{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_20120/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_20120","id":"gutenberg_20120","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20120","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Biographies","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Catholic Church -- Controversial literature -- Protestant authors","Confession"],"text":"Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Keith Edkins and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This\nfile was produced from images generously made available\nby the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions\n(www.canadiana.org))\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE PRIEST, THE WOMAN\n\nAND\n\nTHE CONFESSIONAL.\n\nBy FATHER CHINIQUY.\n\nMontreal:\n\nF. E. GRAFTON, BOOKSELLER.\n\nCORNER CRAIG ST. AND VICTORIA SQUARE.\n\n1875.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nENTERED according to the Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year\nOne\nthousand eight hundred and seventy-five, by F. E. GRAFTON of\nMontreal, in the Office of the Minister of Agriculture.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nCONTENTS.\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\nTHE STRUGGLE BEFORE THE SURRENDER OF WOMANLY SELF-RESPECT IN THE\nCONFESSIONAL\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nAURICULAR CONFESSION A DEEP PIT OF PERDITION FOR THE PRIEST\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\nTHE CONFESSIONAL IS THE MODERN SODOM\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nHOW THE VOW OF CELIBACY OF THE PRIESTS IS MADE EASY BY AURICULAR CONFESSION\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nTHE HIGHLY EDUCATED AND REFINED WOMAN IN THE CONFESSIONAL.--WHAT BECOMES OF\nHER AFTER HER UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER.--HER IRREPARABLE RUIN\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\nAURICULAR CONFESSION DESTROYS ALL THE SACRED TIES OF MARRIAGE AND HUMAN\nSOCIETY\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\nSHOULD AURICULAR CONFESSION BE TOLERATED AMONG CIVILIZED NATIONS?\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\nDOES AURICULAR CONFESSION BRING PEACE TO THE SOUL?\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\nTHE DOGMA OF AURICULAR CONFESSION A SACRILEGIOUS IMPOSTURE\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\nGOD COMPELS THE CHURCH OF ROME TO CONFESS THE ABOMINATIONS OF AURICULAR\nCONFESSION\n\nCHAPTER XI.\n\nSOME OF THE MATTERS ON WHICH THE PRIEST OF ROME MUST QUESTION HIS\nPENITENTS.--A CHAPTER FOR THE CONSIDERATION OF LEGISLATORS, HUSBANDS,\nFATHERS, &C.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\nPREFACE.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nEZEKIEL.\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\n1 And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth _month_, in the fifth\n_day_ of the month, _as_ I sat in mine house, and the elders of Judah sat\nbefore me, that the hand of the Lord GOD fell there upon me.\n\n2 Then I beheld, and lo a likeness as the appearance of fire; from the\nappearance of his loins even downward, fire; and from his loins even\nupward, as the appearance of brightness, as the color of amber.\n\n3 And he put forth the form of an hand, and took me by a lock of mine head;\nand the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought\nme in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate that\nlooketh toward the north; where _was_ the seat of the image of jealousy,\nwhich provoketh to jealousy.\n\n4 And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel _was_ there, according to the\nvision that I saw in the plain.\n\n5  Then said he unto me, Son of man, lift up thine eyes now the way toward\nthe north. So I lifted up mine eyes the way toward the north, and behold\nnorthward at the gate of the altar this image of jealousy in the entry.\n\n6 He said furthermore unto me, Son of man, seest thou what they do? _even_\nthe great abominations that the house of Israel committeth here, that I\nshould go far off from my sanctuary? but turn thee yet again, _and_ thou\nshalt see greater abominations.\n\n7  And he brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold a\nhole in the wall.\n\n8 Then said he unto me, Son of man, dig now in the wall; and when I had\ndigged in the wall, behold a door.\n\n9 And he said unto me. Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they\ndo here.\n\n10 So I went in and saw; and behold every form of creeping things, and\nabominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, pourtrayed\nupon the wall round about.\n\n11 And there stood before them seventy men of the ancients of the house of\nIsrael, and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, with\nevery man his censer in his hand; and a thick cloud of incense went up.\n\n12 Then said he unto me. Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of\nthe house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his\nimagery? for they say, The LORD seeth us not; the LORD hath forsaken the\nearth.\n\n13 He said also unto me, Turn thee yet again, _and_ thou shalt see greater\nabominations that they do.\n\n14 Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the LORD'S house which\n_was_ toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.\n\n15 Then said he unto me, Hast thou seen _this_, O Son of man? turn thee yet\nagain, _and_ thou shalt see greater abominations than these.\n\n16 And he brought me into the inner court of the LORD'S house, and, behold,\nat the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar,\n_were_ about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the\nLORD, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward\nthe east.\n\n17 Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen _this_, O Son of man? Is it a light\nthing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they\ncommit here? for they have filled the land with violence, and have returned\nto provoke me to anger; and, lo, they put the branch to their nose.\n\n18 Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither\nwill I have pity; and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, _yet_\nwill I not hear them.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\nTHE STRUGGLE BEFORE THE SURRENDER OF WOMANLY SELF-RESPECT IN THE\nCONFESSIONAL.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThere are two women who ought to be the constant objects of the compassion\nof the disciples of Christ, and for whom daily prayers ought to be offered\nat the mercy-seat--the Brahmin woman, who, deceived by her priests, burns\nherself on the corpse of her husband to appease the wrath of her wooden\ngods; and the Roman Catholic woman, who, not less deceived by her priests,\nsuffers a torture far more cruel and ignominious in the confessional-box to\nappease the wrath of her wafer-god.\n\nFor I do not exaggerate when I say that for many noble-hearted,\nwell-educated, high-minded women to be forced to unveil their hearts before\nthe eyes of a man, to open to him all the most sacred recesses of their\nsouls, all the most sacred mysteries of their single or married life, to\nallow him to put to them questions which the most depraved woman would\nnever consent to hear from her vilest seducer, is often more horrible and\nintolerable than to be tied on burning coals.\n\nMore than once I have seen women fainting in the confessional-box, who told\nme, afterwards, that the necessity of speaking to an unmarried man on\ncertain things, on which the most common laws of decency ought to have for\never sealed their lips, had almost killed them! Not hundreds, but thousands\nof times I have heard from the dying lips of single girls, as well as of\nmarried women, the awful words: \"I am for ever lost! All my past\nconfessions and communions have been as many sacrileges! I have never dared\nto answer correctly the questions of my confessors! Shame has sealed my\nlips and damned my soul!\"\n\nHow many times I remained as one petrified by the side of a corpse when,\nthese last words having hardly escaped the lips of one of my female\npenitents, she was snatched out of my reach by the merciless hand of death,\nbefore I could give her pardon through the deceitful sacramental\nabsolution! I then believed, as the dead sinner herself believed, that she\ncould not be forgiven except by that absolution.\n\nFor there are not only thousands, but millions, of Roman Catholic girls and\nwomen whose keen sense of modesty and womanly dignity are above all the\nsophisms and diabolical machinations of their priests. They never can be\npersuaded to answer \"Yes\" to certain questions of their confessors. They\nwould prefer to be thrown into the flames, and burnt to ashes with the\nBrahmin widows, rather than to allow the eyes of a man to pry into the\nsacred sanctuary of their souls. Though sometimes guilty before God, and\nunder the impression that their sins will never be forgiven if not\nconfessed, the laws of decency are stronger in their hearts than the laws\nof their cruel and perfidious Church. No consideration, not even the fear\nof eternal damnation, can persuade them to declare to a sinful man sins\nwhich God alone has the right to know, for He alone can blot them out with\nthe blood of His Son shed on the cross.\n\nBut what a wretched life that of those exceptional noble souls, which Rome\nkeeps in the dark dungeons of her superstition! They read in all their\nbooks, and hear from all their pulpits, that if they conceal a single sin\nfrom their confessors they are for ever lost! But, being absolutely unable\nto trample under their feet the laws of self-respect and decency which God\nHimself has impressed in their souls, they live in constant dread of\neternal damnation. No human words can tell their desolation and distress\nwhen, at the feet of their confessors, they find themselves between the\nhorrible necessity of speaking of things on which they would prefer to\nsuffer the most cruel death rather than to open their lips, or to be for\never damned if they do not degrade themselves for ever in their own eyes by\nspeaking on matters which a respectable woman will never reveal to her own\nmother, much less to a man!\n\nI have known only too many of these noble-hearted women, who, when alone\nwith God, in a real agony of desolation and with burning tears, had asked\nHim to grant them what they considered the greatest favour, which was to\nlose so much of their self-respect as to be enabled to speak of those\nunmentionable things just as their confessors wanted them to speak; and,\nhoping that their petition had been granted, they went again to the\nconfessional-box, determined to unveil their shame before the eyes of that\ninexorable man. But, when the moment had come for the self-immolation,\ntheir courage failed, their knees trembled, their lips became pale as\ndeath. Cold sweat flowed from all their pores! The voice of modesty and\nwomanly self-respect was speaking louder than the voice of their false\nreligion. They had to go out of the confessional-box unpardoned--nay, with\nthe burden of a new sacrilege on their conscience.\n\nOh, how heavy is the yoke of Rome--how bitter is human life--how cheerless\nis the mystery of the cross to those deluded and perishing souls! How\ngladly they would rush into the blazing piles with the Brahmin women, if\nthey could hope to see the end of their unspeakable miseries through the\nmomentary tortures which would open to them the gates of a better life!\n\nI do here publicly challenge the whole Roman Catholic priesthood to deny\nthat the greater part of their female penitents remain a certain period of\ntime--some longer, some shorter--under that most distressing state of mind.\n\nYes, by far the greater majority of women, at first, find it next to\nimpossible to pull down the sacred barriers of self-respect which God\nHimself has built around their hearts, intelligences, and souls, as the\nbest safeguard against the snares of this polluted world. Those laws of\nself-respect, by which they cannot consent to speak an impure word into the\nears of a man, and which shut all the avenues of their hearts against his\nunchaste questions, even, when speaking in the name of God--those laws of\nself-respect are so clearly written in their conscience, and they are so\nwell understood by them to be a most Divine gift, that, as I have already\nsaid, many prefer to run the risk of being for ever lost by remaining\nsilent.\n\nIt takes many years of the most ingenious (I do not hesitate to call it\ndiabolical) efforts on the part of the priests to persuade the majority of\ntheir female penitents to speak on questions which even pagan savages would\nblush to mention among themselves. Some persist in remaining silent on\nthose matters during the greatest part of their lives, and many prefer to\nthrow themselves into the hands of their merciful God and die without\nsubmitting to the defiling ordeal, even after they have felt the poisonous\nstings of the enemy, rather than receive their pardon from a man who, as\nthey feel, would have surely been scandalized by the recital of their human\nfrailties. All the priests of Rome are aware of this natural disposition of\ntheir female penitents. There is not a single one--no, not a single one of\ntheir moral theologians, who does not warn the confessors against that\nstern and general determination of the girls and married women never to\nspeak in the confessional on matters which may, more or less, deal with\nsins against the seventh commandment. Dens, Liguori, Debreyne, Bailly,\n&c.--in a word, all the theologians of Rome--own that this is one of the\ngreatest difficulties which the confessors have to contend with in the\nconfessional-box.\n\nNot a single Roman Catholic priest will dare to deny what I say on this\nmatter; for they know that it would be easy for me to overwhelm them with\nsuch crowd of testimonies that their grand imposture would for ever be\nunmasked.\n\nI intend, some future day, if God spares me and gives me time for it, to\nmake known some of the innumerable things which the Roman Catholic\ntheologians and moralists have written on this question. It will form one\nof the most curious books ever written; and it will give an unanswerable\nevidence of the fact that, instinctively, without consulting each other,\nwith an unanimity which is almost marvellous, the Roman Catholic women,\nguided by the honest instincts which God has given them, shrink from the\nsnares put before them in the confessional-box; and that everywhere they\nstruggle to nerve themselves with a superhuman courage against the torturer\nwho is sent by the Pope to finish their ruin and to make shipwreck of their\nsouls. Everywhere woman feels that there are things which ought never to be\ntold, as there are things which ought never to be done, in the presence of\nthe God of holiness. She understands that, to recite the history of certain\nsins, even of thoughts, is not less shameful and criminal than to do them;\nshe hears the voice of God whispering into her ears, \"Is it not enough that\nthou hast been guilty once, when alone, in My presence, without adding to\nthine iniquity, by allowing that man to know what should never have been\nrevealed to him? Do you not feel that you make that man your own accomplice\nthe very moment that you throw into his heart and soul the mire of your\niniquities? He is as weak as you are; he is not less a sinner than\nyourself; what has tempted you will tempt him; what has made you weak will\nmake him weak? what has polluted you will pollute him; what has thrown you\ndown into the dust will throw him down into the dust. Is it not enough that\nMy eyes had to look upon your iniquities? must my ears to-day listen to\nyour impure conversation with that man? Were that man as holy as My prophet\nDavid, may he not fall before the unchaste unveiling of the new Bathsheba?\nWere he as strong as Sampson, may he not find in you his tempting Delilah?\nWere he as generous as Peter, may he not become a traitor at the\nmaid-servant's voice?\"\n\nPerhaps the world has never seen a more terrible, desperate, solemn\nstruggle than the one which is going on in the soul of the poor trembling\nyoung woman, who, at the feet of that man, has to decide whether or not she\nwill open her lips on those things which the infallible voice of God,\nunited to the no less infallible voice of her womanly honour and\nself-respect, tell her never to reveal to any man!\n\nThe history of that secret, fierce, desperate, and deadly struggle has\nnever yet, so far as I know, been fully given. It would draw the tears of\nadmiration and compassion of the whole world, if it could be written with\nits simple, sublime, and terrible realities.\n\nHow many times I have wept as a child when some noble-hearted and\nintelligent young girl, or some respectable married woman, yielding to the\nsophisms with which I, or some other confessor, had persuaded them to give\nup their self-respect, their womanly dignity, to speak with me on matters\non which a decent woman would never say a word with a man! They told me of\ntheir invincible repugnance, their horror of such questions and answers,\nand they asked me to have pity on them. Yes! I often wept bitterly on my\ndegradation when a priest of Rome! I felt all the strength, the grandeur,\nthe holiness of their motives for being silent on those defiling matters. I\ncould not but admire them. It seemed, at times, that they were speaking the\nlanguage of angels of light; that I ought to fall at their feet, and ask\ntheir pardon for having spoken to them of questions on which a man of\nhonour ought never to converse with a woman whom he respects.\n\nBut, alas! I had soon to reproach myself and regret these short instances\nof my wavering faith in the infallible voice of my Church; I had soon to\nsilence the voice of my conscience, which was telling me, \"Is it not a\nshame that you, an unmarried man, dare to speak on those matters with a\nwoman? Do you not blush to put such questions to a young girl? Where is\nyour self-respect? where is your fear of God? Do you not promote the ruin\nof that girl by forcing her to speak with a man on such questions?\"\n\nI was compelled by all the Popes, the moral theologians, and the Councils\nof Rome, to believe that this warning voice of my merciful God was the\nvoice of Satan; I had to believe, in spite of my own conscience and\nintelligence, that it was good, nay, necessary, to put those polluting,\ndamning questions. My infallible Church was mercilessly forcing me to\noblige those poor, trembling, weeping, desolated girls and women to swim\nwith me and all her priests in those waters of Sodom and Gomorrha, under\nthe pretext that their self-will would be broken down, their fear of sin\nand humility increased, and that they would be purified by our absolutions.\n\nIn the beginning of my priesthood, I was not a little surprised and\nembarrassed to see a very accomplished and beautiful young lady, whom I\nused to meet almost every week in her father's house, entering the box of\nmy confessional. She used to go to confess to another young priest of my\nacquaintance, and she was looked upon as one of the most pious girls of the\ncity. Though she had disguised herself as much as possible, that I might\nnot know her, I thought that I was not mistaken--she was the amiable Mary\n* * * *\n\nNot being absolutely sure of the correctness of my impressions, I left her\nentirely under the hope that she was a perfect stranger to me. At the\nbeginning she could hardly speak; her voice was suffocated by her sobs;\nand, through the little apertures of the thin partition between her and me,\nI saw two streams of big tears trickling down her cheeks.\n\nAfter much effort, she said: \"Dear Father, I hope you do not know me, and\nthat you will never try to know me. I am a desperately great sinner. Oh! I\nfear that I am lost! But if there is still any hope for me to be saved, for\nGod's sake, do not rebuke me! Before I begin my confession, allow me to ask\nyou not to pollute my ears by the questions which our confessors are in the\nhabit of putting to their female penitents. I have already been destroyed\nby those questions. Before I was seventeen years old, God knows that His\nangels are not more pure than I was; but the chaplain of the Nunnery where\nmy parents had sent me for my education, though approaching old age, put to\nme in the confessional a question which, at first, I did not understand;\nbut, unfortunately, he had put the same questions to one of my young\nclass-mates, who made fun of them in my presence, and explained them to me;\nfor she understood them too well. This first unchaste conversation of my\nlife plunged my thoughts into a sea of iniquity, till then absolutely\nunknown to me; temptations of the most humiliating character assailed me\nfor a week, day and night; after which, sins which I would blot out with my\nblood, if it were possible, overwhelmed my soul as with a deluge. But the\njoys of the sinner are short. Struck with terror at the thought of the\njudgments of God, after a few weeks of the most deplorable life, I\ndetermined to give up my sins and reconcile myself to God. Covered with\nshame, and trembling from head to foot, I went to confess to my old\nconfessor, whom I respected as a saint and cherished as a father. It seems\nto me that with sincere tears of repentance I confessed to him the greatest\npart of my sins, though I concealed one of them through shame, and respect\nfor my spiritual guide. But I did not conceal from him that the strange\nquestions he had put to me at my last confession were, with the natural\ncorruption of my heart, the principal cause of my destruction.\n\n\"He spoke to me very kindly, encouraged me to fight against my bad\ninclinations, and, at first, gave me very kind and good advice. But when I\nthought he had finished speaking, and as I was preparing to leave the\nconfessional-box, he put to me two new questions of such a polluting\ncharacter that I fear neither the blood of Christ nor all the fires of hell\nwill ever be able to blot them out from my memory. Those questions have\nachieved my ruin; they have stuck to my mind as two deadly arrows; they are\nday and night before my imagination; they fill my very arteries and veins\nwith a deadly poison.\n\n\"It is true that, at first, they filled me with horror and disgust; but,\nalas! I soon got so accustomed to them that they seemed to be incorporated\nwith me, and as though becoming a second nature. Those thoughts have become\na new source of innumerable criminal thoughts, desires, and actions.\n\n\"A month later, we were obliged, by the rules of our convent, to go to\nconfess; but this time, I was so completely lost that I no longer blushed\nat the idea of confessing my shameful sins to a man; it was the very\ncontrary. I had a real, diabolical pleasure in the thought that I should\nhave a long conversation with my confessor on those matters, and that he\nwould ask me more of his strange questions.\n\n\"In fact, when I had told him everything, without a blush, he began to\ninterrogate me, and God knows what corrupting things fell from his lips\ninto my poor criminal heart! Every one of his questions was thrilling my\nnerves, and filling me with the most shameful sensations. After an hour of\nthis criminal _tete-a-tete_ with my old confessor (for it was nothing else\nbut a criminal _tete-a-tete_), I perceived that he was as depraved as I was\nmyself. With some half-covered words, he made me a criminal proposition,\nwhich I accepted with covered words also; and during more than a year, we\nhave lived together in the most sinful intimacy. Though he was much older\nthan I, I loved him in the most foolish way. When the course of my convent\ninstruction was finished, my parents called me back to their home. I was\nreally glad of that change of residence, for I was beginning to be tired of\nmy criminal life. My hope was that, under the direction of a better\nconfessor, I should reconcile myself to God and begin a Christian life.\n\n\"Unfortunately for me, my new confessor, who was very young, began also his\ninterrogations. He soon fell in love with me, and I loved him in a most\ncriminal way. I have done with him things which I hope you will never\nrequest me to reveal to you, for they are too monstrous to be repeated,\neven in the confessional, by a woman to a man.\n\n\"I do not say these things to take away the responsibility of my iniquities\nwith this young confessor from my shoulders, for I think I have been more\ncriminal than he was. It is my firm conviction that he was a good and holy\npriest before he knew me; but the questions he put to me, and the answers I\nhad to give him, melted his heart--I know it--just as boiling lead would\nmelt the ice on which it flows.\n\n\"I know this is not such a detailed confession as our holy Church requires\nme to make, but I have thought it necessary for me to give you this short\nhistory of the life of the greatest and the most miserable sinner who ever\nasked you to help her to come out from the tomb of her iniquities. This is\nthe way I have lived these last few years. But last Sabbath, God, in His\ninfinite mercy, looked down upon me. He inspired you to give us the\nProdigal Son as a model of true conversion, and as the most marvelous proof\nof the infinite compassion of the dear Saviour for the sinner. I have wept\nday and night since that happy day, when I threw myself into the arms of my\nloving, merciful Father. Even now I can hardly speak, because my regret for\nmy past iniquities, and my joy that I am allowed to bathe the feet of my\nSaviour with my tears, are so great that my voice is as choked.\n\n\"You understand that I have for ever given up my last confessor. I come to\nask you the favour to receive me among your penitents. Oh! do not reject\nnor rebuke me, for the dear Saviour's sake! Be not afraid to have at your\nside such a monster of iniquity! But before going farther, I have two\nfavours to ask from you. The first is, that you will never do anything to\nknow my name; the second is, that you will never put me any of those\nquestions by which so many penitents are lost and so many priests for ever\ndestroyed. Twice I have been lost by those questions. We come to our\nconfessors that they may throw upon our guilty souls the pure waters which\nflow from heaven to purify us; and, instead of that, with their\nunmentionable questions, they pour oil on the burning fires which arc\nalready raging in our poor sinful hearts. Oh! dear father, let me become\nyour penitent, that you may help me to go and weep with Magdalene at the\nSaviours feet! Do respect me, as He respected that true model of all the\nsinful but repenting women! Did Our Saviour put to her any question? did He\nextort from her the history of things which a sinful woman cannot say\nwithout forgetting the respect she owes to herself and to God? No! You told\nus, not long ago, that the only thing our Saviour did was to look at her\ntears and her love. Well, please do that, and you will save me!\"\n\nI was a very young priest, and never had any words so sublime come to my\nears in the confessional-box. Her tears and her sobs, mingled with the so\nfrank declaration of the most humiliating actions, had made upon me such a\nprofound impression that I was, for some time, unable to speak. It had come\nto my mind also that I might be mistaken about her identity, and that\nperhaps she was not the young lady that I had imagined. I could, then,\neasily grant her first request, which was to do nothing by which I could\nknow her. The second part of her prayer was more embarrassing; for the\ntheologians are very positive in ordering the confessors to question their\npenitents, particularly those of the female sex, in many circumstances.\n\nI encouraged her, in the best way I could, to persevere in her good\nresolutions by invoking the blessed Virgin Mary and St. Philomene, who was\nthen the _Sainte a la mode_, just as Marie Alacoque is to-day, among the\nblind slaves of Rome. I told her that I would pray and think over the\nsubject of her second request; and I asked her to come back, in a week, for\nmy answer.\n\nThe very same day, I went to my own confessor, the Rev. Mr. Baillargeon,\nthen curate of Quebec, and afterwards Archbishop of Canada. I told him the\nsingular and unusual request she had made that I should never put to her\nany of those questions suggested by the theologians, to insure the\nintegrity of the confession. I did not conceal from him that I was much\ninclined to grant her that favour; for I repeated what I had already\nseveral times told him, that I was supremely disgusted with the infamous\nand polluting questions which the theologians forced us to put to our\nfemale penitents. I told him, frankly, that several young and old priests\nhad already come to confess to me; and that, with the exception of two,\nthey had all told me that they could not put those questions and hear the\nanswers they elicited without falling into the most damnable sins.\n\nMy confessor seemed to be much perplexed about what he could answer. He\nasked me to come the next day, that he might review his theological books\nin the interval. The next day, I took down in writing his answer, which I\nfind in my old manuscripts; and I give it here in all its sad crudity:--\n\n\"Such cases of the destruction of female virtue by the questions of the\nconfessors is an unavoidable evil. It can not be helped; for such questions\nare absolutely necessary in the greatest part of the cases with which we\nhave to deal. Men generally confess their sins with so much sincerity that\nthere is seldom any need for questioning them, except when they are very\nignorant. But St Liguori, as well as our personal observation, tells us\nthat the greatest part of girls and women, through a false and criminal\nshame, very seldom confess the sins they commit against purity. It requires\nthe utmost charity in the confessors to prevent those unfortunate slaves of\ntheir secret passions from making sacrilegious confessions and communions.\nWith the greatest prudence and zeal, he must question them on those\nmatters; beginning with the smallest sins, and going, little by little, as\nmuch as possible, by imperceptible degrees, to the most criminal actions.\nAs it seems evident that the penitent referred to in your questions of\nyesterday is unwilling to make a full and detailed confession of all her\niniquities, you cannot promise to absolve her without assuring yourself, by\nwise and prudent questions, that she has confessed everything.\n\n\"You must not be discouraged when, through the confessional or any other\nway, you learn the fall of priests into the common frailties of human\nnature with their penitents. Our Saviour knew very well that the occasions\nand the temptations we have to encounter, in the confessions of girls and\nwomen, are so numerous, and sometimes so irrepressible, that many would\nfall. But He has given them the Holy Virgin Mary, who constantly asks and\nobtains their pardon; He has given them the sacrament of penance, where\nthey can receive their pardon as often as they ask for it. The vow of\nperfect chastity is a great honour and privilege; but we cannot conceal\nfrom ourselves that it puts on our shoulders a burden which many cannot\ncarry for ever. St Liguori says that we must not rebuke the penitent priest\nwho falls only once a month; and some other trustworthy theologians are\nstill more charitable.\"\n\nThis answer was far from satisfying me. It seemed to me composed of\nsoft-soap principles. I went back with a heavy heart and an anxious mind;\nand God knows that I made many fervent prayers that this girl should never\ncome again to give me her sad history. I was hardly twenty-six years old,\nfull of youth and life. It seemed to me that the stings of a thousand wasps\nto my ears would not do me so much harm as the words of that dear,\nbeautiful, accomplished, but lost girl.\n\nI do not mean to say that the revelations which she made had, in any way,\ndiminished my esteem and my respect for her. It was just the contrary. Her\ntears and her sobs, at my feet; her agonizing expressions of shame and\nregret; her noble words of protest against the disgusting and polluting\ninterrogations of the confessors, had raised her very high in my mind. My\nsincere hope was that she would have a place in the kingdom of Christ with\nthe Samaritan woman, Mary Magdalene, and all those who have washed their\nrobes in the blood of the Lamb.\n\nAt the appointed day, I was in my confessional, listening to the confession\nof a young man, when, I saw Miss Mary entering the vestry, and coming\ndirectly to my confessional-box, where she knelt by me. Though she had,\nstill more than at the first time, disguised herself behind a long, thick,\nblack veil, I could not be mistaken; she was the very same amiable young\nlady in whose father's house I used to pass such pleasant and happy hours.\nI had so often heard, with breathless attention, her melodious voice when\nshe was giving us, accompanied by her piano, some of our beautiful Church\nhymns. Who could see her without almost worshipping her? The dignity of her\nsteps, and her whole mien, when she advanced towards my confessional,\nentirely betrayed her and destroyed her incognito.\n\nOh! I would have given every drop of my blood, in that solemn hour, that I\nmight have been free to deal with her just as she had so eloquently\nrequested me to do--to let her weep and cry at the feet of Jesus to her\nheart's content! Oh! if I had been free to take her by the hand, and\nsilently show her her dying Saviour, that she might have bathed His feet\nwith her tears, and spread the oil of her love on His head, without my\nsaying anything else but \"Go in peace: thy sins are forgiven!\"\n\nBut there, in that confessional-box, I was not the servant of Christ, to\nfollow His divine, saving words, and obey the dictates of my honest\nconscience. I was the slave of the Pope! I had to stifle the cry of my\nconscience, to ignore the inspirations of my God! There, my conscience had\nno right to speak; my intelligence was a dead thing! The theologians of the\nPope, alone, had a right to be heard and obeyed! I was not there to save,\nbut to destroy; for, under the pretext of purifying, the real mission of\nthe confessor, often in spite of himself, is to scandalize and damn the\nsouls.\n\nAs soon as the young man, who was making his confession at my left hand,\nhad finished, I, without noise, turned myself towards her, and said,\nthrough the little aperture, \"Are you ready to begin your confession?\"\n\nBut she did not answer me. All that I could hear was, \"Oh, my Jesus, have\nmercy upon me! Dear Saviour, here I am with all my sins; do not reject me!\nI come to wash my soul in Thy blood; wilt Thou rebuke me?\"\n\nDuring several minutes, she raised her hands and her eyes to heaven, and\nwept and prayed. It was evident that she had not the least idea that I was\nobserving her; she thought the door of the little partition between her and\nme was shut. But my eyes were fixed upon her; my tears were flowing with\nher tears, and my ardent prayers were going to the feet of Jesus with her\nprayers. I would not have interrupted her, for any consideration, in this\nher sublime communion with her merciful Saviour.\n\nBut, after a pretty long time, I made a little noise with my hand, and,\nputting my lips near the opening of the partition which was between us, I\nsaid, in a low voice, \"Dear sister, are you ready to begin your\nconfession?\"\n\nShe turned her face a little towards me, and said, with a trembling voice,\n\"Yes, dear Father, I am ready.\"\n\nBut she then stopped again to weep and pray, though I could not hear what\nshe said.\n\nAfter some time of silent prayer, I said, \"My dear sister, if you are\nready, please begin your confession.\"\n\nShe then said, \"My dear Father, do you remember the prayers which I made to\nyou, the other day? Can you allow me to confess my sins without forcing me\nto forget the respect I owe to myself, to you, and to God, who hears us?\nAnd can you promise that you will not put to me any of those questions\nwhich have already done me such irreparable injury? I frankly declare to\nyou that there are sins in me that I cannot reveal to any man, except to\nChrist, because He is my God, and that He already knows them all. Let me\nweep and cry at His feet, and do forgive me without adding to my iniquities\nby forcing me to say things that the tongue of a Christian woman cannot\nreveal to a man!\"\n\n\"My dear sister,\" I answered, \"were I free to follow the voice of my own\nfeelings I would be too happy to grant you your request; but I am here only\nas the minister of our holy Church, and bound to obey her laws. Through her\nmost holy popes and theologians, she tells me that I cannot forgive you\nyour sins, if you do not confess them all just as you have committed them.\nThe Church tells me also that you must give the details which may add to\nthe malice or change the nature of your sins. I am also sorry to tell you\nthat our most holy theologians make it a duty of the confessor to question\nhis penitent on the sins which he has good reason to suspect have been\nvoluntarily or involuntarily omitted.\"\n\nWith a piercing, cry she exclaimed, \"Then, O my God, I am lost--for ever\nlost!\"\n\nThis cry fell upon me as a thunderbolt; but I was still more\nterror-stricken when, looking through the aperture, I saw she was fainting;\nand I heard the noise of her body falling upon the floor, and of her head\nstriking against the sides of the confessional-box.\n\nQuick as lightning, I ran to help her, took her in my arms, and called a\ncouple of men, who were at a little distance, to assist me in laying her on\na bench. I washed her face with some cold water and vinegar. She was as\npale as death, but her lips were moving, and she was saying something which\nnobody but I could understand,--\n\n\"I am lost--lost for ever!\"\n\nWe took her to her disconsolate family, where, during a month, she lingered\nbetween life and death.\n\nHer two first confessors came to visit her: but, having asked every one to\ngo out of the room, she politely but absolutely requested them to go away\nand never come again. She asked me to visit her everyday, \"for,\" she said,\n\"I have only a few more days to live. Help me to prepare myself for the\nsolemn hour which will open to me the gates of eternity!\"\n\nEvery day I visited her, and I prayed and I wept with her.\n\nMany times, with tears, I requested her, when alone, to finish her\nconfession; but, with a firmness which then seemed to me mysterious and\ninexplicable, she politely rebuked me.