Page:The spiritual venality of Rome.djvu/15

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

as extant in Delahogue's Treatise de Pœnitentia, and those of Baily, so formidably exposed in a late able pamphlet with that object.[1] One important inference from the abominable schemata of the unkennelled Dens is, that they remove all improbability from the similar Schemata, or Dialogues, described, as proceeding from the pen of Pope Sixtus V. when he was Confessor general, by Gregorio Leti; and two of which, transcribed by that writer, are so disgustingly foul, that the English translator has not dared to give them in the vernacular tongue. They occur in Parte I. Lib. ii. of the original. Leti was an occasional embellisher: but he was not so addicted to regard point-blank falsehoods in the light of "rhetorical flourishes"[2] as absolutely to invent formal documents. The whole of this theory and exemplification will sufficiently account for the repeated Bulls of Popes to check, if not prevent, the practice by Confessors of soliciting the chastity of

  1. Roman Catholic Morality as inculcated in the Theological Class-Books in Maynooth College. From this seasonable collection it is evident, that no female, who is not prepared for the deepest insult which natural modesty can encounter, should by any motive be induced to embrace popery, or surrender herself to the spiritual guidance of a Romish priest. And let Christian parents, in particular, look well to it.
  2. A certain Roman catholic senator might be consulted with advantage on this subject; and probably the information which he could give would throw as much flattering light on his morality, as the celebrated wish expressed on a memorable occasion, of "success to the fox-glove," did on his humanity.