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PENANCE

ably Cahnn, admitted that it had been in existence after baptism cannot be saved unless they submit to

for three centuries when they attributed its origin to the keys of the Church either by actually confessing

the Fourth Lateran Council (1215). At that time, or by the resolve to confess when opportunity permits,

according to Lea (op. cit., 1, 228), the necessity of con- Furthermore, as the rulers of the Church oiinnot dis-

fession "became a new article of faith " and the canon, pense any one from baptism as a means of salvation,

omnii- H(h!isgues€jw.s, "is perhaps the most important neither can they give a dispensation whereby the

legislative act in the history of the Church (ibid., sinner may be forgiven without confession and absolu-

230). But, as the Council of Trent affirms, "the tion. The same explanation and reasoning is given

Church did not through the Lateran Council prescribe by all the Scholastics of the thirteenth and fourteenth

that the faithful of Christ should confess — a thing centuries. They were in practical agreement as to the

which it knew to be by Divine right necessary and necessity of jurisdicticjii in the confessor. Regarding

established— but that the precept of confessing at least the time at which confession had to be made, some

once a year should be complied with by all and every held with William of Auvergne that one was obliged

one when tlicy readied the age of discretion" (Sess., to confess as soon as possible after sinning; others

XIV, c. 5). The Lateran edict presupposed the neces- with All icif us Magnus and St. Thomas that it sufficed

sity of confession as an article of Catholic belief and to iiinl(<^ wiihiu the time limits prescribed by the

laid down a law as to the minimum frequency of con fession — at least once a year.

In the Middle Ages. — In constructing their systems of theoIog\', the medieval doctors discuss at length the variousproblems connected with the Sacrament of Pen- ance. They are prac- tically unanimous in holding that confes- sion isobligatory ; the only notable excep- tion in the twelfth century is Gratian, who gives the argu- ments for and against the necessity of con- fessing to a priest and leaves the question open (Decretum, p. II, De pcen., d. 1, in P. L., CLXXXVII, 1519-63). Peter Lombard (d. about 1150) takes up the authorities cited by Gratian and by means of them pro\cs that "without con- fession there is no pardon". . . " no en- trance into paradise " (IV Sent., (1. XVII, 4, in P. L., CXCII, 880-2). The princi- pal debate, in which



Confessional Church of St. Paul, Antwerp

Hugh of St. Victor, Abelard, Robert Pullus, and Peter of Poitiers took the leading parts, concerned tlin origin and sanction of the obligation, and the value of the different Scriptural texts cited to prove the iustitiition of penance. This question passed on to the thirteenth

Church il':isrhal Time); and this more lenient view finally prevailed. Further subjects of discussion dur- ing this period were: the choice of confessor; the obligation of confessing before receiving other sacra- ments, especially the Euchari.sl ; the integ- rity of confession ; the obligation of secrecy on the part of the con- fe.ssor, i. e., the seal of confession. The care- ful and minute treat- ment of these points and the frank ex- pression of divergent opinions were charac- teristic of the School- men, but they also brought out more clearly the central truths regarding pen- ance and tlicy opened the way to the concil- iar pronouncements at Florence and Trent which gave to Cath- olic doctrine a more precise formulation. See Vacandard and Bernard in "Diet, de theol. cath.", s. v. Confession; Turmel, "Hist, de la thfolo- gie positive", Paris, 1904; Cambier, "De divina institutione

confessionis sacramentalis", Louvain, 1884.

Not only was the obligalinTi rccdgnizcd in the Cath- olic Church throughout ilic .Middle Ages, but the schismatic Greeks Field the .same lielief and still hold They fell into schism under Photius (q. v.) in 869,

centur)' and received its solution in verj- plain terms but retained confession, which therefore must have

from St. Thomas Aquinas. Treating (Contra Gentes, been in use for some time previous to the ninth cen-

IV, 72) of the necessity of penance and its parts, he tury. The practice, moreover, was regulated in detail

shows that "the institution of confession was ncces- by the Penitential Books (q. v.), which prescribed the

sary in order that the sin of the penitent might be canonical penance for each sin, and minute questions

revealed to Christ's minister; hence the minister to for the examination of the penitent. The most famous

whom the confession is made must have judicial of these books among the Greeks were those attributed

power as representing Christ, the Judge of the living to John the Faster (q. v.) and to John the Monk. In

and the dead. This power again requires two things: the West similar works were written by the Irish

authority of knowlcfige and [)ower to absolve or to monks St. Columbanus (d. 615) and Cumniian, and

condemn. These are called the two kevs of the Church by the Englishmen Ven. Bede (d. 735), Egbert (d.

which the LonI entrusted to Peter (Matt., xvi, 19). 767), and Theodore of Canterbury (d. 690). Besides

But they were not given to Peter to be held by him the councils nicnlioned alMi\e (Minister) decrees per-

alone, but to be handed on through him to others; else taining Ici c(iiil'c.ssioM were enacted at Worms (868),

sufficient provision would not have been made for the Paris (820), Chalons (Si;j, 6.00), Tours (813), Reims

salvation of the faithful. The.se keys derive their (813). The Council of Chalcuth (785) says: "if

efficacy from the pa-ssion of Christ whereby He opened any one (which God forbid) should depart this life

to us the gate of the heavenly kingdom". And he without penance or confession he is not to be prayed

adds that as no one can be saved without baptism for". The significant features about these enactments

either by actual reception or by desire, so they who sin is that they do not introduce confession as a new prac-