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

UR,: LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

THREATENED SPLIT IN THE CHURCH OF
ROME. • -

The recently pull'slied no,t ber of the Quar:erly Re-
view contains au article, the production evidently of either
a Rom'sh priest or (me ititimatt ly acquainted w th the
workings of the Itnni,h system, which c attains revela-
tions 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 R mein Govern-
ment and the Church of Rome in the kingdom! of
Bavaria, upon f, the subject of some a'ter Ilion de-
manded by the latter in the practices and regulation of
.the church. The rigorous censorship of the press bow;
ever, which is exercised in most Catholic countries by
ecclesiastics, together with the care taken by Route to
preserve secret whatever pas-es between the pontificate
and the clergy, has hitherto effec:ua Iv prey, n err the dr-
tals of this dispute Insist coming to the ears of the lair},
or trtnspiring 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 therv,selves aggrieved, from a
fear of creating schism and rupture of the establishment.
A change, however, has at length been wrought in this
latter point; and fully recognizing al the &It gers and
difficulties attendant upon separation from R.nne, the
complainants have now resolved to risk any evils which,
might result from such separation rather than continre.
to submit to the continuance of the practices against;
which they protest:
The four points upon which they have been insistibg
are, first, that the publ c worship should be performed io
all countries in the vernacular tongue ; secondly, that the
cup should be given as will as the bread in the sacrament'
to the laity; thirdly, that the ftequetsting of the confess
sional should not be compulsory ; 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 or 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-bock is used which has the
Latin and the French translation io parallel columns ; but
such a work is proltibi:ed in Italy, Spa-in, •Poitugal, and
all othr r countries where the power of the church is abso-
lute. In the north of Germany and the .Tyrol they use a
German mass book; but it is rarely to be met with in
Austria, Bohemia, and Syria. It is urged too that. i
country districts and etas' in some towns, the priests
themselves know little more of Latin than the people ;
and hence tie impoi tanee of the vernacu:ar being utdrer-
sally permitted to be used.
On the second roi,rt —the refusal of the cop to the
la'ty—it is urged as opposed to set ipture that, of the.two
elements coreposiNg the soiertiihunt. ,bouici bi refused
or which it is specially said " dri..k ye all of it."
The objections to the third practice—the compulsory
attendanre upon the confessional—we shall quote from the
article itself :
" 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
must r tate at once our conclusion, which is this—that if it h d
been the intention of any body of men to corrupt the morals of
the human, race, to habituate children of both sexe,.to itn-
Nrity. fills, and praigacy, it would have lieen impossible to
have devised's: scheme more complete y adapted to produce
that effect than the practice of the confessional. as is now ar-
.ried on its the church of Rome. The common sense of mankind,
the ordinary feelings of morality. would liar e made it inipcbssible
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 should suppose that
burning alive can 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" react the ordinary t ltornan Catholic
prayer book, called • The Garden of tie Sony at the , arts Which
relate to self-exan illation in order to confession : next. the
books which are written to instruct the priests to extort from
reluctant females in the confessional things whic I no pure-
minded woman has ever imagined; e. g , ' La Methode pour
la direction des ames dans le tribunal de la Penitel ce. et pour

le gonven ment des Riroisscs, Paris, 1834 ;" 11 Confessore di-
retto per le confessioni della gente di campagna, Itolmna,
182 a ;' Le Rituel de Toulon ;' or any similar books Which
make in all countr es 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 Morals on the confessional
and the seventh commandment.

