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CHAPTER XI.

LATER LATIN FATHERS.

THE primitive age of zealous purity and stringent discipline in the Church had passed away when the eminent Leo the Great became the Bishop or Pope of Rome. He found it difficult, and perhaps, as he supposed, impossible to bring back the ancient rules to their practical efficiency. He had, doubtless, been acquainted with the plan adopted in the Oriental Churches, and which, though now abandoned by them, was yet believed by some to have worked well for almost a century. And he seems to have thought that the introduction of a similar plan at Rome would relieve him from many difficulties, while yet he was conscious that it would not be more likely to endure at Rome than at Constantinople, unless it were so modified as to prevent the danger of public exposures on the one hand, and to increase the submission of the people to the priesthood on the other. Let us see, therefore, the terms in which this innovation was recommended by the authority of Leo.

"The manifold mercy of God so aids the lapses of humanity, that not only through the grace of baptism, but also through the medicine of penitence, the hope of eternal life is repaired, so that those who have violated the gifts of regeneration, condemning themselves by their own judgment, may arrive at the forgiveness of their crimes; the guards of the divine goodness being so ordered, that the pardon of God can not be obtained without the supplications of the priests. For the Mediator of God and men, the man CHRIST JESUS, delivered this power to the presiding officers of the Church, that they should both pre

scribe the act of penitence to those who confessed their sins, and when they were purged by wholesome satisfaction, should admit them to the communion of the sacraments by the door of reconciliation... . For it is very useful and necessary that the guilt of sinners should be absolved by sacerdotal supplication before the last day."-(App., Note 103.)

"That presumption, also, against the apostolic rule, which, as I have lately heard, has been displayed by certain persons through illegal usurpation, I determine to have by all means suppressed, so that the confession of the kind of sins committed by individuals should not be published written in a little book, since IT SUFFICES THAT THE GUILT OF THEIR CONSCIENCES BE MADE KNOWN TO THE PRIESTS ONLY, IN SECRET CONFESSION.

For although the plenitude of faith may seem to be laudable, which, on account of the terror of God, does not fear to blush before men, yet inasmuch as the sins of all are not of such a kind that those who ask for penitence are not afraid to publish them, let so unreasonable a custom be done away: lest many should be repelled from the remedies of penitence, either because they are ashamed, or because they fear that their deeds may be disclosed to their enemies, through whom they may be subjected to a legal prosecution. For that confession is enough, which is offered to God in the first place, AND THEN TO THE PRIEST ALSO, who intercedes as a suppliant for the sins of the penitent. And thus, finally, many may be stirred up to penitence, if the conscience of him who makes confession is not published in the ears of the people.”—(App., Note 104.)

Here, then, we see a direct blow given to the old system of public penitence; and the ground taken by Augustin, that secret sins should be rebuked secretly, is now extended in favor of the priestly prerogative on the one hand, and in favor of the fast growing dislike to public confession by the guilty on the other. But still the change, though very important, was only the first authoritative beginning of the new system. As yet, there was no law that all must confess to the priests before they could receive the communion. Neither do we hear, as yet, of any absolution distinct from the administration of the communion office. Nor were penitents in the Church

of Rome absolved first, and required to perform their penitential exercises afterward. Nor was there any attempt to order a priestly inquisition into the secret thoughts of those who came to confession. Nor were acts of penance enjoined by the priest, boldly pronounced to be a satisfaction to the justice of the Deity. Nor was the absolution of the priest extended beyond the language of prayer, that God would mercifully pardon and absolve the sinner. All these were the gradual work of future ages, as we shall see by and by.

