De Vera Et Falsa Poenitentia Ad Christum Devotam

ON TRUE AND FALSE PENITENCE, TO A DEVOTEE OF CHRIST. One Book.

CHAPTER ONE. 1. The usefulness of penitence. The errors of the time are assailed. How greatly the grace of penitence is to be desired, every authority proclaims, every life of the good strives to show. For it heals infirmities, cures lepers, raises the dead, increases the health which it preserves; it restores gait to the lame, abundance to the barren, sight to the blind; it puts vices to flight, adorns virtues, fortifies and strengthens the mind, heals everything, restores everything, makes everything blessed. It tempers successes, restrains impulses, moderates excesses. The one ignorant of himself, through it recognizes himself; the one seeking himself, through it finds himself. This is what leads men to the Angels, and renders the creature back to the Creator. It showed the lost sheep to the seeker (Luke 15:4), and offered the tenth drachma to the anxious one (Ibid., 8). It led the prodigal son back to his father (Ibid., 11), and gave the man wounded by robbers to the caretaker to be healed (Id. 10:35). In it every good is found, through it every good is preserved. It puts darkness to flight, brings in light, refines everything, itself a consuming fire.

All these things, prudent virago, you have perceived, because you have loved to hold fast to this great good. For what is entirely unknown is scarcely loved. Leaning upon this good, you will be able to be strong for all good things. Therefore, I willingly assist your will, which I have come to know concerning this good; and I eagerly undertake the pleasant labor on this matter, as you have asked, hoping for God’s help through your merit. For I know that your intention is never to be frustrated, but to be enriched in all that it desires. For when you were rich, you made yourself poor for Christ, and in soul you will be rich through this holy exchange. Hence I am blessed, if I can contribute any aid to your true riches. I therefore entrust to your love whatever I understand about penitence, by the authority of the fathers and the illumination of the Holy Spirit. Nor do we now only assail the errors of this time, but we also attempt to convey to you, from the errors assailed, the sweetness of pleasantness through a wealth of arguments, so that the integrity of your mind, which by God’s gift has repelled all falsehoods, may rejoice over those falsehoods that have been put to flight, by reasoning upon them.

CHAPTER II. 3. Penance is from faith. The indulgence of penance does not increase sins, but restrains them. If faith is the foundation of penance, without which nothing is good, then penance, which is clearly founded in faith, is to be sought. For a good tree cannot produce bad fruit (Matthew 7:18). Therefore, penance which does not proceed from faith is not useful. But it is necessary to believe that the remedy of penance is granted by the Savior. For if all penance were barren for sinners, the murderers of Christ would by no means be recalled to penance, which the gentle and meek Lord preached, and his Forerunner: for he said, "Bring forth fruits worthy of penance" (Matthew 3:8), showing that penance is not barren, but bears worthy fruit. For he who said, "I desire mercy rather than sacrifice" (Hosea 6:6), did not await the death of the sinner, but that he, converted, might live (Ezekiel 18:23). But who can be converted to live, unless he was in a far-off region? David remembered himself conceived in iniquities and born from his mother in sins (Psalm 50:7), to whom the Lord bears witness, "I have found a man after my own heart" (Acts 13:22). This same man, praised by the Lord, presuming upon the Lord, says, "You will be propitious to my sin, for it is great" (Psalm 24:11): not because it was great, but because David considered it great, as one who was sated and fastidious from that very thing. For he does not labor to be unburdened of sin, to whom it does not seem excessive.

How, then, would it seem great, if he still took delight in it? How would he ask to lose it, unless he grieved to have it? For if he did not grieve to have it, he would rejoice to have committed it. We know that God blotted out David’s sin, either because he grieved to have sinned, or because he groaned, and drenched his bed of straw with tears, and ate bread like ashes. But if he rejoiced, he would call his sin not great, but small.

Therefore those are deceived who, objecting to penance in the Apostle, and mocking him, say against him, “Shall we sin, so that grace may abound” (Rom. 6:1)? He said, “Turn back through penance, hope for pardon, even if the iniquity is very great: where sin has abounded, grace has abounded” (Id. 5:20): no sin will be able to remain before penance. For he preaches turning back. But from where would someone turn back, to whom his first state was pleasing? Therefore whoever turns back necessarily grieves to have what he rejoices to lose. Penance thus acquires indulgence, without which no one will arrive at pardon. For if the soul were saved without it, it would not be said, “You have sinned, be still.” For why would he be still, unless it is evil, if he were to sin? How can what, when retained, condemns, and when driven away, saves, be loved and not hated? Therefore he who now is still must grieve that he was not still earlier. And thus he is saved, because he grieves; and thus he is freed, because he repents. For from grief it was said, “I have sinned, what shall I do to you” (Job 7:20)?

As if to say, I so deeply grieve that I have sinned, that it is so grievous to me that I do not wish you not to avenge yourself against me. For I seek within myself what punishment I might devise, which could suffice for you. Nothing is grievous to me, if it can free me from sin. Therefore, repentance remains for those who wish to find pardon.

CHAPTER III. 5. The error of those who believe penance after Baptism to be void. They misuse a passage of the Apostle. It is refuted by the Apostle's own deeds. The Apostle's passage is to be understood of Baptism. The usefulness of penance after Baptism is indicated by Christ's parables. There are, however, those who believe that penance is effective up to Baptism (for Naaman was a Syrian, who lost his leprosy through water [2 Kings 5:14]), but afterwards, for those sinning, it remains void. For they delight in singularity, boasting from what they do not have, vaunting themselves to be pure, as if they had committed nothing after Baptism for which they might rightly grieve. These, understanding everything perversely, drawing strength from the authority of the saints, and following the father of lies, mendaciously expound what agrees with the truth. For they read in the Apostle what they are unwilling to understand: "It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God, and the virtues of the future age, to be renewed again through penance, crucifying the Son of God again and holding him up to contempt" (Heb. 6:4-6).

