Let me give American Protestant mothers just a twilight glance at the questions which a Romish priest puts to those females, who go to confession to him, and they will bear in mind that there is no poetry in what I say, it contains no undulations of a roving fancy; there is nothing dreaming, nothing imaginative about it; it is only a part of a drama in which I have acted myself. I may truly say of all that occurs in Popish confession, "Quorum magna pars fui."

chosen to hear confessions, with the pretence of having confessions there, or who shall have held with presumptuous audacity any unlawful or dishonourable conversation or intercourse with them, is ordered in the bull of Benedict XIV. entitled Sacramentum Pænitentiæ, to be suspended for ever; and the same Benedict XIV. decrees that priests so soliciting shall be for ever incapable of celebrating mass."

It will not seem wonderful, that statutes which make such confessions of the confessional, should be doomed, if possible, to a silence and secrecy, as deep and dark as the tribunal which they so betray. Can a doubt rest on the mind of any man who reads this document, that this tribunal, which they presume to call holy, that it may observe the consciences of blind and ignorant mortals, is actually a means of perdition in the hands of some confessors, by their own admission, and of how many who can tell? Are St. Thomas, Dr. Murray, Dr. Doyle, Dr. Keating, and Dr. Kinsella, all mistaken, when they say it is a means of sending down persons into hell? What a pretty sacrament of the Christian religion this must be, which these pious doctors confess to be so convertible into an engine, not of salvation, but of perdition! Let any Roman Catholic of common feeling read their bishop's own law here against their own priests; let them see the evils to which by the confession, both of pope and bishops, their wives, and sisters, and daughters are exposed; and let each man ask himself, is this the religion of the Bible? or am I a Christian who allow those of whom, as a man-as a parent-a husband-and a brother I ought to be the guardian, to go into the jaws of such acknowledged temptations and trials as these. If there is no danger of these evils, why such a law to guard against them? If there is danger and danger that calls for the specification of such a law, what are men made of, if they read this and do not rise like one man to denounce such a system of iniquity? Let not Protestants call themselves Christians if they will not speak openly and honestly and faithfully against it, to their Roman Catholic neighbours, and let not Roman Catholics deny the subjugation of their hearts in slavery to superstition, if they will not stand up to denounce, and protest against such cruel tyranny as this.

But when we go a little deeper into the system; when we take the very book that these statutes sets up, and compel these priests to study, to examine the consciences of these penitents; when we take also the very ritual of these priests and see how, with the very book that they carry about, every man in his pocket, for the purpose of administering the Sacraments, they are not only empowered, but commanded to exercise a tyranny, for which language has no

The following is as fair a sketch as I can, with due regard to decency, give of the questions which a Romish 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

name, over the hearts and feelings and consciences of any female that is doomed to pass the ordeal of this tribunal; the man that can see and know these things, and would not prefer death to subjection to them is not worthy to be called a husband or a father; he betrays the beings whom he ought to die to protect. But the truth is, the Roman Catholics are totally ignorant of the facts, they can hardly bear even to here of, much less to investigate boldly and manfully, the system in which they are enslaved; but they shall, we trust, with the divine blessing, yet be awakened to see it, and we shall yet with one heart and voice protest against the tyranny, the iniquity, the superstition, the idolatry of the Church of Rome.

The

The crimes of the confessional brought forward in these statutes are the least of the evils attendant on it. The priest who is not liable to these penalties, is as bad as the man who is ; for he uses the confessional as Rome intends it, not as a scene of licentiousness, but as an instrument of a tyranny the most cruel and' intolerable that ever enslaved the human mind. object is to bring the female mind into utter and abject slavery to the confessor and the more pure and delicate that mind may be, the more it is bowed down by the despotism of the confessional. Inured from infancy to an examination progressively and gradually suited to the age and circumstances-having thoughts and ideas suggested to the mind, in publications which seem devout and holy, and under this semblance conceal a system of cruel tyranny, which the priest is well trained how to exercise, and who, the further he is removed from licentiousness, the more master of himself and of his weapons-the young and innocent female is prepared in his hands for the inquisitorial investigation that awaits her as a wife; it is there that the real despotism of the confessional is brought into full operation on her heart and feelings. It is the policy of Rome to make her the mother of children who shall be enslaved to papal tyranny from the womb, and to effect this purpose she must be first, however, unconsciously, enslaved herself. The Editor writes this not to declaim, but to expose the facts; it will fall into the hands of Roman Catholics, and he conjures them not to count him as an enemy when he calls his God to witness that he feels and desires to testify to them that he is their faithful friend. Let them put it to the proof; let Roman Catholic gentlemen in every city and town in England and Ireland, call upon their bishops and priests to translate, in their presence, those passages of Dens, to which we refer, comparing them at the same time with the common books put into the hands of females, to prepare them for the confessional, and the Editor believes that every man who hears them will declare that wife or daughter, or even female servant in his house shall never bow her knee at the foot of papal tyranny again. It is no wonder the Diocesan Statutes that so expose the deeds of the confessional should be kept from the unhallowed eyes of lay intrusion, and of free investigation. [MGhee on the Diocesan Statutes.]

knees, with her lips nearly close pressed to the cheeks of the priest, who, in all probability, is not over twenty-five or thirty years old-for here it is worthy of remark, that these young priests are extremely zealous in the discharge of their sacredotal duties, especially in hearing confessions, which all Roman Catholics are bound to make under pain of eternal damnation. When priest and penitent are placed in the above attitude, let us suppose the following conversation taking place between them, and unless my readers are more dull of apprehension than I am willing to believe, they will have some idea of the beauties of Popery.

