agony, suddenly recovered from it, and declared that he had seen a venerable personage who warned him to confess a certain particular sin which he had concealed until that time, declaring to him very distinctly, that he had no salvation to expect if he did not confess it before he died.

I am well aware of the manner in which our adversaries, who are not much inclined to give credit to these sorts of histories, will treat these facts; but though they should claim the right to regard what is related even by the gravest and most creditable authors, as fabulous, yet they cannot but admit at least this fact, that there was a general persuasion at that time of the necessity of confession. This is suffieient at present for my purpose. But let us produce other proofs founded on the great precautions that have always been taken to prevent the sick from dying without confession.

PRECAUTIONS TAKEN TO PREVENT THE SICK

FROM DYING WITHOUT CONFESSION.

THE monks of Fulda presented a request to Charlemagne, wherein they besought him, to prevent their taking the infirm and decrepid from the monasteries, and removing them to some of their dependencies, "lest they should die without confession."(a)

The sixth council of Paris held in 829, forbids bishops to give such commissions to curates as will oblige them to absent themselves from their parish, because, adds the council, (b) "It may often happen, "that the sick may die without confession, and children without bap"tism."

The sick who are in danger of death, says the first council of Mentz, held in the year 846, (c) must be excited to make a faithful and sincere confession of all their sins, and the penance must be pointed out to them which they would have to do, were they in health, without exacting, however, of them to do it as long as they are sick. A council in England, held in the kingdom of Kent, in the year 787, went so far as to forbid (d) any one to pray for those who should, through their own fault, die without confession.

(a Antiquitates Fuidenses. Christof. Broveri ex Offic. Plant. lib. 3 Cap. 12. Art. 5. Libelli supplicis p. 223. (b) Can. 29. T. 7, Labb. p. 1619. (c) Can. 26. Tom. 8. Labb. p. 49. (d) Concil. Calchutense T.6. Labb. p. 1872.

From these specimens the reader will be able to judge how far Kemnitius and his brethren have been justifiable in advancing, that before the council of Lateran, the obligation of confessing one's sins to a priest was not known, or rather, whether it be not a concerted design in these gentlemen, to decry the practice of confession, by making it pass for a novelty, and at the same time the desire of acquiring the reputation of learned and penetrating men, by determining with nicety and precision, the time and place of its origin, that carried them to invent this fiction.

THE FAITHFUL CONFESSED THEIR SINS BEFORE THEY APPROACHED THE HOLY TABLE.

Bur this will appear still clearer by the care which the Faithful always took to purify their conscience, by confession, before they approached the holy table. Can any thing be stronger on this subject, than the exhortations of a holy Religious of the sixth century? You would not dare, says Anastasius of Sina, to touch the garments of a king with filthy hands, and how will you dare to receive the King of kings, in a heart sullied by mortal sin? "Confess therefore your sins "to Jesus Christ through the ministry of the priests, (a) condemn your “actions and be not ashamed to do it; for there is a shame which begets sin, and another which is converted into glory and procures the "favour of God."

What is left us on the same subject by St. Paulinus, Patriarch of Aquila, who lived in the eighth century, is not less precise and energetic. "Let every one prove himself," says this celebrated author with the Apostle, (b) " before he receives the body and blood "of our Lord Jesus Christ. In order to prepare ourselves worthily "for it, let us have récourse to confession and penance; let us care

t

(a) Confitere Christo per sacerdotes peccata tua, condemna actiones tuas, & ne erubescas, est enim confessio adducens peccatum, & est confessio adducens gloriam & gratiam. Hom. de synaxi in Auctuario Combesis T. 1. p. 890. (b) Antea ad confessionem & pœnitentiam recurrere debemus, & omnes actus nostros curiosius discutere, & peccata obnoxia; si in nobis comperimus, cito festinemus per confessionem & veram pœnitentiam abluere ne cum Juda proditore diabolum intra nos cœlantes pereamus. T. 6. August. p. 199.

"fully examine all our actions, and if we discover in ourselves any "grievous sins, let us hasten to obliterate them by confession and true "repentance, lest keeping the devil, after the example of Judas, hidden "within us, we also perish like him."

After this, we need not be surprised to find in the formularies of confession which the ancients have left us, and which differ but little from the examens found in the prayer-books now in use amongst us,we need not be surprised I say, to see therein amongst the more grievous sins, which formed the subject of accusation, that of having approached holy communion with a sullied conscience, and without having taken the precaution to purify it by a good confession. This is expressly mentioned in the formulary of St. Fulgentius, (a) who died at the beginning of the sixth century, and in that of Egbert, Archbishop of York (6) who died in the eighth. Both express this sin in the same terms: "I accuse myself," say they, (c) "of having received the body and "blood of the Lord, knowing myself to be unworthy, and to be in the "state of sin; and without having prepared myself by a good confession, and a sincere repentance." Whence it may be easily seen, that all the faithful who were sensible of having their conscience stained with any grievous sin, considered it as an indispensable duty to confess before they partook of the holy mysteries. It has even often happened, that God has made it appear, in a manner equally sensible and miraculous, to those who had neglected to take this precaution, how unworthy they were to approach the holy table.

