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 P * n fuSiHui ™ iiui wnSGSl'JT 10 of ,he Primitive 
 
 olin 
 
 3 1924 029 447 129 
 
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THE 
 
 PENITENTIAL DISCIPLINE 
 
 PRIMITIVE CHURCH, 
 
 FIRST FOUE HUNDRED YEAES APTER CHRIST ; 
 
 TOGETHER WITH 
 
 ITS DECLENSION 
 
 FROM THE FIFTH CENTURY, DOWNWARDS TO ITS PRESENT STATE : 
 
 EmpattiaUg 3fapttsmtelr. 
 
 NATHANIEL MARSHALL, D.D. 
 
 A NEW EDITION. 
 
 OXFORD : 
 
 JOHN HENRY PARKER, 
 MDCCCXLIV. 
 
LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED BY MOYES AND BAKCLAY, CASTLE STREET, 
 LEICESTER SQUARE. 
 
.■■:-, ■*%*&& A , 
 
 *', V -'V 
 
 t> 1, 
 
 me 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Primitive Church, 
 
 FOR THE 
 
 Firft 400 Years after Chrift: 
 
 Together with 
 
 Its Declenfion from the fifth Century, 
 downwards to its Prefent State, 
 
 Impartially Reprefented. 
 
 By a Prefbyter of the Church o/Ekgiabb, 
 
 O Mirabilem facrofanctse Antiquitatis pietatem & Religio- 
 nem I Quotus enim quifque in hoc rerum fenio & prope 
 occafu, plurimis & graviffimis noxis vel unam lachry- 
 mulam arcano fecum expendit ! At unius delicti con- 
 fcientiam fanctiffima ilia in Antiquitate, folidum trienni- 
 um , etiam verb quadriennium , infpectante Ecclefia, propa- 
 lamque lugebant ; non elugebant quippe, fed hanc fibi 
 viam ad luctum atque ad Pcenitentiam muniebant. O 
 veteris Difciplinas fanctitatem mirabilem, quse culpas fie 
 amputabat, ut reliquum Corpus integrum & ab omni labe 
 caftum tueretur ! Alba/pin. de veterib. Ecclejla ritib. 
 Lib. 2. Obfervat. 22. 
 
 LONDON, 
 
 Printed for W. Taylor at the Ship in Pater- 
 Nofter-Row, and H. Clements at the Half-Moon 
 in St. Paul's Church- Yard. MDCCXIV. . 
 
EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 The following treatise was published anonymously 
 in 1714. Dr. Marshall, however, in his preface to 
 his translation of St. Cyprian, acknowledges it in the 
 following words : " Perhaps it will be expected from 
 me to apologize for my frequent references in the 
 course of this work to a treatise which I published 
 some time ago without a name to it, concerning ' the 
 Penitential Discipline of the Primitive Church : ' now 
 my true and only reason for thus referring to it, was 
 to save the trouble of enlarging farther upon subjects 
 which are there properly handled, and which could 
 not so well be deduced to their proper length, within 
 the necessary brevity of notes." — (Pref. p. 20.) 
 
 Of the circumstances of Dr. Marshall's life but 
 little is known. It appears from the Register of 
 Emmanuel College, Cambridge, that " Nathaniel Mar- 
 shall, of the County of Middlesex, was entered a pen- 
 sioner of that house, July 8th, I696. That he was 
 admitted to the degree of LL.B. in 1702, and to that 
 
vi Editor's Preface. 
 
 of D.D. in 1717, by royal mandate;" but no other 
 mention is to be found of him in that College. The 
 various preferments which he held appear in the title- 
 pages of his several works. 
 
 In 1712, he preached before the Sons of the Clergy. 
 In January, 1715, he was lecturer at Alder manbury, 
 and Curate of Kentish Town : when at the recom- 
 mendation of the Princess of Wales, who was pleased 
 with his preaching, he was appointed to be one of the 
 King's Chaplains, "whose favourable regard," as his 
 widow says, in her Preface to his Sermons published 
 after his death, and dedicated to the Queen, " he had 
 the honour to enjoy." In 1717> he brought out his 
 "Translation of St. Cyprian;" his "Defence of the 
 Constitution in Church and State," and his " Earnest 
 Exhortation," at which time he was Rector of the 
 united parishes of St. Vedast's, Foster- Lane, and 
 St. Michael -le-Querne. In 1721, he published "A 
 Sermon preached on January 30th." He appears 
 afterwards to have had the Lectureship of St. Law- 
 rence, Jewry, and St. Martin's, Ironmonger - Lane, 
 and died, February 6th, 1730-1, Canon of Windsor. 
 
 He was buried at St. Pancras, leaving eight child- 
 ren, the eldest of whom was, at the time of his death, 
 Rector of St. John the Evangelist. 
 
 In the course of the same year, his widow Margaret 
 published by subscription fifty of his miscellaneous 
 Sermons in three volumes, octavo, with a Dedication 
 to the Queen ; and a fourth volume appeared in 1750. 
 
Editor s Preface. vii 
 
 Dr. Marshall enjoyed the friendship of Dr. John 
 Rogers (the Author of "The Visible Church"), 
 whose funeral sermon he preached ; and of Brett, who 
 acknowledges, that Marshall, in his Doctrine of the 
 Primitive Church, had set him right in some opinions 
 he had put forth in his Doctrine of Remission of Sins 
 and Absolution, published in 1712. 
 
 The present edition has been accurately reprinted 
 from the original edition, with all the quotations care- 
 fully verified. 
 
 [Cf. Nichols' Bowyer, vol. i. pp. 141, 153, 481 ; vol. iii. 616.] 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 If the title-page which is prefixed to the following papers, 
 will not prevail with the reader to look further into them, I 
 have no expectation of success from any other persuasives 
 which I can offer to him. 
 
 Discipline is a thing so little known to us, and that of the 
 Primitive Church hath hitherto lain involved in such a 
 number of voluminous writers, that the drawing it thence 
 into a clear and open light would, I conceived, be a thing of 
 much use and benefit. So that if I have performed this 
 part well and faithfully, I am not without hope that I have 
 done a good work. Whether I have so performed or not, 
 the reader must judge for himself upon trial made of it. 
 
 As to my personal unfitnesses for such a service, it will be 
 to no purpose to recount them, except my name were here- 
 with published; and even then it would be needless to 
 recount them, because they would be known without it. 
 
 But since the booksellers inform me that a book will not 
 pass without a preface, and that the courteous reader 
 expects to be civilly saluted at his entrance, it may not be 
 amiss to prepare him for what shall follow, by acquainting 
 him with what hath preceded, by what steps I was led into 
 
x Preface. 
 
 a design of this nature, and with what helps I have prose- 
 cuted it. 
 
 I had long considered and lamented the difference between 
 the ancient and present state of the Penitential Discipline ; 
 and though I never thought the purity and perfection of 
 this Discipline essential to the being of a Church, yet I 
 could not but judge it highly conducive and expedient to 
 her well-being. I considered, likewise, that very few were 
 at all apprehensive of this matter ; and if it were suffered to 
 continue thus unknown and unthought of, that the revival of 
 it, to any degree, would be utterly impossible. As yet, 
 however, I was far enough from a thought of engaging 
 myself in the subject ; until communicating some of my 
 doubts upon it to a very reverend and learned friend, whom 
 to name as a party to this work were alone sufficient to 
 commend it to the learned world, he was pleased to advise 
 that I should set about it ; and after a little struggle with 
 myself, and with him upon it, I was finally persuaded to 
 engage in it. 
 
 Little did I, at that time, apprehend what a burden would 
 hence be brought upon me, what a tract of time I was to 
 take a view of, what a multitude of various occurrences I 
 was to pass through, and what a number of books was 
 necessarily to be consulted. I had then no materials by 
 me more peculiarly fitted for this, than for any other work, 
 which should oblige me to trace the Antiquities of the 
 Primitive Church; nothing but general hints of this, in 
 common with other subjects, which I had at different times 
 extracted from ancient authors. 
 
 But here I had some relief from the kind assistance of my 
 
Preface. xi 
 
 very learned friend, and should have had more if his broken 
 health would have permitted him to have kept me company 
 in these researches. 
 
 The distress I was under from the want of divers books 
 which were necessary to be perused upon this occasion, was 
 with great readiness and humanity made easy to me by 
 friendly communications from a reverend and learned 
 librarian. 
 
 This is a case which I cannot but lament in many of my 
 brethren, who, I am sure, must hence be disabled from 
 performing many good services, which they would otherwise 
 be both able and willing to go through, if this want of books, 
 and of access to good libraries, did not prevent them. If 
 the design for parochial libraries were effectually prosecuted, 
 this grievance might, to a good degree, be redressed ; but 
 till the Clergy have a better provision than what they have, 
 it will remain a grievance. And since their studies are 
 designed for the public service, I cannot apprehend it an 
 immodest expectation if they entertain some hope that the 
 public purse will one day lend them sufficient aid. 
 
 But to return. When, by the helps I have related, I had 
 formed a rough draught of the ensuing papers, it was com- 
 municated to some of the ablest judges, whose polite learn- 
 ing and great knowledge of antiquity, joined with exemplary 
 morals and substantial piety, entitle them to the esteem and 
 admiration of all who know or have heard of them ; and I 
 can assure my reader that there are very few of this nation 
 who are not in the latter number ; nor, I believe, any in the 
 former, who do not esteem such acquaintances amongst the 
 choicest blessings of their lives. 
 
xii Preface. 
 
 They were pleased, upon a careful perusal, to approve the 
 undertaking, and to encourage it, I suppose, upon the com- 
 mon presumption, that a puny counsel might serve to open 
 the cause and to make the motion, though much higher 
 degrees of eloquence and learning would be required to 
 prosecute and finish it. If this were their presumption, I 
 most heartily concur with it; and do hereby beseech and 
 exhort some of those many who are qualified so much better 
 than myself for sustaining and adorning this province, that 
 they would come and help me. 
 
 The work hath already received the corrections of judges 
 as accurate and discerning as any friends can be ; and it 
 comes out, accordingly, with much greater advantage, as 
 well as with the fewer faults, for having been so cor- 
 rected. 
 
 Yet, because that natural candour, which is ever in- 
 separable from great and good minds, together with some 
 personal indulgence towards a well-meaning author, may 
 possibly have rendered them too favourable in their stric- 
 tures, I do further invite and encourage all who shall not 
 think fit to animadvert upon me in a more public manner, 
 to communicate their objections or doubts in private, which 
 the publishers are instructed how they may convey to me. 
 I promise to give them a thankful reception, and a fair 
 examination, with all the secrecy which shall be desired 
 from me. 
 
 I have many reasons for concealing my name, with which 
 it will not be necessary to trouble my reader, though none, 
 I will confess to him, of more weight with me than this : lest 
 my name prefixed to it should prove, in some way or other, 
 
Preface. xiii 
 
 a disadvantage to my performance. I have written nothing 
 in it which I am ashamed or afraid of owning ; hut, per- 
 haps, by my not owning it, it may have the fewer enemies. 
 And whatever becomes of the Author's person, I will 
 acknowledge so much of an Author's fondness for his own 
 work, as to confess that I should be glad to see it well 
 received, because then the design of it will be best promoted. 
 
 I know not whether it will be fit to apologise for the 
 length and number of the quotations, since, in a work of this 
 nature, I should think an author very presumptuous who 
 should expect to be credited upon the single authority of an 
 Ipse Dixit. If I had not, therefore, produced my vouchers, 
 I should have believed every reader would have called for 
 them ; and if I had produced them only in a translation, I 
 should have apprehended that the learned reader would 
 have demanded the original, and would have complained 
 of me for sending him to examine the propriety of my 
 translations, amongst so many and various, and some of them 
 not common authors. 
 
 The care I have used, both in the one and in the other 
 will, I hope, secure me from the censure of my learned 
 readers, and from the imputation of misleading my unlearned 
 ones, by any passage of moment which is either cited or 
 translated in the following papers. 
 
 I have nowhere taken any thing upon trust from modern 
 authorities, nor am I conscious to myself that I have made 
 any other use of our modern writers than what is particu- 
 larly acknowledged in the body of the ensuing treatise. 
 
 Only it may be fit to inform the reader that, at my 
 entrance upon this work, I read over what our most learned 
 
xiv Preface. 
 
 Archbishop Usher hath written upon the subject, in his 
 " Answer " to the Jesuit's " Challenge," together with a tract 
 of " Penitential Confession," written about seventy years 
 ago by an anonymous author, which was put into my hands 
 by my very learned friend, whom I have already mentioned 
 in the beginning of this Preface. 
 
 I have not cited either of these authors in the body of 
 my work, because, indeed, I do not remember any particular 
 use which I made either of the one or the other ; though, as 
 each of them might contribute to enlarge and perfect my 
 ideas of this whole subject, I have judged it unfit to defraud 
 them of their due acknowledgments. 
 
 I likewise went through that great magazine of learning 
 which Morinus hath collected upon this occasion ; from 
 whose sentiments, however, I have taken the liberty to 
 depart whenever I saw, or thought I saw, reason. Por as 
 no regards should be so sacred as those of truth, so, having 
 extracted most of my materials from the fountain, I know 
 not why I should be restrained from employing my own 
 judgment in the use I made of them. If at any time I have 
 been specially obliged to this or any other author, I have all 
 along cited him by name, and referred to the place, that the 
 reader, if he pleases, may the more readily consult him. 
 
 I have one thing further to advertise which, perhaps, may 
 be thought to stand in need of some apology, viz. that, not 
 having by me those huge and numerous volumes of the 
 Latin Councils, which have been published severally by 
 Labbee and Binius, I have frequently resorted to Mr. 
 Howel's " Synopsis." But then, wherever I found or sus- 
 pected him to be faulty, I have all along had recourse to 
 
Preface. xv 
 
 Labbee and Binius for further certainty. So that I hope no 
 material error will hence be charged upon me. 
 
 After all, I am very far from the vanity of expecting that 
 the Discipline of our Church should be regulated according 
 to my scheme, as propounded in the fourth chapter. I wish 
 I could have found words more expressive of my entire 
 submission to that venerable body, with which all designs 
 and attempts of this nature ought to be intrusted. How- 
 ever, as it is not their part to persuade or convince, but to 
 appoint and order, there can be no harm in feeling before- 
 hand how people are affected in endeavouring to apprize 
 them of what hath so long been wanting, nor in trying what 
 reception shall be given to such an undertaking. Upon me 
 be the blame, if any thing in it be amiss or improper, and 
 let those be acquitted who have had no hand in it. 
 
 Upon the whole, I have represented, as faithfully as I 
 could, the practice of the Primitive Church in her Peni- 
 tential Discipline. And in the offers I have made for a 
 return to some part, at least, of her usages and customs, I 
 have propounded them with all the tenderness wherewith I 
 could possibly guard them. And I do further here profess, 
 that I shall esteem myself amply recompensed for all the 
 pains I have bestowed upon the ensuing papers, if our two 
 Houses of Convocation will be pleased to take them into 
 their protection, and enter, in such ways as shall seem best 
 to their own great wisdom, upon any regulations of our 
 present Discipline. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Preface iii 
 
 Introduction 1 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Op the Foundation whereupon the Chorch builds her Claim 
 to the Power here asserted 7 
 
 This Foundation threefold : — 
 
 Sect. I. — That there is somewhat of this kind founded in common 
 
 reason 7 
 
 II. — That she hath an express charter to bear her out in it 10 
 
 m. — That her construction of the sense wherein she under- 
 stands the words of that charter, is derived to her 
 from general and current practice, as well before, as 
 after the delivery of these powers to her, by Christ, 
 her Founder 13 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Of the Use which the Church made of this power, and of 
 the manner wherein she exerted it, for the first four 
 hundred tears, wherein she enjoyed it . . . .30 
 
 This considered in two Parts : — 
 
 Part I. — What were the constituent parts of the discipline in 
 question. 
 
 II. — What were the crimes for which it was inflicted ; and in 
 whose hands the ministration (or execution) of it was 
 lodged. 
 
 b 
 
xviii Contents. 
 
 Part I. 
 
 Page 
 
 The constituent parts of this Discipline were three, viz. : 
 
 Sect. I. — Confession 33 
 
 II. — Segregation 45 
 
 HE.— Absolution 62 
 
 Part II. 
 
 Sect. I. — Of the Crimes for which this Discipline was inflicted . 84 
 
 n. — In whose hands the ministration, or execution, of this 
 
 Discipline was lodged 91 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 Or the Departure op the Western Churches from the Pri- 
 mitive Model 101 
 
 This Departure consisted chiefly in the four following 
 particulars : — • 
 
 Sect. I. — In the Substitution of the Private for Public Penance . 101 
 
 II. — In the Redemption of the Public Canonical Penance, by 
 
 pecuniary and other commutations . . . 127 
 
 IH. — In the Separation of the two jurisdictions from each 
 other, which were originally lodged in the same hands, 
 and proceeded together with equal paces, viz. 1. That 
 which respected the Conscience of the Sinner, and the 
 Forgiveness of his sin : and 2. That which only re- 
 ferred to outward Discipline, and to the privilege of 
 Church-Communion 135 
 
 IV. — In the Variation of the Form in Absolving, which from 
 deprecatory and optative, grew about the same time 
 with the preceding change, to be peremptory and 
 indicative 144 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 "Whether the Revival of the Primitive Discipline mat be 
 practicable, and how par it mat be so ; ip it shall 
 seem good to authoritt to make the trial . . .161 
 
 To this purpose Seven Things propounded, with all humble 
 submission : 
 
 i.— That the laws respecting Discipline, which are at present in 
 
 being, be reinforced, and pointed with some new sanction 162 
 
Contents. xix 
 
 Page 
 n. — That some brand be fixed upon the practice of joining in the 
 other parts of public worship, and of departing from it 
 without the reception of the Blessed Sacrament . .163 
 
 m. — That some use of the Ancient Stations might be now revived; 
 that the receivers of the Holy Communion might have 
 some place assigned them in our Churches distinct from 
 those who should not communicate . . . . 167 
 
 Under this head somewhat is propounded concerning Bap- 
 tism and Confirmation. 
 
 iv. — That the Key of Jurisdiction be re-united to that of Order, 
 and that both be lodged in the same hand, as they formerly 
 were, for above a thousand years after Christ . . .169 
 
 v. — That the Interceding Mediatorial Office of the Priest be by 
 some fit methods inculcated upon the people, who by all 
 means should acknowledge him in that character and capa- 
 city 170 
 
 vi. — That a Chorepiscopus, or Suffragan, be appointed in some 
 market-town, or place of great resort, within every rural 
 Deanery, to whom should appertain whatever heretofore 
 was committed to the Penitentiary, in the district he should 
 belong to, or in the villages adjacent to it ; and that he 
 should accordingly be entrusted with the management of 
 Discipline, in all the parts assigned him for his Province ; 
 yet with this restriction, that he should be subject and 
 accountable to the Bishop of his Diocese, who by his means 
 might be acquainted with the state of his people, much 
 better, and more fully, than it is possible he now should be 173 
 
 Under this head some account is given of Primitive Epi- 
 scopacy. 
 
 vn. — And lastly ; That all this, or whatever else of this kind shall 
 be provided, be more particularly specified in a Penitential 
 Office explained by a proper Rubric, and added to our 
 public Liturgy 179 
 
 The Conclusion . . 180 
 
XX 
 
 Contents. 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Pago 
 
 Numb. I. — Gregory Nyssen's Canonical Epistle to Letoius, Bishop 
 
 ofMelitine. Translated from the Greek . . 185 
 N.B. — This Epistle is an Abridgement of the Penitential 
 Discipline, as handed down to the Fourth Century. 
 
 n. — The Account of Socrates, the Ecclesiastical Historian, 
 (Book v. chap. 19.) concerning the office of Peni- 
 tentiary in the Primitive Church. Translated from 
 the Greek 198 
 
 HI. — Sozomen's Account of the same matter (in Book vii. 
 
 chap. 17.) Translated likewise from the Greek . 200 
 
 IV. — The Prayer for Penitents, accompanied with Imposi- 
 tion of Hands. In Constitut. Apostol. Book viii. 
 chap. 9. Translated from the Greek . . . 202 
 N.B. This is the only form we have extant, which hath 
 the face of a Primitive Absolution. 
 
 V. — Divers Prayers at receiving Penitents to penance, at 
 hearing their Confession, and at absolving them, 
 translated from the Greek, and taken out of the 
 Penitential of Johannes Jejunator, who was raised to 
 the See of Constantinople, a.d. 585 .... 204 
 N.B. The Penitential itself is published by Morinus. 
 
 VI. — Certain Extracts from the Capitular of Theodoras, Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury, as published by Monsieur 
 Petit, which represents to us the form of the Peniten- 
 tial Discipline as it stood in those days . . . 210 
 
 VII. — Other Extracts from the Penitential of Ecbert, who was 
 Archbishop of York, from the year 781, to about the 
 year 767. Published by Morinus, and translated from 
 
 him 213 
 
 N.B. In this is contained the Form of Clinical Penance. 
 
 VOT.— Extract from a Breviary, composed for the use of a 
 
 Monastery in Italy, about the year 1086 . . 225 
 
THE 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 What the Greeks call Mirdvoia, and the Latins Pcenitentia, 
 that we express by the word ' penitence ' or ' repentance.' 
 
 Now, as several things are implied in this, such as a 
 change of mind, a compunction of heart, with all the disci- 
 pline preparatory or subsequent thereunto, in the use of the 
 word regard is differently had, sometimes to one, sometimes 
 to another part of the duty. 
 
 The Greeks (as their expression imports) seem chiefly to 
 have had in view that after-thought, that change of mind, of 
 purpose, and inclination, which is always a considerable 
 branch of this great duty. 
 
 On the other hand, the Latins 1 seem most to have fixed 
 upon that compunction of spirit, that grief of heart, where- 
 with a true penitent always afflicts his soul. We have fol- 
 lowed the latter, and have borrowed our expression from 
 them. 
 
 But how differently soever we may derive the word, whe- 
 ther from its causes, its effects, or its concomitants,. we are 
 well enough agreed in the thing, and have no dispute about 
 the meaning of penitence or repentance. 
 
 So much of this duty as passes between God and our own 
 souls, or as our neighbour may be concerned in, by way of 
 restitution to him, is a large common-place in Divinity, 
 which hath been copiously handled in practical discourses. 
 
 1 Paenitentia appellata, quasi puni- Hispalens. Originum, lib. vi. c. 19. [§ 71. 
 tentia, eo quod ipse homo in se puniat ed. Areval.] 
 psemtendo quod male admisit. — Isidor. 
 
2 The Introduction. 
 
 But the external discipline of repentance, that which the 
 
 Church of Christ for so many ages applied medicinally to 
 
 the distempers of her body ; this hath lain a great while 
 
 under gross neglects. 
 
 See our Once in a year we solemnly profess our wishes to have it 
 
 office 01 J a \ t '1 V 1 
 
 Commina- restored : but if something farther be not contributed to its 
 be^'n^tt restoration, than our annual wishes, it will lie where it does, 
 tioTof the disregarded by all, and utterly unknown to the thoughtless 
 primitive many. 
 
 Our Church is justly esteemed the bulwark and glory of 
 the Reformation ; nor will it be any forfeiture of her charac- 
 ter, if it be acknowledged, that she is not perfect. Perfection 
 is a title she leaves to be usurped by those, which, of all 
 communities (calling themselves Christian), have the least 
 pretence to it : and it is pretty remarkable, that this claim is 
 made by the Church of Rome as a body, and by the Quakers, 
 each man for himself. Both would be perfect, and both 
 infallible; whilst by these, and divers other arrogant pre- 
 tences, they destroy their own claim, and prove themselves 
 to be least, what they would most seem to be. Our Church 
 makes no such haughty pretension, but owns her defect in 
 the Office, just cited, and professes to wish that it may be 
 supplied. 
 
 Whether the times will bear a restitution of the ancient 
 discipline, or any approaches towards it, is not matter of 
 private inquiry, but of public cognizance ; and, as such, is 
 humbly submitted to its proper judges. 
 
 But with all due deference to the higher powers, the 
 Author sees no reason which should restrain him from 
 endeavouring to awaken a sense of what we have lost in the 
 minds of his readers, to compare past things with the pre- 
 sent, and to shew wherein the difference (which is confessed) 
 between them does consist. 
 
 If we are sincere in our professions of wishing that Godly 
 discipline restored, whose loss and disuse we lament, the 
 concurrence of many will go some way towards it. Authority 
 may easily make it practicable to those who desire it (and 
 some such it is hoped may be found even in this licentious 
 generation) ; and for those who despise it (who, I am per- 
 suaded, will be found either amongst the profane or the 
 
The Introduction. 3 
 
 ignorant), they must go on to despise, till God in His 
 mercy shall touch their hearts, or enlighten their under- 
 standings ; but let them, meanwhile, beware of fighting 
 against God. 
 
 It is the scorner's property to laugh, when he should 
 mourn ; and I expect he should exert himself, as usually, 
 upon this occasion. Men who are accustomed to glory in 
 their shame, and to mock at the distinctions between good 
 and evil, have no address intended to them in this discourse. 
 
 The serious Christian (wherever found) is desired to peruse 
 these papers with that impartial candour which the Author 
 hopes he writes them with. 
 
 That stale and putrid imputation of Popery, is what he 
 despises, from a consciousness that he does not deserve it, 
 and from a full persuasion that no one will attempt to fix it 
 upon him, who is at all acquainted either with him, or with 
 his subject. 
 
 He writes for a restoration of that discipline to its ancient 
 purity, which the novelties of Popery have corrupted, and 
 conveyed to us, not so fully cleared (as we could wish it 
 were) from the stains it hath thence contracted. 
 
 We answer with some difficulty, when a want of discipline 
 is objected to us. If then it be a fault, why should it not 
 be amended ? If it be confessed, why should it not be 
 remedied ? 
 
 The age (it will be said) is loose, and will not bear it ; 
 though that be indeed a reason which most requires it. 
 Perhaps the yoke of Christ's religion, easy as it is in its 
 own nature, may yet prove too galling and heavy for such 
 tender necks. But men who are sincere in their sorrow for 
 sin, will contentedly take to themselves the shame of it ; as 
 knowing it will be better to expose themselves in the pre- 
 sence of a few gathered together in the Name of God, and 
 under a sense of His all-seeing wisdom and Almighty power, 
 than to be exposed against their wills, at the general assem- 
 bly of the Resurrection. To such as are otherwise minded, 
 no force is propounded ; and therefore no cause of complaint 
 is offered them. 
 
 But why then may not those who desire a conformity to 
 primitive manners, and to Apostolic usages, be indulged in 
 
4 The Introduction. 
 
 such a reasonable demand? Why should they not be as- 
 sisted in their pious purpose, and have it at least in their 
 power to follow the ancient Church in the manner of their 
 repentance ? 
 
 If these papers shall fall into the hands of those in autho- 
 rity, the Author most humbly entreats their favourable 
 perusal and protection of them, that what he writes with 
 an honest design may, with their assistance, be made 
 effectual. 
 
 A penitential Office hath been reckoned among the things 
 which are wanting to us, that if any are willing to rank 
 themselves in the class of public penitents (as in the Primi- 
 tive Church many did of their own accord), they may thence 
 be directed in their religious intentions, and led, as it were, 
 by the hand, to the ministry of reconciliation. 
 
 Or if any shall be found deserving of a judicial censure, by 
 public enormous crimes, and shall submit to discipline, and 
 in a becoming manner desire a re-admission ; that the way 
 to this may be chalked out for them, and remission of sins 
 be obtained by the Church. 
 
 This, therefore, is humbly propounded to the two Houses 
 of Convocation, that they would begin to answer the great 
 hopes which have been conceived of their perfecting what is 
 wanting to us. 
 
 The juncture looks favourable, the eyes of the world are 
 upon them, and somewhat is expected proportionable to 
 their own great abilities, and to the encouragement they 
 have from a gracious Queen to exert them. 
 
 Private men may write and wish ; but they only can (as 
 it is fit they only should) execute. 
 
 This, therefore, the Author submits to their great wisdom ; 
 propounding only to inquire into these four things, each of 
 which will be the subject of a distinct chapter. 
 
 1. The foundation whereupon the Church builds her 
 claim to the power which will be here asserted. 
 
 2. The use she made of it, and the manner wherein she 
 exerted it, for the first four hundred years. 
 
 3. The departure of the Western Churches from the pri- 
 mitive model. 
 
 4. Whether any revival of this might be practicable ; or 
 
The Introduction. 5 
 
 how far it might be so, if it should seem good to authority to 
 make the trial. 
 
 Under some of these heads most of what is designed to be 
 written upon this subject, will easily be comprehended ; only 
 it will be fit to let the reader know, at his entrance upon 
 these inquiries, that the discipline here all along intended to 
 be spoke to, is a branch of that power, which is commonly 
 called " the power of the keys," or the actual exercise of that To St. Peter 
 authority which was granted by Christ to His Apostles, of 16.19. 
 binding and loosing, of remitting and retaining sins. to°st! Matt. 
 
 This, if it shall appear to have been really granted by * 8 - } 8 - 
 Christ to His Apostles, and by them transmitted to the der another 
 Church for all succeeding generations, is a deposition and j Q ^ 20.' 23. 
 trust of such great importance, that I know not how we shall 
 be able to excuse our departure from it. 
 
THE 
 
 PENITENTIAL DISCIPLINE 
 
 PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE FOUNDATION WHEREUPON THE CHUECH BUILDS HEE CLAIM 
 TO THE POWER HEEE ASSEETED. 
 
 This foundation is threefold. For 1. Somewhat there is 
 of this kind founded in common reason. 2. She hath an 
 express charter to bear her out in it. And 3. Her construc- 
 tion of the sense wherein she understands the words of that 
 charter, is derived to her from general and current practice, 
 as well before as after the delivery of these powers to her by 
 Christ, her Founder. 
 
 Section I. 
 
 Somewhat there is of this kind, which is founded in com- 
 mon reason, that the Church, as a society, should have the 
 powers belonging to her, which are necessary to her support 
 and preservation. 
 
 Now, there can be no society without government; and 
 there can be no government, without a power to encourage 
 the orderly and obedient, and to discountenance gainsayers, 
 and such as "walk disorderly." 2Thess.3.6, 
 
 But then, as our Saviour's " Kingdom was not of this j'ohn'is. 36. 
 world," it was none of His purpose to interfere with the 
 
8 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, rulers of it, nor to invest the governors of His Church with 
 any other powers than what should be purely spiritual. 
 
 Some outward and visible form of government was how- 
 ever necessary to the Church, for her external polity ; and as 
 there was an outward admission to the privileges of Church- 
 membership, so it was expedient to the honour of the Spouse 
 of Christ, and from the design of her founder requisite, that 
 she should retain no scandalous followers in communion 
 with her ; and therefore, as they were admitted into fellow- 
 ship with her by one solemn ceremony (viz. that of Baptism), 
 it was very proper that they should be cut off from her by 
 another (viz. that of judicial censure). Again, that upon 
 their humble desire of reconciliation, they should be restored 
 by a third (viz. that of Absolution). And finally, that the 
 intercourse and commerce between her faithful members, 
 should be maintained by her great sacrifice of praise in the 
 Holy Eucharist. 
 
 Since the Church of Christ is really a society, and yet 
 hath none of that outward coercive power, wherewith the 
 civil magistrate enforces his laws, it was fit she should 
 have something in lieu of it, whereby her members might 
 either be kept to rule, or else be disowned by her, and 
 excluded from all further correspondence or communion 
 with her. 
 
 We can never frame to ourselves the notion of a society, 
 which hath not some bands and ties to cement it ; so that if 
 the Church hath no other than what affect the conscience, it 
 is fit at least that these should be left to her. And these 
 are what the civil power can never have reason to be jealous 
 of; since a man may, to all intents and purposes, discharge 
 his several duties to the State, who yet is cut off from all 
 intercourse with the Church. 
 
 The powers belonging to' each, their manner of govern- 
 ment, and their ways of operating upon the hopes and fears 
 of their respective members, are so totally different from 
 each other, than they can never clash, whilst each confines 
 itself to its proper province. 
 
 And, indeed, all the inconveniences which have been at- 
 tempted to be fastened upon this claim of the Church to an 
 independent power, are founded upon remote possibilities of 
 
of the Primitive Church. 9 
 
 I know not what abuses, which would alike affect any claim 
 of power whatsoever. 
 
 Reason, therefore, alone will carry us so far in this inquiry, 
 that the Church, as a society instituted by Christ, should 
 have the powers necessary to her support and government, 
 that she should have somewhat wherewith to keep her 
 members within the rules and orders of her Founder. For 
 it were absurd to suppose of so wise a Founder, that He 
 should have left her in such a naked and destitute condition 
 as to have no rules of government, no bands of union between 
 her members, no common ligaments wherewith to keep the 
 body compact, and to preserve it in health and vigour. 
 
 St. Cyprian 1 gives discipline,^ just encomium, when he 
 ascribes to it the ' preservation of our faith and hope ; our 
 guidance to Heaven ; the increase of all good dispositions in 
 us ; the support of all virtue ; our abiding in God and 
 Christ, and our partaking at last of their blessed promises.' 
 He might well therefore subjoin, as he did, that ' to adhere 
 to it was beneficial ; and to despise or neglect it, fatal.' 
 
 Reason will easily subscribe to his judgment of this 
 matter ; and I wish there were no occasion to observe, that 
 experience hath confirmed it to us, by our want of discipline, 
 and of these advantages together. 
 
 But now, though reason may give us some general hints, 
 that discipline and government are necessary to the Church, 
 as she is a society, yet what this government should be, or 
 wherein this discipline should consist, could not have been 
 thus determined; so that either its governors must have 
 been .left entirely to a discretionary power, which perhaps 
 its members (as a voluntary society) might not have acqui- 
 esced in ; or else, 
 
 2. Recourse must be had to the original deed and charter 
 which incorporated them ; and thence we must endeavour 
 to trace the lines and footsteps of the powers which therein 
 are specified. 
 
 1 Disciplina custos spei, retinaculum tia, et Divina praemia pervenire. Hanc 
 
 fidei, dux itineris salutaris, fomes ac et sectari salubre est, et aversari ac 
 
 nutrimentum bona indolis, magistra vir- negligere lethale.— Cypr. de Disciplin. et 
 
 tutis, facit in Cbristo manere semper ac Habit. Virgin. 
 jugiter Deo vivere, et ad p?omissa Codes- 
 
10 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 i- Section II. 
 
 Now, that the Church had some powers of this kind to 
 take cognizance of her members' offences, we may learn 
 from our Saviour's direction in the case of a brother tres- 
 
 Matt. is. passing against another. First, " there was to be a private 
 
 15 ' 18 ' admonition ; if that would not do, it was to be repeated in 
 the presence of one or two witnesses. If this method proved 
 unsuccessful, the Church he belonged to was to be interested 
 in the matter ; he was to be solemnly convened and rebuked 
 in public. But if nothing of all this would be available, 
 then, as the last remedy, he was to be expelled from it ; to 
 be as a heathen man and a publican." And whatsoever 
 should thus be done upon earth, in virtue of our Saviour's 
 commission (for it was not to the mixed multitude, but to 
 His Own immediate Disciples, that our Lord upon this occa- 
 sion spoke), had a promise from Him of being ratified in 
 
 See Matt. Heaven. " Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye 
 shall bind on earth, shall be bound in Heaven ; and whatso- 
 ever ye shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in Heaven." 
 
 Matt.i6.19. The authority He had before given to St. Peter upon a 
 particular occasion, He here confirmed to His other dis- 
 ciples. 
 
 The Jews (we shall see) were enough acquainted with the 
 terms of binding and loosing, of being to them as a heathen 
 man and a publican, to understand the full import of them, 
 without further explication. So that we are not to wonder, 
 if this authority was couched in expressions, which to us, at 
 this distance, may seem loose and general, intricate and 
 involved; because at the time when they were delivered, 
 they had a clear and well-known reference to the current 
 practice of Excommunication, which our Lord apparently 
 hence intended to adopt into His Church. 
 
 Origen 1 so interprets this passage, or tells us at least, that 
 the bishops of his time claimed hence their powers. ' The 
 
 i Ii qui Episcoponim locum sibi vindi- in Ccelis ligata ; rursus ea, qua soluta 
 
 cant, utuntur eo dicto sicut Petrus, et fuerint ab ipsis, eadem et in Ccelis esse 
 
 claves regni Coelorum a Servatore acce- soluta.— Origen. Latin. Basil. Edit. In 
 
 perunt ; docentque ea qua: ab illis ligata Part. I. Super Matthae. Tract. 1. 
 
 fuerint, hoc est, condemnata, eadem et [Cf. Ed. Bened. vol. iii. p. 531.] 
 
of the Primitive Church. 1 1 
 
 Bishops (says he) make the same application of that saying 
 (viz. of binding and loosing) which St. Peter did, " and have 
 received the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven from our 
 Saviour, and teach us, that whatsoever they bind here, i. e. 
 condemn, is bound likewise in Heaven ; and whatsoever they 
 loose here, is also loosed in Heaven." 
 
 In St. John we have a more emphatical and solemn 
 renewal of these powers to the Apostles after our blessed 
 Lord's Resurrection, when He seemed to be giving His 
 last orders. " Then said Jesus unto them, Peace be unto Joim.20.21- 
 you : as My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you. And 
 when He had said this, He breathed on them, and saith 
 unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost : whosesoever sins 
 ye remit, they are remitted unto them ; and whosesoever 
 sins ye retain, they are retained." 
 
 The reverend and learned Dr. Hammond hath well see Dr. 
 observed upon this, that the word *g«d«, which we render ^o^™^" 1 
 ' retain,' hath the same signification with hica, ' bind,' only the P lace - 
 former is somewhat more emphatical, and signifies indeed to 
 ' keep bound.' The word aprjre, ' remit,' refers to sin, as a 
 debt ; whereas the word Xbm, ' loose,' refers to it as a bond 
 or chain. But that Xuw, ' loose,' has reference to sin, as well 
 as upirifAi, ' remit,' and that sins are said to be loosed, in the 
 same sense wherein they are said to be remitted; this is 
 evident from what the above-mentioned Author hath ob- 
 served out of a passage in the LXX. concerning Job and 
 his friends ; whose sin (say those interpreters) the Lord 
 loosed or remitted at the mediation of Job. We translate 
 it, " The Lord accepted the person of Job :" but the words Job 42. 9. 
 in the LXX. run thus, " The Lord loosed their sin through \^% 
 Job ;" i. e. through his means, or at his intercession. i^ri'*. 
 
 Thus much I have thought fit to suggest, that it might ^" 
 appear the passages in St. Matthew and St. John have 
 much the same signification ; that binding and loosing are 
 equivalent terms to retaining and remitting. 
 
 Morinus 1 hath exhibited some of the Jewish formularies, 
 
 1 Talis tenetur excommunicatione dum verbum tuum, ipse solvet eum, et 
 
 Schamata, domus judicii, excommunica- parcetei. — Morin. deAdministrat.Paeni- 
 
 tus est et suscepit judicium legis, et ju- tent. lib. iv. cap. 23. AI. ibid. Dimis- 
 
 dicium Rabbanim ; nunc solvat ilium, et sum est tibi, parcitum est tibi. 
 parcat ei, qui dixit Mosi, Peperci secun- 
 
12 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, wherein they absolved from Excommunication ; and there the 
 
 very words of loosing and remitting, are applied to the 
 
 purpose we are now contending for ; nay, even Mr. Selden, 1 
 though a professed enemy to our present construction of the 
 powers contained in binding and loosing, yet hath proved it 
 unawares to have a just foundation in the Rabbinical learn- 
 ing, himself interpreting that of Rabbi Samuel, " The sound 
 of the trumpet binds, and the sound of the trumpet looses," 
 concerning Excommunication and Absolution ; the sound of 
 the trumpet being, it seems, an usual ceremony attending 
 upon that discipline. 
 
 If, therefore, a certain foreign author 2 had not been very 
 much resolved to have opposed Dr. Hammond at all adven- 
 tures, at the hazard of the text and of his own credit 
 together, he would never have fetched his interpretation of 
 binding and loosing so far, as from a power to inflict and to 
 cure diseases, which was only an accidental and temporary 
 consequence attendant upon the power of binding and 
 loosing. Satan, indeed, is said in St. Luke to have bound 3 
 the woman who had a spirit of infirmity upon her ; and she 
 is reported, when cured, to have been loosed from her bond, 
 loosed from her infirmity. But would our author hence 
 argue, that the power of the Apostles and of Satan in bind- 
 ing, were perfectly the same, because the expressions of it 
 are so ? We will allow him, if he pleases, a part of what 
 he contends for, viz. that a power of inflicting diseases was 
 granted to the Apostles, as well as the power of mere 
 excommunication ; but yet the Church (we insist) might, 
 and did derive the one from the Apostles, although the 
 other did not descend to her as a standing gift; nor was 
 there any reason why it should, when there was no farther 
 occasion for the continuance of miracles. 
 
 Our Saviour sent indeed His Apostles, as He Himself 
 
 was sent by His Father ; and yet not in all points as Himself 
 
 John 3. 34. was sent ; for to Him " the Spirit was given without mea- 
 
 1 Flatus cornu ligat, et flatus cormi ges cited from St. John and St, Matthew, 
 
 solvit. — Selden de Synedr. veter. Ebra- p. 5. 
 
 or. Lib. i. cap. 7. » Luke 13, 11-16. »„„»■ i^xixu- 
 
 * Mr. Le Clerc's Supplement to Dr. ,«, rfc h,hm* s ,<,„• Xv6* m i,i „« 
 
 Hammond. See bim on the two passa- litruou. 
 
of the Primitive Church. 13 
 
 sure ;" whereas they had only an occasional and stinted 
 portion of it. In like manner they sent others as them- 
 selves were sent ; and yet not in all respects with the same 
 privileges and powers wherewith they were themselves 
 invested ; hut with all which were expedient for planting, 
 and watering, and governing the Church of Christ. 
 
 Mr. Le Clerc hath lived long after Dr. Hammond, and 
 hath had the opportunity of espying some flaws in the notes 
 and paraphrase of that great good man : yet, methinks, his 
 piety as a Christian, and his learning as a scholar, might 
 have screened his memory from being insulted by any man 
 who should ever pretend to either of those two characters. 
 
 But I return, and proceed to put this matter upon its last 
 issue. 
 
 Section III. 
 
 Now that which, added to the two foregoing consider- 
 ations, should put this case beyond all question, is, the 
 general and current practice, which hath all along obtained, 
 as well before as after the delivery of these powers to the 
 Church, by Christ her Founder. 
 
 The practice which obtained before, made any general or 
 distant hint intelligible to those who lived at the time and 
 upon the- spot, and consequently must have known the 
 usages of the age and place they lived in. 
 
 The reason of the thing, the fitness that somewhat of this 
 kind, some such authority as is here contended for, should 
 be granted to the Church as a spiritual society (the 
 weapons of whose warfare were not therefore to be carnal), 2 Cor. 10. 4. 
 I say, the reason of the thing would contribute a good deal 
 to the explication of any such power, when it should in fact 
 be granted. 
 
 It is not here asserted, that either, or that both of these 
 pleas together, would have entitled the Church to an exer- 
 cise of this jurisdiction, without a more express conveyance 
 of power to her. But when the reason of the thing had 
 suggested the fitness of somewhat like it ; when a practice 
 had moreover obtained, which very nearly resembled it ; and 
 when a precept was delivered, which did manifestly enforce 
 the continuance of that practice, the Disciples of our Lord 
 
14 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chip, could not well do otherwise, than it will appear they did. 
 
 — Those who followed them, and had means of knowing their 
 
 opinion in any case of doubt, easily took it from them ; and 
 thence it is obvious to conceive, how the usage should spread 
 through succeeding generations. 
 
 The Author of that infamous book (ridiculously entitled, 
 SeeBookof« The Rights of the Christian Church"), is so far from 
 pp. 42, 43,' denying the extensiveness of the practice, that he labours to 
 96 > 98 > "• proye itj an( j quot e S divers passages from Tacitus of the 
 Germans, from Ceesar of the Gauls and Britons, and from 
 Josephus of the Jews, to confirm it, and to magnify the 
 horrors of an Ecclesiastical censure. But then he would 
 insinuate, that the Christian derived it from the Heathen 
 Priests ; although (if such a witty Author could have balked 
 the jest of it, and have allowed himself to be serious) it 
 would have looked more probable to have said, that the 
 Christian borrowed it from the Jewish Priesthood. This 
 would have carried some appearance of truth with it; 
 and for that very reason, it is not unlikely this suspicious 
 Author might be afraid of it. Thus much, however, we may 
 fairly gather from his confession of the practice being so 
 general, that it seems to have been essential to religious 
 societies, since it was in current use, where there could be 
 no just pretence of its being concerted, in so many, such 
 various, and such distant places. 
 
 As to the Jews, their practice in this case was notorious 
 
 at the time when our Saviour grafted the powers of His 
 
 Church upon it. It is not material to inquire whether they 
 
 had the immediate appointment of God for such usage or 
 
 not, since it is evident from the case of our two Sacraments, 
 
 that our Saviour might and did form His Own institutions 
 
 upon the model of human customs. 
 
 Nidui, Che- Among the Jews, the three degrees of this discipline 
 
 Scham" were famous, and have been noted by all writers who have 
 
 matha. ever touched upon the subject. Great were the encomiums 
 
 which the Rabbis of those days bestowed upon confession 
 
 Morin. and penance. Morinus hath made large collections out of 
 
 22. de Ad- " tne Jewish doctors to this purpose. There was, indeed, no 
 
 ministrat. common place amongst them more beaten than this ; so 
 
 that there needed no minute nor circumstantial explication 
 
of the Primitive Church. 15 
 
 of a precept, which had already the comment of current 
 practice to illustrate it. 
 
 In the temple-worship, it is plain that the ministry of the Levit. 5. to. 
 Priest was very considerable towards the forgiveness of sins. 
 The Priest was first to make an atonement for the sin, and 
 then the party was to have it forgiven him. 
 
 The reader shall not longer be" detained in proving to 
 him what no man, I believe, hath the hardiness to deny of 
 the Jewish practice, both before and after the age of the 
 Gospel. 
 
 Now the Apostles cannot well be supposed to have been 
 ignorant of what was in daily use among their own country- 
 men. When, therefore, they were themselves to be in- 
 vested with powers of much the same kind and nature, 
 they easily understood what was so familiar to them, and 
 what from their very infancy they had been all along 
 acquainted with. 
 
 When it was said to them, " Go ye therefore, and disciple Matt.2s.19. 
 all nations, baptizing them," &c. the practice of baptizing 
 was so well understood, that there could be no want of any 
 further explanation. 
 
 When again it was said to them, "Do this in remem- Luke 22. 19. 
 brance of Me ;" the postccenium of bread and wine was an 
 usage so common, that there could be no occasion for 
 enlarging upon it, nor for deducing it to them with any 
 further particularity. 
 
 What their sense of these matters was, we gather from 
 their practice, and thence are taught to receive members 
 into the Church of Christ by the Ordinance of Baptism, 
 and to continue our fellowship with Him, by shewing forth 
 His death, and representing it to His Father in our Euchar- 
 istical oblations. 
 
 Had we no lights from history to inform us of the practice 
 which succeeded these several precepts, I very much doubt 
 whether we should have had left amongst us any footsteps 
 of it, or whether we should have been able to follow without 
 such a guide. The Scriptures, when well understood, are 
 indeed sufficient directions to our faith and practice : but in 
 order to understand them, proper helps must be used ; and 
 
I. 
 
 16 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, among these, I know none of such consequence, as the 
 - concurrent voice of antiquity. 
 
 Now to apply all this to the matter in hand. 
 
 The Apostles of our Lord were manifestly invested with 
 some powers or other, when they were authorized to bind 
 and loose, to remit and retain sins. But how then shall we 
 know what these powers were? Whether they belonged 
 to the ordinary, or to the extraordinary parts of their Office ? 
 
 It hath already been observed, that the Apostles them- 
 selves had easy access to the means of knowing what was 
 implied in those powers from the usage of the Church they 
 lived in, besides the advantage of familiar converse with 
 their Master, and the promise of being led by His Spirit 
 into all truth, when Himself should leave them. So that if 
 we can come at the knowledge of their practice, we shall 
 at least be informed from thence, what of privilege, or of 
 power, was to them conveyed by the grant of binding and 
 loosing. 
 
 And if we can likewise come at the knowledge of what 
 their nearest followers did in pursuance of the powers they 
 received from the Apostles, and can trace the practice 
 downwards from the fountain, to the distance of three or 
 four hundred years, we then shall be pretty well able to 
 ascertain the standing powers of the Church, and what was 
 intended to be of perpetual use in it. 
 
 For it is not imaginable, that in a thing of this conse- 
 quence, wherein all her external polity was so deeply inter- 
 ested, the Apostles should suffer their earliest followers to 
 run into manifest error, and to continue in it, when them- 
 selves were in possession of the means, either to prevent or 
 rectify it. Nor is it conceivable, that such an error should 
 spread universally, when appeals might be made so easily 
 to those who were conversant themselves with the persons 
 of the Apostles, or at least received their religion from such 
 as were so. In a tract of time, it is intelligible enough how 
 truth may be corrupted : but where a practice of confessed 
 importance is founded upon precept, and can be traced 
 moreover to the fountain, no man will easily persuade me 
 that it is not pure and genuine. 
 
of the Primitive Church. 17 
 
 Now that the Apostles did exercise some such authority 
 as is here contended for, over the Christians of their times, 
 is evident enough, and cannot he disputed. The case of the 
 incestuous Corinthian, and the solemnity wherewith St. Paul 
 delivered him to Satan, may be seen in his first Epistle to iCor.v. n. 
 that people ; " with such an one " he directs his Corinthians, 
 not to keep company, no, " not to eat," if they could well 
 avoid it. In about a year after, when that discipline appeared 
 to have wrought its designed effect, we find the Apostle 2 Cor. 2. 10. 
 soliciting his restoration, his forgiveness, and telling the 
 Church that he had already forgiven him in the person of 
 Christ. 
 
 The same Apostle will furnish us with some further 
 examples of the like case, where he informs Timothy of his 1 Tim. 1.20. 
 having exercised this discipline upon Hymenaeus and Alex- 
 ander, and where he denounces against such as love not 1 Cor. 16. 
 the Lord Jesus, the highest of those Ecclesiastical censures, 
 which were so well known to the times he lived in, viz. that 
 of Anathema Maran-atha ; which, as Morinus hath observed, Morin. de 
 and Mr. Selden himself, with much ado, acknowledges, is m,. iv.c.28. 
 easily reducible to the Jewish Schammatha, as the single |ynedr. de 
 Anathema might be to the degree of censure next to it, viz. SJ' r ? or ', 
 that of Cher em. 
 
 Since, therefore, it appears, that upon the grant of this 
 power to bind and loose, to retain and remit sins, there did 
 commence a practice of excommunicating and absolving, 
 answerable to, though hot in every circumstance exactly 
 resembling, the Jewish custom, which did then obtain ; since 
 the very terms of binding and loosing are confessed, by one 
 of our most learned adversaries, to be capable of such a ibid, 
 meaning, and sometimes to have been, in fact, applied to 
 express and signify it : what room can be left for doubting 
 whether the Apostles did not understand our Saviour's 
 design in those terms, to have been adopting a Jewish 
 custom into a Christian institution ? 
 
 This was no novelty to them, as being plainly the case of 
 the two Sacraments ; and therefore, indeed, the very same 
 principles which have served Mr. Selden in his attempt to 
 prove that the discipline of the Apostles, and of the Primi- 
 
18 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, tive Church, was only a spontaneous imitation of a Rab- 
 
 — binical practice, might have served him, if he had pleased, 
 
 in proof of the two Sacraments being so likewise. For 
 where, at last, I would inquire, is the difference between the 
 two cases ? If the one was in its original an human institu- 
 tion, so it might be pleaded was the other ; if the one was 
 used by the Jews in a different manner from what it was 
 afterwards by the Christians, so it may be as truly said was 
 the other ; but if the two Sacraments were adopted into the 
 Christian Church by express authority and warrant from 
 Christ, so, if we may trust the Apostles as fit interpreters of 
 their Master's meaning, was the discipline for which we are 
 now contending. We have, indeed, as much evidence of 
 their understanding His authority to be concerned in the 
 one case, as we have of their understanding it to be con- 
 cerned in the other. 
 
 What, therefore, Mr. Selden hath observed of the difference 
 between the Christian and the Jewish discipline, makes rather 
 against his design than any way promotes it. 1 For it proves 
 that the Christians did not use it, as he would insinuate, 
 under the denomination of Jews, or as taken together for 
 one people with them ; s but that they used it in a manner 
 distinct from the Jews, and as founded upon a different 
 authority. 
 
 Therefore though one private man might excommunicate, 
 and sometimes absolve, another among the Jews, it will not 
 follow that it either was or ought to be so among Christians. 
 The master of the family might and did celebrate the eucha- 
 ristical postccenium among the Jews; but when that cere- 
 mony was transplanted into the Christian Church, this cir- 
 cumstance in it was altered, and the celebration was apparently 
 reserved to the chief Minister of the Church. 
 
 Mr. Selden confesses, that there was a very general and 
 current departure of the Christian from the Jewish usage of 
 this discipline, in the second century, though he cannot give 
 
 1 Mirum erat inter Absolutipnem Ju- ' Judaoram nomine Christianos pari- 
 
 daismi veteris, et earn qua; apud Chris- ter contineri, merito sentiunt eruditi. 
 
 tianos inoleverat, discrimen.— Selden de —Ibid. [lib. i. u. 8, p. 900. cf, pp. 899, 
 
 Synedr. lib. i. c. 9. 915.] 
 
of the Primitive Church. 19 
 
 us the precise era of the change when made. 1 But yet he 
 would expect his reader should grant him, what he acknow- 
 ledges himself unable to prove, 2 that the Apostles used this 
 ceremony of Excommunication, just as their brethren the 
 Jews did, without the least variation. He says he cannot 
 conceive that they should use it in any respect otherwise. 
 But why could he not as well have conceived they should 
 depart in this from their brethren, as they apparently did 
 in many other usages, which yet were originally derived 
 from Jewish customs ? 
 
 I can as little conceive, that the Christians who lived so 
 near the time of the Apostles, as Irenseus and Justin did, 
 should choose to depart from the model they had received 
 from the Apostles of Christ, as Mr. Selden could conceive 
 of the Apostles themselves, that they should depart in the 
 least tittle from the custom of their countrymen. 
 
 When Mr. Selden was at any time pressed with apparent 
 fact and history, it was always his custom to run his reader 
 into the dark, and there to leave him to shift for himself; 
 or else to catch at injiendoes and conjectures, which he was 
 ever ready to furnish, at the expense of all probability, so he 
 might disserve the Church which he mortally hated. 
 
 In a thing so material as this was, it is utterly indeed 
 incredible, that there should be a departure from an Apo- 
 stolical usage, the reason of which was then as much in force 
 as ever, and yet that no noise should be made of it, nor any 
 clue be given, to lead us into the precise era, or occasion of 
 the change. If this be once allowed as fairly supposable, 
 there will be an end of proving any ancient practice. The 
 first writers of our religion had so much work upon their 
 hands, that they had little time to be particular in their 
 
 1 Quandonam primo discrepantia ejus- antiquiorem, in Apologia ejus secunda 
 modi inter Christianas et Judaicae, seu locus, quo dicitur,ut tunc receptissimum, 
 vetustioris Excommunicationis effectus alios quam qui juxta Christi disciplinam 
 irciperet, non quidem satis liquet. Sed crederent acviverent, participes fieri non 
 ante Origenis ac Tertulliani, etiam et debere Eucharistiae. — Selden de Synedr. 
 Irenaei tempora juxta jam dicta effec- [lib. i. c. 8, p. 900.] 
 turn, quoad sacrorum communionis ne- x Haud concipiendum videtur Aposto- 
 gationem, inolevisse non dubitandum. los . . . . inter se non jure Judaico in Ex- 
 Xgnatiana quae extant non habent unde communicationis suae pcenis exercendis 
 satis He doceamur. Occurrit quidem usos esse, idque omni modo ut Judaei fa- 
 spud Justinum Martyrem, Irenseo paulo ciebant reliqui. — Ibid.lib.i.c.8, [p. 901.] 
 
20 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, accounts of any thing; and it had been absurd besides, to 
 
 have professedly told the men of that generation what were 
 
 the current customs of the time they lived in ; so that if they 
 occasionally mention such customs, it is all we can expect ; 
 and if others, who came after them, speak more fully to such 
 points, we must either join their evidence together, or be 
 content to know nothing of the ancient Church. 
 
 Now, Mr. Selden always makes his advantage of a dark 
 period, to mislead his reader by his own conjectures, and to 
 supply the want of evidence with abundance of fancy ; 
 whereas the proper course had surely been to have led his 
 reader gradually to the light, as it should appear to open ; 
 and since there is some necessity of supposing, where proof 
 is wanting, to have rather supposed the usage of the second 
 the same with that of the first century, than to have sug- 
 gested a change where none could be proved. 
 
 But when men are bent upon an hypothesis, all their 
 talents and all their learning shall be pressed into the ser- 
 vice, and forced upon being parties, when they should be 
 judges. 
 
 But to return. It is not, for the reasons given, to be at 
 all admired, that what the Apostles and their earliest con- 
 verts did in prosecution of the trust reposed in them, should 
 come to our knowledge by such broken parcels. Yet as to 
 their actual exercise of the discipline which is our present 
 subject, there is ample evidence. We have seen, nor is it 
 denied, that the Apostles used it ; and we shall see that 
 their nearest followers took it from them, and handed it 
 down from themselves to others. 
 
 We will begin with the earliest, viz. Clemens Romanus, 
 who was contemporary with the Apostles, much acquainted 
 and conversant with them, and is accordingly mentioned by 
 PMi. 4. 3. St. Paul with honour. His Epistle was read, together with 
 the Scriptures, for some ages in the Church ; and the first 
 copy we ever had of it, was found annexed to a volume of 
 the New Testament; so that upon all accounts his testi- 
 mony should carry great weight with it. 
 
 Now, in that Epistle to the Corinthians, which is unques- 
 tionably his, we have a passage much to our present pur- 
 pose, where, addressing himself to the principal abettors of 
 
of the Primitive Church. 21 
 
 the schism there, he bespeaks them in these words : " Do 
 ye therefore who laid the first foundation of these broils, 
 submit yourselves to your Priest, and be disciplined unto 
 penance, bending the knees of your hearts, and laying aside 
 all indecent arrogance of speech, learn to be obedient. For 
 it is better to be found in the flock of Christ little, so you be 
 withal approved there, than to be cast out of his fold [or 
 enclosure] for your pride and misbehaviour." 1 
 
 This manifestly refers to the penitential discipline, of which 
 we have a further account in succeeding writers. He exhorts 
 them, we see, to submit to discipline ; so that a discipline 
 there was then in use, and it consisted in expelling offenders 
 from the fold of Christ ; or rather from that enclosure which 
 parted the faithful from penitents and hearers in the assem- 
 blies for worship. 
 
 I have ventured to depart a little from the translation of 
 a learned writer, 2 now a right reverend Prelate of our Church, 
 for whose person, and character, and great accomplishments, 
 I have otherwise all possible regard. His lordship hath 
 been pleased to render the words iruidevOrin ilg ptravoiav, ' Be 
 instructed unto repentance,' which is indeed literally true, 
 though here, I conceive, with great submission, not quite so 
 proper. Por among Ecclesiastical writers, his lordship very 
 well knows, that the Latin pcenitentia, and the Greek [uramia, 
 do often, indeed usually, refer to the outward discipline of 
 repentance, which we call penitence, or penance. And, 
 indeed, by this very author, the word irai&svSnrs is applied 
 just before (in no fewer, I think, than six several passages) 
 to signify correction rather than instruction. He is labour- 
 ing in them to shew these Corinthians the advantages of 
 correction, and thence persuading them, in the passage I 
 now have cited, to submit to it. 
 
 Whether the second Epistle ascribed to St. Clement be 
 
 1 'TfuTs ou v ol rhv xxratSoXhv t%s trrourius IXsr/Sa? uiitou' or, as the learned editor 
 
 ninm; iforiyttn rus ■r^.o-SuTi^ots , amends it, xiyXito;, or scr«i/Xi%j xirou. 
 
 xxi vuiliifan tU /itrxtmxt, xoip^xms —Clement. 1 Epist. ad Corinth. [§ 57. 
 
 to. yitxrx vm xxfi'ixs "?"*• i««W«rtwr»- Cot -] edit - Patric - Young. A.D. 1633. 
 
 Toumiriai, umlipmi rm iXxZovx xxi 2 Dr. Wake's (now Lord Bishop of 
 
 dTttftpxvo* ws yliio-o-tis v/im aiMltmt Lincoln) Genuine Epistles of the First 
 
 apum yxg icrriv vp7v h <r$ ■ru/ivi? rod Fathers translated, a. u. 1693. N.B.The 
 
 X s ,<rnS p,x S ohs xx) ixxoyii^as sufiiHtu,, second edition is here the same, 
 sj XU.S vvripoxfrv ioxovvrxs ixgiQwoci ix tyis 
 
22 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, really his, I will not undertake to determine between two 
 
 '- such men as Cotelerius and Archbishop Usher. 1 But be it 
 
 whose it will, it is certainly the work of some ancient 
 author ; though Eusebius does indeed doubt of its being our 
 St. Clement's, because he did not find it quoted as such by 
 preceding writers. 2 This author, then, whoever he may be, 
 mentions the Exhomologesis, or ' solemn confession,' 3 to be in 
 his time, what afterwards it was so well and so indisputably 
 known to be, viz. an attendant upon the penitential dis- 
 cipline. 
 
 Hermas was contemporary with St. Clement, had the 
 Rom. 16.14. honour of an Apostolical salutation, and of great esteem paid 
 both to his memory and to his writings by those who lived 
 near him. However, because some have, with great bold- 
 ness and rashness, objected to this venerable Apostolic person, 
 that he was a man of slender talents and a visionary writer, 
 I will say, once for all, of him, what I would be under- 
 stood to mean of the rest, that I cite him as a witness, 
 but do not appeal to him as a judge. Now, if a witness 
 be but faithful, it is all we expect from him in that ca- 
 pacity. Fact, not right, is what we are to inquire of him ; 
 and it requires no great extent of knowledge to inform us 
 of that. 
 
 He, then, speaking of repentance after Baptism, hath these 
 words : " If any one, after that great and holy calling, shall 
 be tempted by the Devil, and so shall fall into sin, he hath 
 but one repentance." 4 He had said a little before, that " to 
 the servants of God there is but one repentance." Here, I 
 think, he must be understood as referring to the outward 
 discipline of penance ; that as Baptism, so penance, was 
 but once administered ; which well agrees with what we find 
 afterwards, in later writers, viz. Tertullian, Ambrose, and 
 Austin, concerning this administration, that it was allowed 
 
 1 Vide Coteler. Judicium de Posteriore xirpou, cvxirt "hma.ft.i6x. IxiT, \\cfuikeyn- 
 Epistola St. Clementis et Usser. Disser- rartai jj /uTatnTi. — Clement, in Epist. 2 
 tat ^ Oxon. edit. 16*4. ad Corinth, sect. 8. Coteler. 
 
 2 'Vt8.ii y i s **; hvrii,* mt S«u 4 Ideo dico tibi, quod post Tocationem 
 ^™ ™ K*V»»« immXa-eifcl, illam magnam et sanctam,siquistentatus 
 WifuU>S'iy* i nititxair*i*ri,y,t i ,iu, foerft a Diabo i 0i et p e ccaverit, imam 
 WurTi/ula, on fir, U nils *ex*iiv s avry poenitentiam habet. — Herm. Pastor. 
 »t Xe »nU.us iV^.—Euseb. 1. iii. c. 38. lib. ii. mandat. 4. Servis Dei poeni- 
 
 3 Mir* yuf t« sgiXAiir hftZs ix roZ tentia una est.— Ibid. 
 
of the Primitive Church. 23 
 
 tut once, or at most but once for the same offence. He 
 cannot be supposed to have meant, that sorrow for sin, and 
 resolutions of amendment, might never be repeated after a 
 single crime, since of such he does not peremptorily pro- 
 nounce as to their acceptance 'with God. He does, indeed, 
 represent the difficulty, but meddles not with the possibility Difficile 
 of it, inasmuch as the mercies of God might possibly enough Herm. Fas- 
 accept the persons of those whom the Church, for exam- Jjjjjjjjj "' 
 pie's and for order's sake, was obliged to continue in a 
 state of separation. The Church herein dealt with her 
 members after penance, as the Montanists and Novatians 
 did with their partizans in the case of sin after Baptism, 
 viz. allowed them to hope for mercy from God upon their 
 penitential mortifications, but admitted them not to her 
 own Communion. Here, therefore, I apprehend a clear 
 and apparent reference to the discipline of penitence, or 
 penance. 
 
 The same author hath elsewhere spoken clearly and fully 
 to the practice of separating offenders for some time from 
 the Church. 1 " Who are they," he asks, " who are rejected 
 from the tower" (which in that vision signifies the Church), 
 " and are placed near it, but not in it ? " He is answered, 
 " They are such as have sinned, and would afterwards do 
 penance for their fault. They are therefore," it is observed, 
 " not put far out, because upon their penitence they may be 
 useful in the fabric," which is there represented as building. 
 Again, " Do you think," says the person there introduced to 
 Hermas, " That those who do penance are presently forgiven 1 
 No ! for such must afflict their souls, and humble themselves, 
 and go through many severities ; and when they have sub- 
 mitted to every thing appointed for them, then perhaps He 
 Who made and fashioned them, will have mercy upon them, 
 
 i Quos autem rejiciebant et ponebant oportet eum qui agit poenitentiam affli- 
 
 juxta turrira, qui sunt illi ? li sunt qui gere animam suam et humilem ammo se 
 
 peccaverunt, et voluerunt poenitentiam prsestare in omni negotio, et vexationes 
 
 agere. Propter hoc non sunt longe pro- multas variasque perferre ; cumque per- 
 
 jecti a turri, quoniam utiles erunt in pessus fuerit omnia, quae illi instituta 
 
 structure si poenitentiam egerint. — fuerint, tunc forsitan Qui eum creavit, et 
 
 Herm. Pastor, lib. i. vision. 3, [§ 5.] Qui formavit universa, commovebitur 
 
 Nunquid ergo, ait, protinus putas erga eum dementia Sua et aliquod re- 
 
 aboleri delicta eorum qui agunt pceni- medium dabit. — Ibid, in lib. iii. simi- 
 
 tentiam ? Non proinde continuo ; sed litud. 7. 
 
I. 
 
 24 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, and administer to them some remedy." What is appointed 
 for them denotes to us the rigours which were even then 
 enjoined them. 
 
 St. Ignatius hath some passages to our present purpose, 
 which because they refer to the agency of the Bishop in the 
 sinner's repentance, the reader will find cited at his entrance 
 upon the last section of the second part of the next chapter. 
 
 There he may observe, that the " Bishop's authority was 
 to be recognised in this affair, as well as God's ; that nothing 
 was to be done in the Church without the Bishop," and that 
 such as " deny his authority," were to " be cut off from the 
 body of Christ ;" i. e. were to receive the highest sentence of 
 Excommunication, and to continue under it, till they should 
 make their submissions, and be allowed to re-enter the 
 Church through the door of penance. Other writers, be- 
 tween these and St. Justin the Martyr, are so very concise, 
 and we have so little of them remaining to us, besides frag- 
 ments, that we are not to wonder if we meet with no account 
 of this usage in them. What hath been already cited, was 
 written occasionally, and upon no professed design of ac- 
 quainting us with what we infer from thence. 
 
 But St. Justin the Martyr, who flourished about the 
 middle of the second century, will inform us, that it was 
 the usage of his time to admit none to the Communion of 
 the body and blood of Christ, but such as believed in His 
 doctrine, and lived conformably to His appointments. • " This 
 food," says he, " is called among us the Eucharist, which 
 none are suffered to partake of, but those who believe the 
 truth of our doctrines, and are washed in the sacred laver 
 of regeneration for the remission of sins, and live moreover 
 as Christ hath commanded." 1 
 
 Mr. Selden would shade, if he could, the light of this 
 evidence, by observing, " That Infidels and Heathens are 
 here mentioned as persons excluded from the privilege of 
 this Communion ; and that, therefore, the passage cannot 
 
 • H rgotpti oji/tx xockurxi ir«.g iip.7<i <r^h, xxi oSrais $um<ri us c X;«tt« irafi- 
 
 ibzafirrte? ft oliSsvi i'AXai furntj^m i%iv S«ujse». —Justin. Martyr, in Apol. i. ver- 
 
 Itrnv Si rip trurriileyri iXttHij tTrxi ri SeSi- sus finem, [p. 83. Ed. Bened. Paris, 
 
 o*i£y/xtva utp' tiftMv xct) Xov<ra(ji.Lvm to vvrip 1742.] 
 cc^iffiais apagriM, xui els xmyUvtiffiv kov- 
 
of the Primitive Church. 25 
 
 refer to discipline, which never was exercised upon such as 
 were without." 1 
 
 But might not, I would ask, those within be occasionally 
 excluded, notwithstanding that those without were never 
 admitted ? Because Heathens and Infidels were not allowed 
 to communicate, does it therefore follow that Christians 
 who led ill lives were allowed to communicate ? The 
 passage, indeed, does rather prove, that wicked believers 
 were ranked in the same class with Heathens and un- 
 believers ; that as the one did not, so the other might not 
 partake of the Holy Elements. 
 
 It is hence, upon the whole, very, certain, that men who 
 were known to live scandalously, though they believed, and 
 were baptized, yet might not (were not permitted to) com- 
 municate ; and what at last is this but to be excluded 1 
 One man might, indeed, be excluded by his own choice, or 
 through his own neglect, as Heathens, or careless Christians 
 were ; yet surely this hinders not, but that others might be 
 excluded by force, and by a judicial sentence of the Church 
 upon them. 
 
 St. Irenseus lived a little after St. Justin, being promoted 
 to the Episcopal see of Lyons, a.d. 178 ; and he speaks 
 full to the usage of public penance, as in his days a current 
 practice. " With these words and actions they," says he, 
 (viz. the disciples of Marcus) " have led away divers women 
 into their error, who having their consciences cauterized, as 
 it were, with a burning instrument, have, some of them, 
 performed public penance, whilst others not abiding the 
 shame of it, and despairing of mercy, have either quite 
 revolted from the faith, or else are wavering and undeter- 
 mined, and so are neither directly in the Church, nor yet 
 quite out of it ; and this they gain from their commerce 
 with these sons of knowledge." 2 
 
 i Certe Justhms ibi expressim loqui- quidem etiam in manifesto Exhomolo- 
 
 tur non solum de baptizatls, verum gesin faciunt, queedam autem reverentes 
 
 pariter de non baptizatis, ad quos Ex- hocipsum, in silentio sensim semetipsas 
 
 communicatio revera, apud Christianos, retrahunt, desperantes a vita Dei ; quae- 
 
 non mag-is attinuit quam apud Judaeos dam quidem in totum abscesserunt ; 
 
 ad Gentiles necdum circumcisos. — Sel- qusedam autem inter utrumque dubitant, 
 
 den. de Synedr. lib. i. cap. 9, [p. 919.] et quod est proverbii passae sunt, neque 
 
 2 Talia autem dicentes et operantes . . . intus neque foris existentes, mine fruc- 
 
 multas seduxerunt mulieres quae caute- turn habentes seminis filiorum agnitionis. 
 
 rizatas conscientias habentes, quaedam — Iren. lib. i. [cap. 13. Grabe.] 
 
26 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap. He had a little before in the very same hook and chapter, 1 
 
 — recited the case of a certain Deacon's wife, whom Marcus 
 
 had corrupted, both in her principles and in her person. 
 This " woman being brought with much ado to a sense of her 
 crime, passed her whole life in penitential humiliations, and 
 in that solemn Exhomologesis, which was a known attendant 
 upon them." Whether she might not in her last moments 
 be reconciled, the Father took no notice. 
 
 The account he hath given us of Cerdon, the Heretic, is 
 much the same with what he had before given of the woman 
 seduced by Marcus, viz. " That at some times he would sub- 
 mit to the penitential discipline, and at other times was not 
 in humour for it ; but instead of it, would repeat the crime 
 for which it was enjoined him, till at length he was entirely 
 cut off from Ecclesiastical communion." 2 Thus far, then, 
 we are pretty clear in the practice, which is the subject of 
 our present inquiry. 
 
 The Apostolical Canons are generally looked upon as 
 abridgements of the several rules and orders which, from 
 time to time, were occasionally prescribed for the govern- 
 ment of the Church, from its very infancy down to that 
 period wherein they were first collected into a body, which, 
 in all likelihood, was done about the latter end of the second, 
 or the beginning of the third century ; so that wherever 
 they speak clear to any practice, they must be allowed as 
 competent witnesses and good vouchers. 
 
 Now, here almost every Canon is pointed with the penalty 
 of segregation. The eighth will not allow a man to join 
 so much as in family prayer with a person excommunicate 
 without incurring the same sentence. 3 And the tenth deter- 
 mines, that " if a person actually segregated in one Church, 
 or whose case was yet depending, should depart to another, 
 and should there be received without commendatory letters, 
 
 i Cum esset uxor ejus (viz. Diaconi) veniens, et Exhomologesin faciens, sic 
 
 speciosa, et sententia et corpore cor- consummavit, modo quidem latenter 
 
 rupta esset a mago isto et secuta eum docens, modo vero Exhomologesin fa- 
 
 esset multo tempore ; post deinde cum ciens, modo vero ab aliquibus traductus 
 
 magno labore fratres earn convertissent, in his quae docebat male, et abstentus 
 
 omne tempus in Exhomologesi consum- est a religiosorum homimim conventu, 
 
 mavit plangens et lamentans ob banc — Ibid. lib. iii. cap. 4. 
 
 quam passa est ab hoc mago corrup- 3 Ei' t, s kx. mal vfa Vl x £ v i, ,'U V ,.„_ 
 
 telam.— Iren. [Jib. i. cap. 13. Grabe.] ,% Krm , xx ) .W,'i f(f ,;^,.-Cei>. 
 
 a Cerdon autem . , . siepe in Ecclesiam Apostol. No. viii. 
 
of the Primitive Church. 27 
 
 the receiver and the received should share in the same 
 punishment ; and if the latter should prove already to have 
 been excommunicate, that he should continue so much the 
 longer under his sentence." 1 
 
 Origen speaks home to this usage in his third book 
 against Celsus. 2 " How severe," says he, " is the discipline of 
 Christians against offenders, especially against such as offend 
 by incontinence, who are expelled from all communion with 
 us, by those whom Celsus compares to mountebanks and 
 jugglers ! If the venerable institution of Pythagoras did set 
 up burial monuments for such as departed from the rules of 
 that profession, in like manner we Christians lament and 
 mourn for those who yield to lust, or to any other enormity, 
 as lost and dead to God ; and upon proof of their change for 
 the better, we receive them again, like persons risen from 
 the dead, though not till after a longer time of trial, than that 
 which preceded their first admission into the Christian Com- 
 munion ; and even then we receive them upon the condition 
 of their being quite excluded from all office and dignity in the 
 Church of God, since they have happened to behave them- 
 selves amiss in it." 
 
 Tertullian hath a passage to much the same purpose, 
 which effectually proves the practice we are now consider- 
 ing. 3 " There also (viz. in the public assemblies for 
 Christian worship) are exhortations, rebukes, and the great 
 
 1 Ei' Tie xXriptxas n Xaiy-os d$uptfff~ivos , vixpivs wivfauffi' xcci us ix vixpuv Btya-ffrav- 
 ""toi ahixTos, dwiXfiaiv sv tregix ir'oXu ra-s, E«» a.\t'o\oyoi \»a'ii£ l ciiv<rat fitrufioXtiv 
 3ev$j avsv ypecftf-aratv ffvffTKTtKuv, ktyo- XPM® vrXiiavt ruv xtvr ap%o\s Ettrayo/~ivuy 
 Pttlo-Qutrctv el Tii^xf-Svoi xai o o*l%8u;' £J o% vifrlpot tfoTi T^offtiyrcct' its ovotftiuv ap- 
 t Qaipio-f-'svos % f iftruviffQu tzvTal o atyoptir- %viv xxi TpoffTairiat rns Xzyof&tvns ixxXn- 
 uos, us ^luffotfjLZvu xai avrarritravTi £«- ffias Teu &iov xtcrccXtyovris tovs <Q6a.oa.v~ 
 xXtiffiuv &sou. — Can. Apostol. No. X. t«s, ftlTcc to TpofflX7]Xu$ivxi <rw Xoyu, 
 
 - oTa 2* eW/v avToTg dyuyn xai vnpi Wraixivat. — Origen. contra Cels. lib. iii. 
 duxprxvovruv, xcci [lAXiffTO. tuv axeXccff- [Ed. Bened. t. i. p. 481.] 
 Tzivivruv, ois a.iriX«.mo-o-i tou zoivov si 3 Ibidem etiam exhortationes, castiga- 
 
 xari. ™ KeXo-»» va pavXwu, to7s it rzTs tiones, et censura Drona. Nam et ju- 
 iyopoJs ri Wfarirvr* WHia.-.i/.n.i ; fatar ma g n0 cum Pondere, Tit apud cer- 
 xx) to uh™ymt)x.y<,puu,,^> -'*«**<-- tosdeDeiconspectu; summumqueruturi 
 
 judicii praejudicium est, si quis ita deli- 
 querit, ut a communicatione orationis et 
 conventus, et omnis sancti commercii 
 
 Xsiov xivo-Td#toL Ttvy aa'oiTra.vTtvv rr,s trtpuv 
 (pi>.affo<ptas xa.rstn-.zvtzZ.t-. Xoyi^o/z&vev nx- 
 
 utnkyiias « twos arbtfau vtvt»vficivous m 
 
 e .i* ««r«v ysyMvar cure fe w *sr«- relegetur . _ TertuU . Apolog. advers. 
 \a\ortts KBti rtfanscortzs ru &icZ tovs u<k Cent cau 39 
 
28 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, holy censure : for sentence there is passed with the utmost 
 gravity and consideration, as among a people who are always 
 sensible that they are in the presence of God; and it is 
 esteemed a notable presumption, that the judgment of God 
 will confirm the sentence thus passed by man, when anyone 
 so offends amongst us, as to be cut off from all communion, 
 both in prayer, and in assembling ourselves together, and in 
 all holy offices whatsoever." 
 
