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^^^,^
THE
FAITH OF CATHOLICS
CONFIRMED BY SCRIPTURE
AND ATTESTED BY THE FATHERS OF THE FIRST FIVE
CENTURIES OF THE CHURCH.
COMPILBD BY
Revds. J. BERINGTON AND J. KIRK.
KBVISSD AND KSCAST BY
Revd. J. WATERWORTH.
miitb preface, Cottectfone^ and Sddittoit0
RIGHT R£V. MONSIGNOR CAPEL, D.D.,
MUmitr oftlu ComgneaHon nftk* Stgnatmra, PHut tfikt ArdMoe$m «f WmtmiiUUr,
IN THREE VOLUMES. jp^lV'*^''-'^''''**- ^^^//J.
VOL. III. /thi£ ac;jl:;y of
SECOND EDITION.
* Fr. PUSTET & CO. VZ'^^^r uv .ipmS^*^!!.
NEW YORK AND CINCINNAl
N^ OF (iFT W^^ 1885. ^^ " ^^
I^AtS STACK
CopTTight, 1884, by
B. 8TEINBACK,
Of the firm of Fr. Pustbt & Co.
^ ^'-'^ "■■■ ■■' ^ J
.THEAN,.-0!-jg;(V^ CONTENTS OF VOLUME IH. i> S
FAsa
Penajtos, OB Befentance, 1
Ikstitutioi? of the Sackamsnt or Penanob, • • • • . 2
The Pabts or the Sacbamest of Penance, 24
Contrition, or Sorrow of Mind, 25
Confession^ 86
Suppression of the Penitentiary, ....... 80
Satisfaction, 113
Indulgenoes, 129
puboatobt, 189
Pbayebs fob the Dead, . . . ^ 139
The Sacbajcbnt of Extbeme Unction, 206
The ^cbahent of Holt Obdeb, 210
Celibact of the Cleboy, ....•••.. 226
The Religious ob Monastic State, 282
Thb Sacbament of Matbixont, 284
Relics, Pictubbs, and Ikaoes, 247
Relics of Saints, 247
Pictures and Images, 808
The Intocation of Angels and Saints, 818
Pbbgepts of the Chubch, 410
The Fast of Lent, 411
ExBEB Days, and the Yi^^ils of Feasts, 420
Abstinence on cebtain Days, 420
Cebrxonibs, 421
The Sign of the Cross, .422
Holy or Blessed Water 438
The Use of thb Latin Tongue in the Sebviob or the Chubch, . 489 Appendix,
The Immaculate Conception, 443
The Infallibility of the Pope, 450
Chronological Table of Ecclesiastical Writers and of Councils, . 461
Chronological Table of the Popes of the First Five Centuries, . 466
Index to the WBrrsBS and Wobks quoted, 467
918
THE
FAITH OF CATHOUCS,
BiTO.) ETC.
PENMCE, OR EEPENTMCE.
PBOFOBITIOV VI,
Sincere repenicMioe, that ia^ sorrow of mmdj joined to a firm resolution of amendmenty wasy at aU trnieSy so necessa/ryy that vnthout U there oovld he no remission ofsm.
flOBIPTUBB.
Deut. iv. 29. — " When thon shalt seek there the Lord thy Gh>d, thou ahalt find Him : yet so, if thou seek Him with all thy heart, and all the affection of thy soul.''
1 Kifngs vii. S. — " If yon tnm to the Lord with all yonr heart • . . and prepare yonr hearts nnto the Lord, and serve TTiTn only, and He will deliver yon out of the hand of the Philistines." See also 2 Pa/raUjp. vii. 14 ; Joh xxii. 23.
JPs, xxxi. 6. — " I said I will confess against myself mine in- justice to the Lord, and Thon hast forgiven the wickedness of my sin,**
Prov. xxviii. 13. — " He that hideth his sins shall not pros- per; bnt he that confesseth and forsaketh them, shall obtain mercy." Many similar passages occur in other parts of the Old Testament, as likewise in the New. MaU, iv. 7 ; Luke iii. 3,7,8; x.l3; xiiL 3 ; ^cfe iiL 19 ; xxvi. 20 ; 2 Ci>r. vii. 10.
2 THE SACRAMENT
OOUNOIL OF TBENT.
"Penitence was indeed, at all times, necessary for all men who had defiled themselves with any mortal sin, in order to their obtaining grace and justice, . . . that so, their perveirse- ness being laid aside and amended, they might, with hatred of sin, and a pious grief of mind, detest so great an offence of God" — Ses8. xiy. cap, 1.
INSnTUTION OF THE SACRAMENT OF PENAKCE.
PBOPOSmON VIL
Catholics bdievey that when a sinner repents of his sins, from his hearty and acknowledges his transgressions to Qod and His ministers^ — tJie disj}ensers of the mysteries of Christy — resolving to turn from his evil waySy and to bring forth frint worthy of penance^ — there is then, and not othenoisey a/n authority left hy Christ to absoloe such a pemtential simmr from his sins : which authority ^ we helieve^ Christ gave to His Apostles and their successors, the Mshops and priests of His Chwrchy in those words, when He said : Receive ye the Holy Ghost, &c. {John xk. 22, 23).
SCBTPTIIBB.
Matt. xvi. 19. — " And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, shall be bound also in heaven ; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, shall be loosed also in heaven."
Ibid, xviii. 18. — " Amen I say to you, whatsoever you shall bind upon earth, shall be boimd also in heaven, and whatso- ever you shall loose upon earth shall be loosed also in heaven."
John zx. 21-23. — << As the Father hath sent me, I also send
OF PENANCE.
yon. When He had said this, He breathed on them, and He said to them : Eeceive ye the Holy Ghost : whose sins yon shall forgive, they are forgiven them ; and whose yon shjJl re- tain, they are retained."
THE FATHERS.
OBNTTJBY n.
Teetullian, L. C. — "For if then thinkest heaven is still closed, remember that the Lord left here the keys tl^ereof to Peter, and, throngh him, to the Chnrch." * — Scorpiaoe^ n. x. j>. 496.
OBNTUET m.
Obigen, G. C. — Explaining the petition of the Lord's prayer. Forgive us (ywr trespaaseSy &c., he says : " Wherefore, we all have the power of forgiving sins that have been committed against onrselves, as is plain from this. As we also forgive our debtors. Bnt he that, like the Apostles, has been breathed upon by Jesns, — and who can be known, Jyy hisfruitSy as hav- ing recevoed the Holy Spirit^ and become spiritnal, by being led hy the Spirit^ after the manner of the Son of God, to each of the things that are to be done according to reason, — he for- gives whatsoever God would forgive, and retains the sins that are incnrable ; • ministering, — as the prophets (ministered) to
1 Memento clayes ejus hie Dominum Petro, et per eum, ecclesiie reliquisse. In the notes to ''JPrtmaey of St Fbter,** and " Of the Successors of St. PsttT,^ several extracts are given, showing into what errors on this head Tertollian feU when become a Montanisc. Those errors, however, clearly ^-»how the doctrine of the Catholic Church, which claimed and exercised the power of forgiving even the most grievous sins. " Ego et mcBchiie et fomi- cationis delicta poenitentia functis dimitto."— 2)e Pudidt. n. i. as given in the note to " JPrinuicy of Successors"; and ** Thou sayest that the Church has the power of forgiving sins," &c., see note to " Primacy of St, Peter J* Kis treatise, De Pcenitentia, is principally occupied in asserting this truth. For a specimen of that treatise, see " Contrition"
• *Aqnrfdtv a kdv dgig 6 GsdSy xai xparet rd dviara rdor dfiaprtf- fidrcov, alluding to the discipline of the age, as expressed t, ii. Horn, xv. ifB Levit. " In gravioribus criminibus semel tantum pcBnitentiao conce- ditor locus."
4 THE SACBAMBNT
Qody wlien they spoke not their own, but the things of the divine will, — so he also to God, who alone haa the power of forgiving. The words respecting the forgiveness which ac» cmed to the Apostles are, in the Gospel according to John, thns : jRecewe ye the Holy Ghost; whose sins you shall forgive^ they a/te forgvoen; and whose sins you shall reiainj they are retained. But if a person take np these words without ex- amination, he will have to challenge the Apostles, for that they did not forgive all, that to all there might be forgiveness, but retained the sins of some, so as that, through them, they are retained before God." — T. i. de Orat. n. 28, p, 256. For eon- tinuation^ see '^ Confession.^^ See also the extracty given under the same sectionj from T, iii. In Matt. torn. 12, n, 14, pp. 631-2.
St. Cypbiak, L. 0. — *^ For since in lesser offences, which are not committed against God, penitence is done for a just period, and confession is made with inquiry into the life of him who is doing penitence, nor may any one come to com- munion, except the hand shall have been imposed on him by the bishop and clergy, how much more in these most grievous and extreme sins, ought all things to be observed with caution and moderation according to the discipline of the Lord." — £^. xi. JFra^rihis.
" Neither was it right, nor did the compassion of the Father and divine clemency permit the Ohurch to be closed against those that knocked, and the help of salutary hope be denied to the mourning and the suppliant, so that they who were de- parting this life should be dismissed to the Lord without com- munion and peace, whereas He, who gave the law, has per- mitted that things bot^nd on earthy should he hound also in hewoehy whilst things might he loosed there, which were here first loosed in the Church."* — Ep. liv. ad Comd.p. 171.
" The highest degree of happiness is not to offend, the next to know our offences. In the former there is innocence, entire and unstained, to preserve us ; in the latter there f ol- > QttSB hie prius in ecclesia solyerentor.
OF PBNANCK. 6
lows Ui^ remedy to h.^ ns. Both which these men, by offeading God, have lost; and bo both the grace which is receivad by the sanctification of baptism, has been forfeited, and there comes not to their aid penitence, by which gnilt is cnred." ' — J^. Iv. ad Oomd. p. 182. See also his Ep. ad AntoniamfWffh.
FiKHiiJAii(, Gr G. — See the extract given under " Frimacy of the Sitccefisors of Si. Peter J^
OSNTUBT rv,
LACTAimus, L. 0. — See the last sentences of the extract given uader ^' Authority.'^ ^
" Keither let a man lose courage, nor despair of himself, if, overcome by concupiacence, or impelled by lust, or deceived by error, or forced by violence, he has fallen into the way of injustice. For he can be brought back and made free, if he be penitent for his deeds, and having turned to better things, he make satisfaction to God.* He who is penitent for what he has done, understands his former error, and therefore do the Greeks use a better and more significant word, /ierdvotaj which we may express in Latin by resipisoentia^ resipiscence. . . • There is no one so prudent, or circumspect, as not some- times to fal}. And, therefore, God, knowing our weakness, has, according to His loving-kindness, opened to man a harbor of safety, that the medicine of penitence might come in aid of that necessity * to which our frailty is subject." — Divm, Instii. Lib. vi. o. 24.
St. Hilabt, L. C.' — ^Explaining St. Matth. xviii. 15, But if thy Iroth&r shaU offend against thee^ <Skc., he says : ^' In order to excite apprehension by a most powerful threat, whereby all men might be kept within bounds during this life. He has placed before them the award of apostolic severity as immov- able, in so much that whom they shall have hound on earth
^ Hon subreniat poBnitentia, per qnam culpa curatur.
• Si eum poeniteat actonim, et ad meliora convereiis, satisfaciat Deo.
* Ut hoio neceasitati . . . medidxia podnitentitt sabTeniret.
6 THJJ SACRAMENT
— ^that is, shall have left entangled in the trammels of their sins — and whom they shall have loosed^ by confession — ^that iSj shall have received unto the salvation of forgiveness * — ^the same shall, in heaven also, be either loosed or bound, according to the nature of the apostolic sentence." — Comment, m Matth. 0. 18, n. 7,i?. 759.
" He gave forth a voice of power ; when He says to the pal- sied. Arise and walk; when He caDs Lazarus from the grave ; when He says to Peter and to the other Apostles, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earthy shall be bound also in heaven^ &c. This is in sooth a voice ofpower^ to be able to grant so much to human weakness." — Tract, in Ps. Ixvii. n. 35, p, 238.
St. EpHEiEM OF Edessa, Q. C. — " The exalted dignity of the priesthood is far above our understanding, and the power of speech. Kemission of sins is not given to mortals without the venerable priesthood." — De Sa^r. t. m,p. 2.
St. Basil, G. C. — " It is peculiar to God to remit sins, as Himself declares {Is, xliii. 25, and 1. 18). And when that God of God, the boy Jesus, remits the sins of the paralytic, saying, 8on^ thy sins are forgiven thee^ He is, by the Jews who knew not that He was God, thought thereby to blas- pheme, and they say. He blasphemeth; no one can forgive sins, biU God only. But the Lord, having breathed on the holy Apostles, said, Whose sins ye shall forgive, they are for- given tJism, If no one can forgive sins, as none can, save God only, and the Holy Ghost forgive sins through the Apos- tles, then is the Holy Ghost God." — T, i. P. i. Adv, Ewnom, I. V. p. 424.
St. Pacian, L. C. — " And now as regards penitence. May God grant that none of the faithful may need it ; may no one, after the aid of the holy i.ont,faU into the pit of death : may the priesthood never be compelled to urge and teach its tardy
* CJonfessiono videlicet veniae receperint in salutem. The Ben. Ed. con- strues as in the text: the passage may obviously also be translated, "by the confession, to wit, of forgiveness (the confession that causes forgiveness), shall have received into safety, or salvation.*'
OF PENANCE. 7
reliefs, for fear lest whilst they soothe the sinner with remedies, they may open a pathway to sin. But we announce this in- dulgence of our God, not to the happy but to the miserable ; we show it after, not before, sin ; we proclaim it not to the healthy, but as a remedy to the ailing. If the spirits of wickedness have no power over the baptized, and none that deceitful serpent that first overthrew man, and has stamped on his posterity so many titles to damnation, if he have left the world ; if we have already begun to reign ; if neither into hand, eye, nor mind sin has insinuated itself, away with this gift of God ; repel the aid ; let neither confession (exomolo- gesis), nor groan be heard, but let proud justice despise every remedy. But if the Lord hath made this provision for His creature ; if He, who hath vouchsafed rewards to those who fall not, hath granted remedies to the fallen, cease to accuse the divine goodness ; cease to erase, under the pretext of rigor, so many inscriptions of heavenly clemency, and to debar, with pitiless harshness, men from the Lord's free and blessed gifts. We bestow not these things as of our own. Be converted to ntCj saith the Lord, and in fasting^ wnd weeping^ amd moumr ing rend your heaHs {Joel ii. 12, 13). . . . Has the serpent so lasting a poison, and Christ no remedy ? Shall the devil slay in this world, and Christ be unable to bring help there ? Grieve indeed to sin, but grieve not to do penitence. Be ashamed at being imperilled, but not at being rescued. Who will snatch the plank from the shipwrecked, that he escape not ? Who will grudge the curing of a wound ? Does not David say, Every night I vnll wash my hed^ I wiU water my couch with my tea/rs {Ps. vi. 7) / / acknowledge my *m, and mine injvstice Iha/oe not concealed {Ps, xxxL 5) ; and again^ I said, I will confess my sins unto the Lord, amd so Thou hast forgimen the wickedness of my heart? . . . Did not confession deliver the king of Babylon, when condemned after so many sins of idolatry ? [He continues to give numerous scriptural examples of the efficacy of penitence, and proceeds :] But penitence, you say, was not allowed. No one enjoins labor
8 THB 8ACBAMSNT
without some reward, for the laborer U ivorthy of his hire. Ood would Beret threaten the impenitent, if He forgave not the penitent God alone, yon rejoin, can do this. Trae : but that which He doea through HiB priests, is His own power/ For what is that which He says to the Apostles, Wliatso&ver ye ehaU bind on eoHh ehaU be bound cdso in hea^oen^ <md whaUoever ye ehM loose on earth shall be loosed also in heaven f Why this, if it was not lawful for men to bind and loose? Is this allowed to Apostles only? Th^i to them alone is it allowed to baptize, to them alone to give the Holy Ghost ; and to them alone to cleanse the sins of the nations ; inasmuch as all this was given in command to none but the Apostles. But if, in the same place, both the loosing of bonds, and the power of the sacrament are conferred, either the whole has been derived to us from the model (form) and power of the Apostles, or neither has the former been abro- gated frOm the decrees (of God).* /, He saith, Juwe laid the foundation^ and another buUdeih thereon (1 Cor. iii. 10). What, therefore, the doctrine of the Apostles founded, that we build upon. And lastly, bishops also are named Apos- tles, aB saith Paul of Epaphroditus, My brother and feUovh S(Mier^ but ytywr Apostile {Philipp. ii. 26). H, therefore, the power of the laver, and of the chrism, gifts far greater, de- scended thence to bishops, so also was the right of binding and of loosing, with them.* Which although on account of our sins it be presumptuous in us to claim, yet God, who hath granted unto bishops the name even of His only beloved, will not deny it unto us, as (if) His only ones, and occu- pying the chair of the Apostles.* . . . Let us rejnember that the Apostle Peter hath named our Lord, Bishop. But
» Quod per sacerdotes suoa facit, ipsiua pot^stas eat.
« Ant totum ad nos ex aportolorum forma et potestate deductom est, ant neo illud ex decretis relaxatom est
» Si ergo et lavacri et chrismatis potestas ... ad episoopos inde da- acendit, et ligandi quoque jus adfuit atque solvendL
* Apostolorum cathedram teneatibos.
pou are nawyhe eajSy oofwerUd to the ahepkerd ^md bMcp of your aatila. What Bhall be denied to the bishop in whom operateth the name of GodT^^ — Ep.u n, 6-7, Gailand.t. rii. pp. 258-9.
^^ This is the entire purport of the treatiee sent me in favor of the Koyatians, wilii argnments gathered from every side, — that, after baptism^ there is no room for penitence ; that the Church cannot pardon mortal ion : * farther that she herself perishes by the very receiving of sinners. Admirable honor I Singular authority I Mighty constaney I to repel the guiity ; to shuneontact with rixmers; to confide so littje m W own mnocence. Who k it that asserts this ? Is it Moses or Fatd, or Christ ? But lioses wishes ixy he licUed outfrom^ the book^ far the: sake <f the Uaephemers {Sx. xxxii.) ; and Paul to he -an anatkarMfor £he hretkren {Bern, iz.) ; and the IiC»^ Him- fldf makes at His choice to- suffer for the unjust. Kone of these, you will say. Who,. then t It was the ordinance of Kovatian. Some immaculate and pure man, no doubt; no follower of iN^ovatus ; no deserter from the Church ; a bishop made such by bishops, consecrated with the accustomed rite, .and possessed of some vacant chair in the Church % ^ What is Ihat to thee % ' thou wilt say. ^ Novatian has said it.' But, at least, tell me when, name the precise period. Was it imme- diately after the passion ^f Christ? ^ After Decnus ' reign : that is, somewhere about three hundred years after the passion of the Lord.' Well, and what then : idid he follow prophets, like the Cataphrygians ; or some Pbilomene, as Apelles ? Or received he himself so -great authority I Spake he with tongues? Did he prophesy? Could he raise the dead ? For, to bring in a gospel with a new law, he should have had some one of these pow^s.* Although the Apostle crieth even against this, I%augh we^ or an avygd from heaven, ehouM ]prea/ih a go&pd besides that which we^ha^e pr^eachedio yoUy let him he am^thema {Ocd. i. 8). Kovatian, you will say, dis-
' Qaod mortale peocatum eodleBia donare nott posrit
* Horom aliqaid habtf».debaemt, nt eTan^feliiim nori jmis-indneiiet.
10 THE SACRAMENT
oemed this ; bnt Christ taught it. Has theiiB then not been one of discernment from the advent of Christ, even to the reign of Decins ? Again, since Decius, has every bishop been intolerant ? ' Have all other bishops who have chosen to join themselves with the lost ; to die with the wretched : to make their wonnds their own ; been relaxed men ? With Novatian for her avenger, Justice is set free : Novatian guideth, every error is corrected ! " — Ibid, JSp. uLp. 262.
St. Ambeosb, L. C. — "But they (the Novatians) say that they hereby show reverence to the Lord, to whom alone they reserve the power of forgiving crimes. Yet none do him a greater injury than they who wish to rescind his orders, to throw up the oflBce committed (to them). For when the Lord Himself has said in the Gospel : lieceive ye the Holy Ohost: whose sins you shall forgive^ they cure forgwen them / cmd whose sins you shaU retairij they are retained; who is it that honors Him more, he that obeys, or he that resists His com- mands?
" The Church in both regards observes obedience ; she both binds and looses sin ; whilst heresy, in one regard unfiling, in the other disobedient, wishes to bind what it will not loose^ and will not loose that which it has boimd, thereby condemn- ing itself by its own judgment. For the Lord wished the right as well of loosing as of binding to be the same, since He granted both on the same condition. Whence it follows that he that has not the right to loose, has not the right to bind. ... To the Church both are lawful ; to heresy both are not lawful, for this right has been conceded to priests alone.* Rightly, therefore, does the Church, which has true priests, claim this right ; heresy, which has not priests of God, cannot claim it : whilst, by not claiming it, it proclaims of itself that,
> Omnis episoopus impatiens, may mean, " has eyerj bishop been weary of his office?" So Ox. Tr. referring the words to the Catholic bishops. The meaning given in the text refers the word%to the NoTatiiins, ''has eTery bishop refused to tolerate the penitent?"
* Jus enim hoo solis permissum sacerdotibus est
OP PENANCE. 11
whereas it has not priests, it ought not to claim for itself a sa-' cerdotal right. . . .
" Observe this also, that he that has received the Holy Ghost, has also received the power of binding and of loosing. For thus it is written, Hecewe the Holy GTwst^ &c. Where- fore he that cannot loose sin, has not the Holy Ghost." — T. ii. LSb. i. De Podmtmtiia^ o. ii. n. 6-8, pp. 391-92.
" But they (the Novatians) say, that, whilst they make an exception as regards graver crimes, they grant pardon to lighter offences. This was not done by the author of your er- ror, Novatian, whose opinion was that to no one was penitence to be allowed ; under this impression, that he should not bind what he could not loose ; lest by the act of binding he might raise an expectation that he would loose. By your own judg- ment, therefore, do you condemn your father, in that you draw a distinction between sins, some of which you think are to be loosed by you, whilst you account others as without a remedy : but God makes no distinction ; He promised His mercy to all ; and granted to His priests permission to loose without exception." ' — Ibid. c. iii. n. 10,^. 394.
" If it be not lawful for sins to be forgiven by man, why do you baptize ? For assuredly in baptism, there is remission of all sins.
