HISTORY OF AURICULAR CONFESSION. ExLibrifl C. K. OGDEN THE HISTORY AURICULAR CONFESSION, RELIGIOUSLY, MORALLY, AND POLITICALLY CONSIDERED AMONG ANCIENT AND MODERN NATIONS. COUNT C. P. DE LASTEYRIE. TRANSLATED UNDER THE AUTHOR'S ESPECIAL SANCTION BY CHARLES COCKS, B.L., PROFESSOR BREVETS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FRANCE. TRANSLATOR OF MICHELET'S " PRIESTS, WOMEN, AND FAMILIES," &C. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON : RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET, in ort inanj to 1848. CHAPMAN, ELCOATE, AND COMPANY, % SHOE LANE, AND PETEKBOBOfGH COURT, FLEET STKEET. T Trj~> A -oy rr->~~ ,-,-, ,- , , T ^^ SANTA BARBARA' \M CONTENTS. PAGE Advertisement ix Preliminary Observations xii BOOK I. CONFESSION IN ITS RELATION TO RELIGION. CHAPTER I. Sin and Penitence among Pagans, Jews, and Mahometans 3 CHAPTER II. Philosophical and Religious Opinions among different Nations on Confession and the Remission of Sins . 29 CHAPTER III. Confessions in Use in Different Religions : a continu- ation of the preceding chapter 48 CHAPTER IV. Confession made to God alone in the Presence of the Faithful; Penance and Forgiveness of Sins among the earlier Christians ; Auricular Confession un- known among them 65 CHAPTER V. Reciprocal Confession between Laymen among the Christians; Origin of Sacerdotal and Sacramental Confession . 90 Yl CONTENTS. CHAPTER VI. PAGE Change in Ancient Discipline and Penance in conse- quence of the Corruption of Christianity . . . .109 CHAPTER VII. Nature and Effects of Auricular and Sacerdotal Con- fession among Roman Catholics 145 CHAPTER VIII. Progress of Auricular and Sacerdotal Confession among Christians 172 CHAPTER IX. Repentance and Absolution of Sins in the System of Auricular Confession .188 BOOK II. CONFESSION IN ITS RELATION TO MORALITY. CHAPTEB I. The Doctrine of the Casuists . . -211 CHAPTER II. The Immorality of the Questions asked in Confession . 228 CHAPTER III. Seduction of Females in Spain, by Means of Confession 234 ADVERTISEMENT. IN laying this remarkable work before the Eng- lish reader, the translator conceives it may not be superfluous to indicate the object which the noble author had in view in thus exposing the immoral effects of the system of Catholicism, so conspicuous in the invention and practice of Auricular Con- fession. To do so, the translator has only to give the following quotation from the present volume : " If to present to the knowledge of the pub- lic detestable opinions and principles, be an oppro- brium to some persons, it will, on the contrary, be a salutary warning to all, and the only means of putting a stop to causes of depravity, the more dangerous as they are disseminated quietly and under the cloak of religion : it will be a motive for too confiding and over-credulous persons to keep clear of an institution invented for the pur- A3 viii ADVERTISEMENT. pose of subjecting Christians to a shameful and intolerable bondage." The translator takes this opportunity of express- ing to Count de Lasteyrie his grateful acknow- ledgments for the following obliging favour, by which the author has honoured the present under- taking with his approbation. " Monsieur, " J'ai regu la lettre par laquelle vous me deman- dez a traduire en Anglais mon Histoire de la Con- fession . . . Ayant compose cet ouvrage dans le seul but d'attirer 1'attention du public sur Tune des institutions les plus funestes imaginees par 1'ambi- tion sacrilege des homines, je verrai avec plaisir que cet ouvrage soit reproduit dans une langue ou il pourra acquerir une plus grande publicite, et etendre ainsi le bien que j'ai eu en vue. Je suis d'autant plus aise que vous entrepreniez cette traduction, que le talent dont vous avez donne des preuves en ce genre, est une garantie du succes que vous devez avoir . . . " J'ai 1'honneur d'etre, Monsieur, " Avec devouement, " C. DE LASTEYRIE." PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. HE who writes to oppose errors must expect to find contradictors, and often adversaries, the more violent and irascible that they are more interested in deceiving. There are some, however, who, ac- cording to the ideas they have acquired from educa- tion and circumstances, condemn, without examina- tion and from prejudice, every opinion that differs from their own. This is a misfortune ; yet we can- not blame them when they act conscientiously, and are as tolerant towards others as we ought to be towards them. But, on the other hand, we must rise against those hypocrites, those cheats, who are the eternal enemies of civil and religion* liberty. We must despise their criticism, and even their hatred and calumny. X PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. However, such is the character of the human mind, that it is sufficient for an inveterate opinion to be favoured by circumstances and encouraged by the policy of influential men, to hurry away the masses, and become something sacred which it is unlawful to touch. Fifty years ago, nobody in France, with a few exceptions, ever went to confess: public opinion openly pronounced against this institution. But the empire (of Napoleon) and the other govern- ments which have succeeded each other down to the present time, having considered it their interest to restore, not the sentiments of a rational and evangelical religion, but the mechanical and super- stitious practices of the ancien regime, the result has been, among many persons, a factitious opinion, which has brought confession into vogue, without, however, their believing in it or practising it. This is evident from the small number of persons who confess ; for we know how far we ought to give credit to those formal confessions which take place just at the point of death. For our part, far from allowing ourselves to be hurried away by fashionable opinions, or the preju- PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. XI dices of the middle ages, by feigning an approba- tion of a practice invented by sacerdotal policy ; we believe that it is the duty of the friends of truth to contend against it as contrary to true religion, intellectual liberty, and the progress of civilization. We shall prove that confession, copied from the Pagans and Jews, had, among the earlier Christians, a character different from that which it later assumed. The former was insti- tuted for the purpose of morality; whereas the latter aimed only at domination and the accumu- lation of power and riches. It will be seen how sacerdotal confession gave birth at one tune to fanaticism, by infusing terror into minds, and at another, to a looseness of morals, and even to the encouragement of crime, by the assurance of par- don. In its train came those categories and dis- tinctions by means of which the Casuists perverted morality, and confounded the ideas of good and evil, by presenting innocent or indifferent actions as crimes, and baneful ones as virtues. Thence also arose superstitious, vain, and puerile practices, which usurped the place of morality and an en- lightened religion. We shall demonstrate how Xll PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. fatal this institution has been to both ; and that the evils it has produced have not ceased to exist, in spite of the laws enacted and the measures em- ployed to arrest their progress. We shall prove that this institution is only a human invention, since it was unknown to the apostles and earlier Christians, and that it was not lawful in those who succeeded them to impose new dogmas and precepts, as Tertullian observes, when he says : " One must have lost one's reason to imagine the apostles to have been ignorant of any truths useful to salvation, and people to have found in after ages anything, concerning morals and the conduct of life, more wise or more sublime than what Jesns Christ has taught them." * Lastly, it will be seen that, though considered by some persons as a bridle for restraining vice, it makes those who submit to it neither better nor more virtuous than they who abstain from it; that corruption and debauchery are as frequent in the countries where it prevails as in those where it is unknown ; that it is so much the more dan- o-erous because its ministers are condemned to celi- O * Tertul , de Prescrip., c. xxii. PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. Xlll bacy ; and that it was, and still is, a means to obtain riches and power, as is proved, even in our own time, by the foundation of so great a number of convents, little seminaries, and congregations. To know what are the pretended results of con- fession, it is proper to examine whether any im- provement has been effected since it has come into more general use, especially among those who are its defenders. Have the despotism of princes, the servility and avidity of courtiers and public func- tionaries, the corruption, and even the venality of legislators, the rapacity of monied men and monopolists, dishonesty in commerce, and the ava- rice of the clergy, disappeared, or even diminished in any sensible degree ? Far otherwise : we per- ceive a recrudescence everywhere, especially since material interests have been almost officially sub- stituted for morality, and corruption has become a principle of state. It is, then, to cheat the people, that they speak in one manner and act in another. Do we ever see priests openly attacking the mis- deeds of those who go in crowds to applaud their eloquence and pastoral zeal, and fling themselves at their feet in a confessional? No: they must XIV PBELIMOARY OBSERVATIONS. treat gently the great ones of the world, wink at the laxity of their morals, and maintain the old adage " non caste, sed caute ;" and they must ab- solve them every day, notwithstanding their per- severing in their sins. Such are the results of this confession, so useful and so necessary for salvation ! There are, doubtless, people fastidious enough to blame us for relating scandalous facts, the publicity of which, they will say, is injurious to the priesthood, and, consequently, to religion. Our answer to this charge is, that scandal is pro- duced far less by the knowledge of crimes than by their impunity. It is only in this latter case that religion, being allied with perverse ministers, is degraded ; for it then becomes responsible for their conduct. It is, on the contrary, honoured, and its dignity remains uncontaminated even by the fact that it has been avenged. They, therefore } make themselves accomplices and produce scandal, who cover criminals with their protection. More- over, it is silence and impunity which allow cor- rupt priests to give free scope to their passions. It is, therefore, only by unveiling their misdeeds that we can cause them to be discontinued. Ly- PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. XV curgus used to cause drunken men to appear be- fore young people, in order to teach them to detest an ignoble vice. It is not less useful to display to public opinion the deplorable conduct of a few wicked priests, and to prove that the kind of debauchery inherent in auricular confession will only cease by the abolition of a practice which has produced great evils, without doing any good. It will doubtless be objected, that the num- ber of facts quoted in this work bear but a small proportion to that of the confessions which take place every day in all Catholic coun- tries ; and, also, that nobody has the power of abolishing an institution on which depends, accord- ing to the Church of Rome, the salvation of man- kind. We answer to those who sincerely embrace the latter opinion, that they are at liberty to fol- low it in practice, even amid the dangers to which their wives and daughters are exposed. It is their own business. But, for our part, as we con- sider, with almost all mankind on our side, this doctrine to be as contrary to reason and pure religion as it is to divine justice and goodness, we reject and oppose it as fatal to the independence and progress of the human mind. XVI PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. As to the facts mentioned in this volume, they are numerous enough and sufficiently serious, as well in a religious and moral as in a politi- cal point of view, to demonstrate to every per- son devoid of prejudices, the dangers and in- conveniences of an institution invented for the interest of a sacerdotal corporation. To form an idea of the crimes that may be committed in the secrecy of confession, we must consider that these crimes never come to the knowledge of the pub- lic except in extremely rare circumstances ; for this reason, that the perpetrators and witnesses are only two persons, equally interested in their remaining unknown, since the discovery would bring them into disrepute; compromise their social state; nay, expose them to severe punishments; whence it must follow, that for one fact of this nature which transpires, there remain several thousands which will ever remain unknown. We are astounded when we consider the nu- merous crimes of seduction, established by a few proces verbaux abstracted from the Inquisition. But how much greater would be our astonishment if, supposing there had been an Inquisition esta- blished in every province throughout Christendom PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. XVU from the beginning of sacerdotal confession, it had been possible to search all such registers and pre- sent the result to the public ! There is another kind of scandal which has lat- terly excited the indignation of the public that occasioned by priests, monks, and even bishops, who have exposed in works on morality and theo- logy, designed for the instruction of seminarists, all the lewdness that the most licentious and auda- cious Casuists have imagined, to guide young seminarists in the practice of confession. It is impossible to feel too indignant when we see that these works are intended for the instruction of some fifty thousand priests or monks, who may daily propagate, in every part of France, ideas and practices of unparalleled depravity. Such great evils require strong remedies. It is not sufficient to accuse vaguely, by mitigated and deprecatory charges, to make the public feel all the seriousness of the evil. "We must state, in textual terms, as far as decency, outraged by these authors, allows, the maxims professed in their works whatever be our repugnance. Finally, we find, in the writings of ancient and XV1U PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. modern theologians, the most respectable for their doctrine, piety, and learning, an answer to the charges that might be brought against us. "We ought, as far as possible, without sin, to avoid giving offence to our neighbour. But if the ma- nifestation of truth produce scandal, it is lawful ; it is more useful to produce scandal than to aban- don the defence of truth."* Fleury, who must be, to all the sincere friends of evangelical pre- cepts, a weighty authority, expresses himself upon the same subject as follows : " I know very well it is a sad thing to bring to light unedifying facts ; and I fear that they who possess more piety than learning may take it as an offence. They will say, perhaps, that in history these facts ought to be dissembled, or that after being just stated they ought not to be noticed in a discourse. But the foundation of history is truth. "It is a species of falsehood thus to tell the truth by halves. Nobody is obliged to write his- * In quantum sine peccato possumus vitare proximorum scandalum, debemus ; si autem de veritate scandalum sumi- tur, utilius permittitur nasci scandalum quam veritas relin- quatur. (S. Gregori, Horn. 5, in Ezeeh.) PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. XIX tory; but whosoever undertakes it is bound to tell the entire truth. " He would be more reprehensible himself if he dissembled the bad actions which may render others bad, and deter them from committing the like, at least from shame, according to the words in the Gospel. Nothing is so hidden but will one day be discovered. Sincerity is the basis of true religion : it needs no human policy, no artifice. As God permits evils which he might prevent, because He knows how to derive good from them for the elect, we ought to believe that He will turn to our advantage the knowledge of the irregularities He has suffered in His Church. If these irregularities had so far discontinued that there remained no Vestige of them, perhaps we might allow them to sleep in eternal oblivion. But we see but too plainly the fatal consequences. . . . " The corruption of morals by new maxims pro- duces too palpable effects ; is it not useful then to know the source of such great evils ?" * * Fleury. Dlscours sur f Histoire Eccleaia stiffite, No. 13. BOOK I. ON CONFESSION IN ITS RELATION TO RELIGION. CHAPTER I. ON SIN AND PENITENCE AMONG PAGANS, JEWS, AND MAHOMETANS. IN the order of God, every fault ought to receive a punishment; every good act its reward. The justice of Go4 is impassive and immutable; it has not, like human justice, any need, any interest to pardon or punish. Its laws are in- evitable, and cannot be altered by any human mediator, neither by prayers nor solicitations. Those to which man has to submit are simple, clear, evident to all, and easy to be observed by any one uncorrupted by education, false religion, VOL I. B 2 4 CONFESSION IN ITS or the vices of social institutions. The punish- ments inflicted by God are not those of a revenge- ful tyrant, but of a father who loves his children. They are temporary like the faults, and propor- tioned to human nature, to its weakness and ignorance. Such must be divine justice, if it be given to us to understand it ; far different from that of those legislators, those civil and religious tyrants, who, aiming at domination, have perverted the attributes of God, and treated human nature with contempt. Man ought to forgive offences and injuries per- sonally received ; but his pardon, like the priest's, is powerless in arresting divine justice, which requires from the sinner only a sincere repentance and a firm resolution never more to violate its laws. It is then only that divine goodness and justice, in harmony together, will forgive. The ideas of the Pagans as to the nature of what is designated under the name of sin, differ very much from those adopted by revealed religions. Among the former, religion was satisfied, on the one hand, to sanction the moral duties found in the natural law, and, on the other, to prescribe the respect, homage, and worship, due to the Deity, whether the latter was considered as one or com- plex; but it was different in revealed religions. Priests, too often rejecting reason and every law that was not the one to which they wished to RELATION TO RELIGION. 5 subject mankind, made themselves the arbiters of good and evil, and prescribed, in the name of God, the duties that man had to fulfil towards that God, himself, and his fellow creatures. These religions, based, in their origin, with a few excep- tions, upon the laws of nature, were burthened with opinions, precepts, and new practices, which brought in their train new principles of morality, and, consequently, new obligations and duties. From this chaos, there necessarily arose new in- fractions, and an infinite number of oifences or sins unknown to men before the organization of these systems. Thus it is, that the penitential codes of these religions are found to be crammed with sins, from those the most revolting to human nature down to faults imagined by stupidity, the grossest super- stition, bigotry, and the most absurd monkish servitude. Let us follow, for instance, the Catholic religion in its mutations, since it is better known to us than Brahmism, Bouddhigm, and Mahometanism. Let us look through the numerous precepts recorded in the works of certain fathers of the Church, in several councils, bulls, and papal rescripts, and we shall find a number of precepts and duties, the greater part of which are obligatory on pain of mortal sin and excommunication, that is to say, according to Catholic theologians, eternal damna- 6 CONFESSION IN ITS tion. It follows, therefore, from this doctrine, that all Catholics will suffer eternally the pains of hell, since there is not one who does not fail in the ob- servance of a greater or less number of these obli- gatory precepts. Thus it is, that morality has been perverted by the ignorance and fanaticism of a few enthusiasts, and the progress of civilization and true philosophy has been arrested. This philosophy, based upon the immortal truth of the divine law with which men were inspired long before there existed any revealed religions, makes sin consist in the non-observance of the du- ties commanded by reason. " Sin," says an ancient philosopher, " consists in what is contrary to rea- son, or in the omission of a duty."* The thought of doing evil is even a sin, according to Marcus Aurelius, who expresses himself thus: "Not only never to do evil, but not even to entertain the thought of it."f Meno imposes upon his dis- ciples a purity not less perfect in thought than in word. " Having well meditated," says he, " upon the certainty of a reward reserved for acts after death, let him contrive that his thoughts, words, and acts be always virtuous." $ According to Cicero, we ought to shun vice, even though we * Peccatum antem, quod praeter rectam rationeni sit, vel in quo officii aliquid sit omissum. (Stob. Eclog. Eth., ii., p. 177.) f- M. Aurel. Cogit., lib. i., c. 16. J Meno's Laws, ii., art. 231. RELATION TO RELIGION. 7 had for witnesses neither gods nor men. " We ought to be convinced," says this philosopher, "that it is our duty to do nothing contrary to justice, order, or temperance, even though we could conceal it from the knowledge of gods and men."* Democritus suggested to our actions a noble motive, when he said we ought to abstain from sin, not through fear, but from duty."f The philosophers were then unacquainted with what the theologians have since imagined under the name of mortal sins. They wished people to avoid even the slightest sins. " What seem to many per- sons," says Cicero, "slight faults, ought even on that account to be avoided the more carefully. "J These same philosophers considered sin as the greatest of evils. " Real evils," says Pythagoras, " are the sins which are committed voluntarily and intentionally, and in whose company virtue can never be found : such are injustice and intemper- ance." * Nobis persuasum esse debet, si omnes deos hominesque celare possimus, nihil tamen avare, nihil injuste, nihil libidi- nose, nihil incontinenter esse faciendum. (Cicer., lib. iii., de Offic.) t Non metu, sed officii causa peccatis abstinendum. (Democr., Sent.) J Qua; parva videntur esse delicta, neque a mult is intelligi possunt, ab iis etiam diligentius esse declinandum. (Cicer., de Offic.) Hierocles, Commentary on the Verses of Pythag., v. 14. 8 CONFESSION IN ITS If God punishes, if he requires compensation, it can be but for the faults or . crimes which consti- tute a real infraction of his laws. But it seems that man, impatient of upholding laws so favourable to his true interests, had been resolved to impose upon himself an insupportable yoke. Blind igno- rance and superstition, and an excessive and sombre fanaticism, have imagined new duties and crimes, and thereby inspired fear and terror, by troubling the conscience and rendering man unhappy. Thus it is that they imputed crime to the child on the very day of its birth, and condemned it to chastisement. Moses devolves the culpability of the father upon the heads of his children, even to the fourth generation; whereas Isaiah rejects the dogma. " The soul that has sinned shall perish ; the son shall not bear his father's punishment." It is from the same prejudice that the Catholics think the Jews are punished and proscribed, on account of their forefathers not having acknow- ledged Jesus Christ. We damn also, without pity, the inhabitants of unknown lands, who never heard of our religion of meekness and charity. Sin, ever based upon natural law in different religions, has, however, undergone some modi- fications, a greater or less degree of culpability, according to the spirit, prejudices, or interest of the founders, or of the priesthood. This is percep- tible in the laws of Zoroaster, Meno, Bouddha, c. RELATION TO RELIGION. The former, considered by his disciples as one sent from God, has bequeathed to them, in the " Zend- Avesta," the following series of capital faults : " 1, to see evil and not to warn him who does it ; 2, to teach evil or falsehood; 3, to harm any- body; 4, to cheat in anything; 5, to give no alms to the poor ; 6, to intend to strike anybody ; 7, to strike and wound ; 8, to do evil ; 9, to say there is more than one God ; 10, not to acknow- ledge Zoroaster for the true prophet; 11, to dis- obey one's father or master; 12, to sow dissension among men; 13, to contradict the law; 14, not to take care of the sick; 15, to deter from peni- tence ; 16, to do evil with demons (they who commit this sin are to be killed); 17, to deride anybody; 18, to carry off a wife; 19, to com- mit prostitution ; 20, 21, 22, 23, loathsome crimes ; 24, to live with a woman of a foreign religion ; 25, to lie, deceive, deride, and to help anyone to do ill ; 26, not to say one's usual prayers ; 27, to commit crime again after doing penance for it."* Lastly, we must not forget Zoroaster's remark- able law, relative to those who leave a productive land uncultivated, or who do not cultivate fallow ground. f Merit ought, indeed, to be attached only to acts useful to men, and not to corporal macera- tions, incessant prayers, and other sterile practices. * Anquetil Duperron, Zend-Avesta, t. iii., p. 30. t Ibid, t. iii., p. 44. B3 10 CONFESSION IN ITS We find, among the Brachmans, opinions rela- tive to the nature of. sin, generally conformable to reason, but which, however, differ from it essen- tially on several points. Here are the cases which, according to their casuists, are considered the most serious. Mr, Word, an English tra- veller, who has given us some very curious in- formation concerning the religion of the Gentoos, enumerates, in the second .volume of his work, page 148, a list of crimes which, in spite of their gravity, may nevertheless be redeemed by practices recorded in the sacred books of those nations: such are theft, pride, gluttony, fornication, false testimony, usury, &c. They consider as crimi- nals those who forsake their father, mother, chil- dren, or friends ; who neglect to pay their debts ; who deny a future state ; who put an enemy to death after he has surrendered in war ; who eat nice food without giving any to others ; who re- fuse food to their father or mother ; who neglect D the duties of religion ; who despise the devout ; who cause any grief to others, &c. The sketch we have just given of the opinions adopted in the religious systems which differ from Christianity, are sufficient to give an idea of the similarity and dissimilarity which exist between those systems as to the nature and culpability of sin. This is what we shall perceive still better after reading the chapter in the second book of RELATION TO RELIGION. 1 1 this work, which treats of the penitential system imagined by our theologians and casuists. It is worthy of remark that Zoroaster, Mahomet, Brah- ma, and Bouddha, place far above all sins the crime of denying their mission. This opinion is, how- ever, more exaggerated in the religious system of the theologians of Christianity, both ancient and modern. It is sufficient to cite two examples. Thus, Saint Clement considers the violation of the law of nature in one of its most important points, adultery, as far less criminal than the error of him who does not believe. " Adultery is a serious sin," says he ; " it is, however, only placed in the second rank in the penal system ; for the heaviest penalty is due to the error of those who do not believe, though their lives be conformable to the rules of temperance."* The apostolic constitutions mani- fest the same opinion, when they say : " that there is no crime more enormous than idolatry. "f We find in a work printed at Constantinople in 1841, with the title of Commentary on Great Sins, the series of sins considered as mortal by the doctors of Islamism ; they were, towards the end of the first * Multum quippe grave peccatum est adulterium ; in tau- tum ut sccundum in pomis obtinet locum ; quando quidem primus debetur iis qui in errore degunt, quamvis tenijK;- ranter vivant. (S. Clem., Epist. ad Jacob, 3.) f Gravius delictum idolatriu non reperitur. (Const. Apost., ii., c. 23.) 12 CONFESSION IN ITS century of the Hegira, a point of dispute between the Sounnies and the Khawaridj, that is to say, between the orthodox and the heterodox ; the for- mer maintaining that the great sins do not imply infidelity (keufr), whereas the latter pretended that every criminal was also an infidel (kiafir). The Montafils, that is, the Dissenters, took a middle course by establishing the doctrine that criminals were in a middle state between the faithful and the infidel. It is therefore very important to know the mortal sins of the Mahometans. Ismail Hakki reckons seventy, namely : 1st, association with God that is, the doctrine which admits of more than one God ; 2nd, murder ; 3rd, ingratitude towards pa- rents ; 4th, flight from an enemy ; 5th, innovation ; 6th, profanation of the sanctuary of Mecca; 7th, the use of wine ; 8th, fornication ; 9th, loathsome sin ; 10th, calumniation of honest women; llth, spoil- ing the inheritance of orphans ; 1 2th, false testimony ; 13th, bribery (of judges by presents); 14th, to eat in the day time in the month of Ramadhan ; 15th, abortion ; 16th, perjury ; 17th, to grow --rich by oppression; 18th, theft; 19th, treachery; 20th, to say prayers before the time prescribed, or to post- pone them ; 21st, to beat a Mussulman without cause ; 22nd, to slander the companions of the pro- phet ; 23rd, to prefer Ali to the three Khalifs his predecessors ; 24th, to accuse the prophet of false- RELATION TO RELIGION. 13 hood ; 25th, to refrain from giving proper testi- mony ; 26th, to allow oneself to be bribed (passive corruption, in opposition to what is said above) ; 27th, suicide, or the mutilation of limbs ; 28th, the profession of procurer ; 29th, to slander the inno- cent to their oppressor; 30th, witchcraft; 31st, to prevent alms ; 32nd, delay in actions commanded, or in asbtaining from actions forbidden ; 33rd, to speak ill of men of silence or the readers of the Koran ; 34th, to forget the Koran ; 35th, to burn animals (death by fire being reserved for God alone); 36th, the flight of a woman from her husband; 37th, to despair of the mercy of God; 38th, not to fear the punishment of God; 39th, to persevere in venial sins (which is equivalent to mortal sins); 40th, singing; 41st, dancing; 42nd, oppression ; 43rd, love of the world ; 44th, slander; 45th, seeking too inquisitively into others' faults ; 46th, pride ; 47th, self-love (having too good an opinion of oneself) ; 48th, envy; 49th, the omission of pilgrimages ; 50th, adorning any crea- ture ; 51st, neglecting the duties of Friday ; 52nd, to insult a Mussulman by calling him a kiafir; 53rd, servility to tyrannical emirs; 54th, onanism; 55th, to decry the face of one's neighbour ; 56th, injustice in sharing ; 57th, ingratitude towards God for what he allots to man ; 58th, to meddle with an impure woman ; 59th, to rejoice at the dearness of provisions; 60th, tube alone with one's neighbour's 14 CONFESSION IN ITS wife ; 61st, unutterable sin ; 62nd, to believe in diviners ; 63rd, to play at chess or draughts ; 64th, lamentation over the dead when eulogising their good qualities; 65th, to listen to music; 66th, to look at a handsome face with desire ; 67th, to receive gifts from tyrants ; 68th, evil suspicions ; 69th, derision and raillery ; 70th, to give nick- names to one's neighbour.* Penance for the expiation of sins presents as great a variety in the different regions as their cul- pability. Here are the opinions followed in the religion of Brahma. This sectarian prescribes to his disciples, in these terms, the mode of penance they ought to observe : " When he goes into the desert to adore God and do penance, let him re- nounce his clothing, food, and other enjoyments to be found in cultivated places ; let him eat, but very moderately, seeds, fruits, roots, and the leaves of trees growing in the desert ; let him. sleep on the ground where he has strown some grass or leaves; and rest himself on stones, sand, or ashes; let the skin of the wild ox or that of other animals, or else the bark of trees, serve him for clothing. His body must be exposed to the inclemency of the weather to heat, cold, and rain, till it make his skin crack. It is by this kind of life, prescribed by the order of the beneficent God, that he will wipe * Journal Asiatique, Mars, 1843, p. 261. RELATION TO RELIGION. 15 out his sins and offences, even as fire consumes straw."* We see that the austerity of this penance im- poses all the kinds of privation and sufferings which are ever so much admired in our cenobites ; and it is everywhere in the name of a good and merciful God that weak and credulous minds are excited to torment both soul and body. This penance is car- ried to a still higher degree of insanity, even as we find it practised in the third of the Vedas, where we find related the sufferings to which the radjahs subject themselves. " In order to mortify himself, he kept his eyesfixed upon the sun, with both his hands raised on high, and remained standing in this posi- tion."f Travellers infonn us that this practice * Cum in deserto et iverit, cultum et poenitentiam faciat ; et vestes et cibuni, et alias resquse in culto loco products sint derelinquat, et granum et fructum et radicem herba? et folium arboris quod in deserto productum sit, comedat, sed parum ; et super terrain somnum faciat, in ilia quidquam extendat, qualia folia et herbam et super lapidem et arenam et cinerem recubitum faciat ; et indumentum e bove silvestri et pelle animalium et pelle arboris conficiat . . . et oportet quod a calore et frigore et pluvia in corpore ejus vulnera cadant et pellis iindatur. Et cum hoc vitae modo quod Deus benignus statutum dedit, peccata et offensiones suas hoc modo comburit, quod ignis festucas. (Malabarata apud An- quet. Duperron, t. ii., p. 586.) t Et ilia mortificatio hoec facit, quod oculum suum soli affixum tenebat, et ambas suas manus sursum cum sustulisset stans manebat. (Anquet. Duperron. Philos. et Th';ol. In- dienne, t. i., p. 29fi.) 16 CONFESSION IN ITS prevails even at the present day ; they tell us also that fanaticism is carried to such a pitch of exalta- tion among those people, that they hang themselves to a mast with a rope, to which a hook is attached, which is inserted into the skin of the back. Some, who believe they shall thus obtain the remission of their sins and celestial bliss, are seen to allow them- selves to be crushed to death under the colossal chariot of their deity. Lastly, these miserable creatures, who plunge into the wilderness of the deserts, are often devoured by wild beasts. Such are the excesses of insanity into which the human mind is hurried when led astray by religious fana- ticism. Penance, though far less severe in the religion of Zoroaster, is the condition of salvation to the sinner. "Whoever will distinguish himself among men by his piety, ought not to have any sins to reproach himself with. Let him constantly avoid every impurity, both in his actions and words; above all, let his tongue never utter any falsehood ; let him be of a conciliating and sociable mind, and let his mouth, in harmony with his heart, never open but to do homage to justice ; let him not be ad- dicted to fornication, insults, and crimes of this nature ; let him be an example of probity and wisdom in the eyes of the people of God. Our religion orders us to do penance sincerely Penance is equally necessary to those who follow RELATION TO RELIGION. 17 our holy religion. It is, I say, commanded, with- out distinction, both to men and women, to do penance as long as they are in this world. For this reason, the infant, from his most tender age, is not even dispensed, to cleanse himself from the impurity he had acquired from the bosom of his mother. . . . Whosoever has died without doing penance, has taken along with him a multi- tude of things to torture and torment him, which he was accumulating all the time he remained in the world. . . . Woes, griefs, horrors in a word, every torment shall be the only inheritance he has to expect in the world to come."* The same book says, moreover : " To save himself from everlasting death, each ought to expiate his faults whilst he is on earth."f The Pythagoreans admitted a less severe penance than that of the Christians, and one conformable to the dictates of reason: it consisted in a sincere repentance and an entire resignation to the pains inflicted by Providence in this life. " For this reason," says Pythagoras, " we must endeavour in all things not to sin, and, when we have sinned, we must run to meet the penalty, as the only re- medy for our faults, by correcting our temerity and folly with the salutary help of prudence and reason ; for, after we have fallen from our state of * Sad-Der, porte 40. f Ibid, porte 63. 18 CONFESSION IN ITS innocency by sin, we recover it by repentance and the good use we make of the penance with which God chastens us in order to restore us."* Seneca professes nearly the same doctrine. " He who repents of having sinned may be considered as in- nocent, "f The opinion of Epictetus, relatively to sin, is not less sensible. " There exists a Being whom we must please and obey. We must con- form to the decrees of God. . . . Can we be exempt from every sin ? No, doubtless ; but we may avoid a great number by constant attention. We ought to be content, if, after having constantly applied our attention, we commit only a small number of sins or faults, which cannot be imputed to us as a crime.":}: Pagan antiquity thought that these crimes might be effaced by prayers, sacrifices, and certain penitential formulas, practised in the mysteries, or introduced into the worship by the priests. "If prayers and sacrifices procure the remission of our sins," says the philosopher Sallust, "by moving the gods and turning them in our favour, it is really because our good actions and our return to the Deity, by curing us of our wickedness, render * Hierocles, Comm. on the Verses of Pythagoras, v. 28. f Quern poenitet peccasse, pene est innocens. (Senec., Thyestes.) J Arrian. Epict. Dissert., lib. iv., c. 12. RELATION TO RELIGION. 19 us again participators in the goodness of the gods."* It is a worthy spectacle to see a Pagan believe that repentance and the practice of good actions are the true means to find grace with God for the com- mission of sins. Pliny informs us the Romans thought that " the conscience of malefactors was liberated and their crimes effaced, by expiatory sacrifices, and that the manes of the dead were likewise thus appeased, "f The philosophers of antiquity, after having founded the duties of man on natural law, admitted only the infractions of this law to be sin. Being persuaded that there existed a God who does not leave crime unpunished, but who, however, is endowed with goodness and clemency, they thought that pardon belonged to him alone, and acknow- ledged, after God, no other judge but their own consciences. They gave themselves an account of their conduct by a daily examination of the con- science. This surveillance of oneself, far more efficacious than auricular confession in maintain- ing in the paths of virtue those who desire not to stray from them, was especially recommended by Pythagoras. This is the counsel he gave his * Sallust., de Diis et mundo, c. 14. f Vulgata priscis temporibus opinio obtinuit, februa esse omnia quibus malefactorum conscientiao purgarentur, dele- renturque peccata, aut manes animabus defunctorum placiti redderentur. 