muffled coach rolls to the door, the son having denounced his parent, gives him up to the inquisitorial officers to be tortured and put to death. "Notandum III. quod nemo, ut supra dictum est, teneatur denuntiare cum gravi suo incommodo, nisi crimen redundet in damnum commune reipublicæ aut reli. gionis, ut crimen læsæ majestatis, hæresis etc." "It is to be noted in the third place, that no one as it is said above, is bound to denounce with a great loss to himself, unless the crime be fraught with injury to the commonweal, or to religion, as for example, the crime of treason, HERESY, &c." question whether a son be Again, he considers the obliged to denounce his parent, a wife her husband, or a husband his wife. Some authors think not, but Liguori holds the opposite opinion, as follows: "But all are bound to denounce for the same reason as above, because heresy is so NOXIOUS A PEST that it may require a severe remedy, and very easily it may tend to the common loss. Ita Ronc. p. 169. 9. 1. 2. 3. Bonac. de Obligat. Denunt. t. 2. d. 6. p. 2. n. 3. cum Farin, Azor. Salm. d. 1. præc. c. 4. n. 106. cum Caj. Palao. Sanchez. Dian. etc. cum communi, ut testatur potest, n. 268. et Viva super prop. 5. Alexandr. VII. num. 13." "You will ask within what time blasphemous heretical persons are to be denounced. In speaking generally concerning crimes suspected of heresy, according to the edict of the general Roman inquisition, the time assigned for denunciation is a month from the day of the knowledge of pedimenti, ut asserunt Fel. Potest. de Denunt. num. 238. pag. Mihi 535. Mazotta t. 1. pag. 276. quæst. 5. et auctor libri (Istruz. per li Novelli Confess. tom. 2. c. 14. n. 284.) Loquendo vero præcipue de tempore requisito ad denuntiandos blasphemos hæreticales, dicunt Sporer de 1. præcept. Decal. cap. 10. num. 12. ex Decreto Alex. VII. de Suspectis de Hæres. et Salm. eod. tit. cap. 3. num. 129. (sed forte hi loquuntur juxta edictum Hispaniarum) esse denuntiandos infra sex dies." the law. But in speaking especially concerning the requisite time for denouncing heretical blasphemous persons, Sporer de 1. præcept. Decal. cap. 10. num. 12. ex Decreto Alex. VII. de Suspectis de Hæres. et Salm. eod. tit. cap. 3, num. 129. say, (but perhaps they speak according to the decree of the Spanish Inquisition) that they should be denounced within six days." He teaches that those who do not discharge the duty of denouncing, should themselves be denounced; their punishment is very severe. "Notandum III. juxta jus commune ex Extravag. Excommunicamus, eos, qui advertenter negligunt hæreticos denuntiare, incurrere excommunicationem ferendam : etsi juxta edictum Hispaniarum, ibi incurratur excommunicatio ipso facto, et reservata. Utrum autem in aliis regionibus hæc excommunicatio sit reservata ? Affirmant Salmanticens. c. 4. n. 70. et Potestas num. 641. qui affert decretum S. C. Sed negat Lupus apud Potestatem, et Bonacina l. c. Vide t. 2. dub. 6." ex be "It is to be noted in the third place, that according to the common law Extravag. Excommunicamus, those who purposely neglect to denounce heretics, incur excommunication, to issued: although according to the decree of the Spanish Inquisition, excommunication ipso facto and re. served, is incurred. But whether this excommunication be reserved in other regions? Salmanticens. c. 4. n. 70. et Potestas num. 641. who allege the decree, say that it is. But Lupus apud Potestatem, et Bonacina 1. c. Vide t. 2. dub. 6. say that it is not." In dubium VIII. he considers the way in which the confessor is to conduct himself toward the accused. "Observanda sequentia: 1. Instruat eum, quod, quæ secum in foro conscientiæ agit, cum judicibus non communicentur, ideoque sive sit nocens, sive innocens, id ei nec prodessse nec obesse possit. Ratio, quia alias multi conantur se falso probare innocentes, ut a confessario juventur: alii contra falso se nocentes dicunt, quod timeant ne confessarius conferat cum judicibus, ipsique revocentur ad torturam. Unde expedit: 1. ut non temere evulget confessarius accepta extra confessionem; 2. ut ad confessionem sacramentalem reum non admittat, nisi postquam in foro profano res sunt liquidæ, vix enim adigi poterit, ut omnia fateatur ob timorem, ne vel deferatur, vel cogatur eadem fateri judici; ante tamen de contritione agendum est. Delrio 1. 6. c. Tanner. d. 4. q. 5. 