" What matters it whether priests claim this right as having been given them by means of penitence or baptism ? One is the mystery in both : but thou say est, *It is the grace of the mysteries that operates in baptism.' And what operates in penitence ? Is it not the name of God ? Where you choose, you claim for yourselves the grace of God ; where you choose you repudiate it." — Ibid. c. viii. n. 36-37, p. 400.
"It seemed impossible that water should wash away sin; then Naaman, the Syrian, believed not that his leprosy could be cured by water. But God who has given so great a grace, made the impossible be possible. In the same manner it seemed impossible for sins to be forgiven by penitence, Christ * Et relaxandi licentiam suis saoerdotibus sine uUa ezceptione oonoessit.
12 THE SACRAMENT
granted t&is to His Apostles, which has been from the Apos-. ties transmitted to the oflBlces of the priests." * — T, ii Z, ii. 3e Pcmit. e, ii. n. 12, p. 419.
" Let us now see whether the Spirit f orgiveth sifis. But it cannot be doubted from this that the Lord Himself said. He- oewe ye the Holy Ghost : whbee sins you shaU forgive, they a/re forgiven. Behold, that sins are forgiven by the Holy Ghost. But unto the remission of sins men furnish their mmistry ; they do not exercise the right of any power. For not in their own name, but in that of the Father, and Son, and Holy Ghost, are sins forgiven. They pray ; Qt>d f oigives : for the office is man's, but the great bounty is from the p6Wer above. In baptism also that sins are forgiven is not doubtful.** — lb. De Spir. Sonet. I. iii. c. xviii. n. 137.
St. J. CflErsostoM, G. C— The second book of St. Ckrys. de Sacerdotio is almost entirely occupied with rules as to the guidance of souls, and its applicability to the question before us would require the whole to be before the reader. The fol- lowing IB as copious an analysis as this woik will permit. Having quoted St, Paul, Ephee. vi. 12, and GeHat. v. 19*21 ; 2 Cor. xii. 20, to show the evils which the spiritual shepherd has to guard his flock against ; and carrying on his compari- son of a shepherd and of a spiritual pastor, he says {p. 4t56, n. 2) : ^^ Add to this that the diseases of animals are mani- fest, whether it be the rot, or the murrain, or a wound, or any- thing else that pains them ; and this is of no slight he^ to- wards the cure of what disorders them. And there is also an- other thing of more importance than this, towards eflEecting a speedy cure of any disorder. And what is this ! The shep- herds force with full power the sheep to submit to their re- medies when they will not comply willingly. . . . But, in the 'first place, it is not easy for men to see the diseases of men ; for No mem hnoweth Ihe ihmge of a mom, hut the spirit of a wfum ihai is in him (1 Cor. ii. 11). How then can a man ap-
> Concessit hoc Christus apostolis wcda, quod ab apostolis ad aaoerdotnm <yfficia transmissam M.
OF PENANCE. 13
ply the remedy to the disorder, the nature of which he knows not, frequently even unable to.perceive whether the person be sick or no? But even when the disease becomes known, then does it create a greater difficulty. For it is not in our power to cure all k\nds of men with as great power, as the shepherd does his sheep. For there he can bind, and keep from food, and burn and cut ; but here the receiving of the remedy is not in the power of him that administers the medicine, but of him that is laboring under the disorder. Yea, for that admirable man knowing this, said to the Corinthians, For we exercise not dominion over yourfaith^ hut a/re helpers of your joy (2 Cor. i. 23). For of all people. Christians especially are not to correct by force the transgressions of sinners. . . . And for this cause, ' there is need of much art, that the sick may be persuaded voluntarily to submit themselves to the medicine administered to them by the priests,* and not this alone, but that they be thankful to them for that remedy. . . . For there is no such thing as using force, and being able to cure a person against his will. ... I could mention many persons who have launched into the extremest evils on account of punishment, being required commensurate with their sins.' For we ought not inconsiderately to adjust to the measure of the sins also the punishment, but the disposition of the sinners is also to be had in view ; * for fear lest when wishing to mend the rent you make it worse, and in your eagerness to lift up the fallen you make his fall the greater. ^ . . For this cause, the pastor hath need of much prudence, and countless eyes, (to wit) to observe from every side the disposition of the soul. For, as many are driven into arrogance, and fall into despair of their salvation, from not being able to bear bitter remedies, so are there some who from not undergoing a punishment equivalent to (or, of contrary nature to) their offences, are changed into utter neg-
> 'Eavrovi vicex^iv raH napd roHr iepeoov QspaireiatS,
' ^td ro 6ix7fv dTtairrfirjvai toov dfiapTTj^idroov d^iav.
• Ov ydp ditXooi TCpoS ro rdov itapaitrooixdroov ^erpov 8el xai
Trfy kniTifiiav iTtdyetr, dXXd xai rrfs rdov duapzovovtaiv tfro-
Xci^^^^ai icpoatpsdeooS,
14 THE SACRAMEST
figence, become much worse, and ire impelled to em mueh more grievouilj. It ia needfnU therefore, that none of these things pass nnexamined, bnt that the priest after having accn- ratelj searched into all things, snitabi v appl j what belongs to hia office."' ' — T. L L.iLde Saeerdotlo^ pp. 456-oS.
^ Men that dwell on earth, and have their abode therein, have had committed to them the dispensation of the things that are in heaver, and hare receired a power which Grod has not given either to angels, or to archangels ; for not to these was it said. Whatsoever ye shall bind on earthy shaU he hound also in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose upon earthy shall he loosed also in heaven. Thej that role on earth have indeed also power to hindj bat the bodj only ; whereas this bond tonches the very soul itself, and reaches even unto heaven ; ' and what the priests shall do below, the same does Orod ratify above, and the Lord confirms the sentence of His servants. And what else is this, bat that He has given them all heavenly power? For saith He, Whose sins you shaU for- gvoe^ they are forgiven^ and whose sins you shall retain^ they are retained. What power could be greater than this ? The leather hath given aU judgment to the Son {John v. 22), and lo ! the priests have all of it entmsted to them by the Son.* For as thongh they were already passed into heaven, and were raised above human nature, and set free from our passions, have they been preferred to this great sovereignty.* Further, should a king invest any one of his subjects with this honor, to cast, that is, into prison whom he chose, and also to liberate them, such an one would be envied and looked up to by all ; whilst he who has received from God a power as much greater than this, as heaven is more precious than earth, and the soul than the body, shall it seem to some that he has received so slight
• Td nap^ avrov Tepo6dyetv.
• Ovroi 61 6 6e6ud^ avr^ aiererat r^ i^X^ ^cc^ 6taftatrei rovi
OVfMVOVi.
• 'Opca Si Ttddar avrifv rovrovi iyx^^P^^^^^^^ ^^o rov viov.
09 PBNANCK 16
an honor, as to be able eyen to tbink that one entniBted with these things can despise the gift? Away with such madnecs. For it is manifest madness to despise so great a power, with- out which it is not in #iir power either to obtain salvation, or the promised good things." * — T. i. L. iii. De SaeerdotiOj n. 6, pp. 468-69.
" For if, imless a man b^ bom cbgain of water and the Holy Qhost^ he oa/nnot enter into the kingdom of heaven ^ and if he that eateth not the jteeA of the Lord, wnd drvnkeih not His bloody is cast ont from eternal life, and all these things are performed by no other hands, but only those holy ones, I mean the hands of the priests, — how shall any one be able to escape the fire of hell, or obtain the crowns laid np (for ns), withont their means ? * For these are they, these are the per- sons to whom the spiritual travailings are committed, and that birth which is effected by baptism. By their means • we put On Christ, and are united to the Son of GK>d, made members of that blessed head ; so that they with justice should be held by us in greater awe, not than princes only and kings, but even in greater honor than our parents. For these have begotten ns of blood, and of the wiU of the flesh ; but those are the causes to us of that divine birth, of blessed regeneration, of true liberty, and of the adoption of grace. The Jewish priests had power to cleanse the leprosy of the body, or rather not to cleanse it at all, but to decide on those who were clean, and you know what struggles theriB were for the sacerdotal dignity then ; but these (Christian priests) have received power not to cleanse the leprosy of the body, but the uncleanness of the soul, not to decide that it is cleansed, but to cleanse it indeed ; * so that they who despise them are much more wicked, and worthy of a greater punishment than even Dathan and his as- sociates."— lb. vh. ev/pr. p. 469.
^'jHs avev ovre doortfpiai ilfilv, ovre raSv iicpyyeXjueroov rvxetr hirtr dyaiSfSv.
* TovToiry inroi. • 2itd rovraar.
* Ovx ditdXXayBX6ay SoKifidZetr, dXX^ dKaXXdrretr icarteXoSi iXjocfioy k^ov6iocv.
16 THE SACRAMENT
^^ If a woman (Esther), supplicating on behalf of Jews, was able to appease the wrath of a barbarian, much rather will onr master (Flavian), entreating on behalf of so great a city, and in unison with so great a Church, be able to prevail with this most mild and merciful emperor. For if he have received authority to loose the sins committed against God,' much more will he be able to remove and blot out those committed against a man." — T. ii. Ad Pop. ArUioch. Horn. iiL n. 2, p. 45.
" We have said that the ruler has power to bind and to loose. Now see that the Apostles have the same sovereignty. For, Whomsoever ye shall hind upon earthy He says, they shall be bound in heaven^ and whomsoever ye shall loose upon earthy they shaU be loosed in hea/oen. Thou seest power of prison, and prison ; and the name is indeed the same, but the thing is not the same. Bonds, and bonds, but the one on earth, the other in heaven. For heaven is their prison-house. Learn then the greatness of their sovereignty. Seated on earth, they pass their sentence, and the force of that sentence passes even to heaven ; and as kings having their residence in one city pass sentence and make laws, and the force of those sentences and laws pervades the whole world ; so also then, the Apostles abiding in one place gave their laws ; and the force of those laws and of those bonds, not merely was felt by the earth, but reached even to the heights of heaven. Thou seest a prison, and a prison ; the one on earth, and the other in heaven ; one for bodies, the other for souls ; yea rather both for souls and bodies, for not bodies only did they bind, but souls also. Wouldst thou learn how they had power also to forgive debts! Here also wilt thou perceive a great difference : for not debts of money, but debts of sins did they remit ; for whose sins ye shaU forgive^ <fec." — T. iii. Horn. iii. Inlnscr. Actor, n. 4-5, j?. 94.
" Tell me not of the purple, the diadem, and the robes of
gold. All these are but shadows, and more transient than
vernal flowers. For aU the glory of mxin^ says the Prophet,
is as the flower of the field. Tell me not of these things ;
* Tdi eii Qeov d^iapriai Xvetv eXafiev i^ovdiav.
OP PENANOB. 17
but if thou wonldst see the diflference between a priest and a king, examine the measure of power conferred on each, and thou wilt see the priest placed much higher than the king. For though the kingly throne seem to us glorious, from the precious stones set in it, and the gold that circles it, yet it is the king's part to administer the things of this earth, and be- yond this he has no authority whatever ; whereas the priestly throne is placed in heaven, and to it has been committed to rule over the things that are there. Who declares this ? Even the King of Heaven Himself : for. Whatsoever^ says He, you shaU hind on earthy shaU he hound also m heaven; amd what- soever ye shaU loose on ea/rth^ shaU he loosed also in heaven. What honor can equal 'this ? Heaven derives from earth the highest office of judgment ; since the Judge sits on earth ; the Lord follows the servant ; and whatsoever the latter decides here below, that He approves of above. And intermediate, between God and the nature of men, stands the priest,* bring- ing down thence (or, from Him), unto us, heaven's benefits, and bearing thither our petitions ; reconciling Him, when moved to wrath, to our common nature ; and rescuing us, who have oflEended Him, from His hands." — T. vi. Som. v. In U- Ivd Vidi Dom. n. i. jpp. 152-3.
Commenting on 2 Cor. iii. 6, The letter killethj hut the Spirit quickenethj and having explained the latter clause, as signifying the Spirit's freeing from the death of sin, by bap- tism, he continues : " But not this only is the marvel, that He guickeneth, but that He has granted to others also to do this* For, says He, Receive ye the Holy Ghost Wherefore ? For, without the Spirit could not this be ? But God, showing that this Spirit is of the Most High power, and of that royal essence, and has the same strength, uses these words; and for this cause adds : Whose sins ye shall forgive, they are forgiven ; and whose sins ye shall retain, they are retained." — T. x. Horn. vi. in Ep. ii. ad Cor. n. 3, p. 557. See also Ihid. Horn. xv.
' Mi6oi rov Beov xai rrj^ rcSv drBpaoicoay ipvdeoDi idrrjKBv 6 iepevi, " a mediator between God and mankind."
18 THB SACRAMENT
Commenting on Hebrews viii. 6, he says : " Wliat things does he here call Jiea/venlyt Spiritual things; yea, for though they be done on earth, yet still are they worthy of hea- ven. For, when our Lord Jesus Ohrist lies slain ; when the Spirit descends ; when He that sits at the right hand of the Father is here ; when children are made by the laver ; when they are citizens with those who are in heaven ; when we have a country there, and a city, and our conversation there ; when we are strangers to what is here ; how are not all these things hea/vetUyf ... Is not the altar heavenly f How? It has nothing carnal ; the things that lie to open view become all spiritual ; not to dust, not to smoke, not to odor is the sacrifice dispersed, but resplendent and gladsome are made the things that lie to open view. And how are the things that we cele- brate not heavenly, when they that minister at them still hear that word spoken, ' If you retain (the sins of) any, they are retained, if you forgive (the sins of) any, they are forgiven? ' How are all these things not Iiea/veTily, when these have even the keys of hea/venf^^ — T. xii. Jlom. xiv. in Ep, ad Hebr. n. 1, 2,i?p. 201-2.
Apostolical CoNSTrrunoNS, G. C. — " Wherefore, O bishop, be careful to be pure in deeds, knowing thy place and dignity, as bearing the type of God amongst men ; ' ruling over all men, whether priests, kings, rulers, fathers, sons, doctors, as also over all subjects. And so sit in the church, when thou announcest the word, as having authority to judge those who have sinned, because to you, bishops, it was said : Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven, and whatso- ever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Judge, therefore, O bishop, with authority, as God," yet, receive the penitent. For God is a God of mercy. Eebuke sinners ; ad- monish the erring ; exhort those that stand, to persevere in good ; receive the penitent ; since the Lord God has promised with an oath, to grant remission to the penitent from the sins wherewith they have transgressed. For He says, by Ezekiel,
> *i2s &eov zvfCov ix^^ ^y drOpanoiS, ' Kpire fl3s 6 Seoi,
OP PENANCE. 19
Say to themy as J Iwey saith the Lord Oody I deai/re not the death of the wickedy Imt that the wicked turn from his wayy and live. Turn ye from yov/r evil ; and why vyill you diey O house of Israel t (xxiii.) Here the word makes sinners full of good hopes, that they may havQ, if they repent, hope of salvation." — L, ii. c. xi. xii.
" Do thou likewise, O bishop, be obedient, seeking the lost, guiding the wandering, bringing back the straying ; for thou hast authority to bring back, and to ' send away the hrokenr hea/rted with remission. By thee the Saviour says to the palsied by sin : Thy sins are forgiven thee. Thy faith hath made thee whole : go in peace. Peace, and a haven of tran- quillity, is the Church of Christ, into which, when thou hast loosed sinners, restore them whole and spotless, full of hope and zeal, and laborious in every good work." — Ih. c. xx.
" For if the divine oracle says of our parents according to the flesh, Honor thy father and thy mother y that it may be well with thee ; and, he who curses father or mother let him die the deathy how much more should the word admonish you as to your spiritual fathers, to honor and love them as bene- factors and ambassadors to God, who have regenerated yon by water ; who have filled you with the Holy Ghost ; who have nourished you with the milk of the word ; who have brought you up in doctrine ; confirmed you by their coun- sels ; who have accounted you worthy of the saving body and precious blood ; who have loosed your sins, and have made yon partakers of His holy and sacred Eucharist, and partaker^ and co-heirs of the promises of God. Venerate and honor them with every kind of respect ; for they have received from God power of life and death, in their judging of sinners, and adjudging to the death of everlasting fire, and in loosing from sins, and giving life to the converted." — Ibid. c. xxxiii. In the prayer at the consecration of a bishop, is the following : " Grant unto him, O Almighty Lord, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, that so he may have power to remit sins,* accord- ' ^Aqxiivax duaptidi*
20 THE SACRJLXEST
ing to Th V precept — to loose every KhkL iceoidiiig to tlie power wLieh Thoa garesl the Apoetlea.'' — L. viiL c t. For the c»atext, see ** 5*cry£^-''
St. Jeboxe, Lw C — See the extract, g^'cai under the •* BueharisLp from 21 L JE/?. riv. ad Hdiodot.
CESTTKT T-
8t. AroryrnrE. L C. — ^** Whoso, therefore, after baptism, il held bonnd by the work of certain former evils, is he so £tf hLi own enemy, as still to hesitate to change his Kfe, while be haa time, while he thos dns and lives f For. indeed, thai be thii5 habiroally sin*, he treasures up for hims^:Jf wntth m the d4iy of vrratK and the revelation ofihej*i4i Ju*ffjmtni of God, But that he still lives, the patience of God leadeth him to penitence. Trammelled, therefore, in the bonds of sins so deadly, does he decline, or delay, or hesitate, to~fly nnto the keys themselves of the Church, by which he may be loosed on earth, that he may be loosed in heaven/ . . . Let a man jndge himself of his own will, whilst he lias it in his power, and reform his manners, lest, when he shall no longer have it in his power, he be judged by the Lord against his will ; and when he shaU have passed upon himself the sentence of a most severe remedy, but still a remedy, let him come to the prelates, by whom the keys are ministered to him in the Church ; and as one now b^inning to be a good son, let him, — ^the order of the members of the mother being pre- served,— receive the manner (or amount) of his satisfaction from those who are set over the sacraments ; * that devout and suppliant in^ offering up the sacrifice of a contrite heart, he may do that which may not only be of profit to himself towards receiving salvation, but also to others as an example. So that if his sin be not merely to his own great injury, but also to the great scandal of others, and it seem to the prelate
> Confugere ad ipsas olsyes eoclesisB, qoibas solyatur in terra» at sit so- lutas in ooelo.
* A pnepositis fiacramentorom aocipiat saiisfactionis sa» modoun.
OF PENANCE. 21
a thing expedient for the utility of the Church, let him not refuse to do penitence in the cognizance of many, or even of the whole people ; let him offer no resistance, nor through shame add the tumor (of pride) to his deadly and mortal wound. Let him ever remember that God resists iheproudy hut gives grace to th$ humble. For what is more unhappy, what more perverse, than not to blush for the wound itself, which cannot be hid, and to blush at its bandage ? . . . But allow that it is doubtful whether God grant his pardon. What does he lose when he supplicates God, he who hesi- tated not to forfeit salvation when he offended God ? For who is certain that an emperor even will pardon ? And yet money is poured forth, seas are crossed, the perils of storms encountered ; and death itself is well-nigh endured that death may be avoided. And yet the keys of the Church present greater certainty than the hearts of kings, by which keys whatsoever is loosed on earth, is promised to be also loosed in heaven.* And much more honorable is the humility whereby one humbles himself to the Church of Gpd ; and less the labor imposed ; and without any danger of a tem- poral death, an eternal death is avoided." — T, y. Serm, cccli. ». 9, 12, col. 2014, 2015, 2020. See also T. vi. Ench. n, 83, ooL 390; T. ix. Cont. Ep. Par. L. ii. n. xi. col. 101-3.
St. Isnx)BB of Pblusium, G. C. — " Our Lord and Master, in order to show the union of the most holy Spirit with Himself and the Father, said to His disciples, after His re- surrection: Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose mis ye shaid forgive^ they are forgiven / by the authority, that is, of that Spirit which you receive, who, as God, has power to forgive sins." — L. i. Ep. xcvii. Hymet. Oontr. Maced.p. 31.
ZAOOHiEus, L. C. — See the extract given under " Primacy of St. Peter ^^ from L. ii. Gonstdt. Zacch. c. xviii.
St. Leo L, Pope^ L. C. — " All who had believed in Christ, had the Holy Spirit infused into them, and even then had the
1 Certiores sunt daves ecolesisB, quam oorda regam, quibns davibiiB quodcomque in terra solvitur, etiam in coelo solutum promittitur.
22 THE SAGEAMEirr
Apostles received the power of forgiving sins,' when, after HiB resnrrection, the Lord breathed on them, and said : Re- ceive ye the Holy Ghoet / wJho»e sine you shall forgive^ they a/re forgimen tliem / and whose sins you shall retain^ they are retained:'— T. i. Serm. Ixxvi. {De Penteo. iL) c. iv. p. 303. See also under the head " Confession^'
St. Cybil of Alkxandbia, 6. C. — " "Would, he says, would that the spirit were bestowed on the whole people ; but the time shall bo when the Lord of all things, Christ to wit, shall vouchsafe to them His own spirit ; having breathed on the holy Apostles, as the first-fruits of those who were to receive it, and Baying^ Heceive ye the Holy QhosL . . • But when Christ gave the spirit, Whose sins you shaU forgive^ He says, shall he forgi/den, and whose sins you shaU retain^' they shall be retained^ although He alone, being by nature God, had ability and authority to loose those who had fallen into sins. For whom does it befit to pardon any persons those things which they have been found guilty of having committed against the divine law, but He who made that law ? Tet, if we choose, we may see, from what takes place amongst ourselves, the force of the (above) declaration. Who authori- tatively does away with the decrees of an earthly king, or attempts to annul what a ruler's decision and judgment has ordained, save one who may happen to be invested with royal honor and dignity ? For the crime of violating the law has no place in such : so that it was a wise word that he spoke. He is imjpious that says to a king^ thou actest against the la/w (Job xxxiv. 18). In what way, then, and for what cause did the Saviour surround His disciples with that authority which befits the divine nature only ? ' The Word of the Father did not sin against what was proper, but did this very beautiful- ly. For He thought that they, who had already within them
1 Bemittendorum peccatorum etiam tunc apostoli acceperant potestar tern.
• To noyy fepiitov d^mfia ry Beiq. gwdei roli kavvov /AaQrfTaii
OF PENANCE. 23
the spirit of Gbd and of the Lord, ought also to be masters to obliterate the sins of some, and to retain the sins of others, as seemed fitting to them ; * the Holy Spirit that dwelt within them both obliterating and retaining, agreeably to His own will, although the tiling happened to be done by the instru- mentality of men.* Now those spirit-bearers remit or retain sins in two ways, in my opinion ; for they either call unto baptism, those who by holiness of life and approved faith ought already to attain unto it ; or they prevent, and repel from the divine grace, others as not being yet worthy ; or they also, in another manner, both remit and retain sins, when they reprehend the sinning but pardon the penitent children of the Church," as in fact Paul also delivered up the fornicator at Corinth, for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit might be saved ; but received him again, lest he might be swallowed up by excessive grief." — T. iv. Comm, in Joarm. L. xii. p, 1101.
