And, that we may see how variable men's judgments were touching the matter of confession, in the ages following: Bede would have us "confess our daily and light sins one unto another, but open the uncleanness of the greater leprosy to the priest." Alcuinus, not long after him, would have us "confess all the sins that we can remember." Others were of another mind. For some, as it appeareth by the writings of the same Alcuinus', and of Haymo3, would not confess their sins to the priest; but "said' it was sufficient for them that they did confess their sins to God alone," provided always that they ceased from those sins for the time to come. Others confessed their sins unto the priests, but not" fully: as may be seen in the council of Cavaillon, held in the days of Charles the great; where, though the fathers think that this had need to be amended, yet they freely acknowledge, that it remained still a question, whether men should only confess to God, or to the priests also: and they themselves put this difference betwixt both those confessions; that the one did properly serve for the cure, the other for direction in what sort the repentance, and so the cure, should be performed. Their words are these: "Some say that they ought to confess

P In hac sententia illa debet esse discretio; ut quotidiana leviaque peccata alterutrum coæqualibus confiteamur, eorumque quotidiana credamus oratione salvari. Porro gravioris lepræ immunditiam juxta legem sacerdoti pandamus, atque ad ejus arbitrium, qualiter et quanto tempore jusserit, purificari curemus. Bed. in Jacob. cap. 5.

¶ Volens dimittere omnia his qui in se peccaverunt, confiteatur omnia peccata sua, quæ recordari potest. Alcuin. de divin. offic. cap. 13. in capite Jejunii. r Id. epist. 26.

s Haymo Halberstatt. in evangel. Dominic. 15. post. Pentecost. Ad illud: Ite, ostendite vos sacerdotib.

Dicentes, sibi sufficere, ut soli Deo peccata sua confiteantur; si tamen ab ipsis peccatis in reliquo cessent. Haymo, ut supra.

u Sed et hoc emendatione egere perspeximus ; quod quidam, dum confitentur peccata sua sacerdotibus, non plene id faciunt. Concil. Cabilon. II. cap. 32.

w Quidam solummodo Deo confiteri debere dicunt peccata, quidam vero sacerdotibus confitenda esse percensent: quod utrumque non sine magno fructu intra sanctam fit Ecclesiam; ita duntaxat, ut et Deo, qui remissor est peccatorum, confiteamur peccata nostra, et cum David dicamus, Delictum meum cognitum tibi feci, et injustitiam meam non abscondi. Dixi, confitebor adverversum me injustitias meas Domino, et tu remisisti impietatem peccati mei, et, secundum institutionem apostoli, confiteamur alterutrum peccata nostra, et

their sins only unto God, and some think that they are to be confessed unto the priests; both of which, not without great fruit, is practised within the holy Church: namely thus; that we both confess our sins unto God, who is the forgiver of sins, saying with David, I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess against myself my transgressions unto the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin; and, according to the institution of the apostle, confess our sins one unto another, and pray one for another, that we may be healed. The confession therefore, which is made unto God, purgeth sins; but that, which is made unto the priest, teacheth in what sort those sins should be purged. For God, the author and bestower of salvation and health, giveth the same sometime by the invisible administration of his power, sometime by the operation of physicians."

This canon is cited by Gratian3, out of the penitential of Theodorus archbishop of Canterbury, but clogged with some unnecessary additions: as when, in the beginning thereof, it is made the opinion of the Grecians, that sins should be confessed only unto God; and of the rest of the Church, that they should be confessed to priests; where those words, ut Græci, in Gratian, seem unto cardinal Bellarmine "to" have crept out of the margin into the text; and to have been a marginal annotation of some unskilful man, who gathered by the fact of Nectarius, that sacramental confession was wholly taken away among

oremus pro invicem ut salvemur. Confessio itaque, quæ Deo fit, purgat peccata ea vero, quæ sacerdoti fit, docet qualiter ipsa purgentur peccata. Deus namque, salutis et sanitatis author et largitor, plerumque hanc præbet suæ potentiæ invisibili administratione, plerumque medicorum operatione. Ibid. cap. 33. * Grat. de pœnit. distinct. 1. cap. ult. Quidam Deo.

▾ Quidam Deo solummodo confiteri debere peccata dicunt, ut Græci: quidam vero sacerdotibus confitenda esse percensent, ut tota fere sancta Ecclesia. Ibid.

2 Videtur irrepsisse in textum ex margine; et marginalem annotationem im. periti alicujus fuisse, qui ex facto Nectarii collegit, sublatam omnino confessionen sacramentalem apud Græcos. Nam alioqui in ipso capitulari Theodori, unde canon ille descriptus est, non habentur duæ illæ voces ut Græci; neque etiam habentur in concilio II. Cabilonensi, cap. 33. unde Theodorus capitulum illud accepisse videtur: sed nec magister sentent. in 4. lib. dist. 17. eandem sententiam adducens, addidit illud, ut Græci. Bellar. de pœnitent. lib. 3. cap. 5.

