The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-01-06 00:00:00

0 10 0

PRIESTS, WOMEN, AND FAMILIES,

.We gave some extracts last week from the val
work of M. Michelet, under this title, with a brief

cription of its general scope and object, which we may
here repeat to be that of exposing and overthrowing:the
baleful influence which the priesthood of the Church of

Rome, in foreign countries, are in the habit of exercising
ova the female portion of their flock
to trace, with M. Michelet, the mode in whic
fessional is made the instrument by which such:unboll
influence is attained and wielded. The following iintro-

ductory picture is drawn by a master I

We now pre

" Do you see that solemn Hie.._
gold and purple of his pontifical dress,
the thought, the prayer of a multitude of 10,1)uv
the triumphal steps in the choir of. St. Denis ? Do you
see him still, above all that kneeling mass, hovering as
high as the vaulted roofs, his head reaching the cave*-'
and lost among the winged heads of the
he hurls his thunder? Well, it is the same n
terrible archangel himself, who presently descen'
and now, mild and gentle. goes yonder into that dark
chapel, to listen to her in the languid hours of the after-
noon ! Delightful hour of tumultuous, but tender sensa-
tions ! (Why does the heart palpitate so strongly here I
How dark the church becomes! Yet it is not 1.,.•-
`

angels, whence

for her,

great rose window over the portal glitters with the setting
sun. But it is quite another thing in the choir; dark
shadows envelope it, and beyond its obscirity.
thing astounds and almost frightens us, however
may be, which is the mysterious old painted glass
farthest end of the church, on which the designs
longer distinguishable, twinkling in the shade like an
illegible magic scroll of unknown characters. The chapel
is not less dark on that account; you can no longer dis-
cern the ornamants and delicate moulding entwined in the
vaulted roof; the shadow deepening blends and confounds
the outlines. But, as if the chapel were not yet dark
enough, it contains, in a retired corner, a narrow recess
of dark oak, where that man, all emotion, and that
trembling woman, so close to each other, are wbi.-- '

together about the love of God
And who is the party—what have been tl
training and course of discipline by which he,

r far we

ipering

ie previous

thus placed as an interpreter:between weak woman

her maker, is enabled to bear himself scathless through
the ordeal to which he is submitted. Condemned to en-
forced celibacy, he Las nevertheless been familiarized to

to the contemplation of every conceivable species of
human frailty and vice, Besides the printed books *of
standard authority which reveal such an awful amount of
grossness, their copy books used during the two conclud-
ing years of their preparation for the confessions' con-
tain, M. Michelet tells us. questions upon crimes and

practices of unimaginable atrocity, unknown in the
worst ages of barbarism, and probably not perpetrated at
all, "except by the brutal soldiers of the Duke of Alva,
or by the exiled, lawless, and godless band which Wallen-
stein drew after him—a wandering mass of iniquity,
which would have:been abhorred by ancient Sodom."
" We know not," continues our author,- " how to
qualify this culpable routine. These books, composed
for a barbarous age, unparalleled in crimes, are the same
that you give to your pupil in our own civilized age.
And this young priest, who, according to your instruc-
tions, believes the world is still that dreadful world. who
enters the confessional with all this villainous science,
and his imagination full of monstrous cases, you; impru-
dent men !—(what shall I call you ?)—you confront him
with a child who has never left her mother's aide, who
knows nothing, has nothing to say, and whose greatest
crime is, that she hat not learned her catechism properly,
or has hurt a butterfly ! I shudder at the interrogatory
to which he will subject her, and what he will teach her
in his conscientious brutality. But he questions her in
vain. She knows nothing, and says nothing. He scolds
her and she weeps. Her tears will soon be dried, but it
be long before she ceases to reflect."

Change, as the object of this impious and demoralizing
scrutiny, the shrinking virgin for the wife or the mother.
The confessor has proclaimed his authority from Heaven
to bind and to loose—to listen to the tale of human frailty,
apd to absolve from it.

" A father," he urges, " has a right to know the se-
crets of his child; he is an indulgent father, who wants
to know them only to absolve them. He is a sinner like
yourself; has he, then, a right to be severe? Come,
thei, my child, come and tell me—what you have not
dared to whisper in your mother's ear; tell it me; who
will ever know."

thates
"Then is it, amidst sobs and sighs, from the choking
capesheaving
eebdr eget ,
hides that
ht
eb
re
hf ae teadi . w ocor dh rl i shees
wt oh
et h
he e lips,ard
has gained an immense advantage, and will keep it ; would
to God that he did not abuse it ! It was heard, remember,
not by the wood and the dark oak of the confessional, but
by ears of flesh and blood.