St. Peteb Chbysologus, L. C. — " Wh^se sins you shaUfor- ffivsy &c. He gave the power of forgiving sins, — He who by His own breath infused Himself into their hearts, and be- stowed on them Him who forgives sins. WTien He said this^ Me breathed on tke^riy saying j Receive ye the Holy Ghost^ &c. Where are the men who teach that sins cannot be forgiven men, by men ? Who, wi^h a cruel spirit, take from the lan- guishing and the wounded their cure, and deny them their remedy? Who impiously insult sinners with despair of a return ? Peter forgives sins, and receives the penitent with all joy, and avails himself of this power which God has granted to all priests." * — Serm. Ixxxiv.^. 129.
* Jiaq>€Tvat Tds rtrtSv djuapriai eivat KvpiovS, xai dav itep av dovXoavrat xparelv,
• Kav 6t^ dyBp(0ita>r reXiftat.
• ^EjetTtuwyrei nkv djuocprdvovdi roli rifi ixxXj^aiai rexvot^, fiera- roQvdt Sk dvyytvGodxovTsi,
* Dedit potestatem remittendi peooata . . . ubi sunt qui per homines hominibus remitti peccata non posse prasscribunt? . . . Kemittit Petrus peocata, et toto cum gaudio suscipit poenitentes, atque omnibus sacerdoti- bns haac a Deo oonoessam amplectitur potestatem.
24 CONTEinON.
COUNCIL OF TEKNT.
" They who, by sin, have fallen away from the received grace of jastiiication, are enabled again to be justified, when ' God, exciting them through the sacrament of penitence, they have striven earnestly to recover that lost grace by the merit of Christ ; for this manner of justification is reparation to the fallen; which the holy Fathers have aptly styled a second plank after the shipwreck of grace lost. For, in behalf of those who fall into sins after baptism, Christ instituted the sacrament of peniteuce, when He said, Receive ye ths Holy OhoBt^'* &c. — Se^s, vi. cap. 14. " Our Lord then principally instituted the sacrament of penitence, when, raised from the dead. He breathed on His disciples, saying: Receive ye the Holy Ghost ; whose sins you shaJl forgive^ they a/re forgiven ; a/nd whose sins you shaU retain^ they are retained (John xx.) By which action so signal, and by words so plain, the unani- mous consent of the Fathers has always understood that the power of forgiving and of retaining sins, for the reconciling of the f aitlif ul, was communicated to the Apostles and to their legitimate successors. And with great reason, did the Catho- lic Church reject and condemn as heretics, the Novatians, who obstinately, in former times, denied that power."— &»«. xiv. cap. 1.
THE PARTS OF THE SACRAMENT OF PENANCE.
PEOPOsiTioN vni.
The essential parts of Penance a/re three: Contrition^ Corir fession^ am.d Satisfaction^ without which^ in the case of grie/o- ous sin, — unless when the two last, confession and satisfa^i- tion, from unavoidable obstacLes, cannot he complied with, — we believe that the sinner cannot obtain forgiveness from God.
OONTEITION. 25
CONTRITION, OR SORROW OF MIND.
What is required in this contrition or sorrow, is, that it be interior, that is, that it spring from the heart, penetrated by the consciousness of guilt : that it be supernatural, that is, that it arise from grace or the influence of the divine Spirit on the soul, and not from considerations merely human : that it be supreme, that is, above all other grief : that it be unir i^ersal, that is, that it include every grievous sin of which the sinner has been guilty : and that it contain a &rm purpose of wmendmeni, without which no sorrow can be real.
SOBIPTUBB.
The passages cited at p, 1, directly apply to this point, and to them, among many others, may be added the following :
Ps. 1. 19. — " A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit : a con- trite and humbled heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise."
Ezech. xviii. 31. — " Cast away from you all your trausgres- sions, by which you have transgressed, and make to yourselves a new heart and a new spirit ; and why will you die, O house of Israel?"
Joel ii. 12, 13. — " Now, therefore, saith the Lord : Be con- verted to me with all your heart, in fasting, and in weeping, and in mourning. And rend your hearts, and not your gar- ments ; and turn to the Lord your God."
Matt. xxvi. 25. — " And Peter remembered the word of Jesus . . . and going forth he wept bitterly."
lAjJce vii. 38. — " And standing behind at His feet, she began to wash His feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head." Ibid. xv. 18, 19. — " I will arise, and will go to my father, and say to him : Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee ; I am not now worthy to be called thy son." Bnd. xviii. 13. — "And the publican, standing afar off, would
26 CONTRITION.
not so much as lift up his eyes towards heaven ; bnt stmck Ms breast, saying, O God, be merciful to me a sinner."
AcU ii. 37. — " Now when they had heard these things, they had compunction in their heart, and they said to Peter, and to the rest of the Apostles: "What shall we do, men and brethr^i % "
THE FATHERS,
On a point where all Christians, it should seem, think, and express themselves alike, a few passages shall suffice.
CENTUBY n.
Teetulliak, L. C. — " For all sins, therefore, whether com- mitted in the flesh or in the spirit, whether by deed or will, He who has appointed punishment through condemnation, has also promised forgiveness through penitence, saying unto the people : Be penitent^ amdIwiU make thee whaled And again, / Ziy^, aaith the Lord^ amd I will have penitence rather than death. Wherefore penitence is life, seeing that it is preferred before death. To this penitence do thou, O sinner, like unto myself, (yea, less than myself, for I acknowledge my su- periority in sinfulness) so press, so embrace it, as does the shipwrecked the protection of some plank. This shall hold thee up, when plunged in the waves of sin, and shall bring thee onwards to the haven of divine mercy.
" How foolish, how unjust, not to fulfil penitence, and to ex- pect the pardon of sins ; this is, not to pay the price, and yet to stretch forth the hand for the merchandise. For at this price the Lord hath determined to grant His forgiveness ; by this compensation of penitence He proposes that freedom from punishment is to be repurchased.* If, therefore, those who sell, first examine the money which they covenant to receive, lest it be cut, or scraped, or of false metal, we believe that the Lord also will first test our penitence when about to grant us
* These words do not occur in our copies of the sacred Scriptures.
* Hac poenitentiflB compensatione redimendam proponit impunitatem.
CONTRITION. 27
80 great a reward, to wit, that of everlasting life. * But,' thou wilt say, * let us put oflf our actual penitence until that time.' It shall then, I suppose, be seen that we are amended, when we are absolved. By no means. But it must be when, pend- ing the pardon, punishment is before our eyes. When we have not yet merited to be delivered, that we may be able to merit it." ^—De Pcmit. n. 6,^. 122.
OENTUBT in.
Obioen, G. 0. — " The chains of sins are bonds which are burst asunder, not only by means of divine baptism, but also by martyrdom for Christ, and by tears which flow from peni- tence."—T. ii. adect. m Ps. cxv. j>. 792. Of. Ibid. p. 790 ; also T. XV. L. ii. in Ep. ad Rom. n. 1, j?. 476.
St. Cypbian, L. 0. — " I beseech you, most dear brethren, let each confess his sin, whilst he that has sinned is yet amongst the living ; while his confession can be admitted ; while the satisfaction and the remission made through the priests, are pleajsing before the Lord. Let us turn to the Lord with the whole mind, and expressing penitence for crime with real grief, supplicate the mercy of God. Before Him be the soul prostrate ; Him let our sadness satisfy ; * on Him let all our hope lean. How we ought to entreat. Himself says : Be corkr v&rted to me^ He says, with aU your hea/rt^ amd also with fast- ing^ weepin^y and monminff, a^id rend your hearts^ and not yotir gwrmenta (Joel ii. 12). To the Lord let us return with dH awr heart. Let us appease His wrath and displeasure with fastings, with tears, with mournings, as Himself admonishes. ... If any man oflfer prayer with his whole heart ; if he groan in the true lament and tears of penitence ; if by just and con- tinued works he bend the Lord to a pardon of his sin, He, who in these words made known His mercy, may show mercy to such : When in lamentation thou retumest to me, then shalt thou he saved (Is. xxx. 15)." — De Zapsis, pp. 383-6, et passim.
> Cum adhuc liberari non meremiir, ut possimos mererL * Uli mcBBtitia satisfaciat.
28 CONTRITION.
OKNTUBY IV,
St. HiLABYy L. C. — " My eyes h/xn)e exceeded springs of waters {Ps, cxviii. 136). Conscious of his past sins, as his- tory testifies, although he had turned himself to God with his whole heart. . . . Yet does he not even now cease, by tears of true penitence, to wash away the crime of his past conduct, saying, My eyes luwe exceeded springs of waters. For this is the voice of penitence, to pray with tears ; with tears to groan ; and in this confidence to say. Every nigkt I will wash my bed, I wHl water my couch with my tears {Ps. vi. 7). This is par- don of sin, to weep with a fountain of tears, and to be watered with an abundant rain of tears. . . . The confession, indeed, of sin, is always in season, because penitence for sin ought not to cease, but the termination of sin is of a season gone by ; be- cause true confession of sin is, to have ceased from what we felt we were to be penitent for. And, therefore, the prophet ceases not to confess sin, and to confess sin as a thing of the ' past."— Tract. inPs. cxviii. {LiU. xvii.) n. 13y pp. 390-91.
St. Athanasius, G. 0. — " Christ did not say, he that blas- phemes and repents shall not be forgiven, but he that abides in his blasphemy ; for a worthy repentance looses all sins." — Frag. Comm. inMatth. T. l^p. 1008,
St. Cybil of Jerusalem, G. C. — " What then ? some one will say. We have been deceived, and are lost ; is there no salvation henceforward? We have fallen; cannot we rise? . . . He who shed His precious blood for us, the same shall rescue us from sin. Let us not despair of ourselves, brethren; let us not cast ourselves into a state without hope ; for dread- ful is it not to believe that there is hope in penitence.' . . . Thy accumulated sins do not exceed the multitude of the mercies of God ; thy wounds do not baffle the experience of the chief Physician. Only give thyself (to Him) with faith ; tell the Physician thine ailment ; do thou also say as David did : / said, JwiU confess against myself mine iniquity to the
• Jetrdv yap idrt ro /i^ TCtdrevetr ei^ /lerdrotaS IXitida.
CONTRITION. 29
Lard {Pa. xxxi. 5) ; and what then follows shall happen to thee alflo : And ifiou hast forgiven the wickedrheas of my hea/rtP [He then gathers nninerous instances of repentance and par- don, out of the Old Testament. One of his examples will be found under the head " Confe%aionP'\~Cate€h, ii.
St. Ephr^em Sybtjs, G. C. — " The Lord that came down from the bosom of the Father, and became to us the way of salva- tion, instructs us, with His blessed and divine voice, on the subject of penitence, saying : 1 cwme not to call the jvst^ hut dinners to penitence: and again, They that a/re whole need 7U)t the jphysicia/n^ but they thai a/re sick. If I utter these things, believe me not, but if it be the Lord Himself, why dost thou contemn them by the carelessness of thy life ? If thou art conscious of having within thyself the wounds of words and deeds, why art thou careless about thy secret wounds ? Why fearest thou the physician ? ... If thou wilt but draw nigh to Him, He is full of goodness and of mercy. For thy sake He came down from the bosom of the Father ; for thy sake He became incarnate ; that thou mightest approach Him with- out fear. . ^ . With m\]^eh love and all goodness He calls thee unto Him. Come to me, O sinner, and be easily healed. Cast from thee the load of thy sins, and apply tears to thy corrup- tion. For this heavenly Physician, being good, cures wounds with tears and groans. Approach, sinner, to that good Phy- sician ; bring with thee that best of remedies — tears. For thus does the heavenly Physician wish each one to be healed by his own tears, and to be saved." [The whole sermon, of which this is the first part, is to the same effect.] — T. i. Or. De Po^ nit. p. 148. See also T. ii. Gr. In Sec. Advent. Dom. p. 206.
St. Gbeoobt op Nazianzum, G. C, — " Admit you not peni- tence ? give you not room to sorrow, nor weep tears (of peni- tence) ? May you never meet with such a judge? Are you not ashamed of Jesus' love for man ; Jesus who took upon Himself our weaknesses, and bore our infirmities ? Who came not to {caU) the jvstj iut sinners to penitence ; who wills inercy ra^h^r than sacrifice / who pardons sins even imto seventy times-
80 CONTRITION.
seven times. How happy were your elevation, were it purity and not pride that thus establishes laws above man, and de- stroys amendment by despair. . . . Would you not receive David when repentant? And yet penitence preserved for him the gift of prophecy. . . . Nor him who at Corinth acted against all law ? Yet Paul confirmed charity towards liim, when made acquainted with his amendment, and assigned this cause, Let siu)h a one be swallowed up with o'mmiuch sorrow (2 Cot. ii.), weighed down by excess of reproof. • . . ^ But all this was not after baptism.' Where is your proof ? Either prove this, or condemn not." — T. i. Or. xxxix. pp. 635-36.
St. Paoian, L. C. — " I know that this pardon by penitence is not bestowed indiscriminately on all men, and that there is no unbinding until there be a presumption, or perhaps a direct manifestation, that such is the divine will. That, with much weighing of the matter, and great deliberation, after many sighs and tears, joined with the prayers of the Church, pardon is not to be denied to true penitence, but still so, that no one prejudge, where Christ is to be the judge." — OaUand. T. vii n. 7, p. 259, Ep. i. For the context see under the head " Pen(mceP
St. AMBE08E,'li. C. — " Should any one having secret sins,* yet, for Christ's sake, heartily do penitence, how shall he re- ceive the reward, unless he be restored to communion? I would have the guilty hope for the pardon of his sins ; beg it with tears ; beg it with sighs ; beg it with the tears of all the people ; let him pray that he may be pardoned. And when, a second and a third time, his communion shall have been de- layed, let him believe that his supplication has been too remiss ; let him increase his tears ; let him come again later in greater wretchedness ; let him hold their feet in his arms, kiss them often, wash them with tears, nor let them go, that of him the Lord Jesus may say, His mcmy sins cure for- given^ beccuase he hath loved rmichP — T. ii. Z. i. De Pcemit. o, XYi.p. 414.
* Occulta crimina habens,
CONTRITION. 31
" Let those who do penitence hear how they onght to pro- ceed; with .what zeal, what earnestness, what disposition of mind, what agitation of their inmost soul, what change of heart : Behold, O Lord^ he says, for I cm. in distress ; my bowels a/re i/roubUd on aooowrvt of my weeping ; mme heart is turned within me. Thou seest what is the disposition of soul; see now the determination of mind, and the habit of body : The ancients of the daughter of Sion have sat down upon the ffro^ind, they have held their peace; they have sprinkled their heads with dv^t^ they a/re girded with hadrdloihj &c. {La/ment. ii. 10)."— r. ii. Lib. ii. De Pomit. c. vi. n. 46.
St. J. Chbysostom, G. C. — " We who are bewailing neither chilfiren, nor wife, but the loss of the soul, of our own soul, not that of another, — ^are seen to plead bodily weakness, and our niceness as regards food. And would that this were the only erQ : but we do not even those things for which we re- quire not bodily strength. For, tell me, where is the need of bodily strength, when the heart needs to be contrite, when we are to pray in soberness and watchfulness ; to ponder on our sins ; to destroy pride and foolishness ; to humble our minds ? For these are the things that make even God merciful unto ns, and which require no great toil. And yet we do them not. For not the wearing of hair-cloth ; nor the shutting one's self up in a cell ; not the dwelling in darkness, is the only way of sorrowing, but the bearing about with us the remembrancei of our evil deeds, and the afflicting the conscience with such re- flections as these, the measuring continually the distance that we have wandered from the kingdom of heaven. * And how,' you ask, * ^hall this be done ? ' How % If we have hell always before our eyes, and the angels hurrying to and fro in every place, gathering together, out of the whole world, those that are to be led away to hell, if we consider how great an evil is the loss of heaven, even independently of hell. Yea, though that fire were not threatened, though deathless punishments awaited us not ; this alone, to be made aliens from Christ who delivered Himself up to death for us, is worse than all other
82 CONTRITION.
pnniBhmeiit, and is enongb to roBse the soul, and to move ns to be erer on onr guard." — T. L L9>, i. De CinnpuncHonej n. 10, j>. 171.
^^Thifl (compunction) thongh it may find a man over- whelmed with ten thousand evil deeda, entwined in varions bonds of sins, on fire with the vehement flames of desire, snr- rounded with the bustle of the many cares of life, all this does it speedil J drive away as with a scourge, and remove far from the soul." — Ibid, L. ii n, 3, pp. 177-78.
" The part of penitence * is this : to free those, who, after becoming new men, have again grown old through their sins, from that agedness, and to make them new men. Neverthe- less, it is not possible to bring them back to that same splen- dor ; for there (in baptism) grace was the whole. ... * What then ? Is there no penitence ? ' one says. There is penitence, but it is not a second baptism ; but it is a penitence that has much power ; and him that is deeply immersed in sins, if such be his will, it is able to free from that weight of sins, and to establish in security him that \s endangered, even though he reach the very depth of evil. And this may be demonstrated from sundry places. . . . We have fallen away again, and not even so does He punish, but He has given the medicine of peni- tence, sufficient to abolish, and blot out all our sins, provided only we see what kind of medicine it is, and how it ought to be applied. Of what kind, then, is this medicine of peni- tence, and how is it to be prepared ? First of all from the condenmation of our sins, and from confession ; . . . Secondly from much humility, for it is as some golden chain, of which if one seize the beginning all follows. For if thou shalt con- fess thy sins, as thou oughtest to confess, the soul is humbled. But other things also must be joined to humility, that it may be such as blessed David prayed, saying : Create a cUwn heart in mcy O Ood; and again, A contrite a/nd htmibled hearty O Ood, Thou toiU not despiee,^^ — T. xii. Horn. ix. in Ep. ad Hebr, n. 3-4,^. 137, 139-41,
* Merdrata.
CONTBITION. 83
., CENTUBT V.
St. Attoustinb, L. C. — ** Neither, as regards remission, in the Church, of crimes however grievous, is the mercy of God . to be despaired of by those who do penitence, each according to the measure of his sins. But in the doing of penitence, in cases where such a sin has been committed that the transgres- sor has been separated from the body of Christ, not so much the amount of time, as of sorrow, is to be considered. For a contrite and humble hea/rt Ood does not despise. But as, for the most part, the sorrow of another's heart is not known to a third person, nor does it reach the knowledge of others by means of words, or of any other signs, it being in His sight to whom it is said, My groaning is not hid from Thee^ periods of penitence are rightly fixed by those who are over the churches, that the individual may also satisfy the Church, in which the sins themselves are remitted ; for out of her they are not remitted.* For she has received as hers • the Holy Spirit as a pledge, without which sins are not remitted, so that they obtain eternal life unto whom (their sins) are re- mitted."—Z vi. Enchirid, de Fide, n. 17 (al, 66), col. 379.
St. Cyril op Alexandria, G. C. — " Be converted to me with all your heart, &c. {Joel ii. 12). Cast away the past, and' let what has gone by be utterly in oblivion, and show forth in yourselves better things. Mitigate (the anger) of God by other things, by fasting and labor, weeping and lamentation. For the effect of engaging in these things shall be the enjoy- ment thenceforward of happiness and gladness. For, as pros- perity ends, and the sinking into pleasures terminates in sighs and pxmishment, so, goodness and penitential labors eventuate in happiness. It is therefore profitable to weep over sin, and to be sorrowful according to God. For, as Paul, writes, The sorrow that is according to Ood worketh penitence steadfast
> Bectd oonstitaantar ab lis qui ecdesiis pnesunt tempora pcenitentiiB, ut fiat satis etiam ecclesis, in qua remittuntur ipsa peooata; extra earn quippe non remittuntur.
•Propria
34 cosTsmojL
unto «dcaium, FiirtIieniK»^ h is neeeasuj cuefoll j to oud- dder thi^ — how great the dSe^er of fistiiig is. It appeases the Lord ; it mitigates His wrath ; it aT^ts pqnifihniftnt. For, sabjectiiig oorselyes to stripes, we readilj appea3e the wrath of God well-nigh enkindled and inflamed against ns, and we easily turn aside the hand that smites ns.'' — 71 iiL Cam. in Joel.p. 218. For continuation, see ** Conjes^ian,^
Theodoset, G. C. — ^ The wonnds which we receire after baptism are also corable ; bnt curable, not bj the remission taking place as formerly, through faith alone, but through many tears and sighs and kmentations, and fastings and pray- er, and labors proportionate to the amount of sin oonmiitted. For we have been taught, neither to despair of persons so dis- posed, nor too readily to communicate to them the divine (mysteries)." — T. iv. ZL iv. Seer. Fahul. c. xrriiL j?. 479.
St. Peter Chktsologus, L. C. — ^'*' Opportunely, during this time of fasting, has blessed John, the teacher of penitence, come unto us, a teacher in word and deed, a true master; what his word proclaims, his example sets forth. . . . We, therefore, have need of a greater penitence (than the Jews), and the nature of the remedy is to be proportioned to the na- ture of the wound. Let us, therefore, be penitent, my breth- ren, let us be penitent speedily, . . . the presence of the judg- ment already excludes us from the opportunity of satisfaction,* . . • and we who have not, of our own will, sought for merit,* let us acquire virtue, at least by compulsion ; that we may not be judged, let us be our own judges; we owe penitence to ourselves, that we may avert the sentence from ourselves. It 18 the highest happiness to enjoy the unvarying security of innocence ; to preserve a holiness of body and of mind that never has been violated, . . . but if our mind should happen to have been pierced by any arrow of sin . . . ,then let the medicine of penitence bring relief to the ailing, though not to the sound ; let the knife of compunction be used, the cautery
> Satisfactionis locum excludit.
* Qui de Yoluntate meritum non quaesiTlnius.
