The Dark Box: A Secret History of Confession (32 page)

13
. See Pierre J. Payer,
Book of Gomorrah: An Eleventh-Century Treatise Against Clerical Homosexual Practices
(Waterloo, Ontario, 1962).

Two:
Confession into Its Own

1
. H. J. Denzinger and A. Schönmetzer,
Enchiridion Symbolorum et Definitionum
(Barcelona, 1963), 813; John Mahoney,
The Making of Moral Theology: A Study of the Roman Catholic Tradition
(Oxford, 1989), 19.

2
. See J. P. Migne, ed.,
Patrologiae Cursus Completus
, Series Latina, vol. 187 (Paris, 1833).

3
. Chloë Taylor,
The Culture of Confession from Augustine to Foucault: A Genealogy of the ‘Confessing Animal
’ (New York, 2009), 51.

4
. Henry Charles Lea,
A History of Auricular Confession and Indulgences in the Latin Church
, vol. 1 (London, 1896), 400.

5
. See Chapter 1 on confession in late medieval Germany in W. David Myers, ‘
Poor, Sinning Folk’: Confession and Conscience in Counter-Reformation Germany
(London, 1996).

6
. Taylor,
Culture of Confession
, 56.

7
. Thomas Tentler,
Sin and Confession on the Eve of Reformation
(Princeton, NJ, 1977), 141ff; Thomas à Kempis,
Imitation of Christ
(London, 1952), 236.

8
. Taylor,
Culture of Confession
, 55ff.

9
. David Hugh Farmer,
Oxford Dictionary of the Saints
(Oxford, 1987), 139; Dyan Elliott,
Proving Woman: Female Spirituality and Inquisitional Culture in the Later Middle Ages
(Princeton, NJ, 2004), 88–111.

10
. For more information on the Beguines, see Walter Simons,
Cities of Ladies: Beguine Communities in the Low Countries, 1200–1565
(Philadelphia, 2001), 35–60. James of Vitry is quoted in Elliot,
Proving Woman
, 51.

11
. On the matter of Catherine’s confessions, see Friedrich von Huegel,
The Mystical Element of Religion
, vol. 1 (London, 1923), 117ff.

12
. For the development of the concept of Purgatory, see Jacques Le Goff,
The Birth of Purgatory
, trans. Arthur Goldhammer (London, 1984), 4–7, 12.

13
. Stephen Haliczer,
Sexuality in the Confessional: A Sacrament Profaned (Oxford
, 1996), 11.

14
. For transgressions of priests in Italy on the eve of the Reformation, see Mary Laven,
Virgins of Venice: Enclosed Lives and Broken Vows in the Renaissance Convent
(London, 2003). For the other examples in this paragraph, see Wietse de Boer,
The Conquest of the Soul: Confession, Discipline, and the Public Order in Counter-Reformation Milan
(Leiden, 2001), 30.

15
. De Boer,
Conquest of the Soul
, 18–19.

16
. Peter Ackroyd,
The History of England
, vol. 2 (London, 2012), 26.

17
. See Haliczer,
Sexuality in the Confessional
, 12.

18
. Taylor,
Culture of Confession
, 63ff.

19
. See, for example, Diarmaid MacCulloch,
Thomas Cranmer: A Life
(New Haven, CT, 1996), 161–162.

Three:
Confession and the Counter-Reformers

1
. For a fresh overview of the Council of Trent and the Counter-Reformation, see Mary Laven, ‘Introduction’, in Alexandra Bamji, Geert H. Janssen, and Mary Laven, eds.,
The Ashgate Research Companion to the Counter-Reformation
(Surrey, UK, 2013).

2
. H. Daniel-Rops,
History of the Church of Christ
, vol. 5,
The Catholic Reformation
, trans. John Warrington (London, 1962), 80; Hubert Jedin,
A History of the Council of Trent
, trans. Dom Ernest Graf, vol. 2 (St. Louis, 1961), 26; John W. O’Malley,
Trent: What Happened at the Council
(Cambridge, MA, 2013), 107.

3
. Wietse de Boer,
The Conquest of the Soul: Confession, Discipline, and Public Order in Counter-Reformation Milan
(Leiden, 2001), 39.

4
. W. David Myers, ‘
Poor, Sinning Folk’: Confession and Conscience in Counter Reformation Germany
(London, 1996), 117–119.

