Dominicus Soto, a very famous canonist and theologian, confessor to
Charles V, present at the first meetings of the Council of Trent under
Paul III, propounds a question about a man who had lost a paper on which
he had written down his sins. It happened that this paper fell into the
hands of an ecclesiastical judge, who wished to put in information
against the writer on the strength of this document. Now this judge was
justly punished by his superior, because confession is so sacred that
even that which is destined to constitute the confession should be
wrapped in eternal silence. In accordance with this precedent, the
following judgment, reported in the 'Traite des Confesseurs', was given
by Roderic Acugno. A Catalonian, native of Barcelona, who was condemned
to death for homicide and owned his guilt, refused to confess when the
hour of punishment arrived. However strongly pressed, he resisted, and
so violently, giving no reason, that all were persuaded that his mind
was unhinged by the fear of death. Saint-Thomas of Villeneuve,
Archbishop of Valencia, heard of his obstinacy. Valencia was the place
where his sentence was given. The worthy prelate was so charitable as to
try to persuade the criminal to make his confession, so as not to lose
his soul as well as his body. Great was his surprise, when he asked the
reason of the refusal, to hear the doomed man declare that he hated
confessors, because he had been condemned through the treachery of his
own priest, who was the only person who knew about the murder. In
confession he had admitted his crime and said where the body was buried,
and all about it; his confessor had revealed it all, and he could not
deny it, and so he had been condemned. He had only just learned, what he
did not know at the time he confessed, that his confessor was the
brother of the man he had killed, and that the desire for vengeance had
prompted the bad priest to betray his confession. Saint-Thomas, hearing
this, thought that this incident was of more importance than the trial,
which concerned the life of only one person, whereas the honour of
religion was at stake, with consequences infinitely more important. He
felt he must verify this statement, and summoned the confessor. When he
had admitted the breach of faith, the judges were obliged to revoke
their sentence and pardon the criminal, much to the gratification of the
public mind. The confessor was adjudged a very severe penance, which
Saint-Thomas modified because of his prompt avowal of his fault, and
still more because he had given an opportunity for the public exhibition
of that reverence which judges themselves are bound to pay to
confessions.