Upon the publication of this bull in Spain, the Inquisition issued an edict requiring all females, who had been thus abused by the priests at the confessional, and all who were privy to such acts, to give information, within thirty days, to the holy tribunal; and very heavy censures were attached to those who should neglect or despise this injunction. When this edict was first published, as Catholic authors of credit state, such a considerable number of females went to the palace of the Inquisition, in the single city of Seville, to reveal the conduct of their base confessors, that twenty notaries, and as many inquisitors, were appointed to minute down their several informations against them; but these being found insufficient to receive the depositions of so many witnesses, and the inquisitors being thus overwhelmed, as it were, with the pressure of such affairs, thirty days more were allowed for taking the accusations; and this lapse of time also proving inadequate for the intended purpose, a similar period was granted for a _third_ and a _fourth_ time. Maids and matrons of every rank and station, dreading the excommunication, crowded to the Inquisition. Modesty, shame, and the desire of concealing the facts from their husbands, induced many to go veiled. But the multitudes of depositions, and the odium which the discovery drew on auricular confession and on the priesthood, caused the Inquisition to quash the prosecutions, and to consign the depositions to oblivion! From the enormous hypocrisy and unparalleled cruelty that we have seen recorded of the inquisitors, every one will be prepared to believe that they must have been guilty of the most atrocious personal immoralities. Many of them were priests; and the celibacy of the clergy, as enjoined by the Romish religion, was the occasion of the most shocking violations of the laws of God. These crimes are testified by papal historians of the highest character, and proved by laws of the popes made against them; but the records of the lives of the priests exhibit the most disgusting and dreadful crimes. Elevation in office generally rendered the inquisitors above all law; and the peculiarity of their stations shielded them from accusation, rendering it dangerous in the extreme for any one to breathe a whisper against them. They, therefore, commonly rolled in luxury, and indulged in licentiousness that would appear incredible, were it not for their other enormities and abominations recorded on the faithful pages of history.