Is it not presumption and folly on your part to think that there is no danger, when the Church of Rome tells you positively that there is danger, and uses the strongest terms in expressing her uneasiness and apprehension?

Why, your church sees the most pressing reasons to fear for the honor of your wives and daughters, as well as for the chast.i.ty of her priest: and still you remain unconcerned, indifferent to the fearful peril to which they are exposed! Are you like the Jewish people of old, to whom it was said; "Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not?" (Isa. vi, 9).

But if you see or suspect the danger you are warned of; if the eye of your intelligence can fathom the dreadful abyss where the dearest objects of your heart are in danger of falling, then it behoves you to keep them from the paths that lead to the fearful chasm. Do not wait till it is too late, when they are too near the precipice to be rescued. You may think the danger to be far off, while it is near at hand. Profit by the sad experience of so many victims of confession who have been irretrievably lost, irrecoverably ruined for time and eternity. The voice of your conscience, of honor, of G.o.d himself, tells you that it may become too late to save them from destruction, through your neglect and procrastination.

While thanking G.o.d for having preserved them from temptations that have proved fatal to so many married or unmarried women, do not lose a single moment in taken the necessary means to keep them from temptation and falls.

Instead of allowing them to go and kneel at the feet of a man to obtain the remission of their sins, lead them to the cross, the only place where they can secure pardon and peace everlasting. And why, after so many unfruitful attempts, should they try any longer to wash themselves in a puddle, when the pure waters of eternal life are offered them so freely, through Christ Jesus, their only Saviour and Mediator?

Instead of seeking their pardon from a poor and miserable sinner, weak and tempted as they are, let them go to Christ, the only strong and perfect man, the only hope and salvation of the world.

O poor deluded Catholic woman! listen no longer to the deceiving words of the Church of Rome, who has no pardon, no peace for you, but only snares; who offers you thraldom and shame in return for the confession of your sins! But listen rather to the invitations of your Saviour, who has died on the cross that you might be saved, and who alone can give rest to your weary souls.

Harken to His words when he says to you: "Come to me, O ye heavily laden, crushed, as it were, under the burden of your sins, and I shall give you rest.... I am the physician of your souls.... Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.... Come then to me and ye shall be healed.... I have sent back nor lost none who have come to me....

Invoke my name.... believe in me.... repent.... love G.o.d and your neighbor as yourself, and you shall be saved.... For all who believe in me and call upon my name, shall be saved.... When I am raised up between heaven and earth, I shall draw every one to me"....

O, mothers and daughters, instead of going to the priest for pardon and salvation, go to Jesus, who is so pressingly inviting you, and the more so as you have more need of divine help and grace. Even if you are as great a sinner as Mary Magdalene you can, like her, wash the feet of the Saviour with the flowing tears of your repentance and your love, and like her, receive the pardon of your sins.

To Jesus then, and to him alone for the confession and pardon of your sins: for there only you can find peace, light, and life!

CHAPTER XI.

SOME OF THE MATTERS ON WHICH THE PRIEST OF ROME MUST QUESTION HIS PENITENTS.

A CHAPTER FOR THE CONSIDERATION OF LEGISLATORS, HUSBANDS, AND FATHERS.

Dens wants the confessors to interrogate on the following matters:--

1. "Peccant uxores, quae susceptum viri s.e.m.e.n ejiciunt, vel ejicere conantur." (Dens, tom. vii. p. 147).

2. "Peccant conjuges mortaliter, si copula incepta, cohibeant seminationem."

3. "Si vir jam seminaverit, dubium fit an femina lethaliter peccat, si se retrahat a seminando; aut peccat lethaliter vir non expectando seminationem uxoris." (p. 153).

4. "Peccant conjuges inter se circa actum conjugalem. Debet servari modus, sive situs; imo ut non servetur debitum vas, sed copula habeatur in vase praepostero, alioquoque non naturali. Si fiat accedendo a postero, a latere, stando, sedendo, vel si vir sit succ.u.mbus." (p. 166).

5. "Impotentia. Est incapacitas perficiendi copulam carnalem perfectam c.u.m seminatione viri in vase se debito, seu, de se, aptam generationi. Vel, ut si mulier sit nimis arcta respectu unius viri, non respectu alterius".

(vol. vii. p. 273).

6. "Notatur quod pollutio, in mulieribus possit perfici, ita ut s.e.m.e.n earum non effluat extra membrum genitale.

Indicium istius allegat Billuart, si scilicet mulier sensiat seminis resolutionem c.u.m magno voluptatis sensu, qua completa, pa.s.sio satiatur"

(vol. iv. p. 168).

7. "Uxor se accusans, in confessione, quod negaverit debitum, interrogetur an ex pleno rigore juris sui id petiverit" (vol. vii. p. 168).

8. "Confessarius poenitentem, qui confitetur se pecca.s.se c.u.m sacerdote, vel sollicitatam ab eo ad turpia, potest interrogare utrum ille sacerdos sit ejus confessarius, an in confessione sollitaverit" (vol. vi. p. 294).