Confessor. What sins have you committed ?
Penitent. I don't know of any, sir.

Con. Are you sure youdid nothing wrong? Examine yourself well.

Pen. Yes; I do recollect that I did wrong. I made faces at school at Lucy A.

Con. Nothing else?

Pen. Yes; I told mother that I hated Lucy A., and that she was an ugly thing.

Con. (Scarcely able to suppress a smile in finding the girl perfectly innocent,) have you had any immodest thoughts?

Pen. What is that, sir ?

Con. Have you not been thinking about men ?

Pen. Why, yes, sir.

Con. Are you fond of any of them ?

Pen. Why, yes; I like cousin A. or B. greatly." Con. Did you ever like to sleep with him?

Pen. Oh, no.

Con. How long did these thoughts about men continue ?

Pen. Not very long.

Con. Had you these thoughts by day, or by night ? Pen.

By-*

*For the filthiness and moral pollution offered to and superinduced on the minds of women while in the confessional with the priest, we do not require to go to America, Ireland, or the Catholic parts of the Continent to discover

In this strain does this reptile confessor proceed, till his now half-gained prey is filled with ideas and thoughts, to which she has been hitherto a stranger. He tells her that she must come to-morrow 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

what kind of questions are put to persons confessing. Here follows a specimen of the interrogatories put daily in the English Roman Catholic confessional.

"Have you been guilty of fornication, or adultery, 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 self-pollution; 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?

English Roman Catholics-fathers, husbands, sons, and brothers, this is a specimen of the impure interrogatories put by the priests, whom you are called upon to respect, to your daughters, wives, mothers, and sisters, during confession, and while the very lips of a jolly robust priest is within an inch, if not nearer the lips from which he demands a reply to questions containing the very essence of moral pollution! Can you permit those females whom you are bound to protect against any moral impurity, to be any longer subjected to such a contamination of the affections and the feelings of the heart ?

There are other questions put to the minds of married women, besides those above quoted, by the priests, of an extremely filthy and impure characterthe very presence of which in a book designed for religious instruction implies to the minds of the reflective a degree of intellectual vassalage and mental bestiality which no language can convey; and which almost induce the conviction on the mind that fathers and husbands who permit the females to whom they are related to yield themselves submissively to such a catechetical system, that the classes of society to which they belong are for ever beyond the ordinary means of intellectual elevation.

The questions given above are taken from "Daily Companion," p 176, Liverpool, Rockliff and Duckworth, 1834.

Turn where we will, and search where we may, among the multifarious publications put forth by the Roman Catholic confessors, during several centuries, we will find them using language designed to deceive and having only these tendencies, to lull spiritual apprehension and to excite into activity the carnal passions of their female devotees.

his easy prey. I cannot, as I before stated, detail the whole process by which a Romish confessor debauches his victims in the 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 Mora! Theology, which I have read in the college of

"She must not, when she sins, be uneasy about it; for should she be grieved at it, it would be a sign that she still possessed a leaven of pride. It is the devil who to hinder us in our spiritual path, makes us busy with our backslidings, would it be foolish for him who runs to stop when he falls, and weep like a child, instead of pursuing his course? These falls have the excellent effect of preserving us from pride, which is the greatest fall of all. God makes virtues of our vices, and these very vices, by which the devil thought to cast us into the pit, become a ladder to mount to heaven. [Molinos Guida Spirituale, Venitia, 1684, pp. 86, 181. Lat. transl. (Lipsiæ, 1687.)

Again: "God to humble us, permits, in certain souls (well enlightened and in their lucid state,) that the devil should make them commit certain carnal acts. In this case, and in others, which, without the permission of God, would be guilty, there is no sin, because there is no consent. It may happen that those violent movements which excite to carnal acts, may take place in two persons, a man and a woman, at the same moment." [Comdemned articles, pp. 41, 42, at the head of the above edition.]

The case happened to Molinos himself, and much too often. He underwent a public penance, humbled himself for his morals, and did not defend his doctrine: this saved him. He was treated with leniency, and only imprisoned, whilst two of his disciples, who had only faithfully applied his doctrine, were burned alive without pity. One was a curate of Dijon, the other a priest of Tudela, in Navarre. [Michelet, p. 85.]

Michelet's remarks on this are worthy of being recorded. "How can we be surprised that such a theory should have such results in morals ? It would be much more astounding if it had not, besides, these immoral results do not proceed exclusively from Molinosism, a doctrine at once imprudent and too evident, and which they would take good care not to profess. They spring naturally from every practical direction that lulls the will, taking from the person this natural guardian, and exposing him or her thus prostrate to the mercy of him who watches over the sick couch. The tale told more than once by the middle ages and which casuists have examined so coldly, the violation of the dead, we here meet with again. The person is left as defenceless by the death of the will, as by physical death. [pp. 85, 6.]

Can our Roman Catholic brethren stultify themselves so far as to believe that the nature of man is so changed, that men placed in similar positions, and acting under similar circumstances, will not pursue a similar course of action, when the opportunities are so favourably seductive to the feelings of fallen carnal humanity? Those who will still persist in their incredulity as to the immoral consequences of the confessional on the minds and affections of their female relations would not be persuaded though an angel should come down from heaven.