The Priest, The Woman And The Confessional

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Not long before, He had again mercifully given us his whole mind about the
obligation and _power_ which every one of His disciples had of forgiving
"For if ye forgive even their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also
forgive you: but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your
Father forgive your trespasses" (Matt. vi. 14, 15).

"Be ye therefore merciful as your father also is merciful, forgive and ye
shall be forgiven" (Luke vi. 36, 37).

Auricular Confession, as the Rev. Dr. Wainwright has so eloquently put it
in his "Confession not Auricular," is a diabolical caricature of the
forgiveness of sin through the blood of Christ, just as the impious dogma
of Transubstantiation is a monstrous caricature of the salvation of the
world through His death.

The Romanists and their ugly tail, the Ritualistic party in the Episcopal
Church, make a great noise about the words of our Saviour in St. John:
"Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them: and whose soever
sins ye retain, they are retained" (John xx. 23).

But again, our Saviour had Himself, once for all, explained what He meant
by forgiving and retaining sins--(Matt. xviii. 35; Matt. vi. 14, 15; Luke
vi. 36, 37).

Nobody but wilfully-blind men could misunderstand Him. Besides that, the
Holy Ghost Himself has mercifully taken care that we should not be deceived
by the lying traditions of men on that important subject, when in St. Luke
He gave us the explanation of the meaning of John xx. 23, by telling us,
"Thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:
and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name
among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." (Luke xxiv. 46, 47).

In order that we may better understand the words of our Saviour in St. John
xx. 23, let us put them face to face with his own explanations (Luke xxiv.
46, 47):--

LUKE XXIV. JOHN XX.

33. And they rose up the same hour, 18. Mary Magdalene came and told
and returned to Jerusalem, and the disciples that she had seen the
found the eleven gathered together, Lord, and that he had spoken these
and them that were with them, things unto her.

34. Saying, The Lord is risen
indeed, and hath appeared to
Simon....

36. And as they thus spake, Jesus 19. Then the same day at evening,
himself stood in the midst of them, being the first day of the week,
and saith unto them, Peace be unto when the doors were shut where the
you. disciples were assembled for fear
of the Jews, came Jesus and stood
37. But they were terrified and in the midst, and said unto them,
affrighted, and supposed that they Peace be unto you.
had seen a spirit.

38. And he said unto them, Why are
ye troubled? and why do thoughts
arise in your hearts?

39. Behold my hands and my feet, 20. And when he had so said, he
that it is I myself: handle me, and shewed unto them his hands and his
see; for a spirit hath not flesh side. Then were the disciples glad,
and bones, as ye see me have. when they saw the Lord.

40. And when he had thus spoken, he
shewed them his hands and his feet.

41. And while they yet believed not
for joy, and wondered, he said unto
them, Have ye here any meat?

42. And they gave him a piece of a
broiled fish, and of an honeycomb.

43. And he took it, and did eat
before them.

44. And he said unto them, These 21. Then said Jesus to them again,
are the words which I spake unto Peace be unto you: as my Father
you, while I was yet with you, that hath sent me, even so send I you.
all things must be fulfilled, which
were written in the law of Moses,
and in the prophets, and in the
psalms, concerning me.

45. Then opened he their 22. And when he had said this, he
understanding, that they might breathed on them, and saith unto
understand the scriptures, them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:

46. And said unto them, Thus it is
written, and thus it behoved Christ
to suffer, and to rise from the
dead the third day:

47. And that repentance and 23. Whose soever sins ye remit,
remission of sin should be preached they are remitted unto them; whose
in his name among all nations, soever sins ye retain, they are
beginning at Jerusalem. retained.

Three things are evident from comparing the report of St. John and St.
Luke:--

1. They speak of the same event, though one of them gives certain details
omitted by the other, as we find in the rest of the gospels.

2. The words of St. John, "Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted
unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained," are
explained by the Holy Ghost Himself, in St. Luke, as meaning that the
apostles shall preach repentance and forgiveness of sins through Christ. It
is just what our Saviour has Himself said in St. Matt. ix. 13: "But go ye
and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am
not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

It is just the same doctrine taught by Peter (Acts ii. 38): "Then Peter
said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of
Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of
the Holy Ghost."

