-though no positive law either did or could compel the practice—why the public disclosure of secret sins was so strongly urged; and why many voluntarily submitted to the humiliation.-From what are called the penitential Canons --which, at this time, began to be formed-we learn that, to every sin was annexed some penal act, of more or less duration, and of more or less severity, without the discharge of which, it was believed, in the ordinary course of man's life, there was not a complete remission before God. But, before this penance could be enjoined, it is plain, that the sin, unless when publicly committed, must have been made known. The enforcement, then, of the Canons, and the enforcement or duty of Confession, or Exomologesis, public or private, went together. In the long list of sins, which the Canons detail, and to which specific penances were en. joined, some are such as could have been known only by Confession. The Priest, on these occasions, was directed to weigh all circumstances, and to remit some portion of the penance, as it might seem just. In the Churches of the East, a Penitentiary was appointed, whose office it was particularly to superintend those who were properly called the public penitents, and to see that all their duties were strictly discharged;[1] while other ministers, approved by their respective Bishops, attended to the more private concerns of sinners, received their confessions, and apportioned the due
- ↑ “The Bishops of the Churches,” says Socrates, “ added to the Canon, that in each Church a Priest should preside over the administration of penance; and that all those who fell after baptism, should deposit with him the confession of their sins.”—Eccles. Hist. L. v, c. 19. When this discipline was established, “ Sacramental confession, instituted by Christ, always went first; public confession, established by the Church, sometimes followed, but never preceded. The one always indispensably regulated the other, which was but auxiliary. The former, of divine right, has subsisted, and will subsist, in all times : the latter, of ecclesiastical origin, after having obtained for some ages, has been discontinued by the same canonical authority, by which it had been instituted.”—Dr. Trevern, Vol. 11. p. 145.
