Confession

The Reformers often urge that some sins ought to God and to be confessed to man as well as to God, though

the Church

The

and

not necessarily in private, or to a priest. The old way of the Primitive Church was Confession to God and to the Church and this was formally recognized by the service of 1548. The Exhortation allows "humble confession to God, and the general confession to the Church" to be sufficient; and the closing words of the Invitation are made to correspond-" And make your humble confession to Almighty God and to His Holy Church, here gathered together in His name." 1

In the Absolution we find a similar attempt to Absolution put into practical shape what had been believed Comfortable and taught during the previous reign. Absolution Words is made to rest more directly on the proclamation

of the promises of God. The formal Absolution is a prayer, and applies, after a primitive model, the divine message of forgiveness which the "Comfortable Words " convey.

Three points deserve notice:

(1) The service borrowed freely from Hermann's Consultation, which was published in

1 The last clause was changed in 1552 to "before this congregation here gathered together in His Holy Name," and was omitted in 1662. It was an attempt to recognize the double debt of confession, and its subsequent omission may have been due to the dispute on non-communicating attendance. See the writer's Two Studies in the Book of Common Prayer (Nisbet), p. 91 f., 97.

1530. But in his service the promises from God's Word immediately followed confession, and were then applied by the prayer of absolution. This order is more significant than our own. The Vox Evangelii follows close on the voice of the penitent. God speaks at once and directly to the contrite heart. Then follows the voice of His minister, applying, according to his office, the word of Absolution which he has brought. But our own order does not make void this significant teaching, for "the benefit of Absolution" is placed in close relation to the "ministry of God's Word."

(2) The phrase "Comfortable Words," which is not in Hermann, can be traced to an earlier English source. It is found in the King's Book, and in a connexion highly suggestive of the distinctive teaching of the Reformers. "After this

the penitent may desire to hear of the minister the comfortable words of remission of sins." And the minister is thereupon, "according to Christ's Gospel," to pronounce the sentence of Absolution. This connexion is also evident in Bishop Pilkington's words, where he speaks of "the comfortable promises of absolution by the lively word of God, applied ... as a sovereign salve for all such griefs." He is then speaking of private confession.1

1 Pilkington, p. 524.

Equally significant are the words inserted in the Office for the Communion of the Sick in 1549, where the service at a Communion of the reserved elements is set forth. "But before the curate distribute the Holy Communion, the appointed General Confession must be made in the name of the communicants, the curate adding the Absolution with the comfortable sentences of Scripture following in the open Communion." The italics are found in the original copies and emphasize the line of thought which we have seen gradually coming into prominence.1

(3) The form of Absolution was intercessory. This was a return to earlier use 2 which the direct formula Ego te absolvo had largely displaced. In the new Absolution, the Priest directed and led the prayers of the Church for all who truly confessed their sins, and welcomed the 'Comfortable Words of remission." In this, as in the confession to God and to the Church, the service had a ring of primitive use.3

1 This rubric did away with the idea that " a simple attrition with the sacraments was sufficient for salvation : on which grounds, says Burnet, "the sacraments were administered to the sick." Burnet, Hist. of Ref. ii. 160. 2 Bishop Bull, in his last illness, preferred to hear the Absolution read from our Communion Office, rather than that in the Visitation of the Sick. He regarded it as nearer to the form mentioned in the Fathers. Nelson's Life of Bp. Bull, p. 393.

3 In its first clause the Absolution of 1548 corresponded

1549

1549. The doctrine and practice of Confession The First and Absolution find varied but consistent exPrayer Book pression in the Prayer Books of 1549 and 1552: the latter showing an advance on the former in clearness of reformed "learning." The development is just that to which the lines we have been tracing naturally lead.

The first Prayer Book is a stepping-stone, both in ceremonies and doctrine, to the second. The Act of Uniformity of 1552 states that "the godly order" of the first Book (1549) was "explained and made fully perfect" in the Second Book. It would be considered highly Erastian to claim spiritual authority for this Act of Parliament, but this does not affect its value as a witness to the mind of the leaders in Church and State at that time. We may justly, therefore,

to that now used in the Visitation Service, but otherwise it is the form familiar to us in the Communion Office. "Our blessed Lord, who hath left power to His Church, to absolve penitent sinners from their sins, and to restore to the grace of the heavenly Father such as truly believe in Christ, have mercy upon you, etc." Liturg. Ed. VI. P.S. p. 6 f.

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1 The purpose of the revision (1552) is expressly described as for the more plain and manifest explanation hereof, as for the more perfection of the said order of common service." For the reference in this Act to "the former book" "as agreeable to the word of God and the primitive Church," see Dimock, Eucharistic Presence, pp. 517-522, and Confession and Absolution, pp. 7 ff.

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regard the first Prayer Book as, in historical result, a preparation for the second.

Matins and Evensong (1549). It is obvious that these services were not "fully perfect" in the matter of confession. In the Sarum Breviary there had been a Confession and Absolution at Prime and Compline and Cardinal Quignonez, in his Breviary, retained them, but at the opening of the Services. Cranmer wisely followed this lead in 1552, though in 1549 he had omitted them altogether.

In

Holy Communion (1549). Here the case was different, and provision had to be made for the due preparation of communicants. the first place, the opening rubrics of the new English Office dealt, as they do now, with Church Discipline. They reflect the well known desire at this time to restore the public penance of the Primitive Church. Where the congregation is offended, or a neighbour wronged, open declaration of repentance and amendment, with restitution, is required before the offender presume to the Lord's Table." 1

Again, the "Order of Communion" was incorporated into the new Service. This Service of "immediate preparation had followed the

1 The present order to report all cases of " repelling any to the Ordinary, for the purpose of proceeding "according to the Canon," was not added till 1662.