The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-07-16 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

THREATENED SPLIT IN THE CHURCH OF

R 0 M E.

The recently published. nun her of the Quarterly Re-
view contains an article, the prOduction evidently of either
a Ilora.sh priest or one intimately acquaiuttd with the
workings of the Remish system, which contains revela.
lions so important that we make no apology for placing
its substance before our readers. For some time a con-
troversy has been going on between the Roman Govern-
ment and the Church of Rome in the kingdom of
Bavaria, upon t the subject of some alteration de-
manded by the latter in the practices and regulation of
the church. The rigorous censorship of the press how-
ever, which is exercised iu most Catholic countries by
ecclesiastics, together with the care taken by Rome to
preserve secret whatever passes between the pontificate
and the clergy, has hitherto effectual), preven'ed the de-
tals of this d,spute from coming to the ears of the laity
er tr-nspirittg at all beyond the limits of the church itself.
It has net moreover, up to this period, been pressed to
extremity by those who feel themselves aggrieved, from a
fear of creatirg schism and rupture of the establishment.
A change, however, has at length been wrought in this
latter point; and fully recognizing all the dangers and
difficulties attendant upon separation from Rome, the
complainants have now resolved to risk any evils which
aright result from such separation rather than continue
to submit to the continuance of the practices Against
which they protest.
Tee four points upon which they have been insisting
are, first, that the public worship should be performed in
all countries in the vernacular tongue ; secondly, that the
cup should be giver, as well as the bread in the sacrament
to the la.ty; thirdly, that the frequenting of the confes-
sional should not be comenlsory ; fourthly. that the vows
of celibacy shall not be obligatory on the clergy.
With regard to the first of these points they complain
that the " unchangeable" character of the laws of the
•church has been pushed so far that it becomes a fraud,
the priests having multiplied the unchangeable laws in
order .to obtain. money for dispensations to break them.
They complain, too, that this particular law against ver-
nacular prayers has been relaxed elsewhere—but not for
them. In France a prayer-book is used which has the
,Loin and the French translation in parallel columns; but
such a work is prohibited in Italy, Spam, Portugal, and
all othi r countries where the power of the church is abso-
lute. In the north of Germany and the Tyrol they use a
Germ-in mass book; but it is tartly to be met with in
Austria, Bohemia, and Syria. It is urged too that, ia
county districts and even in some towns, the priests
themselves know little more of Latin than the people;
lind hence the importance of the vernacular being univer-
sally permitted to -be used.

On the second point —the refusal of' the cap to the
la ty —it is urged as opposed to scripture that, of the two
elements composing the sacrament, one should b refused
of w Well it is specially said " dri..k ye all of it."
To objections to the third practice—tti mpulsory
attendance upon the confessional—we shall qe froixt the
its-If:—
With the third point commences our difficulty, and one be-
fore which we confess ourselves compelled to yield : we are
precluded from-the possibility of proving our position, and we
n ust tate at once our conclusion, which is this—that if it h d
been the intention of a:,y bony of men to corrupt the morals of-
the human race, to habituate children of both sexes to inn-
turity. s.th:' and profligacy, it would have been impossible to
have devised ,a scheme more complete y adapted to produce
that effect than the practice of the confessional, as is now • ar-
ried on in the chinch of Rome. The common sense of mankind,
the ordinary feelings of morality, would has e made it impossible
to carry into practice such a project, unless it had assumed the
mask of religious duty to God ; and when the sense of morality
is so far deadened, as that any persons Shbuld suppose that
burning alive cAri be well pleasing to God, it is.not difficult for
such to imagine that obscenity in thought nd language should
be so likewise. Whilst it is obvious that it is imp ssible here to
prove our assertion, we will at least furnish the means by which
any one who is so inclined may satisfy himself; we recommend
such en one to read the ordinary English Roman Catholic
prayer book, called • The Garden of tl e Soul,' at the ; arts which
relate to self-exaa ination in order to confession : next, the
books which are written to instruct the priests to extort from
reluctant females in the confessional things whici no pure-
minded woman has ever imagined; e. g •La Methmle pour
la direction des ames dans le tribunal de (a Peniter.ce, et pour
le gouver. meat des P .roisscs, Paris, 1834 ;" It Confessore di-
retto per le confessioni della gente di campagna, Bologna,
1824 ;' Le Rituel de Toulon e or any similar books which
make in all countees the st, ck in trade of a priest, and some
or other of which are to be found in all their houses ; and then
let them read any work of Theologia Moralis on the confessional
and the seventh commandment.

