her husband, she said with a fainting voice, "Please, my dear, +tell my friends to withdraw from the room, that I may not be distracted +when making what may be my last confession." + +The husband respectfully requested the friends to leave the room with him, +and shut the door, that the holy confessor might be _alone_ with his +penitent during her general confession. + +One of the most diabolical schemes under the cover of auricular confession +had perfectly succeeded. The mother of harlots, that great enchantress of +souls, whose seat is on the city of the "seven hills," had, there, her +priest to bring shame, disgrace, and damnation, under the mask of +Christianity. + +The destroyer of souls, whose masterpiece is auricular confession, had +there, for the millionth time, a fresh opportunity of insulting the God of +purity, through one of the most criminal actions which the dark shades of +night can conceal. + +But let us draw the veil over the abominations of that hour of iniquity, +and let us leave to hell its dark secrets. + +After he had accomplished the ruin of his victim, and most cruelly and +sacrilegiously abused the confidence of his friend, the young priest opened +the door of the room and said, with a sanctimonious air, "You may enter to +pray with me, while I give the last sacrament to our dear sick sister." + +They came in; "the good god" (_Le Bon Dieu_) was given to the woman; and +the husband, full of gratitude for the considerate attention of his priest, +took him back to his parsonage, and thanked him most sincerely for having +so kindly come to visit his wife in so chilly a night. + +Ten years later, I was called to preach a retreat (a kind of revival) in +that same parish. That lady, then an absolute stranger to me, came to my +confessional-box and confessed to me those details as I now give them. She +seemed to be really penitent, and I gave her absolution and the entire +pardon of her sins, as my Church told me to do. On the last day of the +revival, the merchant invited me to a grand dinner. Then it was that I came +to know who my penitent had been. I must not forget to mention that she had +confessed to me that, of her four children, the last three belonged to her +confessor! He had lost his mother, and, his sister having married, his +parsonage had become more accessible to his fair penitents, many of whom +had availed themselves of that opportunity to practise the lessons they had +learned in the confessional. The priest had been removed to a higher +position, where he, more than ever, enjoyed the confidence of his +superiors, the respect of the people, and the love of his female penitents. + +I never felt so embarrassed in my life as when at the table of that +cruelly-victimised man. We had hardly begun to take our dinner when he +asked me if I had known their late pastor, the amiable Rev. Mr. ---- + +I answered, "Yes, sir, I know him." + +"Is he not a most accomplished priest?" + +"Yes, sir, he is a most accomplished man," I answered. + +"Why is it," rejoined the good merchant, "that the Bishop has taken him +away from us? He was doing so well here! He had so deservedly earned the +confidence of all by his piety and gentlemanly manners that we made every +effort to keep him with us. I drew up a petition myself, which all the +people signed, to induce the Bishop to let him remain in our midst; but in +vain. His lordship answered us that he wanted him for a more important +place on account of his rare ability, and we had to submit. His zeal and +devotedness knew no bounds. In the darkest and most stormy nights he was +always ready to come to the first call of the sick. I shall never forget +how quickly and cheerfully he responded to my appeal when, a few years ago, +I went, in the midst of one of our most chilly nights, to request him to +visit my wife, who was very sick." + +At this stage of the conversation, I must confess that I nearly laughed +outright. The gratitude of that poor dupe of the confessional to the priest +who had come to bring shame and destruction to his house, and the idea of +that very man going himself to convey to his home the corrupter of his own +wife, seemed to me so ludicrous that, for a moment, I had to make a +superhuman effort to control myself. + +But I was soon brought to my better senses by the shame which I felt at the +idea of the unspeakable degradation and secret infamy of the clergy of +which I was a member. At that instant hundreds of cases of similar, if not +greater, depravity, which had been revealed to me through the confessional, +came to my mind and distressed and disgusted me so much that my tongue was +almost paralyzed. + +After dinner the merchant asked his lady to call the children, that I might +see them, and I could not but admire their beauty; but I do not need to say +that the pleasure of seeing those dear and lovely little ones was much +marred by the secret though sure knowledge I had that the three youngest +were the fruits of the unspeakable depravity of auricular confession in the +higher ranks of society. + + * * * * * + +CHAPTER VI. + +AURICULAR CONFESSION DESTROYS ALL THE SACRED TIES OF MARRIAGE AND HUMAN +SOCIETY. + + * * * * * + +Would the banker allow his priest to open, when alone, the safe of his +bank, manipulate and examine his papers, and pry into the most secret +details of his banking business? + +No! surely not. + +How is it, then, that the same banker allows that priest to open the heart +of his wife, manipulate her soul, and pry into the sacred chambers of her +most intimate and secret thoughts? + +Are not the heart, the soul, the purity, and the self-respect of his wife +as great and precious treasures as the safe of his bank? Are not the risks +and dangers of temptations, imprudences, indiscretions, much greater and +more irreparable in the second than in the first case? + +Would the jeweller, or goldsmith, allow his priest to come when he pleases, +and handle the rich articles of his stores, ransack the desk where his +money is deposited, and play with it as he pleases? + +No! surely not. + +But are not the heart, the soul, and the purity of his dear wife and +daughter a thousandfold more valuable than his precious stones, or silver +and gold wares? Are not the dangers of temptation and indiscretions, on the +part of the priest, more formidable and irresistible in the second than in +the first of these cases? + +Would the livery-man allow his priest to take his most valuable and +unmanageable horses as he wishes, and drive alone, without any other +consideration and security than the discretion of his pastor? + +No! surely not. + +That livery-man knows that he would soon be ruined if he should do so. +Whatever may be his confidence in the discretion, honesty, and prudence of +his priest, he will never push his confidence so far as to give him the +unreserved control of the noble and fiery animals which are the glory of +his stables and the support of his family. + +How, then, can the same man trust the entire, absolute management of his +wife and dear daughters to the control of that one to whom he would not +entrust his horses? + +Are not his wife and daughters as precious to him as those horses? Is there +not greater danger of indiscretions, mismanagement, irreparable and fatal +errors on the part of the priest, dealing alone with the wife and +daughters, than when driving the horses? No human act of folly, moral +depravity, and want of common sense, can equal the permission given by a +man to his wife to go and confess to the priest. + +That day he abdicates the royal--I had almost said divine--dignity of +husband; for it is from God that he holds it: his crown is forever lost, +his sceptre broken! + +What would you do to any one mean enough to peep or listen through the +key-hole of your door, in order to hear or see everything that was said or +done within? Would you show so little self-respect as to tolerate such +indiscretion? Would you not rather take a whip or a cane, and drive away +the villain? Would you not even expose your life to free yourself from +impudent curiosity? + +But what is the confessional, if not the key-hole of your house and of your +very chamber, through which the priest can hear and see your most secret +words and actions, nay, more, know your most intimate thoughts and +aspirations? + +Are you men to submit to such sly and insulting inquisition? Do you deserve +the name of men who consent to put up with such ignoble affront and +humiliation? + +"The husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the Head of the +Church." "Therefore, as the Church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives +be to their own husbands, in everything" (Eph. v.) If these solemn words +are the true oracles of divine wisdom, is not the husband divinely +appointed the _only_ adviser, counsellor, help of his wife, just as Christ +is the _only_ adviser, counsellor, and help of His Church? + +If the Apostle was not an impostor when he said that the wife is to her +husband what the body is to the head, and that the husband is to his wife +what the head is to the body--is not the husband appointed by God to be the +light, the guide of his wife? Is it not his duty, as well as his privilege +and glory, to console her in her afflictions, strengthen her in her hours +of weakness, keep her up when she is in danger of fainting, and encourage +her when she is on the rough and uphill ways of life? + +If Christ has not come to deceive the world through His Apostle, must not +the wife go to her husband for advice? Ought she not to expect from him, +and him alone, after God, the light she wants and the consolation she is in +need of? Is it not to her husband, and to him alone, after God, she ought +to look in her days of trial for help? Is it not under his leadership alone +she must fight the battle of life and conquer? Are not this mutual and +daily sharing of the anxieties of life, this constant shouldering on the +battle-field, and this reciprocal and mutual protection and help renewed at +every hour of the day, which form, under the eyes and by the mercy of God, +the holiest and the purest charms of the married life? Is it not that +unreserved confidence in each other which binds together those golden links +of Christian love that make them happy in the very midst of the trials of +life? Is it not through this mutual confidence alone that they are _one_ as +God wants them to be _one_? Is it not in this unity of thoughts, fears and +hopes, joys and love, which come from God, that they can cheerfully cross +the thorny valley, and safely reach the Promised Land? + +The Gospel says that the husband is to his wife what Christ is to His +Church! Is it not, then, a most sacrilegious iniquity for a wife to look to +another rather than to her own husband for such advice, wisdom, strength, +and life, as he is entitled, qualified, and ready to afford? As no other +has the right to her love, so no other man has any right to her absolute +confidence. As she becomes an adulteress the day that she gives her body to +another man, is she any the less an adulteress, the day that she gives her +confidence and trusts her soul to a stranger? The adultery of the heart and +soul is not less criminal than the adultery of the body; and every time the +wife goes to the feet of the priest to confess, does she not become guilty +of that iniquity? + +In the Church of Rome, through the confessional, the priest is much more +the husband of the wife than the man to whom she was wedded at the foot of +the altar. The priest has the best part of the wife. He has the marrow, +when the husband has the bones. He has the juice of the orange, the husband +has the rind. He has the soul and the heart; the husband has the skeleton. +He has the honey; the husband has the wax cell. He has the succulent +oyster; the husband has the dry shell. As much as the soul is higher than +the body, so much are the power and privileges of the priest higher than +the power and privileges of the husband in the mind of the penitent wife. +As the husband is the lord of the body which he feeds, so the priest is the +lord of the soul, which he also feeds. The wife, then, has two lords and +masters, whom she must love, respect, and obey. Will she not give the best +part of her love, respect, and submission to the one who is as much above +the other as the heavens are above the earth? But as one cannot serve two +masters together, will not the master who prepares and fits her for an +eternal life of glory, certainly be the object of her constant, real, and +most ardent love, gratitude, and respect, when the worldly and sinful man +to whom she is married will have _only_ the appearance or the crumbs of +those sentiments? Will she not, naturally, instinctively serve, love, +respect, and obey, as lord and master, the godly man whose yoke is so +light, so holy, so divine, rather than the carnal man whose human +imperfections are to her a source of daily trial and suffering? + +In the Church of Rome the thoughts and desires, the secret joys and fears +of the soul, the very life of the wife, are sealed things to the husband. +He has no right to look into the sanctuary of her heart; he has no remedy +to apply to the soul; he has no mission from God to advise her in the dark +hours of her anxieties; he has no balm to apply to the bleeding wounds, so +often received in the daily battles of life; he must remain a perfect +stranger in his own house. + +The wife, expecting nothing from her husband, has no revelation to make to +him, no favour to ask, no debt of gratitude to pay. Nay, she shuts all the +avenues of her soul, all the doors and windows of her heart, against her +husband. The priest, and the priest alone, has a right to her entire +confidence; to him, and him alone, she will go and reveal all her secrets, +show all her wounds; to him, and him alone, she will turn her mind, her +heart and soul, in the hour of trouble and anxiety; from him, and him +alone, she will ask and expect the light and consolation she wants. Every +day, more and more, her husband will become as a stranger to her, if he +does not become a real nuisance, and an obstacle to her happiness and +peace. + +Yes, through the confessional, an unfathomable abyss has been dug, by the +Church of Rome, between the heart of the wife and the heart of the husband! +Their bodies may be very near each other, but their souls, their real +affections and their confidence, are at greater distance than the north is +from the south pole of the earth. The confessor is the master, the ruler, +the king of the soul; the husband, as the grave-yard keeper, must be +satisfied with the carcase! + +The husband has the permission to look on the outside of the palace; he is +allowed to rest his head on the cold marble, of the outdoor steps; but the +confessor triumphantly walks into the mysterious starry rooms, examines at +leisure their numberless and unspeakable wonders; and, alone, he is allowed +to rest his head on the soft pillows of the unbounded confidence, respect, +and love of the wife. + +In the Church of Rome, if the husband asks a favour from his wife, nine +times in ten she will inquire from her father confessor whether or not she +can grant him his request, and the poor husband will have to wait patiently +for the permission of the master or the rebuke of the lord, according to +the answer of the oracle which had to be consulted! If he gets impatient +under the yoke, and murmurs, the wife will soon go to the feet of her +confessor; to tell him how she has the misfortune to be united to a most +unreasonable man, and how she has to suffer from him! She reveals to her +"dear father" how she is unhappy under such a yoke, and how her life would +be an unsupportable burden, had she not the privilege and happiness of +coming often to his feet, to lay down her sorrows, hear his sympathetic +words, and get his so affectionate and paternal advice! She tells him, with +tears of gratitude, that it is only when by his side, and at his feet, she +finds rest to her weary soul, balm to her bleeding heart, and peace to her +troubled conscience. + +When she comes from the confessional, her ears are long filled as with a +heavenly music, the honeyed words of her confessor ring for many days in +her heart, she feels it lonesome to be separated from him, his image is +constantly before her mind, and the _souvenir_ of his amiabilities is one +of her most pleasant thoughts. There is nothing which she likes so much as +to speak of his good qualities, his patience, his piety, his charity, she +longs for the day when she will again go to confess, and pass a few hours +by the side of that angelic man, in opening to him all the secrets of her +heart, and in revealing all her _ennuis_. She tells him how she regrets +that she cannot come oftener to see him, and receive the benefit of his +charitable counsels; she does not even conceal from him how often, in her +dreams, she feels too happy to be with him! More and more, every day, the +gap between her and her husband widens; more and more, each day, she +regrets that she has not the happiness to be the wife of such a holy man as +her confessor! Oh! if it were possible...! But, then, she blushes or +smiles, and sings a song. + +Then again, I ask it, Who is the true lord, ruler, and master in that +house? For whom does that heart beat and live? + +Thus it is that that stupendous imposture, the dogma of auricular +confession, does completely destroy all the links, the joys, the +responsibilities, and divine privileges of the married life, and transforms +it into a life of perpetual, though disguised, adultery. It becomes utterly +impossible, in the church of Rome, that the husband should be _one_ with +his wife, and that the wife should be _one_ with her husband: a "monstrous +being" has been put between them both, called the confessor! Born in the +darkest ages of the world, that being has received from hell his mission to +destroy and contaminate the purest joys of the married life, to enslave the +wife, to outrage the husband, and to damn the world! + +The more auricular confession is practised, the more the laws of public and +private morality are trampled under feet. The husband wants his wife to be +_his_--he does not, and could not, consent to share his authority over her +with anybody: he wants to be the _only_ man who will have her confidence +and her heart, as well as her respect and love. And so, the very moment +that he anticipates the dark shadow of the confessor coming between him and +the woman of his choice, he prefers silently to shrink from entering into +the sacred bond; the holy joys of home and family lose their divine +attractions; he prefers the cold life of an ignominious celibacy to the +humiliation and opprobrium of the questionable privileges of an uncertain +paternity. + +France, Spain, and many other Roman Catholic countries, thus witness the +multitude of those bachelors increasing every year. The number of families +and births, in consequence, is fast decreasing in their midst; and, if God +does not perform a miracle to stop those nations on their downward course, +it is easy to calculate the day when they will owe their existence to the +tolerance and pity of the mighty Protestant nations by which they are +surrounded. + +Why is it that the Irish Roman Catholic people are so irremediably degraded +and clothed in rags? Why is it that that people, whom God has endowed with +so many noble qualities, seem to be so deprived of intelligence and +self-respect that they glory in their own shame? Why is it that their land +has been for centuries the land of bloody riots and cowardly murders? The +principal cause is the enslaving of the Irish women, by means of the +confessional. Every one knows that the spiritual slavery and degradation of +the Irish woman has no bounds. After she has been enslaved and degraded, +she, in turn, has enslaved and degraded her husband and her sons. Ireland +will be an object of pity; she will be poor, miserable, riotous, +blood-thirsty, degraded, so long as she rejects Christ, to be ruled by the +father confessor planted in every parish by the Pope. + +Who has not been amazed and saddened by the downfall of France? How is it +that her once so mighty armies have melted away, that her brave sons have +so easily been conquered and disarmed? How is it that France, fallen +powerless at the feet of her enemies, has frightened the world by the +spectacle of the incredible, bloody, and savage follies of the Commune? Do +not look for the causes of the downfall, humiliation, and untold miseries +of France anywhere else than in the confessional. For centuries has not +that great country obstinately rejected Christ? Has she not slaughtered or +sent into exile her noblest children, who wanted to follow the Gospel? Has +she not given her fair daughters into the hands of the confessors, who have +defiled and degraded them? How could women, in France, teach her husbands +and sons to love liberty, and die for it, when she was herself a miserable, +an abject slave? How could she form her husbands and sons to the manly +virtues of heroes, when her own mind was defiled and her heart corrupted? + +The French woman had unconditionally surrendered the noble and fair citadel +of her heart, intelligence, and womanly self-respect, into the hands of her +confessor long before her sons surrendered their sword to the Germans at +Sedan and Paris. The first unconditional surrender had brought the second. + +The complete moral destruction of woman by the confessor in France has been +a long work. It has required centuries to bow down, break, and enslave the +noble daughters of France. Yes; but those who know France know that that +destruction is now as complete as it is deplorable. The downfall of woman +in France, and her supreme degradation through the confessional, is now _un +fait accompli_, which nobody can deny; the highest intellects have seen and +confessed it. One of the most profound thinkers of that unfortunate +country, Michelet, has depicted that supreme and irretrievable degradation +in a most eloquent book, "The Priest, The Woman, The Family;" and not a +voice has been raised to deny or refute what he has said. Those who have +any knowledge of history and philosophy know very well that the moral +degradation of the woman is soon followed, everywhere, by the moral +degradation of the nation; and the moral degradation of the nation is very +soon followed by ruin and overthrow. + +That French nation had been formed by God to be a race of giants. They were +chivalrous and brave; they had bright intelligences, stout hearts, strong +arms, and a mighty sword. But as the hardest granite rock yields and breaks +under the drop of water which incessantly falls upon it, so that great +nation had to break and to fall into pieces under, not the drop, but the +rivers of impure waters which for centuries have incessantly flowed in upon +it from the pestilential fountain of the confessional. "Righteousness +exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach, to any people." (Proverbs xiv.) + +Why is it that Spain is so miserable, so weak, so poor, so foolishly and +cruelly tearing her own bosom, and reddening her fair valleys with the +blood of her own children? The principal, if not the only, cause of the +downfall of that great nation is the confessional. There, also, the +confessor has defiled, degraded, enslaved women, and women in turn have +defiled and degraded their husbands and sons. Women have sown broadcast +over their country the seeds of that slavery, of that want of Christian +honesty, justice, and self-respect with which they had themselves been +first imbued in the confessional. + +But when you see, without a single exception, the nations whose women drink +the impure and poisonous waters which flow from the confessional sinking +down so rapidly, do you not wonder how fast the neighbouring nations, who +have destroyed those dens of impurity, prostitution, and abject slavery, +are rising up? What a marvellous contrast is before our eyes! On one side, +the nations who allow the woman to be degraded and enslaved at the feet of +the confessor--France, Spain, Romish Ireland, Mexico, &c., &c.