Just the same doctrine of the forgiveness of sins, not through auricular
confession or absolution, but through the preaching of the Word: "Be it
known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is
preached unto you the forgiveness of sins" (Acts xiii. 38).

3. The third thing which is evident is that the Apostles were not alone
when Christ appeared and spoke, but that several of His other disciples,
even some women, were there.

If the Romanists, then, could prove that Christ established auricular
confession, and gave the power of absolution, by what He said in that
solemn hour, women as well as men--in fact, every believer in Christ--would
be authorized to hear confessions and give absolution. The Holy Ghost was
not promised or given only to the Apostles, but to every believer, as we
see in Acts i. 15, and ii. 1, 2, 3.

But the Gospel of Christ, as the history of the first ten centuries of
Christianity, is the witness that auricular confession and absolution are
nothing else but a sacrilegious as well as a most stupendous imposture.

What tremendous efforts the priests of Rome have made these last five
centuries, and are still making, to persuade their dupes that the Son of
God was making of them a privileged caste, a caste endowed with the Divine
and exclusive power of opening and shutting the gates of Heaven, when He
said, "Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven, and
whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven."

But our adorable Saviour, who perfectly foresaw those diabolical efforts on
the part of the priests of Rome, entirely upset every vestige of their
foundation by saying immediately, "Again I say unto you, That if two of you
shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be
done for them of my Father which is in Heaven. For where two or three are
gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them" (Matt.
xviii. 19, 20).

Would the priests of Rome attempt to make us believe that these words of
the 19th and 20th verses are addressed to them exclusively? They have not
yet dared to say it. They confess that these words are addressed to all His
disciples. But our Saviour positively says that the other words,
implicating the so-called power of the priests to hear the confession and
give the absolution, are addressed to the _very same persons_--"I say unto
you," &c., &c. The _you_ of the 19th and 20th verses is the same _you_ of
the 18th. The power of loosing and unloosing is, then, given to all--those
who would be offended and would forgive. Then, our Saviour had not in His
mind to form a caste of men with any marvellous power over the rest of His
disciples. The priests of Rome, then, are impostors, and nothing else, when
they say that the power of loosing and unloosing sins was exclusively
granted to them.

Instead of going to the confessor, let the Christian go to his merciful
God, through Christ, and say, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them
that trespass against us." This is the Truth, not as it comes from the
Vatican, but as it comes from Calvary, where our debts were paid, with the
only condition that we should believe, repent, and love.

Have not the Popes publicly and repeatedly anathematized the sacred
principle of Liberty of Conscience? Have they not boldly said, in the teeth
of the nations of Europe, that _Liberty_ of Conscience must be
destroyed--killed at any cost? Has not the whole world heard the sentence
of death to Liberty coming from the lips of the old man of the Vatican? But
where is the scaffold on which the doomed Liberty must perish? That
scaffold is the confessional-box. Yes, in the confessional, the Pope had
his 100,000 high executioners! There they are, day and night, with-sharp
daggers in hand, stabbing Liberty to the heart.

In vain will noble France expel her old tyrants to be free; in vain will
she shed the purest blood of her heart to protect and save Liberty! True
Liberty cannot live a day there so long as the executioners of the Pope are
free to stab her on their 100,000 scaffolds.

In vain chivalrous Spain will call Liberty to give a new life to her
people. She cannot set her feet there except to die, so long as the Pope is
allowed to strike her in his 50,000 confessionals.

And free America, too, will see all her so dearly-bought liberties
destroyed the day that the confessional-box is reared in her midst.

Auricular Confession and Liberty cannot stand together on the same ground;
either one or the other must fall.

Liberty must sweep away the confessional, as she has swept away the demon
of slavery, or she is doomed to perish.

Can a man be free in his own house, so long as there is another who has the
legal right to spy all his actions, and direct not only every step, but
every thought of his wife and children? Can that man boast of a home whose
wife and children are under the control of another? Is not that unfortunate
man really the slave of the ruler and master of his household? And when a
whole nation is composed of such husbands and fathers, is it not a nation
of abject, degraded slaves?

