Chapter I — On the sublime dignity and the eminent endowments of a confessor

All the treatises of moral theology more or less pave the way to the sacrament of Penance; and all things which have been said or can be said of the sacrament of Penance come back to this, that an upright confessor be found, skilled in evangelical doctrine and in ecclesiastical discipline, and prudent, who may know how rightly to administer this sacrament. But of the skilled in this art there are very few.

II. No dignity in the Christian commonwealth is more eminent, no grade more sublime. A confessor bears the place of God, to whom all men, even the Supreme Pontiffs themselves, are subject. The Jews cried out: Who is this who forgiveth sins also? Assuredly they knew that this faculty belonged to God alone, and to those who sustain the place of God.

III. Confessors are the fathers of the Christian country, the preservers of public tranquillity, the avengers of outrages, the guardians of evangelical sanctity. These promote the felicity of citizens and reciprocal tranquillity, while they compel subjects to obey princes, to pay them tributes, and to obey their laws. They render princes clement, provident, and just avengers toward their subjects; among the subjects themselves they foster mutual benevolence and justice; and finally they bind both princes and subjects to God.

IV. Hence it is plain that this office is to be committed solely to upright, learned, prudent, and experienced men. Those who are inept for the ministry and for governing chairs, who are of blunt talent, and unequal to the transacting of any grave civil business whatsoever, are to be kept from this province: for it would be handed over to their own and to the faithful's ruin; and there would be undertaken a burden of this kind fearful to angelic shoulders.

I. A confessor must needs be a man of God, since he exercises the office of God. Let him therefore imitate God, setting himself above all things which are of the world; let him respect no person, so as to dread that person in this ministry. Let him contemn all things for Christ. Hear Paul crying out to the Philippians 3: Furthermore I count all things to be but loss for the excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but as dung, that I may gain Christ.

II. The ministers of Christ, while they sit in the tribunal bearing the place of God, ought not to seek the favour, the breeze, or the esteem of magnates, of matrons, or of princes; nor to fear contempt or exile. Let them have more deeply imprinted upon the heart the documents of Christ, necessary to all Christians: For he that shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him the Son of man shall be ashamed, when he shall come in his majesty. Luke 9. And again Matthew 10: Every one therefore that shall confess me before men, I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven. But he that shall deny me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven.

III. For many centuries the bloody persecutions of the mysteries of the Christian faith have ceased. But wars burn, and indeed internal ones, and therefore more mournful, against the rules and mandates of evangelical sanctity. The battles of opinions grow hot; fights for the soothing of human appetitions are daily renewed; because these conciliate to themselves the favour and acclamation of a raving world. But hear Augustine, ministers of Christ, thundering in his sermon on Psalm 48: Thou art advanced, when thou hearest a reproach concerning Christ; thou art advanced, if thou art such. What dost thou fear for thy forehead, which thou hast armed with the sign of the cross? Again on the Psalm, with a fuller discourse, he inculcates this endowment of fortitude and liberty: Let the lips therefore say what the heart has: let it not have fear and simulation. Let the heart have what the lips say: on the contrary, let the lips have what the heart believes. For sometimes there is fear, and thou darest not say what thou knowest, what thou believest: sometimes there is simulation, and thou sayest what thou hast not in thy heart. … Let thy lips agree with thy heart.

IV. In the first centuries of the Church the Neros, Domitians, Diocletians, and the rest of those savage lions assailed the soldiers of Christ not by mines but straightforwardly. There was no place for hesitating: either Christ was to be renounced, or death to be undergone. But in our age the opinions favouring the world, pomps, and theatres have their own Christian patrons, and indeed powerful ones, and they smile upon the mind so much the more efficaciously as they more kindly favour cupidity and concupiscence. There is added the authority of the multitude walking by the broad and spacious way, which, after the manner of a torrent, snatches away all things with itself; so that even the elect, if it could be, would be led into error.

V. These two kinds of persecution all the Fathers, especially St. Augustine, represent to us. An inward love of one's own little glory, of excelling others and occupying the first benches, tempers the theology of Christ more than is just to the desires of men. Certain confessors, asked by Christians and by girls whether it be lawful to approach theatres and dances, reply what certain men replied in the time of St. Augustine, in his book On the Pastor, chapter 3: Be secure: God destroys no one. Only hold the Christian faith. He will not destroy those whom he redeemed: he will not destroy those for whom he shed his blood. And if spectacles should wish to delight your souls, go — what evil is there? Do they not openly say such things today? What evil do the delights of theatres, comedies, and dances present? Go, what evil is there? The holy Doctor goes on: Great is the mercy of God, which pardons all. Crown yourselves with roses before they wither. … If we say these things, we shall perchance gather larger crowds: if there be certain men (the Rigorists) who feel that we saying these things are not rightly wise, we offend a few, but we conciliate the multitude. The multitude hears our smooth-tongued and kindly discourses, brought forth by self-love. A few skilled in the evangelical law are offended; but in the meanwhile the multitude flows together, applauds, and acclaims us. Do you see how monstrous, how savage, how crafty, how continual this persecution is?

