their penitential works be proved. For we do not pass judgment on these matters according to length of time, but according to the degree of their penitence. If there be any, who are not easily torn from their vicious habits, and who chuse rather to indulge their carnal lusts, than serve God, and who decline the ways of the Gospel-with these we hold no communion. For we have been taught, in cases of disobedience and contradiction, to follow the advice of the angels to Lot: Escape for thy life, lest thou be consumed. Gen. xix. 17.” Ep. ccxvii. ad. Amphil. Can. Ixxxiv. T. iii. p 330.
These Canons are eighty-five in number; and to us they bear the character of great severity ; but they were understood to apply to those only who were willing to do penance, and by these works of satisfaction, to amend their lives. The obstinate were left to themselves, after suitable admonitions. “ What communication,” he says, “can we have with these? Night and day, publicly and privately, we must urge them; but, wishing to reclaim them, and draw them from evil, we must not permit ourselves to be dragged by them into their crimes. If we prevail not, let us, however save our own souls from eternal condemnation.” Ibid. Can. lxxxv.
St. GREGORY OF Nyssa, G. C. In his canonical epistle to Letoius, this Father also, the brother of St. Basil, states the rules or laws of penance, specifying the various sorts of sins, and the duration of their appropriate punishment. For simple fornication, the penance lasted nine years, and double that time for adultery. But the Bishop, he says, has the liberty to moderate the penance according to the disposition of the penitent; and he would have those treated more gently,“ who freely confessed their sins.” T. i. p. 950.
ST. PACIANUS, L. C. “Brethren, I most earnestly entreat you, by all that is sacred, to give way to no shame in this concern; be not slow in having recourse to the means
