Here we found the instruments of torture, of every kind which the
ingenuity of men or devils could invent. Col. L. here described four of
these horrid instruments. The first was a machine by which the victim
was confined, and then, beginning with the fingers, every joint in the
hands, arms, and body, were broken or drawn one after another, until
the victim died. The second was a box, in which the head and neck of the
victim were so closely confined by a screw that he could not move in any
way. Over the box was a vessel, from which one drop of water a second
fell upon the head of the victim--every successive drop falling upon
precisely the same place on the head, suspended the circulation in a few
moments, and put the sufferer in the most excruciating agony. The third
was an infernal machine, laid horizontally, to which the victim was
bound; the machine then being placed between two beams, in which were
scores of knives so fixed that, by turning the machine with a crank, the
flesh of the sufferer was torn from his limbs all in small pieces. The
fourth surpassed the others in fiendish ingenuity. Its exterior was
a beautiful woman, or large doll, richly dressed, with arms extended,
ready to embrace its victim. Around her feet a semi-circle was drawn.
The victim who passed over this fatal mark, touched a spring, which
caused the diabolical engine to open; its arms clasped him, and a
thousand knives cut him into as many pieces in the deadly embrace.
Col. L. said that the sight of these engines of infernal cruelty kindled
the rage of the soldiers to fury. They declared that every inquisitor
and soldier of the inquisition should be put to the torture. Their rage
was ungovernable. Col. L. did not oppose them; they might have turned
their arms against him, if he had attempted to arrest their work. They
began with the holy fathers. The first they put to death in the machine
for breaking joints. The torture of the inquisitor put to death by the
dropping of water on his head was most excruciating. The poor man cried
out in agony to be taken from the fatal machine. The inquisitor general
was brought before the infernal engine called "The Virgin." He begs to
be excused. "No," said they "you have caused others to kiss her, and
now you must do it." They interlocked their bayonets so as to form large
forks, and with these pushed him over the deadly circle. The beautiful
image instantly prepared for the embrace, clasped him in its arms, and
he was cut into innumerable pieces. Col. L. said, that he witnessed the
torture of four of them--his heart sickened at the awful scene--and he
left the soldiers to wreak their vengeance on the last guilty inmate of
that prison-house of hell.
In the mean time it was reported through Madrid that the prisons of the
Inquisition were broken open, and multitudes hastened to the fatal spot.
And oh, what a meeting was there! It was like a resurrection! About a
hundred who had been buried for many years were now restored to life.
There were fathers who found their long lost daughters; wives were
restored to their husbands, sisters to their brothers, and parents to
their children; and there were some who could recognize no friend among
the multitude. The scene was such as no tongue can describe.
When the multitude had retired, Col. L. caused the library, paintings,
furniture, &c., to be removed, and having sent to the city for a wagon
load of powder, he deposited a large quantity in the vaults beneath
the building, and placed a slow match in connection with it. All had
withdrawn at a distance, and in a few moments there was a most joyful
sight to thousands. The walls and turrets of the massive structure rose
majestically towards the heavens, impelled by the tremendous explosion,
and fell back to the earth an immense heap of ruins. The Inquisition was
no more!--_Phil Christ. Obs_.
AURICULAR CONFESSION and POPISH NUNNERIES, Volume II.
By William Hogan
1854.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND VOLUME.
A close observer of the past and present religious and political
condition of this country, cannot fail to see an evident and manifest
change in both, especially during the last ten or twenty years. It may
not appear as plain to those who have always resided upon the soil,
as it does to others, who have only been naturalized or incorporated
amongst them. This is not to be wondered at It is almost natural that
it should be so. A parent, who is accustomed to see his child every day,
and perhaps every hour in the day, cannot always perceive how fast
he grows in height and size. A stranger, who only sees him at distant
intervals, will perceive the change much sooner. The child will grow,
and acquire almost the attitudes and proportions of manhood, before the
parents can realize the fact that he is no longer a child, but a full
grown man. It is undoubtedly upon some similar principle, we can
account for the fact that Americans do not see, as soon as others among
them, the fatal change which is progressively, but steadily and surely,
taking place in the political and religious condition of this country.
If I am correct in my own observations upon events as they whirl past
me with almost dazzling rapidity, there is something wrong amongst
us,--something is "rotten in Denmark,"--some cogs are out of place, or
out of proportion, in the machinery of our moral and political systems.
Some foreign elements must have been surreptitiously thrown in and mixed
up with them, which have deranged all their operations.
It is, in my apprehension, the duty of every man who values freedom
of thought, freedom of speech, and the free exercise of religion, to
examine and see what is the cause of this derangement, which retards and
disturbs our happiness, as Christians and as citizens. What has swelled
and rendered turgent and muddy those sweet and gently-flowing streams of
peace and brotherly love, on the banks of which, the early settlers
of this country used to sit for days undisturbed, singing praises and
hallelujahs to Jehovah, who delivered them, in his great mercy, from
lands of bondage, tyranny, and idolatry.
