Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/698

 PENANCE

634

PENANCE

Convocation of the Arclulioopse of Canterbury asking provision for tiie eiliieation and authorization of priests for the worlv of the confessional. In the joint letter of the Arelibishops of Canterbury and York dis- apiiroiiation of such course was markedly expressed, and the determination not to encourage tiie practice of private confession openly avoweil. The Puseyit"s replied citing the authoritv of the "Prayer Book" as given above. In our t ime among the High Church folk one notices confessionals in t he churches, and one hears of discourses made to the people enjoining confession as a necessity to pardon. Those who hear confessions make use generally of the rul'S and directions laid down in Catholic "Manuals", and especially popular is the "Manual" of the Abb^ Gaume (A. G. Mortimer, "Confes.sion and Absolution", London, 1906).

Utility of Confession. — Mr. Lea {" A History of Auricular Confession", Vol. II, p. 456) says: "No one can deny that there is truth in Cardinal Newman's argument: 'How many souls are there in distress, anxiety and loneliness, whose one need is to find a being to whom they can pour out their feelings unheard by the world. They want to tell them and not to tell them, they wish to tell them to one who is strong enough to hear them, and yet not too strong so as to despise them'"; and then Mr. Lea adds: "It is this weakness of humanity on which the Church has speculated, the weakness of those unable to bear their burdens . . . who find comfort in the system built up through the experience of the ages", etc. It has been made clear that the Church has simply car- ried out the mind of Christ: "Whatsoever you shall loose shall be loosed"; still we do not hesitate to accept Mr. Lea's reason, that this institution answers in large measure to the needs of men, who morally are indeed weak and in darkness. True Mr. Lea denies the probability of finding men capable of exercising aright this great ministry, and he prefers to enumerate the rare abuses which the weakness of priests has caused, rather than to listen to the millions who have found in the tribunal of penance a remedy for their anxieties of mind, and a peace and security of conscience the value of which is untold. The very abuses of which he speaks at such length have been the occasion of greater care, greater diligence, on the part of the Church. The few inconveniences arising from the perversity of men, which the Church lias met with admirable legislation, should not blind men to the great good that confession has brought, not only to the individual, but even to society.

Thinking men even outside the Church have ac- knowledged the usefulness to society of the tribunal of penance. Amongst these the words of Leibniz are not unknown ("Systema theologicum", Paris, 1819, p. 270) : "This whole work of sacramental penance is in- deed worthy of the Divine wisdom and if aught else in the Christian dispensation is meritorious of praise, surelj' this wondrous institution. For the necessity of confessing one's sins deters a man from committing them, and hope is given to him who may have fallen again after expiation. The pious and ijrudent confes- sor is in very deed a great instrument in the hands of God for man's regeneration. For the kindly advice of God's priest helps man to control his passions, to know the lurking places of sin, to avoid the occasions of evil doing, to restore ill-gotten goods, to have hope after depression and doubt, to have peace after affliction, in a word, to remove or at least lessen all evil, and if there is no pleasure on earth like unto a faithful friend, what must be the esteem a man must have for him, who is in very deed a friend in the hour of his direst need?"

Nor is Leibniz alone in expressing this feeling of the great benefits that may come from the use of confes- sion. Protestant theologians realize, not only the value of the Catholic theological position, but also the need of the confessional for the spiritual regeneration

of their subjects. Dr. Martensen, in his "Christian Dogmatics" (Edinburgh, 1.S90), p. 44:3, thus outlines his views: "Absolution in the name of the l'"ather and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, derived from t he full power of binding and loosing which the church has inherited from the apostles, is not unconditional, but depends on the same condition on which the gospel itself adjudges the forgiveness of sins, namely, cJiange of licait and faith. If reform is to take place here, it must ]tv effected either by endeavouring to revive pri- vate confession, or, as has been proposed, by doing away with the union between confession and the Lord's Supper, omitting, that is, the solemn absolu- tion, because what it presupposes (personal confession of sin) has fallen into disuse, and retaining only the words of prciiaiation, with the exhortation to self- examination, a testifying of the comfortable promises of the gospel, and a wish for a blessing ujion the com- municants." Under the head of "Observations" he states: "It cannot easily be denied that confession meets a deep need of human nature. There is a great psychological truth in the saying of Pascal, that a man often attains for the first time a true sense of sin, and a true stayedness in his good purpose, when he con- fesses his sins to his fellow man, as well as to God. Catholicism has often been commended because by confession it affords an opportunity of depositing the confession of his sins in the breast of another man, where it remains kept under the seal of the most sacred secrecy, and whence the consolation of the forgiveness of sins is given him in the very name of the Lord."