20 CONFESSION IN ITS disciples: "Never close your eyes in sleep, on retiring to rest, before you have examined by your reason all the actions of the day. In what have I been remiss ? What have I done ? What have I omitted of Avhat I ought to do ? Begin- ning with the first of your actions, continue throughout. If, in this examination, you find you have committed any faults, reproach yourself severely ; if you have done well, rejoice."* Sene- ca extols this practice in several places in his writings. He informs us that it was observed by Sextius, the philosopher, who recommends it in his Sentences, which have been transmitted to us.f " At the end of the day," says Seneca, " when he had retired to his bed-room, he addressed an in- terrogatory to his soul. Of what faults, would he say, hast thou been cured to-day ? What passion hast thou withstood? In what art thou better ?"{ Priests, after having established creeds, prac- * Hierocles. Golden Verses of Pythagoras, v. 41, and others. f We have lately published this work, with the following title : Sentences de Sextius, philosophe Pythagoricien, traduites en Francois pour la premiere fois ; accompagntes de notes etde variantes ; precedees de la doctrine de Pythagore, de celle de Sextius, et suives de la Vie dHypathie, femme celibre, et pro- fesseur a fecole dAlexandrie ; par le Comte C. P. de Las- teyrie. Paris, chez Pagnerre, 1813, 1 vol. in 12. J Senec., de Ira, c. 36. RELATION TO RELIGION. 21 tices, and imaginary sins, supposed malevolent beings, destined by God to tempt men, to draw them into sin here below, and to torment them in a future life. This system was generally admitted into every religion, in order to inspire a terror which would not have been so strong, so efficacious in producing the effect they purposed, if they had confined themselves to establish a belief founded on divine justice, that according to which God does not allow the crimes of the wicked to go un- punished. All these suppositions prevailed so much the more easily in the world, that they were proclaimed and supported by legislators and governments, who expected to find thereby an easy means of commanding arbitrarily and of being servilely obeyed. Thus, the cause which estab- lished an alliance between the throne and the altar dates from remote antiquity. The Pagan philosophers rightly rejected eternal punishments, so contrary to justice and divine goodness ; they ever reproached the Christians with having borrowed from Paganism such an exaggerated opinion, which could only find credit among the people. Celsus says, in addressing the Christians : " It was to overawe simple souls, whom they caused to dread the vengeance of the Gods, an opinion, moreover, which had no founda- tion in reality. One may liken the frightful fictions of the Christians to the phantoms and other objects 22 CONFESSION IN ITS of terror which were presented to the initiated in the mysteries."* The same Celsus said to them : " You boast of believing in eternal punishments ; but do not all the ministers of the mysteries announce them to the initiated ?"f Everlasting punishments appeared, however, too severe for trifling faults, even in the eyes of the rigorists ; it would have been considering God as a .cruel implacable tyrant. But, as such faults were not to remain unpunished, a transitory place of suffering was imagined, which the Pagans desig- nated under the name of Tartarus, and the Chris- tians under that of Purgatory. This doctrine was admitted throughout the East, and Pythogaras im- portedit from that part of the world to Greece. This is what Hierocles tells us in the following passage : " The wicked man does not wish the soul to be im- mortal, fearful of living after death only to suffer. But it is not so with the judges of hell ; they strive to correct the soul, and cure it by ordering punish- ments for the salvation of nature. The judges punish crime to expel crime."} Plato derived this doctrine from the school of Pythagoras. His dis- tinguished, as Eusebius remarks in his "Evangeli- cal Preparation," three states or degrees in souls : 1st, "those that have lived well, which go to the * Apud Orig. cont. Gels., lib. iv. f Ibid, lib. viii. } Hierocles, Comm. in versa aurea. RELATION TO RELIGION. 23 celestial abodes ; 2nd, those of inveterate sinners, which are condemned to eternal punishment; 3rd, such as have been neither holy nor addicted to evil, he condemns to flames wherein they will suffer for a longer or shorter period, according to the nature of their conduct. It was for them they said prayers."* We meet with this doctrine in the writings of Sallust the philosopher, who says : " On leaving the body, there are gods who procure an expiation for souls, and demons who cleanse them from their sins."f It was admitted by philosophers in the time of Julian. This emperor, speaking of God, says : " If we serve him religiously, will he fail to draw our souls from the darkness of Tartarus, he who knows all those that are detained there ? Assuredly, those regions do not limit his power, since he promises to religious mortals to make them pass from Tartarus to Olympus. "J Zaleucus thought Tartarus to be a place of penance, when he said : " All the dead remembering the perjury they have committed, do penance, and feel a poignant grief not to have conformed all their lives to the rules of equity." Although the * Plat, in Gorgia et in Phaedo. f Sallust., de Diis et mundo. { Julian's Letter to a Pontiff. Mortuos omnes injuriarum quas commiserunt memores, poenitentia invadit, et vehemens cupiditas qua vellent exactam sibi vitam, omnem fuisse justam. (Zaleuc. apud Stob.) 24 CONFESSION IN ITS opinion of everlasting punishment prevailed among the people in Pagan nations, it was generally sup- posed, however, that they were admitted for sins, more or less grave, to temporary punishments, since the custom of praying for the dead was general. It was according to this belief that a poet has said : " Ossa quieta, precor, tuta requiescite in urna." The relations and friends of the deceased who profess Brahmanism in the Indies, consider they relieve them by praying and offering up sacrifices on their account. The Hindoos celebrate a feast at Benares, during which, children must offer, for the manes of their father, water, a little food, and alms. The deceased is absolved, by this act, from all his faults, and goes to take his place in the abode of bliss.* The aim of those who founded religions was to impose them on men, and they took, consequently, the measures most likely to seduce and strengthen them in the belief of their dogmas and precepts. They judged, without needing a very profound knowledge of the human mind, that there did not exist a more powerful motive than the fear of eternal punishment. For this purpose they repre- sented their God as a vindictive being, irritable, and ready to punish, by atrocious and everlasting * Journal Asiat., March, 1834, p. 224. RELATION TO RELIGION. 25 pains, those who violated the law presented in his name. This religious system is clearly enounced in the following passage of the Ezour-Vedam : " What you have just told me of hell, and the punishments suffered there, fills me with terror and fear ; give me the means of avoiding them. It is only by penance, which must be done without delay ; for he who waits till death will do it for all eternity in hell. For penance to be fruitful, it must contain a full and sincere wish never to relapse into sin ; without which it is quite useless. To seek to ob- tain pardon of one's sins through penitence, and, at the same tune, to preserve the desire of falling into them, is to resemble an elephant led to the bank of a river to wash, and who, on leaving the water, runs to wallow again in the mire. What, indeed, is the use of making vain and sterile promises, and to have only an outward appearance of virtue in the eyes of God, who searches our heart, and knows all its most secret recesses? None but God can forgive us our sins ; seek then to implore his mercy by your prayers, to obtain it by good works, and to deserve it by your love for him."* The doctrine of eternal punishment has been in- troduced into Christianity by a natural consequence of human things ; and though it has been rejected * Ezour-Vcdam, t. i., p. 306. VOL. I. C 26 CONFESSION IN ITS by a few theologians, it has, however, generally prevailed, and become dogmatical among almost all the sects. Origen, Augustin, John Chrysostom, and John of Dasmascus, have maintained, that the pains of the damned might be mitigated by God. But the Catholic church has rejected this doctrine, being less timorous than some of the ancient fathers, who had felt the difficulty of conceiving how a Being in- finitely good could give existence to creatures that he foresaw must be eternally miserable. Origen believed that all the pains were purifying, and that they were to cease when they had produced their effect. Extravagant fanatical men imputed this to him as a crime ; and that is doubtless what pre- vented this doctrine from prevailing. Moreover, Origen did not think proper that it should be di- vulged, for fear of giving obstinate sinners some hope that would have strengthened them in their crimes. Ever false considerations, religious or po- litical, substituted for truth! The Manicheans, who performed a grand part in the history of the early ages of Christianity, rejected eternal pains ; however, Damascenus, who wrote to confute them, did not think that God in- flicted on sinners, nor even on demons, pains of real suffering. Gregory the Great offers a very singular argument to justify an eternity of pains ; he pretends that the damned are punished ever- lastingly, because God had foreseen, by a kind of RELATION TO RELIGION. 27 middling science, that they would have always sinned, had they lived always on earth. But, of all the fathers, he who has painted in the most frightful colours sin and the terrible punishments which await it, if confession do not come to its assistance, is Saint Basil : " When sin takes pos- session of you, I would have you think of that horrible and intolerable tribunal of Christ, where a judge presides, seated upon his exalted throne. Every creature will appear trembling before his glorious presence. We shall be there ourselves to give an account of our actions. They who have done much evil will be conducted by horrible shapeless angels, with faces of fire vomiting flames. Add also, in your own mind, the depths of hell, inextricable darkness, fire without light, having the property of burning, though devoid of flame ; moreover, a kind of worm venting poison and de- vouring flesh with inexpressible avidity, without ever being satisfied, and causing intolerable pain by his bite. Fear these things, and instructed by this dread, let it serve as a bridle to your soul against concupiscence, which carries you away to sin."* After having determined the nature of the crime and that of the chastisements which are reserved for it in the life to come, they assigned a satisfac- * Saint Gregory on the Thirty-third Psalm. C2 28 CONFESSION IN ITS tion or penance for it in the present life, more or less austere, according to the kind or character of the religions, or that of their founders or directors. Brahmanism imposed upon its penitents acts of revolting cruelty, which conducted them even to death, as we have just said. Paganism, on the contrary, remained satisfied with a few expiatory trials or ceremonies, which were by no means painful or disgusting. But let us see how they managed in Christianity. RELATION TO RELIGION. 29 CHAPTER II. PHILOSOPHICAL AND RELIGIOUS OPINIONS A- MONG DIFFERENT NATIONS, ABOUT CONFES- SION AND REMISSION OF SINS. THE philosophers of antiquity acknowledged that man, from the weakness of his nature and the effect of his passions, is liable to commit faults more or less serious and numerous. Crates used to say, " It is impossible to find any one free from faults ;"* and Pliny the elder expresses the same opinion in these terms : " Does there exist a single mortal who, at every moment of his life, puts in practice the precepts of wisdom ?"f But, knowing these results, philosophers thought that we found in ourselves enough fortitude to dimi- nish the number and gravity of the disorderly in- * Diog. de Laerce, Vie de Crates. t Quid, quod nemo mortalium omnibus horis sapit? (Lib. vii., c. 40.) 30 CONFESSION IN ITS clinations to which we are prone. It is owing to this consideration, that they have presented dif- ferent motives which ought to incline us to shun vice and practise virtue. They established these motives on the existence of a just God, and, con- sequently, a rewarder of virtue, but, at the same time, an enemy of vice, which ought never to re- main unpunished. They demonstrated that bad actions are as fatal to those who commit them as pernicious to the happiness of others ; whereas the acts of virtue and beneficence are equally useful to both. Lastly, they thought later that the avowal or confession of one's faults would be a powerful means to arrest the progress of vice, and lead men to the practice of virtue. But expe- rience soon proved that this obligation could take effect only on persons guilty of crimes of public notoriety; whereas it was illusory in cases of secret offences. Then it was, that priests, know- ing how to take advantage of an opinion admitted into a religion of which they were the oracles, usurped the place of the people, in the presence of whom confession was made, and persuaded them, in the name of Heaven, that every individual, whatever were his crimes or faults, ought to pre- sent himself at their tribunal to make a secret de- claration of them, and obtain a pardon which God granted only through their mediation. Such was the origin of auricular confession, which we find in RELATION TO RELIGION. 31 several ancient religions, in India, China, and elsewhere. The ancients were well aware that repentance alone can justify man. " Salvation," said Demo- critus, "is found in the repentance of shameful actions."* It was this primitive idea, perverted by priests, which led them to imagine a way of expiating crimes by mysterious practices and for- mulas. " They have invented," says Libanius, "expiations for homicide, in order to efface the crime of those who had been guilty of it."f Ex- piatory and penitential practices date from very remote antiquity, since they are to be found among the Brahmans, in one of their sacred books, the Bhagavata, which teaches that " man, by the aid of penance, very speedily obtains the supreme splendour."| This doctrine, diffused throughout the East, among the Jews and Greeks, was adopted by the Christians, who made it an indispensable condition of salvation. " It is at this price," says Tertullian, " that the Lord has granted pardon ; he has promised impunity only after it has been obtained by penitence." * Rerum turpium poenitentia salus est. (Democr. sent.) f Atque homicidis inventa sunt piacula, qua? dagitium purgent. (Liban., Leg. ad Jul.) J Bhagav., ch. 12, v. 19, liv. iii. Hoc pretio Dominum veniam addicere instituit ; hac poenitentise compensatione redimendam propusuit inipuni- tatem. (Tertull., de Poenit.) 32 CONFESSION IN ITS The philosophers who laid down rules of con- duct for men, never prescribed to them public con- fession, nor private confession later admitted ; they were satisfied to intimate to them that, being by nature subject to commit faults, they ought to strive to correct themselves. Thus Confucius says to his disciples : " As nobody can live without commit- ting some kind of fault, one must strive continually to correct oneself."* The same philosopher ac- knowledges that we can expect the pardon of our offences but from God alone, independently of men. "There is but one God, who surpasses everything in honour and majesty ; but if we sin against heaven, we can find no one to deliver us." f Another Chinese philosopher, Tao-Sse, had very judiciously conceived that the sinner can be re- conciled to God only by repentance, a change of life, and the practice of virtue. " If we commit a bad action," says he, " we must correct ourselves and repent ; if we quit the road to evil and prac- tise virtue, we shall not fail to obtain happiness." J Natural religion being in China the religion of * Cum quis sine culpa vivere non potest, sua vitia assidue corrigere, non ilium taedet. (Noel sin. lib., class., p. 84.) f Unum est coelum, quod omnes honore et majestate su- perat ; si autem in coelum peccaveris, nullus est quern roges, ut a te poenam eximat. (Id., ibid, p. 195.) I The Book of Rewards and Punishments, translated from the Chinese, by Abel Remusat. EELATION TO RELIGION. 33 the State, and admitting no priesthood, it was not possible to establish, in the name of Heaven, a practice so contrary to reason as auricular con- fession. Moreover, a hell, horrible from its tor- ments and duration, affirmatively established by the founders of divers religions, has never been adopted and sanctioned by the ancient or modern governments of that empire. The legislators and philosophers believed that, to govern men and make them better, it was necessary to teach them to revere Heaven and be just ; and that it was sufficient to stop the irregularities of vice to sub- ject them to temporal, but certain and immediate, punishments. Singular enough : despotism, which, in other countries and under very different circum- stances, employs means of terror to enslave the people, had recourse in China, in a less extensive and a purely political sphere, to a kind of confes- sion which may be likened to that which has been instituted by the court of Rome for a political purpose. The Emperor of China thus wished to become acquainted with the most secret acts of his agents; and the pope, by means of the cases of conscience which he reserves for himself, is ever informed of important facts, according to which he is guided in the government of his spiritual kingdom. Here is the information we find, on this subject, in the ninth letter of Father Lecomte : " Each of the viceroys, governors, and c3 34 CONFESSION IN ITS mandarins, ought, from time to time, sincerely and humbly to avow the secret and public faults of which he feels he has been guilty in the administration of his duty, and to send them to the court in writing." What is very remarkable, is, that auricular and sacerdotal confession is found to be established among the Siamese, doubtless long before it had been practised by the Christians. " The talapoin hierarchy," says Turpin, " seems as if it had taken ours for a model. Their priests have preserved auricular confession, which was never practised among the early Christians On certain days they approach his ear to make an avowal of their faults or weaknesses. Accordingly, they are not surprised that Christians admit auricular confes- sion ; but they cannot conceive how women can confide the secret of their fall to men ; they are convinced that it is exposing themselves to the danger of prevaricating from the truth through modesty."* But the danger is far greater when a woman relates to a young priest, circumstantially, the irregularities of which she may be guilty. It was a generally received opinion in antiquity that the avowal, or confession, made to priests was a necessary condition to obtain pardon, either in the eyes of men or qf God. For this purpose forms and ceremonies had been instituted according * Histoire civile et naturelle du royaume de Siam, par Turpin, t. i., p. 186 et 188. EELATION TO RELIGION. 35 to the countries or religious systems, or according to the practices of the meetings known under the name of mysteries, to which people applied for the expiation of their crimes. Philostratus acquaints us, on the occasion of an involuntary homicide, with the conditions to which the Gymnosophists, or priests of the religion of Brahma, subjected their penitents before absolving them. "He has committed," says Philostratus, "an involuntary crime, and he ought, in such a case, according to the laws of Minos, to leave his coun- try and take refuge among the Gymnosophists. It is only after they have purified and absolved him that he can return to his own country. But he must also expiate his crime by visiting the tombs of the dead, and there suffer a slight sacri- fice of blood. He wanders in that neighbourhood, as long as he is not admitted into the company of the Gymnosophists, and they do not take com- passion on him as a penitent. " But," says Apol- lonius, " what opinion do those sages entertain of that fugitive ?" " I know not," replied Tiniasion, " for he has been beseeching them for seven months to grant him a pardon, and he has not yet obtained it."* Confession, whether public or private, intro- duced into Pagan or revealed religion, dates from * Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana, ch. 5, book vi. 36 CONFESSION IN ITS very remote antiquity. We find, in Stoboeus, "that in the Indies they introduced those who had committed sins into a place, where they made a confession in presence of a certain number of persons. They demanded them to intercede with God in their favour. Lastly, a fast was im- posed upon them which lasted for a long time."* An instance of this public confession is to be found in one of the Pouzams, cited by the Journal de la Societe Asiatique. A merchant of Benares, having acquired a large fortune by illegal proceedings, confessed his sins in a public assembly, and did penance. The remission of sins is not yet ob- tained, in the religion of Brahma, by a few insig- nificant practices. "Penance is a good work, when, in submitting to it, you subject your five senses; otherwise it is only hypocrisy."! The same religion prescribes to its followers, as we see in. the Vedas, to choose for themselves spiritual guides to direct them in the path of salvation. They owe them the greatest respect, and a passive obedience to whatever they command. It is a submission analogous to that which, in Catholi- cism, is imposed upon ascetics and devotees by their director. * Hi coacti coram aliis, si quid peccati commiserint con- fitentur ; rogantque ut alii Deum pro se exorent ; longumque temporis spatium jejuniis exigunt. (Stob., Eclog. i., cap. 4.) f Bhaguat-Gceta, Disc, prelim., pog. xxiv. RELATION TO RELIGION. 37 The Ezour-Vedam gives very wholesome ideas concerning the remission of sins. " Sin is an offence committed against God; he alone, therefore, can forgive it. Should a man commit a crime of high treason, will he be able to wash out his crime by repenting of what he has just done? Certainly not ; his crime will subsist till the king has for- given or punished him. All that you have just proposed for the remission of sins is, therefore, quite useless; and extraordinary fasts and the penance you impose upon sinners, serve only to prove your own wickedness."* A remarkable passage is this, in which a Pagan attributes the forgiveness of sins to Him who has alone the right and the power to pardon, and in which those absurd and perverted practices, to which they want to subject human na- ture, are condemned. We find, in the same writ- ings, the condemnation of those Christians who, blindly trusting to the absolution of a priest, fancy that a criminal conduct, continually prolonged, will be justified before God. " To presume on God's mercies, and give ourselves up to crime in the hope that God will ever show himself indulgent enough to pardon us, and that, for that purpose, we have merely to pronounce his name and invoke him, is a crime which God seldom forgives. "f As truth is * Ezour-Vedam, t. ii., p. 37. t Ezour-Vedam, t. iii., p. 29. 38 CONFESSION IN ITS too often perverted and obscured by superstition, error, or fanaticism, we find, in the religion of the Hindoos, as in many others, contradictory, absurd, ridiculous, and even detestable creeds, precepts, and practices, such as the following : " Whoever knows the Oupnekhat, will receive the remission of all his sins, and enjoy a permanent repose in the celestial abode.* To read, or even to hear the Ramayana recited, is what will deliver from every sin.f The same favour may be obtained by bath- ing in the Ganges, or the sacred ponds. We find in the Bhagavata the words that a woman must pronounce who burns herself in honour of her de- ceased husband. " I shall be happy with my Lord that this expiation be made for the sins of my hus- band, whether he has killed a Brahman, violated the bond of gratitude, or put his friend to death."}: The Abbe Dubois, who gave, a few years ago, a good description of the institutions of the Indians, relates different manners and practices, by means of which those people obtain the remission of their sins. The Gourous, who are the directors of their con- sciences, can remit all the sins of those who, after falling prostrate before them, receive their bene- * Quisquis hoc Oupnekhat scit, omnia peccata sua ut procul fecit, in sede magna stabilis efficietur. (Anquet. Duperro, Theol. ind., ii., p. 298.) j- Journ. Asiat., 4me serie, ii., p. 231. \ Asiatic Researches, t. iv., p. 206. RELATION TO RELIGION. 39 diction which is equivalent to the absolution of our Roman Catholic priests. The Indians have a great number of prayers, the recitation of which, more or less frequently repeated, effaces their sins. Lustra! water, prepared by certain ceremonies, likewise blots out impurity and sins. Here is the formula, furnished by the missionary whom we have just mentioned. " Deign to grant forgiveness of sins to all the creatures in the world, who will offer you sacrifice and drink you. You came out of the body of the cow, therefore I offer you my sacrifices and prayers, in order that they who drink you may obtain the remission of sins, and the purification of their body and soul. Deign to ab- solve us from all the sins we have committed, whether through inadvertency, or deliberately. Forgive and save us." * It is very remarkable that we find, in the reli- gion of the ancient Pagans, instituted by Zoroaster, precepts and practices relative to confession, per fectly identical with what has been observed at different periods in the Christian religion. Thus, we find the avowal, regret, and public forgiveness of sins ; auricular confession made to priests ; the penance they impose and the absolution they give to sinners ; lastly, a sort of pope, to whom God has granted the keys of heaven. Thus, the commen- * The Abbe Dubois, Mceurs et Institutitma des Peuples de rinde, t i., p. 206. 40 CONFESSION IN ITS tators and casuists of the law of Zoroaster say " The man who repents of his sin, and does public paket (penance), who is full of sincere regret, who publicly acknowledges his transgression, saying, ' I have committed such an action,' and who, doing so in sincerity, and repenting from his utmost heart, says, * I will sin no more ;' to him shall goodness and purity be restored."* The Sad-Der, or sacred book of the Parsis, says, relatively to whomsoever has eaten human flesh : " He must go and cast himself at the feet of a doctor (priest), to entreat him to recite, in his favour, the penitential prayer, and give him ab- solution for his sin."f The priest whispers into his ear the following words : " O Lord, forgive him all his sins, all his misdeeds, all his negli- gences."! .... " Religion commands that, every day, as soon as light begins to dawn, the priest shall make to God certain oblations for all the sins you have committed, and that you yourself shall also perform that duty." Lastly, a sovereign pontiff, summits pontifex, has the power of shutting and opening the gates of paradise, and this power * Anquet. Duperron, Zend-Avesta. f Sad-Der, porte 81. J O Domine, ei condonato omnia ejus peccata, omnia ejus malefacta, omnes ejus neglectus. (Heyde vet. Per far. re- ligio, p. 579.) Sad-Der, porte 72. RELATION TO EELIGION. 41 he receives from God. " You know that Almighty God entrusted the keys of paradise to Erdibehit. The Lord, on appointing him to this sublime duty, spoke to him thus: "Permit not those souls, which have neglected the care of my fire, to ap- proach my paradise."* The opinion that God has granted to certain men the power of remitting sins, is so general in Persia, that the chief of a sect, the Sawamees Xaraeu, which has lately sprung up, has given himself this attribute. " This chief," says the English author who informs us of this fact, "gives, like the Roman pontiff, absolution for sins already committed; but does not venture, like him, to grant indulgences for the future. "f We find, in this same Sad-Der, a creed and certain practices which, from the great analogy they bear to the opinions received among the Catholics, touching auricular confession, the re- mission of sins, penance, and absolution, would seem to have been borrowed from the latter, if they did not descend from a far more remote antiquity. We quote textually the passage in the Sad-Der:- " Every devout person ought always to recite the penitential prayers: shouldst thou happen to commit any sin, recite this prayer in the bitter- * Ibid, porte 11. f Asiat. Journal, vol. iv. 42 CONFESSION IN ITS ness of thy soul. Fail not to go and cast thyself at the feet of some priest, whose wisdom and pro- bity may relieve thee from thy despair. Recite the formula of penitence, that thou mayest have nothing to fear, and give thanks to God. Shouldst thou have attained such a degree of depravity, that thy actions, with all their apparent merit, were only sins, pronounce not the penitential for- mula, for fear of becoming more wicked. If, in any other case, thou shouldst forget to take this precaution, thy sin, like a young tree spreading more every day, will increase with age. When thou approachest one of our priests to ask him for absolution, the number of thy sins will diminish. But, if thou have recourse to the sovereign pontiff, the gloom of thy soul will be dispelled to make room for a luminous, all-pervading, splendour. When the high-priest gives his benediction to any one, religion assumes, in the heart of the recon- ciled sinner, a new power, and bad habits vanish away. Thou mayest be very sure that a sin thus remitted no longer subsists in the heart of the offender, and that it gives place to merit. If it be not convenient to thee to present thyself before a prelate, go at least and find some wise priest, who may relieve thee of thy affliction. If thou shouldst find no one belonging to the sacerdotal order, go to some venerable layman. Lastly, shouldst thou not meet with the person you need RELATION TO RELIGION. 43 among the latter, turn thyself in the posture of a suppliant, with thy heart full of compunction, to- wards the sun, and recite the penitential prayers." The moment they perceive that a patient has but a few moments to live, the law prescribes to his children and relations to make him pronounce the following formula of penitence : " Whosoever recites, with fervour and piety, this prayer with a wise destour, will infallibly receive the remission of his sins from the God of Justice; and, what- ever be the number of his crimes, the Sovereign Judge will not hurl him into hell. When he arrives at the bridge of Tchinavart, he will have the consolation to learn that an infinite reward awaits him in the abode of the happy. There, angels, taking him by the hand, will lead him to paradise, where they will allot him a place for eternity. But if the vestiges of death, freezing the blood of the dying sinner in his veins, prevent his tongue from articulating a word, his relations and friends must recite the penitential prayer for him : for, pronounced with zeal and piety, it will be heard by the Almighty, who will give it con- sideration on the day of judgment."* Zoroaster had imposed confession on his disciples, as we perceive in several passages of the Zend- Avesta. We even find, in this sacred book of the * Sad-Der, porte 49. 44 CONFESSION IN ITS Parsis, the formula of this confession thus ex- pressed : " In presence of the righteous judge Ormusd, I confess my sins, wishing to devote my body and soul to God. If I have committed any transgressions for which I must deliver up my body and soul, I give them to go into the behescht (paradise, abode of saints). Whatever be the kind of sin of which I have been guilty, in thoughts, words, or deeds, forgive me, who repent and re- nounce them." * This formula bears so great an analogy to that prescribed by Pope Innocent III., that it would seem to have served as a model for the latter. After having enumerated, like the Catholic Casuists, a long list of sins, the Zend- Avesta adds: "And every other kind of sins of which I must repent with attention and intelli- gence ; both those sins which I must confess in presence of the chief of the destours of the law, and those which I have committed in thought, word, or deed. O God, take pity on my body and soul, in this world and in the other; I re- nounce them and repent. If all the sins which entitle one to hell, have been committed by me, forgive me." f It is to be remarked that this confession was made in public, before a certain number of persons * Anquetil Duperron, Zend-Avesta, t. iii., p. 33. I Ibid, p. 33. RELATION TO RELIGION. 45 having the chief priest for president, even as it was the custom among the primitive Christians. The religion of Zoroaster prescribed confession on the point of death, in order to save oneself from damnation, which, however, in the case of people not conforming with this practice, was only tem- porary, as may be seen by the following passage : " Then let him say before he dies : e I repent from my heart and sincerely of my evil thoughts, words, and actions.' If this man thus avow the ill he has done, his repentance will be the expiation ; but, if he confess not the ill he has done, he will have occasion to repent of it till the resurrection." * Confession at the point of death is practised even now among the Parsis or Guebres, the descendants of the primitive disciples of Zoroaster. " When the Gaures are sick," says Tavernier, "they call for their priests, to whom they make a kind of confession, and the priests order them to do alms and other good works, to obtain forgiveness of sins."t Lamism, which bears more than one relation to Catholicism, adopts likewise a public confession, which also is somewhat analogous to auricular confession. We find in a work entitled Alphabet Thibetain, the following passage: "There is in Thibet a solemn day (like Easter among us), when * Sad-Der, t. Hi., p. 283. f Tavernier, Voy. en Perse, liv. v., ch. 8. 46 CONFESSION IN ITS the Grand Lama appears in public ; before entering the temple, he purifies himself by confession, and then recommends to all present to do the same, in order to receive absolution for the sins of which they may feel themselves to be guilty.* The sacred writings of the Bouddhists formally pre- scribe confession, as a religious dogma. In the twentieth volume of the " Asiatic Researches," (p. 79-80,) we find a notice of a vast compilation of the sacred books of the Thibetans, in a hundred volumes, among which two books treat of confes- sion, or general supplication, as well as of the omis- sion of the celebration of the festival of confession, and another on emancipation and on the benediction pro- cured by the practice of confession ; lastly, they treat also of the sins we ought to confess. It is probable that the Talapoins, who practise confession, derive it from the Bouddhists. An Italian monk, who has published an account of Thibet, enters into some details on this subject, as follows : ." The monks admit repentance for sins, accompanied by a kind of confession. The clergy and almost all the laity choose a lama, or spiritual father, and they accuse themselves before him, in a general manner, of their sins, and this director afterwards prays for whoever has accused himself, in order to obtain the remission of his sins. This avowal of * Alphabet Thibetain, t. i., p. 264 et 265. RELATION TO RELIGION. , 47 transgressions is called tholsira, which means con- fession." We see that this confession differs from that of the Catholics, in the penitent not being obliged to declare his sins in detail and circum- stantially, and that the priest does not believe he possesses the virtue to remit or remove them at pleasure, but, as was the custom among the earlier Christians, he remains satisfied with exercising with his prayers the duty of intercessor. There existed, among the natives of Peru, according to the Spanish historians, a confession which differed from that of the Catholics only in the penitents not declaring the sins of thoughts. Garcillaso says, in his History of the Indies, that the priests heard confessions and gave absolution ; but their ministry did not extend beyond outward sins. It is very remarkable to find confession established, with only a slight modification in form, upon almost all parts of the globe, even in places which have had no relation nor communication with each other. 48 CONFESSION IN ITS CHAPTER III. CONFESSION IN USE IN DIFFERENT RELIGIONS : CONTINUATION OF THE PRECEDING CHAPTER. THERE exist among nations that have attained a certain degree of civilization, religious, political, and moral opinions, which, transmitted from age to age, and from people to people, have so changed in nature, that it is difficult to trace back to their source and discover what they were in their origin. Thus, an image, a political invention, the produc- tion of a mind in frenzy, an allegorical fable, a supposition, a fact stated at random, or for the purpose of deceiving men, nay, often useful insti- tutions and practices, have given birth to erroneous opinions, and to prejudices as fatal to the progress of knowledge and the discovery of truth, as to the welfare of mankind. The origin of auricular confession may be con- RELATION TO RELIGION. 