I have looked into the subject; I have examined, with all the care and
diligence in my power, the reasons and causes why free-born Americans
were not advancing more rapidly both in political science and practical
piety; and the result of my most anxious, diligent, and impartial
inquiry is, that it is attributable solely to the introduction of Popery
among them, and the consequent direct and indirect interference of the
Court of Rome with our government The royal Pope of Rome, (as I have
heretofore demonstrated to the satisfaction of every man whose eyes and
ears were not closed against truth,) claims jurisdiction, spiritual
and temporal, over the kingdoms of this world; and his untiring and
obstinate efforts to obtain an universal acknowledgment of this mad and
presumptuous claim, has occasioned, and is now producing, (even in this
country,) more strife, and contributes more to the decay of religious
and even political ethics, than any other circumstance recorded in the
history of the human race.
There have been but few, if any, on the long list of Popes and
Anti-Popes, who were not themselves dabblers and traffickers in
politics; and there is scarcely one among them whose private history
does not show him to be an abettor and an accomplice in the vilest
crimes and immoralities; so much and so deeply so, that we are astounded
at the single inquiry how such characters could ever have obtained
influence over any portion of their fellow-beings. This, however, is
not a matter of surprise to me, nor does such an inquiry form any
considerable portion of the following pages; but what more than astounds
me, is, how Romish Popes and priests could, by any species of jugglery
or legerdemain, deceive and impose upon the cool, reflecting, and
calculating citizens of the United States: but reflection might have
taught me better.
So expert and versed in moral and political jugglery are Popes, bishops,
and priests, that they must be closely watched, otherwise their artful
practices will deceive the most intelligent spectators; unless there may
be amongst them, perchance, some individual who has been trained himself
to a knowledge of their arts. A Popish juggler cannot deceive me. I
understand the whole of his operations, as well as he does himself.
He may astonish the natives by his "wonderful feats," but with all his
legerdemain he cannot deceive me in any of his movements.
Under these circumstances, I felt it my duty to raise the curtain behind
which I knew were concealed those secret springs by which the machinery
of Popery is moved in these United States. The most complicated part of
the whole machine,--and the part most difficult to be understood,--is
that which is called _Auricular Confession_. His Royal Holiness of Rome
has obtained a patent, or something like it, for this particular wheel
within a wheel of the machine. In almost all Catholic countries, no one
dare examine or take a model from it. If he does, he incurs the penalty
of being cursed by the Pope. An awful excommunication is immediately
issued against him. Every thing the Pope does is awful If he gives
his blessing, it is awful; his curse is awful; his person is awful;
he cannot be approached unless with profound reverence. His big toe
is awful; no one can kiss it, unless on bended knees, and after the
performance of sundry puerilities, as Bishop Eastburn, of Boston, very
properly calls all such fooleries.
It does not appear as yet, that his Holiness has taken out any patent
for _Auricular Confession_ in this country; and as I know not how soon
he may gull American heretics to grant him one, I have taken the liberty
of exhibiting a model of it, for public inspection. There are parts of
this model which may appear revolting to the delicate sensibilities of
my readers; but let them reflect that the original is formed and put
together by the sacred hands of His Holiness the Pope and his pious
priests. I act only in the capacity of an artist, or a sculptor, who
is permitted, event by the rules of good taste and delicacy, to give
likenesses, in painting and statuary, of the most deformed and unsightly
objects. They are only required to be true and faithful to nature and
the originals from which the likenesses are taken. I have done no more
than this, in the model or picture which I have drawn of Auricular
Confession; and those who do not choose to examine it, are, of course,
at perfect liberty to pass it by unnoticed. The day is not far distant
when it will be found in every family in the United States.
I have the honor to remain the public's humble servant,
WILLIAM HOGAN.
AURICULAR CONFESSION AND POPISH NUNNERIES.
It has been observed by an eminent writer, that "book-making is
something like pouring water from one vessel into another, and then
pouring it back again." There is much truth in the observation; this is
obvious to every general reader. There is scarcely a work issued from
the press, which is not substantially a copy of something that has been
written before upon the same subject The old water-casks, which have
been as it were fixtures for centuries, are now being dug out of their
places, and the waters contained in them are changed into new casks,
having a more sightly appearance, and a more polished exterior. This,
however, is more apt to be the case in the writings of theologians, than
in those of any other body of men. Limited as my own reading has been, I
do not recollect ever having perused a volume upon theology, especially
from the pen of an American theologian, which I had not seen or read
(at least in part) before. How to account for this I know not. Assuredly
this land of freedom has among its theologians and controversialists men
of the finest minds--minds like their own rivers, overflowing with the
deepest, the clearest, most limpid and purest streams of thought--minds
in which the ever-rolling ocean of time has had, as yet, scarcely an
opportunity of depositing much of its accumulated impurities--minds
which, if their great powers were evolved and brought to bear on the
moral and civil condition of our fellow citizens, would give us a new
era or a new world of thought and morals--strong, permanent, diffusive,
progressive--and as different from those of olden times, as our new
and beautiful republic is from some of the aged, faded, sickly and
consumptive governments of former days.
