It was inevitable that this trouble should continue, as we have seen it do throughout the whole history of a celibate priesthood.[1491] That it was the subject of frequent and indignant reprehension on the part of those who sought to elevate and purify the church we may well believe. Calixtus II. freely assumes the perdition of the priest who thus betrays the sacred confidence reposed in him, denouncing him as a lion devouring sheep, as a bear attacking a traveller who has lost his way, as a fowler spreading lures for birds and attracting them with sweet sounds, while the woman he treats not as a partner in guilt, but as an unfortunate who finds destruction where she is seeking salvation.[1492] It is observable here that the fault is assumed to lie exclusively with the confessor, and such is likewise the case in the eloquent denunciations of Savonarola, who declares that the Italian cities are full of these wolves in sheep’s clothing, who are constantly seeking to entice the innocent into sin by all the arts for which their spiritual directorship affords so much scope.[1493] The extent to which the evil sometimes grew may be guessed from a case mentioned by Erasmus, in which a theologian of Louvain refused absolution to a pastor who confessed to having maintained illicit relations with no less than two hundred nuns confided to his spiritual charge.[1494]
The view which was taken of this crime during the progress of the Reformation is set forth in a work on the Criminal Canon Law printed in Venice in 1543, which intimates that improper relations between a confessor and his penitents are not much worse than ordinary concubinage, but that when they become publicly known they should be severely punished by deprivation and imprisonment, seeing that their notoriety tends to prevent men from allowing their wives and daughters to confess, and exposes the sacrament of penitence to the assaults of the heretics.[1495] It was probably this worldly wisdom which prevented the Council of Trent from alluding specifically to the matter and endeavoring to put an end to a crime so heinous, for assuredly it had not grown less in the ever increasing license of the age. It is rather curious that in Spain, the only kingdom where heresy was not allowed to get a foothold, the trouble seems to have been greatest and to have first called for special remedial measures. Already, in 1556, Paul IV. had addressed a brief to the Inquisitors of Grenada, calling their attention to the frequency of the crime and assuming that confessors who could so abuse their office must hold unorthodox views as to the sacrament of penitence, which rendered them suspect of heresy and thus brought them within the jurisdiction of the Holy Office. He therefore instructed the Inquisitors to prosecute such offenders zealously, but it was deemed best not to attract public attention to a matter so delicate, lest the faithful should be deterred from frequenting the confessional. The investigations were accordingly prosecuted in secret, and the criminals were privately punished.[1496]
Enough was discovered to show that the trouble was general, and in 1564 Pius IV. issued a Bull addressed to the Inquisitor General, in which, assuming like his predecessor that the offence must be heretical, he authorized the Holy Office to prosecute it throughout the Spanish dominions, and revoked all immunities which the monastic orders might enjoy exempting them from local jurisdiction.[1497] This brought the subject formally within the scope of the Inquisition which thenceforth took charge of it in those countries blessed with that institution. In some portions of Spain the Inquisitors added the crime of “solicitation” to the list of offences published in their annual “Edict of Denunciation,” which required every one, under pain of excommunication, to denounce to the Holy Office all cases of which he might happen to be cognizant. Gonsalvo relates that in 1563 this was done in Seville, when it brought such a crowd of accusing women to the Inquisition that twenty secretaries were unable to take down the depositions, within the allotted time of thirty days, and the limit had to be extended until it reached the term of four months, causing finally so great a popular ferment and implicating so large a number of ecclesiastics that the attempt had to be abandoned.[1498]
Llorente considers this to be an exaggeration, as is probably the case, but he admits that the Conseyo de la Suprema was led to forbid the inclusion of the offence in the Edict of Denunciation, which greatly diminished the number of accusations, and this prohibition was repeated in 1571, in the hope that through the machinery of the episcopal courts the crime would be suppressed; but this expectation proving illusory, in 1576 the Conseyo ordered the crime to be reinstated in the Edict.[1499]