To a thinking man, one of the most strange phenomena is that our modern
nations allow all their most sacred rights to be trampled under feet, and
destroyed by the Papacy, the sworn enemy of Liberty, through a mistaken
respect and love for that same Liberty!

No people have more respect for Liberty of Conscience than the Americans;
but has the noble State of Illinois allowed Joe Smith and Brigham Young to
degrade and enslave the American women under the pretext of Liberty of
Conscience, appealed to by the so-called "Latter-day Saints?" No! The
ground was soon made too hot for the tender conscience of the modern
prophets. Joe Smith perished when attempting to keep his captive wives in
his chains, and Brigham Young had to fly to the solitudes of the Far West,
to enjoy what he called his liberty of conscience with the thirty women he
had degraded and enchained under his yoke. But even in that remote solitude
the false prophet has heard the distant peals of the roaring thunder. The
threatening voice of the great Republic has troubled his rest, and he
wisely speaks of going as much as possible out of the reach of Christian
civilization, before the dark and threatening clouds which he sees on the
horizon will hurl upon him their irresistible storms.

Will any one blame the American people for so going to the rescue of woman?
No, surely not.

But what is this confessional-box? Nothing but a citadel and stronghold of
Mormonism.

What is this Father Confessor, with few exceptions, but a lucky Brigham
Young?

I do not want to be believed on my _ipse dixit_. What I ask from serious
thinkers is, that they should read the encyclicals of the Piuses, the
Gregorys, the Benoits, and many other Popes, "De Sollicitantibus." There
they will see, with their own eyes, that, as a general thing, the confessor
has more women to serve him than the Mormon prophets ever had. Let them
read the memoirs of one of the most venerable men of the Church of Rome,
Bishop de Ricci, and they will see, with their own eyes, that the
confessors are more free with their penitents, even nuns, than husbands are
with their wives. Let them hear the testimony of one of the noblest
princesses of Italy, Henrietta Carraciolo, who still lives, and they will
know that the Mormons have more respect for women than the greater part of
the confessors have. Let them hear the lamentations of Cardinal Baronius,
Saint Bernard, Savanarola, Pius, Gregory, St. Therese, St. Liguori, on the
unspeakable and irreparable ruin spread all along the ways and all over the
countries haunted by the Pope's confessors, and they will know that the
confessional-box is the daily witness of abominations which would hardly
have been tolerated in the lands of Sodom and Gomorrha. Let the
legislators, the fathers and husbands of every nation and tongue,
interrogate Father Gavazzi, Hyacinthe, and the thousands of living priests
who, like myself, have miraculously been taken out from that Egyptian
servitude to the promised land, and they will tell you the same old, old
story--that the confessional-box is for the greatest part of the confessors
and female penitents, a real pit of perdition, into which they
promiscuously fall and perish. Yes; they will tell you that the soul and
heart of your wife and daughter are purified by the magical words of the
confessional, just as the souls of the poor idolaters of Hindoostan are
purified by the tail of the cow which they hold in their hands when they
die. Study the pages of the past history of England, France, Italy, Spain,
&c., &c., and you will see that the gravest and most reliable historians
have everywhere found mysteries of iniquity in the confessional-box which
their pen refused to trace.

In the presence of such public, undeniable, and lamentable facts, have not
the civilized nations a duty to perform? Is it not time that the children
of light, the true disciples of the Gospel, all over the world, should
rally round the banners of Christ, and go, shoulder to shoulder, to the
rescue of women?

Woman is to society what the roots are to the most precious trees of your
orchard. If you knew that a thousand worms are biting the root of those
noble trees, that their leaves are already fading away, their rich fruits,
though yet unripe, are falling on the ground, would you not unearth the
roots and sweep away the worms?

The confessor is the worm which is biting, polluting, and destroying the
very roots of civil and religious society, by contaminating, debasing, and
enslaving woman.

Before the nations can see the reign of peace, happiness, and liberty,
which Christ has promised, they must, like the Israelites, pull down the
walls of Jericho. The confessional is the modern Jericho, which proudly and
defiantly dares the children of God!

