Says Dr. Fulton—
"At first the female may be a little timid, &c. She may object, &c. But the priest, representing God's angel in this office, gently soothes the mind and quiets the fears of his future spouse by saying to her, He who will come upon thee is not man, but is the holy one of God, and this union is pleasing to him;——."
(At this point Anthony Comstock must have blushed and raised an objection, as the nun was doing, for the remainder of the sentence is stricken out.)
But the text continues—"It will be holy and blessed; therefore I say unto thee, as the angel said unto Mary, Fear not."
After this, the woman, being convinced by the language of heaven's messenger that all is right, gives the priest complete assurance of her willingness to submit by saying, as Mary said to the angel, "Be it done unto me according to thy word."
Then Dr. Fulton so frankly indicates what takes place in that private room, and upon that consecrated bed, that I really am curious to know what it was that made Comstock blush, a few lines above those which thus tell of the soliciting priest, the yielding nun, and the ready bed.
Now, if you will compare one case with another, from the time of the early Fathers down to the present day, you will detect a similarity that is appalling.
The testimony of Edward Gibbon, the skeptical historian, exactly accords with that of Saint Cyprian, Chrysostom, Jerome and Bernard.
The memorable investigation which Duke Leopold of Tuscany caused to be made of the cloistered convents of Italy revealed identically the same cess-pools of vice that came to light in England when Henry VII. uncovered the monasteries.
All the literature of the Renaissance, after men's minds and pens freed themselves from the ignoble fear of popery, bear witness to the same universal everlasting truth— Men and women were made for each other, and no so-called religion can annul the laws of Nature.