\n\nOne day when, alone with her, I was kneeling by the side of her bed to\npray, I was unable to articulate a single word, because of the\ninexpressible anguish of my soul on her account; she asked me, \"Dear\nFather, why do you weep?\"\n\nI answered, \"How can you put such a question to your murderer? I weep\nbecause I have killed you, dear friend.\"\n\nThis answer seemed to trouble her exceedingly. She was very weak that day.\nAfter she had wept and prayed in silence, she said, \"Do not weep for me,\nbut weep for so many priests who destroy their penitents in the\nconfessional. I believe in the holiness of the sacrament of penitence,\nsince our holy Church has established it. But there is, somewhere,\nsomething exceedingly wrong in the confessional. Twice I have been\ndestroyed, and I know many girls who have also been destroyed by the\nconfessional. This is a secret, but will that secret be kept for ever? I\npity the poor priests the day that our fathers will know what becomes of\nthe purity of their daughters in the hands of their confessors. Father\nwould surely kill my two last confessors, if he could know how they have\ndestroyed his poor child.\"\n\nI could not answer except by weeping.\n\nWe remained mute for a long time; then she said, \"It is true that I was not\nprepared for the rebuke you have given me, but you acted conscientiously as\na good and honest priest. I know you must be bound by certain laws.\"\n\nShe then pressed my hand with her cold hand and said, \"Weep not, dear\nFather, because that sudden storm has wrecked my too fragile back. This\nstorm was to take me out from the bottomless sea of my iniquities to the\nshore where Jesus was waiting to receive and pardon me. The night after you\nbrought me, half dead, here to father's house, I had a dream. Oh, no, it\nwas not a dream, it was a reality. My Jesus came to me; He was bleeding.\nHis crown of thorns was on His head, the heavy cross was bruising His\nshoulders. He said to me, with a voice so sweet that no human tongue can\nimitate it, \"I have seen thy tears, I have heard thy cries, and I know thy\nlove for Me: thy sins are forgiven. Take courage; in a few days thou shalt\nbe with Me!'\"\n\nShe had hardly finished her last word when she fainted, and I feared lest\nshe should die just then when I was alone with her.\n\nI called the family, who rushed into the room. The doctor was sent for. He\nfound her so weak that he thought proper to allow only one or two persons\nto remain in the room. He requested us not to speak at all, \"For,\" said he,\n\"the least emotion may kill her instantly; her disease is, in all\nprobability, an aneurism of the aorta, the big vein which brings the blood\nto the heart; when it breaks she will go as quick as lightning.\"\n\nIt was nearly ten at night when I left the house, to go and take some rest.\nBut it is not necessary to say that I passed a sleepless night. My dear\nMary was there, pale, dying from the deadly blow which I had given her in\nthe confessional. She was there, on her bed of death, her heart pierced\nwith the dagger which my Church had put into my hands! And instead of\nrebuking, cursing me for my savage, merciless fanaticism, she was blessing\nme! She was dying from a broken heart, and I was not allowed by my Church\nto give her a single word of consolation and hope, for she had not yet made\nher confession! I had mercilessly bruised that tender plant, and there was\nnothing in my hands to heal the wounds I had made!\n\nIt was very probable that she would die the next day, and I was forbidden\nto show her the crown of glory which Jesus has prepared in His kingdom for\nthe repenting sinner!\n\nMy desolation was really unspeakable, and I think I would have been\nsuffocated, and have died that night, if the stream of tears which\nconstantly flowed from my eyes had not been as a balm to my distressed\nheart.\n\nHow dark and long the hours of that night seemed to me!\n\nBefore the dawn of day I arose, to read my theologians again, and see if I\ncould not find some one who would allow me to forgive the sins of that dear\nchild without forcing her to tell me everything she had done. But they\nseemed to me more than ever unanimously inexorable, and I put them back on\nthe shelves of my library with a broken heart.\n\nAt nine a.m. the next day I was by the bed of our dear sick Mary. I cannot\nsufficiently tell the joy I felt when the doctor and the whole family said\nto me, \"She is much better; the rest of last night has wrought a marvelous\nchange indeed.\"\n\nWith a really angelic smile she extended her hand towards me, that I might\npress it in mine; and she said, \"I thought, last evening, that the dear\nSaviour would take me to Him, but He wants me, dear Father, to give you a\nlittle more trouble; but be patient, it cannot, be long before the solemn\nhour of the appeal will ring. Will you please read me the history of the\nsufferings and death of the beloved Saviour which you read me the other\nday? It does me so much good to see how He has loved me, such a miserable\nsinner.\"\n\nThere was a calm and a solemnity in her words which struck me singularly,\nas well as all those who were there.\n\nAfter I had finished reading, she exclaimed, \"He has loved me so much that\nHe died for my sins!\" And she shut her eyes as if to meditate in silence,\nbut there was a stream of big tears rolling down her cheeks.\n\nI knelt down by her bed with her family to pray, but I could not utter a\nsingle word. The idea that this dear child was there, dying from the cruel\nfanaticism of my theologians and my own cowardice in obeying them, was as a\nmill-stone to my neck. It was killing me.\n\nOh! if by dying a thousand times I could have added a single day to her\nlife, with what pleasure I would have accepted those thousand deaths!\n\nAfter we had silently prayed and wept by her bed-side, she requested her\nmother to leave her alone with me.\n\nWhen I saw myself alone, under the irresistible impression that this was\nher last day, I fell on my knees again, and with tears of the most sincere\ncompassion for her soul, I requested her to shake off her shame and to obey\nour holy Church, which requires every one to confess their sins if they\nwant to be forgiven.\n\nShe calmly, but with an air of dignity which no human words can express,\nsaid, \"Is it true that, after the sin of Adam and Eve, God Himself made\ncoats of skins, and clothed them, that they might not see each other's\nnakedness?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" I said, \"this is what the Holy Scriptures tell us.\"\n\n\"Well, then, how is it possible that our confessors dare to take away from\nus that holy, divine coat of modesty and self-respect? Has not Almighty God\nHimself made with His own hands that coat of womanly modesty and\nself-respect that we might not be to you and to ourselves a cause of shame\nand sin?\"\n\nI was really stunned by the beauty, simplicity, and sublimity of that\ncomparison. I remained absolutely mute and confounded. Though it was\ndemolishing all the traditions and doctrines of my Church, and pulverizing\nall my holy doctors and theologians, that noble answer found such an echo\nin my soul that it seemed to me a sacrilege to try to touch it with my\nfinger.\n\nAfter a short time of silence, she continued, \"Twice I have been destroyed\nby priests in the confessional. They took away from me that divine coat of\nmodesty and self-respect which God gives to every human being who comes\ninto this world, and twice I have become for those very priests a deep pit\nof perdition, into which they have fallen, and where, I fear, they are for\never lost! My merciful Heavenly Father has given me back that coat of\nskins, that nuptial robe of modesty, self-respect, and holiness, which had\nbeen taken away from me. He cannot allow you, or any other man, to tear\nagain and spoil that vestment which is the work of His hands.\"\n\nThese words had exhausted her; it was evident to me that she wanted some\nrest. I left her alone, but I was absolutely beside myself. Filled with\nadmiration for the sublime lessons which I had received from the lips of\nthat angel, who, it was evident, was soon to fly away from us, I felt a\nsupreme disgust for myself, my theologians, and--shall I say it? yes--I\nfelt, in that solemn hour, a supreme disgust for my Church, which was so\ncruelly defiling me and all the priests, in the confessional-box. I felt in\nthat hour a supreme horror for that auricular confession, which is so often\nsuch a pit of perdition and supreme misery for the confessor and the\npenitent. I went out, walked two hours on the Plains of Abraham, to breathe\nthe pure and refreshing air of the mountain. There alone I sat on a stone,\non the very spot where Wolf and Montcalm had fought and died, and wept to\nmy heart's content on my irreparable degradation, and the degradation of\nall the priests through the confessional.\n\nAt four o'clock in the afternoon I went back again to the house of my dear\ndying Mary. The mother took me apart, and very politely said, \"My dear Mr.\nChiniquy, do you not think that it is time that our dear child should\nreceive the last sacraments? She seemed to be much better this morning, and\nwe were full of hope; but she is now rapidly sinking. Please lose no time\nin giving her the holy viaticum and the extreme unction.\"\n\nI said, \"Yes, Madam; let me pass a few minutes alone with our poor dear\nchild, that I may prepare her for the last sacraments.\"\n\nWhen alone with her, I again fell on my knees, and, amidst torrents of\ntears, I said, \"Dear sister, it is my desire to give you the holy viaticum\nand the extreme unction; but tell me, how can I dare to do a thing so\nsolemn against all the prohibitions of our holy Church? How can I give you\nthe holy communion without first giving you absolution? and how can I give\nyou absolution when you earnestly persist in telling me that you have\ncommitted sins which you will never declare either to me or any other\nconfessor?\n\n\"You know that I cherish and respect you as if you were an angel sent to me\nfrom heaven. You told me the other day that you blessed the day that you\nfirst saw and knew me. I say the same thing. I bless the day that I have\nknown you; I bless every hour that I have passed by your bed of suffering;\nI bless every tear which I have shed with you on your sins and on my own; I\nbless every hour that we have passed together in looking to the wounds of\nour beloved, dying Saviour; I bless you for having forgiven me your death!\nfor I know it, and I confess it a thousand times in the presence of God, I\nhave killed you, dear sister. But now I prefer a thousand times to die than\nto say to you a word which would pain you in any way, or trouble the peace\nof your soul. Please, my dear sister, tell me what I can and must do for\nyou in this solemn hour.\"\n\nCalmly, and with a smile of joy, such as I had never seen before, nor have\nseen since, she said, \"I thank and bless you, dear father, for the parable\nof the Prodigal Son, on which you preached a month ago. You have brought me\nto the feet of the dear Saviour; there, I have found a peace and a joy\nwhich surpass anything which human heart can feel; I have thrown myself\ninto the arms of my heavenly Father, and I know He has mercifully accepted\nand forgiven His poor prodigal child! Oh, I see the angels with their\ngolden harps around the throne of the Lamb! Do you not hear the celestial\nharmony of their songs? I go--I go to join them in my Father's house. I\nshall not be lost!\"\n\nWhile she was thus speaking to me, my eyes were really turned into two\nfountains of tears, and I was unable, as well as unwilling, to see\nanything, so entirely overcome was I by the sublime words which were\nflowing from the dying lips of that dear child, who was no more a sinner,\nbut a real angel of Heaven to me. I was listening to her words; there was a\ncelestial music in every one of them. But she had raised her voice in such\na strange way, when she had begun to say, \"I go to my Father's house,\" and\nshe had made such a cry of joy when she had let the last words, \"not be\nlost,\" escape her lips, that I raised my head and opened my eyes to look at\nher. I suspected that something strange had occurred.\n\nI got upon my feet, passed my handkerchief over my face, to wipe away the\ntears which were preventing me from seeing with accuracy, and looked at\nher.\n\nHer hands were crossed on her breast, and there was on her face the\nexpression of a really superhuman joy; her beautiful eyes were fixed as if\nthey were looking on some grand and sublime spectacle; it seemed to me at\nfirst that she was praying.\n\nIn that very same instant the mother rushed into the room, crying, \"My God!\nmy God! what does that cry 'lost' mean?\"--for her last words, \"not be\nlost,\" particularly the last one, had been pronounced with such a powerful\nvoice that they had been heard almost everywhere in the house.\n\nI made a sign with my hand to prevent the distressed mother from making any\nnoise, and troubling her dying child in her prayer, for I really thought\nthat she had stopped speaking, as she used so often to do, when alone with\nme, in order to pray. But I was mistaken. That redeemed soul had gone, on\nthe golden wings of love, to join the multitudes of those who have washed\ntheir robes in the blood of the Lamb, to sing the eternal Alleluia.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nAURICULAR CONFESSION A DEEP PIT OF PERDITION FOR THE PRIEST\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIt was some time after our Mary had been buried. The terrible and\nmysterious cause of her death was known only to God and to me. Though her\nloving mother was still weeping over her grave, she had soon been\nforgotten, as usual, by the greatest part of those who had known her: but\nshe was constantly present to my mind. I never entered the confessional-box\nwithout hearing her solemn, though so mild, voice telling me, \"There must\nbe somewhere something wrong in the auricular confession. Twice I have been\ndestroyed by my confessors; and I have known several others who have been\ndestroyed in the same way.\"\n\nMore than once, when her voice was ringing in my ears from her tomb, I had\nshed bitter tears on the profound and unfathomable degradation into which\nI, with the other priests, had to fell in the confessional-box. For many,\nmany times, stories as deplorable as that of this unfortunate girl were\nconfessed to me by city as well as country females.\n\nOne night I was awakened by the rumbling noise of thunder, when I heard\nsome one knocking at the door. I hastened out of bed to ask who was there.\nThe answer was that the Rev. Mr. ---- was dying, and that he wanted to see\nme before his death. I dressed myself, and was soon on the highway. The\ndarkness was fearful; and often, had it not been for the lightning which\nwas almost constantly tearing the clouds, we should not have known where we\nwere. After a long and hard journey through the darkness and the storm, we\narrived at the house of the dying priest. I went directly to his room, and\nreally found him very low; he could hardly speak. With a sign of his hand\nhe bade his servant-girl and a young man who were there go out, and leave\nhim alone with me.\n\nThen, with a low voice, he said, \"Is it you who prepared poor Mary to die?\"\n\n\"Yes, sir,\" I answered.\n\n\"Please tell me the truth. Is it the fact that she died the death of a\nreprobate, and that her last words were, 'Oh, my God! I am lost'?\"\n\nI answered: \"As I was the confessor of that girl, and we were talking\ntogether on matters which pertained to her confession, in the very moment\nthat she was unexpectedly summoned to appear before God, I cannot answer\nyour question in any way; please, then, excuse me if I cannot say any more\non that subject: but tell me who can have assured you that she died the\ndeath of a reprobate.\"\n\n\"It was her own mother,\" answered the dying man. \"She came, last week, to\nvisit me, and when she was alone with me, with many tears and cries, she\nsaid how her poor child had refused to receive the last sacraments, and how\nher last cry was, 'I am lost!'\" She added that that cry, 'Lost!' was\npronounced with such a frightful power that it was heard through all the\nhouse.\"\n\n\"If her mother has told you that,\" I replied, \"you may believe what you\nplease about the way that poor child died. I cannot say a word--you know\nit--about that matter.\"\n\n\"But if she is lost,\" rejoined the old, dying priest, \"I am the miserable\none who has destroyed her. She was an angel of purity when she came to the\nconvent. Oh! dear Mary, if you are lost, I am a thousandfold more lost! Oh,\nmy God, my God! what will become of me? I am dying; and I am lost!\"\n\nIt was indeed an awful thing to see that old sinner tearing his own hands,\nrolling on his bed as if he had been on burning coals, with all the marks\nof the most frightful despair on his face, crying, \"I am lost! Oh, my God,\nI am lost!\"\n\nI was glad that the claps of thunder, which were shaking the house and\nroaring without ceasing, prevented the people outside the room from hearing\nthose cries of desolation from that priest, whom every one considered a\ngreat saint.\n\nWhen it seemed to me that his terror had somewhat subsided, and that his\nmind was calmed a little, I said to him, \"My dear friend, you must not give\nyourself up to such despair. Our merciful God has promised to forgive the\nrepenting sinner who comes to Him, even at the last hour of the day.\nAddress yourself to the Virgin Mary, she will ask and obtain your pardon.\"\n\n\"Do you not think that it is too late to ask pardon? The doctor has\nhonestly warned me that death is very near, and I feel I am just now dying!\nIs it not too late to ask and obtain pardon?\" asked the dying priest.\n\n\"No, my dear sir, it is not too late, if you sincerely regret your sins.\nThrow yourself into the arms of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph; make your\nconfession without any more delay, and you will be saved.\"\n\n\"But I have never made a good confession. Will you help me to make a\ngeneral one?\"\n\nIt was my duty to grant him his request, and the rest of the night was\nspent by me in hearing the confession of his whole life.\n\nI do not want to give many particulars of the life of that priest. I will\nonly mention two things. First: It was then that I understood why poor\nyoung Mary was absolutely unwilling to mention the iniquities which she had\ndone with him. They were simply surpassingly horrible--unmentionable. No\nhuman tongue can express them--few human ears would consent to hear them.\n\nThe second thing that I am bound in conscience to reveal is almost\nincredible, but it is nevertheless true. The number of married and\nunmarried females he had heard in the confessional was about 1500, of which\nhe said he had destroyed or scandalized at least 1000 by his questioning\nthem on most depraving things, for the simple pleasure of gratifying his\nown corrupted heart, without letting them know anything of his sinful\nthoughts and criminal desires towards them. But he confessed that he had\ndestroyed the purity of ninety-five of those penitents, who had consented\nto sin with him.\n\nAnd would to God that this priest had been the only one whom I have known\nto be lost through the auricular confession! But, alas! how few are those\nwho have escaped the snares of the tempter compared with those who have\nperished! I have heard the confessions of more than 200 priests, and, to\nsay the truth, as God knows it, I must declare that only twenty-one had not\nto weep over the secret or public sins committed through the irresistibly\ncorrupting influences of auricular confession!\n\nI am sixty six years old; in a short time I shall be in my grave. I shall\nhave to give an account of what I say to-day. Well, it is in the presence\nof my great Judge, with my tomb before my eyes, that I declare to the world\nthat very few--yes, very few--priests escape from falling into the pit of\nthe most horrible moral depravity the world has ever known, through the\nconfession of females.\n\nI do not say this because I have any bad feelings against those priests:\nGod knows that I have none. The only feelings I have are of supreme\ncompassion and pity. I do not reveal these awful things to make the world\nbelieve that the priests of Rome are a worse set of men than the rest of\nthe innumerable fallen children of Adam. No, I do not entertain any such\nviews; for, everything considered and weighed in the balance of religion,\ncharity, and common sense--I think that the priests of Rome are far from\nbeing worse than any other set of men who would be thrown into the same\ntemptations, dangers and unavoidable occasions of sin.\n\nFor instance, let us take lawyers, merchants, or farmers, and, preventing\nthem from living with their lawful wives, let us surround each of them from\nmorning to night by ten, twenty, and sometimes more, beautiful women and\ntempting girls, who would speak to them of things which can pulverize a\nrock of Scotch granite, and you will see how many of those lawyers,\nmerchants or farmers will go out of that terrible moral battle-field\nwithout being mortally wounded.\n\nThe cause of the supreme--I dare say incredible, though\nunsuspected--immorality of the priests of Rome is a very evident and\nlogical one. By the diabolical power of the Pope, the priest is put out of\nthe ways which God has offered to the generality of men to be honest,\nupright, and holy[1]. And after the Pope has deprived them of the grand,\nholy, I say Divine (in this sense that it comes directly from God) remedy\nwhich God has given to man against his own concupiscence--holy marriage,\nthey are placed unprotected, unguarded in the most perilous, difficult,\nirresistible moral dangers which human ingenuity or depravity can conceive.\nThose unmarried men are forced to be, from morning to night, in the midst\nof beautiful girls, and tempting, charming women, who have to tell them\nthings which would melt the hardest steel. How can you expect that they\nwill cease to be men, and become stronger than angels?\n\nNot only are the priests of Rome deprived by the devil of the _only_ remedy\nwhich God has given to help them to stand up, but they have, in the\nconfessional, the greatest facility which can possibly be imagined for\nsatisfying all the bad propensities of fallen human nature. In the\nconfessional _they know_ those who are strong, and they know those who are\nweak among the females by whom they are surrounded; they know who would\nresist any attempt from the enemy; and they know who are ready--nay, who\nare longing after the deceitful charms of sin. If they still retain the\nfallen nature of man, what a terrible hour for them! what frightful battles\ninside the poor heart! What superhuman efforts and strength would be\nrequired to come out a conqueror from that battle field, where a David, a\nSamson, have fallen, mortally wounded!\n\nIt is simply an act of supreme stupidity on the part of the Protestant, as\nwell as Catholic public, to suppose, or suspect, or hope, that the\ngenerality of the priests can stand that trial. The pages of the history of\nRome herself are filled with the unanswerable proofs that the great\n_generality_ of the confessors fall. If it were not so, the miracle of\nJoshua, stopping the march of the sun and the moon, would be a childish\nplay compared with the miracle which would stop and reverse all the laws of\nour common fallen nature in the hearts of the 100,000 Roman Catholic\nconfessors of the Church of Rome. Were I attempting to prove by public\nfacts what I know of the horrible depravity caused by the confessional-box\namong the priests of France, Canada, Spain, Italy, England, I should have\nto write many big volumes in folio. For brevity's sake, I will speak only\nof Italy. I take that country because, being under the very eyes of their\ninfallible and most holy (?) Pontiff, being in the land of daily miracles,\nof painted Madonnas, who weep and turn their eyes left and right, up and\ndown, in a most marvellous way, being in the land of miraculous medals and\nheavenly spiritual favors, constantly flowing from the chair of St. Peter,\nthe confessors in Italy are in the best possible circumstances to be\nstrong, faithful, and holy. Well, let us hear an eye-witness, a\ncontemporary, an unimpeachable witness about the way the confessors deal\nwith their penitent females, in the only holy, apostolical, infallible (?)\nChurch of Rome.\n\nThe witness we will hear is of the purest blood of the princes of Italy.\nHer name is Henrietta Carracciolo, daughter of the Marshal Carracciolo,\nGovernor of the Province of Bari, in Italy. Let us hear what she says of\nthe Father Confessors, after twenty years of personal experience in\ndifferent nunneries of Italy, in her remarkable book, \"Mysteries of the\nNeapolitan Convents,\" pp. 150, 151, 152: \"My confessor came the following\nday, and I disclosed to him the nature of the troubles which beset me.\nLater in the day, seeing that I had gone down to the place where we used to\nreceive the holy communion, called Communichino, the conversa of my aunt\nrang the bell for the priest to come with the pyx.[2] He was a man of about\nfifty years of age, very corpulent, with a rubicund face, and a type of\nphysiognomy as vulgar as it was repulsive.\n\n\"I approached the little window to receive the sacred wafer on my tongue,\nwith my eyes closed, as it is customary. I placed it upon my tongue; and,\nas I drew back, I felt my cheeks caressed. I opened my eyes, but the priest\nhad withdrawn his hand, and, thinking I had been deceived, I gave it no\nmore attention.\n\n\"On the next occasion, forgetful of what had occurred before, I received\nthe sacrament with closed eyes again, according to precept. This time I\ndistinctly felt my chin caressed again; and on opening my eyes suddenly, I\nfound the priest gazing rudely upon me, with a sensual smile on his face.\n\n\"There could be no longer any doubt: these overtures were not the result of\naccident.\n\n\"The daughter of Eve is endowed with a greater degree of curiosity than\nman. It occured to me to place myself in a contiguous apartment, where I\ncould observe if this libertine priest was accustomed to take similar\nliberties with the nuns. I did so, and was fully convinced that only the\nold left him without being caressed!\n\n\"All the others allowed him to do with them as he pleased; and even, in\ntaking leave of him, did so with the utmost reverence.\n\n\"'Is this the respect,' said I to myself, 'that the priests and the spouses\nof Christ have for the sacrament of the Eucharist? Shall the poor novice be\nenticed to leave the world in order to learn, in this school, such lessons\nof self-respect and chastity?'\"\n\nPage 163, we read, \"The fanatical passion of the nuns for their confessors,\npriests, and monks, exceeds belief. That which especially renders their\nincarceration endurable is the illimitable opportunity they enjoy of seeing\nand corresponding with those persons with whom they are in love. This\nfreedom localizes and identifies them with the convent so closely that they\nare unhappy when, on account of any serious sickness, or while preparing to\ntake the veil, they are obliged to pass some months in the bosom of their\nown families, in company with their fathers, mothers, brothers, and\nsisters. It is not to be presumed that these relatives would permit a young\ngirl to pass many hours each day in a mysterious colloquy with a priest, or\na monk, and maintain with him this continual correspondence. This is a\nliberty which they can enjoy in the convent only.\n\n\"Many are the hours which the Heloise spends in the confessional, in\nagreeable pastime with her Abelard in cassock.\n\n\"Others, whose confessors happen to be old, have in addition a spiritual\ndirector, with whom they amuse themselves a long time every day,\n_tete-a-tete_, in the parlatorio. When this is not enough, they simulate an\nillness, in order to have him alone in their own rooms.\"\n\nPage 166, we read:--\"Another nun, being somewhat infirm, her priest\nconfessed her in her own room. After a time, the invalid penitent found\nherself in what is called an interesting situation, on which account, the\nphysician declaring that her complaint was dropsy, she was sent away from\nthe convent.\"\n\nPage 167:--\"A young educanda was in the habit of going down every night to\nthe convent burial-place, where, by a corridor which communicated with the\nvestry, she entered into a colloquy with a young priest attached to the\nchurch. Consumed by an amorous impatience, she was not deterred from these\nexcursions either by bad weather or the fear of being discovered.\n\n\"She heard a great noise one night near her. In the thick darkness which\nsurrounded her, she imagined that she saw a viper winding itself around her\nfeet. She was so much overcome by fright that she died from the effects of\nit a few months later.\"\n\nPage 168:--\"One of the confessors had a young penitent in the convent.\nEvery time he was called to visit a dying sister, and on that account\npassed the night in the convent, this nun would climb over the partition\nwhich separated her room from his, and betake herself to the master and\ndirector of souls.\n\n\"Another, during the delirium of a typhoid fever, from which she was\nsuffering, was constantly imitating the action of sending kisses to her\nconfessor, who stood by the side of her bed. He, covered with blushes on\naccount of the presence of strangers, held a crucifix before the eyes of\nthe penitent, and in a commiserating tone exclaimed,--\n\n\"'Poor thing! kiss thy own spouse!'\"\n\nPage 168:--\"Under the bonds of secrecy, an educanda, of fine form and\npleasing manners, and of a noble family, confided to me the fact of her\nhaving received, from the hands of her confessor, a very interesting book\n(as she described it), which related to the monastic life. I expressed the\nwish to know the title, and she, before showing it to me, took the\nprecaution to lock the door.\n\n\"It proved to be the Monaca, by Dalembert, a book, as all know, filled with\nthe most disgusting obscenity.\"\n\nPage 169:--\"I received once from a monk, a letter in which he signified to\nme that he had hardly seen me, when 'he conceived the sweet hope of\nbecoming my confessor.' An exquisite of the first water, a fop of scents\nand euphuism, could not have employed phrases more melodramic, to demand\nwhether he might hope or despair.\"\n\nPage 169:--\"A priest who enjoyed the reputation of being an incorruptible\nsacerdote, when he saw me pass through the parlatorio, used to address me\nas follows:--\n\n\"'Ps, dear, come here! Ps, Ps, come here!'\n\n\"These words, addressed to me by a priest, were nauseous in the extreme.\n\n\"Finally, another priest, the most annoying of all for his obstinate\nassiduity, sought to secure my affections at all cost. There was not an\nimage profane poetry could afford him, nor a sophism he could borrow from\nrhetoric, nor wily interpretation he could give to the Word of God, which\nhe did not employ to convert me to his wishes. Here is an example of his\nlogic:--\n\n\"'Fair daughter,' said he to me one day, 'knowest thou who God truly is?'\n\n\"'He is the Creator of the Universe,' I answered drily.\n\n\"'No,--no,--no,--no! that is not enough,' he replied, laughing at my\nignorance. 'God is love, but love in the abstract, which receives its\nincarnation in the mutual affection of two hearts which idolize each other.\nYou, then, must not only love God in His abstract existance, but must also\nlove Him in His incarnation, that is, in the exclusive love of a man who\nadores you. _Quod Deus est amor, nec colitur, nisi amando._'\n\n\"'Then,' I replied, 'a woman who adores her own lover would adore Divinity\nitself?'\n\n\"'Assuredly,' reiterated the priest over and over again, taking courage\nfrom my remark, and chuckling at what seemed to him to be the effect of his\ncatechism.\n\n\"'In that case,' said I hastily, 'I should select for my lover rather a man\nof the world than a priest.'\n\n\"'God preserve you, my daughter! God preserve you from that sin!' added my\ninterlocutor, apparently frightened. 'To love a man of the world, a sinner,\na wretch, an unbeliever, an infidel! Why, you would go immediately to hell.\nThe love of a priest is a sacred love, while that of a profane man is\ninfamy; the faith of a priest emanates from that granted to the holy\nChurch, while that of the profane is false,--false as the vanity of the\nworld. The priest purifies his affections daily in communion with the Holy\nSpirit: the man of the world (if he ever knows love at all) sweeps the\nmuddy crossings of the street with it day and night.\n\n\"'But it is the heart, as well as the conscience, which prompts me to fly\nfrom the priests,' I replied.\n\n\"'Well, if you cannot love me because I am your confessor, I will find\nmeans to assist you to get rid of your scruples. We will place the name of\nJesus Christ before all our affectionate demonstration, and thus our love\nwill be a grateful offering to the Lord, and will ascend fragrant with\nperfume to Heaven, like the smoke of the incense of the sanctuary. Say to\nme, for example, \"I love you in Jesus Christ; last night I dreamed of you\nin Jesus Christ;\" and you will have a tranquil conscience, because in doing\nthis you will sanctify every transport of your love.'\n\n\"Several circumstances not indicated here, by the way, compelled me to come\nin frequent contact with this priest afterwards, and I do not therefore\ngive his name.\n\n\"Of a very respectable monk, respectable alike for his age and his moral\ncharacter, I inquired what signified the prefixing the name of Jesus Christ\nto amorous apostrophes.\n\n\"'It is,' he said, 'an expression used by a horrible sect, and one\nunfortunately only too numerous, which, thus abusing the name of our Lord,\npermits to its members the most unbridled licentiousness.'\"\n\nAnd it is my sad duty to say, before the whole world, that I know that by\nfar the greater part of the confessors in America, Spain, France and\nEngland, reason and act just like that licentious Italian priest.\n\nChristian nations! if you could know what will become of the virtue of your\nfair daughters if you allow secret or public slaves of Rome to restore the\nauricular confession, with what a storm of holy indignation you would\ndefeat their plans!\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\nTHE CONFESSIONAL IS THE MODERN SODOM.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIf any one wants to hear an eloquent oration, let him go when the Roman\nCatholic priest is preaching on the divine institution of auricular\nconfession. There is no subject, perhaps, on which the priests display so\nmuch zeal and earnestness, and of which they speak so often. For this\ninstitution is really the corner-stone of their stupendous power; it is the\nsecret of their almost irresistible influence. Let the people to-day open\ntheir eyes to the truth, and understand that auricular confession is one of\nthe most stupendous impostures which Satan has invented to corrupt and\nenslave the world; let the people desert the confessional-box to-day, and\ntomorrow Romanism will fall into the dust. The priests understand this very\nwell; hence their constant efforts to deceive the people on that question.\nTo attain their object, they have recourse to the most egregious\nfalsehoods; the Scriptures are misrepresented; the holy Fathers are brought\nto say the very contrary of what they have ever thought or written; the\nmost extraordinary miracles and stories are invented. But two of the\narguments to which they have more often recourse are the great and\nperpetual miracles which God makes to keep the purity of the confessional\nundefiled, and its secrets marvellously sealed. They make the people\nbelieve that the vow of perpetual chastity changes their nature, turns them\ninto angels, and puts them above the common frailties of the fallen\nchildren of Adam.\n\nBravely and with a brazen face, when they are interrogated on that subject,\nthey say that they have special graces to remain pure and undefiled in the\nmidst of the greatest dangers; that the Virgin Mary, to whom they are\nconsecrated, is their powerful advocate to obtain from her Son that\nsuperhuman virtue of chastity; that what would be a cause of sure perdition\nto common men is without peril and danger for a true son of Mary; and, with\namazing stupidity, the people consent to be duped, blinded, and deceived by\nthose fooleries.\n\nBut here let the world hear the truth as it is, from one who knows\nperfectly everything inside and outside the walls of that Modern Babylon;\nthough many, I know, will disbelieve me and say, \"We hope you are mistaken.\nIt is impossible that the priests of Rome should turn out to be such\nimpostors. They may be mistaken; they may believe and repeat things which\nare not true, but they are honest; they cannot be such impudent deceivers.\"\n\nYes! though I know that many will hardly believe me, I must say the truth.\n\nThose very men who, when speaking to the people in such glowing terms of\nthe marvellous way they are kept pure in the midst of the dangers which\nsurround them, honestly blush, and often weep, when they speak to each\nother (when they are sure that nobody except priests hears them). They\ndeplore their moral degradation with the utmost sincerity and honesty. They\nask from God and men pardon for their unspeakable depravity.\n\nI have here in my hands, and under my eyes, one of their most remarkable\nsecret books, written, or at least approved, by one of their greatest and\nbest bishops and cardinals, the Cardinal De Bonald, Archbishop of Lyons.\n\nThe book is written for the use of the priests alone. Its title is in\nFrench, \"Examen de Conscience des Pretres.\" At page 34 we read:--\n\n\"Have I left certain persons to make the declarations of their sins in such\na way that the imagination, once taken and impressed by pictures and\nrepresentations, could be dragged into a long course of temptations and\ngrievous sins? The priests do not pay sufficient attention to the continual\ntemptations caused by the hearing of confessions. The soul is gradually\nenfeebled in such a way that, at the end, the virtue of chastity is for\never lost.\"\n\nHere is the address of a priest to other priests when he suspects that\nnobody but his co-sinner brethren hear him. Here is the honest language of\ntruth.