CONTRITION. 35
of sorrow applied, the fomentations of sighs be had recourse to, let the glowing heat of the swollen conscience evaporate, let the ulcers of guilt be washed with tears, let hair-cloth wipe away the uncleanness of the body. Let him who would not preserve his health as became him, endure the bitter obser- vance of penitence. . . . J.7W? the same John had his ga/rment of camePs hair {MaU. iii.), ... in such a garment it behooved the teacher of penitence to be clothed, that they who had turned aside from the discipline of righteousness, and. ren- dered themselves all deformed by various kinds of sins, might be subjected to the weighty burdens of penitence, and to the severe suflferings of satisfaction : * that made straight and at- tenuated Uke a needle by passing through the narrow way of penitence, they may enter into the wide fields of forgive- ness, and the Lord's saying be fulfilled, that a caind can pass through the eye of a needleP — Serm. clxvii. pp, 232-33. St. Nilus, G. C. — " As a tree dried up from want of water, if it receive water buds forth, so also a soul dead in sin, if it shall repent, and shall propitiate the master of the household, it is cleansed from its defilements, and having partaken of the spiritual grace, and the mind being irrigated with rich streams (drops), it brings forth fruits of justice." — L. ii. Epist. ccii. p. 225.
COUNCIL OF TRENT.
" Contrition, which holds the first place among the above- named acts of the penitent, is a grief of mind and a detestation of sin committed, with the resolution of not sinning for the future. To obtain the pardon of sins, this motion of contrition was at all times necessary : and so now, in him that has fallen after baptism, it prepares the way to forgiveness of sins, if it be joined to confidence in the divine mercy, and a desire of performing the other things which are required for receiving rightly this sacrament. Wherefore the holy synod declares, that this contrition contains not a cessation from sin only, and
> Durls satisfactionis angoribus.
36 \ CONFESSION.
the parpoBe and beginning of a new life, but likewise a detesta- tion of the old, according to that saying : Cast away from you aU your tranagressionSy whereby you ha/oe transgressed ^ arid make to yourselves a new hearty amd a new spirit {Ezech. xviii. 31). And assuredly he that has reflected on those cries of the saints : To Thee only have 1 sinned^ and have done evil before Thee {Ps. 1.) : / wiU water my couch each night with my tears {Ps. vi.) : I will recall all my days in the bitterness of my soul {Jsai. xxxiv. 15); and others of this kind, easily understands that they flowed from a vehement hatred of the sins of their past Ufe, and a detestation of sins." — Sess. xiv. 0. iv.
CONFESSION.
By confession is understood the declaration ^hich the peni* tent makes of his sins to a priest ; the obligation of which evi- dently follows from the words of Christ, when instituting the sacrament of penance, He breathed on His disciples, and said : Receive ye the Holy Ohost; whose sins you shall forgi/ve, &c. For to what purpose was this power given, if it imposed not on the sinner the obligation of making known his sins ? or how could that power be exercised, if no sins were communicated ?
SCBIPTUBS.
St John XX. 21-23. — " As the Father has sent me, I also send you. When He had said tliis. He breathed on them ; and He said to them : Receive ye the Holy Ghost : whose sins you shall forgive,* they are forgiven them ; and whose sins you shall re- tain, they -are retained." — See also 2 Cor. ii. 6-8 ; v. 18-20.
1 John i. 9. — "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive
> For the meaning attached to this phrase by those to whom our Saviour was speaking, see St, Matt. ix. 3-8; jS^. iJuke v. 30-26 et passim.
CONFESSION. 87
onrselveB, and the trath is not in ns. If we confess our sins/ He is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from aU iniquity."
James v. 16. — " Confess therefore your sins one to another ; and pray one for another, that you may be saved." — Qf. v. 14.
THE FATHERS.
OKNTUBY L
The following extracts from St. Clement of Rome are de- serving of some attention : —
61. " For whatsoever things, therefore, we have transgress- ed, by any of" the (suggestions) of the adversary, let us sup- plicate pardon. . . . For it is good for a man to confess his transgressions,' rather than to harden his heart, as the hearts of those were hardened who raised up sedition against Moses, the servant of God."
52. " Beloved, the Lord is in want of nothing ; nothing re- quires He of any one, save that he make confession unto Him.' For the chosen David says : / vnll confess vmio the Lord^ amd it shall please Him better iliam^ a young huUock thai hath horns and hoofsP — Ep. i. ad Cor, n. 51-2.*
OENTUBY n.
St. Ibenjbus, G. C. — 8. " And some of these (Valentinians)
' For this custom under the old law, see Numhera v. 5-8 ; cf . LemL v. See also Jo8h, vii. 19; and in the New Testament, St. MatL iii. 6; Acts zixia
• ^E^ouo\oyeX0hai icepl rdov napaicrmfxdrooY,
• Ei Mif TO i^ofioXoyeldBat avrip,
• The following occurs in the second epistle, ascribed to him: " As long as we are in this world, let us repent with our whole heart of the evil deeds which we have done in the flesh, that we may be saved by the Lord whilst we have time for repentance. For after that we have gone forth from this world, we are no longer able to confess or to repent there (Ovxirt dwdfieOa kxBl i^ofioXoypdadSca tj ueravoelr cri)." — J^P* i^* ^ ^^^' **• ®' ^^ ^^® epistle ascribed to St. Barnabas, we also read: *'Thou shalt confess thy nns; thou shalt not come to thy jHrayer with an evil eonscienoe."
88 CONFESSION.
secretly ' corrupt the women who learn this their doctrine ; as, frequently, the women who have been seduced by some of these men, and afterwards have returned unto the Church of God, have, with the rest of their error, confessed this also." * — Adv. Hceres, L L c. vi. n. 3, p. 30.
4. " Such spirits, when commanded by these men (the Gnos- tics), and which speak when they wish them, are imbecile and weak ; but daring and fearless when sent, by Satan, for the deception and perdition of those who do not keep that faith firm, which, from the first, they received through the Church/
5. ^' And that this same Marcus also made alluring and love- philtres — that he might corrupt their bodies — ^for some of the women, if not for all ; they frequently, when they returned to the Church of God, confessed,* both that they had been defiled in body by him, and had loved him most passionately. . . . The wife of one of our deacons, a woman of surpassing beauty, being corrupted by this magician, both in mind and body, and having followed him for a long time, being afterwards, after much labor, converted by the brethren, passed the whole time confessing,* bewailing, and weeping over the defilement which she had suffered from that magician.
7. " (Marcus and his followers), both saying and doing these things, even in this region of ours of Lyons, corrupted many women : some of whom were seared in conscience, and some confess publicly ; but others, ashamed to do this,* and in some manner secretly despairing within themselves of the life of God, some have apostatized entirely, and some hang doubtful, and fulfilling the proverb, being neither within nor without, have reaped this fruit from the seed of the children of know-
« AdSpa.
• 2vv ry XotTtp leXdrp xai tovto k^(onoXoytf6ayTo,
• "^v dn^ dpxv'i did r^s kxxXrjdiai itapeXafiov,
• Avrat xoXXdxti imdrpejffadat e/? r^y kxxXrj^iav rov Sbov k^mfioXoyrf6avTo . . . xai kpoarixdoi ledrv avrov leecpiXrfxiyat,
• Avrif rov atearra xporor kionoXoyovfiivrf StereXede.
• AtTivBi xexavrpptadfievat tTfy dvretdr^v, ai nkv xai ei^ <pavB^ poY k^oiioXoyovvzai^ ad Si dvdoDitovMerat tovto.
CONFESSION. 39
ledge (the gnoBtics)." — Adv, Hceres. I. L c. xiii. n. 4, 5, 7, pp. 63-5.
" Cerdon, who appeared before Marcion, he also under Hy- ginus, the eighth bishop, having come into the Church and confessing, thus completed his career ; at one time spreading his opinions secretly, and then again confessiijig,* and then con- victed of teaching falsely, and separated from the community of the brethren." — Ibid. I. iii. o. iv. n. 3, pp. 178-9.
Clement of Alexandria, G. C. — '•' He has passed from the Gentiles, and from that his former life, to the faith ; but whoso afterwards sins, and then repents, even if he obtains pardon, ought to feel shame, because he is not again washed for remis- sion of sins. . . . For repeatedly to ask forgiveness on account of repeated offences, is not repentance, but a show of re- pentance. . . . They ihxit sow in tears, reap in joy^ writes David of those who make confession in repentance." ' — Strom. I. ii. p. 460.
" When the gnostic, or perfect Christian, has attained to the habit of beneficence, swifter than thought he confers benefits, praying that he may share in the sins ^f the brethren unto con- fession,' and the conversion of his kindred." — Ibid. I. vii. p. 880.
Terxitlllan, L. C. — " The confession of sins* lightens their
* Eii TTfv kKxXrf6iay iXQoov xai k^onoXoyovuBvo^y ovroo^ diEvi- XedEy fcorh uiv XaBpo8i8a6xaX(ay, icork 6h ndXir HofioXoyov^Bvoi.
* TSv kv fjtErayoia k^ofMoXoyov^dvoov,
» Td T(3v dSeXgxSv duaprrfnara ^epi6a6Bat evxofiBroi eii h^ofjto- X6yi]6iv, ** With regard to the discipline of the Church, Clement dis- tinguishes between sins committed before and after baptism ; the former are remitted at baptism ; the latter are purged by discipline. A part of this discipline was the k^ofioX6yT}6i^y a public confession of sin and profession of repentance." — Account of the Wriiihga, <§c., of Clement ^ hy the Bp. of Lincoln. Clement nowhere says that the exomologesis was public. The two extracts given in the text, and a third of the same nature (Strom, vi. 760), are, as far as I have noticed, the only places in which Clement speaks of confession. But see 8, v. ». xi. pp, 688-9; Pad. i. c. is., p, 144; Quia Dw. n. 41, p, 968.
* The following occurs a little earlier in the same treatise, and explains of what sins Tertullian is speaking, ** Sins are called spiritual and bodily, because every sin is of one of these kinds (Jit. either)."
40 CONFESSION.
burden, as mncli as the dissembling of them increases it ; * for confession savoreth of satisfaction, dissembling of stubborn- ness."
^^ The more straightened, then, the work of this second and only regaining penitence, the more laborious its proof, so that it may not be only borne upon the conscience, but may also be exhibited by some (outward) act." This act, which is bet- ter and more commonly expressed Ijy a Greek word {iSo/io- X6yrf<xt^), is the exomologesis whereby we confess our sins to the Lord, not as if He knew it not, but inasmuch as by confession satisfaction is ordered ; from confession, penitence arises ; by penitence God is mollified.* Wherefore confession (exomologe- sis) is a discipline for the abasement and humiliation of man, en- joining such conversation as invites mercy : it directs also, even in the matter of dress and food, to lie in sackcloth and ashes, to hide the body in filthy garments, to cast down the spirit with mourning, to exchange for severe treatment the sins which he has committed ; for the rest, to use simple things for meat and drink, to wit, not for the belly's but the soul's sake ; for the most part, also, to cherish prayer by fasts, to groan, to weep, and to moan day and night unto the Lord his God ; to throw himself upon the ground before the presbyters, and to fall on his knees before the beloved (or, the altars) of God ; * to enjoin all the brethren to bear the message of his prayer for mercy. All these things doth exomologesis (confession), that it may commend penitence; that by fearing danger it may honor God ; that, by itself pronouncing judgment on the sinner, it may act in the stead of God's wrath ; and that, by means of temporal affliction, it may — I will not say frustrate, but — clear off the eternal penalties.* "When, therefore, it casts down a
> Tantum relevat confessio delictorum quantum dissimulatio exaggerat.
* Aliquo etiam actu.
' Satisf actio oonfessione disponitur, oonfessione podnitentiA nascitor, poBnitentia Deus mitigatur.
* Presbyteris advolvi et cans (al, arie) Dei adgeniculari.
* Temporali afliictione stema supplicia non dicam frustretor, sed ex- pungat.
CONFESSION. 41
man, it rather raises him up ; when it makes him filthy, it renders him the more clean; when it accuses, it excuses; when it condemns, it absolves. In the same measure in which thou hast not spared thyself, in the same, be assured, will God spare thee.
" I presume, however, that men for the most part either fihun or put off (this) from day to day, as an open manifesta- tion of themselves, being more mindful of their shame than of their safety (or salvation) ; * like those who, having con- tracted some vexatious malady in the parts of shame, avoid making their physicians acquainted with it, and so perish with their bashf ulness. It is, forsooth, intolerable to modesty to make satisfaction to their offended Lord I * to be restored to the health which they have wasted away ! Brave art thou in thy modesty, truly 1 beariag an open front in sinning, and a bashful one in praying for pardon 1 among brethren and f ellownaervants, with whom there is one hope, one fear, one joy, one grief, one suffering — ^because there is one spirit from one Lord and Father — why regardest thou them as something different from thyself? Why shunnest thou those who share thy fall, as though they rejoiced over it ? The body cannot rejoice in the hurt of one of its members ; all must grieve together and labor together for its cure. . . . Verily the con- cealment of a sin promises a great benefit to our modesty I namely, that if we withdraw anything from the knowledge of men, we shall of course conceal it also from God ! And is it thus, then, that the thoughts of men and the knowledge of God are compared ? Is it better to be damned in secret than absolved openly ? * It is a miserable thing thus to come to confession (exomologesis). For by sin we are brought into misefy ; but when we are to be penitent, the misery ceases, for it has become salutary. It is a miserable thing to be cut and to be burnt with the cautery, and to be tormented
> Ut pnblicationem soi . . . pudoris magis memores quam salutis.
* Domino offenso satisfacere.
* An melius est damuatam latere, quam palam abeolvi? x
42 CONFESSION.
with the corrosivenesB of any powder; nevertheless, those things which heal by unpleasant means, excuse likewise, by the benefit of the cure, their own offensiveness, and recom- mend the suffering of present pain by the gratefulness of future profit.
" What, if besides the shame, which they think of the chief import, they shrink from the inconveniences of the body also, because they are bound to live unwashed, filthy and without pleasure, in rough sackcloth, and horrid ashes, and with a countenance wan with fasting ? Does it then become us to put up our prayers for our sins in' purple and Tyrian colors ? Ho ! fetch me a bodkin f 6r dividing the hair, and powder for cleansing the teeth, and some double-pointed instrument of iron or brass for trimming the nails; if there be anything which produces a false whiteness, or a forced redness, let him rub it upon the lips or cheeks. . . . And when any one shall ask, ' On whom dost thou lavish these things ? ' let him say, * I have sinned against God, and am in danger of perishing everlastingly ; and therefore am I now anxious, and I pine away and torment myself, that I may reconcile unto myself that God whom I have offended by my sins.' But those who take upon themselves to sue for the holding of some public office, are neither ashamed nor loath to struggle in behalf of their desires, through vexations of mind and body ; and not vexations only, but even every sort of indignity. What meanness in dress do they not affect ? . . . Do we, with eternity at stake, hesitate to bear that which the suitor for axes and rods endures ? And shall we be slow to offer to our offended Lord that self -chastening in food and clothing which the Gentiles infiict upon themselves, when no one at all is injured ? These are they of whom the Scripture makes mention. Woe to those who hind tThdr iniquities as it were with a long rope {Is. v.)
" If thou drawest back from confession (exomologesis), con- sider in thine heart that hell-fire which confession shall quench for thee ; * and first imagine to thyself the greatness 1 Qaam tibi exomologesis extinguet.
CONFESSION. 43
of the punishment, that thou mayest not doubt concerning the adoption of the remedy. What think we of that storehouse of everlasting fire, when some of its petty vents shoot up such violence of flames, that the neighboring cities either are no longer, or are daily expecting the same end for themselves ? . . . When, therefore, thou knowest that, against hell-fire, after that first protection of the baptism ordained by the Lord, there is yet in confession (exomologesis) a second aid, why dost thou abandon thy salvation ? * Why delay to enter on that which thou knowest will heal thee ? Even dumb and unreasoning creatures know at the season the medicines which are given them from God. . . . Shall the sinner, knowing that confession (exomologesis) has been instituted by the Lord for his restoration,* pass over that which restored the King of Babylon to his kingdom? . . . Why should I say more of these two planks (I may call them)' for saving men, caring more for the work of my pen, than'the duty of my conscience ? " * — De PoBfiitentiay n. 8-12, j?p. 126-9.
OBNTUEY m.
Obigen, Qt, C. — ^Explaining the petition of the Lord's Prayer, Forgvoe vs owr trespasses, as we, &c., he says: " Wherefore, we have all power to forgive offences committed against ourselves, as is clear fn>m this, As we also forgvoe aw debtors. But he that, like the Apostles, has been breatJied vpan by Jesus, and who can be hrwwn hy his fruits, as having reoewed the Holy Ghost, and become spiritual, by being led ly thi Spirit, — after the manner of the Son of God,
1 Esse adhno in exomologesi secunda subsidia, cur salutem tuam (thy safety) deseris?
* Peccator, restituendo sibi institutam a Domino exomologesin sciens.
* De istis doabus humaniB salntis qnasi plancis.
* It is eyident that Tertullian here declaresi 1. That the ezotnologesis was ** instituted by the Lord for our restoration," as "an aid after bap- tism;" 2. That it is necessary for salvation in case of sins committed after baptism; 8. That it was made before the priests. This is what our Church teaches: the being made in public or in private does not affect the. essential nature of the institution.
44 CONFESSION.
— ^to each of the things that are to be done according to reason, he forgives whatsoever God would forgive, and re- tains the sins that are incurable ; ' ministering — as the proph- ets (ministered) to God, when they spoke not their own, but the things of the divine will,— so he also to the alone God who has power to forgive. The words, respecting the forgiveness (power of forgiving), which accrued to the Apos- tles, are, in the Gospel according to John, thus : Mecewe ye the Holy Ohost^ wJhose sins you shaU forgive / tJiey a^e for- given ; cmd whose you shall retain^ they are retained. But if a person take up these words without examination, he will have to challenge the Apostles that they did not forgive all, that to all there might be forgiveness ; but retained the sina of some, so as that through them they are retained before €k)d. It is, therefore, useful to take an illustration from the law, in order to understand the forgiveness of sins accruing to men from God, through men. The priests of the old law are forbidden to offer up sacrifices for certain offences ; with a view that the transgressions of those, for whom are the sacrifices, may be forgiven. And by no means did the priests, — ^who had power over certain involuntary offences, and an oblation for trespasses, — also for adultery, or voluntary mur- der, or any other more heinous crime, or sin, offer a holocaust. So, therefore, also the Apostles, and they who, being priests according to the great High Priest, are assimilated to the Apostles, having received knowledge of God's mode of cure, know, instructed by the Spirit, for what sins, and when, and in what manner, to offer up sacrifices, and know also for which this is not to be done. ... I know not how it is, that some permit themselves things which are beyond the priestly dig- nity, but perhaps not thoroughly instructed in priestly know- ledge, boast as having ability both to pardon idolatry, and to forgive adultery and fornication, as if, through their prayer for those who have dared to do these things, even sin which
^\4^hf6ty d iar 6 Seoi, Moi xparel rd driara rtSv dMapn^ fidro^r.
CONFESSION. 45
18 unto death, was to be loosed." * — T. i. De Oral. n. 28, ^. 255-6.
" But the Hearers of the Church may, perhaps, say : those of old were almost better dealt with, than we, when sacrifices being offered with divers rites, pardon was granted to sinners. . . . Hear, therefore, now, how many are the remissions of sins in the Gospels. The first is this, by which we are baptized unto the remission of sins. . . . There is also yet a seventh, although hard and laborious, the remission of sins through peni- tence, when the sinner washeth his bed with iears^ and his tears become his bread day and nigkL, and when he is not ashamed to declare his sin to the priest of the Lord, and to seek a remedy ; * according to him who says : 1 said, I will confess against my- self mine injustice to the Lord, and Thou hast forgiven the toickedness of my heart {Ps, xxxi. 5). In which that also is fulfilled, which the Apostle James says : £ut if a/?iy one is sick amongst youy let him call the priests of the Church, &c. {St. Jwmes V. 14). — T, ii. Horn. ii. in L&vit, n, 4, j>p. 190-1. See also Ibid, ITom. v. p. 207.
^^Ifhe have sinned in any one of these things, let him de- clare the sin which he hath sinned {Lev. v. 5). There is herein a wonderful mystery, that he orders us to declare sin. For of every kind are they to be declared, and all that we have done is to be produced in public. If we have done anything in secret, if in words only, or even within the secret places of our thoughts we have committed it,' all must needs be published, all produced : produced by him who is both the accuser of sin, and the instigator ; for he who now instigates us to sin, he also, when we have sinned, accuses. If, then, we anticipate
* Od such sins, or rather on the discipUne of the Church relatiye to such sins in those days, see St. Cyprian Ep. 52; Concil. Either . can. 1, 2, and Origen more fully t. i. L iii. CorUr, Gels. n. 51, p. 481 ; t ii. Horn. xv. in Ltvit
* Cum non erubescit sacerdoti Domini indicare peccatum suum, et qu»- rere medicinam.
* Etenim omni genere pronuntiaiida sunt, et in publicum proferenda que egerimus ; si quod in occulto gerimus, si quod in sermone solo, yel etiam intra cogltationum secreta commisimus.
46 CX>NFESSIOH.
him in life, and are onreelves our own aocnsers/ we escape the malice of the devil, onr enemy and accuser, for so the prophet elsewhere says : Tell ihou thine iniquities fi^^ ^^^ th&u mayest bejtutified {Is. xliiL 26). Does he not evid^itly point ont the mysteiy of which we treat, when he says : TM thou first t that he may point out to thee that thon onghtest to anticipate him who is ready to accuse. TJum, therefore, saith he, tell firsts lest he anticipate thee ; because if thou hast toidfiraty and hast offered the sacrifice of penitence, according to what we have said, in what goes before, is to be offered, and hast delivered thy flesh to destmctianj that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Zard, it will be said to thee also, that thou also in thy life-time hast received thy evil thingsy but now do thou rest here. But David also, in the same spirit, speaks in the Psalms, and says : I made known mine iniquity, and hid not my sin. I said, I will confess against myself my injustioSy and Thou haM forgiven the vnokedness of my heart (Ps. xxxi. 5, 6). See, therefore, that to declare sin, merits remission of sin.' For the devil being anticipated in accusing, will not be able any longer to accuse us ; and if we ourselves be our own accusers, it avails us to salvation ;" but if we delay to be accused by the devil, that accusation turns to our punish* ment, for he will have, as companions in hell, those whom he shall convict as companions in crime." — T. ii. Horn. iii. «r» Levit. n. 4,j?. 196. See also Ibid. Rom. v.jp. 207.
' Si ergo in Yita'pneyeniaiDus eum et ipsi noetri accusatoree simus.
* Pronunciare peocatnm, remissionem peocati meretnr.
