trious by the nobility of his birth and his high dignity as cardinal, than for his emineat piety and profound learning. This holy and learned divine has left us a sermon, wherein he treats of the rules of a good confession, and of the obstacles that prevent the making it well. Amongst other things, he there tells us, that nothing combats and surmounts the grace of God more effectually, than human fear; that when we blush at confessing our sins, we are less afraid of the judgments of God, than those of men: that reason, in short, urges us to confess, and God who sees all things obliges us to it. Serm. 58. 2d. of St. Andrew. p. 139. Ed. Paris. Again, in another place of the same sermon: the fourth degree, says he, is the confession of the mouth: this is fully to be made; and not a part only to be declared, and the other part with. held; or that light sins are to be confessed and the more grievouš concealed, c. And a little farther down, speaking of the priest, the confessor: he must take special care, says he, not to make any mention of those things, he has received under the seal of Confession.

Before I proceed to the next century, I cannot forbear citing a singular example of the integrity of confession, as related by this same very grave and learned author, in his epistle to Desiderius, concerning the miracles of his time. When Hugue, the Abbot of Clunium, says he, conducted me to his monastery, a certain aged brother lay in the Infirmary, labouring under a very severe and painful distemper. As soon as he discovered the Abbot to be present, filled with joy, he began to implore the divine clemency. O Lord, I beseech thee, said he, to whom nothing is hidden, if there be any thing within me whereof I am guilty, and which I have not as yet confessed, do thou, in thy mercy bring it to my mind, that I may clearly confess it to my Abbot whilst he is here present, and being judged by him, who above all others, has this power over me, I may be absolved. Having said this, he immediately heard a voice which distinctly said to him: Yes, yes, there is certainly something, which you have not yet confessed. Whereupon, as he heard only the voice, but did not see whence it came; continuing his prayer, he thus proceeded: Express clearly to me, O Lord, what this is, that having confessed, I may correct my fault. When, the same voice immediately indicated to him what he had so fervently demanded to know, which he immediately acknowledged to have committed; and then calling the Abbot to him, he confessed it: and a few days after terminated his life by a most edifying death.

Whether this fact, as related above, be true or false, matters very Kittle; although there can be no just reason, considering the historian that relates it, to discredit it. It is sufficient however, for me, that it prove, as it most unquestionably does, that confession was practised in those days, and that it was then deemed, as essentially necessary to salvation, as it is considered to be now.

This age also gives us, St. Anselmus, Archbishop of Canterbury, who was born in August, 1033. In his Hom. upon the ten lepers, he explains these words of Jesus Christ: "Go, show yourselves to the priests," &c. of the obligation which is incumbent upon all sinners, to address themselves to the priests of the church, in order to be purified by confession. "Go, show yourselves to the priests, that is to say, (observes this holy doctor,) discover faithfully to the priests by an humble confession, all the stains of your interior leprosy, in order that you may be cleansed. As they went, they were cleansed, because as soon as sinners abandon their crimes, and condemn them, having the intention to confess, and a firm resolution to do penance for them, they are freed from them, in the eyes of him who sees their interior....they must notwithstanding, after this, repair to the priests, and ask absolution of them."

After the year 1100, we have the great St. Bernard, so celebrated both for the extraordinary sanctity of his life, and the lustre of his miracles, and the one of all the Fathers of the church, for whom Luther expressed the greatest consideration. Writing on the seven degrees of penance, he thus expresses himself: What does it avail, to tell one part of your sins, and to suppress the other? to purify yourselves by halves, and to leave the other half sullied? Is not every thing open to the eyes of God? What! will you dare to conceal any thing from him, who holds the place of God, in so great a sacrament? And speaking of the Knights Templars, he uses these words, of the book of Deuteronomy,* "the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth "and in thy heart," in order to give them to understand, that it is not enough for the word to be in the heart, that it must likewise be in the mouth: that being in the heart, it produces therein a salutary contrition, and being in the mouth, it removes the evil shame that prevents confession, confession, says the saint, which is absolutely necessary; and a little after he exhorts the priests, not to absolve those who feign

* Deut. 30. 14.

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repentance for their sins, unless they confess them at the same time. Ed. Mabillon T. 1. p. 1168. St Bernard died in 1153.

In the same age flourished Hugues de St. Victor, so renowned for his eminent learning that he was styled a second St. Austin. He asks how these words of the fifth chapter of St. James, are to be understood, viz. "Confess your sins one to another, and pray for one ano"ther, that you may be saved:" and immediately answers, that "these words mean that you must confess not to God only, but also "to man, who holds the place of God; confess one to another, that is "to say, the sheep to the shepherds, inferiors to superiors; they who "have sins, to those who have the power to remit them. But why "confess? Why! for what reason? In order that you may be sa"ved; that is to say, you will not be saved, unless you confess." Lib. 2. de sacramentis fidei, Edit. Mogunt. p. 495. This author died in 1139.

In the same age, also, lived Yves of Chartres, who was reckoned the oracle of his time. In a sermon which he preached at the commencement of Lent, he thus addresses his audience: "All, whatsoe<< ver you have committed, whether by the secret suggestion of the "devil, or the advice of another, must be declared in confession in "such a manner as to eradicate them from the heart, because all sins are washed away by such a confession." Serm. 13. in capite jejun. apud Laurentium Cottereau, part 2, p. 291.

