Chapter V — On solicitation

I. Very many diplomas the Roman Pontiffs have published — Paul IV in the year 1561, Pius IV in 1564, Clement VIII in 1592, Paul V in 1608, Gregory XV in 1622 — against confessors soliciting, and they imposed upon penitents the burden of denouncing the same to the tribunal of the sacred Inquisition. Benedict XIV in the year 1741 published the constitution whose beginning is Sacramentum Poenitentiae, in which all things which can be desired are resolved with the highest perspicuity. I exhibit it entire.

“BENEDICT, BISHOP, and so forth. The sacrament of Penance, which the holy Fathers aptly named a plank after shipwreck for grace that has been lost — We, though unworthy, called by the supernal disposition to the care of the universal Lord's flock, are bound to employ all study and pastoral solicitude, lest that which by the divine benignity has been given as a refuge to wretched sinners for the innocence lost after Baptism, through the fraud of demons and the malice of men perversely using the benefits of God, be turned — which is the more mournful the more it destroys salvation — into their ruin, and the healing of souls from God, who is rich in mercy, be turned by the execrable wickedness of certain wicked priests into their destruction, contrary to the very purpose for which it was instituted.

§ 1. Long ago indeed it was wisely provided by Gregory XV, Pope of holy memory, Our Predecessor, through his letters in the form of Briefs, given at Rome at St. Mary Major on the 30th of August 1622, in the second year of his Pontificate, against any priests whatsoever deputed to the hearing of confessions and soliciting the penitents to base and dishonest things. Thereafter in succeeding times, for the interpretation and declaration of those letters, several decrees were issued by the Congregation of Our Venerable Brethren the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, Inquisitors General against heretical pravity, on the 11th day of the month of February in the year of the Lord 1661; and likewise by Alexander VII, Our Predecessor of happy memory, in the general Congregation of the Holy Roman and Universal Inquisition held before him on the 24th of September 1665, among other propositions foreign to the evangelical truth and the doctrine of the holy Fathers, and dissonant therefrom, the sixth and seventh — namely those to be recalled hither — were condemned and prohibited.

We therefore, maturely weighing of what moment it is to the eternal salvation of souls that these things be everywhere exactly observed, and of what moment it is for the curing of infirm sheep and for the retaining of the beauty of the holy Church of God, that certain priests do not wickedly abuse the sacrament of Penance toward penitents, and hold out for a cure a wound, for bread a stone, for a fish a serpent, for medicine poison; but rather, recollecting themselves to have been constituted by Christ the Lord presidents and judges of souls, administer so venerable a sacrament with that holiness which befits the sublimity and dignity of the office: of Our own motion, and from certain knowledge, and after mature deliberation, We approve and confirm by the tenor of the present the aforesaid letters of this kind, and all and singular the decrees emanated for their interpretation and declaration, by apostolic authority; and to all and singular of these We add the strength of apostolic and inviolable firmness; and moreover, so far as need be, We again commit and command all Inquisitors of heretical pravity and Ordinaries of places of all kingdoms, provinces, cities, dominions, and places of the whole Christian world in their respective dioceses, that diligently, and all human respect being laid aside, they inquire and proceed against all and singular priests, both secular and regular, exempt in whatsoever manner and immediately subject to the Apostolic See, of whatsoever Orders, Institutes, Societies, and Congregations, and of whatsoever dignity and pre-eminence, or fortified with any privilege and indult, who have attempted to solicit or provoke any penitent whatsoever — whosoever that person may be — either in the act of sacramental confession, or before, or immediately after confession, or on occasion or under pretext of confession, or even outside the occasion of confession in the confessional, or in another place destined or chosen for the hearing of confessions, with the simulation of hearing confession there, to dishonest and base things, whether by words, or by signs, or by nods, or by touch, or through writing to be read either then or afterwards; or who with rash daring have had with them unlawful or dishonest conversations or dealings. Those whom they shall find culpable in any of these nefarious excesses, let them severely animadvert upon according to the quality and circumstances of the crimes, by condign penalties according to the aforementioned constitution of Gregory Our Predecessor, which We will to be held here as inserted word for word; giving also, if need be, and again granting, the faculty already otherwise granted in the aforesaid constitution of proceeding with even single witnesses, provided presumptions, indications, and other supports concur — lest a crime so enormous and injurious to the Church of God remain unpunished through a defect of proofs.

