Question VI

GRATIAN. That one excommunicated by a bishop cannot be reconciled by another without that bishop having been consulted—unless perhaps by his metropolitan or by the supreme Pontiff—is proved by reason and authority. For presbyters receive the power of excommunicating or reconciling from bishops, not bishops from presbyters; and therefore they can reconcile those excommunicated by priests, but priests cannot reconcile those excommunicated by bishops. For the reconciliation of penitents is an episcopal office, not a sacerdotal one. Hence in the Second Council of Carthage, c. 3, Bishop Fortunatus said:

If Your Holiness commands, I make a suggestion. For I remember that it was established in the preceding council that chrism, the reconciliation of penitents, and also the consecration of maidens are not to be performed by presbyters. But if anyone shall emerge as doing this, what is to be established concerning him? Bishop Aurelius said: Your Dignity has heard the suggestion of our brother and fellow bishop Fortunatus; what do you say to these things? It was said by all the bishops: Let the preparation of chrism and the consecration of maidens not be performed by presbyters. Let it not be lawful for a presbyter to reconcile anyone at a public Mass. This pleases all. GRATIAN. Nevertheless, the consecration of maidens can be performed by a presbyter after the bishop has been consulted. Hence in the Third Council of Carthage, [c. 36]:

Let a presbyter not consecrate virgins without the bishop having been consulted; but let him never prepare chrism.

Likewise from the Council of Agde, [cc. 43 and 44]. Let a deacon not presume to minister or a presbyter to consecrate an altar. § 1. Nor shall it be at all lawful for a presbyter to pour forth a blessing over the people in church or to bless a penitent in church.

GRATIAN. Behold, one excommunicated by a bishop cannot be reconciled through a priest. But it must be noted that one reconciliation is public and another private. Public reconciliation occurs when penitents are publicly presented before the entrance of the church and are publicly reconciled to the church through the imposition of an episcopal hand. This appears to be prohibited to priests. Hence toward the end of that chapter they are not prohibited simply from reconciling penitents, but from doing so at a public Mass. But private reconciliation occurs when penitents concerning hidden sins, or those acting at the point of death, approach the grace of reconciliation. This reconciliation can be performed through a priest. Hence Pope Evaristus says:

At the bishop’s command, let presbyters reconcile penitents concerning hidden sins and, as we stated above, absolve and communicate the infirm.

Likewise from the Second Council of Carthage, [c. 4]. Bishop Aurelius said: If anyone shall have been placed in danger and shall have requested to be reconciled to the divine altars, if the bishop is absent, the presbyter ought certainly to consult the bishop and thus reconcile the one in danger at his command. We ought to strengthen this matter by salutary counsel. It was said by all the bishops: What Your Holiness has deigned necessarily to instruct us pleases us.

Likewise from the Council of Pope Martin, [c. 82]. If anyone departing from the body seeks the final and necessary viaticum of communion, let it not be denied him. But if, placed in a desperate condition, he shall again have been made healthy after receiving communion, let him participate only in prayer and not receive the sacrament until he completes the established time of penance. Therefore, those who are at the departure of death and desire to receive the sacrament ought to receive it with the consideration and examination of the bishop.

Likewise from the Council of Orange, [c. 3]. Concerning those who depart from the body after receiving penance, it was resolved to communicate them without a reconciling imposition of the hand, because this suffices for the reconciliation of one dying according to the definitions of the Fathers, who fittingly named communion of this kind viaticum. But if they survive, let them stand in the order of penitents, so that, after necessary fruits of penance have been displayed, they may receive lawful communion with a reconciling imposition of the hand. § 1. Penance is not to be denied to clerics who desire it. § 2. Likewise, one suddenly rendered mute can, as was established, be baptized or receive penance if he has testimony of his former will through the words of others or of his present will through his own gesture. § 3. All things that belong to piety are also to be conferred upon the insane.

Likewise from the Fourth Council of Carthage, [c. 76]. If one who seeks penance in infirmity should happen, while the summoned priest comes to him, to become mute through the oppression of infirmity or to be turned to frenzy, let those who heard him give testimony; and let him receive penance and, if it is believed that he is about to die immediately, let him be reconciled through imposition of the hand, and let the Eucharist be poured into his mouth. If he survives, let him be admonished by the aforesaid witnesses that his petition was satisfied, and let him be subjected to the established laws of penance for as long as the priest who gave the penance shall approve. Likewise, [c. 78]. § 1. Let penitents who in infirmity have received the viaticum of the Eucharist not believe themselves absolved without imposition of the hand if they survive.

