ul,
and to inquire about every kind of contaminations, impurities, secret and
shameful unspeakable matters! The young priest is drilled in the diabolical
art of going into the most sacred recesses of the soul and the heart,
almost in spite of his penitents. I could bring hundreds of theologians as
witnesses to what I say.--But it is enough just now to cite three.

"Lest the Confessor should indolently hesitate in tracing out the
circumstances of any sin, let him have the following versicle of
circumstances in readiness:

"Quis, quid, ubi, quibus auxiliis, cur, quomodo, quando. Who, which, where,
with whom, why, how, when." (Dens, vol. 6, p. 123. Liguori, vol. 2, p.
464.)

The celebrated book of the Priests, "The Mirror of the Clergy," page 357,
says:

"Oportet ut Confessor solet cognoscere quid quid debet judicare. Deligens
igitur inquisitor et subtilis investigator sapienter quasi astute
interrogat a peccatore quod ignorat, vel verecundia volit occultare."

"It is necessary that the Confessor should know everything on which he has
to exercise his judgment. Let him then, with wisdom and subtility,
interrogate the sinners on the sins which he may ignore, or conceal through
shame!"

The poor, unprotected girl is thus thrown into the power of the priest,
soul and body, to be examined on all the sins she may ignore, or which,
through shame, she may conceal! On what boundless sea of depravity the poor
fragile bark is launched by the priest! On what bottomless abysses of
impurities she will have to pass and travel, in company with the priest
alone, before he will have interrogated her on all the sins she may ignore,
and which she may have concealed through shame!! Who can tell the
sentiments of surprise and shame and distress, of a timid, honest young
girl, when, for the first time, she is initiated to infamies which are
ignored even in houses of prostitution!!!

But such is the practice, the sacred duty of the spiritual physician. "Let
him (the priest confessor) with wisdom and subtlety interrogate the sinner
on the sins he may ignore or conceal with shame."

And there are 100,000 men, not only allowed, but petted, and often paid by
the governments to do that, under the name of the God of the Gospel!

Fourthly, I answer to the sophism of the priest, When the physician has any
delicate and dangerous operation to perform on a female patient, he is
_never_ alone; the husband, or the father, the mother, the sister, or