\n\nIn the presence of God, those priests acknowledge that they have not a\nsufficient fear of those _constant_ (what a word--what an\nacknowledgment--constant!) temptations, and they honestly confess that\nthose temptations come from the hearing of the confessions of so many\nscandalous sins. Here the priests honestly acknowledge that those constant\ntemptations, at the end, destroy _for ever_ in them the holy virtue of\npurity![3]\n\nAh! would to God that all the honest girls and women whom the devil entraps\ninto the snares of auricular confession could hear the cries of distress of\nthose poor priests whom they have tempted--_for ever destroyed!_ Would to\nGod that they could see the torrents of tears shed by so many priests\nbecause, from the hearing of confessions, they had _for ever_ lost the\nvirtue of purity! They would understand that the confessional is a snare, a\npit of perdition, a Sodom for the priest; and they would be struck with\nhorror and shame at the idea of the _continual_, shameful, dishonest,\ndegrading temptations by which their confessor is tormented day and\nnight--they would blush on account of the shameful sins which their\nconfessors have committed--they would weep over the irreparable loss of\ntheir purity--they would promise before God and men that the\nconfessional-box should never see them any more--they would prefer to be\nburned alive, if any sentiment of honesty and charity remained in them,\nrather than consent to be a cause of _constant_ temptation and damnable sin\nto that man.\n\nWould that respectable lady go any more to confess to that man if, after\nher confession, she could hear him lamenting the continual, shameful\ntemptations which assail him day and night, and the damning sins which he\nhas committed on account of what she has confessed to him? No--a thousand\ntimes no!\n\nWould that honest father allow his beloved daughter to go any more to that\nman to confess if he could hear his cries of distress, and see his tears\nflowing because the hearing of those confessions is the source of constant,\nshameful temptations and degrading iniquities?\n\nOh! would to God that the honest Romanists all over the world--for there\nare millions who, though deluded, are honest--could see what is going on in\nthe heart, the imagination of the poor confessor when he is, there,\nsurrounded by attractive women, and tempting girls, speaking to him from\nmorning to night on things which a man cannot hear without falling! Then\nthat modern but grand imposture called the Sacrament of Penance would soon\nbe ended.\n\nBut here, again, who will not lament the consequence of the total\nperversity of our human nature? Those very same priests who, when alone in\nthe presence of God, speak so plainly of the constant temptations by which\nthey are assailed, and who so sincerely weep over the irreparable loss of\ntheir virtue of purity, when they think that nobody hears them, will yet in\npublic deny with a brazen face those temptations. They will indignantly\nrebuke you as a slanderer if you say anything to lead them to suppose that\nyou fear for their purity when they hear the confessions of girls or\nmarried women. There is not a single one of the Roman Catholic authors who\nhave written on that subject for the priests, who has not deplored their\ninnumerable and degrading sins against purity on account of the auricular\nconfession; but those very men will be the first to try to prove the very\ncontrary when they write books for the people. I have no words to say what\nwas my surprise when, for the first time, I saw that this strange duplicity\nseemed to be one of the fundamental stones of my Church.\n\nIt was not very long after my ordination, when a priest came to me to\nconfess the most deplorable things. He honestly told me that there was not\na single one of the girls or married women whom he had confessed who had\nnot been a secret cause of the most shameful sins in thoughts, desires, or\nactions; but he wept so bitterly over his degradation, his heart seemed so\nsincerely broken on account of his own iniquities, that I could not refrain\nfrom mixing my tears with his. I wept with him, and I gave him the pardon\nof all his sins, as I thought, then, I had the power and right to give it.\n\nTwo hours afterwards, that same priest, who was a good speaker, was in the\npulpit. His sermon was on \"The Divinity of Auricular Confession;\" and, to\nprove that it was an institution coming directly from Christ, he said that\nthe Son of God was making a _constant_ miracle to strengthen His priests,\nand prevent them from falling into sins, on account of what they might have\nheard in the confessional!\n\nThe daily abominations, which are the result of auricular confession, are\nso horrible and so well known by the popes, the bishops, and the priests,\nthat several times, public attempts have been made to diminish them by\npunishing the guilty priests; but all these have failed.\n\nOne of the most remarkable of those efforts was made by Pius IV. about the\nyear 1500. A Bull was published by him, by which all the girls and the\nmarried women who had been seduced into sins by their confessors were\nordered to denounce them; and a certain number of high church officers of\nthe Holy Inquisition were authorized to take the depositions of the fallen\npenitents. The thing was at first tried at Seville, one of the principal\ncities of Spain. When the edict was first published the number of women who\nfelt bound in conscience to go and depose against their father confessors\nwas so great that, though there were thirty notaries and as many\ninquisitors to take the depositions, they were unable to do the work in the\nappointed time. Thirty days more were given, but the inquisitors were so\noverwhelmed with the numberless depositions that another period of time of\nthe same length was given. But this, again, was found insufficient. At the\nend, it was found that the number of priests who had destroyed the purity\nof their penitents was so great that it was impossible to punish them all.\nThe inquest was given up, and the guilty confessors remained unpunished.\nSeveral attempts of the same nature have been tried by other popes, but\nwith about the same success.\n\nBut if those honest attempts, on the part of some well-meaning popes, to\npunish the confessors who destroy the purity of their penitents, have\nfailed to touch the guilty parties, they are, in the good providence of\nGod, infallible witnesses to tell to the world that auricular confession is\nnothing else than a snare to the confessor and his dupes. Yes, those Bulls\nof the popes are an irrefragable testimony that auricular confession is the\nmost powerful invention of the devil to corrupt the heart, pollute the\nbody, and damn the soul of the priest and his female penitent!\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nHOW THE VOW OF CELIBACY OF THE PRIESTS IS MADE EASY BY AURICULAR\nCONFESSION.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAre not facts the best arguments? Well, here is an undeniable, a public\nfact, which is connected with a thousand collateral ones to prove that\nauricular confession is the most powerful engine of demoralization which\nthe world has ever seen.\n\nAbout the year 183--, there was in Quebec a fine-looking young priest; he\nhad a magnificent voice, and was a pretty good speaker.[4] Through regard\nfor his family, which is still numerous and respectable, I will not give\nhis name, I will call him Rev. Mr. D----. Having been invited to preach in\na parish of Canada, about 100 miles distant from Quebec, called Vercheres,\nhe was also requested to hear the confessions during a few days of a kind\nof Novena (nine days of prayer), which was going on in that place. Among\nhis penitents was a beautiful young girl, about nineteen years old. She\nwanted to make a general confession of all her sins from the first age of\nreason, and the confessor granted her request. Twice every day she was\nthere, at the feet of her handsome young spiritual physician, telling all\nher thoughts, her deeds, her desires. Sometimes she was remarked to have\nremained a whole hour in the confessional-box, in accusing herself of all\nher human frailties. What did she say? God only knows; but what became\nhereafter known by the entire of Canada is that the confessor fell in love\nwith his fair penitent, and that she burned with the same irresistible\nfires for her confessor, as it so often happens.\n\nIt was not an easy matter for the priest and the young girl to meet each\nother in as complete a _tete-a-tete_ as they both wished, for there were\ntoo many eyes upon them. But the confessor was a man of resources. The last\nday of the Novena he said to his beloved penitent, \"I am going to Montreal,\nbut three days after I will take the steamer back to Quebec. That steamer\nis accustomed to stop here. At about twelve a.m., be on the wharf, dressed\nas a young man. Let no one know your secret. You will embark in the\nsteamboat, where you will not be known, if you have any prudence. You will\ncome to Quebec, where you will be engaged as a servant-boy by the curate,\nof whom I am the vicar. Nobody will know your sex except myself, and we\nwill there be happy together.\"\n\nThe fifth day after this there was a great desolation in the family of the\ngirl, for she had suddenly disappeared and her robes had been found on the\nshores of the St. Lawrence river. There was not the least doubt in the\nminds of all relations and friends, that the general confession she had\nmade had entirely upset her mind, and, in an excess of craziness, she had\nthrown herself into the deep and rapid waters of the St. Lawrence. Many\nsearches were made to find her body, but all in vain; many public and\nprivate prayers were offered to God to help her to escape from the flames\nof Purgatory, where she might be condemned to suffer for many years, and\nmuch money was given to the priest to sing high masses, in order to\nextinguish the fires of that burning prison, where every Roman Catholic\nbelieves he must go to be purified before entering the regions of eternal\nhappiness.\n\nI will not give the name of the girl, though I have it, through compassion\nfor her family; I will call her Geneva.\n\nWell, when father and mother, brothers, sisters, and friends were shedding\ntears on the sad end of Geneva, she was in the rich parsonage of the Curate\nof Quebec, well paid, well fed and dressed; happy and cheerful with her\nbeloved confessor. She was exceedingly neat in her person, always obliging,\nready to run and do what you wanted at the very twinkling of your eye. Her\nnew name was Joseph, by which I will now call her.\n\nMany times I have seen the smart Joseph at the parsonage of Quebec, and\nadmired his politeness and good manners; though it seemed to me sometimes\nthat he looked too much like a girl, and that he was a little too much at\nease with Rev. Mr. D----, and also with the Right Rev. M----. But every\ntime the idea came to me that Joseph was a girl, I felt indignant with\nmyself. The high respect I had for the Coadjutor Bishop made it impossible\nto think that he would ever allow a beautiful girl to sleep in the\nadjoining room to his own, and to serve him day and night; for Joseph's\nsleeping-room was just by the one of the Coadjutor, who, for several bodily\ninfirmities, which were not a secret to every one, wanted the help of his\nservant several times at night, as well as during the day.\n\nThings went on very smoothly with Joseph during two or three years in the\nCoadjutor Bishop's house; but at the end it seemed to many people outside\nthat Joseph was taking too great airs of familiarity with the young vicars,\nand even with the venerable Coadjutor. Several of the citizens of Quebec,\nwho were going more often than others to the parsonage, were surprised and\nshocked at the familiarity of that servant-boy with his masters; he really\nseemed sometimes to be on equal terms with, if not somewhat above them.\n\nAn intimate friend of the Bishop, a most devoted Roman Catholic, who was my\nnear relative, took one day upon himself to respectfully say to the Right\nRev. Bishop that it would be prudent to turn out that impudent young man\nfrom his palace; that he was the object of strong and deplorable\nsuspicions.\n\nThe position of the Right Rev. Bishop and his vicars was not a very\nagreeable one. Their barque had evidently drifted among dangerous rocks. To\nkeep Joseph among them was impossible, after the friendly advice which had\ncome from such a high quarter, and to dismiss him was not less dangerous;\nhe knew too much of the interior and secret lives of all those holy (?)\ncelibates to deal with him as with another common servant-man. With a\nsingle word of his lips he could destroy them; they were as if tied to his\nfeet by ropes, which at first seemed made with sweet cakes and ice-cream,\nbut had suddenly turned into burning steel chains. Several days of anxiety\npassed away; many sleepless nights succeeded the too-happy ones of better\ntimes. But what to do? There were breakers ahead; breakers on the right, on\nthe left, and on every side. But when every one, particularly the venerable\n(?) Coadjutor, felt as criminals who expect their sentence, and that their\nhorizon seemed surrounded absolutely by only dark and stormy clouds, on a\nsudden, a happy opening presented itself to the anxious sailors.\n\nThe curate of \"Les Eboulements,\" the Rev. Mr. ----, had just come to Quebec\non some private business, and had taken his quarters in the hospitable\nhouse of his old friend, the Right Rev. ----, Bishop Coadjutor. Both had\nbeen on very intimate terms for many years, and, in many instances, they\nhad been of great service to each other. The Pontiff of the Church of\nCanada, hoping that his tried friend would perhaps help him out of the\nterrible difficulty of the moment, frankly told him all about Joseph, and\nasked him what he ought to do under such difficult circumstances.\n\n\"My Lord,\" said the curate of the Eboulements, \"Joseph is just the servant\nI want. Pay him well, that he may remain your friend, and that his lips may\nbe sealed, and allow me to take him with me. My housekeeper left me a few\nweeks ago; I am alone in my parsonage with my old servant-man. Joseph is\njust the person I want.\"\n\nIt would be difficult to tell the joy of the poor Bishop and his vicars,\nwhen they saw that heavy stone they had on their neck removed.\n\nJoseph, once installed into the parsonage of the pious (?) parish priest of\nthe Eboulements, soon gained the favour of the whole people by his good and\nwinning manners, and every parishioner complimented his curate on the\nsmartness of his new servant. But the priest, of course, knew a little more\nof that smartness than the rest of the people. Three years passed on very\nsmoothly. The priest and his servant seemed to be on the most perfect\nterms. The only thing which marred the happiness of that lucky couple was\nthat, now and then, some of the farmers, whose eyes were sharper than those\nof their neighbours, seemed to think that the intimacy between the two was\ngoing a little too far, and that Joseph, was really keeping in his hands\nthe sceptre of the little priestly kingdom. Nothing could be done without\nhis advice; he was meddling in all the small and big affairs of the parish,\nand the curate seemed sometimes to be rather the servant than the master in\nhis own house and parish. Those who had at first made those remarks\nprivately began little by little to convey their views to the next\nneighbour, and this one to the next. In that way, at the end of the third\nyear, grave and serious suspicions began to spread from one to the other in\nsuch a way that the Marguilliers (a kind of Elders) thought proper to say\nto the priest that it would be better for him to turn Joseph out than to\nkeep him any longer. But the old curate had passed so many happy hours with\nhis faithful Joseph that it was as hard as death to give him up.\n\nHe knew, by confession, that a girl in the vicinity was given to an\nunmentionable abomination, to which Joseph was also addicted. He went to\nher and proposed that she should marry Joseph, and that he (the priest)\nwould help them to live comfortably. Joseph, in order to continue to live\nnear his good master, consented also to marry that girl. Both knew very\nwell what the other was. The banns were published during three Sabbaths,\nafter which the old curate, blessed the marriage of Joseph with the girl\nhis parishioner.\n\nThey lived together as husband and wife in such harmony that nobody could\nsuspect the horrible depravity which was concealed behind that union.\nJoseph continued with his wife to work often for his priest, till after\nsometime that priest was removed, and another curate, called Tetreau, was\nsent in his place.\n\nThis new curate, knowing absolutely nothing of that mystery of iniquity,\nemployed also Joseph and his wife several times. One day when Joseph was\nworking at the door of the parsonage, in the presence of several people, a\nstranger arrived, and inquired of him if the Rev. Mr. Tetreau, the curate,\nwas there.\n\nJoseph answered, \"Yes, sir. But as you seem to be a stranger, would you\nallow me to ask you whence you come?\"\n\n\"It is very easy, sir, to satisfy you. I come from Vercheres,\" replied the\nstranger.\n\nAt the word \"Vercheres\" Joseph turned so pale that the stranger could not\nbe but struck with his sudden change of colour.\n\nThen, fixing his eyes on Joseph, he cried out, \"Oh, my God! what do I see\nhere? Geneva! Geneva! I recognize you, and here you are in the disguise of\na man!\"\n\n\"Dear uncle (for it was her uncle), for God's sake,\" she cried, \"do not say\na word more!\"\n\nBut it was too late. The people who were there had heard the uncle and\nniece. Their long secret suspicions were well-founded--one of their former\npriests had kept a girl under the disguise of a man in his house! and, to\nblind his people more thoroughly, he had married that girl to another one,\nin order to have them both in his house, when he pleased, without awakening\nany suspicion!!\n\nThe news went almost as quick as lightning from one end to the other of the\nparish, and spread all over the northern country watered by the St Lawrence\nriver.\n\nIt is more easy to imagine than express the sentiments of surprise and\nhorror which filled every one. The justices of the peace took up the\nmatter; Joseph was brought before the civil tribunal, which decided that a\nphysician should be charged to make, not a _post-mortem_, but _ante-mortem_\ninquest. The Honourable L----, who was called and made the proper inquiry,\ndeclared upon oath that Joseph was a girl! and the bonds of marriage were\nlegally dissolved.\n\nDuring that time the honest Rev. Mr. Tetreau, struck with horror, had sent\nan express to the Right Reverend Bishop Coadjutor of Quebec, informing him\nthat the young man whom he had kept in his house several years, under the\nname of Joseph, was a girl.\n\nNow, what were they to do with the girl, after all was discovered? Her\npresence in Canada would for ever compromise the holy (_?_) Church of Rome.\nShe knew too well how the priests, through the confessional, select their\nvictims, and help themselves, in their company, in keeping their solemn\nvows of celibacy! What would have become of the respect paid to the priest,\nif she had been taken by the hand and invited to speak, bravely, boldly,\nbefore the people of Canada?\n\nThe holy (?) Bishop and his vicars understood these things very well.\n\nThey immediately sent a trustworthy man with L500 to say to the girl that,\nif she remained in Canada, she could be prosecuted and severely punished;\nthat it was her interest to leave the country, and emigrate to the United\nStates. They offered her the L500 if she would promise to go and never\nreturn.\n\nShe accepted the offer, crossed the lines, and we have never since heard\nanything of her.\n\nIn the providence of God, I was invited to preach in that parish soon\nafter, and I learned these facts accurately.\n\nThe Rev. Mr. Tetreau, under whose pastorate this great iniquity was\ndetected, began from that time to have his eyes opened to the awful\ndepravity of the priests of Rome through the confessional. He wept and\ncried over his own degradation in the midst of that modern Sodom. Our\nmerciful God looked down with compassion upon him, and sent him His saving\ngrace. Not long after, he sent to the Bishop his renunciation of the errors\nand abominations of Romanism.\n\nTo-day he is working in the vineyard of the Lord with the Methodists in the\ncity of Montreal, where he is ready to prove the correctness of what we\nsay.\n\nLet those who have ears to hear, and eyes to see, understand, by this fact,\nthat Pagan nations have not known any institution so depraving as Auricular\nConfession!\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nTHE HIGHLY EDUCATED AND REFINED WOMAN IN THE CONFESSIONAL.--WHAT BECOMES OF\nHER AFTER HER UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER.--HER IRREPARABLE RUIN.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe most skilful warrior has never had to display so much skill and so many\n_ruses de guerre_; he has never had to use more tremendous efforts to\nreduce and storm an impregnable citadel, as the confessor who wants to\nreduce and storm the citadel of self-respect and honesty which God Himself\nhas built around the soul and the heart of every daughter of Eve.\n\nBut, as it is through woman that the Pope wants to conquer the world, it is\nsupremely important that he should enslave and degrade her by keeping her\nat his feet as his footstool, that she may become a passive instrument in\nthe accomplishment of his vast and profound scheme.\n\nIn order perfectly to master women in the higher circles of society, every\nconfessor is ordered by the Pope to learn the most complicated and perfect\nstrategy. He has to study a great number of treatises on the art of\npersuading the fair sex to confess to him plainly, clearly, and in detail,\nevery thought, every secret desire, word, and deed, just as they occurred.\n\nAnd that art is considered so important and so difficult that all the\ntheologians of Rome call it \"the art of arts.\"\n\nDens, St. Liguori, Chevassu, the author of the \"Mirror of the Clergy,\"\nDebreyne, and a multitude of authors too numerous to mention, have given\nthe curious and scientific rules of that secret art.\n\nThey all agree in declaring that it is a most difficult and dangerous art;\nthey all confess that the least error of judgment, the least imprudence or\ntemerity, when storming the impregnable citadel, is sure death (spiritual,\nof course) to the confessor and the penitent.\n\nThe confessor is taught to make the first steps towards the citadel with\nthe utmost caution, in order that his female penitent may not suspect at\nfirst what he wants her to reveal; for this would generally induce her to\nshut for ever the door of the fortress against him. After the first steps\nof advance, he is advised to make several steps back, and to put himself in\na kind of spiritual ambuscade, to see the effect of his first advance. If\nthere is any prospect of success, then the word \"March on!\" is given, and a\nmore advanced post of the citadel must be tried and stormed if possible. In\nthat way, little by little, the whole place is so well surrounded, so well\ncrippled, denuded, and dismantled, that any more resistance seems\nimpossible on the part of the rebellious soul.\n\nThen the last charge is ordered, the final assault is given; and if God\ndoes not perform a real miracle to save that soul, the last walls crumble,\nthe doors are beaten down! Then the confessor makes a triumphant entry into\nthe place; the very heart, soul, conscience, and intelligence, are\nconquered.\n\nWhen once master of the place, the priest visits all its most secret\nrecesses and corners; he pries into its most sacred chambers. The conquered\nplace is entirely, absolutely in his hands; he does what he pleases within\nits precincts; he is the supreme master, for the surrender has been\nunconditional. The confessor has become the _only_ infallible ruler in the\nconquered place--nay, he has become its only God--for it is in the name of\nGod that he has besieged, stormed, and conquered it, it is in the name of\nGod that, hereafter, he will speak and be obeyed.\n\nNo human words can adequately give an idea of the irreparable ruin which\nfollows the successful storming and unconditional surrender of the once so\nnoble fortress. The longer the resistance has been, the more terrible and\ncomplete is the destruction of its beauty and strength; the nobler the\nstruggle has been the more irretrievable are the ruin and loss. Just as the\nhigher and stronger the dam is built to stem the current of the rapid and\ndeep waters of the river, the more awful the disasters which follow its\ndestruction, so it is with that noble soul. A mighty dam has been built by\nthe very hand of God, called self-respect and womanly modesty, to guard her\nagainst the pollutions of this sinful world; but the day that the priest of\nRome succeeds, after long efforts, in destroying it, the soul is carried by\nan irresistible power into unfathomable abysses of iniquity. Then it is\nthat the once most respectable lady will consent to hear, without a blush,\nthings against which the most degraded woman would indignantly shut her\nears. Then it is that she freely speaks on matters for repeating which a\nprinter in England has lately been sent to jail.\n\nAt first, in spite of herself, but soon with a real sensual pleasure, that\nfallen angel will think, when alone, on what she has heard and what she has\nsaid in the confessional-box. In spite of herself, the vilest thoughts will\nat first irresistibly fill her mind; and soon the thoughts will engender\ntemptations and sins. But those vile temptations and sins, which would have\nfilled her with horror and regret before her entire surrender into the\nhands of the foe, beget very different sentiments now that she is no more\nher own self-possessor and guide, under the eyes of God. The conviction of\nher sins is no more connected with the thought of a God, infinitely holy\nand just, whom she must serve and fear. The conviction of her sins is now\nimmediately connected with the thought of the man with whom she will have\nto speak, and who will easily make everything right and pure in her soul by\nhis absolution.\n\nWhen the day of going to confess comes, instead of being sad and uneasy and\nbashful, as she used to be formerly, she feels pleased and delighted to\nhave a new opportunity of conversing on those matters, without impropriety\nand sin to herself; for she is now fully persuaded that there is no\nimpropriety, no shame, no sin, nay, she believes, or tries to believe, that\nit is a good, honest, Christian, and godly thing to converse with her\npriest on those matters.\n\nHer most happy hours are when she is at the feet of that spiritual\nphysician showing him all the newly made wounds of her soul; explaining all\nher constant temptations, her bad thoughts, her most intimate secret\ndesires and sins.\n\nThen it is that the most sacred mysteries of the married life are revealed;\nthen it is that the mysterious and precious pearls which God has given as a\ncrown of mercy to those whom He has made one body, one heart, one soul, by\nthe blessed ties of a christian union, are lavishly thrown before swine.\n\nWhole hours are thus passed by the fair penitent in speaking to her Father\nConfessor with the utmost freedom on matters which would rank her among the\nmost profligate and lost women, if it were only suspected by her friends\nand relatives. A single word of those intimate conversations would be\nfollowed by an act of divorce on the part of the husband, if it were known\nby him.\n\nBut the betrayed husband knows nothing of the dark mysteries of auricular\nconfession; the duped father suspects nothing; a cloud from hell has\nobscured the intelligence of both, and made them blind. It is just the\ncontrary: husbands and fathers, friends and relations, feel edified and\npleased with the touching spectacle of the piety of Madam and Miss ----. In\nthe village, as well as in the city, every one has a word to speak in their\npraise. Mrs. ---- is so often seen humbly prostrated at the feet, or by the\nside, of her confessor! Miss ---- remains so long in the confessional-box!\nthey receive the holy communion so frequently; they both speak so\neloquently and so often of the admirable piety, modesty, holiness,\npatience, charity, of their incomparable spiritual Father!\n\nEvery one congratulates them on their new and exemplary life; and they\naccept the compliment with the utmost humility, attributing their rapid\nprogress in Christian virtues to the holiness of their confessor. He is\nsuch a spiritual man! who could not make rapid strides under such a holy\nguide?\n\nThe more constant the temptations are, the more the secret sins overwhelm\nthe soul, and the more airs of peace and holiness are put on. The more foul\nthe secret emanations of the heart, the more the fair and refined penitent\nsurrounds herself by an atmosphere of the sweetest perfumes of a sham\npiety. The more polluted the inside of the sepulchre is, the more shining\nand white the outside will be kept.\n\nThen it is that, unless God performs a miracle to prevent it, the ruin of\nthat soul is sealed. She has drunk in the poisonous cup filled by \"the\nmother of harlots,\" and she has found the wine of her prostitution sweet.\nShe will henceforth delight in her spiritual and secret orgies.\n\nHer holy (?) confessor has told her that there is no impropriety, no shame,\nno sin, in that cup. The Pope has sacrilegiously written the word \"Life\" on\nthat cup of \"Death.\" She has believed the Pope: the terrible mystery of\niniquity is accomplished!\n\n\"The mystery of iniquity doth already work ... whose coming is after the\nworking of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all\ndeceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they\nreceived not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this\ncause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:\nthat they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure\nin unrighteousness\" (2 Thess. ii. 7-12).\n\nYes: the day that the rich, well-educated lady gives up her self-respect,\nand unconditionally surrenders the citadel of womanly modesty into the\nhands of a man, whatever be his name or titles, that he may freely put to\nher questions of the vilest character which she must answer, she is lost\nand degraded, just as if she were the humblest and poorest servant-girl.\n\nI purposely say \"the rich and well-educated woman,\" for I know that there\nis a prevalent opinion that the social position of her class places her\nabove the corrupting influences of the confessional, as if she were out of\nreach of the common miseries of our poor fallen and sinful nature.\n\nSo long as the well-educated lady makes use of her accomplishments to\ndefend the citadel of her womanly self-respect against the foe--so long as\nshe sternly keeps the door of her heart shut against her deadly enemy--she\nis safe. But let no one forget this: she is safe only so long as she does\n_not_ surrender. When the enemy is once master of the place, I emphatically\nrepeat, the ruinous consequences are as great, if not greater, and more\nirreparable than in the lowest classes of society. Throw a piece of\nprecious gold into the mud, and tell me if it will not plunge deeper than\nthe piece of rotten wood.\n\nWhat woman could be nobler, purer, and stronger than Eve when she came from\nthe hands of her Divine Creator? But how quickly she fell when she gave ear\nto the seducing voice of the tempter! How irreparable was her ruin when she\ncomplacently looked on the forbidden fruit, and believed the lying voice\nwhich told her there was \"_no sin_\" in eating of it!\n\nI solemnly, in the presence of the great God who ere long will judge me,\ngive my testimony on this grave subject. After 25 years' experience in the\nconfessional, I declare that the confessor himself encounters more terrible\ndangers when hearing the confessions of refined and highly-educated ladies,\nthan when listening to those of the humbler classes of his female\npenitents.\n\nI solemnly testify that the well-educated lady, when she has once\nsurrendered herself to the power of her confessor, becomes, as a general\nrule, at least as vulnerable to the arrows of the enemy as the poorer and\nless educated. Nay, I must say that, once on the down-hill road of\nperdition, the high-bred lady runs headlong into the pit with a more\ndeplorable rapidity than her humbler sister.\n\nAll Canada is witness that a few years ago it was among the highest ranks\nof society that the Grand Vicar Superior of one of the richest and most\ninfluential colleges of Canada, was choosing his victims, when the public\ncry of indignation and shame forced the Bishop to send him back to Europe,\nwhere he soon after died. Was it not also among the higher classes of\nsociety that a Superior of the Seminary of Quebec was destroying souls,\nwhen he was detected, and forced, during a dark night, to fly and conceal\nhimself behind the walls of the Trappist Monastery of Iowa?\n\nMany would be the folio volumes which I should have to write, were I to\npublish all that my twenty-five years' experience in the confessional has\ntaught me of the unspeakable secret corruption of the _greatest_ part of\nthe so-called respectable ladies who have unconditionally surrendered\nthemselves into the hands of their holy (?) confessors. But the following\nfact will suffice for those who have eyes to see, ears to hear, and an\nintelligence to understand.\n\nIn one of the most beautiful and thriving towns along the St. Lawrence\nRiver lived a rich merchant. He was young, and his marriage with a most\nlovely, rich, and accomplished young lady had made him one of the happiest\nmen in the land.\n\nA few years after his marriage, the Bishop appointed to that town a young\npriest, really remarkable for his eloquence, zeal, and amiable qualities,\nand the merchant and the priest soon became connected by links of the most\nsincere friendship.\n\nThe young, accomplished wife of the merchant soon became the model woman of\nthe place, under the direction of her new confessor.\n\nMany and long were the hours she used to pass by the side of her spiritual\nFather, to be purified and enlightened by his godly advices. She soon was\nseen at the head of the few who had the privilege of receiving the holy\ncommunion once a week. The husband, who was a good Roman Catholic himself,\nblessed God and the Virgin Mary that he had the privilege of living with\nsuch an angel of piety.\n\nNobody had the least suspicion of what was going on under that holy and\nwhite mantle of the most exalted piety. Nobody, except God and His angels,\ncould hear the questions put by the priest to his fair pentitent, and the\nanswers made during the long hours of their _tete-a-tete_, in the\nconfessional-box. Nobody but God could see the hellish fires which were\ndevouring the hearts of the confessor and his victim! For nearly one year,\nboth the young priest and his spiritual patient enjoyed, in those intimate\nand private secret conversations, all the pleasures which lovers feel, when\nthey can speak freely to each other of their secret thoughts and love.\n\nBut this was not enough for them. They both wanted something more real,\nthough the difficulties were great and seemed even insurmountable. The\npriest had his mother and sister with him, whose eyes were too sharp to\nallow him to invite the lady to his own house for any criminal object, and\nthe young husband had no business at a distance which could keep him long\nenough out of his happy home to allow the Pope's confessor to accomplish\nhis diabolical designs.\n\nBut when a poor fallen daughter of Eve has a mind to do a thing, she very\nsoon finds the means, particularly if high education has added to her\nnatural shrewdness.\n\nAnd in this case, as in many others of a similar nature which have been\nrevealed to me, she soon found how to attain her object without\ncompromising herself or her holy (?) confessor. A plan was soon found, and\ncordially agreed to, and both patiently awaited their opportunity.\n\n\"Why have you not gone to mass to-day and received the holy communion, my\ndear?\" said the husband: \"I had ordered the servant-man to put the horse in\nthe buggy for you as usual.\"\n\n\"I am not very well, my beloved; I have passed a sleepless night from\nhead-ache.\"\n\n\"I will send for the physician,\" replied the husband.\n\n\"Yes, my dear; do send for the physician--perhaps he will do me good.\"\n\nOne hour after, the physician called. He found his fair patient a little\nfeverish, pronounced that there was nothing serious, and that she would\nsoon be well. He gave her a little powder, to be taken three times a day,\nand left; but at nine p.m., she complained of a great pain in the chest,\nand soon fainted and fell on the floor.\n\nThe doctor was again immediately sent for, but he was from home: it took\nnearly half an hour before he could come. When he arrived the alarming\ncrisis was over--she was sitting in an arm-chair, with some neighbouring\nwomen, who were applying cold water and vinegar to her forehead.\n\nThe physician was really at a loss what to say of the cause of such a\nsudden illness. At last he said that it might be an attack of the \"ver\nsolitaire\" (tape-worm). He declared that it was not dangerous; that he knew\nhow to cure her. He ordered some new powder to be taken, and left, after\nhaving promised to return the next day. Half an hour after she began to\ncomplain of a most terrible pain in her chest, and fainted again; but\nbefore doing so she said to her husband,--\n\n\"My dear, you see that the physician understands absolutely nothing of the\nnature of my disease. I have not the least confidence in him, for I feel\nthat his powders make me worse. I do not want to see him any more. I suffer\nmore than you suspect, my beloved; and if there is not soon a change I may\nbe dead tomorrow. The only physician I want is our holy confessor; please\nmake haste to go and get him. I want to make a general confession, and to\nreceive the holy viaticum (communion) and extreme unction before I grow\nworse.\"\n\nBeside himself with anxiety, the distracted husband ordered the horse to be\nput in the buggy, and made his servant accompany him on horseback, to ring\nthe bell, while his pastor carried \"the good god\" (_Le Bon Dieu_) to his\ndear sick wife.\n\nHe found the priest piously reading his _breviarium_ (his book of daily\nprayers); and admired the charity and promptitude with which his good\npastor, in that dark and chilly night, was ready to leave his warm and\ncomfortable parsonage at the first appeal of the sick. In less than an hour\nthe husband had taken the priest with \"the good god\" from the church to the\nbedroom of his wife.