 The following writers of the Church speak so full and 
 home to our present subject, that I will not so far abuse 
 my reader's patience, nor suspect his knowledge, as to 
 labour the proof of such an evident case. Besides, I shall 
 have occasion to use the testimony both of the foregoing, 
 and of the subsequent Fathers, when I come to explain the 
 manner wherein this discipline was anciently exercised ; so 
 that I shall need at present to produce no further testimo- 
 nies out of the one or the other, since the thing itself is ever 
 supposed, when the manner of it, and the circumstances 
 relating to it, come to be represented. To sum up, then, the 
 evidence of this whole chapter : 
 
 We have seen it to be fit in point of reason, 
 
 1. That the Church, as a society, should enjoy the powers 
 which are necessary to her own support and preservation, as 
 well as that some powers, or other, are necessary to this 
 purpose ; though it would not hence, indeed, be determined 
 what those powers in particular should be, or after what 
 manner the Church should use them. Therefore, 
 
 2. We have had recourse to her charter, and thence have 
 endeavoured to trace what we could of the powers which 
 therein were granted to her. And because some doubt 
 might arise upon the terms wherein that grant is couched 
 and worded, if we had no helps to lead us into their just 
 meaning and importance, therefore, 
 
 3. We have examined what was, in fact, the usage of the 
 times when that grant was made (because the grant may 
 well be supposed to have referred to it), and what again was 
 the practice of the times next immediately succeeding it ; 
 because the practice which commences immediately upon a 
 precept, the privilege enjoyed, or the power exercised next 
 after a grant, must be confessed the most likely to reach its 
 
of the Primitive Church. 29 
 
 meaning. It is so in all other cases ; and the reason holds 
 as well in this as in any other. I know of nothing which 
 may not be disputed, if such evidence as this shall not be 
 accepted. 
 
 Taking it, then, henceforwards for granted, that the 
 Church hath this power of censuring her scandalous mem- 
 bers, of excluding them from her Communion, and of 
 restoring them to it upon their humble submissions, we are 
 next to inquire after what manner she exercised this power, 
 that so we may the better guess at the extent of it, and 
 recommend it the more effectually to the present generation. 
 
II 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 OF THE USE WHICH THE CHURCH MADE OF THIS POWER, AND 
 OF THE MANNER WHEREIN SHE EXERTED IT, FOR THE FIRST 
 FOUR HUNDRED YEARS WHEREIN SHE ENJOYED IT. 
 
 CHAP. It hath already been observed, and indeed it is known to 
 - all who have in any measure acquainted themselves with the 
 first writers of the Church, how concise and short their 
 accounts of things are, how occasionally mentioned, and how 
 little circumstantial. They had no time nor leisure to write 
 either histories or systems ; so that what we gather from 
 them, must be gleaned from accidental hints, and improved 
 by the latter evidence of the times and authors which 
 succeeded. 
 
 What we learn of the discipline which is our present sub- 
 ject, from the earliest writers, that, in fact there was such a 
 thing in use, must therefore be explained in its manner and 
 circumstances, by the testimony of those who lived nearest 
 to them, and have transmitted to us an account of such 
 practices as obtained in the age which themselves lived in. 
 
 If St. Clement, for instance, acquaints us, that there was 
 in his time such an usage as expulsion from the Church of 
 Christ ; and if Origen or Tertullian give evidence of the 
 manner wherein that discipline was, in their time, exercised, 
 it is fairly to be presumed, that no material change was made 
 in the circumstantials of it, at any time intervening between 
 those several authors. Apostolical usages could not well be 
 altered in so short an interval without some noise or notice, 
 or some reason given for the departure from them. 
 
 If this presumption be not allowed me, I see not how we 
 shall come at the knowledge of any practice in the ancient 
 Church. 
 
 The first writers will at most but barely mention it ; they 
 will not descend to circumstances, nor minutely acquaint us 
 
The Penitential Discipline, 8fc. 31 
 
 with its several particularities ; so that if those who followed 
 them he not permitted to fill up the gaps of their prede- 
 cessors' evidence, we must he in the dark, and resolve to 
 continue so. 
 
 Indeed, that evidence is always hest and purest which 
 approaches nearest to the fountain ; and we esteem ourselves 
 very happy, whenever we are in reach of it : hut as the 
 streams are there very narrow, and often imperceptihle, we 
 must he content to take of them, when spread to a farther 
 distance, and when the enlargement of their channel hath 
 made access to them more practicable and easy. 
 
 There are several things in our present inquiry, which it 
 will he impossible to trace out of the earliest writers ; not 
 because they were not then in use, but because those authors 
 had no occasion of mentioning them in the short remains 
 which are left to us. 
 
 The reader is therefore now, I hope, prepared and disposed 
 to accept the testimonies of Origen, Tertullian, St. Cyprian, 
 &c, instead of St. Clement, or Hermas, or any of the few 
 writers in the first age, as to the manner and circumstance 
 of that discipline, the use whereof those first writers attest 
 though they do not describe it in all its parts and dimensions. 
 
 What I would inquire from them in this chapter, I shall 
 divide into two parts : — 
 
 1. What were the constituent parts of the discipline in 
 question. 
 
 2. What were the crimes for which it was inflicted, and 
 in whose hands the ministration, or execution, of it was 
 lodged. 
 
 If we can come at any satisfactory answer to these in- 
 quiries, I presume we shall be competently acquainted with 
 the regimen of the ancient Church in the point we are now 
 debating. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 What were the constituent Parts of the Discipline in question. 
 
 It will here be fit, at my entrance into this part of our 
 present query, that I should, once for all, observe upon Exci- 
 sion, or the highest sentence of Excommunication, that it was 
 
32 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, never pronounced, except where the case was desperate, 
 
 '- either by the obstinacy of the party in refusing admonition, 
 
 or else by the severity of the Church regimen, which ad- 
 mitted her members but once to solemn penance. 
 
 It will, indeed, appear hereafter, that it was the use of some 
 particular Churches, to deny Communion to their members, 
 and finally to persist in that denial upon their commission of 
 certain enormous crimes : but then such a practice does not 
 appear to have been general, as it will be seen in the sequel. 
 
 Excommunication was usually intended to bring men to 
 submission ; upon which they were gradually received, as 
 they passed through the several courses of penitential dis- 
 cipline assigned to them. 
 
 For when a crime was any way known to be committed 
 which was thought to deserve a Censure, the Apostolical 
 Constitutions will inform us, that 1 if the party came not of 
 his own accord, " He was convened by the Bishop, first in 
 secret, and if he thereupon submitted and reformed, all was 
 well ; otherwise he was to be admonished, and persuaded in 
 the presence of two or three witnesses ; and if those endea- 
 vours proved ineffectual, the whole Church was to be 
 acquainted with his case, and to be interested in it ; and 
 then if he still continued obstinately resolved against sub; 
 
 Movov vrapaXaGaiv tov xaTViyopnSivTa, ov tt\v ff(ppayta*a Xa€o»Tls TlXltej4cufftv' 
 
 'eXiy%ov aijTav otois /^iTayvu, (A.v\tlv'os trot ovtoj xa) ro7s toiovtois, f£i%pis ov ftl- 
 
 trupffapovTos ' u oi ov tfltffSuvi, ylvofAtvos ravo'tas xaporov iirtb°ii%b}ffiv t i-jrtTPlirofttv 
 
 eivrlpos, h TpiTos t ovtpj$ at/To/ vtrooal^ov to llffip^ltrSat, oirais tov Xoyov axovovTls , f&tl 
 
 TXrif/.yA'Avprs., vovhrYiTas o.vtov \v irpa'oTrtTt Tlkias ccp^fjv airoXaiVTat' y.ri xotvavsiraiffav 
 
 xa) iratoua. — 'Eav ovv ffitirSvt it) o-TOfiaros 2s Iv t»j vpoo'eufcv, «XX' \%ipxitrduffav filTX 
 
 toiv Tptatv vftatv, iv av i%ot it ol Tts erxXrl- tv\v avayvoifftv tov voftov, xal tuv vrpoQjyi- 
 
 pvvotTo, itm Ty ixxXiitrtcp ' lay dl xa.) Tns tuv, xa) tov ivayyiXtov, oirus Ota rov 
 
 ixxXnfftas tfapaxov<rvt,itrTu trot us o ifatxos ifyivai [liXTiu§utrt Trtv avaffTPOtphv tov 
 
 xat o TlXuvns ' xa.) p-nxlTt abrov us XPtfT- {i'tov, <T>7rovhttZ t ovris Tip) ras <rvva%iis 
 
 Ttav'ov Tapahi^ov iv tjj ixttXtjirta, aXX' as airavrav otrn/Ltipat, xa) rn Slfou ff%oXa£siv, 
 
 ifojxov Tapatrov * it ii (ZovXoito ftlra- otTus xa) attro) tvvnCufftv ltiro'l%0wai, xa) 
 
 vouv, vpotrXa/iGavov.— In Apostol. Con- o't Siufoivot ccbrovs xxTavvyairi, xa) atrtpa- 
 
 stitut. lib. n. cap. 37, 38, et ibid, in xifTipot yivuvTat, sbXaGovpoivot to7s oftoiots 
 
 cap. 39. tipitio-uv — Ibid, iterum, in cap. 41. 
 
 'fis TtXiivm oZv y\ itvtxov %x, 1 r °* **' 'Eay 1i Ttsa afilTavofirus 'ix'iTa$Xilt*S, 
 
 xaxu 'ipyu iXly^iivra, xa) pii piTa- xa) awltrxXripuxoTa [iTltrxXnxoTa, Cot.], 
 
 ytvuttxovTa ' lav "Si So-Tipov ftiravori xa) T «Vs filra Xuths xa) orUSovs uviarm 
 
 Wto-TPiipri ix ri)c TXdvns, us xa) tovs i%ovtx, tv; IxxXw'tas atoxoirTi. — See 
 
 Ihtxovs, omrav SiXovo-t piTamtv, us ix- moreover cap. 16. ibid, cited in p. 51, 
 
 xX'/iffiav •Jtpoo^l^o^iSa^ onus Tov Xoyov note 1. 
 axovojfftv, oil {M)v xotvotivovfllv auTo~s, pilots 
 
of the Primitive Church. 33 
 
 mission after these joint endeavours to mollify him, the 
 highest sentence of Excommunication was finally to be pro- 
 nounced against him ; under which he was to continue, as 
 much disregarded as a mere heathen, until he was softened 
 into submission, and bent to the discipline," upon whose 
 description we are now entering. And when he so sub- 
 mitted, there were various degrees of penance assigned him, 
 in proportion to the crime wherewith either his own confes- 
 sion, or another's accusation, or the plain notoriety of fact, 
 had charged him. 
 
 Whilst he was under the highest sentence of Excommuni- 
 cation, the Church had no further care of him than of a 
 heathen ; but when that had wrought its intended effect, 
 and melted him into penitential submissions, then as he was 
 first received in to the Church through the door of Baptism, 
 so he was here restored to it through that of penance. 
 
 The constituent parts of which discipline were these three, 
 
 1, Confession; 2, Segregation ; 3, Absolution. 1 
 
 Section I. — Of Confession. 
 
 This was either public or private. The public, as Tertul- 
 lian s speaks of it, " was a discipline imposed and intended to 
 bow down and humble men, and so to move compassion in 
 the Church of God for them." He, as well as Ambrose and 
 Austin after him, speak much of the austerities and shame 
 which attended it ; but then what of this kind was public, 
 and in the face of the congregation, will more properly be 
 considered when we come to the second constituent part of 
 this discipline, wherein it had so large a share, and made 
 such an eminent figure. 
 
 Now, besides this, there was a very early practice of volun- 
 tary confession, which was sometimes public, and sometimes 
 private only ; of both which we meet with testimonies ap- 
 proaching so near the fountain, that they almost mix with it. 
 
 In Origen's 3 second Homily upon the thirty-seventh 
 
 1 1. '■ElopoXiyiieis, or Vfatyiputis. tionem injungens misericordise illicem.— 
 
 2. 'Aftgirpis. 3. AiJns. Tertull. de Poenitentia, cap. 9. 
 sExhomologesisprosternendiethumi- s Si ergo sit aliquis ita fidelis, ut si 
 
 lificandi hominis discipliua est, conversa- quid conscius sit sibi, procedat in me- 
 
 D 
 
34 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap. Psalm, there are some noble passages to our present pur- 
 
 — — pose: "If any one," says he, " be so well disposed, as to 
 
 come forth and accuse himself, when he is conscious of 
 any crime committed by him, and if then his friends and 
 acquaintance, instead of sympathizing with his affliction, 
 shall stand off from him on that account, he should not 
 be concerned at it, nor ought he to regard their scoffs 
 nor their censure, but he should rather look up to God, 
 and regard his own soul, and the peace of it." Thus, 
 again, a little after : " Let my kindred, if they please, 
 forsake me and stand afar off, whilst I obtain of myself 
 to be my own accuser, and to confess my faults, when 
 no one else would accuse me for them ; whilst I do not 
 imitate those, who, when arraigned, and even convicted by 
 clear evidence, would fain, notwithstanding, conceal their 
 crimes." 
 
 But, most of all, and most clearly to our purpose, is the 
 following passage : " As they who are troubled with indiges- 
 tion, and have any thing within them which lies crude upon 
 their stomachs, are not relieved but by proper evacuations ; 
 so sinners, who conceal their practices, and retain them 
 within their own breasts, feel in themselves an inward dis- 
 quietude, and are almost choked with the malignity, which 
 they thus suppress. But by confession and self-accusation 
 they discharge themselves of their burden, and digest, as it 
 were, the crudity which was so oppressive. Only here it will 
 be fit to advise them, that they be careful in choosing a fit 
 person, to whom they may open their minds with profit and 
 
 dium, et ipse sui accusator existat ; hi simm. — Origen. in Psal. xxxvii. hom. 2. 
 
 autem qui futurum Dei judicium non Latin. Basil. Edit. torn. i. [Ed. Bened. 
 
 metuunt, hsec audientes, cum infirman- torn. ii. p. 686.] 
 
 tibus quidem non infirmentur, cum" Licet amici mei et proximi mei con- 
 
 scandalizantibus non urantur, cum lapsis trarii sint, et propinqui mei longe se 
 
 non jaceant, sed dicant, Longe te fac a faciant a me, dum ego ipse mei accusator 
 
 me, neque accedas ad me, quoniam mun- efficior, dum crimina mea nullo me argu- 
 
 dus sum ; et detestari incipiant eum, ente confiteor, dum nolo imitari eos qui 
 
 quern ante admirabantur, et ab amicitiis etiam cum in judiciis arguantur, et tes- 
 
 recedant ejus, qui delictum suum noluit tibus convincantur, et tortoribus etiam 
 
 occultare. . . . Haec non oportet formidare arguantur, tegunt tamen mala sua. — 
 
 eum, qui post delictum salvari cupit. . . . Ibid. 
 
 Non ergo cogitet de talibus, sed cogitet Sicut ii qui habent intus inclusam 
 
 de anima sua, exorans Deum, ut ab Ipso escam indigestam aut humoris vel phleg- 
 
 exaudiatur, et sublevetur post casum matis stomacho graviter et moleste im- 
 
of the Primitive Church. 35 
 
 advantage ; that they try to find out such a spiritual physi- 
 cian, as knows how to mourn with them that mourn, to he 
 weak with them who are weak ; in fine, to be tender and 
 compassionate, and such an one, upon the whole, as 
 having approved his skill to them, may give them reason 
 to depend upon his counsel, and to follow it ; that so, if 
 he shall judge their case to be what may need the cure 
 of a public animadversion, and deserve to be laid open 
 in the face of the Church, for the edification either of 
 themselves or others, this may be done deliberately and dis- 
 creetly, and agreeably to the directions of such an approved 
 physician." 
 
 Tertullian sets himself to debate the point with such as 
 through a false modesty endeavoured to conceal their crimes ; 
 and satirizes, after his manner, upon those who could be 
 so foolish as to propound " concealing their sins from God, 
 because it was in their power to conceal them from man." 1 
 He recommends penitence even for sins which as yet lurked 
 only " in the will, and were never ripened into action," 
 throughout the whole third and fourth chapters of his book 
 upon this subject. Now it must be observed, that wherever 
 the ancients speak of solemn repentance, they generally 
 mean both the outward ordinance and the inward duty ; for 
 they had indeed no notion of their being asunder : so that 
 whether they expressed it by Pcenitentia, Exhomoloyesis, 
 
 manentis abundantiam si vomuerint, viderit talem esse languorem tuum qui 
 
 relevantur ; ita etiam hi qui peccaverunt, in conventu totius Ecclesiae exponi de- 
 
 siquidem occultant et retinent intra se beat et curari, ex quo fortassis et cseteri 
 
 peccatum, intrinsecus urgentur, et prope Eedificari poterunt, et tu ipse facile sa- 
 
 modum suffocantur, a phlegmate vel nari, multa hoc deliberatione, et satis 
 
 humore peccati. Si autem ipse sui ac- perito medici illius consiiio procurandum 
 
 cusator fiat dum accusat semet ipsum et est. — Ibid, in Origen. TEd. Bened. torn, 
 
 confitetur, simul evomitet delictum, atque ii. p. 688.] 
 
 omnem morbi digerit causam. Tantum- 1 Grande plane emolumentum vere- 
 
 modo circumspice diligentius cui debeas cundiae occultatio delicti pollieetur I Vi- 
 
 confiteri peccatum tuum. Proba prius deticet si quid humanse notitise subdux- 
 
 medicum cui debeas causam languoris erimus, proinde et Deum celabimus. — 
 
 exponere ; qui sciat infirmari cum infir- Tertull. de Pcenitentia, cap. 10. 
 
 mante, flere cum flente, qui condolendi Omnibus ergo delictis, seu carne, seu 
 
 et compatiendi noverit disciplinam ; ut spiritu, seu facto, seu voluntate com- 
 
 ita demum si quid ille dixerit, qui se missis, qui pcenam per judicium desti- 
 
 praus et eruditum medicum ostenderit et navit, idem et veuiam per poenitentiam 
 
 misericordem, si quid consilii dederit, spopondit. — Ibid. cap. 4, 
 facias et sequaris ; si intellexerit et prae- 
 
36 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap. Msravo/a, or by any other term, they mean by it both what 
 
 '■ — passes within the soul, and what appears in the external 
 
 form of penitential mortification ; nor do they distinguish in 
 words the one from the other, where yet the sense must 
 sometimes be understood of the one, and sometimes of the 
 other. For instance, where Tertullian speaks of the auste- 
 rities and rigours attendant upon this discipline, he must be 
 construed to mean them of the outward ordinance ; and 
 where he says in general, that God hath promised His par- 
 don to penitence (the word he uses is still the same in both 
 cases), there he must be interpreted of the " duty at large," 
 with all its appendages, respecting both the outward and 
 inward man. But to proceed with the case of voluntary 
 confession. St. Cyprian commends the practice, even 
 where there was no direct offence in the fact, but only a 
 purpose of it (as Tertullian had done before him concerning 
 such faults as had only tainted the will) ; he imputes it to a 
 liveliness and vigour of faith, and to an extraordinary degree 
 of the fear of God. 1 
 
 Whether this was, in its original, a practice entirely 
 voluntary, and owing to the extraordinary heights of primi- 
 tive zeal, which it is not absolutely necessary for us to tran- 
 scribe into our modern discipline, shall be left to the reader's 
 judgment, when he shall have received a just state of the 
 evidence on both sides of the question. 
 
 On one hand, Chrysostom and Austin speak of it in terms 
 far enough from implying the least necessity. The latter 
 thus expresses his sentiments upon the subject: "What have 
 I to do with men, that they should hear my confessions, as 
 if they were to ease me of my distress, and to rid me of my 
 griefs V- 
 
 As to Chrysostom, his words are these : " I do not desire 
 to expose you upon the public stage before your fellow- 
 
 Denique quanto et fide majores, et scientes scriptum esse, Deus non deri- 
 
 timore meliores sunt, qui quamvis nullo detur. — Cyprian, de Lapsis, [p. 134, 
 
 sacrificii aut libelli facinore constricti, Fell.] 
 
 quoniam tamen de hoc vel cogitaverunt, 3 Quid mihi ergo est cum hominibus, 
 
 hoc ipsum apud Sacerdotes Dei dolenter ut audiant confessiones meas, quasi ipsi 
 
 etsimpliciterconfitentes.Exhoraologesin sanaturi sint omnes languores meos ?— 
 
 conscientia: faciunt, animi sui pondus Augustin. in Confession, lib. x. cap. 3. 
 
 exponunt, salutarem medelam parvis [Ed. Bened.] 
 licet et modicis vulneribus exquirunt, 
 
of the Primitive Church. 37 
 
 servants, nor do I compel you to discover your sins in the 
 presence of men, but to unfold your conscience to God, 
 to shew him your ail and malady, and to seek relief from 
 him." 1 
 
 That these passages cannot be understood of the public 
 Exhomologesis attending upon solemn penance, will appear 
 in the sequel out of these very authors, who mention and 
 recommend that practice ; which will shew that it had then 
 a continuance, and that with their approbation. 
 
 But then it must be agreed, that these passages do prove 
 the confession of secret sins to have been, in the opinion of 
 these Fathers, a practice not always necessary. Chrysostom 
 was the immediate successor of Nectarius in the see of Con- See an ac- 
 stantinople, who had just before abolished the penitentiary's this in the 
 office. Now it was the business of that officer to hear the Nos?2 3! 
 confession of secret sins, and to prepare the party who had 
 been guilty of them for a decent performance of public 
 penance, if that were judged necessary, and in order to it, 
 he directed what should be acknowledged in the face of the 
 congregation ; and what was unfit to be there revealed, he 
 advised should be kept in silence. 
 
 If such an office, or such a practice, had then been judged 
 in all cases necessary, it may seem pretty hard to suppose, 
 that Nectarius should nowhere be censured for daring to 
 abolish them : and therefore it appears to have been at least 
 the opinion of that person in particular, and indeed of that 
 age, which made upon it no remonstrances, that this was an 
 usage in its own nature discretionary, which might either be 
 retained or discontinued, as it should or should not be 
 judged subservient to the use of edifying. Accordingly 
 when a notorious inconvenience ensued upon it, we find it 
 abolished, without any reserve, complaint, or scruple. 
 
 That which may seem to argue it an uncommanded effect 
 of primitive zeal, is the known ardour of those earlier ages, 
 which often transported the professors of our faith into an 
 acknowledgment of it, when they had indeed no proper call 
 
 1 OySs yetp eis S-tc&rpov trs ay&i rSv <ruv- xm aurS Ssi^flv rot rguupxru, xat wag 
 
 SouXaiv Taiv traJv, ovh'l ixxa^v^ai rots aiirov ra. tpip^poLxa. cc/rwrov. — Chrysost. 
 
 avl^iirais dvxyxd£ai t« a/ia^rnfufra- n de Incomprehensib. Dei Natura, Horn. 
 
 rmHis awcTTulov ifurtwin toZ esoD, 5. [§ 7, vol. i. p. 490. Ed. Bened.] 
 
38 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, to make it. The public humiliation of scandalous offenders 
 
 was doubtless observed to carry with it very great advan- 
 tages ; and this might induce considerable numbers to rank 
 themselves in the class of public penitents, even for their 
 secret sins. Now, as in the case of public penance for public 
 sins, there was a solemn humble confession of the faults it 
 was imposed for, in the face of the congregation, that what 
 had been publicly committed in the face of the world, might 
 be publicly retracted, and thereby the scandal be removed ; 
 so in the case of secret sins, it is not improbable, that occa- 
 sion might hence be taken of thus acknowledging them in 
 public. When this was done indiscriminately, it is easy to 
 conceive what inconveniences might arise from it. A peni- 
 tentiary was therefore appointed, to whom these persons 
 should resort, and consult with him beforehand, what on the 
 one hand might be fit for publication, and what on the other 
 would be better reserved in silence. And this for a good 
 while was found a cure of all inconveniences ; and so the 
 practice went forwards, until Nectarius thought fit to abro- 
 gate it. 
 See both in Socrates tells us, that the addition of this officer to the 
 dix, Nos. 2, Ecclesiastical roll was not made till after the Decian perse- 
 cution; whereas Sozomen says, " that the Bishops from the 
 very beginning agreed to appoint him." But both seem to 
 have taken this matter upon trust, and to have been destitute 
 of clear authorities. 
 
 The light of history will not therefore so fully determine 
 this matter for us, as to leave no room for doubt in it. It 
 hath carried up the original of the practice very near, as we 
 have seen, to the fountain ; but thereabouts it runs under- 
 ground; and therefore many do here think themselves at 
 liberty to supply the loss of it by probable conjecture. 
 
 On the other hand, it is judged, that the opinions ofChry- 
 sostom and Austin, who were very warm, and therefore not 
 very accurate nor consistent writers, are not to weigh against 
 cooler, and elder, and more numerous authors, who speak of 
 this practice as in current use, and never tell us when it had 
 a beginning. Origen, who lived in the second century as 
 well as in the third, speaks of it as the received usage in his 
 time ; he does not labour the proof of it, as of a thing dis- 
 
of the Primitive Church. 39 
 
 puted, but mentions it as a general and well-known practice, 
 and only advises the choice of a fit person to be intrusted 
 with it. 1 In his time it should therefore seem, that the peni- 
 tentiary was not yet appointed, because upon the institution 
 of that officer, the liberty of choosing every man his own con- 
 fessor, was determined, and restrained to the person whom 
 authority had fixed upon. 
 
 It is true, indeed, that all who mention the confession of 
 secret sins do it still with some eye of reference to public 
 discipline. 2 This Origen, Tertullian, and St. Cyprian, do 
 all, as far as I can judge, agree in ; but then it is likewise 
 certain, that public discipline was not assigned to every sin 
 which was thus in private confessed ; but only to such as, 
 upon a view of the case, were conceived to need it. The 
 party, therefore, who thus confessed his private offences, must 
 have opened them at large, or else the penitentiary could not 
 judge of them whether they needed such a cure or no. If 
 they did not, then the party had the comfort of that Presby- 
 ter's opinion, that he might be safe without it, and Ghostly 
 advice moreover, how to behave in the conduct of his future 
 life; and upon this, in process of time, was grafted the prac- 
 tice of private penance, when the zeal of men grew too cold 
 for a submission to the public. 
 
 Since then it is evident, that private confession was in 
 certain cases so early used and commended ; since the original 
 of the practice cannot be fixed upon ; since it seems to have 
 some foundation in both Testaments, and in the practice of Lev. 5.5- 
 the Jews upon the one, and of the first Christians upon the ^Jt' | - £• 
 other; many do think, that they hence have reason to con- James 5. 16. 
 elude it an institution designed for the general service of the 
 Church in all ages. 
 
 They find in antiquity an officer very early appointed for 
 it ; and before that appointment, they observe moreover, that 
 the thing itself was in current use, only the parties them- 
 selves did then choose the person they resorted to for this 
 purpose. When he was named by public authority, they 
 
 1 Circumspice diligentius . . . . et s Si intellexerit talem esse languorem 
 
 proba prins medicum cui debeas causam tuum, qui in conventu totius Ecclesise 
 
 languoris exponere. — Origen. See be- exponi debeat et curari. — Ibid, 
 fore, pp. 34, 35. 
 
40 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, read of the qualifications expected from him; which, as 
 
 '■ Sozomen hath described them, were, " That he should be a 
 
 man of distinguished character for virtue, prudence, and 
 taciturnity." 3 They find not only the fact derived to them 
 from ancient testimony, but the approbation of it too from 
 the same hands, it having been a constant rule in propor- 
 tioning the discipline of penance, 2 to extend or contract the 
 time of it, as the party should either be convict by wit- 
 nesses, or should come in of his own accord to the discovery 
 of his crime. 
 
 These, however, do not, I presume, design extending the 
 necessity of private confession to the Roman lengths, of every 
 mortal sin, in all its minutest circumstances ; they do not 
 style it, as the Romanists do, Sacramental; nor, as such, 
 assert it to be a general condition of God's favour. 
 
 But wherever the conscience is oppressed with heavy guilt, 
 and knows not how otherwise to disburden ; wherever there 
 is a want of comfort or counsel, of solemn intercession for 
 pardon, or of restoration to the peace of the Church (which 
 may be ipso facto forfeited, even where there hath been no 
 such thing as a judicial cognizance), there they apprehend 
 the Ministry of the Priest to be of great importance, and, as 
 such, recommend an application to it in the way of private 
 confession. 
 
 They are, I presume, very ready to acknowledge, that in 
 the primitive records there appears no instance of this prac- 
 tice, but what had some aspect upon, some reference to, 
 Canonical discipline ; and that no instance appearing is a 
 strong presumption that there was none; for that it was a 
 matter of consequence enough to have been mentioned, and 
 was likely to have been so, especially in St. Cyprian, or in 
 the Constitutions, if the thing had then been known, as en- 
 tirely distinct from all relation to the outward and public 
 regimen of the Church. 
 
 But then, though there was indeed heretofore this relation 
 between private confession and public penance, yet since the 
 latter hath been to such a degree discontinued ; and since it 
 
 1 JJftrSvrigmi Ss rZt xgirrx ■xoXmuofii- 2 See Canonical Epistle of Gregory 
 
 "»*> ixipuM' « xai 'Ip/p^ma. Sari roum tj- Nyssen in the Appendix, No. 1. 
 t«£*«7. — Sozomen, lib.vii. [c. 16, Grabe.] 
 
of the Primitive Church. 41 
 
 is apparent that private confession was then only attended 
 with public penance, when the nature of the case was judged 
 to require it, and not otherwise, they are willing to keep 
 what they can of the ancient practice, if they cannot entirely 
 retrieve it ; and therefore to retain that part of the private 
 confession, which in the Primitive Church was not attended 
 with public discipline, rather than to lose the whole; as 
 hoping that the one may prove in time introductory to the 
 other ; and expecting, meanwhile, very great advantages 
 from a Pastoral collation between Priest and people. 
 
 This they find recommended in very ancient records, and 
 descending to them with the advantage of truly primitive 
 examples ; and therefore they are loth entirely to lose sight 
 of it; especially since they observe both our own 1 and most 
 of the reformed Churches, to have been well-wishers to it, 
 though they have left it, indeed, upon every man's conscience 
 to resort, as he shall see occasion, to his spiritual guide, 
 either for comfort or counsel. By which sober temperament 
 it should seem, indeed, their design neither entirely to abro- 
 gate, nor in all cases to obtrude it. 
 
 I have now, as faithfully and as nearly as I could, repre- 
 sented the sense of those who contend on both sides of the 
 question, together with the arguments which conclude both 
 for the one and for the other. 
 
 It is not here my design to interpose with my own 
 opinion, otherwise than to recommend to each a mutual 
 
 i See Exhortation in our office before quod Absolutio privata in Ecclesiis reti- 
 Communion, " If there be any man who nenda sit. — In August. Confess. Art. 
 cannot quiet his own conscience, but re- fid. Art. 12. ibid, iterum in Confess, cap. 
 quireth further comfort or counsel, .... de Confessione, [p. 148.] 
 let him open his grief," &c. Diligenter retinemus in Ecclesiis con- 
 See also Harmon. Confess, with what fessionem. — [Ibid. p. 150.] 
 is cited in chap. iii. § 4. De confessione privata facienda pas- 
 Hortantur nostri Ecclesiastae ad con- toribus, affirmamus ritum privatse Abso- 
 fitendum peccata, et fructum ejus, quod lutionis in Ecclesia retinendum esse. — 
 quis apud virum Christianum ac pruden- Saxon. Confess, in cap. de Poenitent. 
 tern, secreto sibi, consolationem, consi- [p. 154.] 
 
 lium, doctrinam, et exhortationem quae- De pcenitentia ibidem docent ut pcen- 
 
 rat, ostendunt ; praeceptis urgent nemi- itentes sacerdotem accedant , peccataque 
 
 nem. — Eccles. 4 Civitat. in cap. 20. de sua Deo ipsi coram illo confiteantur. — 
 
 Confessione, [p. 162.] Bohem. Confess. Artie. 5. de Poenitent. 
 De confessione peccatorum, docent 
 
42 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, forbearance, where it is so hard to fix in any peremptory 
 — — — conclusion. Since it is, on one hand, most certain, that the 
 practice is very ancient, and makes near approaches to the 
 fountain ; as it looks very probable, on the other, that the 
 practice which anciently obtained, had references and as- 
 pects towards a usage which is now in a manner ex- 
 tinguished, viz. public penance. 
 
 I have but one further observation to make before I 
 dismiss this article of private confession, which shall be upon 
 the famous case of Nectarius, and upon the change he made 
 in the discipline of penance by abrogating the office of 
 penitentiary. 
 
 Sixtus Senensis is of opinion that Nectarius, by this act, 
 did discontinue the practice of public confession, wherein the 
 chief humiliation of penitents consisted. But this, I suppose, 
 he brought in as a salvo for Chrysostom, whom he was loth 
 to have his enemy, and who speaks in so many places of the 
 private in terms of diminution. He would, therefore, fain 
 have Chrysostom understood in those passages to mean the 
 public confession, which he (Sixtus) 1 supposes to have been 
 abrogated by the Constitution of Nectarius. 
 
 It would, indeed, have been somewhat inconvenient to 
 have acknowledged that Chrysostom was an enemy to what 
 is called the Sacramental Confession; and, therefore, he was 
 at any rate to be brought off from speaking of it dis- 
 advantageous^. 
 
 However, we cannot forget, that the penitentiary's office 
 was appointed for the direction and comfort of such as 
 should resort to him, in order to unburden their consciences 
 of their secret sins, for assigning to such their measures of 
 
 1 Ego vero arbitror Chrysostomum rentis populi abrogate a Nectario Con- 
 
 haec dixisse non de secreta et auriculari stantinop. Episcopo, praedecessore suo, 
 
 confessione, quae Sacramentalis pceniten- ob matronam a Diacono sub confessionis 
 
 tiae pars est ; sed de confessione ilia the- praetextu in templo compressam. — Sixt. 
 
 atrali et publica, quae pars est publics Senens. in Biblioth. Sanct. lib. v. an- 
 
 pcenitentiae ; quam olim pcenitentes pro notat. 175. 
 
 enormibus flagitiis, ceu in theatro, coram See, also, Sirmond. Histor. Poeni- 
 
 Episcopo, Presbyteris, et populi multitu- tent. Public, cap. 8. in Opuscul. torn, 
 
 dine facere solebant . . . Etiamtempori- iii. whose opinion in this point is the 
 
 bus suis confessio publica fueratmetufu- same with that of Sixtus. 
 
of the Primitive Church. 43 
 
 public penance, or else for assuring them that they did not 
 need it ; in short, for counselling the publication of the sins 
 so confessed to him, in the face of the Church (as was usual in 
 the case of notorious crimes), or else for directing the con- 
 cealment of them within the bosoms of the parties who had 
 been guilty of them. 
 
 Indeed, the occasion of abolishing the office proves to us 
 what use was made of it. For when, by the imprudent 
 direction of one of those penitentiaries, a sin was publicly 
 confessed which had been better concealed, the inconvenience 
 which ensued upon the discovery was the cause why Necta- 
 rius, who then was Bishop of Constantinople, abolished the 
 whole office. The consequence of which must needs have 
 been, that such as had none at that time but secret sins, 
 none which gave public scandal to account for, were left 
 entirely to themselves, and to the guidance of their own 
 judgments, whether they should resort to, or abstain from, 
 the Holy Communion ; they were thenceforwards to be at 
 their own peril, and if they approached unworthily, they 
 were to answer for it to God and to their own consciences. 
 
 Yet they were still, I presume, at liberty to use the advice 
 of a Ghostly counsellor, if they found themselves in want of 
 it ; only there was thenceforwards no peculiar officer, whose 
 distinct business it should be to receive such applications, 
 which brings the case pretty near to that of our own 
 establishment, in the particular now before us. 
 
 However, from that time, confession of secret sins to God 
 only became the avowed practice of the Greek Church. For 
 this discontinuance of the penitentiary's office, though begun 
 at Constantinople, did yet soon spread itself over all the 
 churches of the East. It was, therefore, no wonder that 
 Chrysostom, who sat next after Nectarius in that see, should 
 speak so coldly and indifferently of a practice which had 
 then very lately given the occasion of such great disturb- 
 ance. 
 
 But he himself, will furnish us with abundant evidence 
 that the public Exhomologesis, or the solemn humiliation of 
 penitents in the face of the Church, was the same in his 
 days that it was before them. For he complains in a 
 letter to Pope Innocent, "That Theophilus had irregu- 
 
44 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 ii. ' larly absolved those who had been laid by him under public 
 censure." 1 
 
 He threatens such as should hire mourners for funerals, 8 
 " that he would throw them into the same rank of penance 
 which was assigned to idolaters, as disparaging the hope of 
 a resurrection." And again, bespeaks his people " not to 
 despise the Censures of the Church, inasmuch as God would 
 be sure to confirm them, who had given such power to 
 men." 
 
 Finally, he commends the received forms of public 
 humiliation, though he prefers, indeed, the compunction of 
 the heart before them in comparison, and plainly shews, 
 that they were the same as formerly, viz. on the penitent's 
 part, prostration, and departure from the Church when such 
 a part of the service was over ; as on the part of the chief 
 Minister and people, intercessions for him, and prostrations 
 with him. 3 
 
 The public discipline stood, therefore, the same after the 
 days of Nectarius which it did before them ; only the con- 
 fession of secret sins, which gave no scandal, was left thence- 
 forwards to the discretion and conscience of those who had 
 committed them. 
 
 When that practice was in its height with the Eastern 
 Churches, and bore the relation which hath been observed 
 to public discipline, they who had this public penance as- 
 signed them for sins committed in private, did not always 
 make a public declaration of the fact for which they ap- 
 peared in the rank of penitents. Somewhat the congregation 
 knew had been committed which deserved correction; but 
 
 1 Toils wag IfjLoZ yevofiivovs axotvwvirous p. 462.) uvrlg rm ip pirmoia xoivtxi xcti 
 %\vi. — Chrysost. in Epist. ad Innocent. naga, nu ligiais, xxi ira£ airm [viz. Fi- 
 [vol. iii. p. 517. Ed. Bened.] delium] yim-rm td X ai- [x. p. 568.] 
 
 2 IloXm xurov xe'"" Ms IxxXtitrtas TItiz.iv EireiSau ligupati rSv Ugm jrej;- 
 kmigp, us rh EXa.oa.arfJi!'. . . . M»- 0oA.aiv roits ov %ump.Uous tUs "fits psrmr- 
 fo'is xarutpgoniTu run istr/iwv lxxKntritit.tr- ^Ci rgtfrri%,i\s, irigm Sir yintrltu tix*"> 
 nxSr ov yag attfuTet itrm o ftfftZr, xou nmns o/iolois W i'ix<p<ius xt'iptlct, xa.) 
 dxx' o X^irrit, » rh igwm'av raimv 7rmnsop.oitusKn1rrcip1.sta. — Ibid, in Epist. 
 vtpiv o"ib*otxus xa.) xugtovs <rrotm mfyanrous 2 ad Corinth. Horn. 4 et 18. [vol. x. 
 r«s roffxv<Tvts rip-viS'— Ibid, in Epist. ad p. 568. Ed. Bened.] 
 
 Ebrse. Homil. 4. [vol. xii. pp. 48, 49. 'Axoutis Itrruros xbguxos xat xiyoims, 
 
 Ed. Bened.] JV W \„ /unmix u.*i\h<ri.— Ibid, in Epist. 
 
 3 Kalii p.h xat rouro o •Xgovmri mi, ad Ephes. Horn. iii. [vol. xi. p. 23. Ed. 
 vytfrtia, xa.) %uf£zvviu, xa.) trnoho; [vol, x. Bened.l 
 
of the Primitive Church. 45 
 
 what in particular, they were no otherwise acquainted with, 
 than as the penitentiary should advise or forbid the dis- 
 covery. And his indiscretion in giving here an improper 
 direction, was the cause why his office was abolished by 
 Nectarius. 
 
 " They whom you see," says Austin, " in a state of penance, 
 have committed some heinous crime or other, such as adultery, 
 or the like enormity, for which they are put under it. If it 
 were not of an enormous nature, the daily sacrifice of prayer 
 would suffice to atone for it." 1 
 
 Hence, therefore, it appears that people were then in a 
 state of public discipline, for crimes which the public was 
 not in particular informed of. And this usage continued 
 much longer in the West than it did in the East. 
 
 Thus much shall suffice to have been observed upon con- 
 fession, as previous to, and distinct from, segregation, which 
 was the second constituent part of the discipline we are now 
 describing. 
 
 Section II. — Of Segregation. 
 
 The two famous periods respecting this discipline were, 
 that which preceded the heresy of Montanus and Novatus, 
 especially the latter, and that which followed it. Before 
 those men appeared to disturb the Church with their im- 
 portunate clamours, the discipline of penance was either 
 itself less regular, or at least our accounts of it are less cir- 
 cumstantial, than they have been since. It is natural and 
 easy to conceive, that in the infancy of Church-government, 
 whilst Christians were under persecution, and had conse- 
 quently less and fewer opportunities of acting with concert 
 in their respective Church-offices, that things, I say, might 
 then be carried more discretionally than they were after- 
 wards ; that they might then go less upon rule and prece- 
 dent, and might judge, pro re nata, upon such emergencies 
 as were brought before them. 
 
 1 Illi enim quos videtis agere pceni- cata ipsorum essent, ad haec quotidiana 
 
 tentiam, scelera commiserunt, aut adul- oratio delendo sufficeret. — Augustin. in 
 
 teria, aut aliqua facta iramania ; inde Symbol, ad Catechumen, lib. i. [cap. 
 
 agunt poenitentiam. Nam si levia pec- 15.] 
 
46 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap. And, indeed, the whole of this discipline was in divers 
 
 '- respects milder before that period than it was after it, when 
 
 objections came to be started upon the neglect of Church- 
 governors, and upon their promiscuous admission of all to 
 Communion, after public penance, as well those who had 
 been notorious sinners, as those who had always been with- 
 out spot or blemish. 
 
 Neither Montanus nor Novatus did, in gross, and in gene- 
 ral, deny the mercies of God, or the peace of the Church, to 
 every offender. The mercies of God in His final judgment, 
 they did no way meddle with in any case whatsoever ; but 
 the peace of the Church was what they would have had 
 refused to the three great sins, which will fall under our 
 cognizance in the first section of the second part of this 
 chapter ; and the admission of such to Communion, as had 
 been guilty of them was the ground of their quarrel with, 
 and separation from, the Church. 
 
 We read in Tertullian, when gone over to the Montanists, 
 of a distinction between sins which were, some of them, re- 
 missible, and others irremissible. 1 According to which dis- 
 tinction, some would be admitted to pardon upon a light 
 correction, whilst others would stand obnoxious to a greater 
 damnation. 
 
 But even those which he judged irremissible by the, 
 Church, and therefore would have had condemned to per- 
 petual penance, without hope of absolution, might however 
 receive, in his opinion, some benefit from that discipline, 
 though here no pardon. The man who had committed such 
 sins, as exposed him to this heavy punishment, might find 
 his account hereafter, though here he found none in his sub- 
 mission to it. " For though he did not reap from man," as 
 Tertullian hath observed, " yet he sowed to God, and there 
 would be sure not to lose his labour." 2 The same author 
 
 1 Delicta alia erunt remissibilia, » Et si pacem hie non metit, apud 
 
 aliairremissibilia. Secundumquodnemini Dominum seminat. Nee amittit, sed prae- 
 
 dubium est alia castigationem mereri, parat fructum ; non vacabit ab emolu- 
 
 alia damnationem. Omne delictum aut mento, si non vacaverit ab officio. Ita 
 
 venia expungit, aut poena ; venia ex cas- nee poenitentia hujusmodi vana, nee dis- 
 
 tigatione, poena ex damnatione. — Tertul. ciplina ejusmodi dura est. — Ibid, in 
 
 de Pudicitia, u. 2. c. 3. 
 
of the Primitive Church. 47 
 
 would have an " adulteress do penance" (that was what he as 
 much as any would have inculcated), " though as to pardon, 
 he was for reserving it to God." 1 
 
 Ambrose hath laid down the same distinction, and given 
 the same account of the Novatians' practice, which Tertul- 
 lian, before him, had girenofthe Montanists. "They are 
 content," says he of the Novatians, " to pardon the lighter 
 faults, but except the more heinous ones from the benefit of 
 absolution." 2 
 
 Concurrent with his, is Pacian's account of the Novatian 
 error, " as denying to the Church any power of forgiving a 
 mortal sin ; and even affirming, that she herself would be 
 lost by the reception of such as had committed it." 3 
 
 So that the question between the Orthodox and those 
 Heretics in this point, was not whether God would or would 
 not pardon such and such sins, but whether the Church 
 might admit to her Communion the persons who had been 
 guilty of them ; whether absolution should be ever granted 
 to them after the most laborious penance. They agreed 
 with the Church, that penance should be undergone by 
 those persons; but they denied them the fruit of it, and 
 never granted restoration. 
 
 They did neither of them enough consider (what Ambrose 
 well replied to them), " That the power of loosing was 
 granted as unconditionally as that of binding; and that 
 they who had not the one must be without the other." 4 
 
 Tertullian might have found an answer from himself, who, 
 in his Book of Penitence, tells his reader, " That God when 
 He shut the door of Baptismal pardon (which could never 
 be repeated), had yet opened another, by the discipline of 
 
 1 Sane agat poenitentiam (sc. moecha) cipiendo peccantes. — Parian, in Epist. 3, 
 non tamen et restitutionem consecutura. ad Sympronian. [§ 1.] 
 
 . . . Haec enim erit poenitentia, quam et 4 Dominus par jus et solvendi esse vo- 
 
 nos deberi quidem agnoscimus, multo luit, et ligandi, qui utrumque pari con- 
 
 magis, sed de venia Deo reservamus. — ditione permisit : ergo qui solvendi jus 
 
 Tertul. de Pudicitia, c. 19. non habet, nee ligandi habet. Sicutenim 
 
 2 Exceptis gravioribus criminibus re- secundum Dominicam sententiam qui li- 
 laxare veniam levioribus. — Ambros. de gandi jus habet, et solvendi habet; ita 
 Poenitentia, lib. i. [cap. 3, p. 393, ed. istorum adsertio seipsam strangulat, ut 
 Bened.] quia solvendi sibi jus negant, negare de- 
 
 s Mortale peccatum Ecclesia donare beant et ligandi. — Ambros. [de Poen. 
 non possit ; immo quod ipsa pereat re- lib. i. c. 2, p. 392.] 
 
48 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, penance; which He would never have threatened any for 
 
 '- — not submitting to, if He had not designed their pardon upon 
 
 their submission." 1 
 
 But, however the reason or authority of the case might 
 stand, the event was, that the pretended sanctity of these 
 two sects, and their extreme severity towards delinquents, 
 wrought up the discipline of the Church to a higher pitch, 
 and extended her Censures to a longer continuance, after that 
 question came to be debated. 
 
 Before that controversy was started, months or weeks 
 sufficed where afterwards years would not satisfy. The 
 Stations of penance do not appear to have been so many, nor 
 the time of continuance in each so long. The whole was 
 more in the power of the Bishops, who acted herein discre- 
 tionally, until rules were gradually formed upon precedents, 
 and Councils confirmed those rules afterwards by express 
 authority. 
 
 It is generally supposed, that St. Paul's second Epistle to 
 the Corinthians was written in the same year with his first. 
 Now his second pardons a very heinous sinner, and relaxes 
 the discipline under which the first had put him; so that 
 the incestuous Corinthian did not continue quite a year 
 under Censure ; whereas to satisfy (as it should seem) the 
 Novatian clamours, such a crime would afterwards have 
 stood the delinquent in many years' penance. The Church 
 was willing to convince her enemies, that she did not intend 
 by her mildness to encourage sin ; that she did not willingly 
 nor easily admit to her Communion such as walked dis- 
 orderly ; and, therefore, if the extraordinary contrition of 
 the penitent did not mollify the execution of his sentence, 
 he was to continue in some cases for three, in some for nine, 
 and in others again for twenty-seven years in a state of 
 segregation. 2 
 
 Upon the whole, it fared with this case of discipline as it 
 did with some points of doctrine. The disputes which were 
 
 i Deus clausa licet ignoscentise janua, poenitenti. — Tertul. de Pcenitentia, c. 7, 
 
 et intinctionis sera obstructa, aliquid ad- sect. 8. 
 
 hue permisit patere. Collocavit in ves- s See Gregory Nyssen's Canonical 
 
 tibulo pcenitentiam secundam, quae pul- Epistle in the Appendix, No. 1, together 
 
 santibus patefaciat. Non comminaretur with what is written upon the Original 
 
 autem non poenitenti, si non ignosceret of Redemptions, in chap. iii. § 2. 
 
of the Primitive Church. 49 
 
 raised about it, caused men to speak afterwards more accu- 
 rately of it, to draw it out into scheme and circumstance, 
 and to give a fuller and more punctual account of it, than 
 ■we might otherwise have met with. 
 
 From hence, then, we learn, that when sins had been com- 
 mitted, which were thought to deserve an Ecclesiastical Cen- 
 sure, whether notoriety of fact, or the party's own confession, 
 or another's accusation, had revealed them, the consequence 
 was a separation of the delinquent from the rest of the 
 assembly in public worship. He had a peculiar station 
 assigned him, and was to leave the congregation when the 
 Hymns, and Lessons, and Lectures, and the prayers for the 
 Catechumens, were despatched. 1 But before he departed, a 
 solemn prayer was put up to God for him, and for all in his 
 circumstance and station ; and there was, moreover, an 
 imposition of the chief Minister's hands upon him. 2 
 
 This indeed, and this alone, seems to have been originally 
 the proper Station of penitents, which was called Prostra- 
 tion. They were considered as such when they came within 
 this class, and the Church unquestionably then took notice 
 of them, as of a people under its care. 
 
 Heathens themselves might stand without the church- 
 door, or just within it, if they pleased, as hearers, whenever 
 curiosity, or any other reason, brought them to hear the 
 Hymns sung, or the Scriptures read, or the sermons preached 
 by the Bishop, or any of his Presbyters. For so the fourth 
 Council of Carthage directs the Bishop, that "he should 
 hinder none from entering into the church, who had a mind 
 to it, nor from continuing in it until the service for the 
 Catechumens began." 3 
 
 Now, Excommunicates were, I presume, in this respect, 
 upon the same foot with heathens, and both alike might 
 enter the church thus far, whilst both were alike considered. 
 But when the party excommunicated was softened into sub- 
 mission, he was longer then in recovering the privileges he 
 
 1 See an account of the public worship 3 Ut Episcopus nullum prohibeat in- 
 in the Primitive Church, in Appen. No. I. gredi Ecclesiam, et audire verbum Dei, 
 Greg. Nyssen's Epist. sive Gentilem, sive Hsereticum, sive Ju- 
 
 2 See the form of this in Appen. No. 4, dseumusqueadmissamCatechumenorum. 
 and see, moreover, what is written and — InConcil.Carthag.iv.Habit.A.u.398, 
 cited in pp. 66, 67. Can. 84. [Hardouin. torn. i. p. 984.] 
 
50 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, had forfeited, than he was at first in gaining them; nor 
 
 '- could he be re-admitted to Communion upon terms so easy 
 
 as those upon which he was first admitted to it. And, there- 
 fore, the penitent passed through more stages, and was 
 longer detained from Communion, than the Catechumen. 
 As he had contracted more guilt, by abusing his knowledge 
 of the Gospel, he was obliged to submit to a longer separa- 
 tion, and to pass through more degrees of it, than even an 
 heathen himself; and, therefore, whilst the one was allowed 
 to enter the church as an hearer, the other was, for some 
 time, detained at the church-door, and was not admitted to 
 proceed beyond it. 
 
 The Apostolic Constitutions (which seem to have been a 
 mixed interpolated work, and not to have been known in, 
 any form until the fourth century) will, however, give us a 
 good deal of light into the old formularies of assigning 
 penance : for it is to be observed, that, though they mention 
 some more modern practices, which may be owing, perhaps, 
 to later interpolations, yet they do likewise delineate to us 
 others more ancient ; which the author of that work, when 
 he set himself to compile it, did probably find to have been 
 for some time before him in current use. 
 
 What I am going to translate from them is undoubtedly 
 of a very ancient date, and I believe much older than the 
 edition of that work ; and it appears to be so, from the short- 
 ness of the time it hath directed for the party's continuance 
 under the Penitential Discipline, since, as I have already 
 suggested, the time of penance was much prolonged after 
 Montanus, and grew still more severe after that Novatus 
 had broached his heresy. 
 
 The passage I am transcribing, is directed to the Bishop, 
 and runs thus : " When you see the offender in the congre- 
 gation, you are to take the matter heavily, and to give 
 orders that he be expelled from it. Upon his expulsion, the 
 Deacons are likewise to express their concern, to follow and 
 to find the party, and to detain him for a while without the 
 church. In a little time they are to come back, and to inter- 
 cede with you on his behalf, in like manner as our Saviour 
 interceded with His Father for sinners, saying, as we learn 
 Luke23.34. in the Gospel, 'Father, forgive them; for they know not 
 
of the Primitive Church. 51 
 
 ■what they do.' Then you shall order him to be brought 
 into the church ; and after having examined whether he be 
 truly penitent, and fit to be re-admitted into full Communion, 
 you shall direct him to continue in a state of mortification 
 for the space of two, three, five, or seven weeks, according 
 to the nature of the offence ; and then, after some proper 
 admonitions, shall dismiss [or absolve] him." 1 
 
 It is doubted amongst learned men, whether the Stations 
 of penance were so distinguished before the times of Mon- 
 tanus and Novatus, as they were after them. If they were 
 so, the account of that matter comes down to us so lamely 
 that we cannot be sure of it. 
 
 For though such as desired to return into the Church by 
 the door of penance, might stand before their times at the 
 church-porch, entreating with tears to be admitted farther, 
 yet that Station does not then appear to have been formally 
 assigned them as a part of their penitential labours. So, 
 likewise, for the Station of hearers, they might indeed stand 
 in that part of the church before they were admitted into 
 the roll of penitents, as Jews and infidels, we have seen, 
 were allowed to stand there ; but from the moment wherein 
 they were received as penitents, and entered as such into the 
 care of the Church, there are men of great name and learn- 
 ing who believe them to have been placed amongst the 
 Prostrate ; which grew in after-times to be esteemed the 
 third Station of penance, those of mourners and hearers 
 being the two preceding. 
 
 Whether the uncertainty we are at in this matter, pro- 
 ceeds from want of light, or of fact, I shall not determine. 
 But, indeed, the growing corruption and license of practice, 
 which the conversion of the emperors brought into the 
 Church, gave afterwards an occasion to this discipline of 
 being more frequently used, and then of being, in course, 
 
 1 'iSav Se <ru rov Si/ix^Tmarx, «x£k»- xsXsio-sis slo-sXtsTv kutov, k) itaxfims si 
 
 6tis xsXsvtfov tti/roy \\ia fiXwfavui, xat fisrccvosT, xai ufyos strriv us ixxXniriav 
 
 IfyXtlovTi cthru vixpxivifftiaiffxv ot o°ti&xo- o\ca$ wagaSs^^va/, <rnr&utTix.s xutov tiftspus 
 
 vol, xa) sV/£«touvtss KXTtff^iranfoiv uutov vnffvsiuv xa.TK to a.p.a,gTvtf*.ti t t@oopa.oois 
 
 %\o) Ttjs IxxXvjtrlas, xotl sifftXtiovrss v-ffsp luo ri vpits, r> Tlvrt, h svrra., ohrojs aurav 
 
 aiiTov es \pwrartinFu.v' xxi yctp virtp tojv uiroXvffov, itvtuv ttvrol oca. t&ofto^si nf&oi^- 
 
 9lfAUffT91xo<raiy o SftiTWp tow Tlaripa 9l%.iov, us Tnxan sis vovhtr'iav In Apostol. Consti- 
 
 y'syga.'xrxi h tZ ilxyytxiaj, Xlarso Hfss tut. lib. ii. cap. 16. See moreover what 
 
 uliroTs, oil yxg o'f&ourw o ■xoieio-i' tots trb is cited from them in p. 32. 
 
52 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, more exactly described to us, than it was whilst our religion 
 
 ■ lay under public discouragements. For then it was not so 
 likely that any should profess Christianity who did not 
 mean it; nor may we therefore expect that the traces of this 
 discipline should be so conspicuous then as when it grew to 
 be in more frequent use. The case of those who through 
 fear forsook our religion, was that which chiefly employed 
 the discipline of the three first centuries ; so that its several 
 parts and proportions, with divers circumstances, which 
 time and occasions brought on the mention of, must neces- 
 sarily have been left untouched by these earlier writers. 
 
 However it be, the assignment of penitents for so many 
 years to the Station of mourners, for so many to that of 
 hearers, for so many more to that of the Prostrate ; and, fur- 
 ther yet, for so many to that of by-standers, this was all the 
 undoubted language of the fourth century; and many hence, 
 as finding no earlier footsteps of it which could with certainty 
 be distinguished* have concluded it the product of that age. 
 
 Yet what will be cited from Gregory Thaumaturgus, 1 and 
 hath already been quoted from Tertullian, looks, it must be 
 owned, somewhat like a distinction of Penitential Stations, 
 even in the third century. The one hath expressly men- 
 tioned the Station of hearers in a manner which seems to 
 imply, that he was no stranger to that of the mourners ; 
 since people who were to be " driven from the Station of 
 hearers,'' were, in all likelihood, driven to that of mourners, 
 as the next in rank and order to the former. In which re- 
 spect, they were a little worse treated than Jews or heathens, 
 who might all, we have seen, if they pleased, be hearers. 
 
 The other (viz. Tertullian) seems to have had in view 
 some distinction between such as were denied a communion 
 in prayer with the faithful and such as were further banished 
 from all sacred commerce. But since this is not quite so 
 clear as the former case, I do not build upon it. 
 
 I am apt, however, to suspect that the practice might be 
 about this time in its birth, inasmuch as we find it so soon 
 after grown up to its full proportions. 
 
 1 See Tertullian cited in p. 27. Si quis commercii relegetur. And Gregory Thau- 
 ita deliquerit, ut a communicatione maturgus in part ii. § 1 . of this chapter, 
 orationis et conventus, et omnis sancti xx^odmis imT^xi hi. p. 89. u. 2. 
 
of the Primitive Church. 53 
 
 Yet I suppose it grew not up in all places alike, nor 
 proceeded every where by the same steps. It is pretty plain, 
 and shall in its proper place be observed accordingly, that 
 Gregory Nyssen 1 did not prescribe the Station of the con- 
 sistentia, or ' by-standers,' although his brother Basil hath 
 expressly recorded it. In like manner, it is not improbable 
 that the other Stations preceding that of the Prostrate were 
 variously used in various places, and had different beginnings 
 in different countries. If the last Canon in the epistle of 
 Gregory Thaumaturgus were unquestionably his, it would 
 put this matter out of all dispute with regard to his age and 
 country, since the Stations there are all of them mentioned 
 in their proper order. But as this is now generally thought 
 to have been borrowed from Basil, it will prove nothing 
 before his time. 
 
 Basil himself, who lived in the middle of the fourth 
 century, hath lineally described to us all the Stations of 
 penance which, by that time, were got into full and current 
 use ; since he doth not recite them as novel practices, but 
 as the established rules of the then prevailing discipline. 
 
 The case he mentions was " of such as offended by incon- 
 tinence, who, for the first year, were to be excluded entirely 
 from the whole service, and to stand weeping at the church- 
 door, which was the Station of mourners ; in the year 
 following, they were admitted to that of hearers ; in the 
 third, to that of the Prostrate, called (as the learned reader 
 may observe), by way of eminence, the penance ; in the 
 fourth, they were permitted to stand with the faithful whilst 
 they communicated, but might not themselves partake with 
 them. And this I have termed the Station of consistentes, 
 or ' by-standers :' and thus, at last, they were restored in full 
 to all their privileges, and were allowed to communicate." 2 
 
 Upon these several Stations, as distinct from the great and 
 eminent Station of penance, that I mean of the Prostrate, I 
 
 1 See his Canonical Epistle in the Ap- us psruvamv' raj nretpriu sis avara.ffii 
 pendix, No. I. fisrx rov Xaov, ccTs%otxsvous rns irpoir- 
 
 2 "Eo-t/ Ti lv 5* tTifftv uptfffiivyi ro7g tpopcis' utx xurols svrtrpiiritrQau ?hv xatva)- 
 troptivovav 9i iiririfiriffis' %pri Se tu iTpurca vizv <rov xyxQav. — Basil, in Epist. Ca- 
 IxCaXXtfffiai ruv jrgtfcsw^wv, xeti Tpatr- nonic. ad Amphilochium, Iconii Episcop. 
 xXalsiv uvrebs rn Supef tns Ixxkntrias' tm Can. 22. [Tom. *^» P* 293.] 
 
 Siuripu %t^nvui us axgocefir ry rpiru 
 
54 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 C1 i£ P ' shall but just observe, that the Station of mourners was quite 
 out of hearing, and was only intended to plant the supplicant 
 in a fit posture for begging the intercessions and prayers of 
 such as were permitted to enter within the church ; that the 
 Station of hearers implied no further privilege than that the 
 persons who stood in it might join in the Hymns and Psalms, 
 and might hear the Scriptures read and preached (which 
 the worship of those times began with), and when this part 
 of the service was over, they were dismissed before that for 
 the Catechumens began. 
 
 I have already suggested the doubt which there hath 
 been amongst learned men, whether these were appointed 
 Stations of penance before the times of Montanus or Novatus, 
 or whether they were voluntarily chosen by such as desired 
 to be admitted into the class of penitents, as testimonies of 
 their humility and sorrow, and of their desire to atone for 
 their past misbehaviour. 
 
 But soon after the time here mentioned, viz. in the latter 
 end of the third or the beginning of the fourth century, it is 
 very evident, that the Stations of fletus and auditio, ' of 
 mourning and hearing,' were considered as preparatory in 
 point of form to that of Prostration, and were assigned, as 
 such, to penitents for a certain time, who gradually advanced 
 through one and another till they were fully re-instated in 
 all their privileges. 
 
 Not that all these stages were in every case necessary to 
 be passed through. No ; but according to the nature and 
 quality of the sin, as it was more or less enormous, the 
 offender was directed to stand, from the very first, either 
 amongst the mourners or hearers, or to be amongst the 
 Prostrate ; or sometimes to skip all the three, and only to 
 stand by the faithful whilst they communicated, without 
 being himself allowed to join with them. This was the 
 station called gunragig, or consistentia, which was next in 
 order to that of full Communion. For as discipline grew 
 after the time of Novatus to be more severe, it was thought 
 improper that penitents should rush upon the holy mysteries 
 just after their prostration ; and, therefore, they were here 
 detained for a while before they were admitted to full Com- 
 munion. Sometimes for lighter offences, or else for the 
 
of the Primitive Church. 55 
 
 better concealment of more heinous ones, which might have 
 proved either capital to the offender, or otherwise highly 
 inconvenient, he was originally assigned to this, and to no 
 other Station. And this the Father last cited hath told us 
 was the usage with regard to women, " whom either their 
 own piety brought to confess, or any other information 
 charged, before the Bishop, with the sin of adultery, that 
 they were allotted to this Station, until the time assigned 
 them for their penitential separation was expired." 1 
 
 The relief they had hence was, that they did not drifMufnvav, 
 'publish' the sins whereof they had been guilty; which the 
 Exhomologesis, usual with the Prostrates, would have obliged 
 them to do ; at least it would thence have been evident, that 
 they had committed some very heinous sin ; and that would 
 have brought them under a suspicion, which in time might 
 have proved fatal. 
 
 Prostration, however, both before and after the time of 
 Novatus, was all along regarded as the chief Station of 
 penance, wherein the sin of the delinquent was understood 
 to be expiated. Accordingly we meet in the writings of the 
 Fathers with frequent mention of the severities and rigours 
 which were imposed upon him. Whatever, indeed, we have 
 of that kind represented to us in ancient authors, does 
 usually refer to this, and tot his Station only ; because, as I 
 have more than once already suggested, the rest were con- 
 sidered rather as preparatory to, than as parts of, penance ; 
 which, though designed as a punishment, was in order to a 
 privilege, and as such was sued for with great importunity. 
 
 The Council of Carthage, so lately cited, directs the Mini- 
 ster of penance " to assign it to such as humbly begged it, 
 without respect of persons." 2 They could not communicate 
 until they had passed through it ; and that was the reason 
 why they so humbly begged that they might be admitted 
 to it. They did not apprehend themselves to be fully in the 
 
 1 Tis (u, x tviiiras ymmxtts, ui i&- in Epist. Canonic. Can. 34, [torn. iii. 
 
 yogsvovtrois §/ liiXaGuxv « htfuirouv \>.iy%o- p. 295. J 
 
 pirns, 1»p«raiuv o'vk bU s «. « *wrl. ' Ut sacerdos pcenitentiam imploranti 
 
 V ! i/tS,, IW fdi 9-ccviT,u aiVi'an «^«x«- absque person* acceptione, pcenitentiai 
 
 fu, iktyxhlnf W-rfoi & *irks &«v leges injungat.— In Condi. Carthag. iv. 
 
 x.„„,'mi *<,o<ri r *fr,, fu XS , ™S ,»r«X*- can. 74. [Hardouin. torn. i. p. 983.] 
 (><>vff6(M tov %/iovov Tns f&&'rxvoieLs . — Basil. 
 
56 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap. Church until they might partake of its Ordinances; and if 
 
 '■ was then an undisputed maxim, that no man was a Christian 
 
 who was not in the Church : let his teaching- abilities be what 
 they would, his eloquence and philosophy never so great, yet 
 if he broke the bond of charity and Ecclesiastical unity, he 
 was judged to have lost whatever of privilege he once might 
 have claimed as a member of the Church ; and, when that 
 was once lost, and he was duly ejected out of it, there was 
 no Salvation to be expected for him. So St. Cyprian. 1 
 
 And yet this discipline, how much soever the zeal of those 
 times might induce people to desire coming under it, was in 
 reality very severe and rigorous : not only in the church, 
 and in the time of worship, their behaviour and posture were 
 to manifest their sorrow, but out of it likewise they were to 
 express the same, in the whole course and tenour of life and 
 conversation. 
 
 Origen will tell us, that the " hardships were very great, 
 which that man must submit to who should not be discou- 
 raged by the regards of shame, from opening his case to the 
 Minister of God, and from seeking relief at his hands, that, 
 according to that of the Psalmist, he must water his couch 
 with his tears, and that they must be his meat both day and 
 night." 2 
 
 Tertullian, where he would rather diminish than magnify 
 the rigours of Church discipline, does yet bear testimony to 
 it ; so that what comes here from him, is to be considered as 
 coming from an unwilling witness, who would rather have 
 chosen to conceal, than to acknowledge it. Yet even he 
 (whilst, as a Montanist, he ridicules it for insignificant) con- 
 fesses it to be very rigorous. " They sit," says he, speaking 
 
 i Quod vero ad Novatiani personam Neque enim vivere foris possunt, cum 
 pertinet, frater charissime .... scias nos domus Dei una sit, et nemini salus esse, 
 primo in loco nee curiosos esse debere, nisiinEcclesiapossit. — Cyprian.ad Pom- 
 quid ille doceat, cum foris doceat. Quis- ponium, [ep. 4, Fell. p. 9.] 
 quis ille est, et qualiscunque est, Chris- 3 Est adhuc et septima, licet dura et 
 tianus non est, qui in Christi Ecclesia laboriosa per poenitentiam remissio pec- 
 non est. Jactet se licet, et philosophiam catorum, cum lavat peccator in lacry- 
 vel eloquentiam suam superbis vocibus mis stratum suum, et fiunt ei lacrynue 
 prsedicet ; qui nee fraternam charitatem, suae panes die ac nocte ; et cum non 
 nee Ecclesiasticam unitatem retinuit, erubescit sacerdoti Domini indicare pec- 
 etiam quod prius fuerat, amisit.— Cy- catum suum.— Origen. in Levitic. cap. 3. 
 prian. in Epist. ad Antonian. [ep. £5, Homil. 2. [Ed. Bened. t. ii. p. 191.] 
 Fell. p. 111.] 
 
of the Primitive Church. 57 
 
 of the penitents, " in sackcloth, they are covered with ashes, 
 they entreat with sighs, and groans, and bended knees, their 
 common mother." 1 And again, "The adulterer is brought 
 into the congregation, to supplicate the brotherhood in form 
 of a penitent, covered with sackcloth and ashes, under all 
 imaginable circumstances of confusion and disgrace, before 
 the widows and Presbyters of the Church, forcing tears from 
 every one, prostrate before their feet, and thus beseeching 
 their compassion." 
 
 The same author elsewhere acquaints us with the hard- 
 ships attending the public Exhomologesis, the confession and 
 humiliation of the Prostrate penitent. " It extends," he says, 
 " its rigour even to its garb and diet, and to lay him in sack- 
 cloth and ashes ; it obliges him to neglect all dress and orna- 
 ment, to afflict his soul with melancholy meditations, and to 
 reverse, by a quite contrary practice, the example of his 
 former misbehaviour. As to meat and drink, to use none 
 for pleasure, but merely for sustenance ; to keep up the fer- 
 vours of his piety with frequent and assiduous fastings ; to 
 groan and weep, and to cry unto the Lord his God both 
 night and day ; to prostrate himself before the Presbyters of 
 the Church, and to beg of the servants of God in the hum- 
 blest postures, that they would intercede for his pardon. 
 All this the public Exhomologesis requires the penitent to 
 submit to." 2 
 
 Pacian, who lived in the middle of the fourth century, 
 describes the received forms of penance after much the same 
 manner, only he blames the looseness which then began to 
 
 1 Depcenitenti8eofficio,sedentinsacco, sordibus obscurare, animum mceroribus 
 et cinere inhorrescunt, eodem flatu ge- dejicere, ilia quae peccavit tristi tracta- 
 miscunt, eisdem precibus ambiunt, eis- tione mutare ; cseterum pastum et po- 
 dem genibus exorant, eandem invocant turn pura non esse [N.B. "Nonesse" 
 
 matrem Et tu quidem pcenitentiam in the text of Rigaltius, but quoted 
 
 mcechi ad exorandam fraternitatem in "nosse" in the note], non ventris scilicet, 
 
 Ecclesiaminducens, conciiiciatum et con- sed ammre causa; plerumque vero je- 
 
 cineratum cum dedecore et horrore com- juniis preces alere, ingemiscere, lacry- 
 
 positum prosternis in medium ante vi- mari, et mugire dies noctesque ad Do- 
 
 duas, ante Presbyteros, omnium lacinias rainum Deum ; Presbyteris advolvi, et 
 
 invadentem, omnium vestigia lamben- caris Dei adgeniculari, omnibus fratribus 
 
 tem, omnium genua detinentem. — Ter- legationes deprecationis suae injungere. 
 
 tull. de Pudicit. cap. 5, 13. .... Hsec omnia Exhomologesis . . . . ut 
 
 2 De ipso quoque habit u atque victu pcenitentiam commendet, &c. — Tertull. 
 mandat : sacco et cineri incubare, corpus in lib. de Poenitent. cap. 9. 
 
58 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, creep into the performance of it. " We do not," says he, 
 
 " ohserve, as we should do, so much as those outward forms, 
 
 which lie open to the very eye of the judge, and might draw 
 commendation from him, such as weeping in the face of the. 
 Church, lamenting in mournful habit the depravity of our 
 lives and manners ; fasting, prayer, and prostration ; refusal 
 of all public divertisements and entertainments, as persons 
 who have sinned against God, and are consequently in 
 danger of eternal destruction. In fine, all humble supplica- 
 tion to the poor, the widows, the Presbyters, each member 
 of the Church to intercede for us ; thus trying all con- 
 clusions, rather than the last and fatal one, of irretrievable 
 ruin." 1 
 
 Ambrose will afford us a further illustration of the rigour 
 wherewith the Penitential Discipline was in his time executed ; 
 and the case in which he chooses to instance is that of a 
 person who should voluntarily confess his secret crimes, and 
 submit to penance ; which yet, we must remember, was to be 
 so much the lighter for the piety exemplified by coming in 
 of his own accord. " He asks what encouragement such an 
 one can have to do so who hath no hope of Absolution ? It 
 is true, he would have him ask it once and again, and im- 
 pute it to his own want of due entreaty that he did not sud- 
 denly obtain it. Let him beg it, therefore," he goes on, "with 
 tears and groans, and let him interest the whole congregation 
 in the request he makes for it, by all the humble strains of 
 submission he can any way think of." 2 
 
 1 Ne luec quidem quae videri etiam a propter Christum tamen studiose posni- 
 sacerdote possunt, et Episcopo teste lau- tentiam egerit, quomodo ista recipit si ei 
 dari, ne hsec quidem quotidiani serva- communio non refunditur ? Volo veniam 
 mus, flere in conspectu Ecclesise : perdi- reus speret, petat earn lacrymis, petat 
 tarn vitam sordida veste lugere, jejunare, gemitibus, petat populi totius netibus, 
 orare, provolvi ; si quia ad balneum vo- ut ignoscatur obsecret, et cum secundo 
 cet, recusare delicias ; si quis ad convi- et tertio fuerit dilata ejus communio, 
 vium vocet, dicere, ista fcelicibus ! Ego credat remissius se supplicasse, fletua 
 deliqui in Dominum, et periclitor in seter- augeat, miserabilior postea revertatur, 
 num perire I duo mihi epulas, qui Do- teneat pedes brachiis, osculetur osculis, 
 minumlsesi? Tenere prseterea pauperum lavet netibus, nee dimittat, ut de ipso 
 manus, viduas obsecrare, Presbyteris ad- dicat Dominus Jesus ; remissa sunt pec- 
 voM, exoratricem Ecclesiam deprecari : cata ejus multa, quoniam dilexit mul- 
 omnia prius tentare, quam pereas. — turn. . . . Cognovi quosdam in pcenitentia 
 Pacian. in Parsenes. ad Poenitent. [§ 10.] sulcasse vultum lacrymis, exarasse con- 
 
 2 Si quis igitur occulta crimina habens tinuis netibus genas, stravisse corpus 
 
of the Primitive Church. 59 
 
 He proceeds : " I have known many who have done so, 
 who have quite furrowed their faces with cares and tears; 
 who have prostrated themselves, until they have even ex- 
 posed their bodies to be trod on, and have carried in their 
 faces the marks of that severity wherewith they have been 
 disciplined, looking like so many walking ghosts." 
 
 Finally, what represents to us very clearly the extreme 
 rigours of this discipline, is, the comment so generally made 
 upon that of St. Paul to the Corinthians, 1 Epist. chap. v. 
 ver. 5, " The delivery of such an one," as is there de- 
 scribed, " to Satan for the destruction of the flesh," which 
 was usually afterwards interpreted of the severities attend- 
 ing penance. 
 
 " In that which the Apostle mentions concerning the 
 destruction of the flesh," says Origen, " he means those 
 bodily austerities which are so commonly undergone by 
 penitents." 1 
 
 Tertullian, though he disapproved of the interpretation, 
 yet bears witness to it, as what was in fact received amongst 
 the orthodox of his age. " They (i. e. his adversaries the 
 then orthodox) interpret the destruction of the flesh con- 
 cerning penitential mortifications, wherewith the persons 
 under that discipline think to make satisfaction for their 
 sins." 2 
 
 Pacian gives us the same construction of those words, 
 where he tells Sempronian, " That they are but few, in the 
 comparison, who rise again after their fall, who recover 
 from their wounds, and are perfectly sound again ; who feel 
 the success and comfort of their tears and supplications, and 
 who revive again after the destruction of their flesh." 3 All 
 
 suum calcandum omnibus, jejuno ore pcenitentiae interpretantur, quodvideatur 
 
 semper et pallido mortis speciem spiranti jejuniis et sordibus et incuria omni, et 
 
 in corpore prsetulisse. — Ambros. de dedita opera malse tractationis carnem 
 
 Pcenitent. lib. i. cap. 16. [p. 414, Ed. exterminando satis Deo facere. — Tertull. 
 
 Bened.] de Pudicit. cap. 13. 
 
 1 Quod enim dicit [Apostolus] tradidi 3 Labor vero iste paucorum est, qui 
 in interitum carnis, hoc est, in afflictio- post casum resurgunt, qui post vulnera 
 nem corporis, quae solet a poenitentibus convalescunt, qui lacrymosis vocibus ad- 
 expendi. — Origen . in Homil. xiv. super juvantur, qui carnis interitu reviviscunt. 
 Levitic. cap. 24. [Ed. Bened. ii. 261.] — Pacian. in Epist. iii. ad Sympronian. 
 
 2 Hie jam carnis interitum in officium [§ 8.] 
 
60 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 CI ^ P - this he evidently applies to the case of penitents, and to the 
 discipline undergone by them. 
 
 Upon the whole, I think we may observe, that the power 
 of the keys in shutting the Church doors (i. e. in binding) 
 was executed heretofore with great severity ; that no man 
 could then sin scandalously upon cheap or easy terms, if 
 ever he expected or sued for pardon : nay, that even secret 
 sins were anciently accounted for ; and that the persons who 
 had been guilty of them, were much exhorted to unfold 
 them, and much commended for the discovery, when they 
 were prevailed with to make it. 
 
 But why all this? may it yet be said. Why all this 
 trouble and difficulty in the cure of sin, which hath the 
 magistrate here to punish, and will have God hereafter to 
 avenge it ? 
 
 Now to account for this, it were sufficient if we only 
 urged the obligation which the primitive Christians thought 
 themselves under to comply with an ordinance of the Gos- 
 pel ; and to exact the Penitential, as well as the Baptismal 
 Discipline. For we read, if I rightly remember, as much in 
 their writings of Penitents, as we do of Catechumens, of as 
 much solicitude and care in the Church of God for the one, 
 as we do for the other. 
 
 Penance was, indeed, reckoned as a supplement to Baptism ; 
 allowed, as that was, once, and once only ; at least but once 
 for the same offence. 
 
 " God hath placed a second penitence," saith Tertullian, 
 " at the door of the Church, for those to re-enter by, who are 
 desirous of it ; " x but then they are permitted to enter but once 
 by this latter way, because it is their second trial, and be- 
 cause it appears by it, that they have broken their former 
 engagements. 
 
 Ambrose asks the Novatians, " Why they baptized, if, 
 according to their tenet, sin might not be remitted by the 
 ministry of men ? For, it is agreed," says he, " that all sins 
 are in Baptism remitted; where then is the difference, 
 
 1 Collocavit in vestibulo pcenitentiam amplius nunquam, quia proxime frustra. 
 secundam quae pulsantibus patefaciat, — Tertull. de Poenitent. cap. 7. 
 sed jam semel, quia jam secundo, sed 
 
of the Primitive Church. 61 
 
 whether the Priest claims to himself the exercise of this 
 power hy the ordinance of Baptism, or by that of Penance?" 1 
 And again, " As there is one Baptism, so there is but one 
 solemn Penance allowable ; and that must be public in the 
 face of the Church." 2 
 
 We might well enough, therefore, put our account of this 
 matter upon the foot of its being a Gospel ordinance, and 
 what, as such, would need no other account to be given 
 of it. 
 