VI. Afterwards the authority of the multitude, custom, universal usage, is a tyrant more truculent and savage than the Neros, Diocletians, and Domitians, which continually cries out, subjoins Augustine on Psalm 73: For the serpent does not now cease to whisper and to say: Is God truly about to damn such great crowds? Is he about to free only a few? What else is this than: Do against the precept, and you shall not die the death? But as then, so now. If thou shalt do what the devil suggests, and shalt contemn what God commands, the day of judgment will come, and will find true what God threatened, false what the devil promised. Again on Psalm 45 the holy Doctor relates this treacherous persecution: How many do this! And who does not do it? Is God about to destroy all? O great temptation! O great persecution! cries Augustine elsewhere. How is it to be conquered, how overcome? The lovers of the world (Augustine goes on, on Psalm 136) sometimes question us and say to us: Set forth the reason. … What do we answer? Hear the answer of Augustine, which he forthwith exhibits in the same place: Babylon carries thee, Babylon contains thee, Babylon nourishes thee, Babylon speaks of thee. Thou knowest not how to grasp save that which shines for a time: to meditate the eternal thou art ignorant; thou dost not grasp what thou askest. But self-love, a persecutor, lies in ambush and rages. If we answer in this fashion, we are despised, derided, defamed. Great temptation! Great persecution! Truly, brethren (Augustine goes on in the same place), so it is. But begin to be willing to preach the truth, however little you know, and see how necessary it is that you suffer such mockers and exactors of truth, full of falsity … but see how you are engaged among them, lest, if they be loved by thee, and thou affect their friendships and fearest to displease such men, Babylon begin to delight thee and thou forget Jerusalem. Fearing this therefore, see what he subjoins, see what follows. … If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, and so forth. Behold, thence was that citizen who questioned the Lord: Good Master, what shall I do that I may obtain eternal life? … And the Lord said to him something of the canticles of Sion, which he knew that he would not grasp; but he gave us an example how many there are who seek as it were counsel unto eternal life; and so long do they praise us (N.B.) as we answer what they seek. But that you are engaged among these clamourers binds you not to wish to please them, lest you forget Jerusalem while acting here on earth. "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand be forgotten."

I. That common axiom, No one gives what he has not, is in the highest degree opportune for illustrating our argument. If a confessor be void of the love of God, how can he kindle in penitents the ardour of charity? He that is evil to himself, to whom will he be good? says Ecclesiasticus, chapter 14.

II. Very many confess that they are ignorant; no one acknowledges himself imprudent, as Seneca himself adverts, epistle 56. Very many yield to others the prerogative of knowledge; but they arrogate prudence to themselves, and the more ignorant they are, the more prudent they reckon themselves. The learned can be imprudent; the ignorant, of blunt talent and slow of mind, cannot be prudent. For prudence needs an acute and perspicacious mind, which may foresee things future; a strong memory, which may hold things past; things present; a keen talent, by which it can compare events at once, and thence deliberate. The mute, the sluggish, the torpid are commonly reputed prudent by the vulgar. But these often lack this one vice only, that they are not talkative and vain-speaking.

III. Unless it be given as a holy gift by God, this precious gem can scarcely be gained. If the seed be present, it can be perfected by industry, study, and experience. The prudence necessary to confessors is acquired not so much by industry and study as by continual prayer and the cultivation of humility. A confessor is a peacemaker of sinners with God. Unless he be cautious and prudent in procuring this most lofty business, he will profit nothing. I shall exhibit a few rules of prudence.

IV. THE FIRST RULE is that a confessor, before he ascend the tribunal of God, put off utterly all affections of the flesh, of the world, of hope and of fear, and put on the armour of God, the spirit of fortitude, and the ornament of an evangelical and not human overflowing mercy; since he must sit as arbiter upon a throne not only of wrath but at once of clemency and of vengeance. Let him recall to mind the spirit and marrow of evangelical doctrine, let him hold firm in his hands the evangelical balances. Let him judge that better which approaches more nearly to the incorrupt sanctity of the Gospel, and that worse which stands further from evangelical truth. Let him consider more deeply that he betakes himself thither to this end, that he may restore sinners to the grace and friendship of God, and make them conformable to the image of his Son.

