le. A contemporary writer,
Llorente, relates (t. iii., ch. 28, article 2, ed. 1817), that when he
was secretary to the Inquisition, they brought before that tribunal a
capuchin friar, who was director of a community of Beguines, nearly all
of whom he had seduced, by persuading them that they were not straying
from the road to perfection. He would say to each of them, at the
Confessional, that he had received a singular grace from God; "Our
Lord," said he, "has deigned to appear to me in the consecrated wafer,
and He has said to me, almost all the souls that you direct here are
pleasant to Me, but especially such a one (_the capuchin named the one
he was then speaking to_). She is already so perfect that she has
overcome every passion, save desire, which is her torment. For this
reason, wishing her virtue to be rewarded and that she should serve Me
with a quiet mind, I charge you to give her dispensation, but in favour
of you; she is to speak of it to no confessor; it would be useless,
since with such dispensation she cannot sin." Out of seventeen
Beguines, of which the community was composed, this daring capuchin
gave dispensation to thirteen, who were discreet for a considerable
time; one of them, however, fell ill, expected to die, and revealed
all, declaring that she had never been able to believe in the
dispensation, but that she had availed herself of it. If the accused
party had simply confessed, he would have been let off with a very
trifling punishment, the Inquisition being, says Llorente, very lenient
towards that kind of offence. But, though he confessed the thing, he
maintained that he had acted properly, being empowered by Jesus Christ.
"What!" said they, "is it likely that our Lord appeared to you, to
exempt you from a precept of the Decalogue." "Why, he exempted Abraham
from the fifth commandment, ordering him to kill his son, and the
Hebrews from the seventh, ordering them to rob the Egyptians." "Yes,
but these were mysteries favourable to religion." "And what then is
more favourable to religion than to quiet thirteen virtuous souls, and
lead them to a perfect union with the divine essence?" I recollect,
says Llorente, saying to him, "But, father, is it not surprising that
this singular virtue happened to be precisely in the thirteen young and
handsome ones, and never in the four others who were ugly or old?" He
replied coldly, "The Holy Spirit inspires as it pleases."

The same author, in th