 But, beside the authority of institution, and of current 
 practice formed upon it, I find, moreover, some reasons 
 assigned for it in primitive records, of which my reader 
 shall not be defrauded : as, 
 
 1. The honour of the Church was one of these, which, in 
 
 the design of Christ her Founder, was to consist of a " pecu- Eph. 5. 27. 
 liar people zealous of good works, that so He might present 
 it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, 
 or any such thing, but that it should be holy, and without 
 blemish." Agreeable to which is that passage in the Con- 
 stitutions, which speaks thus : " If we do not separate from 
 the Church those who will not live within the rules of it, we 
 shall make the house of God a den of thieves." 3 
 
 2. Another ground of this discipline was example to 
 others, that they might fear, 4 and learn from thence not to 
 offend, when they should see and observe the difficulties of 
 obtaining pardon. 
 
 3. The last ground of this discipline was the advantage of 
 
 the delinquent himself, that " by the destruction of his flesh," 1 cor. 5. 5. 
 as the Apostle speaks, " his spirit might be saved in the day 
 of the Lord Jesus." 
 
 Upon these 1 shall no longer now detain my reader, 
 because I may have occasion to resume them before I finish. 
 
 1 Cur baptizatis, si per hominem pec- tentia, quae taraen publice agitur.— Ibid, 
 
 cata dimitti non licet ? In Baptismo lib. ii. cap. 10, [p. 436. Ed. Bened.] 
 utique remissio peccatorum omnium est. 3 'E«» auv xx) avSgamv xxgdvefiM pb 
 
 Quid interest utrum per pcenitentiam, rm ixxXatrias tou %%av xeigiraipiv, nem- 
 
 au per lavacrum hoc jus sibi datum sa- trup,tv tov oTxov Kvgiov tr&JXxiov \vi<rraiv.— 
 
 cerdotes vindicent? Untun in utroque Apostol. Constitut. lib. ii. cap. 17. 
 mysterium est. — Ambros. de Pcenitent. 4 "Onus xx) to7s Itb^ois ihXa&um Ip- 
 
 lib. i. cap. 8, [p. 400. Ed. Bened.] irnm/Ty. — Ibid. 
 
 * Sicut unum Baptisma ita una pceni- 
 
62 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap. But he will see from what is cited to this purpose, that 
 : — Tertullian, 1 Pacian, 2 and Austin, 3 are all with me, in assign- 
 ing the benefit of the delinquent for one great reason of the 
 Penitential Discipline. 
 
 Well, then, when all this had been submitted to, the peni- 
 tent's access to reconciliation was almost open ; only, as it 
 hath been already suggested, he was, ever since the time of 
 Novatus, obliged to stand for a while in the Station of con- 
 sistentia, i. e. to be present at the holy mysteries, but not 
 immediately to be a partaker, lest he should seem to rush 
 upon them too suddenly from a state of sin. Bat then the 
 door was entirely open to him, and he might re-enter upon 
 all his privileges by the benefit of Absolution ; which was the 
 third and finishing branch of the ancient Church-discipline. 
 
 Section III. — Of Absolution. 
 
 It hath been already in part observed, that this was the 
 main ground of the dispute between the Montanists (first, 
 and after them between the Novatians) and the orthodox. 
 They were agreed in separating such and such offenders 
 from the Church, 4 but they disagreed upon the point of 
 See notes in receiving them again into it. The sectary said, " Nay, stand 
 pp. 46, 47. o g.^ £ 0J , j am jjQjjgj. tban thou ; " whereas the Church had 
 compassion, and, after some time of separation, allowed them 
 
 1 Temporal! afliictione seterna sup- Utquiseparariaregnoccelorumtimetper 
 
 plicia non dicam frustretur (Exhomo- ultimata sententiam summi judicis, per 
 
 logesis) sed expungat. Cum igitur pro- Ecclesiasticam disciplinam, a Sacramento 
 
 volvit hominem, magis relevat ; cum ccelestis panis interim separetur. [Horn, 
 
 squalidum facit, magis mundatum red- ult. ex. 50, p. 946, vol. v.] Agite poeni- 
 
 dit ; cum accusat, excusat ; cum con- tentiam qualis agitur in Ecclesia, ut oret 
 
 demnat, absolvit. In quantum non pro vobis Ecclesia. Nemo sibi dicat, 
 
 peperceris tibi, intantumtibiDeus,crede, Occulte ago, apud Deum ago; novit 
 
 parcet. — Tertull. de Pcenitent. c. 9. [10.] Deus, qui mihi ignoscat, quia in corde 
 
 3 In quantum poense vestra non peper- meo ago. Ergo sine causa dictum est, 
 cistis,intantum vobis Deus parcet. [§12.] Quae solveritis in terra, soluta erunt et in 
 .... Qui fratribus peccata sua non tacet, Ccelo ? Ergo sine causa sunt claves 
 Ecclesia; lacrymis adjutus, Christi pre- date Ecclesia; Dei? frustramus Evan- 
 cibus absolvitur. — Pacian. in Parsenes. gelium? frustramus verba Christi ? Pro- 
 ad Pcenitent. [§ 8.] mittimus vobis quod ille negat ? — 
 
 3 Id agat (Pcenitens) quod non solum August, in Horn. 49 et 50. 
 
 illi prosit ad recipiendam salutem, sed 4 Reliquas libidinum furias non modo 
 
 etiam cseteris ad exemplum. [Horn. limine, verum omni Ecclesise tecto sub- 
 
 ult. ex. 50, p. 947, vol. v. Ed. Bened.] movemus. — Tertull. de Pudicit. c. 4. 
 
of the Primitive Church. 63 
 
 to approach. 1 Only when these sects had raised clamours, 
 and started objections, the Church continued her penitents 
 a good deal longer in a state of discipline before she would 
 admit them to full Communion. 
 
 The ceremonial of their re-admission, we have nowhere, 
 as I can find, exactly described to us ; of what was previous 
 to it we have abundant mention, viz. the confession and 
 humiliation of the party, the intercessions of the people with 
 the Bishop on his behalf; sometimes libelli, or ' tickets,' from 
 the martyrs were obtained, to recommend him to the Bishop's 
 favour for his speedier restoration ; of all which, St. Cyprian 
 alone will furnish the reader with sufficient evidence. 
 
 His complaint of such Presbyters as had irregularly 
 admitted certain offenders to Communion, -shews us what 
 the regular process should have been, viz. That they should 
 have had their case examined narrowly in all its circum- 
 stances, and an inspection made into their lives ; and have 
 done penance for their fault ; and acknowledged it with all 
 humble solemnity in the face of the Church, and have 
 begged pardon for it of all who might have taken scandal at 
 it ; and then after imposition of hands from the Bishop and 
 his Clergy, and solemn prayers offered up to God on their 
 behalf, they should thus, after some time, have been re- 
 admitted to the privileges they had forfeited. 2 
 
 1 Indignant! voce dicentes singuli; num committuntur, poenitentia agatur 
 
 noli me tangere quia mundus sum.— justo tempore, et Exhomologesis fiat, in- 
 
 Ambros.de Pcenitent. lib.i. [c.8,p.400.] specta vita ejus qui agit poeiiitentiam, 
 
 a Illi contra Evangelii legem ante nee ad communicationem quis venire 
 
 actam pcerdtentiam, ante Exhomologesin possit, nisi prius illi ab Episcopo et Clero 
 
 gravissimi atque extremi delicti factam, manus fuerit imposita, quanto magis in 
 
 ante manum ab Episcopo et Clero, in bis gravissimis et extremis delictis, caute 
 
 pcenitentiam impositam, offerre pro illis, omnia et moderate secundum discipli- 
 
 et Eucharistiam dare ; id est, sanctum nam Domini observari oportet ? — Ibid, in 
 
 Domini corpus profanare audeant. — Epist. [17. Fell. p. 39.] 
 
 Cyprian, in Epist. [15. Fell. p. 34.] Temperamentum salubri moderatione 
 
 Audio quosdam de Presbyteris nee libravimus, ut nee in totum spes com- 
 
 Evangelii memores, nee quid ad nos municationis et pacis lapsis denegaretur 
 
 martyres scripserint cogitantes, nee Epi nee tamen rursus censura Evangelica 
 
 scopo honorem sacerdotii sui et catbedrse solveretur, ut ad communicationem 
 
 reservantes, jam cum lapsis communi- temere prosilirent ; sed traheretur diu 
 
 care ccepisse et offerre pro illis, et Eu- poenitentia, et rogaretur dolenter paterna 
 
 charistiam dare, quando oporteat ad dementia, et examinarentur causa, et 
 
 heec per ordinem perveniri. Nam cum voluntates, et necessitates singulorum. 
 
 in minoribus delictis, qua: non in Domi- —Ibid, in Epist. [55. Fell. p. 102.] 
 
64 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap. Yet neither does this, nor any other author of his date, 
 
 acquaint us precisely what the form of their re-admission 
 was. The Apostolic Constitutions give us here some light, 
 but it is not clear nor full enough to discover this part of 
 the Penitential Discipline in its just proportions. 
 
 " Do you," say they, " O Bishop, do in like manner ; and 
 as you initiate an Heathen in the Church of Christ by Bap- 
 tism, so restore, with imposition of hands, the man who hath 
 been cleansed by the discipline of penance, to his ancient 
 pasture, the whole congregation interceding for him, to 
 whom the ceremony of imposition of hands shall serve for 
 that time in the room of Baptism." And again, in another 
 chapter of the same book, "Admonish offenders; and, after 
 having assigned them for some time to a state of mortifica- 
 tion, take off their burden by a pardon, and accept their 
 tears ; and when the whole Church intercedes for them, lay 
 your hands upon them, and afterwards suffer them to con- 
 tinue unmolested in the Church of Christ." l 
 
 From hence, then, we gather thus much (though not all 
 we would), that there were the intercessions of the Church, 
 the intercessions of the chief Minister, and his imposition of 
 hands, all applied to the restoration of the offender. But 
 then these, we shall see, were all along applied to him, 
 throughout the whole course of his Penitential Discipline, as 
 well as at the very instant of his restoration. Now, whether 
 there was any peculiar ceremonial in the very article of his 
 passing out of the penitential into the Station of the faithful, 
 other or more than what hath here been represented, is a 
 query which would be well worth pursuing, if we knew 
 where it would be likely to find an answer ; all the authors 
 of any standing, whom I have yet looked into, keeping here 
 a profound silence. 
 
 But by what we can learn of the primitive Absolution out 
 of primitive writers, it should seem to have been not a single, . 
 
 i Olrate ovv xx) (ru <jeoiu, u \<ffitxoiri' Xovirpxros h %upofoirix. — Apostol. Con- 
 
 aXX* iafmp <rov ifoixov XotJtras iltrht^n stitut. lib. ii. c. 41. 
 
 fj.iTv. rhv Si&atrxukic&v, curttt xai rovrov Tabs tip-apryixorxs vovQtru, xal ffr&m h 
 
 Xiipofarrjcxs, us «v fASravoia xixaSxott- rj; yrnrriix lv<rp tltpitru IXx/peuvov, xai <xt6- 
 
 pivov, vrtivratv ycrlg avrou V(>airsv%cfitva>v, ffxXxuffavrx ua^'i^ov, •xa.trns rns lxx\titricts 
 
 u.iroxa.ra.ff'maiis ccutov tls tsjv ao^xiav vvtgtiv<rouos0fA£it9iSiXu)%etpa0ZTfoasuv , rov 
 
 avrou vo/tbv jcm ttrrxt avrep avrt rov 'la. X./hwov zTmi ev r« iroifiiviqi. — Ibid. inc. 18. 
 
of the Primitive Church. 65 
 
 but a complex act ; an effect arising from a course and suc- 
 cession of divers acts ; what the people had some hand in 
 as well as the Priest ; only with this just and necessary dis- 
 tinction, that the prayers of the people are here to be 
 considered as testimonies of their charity, rather than as 
 evidences of any authority ; whereas in the Priest, they are 
 to be considered as flowing from his Office, and warranted 
 by it ; and, therefore, as standing entitled to a success and 
 efficacy which the people's could lay no claim to. " He 
 being an authorised mediator, and supplying upon earth the 
 place of his great Master Christ, doing for the people under 
 him what was done for them by the Priests under the Law, 
 viz. atoning for their sins, and offering up to God unbloody 
 sacrifices, through Jesus Christ, the great High- Priest." 1 
 
 " For this very reason," saith St. Chrysostom, " do the 
 Priests of God preside in His worship, that the prayers of 
 the people being in themselves less available, may lay hold 
 on those of the Priest, as more powerful and efficacious, and 
 so may jointly ascend to Heaven." 2 
 
 And so very considerable was the Priest's agency in this 
 matter represented by St. Cyprian, that the penitent's for- 
 giveness was said expressly to be procured by it. 3 
 
 None of all this was intended to derogate from the Office 
 of our one Mediator, nor to invade the province which, in 
 strictness of speaking, belongs to Him only. But whatever 
 of this nature was ascribed to the Priest, was ascribed to him 
 in character and quality of his being agent for Christ, as 
 sustaining His Person among men, as being His steward 
 and His ambassador, and as acting entirely by, and under 
 His authority. 
 
 1 'Tfteis ouv tryf&sgov, u 'EvritrxQcroi, \ffrt nxvrav atfoXayoupevol Apostol. Con- 
 
 <ra/ Xxiu iifjLuv Ufius, Aeuitxi, 01 Xurovo^ stitut. lib. ii, cap. 25. 
 
 yovvTis -rri Uox ffxqvy, T» kyix xxfoXixJj 2 Ara yfy nii™ 01 hgiTs iropwriixxj' , 
 
 XxxXmix, xx) ■nxcfftSms *% Svo-ixs-Tn^ "»«■ «' •"» fXrihvs t(>xx) irhnrrifxi 
 
 Kugiou rov @u£ fi/iZy, xx) iryxrxyovrts svo-xi, rut Ivixruri^wv roiruiv \xiXx- 
 
 u'vtS rxs Xoyixxs, xx) xvxipxxmus S-wrlxt Gifumi. Spot mvxvixfairiv xurxTs £i's t»» 
 
 i,x '\wm tbv iA.iyi.Xov &gx"i'"^' "t/nus nh^xiit — Chrysostom. de Incomprehen- 
 
 ra> h ip.7* \xixo)s ifA ■r^rxi, x S z««- sib - Dei Natur. Horn. iii. [§ 6, vol. i. p. 
 
 tis, xx) riyou/iiw, xx) fixo-iXiTs, « Mini-si 469. Ed. Bened.] 
 
 *-. ~ v „,» '-.'... 3 Dum satisfactio, et remissio facta 
 
 ©sou xx) tuv iriffruv xvrov .... m vtxvtm ±ju.u± , 
 
 x , , „ ,,. * \ per sacerdotes apud Dominutn grata est. 
 
 r ' —Cyprian, de Laps. [p. 134. Fell.] 
 
II. 
 
 66 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap. The people, then, though they joined with the Bishop in 
 - his intercession to God on the penitent's behalf, yet bore not 
 the same part in it which he did. He prayed for them to 
 God with authority, as invested with a certain character for 
 that very purpose, and so what he did was in virtue of his 
 Office ; whereas they only evidenced their charity by testify- 
 ing that they did likewise desire the penitent's forgiveness. 
 
 But in the imposition of hands, which was the solemn 
 ceremony of sacerdotal benediction, wherein the less was 
 blessed of the greater, the people did no way meddle. We 
 read of hands laid on by the Bishop and his Clergy, but 
 never by the laity. 1 
 
 Whether, then, there was any further or more solemn 
 ceremonial used at the instant of re-admitting penitents than 
 merely suffering them to take their former place in the 
 Church amongst the faithful, I have not, I say, been able to 
 learn with my best inquiries. The intercession of the Priest 
 to God for them, and his imposition of hands upon them, in 
 token of blessing them, were formularies applied to them 
 very often, at least, if not in each assembly for solemn 
 worship, throughout the whole course of their penitential 
 separation. 
 
 Imposition of hands was the ceremonial wherewith they 
 were received to penance. St. Cyprian, complaining that 
 penitents were received to Communion without any of the 
 preparatory stages to it, hath shewed us what those stages 
 were, and by what steps they should have risen to it. 
 " First, hands should have been laid upon them in order to 
 their penance. Then should have succeeded the solemn 
 Exhomologesis, or humble confession of their fault in the face 
 of the Church ; and, finally, they should have gone through 
 the appointed Stations of penance before they were admitted 
 in full to the privilege of Communion." 2 The. Council of 
 Agatha bears witness to this, as a general and current 
 
 ' Nee ad comnmnicationem quis ve- licti factam, ante mairam ab Episcopo 
 
 nire possit, nisi ab Episcopo et Clero et Clero in poenitentiam impositam, 
 
 manusfueritimposita.— CyprianinEpist. offerre pro illis , et Eucharistiam dare .... 
 
 [17 Fell.] cited in p. 63, note 2. audeant. See the whole passage cited 
 
 2 Ante actam pecnitentiam, ante Exhc- in p. 63, note 2. Cyprian, epist. [15.] 
 mologesin gravissimi atque extremi de- 
 
of the Primitive Church. 67 
 
 practice in the reception of penitents, and confirms it, more- 
 over, by express authority. 1 
 
 Here is, therefore, plain evidence that imposition of 
 hands was not peculiar to the instant of the penitent's 
 restoration. 
 
 When the time of public penance grew to be confined to 
 the Quadragesimal Fast, all the formularies appertaining to 
 it were crowded into that narrow compass. Now, the fourth 
 Council of Carthage hath informed us, that hands were to 
 be laid upon the penitent during that whole season. 2 And, 
 indeed, imposition of hands was a ceremony so well known 
 to be an attendant upon penance during the whole season of 
 its continuance, that the discipline itself did sometimes 
 receive its name from this, which was such a considerable 
 part of it. Thus another Canon of the same Council hath 
 forewarned the clinical penitent not to account himself ab- 
 solved, if he should recover, without imposition of hands ; 3 
 which there, I think, must signify penance, since, according 
 to St. Cyprian, he must have received imposition of hands 
 at his being admitted to penance upon his sick bed; and 
 therefore, when he is warned to receive it again upon his 
 recovery, it must mean his submission to the penance which 
 had been then assigned him. 4 And this was conformable to 
 to the known practice of antiquity upon these occasions. 
 
 Hence, therefore, I conclude, that imposition of hands 
 was neither peculiar to the reception of penitents to their 
 penance, nor yet to their absolution from it ; but was, 
 indeed, intermixed with the seasons of worship so long as 
 they continued under it. 
 
 In the sixth century, when this whole discipline was much 
 relaxed, and the forms of it were mightily altered, the third 
 Council of Toledo called the people to rule, and laboured to 
 
 i Poenitentes tempore quo poenitentiam 3 Poenitentes qui in infirmitate viati- 
 
 petunt . . . (sicutubiqueconstitutumest) cum Eucharistise acceperint, non se cre- 
 
 Impositionemmanuum. . . consequantur. dant absolutos sine manus impositione, 
 
 — In Concil. Agathens. habit, a.d. 506, si supervixerint. — Ibid. Can. [78. Har- 
 
 Can. 15, [ap. Hardouin. torn. ii. p. 999.] douin. ibid.] 
 
 Omni tempore jejunii manus pceni- 4 See what is cited in chap. iii. § 3. 
 
 tentibus a sacerdotibus imponatur. — In Ut manu eis in pcenitentia imposita, 
 
 Concil. Carthag. iv. Can. 80. [Har- veniant ad Dominum cum pace. — In 
 
 douin. torn. i. p. 983.] Epist. [18. Fell. p. 40.] 
 
68 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, bring them to the ancient standard ; and, therefore, in pur- 
 
 '■ suance of the original pattern, it hath directed penitents to 
 
 resort with frequency to imposition of hands. 1 They would 
 then, it appears from the preamble of the Canon, perform 
 their penance as they listed, and neglect the Stations assigned 
 them. The Canon, therefore, appoints that they should keep 
 their Stations, and behave in them like penitents, by fre- 
 quently resorting to imposition of hands. 
 
 The usual form of intercession for penitents (which the 
 reader may see in the Appendix, No. 4) made a constant 
 part of the more solemn service in the earlier ages of the 
 Church. And it was called the " prayer for penitents with im- 
 position of hands ;" so that this ceremony seems to have been 
 used as often as the prayer was. When both had, therefore, 
 been used till the time appointed for the penitent's full re- 
 admission to all his privileges, the direction to the Bishop 
 runs only thus : " Lay your hands upon him, and let him 
 thenceforwards remain unmolested in the fold." Or, thus 
 again, to much the same effect, " Restore him to his former 
 pasture." 2 If there had been any more solemn usage, pecu- 
 culiar to the instant of his quitting the penitential Station, 
 here one would have thought had been a fit occasion of men- 
 tioning it. But from the silence, of the Constitutions here, 
 and, indeed, of all the authors which it hath yet been my 
 fortune to meet with upon the subject, I suppose we may 
 conclude that there was no further apparatus, but that the 
 penitent, without more ado, took his place among the faith- 
 ful when his term was expired, and hands had been laid 
 upon him, and prayers put up to God for him ; all which 
 we may well, however, believe to have been done at this 
 time also, as it had probably been done before in each 
 assembly for solemn worship. 
 
 Absolution, therefore, seems to have consisted originally 
 of two main branches ; the one respecting the forum inter- 
 
 1 Ut secundum formam antiquorum ca.Toletan.iii.cap.il. [Hardouin. iii. 
 
 canonum dentur pcenitentiae ; hoc est, ut 481.] 
 
 priuseumquemsuipcenitetfacti, a com- " Ximfarjms airit ice Xairh iTmi h 
 
 munione suspensum faciat [Presbyter] T £ m/l ,; v ..... & mxaTtlirT ^„ lt a i, T i, 
 
 inter reliquos pcenitentes ad manfis im- £ ; s T jj» L iX mm «J„J uphv.— Constitut. 
 
 positionem crebro recurrere. — In Con- ]i D . ;;, c , \g e j 4] 
 
of the Primitive Church. 69 
 
 num, 'the conscience of the sinner;' the other, relating to 
 the forum externum, 'the outward regimen of the Church.' 
 
 The first of these was instrumental to the pardon of sin, 
 whilst the second relaxed the Censure it lay under. The 
 one interceded with God for the sinner's forgiveness, and 
 the other declared him released from his Ecclesiastical bond. 
 
 Now, the first of these acts was always in form of prayer 
 throughout the earliest ages, and the reader will hereafter 
 find, that it continued so for one thousand years. 
 
 Morinus will acknowledge thus much, as well as that the 
 forum internum and externum have not long been distin- 
 guished from each other ; x but then he fain would pass upon 
 his reader the notion of secret penance for sins, which, though 
 mortal, indeed, in their nature, yet were not of the very 
 deepest dye. 2 This is the distinction upon which he grafts 
 all the present practice of the Roman Church, in what is 
 called by those of its communion, the Sacrament of Penance. 
 But then he is so ingenuous, as to confess, that the " men- 
 tion of it amongst ancient writers is very hardly to be met 
 with ;" which is so true, that it is not in any manner to be 
 found amongst them. 
 
 In reality, therefore, this practice, if it were at all carried 
 on within the. first five hundred years, was carried so very 
 secretly, that it looks as if it had been designed for a per- 
 petual secret, since I can nowhere find, within that period, 
 any mention of it. 
 
 The ancient distinction between sins was, what hath been 
 cited from Tertullian, viz. between such as were remissible 
 and such as were irremissible (which was, indeed, the rigid 
 judgment of the Montanists) ; but the orthodox expressed 
 this distinction in a softer way, viz. between sins of frailty 
 and of wilfulness ; the one of which they allowed to be 
 curable by penance, the other by daily prayer. More of 
 which the reader will observe in the sequel. 
 
 1 Morin. de Poenitent. lib. i. cap. 9, horum secreta. Ista ab Episcopo aut 
 § 6. See bim quoted at large in chap. iii. ejus jussu puniebantur, et relaxabantur ; 
 § 3. bsec vero Presbyterorum potestati erant 
 
 2 Primum distinctionem peccatorum permissa .... forum igitur dici poterat 
 mortalium, gravium a minus gravibus, duplex ; sed istius posterioris longe 
 consequitur. . . .Istorum sex fere sseculis rarior est mentio. — Morin. de Poenitent. 
 integris, pcenitentia agebatur publica, lib. i. cap. 10, [§ 12.] 
 
70 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap. But now, as to the forgiveness of sin, respecting the forum 
 
 '■ internum, or ' the court of conscience,' it is certain that God 
 
 only doth strictly and properly pardon it ; or, as Ambrose 
 will presently be found speaking, " impart the Holy Spirit," 
 Who is evermore supposed to enter, where the sin is par- 
 doned. Irenseus hath argued upon this supposal, where he 
 hath informed his reader, " That our Saviour, in curing the 
 paralytic, and forgiving his sins, manifested Himself to be 
 the Word of God, and, in quality of God and man together, 
 received such power from His Father." 1 
 
 Man alone was, in that Father's opinion, plainly incapable 
 of forgiving sins, since the pardon of them made proof of a 
 power superior to any human agent's. 
 
 Clemens Alexandrinus hath directly asserted, " That Christ 
 alone, who is appointed our schoolmaster and instructor, by 
 the God and Father of the universe, is able to forgive our 
 sins ; He alone being able to discern the sincerity or insin- 
 cerity of our obedience." 2 
 
 Amphilochius (or whoever else was the author of that 
 work) hath related a remarkable passage in the life of Basil, 
 concerning a woman of quality and distinction, who had 
 been a great sinner, and resorted to Basil, that she might 
 through his means obtain pardon. " Dost thou know," said 
 he to this lady, "that none can forgive sins but God only?" 
 To which she readily replied, " I do know it, and therefore 
 I am come to engage thy intercession with God for me." 3 
 And when Basil sent her, on account of her last and most 
 heinous sin, to the hermit Ephrem, in order to procure his 
 intercession for it, she besought the holy man most fervently, 
 
 1 Peccata igitur remittens, hominem tJ?? ysraxoSJy Siaxtfvai tJjv -jnt^axonv o*vvoU 
 
 qttidem curavit, semetipsum autem ma- /Mies Clement. Alexandrin. Psedagog. 
 
 nifeste ostendit quis esset. Si enim lib. i. cap. 18, [vol. i. p. 138.] 
 
 nemo potest remittere peccata, nisi solus 3 "Hxowas, yimi, oti oiSeis limrou 
 
 Deus, remittebat autem haec Dominus, o\$mm a/ta^liis , s; ph phes »' ®t°s s « Ss 
 
 et curabat homines ; manifestum, quo- ,»„,, fame* „i r , ( ■ xx ) $,£ „£„ \ x i- 
 
 niam ipse eratverbum Dei, films hominis , w £ n ,;, „ s ,,e tJ ' B „ „s ^Xuxriytn* 
 
 factus, a Patre potestatem remissions 0U ; b««W &ri<m*i *?« n, 
 
 peccatorum accipiens quoniam homo et «,„ { ,4^,,,, ^J, T h @ B i, Ifyxityp 
 
 quoniam Deus. — Iran. lib. v. advers. /uu ^, &v0/i ' m fil y E ^ ^ ^ 
 
 Haeres. cap. 17. Matt. ix. 5. mrfrtit ■ra.^a.xa.Xwa.i rit e>>> Amphi- 
 
 2 Aiii, Toura pins oZt'os tin « ifiimi \ os fo_ m yit. Basil. [Pp. 217, 218. Ed. 
 to rKv/tfuki/mmi, vvo toD rorgig rSv p a ris, 1644. Lat. vers. pp. 7, 8.] 
 
of the Primitive Church. 71 
 
 that since Basil had interceded for all.the rest, he would not 
 grudge her his prayers for that single fault. 
 
 I am not to answer for the truth or likelihood of all the 
 circumstances recited in this story ; I only quote it as attest- 
 ing the doctrine of those times, concerning the agency of 
 the Priest in the remission of sins. And this, I conceive, it 
 speaks fully up to. 
 
 Thus likewise we read in Ambrose : " This is no work of 
 man, but of God (viz. imparting the Holy Spirit). The 
 Spirit is, indeed, invoked by the Priest, but he is given by 
 God ; so that the gift is God's, and the Ministry only belongs 
 to the Priest. For if the Apostle St. Paul judged his own 
 authority incompetent for so great a purpose, who is there 
 amongst us so assuming as to pretend to it? Now, the 
 Apostle, it is plain, offered up his desire of it in form of 
 prayer, without assuming to himself any authoritative dis- 
 posal of it." 1 
 
 Again, " God alone forgiveth sins. The Holy Spirit doth 
 it ; and the part which men bear in this action of forgiveness, 
 is only applying their Ministry to it, not exercising any direct 
 authority ; for they remit sins not in their own, but in the 
 Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. 
 They intercede, but the Deity confers the grant." 2 
 
 The author of the work, ascribed usually to St. Cyprian, 
 concerning the Baptism of Christ, expresses himself to much 
 the same purpose with what hath been cited from Ambrose : 
 " Remission of sins, whether by Baptism, or by any other 
 ordinance, is properly," he observes, " the act of the Spirit 
 of God, and the efficacy of it is to be entirely ascribed to 
 
 ' Non enimhumanum hoc opus, neque praesumpsit. — Ambros.deSpirituSancto, 
 
 ab homine datur ; sed qui invocatur Jib. i. cap. 8, [p. 619. Ed. Bened. 
 
 [Spiritus] a sacerdote, a Deo traditur ; v. 2.] 
 
 in quo Dei mumis, ministerium sacer- 2 Peccata nemo condonat nisi unusDeus 
 
 dotis est. Nam si Pauhis Apostolus .... per Spiritum Sanctum peccata do- 
 
 judicavit, quod ipse donare Spiritum nautur; homines autem in remissionem 
 
 Sanctum sua auctoritate non posset, et peccatorum ministerium suum exbi- 
 
 in tantum se huic officio imparem ere- bent ; non jus alicujus potestatis exer- 
 
 didit, ut a Deo nos Spiritu optaret im- cent. Neque enim in suo, sed in Patris, 
 
 pleri; quis tantus est, qui hujus tradi- et FiHi, et Spiritus Sancti nomine peccata 
 
 tionem muneris sibi audeat adrogare ? dimittunt. Isti rogant, Divinitas donat. 
 
 Itaque Apostolus votum precatione de- — Ibid, in lib. iii. cap. 18, [p. 693. Ed. 
 
 tulit, non jus auctoritate aliqua vendi- Bened. vol. ii.] 
 cavit. Impetrare optavit, non imperare 
 
72 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap. Him; whatever agency the Priest may have in it, by words 
 : or gestures, or any formularies derived to him from Aposto- 
 lical institution." 1 
 
 The Priest, therefore, in this branch of Absolution, must 
 content himself with the office of intercessor, which he hath 
 all along exercised in the Church of God. This, I humbly 
 conceive, is all his part in the forum internum; nor can it, I 
 presume, be proved, that he challenged any other till one 
 thousand years had passed from the birth of Christ. 2 
 
 But in the forum externum, ' the outward regimen ofthe 
 Church,' the Priest appears with another character, and per- 
 forms the part of a "judge in commission from Christ," since 
 his restoration of the penitent to the peace of the Church, 
 and to outward visible Communion, is an authoritative, 
 judicial act, which he performs directly and properly in his 
 own person, and the Church is obliged to own what he does 
 as good and valid. 
 
 St. Cyprian thought an act of the Priest in this part of his 
 Office so authentic, that he held for valid even an " irregular 
 Absolution, and would not attempt to rescind a sentence which 
 had once been passed (how imprudently soever) by a Priest 
 ofthe Most High God." 3 
 
 This was what Augustin referred to, when he cautions 
 his people against " contemning the Penitential Discipline, 
 because they might observe, perhaps, some approaching to 
 the Holy Communion, whom they might suspect or know 
 to be guilty of heinous crimes. Inasmuch as though it might 
 
 1 Remissio peccatorum sive per Bap- character ! Sequester ac medius inter 
 
 tismum, sive per alia Sacramenta done- Deum et peccatorem ordinatns .... et 
 
 tur, proprie Spiritus Sancti est, et ipsi intercessor. — Ord. Roman, in Confess, 
 
 soli hujus efficientias privilegium manet. Posnitent. And our learned Outram de 
 
 Verborum solennitas et sacri invocatio Sacrificiis, lib. ii. cap. 1, [p. 267,] en- 
 
 nominis et signa institutiorubus Apo- titles the Christian Priesthood, Patro- 
 
 stolicis sacerdotum Ministeriis attributa, cinium hominum apud Deum, i. c. An 
 
 visibile celebrant Sacramentum ; rem office, in virtue of which the persons 
 
 vero ipsam Spiritus Sanctus format et bearing it, pleaded, as it were, with God 
 
 efficit. — De Baptismo Christi, apud for men ; and where an offence had been 
 
 Cyprian, [ap. Fell, in calcem, Op. committed, deprecated the one, in be- 
 
 Arnoldi Abbatis, p. 30.] half of the other. 
 
 3 See what is written and cited upon 3 Pacem tamen (quomodocunque) a 
 
 this subject in chap. 3. § 4. N.B. The sacerdote Dei semel datam non puta- 
 
 Ordo Romanus styles the Priest an um- vimus auferendam. — Cyprian, in Epist. 
 
 pire, intercessor, and mediator between [64. Fell. p. 158.] 
 Cod and man. So lately was this his 
 
of the Primitive Church. 73 
 
 be true that they were so, yet no proof was made of it ; and 
 we," says he, " can restrain no one from our Communion, 
 except he voluntarily confesses, or be arraigned and con- 
 victed before some either secular or Ecclesiastical judge, inas- 
 much as it was unfit for the same person to be both accuser 
 and judge." 1 This apparently refers not to the mediatorial, 
 but to the judicial Office of the Priest ; and so it must be 
 confessed do most other passages in ancient writers, where 
 they speak of the Penitential Discipline, who generally mean 
 by it the forum externum, the admission to, or exclusion from, 
 the Ordinances of the Church. 
 
 The restoration to Communion did, indeed, presuppose the 
 sin it was applied to pardoned through the intercessions of 
 the Priest, and the mortifications which the penitent under- 
 went throughout the whole course of the preceding discipline. 
 Since when the time assigned him for penance was passed, 
 he seems immediately to have taken the place he stood in 
 amongst the faithful before his separation. So that his sin 
 was gradually expiated by the deprecations of the Minister 
 of God throughout the whole course of his continuance 
 under a state of penance ; and it was judged to be fully ex- 
 piated, when the term of his sentence was expired ; and 
 therefore, upon his receiving, for the last time, imposition of 
 hands from the Bishop, he was immediately reinstated in all 
 the privileges of full Communion. 
 
 " The peace of the Church was given him ; " he was ad- 
 mitted or restored to Communion, after he had fulfilled the 
 measure of that satisfaction which was expected from him. 
 Thus the Fathers 2 variously expressed their sense of that 
 
 1 Nemo arbitretur, fratres, propterea nominatum atque convictum. Quisenim 
 
 se consilium salutiferse hujus pcenitentiae sibi utrumque audeat assumere, ut cui- 
 
 debere contemnere, quia multos forte ad- quam ipse sit et accusator et judex ? — ■ 
 
 vertit et novit ad Sacramenta altaris ac- Augustin. in Horn. ult. ex. 50, cap. [10. 
 
 cedere, quorum talia crimina non ignorat. Ed. Bened. vol. v. p. 948.] 
 
 .... Quamvis enim vera sunt quaedam, 3 Pacem, communicationem, dari, 
 
 non tamen judici facile credenda sunt, reddi. — Cyprian, in Epist. [56. Fell.] 
 
 nisi certis indiciis demonstrentur. Nos et Ambros. de Pcenitent. lib. i. cap. [2. 
 
 vero a communione prohibere quenquam Ed. Bened.] 
 
 ■ non possumus (quamvis haec prohibitio Accipiat satisfactionis suae modum. — 
 
 nondum sit mortalis, sed medicinalis), August, in Horn. ult. ex. 50, c. [9, p. 
 
 nisi aut sponte confessum, aut in aliquo 947, vol. v.] 
 sive ssculari, sive Ecclesiastico judicio 
 
74 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, matter; and this was the Absolution most frequently men- 
 
 '■ tioned by them. 
 
 This did, I say, presuppose the other, viz. the forgiveness 
 of the sinner from God, through the intercession of the 
 Priest. Had the party not been supposed forgiven by God, 
 he would never have been restored ; the very act of restoring 
 him was a proof of the opinion conceived of him, that God 
 had forgiven him ; and to this forgiveness, on God's part, it 
 was the current persuasion that the whole preceding disci- 
 pline did very much contribute. 
 
 An author so late as Gregory the Great could say, that 
 the "Absolution of the Bishop wa3 then only significant and 
 valid, when it followed the determination of the Supreme 
 Eternal Judge." 1 
 
 But we must further observe, that though the Priest's 
 intercession for the penitent was all along, in the truth of 
 the case, distinguishable from the penitent's restoration or 
 Absolution, yet in the order of time it was not always so ; 
 for, indeed, immediately upon finishing the one, there fol- 
 lowed the other. From the very moment wherein he quitted 
 his last Station of penance, he took (for aught appears) his 
 former place among the faithful, and then was entirely 
 loosed from his bond. 
 
 So that the last act of the Bishop in his imposition of 
 hands, and his intercession for the penitent, was exactly con- 
 temporary with the penitent's restoration; and thus these 
 two branches of Absolution met at last in one common point. 
 From what hath been delivered upon this article, we may 
 observe, that the Absolution of the Primitive Church was for 
 divers centuries a correlative to public discipline ; that re- 
 storing to Communion did imply its having been before 
 detained ; that giving the peace of the Church did infer the 
 party to whom it was given to have been in a state of enmity 
 with it ; that reconciliation did presuppose a quarrel ; and 
 that loosing could never properly be applied to any case or 
 person where there had been no binding. 
 
 These several expressions, which then were used to repre- 
 sent Absolution, do clearly enough evince the thing to us.- 
 
 1 Tunc enim vera est Absolutio prse- judicis. — Gregor. in Evangel. Horn. 26. 
 sidentis, cum interni arbitrium sequitur [Vol. i. p. 1555.] 
 
of the Primitive Church. 75 
 
 The course was then to bring a man first under a state of 
 discipline, before intercessions were made for him ; and to 
 be sure he was first brought under discipline before he was 
 relaxed, or discharged, from it. To absolve was, then, to 
 mediate with God for him, that his humiliation might be 
 accepted ; and, after a course of penitential labours, to release 
 him from the burden of them, and so to admit him in full to 
 his former privileges. 
 
 Pacian hath answered for us an objection which might 
 here arise, as to the pardon of sin procured by the Priest's 
 intercession, and the consequent admission of the penitent to 
 Communion, which was then esteemed to carry with it the 
 pardon of sin, because it first supposed, and then declared it. 
 " You will object," says he, " that God only can thus for- 
 give sin. True : but the power of the Priest is, in this case, 
 the power of God ; for what else is meant by the power of 
 binding and loosing ? I confess, indeed, that pardon is not 
 to be granted to any upon penance, until there is some rea- 
 son to guess at the will of God concerning them ; and even 
 then it is not to be granted but upon mature deliberation, 
 after great evidences of contrition and sorrow on their parts ; 
 after much intercession of the Church of God for them ; and 
 even then to be given with such a reserve, as not to pre- 
 judge the sentence of the Supreme Judge." 1 
 
 Upon the whole, I think myself bound in justice to ob- 
 serve, that there hath not appeared to me a single instance 
 of Absolution, where there had been no penance, during the 
 first four hundred years after Christ ; except in the case of 
 clinical penitents, which I shall presently mention. By what 
 steps, and upon what occasions, the change crept in from the 
 ancient to the modern practice, the next chapter will assist 
 my reader to discover. 
 
 1 Solus hoc (inquies) Deus poterit : pretatio Divinae voluntatis, aut forsitan 
 
 verum est: sed et quod per sacerdotes visitatio fuerit, relaxari ; magnopondere, 
 
 suos facit, ipsius potestas est ; nam quid magnoque libramine, post multos gemi- 
 
 est illud quod Apostolis dicit, Quae liga- tus effusionemque lacrymarum ; post to- 
 
 veritis in terris, ligata erunt et in ccelis ; tius Ecclesiee preces, ita veniam verse 
 
 et quaecunque solveritis in terris, soluta pcenitentise non negari, ut judicaturo 
 
 erunt et in ccelis Scio, frater, hanc Christo nemo praejudicet. — Pacian. in 
 
 ipsam pcenitentiae veniam non passim Epist. 1 . ad Sympronian. [§6,7.] 
 omnibus dari, nee antequam aut inter- 
 
76 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap. Much of this may, doubtless, be accounted for, by that 
 
 '■ — discretionary power which the various administration of this 
 
 discipline proves to have been always vested in the chief 
 officer of the Church. 
 
 But then, if there be an ordinance appointed for the re- 
 mission of sins, it will ever be, with some, a question, 
 whether sins can be regularly remitted without the use of 
 it, by the Ministry of man, for of God's power there is no 
 question, e. g. If we were to debate the point in the case 
 of Baptism : the Church hath, doubtless, a power of remit- 
 ting sins to persons unbaptized. 
 
 But how? Can it be done without the ordinance of Bap- 
 tism, where a door is open to that solemn initiation? We 
 are in like manner agreed, that the Church is vested with 
 authority to remit the sins of persons baptized. But how ? 
 Will it be allowed in this, any more than in the former case, 
 to skip over the ordinance, and to absolve without any 
 regard to it? 
 
 The Holy Eucharist, it may be said by some, is appointed 
 for this purpose ; but it will be replied, perhaps, by others, 
 that none were intended to partake of it who had committed 
 deadly sins, without this penitential preparation ; that, ac- 
 cording to the rules of the Gospel (if we may judge of those 
 rules by their practice which next succeeded them), such 
 persons are obliged to abstain till they have satisfied for the 
 scandal by a public humiliation. 
 
 The matter of right I shall not here undertake to deter- 
 mine ; but the fact was plainly this, that, after such offences, 
 penance was for many ages the door of Communion. 
 See in p. 6i, So that we may ask, I believe, with Ambrose, as lately 
 from Am- ed cited > Where at last is the difference, whether the Church 
 brose, notes claims this right of remitting sins by one ordinance or by 
 another, by Baptism or by Penance ? And we may observe 
 again, as he did, that as there is one Baptism, so there 
 should be one and only one solemn Penance, and that to be 
 in the face of the Church. 
 
 Much to the same purpose is what Augustin hath advised 
 in the case of scandalous crimes especially, " That if the sin 
 do not only affect the conscience of the offender, but hath 
 likewise given scandal to others, he should cure it by this 
 
of the Primitive Church. 77 
 
 medicine;" 1 which was, indeed, the pampharmacon of the 
 ancients, and without it they had no notion of a cure for any 
 heinous crime. 
 
 Yet one case at last there was, wherein, as Baptism was 
 administered to adult persons, without observing or passing 
 through the stage of Catechumens, so penance was assigned 
 and Absolution granted, without going through the ordinary 
 stages of the Penitential Discipline ; and this was the imminent 
 danger of approaching death. Only clinical Baptism was 
 in no case denied, though it was accounted a fault to defer 
 it where it might be sooner had, and a brand was accord- 
 ingly fixed upon persons so baptized, if they afterwards 
 recovered. 
 
 Whereas, St. Cyprian will inform us of a case, wherein he 
 " thought it improper to allow the peace of the Church, if 
 the party did then first ask it ; and that was the case of 
 such as would not before submit to penance, nor manifest 
 their sorrow for their sin, till a sick bed and the fear of death 
 should extort this request from them; these he judged unfit 
 to receive the comfort of Communion in their deaths, who 
 had despised it in their lives." 2 
 
 The Council of Aries determined the same " in the case of 
 such as had apostatized from the faith, and never made their 
 penitential submissions till visited with some dangerous 
 distemper, and then would beg a reconciliation ; these were 
 not to be received, except they recovered and did public 
 penance." 3 
 
 1 Ut si peccatum ejus non solum in atque in periculo cceperint deprecari ; 
 
 gravi ejus malo, sed etiam in tantoscan- quia rogare illos non delicti poenitentia, 
 
 dalo aliorum est, atque hoc expedire utili- sed mortis urgentis admonitio compellit ; 
 
 tati Ecclesiae videtur antistiti, in notitia nee dignus est in morte accipere sola- 
 
 multorum vel etiam totius plebis agere tram, qui se non cogitavit esse moritu- 
 
 pcenitentiam non recuset, non resistat, rum. — Cyprian, in Epist. ad Antonian. 
 
 non lethali et mortiferae plagae per pn- [Ep. 55. p. 111. Fell.] 
 
 dorem addat tumorem. — Augustin. in 3 De his qui apostatant, et nunquam 
 
 Homil. ult. ex. 50, cap. 9, [p. 947, vol. v. se adEcclesiam reprasentant, ne quidem 
 
 Ed. Bened.] pcenitentiam agere quserunt, et postea 
 
 2 Iccirco, frater carissime, pceniten- infirmitate arrepti petunt communionem, 
 
 tiam non agentes nee dolorem delictorum placuit eis non dandam communionem, 
 
 suorum toto corde et manifesta lamenta- nisi revaluerint, et egerint dignos fruc- 
 
 tionis sua: professione testantes, prohi- tus pcenitentise. — In Concil. Arelat. i. 
 
 bendos omnino censuimus, a spe com- can. 22, [Hardouin. torn. i. p. 266.] 
 municationis et pacis, si in infirmitate 
 
78 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap. " Even when penance was allowed to the clinical, or sick- 
 
 ' — bed penitent, and when reconciliation followed, he stood 
 
 hound, upon his recovery, to comply with the conditions 
 upon which it was granted him, and to perform it publicly, 
 in the face of the Church." 1 
 
 " Indeed a penitent whom danger of death should find in 
 a state of penance, before the expiration of the term assigned 
 him, was in no case whatever to be denied a reconciliation." 2 
 
 But then, between Absolution thus granted upon regular 
 submission to Canonical Discipline and thatwhich was granted 
 to the sick upon a presumption that if they recovered they 
 would duly discharge it, I say between these two cases there 
 was this great difference anciently apprehended, that the one 
 was secure of pardon, whilst the other was very uncertain 
 of it. 
 
 " He," saith Ambrose, " who hath duly performed his 
 penance, and is loosed from the bond which held him, and 
 which separated him from the body of Christ, and who after 
 such his Penance, and such his Absolution, shall lead a godly 
 life, and then shall happen to die, such an one goes assuredly 
 to God, and to everlasting rest. But for the man who shall 
 be admitted to terms of Penance in the last extremities of 
 life, and after that to Absolution, and shall die in those sad 
 circumstances, we do not, indeed, deny to such an one what 
 he asks of us ; but it is not because we think well of his 
 case, for that is what we can no way assure to him. If his 
 Penance be thus deferred to his last moments, though he 
 should be absolved before his departure, yet, whether such 
 Absolution will prove effectual we cannot promise him ; we 
 may assign him Penance, but we can give no security for the 
 success of it. For if he will then only begin to repent, 
 when he can no longer sin, the construction will be, that his 
 sins have forsaken him, and not that he hath forsaken his 
 sins." 3 
 
 1 Si continuo creditur moriturus, re- 5 De his qui in pcenitentia positi vita 
 
 concilietur per manus impositionem . . .. excesserunt, placuit nullum communione 
 
 si supervixerit, subdatur statutis poeni- vacuum debere dimitti ; sed pro eo quod 
 
 tentise legibus. — In Concil. Carthag. iv. honoravitpcenitentiam, oblatio illius sus- 
 
 Can. 76. [Hard. torn. i. p. 983.] See cipiatur. — In Concil. Arelat. ii. can. 12. 
 
 likewise, in the Appendix, Gregory Nys- [Hardouin. torn. ii. p. 774.] 
 
 sen's Epistle, No. 1 . 3 Qui egerit veraciter pcenitentiam et 
 
of the Primitive Church. 79 
 
 Even this, we may observe, which seems the only instance 
 of primitive Absolution, where public penance had not pre- 
 ceded, did yet stand related to it, and was to be followed by 
 it, if the party were capable ; and he was admitted to the 
 one, upon a presumption that, if he lived, he would perform 
 the other. Though want of proof or neglect of discipline 
 might have hitherto kept him from it, yet now, upon his 
 recovery, he was sure to submit to it ; or, if he did not re- 
 cover, the hope conceived of him was very dubious for his 
 want of it. 
 
 For such as had been cut off from the Church by a sen- 
 tence of Excision, whose case we find mentioned in the Con- 
 stitutions, 1 it hath already been observed, that they were no 
 more regarded than infidels and heathens; and, therefore, 
 the Penitential Discipline was no way concerned with them, 
 until a sense of .their danger had wrought its effects upon 
 them, and until, by their humble demeanour, they had obtained 
 admission to some Station of penance. So that they enter 
 no otherwise within our present consideration, than as their 
 last sickness might happen to surprise them in this desperate 
 state. And then, by what hath been cited from St. Cyprian, 
 it appears that neither Penance nor Absolution was, in those 
 circumstances, allowed them. 3 
 
 What St. James hath written upon the case of Clinics, and 
 upon their sending for the elders of the Church to pray over 
 them, and upon their confessing their faults one to another, 
 may, and does, probably, relate to the miraculous cure of 
 distempers, and to the miraculous gift of prayer. 3 Yet this 
 
 solutus fuerit a ligamento quo erat con- dare possum, securitatem dare non pos- 
 
 strictus, et a Christi corpore separatus, sum .... Si autem turn agerevis pcen- 
 
 et bene post pcenitentiam vixerit, et post itentiam, quando peccare jam nonpotes ; 
 
 reconciliationem defunctus fuerit, ad peccata te dimiserunt, non tu ilia. — Am- 
 
 Dominumvadit, ad requiem vadit bros. in Exhortat. ad Poenitent. agend. 
 
 Qui autein positus in ultima necessitate 1 In Apostol. Constitut. lib. ii. cap. 
 
 segritudinis suse acceperit pcenitentiam, 41, cited in p. 32, note 1. 
 
 et mox reconciliatus fuerit, et vadit, id 2 See him cited in p. 77, note 2. Ic- 
 
 est, exit de corpore, fateor vobis, non circo, frater carissime, &c Pro- 
 
 illi negamus quod petit, sed non prsesumo hibendos omnino censuimus a spe com- 
 
 dicere, quia bene hinc exit. Non prse- municationis et pacis, si in infirmitate et 
 
 sumo, non polliceor Agens vero perieulo coeperint deprecari. 
 
 pcenitentiam ad ultimum, et reconcili- 3 St. James, v. 14-16. '^o^oXoyittrh 
 
 atus si exierit, an securus hinc exeat, ovv aXXviXois rccs aptxpTtacs- — See Dr. 
 
 ego non sum securus. Pcenitentiam Hammond upon the place. 
 
80 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, hinders not, but that he might likewise direct or allude to 
 
 '■ the common practice of Clinical Penance. For though the 
 
 prayer of faith might then have a certain efficacy, to which 
 in after times it was not entitled, yet it might retain in after 
 times an usefulness which might recommend it, in like cir- 
 cumstances, to succeeding generations. And though it 
 should be granted that the confession of their faults one to 
 another did not necessarily infer the confession of them to a 
 Priest, yet, considering the connexion of that with the fore- 
 going passage, wherein the sending for the Elders of the 
 Church and their praying over him were recommended to 
 the sick ; considering the success which is there promised to 
 such a prayer, that the sins of the party should thereupon 
 be forgiven ; considering that then it follows in the royal MS. 
 " Confess your sins, therefore, to one another," and adding, 
 moreover, to these several considerations the known usage 
 of the penitential confession, which was, indeed, a confession 
 to one another, i. e. a confession in the face of the Church, I 
 cannot help understanding St. James as having here in his 
 view the process of Clinical Penance. He hath plainly sup- 
 posed the presence of the Elders of the Church, and their 
 intercession to God for the sick penitent, and then hath re- 
 commended the confession of his faults in that presence, 
 where two or three assembled together in the Name of God 
 might constitute a Church for that purpose. And thus his 
 confession to, or in the presence of others, though not con- 
 fined to the Priest alone, will have much the same significa- 
 tion, with that solemn Exhomologesis which was so well 
 afterwards known to be made in the face of the Church, 
 and to denominate one main branch of the penitent's 
 humiliation. 
 
 It hath, indeed, been insisted, that the phrase to one 
 another is to be taken in a mutual signification, and so will 
 imply the confession of the persons then present to the sick, 
 as well as the confession of the sick to the persons present. 
 But the phrase may be allowed to retain its mutual con- 
 struction without any such inference, and St. James may be 
 understood in a sense like this which follows: "Therefore, 
 upon the foregoing considerations, I advise you to resort to 
 this penitential confession of your faults in the presence of 
 
of the Primitive Church. 81 
 
 one another, whenever any of you shall be visited with 
 sickness." 
 
 According to St. James, the course was, therefore, this: 
 Some Elder of the Church was to be called for, and was to 
 offer up the prayers of the persons then present on the be- 
 half of the sick, who, for his own part, was here exhorted to 
 confess his sins in the presence of that Elder, and of the 
 other by-standers. And thus all, in their turns, were to con- 
 fess their faults to each other, and to join in prayer for each 
 other, whenever this occasion shall call them to it. 
 
 These passages are all apparently connected, and have a 
 mutual relation. And the whole process of this affair, as 
 here represented, was exactly agreeable to the practice which 
 afterwards succeeded. Nor is there any thing extraordinary 
 in the passage of St. James, which was not afterwards 
 adopted into the standing usages of the Church, except only 
 what related to the miraculous cure of the distempers. 
 
 But now, as in the case of Excommunication, the practice 
 remained after the age of the Apostles, though the super- 
 natural punishments which at first attended it did no longer 
 follow it ; so here it might probably be in the case of Clinical 
 Penance. The usage itself might be, and was continued, 
 although the miraculous cure was discontinued. 
 
 What Mr. Le Clerc hath hereupon asserted of the insig- g ee hi m m 
 nificancy of an Elder's prayers, and of Absolution by the his ?^ PP p" 
 Church, will conclude alike against divers Scripture in- Hammond, 
 stances, and against all the ordinances of the Gospel ; and, and 16th 
 indeed, will make Sacraments or no Sacraments, Censures or j|mes'°s 5th 
 no Censures, to be equally significant. And, therefore, if cha P ter - 
 the proving too much proves nothing at all, Mr. Le Clerc 
 hath here betrayed his logic and his religion together. 
 
 I have but one thing further to observe upon this whole 
 discipline, which hath been occasionally, though not of set 
 purpose, proved throughout the main tenor of the foregoing 
 argument, viz. That solemn Penance, and Absolution from it, 
 were originally allowed but once. 
 
 What hath been cited from Hernias evidently proves that, See j^ ^ 
 " to the servants of God, there was but one repentance." p.22,note4; 
 
 . . p.23,notel. 
 
 Tertullian hath likewise informed us that it was granted 
 but once ; and hath given us, moreover, the reason of that 
 
 G 
 
82 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, restraint, viz. " That the door of penitence was therefore but 
 
 '■ — once opened, because that of Baptism had already been so to 
 
 no purpose; so that the penitential admission was to be 
 esteemed a second." 1 
 
 " As one Baptism, so one Penance," saith Ambrose. 2 But 
 Augustin to Macedonius is so full upon this, that I shall 
 dismiss the point, when I have given my reader his repre- 
 sentation of the case at large. 
 
 "Some," saith he, "proceed so far in wickedness, that 
 after they have been admitted to public penance, and have 
 been solemnly reconciled at the altar of God, yet do they 
 run again into the same, or even into grosser crimes ; which, 
 however, hinders not the flow of God's common blessings 
 upon them. And though the Church allows them no place 
 for that solemn penance, which they have already frustrated, 
 yet does God still bear with them. Now, if one of this 
 number should say to us Bishops, Either admit me again to 
 penance, or allow me to be desperate, and to commit all 
 manner of wickedness which is in my power, and which 
 brings me not within the reach of human laws ; or if you 
 will not indulge me in this, inform me at least whether, upon 
 my contempt of this world, with all its allurements ; upon a 
 severe restraint and check of my passions ; upon the assiduity 
 of my prayers, and alms, and tears, I shall be able, ever a 
 whit, to better my future condition ? Which of us all would 
 here .be so mad as to discourage such a man from his good 
 purposes, or allow him in his indulgences to a sensual life ? 
 Therefore, though it be a wise and wholesome appointment 
 of the Church to allow but once the benefits of solemn 
 penance, lest it should bring contempt upon the medicine, 
 and so should render, it the less beneficial; yet who will 
 thence venture to say toiGod, Why dost Thou yet spare the 
 man who, after having been once admitted to pardon, in- 
 volves himself afresh in the: guilt of sin?" 3 
 
 See him cited in p. 60, note 1. super tales oriri solem suum ; nee minus 
 
 2 See him cited in p. 61, note l. tribuit quam ante tribuebat largissima 
 
 3 In tantum autem hominum ali- muneravitaeacsalutis. Et quamvis eis in 
 quando iniquitas progreditur, ut etiam Ecclesia locus humillimae pcenitentias non 
 post actam pcenitentiam, post altaris re- concedatur ; Deus tamen super eos suae 
 conciliationem, vel similia vel graviora patientise non obliviscitur. Ex quorum 
 committant ; et tamen Deus facit etiam numero si quis nobis dicat ; Aut date 
 
of the Primitive Church. 83 
 
 This is so full to our purpose, that it needs no comment, 
 and accordingly I shall leave it with my reader to make his 
 own upon it. 
 
 When the concurrence, therefore, was in this point so 
 general, Socrates 1 might well set a brand upon Chrysostom 
 for flying in the face of it, and for encouraging his people to 
 expect admission to penance toties quoties, as often as they 
 should offend. For though much of this discipline was 
 intrusted to the Bishops with a discretionary power, yet 
 where one and the same rule of administration was univer- 
 sally agreed to, it did not look so well in any single Bishop 
 to depart from it, and to set up his own particular against 
 the general practice of all his colleagues. 
 
 I have now, as briefly as I could, represented to my reader 
 what were the constituent parts of the old Penitential Disci- 
 pline, and have endeavoured to support the account I have 
 given of each with its proper vouchers. 
 
 If in any thing I have either misled him, or shall prove 
 to be myself mistaken, no one shall be more ready to 
 retract the error, nor to beg his excuse for having drawn 
 him into it. 
 
 I would only bespeak the forbearance of those who have 
 
 mihi eundem iterum poenitendi locum, ista proderunt in posterum ; vade saltern, 
 
 aut desperatum me permittite, ut faciam vitse hujus suavitate perfruere ? Avertat 
 
 quidquid libuerit, quantum meis opibus Deus tarn immanem sacrilegamque de- 
 
 adjuvor, et humanis legibus non probi- mentiam ! Quamvis ergo caute salubri- 
 
 beor ; in scortis omnique luxuria, dam- terque provisum sit, ut locus illius hu- 
 
 nabili quidem apud Dominum, sed apud millimBe pcenitentiae semel in Ecclesia 
 
 homines plerosque etiam laudabili. Aut concedatur, ne medicina vilis minus utilis 
 
 si me ab bac nequitia revocatis, dicite esset segrotis, quae tanto mag-is salubris 
 
 utrum mihi aliquid prosit ad vitam fntu- est, quanto minus contemptibilis fuerit : 
 
 ram, si in ista vita illecebrosissimse vo- Quis tamen audeat dicere Deo, Quale 
 
 luptatis blandimenta contempsero, si huic homini, qui post primam pceniten- 
 
 libidinum incitamenta frsenavero, si ad tiam rursus se laqueis iniquitatis ob- 
 
 castigandum corpus meum multa mini stringit, adbuc iterum parcis ? — August, 
 
 etiam licita et concessa subtraxero, si me in Epist. ad Macedonium, [No. 153, 
 
 pcenitendo vehementius quam prius ex- § 7, vol. ii. p. 399. Ed. Bened.] 
 cruciavero, si miserabilius ingemuero, si 1 Miag yu.% pvra. ro fiawncrfia Tcc^a 
 
 flevero uberius, si vixero melius, si pau- tSJj euvohov rwv \vriffx.i>vraiv Mitxvo'hzs ro7s 
 
 peres sustentavero largius, si caritate, Wraixoirt lahians, ecvros uTtToXfiytrsv 
 
 qua; operit multitudinem peccatorum, iiirih, ^iKia.xis /iirxvowxs t'l<riXh. — 
 
 flagravero ardentius; quis nostrum ita Socrat. in Histor. lib. vi. cap. 21. 
 desipit, ut huic homini dicat, Nihil tibi 
 
84 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, not yet thought fit to travail so far as I have done into this 
 
 '- — argument, that they would not too severely animadvert upon 
 
 any little oversight ; nor too hastily censure what, as yet, 
 they may not have enough considered. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 The question which lies next before us to be discussed, 
 relates, first, to the crimes for which this discipline was 
 inflicted ; and, secondly, to the hands with which the minis- 
 tration or execution of it was intrusted. 
 
 Section I. — Of the Crimes for which this Discipline 
 was inflicted. 
 
 Now, for such as were privately confessed, the Peni- 
 tentiary, 1 we have seen, was to judge, whether it would be 
 fit to acknowledge them, and to do penance for them in the 
 face of the Church. 
 
 But such as gave public scandal were, I conceive, in the 
 design of the institution, the chief objects of this discipline, 
 though what were either privately confessed, or came to the 
 notice of the Ecclesiastical judge by information from others, 
 did likewise fall under its cognizance, as well as the more 
 scandalous and notorious crimes. 
 
 The reader will observe from the Canonical Epistle of 
 Cregory Nyssen 2 (which contains indeed an abridgement of 
 the discipline in his age obtaining), how sins were ranged, 
 into what classes divided, and how they fell under judicial 
 notice. 
 
 They were generally reduced to three common topics, 
 and, under these, all, or most offences, were ranged, which 
 were thought necessary to be expiated by public penance. 
 
 1 See Basil. Canonic. Epist. to Amphi- note I. Si intellexerit et prseviderit ta- 
 lochius, Can. 34, where some crimes lem esse languorem tuum, qui in con- 
 were concealed, to avoid the mischief ventu totius Ecclesiee exponi debeat et 
 which might attend the publication of curari. 
 
 them, cited in p. 55, note 1, as likewise 3 See it translated in the Appendix, 
 
 what is cited from Origen, in pp. 33-35, No. 1. 
 
of the Primitive Church. 85 
 
 For as to other crimes, the daily sacrifice of prayer, joined 
 with more circumspection for the future, was thought a suffi- 
 cient cure for them. 
 
 " Some sins," 1 saith Ambrose, " may be released by mere 
 supplication to God in that petition of our daily prayer, 
 Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." 
 
 Parian, 2 in like manner, tells us, that " other sins were 
 cured by a due diligence in better practice ; but that these 
 three great and capital offences were to be dreaded as the 
 blast of a basilisk, or as a cup of poison, or as a deadly 
 wound." 
 
 In short, as Augustine hath observed, 3 " the sins from 
 which no man's life was or could, in our present state, be 
 exempted," in other words, the sins of mere surprise and 
 frailty, were allowed to pass without discipline or cen- 
 sure ; but every crime which gave scandal, and was esteemed 
 as an instance of deliberate and wilful guilt ; every deadly 
 sin, which, excluded from heaven, had its bond upon earth, 
 and fell under public cognizance, when any way proved, 
 either by the confession of the party or by other evidence. 
 
 In every species of mortal sin, as well as in each instance 
 wherein it was committed, there was, doubtless, a just distinc- 
 tion founded, in regard both to the nature and quality of the 
 offence itself, and to the inducements and circumstances 
 from whence it sprung, and wherewith it was clothed. And 
 these had due consideration severally allowed them, in the 
 extent and measure of the discipline assigned them. But 
 the distinction framed by Morinus, 4 between mortal sins of a 
 more or less heinous nature, the one of which he would 
 suggest to have been the object of private and Sacramental, 
 as the other of public and Canonical penance ; this was 
 entirely a fiction of modern standing, and invented for the 
 support of the modern practice in the Roman Church, since 
 
 1 Si alia peccata habuerit, quae quotidie sunt. — Parian, in Paraenes. ad Poenitent. 
 
 dimittantur in oratione dicenti, Dimitte [§ 4.] 
 
 nobis debita nostra, sicut et nos dimitti- 3 De quotidianis autem brevibus levi- 
 
 mus debitoribus nostris. — Ambros. in busque peccatis, sine quibus haec vita non 
 
 Exhort, ad Poenitent. duritur, quotidiana oratio fidelium satis- 
 
 s Reliqua peccata meliorum operum facit. — August, in Enchirid. ad Lauren- 
 
 eompensatione curantur; hsec vero tria tin. [§ 71, vol. vi. p. 163. Ed. Bened.] 
 
 crimina, ut basilisci alicujus afflatus, ut 4 Vide Morin. de Poenitent. lib. i. 
 
 veneni calix, ut fetalis arundo, metuenda cap. 10, § 12, cited in p. 69, note 2. 
 
86 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, antiquity is altogether a stranger to it, as well as to the 
 : practice, in aid of which it was invented. 
 
 The crimes, then, for which penance was assigned to the 
 party who had committed them, fell under one of these 
 three denominations, or else were reducible to one of these, 
 viz. uncleanness, idolatry, and bloodshed; 1 and these did, 
 indeed, very aptly point to the three great branches of duty 
 respecting God, our neighbour, and ourselves. 
 
 Some Churches, it must be owned, there were of ancient 
 standing, which denied to one or other of these offences the 
 privilege of penance, or, at least, of reconciliation ; witness 
 what we find determined in various canons of the Council of 
 Eliberis 2 (which was celebrated, in all likelihood, before the 
 Diocletian persecution), whereby two of the three great 
 crimes did utterly debar the offenders from Communion to 
 the end of their lives ; though, as to the third, viz. that of 
 uncleanness, some distinction was made in the kinds of it, 
 as may be seen from the twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, and 
 seventy-first canons of the aforementioned Council. 3 
 
 St. Cyprian mentions the like severity in some of his 
 predecessors, as to the case of uncleanness, though he seems 
 to think that they had no general concurrence with them in 
 such their opinion. He observes, however, that this diversity 
 of sentiment made no rupture, but that those who allowed, 
 and those who disallowed, of Communion in such cases, bore 
 with each other, and did not, through the obstinacy of their 
 
 1 Mcechia, idololatria, et homicidium, Virgines quae se Deo dicaverint, si 
 
 a Placuit ut quicunque post fidem Bap- pactum perdiderint virginitatis, atque 
 
 tismi salutaris, adulta setate, ad tern- eidem libidini servierint, noil intelligentes 
 
 . plum idololatraturus accesserit, et fecerit quid amiserint, placuit nee in fine eis 
 
 quod est crimen capitale (quia est sum- dandam esse communionem. Quod si 
 
 mum scelus) , nee in fine eum communi- semel persuasae, aut infirmi corporis 
 
 onem accipere. — InConcil. Eliber.can.l. lapsu vitiate, omni tempore vite suae 
 
 [Hardouin. i. p. 249.] egerint pcenitentiam, placuit eas in fine 
 
 Delator si quis extiterit fidelis, et per communionem accipere debere. — Ibid, 
 
 delationem ejus aliquis fuerit proscriptus in can. 13. [Ibid.] 
 
 vel interfectus, placuit eum nee in fine Virgines quae virginitatem suam non 
 
 accipere communionem. — Ibid.incan.73. custodierint, si eosdem qui eas violave- 
 
 [Ibid. p. 257.] rint,acceperintetinvenerintmaritos,post 
 
 3 Mater vel parens, vel quaelibet fidelis, annum sine pceniteutia reconciliari debe- 
 
 si lenocinium exercuerit, eo quod alienum bunt. — Ibid, in can. 14. [Ibid.] 
 
 vendiderit corpus, vel potius suum, pla- Stupratoribus puerorum nee in fine 
 
 cuit eas nee in fine accipere communio- dandam esse communionem. — Ibid, in 
 
 nem.— Ibid, in can. 12. [Ibid. p. 251.] can. 71. [Ibid. p. 257.] 
 
of the Primitive Church. 87 
 
 different apprehensions, disturb the peace or break the unity 
 of the Church. 1 
 
 They did not, like Novatus, deny the power of the Church 
 to forgive even in these cases ; although, for discipline's 
 sake, they did not think fit in certain instances to use that 
 power ; so that where this rigour obtained, it was not through 
 an apprehension (as Augustin speaks in a like example) that 
 the facts themselves were unpardonable, but from the seve- 
 rity of the then prevailing discipline. 2 
 
 In the Council of Ancyra, held not long after that of 
 Eliberis, viz. in or about the year 315, the case was appa- 
 rently much altered, and Communion was granted after 
 penance to those very crimes in which the Council of Eli- 
 beris had a little before denied it. Nay, it was granted to 
 those crimes in their very worst aggravations. 3 To such, for in- 
 stance, as had not only sacrificed to idols in their own persons, 
 but had been instrumental, likewise, in compelling others to 
 do so too;* to such as should offend in the most enormous 
 acts of uncleanness ; and even to such as should com- 
 mit wilful murder, it allows Communion in their last 
 moments. 
 
 So that Communion doth never appear to have been so 
 generally denied, even in these three cases, as Sirmondus, 6 
 with some other learned men, hath thought. 
 
 Tertullian not only allows, but objects the fact, when yet, 
 as a Montanist, he disputes the right by the Church then 
 claimed, to remit even these, the most heinous of all 
 offences. 
 
 1 Apud antecessors nostras quidam 3 'o p.* pom UtXovo-iois miuxiis, xXXci 
 de Episcopis istic in provincia nostra xxt sVe^av avxyxaeus $&xxeriav imovri<je~ 
 
 dandam pacem mcechis non putaverunt, rirsi. In Synod. Ancyran. can. 9. 
 
 et in totum pcenitentiae locum contra [V. Hardouin. torn. i. p. 279.] 
 
 adulteria clauserunt ; non tamen a co- 4 nsji tSv xXoyivo-xpUui, Jj xxi aXo. 
 
 episcoporum suorum collegio recesse- yiuo/i'smt otroi irgh uxoo-xirus yiiio-lxi, 
 
 runt, aut Catholics Ecclesiae unitatem ^pxpoi .... \%trxZSnta xmZi xxt 
 
 vel duritise vel censurae suae obstinatione „• \„ r ^ i„^ T ^ u /Has, xx\ a'tlrm -rvy. 
 
 rnperunt, ut quia apud alios adulteris X xvi™irxv rns (pt\xvl ia xixs Ibid, in 
 
 pax dabatur, qui non dabat de Ecclesia can. 16. 
 
 separaretur.— Cyprian, in Epist. ad An- ris^i txomrim Qomv, imn-urrimjexv 
 
 tonian. [No. 55. Fell. p. 110.] p\ v> TB v ft mXuou h rS rikti rov film/ 
 
 2 Non desperatione indulgentise, sed Kurc&sirtiirm.— Ibid, in can. [22. Har- 
 rigore factum est discipline. — August. douin.] 
 
 in Epist. ad Bonifac. No. 50. [Ed. 5 Vide Sirmond. Opuscul. torn. iii. 
 
 Bened. Antw. p. 503.] Histor. Poenitent. public, cap. 1. 
 
88 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap. "You will forgive," says he, "the idolater and the apo- 
 
 '- state, because you find, forsooth, the people of Israel were 
 
 forgiven after they had been so. In like manner you will 
 pardon bloodshed, because Ahab found mercy, after spilling 
 that of Naboth ; and because David, by confessing his guilt, 
 when he had joined adultery to murder in the affair of 
 Uriah, had his sin blotted out. Thus, also, from the examples 
 of Lot and Judah, you will plead precedents for remitting 
 the sins of incest and fornication, and of marriage obtained 
 by a vile prostitution." > 
 
 He rehearses here, and objects, to the Church her allow- 
 ance of reconciliation to the three great crimes ; so that 
 there can be no doubt of their being in his time and country 
 admitted to it. 
 
 The Apostolical Canons 2 are very clear in the case, and 
 appoint the Bishop or Presbyter to be degraded, who should 
 refuse to receive a penitent, without naming or suggesting 
 any reserved case, wherein they should not receive him. 
 They assign such Clergymen to segregation, as through fear 
 of temporal inconveniences should deny the Name of Christ, 
 and admit them, upon their repentance, to lay-communion. 
 The Canon preceding, hath " forbidden any person being 
 ever promoted to the Clerical order who should be accused 
 and convicted of adultery, fornication, or of any the like 
 prohibited enormities. A needless prohibition, surely, had 
 those crimes debarred the party convict from all approaches 
 to lay-communion for his whole life ; since there could have 
 been no danger, and therefore, upon this supposal, no need 
 of caution, that such should ever have risen to the order of 
 Clergy, who stood restrained from all approaches to lay- 
 communion. 
 
 i Dabis ergo idololatrje et omni apo- 2 Ei' n; Iniirxom;, ij trfttSurtps, n> 
 
 statse veniam, quia et populum ipsum, Wurr^otra avro u/tagrlus ov vr£oirl't- 
 
 totiens reum istorum, totiens invenimus %irxi, a.\\' anbiMinu, xa(tuoii<r6u. 
 
 retro restitutum. Communicabis et In Canon. Apostol. Can. 44, 
 
 homicidae, quia et Nabuthae sanguinem E? tis kXx^ixcs l,k tpiSn ml^jiriiti 
 
 Achab deprecatione delenit ; et David d fmnrcu to hopa rou Xgirrm, «.<p »j i '(JktIoi . 
 
 Uriae caedem turn causam ejus moechiam — Ibid, in Can. 54. 
 
 confessione purgavit. Jam et incesta E" ns xKTvyotfx yinreu xxtcc tricrai, 
 
 donabis propter Loth, et fornicationes rifiiims, J) /uixil*s, « clx\n S <rms ivn- 
 
 cum incesto, propter Judam, et turpes y^ivo/iUm tr^us, x«.) lXiy X Xi, tl s 
 
 de prostitution nuptias. — Tertull. de x ^h p* ^(myio-iu.— Ibid, in Can. 53. 
 Pudicit. cap. 6. 
 
of the Primitive Church. 89 
 
 What hath been cited from St. Irenseus, 1 in the third section 
 of the preceding chapter, clearly evidences, that two of these 
 three great offences (viz. those of uncleanness and apostasy) 
 were in his time admitted to public penance. For such was 
 indeed the complicated crime, both of the Deacon's wife, and 
 of the other women there mentioned, as seduced by Marcus. 
 But then it must be owned, that he gives no express account 
 of their reconciliation ; though, where he imputes their being 
 neither directly in the Church, nor yet quite out of it, to their 
 irresolution and wavering in their submission to discipline, 
 he seems to intimate, that if they had not been so wavering 
 and irresolute, they might have been restored. 
 
 Gregory, surnamed Thaumaturgus, 2 hath written a Canon- 
 ical Epistle, in the seventh Canon of which, as ranged by our 
 late most learned and pious Bishop Beveridge, he hath left 
 it to the discretion of the parties " concerned in the recon- 
 ciliation of murderers, whether they should be restored or 
 not ;" and yet by his manner of expression it should seem 
 that he was himself inclinable to the merciful side. " They 
 were to have no access, till somewhat should be determined 
 in common concerning them." The case was, of such as had 
 been instrumental to the death of their brethren, upon the 
 incursions of the barbarians. And this point was to be set- 
 tled when peace was restored to the churches, which had 
 been thus disturbed by them. 
 
 St. Cyprian 3 was so clear in the case of those who had 
 lapsed into idolatry during the rage of persecutions, that 
 there can be no doubt of his opinion in that matter. And 
 though we do not find him so express upon the two other 
 crimes, yet from what hath been cited out of him, where he 
 mentions the practice of some of his predecessors, with a note 
 of their having differed from the usage of his own time, for 
 that they did not allow of reconciliation to the sin of 
 uncleanness, I think we may fairly gather that it was his 
 
 1 See what is cited from St. Irenseus, fia^a^ais, xou tjSs ax^oiziriids a.tfu$,eu 3w, 
 in p. 25, note 2 ; p. 26, notes 1, 2. P^xys & v koivv vrtgt ayrwv <ri 1t&$. — 
 
 2 'ExEag&x^&^EvTas Se us xa) Qovsvuv Gregor. Thaumaturg. Canonic. Epist. 
 Toui o/iotpuXaus n £uXw, ri iy^ovvi, vxo- Can. 7. 
 
 "hiix.vwa.1 Se # otietis n olx.'tas ayvooutri to7s 3 See him cited in p. 87, note 1. 
 
90 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, own usage to allow it. It is, moreover, certain that he 
 
 ii 
 
 looked upon faults 1 which were not committed directly 
 against God to he of a lower class, and of a less heinous 
 nature, than others in which the honour of God was more 
 immediately concerned. So did Gregory Nyssen after him. 2 
 If, therefore, the more heinous were remitted, we may well 
 conclude that the less heinous were not then esteemed irre- 
 missible. 
 
 Ambrose 3 speaks fully to our present purpose, where he 
 tells the Novatians that " if they had only excepted one 
 single crime from pardon, however in this they might have 
 determined harshly, and would have contradicted the Scrip- 
 tures by such an assertion, yet would they have been consist- 
 ent with themselves in it. For that God, indeed, had excepted 
 no crime from pardon, but had extended alike His forgiveness 
 to all the instances of sin." 
 
 Whatever, then, might be the opinion or the practice of a 
 few particular Churches, the general usage, as far as we 
 can trace it, seems to have allowed Communion to all sins, 
 upon a due submission to the penance assigned them. And 
 the three which have been mentioned were so far from 
 being excepted out of this pardon, that they only, or such 
 as were reducible to them by way of a just analogy, were 
 esteemed to want and to require it. 
 
 We have seen from Pacian, that other sins, except these 
 three, were thought in his time sufficiently expiated by a 
 future diligence in good works. 4 
 
 But then, indeed, all the sins of the flesh which were 
 committed with any sort of deliberation were reduced to 
 the head of Maechia, as those against God were to that of 
 Idolatry, and those against society to that of Homicide. 
 
 So that, from these three roots, there arose numerous 
 
 - In minoribus delictis quae non in dure quidem, sed tamen divinis tantum 
 
 Dominium committuntur, poenitentia agi- redargni viderentur sententiis, adserti- 
 
 lur justo tempore .... quanto magis in onibus tamen suis convenient. Dominus 
 
 his gravissimis et extremis delictis 1 — enim crimen nullum excepit, qui peccata 
 
 Cyprian, in Epist. [17. Fell. p. 39.] donavit omnia.— Ambros. de Pcenitent. 
 