V. THE SECOND RULE. Let the confessor above all explore the disposition and quality of the penitent, and according to the diversity of temperament allure, incite, and animate him to lay bare his conscience, and to open his inmost recesses and more hidden wounds, and to manifest all things to him who bears the place of God. If he detect a shame and a certain repugnance, let him with skill, dexterity, and gentleness raise him up, help him, and add courage. When it comes to the sixth mandate of the Decalogue, let him employ a tongue excellently instructed: let him use words which savour of modesty: let him above all beware lest he bring in the knowledge of crimes unknown, or question anything too curiously. In this business let him study in the highest degree brevity: let him bend to this, that he soften the heart of the penitent, and the abscess will of its own accord and speedily flow out, and forthwith with a brief hand he will close the wounds, lest the mind both of the speaker and of the hearer be defiled. He will temper or continue his questions, as prudence shall have suggested.

VI. THE THIRD RULE. Let him weigh the grief of the penitent, and see whether it be conceived from the love of God above all things. If he shall have seen penitents to lack this love, let him incite and inflame them to it. Let him set before them the immense benefits of God, and above all that most cruel death which Jesus Christ underwent for us; let him set before them the punishments of hell and the terror of the last judgment. Let him employ various incitements for various persons, let him urge with diverse goads according to the diversity of penitents; let him terrify some, animate others. Let him begin, nature herself leading, from the more imperfect acts, from fear of punishments let him ascend to hope; but let him not break off the journey until he has come at last to charity. Let the confessor direct all his industry to this, that he may have, so far as can be done, this sincere conversion of the sinner thoroughly known. But this living plant of the penitent he will know from its fruits. Let him instruct his penitents that a true conversion is set not in beatings of the breast, or in the narration of crimes, and in vain promises made to the priest. For thus the Pharisees and the Sadducees, bearing before them an appearance of sanctity, approached to receive the baptism of John, but did not bring forth worthy fruits of penance. But of this the discourse will return again.

VII. THE FOURTH RULE. The prudence of a confessor ought chiefly to shine forth in this, that with Christian patience and evangelical meekness he receive, hear, and embrace his penitents as brethren, whom he ought to snatch from the servitude of the devil and to gain for God. Patience is necessary for you — for all assuredly, but for you above all.

VIII. THE FIFTH RULE. With the oil of kindliness let a prudent minister join the vinegar of severity, lest the festering sore become more dangerous. After he has with patience and meekness heard the sins, let him apply remedies opportune for the curing of the wounds, and impose satisfactory works consonant with the age, state, health, and gravity of the crimes. If penitents show themselves difficult toward undergoing the yoke of satisfaction imposed by you prudently and moderately according to the evangelical and Tridentine rules, there occurs a foundation for doubting of their disposition, unless they allege evident and manifest reasons for refusing.

IX. THE SIXTH. Let a confessor not accept gifts from penitents: because the Holy Ghost says: Thou shalt not accept person nor gifts: for gifts blind the eyes of the wise, and change the words of the just. Deuteronomy 16. Let him altogether decline familiarity, especially of women. Eve by her blandishments led Adam back. The breath, and the voice, the sighs, the very tears are enchantments and prodigies, which by a certain magnetic force infect the hearts of men. With that caution and circumspection are women to be handled with which they would be handled if they laboured under a most savage plague.

I. Here the water sticks, and whence to take my beginning I know not. A confessor sits as judge, that he may judge and avenge crimes perpetrated against the law of God. An exact knowledge therefore of the divine laws is more or less necessary, so far as human weakness permits. Where is that law? In the holy Scriptures, in the Gospel, in the epistles of Paul, Peter, James, and the other Apostles. These books a confessor ought to turn over with hand by day and by night. The reason is evident. Any judge must be skilled in the laws of princes; any craftsman must have the rules of his art thoroughly known.

II. I have attentively read the moralists who above the rest are today in the hands of confessors — the Salmanticenses, Tamburini, Leander, Sporer, Gobat, Viva, La Croix, Reiffenstuel, and others like them who dispute concerning the knowledge of confessors. None of these sends you to the holy Scripture, to the Fathers, to the Councils to be learned. They propose Summists and casuists; but of the Gospel, of Paul, of Trent and its Catechism they are silent.

III. Fr. Claude La Croix, Book 6, part 2, no. 1788, writes this: “Lamas and Sioz think that those are sufficiently learned for this office (of confessor) who have diligently read an entire SUM, or attentively heard it explained. But if anyone doubt of himself, let him present himself to the examiners appointed by the bishop or superior: and if they judge that he knows enough, he can acquiesce and with confidence in God undertake the function, although it be the greatest and gravest of all. So Sporer.”

IV. Lamas published a little Sum, overflowing with lax opinions, as anyone can see. The author is of no name. Stoz I have not seen. Sporer I have read, and, as he himself testifies, he is a collector of Tamburini, Sánchez, Gobat, and other like authors, often concluding: So my Doctors. Less aptly therefore does Fr. La Croix propose to confessors a rule prescribed by Lamas, a casuist assuredly of no authority and knowledge, so far as from his book appears to my weakness.

