Auricular confession and Popish nunneries

Introduction

“THREE score years and ten,” and those often full of care and anxiety, seem to constitute the space of human life. So it is said in that venerable volume, which never has been, and never can be equalled, in beauty of truth, wisdom and instruction. This, it would seem, ought. to check all the vain and inordinate aspirations of poor, weak man; yet it has not, and probably never will do so. ‘To a reflecting mind, nothing can appear stronger than this. Notwithstanding this solemn truth, such is the presumption of man that he has often dared,—and does so at this moment,—to set himself up as the viceroyal or viceregent of the King of Heaven, and fancies himself sent upon this earth for the purpose of rectifying or correcting any mistakes or defects which might have escaped the vigilance of the great I Am, in the organization and fitness of things. This is truly a serious and melancholy reflection.

The population of this world of ours is supposed to amount to 812,558,712. Of this vast number, 137,000,000 are Roman Catholics, who now, on the 19th of July, 1845, bend the knee, and bow down in homage to a weak, helpless, and worthless being, the

4 INTRODUCTION.

_ Pope of Rome; and thus, if history does not deceive us; proving themselves conspirators against the happiness of the human race.

To meliorate the condition of this almost countless multitude of our fellow-creatures, is among the first duties of every good man. No one is exempted from it; not the king nor the peasant; not the sage nor the philosopher; not the priest nor the layman ; for there are as many modes of discharging this duty as there are grades in the social system.

As a member of the human family, and being once an instructor myself, I feel that I have too long neglected this common duty. Many suns and many shades, too, have passed over me, without doing much in the great work of promoting the happiness of my fellow-beings; and if I can make any atonement for this omission, by devoting the necessarily short period of the remnant of my life for the benefit of others, I shall retire to my eternal home with feelings of happiness which I have not enjoyed for years.

With a clear and full view of my duty, I have recently written a work entitled “A synopsis of Popery as it was, and as it is.” It has been well received ; it awakened Americans to a proper sense of their duty. Until then they saw not, they felt not, they dreamed not of, the dangers which threatened their religion and their civil rights, from the stealthy movements of the Church of Rome, and her priests - and bishops in this country. Americans have now a steady and watchful eye upon them. This was necessary, and so far | have done my duty. The - popish presses, which until then, had lulled Americans

INTRODUCTION. Hy)

into fatal repose by their misrepresentations, have been, in a measure, silenced. No one, before me;. dared to encounter their scurrilous abuse. I resolved to silence them; and I have done so. ‘The very mention of my name is a terror to them now; though, until the appearance of my book, there was not a Popish press in the United States which did not weekly, almost daily, abuse me in the most scurrilous manner ; and in my apprehension, a stronger evidence cannot be given of iniquity of Popish priests and bishops who edit those presses, than this very fact.

Protestant writers in the United States have long been kept in check by the bullying and vapouring of Popish priests, when some resolution, and a little tact, might at all times have silenced them. I found no difficulty in muzzling the whole body; and the mode of doing it was suggested to me by a little incident in my own life. Will the reader allow me to relate it?

As soon as I was admitted to the practice of law, I went into partnership with a Mr. Gray, a young gentleman of promising talents and gentlemanly manners. Our office was in one of the upper districts of South Carolina, separated only by a narrow river, from the state of Georgia, where I have resided ever since. There was at the back of our office, a swamp, containing—if we may judge from the noise they made—myriads of frogs, ugly and filthy as the slime from which they sprung. As soon as the sun of heaven retired to its home in the west, and darkness covered the face of the earth and the waters, these frogs set up a most hideous chorus—just. as Papists

6: INTRODUCTION.

have done for more than twenty years, against myself. The noise became a perfect nuisance to me. I felt at a loss how to silence these filthy frogs. I purchased and borrowed every work I could get upon frogs, to see if any remedy had been discovered to abate this nuisance; but all to no purpose. On they went, night after night ; nothing could be heard but croak, croak, croak. Finally, I became impatient, when necessity, which is properly called ‘“‘ the mother of invention,” suggested to me the following remedy, which, I believe, might have been tried before. I procured a well lighted lantern, concealed it under a thick overcoat, went down to the pond, sat patiently on its bank until the frogs commenced their evening chorus; but just as they were upon their highest notes, I uncovered my lantern, and threw its full blaze of light over the whole surface of the pond. Instantly, as if by magic,

“Every frog was at rest, And I heard not a sound.”

