CELIBACY AND MORALS.--Illicit relations formed by the clergy--Shameless
avowal of their fruits--Ferocious character of love in the
cloisters--Three flagrant cases--Murder of a young lady by her confessor,
the Carmelite of San Lucar--His trial and sentence--Murder by a wife of
her husband under the direction of her confessor, the Capuchine of
Cuenca--His trial, imprisonment, and escape--Murder of a lady by the
Agonizante of Madrid--His trial and execution--Scandalous occurrences in
the Convent of the Basilios of Madrid--Forcible entry of the civil
power--Murder of the abbot--Suppression of inquiry--Shameful profligacy
of the Capuchines of Cascante and the nuns of a neighbouring
convent--Mode of its discovery--Imprisonment of inmates of both
convents--Removal of prisoners--Their mysterious escape--Exemplary
performance of vows in some cases--Dangers of celibacy--Spanish women and
their influence on society.
Religious celibacy has been justly censured, by true Christians, as
opposed to the ends of creation, to the spirit of the gospel, and the
good order of human society. If so severe a prohibition can scarcely be
observed without great mortification and inconvenience by a few,--a very
small number of men, endued with an aptitude which places them above the
ordinary laws of humanity,--what shall we say to the possibility of its
exercise by men with no such fitness for the task,--men of a nation whose
very climate is incessantly soliciting the expansion of the sensual
faculties,--a nation of whose social organization frequent intercourse in
all the affairs of life between the two sexes is one of the most
essential and necessary elements? We have already alluded to the state
of concubinage in which the Spanish clergy were living prior to the reign
of Isabella the Catholic. But we shall not be guilty of an injustice in
admitting, that from that period until our own times a great number of
the Spanish clergy, as well regular as secular, have borne the yoke with
singular patience, and have, with exemplary self-denial, resigned
themselves to the severe privation imposed upon them by that ordinance of
their church. On the other hand, however, we cannot dissimulate the
violent struggle between inclination and duty which they have had to
sustain, and the immense difficulty of resisting a temptation which the
frequent intercourse with the female portion of their charge has always
offered to the clergy and friars in the discharge of their functions,
especially when it is considered how prodigal nature has been to the
women of the Peninsula in the bestowment of her richest personal
attractions, and that great facilities have been given to the spiritual
guides for the abuse of that _prestige_ conferred upon them by the habit
of their order.
In large towns, the presence of the bishops, and the respect which a
polished and select society inspired, were, for the most part, a check on
the impure inclinations of the clergy, even when their own sense of
virtue and religion was insufficient to lead them to a spontaneous
compliance with their arduous but sacred duty. But in small towns where
these barriers did not exist, the clergy and friars, it must be admitted,
infringed, and continued grossly to infringe, frequently in a scandalous
manner, the vow of celibacy which they had solemnly sworn to observe.
The priest of a rural parish, who was generally the most important
personage of the whole population, had so frequent and such dangerous
opportunities of forming relations of an illicit character with the
weaker sex, that he required a proportionate degree of sanctity, virtue,
and prudence, to resist them. These relations, however, be it said to
the shame of Spain, once formed, are not concealed, but are generally
openly and unblushingly made known to the public. All the towns-people
know very well the person who is the priest's _querida_; {75} nay more,
on many occasions they have recourse to her influence over the mind of
their pastor; and even the fruits of these illicit relations are commonly
known throughout the parish by the name of "the children of the priest!"
(_los hijos del cura_.)
Not many years ago, in a small town in Valencia, and on a Sunday, the
parishioners assembled in the square according to custom, waiting till
the bell should announce to them the hour of entering the church to hear
mass; hour after hour passed--no bell sounded--the people directed their
steps towards the house of the priest's _querida_, where they found that
he had passed the night in orgies of drunkenness and dissipation, and
was, even then, in a state of intoxication.
It is worthy of note, as a remarkable circumstance, borne out by
experience and by facts well authenticated, that the softer passion of
the mind is, generally, in the cloisters, one of a cruel and ferocious
character, quite incompatible with its natural essence. The archives of
the Spanish tribunals abound with criminal proceedings against friars,
for murders committed on the persons of their unhappy victims or
paramours. There are three celebrated instances of this kind,--one
against the Carmelite of San Lucar, another against the Capuchine of
Cuenca, and the third against the Agonizante of Madrid.
