in giving penance, but shew the remedies which sin requireth? or what do we, in receiving the same, but fulfil her precepts? what else but sue unto God with tears, and fasts, that his merciful ears may be opened?" St. Augustine's exhortation Aug. hom. de pœn. ciis directly to the same purpose; "Let every man whilst he tatur a Grat. hath time judge himself, and change his life of his own ac- dist. 1. c. judices. cord; and when this is resolved, let him, from the disposers of the holy sacraments,a learn in what manner he is to pacify God's displeasure." But the greatest thing which made men forward and willing, upon their knees, to confess whatsoever they had committed against God, and in no wise to be withheld from the same with any fear of disgrace, contempt or obloquy, which might ensue, was their fervent desire to be helped and assisted with the prayers of God's saints. Wherein, as St. James doth exhort unto mutual confession, alleging Jam. v. 16. this only for a reason, that just men's devout prayers are of great avail with God; so it hath been heretofore the use of penitents for that intent to unburden their minds, even to private persons, and to crave their prayers. Whereunto Cassianus alluding, counselleth, "That if men possessed with Cassia col. dulness of spirit be themselves unapt to do that which is reGreg. Niss. quired, they should in meek affection seek health at the least oratione in by good and virtuous men's prayers unto God for them." eos qui alios acer be judiAnd to the same effect Gregory, bishop of Nice; “Humble cant. thyself, and take unto thee such of thy brethren as are of one mind, and do bear kind affection towards thee, that they may together mourn and labour for thy deliverance. Shew me thy bitter and abundant tears, that I may blend my own with them." 20. c. 8. Leo. 1. Ep. But because of all men there is or should be none in that respect more fit for troubled and distressed minds to repair unto than God's ministers, he proceedeth further; "Make the priest, as a father, partaker of thy affliction and grief; be bold to impart unto him the things that are most secret, he will have care both of thy safety and of thy credit." "Confession (saith Leo) is first to be offered to God, and then to the priest, as to one which maketh supplication for the sins of penitent offenders." Suppose we, that men would ever de pœn. d. have been easily drawn, much less of their own accord have 1. c.sufficit. come, unto public confession, whereby they know they should sound the trumpet of their own disgrace; would they willingly a A præpositis sacramentorum accipiat satisfactionis suæ modum. 78. ad Epis. Cam. pau. citat. a Grat. Ambr. 1. ii. de poen. c. 10. Tertul. de pœn. 78. have done this, which naturally all men are loth to do, but for Whereas in these considerations, therefore, voluntary penitents had been long accustomed, for great and grievous crimes, though secret, yet openly both to repent and confess as the canons of ancient discipline required; the Greek church, first, and in process of time the Latin, altered this order, judging it sufficient and more convenient, that such offenders should do penance and make confession in private only. The Leo. 1. Ep. cause why the Latins did, Leo declareth, saying, " Although that ripeness of faith be commendable, which for the fear of God doth not fear to incur shame before all men; yet because every one's crimes are not such, that it can be free and safe for them to make publication of all things wherein repentance is necessary; let a custom, so unfit to be kept, be abrogated, lest many forbear to use remedies of penitency, whilst they either blush or are afraid to acquaint their enemies with those acts, for which the laws may take hold upon them. Besides, it shall win the more to repentance, if the consciences of sinners be not emptied into the people's ears." And to this only cause doth Sozomen impute the change which the Grecians made, by ordaining throughout all churches certain penitentiaries to take the confessions, and appoint the penances of secret offenders. Socrates (for this also may be true, that more inducements than one did set forward an alteration so generally made) affirmeth the Grecians (and not unlikely) to have specially respected therein the occasion which the Novatianists took at the multitude of public penitents, to insult over the discipline of the church, against which they still cried out wheresoever they had time and place, "He that sheweth sinners favour, doth but teach the innocent to sin:" and therefore they themselves admitted no man to their communion upon any repentance which once was known to have offended after baptism, making sinners thereby not the fewer, but the closer, and the more obdurate, how fair soever their pretence might seem. The Grecians' canon for some one presbyter in every church to undertake the charge of penitency, and to receive their voluntary confessions which had sinned after baptism, continued in force for the space of above some hundred years, till Nectarius, and the bishops of churches under him, began a second alteration, abolishing even that confession which their penitentiaries took in private. There came to the penitentiary of the church of Constantinople a certain gentlewoman, and to him she made particular confession of her faults committed after baptism, whom thereupon he advised to continue in fasting and prayer, that as with tongue she had acknowledged her sins, so there might appear likewise in her some work worthy of repentance: but the gentlewoman goeth forward, and detecteth herself of a crime, whereby they were forced to disrobe an ecclesiastical person, that is, to degrade a deacon of the same church. When the matter by this mean came to public notice, the people were in a kind of tumult offended, not only at that which was done, but, much more, because the church should thereby endure open infamy and scorn. The clergy was perplexed and altogether doubtful what way to take, till one Eudæmon, born in Alexandria, but at that time a priest in the church of