It occurred to me that a similar experiment might, with equal advantage, be made upon Papist priests and confessors. JI knew no other living animal or creeping thing so closely resembling these frogs in repulsiveness, as a Romish priest or bishop who hears confessions. I resolved to throw light upon them, and show them to each other and to the world, in their native deformity. I published my book on Popery; I threw the light of my experience, as a Popish priest upon the whole body. The result has

INTRODUCTION. y been entirely satisfactory. Never, since then, has a Popish priest, Popish bishop, or Popish press, published a single sentence against me. How truly it is said in holy writ, “‘ Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” I have resisted Popish priests; they have fled from me; and if the reader will do me the honour of perusing the following pages, he will see that I am still pursuing them in full chase; nor do 1 feel disposed to abandon my pursuit until they renounce allegiance to the Pope of Rome, and become true, peaceable, moral, and well-behaved citizens of the United States.

WILLIAM HOGAN.

AURICULAR CONFESSION

AND

POPISH NUNNERIES.

Wuen a writer acknowledges, in advance, that he cannot relate the whole truth, his position is far from being enviable. It augurs badly for what he writes, and so far places him in a disadvantageous light before the public. This 1s, however, precisely the condition in which I now find myself. Such is the nature of the subject on which I feel it my duty to write,

that I shrink with native abhorrence from relating at least the whole truth. It is repugnant to my feelings,

to my taste, and at variance with the general tone

of my conversation, ever since the God of purity enabled me to disentangle myself from the society of Romish priests and bishops—men whose private lives

and conversation with each other and with their penitents in the confessional, breathe nothing but the

grossest licentiousness and fcetid impurities.

I do not wantonly and without provocation make any expose of the iniquities of Popery. My entire life, since I left them, is evidence of this; but they have pursued me with such persevering malignity and demoniac malice, that further silence would be criminal and disrespectful to my Protestant fellow-citizens, from whom, notwithstanding the malice of Papists towards me, I have always experienced kind attentions and hospitality. Nor should I, even now, allow the subject of Popery to occupy my mind, or taint the current of my thoughts, if I did not see it striding with fearful rapidity over the fair face of this my adopted country, infusing itself into every political nerve and artery of our government, while its members are asleep and dreaming of its future glories.

It is not pleasant for me to contend with Papists, who look upon it as a matter of duty, and as a fundamental article of their faith, to persecute myself and all other heretics. That they should dislike me, is not a matter of surprise; that men whose confessions I have heard, and who have heard mine, should — even dread me, is not to be wondered at. Many of these men deserve (I speak of bishops and priests exclusively) not only public censure, but the gibbet, the dungeon, and the gallows. JI cannot blame men, under these circumstances, for detesting my very name. They are in my power—they tremble in my presence—and were I to blame them for some degree of opposition and dislike to me, I should be quarrelling with that instinct which teaches the profligate and debauchee to shun the society of a virtuous and upright man. While I live among Papists, they are naturally afraid that I should lift the veil which conceals from the eyes of Americans the deformities of Popery. They are in momentary fear that I should show to their American converts, Which Bishop Fenwick of Boston says he ‘is daily making from the, first families,” the Old Lady of Rome in her dishabille. They have long hidden from them her shrivelled, diseased, distorted, and disgusting proportions, and they are unwilling that this painted harlot should be now seen by Americans. This is good policy, and hence much of their opposition to me. A curse seems to have rested upon Rome since its very foundation. _ Pagan, as well as modern Rome, seemed always to delight in deeds of darkness.