--are, there, +fallen into the dust, bleeding, struggling, powerless, like the sparrow +whose entrails are devoured by the vulture. On the other side, see how the +nations whose women go to wash their robes in the blood of the Lamb are +soaring up, as on eagle wings, in the highest regions of progress, peace, +and liberty! + +If legislators could once understand the respect and protection they owe to +woman, they would soon, by stringent laws, prohibit auricular confession as +contrary to good morals and the welfare of society; for, though the +advocates of auricular confession have succeeded to a certain extent in +blinding the public, and in concealing the abominations of the system under +a lying mantle of holiness and religion, it is nothing else than a school +of immorality. + +I say more than that. After twenty-five years of hearing the confessions of +the common people and of the highest classes of society, of the laymen and +the priests, of the grand vicars and bishops and the nuns, I +conscientiously say before the world that the immorality of the +confessional is of a more dangerous and degrading nature than that which we +attribute to the social evil of our great cities. The injury caused to the +intelligence and to the soul in the confessional, as a general rule, is of +a more dangerous nature and more irremediable, because it is neither +suspected nor understood by its victims. + +The unfortunate woman who lives an immoral life knows her profound misery; +she often blushes and weeps over her degradation; she hears from every side +voices which call her out of those ways of perdition. Almost at every hour +of day and night the cry of her conscience warns her against the desolation +and suffering of an eternity passed far away from the regions of holiness, +light, and life. All those things are often so many means of grace, in the +hands of our merciful God, to awaken the mind and to save the guilty soul. +But in the confessional the poison is administered under the name of a pure +and refreshing water; the deadly wound is inflicted by a sword so well +oiled that the blow is not felt; the vilest and most impure notions and +thoughts, in the form of questions and answers, are presented and accepted +as the bread of life! All the notions of modesty, purity, and womanly +self-respect and delicacy, are set aside and forgotten to propitiate the +god of Rome. In the confessional the woman is told, and she believes, that +there is no sin for her in hearing things which would make the vilest +blush--no sin to say things which would make the most desperate villain of +the streets of London to stagger--no sin to converse with her confessor on +matters so filthy that if attempted in civil life would for ever exclude +the perpetrator from the society of the virtuous. + +Yes, the soul and the intelligence defiled and destroyed in the +confessional are often hopelessly defiled and destroyed. They are sinking +into a complete, an irretrievable perdition; for, not knowing the guilt, +they will not cry for mercy--not suspecting the fatal disease that is being +fostered, they will not call for the true Physician. It was evidently when +thinking of the unspeakable ruin of the souls of men through the wickedness +culminating in the "Pope's confessors," that the Son of God said:--"If the +blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch." To every woman, with +very few exceptions, coming out from the feet of her confessor, the +children of light may say:--"I know thy works, that thou hast a name that +thou livest, but thou art dead!" (Revelations iii.) + +Nobody has yet been, nor ever will be, able to answer the few following +lines, which I addressed some years ago to the Rev. Mr. Bruyere, Roman +Catholic Vicar-General of London, Canada:-- + +"With a blush on my face and regret in my heart, I confess, before God and +man, that I have been like you, and with you, through the confessional, +plunged twenty-five years in that bottomless sea of iniquity, in which the +blind priests of Rome have to swim day and night. + +"I had to learn by heart, like you, the infamous questions which the Church +of Rome forces every priest to learn. I had to put those impure, immoral +questions to old and young females who were confessing their sins to me. +These questions--you know it--are of such a nature that no prostitute would +dare to put them to another. Those questions, and the answers they elicit, +are so debasing that no man in London--you know it--except a priest of +Rome, is sufficiently lost to every sense of shame as to put them to any +woman. + +"Yes, I was bound, in conscience, as you are bound to-day, to put into the +ears, the mind, the imagination, the memory, the heart and soul of females, +questions of such a nature, the direct and immediate tendency of which--you +know it well--is to fill the minds and the hearts of both priests and +female penitents with thoughts, phantoms, and temptations of such a +degrading nature, that I do not know any words adequate to express them. +Pagan antiquity has never seen any institution so polluting as the +confessional. I know nothing more corrupting than the law which forces a +female to tell all her thoughts, desires, and most secret feelings and +actions to an unmarried priest. The confessional is a school of perdition. +You may deny that before the Protestants; but you cannot deny it before me. +My dear Mr. Bruyere, if you call me a degraded man because I have lived +twenty-five years in the atmosphere of the confessional, you are right. I +was a degraded man, just as yourself and all the priests are to-day, in +spite of your denegations. If you call me a degraded man, because my soul, +my mind and my heart were, as your own are to-day, plunged into the deep +waters of iniquity which flow from the confessional, I confess 'Guilty!' I +was degraded and polluted by the confessional just as you and all the +priests of Rome are. + +"It has required the whole blood of the great Victim, who died on Calvary +for sinners, to purify me; and I pray that, through the same blood, you may +be purified also." + +If the legislators knew the respect and protection they owe to women--I +repeat it--they would by the most stringent laws prohibit auricular +confession as a crime against society. + +Not long ago, a printer in England was sent to jail and severely punished +for having published in English the questions put by the priests to the +women in the confessional; and the sentence was equitable, for all who will +read those questions will conclude that no girl or woman who brings her +mind into contact with the contents of that book can escape from moral +death. But what are the priests of Rome doing in the confessional? Do they +not pass the greatest part of their time in questioning females, old and +young, and hearing their answers, on those very matters? If it were a +crime, punishable by law, to present those questions in a book, is it not a +crime far more punishable by law to present those very things to married +and unmarried women through the auricular confession? + +I ask it from every man of common sense, What is the difference between a +woman or a girl learning those things in a book, or learning them from the +lips of a man? Will not those impure, demoralizing suggestions sink more +deeply into their minds, and impress themselves more forcibly in their +memory, when told to them by a man of authority, speaking in the name of +Almighty God, than when read in a book which has no authority? + +I say to the legislators of Europe and America: "Read for yourselves those +horrible, unmentionable things;" and remember that the Pope has 100,000 +priests whose principal work is to put those very things into the +intelligence and memory of the women whom they entrap into their snares. +Let us suppose that each priest hears the confessions of only five female +penitents (though we know that the daily average is ten). It gives us the +awful number of 500,000 women whom the priests of Rome have the legal right +to pollute and destroy every day! + +Legislators of the so-called Christian and civilized nations, I ask it +again from you, Where is your consistency, your justice, your love of +public morality, when you punish so severely the man who has printed the +questions put to the women in the confessional, while you honour and let +free, and often pay the men whose public and private life is spent in +spreading the very same moral poison in a much more efficacious, scandalous +and shameful way, under the sacrilegious mask of religion? + +The confessional is in the hands of the devil what West Point is to the +United States, and Woolwich is to Great Britain, a training of the army to +fight and conquer the enemy. It is in the confessional that 500,000 women +every day, and 182,500,000 every year are trained by the Pope in the art of +fighting against God, by destroying themselves and the whole world, through +every imaginable kind of impurity and filthiness. + +Once more, I request the legislators, the husbands, and the fathers in +Europe, as well as in America, to read in Dens, Liguori, Debreyne, in every +theological book of Rome, what their wives and their daughters have to +learn in the confessional. + +In order to screen themselves, the priests of Rome have recourse to the +following miserable subterfuge:--"Is not the physician forced," they say, +"to perform certain delicate operations on women? Do you complain of this? +No; you let the physicians alone; you do not abuse them in their arduous +and conscientious duties. Why, then, do you insult the physician of the +soul, the confessor, in the accomplishment of his holy, though delicate, +duties? + +I answer, first, The art and science of the physician are approved and +praised in many places of the Scriptures. But the art and science of the +confessor are nowhere to be found in the holy records. Auricular confession +is nothing else than a most stupendous imposture. The filthy and impure +questions of the confessor, with the polluting answers they elicit, were +put among the most diabolical and forbidden actions by God Himself the day +that the Spirit of Truth, Holiness, and Life wrote the imperishable +words,--"Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth" (Eph. iv. +29). + +Secondly, The physician is not bound by a solemn oath to remain ignorant of +the things which it will be his duty to examine and cure. But the priest of +Rome is bound, by the most ridiculous and impious oath of celibacy, to +remain ignorant of the very things which are the daily objects of his +inquiries, observations, and thoughts! The priest of Rome has sworn never +to taste of the fruits with which he feeds, his imagination, his memory, +his heart, and his soul day and night! The physician is honest in the +performance of his duties; but the priest of Rome becomes in fact a +perjured man every time he enters the confessional-box. + +Thirdly, If a lady has a little sore on her small finger, and is obliged to +go to the physician, for a remedy, she has only to show her little finger, +allow the plaister or ointment to be applied, and all is finished. The +physician _never_--no, never--says to that lady, "It is my duty to suspect +that you have many other parts of your body which are sick; I am bound in +conscience, under pain of death, to examine you from head to foot, in order +to save your precious life from those _secret_ diseases, which may kill you +if they are not cured just now. Several of those diseases are of such a +nature that you never dared perhaps to examine them with the attention they +deserve, and you are hardly conscious of them. I know, madam, that this is +a very painful and delicate thing for both you and me, that I should be +forced to make that thorough examination of your person, but there is no +help; I am in duty bound to do it. But you have nothing to fear. I am a +holy man, who has made a vow of celibacy. We are alone; neither your +husband nor your father will ever know the secret infirmities I will find +in you; they will never even suspect the perfect investigation I will make, +and they will, for ever, be ignorant of the remedy I will apply." + +Has any physician ever been authorized to speak or act in this way with any +of his female patients? No; never! never! + +But this is just the way the spiritual physician, with whom the devil +enslaves and corrupts women, acts. When the fair, honest, and timid +spiritual patient has come to her confessor, to show him the little sore +she has on the small finger of her soul, the confessor _is bound_ in +conscience to suspect that she has other sores,--secret, shameful sores! +Yes, he is bound, nine times in ten; and he is _always allowed_ to suppose +that she does not dare to reveal them! Then he is advised by the Church to +induce her to let him search every corner of the heart, and of the soul, +and to inquire about every kind of contaminations, impurities, secret and +shameful unspeakable matters! The young priest is drilled in the diabolical +art of going into the most sacred recesses of the soul and the heart, +almost in spite of his penitents. I could bring hundreds of theologians as +witnesses to what I say.--But it is enough just now to cite three. + +"Lest the Confessor should indolently hesitate in tracing out the +circumstances of any sin, let him have the following versicle of +circumstances in readiness: + +"Quis, quid, ubi, quibus auxiliis, cur, quomodo, quando. Who, which, where, +with whom, why, how, when." (Dens, vol. 6, p. 123. Liguori, vol. 2, p. +464.) + +The celebrated book of the Priests, "The Mirror of the Clergy," page 357, +says: + +"Oportet ut Confessor solet cognoscere quid quid debet judicare. Deligens +igitur inquisitor et subtilis investigator sapienter quasi astute +interrogat a peccatore quod ignorat, vel verecundia volit occultare." + +"It is necessary that the Confessor should know everything on which he has +to exercise his judgment. Let him then, with wisdom and subtility, +interrogate the sinners on the sins which he may ignore, or conceal through +shame!" + +The poor, unprotected girl is thus thrown into the power of the priest, +soul and body, to be examined on all the sins she may ignore, or which, +through shame, she may conceal! On what boundless sea of depravity the poor +fragile bark is launched by the priest! On what bottomless abysses of +impurities she will have to pass and travel, in company with the priest +alone, before he will have interrogated her on all the sins she may ignore, +and which she may have concealed through shame!! Who can tell the +sentiments of surprise and shame and distress, of a timid, honest young +girl, when, for the first time, she is initiated to infamies which are +ignored even in houses of prostitution!!! + +But such is the practice, the sacred duty of the spiritual physician. "Let +him (the priest confessor) with wisdom and subtlety interrogate the sinner +on the sins he may ignore or conceal with shame." + +And there are 100,000 men, not only allowed, but petted, and often paid by +the governments to do that, under the name of the God of the Gospel! + +Fourthly, I answer to the sophism of the priest, When the physician has any +delicate and dangerous operation to perform on a female patient, he is +_never_ alone; the husband, or the father, the mother, the sister, or some +friends of the patient are there, whose scrutinizing eyes and attentive +ears make it _impossible_ for the physician to say or do any improper +thing. + +But, when the poor deluded spiritual patient comes to be treated by her +so-called spiritual physician, and shows him her diseases, is she not +alone--shamefully alone--with him? Where are the protecting ears of the +husband, the father, the mother, the sisters, or the friends? Where is the +barrier interposed between this sinful, weak, tempted, and often depraved +man and his victim? + +Would the priest so freely ask _this_ and _that_ from that married woman, +if he knew that the husband could hear him? No, surely not; for he is well +aware that the enraged husband would blow out the brains of the villain +who, under the sacrilegious pretext of purifying the soul of his wife, is +filling her honest heart with every kind of pollution and infamy. + +Fifthly, When the physician performs a delicate operation on one of his +female patients, the operation is usually accompanied with pain, cries, and +often with bloodshed. The sympathetic and honest physician suffers almost +as much pain as his patient; those cries, acute pains, tortures, and +bleeding wounds make it morally impossible that the physician should be +tempted to any improper thing. + +But the sight of the spiritual wounds of that fair penitent! Is the poor +depraved human heart really sorry to see and examine them? Oh, no! it is +just the contrary! + +The dear Saviour weeps over those wounds; the angels are distressed at the +sight. Yes. But the deceitful and corrupt heart of man, is it not rather +apt to be pleased at the sight of wounds which are so much like the ones he +has himself, so often been pleased to receive from the hand of the enemy? + +Was the heart of David pained and horror-struck at the sight of the fair +Bath-sheba, when imprudently and too freely exposed in her bath? Was not +that holy prophet smitten and brought down to the dust by that guilty look? +Was not the mighty giant, Samson, undone by the charms of Delilah? Was not +the wise Solomon ensnared and befooled in the midst of the women by whom he +was surrounded? + +Who will believe that the bachelors of the Pope are made of stronger metal +than the Davids, the Samsons, and the Solomons? Where is the man who has so +completely lost his common sense as to believe that the priests of Rome are +stronger than Samson, holier than David, wiser than Solomon? Who will +believe that confessors will stand up on their feet amidst the storms which +prostrate in the dust those giants of the armies of the Lord? To suppose +that, in the generality of cases the confessor can resist the temptations +by which he is daily surrounded in the confessional, that he will +constantly refuse the golden opportunities which offer themselves to him, +to satisfy the almost irresistible propensities of his fallen human nature, +is neither wisdom nor charity; it is simply folly. + +I do not say that all the confessors and their female penitents fall into +the same degree of abject degradation; thanks be to God, I have known +several who nobly fought their battles and conquered on that field of so +many shameful defeats. But these are the exceptions. It is just as when the +fire has ravaged one of our grand forests of America--how sad it is to see +the numberless noble trees fallen under the devouring element! But, here +and there the traveller is not a little amazed and pleased to find some +which have proudly stood the fiery trial without being consumed. + +Has not the world at large been struck with terror when they heard of the +fire which a few years ago had reduced the great city of Chicago to ashes? +But those who have visited that doomed city, and seen the desolating ruins +of her 16,000 houses, had to stand in silent admiration before a few which, +in the very midst of an ocean of fire, had escaped untouched by the +destructive element. + +It is so that, owing to a most marvellous protection of God, some +privileged souls do escape, here and there, the fatal destruction which +overtakes so many others in the confessional. + +The confessional is just as the spider's web. How many too unsuspecting +flies find death when seeking rest on the beautiful framework of their +deceitful enemy! How few escape! and this only after a most desperate +struggle. See how the perfidious spider looks harmless in his retired, dark +corner; how motionless he is; how patiently he waits for his opportunity! +But look how quickly he surrounds his victim with his silky, delicate, and +imperceptible links! how mercilessly he sucks its blood and destroys its +life! + +What does remain of the imprudent fly, after she has been entrapped into +the nets of her foe? Nothing but a skeleton. So it is with your fair wife, +your precious daughter; nine times in ten nothing but a moral skeleton +returns to you, after the Pope's black spider has been allowed to suck the +very blood of her heart and soul. Let those who would be tempted to think +that I do exaggerate read the following extracts from the memoirs of the +Venerable Scipio de Ricci, Roman Catholic Bishop of Pistoia and Prato, in +Italy. They were published by the Italian Government, to show to the world +that some measures ought to be taken by the civil and ecclesiastical +authorities to prevent the nation from being entirely swept away by the +deluge of corruption flowing from the confessional, even among the most +perfect of Rome's followers, the monks and the nuns. The priests have never +dared to deny a single iota of those terrible revelations. In page 115 we +read the following letter from Sister Flavia Peraccini, Prioress of St +Catherine, to Dr. Thomas Comparini, Rector of the Episcopal Seminary of +Pistoia:-- + +"_January 22, 1775._--In compliance with the request which you made me this +day, I hasten to say something, but I know not how. + +"Of those who are gone out of the world I shall say nothing. Of those who +are still alive and have very little decency of conduct there are many, +among whom there is an ex-provincial named Father Dr. Ballendi, Calvi, +Zoratti, Bigliaci, Guidi, Miglieti, Verde, Bianchi, Ducci, Seraphini, +Bolla, Nera di Luca, Quaretti, &c. But wherefore any more? With the +exception of three or four, all those whom I have ever known, alive or +dead, are of the same character; they have all the same maxims and the same +conduct. + +"They are on more intimate terms with the nuns than if they were married to +them! I repeat it, it would require a great deal of time to tell half of +what I know. It is the custom now, when they come to visit and hear the +confession of a sick sister, to sup with the nuns, sing, dance, play, and +sleep in the convent. It is a maxim of theirs that God has forbidden +hatred, but _not love_, and that man is made for woman and woman for man. + +"I say that they can deceive the innocent and the most prudent and +circumspect, and that it would be a miracle to converse with them and not +fall!" + +Page 117.--"The priests are the husbands of the nuns, and the lay brothers +of the lay sisters. In the chamber of one of the nuns I have mentioned, one +day, a man was found; he fled away, but, soon after, they gave him to us as +our confessor extraordinary. + +"How many bishops are there in the Papal States, who have come to the +knowledge of those disorders, have held examinations and visitations, and +yet never could remedy; it, because the monks, our confessors, tell us that +those are excommunicated who reveal what passes in the Order! + +"Poor creatures! they think they are leaving the world to escape dangers, +and they only meet with greater ones. Our fathers and mothers have given us +a good education, and here we have to unlearn and forget what they have +taught us." + +Page 118.--"Do not suppose that this is the case in our convent alone. It +is just the same at St. Lucia, Prato, Pisa, Perugia, &c. I have known +things that would astonish you. Everywhere it is the same. Yes, everywhere +the same disorders, the same abuses prevail. I say, and I repeat it, let +the superiors suspect as they may, they do not know the smallest part of +the enormous wickedness that goes on between the monks and the nuns whom +they confess. Every monk who passed by on his way to the chapter entreated +a sick sister to confess to him, and...!" + +Page 119.