failed.

One of the most remarkable of those efforts was made by Pius IV. about the
year 1500. A Bull was published by him, by which all the girls and the
married women who had been seduced into sins by their confessors were
ordered to denounce them; and a certain number of high church officers of
the Holy Inquisition were authorized to take the depositions of the fallen
penitents. The thing was at first tried at Seville, one of the principal
cities of Spain. When the edict was first published the number of women who
felt bound in conscience to go and depose against their father confessors
was so great that, though there were thirty notaries and as many
inquisitors to take the depositions, they were unable to do the work in the
appointed time. Thirty days more were given, but the inquisitors were so
overwhelmed with the numberless depositions that another period of time of
the same length was given. But this, again, was found insufficient. At the
end, it was found that the number of priests who had destroyed the purity
of their penitents was so great that it was impossible to punish them all.
The inquest was given up, and the guilty confessors remained unpunished.
Several attempts of the same nature have been tried by other popes, but
with about the same success.

But if those honest attempts, on the part of some well-meaning popes, to
punish the confessors who destroy the purity of their penitents, have
failed to touch the guilty parties, they are, in the good providence of
God, infallible witnesses to tell to the world that auricular confession is
nothing else than a snare to the confessor and his dupes. Yes, those Bulls
of the popes are an irrefragable testimony that auricular confession is the
most powerful invention of the devil to corrupt the heart, pollute the
body, and damn the soul of the priest and his female penitent!

* * * * *

CHAPTER IV.

HOW THE VOW OF CELIBACY OF THE PRIESTS IS MADE EASY BY AURICULAR
CONFESSION.

* * * * *

Are not facts the best arguments? Well, here is an undeniable, a public
fact, which is connected with a thousand collateral ones to prove that
auricular confession is the most powerful engine of demoralization which
the world has ever seen.

About the year 183--, there was in Quebec a fine-looking young priest; he
had a magnificent voice, and was a pretty good speaker.[4] Through regard
for his family, which is s