111
ever, of reserved cases fbr absolution, not simply in
the papal territory, but generally m ail nations pro-
fessing llie papal religion, is too notorious to admit
a moment^ s doubt. They form an ordinary portion
of synodical provisions in Hoinan catholic countries ;
and the specification of the crimes expressed is
usually, but varyingly, cliaracterizL J by that vile
and vitiating particularity, if not absolute invention,
which jSxes upon pope ry the stigma, not only of in-
difference, but even complacence, in respect of sen-
sual sin, and mark it out for disgust and rejection.
In the Synodal Constitutions of the Bishop of Fras-
cati, our Cardinal Duke of York, at a Synod there
held by him in 1763, and published at Batae with
all authority in 1764, there is a passage under the
head of Beserved Cases, which has been brought
into notice by De Potter, in his of Bicci^ which
i'or ingenious turpitude of invention, almost exceeds
belief. And yet this woA is hardly more outrageous
than another little one, which I possess on the very
same subject, and of no earlier date than 1805. It
is— Tractatus de Oasibus Reservatis in Nova Dicecesi
Oandavensi, Jussu ac Auctoritate lUust et Bever.
Dom. Episc. In lucem editus mdcccv. The latter
half of the work, from p. 31 to 74, is occupied widi
the description of every imaginable crime, without
the unallest reserve in the expression; so tiiat the
decorum which advancing civilization has silently,
but irresistibly^ wrought in all otb^ communities,
