shewed himself to be both a skilful physician and a merciful, or if he shall give any counsel, thou mayest do and follow it." For, as St. Basil well noteth, "the very same course is to be held in the confession of sins, which is in the opening of the diseases of the body. As men therefore do not discover the diseases of their body to all, nor to every sort of people, but to those that are skilful in the cure thereof: even so ought the confession of our sins to be made unto such as are able to cure them; according to that which is written, Ye, that are strong, bear the infirmities of the weak, that is, take them away by your diligence." He requireth care and diligence in the performance of the cure: being ignorant, good man, of that new compendious method of healing, invented by our Roman Paracelsians, whereby a man, "in" confession, of attrite is made contrite by virtue of the keys;" that the sinner need put his ghostly father to no further trouble than this, Speak the word only, and I shall be healed." And this is that sacramental confession, devised of late by the priests of Rome, which they notwithstanding would fain father upon St. Peter, from whom the Church of Rome, as they would have us believe, received this instruction: "that" if envy, or infidelity, or any other evil, did secretly creep into any man's heart, he, who had care of his own soul, should not be ashamed to confess those things unto him who had the oversight over him; that by God's word and wholesome counsel he might be cured by him." And so

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* Η ἐξαγόρευσις τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων τοῦτον ἔχει τὸν λόγον, ὃν ἔχει ἡ ἐπίδειξις τῶν σωματικῶν παθῶν. ὡς οὖν τὰ πάθη τοῦ σώματος οὐ πᾶσιν ἀποκαλύπτουσιν οἱ ἄνθρωποι, οὔτε τοῖς τυχοῦσιν, ἀλλὰ τοῖς ἐμπείροις τῆς τούτων θεραπείας· οὕτω καὶ ἡ ἐξαγόρευσις τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων γίνεσθαι ὀφείλει, ἐπὶ τῶν δυναμένων θεραπεύειν, κατὰ τὸ γεγραμμένον· ὑμεῖς οἱ δυνατοὶ, τὰ ἀσθενήματα τῶν ἀδυνάτων βαστάζετε, τουτέστι, ἀίρετε διὰ τnç kπiμeλełαç. Basil. in regul. brevioribus reip. 229. op. tom. 2. pag. 492. n Secundum archiepisc. imo sanctum Thomam, et alios theologos, in confessione fit quis de attrito contritus, virtute clavium. Summa Sylvestrina: de confess. sacramental. cap. 1. sec. 1.

• Quod si forte alicujus cor vel livor, vel infidelitas, vel aliquod malum latenter irrepserit; non erubescat, qui animæ suæ curam gerit, confiteri hæc huic qui præest: ut ab ipso per verbum Dei et consilium salubre curetur. Clem, epist. 1. apud Coteler. tom. 1. pag. 618.

indeed we read in the apocryphal epistle of Clement, pretended to be written unto St. James the brother of our Lord, where, in the several editions of Crab, Sichardus, Venradius, Surius, Nicholinus, and Binius, we find this note also laid down in the margin; "Nota de confessione sacramentali: mark this of sacramental confession." But their own Maldonat would have taught them, that this note was not worth the marking: forasmuch as the proper end of sacramental confession is the obtaining of remission of sins, by virtue of the keys of the Church; whereas the end of the confession, here said to be commended by St. Peter, was the obtaining of counsel out of God's word for the remedy of sins: which kind of medicinal confession we well approve of, and acknowledge to have been ordinarily prescribed by the ancient fathers, for the cure of secret sins.

For as for notorious offences, which bred open scandal, private confession was not thought sufficient: but there was further required public acknowledgment of the fault, and the solemn use of the keys, for the reconciliation of the penitent. "If his sin do not only redound to his own evil, but also unto much scandal of others, and the bishop thinketh it to be expedient for the profit of the Church, let him not refuse to perform his penance in the knowledge of many, or of the whole people also; let him not resist, let him not by his shamefacedness add swelling to his deadly and mortal wound :" saith St. Augustine; and more largely in another place, where he meeteth with the objection of the sufficiency of internal repentance, in this manner: "Let no man say unto himself, I do it

P Maldonat. disputat. de sacrament. tom. 2. de confessionis origine, cap. 2. Si peccatum ejus non solum in gravi ejus malo, sed etiam in tanto scandalo est aliorum, atque hoc expedire utilitati Ecclesiæ videtur antistiti, in notitia multorum, vel etiam totius plebis, agere pœnitentiam non recuset; non resistat; non lethali et mortiferæ plagæ per pudorem addat tumorem. Augustin. serm. 351. de pœnitentia, op. tom. 5. pag. 1359.

Nemo sibi dicat, Occulte ago, apud Deum ago; novit Deus qui mihi ignoscat, quia in corde meo ago. Ergo sine causa dictum est, Quæ solveritis in terra, soluta erunt in cœlo? Ergo sine causa sunt claves datæ Ecclesiæ Dei? Frustramus evangelium, Frustramus verba Christi? Promittimus vobis quod ille negat?

secretly, I do it before God; God who pardoneth me doth know that I do it in my heart. Is it therefore said without cause, Whatsoever you shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven? Are the keys therefore without cause given unto the Church of God? Do we frustrate the Gospel of God? Do we frustrate the words of Christ? Do we promise that to you which he denieth you? Do we not deceive you? Job saith, If I was abashed to confess my sins in the sight of the people. So just a man of God's rich treasure, who was tried in such a furnace, saith thus: and doth the child of pestilence withstand me, and is ashamed to bow his knee under the blessing of God? That, which the emperor was not ashamed to do, is he ashamed of, who is not so much as a senator, but only a simple courtier? O proud neck, O crooked mind! perhaps, nay it is not to be doubted, it was for this reason God would that Theodosius the emperor should do public penance in the sight of the people, especially because his sin could not be concealed and is a senator ashamed of that, whereof the emperor was not ashamed? Is he ashamed of that, who is no senator but a courtier only, whereof the emperor was not ashamed? Is one of the vulgar sort, or a trader, ashamed of that, whereof the emperor was not ashamed? What pride is this? Were not this alone sufficient to bring them to hell, although no adultery had been committed?" Thus far St. Augustine, concerning the necessity of public repentance for known offences: which being in tract of time disused in some places, long after this, the bishops' of France, by the assistance of Charles the great, caused it to be