" And this man now knows of this woman, what the
husband has not known in all the long effusion of his
heart by day and night ; what even her own mother does
not know, who thinks she knows her entirely, having had
her so many times a naked infant upon her knees.
" This man knows, and will know—don't be afraid of
his forgetting it. If the confession is in good hands, so
much the better, for it is for ever. And she—she knows
full well she has a master of her intimate thoughts. Never
will she pass by that man without casting down her
eyes."

We cannot trace, with Mr. Mickelet, the working of
the system in its darkest features. Not to enter, how-

ever, into the worst, of which it is capable, can we shut
our eyes to the fact that a woman, who has thus breathed
the secret nearest to her heart, to the ears of another,
must become, henceforth, his unresisting slave—the agent
of his efforts to subjugate the other sex—the accomplice
of his persecution of her father, her brother, or her son.
Does she revolt, there is the consciousness in her heart
that her family is known to her spiritual and temporal
tyrant ; and the meaning frown reminds her of the fetters
in which she must now consent to remain. An awful
power is this to be wielded by sinful man over his fellow
worm.

" To be the only one, without either comparison or
contradiction ; to be the whole world of a soul, to wean it,
at pleasure, from every reminiscence that might cause
any rivalry, and efface from this docile heart even the
thought of a mother that might still be cherished within
it ; To inherit everything and remain alone, and be mas-
ter of the heart by the extinction of all natural senti-
ments !"

Such is the power which Romanism exercises over its
votaries in the world out of doors—such the foundation
upon which she builds up her empire. And if that empire
be great in the walks of every day life, what must it be
'when she who is subjected to priestly machination is im-
mured from all external influences in the monotonous
gloom of the cloister !
" What," asks our author, "shall a nun do—a woman,
and endowed with a woman's tenderness and passion—
who beholds in her convent's narrow room one, and only
one. day after day, and month after month, one whom
she is taught to believe a paragon, and amongst the best
and most perfect of his sex"

—whose education has made familiar with every form of
human depravity, and who is commissioned to probe the
secrets of the inmost heart of bis penitent? He stands
before her invested with super-human power, and awful
sanctity. He shares with her her sorrows. He is the
confidant of her every thought, and every aspiration ; and
if such a man, with such persons should be also possessed
of wickedness to abuse them, can a more appalling picture
of vice and sacrilege be presented to the mind than must
be the result? We must, however, refer our readers to
the pages of M. Michelet himself for its description and
details.

We shall return to the Work for further evidence of
the actual working of the system amongst the families of
France. At present our space is exhausted.

ireensigauu Samsun.--0.. 0.. 'morning of Snort., 1..*
the Rev. B. A. Marshall, A. M. preached a very impres-
sive funeral sermon upon the death of the late incumbent
of St. Mark's Church, the Rev. Richard Blacow. His
text was remarkably appropriate, having been suggested
to his mind when standing beside the grave of his departed
friend. " The voice said, 'Cry !' and he said, What
shall I cry ? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness
thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass withereth ;
the flower fadeth : but the Word of our God shall stand
for ever."—lsaiab, chap. xl., verses 6 and 7. The charac-
ter of Mr. Blacow was pourtrayed with great fidelity and
affection. The congregation were forcibly reminded of
bygone days, when their talented minister stood almost
alone in Liverpool as a burning and shining light in the
established church. The features relative to his tempera-
ment of mind were t(nderly drawn by the pen of charity,
and the practical part of the subject was admirable. Who
is now to succeed Mr. Mac° ? Justice and gratitude at
once say Mr. Marsnall. His talents as a preacher of the
gospel must commend themselves to all who are privileged
to sit under bis ministry. His discourses are invariably
characterized by simplicity, accuracy of gospel truth, and
general usefulness. He is frequently eloquent in the
highest sense of that term— and always faithful in his ap-
peals to the heart and conscience of his hearers—evidently
desirous to win souls to the Redeemer. He seems to have
imbibed much of the Apostle's spirit when he said, " I am
determined to know nothing among you, save Jesus
Christ, and him crucified." Mr. Marshall's ministerial
labours have been felt and appreciated in the sphere he at
present occupies both by the old and young—the rich and
poor—the sick as well as the dying—and during the last
seven years, he has laboured with great ardour and perse-

verance, though his remuneration has be
tively small. No doubt the trustees will
the matter, and probably no opposition
Mr. Marshall, who has proved himself F(
erous—so warm.hearted—and so faithful

11 be o'ffered to

of every duty connected
Let Mr. Mar

I be c

he inctinaheney. of St. Mar
loubt but that peace and r

can be

tie
within her

)all prove the birth,
II constitute hi

f many im-
of joy 81)d
STANOTriI
r.A., •• - ::R1)