Part 5 (1/2)

And that art is considered so important and so difficult that all the theologians of Rome call it ”the art of arts.”

Dens, St. Liguori, Cheva.s.su, the author of the ”Mirror of the Clergy,”

Debreyne, and a mult.i.tude of authors too numerous to mention, have given the curious and scientific rules of that secret art.

They all agree in declaring that it is a most difficult and dangerous art; they all confess that the least error of judgment, the least imprudence or temerity, when storming the impregnable citadel, is sure death (spiritual, of course) to the confessor and the penitent.

The confessor is taught to make the first steps towards the citadel with the utmost caution, in order that his female penitent may not suspect at first what he wants her to reveal; for this would generally induce her to shut for ever the door of the fortress against him. After the first steps of advance, he is advised to make several steps back, and to put himself in a kind of spiritual ambuscade, to see the effect of his first advance. If there is any prospect of success, then the word ”March on!” is given, and a more advanced post of the citadel must be tried and stormed if possible. In that way, little by little, the whole place is so well surrounded, so well crippled, denuded, and dismantled, that any more resistance seems impossible on the part of the rebellious soul.

Then the last charge is ordered, the final a.s.sault is given; and if G.o.d does not perform a real miracle to save that soul, the last walls crumble, the doors are beaten down! Then the confessor makes a triumphant entry into the place; the very heart, soul, conscience, and intelligence, are conquered.

When once master of the place, the priest visits all its most secret recesses and corners; he pries into its most sacred chambers. The conquered place is entirely, absolutely in his hands; he does what he pleases within its precincts; he is the supreme master, for the surrender has been unconditional. The confessor has become the _only_ infallible ruler in the conquered place--nay, he has become its only G.o.d--for it is in the name of G.o.d that he has besieged, stormed, and conquered it, it is in the name of G.o.d that, hereafter, he will speak and be obeyed.

No human words can adequately give an idea of the irreparable ruin which follows the successful storming and unconditional surrender of the once so n.o.ble fortress. The longer the resistance has been, the more terrible and complete is the destruction of its beauty and strength; the n.o.bler the struggle has been the more irretrievable are the ruin and loss. Just as the higher and stronger the dam is built to stem the current of the rapid and deep waters of the river, the more awful the disasters which follow its destruction, so it is with that n.o.ble soul. A mighty dam has been built by the very hand of G.o.d, called self-respect and womanly modesty, to guard her against the pollutions of this sinful world; but the day that the priest of Rome succeeds, after long efforts, in destroying it, the soul is carried by an irresistible power into unfathomable abysses of iniquity. Then it is that the once most respectable lady will consent to hear, without a blush, things against which the most degraded woman would indignantly shut her ears. Then it is that she freely speaks on matters for repeating which a printer in England has lately been sent to jail.

At first, in spite of herself, but soon with a real sensual pleasure, that fallen angel will think, when alone, on what she has heard and what she has said in the confessional-box. In spite of herself, the vilest thoughts will at first irresistibly fill her mind; and soon the thoughts will engender temptations and sins. But those vile temptations and sins, which would have filled her with horror and regret before her entire surrender into the hands of the foe, beget very different sentiments now that she is no more her own self-possessor and guide, under the eyes of G.o.d. The conviction of her sins is no more connected with the thought of a G.o.d, infinitely holy and just, whom she must serve and fear. The conviction of her sins is now immediately connected with the thought of the man with whom she will have to speak, and who will easily make everything right and pure in her soul by his absolution.

When the day of going to confess comes, instead of being sad and uneasy and bashful, as she used to be formerly, she feels pleased and delighted to have a new opportunity of conversing on those matters, without impropriety and sin to herself; for she is now fully persuaded that there is no impropriety, no shame, no sin, nay, she believes, or tries to believe, that it is a good, honest, Christian, and G.o.dly thing to converse with her priest on those matters.

Her most happy hours are when she is at the feet of that spiritual physician showing him all the newly made wounds of her soul; explaining all her constant temptations, her bad thoughts, her most intimate secret desires and sins.

