"Peccantne venialiter," says Escobar, "coeuntes captandæ voluptatis causa? Negative respondet Sanchez." Disp. 29, ques. 3*. And with respect to aged people whose marriage may be unfruitful, Tambourin says: "Senes quamvis credant non amplius filios generaturos, copula uti queunt."+ What follows is too gross to be given, even in Latin.

The law of God says, “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife;" while our Saviour Jesus Christ declares that "whosoever shall look on a woman to lust after her, is an adulterer in his heart."‡ But the Jesuits, in effect, annihilate the words of the law and of Jesus Christ. They tell you it is an article of the Christian faith that there is nothing sinful or wrong in concupiscence; and that the Almighty may have been the author of it§. Thus they invest the desires of concupiscence with the character of good and innocent, and allow that which the law and Jesus Christ forbid. Let us hear Sanchez: "Nec peccaret desiderans accedere ad aliquam, si esset sua uxor. Nec religiosus aut conjugatus desiderans uxorem ducere, si ille a voto, ille a conjugio liber esset." Consequently neither a nun nor a married *Escob., tr. 7, ex. 9, p. 883, n. 164.

Tamb., 1.7, decal. c. 3, par. 5, n. 45.

Matt. v. 28.

§ Potuit igitur ab initio creari homo concupiscentiæ obnoxius, sicut jam nascitur.-De Reulx, in his Thesis on the Epistle to the Romans, maintained at the College of the Jesuits at Louvain, April 19, 1684, on the first verse of the 8th chapter.

Sanch., lib. 1, Mor. ch. 2, p. 9, col. 2, n. 34.

woman commits any sin in forming such desires respecting any man, provided only that they say within themselves, the one, If I were free from my vow, and the other, If I were disengaged from the marriage bond, which restricts me to my husband.

The reason which this infamous writer assigns is, "Delectatio voluntatis de objecto conditionali, quod seclusa conditione esset peccatum mortale, nunc autem ea posita, non est illicita: ut gaudium voluntatis de concubitu, si esset uxor.'

Filliucius also grants the same liberty to persons dedicated to God by the most solemn vows. "Yes," says this Roman casuist, "when we add to an action a condition which divests it of everything sinful, as, for instance, if a person say, I would eat meat in Lent if it were not forbidden: cognoscerem Titiam si esset uxor; with such a supposition the desire is not unlawful, because, as Layman remarks, 'Concubitus cum muliere apprehensa sub conditione et statu conjugii non est malum, sed bonum objectum.""+ I make no comment upon these extracts, but leave the reader to draw his own conclusions.

*Sanch., lib. 1, Mor. ch. 2, p. 9, col. 2, n. 34.

+ Quando conditio tollit malitiam ab actu, ut comederem carnes in quadragesima, nisi esset vetitum: Tunc potest absque peccato desiderari res ex objecto mortalis.-Filliuc., Mor. Ques., tom. 2, tr. 21, c. 8, n. 296, p. 27; Layman, lib. 1, tr. 3, c. 6, n. 12, p. 41.

ON ASSISTING OTHERS IN PRACTICES OF LEWDNESS AND DEBAUCHERY.

THE Jesuits having spoken in terms so favourable to voluptuousness, it is but natural that they should advocate the cause of the profligate. The one leads directly to the other. Our attention is now directed to the instructions these holy fathers give to servants to obey their masters, when called upon to assist them in their debauchery.

The Jesuit Gaspar Hurtado says, "that a servant, in compliance with the wishes of his master, may watch a female on her way home, to discover where she resides. That he may carry her little presents; and also accompany his master, either for the maintenance of his dignity, or to take care of him, when he visits her. That he may, if necessary, assist him in entering her chamber by the window; may procure for him her portrait*, et ire ad concubinam, et ei dicere: herus meus te vocat, et eam ad domum heri comitari, et januam aperire et eis lectum sternere non tamen potest eam invitare ad actum ipsum inhonestum cum hero."

* Famulus potest jussu heri videre quo femina aliqua eat, et ubi habitet, eique munuscula deferre, herum que comitari ad domum concubinæ, sive causa honoris, sive deffensionis heri, et ei pedem sustinere ad ingrediendum per fenestram domum concubinæ, et ei picturam concubinæ emere.

“A son," this Jesuit adds, “may do the same for his father, in obedience to his commands; particularly if he apprehend that by refusing he should incur his father's displeasure. And that which a servant or a son may do, in respect to such practices, would, of course, be lawful for persons in any other relation or capacity."

He does not venture openly to assert that a daughter might do the same for her father or her mother, or a wife for her husband, but all this is obviously implied. "It is lawful," says he, "for any other person to do the same, if he hope to gain something considerable by it; and more especially if by such means he be likely to avoid some great loss, or escape anything that would be particularly hurtful to himself."*

Sanchez, more eager than all the other casuists to obtain the glory of defending and promoting every sort of impurity, has unequivocally decided that "it is allowable to lend money, or even a chamber, for the purpose of sinning with women, when neither can be refused without a great loss to one's self, which

* Et eadem omnia potest filius ad mandatum patris, præsertim si ex omissione indignationem patris timeat. Et eadem omnia quæ possunt famulus et filius, etiam potest quilibet alius titulo alicujus considerabilis utilitatis sibi accrescentis, et multo melius titulo vitandi aliquod grave incommodum aut damnum.-Gasp. Hurt., apud Dian., part. 5, p. 435, in add. atque emend. in part 5; Resp. Mor., in ty. 7, de Leand.

would be equal to the evil of the sin to be committed."* Supposing you lend your money, or your chamber, without an expectation of profit, Sanchez would not approve of it; because, in that case, the virtue of the loan would not of itself be equal to the adulterer's criminality. Hence this Jesuit has only to produce a pair of scales of sufficient strength to weigh all the mortal sins that may be committed in the said chamber, and to ascertain their precise weight, in order to learn what would be the just proportion in the weight of money to be received for the use of the chamber.

What a lesson does the philosopher Seneca read us in treating on this subject. "Let us," says he, "strive to render ourselves useful and pleasing to others; but let us take care that our manner of doing it be such that as time advances both the service and the pleasure may become increasingly agreeable to the persons who receive them. myself," he adds, "I will never give my money to a man who I am persuaded intends to make it the hire of an adulteress, lest I should participate in the guilt of his shameful practices. Or if I had already given it, I would, if possible, recall it; that he might never

For

* Undecimo deducitur licere alicui dare mutuo numos alteri, aut cubiculum accommodare petenti ad fornicandum, quando absque gravi detrimento proprio proportionato denegare nequit.—Sanch. Op. Mor., lib. 1, c. 7, n. 31.