'• 3 his sullect in Pro' estant countries is merely either a
matter of speculation and theory, or a handle for controver-
sialists where, ith to attack papists—a task for which. it must
he confessed, the heroes of discussion meetings' are singularly
ill qualified. But with the honest ecclesiastics of Germany,
the Tyrol, ..rwitzerland, Poland, Bohemia, and Hungary,
these things are no sp,culations and theories. but sad and
painful realities. They know that corruption of the youthful
mind is the natural and almost invariable result; and some are
determined that the fruits of this system shall not be h•ci in a
corner any more; but, let the con equences be what they may,
the secret recesses of infamy shall be exposed, and the system
be put an end to.

"It is impossible in the very nature of thins that a young
female, or almost any female, can have such a burden on her
conscience as can make her desire often to resort to special and
private coefession to a priest; and certainly it ought not to be
tole ated that she should have indecent thoughts suggested to
her, even at the early age of seven years old ; for at this period
do they begin to insinuate their filth in the convents in which
girls are commonly educated. The heads of the church them-
selves admit the liability of abuse through the confessional, and
frequent exhortations are puhlished desiring all women who
have improper solicitations mate to them there to denounce the
confessor ; but a moment's consideration will show the inutility
of this exhortation ; and cne instance which we will give must
suffice for all. An Italian gentleman of our acquaintance re-
moved with his family from the place of his nativity to a town
in another state I soon after their arrival the wife went to the
confessional in the pa• ish church, where improper proposals
were made to her ' • she ran home and acquainted her husband :
he made a formal complaint to the proper autho, ities in her
name : a day was appointed for the examination cf the charge :
and when the time arrived the lady naturally declined to appear.
It is obvious thatjost n proportion as the pe, son offended is de-
licate, and the offence gross, there will be the greater difficulty
of inducing the complainant to come forward. Scarcely any
woman coutd be found who would go into the presence of se-
veral strange men and repeat the expressions by which her
ears had been insulted. The result, however, was. that the
priest had h s license for hearing confessions taken from him ;
and neither husband or wife have ever gone to the confessional
since that period. The authorities at Rome do all that in them
lies to repress these disorders: the licenses for hearing con-
fessions are renewed from year to year, and always refused
where well-grounded .complaints have been made : but
,d the
coun-
try p riches there are no means of redress: the cure
ae
v:caire are the only, priests in it, and the
system.
cant orders turn it to their own profit.ako a tour through a
country distri, t. The former got s intothe wei Capuchins, the
one a priest, the other a lay brother,
nthelprepl the mendi-
cant completely
in their power. Knowing this blot in
the confessions of those who tor various reasons do not choose
to confess to the secular priest; whilst the lay brother, with his
l church and receives
donkey arid hampers. goes ound from house to house to collect
the contribu ions of the faithful for the benefit of the community.
The system cannot be improved,--de/enda est.

effect, of the sy4tem upon the minds of the people is
obvious: and Sir George Smythe might have given a much
fuller defence of the term beastly,' which he applies to May-
nooth—rsee his pamphlet, published at Chelmsford;—than that
which he has done, if he had been more fully acquainted wi'h
the subject, . The immediate object, however, of bringing for-
w7rd this point at the present time is not so much with refe-
rence to its effect upon the laity as to its effect upon the priests
themselves • and whoever int nds to take the trouble of con-
sulting the works to which allusion has been made, should
lemarther that these books are the private and secret studies of
those who from their earliest years have taken vows of celibacy
upon them ; who live alone, shut up in their own solitary cham.
ber, apart frem all the world, for many hours every day. Such
persons require a peculiar al-sence from all demoralizing words
and thoughts; it ought to be their unremitting labour to banhh
every imagination, even the most transient, upon details of
viee ; whereas, to sit alone and study all the forms and vat ia-
tines of impurity upon which Spanish and French casuists have
written, analysing and classifying every variety of crime which
the mot brutal and sensual of mankind have ever perpetrated,
as in the works of Sanchez, Escobar, Sa, Facundez, Gobat,
&c., &c., is the sure and certain method to make the vows a
nullity."