' Et si ipsi nostri samos acousatores, proficit nobis ad salatem. The fol- lowing from t. iii. Horn. z. in Numeroa, n, hpp. 901-2, deserves attention: " Thej who are superior always take up the faults and sins of those who are inferior; for so also does the Apostle saj, You who are stronger hear tke infirmities of the weak. If an Israelite, that is a layman, sin, he is not able to remove his own sin, but requires a Levite, he needs a priest; yea rather he even seeks for something more eminent than these, there is need of a high priest that he may be able to receive the remission of sins. But if a priest or a high priest sin, he is able to cleanse away his own sin, pro- vided that he sin not against God. . . . They who are not holy die in their sins; the holy do penitence for sins; are conscious of their own wounds; understand their falls; ask for a priest; implore health; seek for purifica- tioQ through the high priest.*'
CX)NFBS»ION. 47
" JSeemtae I dedare mine miqv/ity (Ps. xxxvii. 19), We haye frequently said that tlie declaration of iniquity is the oonfesBion of sin. Wherefore, see what divine Scripture teaches ns, that we must not hide sin within ns.' For as they who have within them undigested food, or who are oppressed by an overflow of humors or of phlegm, if they eject it, are perhaps relieved, so also they who have sinned, if they conceal and retain the sin within them, they are oppressed within, and almost suffocated by the phlegm or humor of sin : but if a man become his own accuser, while he accuses himself and con- fesses, he at the same time ejects the sin, and digests the whole cause of the disease. Only look diligently round to whom thou oughtest to confess thy sin.* Prove first the phy- sician, to whom thou shouldest set forth the cause of thy sick- ness, who knows how to be weak with the weak, to weep with the weeping, who knows the art (discipline) of condoling and sympathizing ; that so in fine thou mayest do, and f oUow, whatever he shall have said, whatever counsel he shall have given, he who shall first have eftiown himself a skilful and compassionate physician. If he shall have understood, and foresee, that thy sickness is such as ought to be set forth and cured in the assembly of the whole Church, and thereby, perhaps, others be edified, and thou thyself easily cured, this must be prescribed with much deliberation, and on the very experienced advice of that physician.* Because I will decla/re
1 Quid edocet nos scriptura divina, quia oportet peccatum non celare in- trinsecus.
* Si autem ipse soi aocusator fiat, dum accosat pemetipsum, et confitO' tar, simul evomit et delictum, atque omnem morbi digerit causam. Tan- tnmmodo circomspioe diligentius, cui debeas confiteri peccatum tuum.
' Si inteUexerit et pneviderit talem esse languorem tuum qui in con- ventn totius eoclesiiB ezponi debeat, et curari . . . multa hoc deliberatione, et satis perito medici iUius consilio procurandum est. A similar passage occurs also in t ii. Horn, xiv. in Num. p. 824: *'I\-aying mtl^out eeasing that thou mayest be received into the fellowship and office of Raphael, who presides over medicine, if so be that when thou shalt see any one wounded by sins and pierced with the arrows of the devil, thou mayest ^ploy the word of healing and the medicine of the word of God, that thou mayest by means of penitence heal the wounds of sin and exhibit the medicine of confession (medicinam oonfessionis ostendas)."
48 CONFESSION.
mine iniquity^ a/nd 1 vnU think for my sin (t>. 19)/ Which- fioever of yon is congdonB to himself of any sin, and is as secure as though he had done no evil, let him be disturbed by this language: I will think for my sin. It is good that he who transgresses be not secure, nor be free from anxiety, as one who has not failed in anything, thinking not how he may blot out his sin. If some spot, or ulcer, arise in thy body, or if it swell from a blow, thou art anxious and seekest diligently what remedy should be applied, how the former soundness may be restored to thy body. . . . When thy soul is sick, and op- pressed with the languor of sins, art thou secure, dost thou despise* and set at naught hell and the punishment of eternal fire ? Countest thou little of the judgment, and despisest thou the Church which warns thee ? Dost thou not fear, approach- ing to the Eucharist to partake of the body of Christ, as though clean and pure, as though there were nothing unworthy in thee ; and amid all this thinkest thou that thou shalt escape the judgment of God ? Rememberest thou not that which is written, that therefore mcmy among you a/re weak^ and sicky o/nd m>any deep (1 Cor. xi.) / Why many weaJk t * Because ihi&j judge not themselves, nor examine themselves, nor tmder- stand what it is to communicate with the Church, or what it is to approach to so great and so excellent sacraments. They suffer what they who labor under fever are wont to experience, when they partake of food fit f w those in health, bringing destruction upon themselves." — T. ii. Selecta in Ps. xxxvii. n. 6,^. 688.'
"But since they who claim the office of the episcopacy make use of this saying (St. Matth. xvi. 19), as Peter, and
* On the genuineness of the Seleeta in FiKdmoBt see Huet {Origefiian. I. iiL sec. 8, n. 6) and the Benedictine editors {t. ii. MoniL in Fn.p. 512). In the same treatise {JEosplan. auper i%. xxxvii. p. 680) there is a somewhat simihir exhortation to confession, and a similar adscription of a delegated power to the Apostles and their successors '' to heal the wounds of sin,** a power which, from the context, seems, though not so clearly as in the pre- ceding extract, to relate to penance. See also t. ilL Eom, y. in Jerem. n, x-j). 165.
CONFESSION. 49
having received from the Saviour ths keys of the hmgdom ofJiea/oen^ teach that both what has been bound by them, that is, condemned, is also botmd m heaven, and what has re- ceived remission from them is also loosed in heaven, it is to be said that they speak soundly, provided they have the work on account of which it was said to this same Peter, Thou art Peter; and if they be such as to have Christ build His Church upon them, and this can be reasonably referred to them. But the gaies of hell ought not to prevail aga/inst him who wishes to hind and to loose. But if he ti hovmdfast with the cords of his own sins {Prov, v. 22), in vain does he both hvnd amd loose} . . . But if any one, not being as Peter, and not hav- ing the things named there, thinks, like Peter, to hind on ea/rth so as that what is hovmd is bound in hea/ven; and to loose on earth, so as that what is loosed is loosed in heaven, he is puffed up with pride, not knowing the design of the Scrip- tures ; 2Jid. puffed wp with pride, he has fallen into the sna/re €fihe devil (1 Tim. iii. 6, 7)." — T iii. In Matth. torn, xii. n. U,pp. 531-2.
" A nd thine own sovl a sword shall pierce, thai out of many hearts thoughts may he revealed {Luke ii. 35). The ^wughts in men were evil, which were therefore revealed, in order that, being brought out openly, they might be destroyed, and being extirpated and dead, they might cease to be, and He might slay them who died for us. For as long as the thoughts were hidden, and not openly brought out, it was impossible for them to be utterly extirpated. Wherefore, we too, if we have sinned, ought to say, / Jia/oe made known to thee my sin, and mine iniquity I have not concealed. I have said, Twill con- fess against myself mine injustice to the Lord {Ps. xxxi. 5). For if we have done this, and have revealed our sins, not only
* Whether this be one of those passages which the early heretics eoiv rapted, or whether, as Huet thinks, it is the heresy afterwards taught by Hqss, or whether, as Lumper imagines {t. ix. De Vita et Script . Orig. p, 665), it be capable of an orthodox meaning, this is clear, that the bishopB of those daj-s claimed t?ie power of the keys, and yindioated that olaim by reference to Christ's words to Peter.
50 CONFESSION.
to Ood, but also to those who are able to heal our wounds and sins,' our sins will be blotted out by Him who saith, Behold^ 1 will Hot out thine iniqmUea as a doud, and tli/y sma as a mist {Is. xliv.)" — T. iii. Sbm. xvii. in Lucam^jpp. 953-4.
St. Cypbian, L. C. — "We have an Advocate and an In- tercessor for our sins, Jesus Christ, our Lord and our God, if only we are penitent that we have sinned in time past, and confessing and understanding our sins * whereby we now ofiend the Lord, we promise, for the future at least, to walk in His ways, and to fear His commandments. . . . Who shaU sepanrate us from the love of Christ? &c. {jRom. viii.) None of these can separate believers ; nothing can rend off those who cleave to His body and blood." — ^. vii. ad Clerumy p. 42.
After proving the heinous nature of apostasy, he says: " Whosoever withholds these truths from our brethren, de- ceives these miserable men ; so that, whereas they may, doing sincere penitence by their prayers and works, make satisfac- tion to God,* who is a merciful Father, they are seduced to perish more utterly, and they who might raise themselves, fall lower. For, whereas in smaller sins sinners do penitence during a suitable term, and according to the order of discipline come to confession (exomologesis), and by the imposition of the hands of the bishop and of the clergy receive the right of communion, now, at an unsettled period, when the persecu- tion still continues, peace not yet restored to His Church, they are admitted to communion, and their names are offered,* and
' Si . . . reyelaverimuB peccata nostra non solum Deo, sed et his qui possunt mederi yulneribus nostris atque peccatis.
* Si modo nos in pneteritum peccasse poeniteat, et confitentes atque in> telligentes peccat« nostra.
* Deo satisfacere.
* Offertur nomen eonim. This is the reading retained bj Balnzius and the Benedictine editors. But in two parallel places, where the whole sys- tem of penance is given exactly in the same order (Penitence, Exomologe- sis, Imposition of Hands, Communion), and almost in the same words, we haye, 'Uhey dare to offer for them (offerre pro illis), and to give them the encharist to profane, that is, the holy body of the Lord.** — JEp. x. ad Mart, p. 61; cf. Up. xi. ad Plehem, p. dB. See also JEp. Iv. p, 282.
CONFESSION. 51
penitence not yefc done, confession (exon^ologesis) not yet made,* and the hand not yet laid npon them by the bishop and clei^y, the eucharist is given them, though it is written : Whosoever shaU eoat ike bread or drmk the chalice of the Lord tmworthUy^ shaU he guiUy of the body amd of the blood of the LordP — Ep. ad Clerum^p. 49. See also Ep, x. p, 51 ; xi.^. 63; xiii.; xiv.; xxi.; and cf Ep. xiL
" But if we find that no one ought to be prohibited from doing penitence, and that to those who implore and entreat the mercy of the Lord, according as He is merciful and of tender pity, peace may be granted by His priests, the groan- ing of the sorrowers is to be allowed, and the fruit of peni- tence is not to be denied to those that grieve. And because in hell (inferos) there is no confession, nor can confession (exomologesis) be made there, they who from their whole heart are penitent and entreat, ought meanwhile to be re- ceived into the Church, and in it to be reserved for the Lord, who, when He shall come to His Church, will surely judge of those whom He shall find within it." — Ep. lii. Antoniano. See also Ep. Iv. ad Comdhbrn,
" H one of these (who have vowed virginity) shall be found to have been corrupted, let her do full penitence, because she who has done this crime is an adulteress, not to a husband, but to Christ, and therefore, a due time having been appointed, let her afterwards, when confession (exomologesis) has been made, return to the Church." — Ep. Ixii. ad Pomponiumy p. 219.
" God perceives the things that are hidden, and considers those that are hi(^en and concealed* None can escape the eye of God. He sees the heart and breast of every person, and he will judge, not only our actions, but also our words and thoughts. He regards the minds of all, and the wishes conceived even in the hidden recesses of the breast. In fine, how much loftier in faith, and in fear (of God) superior, are they who, though implicated in no crime of sacrifice, or of ^ Nondum poenitentia acta, nondum exomologesi facta.
52 CONFESSION.
accepting a certificate, yet because they have only had thought thereof, this very thing sorrowingly and honestly confessing before the priests of God, make a confession (exomologesis) of their conscience, expose the burden of the soul, seek out a salutary cure even for light and little wounds,* knowing that it is written, God wUl not he mockedP — De LapsiSyp. 382. See also the extract from the same treatise, p, 377, given under the " JSiu^hari^t^^ ; and also under " Contrition.^^
" It is true that he has sinned less by not seeing the idols, and by not profaning the sanctity of the faith in the gaze of the surrounding and insulting crowd, and by not polluting his hands with the fatal sacrifices, nor staining his lips by the acr cursed food. This avails him, that his guilt be less, not that his conscience be innocent. He can attain to the pardon of his crime more easily, still he is not free from guilt, and let him not cease from doing penitence, and supplicating God's mercy, lest what seems less in the nature of the crime be ag- gravated by neglected satisfaction. I beseech you, most dear brethren, let each confess his sin, whilst he that has sinned is yet among the living, while his confession can be admitted, while the satisfaction and Hie remission made through the priests are pleasing before the Lord." * — Ibid. p. 383. For continuation, see *' Contrition.^^ See also the extract given from Ep. liv. given tmder " Penaiioe?^
FmiiiLiAN, G. C. — See the extract given under " The Evr cha/ristP
OENTUKY rV.
Laotantius, L. 0. — ^Explaining Jerem. iv. 3, 4, he says, ■" God hereby admonishes us not to have a veiled breast, that
1 Hoc ipsum apud sacerdotes Dei dolenter et simpliciter confltentes, ezo- mologesin conscientiie faciunt, animi sui pondus exponunt, salutarem me- delatn parvis licet et modicis vulneribus exquirunt.
* Confiteantur singali delictum suum dam adhuc qui deliquit in saccule est, dum admitti confessio ejus potest, dum satisfactio et remissio facta per sacerdotes apud Dominum grata est. The heading of section 114 of l%h. iiL Testimonior. is " That while any is in the flesh, he ought to make con- fession;" in proof of which he adduces passa^^ from the Psalms and Prophets.
CONFESSION. 53
is, not to cover any shameful deed within the secrets of the conscience.' This is that circumcision of the heart of which the prophets speak ; a circumcision which God has transferred from this mortal flesh, to the soul, which is alone to abide. For He, desiring, according to His ever-enduring mercy, to provide for our life and salvation, set before us penitence, in that circumcision ; so that, if we have laid bare the heartj that is, if, having confessed our sins, we have made satisfaction to God, we obtain pardon, which, to the contumacious, and to those who conceal what they have done, is denied by Him who looks not on the face,* as man does, but into the inmost re- cesses and secrets of the breast." — Dwin. Instit. I. iv. c. 17.
" As every sect of heretics thinks its followers are, above all others, Christians, and its own the Catholic Church, it is to be known that that is the true (Catholic Church) wherein is con- fession and penitence, which wholesomely heals the wounds and sins to which the weakness of the flesh is subject." * — Ibid^ I iv. c. 30.
" The state of frailty of our nature does not sufEer any one to be without a fault. The last remedy, therefore, is, to fly to penitence, which holds not the lowest place amongst the virtues, inasmuch as it is the amendment of one's self ; so that, when we happen to have fallen, whether in word or deed, we may at once repent, and acknowledge * that we have trans- gressed ; and beg of God pardon, which, according to His merci- fulness. He will not refuse, except to such as persevere in their error. Great is the aid of penitence, great the comfort. It is the healing of wounds and of sins ; it is hope, it is the har- bor of salvation, which whoso sets aside, he cuts off from him- self the way of life, because none can be so just as that peni-
' Ne quod pudendam facinus intra conscientiie secreta velemur.
» Si cor nudaverimus, id est, si peccata nostra confessi satis Deo feeeri- mns, veniam oonsequamur, qu» contumacibus, et admissa sua celantibus negatur.
' Sciendum est, illam esse veram, in qua est confessio et pGQnitentia, quaa peocata et vulnera qoibus subjecta est imbecillitas camis, salubriter carat.
* Fateamur.
54 CONFESSION.
tence is never necessary for him. But we, even though we have no sin, shoald jet confess ' to God, and make supplicar tion also for our sins, and give thanks even in the midst of evil. Let us always render this service to God. For humility is dear unto and beloved of Grod, who, since He sooner accepts a sinner that confesses,' than a just but proud man, how much rather will He accept a just man that confesses, and lift him high in the heavenly kingdoms according to his humility." — EpiUyin^ Div. Instit. o. 67.
EusEBius, G. C. — *' It is said that the Emperor Philip, being a Christian, wished, in the last vigil of Easter, to share with the people in the prayers of the Church, but that he was not permitted, by the person who then presided, to enter, until he made his confession (exomoIogeslB),* and classed himself with those who were separated on account of their sins, and who stood in the place of penitence ; for that otherwise, on account of his many sins, he would never, until he had done this, be re- ceived by him. It is said that he willingly obeyed." — JSFiti. Ecdes. L. vi. c, 34.
" Novatus (Novatian), a presbyter of the Eoman Church, having risen up arrogantly against the lapsed, as though there were no hope of salvation for them, not even if they fulfilled what IB required for a sincere conversion and a pure confes- sion (exomologesis),* became the leader of a sect of his own, who, in the pride of their understanding, called themselves the Cathari."— 7J?'rf. Z. vi. o. 43.
" /<w7i, / am He^ that blot out thine iniguUtesJ^or my own aake^ amd I will not reinemher thy nns. Do thou remember j and we will plead together {Is. xliii.) For excellent is the re- membrance of past sins confessed by means of the exomolo- gesis.* Therefore does He add, Do ihou first declare thy
> Conflteri. • Peccatorem confitentem. ^*E^o^oXoy^i6a(SBau
• Mrf8^ ei ndvra rd eii kici6Tpo<p^v yyrfdiar xal xaBapdy Hojio- Xoyrfdty iittreXolev.
• KaX?) yap rf uyf?^V ^^^ itporepoay d^aprtfudrfoy di' i^ouoXo- ytf6eQDi H7jyopovidiy7j»
CONFESSION. 56
transffresHonSy tiiat thou mayest be justified. For, doing this, thou shalt be justified, for a just mem is his own accuser in the first instance {Prov, xviii.)" — Comm, in Hesai, o. xliv. T. ii.j}. 526, JVbv. OoU, Mordf. This exomologesis is frequently mentioned in Com/m, in Ps.
St. ANTHONr, G. C. — " Let us now revert to that shame which is full of grace and glory. Be not, then, ashamed to do whatsoever is in accordance with the will of God ; neither be aahamed to learn the Lord's doctrines and words, nor to dis- close to thy priest thy sins." * — Sermones ad Monach, Sect, 12, I}e Verecundiay OaUand, T. lY.p, 656.
^^ The most excellent of all the works that man can do is, to confess his sins before God and his elders." ' — Admonit. ad Monach, Ibid, p, 705.
St. Jahes op Nisibis, G. 0. — " Fropi the time that Adam transgressed the commandment, sin reigned . . . until our Lord who took and fastened it to the cross. Still do its stings remain and pierce many. There is not a disease, or a pain, to which a cure and a remedy cannot be applied, provided a skil- ful physician be called in. But they who are woimded in our conflict have the remedy of penitence, which being applied to their wounds, they are healed. O ye physicians, the disciples of our skiKul physician, take unto yourselves the remedy, whereby the wounds of the afflicted may be ctired. . . . He that has been wounded in battle is not ashamed to put himseU into the hands of a skiUul physician, seeing that he received his wound through the severity of the contest ; and the king rejects him not when cured, but places liim in the list of his veteran troops: so neither ought he, whom the devil has wounded, to be ashamed to confess his failings ; to fly from him ; and to implore the medicine of penitence. For he that is ashamed to lay open his wounds to a physician, from his
1 Neo Domini doctrinas edisoere . • . verearis, aut tua sacerdoti tuo peocata aperire te pudeat.
* Opus pnestantissimum omnium quod homo pnestare potest, est, at peo- oata sua confiteatur coram Deo suisque majoribus.
56 CONFESSION.
wounds being corrupted, his whole body is infected ; whilst he who is not ashamed has his wounds cured, and returns to the fight. And whereas he, that has contracted a deadly illness, hopes not for cure, nor again puts on his wanted armor ; he that is overcome in our warfare may hope for a cure, if he say, ^I have sinned,' imploring penitence; but he that is ashamed, cannot be cured, because he will not disclose his wounds to the physician, who receives twopence {Luke x. 36), and out of them cures all that are wounded. And you who are the disciples of our physician, as you are endowed with the power of healing, take care that you be not an obstacle in the way of the cure of those who need medicine ; but you will apply thfe medicine of penitence to him who shows you his wounds. And he who is ashamed to manifest his evil, do you admonish him not to conceal it from you. And when he shall have disclosed it to you, do not bring it forward in public, lest through him even they too who are innocent, be ^teemed guilty and criminal by enemies who hate us. The military legion, in which many fall wounded, is most despised by the enemy. [He continues to contrast the wounded soldier and the sinners who conceal, or make known their wounds.] But let him who has discovered, and been cured of his wound, be- ware of being again wounded, in the place where he received his former wound, and was cured. For it is diflScult for a skilful physician to heal the part that has been often wounded, as the wounds of cicatriced places are not easily cured. . . . To you who have already been wounded, I give this counsel and say, * Be not ashamed of saying, we have been maimed in battle. Receive a medicine without price, and be ye con- verted, and steadfast, lest ye perish.' I will bring to your me- mory, O physicians, something that is written in the books of our skilful physician, for He prohibits not penitence. For when Adam had sinned. He called him unto penitence, saying, WTiere art thouy Adam f and he hid his sins from Him that searclieth the heart, and excused himself because Eve had de- ceived him. And because he confessed not the sin of his
CONFESSION. 57
tranBgressions, the sentence of death was passed against him, and all that sprang from him. . . . Ton see, then, dearly be- loved, of what benefit it is to confess, and to be awakened from iniquity. And do you hearken, who have the keys of the gates of heaven, and open the gate to the penitent, and follow what the blessed Apostle has said : If a mem he over- taken m amy fa/ult^ you who are spiritual strengthen such a one in the spirit of meekness {Gal. vi. 1).
" Be likewise on your guard, lest any of you fall into temp- . tation. The Apostle feared, and said, in his alarm, of him- self : Perhaps I who han)e preacTied to others may he found utterly a castaway. Whosoever, therefore, amongst you shall be scandalized at another's sin, saith he, do not judge him as an enemy, but correct him as a brother, lest, being separated by you, he be received by the devil. . . . But, penitents, to you I again say, do not cast aside the remedy which has been given to you unto salvation. For thus say the Scriptures : They who confess their smSj amd restrain themselves from theniy on such the Lord wiU ha/oe mercy. [He then illustrates this by many examples from Scripture, and, amongst the rest, by the denial of Peter, as follows :] And Simon, the head of the Apostles, he who denied Christ, saying, I saw Him not^ and cursed and swore that he knew Him not, as soon as he of- feired unto God contrition and penitence, and washed his sins in the tears of his grief, our Lord received him, and made him the foundation, and called him the rock of the edifice of the Church. . . . AU these things have I written to thee, dearly beloved, because in this our age there are many, who, choosing an ascetic life, have by vow consecrated themselves to Grod. And we are engaged in a contest, and are at war with an enemy that fights against us, and strives to bring us back to our former state, seeing that, having recovered our liberty, we have gone out from him. But there are some of you, who are overcome and are wounded. Of these, some there are who acknowledge themiselv^s debtors and guilty, and take care to justify them.8elves by manifesting tne guiltiness of
58 OOSWtaBKESL
ihm finfiy wliilst othersite in saA pennerseiieaB of mind, as DOl to come to penlience. And for their dame, thej die by aieo>nd dearh, aztd bear not in mind tke searcher qf ike rems,
^TLere is also that person that ecmfeases dn^ and penitqicft k nc4 granted hfm. Oh thon dispenser of Christ* gnnt peni- tence in the name of Christ, and remembo* that thv Lord does not reject the penitent.** — Serw^ viL de P^miL n. 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, It, GaUnnd. T. v.'
