Page:The history of medieval Europe.djvu/490

 440 THE HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE became the custom for the clergy alone to drink the wine for fear lest some drops of the precious blood might be spilt in passing the cup about among the rude laity. It was ex- plained to them that the bread or body contained full virtue. Indeed, the mere celebration of the sacrifice of the mass by the priest was beneficial and the people only occasionally actually received the communion. Moreover, masses might be said for the soul of an absent or dead person. In fact there was so great a demand and so much money left for the repetition of masses for such purposes that some priests had no parishes under their care, but devoted their entire time to chanting private masses and so were called "chantry priests." The Fourth Lateran Council ordered Christians to con- fess their sins to the priest at least once a year. In the early Christian communities sinners had perhaps con- fessed publicly before the congregation, but ere long the custom had grown up of auricular confession in private confidence to the priest. Such confession and the penitent frame of mind which it implied were the first essen- tials in the sacrament of penance. Next, the priest, to whom through Peter and his apostolic successors were supposed to have come the keys of heaven and the power to forgive sins, absolved the sinner from his guilt. There still remained, however, a penalty to be paid and which would have to be worked off after death in purgatory, unless the offender performed some act of penance imposed upon him by the priest. The Penitentials, or books informing the priest as to the proper penances for various sins, have already been mentioned in an earlier chapter. At the time of the First Crusade, Urban II decreed that "if any one, through devotion alone and not for the sake of Indulgences honor or S ain > g°es to Jerusalem to free the Church of God, the journey itself shall take the place of all penance." Sometimes, moreover, the contrite sinner was permitted to give alms to the poor or to make a contribution to the Church instead of performing the usual penance. Especially in the later Middle Ages the pope would every now and then proclaim a general indulgence,