Chapter II — On the conditions of sacramental Confession

I. The conditions of sacramental Confession are comprehended in these words:

Let confession be simple, humble, pure, faithful, And frequent, naked, discreet, willing, modest; Whole and secret, tearful, and hastened; Strong, accusing, and ready to obey.

II. 1. The condition simple signifies that sins be set forth in a simple discourse, episodes being left aside. Women frequently, in order to set forth their own sins, defame the whole household. This defect is to be guarded against. 2. The condition humble in gesture, in a modest habit, without a sword, without the luxury which women are wont to carry even to the tribunal itself; therefore they are to be rejected. 3. Pure on account of the right end of justification. 4. Faithful, without paint and lying. 5. Frequent, according to the counsel of a prudent minister. 6. Naked, without equivocations and excuse. 7. Discreet, in honourable and express words. 8. Willing, or spontaneous and free. 9. Modest, with modesty and shame. 10. Whole, by explaining the number, the species, and the circumstances. 11. Secret, for the avoiding of scandal and infamy, and so forth. 12. Tearful, that is, with true grief of heart. 13. Strong in the purpose of abstaining from sins. 14. Accusing, not excusing sins. 15. Hastened, without excessive delay after the sin is perpetrated. 16. Ready to obey the confessor directing, teaching, and healing.

III. QUESTION I. Ought Confession to be formally whole? ANSWER. All affirm it against Luther; and the truth is of faith, defined in the Council of Trent, session 14, chapter 5. It ought to be of all — that is, the confession must be of all the mortal sins which a man recollects after a diligent examination of conscience.

IV. QUESTION II. What diligence is to be employed in the examination of conscience? ANSWER. Two extremes are to be guarded against in this most grave business. Excessive diligence, which brings anguish and torture to the mind and disturbs the soul, is to be avoided. For confession is not a butchery of souls, as the Calvinists blurt out, but an emptying of wounds and a remedy for future ones. The other extreme of negligence is also to be avoided. Let us seriously and maturely recall the sins committed. A few admonitions I shall add.

V. 1. Prayers are to be poured out to God, by which divine help may be implored for the routing of the mind's darkness. Let acts of faith be elicited, by which it is firmly believed that sins are remitted by this sacrament. Let hope of obtaining pardon be excited. Let charity toward the God offended be kindled, and grief from the whole heart. Contrition is the antidote of sin. If you wish to vomit forth all crimes, at the beginning of the examination kindle a fervent contrition.

VI. 2. Each man ought to regard his own state and condition, and to weigh what he has sinned against this state. 3. Let sins of the flesh be set forth more severely than they are examined. Adulteries, thefts, fornications, drunkennesses lay themselves open of themselves. But the sins of pride, of envy, of grudge, of ambition, of avarice, and that most crafty love of shining in this theatre of the world, and the rest of that kind, advance so painted and splendid that they hide their whole malice from our eyes, unless they be more inwardly inspected. 4. Each man has his own reigning and dominant passion, which advances hedged about with other sins: let this be brought under examination more severely.

VII. QUESTION III. What is to be said of the rule of examination which Fr. Viva proposes? ANSWER. Fr. Viva, question 5, article 1, no. 5, inquires when a confession is to be reputed invalid on account of a defect of examination. And he answers: “If a man, examining his conscience more diligently, finds that there are more sins which he had forgotten than those which he confessed, he can persuade himself that he did not send before the due examination.”

VIII. If therefore he has found that he had forgotten a third or a fourth part of his sins, he can then persuade himself that he did send before the due examination. False therefore and vain is the aforesaid rule. The quantity of time to be spent in the examination of conscience cannot be prescribed. The more a conscience is wounded with graver outrages, the more diligently is it to be inspected.

IX. A most grave admonition concerning the examining of sins of injustice, and of delay in paying debts and the wages of workmen and craftsmen. All these things are most severely to be discussed: the masks of preserving one's estate, of clothing a wife, and so forth, being torn away. See more, Vol. IX, Book 1, dissertation 4, chapter 4.

X. QUESTION IV. Is the number of sins to be expressed? ANSWER. All affirm it. And when a certain number is not established, let the more likely be expressed. Confession is not, as I have said, a torture of consciences. Let the chief study be directed to this, that the heart be softened with a vehement contrition, and then crimes come out of themselves, as poison is vomited forth when an efficacious antidote has been drunk. Let the penitent sincerely set forth the state of his conscience, and the number of sins which occur to his mind after a serious examination. The rule of Trent, session 14, chapter 5, is excellent: The remaining sins which do not occur to one diligently thinking are understood to be included as a whole in the same confession, for which we faithfully say with the Prophet: From my secret sins cleanse me, O Lord. If the contrition be true, never will the examination be defective. Most frequently negligence occurs in the examination, because the contrition is feigned, conceived from certain temporal things, or even from eternal punishments, and void of any charity.

XI. QUESTION V. He who has sinned by a long habit, is it enough for him to set forth the time of his vicious state without explaining the number of sins? ANSWER. A penitent ought to represent his own state in the best manner he can. Let him set forth the frequency of sinning, if he cannot the number — suppose so many times in a day, in a week, in a month — and the time in which he tarried in the vice. If she be a harlot, let her declare the diverse species and the time of her harlotry. He who has had a concubine at home as a wife, let him say the time of the concubinage and the number of fornications, if he can. He who unknowingly increased the number of sins, if afterwards he detect that he did not so often sin, is not bound to manifest this decrease, unless some circumstance demand it. He who by one act detracted from several persons, since he perpetrated several sins, is bound so to express them. He who detracted from a community ought to manifest the community.

XII. QUESTION VI. What is to be said of the opinion denying the duty of confessing the effects of sin? ANSWER. In sin there is considered the will of sinning, or the internal act, the exterior action, and the consequent effect. The will of burning a house is completed by the application of fire; the will of killing by a mortal wound: the death and the burning of the house are effects of the sin. Fr. La Croix, Book 6, part 2, no. 944, says: “It seems MORE PROBABLE that there is no obligation, speaking of itself, of confessing the effect. So Vásquez, Salas, Granado, de Lugo, Bonacina, and so forth. And consequently such a man will satisfy by saying: I threw away the Breviary, foreseeing that for so long a time I would not be able to pray; I held out poison to my neighbour, intending his death — keeping silence whether he prayed the hours or not, and whether the death followed or not.”

XIII. This opinion seems to me false: and the reasons which are adduced by Fr. La Croix and the others cited by him are vain. For although the death and the burning of the house be not in themselves sins, they are nevertheless effects of the sin; and the knowledge of these effects varies the state of the cause. La Croix subjoins in the same place: By accident such effects that followed ought often to be added; nay, he says, penitents commonly add such effects that followed, in which they are not to be hindered, but rather sweetly helped. This alone was wanting, that they should also be hindered. Tell me: why do penitents commonly confess effects of this kind? Because they follow the inmost sense of nature, that light signed upon their foreheads, and are ignorant of these new speculations of certain casuists.