We are told in history of a singular practice illustrative of this in ancient Rome. I mention it merely to show the apparent natural fondness of Romanists, ancient as well as modern, for deeds of darkness. It is trifling in itself, and may be deemed, perhaps, irrelevant; but it may be interesting to the historian, whose curiosity extends further than that of theologians or moralists.

The ancient Romans were epicures. Some say they were greater gluttons than those of the present day.—Poultry, of all kinds, was a favourite dish with them, and how to fatten fowl most expeditiously became a question of vital importance with the philosophers of the Eternal City. After several experiments it was found that the best plan was to close up the eyes of geese, turkeys, ducks, and all other kinds of poultry, and, in that condition, cram and stuff them with food. This succeeded admirably. The fowls fattened in less than half the time.

It seems that man was always, as well as now, a progressive animal, and accordingly, as soon as Popery fixed its heagl quarters at Rome or at Antioch, no matter which for the present, Popish bishops commenced a similar experiment upon man. Anxious for his conversion to the infallible church, they determined to close his eyes and compel him to receive from themselves, as so many turkeys and geese would from their feeders, such food as they pleased to give them. They were not to question its quality, but, like so many blinded geese, swallow all that was given them. ‘The practice continues to the present day in the Romish Church; even American converts to Romanism are not to question the quality of the food or spiritual instructions which Popish priests please to give them. Blind obedience is a necessary article of spiritual diet for a convert to Popery; and whether his priest tells him that he must worship God, the Virgin Mary, St. Peter and St. Paul, or the wafer which he carries in his pocket, and calls the body and blood of Christ, he must obey without murmur or inquiry.*

* Here are illustrations of the stuffing process of blind obedience, from Romish authorities. By quoting themselves, the impossibility of cavilling, or a charge of misrepresentation is completely removed.

“‘T acknowledge the Holy Catholic Apostolic Roman Church to be the Mother and Mistress of all Churches, and I promise to swear true obedience to the Pope of Rome, who is the successor of St. Peter, the Prince of the Apostles and Vicar of Jesus Christ.’”’—Creed of Pius IV. Art. 11.

The next Roman authority is no less a person than, (he who has been designated by the Papists,) the Most Rey. Dr. James Butler, who in a catechism, which has been recommended by the four Romish Archbishops of Ireland, as a general text book for the whole kingdom, states in the form of | question and answer, in Lesson 11th, thus :—

POPISH NUNNERIES. ts

This unreasonable, unscriptural, and impious doctrine, is inculcated especially in the confessional.

Q.—Why do you call the Church Roman ?

A.—Because the visible head of the Church is the Bishop of Rome, and because St. Peter and his successors fixed their see in Rome.

Q.—Who is the visible head of the Church?

A.—The Pope who is Christ’s Vicar on earth and the supreme visible head of the Church.

Q.—To whom does the Pope succeed as supreme visible head of the Church ?

A,—To St. Peter, who was chief of the apostles, Christ’s Vicar on earth, and first Pope or Bishop of Rome.

Q.—When was St. Peter made Pope, or head of the Church ?

A,.—Chiefly when Christ said to him, “ Thou art Peter, and upon this rock will I build my Church;” “ And I will give to thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven ;’ Feed my Lambs;” “ Feed my Sheep.”

Q.—What do these texts of Scripture prove >

A.—That Christ committed to St. Peter, and to his lawful successors, the care of his whole flock—that is of the whole Church, both pastors and people.

Q.—Who succeeded to the other Apostles?

A.—The Bishops of the Holy Catholic Church.

@.—Can the Church err in what it teaches?

A.—No; because Christ promised to the pastors of his Church, “ Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.”

Q.—What other advantage have we in the true Church? A.—We have true faith, with the communion of Saints, and the forgiveness of sins.—Apostles’ Creed.

