Yet your
priests will tell you they are the remission of sins already
committed. Did not Herrara say, 'I have paid the Padre and can eat
meat'? Now I ask you if this is not a license to commit what would
otherwise be considered a heinous offense by all devout Papists?"

"Relying implicitly on what the Padre asserted, Mary, I have never
investigated these subjects as I should have done, before giving my
credence and support; but of the doctrine in question I can henceforth
entertain but one opinion--a detestable and infamous method of filling
the papal coffers; for since you have led me to think on this subject,
I clearly remember that a large portion of the enormous expense
incurred by the building, ornamenting, and repairing of St. Peter's,
was defrayed by money obtained through the sale of indulgences.
Oh, Mary, how could I have been so deluded--allowed myself to be so
deceived!" She took from her pocket the rosary and crucifix which had
been given to her father, and threw them impatiently into the river
gurgling at her feet.

"The perfect harmony with which the entire system works is
unparalleled in the civil, religious, or political annals of the
world. A complete espionage is exercised in papal countries, from the
Adriatic to the Californian gulf. And the greater portion of this is
accomplished by means of the confessional. The Superior at Rome
can become, at pleasure, as perfectly conversant with your domestic
arrangements, and the thousand incidents which daily occur, as you or
I, who are cognizant of them. To what is all this tending? Ah,
Florry, look at the blood-stained records of the past. The voices of
slaughtered thousands, borne to us across the waste of centuries, bid
us remember the Duke of Alva, the Albigensian crusade, the massacre of
St. Bartholomew, and the blazes of Smithfield. Ignatius Loyola! happy
would it have been for millions lost, and millions yet to be, hadst
thou perished at the siege of Pampeluna. Florry, contrast Italy and
Germany, Spain and Scotland, and look at Portugal, and South America,
and Mexico, and oh, look at this benighted town! A fairer spot by
nature the face of earth cannot boast; yet mark the sloth, the penury,
the degradation of its people, the misery that prevails. And why?
Because they languish under the iron rule of the papal see--iron,
because it admits of no modification. Entire supremacy over both body
and soul, or total annihilation of their power. May the time s