8t. Uilakt of Porrmu, L. C. — See the pasBige abeady given under the head ^^PtnanoeP
Explaining P^ cxriiL iLii. 3). 22, he aaya, " The praphet has al^TO taken into aooonnt oar infinnitr. He knows indeed that tliere are within ns certain things whidi may be, throng the merer of God. taken away from us. He knows that He is to be supplicated by such a confession of sins, as, though we haye things descrying reproof, we are not reproyed ; for sin is to be confessed, in order that pardon may be obtained-" * —
> *' The Lonl has set flis di^Kosers over His whok treasuy. And for* tber He has given into their hands chains, and the prison-house with the imph-v^ued, and granted them anthority io bind and to loose. The dispen> sers have ^et aside and abandoned love, and mercv, and peace, and the whole treasure genenilj; and have chosen to tafc^ chains and fetters* aofi have become jailers, and keepers, and execntioners, and &steners of chains, in-stcad of dispensers of a most exceUent treasure which might be fonnd hj all men. He who comes in is bound, and he who goes out is ex- communicated; and he that sins and transgresses in what relates to God, bnt yieM-) a certain obedience to the jailers, thev absolve him from those chains, and say: ' God is merciful and forgiving, and the expiator of sins; come, enter confidently, and pray:' whilst he who transgresses in what re- lates to tbcmselved, be the offence never so slight, they say to him : ' Thou art bound and accursed in heaven and on earth ; and woe to him that even speaks to liim.' "St. James Nisib. Sermo Unic. seu Epist. Synod' n. 2S, Oalland, t. v. p. cxlix.
• Con fi tend ura enim crimen est, ut obtineator et venia. St- Hilary is sometimes a<ldiiced as not furnishing evidence in favor of sacramental con- feesion. A collation of the passages given here, with that given already under the head ** Pe?iance,** will enable the reader to decide on the accu- racy of this aFscrtion. Most of the objections produced arise from not ob- serving that confe«<«ion is used in two meanings by St. Hilary, one being to God only, namely, praise, and the other the confession of sin, as ex- plained in the extract under **Penance.^^ The following passage ought to be carefully noticed: ** Let the people confess (oonfiteantur) to Tkee, O
CONFESSION. 59
Tract, in Ps. cxviii. {LU. 3), n. 19, jjp. 296-9Y. See also Ibid. ii^. 6,n. 4,i>. 800, r.L
" There is the most powerf nl and most useful medicine for the diseases of deadly vices, in their confession. But confes- sion of sin is not as an open acknowledgment of things un- known by others, as if a thief interrogated about a theft, or a homicide about a murder, make a confession ; nor as though God, who searoheth the reins and the heart, being ignorant, needs thy confession for His knowledge, — ^He who readily sees into, not only what has been thought, but what will be thought. But confession of sin is this, that what has been done by thee thou confess to be a sin, through thy convic- tion that it is a sin. For there is no one that engages upon any act that he performs, without either some pleasure as its fruit, or without a persuasion that there is something of good in it : either thinking the act right, or taking pleasure in it. But when, through God's teaching, and the reason- ableness of what is true, he comprehends that what he has chosen under the appearance of usefulness or of pleasure, is a sin ; through his conviction of sin he confesses that what he has done is sinful. . . . Sins, therefore, must be ceased from, after that in confession there is conviction of sin ; and the confession is to be, as the prophet teaches, with the whole heart ; not in part, nor with a partial operation of the sins, now known to us, yet abiding within us. For what if one that is penitent on account of theft, should increase his money by unjust and foul gains ? He will not indeed be a thief, but he will be covetous and an extortioner." — Tract, in Ps. cxxxviii. «. 2-3, jpp. 655-56. See also the extract, from Tr. m Pa. cxviii., given under " Contrition^
St. Athanasits, G. C. — ^^ Enter into His gates with confes-
God, let cUlpeopU give praise (ooii&tQsjitwc) to Thee. — Pis. Ixvi. 6. We And that confession is to be treated of in two respects— one, the confession of sins, where in the desert at the Jordan, they confessed that thej had sins; the other, the praise of God, as when the Lord says to the Father, I give praise to Thee (conftteor), 0 Father, Lord of Heaven (St. Matt. xi. 25)."— Tract, in Pe. Ixvi. n. 6, p. 210.
60 CONFESSION.
sion * {Ps, xcix. 4)1 He calls the Church on earth ths gates of the Lord, in which (Church) we must make confession,* pro- claiming our past transgressions, and we must make known the benefits conferred upon us." — Expos. inPs. cxix. T, Lp. 936.
" As man is illuminated with the grace of the Holy Spirit by the priest that baptizes, so also he who confesses in peni- tence, receives through the priest, by the grace of Christ, the remission (of sins)." * — Prog, {ut videiur) ex Lih, contr. Novat. T, iii.^. 75 ; and in MontfaucorCe Nova Collect T. \\.p. 103,
St. Cybil of Jebusalem, G. C. — " Put off the old man^ wJio is corrupted according to the deceitful luatSy by means of the confession (exemologesis),* that you may put on the new man. . . . The present is the season of confession (exomologesis) : confess the things that thou hast done, whether in word, or in deed ; * the things done in the night, and those in the day. Confess in an acceptable timcy and in a day of salvation^ re- ceive the heavenly treasure." — Catech. i. n, 2-5, pp. 17-18.
" Let us come to blessed David, and take him for an en- sample of repentance. He fell, that great man. Walking in the evening on the house-top, after sleep, he looked unguard- edly, and was moved by human passion. The sin was com- pleted, but at the same time perished not that candor of mind which confesses a transgression. Nathan the prophet came, a speedy reprover, and physician of the wound : ITie Lord ia a/ngry^ he says, amd thou host sinned. . . . And David replies
* '"By i^oMoXoytjdet.
**Ev p i^oiuoXoyet($Bcn Bel. On the words 1 will confess to Thos {i^otio\oyrf6o^ai) in uprightness of heart (Ps. cxviii. 7), he says, " After the prayer, he also lays down with what disposition of the will. But con- fession (ff k^ofioXo ytfdti) is the beginning of saWation.'* — Expos, in Ps. cxriii. t. i. p. 058.
' Ovrooi xai 6 k^o^oXoyovuBvoi hv fierayoia Std rov iepiosti Xafifidvet rrfv a<pe6ty x^P^^^ Xptdrov.
* ^td rrji HoMoXoyifdeooi.
* *Eio^oX6y7f6at rd nEtcpay^ivay rd kv Xoyot), vd iv epy(o. Milles, in his edition of St. Cyril, says in loco, ** Confessio omnium peccatomm baptismum (ad exemplum baptismi Joannis) semper praxjedebat. Hoc pin- rimis SS. Patrum testimoniis probari potest." lie quotes Tertvl, DeJBapHs. e, 20; Greg. Naz. Or. 40; Euseh. De Vita Const. I iy. c. 61.
CONFESSION. 61
to his visitor, or rather through him to Him that sent him, 1 have tinned against the Lard, Th'ou seest the humility of mind of the king; thou seest his confession. Had he not been convicted by any one ? Were not many privy to the matter ? The matter was done quickly, and the prophet was present immediately as an acctiser, and the sinner confesses the evil. And as he confessed ingenuously, he obtained a most speedy cure : for the prophet Nathan, who had threatened him, says at once, And the Lord hath taken away thy sin. . . . But blessed David, for all he heard. The Lord hoith taken away thy sin, shrunk not from repentance though a king, but put on sackcloth instead of purple, and instead of his gilded thrones, the king sat down in ashes on.the ground, and not only sat in ashes, but had ashes for his food, as he himself saith, / have eateri ashes like bread; and he wasted with tears his lustful eye : Every night 1 will wash my bed^ I will waier my couch with my tears {Ps, vi.) When his lords urged him to eat bread, he would not yield, he prolonged his fast for seven whole days. If a king thus confessed, oughtest not thou a private man to confess ? * . . . Thou seest that it is a good thing to confess : thou seest that for the repentant there is salvation. . • , Beware lest thou rashly mistrust the power of repentance : wouldest thou know what great force repentance has ? wouldest thou know the strong weapon of salvation, and learn what force confession has ? An hundred and eighty-five thousand enemies did Ezechias put to flight through confession. . . . What then ? He who gave Nabuchodonosor, after such acts, on Ids confession, pardon and the kingdom, shall He not give to thee, on repenting, the remission of sins, and the king- dom of heaven, if thou conduct thyself in a worthy manner ? The Lord is loving to men, and swift to pardon, but slow to punish. Let no one then despair of his own salvation. Peter the chiefest, and the foremost of the Appstles, before a little maid thrice denied the Lord, but moved to penitence, he wept bitterly, and to weep shows a heartfelt repentance ; and on * 2v 6 iSioaTTfS ovx 6<peiXsii i^ouoXoy7j6a6Bat.
62 OOKFESSION.
this acconnt not only did he receive remission for the denial, but also his apostolic dignity was not taken from him." — Catech. ii. n. 12, 13, 16, 19.
St. Grbooby of Nyssa, Q. C. — " What then, to proceed in order, do we now learn in the third place ! A lesson which, I think, of all others is especially suitable ta those who as- semble in our churches, — I mean the confession (exomologesis) of whatsoever has not been done according to reason, a con- fession which, by means of the manifestation of unbecoming deeds,* generates in the soul a feeling of shame. For this shame seems implanted in man as a great and powerful thing to put sin to flight, — ^implanted there, I believe, for this very end by the Almighty, that this disposition of soul might cause us to turn aside from evil. . . . This feeling, then, in the case of persons ensnared into any transgression, would be enough td prevent them from falling any more into any of those things of which, to their shame, they have had proof. If this be so, and the Word has implanted the feeling re- quired, so as that this disposition is naturally inbred as a pro- tection against sin, it is fitting to account as a lesson peculiar to the Church, the rectitude arising from the manifestation of sins. For by this means it is in our power to protect the soul with the shield of shame. For as, when a man has, by excess in eating, accumulated within him certain indigestible humors, and the body begins to suffer from inflammation, the illness has to be treated by the knife and the caustic, the sight of the scar left by the burning is a kind of admonition for the rest of his life against any such irregularity ; so he that has stigmatized himself by the manifestation of things that were hidden,* preserves the memory of the feeling of shame, as a warning for the rest of his life." — jT. i. in Ecdea. ffom.iljpp.S95, 397.
' Atotcoov i^ayopevdBODi,
* KaXoy kdrtv tStor ^idBijua rif^ kxHXij6{a% ^yipiacfOat, ro Std T^i Hayopevdeoai roSv iceit\7ffXfi7ffi^v<oy xaropQoofia.
' OvroiH 6 drrfXtrevdai eavrSr 6td rtji toSv xpv<picov h^ayoptv^ deooi.
COKFBSSION. 68
" Whoso, by secret theft/ has usurped what belongs to an- other, and has afterwards manifested, by means of an open declaration, his transgression to the priest,* he will cure his wound by zeal in a direction oppose^ to his (former) disposi- tion ; I mean, by giving his substance to the poor, in order . that by the distribution of what he possesses, he may clearly show that he is cleansed from the disease of avarice," — T. ii Epi%. Canon, ad Letoium^p. 122.
St. Gbbgoby ot Nazianzum, G. C. — Having contrasted baptism, as a means of efiacing, sin, with penitence, he says : ** Perhaps thou, oh good and beneficent husbandman, wilt beseech the master yet awhile to spare the fig-tree, and not, because called barren, to cut it down, but suffer thee to manure round it, with tears, that is, and groans, and prayers, prostrations on the earth, watchings, with wasting of mind and body, and that amendment which is by means of confes- sion, and a more humble mode of life." * — T. i. or. xl.^. 642.
" Dp not think it unbecoming in thee to confess thy sin,* knowing how John baptized, that thou mayest escape shame hereafter, by being ashamed here ;* since that shame is a part of the punishment of hereafter ; and thou wilt thus show that thou hast truly hated sin, when thou hast exhibited it, and triumphed over it, as a thing that is deserving of contempt." — Ibid. p. 667.
" Let us not wait to be accused by others, but become searchers of ourselves ; a great remedy against evil is confes- sion, and the flight of sin." ^—Ihid. or. 15,^. 236.
St. Basil, G. 0. — Explaining Is. ix. 18, ^^WicJcednesa is kindled as afire. ... A sin already committed becomes the occasion of another sin. If, then, we lay sin bare by confes-
' jdt^ v(patp€'6ea>i XarBavovdrfi.
■ Etra St' i^ayopsvdeoo^ ro itXrjutiiXrffia avrov rcT iepet <pavB' poSdai.'
» Tp^v St* l^ayopevdetai nai driuoripai dyooyiii kicay6p^<o6iy.
* ^E^ayopevdat 6ov rify dfiapriay.
*'*Iya rtfy ixelBey, cddxvyijy, rg iyravBa qjvygi.
• M^ya xaxiai (papfxaxoy, xai dfioXoyia.
64 CONFESSION.
aoo/ we haire made it (as) dry grafis, and fit to be deYomed by the purging fire." ^—Qmim. in E».e.ix.n. 230. T. L P. 11. p, 798.
Explaining Is. z. 19 : ^' The Levitea are nnmbeied from one month old and upward {Numb, iii.), and also the mimster- ing priests unto the age of fifty. But what ekUd shall write down^ — neither a man, nw an elder, — so numerous a body t No one will deny that they who preside in the Church (are here indicated), on account of their passing their lives in innocence, and on account of having entrusted to them, by sinners, things not to be named,* — things of which no one is witness but He that searches into the hidden things of each one." — Ibid. c. x. n. 244, p. 814.
In his canonical Epistles to St. Amphilochius, he fre- quently treats of the confession of sins, without, however, in some cases, enabling us to see clearly whether those sins may not have been accidentally detected, as £p. Canon. 1, eaai. 5,
' ^Edr our yvfiroo6t»fiev rifv dfiaprictv Std r^S k^oMoXoyiideooS.
' KaBaprtxov itvpo?. As this phrase maj seem to regard a pargatorial fire, and the passage is, in fact, part of the context of an extract sometimes adduced as establishing St. Basil's opinion on that subject, I may remark, that, after a careful examination, I do not clearly see that St. Basil is speaking of punishment endured in another world, but of that endured on earth. As, however, the extract alluded to occurs but a few lines after the passage given in the text, I will subjoin a translation, that the reader may form his own judgment: — " Through the wrath of the Lord haa the whole earth been burned {Is. ix. 19). These words point out that earthly things are, for the soul's benefit, given up to that penal fire {rm nvpi r£ xoXad- TiKcp) ; as the Lord also declare^ saying, I came to east fire upon the earth (St. Luke xii. 49), and have wished to see if it be already enkindled. And the people shall he as a man bi*mt by fire (lb. 19). This threatens not exter- mination (dtpavidfiov), but denotes purgation (xdQapdtv), agreeably to what is said by the Apostle, that, If any man*s work bum^ he shaU suffer loss^ but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire.** [For another instance of *the way in which the writer of this commentary applies this text of St. Paul, see Cap. i. n, 19, p. 553, C.]— Comm. in Es. e. ix. n. 231, pp. 798-9. A somewhat similar passage occurs, lb. e. x. n. 242, pp, 811-2.
• Tov? TtpoedraraS Iv r^ innXT^dia, Std to TCtdrevdadBca napd rtS^ i^uapTrjxoTODv rd aTCoppr^ra. See also T. ii. P. i. Horn, in S. Bapt. n. 5, p. 166, where, according to the Ben. Ed., confession is spoken of, but the word 6 /uoXoyif dot seems rather to regud the confession of faith made in baptism.
CONFESSION. 65
T. iii. P. ii. ^. 395, where the manifestation * of certain acts of uncleanness is treated of: in other cases, he speaks of the/ secret confession of secret sins : " Onr fathers have not ordered us to make known women who have been guilty of adultery, and who, through a religious fear, have confessed,* or have been in any way convicted ; for fear lest we may be- come the cause of their death." — Ibid, Ep, Cam,, ii. ccm, 34, j>. 428. See also Ep. Can, iii, can, 66, where murder is the crime manifested ; * also Can. 61, where the sin is Theft : Can, 62, Sodomy; Can, 63, BestiaUty; Cam,. 65, wh&te Sorcery is the offence ; in all which places the same term as the above is used. ^ A deacon who has defiled his Ups, and who has confessed^
« ^E^ayopevQjv. The following passages occur in his ascetic worka: *' On laying before the superior all tilings, even the secrets of the heart. Every one of those that are under obedience, that would show forth a praiseworthy advancement, and be firmly settled in that life which is in ac- oordance with the injunctions of our Lord Jesus Christ, ought to keep no motion of the soul concealed within his own breast, nor to utter any word ineopsiderately, but to lay bare the secrets of the heart to those to whom it has been entrusted to take care of the infirm brethren, kindly and com- passionately. For thus, what is commendable is confirmed, whilst what deserves reproof has tlie advantage of a suitable remedy.** — T. ii. P. i. Regul. Fu». Tract, Interr. 2Q,pp. 518-9. See also Ibid. Interr, 46, p. 550; also, T, it P. ii. Interr. 110, p. 640. Again: ** Ought deeds that are forbidden, to be fearlessly confessed by all^ or to certain persons only, and who are those persons? The confession {l^ayoptv6t^ of sins follows the same rule as the manifestation of bodily infirmities. As,- therefore, men do not disclose their bodily infirmities to every one, nor to a few at random, but to such as are skilful in the cure of them, so also ought the confession of sins to be made to those who are able to apply a remedy, according as it is written, You thai are strong, bear the infirmities of the weak {Rom, xv.), remove them, that is, by your care." — T. ii. P. ii. Eeg, Brev, Trac. Interr. 229, p, 701; and Ibid, Interr, 288, p. 738. '* He who wishes to confess (l^otioXo- y7j6^ai) his sins, ought he to confess to all, or to a few persons at random, or to whom ? . . . It is necessary for sins to be confessed to those to whom has been entrusted the dispensation of the mysteries of God {ayayxaiov TCfCi ftemdrsv^^voti rpv oiKorouiay rdSv pivdrT/ftiaov rov Oeoij i^ofio- Xoyeiddeci rd diiapTtfuara). For thus even (or, also) are they who did penitence of old, found to have acted in regard of the saints. For it is in- deed written in the Gh>spel, that they confessed their sins to John the Bap- tist ; and in the Acts (that they ooirfessed) to the Apostles, by whom abo they were all baptized."
* X)MoXoyij6ai,
66 CONFESSION.
that he has siimed nnto this point, shall be removed from the ministry, but it shall be granted himto partake with the dea- cons of the things that have been sanctified." — lb. Can, 70.
" Whosoever is conscious to himself of any of the preceding sins, and has not confessed,* but has been convicted, let him be under punishment for as long a period as the doer of those evils is punished." — lb, Ccm, 71.
" Should any one of those involved in the afore named sins, be fiUed with zeal, making the exomologesis ; ' and should be to whom, by God's love for man, it has been entrusted to bind and to loose, act more indulgently towards that man, from see- ing the excess of the exomologesis ' of that sinner, — so as to lessen the time of the punishments, — ^he will not deserve to be condemned, since the history contained in the Scriptures in- structs us, that they who make the exomologesis with greater striving,* quickly obtain the mercy of God." — Ibid, Can. 74i^ j>. 475.'
St. Pacian, L. C. — See the extract given under " Sa^srament of Peruimce^^^ from his Ep. i.
" ' But,' you will say, ' you forgive sin to the penitent, whereas, in baptism alone, it is allowed to you to loose sin.* Not to me at all, but to God only, who both in baptism for- gives the guilt incurred, and rejects not the tears of the peni- tent. But what I do, I do not by my own right, but by the Lord's.* We are Cod's coadjutors^ says the Apostle, it is God! a building. And again : I have pUmitedy ApoUos watered^ but God gave tlte increase ; so then^ neither he that planteth ia anything^ nor he that watereth^ but God that gvveth the inr
' X)MoXoyiidai, * 'E^ofioXoyovtiBroi. • ''Eio^dKoyT^deooi,
• * Tov% fierd ^et^oro^ itovov k^o^oXoyovfJiiyov%,
* In the appendix to Vol, iii. P. ii. there \r a work, De VirgimtcUe, as- si^ed by many critics to St. Basil, and which, though it probably is not his, is from some contemporary writer. In it we read, "This (a sin of un- clean ness) has been confirmed to me by a venerable man, old both in years and manners, from a confession made to him by a woman (k^onoXoyy- dajjieyv^ ^poS avrdv yvvaixosy — N, 61, p, 915.
* Quod ego facio» id non meo jure, sed Domini.
CONFESSION. 67
orease. Wherefore, whether we baptize, whether we constrain to penitence, or grant pardon to the penitent, Christ is onr authority for what we do/ It is for you to see to it, whether Christ hath this power, whether Christ have done this. ' If it were possible,' thou sayest, * to give remission of sins to the penitent, baptism was unnecessary.' Most foolish comparison. For baptism is the sacrament of the Lord's passion ; the par- don of penitents is the reward (merit) of him who confesses.* That all can obtain, because it is a gift of God's grace, a gra- tuitous gift, that is ; but this laborious forgiveness is the lot of the few who rise after falling ; who are healed after being wounded ; who are helped by tearful prayers ; who live again by the d^strtiction of ikejleah. . . . Let us see what thou say- est next, ' If God command man frequently to repent. He afi frequently allows him to sin.' What say you ? So then does he that often exhibits a remedy for sin, point the way to sin ? And the physician who heals, does he teach his patient never to be without wounds ? God wills not that man should ever be guilty of one sin, and yet He frees from sin. But because He frees from sin, He does not therefore instruct to sin. As he that rescues us from the flames, does not thereby guide us to the flames; or he that saves the shipwrecked from the rocks, does not thereby drive him on the rocks : it is one thing to be freed from danger, another to be forced into danger. Mayhap, I might allow myself to believe, if penitence were accounted a luxury; whereas such labor is imposed on the penitent, the destruction of the flesh required, continual tears, ceaseless groans. Will the healed wish to be cut, or burned anew ? . . . With what cunning you dispose of the position which I had taken, that power was given to bishops that wJiat- soever they hovmd on earthy should he hound also in heaven. This, you say, applies not to the faithful, but to catechumens, 80 that it might be lawful, that is, to bind or loose the sins of those who had yet to be baptized. You then join together
> Christo id auctore tractamns.