We may add likewise Richard de Saint Victor, one of the greatest theologians of his age, who died in 1173. In a treatise on the pow er of binding and loosing, page 380, edit. Rothomagi apud Joannem Bertelin chap. 5, he no less points out the necessity of confession in these words: True penance, says he, is a detestation of sin, with a firm resolution to avoid and confess it, and to make satisfaction for it; and adds in the eighth chap. that if the penitent neglect to look for a priest to receive his confession and absolve him, he will not escape everlasting punishment.

After the year 1200, we have the celebrated Council of Lateran, held under Innocent III. in the year 1215, and at which both the Greek and Latin Church assisted. It consisted of 412 bishops, amongst whom were the Patriarchs of Constantinople and Jerusalem; the Legates of the Patriarchs of Antioch and Alexandria; 71 Primates, Metropolitans, Abbots, and superiors of religious orders, to the number of above 800, and a vast number of delegates of Archbish

ops, Bishops, Abbots, Priors, and Canonical Chapters. There were likewise present at it, the Ambassadors of the Roman Emperor; of the Emperor of Constantinople; of the King of France; the King of England; the King of Hungary; the King of Jerusalem, the King of Cyprus; the King of Aragon; besides a great number of envoys sent by other sovereigns, princes, cities, &c. &c.

The 21st canon of this council (being the 4th general council of Lateran) enjoins "That all the faithful of both sexes shall confess "their sins, at least once a year, and fulfil to the utmost extent of "their ability the penance that shall be appointed them, and shall "devoutly receive the sacrament of the eucharist, at least at Easter: "unless the priest for a reasonable cause shall deem it proper to "withhold them from it for a time; under the penalty, should they "not comply, of exclusion, whilst living, from the pale of the church, "and of privation, when dead, of christian burial. Wherefore it is "the wish of the council, that this salutary canon be frequently pub"lished in the churches, that no one may exempt himself, under the pretext of ignorance: but if any, for just reasons, should wish to "confess their sins to another priest, they must first ask and obtain "leave of their own pastor, as otherwise he shall not have power "either to loose or to bind him."

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"Every priest must, like skilful physicians, be wise and discreet in "administering oil and wine to the wounds of the patient, diligently enquiring into the circumstances as well of the sin as of the sinner, "by which he may prudently know how to advise him, and what re"remedy to apply, making use of every experiment to effect his cure.

“But above all, he must take the utmost care not to betray the "sinner either by word, by sign, or in any other way; but if, in any

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case, he stand in need of prudent counsel, he must ask it in such a manner as not to give the slightest and most distant intimation of "the person. And if any one shall be so presumptive as to reveal " what has been committed to him at the tribunal of penance, he shall "not only be deprived of his sacerdotal function, but shall also be "confined within the walls of a monastery, there to do penance all the days of his life." Thus the council.

Many of the reformers, and amongst others principally Kemnitius, a disciple of Melancthon, in his Exam. Concil. Trid. have pretended, that the doctrine of sacramental confession was unknown in the church prior to the above council of Lateran. How far this assertion is cor,

every

rect, the reader is enabled at once to judge from the foregoing testimenies, to the number of not less than thirty, and of the most learned, respectable, and holy men in every age, from the apostles down to the year 1200. What must we think after this, of the so much boasted of reformation, when one of its avowed and most prominent doctrines, viz."that the confession of sins made to men, is not necessary to sal ❝vation," rests upon the bare assertion of a few individuals born in the sixteenth century, without the least shadow of foundation, and in direct contradiction to the faith of the whole christian world in age! The Council, far from establishing the necessity of Confession, supposes it already established. It has done no more than regulate and appoint the time when each of the faithful is to comply with this duty. The obligation of confession is as ancient as christianity itself, and was perfectly known before the Council, as the above testimonies sufficiently shew; but many lukewarm and indolent christians neglecting to acquit themselves of it, the Church judged it proper to urge them to it, by a salutary law, which should awake their attention. Thus they might with the same propriety have said, that the Council of Lateran established also the precept of communion, because it enjoined that all the faithful should communicate at Easter, as to say that this Council established the precept of confession, because it commanded that each of the faithful should make his confession, at least once a year.

Certainly, if the most distinguished authors who wrote during the eleven centuries preceding the Council of Lateran, have unanimously admitted the necessity of confession, in the manner specified; if at that time the practice of confessing was no less established in the armies and courts of princes, than in cloisters and monasteries; if in all cases where a person was in danger of death, confession has been thought necessary, to dispose him to appear before the tribunal of God; if before approaching the holy table, they always made it an indispensable duty to present themselves to a priest in order to declare the sins they had committed, and receive his absolution; if, in all ages, they have considered those as heretics who have dared to combat the necessity of confession, it cannot be denied that Kemnitius and his associate reformers have erred most egregiously, in fixing the origin of the precept of confession, at the commencement of the thirteenth century, and in giving Pope Innocent III. as the man who caused it to be received and adopted by the Council of Lateran. Now, nothing is more easy