49 sidered under these relations : thus, the avowal of one's transgressions or misdeeds towards indivi- duals or society was an act of justice and repa- ration, and a proof of repentance to which man returning from his errors and wanderings, thought he ought to submit, either to fulfil the duty dic- tated by his conscience, or to recover the esteem and consideration he had lost. Doubtless, few people are inclined to submit to this act of loyalty, which is galling to pride and vanity, so common among men. So it was only among the Christians, who professed a humility often carried to the very degradation of human nature, thus this prac- tice became general at a period when the extrava- gant zeal of the newly converted excited them to provoke martyrdom. The Christians, convinced of the moral effect to be produced by public con- fession, adopted this practice which they had found established among the Pagans. Persons whose crimes were known to the public went and accused themselves before the Church, that is, in the as- semblies of the faithful, whether laymen or priests. They testified their repentance, and asked for a pardon, which was granted them, after the fulfil- ment of the penance imposed by the interference of the elders, overseers, or bishops, with the for- mula of a few words and the laying on of hands. But the priests gradually attributed to themselves not only the exclusive right of pardoning, but also VOL. i. D 50 CONFESSION IN ITS that of hearing the avowal of sins. This avowal, which, at first, had been made in a general man- ner and without there having been any question of secret sins, then became a confession in which every transgression was to be declared with all the details and circumstances with which it had been accompanied ; thus it was that auricular confession was introduced into Christianism. But let us examine what was, in paganism, private or public confession. Pagan moralists recommended the avowal of transgressions as an act of frankness and loyalty, and even as a duty of the virtuous man. Indeed, he who frankly avows his misdeeds gives a proof of his sincerity, and the regret he feels at not hav- ing fulfilled his duty, either through the effect of human weakness, or from not having moderated his passions. It is a satisfaction due to fellow- mortals or society, who can esteem and receive us with benevolence only when we acknowledge the wrong we have done them ; for, if you deny it, there is reason to believe that you are ready to do it again. Moreover, this act ever proceeds from a noble soul, impassioned for virtue, and hostile to two shameful vices falsehood and hypocrisy. It was from the same principles that the early Chris- tians required a public avowal of public offences from those who wished to be received into their association, or to remain in it, after having been EELATION TO EELIGION. 51 admitted. But this institution, calculated to re* store to and maintain in the paths of virtue, was speedily perverted by the sacerdotal spirit, which arrogated to itself exclusively the right of know- ing sins, whether public or private, by establishing auricular confession presented as a sacrament of divine institution. The avowal of transgressions was, moreover, considered by philosophers as a proof of moral im- provement. " The avowal of a man's sin," says Epicurus, "is a proof that he seeks to become better."* Pythagoras used to say to his disciples : " Do not try to disguise your conduct by your words ; but correct yourselves when you are repre- hended ;f we do not fear to acknowledge our vices when we intend to correct ourselves." " Why does no one avow his vices ?" asks Seneca. "Because he is still swayed by them. This avowal is a sign that a man has corrected himself. Let us take courage, then, in order to free our- selves from our errors ; it is only by the aid of philosophy that we shall succeed." J Lastly, this * Initium est salutis, notitia peccati. (Epic, apud Senec.) t Vitia tua non verbis celare conaris, sed emendare repre - hensionibus. (In Stob., de Fiducia, serm. 13.) J Quare vitia sua nemo confitetur ? Quia etium nunc in illis est. . . Vitia sua confiteri, sanitatis indicium est. Ex- pergiacemur ergo, ut errores nostros coarguere possimus. Sola autem nos philosophia excitabit. (Seneca, Epist. 13.) D2 52 CONFESSION IN ITS kind of confession is favourable to morality, with- out being at all debasing to him who submits to it : it does not allow those whose knowledge, ex- perience, and advice are implored, to form a corpo- ration to arrogate the right of prescribing alone, and in the name of Heaven, doctrines and acts many of which are reproved by Heaven. Confession, such as it was proclaimed by Pagan antiquity, and such as it was understood by the primitive Christian, such as it is alone approved by every man devoid of prejudices, is found very well prescribed by Epictetus in the following formula : " Hear what are my opinions, and show me yours ; let us mutually correct each other. If I have any depraved opinion, correct it; should there be one in you, do not conceal it, but bring it to light. This is what is proper for philosophers to do."* It was also what was proper among the early Christians, and what they practised. It was their confitemini ergo alterutrum, "confess yourselves to one another" ; which does not indicate the mi- nistry of a priest: it is an avowal, an acknow- ledgment made to one's brethren as a proof of repentance, and with the intention of correcting * Accipe igitur mea quae ego sentio : ostende tu etiam quid sentias. Emendemus nos mutuo. Si qua est in me opinio prava, detrahe earn mihi; si quam tu habes, noli celare, pone in medium, niud nimirum est convenire philoso- phum. (Art. Epict. Dissert, lib. iii., cap. 9.) RELATION TO RELIGION. 53 oneself. The doctrine of Jesus Christ and that of Epictetus are, in this point, absolutely the same. Jesus Christ said that his yoke was light ; but we must confess that it has been made singularly heavy by the priests who succeeded the earlier apostles. Thousands of laws and practices, sprung from their imagination, have engendered thousands of sins, and afforded ample matter for confession. Thus it is that they have impressed upon minds a direction favourable to their interests, and mas- tered them, by making themselves the arbiters of their future destiny. After having invoked hell as a powerful aux- iliary of conviction, the casuists established a series of sins, into which they introduced acts, words, and thoughts, contrary to the opinions they were seeking to make prevalent among nations. This is, indeed, what has taken place in all ages. "We can, without speaking of Brahmanism, or Bouddh- ism, cite the Catholic religion in the state of degradation to which it has been reduced. Nu- merous volumes would scarcely suffice, if it were necessary to lay before the reader the laws, pre- cepts, and practices which have been imposed upon the Christians ; and, by a necessary consequence, the long series of sins which the casuists have de- duced from those laws, which they have analysed, specified, and commented upon with so much sa- 54 CONFESSION IN ITS gacity and penetration. The Mussulman religion, without enjoying the advantages of auricular con- fession, has, however, the good fortune to possess theologians and casuists, who, without having at- tained the same degree of skill and refinement as certain Catholics, have, however, successfully treated this matter, as we have already observed in the preceding chapter. Instead of seeking to amend his faults or crimes by endeavouring to employ his whole life in ac- tions useful to his fellow-creatures, the supersti- tious man tranquillizes his conscience by expia- tions, penances, and other practices, both insigni- ficant and absurd, nay, contrary to reason and the divine law; for one could never satisfy in this way the justice of God or that of man. Instances of this kind of insanity have been and are but too frequent in all religions, even among civilized nations. We will quote but one, taken from the Greeks. "When a man had committed a murder, he entered any individual's house, and sat with downcast eyes in silence on the hearth, or laid upon the ground the instrument of the murder ; then he, whose protection was implored, rubbed the criminal's hands with the blood of a young pig, and sprinkled him with lustra! water, in- voking Jupiter, the expiator." * * Apollon. Rhod., lib. iv. RELATION TO RELIGION. 55 The Romans, adopting the gods and rites of Greece, introduced their expiations even into their laws. Cicero quotes an ancient law of the republic: "Let every sacrilege which can- not be expiated be an act of impiety; and let what can be expiated be so by the public priest."* The emperor Julian, in a letter to a Pagan priest who had committed some sin, expresses himself thus : " I will join my prayers to yours, in order that, by legal expiations, you may obtain from the gods a pardon for your offences." Ancient Rome, notwithstanding her superstition, was far from believing that auricular confession possessed the virtue of effacing sins an invention reserved for New Rome. Moreover, this expiation of crimes, by means of lustrations, absolutions, and sacer- dotal prayers, which were again old remnants of ancient superstitions, no longer found, even in the time of Augustus, any credit with a few excep- tions but among the people ; which Ovid has ex- pressed very philosophically in the verses which we give in a note,f and which Cicero affirms * Sacrum commissum, quod neque expiari potest, impie commissum esto. Quod expiari potent, publici sacerdotes expiauto. (Cicer., de Legib., lib. ii., cap. 9.) f Omne nefas, omnemque mali purgamina causam, Credebant nostri tollere posse senes. 56 CONFESSION IN ITS in his book on the laws : " It is in vain that men get themselves absolved from their crimes and impieties." * This supremacy which man-priest wished to assume over his fellows in the name of Heaven, is even to be found in Islamism. In the " Asiatic Researches"! there is some mention of a sect of Mahometans that existed at Burhampoor. Its chief is a high priest, or moullah, who raises a con- siderable revenue from his disciples ; he has a supreme authority in all ecclesiastical matters, and even, in certain respects, in temporal affairs; he possesses also the key of paradise. It is consi- dered as an article of faith that no one can be ad- mitted into the abode of the blest without a pass- port from this high priest, who makes them pay for this favour. Confession, even auricular and sacerdotal, was introduced among the Greeks, who had, doubtless, Graecia principium moris fuit, ilia nocentes, Impia lustratos ponere facta putat. ***** Onimium faciles, qui tristia crimina caedis, Fluminea tolli posse putatis aqua ! (Ovid, 2 Fast.) * Expiatio scelerum in homines atque impietatum nulla est. (Cic., de Leg., lib. i.) f Asiatic Researches, vol. vi., p. 44. RELATION TO RELIGION. 57 derived this custom from Egypt or the East Empedocles and Pythagoras seem to have been the first who recommended it to their disciples as a means of expiating their sins. " Apollonius," says Philostratus, " having practised towards him the expiatory sacrifices prescribed by Empedocles and Pythagoras, he ordered him to withdraw, as being absolved from his crime."* Plato speaks of a kind of superstition introduced into the use of auricular confession which took place in his tune, and which has been introduced for the same reason into the modern confession of Catholics. "Per- sons who believe in the gods," says he, " and per- mit themselves to offend them by their words or actions, act thus, because they often think it is easy to appease them, and gain them over by sacri- fices and prayers."! The priests, who, doubtless, had found it their interest to make themselves the depositories of the most intimate thoughts and of the actions of men distinguished by their riches and social position, and alone admitted into the mysteries, had intro- duced there auricular confession. It is an established fact, that the confession of * Apollonius peractis super eo iis quse Empedocles et Pythagoras de purgationibus sancere, abire jussit, tanquam jam absolution a crimine. (Philostr., de Vita Apoll., vi- c.5.) t Plato, On the Laws. D3 5b CONFESSION IN ITS sins was a condition of being admitted into the mysteries which existed in pagan antiquity in dif- ferent countries, under divers names, and under the invocation of some god. Several of these institu- tions had passed from the East, and several other parts into Greece. Homer, Herodotus, and other Greek authors, speak of expiations, which were likewise practised among the Lydians. Alcibi- ades, on being initiated among the Samothracians, was asked by the priest what was the greatest crime he had committed in his life. "If I have committed one" replied he, " the gods know it." * An answer which men would do well to give to those priests who pretend to impose on them the obligation of revealing to them the secrets of their own conscience and that of their families. It is stated, in the life of Marcus Aurelius, that he con- fessed his sins to the hierophant, when he was admitted into the Eleusinian mysteries. A passage in Plutarch proves to us that con- fession was a kind of superstition, the use of which the priests had managed to introduce among the lower classes, for the purpose of holding them in subjection. "But how would you speak to the superstitious man? How would you give him any assistance? In his grieij he will be out of his house, wrapped in a sack, or girded about the * Plutarch. Apophtb. Lacedem. RELATION TO RELIGION. 59 loins with some dirty tattered rags ; often he will wallow quite naked in the mire; he will confess and declare I know not what sins and faults he has committed, how he has eaten this or that, or that he has been somewhere where God forbade him to go." * We find confession to have been in use with the Egyptians and among the Greeks. Apollonius, sailing on the Nile, met a youth who offered to become one of his disciples: "Declare, young man," said Apollonius to him, " whatever good or evil you have done, so that you may obtain for- giveness by my ministry, and give yourself up to philosophy with my disciples." f The religion of the Greeks, less indulgent than that of Christ, refused forgiveness for certain crimes, whereas, in the latter, however horrible and numerous they may be, they receive an abso- lution which secures for criminals the heavenly abode. " With what abominable murder will your hand be defiled?" cries a personage in Euri- pides' tragedy of Medea, " They who have not shuddered to shed the blood of their relations have * Plutarch. De Superst., 20. t O adolescens, quid boni malive abste sit gestum expone, ut horutn quidem veniara a me consequaris, atque mecum et cum istis philosophiam secteris. (Philostr., de Vita Apollon., vi., c. 3.) 60 CONFESSION IN ITS expiated their crimes by horrible punishments." * This severity of Paganism is attested by several historical facts. Lastly, all these opinions of confession, expatia- tion, and penitence, which derive their origin from the ancient religions of Eastern Asia, are met with among the Jews. The prophets are inces- santly preaching penitence to the children of Israel. "Be converted and do penance for all your iniquities," says the vulgate Latin version of EzekieLf The days of expiation and penitence, as well as the prayers which ought to accompany them, are even fixed by the law : " The seventh month and the tenth day of that month, you shall trouble your souls ... In that day there shall be an expiation to purify you from all your sins, and you shall be pure before the Lord in order that you may pray once in the year for the sons of Israel and for all their sins."J The Jews, as well as the Pagans, ran together in crowds to * Medea, act vi., sc. 3. f Convertimini et agite paenitentiam ab omnibus iniqui- tatibus vestris. (Ezech., c. xviii., v. 30.) (The Hebrew means, " Repent, and turn away from all your sins.") J Mense septimo, decima die mensis, affligetis animas ve?- tras. . . In hoc die expiatio erit vestri, atque mundatio ab omnibus peccatis vestris ; corum Domino mundamini. . . ut oretis pro filiis Israel et pro cunctis peccatis eorum semel in anno. (Levit., c. xvi., v. 19, et seq.) RELATION TO RELIGION. 61 Paul, when he was at Ephesus, and declared publicly their sins without any auricular confes- sion, which it would have been impossible for him to hear.* The Jews continue, in our own time, the same prescriptions. " The Rabbins," says the Abbe Chiardini, " have the power of absolving and retaining sins, of excommunicating, and im- posing fasts and other penances which may remit sins and preserve from calamities.''! They term confession viddui, every letter of which word is the symbol, or signification, of a mortal sin. It is to these sins that the examination of the consciences of the common people is directed: more enlightened people enter into greater details. This confession, which is made to God alone, takes place every fast day. Certain days are likewise appropriated to penance among the Jews; persons who do not believe themselves to be sufficiently enlightened to know to what kind of penance they ought to submit, consult the Rabbins in order to be directed by them, even as the custom was among the Primitive Christians, who applied to the priests for the same purpose. Auricular confession has been admitted at all times among the Jews, as is seen by the writings * Multi credentium veniebant confitentes, et annuntiantes actus SUDS. (Luc., Act., c. xix., v. 18.) f Chiardini, Theorie de JudaTsme. 62 CONFESSION IN ITS of their doctors. " The Rabbins," says the " Tal- mud," " taught, that when anybody is ill and believed to be in danger of death, he must be warned that he ought to confess ; for all those who are at the point of death confess their sins."* They also make their confession to God alone. For that purpose, they have a formula containing the capital sins. They recite it on fast-days, twice a week, or when they are exposed to any danger or serious malady. The Christians, after having borrowed the greater part of their practices either from the ancient re ligions, or from the opinions admitted by philoso- phers, far from owning this fact, have laid down that it was, on the contrary, the Pagans who had derived them from the Old Testament, or that they had been suggested to them by the devil, who thus sought to deceive men by leading them to imitate the mysteries and truths of Christianity. This is what has been advanced by the fathers of the Church, and more especially by Tertullian, in what concerns confession, as we may judge from the following passage : " The devil makes attempts to imitate, in the mysteries of the Pagans, the sacra- * Docuerunt Eabbanini cum quis aegrotat et in mortem propendere judicatur, dicitur illi confiteri ; solent enim omnes morientes confiteri. (Talmud in Tractat. de Sabbato, c. ii., f. 32, p. 1.) RELATION TO RELIGION. 63 ments of the Christiana* He baptises the faithful and those who believe in him ; he promises the re- mission of sins by ablutions, and he marks with a sign the brow of those whom he initiates into the O mysteries of Mithras. He celebrates the Supper, and announces the Resurrection. He has his vir- gins, and persons who observe chastity.* It is easy to refute the plagiarism of which the Pagans have been accused an assertion not only devoid of every proof, but founded upon pal- pable anachronisms and belied by every fact. In good logic, the question is, not to set forth facts only they must also be proved. Now these proofs have never been produced by either ancient or modern theologians. It is evident that the ancient religions could not have imitated Christianity, which was preached a great number of ages after them, and especially auricular confession, introduced into the latter religion long after its existence. It is not less false that these opinions have been derived from the Old Testament, which waa evidently never known to the philosophers, or men, who founded at * Tentat diabolus cemulare ipsas quoque res sacrament- erias in idolorum mysteriis. Tingit et ipse quosdam, utique credentes et fideles suos. Expiationcm de lavacro repro- mittit; et si adhuc initial Mithroe, signat illic iu frontibus milites suos. Celebrat et panis oblationem et iniagincm re- surrectionis inducit. Ilabet et virgines, habct et conti- nentes, (Tertull., Prescript., lib. i., c. 41.) 64 CONFESSION IN ITS the furthermost part of Asia different religions some thousands of years before the existence of Christi- anity ; whereas these same opinions, which in time had penetrated among the different people of Western Asia, and thence into Greece, and even to Rome, have been known and adopted by the Jews, and even by the Christians. These facts prove evidently that the latter have been but the imitators of those who preceded them. As to the supposition that the manoeuvres of the devil led the Pagans into error and away from Christianity, they may be adopted by those who have no better proof to uphold a system which they fancy them- selves obliged to support, even against evidence. RELATION TO RELIGION, 65 CHAPTER IV. CONFESSION MADE TO GOD ALONE IN PRESENCE OF THE FAITHFUL. REPENTANCE AND FOR- GIVENESS OF SINS AMONG THE PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANS. AURICULAR CONFESSION UN- KNOWN AMONG THEM. WHETHER the custom of publicly avowing their sins was borrowed by the Christians from the Pa- gans or from the Jews, it is evident that this kind of confession was addressed only to God, and for the purpose of obtaining a forgiveness which he alone had the power of granting. On one hand, they implored his clemency, whilst, on the other, they entreated the faithful to intercede with him. But, before the corruption of their religion, the Chris- 66 CONFESSION IN ITS tians never thought that absolution given by a man could involve the forgiveness of sins in a fu- ture life. Submission, or reconciliation with the Church, was admitted by the assembly of the faith- ful, and manifested by the imposition of hands, without the sinner being, on that account, absolved towards God. Thus it was, that after having re- cognised true repentance in him, and after he had become reconciled with God by penitence, he was admitted to the participation of the holy mysteries. They used to accuse themselves generally, with- out mentioning the number or nature of their sins ; for this would have been to no purpose with re- spect to God, and useless as regards men when they were acquainted with the transgressions, or opprobrious, when they were ignorant of them. Thus it is sure as we shall perceive from the proofs we are going to produce that auricular con- fession was not practised till several centuries after the establishment of Christianity; that it began to be introduced only towards the ninth century, and became obligatory only on the beginning of the thirteenth. We find no trace of it in the writings of the New Testament Besides, if a practice, which they pretend to be of divine insti- tution, and which they have raised to the rank of a sacrament, had been considered as such in the early ages of the Church, it would have been mentioned a hundred times in the works of that period, handed RELATION TO RELIGION. 67 down to us, as has been the case in the numerous writings which have since appeared. The Catholic theologians have pretended that the word exomology, which we meet with in the writings of the ancient fathers of the Church, de- signated secret or auricular confession, such as it was introduced at a later period. But it is evi- dent, by examination, and by the tenour of the passage where this word is used, that it means the manner in which they proceeded, who publicly accused themselves of transgressions for which they solicited forgiveness. The custom, at that period, was, that they who subjected themselves to penance should confess their sins in the presence of the faithful. They stood under the church-porches in an humble posture, covered with sackcloth and ashes. They groaned aloud, imploring forgive- ness of their sins, and the indulgence and prayers of the persons present. They fell prostrate on the ground, beat their breasts, kissed the feet of the bishops, &c. The period of penitence being ended, they were introduced into the church by the bishop, or by the eldest of the priests. There, in the presence of the widows and all the people assem- bled, and of the clergy, they again manifested their regret for their transgressions, and again they re- commended themselves to the prayers of the faith- ful. This is what is clearly expressed in the 68 CONFESSION IN ITS writings of several fathers ; and the following is to be found on this subject in Tertullian : " Exomology is an act of discipline in which man humbles and prostrates himself, and hopes, by changing his conduct, to obtain forgiveness. He must change his costume and manner of living, cover himself with sackcloth and ashes, keep his body unclean and his soul in affliction, and ac- knowledge his transgression with repentance. His drink and food ought to be simple, and he must use them, not to satisfy his body, but for the sake of his soul. He must frequently accompany his prayers with fasting, groans, tears, and sobs ; in- voke the Lord day and night ; have recourse to priests ; fall prostrate before the beloved of God, and address his supplications to all his brethren. Exomology is composed of all the practices which constitute penance ; it inclines to honour God through the fear of danger ; it judges the sinner who has incurred the divine wrath ; it does not do away with the flames of hell, but it preserves from them all those who have deserved them."* * Exomologesis prosternendi et humilificandi hominis dis- ciplina est, conversationem injungens misericordise illicem. De ipso quoque habitu atque victu mandat, sacco et cineri incubare, corpus sordidus obscurare, animum moeroribus de- jicere ilia quae peccavit, tristi tractatione mutare. Cceterum pastum et potum pura nosse ; non ventris scilicet, sed animae KELATION TO RELIGION. 69 The passage we have just quoted has no relation to auricular confession made in private to a priest, whereas we perceive in it that public confession which took place in presence of all the faithful, when any one asked pardon for his sins. Saint Chrysostom, who speaks of penitence in several of his writings, would not have omitted to mention secret confession made to a priest, had it been in use in his time, and obligatory as well as sacramental. But, far otherwise ; the passages we are about to quote, and others that we might bring forward, say expressly that one must confess only to God sibi soli. The first is thus worded : " I do not tell you to make publicly and ceremoniously a confession of your sins, and to be your own ac- cuser, but I ask you to conform to the words of the Prophet, who says, e Reveal your life to the Lord.' Confess to the Lord your judge, declare your sins to Him, if not aloud, at least in recalling them to mind ; pray to Him, and ask Him to take pity on you. It is better for you to suffer pangs causa : plerumque vero jejuniis preces alere, ingemisere, lacrimari et mugire dies noctesque ad Dominum suum, pres- byteris advolvi et caris Dei adgeniculari, omnibus fratribus legationes deprecationis suae injungere. Ilacc omuia exo- mologesis, ut pocnitentiam commendat, ut de particular! timore Dominum honoret, ut in peccatore ipso pronunciant pro Deo indignatione fungatur, et temporali adstrictatione aeterna supplicia, non dicam frustretur, sed expurget. (Ter- tull., de Pa-nit., c. ix.) 70 CONFESSION IN ITS now by recalling your sins to your minds, than to suffer chastisement in the life to come ; for your iniquities will be forgiven, when you acknowledge them in the presence of God, and implore His cle- mency. Should you not think of them, the re- membrance of them will arise in spite of you, when they will be displayed before your friends and enemies, and in presence of the angels."* And again: "I exhort and pray you, my very dear brethren, to confess more frequently to im- mortal God, and to gain his favour by asking him to forgive your sins. I do not require you to make a show of your sins, and to reveal them to men. Search your own conscience, and lay bare its re- cesses to God. Show your wounds to that skilful physician, and entreat Him to cure them, in order that you may be purified and delivered from your sins, without undergoing the dishonour which would result from their being made public, "f Let UB cite one more passage, which is not less con- clusive than the preceding : " Why are you ashamed, and do you blush to confess your sins ? Is it before a man who will despise you ? Before an inferior who will divulge them ? It is to your Master, who takes care of you and cures your evils. * S. Chrysost., Homil. 31, in Hebr., vel forsan in Homil. 30, de Baptizat. f S. Chrysost., Homil. 39, de Incomprehens. Dei natura. RELATION TO RELIGION. 71 He knows them without your imparting them, and He foresaw them even before they existed. * No' says He, * I will not produce you in public and make a show of you to a great number of persons. Discover to me alone your transgressions, so that I may remedy them and you may be cured.' "* Lastly, Saint Chryrostom lays down the same doctrine for the cases in which one was dispensed from public confession. "If we have reason," says he, " to admire the pardon which God grants for our offences, we ought not to be less surprised that he should keep our sins in impenetrable secrecy, not demanding them to be brought to light, and in detail, before the public, but, on the contrary, ordering us to avow and give an account of them only to himself. For, indeed, he remits sins, and does not force us to expose them to men, with accompanying circumstances; he only de- mands that he to whom he grants remission should be aware of the importance of so great a benefit.''! We see, from this passage, that, even in the cases * Id., Homil. 4, de Lazaro. f Neque hoc tantum est, admirabile, quod nobis peccata dhnittit, verum et quod ipsa non revelat, nee manifesta facit, aut conspicua, nee cogit in medium procedentes quae pec- cavimus, enunciate ; sed soli sibi rationem reddere jubet, et sibi confiteri . . . verum et peccata dhnittit, nee cogit prae- sentihus quibusdam ipsa enunciari ; sed unum solum exigit ut ipse remissione fruens, doni magnitudinem discat. (S. Chrysost., Homil. ad pop. Antioch.) "72 CONFESSION IN ITS in which the Church dispensed with public con- fession, it required from the penitent only a men- tal confession in which he gave an account of his conduct to God alone, without it being ne- cessary to enumerate his sins to a priest, a con- dition which Chrysostom would not have omitted, if auricular confession had been established and considered as sacramental, and, consequently, in- dispensable. We may even remark that sinners approach the holy table without having made any confession, public or private, of their crimes. It was suffi- cient to have conceived within one's mind a pro- found and sincere repentance worthily to fulfil this duty. This is evidently demonstrated by the passage in which Saint Chrysostom explains these words of the apostle: "Let man try his own con- science, and so let him eat of this bread and drink of this cup." " He does not order," adds this in- terpreter, " to try each other mutually, but every one to examine and try himself in the absence of every witness."* We find the same doctrine taught in another passage of his writings : " The apostle has not laid bare the ulcer, he has not summoned the sinner before the eyes of the public, * Non jubet alter! alterum probare, sed sic se ipsum, faciens judicium privatum et probationem quae careat tes- tibus. (S. Chrysost., Homil. 28, in Corinth.) RELATION TO RELIGION. 73 he did not bring forth witnesses; he gives only conscience for a judge, in presence of God, who sees all things, examines hearts, weighs sins in the scales of equity, and pronounces after having made the examination of his life. Deliver your- self from sin, reform your conduct, and approach thus, with a pure conscience, the holy table, and partake of the sacrifice." * The same doctrine was then professed in the East: in the edification of the faithful, a public penance was demanded for public crimes ; but, for secret ones, repentance and private satisfaction. " Jesus Christ has remitted to yourselves satisfac- tion for the faults committed after baptism ; he has left you as judge of them, that you may not require to have recourse to a priest in need ; but he has left you as master, according to your own conscience and discernment, to remedy your own errors within yourselves, and to wash away your sins by repentance."f * Apostolus non revelavit ulcus, non in communen thea- trum accusationem produxit, non delictorum testes statuit : intus in conscientia, adstante nemine, praeter eum qui cuncta videt, Deuin, qui scrutatur et de peccatis judicat, et omnium vitam quasi lance quadain librat judicium peccatorum sta- tuens, et vit;nn omncm recogitans in mentis judicium. Pcc- cata deducito, reforma quod deiiquisti, ac sic pura conscientia sac ram attinge mensam, particeps sacri eacrincii fias. (S Chrysost., Homil. 8, de Toenit.) f Post baptisma rcmcdium in te i] so statuit, remissioncm VOL. I. E 74 CONFESSION IN ITS Saint Hilary, in speaking of the confession which David made to God of his transgressions, adds: "He teaches us that we must confess to none but to Him who has made the olive fruitful by the hope of His mercy for ever and ever."* Saint Augustin, that light of the Church, re- proves every kind of confession made to men. "What need have I that men should hear my confession, as if they could give any remedy for all my transgressions ?"f He explained himself as formally when he said to the people in one of his homilies: "Believe for certain that man cannot remit sins."| Cassianus informs us, in the following passage, that this same doctrine was received in Egypt : " Who is there that cannot simply say, I have let you know my sin, and I have not concealed my in arbitrio tuo posuit, ut non quaeras sacerdotem, cum neces- sitas flagitaverit : sed ipse jam ac si scitus perspicuusque magister, errorem tuum intra te emendes, et peccatum tuum poenitudine abluas. (Laurentius, episc. Novariens., Horn, de Poenit., Bibl. Patr., t. ii.) * Nulli alii docens esse confitendum, quam qui fecit olivam fructiferam spe misericordise in seculum seculi. (Hilar., in Psalm, 51.) f Quid mihi est cum hominibus, ut audiant confessiones meas, quasi ipsi sanaturi sint omnes languores meos? (August. Confess., lib. x., c. 3.) f Tenete quia homo non potest peccata dimittree. (August., Homil. 23, c. 8.) RELATION TO RELIGION. 75 iniquities ?" It is after this avowal that he may exclaim with confidence, " And you have remitted the impiety of my heart." If then shame prevent you from making this revelation before men, make it to Him from whom you can conceal nothing; do not cease to entreat your Judge who is accus- tomed to remit sins, without your being obliged to publish what causes your shame, and without exposing yourself to reproach and insult." * Saint Basil shares the opinion of the fathers we have just quoted, when he says in opposing the heretics : " If the power of remitting sins has been attributed to no one, as is certain, God alone can remit them."f It is evident that confession is obligatory and valid only when it is made to God, because he alone is able to remit sins a power that is given to no individual, as Tertullian observes: "Who remits sins," says he, " but God alone ? He cer- tainly remits moral sins committed against Him and against His temple But, if He had * Quis est qui non possit simpliciter dicere: peccatura nicum tibi cognitum feci, et injuriam meum non operui ? ut per hanc confessionem etiam illud confidenter subjungere mereatur : et tu remisisti iniquitatem cordis mei. Quod si verecundia retrahente revelare ea coram hominibus erubescis, illi. quern latere non possunt, connteri ea jugi supplicatione non desinas. (Cassianus, Collat. 2, c. 8.) f Si ergo nullius est peccata dimittere, sicut certe nullius est, nisi solius Dei. (Basil, cont. Eunom., lib. v.) E 2 76 CONFESSION IN ITS granted a power of this nature to His apostles, it is certain that it would proceed from God, but not from man. It would be a rule of discipline, and not a right of power. Show me, then, you who are an apostle (he is addressing Pope Zeno), some prophetic proofs, then will I acknowledge your divine power, and you also may attribute to your- self the faculty of remitting my transgressions. But if you only pretend to a right of discipline, without having that of commanding imperiously, how can you pardon, you who are neither a pro- phet nor an apostle, and deprived of that faculty with which they are endowed? I inquire how, according to your own opinion, you can usurp this right of the Church ? If the Lord said to Peter : ' Upon this rock will I build my church ; I have given thee the keys of the heavenly kingdom, and whatever you loosen on earth shall be unbound in heaven,' you conclude that it belongs to you to bind and loosen that is, it belongs to the Church of Saint Peter you overthrow and destroy the manifest intention of the Lord, who gave this vir- tue personally to Peter : thus you do not possess the right that was given to him." * Saint Ambrosius says expressly that men have not the right to remit sins : " Men lend their * Quis remittit delicta nisi solus Deus ? et utique mortalia quae in ipsum fuerint admissa et in templum ejus itaque si RELATION TO EELIGION. 77 ministry in the remission of sins, but not as hav- ing a right to absolve. They pray, and God pardons." * Ireno2iis, very anterior to the fathers we have just quoted, professed the same doctrine, as is proved by the following words : " Christ used to absolve men from their sins, and to cure them. He thus manifested who he was ; for no one can remit sins but God alone." f ipsos beatos apostolos tale aliquid indulsisse constaret, cujus venia a Deo non ab homine competeret, non ex disciplina, sed ex potestate fecisse. Exhibi igitur et nunc mihi apostolice, prefetica exempla, et ignoscam divinitatem, et vindica tibi delictorum remittendorum potestatem. Quod si disciplinae solius officia sortitus es, nee imperio praesidere, sed ministerio, quis aut quantus es indulgere, qui neque prophetam, nee apostolum exhibens, cares a virtute cujus est indulgere De tua nunc sen tent ia quaero unde hoc jus Ecclesiae usurpes. Si quia dixerit Petro Dominus : Super bane petram oedificabo ineam, tibi dedi clavem regni coelestis, vel : Quaecumque al- ligaveris vel solveris in terra, erunt alligata vel soluta in ccelis, idcirco proesumis et ad te derivasse solvendi et alligandi p^testatem, id est, ad omnem Ecclesiam Petri propinquam : quails es evertens atque commutans manifestam Domini in- tentionem personaiiter hoc Petro conferentem....A Deoque nihil ad delicta fidelium capitalia potestas solvendi et alii- . gandi Petro emancipate. (Tertull., de Pudicit., c. 21.) * Homines in remissionem peccatorum ministerium suum exhibentes, non jus alicujus potestatis exercent ; isti rogant, Divinitas donat. (S. Ambr., lib. ix, c. 18, de Spiritu Sancto.) t Christus peccata remittens hominem quidem curavit ; semetipsum autem manifest ostendit quis esset. Si autem 78 CONFESSION IN ITS Lastly, this doctrine, in spite of the efforts of the popes, their bulls and decrees, and notwith- standing the prescriptions of the bishops and clergy, never ceased to be acknowledged till the thirteenth century, when auricular confession was converted into a dogma at the council of Latram, in 1215, at the instigation of Pope Innocent III. This is what is proved by several documents; among others, by the writings of Peter of Lombardy, and those of Gratian. The former, after asking himself this question, " Is it sufficient to confess to God alone or to a priest ?" replies, " some have believed it is sufficient to confess to God alone, without submit- ting oneself to the judgment of the priest, and with- out confessing in the church;" and after having produced, in support of this opinion, the testimony of scripture and that of the fathers, he adds " It is upon these authorities that they build, who main- tain it is sufficient to confess one's sins to God, without a priest ; for, say they, if any one fear to reveal his faults before men, for fear of opprobrium, or lest others, from his example, should be inclined to sin, and, for these reasons, he holds his peace before men, and reveals his sin to God alone, he will, nevertheless, obtain his pardon."* nemo potest remittere peccata, misi solus Deus, etc. (Iren., lib. ii , c. 17.) * Utrum sufficiat peccata confiteri soli Deo, an oportel confiteri sacerdoti? Quibusdam visum est sufficere, si soit RELATION TO RELIGION. 