wickedness of the priest that is different from other wickedness, and
that affects a reasonable mind just as cruelty and strange perversions
of instinct affect it. Let a former Archbishop of Canterbury speak
for me. This that follows is the account given by Archbishop Tait in a
debate in the Upper House of Convocation (July 3rd, 1877) of one of the
publications of a certain SOCIETY OF THE HOLY CROSS:


"I take this book, as its contents show, to be meant for the instruction
of very young children. I find, in one of the pages of it, the statement
that between the ages of six and six and a half years would be the
proper time for the inculcation of the teaching which is to be found in
the book. Now, six to six and a half is certainly a very tender age, and
to these children I find these statements addressed in the book:

"'It is to the priest, and to the priest only, that the child must
acknowledge his sins, if he desires that God should forgive him.'

"I hope and trust the person, the three clergymen, or however many there
were, did not exactly realise what they were writing; that they did not
mean to say that a child was not to confess its sins to God direct; that
it was not to confess its sins, at the age of six, to its mother, or to
its father, but was only to have recourse to the priest. But the
words, to say the least of them, are rash. Then comes the very obvious
question:

"'Do you know why? It is because God, when he was on earth, gave to
his priests, and to them alone, the Divine Power of forgiving men their
sins. It was to priests alone that Jesus said: "Receive ye the Holy
Ghost." . . . Those who will not confess will not be cured. Sin is a