True, he believes that this great need is met more fully with the kind of confession practised in Luther- anism, but he does not hesitate to add: "It is a matter of regret that private confession, as an institution, meeting as it does this want in a regular manner, has fallen into disuse; and that the objective point of union is wanting for the many, who desire to unburden their souls by confessing not to God only but to a fel- low-man, and who feel their need of comfort and of forgiveness, which anyone indeed may draw for him- self from the gospel, but which in many instances he may desire to hear si^oken by a man, who speaks in virtue of the authority of his holy office."

Good bibliographies are given in: Pohle, Lehrb. d. Dogmatik, III (Paderborn, 1906) ; Did. de Thiol., a. v. Absolution: Confession; Richardson, Periodical Articles on Religion (New York, 1907).

Doctrine. — St. Thom.\8, Sum. Theol., Ill, Q. Ixxxiv-xc; Bellarmine, De pcenit, I, 1 aq.; Billuart, De pcenit., dia. 1, a. 1; Collet, Tract, de poenit. in Migne, Theol. curs., XXII; Jenkins. The Doctrine and Practice of .iuricular Confession (Lon- don, 1783) : Wiseman, Lectures on the Principal Doctrines and Practices of the Cath. Church (London, 1844), lect. x; Kenrick, Theol. dogmaiica (Mechlin, 1858) ; Nampon, Catholic Doctrine as Defined by the Council of Trent (Philadelphia, 1869) ; Billot, De ecc. sacramenlis, II (Rome, 1898); Wilhelm and Scannell, A Manual of Cath. Theol., II (London, 1900); Scheeben- Atzberqer, Dogmatik, IV (Freiburg, 1903).

History. — De l'Aubespine, De veteribus ecc. ritibus (Paris, Ifi'i'^; I'fta^it'*, De pcenit. vetere in ecc. ratione diatriha (Paris, liijli /' '-, \I,II, 1037; Morin, Covivientarius hist, de dis- ci i^ ■'. sacram. pcenitenticE (Paris, 1651); Sirmond, til! ,,T,, ,( publiccB (Paris, 1651); Boileau, Hist, con- /,.„,....,. ,i:.... ul.tris (Paris, 1683); MABTfcNE, De antiq. ecc. ritibus (Rouen, 1700); Chardon, Histoire du sacrement de peni- tence (Paris, 1745); and in Migne, Theol. curs., XX; Klee, Die Beicht (Frankfort, 1828); Frank, Die Bussdisciplin d. Kirche (Mainz, 1867); Probst, Sakramente u. Sakramentalien in den ersten drei christl. Jahrh. (Tiibingen, 1872); Schwane, Dogmengesch. (Freiburg, 1895), II; Funk, Kirchengeschichtl. Abhandlungen u. Unlersuchungen, I (Paderborn, 1897) : Brucker, Une nouvelle th6orie sur les origines de la penitence sacramenteUe in Etudes, LXXIII (1897); Schmitz, Die Busabiicher u. das kanonische Bussverfahren (Diisaeldorf, 1898); Harent, La con- fession in Etudes, LXXX (1899) : Kirsch, Zur Gesch. d. kath. Beichle (Wurzburg, 1902); Gart.meier, Die Beichtpflicht his- torisch-dogmalisch dargestelU (Ratisbon, 1905); O'DowD, Notes on TerluUian's De pirnit. in Irish Ecc. Record, XX (1906), 133; Rauschen, Eucharistie w. Bussakrament in den ersten sechs Jahrh. d. Kirche (Freiburg, 1908); of. Vacandard in Rev. du clergi frantais (15 May, 1908); EssER, Articles in Katholik (1907, 1908); Stufleb, Articles in Zeitschr. f. kathol. Theol. (1906, 1907, 1908, 1909); O'Donnell, The Seal of Confession in Irish Theol. Quart., V (1910); Brat, Les livres ptnilentiaux et la pinitence tariffie (Brignais, 1910).

Non-Catholic. — The Protestant views are stated in the va- rious Confessions of Faith, in explanations of the Thirty-nine Articles, and in commentaries on the Book of Common Prayer.