 2 See Gregory's Canonic. Epist. in lib. i. cap. [2, p. 391. Ed. Bened.] 
 Append. No. 1. * See him cited in p. 85, note 2. 
 
 3 Si unum tantum crimen exciperent, 
 
of the Primitive Church. 91 
 
 branches of sin, to be expiated by public penance, wherever 
 there was any aggravation to raise the fact above common 
 frailty. 
 
 Augustin would have all resort to the Bishop for public 
 penance, who had whereof to accuse themselves in any of 
 the instances named by the Apostle as sins of the flesh : Gal. t. 20, 
 such as " adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 
 idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, 
 strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, 
 revellings, and such like." 1 
 
 In short, it was the endeavour of the Church, as Origen 
 tells us, that, as far as might be, her assemblies should con- 
 sist of none but of discreet and sober members ; and, there- 
 fore, such as acted unsuitably to that character, and were 
 known to do so, had a mark set upon them by public censure, 
 under which they continued, till their reformation was as 
 visible as their offence had been. 2 
 
 There now remains but one thing farther to be considered 
 in this chapter, which we will proceed to discuss in the 
 following section. 
 
 Section II. — In whose hands the Ministration or Execution 
 of this Discipline was lodged ? 
 
 To this question the answer is short and clear, that the 
 Bishop was the person intrusted with it ; that his powers 
 were discretionary, as the various practices of various 
 Churches sufficiently prove, and that all authority in these 
 matters was originally derived from him, whoever might 
 occasionally be allowed to exercise it under him. 
 
 St. Ignatius hath divers passages, declaring the great 
 
 1 Judicet ergo seipsum homo in istis ut in offerendo sacrificio cordis contri- 
 
 voluntate dum potest ; et mores conver- bulati devotus et supplex id tamen agat, 
 
 tat in melius ; ne cum jam non poterit, quod non solum illi prosit ad recipieudam 
 
 etiam praeter voluntatem a Domino judi- salutem, sed etiam caeteris ad exem- 
 
 cetur. Et cum in se protulerit severis- plum. — Augustin. in Homil. ult. ex. 50, 
 
 simae medicinse sententiam, veniat ad [p. 947, vol. v. Ed. Bened.] 
 
 Antistites, per quos illi in Ecclesia claves 2 'HptTs yctf, affn ^uvapus, wavra. wgar- 
 
 ministrantur; ettanquam bonus jam inci- rof&iv, iyrip tuv Qpovipatv avt^wv yivitrSai 
 
 piensessenlius,maternorummembrorum rh evXXaym n^-Zi. — Origen. contra Cel- 
 
 ordine custodito, a praepositis Sacramen- sum, lib. iii. [Ed. Bened. torn. i. 
 
 torum accipiat satisfactionis suae modum; p. 482.] 
 
92 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, authority of the Bishop in this and every other matter 
 '■ relating to the Church of Christ. 
 
 " God," says he, " extends His pardon to all penitents, if 
 they come with one accord into the unity of Christ, and into 
 the same consistory with the Bishop ; for whoever do really 
 belong to Christ, are in fellowship and Communion with the 
 Bishop; but whoever depart from him, and join with the 
 children of perdition, shall be cut off from the body of 
 Christ." 1 Again, " It is fit we should walk more circum- 
 spectly for the future ; and whilst we have time we should 
 turn to God by repentance: we then are safe, when we 
 recognise God, and His Minister the Bishop [in this solemn 
 action]. He that honours the Bishop shall be honoured by 
 God. He that doth any thing clandestinely without the 
 Bishop serves the Devil." Again, 
 
 " Let no one presume to do any thing in Church matters 
 separately from the Bishop. Let that be esteemed a firm 
 and valid Eucharistical sacrifice, which is performed either 
 by the Bishop himself, or by persons in commission from 
 him. It is not lawful to baptize, nor to celebrate the holy 
 Communion, separately from the Bishop" [or without his 
 authority]. 
 
 What Tertullian hath observed of Baptism and its Minis- 
 ter, that the Chief Priest, or Bishop, had the sole power 
 of it vested in him, and that it was derived from him to 
 others ; 2 the same (we shall be informed elsewhere) belongs 
 to the Bishop in the case of Penance ; and though St. 
 Cyprian allowed some agency in it to Deacons in cases of 
 necessity, yet he and others will agree in ascribing to the 
 
 1 Tlatrtv ovv \_<ro7s] Meravoovtrtv utpUi o Xargsys/. — §9 MwSsis %vpts foe/ 
 
 Beos, /4lTccvo»ff6nriv its WovnTtt &sou, xm \<Jtitrxo<jeov rJ vrpaffffiria ru\ avnxovraiv eis 
 ffuvidpov tov IvtiricoTou ' offot yag Qsau ucr'iv rriv IxxXytriav* iKihyi fhi&aia su%ugi?Tta 
 
 XXI ItlffOV XgtffTOV OUT01 ftlTCi. TOU 6CH- ItyUffSto, *J VffO <TOV eV/VkOCTSV OUffa, « 5 
 
 exintnv' \oeot Se av lxx\Uajffi\ uvrov, xa) uv aiiros IvriTpiij/yi .... obx \%ov iffnv 
 
 Trjv xoivcvvictv affvrdiffvvrai (lira tuv xa.rn- XwU tou iTiaxon'ov olin (Zxirri£tiv outs 
 
 £*ty££vwv t outoi trltv xvtois £xx0Tsi<rflvT«/.] dyuwv vomv § 8, in Epist. ad Smym. 
 
 — Ignat. ad Philadelph. [§ 8, 3. The ibid. 
 
 last clause not there.] i Dandi quidem (Baptismum) hahet 
 
 EifXoyov tffTiv Xotrrov ccvuvti^ui, xa.) us jus summus sacerdos qui est Episcopus : 
 
 'In Haifa*/ sxoftiv sis ®to« fiirxvauv • Dehinc Presbyteri et Diaconi, non tamen 
 
 xa\ug 'i^tt &sov xa.) Wttrxaxov £io*imt ' sine Episcopi authoritate. — Tertull. de 
 
 o rifcuv iir'urxoftav vto Qiou <rsri//.9tTai ' o Baptismo, [c. 17.] 
 Xt/Jgcc llttffKO-Jtov Ti vetwitawi, ru A/afaXw 
 
of the Primitive Church. 93 
 
 Bishop, the original and fountain of all Ecclesiastical 
 authority. 1 
 
 Tertullian, where he ridicules the action, yet speaks of 
 it plainly as performed by the Bishop ; 2 and the Council of 
 Eliberis expressly reserves it to him, or to his order and 
 appointment ; 3 in the steps of which, the second Council 
 of Carthage exactly treads, where " the Presbyter, who, in 
 the Bishop's absence, should be permitted to reconcile a 
 penitent in danger of death, was yet to consult the Bishop 
 upon it, to acquaint him with the case in its several circum- 
 stances, and thereupon to receive his directions." 4 
 
 But St. Cyprian will give us in this matter the clearest 
 and the fullest evidence ; he will shew us, that whatever 
 regard he might sometimes pay to the tickets of Martyrs or 
 Confessors, or to the intercessions of the people, or to the 
 council and authority of his Presbyters, yet that the full 
 power and authoritative determination he took to be solely 
 in himself. He decides the case by himself, about which 
 his Presbyters and Deacons had wrote to him in his absence, 
 as to the reconciliation of the lapsed in time of persecution. 
 He pays, indeed, a very great regard to the intercessions of 
 Martyrs, and grants to those who had obtained tickets from 
 them an earlier restoration than to the rest who had none. 
 But still he talks like a person who would, indeed, advise 
 with his Clergy, and pay some regard to his people, and yet 
 would, at last, determine what he should find in his own 
 judgment, to be most expedient. 
 
 His Presbyters had written to him for a rule to proceed 
 by, and he clearly, by himself, determines, that such as 
 
 1 Si Presbyter repertus non fuerit, et this apud Episcopum : cogente tamen 
 
 urgere exitus coeperit, apud Diaconum infirmitate, necesse est Presbyterum 
 
 quoque Exhomologesin facere delicti sui communionem praestare debere, et Dia- 
 
 possint ; ut manu eis in pcenitentia im- conum si ei jusserit Episcopus. — In 
 
 posita veniant ad Dominum cum pace.— Concil. Eliber. Can. 32. [Hard. torn. i. 
 
 Cyprian, in Epist. [18. Fell. p. 40.] p. 253.] 
 
 a Inque eum hominis exitum quantis * Si quisquam in periculo fuerit con- 
 
 potes miserieordise inlecebris bonus Pas- stitutus, et se reconciliari divinis altari- 
 
 tor, et Benedictus Papa concionaris. — bus petierit, si Episcopus absens fuerit, 
 
 Tertull. de Pudicit. cap. 13. debet utique Presbyter consulereEpisco- 
 
 3 Apud Presbyterum, si quis gravi pum, et sic perielitantem ejus prsecepto 
 
 lapsu in ruinam mortis incident, placuit reconciliare. — In Concil. Carthag. ii. 
 
 agere pcenitentiam non debere, sed po- Can 4. [Hardouin. torn. i. p. 952.] 
 
94 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, could produce tickets from the Martyrs, should be received 
 
 '- — immediately upon their penitential submissions, and that 
 
 the rest should stay until it should please God to restore 
 public peace to the Church. 1 
 
 This was a way of proceeding, which evidently declared 
 him to have been master of the case, and to have had, in 
 himself, the sole power of deciding it. We may infer the 
 same from his complaint to Cornelius, " of the envy and 
 odium he had contracted, by admitting some persons to 
 Communion against the consent and will of his people, who 
 had proved afterwards incorrigible, and broken the promises 
 they had made to him of reformation." 2 He speaks all 
 along like a man who was to govern that whole affair, 
 though he would be determined in it by various motives, 
 and by persuasions from others, if they should appear to 
 him to be reasonable. It was fit, indeed, that in cases of 
 scandal, wherein the community might be interested, the 
 community should be consulted ; yet so, as not always to be 
 allowed a negative. 3 From what hath here been cited, we 
 may observe, that St. Cyprian admitted some to Communion 
 
 1 Quoniam tamen significastis quos- dam colligenda sunt, ut quae Integra et 
 
 dam immoderatos esse, et communica- sana sunt vulnerentur, nee utilis ant con- 
 
 tionem accipiendam festinanter urgere ; sultus est Pastor qui ita morbidas et 
 
 et desiderastis in hac re formam a me contactas oves gregi admiscet, ut gre- 
 
 vobis dari, satis plene scripsisse me ad gem totum mail cohaerentis afnictatione 
 
 banc rem proximis Uteris ad vos factis contaminet. O ! si posses, frater caris- 
 
 credo ; ut qui libellum a Martyribus ac- sime, istic interesse nobiscum, cum pravi 
 
 ceperunt, et auxilio eorum adjuvari apud isti et perversi de schismate reyertuntur 1 
 
 Domimun in delictis suis possunt, si videres quis mibi labor sit, persuadere 
 
 premi infirmitate aliqua et periculo patientiam fratribus nostris, ut animi 
 
 cceperint, Exbomologesi facta, et manu dolore sopito recipiendis mans curan- 
 
 eis a vobis in pcenitentia imposita, cum disque consentiant .... vix plebi per- 
 
 pace a Martyribus sibi promissa ad Do- suadeo, imo extorqueo ut tales patiantur 
 
 minum remittantur. Caeteri vero qui admitti ; et justior factus est fraterni- 
 
 nullo libello a Martyribus accepto invi- tatis dolor, ex eo quod unus atque alius 
 
 diam faciunt; quoniam non paucorum, obnitente plebe et contradicente, mea 
 
 nee Ecclesiae unius aut unius provinciae, tamen facilitate suscepti, pejores exti- 
 
 sed totius orbis hsec causa est, expec- terunt quam prius fuerant; nee fidem 
 
 tent de Domini protectione Ecclesiae ip- pcenitentia: servare potuerunt, quia nee 
 
 sius publicam pacem. — Cyprian, ad Cle- cumvera pcenitentia venerant. — Cyprian, 
 
 rum. Epist. No. [19. Fell. p. 41.] in Epist. ad Cornelium. [Ep. 59. Fell. 
 
 s Quibusdam enim aut crimina sua ita p. 137.] 
 
 obsistunt, aut fratres obstinate et fir- * A primordio Episcopatus mei sta- 
 
 miter renituntur, ut recipi omnino non tuerim nihil sine consilio vestro, et sine 
 
 possint, cum scandalo et periculo pluri- consensu plebis, mea privatim sententia 
 
 morum. Neque enim sic putamina quae- gerere. — Cyprian, in Epist. S. 
 
of the Primitive Church. 95 
 
 without and against the consent of his people; to whose 
 opinion and request he was, however, in the main, desirous 
 of paying all possible observance. 
 
 He expostulates, in his seventeenth Epistle, upon the dis- 
 honour he received, and the affront which was cast upon his 
 office, by such Presbyters as had presumed to reconcile certain 
 offenders without his concurrence. 1 He charges them with 
 forgetting the rules of the Gospel, as well as the honour of 
 his Chair ; since, as he insists in the preceding letter, it 
 ought not to have been done until he could have met his 
 Clergy, and have concerted the case with them. 2 
 
 Accordingly we find one Caldonius, a Presbyter of his, con- 
 sulting him upon the point of reconciling offenders, as one 
 who would not presume to do it without his Bishop; 3 and 
 St. Cyprian, in his answer, commends his conduct. 4 
 
 Indeed, the whole strain of that glorious Martyr's epistles, 
 does so clearly and fully assert the Bishop's authority in that 
 affair, and the necessity of waiting for his determination, let 
 Presbyters, or people, or Martyrs, or Confessors, interpose 
 with never so much vehemence, that there is no room to 
 doubt either of his opinion in it, or of the practice which 
 prevailed in the age he lived in. 
 
 He was for paying them all as much deference as he 
 could; but ever with a salvo to the honour of his Chair. 
 " It is our business," says he to Pope Stephanus, " who are 
 governors of the Church, to look to its discipline." 3 
 
 The Constitutions are all directed to the Bishop, and do 
 suppose him the chief Ecclesiastical officer in all the business 
 of the Church. 
 
 " Let the Bishop," say they, " superintend over all." They 
 
 1 Audio quosdam de Presbyteris nee mere prsesumere. — Caldonius Cypriano, 
 
 Evangelii memores .... nee Episcopo in Epist. No. [24. Fell. p. 50,] apud 
 
 honorem sacerdotii sui, et cathedra; re- Cyprian, 
 
 servantes, jam cum lapsis communicare * Accepinvus literas tuas satis sobrias 
 
 coepisse. — Cyprian, in Epist. [17. Fell caute omnia et consulte geras. — 
 
 p. 19.] Cyprian, in Respons. ad prior. Epist. 
 
 a Cum persecutione fmita convenire No. [25. Fell. p. 50.] 
 
 in unum cum clero, et recolligi coepe- s Cui rei nostrum est consulere, et 
 
 rimus. — Ibid, in Epist. [15. Fell. subvenire, frater carissime, qui .... 
 
 p. 33.] Gubernandse Ecclesise libram tenentes, 
 
 3 Quamvis mihi videantur debere pa- censuramvigorispeccatoribusexhibemus. 
 
 cem accipere, tamen ad consultum ves- — Ibid, in Epist. [68. Fell. p. 1 76. j 
 trum eos dimisi, ne yidear aliquid te- 
 
96 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, exhort him, moreover, to consider his own dignity, as one 
 
 '- intrusted with the power of binding and loosing. 1 He is 
 
 the person blamed by them for neglecting to separate 
 offenders, as thereby infecting his whole Diocese. 2 All 
 manifest and full assertions of his sole authority, which 
 extended in those days much further than will easily in 
 these be allowed or credited by the libertines and sceptics 
 of the present generation. 
 
 " You sustain," say they, " Bishop, the place and cha- 
 racter of God amongst men, as presiding over all, over 
 Priests, kings, princes, &c. who all are subject to you" [in 
 things pertaining to God]. " Do you, therefore, so main- 
 tain your dignity and station in the Church, so speak and 
 so act, as one who are appointed to sit in judgment upon 
 offenders. Since to you Bishops it is said, ' Whatsoever ye 
 shall bind on earth, shall be bound in Heaven ; and what- 
 soever ye shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in Heaven.' " 3 
 
 The first Council of Aries, held before the great Nicene 
 Council, hath given a power to Bishops over the Prcesides 
 Provinciarum, who in their respective provinces sustained 
 the character of lords lieutenants; "but yet were subject 
 themselves to Episcopal correction, whenever they should so 
 act as to deserve it." 4 And inasmuch as it was usual with 
 these to be sent either from the Imperial City, or from divers 
 parts of the empire, to places in which they came strangers ; 
 they could not be admitted to Communion, in the place they 
 came to as governors, without bringing from the Bishop of 
 the place they left, letters of Communion, which in those 
 
 1 HAvtm ovv <pgoi/ri£iroi o iirtffxovros llpnra.i ' o lav ir,fftir£ tvri rrts ynsi ttrrai 
 . . . .rv&£/£& ouv, a 'wtffKQ'jn, ro aZfufAtx. ^itifjt,ivav Iv rw obgavoj ' xoi o Xctv Xuartri 
 eon, on us rod isrptit ixXneutroi rm i|. i v \ rris yris itrroi X&vfiirot h ra obgam. 
 ovirmv, oiru mi roZ \vtiv. — Apostol. Con- — Apostol. Constitut. lib. ii. cap. 1 1 . 
 stitut. lib. ii. cap, 18. * De praaidibus qui fideles ad prsesi- 
 
 2 Outoj iitttXttn xoi rm oixilxv kQiov, datum prosiliunt, placuit et cum promoti 
 xa.) t«v rod Qiav ixxKvtria.v, rriv Ka.ro. fuerint, litteras accipiant Ecclesiasticas 
 tyii iroeotxim obrov. — Ibid, in cap. 10. communicatorias ; ita tamen ut in qui- 
 
 3 r»»{/£aiii, <J Wurxoirt, rh rooxov aou buscunque locis gesserint, ab Episcopo 
 xai rm tig/aii, us Biou rum t%m ev it- ejusdem loci cura de illis agatur ; et cum 
 ifumis, rf ■ri.irm &ex u ' Mpimn coeperint contra disciplinam agere, turn 
 Sifim, liankioiy, xg%ovrui/ .... xxi demum a communione excludantur. — In 
 ovrois sv \xx~kno-ta. xoU^ov rov Xoyov Concil. Arelat. i. Can. 7. [Hardouin. 
 fFoiovfAivos, oi$ ifyuffixv 'l%atv xgtmv robs torn. i. p. 264.1 
 
 fijUKfrttxorcts ' on up7v ro7s Wtirxo^rots 
 
of the Primitive Church. 97 
 
 days was the known way of receiving strangers who came 
 but of one Diocese into another) ; and then the Bishop of the 
 Diocese they removed to was to look afterwards into their 
 manner of life and behaviour. 
 
 Nay, to carry this point yet farther, Theodosius himself, 
 though an absolute monarch, held himself bound to receive 
 Episcopal correction, and to abstain from Communion until 
 he had duly humbled himself for the offence he had com- 
 mitted in his cruel devastation of Thessalonica. 1 
 
 Ambrose resolutely withstood his admission to the Church, 
 and the Emperor was content to wait until his humiliation 
 had softened the Bishop, and disposed him to absolve the 
 royal penitent. 
 
 From this, as from a well-known fact, Augustin takes a 
 very pertinent occasion of arguing the point with such as 
 through a false modesty should refuse submission to the 
 penance assigned them. 
 
 " Perhaps," says he, " for this very reason, God, in His wise 
 Providence, did so order things that Theodosius the Emperor 
 should do public penance in the face of the Church (since his 
 crime was public, and could not be concealed), that no man, 
 for the future, might through shame decline a submission to 
 it. For shall a senator decline submission to a discipline, 
 which an emperor thought himself obliged to bend to ? 
 Shall one, who is under the degree of a senator, plead bash- 
 fulness against coming under that correction, which an em- 
 peror did not account himself too high to come under ? 
 Much more shall every trader, or vile mechanic, be too big 
 and lofty for that humiliation which an emperor, in all his 
 grandeur, thought it best to condescend to ?" 2 
 
 Well ! but all this notwithstanding, the learned Mr. Sel- 
 den will have it, that princes might excommunicate ; nay, 
 that even heathen princes might and did execute this autho- 
 rity. He instances in the famous case of Paulus Samosa- 
 
 1 See the whole account of this in Pau- erubescit senator, quod non erubuit 
 linus's Life of Ambrose, prefixed before Imperator? Erubescit nee senator, sed 
 the latter's works. tantum curialis, quod non erubuit Impe- 
 
 2 Propterea Deus voluit, ut Theodo- rator ? Erubescit plebeius, sive nego- 
 sius Imperator ageret pcenitentiam pub- tiator, quod non erubuit Imperator ? — 
 licam in conspectu populi, maxime quia Augustin. in Homil. 49, ex. SO, [cap. 4. 
 peccatum ejus celari non potuit : et Ed. Bened. vol. v. p. 1054.] 
 
 H 
 
98 The Ptrdtential Discipline 
 
 chap, tenus, who, being convict of heresy, and ef various other 
 
 '■ crimes, by the Bishops assembled in council at Antioch, was 
 
 deposed from his see, and one Domnus was chosen to suc- 
 ceed him. But he (Paulus), being unwilling to quit posses- 
 sion of the Church and palace, the Bishops addressed the 
 then Emperor Aurelian, who gave command that Paul 
 should resign, as the Bishops of the Christian religion in 
 Italy and Rome should determine upon that affair. 
 
 This is all the account we have of that famous .transac- 
 tion. 1 Mr. Selden puns upon this, and would impose upon 
 his reader, by the ambiguous term of "-exclusion from the 
 Church ;" 2 which in one sense means, indeed, Excommunica- 
 tion, but in another, implies no more than a local disposses- 
 sion. Paulus was loth, we find, to yield possession to a 
 successor ; the Church, i. e. the Edifice, with the Manse 
 adjoining, was the property of Christians ; this, the Emperor 
 determined, should be occupied by those to whom the pro- 
 prietors by their letters had consigned it ; and this Mr. Sel- 
 den will have to be the Emperor's act of excommunicating 
 Paulus, " For what," says he, " is Excommunication but 
 expulsion from the Church?" Yes! Excommunication is, 
 and was ever esteemed to be, more than a mere local expul- 
 sion from the Church. It always implied a denial of the 
 Gospel-ordinances, and with them the means of saving 
 grace ; and in the case of Paulus, it was attended, moreover, 
 with a degradation of him from his Ecclesiastical functions, 
 as well as from a mere corporal possession of the Church 
 with its appurtenances. 
 
 Let us but transfer the scene to our present age, and sup- 
 pose a case depending between a criminal incumbent, who 
 may have forfeited his Church by mal-ad ministration, and 
 another, to whom the law may have assigned it upon the 
 former's misbehaviour. Should a writ now be here directed 
 to the sheriff, for the peaceable entry and quiet possession of 
 
 1 See the whole of it in Euseb. Eccles. tioni coercendo mandaret. Atque ita 
 Hist. lib. vii. cap. 29, 30. secularis imperii autoritate ab licclesia 
 
 2 Ab Aureliano Augusto impetrarunt extruditur, et plane qua ab autoritate 
 ipsi, (viz. Episcopi), ut is eum ab Ecclesia ilia fieri potuit, suadentibus illis excom- 
 abigeret ; id est, plane, ut is sententiam municatur. — Selden de Synedr. Veter. 
 Excommunicationis, quantum ad perso- Ebreeor. lib. i. cap. 13 Tp. 1058.1 
 
 nam hominis itidem ferret, atque execu- 
 
of the Primitive Church. 99 
 
 the new incumbent, would any man in his senses from thence 
 infer, that the secular power had either excommunicated ,the 
 former, or ordained the latter ? 
 
 Could a man of Mr. Selden's learning see nothing like 
 this in the case of Paulus ? Did the Emperor Aurelian inter- 
 meddle with the exclusion of Paulus from Communion, with 
 deposing him from his Office, or with writing circular letters, 
 to notify his Excommunication, and the Ordination of Domnus 
 to succeed him ? I defy any man living to say and to prove 
 that he did : he only determined upon the possession and 
 property of certain edifices, and consigned them to the pos- 
 session of those whom the Bishops of Rome and Italy should 
 vest with them. This is all which Eusebius tells us of that 
 famous transaction ; and what, I fain would know, can this 
 have to do with Excommunication, or Ecclesiastical Censure 1 
 Even just as mueh as lease and release have to do with bind- 
 ing and loosing ! 
 
 Prom this taste of Mr. Selden's ingenuity, the reader will, 
 I hope, observe what regard is due to his learning ; and will 
 therefore be cautious of trusting his authorities, whenever 
 he quotes against the Church, whose power he feared and 
 hated. 
 
 The sum, then, is this ; that whatever fetters may have 
 been cast upon the ordinances of God by the constitutions of 
 man, the Bishop should, however, be true to his own charac- 
 ter, and should claim and exercise the powers appertaining 
 to it. 
 
 All antiquity points him out for the person intrusted with 
 this discipline ; St. Ignatius makes him all in all, in every 
 matter of an Ecclesiastical nature ; and Ambrose " excludes 
 all from having any pretence to it, but him, and such as 
 should act by his delegation." 1 Of him it will be required, 
 and to him only the essentials of it should be therefore left. 
 
 If human powers will lend him their aid, and will act in 
 concert with him, the Church of Christ will be truly thank- 
 ful for the countenance and succour it shall thence receive ; 
 but we should, at the same time, be careful that the human 
 
 1 Jus hoc solis permissum sacerdotibus care non potest, quae sacerdotes Dei non 
 est. Recte igitur Ecclesia vindicat, quae habet. — Ambros. de Poenitent. lib. i. 
 veros sacerdotes habet ; haeresis vindi- cap. 2. [p. 392. Ed. Beued.] 
 
100 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, do not extinguish the Divine ordinance, nor under pretence 
 of helping it in one case, hinder it in another. 
 
 It might, and did, subsist for three hundred years, without 
 any other support than what it received from the power of 
 God and from the piety of His servants, under all discourage- 
 ments. So it might better again subsist, than depend upon 
 supports, which, instead of strengthening, shall undermine 
 and weaken it. 
 
 We then, indeed, shall see who fear God, and who despise 
 Him, when the Censures of the Church shall be left to ope- 
 rate upon the consciences of sinners, and to work alike with- 
 out external force, and without external impediment upon 
 the inward man. 
 
 They who have hitherto contemned the Episcopal autho- 
 rity, by having acted in things pertaining to God, without 
 and against it, may hence observe the dishonour they would 
 have been judged to cast upon God and Christ, if they had 
 lived in the times of primitive Christianity ; and that order 
 was then esteemed a thing of more sacred importance, than 
 what the utter neglect of it in these latter days hath taught 
 men to say and think of it. 
 
 But now, by what steps, and upon what occasions, and in 
 what particulars, this ancient Apostolic Discipline was warped 
 amongst the Western Churches, to the novelties of modern 
 practice; this is to be the subject of our further inquiry in 
 another chapter. 
 
of the Primitive Church. 101 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 OF THE DEPARTURE OP THE WESTEBN CHURCHES FROM THE 
 PRIMITIVE MODEL. 
 
 The steps by which this change was made, and the occa- 
 sions of it, will in course he related, when the several par- 
 ticulars are recounted in which the modern hath deviated 
 from the primitive example. 
 
 The chief of these particulars will easily enough be ranged 
 under the following heads : 
 
 1 . The substitution of the private for public penance. 
 
 2. The redemption of the public by pecuniary and other 
 commutations. 
 
 3. The separation of the two jurisdictions from each other, 
 which were originally lodged in the same hands, and pro- 
 ceeded together with equal paces, viz. 1. That which re- 
 spected the conscience of the sinner and the forgiveness of 
 his sin ; and that, 2. Which only referred to outward dis- 
 cipline, and to the privilege of Church Communion. 
 
 The consequence of which was, 
 
 4. The variation of the form in absolving, which, from 
 deprecatory and optative, grew about the same time to be 
 more peremptory and indicative. 
 
 Section I. 
 
 The first thing, then, which falls under our consideration, 
 is the substitution of the private for public penance. 
 
 From what hath been cited in the foregoing chapters, it 
 appears that the shame of the public discipline did deter 
 many from submitting to it ; and that very early, since Ter- 
 tullian, we have seen, was forced to exert his eloquence in 
 answering the objection which arose from a false and mis- 
 
102 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 Chap, taken modesty. "Is it better," saith he, "to be damned in 
 
 in 
 
 secrecy than to be absolved openly?" 1 But he needed not 
 to have argued thus if the practice of private Absolution had 
 been then in use- He might have found a more expeditious 
 way of solving the difficulty by some middle practice, if he 
 had then been acquainted with the veil, which now is used 
 to cover the blushes of the penitent, and to pardon his sin 
 without exposing him to shame for it. 
 
 .Pacian, after him, complained in more pressing terms of 
 people's backwardness in this particular, who, " when they 
 had opened their grievances to their spiritual physician, yet 
 neglected afterwards to pursue his advice, and to go through 
 the course prescribed to them." 2 He pushes his complaint 
 yet further in the following words, and observes to his 
 people, " How they did not so much as comply with the 
 outward forms of penance, such as were open to the very eye 
 of the Bishop, and if but externally submitted to, might 
 attract his commendation of them, such as were then the 
 known rigours of penance in diet and habit, and all outward 
 appearances." 3 
 
 Austin pursues much the same manner of complaint and 
 writing, where he argues the point with those " who pre- 
 tended shame against a practice which the famous Emperor 
 Theodosius had then so lately submitted to." 4 
 
 All this intimates to us a gradual declension, and a grow- 
 ing unwillingness, in the people of those times to comply with 
 an usage which carried so much of seeming reproach and 
 shame along with it; and, therefore, the Fathers of the 
 Church were always forced to be large and vehement in 
 commending the usefulness and excellence of penitential 
 austerities. Thus Tertullian of the public Exhomologesis. 
 " When it prostrates a man," saith he, " it really raises him ; 
 when it represents him outwardly as a mourner, it lays the 
 
 1 See Mm cited in p. 35, note l. An bibenda fastidiunt.— Pacian. in Paranes. 
 melius est damnatum latere, quam pa- ad Poenitent. [§ 9.] 
 
 lam absolvi ? — Tertull. de Poenitent. cap. 3 Ne haec quidem, quae videri etiam a 
 
 10. sacerdote possunt et Episcopo teste lau- 
 
 2 Similes sunt illis, qui plagas quidem dari ; ne haec quidem quotidiani serva- 
 aperiunt ac tumores, medicisque etiam mus ; flere in conspectu Ecclesiae, &c. 
 assidentibus confitentur. Sed admoniti See him cited in p. 59, note 3. 
 
 quae imponenda sunt negligunt, et quae 4 See him cited in p. 97, note 2. 
 
of the Primitive Church. 103 
 
 foundation of inward gaiety and joy; when it accuses, it 
 doth at the same time defend him ; and when it seemingly 
 condemns, it virtually absolves him." 1 He concludes this 
 head with observing, that " the more of severity and rigour a 
 man exercised upon himself, the more of mildness and mercy 
 he should find at the hands of God." 
 
 These, and the like endeavours of the Clergy, for the four 
 first centuries, did, with much ado, sustain and keep alive 
 this discipline throughout that period ; and it may be clearly 
 traeed down to the age of Austin and Jerome, the former of 
 whom hath been cited often enough in the preceding parts 
 of this discourse, to make it apparent that, how much soever 
 this discipline might be then declining, yet it was not ex- 
 tinguished ; and the latter hath left us a famous case in his 
 writings, whereby we may safely judge that it was still, at 
 that time, in use. 
 
 The ease is of one Fabiola, who, upon a divorce from 
 her former husband, had married another in his lifetime, 
 against all rule, and upon the death of her second husband 
 submitted to public penance, which Jerome there describes in 
 all its rigours ; and after she had so done, and was restored 
 to Communion, she sold a very plentiful estate, and assigned 
 it all to charitable uses. 2 
 
 Yet we may here observe of our author, that he ushers in 
 his aecount of this affair with a note of admiration ! Who 
 would believe it ? It was at that time so wonderful ; not 
 
 i Cumigitur [Exhomologesis] provol- Presbyteris, et omni populo. collachry- 
 
 vit hominem, magis relevat ; cum squa- mantibus ; sparsum crinem, ora lurida 
 
 lidum facit, magis mundatum reddit ; et squalidas manus, sordida colla, sub- 
 
 cum accusat, excusat ; cum condemnat, mitteret ? Quae peccata fletus iste non 
 
 absolvit. In quantum non peperceris purget? (Juas inveteratas maculas 
 
 tlbi, in tantum tibi Deus, crede parcet. — hsec lamenta non abluant? . . . . (A 
 
 Tertull. de Peenitent. [cap. 10.J little further we have an account of the 
 
 2 Quis hoc crederet, ut, post mortem process in this matter.) Recepta sub 
 
 secundi viri in semetipsam reversa ; quo oculis omnis Ecclesiae Communioni quid 
 
 tempore solent vidua; negligentes, jugo fecit ? Scilicet in die bona malorum non 
 
 servitutis excusso, agere se liberius, oblita est . . .■ . quin potius omnem cen- 
 
 adire balneas, volitare per plateas, vul- sum quern habere poterat (erat autem 
 
 tus circumferre meretricios ; saccum in- amplissimus, et respondens generi ejus) 
 
 dueret ; ut errorem publice fateretur ; dilapidavit ac vendidit ; et in pecuniam 
 
 et tota urbe spectante Eomana, ante congregatum, usibus pauperum prae- 
 
 diem Paschse, in Basilica quondam Late- paravit. — Hieronym. in Epist. ad Ocea- 
 
 rani, qui Csesariano truncatos est gladio, nam, No. 30. Epitaph. Fabiol. [Vol, 
 
 staret in ordine pcenitentium, Episcopo, i. p. 18.] 
 
104 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, but that there were instances, to he sure, of the practice 
 
 '- — besides this, though this had some circumstances attending 
 
 it which very much heightened the piety of the action. 
 '' She was newly then a widow, and so might more probably 
 have entered upon the thoughts of another marriage than of 
 submission to penitential austerities. She was a person of 
 fortune and distinction, both which she was content to aban- 
 don, and to expiate her sin by given away the one, and by 
 laying aside the other." 
 
 Upon the whole, however, I am apt to suspect that this 
 discipline was more and earlier upon its decline in the 
 Roman than it was in the African Churches, since there is 
 more express and frequent mention of it in Austin than 
 what is found in Jerome, who was very conversant with the 
 usages of Rome. 
 
 The one of these died about twenty, the other about ten 
 years before the entrance of Leo upon his Pontificate, which 
 was a.d. 440. Now, Leo was the first Bishop of the Latin 
 Church, who, by express authority and grant, made a gap 
 in the Penitential Discipline. Others might connive at the 
 breaches made in it, as what they wanted power to restrain, 
 but none before him did avowedly license, much less com- 
 mand, in any case a neglect of the public humiliation. 
 
 Now he, in a letter to the Bishops of Campania, directs 
 them " to discontinue the usage which then, it seems, obtained: 
 of publishing out of a paper the nature of such crimes as 
 had been privately confessed, and that because private con- 
 fession to the Priest was, in his opinion, sufficient to the 
 expiation of guilt. And although, as he goes on, it might 
 seem to argue the power of their faith, when their fear of 
 God surmounted all apprehensions of shame from man, yet 
 in regard that the sins of all men which, however, did 
 demand expiation by penance, were not of a nature fit to be 
 published, therefore he judged it proper to remove such an 
 inconvenient custom, for fear of driving many from the ad- 
 vantages of penance, who might either be afraid or ashamed 
 of letting their enemies into a knowledge of their guilt, and 
 of exposing themselves thereby to the edge of the laws. 
 Inasmuch as that confession did suffice, to all intents and 
 purposes, which was made at first to God and next to the 
 
of the Primitive Church. 105 
 
 Priest, who is appointed to intercede with God on the be- 
 half of penitents, and that thus, in all likelihood, greater 
 numbers would be prevailed with to submit to penance, if 
 the secrets of their consciences should not be made public." 1 
 
 Thus far Leo, who, because some sins were unfit for pub- 
 lication, would, therefore, suffer none at all to be published ; 
 departing herein from the practice of the ancient Church, 
 which distinguished between the degrees and kinds of sins 
 thus privately confessed ; and what were fit for publication, 
 viz. what were likely to be attended with no other incon- 
 venience than with shame to the party by being published, 
 these she determined to have exposed in the open light ; as, 
 on the other hand, what might probably be followed with 
 further mischiefs, either to the offender himself, or to any 
 one else, these she prudently directed to be reserved in 
 silence; and yet the guilty party submitted to public pe- 
 nance; 2 from whence, as Augustin hath observed, it was 
 1 only known that some offence had been committed, which 
 merited such correction, though what, in particular, that 
 offence might be, remained still a secret. 3 
 
 But now, by this Constitution of Leo, the case, we may 
 easily believe, must have been very much altered. For if, 
 as he hath roundly asserted, confession to the Priest alone 
 were sufficient ; few, if any, would be at the trouble of the 
 public Exhomologesis, where acknowledgment was to be made 
 of their sin in the face of the congregation. And if the 
 Priest's intercession to God would serve all purposes, the 
 
 1 Ne de singulorum peccatorum ge- etiam sacerdoti, qui pro delictis pceni- 
 
 nere, libello scripta professio publicetur ; tentium precator accedit. Tunc enim 
 
 cum reatus conscientiarum sufficiat solis demum plures ad poenitentiam poterunt 
 
 sacerdotibus indicari confessione secreta. provocari, si populi auribus non publi- 
 
 Quamvis enim plenitudo fidei videatur ceturconscientiaconfitentis. — LeoEpist. 
 
 esse laudabilis, quae propter Dei timorem No. [136,] ad Epist. Campan. [Ed. 
 
 apud homines erubescere non veretur, Quesnel.] 
 
 tamen quia non omnium hujusmodi sunt 2 See what is cited from Origen to 
 
 peccata, ut ea qui poenitentiam poscunt this purpose in p. 33, note 3. Si pree- 
 
 non timeant publicare, removeatur tam viderit talem esse languorem tuum qui 
 
 improbabilis consuetudo ; ne multi a in conventu totius Ecclesiae exponi de- 
 
 pcenitentiae remediis areeantur, dum aut beat et curari, &c. 
 
 erubescunt aut metuunt inimicis suis sua 3 See what is cited from Austin in 
 
 facta reserari, quibus possint legum con- p. 45, note 1. Uli quos videtis agere 
 
 stitutione percelli. Sufficit enim ilia poenitentiam, scelera commiserunt, &c, 
 
 confessio quae primum Deo offertur, tunc and from Basil, in p. 55, note I. 
 
106 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, prayers of the Church, which had hitherto been all along 
 
 '- — considered as of mighty consequence and efficacy in this 
 
 matter, would, thenceforwards, be rendered of little or no 
 account in it. And the event hath answered the appre- 
 hensions which might have been so justly formed upon 
 these relaxations. For, in fact, the public Exhomologesis, 
 and the prayers of the Church have, to a great degree, been 
 neglected, ever since confession- to the Priest alone, exclu- 
 sive of other witnesses, hath been esteemed sufficient ; and 
 since his prayers alone have been judged effectual, without 
 those of the congregation joined to them. 
 
 Confession to the Priest in private was, indeed, all along 
 recommended, either in cases of doubt and difficulty, or else 
 in order to the public Exhomologesis. But yet it was the 
 latter which was chiefly, and indeed always, insisted on, 
 wherever the conscience was burdened with deadly sin. 
 There was anciently no belief, that sins of so deep a dye, 
 could be cured without it. The prayers of the Church were 
 then considered as of great importance ; and the humble 
 behaviour of the penitent did not only satisfy for the scandal, 
 since none was given by secret sins, but it raised, moreover, 
 compassion in the observers, and moved them to solicit the 
 throne of grace the more effectually on his behalf. And 
 besides the proof it gave of the reality of his humiliation, 
 it cherished an holy disposition in his mind, and made him 
 more cautious of his future conduct. 
 
 What hath been cited from St. Cyprian shews what a friend 
 he was to the public Exhomologesis in the case of secret 
 See him offences known only to God. What Gregory Nyssen hath 
 ^36 note WI- itten in his Canonical Epistle for the encouragement of 
 j . See also these secret offenders to acknowledge their offence in public, 
 Nyssento proves at once his own opinion of the practice, and the 
 pos^nthe esteem it was in with the age he lived in. 
 Appendix, ]3 U ^ as Augustin here is fullest to our purpose, I shall 
 give my reader his words at length. 
 
 He is calling upon such as had offended by the sin of 
 incontinence ; and he addresses them in the following 
 manner : — 
 
 " You," saith he, " who have so offended, come in and 
 perform your penance in the face of the Church, that you 
 
of the Primitive Church. 107 
 
 may have the benefit of its prayers. And let no man here 
 pretend to excuse himself by saying, ' I repent before God, 
 I perform it secretly within my own heart ; God will pardon 
 me, as knowing my sincerity.' For at this rate, the keys 
 would in vain be given to the Church ; and the powers of 
 binding and loosing would signify nothing. And shall we 
 thus go about to defeat the Gospel, and to vacate the words 
 of Christ our Saviour 1 or shall we cheat you with a promise 
 of granting what He hath denied you 1 " L 
 
 Thus different is the language of Augustin from that of 
 Leo's Constitution ; though Leo was Pope within a very 
 few years from the death of Augustin. Augustin thought 
 an ordinance of the Gospel defeated by what Leo soon 
 after him judged an expedient and commendable practice. 
 Augustin esteemed the prayers of the Church to be neces- 
 sary, where Leo determined that those of the Priest without 
 them would be as available : so that Leo's was plainly a 
 novel appointment, and made a remarkable breach in the 
 old Penitential Discipline ; as substituting confession to the 
 Priest in the room of that confession, which had anciently 
 been made before the Church ; and as determining, that 
 the prayers of the Priest alone would obtain the penitent's 
 pardon, to which those of the congregation heretofore were 
 added. 
 
 Yet all this respected hitherto the case of secret offences 
 only; for as to notorious sins, which gave public scandal, 
 and especially as to the three famous instances of them, viz. 
 idolatry, uncleanness, and bloodshed, Leo was still of opinion 
 that they were to be expiated by public discipline; and, 
 accordingly, in his letter to Rusticus, he determines ex- 
 pressly, that such as had been guilty of those heinous crimes 
 should not be admitted to Communion but through the door 
 
 1 Qui post uxores vestras vos illicito est, Quae solveritis in terra sohita erunt 
 
 concubitu maculastis, si prater uxores in Coelo ? Ergo sine causa sunt claves 
 
 vestras cum aliqua concubuistis, Agite datse Ecclesiae Dei ? Frustramus Evan- 
 
 posnitentiam, qualis agitur in Ecclesia, gelium ? Frustramus verba Christi ? 
 
 ut oret pro vobis Ecclesia. Nemo sibi Promittimus vobis quod ille negat ? — 
 
 dicat, Occulte ago, apud Deum ago, August, in Horn. xlix. [c. 3. Ed. Bened. 
 
 novit Deus qui mini ignoscat quia in vol. v. p. 1054.] 
 corde meo ago. Ergo sine causa dictum 
 
108 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 °ni. P ' of public penance. 1 Thus, likewise, he tells Nicetas, that 
 " such women as had been married to others during their 
 husbands' captivity, and refused to return to their first 
 (lawful) husbands, upon their deliverance out of it, should 
 be deprived of the Communion of the Church." 2 The same 
 sentence is again denounced by him " against such as had 
 submitted to be re-baptized, that penance and imposition of 
 hands from the Bishop were to be the terms of their resto- 
 ration." 3 Finally, as to those who had been led into 
 idolatry during their captivity, he speaks full in the lan- 
 guage of the ancients : " Let them satisfy for their sins by 
 penance, and let the measure of their satisfaction be taken 
 rather from the contrition and real sorrow of their hearts, 
 than from the time of their continuance under the outward 
 state of discipline." 4 
 
 Upon the whole it is very clear that though, by the afore- 
 mentioned Constitution, Pope Leo made a breach in the 
 public discipline, yet he did not thereby remove it wholly. 
 He destroyed, indeed, the relation which, till then, there 
 had ever been between private confession and public penance 
 for the sins so confessed. But as to sins which came any 
 other way under Ecclesiastical cognizance, the same course 
 might still be used with them, notwithstanding the order he 
 had taken with secret offences. 
 
 Indeed, there are traces to be found of the public dis- 
 cipline through divers ages of the Church, much lower than 
 the times he lived in. Although the private way which he 
 had introduced did gradually, I conceive, supplant the use 
 of the public, the latter of which, however severe and rigid 
 in point of law and rule, grew thenceforwards to be lax 
 enough in practice, and was too seldom, though still it was 
 sometimes, put in execution. 
 
 i Si autem aut idola adoraverunt, aut Pcenitentiae remedium, et per Imposi- 
 
 homicidiis vel fornicationibus contami- tionem Episcopalis manus Communionis 
 
 nati sunt, ad Commurdonem eos nisi per recipiant unitatem ; tempora poenitudinis 
 
 pcenitentiam publicam non oportet ad- habita moderatione tuo constituente ju- 
 
 mitti. — Leo ad Rustic, in Epist. 2. dido. — Ibid. [cap. 6.] 
 
 [Respons. 19. ed. Quesnel.] ' Pcenitentiae satisfactione purgenturj 
 
 2 EcclesiasticaCommunionepriventur. qua; non tarn temporis longitudine, 
 —lb. in Ep.129, ad Nicet. [Quesn. c.4.] quam cordis compunctione pensanda est. 
 
 3 In societatcni nostram non nisi per — Ibid. [cap. 5.] 
 
of the Primitive Church. 109 
 
 Fulgentius was born soon after the death of Leo, viz. 
 about the year of our Lord, 464 (whereas Leo died a.d. 461), 
 and he lived to the year 529, or, as others compute, till a.d. 
 533. 1 He says of penance, that " even then," in his days, 
 " it retained its efficacy to the sinner's profit, if he performed 
 it within the pale of the Catholic Church, to which, in the 
 person of St. Peter, God had committed the power of binding 
 and loosing." 2 
 
 Gregory the Great entered upon his Pontificate a.d. 590, 3 
 and laboured very hard in restoring discipline, which in his 
 time was grown much enfeebled, through the barbarity of 
 the times, and the innovations wrought in it by the clancular 
 practice. 
 
 He tells his readers " of the art and tenderness wherewith 
 sinners in power were then to be treated, lest, instead of 
 being reformed by discipline, they should be hardened and 
 made worse by it ; that the preacher was to choose a 
 subject, which he knew would reach the case of such an 
 offender, but was by no means to apply it to him in particu- 
 lar, except the transgression were public and notorious ; for 
 then, such as should sin in the face of the world were to be 
 rebuked as publicly as they had ventured to sin, lest," says 
 he, " the preacher should seem by his silence to approve the 
 crime."* 
 
 1 Du Pin, Eccles. Hist. 6 Cent. [pp. facit, tales culpas ad medium deducat, 
 13, 14.] quales eum perpetrasse considerat, qui 
 
 2 Sed etiam Poenitentia peccatori nunc et praesto est, et de se solo adlxuc argui 
 prodest, si earn in Ecclesia Catholica non potest, ne deterior fiat? et cum 
 gerat ; cui Deus in persona beati Petri generaliter contra culpam invectio in- 
 ligandi solvendique tribuit potestatem. tenditur, Correptionis verbum libenter 
 — Fulgent, in Lib. un. ad Petrum Dia- ad mentem ducitur ; quia potens pravus 
 con. [de Fide, p. 517. Paris, 1684.] ignorat, quod sibi hoc specialiter dica- 
 
 3 Du Pin, in the place and century tur Magna itaque Fraedicationis 
 
 just cited. arte agendum est, ut qui ex aperta Cor- 
 
 4 Potens et protervus cum aliquid per- reptione deteriores fiunt, quodam tem- 
 petrasse cognoscitur, tempus quaeritur peramento Correptionis ad Salutem re- 
 
 ut de malo quod fecit, increpetur ; nisi deant Sed hsec de occultis po- 
 
 enim Prsedicator sustineat, quando ferre tentium delictis loquimur ; nam quando 
 
 congrue correptionem possit, auget in et aliis cognoscentibus peccant, aliis 
 
 eo malum quod insequitur. Ssepe enim etiam cognoscentibus increpandi sunt ; 
 
 contingit, ut talis sit qui nulla incre- ne si Prsedicator tacet, Culpam appro- 
 
 pationis verba suscipiat. Quid itaque basse videatur. — Gregor. in torn. i. 
 
 in hujus culpa Prsedicatori agendum est ; Expos. Moral, in 16 Cap. Job. lib. xiii. 
 
 nisi ut in Sermone Admonitionis, quern [cap. 6, 7, p. 419.] 
 
 pro communi Salute omnium Auditorum 
 
110 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap. From hence, then, we may well infer, that what Tertullian 
 
 speaks of as given in the Church, viz. "public rebukes, 
 admonitions, and censures," 1 did still contiuue to be given in 
 it, though not so frequently, even down to the Pontificate of 
 Gregory the Great. The persons to whom Gregory alludes 
 in this passage, were sinners in power, of whose crimes the 
 Priest had some way or other got notice, though they were 
 not notorious ; and he was to use all his art in order to 
 affect those men with a due sense of their crimes, yet so as 
 not to give them offence, nor occasion of flying out into 
 further extravagances. Which is a way of speaking and 
 advising, very different from the simplicity and authority of 
 the earlier ages, and argues the difficulty which the pastors 
 of the Church did then lie under in the execution of their 
 Office : how to rebuke with all authority when their people 
 would so ill endure the use of any. 
 
 Yet as bad as their case then was, the case of our present 
 Clergy, I fear, is worse, who, should they take even this 
 tender course, this round-about way of coming at the 
 conscience of a potent sinner, would be censured as busy 
 meddlers, and who rather designed to preach at the man 
 than against his sin. 
 
 The same author will furnish us elsewhere with a further 
 specimen of the looseness which generally then prevailed 
 amongst all orders and degrees of men ; how " both Priests 
 and people run riot in wickedness, and when they were any 
 way prevailed with to come to themselves, so far as to 
 confess their faults, yet would they not submit to be censured 
 for them, nor to appear in a posture becoming penitents." 2 
 It should seem from hence, and from what a little before 
 preceded, that our author would have revived the ancient 
 relation between private confession and public penance. 
 " The mere confession," saith he, " of the mouth is not the 
 
 1 Ibidem (viz. in Congregatione) ex- cor redeunt, se errasse confitentur ; qui 
 hortationes, castigationes, et censura tamen sic volunt contra se peccata pro- 
 divina. — Tertull. in Apolog. advers. ferre, lit velint adhuc de officio sacri 
 Gent. cap. 39. Ordinis honorari. Turpes in secreto se 
 
 2 Catervatim nunc in flagitia corruunt proferunt, sed foris prater Ordinis cel- 
 non solum subjecti debiles, sed etiam situdinem videri humiles erubescunt. — 
 Pralati et sacerdotes negligentes ; sed Gregor. lib. vi. Expos, in 1 Keg. [cap. 
 plerique eorum, dum quodammodo ad 15, torn. iii. p. 368.] 
 
of the Primitive Church. Ill 
 
 true nor genuine Exhomologesis, but that which is followed by 
 penitential mortifications ; for we then only can be sure of 
 the sinner's conversion, when he endeavours to wipe out the 
 stain of guilt which his mouth hath confessed, by rigours 
 and severities suitable to the affliction which he professes to 
 be under." 1 And again, " The confession of sin is required 
 chiefly for this reason, that the fruits of repentance may 
 follow thereupon." 2 And again, " They who make a specious 
 show of confessing their sins, but do not answer those fair 
 appearances by the realities of a penitential humiliation, are 
 compared to Saul, who did indeed acknowledge his sin, but 
 yet would not be duly humbled for it." 3 Of some, again, 
 he complains, who "hid their sins from their spiritual guides, 
 and endeavoured as much as might be to palliate and 
 excuse them, that their heinousness might not appear." 4 
 Whilst others " confessed, indeed, of their own accord, but 
 yet were not enough humbled for the crimes whereof they 
 accused themselves." Whereas, he goes on to observe, that 
 " penance was, indeed, as necessary as confession." Once 
 more, he mentions the austerities of penance, and the 
 separation of wicked members from the Communion of the 
 Church, as still in his time remaining, how much, soever, 
 declining from the vigour of the ancient discipline ; s and that 
 the " government of this whole matter was intrusted with 
 the Bishop, and was not esteemed available without his 
 direction." 6 
 
 1 Signum ergo verse confessionis non quantum possunt eadem peccata lsevi- 
 est in oris confessione, sed in afflictione gant, ne qui eis prsesunt, eorum grandi- 
 poenitentise. Tunc namque bene con- tudinem attendant. — Ibid, in cap. 15. .. . 
 versum peccatorem cernimus, cum digna Quidam etiam sponte ad confitendum 
 afflictionis austeritate delere nititur quod veniunt, sed pro quibus se accusant, non 
 loquendo confitetur. — Gregor. [p. 367.] ipsi lugent Non solum confitenda 
 
 2 Idcirco omnis confessio peccatorum sunt peccata, sed etiam pcenitentise aus- 
 requiritur ut fructus poenitentise conse- teritate delenda. — Ibid. 
 
 quatur. — Ibid, [in cap. 15.] 5 Excussi autem sunt reprobi, id est, 
 
 3 Saul ergo qui confitetur et honorari a fidelium societate separati. — Ibid, lib, 
 vult, non affligi et humiliari, quid de- iii. Expos, in 1 Reg. cap. 7. [vol. iii. 
 signat, nisi eos, qui confessionem steri- p. 171.] 
 
 lem habent, et fructum non habent ; qui 6 Carnem posnitendo atterunt. . . . Quae 
 
 decorem confessionis verbis humilibus tamen afnictio pcenitentiae ad delenda 
 
 prseferunt ; sed verborum virorem non peccata tunc demum idonea est, cum 
 
 humilitate pcenitentise sequuntur? — Ibid. sacerdotis fuerit judicio imperata ; cum 
 
 [in cap. 15, p. 368.] ab eo pcenitentium actibus discussis, pro 
 
 4 Peccata sua suis prsepositis abscon- modo criminis, onus ei decernitur afflic- 
 dunt, et ut vix inveniri possint et argui, tionis. — Ibid. 
 
112 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap. From the whole of what hath here been cited, we may, I 
 
 '- — think, observe, that in the age of Gregory the Great, it was 
 
 often difficult to bring men so far, as even to private confes- 
 sion ; and yet that there was a good deal more of this prac- 
 tice than of public discipline ; the latter of which, however it 
 might here and there, in a few instances, be put in execu- 
 tion, yet was not likely to be so often, when both Clergy and 
 people were to such a degree corrupted ; the one so negligent 
 in exacting, and the other so backward in submitting to it. 
 
 What he hath written upon the Pastoral Care, expresseth 
 indeed on his part a great deal of industry, and endeavour 
 to restore the vigour of the ancient discipline ; but yet doth 
 at the same time apparently suppose the want of it, and that 
 the private management had in a manner suppressed the 
 public cognizance of offences. 
 
 Isidore of Seville x was contemporary with Gregory the 
 Great ; but outlived him by thirty-two years, dying in or 
 about the year 636. He hath informed us, that the " public 
 discipline (at least in the case of public sins) was used when 
 he wrote, however rare and languishing it might be in prac- 
 tice. But, indeed, the notion seems to have been then pretty 
 current, that private offences might be privately expiated, 
 although notorious crimes might not so be smothered ; nor 
 was the delinquent to be left even in the private manage- 
 ment, if he did not reform upon it, but was to be publicly 
 rebuked, in failure of the other method." 2 In the same place 
 he blames those " Pastors who excommunicated their people 
 for their sins, in order to obtain of them a submission to 
 Penitential Discipline, but took, at the same time, no care of 
 instructing them in their future behaviour, or of exhorting 
 them to a better practice." 3 He plainly speaks of con- 
 version in private ; * so that the private way had then 
 
 1 See Du Pin in 7 Cent. [p. 1.] palens. Sententiar. lib. iii. cap. 46, [sect. 
 
 s Qui admonitus secrete de peccato 11, 12.] 
 corrigi negligit, publice arguendus est ; 3 Nonnulli Presides gregis quosdam 
 
 ut vulnus quod occulte sanari nescit, pro peccato a Communione ejiciunt, ut 
 
 manifesto debeat emendari. . . . Manifesta pceniteant ; sed quali sorte vivere debe- 
 
 peccata non sunt occulta correptione ant, ad melius exhortando non visitant, 
 
 purganda ; Palam cairn sunt arguendi — Ibid. [sect. 8.] 
 
 qui palam nocent ; ut dum aperta objur- 4 Quidam sunt, qui secrete conversi 
 
 gatione sanantur, hi, qui eos imitando sunt. — Ibid. lib. ii. Sententiar. cap. 7. 
 
 deliquerunt, corrigantur. — Isidor. His- [sect. 12.] 
 
of the Primitive Church. 113 
 
 unquestionably obtained, although, as yet, it had not quite 
 thi'ust out the public, since of the latter he very plainly 
 speaks in divers passages, as not utterly extinct. He must 
 mean, for instance, the public humiliation, where he tells his 
 reader what was requisite to the due performance of the 
 Penitential Office, viz. " Tears and self-condemnation propor- 
 tionable to the measure of the sin committed ;" x and where 
 he represents the form of it to " be in sackcloth and ashes ;" 2 
 and observes, moreover, that it was " designed as a substi- 
 tute to Baptism, because the latter was but once allowed of:" 
 and again, where, " for the sake of that reverence, which was 
 due to the Clergy above the people," he recommends to the 
 one the performance of it in the presence of God only ; 
 whereas, the other were to go through it, whilst the Priest 
 was solemnly ministering before God at His altar. This, I 
 conceive, must refer to penitents as to a public order of 
 men, who were as much a distinct order as the Competents 
 and Catechumens were, of whom, likewise, he treats in the 
 same passage. And this construction is further confirmed 
 to us from what he writes of the doorkeeper's office, in a 
 letter to Ludifred Bishop of Corduba, which, as he there 
 observes, was to " shut and open the doors of the Church, to 
 take care of whatever was lodged in it, or did any way 
 appertain to it, to let in the faithful to their proper Station, 
 and to exclude such as were under public Censure, and all 
 infidels." 3 Hitherto, therefore, we have at least a shadow 
 left us of the public discipline, and of the Stations which 
 were observed in the ancient Church. 
 
 He means the public beyond exception, where he says, 
 
 1 Ille Poenitentiam digne agit, qui rea- medicinali remedio Poenitentiae subrogat 
 turn suum satisfactione legitima plangit ; adjumentum .... Horum duntaxat dig. 
 condemnando scilicet ac deflendo quae nitate servata ; ita ut a Sacerdotibus et 
 gessit ; tanto in deplorando profusius, Levitis Deo tantum teste fiat ; a cseteris 
 quanto extitit in peccando proclivius. — vero, antestante coram Deo solenniter 
 Isidor. Hispalens. Sententiar. lib. ii. cap. Sacerdote. — Ibid.de Offic. Eccles. lib. 
 [13. § 6.] ii. [cap. 17.] 
 
 2 Bene ergo in cilicio et cinere posni- 3 Ad Ostiarium pertinent clavesEccle- 
 tens deplorat peccatum. . . . Pcenitentise siae, ut claudat et aperiat Templum Dei, 
 autem remedium Ecclesia Catholica in et omnia quse sunt intus extraque cus- 
 spe indulgentiae fidenter alligat exercen- todiat ; fideles recipiat, Excommunicates 
 dum ; et post unum Baptismi Sacra- et Infideles rejiciat. — Ibid, in Epist. ad 
 mentum, quod singulari traditione com- Ludifred. Cordubens. Episcop. [vol. vi. 
 mendatum sollicite prohibet iterandum, p. 567.] 
 
114 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap. that "penance is to be performed according to the quality 
 
 of offences, that the less may be expiated by secret prayer, 
 
 but that the greater would require a more public satisfaction 
 in the face of the Church." 1 He proceeds, a little after, to 
 describe with what circumstances of severity and rigour the 
 public discipline was attended ; " with what abstinence from 
 innocent mirth, and otherwise lawful liberties; with what 
 contempt of this world, and what aspirations towards the 
 other ; with what assiduity in watchings and alms, in fast- 
 ings and prayers ; with what diligent attendance upon the 
 Word of God ; and with what caution against all the inlets 
 to sin." 
 
 In reading the description which he hath here given us of 
 the state of penance, a man is almost tempted to fancy him- 
 self in the third or fourth century, when these austerities 
 were actually submitted to, which, I doubt, our author did 
 only paint and describe. Not but that there might be, and 
 were, even then, some instances of the practice, which, it is 
 plain, was not quite discontinued ; although, in the passage 
 here cited, he hath rather, I fear, told us what it should have 
 been than what it was. 
 
 Private penance was apparently now in use ; and as it was 
 much more easily performed than the public, it will easily 
 be apprehended that the former might be as much as the 
 Clergy could generally obtain from their people, whose zeal 
 at that time was grown much colder than it had been in the 
 earlier ages. 
 
 Some few Bishops, famous for their piety and learning, 
 did what they could to prop and support a declining disci- 
 
 1 Ipsa autem poenitentia juxta quali- negotiis involvitur. In vigiliis et ora- 
 
 tatem delictorum agenda est ; nam sicut tionibus frequentissima est, in jejuniis 
 
 levia peccata occulta oratione delentur, exercitata, in cibo et potu moderata, in 
 
 ita gravia coram Ecclesia per poeniten- labore et lectione assidua, in caritate 
 
 tiam et satisfactionem remittuntur perennis, in castitate perpetua, in ser- 
 
 Fcenitentia vera in omni sancto opere mone verissima, in juramento continens ; 
 
 sollicitius anxiatur. Non habet omnino benigna est et patiens, invidia non suc- 
 
 risus, fabulas vanas non recipit, neque cenditur, ira non superatur, cavet jac- 
 
 desideriis inquinatur factisque protervis ; tantiam, minulitatem amat, contumeliam 
 
 terrena non concupiscit, coelestia desi- non rependit, odit avaritiam, fagit vanam 
 
 derat, de fine suo cogitat, judicium futu- gloriam, superbiam detestatur, gaudia 
 
 rum semper intendit, et qualiter coram respuit, gemitus suspiria et tribulationes 
 
 Deo digne appareat, hoc quotidie sibi amplectitur. — Isidor. Hispalens. in Ex- 
 
 procurat, soliDeo mUitat, in nullis mundi hortat. ad Pocnitentiam. 
 
of the Primitive Church. 115 
 
 pline. But what, alas ! could they hope to do effectually, 
 when their Clergy were remiss, and their j)eople barbarous 
 and headstrong ? Yet thus much we may observe even 
 here, to the shame of our present generation, that in this 
 point, even the seventh century made nearer approaches 
 than we do, to the primitive pattern. 
 
 We are now come down to the age of our famous Theo- 
 doras, Archbishop of Canterbury, who was thirty-four years 
 old when Isidore died, viz. a.d. 636. 1 This great Prelate is 
 charged by Morinus " with having been the first who 
 brought in the innovation of secret penance for secret 
 offences." 2 Whereas, before his time, if Morinus hath laid 
 his charge right, even secret offences were punished with 
 public penance. 
 
 Monsieur Petit, who published the Penitential which 
 goes under the name of Theodorus, hath undertook to vin- 
 dicate our Archbishop from the charge which Morinus had 
 brought against him ; and fain would shew, that the private 
 penance had a foundation in the very beginnings of the 
 Church, although not one of his authorities proves it. 3 
 
 What carries the best show of proof with it, is cited by 
 him from Augustin, and yet, the very title of the Homilies 
 from whence he would draw the inferences to his purpose, 
 evidences their entire relation to brotherly reproof, in the 
 case of one brother trespassing against another. 4 
 
 What the Father hath occasionally mentioned concerning 
 the Bishop's knowledge of a crime, which was unfit to be 
 published, for fear of exposing the party to the edge of 
 temporal laws, falls under another consideration, and hath 
 
 1 See Du Pin in Eccles. Hist. 7 Cent Nos volumns corripere et corri- 
 
 [p. 45.] gere ; Quid si inimicus quaerit audire 
 
 2 Theodorus, homo Grsecus, primus quod puniat ? Novit enim nescio quern 
 aperte morem sustulit publice de crimi- Homicidam Episcopus, et alius ilium 
 nibus occultis poenitendi. — Morin. de nemo novit : Ego volo publice corripere, 
 Administ. Pcenitent. lib. x. cap. 17, at tu quseris inscribere. Prorsus nee 
 sect. 2, [vii. i. 15.] prodo nee negligo ; corripio in secreto, 
 
 3 In Theodor. Doctrin. de Pcenitent. pono ante oculos Dei judicium ; terreo 
 ab omni suspicione novitatis vindicata. cruentam conscientiam, persuadeo pcEni- 
 
 * De eo quod scriptum est in Evan- tentiam. — Ibid, in Serm. [16, p. 310, 
 
 gelio, Si peccaverit in te frater tuus, vol. v.] See, and compare with this, 
 
 corripe eum inter te et ipsum solum. what is written and cited in p. 45, 
 
 — August. Serm. 15 et 16, de Verb. Dom. note 1. 
 
116 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 CHAP, nothing to do with the private penance, which Mr. Petit 
 ' — would here contend for. 
 
 Indeed, the party was not in this case obliged drittoeieisiv, 
 to publish the sin thus committed by him; but still the 
 Bishop might and did persuade his submission to public 
 penance for it ; whereby it was known, that he had been 
 guilty of some enormous crime, though the particular species 
 of the fact was secret. If the party would not hearken to 
 the Bishop's persuasion, it doth not appear that the Bishop 
 could, in this case, proceed any farther ; since it hath already 
 been observed from Augustin, that " proof was to be made 
 of facts before the parties could be excluded from Com- 
 munion for them, and it was unfit for the Bishop himself to 
 be both witness and judge in the same case." 
 
 As to the argument formed by Mr. Petit upon imaginary 
 inconveniences, and upon the want there would anciently 
 have been of a cure for divers sins, if this of private penance 
 had not been applied to them ; it is plainly of no validity 
 nor force ; since, to argue from imaginary conveniences or 
 inconveniences to real facts, is a way of reasoning as falla- 
 cious as any man can fall into, and will prove any thing he 
 hath a mind to, if it will prove any thing at all. It is but 
 urging that the thing would be convenient or inconvenient ; 
 and its being must stand or fall with the fanciful suggestion. 
 
 It is allowed, notwithstanding, that in the time of Augustin, 
 the public discipline was declining, and had much ado to 
 support itself; and, therefore, this same Father, in his 
 Epistle to Aurelius, recommended the softer way of treat- 
 ing sins, which had multitudes to countenance them. 1 St. 
 Cyprian, I guess, would scarce have condescended to any 
 such regards ; though, in proportion to the number of Christ- 
 ians, the case of the lapsed might have had as much pleaded 
 for it in abatement of penitential rigours as any case could 
 pretend to in after ages. 
 
 But nothing yet appears of private penance as established 
 
 1 Non ergo aspere, quantum existimo, Veritas autem exercenda est in peccata 
 
 non duriter, non modo imperioso ista paucorum. — Augustin. in Epist. [22, 
 
 tolluntur: Magisdocendoquamjubendo, § 5,] ad Aurel. Episc. [vol. ii. p. 21. 
 
 magis monendo quam minando. Sic Ed. Bened.] 
 enim agendum est cum multitudine, se- 
 
of the Primitive Church. 117 
 
 in the age of Augustin, whatever approaches might he making 
 towards it. 
 
 For sins not liable to public discipline, the Father just 
 cited, with Pacian and Ambrose, hath shewn us the cure of 
 them by prayers and alms, and by future diligence in good 
 works, which no man, surely, will judge fit to have been 
 imposed upon the sinner under the notion of punishments ; 
 though they might be recommended to him as instances of 
 piety and charity, and of other virtues. 1 
 
 These Fathers, however, where they mention the case and 
 the cure of it, say not one word of any private penance; 
 which alone is a strong presumption, that the usage was not 
 known to them, and, when joined with the silence of other 
 Fathers down to Pope Leo, amounts, in my poor opinion, 
 to a convincing proof, that there was really no such practice. 
 
 And yet, after all, Monsieur Petit was right in his con- 
 clusion, though wrong in the premises, by which he would 
 have come at it. For Theodorus, at last, was not the man, 
 through whom this innovation first crept into the Church. 
 Pope Leo, we have seen, about two hundred years before 
 Theodorus entered upon his Archbishoprick, which was a.d. 
 680, either laid, or at least established, and settled the foun- 
 dation of this great change; and the practice hath been 
 traced from Leo down to the very period we are now got into. 
 
 Morinus might well enough have said, nor would Mr. 
 Petit, I suppose, have gainsaid, that Theodorus was the first 
 in the Latin Church, who drew this discipline into form and 
 order by writing a Penitential, and by prescribing a method 
 to direct both Priest and people in the use of it. 
 
 He is represented as the most knowing and learned man 
 of his times ; a Greek by birth, and a Roman by habitation 
 and converse ; so that he might be easily and well acquainted 
 with the usages, both of the Eastern and Western Churches ; 
 and, therefore, he must be confessed to have been very fit 
 for such a work, which the ignorance of his Clergy had 
 rendered necessary, as the barbarity of his people would 
 admit no return to the rigours of the ancient Church. 2 
 
 1 See what hath been cited from those his Penitential, large commendations of 
 Fathers in p. 58, notes 1, 2, 3. hi™ from the testimony of various 
 
 2 See, in Monsieur Petit's Edition of authors. 
 
118 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap. We are now advanced to the time wherein the public dis- 
 
 '■ — cipline, though not quite lost, was yet almost extinguished ; 
 
 for, instead of the ancient Exhomologesis, and the humiliation 
 of the penitent in the face of the Church, we hear hence- 
 forwards of little more than of the modern practice, by pri- 
 vate confession and private absolution, which bring little or 
 no shame upon the sinner, and carry very little of terror 
 against sin, when pardon is obtained so easily. 
 
 Nay, the ancient is quite reversed in the modern practice 
 of the Roman Church. The binding power of the Church 
 was heretofore understood to be then exercised, when the 
 sinner was bound over to certain penitential austerities; 
 and when these had been submitted to for the appointed 
 season, he then was loosed from them, and restored to his 
 former privileges. But now, in effect, he is loosed first, and 
 bound afterwards, it being usual with the Roman Clergy to 
 give Absolution immediately after Confession, upon promise 
 from the penitent, that he will perform the penance assigned 
 him when so absolved : so that, after he is loosed (or ab- 
 solved) his bond, riz. his obligation to penance, does still 
 continue to hold him. A preposterous course ! and quite 
 against ancient usage, as well as against the nature of the 
 thing itself. Thus much will be acknowledged by all candid 
 persons even of their own persuasion. 
 
 Gabr. Albaspine will teach them this ingenious acknow- 
 ledgment, that " anciently penance was not given together 
 with Absolution ; and, that penance had, in the earlier ages, 
 a very different signification from what it hath at present; 
 that Absolution and the peace of the Church were never 
 then granted till after satisfaction was made, and penance 
 gone through." 1 
 
 The use of private confession is likewise very different 
 in the present from what it was in the Primitive Roman 
 Church. 
 
 ' Antiquitus nunquam Pcenitentia con- nostra plurimum abesse .... Crederem 
 
 cedebatur cum Absolutione, ant sine antiquam Disciplinam instituisse, ne 
 
 Benedictione, et manuum Impositione : ulli unquam nisi post satisfactionem et 
 
 Omnes item Canones, qui aut concedunt, Pcenitentiam Absolutio et pax Ecclesiae 
 
 aut negant jus Poenitentia: dari, liquido concederetur.— Gabr. Albaspin. de vete- 
 
 demonstrant banc vocem aliam habuisse rib. Ecclesiae. Ritib. lib. ii. Observat. 3, 
 
 acceptionem, quam habeat bodie, et a [p. 218.] 
 
of the Primitive Church. 119 
 
 Then, it was rather a matter of prudence than of necessity, 
 commended indeed, hut not enforced as universally neces- 
 sary ; what was then exacted and insisted on, was the public 
 Exhomologesis of the penitent, and his solemn humiliation by 
 it in the face of the Church ; and even the private, which 
 was in some cases recommended, though not generally com- 
 manded, had an apparent reference to public discipline. 
 Whereas now, the private confession is represented as uni- 
 versally necessary, and made exceedingly extensive, 1 not 
 only to the sins themselves, but to the circumstances, occa- 
 sions, and inducements, which led into them; 2 and it is 
 called, moreover, sacramental f and, against the whole stream 
 of antiquity, the repetition of this discipline is allowed toties 
 quoties without any limitation. 4 Nay, the Council of Trent 
 hath proceeded so far as to say of the public Exhomologesis, 
 that Christ, indeed, had not forbid it, yet that it would not be 
 prudent to revive it, 5 and that, what they style the Sacra- 
 mental Confession, is the Divine institution, and all in all. 6 
 The Bishops in divers ages did, indeed, attempt to revive 
 the ancient discipline ; or at least, to hinder any further 
 innovations in it : witness the Canons of various Councils, 
 
 1 Omnis utriusque sexus fidelis post- non deleatur. — Ibid, de Poenitent. Sacra- 
 quam ad annos discretionis pervenerit, ment. [p. 235.] 
 
 omnia sua solus peccata confiteatur fide- 5 Etsi Christus non vetuerit quin ali- 
 
 liter (saltern semel in anno) proprio Sa- quis in vindictam suorum scelerum, et 
 
 cerdoti, et injunctam sibi Pcenitentiam sui humiliationem, cum ob aliorum ex- 
 
 studeat pro viribus adimplere. — In Con- emplum, turn ob Ecclesise offensae aedifica- 
 
 cil. iateran. iv. habit. A.D. 1215, cap. tionem, delicta sua publice confiteri pos- 
 
 21, [Hardouin. viii. p. 35.] sit ; non est tamen hoc divino praecepto 
 
 Mortifera peccata singula enume- mandatum ; nee satis consulte humana 
 
 randa sunt. — In Catechism, ad Paroch. aliqua lege praeciperetur, ut delicta, 
 
 Part ii. [p. 252.] praesertim secreta, publica essent confes- 
 
 2 Neque vero solum peccata gravia sione aperienda. — In Concil. Trident, 
 narrando explicare oportet ; verum etiam Sess. 14, cap. 5. [Hardouin. xi. p. 93.] 
 ilia quae unumquodque peccatum cir- 6 Si quis negaverit Confessionem Sa- 
 cumstant. — Ibid, in Catechism, ad cramentalem vel institutam, vel ad salu- 
 Paroch. [pp. 252, 253.] tern necessariam esse jure Divino ; aut 
 
 3 Si Sacramentalem confessionem e dixerit modum secrete confitendi soli 
 Christiana disciplina exemeris, constat Sacerdoti, quem Ecclesia Catholica ab 
 plena omnia occultis et nefandis sceleri- initio semper observavit, et observat, 
 bus futura esse. — Ibid. [p. 247.] alienum esse ab institutione et mandate 
 
 4 Nullum est tarn grave et nefarium Christi,etinventum essehumanum,Ana- 
 scelus, quod Pcenitentiae Sacramento thema sit. — Ibid, in Can. 6, de Poenit. 
 non quidem semel, sed iterum, et saepius Sacrament. — [Hardouin. torn. xi. p. 98.] 
 
120 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 in. ' held in several times and countries, whereof we in England 
 
 were not without our proportion. 
 
 Charles the Great contributed very good assistance to- 
 wards this work ; and, in the time of his son Ludovicus 
 Pius, there was a notable struggle for the primitive disci- 
 pline, by the attempt which was made in the sixth Council 
 of Paris to suppress and abolish the penitential formularies, 
 which were then, it seems, got abroad, as contradicting, in 
 divers points, the authority of the ancient Canons. 1 Yet, 
 even then, I observe, no attempt was made to revive the 
 ancient practice of public penance for secret sins, but, in- 
 stead of it, the current usage of that age was established by 
 law, that secret sins should have secret penance, and public 
 crimes be publicly punished according fo the Canons. 2 Even 
 the zeal of this good Emperor pushed him upon no other 
 endeavour than only to support, in this point, the prevailing 
 practice by his imperial power. The innovation then had 
 taken so deep a root, that there was no extirpating it. 
 
 But whatever good intentions this prince might have, the 
 effects of them did soon expire with him and with his race ; 
 and were entirely sunk in the barbarity and confusion of the 
 times which succeeded them. 
 
 1 Quoniam multi Sacerdotum partim ap Hardouin. torn. ill. p. 1044.] .... 
 incuria, partim ignorantia, modum poeni- So Rabanus Maurus de Inst.it. Cleric, 
 tentiae reatum suum confitentibus, secus lib. ii. cap. 30. Quorum autem peccata 
 quauijuraCanonicadecernant,imponunt, occulta sunt, et spontanea confessione 
 utentes scilicet quibusdam codicillis soli tantummodo Presbytero, sive Epi- 
 contra Canonicam auctoritatem scriptis, scopo ab eis fuerint revelata, horum oc- 
 quos Pcenitentiales vocant, omnibus culta debet esse poenitentia, secundum 
 nobis salubriter in commune visum est, judicium Presbyteri sive Episcopi, cui 
 ut unusquisque Episcoporum in sua confessi sunt; ne infirmi in Ecclesia 
 parocbia eosdem erroneos codicillos dili- scandalizentur, videntes eorum pcenas 
 genter perquirat, et inventos igni tradat : quorum penitus ignorant causas. (And 
 Ne per eos ulterius Sacerdotes imperiti thenceforwards it grew into an esta- 
 homines decipiant.- — In Concil. Paris, vi. blished rule, that any sin how grievous 
 cap. 32, lib. i. [Hardouin. torn. iv. soever, if committed in secret, might be 
 p. 1317.] expiated by secret penance.) Si vero 
 
 2 Si vero occulte et sponte confessus occultum fuerit peccatum, quantum- 
 fuerit, occulte faciat (Poenitentiam) . Et cunque fuerit grave et enorme, quan- 
 si publice ac manifeste convictus aut tumcunque abominabile, sufficit illud 
 confessus fuerit, publice ac manifeste secreta confessione, et secreta satis- 
 fiat ; et publice coram Ecclesia juxta factione purgare. — In Excerpt, ex Pceni- 
 Canonicos pceniteat gradus. — In Capi- tentiali Mag. Bartholomrei Episcopi 
 tul. Carol. Mag. et Ludovic. Pii, lib. v. Oxoniensis, cap. 30, apud Mr. Petit, in 
 cap. 116. Ed. Baluz. [Cf. Capit. xxv. Theodor. Poenit. [p. 333.] 
 
of the Primitive Church. 121 
 
 Whilst the Bishops had any remains of liberty or power, 
 the great point they laboured was conformity to the rules of 
 the ancient Church. But when Pope and prince had long 
 been concerned in a joint conspiracy to deprive them of 
 both, they grew tired with contending against such potent 
 adversaries, and submitted at last to all the fetters which 
 were prepared for them. 
 