Constantinople, considering that the causes of voluntary confession, whether public or private, was especially to seek the church's aid, as hath been before declared, lest men should either not communicate with others, or wittingly hazard their souls, if so be they did communicate, and that the inconvenience which grew to the whole church, was otherwise exceeding great, but especially grievous, by means of so manifold offensive detections, which must needs be continually more, as the world did itself wax continually worse; for antiquity, together with the gravity and severity thereof (saith Sozomen), had already begun by little and little to degenerate into loose and careless living, whereas before offences were less, partly through bashfulness in them, which open their own faults, and partly by means of their great austerity, which sate as judges in this business), these things Eudæmon having weighed with him self, resolved easily the mind of Nectarius, that the penitentiaries' office must be taken away, and for participation in God's holy mysteries every man be left to his own conscience; which was, as he thought, the only means to free the church from danger of obloquy and disgrace. "Thus much (saith Socrates) I am the bolder to relate, because I received it from Eudæmon's own mouth, to whom mine answer was at that time; Whether your counsel, sir, have been for the church's good, or otherwise, God knoweth. But I see you have given occasion, whereby we shall not now any more reprehend one another's faults, nor observe that apostolic precept which saith, Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather be ye also reprovers of them." With Socrates, Sozomen both agreeth in the occasion of abolishing penitentiaries; and, moreover, testifieth also, that in his time living with the younger Theodosius, the same abolition did still continue, and that the bishops had in a manner every where followed the example given them by Nectarius. Wherefore, to implead the truth of this history, cardinal Baronius allegeth that Socrates, Sozomen, and Eudæmon, were all Novatianists; and that they falsify in saying (for so they report) that as many as held the consubstantial being of Christ, gave their assent to the abrogation of the fore-rehearsed canon. The sum is, he would have taken it for a fable, and the world to be persuaded that Nectarius did never any such thing. a Why then should Socrates first, and afterwards Sozomen, publish it? to please their pew-fellows, the disciples of Novatian? A poor gratification, and they very silly friends that would take lies for good turns. For the more acceptable the matter was, being deemed true, the less they must needs (when they found the contrary) either credit, or affect him which had deceived them. Notwithstanding, a Tanta hæc Socrati testanti præstanda est fides, quanta cæteris hæreticis de suis dogmatibus tractantibus; quippe Novatianus, sect. cum fuerit, quam vere ac sincere hæc scripserit adversus pœnitentiam in ecclesia administrari solitam, quemlibet credo posse facile judicare. Baron. 1. an. Chr. 56. Sozomenum eandem prorsus causam fovisse certum est. Nec Eudæmonem illum alium quam Novatianæ sectæ hominem fuisse credendum est. Ibidem. Sacerdos ille merito à Nectario est gradu amotus officioque depositus, quo facto Novatiani (ut mos est hæreticorum) quamcunque licet levem, ut sinceris dogmatibus detrahant, accipere ausi occasionem, non tantum presbyterum pœnitentiarium in ordinem redactum, sed et pœnitentiam ipsam una cum eo fuisse proscriptam, calumniose admodum conclamarunt, cum tamen illa potius theatralis fieri interdum solita peccatorum fuerit abrogata. Ibidem. we know that joy and gladness, rising from false information, do not only make men so forward to believe that which they first hear, but also apt to scholie upon it, and to report as true whatsoever they wish were true. But, so far is Socrates from any such purpose, that the fact of Nectarius, which others did both like and follow, he doth disallow and reprove. Hisspeech to Eudæmon before set down, is proof sufficient that he writeth nothing but what was famously known to all, and what himself did wish had been otherwise. As for Sozomen's correspondency with heretics, having shewed to what end the church did first ordain penitentiaries, he addeth immediately, that Novatianists, which had no care of repentance, could have no need of this office. Are these the words of a friend or enemy? Besides, in the entrance of that whole narration; "Not to sin (saith he) at all, would require a nature more divine than ours is: but, God hath commanded to pardon sinners; yea, although they transgress and offend often." Could there be any thing spoken more directly opposite to the doctrine of Novatian? Eudæmon was presbyter under Nectarius. To Novatianists the emperor gave liberty of using their religion quietly by themselves, under a bishop of their own, even within the city, for that they stood with the church in defence of the catholic faith against all other heretics besides. Had therefore Eudæmon favoured their heresy, their camps were not pitched so far off but he might at all times have found easy access unto them. Is there any man that hath lived with him, and hath touched him that way? if not, why suspect we him more than Nectarius? Their report, touching Grecian catholic bishops, who gave approbation to that which was done, and did also the like themselves in their own churches, we have no reason to discredit without some manifest and clear evidence brought against it. For of catholic bishops, no likelihood but that their greatest respect to Nectarius, a man honoured in those parts no less than the bishop of Rome himself in the western churches, brought them both easily and speedily unto conformity with him; Arians, Eunomians, Apollinarians, and the rest that stood divided from the church, held their penitentiaries as before. Novatianists from the beginning had never any, because their opinion touching penitency was against the practice of the church therein, and a cause why they severed themselves |