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Chapter 3 - The Confessor and Love Magic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 September 2012

Jeffrey R. Watt
Affiliation:
University of Mississippi
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Summary

In 1627 Cardinal Ludovisi of Bologna commissioned the publication of a manual specifically for the confessors of nuns. The guidebook provided the following instructions for those clerics who had this special responsibility:

The priest will always go to the confessional and deal with the nuns there just as if it were the first time he met them. By doing so, he will be able to hear confessions of the same nun for many years in a holy and exemplary manner. All told, I want to imply that [the priest] not treat the nuns with too much familiarity, even under the pretext of spiritual matters. Rather, every time that he goes to the confessional, he should speak with them seriously, as if he were a new acquaintance, just as he was at the time he began [hearing their confessions]. This is because the devil waits many years in order to kill in just an hour. From this it is clear that he should abstain from laughing and chattering with them, especially if he does not [naturally lead] an austere life …. He must be very cautious and prudent not to become too close to any one of them in particular–either because of her spirit or devotion, or because she has a fine intellect or leads an exemplary life–since, as St. Thomas affirmed, spiritual love can be converted into sensual love, if one is not on guard. Beyond this, [such behavior] quite often causes a scandal among the other sisters.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Scourge of Demons
Possession, Lust, and Witchcraft in a Seventeenth-Century Italian Convent
, pp. 73 - 103
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2009

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