the Grecians. For otherwise (saith he) in the capitular itself of Theodorus, whence that canon was transcribed, those two words ut Græci, are not to be had; nor are they also to be had in the second council of Cavaillon, chapter thirty-three, whence Theodorus seemeth to have taken that chapter; neither yet doth the master of the sentences, in his fourth book and seventeenth distinction bringing in the same sentence, add those words ut Græci." But the cardinal's conjecture, of the translating of these words out of the margin into the text of Gratian, is of little worth seeing we find them expressly laid down in the elder collections of the decrees made by Burchardus and Ivob; from whence it is evident that Gratian borrowed this whole chapter, as he hath done many a one beside. For, as for the capitular itself of Theodorus, whence the cardinal too boldly affirmeth that canon was transcribed, as if he had looked into the book himself; we are to know that no such capitular of Theodorus is to be found: only Burchardus and Ivo, in whom, as we said, those controverted words are extant, set down this whole chapter as taken out of Theodore's penitential, and so misguided Gratian; for indeed in Theodorus his penitential, which I did lately transcribe, out of a most ancient copy kept in Sir Robert Cotton's treasury, no part of that chapter can be seen: nor yet any thing else tending to the matter now in hand; this short sentence only excepted, "Confessionem suam Deo soli, si necesse est, licebit agere: it is lawful that confession be made unto God alone, if need require." suppose, as the cardinal doth, that Theodorus should take this chapter out of the second council of Cavaillon, were an idle imagination: seeing it is well known that Theodore died archbishop of Canterbury in the year of our Lord 690; and the council of Cavaillon was held in the year 813, that is, one hundred and twenty-three years after the other's death. The truth is, he who made the additions to the capitularia of Charles the great and Ludovicus Pius, gathered by Ansegisus and Benedict, trans

a Burchard. decret. lib. 19. cap. 145.

b Ivo, decret. part. 15. cap. 155.

And to

lated this canon out of that council into his collection : which Bellarmine, as it seemeth, having some way heard of, knew not to distinguish between those capitularia, and Theodore's penitential; being herein as negligent as in his allegation of the fourth book of the sentences; where the master doth not bring in this sentence at all, but, having among other questions propounded this also for one, "Whether it be sufficient that a man confess his sins to God alone, or whether he must confess to a priest," doth thereupon set down the diversity of men's opinions touching that matter; and saith, that "unto some it seemed to suffice, if confession were made to God only without the judgment of the priest, or the confession of the Church; because David said, I said, I will confess unto the Lord: he saith not, unto the priest; and yet he sheweth that his sin was forgiven him." For in these points, as the same author had before noted, "Even the learned were found to hold diversly: because the doctors seemed to deliver divers and almost contrary judgments therein."

66

The diverse sentences of the doctors touching this question, whether external confession were necessary or not, are at large laid down by Gratian: who in the end leaveth the matter in suspense, and concludeth in this manner: Upon what authorities, or upon what strength of reasons both these opinions are grounded, I have briefly laid open. But to whether of them we should rather cleave, is reserved to the judgment of the reader. For both of them have for their favourers both wise and religious men," And so the matter rested undetermined

Addit. 3. cap. 31. edit. Pithæi. et Lindenbrogii.

d Utrum sufficiat peccata confiteri soli Deo, an oporteat confiteri sacerdoti. Quibusdam visum est sufficere, si soli Deo fiat confessio, sine judicio sacerdotali et confessione Ecclesiæ. quia David dixit; Dixi, confitebor Domino, &c. non ait, sacerdoti: et tamen remissum sibi peccatum dicit. Petr. Lombard. lib. 4. sentent. dist. 17.

e In his enim etiam docti diversa sentire inveniuntur: quia super his varia ac pene adversa tradidisse videntur doctores. Ibid.

Quibus auctoritatibus, vel quibus rationum firmamentis, utraque sententia innitatur, in medium breviter exposuimus. Cui autem harum potius adhærendum sit, lectoris judicio reservatur. Utraque enim fautores habet sapientes et religiosos viros. De pœnit. dist. 1. cap. 89. Quamvis.

VOL. III.

I

one thousand one hundred and fifty years after Christ; howsoever the Roman correctors of Gratian do tell us, that now the case is altered, and that "its is most certain, and must be held for most certain, that the sacramental confession of mortal sins is necessary; used in that manner, and at such time, as in the council of Trent after other councils it is appointed." But the first council, wherein we find any thing determined touching this necessity, is that of Lateran under Innocent the III. wherein we heard that transubstantiation was established: for there it was ordained, that "Omnish utriusque sexus fidelis, every faithful one of either sex, being come to years of discretion, should by himself alone, once in the year at least, faithfully confess his sins unto his own priest; and endeavour according to his strength to fulfil the penance enjoined unto him, receiving reverently at least at Easter the sacrament of the eucharist otherwise, that both being alive he should be kept from entering into the church, and being dead, should want Christian burial." Since which determination, Thomas Aquinas, in his exposition of the text of the fourth book of the sentences', holdeth the denial of the necessity of confession unto salvation to be heresy: which before that time, saith Bonaventure, in his disputations upon the same fourth book, was not heretical; forasmuch as many catholic doctors did hold contrary opinions therein, as appeareth by Gratian.

But Medina will not admit by any means, that' it should

* Certissimum est, et pro certissimo habendum, peccati mortalis necessariam esse confessionem sacramentalem, eo modo ac tempore adhibitam, quo in concilio Tridentino post alia concilia est constitutum. Rom. correct. ibid.

h Omnis utriusque sexus fidelis, postquam ad annos discretionis pervenerit, omnia sua solus peccata confiteatur fideliter, saltem semel in anno, proprio sacerdoti; et injunctam sibi pœnitentiam studeat pro viribus adimplere, suscipiens reverenter ad minus in pascha eucharistiæ sacramentum, &c. alioquin et vivens ab ingressu Ecclesiæ arceatur, et moriens Christiana careat sepultura. Concil. Lateran. cap. 21.

i distinct. 17.

* Magister et Gratianus hoc pro opinione ponunt. Sed nunc, post determinationem Ecclesiæ sub Inn. III. factam, hæresis reputanda est. Thom.

1 Ideo dicendum, quod præfata assertio non est stricte hæresis, sed sapit hæresim. Jo. Medina, tractat, 2. de confessione, quæst. 4.