\n\nAll along the way the servant-man had rung a big hand-bell to awaken the\nsleeping farmers, who, at the noise, had to jump, half naked out of their\nbeds and worship, on their knees, with their faces prostrate in the dust,\n\"the good god\" which was being carried to the sick.\n\nOn his arrival, the confessor, with every appearance of sincere piety,\ndeposited \"the good god\" (_Le Bon Dieu_) on a table, richly prepared for\nsuch a solemn occasion, and, approaching the bed, leaned his head towards\nhis penitent, and inquired how she felt.\n\nShe answered him, \"I am very sick, and want to make a general confession\nbefore I die.\"\n\nSpeaking to her husband, she said with a fainting voice, \"Please, my dear,\ntell my friends to withdraw from the room, that I may not be distracted\nwhen making what may be my last confession.\"\n\nThe husband respectfully requested the friends to leave the room with him,\nand shut the door, that the holy confessor might be _alone_ with his\npenitent during her general confession.\n\nOne of the most diabolical schemes under the cover of auricular confession\nhad perfectly succeeded. The mother of harlots, that great enchantress of\nsouls, whose seat is on the city of the \"seven hills,\" had, there, her\npriest to bring shame, disgrace, and damnation, under the mask of\nChristianity.\n\nThe destroyer of souls, whose masterpiece is auricular confession, had\nthere, for the millionth time, a fresh opportunity of insulting the God of\npurity, through one of the most criminal actions which the dark shades of\nnight can conceal.\n\nBut let us draw the veil over the abominations of that hour of iniquity,\nand let us leave to hell its dark secrets.\n\nAfter he had accomplished the ruin of his victim, and most cruelly and\nsacrilegiously abused the confidence of his friend, the young priest opened\nthe door of the room and said, with a sanctimonious air, \"You may enter to\npray with me, while I give the last sacrament to our dear sick sister.\"\n\nThey came in; \"the good god\" (_Le Bon Dieu_) was given to the woman; and\nthe husband, full of gratitude for the considerate attention of his priest,\ntook him back to his parsonage, and thanked him most sincerely for having\nso kindly come to visit his wife in so chilly a night.\n\nTen years later, I was called to preach a retreat (a kind of revival) in\nthat same parish. That lady, then an absolute stranger to me, came to my\nconfessional-box and confessed to me those details as I now give them. She\nseemed to be really penitent, and I gave her absolution and the entire\npardon of her sins, as my Church told me to do. On the last day of the\nrevival, the merchant invited me to a grand dinner. Then it was that I came\nto know who my penitent had been. I must not forget to mention that she had\nconfessed to me that, of her four children, the last three belonged to her\nconfessor! He had lost his mother, and, his sister having married, his\nparsonage had become more accessible to his fair penitents, many of whom\nhad availed themselves of that opportunity to practise the lessons they had\nlearned in the confessional. The priest had been removed to a higher\nposition, where he, more than ever, enjoyed the confidence of his\nsuperiors, the respect of the people, and the love of his female penitents.\n\nI never felt so embarrassed in my life as when at the table of that\ncruelly-victimised man. We had hardly begun to take our dinner when he\nasked me if I had known their late pastor, the amiable Rev. Mr. ----\n\nI answered, \"Yes, sir, I know him.\"\n\n\"Is he not a most accomplished priest?\"\n\n\"Yes, sir, he is a most accomplished man,\" I answered.\n\n\"Why is it,\" rejoined the good merchant, \"that the Bishop has taken him\naway from us? He was doing so well here! He had so deservedly earned the\nconfidence of all by his piety and gentlemanly manners that we made every\neffort to keep him with us. I drew up a petition myself, which all the\npeople signed, to induce the Bishop to let him remain in our midst; but in\nvain. His lordship answered us that he wanted him for a more important\nplace on account of his rare ability, and we had to submit. His zeal and\ndevotedness knew no bounds. In the darkest and most stormy nights he was\nalways ready to come to the first call of the sick. I shall never forget\nhow quickly and cheerfully he responded to my appeal when, a few years ago,\nI went, in the midst of one of our most chilly nights, to request him to\nvisit my wife, who was very sick.\"\n\nAt this stage of the conversation, I must confess that I nearly laughed\noutright. The gratitude of that poor dupe of the confessional to the priest\nwho had come to bring shame and destruction to his house, and the idea of\nthat very man going himself to convey to his home the corrupter of his own\nwife, seemed to me so ludicrous that, for a moment, I had to make a\nsuperhuman effort to control myself.\n\nBut I was soon brought to my better senses by the shame which I felt at the\nidea of the unspeakable degradation and secret infamy of the clergy of\nwhich I was a member. At that instant hundreds of cases of similar, if not\ngreater, depravity, which had been revealed to me through the confessional,\ncame to my mind and distressed and disgusted me so much that my tongue was\nalmost paralyzed.\n\nAfter dinner the merchant asked his lady to call the children, that I might\nsee them, and I could not but admire their beauty; but I do not need to say\nthat the pleasure of seeing those dear and lovely little ones was much\nmarred by the secret though sure knowledge I had that the three youngest\nwere the fruits of the unspeakable depravity of auricular confession in the\nhigher ranks of society.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\nAURICULAR CONFESSION DESTROYS ALL THE SACRED TIES OF MARRIAGE AND HUMAN\nSOCIETY.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWould the banker allow his priest to open, when alone, the safe of his\nbank, manipulate and examine his papers, and pry into the most secret\ndetails of his banking business?\n\nNo! surely not.\n\nHow is it, then, that the same banker allows that priest to open the heart\nof his wife, manipulate her soul, and pry into the sacred chambers of her\nmost intimate and secret thoughts?\n\nAre not the heart, the soul, the purity, and the self-respect of his wife\nas great and precious treasures as the safe of his bank? Are not the risks\nand dangers of temptations, imprudences, indiscretions, much greater and\nmore irreparable in the second than in the first case?\n\nWould the jeweller, or goldsmith, allow his priest to come when he pleases,\nand handle the rich articles of his stores, ransack the desk where his\nmoney is deposited, and play with it as he pleases?\n\nNo! surely not.\n\nBut are not the heart, the soul, and the purity of his dear wife and\ndaughter a thousandfold more valuable than his precious stones, or silver\nand gold wares? Are not the dangers of temptation and indiscretions, on the\npart of the priest, more formidable and irresistible in the second than in\nthe first of these cases?\n\nWould the livery-man allow his priest to take his most valuable and\nunmanageable horses as he wishes, and drive alone, without any other\nconsideration and security than the discretion of his pastor?\n\nNo! surely not.\n\nThat livery-man knows that he would soon be ruined if he should do so.\nWhatever may be his confidence in the discretion, honesty, and prudence of\nhis priest, he will never push his confidence so far as to give him the\nunreserved control of the noble and fiery animals which are the glory of\nhis stables and the support of his family.\n\nHow, then, can the same man trust the entire, absolute management of his\nwife and dear daughters to the control of that one to whom he would not\nentrust his horses?\n\nAre not his wife and daughters as precious to him as those horses? Is there\nnot greater danger of indiscretions, mismanagement, irreparable and fatal\nerrors on the part of the priest, dealing alone with the wife and\ndaughters, than when driving the horses? No human act of folly, moral\ndepravity, and want of common sense, can equal the permission given by a\nman to his wife to go and confess to the priest.\n\nThat day he abdicates the royal--I had almost said divine--dignity of\nhusband; for it is from God that he holds it: his crown is forever lost,\nhis sceptre broken!\n\nWhat would you do to any one mean enough to peep or listen through the\nkey-hole of your door, in order to hear or see everything that was said or\ndone within? Would you show so little self-respect as to tolerate such\nindiscretion? Would you not rather take a whip or a cane, and drive away\nthe villain? Would you not even expose your life to free yourself from\nimpudent curiosity?\n\nBut what is the confessional, if not the key-hole of your house and of your\nvery chamber, through which the priest can hear and see your most secret\nwords and actions, nay, more, know your most intimate thoughts and\naspirations?\n\nAre you men to submit to such sly and insulting inquisition? Do you deserve\nthe name of men who consent to put up with such ignoble affront and\nhumiliation?\n\n\"The husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the Head of the\nChurch.\" \"Therefore, as the Church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives\nbe to their own husbands, in everything\" (Eph. v.) If these solemn words\nare the true oracles of divine wisdom, is not the husband divinely\nappointed the _only_ adviser, counsellor, help of his wife, just as Christ\nis the _only_ adviser, counsellor, and help of His Church?\n\nIf the Apostle was not an impostor when he said that the wife is to her\nhusband what the body is to the head, and that the husband is to his wife\nwhat the head is to the body--is not the husband appointed by God to be the\nlight, the guide of his wife? Is it not his duty, as well as his privilege\nand glory, to console her in her afflictions, strengthen her in her hours\nof weakness, keep her up when she is in danger of fainting, and encourage\nher when she is on the rough and uphill ways of life?\n\nIf Christ has not come to deceive the world through His Apostle, must not\nthe wife go to her husband for advice? Ought she not to expect from him,\nand him alone, after God, the light she wants and the consolation she is in\nneed of? Is it not to her husband, and to him alone, after God, she ought\nto look in her days of trial for help? Is it not under his leadership alone\nshe must fight the battle of life and conquer? Are not this mutual and\ndaily sharing of the anxieties of life, this constant shouldering on the\nbattle-field, and this reciprocal and mutual protection and help renewed at\nevery hour of the day, which form, under the eyes and by the mercy of God,\nthe holiest and the purest charms of the married life? Is it not that\nunreserved confidence in each other which binds together those golden links\nof Christian love that make them happy in the very midst of the trials of\nlife? Is it not through this mutual confidence alone that they are _one_ as\nGod wants them to be _one_? Is it not in this unity of thoughts, fears and\nhopes, joys and love, which come from God, that they can cheerfully cross\nthe thorny valley, and safely reach the Promised Land?\n\nThe Gospel says that the husband is to his wife what Christ is to His\nChurch! Is it not, then, a most sacrilegious iniquity for a wife to look to\nanother rather than to her own husband for such advice, wisdom, strength,\nand life, as he is entitled, qualified, and ready to afford? As no other\nhas the right to her love, so no other man has any right to her absolute\nconfidence. As she becomes an adulteress the day that she gives her body to\nanother man, is she any the less an adulteress, the day that she gives her\nconfidence and trusts her soul to a stranger? The adultery of the heart and\nsoul is not less criminal than the adultery of the body; and every time the\nwife goes to the feet of the priest to confess, does she not become guilty\nof that iniquity?\n\nIn the Church of Rome, through the confessional, the priest is much more\nthe husband of the wife than the man to whom she was wedded at the foot of\nthe altar. The priest has the best part of the wife. He has the marrow,\nwhen the husband has the bones. He has the juice of the orange, the husband\nhas the rind. He has the soul and the heart; the husband has the skeleton.\nHe has the honey; the husband has the wax cell. He has the succulent\noyster; the husband has the dry shell. As much as the soul is higher than\nthe body, so much are the power and privileges of the priest higher than\nthe power and privileges of the husband in the mind of the penitent wife.\nAs the husband is the lord of the body which he feeds, so the priest is the\nlord of the soul, which he also feeds. The wife, then, has two lords and\nmasters, whom she must love, respect, and obey. Will she not give the best\npart of her love, respect, and submission to the one who is as much above\nthe other as the heavens are above the earth? But as one cannot serve two\nmasters together, will not the master who prepares and fits her for an\neternal life of glory, certainly be the object of her constant, real, and\nmost ardent love, gratitude, and respect, when the worldly and sinful man\nto whom she is married will have _only_ the appearance or the crumbs of\nthose sentiments? Will she not, naturally, instinctively serve, love,\nrespect, and obey, as lord and master, the godly man whose yoke is so\nlight, so holy, so divine, rather than the carnal man whose human\nimperfections are to her a source of daily trial and suffering?\n\nIn the Church of Rome the thoughts and desires, the secret joys and fears\nof the soul, the very life of the wife, are sealed things to the husband.\nHe has no right to look into the sanctuary of her heart; he has no remedy\nto apply to the soul; he has no mission from God to advise her in the dark\nhours of her anxieties; he has no balm to apply to the bleeding wounds, so\noften received in the daily battles of life; he must remain a perfect\nstranger in his own house.\n\nThe wife, expecting nothing from her husband, has no revelation to make to\nhim, no favour to ask, no debt of gratitude to pay. Nay, she shuts all the\navenues of her soul, all the doors and windows of her heart, against her\nhusband. The priest, and the priest alone, has a right to her entire\nconfidence; to him, and him alone, she will go and reveal all her secrets,\nshow all her wounds; to him, and him alone, she will turn her mind, her\nheart and soul, in the hour of trouble and anxiety; from him, and him\nalone, she will ask and expect the light and consolation she wants. Every\nday, more and more, her husband will become as a stranger to her, if he\ndoes not become a real nuisance, and an obstacle to her happiness and\npeace.\n\nYes, through the confessional, an unfathomable abyss has been dug, by the\nChurch of Rome, between the heart of the wife and the heart of the husband!\nTheir bodies may be very near each other, but their souls, their real\naffections and their confidence, are at greater distance than the north is\nfrom the south pole of the earth. The confessor is the master, the ruler,\nthe king of the soul; the husband, as the grave-yard keeper, must be\nsatisfied with the carcase!\n\nThe husband has the permission to look on the outside of the palace; he is\nallowed to rest his head on the cold marble, of the outdoor steps; but the\nconfessor triumphantly walks into the mysterious starry rooms, examines at\nleisure their numberless and unspeakable wonders; and, alone, he is allowed\nto rest his head on the soft pillows of the unbounded confidence, respect,\nand love of the wife.\n\nIn the Church of Rome, if the husband asks a favour from his wife, nine\ntimes in ten she will inquire from her father confessor whether or not she\ncan grant him his request, and the poor husband will have to wait patiently\nfor the permission of the master or the rebuke of the lord, according to\nthe answer of the oracle which had to be consulted! If he gets impatient\nunder the yoke, and murmurs, the wife will soon go to the feet of her\nconfessor; to tell him how she has the misfortune to be united to a most\nunreasonable man, and how she has to suffer from him! She reveals to her\n\"dear father\" how she is unhappy under such a yoke, and how her life would\nbe an unsupportable burden, had she not the privilege and happiness of\ncoming often to his feet, to lay down her sorrows, hear his sympathetic\nwords, and get his so affectionate and paternal advice! She tells him, with\ntears of gratitude, that it is only when by his side, and at his feet, she\nfinds rest to her weary soul, balm to her bleeding heart, and peace to her\ntroubled conscience.\n\nWhen she comes from the confessional, her ears are long filled as with a\nheavenly music, the honeyed words of her confessor ring for many days in\nher heart, she feels it lonesome to be separated from him, his image is\nconstantly before her mind, and the _souvenir_ of his amiabilities is one\nof her most pleasant thoughts. There is nothing which she likes so much as\nto speak of his good qualities, his patience, his piety, his charity, she\nlongs for the day when she will again go to confess, and pass a few hours\nby the side of that angelic man, in opening to him all the secrets of her\nheart, and in revealing all her _ennuis_. She tells him how she regrets\nthat she cannot come oftener to see him, and receive the benefit of his\ncharitable counsels; she does not even conceal from him how often, in her\ndreams, she feels too happy to be with him! More and more, every day, the\ngap between her and her husband widens; more and more, each day, she\nregrets that she has not the happiness to be the wife of such a holy man as\nher confessor! Oh! if it were possible...! But, then, she blushes or\nsmiles, and sings a song.\n\nThen again, I ask it, Who is the true lord, ruler, and master in that\nhouse? For whom does that heart beat and live?\n\nThus it is that that stupendous imposture, the dogma of auricular\nconfession, does completely destroy all the links, the joys, the\nresponsibilities, and divine privileges of the married life, and transforms\nit into a life of perpetual, though disguised, adultery. It becomes utterly\nimpossible, in the church of Rome, that the husband should be _one_ with\nhis wife, and that the wife should be _one_ with her husband: a \"monstrous\nbeing\" has been put between them both, called the confessor! Born in the\ndarkest ages of the world, that being has received from hell his mission to\ndestroy and contaminate the purest joys of the married life, to enslave the\nwife, to outrage the husband, and to damn the world!\n\nThe more auricular confession is practised, the more the laws of public and\nprivate morality are trampled under feet. The husband wants his wife to be\n_his_--he does not, and could not, consent to share his authority over her\nwith anybody: he wants to be the _only_ man who will have her confidence\nand her heart, as well as her respect and love. And so, the very moment\nthat he anticipates the dark shadow of the confessor coming between him and\nthe woman of his choice, he prefers silently to shrink from entering into\nthe sacred bond; the holy joys of home and family lose their divine\nattractions; he prefers the cold life of an ignominious celibacy to the\nhumiliation and opprobrium of the questionable privileges of an uncertain\npaternity.\n\nFrance, Spain, and many other Roman Catholic countries, thus witness the\nmultitude of those bachelors increasing every year. The number of families\nand births, in consequence, is fast decreasing in their midst; and, if God\ndoes not perform a miracle to stop those nations on their downward course,\nit is easy to calculate the day when they will owe their existence to the\ntolerance and pity of the mighty Protestant nations by which they are\nsurrounded.\n\nWhy is it that the Irish Roman Catholic people are so irremediably degraded\nand clothed in rags? Why is it that that people, whom God has endowed with\nso many noble qualities, seem to be so deprived of intelligence and\nself-respect that they glory in their own shame? Why is it that their land\nhas been for centuries the land of bloody riots and cowardly murders? The\nprincipal cause is the enslaving of the Irish women, by means of the\nconfessional. Every one knows that the spiritual slavery and degradation of\nthe Irish woman has no bounds. After she has been enslaved and degraded,\nshe, in turn, has enslaved and degraded her husband and her sons. Ireland\nwill be an object of pity; she will be poor, miserable, riotous,\nblood-thirsty, degraded, so long as she rejects Christ, to be ruled by the\nfather confessor planted in every parish by the Pope.\n\nWho has not been amazed and saddened by the downfall of France? How is it\nthat her once so mighty armies have melted away, that her brave sons have\nso easily been conquered and disarmed? How is it that France, fallen\npowerless at the feet of her enemies, has frightened the world by the\nspectacle of the incredible, bloody, and savage follies of the Commune? Do\nnot look for the causes of the downfall, humiliation, and untold miseries\nof France anywhere else than in the confessional. For centuries has not\nthat great country obstinately rejected Christ? Has she not slaughtered or\nsent into exile her noblest children, who wanted to follow the Gospel? Has\nshe not given her fair daughters into the hands of the confessors, who have\ndefiled and degraded them? How could women, in France, teach her husbands\nand sons to love liberty, and die for it, when she was herself a miserable,\nan abject slave? How could she form her husbands and sons to the manly\nvirtues of heroes, when her own mind was defiled and her heart corrupted?\n\nThe French woman had unconditionally surrendered the noble and fair citadel\nof her heart, intelligence, and womanly self-respect, into the hands of her\nconfessor long before her sons surrendered their sword to the Germans at\nSedan and Paris. The first unconditional surrender had brought the second.\n\nThe complete moral destruction of woman by the confessor in France has been\na long work. It has required centuries to bow down, break, and enslave the\nnoble daughters of France. Yes; but those who know France know that that\ndestruction is now as complete as it is deplorable. The downfall of woman\nin France, and her supreme degradation through the confessional, is now _un\nfait accompli_, which nobody can deny; the highest intellects have seen and\nconfessed it. One of the most profound thinkers of that unfortunate\ncountry, Michelet, has depicted that supreme and irretrievable degradation\nin a most eloquent book, \"The Priest, The Woman, The Family;\" and not a\nvoice has been raised to deny or refute what he has said. Those who have\nany knowledge of history and philosophy know very well that the moral\ndegradation of the woman is soon followed, everywhere, by the moral\ndegradation of the nation; and the moral degradation of the nation is very\nsoon followed by ruin and overthrow.\n\nThat French nation had been formed by God to be a race of giants. They were\nchivalrous and brave; they had bright intelligences, stout hearts, strong\narms, and a mighty sword. But as the hardest granite rock yields and breaks\nunder the drop of water which incessantly falls upon it, so that great\nnation had to break and to fall into pieces under, not the drop, but the\nrivers of impure waters which for centuries have incessantly flowed in upon\nit from the pestilential fountain of the confessional. \"Righteousness\nexalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach, to any people.\" (Proverbs xiv.)\n\nWhy is it that Spain is so miserable, so weak, so poor, so foolishly and\ncruelly tearing her own bosom, and reddening her fair valleys with the\nblood of her own children? The principal, if not the only, cause of the\ndownfall of that great nation is the confessional. There, also, the\nconfessor has defiled, degraded, enslaved women, and women in turn have\ndefiled and degraded their husbands and sons. Women have sown broadcast\nover their country the seeds of that slavery, of that want of Christian\nhonesty, justice, and self-respect with which they had themselves been\nfirst imbued in the confessional.\n\nBut when you see, without a single exception, the nations whose women drink\nthe impure and poisonous waters which flow from the confessional sinking\ndown so rapidly, do you not wonder how fast the neighbouring nations, who\nhave destroyed those dens of impurity, prostitution, and abject slavery,\nare rising up? What a marvellous contrast is before our eyes! On one side,\nthe nations who allow the woman to be degraded and enslaved at the feet of\nthe confessor--France, Spain, Romish Ireland, Mexico, &c., &c.--are, there,\nfallen into the dust, bleeding, struggling, powerless, like the sparrow\nwhose entrails are devoured by the vulture. On the other side, see how the\nnations whose women go to wash their robes in the blood of the Lamb are\nsoaring up, as on eagle wings, in the highest regions of progress, peace,\nand liberty!\n\nIf legislators could once understand the respect and protection they owe to\nwoman, they would soon, by stringent laws, prohibit auricular confession as\ncontrary to good morals and the welfare of society; for, though the\nadvocates of auricular confession have succeeded to a certain extent in\nblinding the public, and in concealing the abominations of the system under\na lying mantle of holiness and religion, it is nothing else than a school\nof immorality.\n\nI say more than that. After twenty-five years of hearing the confessions of\nthe common people and of the highest classes of society, of the laymen and\nthe priests, of the grand vicars and bishops and the nuns, I\nconscientiously say before the world that the immorality of the\nconfessional is of a more dangerous and degrading nature than that which we\nattribute to the social evil of our great cities. The injury caused to the\nintelligence and to the soul in the confessional, as a general rule, is of\na more dangerous nature and more irremediable, because it is neither\nsuspected nor understood by its victims.\n\nThe unfortunate woman who lives an immoral life knows her profound misery;\nshe often blushes and weeps over her degradation; she hears from every side\nvoices which call her out of those ways of perdition. Almost at every hour\nof day and night the cry of her conscience warns her against the desolation\nand suffering of an eternity passed far away from the regions of holiness,\nlight, and life. All those things are often so many means of grace, in the\nhands of our merciful God, to awaken the mind and to save the guilty soul.\nBut in the confessional the poison is administered under the name of a pure\nand refreshing water; the deadly wound is inflicted by a sword so well\noiled that the blow is not felt; the vilest and most impure notions and\nthoughts, in the form of questions and answers, are presented and accepted\nas the bread of life! All the notions of modesty, purity, and womanly\nself-respect and delicacy, are set aside and forgotten to propitiate the\ngod of Rome. In the confessional the woman is told, and she believes, that\nthere is no sin for her in hearing things which would make the vilest\nblush--no sin to say things which would make the most desperate villain of\nthe streets of London to stagger--no sin to converse with her confessor on\nmatters so filthy that if attempted in civil life would for ever exclude\nthe perpetrator from the society of the virtuous.\n\nYes, the soul and the intelligence defiled and destroyed in the\nconfessional are often hopelessly defiled and destroyed. They are sinking\ninto a complete, an irretrievable perdition; for, not knowing the guilt,\nthey will not cry for mercy--not suspecting the fatal disease that is being\nfostered, they will not call for the true Physician. It was evidently when\nthinking of the unspeakable ruin of the souls of men through the wickedness\nculminating in the \"Pope's confessors,\" that the Son of God said:--\"If the\nblind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.\" To every woman, with\nvery few exceptions, coming out from the feet of her confessor, the\nchildren of light may say:--\"I know thy works, that thou hast a name that\nthou livest, but thou art dead!\" (Revelations iii.)\n\nNobody has yet been, nor ever will be, able to answer the few following\nlines, which I addressed some years ago to the Rev. Mr. Bruyere, Roman\nCatholic Vicar-General of London, Canada:--\n\n\"With a blush on my face and regret in my heart, I confess, before God and\nman, that I have been like you, and with you, through the confessional,\nplunged twenty-five years in that bottomless sea of iniquity, in which the\nblind priests of Rome have to swim day and night.\n\n\"I had to learn by heart, like you, the infamous questions which the Church\nof Rome forces every priest to learn. I had to put those impure, immoral\nquestions to old and young females who were confessing their sins to me.\nThese questions--you know it--are of such a nature that no prostitute would\ndare to put them to another. Those questions, and the answers they elicit,\nare so debasing that no man in London--you know it--except a priest of\nRome, is sufficiently lost to every sense of shame as to put them to any\nwoman.\n\n\"Yes, I was bound, in conscience, as you are bound to-day, to put into the\nears, the mind, the imagination, the memory, the heart and soul of females,\nquestions of such a nature, the direct and immediate tendency of which--you\nknow it well--is to fill the minds and the hearts of both priests and\nfemale penitents with thoughts, phantoms, and temptations of such a\ndegrading nature, that I do not know any words adequate to express them.\nPagan antiquity has never seen any institution so polluting as the\nconfessional. I know nothing more corrupting than the law which forces a\nfemale to tell all her thoughts, desires, and most secret feelings and\nactions to an unmarried priest. The confessional is a school of perdition.\nYou may deny that before the Protestants; but you cannot deny it before me.\nMy dear Mr. Bruyere, if you call me a degraded man because I have lived\ntwenty-five years in the atmosphere of the confessional, you are right. I\nwas a degraded man, just as yourself and all the priests are to-day, in\nspite of your denegations. If you call me a degraded man, because my soul,\nmy mind and my heart were, as your own are to-day, plunged into the deep\nwaters of iniquity which flow from the confessional, I confess 'Guilty!' I\nwas degraded and polluted by the confessional just as you and all the\npriests of Rome are.\n\n\"It has required the whole blood of the great Victim, who died on Calvary\nfor sinners, to purify me; and I pray that, through the same blood, you may\nbe purified also.\"\n\nIf the legislators knew the respect and protection they owe to women--I\nrepeat it--they would by the most stringent laws prohibit auricular\nconfession as a crime against society.\n\nNot long ago, a printer in England was sent to jail and severely punished\nfor having published in English the questions put by the priests to the\nwomen in the confessional; and the sentence was equitable, for all who will\nread those questions will conclude that no girl or woman who brings her\nmind into contact with the contents of that book can escape from moral\ndeath. But what are the priests of Rome doing in the confessional? Do they\nnot pass the greatest part of their time in questioning females, old and\nyoung, and hearing their answers, on those very matters? If it were a\ncrime, punishable by law, to present those questions in a book, is it not a\ncrime far more punishable by law to present those very things to married\nand unmarried women through the auricular confession?\n\nI ask it from every man of common sense, What is the difference between a\nwoman or a girl learning those things in a book, or learning them from the\nlips of a man? Will not those impure, demoralizing suggestions sink more\ndeeply into their minds, and impress themselves more forcibly in their\nmemory, when told to them by a man of authority, speaking in the name of\nAlmighty God, than when read in a book which has no authority?\n\nI say to the legislators of Europe and America: \"Read for yourselves those\nhorrible, unmentionable things;\" and remember that the Pope has 100,000\npriests whose principal work is to put those very things into the\nintelligence and memory of the women whom they entrap into their snares.\nLet us suppose that each priest hears the confessions of only five female\npenitents (though we know that the daily average is ten). It gives us the\nawful number of 500,000 women whom the priests of Rome have the legal right\nto pollute and destroy every day!\n\nLegislators of the so-called Christian and civilized nations, I ask it\nagain from you, Where is your consistency, your justice, your love of\npublic morality, when you punish so severely the man who has printed the\nquestions put to the women in the confessional, while you honour and let\nfree, and often pay the men whose public and private life is spent in\nspreading the very same moral poison in a much more efficacious, scandalous\nand shameful way, under the sacrilegious mask of religion?\n\nThe confessional is in the hands of the devil what West Point is to the\nUnited States, and Woolwich is to Great Britain, a training of the army to\nfight and conquer the enemy. It is in the confessional that 500,000 women\nevery day, and 182,500,000 every year are trained by the Pope in the art of\nfighting against God, by destroying themselves and the whole world, through\nevery imaginable kind of impurity and filthiness.\n\nOnce more, I request the legislators, the husbands, and the fathers in\nEurope, as well as in America, to read in Dens, Liguori, Debreyne, in every\ntheological book of Rome, what their wives and their daughters have to\nlearn in the confessional.\n\nIn order to screen themselves, the priests of Rome have recourse to the\nfollowing miserable subterfuge:--\"Is not the physician forced,\" they say,\n\"to perform certain delicate operations on women? Do you complain of this?\nNo; you let the physicians alone; you do not abuse them in their arduous\nand conscientious duties. Why, then, do you insult the physician of the\nsoul, the confessor, in the accomplishment of his holy, though delicate,\nduties?\n\nI answer, first, The art and science of the physician are approved and\npraised in many places of the Scriptures. But the art and science of the\nconfessor are nowhere to be found in the holy records. Auricular confession\nis nothing else than a most stupendous imposture. The filthy and impure\nquestions of the confessor, with the polluting answers they elicit, were\nput among the most diabolical and forbidden actions by God Himself the day\nthat the Spirit of Truth, Holiness, and Life wrote the imperishable\nwords,--\"Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth\" (Eph. iv.\n29).\n\nSecondly, The physician is not bound by a solemn oath to remain ignorant of\nthe things which it will be his duty to examine and cure. But the priest of\nRome is bound, by the most ridiculous and impious oath of celibacy, to\nremain ignorant of the very things which are the daily objects of his\ninquiries, observations, and thoughts! The priest of Rome has sworn never\nto taste of the fruits with which he feeds, his imagination, his memory,\nhis heart, and his soul day and night! The physician is honest in the\nperformance of his duties; but the priest of Rome becomes in fact a\nperjured man every time he enters the confessional-box.\n\nThirdly, If a lady has a little sore on her small finger, and is obliged to\ngo to the physician, for a remedy, she has only to show her little finger,\nallow the plaister or ointment to be applied, and all is finished. The\nphysician _never_--no, never--says to that lady, \"It is my duty to suspect\nthat you have many other parts of your body which are sick; I am bound in\nconscience, under pain of death, to examine you from head to foot, in order\nto save your precious life from those _secret_ diseases, which may kill you\nif they are not cured just now. Several of those diseases are of such a\nnature that you never dared perhaps to examine them with the attention they\ndeserve, and you are hardly conscious of them. I know, madam, that this is\na very painful and delicate thing for both you and me, that I should be\nforced to make that thorough examination of your person, but there is no\nhelp; I am in duty bound to do it. But you have nothing to fear. I am a\nholy man, who has made a vow of celibacy. We are alone; neither your\nhusband nor your father will ever know the secret infirmities I will find\nin you; they will never even suspect the perfect investigation I will make,\nand they will, for ever, be ignorant of the remedy I will apply.\"\n\nHas any physician ever been authorized to speak or act in this way with any\nof his female patients? No; never! never!\n\nBut this is just the way the spiritual physician, with whom the devil\nenslaves and corrupts women, acts. When the fair, honest, and timid\nspiritual patient has come to her confessor, to show him the little sore\nshe has on the small finger of her soul, the confessor _is bound_ in\nconscience to suspect that she has other sores,--secret, shameful sores!\nYes, he is bound, nine times in ten; and he is _always allowed_ to suppose\nthat she does not dare to reveal them! Then he is advised by the Church to\ninduce her to let him search every corner of the heart, and of the soul,\nand to inquire about every kind of contaminations, impurities, secret and\nshameful unspeakable matters! The young priest is drilled in the diabolical\nart of going into the most sacred recesses of the soul and the heart,\nalmost in spite of his penitents. I could bring hundreds of theologians as\nwitnesses to what I say.--But it is enough just now to cite three.\n\n\"Lest the Confessor should indolently hesitate in tracing out the\ncircumstances of any sin, let him have the following versicle of\ncircumstances in readiness:\n\n\"Quis, quid, ubi, quibus auxiliis, cur, quomodo, quando. Who, which, where,\nwith whom, why, how, when.\" (Dens, vol. 6, p. 123. Liguori, vol. 2, p.\n464.)\n\nThe celebrated book of the Priests, \"The Mirror of the Clergy,\" page 357,\nsays:\n\n\"Oportet ut Confessor solet cognoscere quid quid debet judicare. Deligens\nigitur inquisitor et subtilis investigator sapienter quasi astute\ninterrogat a peccatore quod ignorat, vel verecundia volit occultare.