Likewise from the Council of Nicaea, [c. 12]. Concerning those who depart from the body, the rule of the ancient law will even now be observed in such a way that, if anyone should depart from the body, he is not deprived of the necessary viaticum of his life. But if any desperate person survives after receiving communion, let him be among those who communicate in prayer alone. Nevertheless, concerning all those who depart from the body, in giving them communion let there be the care and examination of the bishop.

Likewise Bishop Leo, [to Theodore, epistle 89, otherwise 91]. To those who in a time of necessity and under the urgency of pressing danger implore the assistance of penance and immediately afterward reconciliation, neither satisfaction is to be forbidden nor reconciliation denied, because we can neither set measures nor define times for the mercy of God, before whom conversion permits no delays to intervene, as the Spirit of God says through the Prophet: “When, having been converted, you groan, then you will be saved.” § 1. But if they are so weighed down by some infirmity that they cannot signify in the present what they had requested a little before, the testimony of the faithful standing around ought to benefit them. Let them obtain at the same time the benefit of both penance and reconciliation, while nevertheless the rule of the paternal canons is preserved concerning the persons of those who sinned by departing from the Lord’s faith.

Likewise from the Council of Épaone. If anyone shall have died who had already confessed and has good testimony, and could not come to a priest, but death overtook him at home or on the road, let his relatives make an offering for him at the altar and give a ransom for captives. GRATIAN. Behold, at the bishop’s command penitents concerning hidden sins, or those placed in danger, can be reconciled through a presbyter. § 1. But if a sinner is pressed by the necessity of death and the bishop is so far removed that the presbyter cannot consult him, will penance be denied to the dying person? Will the benefit of reconciliation not be bestowed upon the penitent whom God receives, once converted, for pardon, according to this: “At whatever hour the sinner shall have been converted, etc.,” and likewise: “Be converted to me with your whole heart, and I will be converted to you”? Will the church neglect to reconcile to herself one whom God has raised up within? Will the bishop’s absence condemn one whom the grace of divine presence illuminates through the washing of regeneration? Assistance is given to the dying even by laypersons if presbyters are lacking. Why, therefore, can he not be assisted through a presbyter by the benefit of reconciliation if it should happen that the bishop is absent? If, according to Augustine, one who at the point of death confesses the shamefulness of his crime to a companion becomes worthy of pardon through desire for a priest, why is one who does not deny the stain of his guilt to a priest not similarly worthy of reconciliation through desire for the bishop? Likewise, presbyters ought not to deny penance to the dying. Hence Pope Julius says:

If a presbyter shall have denied penance to the dying, he will be guilty of their souls, because the Lord says: “On whatever day the sinner shall have been converted to penance, he will live with life and will not die.” For true confession can occur at the final time, because the Lord is an inspector not only of time but also of the heart, just as the thief by the penance of one moment merited to be in paradise at the hour of his final confession. Likewise Pope Celestine, [in epistle 2 to the bishops of Gaul]:

We have learned that penance is denied to the dying and that assent is not given to the desires of those who at the time of their death desire that aid be given to their soul by this remedy. I confess that we shudder that anyone of such great impiety is found that he despairs of God’s kindness, as though God could not come to the aid of one running to him at any time and redeem a person endangered under the burden of sins, from which he desires and wishes to be delivered and freed. What else, I ask, is this but to add death to one dying and by one’s cruelty to kill his soul, lest it be capable of being absolved? The Lord, although most ready to come to aid, invites to penance and thus promises the sinner: “At whatever hour, etc.,” and likewise: “I do not desire the death of the sinner, but that he be converted and live.” Therefore, whoever shall have denied penance to a person at the time of death takes salvation from him and has despaired of the mercy of God, since he did not believe that God could suffice to aid the dying even in a moment. The thief hanging upon the cross at Christ’s right would have lost the reward if the penance of one hour had not assisted him. While he was in punishment, he repented; and for the profession of one declaration he merited, through Christ’s promise, a dwelling in paradise. Therefore, the true conversion to God of those placed at the end is to be estimated by the mind rather than by time, as the Prophet asserts thus: “When, having been converted, you groan, then you will be saved.” Therefore, since the Lord is the inspector of the heart, penance is not to be denied at any time to one requesting it, since he binds himself to that judge to whom he knows that all hidden things are revealed. GRATIAN. But one to whom penance is not denied must not be denied reconciliation either. Therefore, a presbyter ought not to reconcile a penitent without the bishop having been consulted, unless final necessity compels him.

Hence it is read in the Third Council of Carthage, [c. 32]:

Let a presbyter not reconcile a penitent without the bishop having been consulted, unless final necessity compels it while the bishop is absent. For any penitent whose crime is public and exceedingly notorious, and has disturbed the whole city, let a hand be imposed upon him before the apse of the church.