But once a young man is entrapped, there is no escape. "They may repent, but the superiors will not let them go, lest they should betray the orgies which they have witnessed."
Then Erasmus tells of instances where men were buried alive inside the monasteries to prevent their escape. "Dead men tell no tales!"
Remember, reader! Erasmus was writing to the Pope's own Prothonotary, in order that the "Holy Fathers" might of a surety know what was going on inside the monastic houses! And in reply, the Prothonotary, Lambert Grunnius, writes to Erasmus—
"I read your letter aloud to the Pope, from end to end: several cardinals and other great persons were present. The Holy Father was charmed with your style!"
And the Holy Father waxes wroth at some personal grievances of Erasmus, and granted him relief from monkish diabolism; but what was done to correct the frightful conditions which Erasmus had brought to the Pope's personal attention?
Nothing! Absolutely nothing. It was the same way when the exposures were made in Spain, when they were made in Tuscany, when they were made in England, when they were made in the Philippines! The answer of Rome is ever the same: Nothing can be done.
The Pope knows what enforced male celibacy does, when screened from the civil law behind thick walls, and given unlimited license among young women, who cannot resist, and who cannot tell!
And you know that the Pope does know—for he also is a male like me and you.
Again, Erasmus asks what would Saint Augustine say now, if he were to see these convents and monasteries become "public brothels."
In those standard works, "The History of Prostitution" and "Human Sexuality," you will learn the fearful fact that the utter lewdness of nuns and of wives who had been debauched by the priests, became so universal that the trade of the professional harlot was almost entirely taken away from her. Why should loose men pay, when there were so many places of gratuitous entertainment?