Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

warrant in so doing, all that power which Christ gave unto Peter, of binding and loosing upon earth": just as Theodoret reporteth the Audians were wont to do; who presently "after' confession granted remission; not prescribing a time for repentance, as the laws of the Church did require, but giving pardon by authority."

The laws of the Church prescribed a certain time unto penitents, wherein they should give proof of the soundness of their repentance: and gave order that afterwards they should be forgiven" and comforted, lest they should be swallowed up with overmuch heaviness. So that first their penance was enjoined unto them, and thereby they were held to be bound; after performance whereof they received their absolution, by which they were loosed again. But the Audian heretics, without any such trial taken of their repentance, did of their own heads give them absolution presently upon their confession: as the popish priests use to do now-a-days. Only the Audians had one ridiculous ceremony more than the papists; that, having placed the canonical books of Scripture upon one side, and certain apocryphal writings on the other, they caused their followers to pass betwixt them, and in their passing to make confession of their sins: as the papists, another idle practice more than they; that, after they have given absolution, they enjoin penance to the party absolved: that is to say, as they of old would have interpreted it, they first loose him, and presently after bind him; which howsoever they hold to be done in respect of the temporal punishment remaining due after the remission of the fault: yet it appeareth plainly that the penitential works, required in the ancient Church, had reference to the fault itself;

· εἶτα τοῖς ὡμολογηκόσιν δωροῦνται τὴν ἄφεσιν, οὐ χρόνον ὁριζόμενοι εἰς μετάνοιαν, καθὰ κελεύουσιν οἱ τῆς ἐκκλησίας θεσμοὶ, ἀλλ ̓ ἐξουσίᾳ ποιоúμεVOL TηV Ovyxwpnov. Theodor. hæres. lib. 4. op. tom. 4. pag. 242. m Augustin, enchirid. ad Laur. cap. 65.

n 2 Cor. chap. 2. ver. 7.

• Vid. Nomocanonem Nesteutæ in Theod. Balsamonis collect. canon. edit. Paris. ann. 1620. pag. 1101. lin. ult. et Niconis epist. ad Enclistium, ibid. pag. 1096, 1097. et Anastas. Sinait. quæst. 6. pag. 64, edit. Græco-Lat. Gretseri.

and that no absolution was to be expected from the minister for the one, before all reckonings were ended for the other. Only where the danger of death was imminent, the case admitted some exception: reconciliation being not denied indeed unto them that desired it at such a time; yet so granted, that it was left very doubtful whether it would stand the parties in any great stead or no. "If any one being in the last extremity of his sickness," saith St. Augustine, "is willing to receive penance, and doth receive it, and is presently reconciled, and departeth hence : I confess unto you, we do not deny him that which he asketh, but we do not presume that he goeth well from hence. I do not presume, I deceive you not, I do not presume. He who putteth off his penance to the last, and is reconciled; whether he goeth secure from hence, I am not secure. Penance I can give him, security I cannot give him. Do" I say, he shall be damned? I say not so. But do I say also, he shall be freed? No. What dost thou then say unto me? I know not: I presume not, I promise not, I know not. Wilt thou free thyself of the doubt? Wilt thou escape that which is uncertain? Do thy penance while thou art in health. The penance, which is asked for by the infirm man, is infirm. The penance which is asked for only by him that is a-dying, I fear lest it also die."

But with the matter of penance we have not here to deal: those formal absolutions and pardons of course, im

P Si quis, positus in ultima necessitate ægritudinis suæ, voluerit accipere pœnitentiam, et accipit, et mox reconciliatur, et hinc vadit; fateor vobis, non illi negamus quod petit: sed non præsumimus quia bene hinc exit. Non præsumo: non vos fallo, non præsumo. Augustin. serm. 393. op. tom. 5. pag. 1507. Ambros. exhort. ad pœnitent.

9 Agens pœnitentiam ad ultimum, et reconciliatus, si securus hinc exit, ego non sum securus, &c. Pœnitentiam dare possum, securitatem dare non possum. Ibid. Nunquid dico, Damnabitur? Non dico. Sed dico etiam, Liberabitur? Non. Et quid dicis mihi? Nescio: non præsumo, non promitto, nescio. Vis te de dubio liberare? vis quod incertum est evadere? Age pœnitentiam dum sanus es. Ibid.

• Pœnitentia, quæ ab infirmo petitur, infirma est. Pænitentia quæ a moriente tantum petitur timeo ne ipsa moriatur. Augustin, serm. 256. op. tom. 5. app. pag.

mediately granted upon the hearing of men's confessions, is that which we charge the Romish priests to have learned from the Audian heretics. "Some require penance to this end, that they might presently have the communion restored unto them: these men desire not so much to loose themselves, as to bind the priest ;" saith St Ambrose. If this be true, that the priest doth bind himself by his hasty and unadvised loosing of others; the case is like to go hard with our popish priests, who ordinarily, in bestowing their absolutions, use to make more haste than good speed. Wherein, with how little judgment they proceed, who thus take upon them the place of judges in men's consciences, may sufficiently appear by this; that whereas the main ground, whereupon they would build the necessity of auricular confession, and the particular enumeration of all known sins, is pretended to be this, that the ghostly father having taken notice of the cause may judge righteous judgment, and discern who should be bound and who should be loosed; the matter yet is so carried in this court of theirs, that every man commonly goeth away with his absolution, and all sorts of people usually receive one and the selfsame judgment. "If" thou separate the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth," saith the Lord. Whose mouth then may we hold them to be, who seldom put any difference between these; and make it their ordinary practice to pronounce the same sentence of absolution, as well upon the one as upon the other?