 Throughout the whole period from Leo down to our pre- 
 sent age, the private management of discipline hath been 
 gaining upon the public, and hath left it, indeed, little more 
 at present than an empty name, without effect or meaning ; 
 but yet it hath here and there, in a few instances, preserved 
 its being all along ; though without any great resort to, or 
 great use of it. The Councils speak frequently of it, as of a 
 thing a little in practice, and more in the wishes of the 
 respective times, which they were severally held in. 
 
 To begin with the very year in which Pope Leo died. 
 The Council of Tours makes express provision for the 
 behaviour of such as had been admitted to penance. 1 
 
 The very first Canon of the sixth Roman Council en- 
 joins " the observation of the Nicene Canons in general ; and 
 then in the third Canon, proceeds more particularly to pro- 
 hibit any one being promoted to the Clergy from the order 
 of penitents." 2 
 
 In the Council of Agatha, we have further directions as 
 to the case of penitents, and the manner of their being ad- 
 mitted to that order ; and, in another Canon of the same, 
 " we have express mention of their Station in the Church, 
 though with some note of the difficulty there was to keep 
 them in it, and of the growing disuse into which it had been 
 falling." 3 
 
 1 Si quis post acceptam pcenitentiam tiam petunt, imposltlonem manuum, et 
 ad saeculares illecebras fuerit reversus, cilicium super caput a Sacerdote (sicut 
 a Communione Ecclesiae extraneus ha- ubique constitutum est) consequantur. . . 
 beatur. — In Concil. Turonens. habit. (De lapsis h6BC sunt observanda.) In 
 a.d. 461, can. 8. [Hard. ii. 795.] pcenitentiam loco standi et orandi hu- 
 
 2 Canones Nicaeni Goncilii custodian- militatem ita noverint observandam, ut 
 tur .... Poenitentes ad sacros ordines etiam ipsi, cum Catechumeni egredi com- 
 ne aspirant. — In Concil. Roman. 6. monentur, ascendant. Hoc si observare 
 habit, a.u. 465, Can. i. et iii. [Har- voluerint, constitute tempore admit- 
 douin. ii. 799.] tendis ad Altarium observatio relaxetur. 
 
 * Poenitentes, tempore quo pceniten- Quod si ardua vel dura forte putaverint, 
 
122 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap. The Council of Ilerda hath provided against the contu- 
 
 '■ — macy of an offender, who should refuse to depart from the 
 
 Church at the Minister's appointment. 1 
 
 The third Council of Orleans was held expressly for the 
 purpose of reforming Ecclesiastical discipline. 2 
 
 The first of Barcelona speaks of the Clinical penance, and 
 directs the penitent upon his recovery to go through it, 
 and to submit to a segregation for the time the Priest 
 should assign him to it. 3 The wilful murderer was, by 
 the second Council of Luca, to be detained at the Church- 
 door, and to enter no farther as long as he lived, but in his 
 last moments he might be reconciled. 41 
 
 The third of Toledo revives the ancient customs of 
 penance, which it proceeds to explain, and then confirms 
 them ; after having given, at the very first, a solemn sanc- 
 tion to all the Canons of the ancient Church in general. 5 
 
 This endeavour to keep alive or to recover the ancient 
 discipline was remarkably slackened in the seventh century, 
 where the provisions made for it are more sparing than in 
 the times preceding. 
 
 Yet the Council of Chalon-sur-Soane just mentions the 
 order of penitents as still remaining. 6 
 
 The ninth of Toledo directs the reception of Clinical peni- 
 tents. 7 So does the first of Aix, held under Charles the 
 
 statuta praeteritorum Canomim implere 4 Si quis voluntarie Homicidium fece- 
 
 debebunt. — In Concil. Agathens. habit. rit, ad januam Ecclesia; Catholics semper 
 
 a.d. 506, Can. 15 et 60. [Hardouin. torn. subjaceat, et Communionem in exitu vitae 
 
 ii. pp. 999, 2004.] suae recipiat. — In Concil. Lucens. 2. 
 
 1 Qui jubente sacerdote pro quacunque habit, a.d. 569, Can. 78. [Hardouin. ii. 
 culpa ab Ecclesia exire contempserit, pro p. 399.] 
 
 noxa contumacies tardius recipiatur ad 5 Omne quod a priscis Canonibus pro- 
 
 veniam. — In Concil. Herd, habit, a.d. hibetur, sit, resurgente disciplina, prohi- 
 
 524, Can. 10. [Hardouin. ii. p. 1065.] bitum, et agatur omne quod prsecipit fieri 
 
 2 Ad reformandam Ecclesia? Discipli- . . . De pcenitentibus, secundum formam 
 nam. — Ibid, in Titul. Concil. Aurelian. antiquorum Canonum dentur poeniten- 
 3. habit, a.d. 538. tiae. — [Hardouin. iii. p. 481.] See p. 68, 
 
 3 De his qui in infirmitatibus poscunt note 1 . 
 
 poenitentiam, et a Sacerdote accipiunt, si 6 Pcenitentibus a Sacerdotibus data 
 
 postea convaluerint, vitam pcenitentium confessione indicatur pcenitentia. — In 
 
 peragant, segregati a communione quam Concil. Cabilonens. 2. habit, a.d. 650, 
 
 diuprobabilem sacerdos eorum approba- Can. 8. [Hardouin. torn. iii. p. 949.] 
 
 verit vitam. — In Concil. Barcinonens. 7 His, qui in tempore necessitatis, 
 
 I, habit, a.u. 540, Can. 8. [Hardouin. praesidium pcenitentia; et reconciliationis 
 
 torn. ii. p. 1435.] implorant, nee satisfactio interdicenda 
 
of the Primitive Church. 123 
 
 Great, in his royal palace; who, indeed, was forced upon 
 exerting his authority, to procure any reverence to the Epi- 
 scopal function, and to uphold a tottering and sinking disci- 
 pline. 1 
 
 Thus his Capitular, exhibited in the Council of Tours, 
 threatens to displace and disown all persons whatsoever, 
 his own children not excepted, who should not pay due 
 obedience to the Bishop. 2 
 
 The sixth Council of Aries, convened by his order, 
 directs all counts, judges, &c. to obey the Bishop; and such 
 as had been guilty of public crimes were to perform public 
 penance, according to the ancient Canons. 3 
 
 As to the conduct of our own Bishops within this period, 
 they exerted themselves, by all the accounts we have of 
 them, with a zeal at least equal to any of their neighbours, 
 although they had no such supports to back them as those 
 of France enjoyed in the Carolinian family. 
 
 The three Synods of Landaffe, and the behaviour of 
 Bishop Oudoceus, will fully prove that there was then 
 among our Clergy no want of inclination to exert the vigour 
 of the ancient discipline; and the noble stand which was 
 made against Papal encroachments, in the case of Austin 
 the Monk, sent hither by Pope Gregory the Great, will be 
 a lasting monument of the courage wherewith our British 
 Bishops defended the rights of their Sees and the honours of 
 their function. 4 
 
 In the former, we may observe the reguli of those western 
 parts submitting to Episcopal correction ; and, in the latter, 
 
 est, nee reconciliatio deneganda. — In a.d. 800. Capital. Eccles. Car. Mag. 
 
 Concil. Toletan. 9. (vulgo 11.) habit. cap. 2. [Hardouin. torn. iv. p. 940.] 
 
 a.d. 675, Can. 12. [Hardouin. iii. p. 3 Comites, judices, seu reliqtms popu- 
 
 1029.] Ins obedientes sint Episcopo .... Qui 
 
 1 Qui in periculo constituti sunt, et publico crimine convicti sunt, rei publice 
 convertunt se ad Deum, canonice inqui- judicentur, et publicam poenitentiam 
 ratur de reconciliatione, et canonice re- agant secundum Canones. — In Concil. 
 concilientur. — In Concil. Aquisgranens. Arelat. vulgo 6. habit. A.D. 813. Can. 
 1. habit, a.d. 789, Can. 34. 13, et 26. [Hardouin. torn, iv.' pp. 
 
 2 Qui Episcopo suo inobediens inven- 1005-6. Cf.Conc.Turonens.3. Can. 33. 
 tus fuerit, sciat se in nostro imperio nee Hardouin. torn. iv. p. 1027.] 
 
 honores retinere, licet etiam filius noster i In Can. Eccles. Britan. Synod. Lan- 
 
 fuerit, nee in palatio locum. [Quoted in dav. habit, circiter a.d. 560. See these 
 
 the singular; it is, in the original, in the Synods cited at large in the following 
 
 plural."] — In Concil. Turonens. habit. section. 
 
124 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, we may find the British Prelates would own no other 
 
 ' — deference than what was due from them by the law of 
 
 charity to any Spiritual jurisdiction, save only to that of 
 their own Bishop of Caerleon. 1 
 
 This, in the name of the rest, was the bold declaration of 
 the Abbot of Bangor. 
 
 But as Labb6e and Binius represent this matter from 
 Bede, his freedom of speech cost his monastery very dear, 
 little less than one thousand two hundred of his monks fall- 
 ing soon after by the rage of King Edilfrid in this unhappy 
 quarrel, according to the prediction of the holy man Austin, 
 if these writers may be credited, though as others strongly 
 suspect at his instigation and persuasion. And if this sus- 
 picion be duly founded, it will very much abate to us the 
 honour they assign him of a prophetic spirit. 2 
 
 We may observe, however, a great while after this, some 
 apparent footsteps of the public discipline being left amongst 
 us in the case of enormous crimes, and of its being extended 
 to persons of the highest rank, when they were found to 
 deserve it. 
 
 Witness again for this, another Synod of Landaffe, towards 
 the end of the ninth century, wherein Clotri, one of the 
 reguli in those parts, was excommunicated by Bishop Berth- 
 guin for perjury and murder; 3 which crimes, we may read, 
 had afterward, in the reign of King Ethelred, a brand set 
 upon them, and a prohibition to the guilty parties from com- 
 ing into the royal presence till they had expiated their offence 
 by public penance* 
 
 1 Notum sit et absque dubitatione, pervidendum sub Deo super nobis, ad 
 
 quod nos omnes sumus et quilibet nos- faciendum nos servare viam spiritualem. 
 
 trum obedientes et subditi Ecclesise Dei, — In Synod. 1 ab Augustin. habit, a.d. 
 
 et Papae Romse, et unieuique vero et pio 601. [Howel's Decret. Eccl. Brit, p.10.] 
 
 Christiano ad amandum unumquemque 2 Bede, lib. ii. cap. 2. Labbee et 
 
 in suo gradu in perfecta charitate, et Binius in Concil. Wigorn. 
 
 ad juvandum unumquemque eorum 3 In Synod. Landavens. 14, habit, 
 
 verbo et facto fore filios Dei; et aliam circiter a.d, 887. See it cited more at 
 
 obedientiam quam istam non scio large in the following section. [Howel's 
 
 debitam ei, quern vos nominatis esse Decreta Eccles. Brit. p. 33.] 
 
 Papam, nee esse Patrem Patrum. Vin- 4 Homicida, aut pejerator coram rege 
 
 dicari, et postulari, et istam obedientiam non veniat, priusquam poenitentiam ege- 
 
 nos sumus parati dare et solvere, et ei et rit Deo et sseculo. — In Concil. Pananglic. 
 
 cuique Christiano continuo. Prseterea ab. iEthelred. edit. a.d. 1006, cap. 25. 
 
 nos sumus sub Gubernatione Episcopi [Howel, p. 58.] 
 Caerlegionis super Osca, qui est ad su- 
 
of the Primitive Church. 125 
 
 Indeed the British Bishops, as being more out of the way 
 of Papal corruptions, did better maintain their ground than 
 their other neighbours, and we have, accordingly, more fre- 
 quent instances of the use they made of the powers belonging 
 to their sacred function. 
 
 But after the Norman Conquest, Pope and prince entered 
 here, as elsewhere, into a close confederacy, for sharing be- 
 tween them a very large portion of the Episcopal authority. 
 
 Eadmer, the Monk of Canterbury, hath recorded some 
 notable effects of the Conqueror's power; that he would 
 suffer nothing to be determined in Synods but what himself 
 should approve of; that no Bishop of his realm should be 
 permitted to excommunicate any of his barons or great 
 ministers, or to lay them under any Ecclesiastical Censure, 
 bow enormous soever the crimes might be of which they 
 had been guilty, without his leave and license first obtained 
 for that purpose. 1 
 
 The case had hitherto been otherwise, and the Ecclesias- 
 tical authority had ever been acknowledged in matters of a 
 purely Ecclesiastical nature, and even princes themselves, 
 as well as their ministers, had submitted to it as far back- 
 wards as we have any accounts of the Christian religion to 
 be found amongst us. But here was a full stop put to the 
 subjects' liberty, as well as to the Ecclesiastical authority. 
 " All things," saith our author, " both Divine and human, 
 waited the results of his despotic pleasure." 
 
 The subject, since his time, hath shifted pretty well, and 
 is now in possession of as much liberty as he knows what to 
 do with. 
 
 But the Episcopal power hath not yet shook off the fetters 
 which it was then cast into ; instead of any enlargements its 
 chains have rather been heavier than lighter. In the follow- 
 
 1 Cuncta divina simul et humana ejus bat, Tit aliquem de baronibus suis, seu 
 
 mitum expectabant .... ministris, sive incesto, sive adulterio, 
 
 Primatem quoque regni sui, Arcbiepis- sive aliquo capitali crimine denotatum 
 
 copum dico Cantuariensem, seu Dorober- publice, nisi ejus prsecepto, implacitaret, 
 
 nensem, si coacto generali Episcoporum aut excommuuicaret, aut alia Ecclesi- 
 
 concilio praesideret, non sinebat quic- astici rigoris poena constringeret. — Ead- 
 
 quam statuere aut probibere, nisi quae mer, Monach. Cantuariens. Histor. 
 
 suae voluntati accommoda, et a se primo Novor. p. 6. Ed. per Johan. Selden, 
 
 essent ordinata. Nulli nihilominus Epis- 1623. 
 coporum suorum concessum iri permitte- 
 
126 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, ing century, we may learn from the acts of the Council of 
 
 '- — Clarendon, which I should rather, indeed, call a Concordal 
 
 than a Council, that this limitation of the Bishop's authority 
 was confirmed there; "and no one of the king's servants, 
 or who held of him in capite, might upon any occasion 
 thenceforwards be excommunicated, till the king, or, in his 
 absence, his chief justice, were made acquainted with it, that 
 one of them might see right done." 1 
 
 These encroachments of the regal upon the Episcopal 
 power began elsewhere somewhat earlier, and the tenth 
 Council of Toledo had before appointed, that " whomsoever 
 the king should admit to the honour of his familiarity, or 
 his table, the Clergy and people should receive into the 
 Communion of the Church." 2 But then this Council, like 
 that of Clarendon, was much under the influences of the 
 grandees of the realm, who were present at it, and had no 
 small hand in its several determinations. 
 
 However, through all the periods which have hitherto 
 been traced, we may observe some remains of the public 
 discipline, though much sunk in its vigour, and much cor- 
 rupted in its purity. 
 
 We have, indeed, no great reason to apprehend that what 
 the several Canons which have here been cited did enjoin 
 was, in every part of it, punctually executed. Only we may 
 hence infer, that the Bishops were not wholly wanting to 
 their Office, that they did not entirely neglect to put their 
 people in mind of what they could not prevail upon them 
 fully to comply with. 
 
 Upon the whole, we are not to wonder if, when the people 
 were rude and licentious, the Clergy, for the general illi- 
 terate, and tainted besides with a proportion of their people's 
 vices, in these circumstances we are not, I say, to wonder 
 
 1 Nullus qui tenet in capite de rege, benignitatis acceperit, aut participes 
 nee aliquis ministrorum ejus excommu- mensse suae effecerit, hos etiam sacer- 
 nicetur, aut sub interdicto ponatur, nisi dotum et populorum conventus suscipere 
 prius Rex, vel, si extra regnum sit, jus- in Ecclesiasticam Communionem debe- 
 ticiarius ejus conveniatur, ut rectum de bit ; ut quod jam principalis pietas habet 
 eo faciat. — In Concil. Clarendon, babit. acceptum, neque a sacerdotibus Dei ha- 
 a.k. 1164, c. 7. [Howel's Deer. Ecc. beatur extraneum. — In Concil. Toletan. 
 Brit. p. 94.] [12,] babit. a.d. 681, Can. 3. [Har- 
 
 2 Quos regia potestas aut in gratiam douin. torn. Hi. p. 1720.] 
 
of the Primitive Church. 1 27 
 
 if antiquity was forgot by both of them, and then if the 
 private, which was the more easy management, got daily 
 ground of the public, which was more laborious and grievous. 
 Thus gradually, and almost imperceptibly, from the time of 
 Pope Leo, did the private discipline supplant the public, 
 till it had left nothing but a shadow of the ancient regi- 
 men, and even that very ill resembling the substance it 
 belonged to. 
 
 The next instance of the departure of the Western Churches 
 from the primitive model, is to be the subject of another 
 section. 
 
 Section II. — Concerning the Redemption of the Public 
 Canonical Penance by Pecuniary and other Commutations. 
 
 The foundation of this is much more ancient than of the 
 former change, although the superstructure, the practice built 
 upon it, seems to have been of a more modern standing. 
 
 The Council of Nice, 1 and, a little before it, that of 
 Ancyra, "had intrusted the Bishops with a discretionary 
 power of relaxing the penitent's sentence, and of shortening 
 the time he should continue under it, as they should observe 
 his behaviour to be more or less deserving. If he contented 
 himself with the common forms of coming into the Church 
 and of leaving it with other penitents, if he did not manifest 
 a compunction of heart as well as submit to the outward 
 appearances and gestures of penitential sorrow, he was then 
 to have no abatements, but was to go completely through 
 the stages and the time assigned him. Whereas, if either 
 his former conversation had been exemplary before his lapse, 
 or if his conduct after it did sufficiently prove the realities of 
 his inward grief, in such cases his Bishop might contract the 
 time allotted for his continuance under the Penitential Dis- 
 
 1 'Ep* a.7Ta.fft §& vovrois tfpoffvjxsi \\t' itfutxoiriu, xati tyi\m6puitOTi£ilv ri <jrip\ 
 
 Ta^s/v T?jv •Ttgootipiffiv xxt ro uoo$ t%s uutojv ^tovXiiiffatrffxt ' offal di uotecipopais 
 
 fAtravoius ' oirot p.h yo\g XKt tpoGoj, y,a) fivsyxav, xai to ff%9Jp,a TotJ f&ll itfflivai us 
 
 ov.y.putrt, Km i)irof/.ovvi, xttt ayuPosgytctis rhv Tiiv txxXnffiow apxuv au<ro7s, ityrjtravro 
 
 ZTtiffT^otphv %py<u xat) ov ff^7if/,o:Ti imdslxvuv- rr^os rhv itfiffrpotpijv, e^acraw Tos vrXtjpov- 
 
 rou, ourot vXvigojffoiiirss tov %goyov rev vwffacv rhv xpovov. — In Concil. Nicsen. i. 
 
 atgitrf&ivov ths o\xsooiatojs t ilxortas rm Can. 12. [Hardouin. vol. i. p. 329.] 
 tv^uv xaivmnffoutrt, f&troz tov i^uvat tm 
 
128 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 CHAP, cipline, and might restore him to Communion before its 
 '- — expiration." 1 
 
 The whole stream of antiquity runs all on this side, and 
 there is nothing in which the Fathers are more unanimous 
 than in allowing to the Bishop this discretionary power. 2 
 
 But in time this grew to be extended to cases and to circum- 
 stances which were never intended by the first allowance. 
 
 The Nicene Canon did never intend to exempt men from 
 penance, but to quicken them in the performance of it ; and 
 only to shorten the time, as their diligence in discharging it 
 should appear to deserve a mitigation of their sentence. 
 For, since the labour of one man in six months might equal 
 the labour of another in twelve months, it was thought just 
 and equitable that the account and the measure of both 
 should be taken rather from the work which was done, than 
 from the time in which it was doing. This was all the 
 redemption which was either designed or accepted in the 
 first five centuries ; nor do the abuses, which crept through 
 this door into the Penitential Discipline, seem to have taken 
 any deep root, or to have spread very far till many ages 
 after; inasmuch as we have little, if any, mention of them in 
 the Latin Councils down to Charles the Great, nor do I 
 remember any complaint or any provision made against 
 them in his Capitular. So thatj having no intention to lead 
 my reader into the darkness and corruption of the ages 
 which succeeded the Carolinian race, I shall stop him in our 
 own country, which is charged with the first and earliest 
 introduction of this novel practice, and shall here endeavour 
 
 1 Toits & Wurxoirovg i^oveictv %x uv r ° v ■*■■!>. 453, Can. 12 Poenitentia con- 
 
 roo^eov Tins ifitrr^afiis Sextftatrecvruf Qt- versis pateat omnibus, et pro Episcopi 
 
 kavfyaiir£UE(r0ezij « crAe/ava trgoenHvou xgo- Bestimatione venia concedatur [Only 
 
 vov • srgo iravTftjv Ti xcci a foaayuv {Zios, the substance of the Canon. The 
 
 xtzi o fitret ravrtt ilcfi<raZ t iir6a>, kou ovtus "words are — " Poenitentia sane locus om- 
 
 fi tpiXavSawriot. Ivrtptrgiifftla. — In Concil. nibus pateat, qui conversi errorem suum 
 
 Ancyran. can. 5. [Hardouin. vol. i. voluerintconfiterirquibusperspectaqual- 
 
 p. 273.] itate peccati, secundum Episcopi sestima- 
 
 a See in Append. No. 1, Gregor. tionem erit venia largienda." — Har- 
 
 Nyssen's Canonic. Epist. with what hath douin. torn. ii. p. 780.] Ou Su /that 
 
 been cited from Pope Leo in p. 108; *t* s *»' $"<"> t« afixgrvfixrm, g'XXa 
 
 In Concil. Carthag. 4, Can. 75. * a ' rtfis tviv o*iavoiav xtti rtiy '{\tv to>v 
 
 [Hardouin. torn. i. p. 983.] .... Ut apotgruvovrw t«v /isrtzvoiccv ootltiv. — 
 
 negligentiores pcenitentes tardius reci- Chrysostom. in 1 Epist. ad Corinth, 
 
 piantur. — In Concil. Andegavens. habit. Homil. 15. 
 
of the Primitive Church. 129 
 
 to trace up this evil to its source and head, since it seems 
 on all hands agreed that we are to look for it here at home 
 amongst ourselves. 
 
 Our famous Archbishop Theodorus is charged again as 
 the author of this innovation ; which, therefore, Morinus 
 suggests " to have had the same original, both in point of 
 time and of the person who introduced it, with the private 
 penance for private sins." 1 Yet he seems doubtful of this 
 upon second thoughts, and " can hardly credit it, because in 
 the Synod of Cloveshoe, alias Clyffe, complaint was made 
 against the abuses of these redemptions, which, he thinks, 
 would hardly have been made whilst the memory of their 
 author was so fresh and famous. He supposes that Cuth- 
 bert, who presided in that Synod, and was successor next 
 but one to Theodorus, would scarce have suffered any such 
 complaint against a practice introduced by a man so famous 
 in his generation as Theodorus was. He, therefore, con- 
 cludes, that the Capitular concerning the redemption of 
 penance hath been since his time crammed into his Peni- 
 tential by some later author." 2 
 
 I shall no otherwise take upon me the defence of that 
 Capitular, than by observing, that it will not therefore 
 follow that it hath been crammed into his Penitential since 
 the time of Theodorus, merely because it mentions the prac- 
 tice, and prescribes the method, of redemptions. The 
 practice had confessedly obtained, when the Synod of Clyffe 
 was assembled, and was then grown up into a grievance. 
 It is, therefore, exceedingly probable that it had an earlier 
 
 1 Itaque istius axiomatis " de peccatis ilia Synodus. Quis credat Theodori suc- 
 occultisoccultepoenitendum". . . . etcon- cessorem, Theodoro, viro per totum or- 
 suetudinis redimendarum poenitentiarum bem Christianum celeberrimo, tarn facile 
 eadem sunt initia, sive tempus, sive per- derogasse, illius constitutiones vellicasse, 
 sonam spectes. — Morin. de Administr. novitatisaccusasse,c8eterosqueEpiscopos 
 Sacrament. Pcenitent. lib. x. cap. 17, unanimi consensu ista probasse ? Cum 
 § 2. igitur prava ista consuetudine invale- 
 
 2 His consideratis vix adduci possum, scente, aliqui Scriptores ejusmodi re- 
 ut existimem Theodorum Cantuariensem demptionum leges Theodori Pcenitenti- 
 istius redemptionis poenitentialis esse alibus inseruissent, postea exemplaria 
 auctorem. Nam huic Concilio (viz. ab iis descripta, et undique disseminata 
 Cloveshovise) praerat Cutbertus Theo- multis imposuerunt, ut Theodori crede- 
 dori, uno intermedio, successor ; an- rent esse qua? ipsius scriptis infarta tan- 
 numque quinquagesimum primum aut al- turn erant. — Ibid, in § 5 . 
 
 terum post Theodori obitum celebrabatur 
 
130 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, original, and at least as early as the time of Theodoras. 
 
 — — — The abuses arising thence, it is agreed, were complained of 
 
 about fifty years after the decease of our Archbishop ; and 
 
 therefore, I say, were not, in all likelihood, utterly unknown 
 
 to the age he lived in. 
 
 Cuthbert, however, could with no reason be censured, as 
 laying an imputation upon the memory of his famous prede- 
 cessor, if, in another juncture, he endeavoured to rectify 
 those abuses, which, perhaps, were less flagrant and less 
 extensive when Theodoras lived, and, therefore, might not 
 call so loudly, as afterwards they did, for a cure and reform- 
 ation. 
 
 Nor was it, indeed, an imputation upon Theodorus that he 
 methodized a practice which he did not like ; or that he set 
 rules and bounds to a custom which had taken too deep a 
 root to be wholly removed. 
 
 The argument, therefore, is plainly of no validity, which 
 would conclude Theodorus not to have been the entire author 
 of that Penitential, which passes under his name ; merely 
 because Cuthbert, his successor next but one, suffered the 
 practices to be complained of, which are, indeed, methodized 
 and tolerated, but no otherwise, I observe, recommended or 
 encouraged in it. If he did not the best he would have 
 done, he did, however, the best he could ; and had he lived 
 to the age of Cuthbert, would have done, in all likelihood, 
 what Cuthbert did. 
 
 There may, notwithstanding, be reason to suspect that we 
 have not his Penitential pure and uncorrupt, though there be 
 no reason to suspect it corrupt in the article now before us, 
 merely from the mention made in it of redemptions and 
 commutations. 
 
 For though I could easily enough agree with the very 
 learned French writer whom I now have cited, that Theo- 
 dorus was not the author of this innovation, yet I cannot 
 agree with him upon the reason he hath alleged, nor easily 
 be brought to believe, that the practice now under consider- 
 ation had a later rise. 
 
 The Penitential, then, however corrupt in some parts of it, 
 might, in the main, be our Archbishop's ; and yet he will not, 
 therefore, stand chargeable as the author of the practice 
 
of the Primitive Church. 131 
 
 which, is therein regulated. For, indeed, the reduction of 
 this matter to rule, and the composition of a Penitential, 
 supposing it really to have heen Theodorus's, is itself a 
 strong presumption that it was earlier in practice, and that 
 he only methodized what had before a being : in like man- 
 ner, as the Canonical Epistles of Basil, and of his brother 
 Gregory Nyssen, are not to be considered as rules of their 
 own inventing, or as practices which themselves did first 
 introduce, but as exemplifications of the discipline then 
 prevailing, and of the usages which had, some time before, 
 obtained in the Church. 
 
 In the Acts of the first Synod of Landaff, we have some- 
 what looking so like the practice, which was afterwards more 
 fully known, that I cannot but think it had even then taken 
 some root in the British Churches. 
 
 Mouric, one of the reguli in those parts, had treacher- 
 ously killed a neighbouring prince, whose name was Cynetu, 
 after he had solemnly sworn to a peace with him in the 
 presence of Bishop Oudoceus ; upon which the Bishop pro- 
 ceeded to excommunicate him. Mouric, the offender, after 
 having continued for the space of two years under this 
 sentence, humbled himself, and the Bishop assigned him 
 penance, to which he submitted. Now the penance assigned 
 him, we are told, was to be performed in prayers, and alms, 
 and fasting. 1 
 
 How the fastings and prayers were submitted to, the Acts 
 of the Council do not inform us ; but it is likely enough that 
 he was, in these respects, tenderly dealt with, since " he gave 
 four villas or manors to the Church, discharged of all servile 
 tenures, and expressly upon this consideration, to redeem 
 his soul." The third Council of Landaff affords us just such 
 another instance " of Absolution given by this Bishop's suc- 
 
 1 Mouricus rex et Cynetu Landaviae inclinato capite coram tribus Abbatibus, 
 
 conventi, praesente Oudoceo, jurarunt Oudoceus imposuit ei jugum pceniten- 
 
 firmam pacem inter se tenere. Fostea tiae, ad modum qualitatis et quantitatis 
 
 Rex Mouricus dolo interficit Cynetu ; tribus modis ; viz. jejunio, oratione, et 
 
 Quamobrem Episcopus, convocato toto eleemosyna. . Pro redemptione igitur an- 
 
 suoClero, in plena SynodoRegemexcom- imse suae, quatuor villas ab omni servitio 
 
 municavit ... Rexspatioduorumannorum liberas Ecclesise Rex dedit. — In Concil. 
 
 remansit sub Excommunicatione ; cum Landavens. habit, circiter A.D. 560. 
 
 videns anhnee perditionem .... veniam [Howel's Decret. Ecc. Britann. p. 9.] 
 quaesivit .... Effusis itaque lacrymis et 
 
132 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, cessor to Guednerth (one of these reguli likewise) in the 
 
 '- — case of fratricide, which was attended with a donation to the 
 
 Church of LandafF of Lann, Catguala, and Tye, with all the 
 lands thereunto appertaining." 1 It is, indeed, true that 
 penance was, moreover, assigned to both these reguli ; hut 
 then, as these donations were prohahly parts of it, and 
 Absolution was first obtained, it is very likely that the 
 performance of their promise in the last particular might 
 might easily pass in lieu of the rest. 
 
 Now these were facts earlier by above one hundred years 
 than the entrance of Theodorus upon his Archbishoprick ; 
 who, in the year 668, was sent hither for that purpose by 
 Pope Vitalian, at the request of our King Egbert, and, after 
 some stay in France, arrived here and took possession a.d. 
 670. He first reconciled the whole College of British Bishops 
 to the Roman usages, as being a man of great name and 
 authority, and an able manager. 
 
 It is not improbable what Morinus hath conjectured, that 
 " he did, therefore, either consent to, or introduce, the 
 commutations of Canonical Penance, because he had to deal 
 with a people newly converted, and who might have took 
 fatal prejudices if the ancient discipline had been too rigor- 
 ously exacted." 2 But, however it be, the Penitential which 
 bears his name hath given particular directions after what 
 manner these redemptions or commutations were to be 
 managed : e. y." Instead of living for a year upon bread and 
 water, the penitent was to sing fifty Psalms upon his knees, 
 or give a certain sum to the poor, or procure a Presbyter to 
 say Mass for him, or prostrate himself one hundred times 
 upon the ground, and at each prostration to repeat a Pater- 
 noster." 3 So that, henceforwards, from a practice only con- 
 
 1 Guednerth promittens vitae emenda- * Hoc forsan fecit vir prudens, ut bar- 
 
 tionem in jejunio, oratione, et eleemo- baris nationibus ad fidem Christianam 
 
 syna, fusis lacrymis cum magna devoti- recenter conversis, pcenitendi rationem 
 
 one, absolutus est ab Episcopo, juncta redderet faciliorem et acceptiorem, ne 
 
 sibi penitentia plenaria ad modum culpse. nimia pcenarum Ecclesiasticarum duritie 
 
 Postea Guednerth, memor promissi, do- et acerbitate ab agenda poenitentia de- 
 
 navit Deo, Dubricio, Theliao, Oudoceo, terrerentur. — Morin. de Poenitent. in 
 
 et omnibus successoribus Ecclesise Lan- loc. citat. p. 129, note 1. 
 
 davise, Lann, Catguala, et Tye cum 3 Quinquaginta Psalmos in Ecclesia 
 
 omni sua tellure. — In Concil. Landav. 3. decantet flexis genibus. — In Pceniten- 
 
 [Ibid.] tial. Theodori, capitul. 3 ; De Redemp- 
 
of the Primitive Church. 133 
 
 nived at, it grew to be an established rule of tie Penitential 
 Discipline. 
 
 It is very easily indeed conceivable, that since alms were 
 always recommended as fit concomitants of penance, they 
 should grow in time to be accepted instead of it; or, at 
 least, if this part were well performed, in which the persons 
 imposing it were so often interested, that other branches of 
 the duty which they were less concerned in, should be less 
 punctually attended to, and less peremptorily exacted, and, 
 as corruptions came on, should sink at last into an utter 
 desuetude and a total neglect. 
 
 Upon the whole, it can be no objection against the 
 authority of this Penitential that these things are found in 
 it ; because they are found so soon after in unsuspected 
 writings. 
 
 The Synod of Cloveshoe, alias Clyffe, was held, I have 
 observed, about fifty years after the death of Theodorus ; 
 and, by that time, the practice of redemptions seems to have 
 supplanted the other parts of penance. For we find the 
 Bishops there entering their caveats against it, and admo- 
 nishing their people not to give their alms with a view of 
 commuting for the satisfaction they were otherwise to make 
 by fasting and such like acts of humiliation, but rather with 
 a prospect of amending their lives by their charity, and 
 of sooner pacifying the Divine wrath. 1 
 
 It is evident, from this caution, that people did then 
 apprehend their alms might serve in commutation of their 
 penance ; and, therefore, it was no improbable account 
 which I gave of the case of the reguli in the three Synods 
 of Landaff ; since cases of that kind, came on afterwards in 
 the very same place, were despatched after much the same 
 
 tione illius anni quem in pane et aqua flexiones ' Pater noster' decautet. — Ibid, 
 
 jejunare debet Qui vero Psalmos in capitul. 9. 
 
 non novit, et jejunare non potest, pro > Porro non sit eleemosyna porrecta 
 uno anno, quem in pane et aqua jeju- ad minuendam vel ad mutandam satis- 
 nare debet, det pauperibus in elee- factionem per jejunium et reliqua expia- 
 mosynam 22 solidos. —In Poenitential. tionis opera ; sed magis ad augmentan- 
 Theodori, capitul. 5. dam emendationem suam, ut citius pla- 
 Roget Presbyterum ut missam cantet cetur ira Divina. — In Concil. Clove- 
 pro eo. — Ibid. cap. 6 Centies pro- shovise, habit, a.d. 747, can. 26. [Howel, 
 
 sternat se in terram, et per singulas genu- Dec. Ec. Br. pp. 19, 20.] 
 
134 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 C nt P ' manner > ana we hare much the same accounts of them, when 
 these commutations were unquestionably current. 
 
 The gifts to God, to his Saints, and to his Church, when 
 redemptions were confessedly in use, were made, I say, in 
 the same form, and our account of them is transmitted to 
 us in much the same expressions which were used somewhat 
 earlier, when it is not so well agreed whether these commu- 
 tations had obtained or not. 1 
 [a.d. 967.] The Ecclesiastical laws of King Edgar mention " the 
 building of churches, and endowing them ; the making of 
 bridges and mending the public roads ; the repetition of so 
 many Psalms, and especially liberal alms, as the known 
 ways of buying off Canonical penance." 2 
 
 " People of quality and fortune might thus commute for 
 bodily austerities ; but the poor were, unluckily, excluded 
 from the privilege of these redemptions." 
 
 Pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and entering into military 
 service against the infidels for its recovery, grew also about 
 this time to be esteemed available for the pardon of sin, 
 instead of the old Canonical penance. 
 
 And, as it was usual upon these engagements for the 
 parties to make a special Confession of their sins, when, 
 perhaps, they could not wait any time for Absolution, this 
 might, probably, give birth to the practice of absolving 
 
 1 Rex reconciliationem petiit. Im- sias in laudem Dei sedificet, adjiciat 
 
 primis offertDeo, S. Dubritio, Guruanno preedia, &c Instauret vias publicas, 
 
 et ejus successoribus, &c. Lan, Michael, et aquis inviis et locis coenosis pontes 
 
 Trefceriam cum tota sua libertate, &c. adjungat. — De Pcenitentis Indiciis, § 13, 
 
 .... Reconciliatus est (viz. Clotri qui 14 duisque potest unius diei jeju- 
 
 rupta pace occidit Lundguallaun) accepto nium unico denario redimere ; potest 
 
 jugo pcenitentise, et immolando Deo et etiam unius diei jejunium 220 psalmis 
 
 Sanctis, Dubritio, Teliaveo et Oudoceo, redimere. — [§ 18, in Howel's Dec. Ecc. 
 
 et Berthguino et omnibus sibi succeden- Brit. p. 53.] 
 
 tibus in Ecclesia Landavise agrum Helic, Hsec est poenitentia; alleviatio Magna- 
 
 et agrum Tencu, una cum quinque un- turn qui copia rerum fruuntur ; sed non 
 
 ciis agri, cum omni libertate, &c. — In datur inopi sic procedere. /Equissimum 
 
 Concil. Landav. 14, habit. A.u. 887. enim est, unusquisque suas per se luat 
 
 Vide p. 131, note 1 ; p. 132, note 1. [Cf. iniquitates. De pcenitentia Magnatum. 
 
 Howel, p. 33.] —Ibid, in Leg. Eccles. Edgar, lat. in 
 
 2 Peccatorum compositiones apud Concil. habit, sub Dunstan. Archiepisc. 
 Deum fiant variis modis : sed ad eorum Cant, circiter a.d. 969. [Howel's 
 solutionem plurimum conducunt elee- Decret. Ecc. Britan. p. 54.] 
 mosynse. Cui facultas suppetat, Eccle- 
 
of the Primitive Church. 135 
 
 immediately upon the act of confessing ; whereas, according 
 to the ancient practice, penance intervened between the one 
 and the other, and the party was not absolved till, after his 
 Confession, he had made due proof of his real conversion. 
 
 But I am weary of pursuing this subject through so much 
 dirt and mud, as every man must wade through, who shall 
 minutely trace the several deviations which time hath 
 brought on, from the primitive to more modern practices ; 
 and, therefore, I shall here endeavour to relieve myself and 
 my reader by a change of the scene, and by diverting from 
 this to another prospect. 
 
 Section III. — Of the Separation of the two Jurisdictions 
 from each other, which were originally lodged in the same 
 
 hands, and proceeded together with equal paces, viz. 1, 
 
 That which respected the conscience of the sinner, and the 
 forgiveness of his sin ; and, 2, That which only referred 
 
 to outward Discipline, and to the Privilege of Church 
 
 Communion. 
 
 Through all the periods which have hitherto been traced, 
 these jurisdictions seem not to have been separated ; but he 
 who absolved from sin did likewise absolve from Censure. 
 For as soon as ever the penitent had gone through the 
 stages assigned him, and solemn prayers had been offered 
 up to God for his pardon, he received his last imposition of 
 hands from the chief Minister, and then was restored to his 
 ancient seat and privilege ; and this, for many centuries, 
 was esteemed his Absolution. 
 
 The private way of absolving for private sins, made the 
 first breach in this practice ; afterwards the redemption of 
 Canonical satisfactions, by various methods of commutation, 
 made a further change in it ; and, upon this foot, the Peni- 
 tential Discipline subsisted for one thousand years, till the 
 gross and growing barbarism of the laity made Churchmen 
 necessary to secular courts, for the support and discharge' of 
 all great offices. The Canon law was rising up, moreover,' 
 at that time to a bulk, which entituled it soon to a distinct 
 and entire study. Within this period, likewise, the School- 
 men had brought in vogue another sort of learning than 
 
136 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, what former times had been acquainted with ; so that they 
 
 '- — and the Canonists had divided between them the whole 
 
 compass of literature as it stood in those ages. 
 
 Now, it was on all hands agreed that the public discipline 
 was to be regulated by the Canons of the Church ; the 
 Bishops were, for their parts, too much engaged in secular 
 matters to attend it in their own persons ; and very many 
 cases were now grown subject to their authority ; so that it 
 was become absolutely necessary to take in help, and to 
 turn off the weight of such various encumbrances from their 
 own to some other shoulders. 
 
 The Schoolmen had introduced a way of thinking and 
 distinguishing, which involved and perplexed the Canon law, 
 whose bulk of itself was a growing burden, and very likely 
 to employ the ability and study of any man who would 
 pretend to make himself a master of it : so that, all these 
 circumstances concurring, the Ecclesiastical Court, which 
 heretofore consisted of the Bishop and his Presbyters, came 
 thus to be devolved upon some one person whom the 
 Bishop thought fit to substitute, for hearing and determin- 
 ing all matters of Ecclesiastical cognizance ; which, by the 
 piety of diverse Christian Emperors, from the first famous 
 Constantine downwards, were grown to be very numerous 
 and extensive : these Emperors thought that, by deferring 
 so much to the judgment of the Bishops, and by granting 
 appeals to them, they should, with the increase of their 
 power, procure also for them an increase of respect and 
 reverence. 
 
 By these means, the power which originally belonged to 
 them as Bishops, and that which accidentally accrued to 
 them by the favour of secular princes, came in part to be 
 confounded with each other ; and thus, whatever the Canons 
 of the Church took cognizance of, or was otherwise deter- 
 minable by Ecclesiastical authority, though the Imperial 
 laws were the rules by which it was determined, came all 
 into the hands of that person, who was substituted by the 
 Bishop to preside in his Courts, and to pass judgment upon 
 the several causes which were brought into them. 
 
 Among these, the public Penitential Discipline was one 
 of many, which, so far as it was public, and governed by the 
 
of the Primitive Church. 137 
 
 Canons of the Church, became thenceforwards the province of 
 the Bishop's court, and was managed by the person who 
 was appointed by the Bishop to preside in it. 
 
 The Bishop himself was usually now absent, engaged in 
 the entanglements and intrigues of secular business. His 
 Presbyters, who were used to be of his Council, were now 
 assigned to distinct Cures, and managed the consciences of 
 their people by private penances, which were grown by this 
 time to be esteemed Sacramental, and had left, indeed, very 
 little use of the public practice. 
 
 Morinus will not allow, that this distinction of the judicial 
 from the penitential court, did obtain till the twelfth cen- 
 tury ; although, as the private management of Ecclesiastical 
 Discipline had long been gaining upon the public, the 
 grounds of that distinction must have been laid much 
 earlier ; however, the Bishop might not sooner transfer 
 upon any third person the part he bore in the administra- 
 tion of public discipline. 1 
 
 But all this notwithstanding, it doth not even yet appear 
 that any, besides Presbyters, were intrusted with such a 
 power ; both practisers and judges in these courts being 
 usually in holy Orders ; the men who were so, being, indeed, 
 the only persons who had any measure of learning, or who 
 could so much as read and write. 
 
 1 Venim circiter annum centesimum Clericorum causas, necnon laicorum 
 
 supra millesimum, ant paulo post, anti- plerasque judicavit ; sed cum juris for- 
 
 quarum pcenitentiarum usu decrescente, mulis, strepituque et tumultu forensi ; 
 
 crevit mirum in modum in civiles laico- censurasque Ecclesiasticas pro prudentia 
 
 rum causas Episcopalisauthoritas. Cum sua solus pronunciavit ; vel a jure iUatas 
 
 autem Theologise scholastics funda- solus declaravit et executus est ; solus 
 
 mentaeodemtemporejacerentur,brevique quoque ab iisdem absolutionem concessit ; 
 
 scholas omnes occupasset, Forum pceni- quam culpse et peccatorum expunctricem 
 
 tentiale in praxi separari cceptum est esse noluit, ne forum suum judiciale et 
 
 a judiciali, et in varias personas trans- externum cum poenitentiali et interno 
 
 ferri; ne Episcopi, eorumque vicarii confunderet;neve(quodnecessumfuisset) 
 
 negotiorum tarn Ecclesiasticorum quam longas et multiformes secretse omnium 
 
 laicorum mole opprimerentur. Et licet peccatorum confessionis ambages audi- 
 
 hoc posterius, auctoritate, virtute, Spi- endo defatigaretur. Ideo nova abso- 
 
 ritusque, S. communicatione priori plu- lutionis ab excommunicatione formula 
 
 rimum cedat ; Primario tamen alicui condita est, non tantum indicativo modo 
 
 Presbytero cseteris dominaturo delegatum enunciata, sed etiam in qua nulla remis- 
 
 est ; prioris vero exercitium iuferioribus sionis peccatorum mentio fieret. — Morin. 
 
 et vilioribus Presbyteris demandatum. de Administrat. Poenitent. lib. i. cap. 9, 
 
 Ille igitur Primarius Presbyter, Episcopi § 6. 
 Vicarius, civiles omnes criminalesque 
 
138 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap. Much earlier than the period we are now got into, viz. in 
 
 in. 
 
 the latter end of the eighth and the beginning of the ninth 
 century, the laity were forced to he stirred up by the 
 Canons of the Church, and by express admonitions from 
 their Bishops, " to learn the Creed and the Lord's Prayer " l 
 and especially to understand the full importance and sense 
 of the latter. 2 
 
 So the Capitular of Theodulph, Bishop of Orleans, and the 
 first Council of Rheims, may inform the reader. 
 
 The state of the Church was then under the regulation 
 and care of the Carolinian family ; and when that line of 
 princes failed, things went daily worse with it, and corrup- 
 tion and ignorance had a more fatal progress. It is, there- 
 fore, by no means likely, that the twelfth century should 
 have furnished any number of men out of the laity who 
 were fit for the purpose of presiding in the Bishop's courts ; 
 nor, indeed, was it probable, that in the very first appoint- 
 ment of such a new officer, the Bishops should look for him 
 where there was so little choice, or that they should shock 
 the minds of their people by commissioning a person whose 
 powers might be questioned. It was a sufficient stretch of 
 their authority to quit the business themselves, and to con- 
 sign it over to another. It is not easily to be imagined, 
 that when they had ventured to make this innovation, 
 they should choose, at the same time, to make a second, by 
 vesting a layman with powers generally esteemed Sacer- 
 dotal. 
 
 It must not, however, be dissembled, nor shall any con- 
 sideration prevail with me to dissemble what may help to 
 give my reader a just idea of this whole business, that 
 towards the latter end of the twelfth century, viz. a.d. 
 1179, Pope Alexander the Third recites his having given a 
 commission to the (then) Bishop of London, " that he might 
 delegate such causes, whereof he was by him (the Pope) 
 appointed to take cognizance to any one or more persons 
 
 1 Oranes fideles orationem Dominicam cat, et sensu bene intelligat. — In Concil. 
 et symbolum discant. — In Capital. Theo- Rhemens. i. habit, a.d. 813, can. 2. 
 dulph. Episcop. Aurelian. a.d. 797, [Ut orationem, quam Domimis noster 
 cap. 22. [Hardouin. torn. iv. p. 917.] Jesus Christus discipulos suos orare do- 
 
 2 Orationem Dominicam quisque dis- cuit, verbis discerent, et senstt bene intel- 
 
 ligerent. — Hardouin. torn. iv. p. 1018.] 
 
of the Primitive Church. 139 
 
 as he should judge expedient," without naming their quali- 
 fications. 1 
 
 This of itself would, I acknowledge, conclude nothing 
 with certainty. But in the century next succeeding, the 
 distinction, I observe, was current between the key of order 
 and the key of jurisdiction ; and Aquinas, who lived in this 
 thirteenth century, hath clearly told us, that " the key of 
 jurisdiction, which doth not directly, hut accidentally, open 
 the gate of Heaven, by the medium of Church Communion, 
 may be, allowably, lodged in the hands of a person who is 
 not entituled to the key of order." 2 And, again, " Since 
 Excommunication hath no direct nor immediate reference 
 to grace, persons, who are not Priests, having jurisdiction 
 in the legal court, might, in his opinion, excommunicate." 3 
 
 This hath, ever since, been the received doctrine and 
 practice of the Roman Church, from which we took it, and 
 have not yet reformed it. The learned reader may observe, 
 from what is here cited out of Estius, that his opinion 
 chimed in with that of Aquinas. 4 
 
 Meanwhile, they who are loudest in their outcries against 
 this, which they look upon as a corruption, and who have 
 us, they think, at great advantage upon this article, should 
 be desired to consider, that whatever of this kind is done 
 in our Ecclesiastical Courts, doth really proceed from the 
 
 1 Cum tibi sit de benignitate sedis et ideo hanc etiam non sacerdotes habere 
 Apostolicse indultum, ut causas, quas de possunt ; sicut Archidiaconi, et electi, et 
 mandato nostro suscipis terminandas, alii qui excommunicare possunt. Sed 
 liceat tibi personis aliis uni vel pluribus nonproprie dicitur clavis Cceli, sed quae- 
 delegare, &c. — In Appendic. Concil. La- dam dispositio ad ipsam. — Tho. Aquin. 
 teran. 3. [Hardouin. vol. vii. p. 1741.] in sum. Theolog. Supplem. 3, Part. 
 
 2 Clavis est duplex; una quae se ex- Quest. 19, Art. 3. 
 
 tendit ad ipsum caelum immediate, re- 3 Quia Excommunicatio non directe 
 
 movendoimpedimentaintroitus in Caelum respicit gratiam, etiam non Sacerdotes, 
 
 per remissionem peccati ; et hsec vocatur dummodo jurisdictionem in foro con- 
 
 Clavis Ordinis ; et hanc soli sacerdotes tentioso habeant, possunt excommuni- 
 
 habent, quia ipsi soli ordinantur populo care. — Ibid, in Quest. 22, Artie. 2. 
 
 in his quae directe sunt ad Deum. [transposed.] 
 
 Alia clavis est, quas non directe se ex- 4 Solis quidem Sacerdotibus forum 
 
 tendit ad ipsum Coelum, sed mediante pcenitentiae ex Divina institutione com- 
 
 militante Ecclesia, per quam aliquis ad missum est ; at non solis administratio 
 
 Coelum vadit, dumper earn aliquis exclu- fori exterioris ; cum nulla ratio cogat, 
 
 ditur, vel admittitur ad consortium Ec- neminem posse jurisdictionem Eccle- 
 
 clesiae militantis, per Excommunicatio- siasticam in foro exteriori exercere, qui 
 
 nem et Absolutionem ; et hsec vocatur non sit Sacerdos. — Estius in lib. iv. 
 
 clavis jurisdictionis in foro causarum ; Distinct. 18, § 14. [ad fin.] 
 
140 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap. Bishop's authority, and is virtually his act, as being per- 
 
 '■ — formed by persons who are appointed by him for this very 
 
 purpose ; and that it was, moreover, no unusual practice 
 with the Bishops even of the purest ages to devolve this 
 office, in cases of necessity, upon persons who, in ordinary 
 cases, were not thought entituled to the power of the keys, 
 and who might not use them but in such occasional emer- 
 gencies. St. Cyprian hath allowed " a Deacon to reconcile 
 upon a sick bed, where no Presbyter could be procured ; " 
 and yet it was not originally in the Deacon's commission to 
 exercise any such authority, but the Bishop did occasionally 
 appoint him for that purpose: so the power was the Bishop's, 
 and the ministry of it did only then appertain to the Deacon 
 when such a case should happen as the Bishop did allow it 
 in. 1 Our adversaries here make no great reckoning of a 
 Deacon's power ; let them tell us then why, if the Bishop 
 had so been pleased, he might not in this example have 
 committed the exercise of it to a mere layman, since, accord- 
 ing to them, the Deacon, by virtue of his being a Deacon, 
 hath really no more authority in these matters than a layman 
 hath, so that the occasional grant from the Bishop is all at last 
 which can in either case be pleaded. 
 
 I do not, indeed, find that even Presbyters had originally 
 this power, otherwise than by such occasional delegations 
 from the Bishop; who ordinarily exercised it in his own 
 person, and did then only intrust his Presbyters with it, 
 when, in his own absence or distance, the urgency of the 
 case required a speedier application of it. 2 
 
 The first introduction of lawyers into the service of the 
 Church took its rise from a request of the African Bishops, 
 " who desired to have such advocates for their Churches 
 as the Heathen Priests had for their temples, and for all 
 matters and causes which did any way appertain to them;" 
 
 ' Occurrendum puto fratribus nostris, maim eis in pocnitentia imposita, veniaut 
 
 lit si incommodo aliquo, et infirmitatis ad Dominum cum pace. — Cyprian, in 
 
 periculo occupati fuerint, non expectata Epist. [18. Fell. p. 40.] See, moreover, 
 
 prsesentia nostra, apud Presbyterum what was cited in p. 93, from the Coun- 
 
 quemcunque preesentem, vel, si Presby- cil of Eliberis, note 3. 
 ter repertus nonfuerit, et urgere exitus 2 See what hath been written and cited 
 
 cceperit, apud Diaconum quoque Exho- in chap. ii. part 2, § 2. 
 mologesin facere delicti sui possint, ut 
 
of the Primitive Church. 141 
 
 and added, moreover, to their petition, that " these Christian 
 advocates might be permitted to enjoy the same privileges 
 which the Imperial law did at that time allow to the 
 Heathen." * These were called defenders of the Churches ; 
 who sat afterwards as judges in Ecclesiastical causes. 
 
 This request of the African Bishops was granted two 
 years after by the Emperor Honorius. It was judged at 
 that time of such importance to the Churches, that, if we 
 might believe the conjecture of a man whose very assertions 
 are usually disputable, the request was repeated for it. 2 
 And thus, as the right reverend and very learned Bishop 
 Stillingfleet, 6 //.axagirvg, hath well observed, we are hence to 
 date the practice and presidency of lawyers in matters 
 relating to the Church. 3 
 
 But it was long after this before they intermeddled with 
 her Censures ; not till the Schoolmen had formed their subtle 
 distinctions, nor till the Bishops, engaging too deeply in 
 secular affairs, gave too great occasion for laymen to change 
 posts with them, and to mix with Spirituals. 
 
 Since the distinction hath obtained, which hath here been 
 mentioned, between the two courts, the forum internum and 
 externum, those more scandalous and grievous crimes, which 
 anciently were punished by the Bishop with the highest 
 sentence of Excommunication, till the parties were brought 
 to a sense of them, and thence to a desire of public penance, 
 these, I say, have ever since been left to the Bishop's courts, 
 and have been managed there by the key of jurisdiction. 
 
 Other sins, of a less heinous dye, were either assigned in 
 the primitive times to the public Exhomologesis, or else, as 
 Pacian, Ambrose, and Austin, have informed us, were judged 
 to be curable by prayers and alms, and by better care for 
 
 1 Placuit etiam ut petant ex nomine obrepentibus, vel ad necessaria sugge- 
 provinciarum omnium legati perrecturi, renda, ingredi judicum secretaria. — In 
 Vincentius et Fortunatianus, a gloriosis- Concil. Carthag. 6. habit, a.c. 407. 
 simis Imperatoribus, ut dent facultatem [xcvii. Hardouin. torn. i. p. 919.] 
 defensores constituendi scholasticos, qui 2 Serius, forte etiam ad iteratam Pa- 
 in actu sunt, vel in munere defensionis tram Africanorum postulationem lata 
 causarum, ut more sacerdotum Provin- (lex) hoc demum anno 409. — Marvil. 
 cise, iidem ipsi qui defensionem Ecclesi- Not. in Cod. Theodos. torn. i. p. 106. 
 arum susceperint, habeant facultatem 3 In Antiquit. Brit. Church, chap. 2, 
 pro negotiis Ecclesiarum quoties neces- p. 82, [p. 51, vol. Hi.] 
 sitas flagitavevit, vel ad obsistendum 
 
142 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, the future. Then there appears to have been no middle 
 '- — practice of private penances or of private Absolutions. 1 
 
 These less heinous crimes were what Tertullian called the 
 sins of daily incursion, the common frailties and errors of 
 human life ; which the Montanists cured by solemn penance, 
 and the Church by daily prayer. 2 
 
 To these lighter transgressions Tertullian opposed those 
 enormous and crying sins of idolatry, murder, and unclean- 
 ness, into which if any Christians fell, they were by the 
 Church admitted to reconciliation through penance, but were 
 excluded by the Montanists from all access to Communion. 
 
 Tertullian makes no other distinction than of these two 
 sorts, and seems, therefore, to have left no room for that 
 third species of sins which Morinus fain would fasten upon 
 the ancients as the foundation of all that discipline which is 
 exercised at present by the Roman Priests in the interior 
 courts, viz. that of the penitent's conscience. 3 
 
 For, indeed, that whole range of offences which Tertullian 
 hath placed under the head of daily incursion, and which 
 the Primitive Fathers taught to be curable by daily prayer, 
 is now the main subject of the Penitential Discipline in the 
 forum internum, as it is at present managed by the Latin 
 Church between Priest and people. 
 
 Anciently, as people were better affected, St. Cyprian 
 hath informed us that even for the lightest offences they 
 chose a submission to public penance. But then it was not 
 forced upon them ; they were commended, indeed, for their 
 zeal, but it was not required from them. 
 
 There could not well be a less instance of offending than 
 
 ' See them cited in p. 85, notes 1, 2, struere; aut verecundia aut necessitate 
 3, with -what Gregory Nyssen hath di- mentiri; innegotiis, inofficiis, inquaestu, 
 rected upon the same occasion in his in victu, in visu, in audita, quanta ten- 
 Canonical Epistle, which the reader may tamur, ut si nulla sit venia istorum, 
 find in the Appendix, No. 1 . nemini sal us competat ? Horum ergo 
 
 2 Nam nee ipsi excidimus a qua di- erit venia per exoratorem Patris Chris- 
 
 gressi sumus distinctione delictorum. turn. Sunt autem et contraria istis, ut 
 
 Et hie enim illam Johannes commen- graviora et exitiosa, quae veniam non 
 
 davit, quod sint quecdam delicta quoti- capiant; homicidium, idololatria, fraus, 
 
 dianse incursionis, quibus omnes simus negatio, blasphemia utique et mcechia, 
 
 objecti. Cui enim non accidit, aut irasci et fornicatio, et si qua alia violatio 
 
 inique, et ultra solis occasum ; aut et TempliDei. — Tertull. de Pudicit. c. 19. 
 
 manum immittere, aut facile maledicere, 3 Morin. de Administrat. Pcenitent. 
 
 aut temere jurare, aut fidem pacti de- lib. v. cap. 31. 
 
of the Primitive Church. 143 
 
 by a thought never brought into act ; yet even for this we 
 are told that the parties humbled themselves, and chose to 
 bear a part in the public Exhomologesis. 1 This is mentioned 
 to their advantage, and imputed to an extraordinary degree 
 of their faith and their fear of God. 
 
 The private Confession, which obtained in the Primitive 
 Church, seems, indeed, to have been originally designed for 
 this purpose, that if the sins of the penitent which were so 
 confessed did deserve it, he might be brought to public 
 humiliation for them ; and if they did not deserve it, that 
 then he might have the satisfaction and comfort of knowing 
 himself to be still entitled to the peace of the Church and 
 to the Communion of Saints ; that neither any excess of 
 humility on the one hand, nor of partiality nor self-love on 
 the other, might mislead him in the judgment which he 
 passed upon the state of his own soul. 8 And it is still, I 
 conceive, recommended by our Church for the same reasons, 
 whenever a man shall find himself in want either of comfort 
 or counsel. 3 Which is a modest and sober temperament 
 between the rigours of those who universally require it, and 
 the carelessness of those who indiscriminately reject it. 
 
 However, the same hands which had the administration 
 of public discipline lodged in them, were likewise heretofore 
 intrusted with all the preparatory steps which led to it. 
 There were not then, I mean, as now, two courts established, 
 one for outward jurisdiction, and another for the heart and 
 conscience of the sinner ; but the same officer who had the 
 direction of the one had the management of the other, and 
 did either assign to the penitent the proper measure of his 
 punishment, or else upon a view of his case did assure him 
 that he had not deserved it. 
 
 There was anciently, therefore, no third sort of practice 
 between public humiliation and an entire release from all 
 Ecclesiastical bonds; nor, consequently, any room for the 
 
 1 duanto et fide majores et timore 2 Ut si prseviderit talem esse languo- 
 
 meliores .... qui nullo facinore con- rem tuum, qui in conventn totius Eccle- 
 
 stricti, quoniam tamen de hoc vel co- sise exponi debeat et curari. — Origen. 
 
 gitayerunt Exhomologesin cited in p. 33, note 3. 
 
 faciunt ? &c. — Cyprian. See the whole 3 See in our Liturgy Exhortat. in the 
 
 passage cited in p. 36, note 1. Communion-office. 
 
144 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, distinction now prevailing between the court of conscience 
 
 and the court of exterior jurisdiction. Either the penitent 
 was obliged to take upon himself the shame of his sin in the 
 face of the congregation, or else he was at liberty to pursue 
 his own measures; however, he might think fit to take along 
 with him the advices of a Ghostly counsellor, or might im- 
 pose upon himself any discretional austerities. 
 
 What we find in the Fathers concerning this matter can 
 never support the present doctrine and practice of the Latin 
 Church, as to private penances obtruded for laws obliging 
 the conscience. 
 
 The cure which they mention of sins scarce avoidable, 
 such as have been cited from Tertullian, and were mentioned 
 cited in afterwards by Austin, can never, as I apprehend, come under 
 2- 1 *nd n0te *^ e n °ti 011 °f punishment or penance, since it would be a 
 Austin.Am- scurvy imputation upon the piety of a penitent to suppose 
 Parian, him mortified by alms, or prayers, or by any obligations to 
 1 2 3. n ° ra future diligence in good works. 
 
 Yet these were then the only methods of cure for such 
 offences, as were not to be expiated by the public Exho- 
 mologesis. 
 
 Upon the whole, I observe, both of the one and of the 
 other, that the direction of the penitent's conscience, and 
 the assignation of his proper penance, were intrusted origi- 
 nally with the same hands, and that the key which opened 
 the door of Heaven was understood to open the door of the 
 Church. 
 
 Section IV. — Of the Variation of the Form in Absolving, 
 which, from deprecatory and optative, grew about the 
 same time with the preceding change to be peremptory 
 and indicative. 
 
 This had been no improper consequence upon the preced- 
 ing change had the indicative form been reserved to those 
 who have now the key of jurisdiction, and, as such, profess 
 only to exclude from, or restore to, the external privilege 
 of Church Communion ; but it seems abundantly less be- 
 coming and less proper from the mouth of those who profess 
 
of the Primitive Church. 145 
 
 to deal with the conscience of the sinner, and to restore him 
 directly to the favour of God by releasing him immediately 
 from the bond of sin. 
 
 When the administration of these two offices was in one 
 hand, the course was, for Priest and people to intercede with 
 God for the pardon of the penitent, and after the appointed 
 Stations of penance were gone through, he was, by imposi- See what is 
 tion of hands, restored in full to the Communion and peace p.64,notei. 
 of the Church. 
 
 What, or whether any, form of words was used at the in- 
 stant of so restoring him, besides the intercessions which had 
 all along been previous to such his restoration, I have not 
 been able to find out, but am rather inclined to think there 
 was none, and that his restoration followed in course upon 
 his having finished the term assigned him for his conti- 
 nuance under the Penitential Discipline : the Constitutions 
 only direct, that after the intercessions of the Church and 
 the last imposition of the Bishop's hands he should be suf- 
 fered to remain in the same fold with the rest. What the 
 form' of intercession was, the reader may see in the Ap- Append. 
 pendix. But then this was a part of the constant and stand- 
 ing service for penitents during the whole time of their 
 being numbered with that order, and so doth not seem 
 peculiar to the article of their restoration. 
 
 Indeed, had there been after this any other form of re- 
 storing them to Communion, it might very properly have 
 been indicative, as an act of direct authority in the officer 
 who performed it ; and so might have run thus, " I restore 
 thee, I absolve thee ;" or to the like effect. 
 
 But in the immediate act of pardon, as applied directly to 
 the sinner's conscience, the case appears somewhat different ; 
 and where the power is only ministerial, it seems not, as I 
 humbly apprehend, so reasonable nor decent for it to carry 
 the face of supreme magistracy, nor of the highest and most 
 direct authority. 
 
 I have nowhere read that any other character was as- 
 signed in this matter to the Priest, for very many centu- 
 ries after our Saviour and His Apostles, than that of 
 intercessor. 
 
] 46 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap. The passages cited from Ambrose, 1 Chrysostom, 2 and Leo, 3 
 
 '■ — prove indeed this, and no more than this, to have been his 
 
 just character. The ancient Penitential Formularies, from 
 that of Johannes Jejunator among the Greeks, 4 and from 
 that of Theodoras among the Latins, to the thirteenth 
 century, are all of them deprecatory. The custom of ex- 
 pressing this in the optative way, and in the third person, 
 was introduced gradually, and mixed with the precatory 
 forms, not unlike to that form of Absolution which the 
 Priest uses in our Communion-office just after the general 
 Confession ; and, to this, in some process of time, was 
 subjoined the present indicative form, " I absolve thee." 
 But then this was first introduced after a prayer had been 
 put up to God for the penitent's forgiveness, much the same 
 with that which our Church hath recommended in her Office 
 for the Visitation of the Sick. 
 
 The Council of Trent hath commended the use of prayer 
 in absolving, but hath, at the same time, disowned the 
 necessity of it, asserting the proper form and essence of it 
 to consist in these words, " I absolve thee." 5 
 
 Aquinas, upon the question, " Whether the form of the 
 Sacrament of Penance doth not consist in these words, ' I 
 absolve thee,'" hath started more objections against it than 
 he well knew how to answer, though the times he lived in 
 obliged him to attempt it. He confesses that, "in some 
 Absolutions, which were even then allowed of, the form was 
 still optative, and not indicative." 6 He quotes a passage 
 from Pope Leo the Great, which proves the form in his 
 
 1 Homines in remissionem peccatorum queedam laudabiliter adjunguntur ; ad 
 ministerium suum exhibent, non jus ali- ipsius tamen Formse Essentiam nequa- 
 cujus potestatis exercent. — Ambros. de quam spectant, neque ad ipsius Sacra- 
 Spiritu Sancto, [lib. iii. c. 18, p. 693. menti administrationem sunt necessarise. 
 Ed. Bened.] — In Concil. Trident. Sessio : 14, cap. 3. 
 
 2 Mstr7<rat Qzau xal rajv •jetaruv ahrov, [Hardouin. xi. p. 91.] 
 
 — Chrysost. Horn. iii. de Incomprehens. * In quibusdam Absolutionibus, quae 
 
 DeiNatura. [Cf. Apost. Const, ii. 25.] in Ecclesia publice fiunt, absolvens non 
 
 3 Pro delictis pcenitentium Precator utitur oratione indicativa, ut dicat, Ego 
 accedit. — Leo in Epist. [136, Quesn.] vos absolvo ; sed oratione deprecativa, 
 
 4 See in Append. Nos. v. vi. cum dicit, Misereatur vestri Omnipotens 
 
 5 Quibus quidem verbis (viz. Ego te Deus. — Tbo. Aquin. in Sum. Tbeolog. 
 absolvo) de Ecclesiae sanctoe more, preces Part. iii. Quaest. 84, Art. 3. 
 
of the Primitive Church. 147 
 
 time to have been by way of supplication. He observes 
 very justly, and argues from it very pertinently, that to 
 " absolve from sin is the very same with remitting sin ; but 
 that God only remits sin, who alone can cleanse the inner 
 man from it." 1 
 
 Thus he hath put the objection fairly and strongly, and 
 hath made no other reply to it than the following faint one : 
 " That the commission was peremptory (whatsoever ye shall 
 loose, not whatsoever ye shall desire to have loosed) ;" that 
 " Leo is to be understood of prayer preparatory to Absolu- 
 tion," which, though gratis dictum, yet proves, by the way, 
 that prayer made then a part of the Office in absolving ; and 
 that " God only remits sin authoritatively, but yet the Priest 
 does it ministerially," which is, indeed, true, though not, to 
 his point, conclusive. 
 
 Morinus is more unreserved and free in his acknowledg- 
 ments of the change which the modern practice hath intro- 
 duced upon the primitive ; to such a degree, that he confesses, 
 " He could hardly lay down any one proposition concerning 
 the reconciliation of penitents, as practised among the an- 
 cients, but what must contain somewhat very different from 
 the modern usage ;" 2 and, in this particular, concerning the 
 form it was of old expressed in, he hath clearly given it on 
 the side of prayer. All his collections shew it till as low as 
 the twelfth century, when, as he hath observed from Alex- 
 ander Halensis, there " began a mixture of the deprecatory 
 and indicative ways in conjunction with each other." 3 
 
 1 Leo Papa dicit, quod indulgentia tali Absolutione, talis oratio, ne impe- 
 
 Dei nisi supplicationibus Sacerdotum diatur effectus Sacramenti ex parte pcen- 
 
 nequit obtineri. Loquitur autem de in- itentis. — Ibid. 
 
 dulgentia quae prsestatur poenitentibus. Verbum Leonis est intelligendum 
 
 — Tho. Aquin. Ibid. quantum ad deprecationem quae prae- 
 
 Idem est absolvere a peccato, quod mittitur Absolutioni. — Ibid, 
 
 peccatum remittere ; sed solus Deus Solus Deus per auctoritatem et a 
 
 peccatum remittit, qui etiam solus in- peccato absolvit, et peccatum remittit ; 
 
 terius hominem a peccato mundat. — Sacerdotes tamen utrumque faciunt per 
 
 Ibid. ministerium. — Ibid. 
 
 Ista forma assumitur ex ipsis verbis 2 De pcenitentium reconciliatione una- 
 
 Christi, quibus Petro dixit, Q,uodcunque quaeque propositio aliquod huic tempori 
 
 solveris super terram, &c unde in inusitatum continet. — Morin. de Pceni- 
 
 Sacramentali Absolutione, non sufficeret tent. lib. ix. cap. 1, § 1. 
 
 dicere, Misereatur tui Omnipotens Deus. 3 Ineunte saeculo duodecimo, mediae 
 
 Prsemittitur tameh, etiam in Sacramen- cujusdam formulae, quae deprecatoria 
 
148 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap. "The Priest," saith the aforementioned Halensis, "sus- 
 
 hi. 
 
 - tains the double capacity of mediator from God to man, and 
 from man to God. By his means the sinner ascends to God ; 
 and, in this respect, he (the Priest) is the sinner's mouth. 
 As by his means, likewise, God descends to man ; and, in 
 that respect, the Priest is the mouth of God. In his ascent 
 to God, he performs the part of an inferior and a supplicant ; 
 but in descending from God to man, he bears the part of a 
 superior and a judge. In the first way, he is qualified for 
 obtaining grace by his supplication on the sinner's behalf. 
 In the second way, his province is reconciling the sinner to 
 the Church. In token of this, there is premised to the 
 formulary of Absolution a prayer by way of deprecation ; and 
 then the Absolution itself follows, which is pronounced in- 
 dicatively. The prayer obtains it, the Absolution itself 
 presupposes the grace of forgiveness. Since the Priest 
 would never absolve, but upon a presumption that the party 
 was already absolved by God." 1 
 
 The passage here cited clearly shews us upon what 
 principles, and with the help of what distinctions, this inno- 
 vation was brought into the Church of Christ ; that the 
 indicative way was only at first understood to reconcile to 
 the Church, whilst the deprecatory was what procured from 
 God the penitent's pardon. 
 
 Even in this very century there doth not appear to have 
 been any settled notion of the Priest's direct agency in the 
 forgiveness of sin, other than what followed upon his 
 administration of the Gospel-Ordinances. 
 
 Whether Hugh of St. Victor, or Robertas Paululus, were 
 
 sinml erat et indicativa, usus invaluit. — cantis. Secundum primum modura, 
 
 Morin. de Poenitent. lib. viii. cap. 9, § 27, potest gratiam impetrare, et ad hoc est 
 
 h. See them in Append. Nos. v. and vii. idoneus : Secundum secundum potest 
 
 1 Sacerdos per potestatem clavis Me- Ecclesise reconciliare ; et ideo in signum 
 
 diator est Dei ad hominem, et hominis hujus, in forma Absolutionis prsemittitur 
 
 ad Deum. Unde per ipsum peccator oratio, per modum deprecativum, et sub- 
 
 ascendit ad Deum, et sic est Sacerdos jungitur Absolutio per modum indica- 
 
 os peccatoris, sive loquens de peccatore; tivum. Et deprecatio gratiam impetrat, 
 
 et per ipsum descendit Deus ad hominem, et Absolutio gratiam supponit, nunquam 
 
 et sic est Sacerdos os Dei, eo quod sepa- enim Sacerdos absolveret quenquam de 
 
 rat pretiosum a vili. Secundum quod quo non prssumeret, quod esset absolu- 
 
 ascendit, habet se per modum inferioris tus a Deo. — Alexand. Halens. 4. part, 
 
 et supplicantis ; secundum quod de- Sum. duaest. 21, Memb. 1. [p. 339, 
 
 scendit, per modum superioris et judi- Venet. ap. F. Franciscum, fol. 1575.] 
 
of the Primitive Church. 149 
 
 the author of what is published under the name of the 
 former, by Melchior Hittorp, in his Collection of Divine 
 Offices, they both of them nourished in this twelfth century, 
 and therefore may, either of them, attest the current usages 
 and tenets of it. 
 
 Thus, therefore, one of them is found expressing himself, 
 " God, only, forgiveth sins ; yet the Priests have a portion of 
 this authority committed to them, inasmuch, as God for- 
 giveth by their means and ministry. But the Priests are 
 said to forgive sins, in regard to their administration of 
 those Ordinances, in and through which, sins are remitted 
 by Divine authority ; or else, in regard to their loosing him 
 who is bound in the bond of Excommunication." 3 
 
 Thus, again, Mr. Petit, in his " Excerpta," published with 
 the Capitular of Theodorus, hath represented the case of 
 Absolution after much the same manner, from MSS, which 
 are certainly of very modern date, because they recite to us 
 very modern practices and opinions. 
 
 What he hath taken from a MS. out of the Royal Library 
 of Navarre, entitled " A Penitential Formulary," hath ac- 
 quainted us that "the Priest binds or looses: 1, As he 
 declares, or shews, the party to be bound or loosed (which 
 he does by the key of knowledge or discernment) ; 2, As he 
 imposes or relaxes Canonical penance ; 3, As he exercises 
 the power of Excommunication," &c. 2 Not a word, as yet, 
 of his applying a direct and peremptory pardon. 
 
 Again, what the same author hath published from the 
 Summ of Cardinal de Chorcon, will inform us that the 
 notions of Absolution, in the peremptory way, had not 
 
 1 Solus Deus peccata dimittit. Ha- Hittorp. de Divinis Ecclesiae Cathol. 
 
 bent tamen auctoritates, quod Sacerdotes Offic. 
 
 peccata dimittunt, et quod Deus per eos 2 Primo Jig-ant [Sacerdotes] , id est, 
 
 ea dimittit : sed Sacerdotes peccata di- ostendunt aliquem ligatum et solutum. 
 
 mittere dicuntur, quia Sacramenta mi- Secundus modus est ligandi, cum satis- 
 
 nistrant, in quibus et per quae peccata factionem pcenitentiae confitentibus im- 
 
 auctoritate Divina dimittuntur. Vel ideo ponunt, vel solvendo de ea aliquid. Ter- 
 
 Sacerdotes peccata dimittere dicuntur, tius modus ligandi est, qui fit per Excom- 
 
 quia emu, qui pro peccatis suis Excom- municationem, &c. — Excerpt. 5, ex Co- 
 
 municationis vinculo ligatus fuerat, ab- dice MS. Bibliothec. Reg. Navar. sub 
 
 solvunt. titulo Formularii Poenitentialis, apud 
 
 Hugh a St. Victor. Erudit. Theo- Capitul. Theodor. Edit, per Mr. Petit, 
 
 log. in Specul. Eccles. apud Melchior. [p. 357.] 
 
150 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, generally obtained, when yet the doctrine of Purgatory was 
 '- — current and established. 
 
 " There are," says he, " two sorts of binding and loosing : 
 one, respecting the crime, from which God alone can 
 absolve; the other, respecting a four-fold punishment: 1, 
 Of Penance; 2, Of Excommunication; 3, Of Purgatory ; and 
 4, Of Hell. Concerning the three former of these, the 
 agency of the Priest, in conjunction with that of God, was 
 held available to the penitent's relaxation." 1 
 
 " But as to the Priest's agency in the pardon of sin, the 
 solution was, that after God had pardoned it, the Priest did, 
 in a certain manner, pardon it too ; inasmuch, as he discerned 
 the contrition of the penitent, and perceived that God, by His 
 Own authority, had cancelled all his guilt. So that the 
 Priest approved and ratified in his court what God had 
 before determined in this affair, and was, as it were, the 
 herald of God to proclaim the penitent's pardon ; which pro- 
 clamation was called the Priest's Remission of the Sin, and 
 was chiefly valuable for restoring the party to the privilege 
 of Communion." 
 
 Our author, we see, was not wanting in good-will to the 
 Priestly function ; but yet he was forced to fetch a compass 
 before he could give a good account of this matter ; and 
 even then did not venture to ascribe to the Priest a direct or 
 peremptory Absolution of the penitent from his sin. 
 
 But in the thirteenth century, it was apparently a ruled 
 case, that such as received the Confession of penitents should 
 
 1 Est autem ligatio vel Absolutio una Divinae, in quo Dominus, &c Re- 
 
 culpse, et ab ilia solus Deus absolvit ; mittit omnia peccata poenitentis. Et 
 alia poense quadruplicis ; scilicet pcense postmodum Sacerdos in suo foro suum 
 poenitentialis, pcenae excommunicationis, modum habet remittendi eadem peccata, 
 poense purgatorii, et pcenae gehennalis. quoniam ipse scilicet percipit contritio- 
 A prima absolvit Deus simul et Sacerdos, nem in isto, et percipit quod Deus omnia 
 et ligat tarn Deus quam Sacerdos. Simi- sua auctoritate dimisit in eo. Tunc si- 
 liter a secunda De tertia similiter quidem approbat in suo foro et judicio 
 
 dicimus Ultima poena .... semel quod Deus prius fecit, et quasi praeconis 
 
 ligatum nee Deus nee homo solvit .... voce ostendit dimissa peccata ipsius. 
 
