ar without falling! Then
that modern but grand imposture called the Sacrament of Penance would soon
be ended.

But here, again, who will not lament the consequence of the total
perversity of our human nature? Those very same priests who, when alone in
the presence of God, speak so plainly of the constant temptations by which
they are assailed, and who so sincerely weep over the irreparable loss of
their virtue of purity, when they think that nobody hears them, will yet in
public deny with a brazen face those temptations. They will indignantly
rebuke you as a slanderer if you say anything to lead them to suppose that
you fear for their purity when they hear the confessions of girls or
married women. There is not a single one of the Roman Catholic authors who
have written on that subject for the priests, who has not deplored their
innumerable and degrading sins against purity on account of the auricular
confession; but those very men will be the first to try to prove the very
contrary when they write books for the people. I have no words to say what
was my surprise when, for the first time, I saw that this strange duplicity
seemed to be one of the fundamental stones of my Church.

It was not very long after my ordination, when a priest came to me to
confess the most deplorable things. He honestly told me that there was not
a single one of the girls or married women whom he had confessed who had
not been a secret cause of the most shameful sins in thoughts, desires, or
actions; but he wept so bitterly over his degradation, his heart seemed so
sincerely broken on account of his own iniquities, that I could not refrain
from mixing my tears with his. I wept with him, and I gave him the pardon
of all his sins, as I thought, then, I had the power and right to give it.

Two hours afterwards, that same priest, who was a good speaker, was in the
pulpit. His sermon was on "The Divinity of Auricular Confession;" and, to
prove that it was an institution coming directly from Christ, he said that
the Son of God was making a _constant_ miracle to strengthen His priests,
and prevent them from falling into sins, on account of what they might have
heard in the confessional!

The daily abominations, which are the result of auricular confession, are
so horrible and so well known by the popes, the bishops, and the priests,
that several times, public attempts have been made to diminish them by
punishing the guilty priests; but all these have