The
Early
Church clearly taught
confession of sins, and in Church! Indeed, the
following citations clearly show that from the very
beginnings of the post-Apostolic Church down to the
present day, confession of sins was understood as
holy, necessary and effectual for the remission of
sins. Those who avoid it must necessarily find
themselves outside of Biblical thought on sin,
repentance and confession. Note
the dates of these documents! Of
special significance is their recognition that
confession and absolution must be received by a
sinner before receiving Holy Communion, for:
“whoever . . . eats the bread or drinks the cup of
the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of
profaning the body and blood of the Lord”
(1
Cor. 11:27).
The Didache -
The Earliest Christian Catechism (pre-dating some of
the canonical writings of the New Testament):
“Confess your sins in church, and do not go up to
your prayer with an evil conscience. This is the way
of life. . . . On the Lord’s Day gather together,
break bread, and give thanks, after confessing your
transgressions so that your sacrifice may be pure”
(Didache
4:14, 14:1 [A.D. 70]).
The Letter of Barnabas:
“You shall judge righteously. You shall not make a
schism, but you shall pacify those that contend by
bringing them together. You shall confess your sins.
You shall not go to prayer with an evil conscience.
This is the way of light”
(Letter of Barnabas 19 [A.D. 74]).
St. Ignatius of
Antioch
“For as many as are of God and of Jesus Christ are
also with the bishop. And as many as shall, in the
exercise of penance, return into the unity of the
Church, these, too, shall belong to God, that they
may live according to Jesus Christ”
(Letter to the Philadelphians 3 [A.D. 106]).
“For where there is division and wrath, God does not
dwell. To all them that repent, the Lord grants
forgiveness, if they turn in penitence to the unity
of God, and to communion with the bishop”
(ibid., 8).
St. Irenaeus of
Lyons
“[The Gnostic disciples of Marcus] have deluded many
women. . . . Their consciences have been branded as
with a hot iron. Some of these women make a public
confession, but others are ashamed to do this, and
in silence, as if withdrawing from themselves the
hope of the life of God, they either apostatize
entirely or hesitate between the two courses”
(Against Heresies 1:22 [A.D. 189]).
Tertullian of
Carthage
“[Regarding confession, some] flee from this work as
being an exposure of themselves, or they put it off
from day to day. I presume they are more mindful of
modesty than of salvation, like those who contract a
disease in the more shameful parts of the body and
shun making themselves known to the physicians; and
thus they perish along with their own bashfulness”
(Repentance 10:1 [A.D. 203]).
St. Hippolytus of Rome
“[The bishop conducting the ordination of the new
bishop shall pray:] God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ. . . . Pour forth now that power which comes
from you, from your royal Spirit, which you gave to
your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, and which he
bestowed upon his holy apostles . . . and grant this
your servant, whom you have chosen for the
episcopate, [the power] to feed your holy flock and
to serve without blame as your high priest,
ministering night and day to propitiate unceasingly
before your face and to offer to you the gifts of
your holy Church, and by the Spirit of the high
priesthood to have the authority to forgive sins, in
accord with your command”
(Apostolic Tradition 3 [A.D. 215]).
Origen of
Alexandria
“[A final method of forgiveness], albeit hard and
laborious [is] the remission of sins through
penance, when the sinner . . . does not shrink from
declaring his sin to a priest of the Lord and from
seeking medicine, after the manner of him who says,
‘I said, “To the Lord I will accuse myself of my
iniquity”
’.”
(Homilies on Leviticus 2:4 [A.D. 248]).
St. Cyprian of
Carthage
“The apostle [Paul] likewise bears witness and says:
‘ . . . Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of
the Lord unworthily will be guilty of the body and
blood of the Lord’ [1 Cor. 11:27]. But [the
impenitent] spurn and despise all these warnings;
before their sins are expiated, before they have
made a confession of their crime, before their
conscience has been purged in the ceremony and at
the hand of the priest . . . they do violence to
[the Lord’s] body and blood, and with their hands
and mouth they sin against the Lord more than when
they denied him”
(The Lapsed 15:1–3 (A.D. 251]).
“Of how much greater faith and salutary fear are
they who . . . confess their sins to the priests of
God in a straightforward manner and in sorrow,
making an open declaration of conscience. . . . I
beseech you, brethren, let everyone who has sinned
confess his sin while he is still in this world,
while his confession is still admissible, while the
satisfaction and remission made through the priests
are still pleasing before the Lord”.
(ibid., 28).
