Thirteen out of seventeen seduced (History of Roman Catholicism, New York: Published by S. L. Holbrook & Co., 1836)

Text: "Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women..." Daniel 11:37 "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry..." 1 Timothy 4:1-3

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   Whilst Philip II. sought, in the homicidal light of the autos de fe which illumined all Spain, a compensation for the check which the Inquisition had received at Milan, in Flanders and in Portugal, the Holy Office found itself under the necessity of taking prompt and severe measures against a great number of Roman Catholic priests, who abused their office of confessors to seduce and debauch their penitents. This scandal had become so great, that the pope addressed a brief to the Inquisitors of Spain, in which he decreed the pursuit of all priests and monks whom the public voice accused.

   As it was dangerous at this moment to permit this sort of affairs, because the Lutherans would not have failed to draw terrible arguments from it against auricular confession, the Holy Office treated the subject with the greatest circumspection, and the easiest way was not to give publicity to the proceeding, as the greatest part of these crimes were committed in the silence of the convents and other religious retreats. The annals of the Inquisition offer on this subject the trial instituted against a Capuchin, the principal circumstances of which are here related:

   This Capuchin was the confessor of all the women in a community of the city of Carthagena, to the number of seventeen. He had inspired them with so great confidence, that they regarded him as a saint, and as the oracle of heaven. When this devout personage saw that his reputation was sufficiently established he took advantage of his frequent interviews at confession, to instil his doctrine into the minds of the young nuns. The following is the discourse which he held with each one of them:

   'Our Lord Jesus Christ has had the goodness to permit me to see him in the consecrated host at the moment of elevation, and said to me: Almost all the souls which thou directest in this nunnery are agreeable to me, because they have a true love for virtue, and are endeavoring to march forward to perfection, but above all (here the director named the one to whom he spoke) her soul is so perfect, that she has already conquered all her terrestial affections, with the exception of one only—sensuality, which torments her very much, because the enemy of the flesh is very powerful over her, in consequence of her youth, her strength and her natural graces, which powerfully excite to pleasure; and it is for this, in order to recompence her virtue, and that she may be perfectly united to me in love, and may serve me with a tranquility which she does not at present enjoy, and which she merits by her virtues, I charge thee to grant her in my name the dispensation of which she stands in need, for her repose, by saying to her, that she may gratify her passion, provided that it will be expressly with thee; and in order to shun all scandal, that she keep on this point the most rigorous secresy with all the world, without speaking to any one, not even to another confessor; because she shall not sin after the dispensation which I have granted to her on this condition; for the holy end of causing all iniquietudes to cease, and that she may make constantly new progress in the ways of life.'

   One of these women, twenty-five years old, having fallen dangerously ill, demanded another confessor, and after having made an entire disclosure of what had passed, she promised to declare all to the Holy Office, for fear as she strongly suspected, that the same thing had happened to other women of the same community. Having afterwards recovered her health, she went to avow all to the Inquisition, and related, that for three years she had had criminal intercourse with her confessor; that she could never believe in her heart and conscience that the revelation was true but that she had affected to give faith to it, in order that she might without shame indulge her desires.

   The Inquisition ascertained that this intercourse had taken place with twelve other nuns of the same community. The remaining four were very old or very ugly.

   All the nuns were immediately dispersed into different convents, but it was feared that it would be committing an imprudence to arrest the confessor, and drag him away into the secret prisons, because the people would not fail to believe that this step was connected with that of these devotees, (destined from thence to become nuns in spite of themselves,) without the Inquisition appearing to interfere.

   The council of the Supreme were written to, and permission was obtained to send the prisoner to Madrid. Three audiences of admonition were granted to him: he answered that his conscience reproached him with no crime as far as it respected the inquisition, and that he was extremely surprised to see himself their prisoner.

   They made him perceive that it was incredible that Jesus Christ had appeared to him in the host, to dispense with one of the negative precepts of the decalogue, which was binding forever. He replied that it was also the same with the fifth, and that God had notwithstanding dispensed with it to Abraham when an angel had commanded him to take away the life of his son, and that it might also be said of the seventh, since he had permitted the Hebrews to steal the goods of the Egyptians. They observed to him, that in these two cases he used mysteries favorable to religion; and he replied, that in what had passed between him and his penitents, God had the same design, that is, of tranquilizing thirteen virtuous souls, and conducting them to a perfect union with his divine essence. One of the interrogaters having objected to him that it was very singular that so great virtue should be found in thirteen young and handsome women, and not in the three who were old, and the ugly one. He answered, without being disconcerted, by quoting this passage of scripture: the spirit bloweth where it listeth.

   There remained to the monk only one more audience before his condemnation; and at first he persisted in his declarations. However as he expected nothing less than being burned alive, he solicited a new interview with the inquisitors, and declared first that he was guilty of being blinded with respect to the certain appearance of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, which was only an illusion; but perceiving that the inquisitors were not duped, and that they were disposed to save him by relaxation if he confessed his hypocrisy and his crimes, he avowed all, and submitted to the penance which they imposed on him.

   The inquisitors however gave this affair a favorable turn for the accused, and the Capuchin, who had incurred the pain of death as sacrilegious, luxurious, as a seducer, and a perjurer, was condemned only to make abjuration a levi, and to submit to an imprisonment of five years in a convent of his order. He died at the end of three.

   Such is an abridged history of the Capuchin of Carthagena. [...]

History of Roman Catholicism: from the reign of Constantine, the Great, 325, down to the present time, exhibiting a full and impartial detail of the superstitions, corruptions, and tyranny of the papal church; including also a correct account of the rise and progress of Jesuitism, monachism, and the Inquisition; together with a full disclosure of the secret designs and operations of popery in the United States, compiled and abridged from the most authentic sources, New York: Published by S. L. Holbrook & Co., 1836, pp. 335-338.

Online Source: archive.org/details/historyofromanca00

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