--"With respect to Father Buzachini I say that he acted just as +the others, sitting up late in the nunnery, diverting himself, and letting +the usual disorders go on. There were several nuns who had love affairs on +his account. His own principal mistress was Odaldi, of St. Lucia, who used +to send him continual treats. He was also in love with the daughter of our +factor, of whom they were very jealous here. He ruined also poor +Cancellieri, who was sextoness. The monks are all alike with their +penitents. + +"Some years ago, the nuns of St. Vincent, in consequence of the +extraordinary passion they had for their father confessors Lupi and +Borghiani, were divided into two parties, one calling themselves Le Lupe, +the other Le Borghieni. + +"He who made the greatest noise was Donati. I believe he is now at Rome. +Father Brandi, too, was also in great vogue. I think he is now prior of St. +Gemignani. At St. Vincent, which passes for a very holy retreat, they have +also their lovers...." + +My pen refuses to reproduce several things which the nuns of Italy have +published against their father confessors. But this is enough to show to +the most incredulous that the confession is nothing else but a school of +perdition, even among those who make a profession to live in the highest +regions of Roman Catholic holiness--the monks and the nuns. + +Now, from Italy let us go to America and see again the working of auricular +confession, not between the holy (?) nuns and monks of Rome, but among the +humblest classes of country women and priests. Great is the number of +parishes where women have been destroyed by their confessors, but I will +speak only of one. + +When curate of Beauport, I was called by the Rev. Mr. Proulx, curate of St. +Antoine, to preach a retreat (a revival) with the Rev. Mr. Aubry, to his +parishioners, and eight or ten other priests were also invited to come and +help us to hear the confessions. + +The very first day after preaching and passing five or six hours in the +confessional, the hospitable curate gave us a supper before going to bed. +But it was evident that a kind of uneasiness pervaded the whole company of +the father confessors. For my own part, I could hardly raise my eyes to +look at my neighbour, and when I wanted to speak a word it seemed that my +tongue was not free as usual; even my throat was as if it were choked; the +articulation of the sounds was imperfect. It was evidently the same with +the rest of the priests. Instead, then, of the noisy and cheerful +conversation of the other meals, there were only a few insignificant words +exchanged with a half-supressed tone. + +The Rev. Mr. Proulx (the curate) at first looked as if he were partaking +also of that singular though general despondent feeling. During the first +part of the lunch he hardly said a word; but at last, raising his head and +turning his honest face towards us, in his usual gentlemanly and cheerful +manner, he said:-- + +"Dear friends, I see that you are all under the influence of the most +painful feelings. There is a burden on you that you can neither shake off +nor bear as you wish. I know the cause of your trouble, and I hope you will +not find fault with me if I help you to recover from that disagreeable +mental condition. You have heard in the confessional the history of many +great sins, but I know that this is not what troubles you. You are all old +enough in the confessional to know the miseries of poor human nature. +Without any more preliminaries I will come to the subject. It is no more a +secret in this place that one of the priests who has preceded me has been +very unfortunate, weak, and guilty with the greatest part of the married +women whom he has confessed. Not more than one in ten have escaped him. I +would not mention this fact had I got it only from the confessional, but I +know it well from other sources, and I can speak of it freely without +breaking the secret seal of the confessional. Now what troubles you is +that, probably, when a good number of those women have confessed to you +what they had done with their confessor, you have not asked them how long +it was since they had sinned with him, and in spite of yourselves you think +that I am the guilty man. This does, naturally, embarrass you when you are +in my presence and at my table. But please ask them, when they come again +to confess, how many months or years have passed away since their last love +affair with a confessor, and you will see that you may suppose that you are +in the house of an honest man. You may look me in the face and have no fear +to address me as if I were still worthy of your esteem; for, thanks be to +God, I am not the guilty priest who has ruined and destroyed so many souls +here." + +The curate had hardly pronounced the last word when a general "We thank +you; for you have taken away a mountain from our shoulders," fell from +almost every lip. "It is a fact that, notwithstanding the good opinion we +had of you," said several, "we were in fear that you had missed the right +track, and fallen down with your fair penitents into the ditch." + +I felt myself much relieved; for I was one of those who, in spite of +myself, had my secret fears about the honesty of our host. When, very early +the next morning, I had begun to hear the confessions, one of those +unfortunate victims of the confessor's depravity came to me, and in the +midst of many tears and sobs, she told me with great details what I repeat +here in a few lines:-- + +"I was only nine years old when my first confessor began to do very +criminal things with me when I was at his feet, confessing my sins. At +first I was ashamed and much disgusted; but soon after I became so depraved +that I was looking eagerly for every opportunity of meeting him either in +his own house, or in the church, in the vestry, and many times in his own +garden when it was dark at night. That priest did not remain very long; he +was removed, to my great regret, to another place, where he died. He was +succeeded by another one, who seemed at first to be a very holy man. I made +to him a general confession with, it seems to me, a sincere desire to give +up for ever that sinful life, but I fear that my confessions became a cause +of sin to that good priest; for not long after my confession was finished, +he declared to me in the confessional his love, with such passionate words +that he soon brought me down again into my former criminal habits with him. +This lasted six years, when my parents removed to this place. I was very +glad of it, for I hoped that, being far away from him, I should not be any +more a cause of sin to him, and that I might begin a better life. But the +fourth time that I went to confess to my new confessor, he invited me to go +to his room, where we did things so horrible together that I do not know +how to confess them. It was two days before my marriage, and the only child +I have had is the fruit of that sinful hour. After my marriage I continued +the same criminal life with my confessor. He was the friend of my husband; +we had many opportunities of meeting each other, not only when I was going +to confess, but when my husband was absent and my child was at school. It +was evident to me that several other women were as miserable and criminal +as I was myself. This sinful intercourse with my confessor went on till God +Almighty stopped it with a real thunderbolt. My dear only daughter had gone +to confess and receive the holy communion. As she had come back from church +much later than I expected, I inquired the reason which had kept her so +long. She then threw herself into my arms, and with convulsive cries said: +'Dear mother, do not ask me any more to go to confess.... Oh! if you could +know what my confessor has asked me when I was at his feet! and if you +could know what he has done with me, and he has forced me to do with him +when he had me alone in his parlour!' + +"My poor child could not speak any longer, she fainted in my arms. + +"But as soon as she recovered, without losing a minute, I dressed myself, +and, full of an inexpressible rage, I directed my steps towards the +parsonage. But before leaving my house, I had concealed under my shawl a +sharp butcher's knife to stab and kill the villain who had destroyed my +dearly beloved child. Fortunately for that priest, God changed my mind +before I entered his room--my words to him were few and sharp. + +'You are a monster!' I said to him. 'Not satisfied to have destroyed me, +you want to destroy my own dear child, which is yours also! Shame upon you! +I had come with this knife to put an end to your infamies, but so short a +punishment would be too mild a one for such a monster. I want you to live, +that you may bear upon your head the curse of the too unsuspecting and +unguarded friends whom you have so cruelly deceived and betrayed; I want +you to live with the consciousness that you are known by me and many +others, as one of the most infamous monsters who have ever defiled this +world. But know that if you are not away from this place before the end of +this week, I will reveal everything to my husband, and you may be sure that +he will not let you live twenty-four hours longer, for he sincerely thinks +that your daughter is his, and he will be the avenger of her honour! I go +to denounce you this very day to the bishop, that he may take you away from +this parish, which you have so shamelessly polluted.' + +"The priest threw himself at my feet, and, with tears, asked my pardon, +imploring me not to denounce him to the bishop, promising that he would +change his life and begin to live as a good priest. But I remained +inexorable. I went to the bishop, made my deposition, and warned his +lordship of the sad consequences which would follow, if he kept that curate +any longer in this place, as he seemed inclined to do. But before the eight +days had expired, he was put at the head of another parish, not very far +away from here." + +The reader will, perhaps, like to know what has become of this priest. + +He has remained at the head of that most beautiful parish of ----, as +curate, where I know it, he continued to destroy his penitents, till a few +years before he died, with the reputation of a good priest, an amiable man, +and a holy confessor!" + + * * * * * + +"For the mystery of iniquity doth already work:.... + +"And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with +the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His +coming: + +"Even Him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and +signs and lying wonders, + +"And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; +because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. + +"And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should +believe a lie: + +"That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure +in unrighteousness." (2 Thess. ii. 7-12.) + + * * * * * + +CHAPTER VII. + +SHOULD AURICULAR CONFESSION BE TOLERATED AMONG CIVILIZED NATIONS? + + * * * * * + +Let my readers who understand Latin peruse the extracts I give from Bishop +Kenrick, Debreyne, Burchard, Dens or Liguori, and the most incredulous will +learn for themselves that the world, even in the darkest ages of old +paganism, has never seen anything so infamous and degrading as auricular +confession. + +To say that auricular confession purifies the soul is not less ridiculous +and silly than to say that the white robe of the virgin, or the lily of the +valley, will become whiter by being dipped into a bottle of black ink. + +Has not the Pope's celibate, by studying his books before he goes to the +confessional-box, corrupted his own heart, and plunged his mind, memory, +and soul into an atmosphere of impurity which would have been intolerable +even to the people of Sodom? + +We ask it not only in the name of religion, but of common sense. How can +that man, whose heart and memory are just made the reservoir of all the +grossest impurities the world has ever known, help others to be chaste and +pure? + +The idolaters of India believe that they will be purified from their sins +by drinking the water with which they have just washed the feet of their +priests. + +What monstrous doctrine! The souls of men purified by the water which has +washed the feet of a miserable, sinful man! Is there any religion more +monstrous and diabolical than the Brahmin religion? + +Yes, there is one more monstrous, deceitful, and contaminating than that. +It is the religion which teaches that the soul of man is purified by a few +magical words (called absolution), which come from the lips of a miserable +sinner, whose heart and intelligence have just been filled by the +unmentionable impurities of Dens, Liguori, Debreyne, Kenrick, &c., &c. For +if the poor Indian's soul is not purified by the drinking of the holy (?) +water which has touched the feet of his priest, at least that soul cannot +be contaminated by it. But who does not clearly see that the drinking of +the vile questions of the confessor contaminate, defile, and damn the soul? + +Who has not been filled with deep compassion and pity for those poor +idolaters of Hindustan who believe that they will secure to themselves a +happy passage to the next life if they have the good luck to die when +holding in their hands the tail of a cow? But there are people among us who +are not less worthy of our supreme compassion and pity, for they hope that +they will be purified from their sins and be for ever happy if a few +magical words (called absolution) fall upon their souls from the polluted +lips of a miserable sinner sent by the Pope of Rome. The dirty tail of a +cow and the magical words of a confessor to purify the souls and wash away +the sins of the world are equally inventions of the Devil. Both religions +come from Satan, for they equally substitute the magical power of vile +creatures for the blood of Christ to save the guilty children of Adam. They +both ignore that the blood of the Lamb _alone_ cleanseth us from all sin. + +Yes! auricular confession is a public act of idolatry, it is asking from a +man what God _alone_, through His Son Jesus, can grant: forgiveness of +sins. Has the Saviour of the world ever said to sinners, "Go to this or +that man for repentance, pardon, and peace"? No; but He has said to all +sinners, "Come unto Me." And from that day to the end of the world all the +echoes of heaven and earth will repeat these words of the merciful Saviour +to all the lost children of Adam, 'Come unto Me.' + +When Christ gave to His disciples the power of the keys in these words, +"Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever +ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matt. xviii. 18), He +had just explained His mind by saying, "If thy brother shall trespass +against thee" (v. 15). The Son of God Himself in that solemn hour protested +against the stupendous imposture of Rome by telling us positively that that +power of binding and loosing, forgiving and retaining sins, was _only_ in +reference to sins committed against _each other_. Peter had correctly +understood his Master's words when he asked, "How oft shall my brother sin +_against me_ and I forgive him?" + +And in order that His true disciples might not be shaken by the sophisms of +Rome, or by the glittering nonsense of that band of silly half-Popish sect +called Tractarians, or Ritualists, the merciful Saviour gave the admirable +parable of the poor servant, which He closed by what He has so often +repeated, "So likewise shall my Heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye +from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses." +(Matt. xviii. 35). + +Not long before, He had again mercifully given us his whole mind about the +obligation and _power_ which every one of His disciples had of forgiving +"For if ye forgive even their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also +forgive you: but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your +Father forgive your trespasses" (Matt. vi. 14, 15). + +"Be ye therefore merciful as your father also is merciful, forgive and ye +shall be forgiven" (Luke vi. 36, 37). + +Auricular Confession, as the Rev. Dr. Wainwright has so eloquently put it +in his "Confession not Auricular," is a diabolical caricature of the +forgiveness of sin through the blood of Christ, just as the impious dogma +of Transubstantiation is a monstrous caricature of the salvation of the +world through His death. + +The Romanists and their ugly tail, the Ritualistic party in the Episcopal +Church, make a great noise about the words of our Saviour in St. John: +"Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them: and whose soever +sins ye retain, they are retained" (John xx. 23). + +But again, our Saviour had Himself, once for all, explained what He meant +by forgiving and retaining sins--(Matt. xviii. 35; Matt. vi. 14, 15; Luke +vi. 36, 37). + +Nobody but wilfully-blind men could misunderstand Him. Besides that, the +Holy Ghost Himself has mercifully taken care that we should not be deceived +by the lying traditions of men on that important subject, when in St. Luke +He gave us the explanation of the meaning of John xx. 23, by telling us, +"Thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: +and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name +among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." (Luke xxiv. 46, 47). + +In order that we may better understand the words of our Saviour in St. John +xx. 23, let us put them face to face with his own explanations (Luke xxiv. +46, 47):-- + + LUKE XXIV. JOHN XX. + +33. And they rose up the same hour, 18. Mary Magdalene came and told +and returned to Jerusalem, and the disciples that she had seen the +found the eleven gathered together, Lord, and that he had spoken these +and them that were with them, things unto her. + +34. Saying, The Lord is risen +indeed, and hath appeared to +Simon.... + +36. And as they thus spake, Jesus 19. Then the same day at evening, +himself stood in the midst of them, being the first day of the week, +and saith unto them, Peace be unto when the doors were shut where the +you. disciples were assembled for fear + of the Jews, came Jesus and stood +37. But they were terrified and in the midst, and said unto them, +affrighted, and supposed that they Peace be unto you. +had seen a spirit. + +38. And he said unto them, Why are +ye troubled? and why do thoughts +arise in your hearts? + +39. Behold my hands and my feet, 20. And when he had so said, he +that it is I myself: handle me, and shewed unto them his hands and his +see; for a spirit hath not flesh side. Then were the disciples glad, +and bones, as ye see me have. when they saw the Lord. + +40. And when he had thus spoken, he +shewed them his hands and his feet. + +41. And while they yet believed not +for joy, and wondered, he said unto +them, Have ye here any meat? + +42. And they gave him a piece of a +broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. + +43. And he took it, and did eat +before them. + +44. And he said unto them, These 21. Then said Jesus to them again, +are the words which I spake unto Peace be unto you: as my Father +you, while I was yet with you, that hath sent me, even so send I you. +all things must be fulfilled, which +were written in the law of Moses, +and in the prophets, and in the +psalms, concerning me. + +45. Then opened he their 22. And when he had said this, he +understanding, that they might breathed on them, and saith unto +understand the scriptures, them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: + +46. And said unto them, Thus it is +written, and thus it behoved Christ +to suffer, and to rise from the +dead the third day: + +47. And that repentance and 23. Whose soever sins ye remit, +remission of sin should be preached they are remitted unto them; whose +in his name among all nations, soever sins ye retain, they are +beginning at Jerusalem. retained. + +Three things are evident from comparing the report of St. John and St. +Luke:-- + +1. They speak of the same event, though one of them gives certain details +omitted by the other, as we find in the rest of the gospels. + +2. The words of St. John, "Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted +unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained," are +explained by the Holy Ghost Himself, in St. Luke, as meaning that the +apostles shall preach repentance and forgiveness of sins through Christ. It +is just what our Saviour has Himself said in St. Matt. ix. 13: "But go ye +and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am +not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." + +It is just the same doctrine taught by Peter (Acts ii. 38): "Then Peter +said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of +Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of +the Holy Ghost." + +Just the same doctrine of the forgiveness of sins, not through auricular +confession or absolution, but through the preaching of the Word: "Be it +known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is +preached unto you the forgiveness of sins" (Acts xiii. 38). + +3. The third thing which is evident is that the Apostles were not alone +when Christ appeared and spoke, but that several of His other disciples, +even some women, were there. + +If the Romanists, then, could prove that Christ established auricular +confession, and gave the power of absolution, by what He said in that +solemn hour, women as well as men--in fact, every believer in Christ--would +be authorized to hear confessions and give absolution. The Holy Ghost was +not promised or given only to the Apostles, but to every believer, as we +see in Acts i. 15, and ii. 1, 2, 3. + +But the Gospel of Christ, as the history of the first ten centuries of +Christianity, is the witness that auricular confession and absolution are +nothing else but a sacrilegious as well as a most stupendous imposture. + +What tremendous efforts the priests of Rome have made these last five +centuries, and are still making, to persuade their dupes that the Son of +God was making of them a privileged caste, a caste endowed with the Divine +and exclusive power of opening and shutting the gates of Heaven, when He +said, "Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven, and +whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven." + +But our adorable Saviour, who perfectly foresaw those diabolical efforts on +the part of the priests of Rome, entirely upset every vestige of their +foundation by saying immediately, "Again I say unto you, That if two of you +shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be +done for them of my Father which is in Heaven. For where two or three are +gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them" (Matt. +xviii. 