In 1608 Paul V. seems suddenly to have awakened to the necessity of extending to Portugal the means employed in Spain, and he issued to the Portuguese Inquisitor General a Bull similar in purport to those of his predecessors. Little was accomplished, even in these favored countries, and in 1622 Gregory XV. published a Bull extending to all Christendom the provisions of the previous ones, and granting to the episcopal courts full jurisdiction over all accused of “solicitation,” notwithstanding whatever immunities they might otherwise enjoy; a single witness was pronounced sufficient, when supported by circumstantial evidence, and the punishment of those convicted was left to the discretion of the judge, with the suggestion that it might extend to perpetual imprisonment or condemnation to the galleys for life, or even abandonment to the secular arm—that Inquisitorial euphuism for the faggot and the stake.[1500] Apparently these Bulls received slender attention, for in 1633 a special decree directs that they shall be read at least once a year and an emphatic warning be given in a chapter of each order, and sworn evidence of the fact be transmitted to the congregation of the Inquisition at Rome.[1501] Even this was but partially successful. Gregory’s Bull was not published in either France or Germany, and for a century or more its observance throughout those regions depended entirely upon such bishops, of whom there were but few, who might see fit to promulgate its regulations in their individual dioceses;[1502] although the established rule of the church protected the criminal by not permitting a woman who had been seduced in the confessional to name her seducer to another confessor.[1503]
Even in the kingdoms where the Bull was legally received and published, its provisions in practice seem to have been held as directed almost exclusively against those who might be foolish enough to incur suspicion of heresy by asserting that they were not aware of their guilt. While the Holy Office stretched its power to convict and punish all the wretched heretics whom it could bring within its grasp, it was singularly tender of those whom successive popes denounced as the worst of offenders. In a learned work on the subject, the author, an official of the Portuguese Inquisition, urges the caution requisite in proceedings which affect the honor of ecclesiastics, bringing scandal and grief to the faithful and glory and joy to the heretic. As the accused had all presumptions in his favor, since he had been selected for the sacred functions of the confessional, and as women were by nature inconstant, corruptible, deceitful, mendacious, and given to perjury, he concludes that the evidence of a single witness is wholly inconclusive; two witnesses of good character may justify the seclusion of the accused, either in prison or in his own convent or house, but four were necessary to his conviction; he decides adversely the question whether deficiency of evidence can be supplemented by torture; and he cites Potiphar’s wife to caution his brethren against lending too hasty credence to accusations which may be only the revengeful promptings of a baffled tempter.[1504] Casuists were found to argue that the solicitation must occur during the act of confession itself to bring the accused within the words of the papal decrees, which were not applicable even if it took place in the confessional immediately before the woman commenced to confess, or immediately after she had received absolution.[1505] The accused who denied, might be shown the torture, but could not be exposed to it, and if punished, his punishment must be secret, so as not to give rise to popular disquiet.[1506] In Spain, when the local tribunal had agreed upon a sentence, it could not be executed without referring the case and all the evidence to the Conseyo de la Suprema;[1507] but the sentence which was thus so carefully to be considered, was not usually severe. Some instructions on the subject issued in 1577, after premising that there must be neither public penitence nor appearance in an auto de fé, and that the sentence, unlike that of heretics, must be made known only to the ecclesiastics of the place, proceed to state that the penalties to be imposed on the guilty are at the discretion of the Tribunal, except that he is obliged to abjure the implied heresy and is prohibited from hearing confessions in the future. Whether he is to be suspended from administering the other sacraments, or from preaching, and whether he is to be imprisoned or banished from the place of his crime, must depend upon the gravity of the offence. In grave cases, secular priests may be punished by seclusion, or deprivation of function or benefice, or pecuniary fines, with discipline, secret prayers and fasting; and monks may be visited with the discipline, removal from the scene of their misdeeds, suspension or privation of orders, of the privilege of voting in their convents, and relegation to the last place in the choir and refectory.[1508] All this manifests not only a provident care to prevent scandal among the faithful, but a singular tolerance of crime when compared with the severity which characterized the ordinary operations of the Inquisition, in lapses of faith however slight. A man who asserted that simple fornication was not a mortal sin was treated as a heretic and “relaxed” or “reconciled,” with all the tremendous consequent penalties upon him and his posterity; and it is significant in many ways to observe that a culprit guilty of prostituting the confessional to seduce his spiritual daughters was to be punished by being made to take the lowest seat in the choir. This misplaced lenity was more than carried out in practice. According to Llorente, the records of the Inquisition show that not ten per cent. of those accused were convicted; and even when convicted it was not unusual for the convict, through influences brought to bear on the Inquisitors General, to obtain a removal of the interdiction of hearing confessions.