* Poenitentium Tenia, meritum confitentis.
68 CONFESSION.
portionB of two distinct eyangelists, fio as to seem one ; and you add, that what Matthew treated but imperfectly, John completed, so that what the Lord had said, as given by Mat- thew, Go and teach all nations^ haptizing them in the name of the Falher^ and of tlie Son^ and of the Holy Ghost^ He completed, as recorded in John, when He says, Whose sine you shaU forgive^ they shall be forgiven; and whose sins you shall retain^ they shall be retained ; that this loosing or binding may seem to regard the Gentiles who were yet to be baptized, because the former evangeUst speaks of the Grentiles, and the latter completed what is said of binding and loosing. What is this that you say ? Two evangelists have mutually recorded their meaning by halves, and but half completely ! Were they mutually in want of words, or sense ? or did not the Holy Spirit fill up the whole in every part, conveying the proposed meaning, and defining the words even to the full ? To a man^s testament once confirmed no one addeth anything further (Gal. iii.) ; shall another writing change God's writing ? How strange the lust of victory that leads you to such an attempt as this. Nay, even as recorded in Matthew, did not the Lord, before His passion, say. Whatsoever ye shall bind on earthy shall be bound also in heaven^ and whalsoei^er ye shall loose on earthy shall be loosed also in heaven t Thus had the Lord foretold in Matthew, and there is no mention made of the Gentiles. All that you seek for you have in Matthew alone. Ton, who instruct a bishop, why have you not read the whole! Look for the first introduction of this precept. As Matthew himself relates, the Lord had addressed Himself, a little above, to Peter, to one, in order that He might establish the founda- tion of unity from one ; soon after giving the same injunction to all in common, so that still He begins from Peter, and I say to ihee^ He says, that thou art Peter ^ &c. (St. Matt. xvi. 18-19). Tell me, brother, was it of the Gentiles only that He said, TJjpon this rock I will build my Church t Does He call the unbaptized Gentiles the Church? Is an unregenerated man the body of Christ ? Why do I unloose for the Gentiles
CONFESSION. 69
what is not bonBd ? for what is not imputed, is not bound. Why bind I what I have no right to fasten ? The Grentile is free from the law. See, now, on the other hand, whether both apply not to the baptized. He is looked by pardon, be- cause he was bound by sin ; he is hovmd by anathema, because he was loosed by faith, and set free through grace. Nay, were I to grant that this permission to hind and to loose re- garded the Gtentiles, I can prove that it pertains much more to the baptized. For, if he that was not fettered could be bound and loosed, how much more he who was restrained by the rights of faith ? You say that Matthew has set down, If thy hrother shaU offend against thee^ go and rebuke hitn he- i/voeen him and thee alone; and that the Lord has immediately subjoined, Wluitsoever ye shall hind on earth shall he hound also in heaven. So that this seems to regard an offence against a brother. Come, you see not that He first says. If thy hrother shall cffend against thee^ but then adds, Arrien^ I say to you^ whatsoever ye shall loose on earth. The former was a command to one — the latter He extended to all ; in the former case He unlooses against whom the act has been com- mitted— in the latter, the Church ; the former without a priest, without the brethren — the latter is a pardon obtained for all. Whatsoever ye shall loose^ He says. He excepts nothing whatever.' Whatsoever is His language, whether great or small. Notice His remark to Peter a little later, — ^that an offence against man is to be forgiven seventy times seven times, thereby to show that, in other cases, this may be done at least once. Yet, he who offends against Peter, is guilty of an injury against the Lord, as Himself signifies to Samuel : They home not made thee of no account, hut me (1 Sings viii.) Permission, therefore, is granted to the Church to do that once at least which is enjoined to be done by us so often." — ^. iii. n. 7-9, xi. xii. GaUamd. T. vilpp. 264-265.
" You now understand, Novations, that God can be merciful ; that a remedy, however slow (or late), is still within the power 1 Omniuo nihil excipit.
70 CONFESSION.
of our unhappy brethren who confess what is past ; * that the wounded man, whom the Levite and priest passed by, can be cured by Christ ; that the prayers of the Church are not to be refused to the humble ; that the hands of the priesthood are not to be withheld from the brethren that claim our compassion. . . , We know that it (the Church) is a toeU of living waievj and a sealed fountain^ unpolluted by the filth of any heretical whirlpool. . . . Having confessed our own sins, we exhort the rest also to confess theirs,' and to believe on Him who justifies the impious by faith. . . . We beware also of faUe prophets and ravening wolves, whilst on our guard against you. And our opinion is, that Jannes and Mambre resisted Moses, as you resist the Catholics." — Ibid, n. 21, p. 268.
" This will be the order which I shall follow in this addresa. First, I shall treat of the nature of sins, for fear lest' there may be some one who may fancy that all sins indiscriminately bring into extremest danger. I will then treat of those sin- ners who are, to their cost, overcome with shame, so as to blush to use their remedy, and with a defiled body and pol- luted mind communicate ; who, before men most timid, be- fore God most shameless, with unhallowed hands and polluted mouths, contaminate the altar which is an object of awe to the holy — aye, even to angels. And thirdly, my discourse will then turn to those who, after having properly confessed, and made known their crimes, either know not or refuse the re- medies of penitence, and the very acts which belong to the ministry of confession.* Lastly, I will endeavor to show, in the clearest manner, what is the penalty attached to those who do not penitence, or who do it negligently, and who, therefore, die in their wounds and imposthumes ; and what, on the other hand, the crown and the rewards that await those
* Dc praeterito confltentibus.
* Crimina nostra confess!, reliquos etiam ut confiteaotur hortamur.
* Quiconfessis bene, apertisque criminibus remedia poenitentias, actuaque ipBOfi exomologesis administrand» aut nescinnt aut recusant.
CONFESSION. 71
-who purge the stains of their conscience by a right and regular confession.* ... I first address myself to you, brethren, who have allowed yourselves to sin, but decline penitence ; you, I repeat, who are, after being shameless, timid — after sinning, ashamed ; who blush not to sin, but blush to confess ; ' who, with an unhallowed conscience, touch the holy things of God, and fear not the altar of the Lord ; who approach in the sight of angels, with the confidence of innocence, to the hands of the priests ; who insult God's patience ; who obtrude, on a silent God, as if He were an unconscious God, a polluted soul, and an nnsanctified body. . . . The Lord cries out and says, He thai is clean shall eai> of the flesh ; and if any one that is defied shall eat of the flesh of the saving sacrifloe, he shdU be cut off from his people " {Lev. vii.) For continuation, see " Euchm*ist^^
" This, again, is the Apostle's injunction : Impose not hands Ughtly on amy one^ neither he pa/rtaTter of other men^s sins (1 Tim. V.) What wilt thou do, thou that deceivest the priest ? who either misleadest him, if he be ignorant, or not fully knowing, perplexest him with the difficulty of proof ? * I beseech you, therefore, brethren, even for my own sake, by that Lord whom no concealments deceive, cease from hiding the wounded conscience.- A sensible man, when ill, is not ashamed of his physician, even though he may have to cut, or bum, in the most secret parts of his frame. . . . And after all, what is the benefit conferred by man ? And shall the sinner be afraid ? Shall the sinner be ashamed to pur- chase eternal life by a present shame ? * And shall he with- draw his wounds, hidden to his cost, from the offered aid of the Lord ? And hath he anything whereat to blush before the priest,* who hath injured the Lord ? If it be the eyes of
' Conscientiie maculas recta et ordinaria confessione purgantibiis. ' Erubescitis confiterL
* Quid fades tu qui decipis sacerdotem ? qui aut ignorantem fallis, aut non ad plenum scientem probandi difficultate confundis.
* PraBsenti pudore.
. * In illo (sacerdote), or it may be rendered, '* Is there any room for shame in him," who, &o.
72 CX)NPESSIOK. ' '
your bretliren that yon are ashamed of, fear not those who have fallen as well as you. The body rejoices not in the torture of its members; it shares in the pain, and strives equaNy after a cure. Where are one or two there is a Church, and in the Church is Christ ; and he, therefore, that conceals not his sins from the brethren, being aided by the tears of the Church, is absolved by Christ." — Ibid, ParcBnea, n. 2, 6, 8, j?p* 270-272. For continuation see under the head " Satis- faction.^^
B. IsAiAS, Abbot, 6. C. — "Be strengthened therefore in heart, and do not say, ' How can I keep His conmiandments, being that I am a sinful man ? ' For he that shall have con- fessed liis sins, being converted to Grod by penitence, shall be regenerated.* As we have home the image of the earthly y says the Apostle, let ns bear also the image of the heaverdy (1 Cor. XV. 49). God, therefore, as thou seest, has given unto man the power to be changed by penitence, and for the whole man to be renewed by its means." — Oral. xxv. n. 17, GaUand. t vii. p. 312.
St. Ambrose, L. C. — " Sins are remitted by the word of God, of which the Levite is the interpreter, and also the exe- cutor ; they are also remitted by the office of the priest, and the sacred ministry." " — T. i. De Cain, et Abel. I. 2, c. 4, n. 16, jpp. 212-3.
" Confession is a compendium of punishments ; * whence, in secular courts, they who deny a crime are stretched and tor- tured on the rack, whilst the judge is moved with a kind of compassion towards him that confesses his guilt. There is a kind of shame in sin, and it is a part of penitence to acknow- ledge crime, and not to shift the guilt elsewhere, but to admit it. The shame of the guilty softens the judge, whilst the obstinacy of those who deny their guilt moves him to wrath.
' Qui enim confessus fuerit peccata sua seae convertens ad Beum per poDnitentiara, regenerabitur.
* Remittuntur etiam per officium saoerdotis, sacrumque ministeriunu ' C)onfessio pCBnarum compendium est.
/ CONFESSION. T3
God wishes to mo\;e thee to penitence ; He wishes mercy to be hoped for from Him ; He wishes to prore, by thy con- fession, that He is not the anthor of sin. For they who attribute, as the Gentiles do, their sin to some inevitable de- cree, or compulsory act, seem to throw the blame on some divine agency as being the cause of sin." — Ibid, I. ii. e. 9, n.
"Therefore, O man, acknowledge sin, that thou mayest obtain pardon. Declare thy sma, he says, that thou mayest be justified. {Is. xliii. 26). Why art thou ashamed to acknow- ledge that wherein thou wast bom ? . . . The just man sees his frailty more clearly than the unjust ; and the wise man owns, and the unwise denies it. Li fine, the wise is filled with compunction at his falls — the unwise, with pleasure : the just is his own accuser — ^the unjust, his own defender : the unjust desires to conceal his sin ; the former, at the very first word, proceeds to lay bare his error ; the latter, by a multitude of words, so laps up the self-accusation, as that his error may not be exposed."— r. i. De Interpell, Job, c, 6, n. 19-20,^. 633.
" Hearken unto this remedy : The just man ai the beginr ning of his discourse is the accuser of himself {Prov, xviii. 17). The poison is sin ; the remedy, the accusation of one's crime ; the poison is iniquity — confession is the remedy of the relapse.* And therefore is it truly a remedy against poison, if thou de- cUjffre thine iniquities^ that thou mayest bejustifiedJ^ — T. i. In Ps. xxxvu. n. XI. J}, 820. For a similar passage, see In Ps, cxviii. n. 46-7,^. 1101-2.
" A modest confession pleads much for a guilty person ; and the punishment which we cannot by any advocacy avoid, by shame we alleviate." ' — Ibid, n, xiv. p. 821.
" If thy servant come and voluntarily confess his offences, and offer himself for punislmient, thou art moved to pity and to pardon him, and yet thou distrustest the Lord's mercy i
' Accnsatio sui criminis . . . confessio, remedium prolapsionis. * Plurimum suffragatur reo verecunda confessio, et poenam quam de- fensione evitare non possamns, pudore levamus*
74 CONFESSION.
. . . The friend of God, God's prophet, the King that was chosen by God Himself, and as King anointed, voluntarily ofEered himself for chastisement, and was not ashamed ; and art thou ashamed ? This shame will avail thee little at the judgment-seat of God; yea, thou wilt be ashamed of this shame, when placed in the sight, not only of men, but of angels, and of all the heavenly powers ; thou wilt begin not to deny thine own sins. What will thy excuse be, seeing that thou hast committed so many sins? Wilt thou plead the infirmity of nature, that no one is without sin ? Thou wilt be answered : ' Thou oughtest, therefore, to have done penitence : I gave a remedy ; why didst thou refuse it ? ' Wilt thou plead shame, and that thou didst blush to lessen, thine honors ? He will say : ' If thou wert ashamed of me before thy friends, I will also be ashamed of tliee before my Father who is in heaven.' Ijcam the truth of that saying, There is a shame that hringeth sin?^ — T i. in Ps. xxxvii. n. 6, p. 838.
" David wishing to receive this, before Christ came down upon this earth, said. Forgive me^ that I may be refreshed^ before 1 go hence^ and be no more {Ps. xxxviii. 14) ; that is, forgive me here, in the place wheje I have sinned. Unless thou forgive me here, there I shall not be able to find the peace of pardon ; for what shaU remain bound on ea/rth\ will remain bound in heaven / what shall have been loosed on earthy vhU be loosed in heoA^en. For the prophet and preacher of the future Church foresaw, in the spirit of the Gospel, the indulgences of the Lord, and the Lord revealed to him what was to be en- joined to the Apostles. Yea, this was an ancient sentence, that whoso had bound himself whilst on earth, should go forth from the body a captive. Therefore did the Lord bestow on the Apostles that which heretofore had been the province of His judgment, that sins might be loosed by a just remission, lest what ought quickly to be loosed, might remain long bound.*
> Ideo Dominas, quod ante erat judicii sni, dedit apostolis, peccata le- mittendi leqaitate solvenda; ne oito solvenda, diu ligata manerent.
CONFESSION. 75
Pinally, hearken to His words : To thee I will give the keys of the kingdom, of heaven ; a/ad whutso&oer thou ahalt hind on earth, &c. To thee. He says, I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven, that thou mayest both bind and loose. This Novatian heard not ; but the Church of God hath heard it : therefore is he in sin, we in forgiveness ; he in impeni- tence, we in grace. What is said to Peter, is said to the Apos- tles. We usurp not power, we but obey a command ; * Ipst, when the Lord shall hereafter come and find those bound who ought to have been loosed, He be moved with indignation, against the steward, who kept those servants bound whom the Lord had ordered to be loosed. ... With reason, therefore, does David ask that to be forgiven him, which he knew had not been granted to the Aaronic priesthood, but was reserved for the Gospel." — T i. in Ps. xxxviii. n. 37-8, p. 858.
" We have received the Holy Ghost, who not only forgives our own sins, but also makes us His priests to forgive the sins of others." '—/ft. in Ps. cxviii. {Jod), n. 17, jo. 1092.
Commenting on St. Luke v. 23, ''Which is eoMer to s(fy, Thy sins are forgvoe thee, &c. . . . Wherefore, although it be a great thing to forgive men their sins (for who can for- give sins but God only, who also forgives [them] through those to whom He has granted the power of forgiving ?),* yet is it a much more divine thing to bestow resurrection on bodies, see- ing that the Lord Himself is the resurrection." — T i. Expos. JESvang. S. JDucw, I. v. n. 13, p. 1358.
'^lather, I ha^e sirmed against heaven and hefore thee (Luke XV. 18). This is the first confession * to the Author of nature, the high priest of mercy, the witness of the guilt. But though God knows all things, yet does He await the voice of thy confession. For, With the mouth confession is made unto sal- ffoHon; because, whosoever burdens himseK, lessens the bur-
1 Non potestatem nsurpftmns, sed servimns imperio.
* Sed etiam dob f acit sacerdotes saos aliis peccata dimittere.
* Qtd per eos quoque dimittit, qoibas dimittendi tribuit potestatem.
* H»c est prima oonf essio.
76 CONFESSION.
den of his error ; and he that f orestaUs the aocnser by con- fessingy pate aside the odiousness of the accusation. For, Th^ jvst is at the very outset of Jus tDords the accuser of him- self {Prov. xviii. 17). Vainly wouldst thon hide thyself from Him whom nothing deceives ; and there is no danger in dis- closing what thou knowest is already known. Confess, rather, that Christ, whom we have an Advocate with the Father, may intercede for thee ; that the Chnrch may pray, and the people weep for thee." ' — T. L in Luoam. I. 7, n. 225, p. 1465. See also the extracts given under ^^ Pen/inc€y^ from his treatise, De Poenitentia.
" Should any one having secret sins, yet, for Christ's sake, heartily engage in penitence,' how does he receive these re- wards, if he be not restored to communion ? I would have the guilty hope for pardon ; let him beg it with tears ; let liim beg it with groans ; let him beg it with the tears of all the peo- ple ; that he may be pardoned, let him implore. And in case communion has been deferred a second and a third time, let him believe that he has been too remiss in his supplication ; let him increase his tears ; then let him return in deeper dis- tress, embrace their feet, cover them with lus kisses, wash them with his tears, nor let them go, that the Lord Jesus may say of him. Many sins are forgiven him^ heeat^se he hath loved m/fich. I have known some who in penitence have fur- rowed their cheeks with tears, have worn them away with con- tinued weeping, have cast themselves down to be trodden on by all, and with a countenance pallid with fasting have had the appearance of the dead in a breathing body." — T. ii. I. L De Pomit. o. xvi. n. 90-91, p. 414.
" As often as we receive the blood of the Lord, we show forth the death of the Lord. As then He was once sacrificed for all men, so we, as often as our sins are forgiven, receive the sacrament of His body, that by means of His blood there
^ Confitere magis, ut . . . roget pro te dcclesia, et illacrymet popolus. ' Si quia igitur occalta orimina habens, propter Christum tamen studiose pcsnitentiam egerit.
CONFESSION. 77
•
may be the remission of sins. By the Lord's open declaration has it most plainly been enjoinQd that the grace of the heaven- ly sacrament is to be restored to those who have been guilty of even the most grievous crime, provided that with their whole heart, and with manifest confession of sin,' they do peni- tence."—Z iL L. ii. De Pcmit. o. 3, n. IS-lSi j>, 420. See also Ibid. c. vi. n. 40-41.
" There are some who ask for penitence, because they wish communion to be at once restored to them : these do not so much desire to loose themselves as to bind the priest,^ for they do not put oflE guilt from their own conscience, whilst they put it on that of the priest, to whom it has been en joined. Give not that which is holy to dogSy neither cast your pearls hefore swine / that is, the fellowship of sacred communion is not to be granted to foul impurities. Wherefore may you see those walking about in a changed robe, who ought to be weeping and mourning, for having soiled that robe of purification and grace." — T. ii. De Po3n. L. ii. c. ix. n. 87-88, pp, 434-5.
" Can any one bear that thou shouldest blush to petition God, thou that dost not blush to petition man ? And shalt thou be ashamed to supplicate God from whom thou art not hidden, when thou art not asham^ to confess thy sins to a man from whom thou art hidden V Dost thou shrink from the witnesses
' Manifesta confessione peccati.
' Hi non tarn se solvere cnpiant, quam saoerdotem ligare.
* Cum te non pudeat peccata tua homini, quern lateas, conflteri. The following occur in the same treatise De PoBniientia : "If thou wouldst be justified, acknowledge thy transgression, for the modest confession of sins looses the bonds of crimes (solvit enim criminum nexus verecunda confes- sdo peccatorura). Thou seest what God requires of thee, that thou be mindful of His grace, which thou hast received, and glory not as if thou hadst not received. Thou seest by what a promise of forgiveness He en- tices thee to confession." — L, ii. c. vi. n. 40-1. The editor thinks that the context makes this passage doubtful. "Grant that I may know how to grieve, from my inmost soul, with sinners; for this is the highest virtue, seeing that it is written, Thou shalt not rejoice over the children of Judc^ in the day of their destruction ; and thou shalt not magnify thy mouth in the day of their distress (Abdias, 12); but as often as the sin of any one that has fallen is manifested, may I compassionate him ; not reprove him haughtily, but 0orrow and weep with him; that while I weep for another, I
78 CONFESSION.
»
and obflervers of thj prayer, whereas, if then have to make' aatisf action to man, thoa must needs pay thy court, and address thy request to many to deign to interfere ; when thou hast to cast thyself at their knees, to kiss their feet, and to bring thy children, as yet unconscious of guilt, as petitioners for a parent's pardon ? And dost thou shrink from doing this in the church, to supplicate God, to obtain the patronage of the holy people in thy petitions i " — T. ii L. ii. De Pamt. c. x. n. 91, pp. 435-6.
^^Let us now see whether the Holy Ghost forgives sins. But here there cannot be a doubt, as the JaxA Himself has said, Reoevoe ye the Holy Ohoat; whoae sins ye shall forgive^ &c. Men indeed furnish their ministry unto the r^niasion of sins, but diey do not exercise the right of any power/ For they do not, in their own name, forgive sins, but in the name of Father and Son and Holy Ghost. They pray, the divini^ for- gives. ... By baptism also there is no doubt that sins are fcH^ given ; but in baptism the operation is of the Father and Son and Holy Ghost.'' — T. ii. L. iii. de S. SanetOy c, xviiL n. 187-8, j)p. 6984.
'^ Not to sin is peculiar to God ; it is the wise man's part to amend and correct his en'ors, and be penitent for sin. Yet is this a difficult thing in this mortal life. For what so rare as to find an individual who will reprove himself, and condemn his own conduct 2 Bare, tberef ore, is confession of sin,* rare is penitence. For nature is opposed to it ; shame is opposed to it ; nature, because all are under sin, and he that bears flesh about him, is liable to guilt. Shame also ; because every one
may weep over myself, saying, Thamar iajuaUr than I {Cfenes, xxxviiL 90). Haply some young female may have fallen, deceired and overthrown by opportunities, which are sin's incentives; we that are older sin too. . • . Age furnishes an excuse to such a one, to me none; for itisfcwher to learn, for us to teach. Wherefore Thcmar is jutUr than I,*^^Ib%d. c, 8, ft. 73-4
' Homines antem in remissionem peooatorum ministeriiun sanrn ezhl- •bent, non jus alicujus potestatis ezercent.
* Rara itaque conf eesio de peooato.
OONFSSSrOK. 79
blushes to oonf ^s his own gallt,' thinking as he does more of things present than of things fntnre. • « . Can that man be pleasing to the Lord, the man who, whilst still in the ihidst of iniquities, and with injustice still abidiog within his heart, says, that he is doing penitence } It is just as if a sick man sbouM pretend to be wdl. . . . This guilt therefore the priests remove not ; nor take away his sin, who presents himself in de- ceit, and who is still in the desire of sinning.'* * — T. ii. ^. Ixvii. SmpUcicmo^ iv, 4, 7-10,^. 1068-9.