19, 20). + +Would the priests of Rome attempt to make us believe that these words of +the 19th and 20th verses are addressed to them exclusively? They have not +yet dared to say it. They confess that these words are addressed to all His +disciples. But our Saviour positively says that the other words, +implicating the so-called power of the priests to hear the confession and +give the absolution, are addressed to the _very same persons_--"I say unto +you," &c., &c. The _you_ of the 19th and 20th verses is the same _you_ of +the 18th. The power of loosing and unloosing is, then, given to all--those +who would be offended and would forgive. Then, our Saviour had not in His +mind to form a caste of men with any marvellous power over the rest of His +disciples. The priests of Rome, then, are impostors, and nothing else, when +they say that the power of loosing and unloosing sins was exclusively +granted to them. + +Instead of going to the confessor, let the Christian go to his merciful +God, through Christ, and say, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them +that trespass against us." This is the Truth, not as it comes from the +Vatican, but as it comes from Calvary, where our debts were paid, with the +only condition that we should believe, repent, and love. + +Have not the Popes publicly and repeatedly anathematized the sacred +principle of Liberty of Conscience? Have they not boldly said, in the teeth +of the nations of Europe, that _Liberty_ of Conscience must be +destroyed--killed at any cost? Has not the whole world heard the sentence +of death to Liberty coming from the lips of the old man of the Vatican? But +where is the scaffold on which the doomed Liberty must perish? That +scaffold is the confessional-box. Yes, in the confessional, the Pope had +his 100,000 high executioners! There they are, day and night, with-sharp +daggers in hand, stabbing Liberty to the heart. + +In vain will noble France expel her old tyrants to be free; in vain will +she shed the purest blood of her heart to protect and save Liberty! True +Liberty cannot live a day there so long as the executioners of the Pope are +free to stab her on their 100,000 scaffolds. + +In vain chivalrous Spain will call Liberty to give a new life to her +people. She cannot set her feet there except to die, so long as the Pope is +allowed to strike her in his 50,000 confessionals. + +And free America, too, will see all her so dearly-bought liberties +destroyed the day that the confessional-box is reared in her midst. + +Auricular Confession and Liberty cannot stand together on the same ground; +either one or the other must fall. + +Liberty must sweep away the confessional, as she has swept away the demon +of slavery, or she is doomed to perish. + +Can a man be free in his own house, so long as there is another who has the +legal right to spy all his actions, and direct not only every step, but +every thought of his wife and children? Can that man boast of a home whose +wife and children are under the control of another? Is not that unfortunate +man really the slave of the ruler and master of his household? And when a +whole nation is composed of such husbands and fathers, is it not a nation +of abject, degraded slaves? + +To a thinking man, one of the most strange phenomena is that our modern +nations allow all their most sacred rights to be trampled under feet, and +destroyed by the Papacy, the sworn enemy of Liberty, through a mistaken +respect and love for that same Liberty! + +No people have more respect for Liberty of Conscience than the Americans; +but has the noble State of Illinois allowed Joe Smith and Brigham Young to +degrade and enslave the American women under the pretext of Liberty of +Conscience, appealed to by the so-called "Latter-day Saints?" No! The +ground was soon made too hot for the tender conscience of the modern +prophets. Joe Smith perished when attempting to keep his captive wives in +his chains, and Brigham Young had to fly to the solitudes of the Far West, +to enjoy what he called his liberty of conscience with the thirty women he +had degraded and enchained under his yoke. But even in that remote solitude +the false prophet has heard the distant peals of the roaring thunder. The +threatening voice of the great Republic has troubled his rest, and he +wisely speaks of going as much as possible out of the reach of Christian +civilization, before the dark and threatening clouds which he sees on the +horizon will hurl upon him their irresistible storms. + +Will any one blame the American people for so going to the rescue of woman? +No, surely not. + +But what is this confessional-box? Nothing but a citadel and stronghold of +Mormonism. + +What is this Father Confessor, with few exceptions, but a lucky Brigham +Young? + +I do not want to be believed on my _ipse dixit_. What I ask from serious +thinkers is, that they should read the encyclicals of the Piuses, the +Gregorys, the Benoits, and many other Popes, "De Sollicitantibus." There +they will see, with their own eyes, that, as a general thing, the confessor +has more women to serve him than the Mormon prophets ever had. Let them +read the memoirs of one of the most venerable men of the Church of Rome, +Bishop de Ricci, and they will see, with their own eyes, that the +confessors are more free with their penitents, even nuns, than husbands are +with their wives. Let them hear the testimony of one of the noblest +princesses of Italy, Henrietta Carraciolo, who still lives, and they will +know that the Mormons have more respect for women than the greater part of +the confessors have. Let them hear the lamentations of Cardinal Baronius, +Saint Bernard, Savanarola, Pius, Gregory, St. Therese, St. Liguori, on the +unspeakable and irreparable ruin spread all along the ways and all over the +countries haunted by the Pope's confessors, and they will know that the +confessional-box is the daily witness of abominations which would hardly +have been tolerated in the lands of Sodom and Gomorrha. Let the +legislators, the fathers and husbands of every nation and tongue, +interrogate Father Gavazzi, Hyacinthe, and the thousands of living priests +who, like myself, have miraculously been taken out from that Egyptian +servitude to the promised land, and they will tell you the same old, old +story--that the confessional-box is for the greatest part of the confessors +and female penitents, a real pit of perdition, into which they +promiscuously fall and perish. Yes; they will tell you that the soul and +heart of your wife and daughter are purified by the magical words of the +confessional, just as the souls of the poor idolaters of Hindoostan are +purified by the tail of the cow which they hold in their hands when they +die. Study the pages of the past history of England, France, Italy, Spain, +&c., &c., and you will see that the gravest and most reliable historians +have everywhere found mysteries of iniquity in the confessional-box which +their pen refused to trace. + +In the presence of such public, undeniable, and lamentable facts, have not +the civilized nations a duty to perform? Is it not time that the children +of light, the true disciples of the Gospel, all over the world, should +rally round the banners of Christ, and go, shoulder to shoulder, to the +rescue of women? + +Woman is to society what the roots are to the most precious trees of your +orchard. If you knew that a thousand worms are biting the root of those +noble trees, that their leaves are already fading away, their rich fruits, +though yet unripe, are falling on the ground, would you not unearth the +roots and sweep away the worms? + +The confessor is the worm which is biting, polluting, and destroying the +very roots of civil and religious society, by contaminating, debasing, and +enslaving woman. + +Before the nations can see the reign of peace, happiness, and liberty, +which Christ has promised, they must, like the Israelites, pull down the +walls of Jericho. The confessional is the modern Jericho, which proudly and +defiantly dares the children of God! + +Let, then, the people of the Lord, the true soldiers of Christ, rise up and +rally around His banners; and let them fearlessly march, shoulder to +shoulder, on the doomed city: let all the trumpets of Israel be sounded +around its walls: let fervent prayers go to the throne of Mercy, from the +heart of every one for whom the Lamb has been slain: let such a unanimous +cry of indignation be heard, through the length and breadth of the land, +against that greatest and most monstrous imposture of modern times, that +the earth will tremble under the feet of the confessor, so that his very +knees will shake, and soon the walls of Jericho will fall, the confessional +will disappear, and its unspeakable pollutions will no more imperil the +very existance of society. + +Then the multitudes who were kept captive will come to the Lamb, who will +make them pure with His blood and free with His word. + +Then the redeemed nations will sing a song of joy: "Babylon, the great, the +mother of harlots and abominations of the earth, is fallen! fallen!" + + * * * * * + +CHAPTER VIII. + +DOES AURICULAR CONFESSION BRING PEACE TO THE SOUL? + + * * * * * + +The connecting of Peace with Auricular Confession is surely the most cruel +sarcasm ever uttered in human language. + +It would be less ridiculous and false to admire the calmness of the sea, +and the stillness of the atmosphere, when a furious storm raises the +foaming waves to the skies, than to speak of the Peace of the soul either +during or after the confession. + +I know it; the confessors and their dupes chorus every tune by crying +"Peace, peace"! But the God of truth and holiness answers, "There is no +peace for the wicked!" + +The fact is, that no human words can adequately express the anxieties of +the soul before confession, its unspeakable confusion in the act of +confessing, or its deadly terrors after confession. + +Let those who have never drunk of the bitter waters which flow from the +confessional box, read the following plain and correct recital of my own +first experiences in auricular confession. They are nothing else than the +history of what nine tenths of the penitents[5] of Rome old and young are +subject to; and they will know what to think of that marvellous Peace about +which the Romanists, and their silly copyists, the Ritualists, have written +so many eloquent lies. + +In the year 1819, my parents had sent me from Murray Bay (La Mal Baie) +where they lived, to an excellent school, at St. Thomas. I was then, about +ten years old. I boarded with an uncle, who, though a nominal Roman +Catholic, did not believe a word of what his priest preached. But my Aunt +had the reputation of being a very devoted woman. Our School-master, Mr. +John Jones, was a well educated Englishman: and a staunch PROTESTANT. This +last circumstance had excited the wrath of the Roman Catholic Priest +against the teacher and his numerous pupils to such an extent, that they +were often denounced from the pulpit with very hard words. But if he did +not like us, I must admit that we were paying him with his own coin. + +But let us come to my first lesson in Auricular Confession, No! No words +can express to those who have never had any experience in the matter, the +consternation, anxiety and shame of a poor Romish child, when he hears his +priest saying from the pulpit, in a grave and solemn tone; "This week, you +will send your children to confession. Make them understand that this +action is one of the most important of their lives, that for every one of +them, it will decide their eternal happiness or ruin. Fathers, Mothers and +guardians of those children, if, through your fault or theirs, your +children are guilty of a false confession: if they do not confess every +thing to the priest who holds the place of God, Himself, this sin is often +irreparable: the Devil will take possession of their hearts: they will lie +to their father confessor, or rather to Jesus Christ, of whom he is the +representative: Their lives will be a series of sacrileges, their death and +eternity, those of reprobates. Teach them therefore to examine thoroughly +all their actions, words, thoughts and desires, in order to confess every +thing just as it occurred, without any disguise." + +I was in the Church of St. Thomas, when these words fell upon me like a +thunderbolt. I had often heard my mother say, when at home and my aunt, +since I had come to St. Thomas, that upon the first confession depended my +eternal happiness or misery. That week was, therefore, to decide the vital +question of my eternity! + +Pale and dismayed, I left the church after the service, and returned to the +house of my relations. I took my place at the table, but could not eat, so +much was I troubled. I went to my room for the purpose of commencing my +examination of conscience, and to try to recall every one of my sinful +actions, thoughts and words! + +Although scarcely over ten years of age, this task was really overwhelming +to me. I knelt down to pray to the Virgin Mary for help, but I was so much +taken up with the fear of forgetting something or making a bad confession, +that I muttered my prayers without the least attention to what I said. It +became still worse, when I commenced counting my sins, my memory, though +very good, became confused: my head grew dizzy: my heart beat with a +rapidity which exhausted me, and my brow was covered with perspiration. +After a considerable length of time, spent in those painful efforts, I felt +bordering on despair from the fear that it was impossible for me to +remember exactly every thing, and to confess each sin as it occurred. The +night following was almost a sleepless one: and when sleep did come, it +could hardly be called sleep, but a suffocating delirium. In a frightful +dream, I felt as if I had been cast into hell, for not having confessed all +my sins to the priest. In the morning, I awoke fatigued, and prostrate by +the phantoms and emotions of that terrible night. In similar troubles of +mind were passed the three days which preceeded my first confession. + +I had constantly before me the countenance of that stern priest who had +never smiled upon me. He was present to my thoughts during the days, and in +my dreams during the nights, as the minister of an angry God, justly +irritated against me, on account of my sins. Forgiveness had indeed been +promised to me, on condition of a good confession; but my place had also +been shown to me in hell, if my confession was not as near perfection as +possible. + +Now, my troubled conscience told me that there were ninety chances against +one that my confession would be bad, either if by my own fault, I forget +some sins, or if I was without that contrition of which I had heard so +much, but the nature and effects of which were a perfect chaos in my mind. + +At length came the day of confession, or rather of judgment and +condemnation. I presented myself to the priest, the Rev. Mr. Beaubien. + +He had then, the defects of lisping and stammering which we, often turned +into ridicule. And as nature had unfortunately endowed me with admirable +powers as a mimic, the infirmities of this poor priest afforded only too +good an opportunity for the exercise of my talent. Not only was it one of +my favorite amusements to imitate him before the pupils amidst roars of +laughter but also, I preached portions of his sermons before his +parishioners of villages, with similar results. Indeed, many of them came +from considerable distances to enjoy the amusement of listening to me, and +they rewarded me, more than once, with cakes of maple sugar, for my +performances. + +These acts of mimicry were, of course, among my sins; and it became +necessary for me to examine myself upon the number of times I had mocked +the priests. This circumstance was not calculated to make my confession +easier or more agreeable. + +At last, the dread moment arrived, I knelt for the first time, at the side +of my confessor, my whole frame trembled: I repeated the prayer preparatory +to confession, scarcely knowing what I said, so much was I troubled by +fears. + +By the instructions which had been given us before confession, we had been +made to believe that the priest was the true representative, yea, almost +the personification of Jesus Christ. The consequence was that I believed my +greatest sin was that of mocking the priest--and I, as I had been told that +it was proper first to confess the greatest sins, I commenced thus: "Father +I accuse myself of having mocked a priest!" + +Hardly had I uttered these words, "mocked a priest", when this pretended +representative of the humble Jesus, turning towards me, and looking in my +face, in order to know me, better, asked abruptly; "what priest did you +mock, my boy?" + +I would have rather chosen to cut my own tongue than to tell him to his +face who it was. I, therefore, kept silent for a while, but my silence made +him very nervous, and almost angry. With a haughty tone of voice, he said: +"what priest did you take the liberty of thus mocking, my boy?" I saw that +I had to answer. Happily his haughtiness had made me bolder and firmer; I +said: "sir, you are the priest whom I mocked!" + +"But how many times did you take upon you to mock me, my boy?" asked he +angrily. + +"I tried to find out the number of times, but I never could." + +"You must tell me how many times, for to mock one's own priest is a great +sin." + +"It is impossible for me to give you the number of times," I answered. + +"Well, my child, I will help your memory by asking you questions. Tell me +the truth. Do you think you mocked me ten times?" + +"A great many times more," I answered. + +"Have you mocked me fifty times?" + +"Oh! many more still!" + +"A hundred times?" + +"Say, five hundred, and perhaps more;" I answered. + +"Well, my boy, do you spend all your time in mocking me?" + +"Not all my time: but unfortunately, I have done it very often." + +"Yes may you say: "unfortunately!" for to mock, your priest, who holds the +place of our Lord Jesus Christ, is a great sin and a great misfortune for +you. But tell me, my little boy, what reason have you for mocking me, +thus?" + +In my examination of conscience, I had not forseen that I should be obliged +to give the reasons for mocking the priest, and I was thunderstruck by his +questions. I dared not answer, and I remained for a long time dumb, from +the shame that overpowered me. But, with a harassing perseverance, the +priest insisted upon my telling why I had mocked him: assuring me that I +would be damned if I did not speak the whole truth. So, I decided to speak, +and I said: "I mocked you for several things." + +"What made you, first mock me?" asked the priest. + +"I laughed at you, because you lisp: among the pupils of the school, and +other people, it often happens that we imitate your preaching to laugh at +you," I answered. + +"For what other reasons did you laugh at me, my little boy!" + +For a long time I was silent. Every time I opened my mouth to speak, my +courage failed me. But the priest continued to urge me, I said at last; "It +is rumoured in town, that you love girls: that you visit the Misses +R's----almost every night; and this, often made us laugh." + +The poor priest was evidently overwhelmed by my answer, and ceased +questioning me on that subject. Changing the conversation, he said: "what +are your other sins?" + +I began to confess them according to the order in which they came to my +memory. But the feeling of shame which overpowered me, in repeating all my +sins to that man, was a thousand times greater than that of having offended +God. In reality, this feeling of human shame, which absorbed my thoughts, +nay, my whole being, left no room for any religious feeling at all. + +When I had confessed all the sins I could remember, the priest began to put +to me the strangest questions about matters on which my pen must be +silent.... I replied "Father, I do not understand what you ask me." + +"I question you," he answered, "on the the sins of the sixth commandment of +God, (the seventh in the Bible) Do confess all, my little boy, for you will +go to hell if, through your fault you omit any thing." + +And thereupon he dragged my thoughts into regions of iniquity which, thanks +be to God, had been hitherto quite unknown to me. + +I answered him again, "I do not understand you," or "I have never done +those wicked things." + +Then, skillfully shifting to some secondary matters, he would soon slyly +and cunningly come back to his favorite subject, namely, sins of +licentiousness. + +His questions were so unclean that I blushed and felt nauseated with +disgust and shame. More than once, I had been to my great regret, in the +company of bad boys, but not one of them had offended my moral nature so +much as this priest had done. Not one of them had ever approached the +shadow of the things from which that man tore the veil, and which he placed +before the eyes of my soul. In vain I told him that I was not guilty of +those things; that I did not even understand what he asked me; but he would +not let me off. + +Like a vulture bent upon tearing the poor defenceless bird that falls into +its claws, that cruel priest seemed determined to defile and ruin my heart. + +At last, he asked me a question in a form of expression so bad that I was +really pained and put beside myself. I felt as if I had received the shock +from an electric battery: a feeling of horror made me shudder. I was filled +with such indignation that speaking loud enough to be heard by many, I told +him: "Sir, I am very wicked, but I was never guilty of what you mention to +me: please don't ask me any more of those questions which will teach me +more wickedness than I ever knew." + +The remainder of my confession was short. The stern rebuke I had given him +had evidently made that priest blush, if it had not frightened him. He +stopped short, and gave me some very good advice which might have done me +good, if the deep wounds which his questions had inflicted upon my soul, +had not so absorbed my thoughts, as to prevent me from giving attention to +what he said. He gave me a short penance and dismissed me. + +I left the confessional irritated and confused. From the shame of what I +had just heard, I dared not raise my eyes from the ground. I went into a +corner of the church to do my penance, that is to recite the prayers which +he had indicated to me. I remained for a long time in the church. I had +need of a calm, after the terrible trial through which I had just passed. +But vainly sought I for rest. The shameful questions which had just been +asked from me, the new world of iniquity into which I been introduced, the +impure phantoms by which my childish head had been defiled, confused and +troubled my mind so strongly, that I began to weep bitterly. + +I left the church only when forced to do so by the shades of night, and +came back to my uncle's house, with a feeling of shame and uneasiness, as +if I had done a bad action and feared lest I should be detected. My trouble +was much increased when my uncle, jestingly, said: "now that you have been +to confess, you will be a good boy. But if you are not a better boy, you +will be a more learned one, if your confessor has taught you what mine did +when I confessed for the first time." + +I blushed and remained silent. My aunt said: "you must feel happy, now that +you have made your confession: do you not?" + +I gave an evasive answer, but could not entirely conceal the confusion +which overwhelmed me. I went to bed early; but I could hardly sleep. + +I thought that I was the only boy whom the priest had asked these polluting +questions: but great was my confusion, the next day when on going to +school, I learned that my companions had not been happier than I had been. +The only difference was that, instead of being grieved as I was, they +laughed at it. + +"Did the priest ask you this and that," they would demand laughing +boisterously; I refused to reply, and said: "are you not ashamed to speak +of these things." + +"Ah! Ah! how scrupulous you are:" continued they, "if it is not a sin for +the priest to speak to us on these matters, how can it be a sin for us to +laugh at it." I felt confounded, not knowing what to answer. But my +confusion increased not a little, when soon after, I perceived that the +young girls of the school had not been less polluted, or scandalized than +the boys. Although keeping at a sufficient distance from us to prevent us +from understanding every thing they had to say on their confessional +experience, those girls were sufficiently near to let us hear many things +which it would have been better for us not to know. Some of them seemed +thoughtful, sad and shameful: but several laughed heartily at what they had +learned in the confessional box. + +I was very indignant against the priest; and thought in myself, that he was +a very wicked man, for having put to us such repelling questions. But I was +wrong. That priest was honest; he was only doing his duty, as I have known +since, when studying the theologians of Rome. The Rev. Mr. Beaubien was a +real gentleman, and if