It is difficult; I own, to form a new system of any kind, especially
a new system of thought or morals; but still such a thing is not
impossible. There never was, and never will be, a system constructed
without having to encounter great and almost insuperable obstacles;
first, in its formation, and secondly, in its application and various
bearings.
It was difficult, for instance, to form our own system of civil
government. Its very conception was for some time looked upon as a
wild theory. Such a thing was not dreamed of in any work upon political
ethics taught in our seminaries or schools, in the days of its founders,
yet the system was established, and has hitherto fully answered all the
expectations of its friends; but even if our comparatively new form or
system of government did not entirely succeed--if it even failed and
tumbled to atoms, that would not be a sufficient argument against making
the experiment, for even in its ruins, fragments may be found which may
be useful to posterity. Yes, as the poet beautifully expresses it,
"You may break--you may ruin the vase, if you will,
But the scent of the roses will hang round it still."
The failure of any system, as I have observed, is not a sufficient
argument against its practicability, or its ultimate usefulness; and
hence it appears to me strange that American minds, so fertile in all
expedients to advance the temporal interests of man, should be so barren
and unproductive of any system of thought or morals exclusively their
own, and entirely independent of the corrupt and vitiated systems which
have bewildered Europe and its moral philosophers for so many centuries.
It is passing strange that the theologians and professors of moral
theology in this New World of ours--if they can do no better--do not
unite upon some plan to exclude from among them institutions which all
admit to be calculated to demoralize the rising generation.
I am happy to find that there is now a system of thought and morals, or
something like it, to be found amongst us, which is peculiarly
American; it is denominated or called the _Christian League_. Let me be
understood, when I use the term system. By system I mean an arrangement
of objects or purposes so as to make them agree and unite. The Christian
League I believe may be called a system; its members are united in the
accomplishment of given objects. But if not strictly speaking a system
itself, it has within it materials out of which a noble one of thought
and morals can be formed. It is yet in its chrysalis, but the sun of
righteousness, which I trust the dark clouds of superstition that now
portentously hang over us shall never be permitted to hide from our
view, will soon warm it into maturity, and give it wings to fly and
carry with it wherever it goeth, glad tidings of salvation. I do not
agree with the leading members of the Christian League, in their modus
operandi. I have taken the liberty of suggesting to them a different
course of action from that which they have been pleased to adopt; but I
am with them, heart and soul. I shall support their measures, as far
as I find them calculated to check the progress of Popery in the United
States. If I cannot agree with them in their plan to effect this, I
shall only say--and I say it with the utmost respect to each and every
member of the Christian League!!!!!
"If a better system thine,
Impart it frankly, or make use of mine."
I have suggested to the members of the Christian League, to throw away
from amongst them all appearance of sectarianism; but I know not that
they have done so; the name or the society would indicate that they had;
but do facts warrant such an inference? The very reverse is the case.
Their prominent speakers all belong to one denomination; there may be
a few exceptions, but there are not many; the public presses which
advocate the proceedings of the League, are generally supported by those
of a particular creed. What is the inference? It is this: either other
presses and other denominations of Christians are indifferent about the
success of the League, or the members of the League are unwilling to
hold any communion with them. The former cannot be the case; the latter
must be, of course. This is not right, and if persevered in, must
ultimately neutralize all the measures of an association which, if
properly conducted, might evolve and mature one of the finest systems
of thought and moral government that has ever been discovered. I have
suggested to the members of the Christian League, that they should have
but one base, or one great moral trunk. I have advised them to partition
this trunk; and divide it into branches, to be spread equally among all
the followers of the law of God, and all the friends of civil rights.
Then let every man do his duty; let no man fancy that because of
his elevation in the Church, or higher salary, his nature has been
metamorphosed, or refined by any chemical process; let him not suppose
himself sublimated by the sunshine of personal popularity, which is
fleeting as the wind; let each individual suppose--and history, as well
as my own personal experience, enables me to assure him that he may do
so without injustice--that the cause of morals and civil rights has one
common enemy in the United States, which must be not only defeated,
but annihilated--yes, annihilated. While that enemy lives, the cause
of morality cannot flourish, and the civil rights of man are in danger.
