Chapter IV. On Immodest Acts and Masked Lust

The passages in this chapter are veiled. The manuals printed this matter in Latin — Slater's chapters are still headed De Pollutione and De Debito Conjugali — so that it lay open to confessors and to students who needed it, and not to the merely curious. Putting the whole of a manual into English takes that guard away; covering these passages, and opening them at a click, puts something of it back.

St. Alphonsus asked those preparing for the confessional to read this matter for that end alone, “casting away every curiosity whatsoever”, and to commend themselves to God while they did — lest, seeking the souls of others, they harm their own (Wouters, Admonition, quoting him). Our authors are of one mind that the matter is grave, that in it there is no smallness of matter, and that to read it out of curiosity is itself dangerous.

“How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds makes ill deeds done.”— Shakespeare, King John, IV, ii

Nothing is hidden: the covering is only here, on the page. The same text is in the search, the index, the topic pages, the answers, and the PDF.

Article I. Notions and General Rulesnn. 387–393
Article II. On Immodest Acts Considered Individuallynn. 394–412
- § 1. On Words and Writingsnn. 394–396
- § 2. On Looksnn. 397–400
- § 3. On Touches, Kisses, Etcnn. 401–407
- § 4. On Theatrical Performancesnn. 408–410
- § 5. On Dancesn. 411
- § 6. On Clothingn. 412

Chapter IV. On Immodest Acts and Masked Lust

Contents