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The intelligent Catholic, educated among Protestants, looks upon his priest as a religious instructor, and interprets the ego te absolvo as rather a matter of form, meaning little more than that he will intercede for him. He has caught and is applying a Protestant idea unwittingly.
Of our mental fibre our aspirations our delights our indignations? I answer for you, Joseph, yes! yes! What then? H-why, then the decision! Reached how? By apologetic reasonings? By instinct, sir! h-h-that guide of the nobly proud! And what is the decision? Not guilty. Professor Frowenfeld, absolvo te!" It was in vain that the apothecary repeatedly tried to interrupt this speech.
"My son, it is easier to crush error in the egg than in the full-grown serpent. But forget you not that you are only a secular coadjutor, and therefore bound simply to obey?" "Peccavi," said the Knight, bending his head. "Absolvo. I espied this weakness in the confession of sins, and now solemnly warn thee against it. Attend, my son, and be my words remembered.
The thief and the murderer, the fool and the wise man, the rich and the beggared, how they must jostle one another in the matter of precedence! Poor Lucifer! Who will lend Lucifer a thousand livres and an 'Absolvo te'?" Jehan crossed himself, for he was a pious Catholic. "Hypocrite!" snarled the marquis; "Have I not forbidden you this mummery in my presence? Begone!"
"Alas, my reverend father," said he, quite unmoved, "will fifteen years be enough to acquit me of so much pleasure? Ah! If you knew, I have had joy enough for a thousand years." "God will be generous. Go," replied the old abbot, "and sin no more. On this account, ego te absolvo."
The monk raised his arms, and the sleeves of his white cowl rose above him like two wings. With uplifted eyes he uttered the imperious formula which breaks the bonds, and the three words, "Ego te absolvo," spoken more distinctly and slowly, fell upon Durtal, who trembled from head to foot.
Nothing more was necessary to place the conscience of the Duke of Albemarle at rest than a te absolvo said with a laugh, or the scrawl of "Charles the King," traced at the foot of a parchment; and with these two words pronounced, and these two words written, poor D'Artagnan was forever crushed beneath the ruins of his imagination.
He who most loves God will best understand men. And for the rest, O Lord who hast loved us, pardon the blunders and misunderstandings of Thy people, and save Thy servants that trust in Thee! Now go, my child, unless thou hast more to say. Absolvo te." Doucebelle rose and retired. But she did not know that Father Bruno heard no more confessions.
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