Q.—What means the forgiveness of Sins?

A,—That Christ left to the pastors of the Church the power of forgiving Sins.

In reference to the passages quoted in the above specimen

of blind submission to human authority, it is evident when taken in connection with other passages of Holy Writ, that no

No man, not even a Papist, dared preach in public such a dogma as blind obedience in anything, or to such meaning was intended to be attached to them, as papistical commentators would zealously persuade their too blinded and ignorant followers. The Rock spoken of was Christ himself. On this, argument is truly unnecessary, as the whole tenor of God’s will to man makes reference to Christ alone as the “ Rock” upon which the fabric of christianity was to be erected. It is only needful for the reflecting Protestant, or the Catholic in search of truth, to compare the following passages.—l Cor. xi. 3; Ephes. v. 23; Gen. xlix. 24; Deut. xxx. 15; Psalms cxviii: 22; Isaiah xxviii. 16;° xxx. 2; 1 Cor. x. 4; Matt. xxi, 42,44.

The language and statements of Peter in reference to Christ, is alone quite sufficient to overthrow the dogmatic assumption of Romish blindfolders of deluded men.

Again, it is abundantly evident that the other Apostles did not recognize Peter’s authority or supremacy over them, but acted towards him as a brother and fellow-labourer in the Lord’s work ; for we find them sending him along with John to teach and preach as joint-labourers, and bringing him before them to give an account of his mission to the Gentiles, and rebuking him sharply for dissimulation.—Acts vili. 14; xi. 18; Gal. ii. 9, 14.

It is needless to add one word more as to the illogical deduction attempted to be thrust down the intellectual throats of Romanists, in the catechetical specimen quoted as the Mothership of the Christian Church; but as matter of historical fact we state the following :—

The mother Church was the Church at Jerusalem, which was formed soon after the ascension of Christ; next was formed the Church af Samaria, Acts viii. about a. D. 34; and then the Churches at Cyprus, Phoenicia, and at Antioch, by those Christians who were dispersed in consequence of the persecution that arose about the time of Stephen’s death at Jerusalem. There is no evidence whatever that the Church of Rome was formed by Peter, as the Romanists assign or affirm,

POPISH NUNNERIES. 1S any man. I have always been instructed, while a Catholic priest, never to intimate in public that the Romish Church ever required unconditional submission to her will, unless I was morally certain that all my hearers were by birth and education Roman Catholics; but my orders were positive, and under pain of losing my sacerdotal faculties, never to lose an opportunity of inculcating this in the confessional. There and there alone do Romish priests teach and fasten upon the minds of their penttents, all the iniquities which the Church of Rome sanctions.

If I can satisfy Americans that Auwricular Confession is dangerous to their liberties; if I can show them that it is the source and fountain of many, if not all, those treasons, debaucheries, and other evils, which are now flooding this country, I shall feel that I have done an acceptable work, and some service to the State. I fear, however, that I shall fail

_or by the joint labours of Peter and Paul. In the first Council held at Nice, all other Christian Churches were on an equality with that at Rome; and in the fourth General Council (held at Chalcedon) it was declared that the Church at Constantinople should have equal privileges with that at Rome; because the seat of imperial government was there. Catholic or Universal the Roman Church never was nor is; for ecclesiastical history attests, that both the Asiatic aud African Churches formerly rejected her authority; and also that the Eastern Churches to this day despise her pride and affectation of supremacy. The Waldenses of Piedmont never acknowledged the Pope’s supremacy; aud all the reformed Churches deny his supremacy till this day. This supremacy is a novelty of the seventh century. Thus, the Church of Rome was never the true and entire Church and Spouse of Christ as her only Head, Husband and Lord.

in this; not because what I say is not true, and even admitted to be so, but because Americans seem determined—I would almost say fated—to political and moral destruction.