V. He subjoins in the same place, no. 1791, Fr. La Croix: Rightly does GOBAT admonish, tract 7, no. 521, that a confessor ought to know SEVERAL OPINIONS which are truly probable concerning moral matters, because often, where it is not a question of the validity of the sacrament, he cannot nor is it expedient to direct penitents ACCORDING TO A SINGLE DOCTRINE, any more than a physician could heal all men by a single medicine; but according to the diversity of the subject and of circumstances he ought to apply these or those; nevertheless he ought to observe this which I have said at no. 1727.

VI. A purse therefore of several contrary opinions must a confessor have — for if they were not contrary, one would suffice — and according to the diversity of penitents weigh them. It is not expedient to direct penitents according to a single doctrine? Who ever heard such things? Is there therefore not one divine law, not one doctrine of Christ, not one Gospel, not one faith, not one Baptism? Take a step further, and hear what Fr. Gobat writes, tract 7, no. 511: “It helps very much toward prudently administering this sacrament to have in fresh memory and use certain rules, documents, or aphorisms, scattered here and there through the books of the most wise theologians.” Who are these most wise theologians? Lamas, Stoz, Burgaber, Sporer, Caramuel, Tamburini, Diana, Bonacina, Leander, Zanardi, La Cruz, and so forth.

VII. But let us meditate one of the aphorisms which Fr. Gobat assigns in the same place, no. 515: “Since in the Shield of Judges we shall show that it is morally almost certain that, speaking of itself, it is lawful to follow either of two opinions truly and practically probable; but since it is also certain that sometimes by reason of various circumstances there lies upon a confessor an obligation of using one rather than the other; therefore let confessors note the most true doctrine of Fr. Lessius, which he hands down in the preface of his work On Right and Justice, namely that a knowledge of contrary practically probable opinions is MOST CONVENIENT and almost NECESSARY for the forum of conscience. Wherefore I do not reckon that those confessors can discharge their office well enough who are, as it is wont to be said, doctors of one opinion only.”

VIII. Two things here Fr. Gobat teaches, the one true, the other false. He said what was true, when he says that a purse of contrary practically probable opinions is MOST CONVENIENT. For what more convenient than to abound in various contrary opinions — namely true and false — and according to the diversity of penitents to adopt now one, now the other, and all as a safe rule? The other is false, namely that confessors who, the use of these contrary opinions being rejected, use a single evangelical doctrine, or that which they judge nearer to the Gospel, do not discharge their office well. If of two contrary doctrines one is true, the other must necessarily be false. Therefore a confessor, if he holds out a remedy to one penitent, imparts poison to another. But falsity is poison, and especially if the falsity be known, which kills souls. But in the case proposed the falsity is known. Since a confessor employing contrary doctrines knows that one is false, if the other is true, since contrary doctrines cannot be true at once.

IX. Another aphorism which Fr. Gobat exhibits in the same place is of this kind: “When a confessor sees a penitent exceedingly studious of his own salvation, and greatly desirous of perfectly fulfilling the divine will either in all things or in certain matters, it is commonly advisable that with such a one he proceed according to the SAFER and therefore MORE RIGID doctrines: for such a penitent is reckoned tacitly to will it so. And why should not the confessor acquiesce in this excellent opinion and most praiseworthy will?”

X. This aphorism is marvellous. When a penitent is exceedingly studious of his own salvation, then he is to be directed according to the SAFER and therefore MORE RIGID doctrines. Rightly, well. But why this? Because, answers Fr. Gobat, such a penitent is reckoned tacitly to will it so. Is evangelical doctrine therefore to be adapted to the bent of the penitent? What if a penitent were not exceedingly studious of fulfilling either in all things or in certain matters the divine will? What if he were unwilling to be directed according to the more rigid doctrines? What is then to be done?

XI. Fr. Gobat answers in the same place, no. 516: “So also, for altogether the same reason, SEVERE OPINIONS ARE TO BE MITIGATED, OR RATHER FORSAKEN, when it so conduces to the salvation of that same penitent. And just as the same Coninck, no. 73, admonishes that a confessor ought never to enjoin such a penance as he believes the penitent will not perform, so neither ought a confessor to propose to a penitent any one of the probable opinions as NECESSARILY TO BE FOLLOWED, IF HE SEE THAT HE WILL REPUDIATE IT (N.B.). Wherefore it is not to be doubted that a confessor can sometimes strike against the law of charity, while he imitates Catonian (to speak from Tully) severity, Caesarian lenity being set aside, so as flatly to deny absolution to an accused man who has confessed, when he could impart it from a probable opinion.”