“[S]inners may do penance for a set time, and
according to the rules of discipline come to public
confession, and by imposition of the hand of the
bishop and clergy receive the right of Communion.
[But now some] with their time [of penance] still
unfulfilled . . . they are admitted to Communion,
and their name is presented; and while the penitence
is not yet performed, confession is not yet made,
the hands of the bishop and clergy are not yet laid
upon them, the Eucharist is given to them; although
it is written, ‘Whosoever shall eat the bread and
drink the cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be
guilty of the body and blood of the Lord’ [1 Cor.
11:27]“
(Letters 9:2 [A.D. 253]).
“And do not think, dearest brother, that either the
courage of the brethren will be lessened, or that
martyrdoms will fail for this cause, that penance is
relaxed to the lapsed, and that the hope of peace
[i.e., absolution] is offered to the penitent. . . .
For to adulterers even a time of repentance is
granted by us, and peace is given”
(ibid., 51[55]:20).
“But I wonder that some are so obstinate as to think
that repentance is not to be granted to the lapsed,
or to suppose that pardon is to be denied to the
penitent, when it is written, ‘Remember whence thou
art fallen, and repent, and do the first works’
[Rev. 2:5], which certainly is said to him who
evidently has fallen, and whom the Lord exhorts to
rise up again by his deeds [of penance], because it
is written, ‘Alms deliver from death’ [Tob. 12:9]“
(ibid., 51[55]:22).
St. Aphraahat the Persian Sage
“You [priests], then, who are disciples of our
illustrious physician [Christ], you ought not deny a
curative to those in need of healing. And if anyone
uncovers his wound before you, give him the remedy
of repentance. And he that is ashamed to make known
his weakness, encourage him so that he will not hide
it from you. And when he has revealed it to you, do
not make it public, lest because of it the innocent
might be reckoned as guilty by our enemies and by
those who hate us”
(Treatises 7:3 [A.D. 340]).
St. Basil the Great
“It is necessary to confess our sins to those to
whom the dispensation of God’s mysteries is
entrusted. Those doing penance of old are found to
have done it before the saints. It is written in the
Gospel that they confessed their sins to John the
Baptist [Matt. 3:6], but in Acts [19:18] they
confessed to the apostles”
(Rules Briefly Treated 288 [A.D. 374]).
St. John
Chrysostom
“Priests have received a power which God has given
neither to angels nor to archangels. It was said to
them: ‘Whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be
bound in heaven; and whatsoever you shall loose,
shall be loosed.’ Temporal rulers have indeed the
power of binding; but they can only bind the body.
Priests, in contrast, can bind with a bond which
pertains to the soul itself and transcends the very
heavens. Did [God] not give them all the powers of
heaven? ‘Whose sins you shall forgive,’ he says,
‘they are forgiven them; whose sins you shall
retain, they are retained.’ What greater power is
there than this? The Father has given all judgment
to the Son. And now I see the Son placing all this
power in the hands of men [Matt. 10:40; John
20:21–23]. They are raised to this dignity as if
they were already gathered up to heaven”
(The Priesthood 3:5 [A.D. 387]).
St. Ambrose of
Milan
“For those to whom [the right of binding and
loosing] has been given, it is plain that either
both are allowed, or it is clear that neither is
allowed. Both are allowed to the Church, neither is
allowed to heresy. For this right has been granted
to priests only”
(Penance 1:1 [A.D. 388]).
St. Jerome of Stridonium
“If the serpent, the devil, bites someone secretly,
he infects that person with the venom of sin. And if
the one who has been bitten keeps silence and does
not do penance, and does not want to confess his
wound . . . then his brother and his master, who
have the word [of absolution] that will cure him,
cannot very well assist him”
(Commentary on Ecclesiastes 10:11 [A.D. 388]).
St. Augustine
of Hippo
“When you shall have been baptized, keep to a good
life in the commandments of God so that you may
preserve your baptism to the very end. I do not tell
you that you will live here without sin, but they
are venial sins which this life is never without.
Baptism was instituted for all sins. For light sins,
without which we cannot live, prayer was instituted.
. . . But do not commit those sins on account of
which you would have to be separated from the body
of Christ. Perish the thought! For those whom you
see doing penance have committed crimes, either
adultery or some other enormities. That is why they
are doing penance. If their sins were light, daily
prayer would suffice to blot them out. . . . In the
Church, therefore, there are three ways in which
sins are forgiven: in baptisms, in prayer, and in
the greater humility of penance”
(Sermon to Catechumens on the Creed 7:15, 8:16 [A.D.
395]).