For twenty years I have warned them of approaching danger, but their politicians were deaf, and their Protestant theologians remained religiously coiled up in fancied security, overrating their own powers and undervaluing that of Papists. ven though they see and feel and often blush at the logical triumph which Popish controversialists have gained, and are gaining over them in every intellectual combat in which they engage, yet such is their love of ease or love of money, or something else, that they cannot be roused until the enemy falls upon them with annihilating force. It is painful to me to see this indifference upon their part. They are better able then I am to contend with Papists. They possess more talents, and have more friends then I have to sustain them. This is the land of their birth. It is not mine, but not the less dear to me. The religion of this country is the religion of their forefathers, and of the Bible; it is peculiarly their duty to defend both.

Nothing could induce me to undertake the present work but the universal approbation which my recent book on Popery has received from the political and religious journals of the country. I should leave it to be done by Protestant theologians. The notices which my book on Popery has received were flattering. They gave me credit for talents, candour, and frankness. But I am in realty entitled to no credit for that book. The utterance of the truths contained

POPISH NUNNERIES. LT in it was a spontaneous emotion. It was (if I may use such language) but the breaking loose of some moral iceberg, which for years lay heavily on my soul. It was a sort of inspiration fanned into a blaze, by an irresistible consciousness that I had too long neglected a duty which I owed to my God and my adopted country. But I now feel relieved, and willing to enlist in the cause of morals and civil rights. : The following pages, I apprehend, will appear to some of rather a random and fugitive character. It will be said that much of the matter is irrelevant— that I fly too rapidly from one subject to another. To such men I will say, that they know very little of Romish intellectual tactics. A well trained reverend Romish soldier cares little about the polish of his armour, or whether he aims his blows according to the system of this or that commander. He steps into the battle arena in his lightest armour, and with his sharpest weapon. <A Protestant theologian meets him, with a face as solemn as if he was accompanying to the grave all that was dear to him, wearing his heaviest coat of mail, and armed with claymores and battle-axes. While the latter is wasting his strength upon the desert air, and aiming his harmless blows at every spot but the right one, the Papist goads him to death; and seldom fails to obtain the crown of victory from the spectators. Many Protestants who are in the habit of contending with Papists in this manner, will disapprove of this book; but I trust that in differing from them in my mode of warfare with Papists, they will on reflection see, that, although they may be right, lam not wrong. I shall, therefore, 2 beg leave to pursue my own course. I will give my ideas to the public just as they strike me, fresh from my own mind, with no regard whatever, to style, ornament, or criticism; and I am vain enough to wish that all controversialists; and even all Protestant and Popish writers should pursue a similar course. We should then have more truth in controversy, more soul, and more sterling morality in religion. All that is artistical and pedantic would be exploded, and truth, fresh and warm from the heart, would be substituted in their place.

Every crime, as I have stated before, eee the Romish church sanctions, and almost all the immoralities of its members, either originate in, or have some connection with, Auricular Confession ; and in order to explain this to my readers, it will be necessary for me to go back and state the causes which first induced me to doubt the bles hidhaes of the Romish church.

I have been often asked the following questions :— Why did you leave the Roman Catholic Church? Before I answer this question, I may well exclaim, in the language of the ancient poet, omitting only one word, “Oh! nefandum, jubes, renovare dolorem.” But however painful the relation may be —however offensive to the ears of the virtuous and chaste— however disgusting to the pious and moral portion of our community —however at variance with the elegances and formalities of private life—however heavily such a narrative may fall upon Roman priests and bishops, and disreputable it may be to Nuns and Nunneries, I will answer the above question, so often a er ee and so frankly put to me by many, even of my personal friends.

