Article VII: On the Relation between the Virtue and Sacrament of Penance

S. Th. III, q. 84, a. 1 and 7; suppl., q. 5, a. 1; q. 6, a. 1.

416. Principle. The virtue of penance, just as its act, was prescribed to sinners at all times and necessary for justification and salvation; but after Christ the sacrament of Penance is also necessary. - In the Old Law, namely, penance existed as a virtue, and there were its acts: contrition, confession at least before God, satisfaction; in the New Law these acts moreover become a sacrament: for just as Christ elevated matrimony, namely, the conjugal contract itself, to the dignity of a sacrament signifying and effecting grace, so also our penance itself concerning sins committed after Baptism, i.e., the acts by which we exercise penance, He elevated to the dignity of a sacramental sign, insofar as they are the matter to which the words of absolution accede as form, so that together with absolution they cooperate instrumentally for signifying and effecting sacramental grace. Therefore it is so far from being the case that by the sacrament the virtue became superfluous, that the acts of the virtue itself are an element of the sacrament, and besides the value ex opere operantis, they can moreover participate in causality ex opere operato. For this, however, Christ requires one condition: He willed that confession no longer be made immediately to God but to a minister delegated by Him. And He instituted and prescribed penance to be exercised in this way as a means of justification according to the words of John XX, 23: Whose sins you shall forgive...

Yet from this it must not be concluded that penance in the New Law is required more rigorously and with more difficulty than in the Old Law, since, on the contrary, it is much milder and more convenient. For the remission of an offense there is required from the nature of the thing perfect penance, i.e., contrition proceeding from the very love of charity; likewise, for the remission of punishments, the repayment of the punishment due can strictly be required; finally, no special grace is owed by God to the penitent sinner. Now:

1. In the Old Law, for the remission of sin, perfect contrition was required, which, not indeed for just men instructed with the virtue of penance, but for sinners turned away from God and adhering to sin, is rather difficult; whence men could greatly fear that their penance was not sufficient, unless by exception God Himself announced to them the remission of sin through a prophet, as He did to David through Nathan; - in the New Law, God does not require perfect contrition, but willed that imperfect contrition alone, even the least, suffice, provided that it is sincere and extends itself to all mortal sins, under the one condition of confession before a minister delegated by God as the sign of sincere contrition. Whence those confessing, conscious of the sincerity of their contrition, can trust and be morally certain of the remission of sins, since the priest absolving in the name of God announces remission to them.

2. In the Old Law, punishment was rather rigorously demanded; in the New Law, much more of it is freely remitted from sacramental absolution given to those confessing.

3. In the Old Law, grace was given only ex opere operantis; in the New Law, more abundant grace is given ex opere operato, and a special grace for not relapsing into the sins confessed.

Briefly, Christ instituted the rite in which the sacrament is to be ministered, namely, the matter and form, which are the judicial process and the absolution of the minister; - He determined the special mode by which the acts of the penitent must be exercised, namely, external confession and satisfaction imposed by the priest; - and He attributed to penance a greater efficacy ex opere operato for the remission of sin and for obtaining the life of grace. And thus penance has become a work in which the mercy of God and the power of the passion of Christ shine forth most greatly.

417. The sacrament of Penance is defined: A sacrament of the New Law, instituted by Christ in the manner of a judgment, for remitting to a contrite, confessed man promising satisfaction, by the power of priestly absolution, sins committed after Baptism. It is said:

1. A sacrament of the New Law, instituted by Christ in the manner of a judgment, to indicate the genus: sacrament, and the difference: in the manner of a judgment, which requires a twofold element, namely, accusation as the matter of the sacrament and the pronouncement of sentence as the form;

2. for remitting sins, so that the proper effect of this sacrament may be expressed;

3. to a contrite, confessed man promising satisfaction; these words indicate the dispositions of the penitent, which are integral parts of the proximate matter of this sacrament;

4. through the absolution of the priest, by which both the form and the minister are indicated;

5. sins committed after Baptism; by these words the remote matter is explicitly designated, and implicitly the subject of the sacrament, namely, a baptized man who has committed sins, whether mortal, or at least venial.

418. Division of the treatise. - Since the virtue of penance in the New Law is exercised chiefly through the sacrament, after we have treated the nature and necessity of the virtue of penance, henceforth we shall speak of the virtue and the sacrament together.

The treatise is divided into five parts:

The first part is: On the Sacrament of Penance Itself in Itself: 1. on its existence, namely, both a) of the power of the keys, and b) of the sacrament itself; - 2. on its constitutive elements: a) on the remote matter, b) on the proximate matter, c) on the form; - 3. on its institution, necessity, and iteration.

The second part is: On the Effects of Penance: 1. on the remission of mortal sins; - 2. on the remission of venial sins; - 3. on the remission of punishments; - 4. on the reviviscence of virtues and merits.

