dist. i.

mensu

de Pœn.

the Founder of the Canon Law, expound Cyprian, who De Pan. sheweth, that the stint of time in Penitency is either to be cap. abridged, or enlarged, as the Penitent's faith and behaviour ram. shall give occasion. "I have easilier found out men (saith St. Ambrose) able to keep themselves free from crimes, than Ambros. conformable to the rules which in Penitency they should lib. ii. observe." St. Gregory, Bishop of Nice, complaineth and cap. 10. inveigheth bitterly against them, who in the time of their Penitency lived even as they had done always before: "Their countenance as cheerful, their attire as neat, their Greg. diet as costly, and their sleep as secure as ever, their worldly Orat. in business purposely followed, to exile pensive thoughts from alios their minds, Repentance pretended, but indeed nothing less judicantexprest." These were the inspections of life, whereunto St. Cyprian alludeth; as for auricular examinations, he knew them not.

Nyss.

eos qui

acerbe

in Psal.

Were the Fathers then without use of private Confession as long as public was in use? I affirm no such thing. The first and ancientest that mentioneth this Confession is Origen, by whom it may seem that men, being loth to present rashly themselves and their faults unto the view of the whole Church, thought it best to unfold first their minds to some one special man of the Clergy, which might either help them himself, or refer them to an higher Court, if need were. "Be therefore circumspect (saith Origen) in making Origen. choice of the party to whom thou meanest to confess thy sin; xxxvii. know thy physician before thou use him: if he find thy malady such as needeth to be made public, that others may be the better by it, and thyself sooner helpt, his counsel must be obeyed." That which moved sinners thus voluntarily to detect themselves both in private and in public, was fear to receive with other Christian men the mysteries of heavenly grace, till God's appointed Stewards and Ministers did judge them worthy: It is in this respect that St. Ambrose findeth fault with certain men which sought imposition of Penance, and were not willing to wait their time, but would be presently admitted Communicants. "Such Ambros. people (saith he) do seek, by so rash and preposterous de- .. sires, rather to bring the Priest into bonds than to loose cap. 9. themselves."* In this respect it is that St. Augustine hath A H. de likewise said, "When the wound of sin is so wide, and the Panit. "Si non tam se solvere cupiunt quam Sacerdotem ligare."

de Pan,

Aug.

Hom.

de Pœ

Niniv.

Ang.

disease so far gone, that the medicinable Body and Blood of our Lord may not be touched, men are by the Bishop's authority to sequester themselves from the altar, till such time as they have repented, and be after reconciled by the same authority."

Furthermore, because the knowledge how to handle our own sores is no vulgar and common art, but we either carry towards ourselves, for the most part, an over-soft and gentle hand, fearful of touching too near the quick; or else, endeavouring not to be partial, we fall into timorous scrupulosities, and sometime into those extreme discomforts of mind, from which we hardly do ever lift up our heads again; men thought it the safest way to disclose their secret faults, and to crave imposition of Penance from them whom our Lord Jesus Christ hath left in his Church to be spiritual and ghostly Physicians, the Guides and Pastors of redeemed souls, whose office doth not only consist in general persuasions unto amendment of life, but also in the private particular cure of diseased minds.

Howsoever the Novatianists presume to plead against the Church (saith Salvianus) that "every man ought to be his nitentia own Penitentiary, and that it is a part of our duty to exercise, but not of the Church's authority to impose or prescribe, Repentance;" the truth is otherwise, the best and strongest of us may need, in such cases, direction: "What doth the Church in giving Penance, but shew the remedies which sin requireth? or what do we in receiving the same, but fulfil her precepts? what else but sue unto God with tears, and fasts, that his merciful ears may be opened?" St. Augustine's exhortation is directly to the same purpose; "Let every Pauit. man whilst he hath time judge himself, and change his life citatur a of his own accord; and when this is resolved, let him, from dist the disposers of the holy Sacraments, learn in what manner he is to pacify God's displeasure.”* But the greatest thing which made men forward and willing, upon their knees, to confess whatsoever they had committed against God, and in no wise to be withheld from the same with any fear of disgrace, contempt or obloquy, which might ensue, was their fervent desire to be helped and assisted with the prayers of God's Saints. Wherein, as St. James doth exhort unto mutual Confession, alleging this only for a reason, that just

hom de

Grat.

judices.

Jam.

v. 16.

"A præpositis Sacramentorum accipiat satisfactionis suæ modum."

col. 20.

Nyss.

men's devout prayers are of great avail with God; so it hath been heretofore the use of Penitents for that intent to unburthen their minds, even to private persons, and to crave their prayers. Whereunto Cassianus alluding, counselleth, "That if men possest with dulness of spirit be themselves Cassian. unapt to do that which is required, they should in meek cs. affection seek health at the least by good and virtuous men's prayers unto God for them.” And to the same effect Gregory, Bishop of Nice: "Humble thyself, and take unto Greg. thee such of thy brethren as are of one mind, and do bear oratione kind affection towards thee, that they may together mourn qui alios and labour for thy deliverance. Shew me thy bitter and judicant. abundant tears, that I may blend mine own with them." But because of all men there is or should be none in that respect more fit for troubled and distressed minds to repair unto than God's Ministers, he proceedeth further: "Make the Priest, as a father, partaker of thine affliction and grief; be bold to impart unto him the things that are most secret, he will have care both of thy safety and of thy credit."

in eos

acerbe

78. ad

Campan.