Let, then, the people of the Lord, the true soldiers of Christ, rise up and
rally around His banners; and let them fearlessly march, shoulder to
shoulder, on the doomed city: let all the trumpets of Israel be sounded
around its walls: let fervent prayers go to the throne of Mercy, from the
heart of every one for whom the Lamb has been slain: let such a unanimous
cry of indignation be heard, through the length and breadth of the land,
against that greatest and most monstrous imposture of modern times, that
the earth will tremble under the feet of the confessor, so that his very
knees will shake, and soon the walls of Jericho will fall, the confessional
will disappear, and its unspeakable pollutions will no more imperil the
very existance of society.

Then the multitudes who were kept captive will come to the Lamb, who will
make them pure with His blood and free with His word.

Then the redeemed nations will sing a song of joy: "Babylon, the great, the
mother of harlots and abominations of the earth, is fallen! fallen!"

* * * * *

CHAPTER VIII.

DOES AURICULAR CONFESSION BRING PEACE TO THE SOUL?

* * * * *

The connecting of Peace with Auricular Confession is surely the most cruel
sarcasm ever uttered in human language.

It would be less ridiculous and false to admire the calmness of the sea,
and the stillness of the atmosphere, when a furious storm raises the
foaming waves to the skies, than to speak of the Peace of the soul either
during or after the confession.

I know it; the confessors and their dupes chorus every tune by crying
"Peace, peace"! But the God of truth and holiness answers, "There is no
peace for the wicked!"

The fact is, that no human words can adequately express the anxieties of
the soul before confession, its unspeakable confusion in the act of
confessing, or its deadly terrors after confession.

Let those who have never drunk of the bitter waters which flow from the
confessional box, read the following plain and correct recital of my own
first experiences in auricular confession. They are nothing else than the
history of what nine tenths of the penitents[5] of Rome old and young are
subject to; and they will know what to think of that marvellous Peace about
which the Romanists, and their silly copyists, the Ritualists, have written
so many eloquent lies.

In the year 1819, my parents had sent me from Murray Bay (La Mal Baie)
where they lived, to an excellent school, at St. Thomas. I was then, about
ten years old. I boarded with an uncle, who, though a nominal Roman
Catholic, did not believe a word of what his priest preached. But my Aunt
had the reputation of being a very devoted woman. Our School-master, Mr.
John Jones, was a well educated Englishman: and a staunch PROTESTANT. This
last circumstance had excited the wrath of the Roman Catholic Priest
against the teacher and his numerous pupils to such an extent, that they
were often denounced from the pulpit with very hard words. But if he did
not like us, I must admit that we were paying him with his own coin.

But let us come to my first lesson in Auricular Confession, No! No words
can express to those who have never had any experience in the matter, the
consternation, anxiety and shame of a poor Romish child, when he hears his
priest saying from the pulpit, in a grave and solemn tone; "This week, you
will send your children to confession. Make them understand that this
action is one of the most important of their lives, that for every one of
them, it will decide their eternal happiness or ruin. Fathers, Mothers and
guardians of those children, if, through your fault or theirs, your
children are guilty of a false confession: if they do not confess every
thing to the priest who holds the place of God, Himself, this sin is often
irreparable: the Devil will take possession of their hearts: they will lie
to their father confessor, or rather to Jesus Christ, of whom he is the
representative: Their lives will be a series of sacrileges, their death and
eternity, those of reprobates. Teach them therefore to examine thoroughly
all their actions, words, thoughts and desires, in order to confess every
thing just as it occurred, without any disguise."

I was in the Church of St. Thomas, when these words fell upon me like a
thunderbolt. I had often heard my mother say, when at home and my aunt,
since I had come to St. Thomas, that upon the first confession depended my
eternal happiness or misery. That week was, therefore, to decide the vital
question of my eternity!

Pale and dismayed, I left the church after the service, and returned to the
house of my relations. I took my place at the table, but could not eat, so
much was I troubled. I went to my room for the purpose of commencing my
examination of conscience, and to try to recall every one of my sinful
actions, thoughts and words!