§ 2. Let moreover all and singular priests constituted for the hearing of confessions remember that they are held and obliged diligently to admonish their own penitents whom they shall know to have been solicited by others, as above, according to the circumstances of the occurring cases, of the obligation of denouncing to the aforesaid Inquisitors or Ordinaries of places the person who shall have committed the solicitation — even if he be a priest who lacks jurisdiction for imparting valid absolution; or if the solicitation between the confessor and the penitent was mutual; or whether the penitent consented to the solicitation or by no means gave consent; or if a long time has already elapsed after the solicitation itself; or if the solicitation was performed by the confessor not for himself but for another person. Let confessors moreover diligently beware lest they impart sacramental absolution to penitents whom they shall know to have been already solicited by another, unless first, carrying the aforesaid denunciation to its effect, they shall have indicated the delinquent to the competent judge; or at least let them pledge and promise that they will denounce him as soon as they can.

§ 3. And since there are found certain wicked men who, moved either by hatred, or by anger, or by another unworthy cause, or incited by the impious illusions, or promises, or blandishments, or threats of others, or in any other manner whatsoever, the tremendous judgment of God being postponed and the authority of the Church contemned, falsely accuse innocent priests of solicitation before ecclesiastical judges: that therefore so nefarious a daring and so detestable a deed may be restrained by the fear of the magnitude of the penalty, let whatsoever person shall have defiled himself with an outrage of this execrable kind — either by himself impiously calumniating innocent confessors, or by wickedly procuring that it be done by others — be perpetually deprived of the hope of obtaining absolution from any priest whatsoever, fortified with any privilege, authority, or dignity, save from Us and Our successors, unless at the end of life and in the article of death excepted; which absolution We reserve to Ourselves and to Our aforesaid successors.

§ 4. Lastly, greatly desiring to remove far away from the sanctity of the priestly and sacred tribunal of judgment every occasion of baseness, and every contempt of the sacraments and injury to the Church, and utterly to eliminate such destructive evils of this kind, and, so far as in the Lord We can, to meet the perils of souls, which certain sacrilegious men, ministers rather of the demon than of God, in the place of reconciling them by the sacrament to their and Our Creator, load with a greater mass of sins and nefariously plunge into the deep pit of iniquity: the counsel of some of Our Venerable Brethren the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church and of some Masters in Theology having been employed thereupon, and the repeated supplications of very many bishops also acceding — by this Our sanction to be valid in perpetuity, just as We know it has already been done by very many bishops through their synodal constitutions, to all and singular priests, both secular and regular, of whatsoever order and dignity, even though otherwise approved for the receiving of confessions, and fortified with any privilege and indult, even special and expressed and worthy of most special note and mention, by apostolic authority and the plenitude of Our power, We interdict and prohibit that any of them, outside the case of extreme necessity — namely in the article of death itself, any other priest then being lacking who could perform the office of confessor — dare to receive the sacramental confession of a person who is an accomplice in a base and dishonest sin committed against the sixth precept of the Decalogue; there being taken away from him therefore by that very law whatsoever authority and jurisdiction for absolving any person whatsoever from a fault of this kind, so indeed that the absolution, if he shall have imparted any, be null and altogether void, as imparted by a priest who exists deprived of the jurisdiction and faculty necessary for absolving validly — which by these Our present letters We intend to take away from him; and nevertheless, if any confessor shall have dared to do otherwise, let him by that very deed incur also the penalty of greater excommunication, from which We reserve the power of absolving to Ourselves alone and to Our successors only.

§ 5. Declaring also and decreeing that not even by force of any Jubilee whatsoever, or even of the Bull which is called of the Holy Crusade, or of any other indult whatsoever, can anyone receive the confession of the said accomplice of this kind and bestow upon him sacramental absolution; since for this effect and in this case no confessor is to be held for a lawful and approved confessor, as one who in this kind of sin and penitent lacks jurisdiction, as aforesaid, and exists deprived by Us of the faculty of absolving. Notwithstanding apostolic constitutions and ordinations, chiefly those which are called of the Holy Crusade, or of the universal and plenary Jubilee; and also whatsoever statutes, customs, privileges, indults, and apostolic letters of any Churches, Monasteries, and Orders whatsoever, of which those priests shall have been, strengthened by oath, apostolic confirmation, or any other firmness whatsoever; and also privileges, indults, and apostolic letters under whatsoever tenors and forms, and with whatsoever clauses and decrees, even granted of Our own motion or otherwise in any manner whatsoever, and approved and innovated even at repeated times: to all which, holding their tenors as expressed in the present, We specially and expressly derogate for this time only, and to all other things whatsoever to the contrary.