79 The same opinion was maintained, previous to the period of which we have just spoken, by those even who had examined and compiled that trashy medley of discipline regulations, and imperative laws of which the Catholic code was composed. Thus Gratian, after having put the question, in the very beginning of his treatise on penitence, " whe- ther any one can satisfy God in secret by the con- fession of the heart alone, without the confession of the mouth," replies, " there are persons who hold that all may deserve pardon for their sins without church-confession, and the judgment of the priest;" and he adds, after producing the different opinions upon this subject, " but to which must we rather adhere ?" This we must leave to the option and judgment of the reader, because both opinions have found defenders among wise religious men."* Deo fiat confessio sine judicio sacerdotal! et confessione Ecclesiae...His autoribus innituntur, qui sufficere contendunt Deo confiteri peccata sine sacerdote. Dicunt enim quod si quis tiniens detegere culpam suam apud homines, ne inde opprobrio habeatur, vel alii suo exemplo ad peccandum accingentur, et adeo tacet homini et revelat Deo, consequitur veniam. (Lombard, Distinct., lib. iv, 17.) * Utrum sola cordis contritione et secreta satisfactione, absque oris confessione, quisquam possit Deo satisfacere? Sunt enim qui dicunt quemlibet criminis veniam sine con- fessione Ecclesiae et sacerdotali judicio posse promovere. Cui autem horum potius adhaerendum sit, lectori? judicio reaervatur. Utraqui enim habet fautores sapientes et religiosos. (Grat., de Poenit., c. 89.) 80 CONFESSION IN ITS Let us add, moreover, to these testimonies, that of a bishop who lived in the sixth century. He thus expresses the prevailing opinion of his time "It follows that God has made you judge and arbitrator ; he has given you intelligence, in order that you may discern by yourself good and evil ; that is, what is good, and what is sin. He has given you the remedy after baptism, and has made you your own master to obtain absolution by your- self, without having recourse to a priest, in a case of necessity. Being sufficiently enlightened on this subject, correct your errors within yourselves, and wash out your sins by penitence."* We see from the council of Chalons, held in 813, that the doctrine of that period admitted equally the validity of confession, whether it was made to God or to a priest. The thirty-third canon of that council is thus worded : " Some say that they ought to confess their sins to God alone ; others think they must confess to priests. Either is done * Eximle te ipsnm statuit in judicem et arbitrium ; dedit tibi notitiam, ut possis exte discernere bonum et malum, id est inter meritum et peccatum. Post baptisma remedium tuum in te ipso statuit, remissionem in arbitrio tuo posuit, ut non quadras sacerdotem, cum necessitas flagitavit. Sed ipse ac si scitus perspicunsque magister, errorem tuum intra te emendes, et peccatum tuum poenitudine abluas, (Laurentius Novarens., episcop., Homil. i, Bib. Patr., t ii. p. 129.) EELATION TO RELIGION. 81 with much profit; but only on condition of confess- ing our sins to God, who has the power of remit- ting them . . . This is why confession made to God purges away sins, and made to the priest teaches us how we may obtain pardon."* The doctrine of the fathers and that of the council, such as we have just exposed them, were conformable to that of the Gospel, where we do not find even an allusion to auricular confession, but where it is expressly stated that the right of absolution belongs to God alone. It would indeed be very surprising if God, after having made auricular confession a sacrament, and given to man the power of blotting out sins, had omitted to prescribe it in a clear and precise manner ; for this is the character which even human laws ought to assume ; how much more so those which come from God? A law is binding only when it is intelligible. We ought to remark, that when the Scribes, scandalised that Jesus Christ should pardon sins, exclaimed in his presence : " Who can forgive sins, but God alone ?" Jesus replied : " Is it easier to say to a paralytic, your sins are forgiven, than to say, arise, take up your bed, and walk ? Know * Confessio ideo quse Deo fit, purgat peccata ; ea vero qua sacerdoti fit, docet qualiter ipsa purgentur peccata. Deus naraque salutis et sanitatis auctor et largitor. (Can. 33.) E3 82 CONFESSION IN ITS that the Son of Man has power upon earth to for* give sins."* If this power were to be granted to priests, Jesus Christ would not have attributed it to himself alone. He demanded neither a secret confession, made to the priest, nor a public con- fession ; but he required an avowal, as essentially connected with a sincere repentance, and as being the token, or most certain proof able to be given to men, of a real return to virtue. This confes- sion, as we shall show in the next chapter, was .practised indifferently among all the faithful, who, in this circumstance, prayed to God for one another, in order that forgiveness might be vouchsafed unto them, as the following passage, in the Epistle of Saint James, plainly indicates : " Confess your faults to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be saved ; for the constant prayer of a righteous man availeth much."f An evident proof that Jesus Christ did not attach to the forgiveness of transgressions a con- fession of the kind imagined by the chiefs of Christianity is, that he never exacted such an act on any occasion when he forgave sins: it is said in the Gospel according to Saint Matthew that Jesus, seeing the faith of those who brought to him one sick of the palsy, said to him, * Marc., c. 2, v. 7 & 10. f Jacob., Epist., c. 5, v. 16. RELATION TO RELIGION. 83 u Son, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee."* He required only faith and love toward himself, as we see again in the example of the adulteress, to whom he says: "Your numerous sins are forgiven, because you loved much."f Are we to think that Jesus Christ, before he par- doned the numerous sins of this woman, made her whisper in his ear all the details of the vices of which she had been guilty, as our young priests, who have just left their seminary, now do with women of the same description ? Such are, however, the monstrous results of the cor- ruption of Christianism. Theologians agree that venial sins are forgiven by God without there being any need of sacerdotal confession ; it is, then, absurd to say that he cannot or will not pardon mortal sins without the ministry of the priest, for that would be to suppose his im- potency. If auricular confession had entered into the views of the founder of the Christian religion, he would have prescribed it to his Apostles; now, this is what he did not do, for they never asked it of anybody. They followed the example of the forerunner of Jesus Christ ; they baptised and forgave the sins of those who nocked towards * Matth., c. 9, v. 2, et Marc., c. 2, v. 7 & 10. f Luke, c. 7, v. 43. 84 CONFESSION IN ITS them. Indeed it was thus, according to Saint Matthew, that John acted : " Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan ; and they were baptised by him, confessing their sins."* This is also what the Christians practised, as we see from the Acts of the Apostles : " And many of those who had believed came to confess, and declare the evil they had done."f Jesus Christ, when he said to his disciples that whosesoever sins they forgave should be foregiven unto them, and whosesoever they retained should be retained unto them, did not transmit to them a right which belongs to him alone ; for divine jus- tice must be satisfied, either in this life or in the next, by decrees emanating directly from itself, but could not be so by the judgment of men, too finite to search the recesses of hearts, and too subject to error to pronounce upon the happiness or misery of their fellows. It is therefore evident that Jesus Christ intended by the words we have just quoted, only a temporary power, which every association, civil or religious, enjoys that of par- doning and becoming reconciled with those who have offended it or violated the precepts of the law. No law, no human convention, can ever stop or modify the decrees of Providence. Thus, the * Matth., c. 3, v. 6. f A ct., c. 19, v. 18. RELATION TO RELIGION. 85 faults or crimes which obtain forgiveness from the magistrate, the sovereign, or from individuals, will receive a punishment according to divine judg- ment ; for their authors must satisfy divine justice in some way or other. So that the power which priests have attributed to themselves of forgiving sins in present and future life is contrary to the doctrine of Jesus Christ, as well as to the power and justice of God. If Jesus Christ had wished to establish auricular confession, he would have expressed it in a man- ner so much more clear and precise, as this prac- tice was but little known among the Jews or even Gentiles, and was practised only on very rare occasions; whereas the simple and sincere avowal of one's faults, the acknowledgment of them made to the persons offended, to one's judges, neighbours, and fellow-believers, is an act of repentance con- formable to the rules of morality, and has been practised among all civilised nations. It is also the only interpretation that can be given to the words that have been just quoted. "VVe plainly see that Jesus Christ ordained baptism and Easter, and that he observed and practised both, as did also his apostles and their immediate successors ; whereas auricular confession was totally unknown to them. How could they have listened to each inhabitant of a city privately and individually, at a time when they were so few in number ; whereas 86 CONFESSION IN ITS whole populations presented themselves in crowds to confess their sins and ask pardon of God ? The apostles did not even require a confession or public acknowledgment of their faults. Their mere pre- sence was a sufficient proof of their repentance and faith. Paul speaks, in several parts of his writ- ings, of the duties and attributes of priests ; he would not have failed to mention auricular con- fession, had it been instituted by Jesus Christ. Lastly, a direct pardon, without any intermediary, from God, is specified in the most precise manner in the prayer dictated by Jesus Christ, in which he commands us to implore his clemency, by daily addressing him in these words: Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us. Auricular confession has also been supported by that passage in St. Matthew, in which Jesus Christ says to Peter : " I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven." But, by interpreting these words in the sense which the Catholics attri- buted to them, it would follow that Peter, or, if they will, the popes, whom they aver to have suc- ceeded him, would have exclusively received the power of admitting Christians into paradise or of ex- cluding them; for Jesus Christ gave this privilege to Peter alone, since he addressed only him, and not his other apostles, who, however, were pre- sent. But the Church does not admit this inter- pretation, since it has given to all priests a power RELATION TO RELIGION. 87 which Jesus Christ granted only to Peter that of opening or shutting the gates of heaven. These anomalies prove that auricular confession, unknown to the earlier Christians, was the work of the popes and councils. How does it happen that we find no mention of auricular confession in the acts of the councils of Europe, Asia, and Africa, nor in those writings relative to the Christian religion which appeared in the early ages of the Church ; whereas, since Innocent III., there are scarcely any that do not speak of this confession and recommend it as a divine institution ? We see nowhere that, in the peril of death, or in times of persecution, they ever had recourse to confession, as was the case according to this institution, and as we find nume- rous instances of it, especially in the accounts of the missionaries. The faith and fervour of the earlier Christians were based upon principles far more conformable to the spirit of Christianity than is a fruitless practice of routine. This is, according to Tertullian, the way in which they prepared for death, in tunes of persecution: " The Church then is aghast; faith becomes more vigi- lant in its doctrines, more assiduous in the practice of fasting and in its other duties, in prayer, humi- lity, charity, holiness, sobriety." * * Tune ecclesia in attonito est. Tune et fides in expedi- 88 CONFESSION IN ITS Are we to believe that the Pagans, among the numerous accusations they brought against the Christians, would not have reproached them with having established a practice of which no public example had been seen before that period ? Would they not have rebelled against an institution which would have shocked their pride, which allowed the priest to meddle with the most intimate secrets of the conscience, with those of families, those of the state, and which attributed to him a power that nobody can share with God? Would they have remained silent about a new practice which they would have considered as absurd and tyrannical ? But this is what could not happen, since it did not exist in those times, either in theory or in practice. If the Church, which called itself the only orthodox one, had admitted auricular confession as divine institution, would it not have reproached the numerous sects which arose in the earliest ages of Christianity with the non-observance of a practice obligatory upon all Christians ? We do not find, however, this reproach in any of the numerous controversial writings which the sects published against one another, which has often tione sollicitior, et disciplinatior in jejuniis et stationibus, et oratione et humilitate in alterutra diligentior, et in dilec- tione in scanctitate et sobrietate. (Tertull., de Fuga in persecut, c. 1.) RELATION TO RELIGION. 89 happened since the Catholics have made auricular confession an article of faith. If this practice had been anciently known, it is evident that the fathers of the church and the theologians of those times would have ordered and recommended it, not only at Easter, but also on the grand festivals, or solemnities, instituted by the Church. But we find no trace of any such obli- gation; whereas the dogmatical or ascetic writers who have appeared since Innocent III. are not satisfied with rendering it obligatory, at least once a year, but they recommend frequent confession and communion as a pledge of salvation. Lastly, we find no miracle in antiquity that proves the institution of auricular confession to have emanated from a divine prescription ; where- as the history of less remote ages offers us a suffi- ciently great number, which it is useless to enu- merate here. It has been frequently seen that, when it was requisite that any new opinion or belief should be received and adopted, they had recourse to miracles as a sure means of succeeding without meeting with any obstacles. 90 CONFESSION IN ITS CHAPTEK V. RECIPROCAL CONFESSION BETWEEN LAYMEN AMONG THE CHRISTIANS; ORIGIN OF SACER- DOTAL AND SACRAMENTAL CONFESSION. WE have spoken of confession made to God alone, as well as of that which was practised publicly ; let us now say a few words about that which took place between laymen, between one individual to another; three kinds of confession in which the presence of the priests was not necessary. The latter united with the people in public confession, and were the organs through which the admission of a sinner to the penance or to the forgiveness granted by the Church, was declared. The confession of one individual to another was as expressly recom- mended for ordinary sins as public confession was EELATION TO RELIGION. 91 for heavy crimes. This is what is proved by several passages of Scripture, as well as by the opinions of the fathers of the church : this is what Saint James teaches expressly, when he says: " Confess your faults one to another, and pray for one another, that ye may be healed."* The earlier Christians thought that a man could not repent sincerely of his faults, if he refused, through a feeling of pride or self-love, to avow it. It was, moreover, an act of humility inherent in the doc- trine of Jesus Christ, and an occasion of exercising charity towards him who had offended a condition necessary for participating in the mysteries. "First go and be reconciled with your brother," says St. Matthew, " and then come and offer thy gift upon the altar." f St. Luke confirms this precept when he says: "If thy brother trespass against thee seven tunes in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, ' I repent ;' thou shalt forgive him."}: They thought it was con- formable to sincerity and loyalty to anticipate an accusation they might have the right to make, as Saint Ambrosius observes : " Be beforehand with your accuser ; you will not fear they will accuse you if you accuse yourself. To do thus will give * Jacob., Epist., cap. 5, v. 16. t Matth., c. 5, v. 24. | Luc., c. 17, v. 3, 4. 92 CONFESSION IN ITS you life after death."* It is also said in the Gospel, that God forgives us the sins we have committed, as we forgive our neighbour. We find the same doctrine in the prayer especially recom- mended by Jesus Christ. Ecclesiastical history offers us, moreover, several instances in which the confession of one layman to another took place independently of the priest. This practice proves evidently that auricular confession, as it has been instituted by the popes and councils, was long un- known among Christians. We shall prove, in another chapter, that the remission of sins was obtained, independently of confession, by the prac- tice of good works, by prayer, alms, fasting, &c. Saint Thomas, considered confession made to a layman as sacramental, and able to serve instead of sacerdotal confession. The former, after comparing confession to baptism, adds: "A layman can, in cases of necessity, fulfil the mi- nistry of a priest ; so that one can confess to him."f Gerson is of the same opinion when he says : " Confession may be made, in a case of ne- cessity, as in the danger of death, to one who is * Prseveni accusatorem tuum ; si te ipsum accusaveris, accusatorem nullum timebis : si te detuleris ipse, etsi mor- tuus fueris, revivisces. (Ambro., lib. ii, de Poenit., c. 7.) f In necessitate etiam laicus vicem sacerdotis supplet, ut ei confessio fieri possit. (S. Thorn, in Supplem., 9, 8, art. 2.) RELATION TO RELIGION. 93 not a priest."* We find in ecclesiastical history several examples of confessions made to laymen. The commentary on the chapter Fures says also, in necessitate etiam laicus. A proof that this confession was considered as valid as that made to the priest is, that it was admitted to be sacra- mental, f and equally obligatory : it follows that, if confession to a layman is sufficient to remit sins in certain cases, it must produce the same effect in all circumstances, wherever perfect contrition is found to be on one side, and an equally sincere pardon on the other. The three kinds of confession of which we have spoken having fallen into disuse through the en- croachment of the clergy, or the scandal occasioned by public confession, people confined themselves to a secret avowal of their sins, in presence either of a layman or of a priest; but ultimately the Church attributed to itself alone the right of exa- mining consciences and giving a forgiveness which belongs only to God. Public confession had been established and had long been preserved among the Christians, from * Potent tamen confessio in necessitate, ut in pericuJo mortis, coram non sacerdoti fieri. (In compend. theolog., tit. de Sacram. poenit., tit. Quid in confess.) f Si talis confessio est intentione poenitentis, est sacra- mentalis. 94 CONFESSION IN ITS the conviction that the dread of a public avowal would deter men from vice. " There is nothing so pernicious to sin," says Saint Chrysostom, " as the obligation of avowing it."* But this motive is more specious than real, because corrupt men have too much interest to dissemble their conduct, and, moreover, they exacted, in public confession, only an avowal of crimes of public notoriety. It was this reason, and especially the scandal which re- sulted from the manifestation of certain sins, that caused it to be abolished. A deacon, known by the name of Nectarius, having confessed publicly an intrigue he had had with a Roman lady, occasioned so much scandal that the clergy, to avoid in future the discredit which such con- fessions might bring upon them, abolished pub- lic confession. Another imperative reason was also the fear of scaring away from Christianity certain persons who dreaded lest they might hurt their reputation, or their interests, by unveiling their conduct to the public. " The sins of those who come forward for penance," says Saint Leo, " are not always of a nature not to dread publicity. We must, therefore, lay aside this custom, which cannot, on this account, be approved of, in order not to drive away a great many persons who blush * Nihil tarn exitiale peccato, quam peccati accusatio. (Chrysost., Homil. 42, de Lazaro.) RELATION TO RELIGION. 95 to avow their faults, or who fear to unfold their conduct to their enemies, and to be exposed to the vengeance of the laws."* Although the clergy had put a stop to public confession in the churches, this custom was pre- served and even perpetuated for a very long time in monasteries of either sex ; for the heads of those establishments, who had unlimited power over their community, preserved a practice that ren- dered them absolute masters of the acts and even the thoughts of their subordinates; they even reserved to themselves the right of alone hearing confessions, when the use of auricular confession began to be introduced. Saint Basil, who com- posed a treatise on monastic life, required that every friar should make his confession in presence of all his fellows. " The fault one has committed must not remain secret, but each ought to declare it in presence of all, in order that he who has fallen into evil may be healed by prayer in common."f * Tamen mm omnium hujusce modi sunt peccata, ut ea qui pcenitentiam poscunt, non timeant publicare. Remo- veatur tarn improbabilis consuetude, ne multi a poenitentia remediis arceantur, dum aut erubescunt, aut metuunt inimi- cis suis sua facta reserare, quibus possunt legum constitutione percelli. (S. Leon., Epist., 80, ad Episc. Campgn.) t Admissum delictum nullo mode occultum teneo, sed in medium audientibus cunctis enunciat, ut per communcm orationem sanatus morbus ill ins qui in hujua morbi ma him incidit. (Basil., de Instit. monarch.) 96 CONFESSION IN ITS Crodegongus, bishop of Metz, informs us that this usage was observed in his time, both in monasteries and among canons. "Both, after matins, used to meet together and make their confession in common, after which they would sing fifty psalms."* If sacerdotal confession had been established at a time when the monastic rules of different orders were formed, it would have been prescribed in them ; but this is what we never find in them. We must even remark that it was uncommon to meet with a single priest in these monasteries. The Pauls, Antonies, Pacoms, Hilarions, Gregories, Ambrosiuses, Chrysostoms, Jeromes, and Augustins never went to confess at the feet of a priest. Confession between laymen, which consisted in reciprocally declaring and pardoning one another's sins, without any formula of pardon, differed from confession made to a priest, inasmuch as the latter made a sign of pardon by the imposition of hands, as they had been accustomed to do in public con- fession, a usage which has been handed down among monastic orders of both sexes, and has been preserved till the present day with the modifica- * Dabant confessiones suas dicentes, confiteor Domino et tibi, frater, quod peccavi in cognitione, et opere, propterea, proecor te, ora pro me ; et ille respondet : Misereatur omni- potens Deus, etc. (Crodegongus metensis, in Regula Ca- noni, cap. 18.) RELATION TO RELIGION. 97 tions introduced by the establishment of sacerdotal and sacramental confession. We even see that the abbesses confessed their nuns and even men, and laid their hands on them, an encroachment upon the province of priests which was forbidden, as the following Capitulary of Charlemagne declares. " We have been informed that certain abbesses, contrary to the usage of the holy Church, bless, impose hands, and make the sign of the cross upon the heads of men, and that they give the veil to virgins with the sacerdotal benediction. Know, most holy fathers, that you ought, each of you in your parish, to forbid it."* A council, held in Paris in 824, complains that women gave the communion to the people. As at the period in question, confession was confined to a general avowal of culpability, without any particular specification of sins ; we may conceive that the abbesses, who had attributed to them- selves the right of confession belonging without distinction to all Christians, had, considering their sacred character, seized upon the prerogative en- joyed by the priests, that of the imposition of hands * Auditum est aliquas abbatissas, contra morem sancta 1 Dei Ecclesiae, benedictionem et manus imi ositiones et signacula sanctac crucis, super capite virorum dare, nee non et velare virgines cum benedictione sacerdotali. Quod omne a vobis, sanctissimi patres, in vestris paneciis illis interdicendum esse, scitote. (Charol.-Mag. cap. 76, lib. i.) VOL. I. F 98 CONFESSION IN ITS after having secured confession : this custom is by no means surprising, when we find five abbesses sitting in the council of Beaconsfield, in England, held in 694, and put on the same footing as eccle- siastics;* when the abbesses of Fontevrault, or Remirement, had ecclesiastical privileges; when the nun of Las Hualgas, in the city of Burgos, exercised episcopal jurisdiction over twelve con- vents and fifty villages, and took upon herself to assemble synods, to preach, and to confess, f The imposition of hands, which at first was but a formula or ceremony, became in the monasteries an absolution as efficacious as it is in auricular con- fession, not only for trifling faults, as is the case in these days, but also for sins against the command- ments of God and the Church. These abbesses, doubtless comparing themselves to the bishops, had even attributed to themselves the right of appoint- ing a substitute to replace them in the exercise of these functions. We find in the compilation of the ancient monastic regulations, by Holstenius, a rule for virgins, wherein he indicates, chapter 6, de assidua confessione, three portions of the day in which the nuns confessed their sins without being able to dispense with it. The abbess had the right * Labbe, t. vi, p. 1356. t Chronique religieuse. In 80, Paris, 1820, t. v, p. 452, and Espana Sagrad., t. xxvi. RELATION TO RELIGION. 99 of reserving to herself cases of conscience, and was to be consulted by her delegates when any difficulty arose.* This usage, in spite of the frequent prohibitions of the popes, was long continued, since we find that Innocent III. forbade the abbesses of Spain to con- fess their nuns, or to preach before the public. " We have heard, very lately, not without astonish- ment," says this pope, in one of his letters, " that the abbesses of the dioceses of Valencia and Burgos give benediction to their nuns, and that they even hear their confession for mortal sins."f The reason of this prohibition is grounded upon the Holy Virgin's never having fulfilled any of these func- tions. The motive alleged by Innocent III. doubt- less had not sufficient weight upon the minds of women to make them abandon a right which they had heretofore enjoyed. And indeed we have learned from the registers of the Bastille, that a woman, named Jeanne Charlotte Bazachin, was confined in that prison of state in 1747, for having fulfilled a sacerdotal ministry by confessing several women, several Jansenist nuns.J It would have been difficult, at a period when people were acquainted with no other confession * Holstenius, Cod. regul., regulacujusdam ad virgines. t Decretal., ch. 9. J Dulaure, Hist, de Paris. F 2 100 CONFESSION IN ITS than a public or reciprocal one, to persuade laymen that a confession made to priests alone was sacra- mental and obligatory. But we can conceive that the clergy, by the ascendancy they enjoyed in times of ignorance and barbarism, succeeded in time, and by taking certain precautions, in dissuading laymen from a practice of which they had been long in possession ; and in making them believe that confession was valid only when heard by a priest, that they alone had the power of remitting sins. They acknowledged at first that confession was valid when, for want of a priest, it was made to a layman ; later, the priest might be replaced by the deacon. At length, the priest remained alone, and by divine institution, was gifted with the power of remitting or retaining sins. We even find that in the time of Saint Cyprian, the deacon was autho- rised, in default of a priest, to perform the functions exercised by the latter in public penance. "I think if our brethren and those who have received certificates from the martyrs, happen to be sick or in imminent danger, they ought not to await our presence, but apply to any priest who may pre- sent himself; if none be found, to the deacons, who may, in a case of necessity, receive the sinner's confession and repentance, and perform the impo- sition of hands, in order that he may go in peace to the Lord."* A council held in London in 1200, * Occurrendo puto fratribus nostris, ut qui libellos a mar- RELATION TO RELIGION. 101 attributes to deacons, concurrently with priests, two faculties which, before that period, had be- longed indistinctly to all Christians namely, the administering of baptism and the pardoning of sins. " We wish that it be not lawful to deacons to ad- minister baptism or penance, except a case of necessity when the priest either would not, or could not, and a child or a parent might be in imminent danger of death."* The same doctrine was maintained later by theologians of much weight in the Church, such as Bede, Peter the Lombard, Saint Thomas, and even by the councils ; which would not have been the case, had they considered auricular confession made to a priest as sacramental and obligatory. Indeed, were it so, there is no reason or necessity that could dispense with that obligation. It would have been the same with confession as with or- dination; in the latter sacrament, an individual cannot be ordained priest, or bishop, by laymen, tyribus acceperunt, si incommode aliquo et infirmitate per- cusso occupati fuerint, non expecterit proesentiam nostram, cum apud proesbyterium quemcunque prcesentem, vel si prsesbyter repurtus non fuerit, et urgeri exitus cajperit, apud diaconum exomolesim facere delicti possint, ut manus ei in pcenitentiam impositae, veniat ad Dominum cum pace. (Cyprian, lib. iii., epist. 17.) * Adjicimus ut non liceat diaconibushaptizare, vel pocniten- tias dare, nisi duplici necessitate, videlicet quis sacerdos nonpo- test,vel etiam stulte non vult, et more imminet puero vel oegroto. y JTT < p y 102 CONFESSION IN ITS under any circumstances, or from any motive of necessity whatsoever. Ordination has in all times been considered as null in the latter case, whereas confession, accompanied by a sincere repentance, has been admitted by the Church, in the former case, as valid and sufficient for the remission of sins. "If there be a pressing necessity," says Alcuin, " and no priest present, let the deacon re- ceive the repentance of the sick person, and give the holy communion."* This is what Bede taught in the eighth century. Pierre Cauton, a doctor of the faculty of theology of Paris, trusting to this opinion and that of Saint Augustin, thus expresses himself in his treatise on the sacraments: "We think, according to these authorities, that one ought, in case of necessity, and in default of priests, to confess one's sins to a layman, and not only venial but also mortal sins." He afterwards quotes Bede, as follows : " Con- fession is so necessary, that we must, in danger of death, confess our sins to anybody, except, how- ever, to a Jew, a Pagan, or one evidently a here- tic." f Peter the Lombard shares the same opinion * Alcuinus lib. de Div officio. t Sed hoc forte dictum est in usu ubi sacerdos haberi non potest...sic enim tantae necessitatis est confessio, quod si deest sacerdos confitendum sit cuicumque in mortis periculo, sed nunquam judaeo, vel gentili, vel hoeretico manifesto. (Pierre Cauton, Summ. Sacram. p. 203.) RELATION TO KELIGION. 103 when he says : " The power of confession is so great, that, in default of a priest, one must confess to one's neighbour ; for it often happens that the penitent cannot, notwithstanding his desire, con- fess to a priest, his present time and place not permitting; and if he to whom he confesses has not the power of remitting sins, the penitent who makes to a layman a confession of a shameful crime is worthy of pardon from the desire he has of applying to a priest.* Saint Thomas, whose au- thority has so much weight in the Catholic Church, has proclaimed the same doctrine : " The priest is the official minister of confession," says he ; " but in a case of necessity, the layman can perform the sacerdotal function, and one may confess to him."f Cardinal Hostiensis goes still further ; for he grants the same right to women, as we find in the following passage : " But, as Saint Augustin says, * Tanta vis est confessionis, ut si deest sacerdos? confiteatur proximo; ssepe enim contingit quod poenitens non potest confiteri coram sacerdote, quern desideranti, nee locus, nee tempus offert. Et ei ille cui confitebitur, potestatem solvendi non habet, sit tamen dignus ex sacerdotis desiderio, qui socio confitetur turpitudinem criminis. (P. Lomb., Sent. 4, dis. 17.) f Ministerio poenitentiae cui confessio facienda et officio est sacerdos ; sed in necessitate etiam laicus vicem sacerdotis supplet ut ei confessio fieri potest. (Thorn, sent, in dist. 17, 9, 3, art. 3.) 104 CONFESSION IN ITS the power of confession is so great, that, whenever there is any danger, and one desires to confess, whether being ill, in imminent danger of death, or in warfare, when the hour of battle is ap- proaching, and no priest is at hand, one may, under such circumstances, confess one's sins to a layman, and even to a woman, if one cannot have recourse to a man."* What we have advanced in this chapter, as well as in the preceding ones, supporting it by proofs, is found to be confirmed by the second council of Chalons, held in 813. The canon of that council, which we are about to cite, proves evidently that auricular sacerdotal confession was unknown at that period, and that it was supposed to be sufficient to confess one's sins to God alone, and that He alone had the power of remitting them ; lastly, that people were accustomed to con- fess to laymen, and if they applied to a priest, it was only to conform to the discipline of the Church as to the manner of doing penance. Thus does the council lay down this doctrine. * Quia sicut ait Augustinus tanta est vis confessionis, quod si immineat necessitates articulus, vel quia infirmatur ad mortem is qui vult confiteri, vel oportet eum intrare helium, et deest sacerdos, non solum proprius, sed quilibet : in tali articulo potest etiam laico, vel etiam mulieri, si non adait alius confiteri. (Card. Host., Summa, lib. v., tit. de Poenit., n. 4.) RELATION TO RELIGION. 105 " Some say that they ought to confess their sins to God alone ; others think they must confess them to a priest. Either may be done to the great advantage of holy Church; but this only in case we should confess our sins to God, who remits sins, and should say with David: ' I have acquainted you with my sin, and have not con- cealed my injustice ; I cried) / mil confess to the Lord the iniquities of which I am guilty, and you have remitted the impiety of my crime ;' and, accord- ing to the institution of the apostle, ' Let us con- fess our sins to one another, and let us pray for one another, that we may be saved.'' For this reason the confession that is made to God cleanses from sins, and that which is made to the priest teaches us how we ought to do penance for our sins, for God is the author and giver of salvation and holiness, and he grants a dispensation for them, now by the effect of the invisible power with which he governs, now by making use of physicians to cure the evil" * * Quia quidam solum modum Deo confiteri debere dicunt peccata, quidem vero sacerdotibus confitenda esse percensent, quod utrumque non sine magno fructu in sanctam ecclesiam ; ita duntaxat ut et Deo qui remissor est peccatorum, confi- teamur peccata nostra, et cum David dicamus : Delictum meum tibi cognition feci, et injuntitiam ineam non dbscondi ; dixi : Confitebor adversum me injustitiam meam Domino, et tu re- misisti impietatem peccati mei. Et secundum institutionem apostoli, Confiteamur in alterutrum peccata nostra, et oremus F3 106 CONFESSION IN ITS Penitence granted by deacons, which has been since taxed with heresy, was acknowledged by the Church in the twelfth century. We see this in the transactions of the council of Embrun, held in 1194: "We have forbidden deacons, except in cases of severe and urgent necessity, to baptize, or to administer the body of Jesus Christ, or to shrive any who would avow his faults, as had been decreed by the canons of our predeces- sors and by antiquity." Sacramental confession was, in the eleventh century, an institution so vague and arbitrary, that the layman reported to the priest the con- fession he had heard, and did the penance assigned for the sins of the deceased ; here is what is found in an old chronicle quoted by Carpentier : " The supplicant led him outside (the house of the wounded man), admonishing him concerning his salvation, and entreating him, for the honour of God, to confess his sins, and not to die without confession ; saying, that if he would confess to him, he engaged to repeat his confession to a priest, and to do penance for him."* pro invicem, ut salvemur. Confessio itaque quoe Deo fit pur- gat peccata, ea vero qua? sacerdoti fit, docet qualiter ipsa purgentur peccata. Deus namque salutis et sanitatis autor et largitor, plerumque hanc prcebes sua? potentise invisibili administratione, plerumque medicorum operatione. (Syno- dus Cabilionensis ii, an. 813.) * Carpent., Supplem. a Ducange, au mot Confession. RELATION TO RELIGION. 107 Confession between laymen was still acknow- ledged valid in the thirteenth century, as is proved by the facts related by Joinville in these terms : " Sir Guy d' Ybelin, the constable of Cyprus, knelt by my side, and confessed to me ; and I said to him, * I absolve you as far as God has given me to do so.'"