XII. When formerly I read in a certain book that certain confessors drew to themselves very many good Christians, pious and upright, and at the same time dissolute men, prevaricators, the luxurious, usurers, and so forth — because they direct the upright, pious, and studious of fulfilling the divine will either in all things or in certain matters by a sound, safer, and more rigid doctrine, but others by the opposite, lesser, kindlier, and less probable doctrine — when, I say, I read these things, I certainly reckoned it a most atrocious calumny laid upon certain confessors. But whether from the doctrine of Fr. Gobat, who cites for the same Lessius and Coninck, and which Fr. La Croix adopts, it be inferred that this is the truth, let the wise judge.

XIII. First, the doctrine of Fr. Gobat, absolutely brought forth, concerning imparting absolution from a probable opinion, has been condemned by Innocent XI. Therefore Fr. La Croix added, where it is not a question of the validity of the sacrament, that several probable opinions are to be employed. That the unheard-of doctrine of those moralists may be clearly and plainly understood, the remedies are to be distinguished from the doctrine itself.

XIV. The single doctrine of Christ, as has been explained from Trent, prescribes that according to the diversity of crimes and of habits of sinning medicines be applied. For to inveterate sinners, to luxurious, vain, and proud young men, remedies are to be prescribed diverse from those which ought to be prescribed to penitents rarely falling from infirmity. Of this no one doubts. And all admit what Gobat and La Croix teach in the place cited: A physician cannot heal all men by a single medicine; but according to the diversity of the subject and of circumstances he ought to apply these or those.

XV. What seems to me to fight with the Gospel of Christ is that a confessor should have SEVERAL OPINIONS AND NOT A SINGLE DOCTRINE concerning altogether the same testament, concerning altogether the same contract, the same occasion of sinning, the same action. Fr. La Croix in the place cited remits the reader to no. 1727, where he teaches that a confessor ought to follow the safer opinions if he can; if he cannot, he ought to accommodate himself to the opinion of the penitent. “Besides (he says), if he can, he ought to follow the safer. For without a just cause to will to expose oneself or the penitent to a danger of error, however material, is imprudence. Whence if a penitent show himself prepared to follow that which is MORE PROBABLE or SAFER, the confessor is bound, SPEAKING OF ITSELF (N.B.), to direct him according to the more probable and safer opinions. But how a confessor can, or ought, TO ACCOMMODATE HIMSELF TO THE OPINION OF THE PENITENT, I have said in Book 1, article 2, no. 445.”

XVI. A confessor therefore, if he can, ought to direct penitents according to the more probable opinions, SPEAKING OF ITSELF. For even if he can, speaking BY ACCIDENT, it will be expedient to direct them according to contrary and less probable opinions, which are certainly false if the more probable ones be true, since contradictory opinions cannot be true at once. But how, when a confessor cannot direct penitents according to the more probable opinions, he ought, speaking of itself, to accommodate himself to the opinion of the penitent, he taught in Book 1, no. 445.

XVII. This system seems to my weakness to fight with the Gospel of Christ. Whether I myself am deceived, let the wise judge. The Gospel of Christ commands simplicity of speech. Let your speech be yea, yea; no, no. The Apostle Paul with the rest of the Evangelists commands that we all be of one mind — namely of the single and simple doctrine of Christ. What more? Christ the Lord admonishes us that we decline these various opinions, and beware of them, lest we fall into seduction. Take heed that no man seduce you. … For you shall hear of wars and opinions of wars. See that ye be not troubled. For these things must come to pass. Let them not therefore object to us: So the Doctors teach. The use of contrary opinions and of the opposed doctrines of several Doctors has been confirmed by authority: So it is practised by many upright and grave Doctors. Let them not, I say, object these things to us, because Christ answers: For these things must come to pass, for the proving of the elect.

XVIII. Let confessors therefore read the Gospel of Christ, let them read the Pauline epistles, let them read the Fathers, let them read Trent and its Catechism, as I have said more often and shall repeat a thousand times, and shall never inculcate enough. You will object that in the holy Scriptures there are not found the resolutions of cases, nor doctrine sufficient for the government of souls. Is it so indeed? Do the casuist Doctors therefore — Caramuel, Reiffenstuel, Sporer, Tamburini, Leander, Gobat, La Croix, and the rest like them — pour forth a clearer light for the ruling of souls than the Prophets of God, than the Evangelists, than Paul, than the Councils, than Christ Jesus? In the holy Scriptures you will not find the opinions of battles, you will not find the resolutions of controversies which very many men have drawn up for circumventing the law; but you will find every doctrine necessary for the sanctifying of souls. You will find in the Councils, and in the Catechisms, and in the Synods of bishops, and in the constitutions of the Pontiffs, those things which regard discipline. But now the discourse is for us not of ecclesiastical sanctions, but of the doctrine which God revealed to us in the holy Scriptures for the rules of faith and of morals.

