Chapter 3

CELIBACY AND MORALS--Illicit relations formed by the 73 clergy--Shameless avowal of their fruits--Ferocious character of love in the cloisters--Three flagrant cases--Murder of a young lady by her confessor, the Carmelite of San Lucar--His trial and sentence--Murder by a wife of her husband under the direction of her confessor, the Capuchine of Cuenca--His trial, imprisonment, and escape--Murder of a lady by the Agonizante of Madrid--His trial and execution--Scandalous occurrences in the Convent of the Basilios of Madrid--Forcible entry of the civil power--Murder of the abbot--Suppression of inquiry--Shameful profligacy of the Capuchines of Cascante and the nuns of a neighbouring convent--Mode of its discovery--Imprisonment of inmates of both convents--Removal of prisoners--Their mysterious escape--Exemplary performance of vows in some cases--Dangers of celibacy--Spanish women and their influence on society