 Hie ergo oritur qusestio, utrum Sacerdos Quae ostensio hie dicitur remissio. Et 
 
 dimittat peccata; cum auctoritas Augus- hoc plurimum valet, quia per talem os- 
 
 tini dicat, Nemo dimittit peccata nisi solus tensionem recipitur in premium Ecclesise, 
 
 Deus Nos solventes dicimus, quod &c. — Excerpt. 3, ex. Sum. Mri. Roberti 
 
 aliud est forum poenitentiale, quod est de Chorcon, in Quaest. 3, de Clavibus, 
 
 intra Ecclesiam militantem, et aliud est [pp. 374, 375.] 
 illud arcanum propitiationis et electionis 
 
of the Primitive Church. 151 
 
 absolve them precisely in the form subjoined ; " By the 
 authority vested in me, I absolve thee from thy sins." 1 
 
 This was the Constitution of Cardinal Othobon, in a na- 
 tional Council held at St. Paul's, London, and thencefor- 
 wards the form hath all along been indicative. 
 
 Morinus hath proved, by a whole cloud of witnesses, that 
 the ancient forms of Absolution ran all in the way of inter- 
 cession ; yet hath he most strangely concluded that way to 
 be now invalid, and for no better reason than because we 
 are now got into another custom, which is approved by wise 
 men, and not disallowed by the Pope ; and which may not, 
 therefore, in such circumstances, be balked or altered, 
 without defeating the efficacy of the Ordinance so admi- 
 nistered." 2 
 
 I do not any where remember to have r,ead a passage 
 savouring so strongly of an implicit subjection, as this very 
 submissive one of our learned author ; which, in him, is the 
 more surprising, because his representations, for the main, 
 are candid and ingenuous. 
 
 Great, indeed, is the power of custom, if it shall not only 
 warrant a notorious departure from the constant usages of 
 the Church in her purest ages ; but shall likewise improve 
 it into an unalterable law, and make our return to the 
 point, from whence we are fallen, impracticable and un- 
 lawful. 
 
 This is the surest way which could ever have been in- 
 vented to render it impossible for the Church to err, if she 
 can confute the charge of error in a doctrine, by a mere 
 avowing that she at present holds it, 
 
 The author of Sure-footing might have spared himself the 
 trouble he was at to prove the indefectible certainty of oral 
 
 1 Omnes autem, qui Confessiones ali- Doctores celebres et multi definierunt 
 quorum audiunt, a peccatis expresse Absolutionem deprecativo modo datam 
 confitentes absolvant, verba subscripta nonvalere; meaquidemsententiarecte; 
 specialiter exprimentes, Ego te a peccatis non enim tantum Concilia aut Pontificum 
 tuis, auctoritate qua fungor, absolvo. — ■ decreta leges absolvendis peccatoribus 
 Constitut. Dom. Othobon. in Concil. praescribere possunt, quarum praevari- 
 Angl. a.d. 1268, apud Lyndwood. [Pp. catio irritam facit Absolutionem; sed 
 81, 82. Oxon. 1679, fol. 40, Par. 1506.] etiam id potest consuetudo, Pontifice non 
 
 2 Inveterascente autem ista consue- improbante, secundum responsa pru- 
 tudine (viz. formse indicative), [quse dentum legitime inducta. — Morin. de 
 ante annum Christi 1300, non obtinuit;] Poenitent. lib. viii. cap. 8, § 2. 
 
152 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, tradition, if he had been aware, that the rule of lawful and 
 
 : — right, was the present custom of the Church. He needed 
 
 not have been at any pains to prove that she could not 
 hold in one age what she had not held in another, if the 
 barely holding it in one might be thought sufficient to 
 establish and defend it for the time in which she held it. 
 Our Church is far more modest in her pretensions, and 
 See our confesses, that there was in the primitive times a Godly 
 
 Commina- L . , , 
 
 tion-office. discipline ; the want of which she laments m her own, and 
 wishes for its revival. 
 
 In her Office for the Visitation of the sick, she hath chosen, 
 indeed, the indicative form, " I absolve thee," for the penitent's 
 Absolution ; perhaps, in compassion to the great distress she 
 supposed the penitent at that time to lie under, she might 
 judge an extraordinary measure of comfort the fitter to be 
 then applied to him. 
 
 However, in the primitive ages, the course which was 
 used with sick-bed penitents hath been shewn to be, assign- 
 ing them penance, which, if they lived, they were bound to 
 go through, or else to be excommunicate, and restoring 
 them, in the interim, to the peace of the Church, from a 
 presumption, that they would submit, upon their recovery, 
 See what to the penance thus assigned them ; and then, if they died, 
 hath been . thev left the world with some satisfaction, that all hope of 
 
 written and ■> 
 
 cited in pp. their case was not judged desperate, though it was far 
 enough still from being altogether safe. 
 
 Now, as to the pardon of sin, having on my side the 
 entire suffrage of antiquity, I must have leave from Morinus, 
 and from all the writers who are with him in this point, to 
 intimate my humble opinion, that the power of the Priest 
 is mediate and ministerial, not direct nor judicial ; and, 
 therefore, that in his exercise of it, the form should be rather 
 precatory than peremptory. But, in restoring a man to the 
 peace of the Church, which he may have ipso facto for- 
 feited, though sentence hath never, perhaps, been denounced 
 against him, there the form may more warrantably be 
 indicative. 
 
 In the Office just cited, our Church hath used both the 
 forms, the one introductory to the other ; the optative is 
 first used ; " Our Lord Jesus Christ of His great mercy for- 
 
of the Primitive Church. 153 
 
 give thee," &c. And then follows the indicative, " By His 
 authority I absolve thee," &c. So that, in the one, a pardon 
 is begged for the penitent, and in the other applied to 
 him. 
 
 Yet, presently after, the Priest and penitent are both 
 directed to renew their prayers for the latter's forgiveness, 
 and to beg that he may be continued in the unity of the 
 Church. The reader will find the substance of this prayer See in Ap- 
 in the Penitential of Ecbert, Archbishop of York, to have ^ 
 been one of the ancient formularies for Clinical Absolution ; 
 though, in our Liturgy, it is used as a prayer subsequent to 
 the indicative form of absolving the sick penitent. 
 
 It looks as if our Church intended, by this indicative 
 form, only the restoration of the penitent to her peace and 
 Communion, inasmuch as in the prayer subjoined to it, a 
 request is specially made, that God would continue this sick 
 member in the unity of the Church. 
 
 It is true, indeed, that the Priest professes to absolve him 
 from all his sins ; and it is as true, that immediately after- 
 wards he begs of God not to impute them ; so that, whether 
 he absolves mediately or immediately, whether by a direct 
 application of the pardon to the conscience of the sinner, or 
 by the medium of admitting him to the forfeited privilege 
 of Church -communion, the form hath not determined. 
 And, therefore, I presume, with all humble deference, we 
 may so interpret the meaning of our Church, as will best 
 enable us to defend her, and to shew her agreement with 
 primitive examples. 
 
 The nature of the thing, I conceive, will bear it ; since she 
 hath not decisively given her opinion upon this matter, nor 
 need we put any force upon her words to bring them within 
 our present construction. Yet, it must at last be confessed, 
 that our case would be more clearly and fully justifiable, as 
 infinitely more agreeable to the ancient model, if we had 
 any use of the Penitential Discipline upon such a person's 
 recovery, and if we adhered more closely to the forms which 
 were indubitably of ancient date. But this must be left to 
 further time, and to a fit authority. 
 
 Meanwhile, I observe upon this, and such other changes 
 as time may have introduced into the Penitential Discipline, 
 
154 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, that in every thing not essential to it, the Pastors of the 
 
 Church are intrusted with a discretionary power of abridg- 
 ing or extending it, of complying, forbearing, condescending, 
 or insisting, as occasions and conjunctures shall render it 
 advisable. 
 
 Now, what is essential, or what is not so, must be deter- 
 mined from its necessity, or no necessity, to the accomplish- 
 ment of the ends designed by it. What these were, the 
 See -what reader hath already been advertised, and shall now, there- 
 wittenlnd ^ ore > be no further troubled with a repetition of them, other- 
 Clte g in wise than with observing thence ; 
 
 1. That the honour of the Church, as the Spouse of Christ, 
 can never be consulted ; that the design of Christ, in gather- 
 pit. 2.14.] ing a Church, which was "purifying to Himself a peculiar 
 
 people zealous of good works," can never be promoted, 
 whilst her more sacred Ordinances are prostituted to people, 
 either of scandalous lives, or who stand at an avowed de- 
 fiance against her authority. This is an end which can 
 never, I fear, be answered, whilst there is an utter neglect 
 of all Penitential Discipline. The Church will have spots, 
 and blemishes, and wrinkles, if she takes no care of clean- 
 ing them ; and so will disappoint her Founder of His 
 gracious purpose, viz. the presenting it to Himself and to 
 [Eph. 5. His Father, " holy and without blemish." Again, 
 
 2. The example to others will carry no influence, where 
 no example is made of notorious offenders. Where the 
 door to Ordinances is always open, none will fear to be 
 excluded, nor will any be afraid to offend, who shall observe 
 that no conditions of pardon are insisted on, or, at most, 
 that they are cheap and easy, and carry no pain nor shame 
 along with them. And 
 
 3. The delinquent himself must lose the advantage pro- 
 pounded for him by penitential mortifications, where none 
 are made requisite ; and where he is allowed, without them, 
 to approach the Ordinance appointed for his sins' remission. 
 
 But now, though an entire neglect of this discipline will 
 carry with it these untoward consequences ; yet will not 
 every instance of a departure from the ancient practice be 
 justly chargeable with such a total neglect. 
 
 It were highly, indeed, desirable, that it might be re- 
 
of the Primitive Church. 155 
 
 stored in every part and branch of it ; and that we might 
 be brought, in all points, to resemble that primitive pattern 
 which hath here been represented. But if this cannot be 
 obtained, it were better, at least, to stand as we do, than to 
 run any farther back from it : if we cannot have the public 
 Exhomologesis, and a public reconciliation in the face of the 
 Church ; it were better that some shadow of this should, 
 however, be left in the private management between Priest 
 and people. It were better the sinner should take to himself 
 the shame of opening his wounds to a Spiritual physician, 
 than that they should be suffered to rankle and to fester, 
 through an entire neglect of them ; that the ministry of 
 reconciliation should in some way or other be applied to 
 him, though with less of solemnity, and, perhaps, therefore 
 less of profit both to himself and others, than that it should 
 not be applied at all. 
 
 The Reformed Churches abroad do generally concur with 
 ours at home in this apprehension and in this opinion. 
 
 The Augustan Confession may be allowed to represent, in 
 a good measure, the sense of the German Churches : espe- 
 cially, if we add to it the opinion of Chemnitius, who hath 
 clearly enough delivered it. 
 
 The former of these hath acquainted us, that " since Con- 
 fession makes way for private Absolution ; and since the 
 administration of that rite preserves in the people a just 
 apprehension of the power of the keys, and of the remission 
 of sins; and since, moreover, that sort of conference and 
 communication between Priest and people doth mightily 
 tend to the instruction and edification of the latter; there- 
 fore, they of that persuasion were very careful to retain in 
 their Churches the use of Confession, though they did not 
 extend it to the burdening of their consciences, by teaching 
 the necessity of any exact or circumstantial enumeration of 
 their sins, as required from them by Divine institution." 1 
 
 1 Quum autem Confcssio praebeat locum Ecclesiis Confessionem ; sed ita ut do- 
 
 impertiendje Absolutioni privatim ; et ceamus emimerationem delictorum non 
 
 ritus ipse intellectum potestatis clavium esse necessariam jure Divino, nee one- 
 
 et remissionis peccatorum conservet in raudas esse conscientias ilia enumera- 
 
 populo ; prseterea quum illud colloquium tione. — In Augustan. Confess, de Con- 
 
 magnopere prosit ad admonendos et eru- fessione. [P. 150, Art. iii.] 
 diendos homines, diligenter retinemus in 
 
156 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap. And this is just the sense of Chemnitius, who is for pre- 
 '- — serving the use of it upon much the same account, viz. " That 
 
 by such private conferences, the Pastor may come to a 
 knowledge of his people's proficiency in the faith, and of the 
 state of their souls, in order to their due Absolution." 1 
 
 In the case of anxiety or scruple, Calvin hath directed 
 " an application to the Pastor in the way of private Confes- 
 sion ; and hath commended it as a remedy provided by our 
 Lord, and as such not to be neglected without breach of 
 duty." 2 To which he hath subjoined his opinion of private 
 Absolution, that it is of no less use and efficacy than the 
 former; wherever it is wanted in aid, or in cure of any 
 singular infirmity. 
 
 Zanchy hath, likewise, borne his testimony to the ad- 
 vantages of private Confession : "If you take away its abuses, 
 such as, 1, The opinion of its necessity ; 2, All scrupu- 
 losity in the enumeration of sins ; 3, All superstitious conceits 
 concerning it ; he agrees that it will then, in many respects, 
 be useful : viz. 1, For the self-abasement of the sinner; 2, 
 For a two-fold doctrine, concerning sin and concerning 
 faith ; 3, For the penitent's comfort, by the pastor's applying 
 to him the Word of God, concerning the remission of his 
 sins through faith in Christ ; 4, For counsel ; 5, For prayer, 
 that the Pastor may thereby be moved to intercede with 
 God in a peculiar manner for him." 3 As to Absolution, he 
 
 1 Privatse Confessionis usus apud nos § 12 Nee minoris efficaciae ant 
 
 servatur, ut generali professione pec- fructus est privata Absolutio, ubi ab lis 
 
 cati, et significatione poenitentise petatur petitur, qui singulari remedio ad infirmi- 
 
 Absolutio. Cumque non sine judicio tatem suam sublevandam opus habent. 
 
 usurpanda sit clavis, vel solvens vel — Ibid, in § 14. 
 
 ligans, in privato illo colloqnio pastores 3 Multas secum talis Confessio adfert 
 
 explorant auditorum judicia, &c Et utilitates, viz. Si absit (') Necessitas 
 
 tali Confessioni impertitur Absolutio. — opinio, ( 2 ) Scrupulosa singulorum pec- 
 
 Chemnit. Exam. Concil. Trident, in catorum enumeratio, ( 3 ) Omnia super- 
 
 Sess. 14. cap. 5, de Confession. [Partii. stitio .... Debent ii esse fines Confes- 
 
 p. 222, seq.] sionis, (') Tui confusio — ( 2 ) Doctrina 
 
 2 Id officii sui unusquisque fidelium duplex, una de peccatis, altera de fide 
 esse meminerit, si ita privatim agitur et .... ( 3 ) Consolatio — ut scilicet pastor 
 afflictatur peccatorum sensu, ut se ex- conscientiam tuam erigat pronunciato 
 plicare nisi alieno adjutorio nequeat, non nimirum verbo Evangelii, * remittuntur 
 negligere quod illi a Domino offertur re- tibi peccata tua per fidem in Christum ? 
 medium ; nempe, ut ad se sublevandum ■ — ( 4 ) Consilium — ( 5 ) Oratio .... ut 
 PrivataConfessione apud suum pastorem Pastor pro te ad Deum peculiariter ro- 
 utatur. — Calvin. Institut. lib. iii. cap. 4, gandum incitetur — Triplex est remit- 
 
of the Primitive Church. 157 
 
 assigns three sorts of it: 1, That of direct authority, which 
 only belongs to God ; 2, That which is ministerial, and was 
 vested in the Apostles, and from thence derived upon all the 
 Ministers of God's Word; 3, That of private right, whereby 
 one brother may remit to another the offence he may have 
 given him." 
 
 Our own divines have so clearly all along in this point 
 been with me, and the avowed doctrine of our Church doth 
 so apparently confirm their sentiments, that I shall no* 
 detain my reader with a needless recital of the one or of the 
 other; but, instead of it, shall crave leave to express my 
 wonder that such-loud outcries should be made against those 
 of our present writers who have laboured to revive the credit 
 of this exploded, yet useful, doctrine. 
 
 They do, none of them, I am persuaded, mean that the 
 primitive practice should continue out of fashion ; but only 
 that, if we cannot have it in its highest perfection, we should 
 have, however, as much of it as we can, and should make 
 as near approaches as may be to the ancient model. 
 
 The private Confession is manifestly of old standing, and 
 approaches very near the fountain ; and though, as far as I 
 have yet been able to learn of it, it had, till the time of 
 Pope Leo, an apparent reference to the outward and public 
 discipline of the Church ; yet every case which was in secret 
 revealed to the Priest, did not, it is evident, come upon the 
 public stage, nor had public penance assigned to it; but 
 only such sins were so treated, as the Priest, upon knowledge 
 of them, should judge proper for a publication. 
 
 Wherefore, then, should either the man or the doctrine 
 be exploded, which pleads for the continuance of such a 
 practice, or which would recommend to us the advantages 
 derivable from it, though we cannot expect the full measure 
 of those advantages without coming up to the full measures 
 of that practice, which derived them upon the ancient 
 Church? Some benefit we may certainly reap from the 
 
 tendi peccati potestas— una est Authori- privati cujusque juris, hsec est ilia qua 
 
 tatis, hsec solius est Dei altera Mi- fraterfratri condonarevel retinere potest. 
 
 nisterii, hsec fait Apostolorum, et nunc — Zanch. in Explicat. 1 Epist. Johan. 1, 
 
 est omnium Ministrorum verbi. Tertia cap. [pp. 31-34, 33.] 
 
III. 
 
 158 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, practice, though we can propose to ourselves neither the 
 - one nor the other in its full dimensions. 
 
 As to private Absolutions, our account of them is, I 
 confess, more modern ; for, as the old private Confessions 
 had reference to public discipline, there was no need of 
 solemn Absolution, if the sins were of such a nature as to be 
 curable without penance ; since, as there was then no bind- 
 ing, there could properly be no loosing. 
 
 But yet, surely, the modern practice, as pleaded for in 
 our Church, is capable of a very useful accommodation to 
 the ancient usage, though it doth not exactly, nor in all 
 points, conform to it. For the Priest may here assign the 
 party who confesses to him, certain penitential mortifications, 
 though they be not publicly submitted to in the face of the 
 Church, and he may insist with him upon a time of proba- 
 tion before he restores him ; and, within all that period, he 
 may use his Office of intercession to God for him ; and then, 
 when the term is expired, he may loose the penitent from 
 his bond, and may solemnly restore him to his former 
 station. And if this were, moreover, done before a few 
 chosen witnesses, who fear God, it still would bear a nearer 
 resemblance to the ancient practice. For the Church, as 
 Tertullian hath observed, may subsist in a few of her mem- 
 bers j 1 and, with two or three assembled in His Name, 2 our 
 Saviour hath promised His gracious presence, and (which to 
 our purpose is somewhat remarkable) that promise follows 
 close upon the powers he had just before granted to His 
 Disciples of binding and loosing. 
 
 The redemption of penance by various commutations is, 
 indeed, an entire corruption ; and yet, perhaps, it were more 
 advisable, that men should be fined for their sins, than that 
 they should escape with a total impunity. Especially if the 
 design of our late Convocation should ever be made effectual 
 for applying such money to purposes truly useful. 3 I believe 
 I know those in the world who would esteem a smart fine 
 
 1 In lino et altero Ecclesia est. — Ter- up by a Committee of the Lower House, 
 tull. de Poenit. cap. 10. brought into it, and received by it. — 
 
 2 Matt, xviii. 18, 20. Jul. 1, 1713, p. 17. 
 
 3 See the substance of a Report drawn 
 
of the Primitive Church. 159 
 
 the sorest mortification which could hare been well or easily 
 invented for them. And though this will not answer the 
 purposes of true repentance, which should always be preceded 
 by a godly sorrow, yet it may be subservient to the ends of 
 good order and government ; and thus, how improper soever 
 it may be to the discipline of the Church, it is no way foreign 
 from that of the State, which may intrust the management 
 of it in what hands it pleases without any just imputation. 
 
 The separation of the two jurisdictions is likewise very 
 modern, and cannot, in this case, be thoroughly vindicated ; 
 nor is it, indeed, within my intention to justify any one 
 instance of departure from the ancient pattern. But yet, 
 since all cannot be had which we would have, we should 
 keep at least what we have, and not represent things to be 
 worse than they really are. 
 
 Now I humbly conceive that the Bishop, from the design 
 of Christ, Who founded the Church, is the Minister of the 
 Penitential Discipline ; and that all, who act in it by his 
 authority, whether devolved upon them occasionally only or 
 perpetually, to some purposes or to all, for a term or for See what 
 life, may be permitted to execute it, whensoever or howso- this purpose 
 ever granted, as Deacons heretofore were in certain cases fr° m . st - . 
 warranted to do by the Bishop's order. p- i*o, note 
 
 The indicative and peremptory way of absolving is also 
 agreed to be of small standing in the Church, and not much 
 above five hundred years old. But if we take it as an act 
 successive to prayer, and supposing the effect of the preceding 
 intercession, or if we consider it, in another light, as an au- 
 thoritative restoration of the party to the Communion of the 
 Church, though then, indeed, I see novelty in it, yet it will 
 be hard to discern any fatal mischief. 
 
 We use it but once, and that is in our Office for the 
 Visitation of the Sick ; in which case we should, as I humbly See Appen- 
 apprehend, insist with the penitent that, upon his recovery, ^'ibid. 1 ' 
 he do submit to a course of discipline before he approach the No - 7 ' f ai ^ 
 Holy Communion ; which will bring up the case to a pretty Treatise, 
 near resemblance to that of the ancient Clinical Abso- 
 lutions. 
 
 However, as in every one of the aforementioned Articles 
 there hath been a confessed departure of the modern from 
 
160 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, the primitive example, I shall no otherwise take upon myself 
 
 '- — the defence of them, nor any of them, than only in answer 
 
 to some rude clamours which have been poured upon them, 
 and which would charge them not only with novelty but 
 also with sin. This, I conceive, is to raise a noise and a 
 dust, but it testifies no sincere desire of cure or of amend- 
 ment. 
 
 Yet, at last, if any one, in the spirit of meekness, shall 
 duly propound and desire a reformation of them, he hath my 
 hearty concurrence and best wishes, and therewith, in the 
 following chapter, my humble endeavours. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 WHETHER A REVIVAL OF THE PRIMITIVE DISCIPLINE MAY BE 
 PRACTICABLE, AND HOW FAR IT MAY BE SO, IF IT SHALL 
 SEEM GOOD TO AUTHORITY TO MAKE THE TRIAL. 
 
 Whoever shall go about to straiten the reins of dis- 
 cipline, or shall attempt to revive the rigours of former 
 and better ages, must expect to encounter two sorts of 
 adversaries : the one sort is of those, who know little or 
 nothing of what was before them, and are therefore content 
 to take every thing upon trust, as they find it received and 
 used in the present generation ; the other sort is of those 
 who are apprehensive for themselves, and for their vices, 
 that the revival of discipline would bear hard upon both. 
 
 The opposition to be expected from the former is founded 
 in ignorance, as that from the latter is in sin ; though both, 
 perhaps, may combine in exploding what will appear novel 
 to the one and grievous to the other. 
 
 The imputation of novelty will little affect me, who rather 
 think it, in point of justice, chargeable upon those practices 
 which have departed from antiquity; Nor will the incon- 
 veniences, which any man shall apprehend or feel from what 
 is here propounded, very much concern me, who am ready 
 to answer in the case of spiritual magistracy what St. Paul 
 did in the case of temporal : that " rulers are not a terror to Rom. 13. 
 good works, but to the evil ; wilt thou, then, not be afraid ' 
 of the power ? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have 
 praise of the same. Por he is the Minister of God to thee 
 for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid ; for 
 he beareth not the sword in vain ; for he is the Minister of 
 God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doth 
 evil." 
 
 But that which, indeed, most sensibly touches me in my 
 
 M 
 
162 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, entrance upon this chapter, is an apprehension of invading 
 — — — a superior province, and of dictating to those from whom I 
 
 shall be always most willing to learn. 
 
 When these papers shall see the light, the Convocation 
 may very probably be sitting ; and, for aught I know, may 
 be debating the subject which the thread of my argument 
 leads me now to write upon. 
 
 If this should prove the case, I have nothing left me but 
 to beg their- favourable acceptance and candid construction 
 of what shall be here propounded, I am sure, with a good 
 and honest purpose, and without the least design of antici- 
 pating, or interfering with, their consultations ; but, much on 
 the contrary, with all possible deference to the wisdom of 
 their venerable body. 
 
 It is, therefore, with the greatest humility, and with all 
 submission to superior authority, propounded, 
 
 1. " That the laws respecting discipline which are at pre- 
 sent in being, be reinforced, and pointed with some new 
 sanction." 
 See the The Curate, at present, seems to have a power of sepa- 
 
 fcire our 36 " ra ting notorious offenders from the Holy Communion, till 
 Commu- they have given satisfaction for the offence they have been 
 
 nion-office. ^ ° . 
 
 guilty of. But after such a long disuse, and such a continued 
 universal neglect of discipline, the burden of reviving it, it 
 is humbly apprehended, will be too weighty for the shoulders 
 of any private Priest, except the higher powers shall both 
 lend him their help to lighten it, and shall interpose with 
 fresh authority to exact it from him. The people then will 
 see that what he doth proceeds from no pique nor private 
 regards, but comes from him in pure obedience to authority, 
 which he must pay at his own peril, or abide the consequence 
 of his own neglect. 
 
 Indeed, as our laws now stand, the Clergy have a melan- 
 choly time of it, between the apprehensions of offending 
 either God or man ; though I persuade myself, whenever 
 this difficulty shall come in their way, that they will have no 
 doubt upon their minds which is the greater hazard, or 
 which of the two is the lighter evil. 
 
 Chrysostom hath told them, that " it is no small penalty 
 which they shall incur, if they suffer any to partake of the 
 
of the Primitive Church. 163 
 
 Holy Table, whom they know to be guilty of deadly sin, and 
 that the blood of such shall be required at their hands ; that, 
 therefore, if any General of an army, or a Consul, or even the 
 Emperor himself, should offer to approach under such cir- 
 cumstances, they were boldly to oppose his admission, as 
 being rested for such purposes with a power superior to any 
 earthly potentates." x 
 
 But now, amongst us, it is somewhat doubtful, whether, if 
 a sinner of the first magnitude should offer himself at the 
 Holy Table for any secular qualification, the Minister repel- 
 ling him might not be exposed to some legal penalty, or, at 
 least, to the expense and hazard of a troublesome prose- 
 cution, for doing his duty, and for refusing to admit even 
 notorious sinners. 
 
 This, therefore, is a case which, with all submission, seems 
 to stand in need of some further explication ; and the legal 
 powers of the Clergy should here, it is humbly apprehended> 
 be clearly stated and unexceptionably ascertained. 
 
 2. " That some brand be fixed upon the practice of joining 
 in the other parts of public worship, and of departing from 
 it, without the reception of the blessed Sacrament." 
 
 Clemens Alexandrinus hath, indeed, a passage which 
 seems to leave the people at liberty in this matter. He is 
 observing, " That every man should judge of his own abili- 
 ties, whether he be fit to be a teacher of others or not;" 
 " Just as some," saith he, " after the customary division of 
 the Eucharistical elements, leave it upon the conscience of 
 their people whether they will take their part or not. And 
 the best rule to determine them, in their participation or 
 forbearance," he observes, to be " their own conscience ; as 
 the surest foundation for conscience to proceed upon in this 
 matter, was a good life joined with a suitable measure of 
 proficiency in the knowledge of the Gospel." 2 
 
 1 Ov pixpei xo\iztris ii/z7v itrrh, i\ sostom. InMatt.xxvi. Horn. No. lxxxrii. 
 
 cuviSotis t/vJ vovypiav, o-vyi^oip^o-viTi [vol. vii. p. 789. Ed. Belied.] See, 
 
 p,tTatr%s7v Tuurtie tTis veairV^vis ' to ai*j.a also, what is cited to this purpose from 
 
 abrou \x tcov %itomv ixfyiTntrio'trat tSv the Constitutions in p. 61, note 3. 
 
 vftfripenv * xav ffTpXTftyh ti$ ri t xav T H* xtx.) rhv £V%(tpiffria:v Ttvis o/avEi- 
 
 VVrKp%0S, XKV IZVTQS TO !>irl'&W{J.K TTSPIXSl- [tCCVTSS* ^5 1^0$, UUTOV &j %KOiffT0V TOV AfiSdU 
 
 [azvos, avx^to/s Se wpo<rr/i f xuXuffov, [All- ka,£s7v tviv fAotpav IvriTpitfovffiv ' eiplffT'/l yap 
 Qovoi ixilvov rhv ifcouerixv %%tts- — Chry- &pos tw axpiGw dlpitrU re xa.) $uyviv>vt 
 
164 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap. This must, therefore, he confessed a testimony which 
 
 '- — proves what the custom of some Churches was in this affair ; 
 
 and should silence, I conceive, the complaints of those who 
 bear so hard upon our present practice, for our promiscuous 
 admission of all who offer themselves. Since we do no more 
 than what was done in some Churehes within the second, or, 
 at most, the beginning of the third century ; and what was 
 done in those Churches is far enough from being mentioned 
 with disadvantage by an author of very great account in 
 those earlier ages. 
 
 But yet it may not be denied that the more general usage 
 was different ; nor does this testimony mention the case but 
 with a note of reserve, and with an intimation that the prac- 
 tice obtained only in some, and that the smaller number of 
 Churches. 
 
 For, indeed, the participation of the Eucharist was an- 
 ciently considered as a privilege, which the people did not 
 ordinarily deny themselves when they were permitted to 
 enjoy it. The plea of unfitness, however it might in a few 
 Churches be made use of, yet was not generally allowed, 
 but, much otherwise, would have awarded the party to a state 
 of penance. 
 
 The corruption, it is true, was in this point early ; as early 
 as the declension of primitive zeal, and as the cooling of 
 those first fervours wherewith the professors of our holy 
 religion were anciently heated. 
 
 The Apostolical Canons endeavoured, we find, to guard 
 against it, and " annexed the penalty of segregation to such 
 a disorderly practice." 1 
 
 Chrysostom, we read afterwards, complaining of it, and 
 telling his people that " they were entirely wrong in this 
 whole matter ; that although they would come at Easter with 
 any hazard, and even in a state of utter unfitness for ap- 
 proaching to the Holy Table, yet at other times they could 
 
 ffvvu'dnffts " SspiX'os oi ttvrns $i&ottos t vfpoffiv^n, xat t% ccy'irt fiETuXri^u, tus av 
 
 hfiSos [Zios, tof&M f&etOnifH Tjj xaDrixouffy.— ara/^tav \ft<xoiovvrai rw exxAn^'K, u.$r>- 
 
 Clem. Alexand, Stromat. lib. i. [vol. i. tf^urtai xgh. — In Can. Apostol. No. vii. 
 
 p. 318.] apud Cotelerium. See, also, to the same 
 
 1 Uavra s rov; tiffiovrae vrtff'robs tU tvv purpose the second Canon of the Council 
 
 uylxv rou &tou iKxXritriuv, x-u.1 rcov Ugwv of Antioch. [in Hardouin. torn. i. 
 
 yguQav K*outvrs&s, ph *aQap.ivai>ras Si rn p. 593.] 
 
of the Primitive Church. 165 
 
 not be brought to it, though there were no reason for their 
 abstaining ; that, therefore, he stood in vain at the Altar if 
 no one would come near it, and if none would communicate. 
 Not that he was for pressing them to come without being 
 fit for it, but rather for persuading them first to a due pre- 
 paration, and then to a regular attendance. Inasmuch, as 
 if they were not fit for the Holy Sacrament, they were, 
 indeed, unfit to communicate in prayer. He exclaims upon 
 the perverseness of the contrary practice then, it seems, ob- 
 taining, and upon the absurdity of the Deacon's making the 
 usual proclamation, ' All you depart who are in a state of 
 penance;' from which it might reasonably be concluded 
 that all were in a state of penance who did not communi- 
 cate. 1 Now," continues the Father, "if you are indeed in a 
 state of penance, you ought not to receive, as penitents may 
 not ; why, therefore, do you boldly stay behind when the 
 Deacon proclaims, ' All you depart who are not permitted 
 to join in prayer?' And yet, indeed, you are not of this 
 number ; but may, if you will, communicate ; only you take 
 no notice of your privilege, and will not regard it." 8 Thus 
 far our author. 
 
 In the very beginning of the fifth century we find, by the 
 provisions made against it, that this abuse was very far 
 extended ; and accordingly the first Council of Toledo " di- 
 rected the persons who were found thus tardy to submit to 
 penance." 3 
 
 1 ISaXXnt o^a> Ttv cr^ay/cetTOS Ttlt atoi- irx/jtus •> wXX' ovx it tovtuv, dXXa. ToZt 
 
 jAUXlOLt ' it fiit TOIg a\'*.Ql$ XCCIgoTs OUOt ^UtXfiitUV f£,lTi%Ut, XUI OtlStV tyPOtTlZfilS* 
 
 xa.6a.poi xoWaxis Stns K^oo-ipxio-fa • it — Chrysostom. inEpist.Eph.es. Horn, iii. 
 
 3s t2 nitrxt x &* V r ' riToXpoK/titot [vol. xi. pp. 22, 23. Ed. Bened.] 
 
 Lf&it irpotrire * u rne eutnhia.s, u rtis fpoff- 2 N.B. The solemn Liturgy, called by 
 
 Xv-yptas ' sixy Buo-ia. xa.6n^oitM • elxy -way of eminence, ' the Prayer,* was the 
 
 •ra^acTTVKaf/.sv <ru Buaixo-Trtpioi, *vh*us a privilege of the faithful only ; the cate- 
 
 fieri%air ' txutx ob^ Ita. owrXus fart- chumens and penitents were not per- 
 
 Xin xiya, ixx' "to. avians Ixvtous xx- mitted to join in it ; as being always 
 
 tcutxiux^iiti • ovx ii tvs Smr'uts x^ms, accompanied with the Holy Eucharist ; 
 
 oStii rris /tirxXfyius ; obxom ou$i tyis so that none might partake of the one 
 
 •»#»«• " 'Axoius inTuros rou xieyxos, xxi who were not admitted to the other. 
 
 Xiyotros, otrot it /ASTxtolx oiirixlliTi The order of the public service in the 
 
 irxtTis ' oeot pM [iiTi%ovffiv, iv fLiTxtoix Primitive Church plainly shews this, of 
 
 ilrh " ii » it fiirxtoix Hi, ftmtr%u* which the reader may see a short sketch 
 
 tux o<psi\us * o yxg pM f&sre%uv rut it in Appendix No. 1. 
 
 ptTatoix io-rr Titos out evexEr \iyu, ' AcreX- 3 De his qui intrant in Ecclesiam, et 
 
 hrt oi ph tiuieifLitoi %tvi6vitebi t trb 3s iottixxs deprehenduntur nuuquam communicare, 
 
166 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap. The same provision was again renewed in the following 
 — — — century, by the second Council of Luca ; that " whoever 
 should enter the Church and turn his back upon the Holy 
 Communion, should be expelled from the Church, till he had 
 done penance for his fault, and reformed it, and thereby 
 deserved the favour of being re-admitted to Communion." 1 
 
 Those who were entituled to the privilege of Communion, 
 the ' faithful,' or the ' perfect,' as they were anciently called, 
 had a Station assigned them near the Altar distinct from the 
 rest ; in which none might place themselves who were not so 
 entituled, as penitents and catechumens were not. 
 
 Our chancels, however in the first design of them reserved 
 to the Clergy, might very fitly be appropriated to some such 
 purpose : and though the present use of them denotes them 
 to be badges rather of secular than of Ecclesiastical dis- 
 tinction, yet if they were applied to the support of discipline 
 and order, and if none but communicants were allowed to 
 be placed in them, there would be a better face amongst us 
 than we can now observe of the primitive regimen, which 
 had ever more regard to the manners of men than to their 
 estates, and paid more deference to the purity of their lives 
 than to the elegance of their dress, or to any exterior honours 
 which might, elsewhere, be due to them. 
 
 In those times, if any despised their privilege, or would not 
 make use of it, we have seen that it was taken from them, 
 and they were degraded thence to a lower Station in the 
 Church. Isidore Hispalensis hath already been cited to 
 inform the reader, that " it was the Door-keeper's province 
 to see the people properly distributed into their respective 
 Stations;" 2 so that the distinction continued down to the 
 seventh century. 
 
 ailmoneantur, ut si non communicant, possit Communionem percepta indul- 
 
 ad poenitentiam accedant. — In Concil. gentia promereri. — In Concil. Luceus. 
 
 Toletan. 1, can. 13, habit, a.d. 400. 2. Can. 83, habit. A. D. 572. 
 
 [Hardouin. torn. i. p. 991.] * N,B. Labbee and Binius, though 
 
 ' Si quis intrat Ecclesiam Dei et sacras they both retain the word [non] , yet do 
 
 Scripturas [non*] audit, et pro luxuria both mark it with an asterism as re- 
 
 sua avertit se a Communione Sacramenti, dundant. [Hardouin retains it, torn. iii. 
 
 et in observandis mysteriis declinat con- p. 400.] 
 
 stitutamregulamDiscipliiue.istumtalem 2 See him cited in p. 129, note 3. 
 
 projiciendum de Ecclesia Catholica esse Fideles recipiat ; excommunicatos et 
 
 decernimus, donee poenitentiam agat, et infideles excipiat. 
 09tendat true turn poenitentise suae, ut 
 
of the Primitive Church. 167 
 
 It were much to be wished, and is, therefore, most humbly 
 propounded, 
 
 3. " That somewhat of this kind might be now revived ; 
 that the receivers of the Hory Communion might have some 
 place assigned them in our Churches, distinct from those 
 who should not communicate. And, for such a purpose, that 
 we might have some use in our religious assemblies of the 
 ancient Stations, where notorious offenders might be as sepa- 
 rate from the rest in their places, as they are in their man- 
 ners ; and that even secret sinners, if known to the Priest, 
 should not be allowed to mix with the faithful." 
 
 In the Primitive Church we have seen that penitents and 
 catechumens, as they had distinct Stations, so had distinct 
 parts of the public service fitted for them ; at the conclusion 
 of which they severally departed. 
 
 As to catechumens, the main use and reason of that order, 
 and of all the regimen relating to it, hath long since ceased, 
 in those countries where all profess the religion of Christ, 
 and have therefore been baptized whilst they were too young 
 for doing, or undertaking any thing in their own names. 
 Only it might still be preserved with regard to adults de- 
 siring Baptism. But, for the rest, it might, I conceive, even 
 at this time be serviceable to the interests of religion, if the 
 candidates for Confirmation had some such Station assigned 
 to them as heretofore belonged to the candidates for Bap- 
 tism ; if the taking out their freedom in the Gospel, were 
 preceded by certain solemn stages ; and if they ascended thus 
 gradually to the privilege of Communion, " to the measure [Eph. 4. 
 of the stature of the fulness of Christ." 13 'J 
 
 An Office might easily be composed for this purpose ; or, if 
 a prayer were added to the daily service, which should be con- 
 sidered as preparatory to the Office of Confirmation, it would 
 make, perhaps, that rite more awful and more solemn, 
 better considered, and better understood, than it is at present. 
 
 And, as we have now, by the change of our circumstances, 
 and by the general diffusion of the Gospel amongst us, no 
 solemn preparation for the Ordinance of Baptism, it might 
 help to render our youth more sensible of that sacred en- 
 gagement, if they were in some such manner trained up to 
 
168 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, the susception of it upon themselves, and thence were ad- 
 
 ■ : — mitted in full to the highest privileges of the Gospel. 
 
 Upon the mention of Baptism, I shall here beg leave to 
 detain my reader with a short digression, and to suggest to 
 him, that, if the seasons for Baptism were still preserved, 
 out of which it should not, ordinarily, be lawful to administer 
 that solemn Ordinance ; the Office, I conceive, would appear 
 the more venerable, when numbers should contribute to 
 heighten the sense of its importance and its dignity. 
 
 It would not be the least convenience attending such a 
 regulation, that the present scandalous practice of private 
 Baptisms would entirely be removed by it ; wherever there 
 should be no plea of sickness nor danger to excuse or en- 
 force it. (And there it should, in the strictest sense, be pri- 
 vate.) Nor should we then appear, so much as now we do, 
 to be ashamed of our religion, and of professing before men 
 what Master we belong to. Nor should the midwife then 
 vie offices with the Priest, who seem, according to modern 
 estimation, to be of equal account in these domestic solemni- 
 ties, where the giving a name passes, with many, for the 
 main design of the ceremonial. 
 
 Tertullian hath clearly and expressly told us, that " the 
 Church, in his time, was accustomed to observe these sea- 
 sons for the solemn administration of this Holy Ordinance ; 
 and, by way of abatement, hath only subjoined, that Baptism 
 administered at any time was valid, and that the grace of 
 God, conveyed by it, was always open," 1 i. e. indeed, when 
 any case required it out of these solemn seasons, it might 
 effectually and lawfully be administered. Pamelius, in his 
 notes upon the place, hath proved from undeniable authori- 
 ties, as well ancient as modern ; from Ambrose, and Basil, 
 and Jerome, and Leo, and Gregory, among the former ; from 
 Burchard, and Ivo, and Gratian, and Alcuin, and Rabanns 
 Maurus, among the latter ; that the practice continued very 
 
 ' Diem Baptismo soleuuiorem Pasclia et gratia Spiritus Sancti dedicata, et spes 
 
 prtestat, cum et Passio Domini in quam adventus Domini subostensa, &c 
 
 tinguimur adimpleta est, &c Exinde Cseterum omnis dies Domini est, omnis 
 
 Pentecostc ordinandis lavacris latissi- hora, omne tempus habile Baptismo ; si 
 
 mum spatium est, quo et Domini resur- de Solennitate interest, de Gratia nihil 
 
 rectio inter Discipulos frequentata est, refert. — Tertull. de Baptism, cap. xix. 
 
of the Primitive Church. 169 
 
 long in the Church; 1 till, as he conjectures from a passage 
 in Socrates, and Rupertus Tuitiensis, the great increase of 
 Christians, with some subsequent neglects in attending these 
 solemn administrations, gave the occasion of its discon- 
 tinuance. 2 
 
 Yet it is observable, that this reason of its desuetude did 
 not prevail till the eighth or ninth century, which should 
 make a Protestant ashamed of insisting on it. And a little 
 care and discipline would easily enough prevent, or remove, 
 the suggested inconvenience. 
 
 The Councils for divers centuries endeavoured, we are 
 sure, to keep up this solemn custom ; and even the Ordo 
 Romanus, however otherwise corrupt and novel, hath yet 
 borne testimony against our modern practice and condemned 
 it ; as having made a proper provision in the case before us, 
 that " none presume to baptize, save only on the eves of 
 Easter and Whitsuntide ; danger of death always excepted." 3 
 
 But whether the corruptions of our present age, and our 
 utter disuse of every thing which hath the face of discipline, 
 will endure these, or any like regulations, is, with all the 
 rest, entirely submitted to its proper managers. 
 
 4. "That the key of jurisdiction be reunited to that of 
 order, and that both be lodged in the same hand, as they 
 
 1 Ambros. de Myster. Pasch. Basil. Baptismus extra Pascha nisi moribundis 
 Homil. Exhort, ad Baptism. Hieronym. non conferatur. — Condi. Autissiodorens. 
 in Epist. ad Pammach. contr. Error. Can. 18. [Hardouin. torn. iii. p. 443.] 
 Joan. Hierosolym. Leo, ad Episc. Sicul. Omnes omnino a die quadragesima cum 
 Gregor. ad Tarsens. Burchard. lib. iv. infantibus suis ad Ecclesiam observare 
 Decret. cap.6et7. Ivo, cap. 60. Gratian. prsecipimus, ut sacro Baptismate rege- 
 de Consecrat. Distinct. 4. cap. de Cate- nerentur. — Concil. Matiscon. 2. Can. 3. 
 chum. Alcuin. de Fest. Epiphan. et de [Hard. iii. p. 461.] Uno tempore Pas- 
 Vigil. Pasch. Raban. Maur. de Institut. cbae celebrandum [Baptismum] esse 
 Cleric, lib. ii. c. 38. Various Canons of annuntietur. — Concil. Toletan. 2, can. 
 the Councils shew, moreover, that the 5. [?] 
 
 seasons for Baptism were long pre- 2 Socrates, Histor. Eccles. lib. v. cap. 
 
 served. Non suscipi debere infantes 19. [Ed. Reading.] Rupert. Tuitiens. 
 
 ad Baptismum, nisi ante tres Septimanas lib. iv. de Divin. Offic. cap. 18. [Rom. 
 
 Paschse. — Concil. Lucens. 2. Can. 49. 1591.] 
 
 [Non liceat ante duas Septimanas 3 Nullus prsesumat baptizare, nisi pro 
 
 Paschse, sed ante tres ad Baptismum vigilia Paschae et Pentecostes, nisi in 
 
 suscipere aliquem. Hardouin, torn. iii. periculo Mortis. — Ord. Roman. In Ord. 
 
 p. 397. The words quoted above are the Quomodo agatur Concil. Provincial, 
 
 heading of the canon, as that of Autis- 4to die. [Rom. 1591.] 
 siodor.] 
 
170 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, formerly were, for above one thousand years together after 
 — — — Christ." 
 
 I hope the reader will be as far from interpreting as I 
 am from meaning this, in derogation of any advantages 
 belonging to the practisers in our Ecclesiastical Courts ; 
 for whose profession, in the general, and for whose persons, 
 many of them in particular, and for that excellent learning 
 which none, in a manner, but themselves now cultivate, I 
 have ever entertained a very high esteem. 
 
 The only security they, at present, have for obedience to 
 their injunctions, is confessed to be this key of jurisdiction; 
 which, therefore, if taken out of their hands, would leave 
 them destitute of any means wherewith to preserve their 
 own authority, of which I am very far from desiring the 
 least diminution. 
 
 Now, they never excommunicate but upon proof or sug- 
 gestion of the party's contumacy ; so that, if a judicial decla- 
 ration of the party's contumacy should be attended with 
 the same penal consequences, wherewith their sentence of 
 Excommunication is now attended ; they would have the 
 same provision which they now have, for obedience to their 
 orders and injunctions. And then, what is to some a great 
 scandal, and, to many others appears, at lowest, a great 
 irregularity, might be removed effectually ; and, as hardly 
 as some people's mouths are stopped, I conceive we should 
 hear no more of it. 
 
 But as this cannot be brought about, except the legisla- 
 ture will interpose in it, thither it is, with all humility re- 
 ferred, where its favourable reception cannot be doubted, if 
 ever our representatives in Convocation should think fit to 
 crave it. 
 
 What was to this purpose attempted, and well-nigh 
 effected, in the last Session of Parliament, furnishes a just 
 ground of hoping, that when there shall be more time and 
 leisure, there will be also sufficient inclination, within those 
 walls, to perfect what is wanting, and to remove from 
 amongst us whatever is obnoxious, or carries in the face of 
 [i Thess. v. it so much as the " appearance of evil." 
 22 ^ 5. " That the interceding mediatorial office of the Priest, 
 
of the Primitive Church. 171 
 
 be by some fit metbods inculcated upon tbe people, wbo, 
 by all means, sbould acknowledge him in that character 
 and capacity." 
 
 This I the rather mention, because the notion seems to be 
 quite sunk and lost, and all esteem of his Oflice is made to 
 centre in his personal accomplishments, and in his preaching 
 abilities. 
 
 Whereas the holy Martyr Ignatius magnifies the public 
 service of the Church; 1 and the Constitutions call the 
 Bishops (of whose Oflice, in this point, Priests or Presby- 
 ters have a portion), ' the voice of God ;' ' mediators between 
 God and His people :' 2 and Chrysostom gives this as an 
 instance of the usefulness of the public Liturgy; that the 
 prayers of the people were therein assisted by those of the 
 Priests, and ascended to Heaven with the better success for 
 going up in conjunction with theirs. 
 
 St. Clement (Romanus) compares " the part performed 
 by the Priest in his Gospel ministrations, to that which was 
 performed by the Priest under the Jewish economy ; " who 
 made, we know, therein available intercessions for the trans- 
 gressions of that people. 3 
 
 This is, indeed, a very high and important Office, which 
 cannot, in these days, be too much magnified, when so 
 many circumstances conspire to depress it, when it is con- 
 signed to the hands of our meanest performers ; and is, 
 therefore, considered and performed accordingly. 4 
 
 The laity do generally, I fear, consider it as a mere 
 reading over a form of prayer, which might, as availably 
 and as well, be done by any person in the congregation 
 as by him who officiates. They seldom look upon the 
 
 1 El yxi> has xtti %ivTtQou ir^airw^i parallel between the Jewish and Christ- 
 roffa.uTnv l/r^liv 'ix il > ft"* 1 ? p&Z-Z-ov yi ri ian ministrations. Young's edit. p. 53. 
 tov \ffiaxo<jrov xa.) vrairyis Ixxkntrixs ; — [§ 40, Cotel.] 
 
 I gnat, in Epist. ad Ephes. [§ 5.] 4 The reader may find this part of the 
 
 2 See what is cited from the Consti- Priestly function excellently proved and 
 tutions, and from Chrysostom in p. 65, vindicated in two Treatises of the Christ- 
 notes 1,2. ian Priesthood and of the Dignity of the 
 
 3 T«T yit£ 'AgxitpT 'iiixi XuTou^yim Episcopal Order, composed and pub- 
 liidDpivKi tlriy xa) ro7s Upwffiv'thuis a roTtos lished by the reverend and very learned 
 tr^MrrirxxTcci, xa'i Aiuirms 'dial iixxotlxi Dr. Hickes. Third edition, vol. i. p. 
 Wixnttm — Clement, in Epist. ad Co- 18 ?> &c- 
 
 rinth. where he pursues at large the 
 
172 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, man in the desk as any other than a mere stipendiary, 
 
 '- not as an authorised intercessor to God and to Christ for 
 
 them. 
 
 My reverend brethren will not, I hope, misconstrue me, 
 if I press upon them a serious endeavour to assert the 
 honour of their mediatorial Office between Christ and the 
 souls of their people, by suffering none to act for them in 
 this part of their function, but such as know how to sustain 
 the province with decency and authority ; and thence are 
 likely to infuse into their people a just sense of the honours 
 due to it. 
 
 The necessity of their own appearance in the pulpit may 
 plead, in some cases, a pretty just apology for their absence 
 at that time from the desk, and for their providing it with 
 a proper substitute. But it is high time to be careful in 
 this provision ; and that every person who can read the 
 prayers, should not thence be judged fit to offer them ; but 
 such an one only, as is sensible of the honour to which that 
 station entitles him, and knows how to preserve, and to 
 increase, the esteem which is due to it. 
 
 The present state of the Clergy will furnish enough, if the 
 persons concerned will be diligent in seeking them, who are 
 both worthy of this honour, and poor enough to take up 
 with such other recompense as can be afforded them, for 
 their attendance at it. 
 
 But Incumbents themselves, I do, with all submission, 
 crave leave to intimate, should not unnecessarily be absent 
 from the personal discharge of this honourable, this im- 
 portant service ; nor do any thing tending to nourish a con- 
 ceit in their people, that the oblation of their prayers to 
 God is any way beneath the most exalted character. 
 
 In the Primitive Church, there was, indeed, an order of 
 men, whose title was that of readers ; but then, the word 
 had a very different signification from what it hath at pre- 
 sent. They did, indeed, read the Scriptures, as now they 
 do in our Cathedral Churches, but did not read the prayers. 
 The oblation of them to God was the Chief Minister's pro- 
 vince, and continued to be so for many ages. 
 
 So late, as in the Ordo Romanus, we find an express 
 provision, that every Presbyter should keep a clerk, or 
 
of the Primitive Church. 173 
 
 some scholar-like person, to read the Epistle or the Lesson 
 for him. 1 
 
 Now, if somewhat like this were observed in our pa- 
 rochial Churches ; if our parish-clerks, where capable, were 
 appointed to this office of reading the Scriptures ; if, in all 
 future provisions, the capacity for reading them decently 
 and intelligibly, were insisted on ; moreover, if authority 
 should think fit to restrain our Deacons from officiating in 
 public prayer, at least, in the presence of a Presbyter ; if it 
 should add some prayers to the Liturgy, wherein the Priest 
 should professedly intercede for his people and bless them ; 
 if it should enjoin the Curate, ordinarily, to perform this 
 part in his own person when he does not preach, or, how- 
 ever, upon all week-day festivals ; and, if he should be then 
 directed to officiate standing, which, in worship, hath always 
 been considered as a posture of authority, except only when 
 he recites the Litany, or when he makes confession of his 
 own and his people's sins ; perhaps, I say, with the help of 
 these, or some like provisions, the esteem of this much- 
 neglected Office might a little be revived ; and the people 
 might be brought, by degrees, to apprehend, that the pulpit 
 is not the only station which is worthy of honour. 
 
 6. " That a Chorepiscopus, or Suffragan, be appointed in 
 some market-town, or place of great resort, within every 
 rural Deanery, to whom should appertain whatever hereto- 
 fore was committed to the Penitentiary, in the district he 
 should belong to, or in the villages adjacent to it ; and that 
 he should accordingly be intrusted with the management of 
 discipline in all the parts assigned him for his province ; 
 yet, with this restriction, that he should be subject and 
 accountable to the Bishop of his Diocese ; who, by this 
 means, might be acquainted with the state of his people, 
 much better and more fully, than it is possible he now 
 should be." 
 
 I am far enough from believing with our Presbyterians, 
 that the bulk of our present Dioceses is any argument against 
 our modern Episcopacy ; since it may be proved that some 
 of the ancient Parishes, as they were then called, though 
 
 1 Omnis Presbyter clericum habeat, tionem legat. — In Ord. Roman. Ord. 
 vel scholarem, qui epistolam vel lee- Qualiter agatur Concilium Provinciate. 
 
174 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, they had the same signification with what we now call 
 
 '- — Dioceses, were equal in extent and compass, and in number 
 
 of people, to our present Bishopricks. For, at last, the 
 question will be, " Whether the Primitive Church was 
 governed by a parity, or imparity of Church Ministers, who 
 severally presided in their respective places of public wor- 
 ship ; whether the succession to the principal, or Mother 
 Church, was not always reckoned by some one Pastor, to 
 whom the rest, during his life, owed a subjection ; and by 
 whom they were restrained and regulated in the exercise 
 of their ministerial function." 
 
 If this question be determined in favour of Episcopacy, 
 and if some one Church-officer did always preside over the 
 rest in such a district, all other questions will be besides the 
 point, nor will they affect, to any purpose, the grand debate. 
 Now this, I think, is capable of as clear a proof as any one 
 thing in all antiquity. 
 
 Yet it must, at last, be acknowledged, that, generally 
 speaking, the Bishops of the Primitive Church had a nearer 
 intercourse with their people in religious Offices than our 
 present Bishops can be supposed to have. The metropolis, 
 the Mother Church, or what we now call the Cathedral, had 
 divers offices appropriate to it, which might not regularly, 
 nor ordinarily, be performed elsewhere. 
 
 And here the Bishop himself presided, and acted in his 
 own person. 
 
 Originally, indeed, the Bishop was the first Church-officer 
 of his district in point of time, as well as of honour. St. Cle- 
 ment (Romanus) in his first (undoubted) Epistle to the 
 Corinthians, hath informed us, that " the Apostles, in their 
 travels, as they preached the Gospel, ordained the first- 
 fruits of their converts, Bishops and other Ministers, distin- 
 guishing their qualifications by the giftthey had of disc ern- 
 ing Spirits ; and, that they appointed them for the service, 
 not only of those who did at that time believe, but of all 
 likewise who should, in after-times, be believers within such 
 a district." He thence proceeds to shew, that these Bishops 
 were proper successors to the Apostles, &C. 1 
 
 1 Kara %w£as ovv »a) rr'oXti: xngvtf- %as kvtuiv^ %oxif£xtravr&s ru vrvevp.ti'rt 
 eovrit [' AvrwroXos] xtzQtcrruvov rk$ otvrag- us '"EartffHoifovs ko.) Aixxoveus *&>* jttsX- 
 
of the Primitive Church. 175 
 
 Now, if, in such a district, (for instance as Rome,) with 
 its dependencies, there was but one Bishop appointed, and 
 if he was appointed to preside over all who should, in 
 after-times, believe within that compass, he must have been 
 designed for a very extensive province, and, certainly, for 
 more than any single congregation. And I appeal to any 
 man who is at all versed in primitive records, whether he 
 hath ever heard of more than one Bishop at one time in 
 Rome ; except, perhaps, whilst the dispute was warm between 
 the Jewish and Gentile converts, who had, each of them, as 
 some say, their distinct Bishop. If they had so, it was a 
 case peculiar ; and they considered themselves as two dis- 
 tinct Ecclesiastical Societies ; each of which was, however, 
 united under one single head, who was the Bishop. Neither 
 of these had above one at once, from whom they reckoned 
 the succession to their respective Churches. 
 
 The course then was, that as the converts of the Bishop 
 multiplied, who was thus appointed by the Apostles to 
 gather a Church, and to preside over it, Presbyters were 
 ordained to be his assistants ; and these, whilst one place of 
 assembly would contain his whole number, did either serve 
 in it under him, or supplied his absence. But when his 
 converts grew too numerous for a single congregation, 
 which, in very many Sees, must have been within the first 
 century, and whilst some of the Apostles yet were living, 
 the Bishop then delegated some of these his Presbyters to 
 serve their spiritual occasions in distinct assemblies for 
 worship ; though still, with such a dependence upon the 
 Mother Church, that Baptism, with divers other Offices, 
 was not regularly performed out of it. This delegation was 
 at first occasional, and the whole superintendency was still 
 his own. But as the number of his converts was further 
 increased, the Bishop found himself obliged to enlarge the 
 power of these his substitutes ; nor was it long before they 
 had a fixed relation to a determinate proportion of his 
 Parish or Diocese. Since Pope Evaristus is said to have 
 
 \qvtoiv •ziff'rivuv. — [§ 42, Cot.] He goes .... onus lav xoi(Mi6£tm, %nx$i%&ivre&i 
 
 on to compare this settlement of the irs^ato^oxtfiatrfiivotav^^ss t»jv Xsirovpyiat 
 
 Apostles with Moses's settlement of the al/rZu. — Clement. Roman, in 1 Epist. 
 
 Levitical Priesthood in the line of ad Corinth. [§ 44, Cot.] 
 Aaron. Kxrt<rrtitrav robs tfgeugvf&ivovs 
 
176 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, divided the city of Rome into a certain number of Titles, what 
 
 '• we now call Parishes, very early in the second century ; 
 
 and within three or four years from the death of St. John. 
 
 The Bishop, however, was still all along considered as 
 the chief Ecclesiastical officer, who had always his negative 
 in matters of moment, and without whom divers acts of 
 these Presbyters were censured as irregular. 
 
 Our accounts of the worship, discipline, and regimen, of 
 the Primitive Church, are taken, for the main, from what 
 was done in the Cathedral, or Mother Church, where the 
 Bishop himself officiated ; nor have we, indeed, any thing 
 of moment transmitted to us, but what was there transacted. 
 
 "What passed in parochial Churches, according to the 
 modern signification of the words, is very little known to 
 us ; only we have reason to believe, that the Presbyter, 
 detached from the Bishop to serve the occasions of those 
 less assemblies, did not depart from the usages of the 
 Church he was sent from, except in such circumstances, as 
 the littleness of the place, and the want of more Church- 
 officers, rendered necessary. 
 
 What hath led our contenders for the Presbyterian model 
 into their error may, perhaps, have been their want of 
 attending to this distinction. 
 
 The accounts we have of the ancient worship do make, 
 indeed, the Bishop chief agent in all Church-offices, from 
 whence they conclude him to have been little, if any thing, 
 more than a parish Priest. They do not, meanwhile, con- 
 sider him as sitting in his Episcopal throne, and there 
 surrounded with Presbyters, who were all at his command, 
 to be sent occasionally to, or statedly fixed in, any of his 
 suburbicary districts, to which he should assign them. 
 
 And though we have little or no account of the worship 
 which there was celebrated, jet we have plain evidences, 
 that such places there were, and worship in them, distinct 
 from that in which the Bishop himself officiated, and entirely 
 subject to his directions. This is proof enough of an impa- 
 rity in those who yet presided in the respective places of 
 public worship, and will lay a just foundation of the present 
 obtaining distinction between the Cathedral and Parochial 
 service. 
 
of the Primitive Church. 177 
 
 It must however, I have said, be acknowledged, that the 
 Bishops of the Primitive Church had generally a nearer 
 relation than now they have to the people under their care, 
 and had more practicable means of keeping up with them an 
 intercourse and correspondence. 
 
 Now Suffragans would go a great way towards a redress 
 of the grievance which arises from this Article ; each of our 
 present Bishops would then be a sort of Archbishop, and our 
 two Archbishops would then be Patriarchs. 
 
 If every place of great resort had one of these Suffragans, 
 the whole regimen of penance might be commodiously fixed 
 in him ; and it might be sufficient to have his Church the 
 only one within his district where Stations should be dis- 
 tinguished, and this Discipline be exercised. 
 
 The large extent of our Dioceses could no longer be then 
 complained of; nor the incapacity, which the Bishop thence 
 lies under, of acquainting himself much either with his Clergy 
 or his people. 
 
 Since, therefore, our late Parliament, of glorious memory, 
 hath so well contributed to the removal of that other com- 
 plaint against the immoderate extent of our larger Parishes, 
 and the disproportionate numbers of the people under a 
 single cure, the emulation of a succeeding Parliament might 
 be very fitly employed upon a redress of this grievance also, 
 and upon bringing both Parishes and Dioceses within a more 
 manageable compass. 
 
 There is, indeed, already a law which I have not yet 
 heard hath ever been repealed, " appointing Suffragans to be 26 Hen. s. 
 constituted in such places as are therein specified ; and, °" 
 moreover, empowering the Bishop of every Diocese to nomi- 
 nate two Spiritual persons to the King's Highness, for his 
 choice and confirmation of one of them to be Suffragan to 
 the said Bishop, and to have such power and jurisdiction as 
 should be specified in the Commission granted to him by his 
 Bishop. And the King was to present the person so nomi- 
 nated and confirmed to the Archbishop for his consecra- 
 tion." 
 
 How the exercise of these powers hath been dropped or 
 neglected, is a point which I have no authority to examine ; 
 nor does it appear to me what maintenance such a Church- 
 
1 78 The Penitential Discipline 
 
 chap, officer could have upon the foot of our present Esta- 
 ' - — blishment. 
 
 But even if that point could be adjusted, and if our 
 Bishops should fix upon persons in their respective Dioceses, 
 who should, in all circumstances, be qualified for sustaining 
 and adorning this province, I know not what questions of 
 law might be started, upon the execution of their Office, 
 which is so little known to us. And therefore, to clear up 
 this matter, and to settle it upon a sure foundation, the help 
 of the Legislature seems fit to be requested, and would, I 
 doubt not, be granted upon a proper application. 
 
 The market towns which are here propounded for the 
 Sees of these Suffragans, are usually, we observe, least and 
 worst provided with a sufficient maintenance for their paro- 
 chial Minister. The want of this is known to sink his 
 character and credit amongst them to a degree which 
 renders them the most obnoxious to a misguidance from 
 false teachers. It is, therefore, humbly hoped that the 
 appointment of such an officer, either to act in concurrence 
 with the Minister, or to supply the cure in his own person, 
 if a provision were made for him, might strengthen the 
 hands of our Established Church, and procure a reverence 
 to her authority, which hath hitherto been paid her in very 
 scanty measures. 
 
 The reader, it is presumed, will observe that I desire no 
 increase of secular power to the Church, nor any enforce- 
 ment of her Censures from the civil magistrate. No ! let 
 her Censures, as they are in their nature purely Spiritual, 
 continue so in their use, whenever they are applied to purely 
 Spiritual occasions. And let those who despise go on to do 
 so, till God, in His mercy, shall awaken in them a sense of 
 Luke 10. 16. those terrible words, "He that despiseth you, despiseth 
 Me; and he that despiseth Me, despiseth Him that sent Me." 
 
 Yet thus much may seem not improper from a Christian 
 
 magistrate, to enforce what the Council of Ilerda in the 
 
 See it cited sixth century hath appointed, viz. that " if any person should 
 
 Hotel. 22 ' ne gl ect to quit the Church, after the Priest had ordered 
 
 him to do so, for any crime he had been guilty of, his 
 
 restoration should be the longer in obtaining.'' 
 
 It might not, I say, be improper from a Christian ma- 
 
of the Primitive Church. 179 
 
 gistrate that he should oblige his subjects to comply with 
 such orders, or submit to such Censures, as, in a matter 
 purely Spiritual, should be enjoined them by their Spiritual 
 guide. 
 
 Charles the Great accounted this a very fit and becoming see him 
 part for himself to appear in ; and, accordingly, he enforced p'^notes 
 the Ecclesiastical authority with his Imperial law. l and 2. 
 
 7, and lastly : " That all this, or whatever else of this kind 
 shall be provided, be more particularly specified in a Peni- 
 tential Office, explained by a proper Rubrick, and added to 
 our public Liturgy." 
 
 These things I have presumed to offer, but with great 
 submission, as becomes a private person ; who, though I 
 have employed some of my few vacant hours in thought and 
 study, for the welfare of that sacred community in which, 
 however unworthy, I have the honour to bear office, yet 
 will, in no respect, take upon me to dictate, esteeming myself 
 sufficiently happy if I may be allowed to suggest what 
 others, who have more authority, leisure, and ability, shall 
 improve and make effectual. 
 
 But if any part of what hath here been offered shall be 
 judged inconvenient, or if any thing more serviceable shall 
 be elsewhere propounded, I am ready, with all cheerfulness, 
 to depart from the one, and to embrace the other. 
 
THE CONCLUSION. 
 
 Meanwhile, what hath here been attempted in the pre- 
 ceding Essay, should shock the mind of no sober layman 
 who hath really at heart the honour of religion, and the 
 reverence due to its Holy Founder. 
 
 What hath been represented in the foregoing papers was 
 the undoubted practice of the Church in her earliest and 
 purest ages. And though the license and corruption, with 
 the ignorance and superstition, which the confusions of the 
 Empire brought into the Church, did, in succeeding gene- 
 rations, soil her face, and break into the simplicity of her 
 ancient manners, yet did a thousand years pass over her 
 before her Discipline was reduced to that low ebb of authority 
 and influence which now it stands at. 
 
 The private management made the first breach upon the 
 public, and hath ever since continued to supplant and weaken 
 it. Then came on Redemptions and Commutations ; and 
 thus, when Discipline grew by these steps to be a mere 
 form, and to serve so faintly the purposes of true repent- 
 ance, it was judged not very material whose hands it was 
 lodged in, nor what words were used in the application 
 of it. 
 
 At the same time, and by the very same degrees, wherein 
 the efficacy and power of it declined, the forms and shows 
 of it increased and multiplied. And, as if there had been a 
 design to recompense it with compliment for what it lost in 
 reality, the character of what remained to it was highly 
 magnified and called Sacramental. 
 
The Conclusion. 181 
 
 I have been often forced to use the word Penance in the 
 preceding discourse. And though it might seem to argue 
 some suspicion of my reader's understanding, should I labour 
 an apology for such a harmless term ; yet, because this Tract 
 may fall into various hands, and some may, perhaps, be 
 offended with a name which they suspect of Popery, I must 
 entreat them to interpret it as I do, and then it will mean 
 no more, than that outward Discipline of Repentance, 
 which I know no single word besides to be capable of 
 expressing. 
 
 The ancients often confounded this with the internal duty, 
 expressing both the one and the other by the same word, as 
 well enough knowing, that the usage of the times they lived 
 in would be sufficient to secure them from all misconstruc- 
 tion. But my case had been different, should I have used 
 all along the term repentance, which, having been generally 
 applied amongst us to signify only the internal duty, would 
 scarce have been understood, in any case, to mean the 
 external Discipline. 
 
 Popery is a word whose meaning I abhor with a zeal 
 which, I hope, is as true and as well informed as theirs can 
 he, who are loudest in their outcries against it. But I am 
 not altogether so suspicious of every thing which hath at 
 any time suffered under that imputation. Because I have 
 observed many excellent things, many wise and learned and 
 judicious persons, and as true friends to the Reformation as 
 any of those who most frequently talk of it, which yet have 
 severally been aspersed with that invidious character. 
 
 What hath been here propounded reaches, I eonfess, not 
 quite far back enough into the purity of the Ancient Church. 
 But the Discipline which hath here been represented was in 
 use and practice from the very fountain. And if I have not 
 recommended the revival of it as it stood in the three first 
 centuries, it was because I was apprehensive that the fervours 
 of our zeal were too cold for any such austerities. 
 
 Those who will be most forward to object will, I fear, 
 object against it as too rigorous, though no more should be 
 asked of them than to come up with the standard of the 
 seventh or eighth centuries. And, indeed, there hath been 
 no more asked of them. For so late as the age of Charles. 
 
182 The Conclusion. 
 
 the Great, which was still later than the eighth, and advanced 
 into the ninth century, we read of " public penance assigned 
 to public crimes ;" and that " all Counts, Judges, &c, as well 
 as the rest of the people, should conform to the Bishop's 
 directions." 1 
 
 In cases of private sin, which were only revealed to the 
 Priest in secret Confession, the course at that time was, to 
 assign to the party in secret penitential mortifications, and 
 so, in secret, to restore or absolve him. 2 But in cases of 
 public and notorious guilt, the Church, even then, was not 
 so contented ; nor would she receive the party to Commu- 
 nion without an humiliation as public as his crime. 
 
 This, this, is the point which I most insist on as necessary 
 to the honour of the Church, required by the institution of 
 her Founder, for the benefit of souls, and, as such, an 
 essential part of her Discipline ; which, till it be restored with 
 efficacy and vigour, will, I fear, withhold many blessings of 
 God from us. 
 
 Whoever is at all acquainted with the history of the 
 Church, must know the truth of what is here suggested. 
 Those who are not so, may wonder, perhaps, to hear or to 
 read what they have not been accustomed to think of, and, 
 it may be, will as much be shocked with it as people of 
 tender constitutions are apt to be when surprised with meet- 
 ing any uncommon object. But this wonder will be much 
 abated, when they shall suffer themselves to be informed and 
 convinced that the Discipline, which is our present subject, 
 had a being, as soon as our religion had any number of 
 professors ; that it was formed in the infancy of the Christian 
 Church, grew up together with it, and that the vigour of 
 the one declined with the purity of the other. 
 
 1 See what is cited ia p. 123, note 2. rum, decernuntur ; eorumque reconcili- 
 
 And again, Qui publice peccat, publica atio in publico esse debet ab Episcopo, 
 
 multetur pcenitentia, et secundum ordi- sive a Presbyteris, jussu tamen Episco- 
 
 nem [canonum] pro merito suo excom- porum ; sicut Canones Africani Concilii 
 
 municetur et reconcilietur. — In 2 Concil. testantur ; ubi scriptum est, Cujus- 
 
 Cabilon. can. 25, habit, A.D. 813. [Har- cunque autem pcenitentis pubticum et 
 
 douin. torn. iv. p. 1036.] And again, vulgatissimum crimen est, ante Absidam 
 
 Quorum autem peccata in publico sunt, manus ei imponatur. — Raban. Maur. de 
 
 in publico debet esse pcenitentia, per Institut. Cleric, lib. ii. cap. 30. [ed. Rom. 
 
 tempora quse Episcopi arbitrio pceniten- 1591.] 
 
 tibus, secundum differentiam peccato- 2 See what is cited in p. 120, note 2. 
 
The Conclusion. 183 
 
 And when they shall observe, moreover, that the revival 
 of this in the full efficacy of its ancient use, though much 
 desired, indeed, yet is not here propounded ; they will 
 rather, it is hoped, acquiesce in the modesty of such a tender 
 wish, than charge it with unseasonable rigour, or with any 
 undue pretence to an increase of power. 
 
 The libertine, indeed, is interested against us, and from 
 him we have reason to apprehend the fiercest opposition ; 
 for should this Discipline recover any part of the ground it 
 hath lost, he is most likely to fall first into its hands, and to 
 feel it exerting itself in its utmost rigours. But were it not 
 infinitely better that he should feel it here for his advantage 
 and reformation, than that he should feel worse hereafter 
 from the " wrath of God, which is revealed from Heaven [R 0m . 1. 
 against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men?" He 18- - 1 
 would be content, it is likely, to wait till that wrath over- 
 takes him ; and to walk, meanwhile, in the ways of his 
 heart and in the sight of his eyes. But as he is a member 
 of the Church of Christ, he is under her care, and his soul 
 will be required at her hands. There is no way for her to 
 discharge herself of him with safety, but first to warn him of 
 his danger ; and, if that be not effectual, next to turn him 
 out of her fold. And then, as an heathen, she hath no more 
 to do with him, except he will submit and beg a recon- 
 ciliation. 
 
 To all this, the scorner, I expect, should reply with mock- 
 ery, which is his usual weapon, and serves him in his 
 offensive as well as in his defensive occasions. He fears the 
 least revival of this ancient Apostolic practice, because his 
 bold and daily insults upon the most sacred truths would 
 receive from it a due correction instead of a serious answer. 
 
 But I trust the world is not yet so far gone in mirth as to 
 be laughed out of a thing so important as religion, and what is 
 plainly an institution of the best religion which hath ever yet 
 appeared for the benefit of mankind. For if it was the 
 practice of the Apostles, we may be sure it was the design 
 of Christ ; and if it was the practice of those ages which 
 next succeeded that of the Apostles, we may be sure it was 
 not intended to expire with them, but was designed, on 
 
184 The Conclusion. 
 
 the contrary, to be a standing Ordinance in the Christian 
 Church. 
 
 Now these are considerations which, it may well be hoped, 
 shall be enabled to maintain their ground against any levi- 
 ties of wit, any scurrilities of profaneness, any attacks of 
 vice, or any other of those foolish bolts which the ignorant, 
 the petulant, the libertine, or the scorner, shall severally, or 
 jointly, think fit to shoot at them. 
 
 I have neither leisure nor inclination to reply to any such 
 objectors, should they appear against me. 
 
 I have not willingly misrepresented any thing ; but, as I 
 am very conscious to myself of my own weakness, and as I 
 have composed this Tract in various and distracted portions 
 of time, such as a very busy life would allow me, I may 
 easily have fallen into some errors, though none, I hope, 
 affecting my main design. 
 
 Therefore if any one shall propound a serious objection in 
 a becoming manner, he shall either receive from me an 
 ingenuous retractation or a serious and becoming answer. 
 
 May the God of Truth and Order dispose us all to 
 embrace the one, and, as soon as may be, to form ourselves 
 into the other. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Number I. 
 
 Gregory Nyssens Canonical Epistle to Letoius, Bishop 
 
 of Melitine. 
 
 Translated from the Greek. 
 
 One thing there is of great moment towards a due 
 observance of the Holy Festival, (viz. of Easter,) which is a 
 right knowledge of the Discipline wherewith offenders are 
 to be treated, according to the laws and Canons of the 
 Church, that so every disorder and distemper of the soul, 
 arising from sin, may find a cure. 
 
 For since this is through all the churches of God an 
 anniversary solemnity sacred to the remembrance of Christ's 
 Resurrection, after His Fall by death, to which Fall of His 
 sin answers in the analogy, as the sinner's rise again by 
 penance is correspondent to His Resurrection, it will be very 
 suitable to the nature of this festival occasion that we should 
 not only bring those to God who, by the grace of Baptism, 
 are renewed in the spirit of their minds ; but that those, also, 
 should be begotten again unto a lively hope, who have 
 indeed forfeited it by their sin, but are now desirous to 
 retrieve it by their repentance, and by their conversion 
 from dead works, and to walk once more in the paths of 
 life. 
 
 For it is, indeed, no very easy matter, nor of 3mall 
 importance, to give just and pertinent directions upon this 
 occasion, " to guide one's words here (as the Psalmist hath it, 
 
I. 
 
 186 Appendix. 
 
 numb. Psalm cxii. 5) -with discretion ;" that so, as the same holy- 
 author expresses himself, "the righteous may never be 
 moved, but may be had in everlasting remembrance." 
 
 As, therefore, in medicine for the body, the one great end 
 of it is the patient's cure, though the means to that end be 
 various, since, as distempers differ, a different regimen will 
 be proper for each ; so, likewise, it is in distempers of the 
 mind, which, being as different from each other as those of 
 the body, will require as different methods of treatment and 
 of cure, with as various an application of those methods as 
 the diagnostic symptom shall happen to direct and indicate. 
 That we may then proceed with some method in handling 
 this question, what we have to offer upon it shall be ranged 
 in the following order. 
 
 There are, we know, according to the old distinction, 
 three faculties in the soul of principal account, the rational, 
 the concupiscible, and the irascible ; in the use of which is 
 exemplified either the rectitude of those who live up to the 
 rules of virtue, or the frailty of those who depart from them 
 into vice. 
 
 Now he who proposes applying a suitable medicine to the 
 distempered part of the soul, ought well to consider in which 
 of the faculties here recited, that distemper is lodged, and 
 then to apply his method of cure accordingly ; lest, for want 
 of due discernment in this matter, he should mistake in his 
 application, and attempt to cure a part which is not affected. 
 As we see in some unskilful physicians, who, misjudging the 
 symptom, prescribe what inflames the malady of their pa- 
 tients. For instance, if the disease proceeds from an over- 
 measure of heat, and if, because they who suffer from a cold 
 constitution, find relief from warm medicines, therefore they, 
 who abound in heat, shall be treated with the same warm 
 regimen, the consequence will certainly be, that the distem- 
 per will become hence exceedingly dangerous, and perhaps 
 may prove incurable. 
 
 As, therefore, physicians should be well acquainted with 
 the temperament of their patient's body, whether hot or cold, 
 moist or dry, be most prevailing in it, that they may be able 
 to treat it in a proper manner, so should we, resorting to the 
 aforementioned distinction between the three principal facul- 
 
Appendix. 187 
 
 ties of the soul, make that the general ground and basis of 
 our cure, and of the methods we are to proceed by, in order 
 to it. 
 
 Having then considered the faculties of the soul under 
 this threefold division, of the rational, the concupiscible, and 
 the irascible, the due order and temperament of the rational 
 will require just and awful sentiments of God, a due know- 
 ledge of good and evil, and a well-poised judgment of the 
 things about us, which of them should be chosen, and which 
 avoided and rejected. And again, here will fall under 
 consideration whatever fault or guilt may be contracted by 
 impiety towards God, or by a wrong estimate made of the 
 things about us, as when we put darkness for light, or light 
 for darkness. 
 
 The concupiscible is then as it should be, when the desire 
 is directed to an object truly good and deserving of it; and, 
 if there be any aptness in our nature to love, when we are 
 fully persuaded that nothing is so fit an object for that 
 passion to fix on as virtue, together with that glorious foun- 
 tain from whence all which is good and excellent flows down 
 upon us. 
 