\"\n\n\"It is necessary that the Confessor should know everything on which he has\nto exercise his judgment. Let him then, with wisdom and subtility,\ninterrogate the sinners on the sins which he may ignore, or conceal through\nshame!\"\n\nThe poor, unprotected girl is thus thrown into the power of the priest,\nsoul and body, to be examined on all the sins she may ignore, or which,\nthrough shame, she may conceal! On what boundless sea of depravity the poor\nfragile bark is launched by the priest! On what bottomless abysses of\nimpurities she will have to pass and travel, in company with the priest\nalone, before he will have interrogated her on all the sins she may ignore,\nand which she may have concealed through shame!! Who can tell the\nsentiments of surprise and shame and distress, of a timid, honest young\ngirl, when, for the first time, she is initiated to infamies which are\nignored even in houses of prostitution!!!\n\nBut such is the practice, the sacred duty of the spiritual physician. \"Let\nhim (the priest confessor) with wisdom and subtlety interrogate the sinner\non the sins he may ignore or conceal with shame.\"\n\nAnd there are 100,000 men, not only allowed, but petted, and often paid by\nthe governments to do that, under the name of the God of the Gospel!\n\nFourthly, I answer to the sophism of the priest, When the physician has any\ndelicate and dangerous operation to perform on a female patient, he is\n_never_ alone; the husband, or the father, the mother, the sister, or some\nfriends of the patient are there, whose scrutinizing eyes and attentive\nears make it _impossible_ for the physician to say or do any improper\nthing.\n\nBut, when the poor deluded spiritual patient comes to be treated by her\nso-called spiritual physician, and shows him her diseases, is she not\nalone--shamefully alone--with him? Where are the protecting ears of the\nhusband, the father, the mother, the sisters, or the friends? Where is the\nbarrier interposed between this sinful, weak, tempted, and often depraved\nman and his victim?\n\nWould the priest so freely ask _this_ and _that_ from that married woman,\nif he knew that the husband could hear him? No, surely not; for he is well\naware that the enraged husband would blow out the brains of the villain\nwho, under the sacrilegious pretext of purifying the soul of his wife, is\nfilling her honest heart with every kind of pollution and infamy.\n\nFifthly, When the physician performs a delicate operation on one of his\nfemale patients, the operation is usually accompanied with pain, cries, and\noften with bloodshed. The sympathetic and honest physician suffers almost\nas much pain as his patient; those cries, acute pains, tortures, and\nbleeding wounds make it morally impossible that the physician should be\ntempted to any improper thing.\n\nBut the sight of the spiritual wounds of that fair penitent! Is the poor\ndepraved human heart really sorry to see and examine them? Oh, no! it is\njust the contrary!\n\nThe dear Saviour weeps over those wounds; the angels are distressed at the\nsight. Yes. But the deceitful and corrupt heart of man, is it not rather\napt to be pleased at the sight of wounds which are so much like the ones he\nhas himself, so often been pleased to receive from the hand of the enemy?\n\nWas the heart of David pained and horror-struck at the sight of the fair\nBath-sheba, when imprudently and too freely exposed in her bath? Was not\nthat holy prophet smitten and brought down to the dust by that guilty look?\nWas not the mighty giant, Samson, undone by the charms of Delilah? Was not\nthe wise Solomon ensnared and befooled in the midst of the women by whom he\nwas surrounded?\n\nWho will believe that the bachelors of the Pope are made of stronger metal\nthan the Davids, the Samsons, and the Solomons? Where is the man who has so\ncompletely lost his common sense as to believe that the priests of Rome are\nstronger than Samson, holier than David, wiser than Solomon? Who will\nbelieve that confessors will stand up on their feet amidst the storms which\nprostrate in the dust those giants of the armies of the Lord? To suppose\nthat, in the generality of cases the confessor can resist the temptations\nby which he is daily surrounded in the confessional, that he will\nconstantly refuse the golden opportunities which offer themselves to him,\nto satisfy the almost irresistible propensities of his fallen human nature,\nis neither wisdom nor charity; it is simply folly.\n\nI do not say that all the confessors and their female penitents fall into\nthe same degree of abject degradation; thanks be to God, I have known\nseveral who nobly fought their battles and conquered on that field of so\nmany shameful defeats. But these are the exceptions. It is just as when the\nfire has ravaged one of our grand forests of America--how sad it is to see\nthe numberless noble trees fallen under the devouring element! But, here\nand there the traveller is not a little amazed and pleased to find some\nwhich have proudly stood the fiery trial without being consumed.\n\nHas not the world at large been struck with terror when they heard of the\nfire which a few years ago had reduced the great city of Chicago to ashes?\nBut those who have visited that doomed city, and seen the desolating ruins\nof her 16,000 houses, had to stand in silent admiration before a few which,\nin the very midst of an ocean of fire, had escaped untouched by the\ndestructive element.\n\nIt is so that, owing to a most marvellous protection of God, some\nprivileged souls do escape, here and there, the fatal destruction which\novertakes so many others in the confessional.\n\nThe confessional is just as the spider's web. How many too unsuspecting\nflies find death when seeking rest on the beautiful framework of their\ndeceitful enemy! How few escape! and this only after a most desperate\nstruggle. See how the perfidious spider looks harmless in his retired, dark\ncorner; how motionless he is; how patiently he waits for his opportunity!\nBut look how quickly he surrounds his victim with his silky, delicate, and\nimperceptible links! how mercilessly he sucks its blood and destroys its\nlife!\n\nWhat does remain of the imprudent fly, after she has been entrapped into\nthe nets of her foe? Nothing but a skeleton. So it is with your fair wife,\nyour precious daughter; nine times in ten nothing but a moral skeleton\nreturns to you, after the Pope's black spider has been allowed to suck the\nvery blood of her heart and soul. Let those who would be tempted to think\nthat I do exaggerate read the following extracts from the memoirs of the\nVenerable Scipio de Ricci, Roman Catholic Bishop of Pistoia and Prato, in\nItaly. They were published by the Italian Government, to show to the world\nthat some measures ought to be taken by the civil and ecclesiastical\nauthorities to prevent the nation from being entirely swept away by the\ndeluge of corruption flowing from the confessional, even among the most\nperfect of Rome's followers, the monks and the nuns. The priests have never\ndared to deny a single iota of those terrible revelations. In page 115 we\nread the following letter from Sister Flavia Peraccini, Prioress of St\nCatherine, to Dr. Thomas Comparini, Rector of the Episcopal Seminary of\nPistoia:--\n\n\"_January 22, 1775._--In compliance with the request which you made me this\nday, I hasten to say something, but I know not how.\n\n\"Of those who are gone out of the world I shall say nothing. Of those who\nare still alive and have very little decency of conduct there are many,\namong whom there is an ex-provincial named Father Dr. Ballendi, Calvi,\nZoratti, Bigliaci, Guidi, Miglieti, Verde, Bianchi, Ducci, Seraphini,\nBolla, Nera di Luca, Quaretti, &c. But wherefore any more? With the\nexception of three or four, all those whom I have ever known, alive or\ndead, are of the same character; they have all the same maxims and the same\nconduct.\n\n\"They are on more intimate terms with the nuns than if they were married to\nthem! I repeat it, it would require a great deal of time to tell half of\nwhat I know. It is the custom now, when they come to visit and hear the\nconfession of a sick sister, to sup with the nuns, sing, dance, play, and\nsleep in the convent. It is a maxim of theirs that God has forbidden\nhatred, but _not love_, and that man is made for woman and woman for man.\n\n\"I say that they can deceive the innocent and the most prudent and\ncircumspect, and that it would be a miracle to converse with them and not\nfall!\"\n\nPage 117.--\"The priests are the husbands of the nuns, and the lay brothers\nof the lay sisters. In the chamber of one of the nuns I have mentioned, one\nday, a man was found; he fled away, but, soon after, they gave him to us as\nour confessor extraordinary.\n\n\"How many bishops are there in the Papal States, who have come to the\nknowledge of those disorders, have held examinations and visitations, and\nyet never could remedy; it, because the monks, our confessors, tell us that\nthose are excommunicated who reveal what passes in the Order!\n\n\"Poor creatures! they think they are leaving the world to escape dangers,\nand they only meet with greater ones. Our fathers and mothers have given us\na good education, and here we have to unlearn and forget what they have\ntaught us.\"\n\nPage 118.--\"Do not suppose that this is the case in our convent alone. It\nis just the same at St. Lucia, Prato, Pisa, Perugia, &c. I have known\nthings that would astonish you. Everywhere it is the same. Yes, everywhere\nthe same disorders, the same abuses prevail. I say, and I repeat it, let\nthe superiors suspect as they may, they do not know the smallest part of\nthe enormous wickedness that goes on between the monks and the nuns whom\nthey confess. Every monk who passed by on his way to the chapter entreated\na sick sister to confess to him, and...!\"\n\nPage 119.--\"With respect to Father Buzachini I say that he acted just as\nthe others, sitting up late in the nunnery, diverting himself, and letting\nthe usual disorders go on. There were several nuns who had love affairs on\nhis account. His own principal mistress was Odaldi, of St. Lucia, who used\nto send him continual treats. He was also in love with the daughter of our\nfactor, of whom they were very jealous here. He ruined also poor\nCancellieri, who was sextoness. The monks are all alike with their\npenitents.\n\n\"Some years ago, the nuns of St. Vincent, in consequence of the\nextraordinary passion they had for their father confessors Lupi and\nBorghiani, were divided into two parties, one calling themselves Le Lupe,\nthe other Le Borghieni.\n\n\"He who made the greatest noise was Donati. I believe he is now at Rome.\nFather Brandi, too, was also in great vogue. I think he is now prior of St.\nGemignani. At St. Vincent, which passes for a very holy retreat, they have\nalso their lovers....\"\n\nMy pen refuses to reproduce several things which the nuns of Italy have\npublished against their father confessors. But this is enough to show to\nthe most incredulous that the confession is nothing else but a school of\nperdition, even among those who make a profession to live in the highest\nregions of Roman Catholic holiness--the monks and the nuns.\n\nNow, from Italy let us go to America and see again the working of auricular\nconfession, not between the holy (?) nuns and monks of Rome, but among the\nhumblest classes of country women and priests. Great is the number of\nparishes where women have been destroyed by their confessors, but I will\nspeak only of one.\n\nWhen curate of Beauport, I was called by the Rev. Mr. Proulx, curate of St.\nAntoine, to preach a retreat (a revival) with the Rev. Mr. Aubry, to his\nparishioners, and eight or ten other priests were also invited to come and\nhelp us to hear the confessions.\n\nThe very first day after preaching and passing five or six hours in the\nconfessional, the hospitable curate gave us a supper before going to bed.\nBut it was evident that a kind of uneasiness pervaded the whole company of\nthe father confessors. For my own part, I could hardly raise my eyes to\nlook at my neighbour, and when I wanted to speak a word it seemed that my\ntongue was not free as usual; even my throat was as if it were choked; the\narticulation of the sounds was imperfect. It was evidently the same with\nthe rest of the priests. Instead, then, of the noisy and cheerful\nconversation of the other meals, there were only a few insignificant words\nexchanged with a half-supressed tone.\n\nThe Rev. Mr. Proulx (the curate) at first looked as if he were partaking\nalso of that singular though general despondent feeling. During the first\npart of the lunch he hardly said a word; but at last, raising his head and\nturning his honest face towards us, in his usual gentlemanly and cheerful\nmanner, he said:--\n\n\"Dear friends, I see that you are all under the influence of the most\npainful feelings. There is a burden on you that you can neither shake off\nnor bear as you wish. I know the cause of your trouble, and I hope you will\nnot find fault with me if I help you to recover from that disagreeable\nmental condition. You have heard in the confessional the history of many\ngreat sins, but I know that this is not what troubles you. You are all old\nenough in the confessional to know the miseries of poor human nature.\nWithout any more preliminaries I will come to the subject. It is no more a\nsecret in this place that one of the priests who has preceded me has been\nvery unfortunate, weak, and guilty with the greatest part of the married\nwomen whom he has confessed. Not more than one in ten have escaped him. I\nwould not mention this fact had I got it only from the confessional, but I\nknow it well from other sources, and I can speak of it freely without\nbreaking the secret seal of the confessional. Now what troubles you is\nthat, probably, when a good number of those women have confessed to you\nwhat they had done with their confessor, you have not asked them how long\nit was since they had sinned with him, and in spite of yourselves you think\nthat I am the guilty man. This does, naturally, embarrass you when you are\nin my presence and at my table. But please ask them, when they come again\nto confess, how many months or years have passed away since their last love\naffair with a confessor, and you will see that you may suppose that you are\nin the house of an honest man. You may look me in the face and have no fear\nto address me as if I were still worthy of your esteem; for, thanks be to\nGod, I am not the guilty priest who has ruined and destroyed so many souls\nhere.\"\n\nThe curate had hardly pronounced the last word when a general \"We thank\nyou; for you have taken away a mountain from our shoulders,\" fell from\nalmost every lip. \"It is a fact that, notwithstanding the good opinion we\nhad of you,\" said several, \"we were in fear that you had missed the right\ntrack, and fallen down with your fair penitents into the ditch.\"\n\nI felt myself much relieved; for I was one of those who, in spite of\nmyself, had my secret fears about the honesty of our host. When, very early\nthe next morning, I had begun to hear the confessions, one of those\nunfortunate victims of the confessor's depravity came to me, and in the\nmidst of many tears and sobs, she told me with great details what I repeat\nhere in a few lines:--\n\n\"I was only nine years old when my first confessor began to do very\ncriminal things with me when I was at his feet, confessing my sins. At\nfirst I was ashamed and much disgusted; but soon after I became so depraved\nthat I was looking eagerly for every opportunity of meeting him either in\nhis own house, or in the church, in the vestry, and many times in his own\ngarden when it was dark at night. That priest did not remain very long; he\nwas removed, to my great regret, to another place, where he died. He was\nsucceeded by another one, who seemed at first to be a very holy man. I made\nto him a general confession with, it seems to me, a sincere desire to give\nup for ever that sinful life, but I fear that my confessions became a cause\nof sin to that good priest; for not long after my confession was finished,\nhe declared to me in the confessional his love, with such passionate words\nthat he soon brought me down again into my former criminal habits with him.\nThis lasted six years, when my parents removed to this place. I was very\nglad of it, for I hoped that, being far away from him, I should not be any\nmore a cause of sin to him, and that I might begin a better life. But the\nfourth time that I went to confess to my new confessor, he invited me to go\nto his room, where we did things so horrible together that I do not know\nhow to confess them. It was two days before my marriage, and the only child\nI have had is the fruit of that sinful hour. After my marriage I continued\nthe same criminal life with my confessor. He was the friend of my husband;\nwe had many opportunities of meeting each other, not only when I was going\nto confess, but when my husband was absent and my child was at school. It\nwas evident to me that several other women were as miserable and criminal\nas I was myself. This sinful intercourse with my confessor went on till God\nAlmighty stopped it with a real thunderbolt. My dear only daughter had gone\nto confess and receive the holy communion. As she had come back from church\nmuch later than I expected, I inquired the reason which had kept her so\nlong. She then threw herself into my arms, and with convulsive cries said:\n'Dear mother, do not ask me any more to go to confess.... Oh! if you could\nknow what my confessor has asked me when I was at his feet! and if you\ncould know what he has done with me, and he has forced me to do with him\nwhen he had me alone in his parlour!'\n\n\"My poor child could not speak any longer, she fainted in my arms.\n\n\"But as soon as she recovered, without losing a minute, I dressed myself,\nand, full of an inexpressible rage, I directed my steps towards the\nparsonage. But before leaving my house, I had concealed under my shawl a\nsharp butcher's knife to stab and kill the villain who had destroyed my\ndearly beloved child. Fortunately for that priest, God changed my mind\nbefore I entered his room--my words to him were few and sharp.\n\n'You are a monster!' I said to him. 'Not satisfied to have destroyed me,\nyou want to destroy my own dear child, which is yours also! Shame upon you!\nI had come with this knife to put an end to your infamies, but so short a\npunishment would be too mild a one for such a monster. I want you to live,\nthat you may bear upon your head the curse of the too unsuspecting and\nunguarded friends whom you have so cruelly deceived and betrayed; I want\nyou to live with the consciousness that you are known by me and many\nothers, as one of the most infamous monsters who have ever defiled this\nworld. But know that if you are not away from this place before the end of\nthis week, I will reveal everything to my husband, and you may be sure that\nhe will not let you live twenty-four hours longer, for he sincerely thinks\nthat your daughter is his, and he will be the avenger of her honour! I go\nto denounce you this very day to the bishop, that he may take you away from\nthis parish, which you have so shamelessly polluted.'\n\n\"The priest threw himself at my feet, and, with tears, asked my pardon,\nimploring me not to denounce him to the bishop, promising that he would\nchange his life and begin to live as a good priest. But I remained\ninexorable. I went to the bishop, made my deposition, and warned his\nlordship of the sad consequences which would follow, if he kept that curate\nany longer in this place, as he seemed inclined to do. But before the eight\ndays had expired, he was put at the head of another parish, not very far\naway from here.\"\n\nThe reader will, perhaps, like to know what has become of this priest.\n\nHe has remained at the head of that most beautiful parish of ----, as\ncurate, where I know it, he continued to destroy his penitents, till a few\nyears before he died, with the reputation of a good priest, an amiable man,\nand a holy confessor!\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\"For the mystery of iniquity doth already work:....\n\n\"And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with\nthe spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His\ncoming:\n\n\"Even Him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and\nsigns and lying wonders,\n\n\"And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish;\nbecause they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.\n\n\"And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should\nbelieve a lie:\n\n\"That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure\nin unrighteousness.\" (2 Thess. ii. 7-12.)\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\nSHOULD AURICULAR CONFESSION BE TOLERATED AMONG CIVILIZED NATIONS?\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nLet my readers who understand Latin peruse the extracts I give from Bishop\nKenrick, Debreyne, Burchard, Dens or Liguori, and the most incredulous will\nlearn for themselves that the world, even in the darkest ages of old\npaganism, has never seen anything so infamous and degrading as auricular\nconfession.\n\nTo say that auricular confession purifies the soul is not less ridiculous\nand silly than to say that the white robe of the virgin, or the lily of the\nvalley, will become whiter by being dipped into a bottle of black ink.\n\nHas not the Pope's celibate, by studying his books before he goes to the\nconfessional-box, corrupted his own heart, and plunged his mind, memory,\nand soul into an atmosphere of impurity which would have been intolerable\neven to the people of Sodom?\n\nWe ask it not only in the name of religion, but of common sense. How can\nthat man, whose heart and memory are just made the reservoir of all the\ngrossest impurities the world has ever known, help others to be chaste and\npure?\n\nThe idolaters of India believe that they will be purified from their sins\nby drinking the water with which they have just washed the feet of their\npriests.\n\nWhat monstrous doctrine! The souls of men purified by the water which has\nwashed the feet of a miserable, sinful man! Is there any religion more\nmonstrous and diabolical than the Brahmin religion?\n\nYes, there is one more monstrous, deceitful, and contaminating than that.\nIt is the religion which teaches that the soul of man is purified by a few\nmagical words (called absolution), which come from the lips of a miserable\nsinner, whose heart and intelligence have just been filled by the\nunmentionable impurities of Dens, Liguori, Debreyne, Kenrick, &c., &c. For\nif the poor Indian's soul is not purified by the drinking of the holy (?)\nwater which has touched the feet of his priest, at least that soul cannot\nbe contaminated by it. But who does not clearly see that the drinking of\nthe vile questions of the confessor contaminate, defile, and damn the soul?\n\nWho has not been filled with deep compassion and pity for those poor\nidolaters of Hindustan who believe that they will secure to themselves a\nhappy passage to the next life if they have the good luck to die when\nholding in their hands the tail of a cow? But there are people among us who\nare not less worthy of our supreme compassion and pity, for they hope that\nthey will be purified from their sins and be for ever happy if a few\nmagical words (called absolution) fall upon their souls from the polluted\nlips of a miserable sinner sent by the Pope of Rome. The dirty tail of a\ncow and the magical words of a confessor to purify the souls and wash away\nthe sins of the world are equally inventions of the Devil. Both religions\ncome from Satan, for they equally substitute the magical power of vile\ncreatures for the blood of Christ to save the guilty children of Adam. They\nboth ignore that the blood of the Lamb _alone_ cleanseth us from all sin.\n\nYes! auricular confession is a public act of idolatry, it is asking from a\nman what God _alone_, through His Son Jesus, can grant: forgiveness of\nsins. Has the Saviour of the world ever said to sinners, \"Go to this or\nthat man for repentance, pardon, and peace\"? No; but He has said to all\nsinners, \"Come unto Me.\" And from that day to the end of the world all the\nechoes of heaven and earth will repeat these words of the merciful Saviour\nto all the lost children of Adam, 'Come unto Me.'\n\nWhen Christ gave to His disciples the power of the keys in these words,\n\"Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever\nye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven\" (Matt. xviii. 18), He\nhad just explained His mind by saying, \"If thy brother shall trespass\nagainst thee\" (v. 15). The Son of God Himself in that solemn hour protested\nagainst the stupendous imposture of Rome by telling us positively that that\npower of binding and loosing, forgiving and retaining sins, was _only_ in\nreference to sins committed against _each other_. Peter had correctly\nunderstood his Master's words when he asked, \"How oft shall my brother sin\n_against me_ and I forgive him?\"\n\nAnd in order that His true disciples might not be shaken by the sophisms of\nRome, or by the glittering nonsense of that band of silly half-Popish sect\ncalled Tractarians, or Ritualists, the merciful Saviour gave the admirable\nparable of the poor servant, which He closed by what He has so often\nrepeated, \"So likewise shall my Heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye\nfrom your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.\"\n(Matt. xviii. 35).\n\nNot long before, He had again mercifully given us his whole mind about the\nobligation and _power_ which every one of His disciples had of forgiving\n\"For if ye forgive even their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also\nforgive you: but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your\nFather forgive your trespasses\" (Matt. vi. 14, 15).\n\n\"Be ye therefore merciful as your father also is merciful, forgive and ye\nshall be forgiven\" (Luke vi. 36, 37).\n\nAuricular Confession, as the Rev. Dr. Wainwright has so eloquently put it\nin his \"Confession not Auricular,\" is a diabolical caricature of the\nforgiveness of sin through the blood of Christ, just as the impious dogma\nof Transubstantiation is a monstrous caricature of the salvation of the\nworld through His death.\n\nThe Romanists and their ugly tail, the Ritualistic party in the Episcopal\nChurch, make a great noise about the words of our Saviour in St. John:\n\"Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them: and whose soever\nsins ye retain, they are retained\" (John xx. 23).\n\nBut again, our Saviour had Himself, once for all, explained what He meant\nby forgiving and retaining sins--(Matt. xviii. 35; Matt. vi. 14, 15; Luke\nvi. 36, 37).\n\nNobody but wilfully-blind men could misunderstand Him. Besides that, the\nHoly Ghost Himself has mercifully taken care that we should not be deceived\nby the lying traditions of men on that important subject, when in St. Luke\nHe gave us the explanation of the meaning of John xx. 23, by telling us,\n\"Thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:\nand that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name\namong all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.\" (Luke xxiv. 46, 47).\n\nIn order that we may better understand the words of our Saviour in St. John\nxx. 23, let us put them face to face with his own explanations (Luke xxiv.\n46, 47):--\n\n        LUKE XXIV.                               JOHN XX.\n\n33. And they rose up the same hour,  18. Mary Magdalene came and told\nand returned to Jerusalem, and       the disciples that she had seen the\nfound the eleven gathered together,  Lord, and that he had spoken these\nand them that were with them,        things unto her.\n\n34. Saying, The Lord is risen\nindeed, and hath appeared to\nSimon....\n\n36. And as they thus spake, Jesus    19. Then the same day at evening,\nhimself stood in the midst of them,  being the first day of the week,\nand saith unto them, Peace be unto   when the doors were shut where the\nyou.                                 disciples were assembled for fear\n                                     of the Jews, came Jesus and stood\n37. But they were terrified and      in the midst, and said unto them,\naffrighted, and supposed that they   Peace be unto you.\nhad seen a spirit.\n\n38. And he said unto them, Why are\nye troubled? and why do thoughts\narise in your hearts?\n\n39. Behold my hands and my feet,     20. And when he had so said, he\nthat it is I myself: handle me, and  shewed unto them his hands and his\nsee; for a spirit hath not flesh     side. Then were the disciples glad,\nand bones, as ye see me have.        when they saw the Lord.\n\n40. And when he had thus spoken, he\nshewed them his hands and his feet.\n\n41. And while they yet believed not\nfor joy, and wondered, he said unto\nthem, Have ye here any meat?\n\n42. And they gave him a piece of a\nbroiled fish, and of an honeycomb.\n\n43. And he took it, and did eat\nbefore them.\n\n44. And he said unto them, These     21. Then said Jesus to them again,\nare the words which I spake unto     Peace be unto you: as my Father\nyou, while I was yet with you, that  hath sent me, even so send I you.\nall things must be fulfilled, which\nwere written in the law of Moses,\nand in the prophets, and in the\npsalms, concerning me.\n\n45. Then opened he their             22. And when he had said this, he\nunderstanding, that they might       breathed on them, and saith unto\nunderstand the scriptures,           them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:\n\n46. And said unto them, Thus it is\nwritten, and thus it behoved Christ\nto suffer, and to rise from the\ndead the third day:\n\n47. And that repentance and          23. Whose soever sins ye remit,\nremission of sin should be preached  they are remitted unto them; whose\nin his name among all nations,       soever sins ye retain, they are\nbeginning at Jerusalem.              retained.\n\nThree things are evident from comparing the report of St. John and St.\nLuke:--\n\n1. They speak of the same event, though one of them gives certain details\nomitted by the other, as we find in the rest of the gospels.\n\n2. The words of St. John, \"Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted\nunto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained,\" are\nexplained by the Holy Ghost Himself, in St. Luke, as meaning that the\napostles shall preach repentance and forgiveness of sins through Christ. It\nis just what our Saviour has Himself said in St. Matt. ix. 13: \"But go ye\nand learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am\nnot come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.\"\n\nIt is just the same doctrine taught by Peter (Acts ii. 38): \"Then Peter\nsaid unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of\nJesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of\nthe Holy Ghost.\"\n\nJust the same doctrine of the forgiveness of sins, not through auricular\nconfession or absolution, but through the preaching of the Word: \"Be it\nknown unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is\npreached unto you the forgiveness of sins\" (Acts xiii. 38).\n\n3. The third thing which is evident is that the Apostles were not alone\nwhen Christ appeared and spoke, but that several of His other disciples,\neven some women, were there.\n\nIf the Romanists, then, could prove that Christ established auricular\nconfession, and gave the power of absolution, by what He said in that\nsolemn hour, women as well as men--in fact, every believer in Christ--would\nbe authorized to hear confessions and give absolution. The Holy Ghost was\nnot promised or given only to the Apostles, but to every believer, as we\nsee in Acts i. 15, and ii. 1, 2, 3.\n\nBut the Gospel of Christ, as the history of the first ten centuries of\nChristianity, is the witness that auricular confession and absolution are\nnothing else but a sacrilegious as well as a most stupendous imposture.\n\nWhat tremendous efforts the priests of Rome have made these last five\ncenturies, and are still making, to persuade their dupes that the Son of\nGod was making of them a privileged caste, a caste endowed with the Divine\nand exclusive power of opening and shutting the gates of Heaven, when He\nsaid, \"Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven, and\nwhatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven.\"\n\nBut our adorable Saviour, who perfectly foresaw those diabolical efforts on\nthe part of the priests of Rome, entirely upset every vestige of their\nfoundation by saying immediately, \"Again I say unto you, That if two of you\nshall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be\ndone for them of my Father which is in Heaven. For where two or three are\ngathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them\" (Matt.\nxviii. 19, 20).\n\nWould the priests of Rome attempt to make us believe that these words of\nthe 19th and 20th verses are addressed to them exclusively? They have not\nyet dared to say it. They confess that these words are addressed to all His\ndisciples. But our Saviour positively says that the other words,\nimplicating the so-called power of the priests to hear the confession and\ngive the absolution, are addressed to the _very same persons_--\"I say unto\nyou,\" &c., &c. The _you_ of the 19th and 20th verses is the same _you_ of\nthe 18th. The power of loosing and unloosing is, then, given to all--those\nwho would be offended and would forgive. Then, our Saviour had not in His\nmind to form a caste of men with any marvellous power over the rest of His\ndisciples. The priests of Rome, then, are impostors, and nothing else, when\nthey say that the power of loosing and unloosing sins was exclusively\ngranted to them.\n\nInstead of going to the confessor, let the Christian go to his merciful\nGod, through Christ, and say, \"Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them\nthat trespass against us.\" This is the Truth, not as it comes from the\nVatican, but as it comes from Calvary, where our debts were paid, with the\nonly condition that we should believe, repent, and love.\n\nHave not the Popes publicly and repeatedly anathematized the sacred\nprinciple of Liberty of Conscience? Have they not boldly said, in the teeth\nof the nations of Europe, that _Liberty_ of Conscience must be\ndestroyed--killed at any cost? Has not the whole world heard the sentence\nof death to Liberty coming from the lips of the old man of the Vatican? But\nwhere is the scaffold on which the doomed Liberty must perish? That\nscaffold is the confessional-box. Yes, in the confessional, the Pope had\nhis 100,000 high executioners! There they are, day and night, with-sharp\ndaggers in hand, stabbing Liberty to the heart.\n\nIn vain will noble France expel her old tyrants to be free; in vain will\nshe shed the purest blood of her heart to protect and save Liberty! True\nLiberty cannot live a day there so long as the executioners of the Pope are\nfree to stab her on their 100,000 scaffolds.\n\nIn vain chivalrous Spain will call Liberty to give a new life to her\npeople. She cannot set her feet there except to die, so long as the Pope is\nallowed to strike her in his 50,000 confessionals.\n\nAnd free America, too, will see all her so dearly-bought liberties\ndestroyed the day that the confessional-box is reared in her midst.\n\nAuricular Confession and Liberty cannot stand together on the same ground;\neither one or the other must fall.\n\nLiberty must sweep away the confessional, as she has swept away the demon\nof slavery, or she is doomed to perish.\n\nCan a man be free in his own house, so long as there is another who has the\nlegal right to spy all his actions, and direct not only every step, but\nevery thought of his wife and children? Can that man boast of a home whose\nwife and children are under the control of another? Is not that unfortunate\nman really the slave of the ruler and master of his household? And when a\nwhole nation is composed of such husbands and fathers, is it not a nation\nof abject, degraded slaves?\n\nTo a thinking man, one of the most strange phenomena is that our modern\nnations allow all their most sacred rights to be trampled under feet, and\ndestroyed by the Papacy, the sworn enemy of Liberty, through a mistaken\nrespect and love for that same Liberty!\n\nNo people have more respect for Liberty of Conscience than the Americans;\nbut has the noble State of Illinois allowed Joe Smith and Brigham Young to\ndegrade and enslave the American women under the pretext of Liberty of\nConscience, appealed to by the so-called \"Latter-day Saints?\" No! The\nground was soon made too hot for the tender conscience of the modern\nprophets. Joe Smith perished when attempting to keep his captive wives in\nhis chains, and Brigham Young had to fly to the solitudes of the Far West,\nto enjoy what he called his liberty of conscience with the thirty women he\nhad degraded and enchained under his yoke. But even in that remote solitude\nthe false prophet has heard the distant peals of the roaring thunder. The\nthreatening voice of the great Republic has troubled his rest, and he\nwisely speaks of going as much as possible out of the reach of Christian\ncivilization, before the dark and threatening clouds which he sees on the\nhorizon will hurl upon him their irresistible storms.\n\nWill any one blame the American people for so going to the rescue of woman?\nNo, surely not.\n\nBut what is this confessional-box? Nothing but a citadel and stronghold of\nMormonism.\n\nWhat is this Father Confessor, with few exceptions, but a lucky Brigham\nYoung?\n\nI do not want to be believed on my _ipse dixit_. What I ask from serious\nthinkers is, that they should read the encyclicals of the Piuses, the\nGregorys, the Benoits, and many other Popes, \"De Sollicitantibus.