Chapter VIII — On satisfaction, the third integral part of the sacrament of Penance

I. QUESTION I. What is sacramental satisfaction? ANSWER. It is the acceptation of a penalty and the voluntary endurance of it, enjoined by the confessor, for the reintegrating of friendship with God violated by sin, and for compensating the injury inflicted upon him. This satisfaction has the name of penalty, whence it is called penance. Fasts, alms, prayers, vigils, and disciplines are penalties, because they are contrary to the body. A short prayer scarcely obtains the name of a penalty. Wherefore let confessors remember that satisfaction is a penalty. It is called voluntary acceptation, and so forth, because unwilling and forced it would not be accepted by God. Enjoined by the confessor — by this particle sacramental satisfaction is distinguished from penances which are undertaken of one's own accord.

II. This satisfaction must necessarily be offered to God in vengeance for offences, as all Catholics teach against the innovators. Obvious are the testimonies of the Scriptures. Be converted to me with all your heart, in fasting, and in weeping, and in mourning. Joel 2. Bring forth fruits worthy of penance. Matthew 3.

III. QUESTION II. What are the works by which a man can satisfy God for sins? ANSWER. Three: prayer, fasting, almsgiving. To these three the rest are reduced. Prayer includes all things which regard divine worship. Fasting comprehends all chastisements of the body, hair-shirts, lying on the ground, disciplines, and vigils. Almsgiving restrains avarice, cupidity, and the concupiscence of the eyes. To these three works are reduced also the scourges and calamities which are inflicted upon us by God.

IV. The execution of satisfaction is not necessary to the essence of the sacrament, which precedes the satisfaction itself. Therefore it is called an integral part. Theologians dispute on either side whether a satisfaction made in mortal sin be valid. But each opinion is easily reconciled, if we distinguish a meritorious satisfaction from the precept of fulfilling the satisfaction. Penitents who in the state of mortal sin fulfil the precept of satisfaction are not bound again to perform the same satisfactory works in order to fulfil the precept. But here the satisfaction is not meritorious, as being made in mortal sin.

V. One satisfaction is medicinal, destined for the curing of the infirmities of the soul; this one cannot perform for another. The other is of penalty, by which the punishment owed to sin is paid; in this sense one can satisfy for another, as all Catholics teach, excepting that which is enjoined in the sacrament to be done by the penitent himself.

VI. QUESTION III. What are the effects of satisfaction? ANSWER. Several. 1. Satisfaction tears out the relics of sins. 2. It restrains the appetitions and concupiscence. 3. It offers an argument of a sincere conversion, when it is in fact true. 4. It turns away the wrath of God. 5. It renders penitents in a certain manner like to Christ their Head. 6. It restores the rights of the Church injured. 7. It pays the debt for the temporal guilt which remains after the fault is remitted.

VII. QUESTION IV. What was the ancient discipline of the Church in imposing satisfactions? ANSWER. More things would have to be said, which the brevity set before me forbids. At the beginning of the Church a most severe penance was performed, with no prescribed manner or measure. On occasion of the Novatian schism four states of penitents were instituted. 1. Of the weepers, who, clothed in sackcloth and mournful garb, before the doors of the church, their outrages being laid open, commended themselves to the prayers of the faithful entering. 2. Of the hearers, who in the vestibule of the church heard the lessons of sacred Scripture and the sermons of the priests. 3. Of the prostrate, who were received within the compass of the temple as far as the ambo. In this station they remained at the bishop's discretion, and expiating their offences by the reading of the Scriptures, by tears, by fasts and prayers, they received absolution. 4. Of the consistent, who sat in the church, partakers of all the prayers.

VIII. This discipline of penance flourished in the Latin Church down to the seventh century. About this time there came forth, against the severity of the ancient canons, certain penitential books, which under the paint of kindliness dared to temper the ancient penitential canons. The Second Council of Chalon abrogated these books: of which, it says, the errors are certain, the authors uncertain.

IX. All inculcate upon confessors the knowledge of the ancient canons, as Benedict XIV adverts, Book 7 On the Synod, chapter 41, that from them they may gather by what reason they can temper, increase, or diminish the penances to be imposed. For although the exterior penalties be diminished, the spirit of penance nevertheless is unchangeable, and always perseveres the same in the Church. If a milder exterior penance is now imposed for the gravest outrages, the internal fervour of spirit ought to supply.

X. St. Charles Borromeo collected together the ancient penitential canons, and distributed them through the ten precepts of the Decalogue: which collection I have given entire in Vol. IX, dissertation 5, for the convenience of confessors.

XI. The spirit of penance always perseveres the same in the Church, unchangeable, as I have said. The exterior discipline of penance flourishes in our age most mildly. Individuals diminish it according to their own bent, since the canons of that unchangeable spirit do not now obtain. A rule nevertheless Trent prescribed, which I shall presently give.

XII. But what ought more deeply to move and to break our soul is that not only the exterior discipline of penalties has been changed, but the very interior spirit of penance is utterly extinct among the greatest part of Christians. When a severer exterior penance flourished, the charity of Christ burned in men's hearts, a true contrition glowed. Upon the ancient external discipline, tempered and as it were grown obsolete, there has succeeded a servile attrition conceived from fear of punishments not only eternal but, according to certain casuists, even temporal. There succeeds an inconstant and implicit purpose. Finally the precepts of charity and of contrition have gone into desuetude among certain kindlier casuists. Christ would have aggravated, say Viva, Sporer, and the rest like them, and not lightened the yoke of Christians, if together with confession he required a grief formed by charity even inchoate. More things would have to be said by me, if I wished to set forth worthily the laxities that have been brought in. You, ministers of Christ, consult the ancient canons, and touch with your own hands to what a state our sacramental matters have been reduced.

XIII. An admonition to confessors. Consider, ministers of Christ, that in our age pride, concupiscence, luxury, avarice, display, ambition, and effeminacy rage more shamelessly than in the first centuries of the Church. No less now do adultery, fornication, perjury, and so forth inflict injury upon God than of old. Therefore the same payment will discharge them. They will pay, say some, in Purgatory. Be it so. But in the meanwhile medicinal penances curing diseases and restraining concupiscence and the other unbridled appetitions, unless they be strong and severe, do not heal the sick. But has a new and gentler medicine been found, hitherto unknown to the Church, by which pride may be pressed down, the flesh sweetly and kindly crucified, and concupiscence restrained? Awake, ministers of God, and according to the Gospel of Christ institute your reckonings.