The Quest for the Master Key

Keys of Heaven, Gates of Hell
I’m bumming today, having ended four long years of research tracking down a clue to the ultimate smoking gun, what I’d hoped would be the crown jewel of all my digging into the Church’s dark and hidden history.
I’ve called this elusive Holy Grail, the “Master Key“. The idea that there could even be such a thing came to me after reading a 19th century academic History of Auricular Confession by an American scholar named Henry C. Lea. He wrote:
“…there was an even higher authority for the violation of the seal, for the confessor in this case was a cardinal, who, under dispensation from Eugenius IV, revealed a confession the knowledge of which was important to the papal policy of the moment.”
A small footnote cryptically referred to a work by a later pope’s very own personal theologian which justified the act. Certainly can’t get much more authoritative than that. But a papal dispensation of the seal of the confessional? That’s something that apologists have said is absolutely impossible! And for damned good reason.
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