If we would know how late it was, before this trade of pardoning men's sins after this manner was established in the Church of Rome; we cannot discover this better, than by tracing out the doctrine publicly taught in that Church touching this matter, from the time of Satan's loosing, until his binding again by the restoring of the purity of the gospel in our days. And here Radulphus Ardens doth in the first place offer himself, who toward the be

Nonnulli ideo poscunt pœnitentiam, ut statim sibi reddi communionem velint: hi non tam se solvere cupiunt, quam sacerdotem ligare. Suam enim conscientiam non exuunt, sacerdotis induunt. Amb. de pœnit. lib. 2. cap. 9. "Jeremiah, chap. 15. ver. 19.

ginning of that time preached this for sound divinity: "The power of releasing sins belongeth to God alone. But the ministry, which improperly also is called a power, he hath granted unto his substitutes, who after their manner do bind and absolve; that is to say, do declare that men are bound or absolved. For God doth first inwardly absolve the sinner by compunction: and then the priest outwardly, by giving the sentence, doth declare that he is absolved. Which is well signified by that of Lazarus: who first in the grave was raised up by the Lord; and afterward, by the ministry of the disciples, was loosed from the bands wherewith he was tied." Then follow both the Anselms, ours of Canterbury, and the other of Laon in France: who in their expositions upon the ninth of St. Matthew, clearly teach, that none but God alone can forgive sins. Ivo bishop of Chartres writeth, that" by inward contrition the inward Judge is satisfied, and therefore without delay forgiveness of the sin is granted by him, unto whom the inward conversion is manifest; but the Church, because it knoweth not the hidden things of the heart, doth not loose him that is bound, although he be raised up, until he be brought out of the tomb; that is to say, purged by public satisfaction:" and if presently upon the inward conversion God be pleased to forgive the sin, the absolution of the priest, which followeth, cannot in any sort properly be accounted a remission of that sin; but a further manifestation only of the remission formerly granted by God himself.

* Potestas peccata relaxandi solius Dei est. Ministerium vero, quod improprie etiam potestas vocatur, vicariis suis concessit; qui modo suo ligant vel absolvunt, id est, ligatos vel absolutos esse ostendunt. Prius enim Deus interius peccatorem per compunctionem absolvit; sacerdos vero exterius, sententiam proferendo, eum esse absolutum ostendit: Quod bene significatur per Lazarum; qui prius in tumulo a Domino suscitatur, et post, ministerio discipulorum, a vitiis (fort. vittis) quibus ligatus fuerat, absolvitur. Rad. Ardens, homil. Dominic. 1. post Pascha.

* Per internum gemitum satisfit interno judici, et idcirco indilata datur ab eo peccati remissio, cui manifesta est interna conversio. Ecclesia vero, quia occulta cordis ignorat, non solvit ligatum, licet suscitatum, nisi de monumento elatum; id est, publica satisfactione purgatum. Ivo Carnotens. epist. 228.

The master of the sentences after him, having propounded the divers opinions of the doctors touching this point, demandeth at last, "In this so great variety what is to be held?" and returneth for answer, "Surely this we may say and think: that God alone doth forgive and retain sins, and yet hath given power of binding and loosing unto the Church: but He bindeth and looseth one way, and the Church another. For he only by himself forgiveth sin, who both cleanseth the soul from inward blot, and looseth it from the debt of everlasting death. But this hath he not granted unto priests: to whom notwithstanding he hath given the power of binding and loosing, that is to say, of declaring men to be bound or loosed. Whereupon the Lord did first by himself restore health to the leper; and then sent him unto the priests, by whose judgment he might be declared to be cleansed: so also he offered Lazarus to his disciples to be loosed, having first quickened him." In like manner Hugo cardinalis sheweth, that it is only God that forgiveth sins; and that "the priest cannot bind or loose the sinner with or from the bond of the fault, and the punishment due thereunto; but only declare him to be bound or loosed: as the Levitical priest did not make nor cleanse the leper, but only declared him to be infected or clean." And a great number of the schoolmen afterward shewed themselves to be of the same judgment, that to pardon the fault, and the eter

y In hac tanta varietate quid tenendum? Hoc sane dicere ac sentire possumus; quod solus Deus dimittit peccata et retinet, et tamen Ecclesiæ contulit potestatem ligandi et solvendi: sed aliter Ipse solvit vel ligat, aliter Ecclesia. Ipse enim per se tantum dimittit peccatum, qui et animam mundat ab interiori macula, et a debito æternæ mortis solvit. Non autem hoc sacerdotibus concessit: quibus tamen tribuit potestatem solvendi et ligandi; id est, ostendendi homines ligatos vel solutos. Unde Dominus leprosum sanitati prius per se restituit ; deinde ad sacerdotes misit, quorum judicio ostenderetur mundatus. Ita etiam Lazarum, jam vivificatum, obtulit discipulis solvendum. Petr. Lombard. lib. 4. sentent. distinct. 18. e. f.

z Solius Dei est dimittere peccata. Hugo card. in Luc. cap. 5.

a Vinculo culpæ, et pænæ debitæ, non potest eum sacerdos ligare vel solvere ; sed tantum ligatum vel absolutum ostendere. Sicut sacerdos Leviticus non faciebat vel mundabat leprosum; sed tantum infectum vel mundum ostendebat. Id. in Matt. cap. 16.

« AnteriorContinuar »