\" There\nthey will see, with their own eyes, that, as a general thing, the confessor\nhas more women to serve him than the Mormon prophets ever had. Let them\nread the memoirs of one of the most venerable men of the Church of Rome,\nBishop de Ricci, and they will see, with their own eyes, that the\nconfessors are more free with their penitents, even nuns, than husbands are\nwith their wives. Let them hear the testimony of one of the noblest\nprincesses of Italy, Henrietta Carraciolo, who still lives, and they will\nknow that the Mormons have more respect for women than the greater part of\nthe confessors have. Let them hear the lamentations of Cardinal Baronius,\nSaint Bernard, Savanarola, Pius, Gregory, St. Therese, St. Liguori, on the\nunspeakable and irreparable ruin spread all along the ways and all over the\ncountries haunted by the Pope's confessors, and they will know that the\nconfessional-box is the daily witness of abominations which would hardly\nhave been tolerated in the lands of Sodom and Gomorrha. Let the\nlegislators, the fathers and husbands of every nation and tongue,\ninterrogate Father Gavazzi, Hyacinthe, and the thousands of living priests\nwho, like myself, have miraculously been taken out from that Egyptian\nservitude to the promised land, and they will tell you the same old, old\nstory--that the confessional-box is for the greatest part of the confessors\nand female penitents, a real pit of perdition, into which they\npromiscuously fall and perish. Yes; they will tell you that the soul and\nheart of your wife and daughter are purified by the magical words of the\nconfessional, just as the souls of the poor idolaters of Hindoostan are\npurified by the tail of the cow which they hold in their hands when they\ndie. Study the pages of the past history of England, France, Italy, Spain,\n&c., &c., and you will see that the gravest and most reliable historians\nhave everywhere found mysteries of iniquity in the confessional-box which\ntheir pen refused to trace.\n\nIn the presence of such public, undeniable, and lamentable facts, have not\nthe civilized nations a duty to perform? Is it not time that the children\nof light, the true disciples of the Gospel, all over the world, should\nrally round the banners of Christ, and go, shoulder to shoulder, to the\nrescue of women?\n\nWoman is to society what the roots are to the most precious trees of your\norchard. If you knew that a thousand worms are biting the root of those\nnoble trees, that their leaves are already fading away, their rich fruits,\nthough yet unripe, are falling on the ground, would you not unearth the\nroots and sweep away the worms?\n\nThe confessor is the worm which is biting, polluting, and destroying the\nvery roots of civil and religious society, by contaminating, debasing, and\nenslaving woman.\n\nBefore the nations can see the reign of peace, happiness, and liberty,\nwhich Christ has promised, they must, like the Israelites, pull down the\nwalls of Jericho. The confessional is the modern Jericho, which proudly and\ndefiantly dares the children of God!\n\nLet, then, the people of the Lord, the true soldiers of Christ, rise up and\nrally around His banners; and let them fearlessly march, shoulder to\nshoulder, on the doomed city: let all the trumpets of Israel be sounded\naround its walls: let fervent prayers go to the throne of Mercy, from the\nheart of every one for whom the Lamb has been slain: let such a unanimous\ncry of indignation be heard, through the length and breadth of the land,\nagainst that greatest and most monstrous imposture of modern times, that\nthe earth will tremble under the feet of the confessor, so that his very\nknees will shake, and soon the walls of Jericho will fall, the confessional\nwill disappear, and its unspeakable pollutions will no more imperil the\nvery existance of society.\n\nThen the multitudes who were kept captive will come to the Lamb, who will\nmake them pure with His blood and free with His word.\n\nThen the redeemed nations will sing a song of joy: \"Babylon, the great, the\nmother of harlots and abominations of the earth, is fallen! fallen!\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\nDOES AURICULAR CONFESSION BRING PEACE TO THE SOUL?\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe connecting of Peace with Auricular Confession is surely the most cruel\nsarcasm ever uttered in human language.\n\nIt would be less ridiculous and false to admire the calmness of the sea,\nand the stillness of the atmosphere, when a furious storm raises the\nfoaming waves to the skies, than to speak of the Peace of the soul either\nduring or after the confession.\n\nI know it; the confessors and their dupes chorus every tune by crying\n\"Peace, peace\"! But the God of truth and holiness answers, \"There is no\npeace for the wicked!\"\n\nThe fact is, that no human words can adequately express the anxieties of\nthe soul before confession, its unspeakable confusion in the act of\nconfessing, or its deadly terrors after confession.\n\nLet those who have never drunk of the bitter waters which flow from the\nconfessional box, read the following plain and correct recital of my own\nfirst experiences in auricular confession. They are nothing else than the\nhistory of what nine tenths of the penitents[5] of Rome old and young are\nsubject to; and they will know what to think of that marvellous Peace about\nwhich the Romanists, and their silly copyists, the Ritualists, have written\nso many eloquent lies.\n\nIn the year 1819, my parents had sent me from Murray Bay (La Mal Baie)\nwhere they lived, to an excellent school, at St. Thomas. I was then, about\nten years old. I boarded with an uncle, who, though a nominal Roman\nCatholic, did not believe a word of what his priest preached. But my Aunt\nhad the reputation of being a very devoted woman. Our School-master, Mr.\nJohn Jones, was a well educated Englishman: and a staunch PROTESTANT. This\nlast circumstance had excited the wrath of the Roman Catholic Priest\nagainst the teacher and his numerous pupils to such an extent, that they\nwere often denounced from the pulpit with very hard words. But if he did\nnot like us, I must admit that we were paying him with his own coin.\n\nBut let us come to my first lesson in Auricular Confession, No! No words\ncan express to those who have never had any experience in the matter, the\nconsternation, anxiety and shame of a poor Romish child, when he hears his\npriest saying from the pulpit, in a grave and solemn tone; \"This week, you\nwill send your children to confession. Make them understand that this\naction is one of the most important of their lives, that for every one of\nthem, it will decide their eternal happiness or ruin. Fathers, Mothers and\nguardians of those children, if, through your fault or theirs, your\nchildren are guilty of a false confession: if they do not confess every\nthing to the priest who holds the place of God, Himself, this sin is often\nirreparable: the Devil will take possession of their hearts: they will lie\nto their father confessor, or rather to Jesus Christ, of whom he is the\nrepresentative: Their lives will be a series of sacrileges, their death and\neternity, those of reprobates. Teach them therefore to examine thoroughly\nall their actions, words, thoughts and desires, in order to confess every\nthing just as it occurred, without any disguise.\"\n\nI was in the Church of St. Thomas, when these words fell upon me like a\nthunderbolt. I had often heard my mother say, when at home and my aunt,\nsince I had come to St. Thomas, that upon the first confession depended my\neternal happiness or misery. That week was, therefore, to decide the vital\nquestion of my eternity!\n\nPale and dismayed, I left the church after the service, and returned to the\nhouse of my relations. I took my place at the table, but could not eat, so\nmuch was I troubled. I went to my room for the purpose of commencing my\nexamination of conscience, and to try to recall every one of my sinful\nactions, thoughts and words!\n\nAlthough scarcely over ten years of age, this task was really overwhelming\nto me. I knelt down to pray to the Virgin Mary for help, but I was so much\ntaken up with the fear of forgetting something or making a bad confession,\nthat I muttered my prayers without the least attention to what I said. It\nbecame still worse, when I commenced counting my sins, my memory, though\nvery good, became confused: my head grew dizzy: my heart beat with a\nrapidity which exhausted me, and my brow was covered with perspiration.\nAfter a considerable length of time, spent in those painful efforts, I felt\nbordering on despair from the fear that it was impossible for me to\nremember exactly every thing, and to confess each sin as it occurred. The\nnight following was almost a sleepless one: and when sleep did come, it\ncould hardly be called sleep, but a suffocating delirium. In a frightful\ndream, I felt as if I had been cast into hell, for not having confessed all\nmy sins to the priest. In the morning, I awoke fatigued, and prostrate by\nthe phantoms and emotions of that terrible night. In similar troubles of\nmind were passed the three days which preceeded my first confession.\n\nI had constantly before me the countenance of that stern priest who had\nnever smiled upon me. He was present to my thoughts during the days, and in\nmy dreams during the nights, as the minister of an angry God, justly\nirritated against me, on account of my sins. Forgiveness had indeed been\npromised to me, on condition of a good confession; but my place had also\nbeen shown to me in hell, if my confession was not as near perfection as\npossible.\n\nNow, my troubled conscience told me that there were ninety chances against\none that my confession would be bad, either if by my own fault, I forget\nsome sins, or if I was without that contrition of which I had heard so\nmuch, but the nature and effects of which were a perfect chaos in my mind.\n\nAt length came the day of confession, or rather of judgment and\ncondemnation. I presented myself to the priest, the Rev. Mr. Beaubien.\n\nHe had then, the defects of lisping and stammering which we, often turned\ninto ridicule. And as nature had unfortunately endowed me with admirable\npowers as a mimic, the infirmities of this poor priest afforded only too\ngood an opportunity for the exercise of my talent. Not only was it one of\nmy favorite amusements to imitate him before the pupils amidst roars of\nlaughter but also, I preached portions of his sermons before his\nparishioners of villages, with similar results. Indeed, many of them came\nfrom considerable distances to enjoy the amusement of listening to me, and\nthey rewarded me, more than once, with cakes of maple sugar, for my\nperformances.\n\nThese acts of mimicry were, of course, among my sins; and it became\nnecessary for me to examine myself upon the number of times I had mocked\nthe priests. This circumstance was not calculated to make my confession\neasier or more agreeable.\n\nAt last, the dread moment arrived, I knelt for the first time, at the side\nof my confessor, my whole frame trembled: I repeated the prayer preparatory\nto confession, scarcely knowing what I said, so much was I troubled by\nfears.\n\nBy the instructions which had been given us before confession, we had been\nmade to believe that the priest was the true representative, yea, almost\nthe personification of Jesus Christ. The consequence was that I believed my\ngreatest sin was that of mocking the priest--and I, as I had been told that\nit was proper first to confess the greatest sins, I commenced thus: \"Father\nI accuse myself of having mocked a priest!\"\n\nHardly had I uttered these words, \"mocked a priest\", when this pretended\nrepresentative of the humble Jesus, turning towards me, and looking in my\nface, in order to know me, better, asked abruptly; \"what priest did you\nmock, my boy?\"\n\nI would have rather chosen to cut my own tongue than to tell him to his\nface who it was. I, therefore, kept silent for a while, but my silence made\nhim very nervous, and almost angry. With a haughty tone of voice, he said:\n\"what priest did you take the liberty of thus mocking, my boy?\" I saw that\nI had to answer. Happily his haughtiness had made me bolder and firmer; I\nsaid: \"sir, you are the priest whom I mocked!\"\n\n\"But how many times did you take upon you to mock me, my boy?\" asked he\nangrily.\n\n\"I tried to find out the number of times, but I never could.\"\n\n\"You must tell me how many times, for to mock one's own priest is a great\nsin.\"\n\n\"It is impossible for me to give you the number of times,\" I answered.\n\n\"Well, my child, I will help your memory by asking you questions. Tell me\nthe truth. Do you think you mocked me ten times?\"\n\n\"A great many times more,\" I answered.\n\n\"Have you mocked me fifty times?\"\n\n\"Oh! many more still!\"\n\n\"A hundred times?\"\n\n\"Say, five hundred, and perhaps more;\" I answered.\n\n\"Well, my boy, do you spend all your time in mocking me?\"\n\n\"Not all my time: but unfortunately, I have done it very often.\"\n\n\"Yes may you say: \"unfortunately!\" for to mock, your priest, who holds the\nplace of our Lord Jesus Christ, is a great sin and a great misfortune for\nyou. But tell me, my little boy, what reason have you for mocking me,\nthus?\"\n\nIn my examination of conscience, I had not forseen that I should be obliged\nto give the reasons for mocking the priest, and I was thunderstruck by his\nquestions. I dared not answer, and I remained for a long time dumb, from\nthe shame that overpowered me. But, with a harassing perseverance, the\npriest insisted upon my telling why I had mocked him: assuring me that I\nwould be damned if I did not speak the whole truth. So, I decided to speak,\nand I said: \"I mocked you for several things.\"\n\n\"What made you, first mock me?\" asked the priest.\n\n\"I laughed at you, because you lisp: among the pupils of the school, and\nother people, it often happens that we imitate your preaching to laugh at\nyou,\" I answered.\n\n\"For what other reasons did you laugh at me, my little boy!\"\n\nFor a long time I was silent. Every time I opened my mouth to speak, my\ncourage failed me. But the priest continued to urge me, I said at last; \"It\nis rumoured in town, that you love girls: that you visit the Misses\nR's----almost every night; and this, often made us laugh.\"\n\nThe poor priest was evidently overwhelmed by my answer, and ceased\nquestioning me on that subject. Changing the conversation, he said: \"what\nare your other sins?\"\n\nI began to confess them according to the order in which they came to my\nmemory. But the feeling of shame which overpowered me, in repeating all my\nsins to that man, was a thousand times greater than that of having offended\nGod. In reality, this feeling of human shame, which absorbed my thoughts,\nnay, my whole being, left no room for any religious feeling at all.\n\nWhen I had confessed all the sins I could remember, the priest began to put\nto me the strangest questions about matters on which my pen must be\nsilent.... I replied \"Father, I do not understand what you ask me.\"\n\n\"I question you,\" he answered, \"on the the sins of the sixth commandment of\nGod, (the seventh in the Bible) Do confess all, my little boy, for you will\ngo to hell if, through your fault you omit any thing.\"\n\nAnd thereupon he dragged my thoughts into regions of iniquity which, thanks\nbe to God, had been hitherto quite unknown to me.\n\nI answered him again, \"I do not understand you,\" or \"I have never done\nthose wicked things.\"\n\nThen, skillfully shifting to some secondary matters, he would soon slyly\nand cunningly come back to his favorite subject, namely, sins of\nlicentiousness.\n\nHis questions were so unclean that I blushed and felt nauseated with\ndisgust and shame. More than once, I had been to my great regret, in the\ncompany of bad boys, but not one of them had offended my moral nature so\nmuch as this priest had done. Not one of them had ever approached the\nshadow of the things from which that man tore the veil, and which he placed\nbefore the eyes of my soul. In vain I told him that I was not guilty of\nthose things; that I did not even understand what he asked me; but he would\nnot let me off.\n\nLike a vulture bent upon tearing the poor defenceless bird that falls into\nits claws, that cruel priest seemed determined to defile and ruin my heart.\n\nAt last, he asked me a question in a form of expression so bad that I was\nreally pained and put beside myself. I felt as if I had received the shock\nfrom an electric battery: a feeling of horror made me shudder. I was filled\nwith such indignation that speaking loud enough to be heard by many, I told\nhim: \"Sir, I am very wicked, but I was never guilty of what you mention to\nme: please don't ask me any more of those questions which will teach me\nmore wickedness than I ever knew.\"\n\nThe remainder of my confession was short. The stern rebuke I had given him\nhad evidently made that priest blush, if it had not frightened him. He\nstopped short, and gave me some very good advice which might have done me\ngood, if the deep wounds which his questions had inflicted upon my soul,\nhad not so absorbed my thoughts, as to prevent me from giving attention to\nwhat he said. He gave me a short penance and dismissed me.\n\nI left the confessional irritated and confused. From the shame of what I\nhad just heard, I dared not raise my eyes from the ground. I went into a\ncorner of the church to do my penance, that is to recite the prayers which\nhe had indicated to me. I remained for a long time in the church. I had\nneed of a calm, after the terrible trial through which I had just passed.\nBut vainly sought I for rest. The shameful questions which had just been\nasked from me, the new world of iniquity into which I been introduced, the\nimpure phantoms by which my childish head had been defiled, confused and\ntroubled my mind so strongly, that I began to weep bitterly.\n\nI left the church only when forced to do so by the shades of night, and\ncame back to my uncle's house, with a feeling of shame and uneasiness, as\nif I had done a bad action and feared lest I should be detected. My trouble\nwas much increased when my uncle, jestingly, said: \"now that you have been\nto confess, you will be a good boy. But if you are not a better boy, you\nwill be a more learned one, if your confessor has taught you what mine did\nwhen I confessed for the first time.\"\n\nI blushed and remained silent. My aunt said: \"you must feel happy, now that\nyou have made your confession: do you not?\"\n\nI gave an evasive answer, but could not entirely conceal the confusion\nwhich overwhelmed me. I went to bed early; but I could hardly sleep.\n\nI thought that I was the only boy whom the priest had asked these polluting\nquestions: but great was my confusion, the next day when on going to\nschool, I learned that my companions had not been happier than I had been.\nThe only difference was that, instead of being grieved as I was, they\nlaughed at it.\n\n\"Did the priest ask you this and that,\" they would demand laughing\nboisterously; I refused to reply, and said: \"are you not ashamed to speak\nof these things.\"\n\n\"Ah! Ah! how scrupulous you are:\" continued they, \"if it is not a sin for\nthe priest to speak to us on these matters, how can it be a sin for us to\nlaugh at it.\" I felt confounded, not knowing what to answer. But my\nconfusion increased not a little, when soon after, I perceived that the\nyoung girls of the school had not been less polluted, or scandalized than\nthe boys. Although keeping at a sufficient distance from us to prevent us\nfrom understanding every thing they had to say on their confessional\nexperience, those girls were sufficiently near to let us hear many things\nwhich it would have been better for us not to know. Some of them seemed\nthoughtful, sad and shameful: but several laughed heartily at what they had\nlearned in the confessional box.\n\nI was very indignant against the priest; and thought in myself, that he was\na very wicked man, for having put to us such repelling questions. But I was\nwrong. That priest was honest; he was only doing his duty, as I have known\nsince, when studying the theologians of Rome. The Rev. Mr. Beaubien was a\nreal gentleman, and if he had been free to follow the dictates of his\nhonest conscience it is my strong conviction he would never have sullied\nour young hearts with such impure ideas. But what has the honest conscience\nof a priest to do in the confessional, except to be silent and dumb? The\npriest of Rome is an automaton, tied to the feet of the Pope by an iron\nchain. He can move, go right or left, up or down; he can think and act, but\nonly at the bidding of the infallible god of Rome. The priest knows the\nwill of his modern divinity only through his approved emissaries,\nembassadors and theologians. With shame on my brow, and bitter tears of\nregret flowing just now, on my cheeks, I confess that I have had myself to\nlearn by heart those damning questions, and put them to the young and the\nold; who like me, were fed with the diabolical doctrines of the church of\nRome, in reference to auricular confession.\n\nSome time after, some people waylaid and whipped that very same priest,\nwhen during a very dark night he was coming back from visiting his fair\nyoung penitents the Misses Rs.... And the next day, the conspirators having\nmet at the house of Dr. Stephen Tache, to give a report of what they had\ndone to the half _secret_ society to which they belonged, I was invited by\nmy young friend Louis Casault[6] to conceal myself with him, in an\nadjoining room, where we could hear every thing without being seen. I find\nin the old manuscripts of \"my young year's recollections\" the following\naddress of Mr. Dubord.\n\nMr. President--\"I was not among those who gave to the priest the expression\nof the public feelings with the eloquent voice of the whip: but I wish I\nhad been, I would heartily have co-operated to give that so well deserved\nlesson to the father confessors of Canada, and let me give you my reasons\nfor that.\n\n\"My child who is hardly twelve years old, went to confess, as did the other\ngirls of the village, some time ago. It was against my will. I know, by my\nown experience, that of all actions, confession is the most degrading of a\nperson's life. I can imagine nothing so well calculated to destroy forever\none's self-respect, as the modern invention of the confessional. Now, what\nis a person without self-respect? Especially a woman? Is not all forever\nlost without this?\n\n\"In the confessional every thing is corruption of the lowest grade. There,\nthe girl's thoughts, lips, hearts and souls are forever polluted. Do I need\nto prove you this? No! for though you have given up, long since auricular\nconfession, as below the dignity of man, you have not forgotten the lessons\nof corruption which you have received from it. Those lessons have remained\non your souls as the scars left by the red hot iron upon the brow of the\nslave to be a perpetual witness of his shame and servitude.\n\n\"The confessional box is the place where our wives and daughters learn\nthings which would make the most degraded woman of our cities blush!\n\n\"Why are all Roman Catholic nations inferior to nations belonging to\nProtestanism? only in the confessional can the solution of that problem be\nfound. And why are Roman Catholic nations degraded in proportion to their\nsubmission to their priests? It is because the more often the individuals\ncomposing those nations go to confess, the more rapidly they sink in the\nsphere of intelligence and morality. A terrible example of the auricular\nconfession depravity has just occurred in my own family.\n\n\"As I have said a moment ago, I was against my own daughter going to\nconfession, but her poor mother, who is under the control of the priest,\nearnestly wanted her to go. Not to have a disagreeable scene in my house, I\nhad to yield to the tears of my wife.\n\n\"On the following day of the confession, they believed I was absent, but I\nwas in my office, with the door sufficiently opened to hear every thing\nwhich could be said by my wife and the child. And the following\nconversation took place:\n\n\"What makes you so thoughtful and sad my dear Lucy, since you went to\nconfess? It seems to me you should feel happier since you had the privilege\nof confessing your sins.\"\n\nMy child answered not a word, she remained absolutely silent.\n\nAfter two or three minutes of silence, I heard the mother saying: \"Why do\nyou weep, my dear Lucy? are you sick?\"\n\nBut no answer yet from the child!\n\n\"You may well suppose that I was all attention, I had my secret suspicions\nabout the dreadful mystery which had taken place. My heart throbbed with\nuneasiness and anger.\n\n\"After a short silence, my wife spoke again to her child, but with\nsufficient firmness to decide her to answer at last. In a trembling voice,\nshe said:\n\n\"Oh I dear Mamma, if you knew what the priest has asked me and what he said\nto me when I confessed, you would perhaps be sad as I am.\"\n\n\"But what can he have said to you? He is a holy man, you must have\nmisunderstood him, if you think that he has said anything wrong.\"\n\n\"My child threw herself in her mother's arms, and answered with a voice\nhalf suffocated with her sobs: \"Do not ask me to tell you what the priest\nhas said--it is so shameful that I can not repeat it--His words have stuck\nto my heart as the leech put upon the arm of my little friend, the other\nday.\"\n\n\"What does that priest think of me, for having put to me such questions?\"\n\nMy wife answered: \"I will go to the priest and will teach him a lesson. I\nhave noticed myself that he goes too far when questioning old people, but I\nhad the hope he was more prudent with children. I ask of you, however,\nnever to speak of this to anybody, especially; let not your poor father\nknow anything about it; for he has little enough of religion already, and\nthis would leave him without any at all.\"\n\n\"I could not refrain myself any longer: I abruptly entered the parlor. My\ndaughter threw herself into my arms: my wife screamed with terror, and\nalmost fell into a swoon. I said to my child: If you love me, put your hand\non my heart, and promise never to go again to confess. Fear God, my child,\nlove Him and walk in his presence. For his eyes see you everywhere.\nRemember that He is always ready to forgive and bless you every time you\nturn your heart to him. Never place yourself again at the feet of a priest\nto be defiled and degraded.\"\n\n\"This my daughter promised to me.\n\n\"When my wife had recovered from her surprise, I told her.\n\n\"Madame, it is long since the priest is everything, and your husband\nnothing to you! There is a hidden and terrible power which governs you, it\nis the power of the priest: this you have often denied, but it can not be\ndenied any longer, the Providence of God has decided, to day, that this\npower should forever be destroyed in my house, I want to be the only ruler\nof my family: from this moment the power of the priest over you is forever\nabolished. Whenever you go and take your heart and your secrets to the feet\nof the priest, be so kind as not to come back any more into my house as my\nwife.\"\n\nThis is one of the thousand and thousand specimens of the peace of\nconscience brought to the soul through auricular confession. I could give\nmany similar instances, if it were my intention to publish a treatise on\nthis subject, but as I only desire to write a short chapter, I will adduce\nbut one other fact to show the awful deception practised by the Church of\nRome when she invites persons to come to confession under the pretext that\n_peace_ to the soul will be the reward of their obedience. Let us hear the\ntestimony of another living and unimpeachable witness about this peace of\nthe soul, before, during, and after auricular confession. In her remarkable\nbook \"Personal experience of Roman Catholicism\" Miss Eliza Richardson,\nwrites, (Page 34 and 35.)\n\n\"Thus I silenced my foolish quibbling, and went on to the test of a\nconvert's fervour and sincerity in confession. And here was assuredly a\nfresh source of pain and disquiet, and one not so easily vanquished. \"The\ntheory had appeared, as a whole, fair and rational, but the reality, in\nsome of its details, _was terrible_!\"\n\n\"Divested, for the public gaze, of its darkest ingredients, and dressed up,\nin their theological works, in false and meretricious pretentions to truth\nand purity, it exhibited a dogma only calculated to exert a beneficial\ninfluence on mankind, and to prove a source of morality and usefulness.\n_But oh, as with all ideals, how unlike was the actual!_\"\n\n\"Here, however, I may remark, in passing, the effect produced upon my mind\nby the first sight of the _older_ editions of \"the Garden of the Soul\". I\nremember the stumbling-block it was to me, my sense of womanly delicacy was\nshocked. It was a dark page in my experience, when first I knelt at the\nfeet of a mortal man to confess what should have been poured into the ear\nof God alone. I cannot dwell upon this....\"\n\n\"Though I believe my Confessor was, on the whole, as guarded as his manners\nwere kind; at some things I was strangely startled, utterly confounded.\"\n\n\"The purity of mind and delicacy in which I had been nurtured, had not\nprepared me for such an ordeal; and my own sincerity, and dread of\ncommitting a sacrilege, tended to augment the painfulness of the occasion.\nOne circumstance especially I will recall, which my fettered conscience\npersuaded me I was obliged to name. My distress and terror, doubtless, made\nme less explicit than I otherwise might have been. The questioning,\nhowever, it elicited, and the ideas supplied by it, outraged my feelings to\nsuch an extent, that, forgetting all respect for my Confessor, and\ncareless, even, at the moment, whether I received absolution or not, I\nhastily exclaimed, \"I cannot say a word more,\" while the thought rushed\ninto my mind, \"all is true that their enemies say of them.\" Here, however\nprudence dictated to my questioner to put the matter no further; and the\nkind and almost respectful tone he _immediately_ assumed, went far towards\neffacing an impression so injurious. On rising from my knees, when I should\nhave gladly fled to any distance rather than have encountered his gaze, he\naddressed me in the most familiar manner on different subjects, and\ndetained me some time in talking. What share I took in the conversation, I\nnever knew and all that I remember, was my burning cheek, and inability to\nraise my eyes from the ground.\n\n\"Here I would not be supposed to be intentionally casting a stigma upon an\nindividual. Nor am I throwing unqualified blame upon the priesthood. _It is\nthe system which is at fault_, a system which teaches that things, even at\nthe _remembrance_ of which degraded humanity must blush in the presence of\nheaven and its angels, should be laid open, _dwelt upon, and exposed in\ndetail_, to the sullied ears of a corrupt and fallen fellow-mortal who of\nlike passions with the penitent at his feet, is thereby exposed to\ntemptations the most dark and dangerous. But what shall we say of woman?\nDraw a veil! Oh purity, modesty! and every womanly feeling! a veil as\noblivion, over the fearfully, dangerous experience thou art called to pass\nthrough! (page 37, and 38.\")\n\n\"Ah! there are things that cannot be recorded! facts too startling, and at\nthe same time, too delicately intricate, to admit a public portrayal, or\nmeet the public gaze; But the cheek can blush in secret at the true images\nwhich memory evokes, and the oppressed mind shrinks back, in horror, from\nthe dark shadows which have saddened and overwhelmed it. I appeal to\nconverts, to converts of the gentler sex, and ask them, fearlessly ask\nthem, what was the first impression made on your minds and feelings by the\nconfessional? I do not ask how subsequent familiarization has weakened the\neffects: but when acquaintance was first made with it, how were you\naffected by it? I ask not the impure, the already defiled, for to such, it\nis sadly susceptible of being made a darker source of guilt and shame;--but\nI appeal to the pure minded and delicate, the pure in heart and sentiment.\nWas not your _first_ impression one of inexpressible dread and\nbewilderment, followed by a sense of humiliation and degradation, not\neasily to be defined or supported? (page 39.) \"The memory of that time\n(first auricular confession) will ever be painful and abhorent to me;\nthough subsequent experience has thrown, even that, far into the back\nground. It was my initiatory lesson upon subjects which ought never to\nenter the imagination of girlhood: my introduction into a region which\nshould never be approached by the guileless and the pure.\" (page 61) One or\ntwo individuals (Roman Catholic) soon formed a close intimacy with me, and\ndiscoursed with a freedom and plainness I had never, before encountered. My\nacquaintances, however, had been brought up in convents, or familiar with\nthem for years, and I could not gainsay their statement.\n\n\"I was reluctant to believe more than I had experienced the proof, however,\nwas destined to come in no dubious shape at a no distant day.... A dark and\nsullied page of experience was fast opening upon me; but so unaccustomed\nwas the eye which scanned it, that I could not at all, at once, believe in\nits truth! And it was of hypocrisy so hateful, of sacrilege so terrible,\nand abuse so gross of all things pure and holy, and in the person of one\nbound by his vows, his position, and every law of his church, as well as of\nGod, to set a high example, that, for a time, all confidence in the very\nexistence of sincerity and goodness was in danger of being shaken,\nsacraments, deemed the most sacred, were profaned; vows disregarded,\nvaunted secrecy of the confessional covertly infringed, and its sanctity\nabused to an unhallowed purpose; while even private visitation was\nconverted into a channel for temptation, and made the occasion of unholy\nfreedom of words and manner. So ran the account of evil and a dire account\nit was. By it, all serious thoughts of religion were well nigh\nextinguished. The influence was fearful and polluting, the whirl of\nexcitement inexpressible: I cannot enter into minute particulars here,\nevery sense of feminine delicacy and womanly feeling shrink from such a\ntask. This much, however, I can say that I, in conjunction with two other\nyoung friends, took a journey to a confessor, an inmate of a religious\nhouse, who lived at some distance, to lay the affair before him; thinking\nthat he would take some remedial measures adequate to the urgency of the\ncase. He heard our united statements, expressed great indignation, and, at\nonce, commended us each to write and detail the circumstances of the case\nto the Bishop of the district. This we did; but of course, never heard the\nresult. The reminiscences of these dreary and wretched months seem now like\nsome hideous and guilty dream. It was actual familiarization with unholiest\nthings! (page 63.)\n\n\"The romish religion teaches that if you omit to name anything in\nconfession, however repugnant or revolting to purity, which you even doubt\nhaving committed, your subsequent confessions are thus rendered null and\nsacrilegious; while it also inculcates that sins of thought should be\nconfessed in order that the confessor may judge of their mortal or venial\ncharacter. What sort of a chain this links around the strictly\nconscientious I would attempt to portray, if I could. But it must have been\nworn to understand its torturing character! Suffice it to say that, for\nmonths past, according to this standard, I had not made a good confession\nat all! And now, filled with remorse for my past sacrilegious sinfulness, I\nresolved on making a new general confession to the _religieux_ alluded to.\nBut this confessor's scrupulosity exceeded everything I had, hitherto,\nencountered. He told me some things were mortal sins, which I had never\nbefore imagined could be such: and thus threw so many fetters around my\nconscience, that a host of anxieties for my first general confession was\nawakened within me. I had no resource then, but to re-make that, and thus I\nafresh entered on the bitter path I had deemed I should never have occasion\nagain to tread. But if my first confession had lacerated my feelings, what\nwas it to this one? Words have no power, language has no expression to\ncharacterise the emotion that marked it!\n\n\"The difficulty I felt in making a full and explicit avowal all that\ndistressed me, furnished my confessor with a plea for his assistance in the\nquestioning department, and fain would I conceal much of what passed then,\nas a foul blot on my memory. I soon found that he made mortal sins of what\nmy first confessor had professed to treat but lightly, and he did not\nscruple to say that I had never yet made a good confession at all. My ideas\ntherefore became more complicated and confused as I proceeded, until, at\nlength, I began to feel doubtful of ever accomplishing my task in any\ndegree satisfactorily: and my mind and memory were positively racked to\nrecall every iota of every kind, real or imaginary, that might, if omitted,\nhereafter be occasion of uneasiness. Things heretofore held comparatively\ntrifling were recounted, and pronounced damnable sins: and as, day after\nday, I knelt at the feet of that man, answering questions and listening to\nadmonitions calculated to bow my very soul to the dust, I felt as though I\nshould hardly be able to raise my head again!\" (page 63.)\n\nThis is the peace which flows from auricular confession. I solemnly declare\nthat except in a few cases, in which the confidence of the penitents is\nbordering on idiocy, or in which they have been transformed into immoral\nbrutes, nine-tenths of the multitudes who go to confess, are obliged to\nrecount some such desolate narrative as that of Miss Richardson, when they\nare sufficiently honest to say the truth.\n\nThe most fanatical apostles of auricular confession cannot deny that the\nexamination of conscience, which must precede confession, is a most\ndifficult task; a task which, instead of filling the mind with peace, fills\nit with anxiety and serious fears. Is it then only after confession that\nthey promise such peace? But they know very well that this promise is also\na cruel deception ... for to make a good confession, the penitent has to\nrelate not only all his bad actions, but all his bad thoughts and desires,\ntheir number, and various aggravating circumstances. But have they found a\nsingle one of their penitents who was certain to have remembered all the\nthoughts, the desires, all the criminal aspirations of the poor sinful\nheart? They are well aware that to count the thoughts of the mind for days\nand weeks gone by, and to narrate those thoughts accurately at a subsequent\nperiod, are just as easy as to weigh and count the clouds which have passed\nover the sun, in a three days storm, a month after that storm is over. It\nis simply impossible, absurd! This has never been, this will never be done.\nBut there is no possible peace so long as the penitent _is not sure_ that\nhe has remembered, counted and confessed every past sinful thought, word\nand deed. It is then impossible, yes! it is morally and physically\n_impossible_ for a soul to find peace through auricular confession. If the\nlaw which says to every sinner: \"You are bound, under pain of eternal\ndamnation, to remember all your bad thoughts and confess them to the best\nof your memory\", were not so evidently a satanic invention, it ought to be\nput among the most infamous ideas which have ever come out from the brain\nof fallen man. For, who can remember and count the thoughts of a week, of a\nday, nay, of an hour of his sinful life?