* This doctrine was approved by the Church, at least till the end of the thirteenth cen- tury, as we find from the statutes of the synod of the church of Casal, in the year 1270, wherein it is said, in chapter the 5th, " When the danger of death is imminent, and one cannot have recourse to one's own priest, nor even to others, one may confess one's sins to a lay man. "f Lastly, the custom of confession between lay- men was perpetuated, and existed in some churches even as late as the beginning of the seventeenth century, in spite of the prescriptions of the coun- cils, and the order of popes and bishops. In vain was it prohibited by Paul IV. in 1555, and by Gregory XIII. in 1574 ; since Clement VIII. was obliged to reiterate the same prohibition in a bull published at the end of the sixteenth century, * "Messire Gui d' Ybelin, conestable de Chypre, s'age- noila en coste de moy, et se confossa a nioy, et je 1'y dis : je vous asolz de tel pom coimne Dieu m'a donne." f Cum eminet mortis periculum, nee potest habcre pro- prium sacerdotem, in quo casu, si alii defuerint, potest etiain laico confitcri. 108 CONFESSION IN ITS or at the beginning of the seventeenth. In this bull he thus invokes the arm of the Inquisition, and that of the temporal power : " We decree by this institution, to be for ever valid, that who- soever shall be found to have celebrated mass or administered the sacrament of confession without having been promoted to the sacred order of the priesthood, be immediately given up by the judges of the Holy Inquisition, or by the ordinary of the place, to the civil power, in order that the secular judges may inflict upon him the punishment he deserves."* Thus was sacerdotal and sacramental confession engrafted among the other superstitions of Catholicism, by the help of the spiritual me- naces of the church, supported by temporal power. * Hac perpetuo valitura constitutione decernimus, ut qui- cumque non promotus ad sacrum presbiteratus ordinem, repertus fuerit missarum celebrationem, vel sacramentalem confessionem audivisse, a judiciis sanctae inquisitionis, vel locorum ordinariis . . . et statim curiae secular! tradetur, per judices soeculares debitis poenis plectandus. RELATION TO RELIGION. 109 CHAPTER VI. CHANGE OF ANCIENT DISCIPLINE AND PENANCE, IN CONSEQUENCE OF THE CORRUPTION OF CHRISTIANITY. PENITENCE has assumed in the Christian reli- gion forms of severity or laxity, according to the zeal or lukewarmness, the virtue or the depravity of the men who professed this religion ; according as they did so, through conviction or from habit. The policy and interests of the clergy likewise contri- buted to the same variations. Severity was car- ried to extremes in the very beginning. Public penance, however, before they swelled the number of moral sins in the compilation of the so-called apostolical canons, was confined to a very small number of sins. Saint Placien, in his Exhortation to Penitence, informs us that, in his time, none 110 CONFESSION IN ITS were subjected to penance but persons guilty of the sins mentioned by the apostles in the council of Jerusalem, such as idolatry, murder, and adul- tery. As to other sins, they were remedied by a compensation in good works.* They thought that he who, after having committed serious trans- gressions, repented sincerely and asked pardon of God, was justified by the reception of baptism, and that he could no longer commit faults being thus sanctified, but that he was unpardonable if he repeated the offence. " It will, perhaps, be said," observes Origen, " that the condition of the ancients seems to be more advantageous than ours, for this reason, that, when they had committed sins, they obtained forgiveness of them by offering up sacrifices of several sorts, whereas among us the forgiveness of sins is granted but once and in the beginning, when one receives the grace of baptism. Afterwards there is no longer any mercy to be expected by sinners, and never after do they obtain grace." The antiquity of this doctrine is attested by Saint Cyprian, who says : " There is no longer any hope of pardon when one has renounced God after having known him."f He grounds this * Reliqua autem peccata, meliorura operum compensa- tione curantur. f Cyprian., de Disciplina et habitu virginura. RELATION TO RELIGION. Ill Opinion upon this passage of Saint Paul : " There remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, if we sin wil- fully after we have received the knowledge of the truth."* But everything in religious maxims and practices is subject to change, even as it happens in the ordinary institutions of life. As a short time after the adoption of this des- perate doctrine, several persons had embraced Christianity without reflection, now through a spirit of superstition, now for the advantage of some temporal interests, or through enthusiasm, &c., it must consequently have happened that a certain number, finding themselves thwarted in their inclinations, or fearful of danger, apostatized in times of persecution. The Church then thought it was its interest to be less severe, and to receive back the sheep that had strayed away from the flock. The delinquents were therefore admitted to penitence, but only for once, every relapse having been declared irremissible. This is what happened in the time of Hermas, who says that " the servants of God are admitted to penitence only once." He adds afterwards: "Know then, that if any one, after having received the pledge * Voluntarie enim peccantibus nobis post acceptam noti- tiam veritatis, jam non relinquitur pro peccatLs hostia. (Paulus ad Hebraeos, cap. x., v. 26.) 112 CONFESSION IN ITS of this holy and august vocation (baptism), should happen to be tempted by the demon, and should yield, God grants him only one penitence ; so that if, after this first backsliding, he fall, and desire to rise again, penitence will be of no avail for him."* This is what is attested by Saint Augus- tin in his 144th letter to Macedonius, and con- firmed by Saint Ambrosius in the following passage : " they are rightly blamed who believe they may do penance several times, for this is abusing Jesus Christ. If any one had done a sincere penance, he would not suppose that it was lawful to renew it ; for, even as there is but one baptism, so also there is but one penance which is done in public." Saint Ambrosius says expressly in his second book, De Pcenitentia, " that penance ought not to be repeated any more than baptism." Every reconciliation with God, even in the hour of death, was refused to those who had been guilty of certain sins, such as apostasy, adultery, &c. This discipline was maintained till the time of Saint Cyprian, that is to say, till the middle of the third century. The delinquent was abandoned to the mercy of God like a scabby sheep. The com- munion was likewise refused to those who, during Hennas, le Pasteur, lib. ii., Prcecept., 4 et 5. RELATION TO RELIGION. 113 their lives, had not changed their conduct or per- formed the duties of Christians, but who, at the point of death, prayed for reconciliation : which is seen in the following text of Saint Cyprian: "We think those ought to be excluded from the com- munion and from peace who, not doing penance and giving no sincere proofs of their repentance during life, begin to entreat, when being ill they find themselves in danger of perishing ; for their request does not proceed from the desire of doing penance, but from the imminent danger of death : he is not worthy of being consoled in the hour of death, who never entertained the thought that he must die."* The doctrine of Saint Am- brosius is not less severe when he addresses a virgin of the Lord who had had a child : " Live in penance till your last day; and believe not that men can absolve you, having been de- ceived by your own consent ; for, having sinned directly against God, it is from Him alone that * Poenitentiam non agentes, nee dolorem delictorum suo- rum, toto corde et raanifesta lamentationis suss professione testantes, prohibendos omnino censuimus a spe communica- tionis et pacis, si in infirmitate et periculo coeperint deprecari, quia rogare illos non delicti poenitentia, sed mortis urgentis admonitio compellit ; nee dignus est in morte recipere solatium, qui se non cogitavit esse moriturum. (Cyprian., EpistoL) 114 CONFESSION IN ITS you can expect a remedy at the day of judg- ment"* The council of Elvira prescribes the refusal of penance and reconciliation in a great number of cases, even in the hour of death. By the sixth canon, it forbids to admit those who cause death by witchcraft, a crime, so it says, which can be committed only by idolaters. " Quod sine idolatria scelus perficere non potuit" Which proves how very ignorant and superstitious are the bishops and the clergy. The twelfth canon subjects to the same condition both fathers and mothers, and any one of the faithful who, for money, should abandon their daughters to infamy. Bishops, priests, and deacons, undergo the same severity according to the eighteenth canon, if, in the performance of their ministry, they be sur- prised in fornication : si in ministerio positi detecti fuerint, quod sint m&chati. The same law is applied by the sixty-fourth canon to adulterous women ; by the sixty-fifth, to married priests, if they do not divorce when they know that their wives have committed adultery (a proof that priests used to marry, and thus divorcement was established) ; by the seventy-third canon, to informers whose de- nunciation may have caused the proscription or death of an individual, &c.f * S. Ambrosius, lib. ad Virgin., cap. 8, in fine. f Concil. Eliberiton. The Council of Elvira, in the king- RELATION TO RELIGION. 115 This severity of the primitive Church, estab- lished by all the documents of history, was not of long duration, as is proved by several decrees of the councils. Penance, which had been refused to apostates, was granted to them after their reco- very from any sickness during which they had entreated to be received to reconciliation. This is what is commanded by the first council of Aries: " As to those who apostatize," says the twenty- third canon, "and never show themselves at church, nor seek to do penance, but, being at- tacked by sickness ask for the communion, we order that it shall be given to such only after their recovery, and if they bear fruits worthy of peni- tence."* Tertullian, Avith his severity of an African, says, in his treatise on penitence, that faults com- mitted against God cannot be pardoned by the Church. Saint Cyprian is often as severe, though he shows a certain indulgence in some cases, as it happened on the occasion of an event which he dom of Grenada, in Spain, was held in the year 313. Leng- let du Fresney Tab. Chron. Transl. * De his qui apostolant, et nunquam se ad ecclesiam re- presentant, nee quidem pccnitentiam agere qurerunt, et postea in infirmitate arrepti, petunt communionem placuit eis non dandam communionem, nisi revaluerint et agerint dignos fructus poenitentiae. (Concil. i, arelatens., c. 23.) 116 CONFESSION IN ITS himself relates. Some virgins consecrated to God were surprised with men. Bishop Pomponius, de- siring to subject them to public penance, they pre- tended, while owning their crimes, that they had, however, never had any intercourse with them, and they asked to be allowed to prove it. Pomponius consulted Saint Cyprian on this subject. The latter, after having deliberated upon this case, in a meeting composed of four bishops and a great number of priests, answered that it was neces- sary that these virgins should be examined, " and, in case they were found to be chaste, they were to be admitted to the communion of the Church, threatening them, however, with the severest censures, and the difficulty they would experience to re-enter the communion of the Church, if they dwelt with the same men, in the same house, and under the same roof. . . . But that if they were found guilty of any breach of chas- tity, they would, by such conduct, render them- selves guilty of adultery towards God, far more criminal than adultery committed in ordinary mar- riage, and they could be restored to the Church only after a penance of a certain duration."* Saint Cyprian allows us to remain in ignorance as to * Et si virgines inventae fuerint, accepta communicatione al Ecclesia admitti, haec tamen interminatione, ut si ad eosdera masculos revertse fuerint, aiit si cum iisdem in una RELATION TO RELIGION. 117 whether all these virgins were found to be intact and immaculate : the nature of human things must make us suppose the contrary, and with the more likelihood, as Saint Cyprian says, " that the men, among whom was a deacon, were subjected to penance as guilty of adultery towards Jesus Christ." He commends Pomponius " for having acted with vigour by subjecting that deacon to penance who had lived habitually with a virgin, and the other men who had behaved in like manner."* The diversity of opinions which we have just noticed in Saint Cyprian was likewise manifested upon the same subject among the bishops of those early ages, especially with respect to those who were termed lapsi renegades or apostates. Some refused penance absolutely throughout life, others granted it in the hour of death, others again immediately, on the demand of these apostates, especially when they produced before the bishops tickets signed by martyrs or confessors, that is, by those who had been incarcerated or tonnen- domo et sub eodcm tecto simul habitaverint, graviore censura ejiciantur, nee in Ecclesiam post modum facile recipiantur...Si antem de eis aliqua corruptela fuerit deprehensa, agat paenitentiam plenam, quia hoc crimen admisit, nou mantis sed Christ! adultera est, et ideo estiniatio justo tcmpore postea exomolesi facta ad Ecclesiam redeat. (S. Cyprian., Epist. 62,) * Ibid. 118 CONFESSION IN ITS ted for the sake of religion. These tickets were conceived in these terms : let the bearer receive the sacrament with his friends: they who produced them were called libellati. The number of them became so considerable, according to St. Cyprian's account, that as many as a thousand presented themselves daily. Indeed, it is well known that several Christians apostatized during the persecution of Decius. A considerable number of the popular class had embraced the Christian religion at that period, through instigation, ignorance, superstition, the contagion of example, and without due consi- deration ; it is, therefore, not surprising that they should leave that religion at a time when those who professed it were threatened with danger. The adopting or abandoning of a religion, accord- ing to the vicissitude of circumstances or interests, even when there is no danger to be apprehended against life, is a fact of which history furnishes us with a great number of examples, without even our having any need to recur to what happened in France, during the different periods of our late revolutions. The primitive Christians, at the period of their enthusiasm and fervour for the new religion, far from remaining satisfied with appearances and the observance of a few outward practices, as was afterwards the case, and as it has continued down to our own time, rejected without mercy such of RELATION TO RELIGION. 119 their brethren as violated in a notorious manner the precepts attached to their faith. They preferred to admit into their society only a small number of faithful, strict observers of their laws, to recog- nizing as Christians masses of men who were only so in name and outward appearance. This is what was still practised in the time of Saint Chrysostom. "If I perceive," says he, "that you persevere in the same irregularities, I will forbid you en- trance to the sanctuary and a participation in the mysteries, as persons guilty of fornication, adultery, and murders ; for it is better to address our prayers to God with two or three faithful who observe the precepts of the divine law, than to unite with perverse men who corrupt the others."* But religion having been corrupted, every individual was admitted who, through birth, circumstances, education, habits, interests, and for the most part through constraint, happened to be under the banner of the cross, whatever might otherwise be their conduct and opinions. Canoni- * Si videro vos in iisdem inerrantes, interdicam omnino vobis sacri istius ingressum vestibuli, et ccelestis participa- tionem mysterii, sicut fornicatoribus et adulteris et his qui de homicidiis arguuntur. Melius namque est cum duolms vel tribus Divinaj legis prsecepta servantibus, orationes Deo offerre solitas, quam inique agentium cceterosque corrum- pentium, multitudinem congregare. (Chrysost., Homil. 17, in Matth.) 120 CONFESSION IN ITS cal punishments were very severe, as we see from the passage in Tertullian, quoted in a former chap- ter. Origen presents us with a very sad picture of the state to which penitents were reduced: " Since I sinned," says he, " I have never laughed, never rejoiced, nor allowed myself anything that might be agreeable to me ; but I have ever been in affliction, ever in penance, ever in tears."* Saint Epiphanus speaks of the excessive fasts to which sinners were subjected : " Some of them," says he, "prolong their fast for two, three, or four days, others the whole week till the Sunday fol- lowing, even till they hear the cock crow, and without taking any food all that time."f Pope Stephen, who lived in 250, enjoins an individual who had killed his wife, "to abstain entirely from wine, beer, and meat, except on Easter-day and the anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ; to do penance, using only bread, water, and salt; to pass all his time fasting, watching, praying, and giving alms ; never to marry ; never to go to the baths, nor to any * Ex quo peccavi, nunquam laetatus sum, nunquam mihi aliquid jucunditatis indulsi ; sed semper in mcerore fui, semper in poenitentia, semper in luctu. (Orig., Homil. 1.) f Non nulli ad biduum, vel triduum, vel quatriduum usque, jejunia prorogant alii totam hebdomadam ad usque sequentis dominicae gallicinium, sine cibo transmittunt. (Epiphan., Exp^sit. fid., n. 22.) EELATION TO EELIGION. 121 meeting; to remain at the church-door; and the sacrament of the body of Jesus Christ to be for- bidden him all the days of his life." * Saint Augustin makes us acquainted with the motive why penance had been made so austere when he says : " If man returned speedily to bliss from his former state, he would consider the mortal fall of sin as mere sport." f This is, in- deed, what has happened since the establishment of auricular confession. How many Catholics are there whose life is but one continued tissue woven alternately with sin and penance, penance and sin ! The severity of penance was introduced princi- pally for the purpose of stopping the progress of the different sects that arose from the very com- mencement of Christianity, and especially to op- pose the Novatians and Montamists. It is worthy of notice that priests, and even deacons, were at every period exempted from canonical penalties, whatever were the crimes they had been guilty of. They were simply dismissed from the duties which they could no longer discharge without scandal, or bringing public indignation upon the whole body of which they formed a part. Yet, in good morality, as in good logic, criminals ought to be punished so much more severely as the func- * This passage is quoted by Saint Thomas Aquinas, f August, Sermo 34. VOL. I. G 122 CONFESSION IN ITS tions with which they are invested, placing them above simple individuals, require from them more probity and virtue, and impose upon them stricter obligations, and, consequently, a greater responsi- bility. But the Church, like the governments, made unto themselves a morality upon this sub- ject comformable to their policy, but discordant with the Gospel. And here arises another question worthy of re- mark, namely, whether canonical penalties, so severe in the primitive church, and whether pe- nances imposed in sacerdotal confession, and which are so benignant, have contributed to the purity of morals and a more rigorous practice of every virtue ? This is what we are permitted to doubt, when we compare the moral state of the Christians during the first two centuries with that of suc- ceeding ages down to our own time. Fastings, macerations, long prayers, and perpetual con- templations of the mind, customary especially in the East, have seldom inspired those who prac- tised them with a more regular or more charitable conduct. Indeed, all such corporeal, deprecatory, mystical penances, do not constitute acts of virtue in themselves, have no merit, neither are they useful to anybody, and consequently they have no effect upon practice: thus, " these promises and penances are null," as Tertullian expresses it.* * Emcndatio milla, pocnitentio necessario vana. (Tertull., de Fceiiitentia, cap. i.) RELATION TO BELIGION. 123 What are the effects produced by the old and the new form of penance, ordered as obligatory ? People submit to them, not through any sentiment or logical conclusion, but through a mechanical habitual motion ; they pronounce formulas of con- trition, without being sincerely affected with re- pentance; the mouth pronounces without any conviction of the heart, and the mind is absent from these outward demonstrations. They sub- mit likewise to the pains or temporary privations that are imposed ; they thus flatter themselves that they have performed their duties : conscience is tranquil. But all these forms are speedily forgot- ten, as is proved by experience, since there is no im- provement, and they continue the same kind of life. It was not thus that Saint Chrysostom under- stood penitence, wkh the salutary fruits it ought to produce. " Produce," says he, " fruits worthy of repentance. But how are we to produce them? By following a different kind of life to what we have led till now; for instance, have you com- mitted any theft, give henceforth what belongs to you ; have you lived habitually in a state of for- nication, abstain even from a lawful wife for cer- tain appointed days in the year, and be chaste ; have you wronged or struck your neighbour, bless those who curse you, and do well to those who injure you."* * Facile fructus dignor prrnitentisc. Quomodo antcm G2 124 CONFESSION IN ITS The clergy, seeing the state of decay into which the ancient penitentiary discipline had fallen, thought they had the right to have recourse to the temporal power to recall it " The custom of submitting to penance prescribed by the ancient canons is fallen into disuse," says the council of Chalons, and then it adds : " We must demand succour of our lord the emperor, in order that whoever sins publicly may be punished by a public penance, and excommunicated conformably to the canons."* The imperial power came ac- cordingly to succour sacerdotal impotency, as may be seen by the edict of Louis le Debonnaire, which enacts, "That whoever has sinned publicly shall do a public penance, according to the prescriptions of the canons, and whoever has been guilty of secret sins shall do penance according to the coun- sel of the priests." f faciemus? Si utique prioribus contraria facimus; verbi gratia, rapuisti ; dona et tua in posterum ; longo es tempore fornicatus : legitima etiam uxore ad aliquot definitas dies abstine; castitatem exercere; proximos injuria affecisti et pulsasti ; de coetero benedicite maledicentibus et percutien- tibus benefacito. (Chrysostom., Horn, in Matth.) * Poenitentiam agere juxta antiquam canonum consti- tutionem in plerisque locis ab usu recessit...ut a Domino imperatore adjutorium, qualiter si quis publice peccat, pub- lica mulctetur prenitentia, et secundum ordinem canonum pro merito suo excommunicetur. (Concil, Cabillonens, ii., c. 25.) t Si publice actum fuerit publicam inde agat poenitentiam EELATION TO RELIGION. 125 Discipline, relating to penance, successively weakened or mitigated from age to age, became easy and little burdensome to sinners, in pro- portion as public confession fell into disuse, and the custom of consulting priests about the kind of penance to be done, to reconcile people with God, became more common. Thus penance was reduced, in the commencement of the sixth century, to the forms and conditions in which, with a few variations, it is found to be at the pre- sent day, excepting, however, auricular sacerdotal confession, which was not declared sacramental and obligatory till about seven centuries later. All sinners were admitted to participate in the sacraments, when they testified a desire to do so, whatever might be the crimes of which they had been guilty. "The viaticum (sacrament) must not be refused," says the Council of Agde, "to any who are in danger of dying."* The fourth Council of Carthage carries condescension still farther, when it orders to shrive the sick, even juxta sanctorum canonum sanctionem; si veto occulto, sacer- dotum concilio ex hoc agat poenitentiam. (Concil. Gallic., t. ii., p. 462, anno 826.) * Viaticum omnibus in morte positis non est denegandum. (Concil. Agathen., can. 15.) The first Council of Agde (Agatha), in Languedoc, department of the Herault, was in 506, concerning discipline. There was also a council at Agde in 1535, but the former is the one of which M. de Lasteyrie speaks. Transl. 126 CONFESSION IN ITS though they have lost their senses, providing they had previously sent for a priest. " Let penance be granted to any one who, being sick, demands it. But if, having sent for the priest, his illness become worse, if he loose his speech, or the use of his senses, he shall be reconciled upon the testi- mony of those who may have heard him, by the imposition of hands, and by slipping the holy wafer into his mouth."* Generally, it was only for heavy crimes, noto- riously known to the public, and which had caused general offence, that public penance was required. This usage, abolished in 390, on account of a dea- con having publicly accused himself of having had an illicit commerce with a woman, as we have already said, was, however, practised, though very seldom, till the tune of Charlemagne, as is demon- strated by the following capitulary of this Empe- ror : " If the fault has been public, so ought also the penance to be, according to the holy canons ; but, if it be secret, people must do penance regu- lated according to the counsel of the priests." f * Qui poenitentiam in infirmitate petit, si casu dum ad eum sacerdos invitatus venit, oppressus infirmitate obmu- tuerit, vel in phrenesim versus fuerit, dixerint testimonium qui eum audierunt, et accipiat poenitentiam, et si continuus creditur moriturus, reconcilietur per manus impositionem, et ori ejus infundatur eucharistia. (Concil. Carthag., iv., can. 76.) f Nam si publice actum fuerit, publicam ideo agat poeni- EELATION TO RELIGION. 127 We see that, although there was no auricular confession, the priests were consulted at that pe- riod as to the kind of penance which suited ther sort of crime of which any one was guilty ; a cus- tom which facilitated the establishment of sacer- dotal confession. There is reason to be astonished when we com- pare the practices and duties imposed upon the primitive Christians, as a condition of salvation, with the penitental system which has been esta- blished among Christians for many centuries. "Let all the penitents who wish to receive pe- nance present themselves before the bishop, at the church-door" (says one of the fathers of the Church); "let them be clad in sack-cloth and barefoot, with their faces postrate in the dust, showing by their dress and countenances that they acknowledge themselves guilty."* " He who does penance ought," according to Saint Ambrosius, " to be ready to support opprobrium and insult, and to remain unmoved if any one reproach him with his crime ; so the penitent ought to submit tentiam, juxta sanctorum canonum sanctionem ; si veto oc- culta, sacerdotum concilio ex hoc agat poenitentiam. (Capit. Carol.-Mag., lib. vi., ch. 96.) * Omnes poenitentur qui publicam suscipiunt poenitentiam, ante fores ecclesise se representent, episcopo civitatis, sacco induti. nudis pedibus, vultus in terra prostrati, reos sese ipsos babitu et vultu proclamatos. 128 CONFESSION IN ITS to the penalty inflicted upon him by God here below, in order to escape eternal punishment."* In public penance, people were subjected to five severe ordeals before they were absolved and ad- mitted to the communion: 1st, the penitent was to shed tears, standing at the entrance of the place where the Christians assembled to pray, deftere stantem ante fores oratorii, and to entreat them, as they entered, to pray for him : 2ndly, he was re- ceived among those who listened to the lectures ; Srdly, he was confined among the other penitents ; 4thly, he prayed later with all the faithful, but he was not admitted to the oblation ; 5thly, at length he received the imposition of hands, and was ad- mitted to the communion, provided he had not committed such crimes as were never to be par- doned. This penance often lasted several conse- cutive years. The Church of Rome never abandons her maxims, doctrines, or dogmas, even though they be universally disowned or rejected: constant in her pretensions to infallibility, she produces them directly or indirectly in her writings and official acts, hoping that circumstances may occur to en- * Qui posnitentiam agit, paratus esse debet opprobria, in- juriasque ferendas, nee commoveri si quis ei peccati sui crimen objiciat. Ergo qui pona fiuut 158 CONFESSION IN ITS But, according to the doctors, who call them- selves the only persons orthodox, there is neither grace nor salvation for those who reject confession and refuse to adopt their doctrine. In order to weaken any opinion which may be opposed to these maxims, they schemed, with the assistance of the secular power, the prohibition of the sacra- ments and ecclesiastical burial to any persons who confess their sins to non-orthodox priests. Thus it was that they succeeded, towards the middle of the eighteenth century, in persecuting the Jansenists, and in causing the triumph of the bull Unigenitus, by exacting tickets of confession ; a violence which then introduced a sacrilegious commerce of these tickets, even as it exists in Spain and Italy at the present day, as we shall explain in another chapter. The usage of auricular confession becomes modi- fied according to time, circumstances, opinions, or interests. The period is not very distant when all Catholics, whatever might be their opinion, rank, or social position, mechanically submitted to con- fession, and had recourse to a priest to comfort their consciences or reassure their minds against the fear of helL Later, when knowledge had been diffused among the higher classes of society, it was done through a faint shadow of belief, the magis meritoria quse non essent, si tanta gratia non esset. (Carpent., Glossa nov., t. iii., p. 330.) RELATION TO RELIGION. 159 effect of education, habit, or example, or, lastly, through social or political convenances. At the time of our first revolution, confession, forsaken by a great number of persons, was an affair of decorum, when any one happened to be in danger of death ; accordingly, it fell into almost general disuse from that period down to that of the empire (of Napoleon). Then religious hypocrisy having prevailed, confession became a new dogma ; it in- creased during the restoration ; and has lastly be- come, in our tune, a fashionable custom to which young men and women must submit ; the former, through the disciplinary coercion of our colleges and boarding-schools; the latter, through the ef- fect of that vulgar opinion which always allies virtue to the outward practices of religion. The fact is, the repugnance to this ancient custom is so firmly established in our minds, that, in spite of all their efforts and preaching, there are, at this moment, but a very few persons in France who submit to it. In seeking the cause of this state of things, we shall find that auricular confession, which forms one of the essential bases of Ultramontanism, fol- lows the destiny of that religion.* It increases or diminishes according to the vicissitudes of the latter. Experience demonstrates that the material adoption * See E. Quinet's Ultramontanism. Chapman, London, 1845. Transl. 160 CONFESSION IN ITS or rejection of any religious observance depends on the will, action, and influence of governments, as we have already observed. Thus, in 1792, the practices of public worship were seen to be almost abandoned, even by a superstitious people, in con- sequence of the opinions emitted by those who governed at that period, whereas they revived again when protected, favoured, and salaried by Napoleon, who considered them as instruments calculated to undermine our liberties. It is owing to the same causes and the same views that the spirit of bigotry, or rather religious hypocrisy, has somewhat increased down to the present day ; for we cannot call that religion which is only a belief and a pursuance of practices to be rejected or adopted by policy, according to material interests, or to be outwardly followed, in order to conform to the government opinion in fashion, or to what is termed social convenances. However, it is con- soling to find, amid this subversion of every reli- gious principle, several persons imbued with sen- timents more conformable to the divine law, and who strive to practise its precepts, without needing to have recourse to a Jesuit, or any ignorant fanat- ical monk. The character and form of auricular confession consist of contradictory conditions so manifest, that the application of them is, in many cases, impos- sible. For, indeed, we are told that the apostles, RELATION TO RELIGION. 161 and they who succeeded them, down to the mis- sionaries of the present day, have converted towns, cities, and even whole provinces. How then could they, being alone, or, at all events, very few in number, in the very commencement of Christianity, shrive such numerous populations in so short a space of time ? How could the Barbarians, who, after having been converted, returned in crowds to their ancient errors, again to embrace Christianity anew, have been confessed by one or two priests who were alone among them ? This is what proves that, in the commencement, auricular confession was unknown. Indeed, in the Church of Con- stantinople, which was one of the most numerous in Christendom, there was but one single priest who heard such persons as desired to confess their sins. The conditions of this dogma established by the councils are, that the priest, to remit sins, is obliged to know them; it is, therefore, indispensable to specify them to him, with every circumstance, which is impossible in the cases we have just men- tioned, and still more so when a numerous army is on the eve of battle. Yet theologians affirm that, in the latter case, as in that of imminent danger, a soldier is obliged, upon pain of mortal sin, to confess to a priest. If there be a precept generally acknowledged by all theologians, it is that which obliges us, " on every occasion when there is any 162 CONFESSION IN ITS danger or probability of dying, as on a voyage, &c., or any event in which death may be imminent, to confess, if we are guilty of any mortal sin."* That is a very common case, especially with the military. Now, I ask, how could an almoner of a regiment incline his ear to such a considerable number of individuals ? accordingly he does not, but confines himself, without hearing anybody, to pardon all their sins by the sole virtue of the words, ego te absolve. This was the means they discovered to get out of the difficulty, by saying the inten- tion and will are sufficient, and that sins are par- doned, seeing the impossibility of confessing them. Therefore it is not the priest who pardons, since he has no knowledge of the sins : it can be but God, who alone knows them. The ministry of the priest must be, consequently, as useless in this case as in every other. Besides, where is the use of giving absolution to a multitude of men, the half of whom are unworthy of it to people who are too com- monly disposed to pillage and rapine, and ready to plunge into the same crimes twenty-four hours after they have received absolution ? Is not this profaning what you call a sacrament? As to God, he grants remission only to those whose hearts are truly contrite, and he often refuses it to those upon whom it is lavished by the priest. Moreover, when * Sylvius, Suppl., q. vi., art. 5. RELATION TO RELIGION. 163 confessions do happen in regiments, they are given in an off-hand way, like that made by Lahire, who, going to fight at the siege of Montargis, in 1427, found a chaplain upon the road, whom he told to give him absolution, and that speedily. The latter, proposing to shrive him, Lahire replied, he had no leisure, for he must promptly smite the enemy ; that he had done WHAT SOLDIERS ARE ACCUSTOMED TO DO ; thereupon the chaplain dealt him absolution, even as he was. What we have just related is not the only con- tradiction in auricular confession. We have spoken of those French knights who, finding themselves in great peril in Egypt, confessed their sins to one another. We also find that people used to call sometimes several priests, before whom they made their confession, and received thus a three-fold or four-fold absolution, which, according to appear- ances, was considered as being far more efficacious. It was not uncommon, in the middle ages, for a person to have several confessors who listened simultaneously to the declaration of the sins, and afterwards gave him absolution ! This confession was sacramental : the Fathers of the council of Troyes speak of this practice in a letter written to Pope Nicholas about the year 858.* We find a remarkable instance of it in Saint Martha, who relates that Richard I., surnamed Coeur-de-Lion, * Voy. Labbe, Concil., t. viii., p. 872. 164 CONFESSION IN ITS having been mortally wounded at the siege of Chaluz, in Limousin, sent for three abbots of the Cistertians, to whom he declared his sins. But, what is not less singular, is to see a hus- band and a wife making simultaneously and at the same instant their confession in presence of the same priest, a practice which was prohibited by Clement VIII.* People used even to confess by proxy or by signs, when they were deprived of the use of speech, f It must have required a clever pantomime to render intelligible every detail and circumstance which ought to be specified in auricu- lar confession. It is especially difficult to know how they could manage to make known the sins committed against the sixth! commandment of God without offending decency. Ultramontane theologians have also admitted that a married woman, who has an unlawful inti- macy with a priest, may confess her sins to him and receive a valid absolution, if she repent of her conduct. Sins are likewise effaced, and the gates of paradise opened, by virtue of an absolution given by an atheistical priest, or any infamous * Tollendus abusus nbi est ut vir atque uxor simul et eodem tempore eidem presbytero confiteantur. (Bullari.) f Cum non potest verbo, teneatur enim signo vel nutu confiteri, ut in mutis contingit ; eo meliori modo, quo potest, et vera est confessio. (F. Toletanus instruct. Sacerdot. ad it., lib. iii., c. 6, art. 2.) The seventh with Protestants. Transl. RELATION TO RELIGION. 165 wretch, such as Mingrat, who used to shrive, absolve, abuse, assassinate, and cut his female penitents to pieces. The means of making people adopt any absurd opinions could never be the use of reason. This is a faculty which they have always taken care to proscribe, whenever the question has been to de- ceive credulous and ignorant men. They reckoned that success would be secured by substituting the authority of miracles to that of reason. This is indeed what happened, when it was neces- sary to make people believe that confession was a condition of eternal salvation. Bede tells us that this means was employed in his tune, when he relates the history of a soldier who, after having led a very licentious life, fell dangerously ill. " The King," says this historian, "had exhorted him several times to confess his sins in the manner of Christians, before he left this life ; the latter paid no attention to this advice ; but he had, before his death, a vision, which warned him that he was justly condemned to eternal torments for having neglected and deferred to confess his sins Neg- lectoe dilatoeque confessions poenas justissimas dedisse."