"Has the penitent ever refused to do so?"
"Never."
"But if ... if the case were such as made it difficult for the penitent
to reveal the conspiracy to the civil authorities, having regard to the
penalties the revelation would bring with it ... if by reason of ties of
blood and affection such revelation were humanly impossible, and it
would even be cruel to ask for it, what would you do then?"
"Nothing, your Holiness."
"Not even if the crime to be committed were a serious one, and it
touched you very nearly?"
The Capuchin shook out his coloured print handkerchief and said, "That
could make no difference, your Holiness."
"But suppose you heard in confession that your brother is to be
assassinated, what is your duty?"
"My duty to the penitent who reveals his soul to me is to preserve his
secret."
"And what is your duty to God?"
The handkerchief dropped from the Capuchin's hand.
The Pope paused, scraped the gravel with the ferrule of his stick, and
said: "Father, I am in the position of the confessor who has guilty knowledge
of a conspiracy against the life of his enemy."
The Capuchin pushed his handkerchief into his sleeve and dropped back
into his seat. After a moment the Pope told the story of what Roma had
said of Rossi's plans abroad.
"A conspiracy," he said, "plainly a conspiracy."
"And what do you understand the conspiracy to be?"
"Who can say? Perhaps a recurrence to the custom of the Middle Ages,
when citizens who had been banished by their opponents used to apply
themselves in exile to attempt the reconquest of their country by
stirring up the factions at home."
"You think that is Rossi's object?"
"I do."
The Capuchin shifted uneasily the skull-cap on his crown and said: "Holy Father, I trust your Holiness will leave the matter alone."
"Why so?"
"In reading history I do not find that such enterprises have usually
been successful. I see, rather, how commonly they have failed. And if it
was so in the Middle Ages when the arts of war were primitive, how much
less likely are the conspiracies of secret societies, the partial and
superficial risings of refugees, to be serious now in the days of
standing armies."
"True. But is that a good reason for doing nothing in this instance?"
"But, Holy Father, think. You cannot disclose the secrets this poor lady
has revealed to you. Her confession was only a confidence, but your
Holiness knows well that there is such a thing as a natural secret which
it would be a great fault to reveal. Facts which of their own nature are
confidential belong to this order. They are assimilated to the
confessional, and as such they should be respected."