St. Hilary, L. C.—“To impress the greatest fear, by which all men should now be withheld, Christ established this fixed and severe decision, that whom his Apostles should bind on earth, that is, whom they should leave bound in their sins, and whom they should loose, by receiving them, on their confession, into the grace of forgiveness, these should be bound or loosed in heaven, according to the Apostolical judgment.” Comm. in c. xviii. Matt. p. 700.
St. EPHREM OF EDESSA, G. C.—“ The exalted dignity of the Priesthood is far above our understanding, and the power of speech. The remission of sins is not granted to mortals, but through the ministry of the Priest.” De Sacerdotio, T. 111. p. 2.
St. AMBROSE, L. C.-Writing against the Novatians, who denied to the Church the power of pardoning sins, he says: “ They pretend, that, by reserving to him alone the power of remitting sins, they shew respect to Jesus Christ; and in this very thing they dishonour him, by violating his commands, and rejecting his proferred office. For as Christ in his Gospel said: What things you shall bind on earth, shall be bound also in heaven; and what you shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven; who is it that honours him most-he that obeys, or he that rejects his commands?—The Church, by binding and loosing sins, obeys in both. The Novatians content themselves with binding only, and will not loose sinners, though the power of doing both was given: whence it follows, that one cannot be permitted without the other. Both are allowed to the Church: neither is allowed to heretics; because it is a right conceded only to Priests. This right the Church justly claims to herself, since she alone possesses true Priests.” De Pænit. L. 1. c. i. 1.11. p. 391. .
St. PACIANUS, L. C.-Refuting the same Novatians, he