he had been free to follow the dictates of his +honest conscience it is my strong conviction he would never have sullied +our young hearts with such impure ideas. But what has the honest conscience +of a priest to do in the confessional, except to be silent and dumb? The +priest of Rome is an automaton, tied to the feet of the Pope by an iron +chain. He can move, go right or left, up or down; he can think and act, but +only at the bidding of the infallible god of Rome. The priest knows the +will of his modern divinity only through his approved emissaries, +embassadors and theologians. With shame on my brow, and bitter tears of +regret flowing just now, on my cheeks, I confess that I have had myself to +learn by heart those damning questions, and put them to the young and the +old; who like me, were fed with the diabolical doctrines of the church of +Rome, in reference to auricular confession. + +Some time after, some people waylaid and whipped that very same priest, +when during a very dark night he was coming back from visiting his fair +young penitents the Misses Rs.... And the next day, the conspirators having +met at the house of Dr. Stephen Tache, to give a report of what they had +done to the half _secret_ society to which they belonged, I was invited by +my young friend Louis Casault[6] to conceal myself with him, in an +adjoining room, where we could hear every thing without being seen. I find +in the old manuscripts of "my young year's recollections" the following +address of Mr. Dubord. + +Mr. President--"I was not among those who gave to the priest the expression +of the public feelings with the eloquent voice of the whip: but I wish I +had been, I would heartily have co-operated to give that so well deserved +lesson to the father confessors of Canada, and let me give you my reasons +for that. + +"My child who is hardly twelve years old, went to confess, as did the other +girls of the village, some time ago. It was against my will. I know, by my +own experience, that of all actions, confession is the most degrading of a +person's life. I can imagine nothing so well calculated to destroy forever +one's self-respect, as the modern invention of the confessional. Now, what +is a person without self-respect? Especially a woman? Is not all forever +lost without this? + +"In the confessional every thing is corruption of the lowest grade. There, +the girl's thoughts, lips, hearts and souls are forever polluted. Do I need +to prove you this? No! for though you have given up, long since auricular +confession, as below the dignity of man, you have not forgotten the lessons +of corruption which you have received from it. Those lessons have remained +on your souls as the scars left by the red hot iron upon the brow of the +slave to be a perpetual witness of his shame and servitude. + +"The confessional box is the place where our wives and daughters learn +things which would make the most degraded woman of our cities blush! + +"Why are all Roman Catholic nations inferior to nations belonging to +Protestanism? only in the confessional can the solution of that problem be +found. And why are Roman Catholic nations degraded in proportion to their +submission to their priests? It is because the more often the individuals +composing those nations go to confess, the more rapidly they sink in the +sphere of intelligence and morality. A terrible example of the auricular +confession depravity has just occurred in my own family. + +"As I have said a moment ago, I was against my own daughter going to +confession, but her poor mother, who is under the control of the priest, +earnestly wanted her to go. Not to have a disagreeable scene in my house, I +had to yield to the tears of my wife. + +"On the following day of the confession, they believed I was absent, but I +was in my office, with the door sufficiently opened to hear every thing +which could be said by my wife and the child. And the following +conversation took place: + +"What makes you so thoughtful and sad my dear Lucy, since you went to +confess? It seems to me you should feel happier since you had the privilege +of confessing your sins." + +My child answered not a word, she remained absolutely silent. + +After two or three minutes of silence, I heard the mother saying: "Why do +you weep, my dear Lucy? are you sick?" + +But no answer yet from the child! + +"You may well suppose that I was all attention, I had my secret suspicions +about the dreadful mystery which had taken place. My heart throbbed with +uneasiness and anger. + +"After a short silence, my wife spoke again to her child, but with +sufficient firmness to decide her to answer at last. In a trembling voice, +she said: + +"Oh I dear Mamma, if you knew what the priest has asked me and what he said +to me when I confessed, you would perhaps be sad as I am." + +"But what can he have said to you? He is a holy man, you must have +misunderstood him, if you think that he has said anything wrong." + +"My child threw herself in her mother's arms, and answered with a voice +half suffocated with her sobs: "Do not ask me to tell you what the priest +has said--it is so shameful that I can not repeat it--His words have stuck +to my heart as the leech put upon the arm of my little friend, the other +day." + +"What does that priest think of me, for having put to me such questions?" + +My wife answered: "I will go to the priest and will teach him a lesson. I +have noticed myself that he goes too far when questioning old people, but I +had the hope he was more prudent with children. I ask of you, however, +never to speak of this to anybody, especially; let not your poor father +know anything about it; for he has little enough of religion already, and +this would leave him without any at all." + +"I could not refrain myself any longer: I abruptly entered the parlor. My +daughter threw herself into my arms: my wife screamed with terror, and +almost fell into a swoon. I said to my child: If you love me, put your hand +on my heart, and promise never to go again to confess. Fear God, my child, +love Him and walk in his presence. For his eyes see you everywhere. +Remember that He is always ready to forgive and bless you every time you +turn your heart to him. Never place yourself again at the feet of a priest +to be defiled and degraded." + +"This my daughter promised to me. + +"When my wife had recovered from her surprise, I told her. + +"Madame, it is long since the priest is everything, and your husband +nothing to you! There is a hidden and terrible power which governs you, it +is the power of the priest: this you have often denied, but it can not be +denied any longer, the Providence of God has decided, to day, that this +power should forever be destroyed in my house, I want to be the only ruler +of my family: from this moment the power of the priest over you is forever +abolished. Whenever you go and take your heart and your secrets to the feet +of the priest, be so kind as not to come back any more into my house as my +wife." + +This is one of the thousand and thousand specimens of the peace of +conscience brought to the soul through auricular confession. I could give +many similar instances, if it were my intention to publish a treatise on +this subject, but as I only desire to write a short chapter, I will adduce +but one other fact to show the awful deception practised by the Church of +Rome when she invites persons to come to confession under the pretext that +_peace_ to the soul will be the reward of their obedience. Let us hear the +testimony of another living and unimpeachable witness about this peace of +the soul, before, during, and after auricular confession. In her remarkable +book "Personal experience of Roman Catholicism" Miss Eliza Richardson, +writes, (Page 34 and 35.) + +"Thus I silenced my foolish quibbling, and went on to the test of a +convert's fervour and sincerity in confession. And here was assuredly a +fresh source of pain and disquiet, and one not so easily vanquished. "The +theory had appeared, as a whole, fair and rational, but the reality, in +some of its details, _was terrible_!" + +"Divested, for the public gaze, of its darkest ingredients, and dressed up, +in their theological works, in false and meretricious pretentions to truth +and purity, it exhibited a dogma only calculated to exert a beneficial +influence on mankind, and to prove a source of morality and usefulness. +_But oh, as with all ideals, how unlike was the actual!_" + +"Here, however, I may remark, in passing, the effect produced upon my mind +by the first sight of the _older_ editions of "the Garden of the Soul". I +remember the stumbling-block it was to me, my sense of womanly delicacy was +shocked. It was a dark page in my experience, when first I knelt at the +feet of a mortal man to confess what should have been poured into the ear +of God alone. I cannot dwell upon this...." + +"Though I believe my Confessor was, on the whole, as guarded as his manners +were kind; at some things I was strangely startled, utterly confounded." + +"The purity of mind and delicacy in which I had been nurtured, had not +prepared me for such an ordeal; and my own sincerity, and dread of +committing a sacrilege, tended to augment the painfulness of the occasion. +One circumstance especially I will recall, which my fettered conscience +persuaded me I was obliged to name. My distress and terror, doubtless, made +me less explicit than I otherwise might have been. The questioning, +however, it elicited, and the ideas supplied by it, outraged my feelings to +such an extent, that, forgetting all respect for my Confessor, and +careless, even, at the moment, whether I received absolution or not, I +hastily exclaimed, "I cannot say a word more," while the thought rushed +into my mind, "all is true that their enemies say of them." Here, however +prudence dictated to my questioner to put the matter no further; and the +kind and almost respectful tone he _immediately_ assumed, went far towards +effacing an impression so injurious. On rising from my knees, when I should +have gladly fled to any distance rather than have encountered his gaze, he +addressed me in the most familiar manner on different subjects, and +detained me some time in talking. What share I took in the conversation, I +never knew and all that I remember, was my burning cheek, and inability to +raise my eyes from the ground. + +"Here I would not be supposed to be intentionally casting a stigma upon an +individual. Nor am I throwing unqualified blame upon the priesthood. _It is +the system which is at fault_, a system which teaches that things, even at +the _remembrance_ of which degraded humanity must blush in the presence of +heaven and its angels, should be laid open, _dwelt upon, and exposed in +detail_, to the sullied ears of a corrupt and fallen fellow-mortal who of +like passions with the penitent at his feet, is thereby exposed to +temptations the most dark and dangerous. But what shall we say of woman? +Draw a veil! Oh purity, modesty! and every womanly feeling! a veil as +oblivion, over the fearfully, dangerous experience thou art called to pass +through! (page 37, and 38.") + +"Ah! there are things that cannot be recorded! facts too startling, and at +the same time, too delicately intricate, to admit a public portrayal, or +meet the public gaze; But the cheek can blush in secret at the true images +which memory evokes, and the oppressed mind shrinks back, in horror, from +the dark shadows which have saddened and overwhelmed it. I appeal to +converts, to converts of the gentler sex, and ask them, fearlessly ask +them, what was the first impression made on your minds and feelings by the +confessional? I do not ask how subsequent familiarization has weakened the +effects: but when acquaintance was first made with it, how were you +affected by it? I ask not the impure, the already defiled, for to such, it +is sadly susceptible of being made a darker source of guilt and shame;--but +I appeal to the pure minded and delicate, the pure in heart and sentiment. +Was not your _first_ impression one of inexpressible dread and +bewilderment, followed by a sense of humiliation and degradation, not +easily to be defined or supported? (page 39.) "The memory of that time +(first auricular confession) will ever be painful and abhorent to me; +though subsequent experience has thrown, even that, far into the back +ground. It was my initiatory lesson upon subjects which ought never to +enter the imagination of girlhood: my introduction into a region which +should never be approached by the guileless and the pure." (page 61) One or +two individuals (Roman Catholic) soon formed a close intimacy with me, and +discoursed with a freedom and plainness I had never, before encountered. My +acquaintances, however, had been brought up in convents, or familiar with +them for years, and I could not gainsay their statement. + +"I was reluctant to believe more than I had experienced the proof, however, +was destined to come in no dubious shape at a no distant day.... A dark and +sullied page of experience was fast opening upon me; but so unaccustomed +was the eye which scanned it, that I could not at all, at once, believe in +its truth! And it was of hypocrisy so hateful, of sacrilege so terrible, +and abuse so gross of all things pure and holy, and in the person of one +bound by his vows, his position, and every law of his church, as well as of +God, to set a high example, that, for a time, all confidence in the very +existence of sincerity and goodness was in danger of being shaken, +sacraments, deemed the most sacred, were profaned; vows disregarded, +vaunted secrecy of the confessional covertly infringed, and its sanctity +abused to an unhallowed purpose; while even private visitation was +converted into a channel for temptation, and made the occasion of unholy +freedom of words and manner. So ran the account of evil and a dire account +it was. By it, all serious thoughts of religion were well nigh +extinguished. The influence was fearful and polluting, the whirl of +excitement inexpressible: I cannot enter into minute particulars here, +every sense of feminine delicacy and womanly feeling shrink from such a +task. This much, however, I can say that I, in conjunction with two other +young friends, took a journey to a confessor, an inmate of a religious +house, who lived at some distance, to lay the affair before him; thinking +that he would take some remedial measures adequate to the urgency of the +case. He heard our united statements, expressed great indignation, and, at +once, commended us each to write and detail the circumstances of the case +to the Bishop of the district. This we did; but of course, never heard the +result. The reminiscences of these dreary and wretched months seem now like +some hideous and guilty dream. It was actual familiarization with unholiest +things! (page 63.) + +"The romish religion teaches that if you omit to name anything in +confession, however repugnant or revolting to purity, which you even doubt +having committed, your subsequent confessions are thus rendered null and +sacrilegious; while it also inculcates that sins of thought should be +confessed in order that the confessor may judge of their mortal or venial +character. What sort of a chain this links around the strictly +conscientious I would attempt to portray, if I could. But it must have been +worn to understand its torturing character! Suffice it to say that, for +months past, according to this standard, I had not made a good confession +at all! And now, filled with remorse for my past sacrilegious sinfulness, I +resolved on making a new general confession to the _religieux_ alluded to. +But this confessor's scrupulosity exceeded everything I had, hitherto, +encountered. He told me some things were mortal sins, which I had never +before imagined could be such: and thus threw so many fetters around my +conscience, that a host of anxieties for my first general confession was +awakened within me. I had no resource then, but to re-make that, and thus I +afresh entered on the bitter path I had deemed I should never have occasion +again to tread. But if my first confession had lacerated my feelings, what +was it to this one? Words have no power, language has no expression to +characterise the emotion that marked it! + +"The difficulty I felt in making a full and explicit avowal all that +distressed me, furnished my confessor with a plea for his assistance in the +questioning department, and fain would I conceal much of what passed then, +as a foul blot on my memory. I soon found that he made mortal sins of what +my first confessor had professed to treat but lightly, and he did not +scruple to say that I had never yet made a good confession at all. My ideas +therefore became more complicated and confused as I proceeded, until, at +length, I began to feel doubtful of ever accomplishing my task in any +degree satisfactorily: and my mind and memory were positively racked to +recall every iota of every kind, real or imaginary, that might, if omitted, +hereafter be occasion of uneasiness. Things heretofore held comparatively +trifling were recounted, and pronounced damnable sins: and as, day after +day, I knelt at the feet of that man, answering questions and listening to +admonitions calculated to bow my very soul to the dust, I felt as though I +should hardly be able to raise my head again!" (page 63.) + +This is the peace which flows from auricular confession. I solemnly declare +that except in a few cases, in which the confidence of the penitents is +bordering on idiocy, or in which they have been transformed into immoral +brutes, nine-tenths of the multitudes who go to confess, are obliged to +recount some such desolate narrative as that of Miss Richardson, when they +are sufficiently honest to say the truth. + +The most fanatical apostles of auricular confession cannot deny that the +examination of conscience, which must precede confession, is a most +difficult task; a task which, instead of filling the mind with peace, fills +it with anxiety and serious fears. Is it then only after confession that +they promise such peace? But they know very well that this promise is also +a cruel deception ... for to make a good confession, the penitent has to +relate not only all his bad actions, but all his bad thoughts and desires, +their number, and various aggravating circumstances. But have they found a +single one of their penitents who was certain to have remembered all the +thoughts, the desires, all the criminal aspirations of the poor sinful +heart? They are well aware that to count the thoughts of the mind for days +and weeks gone by, and to narrate those thoughts accurately at a subsequent +period, are just as easy as to weigh and count the clouds which have passed +over the sun, in a three days storm, a month after that storm is over. It +is simply impossible, absurd! This has never been, this will never be done. +But there is no possible peace so long as the penitent _is not sure_ that +he has remembered, counted and confessed every past sinful thought, word +and deed. It is then impossible, yes! it is morally and physically +_impossible_ for a soul to find peace through auricular confession. If the +law which says to every sinner: "You are bound, under pain of eternal +damnation, to remember all your bad thoughts and confess them to the best +of your memory", were not so evidently a satanic invention, it ought to be +put among the most infamous ideas which have ever come out from the brain +of fallen man. For, who can remember and count the thoughts of a week, of a +day, nay, of an hour of his sinful life? + +Where is the traveller who has crossed the swampy forests of America, in +the three months of a warm summer, who could tell the number of musquitoes +which have bitten him and drawn the blood from the veins? + +What should that traveller think of the man who, seriously, would tell him: +"You must prepare yourself to die, if you do not tell me, to the best of +your memory, how many times you have been bitten by the musquitoes, the +last three summer months, when you crossed the swampy lands along the +shores of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers? + +Would he not suspect that his merciless inquirer had just escaped from a +lunatic asylum? + +But it would be much more easy for that traveller to say how many times he +has suffered from the bitings of the musquitoes, than for the poor sinner +to count the bad thoughts which have passed through his sinful heart, +through any period of his life. + +Though the penitent is told that he must confess his thoughts only +according to his _best_ recollection,--he will _never, never_ know if he +has done his _best_ efforts to remember everything: he will constantly fear +lest he has not done his _best_ to count and confess them correctly. + +Every honest priest will at once admit that his most intelligent and pious +penitents, particularly among women, are constantly tortured by the fear of +having omitted to disclose some sinful deeds or thoughts. Many of them, +after having already made several general confessions, are constantly urged +by the pricking of their conscience, to begin afresh, in the fear that +their first confessions had some serious defects. Those past confessions, +instead of being a source of spiritual joy and peace, are, on the contrary, +like, so many Damocles' swords, day and night suspended over their heads, +filling their souls with the terrors of an eternal death! Sometimes the +terror-stricken consciences of those honest and pious women tell them that +they were not sufficiently contrite; at another time, they reproach them +for not having spoken sufficiently plain on some things fitter to make them +blush. + +On many occasions, too, it has happened that sins which one confessor had +declared to as venial, and which had long ceased to be confessed, another +more scrupulous than the first would declare to be damnable. Every +confessor thus knows perfectly well that he proffers what is flagrantly +false every time he dismisses his penitents, after confession, with the +salutation:--"Go in peace, thy sins are forgiven thee." + +But it is a mistake to say that the soul does not find peace in auricular +confession: in many cases, peace is found. And if the reader desires to +learn something of that peace, let him go to the grave-yard, open the +tombs, and peep into the sepulchres. What awful silence! What profound +quiet! What terrible and frightful peace! You hear not even the motion of +the worms that creep in, and the worms that creep out, as they feast upon +the dead carcase! Such is the peace of the confessional! The soul, the +intelligence, the honor, the self-respect, the conscience, are there +sacrificed. There they must die! Yes, the confessional is a veritable tomb +of human conscience, a sepulchre of human honesty, dignity and liberty; the +grave-yard of human soul! By its means, man, whom God hath made in his own +image, is converted into the likeness of the beast that perishes; woman, +created by God to be the glory and help-mate of man, is transformed into +the vile and trembling slave of the priest. In the confessional, man and +woman attain to the highest degree of popish perfection: they become as dry +sticks, as dead branches, as silent corpses, in the hands of their +confessors. Their spirits are destroyed, their consciences are stiff, their +souls are ruined. + +This is the supreme and perfect result achieved, in its highest victories, +by the Church of Rome. + +There is, verily, peace to be found in auricular confession--yes, but it is +the peace of the grave! + + * * * * * + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE DOGMA OF AURICULAR CONFESSION A SACRILEGIOUS IMPOSTURE. + + * * * * * + +Both Roman Catholics and Protestants have fallen into very strange errors +in reference to the words of Christ: "Whose soever sins ye remit, they are +remitted unto them; _and_ whose soever _sins_ ye retain, they are +retained." (St. John xx. 23.) + +The first have seen in this text the inalienable attributes of God of +forgiving and retaining sins transferred to sinful men; the second have +most unwisely granted their position, even while attempting to refute their +errors. + +A little more attention to the translation of the 3rd and 6th verses of +chapter xiii. of Leviticus by the Septuagint would have prevented the +former from falling into their sacrilegious errors, and would have saved +the latter from wasting so much time in refuting errors which refute +themselves. + +Every one knows that the Septuagint Bible was the Bible that was generally +read and used by Jesus Christ and the Hebrew people, in our Saviour's days. +Its language was evidently the one spoken by Christ and understood by his +hearers. When addressing his apostles and disciples on their duties towards +the spiritual lepers to whom they were to preach the ways of salvation, +Christ constantly followed the very expression of the Septuagint. It was +the foundation of his doctrine and the testimonial of his divine mission to +which he constantly appealed: the book which was the greatest treasure of +the nation. + +From the beginning to the end of the Old and the New Testament, the bodily +leprosy, with which the Jewish priest had to deal, is presented as the +figure of the spiritual leprosy, sin, the penalty of which our Saviour had +taken upon himself, that we might be saved by his death. That spiritual +leprosy was the very thing for the cleansing of which he had come to this +world--for which he lived, suffered and died. Yes! the bodily leprosy with +which the priests of the Jews had to deal, was the figure of the sins which +Christ was to take away by shedding his blood, and with which his apostles +were to deal till the end of the world. + +When speaking of the duties of the Hebrew priests towards the leper, our +modern translations say: (Lev. xiii. v. 6.) "They will pronounce him clean" +or (v. 3d.) "They will pronounce him unclean." + +But this action of the priests was expressed in a very different way by the +Septuagint Bible, used by Christ and the people of his time. Instead of +saying, "The priest shall pronounce the leper clean," as we read in our +Bible, the Septuagint version says, "The priest shall clean (_katharei_,) +or shall unclean (_mianei_,) the leper. + +No one had ever been so foolish, among the Jews, as to believe that because +their Bible said _clean_, (_katharei_) their priests had the miraculous and +supernatural power of taking away and curing the leprosy: and we nowhere +see that the Jewish priests ever had the audacity to try to persuade the +people that they had ever received any supernatural and divine power to +"cleanse" the leprosy, because their God through the Bible, had said of +them: "They will cleanse the leper." Both priest and people were +sufficiently intelligent and honest to understand and acknowledge that by +that expression, if was only meant that the priests had the legal right to +see if the leprosy was gone or not, they had only to look at certain marks +indicated by God Himself, through Moses, to know whether, or not, God had +cured the leper before he presented himself to his priest. The leper, cured +by the mercy and power of God alone, before presenting himself to the +priest, was only declared to be clean by that priest. Thus the priest was +said, by the Bible, to "clean" the leper, or the leprosy;--and, in the +opposite case, to "unclean." (Septuagint, Leviticus xiii. v. 3. 