\n\nWhere is the traveller who has crossed the swampy forests of America, in\nthe three months of a warm summer, who could tell the number of musquitoes\nwhich have bitten him and drawn the blood from the veins?\n\nWhat should that traveller think of the man who, seriously, would tell him:\n\"You must prepare yourself to die, if you do not tell me, to the best of\nyour memory, how many times you have been bitten by the musquitoes, the\nlast three summer months, when you crossed the swampy lands along the\nshores of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers?\n\nWould he not suspect that his merciless inquirer had just escaped from a\nlunatic asylum?\n\nBut it would be much more easy for that traveller to say how many times he\nhas suffered from the bitings of the musquitoes, than for the poor sinner\nto count the bad thoughts which have passed through his sinful heart,\nthrough any period of his life.\n\nThough the penitent is told that he must confess his thoughts only\naccording to his _best_ recollection,--he will _never, never_ know if he\nhas done his _best_ efforts to remember everything: he will constantly fear\nlest he has not done his _best_ to count and confess them correctly.\n\nEvery honest priest will at once admit that his most intelligent and pious\npenitents, particularly among women, are constantly tortured by the fear of\nhaving omitted to disclose some sinful deeds or thoughts. Many of them,\nafter having already made several general confessions, are constantly urged\nby the pricking of their conscience, to begin afresh, in the fear that\ntheir first confessions had some serious defects. Those past confessions,\ninstead of being a source of spiritual joy and peace, are, on the contrary,\nlike, so many Damocles' swords, day and night suspended over their heads,\nfilling their souls with the terrors of an eternal death! Sometimes the\nterror-stricken consciences of those honest and pious women tell them that\nthey were not sufficiently contrite; at another time, they reproach them\nfor not having spoken sufficiently plain on some things fitter to make them\nblush.\n\nOn many occasions, too, it has happened that sins which one confessor had\ndeclared to as venial, and which had long ceased to be confessed, another\nmore scrupulous than the first would declare to be damnable. Every\nconfessor thus knows perfectly well that he proffers what is flagrantly\nfalse every time he dismisses his penitents, after confession, with the\nsalutation:--\"Go in peace, thy sins are forgiven thee.\"\n\nBut it is a mistake to say that the soul does not find peace in auricular\nconfession: in many cases, peace is found. And if the reader desires to\nlearn something of that peace, let him go to the grave-yard, open the\ntombs, and peep into the sepulchres. What awful silence! What profound\nquiet! What terrible and frightful peace! You hear not even the motion of\nthe worms that creep in, and the worms that creep out, as they feast upon\nthe dead carcase! Such is the peace of the confessional! The soul, the\nintelligence, the honor, the self-respect, the conscience, are there\nsacrificed. There they must die! Yes, the confessional is a veritable tomb\nof human conscience, a sepulchre of human honesty, dignity and liberty; the\ngrave-yard of human soul! By its means, man, whom God hath made in his own\nimage, is converted into the likeness of the beast that perishes; woman,\ncreated by God to be the glory and help-mate of man, is transformed into\nthe vile and trembling slave of the priest. In the confessional, man and\nwoman attain to the highest degree of popish perfection: they become as dry\nsticks, as dead branches, as silent corpses, in the hands of their\nconfessors. Their spirits are destroyed, their consciences are stiff, their\nsouls are ruined.\n\nThis is the supreme and perfect result achieved, in its highest victories,\nby the Church of Rome.\n\nThere is, verily, peace to be found in auricular confession--yes, but it is\nthe peace of the grave!\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\nTHE DOGMA OF AURICULAR CONFESSION A SACRILEGIOUS IMPOSTURE.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nBoth Roman Catholics and Protestants have fallen into very strange errors\nin reference to the words of Christ: \"Whose soever sins ye remit, they are\nremitted unto them; _and_ whose soever _sins_ ye retain, they are\nretained.\" (St. John xx. 23.)\n\nThe first have seen in this text the inalienable attributes of God of\nforgiving and retaining sins transferred to sinful men; the second have\nmost unwisely granted their position, even while attempting to refute their\nerrors.\n\nA little more attention to the translation of the 3rd and 6th verses of\nchapter xiii. of Leviticus by the Septuagint would have prevented the\nformer from falling into their sacrilegious errors, and would have saved\nthe latter from wasting so much time in refuting errors which refute\nthemselves.\n\nEvery one knows that the Septuagint Bible was the Bible that was generally\nread and used by Jesus Christ and the Hebrew people, in our Saviour's days.\nIts language was evidently the one spoken by Christ and understood by his\nhearers. When addressing his apostles and disciples on their duties towards\nthe spiritual lepers to whom they were to preach the ways of salvation,\nChrist constantly followed the very expression of the Septuagint. It was\nthe foundation of his doctrine and the testimonial of his divine mission to\nwhich he constantly appealed: the book which was the greatest treasure of\nthe nation.\n\nFrom the beginning to the end of the Old and the New Testament, the bodily\nleprosy, with which the Jewish priest had to deal, is presented as the\nfigure of the spiritual leprosy, sin, the penalty of which our Saviour had\ntaken upon himself, that we might be saved by his death. That spiritual\nleprosy was the very thing for the cleansing of which he had come to this\nworld--for which he lived, suffered and died. Yes! the bodily leprosy with\nwhich the priests of the Jews had to deal, was the figure of the sins which\nChrist was to take away by shedding his blood, and with which his apostles\nwere to deal till the end of the world.\n\nWhen speaking of the duties of the Hebrew priests towards the leper, our\nmodern translations say: (Lev. xiii. v. 6.) \"They will pronounce him clean\"\nor (v. 3d.) \"They will pronounce him unclean.\"\n\nBut this action of the priests was expressed in a very different way by the\nSeptuagint Bible, used by Christ and the people of his time. Instead of\nsaying, \"The priest shall pronounce the leper clean,\" as we read in our\nBible, the Septuagint version says, \"The priest shall clean (_katharei_,)\nor shall unclean (_mianei_,) the leper.\n\nNo one had ever been so foolish, among the Jews, as to believe that because\ntheir Bible said _clean_, (_katharei_) their priests had the miraculous and\nsupernatural power of taking away and curing the leprosy: and we nowhere\nsee that the Jewish priests ever had the audacity to try to persuade the\npeople that they had ever received any supernatural and divine power to\n\"cleanse\" the leprosy, because their God through the Bible, had said of\nthem: \"They will cleanse the leper.\" Both priest and people were\nsufficiently intelligent and honest to understand and acknowledge that by\nthat expression, if was only meant that the priests had the legal right to\nsee if the leprosy was gone or not, they had only to look at certain marks\nindicated by God Himself, through Moses, to know whether, or not, God had\ncured the leper before he presented himself to his priest. The leper, cured\nby the mercy and power of God alone, before presenting himself to the\npriest, was only declared to be clean by that priest. Thus the priest was\nsaid, by the Bible, to \"clean\" the leper, or the leprosy;--and, in the\nopposite case, to \"unclean.\" (Septuagint, Leviticus xiii. v. 3. 6.)\n\nNow, let us put what God has said, through Moses, to the priests of the old\nlaw, in reference to the bodily leprosy, face to face with what God has\nsaid, through his Son Jesus, to his apostles and his whole church, in\nreference to the spiritual leprosy from which Christ has delivered us on\nthe cross.\n\n  Septuagint Bible, Levit. xiii.    |    New Testament, John xx., 23.\n                                    |\n\"And the Priest shall look on the   |  \"Whose soever sins ye remit, they\nplague, in the skin of the flesh,   |  are remitted unto them; and whose\nand when the hair in the plague is  |  soever sins ye retain, they are\nturned white, and the plague in     |  retained.\"\nsight be deeper than the skin of    |\nhis flesh, it is a plague of        |\nleprosy: and the priest shall look  |\non him and UNCLEAN HIM (_mianei_).  |\n                                    |\n\"And the Priest shall look on him   |\nagain the seventh day, and if the   |\nplague is somewhat dark and does    |\nnot spread on the skin, the Priest  |\nshall CLEAN HIM (_katharei_): and   |\nhe shall wash his clothes and BE    |\nCLEAN,\" (katharos.)                 |\n\nThe analogy of the diseases with which the Hebrew priests and the disciples\nof Christ had to deal, is striking: so the analogy of the expressions\nprescribing their respective duties is also striking.\n\nWhen God said to the priests of the Old Law, \"You shall clean the leper,\"\nand he shall be \"cleaned,\" or, \"you shall unclean the leper,\" and he shall\nbe \"uncleaned,\" He only gave the legal power to see if there were any signs\nor indications by which they could say that God had cured the leper before\nhe presented himself to the priest. So, when Christ said to his apostles\nand his whole church, \"Whose soever sins ye shall forgive, shall be\nforgiven unto them,\" He only repeated what Moses had said in an analagous\ncase: He only gave them the authority to say when the spiritual lepers, the\nsinners, had reconciled themselves to God, and received their pardon from\nHim and Him alone, previous to their coming to the apostles.\n\nIt is true that the priests of the Old Law had regulations from God,\nthrough Moses, which they had to follow, by which they could see and say\nwhether, or not, the leprosy was gone.\n\n\"If the plague spread not on the skin ... the priest shall clean him ...\nbut if the priest see that the scab spread on the skin, it is leprosy: he\nshall \"unclean\" him. (Septuagint, Levit. xiii. 3. 6.)\n\nSo Christ had given to his apostles and his whole church equally,\ninfallible rules and marks to determine whether, or not, the spiritual\nleprosy was gone, that they might clean the leper and tell him,\n\n   I clean thee,    |   I forgive thy sins,\n         or         |          or\n  I unclean thee.   |   I retain thy sins.\n\nI would have, indeed, many passages of the Old and New Testaments to copy,\nwere it my intention to reproduce all the marks given by God Himself,\nthrough his prophets, or by Christ and apostles, that His ambassadors might\nknow when they should say to the sinner that he was delivered from his\niniquities. I will give only a few.\n\nFirst: \"And he said unto them, go ye into all the world and preach the\ngospel to every creature:\n\n\"He that believeth and is baptised, shall be saved: but he that believeth\nnot shall be damned.\" (Mark xvi. 15, 16.)\n\nWhat a strange want of memory in the Saviour of the world! He has entirely\nforgotten that \"Auricular Confession,\" besides Faith and Baptism are\nnecessary to be saved! To those who believe and are baptised, the apostles\nand the church are authorised by Christ to say: \"You are saved! your sins\nare forgiven! I clean you!\"\n\nSecond: \"And when ye come into an house, salute it.\n\n\"And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it: but if it be not\nworthy, let your peace return to you.\n\n\"And whose soever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye\ndepart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.\n\n\"Verily, verily I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of\nSodom and Gomorrha, in the day of Judgment, than for that city.\" (Math x.\n12-15.)\n\nHere again the Great Physician tells his disciples when the leprosy will be\ngone, the sins forgiven, the soul purified. It is when the lepers, the\nsinners, will have welcomed his messengers, heard and received their\nmessage. Not a word about auricular confession: this great panacea of the\nPope's was evidently ignored by Christ.\n\nThird: \"If ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also\nforgive you--But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your\nFather forgive your trespasses.\" (Math vi. 14, 15.)\n\nWas it possible to give a more striking and simple rule to the Apostles and\nthe Disciples that they might know when they could say to a sinner: \"Thy\nsins are forgiven!\" or, \"Thy sins are retained?\" Here the double keys of\nheaven are most solemnly and publicly given to every child of Adam! As sure\nas there is a God in heaven and that Jesus died to save sinners, so it is\nsure that if one forgives the trespasses of his neighbor for the dear\nSaviour's sake, his own sins have been forgiven! To the end of the world,\nthen, let the disciples of Christ say to the sinner, \"Thy sins are\nforgiven,\" not because you have confessed your sins to me, but for Christ's\nsake; the evidence of which is that you have forgiven those who had\noffended you.\n\nFourth: \"And behold, a certain one stood up and tempted him, saying:\nMaster, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?\n\n\"He said unto him: What is written in the law? how readest thou?\n\n\"And he, answering, said: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy\nheart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy\nmind, and thy neighbor as thyself.\n\n\"And He said unto him, thou hast answered right; this do and thou shalt\nlive.\" (Luke x. 25-28.)\n\nWhat a fine opportunity for the Saviour to speak of \"auricular confession\"\nas a means given by him to be saved! But here again, Christ forgets that\nmarvellous medicine of the Popes. Jesus, speaking absolutely, like the\nProtestants, bids his messengers to proclaim pardon, forgiveness of sins,\nnot to those who confess their sins to a man, but to those who love God and\ntheir neighbor. And so will his true disciples and messengers do to the end\nof the world!\n\nFifth: \"And when he (the prodigal son) came to himself, he said: ... I will\narise and go to my father and I will say unto him, Father, I have sinned\nagainst Heaven and before thee: and I am not worthy to be called thy son:\nmake me as one of thy hired servants.\n\n\"And he arose and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off,\nhis father saw him and had compassion and ran; and he fell on his neck and\nkissed him.\n\n\"And the son said, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight,\nand am not worthy to be called thy son.\n\n\"But the father said to his servants: Bring forth his best robe, and put it\non him: put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet, and bring hither the\nfat calf. For this my son was dead, and he is alive again, he was lost and\nhe is found.\" (Luke xv, 17-24.)\n\nApostles and disciples of Christ, wherever you will hear, on this land of\nsin and misery, the cry of the Prodigal Son: \"I will arise and go to my\nFather\" every time you see him, not at your feet, but at the feet of his\ntrue Father, crying: \"Father I have sinned against thee,\" unite your hymns\nof joy to the joyful songs of the angels of God; repeat into the ears of\nthat redeemed sinner the sentence just fallen from the lips of the Lamb,\nwhose blood cleanses us from all our sins; say to him, \"Thy sins are\nforgiven.\"\n\nSixth: \"Come unto me all ye who labour, and are heavy-laden, and I will\ngive you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and\nlowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls; for my yoke is easy\nand my burden is light.\" (Math. xi, 28-30.)\n\nThough these words were pronounced more than 1800 years ago, they were\npronounced this very morning; they come at every hour of day and night from\nthe lips and the heart of Christ to every one of us sinners. It is just now\nthat Jesus says to every sinner, \"Come to me and I will give ye rest.\"\nChrist has never said and he will never say to any sinner: \"Go to my\npriests and they will give you rest!\" But he has said, \"Come to me and I\nwill give you rest.\"\n\nLet the apostles and disciples of the Saviour, then, proclaim peace,\npardon, rest, not to the sinners who come to confess to them all their most\nsecretly sinful thoughts, desires, or actions, but to those who go to\nChrist and Him alone, for peace, pardon and rest. For \"Come to me,\" from\nJesus lips, has never meant, it will never mean, \"Go and confess to the\npriests.\"\n\nChrist would never have said: \"My yoke is easy and my burden light\" if he\nhad instituted auricular confession. For the world has never seen a yoke so\nheavy, humiliating and degrading as auricular confession.\n\nSeventh: \"As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must\nthe Son of man be lifted up; that who soever believeth in him should not\nperish, but have eternal life.\" (John iii. 14.)\n\nDid Almighty God require any auricular confession in the wilderness, from\nthe sinners, when He ordered Moses to lift up the serpent? No! Neither did\nChrist speak of auricular confession as a condition of salvation to those\nwho look to Him when He dies on the Cross to pay their debts. A free pardon\nwas offered to the Israelites who looked to the uplifted serpent. A free\npardon is offered by Christ crucified to all those who look to Him with\nfaith, repentance and love. To such sinners the ministers of Christ, to the\nend of the world, are authorised to say: \"Your sins are forgiven--we\n\"clean\" your leprosy.\"\n\nEighth: \"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son,\nthat whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.\n\n\"For God sent not His Son to condemn the world, but that the world, through\nhim, might be saved.\n\n\"He that believeth in him is not condemned: but he that believeth not, is\ncondemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only\nbegotten Son of God.\n\n\"And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world and man\nloved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every\none that doeth evil, hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest\nhis deeds should be reproved.\n\n\"But he that doeth truth, cometh to the light, that his deeds may be\nmanifest, that they are wrought in God.\" (John iii, 16-21.)\n\nIn the religion of Rome, it is only through auricular confession that the\nsinner can be reconciled to God; it is only after he has heard a most\ndetailed confession of all the thoughts, desires and actions of the guilty\none that he can tell him: \"Thy sins are forgiven.\" But in the religion of\nthe Gospel, the reconciliation of the sinner with his God is absolutely and\nentirely the work of Christ. That marvellous forgiveness is a free gift\noffered not for any outward act of the sinner: nothing is required from him\nbut faith, repentance and love. These are marks by which the leprosy is\nknown to be cured and the sins forgiven. To all those who have these marks,\nthe ambassadors of Christ are authorized to say, \"Your sins are forgiven,\"\nwe \"clean\" you.\n\nNinth: \"The publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his\neyes to heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying: God! be merciful to me a\nsinner!\n\n\"I tell you, this man went down to his house, justified.\" (Luke xviii 13,\n14.). Yes! justified! and without auricular confession!\n\nMinisters and disciples of Christ, when you see the repenting sinner\nsmiting his breast and crying: \"Oh, God! have mercy upon me a sinner!\" shut\nyour ears to the deceptive words of Rome who tells you to force that\nredeemed sinner to make to you a special confession of all his sins, to get\nhis pardon. But go to him and deliver the message of love, peace and mercy,\nwhich you received from Christ: \"Thy sins are forgiven! I \"clean\" thee!\n\nTenth: \"And one of the malefactors which were hanged, railed on him,\nsaying: \"If thou be Christ, save thyself and us.\n\n\"But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying: Doest not thou fear God,\nseeing thou art in the same condemnation? and we indeed justly, but this\nman hath done nothing amiss.\n\n\"And he said unto Jesus: Remember me, when thou art in thy Kingdom. And\nJesus said unto him: Verily, I say Unto thee: to-day, shalt thou be with me\nin Paradise.\" (Luke xxii, 39-43.)\n\nYes, in the Paradise or Kingdom of Christ without auricular confession!\nFrom Calvary, when his hands are nailed to the cross, and his blood is\npoured out, Christ even then protests against the great imposture of\nauricular confession. Jesus will be to the end of the world what he was\nthere on the cross: the sinner's friend; always ready to hear and pardon\nthose who invoke his name and trust in him.\n\nDisciples of the gospel, wherever you hear the cry of the repenting sinner\nto the crucified Saviour: \"Remember me when thou comest to thy Kingdom,\" go\nand give the assurance to that penitent and redeemed child of Adam that\n\"his sins are forgiven\"--clean the leper.\n\nEleventh: \"Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his\nthoughts: and let him return to the Lord; and he will have mercy upon him\nand to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.\" (Isa. lv. 7. 8.)\n\n\"Wash you, and make you clean, put away the evils of your doings from\nbefore mine eyes: cease to do evil, learn to do well; seek judgment,\nrelieve the oppressed; judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.\n\n\"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be\nas scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson,\nthey shall be as wool.\" (Isa. i, 16-18.)\n\nHere are the landmarks of the mercy of God, put by his own almighty hands!\nWho will dare to remove them in order to put others in their place? Has\never Christ touched those landmarks? Has he ever intimated that anything\nbut faith, repentance and love, with their blessed fruits, were required\nfrom the sinners to secure his pardon? No--never.\n\nHave the prophets of the Old Testament or the apostles of the New ever said\na word about \"auricular confession\" as a condition for pardon? No--never.\n\nWhat does David say? \"I confess my sins unto thee, and mine iniquity have I\nnot hid. I said, I will confess my transgression unto the Lord, and thou\nforgavest the iniquity of my sin.\" (Psalm xxxii, 5.)\n\nWhat does the Apostle John say? \"If we say that we have fellowship with\nHim, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth.\n\n\"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship\nwith one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His son cleanseth us from\nsin;\n\n\"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not\nin us.\n\n\"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to\nCLEANSE us from all unrighteousness.\" (i. John i, 6-9.)\n\nThis is the language of the prophets and apostles. This is the language of\nthe Old and the New Testament. It is to God and Him alone that the sinner\nis requested to confess his sins. It is from God and Him alone that he can\nexpect his pardon.\n\nThe apostle Paul writes fifteen epistles, in which he speaks of all the\nduties imposed upon human conscience by the laws of God and the\nprescriptions of the Gospel of Christ. A thousand times he speaks to\nsinners and tells them how they may be reconciled to God. But does he say a\nword about auricular confession? No, not one!\n\nThe apostles Peter, John, Jude address six letters to the different\nchurches--in which they state with the greatest detail what the different\nclasses of Christians have to do. But again, not a single word comes from\nthem about auricular confession.\n\nSt. James says, \"confess your faults one to another.\" But this is so\nevidently the repetition of what the Saviour had said about the way of\nreconciliation between those who had offended one another, and it is so far\nfrom the dogma of a secret confession to the priest, that the most zealous\nsupporters of auricular confession have not dared to mention that text in\nfavour of their modern invention.\n\nBut if we look in vain in the Old and New Testament for a word in favour of\nauricular confession as a dogma, will it be possible to find that dogma in\nthe records of the first thousand years of Christianity? No! for the more\none studies the records of the Christian church during the first ten\ncenturies, the more he will be convinced that auricular confession is a\nmiserable imposture, of the darkest days of the world and the church.\n\nWe have the life of Paul, the hermit, of the third century, by one of the\nearly fathers of the church. But not a word is said in it of his confessing\nhis sins to any one, though a thousand things are said of him which are of\na far less interesting character.\n\nSo it is with the life of St. Mary, the Egyptian. The minute history of her\nlife, her public scandals, her conversion, long prayers and fastings in\nsolitude, the detailed history of her last days and of her death, all these\nwe have; but not a single word is said of her confessing to any one. It is\nevident that she lived and died without ever having thought of going to\nconfess.\n\nThe deacon Pontius wrote also the life St. Cyprien, who lived in the third\ncentury; but he does not say a word of his ever having gone to confession,\nor having heard the confession of any one. More than that, we learn from\nthis reliable historian that Cyprien was excommunicated by the Pope of\nRome, called Stephen, and that he died without having ever asked from any\none absolution from that excommunication; a thing which has not seemingly\nprevented him from going to Heaven, since the infallible Popes of Rome, who\nsucceeded Stephen, have assured us that he is a saint.\n\nGregory of Nyssa has given us the life of St. Gregory of Neo-Caesarea, of\nthe 3rd century, and of St. Basil, of the 4th century. But neither speak of\ntheir having gone to confess, or having heard the confession of any one. It\nis thus evident that those two great and good men, with all the Christians\nof their times, lived and died without ever knowing any thing about the\ndogma of auricular confession.\n\nWe have the interesting life of St Ambrose, of the 4th century, by\nPaulinus; and from that book it is as evident as two and two make four,\nthat St. Ambrose never went to confess.\n\nThe history of St Martin of Tours, of the 4th century by Severus Sulpicius\nof the 5th century, is another monument left by antiquity to prove that\nthere was no dogma of auricular confession in those days; for St. Martin\nhas evidently lived and died without ever going to confess.\n\nPallas and Theodoret have left us the history of the life, sufferings and\ndeath of St. Chrysostom, bishop of Constantinople, who died at the\nbeginning of the 5th century, and both are absolutely mute about that\ndogma. No fact is more evident, by what they say, than that holy and\neloquent bishop lived and died also without ever thinking of going to\nconfess.\n\nNo man has ever more perfectly entered into the details of a Christian\nlife, when writing on that subject, than the learned and eloquent St\nJerome, of the 5th century. A great number of his admirable letters are\nwritten to the priests of his day, or to some Christian ladies and virgins,\nwho had requested him to give them some good advices about the best way to\nlead a Christian life. His letters, which form five volumes, are most\ninteresting monuments of the manners, habits, views, morality, practical\nand dogmatical faith of the first centuries of the church; and they are a\nmost unanswerable evidence that auricular confession, as a dogma, had then\nno existence, and is quite a modern invention. Would it be possible that\nJerome could have forgotten to give some advices or rules about auricular\nconfession, to the priests of his time who asked his counsel about the best\nway to fulfil their ministerial duties, if it had been one of their duties\nto hear the confessions of the people? But we challenge the most devoted\nmodern priest of Rome to find a single line in all the letters of St Jerome\nin favour of auricular confession. In his admirable letter to the priest\nNepotianus, on the life of priests, vol. II, p. 203, when speaking of the\nrelations of priests with women, he says: \"Solus cum sola, secreto et\nabsque arbitrio vel teste, non sedeas. Si familiarus est aliquid loquendum,\nhabet nutricem majorem domus, virginem, viduam, vel maritatam; non est tam\ninhumana ut nullum praeter te habeat cui se audeat credere.\"\n\n\"Never sit in secret, alone, in a retired place, with a female who is alone\nwith you. If she has any particular thing to tell you, let her take the\nfemale attendant of the house, a young girl, a widow, or a married woman.\nShe can not be so ignorant of the rules of human life as to expect to have\nyou as the only one to whom she can trust those things.\"\n\nIt would be easy to cite a great number of other remarkable passages where\nJerome shows himself the most determined and implacable opponent of those\nsecret \"tete-a-tete\" between a priest and a female, which, under the\nplausible pretext of mutual advice and spiritual consolation, are generally\nnothing but bottomless pits of infamy and perdition for both. But this is\nenough.\n\nWe have also the admirable life of St. Paulina, written by St. Jerome. And\nthough in it he gives us every imaginable detail of her life when young,\nmarried and widow, though he tells us even how her bed was composed of the\nsimplest and rudest materials, he has not a word about her ever having gone\nto confess. Jerome speaks of the acquaintances of St. Paulina and gives\ntheir names; he enters into the minutest details of her long voyages, her\ncharities, her foundations of monasteries for men and women, her\ntemptations, human frailties, heroic virtues, her macerations and her holy\ndeath: but he has not a word to say about the frequent or rare auricular\nconfessions of St. Paulina; not a word about her wisdom in the choice of a\nprudent and holy (?) confessor.\n\nHe tells us that after her death, her body was carried to her grave on the\nshoulders of bishops and priests, as a token of their profound respect for\nthe saint. But he never says that any of those priests sat there in a dark\ncorner with her, and forced her to reveal to their ears the secret history\nof all the thoughts, desires, and human frailties of her long and eventful\nlife. Jerome is an unimpeachable witness that his saintly and noble friend\nSt. Paulina lived and died without having ever thought of going to confess.\n\nPossidius has left us the interesting life of St. Augustine, of the fifth\ncentury; and again it is in vain that we look for the place or the time\nwhen that celebrated bishop of Hippo went to confess, or heard the secret\nconfessions of his people.\n\nMore than that, St. Augustine has written a most admirable book, called:\n\"Confessions,\" in which he gives us the history of his life. With that\nmarvellous book in hand, we follow him, step by step, wherever he goes; we\nare the witnesses of what he does and thinks; we attend with him those\ncelebrated schools, where his faith and morality were so sadly wrecked; he\ntakes us with him into the garden where, wavering between heaven and hell,\nbathed in tears, he goes under the fig-tree and cries, \"Oh Lord! how long\nwill I remain in my iniquities!\" Our soul thrills with emotions, with his\nsoul, when we hear, with him, the sweet and mysterious voice: \"Tolle!\nlege!\" take and read. We run with him to the places where he had left his\ngospel book; with a trembling hand, we open it, and we read: \"Let us walk\nhonestly as in the day ... put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ...\" (Rom. xiii,\n13, 14.)\n\nThat incomparable book of Augustine makes us weep and shout with joy with\nhim; it initiates us into all, his most secret actions, to all his sorrows,\nanxieties and joys, it reveals and unvails his whole life. It tells us\nwhere he goes, with whom he sins, and with whom he praises God; it makes us\npray, sing and bless the Lord with him. Is it possible that Augustine could\nhave been to confess without telling us when, where and to whom he made\nconfession? Could he have received the absolution and pardon of his sins\nfrom his confessor, without making us partakers of his joys, and requesting\nus to bless that confessor with him.\n\nBut, it is in vain that you look in that book for a single word about\nauricular confession. That book is an unimpeachable witness that neither\nAugustine nor his saintly mother Monica, whom it mentions so often, lived\nand died without ever having been to confess. That book may be called the\nmost crushing evidence to prove that, \"the dogma of auricular confession\"\nis a modern imposture.\n\nFrom the beginning to the end of that book, we see that Augustine believed\nand said that God alone could forgive the sins of men, and that it was to\nHim alone that men had to confess in order to be pardoned. If he writes his\nconfession, it is only that the world might know how God had been merciful\nto him, and that they might help him to praise and bless the merciful\nHeavenly Father. In the tenth book of his Confessions, chapter III,\nAugustine protests against the idea that men could do anything to cure the\nspiritual leper, or forgive the sins of their fellow-men; here is his\neloquent protest: \"Quid mihi ergo est cum hominibus ut audiant confessiones\nmeas, quasi ipsi sanaturi sint languores meas? Curiosum genus ad\ncognoscendam vitam alienam; desidiosum ad corrigendam.\"\n\n\"What have I to do with men that I might be obliged to confess my sins to\nthem, as if they were able to heal my infirmities? Oh Lord! that human race\nis very fond of knowing the sins of their neighbors; but they are very\nneglectful in correcting their own lies.\"\n\nBefore Augustine had built up that sublime and imperishable monument\nagainst auricular confession, St. John Chrysostom had raised his eloquent\nvoice against it, in his homily on the 50th Psalm, where, speaking in the\nname of the Church, he said: \"We do not request you to go to confess your\nsins to any of your fellow-men, but only to God!\"\n\nNestorius, of the 4th century, the predecessor of John Chrysostom, had, by\na public defense, which the best Roman Catholic historians have had to\nacknowledge, solemnly forbidden the practice of auricular confession. For,\njust as there has always been thieves, drunkards and malefactors in the\nworld, so there has always been men and women who, under the pretext of\nopening their minds to each other for mutual comfort and edification, were\ngiving themselves to every kind of iniquity and lust. The celebrated\nChrysostom was only giving the sanction of his authority to what his\npredecessor had done when, thundering against the newly born monster, he\nsaid to the Christians of his time, \"We do not ask you to go and confess\nyour iniquities to a sinful man for pardon--but only to God.\" (Homily on\n50th Psalm.)\n\nAuricular confession originated with the early heretics, especially with\nMarcion. Bellarmin speaks of it as something to be practiced. But let us\nhear what the contemporary writers have to say on the question:\n\n\"Certain women were in the habit of going to the heretic Marcion to confess\ntheir sins to him. But, as he was smitten with their beauty, and they loved\nhim also, they abandoned themselves to sin with him.\"\n\nListen now to what St. Basil, in his commentary on Ps. xxxvii, says of\nconfession:\n\n\"I have not to come before the world to make a confession with my lips. But\nI close my eyes, and confess my sins in the secret of my heart. Before\nthee, O God, I pour out my sighs, and thou alone art the witness. My groans\nare within my soul. There is no need of many words to confess: sorrow and\nregret are the best confession. Yes, the lamentations of the soul, which\nthou art pleased to hear, are the best confession.\"\n\nChrysostom, in his homily: De paenitentia, vol. IV., col. 901, has the\nfollowing: \"You need no witnesses of your confession. Secretly acknowledge\nyour sins, and let God alone hear you.\"\n\nIn his homily V., De incomprehensibili Dei natura, vol. I, he says:\n\"Therefore, I beseech you, always confess your sins to God! I in no way ask\nyou to confess them to me. To God alone should you expose the wounds of\nyour souls, and from him alone expect the cure. Go to him, then; and you\nshall not be cast off, but healed. For, before you utter a single word, God\nknows your prayer.\"\n\nIn his commentary on Heb. xii., hom. xxxi., vol. xii., p. 289, he further\nsays: \"Let us not be content with calling ourselves sinners. But let us\nexamine and number our sins. And then, I do not tell you to go and confess\nthem, according to the caprice of some; but I will say to you, with the\nprophet: \"Confess your sins before God, acknowledge your iniquities at the\nfeet of your Judge; pray in your heart and your mind, if not with your\ntongue, and you shall be pardoned.\"\n\nIn his homily on Ps. I., vol. V., p. 589, the same Chrysostom says:\n\"Confess you sins every day in prayer. Why should you hesitate to do so? I\ndo not tell you to go and confess to a man, sinner as you are, and who\nmight despise you if he knew your faults. But confess them to God, who can\nforgive them to you.\"\n\nIn his admirable homily IV., De Lazaro, vol. I., p. 757, he explains: \"Why,\ntell me, should you be ashamed to confess your sins? Do we compel you to\nreveal them to a man, who might, one day, throw them into your face? Are\nyou commanded to confess them to one of your equals, who could publish them\nand ruin you? What we ask of you, is simply to show the sores of your soul\nto your Lord and Master, who is also your friend, your guardian and\nphysician.\"\n\nIn a small work of Chrysostom's, intitled: \"Catechesis ad illuminandos,\"\nvol. II., p. 210, we read these remarkable words: \"What we should most\nadmire, is not that God forgives our sins, but that he does not disclose\nthem to any one, nor wishes us to do so. What he demands of us, is to\nconfess our transgressions to him alone to obtain pardon.