granted the Church's ministry of reconciliation once, and once only[1], after Baptism: so that this rule was probably formed, not, as was afterwards thought, for the greater security of the Church, and its greater purity, but because it was much to be feared, that they who had been brought, by repentance, to a second childhood, and, as it were, to a second Baptism (of tears), could not again be even thus restored. "Rightly are they blamed," says St. Ambrose[2], "who think that repentance is frequently to be re-enacted, for they wax wanton in Christ. For if they were truly repenting, they would not think it often to be repeated; for, as there is one Baptism, so also one repentance—one, I say, public repentance—for we ought to repent of our daily sins; but this repentance is for lighter offences, that for heavier. But I have found more readily persons, who retained their innocence, than such as repented, as were fitting. Will any one call that repentance, where men seek for worldly dignity, drink wine to the full, or use the enjoyments of marriage? The world must be renounced. Sleep itself must be less indulged than nature
- ↑ Tertull. de Pœnitentia, c. 7. "Collocavit in vestibulo pœnitentiam secundam, quæ pulsantibus patcfaciat (sc. post Baptismum), sed jam semel, quia jam secundo: sed amplius nunquam, quia proximo frustra." Add St. Augustine, Ep. 153. ed. Bened. and the letter of Macedonius to him, Ep. 152; St. Ambrose, as just quoted; Origen, Hom. 15, in Lev. 25; several other passages are quoted by Morinus, de Pœnitentia, L. 3. c. 1. sqq.
- ↑ De Pœnitent. L. ii. c. 10. § 95, 6.
confessed by all, that the public and solemn penitence of which we spenk, was not repeated in the Church during 1200 years. But there is a great difference between the discipline from A.700, to that time, and that of which we are now treating. For this (later discipline) related only to public crimes; the earlier not to all offences, but to certain, whether public or concealed. The latter was not repeated, in so far as it was public, but was privately enacted, according to the directions of the Church, when the public sin was repeated after the public penitence, and this being done, the penitent was privately reconciled: But the earlier was not performed at all, either publicly or privately, by any direction from the Church, and consequently did not obtain any reconciliation from the Church; whence there followed another distinction, namely, that of old there was only one penitence for crimes. Afterwards, however, it was so ordered, that it might take place once publicly, and repeatedly in private."
