Page:Delineation of Roman Catholicism.djvu/372

 364 PIgNAN(E-SAT1BF&CTIONo [Book us, sometimes in an invisible m&uner, by his orrmpotonce, and some* times by the operation of physicians."** Indeed, many enlightened and candid, nay, even bigoted Roman Ca- tholics, are forced to acknowledge that penances in the Church of Rome are very different from those enjoined in the pr/mit/ve church, and those mentioned by many of the ancient fathom. M. Du Pin 8]?klng of the age of Charlemagne, which was toward the end of the exghth century, says: "Public penance was in use yet, but not with the same rigour' as in the former ages. They never denied the corn* munion to dying persons. Secret confessions were frequent."t Ac- cording to him, secret confession was not general, nnd public penance was yet in use; fwm which it appears that the sacrament of penance had not yet been established. The same excellent author, in h/s 0b- servat/ons ol the Ecclesiastical Affa/rs of the tenth Century, declares: "Public penance was still in use, but very rarely practised, and the canonical discipline was enervated by the redemption of penances, which was then introduced." Thus the ancient canonical penance was changed in the tenth century, to a great extent, to mmce, which were then introduced. Indeed, auricular confession and the other component parts of the sacrament of penance, so called, did not exist in the first ages of Christianity, and can date no higher authority than the Lteran Council under innocent III.,  1215, or the Council d Trent, wkich is of much later date. Dens acknowledges that "the rigour of ecclesiastical discipline had ceased." t' Ecc. Hist., IAfe of Charleumgne, vol. i/, p. 46.
 * See Du Pin on this council, Ecc. Hist., vol il, p. 106.
 * t Ecc. Hist., vol. ii, p. 192.

� Satid., No. 179, vol. vi, p. 267. "Delude ista**' &c. 1

