line, may pass from venial to mortal sin, and therefore by low guidance how many souls may be lost.
The Provincial Council, therefore, goes on to teach as follows:
5. "Forasmuch as the distributions of the Holy Ghost are manifold and inscrutable, and as the faithful are called, some before others, to various degrees of perfection, it is not enough that a priest should be able to distinguish scientifically between leprosy and leprosy if he cannot discern also between spirit and spirit, lest, giving ear to the human spirit or even to the diabolical as if to the Spirit of God, he be led into error and lead others into error with him. For sometimes not only the faithful of a more cultivated intelligence, but the rude and the simple among the people, are called to the highest perfection of sanctity. Therefore the guide of souls ought so to discern and know the ascents of the heart to God and the degrees of prayer by science at least, if not by his own experience, that he may be able to confirm beginners in the purgative way, direct those who are advancing in the illuminative way, and lead upward the more perfect to higher things in the way of union. Labia enim sacerdotis custodient scientiam, et legem requirent ex ore ejus, quia angelus Domini