Grat. de

1. c.

1. ii. de

Pœnit.

c. 10.

"Confession (saith Leo) is first to be offered to God, and Leo Ep. then to the Priest, as to one which maketh supplication for Episcop. the sins of penitent offenders." Suppose we, that men would citat. a ever have been easily drawn, much less of their own accord Pn. d. have come, unto public Confession, whereby they know they sufficit. should sound the trumpet of their own disgrace; would they willingly have done this, which naturally all men are loth to do, but for the singular trust and confidence which they had in the public prayers of God's Church? "Let thy Mother, Ambr. the Church, weep for thee (saith Ambrose), let her wash and bathe thy faults with her tears: our Lord doth love that many should become suppliant for one." In like sort, long before him, Tertullian; "Some few assembled make a Tertull. Church, and the Church is as Christ himself; when thou dost therefore put forth thy hands to the knees of thy brethren, thou touchest Christ, it is Christ unto whom thou art a supplicant: so when they pour out tears over them, it is even Christ that taketh compassion; Christ which prayeth when they pray : neither can that easily be denied, for which the Son is himself contented to become a suitor." Whereas in these considerations, therefore, voluntary Penitents had been long accustomed, for great and grievous crimes, though secret, yet openly both to repent and confess as the Canons

de Ponit.

78.

of ancient Discipline required; the Greek Church first, and in process of time the Latin, altered this Order, judging it sufficient and more convenient, that such Offenders should do Penance and make Confession in private only. The Leo Ep. cause why the Latins did, Leo declareth, saying, "Although that ripeness of Faith be commendable, which for the fear of God doth not fear to incur shame before all men; yet because every one's crimes are not such, that it can be free and safe for them to make publication of all things wherein Repentance is necessary; let a custom, so unfit to be kept, be abrogated, lest many forbear to use remedies of Penitency, whilst they either blush or are afraid to acquaint their enemies with those acts, for which the Laws may take hold upon them. Besides, it shall win the more [to] Repentance, if the consciences of sinners be not emptied into the people's [Sozom. ears." And to this only cause doth Sozomen impute the Eccles. change which the Grecians made, by ordaining throughout c. 16.] all Churches certain Penitentiaries to take the Confessions, [Socrat. and appoint the Penances of secret Offenders. Socrates Eccles. (for this also may be true, that more inducements than one 19 did set forward an alteration so generally made) affirmeth

Hist.

lib. vii.

Hist.

lib. v.

the Grecians (and not unlikely) to have specially respected therein the occasion which the Novatianists took at the multitude of public Penitents, to insult over the Discipline of the Church, against which they still cried out wheresoever they had time and place, "He that sheweth sinners favour, doth but teach the innocent to sin:" and therefore they themselves admitted no man to their communion upon any Repentance which once was known to have offended after Baptism, making sinners thereby not the fewer, but the closer and the more obdurate, how fair soever their pretence might seem.

The Grecians' Canon for some one Presbyter in every Church to undertake the charge of Penitency, and to receive their voluntary Confessions which had sinned after Baptism, continued in force for the space of above some hundred years, till Nectarius, and the Bishops of Churches under him, begun a second alteration, abolishing even that Confession [Socrat. which their Penitentiaries took in private. There came to ut sap. the Penitentiary of the Church of Constantinople a certain

gentlewoman, and to him she made particular Confession of her faults committed after Baptism, whom thereupon he

advised to continue in fasting and prayer, that as with tongue she had acknowledged her sins, so there might appear likewise in her some work worthy of Repentance: but the gentlewoman goeth forward, and detecteth herself of a crime, whereby they were forced to disrobe an Ecclesiastical person, that is, to degrade a Deacon of the same Church. When the matter by this mean came to public notice, the people were in a kind of tumult offended, not only at that which was done, but, much more, because the Church should thereby endure open infamy and scorn. The Clergy perplexed, and altogether doubtful what way to take; till one Eudæmon, born in Alexandria, but at that time a Priest in the Church of Constantinople, considering that the cause of voluntary Confession, whether public or private, was especially to seek the Church's aid, as hath been before declared, lest men should either not communicate with others, or wittingly hazard their souls if so be they did communicate, and that the inconvenience which grew to the whole Church was otherwise exceeding great, but especially grievous by means of so manifold offensive detections, which must needs be continually more, as the world did itself wax continually worse, (for antiquity, together with the gravity and severity thereof (saith Sozomen), had already begun by little and little to degenerate into loose and careless living, whereas before offences were less, partly through bashfulness in them which open their own faults, and partly by means of their great austerity which thought [sate] as judges in this business); these things Eudæmon having weighed with himself, resolved easily the mind of Nectarius, that the Penitentiaries' office must be taken away, and for participation in God's holy mysteries every man be left to his own conscience; which was, as he thought, the only mean to free the Church from danger of obloquy and disgrace. "Thus much (saith Socrates) I am the bolder to relate, because I received it from Eudæmon's own mouth, to whom mine answer was at that time; Whether your counsel, sir, have been for the Church's good, or otherwise, God knoweth. But I see you have [Lake given occasion, whereby we shall not now any more reprehend one another's faults, nor observe that Apostolic precept which saith, Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of [Eph. darkness, but rather be ye also reprovers of them." With Socrates, Sozomen both agreeth in the occasion of abolishing [Sozom.

xvii. 3.]

v. 11.]

ante.]