XIX. But let the most wise Jesuit Fr. Michael Elizalde speak, who overthrows the aforesaid little objection, Book 8, question 8, § 8, in these words: “Very many books of the moralists being opened, it is established that there is in them almost no use of sacred doctrine and of the saints. … These books are full of contrariety and contradiction; whence therefore at least half must needs be false. But no falsity can be reconciled with sound doctrine. … You will say again that in the book of God, in the doctrine of the saints, there is lacking the doctrine necessary to salvation for ruling peoples and directing consciences. But it has been shown that this doctrine has never failed in the Church any more than faith, and that a MASTER OF MONSTERS has now come to give the knowledge of salvation to his people. For to this indeed he came who enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world, and who built the Church, the firmament, and”… … “the pillar of truth, to which he entrusted the deposit to be guarded, which without doubt she preserves. Nor is there here need of doctrine, but of consideration, and at least of the least degree of humility.”

XX. Nor should you suspect that the acquisition of this divine knowledge is difficult and too laborious. Give me a priest upright and of excellent sense, or of a well-squared mind (and unless these be present, all things are superfluous), studious of the evangelical law: and hold him for the best, most learned, and most prudent confessor. The knowledge of a confessor looks chiefly to this, that he know how to soften the heart of the penitent, to illuminate his mind, and that he have the gift of persuading, of rebuking, and of conforming his penitents to the exemplar of Christ Jesus. But this knowledge is drawn not from the books of certain casuists, but from the Gospel. Christians are damned because they refuse to observe the evangelical law, because they are ignorant of its spirit. That priest is a wise confessor who knows how to kindle in his penitents the fire of evangelical charity. If some cases occur against the positive precepts of God, of the Church, and other laws of discipline, he will be able, as I have said, to consult the casuists, but the graver ones. In his hand nevertheless let him always have the touchstone, or the rule, of the evangelical law, and let him choose that which he shall have seen more, not less, conformable to it. Concerning the spirit of the evangelical law see my Vol. II, History of Probabilism, dissertation 4, chapter 3, where it is most abundantly explained out of St. Thomas wherein that spirit is set.

I. Nothing is more difficult than to decline these two extremes and to tread the narrow and strait way alone. Who is secure to himself that he does not depart from the true track either by excessive remission or by a severity stricter than is equitable? Let each sing to the Lord mercy and judgment; therefore, says St. Gregory the Great, Book 4, in the ark of the testament there was the rod and the manna, that mercy justly consoling and discipline raging might be in the same. The true mercy of God remits outrages perpetrated to the contrite of heart, but it does not foster them, nor grant liberty of frequenting dangers and of relapsing into sins; it does not grant leave to frequent theatres, comedies, dances, games of dice and of chance, and the reciprocal conversations of either sex, which either allure you to sin, or, even if you do not sin, present a scandal to others, and make you a partaker of the same crimes.

II. All these things are too universal. What extremes ought a confessor to avoid, that he may securely direct his penitents? Two I assign: Jansenism and Probabilism. St. Augustine turned his mind against Manichaeus and Pelagius, and dreaded lest Christians declining Manichaeism should fall into Pelagianism. Between the one and the other he was so cautious that he so declined Manichaeus as not to incline to Pelagius, and so severed himself from Pelagius as not to be joined to the Manichees: on Psalm 118. The same counsel therefore I suggest with so great a Doctor in the cause of morals. Jansenism by an excessive rigour in certain points by adding, Probabilism by an excessive laxity in diminishing the law of Christ, are two extremes to be avoided. The Jansenists constitute certain precepts of God impossible, and an invincible ignorance of the precepts; they contend that this does not excuse from fault. But in Italy, Spain, Germany, nay not even in France, are there found moral books published by Catholics in which that extreme is discovered, so far as it has been permitted me to trust. Rare therefore is that extreme. On the contrary, not a few probabilists frequently call vincible ignorance invincible; and by this ignorance they make very many precepts of God impossible in respect of the ignorant. They say that the grace of God is universally poured into blinded and hardened sinners, and at the same time contend that the ignorance is invincible: unless you advert that you sin, you are free from sin. They teach that the law of God, called into controversy by the casuists, is made doubtful; and being made doubtful, they take it out of the midst by force of reflex principles. The former urge us to things impossible; the latter free very many Christians from the observance of possible mandates by the benefit of ignorance and inadvertence. The former open a way to despair, the latter to presumption, as it seems to me. The former put too much, the latter too little, of burden. But St. Augustine cries out on Psalm 118, conference 4: Too little and too much are contrary to each other. Too little is that which is less than is fitting; and too much is that which is more than is fitting. The mean of these is what is called enough, and assuredly it is useful in life, that in morals we do nothing at all more than is fitting. From these extremes therefore prudent guard is to be kept. The Jansenists reproach the probabilists with excessive laxity; the probabilists reproach the Jansenists not so much with errors against morals as with heresies against faith. In a like cause St. Augustine writes these things, tract 71 on John: There is that concerning which you are mutually to be admonished by one another: each of you owe it. … By erring you go into diverse parts. In the midst is the way which you forsake.