The first of these notorious delinquents was a man of middle age, robust,
strong, and who, until the event now referred to, had not given occasion
for the least suspicion as to his morality. A young lady, of
extraordinary beauty, and held in great esteem by all the towns-people
for the purity of her conduct and the sanctity of her life, used
frequently to attend the confessional of this Carmelite friar. He
conceived for her, secretly, a violent passion, which he kept up and
fostered through the constant interviews which his vocation afforded him
in gaining the unlimited confidence of his penitent. But he contrived,
with incredible command over himself, to suppress his feelings. He never
uttered one word to the young creature which could indicate to her the
risks she was incurring in seeking for his guidance and blessing. One
day, however, she appeared before him on her knees at his confessional,
and, with a simplicity and sweetness, such as innocence alone can
command, informed him that, with the advice and consent of her parents,
she was about to enter into the married state, and now came before him,
as her spiritual father, to prepare herself for so important an ordinance
by the previous sacraments of confession, absolution, and the holy
communion. The friar heard this simple statement, received the child's
confession, little as that amounted to, pronounced upon her the
absolution, and administered to her the eucharist, without betraying the
least perturbation or confusion in his countenance. On rising from her
knees, as pure, as holy, and as fully and freely pardoned from sin as her
fond and simple mind imagined it was in the power of her church and its
minister to make her, the friar said he wished her to go to the vestibule
(_porteria_ {77}), where he would give her some counsel relative to the
new state into which she was about to enter. The unsuspecting girl
blindly obeyed the voice which had often before directed her in the ways
of virtue; she rose, went to the indicated spot, where already stood the
friar, who, without uttering one word, drew from his bosom a poniard, and
thrust it into the heart of his ill-fated victim, who fell mortally
wounded at his feet. With the utmost coolness, the assassin retired to
his cell, wiping the gory blade on the sleeve of his habit, as if he had
been performing a most innocent deed. The alarm was immediately given.
The friar was arrested and thrown into prison. Proceedings were
commenced, and supported by evidence which left no doubt as to the author
of the crime, and the circumstances under which it was committed. The
public prosecutor (fiscal) moved the court for the extreme penalty of
death; but against this sentence arose a strenuous opposition on the part
of the bishops, who pretended, in the first place, that the crime was one
which ought only to be judged by the ecclesiastical authority, and in the
second, that in no case could the penalty of death be inflicted on a
priest. The contest was carried to the government for its decision, and
the minister, Campomanes, a zealous defender of the sovereign's rights,
as well as a constant enemy to the usurpations of the clergy, confirmed
the jurisdiction of the civil power which had heard the cause, and
declared that the Spanish legislature offered no impediment to the
execution of the last penalty of the law, if the judges found sufficient
grounds to warrant them in awarding it. The judges did so find, and
pronounced sentence accordingly; but the king, Charles III., commuted the
sentence to perpetual banishment and imprisonment. The assassin was
conducted to Puerto Rico, where he ended his life, weighed down by
remorse, though his hours were consecrated to penitence and prayer.
The history of the second case, viz., that of the Capuchine of Cuenca,
bears a still more scandalous and atrocious character. The unhallowed
passions of this great criminal had their origin also in the
confessional. The accomplice of his wickedness was, too, his "daughter
of confession," (_hija de confesion_. {78}) She was the wife of a
carpenter of respectable character, who, not content with the influence
which the friar exercised over the conscience of his wife, wished that
influence might also be brought to bear over the concerns of his own
modest household, and therefore frequently invited the friar to his
table. The latter and his _querida_, unknown to the confiding carpenter,
passed some years in a total abandonment of themselves to vicious
courses. The friar began, subsequently, to imagine he observed a certain
coldness or indifference on the part of his companion in guilt, and,
attributing that change to a feeling of the woman's self-disgust and
reproach, he had recourse to the most diabolical means of searing her
conscience, and making her still more the associate of his depravity:
indeed, it is not possible even to read without horror of the abominable
artifices to which this monster of iniquity had recourse, although these
were all minutely detailed in the written charges brought against him at
his trial, and were deposed to by the woman herself, she being fully
corroborated by the testimony of other witnesses secreted in a part of
the house from whence his revolting conduct was both seen and heard. One
step in the path of immorality and crime too often leads on to another.