1. s. 3. dub. 4." "The following things are to be observed: 1. That he instruct him that what things he reveals to him, (in foro conscientiæ) will not be made known to the judge, and moreover that whether he be innocent or guilty, that it cannot be serviceable or injurious to him. The reason is, because otherwise many might endeavour falsely to prove themselves innocent, that they might receive the assistance of the confessor: others on the contrary falsely say that they are guilty, because they fear lest the confessor should confer with the judge, and they themselves be recalled to the torture. Whence it is expedient: 1. that the confessor do not rashly reveal things received extra confessionally; 2. that he do not admit the accused to sacramental confession, until matters are made clear in the secular court, for scarcely can he be compelled to confess all things by the motive of fear, lest his confession should be urged against him, or he be compelled to confess the same to the judge, before he make an act of contrition." It appears that the confessor should not usually receive the culprit to the sacramental confession until after the court has pronounced its decision; he, however, according to the above statement, is to induce him, if possible, to make known his state to him on the understanding that it should not be revealed. The Council of Antioch, we are informed in this chapter, allows the confessor to work upon the feelings of the prisoner, by laying before his view the excruciating agonies of the torture; with this, however, Liguori does not quite accord, but he directs that the confessor shall make himself well acquainted with the evidence adduced in the trial, so that he may be able to conduct himself prudently in his own investigation, and if it be necessary, prudently admonish the judge. ("Ut et prudentius possit in suo foro agere, et judicem, sicubi opus, prudenter admonere.") The confessor then leads the culprit to think that nothing shall be revealed which he makes known to him. The admonition is given that he should not rashly disclose his discoveries, but prudently to admonish (prudenter admonere) the judge. This, however, is no violation of the seal of sacramental confession, to which the confessor is advised not to receive the penitent, "nisi postquam in foro profano res sunt liquidæ :" but methinks that this is deception. Let us for a moment revert to heresy and its denunciation. From the passages quoted, it will be seen that the heretic is a criminal of the worst character, being always classed with the man who is guilty of treason, sodomy, sorcerey, forgery,-considered as he is, the pest of society, for which there is no cure but extermination. The man who denies any one article of Pope Pius's creed is a heretic. Protestants are heretics in the estimation of Rome. Consistently with Romish principles can there be toleration for Protestants? No! Liguori was canonised in the year 1839, and of the sentiments which we have quoted, Rome has declared that they are not censurable in "one word," as given by the author. Let Rome become ascendant, and then the Protestant, regarded as a criminal of the worst kind, shall have no toleration, but torture and death must be his lot. His house is not his castle, nor within his home circle-his own family, whose ties and sacredness Rome tramples beneath her feet, will he find sympathy and refuge. If he be a father, his son will rise against him,-the mother will forget the son of her womb,-if he be a husband, the wife of his bosom will forget her plighted love, and denounce him to the inquisition, his foes shall be they of his own household. The man whose only crime is Protestantism, lingers in a dungeon, is racked and burned. Where is civil and religious liberty? not beneath the sway of Rome. Popery, fell system, though transformed into an angel of light, is a very demon personified! The following account of the Italian inquisition is is given by Piazza, once a delegate judge of that court. "Of the officers of the inquisition, their names and duties. "The high court of the inquisition is at Rome called in Italian, La sacra e suprema congregatione del sant' officio, the sacred and supreme congregation (i.e. court) of the holy office; so they call the inquisition in that country where every thing is superstitiously reckoned to be holy, even the very feet of a mortal and human body. This high court of the inquisition is composed of several cardinals and prelates, whereof the Pope is always chief and president. They sit constantly every week throughout the whole year, to do and despatch business without allowing themselves at any time, as all other courts are used to do, any sort of vacation, except only passion week next before Easter, and the last week of carnival before Lent, whence I heard often myself at Rome some of the Italians out of jest saying that the high court of the inquisition does never rest but twice a year, to wit, once for God, the other time for the devil's sake. |