Haliczer's timely work uses a wealth of actual cases to document the eroticizing of the confessional between 1530 and 1819. Trial evidence left by the Spanish Inquisition vividly describes the sexual misconduct of priests and the reactions of the Church. What Haliczer shows is that the Counter-Reformation Church, eager to re-assert its morality and control, actually helped foster sexual solicitation in the confessional.