There are a great many other unmentionable things on which Dens, in his fourth, fifth, and seventh volumes, requires the confessor to ask from his penitent, which I omit.

Now let us come to Liguori. That so-called Saint, Liguori is not less diabolically impure than Dens, in his questions to the women. But I will cite only two of the things on which the spiritual physician of the Pope must not fail to examine his spiritual patient:--

1. "Quaerat an sit semper mortale, si vir immitat pudenda in os uxoris?...

Verius affirmo quia, in hoc actu, ob calorem oris, adest proximum periculum pollutionis, et videtur nova species luxuriae contra naturam, dicta, irruminatio."

2. "Eodem modo, Sanchez d.a.m.nat virum de mortali, qui, in actu copulae, immiteret digitum in vas praeposterum uxoris; quia, ut ait, in hoc actu adest affectus ad Sodomiam" (Liguori, tom. vi. p. 935).

The celebrated Burchard, Bishop of Worms, has made a book of the questions which had to be put by the confessors to their penitents of both s.e.xes.

During several centuries it was the standard book of the priests of Rome.

Though that work to-day is out of print, Dens, Liguori, Debreysne, &c., &c., have ransacked its polluting pages, and given them to study to the modern confessors, in order to question their penitents. I will select only a few questions of the Roman Catholic bishop to the young men:--

1. "Fecisti solus tec.u.m fornicationem ut quidam facere solent; ita dico ut ipse tuum membrum virile in manum tuam acciperes, et sic duceres praeputium tuum, et manu propria commoveres, ut, sic, per illam delectationem s.e.m.e.n projiceres?"

2. "Fornicationem fecisti c.u.m masculo intra c.o.xas; ita dico ut tuum virile membrum intra c.o.xas alterius mitteres, et sic agitando s.e.m.e.n funderes?"

3. "Fecisti fornicationem, ut quidem facere solent, ut tuum virile membrum in lignum perforatum, aut in aliquod hujus modi mitteres, et, sic, per illam commotionem et delectationem s.e.m.e.n projiceres?"

4. "Fecisti fornicationem contra naturam, id est, c.u.m masculis vel animalibus coire, id est c.u.m equo, c.u.m vacca, vel asina, vel aliquo animali?" (vol. i. p. 136.)

Among the questions we find in the Compendium of the Right Rev. Burchard, Bishop of Worms, which must be put to women, are the following (p. 115):--

1. "Fecisti quod quaedam mulieres solent, quoddam molimen, aut machinamentum in modum virilis membri ad mensuram tuae voluptatis, et illud loco verendorum tuorum aut alterius c.u.m aliquibus ligaturis, ut fornicationem faceres c.u.m aliis mulieribus, vel alia eodem instrumento, sive alio tec.u.m?"

2. "Fecisti quod quaedam mulieres facere solent, ut jam supra dicto molimine, vel alio aliquo machinamento, tu ipsa in te solam faceres fornicationem?"

3. "Fecisti quod quaedam mulieres facere solent, quando libidinem se vexantem extinguere volunt, quae se conjungunt quasi coire debeant et possint, et conjungunt invicem puerperia sua, et sic, fricando pruritum illarum extinguere desiderant?"

4. "Fecisti quod quaedam mulieres facere solent, ut c.u.m filio suo parvulo fornicationem faceres, ita dico ut filium tuum supra turpidinem tuam poneres ut sic imitaberis fornicationem?"

5. "Fecisti quod quaedam mulieres facere solent, ut succ.u.mberes aliquo jumento et illud jumentum ad coitum qualic.u.mque posses ingenio, ut sic coiret tec.u.m?"

The celebrated Debreyne has written a whole book, composed of the most incredible details of impurities, to instruct the young confessors in the art of questioning their penitents. The name of the book is "Moechiology,"

or "treaty on all the sins against the six (seven) and the nine commandments, as well as on all the questions of the married life which refer to them."

That work is much approved and studied in the Church of Rome. I do not know that the world has ever seen anything comparable to the filthy and infamous details of that book. I will cite only two of the questions which Debreyne wants the confessor to put to his penitent.

To the young men (page 95) the confessor will ask:--

"Ad cognoscendum an usque ad pollutionem se tetigerint, quando tempore et quo fine se tetigerint; an tunc quosdam motus in corpore experti fuerint, et per quantum temporis spatium; an cessantibus tactibus nihil insolitum et turpe acciderit; an non longe majorem in corpore voluptatem perceperint in fine tactuum quam in eorum principio; an tum in fine quando magnam delectationem carnalem senserunt, omnes motus corporis cessaverint; an non madefacti fuerint?" &c., &.

To the girl the confessor will ask:--

"Quae sese tetigisse fatentur, an non aliquem pruritum extinguere tentaverit, et utrum pruritus ille cessaverit c.u.m magnam senserint voluptatem; an tunc, ipsimet tactus cessaverint?" &c., &c.