Paulinus of MtiiAN, L. 0. — ^In his life of St. Aijibrose, he Bays : " As often as any one, in ordei* to receive penitence, con- fessed his falls unto him,' he (St. Ambrose) wept 90 as t6 com- pel him also to weep. For he seem^^d to himself to be fallen ynih the fallen. But he spoke of the cause of the crimes whidi they confessed,* to none but the Lord only, with whom he interceded : leaving a good example to the priests that come after him, to be rather intercessors with God, than accusers unto men ; for in accordianee ako with the Apostle, charity is to be confirmed towards such a one, because that he is the ac- cuser of himself : neither does he wait for the acctteei^, but an- ticipates him, that so he may himself remove (alleviate) his «in, nor have what the advereary may criminate him in. And therefore does the Scripture say : The Just man at the hegin- ning of hU discourae is the ao&ueer of himsdf For he takes the word out of the mouth of the adversary : and by the con- fession of his sins he as it were breaks the teeth that are pre- pared for the prey of a hostile accusation ; giving honor to God, to whom aU thi^s are naked (3ek. iv.), and \dio desires the life, father than the death of the sinner {&ech. xviii.) For to the penitent confession alone is not sufficient,* unless there
> Erubescit unasquisqud propriAm onlpam i^teri
* Hanc ergo oulpam sacerdotes non anferunt, neqtie peocatum ejus.
' Quotiesconque illi aliquis ob perolpiendam pcsaitMitiam bbpsns saos oonfessus eeset.
* Causas autjBm orimiiiiim quas illi oonfltebanttir.
* Nam et ipsi pcanitenti noh suffioit sola 0(mleMk».
80 CONFESSION.
follow after also an amendment of his deeds." — ViL Amhros. n. 39, jp. 10. In App. T. ii. Op, S. Amiyr. This life is also given by OdUcmdivs^ T. ix.
SUPPRESSION OF THE PENITENTIARY.
The following accounts of this event, taken from Socrates and Zozomen, are the only ones extant : they are given in full, as the best explanation that can be furnished of this much-de- bated transaction.
SooBATEs, G. C. — ^^ About this same time it was thought fit to set aside the presbyters of the churches * (that had been ap- J pointed) over penitence: and for somQ such cause as this. f
From the time that the Novatians separated from the Church, ^
because they would not communicate with those who had fallen during the Decian persecution, the bishops added to the ecclesiastical roll the presbyter who is over penitence, that they who fell, after baptism, might confess their sins before this presbyter thus appointed. This rule (canon) is in force even to this day in the other sects. The Consubstantialists, and the Novatians, who agree with them in f aith^ repudiated the pres- byter of penitence. Indeed the Novatians did not, from the first, admit this addition. But they who now have possession of the churches, after having for a long time preserved (this office) set it aside under the bishop Nectarius ;" something of this kind having happened in the Church. A certain noble woman came to the presbyter who is over penitence, and con- fesses one by one the sins which she had committed after bap- tism.* But the presbyter commands the woman to fast and
»*!&^o$e xai rov^ kni riji fieraroiai teepteXerr itpe^flvrepovi rdSr %
inxXr^dioor. ^
* He succeeded St. Gregory of Nazianzum in the see of Constantmople,
and was followed in the same see by St. J. Chrysostom. f
• Oi i%i6uoieot rcS ixHXij6ia6r{xoo xarovt ror Kpedfivrepov rdv
eni tfji fisraroiai npodiBeday . . ', ini tov itpofiXTfiivroi rovtav *
CONFESSION. 81
pray nnceasingly, in order that, together with that confession, she may also have some work worthy of penitence to show forth. But the woman in process of time acknowledged an- other sin of hers. For she said that a deacon of the Chnrch had slept with her. After she had said this, he caused the deacon to be cast forth from the Church. But the people were sorely troubled : for they were indignant not only at what had been done, but that the deed brought evil report and infamy on the Church. But the sacred men being consulted in relation to this matter, a certain presbyter of the Church, by name Eudsemon, an Alexandrian by birth, gives this ad- vice to the bishop Nectarius, to set aside the presbyter (set) over penitence, but to suffer each one, according to his own conscience, to partake of the mysteries ; for thus only could the Church be freed from being spoken evil of. I, who heard these things from Eudsemon, have not hesitated to commit them to this history. . . . But, from the first, I said to Eudsd- mon, * Whether your advice will be profitable or not, to the Church, God knows ; ' but I see that it has furnished a pretext liot to reprove each other's sins, nor to observe the warning words of the Apostle : Home no fdUmship with thefruideaa works of da/rJcnes8^ htd rather reprove them {Eph, v.)" — H. E. L. V. <?. 19,^. 285-88.
ZozoMEN, G. C. — " CI xvL How omd for what comae the pretin/ier of the penitents ceased in the Chwre\ and a sypple- mental narrative rega/rding the mode of penitence. It was now that Kectarius, who had charge of the church of Constan- tinople, was the first who would no longer allow the presbyter appointed over the penitents to continue, and the bishops, al- most everywhere, followed his example. As to what this office is, whence it originated, or for what cause it ceased, others may perhaps give an account different from mine. But I wiU state my belief. As not to sin at aU, seems to belong to a na- ture more divine than that of man's, and God has commanded
uped/Svrepov HofioXoyoovrat rd dfiapTT^fAara . • . xard fjtipoi ^|o- fioXoyBltat rd^ dfiapriai^ ai ineitpuxst nerd to fidiCTi6tia,
Si coxrmsioK.
pardon to be gnated to the penitent eren thon^ they may often fiin, (and as) in begging pardon, it is neoesaaiy to con- fess also the sin,' it from the beginning deservedly seemed to the priests a burdensome thing, to proclaim th^ sins, as in a tibeatre, in the cognizance of the whole mnltitade of the church they appointed to this office a priest from among those whose lives were best r^ulated, one both silent and prudent, to whom they who had sinned went and acknowledged their deeds. But he having fixed, according to the deeds of each one, what was by way of punishment to be done, or undeigoney absolved them, having to exact punishment from themselves. But nothing of this was required by the Novatians, who make no account of penitence; though amongst the other sects (heresies), this custom prevails even unto this day. And in the churches of the west, and especially in the Church of the Bomans, it is carefully preserved. For there the place of those who are in penitence, where they stand in sadness, and with signs of grief, is visible (to all). And when the liturgy of God is at length completed, without partaking of the things which are the privilege of the initiated ; with groans and lamentations they cast themselves prone upon the ground, and the bishop meeting them face to face, in tear8,'falls in like manner upon the pavement, and with loud lament, the whole assembly of the church is drowned in tears. And after this, t}\e bishop rises up first and raises the prostrate ; and having offered up a suitable prayer for the sinners who are penitent^ he dismisses them. But privately each one being voluntarily afiiicted, eith^ by fasts, or abstinence from foods, or in other ways appointed him, he awaits the time which the bishop has assigned to him. But, in (or, at) the appointed time, having discharged the punishment, as it were a debt, he is freed from sin, and associates with the people in the church. The priests of the Bomans observe these things, from the beginning, even unto our days. . . . But, in the church of Constantinople, the priest appointed over the penitents presided in this office ; until * *Ev rep napatT&l6Bax 6vyofioXoytly rifv dpLafiziar xp^o^v.
0ONFES8I0N. 83
a certain woman of a noble family, having been, on account of the sins which she had declared, ordered by this presbyter to fast, and to supplicate God, tarrying for this object in the church, made known that she had been defiled by a deacon. At thia the people who learnt it, were indignant, as though the chnrdi had been outraged. The priests had to endure the greatest contumely. But Kectarius being at a loss what to do in this contingency, deprived him, who had been guilty, of hjB deaconship. But certain persons having advised him to permit each individual, — even as he was conscious to himself, and was able to be confident, — ^to partake of the mysteries, he suppressed the presbyter over penitence. And from that time this has remained in force. Thenceforward antiquity, and ita concomitant gravity and preciseness, began, I think, to melt away by little into an indifEerent and useless mode of living. For before this, as it seems to me, sins were less frequent, both on account of the shame felt by those who had to pro- claim their own temsgressions, and the rigor of those who were appointed judges, in this matter." — JI. K L. viL o. 16, j?p. 290^01/
St. Jebome, L. 0. — *^ They (the Novatians) against almost every sin dose the gates of the Church; we read daily, / would raiher the pendience them the death of the eimier. But they are rigid, not because they do not themselves fall into fax more grievous sins ; but there is this difference be- tween us and them : they a^ ashamed, as though they were just, to confess their sins ; " we whilst we do penitence more easily deserve pardon." *— T. i. J^. xli. n. 3, (id Ma/roellamf col. 187. See j^. xiv. given under the " EmhaHstP
' If the aboTe accounts present any difficulties, which to the attentive reader they cannot, he will find those difficulties explained by Yalesius, in his copious notes in heo. But for a complete account of the penitential system and public penance, and the confession of the primitive Church, let him see Petavius' edition of St. Epiphanius, T. ii. pp, 225-258, than which there is no more valuable dissertation extant on this subject.
* Peocata confiteri. * Facilius veniam promeremur.
84 CONFESSION.
" A second plank after shipwreck is, to confess the fault in Btmplicity." ' — Ih. Ep. Ixxxiv. Pammac. et Ocean, coL. 524.
" If ike seT^penty the devil, secretly bite any one, and, with- out any one being privy to it, infect him with the poison of sin, if he that has been struck remain silent, and do not penitence, and will not confess his wound to a brother and master, that master and brother, who has a tongue to heal him, cannot easily be of use to him." For if a sick man is ashamed to confess to a physician, medicine cannot cure a complaint which is not known." — T. iii. Cornm. in o. x. Ecdes. p. 474. '
" And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven^ cmd whatsoever thou shalt hind on earthy shall be bovmd also in heaveny ifcc. {Matt, xviii. 18). Bishops and priests not understanding this place take upon themselves something of tlie pride of the Pharisees ; so as to condemn the innocent, or to think that they can loose the guilty ; whereas, before Grod, not the sentence of the priest, but (a change of) life in the guilty is looked for. We read, in Leviticus, of the lepers, that they are ordered to show themselves to the priests, and, if they have the leprosy, then are they made unclean by the priest : not that the priests make men lepers and unclean, but that they may know who is a leper, and who is not, and may discriminate between the clean and the unclean. In the same way, therefore, that there the priest makes the leper clean, or unclean, so also here does the bishop and priest bind or loosCy not those who are innocent or guilty, but according to his office, after having heard the various kinds of sins, he knows who is to be bound, and who loosed." " — T. iii. Z. iii. Comm, in Matt, in loc.jfp. 124-25.
St. J. Chrysostom, G. C. — See the extracts already given
* Secunda post naufraginm tabula est, culpam simpliciter conflteii.
■ Et nullo conscio, eum peecati veneno infecerit; si tacuerit qui peicua- €ns -est, neo vulnus suum fratri et magistro voluerit confiteri.
* Sic et hie alligat vel solvit episcopus et presbyter, non eos qui insontes «nnt, vel noxii ; sed pro officio suo, quum peccatorum audierit varietates, fieit qui ligandus sit, quive solvendus.
CONFESSION. 85
from hifl treatise on the " Priesthood," under " The Sacrament of Pencmce.^^
" We have a loving and merciful, and a provident Lord, who, as He knowp the infirmity of our nature, when having been overcome by onr negligence we fall into any sin. He seeks but for one thing from us, — ^not to depair, but to ab- stain from sin, and to hasten to confession." * — T. i. De Laza^o^ Corvdo vii. n. %p, 970.
" The thief did not dare to say Remember me in Thy kmg- domy until he had by means of confession laid down the load of his sins. Seest thou how great a thing confession is i He confessed and opened paradise; he confessed and took so much boldness of speech as to ask for a kingdom for his theft." — T ii. Horn. i.J)e Grace et I/xtr. n. 3, j>. 480. See also T ii. JETom. iii. ad Pop. Antioch. n. 6, p. 50, -4., which JSen. Edd. thinks conclusive, but erroneously ; /ft. Horn. xii. ». 4,^. 151, E. A.; Horn. ii. de Po&nit. n. i.j>. 828, O. D,; amd 340, E, J..-, where confession to God is named.
" He did n{>t dare to say JRem^mber ms m Thy kingdom^ until he had, by means of confession, cleansed himself from the defilement of his sins ; until by condemning himself he had made himself innocent ; until by accusing himself he had laid aside his transgressions. Seest thou what great power •confession has even on the cross. ... If He vouchsafed so to honor the thief whilst on the cross, much more will He vouchsafe to us His mercy, would we but make confession of our transgressions. Wherefore, in order that we too may enjoy that mercy which is His, let us not be ashamed to con- fess our sins,' for great is the strength of confession, and abundant its power. For lo! even this man confessed and found Paradise opened." — Ihid. Horn. ii. n. 3, p. 492. On confession to God, see T ii. non ease ad grat concion. n. 3, i>. 791.
^*Ev fiovov kiciZTfTel TCapP ^fioSv, . . . itpo^ rrv k^oiioX6yri6xv Iftstjfivvat,
• *E^oMoXoyel(SOca rd eavrdSv dfiaprrjftara nij kicanSxvyfofiiBa,
86 CONFESSION.
'^ For although thou mayest forget thy sms, yet will not God forget them, but will set them all before thine eyes, if we do EOt f orstall Him, and do away with them now by penit^ice and coBfession/ and by forgetting the injuries done us by our neighbors-'^-^T. iii. Horn, de decern, mill. talerU. n. 5, jp. 11. See also Ibid. Sam. Pecoat.frair. rum evulg. n. 6,p, 414.
^ When we shall have been able in this present life, to wash away our transgressions by means of confession, and to obtain the pardon of them from the Lord, we shall go thither pure from sins.'' — T. iv. Horn. v. in Genee. n. 2, p. 41. For a similar passage, see lb. Sam. ix. n. 6, p. 85, JS. 86, O.
" A great shame is sin ; if we commit it we must not only be ashamed, but even hide ourselves. . . . Yea rather not even then must we despair of ourselves, but hasten to conr f ession,' and to uprightness of mind. For we have such a master that He seeks for nothing else at our hands, after the commission of sin, whenever we stray through heedlessness, but that we confess our falls, and that we thenceforward st^nd, and fall no more into the same." — Ilnd. Sam. x. n. 2, p. 89. For confession to God, see Ibid. Sam. xx. n, 3, p. 206.*
^^Lol we have now at length reached the close of holy Lent ; now especially must we press forward in the career of fasting, and make more fervent prayers, and exhibit a full and accurate confession of our sins* . . . that with these good
^"^Av firl irpoXafiovrei avrd HaTaXv6wfiey viry did uBravoiai xai i^oM oXoyif68»i,
* ^E^o/ioXoyt^div.
* It may be well to give the passage here referred to as a specimen : *' He that has committed these (grievous sins), if he will but use in his need the aid of his conscience, and hasten to the confession of what he has done, and show the ulcer to the physician, to Him who healeth andreproveth not<, and receiye the medicine from Him, and alone converse with Him, no one seeing thee, and declare everything with accuracy, he will make a speedy correction of his sins. For the confession of sins is the obliteration of offences. For if even this Lamech refused not to confess to his own wives the murders that he had committed, how should we be worthy of pardon, if we were unwilling to confess our sins to Him who knoweth accurately pur transgressions ?"
* JJoXXi^ xai aHpifiif n/v i^ofioXoyT^iv roSy ^tiapnjfiiytov km- d£t^B6$at.
ooimssaioN. 87
woAbj baying eome to the day of Easter, we maj enjoy the bounty of the Lord. . . . For as the enemy knows that we can, during this time, after having treated of what holds us fettered, and having confessed our sins, and shown our wounds to tiie physieian, attain to an abundant cure, He then in an especial ixia^n^ opposes us.'' — J bid. Exmi. xxx. n. 1, h^pp. a^, 351.
<< I delay not, I put not off, when I see a soul well disposed ; for one thing only do I seek, confession of his faUs ; and I no longer bring upon him punishment for his falls. Is not what is put forward by me heavy and grievous } Did I not know that men become worse from not confessing their former sins, I would not even seek for this. But since I know that man- kind is more prone to evil, therefore would I have them con- fess their former sins, that the confession may be a hindrance to their falling into the same." — Ihid. Horn. xliv. n. i2, p. 520. gee also T. v. JSopos. in Ps. cxL n. 7, p, 629 ; ibid, in F9. cxKi n. 2yp. 642.
" This surely is the time for confession, both for the unini- tiated and for the baptized : for the one, that, having re^ pentad, they may attain to the sacred mysteries ; and for the other, that having washed away in baptism their stains, they may approach the table with a clean conscience. Let us aban- don this soft and dissolute life ; for it is not, indeed it is not possible, both to confess and to live in luxury." — T, vii. JSom. ^ in MatA, n. 6, pp. 168-9.
** Listen to Paul when he says, Jf we would jvdge ov/r- seheSj toe should not be Judged. If thou do this, advancing on the way thou shalt even arrive at a crown. And, ' how Bhall we judge and exact a penalty from ourselves ? ' one may say. Lament, groan bitterly, humble thyself, afflict thyself, call to mind thy sins specifically/ This is no slight torture to a soul. If any one has been in a state of compunction, he knows that the soul is punished by this more than anything. If any one has had this memory of sins, he knows the anguish
88 CONFESSION.
thence. Therefore does God appoint justice as a reward to sach penitence. Declare thoujlret thy Hns, that thou mayest be justified {Is. xliii.) For it is not, it is not a trifle towards amendment, to bring together all our sins, to be revolving them continually, and reckoning them specifically. For he that is doing this will be so moved to compunction, as not to reckon himself worthy even to live ; whilst he that thinks this, will be tenderer than any wax. For do not tell me only of fornication,' or of adultery, nor of those things that are manifest, and confessed amongst (or, by) all men, but bring together also thy secret crafts, and calumnies, and evil-speak- ings, and vain-gloryings, and thine envy, and all such things. For neither will these things bring a trifling punishment." — T. vii. Co7nm. in Matt. n. 4, jjp. 406-7. For confession to Gh)d, see T. xii. Horn. xxxi. in, Ep. ad Hehr. pjp. 411-3. See also the extract from Ilom, ix. Ih given under " Contrition?^
^^ Though thousands of evils surround us, if we be prudent and watchful, we shall be ab^e to find great defence, and abundant pardon, and wash away our transgressions. And hear, in what way this will be. If we repair to church, if we
grieve over our transgressions, if we confess our sins,* if we
■^ • "
' Mff yap fiot xopreiai Bimji fiovov,
*^Ay ouoXoyoofiev rd ^uaprrffi^ra. Besides the passage alreadj qaoted, and those places referred to in which St Chrfsostom speaks of con- fession to God, I will add two other extracts : ' ' Let a man prove himself and soediof thai bread and drink of that chalice. He made not known the nicer ; he brought not the accusation into the public theatre; he placed. not rooiid witnesses of thy transgressions; within, in thj conscience, with none pres- ent but Ood, that sees all things, make the judgment and the examiuatioa of your sins."— r. ii. Hom, vi. De JPianit. in fine, "I do not tell thee to appear in public, nor to accuse thyself before others, but I counsel thee to obey the prophet, raying. Reveal thy way to the Lord, acknowledge thy sins before God ; acknowledge them to the Judge, praying, and if not with the tongue, yet with the memory, and so pray to have mercy."— T. xiL Horn, xxxi. in Hebr, n, 8, p. 413. That these and similar passages are per- fectly compatible with our doctrine, it needs but an acquaintance with that doctrine to see. Confession to a priest does not exclude — nay, includes and presupposes— confession to God. That all sins need not be confessed to a priest, is also a part of our doctrine. Were these the only places in which St. Chrysostom speaks of confession, his opinion might indeed be doubtful, or not capable of being ascertained from his writings; but when, besides
OOKFESSION. 89
put forth prayers. . . . For all these are remedies for our Bins."— T. xii. Horn. vi. odA), Cdtha/roa, n. 2,^. 501.
Council of Laodioea, G. C. — " They, who have offended by divers sins, and continue instant in the prayer of confession and penitence,' and are perfectly converted from their evil 'ways, shall, having had a period for penitence assigned to them according to the quality of their sin,' be through the mercy^and goodness of God brought to communion." — Cam. ii. col 1496, T. i. Lahh.
" Those who are of the Church are not to be permitted to go into the cemeteries, or into the so-called martyries of any of the heretics, for the purpose of prayer or .veneration ; ■ but such persons, if they be believers, are to be excommunicated for a time, but upon being penitent, and making confession of their fault,* they are to be received." — Ih can. ix.
CouNCJiL OF Nio^A, G. C. — " If any presbyters have been promoted without examination, or being examined they have confessed their sins,* and, after they have confessed, men acting in opposition to the canons have laid hands upon such, the canon admits not those men. For the Catholic Church defends that which is blameless." — Can. ix. col. 33, T. ii. Ijibh.
Council of Ai^iooh, G. C. — This council, held in 341, de- fines that " All those who come into the Church of God, and hearken to the said Scriptures, but do not communicate in prayer with the people, or turn away from the participation of the Eucharist, through (or, after) a certain disorderliness, such are cast out of the Church, until having confessed and
these passages, his works contain other, and so plain and additional testi. monj, as may be seen in the passages extracted and referred to, it seems unreasonable that saoh stress should be laid on one class of passages, and the force of the other be entirely overlooked or neglected.
• npo6xapr€povrrai zy irpo^Bvx$ riji HoMoXoyjfdeooi xai fiera-
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90 OOMFBBSIOM.
Bbown fruits of penitence, and having earnestly requested it^ they may be able to obtain pardon." — Can. ii. cd. 561, T. ii. Labb.
African Council, L. C. — " Let the periods of penitence be adjudged to penitents, by the determination of the bishop, ac- cording to the difference of their sins : and a presbyter shall not reconcile a penitent without c<m6ulting the bishop, except necessity, arising £rom the absence of the bishop, compel him. But as to the penitent whose crime is public and most notori- ous, disturbing the whole Church, he shall impose bonds on him before the apsis (chancel).'' — Oodean Can, Eod. Aft. can. xlii. ool. 1069, LcM. T. ii
OENTUBT V.
St. Augustinb, L C. — Commenting on JSeocL xxvL 7, ^ Thou shalt make eleven curtainSj^ &c., he says : ^^ For this end are sins signified by these cvHainSy that they may be expressed by confession, and may by the grace which is given to the Church be abolished,' that is, be covered : whence it is said. Blessed cure ihej^ whose iniqmties are forgiven^ and whose sins are covered (Ps.