The friar at length imagined that the woman's indifference arose from
some latent spark of affection which she still bore to her husband, and
he resolved on sacrificing the life of the unfortunate man whose
connubial rights seemed to stand in his way. Full of impatience for the
consummation of the diabolical project when once he had determined on its
execution, and having given to his victim a strong soporific, which threw
him into a heavy sleep, he proceeds to urge on the faithless wife to the
act of stabbing her unconscious husband. This tragedy she performed with
one of the unhappy man's own instruments of trade, under the guidance of
the friar, who first ascertained and indicated to her, by the pulsations
of the doomed man's heart, the exact spot into which she was to give the
instrument its fatal plunge.
The extreme docility of the woman in the hands of the friar, as disclosed
in the evidence, can only be explained by the absolute control which he
held over her conscience and her will; and, doubtless, even that control
arrived at such a pitch, that, at last, the yoke became insupportable, if
we may judge from the declarations which she made during the trial, for
she appeared to take credit to herself for the revelations which she then
made of all the disgusting particulars connected with the crimes of that
detestable culprit.
Immediately after the perpetration of the crime, the civil power seized
the persons of both the guilty parties, and began to prosecute judicial
inquiries, with the greatest secrecy, under the clandestine supervision
of the bishop. The proceedings were prolonged to an indefinite period,
until the friar had been six years in prison, within which interval the
woman died. In a popular commotion which occurred in Cuenca in
consequence of an invasion by the French, all prisoners were set at
liberty, and this execrable miscreant disappeared.
The _Agonizante_ of Madrid {81} (which is the third case) also murdered
the companion of his vices, on her own bed too, in which they had passed
the preceding night. The true motive of this murder could never be
satisfactorily ascertained. But the friar having been taken _in
flagrante_, the judges could not hesitate for a moment in passing
sentence of death upon him. All the Spanish clergy had recourse to
Ferdinand VII., and used their utmost influence to obtain a pardon, or at
least a commutation of the sentence; but the king was inflexible, and the
criminal died at the hands of the executioner, by the _garrote_, in the
Plazuela de la Cebada, in Madrid.
Under the same reign of Ferdinand VII., the Convent of the Basilios of
Madrid was the theatre of most scandalous and sanguinary atrocities,
which had their origin in the relaxed manners of the inhabitants of that
establishment. The friars were accustomed to introduce by night into the
cloisters women of ill fame, and this custom had grown into something
like a right or privilege, which the friars were resolved to maintain at
all hazards, as it was afterwards proved; for the abbot, who until then
had connived at these irregularities, wished all of a sudden to adopt a
system of the utmost rigour and discipline, and to reduce the friars to
the severe observances of their order. The convent was situated in the
most populous part of Madrid. One night in the year 1832, loud screams
were heard by the inhabitants of the opposite houses, and by people who
were passing in the streets. The civil authorities were called to the
spot, and informed of the circumstances. They demanded entrance at the
doors of the convent, but the friars refused to comply. Force became
necessary. The gates were broken open, and the officers rushed in. All,
however, that the public could ever learn of that nocturnal invasion was
simply that the head of the unfortunate abbot was found in one cell, and
his trunk in another. Ferdinand VII. did not on that occasion display
the same degree of indignation and severity as he had done towards the
Agonizante. He was at that moment in all the plenitude of his despotic
power, and this mysterious affair of the convent of the Basilios was
buried in the most profound oblivion.
These terms of harmony have always existed between the Spanish monarchs
and the clergy, who have been accustomed to lend themselves,
reciprocally, to the interests and persecutions of each other; and hence
it is that a great number of crimes similar to that just referred to has
never before been brought to light. Some of these, however, have been of
such a nature and magnitude, and accompanied with such extraordinary
circumstances, that, in spite of the efforts made by the clergy to
conceal them, they have not altogether eluded the public curiosity. To
this class belongs the celebrated case of the Capuchines of Cascante, the
recollection of which is traditionally preserved, and is still the
subject of many a conversation, although to the present day we are not
aware of any account that has been published on the subject of that
shameful transaction. There still exist those who either were children
in the time of Charles III., or who heard, from the lips of their fathers
or grandfathers, all the particulars of that flagrant case, as well as of
the extraordinary sensation which the discoveries then made produced on
the public mind. The facts, which appear indisputable, are
these:--Towards the middle of the reign of that sovereign, a prelate of
one of the districts of the province of Arragon had good reason to
believe that there existed intimate and criminal relations between the
nuns and the friars of two convents situated in the same town. It had
been observed that the number of foundlings had been for some time
considerably on the increase, many of which were left, by persons
unknown, in the houses of poor women, who received with them very
considerable sums of money. At first, no suspicion whatever fell on the
friars, who continued their offices of preaching, saying mass, confessing
penitents, and giving ostentatious indications of their leading humble
and ascetic lives. A diligent watch was instituted by the authorities,
but as far as exterior observances went, there was no reason to believe
that any suspicious persons from without ever entered the convent of the
nuns; it was therefore thought right to have an internal examination of
that convent, a measure never had recourse to by the authorities but on
occasions of the gravest kind.
