of the Popish church, and the gratification of the unruly appetites of its ministers; being endowed and supported from the public purse, it ought to be prosecuted and put down by the society for the suppression of vice. The tables of both Houses of Parliament ought to groan with petitions praying for its immediate suppression. One wide burst of indignation ought to be heard throughout the entire land at its enormities.— Well has Popery been designated by the unerring voice of the Christian prophet, the "Mother of abominations." Born in ignorance, she is fed by an impure, immoral, and brutalizing superstition; and her very existence depends upon the iniquitous seal of secresy with which Satan teaches her to cloak her filthy impurities. Had a fiftieth part of the horrible, disgusting, and revolting depravities and brutalising abominations been shewn as connected with, and inseparable from, the tenets of any religious party (however numerous) in England, they would long since have been consigned to universal execration, instead of being afforded the means of increasing their strength by annual grants of the public money. I am convinced that if the Protestant people of England were but fully aware of the enormities of Maynooth, they would demand of their representatives in Parliament, in a voice of thunder, its immediate suppression. That they know almost nothing of its enormities, is the reason why the College of Maynooth has not only been tolerated, but even supported; had they been acquainted with its indecencies, impurities and immoralities, they would long since have demanded its total extinction as an insupportable nuisance. The horrors of negro slavery were trivial compared to the brutalising slavery of Maynooth. The foul rites of Buddism fall very very far short of the impurities of the Confessional, as contained and inculcated in the class-books of that den of filth and iniquity-the Popish College of Maynooth-a college endowed and supported from the public purse. How can the British public be so horrified at the recital of the corrupt rites of Eastern idolaters, and forget the still more flagrant impurities at home. They should endeavour to purge themselves from the pollution, lest they become "Drunk with the wine of her fornications, and be made partakers of her plagues." : MAYNOOTH THEOLOGY THE SEAL OF CONFESSION. THE Seal of Confession is the obligation of concealing whatever may be learned at confession. In the Maynooth class book the inviolability of the Seal of Confession is held to be of vital importance, as upon it depends the existence of the Confessional itself; to which Popery is more indebted for its long continued thraldom, both over the minds and bodies of its unhappy and deluded victims, than to any other of its numerous satanic devices. To preserve the secrecy of the Seal it is laid down in the Maynooth class book "that if a Priest were examined by a magistrate or judge relative to anything with which he became acquainted at Confession, he is bound to answer that he is ignorant of it, nay more, swear so, without any danger of incurring the guilt of falsehood. The reason is according to Estius, that he neither falsifies or equivocates who answers to the intention of the examiner and tells nothing but truth, and a Priest acts thus in the above mentioned case, for the judge does not enquire of him what he learns by confession, since in the Confessional he performs the part of God, but what he knows as man, and therefore out of the Confessional. With Estius all Theologians agree. Si Sacerdos a Magistratu interrogetur de iis quorum notitiam ex sola confessione habuit, reponere debet se nescire, imo hoc ipsum jurare, absque ullo mendacii periculo. Ratio est juxta Estium, quia nec mentitur nec in æquivoco ludit qui ad mentem interrogantis respondet et nihil nisi verum profert; atqui ita se habet sacerdos in præfato casu, namque ab illo non quærit judex quid scit via Confessionis quatenus, Dei vices agit, sed quid noverit quatenus homo, proindeque extra confessionem. Estio assentiuntur omnes Theologi. But if the judge were to press and further ask the Priest whether he knew any particular act from confession; some say that the answer of the Priest ought to be the same, although confirmed by an oath, that he knew nothing of the things about which he was examined; because whether the judge wishes it or not, he can only examine the confessor as a man. Quod si judex urgeret et ulterius a sacerdote quæreret an hoc vel illud ex confessione noverit. Nonnulli dicunt eamdem esse posse sacerdotis responsionem, etiam juramento confirmatam, se nihil scire de iis de quibus interrogatur; quia (inquiunt) velit nolitve judex, confessarium interrogare non potest nisi quatenus hominem."-Tractatus de pœnitentia.-Pages 292-293. The Rev. Dr. Doyle, the late Roman Catholic Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, gave the following testimony relative to the Seal of Confession, before a Committee of the Lords in the year 1825-Question. "Would a priest think himself justified, in case he received in confession a knowledge of an intended crime, to take any measure by which he could prevent the execution of that crime?" Ans. "No, he cannot, more than the means he uses with the individuals themselves." Ques. "Could not he warn the person against whom the crime is intended to be committed?"-Ans. " He cannot; we adopt, with regard to the secret of confession, an expression of St. Augustin's; his Latin is very bad, but it expresses our sentiment very strongly 'Plus ignorat quod sacerdos a peccatore audit quam quod nescit.'-Ques. "When crimes, such as murder or treason, are revealed in confession, is the confessor bound not to disclose that?"-Ans. "He is bound not to disclose it in any case whatever."-Printed Report, p. 396. The evidence of the Rev. Dr. M'Gaurin, late Roman Catholic Bishop of Ardagh, is almost similar :-Ques. "Are not the parties who commit a murder, generally known to the priest ?"-Ans. "I do not think they are."-Ques. Supposing it were stated to him, in confession, would the priest think it consistent with his duty to divulge any part of a communication which |