6.) + +Now, let us put what God has said, through Moses, to the priests of the old +law, in reference to the bodily leprosy, face to face with what God has +said, through his Son Jesus, to his apostles and his whole church, in +reference to the spiritual leprosy from which Christ has delivered us on +the cross. + + Septuagint Bible, Levit. xiii. | New Testament, John xx., 23. + | +"And the Priest shall look on the | "Whose soever sins ye remit, they +plague, in the skin of the flesh, | are remitted unto them; and whose +and when the hair in the plague is | soever sins ye retain, they are +turned white, and the plague in | retained." +sight be deeper than the skin of | +his flesh, it is a plague of | +leprosy: and the priest shall look | +on him and UNCLEAN HIM (_mianei_). | + | +"And the Priest shall look on him | +again the seventh day, and if the | +plague is somewhat dark and does | +not spread on the skin, the Priest | +shall CLEAN HIM (_katharei_): and | +he shall wash his clothes and BE | +CLEAN," (katharos.) | + +The analogy of the diseases with which the Hebrew priests and the disciples +of Christ had to deal, is striking: so the analogy of the expressions +prescribing their respective duties is also striking. + +When God said to the priests of the Old Law, "You shall clean the leper," +and he shall be "cleaned," or, "you shall unclean the leper," and he shall +be "uncleaned," He only gave the legal power to see if there were any signs +or indications by which they could say that God had cured the leper before +he presented himself to the priest. So, when Christ said to his apostles +and his whole church, "Whose soever sins ye shall forgive, shall be +forgiven unto them," He only repeated what Moses had said in an analagous +case: He only gave them the authority to say when the spiritual lepers, the +sinners, had reconciled themselves to God, and received their pardon from +Him and Him alone, previous to their coming to the apostles. + +It is true that the priests of the Old Law had regulations from God, +through Moses, which they had to follow, by which they could see and say +whether, or not, the leprosy was gone. + +"If the plague spread not on the skin ... the priest shall clean him ... +but if the priest see that the scab spread on the skin, it is leprosy: he +shall "unclean" him. (Septuagint, Levit. xiii. 3. 6.) + +So Christ had given to his apostles and his whole church equally, +infallible rules and marks to determine whether, or not, the spiritual +leprosy was gone, that they might clean the leper and tell him, + + I clean thee, | I forgive thy sins, + or | or + I unclean thee. | I retain thy sins. + +I would have, indeed, many passages of the Old and New Testaments to copy, +were it my intention to reproduce all the marks given by God Himself, +through his prophets, or by Christ and apostles, that His ambassadors might +know when they should say to the sinner that he was delivered from his +iniquities. I will give only a few. + +First: "And he said unto them, go ye into all the world and preach the +gospel to every creature: + +"He that believeth and is baptised, shall be saved: but he that believeth +not shall be damned." (Mark xvi. 15, 16.) + +What a strange want of memory in the Saviour of the world! He has entirely +forgotten that "Auricular Confession," besides Faith and Baptism are +necessary to be saved! To those who believe and are baptised, the apostles +and the church are authorised by Christ to say: "You are saved! your sins +are forgiven! I clean you!" + +Second: "And when ye come into an house, salute it. + +"And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it: but if it be not +worthy, let your peace return to you. + +"And whose soever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye +depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. + +"Verily, verily I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of +Sodom and Gomorrha, in the day of Judgment, than for that city." (Math x. +12-15.) + +Here again the Great Physician tells his disciples when the leprosy will be +gone, the sins forgiven, the soul purified. It is when the lepers, the +sinners, will have welcomed his messengers, heard and received their +message. Not a word about auricular confession: this great panacea of the +Pope's was evidently ignored by Christ. + +Third: "If ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also +forgive you--But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your +Father forgive your trespasses." (Math vi. 14, 15.) + +Was it possible to give a more striking and simple rule to the Apostles and +the Disciples that they might know when they could say to a sinner: "Thy +sins are forgiven!" or, "Thy sins are retained?" Here the double keys of +heaven are most solemnly and publicly given to every child of Adam! As sure +as there is a God in heaven and that Jesus died to save sinners, so it is +sure that if one forgives the trespasses of his neighbor for the dear +Saviour's sake, his own sins have been forgiven! To the end of the world, +then, let the disciples of Christ say to the sinner, "Thy sins are +forgiven," not because you have confessed your sins to me, but for Christ's +sake; the evidence of which is that you have forgiven those who had +offended you. + +Fourth: "And behold, a certain one stood up and tempted him, saying: +Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? + +"He said unto him: What is written in the law? how readest thou? + +"And he, answering, said: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy +heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy +mind, and thy neighbor as thyself. + +"And He said unto him, thou hast answered right; this do and thou shalt +live." (Luke x. 25-28.) + +What a fine opportunity for the Saviour to speak of "auricular confession" +as a means given by him to be saved! But here again, Christ forgets that +marvellous medicine of the Popes. Jesus, speaking absolutely, like the +Protestants, bids his messengers to proclaim pardon, forgiveness of sins, +not to those who confess their sins to a man, but to those who love God and +their neighbor. And so will his true disciples and messengers do to the end +of the world! + +Fifth: "And when he (the prodigal son) came to himself, he said: ... I will +arise and go to my father and I will say unto him, Father, I have sinned +against Heaven and before thee: and I am not worthy to be called thy son: +make me as one of thy hired servants. + +"And he arose and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, +his father saw him and had compassion and ran; and he fell on his neck and +kissed him. + +"And the son said, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, +and am not worthy to be called thy son. + +"But the father said to his servants: Bring forth his best robe, and put it +on him: put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet, and bring hither the +fat calf. For this my son was dead, and he is alive again, he was lost and +he is found." (Luke xv, 17-24.) + +Apostles and disciples of Christ, wherever you will hear, on this land of +sin and misery, the cry of the Prodigal Son: "I will arise and go to my +Father" every time you see him, not at your feet, but at the feet of his +true Father, crying: "Father I have sinned against thee," unite your hymns +of joy to the joyful songs of the angels of God; repeat into the ears of +that redeemed sinner the sentence just fallen from the lips of the Lamb, +whose blood cleanses us from all our sins; say to him, "Thy sins are +forgiven." + +Sixth: "Come unto me all ye who labour, and are heavy-laden, and I will +give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and +lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls; for my yoke is easy +and my burden is light." (Math. xi, 28-30.) + +Though these words were pronounced more than 1800 years ago, they were +pronounced this very morning; they come at every hour of day and night from +the lips and the heart of Christ to every one of us sinners. It is just now +that Jesus says to every sinner, "Come to me and I will give ye rest." +Christ has never said and he will never say to any sinner: "Go to my +priests and they will give you rest!" But he has said, "Come to me and I +will give you rest." + +Let the apostles and disciples of the Saviour, then, proclaim peace, +pardon, rest, not to the sinners who come to confess to them all their most +secretly sinful thoughts, desires, or actions, but to those who go to +Christ and Him alone, for peace, pardon and rest. For "Come to me," from +Jesus lips, has never meant, it will never mean, "Go and confess to the +priests." + +Christ would never have said: "My yoke is easy and my burden light" if he +had instituted auricular confession. For the world has never seen a yoke so +heavy, humiliating and degrading as auricular confession. + +Seventh: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must +the Son of man be lifted up; that who soever believeth in him should not +perish, but have eternal life." (John iii. 14.) + +Did Almighty God require any auricular confession in the wilderness, from +the sinners, when He ordered Moses to lift up the serpent? No! Neither did +Christ speak of auricular confession as a condition of salvation to those +who look to Him when He dies on the Cross to pay their debts. A free pardon +was offered to the Israelites who looked to the uplifted serpent. A free +pardon is offered by Christ crucified to all those who look to Him with +faith, repentance and love. To such sinners the ministers of Christ, to the +end of the world, are authorised to say: "Your sins are forgiven--we +"clean" your leprosy." + +Eighth: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, +that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. + +"For God sent not His Son to condemn the world, but that the world, through +him, might be saved. + +"He that believeth in him is not condemned: but he that believeth not, is +condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only +begotten Son of God. + +"And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world and man +loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every +one that doeth evil, hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest +his deeds should be reproved. + +"But he that doeth truth, cometh to the light, that his deeds may be +manifest, that they are wrought in God." (John iii, 16-21.) + +In the religion of Rome, it is only through auricular confession that the +sinner can be reconciled to God; it is only after he has heard a most +detailed confession of all the thoughts, desires and actions of the guilty +one that he can tell him: "Thy sins are forgiven." But in the religion of +the Gospel, the reconciliation of the sinner with his God is absolutely and +entirely the work of Christ. That marvellous forgiveness is a free gift +offered not for any outward act of the sinner: nothing is required from him +but faith, repentance and love. These are marks by which the leprosy is +known to be cured and the sins forgiven. To all those who have these marks, +the ambassadors of Christ are authorized to say, "Your sins are forgiven," +we "clean" you. + +Ninth: "The publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his +eyes to heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying: God! be merciful to me a +sinner! + +"I tell you, this man went down to his house, justified." (Luke xviii 13, +14.). Yes! justified! and without auricular confession! + +Ministers and disciples of Christ, when you see the repenting sinner +smiting his breast and crying: "Oh, God! have mercy upon me a sinner!" shut +your ears to the deceptive words of Rome who tells you to force that +redeemed sinner to make to you a special confession of all his sins, to get +his pardon. But go to him and deliver the message of love, peace and mercy, +which you received from Christ: "Thy sins are forgiven! I "clean" thee! + +Tenth: "And one of the malefactors which were hanged, railed on him, +saying: "If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. + +"But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying: Doest not thou fear God, +seeing thou art in the same condemnation? and we indeed justly, but this +man hath done nothing amiss. + +"And he said unto Jesus: Remember me, when thou art in thy Kingdom. And +Jesus said unto him: Verily, I say Unto thee: to-day, shalt thou be with me +in Paradise." (Luke xxii, 39-43.) + +Yes, in the Paradise or Kingdom of Christ without auricular confession! +From Calvary, when his hands are nailed to the cross, and his blood is +poured out, Christ even then protests against the great imposture of +auricular confession. Jesus will be to the end of the world what he was +there on the cross: the sinner's friend; always ready to hear and pardon +those who invoke his name and trust in him. + +Disciples of the gospel, wherever you hear the cry of the repenting sinner +to the crucified Saviour: "Remember me when thou comest to thy Kingdom," go +and give the assurance to that penitent and redeemed child of Adam that +"his sins are forgiven"--clean the leper. + +Eleventh: "Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his +thoughts: and let him return to the Lord; and he will have mercy upon him +and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon." (Isa. lv. 7. 8.) + +"Wash you, and make you clean, put away the evils of your doings from +before mine eyes: cease to do evil, learn to do well; seek judgment, +relieve the oppressed; judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. + +"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be +as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, +they shall be as wool." (Isa. i, 16-18.) + +Here are the landmarks of the mercy of God, put by his own almighty hands! +Who will dare to remove them in order to put others in their place? Has +ever Christ touched those landmarks? Has he ever intimated that anything +but faith, repentance and love, with their blessed fruits, were required +from the sinners to secure his pardon? No--never. + +Have the prophets of the Old Testament or the apostles of the New ever said +a word about "auricular confession" as a condition for pardon? No--never. + +What does David say? "I confess my sins unto thee, and mine iniquity have I +not hid. I said, I will confess my transgression unto the Lord, and thou +forgavest the iniquity of my sin." (Psalm xxxii, 5.) + +What does the Apostle John say? "If we say that we have fellowship with +Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth. + +"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship +with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His son cleanseth us from +sin; + +"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not +in us. + +"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to +CLEANSE us from all unrighteousness." (i. John i, 6-9.) + +This is the language of the prophets and apostles. This is the language of +the Old and the New Testament. It is to God and Him alone that the sinner +is requested to confess his sins. It is from God and Him alone that he can +expect his pardon. + +The apostle Paul writes fifteen epistles, in which he speaks of all the +duties imposed upon human conscience by the laws of God and the +prescriptions of the Gospel of Christ. A thousand times he speaks to +sinners and tells them how they may be reconciled to God. But does he say a +word about auricular confession? No, not one! + +The apostles Peter, John, Jude address six letters to the different +churches--in which they state with the greatest detail what the different +classes of Christians have to do. But again, not a single word comes from +them about auricular confession. + +St. James says, "confess your faults one to another." But this is so +evidently the repetition of what the Saviour had said about the way of +reconciliation between those who had offended one another, and it is so far +from the dogma of a secret confession to the priest, that the most zealous +supporters of auricular confession have not dared to mention that text in +favour of their modern invention. + +But if we look in vain in the Old and New Testament for a word in favour of +auricular confession as a dogma, will it be possible to find that dogma in +the records of the first thousand years of Christianity? No! for the more +one studies the records of the Christian church during the first ten +centuries, the more he will be convinced that auricular confession is a +miserable imposture, of the darkest days of the world and the church. + +We have the life of Paul, the hermit, of the third century, by one of the +early fathers of the church. But not a word is said in it of his confessing +his sins to any one, though a thousand things are said of him which are of +a far less interesting character. + +So it is with the life of St. Mary, the Egyptian. The minute history of her +life, her public scandals, her conversion, long prayers and fastings in +solitude, the detailed history of her last days and of her death, all these +we have; but not a single word is said of her confessing to any one. It is +evident that she lived and died without ever having thought of going to +confess. + +The deacon Pontius wrote also the life St. Cyprien, who lived in the third +century; but he does not say a word of his ever having gone to confession, +or having heard the confession of any one. More than that, we learn from +this reliable historian that Cyprien was excommunicated by the Pope of +Rome, called Stephen, and that he died without having ever asked from any +one absolution from that excommunication; a thing which has not seemingly +prevented him from going to Heaven, since the infallible Popes of Rome, who +succeeded Stephen, have assured us that he is a saint. + +Gregory of Nyssa has given us the life of St. Gregory of Neo-Caesarea, of +the 3rd century, and of St. Basil, of the 4th century. But neither speak of +their having gone to confess, or having heard the confession of any one. It +is thus evident that those two great and good men, with all the Christians +of their times, lived and died without ever knowing any thing about the +dogma of auricular confession. + +We have the interesting life of St Ambrose, of the 4th century, by +Paulinus; and from that book it is as evident as two and two make four, +that St. Ambrose never went to confess. + +The history of St Martin of Tours, of the 4th century by Severus Sulpicius +of the 5th century, is another monument left by antiquity to prove that +there was no dogma of auricular confession in those days; for St. Martin +has evidently lived and died without ever going to confess. + +Pallas and Theodoret have left us the history of the life, sufferings and +death of St. Chrysostom, bishop of Constantinople, who died at the +beginning of the 5th century, and both are absolutely mute about that +dogma. No fact is more evident, by what they say, than that holy and +eloquent bishop lived and died also without ever thinking of going to +confess. + +No man has ever more perfectly entered into the details of a Christian +life, when writing on that subject, than the learned and eloquent St +Jerome, of the 5th century. A great number of his admirable letters are +written to the priests of his day, or to some Christian ladies and virgins, +who had requested him to give them some good advices about the best way to +lead a Christian life. His letters, which form five volumes, are most +interesting monuments of the manners, habits, views, morality, practical +and dogmatical faith of the first centuries of the church; and they are a +most unanswerable evidence that auricular confession, as a dogma, had then +no existence, and is quite a modern invention. Would it be possible that +Jerome could have forgotten to give some advices or rules about auricular +confession, to the priests of his time who asked his counsel about the best +way to fulfil their ministerial duties, if it had been one of their duties +to hear the confessions of the people? But we challenge the most devoted +modern priest of Rome to find a single line in all the letters of St Jerome +in favour of auricular confession. In his admirable letter to the priest +Nepotianus, on the life of priests, vol. II, p. 203, when speaking of the +relations of priests with women, he says: "Solus cum sola, secreto et +absque arbitrio vel teste, non sedeas. Si familiarus est aliquid loquendum, +habet