Nonne vos decipimus? Job dicit: "Si erubui, in conspectu populi confiteri peccata mea." Talis justus, thesauri divini obryzium, tali camino probatus, ista dicit: et resistit mihi filius pestilentiæ, et erubescit genu figere sub benedictione Dei? Quod non erubuit imperator, erubescit nec senator, sed tantum curialis? Superba cervix, mens tortuosa! fortassis, imo quod non dubitatur, propterea Deus voluit ut Theodosius imperator ageret pœnitentiam publicam in conspectu populi, maxime quia peccatum ejus celari non potuit: et erubescit senator, quod non erubuit imperator? Erubescit nec senator, sed tantum curialis, quod non erubuit imperator? Erubescit plebeius sive negotiator, quod non erubuit imperator? Quæ ista superbia est ? Nonne sola sufficeret gehennæ, etiamsi adulterium nullum esset? Id. serm. 392. op. tom. 5. pag. 1504. Concil. Arelat. IV. cap. 26. et Cabilonens. II. cap. 25.

brought in use again, according to the order of the old

canons.

Neither is it here to be omitted, that, in the time of the more ancient fathers, this strict discipline was not so restrained to the censure of public crimes, but that private transgressions also were sometimes brought within the compass of it. For whereas at first public confession was enjoined only for public offences; men afterwards discerning what great benefit redounded to the penitents thereby; as well for the subduing of the stubbornness of their hard hearts, and the furthering of their deeper humiliation, as for their raising up again by those sensible comforts, which they received by the public prayers of the congregation and the use of the keys; some men, I say, discerning this, and finding their own consciences burdened with the like sins, which, being carried in secrecy, were not subject to the censures of the Church; to the end they might obtain the like consolation and quiet of mind, did voluntarily submit themselves to the Church's discipline herein, and undergo the burden of public confession and penance. This appeareth by Origen, in his second homily upon the thirty-seventh Psalm: Tertullian in his book De pœnitentia, chapter nine: St. Cyprian in his treatise De lapsis, section twenty-three (or eleven, according to Pamelius his distinction): St. Ambrose in his first book De pœnitentia, chapter sixteen: and others. And to the end that this publication of secret faults might be performed in the best manner: some prudent minister was first of all made acquainted therewith; by whose direction the delinquent might understand what sins were fit to be brought to the public notice of the Church, and in what manner the penance was to be performed for them. Therefore did Origen advise, as we heard, that one should use great care in making choice of a good and skilful physician, to whom he should disclose his grief in this kind; and "if he understand (saith he) and foresee

Si intellexerit, et præviderit, talem esse languorem tuum qui in conventu totius Ecclesiæ exponi debeat, et curari, ex quo fortassis et cæteri ædificari poterunt, et tu ipse facile sanari; multa hoc deliberatione, et satis perito

that thy disease is such as ought to be declared in the assembly of the whole Church, and cured there, whereby peradventure both others may be edified, and thou thyself more easily healed; with much deliberation, and by the very skilful counsel of that physician, must this be done."

But within a while, shortly after the persecution raised in the days of Decius the emperor, it was no longer left free to the penitent to make choice of his ghostly father: but by the general consent of the bishops it was ordained, that in every Church one certain discreet minister should be appointed to receive the confessions of such as relapsed into sin after baptism. This is that addition, which Socrates", in his ecclesiastical history, noteth to have been then made unto the penitential canon; and to have been observed by the governors of the Church for a long time: until at length in the time of Nectarius bishop of Constantinople, which was about one hundred and forty years after the persecution of Decius, upon occasion of an infamy drawn upon the clergy, by the confession of a gentlewoman defiled by a deacon in that city, it was thought fit it should be abolished; and that liberty" should be given unto every one, upon the private examination of his own conscience, to resort to the holy communion. Which was agreeable both to the rule of the apostle, "Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup :" and to the judgment of the more ancient fathers; as appeareth by Clemens Alexandrinus, who accounteth a man's own conscience to be his besty director in this case; howsoever our new masters of Trent2

medici illius consilio procurandum est. Origen. in Psal. 37. hom. 2. op. tom. 2. pag. 688.

* Οἱ ἐπίσκοποι τῶν ἐκκλησιῶν κανόνι τὸν πρεσβύτερον τὸν ἐπὶ τῆς μεTavoiαç роoέ0eσav. Socrat. hist. lib. 5. cap. 19.

* συγχωρῆσαι δὲ ἕκαστον τῷ ἰδίῳ συνειδότι τῶν μυστηρίων μετέχειν. Socrat. ib. συγχωρεῖν ἕκαστον, ὡς ἄν ἑαυτῷ συνειδείη καὶ θαῤῥεῖν δύναιτο, KoivwveTV Twv μvorηpiwv. Sozom. lib. 7. hist. cap. 16.

x 1 Cor. chap. 11. ver. 28.

* Αρίστη γὰρ πρὸς τὴν ἀκριβῆ αἵρεσιν τὲ καὶ φυγὴν, ἡ συνείδησις. Clem. Alexandr. lib. 1. strom.

z Concil. Trident. sess. 13. can. 11.