5
. Eamon Duffy,
Fires of Faith: Catholic England Under Mary Tudor
(New Haven, CT, 2010), 15.

6
. Ibid., 132–133.

7
. P. D. Stenger, ‘Treasonous Reconciliations: Robert Southwell, Religious Polemic, and the Criminalisation of Confession’,
Reformation
16 (2011): 5.35.

8
. De Boer,
Conquest of the Soul
, 43.

9
. David Hugh Farmer,
Oxford Dictionary of the Saints
(Oxford, 1987), 55.

10
. De Boer,
Conquest of the Soul
, 5.

11
. Ibid., 14.

12
.
Avertenze di monsignore illustrissime cardinale Borromeo, arcivescovo di Milano, a I Confessori della citt’a, et diocese sua
), in
Acta Ecclesiae Mediolanensis
, vol. 2 (Milan, 1890–1896), cited De Boer,
Conquest of the Soul
, xix.

13
. Stephen Haliczer,
Sexuality in the Confessional: A Sacrament Profaned (Oxford
, 1996), 100.

14
. Ibid., 99.

15
. De Boer,
Conquest of the Soul
, 86ff.

16
. See John Bossy, ‘The Social History of Confession’,
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society
, 5th series, 25 (1975): 30; John Bossy,
Christianity in the West, 1400
–
1700
(Oxford, 1985), 45–50, 127ff.

17
. Swift writes of the benefits to be received ‘either by eructation, or expiration, or evomition’ in the ‘whispering office’. Jonathan Swift,
Selected Works
, vol. 1 (London, 1823), 96–97. Cardinal Thomas Cajetan is quoted in De Boer,
Conquest of the Soul
, 101. The quotation from the provost of Santa Fedele is in De Boer,
Conquest of the Soul
, 122.

18
. Mary Laven,
Virgins of Venice: Enclosed Lives and Broken Vows in the Renaissance Convent
(London, 2003), 173.

19
. Alonso de Andrade,
Libro de guía de la virtud y de la imitación de Neustra Señora
(
A Guide in the Virtue and Imitation of Our Lady)
, is cited in Haliczer,
Sexuality in the Confessional
, 89–90. Ippolito Capilupi is quoted in Laven,
Virgins of Venice
, 162.

20
. The account of Fra Gaspar de Nájera is in Haliczer,
Sexuality in the Confessional
, 99; the account of Fra Antonio de Arvelo is in the same work on pp. 99–100.

21
. Ibid., 102.

22
. Ibid., 103.

23
. Ibid., 169.

24
. For the story of the Piarist Congregation that was responsible for educating thousands of children over four centuries, see Karen Liebreich,
Fallen Order: A History
(London, 2004). For the account of Father Stefano Cherubini, see p. 71 of the same work.

25
. Judith C. Brown,
Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy
(Oxford, 1986), 14.

26
. Ibid., 17–18, 19.

27
. For comparative estimates of regional and pan-European prosecutions and executions, see Brian P. Levack,
The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe
, 2nd ed. (London, 1995), 21–26.

28
. For Alonso de Salazar, see Haliczer,
Sexuality in the Confessional
, 89, 220n20. Piero Camporesi’s account and the quotation by Girolamo Cardano are in
Bread of Dreams
, trans. David Gentilcore (Cambridge, 1989), 125. On Joseph of Cupertino, see John Cornwell,
Powers of Darkness, Powers of Light
(London, 1991), 292–303.

29
. See Friedrich Spee,
Cautio Criminalis: Or, Book on Witch Trials
, trans. Marcus Hellyer (Charlottesville, VA, 2003). The introduction contains biographical details of Spee’s life.

30
. Biographies of Teresa of Avila of note include Rowan Williams,
Teresa of Avila
(London, 2004); Vita Sackville-West,
The Eagle and the Dove
(London, 1943); and Stephen Clissold,
St. Teresa of Avila
(London, 1979).

31
. Clissold,
St. Teresa of Avila
, 51.

32
. Ibid., 100.

33
. See Rudolph M. Bell,
Holy Anorexia
(Chicago, 1985). For Urban VIII, see his p. 151; for Benedict XIV, see pp. 160–161.