Fortunatus, Bishop of Poitiers and an author of the sixth century, relates of St. Marcellus, Bishop of Paris, whose life he wrote, (and we find the same thing in the ancient Breviary of Paris,) (d) that a certain man, wishing to receive holy communion, found himself as it were invisibly bound, and remained immoveable, without power to approach the altar, whilst the others passed in order to the holy table. St. Marcellus, surprised at so extraordinary an event, asked this man the reason of it, who frankly acknowledged to him his temerity in having presented himself, without having previously accused himself

(a) In sacrament. S. Gregor. p. 226. (b) Apud Morin de AdminIstrat. pœnit. in appendice p. 13. (c) Ego corpus & sanguinem Domini polluto corpore sine confessione & pœnitentiâ indignus accepi. (d) The 3d of November in the Lessons of St. Marcellus apud Seb. Cramoisy, an. 1650.

in confession of a certain grievous sin. But having repaired his fault by a good confession, he was permitted to communicate with the others.

Peter the Venerable, relates an event very similar to this, of a young man, who having engaged in a criminal commerce, with a married woman, fell dangerously sick; a priest was called in, says this author, (a)" according to the custom of the church," to hear his confession, and to administer to him the holy Viaticum; this young man, not only did not confess his crime, but being even interrogated by the priest, went so far as to deny it. After which wishing to receive the sacred Host, he could not swallow it, although he was able to take every other thing; which having greatly terrified him, he entered into himself and made a sincere confession of all his sins. The author who relates this fact, names the very persons who were present when it took place, and mentions, that he had it from their own mouth.

THOSE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN CONSIDERED HERE. TICS WHO REFUSED TO ADMIT THE OBLIGATION OF CONFESSION.

Can one desire more evident traces of the constant use of confession, and of the invariable idea of the faithful, touching its necessity? Yet, this is not all I have to say on this subject; I have still other witnesses to produce, and who say far more than all I have yet cited; they inform us, that those have always been considered heretics, who have dared to combat the necessity of confession.

As early as the third century, we find the use of the keys in absolving a penitent after an humble Confession, regarded as a distinctive mark of the true church. "You must know," (b) says Lactantius, the most eloquent man of his time, and who was still more recommendable for his zeal in defence of religion, "you must know that that is the true "church in which there is confession and penance.

Alcuin, the master of all the men of letters who flourished in his time, and so consummate in every kind of literature, that he was

(a) Invitatus est ad eum more Ecclesiastico Presbyter, ut ejus confessionem susciperet. Lib. 1. miracul. cap. 3.p. 22. Bibblioth. Pat. p. 1089. (b) Sciendum est illam esse veram ecclesiam, in quâ est confessio & pœnitentia. T. 3. Bib. Pat. p. 588.

commonly styled the universal man, and the secretary of the fine arts, informs us, that there arose in his time, that is to say, towards the end of the eighth century, certain heretics who refused to confess. It was against them that he wrote his 71st epistle, according to the edition of M. du Chene; and the 26th, according to that of Canisius. He therein exhorts (a) the authors and followers of that error to walk in the footsteps of the Fathers, and not to introduce new sects contrary to religion and the catholic faith. "Beware," says he, " of the poi"sonous leaven which has been lately introduced; and eat of the "wholesome and pure bread of the true faith, in sincerity and truth.”

Geoffroy, abbat of Vendome, who died in 1130, observing that a man named William, who had been his regent, favoured a sentiment prejudicial to the integrity of confession, and that to support it, he had strained a passage of Venerable Bede, wrote a very strong and pressing letter to him, to induce him to relinquish his error; amongst other things he particularly observed to him, (b) that faith cannot subsist, nor be kept entire without giving to the words of Bede a very different sense from that which he had given them (c): he concluded his letter by assuring him, that the obligation of confessing all mortal sins, is most certain, and that nothing is more constant than this precept.

Could Kemnitius and his reforming brethren, be ignorant of all these testimonies, touching the use of confession prior to the Council of Lateran? It is impossible.

(a) Sequimini vestigia SS. Patrum, & nolite in Catholicæ fidei in religionem novas inducere sectas, cavete vobis venenosum erraticæ inventionis fermentum, sed in sinceritate & veritate mundissimos sacræ fidei comedite panes. Ep. 71. T. 2. p. 417.

(6) Hos juxta fidem catholicam intelligere non possumus. Aliter determinanda est ista sententia-ut fidel nostræ integritas conservetur. T. 21. Bibl. Pat. ed. Col. p. 55,

(c) Certum est, nihil hoc certius, omnia peccata vel crimina confessione indigere & pœnitentiâ. Ibidem.