'•'l his subject in Pro'estant countries is merely either a
matter of speculation and theory, or a handle for rontrover-
sialists wherev ith to attack papists—a task for which. it must
be confessed, the heroes of discussion meetings' are singularly
ill qualified. But with the honest ecclesiastics of Germany,
the Tyrol, Switzerland, Poland, Bohemia, and Hungary,
these things are no swculations 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 he hd in a
corner any more; but, let the con- equences he 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 confession 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 ate published desiring all women who
have, improper solicitations made to them there to denounce the:
confessor; hut a moment's consideration will show the inutility
of this exhortatlon ; and me 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 ; 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 thatjust .11 pi opOrtion 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 arty
, woman cou,d be found who would go into the presence of se.
ev
ae
rr I h sat, rt a
unegeen ainsulmodd. r errpheea tr
et
shue
te. xhp(r),,eys
es
vi oenr,s
wb s hoi,caht
theher
priest had h s license for hearing confessions taken from him
and neither husband or wif.r have ever gone to the confessional
since that period. The authorities at Rome do all that. in them
refused
where well-grounded complaints have been - court-
try p- riches there are
s made but f lieses sitoon
sr repress ss
renewedthese disorders:frzyear the'to year, and
licensesao
df for
alwayshea:u hearing con
rear:
er
people : the a
rcure
completelyatrd the
vicaire are the
ir power., Knowing this blot in their system, the tr.endi.
priests
icntri'e
artorders.turti it to their own profit. Two Capuchins, the
one a priest, the oilier a.lay brother, make a tour through a
on in means
and
h ebenefithonse toof
thehous
community,
t o collect
country district. The former goes into the church and receives
the confessions of those who fcr various reasons do not choose
to confess to the secular priest; whilst the lay brother, with his
thedon kcoeyn tra inbdu ions oe rf
sth.roes e
faithful fromernfdt
The system cannot be improved—delenda est.
"The effect of the system 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-
rmoth-- (see his pamphlet, published at Chelmsford;—than that
which he has done, if he had been more fully acquainted
the subject. The immediate object, however, of bringing for-
vv,:rd 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
remember 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 op in their own solitary cham-
ber, apart from all the world, for many hours every day. Such
persons require a peculiar absence from all demoralizing words
and thoughts; it ought to be their unremitting labour to banhli
every imagination, even the most transient, upon detals of
viee ; whereas, to sit alone and study all the forms and va, ia-
tions of impurity upon which Spanish arid French casuists hava
written, analysing and classifying every variety of crime which
the mo=t brutal and sensual of mankind have ever perpetrated,
as in the works of Sanchez, Escobar, Sa, Facundez, Gobat,
Bre., &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 investigation 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 whole 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 (2f
a priest if he is known to keep a mistress without causing any
public scandal, and no notice is taken of him. If, however, she
produced in the village, then he is removed to another parish; if
lies at the parsonage, or ir they quarrel so that a disturbance is
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 him; 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 us have been
above described. They are such as cannot be put upon paper—hide-
ot ts unnameable crimes—committed in the most holyplaces, because
supposed to be the most secure from the eye of man, regardless of ,
the eye of (hod. In Italy such offences, when not screened by some
powerful patron, are punished by, incarceration in a convent, with
starving and repeated flagellation, which frequently terminate in
death. ;But in G ermany uo such power exists; more liberal; but
less cruel More,tolerant both of good and evil. The example of
the c3urt 111 the neighbourhood of the place to which we are now re-
ferring, tended not many years ago to sanction some of the worst of
the crimes above alluded to ; and though it is now mended; the effects
of past days are not worn out."
With respect to the fourth point, the celibacy of the
clergy, the Reviewer states that—
It is a remarkable feature in the case that all the profligate cl —g,
are strongly in favour of the continuance of the law of celibacy.
; whit
all the moral clergy are for abolishing it. The Protestants in these
dioceses qe.nerally say, that this is in. order that they may continue
their flagitious courses in a way which it would be more difficult to
do if they were married, but this is not the real ground of their re-
sistance. They resist it because they know that it is 'popular-at
head quarters to resist it; and they take the side of the authorities
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 en which' to plant
opposition to the slavery of the Papacy, it
.rejoices
us
much to remark a notice or two in the Rettieto, indicating
that those who are thus raising themselies against these
evils are also departing from at least one Of the funda-
them or their an-,
mental heresies of the Papacy. The fact to which we
i,t'hthe others Mary.
allude is thus referred to
:
"Those in favour of it are now .t,enerally styled Disciples of.
Sailer and ow King of Bavaria, it is obvious, has no objection to
share the. designation. Dia they have received another title from the
ace the demarkation be-:
wtualogarons,iyibiisbttp
ty, s. :ras,ni:di(lise6irysa
r4aLhe oicTsal
eiend.pla,;t
Jesushnisned littletw)rse eitherhsiopr tr:v
sobriquets
clearly indicate
stsinmee4reYly they May"protest agtnnst
indicate
to a dead woman the honour and,
another great practical abuse of the Papacy', as to Which the two, par-
entirely undeniable that in
ties have already -come into open collision.- We say practical—for
iwthiwie
warship
ideepoer ebeei Iltri)nen ,-1 educatedcharged
al,artogt re. edGi awoa th
o:gahmi
eveaivutteagir: t
is
Roman Catholic countries thousands and tens of thousands live and
diein habitual reliance on the intercession and mediation, not of the
Saviour, but of the Virgin,;;.rid other saints•departetL"

We 'close our present notice of the subject with the fol-
lowing reinarks, which bear more immediately upon the
working of Popery amongst oureelves. At p. 165 it is
said,—