ed roofs, his head reaching the capitals, and lost
among the winged heads of the angels, whence he hurls his thunder?
Well, it is the same man, this terrible archangel himself, who
presently descends for her, and now, mild and gentle, goes yonder into
that dark chapel, to listen to her in the languid hours of the
afternoon! Delightful hour of tumultuous, but tender sensations! (Why
does the heart palpitate so strongly here?) How dark the church
becomes! Yet it is not late. The 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 is obscurity. One thing
astounds and almost frightens us, however far we may be, which is the
mysterious old painted glass at the farthest end of the church, on
which the design is no 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 discern the ornaments
and delicate moulding entwined in the vaulted roof; the shadow
deepening blends and confounds the outlines. But, as if this 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 whispering together about the love
of God.

[1] See my History of France (1833), the last chapter of Vol. II., and
particularly the last ten pages. In this same volume I have made a
serious mistake which I wish to rectify. In speaking of ecclesiastical
celibacy (temp. Gregory VII.), I have said that married men could never
have raised those sublime monuments, the spire of Strasbourg, &c. I
find, on the contrary, that the architects of the Gothic churches were
laymen, and generally married. Erwin de Steinbach, who built
Strasbourg, had a celebrated daughter, Sabina, who was herself an
artist.

CHAPTER II.

CONFESSION.--PRESENT EDUCATION OF THE YOUNG CONFESSOR.--THE CONFESSOR
IN THE MIDDLE AGES:--FIRST, BELIEVED; SECONDLY, MORTIFIED HIMSELF;
THIRDLY, WAS SUPERIOR BY CULTURE; FOURTHLY, USED TO INTERROGATE
LESS.--THE CASUISTS WROTE FOR THEIR TIME.--THE DANGERS OF THE YOUNG
CONFESSOR.--HOW HE STRENGTHENS HIS TOTTERING POSITION.

A worthy parish priest has often told me that the sore part of his
profession, that which filled him with despair, and his life with
torment, was the _Confessional_.

The studies, with which