Abstract
In 1837, the celebrated inventor and painter Samuel F.B. Morse edited and published a book entitled Confessions of a French Catholic Priest. Morse, the author of several anti-Catholic tracts, explained in his preface that he had agreed to publish the narrative of the anonymous priest because it provided a unique, first-hand account of the anguish and guilt endured by the Catholic clergy. The Confessions recounts the story of a young man who, though entering the priesthood for devout and pure reasons, soon finds himself wrestling with the restraint imposed by his celibate vows. His fellow priests, less sincere in their vocation, freely indulge in the opportunities for sexual license which, the author explains, are abundant in the confessional box. Unwilling to give in to temptation yet surrounded by corrupted peers, the priest comes close to insanity before salvation arrives in the form of Protestantism. A chance encounter with the writings of the Protestant reformers allows the priest to see the errors of the Catholic faith and to reconcile the demands of the flesh with the callings of the spirit. Having abandoned the priesthood, and fearing retribution at the hands of the Church, the ex-priest then flees his native France for the United States, hoping, as Morse recounted, to awaken Americans to the dangers posed by the Catholic clergy.
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Notes
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© 2010 Timothy Verhoeven
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Verhoeven, T. (2010). The Transatlantic Case against Catholicism. In: Transatlantic Anti-Catholicism. Palgrave Macmillan Transnational History Series. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230109124_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230109124_2
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