 The degeneracy to which we are in this part liable, and 
 which tends to sin, is, when a man misplaces his desire upon 
 vain-glory and empty applauses, or upon the fading flower 
 of external beauty, from whence proceed avarice, ambition, 
 luxury, lust, with all that numerous train of vices which are 
 so usually appendant to this species of evil. 
 
 Again, the irascible is then rightly disposed when it inclines 
 us to an hatred of evil, and to wage war with all the irregular 
 motions of the soul ; when it fortifies the mind against all 
 those impressions which are so apt to disturb and terrify the 
 greatest part of us, when it enables us to resist even unto 
 blood the allurements of sin, and to contemn the appre- 
 hension of torments, and even of death itself; in a word, 
 when, by disuniting us from the pleasures of life, and what- 
 ever either appetite, or custom, or prejudicate opinion, hath 
 rendered familiar and agreeable, it proves us superior to 
 them all, and gains for us the mastery in contending earnestly 
 for faith and a good conscience. 
 
 The vices to which this part of our nature prompts us are 
 
188 Appendix. 
 
 numb, evident and manifest, such as envy, hatred, anger, railing, 
 
 — — strife, contentious and revengeful dispositions, which long 
 
 retain and desperately return an injury in blood and 
 slaughter. For undisciplined reason, not instructing us 
 how to use the weapons wherewith Providence hath fur- 
 nished us, turns the edge of it upon ourselves ; and so, that 
 which was given us for our advantage and defence, we 
 preposterously abuse to our own destruction. 
 
 To proceed, then, upon the foot of these three divisions. 
 The sins which affect the rational part of the soul have been 
 all along censured by the Fathers of the Church as sins of a 
 deeper dye, and, as such, demanding a fuller and more 
 laborious penance than any other. For instance, if any one 
 should deny his faith in Christ, or revolt to Judaism, Ido- 
 latry, Manichseism, or any such like species of impiety ; if, 
 moreover, his apostasy were unforced, and if he should 
 repent afterwards and see his error, such an one, according to 
 ancient usage, would stand condemned to penance for his 
 whole life. For he would never be allowed to join in 
 Communion with the Faithful, 1 but would be obliged to put 
 up his prayers apart from them ; and as to any participation 
 of the Sacred Elements, he would be quite debarred from it ; 
 only, in extreme danger of death, he would be permitted 
 to communicate. And if he should recover beyond all 
 expectation, he must return to the same solitary state he 
 was in before his sickness, since it would never be permitted 
 to partake of the Holy Mysteries till the very article of his 
 exit. 
 
 1 Here it may not be amiss to suggest exorcised, viri^ tuv inf>yovp.ivaiv ; these 
 to the reader the ancient manner of seem to have been another rank of Cate- 
 public, solemn worship ; which began chumens ; and when they were in the 
 with the lector's reading divers portions same manner dismissed, the Competents, 
 of the Old Testament ; then followed or such as were just ready for Baptism, 
 Psalmody ; next succeeded other por- were next prayed for ; and when that 
 tions of the New Testament : after that part too was finished, the Deacon sent 
 exhortations from one or more Presby- them out, and then exhorted the peni- 
 ters, and last of all from the Bishop. tents to pray for themselves, and the con- 
 Then came on the Holy Liturgy ; first, gregation likewise to intercede for them, 
 for the Catechumens, of whom there A formulary of this last prayer I have 
 seem to have been divers ranks and given a place to in this Appendix, No. iv. 
 orders ; the most imperfect went out at The penitents then were dismissed with 
 the first proclamation of the Deacon, imposition of hands from the Bishop ; 
 Tl£oi\hn ol KurHxoufLsm. Then came and afterwards the faithful advanced to 
 on the Prayer for such as were to be the putrrixii ilx«> to the Offertory, to the 
 
Appendix. 189 
 
 But for such as have been forced into compliance against 
 their wills by pain and torment, they have only a set time 
 of penance assigned them ; for so the Holy Fathers have 
 thought fit to mitigate their sentence, in regard it was not so 
 much apprehended that their wills or their souls were faulty, 
 as that the mere frailties of their flesh were unable to abide 
 the trial. And, therefore, all transgressions of this kind 
 have the same measure of penance assigned them which are 
 allotted to simple fornication. 
 
 For those who have resorted to wizards and conjurors, or 
 to such as undertake the doing great feats for them by the 
 help of demons, they are to be strictly examined whether 
 they were driven upon that sin by any extreme or heavy 
 pressure which lay hard upon them, or whether from an 
 utter neglect of the cautions delivered to them in Holy 
 Writ, they have wantonly and wilfully resorted to the fel- 
 lowship of demons. For if they did it through mere 
 instability of faith, and from a rejecting of that God, Who 
 is the one great object of Christian worship, their sentence 
 then should be the same with that of downright apostasy. 
 But if any insupportable extremity or pressure should appear 
 to have led them into this transgression, and to have over- 
 borne with its weight the frailties of their courage, they should 
 then be treated with the same compassion as those are who 
 are overcome by torments, when they ought to make a 
 courageous profession of their faith. 
 
 Now, as to the sins which spring from the head of concu- 
 piscence or desire, they are branched out into these two 
 
 General Prayer of Intercession and the Eucharistical Elements, and the 
 
 Thanksgiving (which were preceded Ostiary saw the people distributed into 
 
 severally by a bidding prayer from the their proper seats, the men on one side 
 
 Deacon), and so to the great Sacrifice. and the women on the other. And when 
 
 This solemn office was performed by the the whole congregation had received, 
 
 Bishop ; it was called ftvtrirtxb, in regard another bidding prayer was added by the 
 
 to none but the Mystce, i. e. such as were Deacon, and offered by the Bishop, with 
 
 initiated, and retained their privilege, thanksgiving ; after which, the Deacon 
 
 might assist at it. No stranger might, dismissed the congregation with an Ite 
 
 excepthebroughtrecommendatory letters in pace, 'Go in peace.' — See Apost. 
 
 from the Bishop of the place he belonged Constit. lib. ii. cap. 57; and lib. viii. 
 
 to. N.B. The Bishop first blessed the from cap. 6 to 13 ; Justin Martyr, 1 
 
 people, and gave the Peace to them, be- Apolog. [p. S3 seq.] ; Concil. Laodic. 
 
 fore he proceeded to the great Sacrifice. can. 19, [Howel's Synopsis, p. 74.] And 
 
 The Deacons assisted at the Oblation of in this Appendix, No. iv. 
 
190 Appendix. 
 
 numb, divisions, one called adultery, the other fornication. Some, 
 
 indeed, who have been a little more exact and nice in this 
 
 matter, have ranged the sin of fornication in the same class 
 and order with that of adultery, inasmuch as there is only 
 one lawful conjunction of man and woman. Whatever, 
 therefore, is not according to law, is against it ; and he who 
 possesses what is not his own, possesses what is another's, 
 although the proper owner should put in no claim to it. 
 Besides, that God hath appointed but one helpmeet for 
 man, and for woman only one head. And the Scriptures 
 have apparently recommended and allowed to every man 
 that he should possess his own, and only his own, vessel. 
 Therefore, I say, such as have weighed this matter somewhat 
 more exactly, have judged the sin of fornication to be very 
 little different from that of adultery, especially since the 
 Scriptures warn us not to use the company of a strange 
 woman. 
 
 But as the Fathers of the Church have thought fit to deal 
 tenderly with the weaknesses of human nature, the sin hath 
 been ranged in this general division : 1, Fornication, which 
 is an indulgence to concupiscence, without injury or damage 
 to a third person ; and 2, Adultery, which implies, more- 
 over, a mischief contrived and acted to another's detriment. 
 As to all the sins of concupiscence against nature, they fall 
 within this latter class, as being injurious to nature, which, 
 in this case, stands for the third person injured. 
 
 This, therefore, being the general division of sins, which 
 come under the general head of concupiscence, the general 
 remedy for the disorders thence arising is, to cleanse and 
 purify the man from them by penance. 
 
 But since, as it hath been suggested in the sin of simple 
 fornication, there is implied no injury to a third person ; 
 therefore, the time of penance for adultery, and for the sins 
 against nature, is double to that which is imposed for forni- 
 cation ; because, in the one, there is implied an injury to a 
 third person, which is not in the other. 
 
 There is, moreover, a further distinction to be made in 
 the penance of those who are led into sin by the allurements 
 of pleasure. Since he, who of his own accord, advances to 
 the discovery of his sins, as by his voluntary accusation of 
 
Appendix. 191 
 
 himself, 1 in matters which could no other way have been 
 proved against him, he gives a specimen of the change 
 there is in his mind towards that which is good, and seems 
 inclinable to seek relief from proper medicines ; so, in these 
 various respects, he will deserve the lighter correction. On 
 the other hand, he who is either caught in the fact, or upon 
 suspicion, or charge against him, found guilty against his 
 will, must expect that the time of his penance should be 
 prolonged to him ; that so, after a perfect purgation, he 
 may be at length admitted to partake of the Holy Mysteries. 
 
 The Canons of the Church have, therefore, directed, that 
 such as have offended in the article of fornication should be 
 utterly expelled from the public service of the Church for 
 the full space of three years ; and afterwards stand for the 
 same space of time in the station of hearers ; and that, for 
 the further space of three years, they should be admitted to 
 pray in the Station of the Prostrate, and thence be received 
 into full Communion. 
 
 But if any shall demonstrate by the diligence and punc- 
 tuality of their submission to the discipline imposed on 
 them, that they are returned to a due sense of their duty 
 sooner, it shall be lawful for the officer intrusted with the 
 administration of this Discipline, as he judges it expedient 
 for the service of the Church, to contract the time wherein 
 the Penitent is appointed to stand in the Station of Hearers, 
 for instance, and so to admit him somewhat sooner to that 
 of the Prostrate ; 2 and again, to contract the time of his pro- 
 stration also, and admit him somewhat sooner to full Com- 
 munion, accordingly as he shall judge (for to this officer it 
 is left to judge) of the constitution and disposition of the 
 party whom he puts under this medicinal regimen. For, 
 as it is on one hand forbidden to cast pearls before swine, so 
 it is on the other, alike unlawful to deprive those of them 
 who approve themselves clear and perfect men, by having 
 cleansed themselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit. 
 
 As to the sins of adultery, and the rest which have been 
 mentioned, they are to be cured in the same way with that 
 
 Confession to the Priest in private, we may observe, moreover, its reference 
 it hence appears, was at this time in to public discipline, 
 use, and stands here commended; and 2 See p. 128, note 1, of the preceding tract. 
 
192 Appendix. 
 
 numb, of fornication ; only the time is to be double to that of the 
 
 '- other. But here, likewise, as in the case of fornication, the 
 
 disposition and temper of the party are to enter into the 
 account, and accordingly as they shall indicate, he may 
 be sooner or later admitted to partake of the Holy Elements. 1 
 
 There still remains to be considered the irascible part of 
 the soul, when it falls into sin, by a departure from the just 
 use of the passion of anger. 
 
 Now, since there are many and various instances of sin 
 which take their rise from this fountain of corruption ; for 
 the rest, it hath seemed good to the Fathers of the Church, 
 not to be very exact nor rigid, nor to lay out very much 
 of their thoughts or pains upon them ; although, indeed, 
 the Scriptures have not only forbidden to kill, but likewise 
 to vent opprobrious language, or, indeed, any thing else, 
 which anger would suggest to us, but the only sin, in this 
 kind, against which they have guarded, by solemn denun- 
 ciations of censure, is that of killing. And this stands 
 divided into wilful and involuntary : the wilful is judged to 
 be that, in the first place, for which a man makes prepara- 
 tion beforehand, and contrives before he acts it ; and, again, 
 that is, in the next place, adjudged to be wilful likewise, 
 which a man commits in the heat of a scuffle, by wounding 
 his neighbour mortally. 2 For he who suffers himself to be 
 overborne by his passion, and is eager to indulge his appe- 
 tite of revenge, will admit of no healing considerations, of 
 nothing which may prevent the mischief during the con- 
 tinuance of his rage. And, therefore, the death which 
 ensues upon a sudden fray, is very justly censured as an 
 act of the will, and not as the effects of mere casualty or 
 misfortune. 
 
 For involuntary cases ; they are easily distinguished, e. g. 
 when a man apparently intending another matter, does a 
 fatal mischief through mere misfortune. 
 
 1 ToS ayxtw, ' The good ; ' by way 2 There was then no allowance made 
 of eminence called so; as it is called at to the modern distinction between murder 
 other times, tqv rskiiov xx\ <rou ayt/Jou, and manslaughter upon duels and ren- 
 ' the perfect and good.* By which is counters ; passion was either to be sub- 
 meant the Holy Eucharist j the perfec- dued, or the effects of it were to be pun- 
 tion and consummation of the Christian ished as wilful mischiefs, 
 worship. 
 
Appendix. 193 
 
 They, then, who would atone for a wilful breach of the 
 Sixth Commandment, should be reminded, that to such, the 
 time of penance must be trebled ; no less than twenty-seven 
 years, nine in each stage of penance, being appointed for 
 them ; so that, for nine years, they are to continue in a state 
 of absolute and perfect segregation, all entrance within the 
 Church being entirely forbidden them; 1 for other nine years 
 they are to continue in the Station of Hearers, only to stand 
 hearing with the rest of the people, whilst the Scriptures 
 are read and expounded ; and in the third and last noven- 
 nial space, they are to offer up such prayers as are proper 
 for, and allowed to the Prostrate ; and thus, at last, are to 
 proceed to the participation of the Holy Eucharist. 2 
 
 But then, here, likewise, as in the former cases, the officer 
 who executes this Church power should have a due regard 
 to the behaviour of the person under Censure, so as to 
 shorten the time of it, as he shall judge to be expedient ; 
 and thus, instead of nine years under each stage, to assign 
 him eight, seven, or five, accordingly as he shall observe 
 the degree of his penitence and compunction to compensate 
 for the time in which he should have lain under it, or to 
 exceed the measures of their diligence, who, in a longer 
 time, make less riddance of the work allotted to them. 
 
 But, now, as to involuntary homicide, though it hath ever, 
 indeed, been thought to deserve pardon, yet hath it always 
 been judged very far from meriting commendation. This I 
 have, therefore, suggested, because Canonical Discipline 
 hath thought fit to degrade from the Sacerdotal order, even 
 
 1 navrs\u ottpoeurpS.] This must refer of this Epistle shew, that immediately 
 to the Station of weeping : in which, the after penitents had passed through the 
 penitent, standing at the door, or porch stage of Prostration, they were (forth- 
 {atrium) of the Church, without daring with) admitted, as it follows here 
 to come into it, implored the prayers of (s/V rkv pirouo-ietv rov u.yiatrpa.roi) to 
 those who entered, and desired their in- the participation of the Holy Mystery, 
 tercession for a nearer access. The However, it is plain, from what hath 
 Station next this was that of Hearers. been cited in the foregoing tract, out of 
 
 2 Mgirn; to» UurxaAuy, xx) i->is rai his brother Basil's Canonical Epistle, 
 y^atpm ctxgoairz&is , xai rns p-iru rov '/.clou that this affair was in different places, 
 {ruvra.tnuis ctZfdpem."] Hence it should differently ordered ; and that Basil was 
 seem, that in the time and place wherein well acquainted with the Station of 
 this Father wrote, the Station of Con- Ctmsistentia. — See p. 53, note 2 ; p. 5S, 
 sistentia, after that of Prostration, was note 1. 
 
 not in use. And, indeed, divers passages 
 
I. 
 
 194 Appendix, 
 
 numb, those who have been but casually engaged in blood, as 
 persons unclean and polluted. 1 
 
 The time then assigned for expiating the sin of simple 
 fornication is justly determined to be the time of their 
 penance, who have, though unwillingly, been engaged in 
 blood. Yet here, as before, the disposition of the party 
 should come into the account; that if his compunction 
 appear to be real and cordial, the precise number of years 
 should not too rigorously be insisted on ; but that he should 
 sooner be restored to all Church privileges by shortening 
 the time of his penance and segregation. 
 
 If any one should be in imminent danger of death, who 
 hath not gone through his discipline for the whole time 
 assigned him ; the clemency of the Fathers hath then deter- 
 mined that he should not be suffered to enter upon his long 
 last journey, without being furnished with a provision for 
 it, nor without a participation of the Holy Mysteries. But 
 if, after having been permitted to partake of them, the party 
 should happen to recover, he is then to abide the time 
 allotted him, and to continue in the Station, wherein the 
 necessity and the danger found him, in regard to which he 
 was permitted to communicate. 2 
 
 There is yet another species of idolatry, for so the blessed 
 Apostle denominates covetousness, which hath escaped, I 
 know not how, the censure of the Fathers, and seems, indeed, 
 to have been overlooked by them. 
 
 This, in reality, is a complex disposition, arising from a 
 mixture, and blending together, of those three affections in 
 the soul, which have here been mentioned. 
 
 1 'U^artxTjs xfy nn "1 * think I am with Apost. Can. No. 25. [V. Beve- 
 right in translating this the Sacer- regii Pandect. Canon, vol. ii. p. 53. 
 dotal Order ; what in the Laity was Oxon. fol. 1672.] Yet this was, I con- 
 punished with Segregation, being pun- ceive, a rule, which held only in the less 
 ished in the Clergy with degradation heinous instances of sin; for in the 
 from their Order ; which, in those days, greater, Clergymen, it is plain, were not 
 was esteemed equivalent to the other. only degraded, but segregated, and in 
 And it was * maxim then, as now, that cases of contumacy excommunicated ; 
 for the same fault, a man was not to be witness the case of Paulus Samosatenus, 
 punished twice ; therefore not once with mentioned in p. 98 of this treatise, and 
 Degradation, and again, afterwards, with the 54th Apostolic Canon. 
 Segregation. — See, in Basil, ad Amphi- 2 See p. 159. 
 loch. Canonic. Epist. can. iii., compared 
 
Appendix. 195 
 
 For, first, as to the rational, that manifestly errs in the 
 judgment it makes of what is truly good, by taking those 
 things to be so, which are found in the material world, and 
 by neglecting all spiritual, immaterial excellence. Then, 
 again, the concupiscible inclines in this case to inferior 
 objects, diverting from what is justly and properly desirable. 
 
 Even the irascible itself takes many occasions hence of 
 gratifying its peevish and froward disposition. 
 
 In some, I will venture to pronounce, that this whole 
 distemper does entirely agree with the Apostle's character of 
 covetousness, who not only calls it idolatry, but " the root of 
 all evil." 
 
 Yet, this species of evil hath been quite overlooked, and 
 unregarded by the ancient Fathers, from whence it comes 
 to pass, that it abounds exceedingly in the Church of Christ, 
 and no person who is brought before the Clergy to be ex- 
 amined as to his life and conversation is at all examined 
 upon this article, whether he be innocent or nocent. 1 
 
 But since this hath been omitted by the Fathers, and no- 
 rule is given us concerning it, it may suffice to the cure of 
 it, that as some distempers arising from a plethoric con- 
 stitution, are removed by gentle evacuations, so we should 
 endeavour to alleviate and soften the guilt of covetousness 
 by prayer and deprecation. 2 
 
 Only theft, and the violation of burial-places, we are 
 taught by the Holy Fathers, to place among sins which are 
 to be expiated by solemn penance. It is true that the 
 Scriptures forbid usury and extortion, with all those corrupt 
 and fraudulent ways of gain, howsoever varnished with the 
 appearances of bargain and contract, which injuriously 
 transfer the property of others to our own possession. 
 
 1 Ofius robs \iri rov x\»^ov dyttpivovs at present ; and if any person then 
 mgisgya^snu, &c] This I have trans- were known to be conscious of another's 
 lated, ' No person who is brought be- crimes, which were of Ecclesiastical cog- 
 fore the Clergy,' &c Because I nisance, without revealing them, he was 
 
 think the sense will hardly consist with- himself accounted criminal, and pun- 
 out such a rendering ; and because it was ishable accordingly, by Ecclesiastical 
 conformable to the usage then obtaining; Censures. — See Basil, ad Amphiloch. 
 which was to accuse people guilty of can. 71. [Howel's Synopsis, p. 110. 
 great enormities in the Ecclesiastical Bishop Beveridge, vol. ii. p. 123.] 
 Consistory ; which had then otherguise 2 See what is written and cited in 
 privileges and prerogatives' than it hath p. 144 of the preceding tract. 
 
196 Appendix. 
 
 numb. But since the ancient Canons of the Church are the rules 
 
 '- of our present discipline, I shall only presume to add to 
 
 what hath been already suggested, the sentence and the 
 judgment, which they have allotted to the cases mentioned. 
 
 Theft, then, is divided into two sorts; viz. that open 
 robbery, which is attended with force and violence, and that 
 more clancular and secret practice of housebreaking and 
 stealing privately. 
 
 The design of both is, indeed, the same, viz. invading 
 another's property, and transferring it to themselves, without 
 right or reason. But the disposition of mind wherewith 
 that design is prosecuted, is very different in the one from 
 what it is in the other. For the open robber hath murder 
 in his views and purposes, should it prove necessary to him 
 to gain his point, and to reach what he aims at ; accordingly 
 he comes provided for it, with arms and strength, and 
 chooses, moreover, a fit place for it, so that such an one 
 must be put under the discipline due to murderers if he 
 offers to return into the Church through the door of 
 penance. 
 
 Whereas, if he who hath transferred to himself the pro- 
 perty of another by secret theft shall unfold his offence to 
 the Priest by secret Confession, it will be sufficient to cure 
 the guilt he hath thence contracted by a quite contrary dis- 
 position, and by the reverse of his former practice ; x I mean, 
 by liberal alms to weed out that covetous humour which led 
 him into his sin. But if he hath not wherewith to do this, 
 he hath, however, his body left him, and should, therefore, 
 expiate his crime in that case by assiduous labour ; accord- 
 Eph. 4. 28. ing to that of the Apostle, " Let him that stole steal no more, 
 but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing 
 which is good, that he may have to give to him that 
 needeth." 
 
 As to the violation of graves and burial-places, that is, 
 likewise, divided into an offence which is pardonable and 
 that which is not so. 
 
 1 There is no doubt but that the holy of his former practice ; and recommends 
 
 Father included in a contrary disposi- act9 of charity, which are ever subse- 
 
 tion, the sincere desire of restitution, quent to those of justice, and do, indeed, 
 
 especially since he adds to it, the reverse presuppose them. 
 
Appendix. 1 97 
 
 For, if any one to save charges applies the stones or ma- 
 terials to some other purpose which are usually thrown up 
 before the burial-places of the dead, yet so as not to leave 
 the corpse exposed to the air or light, or otherwise in any 
 way abused or injured, this, indeed, is far enough from 
 meriting condemnation ; but custom, however, hath made it 
 excusable, since the public reaps here some benefit by an 
 application of the materials to a more useful purpose. 
 
 But to rake into the ashes, and to disturb the bones of 
 the dead, in view of pilfering the clothes or other ornaments 
 wherewith they may be buried, this is a crime which must 
 be punished with the discipline due to simple fornication, as 
 is before recited. The officer, however, who is intrusted 
 with executing it, is here, as before, permitted to shorten 
 the time of it, as he shall judge it expedient from the life 
 and circumstances of the party put under it. 
 
 As to sacrilege, that, under the old law, was censured 
 with the same severity as murder was, the sentence of both 
 being, that the party should be stoned to death who was 
 guilty of either. But Ecclesiastical custom hath led, I know 
 not how, to a milder construction of sacrilege than what was 
 heretofore made of it, and the guilt contracted by it hath 
 been cancelled at less expense, since, as we receive it, indeed, 
 from the Fathers, the punishment is of shorter continuance 
 than that for adultery. 
 
 But in this as well as in every other species of sin, the 
 disposition and temper of the party under discipline are of 
 principal account ; for, as to the length and continuance of 
 the punishment, that alone will go a very little way towards 
 a cure of the distemper to which it is applied ; the heart and 
 mind of the patient, the frame and constitution of his soul, 
 being all in all. 
 
 These directions, man of God, I have put together with 
 as much diligence as I could in so short a time, and have 
 sent them to you in testimony of that esteem and regard 
 which we ought always to entertain for our brethren, and 
 for any requests they shall happen to make us ! 
 
 You, in your turn, will not, I trust, intermit your prayers 
 to God for me. You owe me the grateful acknowledgments 
 of a son wh&m I have begotten to God, and should accord- 
 
198 Appendix. 
 
 numb, ingly give me what support you can in my old age from 
 
 ' your prayers and intercessions, that so, according to the 
 
 sanction of the fifth Commandment, it may be well with you, 
 and that " your days may be long in the land." 
 
 This letter will serve as a proof of my respects to you, 
 and as a token of the fellowship and communion which I 
 hold with you. 1 You for your part will not, I hope, despise 
 my present for being a small one, although, indeed, a man 
 of your worth does always deserve a better. 
 
 Number II. 
 
 The account of Socrates, the Ecclesiastical Historian, 
 [Ed. Read- JBook 5, chap, xix., concerning the Office of Penitentiary 
 in the Primitive Church. Translated from the Greek. 
 
 About the same time, viz. in the reign of Valentinian 
 Junior and Theodosius, it seemed good to those in authority 
 that the Penitentiary's Office should be abolished, and that 
 upon the occasion, whereof an account is here intended. 
 
 Upon the separation of Novatus and his party from the 
 Church, because they were unwilling to hold Communion 
 with such as had lapsed in the Decian persecution, from that 
 period of time the Bishops had added to the Ecclesiastical 
 roll a Presbyter, whose peculiar office it should be to manage 
 the concerns of penitents who, having fallen into sin after 
 Baptism, were thenceforwards to confess their crimes to the 
 Presbyter so appointed. 2 
 
 This regulation is still in force with all other sects, only 
 the Homoousians, and such of the Novatians as agree with 
 the former, in the disputed article of the Trinity, have en- 
 tirely rejected it. 3 
 
 1 JivpZoXov 'ngarixov.] This I pre- ledgment of the civilities he had there re- 
 sume to have alluded to some tessera, or ceived. And to these our author seems 
 watchword ; some token (as I have here to have alluded in the close of this his 
 translated it), or mark of distinction, letter to Bishop Letoius. 
 whereby Clergymen in their travels were 2 The Ecclesiastical roll was a list of 
 known to each other, and acknowledged the Clergy belonging to each Episcopal 
 as orthodox, by those who entertained Church, which was preserved in the 
 them. The guest, it should seem, who archives of it. 
 
 was thus entertained, left behind him 3 The Homoousians t it may be fit to 
 
 (™ %ivm) some small present in acknow- inform the less learned reader, were 
 
Appendix. 199 
 
 As to the Novatians, they never, indeed, stood in need of 
 it ; and the Homoousians, who are now in possession of the 
 Churches, after having long retained this institution, did, in 
 the time of Nectarius, abolish it, upon a certain foul prac- 
 tice which, was discovered to have been committed in one of 
 their Churches by occasion of it. 
 
 For a lady of quality, resorting to one of these Peniten- 
 tiaries, had confessed the sins to him which she had com- 
 mitted after her Baptismal engagements ; the Penitentiary 
 directed her to employ a great deal of her time in fasting 
 and prayer, that so with her confession she might give, like- 
 wise, an example of works meet for repentance. 
 
 In process of time she confesses another enormity to. him 
 whereof she had been guilty, viz. that she had been naught 
 with a certain Deacon of that Church. Upon the scandal 
 arising from the publication of this heinous fact, the Deacon 
 was, for his part, degraded ; but the people, notwithstanding, 
 were mightily discomposed, and a great ferment was raised 
 by it amongst them, not only in regard to the atrocity of 
 the crime, but in regard, also, to the infamy which this 
 accident might bring upon the Church. 
 
 When, therefore, the whole Ecclesiastical Order was im- 
 peached and traduced upon this account, one Eudsemon, a 
 Presbyter of the Church, and of Alexandrian extraction, 
 advised Nectarius, who then was Bishop of Constantinople, 
 to abolish the Office of Penitentiary, and to strike his name 
 out of the Ecclesiastical roll, and to allow every man to 
 communicate thenceforwards as his own conscience should 
 direct them, inasmuch as there appeared no other way to 
 rescue the Church from the disgrace and obloquy to which 
 this misfortune had exposed her. 1 
 
 Having had this account from Eudsemon himself, who was 
 author of the aforementioned Council, I am the more bold 
 to give it a place in my history. For, as I have often said, 
 I have all along been as careful as I could to learn the facts 
 
 those who held with the Church, that people to consult with this Penitentiary, 
 the Son was consubstantial, or of the upontheirrespectivefitnessesfor that holy 
 same substance, with the Father. Ordinance, and in order thereunto, to 
 1 Hence, therefore, it should seem, lay before him the state of their con- 
 that before resorting to Communion, it sciences, with regard to such sins as 
 had hitherto been the custom for the they had severally committed. 
 
200 Appendix. 
 
 numb, which I pretend to relate from the best and most credible 
 
 - — authorities, and to make a very exact inquiry into them, 
 
 that I might be sure of committing nothing to writing but 
 what should be to a tittle true. 
 
 When Eudaemon told me what I here have laid before 
 my reader, I presently replied to him, " Whether your ad- 
 vice will be of use or detriment to the Church, God only 
 knows." But now I see plainly that it hath given an handle 
 and an occasion for discontinuing that wholesome practice of 
 reprehending one another's sins, and for neglecting that 
 Eph. 5. 11. Apostolical precept which directs us " to have no fellowship 
 with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather to reprove 
 them." 
 
 Number III. 
 
 [Ed. Sozomen's account of the same Matter, in Book 7, Chap. xvi. 
 
 Translated likewise from the Greek. 
 
 About this juncture of time Nectarius, Bishop of Con- 
 stantinople, discontinued the Office of the Presbyter, who 
 was specially appointed to take care of Penitents, and the 
 Bishops of the Churches all round him soon followed his 
 example. 
 
 What was properly the Office of this Presbyter, from 
 whence it took its rise, and whence its discontinuance, 
 others, perhaps, may relate in a different manner ; but, for 
 my own part, I shall give the reader what I think a just 
 account of it. 
 
 Since, then, to be quite exempt from sin requires a degree 
 of perfection which is incompatible with the present state of 
 human nature ; since God hath appointed for those who truly 
 repent, even though they should sin again and again, 1 a 
 pardon ; and since it was necessarily incumbent upon such 
 as sued for that pardon to confess the sin which stood in 
 need of it, the Bishops, it should seem, from the very begin- 
 ning thought it an intolerable burden, with respect both to 
 
 1 "Again and again," was notthe Ian- don such repeated sins, yet those -which 
 
 guage of purer antiquity, as the reader were judged to deserve solemn penance, 
 
 may have observed in th» foregoing were but once admitted to it. 
 treatise. For, however God might par- 
 
Appendix. 201 
 
 themselves and to the Penitents who came before them, to 
 be forced upon publishing, in the face of their respective 
 congregations, all the sins which were thus confessed to 
 them ; and, therefore, they selected some one of their Pres- 
 byters, of the best reputation amongst them for prudence 
 and taciturnity, to preside over and to manage this whole 
 affair. To him offenders were thenceforwards to resort, 
 and to lay open before him the state of their lives and 
 actions. He, according to the nature and quality of each 
 person's sin, was to prescribe them what to do, and how 
 to behave for the future ; what austerities they were to 
 submit to, and how to afflict their own souls; and when 
 his directions had been complied with, he then absolved 
 them. 
 
 As to the Novatians, they, indeed, making no account of 
 the Penitential Discipline, could have no occasion either for 
 this office itself, or for the officer intrusted with it. But all 
 other sects retain them both to this day. The Western 
 Churches, and especially the Roman, have them in frequent 
 use and in great esteem. For there a public Station is ap- 
 pointed for penitents, where they stand under great appear- 
 ances of lamentation and sorrow ; and when so much of the 
 Liturgy is finished as to the dismission of the Catechumens, 
 without partaking of the Holy Mysteries with the Faithful, 
 they the Penitents prostrate themselves with sighs and groans 
 upon the ground ; the Bishop meets them in this posture 
 with tears, and prostrates himself with them; the whole 
 congregation joins with them in their mourning ; then the 
 Bishop first rises, and raises those who as yet are prostrate, 
 and, after putting up proper prayers to God for penitent 
 sinners, he dismisses them. So much for the public. But 
 then every man of them, for himself in private, mortifies 
 himself with all manner of austerities, as he is directed by 
 the Bishop, whose appointments he punctually observes, and 
 waits contentedly the time which is thus allotted him for his 
 continuance under the forementioned rigours : then, when 
 the period assigned him is finished, and the debt, as it were, 
 is cancelled, his sin is remitted, and he associates as before 
 with the rest of the Faithful. This hath been the usage of 
 
202 Appendix. 
 
 N um b. the Roman Church, from the very beginning to our present 
 — — : — age. 1 
 
 But in the Church of Constantinople there was a distinct 
 Presbyter appointed to take care of Penitents, until a lady of 
 quality was directed by one of these Presbyters to fast and 
 pray for certain sins which she had confessed to him, and 
 whilst she was in pursuance of these directions, and spent a 
 great deal of her time in the Church, it appeared at last that 
 she was naught with a Deacon belonging to it. 
 
 The people grew exasperated with the indignity which 
 herein was offered to the Church, and the Clergy were 
 mightily reproached upon this account. Nectarius was 
 much at a loss what to do in this untoward business ; how- 
 ever, he degraded the Deacon who had thus offended, and, 
 upon the advice of some, who counselled him to admit all 
 to communicate as their own consciences should direct or 
 embolden them, he finally abolished the Office of the Peni- 
 tentiary Presbyter, which Constitution of his hath remained 
 in force from that time to the present. 
 
 ler.] 
 
 Number IV. 
 
 The Prayer for Penitents, accompanied with Imposition of 
 [Ed. Cote- Hands. In Constitut. Apostol. Booh 8, Chap. ix. Trans- 
 lated from the Greek. 
 
 Almighty and eternal God, Lord of the Universe, Creator 
 and Governor of all things, Who, through Thy Son Jesus 
 Christ, hast" cleansed man, and made him the ornament of 
 this lower world, 2 and hast given him a law in his heart, as 
 well as a written word, that he might live according to Thy 
 will, as becomes a reasonable creature, and after he had 
 sinned didst extend Thy goodness towards him to lead him 
 
 1 The reader should not have been ' testimony he hath given to the continu- 
 
 troubled with the repetition of this ac- ance of the Penitential Discipline in those 
 
 count of Sozomen, which before was Churches, so late as the period which 
 
 given him in No. ii., from Socrates ; but himself lived in, viz. the latter end of the 
 
 for the additional relation which Sozo- fifth century. 
 
 men hath inserted of the Western customs 2 Whether these words are rightly 
 
 with regard to Penitents, and for the translated, because it is pretty hard to 
 
Appendix. 203 
 
 to repentance ; Thou, Who desirest not the death of a 
 sinner, tut wouldest rather that he should turn from his 
 evil way and live, look graciously upon these Thy servants, 
 who here bow down themselves before Thee in humiliation 
 and repentance. 1 Thou, Who didst accept the repentance of 
 the Ninevites turning to Thee ; Who wouldst have all men 
 to be saved and come to the knowledge of Thy truth. Thou, 
 Who didst receive with a fatherly compassion Thy prodigal 
 son, though he had spent all his substance in riotous living, 
 seeing at last that he was sorry for his sin, receive in like 
 manner, we most humbly beseech Thee, the supplications of 
 those who turn now unto Thee in penitential tears, 2 for there 
 is none amongst us who sinneth not against Thee and in 
 Thy sight, and if Thou, Lord, should be extreme to mark 
 what is done amiss, Lord, who may abide with Thee ? 
 But there is mercy with Thee [extend it, therefore, we 
 earnestly beg, to these Thy servants] ; restore them to the 
 bosom of Thy Holy Church, and to the place and station 
 which they before held in it, through Jesus Christ our 
 Saviour, 3 by Whom, in the Holy Ghost, be all honour and 
 adoration ascribed to Thee, world without end. Amen.* 
 
 reach the spirit of the original in our 3 [Toy Qsou xai trwrnpos fipajv.'] 
 
 language, I shall submit to the judg- » This prayer was in constant use at 
 
 ment of the learned reader. The words each assembly for solemn worship, 
 
 of the original are, avfyuvov xotrpou When it was finished, the Deacon pro- 
 
 xofffcov Ivowexs [dva5£/|«s, Cot.] , where claimed, " Depart all you who are in the 
 
 the ambiguity of the words xtur^ov and Station of penance ; " and added, more- 
 
 Koui/.m leaves room for a diversity in over, " Let none depart but those who 
 
 the rendering. In the construction I are appointed. Let us who are in the 
 
 have given of them, I have endeavoured number of the faithful, pray to God 
 
 to take in both the senses to which they through His Son Christ." 
 
 are applicable. Then followed the bidding Prayer, the 
 
 1 ["EcjvSe it! rails xixXtxotrx; (sic) aot Oblation, &c. — See, in this Appendix, 
 »j;i» •\iv%%s ui cufcxros.'] No. i., note 1, a farther Account of the 
 
 2 [n^oVJsgon rm Ixirm aou rh« M-e- Primitive Worship [p. 188], 
 TayvaiirivA 
 
NUMB. 
 V. 
 
 204 Appendix. 
 
 Number V. 
 
 Divers Prayers at receiving Penitents to Penance, at hearing 
 their Confession, and at Absolving them. Translated from 
 the. Greek, and taken out of the Penitential of Johannes 
 Jejunator, who was raised to the See of Constantinople, 
 a.d. 585. 
 
 When the Penitent was placed before the Altar, the 
 Penitential Service began with chanting certain Psalms, 
 viz. 24,50,31,69, 101. 
 
 After which, and the use of some other formularies, the 
 Priest put up the following prayer, before receiving the 
 Penitent's Confession. 
 
 Lord our God, the Father and Lord of all men, Who 
 beholdest all things, and dost indulgently extend Thy par- 
 don to such as turn unto Thee from their sinful ways ; 
 Thou, Who hadst compassion upon Thy servant David, 
 confessing his sin unto Thee, and didst prolong the life of 
 Hezekias upon his humble supplication ; and didst accept 
 the conversion of Manasses, and deliver him from his mani- 
 fold troubles ; Thou, Who didst forgive Peter and the 
 harlot, approaching to Thee with penitential tears ; Who 
 didst justify the publican when he bewailed his guilt ; Who 
 didst receive the prodigal with the arms of a tender parent ; 
 Who wouldst have all to be saved, and come to the know- 
 ledge of Thy truth ; Who dost rejoice at the repentance of 
 a sinner, and desirest not his death, but wouldst rather that 
 he should be converted, and live : Do Thou, most mer- 
 ciful Saviour, hearken, I beseech Thee, to my intercession, 
 the intercession of Thy unprofitable and unworthy servant, 
 who, through the multitude of my own sins, am indeed 
 unworthy to call upon Thy Holy Name. But, inasmuch as 
 I am invested with the character of Thy Priest, and by 
 Thy Commandment, am appointed to receive the Confession 
 of those who acknowledge their sins unto Thee ; I approach 
 the foot-stool of Thy throne, though with fear and trem- 
 bling. Hear me, therefore, Lord, according to the multi- 
 tude of Thy mercies, though I have sinned against Thee, 
 
Appendix. 205 
 
 and receive the Confession of Thy servant, who is now before 
 Thee ; and whatsoever guilt he may have contracted, either 
 through frailty or through wilfulness, by thought, word, or 
 deed, do Thou, I beseech Thee, in much mercy forgive it ; 
 for Thou only canst do it ; and, therefore, before Thee, we 
 prostrate ourselves, in fervent prayer, and do glorify Thy 
 Holy Name ; to Whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost, 
 be all praise and honour, now and ever. 
 
 After having put up this prayer, it should seem, by him- 
 self, and, after having given some proper admonitions to 
 the Penitent, the Priest received his Confession, and then 
 proceeded, in the optative way, to express his wishes and 
 desires, that God would shew him mercy, and extend His 
 pardon to him. And this he did in some one or more of 
 the forms following. 
 
 First Form. 
 
 God, the Lord Christ Jesus, our Ruler and Governor, 
 pardon thee all thy sins, which thou hast confessed to me, 
 His unworthy servant, in His all-seeing presence. 
 
 Second Form. 
 
 God, Who by His servant Nathan, pardoned the sins of 
 David upon his humble confession ; Who, moreover, for- 
 gave Peter, though he had denied Him, upon his weeping 
 bitterly ; and absolved the harlot lying prostrate, and wail- 
 ing at His blessed feet ; and shewed mercy to Manasses, 
 and the publican, and the prodigal son : He Who also said, 
 " Confess your sins to one another ; " may that same Lord 
 Jesus Christ forgive you every sin which you have here 
 confessed in His sight, to me, His unworthy servant, and 
 present you faultless before His judgment-seat, Who is 
 blessed for evermore. 
 
 Third Form. 
 
 God, Who for our sakes became man, and bore the sins 
 of the whole world, will also relieve thee, my beloved, from 
 the burden of those sins which thou hast now confessed 
 before Him, to me, His unworthy servant, and will pardon 
 
206 Appendix. 
 
 numb, them both in this life, and in that which is to come ; inas- 
 
 v. 
 '- much as He wills and longs for, and grants Salvation to all, 
 
 Who is Himself blessed for ever. 1 
 
 The Priest did then proceed to use some one or more of 
 
 the following intercessions for the Penitent's pardon. 
 
 First Prayer. 
 
 O Lord our Saviour, Who by thy Prophet Nathan, didst 
 remit the sin of Thy servant David, humbling himself before 
 Thee in penitential sorrow, and didst hearken to the prayer 
 of penitent Manasses ; receive, Lord, to Thy wonted 
 compassions, this Thy servant, who here confesses his sins 
 before Thee, and truly repents of them : for Thou, Lord, 
 didst command the forgiveness of sins until seventy times 
 seven ; because, as is Thy Majesty, so is Thy mercy. Thou 
 art the God of those who truly repent, and dost Thyself 
 condescend to grieve at our backslidings. To Thee, there- 
 fore, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, we render all 
 honour and glory, now and ever. 
 
 Second Prayer. 
 
 Lord our God and Governor, Who callest the righteous 
 to sanctification, and sinners to make them righteous ; ac- 
 cept, I beseech Thee, the repentance of this Thy servant ; 
 and, as he here humbles himself before Thee in the Confes- 
 sion of his sins, so do Thou cleanse him from all the guilt, 
 wherewith his carnal will may have defiled him ; wash off all 
 stains from his conscience, and make him pure ; strengthen 
 him with Thy might, in fulfilling Thy Commandments ; 
 dispose and qualify him for the remission of all his sins ; 2 
 that being cleansed both in body and mind, he may become 
 a fit habitation for Thy Spirit, and be rendered thereby an 
 heir of Thy Kingdom, through the mercies and the merits 
 of Thy Only-begotten Son, with Whom, and with the 
 blessed all-quickening Spirit, Thou livest and reignest, now 
 and ever. 
 
 1 This Form is merely declarative, and ' This manner of expression shews, 
 
 seems to have been only designed for the that his sins were not understood to be 
 
 Penitent's comfort, and to intimate the remitted by any of these forms ; which 
 
 opinion of the Priest that his case was were therefore only preparatory to his 
 
 hopeful. Absolution. 
 
Appendix. 207 
 
 Third Prayer. 
 
 Lord God of our Salvation, Who art merciful and com- 
 passionate, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness ; Who 
 grievest for our wickedness, nor wouldst the death of a 
 sinner, but rather that he should turn from his wickedness 
 and live ; be Thou entreated for this Thy servant, grant him 
 the forgiveness of all his sins, accept an atonement for his 
 iniquities, and pardon whatsoever he may have committed 
 against Thee, either through infirmity, or through wilful 
 guilt. Be propitious to him, I most humbly beseech Thee, 
 and unite him to Thy Holy Church, through Jesus Christ 
 our Lord, to Whom with Thee, and the most holy all- 
 quickening Spirit, be ascribed might, majesty, and domi- 
 nion, now and ever. 
 
 Fourth Prayer. 
 
 Lord Jesu Christ, the Son of the living God ; the 
 Shepherd, Who carest for Thy flock ; the Lamb, Who 
 takest away the sins of the world : Thou, Who didst gra- 
 ciously remit to the two debtors what they owed Thee ; and 
 didst pardon the woman who was a sinner coming unto 
 Thee ; and, besides the forgiveness of the paralytic's sin, 
 didst grant him, moreover, a cure of his disease : do Thou, 
 Lord, spare, forgive, and pardon whatsoever this Thy 
 servant may have committed disobediently against Thee, 
 either through ignorance, or with knowledge ; through 
 infirmity, or with wilful guilt. If, as a man, encompassed 
 with flesh and blood, or, as an inhabitant of this world of 
 sin, he hath in any thing been beguiled, through the fraud 
 of the Devil, and proceeded thence against the light of 
 reason, either in word or deed, ignorantly or knowingly, by 
 any heretical pravity, or through a judicial blindness, or by 
 any imprecation rashly drawn by himself upon his own 
 head ;* may it please Thee, whatever it be, to overlook and 
 
 1 EiVs Xoyn ale'itr'tos , «7ts vno xxrd- given them for the learned reader to 
 (w ly'avro, itrt 'ih'iu ivxtifuLri uwi- make his own judgment of them ; and 
 mnv »j 'opxip. either to correct or approve mine, as he 
 
 Because the meaning of these words is pleases, 
 somewhat obscure and uncertain, I have 
 
208 Appendix. 
 
 numb, to forgive it, according to Thine abundant mercies, and to 
 
 - release him from the bond wherewith it may any way have 
 bound him. O Lord, our God, I beseech thee hearken to 
 my intercession for him, and impute not his sins unto him ; 
 but, according to Thy great goodness, deliver him from Thine 
 eternal wrath. For Thou art the God Who hast said, 
 " Whomsoever ye shall bind on earth, he shall be bound in 
 Heaven ; and whomsoever ye shall loose on earth, he shall 
 be loosed in Heaven." Thou art a God Who dost not, nor 
 canst do evil, and art able to forgive sins. To Thee, there- 
 fore, and to the eternal Father, and to Thy holy all-quicken- 
 ing Spirit, we ascribe all honour and glory, from henceforth 
 for ever. 
 
 Fifth Prayer. 
 
 O Lord our Father, deliver not this Thy servant into the 
 power of the Devil, and let not our enemies prevail against 
 us. Put into his mouth the observation of Thy laws, and 
 seal up his lips, that no deceitful word may proceed from 
 them. Remove from him a proud look, and cleanse him 
 from all sensual and naughty dispositions. Let no spirit of 
 conceit, nor obstinacy, nor any deceitfulness of tongue, 
 remain in him. Possess his mind with a spirit of goodness, 
 and let no unclean spirit abide with or pollute him. Avert 
 all evil from him, and cancel all the debt he hath contracted 
 by his sin. Look down upon him from Heaven, and make 
 him glad with the joy of Thy countenance ; for in Thee 
 hath he put his trust. Let him not, therefore, become a 
 prey to the Devil. For Thou hast delivered us from eternal 
 death, through the grace of Christ, with Whom, and with 
 the holy all-quickening Spirit, Thou art blessed for ever- 
 more. 
 
 After the use of the foregoing prayers, there succeeded 
 certain admonitions and exhortations, with some portions of 
 Scripture applicable to the present purpose ; and then di- 
 rections were given for the Penitent's behaviour, and for the 
 mortifications he was to submit to. So that all hitherto 
 seems to have been no more, nor other than receiving the 
 party to penance, which was ever performed with great 
 
Appendix. 209 
 
 solemnity, with proper prayers, and with imposition of 
 hands. 
 
 When the penitential course which was now assigned the 
 penitent, had been gone through, the party thus bound was 
 loosed in one or both of the forms subjoined. 
 
 First Form of Absolution. 
 
 Most merciful, compassionate, and gracious God, Who, 
 according to Thine abundant pity, hast sent Thine Only- 
 begotten Son into the world to blot out the hand-writing 
 which was against us, and to loose us from the chains 
 wherewith our sins had bound us, and to preach redemption 
 to the captives, and to disarm death of its sting : do Thou, 
 Lord, vouchsafe to deliver this Thy servant here prostrate 
 before Thee, from the yoke he is at present under, and to 
 loose him from the bond which is imposed upon him ; grant 
 to him that he may at all times, and in all places, approach 
 the throne of Thy glory, without offending Thee, and with- 
 out defiling his own conscience, and there present his suppli- 
 cations to the riches of Thy grace, because Thou art a 
 merciful and gracious God ; to Whom, Father, Son, and 
 Holy Ghost, we humbly ascribe all honour and glory, now 
 and ever. 
 
 Second Form of Absolution. 
 
 God, our Lord and Governor, Who didst present Thyself 
 to Thy Disciples, when the doors were shut, after having 
 said, " Peace be unto you. Whosesoever sins ye remit, they 
 are remitted unto them ; and whosesoever sins ye retain, 
 they are retained." Do Thou, O Lord God, according to 
 that invisible Almighty power wherewith Thou presidest 
 over all things, graciously look upon this Thy servant, and 
 by my Ministry, though I am myself a grievous sinner, wash 
 away his guilt, and remove the causes through which he 
 hath contracted it ; that he who is bound by the Discipline 
 of the Church, may be loosed from the sin which brought 
 him under it ; through Thy grace and compassion, merciful 
 God, Whose holy Name, Father, Son, and blessed Spirit, be 
 praised and magnified, now and for evermore. 
 
210 Appendix. 
 
 NUMB. 
 VI. 
 
 Number VI. 
 
 Certain Extracts from the Capitular of Theodorus, Arch- 
 [P.2i.seq.] bishop of Canterbury, as published by Monsieur Petit; 
 which represent to us the Form of the Penitential Disci- 
 pline as it stood in those Days. 
 
 Upon Ash Wednesday, called anciently Caput Jejunii, or 
 Caput Quadragesimoe, all public penitents were to place 
 themselves before the doors of the Episcopal Church, bare- 
 foot, and clothed with sackcloth, and with all suitable 
 appearances of mourning and humiliation. Their respective 
 penitentiary Priests were to attend them, and all together 
 were to present themselves before the Bishop, who was to 
 lead them into the Church, and with his whole Clergy 
 attending and joining with him, to chant the seven peni- 
 tential Psalms in a posture of prostration, in order to their 
 penance and Absolution. Then rising from prayer, he was 
 to sprinkle ashes over them, and so to lay his hands upon 
 them, and solemnly to pronounce their expulsion out of the 
 church. Accordingly, the Deacons were to see the church- 
 doors shut upon them, and then, the Clergy, following them, 
 brought them back into the church. The Bishop having 
 admonished them upon the heads of the greater sins, and 
 examined their conduct with regard to them, and received 
 their desires of his intercession to God for them, together 
 with their promises of better care for the future, he then 
 proceeded to the following forms, wherein he admitted them 
 to penance, and afterwards absolved them, each, it should 
 seem, separately, and so restored them to Communion, though 
 the entire process of this affair might take up, I presume, the 
 whole Lent season. 
 
 First Form. 
 
 Christ, the Son of God, have compassion on you, and 
 grant you to perform acceptable penance. 1 May He give 
 
 1 Hence it should seem (and it appears lution) that the penance now assigned to 
 indeed otherwise from the penitential penitents was, according to the modern 
 directions being postponed to the Abso- practice of the Roman Church, per- 
 
Appendix. 21 1 
 
 you, moreover, a sound faith, a lively hope, a perfect charity, 
 true humility and wisdom, soberness and patience, perseve- 
 rance in good works, and an happy end. God, of His 
 abundant mercy, pardon you all your sins, present, past, 
 and future. May His Holy Spirit enlighten you ; may He 
 guide all your senses ; inspire you with holy thoughts and 
 purposes ; save your soul ; and bring you finally to life 
 eternal. 
 
 Second Form. 
 
 Christ, the Son of the living God, assist and enable you to 
 persevere in good works all the days of your life, and bring 
 you, at the conclusion of it, to life eternal. 
 
 Third Form. 
 
 God, Whose compassions we all stand in need of, 
 remember, we beseech Thee, this Thy servant, who here 
 presents himself before Thee, despoiled of Thy grace through 
 the infirmities of his flesh. Pardon him, we pray Thee, 
 upon his humble Confession, and spare him upon the devout 
 supplications which he makes unto Thee, that he, whom his 
 sins have accused to Thy justice, may by Thy mercy be 
 absolved and saved. 
 
 Fourth Form. 
 
 Holy Lord, Almighty Father, and Eternal God, Who, by 
 Thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord, hast been pleased to heal 
 the wounds and bruises of our sins ; Thou, Who forgivest all 
 wickedness, and pardonest all iniquity ; to Thee we humbly 
 bow ourselves, and beseech Thee to incline Thy merciful 
 ears to our prayers, which we make before Thee, on the 
 behalf of this Thy servant, that Thou wouldst graciously 
 remit his guilt, and grant him comfort and gladness for the 
 time wherein he hath suffered adversity ; that Thou wouldst 
 mercifully vouchsafe him life, instead of the death which his 
 sins have merited, and give him at last a sure access to life 
 eternal. 
 
 formed after their Absolution. But then since the representation is so confused 
 
 it -will be hard to conclude, in what age • and imperfect, and the Penitential (how- 
 
 of the Church this practice began ; or, ever for the main his own) hath certainly 
 
 indeed, to determine hence, that it had been interpolated since his time by foreign 
 
 any footing in the time of Theodorus, and later authors. 
 
NUMB. 
 VI. 
 
 212 Appendix. 
 
 Fifth "Form. 
 
 Almighty and Most Merciful God, Who hast made the 
 confession of sin a condition of Thy pardon to it ; mercifully 
 come in to the succour of this Thy servant, who hath done 
 wickedness in Thy sight, and hath confessed it before Thee ; 
 that he who is tied and bound with the chain of his sins, 
 may be loosed by the pitifulness of Thy great mercy. 
 
 Sixth Form. 
 Almighty and Everlasting God, pardon, we beseech Thee, 
 of Thine infinite goodness, the sins of this Thy servant, who 
 hath here most humbly confessed them to Thee, that the 
 conscience of his guilt may not call louder for punishment, 
 than the pitifulness of Thy mercy may plead for his forgive- 
 ness. 
 
 Seventh Form. 
 
 O Lord, I humbly beseech Thy majesty, and implore Thy 
 mercy for this Thy servant, that Thou wouldst be pleased to 
 pardon the sins which he hath here confessed unto Thee, and 
 that Thou wouldst remember no more against him his past 
 iniquities. Thou, Who hast represented Thyself as bringing 
 back upon Thy shoulders the lost sheep with joy, and Who 
 didst receive the publican upon his humble prayer and 
 confession to Thee, be Thou, also, merciful to this Thy 
 servant, and favourably receive the prayers which he makes 
 before Thee, that, after having appeased Thy wrath by his ac- 
 knowledgment of his sin unto Thee, he may continue here- 
 after in Thy fear and favour. 1 Let his prayers and his tears 
 ascend up speedily to Thy Throne, and bring down thence Thy 
 blessing upon him ; that so, being restored to the privilege of 
 Thy Sanctuary, he may again be entituled to the hope of Thy 
 heavenly and eternal glory, Who livest and reignest, &c. 
 
 1 " Ut in Confessione placabilis perma- appease, or one who was capable of a 
 
 neat." The words are somewhat ob- reconciliation. The former sense was 
 
 sctire ; I have given them the sense certainly intended in the old manuscript 
 
 which I conceive to have been designed published by Mr. Petit, of which some 
 
 by them, though they will hardly bear a account is here given in No. viii., where 
 
 literal translation. " Placabilis," accord- the words are, Ut in Confessione placa- 
 
 ing to the barbarism of this age, was, I bili permaneat. 
 suppose, meant to signify conducing to 
 
Appendix. 213 
 
 Eighth Form. 
 
 The Almighty God be your Helper and Protector, and 
 grant you the pardon of all your sins, past, present, and 
 future. 
 
 Divers of these Forms I suppose to have been used both 
 in the private and public Absolutions ; and though some of 
 them may be later than the age of Theodorus, yet they are 
 all of them, we see, either precatory or optative, none, as 
 yet, indicative or peremptory. 
 
 Number VII. 
 
 Other Extracts, from the Penitential of Ecbert, who was 
 Archbishop of York, from the year 731, to about the year 
 767, published by Morinus, and translated from him. 
 
 When any resorted to the Priest for penance, the Priest 
 was directed to retire, and thu to pray by himself in secret. 
 
 Lord God Almighty, be merciful, I beseech Thee, to me [Morinus, 
 a sinner, that I may be rendered, through Thy grace, a fit 
 mediator between Thee and those who would now confess 
 their sins unto Thee ; Thou Who wouldst not the death of a 
 sinner, but rather that he should be converted and live ; re- 
 ceive, I entreat Thee, the supplication of me Thy unworthy 
 servant, which I make before Thee, on the behalf of those 
 who desire to return unto Thee by repentance, that Thou 
 wouldst absolve them from their sins, and preserve them 
 blameless all the rest of their lives, through Jesus Christ, &c. 
 
 Another formulary, to the same purpose, out of Theo- 
 dorus or Bede. 
 
 Lord God Almighty, be merciful, I beseech Thee, to me [ p - 40 - 1 
 a sinner, that I may acceptably present my thanks and praises 
 before Thee, for having constituted me, through Thy unde- 
 served mercy, a Minister of Thy Holy Priesthood, and a 
 mediator to intercede with our Lord Jesus Christ on the be- 
 half of sinners, who desire to return unto Him by repent- 
 ance : therefore, Lord our Governor, Who wouldst have 
 
214 Appendix. 
 
 numb, all to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of Thy truth ; 
 
 '- — Who wouldst not the death of a sinner, but rather that he 
 
 should be converted and live ; do Thou receive the prayers 
 which I make before Thee, for these Thy servants, now re- 
 turning unto Thee by repentance ; give them a broken and 
 a contrite spirit, that they may recover from the snare of the 
 Devil, wherein they are now entangled ; and graciously 
 accept their penance as an atonement for their sins, through 
 the same Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 When the penitents approached the Priest, the Priest 
 was further directed thus to pray over them. 
 
 O God, Who cleansest the hearts of all who confess their 
 sins unto Thee, and loosest all those from the bond of sin 
 who accuse their consciences before Thee ; give, I beseech 
 Thee, liberty to these captives, and pour in oil upon their 
 wounds, that being rescued from the dominion of sin, they 
 may serve Thee acceptably, with pure hearts, and with free 
 minds, through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 Another formulary, to the same purpose, for a single 
 penitent. 
 
 Grant to us, Lord, I beseech Thee, that as Thou wast re- 
 conciled to the publican upon his prayer, and his Confession 
 of his sin unto Thee, so Thou wouldst now be reconciled unto 
 this Thy servant, that by his continuance in a state of mourn- 
 ful Confession and prayer unto Thee, he niay the sooner 
 obtain Thy merciful pardon ; and being restored to the pri- 
 vilege of Communion with Thy Church upon earth, he may 
 be again entitled to Thy Kingdom in Heaven, through Jesus 
 Christ our Lord. 
 
 The party next for himself, before he made his Confes- 
 sion, was to put up the following prayer. 
 
 O God the Creator of all things, Who didst make and 
 fashion me ; my Redeemer, and my Judge, Who hast given 
 me the will to confess my sins unto Thee ; do thou remove 
 from me all the impediments of shame and bashfulness, that 
 my confession may be full and entire before Thee ; that my 
 love of Thee may prevail with me to keep nothing hid, nor 
 
Appendix. 215 
 
 to misrepresent what I have committed, by any too soft, or 
 favourable rehearsal of it. And if Thou wilt grant this to 
 me, then shall I be satisfied, that I may come into the number 
 of Thy chosen servants. 
 
 Then the penitent was questioned by the Priest, or 
 Bishop, as to his faith, &c, and after having made his Con- 
 fession, and desired the Priest's or Bishop's intercession for 
 him, the Priest or Bishop thus subjoined. 
 
 The Almighty Lord, Who said, " Whosoever shall confess 
 Me before men, him will I also confess before My Father 
 which is in Heaven," grant you His blessing, and remission 
 of your sins. 
 
 Or thus. 
 
 The Lord Christ Jesus look upon you, and grant you His 
 Salvation, and inspire you with with His spiritual gifts and 
 graces, that the enemy may not be able in any thing to de- 
 ceive, or to do you violence. The Lord Jesus, Who hath 
 destroyed the Devil, and delivered us from the punishment 
 of eternal torments, receive you into His gracious protec- 
 tion, that through His blessing and favour, you may at last 
 attain to the Kingdom of Heaven. The Lord God turn upon 
 you the light of His countenance, and give you peace all the 
 days of your life. God of His mercy hear your prayer, and 
 sanctify you throughout, that you may be perfect and entire, 
 both in body and in mind, and that the day of our Saviour's 
 coming may find you blameless. May He grant you an 
 Angel of peace to guide and govern your heart, both in this 
 life and in the next, and purify your soul from all stain of 
 guilt. The Lord defend you from all evil, and from all the 
 accusations of your ghostly enemy, that when He shall come 
 in His glory, He may not reject you, but may receive you 
 finally to the felicity of His Kingdom. 
 
 If there were time, the following prayers were added. 
 
 First Prayer. 
 
 Hearken, O Lord, to these our supplications, and remove 
 not Thy mercy far from this Thy servant; heal his sores, 
 and pardon his sins, that no transgression of his may sepa- 
 
216 Appendix. 
 
 numb, rate between him and Thee; hut that he may always cleave 
 '- — to Thee, and may abide with Thee for ever. 
 
 Second Prayer. 
 
 Lord God, Whose long-suffering is not wearied by our 
 sins, but Who allowest us to appease Thy wrath by our re- 
 pentance, mercifully look upon this Thy servant, who con- 
 fesses his sin unto Thee ; for to Thee it belongeth to forgive 
 sin, and to absolve those who have offended Thee ; Who hast 
 declared, that " Thou wouldst rather the repentance, than 
 
 , the death of a sinner." Do Thou, therefore, grant unto this 
 Thy servant, that He may perform unto Thee acceptable 
 penance, for the faults which he hath committed against 
 Thee, and 1 .... may, by the amendment of his life, arrive at 
 length to Thy eternal blessedness, through Jesus Christ. 
 
 Third Prayer. 
 O Lord, I humbly beseech Thy Majesty, that Thou wouldst 
 pardon the sins of this Thy servant, which he hath com- 
 mitted against Thee, and now confessed before Thee ; Thou, 
 Who didst bring back the lost sheep upon Thy shoulders, 
 and Who didst favourably receive the prayer and Confession 
 of the publican ; do Thou, O Lord, accept, in like manner, 
 the Confession and prayer of this Thy servant, that by his 
 continuance in this humble frame of mind, he may the 
 sooner attain Thy pardon, and being restored to the Com- 
 munion of Saints, and to the Ordinances of Thy Church, 
 may, thence, again be made capable of inheriting thine 
 Heavenly Kingdom. 
 
 When the whole Penitential Course was gone through, 
 the reconciliation followed, which was couched in some one 
 or more of the forms subjoined. 
 
 First Form. 
 Grant, O Lord, to this Thy servant, fruits meet for 
 repentance, that he may obtain the pardon of his sin, 
 and so be restored to Thy Holy Church, from the unity 
 of which his sin had separated him ; through Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 1 Here is a gap in the Penitential, which I have so far endeavoured to fill up, as to 
 make the sense entire. 
 
Appendix. 217 
 
 Second Form. 
 
 Almighty and Everlasting God, release, I beseech Thee, 
 this Thy servant, from the sin which he hath here confessed 
 before Thee ; that the guilt of his conscience may call no 
 louder for punishment, than the pitiful ness of Thy mercy 
 may plead for his forgiveness, through Jesus Christ. 
 
 If there were time, the following formularies were added; 
 otherwise the preceding were judged sufficient. 
 
 Third Form. 
 
 Lord, we humbly beseech Thy Majesty, that Thou 
 wouldst mercifully receive to Thy favour this Thy servant, 
 who hath long been disciplined with penitential rigours; 
 that so being clothed with the wedding-garment, he may 
 be meet for a restoration to Thy royal Table, from which he 
 hath been rejected ; through Jesus Christ. 
 
 Fourth Form. 
 
 Lord, and Holy Father, Almighty and Eternal God, 
 Who wouldst not the death of a sinner, but desirest rather 
 that he should live; we humbly beseech Thy Majesty to re- 
 gard in much mercy this Thy servant, here weeping and 
 wailing before Thee ; look upon him here prostrate at the ■ 
 footstool of Thy Throne, turn Thou his heaviness into joy, 
 put off his sackcloth, and gird him with gladness ; that after 
 so long a separation from the delicacies of Thy Table, he may 
 henceforth be satisfied with the plenteousness of Thy house ; 
 and entering into the chamber of Thee, King ! may praise 
 and glorify Thy Name, for ever and ever. 
 
 Fifth Form. 
 
 Lord, hear our prayers, and spare all those who confess 
 their sins unto Thee ; that they whose consciences by sin are 
 accused, by Thy merciful pardon may be absolved, through 
 Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
NUMB. 
 VII. 
 
 218 Appendix. 
 
 Sixth Form. 
 
 Let Thy mercy, O Lord, prevent, we beseech Thee, this 
 Thy servant, that all his sins may be speedily pardoned by 
 Thine abundant pity, through Jesus Christ. 
 
 Then a blessing was pronounced upon the Penitent, in 
 some one, or more, of the forms following. 
 
 First Form of Benediction. 
 
 The Almighty God be merciful to you, pardon all your sins, 
 and deliver you from all evil, preserve you in all good, and 
 lead you finally to life eternal, through Jesus Christ. 
 
 Second Form. 
 
 God the Father bless you ; Jesus Christ protect and keep 
 you ; the Holy Spirit enlighten you all the days of your 
 life ; the power of Christ preserve you ; the Lord pardon all 
 your trespasses and sins. 
 
 Third Form. 
 
 The Lord bless and keep you ; the Lord lift up His coun- 
 tenance upon you, and shew you mercy ; the Lord turn His 
 face towards you, and give you peace, Who liveth, and 
 reigneth, &c. 
 
 Fourth Form. 
 
 The Lord God Almighty bless you, and establish your 
 heart by the abundant aids of His grace ; be your Instructor 
 in all good works ; give you prosperity, peace, and Salva- 
 tion ; nourish in you all spiritual comforts ; enlarge and 
 strengthen your charity, and defend you by His mighty 
 power from all the machinations of men and devils; enable 
 you to do whatever He shall require of you ; remove from 
 you the guilt of those sins which you have committed, and 
 grant you the grace you have always asked of Him, through 
 Jesus Christ, &c. 
 
 This will suffice to give the reader some notion of the 
 old Penitential Formularies, and to convince him that the 
 
Appendix. 219 
 
 Office of the Priest was hitherto that of mediator, or inter- 
 cessor; as well as that all Absolutions, whether public or 
 private, were evermore relative to a course of penance, either 
 in public or in private ; and did suppose the right and pri- 
 vilege of Communion had been forfeited, and were thereby 
 restored. It is our misfortune, that we have none of these 
 formularies older than the sixth century; nor even these 
 conveyed to us without great and just suspicion of their hav- 
 ing suffered from later mixtures. 
 
 I shall now subjoin, out of the same author, one further 
 directory for the reception and reconciliation of Clinical, or 
 sick-bed Penitents. 
 
 When the Priest came into the presence of the sick, he 
 asked, upon what business he was sent for? The sick an- 
 swered, " To give me penance." The Priest was then to reply, ut mihi 
 " The Lord Christ Jesus grant you His merciful pardon. But tiam tradas. 
 if God shall look graciously upon you, will you go through 
 the penance which I now shall give you?" And upon the 
 answer of the sick in the affirmative, the Priest, in token of 
 giving him penance, held sackcloth over him, and signed the 
 breast of the sick with the sign of the Cross, in ashes ; and 
 then subjoined some one or more of the following prayers. 
 
 First Prayer. 
 
 Receive, Lord, we beseech Thee, the supplications and 
 prayers which we make before Thee, for all Thy servants in 
 distress and sickness. Replenish all those with Thy mercy, 
 to whom we extend these offices of our charity, that we may 
 rejoice in Thy blessings upon them, through Jesus Christ. 
 
 Second Prayer. 
 
 Eternal God, Holy and Almighty Father, extend, we be- 
 seech Thee, Thy merciful aid to all those whom we visit in their 
 distress and sickness ; that whomsoever we approach with 
 these our charitable offices, Thy Spirit may take up His 
 abode in their hearts, through Jesus Christ. 
 
 Third Prayer. 
 
 Hear us, O Lord, Holy Father, Almighty and Eternal 
 God, and if there be any distress or sickness in the dwelling 
 
220 Appendix. 
 
 numb, of this Thy servant, let the power of Thy Majesty drive it 
 
 VII 
 
 hence, through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 N.B. — The three preceding prayers seem preparatory to 
 the following forms. 
 
 First Form. 
 
 O God, Who wouldst have none to perish, hut wouldst 
 rather that all men should come to repentance and live; Who 
 so smitest the sinner, that Thy correction is only the har- 
 binger of Thy love ; Who, as a tender Shepherd, bringest 
 hack Thy lost sheep upon Thy shoulders into his proper 
 fold, leaving the ninety and nine who had never strayed, to 
 fetch hack again that which had wandered from Thee ; we 
 most humbly beseech Thee, that Thou wouldst vouchsafe in 
 like manner, to absolve this Thy servant, who lies here before 
 Thee, having erred and strayed from Thy ways like a lost 
 sheep ; through the mercies and the merits of Jesus Christ. 
 
 Second Form. 
 
 God, Who didst add fifteen years to the life of Thy ser- 
 vant Ezechias, raise up, we beseech Thee, this Thy servant 
 from the bed of his sickness, and by the same mighty power 
 restore his health, through Jesus Christ. 
 
 Third Form. 
 
 O God, Who by the prayers of Thy Holy Apostle St. Peter, 
 didst raise Thy servant Dorcas to life again ; hear in like 
 manner, we humbly beseech Thee, the prayers which we offer 
 before Thee for this Thy servant, whom we visit in Thy 
 Name, that, by our intercession, he may receive from Thee 
 the cure of all his maladies, through Jesus Christ. 
 
 Fourth Form. 
 
 Look mercifully, O Lord, upon this Thy servant, and assist 
 him graciously ; let Thy hand, as well as mine, be upon the 
 bed of his sickness, and assuage his sufferings ; least mine 
 alone, who am myself a grievous sinner, be not sufficient 
 without Thee to relieve him. Do Thou grant him therefore 
 Thy mighty aid, that when we call upon Thy Name, his dis- 
 ease may leave him ; and he may recover his former health, 
 
Appendix. 22\ 
 
 to praise and glorify Thee in the face of Thy Church, through 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 Fifth Form. 
 
 Look graciously, Lord, upon this Thy servant here lying 
 under Thy hand in great weakness of body ; comfort the 
 soul of Thy servant, the work of Thine hands; that being 
 amended by Thy chastisements, he may always acknowledge 
 Thee for his Saviour and Deliverer, through Jesus Christ. 
 
 Sixth Form. 
 
 God, Who favourably beholdest the whole Creation, in- 
 cline Thine ear to these our supplications, which we make 
 before Thee for this Thy servant ; look graciously upon him 
 in his present distress ; visit him, O Lord, with Thy Salva- 
 tion, and heal his sickness, through Christ Jesus. 
 
 Seventh Form. 
 
 God, Who hast given to mankind many and excellent 
 gifts, in order to their eternal welfare ; grant unto this Thy 
 servant, the gifts and graces of Thy Spirit ; that he may 
 acknowledge both the health of his body and the Salvation 
 of his soul, to have been derived from Thee, Who art the 
 Giver of every good and perfect gift, through Jesus Christ. 
 
 Eighth Form. 
 
 God, Who commandest all things both in Heaven and 
 earth ; and Who by Thy mighty power dost drive away all 
 sickness and all diseases from our bodies ; mercifully look 
 upon this Thy servant, that having recovered his health and 
 strength, he may glorify Thy Name, through Jesus Christ. 
 
 Ninth Form. 
 
 Lord and Holy Father, Almighty and Eternal God, Who 
 dost perfect Thy strength in our weakness, and makest our 
 bodies healthy and strong ; mercifully look upon this Thy 
 servant, and removing the cause of all his infirmities, restore 
 him, we beseech Thee, to his former health, through Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
222 Appendix. 
 
 numb. If the sickbed penitent, after having testified his desire 
 
 VII 
 
 of penance before sufficient witnesses, grew speechless or de- 
 lirious before the Priest could reach him, all was transacted 
 for him, as if he were capable ; and he was solemnly recon- 
 ciled, without Confession, or other apparatus, in one of the 
 following forms. 
 
 First Form. 
 
 most merciful and gracious God, Who, according to the 
 multitude of Thy mercies, dost so put away the sins of those 
 who truly repent, that Thou rememberest them no more, 
 open Thine eye of pity upon this Thy servant, who most 
 earnestly desires pardon and forgiveness. Renew in him, 
 most loving Father, whatsoever hath been decayed by the 
 fraud and malice of the devil, or by his own carnal will and 
 frailty. Restore him to the unity of Thy Church, by a full 
 and perfect remission of all his sins. Consider his contrition ; 
 accept his tears ; and, as he putteth his full trust only in 
 Thy mercy, admit him to Thy peace, and be Thou reconciled 
 to him, through Jesus Christ. 
 
 Second Form. 1 
 
 Most merciful and gracious God, Who confinest Thy par- 
 don to no one season of life, but art always ready to open 
 the door of Thy mercy to such as knock and ask for it ; 
 Thou, who rejectest not the approaches of penitent sinners 
 to Thee, even in their last moments ; look down with an eye 
 of compassion upon this Thy servant, confessing his sins 
 unto Thee, and earnestly desiring Thy pardon and forgive- 
 ness. Renew in him, most loving Father, whatsoever he 
 may have committed against Thee, by thought, word, or 
 deed, through the fraud of his ghostly enemy ; and as he is 
 one of those whom Thou earnest to redeem, reunite him, we 
 beseech Thee, to the body of Thy Church. Consider his 
 contrition, accept his tears ; and, as he putteth his full trust 
 only in Thy mercy, receive him to Thy favour, and vouchsafe 
 
 1 The former of these seems fitter of less before the Priest's arrival. This 
 
 the two, for the case of such Clinical latter expressly mentions the Confession 
 
 Penitents, as had given proofs of desiring f his sins, and implies it to have pre- 
 
 penance, but grew delirious or speech- ceded. 
 
Appendix. 223 
 
 to be reconciled unto him. For Thou canst easily wipe out 
 the stains which any soul may have contracted by its habita- 
 tion in a frail and mortal- body. Thou art true and faithful 
 in all Thy sayings, and hast pronounced Salvation to the 
 sinner, as soon as he shall return from the wickedness of his 
 ways. Do Thou, therefore, forgive and save Thy servant 
 now before Thee, through Jesus Christ. 
 
 Then followed the Benediction, in some one or more of 
 the subjoined Formularies. 
 The Introduction to which here follows : — 
 
 " The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron Numb. 6. 
 and to his sons, saying, On this wise shall ye bless the 
 children of Israel, saying unto them, The Lord bless thee, 
 and keep thee ; the Lord make His face shine upon thee, 
 and be gracious unto thee ; the Lord lift up His countenance 
 upon thee, and give thee peace," Who liveth and reigneth, 
 world without end. 
 
 First Form. 
 
 God the Father Who created you ; Jesus Christ Who 
 suffered for you ; the Holy Spirit Who hath been shed upon 
 you, heal and help you. The whole blessed Trinity be ever 
 with you, all the days of your life. Amen. 
 
 Second Form. 
 
 God the Father bless you ; the Son of God relieve you ; 
 the Holy Spirit of God enlighten you ; receive your body 
 and soul into His gracious protection ; and lead you finally 
 to life eternal. Amen. 
 
 Third Form. 
 
 " The very God of Peace sanctify you wholly ; and I pray 1 Thess. 5. 
 God your whole spirit, soul, and body, be preserved blame- 23 
 less unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
 Fourth Form. 
 The Almighty God, Who hath said, " Whosoever shall 
 confess Me before men, him will I also confess before My 
 
224 Appendix. 
 
 numb. Father which is in Heaven," pour upon you His blessing, 
 
 VII. 
 
 and grant you the remission of all your sins. 
 
 Fifth Form. 
 
 The Lord Christ Jesus look upon you, grant you His 
 Salvation, and give you the graces of His Spirit, that the 
 enemy may not approach to hurt or to deceive you. 
 
 Sixth Form. 
 
 The Lord Jesus Christ, Who hath slain the Devil, and 
 delivered us from the wrath to come, receive you into His 
 most mighty protection, that you may come at last by His 
 blessing to His Heavenly Kingdom. 
 
 The Most High God, the Almighty Lord of Life, defend 
 you from all danger, both in this world and in the next. 
 The Lord lift up the light of His countenance upon you, and 
 grant you peace all the days of your life. The Lord sanctify 
 you throughout, that you may be lowly, perfect, and entire 
 both in body and soul ; and be preserved blameless in both 
 unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 The Lord grant you an Angel of Peace to guide your 
 heart both in this world and the other. May He purify 
 your soul from all guilt, defend you from all evil, and from 
 all the accusations of your ghostly enemy. And when He 
 shall come in His Majesty to judgment, may He not reject 
 you, but receive you to the recompense of His glorious 
 Kingdom. 
 
 Thus far our Archbishop Ecbert ; from whom, it appears, 
 that all Absolutions as yet were precatory. Nay, and to go 
 much lower than the period whence these collections are 
 taken, even to the latter part of the eleventh century, there 
 we shall find them running in the same form. Mr. Petit 
 hath published a Breviary composed for the use of a certain 
 monastery in Italy, which, though it carries divers marks of 
 that age's superstition, yet hath all its Forms of Reconcilia- 
 tion, which are very many, precatory and optative. 
 
 Paschasius Quesnel conjectures this Breviary to have been 
 composed soon after the year 1086. 
 
Appendix. 225 
 
 Number VIII. 
 
 Afteh, then, the sick Penitent had confessed, and Penance 
 was enjoined him, he was absolved, and blessed in forms so 
 little varying from what have been already translated, and 
 those variations declining so much towards the worse, that it 
 will not be worth while to trouble the reader with them. 
 Only it may be fit to note that, after Absolution there fol- 
 lowed the IJnction of the Sick, and then he was admitted to 
 communicate ; since, as Morinus hath well observed, 1 " it was 
 long before Absolution was in point of time distinguished or 
 separated from the participation of the Body and Blood of 
 Christ," which in this Breviary was attended with the For- 
 mularies here subjoined. 
 
 Lord Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Redeemer, merci- 
 fully regard the supplications which we make for our sick 
 brother here before thee, that this holy Eucharist, may be a 
 defence and shield to him in body and soul, and may enable 
 him to partake of Thy eternal glory, Who livest and reign- 
 est, &c. 
 
