Then Dr. Fulton so frankly indicates what takes place in that private room, and upon that consecrated bed, that I really am curious to know what it was that made Comstock blush, a few lines above those which thus tell of the soliciting priest, the yielding nun, and the ready bed. Now, if you will compare one case with another, from the time of the early Fathers down to the present day, you will detect a similarity that is appalling. The testimony of Edward Gibbon, the skeptical historian, exactly accords with that of Saint Cyprian, Chrysostom, Jerome and Bernard. The memorable investigation which Duke Leopold of Tuscany caused to be made of the cloistered convents of Italy revealed identically the same cess-pools of vice that came to light in England when Henry VII. uncovered the monasteries. All the literature of the Renaissance, after men's minds and pens freed themselves from the ignoble fear of popery, bear witness to the same universal everlasting truth--_Men and women were made for each other, and no so-called religion can annul the laws of Nature_. * * * * * * * When a "religion" sets up the claim that it can pardon sins, educate the children to believe it, _destroys those who deny it_, and fixes a scale of money-payments for the pardon of sins, what sort of fruit is that kind of tree likely to bear? If penance and payment rids me of sin, my conscience, like an unused muscle, becomes enfeebled, and my proneness to sin is encouraged. Pope Leo X. was the Vicar of Christ who ordered lists of sin to be drawn up, with the price of the pardon opposite each sin. (See History of Auricular Confession, by Count C. P. De Lasteyrie, Vol. II., p. 132.) I will quote only a few of these tariff rates established by this Infallible Pope. For allowing a ship to sail to convey merchandise to infidels, 100 d. For the absolution of any one practising usury, 7 d. For concubinage, 7 d. For intimacy with a woman _in a church_, 6 d. For pardon of him who has violated a virgin, 6 d. For one who has committed incest, 5 d. (The d. stands for the coin known as the ducat.) Can you imagine anything more conducive to immorality, than a "religion," sanctified by the name of Christ, which teaches that its priests can forgive sins, and which publishes a list of market prices for such forgiveness? Do you marvel that Roman Catholic countries are the immoral countries? Do you wonder at the mania for vice and crime among the lower Italians, Spaniards and Portuguese? When a man could ravish a virgin for six ducats, what girl had any safety except in the fear that libertines might have of her father or her brother, or her sweetheart? What sort of hell would we have in America if popery gained the upper hand, _and the negro bucks were taught that they could buy pardons for violating white women_? God Almighty! It makes one sick to think that even now they are admitting young black men to the priesthood.