The writer goes on to remark upon the practice, in
France and elsewhere, arising out of the immorality thus
engendered amongst the priesthood, of holding periodical
visitations for the investigat on of charges lodged and
the infliction of punishment. In the dioceses of the North
of Germany, where a bishop's court sits twice a week, he
says,
"So great and so incessant are the horrors brought to light, that
the excellent prelate who presides over one see more immediately
under our eye, passes the a bole night afterwards in fasting and
tears of penitence for the things which have come before him. The
extent of immorality is so great that it is considered a good sign of
a priest if he is known to keel) a mistress without causing any
public scandal, and no notice is taken of him. If, however, she
lies at the parsonage, or if they quarrel so that a disturbance is
produced in the village, then he is removed to another parish; if
the same thing occurs a second time the same treatment is pursued;
if it is repeated a third time, he is degraded, all employment and
means of livelihood are taken from Lim; and many such are to be
seen throughout Germany breaking stones upon the road, or serving
as privates in the army. These, however, are not the immoralities
which produce upon the minds of bishops such effects as have been
above described. They are such as cannot be put upon paper—hide-
ous unnameable crimes—committed in the most holy places, because,
supposed to be the most secure from the eye of man, regardless of
the eye of God. In Italy such offences, when not screened by some
powerful patron, are punished by incarceration in a convent, with
ooprwlset
re-
ferring, oo
starving and repeated flagellation, which frequently terminate in
death. But inoemGneteoirrehranabnoyutib,uhooothos:oocfhf
tglipoeoowdpieaareenedxtioes‘tilh;.icmhToh:.eee liberal, but
tended
f
in
nmth
not many years ago to sanction some of theaxreea:n•
lesst
h ercruel
courte l
f
the crimes above alluded to ; and though kis now mended, the effects
')f
past
ttdh . respect
aYsar
o the
e°ttwmli °"
Wfourth point, the celibacy of the
clergy, vkiliewetr estates e
e that
c—as e that all the profligate clergy',
tis e
m Reviewer
are strongly in favour of the continuance of the law of celibacy, whilst
all the moral clergy are for abolishing it. The Protestants in these
dioceses 15enerally say, that this is in order that they may conthatte
their flagitious courses in a way which it would be more diflktilt to
do if they Were married, but This is not the real ground of their re-.
sistauoo. They resist it becauSe they know that it is-popular at
head quarters to resist it ; and they take the side of the' authonti s
at Rome in order to make friends to themselves of the Mammon Of
_unrighteousness, that they may be in their turn, befriended." '
Admirable as are those grounds on: which to plant
opposition to the slavery of the Papacy, it rejoices usr,
much.to remark a notice or two in the Review, indicatio
that those who. are thus raising themselves against these
evils are also departing from at leas
mental tone of the funda-'
ofthe The fact to which we'
allude heresies:thuss

UY styled,.'
or t 'ell."'
eialt Thee'ghfnaev4l7talir e°' 111 41
n.
go. co:of.* 1 n:
'lO Jesus worshippeivi the others
';Vary
Disciples 0 r
Bavaria, it is, obvious,. has no ohjection to
But theihave received anotlier title from the.
patluse littleeithe'r-with them I ' .
the' honour and;
Nri:Sah•aio;arr':alse'rnYehli:tlisb;-p:pesesasdrs. ' (111.ariadlusten); and theser sobriquets :clearly indicate"
another great. practical, abuse of the Papacy; us to which the twd par-
ties have already, coma into open collision. We, say practical—fori:
boa ever clearly educaled.RoManist utay see the de,marlcation bets
itiv:i.eeinitiidoetwil ebi
eair
ad
al argtreedi aw—i
tlhi ogitvielleigr sincerely they
woman
worship due only to Go,lL—the fact is entirely 'Undtniable thiit in`
.Roman Catholic countries thousands andlens of thousands live and
die in habitual reliance on the interossion and rnedia.tion, not of the,
Baviour,.but of the Virgin, t nd other saints departed.",

. _
We close our presort notice of the subject with the fol
lowing-remarks, which bear more Immediately upon the
working, of Popery amongst ourselves: At p 165 it is
said,—