 The Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve 
 your soul and body unto life eternal. 
 
 Holy Lord, Almighty Father, and Eternal God, we humbly 
 pray, that the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, Thy Son our 
 Lord, may preserve the body and soul of this Thy servant 
 now receiving it unto life eternal. 
 
 God the Father bless thee, Jesus Christ relieve and help 
 thee, the Holy Spirit of Grace enlighten thee, preserve thy 
 body, and save thy soul ; illuminate thy heart, guide all thy 
 senses, and lead thee finally to a better life ; Who liveth and 
 reigneth, Three Persons in One ever Blessed-Deity, for ever 
 and ever. Amen. 
 
 1 Antiquissimis illis temporibus Ab- tur. — Morin. de Pcenitent. lib. x.cap.i. 
 solutio ab Eucharistia non separaba- § 10. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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 •Carter, W. E. D. Esq. New College, 
 
 Oxford 
 •Carthew, Rev. James, Trengelos, 
 
 Launceston 
 •Cartwright, Rev. W. H. Dudley 
 •Case, Rev. T. Horton 
 •Case, G. Esq. Brasenose College 
 •Caswall, Rev. E. Stratfordsub Castle, 
 
 near Salisbury 
 
 * Cather, Rev. John, Wrexham 
 •Cattley, Rev. S. R. Fulham 
 •Cattley, R.Esq. Worcester ColLOxford 
 Cavendish, Hon. and Rev. A. Stanmore, 
 
 Middlesex 
 Cavendish, Hon. R. Belgrave-square 
 
SUBSCRIBERS. 
 
 •Cavendish, C. Esq. Trin. Coll. Camb. 
 Chaffers, Rev. T. Brasenose College, 
 
 Oxford 
 Chamberlain, Rev. T. Ch. Ch. Oxford 
 •Chambers, J. C. Esq. Emmanuel Coll 
 
 Cambridge 
 
 • Chambers, J.D. Esq. Oriel Coll.Oxford 
 •Chambers, O. L. Esq. University 
 
 College, Oxford 
 •Champernowne, H. Esq. Trinity Coll. 
 
 Oxford 
 •Champernowne, Rev. R. Ch. Ch., 
 
 Oxford 
 •Champneys, Rev. H. S. Mucklestone, 
 
 Staffordshire 
 •Chanter, Rev. J. M. Ilfracombe 
 •Chermside, R. Seymour, Esq. Exeter 
 
 College, Oxford. 
 Chesshyre, Rev. I. T. St. Martin's, 
 
 Canterbury 
 •Chester, Rev. A. Chiehely Hall 
 •Chester, Harry, Esq. Highgate 
 Chevallier, Rev. Temple, Durham 
 •Chichester, Very Rev.theDean of 
 Christie, Rev. J. F. Oriel Coll. Oxford 
 •Christ's College Library, Cambridge 
 •Chunder, Rev. Gopel Mittre, Bishop's 
 
 College, Calcutta 
 •Church, Rev. R. W. Oriel Coll. Oxford 
 Churton, Rev. E. Crayke, Durham 
 •Clark, Rev. Fran. F. Hartshill Parson- 
 age, Newcastle 
 Clark, Rev. H. D. Exeter Coll. Oxford 
 •Clark, Rev. John, Grove Villa, 
 
 Hunslet, Leeds 
 •Clark, Rev. F. F. 
 
 •Clarke, L. S. Esq. New Coll., Oxford 
 •Clarke, Rev. W. H. Yarmouth, Norfolk 
 •Clarke, S., Esq. St. John's Coll. Oxford 
 •Clark, J. Esq. Lanesfield, Evesham 
 •Clay, Rev. J. G. Brompton 
 •Clayton, Rev. J. H. Farnborough 
 
 Rectory, Hants 
 
 • Cleather, Rev. G. P. Chirton, Devizes 
 Clements, J. Esq. Oriel Coll. Oxford 
 Clerical Society, Newcastle-on-Tyne 
 •Clerical Society of the Deanery of 
 
 Droxford, Hants 
 •Clerke, Venerable C. C. Archdeacon 
 
 of Oxford 
 *Cleugh, Rev. J. Malta 
 
 • Coates, Rev. R. P. Rochester 
 
 •Cobbe, Rev. H. Kilmore, Armagh 
 •Cobham, Rev. I. B. "Walton, Somerset 
 •Cockin, Rev. M. Norton, Gloucester 
 Cocks, Somers, Esq. 
 
 * Codd, Rev. E. T. St. John's College, 
 
 Cambridge 
 f Cole, Rev. M. S. Wootton-under-Edge 
 •Cole, Rev. G. E. Dorchester, Dorset 
 •Coleridge, Hon. Mr. Justice 
 •Coleridge, Rev. E. Eton College 
 Coles, Rev. G. Croydon 
 •Coley, Rev. J. 
 •Collier, C. I. Esq. Magdalene Hall, 
 
 Oxford 
 •Collings, Mr. E. Bath 
 Collings, Rev. William 
 •Collingwood, Miss A. Dissington Hall 
 •Collins, Rev. R. Hampstead 
 Collinson, Rev. R. Holme Cultram 
 •Collis, Rev. J. D. Worcester College, 
 
 Oxford 
 
 * Colls, Rev. I. F. 
 
 •Collyns, Rev. C. H. Ch. Ch. Oxford 
 •Coltman, Rev.G.Stickney, near Boston 
 •Colville, Rev. F. L. 
 •Compton, Rev. J. Minstead Rectory, 
 
 Lyndhurst 
 Connop, Newell, Esq. Whitehall 
 •Conway, W. F. Esq. Dublin 
 Coope, Rev. H. G. Clunn, Shropshire 
 •Cooper, Rev. E. P. Burford, Oxon. 
 •Copeland, Rev. W. J. Trinity College, 
 
 Oxford 
 * C ornish, Rev. C .L. Exeter Coll. Oxford 
 •Cornish, Rev. S. W. D.D. Ottery 
 
 St. Mary, Devon 
 
 * Cornthwaite, Rev. T. Hornsey 
 •Cosens, Rev. R. Dorchester 
 
 * Cotton, Rev. W. C. 
 
 •Cotton, Alexander, Esq. Hildersham 
 
 Hall, Cambridgeshire 
 •Courtenay, Lord, Powderham Castle 
 •Courtenay, Rev. F.Exeter Coll.Oxford 
 
 * Cox, Miss F. Spondon Hall, near Derby 
 •Cox, Rev. I, Edm. Southtown, Gt. 
 
 Yarmouth, 
 f Cox, Rev. J. Walgrave, Northampton 
 Crawley, Rev. C. Stowe, near Weedon 
 •Crawley, C. Esq. Highgate 
 •Crawley, G. A. Esq. Highgate 
 •Crawley, Rev. R. Steeple Ashton, 
 
 Trowbridge 
 
SUBSCRIBERS. 
 
 •Creek, Rev. E. B. Paignton, Devon 
 
 •Crewkerne Deanery Clerical Society 
 
 •Cripps, Rev. J. M. Novington, near 
 Lewes 
 
 Crompton, Rev. B. Unsworth, near 
 Bury, Lancashire 
 
 * Croome, Rev. T. B. Rendcomb Rectory, 
 Cirencester 
 
 "Crossley, James, Esq. Manchester 
 
 •Crossley, Mr. John S. Leicester 
 
 •Crosthwaite, Rev. J. C. No. 1. Had- 
 dington Road 
 
 *Crosthwaite, Rev. C. Lackagh Monas- 
 terevan, Ireland 
 
 *Currie, Rev. James 
 
 *Currie, Miss 
 
 Currie & Bowman, Newcastle-on-Tyne 
 
 •Currie, Rev. H. G. 
 
 Cust, Hon. and Rev. H. C. Cockayne, 
 Hatley 
 
 •Dakeyne, Rev. J. Osmond, Boxmoor, 
 
 Herts 
 Dale, Rev. Henry, Bristol 
 •Dalton, Rev. C. B. Lincoln's Inn 
 *Dalton, Rev. J. U. Waltham 
 •Dalton, Mr. W. H. Cockspur St. 
 *Dand, Rev. Thos. Queen's College, 
 
 Oxford 
 •Daniel, Rev. George Fred. Denning- 
 
 ton, near Chichester 
 •Dankes, Henry, Esq. Caius College, 
 
 Cambridge 
 •Darby, Rev. J. Curate of Acton, 
 
 Ireland 
 •Darling, Mr. Little Queen Street, 
 
 London 
 ••Darnell, Rev. W. N. Stanhope, 
 
 Durham 
 Darnell, Rev. W. 
 •Dartmouth, the Earl of, Sandwell, 
 
 near Birmingham 
 •Davenport, Arthur, Esq., Christ's Coll. 
 
 Cambridge 
 •Davidson, L. Esq. Rutland Square, 
 
 Edinburgh 
 Davie, Rev. George J. Brasted, Kent 
 Davies, Rev. J. Abbenhall, Gloucester 
 Davies, Rev. Richard, Stanton 
 •Dawson, J. Esq. Exeter Coll. Oxford 
 •Dawson, Charles, Esq. Baymont 
 
 Lodge, Torquay 
 
 •Day, Mr. John, Bookseller, Melton 
 "Dayman, Rev. Chas. Great Tew, Oxon 
 •Deacon, Rev. G. E. Rawmarsh, 
 
 Rotheram, Yorkshire 
 •Dean, Rev. E. B. All Souls College 
 •Dean, Rev. T. Colwell, Hereford 
 Deane, J.W.Esq. St John's Coll. Oxford 
 •Dearden, Mr. W. Nottingham 
 Deedes, Rev. Gordon 
 •Deighton, Messrs. J. & J.J. Cambridge 
 •Demerara Clerical Library 
 •Denton,Rev.R. A. King's Coll. Camb. 
 •De Porre, W. Esq. Magdalene Hall 
 •De Sausmarez, J. Esq. Pembroke 
 
 College, Oxford 
 •De Tessier, G. F. Esq. C. C. C. Oxford 
 •De Vere, Sir Aubrey, Currah Chase 
 ••Dickinson, F. H. Esq. Upper Harley- 
 
 street, London 
 •Diocesan Library, Wells, Somerset 
 
 • Disney, Rev. E. O. Armagh, Ireland 
 •Distin, Rev. H. L. Bythorne, near 
 
 Thrapstone, Northamptonshire 
 •Dixon, Rev. James, Thome's Parson- 
 age, near Wakefield 
 •Dobson, B. Esq. Bolton 
 •Dobson, T. W. Esq. C. C. C. Cam- 
 bridge 
 •Dodsworth, Rev. W. Ch. Ch. St. Pan- 
 eras, London 
 •Dolben, Rev. C. Ipsley, Warwickshire 
 •Donaldson, Rev. J. W. Bury St 
 
 Edmund's 
 •Donne, J. 
 
 Dornford, Rev. J. Plymptree, Devon 
 Douglas, Rev. H. College, Durham 
 Douglas, Rev. S. Ashling, Chichester 
 •Dover Clerical Book-Society 
 •Dowding, Rev.W. Grimley, Worcester 
 •Dowding, T. W. Esq. The Close, 
 
 Salisbury 
 •Downe, Rev. G. E. Rushden Rectory, 
 Higham Ferrers, Northamptonshire 
 •Drake, Rev. Richard 
 •Drummond, Col. E. Brighton 
 •Dry, Rev. T. 
 •Dudman, Rev. L. S. Charlton 
 
 • Duffield, Rev. R. Prating, Colchester 
 Dufton, Rev. John, Wareham, near 
 
 Ashford, Kent 
 *Dugard, Rev. G. Manchester 
 •Duke, Dr. Hastings 
 
SUBSCRIBERS. 
 
 •Duncombe, Hon. and Rev. Aug. 
 
 Kirby Misperton, Malton 
 Dundas, W. Pitt, Esq. Edinburgh 
 ♦Dungannon, Viscount, BrynMnalt, 
 
 Chirk 
 •Dunlap, Rev. A. P. St. John's College, 
 
 Oxford 
 •Dunraven, the Earl of, Adare, Limerick 
 * Dupuis, Rev. H. Eton College 
 *Durnford, Rev. Francis, Eton College 
 •Du Sautoy, Rev. W. S. O. Frame 
 
 Selwood, Somerset 
 •Dyke, Rev. W. Cradley, Malvern 
 •Dyne, Rev. J. B. Highgate 
 •Dyson, Rev. C. Dogmersfield, Hart- 
 ford Bridge 
 
 Edinburgh, The Scottish Episcopal 
 Church Library 
 
 •Eamonson, Rev. B. Collingham 
 
 •Easther, Alfred, Esq. Bedale, Yorksh. 
 
 •Eaton, W. Esq. Merton Coll. Oxford 
 
 Eaton and Son, Worcester 
 
 Ebsworth, Rev. Geo. Searle 
 
 •Eddie, Rev. R. Barton on Humber 
 
 •Eddrup, E. P. Esq. Wadham College 
 
 Eden, Rev. R. Legh, Rochford 
 
 •Edmondstone, Sir Archibald, Bart 
 
 •Edouart, Rev. A. G. St. Paul' s Church, 
 Blackburn 
 
 •Edwards, Rev. A. Magdalene College, 
 Oxford 
 
 •Edwards, Rev. J.The College, Durham 
 
 Egerton, Rev. T. Dunuington, Yorkshire 
 
 •E. H. T. 
 
 •Eland, Rev. H. G. Bedminster, Bris- 
 tol 
 
 •Elder, Rev.E. Master of the Grammar 
 School, Durham 
 
 •Eldridge, Rev. J. A. Bridlington, 
 Yorkshire 
 
 •Elliot, J. E. Esq. Catherine Hall, 
 Cambridge 
 
 •Ellicott, C. J. Esq. St. John's, Cam- 
 bridge 
 
 •Ellis, Conyngham, Esq. 4, Fitzwilliam 
 Place, Dublin 
 
 •Ellison, H. Esq. University College, 
 Oxford 
 
 •Elmhirst, Rev. Edward, Shawell, Lei- 
 cestershire 
 
 • Elrington, Rev. Dr. Dublin 
 
 • Elrington, Rev. H. P. Precentor of 
 
 Ferns, Ireland 
 •Elwes, J. M. Esq. Bossington, Stock- 
 bridge 
 •Ensor, Rev. F. Nector, Norfolk 
 Estcourt, Rev. E. E. Cirencester 
 •Ethelston, Rev. C. W. Lyme Regis, 
 
 Dorset 
 *Evans,Rev.A.B.D.D.MarketBosworth 
 Evans, Rev. E. C. Ingham 
 •Evans, Herbert N. Esq. Hampstead 
 Evans, L. Esq. Wadham College, 
 
 Oxford 
 Evans, Rev. T. Gloucester 
 •Evans, Rev. T. Simpson 
 •Evans, Rev. E. Pembroke College, 
 
 Oxford 
 •Eveleigh, Rev. James 
 •Evetts, T. Esq. C. C. C. Oxford 
 Ewart, W. Esq. Exeter College, Oxford 
 •Ewing, Rev. W. Alburgh, near 
 
 Harleston, Norfolk 
 •Eyre, Charles, Esq. Welford Park, 
 
 Newbury 
 •Eyton, J. Walter K. Esq. Leamington 
 
 ♦Fagan, Rev. G. H. 
 
 "Falkner, Rev. T. A.- 
 
 •Fallow, Rev. T. M. All Souls, London 
 
 •Fanshawe, F. Esq. Exeter Coll. Oxford 
 
 •Farebrother, Rev. T. Aston, Birming- 
 ham 
 
 Farley, Rev. T. Ducklington 
 
 •Fearnley, Rev. I. King's College, 
 London 
 
 •Fearon, Rev. W. C. Grimston, Lynn, 
 Norfolk 
 
 •Fellowes, Rev. T. L. Cantley Rec- 
 tory, Acle, Norfolk 
 
 •Fenwicke, Rev. G. O. Aston, Birming- 
 ham 
 
 •Fenwicke, Rev. M. G. Ballyshannon 
 
 Fernley, J. Esq. Manchester 
 
 •Few, Rev. Robert, 2, Henrietta Street, 
 Covent Garden, London 
 
 •Field, Rev. P. High Beech, Lough- 
 ton, Essex 
 
 •Finch, Miss Charlotte 
 
 •Fitzgerald, Rev. A. O. Fledborough, 
 near Tuxford 
 
SUBSCRIBERS. 
 
 •Fletcher, T. W. Esq. F.R.S. Dudley, 
 Worcestershire 
 
 •Fletcher, Rev. William, Collegiate 
 School, Southwell 
 
 •Fletcher, Rev. W. K. Bombay 
 
 •Floyer, Ayscoghe, Esq. Wadham Col- 
 lege 
 
 ••Forbes, G. H. Esq. Edinburgh 
 
 •Forbes, I. S. Esq. Christ's College, 
 Cambridge 
 
 •Forbes, Right Hon. Lord 
 
 •Forbes, Sir John Stuart 
 
 •Ford, H. Esq. Manehestei 
 
 Ford, Rev. J. Exeter 
 
 * Ford, W. Esq. Milbrook House, 
 Kentish Town 
 
 •Formby, Rev. H. Brasenose College, 
 Oxford 
 
 •Forster, Rev. H.B.Stratton,Cirencester 
 
 •Fortescue, Rev. H. R.Newton Ferrers, 
 Yealmpton, Devon 
 
 •Foster, Rev. J. S. Ilchester 
 
 •Foster, Rev. John, Kempston Vicar- 
 age, near'Bedford 
 
 •Foulkes, Rev. H. P. Buckby Moun- 
 tain, Flintshire 
 
 •Fowler, Rev. C. A. Chichester 
 
 •Fox, Rev. C. J. Henley-on-Thames 
 
 Foxe, Rev. O. Worcester 
 
 •France, Rev. G. Vincent-square, 
 Westminster 
 
 Franklin, Rev. Stogumber 
 
 •Fraser, Rev. R. Stedmarsh, Canter- 
 bury 
 
 •Freeland, E. Esq. Chichester 
 
 •Freeth, Frederic Harvey, Esq. 80, 
 Coleshill Street, Eaton-sq., London 
 
 •Frome Clerical Library 
 
 •Frost, Rev. I. L. Bradford 
 
 Frost, R. M. Esq. Pembroke College, 
 Cambridge 
 
 •Frost, Rev. Percival, St. John's Coll., 
 Cambridge 
 
 •Froude, W. Esq. Cullompton 
 
 Fulford, Rev. F. Trowbridge 
 
 Fyler, Rev. S. Cornhill, Durham 
 
 •Gace, Rev.F.A. Sherington, Newport 
 
 Pagnel 
 •Galton, Rev. John L. Leamington 
 •Garbett, Rev. J. Clayton, Brighton 
 
 •Gardiner, Rev. W. Rochford 
 •Garside, Rev. C. B. Tetbury, Glou- 
 cestershire 
 Garvey, Rev. Richard, Wakefield 
 •Gibbings, Rev. R. Dublin 
 
 * Gibbs, G. Esq. Belmont, near Bristol 
 •Gibbs, H. Esq. Bedford Sq. London 
 
 • Gibbs, W. Esq. 13, Hyde- Park Street, 
 London 
 
 •Gibson, Rev. W. Rectory, Fawley 
 
 •Gibson, J. Esq. Jesus College, Cam- 
 bridge 
 
 •Gibson, Rev. Edward, Alley, near 
 Coventry 
 
 •Gidley, J. Esq. Exeter 
 
 •Giffard, Rev. W. Molesey, near King- 
 ston 
 
 Gilbertson, Rev. Lewis, Llangorwen, 
 near Aberystwith 
 
 •Gildea, Rev. George Robert* New- 
 port, county of Mayo 
 
 ••Gillett, Rev. G.E. Waltham, Melton 
 Mowbray 
 
 •Gillett, E. Markshall, near Nor- 
 wich 
 
 Gladstone, Rev. John, Liverpool 
 
 •Gladstone, W. E. Esq. M. P. 
 
 •Glaister, Rev. W. Beckley Rectory, 
 Sussex 
 
 Glanville, Rev. E. F. Wheatfield 
 
 •Glencross, Rev. James, Balliol Coll. 
 Oxford 
 
 •Glenie, Rev. J. M. Salisbury 
 
 •Godley, John R. Esq. 
 
 •Gooch, Rev. I. H. Head Master of 
 Heath School, Halifax 
 
 •Gooch, Rev. John, Stanningley, Leeds 
 
 •Goodchild, Rev. C. W., A.M., Free- 
 Grammar School, Sutton Valence, 
 Kent 
 
 •Goodford, C. O. Esq. Eton 
 
 •Goodlake, Rev. T. W. Manor House, 
 Swindon 
 
 Goodwin, H. Esq. B.A. Caius College, 
 Cambridge 
 
 •Gordon, Rev. O. Ch. Ch. Oxford 
 
 *Gore, Rev. H. J. Horsham 
 
 •Gough, Rev. H. Carlisle 
 
 •Gough, Rev. B. Londonderry 
 
 Goulbum, H. Esq. 
 
 Gould, Rev. Edward, Sproughton, 
 Ipswich 
 
SUBSCRIBERS. 
 
 •Gower, Rev. S. Wandsworth, Surrey 
 *Gray, Rev. R. Old Park, Durham 
 •Gray, Rev. R. H. Ch. Ch. Oxford 
 •Graham, Mr. W. Oxford 
 •Graham, W. T. Esq. 17, Upper Buck- 
 ingham Street, Dublin 
 Grant, R. and Son, Edinburgh 
 •Grantham Clerical Society 
 •Green, J. Esq. Woburn 
 Green, Mr. T. W. Leeds 
 •Greene, Miss, Whittington Hall, 
 
 Burton, Westmoreland 
 •Greene, Rev. H.B.Vicar of Longparish, 
 
 Winchester 
 •Greene, Miss C. M. Norwich 
 •Greene, R. Esq. Lichfield 
 •Greenly, Rev.I.P. Burlestone Rectory, 
 
 Blandford 
 •Greenwell, W. Esq. University Coll., 
 
 Durham 
 •Gregory, R. Esq. C. C. C. Oxford 
 Gresley, Richard, Esq. 
 Gresley, Rev. William, Lichfield 
 •Gresley, Rev. J. M. Over Seile, 
 
 Leicestershire 
 ••Greswell, Rev. R. Worcester Coll. 
 **Greswell, Rev. W. Kilve Rectory, 
 
 Somersetshire 
 •Grey, Hon. andRev. Francis, Buxton 
 •Grey, Rev. W. Allington, Salisbury 
 Grieve, Rev. John, Barnham Rectory, 
 
 Thetford, Norfolk 
 •Griffiths, Rev. John, Wadham Coll. 
 
 Oxford 
 • Grueber, Rev. C.S.Clapham Common 
 •Guildford Theological Library 
 Guillemard, Rev. H. P. Trinity Coll. 
 
 Oxford 
 Gunner, Rev. W. H. Winchester 
 *Gutch, Rev. Rt. Segrave, Leicester 
 •Guthrie, Rev. J. Calne, Wilts 
 
 •Hackman, Rev. A. Ch. Ch. Oxford 
 •Haddan.Rev. A. W. Trin. Col. Oxford 
 •Haig, Rev. Robt. Armagh 
 Haigh, Rev. Daniel, Great Marlow 
 Haines, Mrs. Hampstead 
 Hale, Rev. Matt B. Stroud 
 *Hall, Rev. W.. Manchester 
 •Hallen, Rev. George, Rushock, Me- 
 doute, Upper Canada 
 
 •Hallen, Rev. William, Wribbenhall, 
 
 Worcestershire 
 Halton, Rev. T. 20, Great George Sq. 
 
 Liverpool 
 Hamilton, Rev. J. Great Baddow, Essex 
 •Hanham, Rev. Phelips, Wimborne, 
 
 Dorset 
 •Harcourt, Rev. L. V. Midhurst 
 Harcourt, Rev. R. Cirencester 
 ••Harding, Rev. G. S. Brasenose Col- 
 lege, Oxford 
 •Harding, J. Esq. St. Mary Hall 
 **Hare, Venerable Archdeacon 
 Harington, Rev. Rd. D.D. Principal of 
 
 Brasenose College, Oxford 
 •Harison, W. H. Esq. New York 
 •Harper, T. N. Esq. Queen's College, 
 
 Oxford 
 •Harper, Rev. A. Inverary, Aberdeen- 
 shire 
 •Harper, Rev. G. Manor House, Ton- 
 bridge Wells 
 •Harpur, Rev. E. Salford, Manchester 
 * Harris, Hon. and Rev. C. Wilton, 
 
 Salisbury 
 *Harris, Rev. J. H. Northampton 
 •Harris, G.T. Esq. Harrow-on-the-Hill 
 •Harris, J. Esq. 
 
 Harrison, Rev. B. Domestic Chaplain 
 to the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury 
 •Harrison, Rev. H. Gondhurst 
 Harrison, Rev. T. Trinity Church, 
 
 Maidstone 
 •Harrison, Rev. W. Christ's Hospital, 
 
 London 
 •Harrow School Library, the 
 •Hartley, L. L. Esq. Middleton Lodge, 
 
 Richmond, Yorkshire 
 •Hartnell, E. G. Esq. Trinity College, 
 
 Cambridge 
 •Hartshorne, Rev. Joseph 
 •Harvey, Rev. H. Preb. of Bristol, 
 
 Bradford, Wilts 
 •Harward, J. Esq. Stourbridge 
 •Hassells, Rev. C. S. Pox Earth, near 
 
 Newcastle 
 •Hatchard and Son, Piccadilly, London 
 Hawkins, Rev. E. Secretary to the So- 
 ciety for the Propagation of the 
 Gospel 
 •Hawkins, Herbert S. Esq. Jesus Coll. 
 Oxford 
 
SUBSCRIBERS. 
 
 ♦Hawkins, E. Esq. British Museum 
 Hawkins, Rev. E. Newport, Monmouth- 
 shire 
 Hawkins, Rev. W. B. L. 23, Great 
 
 Marlborough-street, London 
 •Hawtrey, Rev. Dr. Eton College 
 Hayes, Rev. I. Warren, Arborfield 
 
 Rectory, Berks 
 •Heale, S. W. Esq. Queen's College 
 
 • Heath, W. M. Esq. Exeter Coll. 
 Oxford 
 
 •Hecker, Rev. H. T. Sevenoaks, Kent 
 *Hedley, Rev. T. A. Gloucester 
 •Hemary, Rev. Jas. Trinity College, 
 Cambridge 
 
 • Henderson, W. G. Esq. Magd. Coll. 
 
 Oxford 
 •Henderson, Peter, Esq. Macclesfield 
 •Henn, Rev. W. Londonderry 
 •Herbert, Hon. Algernon, Ickleton, 
 
 Saffron Walden 
 "Heslop, Anchem, Esq. Trinity College, 
 
 Cambridge 
 •Hessey, Rev. F. St. John's College, 
 
 Oxford 
 •Hessey, Rev. J. A. St, John's College, 
 
 Oxford 
 Hewetson, Rev. J. S. Curate of Killeary, 
 
 Ireland 
 •Hewitt, Rev. T. S. Norton in Hales, 
 
 near Market Drayton 
 •Heygate, Miss, Southend, Essex 
 Heywood, Rev. H. O. Bryan, Man- 
 chester 
 
 • Hichens, R. Esq. Threadneedle-street, 
 
 London 
 Hide, Rev. G. E. 
 •Hildyard, Rev. J. Christ's College, 
 
 Cambridge 
 •Hill, Rev. E. Ch. Ch. Oxford 
 •Hill, Rev. Erroll, Brinckburn Priory, 
 
 Weldon Bridge, Morpeth 
 Hill, Lincolnshire 
 "Hillyard, Rev. Temple 
 •Hilton, A. D. Esq. Wadham College, 
 
 Oxford 
 Hinde, Rev. T. Liverpool 
 •Hine, Rev. H. T. C. 
 
 • Hingiston, James Ansley, Esq. 
 48, Finsbury Circus, London 
 
 ••Hippesley, H. Esq. Lambourne 
 Place, Berks 
 
 •Hippisley, R. W. Esq. Stow Lodge, 
 
 Gloucestershire 
 •Hobhouse, Rev. Edm. Merton Coll. 
 
 Oxford 
 ••Hodges, late Rev.T.S. (Executors'of) 
 •Hodgkinson, Rev. G. C. Droitwich, 
 
 near Worcester 
 •Hodgson, Rev. I. F. Horsham 
 
 • Hodgson, Rev. G. St. Peter's, Isle of 
 Thanet 
 
 Hodgson, Rev. H. St. Martin's, 
 
 London 
 Hodson, Rev. J. Saunderstead, Croydon, 
 
 Surrey 
 Holden, Rev. W. R. Worcester 
 •Holden, Mr. A. Bookseller, Exeter 
 •Holland, Rev. Henry 
 •Holme, Hon. Mrs. A. C. 
 ••Hook, Rev. W. F. D.D. Vicar of 
 
 Leeds. Presented by a few of his 
 
 younger parishioners 
 Hope, A. J. B. Esq. Trinity College, 
 
 Cambridge 
 •Hope, W. Esq. Catherine Hall, Cam- 
 bridge 
 Hopkins, Rev. J. O. UfEngton, Salop 
 Hopkinson, C. Esq. M.A. 39, Eaton 
 
 Place, Belgrave Square, London 
 •Hopper, A. M. Esq. B.A. Fellow of 
 
 St. John's College, Cambridge 
 •Hopton, Mrs. Kemerton Court, 
 
 Tewkesbury 
 •Hopwood, Rev. F. G. Knowsley, 
 
 Prescot, Lancashire 
 •Hornby, Rev. Edward, Walmersley, 
 
 Bury, Lancashire 
 Hornby, Rev. T. Liverpool 
 
 • Horner, Rev. Josh. Everton, Biggles- 
 wade, Bedfordshire 
 
 •Horsfall, Rev. A. Litchurch 
 •Horsfall, John, Esq. Standard Hill, 
 
 Nottingham 
 •Hocking, R. Esq. Penzance 
 •Hotham, W. F. Esq. Ch. Ch. Oxford 
 Houghton, Rev. John, Matching, near 
 
 Harlow, Essex 
 •Houghton, Rev. W. Wilmslow, near 
 
 Manchester 
 •Howard, Hon. and Rev. H. E. J. 
 
 D.D. Dean of Lichfield 
 Howard, Col. Ashstead Park 
 •Howard, Hon. and Rev. W. Fareham 
 
SUBSCRIBERS. 
 
 •Howard, Rev. N. A. Plymouth 
 
 Howard, Hon. F. G. 
 
 •Howard, Rev. R. D.D. Beaumaris, 
 
 Anglesea 
 •Howard, Hon. and Rev. H. 
 Howell, Rev. Hinds, Shobrooke, Devon 
 •Howorth, Rev. W., March, Isle of Ely 
 •Hudson, Rev. John, Vicar of Kendal 
 •Hue, Dr., 9, Bedford Square, London 
 Hufi, Rev. E. Butterwick, near Boston 
 •Hughes, Rev. H. Charlotte Street, 
 
 Bloomsbury 
 •Hughes, Rev. J. B. Hadley, near 
 
 Barnet 
 •Hunt, Rev. R. S. Stinchcombe Dursley 
 •Hunter, Rev. A. Alvechurch 
 •Hunter, Rev. W. Lurgurshall, near 
 
 Godalming 
 Hnntingford, Rev. G. W. Winchester 
 Hussey, Rev. W. L. Ch. Ch. Oxford 
 Hutchinson, Rev. C. Chichester 
 •Hutchinson, Rev. T. Lymm, Cheshire 
 •Hutchinson, R. Esq. Mersey Court, 
 
 Liverpool 
 •Hutchinson, W. Esq. 
 •Hutton, Rev. G. B. Gainsborough 
 Huxtable, Rev. A. 
 
 Hyde and Crewe, Newcastle, Stafford- 
 shire 
 
 ••Inge, Rev. I. R. St Mary's, 
 
 Portsmouth 
 Inner Temple, the Hon. Society of 
 
 the, London 
 Irons, Rev. W. J. Brompton 
 •Irving, Rev. J. Kendall 
 
 Jackson, Rev. T. East Brent, Somerset 
 
 Jackson, Rev. T. St. Peter's, Stepney 
 
 •Jackson, Rev. W. Dealtry, Ch. Ch. 
 Hoxton 
 
 Jackson, J. J. Esq. Exeter College 
 
 •Jackson, G. Esq. 
 
 •Jackson, Rev. J. Islington 
 
 James, Rev. J. D.D. Prebendary of 
 Peterborough 
 
 • James, Sir "Walter, Bart., M. P. 
 11, Whitehall Place, London 
 
 James, Rev. H. 19, Manchester Build- 
 ings, Westminster 
 
 •James, Rev. T. Sibbestoft, near Wel- 
 ford, Northamptonshire 
 
 •James, Rev. J. 
 
 •Janvrin, J. H. Esq. Oriel Coll. Oxford 
 
 • Jeffray, Rev. L. W. Ashton Parsonage, 
 
 Preston 
 •Jelf, Rev. Dr. Canon of Ch. Ch. Oxford 
 Jelf, Rev. W. E. Ch. Ch. Oxford 
 •Jellott, H. Esq/Trinity Coll. Durham 
 •Jenkins, Rev. J. Rothwell, Leeds 
 Jennings, Rev. M. J. Chaplain to the 
 
 Hon. East India Company 
 
 • Jerrard, Rev. F. W. H. Long Stratton, 
 
 Norfolk 
 
 *Jersey,TheVeryRev.theDean of 
 
 Jew, Mr. Thomas, Gloucester 
 
 •Johnson, C. W. Esq. Balliol College, 
 Oxford 
 
 Johnson, M. J. Esq. Radcliffe Obser- 
 vatory, Oxford 
 
 •Johnson, W. Esq. King's College, 
 Cambridge 
 
 •Johnson, Rev. W. C. Diptford, Devon 
 
 •Johnson, Rev. W. H. Witham on the 
 Hill, Lincolnshire 
 
 •Johnstone, Rev. W. S. Minnigaff 
 House, Newton Stewart, Scotland 
 
 •Jones, E. K. Esq. 28, Mark-lane 
 
 •Jones, Rev. D. E. Stamford 
 
 • Jones, Rev. J. S. Armagh 
 
 Jones, Rev. R. Branxton, Coldstream 
 •Jones, W. H. Esq. Queen's College, 
 
 Oxford 
 Jones, B. Esq. Lowestoft 
 
 Karslake, Rev. T. W. Culmstock, near 
 Wellington 
 
 *Keble, Rev. J. Hursley, Winchester 
 
 •Kelk, Rev. W. 23, City Road, London 
 
 Kemp, Mr. John, Beverley 
 
 Kempe, Rev. J. C. Morchard Bishop's, 
 Devon 
 
 •Ken Club, Leeds 
 
 •Kendall, Rev.J. H.F. Kirkby Lonsdale 
 
 •Kennard, John P. Esq. 4, Lombard- 
 Street, London 
 
 *Kenrick,Rev. Jarvis, Horsham, Sussex 
 
 Kent, jun. Rev. G. D. Sudbrook, near 
 Lincoln 
 
 •Kent, Mr. J. Toronto, Canada 
 
 *Kenyon, Lord, 9, Portman Square, 
 London 
 
 •Keppell, Hon. and Rev. T. Wells, 
 Norfolk 
 
SUBSCRIBERS. 
 
 **Kerby, Rev. C. L. Stoke Talmage, 
 
 near Tetsworth 
 *Kerr, Rev. Lord H. Dittisham 
 •Kerr, James, Esq. Coventry 
 •Kershaw, Rev. G. W. St. Nicholas, 
 
 Worcester 
 •Key, H. C. Esq. Peluston Rectory, 
 
 near Ross 
 •Keymes, Rev. N. Christ's Hospital, 
 
 Hertford 
 •Kildare, Ven. Archdeacon of 
 Kilvert, Rev. F. Bath 
 King, Mr. H. S. Brighton 
 •King, T. H. Esq. Exeter College, 
 
 Oxford 
 King, Rev. W. Smyth, Ireland 
 •King's College, London 
 Kingdom, Rev. G. T. Upton, St. 
 
 Leonards 
 •Kingdon, G. R. Esq. Trinity College, 
 
 Cambridge 
 •Kingsford, B. Esq. Exeter Coll. Oxford 
 •Kingsmill, Rev. H. Chewton Mendip, 
 
 Somerset 
 *Kingsmill, William, Esq. Sidmonton 
 
 House, Hants 
 ••Kirby, R. H. Esq. St. John's CoD. 
 
 Cambridge 
 *Kirrier, Clerical Society, Cornwall 
 •Kirwan, Rev. J. H. Bath 
 Kirwan, Rev. E. King's Coll. Camb. 
 •Kitson, J. F. Esq. Exeter Coll. Oxford 
 •Knight, J. W. Esq. Free School, Co- 
 ventry 
 Knight, Henry, Esq. Exeter College, 
 
 Oxford 
 Knight, Rev. T. Ford Rectory 
 •Knight-Bruce, Rev. H. L. M.A. 
 •Knott, J. W. Esq. Magdalene Hall 
 •Knowles, J. L. Esq. Pembroke Coll. 
 
 Oxford 
 •Knowles, Edward H. Esq. St. Bees 
 
 Grammar School, Whitehaven 
 Knox, Rev. H. B. Monk's Cleigh, 
 
 Hadleigh, Suffolk 
 •Knox, Rev. Spencer, Vicar- General of 
 
 the Diocese of Kerry 
 •Knox, T. F. Esq. Trin. Coll. Camb. 
 Knox, Rev. R. Lee House, Limerick 
 Kyle, Rev. John T. Cork 
 Kynnersley, Rev. E. C. Sneyd, Dray- 
 
 cott Rectory, Stone, Staffordshire 
 
 Lakin, Rev. J. M. Freazeley, near 
 
 Fazeley 
 •Landon, Rev. W. H. 
 Lane, Rev. E. Gloucester 
 Langbridge, Mr. Birmingham 
 Langdon, A. Esq. Coldharbour House, 
 
 Tonbridge 
 •Langley, Rev.T. Landogo, Monmouth 
 •Langmore, Dr. 
 ••Laprimaudaye, Rev. C. J. St. John's 
 
 College, Oxford 
 Latouche, Rev. J. Rathfornham, co. 
 
 Dublin 
 •Laurie, Mrs. John 
 •Lawrell, Rev. J. Hampreston Rectory 
 "Lawrence, F. J. R. Esq. Exeter Coll. 
 
 Oxford 
 •Lawson, Rev. R. Stoke by Clare, 
 
 Halstead 
 •Lawson, Rev. W. D. Magd. College, 
 
 Cambridge 
 •Lawson, Rev. G. West Grimstead, 
 
 Salisbury 
 •Lee, Rev. William, Fellow of Trinity 
 
 College, Dublin 
 Lechmere, Rev. A. Whitmore, Wool- 
 hope, Hereford 
 •Lefroy, Rev. A. C. 
 
 * Legge, Rev. W. Ashstead, Epsom 
 •Legge, Hon. and Rev. Henry, Black- 
 heath, Kent 
 
 •Leigh, W.Esq. Little Ashton, Lichfield 
 
 * Leighton, Rev. F. K. All Souls Coll. 
 
 Oxford 
 •Leman, Rev. T. Brampton Rectory, 
 
 Beccles 
 •Le Mesurer, J. Esq. Ch. Ch. Oxford 
 •Leonard, Rev. R. W. Aynho, Banbury 
 •Leslie, Rev. C. Elphin, Ireland 
 Leslie, Mr. Great Queen Street, London 
 •Lethbridge, Ambrose, Esq. All Souls, 
 
 Oxford 
 •Lewis, Rev. D. Jesus College, Oxford 
 •Lewthwaite, Rev. W. H. Clifford, near 
 
 Tadcaster 
 ••Ley, Rev. Jacob, Ch. Ch. Oxford 
 
 * Ley, Rev. John, Exeter Coll. Oxford 
 •Lichfield Cathedral, the Dean and 
 
 Chapter of 
 *Liddon, H. Esq. Taunton 
 •Lindsay, Hon. C. Trinity College, 
 
 Cambridge 
 
SUBSCRIBERS. 
 
 •Iiingard,E.A. Esq. Runcorn, Cheshire 
 •Linsdedt, F. W. Esq. Calcutta 
 Linzee, Rev. Edw. Hood 
 •Linzee, R. G. Esq. Cfi. Ch. Oxford 
 Linzell, Rev. B. H. 
 •Litler, Rev. Robert, Poynton Par- 
 sonage, near Macclesfield 
 •Lloyd, Rev. C. W. 
 
 * Lloy d, Re v. F. L. L. Wilnecote, Farelay 
 Lloyd, Rev. F. T. Curate of Kilmore, 
 
 Dioc. Armagh 
 •Lloyd, Rev. C. 
 
 * Lloyd, Rev. H. W. Pentre Voelas, 
 
 Denbighshire 
 •Lockyer, E. L. Esq. Emmanuel Coll. 
 
 Cambridge 
 Lodge, Rev. Barton 
 •Lohr, C. W. Esq. Gwaenynog, Denbigh 
 London Library, Pall Mall 
 •Long, W. Esq. Bath 
 Lott, H. J. Esq. Hornton, Devon 
 Lott, H. B. Esq. Tracy House, Awlis- 
 
 combe 
 •Low, I. L. Esq. 
 
 •Lowder, C. F. Esq. Exeter Coll. Oxford 
 •Lowe, Rev. J. M.Grindleton, Yorkshire 
 ♦Lowe, Rev. R. F. Madeira 
 •Lowe, Rev. R. H. Abascragh, co. 
 
 Galway 
 *Lowe, Rev. Charles Benj. Hertford 
 •Lowe, Rev. H. E. Rushall, "Walsall 
 •Lowndes, Rev. C. Hartwell Rectory, 
 
 near Aylesbury 
 Lukis, Rev. W. C. Bradford, Wilts 
 Lund, Rev. T. B.D. St. John's College, 
 
 Cambridge 
 fLurgau, Lord 
 •Lush, Rev. Vicesimus 
 •Lusk, John, Esq. Glasgow 
 Lutwyche, A. I. P. Esq. Middle Temple 
 •Luxmoore, Rev. J. H. M. Marchwiel, 
 
 Wrexham 
 •LytUeton, The Right Hon. Lord 
 •Lyttleton, Hon. and Rev. W. H. 
 
 Kettering, Northamptonshire 
 
 •Maberly, Rev.T. A. Cuckfield, Sussex 
 M'c All, Rev. Edward, Brixton, Isle of 
 
 Wight 
 •M'c Ewen, Rev. A. Semington, near 
 
 Melksham, Wilts 
 
 M'Clintock, Rev. G. F. Calcutta 
 •Macfarfane, W. C. Esq. Birmingham 
 •Machlachlan, Rev. A. N. Campbell, 
 
 Thorverton, near Cullompton, Devon 
 •Mackenzie, A. C. Esq. St. John's 
 
 College, Oxford 
 Mackenzie, Lewis M. Esq. Exeter Coll, 
 •Mackinnon, Rev, John, Bloxholm, 
 
 near Sleaford, Lincoln 
 •Mackonochie, A. H. Esq. Edinburgh 
 •Maclachlan, Rev. Thoverton 
 Maclean, Rev. H. Coventry 
 •Maclean, Rev. W. Prebendary of 
 
 Tynan, Armagh 
 Macmullen, Rev. R. G. Corpus Christi 
 
 Coll. Oxford 
 •Madox, Wm. Esq. 61, York Terrace, 
 
 Regent's Park 
 •Maitland, Rev. R. S. Librarian to the 
 
 Lord Archbishop of Canterbury 
 •Major, Rev. I. R. D.D. King's Coll. 
 
 London 
 •Malcolm, H. Esq. Eckington, 
 
 Chesterfield 
 Malcolm, Rev. Gilbert, Toddenham 
 •Malcolm, W. E. Esq. Burnfoot Lang- 
 holm, Dumfriesshire 
 •Malins, Mr. G. W. R. Kelsford 
 •Mangin, Rev. Edw. N. 
 •Mann, Rev. W. M. Thornthwaite 
 
 Keswick, Cumberland 
 •Manning, F. J. Esq. Lincoln College, 
 
 Oxford 
 •Manson, Rev. A. T. G. 
 •Mapleton, R. J. Esq. St. John's Coll. 
 
 Oxford 
 Mapperton, Rev. C. Fox 
 •Markland, J. H. Esq. Bath 
 Marriott, Rev. C. Oriel Coll., Oxford 
 •Marriott, Rev. J. Bradfield, Reading 
 •Marshall, Rev. S. Eton 
 •Marshall, Rev. E. Cranwell, Sleaford 
 Martin, Rev. F. Trin. Coll. Camb. 
 •Martin, Rev. John, Orford, near 
 
 Woodbridge 
 Martin, Rev. G. Exeter 
 •Martin, Wm. Esq. Fellow of Corpus 
 
 Christi College, Cambridge 
 Martineau, Rev. A. Whitkirk Vicar- 
 age, Leeds 
 *Martyn, Rev. T. W. Exeter 
 •Mason, Rev. J. Great Malvern 
 
SUBSCRIBERS. 
 
 •Mason, Rev. A. W. Booking, Essex 
 *Mason, Rev. E. Cold Ashton, Marsh- 
 field, Chippenham 
 *Mason, Rev. H. B. Head Master of 
 
 Brewood School, Staffordshire 
 Mason, Mr. W. H. Chichester 
 •Mathison, W. C. Esq. M.A. Trinity 
 
 College, Camhridge 
 •Matthews, Rev. R. M. Great Bowdler, 
 
 Market Harborough 
 *Maule, Rev. G. Great Munden, near 
 
 Pickeridge, Herts 
 •Maynard, Rev. John 
 •Maynard, Rev. R. Wormleighton, 
 
 Southam 
 •Mayo, A. F. Esq. Oriel Coll. Oxford 
 •Mayor, C. Esq. St. John's Coll. Camh. 
 •Mease, Rev. J. Fresford 
 •Meason, Rev. Henry, Exeter 
 •Melton Mowbray Clerical Society 
 Mence, Rev. J. W. Ukley, Otley, York- 
 shire 
 •Menet, J. Esq. Exeter Coll. Oxford 
 •Merriman, W. H. R. Esq., New Coll. 
 
 Oxford 
 •Merry, Rev. R. M.A., Jesus College, 
 
 Cambridge 
 •Mesham, Rev. A. B. Wotton, near 
 
 Canterbury 
 •Metcalf, Rev. W. L. 
 •Metcalfe, Rev. Wallace, Reddenhall, 
 
 Harlestone, Norfolk 
 •Middleton, Rev. J. E. 
 •Middleton, Henry O. Esq. Exeter 
 
 College, Oxford 
 •Mill, Rev. Dr. Christian Advocate, 
 
 Camhridge 
 Miller, Rev. I. R. Walkeringham> 
 
 Bawtry, Yorkshire 
 Miller, Rev. John, Benefield, Oundle 
 Miller, Rev. T. E. Benefield, Oundle 
 •Mills, R. T. Esq. Magdalene College, 
 
 Oxford 
 •Mills, H. Esq. Trinity Coll., Cam- 
 bridge 
 •Minster, Rev. I. Farmley Tyas 
 •Moberly, C. E. Esq. Balliol College, 
 
 Oxford 
 •Moberly, Rev. Dr. Winchester 
 •Money Kyrle, Rev. E. A. Hastings 
 •Monro, Rev. E. Oriel Coll. Oxford 
 •Monsell, Rev. C. H. Limerick, Ireland 
 
 •Monsell, Rev. J. S. Limerick, Ireland 
 ♦Monsell, W. Esq. Limerick, Ireland 
 •Montagu, J. E. Esq. Exeter College 
 Moodie, C. Esq. Magdalene Hall 
 •Moore, Rev. Edward, Rector of Killan, 
 
 Ireland 
 •Moore, Rev. J. W. Hordley, Ellesmere 
 •Moorsom, Rev. R. Seaham Vicarage, 
 
 Durham 
 •Morrell, F.J. Esq. St Giles's, Oxford 
 •Morrice, Rev. W. D. Clovelly, near 
 
 Bideford, Devon 
 •Morris, Rev. J. B. Exeter College, 
 
 Oxford 
 •Morris, Rev. T. E. Ch. Ch. Oxford 
 •Morrison, Rev. A. Eton College 
 Morton, Mr. Boston 
 •Morton, Rev. M. C. Exeter College, 
 
 Oxford 
 Moultrie, Rev. J. Rugby 
 Mount,Rev. C. M. Prebendary of Wells 
 *Mountain,Rev.G.R. Rector of Havant 
 Mountain, Rev. H. B. Prebendary of 
 
 Lincoln 
 •Mountain, J. G. Esq. Eton Coll. Eton 
 *Mozley, Rev. J. B. Magdalene College, 
 
 Oxford 
 •Mules, Rev. P. Exeter Coll. Oxford 
 •Munn, Rev. G. Worcester 
 •Murray, Rev. A. Clapham, Surrey 
 •Murray, C. R. Scott, Esq. Ch. Ch. 
 
 Oxford 
 •Murray, Rev. W. St. Martin's, Col- 
 chester 
 •Murray, F. Esq. Ch. Ch. Oxford 
 • Muskett, Mr. C. Norwich 
 
 Neale, J. M. Esq. Downing College, 
 
 Cambridge 
 •Neeld, J. Esq. M.P. Grittleton House 
 
 Chippenham 
 •Nelson, Earl, Bricknorth House, near 
 
 Salisbury 
 •Nelson, H. Esq. 
 • Neve, Rev. F. R. Poole Keynes, 
 
 Cirencester 
 •Nevill, H. R. Esq. University College 
 •Nevins, Rev. W. Wilton House, Ross 
 New, Rev. F. T. Ch. Ch. St, Pancras, 
 
 London 
 
SUBSCRIBERS. 
 
 •New York Theological Seminary 
 Newland, Rev. Dr. Ferns 
 •Newland, Rev. Thomas, Dublin 
 Newman, Rev. J. H. Oriel College, 
 
 Oxford 
 ♦Newton, Mr. C. Croydon 
 •New- York-Society Library 
 Nicholl, Rev. J. R. Greenhill Grove, 
 
 near Barnet, Hertfordshire 
 Nicholls, Rev, W. L. Bath 
 Nicholson, Rev. W. 
 •Nicholson, Rev. W. Wickham House, 
 
 Welford, Berks 
 •Nicholson, Rev. W. Rector of St. 
 
 Maurice, Winchester 
 *NicoB, Rev. Charles, {Stratford, Essex 
 •Nooman, H. Esq., Dunfanaghy, 
 
 County of Donegal 
 •Noott, Rev. E. H. L. Tipton, Bir- 
 mingham 
 •North, Rev. Jacob 
 •Northcote, G. B. Esq. Ilfracombe, 
 
 Devon 
 •Northcote, J. S. Esq. Corpus Christi 
 
 College, Oxford 
 •Norwich Clerical Society 
 •Nunns, Rev. T. Birmingham 
 •Nutt, Rev. Charles Theston, Bath 
 
 •O'Brien, Mr. E. Dublin 
 •O'Brien, Rev. H. Killegar, Ireland 
 •O'Brien, Mrs. 108, George Street, 
 
 Limerick 
 •Ogle and Son, Booksellers, Glasgow 
 •Oldershaw, R. Esq. Islington 
 •Oldham, George A. Esq. Brunswick 
 
 Place, Brighton 
 Oldham, Rev. T. R. Huddersfield 
 •Oldknow, Rev. Joseph, Bordesley, 
 
 Birmingham 
 •Oliver, Rev. J. Rothwell, North- 
 amptonshire 
 •Oliverson, R. Esq. 14 Portland Place, 
 
 London 
 *Orr, T. Esq. Oriel College, Oxford 
 • Osborn, Rev. G. Manchester 
 •Ostell, Messrs. T. & Co. booksellers, 
 
 London 
 •Ouvry, Rev. P. T. Oxford Terrace, 
 
 London 
 •Owen, R. Esq. Jesus Coll. Oxford 
 
 •Pagan, Rev. S. Leverbridge, Bolton- 
 
 le- Moors 
 Page, Rev. C. Westminster Abbey 
 * Page, Rev. L. F. Woolpit, Bury St. 
 
 Edmund's 
 Page, R. jun. Esq. 
 •Page, Rev. Vernon, Ch. Ch. Oxford 
 •Paget, Rev. F. E. Elford, Lichfield 
 •Paine, Cornelius, Esq. 11, Cannon- 
 
 bury-lane, Islington 
 •Palmer, Roundell, Esq. 
 •Palmer,Rev. W.Magdalen Coll. Oxford 
 •Palmer, Rev. W. Worcester College, 
 
 Oxford 
 •Pantin, J. Esq. Pembroke College, 
 
 Oxford 
 •Pardoe, Rev. Mr. Leyton, Essex 
 •Parke, C. W. Esq. M.P. Great Glen, 
 
 Leicestershire 
 •Parker, C. Esq. Upper BedfordPlace, 
 
 London 
 •Parker, Rev. E. Bahia, South America 
 •Parker, Rev. R. Welton, Spilsby, 
 
 Lincolnshire 
 Parkinson, Mrs. Holywell 
 •Parkinson, Rev. J, P. Magdalene Coll. 
 
 Oxford 
 •Parr, Rev. W. H. Halifax 
 •Parrington, Rev. Matthew, Feltwell, 
 
 Norfolk 
 Parsons, Rev. C. A. St. Mary's, 
 
 Southampton 
 •Pascoe, Rev. T. St. Hilary, Marazion, 
 
 Cornwall 
 fPATTESoN, Hon. Mr. Justice 
 •Paul, G. W. Esq. Magdalene Coll. 
 
 Oxford 
 •Payne, R. jun. Esq. Lavender HiU 
 •Paynsent, F. A. Esq., Antigua, 
 
 West Indies. 
 •Pearson, F. T. Esq. Queen's College, 
 
 Oxford 
 •Pedder, Rev. W. St Cuthbert, Wells 
 •Pedder, E. Esq. Brasenose College 
 •Peed, Rev. J. 
 
 •Pelly, Rev. T. C. C. C. Oxford 
 •Pennefather, Rev. William 
 f Penney, Rev. E. St. Andrew's, Canter- 
 bury 
 •Penny, C. B. Esq. Theol. Coll. Wells 
 •Perceval, Hon. and Rev. A. P. 
 •Perceval, Captain E. A. 
 
SUBSCRIBERS. 
 
 •Percival, Ernest A. Esq. Bindon 
 House, Milverton, Somerset 
 
 •Perram, Rev. J. G. Harrogate 
 
 *Perring, C. Esq. 29, Tavistock Square, 
 London 
 
 *Perry, Rev. A. Bettesworth, Pre- 
 centor's Vicar of St. Caniees Cathe- 
 dral, Kilkenny 
 
 *Perry, T. W. Esq. 20, Steward-street, 
 Spitalfields 
 
 •Phelps, Rev. R. Sidney Sussex Coll. 
 Cambridge 
 
 •Phelps, Rev. T. P. Ridley, Seven 
 Oaks, Kent 
 
 •Phelps, Rev. H. D. Tarrington, near 
 Ledbury, Hereford 
 
 •Philips, G. H. Esq. Belle Vue, 
 Liverpool 
 
 •Phillips, Rev. E. S, Nelson Terrace, 
 Clapham 
 
 •Philpott, Rev. Other, Clungunford, 
 near Ludlow 
 
 •Philpott, Rev. T. Maddresfield, Wor- 
 cester 
 
 •Phipps, Rev. E. I. Devizes, Wilts 
 
 •Phipps, T. H. H. Esq. Leighton House, 
 Wilts 
 
 •Pickering, Rev. H. St. Peter's, Isle of 
 Thanet 
 
 •Pickwood, Rev. John 
 
 •Pigott, Rev. A. J. Newport, Salop 
 
 •Pigott, Rev. George, Bombay 
 
 •Pigott, Rev. H. Brasenose College 
 
 •Pillans, Rev. W. H. Himley Rectory, 
 Dudley 
 
 •Pinder, Rev. J. H. Precentor of Wells 
 
 •Piatt, J. P. Esq. Child's Hill, Hamp- 
 stead 
 
 •Plumptre, E. H. Esq. University 
 College 
 
 ••Pocock, Rev. N. Queen's Coll. Oxford 
 
 Pocock, Mr. W. Bath 
 
 •Ponsonby, Hon. Walter 
 
 •Pope, T. A. Esq. Jesus Coll., Cam- 
 bridge 
 
 Pope, — Esq. Christ's Coll. Cambridge 
 
 •Popham, W. Esq. Tramore, Water- 
 ford, Ireland 
 
 •Portman, Rev. F. Staple Fitzpaine 
 
 *Pountney, Rev. H.St. John's, Wolver- 
 hampton 
 
 ••Powell, A. Esq. Carey Street, London 
 
 ••Powell, Rev. E. A. Ampthill 
 Powell, Rev. H. T. Stretton 
 •Powell, Rev. J. C. 
 Powell, Rev. Richard, Bury, near 
 
 Arundel, Sussex 
 Powell, Rev. T. Turnarton, near Peter 
 
 Church 
 •Powell, Rev. J. W. S. Kingston-on- 
 Thames 
 •Powell,Rev. R. Worcester Coll. Oxford 
 •Powell, Rev. Richmond 
 Power, Rev. J. P. Queen's College, 
 
 Cambridge 
 •Power, Rev. J., Fellow of Pembroke 
 
 College, Cambridge 
 •Powles, R. C. Esq. Exeter College 
 •Pownall, Rev. C. C. B. Milton 
 
 Ernest, Bedfordshire 
 •Pownall, Rev. W. L. St. John's Coll. 
 
 Cambridge 
 •Powys, Hon. and Rev. Horace, War- 
 rington 
 Poynder, Rev. F. 
 •Prater, Rev. T. Hardwicke, near 
 
 Bicester 
 Prescott, Rev. I. P. St. Mary's Chapel, 
 
 Portsmouth 
 •Preston, Rev. Plunket, Prebendary of 
 
 Edermine, Ferns, Ireland 
 *Prevost,Rev. Sir George, Bart.Stinch- 
 
 combe, Dursley 
 •Price, Rev. B. Pembroke College 
 •Prichard, Rev. R. Kidderminster 
 Pridden, Rev. W. Broxted, Dunmow 
 Prosser, Rev. S. Blackheath Park 
 •Prothero, G. Esq. Brasenose College 
 •Pry or, Rev. R, Spelsbury 
 •Pulling, Rev. W. Hereford 
 • •Pusey, Rev. Dr. Canon of Ch. Ch. 
 
 Oxford 
 •Pusey, Rev. W. B. Maidstone 
 Pym, Rev. F. 
 
 •Radford, Rev. J. A. Down St. Mary, 
 
 near Crediton 
 •Raikes, R. Esq. Welton, near Hull 
 •Ramsbotham, Rev. T. Wakefield 
 Randolph, Rev. E. J. Tring 
 Randolph, Rev. W. Newington, near 
 
 Folkstone 
 •Randolph, W. C. Esq.YateHouse.Bath 
 
SUBSCRIBERS. 
 
 Raven, Rev. V. 11, Crescent-place, 
 Burton-crescent 
 
 ♦ Rawle, Rev. R. Cheadle, Staffordshire 
 *Ray, Rev. H. W. Kirkland, Kendal 
 *Redfern, Rev. W. I. Magd. Hall 
 *Reed, Rev. C. Chirton House, Tyne- 
 
 mouth 
 *Reed, Rev. J. Harold's Cross, Dublin 
 
 * Reeve, Mr. W. Leamington 
 *Rew, Rev. Charles, Maidstone 
 Rhodes, M. T. Esq. Stanmoor Hall, 
 
 Middlesex 
 ♦Richards, Edw. Priest, Esq. Cardiff 
 ♦Richards, Rev. Edw. Tew, Partington 
 
 Rectory, Havant 
 ♦Richards, Rev. W. Upton, London 
 ♦Richards, Rev. H. M. Ch. Ch. Oxford 
 ♦Richards, Mr. Bookseller, Oxford 
 Rickards, Rev. F. Stowlangtoft, Suffolk 
 ♦Rickards, E. P. Esq. 
 Riddell, Rev. J. C. B. Harrietsham 
 Riddle, John B. Esq. 2, Seymour 
 
 Place, Bristol 
 ♦Ridgway, Josh. jun. Esq.Wallsuches, 
 
 near Bolton 
 ♦Ridley, Rev.W, H. Hambledon 
 Ridley, N. J. Esq. Ch. Ch. Oxford 
 ♦Rivaz, C. Esq, Great St. Helen's 
 
 London 
 ♦Roberts, Rev. H. Jesus Coll. Camb. 
 Roberts, Rev. L. Slaidburn, near 
 
 Clitheroe, Yorkshire 
 ♦Roberts, Rev. R. Milton Abbas, 
 
 Dorsetshire 
 ♦Robertson, Dr. Doctors' Commons, 
 
 London 
 ♦Robertson,Rev.J.C.Boxley, Maidstone 
 *Robertson, Rev. J. C. Cheddington, 
 
 Hemel Hempstead 
 ♦Robin, Rev. P.R. Itchen, Southampton 
 ♦Robins, Rev. Sanderson 
 ♦Robinson, G. J. Esq. Hart Street, 
 
 Bloomsbury 
 ♦Robinson, Rev. Sir George, Bart. 
 ♦Robinson, Rev. Christr. Kirknewton, 
 
 near Wooler, Northumberland 
 •♦Robinson, Rev. R. B. Lytham, near 
 
 Preston 
 ♦Robson, T. U. Esq. Magd. Hall, Oxford 
 ♦Rodmell, Rev. J. 
 ♦Rodwell, Rev. J. M. St. Peter's, Saffron 
 
 Hill, 7,ParkTenace,Barnsbury Park 
 
 ♦Rodwell, R. M. Esq. Exeter College, 
 
 Oxford 
 ♦Rogers, Edward, Esq. Eliot Place, 
 
 Blackheath, Kent 
 ♦Roper, Rev. C. Rector of St. Olave's 
 Rose, Rev. H. H. Erdington 
 ♦Ross, Rev. I. L. Fyfield, near Burford 
 ♦♦Ross and Argyll, Diocesan Library of 
 Routh.Rev.Dr. President of Magd.Coll. 
 
 Oxford 
 ♦Routledge,Rev.W.Ilminster,Somerset 
 Rowland, Miss, Hereford 
 ♦Rowlandson, Rev. J. Mansergh, near 
 
 Kirby Lonsdale 
 ♦Rowsell, Rev. T. J. 
 ♦♦ Russell, D. Watts, Esq. Biggin Hall, 
 
 Oundle 
 ♦♦Russell, I. Watts, Esq. Ham Hall, 
 
 Ashbourn, Derbyshire 
 ♦Russell, Rev. S. Printing House Sq., 
 
 London 
 Ryder, Rev. George Dudley, Easton 
 
 Winchester 
 Ryder, T. D. Esq. Oriel Coll. Oxford 
 
 Samler, Rev. J. H. Bampton, Oxon. 
 Sandford, Rev. G. B. Prestwich 
 Sandford, Rev. John 
 ♦Sandford, Frederick, Esq. 
 ♦Sandham, Rev. James, Selsey Rec- 
 tory, near Chichester 
 ♦Sandham, H. Esq. St. John's College, 
 
 Oxford 
 Sandilands, Hon. and Rev. J. CoBton 
 
 Rectory, Melton Mowbray 
 ♦Sandon, Lord, 39, Grosvenor-square 
 Sankey, P. Esq. St. John's Coll. Oxford 
 ♦Sargeant, Rev. R. Worcester 
 Saunders, Rev. A. P. Charter House 
 ♦Savage, F. Esq. Henleaze, Bristol 
 ♦Savage, Rev. W. Queen's Coll. Oxford 
 ♦Savory, J. S. Esq. 16, Somerset Place, 
 
 Bath 
 Scarth, Rev. H. Bathwick, Bath 
 *Schofield, Rich. L. Esq. Brighton 
 ♦♦Scott, Rev. R. Duloe, Cornwall 
 
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 ♦ Scudamore, Rev. W. E. Ditchingham, 
 
 Bungay 
 
SUBSCRIBERS. 
 
 *Seager, Rev. C. Worcester Coll. Oxford 
 •Selwyn, Rev. W. Canon of Ely 
 Sewell, Rev. W. Exeter Coll. Professor 
 
 of Moral Philosophy, Oxford 
 *Seymour, E. W. Esq. Porthmawr, 
 
 Breconshire 
 Seymour, Rev. Sir J. Hobart, Bart., 
 
 Prebendary of Gloucester 
 •Seymour, Rev. R. Kinwarton, Alcester 
 *Shairp, John C. Esq. Balliol Coll., 
 
 Oxford 
 •Sharpe, Rev. W. C. M.A. 
 •Sharpies, Rev. James Hool, War- 
 rington 
 *Shaw, Rev. G. Fen Drayton, near 
 
 Cambridge 
 •Shaw, Rev. John, Stoke, Slough, Buck 
 Shaw, Rev. M. Hawkhurst, Kent 
 •Shea, Rev. Robert Francis Jones 
 *Shedden, Rev. S. Pembroke College 
 •Shelley, Rev. John, Kingsby Rectory, 
 
 Cheadle, Staffordshire 
 •Shepherd, Rev. S. North Somercote, 
 
 near Louth, Lincolnshire 
 •Sheppard, J. H. Esq. Queen's College, 
 
 Oxford 
 •Sheppard, Rev. J. G. Repton Priory, 
 
 Burton-on-Trent 
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 Cambridge 
 Shield, Rev. W. T. Durham 
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 College, Cambridge 
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 Shillibeer, Rev. J. Oundle 
 •Shipston-on-Stour Theological Book 
 
 Society 
 *Shipton, Rev. J. N. Othery, near 
 
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 •Shirreff, Rev. S. B. Birkwell Minden, 
 
 Warwick 
 •Shirreff, Rev. R. St. John, Blackheath 
 •Shortland, Rev. H. Rector of Twinstead 
 •Short, Rev. A. Ravensthorpe 
 Shuttleworth, Rev. E. 
 •Sidgwick, C. Esq. Skipton, Yorkshire 
 •Simes, G. F. Esq. 
 *Simms, Rev. E. Bath 
 Simms and Son, Bath 
 Simpson, Rev. H. Bexhill 
 •Simpson, Rev. W. H. Louth 
 •Simpson, R. Esq. 
 
 •Simpson, Rev. J. D. Sidney Sussex 
 
 College, Cambridge 
 •Singer, Rev. Dr. I. H., S.F.T.C.D. 
 • Singleton, Rev. R. C. Curate of 
 
 Monart, Ireland 
 •Sion College Library 
 •Skeffington, Hon. H. R. Worcester 
 
 College, Oxford 
 •Skeffington, Hon. T. C. F. Worcester 
 
 College, Oxford 
 •Skinner, Fitzowen, Esq. 23, Keppel 
 
 Street, Russell Square 
 •Skinner, J. Esq. King William's Coll. 
 
 Isle of Man 
 •Skrine, Rev. Harcourt, Cirencester 
 *Slade, Rev. James, Bolton 
 •Sladen, Rev. E. H. M. Bockleton 
 ••Slatter, Rev. John, Warrington 
 •Slocombe and Simms, Leeds 
 •Small, Rev. Nath.P. Market Bosworth , 
 
 Hinckley 
 •Smirke, Sir Robert, London 
 •Smith, Rev. J. Campbell, Dawlish, 
 
 Devon 
 •Smith, Rev. Edw. Booking, Braintree 
 Smith, Rev. G. Garvagh, Ireland 
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 •Smith, Rev. J. Trinity College, Oxford 
 ♦Smith, Rev. W. Great Cauford, Wim- 
 
 borne 
 •Smith, H. W. Esq. 
 •Smith, R. P. Esq. Pembroke College 
 Smith, Rev. H. Sennicotts, (SMchester 
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 •Smyth, Rev. H. Fenner, Glebe, Johns- 
 town 
 •Smythies, E. Esq. Lutterworth 
 Snare, Mr. John, Reading 
 Somers, the Countess of 
 •Southampton Theological Library 
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 Heytesbury, Wilts 
 Sparke, Rev. John, ClareHall, Cambridga 
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 Norfolk 
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 Oxford 
 Spreat, Mr. W. Exeter 
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 Spurgin, Rev. J. C. C. C. Cambridge 
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SUBSCRIBERS. 
 
 •Stainton, T. Esq. Wadham College, 
 
 Oxford 
 * Stanley, Rev. E. Rugby 
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 London 
 Starkey, Rev. A. B. C. St. John's Col- 
 lege, Oxford 
 *Steel, H. W. Esq. Mathune, near 
 
 Chepstow 
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 Ringwood 
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 Stewart, Mr. King "William Street 
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 age, Bautry 
 Stockdale, Rev. W. Linwood Rectory, 
 
 Market Rasin 
 ♦Stoker, Rev. H. Durham 
 *Stoke3, S. N. Esq. Trinity College, 
 
 Cambridge 
 •Stonehouse, Rev. W. B. Owston 
 •Stott, Miss, Bradford, Yorkshire 
 •Street, J. Esq. Lloyd's Rooms,London 
 •Street, "W. F. Esq. 13, Austin Friars, 
 
 London 
 •Stretton, Rev. H. 
 Strong, Mr. W. Bristol 
 ♦Stuart, Rev. John B., M.D. Billeston, 
 
 Leicester 
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 Presidency 
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 Cambridge 
 Swainson, Rev. E. E. Clunn, Shropshire 
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 Daventry 
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 Sweet, Rev. C. Cornworthy, Totnes, 
 
 Devon 
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 Cambridge 
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 Darlington 
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 Oxford 
 Tatham, Rev. Arthur, Broadoak, Lost- 
 
 withiel, Cornwall 
 Tayler, Rev. A. W. Stoke Newington 
 Taylor, Mr. J. Brighton 
 •Taylor, John, Esq. Leicester 
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 •Tennant, Rev. "W. 
 •Thomas, J. H. Esq. Trinity College, 
 
 Cambridge 
 •Thompson, Rev. E. H. St. James'*, 
 
 Westminster 
 •Thomson, Rev. W. St. Nicholas, 
 
 Guildford 
 Thornton, Rev. T. Brockhall, "Weedon 
 Thornton, Rev. W. Dodford, "Weedon 
 Thorp, Ven. Archdeacon, Durham 
 ••Thorp, VenerableArchdeacon, Trinity 
 
 College, Cambridge 
 •Thrupp, J. "W. Esq. Upper Brook- 
 street 
 •Thurland, F. E. Esq. New College, 
 
 Oxford 
 Thwaytes, Rev. J. Perpetual Curate of 
 
 Trinity Church, Carlisle 
 •Thynne, Right Hon. and Rev. Lord 
 John, D.D. Rector of Street-cum- 
 "Walton 
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 bridge Deverill, Warminster 
 •Tindale, John, Esq. Huddersfield 
 •Tireman, Mrs. Nurton, Chepstow 
 •Todd, Rev. Dr. Trinity College, 
 
 Dublin 
 •Todd, Venerable Archdeacon, Settring- 
 
 ton Malton, Yorkshire 
 •Tonge, G. Esq. 
 
 •Toovey, Mr. James, 36, St James Str. 
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 •Tragett, Rev. T. H. Awbridge Danes, 
 near Romsey 
 
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 lege, Cambridge 
 
 •Treacher, I. S. Esq. Magd. Hall 
 
 •Trench, Rev. F. S. Kilmoroney Athey 
 
 •Trevelyan, Rev. J. Milverton, So- 
 merset 
 
 •Tripp, Rev. Dr Silverton, Devon- 
 shire 
 
 Tristram, H. B. Esq. Lincoln College, 
 Oxford 
 
 •Tritton, Henry, Esq. 54, Lombard 
 Street, London 
 
 "Trollope, Rev. A. St. Mary-le-bone 
 
 •Trotter, C. Esq. Edinburgh 
 
 •Trower, Rev. Walter, Wiston, near 
 Steyning 
 
 •Truro Theological Library 
 
 •Trym, C. Esq. Theol. Coll. Wells 
 
 Tuckwell, Henry, Esq. 
 
 •Tupper, W. G. Esq. Trinity College, 
 Oxford 
 
 •Turbitt, Rev. J. H. Powick, near 
 Worcester 
 
 •Turner, Miss, Shooter's Hill, Kent 
 
 •Turner, Rev. G. Chelsfleld, Farn- 
 borough, Kent 
 
 Turner, Rev. J. Hagley, Stourbridge 
 
 Turner, Rev. Sam. H. D.D. Prof, in 
 the New York Theol. Seminary of the 
 Episcopal Church 
 •Turner, Rev.W. Fishbourn, Chichester 
 
 •Twining, Rev. D. Therfield, Royston 
 •Twining, Richard, jun. Esq. 
 •Twining, James, Esq. Trinity College, 
 
 Cambridge 
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 Tyler, Rev. Geo. Trinity Coll. Oxford 
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 Southampton 
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 • Underwood, R. E3q. Broadwell Rec- 
 
 tory, Stow-on-the-Wold 
 Utterton, Rev. I. S. Dorking 
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 Oxford 
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 Cambridge 
 
 •Venn, E. S. Esq. Highbury Park, 
 
 near London 
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 •Vickerman, C. R. Esq. 
 Vigne, Rev. Henry, Sunbury, Middlesex 
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 Bodmin 
 
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 Cambridge 
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 Walford, Rev. O. Charterhouse 
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 Essex 
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 Oxford 
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 Wallace, Rev. G. Canterbury 
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 Waller, Rev. E. A. Warwick 
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 Oxford 
 Walters, Mr. Rugeley 
 
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 Sussex 
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 Wason, James, Esq. Rowcroft, Stroud, 
 
 Gloucestershire 
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 Oxford 
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 Cheltenham 
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 Dorset 
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 Cambridge 
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SUBSCRIBERS. 
 
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 Kettering 
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 Wells, Rev. F. Woodcliurch, Tenter- 
 den, Kent 
 *Wenham, J. G. Esq. St. John's 
 
 College, Oxford 
 *Wentworth, Rev. S. E. Liverpool 
 Weston, Francis M.Esq. Charleston, U.S. 
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 •Whall, Rev. W. Thierning Rectory 
 
 Oundle 
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 "Whitby, R. Vernon, Esq. Osbaston 
 
 Lodge, Market-Bosworth 
 *Whitcome, J. Esq. Gloucester 
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 chester, Lancashire 
 •White, Rev. R. Marsh, Aveley, Essex 
 ♦White, Horace P. Esq. Magd. Hall, 
 
 Oxford 
 •White, H. M. Esq. New College 
 •White, A. Esq. Balliol Coll. Oxford 
 •Whitehead, Rev. W. Worcester Col- 
 lege, Oxford 
 •Whitelegg, Rev. W. Hulme, near Man- 
 chester 
 Whitley and Booth, Messrs. Halifax 
 ♦Whitfield, Rev. G. T. Bockleton, 
 
 Tenbury, Worcestershire 
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 Cambridge 
 Whorwood, Rev. T. Magd. Coll. Oxford 
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 •Wilberforce, Rev. H. W. Bransgore 
 Wilberforce, Rev. S. Archdeacon of 
 
 Surrey 
 •Wilkins, Venerable George, D. D. 
 
 Archdeacon of Nottingham 
 Wilkins, Rev. Mr. 
 •Wilkinson, Rev. M. 27 Kensington 
 
 Square 
 •Wilkinson, Rev. Henry J. Queen's 
 
 College, Oxford 
 •Wilkinson, T. W. Esq. University 
 
 College, Durham 
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 Oxford 
 Williams, Rev. E. T. Mount Ballan, 
 Chepstow 
 
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 Oxford 
 
 Williams, Rev. George, Wicherford, 
 Worcester 
 
 Williams, M. D. Esq. Cwmcynfelin, 
 Aberystwith 
 
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 Hyde, Winchester 
 
 •Williams, Rev. T. E., D.D., Buckle- 
 bury, Berks 
 
 •Williams, Rev. J. Jesus Coll. Oxford 
 
 •Willis, Rev. T. Rayne, near Braintree 
 
 •Willis, Rev. W. D. Green Park, 
 Bath 
 
 •Willock, Rev. W. W. Ware 
 
 •Willott, Rev. John, Farnborough, Kent 
 
 •Wilshire, E. S. Esq. Worcester Col- 
 lege, Oxford 
 
 •Wilson, Rev. Charles, Liverpool 
 
 Wilson, Rev. Francis, Rugeley 
 
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 Oxford 
 
 •Wilson, L. Esq. Norwood Hill 
 
 •Wilson, R. Esq. Magdalene Hall 
 
 ••Wilson, Rev. Robert, B.A. Bootle, 
 Liverpool. Presented as a testimonial 
 of regard from the congregation at 
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 •Wilson, A. Esq. Balham, Surrey 
 
 Wise, Rev. H. Offchurch 
 
 •Wise, Mrs. M. Shrublands, Leaming- 
 ton 
 
 •Wither, Rev. H. I. B. 
 
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 •Withers, Rev. George, Bishop's Coll. 
 Calcutta 
 
 Wix, Mr. H. Bridge- Street, Black- 
 friars 
 
 Wix, Rev. S. St Bartholomew's 
 Hospital 
 
 Wix, W. Esq. Tonbridge Wells 
 
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 Wolfe, J. Esq. Limerick 
 
 Wollaston, T. T. Esq. St. Peter's Col- 
 lege, Cambridge 
 
 •Wood, Rev. R. 
 
 •Wood, Rev. R. Orme, Bower's Gifford 
 
 •Woodcock, H. Esq. 
 
SUBSCRIBERS. 
 
 •Woodford, A. P. A. Esq. University 
 
 College, Durham. 
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 Chichester 
 •Woodward, Rev. F. B. Dublin 
 •Woodward, Rev. T. 
 Woollcomhe, Rev. W. Balliol College 
 •Woollcombe,W. W. Esq. Exeter Coll. 
 ♦Woolley, Rev. John, University Coll. 
 
 Oxford 
 •Worcester College Library 
 ••Wordsworth, Rev. Christopher, D.D. 
 
 Head Master of Harrow School 
 •Wordsworth, Rev. Christopher, D.D. 
 
 Buxted Parsonage, Uckfield, Sussex 
 Wordsworth, Rev. C. Winchester 
 Wordsworth, Rev. C. F. Gillingham, 
 
 Dorset 
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 Rugby 
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 Exeter 
 Wragge, G. Esq. Cheadle, Stafford- 
 shire 
 
 •Wray, Rev. C. Liverpool 
 
 •Wrench, Rev. J. G. D.C.L. Salehurst, 
 Sussex 
 
 •Wrench, Rev. Frederick, Stowting, 
 Kent 
 
 Wright, H. Esq. Magd. Hall, Oxford 
 
 •Wright, Rev. W. Colchester 
 
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 Wrottesley, Rev. E. J. Tettinhall, Wol- 
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 •Wyatt, C. F. Esq. Ch. Ch. 
 
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 Dunkirk 
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