loathed, and dreaded by females, both married and single, as a Roman Catholic priest, or bishop, who practices the degrading office of auricular confession. And I may say with safety, and from my own personal knowledge, that there is scarcely one of those who have been trained in the nunneries that has not been debauched. The reader will understand that every nun has her confessor; every confessor has a concubine, and there are very few of them who have not several. Let any mother imagine her young daughter among these semi-reverend crones, called nuns, and she will have no difficulty in seeing the possibility of her inmediate ruin. Let me give Protestant mothers just a twilight glance at the questions which a Roman priest puts to those females who go to confession to him, and they will bear in mind that there is no harshness in what I say. It contains no undulations of a roving fancy-it is only a part in which I have acted myself, I may truly say, of all that occurs in Popish confession. The following is as fair a sketch as I can, with due regard to decency, give of the questions which a Roman priest puts to a young female who goes to confession to him. It is, however, but a very brief synopsis. But, first, let the reader figure to himself, or herself, a young lady between the age of from twelve to twenty, on her knees, with her lips close pressed to the checks of the priest, who, in all probability, is not over 26 or 30 years old; for here it is worthy to remark, that these young priests are extremely zealous in the discharge of sacredotal duties, especially in hearing confessions, which all Roman Catholics who are members attend, some once a fortnight, some once a month, others at Christmas and Easter, under pain of exclusion from membership. And some I have known to resort every day in the week, and also communicate, notwithstanding "they found not that peace which the world could not give, neither the priest's absolution." THE FORM OF CONFESSION. "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen." Bless me Father for I have sinned." The priest blesseth him in Latin. The penitent not knowing what he repeats to God in his behalf. The penitent then proceeds. "I confess to the Almighty God, to the blessed Mary, ever Virgin, to the blessed Michael the archangel, to blessed John the Baptist, to the holy apostles Peter and Paul, to all the saints, and to you my ghostly Father, that I have sinned exceedingly in thought, word, and deed, through my fault, through my fault, through my most grevious fault." The Priest demands of him when he was at confession last. He answers a fortnight, a month, six months, one year, twenty years, as the case may be, &c. The following questions are asked of a female, and the opposite if a male :: Confessor.-Have you been thinking about men? sir. Confessor-Are you fond of any of them? Penitent. Why yes, I like cousin A. or B. greatly Confessor. Did you ever like to sleep with him? Confessor.-How long did these thoughts about men continue? Penitent. Not very long sir. Confessor. Had you these thoughts by day or by night? Penitent. By night or by day, as the case may be. Confessor-Have you been guilty of fornication, or adultry, or incest, or any sin against nature, either with a person of the same sex, or with any other creature? How often? Or have you designed or attempted any such sin, or sought to induce others to do it ? How often? Have you been guilty of selfpollution, or of immodest touches of yourself? How often? Have you touched others, or permitted yourself to be touched by others immodestly, or given or taken wanton kisses, or embraces, or any such like liberties? How often? Have you abused the marriage bed, by any actions contrary to the order of nature? or by any pollutions? or been guilty of any irregularity in order to hinder your having children? How often? Have you without a just cause refused the marriage debt? And what sin followed from it? How often? Have you debauched any person that was innocent before? Have you forced any person, or deluded any one by deceitful promises, &c.? Or designed or desired so to do? How often ?" In this strain does this reptile confessor proceed, till his now half gained prey is filled with ideas and thoughts, to which she has hitherto been a stranger. He tells her that she must come in a week or a fortnight again, after repeating a lot of stuff for penance two or three times a day until she returns to the confessional again. She accordingly comes, and he gives another twist to the screw, which he has now firmly fixed upon the soul and body of his penitent. Day after day, week after week, and month after month, does this hapless girl come to confession, until this wretch has worked up her passions to a tension almost snapping, and then becomes his easy prey. I cannot, as I before stated, detail the whole process by which a Romish confessor debauches his victims in his confessional; but if curiosity or any other motive, creates in the public mind a desire to know all the particulars about it, I refer them to Antoine's Moral Theology, or to Den's Treatise "De pecatis." In those books I have mentioned, they will find the obscene questions which are put by priests and bishops of the Romish Church to all women, young and old, married or single. And if any married man, or father, or brother, will after the perusal of these questions, allow his wife, his daughter, or his sister, ever again to go to confession, I will only say that his ideas of morality are more vague and loose than those of the Heathen or the Turk. There is a circumstance connected with this confession, that renders the conduct of these priests almost frightfully atrocious. There are in the Roman Catholic Churches things like sentry boxes, called confessionals, these are generally situated in the body of the church or at the angles, and priests hear confessions in them, though the priest and lady penitent are only separated by a sliding board in the form of a wainscot, which can be removed when the confession is to be heard at one side then return to the other, where the same process is gone through by the penitent, with their face to face eye to eye, breath to breath, and lip to lip, if he pleases. And several of them hear private confession in the Sacristy, or vestry of the church. This is a small room at the back of the altar, in which the Eucharist, containing, according to the Romish belief, the real body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ, is kept by the priest, day and night, while mass is not celebrated in the chapel. This room is always fastened by a lock and key of the best workmanship, and the key kept by the priest day and night. This Sacristy, containing the wafer, which the priests and laity blasphemously adore, is used by them as a place to hear confessions, and here they have committed habitually those acts of immorality and crime of which I have spoken. Therefore after the confession is ended, and the priest tells the penitent he is damned to all eternity, unless he pays for masses, indulgencies, and such like stuff he concludes thus : |