Four:
Fact, Fiction, and Anticlericalism

1
. Alphonsus Liguori,
The Way of Salvation and of Perfection
(New York, 1926 [1767]), 451.

2
. See Chapter 1, ‘The Influence of Auricular Confession’, in John Mahoney
The Making of Moral Theology: A Study of the Roman Catholic Tradition
(Oxford, 1987).

3
. Ibid., 33–34.

4
. For overviews of Jansenism in English, see Owen Chadwick,
The Popes and European Revolution
(Cambridge, 1980), 573ff; Owen Chadwick,
From Bossuet to Newman
(Cambridge, 1987), 57ff; also, in Italian, L. Vereccke,
Storia della teologia morale moderna
, vol. 3 (Rome, 1979–1980).

5
. For the vexed debates between probabilism and probabiliorism, see Mahoney
Making of Moral Theology
, 134–143.

6
. Ibid., 142–143; Frederick M. Jones, ed.,
Alphonsus de Liguori: Selected Writings
(New York, 1999), esp. 209–214.

7
. Anthony Gavin,
The Great Red Dragon, Or, The Master-Key to Popery
(Boston, 1854), 70.

8
. Quoted in Meriol Trevor,
Newman: The Pillar of the Cloud
(London, 1962), 352.

9
. Stephen Haliczer,
Sexuality in the Confessional: A Sacrament Profaned
(Oxford, 1996), 186.

10
. Richard Hofstadter, ‘Paranoid Style in American Politics’,
Harper’s Magazine
, November 1964.

11
. Charles Stephen Dessain, et al., eds.,
The Letters and Diaries of John Henry Newman
(Oxford, 1961–2008), xiv, 110.

12
. John Henry Newman,
Lectures on Catholicism in England
(Birmingham, UK, 1851), 43.

13
. Ibid., xv, 280.

14
. Among the many hagiographical lives of Jean Vianney in English, the most informative is John Oxenham,
A Saint in the Making: From the Valley of the Singing Blackbird to St. Peter’s, Rome
(London, 1931).

Five:
The Pope Who ‘Restored’ Catholicism

1
. For the life and papacy of Pius X, see Hieronymo Dal-Gal,
Pius X: The Life-Story of the Beatus
, trans. Thomas F Murray (Dublin, 1953); G. Romanato,
Pio X: La vita di papa Sarto
(Milan, 1992), based on the deposition for canonization; Carlo Falconi,
The Popes in the Twentieth Century from Pius X to John XXIII
, trans. Muriel Grindrod (London, 1967), 1ff; Eamon Duffy,
Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes
(New Haven, CT, 1997), 245ff; Owen Chadwick,
A History of the Popes, 1830–1914
(Oxford, 1998), 332ff.

2
. Dal-Gal,
Pius X
, 111.

3
. Duffy,
Saints and Sinners
, 245.

4
. The Society of Pius X, SSPX, was founded in 1970 by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre of France. The group defended the right to say the Tridentine Mass and laments the loss of traditions that flourished before the Second Vatican Council.

5
. Chadwick,
History of the Popes, 344
. Chadwick wrote: ‘As he grew older, or more used to power, the authoritarian streak in him grew also, [and] he found it harder to bear contradiction.’

6
.
E Supremi
, Encyclical of Pope Pius X on the Restoration of All Things in Christ to the Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, Bishops, and Other Ordinaries in Peace and Communion with the Apostolic See, 4 October 1903,
www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_x/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-x_enc_04101903_e-supremi_en.html
.

7
. Quoted in Falconi,
Popes in the Twentieth Century
, 14.

8
. Quoted in ibid.

9
.
Pieni L’Animo
, Encyclical of Pope Pius X on the Clergy in Italy to the Venerable Bretheren, the Archbishops, and Bishops of Italy, 28 July 1906,
www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_x/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-x_enc_28071906_pieni-l’animo_en.html
.

10
. Georges Bernanos,
Diary of a Country Priest
, trans. Pamela Morris (New York, 2002), 73.

11
. On Modernism, see Nicholas Lash, ‘Modernism, aggiornamento and the night battle’, in Adrian Hastings, ed.,
Bishops and
Writers
(Cambridge, 1977), 51ff. The Leo XIII quotations are in G. Fogarty
The Vatican and the American Hierarchy from 1870 to 1965
(Wilmington, DE, 1985), 178.