Confession and Absolution | Page 9

it is to be known that
is the true Catholic Church wherein _is confession and penitence_
which wholesomely heals the wounds and sins to which the weakness
of the flesh is subject."[43]
In the first half of the fourth century, Eusebius, the well-known
ecclesiastical historian and Bishop of Cæsarea, in Palestine, who was
born about 270, flourished during the reigns of Constantine and
Constantius, and died in 340, leaves on record that the Emperor Philip,
who wished to join in the prayers of the Church, was not permitted to

do so "until he made his exomologesis (confession), and classed himself
with those who were separated on account of their sins."[44]
In the same century, St. Hiliary, Bishop of Poietiers, in Gaul, who died
in 368, writes: "There is the most powerful and most useful medicine
for the diseases of deadly vices in their confession. * * * Confession of
sin is this, that what has been done by thee thou confess to be a sin,
through thy conviction that it is sin."[45]
In the fourth century, St. Athanasius, Patriarch of Alexandria, born
about the year 296, who lived till 373, and whose name is identified
with the General Council of Nice, is equally explicit. "As man," says he,
"is illuminated with the grace of the Holy Spirit by the priest that
baptizes, so also _he who confesses in penitence receives through the
priest_, by the grace of Christ, the remission of sin."
In this same century, St. Pacian, who died Bishop of Barcelona about
373, and who wrote on Baptism and Penance, asserts: "'But you will
say you forgive sin to the penitent, whereas in baptism alone it is
allowed you to loose sin.' Not to me at all, but to God only, who both in
baptism forgives the guilt incurred, and rejects not the tears of the
penitent. But what I do, I do not by my own right, but by the Lord's. * *
* Wherefore, whether we baptize, whether we constrain to penitence, or
grant pardon to the penitent, Christ is our authority. It is for you to see
to it, whether Christ hath this power, whether Christ have done this.
Baptism is the Sacrament of our Lord's passion; the pardon of penitents
is the merit of confession."[46]
In the latter half of this same century, St. Ambrose, born in Gaul about
340, who lived till 397, the last twenty-two years Bishop of Milan,
writes: "Sins are remitted by the word of God, of which the Levite is
the interpreter and also the executor; they are also remitted by the office
of the priest and the sacred ministry."[47]
"It seemed impossible," says this writer elsewhere, "that water should
wash away sin. Then Naaman the Syrian believed not that his leprosy
could be cured by water; but God, who has given so great a grace,
made the impossible to be possible. In the same manner, it seemed

impossible for sins to be forgiven by penitence. Christ _granted this to
His Apostles, which has been from the Apostles transmitted_ to the
offices of the priests."[48]
And, in similar strain, does St. John Chysostom, Archbishop of
Constantinople, who was born about 344, and died in 407, comment on
the words "Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth," etc., etc.: " * * * this
bond touches the very soul itself, and reaches even unto heaven; and
what the priests shall do below, the same does God ratify above, and
the Lord confirms the sentence of his servants."[49]
The great St. Jerome, born in 342, and after a life spent at Alexandria,
at Rome as Secretary to Pope Damasus, in Syria, and finally in
Bethlehem translating the Scripture, died in 420. He writes: "In the
same way, therefore, that there (among the Jews) the priests make the
leper clean or unclean, so also here (in the Church) does the bishop or
priest bind and loose not those who are innocent or guilty, but,
according to his office, after _hearing the various kinds of sins_, he
knows who is to be bound and who loosed."[50]
And St. Augustine, born 354, who was converted by the preaching of
St. Ambrose, mentioned above, who was later made Bishop of Hippo,
in North Africa, and who died in 430, writes: "For this end are sins
signified by these curtains, that they may be expressed by confession,
and may, by the grace which is given to the Church, be abolished."[51]
This same Father says: "Let a man judge himself of his own will, whilst
he has it in his power, and reform his manners, lest, when he shall have
it no longer in his power, he be judged by the Lord against his will; and
when he shall have passed upon himself the sentence of a most severe
remedy,