nutricem majorem domus, virginem, viduam, vel maritatam; non est tam +inhumana ut nullum praeter te habeat cui se audeat credere." + +"Never sit in secret, alone, in a retired place, with a female who is alone +with you. If she has any particular thing to tell you, let her take the +female attendant of the house, a young girl, a widow, or a married woman. +She can not be so ignorant of the rules of human life as to expect to have +you as the only one to whom she can trust those things." + +It would be easy to cite a great number of other remarkable passages where +Jerome shows himself the most determined and implacable opponent of those +secret "tete-a-tete" between a priest and a female, which, under the +plausible pretext of mutual advice and spiritual consolation, are generally +nothing but bottomless pits of infamy and perdition for both. But this is +enough. + +We have also the admirable life of St. Paulina, written by St. Jerome. And +though in it he gives us every imaginable detail of her life when young, +married and widow, though he tells us even how her bed was composed of the +simplest and rudest materials, he has not a word about her ever having gone +to confess. Jerome speaks of the acquaintances of St. Paulina and gives +their names; he enters into the minutest details of her long voyages, her +charities, her foundations of monasteries for men and women, her +temptations, human frailties, heroic virtues, her macerations and her holy +death: but he has not a word to say about the frequent or rare auricular +confessions of St. Paulina; not a word about her wisdom in the choice of a +prudent and holy (?) confessor. + +He tells us that after her death, her body was carried to her grave on the +shoulders of bishops and priests, as a token of their profound respect for +the saint. But he never says that any of those priests sat there in a dark +corner with her, and forced her to reveal to their ears the secret history +of all the thoughts, desires, and human frailties of her long and eventful +life. Jerome is an unimpeachable witness that his saintly and noble friend +St. Paulina lived and died without having ever thought of going to confess. + +Possidius has left us the interesting life of St. Augustine, of the fifth +century; and again it is in vain that we look for the place or the time +when that celebrated bishop of Hippo went to confess, or heard the secret +confessions of his people. + +More than that, St. Augustine has written a most admirable book, called: +"Confessions," in which he gives us the history of his life. With that +marvellous book in hand, we follow him, step by step, wherever he goes; we +are the witnesses of what he does and thinks; we attend with him those +celebrated schools, where his faith and morality were so sadly wrecked; he +takes us with him into the garden where, wavering between heaven and hell, +bathed in tears, he goes under the fig-tree and cries, "Oh Lord! how long +will I remain in my iniquities!" Our soul thrills with emotions, with his +soul, when we hear, with him, the sweet and mysterious voice: "Tolle! +lege!" take and read. We run with him to the places where he had left his +gospel book; with a trembling hand, we open it, and we read: "Let us walk +honestly as in the day ... put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ..." (Rom. xiii, +13, 14.) + +That incomparable book of Augustine makes us weep and shout with joy with +him; it initiates us into all, his most secret actions, to all his sorrows, +anxieties and joys, it reveals and unvails his whole life. It tells us +where he goes, with whom he sins, and with whom he praises God; it makes us +pray, sing and bless the Lord with him. Is it possible that Augustine could +have been to confess without telling us when, where and to whom he made +confession? Could he have received the absolution and pardon of his sins +from his confessor, without making us partakers of his joys, and requesting +us to bless that confessor with him. + +But, it is in vain that you look in that book for a single word about +auricular confession. That book is an unimpeachable witness that neither +Augustine nor his saintly mother Monica, whom it mentions so often, lived +and died without ever having been to confess. That book may be called the +most crushing evidence to prove that, "the dogma of auricular confession" +is a modern imposture. + +From the beginning to the end of that book, we see that Augustine believed +and said that God alone could forgive the sins of men, and that it was to +Him alone that men had to confess in order to be pardoned. If he writes his +confession, it is only that the world might know how God had been merciful +to him, and that they might help him to praise and bless the merciful +Heavenly Father. In the tenth book of his Confessions, chapter III, +Augustine protests against the idea that men could do anything to cure the +spiritual leper, or forgive the sins of their fellow-men; here is his +eloquent protest: "Quid mihi ergo est cum hominibus ut audiant confessiones +meas, quasi ipsi sanaturi sint languores meas? Curiosum genus ad +cognoscendam vitam alienam; desidiosum ad corrigendam." + +"What have I to do with men that I might be obliged to confess my sins to +them, as if they were able to heal my infirmities? Oh Lord! that human race +is very fond of knowing the sins of their neighbors; but they are very +neglectful in correcting their own lies." + +Before Augustine had built up that sublime and imperishable monument +against auricular confession, St. John Chrysostom had raised his eloquent +voice against it, in his homily on the 50th Psalm, where, speaking in the +name of the Church, he said: "We do not request you to go to confess your +sins to any of your fellow-men, but only to God!" + +Nestorius, of the 4th century, the predecessor of John Chrysostom, had, by +a public defense, which the best Roman Catholic historians have had to +acknowledge, solemnly forbidden the practice of auricular confession. For, +just as there has always been thieves, drunkards and malefactors in the +world, so there has always been men and women who, under the pretext of +opening their minds to each other for mutual comfort and edification, were +giving themselves to every kind of iniquity and lust. The celebrated +Chrysostom was only giving the sanction of his authority to what his +predecessor had done when, thundering against the newly born monster, he +said to the Christians of his time, "We do not ask you to go and confess +your iniquities to a sinful man for pardon--but only to God." (Homily on +50th Psalm.) + +Auricular confession originated with the early heretics, especially with +Marcion. Bellarmin speaks of it as something to be practiced. But let us +hear what the contemporary writers have to say on the question: + +"Certain women were in the habit of going to the heretic Marcion to confess +their sins to him. But, as he was smitten with their beauty, and they loved +him also, they abandoned themselves to sin with him." + +Listen now to what St. Basil, in his commentary on Ps. xxxvii, says of +confession: + +"I have not to come before the world to make a confession with my lips. But +I close my eyes, and confess my sins in the secret of my heart. Before +thee, O God, I pour out my sighs, and thou alone art the witness. My groans +are within my soul. There is no need of many words to confess: sorrow and +regret are the best confession. Yes, the lamentations of the soul, which +thou art pleased to hear, are the best confession." + +Chrysostom, in his homily: De paenitentia, vol. IV., col. 901, has the +following: "You need no witnesses of your confession. Secretly acknowledge +your sins, and let God alone hear you." + +In his homily V., De incomprehensibili Dei natura, vol. I, he says: +"Therefore, I beseech you, always confess your sins to God! I in no way ask +you to confess them to me. To God alone should you expose the wounds of +your souls, and from him alone expect the cure. Go to him, then; and you +shall not be cast off, but healed. For, before you utter a single word, God +knows your prayer." + +In his commentary on Heb. xii., hom. xxxi., vol. xii., p. 289, he further +says: "Let us not be content with calling ourselves sinners. But let us +examine and number our sins. And then, I do not tell you to go and confess +them, according to the caprice of some; but I will say to you, with the +prophet: "Confess your sins before God, acknowledge your iniquities at the +feet of your Judge; pray in your heart and your mind, if not with your +tongue, and you shall be pardoned." + +In his homily on Ps. I., vol. V., p. 589, the same Chrysostom says: +"Confess you sins every day in prayer. Why should you hesitate to do so? I +do not tell you to go and confess to a man, sinner as you are, and who +might despise you if he knew your faults. But confess them to God, who can +forgive them to you." + +In his admirable homily IV., De Lazaro, vol. I., p. 757, he explains: "Why, +tell me, should you be ashamed to confess your sins? Do we compel you to +reveal them to a man, who might, one day, throw them into your face? Are +you commanded to confess them to one of your equals, who could publish them +and ruin you? What we ask of you, is simply to show the sores of your soul +to your Lord and Master, who is also your friend, your guardian and +physician." + +In a small work of Chrysostom's, intitled: "Catechesis ad illuminandos," +vol. II., p. 210, we read these remarkable words: "What we should most +admire, is not that God forgives our sins, but that he does not disclose +them to any one, nor wishes us to do so. What he demands of us, is to +confess our transgressions to him alone to obtain pardon." + +St. Augustine, in his beautiful homily on the 31st Ps., says: "I shall +confess my sins to God, and he will pardon all my iniquities. And such +confession is made not with the lips, but with the heart only. I had hardly +opened my mouth to confess my sins, when they were pardoned; for God had +already heard the voice of my heart." + +In the edition of the Fathers by Migne, vol. 67, p. 614, 615, we read: +"About the year 390, the office of penitentiary was abolished in the +church, in consequence of a great scandal given by a woman who publicly +accused herself of having committed a crime against chastity with a +deacon." + +The office of penitentiary was this: in every large city, a priest or +minister was specially appointed to preside over the church meetings where +the members who had committed public sins were obliged to confess them +publicly before the assembly, in order to be reinstated in the privileges +of their membership; and that minister had the charge of reading or +pronouncing the sentence of pardon granted by the church to the guilty +ones, before they could be admitted again to communion. This was perfectly +in accordance with what St. Paul had done with regard to the incestuous one +of Corinth, that scandalous sinner, who had cast obloquy on the Christian +name; but who, after confessing and weeping over his sins, before the +church, obtained his pardon--not from a priest in whose ears he had +whispered all the shocking details of his incestuous intercourse, but from +the whole church assembled. St. Paul gladly approves the Church of Corinth +in thus receiving again in their midst a wandering but repenting brother. + +There is as much difference between such public confessions and auricular +confessions, as there is between heaven and hell, between God and his great +enemy, Satan. + +Public confession, then, dates from the time of the apostles, and is still +practised in protestant churches of our day. But auricular confession was +unknown by the disciples of Christ; as it is rejected, to-day, with horror +by all the true followers of the Son of God. + +Erasmus, one of the most learned Roman Catholics which opposed the +Reformation in the 16th century, so admirably begun by Luther and Calvin, +fearlessly and honestly makes the following declaration in his treaty: De +Paenitantia, Dis 5. "This institution of penance began rather of some +tradition of the Old or New Testament. But our divines, not advisedly +considering what the old doctors do say, are deceived: that which they say +of general and open confession, they wrest by and by to this secret and +privy kind of confession. + +It is a public fact, which no learned Roman Catholic has ever denied, that +auricular confession became a dogma and obligatory practice of the church +only at the council of Lateran in the year 1215, under the Pope Innocent +III. Not a single trace of auricular confession, as a dogma, can be found +before that year. + +Thus, it has taken more than twelve hundred years of efforts for Satan to +bring out that master-piece of his inventions to conquer the world and +destroy the souls of men. + +Little by little, that imposture had crept into the world, just as the +shadows of a stormy night creep without any one being able to note the +moment when the first rays of light give way before the dark clouds. We +know very well when the sun was shining, we know when it was very dark all +over the world, but no one can tell positively when the first ray of light +faded away. So saith the Lord: + +"The Kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his +field. + +"But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and +went his way. + +"But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, there appeared +the tares also. + +"So the servants of the house-holder came and said unto him: Sir, dist not +thou sow good seed in the field? From whence then hath it tares? + +"He said unto them: The enemy hath done this." (Mat. xiii, 24-28.) + +Yes, the Good Master tells us that the enemy sowed those tares in his field +during the night--when men were sleeping. + +But he does not tell us precisely the hour of the night when the enemy cast +the tares among the wheat. + +If any one likes to know how fearfully dark was the night which covered the +"Kingdom," and how cruel, implacable and savage was the enemy who sowed the +tares, let him read the testimony of the most devoted and learned cardinal +whom Rome has ever had, Baronius, Annals, Anno 900: + +"It is evident that one can scarcely believe what unworthy, base, execrable +and abominable things the holy Apostolical See, which is the pivot upon +which the whole Catholic Church revolves, was forced to endure, when +princes of the age, though Christians, arrogated to themselves the election +of the Roman Pontiffs. Alas, the shame! alas, the grief! What monsters, +horrible to behold, were then intruded on the Holy See! What evils ensued! +What tragedies they perpatrated! With what pollutions was this See, though +itself without spot, then stained! With what corruptions infected! _With +what filthiness defiled! And by these things blackened with perpetual +infamy!_ (Baronius, Annals, Anno 900.) + +"Est plane, ut vix aliquis credat, immo, nec vix quidem sit crediturus, +nisi suis inspiciat ipse oculis, manibusque contractat, quam indigna, +quamque turpia, atque deformia, execranda, insuper et abominanda sit coacta +pati sacrosancta apostolica sedes, in cujus cardine universa Ecclesia +catholica vertitur, cum principes saeculi hujus, quantumlibet christiani, +hac tamen ex parte dicendi tyranni saevissimi, arrogaverunt sibi tirannice +electionem Romanorum pontificum. Quot tunc ab eis, proh pudor! proh dolor! +in eandem sedem, angelis reverandam, visu horrenda intrusa sunt monstra! +Quot ex eis oborta sunt mala, consummatae tragediae! Quibus tunc ipsam sine +macula et sine ruga contigit aspergi sordibus, putoribus infici, quinati +spurcitiis, ex hisque perpetua infamia denigrari!" + + * * * * * + +CHAPTER X. + +GOD COMPELS THE CHURCH OF ROME TO CONFESS THE ABOMINATIONS OF AURICULAR +CONFESSION. + + * * * * * + +Romish priests will resort to various means in order to deceive the people +on the immorality resulting from auricular confession. One of their +favorite stratagems is to quote some disconnected passages from +theologians, recommending caution on the part of the priest in questioning +his penitents on delicate subjects, should he see or apprehend any danger +for the latter of being shocked by his questions. True, there are such +prudent theologians, who seem to realize more than others the real danger +for the priest in confession. But those wise counsellors resemble very much +a father who would allow his child to put his fingers in the fire while +advising him to be cautious lest he should burn his fingers. There is just +as much wisdom in the one case as there would be in the other. Or what +would you say of a brutal parent casting a young, weak, and inexperienced +boy among wild beasts, with the foolish and cruel expectation that his +prudence might save him from all injury? + +Such theologians may be perfectly honest in giving such advice, although it +is anything but wise or reasonable. But those are far from being honest or +true who contend that the Church of Rome, in commanding every one to +confess all his sins to the priests, has made an exception in favor of sins +against chastity. This is only so much dust thrown in the eyes of ignorant +people to prevent them from seeing through the frightful mysteries of +confession. + +When the council of Latran decided that every adult, of either sex, should +confess all their sins to a priest, at least once a year, there was no +provision made for any special class of sins, not even for those committed +against modesty or purity. And the council of Trent, when ratifying or +renewing the previous decision, no exception was made, either, of the sins +in question. They were expected and had to be confessed, as all other sins. + +The law of both councils is still unrepealed and binding for all sins, +without any exception. It is imperative, absolute; and every good Catholic, +man or woman, must submit to it by confessing _all_ his or her sins at +least once a year. + +I have in my hand Butler's Catechism, approved by several bishops of +Quebec. On page 61, it reads that all penitents should examine themselves +on the capital sins, and confess them "all, without exception, under +penalty of eternal damnation." + +Therefore, the young and timid girl, the chaste and modest woman must think +of shameful deeds and fill their minds with impure ideas, in order to +confess to an unmarried man whatever they may be guilty of, however +repugnant may be to them such confession, or dangerous for the priest who +is bound to hear, and even demand it. No one is exempt from the loathsome +and often polluting task. Both priest and penitent are required and +compelled to go through the fiery ordeal of contamination and shame. They +are bound, on every particular, the one to ask, and the other to answer, +under penalty of eternal damnation. + +Such is the rigorous, inflexible law of the Church of Rome with regard to +confession. It is taught not only in works on theology or from the pulpit, +but in prayer-books and various other religious publications. It is so +deeply impressed in the minds of Romanists as to have become a part of +their religion. Such is the law which the priest himself has to obey, and +which puts his penitents at his own discretion. + +But there are husbands with a jealous disposition, who would little fancy +the idea of bachelors confessing their wives, if they knew exactly what +questions they have to answer in confession. There are fathers and mothers +who don't like much to see their daughters alone with a man, behind a +curtain, and who would certainly tremble for their honor and virtue if they +knew all the abominable mysteries of confession. It is necessary, +therefore, to keep the people, as much as possible, in ignorance, and +prevent light from reaching that empire of darkness, the confessional. In +that view, confessors are advised to be cautious "on those matters;" to +"broach these questions in a sort of covert way, and with the greatest +reserve." For it is very desirable "not to shock modesty, neither frighten +the penitent nor grieve her." "Sins, however, _must_ be confessed." + +Such is the prudent advice given to the confessor on certain occasions. In +the hands or under the command of Liguori, Father Gury, Scavani, or other +casuists, the priest is a sort of general, sent, with his army, during the +night, to storm a citadel or a strong position, having for order to operate +cautiously and before daylight. His mission is one of darkness and cunning, +violence and cruelty; for when the pope commands, the priest, as his loyal +soldier, must be ready to obey. But many a time, after the place has been +captured by dint of strategy and secrecy, the poor soldier is left, badly +wounded and completely disabled, on the battle-field. He has paid dearly +for his victory; and the conquered citadel has received an injury from +which it may never recover. But the crafty priest has gained his point: he +has succeeded in persuading his lady penitent that there was no +impropriety, that it was even necessary for them to have a parley on things +that made her blush a few moments before. She is so well convinced that she +would swear that there is nothing wrong in confession. Truly this is a +fulfilment of the words: + + "Abyssus abyssum invocat." + +Have the Romish theologians Gury, Scavani, Liguori, etc., ever been honest +enough, in their works on confession, to say that the Most Holy God could +never command or require woman to degrade and pollute herself and the +priest in pouring in the ear of a frail and sinful mortal, words unfit even +for an angel? No; they were very careful not to say so; for from that very +moment, their shameless lies would have been exposed; the stupendous but +weak structure of auricular confession would fall to the ground with sad +havoc and ruin to its upholders. Men and women would open their eyes, and +see its weakness and fallacy. "If God," they might say, "can forgive our +most grievous sins, against modesty, he can and will certainly do the same +with those of less gravity; therefore there is no necessity or occasion for +us to confess to a priest." + +But those shrewd casuists know too well that by such frank confession, they +would soon lose their hold on Catholic populations, especially on women, by +whom, through confession, they rule the world. They much prefer to keep +their gripe on benighted minds, frightened consciences, and trembling +souls. No wonder, then, that they fully endorse and confirm the decisions +of the councils of Latran and Trent ordering "that all sins must be +confessed such as God knows them." No wonder that they try their best or +worst to overcome the natural repugnance of women for making such +confessions, and to conceal the terrible dangers for the priests in hearing +the same. + +But God, in His infinite mercy, and for the sake of truth, has compelled, +as it were, the Church of Rome to acknowledge the moral dangers and +corrupting tendencies of auricular confession. In His eternal wisdom, he +knew that Roman Catholics would close their ears to whatever might be said +of the demoralizing influence of that institution; that they would even +reply with insult and fallacy to the words of truth kindly addressed to +them: as the Jews of old returned hatred and insult to the good Saviour who +was bringing to them the glad tidings of a free salvation. He knew that +Romish devotees, led astray by their priests, as were the poor blinded +Jews, would call the apostles of truth liars, seducers, possessed of the +devil, as Christ was constantly called a demoniac, an impostor, and finally +put to death by his false accusers. + +But God, just as compassionate now as he was then for the poor benighted +and deluded souls, has wrought a real miracle to open the eyes of their +minds, and compel them, as it were, to believe us, when we say, on his +authority, that auricular confession was invented by Satan to ruin both the +priest and his female penitents, for time and eternity. For, what we would +never have dared to say of ourself to the Roman Catholics with regard to +what frequently happens between their priests and their wives and +daughters, either during or after confession, God has constrained the +Church of Rome to acknowledge herself in revealing things that would have +seemed incredible had they come simply from our mouth or our pen. In this, +as in other instances, that apostate church has unwittingly been the +mouth-piece of God for the accomplishment of his great and merciful ends. + +Listen to the questions that the Church of Rome, through her theologians, +puts to every priest after he has heard the confession of your wives or +daughters: + +1. "_Nonne inter audiendas confessiones quasdam proposui questiones circa +sextum decalogi praeceptum cum intentione lubidinosa?