[1509] In one case of special atrocity which occurred under the eyes of Llorente himself, the culprit, in addition to the discipline, deprivation of vote, and degradation to the lowest seat in the choir (he had been Provincial of the Capuchins of New Grenada), was condemned to five years’ imprisonment in a convent of his own order—a most inadequate penalty for a man who had seduced thirteen nuns in a convent under his spiritual guardianship.[1510] In the horrible affair of Corella, which occurred in 1743, it is true that the Abbess, Doña Agueda de Luna, died under the torture; and her principal accomplice, Fray Juan de la Vega, after being tortured in his examination, was declared suspect in the highest degree and was confined in the desert convent of Duruelo till his death, but in this case the accused were Molinists, or Illuminati, which of itself rendered them worthy of the stake, and in addition, besides numerous infanticides, they had entered into a pact with Satan.[1511]
The nunneries, indeed, appear to have suffered especially from this cause, particularly when their spiritual directors were monks. This was a complaint of old standing, and the authors of the “Consilium de Emendanda Ecclesia,” in 1538, proposed to put an end to the scandals thence arising by prohibiting members of the conventual orders from serving in that capacity, which was to be confided in the future to the Episcopal Ordinaries.[1512] A more partial cure was that suggested in 1627 by Urban VIII. when he granted a special Bull to Christobal de Lobera, Bishop of Cordova, depriving the mendicant orders of their right to papal jurisdiction, and subjecting them to the Ordinary of the diocese in order to put a stop, if possible, to crimes committed by them in the confessional.[1513] These monastic troubles were by no means confined to Spain. When, as we shall see hereafter, the Grand Duke, Leopold of Tuscany, undertook in 1774 to reform the nunneries of his dominions, they had for a century and a half been the scene of the worst disorders, committed by the regular clergy who were their spiritual directors, and Leopold found his principal opposition in the court of Rome itself.[1514] In Provence, the canons of Pignan made no secret of their domination over the bodies as well as over the souls of the nuns of the district, so that in a single year there were sixteen declarations of pregnancy officially made by the latter, who seemed to consider it as one of the duties of their profession. As Michelet remarks, this at least diminished the monastic crime of infanticide, for the children were openly put out to nurse and were generally adopted by their foster-mothers.[1515]
Some statistics, given by Llorente from the archives of the Inquisition, afford a curious commentary upon the influence of monasticism. Comparing the number of accusations brought for this offence with the total census of the secular and regular clergy, he found that one out of every ten thousand secular priests was charged with it, while among the monastic orders the proportion was much greater. The Benedictines, Bernardines, Jeronymites, Premonstratensians, Basilians, Agonizantes, Theatins, and Oratorians, and the canons regular of Calatrava, Santiago, Alcantara, Montesa, St. Juan, and of the Holy Sepulchre showed a proportion of one in every thousand. Among the Carmelites, Augustinians, Mathurins, the Order of La Merced, the Dominicans, Franciscans, and Minims of St. Francis de Paul, there was one in every five hundred: one in four hundred among the barefooted orders of the Augustinians, Mathurins, and Fathers of La Merced; and one in two hundred among the barefooted Carmelites, the Alcantarians and the Capuchins.[1516] These results Llorente explains partly by the greater attention paid by some orders to the duties of the confessional, but chiefly by the differences in their rules of discipline. Those who, like the secular priests, had comparative wealth and freedom were able to gratify their passions without resorting to indulgence so dangerous, while those whose vows bound them to poverty and asceticism were most liable to be tempted by the opportunities of the confessional. It was precisely the orders that were most rigid which produced the greatest number of culprits. Another significant fact was that the greater portion of these accusations were brought by nuns, and from this Llorente seeks to explain the small proportion of cases in which the accused was found guilty. The inquiries necessary to confession often appeared to the simple-minded devotee a direct enticement to sin, and her excited imagination, in dwelling upon them, would lead her to imagine herself the object of her confessor’s impure desires—a defence of the system almost as damaging as the facts which it attempts to extenuate.[1517]
Whatever may be Llorente’s opinion as to the comparative innocence of the secular priesthood, it does not appear to have been shared by the church. The local ecclesiastical legislation of the seventeenth century is surcharged with innumerable minute directions as to the age of the confessor and the form and structure of confessionals; restricting female penitents, unless dangerously ill, from being heard except in church and by daylight, and prescribing the relative positions to be maintained by confessor and penitent.[1518] In the earlier, though scarce purer, period of the fifteenth century John Myrc contents himself with simpler rules—
But when a wommon cometh to the