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 PENANCE

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PENANCE

tice, but take it for granted and regulate its adminis- tration. Thereby they put into practical effect what had been handed down by tradition. _i)t. Gregory the Great (d. 604) teaches: "the afflic- tion of penance is efficacious in blotting out sins when it is enjoined bj- the sentence of the priest, when the burden of it is decided by him in proportion to the offence after weigliing the deeds of those who confess" (In I Reg., Ill, V, n. 13 in P. L., LXXIX, 207); Popj Leo theGreat (440-Gl), who is often credited witlTThe 'institulibn of confession, refers to it as an "Apostolic' ~'nile". Writing to the bishops of Campania he lor- bids as an abuse "contrary to the Apostolic rule" {contra apostolicam regulam) the reading out in public of a written statement of their sins drawn up by the faithful, because, he declares, "it suffices that the guilt of conscience be manifested to priests alone in secret confession " (Ep. clxviiiinP. L., LIV, 1210). In another letter (Ep. cviii in P. L., LIV, 1011), after declaring that by Divine ordinance the mercy of God can be obtained only through the su]5plications of the priests, he adds: "the mediator between God and men, Christ Jesus, gave the rulers of the Church this power that they should impose penance on those who confess and admit them when purified by salutary satisfaction to the communion of the sacraments through the gateway of reconciliation." The earher Fathers frerjuently speak of sin as a disease which needs treatment, sometimes drastic, at the hands of the spiritual physician or .surgeon. St. Augustine (d. 4:30) tells the sinner: "an abscess liaTl formed in yoiir conscieni'i-; it tormented j'ou and gave you no rest. . . . ciiiilV-^-;, nnil in ciinfes.sion let the pus come out an(lfl..u-Lw;iy" (,Iu ps. ixvi.n. 6). St. Jerome (d. 420) comparing the priests of the Xew Law with those of theOld who decided between leprosy and leprosy, says : "likewise in the New Testament the bishops and the priest bind or loose ... in virtue of their office, having heard various sorts of sinners, they know who is to be bound and who is to be loosed" . . . (In Matt., x\d, 19); in his "Sermon on Penance" he says: "let no one find it irksome to show his wound (vxdnus confileri) because without confession it cannot be healed." St. Ambro.se (d. 397): "this right (of loosing and binding) has been conferred on priests only" (De poen., I, ii, n. 7); St. Basil (d. 397): "As men do not make knon-n their bodily ailments to any- body and everybody, but only to those who are skilled in healing, so confession of sin ought to be made to thflse who can cure it" (Reg. brevior., 229). I l^or those who sought to escape the obligation of confession it was natural enough to assert that re- pentance was the affair of the soul alone with its Maker, and that no intermediary was needed. It is this pretext that St. Augustine sweeps aside in one of his sermons: "Let no one say, I do penance secretly; I perform it in the sight of God, and He who is to pardon me knows that in my heart I repent ". Where- upon St. Augustine asks: "Was it then said to no purpose, 'What you shall loose upon earth shall be loosed in heaven'? Was it for nothing that the keys I were given to the Church?" (Sermo cccxcii, n. 3, in ~F.L., XXXIX, 1711). TheFathers, of course, do not deny that sin must be confessed to God; at times, indeed, in exhorting the faithful to confess, they make no mention of the priest ; but such passages must be taken in connexion with the general teaching of the Fathers and with the traditional belief of the Church. Their real meaning is expressed, e. g., by Anastasius Sinaita (seventh century): "Confess your sins to Christ through the priest" (De sacra synaxi), and by Egbert, Archbishop of York (d. 766) : "Let the sinner confess his evil deeds to God, that the priest may know what penance to impose" (Mansi, Coll. Cone, XII, 232). For the passages in St. John Chrysostom, see Hurter, "Theol. dogmat.". Ill, 454; Pesch, " Prae- lectiones", VII, 165.

The Fathers, knowing well that one great difficulty which the sinner has to overcome is shame, encour- age him in spite of it to confess. "I appeal to you, my brethren", says St. Pacian (d. 391), ". . . you who are not ashamed to sin and yet are ashamed to confess ... I beseech you, cease to hide your wounded conscience. Sick people who are prudent do not fear the physician, though he cut and burn even the secret parts of the body" (Parsenesis ad poenit., n. 6, S). St. John Chrysostom (d. 347) pleads elo- quently with the sinner: "Be not ashamed to ap- proach [the priest] because you have sinned, nay rather, for this very reason approach. No one says: Because I have an ulcer, I will not go near a physician or take medicine; on the contrary, it is just this that makes it needful to call in physicians and apply rem- edies. We [priests] know well how to pardon, because we ourselves are liable to sin. This is why God did not give us angels to be our doctors, nor send down Gabriel to rule the flock, but from the fold itself he chooses the shepherds, from among the sheep He ap- points the leader, in order that he may be inclined to pardon his followers and, keeping in mind his own frailty, may not set himself in hardness against the members of the flock" (Horn. "On Frequent Assem- bly" in P. G., LXIII, 463).

Tertulfian had already used the same argument with those who, for fear of exposing their sins, put off their confession from day to day — "mindful more of their shame than of their salvation, like those who liide from the j^hysician the malady they suffer in the secret parts of the body, and thusperish through bashful- ness. . . . Because we withhold anything from the knowledge of men, do we tliereby conceal it from God? ... Is it better to hide and be damned than to be openly absolved?" ("De poenit.", x). St. Cyprian (d. 258) pleads for greater mildness in the treatment of sinners, "since we find that no one ought to be for- bidden to do penance and that to those who implore the mercy of God peace can be granted through His priests. . . . And because in hell there is no confes- sion, nor can exomologesis be made there, they who repent with their whole heart and ask for it, should be received into the Church and therein saved unto the Lord" (Ep. Iv, "Ad Antonian.", n. 29). Elsewhere he Bays that many who do not do penance or confess their guilt are filled with unclean spirits; and by con- trast he praises the greater faith and more wholesome fear of those who, though not guilty of p.ny idolatrous action, "nevertheless, because thej- thought of [such action], confess [their thought] in sorrow and simplic- ity to the priests of God, make the exomologesis of their conscience, lay bare the burden of their soul, and seek a salutary remedy even for wounds that are slight" ("De lapsis", x.wi sqq.). Origen (d. 254) com- pares the sinner to those whose stomachs are over- loaded with undigested food or with excess of lumiours and phlegm; if they vomit, they are relieved, "so, too, those who have sinned, if they conceal and keep the sin within, they are distressed and almost choked by its humour or phlegm. But if they accuse them- selves and confess, they at the same time vomit the sin and cast off every cause of disease" (Homil. on Ps. x.x.xvii, n. 6, in P. G., XII, 1386). St. Iren^us (130-202) relates the case of certain women whom the Gnastic Marcus had led into sin. "Some of them", he says, "perform their exomologesis openly also [etiam in manifesto], while others, afraid to do this, draw back in silence, despairing to regain the life of God" ("Adv. ha;r.", I, xiii, 7, in P. G., VII, 591). This etiam in manifesto suggests at least that they had confessed privately, but could not bring themselves to make a public confession. The advantage of con- fession as against the concealment of sin is shown in the words of St. Clement of Rome in his letter to the Corinthians : "It is better for a man to confess his sins than to harden his heart" (Ep. I, "Ad Cor.", li, 1).