_" (Miroir du Clerge, +p. 582.) + +While hearing confessions, have I not asked questions on sins against the +sixth (the seventh in the Decalogue) commandment with the intention of +satisfying my evil passions? + +Such is the man, O mothers and daughters, to whom you dare to unbosom the +most secret as well as the most shameful actions. You kneel down at his +feet and whisper in his ear your most intimate thoughts and desires, and +your most polluting deeds; because your church, by dint of cunning and +sophistry, has succeeded in persuading you that there was no impropriety or +danger in doing so; that the man whom you chose for your spiritual guide +and confident could never be tempted or tainted by such foul recitals. But +that same church, through some mysterious providences, is made to +acknowledge, in her own books, her own lies. In spite of herself, she +admits that there is real danger in confession, both for the woman and for +the priest; that willingly or otherwise, and sometimes both unawares, they +lay for each other dangerous snares. The Church of Rome, as if she had an +evil conscience for allowing her priest to hold such close and secret +converse with a woman, on such delicate subjects, keeps, as it were, a +watchful eye on him while the poor misguided woman is pouring in his ear +the filthy burthen of her soul; and as soon as she is off, questions the +priest as to the purity of his motives, the honesty of his intentions in +putting the requisite questions. Have you not, she asks him immediately, +under the pretence of helping that woman in her confession, put to her +certain questions simply in order to gratify your lust, and with the object +of satisfying your evil propensities? + +2. "_Nonne munus audiendi confessione suscepi, aut peregi ex prava +incontinentiae appeta?_" (Idem, p. 582.) + +Have I not repaired to the confessional and heard confessions with the +intention of gratifying my evil passions? + +O, ye women, who tremble like slaves at the feet of the priests, you +sometimes admire the patience and charity of those good (?) priests, who +are willing to spend so many long and tedious hours in hearing the +confession of your secret sins; and you hardly know how to express your +gratitude for so much kindness and charity. But hush! Listen to the voice +of God speaking to the conscience of the priest, through the Church of +Rome! "Have you not" she asks him, "heard the confession of women simply to +foster or gratify the groveling passions of your fallen nature and corrupt +heart?" + +Please notice, it is not I, or the enemies of your religion, who put to +your priests the above questions: it is God himself who, in his pity and +compassion, compels your own church to ask such questions; that your eyes +may be opened, and that you may be rescued from all the dangerous +obscenities and the humiliating and degrading slavery of auricular +confession. It is God's will to deliver you from such bondage and +degradation. In his tender mercies, he has provided means to drag you out +of that cess-pool called confession; to break the chains which bind you to +the feet of a miserable and blasphemous sinner called confessor, who, under +the presence of being able to pardon your sins, usurps the place of your +Saviour and your God! For while you are whispering your sins in his ear, +God says to him, through his church, in tones loud enough to be heard: "In +hearing the confession of these women, are you not actuated by lust, +spurred by evil passions?" + +Is this not sufficient to warn you of the danger of auricular confession? +Can you now with any sense of safety or propriety, come to that priest, for +whom your very confession may be a snare, a cause of fall or fearful +temptation? Can you with a particle of honor or modesty willingly expose +yourself to impure desires or shameful deeds? Can you, with any sort of +womanly dignity consent to entrust that man with your inmost thoughts and +desires, your most humiliating and secret actions, when you know that that +man may not have any higher object in listening to your confession than a +lustful curiosity or a sinful desire of exciting his evil passions? + +3. "_Nonne ex auditis in confessiones occasionem sumpsi paenitentes +utriusque sexus ad peccandam sollicitandi?_" (Idem, p. 582) + +Have I not availed myself of what I heard in confession to induce my +penitents to commit sin? + +I would run a great risk of being treated with the utmost contempt, should +I dare to put to your priests such a question. You would very likely call +me a scoundrel for daring to question the honesty and purity of such holy +men. You would perhaps go as far as to contend that it is utterly +impossible for them to be guilty of such sins as are alluded to in the +above question; that never such shameful deeds have been perpetrated +through confession. And you would, maybe, emphatically deny that your +confessor has ever said or done anything that might lead you to sin or even +commit any breach of propriety or modesty. You feel perfectly safe on that +score, and see no danger to apprehend. + +Let me tell you, good ladies, that you are altogether too confident and in +the most fatal delusion. Your own church, through the merciful and warning +voice of God speaking to the conscience of your own theologians, tells you +that there is a real and eminent danger where you fancy yourself in perfect +security. You may never have suspected the danger, but it is there, within +the walls of the confessional; nay, more, it is lurking in your very hearts +and that of your confessor. He may hitherto have refrained from +temptations; he may, at least, have kept within the proper limits of +outward morality or decency. But nothing warrants you that he may not be +tempted; and nothing could shield you from his attempts on your virtue +should he give way to temptation; as cases are not wanting to prove the +truth of my assertion. You are sadly mistaken, in a false and dangerous +security. You are perhaps, although unawares, on the very brink of a +precipice, where so many have fallen through their blind confidence in +their own strength or their confessor's prudence and sanctity. Your own +church is very anxious about your safety; she trembles for your innocence +and purity. In her fear, she cautions the priest to be watchful over his +wicked passions and human frailty. How dare you pretend to be stronger and +more holy? Why should you so wilfully imperil your chastity or modesty? Why +expose yourself to danger, when it could be so easily avoided? How can you +be so rash, so devoid of common prudence and modesty as to shamelessly put +yourselves in a position to tempt and be tempted, and thereby incur your +temporal and eternal perdition? + +4. "_Nonne extra tribunal, vel in ipso confessionis actu, aliquia dixi aut +egi cum intentione diabolica has personas seducendi?_ (Idem, idem.) + +Have I not, either during or after confession, done or said anything with a +diabolical intention of seducing my female penitents? + +"What arch-enemy of our holy religion is so bold and impious as to put to +our saintly priests such an impudent and insulting question?" may ask some +of our Roman Catholic readers. It is easy to answer. This great enemy of +your religion is no less than a justly offended God, admonishing and +reproving your priests for exposing both you and themselves to dangerous +allurements and seductions. It is his voice speaking to their consciences, +and warning them of the danger and corruption of auricular confession. It +says to them: Beware! for ye might be tempted, as surely you will, to do or +say something against honor and purity. Husbands and fathers, who rightly +value the honor of your wives and daughters more than all treasures, who +consider it too precious a boon to be exposed to the dangers of pollution, +and who would prefer to lose your life a thousand times than to see those +you love most on earth fall in the snares of the seducer, read once more +and ponder what your church asks the priest after he has heard your wife or +daughter in confession: "Have you not, either during or after confession, +done or said anything with a diabolical intention of seducing your female +penitents?" + +If your priest remains deaf to these words addressed to his conscience, you +cannot help giving heed to them and understanding their full significance. +You can not be easy and fear nothing from that priest in those close +interviews with your wives and daughters, when his superiors and your own +Church tremble for him, and question his purity and honesty. They see a +great danger for both the confessor and his penitent; for they know that +confession has many a time been the pretence or the cause of the most +shameful seductions. + +If there was no real danger for the chastity of women, in confessing to a +man their most secret sins, do you believe that your popes and theologians +would be so stupid as to acknowledge it and put to confessors questions +that would be most insulting and out of place, should there be no occasion +for them? + +Is it not presumption and folly on your part to think that there is no +danger, when the Church of Rome tells you positively that there is danger, +and uses the strongest terms in expressing her uneasiness and apprehension? + +Why, your church sees the most pressing reasons to fear for the honor of +your wives and daughters, as well as for the chastity of her priest: and +still you remain unconcerned, indifferent to the fearful peril to which +they are exposed! Are you like the Jewish people of old, to whom it was +said; "Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive +not?" (Isa. vi, 9). + +But if you see or suspect the danger you are warned of; if the eye of your +intelligence can fathom the dreadful abyss where the dearest objects of +your heart are in danger of falling, then it behoves you to keep them from +the paths that lead to the fearful chasm. Do not wait till it is too late, +when they are too near the precipice to be rescued. You may think the +danger to be far off, while it is near at hand. Profit by the sad +experience of so many victims of confession who have been irretrievably +lost, irrecoverably ruined for time and eternity. The voice of your +conscience, of honor, of God himself, tells you that it may become too late +to save them from destruction, through your neglect and procrastination. +While thanking God for having preserved them from temptations that have +proved fatal to so many married or unmarried women, do not lose a single +moment in taken the necessary means to keep them from temptation and falls. + +Instead of allowing them to go and kneel at the feet of a man to obtain the +remission of their sins, lead them to the cross, the only place where they +can secure pardon and peace everlasting. And why, after so many unfruitful +attempts, should they try any longer to wash themselves in a puddle, when +the pure waters of eternal life are offered them so freely, through Christ +Jesus, their only Saviour and Mediator? + +Instead of seeking their pardon from a poor and miserable sinner, weak and +tempted as they are, let them go to Christ, the only strong and perfect +man, the only hope and salvation of the world. + +O poor deluded Catholic woman! listen no longer to the deceiving words of +the Church of Rome, who has no pardon, no peace for you, but only snares; +who offers you thraldom and shame in return for the confession of your +sins! But listen rather to the invitations of your Saviour, who has died on +the cross that you might be saved, and who alone can give rest to your +weary souls. + +Harken to His words when he says to you: "Come to me, O ye heavily laden, +crushed, as it were, under the burden of your sins, and I shall give you +rest.... I am the physician of your souls.... Those who are well have no +need of a physician, but those who are sick.... Come then to me and ye +shall be healed.... I have sent back nor lost none who have come to me.... +Invoke my name.... believe in me.... repent.... love God and your neighbor +as yourself, and you shall be saved.... For all who believe in me and call +upon my name, shall be saved.... When I am raised up between heaven and +earth, I shall draw every one to me".... + +O, mothers and daughters, instead of going to the priest for pardon and +salvation, go to Jesus, who is so pressingly inviting you, and the more so +as you have more need of divine help and grace. Even if you are as great a +sinner as Mary Magdalene you can, like her, wash the feet of the Saviour +with the flowing tears of your repentance and your love, and like her, +receive the pardon of your sins. + +To Jesus then, and to him alone for the confession and pardon of your sins: +for there only you can find peace, light, and life! + + * * * * * + +CHAPTER XI. + +SOME OF THE MATTERS ON WHICH THE PRIEST OF ROME MUST QUESTION HIS +PENITENTS. + +A CHAPTER FOR THE CONSIDERATION OF LEGISLATORS, HUSBANDS, AND FATHERS. + + * * * * * + +Dens wants the confessors to interrogate on the following matters:-- + +1. "Peccant uxores, quae susceptum viri semen ejiciunt, vel ejicere +conantur." (Dens, tom. vii. p. 147). + +2. "Peccant conjuges mortaliter, si copula incepta, cohibeant +seminationem." + +3. "Si vir jam seminaverit, dubium fit an femina lethaliter peccat, si se +retrahat a seminando; aut peccat lethaliter vir non expectando seminationem +uxoris." (p. 153). + +4. "Peccant conjuges inter se circa actum conjugalem. Debet servari modus, +sive situs; imo ut non servetur debitum vas, sed copula habeatur in vase +praepostero, alioquoque non naturali. Si fiat accedendo a postero, a latere, +stando, sedendo, vel si vir sit succumbus." (p. 166). + +5. "Impotentia. Est incapacitas perficiendi copulam carnalem perfectam cum +seminatione viri in vase se debito, seu, de se, aptam generationi. Vel, ut +si mulier sit nimis arcta respectu unius viri, non respectu alterius". +(vol. vii. p. 273). + +6. "Notatur quod pollutio, in mulieribus possit perfici, ita ut semen earum +non effluat extra membrum genitale. + +Indicium istius allegat Billuart, si scilicet mulier sensiat seminis +resolutionem cum magno voluptatis sensu, qua completa, passio satiatur" +(vol. iv. p. 168). + +7. "Uxor se accusans, in confessione, quod negaverit debitum, interrogetur +an ex pleno rigore juris sui id petiverit" (vol. vii. p. 168). + +8. "Confessarius poenitentem, qui confitetur se peccasse cum sacerdote, vel +sollicitatam ab eo ad turpia, potest interrogare utrum ille sacerdos sit +ejus confessarius, an in confessione sollitaverit" (vol. vi. p. 294). + +There are a great many other unmentionable things on which Dens, in his +fourth, fifth, and seventh volumes, requires the confessor to ask from his +penitent, which I omit. + +Now let us come to Liguori. That so-called Saint, Liguori is not less +diabolically impure than Dens, in his questions to the women. But I will +cite only two of the things on which the spiritual physician of the Pope +must not fail to examine his spiritual patient:-- + +1. "Quaerat an sit semper mortale, si vir immitat pudenda in os uxoris?... + +Verius affirmo quia, in hoc actu, ob calorem oris, adest proximum periculum +pollutionis, et videtur nova species luxuriae contra naturam, dicta, +irruminatio." + +2. "Eodem modo, Sanchez damnat virum de mortali, qui, in actu copulae, +immiteret digitum in vas praeposterum uxoris; quia, ut ait, in hoc actu +adest affectus ad Sodomiam" (Liguori, tom. vi. p. 935). + +The celebrated Burchard, Bishop of Worms, has made a book of the questions +which had to be put by the confessors to their penitents of both sexes. +During several centuries it was the standard book of the priests of Rome. +Though that work to-day is out of print, Dens, Liguori, Debreysne, &c., +&c., have ransacked its polluting pages, and given them to study to the +modern confessors, in order to question their penitents. I will select only +a few questions of the Roman Catholic bishop to the young men:-- + +1. "Fecisti solus tecum fornicationem ut quidam facere solent; ita dico ut +ipse tuum membrum virile in manum tuam acciperes, et sic duceres praeputium +tuum, et manu propria commoveres, ut, sic, per illam delectationem semen +projiceres?" + +2. "Fornicationem fecisti cum masculo intra coxas; ita dico ut tuum virile +membrum intra coxas alterius mitteres, et sic agitando semen funderes?" + +3. "Fecisti fornicationem, ut quidem facere solent, ut tuum virile membrum +in lignum perforatum, aut in aliquod hujus modi mitteres, et, sic, per +illam commotionem et delectationem semen projiceres?" + +4. "Fecisti fornicationem contra naturam, id est, cum masculis vel +animalibus coire, id est cum equo, cum vacca, vel asina, vel aliquo +animali?" (vol. i. p. 136.) + +Among the questions we find in the Compendium of the Right Rev. Burchard, +Bishop of Worms, which must be put to women, are the following (p. 115):-- + +1. "Fecisti quod quaedam mulieres solent, quoddam molimen, aut machinamentum +in modum virilis membri ad mensuram tuae voluptatis, et illud loco +verendorum tuorum aut alterius cum aliquibus ligaturis, ut fornicationem +faceres cum aliis mulieribus, vel alia eodem instrumento, sive alio tecum?" + +2. "Fecisti quod quaedam mulieres facere solent, ut jam supra dicto +molimine, vel alio aliquo machinamento, tu ipsa in te solam faceres +fornicationem?" + +3. "Fecisti quod quaedam mulieres facere solent, quando libidinem se +vexantem extinguere volunt, quae se conjungunt quasi coire debeant et +possint, et conjungunt invicem puerperia sua, et sic, fricando pruritum +illarum extinguere desiderant?" + +4. "Fecisti quod quaedam mulieres facere solent, ut cum filio suo parvulo +fornicationem faceres, ita dico ut filium tuum supra turpidinem tuam +poneres ut sic imitaberis fornicationem?" + +5. "Fecisti quod quaedam mulieres facere solent, ut succumberes aliquo +jumento et illud jumentum ad coitum qualicumque posses ingenio, ut sic +coiret tecum?" + +The celebrated Debreyne has written a whole book, composed of the most +incredible details of impurities, to instruct the young confessors in the +art of questioning their penitents. The name of the book is "Moechiology," +or "treaty on all the sins against the six (seven) and the nine +commandments, as well as on all the questions of the married life which +refer to them." + +That work is much approved and studied in the Church of Rome. I do not know +that the world has ever seen anything comparable to the filthy and infamous +details of that book. I will cite only two of the questions which Debreyne +wants the confessor to put to his penitent. + +To the young men (page 95) the confessor will ask:-- + +"Ad cognoscendum an usque ad pollutionem se tetigerint, quando tempore et +quo fine se tetigerint; an tunc quosdam motus in corpore experti fuerint, +et per quantum temporis spatium; an cessantibus tactibus nihil insolitum et +turpe acciderit; an non longe majorem in corpore voluptatem perceperint in +fine tactuum quam in eorum principio; an tum in fine quando magnam +delectationem carnalem senserunt, omnes motus corporis cessaverint; an non +madefacti fuerint?" &c., &. + +To the girl the confessor will ask:-- + +"Quae sese tetigisse fatentur, an non aliquem pruritum extinguere +tentaverit, et utrum pruritus ille cessaverit cum magnam senserint +voluptatem; an tunc, ipsimet tactus cessaverint?" &c., &c. + +The Right Rev. Kenrick, late Bishop of Boston, United States, in his book +for the teaching of confessors on what matters they must question their +penitents, has the following, which I select among thousands as impure and +damnable to the soul and body:-- + +"Uxor quae, in usu matrimonii, se vertit, ut non recipiat semen, vel statim +post illud acceptum surgit, ut expellatur, lethaliter peccat; sed opus non +est ut diu resupina jaceat, quum matrix, brevi, semen attrahat, et mox, +arctissime claudatur" (vol. iii. p. 317). + +"Puellae patienti licet se vertere, et conari ut non recipiat semen, quod +injuria ei immittitur; sed, exceptum, non licet expellere, quia jam +possessionem pacificam habet, et haud absque injuria naturae ejiceretur" +(tom. iii. p. 317). + +"Conjuges senes plerumque coeunt absque culpa, licet contingat semen extra +vas effundi; id enim per accidens fit ex infirmitate naturae. Quod si vires +adeo sint fractae ut nulla sit seminandi intra vas spes, jam nequeunt jure +conjugii uti" (tom. iii. p. 317). + + * * * * * + + +Notes + +[1] "To avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every +woman have her own husband." (1 Cor. vii. 2.) + +[2] A silver box containing consecrated bread, which is believed to be the +real body, blood, and divinity of Jesus Christ. + +[3] And remark that all their religious authors who have written on that +subject hold the same language. They all speak of those continual degrading +temptations; they all lament the damning sins which follow those +temptations; they all entreat the priests to fight those temptations and +repent of those sins. + +[4] He is dead long ago. + +[5] By the word _penitents_, Rome means not those who _repent_, but those +who _confess_ to the priest. + +[6] He died many years after when at the head of the Laval University. + + * * * * * + + +Corrections made to printed original. + +Chapter I. Para. 9. "I do here publicly challenge the whole Roman Catholic +priesthood" - 'hear' in original. + +ibid. Para 13. "everywhere they struggle nerve themselves with a superhuman +courage" - 'stuggle' in original. + +Chapter II. Para. 1. "The terrible and mysterious cause of her death was +known" - 'known' in original. + +Chapter III. Para 9. "he suspects that nobody but his co-sinner brethren" - +'brethern' in original. + +Chapter V. Para 12. "a good, honest, Christian, and godly thing" - +'Christain' in original. + +ibid. Para 36. "particularly if high education has added to her natural +shrewdness." - 'particulary' in original. + +Chapter VI. Para 30. "humiliation and opprobrium of the questionable +privileges of an uncertain paternity." - 'questioable' in original + +ibid. Para 39. "it is nothing else than a school of immorality." - 'im-' at +end of one line is not completed in original, this completion seems best to +fit the sense of the next paragraph. + +CHAPTER VII. Heading - 'CHAPTER VIII.' in original. + +ibid. Para 12. "the obligation and power which every one of His disciples +had of forgiving" - 'desciples' in original. + +Chapter IX. Para 80. "secreto et absque arbitrio" - 'and' for 'et' in +original. "aliquid loquendum habet" - 'loquem dum' in original + +ibid. Para 89. "Curiosum genus ad cognoscendam vitam alienam;" - +'cognescendam' in original + +ibid. Para 121. "ex hisque perpetua infamia denigrari!" - 'hisgue' in +original + +Chapter XI. Para 20. "which must be put to women" - 'womem' in original. + + * * * * * + + +Works Published by F. E. Grafton, + +PUBLISHER, BOOKSELLER AND STATIONER, + +Montreal. + + * * * * * + + +SONG LIFE, + +Over 250 of the best Hymns and Tunes ... Price 50 cts. + +THE HYMNAL. + +A collection of Hymns for Prayer Meetings and Evangelistic services, 10 +cts. each, ... $8 per 100 + +THE S. S. 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