The third part is: On the Parts of Penance: 1. on contrition, namely, on its a) essence and division, b) matter or object, c) qualities, and d) effect; - 2. on confession, namely, on its a) necessity, b) essence, c) qualities, and d) effect; - 3. on satisfaction, namely, on its a) essence, b) qualities, c) fulfillment through penal works, and d) effect.

The fourth part is: On the Minister of Penance: 1. on his power, both a) of order, and b) of jurisdiction; - 2. on the granting and limitation of power: a) on jurisdiction in general, b) on the jurisdiction which the Church supplies, c) on the restriction of jurisdiction to persons, d) on the restriction as regards reserved sins; - 3. on the use and offices of the power: a) before confession, b) within confession, c) after confession; - 4. on the abuse of power: a) on the absolution of an accomplice, b) on solicitation to shameful things.

The fifth part is: On the Subject of Penance: 1. on the requisites for the capacity of valid reception, where especially: a) on children, the half-witted, the deaf-mute; b) on the dying; - 2. on the requisites for the disposition of fruitful reception, where especially a) on the habituated and relapsing; b) on those in occasions.

There follows an appendix on the penitential rite, indulgences, and censures.¹

¹ The literature on the Sacrament of Penance has already grown immensely; therefore we list here only those writings which we hold to be more useful.

1. Among general works: St. Thomas, III, q. 84-90, and Suppl. q. 1-28, with the Commentaries and Opuscula of Cajetan; likewise the commentaries which Arauxo, John of St. Thomas, Nugno Cabezudo, Gonet, and Billuart composed, all of the Order of Preachers; likewise Sylvius and the Salmanticenses. Outside the Thomistic school: Suarez and Lugo, S.J.

2. Among dogmatic treatises: the Wirceburgenses, Palmieri, De San, Billot, Pesch, S.J.; Mancini, Lottini, and Hugon, O.P.; Van Noort-Verhaar, On the Sacraments, II; Diekamp; etc.

3. Among more practical moral works: P. de Ledesma, O.P., Summa on the Sacraments; Martinez de Prado, O.P., On Penance; St. Alphonsus, Moral Theology, and The Apostolic Man; recent moral books, such as Ballerini, Lehmkuhl, Genicot, Noldin, and Vermeersch, S.J., have published; Aertnijs, Marc, and Wouters, C.SS.R.; Van der Velden, O.F.M.; Prummer, O.P.; and Haine.

4. Among works both dogmatic and moral: Theologia Mechliniensis, On Penance; Tanquerey; and Chretien, On Penance.

5. Among canonical works: Blat, Commentary on the Text of the Code of Canon Law, book III, On the Sacraments; Cappello, Canonical-Moral Treatise on the Sacraments, II; Claeys-Bouaert and Simenon, Manual of Canon Law.

6. Among historical works: Morinus, On Discipline in the Administration of Penance; Petavius, Diatribe on the Old Manner of Penance in the Church; Sirmond, History of Public Penance; Frank, Die Bussdisciplin der Kirche; Hilgenfeld, Die Ketzergeschichte des Urchristentums; Pignataro, On the Penitential Discipline of the Earlier Centuries; Funk, Zur Altchristliche Bussdisciplin; Battifol, Etudes d'histoire et de theologie positive, I; Vacandard, La penitence publique de l'Eglise primitive; Etudes de critique et d'histoire religieuse, II; Rauschen, Eucharistie und Buszsakrament (translated into French); Mayer, Die Beichte als Bekenntnis der einzeln Sunden; Tixeront, La theologie antiniceenne; Le sacrement de penitence dans l'antiquite chretienne; Gotz, Die Busslehre Cyprians; Hunermann, Die Buszlehre des H. Augustin; Busse und Bussdisziplin im Christlichen Altertum; K. Adam, Die Kirchliche Sundenvergebung nach dem H. Augustin; Die geheime Kirchenbusse nach dem H. Augustin; Poschmann, Die Sundenvergebung bei Origenes; Die Kirchliche Vermittlung der Sundenvergebung nach Augustin; Die abendlandische Kirchenbusse im Ausgang der christlichen Altertums; de Labriolle, La crise montaniste; d'Ales, L'edit de Calliste; La theologie de Tertullien; La theologie de S. Cyprien; Gottler, Der H. Thomas von Aquin und die vortridentinischen Thomisten uber die Wirkungen des Buszsakraments; Schultes, Reue und Busssakrament; Schmoll, Die Busslehre der Fruhscholastik; Teetaert, La confession aux laiques dans l'Eglise latine depuis le VIIIe jusqu'au XIVe siecle.

7. Among works both dogmatic and historical: Vacant-Mangenot, Dictionary of Catholic Theology; d'Ales, Apologetic Dictionary of the Faith; Galtier, On Penance, a Dogmatic-Historical Treatise; d'Ales, First Outlines of a Dogmatic Treatise on the Sacrament of Penance.

8. Among orators, Monsabre, Penance.