III. Graver always was, and today far graver is, the danger lest confessors decline into the extreme of Laxism rather than of Rigorism. Scarcely in all Italy, Germany, and Spain will you find one Rigorist, so far as it is permitted to conjecture from books and from manifest experience, who should deny the sacraments to Christians sincerely contrite. All human reasonings detract from Rigorism. He who sins by excessive rigour is altogether foolish, because he provokes God and the world against himself. By the world he is traduced as a fanatic, a misanthrope, a Rigorist, a Jansenist; and by God he is punished for an erroneous severity. Unhappy therefore is the Rigorist both in this and in the future age. On the contrary the Laxists, if they shall be unhappy in the future, are at least happy in the present age.

IV. Toward the extreme of Laxism that most sagacious betrayer above all impels — namely self-love, the love of pleasing men and the world. Men commonly shudder at the narrow way and for the most part at the evangelical cross of penance; they extol those Doctors and confessors who speak pleasing things, who sew together soft and smooth cushions and pillows. Secondly, the fear of derisions and censures. Thirdly, the dread of conciliating to oneself enemies who may intercept the course of dignities, and wage war upon our ambition. Fourthly, that vehement desire of having a multitude of penitents, who by their concourse may increase the beauty of the churches and the splendour of the community, and may proclaim us as prudent masters and grave doctors. Of whatsoever state and condition — plebeians and nobles, the poor and magnates, matrons and maidservants — they seek out and love confessors kindly, smooth-tongued, indulgent, sweet, and most gentle. The splendour, favour, grace, applause, and acclamation of these move our humanity, and sharpen the mind to soften and bend the law of God. These are tyrants more monstrous and truculent than Nero, Caligula, and Diocletian for pressing down our constancy. Fifthly, a strong enticement also is the most tender love of a spiritual father toward his spiritual sons and daughters. Sixthly, an allurement of seduction is natural commiseration, and a propensity to console and not to disturb those who come to us.

V. Wherefore unless confessors be armed with the spirit of divine fortitude; unless they have the whole world beneath their feet; unless they make of no account the favour and patronage of men; unless there burn in their breast the love of discipline and of evangelical charity — they will easily rush headlong into Laxism.

I. Vehement and fiery are the invectives of the holy Martyr Cyprian, in his book On the Lapsed, against the laxities of confessors. Since it is written: “They who call you happy send you into errors, and disturb the paths of your feet” — he who caresses the sinner with flattering blandishments supplies fuel for sinning, nor represses offences, but nourishes them. … It behoves a priest of God not to deceive by deceiving compliances, but to provide by salutary remedies. Unskilled is that physician who handles the swelling folds of wounds with a sparing hand, and, the poison being shut up in the deep recesses of the veins, preserves and increases it. The wound must be opened, and cut, and, the corrupted parts being amputated, cured with a stronger remedy. Let the sick man cry out, let him clamour, let him complain, impatient with pain: he will give thanks afterwards, when he shall have felt his health restored. For there has emerged, dearly beloved brethren, a NEW KIND OF DISASTER. … THERE HAS ACCEDED, UNDER THE TITLE OF MERCY, A DECEIVING EVIL AND A BLAND DESTRUCTION. Against the RIGOUR of the Gospel, against the law of the Lord and God, by the rashness of certain men communion is RELAXED to the incautious (that is, the remission of sins). Void, false, dangerous to the givers, about to profit the receivers nothing. … They think that to be peace which certain men sell with deceiving words. That is not peace but war. … What is injury, they call a benefit. What is impiety, they name by the term of piety?

II. I pass over the testimonies of Ambrose, Jerome, Chrysostom, Augustine, and others, that I be not long. A few from later Fathers I shall cull. St. Gregory VII, Book 1, epistle 10, says: From the unskilfulness and negligence of priests, as from a most pestilent root, innumerable evils have arisen, so that down to these our times, among the other evils which sprout, the custom of a false penance has nevertheless prevailed.

III. The Second Lateran Council, canon 22: Because among other things there is one which most greatly disturbs the holy Church, namely a false penance, we admonish our brethren the presbyters that they suffer not souls to be deceived by false penances, and to be dragged down into hell.

IV. St. Thomas of Villanova, sermon 6 on the fourth Sunday of Lent, writes these things: Him who, vivified by the Lord, comes forth from the sepulchre of vices by a desire of salvation, do you, O priests, loose. … Let him therefore go first, let him cast the concubine out of his house, let him restore another's money, let him break usurious contracts, let him repair his neighbour's injured reputation as far as he can, let him pay the labours of hirelings and the debts of the poor, let him be reconciled to the brother he has offended, and ask pardon: then let him return to the confessor, and be absolved. This is the right order: this was preserved by the Lord in the raising of Lazarus. Transgress not this order. O physician, why dost thou loose one merely confessing? Why dost thou promise pardon to the unworthy? Why, in exhibiting the benefit of absolution, dost thou not discern? Two keys did the Lord give thee, one of discerning and the other of judging, namely of absolving and of binding. And dost thou without the examination of discretion bind no one and absolve all? Thou usest one key only, and not even an entire one, but a halved one.