§ 6. We will lastly and command that all Ordinaries of places, both present and future for the time being, in the approbation of confessors take care that both the aforesaid Constitution of Gregory Our Predecessor and this Our present one be attentively read by all priests to be approved, and be accurately observed; and let them admonish them in the Lord, and exhort them, that they perform the sacred ministry committed to their trust with the highest innocence of soul, purity of morals, and integrity of judgment, and exhibit themselves as ministers of Christ and dispensers of the mysteries of God; being mindful moreover that they hold the place and perform the office of the supreme and eternal Priest, who, holy, innocent, undefiled, through the Holy Ghost offered himself immaculate to God, that he might cleanse our conscience from dead works, to serve the living God. Let them therefore diligently study, and diligently beware, lest to those seeking and knocking heaven be closed by their fault; lest the lost sheep hastening to return to the Lord's fold be handed over by their hands to be torn by the teeth of wild beasts; lest the Prodigal Sons, needy and wounded, returning to the heavenly Father, be by their nefarious wickedness bruised with graver wounds of sins while they are yet in the way.

§ 7. But that the present letters may the more easily come to the notice of all, and that no one may be able to allege ignorance of them, We will that they, or copies of them, be affixed and published at the doors of the Lateran Church, of the Basilica of the Prince of the Apostles, and also of the Apostolic Chancery, and of the General Curia on Monte Citorio, and in the Campo de' Fiori of the City, as the custom is; and that, being thus published and affixed, they affect all and singular whom they concern, just as if they had been personally intimated to each one of them; and that to transcripts or copies of these present letters, even printed, subscribed by the hand of some public notary and fortified with the seal of some person constituted in ecclesiastical dignity, the same faith be everywhere given, as well in judgment as outside it, which would be given to these presents themselves, if they were exhibited or shown.

§ 8. Let it therefore be lawful to no man at all to infringe this page of Our will, sanction, precept, mandate, and derogation, or with rash daring to go against it. But if anyone shall have presumed to attempt this, let him know that he will incur the indignation of Almighty God and of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul. Given at Rome at Holy Mary Major in the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand seven hundred and forty-one, on the Kalends of June, in the first year of Our Pontificate.”

II. QUESTION I. Are confessors soliciting males to base things to be denounced? ANSWER. Cardinal Cozza reports that Paul V declared in the year 1612 that soliciters of this kind are to be denounced by force of the constitution of Pius IV; since indeed in this constitution it is said, whoever shall have solicited any penitent. And a penitent is both man and woman. And the reason presses for either sex. There are comprehended also those soliciting, whether for themselves or for others, as is had in the transcribed constitution.

III. QUESTION II. Is a confessor to be denounced who hands to a woman confessing a paper provoking to base things, to be read? ANSWER. The two following opinions upon this matter Alexander VII condemned. No. 6: A confessor who in sacramental confession gives to a penitent a paper to be read afterwards, in which he incites to venery, is not reckoned to have solicited in confession, and consequently is not to be denounced. No. 7: The way of evading the obligation of denouncing a solicitation is if the one solicited confess to the soliciter: he can absolve him without the burden of denouncing.

IV. QUESTION III. Ought priests who feign themselves confessors, when they are not, to be denounced, if they solicit to base things? ANSWER. The affirmative opinion is true, and is gathered from §§ 1 and 2 of the transcribed constitution, where all priests without limitation are comprehended. If nevertheless laymen or clerics should feign themselves priests and solicit to base things, they are not to be denounced, as the common opinion teaches. If nevertheless a confessor should solicit through a cleric or a layman under the mask of confession, they would be to be denounced by force of the constitutions adduced.

