Confession and Absolution | Page 7

the teaching of the Church concerning "the forgiveness of
sin," and occasioned a more scientific and dogmatic statement of the
doctrine concerning the Sacrament of Penance. In the controversy,
figure the names of St. Cornelius, Pope, of St. Cyprian, of St.
Athanasius, of St. Pacian, of St. Gregory Nazianzen, of Tertullian.
Until the schismatics were driven to extremities, it is plain both sides
take it for granted that the Ministry of Reconciliation was given to the
Church by Jesus Christ, and that the exercise of the ministry consisted
in pronouncing judicial sentence of pardon on those who had shown

repentance and had confessed their grievous sins. Religious strife in
this case produces the interesting evidence that, as early as the second
and third centuries, Confession and Absolution were held and practised
as necessary for the pardoning of sin under the Christian dispensation.
4. The Penitential Canons of the first ages of the Church are another
evidence to the doctrine of Absolution and Confession. The Apostolic
Constitutions,[35] and Tertullian,[36] give us a picture of the severe
penitential discipline to which sinners were subjected. Many painful
circumstances obliged the Church modify and almost abrogate these
public penances.
The accounts of the suppression given by the historians, Socrates and
Zozomen, afford ample proof of confession made publicly, of the
retaining of certain deadly crimes until a long time had been spent in
rigid penitential exercises, and, lastly, of the absolution finally granted
by bishops and priests.
These authors, as well as many who come after them, are clear in
discriminating between the public confession, which is a matter of
discipline, and confession the necessary condition for the pardon of sin.
"Since," says Zozomen, the Greek ecclesiastical historian of the fifth
century, "it is absolutely necessary to confess our sins in order to
receive the pardon of them, it was thought too onerous and too painful
to exact that this confession should be made in public, as in a theatre."
5. We may now turn to the writings of the Fathers of the first five
centuries. It will be seen that throughout, when treating of the
forgiveness of sin, it is always assumed that the priests of Holy Church
were endowed with the power of absolution, and exercised it on those
who had sinned after baptism. The sacrament of pardon is constantly
referred to under different names: "penance," "confession,"
"absolution," "exomologesis," "reconciliation," "the second baptism,"
"the laborious baptism," "the second plank after the shipwreck." Of
these, "exomologesis" occurs very frequently. Its meaning varies: at
one time it signifies manifestation of sin, whether in private or in public,
and at another it expresses the public penance and confession in vogue
in the first ages of the Church.

At the end of the first century, St. Clement of Rome, the third Pope
after St. Peter, who died in the year one hundred, and whom St. Paul, in
his Epistle to the Philippians, numbers among "his fellow-laborers
whose names are in the book of life," writes, in the Second Epistle
ascribed to him and addressed to the Corinthians: "As long as we are in
this world, let us repent with our whole heart of the evil deeds which
we have done in the flesh, that we may be saved by the Lord whilst we
have time for repentance. For after that we have gone forth from this
world, we are no longer able to confess or repent there."[37]
In the middle of the second century, appeared the "Teaching of the
Twelve Apostles," causing, at this moment, no small attention in the
religious world. Its date is variously stated from 120 to 160 A. D. To it
does St. Clement of Alexandria, who lived into the second decade of
the third century, make reference. The text, together with a translation,
is now published. Therein (Chap. IV) do we read: "Thou shalt by no
means forsake the Lord's commandments, but shalt guard what thou
hast received, neither adding thereto nor taking therefrom. In the
Church thou shalt confess thy transgressions, and thou shalt not come
forward for thy prayer with an evil conscience." And again (Chap.
XIV): "But on the Lord's Day do ye assemble and break bread, and
give thanks, after confessing your transgressions, that your sacrifice
may be pure."
In the latter part of the second century, the pupil of the great St.
Polycarp, St. Irenæus, Bishop of Lyons, born about 120 A. D., and who
died in 202, writing against the Valentinians and certain Gnostics led
by Marcus, states explicitly that many of the women who had been led
into heresy and impurity, and who afterwards returned to the Church,
confessed even publicly, and wept over their defilement. "But others,
ashamed to do this, and in some manner secretly despairing within
themselves of the life of God, apostatized