Need I tell the reader who or what that enemy is? It is Popery. A
healthy state of morals, and Popery cannot exist in any country, any
kingdom, or any clime; the air which gives vitality to Popery, and
sustains its existence, is death to morality--aye, that very morality
which, as Americans, we boast of, and consider to be the very
incarnation even of our civil rights. It is true, that under the
guidance of reason, several forms of government have been established,
but all have been imperfect and unsatisfactory to man in the various
stages and mutations of the social system. If we look back and examine
the history, the nature and character of those improvements which have
been made in society ever since its genesis, we shall find that the
finger of religion, ever true to its purpose, invariably pointed and
invited the attention of man to them; we shall find also that whenever
or wherever this has not been the case, the people have not prospered;
we find in every thing truly valuable to man, whether in his social or
individual capacity, the hand of religion, and the almost omnipotency of
moral principle. This is eminently conspicuous at the present day, and
perhaps as much so in this as any country in the world, and hence it
is that we should be peculiarly grateful and vigilant in removing from
among us any and every cause which may directly or indirectly have a
tendency to injure the morals of our people; for amid the ruin of our
morals shall surely be found the elements of our national downfall.
I have alluded to this subject heretofore, in my books on Popery. I did
not expect that all would approve of those books. I was aware that many,
even among Protestants, would find fault with several of the expressions
used in the small volume which I have recently written, entitled
_Auricular Confession_ to which these pages are a sequel. That Papists
should find fault with all that I have written, does not at all surprise
me; but that Protestants should find any--though I am happy to find that
very few have found any--is a matter of some surprise to me. It must be
owing to the fact that they know not and understand not what auricular
confession is, or how it is made. That Americans in general should know
nothing upon this subject, and be horrified at the bare relation of
its iniquitous details, is a fact which can be easily understood and
explained. They have never made auricular confession the subject of
their study, and hence the horror they feel at its iniquitous and
private abominations. I must frankly confess, however, that it is a
matter of surprise that American theologians should be so entirely
unacquainted with the writings of popish doctors and popish priests, as
not to find all the apparently objectionable expressions in my books in
common use among them. There is not to be found a single volume
among the writers of the Popish Church, on the subject of auricular
confession, in which my statements are not corroborated, and that
in language far more objectionable than mine--language so gross and
indelicate that I could not in justice to public taste and delicacy
introduce it into my books. Those who have read my book on auricular
confession, may recollect the questions which I have accused Popish
bishops and priests of putting to their young female penitents, and
which some liberal Protestants say could not have been the case. I
now assert, without any qualification whatever, and without any mental
reservation or equivocation, that there is not in the United States a
priest nor bishop, who has heard the confessions of married or single
women, without asking them such questions as I have given in my book. I
ask Bishop Fenwick of this city, or any other Roman Catholic priest or
bishop living, to contradict me if he can. I challenge those females,
young or old, who have ever been in the habit of confessing their sins
to priests, to come forward and say, We have been at confession, and
such questions as those contained in Hogan's book have never been put to
us.
The charges I have made against Romish priests are of a serious
character. If false they can be refuted. I am alone; there are nearly
three millions of Roman Catholics in the United States, and if there
is among this vast multitude, an individual who can say and give such
evidence of the truth of his statement, as will satisfy any Court of
Equity, that I have done injustice to popes, priests or bishops,
in charging them with tampering with their female penitents in the
confessional, in order the more easily to debauch them, I will publicly
acknowledge that I am guilty of slander, and have wronged them. I trust
that after this, Protestant theologians will take more pains in reading
the works of Popish moralists, with which, as far as I have the honor
of their acquaintance, they are lamentably unacquainted. I saw a strong
instance of this the other evening. I chanced to meet at the house of a
mutual friend, with one of the most learned and pious theologians of the
Presbyterian Church in this or any other country in the world. He very
courteously observed that he did not question my veracity, but that it
appeared incredible to him that Popish priests or bishops, would put
such questions to married or single women while confessing to them as I
have accused them of. I listened in silent wonder to this great and good
man; for the moment I knew not what to say.
Here was a venerable American theologian--himself a living, moving
theological library--the embodiment of American Protestant theology,
doubting, or at least hesitating to credit the fact, that Romish
bishops and priests put to their female penitents the gross, licentious,
libidinous questions contained in my book on confession. The past,
the present and the future, seemed to rise and rush before me in
imagination, and I could not help exclaiming in my own mind, woe be to
this land of my adoption, woe be to its generous and hospitable people,
if even its patriarchs and wise men, such as he who now stands before
me, and whose life has been a beautiful comment upon the purity and
simplicity of the Christian religion, cannot fully understand, even
at this late period, the corruptions which the drag nets of Popery are
bringing amongst us and strewing on the paths of our hitherto virtuous
mothers and chaste daughters.