* Bellarmine mentions this miracle to prove the obligation of confession. * Bed., Hist. Britan., cap. 14. 166 CONFESSION IN ITS The writers of the life of Saint Bernard relate that this saintly personage wrought a miracle in order to convince the incredulous of the authen- ticity of confession. According to them, " a noble- man fell dangerously ill, and lost his senses and the use of his speech. Then his children and friends sent for Bernard, who, finding him in this same state, said to those who were present : * You are not ignorant that this man has vexed the churches, oppressed the poor, and grievously of- fended God. If you will believe me and do what I tell you, restore to the churches whatever has been taken from them : the patient will recover his speech, make a confession of his sins, and receive devoutly the divine sacraments.' They followed the advice of the saint, who began immediately to pray ; he performed mass, but scarcely had he finished, when they came to tell him that Jubert this was the name of the patient was speaking and asking to confess his sins, which he accordingly did." Here is another miraculous fact, not less au- thentic, that there can be no salvation for sinners without sacerdotal confession : " A brigand having been beheaded by his enemies on the top of a mountain, his head rolled down to a village situa- ted at the foot of this mountain, and began to cry: " Holy Virgin Mary, give me a true confessor" Some one having heard it, went to fetch a confessor, and RELATION TO EELIGION. 167 the latter having arrived, sat down and received the confession made by the head. So, astonished by this prodigy, he gave it absolution."* It would be easy to produce several other miracles, performed at different periods, and in divers countries; but, in order not to tire the reader with such impostures, we shall remain satis- fied with quoting what is related on this same sub- ject by Cardinal Hugo. After having asked him- self this question, " Where is Satan ?" and having answered, " he dwells in those who will not con- fess;" he next relates the history of a woman of distinction, named Clara, who, supposed to be dead, returned to life when they were about to put her in the ground. But, as she had been to hell, she gave a description of the torments which are suf- fered there for whatever crimes are committed, and especially for that of not having confessed one's sins. The guilty are alternately boiled in coppers and cast into a river of freezing water.f The opinion that the end of the world is ap- proaching, diffused throughout Christendom, did * Advenit presbyter, sedit et loquente capite, compaginate, confessionem illius audivit, etc. . . . Quo sacerdos. audito, miratus est, et statim ubi hoc dicentem et confitentem ab- solvit. (Thomas de Canti-Pre, de Opib., lib. ii., c. 39.) f Interpret, du 13 v. du 2 ch. de 1' Apocalypse. Ubi redes est sat.iiuc ? in illis eiiim mansionem facit qui peccata nolunt confiteri. 168 CONFESSION IN ITS not less contribute to propagate confession than to augment the riches of the clergy, especially of the monks ; and we see that, in this last point of view, they know how to derive advantage from the new sacramental dogma. Offerings, in the ancient Christian church, were entirely voluntary. Every one contributed, ac- cording to his zeal and his means, to the relief of the poor and to the support of the priests. But the clergy, having made themselves the depositaries and dispensers of offerings and donations, a patri- mony was gradually formed which increased pro- digiously, from the largesses made by Constantine and his successors. The desire of acquiring, increasing with the de- sire of enjoyments, legitimated every means, and sacred things were put up for sale like common merchandize. Then confession, absolution, and in- dulgences, which were the consequences, became a new and abundant source from which they drew most plentifully. Offerings and contribu- tions, granted from benevolence at first, became ob- ligatory, and the priests exacted a salary for the administration of the sacraments, like a physician for the administration of his medicaments. Then it was, as people have said, Religion brought forth wealth, but the daughter had devoured her mother* * Religio peperit divitias, et filia devoravit matrem. EELATION TO RELIGION. 169 It was in the same spirit that the councils, in order to surmount the obstacles which the interests of private individuals brought into opposition with those of the clergy, enacted, upon pain of eternal damnation, that offerings should be made regularly in the churches. Thus a synod held at Mayence, in 813, decreed that the people should make ob- lations, "for," said they, "oblations are a great remedy for souls."* The good Parisians, more devout and credulous in the thirteenth century than their descendants are in the nineteenth, paid ready money to the priest to whom they went to confess their pranks, as we see in a charter of 1224, in which there is a mention of denarii qui dantur in confessionibus. This practice of selling the sacrament of confession for cash, which was not new at that period, existed in 1476, and has not yet ceased at the present day, at least when the priest takes the trouble to go and confess peo- ple dangerously ill in bed. We find in Carpentier the following passage, which proves that the tax laid upon confessions was rigorously exacted, and that the priests did not give credit, since they who had no money were obliged to borrow it, in order to be able to confess their sins and take the com- munion at Easter : " The same Havart de- manded of this same Thomassin to lend him five * Synod. Maguntina, an. 813. VOL. I. I 170 CONFESSION IN ITS sous and a half, pour soy confesser et ordonner a Pasques"* The following fact, borrowed from an old chro- nicle, teaches us what was, in those times of igno- rance and superstition, the spirit and character of confession ; and, what is not less shocking, is that girls prostituted themselves in order to be able to pay the confessors for the remission of their sins. " The supplicant having met a young girl of fifteen or sixteen years of age, lui requist qu'elle voulust qv?il eust sa campagnie charnelle : to which she con- sented; among other things he had promised to give her a robe and chaperon, and money to buy shoes and to go to confess on Easter-day." f It was not without a motive that the popes established auricular confession; for, besides the augmentation of power and influence throughout Christendom, acquired by this institution, it has been to them an inexhaustible mine of wealth, whether by means of the cases which they reserved to themselves, and the remission of which is heavily paid, or by the exclusive power of grant- ing indulgences, by means of which souls are pre- served or liberated from the pains of purgatory : a simoniacal traffic and commerce, disguised under the barbarous name of componande, which is still practised in our own time, although it is as con- * Carpentier, Glossar. novum. Vide Confessio, No. 4. f Carpent., Supplem. a Ducange, verb. Confession. RELATION TO RELIGION. 171 trary to the spirit and laws of Christianity as to those of morality ; although it has been condemned by the decisions of the clergy of France, in 1682, and by the ancient laws of the kingdom, and by the concordat in 1801. But the court of Rome, greedy after riches, never ceases, under the mask of religion, to cry to Catholics : " I have dispelled your iniquities, like clouds, and your sins like mists ; return to me, for I have redeemed you."* * Delevi ut nubem iniquitates tuas, et quasi nebulam pec- cata tua; revertere ad me, quoniam redemi te. (Isaiah, c. xliv., v. 22.) 12 172 CONFESSION IN ITS CHAPTER VIII. PROGRESS OF AURICULAR AND SACERDOTAL CONFESSION AMONG CHRISTIANS. CONFESSION made publicly before the assembled faithful, or privately among one another, having gradually fallen into disuse in the Church, was preserved among the monastic corporations, as we have observed in the preceding chapter ; with this difference, that the heads of these orders reserved forgiveness to themselves alone, by virtue of their office as priests. This practice, which is found to be prescribed in the regulations of almost every monastery, dates from very remote anti- quity, since it was enacted by Saint Antony, as we are told by Saint Athanasius in his life of that anchorite. " Observe what follows," says the latter to that monk, "that you may avoid sin. Let every RELATION TO RELIGION. 178 one examine himself and write down the actions and affections of his soul, in order that he may confess them to another. It is certain that not only he will be preserved from sin through the fear and shame of the avowal that must be made of them, but also from evil thoughts. Who does not seek to conceal his sins? Who would not rather lie than avow his faults ? As nobody is impudent enough openly to declare himself guilty of impudence, so' also, if we register the thoughts we are to declare to others, we shall be deterred by this avowal from wicked thoughts, and shall watch over ourselves more care- fully."* Saint Basil imposed the same practice, with this particular circumstance, that he especially designates those among them who were to pardon delinquents ; which tended to auricular confession. He enjoins to " open the most secret recesses of their souls to those of their brethren whose office * Fiat hsec observatio ad cavenda peccata. Actiones animique affectiones, velut alii aliis mutuo renuntiaturi, sin- guli apud se notent atque conscribant, nee dubium quin pudore ac metu ne patefiat, non a peccato solum, verum a pravis cogitationibus sibi prorsus caverit. Quis enim pec- cavit, latere non sat agit ? Etiam mentium potiua quam et peccavisse ipsum innotescat ? Ut igitur in aliorum conspectu nemo adeo impudens est qui scortari sustineat, ita sibi cogi- tationes alii aliis enarraturi, ac renuntiaturi scribamus ; ipso patefactionis pudore deterriti a sordibus cogitationibus ipsos impensius custodiamus. (Ambros., in vita S. Anton.) 174 CONFESSION IN ITS and faculty are to cure the faults of delinquents by indulgence. * The secular priests, following the example of the monks, gradually seized upon the power which laymen had enjoyed, and reserved to themselves ex- clusively the knowledge of sins, as well as the power of forgiving them "an attribute," said they, " which God had granted to them alone." "We find that the origin of this usurpation is due to the fathers of the Greek Church, who invented a word signifying that the priests were mediators between God and men an expression used for the first tune in the Latin Church by Saint Jerome. A practice so onerous, so tyrannical, so contrary to the ancient discipline of the Church, could be established but gradually and by long-continued efforts of popes, bishops, and monks. They had recourse to forced or mystical interpretations of the Scriptures, to the supposition of imaginary traditions and miracles, to councils, forged decre- tals, excommunication, persecutions, and even to temporal punishments, towards those who refused to submit to this new yoke. Lastly, they drew up those long and strange categories of sins and cases of conscience, unknown in the primitive Church, and * Mentis suae arcana aperire fratribus in quibus datum negotium illud est, ud adhibitis faciltate ac misericordiasegro- tantes curent. RELATION TO RELIGION. 175 invented to give more development and weight to auricular confession. The casuist doctors, inter- ested in establishing this system, went to hunt even in the Old Testament for arguments to sup- port it. Thus the word confessio, which means profession of faith, was transformed into sacramen- tal confession. They also pretended to find it as a divine institution in the New Testament, though it is not to be discovered there, by dint of arbitrary suppositions and interpretations which accommo- date themselves to everything : it was the same with the fathers of the Church, who were made to say things they had never thought of. Had auri- cular confession been sacramental in their time, it would have been mentioned clearly and pre- cisely in a hundred places in their numerous works, but it is nowhere to be found. What has made of religious practice an inextri- cable chaos of contradictions, obscurity, and uncer- tainty, is their mania of wishing to find for a passage for a word ten significations where often there was none, and to make everything yield to such and such opinions. Thus it is that Saint Jerome finds several meanings in the Apocalypse : "In verbis sinyulis multiplex intelligentia" One single instance, which relates to the subject we are treating, will suffice to teach us to what a pitch of temerity this system of figurative, mys- tical, and symbolical explanations has been carried. 176 CONFESSION IN ITS Bellarmine, that intrepid doctor who followed in this the system of his predecessors and contem- poraries, after having said that symbolical theology is not argumentative, adds : " When God required first from Adam and Eve, and afterwards from Cain, the confession of their sin, he required at the same tune that it should be made not only from the heart, but also with the mouth not only in general, but also in detail not only before God, but also before his minister ; for it was the angel, under a human form, who interrogated him in the afternoon, whilst he was walking in Paradise. Whence we see there is a great similitude between this confession and that made in these days to the priest, who is also the angel of the Lord, as says Malachi, in the second chapter ; so that it is justly said that one is the figure of the other."* Let us quote one passage more, or rather more trash, of * Theologia symbolica non est argumentativa. Ubi Deus primum ab Adamo et Eva, deinde a Cain confessionem pec- cata exegit, in his locis exigatur, non solum cordis, sed etiam oris ; non solum in genere, in speciali, nee tantum caramDes, sed etiam coram ejus ministro ; nam interrogatio ilia facta est per angelum, in forma humana apparentem ; ut patet ex eo quod ambulabat in paradiso ad horam post meredianam. Ex eo intelligimus magnam fuisse similitudinem inter illam confessionem et earn quse nunc fit sacerdoti, qui est etiam angelus Domini, teste Malachia, cap. 2 ; nee sine causa dicitur una fuisse figura alterius. (Bellarm., 1. ii., c. 3, 1, de Poa- niten.) RELATION TO RELIGION. 177 the same writer, who tells us : " Certainly, if figured, confession was established by God, and is of divine right, how much rather must figurative confession have been instituted by God, and be necessarily of divine right."* Such are the ar- guments by means of which impassioned theolo- gians created the practices they wished to impose upon men. But, in order to give more credibility to the dogma of auricular confession, these doctors had recourse to tradition, which might be called ultima ratio ecclesice, but which, however, is, of all proofs, the most objectionable and the most uncertain : it has, indeed, been likewise produced by every re- ligion and even by certain philosophers. The Brahmins, the Bouddhists, and the Pagans, have deceived credulous ignorant men with the magic power of tradition. Indeed, it was ever a grand argument to authorize and consecrate errors, preju- dices, and superstitions among the people. " This opinion," Plato would say, " comes from the ancients it must be adopted; for it is neither right nor necessary to confirm it by probable reasons."! This was, and still is, the reasoning of * Nam profecto si confessio figuralis erat a Deo instituta et necessaria jure divino, quanto magis confessio figurata esse debeat a Deo instituta et necessaria jure divino. (Bellann., 1. ii., c. 3, 1, de Poenit.) t Priscis itaque viris est. . . . Licet nee necessariis nee I 3 178 CONFESSION IN ITS theologians. " The tradition exists," would Saint Chrysostom say ; " do not ask for anything more."* The Catholic doctors pretend that the precepts and discipline of the Church, of which we find no trace in the Gospel, have been transmitted by Jesus Christ and his apostles from age to age without the least alteration, and that consequently we ought blindly to believe in them, because tra- dition cannot err and is infallible; whereas the Gospel is obscure and susceptible of several con- tradictory significations. It is true that this ob- scurity has given rise to a multitude of sects ; but it is not less true that tradition has varied according to places, times, and persons, religious systems or predominant interests. The infallibility of tra- dition is not better founded than that of the Church ; for it is positive that the fathers, popes, theologians, and even the councils themselves, have been mistaken, and have committed great errors in the dogmas, in facts, and even in mo- rality. This is easy to prove, and has been proved by several learned Protestants and Catholics. Experience has demonstrated that, in spite of the verisimilibus rationibus eorum oratio confirmetur. (Plat., in Thime.) * Traditio est : nihil quaeras amplius. (Chrysost., in secunda Epist. ad Thess., cap. iii.) EELATION TO EELIGION. 179 infallibility with which they pretend to be en- dowed, they are subject to the general law, errare humanum est, which condemns man to error. Be- sides, this system of infallibility, which is not to be found in the Scriptures, established in a clear and evident manner, as a fact of such vital importance ought to have been, is supported by popes and priests, who are not gifted with infallibility : other men may call themselves equally infallible, or even without making these pretensions they have the right of not acknowledging those who claim it exclu- sively. This is the opinion of every informed and unprejudiced person, who admits as truth, in mat- ter of religion, only the precepts which have ema- nated from God. This is what theologians will never agree to, especially in what concerns auri- cular confession, which they are so much inter- ested in preserving intact. Accordingly, we find that Pope Innocent accused of presumption who- ever wished to avoid it. " Not knowing the ancient traditions," says he, " they are presump- tuous enough to believe them corrupt Who may neither know nor take into consideration what has been handed down to the Roman Church by Peter, prince of the apostles, what has been observed till this day and ought to be by all."* But an enlightened Christian will reject * I >um nesciunt traditiones antiquas, humana presump- 180 CONFESSION IN ITS the doctrines of a corrupt Church, and give a pre- ference to that of Saint Mark, who, in two verses, puts us on our guard against such deceitful tradi- tions : c ( In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tra- dition of men."* The majority of Catholic theologians allow that auricular confession is founded only on tradition. Now, we ask, can any one, after what has been said, accept such a proof? Besides, auricular con- fession, which had begun to be practised in a few Churches, and in certain eases, five centuries be- fore the Council of Latran, when it was enacted as obligatory for the first time this confession, I say, found during all that interval men enlightened enough to oppose it. It is true, those men were menaced, persecuted by the court of Rome, and termed heretics a reproach which the ancient fathers would likewise have made to those who would not have practised it had it existed in their time. It appears that it was towards the seventh century that the popes strove more especially to tione corruptas putant. . . . Quis enim nesciat, aut non advertat in quod a principe apostolorum Petro Romanae ecclesiae traditum est, ac nunc custoditur ab omnibus debere observari. (Innocent., Epist. ad decenti Episcop.) f Mark, ch. vii , v. 7 and 8 RELATION TO RELIGION. 181 introduce it into Christendom. Indeed, a certain Theodus, sent to England by the court of Rome, having been made Archbishop of Canterbury, assembled a council at Nortford, in 673, where he caused several canons, which he had brought from Rome, to be adopted. He introduced also into the same country several doctrines and practices till then unused, among which was auricular con- fession, which he caused to be considered as indis- pensable to obtain a remission of sins, whereas it had been believed, till that period, that confession made to God alone was sufficient for that purpose.* But all these attempts, and even the canons of a few particular councils, having succeeded but locally or through particular circumstances, it was necessary to convoke a general council to impose this doctrine upon the whole of Christendom. It was, accordingly, in 1215, that Pope Inno- cent III. caused auricular confession to be decreed in the council of Latran, and that a practice which had not been considered generally as obligatory till that period, was transformed, by the omnipotence and infallibility of that council, into a sacrament that all Christendom was to acknowledge. Here is the tenor of the ordinance : " Let every one of the faithful, of either sex, arrived at the age of reason, confess with exactness to the priest of the parish, Egbert! institut. Eccles., p. 281. 182 CONFESSION IN ITS and without witnesses, all his (or her) sins at least once a year, and make every effort to perform the penance that will be imposed, receiving devoutly, at least at Easter, the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, &c."* The same pope commands phy- sicians " to warn the patients they visit, in order that they may send to fetch a physician of souls. "f Lastly, he engages the bishops to excommunicate such physicians as should fail in this duty. The Council of Trent, composed of priests and monks, devoted to the interests of the court of Rome, confirmed, as a matter of course, the decree of the council of Latran. It pronounced an ana- thema against the refractory, who were then very numerous. This is its decree : " If any one says that penance is not, in the Catholic Church, a true sacrament for the faithful, every time they com- mit sins after baptism, and that this sacrament was not instituted by Christ our Lord, to reconcile us with God, let him be cursed. "f Here we must * Omnis utriusque sexus fidelis, postquam ad annos dis- cretionis pervenerit, omnia sua solus peccata, saltern semel in anno, fidelitur confiteatur proprio sacerdoti, et injunctam sibi poenitentiam propriis viribus studeat adimplere, sus- cipiens reverentur ad minus in Pascha, Eucharistise sacra- mentum nisi, etc. (Innoc., Decret., lib. v., tit. 38, cap. 18.) f Quoties ad infirmos vocantur, ipsos ante omnia, moneant et indicant quod medicos advocent animarum. (In Concfl. IV., Later., c. 21.) | Si quis dixerit in Ecclesia catholica posnitentiam non EELATION TO BELIGION. 183 remark that the fathers of this council, after having decided that public confession, the only one prac- tised in the primitive Church, was not obligatory, made auricular and sacerdotal confession, a sacra- ment and an article of faith unknown in the early ages of Christianity. The Council of Trent ought, from an analagous reason, to have decreed that one must confess to a priest before receiving baptism ; for if sins cannot be remitted without an accurate knowledge of them, confession becomes as neces- sary in the latter case as in the former. The priest has not a greater share in the remission of sins in confession than he has in baptism. He may there- fore be replaced by a layman in the former as he is hi the latter. The effects of either are produced only by a sincere repentance for our faults, and by a firm resolution to conform to the law of Jesus Christ : there is, consequently, no more obligation to specify our sins in confession than in baptism. Before the period of which we have spoken, no proof of the existence of sacerdotal confession is to be found. Not one of the authors who wrote be- fore that time has mentioned it, as we have already ene vere et proprie sacramentum pro fidelibus, quoties post baptismum in peccata labuntur, ipsi Deo reconciliandis, a Christo Domino nostro institutum, anathema sit. (Concil. Trid., sess. xiv., can. 1.) 184 CONFESSION IN ITS observed. It is not to be found classed either among the duties or among the obligations to which the faithful are bound. There is no mention made of it in those lives of saintly personages, wherein we find such circumstantiated details about the de- votional practices to which they submitted. People are converted, and die, without having recourse to this kind of confession, which afterwards became of such frequent use. We nowhere find that people had recourse to this confession on solemn festivals, at Easter, before the communion, when they were threatened with any dangers, when going to war, in distant voyages, before doing penance, or at the point of death; there were no almoners in the armies, nor even in the palaces of kings. It would have been a sufficiently important act of religion and duty for the fathers of the Church, the his- torians, and all that crowd of authors who have treated of theological or ecclesiastical matters, to have spoken of it ; whereas, for the last four or five hundred years, our libraries are choke-full ofPoeni- tentialia, Confessorum Specula, Directoria, Casus Con- scientice, Decisiones, Aphorismi, Curatorum Manipuli, Institutiones, &c. That sacerdotal confession is a modern institu- tion is evidently deduced from its being totally unknown to the Christian nations that have ceased, for several centuries, to have any direct communication or connexion with the Church of KELATION TO RELIGION. 185 Rome : such are the Abyssinians and the Ethio- pians. " Those two nations," says Castro, " con- sider confession as useless, even for great crimes. When they practise it, they specify neither the number nor the quality of their sins. The Jacob- ites," says the same traveller, " are in error in believing that confession made in secret to the priest is not necessary, but that it is sufficient to confess to God."* Grose makes us acquainted with the opinion of the Indians in these terms: "Tradition, which, without any proof of it being adduced, is said to have fixed the number of the sacraments to seven, is not admitted by the Christians of India, who are unacquainted with confirmation and extreme unction, and administer only two sacraments." f We have seen what ages were passed in pub- lic confession and private confession between lay- men, and what tune, what efforts, it cost papacy and the clergy to bring Christendom under the yoke of auricular confession ; and we have also spoken of its long opposition to this kind of ser- vitude. Indeed, it was not till after the Council of Trent that all Christendom submitted to it. The nations, for a long time, followed this practice mechanically, as is always the case in matters of * Alph. Castro, odv. Hore, v Confess., lib. iv., fol. 78. f Grose, Histoire du Christianisme des hides. 186 CONFESSION IN ITS religion. The enlightened men of the higher ranks of society kept away by degrees, and have been gradually followed by the middle classes, who, in their turn, have been imitated by the lower orders ; for knowledge, which has spread on all sides since the revolution of 1789, has dispelled ancient prejudices, as degrading to religion as to human reason. So that confession, generally neg- lected before the restoration in 1814, has recovered from its decline only by factitious aid, which can produce but ephemeral eifects. We have seen what may be the influence of a Macchiavellian government, of a perverted opinion, nay, of fas- hion itself, so powerful upon the mind of French- men, but, above all, of the interest and the tactics of a Jesuitical clergy ; and if there be any occasion to be astonished, it is that the number of real and false penitents is not more considerable. If it happens that a greater number of women than men go to the confessional, that can be no proof in favour of this institution : it would be more easy to demonstrate the contrary. For, indeed, the cause may be perceived in an education nour- ished with prejudices a narrow, futile, instruc- tion full of vanity, to the total exclusion of reason and judgment. Add to this the constraint and ha- bitual bondage to which persons of the fair sex are doomed by public opinion. In the eyes of many persons, a woman who is known not to go to the RELATION TO EELIGION. 187 confessional would be looked upon as an immoral person, and loose in her conduct. Thus, the tri- bunal of confession is a place of refuge for some, where they shelter themselves from the stupidity or ill-nature of the public ; for others, it is a sacred temple, where prostitution likewise finds a shelter. Who would dare to blame such women as resort to the use of this practice in honesty and conviction ? But are we, indeed, to believe that all those persons who go to confess, act thus through con- viction and a firm resolution to correct themselves of their prevailing vices ? If this were the case, should we not see them alter their conduct ? Would they not be more virtuous than those who refuse to subject their consciences to a confessor ? But it is not so : they are found to be always the same. Do they not obey their passions alike ? Are they less egotistical, unjust, ambitious, greedy of riches, or less addicted to sensuality and illicit pleasures ? Lastly, are they less ready to betray their con- science, or their native land, when the business is to promote their fortune and acquire power and influence? Boast to us now of the utility and marvellous effects of confession made to a priest ! 188 CONFESSION IN ITS CHAPTER IX. REPENTANCE AND ABSOLUTION OF SINS IN THE SYSTEM OF AURICULAR CONFESSION. THE light of reason, in harmony with the doc- trine of the Gospel, teaches us that whoever has vio- lated the law of God, can obtain pardon only in so far as he possesses the indispensable disposition : namely, a boundless love towards God, a sincere regret for having offended him, and a firm reso- lution never more to commit any transgressions. It would be in vain for a sinner to receive abso- lution from all the priests in the world, or the indulgences of all the popes who have ever ex- isted : if he had not these conditions, he would be equally guilty in the eyes of God, and would not escape the punishment that is due to him. This is also what, in the commencement of Christianism, RELATION TO RELIGION. 189 was required of those who presented themselves for penance, and desired to be reconciled to the Church. The penitent was admitted to this com- munion according to the proofs he had given of his repentance, and of a sincere amendment, and to the conviction that they had sufficiently satisfied God. But the priests, having claimed the power of binding and loosing, reserved to themselves likewise the right of absolving, before a good conduct had borne witness to the sincerity of repentance, or the offence committed against God had been atoned by a penance in proportion to the transgression. With the aid of sacerdotal confession, an expedient was found for absolving a penitent and admitting him to the communion, every time he came to kneel at the feet of a con- fessor, and without any other guarantee than what he gave by reciting a Confiteor. This is what was complained of, in the sixth century, by the Coun- cil of Toledo : " Having heard that, in some towns of Spain, people approach the penitential tribunal in a detestable manner, foedissime, so that it is sufficient every time one wishes to sin, to become reconciled by priests, ut quoties peccare libuerit, toties a presbyteris reconciliari expostulent, it is in order to put an end to such execrable presumption, that the Holy Council orders that penance shall be done according to the ancient canons, that is to say, that he who repents of his faults shall be first 190 CONFESSION IN ITS separated from the communion, communione sus- pensum, and, standing among other penitents, shall implore shall frequently implore the imposition of hands. After accomplishing the period of satis- faction, he shall be admitted to the communion, if the priest should think proper. But let those who relapse into their sins be punished according to the rigour of the canons, either during the time of penance or after reconciliation, vel intra poeniten- tiam, vel post reconciliationem" The clergy having definitively imposed upon the faithful the yoke of auricular confession, made themselves the arbiters of their salvation and eter- nal damnation. To do so, it was necessary to pervert alike the precepts of the Gospel and those of reason. This is what they succeeded in doing, by dint of interpretations, distinctions, and sophisms. The Gospel never ceases to repeat that we must love God with all our heart, beyond everything, and more than oneself, if we would find grace with Him ; and, consequently, that we must love Him, not from the dread of the chastisements with which we are threatened, but for the sole reason that we have offended a God who, as Saint John says, " loved us long before we could love Him."* The sincere and disinterested regret which is * Nos ergo diligamus Deum, quoniam Deus prior dilexit nos. (Joan, Epist. 1, c. iy., v. 19.) GELATION TO RELIGION. 191 called perfect contrition, consists in repenting of our faults, independently of any fear of the pun- ishments attached to sin, and in a pure love devoid of every interest. Auricular theologians have perverted the most sublime precept of the Gospel ; and in the place of that reciprocal love, that boundless confidence, which, according to the words of Jesus Christ, ought to exist between God and his creature, they have substituted the fear of a slave towards an oppressive and revengeftil master ; they have disavowed what is said by the evangelist Saint John : " If we confess our sins to God, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."* They supposed that, to receive a pardon for trans- gressions, it was sufficient to have a dread of punishments, accompanied with the absolution of which they had made themselves the dispensers. It is this state of a servile, selfish soul that they have termed attrition, and in which, as they say, there is a commencement of love towards God. How can repentance and conversion be sincere, if love towards God be not entire, but calculated only according to fear and interest ? " He who fears God," says the same Saint John, " has not a * Si confiteamur peccata nostra, fidelis est et Justus, ut remittat nobis peccata nostra, et emendet nos ab omni ini- quitate. (Joan., Epist. 1, c. i M v. 9. 192 CONFESSION IN ITS perfect love for him."* And, in this case, how can the absolution of the priest, however efficacious it may be supposed to be, find grace with God ? We may conceive it possible to entertain doubts, and not to believe firmly in the existence of God ; but not to have a boundless love, when one has the entire conviction of the existence of an Omni- , potent Being, the Creator of all things, who is good, just, and merciful, and to feel for Him only a commencement of love, is to have none at all, and not to be a Christian. This hypothesis sup- poses a being and a state of things such as can exist only in the brain of certain theologians, and which is not less contrary to reason than to the texts of the GospeL Persons brought up in a religion which admits auricular confession, believe generally that, to ob- tain from God a pardon for their sins, it is suffi- cient to make a declaration of them to a priest, and that, after having obtained his absolution and accomplished the slight penance which he imposes, they are in the same state with respect to God as if they had never sinned. Thus it is that people create an illusion for themselves, and receive with a safe conscience an absolution which the priest gives them often at random, being unable to know * Qui autem timet, non est perfectu9 in charitate. (Joan., Epist. 1, c. iv., v. 18.) RELATION TO RELIGION. 193 whether they are sincerely penitent. And how could they be so, when, after having confessed a hundred times, they ever relapse into the same sins, and continue till death even the same dis- solute course of life ? What then is the result of those millions of absolutions which are daily given in all Roman Catholic countries ? On the one hand, they do not arrest the course of divine justice ; whilst, on the other, this facility of gaining abso- lution, as often as any one thinks proper, singu- larly favours the infraction of divine and human laws. A modern apologist of the Christian religion has said : " The Gospel assures the penitent that his sins will be forgiven him, and the Gospel alone gives this assurance."* Does he mean to imply that the assurance of the forgiveness of sins is essentially connected with auricular confession and the absolution given by a priest? Or does he mean that the Christian religion is the only one that gives with this condition a remission of sins ? Why, all religions give the same assurance. This is what was promised to their disciples by Brah- ma, Bouddah, Zoroaster, Mahomet, and even by ancient and modern philosophers, such as Con- fucius, Pythagoras, and others who have believed in divine justice and goodness. The Jewish reli- * Bienfaits de la EeVgion Chretienrv. VOL. I. K 194 CONFESSION IN ITS gion made the same promise : " If the wicked will turn from all his sins, and do that which is lawful and right, all his transgressions shall not be men- tioned unto him ; in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live."* Moreover, true and sincere contrition, not that imagined by sacramental theologians, has been considered by a great number of the fathers of the Church as sufficient for the remission of sins, when it is occasioned by a disinterested love toward God ; such was the opinion of Hilary, Basil, Au- gustin, Ambrosius, Maximus of Turin, &c. Do we not find besides, in the Gospels, several in- stances of persons having received the remission of their sins without any kind of confesssion, as Mary Magdalen, the paralytic, Zaccheus, and Saint Peter himself. We have seen, from what has been previously said, that confession used to be made only in the presence of the assembled faithful, and that it was likewise they who determined the form and dura- tion of penance. It was the same with pardon and absolution. "It is proper," says Saint Cy- * Si autem impius egerit pcenitentiam ab omnibus peccatis suis quae operatus est, et custodierit omnia prascepta mea et feceret justicium et justiciam, vita vivet, et non morietur. Omnium iniquitatum ejus, quas operatus est, non recor- dabor : in justicia sua quam operatus est, vivet. (Ezech., c. xviii., v. 21 et 22.) RELATION TO RELIGION. 195 prian, " that whatever concerns persons who have fallen into sin should be regulated according to the opinion and suffrages of the bishops, priests, dea- cons, confessors, and likewise in the presence of all the laity."