\"\n\nSt. Augustine, in his beautiful homily on the 31st Ps., says: \"I shall\nconfess my sins to God, and he will pardon all my iniquities. And such\nconfession is made not with the lips, but with the heart only. I had hardly\nopened my mouth to confess my sins, when they were pardoned; for God had\nalready heard the voice of my heart.\"\n\nIn the edition of the Fathers by Migne, vol. 67, p. 614, 615, we read:\n\"About the year 390, the office of penitentiary was abolished in the\nchurch, in consequence of a great scandal given by a woman who publicly\naccused herself of having committed a crime against chastity with a\ndeacon.\"\n\nThe office of penitentiary was this: in every large city, a priest or\nminister was specially appointed to preside over the church meetings where\nthe members who had committed public sins were obliged to confess them\npublicly before the assembly, in order to be reinstated in the privileges\nof their membership; and that minister had the charge of reading or\npronouncing the sentence of pardon granted by the church to the guilty\nones, before they could be admitted again to communion. This was perfectly\nin accordance with what St. Paul had done with regard to the incestuous one\nof Corinth, that scandalous sinner, who had cast obloquy on the Christian\nname; but who, after confessing and weeping over his sins, before the\nchurch, obtained his pardon--not from a priest in whose ears he had\nwhispered all the shocking details of his incestuous intercourse, but from\nthe whole church assembled. St. Paul gladly approves the Church of Corinth\nin thus receiving again in their midst a wandering but repenting brother.\n\nThere is as much difference between such public confessions and auricular\nconfessions, as there is between heaven and hell, between God and his great\nenemy, Satan.\n\nPublic confession, then, dates from the time of the apostles, and is still\npractised in protestant churches of our day. But auricular confession was\nunknown by the disciples of Christ; as it is rejected, to-day, with horror\nby all the true followers of the Son of God.\n\nErasmus, one of the most learned Roman Catholics which opposed the\nReformation in the 16th century, so admirably begun by Luther and Calvin,\nfearlessly and honestly makes the following declaration in his treaty: De\nPaenitantia, Dis 5. \"This institution of penance began rather of some\ntradition of the Old or New Testament. But our divines, not advisedly\nconsidering what the old doctors do say, are deceived: that which they say\nof general and open confession, they wrest by and by to this secret and\nprivy kind of confession.\n\nIt is a public fact, which no learned Roman Catholic has ever denied, that\nauricular confession became a dogma and obligatory practice of the church\nonly at the council of Lateran in the year 1215, under the Pope Innocent\nIII. Not a single trace of auricular confession, as a dogma, can be found\nbefore that year.\n\nThus, it has taken more than twelve hundred years of efforts for Satan to\nbring out that master-piece of his inventions to conquer the world and\ndestroy the souls of men.\n\nLittle by little, that imposture had crept into the world, just as the\nshadows of a stormy night creep without any one being able to note the\nmoment when the first rays of light give way before the dark clouds. We\nknow very well when the sun was shining, we know when it was very dark all\nover the world, but no one can tell positively when the first ray of light\nfaded away. So saith the Lord:\n\n\"The Kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his\nfield.\n\n\"But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and\nwent his way.\n\n\"But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, there appeared\nthe tares also.\n\n\"So the servants of the house-holder came and said unto him: Sir, dist not\nthou sow good seed in the field? From whence then hath it tares?\n\n\"He said unto them: The enemy hath done this.\" (Mat. xiii, 24-28.)\n\nYes, the Good Master tells us that the enemy sowed those tares in his field\nduring the night--when men were sleeping.\n\nBut he does not tell us precisely the hour of the night when the enemy cast\nthe tares among the wheat.\n\nIf any one likes to know how fearfully dark was the night which covered the\n\"Kingdom,\" and how cruel, implacable and savage was the enemy who sowed the\ntares, let him read the testimony of the most devoted and learned cardinal\nwhom Rome has ever had, Baronius, Annals, Anno 900:\n\n\"It is evident that one can scarcely believe what unworthy, base, execrable\nand abominable things the holy Apostolical See, which is the pivot upon\nwhich the whole Catholic Church revolves, was forced to endure, when\nprinces of the age, though Christians, arrogated to themselves the election\nof the Roman Pontiffs. Alas, the shame! alas, the grief! What monsters,\nhorrible to behold, were then intruded on the Holy See! What evils ensued!\nWhat tragedies they perpatrated! With what pollutions was this See, though\nitself without spot, then stained! With what corruptions infected! _With\nwhat filthiness defiled! And by these things blackened with perpetual\ninfamy!_ (Baronius, Annals, Anno 900.)\n\n\"Est plane, ut vix aliquis credat, immo, nec vix quidem sit crediturus,\nnisi suis inspiciat ipse oculis, manibusque contractat, quam indigna,\nquamque turpia, atque deformia, execranda, insuper et abominanda sit coacta\npati sacrosancta apostolica sedes, in cujus cardine universa Ecclesia\ncatholica vertitur, cum principes saeculi hujus, quantumlibet christiani,\nhac tamen ex parte dicendi tyranni saevissimi, arrogaverunt sibi tirannice\nelectionem Romanorum pontificum. Quot tunc ab eis, proh pudor! proh dolor!\nin eandem sedem, angelis reverandam, visu horrenda intrusa sunt monstra!\nQuot ex eis oborta sunt mala, consummatae tragediae! Quibus tunc ipsam sine\nmacula et sine ruga contigit aspergi sordibus, putoribus infici, quinati\nspurcitiis, ex hisque perpetua infamia denigrari!\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\nGOD COMPELS THE CHURCH OF ROME TO CONFESS THE ABOMINATIONS OF AURICULAR\nCONFESSION.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nRomish priests will resort to various means in order to deceive the people\non the immorality resulting from auricular confession. One of their\nfavorite stratagems is to quote some disconnected passages from\ntheologians, recommending caution on the part of the priest in questioning\nhis penitents on delicate subjects, should he see or apprehend any danger\nfor the latter of being shocked by his questions. True, there are such\nprudent theologians, who seem to realize more than others the real danger\nfor the priest in confession. But those wise counsellors resemble very much\na father who would allow his child to put his fingers in the fire while\nadvising him to be cautious lest he should burn his fingers. There is just\nas much wisdom in the one case as there would be in the other. Or what\nwould you say of a brutal parent casting a young, weak, and inexperienced\nboy among wild beasts, with the foolish and cruel expectation that his\nprudence might save him from all injury?\n\nSuch theologians may be perfectly honest in giving such advice, although it\nis anything but wise or reasonable. But those are far from being honest or\ntrue who contend that the Church of Rome, in commanding every one to\nconfess all his sins to the priests, has made an exception in favor of sins\nagainst chastity. This is only so much dust thrown in the eyes of ignorant\npeople to prevent them from seeing through the frightful mysteries of\nconfession.\n\nWhen the council of Latran decided that every adult, of either sex, should\nconfess all their sins to a priest, at least once a year, there was no\nprovision made for any special class of sins, not even for those committed\nagainst modesty or purity. And the council of Trent, when ratifying or\nrenewing the previous decision, no exception was made, either, of the sins\nin question. They were expected and had to be confessed, as all other sins.\n\nThe law of both councils is still unrepealed and binding for all sins,\nwithout any exception. It is imperative, absolute; and every good Catholic,\nman or woman, must submit to it by confessing _all_ his or her sins at\nleast once a year.\n\nI have in my hand Butler's Catechism, approved by several bishops of\nQuebec. On page 61, it reads that all penitents should examine themselves\non the capital sins, and confess them \"all, without exception, under\npenalty of eternal damnation.\"\n\nTherefore, the young and timid girl, the chaste and modest woman must think\nof shameful deeds and fill their minds with impure ideas, in order to\nconfess to an unmarried man whatever they may be guilty of, however\nrepugnant may be to them such confession, or dangerous for the priest who\nis bound to hear, and even demand it. No one is exempt from the loathsome\nand often polluting task. Both priest and penitent are required and\ncompelled to go through the fiery ordeal of contamination and shame. They\nare bound, on every particular, the one to ask, and the other to answer,\nunder penalty of eternal damnation.\n\nSuch is the rigorous, inflexible law of the Church of Rome with regard to\nconfession. It is taught not only in works on theology or from the pulpit,\nbut in prayer-books and various other religious publications. It is so\ndeeply impressed in the minds of Romanists as to have become a part of\ntheir religion. Such is the law which the priest himself has to obey, and\nwhich puts his penitents at his own discretion.\n\nBut there are husbands with a jealous disposition, who would little fancy\nthe idea of bachelors confessing their wives, if they knew exactly what\nquestions they have to answer in confession. There are fathers and mothers\nwho don't like much to see their daughters alone with a man, behind a\ncurtain, and who would certainly tremble for their honor and virtue if they\nknew all the abominable mysteries of confession. It is necessary,\ntherefore, to keep the people, as much as possible, in ignorance, and\nprevent light from reaching that empire of darkness, the confessional. In\nthat view, confessors are advised to be cautious \"on those matters;\" to\n\"broach these questions in a sort of covert way, and with the greatest\nreserve.\" For it is very desirable \"not to shock modesty, neither frighten\nthe penitent nor grieve her.\" \"Sins, however, _must_ be confessed.\"\n\nSuch is the prudent advice given to the confessor on certain occasions. In\nthe hands or under the command of Liguori, Father Gury, Scavani, or other\ncasuists, the priest is a sort of general, sent, with his army, during the\nnight, to storm a citadel or a strong position, having for order to operate\ncautiously and before daylight. His mission is one of darkness and cunning,\nviolence and cruelty; for when the pope commands, the priest, as his loyal\nsoldier, must be ready to obey. But many a time, after the place has been\ncaptured by dint of strategy and secrecy, the poor soldier is left, badly\nwounded and completely disabled, on the battle-field. He has paid dearly\nfor his victory; and the conquered citadel has received an injury from\nwhich it may never recover. But the crafty priest has gained his point: he\nhas succeeded in persuading his lady penitent that there was no\nimpropriety, that it was even necessary for them to have a parley on things\nthat made her blush a few moments before. She is so well convinced that she\nwould swear that there is nothing wrong in confession. Truly this is a\nfulfilment of the words:\n\n  \"Abyssus abyssum invocat.\"\n\nHave the Romish theologians Gury, Scavani, Liguori, etc., ever been honest\nenough, in their works on confession, to say that the Most Holy God could\nnever command or require woman to degrade and pollute herself and the\npriest in pouring in the ear of a frail and sinful mortal, words unfit even\nfor an angel? No; they were very careful not to say so; for from that very\nmoment, their shameless lies would have been exposed; the stupendous but\nweak structure of auricular confession would fall to the ground with sad\nhavoc and ruin to its upholders. Men and women would open their eyes, and\nsee its weakness and fallacy. \"If God,\" they might say, \"can forgive our\nmost grievous sins, against modesty, he can and will certainly do the same\nwith those of less gravity; therefore there is no necessity or occasion for\nus to confess to a priest.\"\n\nBut those shrewd casuists know too well that by such frank confession, they\nwould soon lose their hold on Catholic populations, especially on women, by\nwhom, through confession, they rule the world. They much prefer to keep\ntheir gripe on benighted minds, frightened consciences, and trembling\nsouls. No wonder, then, that they fully endorse and confirm the decisions\nof the councils of Latran and Trent ordering \"that all sins must be\nconfessed such as God knows them.\" No wonder that they try their best or\nworst to overcome the natural repugnance of women for making such\nconfessions, and to conceal the terrible dangers for the priests in hearing\nthe same.\n\nBut God, in His infinite mercy, and for the sake of truth, has compelled,\nas it were, the Church of Rome to acknowledge the moral dangers and\ncorrupting tendencies of auricular confession. In His eternal wisdom, he\nknew that Roman Catholics would close their ears to whatever might be said\nof the demoralizing influence of that institution; that they would even\nreply with insult and fallacy to the words of truth kindly addressed to\nthem: as the Jews of old returned hatred and insult to the good Saviour who\nwas bringing to them the glad tidings of a free salvation. He knew that\nRomish devotees, led astray by their priests, as were the poor blinded\nJews, would call the apostles of truth liars, seducers, possessed of the\ndevil, as Christ was constantly called a demoniac, an impostor, and finally\nput to death by his false accusers.\n\nBut God, just as compassionate now as he was then for the poor benighted\nand deluded souls, has wrought a real miracle to open the eyes of their\nminds, and compel them, as it were, to believe us, when we say, on his\nauthority, that auricular confession was invented by Satan to ruin both the\npriest and his female penitents, for time and eternity. For, what we would\nnever have dared to say of ourself to the Roman Catholics with regard to\nwhat frequently happens between their priests and their wives and\ndaughters, either during or after confession, God has constrained the\nChurch of Rome to acknowledge herself in revealing things that would have\nseemed incredible had they come simply from our mouth or our pen. In this,\nas in other instances, that apostate church has unwittingly been the\nmouth-piece of God for the accomplishment of his great and merciful ends.\n\nListen to the questions that the Church of Rome, through her theologians,\nputs to every priest after he has heard the confession of your wives or\ndaughters:\n\n1. \"_Nonne inter audiendas confessiones quasdam proposui questiones circa\nsextum decalogi praeceptum cum intentione lubidinosa?_\" (Miroir du Clerge,\np. 582.)\n\nWhile hearing confessions, have I not asked questions on sins against the\nsixth (the seventh in the Decalogue) commandment with the intention of\nsatisfying my evil passions?\n\nSuch is the man, O mothers and daughters, to whom you dare to unbosom the\nmost secret as well as the most shameful actions. You kneel down at his\nfeet and whisper in his ear your most intimate thoughts and desires, and\nyour most polluting deeds; because your church, by dint of cunning and\nsophistry, has succeeded in persuading you that there was no impropriety or\ndanger in doing so; that the man whom you chose for your spiritual guide\nand confident could never be tempted or tainted by such foul recitals. But\nthat same church, through some mysterious providences, is made to\nacknowledge, in her own books, her own lies. In spite of herself, she\nadmits that there is real danger in confession, both for the woman and for\nthe priest; that willingly or otherwise, and sometimes both unawares, they\nlay for each other dangerous snares. The Church of Rome, as if she had an\nevil conscience for allowing her priest to hold such close and secret\nconverse with a woman, on such delicate subjects, keeps, as it were, a\nwatchful eye on him while the poor misguided woman is pouring in his ear\nthe filthy burthen of her soul; and as soon as she is off, questions the\npriest as to the purity of his motives, the honesty of his intentions in\nputting the requisite questions. Have you not, she asks him immediately,\nunder the pretence of helping that woman in her confession, put to her\ncertain questions simply in order to gratify your lust, and with the object\nof satisfying your evil propensities?\n\n2. \"_Nonne munus audiendi confessione suscepi, aut peregi ex prava\nincontinentiae appeta?_\" (Idem, p. 582.)\n\nHave I not repaired to the confessional and heard confessions with the\nintention of gratifying my evil passions?\n\nO, ye women, who tremble like slaves at the feet of the priests, you\nsometimes admire the patience and charity of those good (?) priests, who\nare willing to spend so many long and tedious hours in hearing the\nconfession of your secret sins; and you hardly know how to express your\ngratitude for so much kindness and charity. But hush! Listen to the voice\nof God speaking to the conscience of the priest, through the Church of\nRome! \"Have you not\" she asks him, \"heard the confession of women simply to\nfoster or gratify the groveling passions of your fallen nature and corrupt\nheart?\"\n\nPlease notice, it is not I, or the enemies of your religion, who put to\nyour priests the above questions: it is God himself who, in his pity and\ncompassion, compels your own church to ask such questions; that your eyes\nmay be opened, and that you may be rescued from all the dangerous\nobscenities and the humiliating and degrading slavery of auricular\nconfession. It is God's will to deliver you from such bondage and\ndegradation. In his tender mercies, he has provided means to drag you out\nof that cess-pool called confession; to break the chains which bind you to\nthe feet of a miserable and blasphemous sinner called confessor, who, under\nthe presence of being able to pardon your sins, usurps the place of your\nSaviour and your God! For while you are whispering your sins in his ear,\nGod says to him, through his church, in tones loud enough to be heard: \"In\nhearing the confession of these women, are you not actuated by lust,\nspurred by evil passions?\"\n\nIs this not sufficient to warn you of the danger of auricular confession?\nCan you now with any sense of safety or propriety, come to that priest, for\nwhom your very confession may be a snare, a cause of fall or fearful\ntemptation? Can you with a particle of honor or modesty willingly expose\nyourself to impure desires or shameful deeds? Can you, with any sort of\nwomanly dignity consent to entrust that man with your inmost thoughts and\ndesires, your most humiliating and secret actions, when you know that that\nman may not have any higher object in listening to your confession than a\nlustful curiosity or a sinful desire of exciting his evil passions?\n\n3. \"_Nonne ex auditis in confessiones occasionem sumpsi paenitentes\nutriusque sexus ad peccandam sollicitandi?_\" (Idem, p. 582)\n\nHave I not availed myself of what I heard in confession to induce my\npenitents to commit sin?\n\nI would run a great risk of being treated with the utmost contempt, should\nI dare to put to your priests such a question. You would very likely call\nme a scoundrel for daring to question the honesty and purity of such holy\nmen. You would perhaps go as far as to contend that it is utterly\nimpossible for them to be guilty of such sins as are alluded to in the\nabove question; that never such shameful deeds have been perpetrated\nthrough confession. And you would, maybe, emphatically deny that your\nconfessor has ever said or done anything that might lead you to sin or even\ncommit any breach of propriety or modesty. You feel perfectly safe on that\nscore, and see no danger to apprehend.\n\nLet me tell you, good ladies, that you are altogether too confident and in\nthe most fatal delusion. Your own church, through the merciful and warning\nvoice of God speaking to the conscience of your own theologians, tells you\nthat there is a real and eminent danger where you fancy yourself in perfect\nsecurity. You may never have suspected the danger, but it is there, within\nthe walls of the confessional; nay, more, it is lurking in your very hearts\nand that of your confessor. He may hitherto have refrained from\ntemptations; he may, at least, have kept within the proper limits of\noutward morality or decency. But nothing warrants you that he may not be\ntempted; and nothing could shield you from his attempts on your virtue\nshould he give way to temptation; as cases are not wanting to prove the\ntruth of my assertion. You are sadly mistaken, in a false and dangerous\nsecurity. You are perhaps, although unawares, on the very brink of a\nprecipice, where so many have fallen through their blind confidence in\ntheir own strength or their confessor's prudence and sanctity. Your own\nchurch is very anxious about your safety; she trembles for your innocence\nand purity. In her fear, she cautions the priest to be watchful over his\nwicked passions and human frailty. How dare you pretend to be stronger and\nmore holy? Why should you so wilfully imperil your chastity or modesty? Why\nexpose yourself to danger, when it could be so easily avoided? How can you\nbe so rash, so devoid of common prudence and modesty as to shamelessly put\nyourselves in a position to tempt and be tempted, and thereby incur your\ntemporal and eternal perdition?\n\n4. \"_Nonne extra tribunal, vel in ipso confessionis actu, aliquia dixi aut\negi cum intentione diabolica has personas seducendi?_ (Idem, idem.)\n\nHave I not, either during or after confession, done or said anything with a\ndiabolical intention of seducing my female penitents?\n\n\"What arch-enemy of our holy religion is so bold and impious as to put to\nour saintly priests such an impudent and insulting question?\" may ask some\nof our Roman Catholic readers. It is easy to answer. This great enemy of\nyour religion is no less than a justly offended God, admonishing and\nreproving your priests for exposing both you and themselves to dangerous\nallurements and seductions. It is his voice speaking to their consciences,\nand warning them of the danger and corruption of auricular confession. It\nsays to them: Beware! for ye might be tempted, as surely you will, to do or\nsay something against honor and purity. Husbands and fathers, who rightly\nvalue the honor of your wives and daughters more than all treasures, who\nconsider it too precious a boon to be exposed to the dangers of pollution,\nand who would prefer to lose your life a thousand times than to see those\nyou love most on earth fall in the snares of the seducer, read once more\nand ponder what your church asks the priest after he has heard your wife or\ndaughter in confession: \"Have you not, either during or after confession,\ndone or said anything with a diabolical intention of seducing your female\npenitents?\"\n\nIf your priest remains deaf to these words addressed to his conscience, you\ncannot help giving heed to them and understanding their full significance.\nYou can not be easy and fear nothing from that priest in those close\ninterviews with your wives and daughters, when his superiors and your own\nChurch tremble for him, and question his purity and honesty. They see a\ngreat danger for both the confessor and his penitent; for they know that\nconfession has many a time been the pretence or the cause of the most\nshameful seductions.\n\nIf there was no real danger for the chastity of women, in confessing to a\nman their most secret sins, do you believe that your popes and theologians\nwould be so stupid as to acknowledge it and put to confessors questions\nthat would be most insulting and out of place, should there be no occasion\nfor them?\n\nIs it not presumption and folly on your part to think that there is no\ndanger, when the Church of Rome tells you positively that there is danger,\nand uses the strongest terms in expressing her uneasiness and apprehension?\n\nWhy, your church sees the most pressing reasons to fear for the honor of\nyour wives and daughters, as well as for the chastity of her priest: and\nstill you remain unconcerned, indifferent to the fearful peril to which\nthey are exposed! Are you like the Jewish people of old, to whom it was\nsaid; \"Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive\nnot?\" (Isa. vi, 9).\n\nBut if you see or suspect the danger you are warned of; if the eye of your\nintelligence can fathom the dreadful abyss where the dearest objects of\nyour heart are in danger of falling, then it behoves you to keep them from\nthe paths that lead to the fearful chasm. Do not wait till it is too late,\nwhen they are too near the precipice to be rescued. You may think the\ndanger to be far off, while it is near at hand. Profit by the sad\nexperience of so many victims of confession who have been irretrievably\nlost, irrecoverably ruined for time and eternity. The voice of your\nconscience, of honor, of God himself, tells you that it may become too late\nto save them from destruction, through your neglect and procrastination.\nWhile thanking God for having preserved them from temptations that have\nproved fatal to so many married or unmarried women, do not lose a single\nmoment in taken the necessary means to keep them from temptation and falls.\n\nInstead of allowing them to go and kneel at the feet of a man to obtain the\nremission of their sins, lead them to the cross, the only place where they\ncan secure pardon and peace everlasting. And why, after so many unfruitful\nattempts, should they try any longer to wash themselves in a puddle, when\nthe pure waters of eternal life are offered them so freely, through Christ\nJesus, their only Saviour and Mediator?\n\nInstead of seeking their pardon from a poor and miserable sinner, weak and\ntempted as they are, let them go to Christ, the only strong and perfect\nman, the only hope and salvation of the world.\n\nO poor deluded Catholic woman! listen no longer to the deceiving words of\nthe Church of Rome, who has no pardon, no peace for you, but only snares;\nwho offers you thraldom and shame in return for the confession of your\nsins! But listen rather to the invitations of your Saviour, who has died on\nthe cross that you might be saved, and who alone can give rest to your\nweary souls.\n\nHarken to His words when he says to you: \"Come to me, O ye heavily laden,\ncrushed, as it were, under the burden of your sins, and I shall give you\nrest.... I am the physician of your souls.... Those who are well have no\nneed of a physician, but those who are sick.... Come then to me and ye\nshall be healed.... I have sent back nor lost none who have come to me....\nInvoke my name.... believe in me.... repent.... love God and your neighbor\nas yourself, and you shall be saved.... For all who believe in me and call\nupon my name, shall be saved.... When I am raised up between heaven and\nearth, I shall draw every one to me\"....\n\nO, mothers and daughters, instead of going to the priest for pardon and\nsalvation, go to Jesus, who is so pressingly inviting you, and the more so\nas you have more need of divine help and grace. Even if you are as great a\nsinner as Mary Magdalene you can, like her, wash the feet of the Saviour\nwith the flowing tears of your repentance and your love, and like her,\nreceive the pardon of your sins.\n\nTo Jesus then, and to him alone for the confession and pardon of your sins:\nfor there only you can find peace, light, and life!\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nCHAPTER XI.\n\nSOME OF THE MATTERS ON WHICH THE PRIEST OF ROME MUST QUESTION HIS\nPENITENTS.\n\nA CHAPTER FOR THE CONSIDERATION OF LEGISLATORS, HUSBANDS, AND FATHERS.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nDens wants the confessors to interrogate on the following matters:--\n\n1. \"Peccant uxores, quae susceptum viri semen ejiciunt, vel ejicere\nconantur.\" (Dens, tom. vii. p. 147).\n\n2. \"Peccant conjuges mortaliter, si copula incepta, cohibeant\nseminationem.\"\n\n3. \"Si vir jam seminaverit, dubium fit an femina lethaliter peccat, si se\nretrahat a seminando; aut peccat lethaliter vir non expectando seminationem\nuxoris.\" (p. 153).\n\n4. \"Peccant conjuges inter se circa actum conjugalem. Debet servari modus,\nsive situs; imo ut non servetur debitum vas, sed copula habeatur in vase\npraepostero, alioquoque non naturali. Si fiat accedendo a postero, a latere,\nstando, sedendo, vel si vir sit succumbus.\" (p. 166).\n\n5. \"Impotentia. Est incapacitas perficiendi copulam carnalem perfectam cum\nseminatione viri in vase se debito, seu, de se, aptam generationi. Vel, ut\nsi mulier sit nimis arcta respectu unius viri, non respectu alterius\".\n(vol. vii. p. 273).\n\n6. \"Notatur quod pollutio, in mulieribus possit perfici, ita ut semen earum\nnon effluat extra membrum genitale.\n\nIndicium istius allegat Billuart, si scilicet mulier sensiat seminis\nresolutionem cum magno voluptatis sensu, qua completa, passio satiatur\"\n(vol. iv. p. 168).\n\n7. \"Uxor se accusans, in confessione, quod negaverit debitum, interrogetur\nan ex pleno rigore juris sui id petiverit\" (vol. vii. p. 168).\n\n8. \"Confessarius poenitentem, qui confitetur se peccasse cum sacerdote, vel\nsollicitatam ab eo ad turpia, potest interrogare utrum ille sacerdos sit\nejus confessarius, an in confessione sollitaverit\" (vol. vi. p. 294).\n\nThere are a great many other unmentionable things on which Dens, in his\nfourth, fifth, and seventh volumes, requires the confessor to ask from his\npenitent, which I omit.\n\nNow let us come to Liguori. That so-called Saint, Liguori is not less\ndiabolically impure than Dens, in his questions to the women. But I will\ncite only two of the things on which the spiritual physician of the Pope\nmust not fail to examine his spiritual patient:--\n\n1. \"Quaerat an sit semper mortale, si vir immitat pudenda in os uxoris?...\n\nVerius affirmo quia, in hoc actu, ob calorem oris, adest proximum periculum\npollutionis, et videtur nova species luxuriae contra naturam, dicta,\nirruminatio.\"\n\n2. \"Eodem modo, Sanchez damnat virum de mortali, qui, in actu copulae,\nimmiteret digitum in vas praeposterum uxoris; quia, ut ait, in hoc actu\nadest affectus ad Sodomiam\" (Liguori, tom. vi. p. 935).\n\nThe celebrated Burchard, Bishop of Worms, has made a book of the questions\nwhich had to be put by the confessors to their penitents of both sexes.\nDuring several centuries it was the standard book of the priests of Rome.\nThough that work to-day is out of print, Dens, Liguori, Debreysne, &c.,\n&c., have ransacked its polluting pages, and given them to study to the\nmodern confessors, in order to question their penitents. I will select only\na few questions of the Roman Catholic bishop to the young men:--\n\n1. \"Fecisti solus tecum fornicationem ut quidam facere solent; ita dico ut\nipse tuum membrum virile in manum tuam acciperes, et sic duceres praeputium\ntuum, et manu propria commoveres, ut, sic, per illam delectationem semen\nprojiceres?\"\n\n2. \"Fornicationem fecisti cum masculo intra coxas; ita dico ut tuum virile\nmembrum intra coxas alterius mitteres, et sic agitando semen funderes?\"\n\n3. \"Fecisti fornicationem, ut quidem facere solent, ut tuum virile membrum\nin lignum perforatum, aut in aliquod hujus modi mitteres, et, sic, per\nillam commotionem et delectationem semen projiceres?\"\n\n4. \"Fecisti fornicationem contra naturam, id est, cum masculis vel\nanimalibus coire, id est cum equo, cum vacca, vel asina, vel aliquo\nanimali?\" (vol. i. p. 136.)\n\nAmong the questions we find in the Compendium of the Right Rev. Burchard,\nBishop of Worms, which must be put to women, are the following (p. 115):--\n\n1. \"Fecisti quod quaedam mulieres solent, quoddam molimen, aut machinamentum\nin modum virilis membri ad mensuram tuae voluptatis, et illud loco\nverendorum tuorum aut alterius cum aliquibus ligaturis, ut fornicationem\nfaceres cum aliis mulieribus, vel alia eodem instrumento, sive alio tecum?\"\n\n2. \"Fecisti quod quaedam mulieres facere solent, ut jam supra dicto\nmolimine, vel alio aliquo machinamento, tu ipsa in te solam faceres\nfornicationem?\"\n\n3. \"Fecisti quod quaedam mulieres facere solent, quando libidinem se\nvexantem extinguere volunt, quae se conjungunt quasi coire debeant et\npossint, et conjungunt invicem puerperia sua, et sic, fricando pruritum\nillarum extinguere desiderant?\"\n\n4. \"Fecisti quod quaedam mulieres facere solent, ut cum filio suo parvulo\nfornicationem faceres, ita dico ut filium tuum supra turpidinem tuam\nponeres ut sic imitaberis fornicationem?\"\n\n5. \"Fecisti quod quaedam mulieres facere solent, ut succumberes aliquo\njumento et illud jumentum ad coitum qualicumque posses ingenio, ut sic\ncoiret tecum?\"\n\nThe celebrated Debreyne has written a whole book, composed of the most\nincredible details of impurities, to instruct the young confessors in the\nart of questioning their penitents. The name of the book is \"Moechiology,\"\nor \"treaty on all the sins against the six (seven) and the nine\ncommandments, as well as on all the questions of the married life which\nrefer to them.\"\n\nThat work is much approved and studied in the Church of Rome. I do not know\nthat the world has ever seen anything comparable to the filthy and infamous\ndetails of that book. I will cite only two of the questions which Debreyne\nwants the confessor to put to his penitent.\n\nTo the young men (page 95) the confessor will ask:--\n\n\"Ad cognoscendum an usque ad pollutionem se tetigerint, quando tempore et\nquo fine se tetigerint; an tunc quosdam motus in corpore experti fuerint,\net per quantum temporis spatium; an cessantibus tactibus nihil insolitum et\nturpe acciderit; an non longe majorem in corpore voluptatem perceperint in\nfine tactuum quam in eorum principio; an tum in fine quando magnam\ndelectationem carnalem senserunt, omnes motus corporis cessaverint; an non\nmadefacti fuerint?\" &c., &.\n\nTo the girl the confessor will ask:--\n\n\"Quae sese tetigisse fatentur, an non aliquem pruritum extinguere\ntentaverit, et utrum pruritus ille cessaverit cum magnam senserint\nvoluptatem; an tunc, ipsimet tactus cessaverint?\" &c., &c.\n\nThe Right Rev. Kenrick, late Bishop of Boston, United States, in his book\nfor the teaching of confessors on what matters they must question their\npenitents, has the following, which I select among thousands as impure and\ndamnable to the soul and body:--\n\n\"Uxor quae, in usu matrimonii, se vertit, ut non recipiat semen, vel statim\npost illud acceptum surgit, ut expellatur, lethaliter peccat; sed opus non\nest ut diu resupina jaceat, quum matrix, brevi, semen attrahat, et mox,\narctissime claudatur\" (vol. iii. p. 317).\n\n\"Puellae patienti licet se vertere, et conari ut non recipiat semen, quod\ninjuria ei immittitur; sed, exceptum, non licet expellere, quia jam\npossessionem pacificam habet, et haud absque injuria naturae ejiceretur\"\n(tom. iii. p. 317).\n\n\"Conjuges senes plerumque coeunt absque culpa, licet contingat semen extra\nvas effundi; id enim per accidens fit ex infirmitate naturae. Quod si vires\nadeo sint fractae ut nulla sit seminandi intra vas spes, jam nequeunt jure\nconjugii uti\" (tom. iii. p. 317).\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\nNotes\n\n[1] \"To avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every\nwoman have her own husband.\" (1 Cor. vii. 2.)\n\n[2] A silver box containing consecrated bread, which is believed to be the\nreal body, blood, and divinity of Jesus Christ.\n\n[3] And remark that all their religious authors who have written on that\nsubject hold the same language. They all speak of those continual degrading\ntemptations; they all lament the damning sins which follow those\ntemptations; they all entreat the priests to fight those temptations and\nrepent of those sins.\n\n[4] He is dead long ago.\n\n[5] By the word _penitents_, Rome means not those who _repent_, but those\nwho _confess_ to the priest.\n\n[6] He died many years after when at the head of the Laval University.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\nCorrections made to printed original.\n\nChapter I. Para. 9. \"I do here publicly challenge the whole Roman Catholic\npriesthood\" - 'hear' in original.\n\nibid. Para 13. \"everywhere they struggle nerve themselves with a superhuman\ncourage\" - 'stuggle' in original.\n\nChapter II. Para. 1. \"The terrible and mysterious cause of her death was\nknown\" - 'known' in original.\n\nChapter III. Para 9. \"he suspects that nobody but his co-sinner brethren\" -\n'brethern' in original.\n\nChapter V. Para 12. \"a good, honest, Christian, and godly thing\" -\n'Christain' in original.\n\nibid. Para 36. \"particularly if high education has added to her natural\nshrewdness.\" - 'particulary' in original.\n\nChapter VI. Para 30. \"humiliation and opprobrium of the questionable\nprivileges of an uncertain paternity.\" - 'questioable' in original\n\nibid. Para 39. \"it is nothing else than a school of immorality.\" - 'im-' at\nend of one line is not completed in original, this completion seems best to\nfit the sense of the next paragraph.\n\nCHAPTER VII. Heading - 'CHAPTER VIII.' in original.\n\nibid. Para 12. \"the obligation and power which every one of His disciples\nhad of forgiving\" - 'desciples' in original.\n\nChapter IX. Para 80. \"secreto et absque arbitrio\" - 'and' for 'et' in\noriginal. \"aliquid loquendum habet\" - 'loquem dum' in original\n\nibid. Para 89. \"Curiosum genus ad cognoscendam vitam alienam;\" -\n'cognescendam' in original\n\nibid. Para 121. \"ex hisque perpetua infamia denigrari!\" - 'hisgue' in\noriginal\n\nChapter XI. Para 20. \"which must be put to women\" - 'womem' in original.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\nWorks Published by F. E. Grafton,\n\nPUBLISHER, BOOKSELLER AND STATIONER,\n\nMontreal.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\nSONG LIFE,\n\nOver 250 of the best Hymns and Tunes ... Price 50 cts.\n\nTHE HYMNAL.\n\nA collection of Hymns for Prayer Meetings and Evangelistic services, 10\ncts. each, ... $8 per 100\n\nTHE S. S. MELODIST.\n\n100 Hymns and Tunes ... $9 per 100\n\nTHE CHILDREN'S MESSENGER.\n\nA Monthly Sabbath School Paper at 15 cts. per copy per annum, when 10 or\nmore copies are taken to one address.\n\nHAND-BOOK OF SCRIPTURE GEOGRAPHY.\n\nThis useful work should be in the hands of every Bible Student. 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