Several causes have contributed to induce me to doubt the infallibility of the Popish Church, and to renounce its ministry altogether. Among the first was the following :

When quite young, and but just emerging from childhood, I became acquainted with a Protestant family, living in the neighbourhood of my birth-place. It consisted of a mother (a widow lady) and three interesting children, two sons and one daughter. The mother was a widow, a lady of great beauty and rare accomplishments. The husband, who had but recently died, one of the many victims of what is falsely called honor, left her as he found her, in the possession of a large fortune, and, as far as worldly goods could make her so, in the enjoyment of perfect happiness. But his premature death threw a gloom over her future life, which neither riches nor wealth, nor all worldly comforts combined together, could effectually dissipate. Her only pleasure seemed to be placed in that of her children. ‘hey appeared —and I believe they really were—the centre and circumference of her earthly happiness.

In the course of time the sons grew up, and their guardian purchased for both, in compliance with their wishes, and to gratify their youthful ambition, commissions in the army. ‘The parting of these children —the breaking up of this fond trio of brothers and sister, was to the widowed mother another source of grief, and tended to concentrate, if possible, more closely, all the fond affections of the mother upon the

Q daughter. She became the joy of her heart. Her education while a child was an object of great solicitude, and having a fortune at her command, no expense was spared to render it suitable for that station in life, in which her high connections entitled her to move when she should become of age. The whole family were members of the Protestant Church, as the Episcopal Church is called in that country. As soon as the sous left home to join their respective regiments, which were then on the Continent, the mother and daughter were much alone, so much so, that the fond mother soon discovered, that her too great affection for her child, and the indulgence given to her were rather impeding than otherwise her education.* She accordingly determined to remove her

* In the text we have no information afforded us as to the persons who acted as the instruments advising to this baneful proceeding; we may, however, infer that the parties blameable were either priestly or lay members of the Society of the Jesuits. It cannot for a moment be assumed that right minded Protestants of any sect would be willing actors in such a measure. In the secret instructions of the order of the Jesuits, we have the grotnd work of their course of action thus defined as to how widows’ children are to be treated, to induce them to embrace a religious life :—

* As Mothers must act vigorously in this case, while gentleness characterizes our Members, they will instruct them to censure and chasten the children from the tenderest age, and when the daughters are growing up, to refuse them all that is attractive in dress, praying that God may dispose them to a religious life, and promising them considerable portions if they become Nuns. The mothers must press upon them the difficulties of the marriage state, with the miseries they have endured themselves. and let them persevere in this discipline, that the children tired of leading such a life at home, may

POPISH NUNNERIES. , Q1 governness, who up to this period was her sole mstructress, under the watchful eye of the fond and accomplished mother herself, and send her to a fashionable school for young ladies. There was then in the neighbourheod only about twenty miles from this family, a Nunnery of the order of Jesuits. To this nunnery was attached a school superintended by nuns of that order. The school was one of the most fashionable in the country. The nuns who presided over it, were said to be the most accomplished teachers in Europe. The expenses of an education in it were extravagantly high, but not beyond the reach of wealth and fashion. The mother, though a Protestant, and strict and conscientious in the discharge _of all the duties of her church, and not without a struggle in parting with her child and consigning her to the charge of Jesuits, yielding in this case to the malign influence of fashion, as many a fond mother does even in this our own land of equal rights and far-famed though mock equality —sent her beautiful daughter, her earthly idol, to the school of these nuns. Let the result speak for itself.

Up to the departure of the sons for the army, and this daughter for the nunnery, I had been ever from my infancy acquainted with this family, and had for them the highest respect and warmest attachment. enter upon a religious one.” [Secret Instructions, cap. Vili, sec. i.]

These enemies of mankind talk of the difficulties of the marriage state as an allurement to the minds of women; but when within their grasp they hesitate not to seduce and debauch;, and that their impurity and moral torpitude may be the more effectually concealed ——they murder their victims!

Q2 AURICULAR CONFESSION AND

The elder brother was about my own age, and only a few years between the eldest and the youngest child.

Soon after the daughter was sent to school, I entered the College of Maynooth as a theological student, and in due time was ordained a Roman Catholic Priest, by particular dispensation, being two. years under the canonical age.* An interval of some years passed before I had an opportunity of meeting my young friend again; our interview was under