* According to Saint Ambrosius, it was the prayers, tears, and groans of the people, which cleansed the sinner and redeemed his sins.f When repentance seemed sincere, and the sinner had submitted with resignation and humility to his penance, they granted him forgiveness of sins and admission to the communion ; which was declared in the name of the people and by the ministry of the bishops, without there having been any ques- tion of confession or absolution given in private by a priest The bishops then laid their hands upon the sinners, pronouncing these words : " Your sins are remitted you : God forgive you your sins." A learned traveller, who has carefully studied the religions of the East, informs us that this formula has been preserved Avith but little alteration in the Greek Church. Here it is, such as he gives it: "Pardon your servant the sins he has com- * Placet collatione conciliorum cum episcopis, presbyteri?, diaconis, confessoribus pariter ac stantibus laicis, facta lap- sorum tractare rationem. (Cyprianus, Epist. 31.) ) Bene, ait Paulus, expurgate; vult enim operibus qui- busdam totiua populi purgatur, et lacrymis plebs abluitur, qui orationibus ac fletibus plebis redhnitur a peccato, et in homine mundatus interiore. (S. Ambros., de Poemt, c. xv.) K 2 196 CONFESSION IN ITS mitted; be reconciled with him through me; I am your humble and unworthy minister. Re- ceive him into penitence, and establish him in the bosom of your Church ; in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."* " The Greek priests," adds the writer, "think that it is not they who cause the validity of absolution, but that it consists in sincerity of heart, the genuine contrition and submission of the peni- tent." The Greek priests, according to the same author, pronounce, moreover, a prayer in these words : " Receive with your wonted kindness the penitence of your servant; do not consider the greatness of his crimes, since it is you who forget and forgive transgressions." f It is worthy of remark, that the formula of ab- solution anciently used by the Roman Church was expressed in nearly the same terms as that of the Greek. But the popes having substituted their power for that of God, and established auri- cular confession, were obliged necessarily to efface the name of God from the formula and replace it by their own. This is, accordingly, what hap- pened ; for the formula used before the thirteenth century was "May Almighty God grant you absolution and the remission of your sins;" or, * De la Croix, De la Turquie Chretiemw, p. 86. f Id., ibid. RELATION TO RELIGION. 197 " May the Almighty and merciful God grant us (or you) forgiveness, absolution, and remission of qur (or your) transgressions."* Saint Thomas, who died in 1274, says, "that the formula used before his time was deprecatory,! which was replaced by ego te absolve" &c. This usurpation of the clergy commenced early, since Jerome, in explaining the passage in Saint Matthew, " Quoecumque ligaveritis" expresses himself thus : " The bishops and priests, misunderstanding this passage, and influenced by a pride similar to that of the Pharisees, believe they have the right to condemn the innocent and absolve the guilty, whereas God has no regard to the sentence of priests, but much rather to the conduct of the guilty." \ Have we not a still better right to direct the same reproach to the priests of the present day who, arrogating to * Absolutionem et remiaeionem tribuat tibi omnipotens Deus. Indulgentiam et absolutionem et remissionem pec- catorum nostromm (vel vestrorum), tribuat nobis (vel vobis) omnipotens et misericors Deus. (In Ritual, roman.) Absolutionem et remissionem tribuat tibi, omnipotens Deus. f Formam absolutions esse deprecatoriam et vix triginta annos esse quod omnes hac forma utebantur. \ Istum locum episcopi et prcesbyteri non intelligentes, aliquid sibi de Pharisoeorum assumunt supercilio, ut vel dam- nent innocentes, vel solvere se noxios arbitrentur, cum apud Deum non sententia sacerdotum, sed reorum vita quacratur. (Hieron., 1. iii., in Matth., c. vi.) 198 CONFESSION IN ITS themselves a power formerly denied by Saint Je- rome, want, moreover, to subject us to an auri- cular confession unknown to primitive Christianity. Saint Chrysostom thought also that the remission of our sins depended only on ourselves, and not on the absolution given by a priest, when he said : " God has given you the power of binding and unbinding. You have bound yourselves with the chain of avarice ; unbind yourselves by prescribing poverty to yourselves : you have bound yourselves with an ungovernable lust ; unbind yourselves by temperance : you have bound yourselves with the heresy of Eunomius ; unbind yourselves by an or- thodox piety."* We see that, as soon as the use of public confes- sion had been abolished, the bishops, uniting with the priests and deacons, seized on the right which had belonged solely to the assembly of the faithful, that is to say, that they imposed penance, forgave sins, and admitted to the communion, but always in the name of the Church and as its representa- tives. The bishops having become more powerful, more influential, and richer by the sees which they * Dedit tibi Deus potestatem ligandi et solvendi. Ipse te ligasti catena avaritiae ; solve te ipsum amore tibi injungendoe paupertatis : ipse te ligasti furioso voluptatum desiderio ; solve te ipsum temperantia : ipse te Eunomii ligastii hetero- doxia ; solve te ipsum orthodoxiae pietate. (Chrysost., Homil. in illud quodcunque lig.) RELATION TO RELIGION. 199 occupied, made themselves sole arbiters of confes- sion ; and that the more easily, as particular con- fession, in imitation of public confession taking place only for public and scandalous transgres- sions, become very uncommon, so that the bishops could perform this ministry by themselves. This confession having, in course of time, been extended to less serious and common sins, the bishops being unable to suffice for every want, gave the priests and deacons the power of receiving for penance and of absolving, especially in cases of emergency. This is demonstrated in the following passage of Saint Cyprian: " Penitents dangerously ill, or otherwise prevented, may, without waiting for our presence, have recourse to any priest who may be present, or even to a deacon if no priest is to be found, in order to make an avowal of their trans- gression, both to receive forgiveness of the same by the imposition of hands, and to go in peace to the Lord."* The council of Elvira prescribes the same rule : " If any one be guilty of a serious transgression, let him do penance only with the * Si incommode aliquo et infirmitatis periculo fuerint (pcenitentes), non expectata presentia nostra, apud proes- byterum quemcunque presentum, vel si proesbyter repertus non fuerit, et cogere exitus cocperit, apud diaconum quoque exomologes in facere delicti sui possunt ; ut manu ei in poeni- tentia imposita, veniant ad Dominum cum pace. (Cyprian., Epist. 13 et 18.) 200 CONFESSION IN ITS consent of the bishop ; if, however, he should be in danger of death through the effects of his illness, it is the duty of the priest or deacon not to receive him at the communion without the order of the bishop."* Before participating in this communion, the faithful received a general pardon for their transgressions, which was wrought, not by the fact of an auricular confession, or by any sacerdo- tal virtue, but by participating in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper : such was the doctrine of the ancient Christians as well as that of the fathers, which we might also quote. Let us confine our- selves to what is said by Saint Ambrosius in his book on Penitence: "We take the sacrament of the body of Jesus Christ, after absolution has been given to all, in order that the remission of sins may be effected by his blood. "f Confession and the remission of sins having, in course of time, undergone the different modifica- tions and changes of which we have just spoken, at length attained the obligatory state of auricular, * Si quis gravi lapsu in ruinam morbis incident, non agat poenitentiam sine episcopi consulta ; cogente tamen infir- mitate, non est praesbyterorum vel diaconorum communionem talibus prsestare, nisi jusserit episcopus. (Condi. Eliber., can. 32.) f Quotiescumque peccata donantur, corporis ejns sacra- mentum sumimus, ut per sanguinem ejus fiat peccatorum re- missio. (Ambros., de Poenit., 1. ii., c. 3.) RELATION TO RELIGION. 201 sacerdotal, and sacramental confession; a change brought about by the policy of the popes, for the purpose of increasing the influence, authority, and wealth of the clergy. Thus it was that an avowal of transgressions, which had been exacted only in extremely uncommon cases and for notorious crimes, was prescribed to all, upon pain of eter- nal damnation ; and the forgiveness of sins or sanctification which had been believed to belong to God alone, was attributed to the priests, and, instead of deprecatory, it now became indicative, protestative, and judiciary indicativa, potestativa, judidaria a theological jargon, unknown to Chris- tians for eleven or twelve hundred years, and which Saint Thomas especially has accredited."* Could there have been any right, in instituting auricular confession, to give priests a power supe- rior to what had been enjoyed by the assemblies of Christians ? However, one was given them which the latter had never claimed, and which can be- long only to God that of blotting out sins as if they had never existed. It was afterwards laid down, conformably to this supposition, that the priest, unable to pardon without being acquainted with the trangressions, since he performed the duty of a judge, ought to receive a specified de- claration of them. But, we ask, where is the * Thomas Aquin., Opusc. 22, de Forma absolut., c. 5. K 3 202 CONFESSION IN ITS priest who can penetrate into the recesses of the conscience, even with the aid of all the declara- tions made to him, to give an infallible judgment, to condemn or absolve with equity and without committing any error ? It would be strange pre- sumption to affirm anything of the sort! It would be assimilating the priest to God, and believing that God will submit to this judgment, and absolve or condemn according to this decision. Moreover, this is what Saint Augustin thought, when he said : " It is not easy for man to know the mala- dies of the mind of man ; for no one has been able to know what concerns man, except the spirit that dwells within him. Who then can find a remedy for the malady of him whose character and sentiments are totally unknown to him?"* If, then, God alone can judge of the faith and repentance of the sinner, he alone can absolve him. Besides, the unanimous opinion of theolo- gians is, that he who has committed venial sins finds mercy with God without needing to have recourse to a priest. If then the sinner can be absolved in this case, he can likewise be so in cases * Principio, hominum morbos homini baud facile est noscere; nemo enim hominum quse sunt homini novit, proeter spiritum qui in ipso est. Quis igitur pharmacum adhibere possit morbo ei cujus rationem et genus nequaquam intelligit? (August., de Sacerd., lib. ii., c. 1.) RELATION TO RELIGION. 203 of mortal sins, which evidently demonstrates the uselessness of sacerdotal ministry. The case is the same in confession as in baptism : in the former, as in the latter, repentance and faith are sufficient to recover grace with God : either has its effect without it being necessary to have recourse to the priest : the interference of a layman is just as efficacious. The reasoning of Bellarmine on this subject could have been imagined only by a Jesuit. " If absolution be not a judiciary act," says he, " it can be just as well given by a lay- man nay, by a woman, by a child, even by an infidel, by the devil himself, or by a parrot, if taught the words by which absolution is given."* So then, according to Bellarmine, since a layman can administer baptism, it follows that it can be just as well given by the devil, or by a parrot. However, since theologians have allowed that demons interfere in the affairs of Christians, it would be just as reasonable to let parrots also per- form a part. Women took a very active share in the tribunal of auricular confession, as soon as the monks had gained possession of it. The abbesses of female communities, believing themselves equal in dig- * Si absolutio non est actus judicialis, non minus potest laicus absolvere imo, ctiam fcemina, aut puer, aut infidelis, quispiam, aut diabolus, vcl etiam psittacus, si doceantur ci verba quibus annunciatur absolutio, quam saccrdos. 204 CONFESSION IN ITS nity and power to the abbots or superiors of the monasteries of men, seized, like them, upon func- tions which belonged only to the bishops. Thus they appropriated to themselves, in several con- vents, the right of confessing and absolving the nuns who were under their command. This was not only for little peccadilloes, the infringement of the regulations, and a hundred other trifles, the non- observance of which has been and is still accounted as a sin in every convent, but also for what is designated by the term of mortal sins, that abbesses used to give absolution. These abbesses, besides their ordinary jurisdic- tion, could delegate ancient nuns to replace them in this ministry, and their approbation was not less necessary to the validity of absolution than is that of the bishops relatively to the priests. They had likewise the right of reserving to themselves cer- tain cases which they alone could absolve. They who were charged to confess the sisters were bound to secrecy, excepting with the abbess, who, trusted with the direction of souls, ought neces- sarily to know the state of conscience of each of the sisters. This is, moreover, a principle of right, not only in convents and Jesuitical seminaries that ordinary confessors ought to reveal to the superior any sins that may be injurious to religion and to the order and discipline of these houses. It was that they might become acquainted with what- RELATION TO RELIGION. 205 ever is passing throughout Christendom, that the popes appropriated to themselves reserved cases, and that the superior of the Jesuits, residing at Rome, causes accounts to be given to him of every- thing important that may have been discovered by the confessors of his order, either for their own corporation or for the interests of the court of Rome. It would be fastidious to enter into any details about the incessantly reiterated con- fessions to which the monks, and especially the nuns of some convents, are subjected; the nu- merous scruples of conscience with which their minds are tormented, the finical and insensate practices to which they are subjected to obtain the remission of imaginary faults. Religion, intended to tranquillize and comfort the soul, thus becomes an habitual subject of doubt and fear. Codegrand, a bishop who lived in the eighth century, ordered his monks to confess their sins weekly to a priest or to himself.* But, besides the frequent confes- sions which were made to the directors of the con- vents, the friars or nuns confessed their sins to one another, or to their superiors, several times a month, a week, or even a day, as we find in an old regulation made for virgins, which Holstenius * Monachi (says he, in his regulation) in uno qnoque sab- bato, confessionem facient, cum bona voluutate episcopi aut priori suo. 206 CONFESSION IN ITS RELATION TO RELIGION. mentions in his collection.* It has been said that a wise man sins seven times a day. It was, doubt- less, in consequence of this adage that imaginary sins were created, and that souls have been com- forted by penances and sterile absolutions. We shall speak in the following book of the more than serious inconveniences which have been produced in convents by confession. * Holstenius, Codex regularum, Regula cujusdam ad vir- gines (in twenty-four articles). END OF BOOK I. BOOK II. ON CONFESSION IN ITS RELATION TO MORALITY. CHAPTER I. ON THE DOCTRINE OF THE CASUISTS. GOD has implanted in the heart of man a know- ledge of good and evil, of right and wrong, which is sufficient, when he is not led astray by educa- tion, example, prejudices, or religious superstitions, to regulate his conduct and to enable him to per- form his duty towards God, towards his neighbour, and towards himself. But theologians, professing a revealed religion, have substituted in its place a criminal code, designated by the name of cases of conscience, or penitential, to which they have forced men to submit upon pain of temporal or 212 CONFESSION IN ITS eternal expiations. The doctors, or inconsiderate legists of Christianism, have given a development to their code beyond everything that had been done of this kind by the theologians of other reli- gions. We should, indeed, have cause to be frightened if we had before us a compilation of all the laws, canons, decrees, precepts, and obligations imposed upon Christians in the general or pro- vincial councils, in the writings of the fathers of the Church, in the bulls of the popes or mandates of the bishops lastly, in the penitential books and writings of the Casuists, wherein the number and nature of sins have been precisely stated and determined with admirable sagacity. The task would be too long, and we should wander from our purpose, did we undertake to present a picture of this kind : it is sufficient to mention a few of these works, especially of such as have appeared within the last few years, in which are recorded the most extraordinary cases of conscience and penitential transgressions, engen- dered by theological insanity. If to present to the knowledge of the public detestable opinions and principles is an opprobrium to some, it will, nevertheless, be a salutary warning to all, and the only means of putting a stop to causes of depra- vity, the more dangerous as they are disseminated quietly and under the cloak of religion : it will be RELATION TO MORALITY. 213 a motive to too confiding and over credulous per- sons to keep clear of an institution invented for the purpose of subjecting Christians to a shameful and intolerable bondage. Everybody has heard of the famous work De Matrimonio, in which Sanchez, unveiling the mys- teries of marriage, has perverted them to a degree of shameful turpitude. This writing, a true school of debauchery, printed for the first time in 1592, at Genoa, and dedicated to the Archbishop of Grenada, was approved of by ecclesiastical censor- ship, even with delight, as we find in the license, where we meet with these words "Legi, perlegi, maxima cum voluptate." This work of Sanchez, the Jesuit, has been the depository from which his brethren, manufacturers of cases of conscience, have drawn the licentious details with which they pollute the seminaries and the minds of those who are appointed to direct consciences. Albert-le-Grand had fathomed this same inde- licate subject as early as the thirteenth century, in his Commentary on the Fourth Book of Sentences. Speaking of conjugal duties, he pleads, as his ex- cuse, the monstrous avowals that must be heard in confession ; coyentilms monstris qua in confes- sione audiuntur. Theophilus Raymond, a Jesuit who lived in the middle of the seventeenth cen- tury, commends Albert, though he was a Domi- 214 CONFESSION IN ITS nican, for having unveiled to the Casuists this kind of turpitude. Another Casuist, named Jean Benedict!, a Franciscan friar, caused a book to be printed at Lyons, in 1584, with the title of La Somme des Peches et la Remise D'iceux, dediee a la Saint Vierge- a dedication which would not be accepted in these days by a harlot of Paris or London. Brantome quotes several passages from this work, which was also one of the sources whence Sanchez derived the saintly doctrine, of which the reader may form an idea by consulting the original. But the licentious manoeuvres described by this monk, and the picture he gives of them, are of such lubricity that it is impossible for us to present them to the reader, in spite of our wish that he should be made acquainted with their excessive baseness. The Casuists took pleasure in diving into the most hid- den mysteries of religion, assimilating them to the animal functions inherent in human nature, as is proved by a book of Samuel Schraenius, entitled Dissertatio Theologica de Sanctificatione Seminis Maria Virgmis in actu Conceptionis Christi, sine Redemptionis Prcetio, contra Figmentum Preserva- tionis in lumbris Adami. (Liptiae, 1703, in4to.) A work no less scandalous than the preceding ones, and which seems to have been imitated from that of Sanchez, was published by a priest named RELATION TO MORALITY. 215 Scettler, and reprinted anew by a professor of theo- logy, with the title of Joannis Gaspari Scettler in sextum Decalogi prceceptum, etc., of which this is the translation: "Extracts of Universal Moral Theology on the Sixth (7th) Precept of the De- calogue, relatively to the obligations of Married Life and divers points concerning Marriage, Jby J. G. Socttler ; with notes and new researches, by J. P. Rousselet, Professor of Theology in the Semi- nary of Grenoble (Gary, libr. editeur, 1840 a vol. of 192 pages)." We will spare the reader the dis- gusting immorality contained in this work: he may judge of it from the title of the chapters in the original table of contents. We find in pages 17, 23, 28, and 37, cases of conscience and questions so very disgusting upon such unheard-of crimes, that we should not dare to mention them in any language. As to the rest, these questions are not of modern invention : they date from several centuries ago from a period of the grossest ignorance and superstition. We shall speak of them in the following chapter. Another work which, like the preceding, is put into the hands of young seminarists, is not less likely to corrupt their morals than those of the persons who confess to them. We find in it a formal attack against our institutions and our liberty : it is entitled " Compendium Theologies 216 CONFESSION IN ITS Moralis" fyc. Abridgment of Moral Theology, ex- tracted chiefly from the works of B. Ligori, by Moullet, ex-professor of moral philosophy, printed with the permission of the superiors. (Fribourg, Labartrori, 1834, 2 vol. 8vo.) The author is full of the grossest superstition, and, with the subtlety of his distinctions and argu- ments, authorises murder, theft, adultery, and other crimes. We think it our duty to make known some of these infamous maxims ; for it is only by unveiling such immorality, and laying it bare to public opinion, that we shall be able to put an end to it, and inspire an aversion for a tribunal where a depraved or fanatical priest (and such are found in all religions), may so easily give way in secret, and without any responsibility towards the public, to the most shameful vices, and seduce those whom he ought to lead into the paths of virtue. For how will any one, even though by nature honest, resist, when he finds himself cor- rupted by obscene ideas with which his mind has been nourished, or by filth which will be inces- santly inflaming his imagination. It was natural, when addressing Catholics by whom they wished these extraordinary, or rather monstrous, maxims to be adopted, to state that they were those of the Church, and that it was in- dispensable to submit to them, and to make them RELATION TO MORALITY. 217 the rules of their conscience. With this aim in view, the author supposes a case in which an indi- vidual confesses, only after having heard that all Christian sects are equally good, and all lead to salvation ; he has believed that to be true, and he now asks whether he has sinned. Here is the answer of the Casuist : " You are guilty of heresy, if, knowinsr that the Catholic Church teaches the * O contrary, you think that any one may be saved in any of the communions which are termed Chris- tian ; and because you have manifested this volun- tary error, you have incurred, by so doing, plenary excommunication." (p. 4 9 9.) That is to say, " you are damned." Here we have the extraordinary consequence of the preceding proposition. " The agent obey- ing his chief with a good intention acts merito- riously, though, by so doing, he act against the law of God quamvis materialiter agat contra Jegem Dei" (p. 38.) It is with such maxims as these that the confessors have excited the Eavaillacs, Saint Bartholomew massacres, insurrections of people against legitimate authority, and the civil wars which have defiled Europe with blood, and which seem rising again, to judge from what is passing at the present day in Switzerland, from what happened against the Protestants in the South of France at the Restoration, and, lastly, VOL I. I, 218 CONFESSION IN ITS from the spirit of encroachment and intolerance with which religious corporations are animated. It is for ever from the same maxims, that the oaths, by which people have expected to compel the priests to obey the laws and civil authority, being considered as mental restrictions, or as sub- ordinate to the laws of the Church and to the will of the pope, are really of no value, and impose no real obligation. "Ad nihil tenetur ex virtute religionis, cum verum juramentum non emiserit: tene- tur tamen ex justicia ad pr&standum ; quodjicte et dolose juravit" (p. 221.) Our Casuist, supposing that the persons who repair to the confessional are imbued with the same Jesuitical opinions as him- self, advises the priest to put to them the follow- ing question : " If any one," says he, " accuses himself at the sacred tribunal of penitence for having taken an oath, the confessor ought to ask him whether his intention was to swear, that is to say, to call God to witness ; for people often use juratory formulas without any intention of taking an oath." (p. 221.) Next comes the instruction which our Casuist gives to young confessors when abandoned women come to reveal to them, with precise details and circumstances, the acts of shameful debauchery to which they have consented. The effect which these descriptions produce upon the priests is of RELATION TO MORALITY. 219 no consequence, provided it be without their con- sent, since they are fulfilling a duty of their minis- try. They may read, with an equally safe con- science, whatever may be written on matters of luxury and debauchery in books on morality. After having said that he who, by solicitation, address, fraud, or by promises of marriage, cor- rupts a virgin, is bound to make reparation only in case the thing should be known to the public, our honest Casuist adds : " If, however, his crime has remained absolutely secret, it is more than probable that, in his conscience, the seducer is bound to make no reparation." (p. 406.) In voL ii., p. 383, there is another combination of infamy, which could only have been imagined by doctors of the same stamp as Sanchez. The following maxim is worthy of figuring among those with which Escobar has indoctri- nated confessors. " For a marriage to be valid, there must be an internal mutual consent ; for marriage is a legitimate contract that is essentially true of two persons. If, therefore, the consent of either party were feigned or fictitious, the mar- riage would be void." (Vol. ii., p. 216.) Jesuits, monks, and priests, are not the only persons who have come forward to prescribe to us a new morality and new religious and political duties : the pope and the bishops have also pub- L2 220 CONFESSION IN ITS licly entered the arena, armed with their decrees, mandates, and writings which they have spread among the people, or with polemical discussions inserted in their newspapers. One of those who have distinguished themselves the most in this hitherto unheard-of struggle, is M. Bouvier, appointed bishop of Mans by the government of July, and since created a Roman Count by Gregory XVI. This man, the restorer of the Benedictine friars in his diocese, is the author of a work designed for the instruction of the seminaries and numerous colleges founded or directed by Jesuits in most of our departments. The following is the title : " Institutiones Philo- sophise ad usum Collegiorum et Seminariorum. Autore J. B. Bouvier, episcopo Cenomanensi, sexta edit. Parisiis, Mequinion, junior, 1841." The reader may judge from the extracts which we shall give from this work, what, in the present day, are the principles of morality, religion, poli- tics, and philosophy of the bishops and clergy of Ultramontane France,* and what will be the re- * We know by this time that the clergy, or at least all the bishops, in France, are Jesuits. This cannot be doubted, for one of them has said : " We are Jesuits all Jesuits" and he has not been contradicted by any one of his colleagues, but, on the contrary, has received the adherence of his clergy. RELATION TO MORALITY. 221 suits of confession and education entrusted to men who preach publicly such doctrines. As to politics, this is what we are taught by the Bishop of Mans : he terms the sovereignty of the people an impious principle, which has given rise to deplorable calamities: Ex quo lugenda pro- venerunt calamitates. Supreme authority proceeds from God, and can proceed only from God, because civil power is but the image of paternal power, which proceeds evidently from God. God alone can exercise supreme authority, because He alone is superior to it (that is, the priests in His name). There is nothing that the prince may not do when circumstances require it: Nihil est quod princeps facere non potest. Princes are not properly bound by any civil laws, for they could be bound only by laws made by others. Now, that cannot be, since they own no superior in temporal matters, and their own laws cannot oblige them, because no one obliges himself (p. 605). Subjects ought, whenever the legitimate prince may order it, to take up arms against the usurper, combat, over- throw, and expel him if they can. Nay, more any individual ought to kill him as a public male- factor, if the legitimate prince should expressly command it."* So, here is regicide established as a dogma of the Church ; and any individual may, * Arma assumere, ilium expugnare, vincere et expellere, 222 CONFESSION IN ITS with a safe conscience, assassinate King Louis Philippe, should the legitimate king, Henri V., give him the order. What morality ! what a reli- gion ! and yet our cowardly ministers do not de- nounce the propagators of such a doctrine to the tribunals. Will it be time to find a remedy for it when a new league is formed, and civil war has put arms into the hands of our citizens ? As to the liberty which he demands with so much ar- dour, what is it for ? To annihilate it the better ; and auricular confession is, of all means, the most likely to do so. But let us see whether the bishop's religious morality be purer than his politics. Assuredly not : it is so far from being so, that, in spite of our wish to unveil to the world the licentiousness which abounds in the Institutions philosophiques, the laws of decency oblige us to quote in a lan- guage less delicate and less known than the French, and even to suppress several obscene pas- sages which would be offensive to modesty. Be- sides no one can take it ill that we should copy expressions which a bishop has not hesitated to print in several thousands of copies. Not doubting but confessors might be hurried si possint ; imo privatim ilium tanquam publicum male- factorem occidere, si legitimus princeps id expresse jubet. (P. 628.) RELATION TO MORALITY. 223 away into thoughts and acts contrary to their vows by reading his book, and especially by put- ting to the other sex questions on which depend the validity of matrimony, the bishop points out to them an infallible means to preserve them from the danger : this consists in addressing to the holy Virgin Mary a prayer, of which he gives the formula. For our part, we think there is no other effica- cious means in this case than that formerly em- ployed by Origen. Modern Casuists would, doubtless, not have pre- scribed practices of confession calculated to poison the minds of those who teach them and of those who follow them, if they had known or been wil- ling to make use of the counsel given to them by Saint Thomas, one of the luminaries of the Church. "Let confessors," says this father of the Church, " not descend to particular circumstances ; the interest excited by a detail of such things disturbs the passions ; and it may happen that the confessor, by putting questions on this subject, may do harm to himself as well as to the penitent, and the in- quiry into such iniquities may occasion the ruin of both."* We think we have made our readers sufficiently * Non descendat nimis ad particulars circumstantias, quid hujuscemodi delectabilia, quando magis in speciali con- 224 CONFESSION IN ITS acquainted with the works on moral theological philosophy, which are put, at the present day, into the hands of our seminarists, as the rule which they are to follow in the direction of souls con- fided to their care. The maxims in them are not new : they date from the origin of sacerdotal con- fession ; and it would be easy for us to bring for- ward analogous ones by examining the writings of a great number of Casuists, such as those of Car- dinal Tolet, Fillicius, Tambourini, Emmanuel Sa, Escobar, Busenbaum, Molina, Toletanus, &c. The theory of cases of conscience has become, in the hands of these casuists, a very extensive and im- portant branch of theology. If it required some genius to create this new science, just the con- trary is expected from those who are charged with the application of it. In this matter we may trust to the evidence of the Jesuits, who say in their in- structions " If any one in the society be a simple- ton, let him be called to the study of cases of conscience." Inepti ad philosophiam, ad casuum studia destineantur* siderantur,magis concupiscentiam nata sunt movere; et ideo potest contingere, ut confessor talia quaerens, et sibi et con- fitenti noceat, et sic quandoque deficiant in suo scrutino, iniquitates scrutantes. (S. Thomas, iv., sent., d. 19, in ex- posi. testu.) * Ratio Studiorum, p. 172. EELATION TO MORALITY. 225 The monka have, indeed, given proofs of their silliness and inquisitorial curiosity, by seeking out the most secret thoughts of the mind, and by pub- lishing a book, which I myself saw in a college where I had the misfortune to be confined, put into the hands of the children called to make a general confession, at the time of their first com- munion. In that vile book, which contains some thousands of sins, children were made acquainted with things of which grown-up persons ought to remain ignorant all their lives. Each sin was printed on one side only of the leaf, cut into little slips which could be raised and folded to point out the sins of which any one might be guilty. This rare work, which I possess, is en- titled " La Confession Coupee," or, " An Easy Method of Preparing for Particular and General Confessions; invented by the reverend father Saint Christopher Leuterbrever, a friar of the order of St. Francis ; with a Treatise on the most Common Sins among Married People. (Paris: 1739.18mo.)" We will conclude this chapter with the following passage, wherein Fleury acknowledges that the Casuists were not less pernicious to morality than to religion : " They have introduced two means of allowing sin to triumph; one, by excusing the greater number of sins, and the other, by facilitating abso- L3 226 CONFESSION IN ITS lution. It is taking away sin at least in the opinion of men to teach them that what they be- lieved to be sin is not so ; this is what modern doctors have pretended to do, in their distinctions and scholastic subtleties, and especially in their doctrine of probability. " With regard to sins which cannot be excused, the remedy is an easy absolution, without ever re- fusing or even deferring it, however frequent the backslidings may be. Thus, the sinner has an easy reckoning, and does whatever he pleases. Some- times he is told that he sins indeed, but that the remedy is easy, and he may sin every day by con- fessing every day. Now, this facility seems neces- sary, in the countries of the inquisition, to the habitual sinner, who will not reform, yet dares not miss his paschal duty, for fear of being denounced, excommunicated, and, at the end of the year, de- clared suspected of heresy, and as such prosecuted by law ; accordingly, those are the countries in which the most unscrupulous Casuists have lived. This facility of getting absolution is, in some sort, the annihilation of sin ; since it divests it of horror, and causes it to be considered as an ordinary and inevitable evil. Would people be afraid of the ague, if it could be cured by merely swallowing a glass of water? Or, would any one be afraid to rob or murder, if he could get off by washing his RELATION TO MORALITY. 227 hands? Confession is almost as easy when you have only to whisper a word in the ear of a priest, without fearing a postponement of absolution, without any painful expiation, or the necessity of missing the opportunity. But I am gradually straying from my subject: I will, however, add, that the new devotions introduced by certain re- ligious brethren have contributed to the same effect that is to say, of lessening the horror of sin, and of causing the correction of morals to be neglected. You may wear a scapulary, tell your beads, or say some famous prayer every day, without either forgiving your enemy, restoring ill-acquired wealth, or quitting your concubine. " These are the devotions in favour with the people such as do not call upon them to improve." " Hence comes also the outward devotion to the Holy Sacrament. They would much rather adore it when exposed, or follow it in a procession, than prepare themselves to communicate worthily."* * Fleury, Discours sur 1'IIistoire Eccl.. disc, viii., n. 14. 228 CONFESSION IN ITS CHAPTEK II. ON THE IMMORALITY OF THE QUESTIONS ASKED IN CONFESSION. BEFORE auricular confession had been admitted into the churches of Christendom and declared sacramental by the Council of Latran, penitential interrogatory formulas had been drawn up for the use of confessors. These collections, in which sins then considered as mortal had been inserted, were imagined in order to remedy all kinds of abuses, introduced through the ignorance and gross superstition of the priests. But the evil, far from being lessened by this invention, was in several respects aggravated. For, with the idea that sins could be pardoned only after a special and circumstantial declaration a condition which ignorance, negligence, fear, or other causes, pre- RELATION TO MOEALITT. 229 vented from performing formulas of interroga- tories were drawn up for the use of confessors, in order to enable them to discover all the sins of which they who applied to them might be guilty. But with the view of discovering sins of which the penitents had not the slightest idea, they taught them the knowledge of them. This manner of diving into the depths of the conscience has been put in practice according to the capability and inquisitiveness of the confessor. We find that the sins against the sixth (7th) com- mandment are specified in these " penitentials" with many more details than other kinds of offences, because they were very common at the time when this system of interrogatory was reduced to a for- mula. Thus, from the secrecy in which the evil is produced, two great causes of immorality have arisen: 1st, the knowledge of vice, given to those who were ignorant of it ; and, 2ndly, an impulse by which both parties are urged towards a kind of passion into which human nature easily falls. What other effect can be expected from those unchaste conversations which, by exciting the imagination, inspire wishes which may be satisfied the more easily as the satisfaction may remain unknown to the public. Lastly, confessors are inclined to give full scope to their passions in the confessional, inasmuch as they find in every other 230 CONFESSION IN ITS circumstance of their calling, obstacles which their vow of continency imposes upon them. Indeed, what is easier than to seduce a young person who is known to be susceptible, or one who, already corrupted, ever seizes the opportunity of satisfying her inclinations? an opportunity which invites still more to crime, as both parties are certain that nothing will transpire between two guilty persons equally interested in keeping the secret. The reader would be able to form an idea of these interrogatories from one of the penitential works composed at the end of the ninth century.