V. QUESTION IV. What sense do these words bear: in the act of sacramental confession, or before, or immediately after? ANSWER. Those who within the space of the begun confession down to the end inclusively solicit are, according to all, to be denounced. They dispute upon the other two particles, immediately before or after. Cavillings being dismissed, these words are to be taken not physically but morally. Immediately before signifies, if anyone should know a woman prepared for confession, or seeking confession, and about to approach afterwards, and should provoke her and solicit her to base things, he would solicit immediately before confession, although some space should intervene before she confessed. He would solicit immediately after, if, the confession being performed, he should hand to the woman a paper inciting to base things, to be read in the church, or should provoke her with obscene words; if he should approach the woman's house, or as a companion on the journey should solicit her, he would be to be denounced.

VI. QUESTION V. What sense do these words bring forth: or on occasion, or under pretext of confession? ANSWER. Occasion and pretext are two diverse things. He is said to solicit on occasion of confession who in fact from the confession itself snatches a handle for soliciting to base things. But there is a pretext of confession when someone simulates and feigns a confession, that thence he may be able to provoke to venery. In various ways a nefarious confessor can solicit to base things on occasion of confession. 1. By express shamelessness. 2. When he understands a penitent confessing outrages of lust and prone to venery, and stirs her by signs, gestures, sighs, and other indications to lust. These, according to all, are to be denounced. 3. When from knowledge acquired in confession of a propensity to venery, he obtains an occasion of provoking her a little after the confession — provided the person solicited can prudently judge that this solicitation arises from knowledge had in confession. Wherefore the circumstances are to be regarded.

VII. A confessor solicits under pretext of confession who invites a woman to confession, and awaits her at the door of the church, and there, no mention of confession being made, incites her to venery. A woman, an agreement having been made beforehand with a priest concerning a sin of the flesh to be perpetrated, calls him to her house, that she may elude her household on account of the difficulty of execution, and feigns herself sick, and under pretext of confession they are at the same time mingled together. This man is to be denounced.

VIII. A woman approaches a confessor, saying that she wishes to confess on the morrow. He solicits her outside the confessional, without simulating a confession. Is this man to be denounced? The true opinion affirms it. Similarly that confessor would be to be denounced who should dissuade a woman from confession, that he might the more securely stir her to venery. All also who in the confessional, without a true or a simulated confession, solicit, are to be denounced; as also those who solicit by nods or signs women standing by and awaiting to confess. Those who in the chapels or cells of Religious, where confessions are heard, solicit to base things, are to be denounced, even if they neither hear nor simulate a confession. In all other places not deputed to the hearing of confessions, they are then only to be denounced when confessors either in fact hear, or simulate that they hear, confessions, if they solicit to base things.

IX. Those who should solicit not to base things but to other crimes — suppose theft or homicide — would be to be denounced by force of other decrees passed against those suspected of heresy. That soliciters be denounced, it is not required that the act by which they provoke to base things be by its own nature mortal; but it is enough that from the circumstance of place, of time, and of the administration of the sacrament it be such. Similarly confessors are to be denounced who in the said places have base conversations with penitents, as is gathered from the clause of the constitution: Or who have had with them unlawful or dishonest conversations or dealings. Innumerable are the ways by which these ravening wolves are wont to infect and devour the sheep of Christ. Nor is it expedient to number them. Each man from the circumstances can detect them.

X. Doubtful words are to be interpreted in the better part, chiefly when the confessor is of noted probity. Doubtful words can fall even from the most cautious man. Wherefore guard must be kept lest, while care is taken that the depravity of the wicked be restrained, the reputation of innocent and upright men be stained. When a confessor is solicited, if he contend, he is to be denounced.

XI. Although in all other offences fraternal correction is to be sent before, yet when the offences are against the public good, as offences of this kind and heresies are, they ought to be denounced, correction being omitted. Wherefore Alexander VII declared in the year 1660 that soliciters are to be denounced, fraternal correction not being sent before. Not only the persons solicited, but also those who either by chance have heard a confessor soliciting, or have heard it from the person solicited herself, are bound to denounce, unless she be willing to fulfil her own burden. The persons solicited ought themselves to appear at the tribunal; those who denounce by letter ought to write their own name and surname. If girls or noble matrons dare not approach either the Inquisitor or the bishop, they can do it through an intermediary, namely through a confessor. Let either the Inquisitor or the bishop be chosen, as better expedites the end of the denunciation. As regards the penalties against calumniators and false denouncers, read the transcribed constitution of Benedict XIV.