My next evidence shall be taken from the writings of another eminent pope, Gregory I., surnamed, likewise, the Great, and particularly celebrated for having sent the monk Augustin to convert the Saxons, for opposing the title of universal bishop assumed by the patriarch of Constantinople, and for having labored to give what he supposed to be a better form to the music and the worship of the Church. My extracts will be numerous, and I trust they will prove interesting; but at least they will show that the confessional in the time of Gregory was far from the present standard of Romish doctrine, notwithstanding the wide departure which had taken place from the early discipline, as it was administered in the days of Tertullian and Cyprian. Referring to the authority committed to the apostles, Gregory saith:

"Of these, truly, the bishops, who have been chosen to the office of governors, now hold in the Church the power of binding and loosing.... But frequently it happens that the bishop, in binding and loosing his subjects, follows the motions of his own will, and not the merits of the causes. And hence it is that he deprives himself of this power of binding and loosing, because he exercises it not according to the morals of his subjects, but at his own will."

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Therefore the causes must be weighed, and then the pow

er of binding and loosing is to be exercised. He must see what guilt has gone before, or what penitence has followed the crime, that those whom the omnipotent God visits through the grace of compunction, the sentence of the pastor may absolve; for then the absolution of the bishop is valid when it follows the sentence of the internal Judge. This is well signified by the resurrection of that man who had been four days dead, which manifestly demonstrates that the Lord first called and quickened, saying, Lazarus, come forth; and afterward, he who had come forth alive was loosed by the disciples, as it is written : And when he came forth who had been tied with bands, then He said to His disciples, Loose him and let him go. Behold, the disciples loose him who was already living, whom their Master had raised from the dead. For if the disciples should loose a dead Lazarus, they would exhibit an evil odor rather than power. From which consideration we may perceive that we ought to loose, by our pastoral authority, those whom we perceive that our Master has quickened by his awakening grace.... These things concerning the order of absolution I have briefly declared, that the pastors of the Church may take heed to loose or to bind with great discretion."-(App., Note 105.)

"But we can not worthily exercise penitence unless we understand also the manner of its exercise; for to exercise penitence is both to bewail the evils we have perpetrated, and not to perpetrate again what we have bewailed. Since he who deplores his other misdeeds in such a manner that he nevertheless commits the same things again, either feigns penitence or is ignorant of its true nature."-(App., Note 106.)

Now this doctrine of Gregory, if the Church of Rome could have remained content with it, would at least have been comparatively innocent and safe, since he here plainly shows that the bishops had no power to absolve the sinner, unless in those cases where Christ himself had already given life to the soul. But the next extract exhibits yet more strongly the contrast between his teaching and that of the Council of Trent.

A certain noble lady, named Gregoria, having desired that the pope would ask for a revelation to assure her that her sins were forgiven, he makes this pious and sensible reply:

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"In that which thy Sweetness has added in thy letters, importuning me to write that a revelation has been made to me, assuring thee of the remission of thy sins, thou hast asked a thing not only difficult, but useless. Difficult, truly, because I am unworthy to receive such a revelation; and useless, because thou oughtest not to be made secure concerning thy sins, lest thou shouldst not be able to continue lamenting them to the last day of thy life. Assuredly, Paul the Apostle had already ascended to the third heaven; he had also been led into paradise; he had heard mysterious words which it was not lawful for man to utter; and yet, still trembling, he said, I chasten my body and subject it to servitude, lest, perhaps, after preaching to others, I should myself become a reprobate. Does he still fear who is already led to heaven, and is he not willing to fear who is yet conversant on earth? Consider maturely, most sweet daughter, that security is usually the mother of negligence. Therefore, in this life thou oughtest not to have security by which thou mightest be made negligent. For it is written, Blessed is the man who is always fearful.”—(App., Note 107.)

How perfectly opposed is this to the Catechism of Trent! For there the Church of Rome teaches that, in order to calm our solicitude, the Redeemer instituted the sacrament of penance, in which we cherish a well-grounded hope that our sins are forgiven us by the absolution of the priest, and the faith which we justly have in the efficacy of the sacraments has much influence in tranquilizing the troubled conscience, and giving peace to the soul. The voice of the priest, who is legitimately constituted a minister for the remission of sins, is to be heard as that of Christ himself, who said to the lame man, Son, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee."*

When Gregory the Great wrote to his noble correspondent that she could not have a revelation, and that she ought not to feel secure, how little idea had he of the marvelous change which a few centuries would accomplish in the doctrine of the Roman Confessional!

* See page 18.

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