Although scarcely over ten years of age, this task was really overwhelming
to me. I knelt down to pray to the Virgin Mary for help, but I was so much
taken up with the fear of forgetting something or making a bad confession,
that I muttered my prayers without the least attention to what I said. It
became still worse, when I commenced counting my sins, my memory, though
very good, became confused: my head grew dizzy: my heart beat with a
rapidity which exhausted me, and my brow was covered with perspiration.
After a considerable length of time, spent in those painful efforts, I felt
bordering on despair from the fear that it was impossible for me to
remember exactly every thing, and to confess each sin as it occurred. The
night following was almost a sleepless one: and when sleep did come, it
could hardly be called sleep, but a suffocating delirium. In a frightful
dream, I felt as if I had been cast into hell, for not having confessed all
my sins to the priest. In the morning, I awoke fatigued, and prostrate by
the phantoms and emotions of that terrible night. In similar troubles of
mind were passed the three days which preceeded my first confession.

I had constantly before me the countenance of that stern priest who had
never smiled upon me. He was present to my thoughts during the days, and in
my dreams during the nights, as the minister of an angry God, justly
irritated against me, on account of my sins. Forgiveness had indeed been
promised to me, on condition of a good confession; but my place had also
been shown to me in hell, if my confession was not as near perfection as
possible.

Now, my troubled conscience told me that there were ninety chances against
one that my confession would be bad, either if by my own fault, I forget
some sins, or if I was without that contrition of which I had heard so
much, but the nature and effects of which were a perfect chaos in my mind.

At length came the day of confession, or rather of judgment and
condemnation. I presented myself to the priest, the Rev. Mr. Beaubien.

He had then, the defects of lisping and stammering which we, often turned
into ridicule. And as nature had unfortunately endowed me with admirable
powers as a mimic, the infirmities of this poor priest afforded only too
good an opportunity for the exercise of my talent. Not only was it one of
my favorite amusements to imitate him before the pupils amidst roars of
laughter but also, I preached portions of his sermons before his
parishioners of villages, with similar results. Indeed, many of them came
from considerable distances to enjoy the amusement of listening to me, and
they rewarded me, more than once, with cakes of maple sugar, for my
performances.

These acts of mimicry were, of course, among my sins; and it became
necessary for me to examine myself upon the number of times I had mocked
the priests. This circumstance was not calculated to make my confession
easier or more agreeable.

At last, the dread moment arrived, I knelt for the first time, at the side
of my confessor, my whole frame trembled: I repeated the prayer preparatory
to confession, scarcely knowing what I said, so much was I troubled by
fears.

By the instructions which had been given us before confession, we had been
made to believe that the priest was the true representative, yea, almost
the personification of Jesus Christ. The consequence was that I believed my
greatest sin was that of mocking the priest--and I, as I had been told that
it was proper first to confess the greatest sins, I commenced thus: "Father
I accuse myself of having mocked a priest!"

Hardly had I uttered these words, "mocked a priest", when this pretended
representative of the humble Jesus, turning towards me, and looking in my
face, in order to know me, better, asked abruptly; "what priest did you
mock, my boy?"

I would have rather chosen to cut my own tongue than to tell him to his
face who it was. I, therefore, kept silent for a while, but my silence made
him very nervous, and almost angry. With a haughty tone of voice, he said:
"what priest did you take the liberty of thus mocking, my boy?" I saw that
I had to answer. Happily his haughtiness had made me bolder and firmer; I
said: "sir, you are the priest whom I mocked!"

"But how many times did you take upon you to mock me, my boy?" asked he
angrily.

"I tried to find out the number of times, but I never could."

"You must tell me how many times, for to mock one's own priest is a great
sin."

"It is impossible for me to give you the number of times," I answered.

"Well, my child, I will help your memory by asking you questions. Tell me
the truth. Do you think you mocked me ten times?"

"A great many times more," I answered.

"Have you mocked me fifty times?"

"Oh! many more still!"

"A hundred times?"

"Say, five hundred, and perhaps more;" I answered.

"Well, my boy, do you spend all your time in mocking me?"

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