* They are remarkable records of the immoral- ity, superstition, and profound ignorance which reigned in the middle ages among both the clergy and laity. They may be traced back to the com- mencement of the eighth century at least ; since there existed a penitentiary in 731, of the name of Egbert, archbishop of York (Eboracensis). The reader would see what a false, absurd idea the clergy and laity had formed of the nature and gravity of sins. He would perceive that they attributed to ridiculous and stupid practices a cul- pability equal to that of the greatest crimes. We refrain from giving extracts, in order not to shock * Codicum Manuscriptum Posnitentiale. Apud J. Mo- rinum, Commentarium Poenitent, in fine, p. 23 et seq. RELATION TO MOEALITY. 231 that decency which they who composed them did not respect. The confessor is ordered to proceed, before commencing his interrogatory, with a few formulas and prayers; after which, he is told to make the penitent confess all his sins, by put- ting to him a series of disgusting questions : " Tune, fac eum confiteri omnia peccata sua" The Church of the East, which, in the middle ages, was not less barbarous, ignorant, or super- stitious than that of the West, had also drawn up penitential formulas for the use of confessors. We find therein a system no less immoral and absurd than the practices of the Churches of the West, as the reader may judge from a penitential composed by Jean Jejunateus, a patriarch of Con- stantinople. It is said to have been made public in the year 586, and it had, for a long time, a great vogue among the Greeks. We must re- mark that the Western Church has never admit- ted neither does it give to priests the faculty of knowing and judging of the culpability of sin- ners, any more than it gives the power of ab- solving and pardoning them. The penitential causes the following words to be addressed by the priest to those who, acknowledging and confessing their sins, pray to return to grace with God and to obtain his pardon : " O Lord, our God, who 232 CONFESSION IN ITS art the father of all men, who perceivest every- thing, and dost pardon with bounty and affection all those who come unto Thee to do penance; who didst take compassion on David, when he acknow- ledged his sins (per confessionem), [here follow several other examples taken from the Scriptures,] thou supreme protector, listen to the prayers of thy humble servant, unworthy, on account of his numerous iniquities, to call upon thy holy name. According to thy abundant mercy, hearken to the sins of thy humble servant, N. (the priest here pronounces the name of the penitent), who con- fesses his sins unto Thee; receive thy servant, and if he has committed any sin, either volun- tarily or involuntarily, in thought, word, or deed, mercifully look upon him. For Thou alone hast the power of remitting sins ; therefore we address our prayers to Thee, praying unto, glorifying, and praising Thee, together with the Son and the Holy Ghost," &c. We will end with two passages from these penitentials, which prove the superstitious igno- rance of the persons who prescribed the formulas of confession : " Let married people observe con- tinence for forty days before Easter, and before the birthday of our Lord, and let a man cease to know his wife who has conceived, till three months RELATION TO MORALITY. 233 after parturition. Let a woman abstain from going to church for thirty days, if she has a boy ; and forty days, if she has a girl.* * Codicum Manuscriptum Pcenitentiale. Apud J. Mo- rinum, Commentarium Poenitent., in fine, pag. 31. 234 CONFESSION IN ITS CHAPTER III. SEDUCTION OF WOMEN IN SPAIN, BY MEANS OF CONFESSION. THE numerous instances of seduction that had occurred in the confessional, especially in Italy and Spain, had long been known to the court of Rome, by means of the reserved cases of certain sins, the knowledge of which it had claimed for itself, and which it alone could absolve. Thus, it was acquainted with the most secret actions and opinions, by means of a legion of monks, who had made themselves masters of the tribunal of con- fession, and by priests and bishops devoted to it by profession and private interest. But, fearing lest seduction of rather frequent occurrence in the confessional should furnish arms against that institution, and inspire many Catholics with aver- RELATION TO MORALITY. 235 sion, should such cases come to the knowledge of the public, the court of Rome believed that the Inquisition might be able, if not to put a stop to this debauchery, at least to confine it within bounds which the public eye could never pene- trate, and that what was most important, scandal would thus be prevented without any violence being done to public opinion respecting the se- cular and regular clergy. It was for this purpose that Paul IV. addressed to the inquisitors of Grenada, on the 18th of January, 1556, a brief, in which he said he had heard that a certain number of confessors abused their ministry, so far as to outrage the very con- fessional. Accordingly, the pope commanded those inquisitors to prosecute the priests whom the public voice accused of so great a crime, and to spare nobody. The Inquisitors having communicated the letter of Paul IV. to the Archbishop of Grenada, the latter wrote to them that, in the circumstances in which they were then placed, the publication of the bull might be attended with inconveniences, if it were made in the usual forms, and that it was needful to act with discretion. The archbishop accordingly convoked the curates and other eccle- siastics, whilst the Inquisition acted in like man- ner towards the superiors of the different monas- 236 CONFESSION IN ITS teries, and it was prescribed to both these bodies to give notice of the pope's brief to all the confes- sors, to desire them to behave with great prudence for the future, and to let the people remain igno- rant of the papal bull, lest many persons should renounce confession. At the same time, an in- quiry was instituted against the priests and monks whose conduct had caused them to be suspected, and they discovered among the latter a few guilty per- sons whom they were content to punish privately, giving no reason for this measure, in order to avoid scandal. " The Jesuits,"* says Llorente, " were conspicuous in this affair: they would not give absolution to their penitents till after they had made them promise to denounce the crime to the Holy Office and to name the persons." "The discoveries that were made," continues the same author, " proved to the pope that the abuse in question was not particular to the kingdom of Grenada, and that there was an urgent necessity to subject to the same law all the other provinces of the kingdom. On the 16th of April, 156 1, he ac- cordingly addressed to the Grand Inquisitor Valdez a bull, by which he authorised him to take pro- ceedings against all the confessors in the kingdom * Histoire Critique de 1'inquisition d'Espagne. Paris, 1818, 4 vols., 8. This is the work that has furnished me with the materials of which the present chapter is composed. EELATION TO MOKALITY. 237 and domains of Philip II., who had committed the crime of seduction, as if they were guilty of heresy. The measures taken on this occasion, no doubt, not appearing sufficient to remedy the evil, Pius IV. sent a new bull in 1564, which was suc- cessively followed by several others, in order to extirpate an evil that had taken deep root, not only in Spain, but also throughout Christendom, since one of these bulls contains the words, s In illis Hispaniorum remotis, et in quibus vis Christi orbis partibusS " An edict, published at Seville in 1563, gave rise to such numerous denunciations that the recorders of the Holy Office were no longer able to receive them, which necessitated a term of thirty days to be assigned to every female plaintiff to come for- ward a second time. As this postponement was followed by several others, it took no less than a hundred and twenty days to register all the de- nunciations. But the inquisitors, alarmed at this prodigious number of guilty persons, and the scan- dal which was occasioned, resolved to abandon their undertaking, and renounced the prosecution of the delinquents. Indeed, there were, in this vast crowd of females, some very respectable persons, nay, some of illustrious birth. Ashamed of all that had taken place, they used to disguise themselves and muffle up their heads, in order to repair to the 238 CONFESSION IN ITS inquisitors, who occupied the castle of Triana, for fear of being met and recognised by their husbands. In spite of these precautions, several of the latter were informed of what was going on, and this affair was nearly occasioning a great disturbance. The measures taken to put an end to the at- tempts of the confessors upon women having been of no avail, the council of the Holy-Office issued new orders in 1576, in order to provoke new de- nunciations. The popes published successively, in the years 1614, 1622, &c., bulls and decrees, the last of which was in these terms : " You shall declare if you know, that any confessor, priest or friar no matter of what rank has, in the act of confession, either immediately, before, or after, on account or under pretence of confession, in the confessional or any other place, solicited, or endea- voured to solicit, women, by inviting or provoking them to shameful and dishonest actions, either with himself or any other person, or has had with them illicit and scandalous conversations ; and we exhort the confessors, and command them to warn all such of their female penitents as may have been solicited in this manner, of the obligation imposed upon them to denounce the said suborners to the Holy-Office, to which the knowledge of this species of offence expressly belongs." We see, from the order given to women to de- RELATION TO MORALITY. 239 clare the solicitations that might be made to them by their confessors to commit shameful and dis- honest actions, not only with them, but also -with other persons, that there were priests vile and in- famous enough to serve as procurers, and to cor- rupt women, in behalf of persons from whom they expected pay or other advantage. The opportunity of seducing a woman, the pro- bability of success, and the attempts which follow, inherent in auricular confession, must happen in a pretty considerable number of instances; for, as Llorente observes, " a woman, almost always young and weak, gives, by the confession of the faults she has committed against the sixth (7th) precept in the Decalogue, the most frequent op- portunity for the attempt of which the confessor becomes guilty." It would seem that the vice of corrupting women was so inherent in auricular confession in Spain, that, like the hundred- headed hydra, it ever grew up again of its own strength. For, indeed, the popes and the tribunal of the Holy-Office published bulls, ordinances, successive decrees, and even made, in 1727, an auto-da-fe, of which we shall speak, without being able to put an end to an evil pernicious to reli- gion, and still more to good morals, tranquillity, the happiness of families, and to social order. Nothing is more easy than to obtain everything 240 CONFESSION IN ITS from weak, ignorant, or superstitious persons, who imagine themselves obliged to submit blindly to a corrupt priest, at whose knees they are prostrate. For this, it is sufficient that they should dread the excommunications, anathemas, and damnation with which they are menaced. Then, there are no se- crets, however intimate they may be, but they can thus succeed in discovering them. Self-accu- sation becomes a virtue; accordingly this is what happened in Spain. "For," as Llorente says : " de- nunciations were never more frequent than when the paschal communion (Easter) was approaching, because the confessors made it a duty." This movement, impressed upon the spirit of denuncia- tion, was the effect of the mandates which were published in the churches during two Sundays in Lent : one imposed the obligation of denouncing within six days, upon pain of mortal sin and major excommunication, persons guilty of any case of seduction ; the other declared that they also were smitten with the same anathema who had allowed this time to pass without presenting themselves to the tribunal, or making their declaration ; and all the refractory were subjected to horrible canonical censures. As the inquisitors showed themselves inexor- able and cruel in their judgments against heretics, or even persons only suspected of heresy, in the RELATION TO MORALITY. 241 same degree did they prove indulgent towards the priests and monks who became guilty of the most infamous of crimes. Not to believe in the infalli- bility of the councils or in that of the popes, was, in their opinion, an offence to be expiated only by the flames of the stake; whereas hypocrisy, de- ceit, falsehood, nay, the name of God employed to seduce innocence and credulity, and entice to shameful debauchery, even to the pollution of the nuptial couch, were but trifling faults, which, in order to preserve the honour of the Church and that of the monks, deserved only some slight pun- ishment. " For," as Llorente observes, " the policy of the Inquisitors in so delicate an affair, was ex- tremely prudent and reserved, because they were afraid of furnishing the Lutherans with new arms against auricular confession, and the Catholics with a pretext for not having recourse to it so frequently." According to the same author, proceedings against guilty priests were conducted in the same way as those against heretics : the accused was asked whether he believed his conduct to have been innocent ; an affirmative answer caused him to be considered as a heretic ; for he was then sup- posed not to believe in the sacrament of penitence ; but if, on the contrary, he acknowledged himself to be guilty, he had nothing to fear. Almost all VOL. I M 242 CONFESSION IN ITS who were denounced declared they believed they had committed a crime ; but some they excused on the ground of human frailty, exposed to the great- est dangers, to the hearing of cases calculated to entice them to evil. Some there were who ex- pected to justify themselves by saying and on better grounds that all other opportunities of sin- ning were denied to them. The penalties inflicted upon prevaricating priests were banishment from the town where they had committed the offence, from the place where the tribunal had sat that had condemned them, and from royal residences : they were, moreover, forbid- den to hear confessions for the rest of their lives, and they were generally confined in a convent. "Yet, we see but too often," says Llorente, " these same prevaricators contrive, by dint of prayers, promises, intrigues, and even hypocrisy, to get themselves reinstated by the Inquisition." The homicidal history of the Inquisition does not present one single instance of a priest condemned to death, whatever might be the number and the quality of the women he had ruined. The popes charged the Inquisition especially to make inquiries on this subject, and to punish the delinquents. Thus, in 1561, Pius IV. published a bull, dated the 16th of April, by which he authorized the Inquisition to seek out and punish KELATION TO MORALITY. 243 such priests and monks as, in confession, suborned females, and tried to make them the accomplices of their lubricity. It seems that this crime was rather frequent in Spain, for, this pope says, in his bull, that " he has lately learnt that there are several priests in Spain, charged with the cure of souls, who abuse the sacrament of penitence, in confession, by inviting, or invoking by seducing words, or by trying to seduce and provoke to dis- honest actions the women who confess to them."* The prisons of the Inquisition were unable to put a stop to the evil. Clement VIII. thought fit, thirty years later, to prescribe to the Inquisition that they should proceed against the secular or regular priests who should solicit women. But the authority of two popes not having succeeded any better than that of the councils or the rigours of the Inquisition, a third pope, Gregory XV., issued, in 1612, a more precise and minute consti- tution to put an end to this kind of immorality. Not only does he confirm the bull of Pius IV., * Se nuper accepisse diversos sacerdotes in regnis Hispan- iaruin, atque etiam in eorum civitatibus et direcessibus curam animarum habentes, sive earn pro aliis exercentes, aut alios audiendis confessionibus deputatos, sacramento poenitentiae in actu audiendi confessiones abuti, mulieresque videlicet pceni- tentes ad actus inhonestos, dura earumdem audiunt confes- siones, alliciendo et provocando, vel allicere et provocare tentando. M 2 244 CONFESSION IN ITS but he commands that it shall be inviolably ob- served throughout the Christian universe, and charges the Inquisition to punish very severely (severissime puniantur) every priest who, by any means, or in whatever place confession might be made, should solicit, provoke, or make any at- tempts to entice women, or any other persons ( Qui personas qucecunque illce sint, ad inhonesta solicitare) to commit actions contrary to chastity. Let us relate a few facts, not less authentic than the preceding, which are found recorded in the History of the Inquisition of Spain,* by Llorente, a respectable ecclesiastic, who had had in his hands the proces-verbaux of the acts and judgments pronounced by the Inquisition, of which he was for a long time secretary. " A girl descended from a noble family, and born at Corello, in Navarre, took the veil in 1712, in a convent of Carmelites, of the city of Lerma. She passed more than twenty years in that convent, and her renown did but increase from the ac- counts of her extacies and miracles, .adroitly spread abroad by friar Juan de Longas, the prior of Lerma, the provincial, and other friars of the first rank, who were all accomplices of the impoe- * This fact is also quoted by Mr. Michelet. See Priest*, Women, and Families, p. 132. Longman, London, 1845. Transl. KELATION TO MORALITY. 245 ture of Mother Aguada, and interested in causing her imposture to be credited. " It was determined that a convent should be founded in her native place, and the superiors, of whom I have just spoken, named her foundress and prioress. There she continued her vicious manner of living, without losing the reputation she enjoyed, which, on the contrary, became greater every day ; so that people flocked from all the neighbouring countries to implore her inter- cession with God, for the succour they needed." " At length, after having passed her whole life in a thousand secret iniquities disguised under the mask of fasting and other outward signs of sanctity, Mother Aguada was denounced to the Holy-Office of Logrogno, which ordered her to be confined in the secret prisons of that town, where she died in consequence of being put to the torture. She confessed, amid the torments which she was made to suffer, that her pretended sanctity had been only an imposture." The man who had principally seduced this girl, from her youth, into such an excess of corruption, fanaticism, and imposture, was a provincial monk, of the bare-legged Carmelites an order that has become infamous by such deeds. His name was Juan de la Vega. " He had been," says Llorente, "ever since 1715, the spiritual director and accoin- 246 CONFESSION IN ITS plice of Mother Aguada ; he was then thirty-five years old, and, according to the evidence at his trial, he had had five children by her. His con- versation had corrupted other nuns, by making them believe that what he advised them to do was genuine virtue : he had written the life of his principal pupil, and spoke of her as a perfect model of sanctity. Therein he related a multitude of miracles, and everything that could serve his purpose : he himself acquired so great a reputation that he was named the " Ecstatic." The monks who had been his accomplices, reported everywhere that, since Juan de la Cruz, there had not been any friar in Spain more devoted to penitence than he. He caused a likeness to be made of Mother Aguada, and had it placed in the choir of the church. Thereon might be read the four follow- ing lines of a double meaning, the substance of which was to this effect : O Jesus ! let, within my heart, A flower be planted by thy hand ; The season will its fruit impart, For good and fertile is the land. " Donna Vicenta de Loya, the niece of Mother Aguada, was received, in her ninth year, into the convent of Corella, when her aunt went thither to be prioress. The latter, assisted by the provincial, Juan de la Vega, taught her her own evil doc- RELATION TO MORALITY. 247 trine. Her lessons were so successful, and she performed such an infamous part when the pro- vincial first seduced her niece, that it is not pos- sible to lay before the reader such a revolting description: she acted in that way, she said, in order that the work might be more meritorious in the eyes of God. Donna Vicenta confessed all her sins as soon as she was arrested, without any torture being employed, and revealed those of the persons whom she knew to be guilty. She aver- red only, that she had never entertained in her soul any heretical error which she knew to be condemned by the Church; though she considered all she had done as lawful, because her confessors and her aunt had persuaded her so, and she had the highest opinion of the virtue of those persons, and particularly of her aunt, who was considered a saint. Donna Vicenta's sincerity procured her the favour of appearing at the auto-da-fe in a San- Benito scapulary, which was worn likewise by four other nuns who, even in torture, had denied having committed the crimes in question except- ing one, who avowed she had learned the evil doctrine ever since her childhood from Juan de Longas. " I shall not stop," says Llorente, " to relate all the details I find in my notes about the trials to which this affair gave rise," &c. 248 CONFESSION IN ITS Crimes such as those we have just related, com- mitted by monks or nuns sacred persons were not, in the eyes of the inquisitors, of the same gravity as the mere suspicion of heresy. " This severity" (against suspected persons), says Llorente, " is the more shocking, as we see the inquisitors practising, at the same time, an extreme modera- tion, when there is any question about punishing the prodigious number of infanticides committed by the monks and nuns of Corella, the existence of which had been judicially proved. If the wit- nesses are to be believed, there had been more than twenty successful attempts to procure abortion, and more than thirty murders committed upon infants after their birth, several of which, according to the evidence of the witnesses, had not even been baptised. Other tribunals would not have failed to send to the scaffold all the individuals convicted of such horrible attempts, in order to terrify guilt ; and yet it was in this very case worthy of being signalised as unparalleled in the history of the in- quisitors that the Holy-Office displayed its graciousness and mercy, so often vaunted in its decrees."* Llorente relates, moreover, the discovery of * Llorente, Hbtoire de 1' Inquisition d'Espagne, t. iv., p. 33, et seq. RELATION TO MORALITY. 249 crimes of the same nature as those we have just narrated, which had taken place in another locality. " Among the trials," says he, " which I became ac- quainted with at Saragossa, I have discovered one which differs but little from that of Corella. It took place in 1727, against certain nuns of a place called Casbas, and Friar Manuel de Val, a Fran- ciscan monk of the same institution. However, this trial does not present such crimes as infanti- cide, covenants with the devil, nor any such as inspire nature with horror; they are but acts of weakness, accompanied with attempts to conceal them from the knowledge of men." It is evident, from Llorente's reserve, through fear of shocking decency, and because of his own opinion upon auricular confession, that crimes of this nature were extremely numerous in the convents, and that they were the inevitable consequences of confession. This fact is proved officially from the very acts of the inquisition, as Llorente's sin- cerity and honesty cannot be questioned in what we have quoted above, and in the following pas- sages : " Since the inquisition meddles with what passes in convents, it is surprising that, after so many irregularities of this kind, with which its archives are filled, but of which decency does not permit^us to give an account, it has not resolved to deprive monks of the direction of the convents of M 3 250 CONFESSION IN ITS women."* He says also, in another place "If the priests who are in the habit of confessing nuns saw the papers of the Holy-Office, they would very soon be disgusted with a ministry which they some- tunes perform with such delight, because they are ignorant of the danger which threatens them." We will quote, moreover, the sentence of a Capuchin friar, related by Llorente, to prove that there are no means which the lewdness of perverse monks and priests cannot devise to seduce innocence and inexperience, and to abuse the confidence of young females. This Capuchin friar, who had per- formed in Spanish America the functions of apo- stolic missionary, provincial, and several times of guardian, corrupted a whole establishment of Beguines, and out of the seventeen women who composed this sort of community, he solicited thir- teen. The system of defence he employed is very curious : It appeared from his trial that, being the spiri- tual director and confessor of all the women in that house, he passed for a saintly man in the opinion of everybody : he had inspired them with so much confidence in his doctrine as confessor, that he was regarded as an oracle from heaven. * Llorente. Hist, de i' Inquisition d'Espagne, t. iv., p. S3, et seq. RELATION TO MORALITY. 251 When he perceived that everybody cherished his opinion, he began to give thirteen of these blessed nuns to understand, in the very act of confession, that he had received an especial and very singular grace from God. " Our Lord Jesus Christ," said he to them, " has been bountiful enough to appear to me in the consecrated wafer, at the moment of the elevation, and to say: * Almost all the souls thou directest in this house are pleasant to me, because they entertain a true love for virtue, and endeavour to advance towards perfection ; but es- pecially such a one (here he named the person to whom he was speaking): her soul is so perfect, that she has already conquered all worldly affec- tions, excepting one, which torments her exceed- ingly, because the enemy of the flesh is very po- tent on account of her youth, strength, and na- tural graces: for this reason, in order to reward her virtue, and that she may be perfectly united to my love, and serve me with a calmness which she does not enjoy, but to which by her virtues she is entitled, I charge thee to grant her, in my name, the dispensation she requires for her tran- quillity, by telling her she may satisfy her passion, provided it be expressly with thee ; and to avoid all scandal let her observe the strictest secrecy upon this subject with everybody, without ever speaking of it even to another confessor ; because 252 CONFESSION IN ITS she will not sin, having a dispensation in the pre- cept which I grant her on this condition, for the holy purpose of putting an end to all her uneasi- ness, and that she may advance every day further in the path of holiness.' " Among these seventeen women, there were four to whom the Capuchin did not think proper to impart his revelation, three being advanced in years, and the fourth very ugly. He, doubtless, thought that a seraglio of thirteen ought to be sufficient ; and he imagined he was very moderate when comparing himself to David, whom God had allowed to possess a far greater number. The youngest of these girls having fallen ill, was deter- mined to confess to another priest. The latter went and revealed all he had heard from the con- fession of the patient, fearing that the same doings had happened with other nuns. When the young girl had recovered her health, she related candidly what had passed to the Inquisition of Carthagena, and she added "that she had never believed in the truth of the revelation during the three years that this intercourse had lasted with her director ; but that she had pretended to believe what he said, yielding unblushingly to his lubricity, under the mask of piety." The Inquisition discovered that the same conduct had been practised towards the twelve other saints, who were not so sincere as RELATION TO MORALITY. 253 the former: they, however, confessed the facts, after having denied them, and pleaded in excuse that they had believed in the revelation. They were removed into different convents, and the youngest was sent back to her family. " As to the confessor," says Llorente, " the In- quisition thought it would be a serious incon- venience to arrest and immure him in their secret prisons, because the public would not fail to be- lieve that his affair was connected with the dis- persion of so large a number of saints, forced to become nuns in spite of themselves, without the Inquisition having seemed to interfere. There- fore, they merely shipped him to Spain, where he was put in a convent at Madrid. At first, he answered the questions put to him by the inquisi- tors, by prevaricating in various ways ; at length, he admitted all that had passed, when he was made acquainted with the depositions ; but he had the impudence to maintain that he had really had the revelation of which he had spoken to the saints. They pointed out to him that it was in- credible that Jesus Christ had appeared to him in the consecrated wafer, and dispensed him from one of the first negative precepts in the Deca- logue, which binds for ever and ever. He replied that such also was the fifth (6th) ; but that God had dispensed Abraham from it, when an angel 254 CONFESSION IN ITS had commanded him to kill his son ; that the same must be said of the seventh (8th), since he had permitted the Hebrews to steal the property of the Egyptians. They made him observe that the facts he alleged were mysteries for the benefit of religion. He answered that God, by the reve- lation he had made to him, had purposed to tran- quillize the consciences of thirteen virtuous souls, and to lead them to a perfect union with his divine essence. They then remarked to him that it was very singular so great a virtue should hap- pen to be found in the thirteen young and beauti- ful girls, and not at all in the three old ones, or in the ugly one. He replied to that with assurance, by quoting the Scriptures : * The Holy Spirit breathes wherever it will.' " The confessor, after having firmly maintained the truth of the vision in his answers to several interrogatories, fearing lest this deceit should damage his cause, retracted, and avowed that he had departed from the truth, that he was guilty, that he repented and demanded pardon and a pe- nance. " I blinded and betrayed myself," said he, " by considering as certain the apparition of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist and the dispensation of the sixth (7th) commandment of the Deca- logue, since I ought to have seen that it was only a pure illusion, and to have believed myself un- RELATION TO MORALITY. 255 worthy of so great a favour. My fault is, like that of the Jews who crucified Jesus Christ, one of involuntary ignorance." Lastly, after all these shifts, and when other pressing questions had been put to him, the prisoner said : " I have lied and perjured myself throughout ; write down anything you please, and I will sign it." The affair having thus ended, the monk who had corrupted thirteen unfortunate girls, and made them the instruments of his vile passions, was con- demned only to make an abjuration, to be confined for five years in a convent of his own order, to be deprived for ever of his power of confessing and preaching, and to do several penances accompanied with strict fasting. He was, moreover, scourged by all the monks and lay brethren of the convent, in presence of a secretary of the inquisition. The convict inquired whether he might be allowed to pass the five years of his captivity in the prisons of the Holy-Office, instead of being confined in a convent. This demand surprised the inquisitors, who represented to him that he would be more comfortable among the brethren of his own order, who would try to console him in his affliction. He replied : " As I have been a provincial and a guar- dian, I know better than you the treatment that they who have been guilty like me have to suffer from the monks : it will cost me my life." Ac- 256 CONFESSION IN ITS cordingly, his request having been refused, he died in the third year of his seclusion. We think it right to add to what has been said in this chapter, the history of two law-suits for seduction: one, at Grenada, against the Jesuit Barthelemi des Bois, and the other against the Jesuit Meno at Valladolid. We borrow the nar- rative of these two trials from the Causes Celebres.* "The college of Jesuits of Grenada had property," says this author, "in a place called Caparacena, two leagues from Grenada, the administration of which they entrusted to friar Barthelemi des Bois. This friar having conceived a passion for a woman of that place, took the precaution of employing her husband in the cultivation of the lands, and even doubled his wages, in order to keep him busily engaged in the fields, so that he (the friar) might have entire freedom in the house with his wife, whom he managed to seduce. The husband, who, in spite of the doubling of his wages, felt some symptoms of jealousy, resolved to break off this intrigue ; but the thing appeared difficult ; the woman was not averse to the friar, and the latter was in love with her. One day, the friar having arrived from Grenada to see his mistress, and imagining the husband was occupied in the fields, alighted at once at her house. The husband, who * Causes Celebres, par Kichter, t. ii., p. 374. RELATION TO MORALITY. 257 had probably been informed of his intended visit, and had concealed himself in the house, managed to surprise them, and poniarded the friar. As this action on the part of a husband is, in such a case, justifiable by law, which excuses an instinc- tive act prompted by the loss of honour, this man stated, in a procedure in the regular form, that the friar had a criminal conversation with his wife, and that it had been from an actual knowledge of the fact that he had killed him. As soon as the rector of Grenada heard of this, he preferred a complaint for the murder of the Jesuit. By dint of threats, promises, and presents, almost all the witnesses heard on the husband's side were made to retract, and, by means of new ones whom they caused to be heard, they proved, on the one hand, that this woman was already aged, to make it appear that she was too old, and thus remove every suspicion of anything wrong, though, in fact, she was only twenty -eight ; and, on the other hand, they proved that the friar was a saint, and that he had always his chapelet in his hand. The witnesses who still charged him with the crime were rejected, without even the trouble being taken to object to them judicially ; in a word, the affair was managed in such a manner that the poor husband was condemned to be hanged, and 258 CONFESSION IN ITS for the honour and towards the pious memory of the chaste and saintly friar and the society, the Jesuits caused the information, thus purged, to be printed, together with the definitive judg- ment. Father Mena was a Jesuit who appeared to have great exterior endowments : he would make fine exhortations, and was ever speaking of God and eternity: he was thin and pale, with hollow eyes; his dress was thread-bare, and he wore a large chapelet. This Jesuit used to confess a young simple girl at Salamanca. One day he said to her that God had revealed to him that he wished them to live together as man and wife; but that it must remain an inviolable secret. The innocent girl did not immediately fall into the snare, but consulted the doctors of the university. Father Mena, who had foreseen this, had been beforehand with her. He gave them notice that he had a very scrupulous devotee, who wanted to consult them about trifles ; that it was useless for them to give themselves the trouble of listening to these idle details, and that they were to tell her simply that she had only to follow blindly his ad- vice. The reputation of sanctity enjoyed by the good father removed all suspicion from the minds of the doctors ; and, without any misgiving, they RELATION TO MORALITY. 259 acted conformably to the line of conduct he had prescribed. The devotee was, therefore, convinced that such was the will of Heaven, and she married her confessor. He did not interrupt his usual du- ties, but continued to say mass, to confess, to live with every outward appearance of piety, and to make edifying exhortations. However, he had several children by his wife, whom he kept shut up in a lonely spot, but near at hand. The Inquisition was at length informed of what was going on. Father Mena was put into the prisons of Valladolid. This event made the more noise, as his reputation was more widely known and better established. The society undertook his defence ; physicians certified that he was ill ; and permission was obtained to transfer him to the college to cure him, under the care of the officers of the Inquisition. It was impossible to mend a business so barefaced and so well proved: they had recourse to artifice. They pretended that Father Mena was dead ; they made a figure of a body with pieces of wood, to which they added a face and hands of pasteboard ; they then dressed up the whole in the garb of a Jesuit, and placed it upon a bier ; the bells were tolled, and every ce- remony gone through for the burial of this effigy. Meanwhile, the real Father Mena, mounted upon 260 CONFESSION IN ITS RELATION TO MORALITY. a mule, departed, and never stopped till he reached Genoa, where he began publicly teaching the law of Moses to the Jews. Thus it was that this ] esuit escaped from human justice. END OF VOL. I. Chapman, Elcoate, and Compmiy, 5, Shoe-lane, and Peterborough-court, Fleet-street. THE LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara Goleta, California v THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW. 'AVAILABLE FOR CIRC: DI: 20m-3,'59(A552s4)476 A 001 030 785 8