Then it is that the most sacred mysteries of the married life are revealed; then it is that the mysterious and precious pearls which G.o.d has given as a crown of mercy to those whom He has made one body, one heart, one soul, by the blessed ties of a christian union, are lavishly thrown before swine.

Whole hours are thus pa.s.sed by the fair penitent in speaking to her Father Confessor with the utmost freedom on matters which would rank her among the most profligate and lost women, if it were only suspected by her friends and relatives. A single word of those intimate conversations would be followed by an act of divorce on the part of the husband, if it were known by him.

But the betrayed husband knows nothing of the dark mysteries of auricular confession; the duped father suspects nothing; a cloud from h.e.l.l has obscured the intelligence of both, and made them blind. It is just the contrary: husbands and fathers, friends and relations, feel edified and pleased with the touching spectacle of the piety of Madam and Miss ----. In the village, as well as in the city, every one has a word to speak in their praise. Mrs. ---- is so often seen humbly prostrated at the feet, or by the side, of her confessor! Miss ---- remains so long in the confessional-box!

they receive the holy communion so frequently; they both speak so eloquently and so often of the admirable piety, modesty, holiness, patience, charity, of their incomparable spiritual Father!

Every one congratulates them on their new and exemplary life; and they accept the compliment with the utmost humility, attributing their rapid progress in Christian virtues to the holiness of their confessor. He is such a spiritual man! who could not make rapid strides under such a holy guide?

The more constant the temptations are, the more the secret sins overwhelm the soul, and the more airs of peace and holiness are put on. The more foul the secret emanations of the heart, the more the fair and refined penitent surrounds herself by an atmosphere of the sweetest perfumes of a sham piety. The more polluted the inside of the sepulchre is, the more s.h.i.+ning and white the outside will be kept.

Then it is that, unless G.o.d performs a miracle to prevent it, the ruin of that soul is sealed. She has drunk in the poisonous cup filled by ”the mother of harlots,” and she has found the wine of her prost.i.tution sweet.

She will henceforth delight in her spiritual and secret orgies.

Her holy (?) confessor has told her that there is no impropriety, no shame, no sin, in that cup. The Pope has sacrilegiously written the word ”Life” on that cup of ”Death.” She has believed the Pope: the terrible mystery of iniquity is accomplished!

”The mystery of iniquity doth already work ... whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause G.o.d shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be d.a.m.ned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thess. ii. 7-12).

Yes: the day that the rich, well-educated lady gives up her self-respect, and unconditionally surrenders the citadel of womanly modesty into the hands of a man, whatever be his name or t.i.tles, that he may freely put to her questions of the vilest character which she must answer, she is lost and degraded, just as if she were the humblest and poorest servant-girl.

I purposely say ”the rich and well-educated woman,” for I know that there is a prevalent opinion that the social position of her cla.s.s places her above the corrupting influences of the confessional, as if she were out of reach of the common miseries of our poor fallen and sinful nature.

So long as the well-educated lady makes use of her accomplishments to defend the citadel of her womanly self-respect against the foe--so long as she sternly keeps the door of her heart shut against her deadly enemy--she is safe. But let no one forget this: she is safe only so long as she does _not_ surrender. When the enemy is once master of the place, I emphatically repeat, the ruinous consequences are as great, if not greater, and more irreparable than in the lowest cla.s.ses of society. Throw a piece of precious gold into the mud, and tell me if it will not plunge deeper than the piece of rotten wood.

What woman could be n.o.bler, purer, and stronger than Eve when she came from the hands of her Divine Creator? But how quickly she fell when she gave ear to the seducing voice of the tempter! How irreparable was her ruin when she complacently looked on the forbidden fruit, and believed the lying voice which told her there was ”_no sin_” in eating of it!

I solemnly, in the presence of the great G.o.d who ere long will judge me, give my testimony on this grave subject. After 25 years' experience in the confessional, I declare that the confessor himself encounters more terrible dangers when hearing the confessions of refined and highly-educated ladies, than when listening to those of the humbler cla.s.ses of his female penitents.