Alas, alas! I grieve in my bowels. In the house of God I have seen a horrid thing. Pastors of the Lord butchering their own sheep, physicians of their own people killing the sick, judges flattering the base, censors caressing outrages, blind men directing the flock of the Lord. Is not this horrid? … O WRETCHED MEN, NOT CURATORS BUT MURDERERS OF SOULS, NOT COUNSELLORS BUT DECEIVERS — what will you answer to the Lord for the flock which you have deceived by your blandishments, which you have butchered by your counsel? WHAT DESTROYS THE CHURCH OF GOD TODAY, IF NOT THE FLATTERING ADULATION OF CONFESSORS? … Alas for the wretched! … They anoint wounds and extinguish the worm of conscience, they take away the goad of sin, they send sinners secure to hell. Who, if they struck fear into the people, would perchance have called them back from vices. To whom shall we compare THESE FLATTERERS? … They are like men who from the bank stretch out a hand to those perishing in the river, and by the violence of the river are themselves plunged in with the others. For by the weight of sins they snatch their own flatterers after them into the precipices with the sinners, and thus lead them down with themselves to hell.

Let these things be said against certain confessors of our time, PIOUSLY IMPIOUS, IMPIOUSLY PIOUS, who, lest they in any wise sadden those confessing, permit them to remain in their own wickedness. But how much better were it to sadden them a little than to damn them eternally! … Let it not irk thee, O priest, to sadden the sick in morals unto penance.

V. St. Charles Borromeo in his Instructions, part 2, § 1, teaches this: It is in the highest degree to be guarded against by many confessors, lest their industry fall into grave reprehension, since out of so great a number of those confessing we see a scanty amendment in those who so often, or for so many years, have frequented this sacrament. Again he subjoins in his Instruction to Confessors, chapter 12: Either through carelessness, or negligence, or from another cause, it often happens that the benefit of absolution is imparted to those who in very truth are unworthy; and consequently in the same they often sin and stick fast, with the nevertheless lamentable ruin of their souls. Again in the same Instruction to Confessors, chapter 17: And here vigilance must be kept the more diligently, as it is manifest that confessors by their carelessness afford in this part the greatest cause why in almost all trades, exercises, and public dealings the gravest sins and intolerable abuses are found. Likewise chapter 18 he inveighs against those same confessors who by facility of absolving foster luxury, pomps, and display. In this season, he says, your luxury seems to have gone forth to the highest summit which it could climb, in great part by the fault and negligence of confessors, who with no scruple absolve them.

VI. St. Francis de Sales in his synodal constitutions, title 1, chapter 5, has this: Nothing so dishonours the Church, nothing so violates her discipline, nothing so fosters sinners in a drowsy habit of sinning, as that shameful custom by which certain presbyters relax sins, not as judges who by a prudent and grave discussion of crimes may discern whether they can pronounce for him, but as bondmen who with a headlong and flattering indulgence caress sinners. Of these flatterers Cyprian says that they bring into the Church a sweet cruelty, palliated with the name of mercy and clemency, and that they thus spread abroad peace (absolution). The same Cyprian asserts that peace to be void and false, dangerous to the givers and about to profit the receivers nothing. For if absolution be given without a probable hope that the penitent will stand by his promises, THE BLOOD OF CHRIST is exposed to profanation, and the presbyters constitute themselves guilty of the repeated relapses and of those evils which are born of false absolutions: BY WHICH THERE PERISHES AN INFINITE MULTITUDE BOTH OF PRESBYTERS AND OF PENITENTS.

VII. Innumerable other documents both of holy bishops and of graver theologians I pass over from a study of brevity. If you desire more, consult Vol. IX, Book 1, dissertation 1, chapters 9 and 10, where I have transcribed the testimonies which four most learned Jesuits — Bellarmine, Elizalde, Camargo, and de Alberti — exhibit.

VIII. In few words I conclude the whole matter. The endowments of a confessor are these. 1. A singular vocation of God: for unless he be called by God with a singular grace, he will be a most inept minister for bearing the place of God, who will destroy himself and others. 2. Fortitude, contempt of the world, and a study of the glory of God alone. 3. Prudence, meekness, humility, charity. 4. Let him always have before his eyes the image of Christian justification, and it is necessary that he know exceedingly well what is the spirit of the Christian profession. From the holy Scriptures, from the Gospel, from the epistles of Paul let him conceive the true image of the spirit of Christ and of justification.