way[1] of any power," de Penitentia, 1 [Friedberg, 1: 1170]. To the same purport speaks Jerome, whom the Master of Sentences quotes (see above), and Gregory, 1:1, Paulus. The same holds good for the retention and binding of sins. Hence the Master of Sentences, 4: 18, 4 [Migne, p. 376], adducing these authorities and reasons, concludes, that "God alone washes a man within clean from the stain of sin and from the debt of eternal punishment," and he closes thus: "By these and many other testimonies it is taught that God alone and of Himself forgives sins; and just as He forgives some so He retains the sins of others."
But some one will say, if God alone can forgive and retain sins, why did He say to the apostles and their vicars: "Whatsoever ye shall loose," etc., . . . and "whosesoever sins ye retain," etc.? What, therefore, is it for a priest to loose or bind sins, to remit or retain? To the first the Master of Sentences (see above) gives answer and says: "Priests also bind when they impose the satisfaction of penance upon those who confess. They loose when in view of the satisfaction they forgive anything or admit those purged by it to participation in the sacraments." To the second Richard answers well in his Power of Loosing and Binding [Migne, 196: 1164 sq.], when he says:[2] "What is it to remit sins except to relax the sentence of punishment which is due for sins, and by relaxing to absolve? And what is it to retain sins but not to absolve those not truly penitent? For many of those who confess seek absolution who nevertheless do not
- ↑ Viam. The Decretum has jura, rights.
- ↑ Richard of St. Victor, d. 1173, was born in Scotland, and was the pupil of Hugo of St. Victor. Both were mystics, but their mysticism differed from that of St. Bernard by being developed into a scientific system and brought within the limits of careful definition. In addition to the book above quoted, Richard wrote commentaries on the Canticles, the Apocalypse, etc., Emmanuel, a treatise directed to the Jews, Preparation of the Mind for Contemplation, etc. While he was prior of St. Victor, Alexander III and Thomas à Becket visited the convent. It was located within the present bounds of Paris, and its buildings were destroyed during the French Revolution.