The result of this step was, that in the interior of the edifice was
discovered a door leading to a subterranean passage or tunnel which
crossed underneath the principal street of the town, and led direct to
the convent of the Capuchines. All the inmates of both establishments
were immediately taken prisoners; a judicial examination followed, when
it was found that for many years the societies of these two convents had
been living in a state of concubinage,--that even the outward doors of
the two houses were seldom shut at night,--that the friars had free
ingress to the convent of the nuns, where both sexes gave themselves up
to the most dissolute abandonment in drunkenness, gluttony, debauchery,
and all sorts of carnal excesses. The authorities found more than they
had expected, and began to repent the course they had taken. The trials,
however, were pushed forward apparently with all usual formalities, but
the judges were exclusively ecclesiastics, and everything was conducted
with profound caution and secrecy. The prisoners were removed to several
towns in Arragon, and kept apart from each other, in different cells; but
in one single night they all disappeared, and were never afterwards heard
of. The only part which the civil authority took in this mysterious
affair was to command the two convents to be pulled down, and salt to be
sown on their foundations,--a ceremony which was accordingly performed,
and one which the laws of Spain then required as to all houses which had
been the scene of any atrocious offence.
It may hardly be necessary to reiterate what we have already more than
once insisted on, as a well authenticated fact, that in the midst of all
such irregularities and crimes as those detailed to show the unnatural
and violent character of celibacy in the clergy, there always have been,
in Spain, a large number of persons of both sexes, who have been
privileged to take up and bear this cross of privation with singular
resignation and constancy. But those efforts on the side of virtue, that
perpetual conflict with sentiments most grateful to the human heart,--and
that separation of an entire class, constituted in society self-acting,
without any relation of endearment towards a general society,--may be
considered as some of the grave inconveniences of Roman Catholicism, or
rather as some of the most formidable obstacles which that faith opposes
to the regular habits and to the peace of families.
The dangers of celibacy in the clergy are perhaps more serious and more
inevitable in Spain than in any other country of Europe. The Spanish
nation is, generally, renowned for its chivalrous sentiments, for the
violence of the tender passions, and for the influence which the fair sex
exercises, not only in all the domestic but in the civil and political
relations of life. There is, in the society of the Spanish lady, a
distinctive feature of character, called _franqueza_, which, above all
others, gives her the greatest charm in the eyes of a foreigner. She is
eminently sociable, and is the life and essence of Spanish society, in
which she maintains an imperium over all tastes, affections, and
operations. Besides this, it is the universal custom of Spaniards to be
constantly going in and out of one another's houses without ceremony or
invitation; and this frequent contact with Spanish women, generally
pretty, but almost always amiable and graceful, naturally produces
intimate relations, and not unfrequently reciprocal attachments. One may
conceive of such a thing as a cold, repulsive resistance to such
attractions in the dreariness of a desert, or even within the four walls
of a cell; but when such influences are not merely occasionally, but
unceasingly brought to bear upon the senses, they too often leave
impressions which, by a law of our sinful nature, are capable of
reciprocating so as to produce their corresponding effects. Hence
humanity, unless upheld and strengthened by a superior power, is too
often insufficient and prone to give up the contest.
In Spain, the inferior classes of society have always, until of late,
submitted not only to the influence but to the authority of a priest or a
friar; and it may well be conceived how easy it is to abuse this power in
the intercourse which such functionaries have with ignorant and weak
persons. In small towns, the inhabitants of which are devoted
exclusively to labour, fathers and husbands pass the entire day in the
fields, whilst the priest remains at home without a witness of his
conduct or his actions. No domestic hearth is at liberty to exclude him.
He is authorised by custom to enter all houses, at all hours, where he is
received and treated almost as a god. These are facts which can be
vouched by all Spaniards, by whom they are spoken of without the least
reserve. In laying them before the English public, we disavow all idea
of calumniating an entire class of Spanish society. Our object is to
point out one of the causes which, in our opinion, enters into the number
of those which, most effectively, have contributed to the decline of so
sensible and generous a nation.