But if pride had not blinded them, they would see that the Apostle was not so much a destroyer of his own labor and joy. For whom did he correct through his letters, if not those who had fallen after Baptism and were persisting in sin? He visited the Gentiles in person, strengthening them with arguments and miracles. How would he write to unbelievers, who were themselves contradicting him in many ways? They stoned him, beat him with rods; and would he write to them to correct themselves? Would he prescribe correction to unbelievers if he despaired of their salvation? How would he write, knowingly and necessarily, to no effect at all? If they could not be renewed through penance, why would he preach it? Moreover, he excommunicated the Corinthian who sinned shortly after Baptism and surpassed the fornication of the Gentiles: how would he receive a penitent, if he were thus preaching against his own precept?

But he understood this concerning Baptism. For he said that it is impossible for them to be renewed through penance, so that they might again crucify the Son of God and hold him up to mockery, that is, to be baptized again. For whoever is baptized represents the death of the cross and the burial of Christ in his immersion (Rom. 6:3): for in the sign of the cross each person is submerged in water, and when submerged, is shown to be buried. For those who have lapsed cannot obtain forgiveness through a repeated Baptism. For just as Christ was crucified once, so Baptism is not to be repeated.

For by His one death He redeemed all, so that they need not die any more. Seeing this, the Church understood that Baptism was not to be repeated.

Thus through the fruits of penance, hope of pardon is extended to the baptized. For he was a son who had departed from his father into a far country; received by the father through penitent confession, he said to him, I am no longer worthy to be called your son (Luke 15:21)—for these things I did not learn from you, these things I found with you. The father of the household received him and clothed him with a robe and a ring. He gave him the robe because He restored in him the integrity of charity; and He placed a ring on his hand because He made him to work from faith, and betrothed him through the gifts of the Holy Spirit; and He also restored shoes to his feet because He enriched His Church by his preaching. At his banquet the fatted calf was slain, because He in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily (Colossians 2:9) is for him a banquet of food: thereby showing that even the sacraments of the Lord's body are restored to baptized sinners through penance and confession. For if it were otherwise, Peter, after the Lord's ascension, would not have persuaded Simon, the head of the Church, who had hope in the purchase of the Holy Spirit, to take up penance from that source to which he had devoted his money for a curse (Acts 8:22).

That man too who fell among robbers was going down from Jerusalem, not into Egypt to darkness, not to the Idumaeans stained with blood and dust, but to Jericho; he who fell among robbers had not dwelt with them. But although he fell who was not previously a robber, he was not abandoned by the Samaritan, but was helped by him and restored by his care (Luke 10:30-36). This would not have been the case if he had left hope of pardon only to the unbaptized. Lazarus was called a friend, and afterward, when dead, stinking and four days buried, he was raised again (John 11:11-44), showing that however much a man may sin, even after he has been a friend of God, his spirit can live; but by the strong and clearer voice of God and the weeping of many, he shall be called back from sin. First the stone shall be taken away from above by him himself, because he will cast the hardness of his heart from his soul, which the intercessors and preachers shall remove by their labor. The daughter of Abraham whom Satan had bound, the Lord loosed, even though the Jews objected; she was a daughter and was bound, and was loosed on the Sabbath (Luke 13:16).

CHAPTER IV. 9. They misunderstand sin against the Holy Spirit as concerning only the sins of the baptized; what it is. Nor do they better grasp sin unto death. There are still those who cry out that there is no remission of sins for the baptized through penance, saying that sin against the Father and the Son is remitted, but against the Holy Spirit is not at all forgiven; they think that sinning against the Father and the Son is to be an unbeliever, and to have remission through Baptism. These sin without the Spirit, whom they have not received; but those sin against the Holy Spirit, whom they have received through Baptism, who do not retain his gifts, and choose the poisons of the devil. They understand that these can obtain mercy neither here nor in the future (Matthew 12:32). But this understanding is more of error than of holy faith. For if remission of sins occurs through Baptism alone, which is not to be repeated, why would the Lord add, "nor in the future"? It is established, however, that certain things are remitted in the future, where the operation of Baptism is not present. In the future, moreover, no one will be baptized and be freed from sin. And thus the interpretation that grants remission to Baptism alone is false. Therefore, not only unbelievers sin against the Father and the Son, but whoever commits sin. But only those sin against the Holy Spirit who remain impenitent unto death. For the Holy Spirit is the charity of the divinity, the love of the begetter and the begotten Truth, who bestows upon us his grace as a pledge of himself.

Therefore whoever sins, and does not love to recover his grace, and never cares to be loved by him who is all love and charity, nor tends toward him from whom he received the pledge, sins against the Holy Spirit, and never, after death any more than while living, will obtain pardon; and thus no one sins against the Holy Spirit who flees to him. If anyone considers the sequence of the reading where this is found, and the reason for the word, even if he understands it otherwise, he does not agree with those who interpret it wrongly. For the Jews were saying, He casts out demons in Beelzebub (ibid., 24), attributing the work of the Holy Spirit to diabolical power. He said therefore, There are sins which are in some way to be borne, there are blasphemies that will be followed by mercy; but to blaspheme the Holy Spirit, as you have begun, will lead you to death. Hence afterward he said, A bad tree cannot bear good fruits: as if he were saying, It is consistent with your life to say such things about the Spirit: A good tree cannot bear bad fruits (Id. VII, 18). The counsel is, Be converted, and pass over into a good tree; and then you will no longer be able to think such things about the Holy Spirit.

They object another saying of Saint John: "There is a sin not unto death, for which one should pray; there is another unto death, for which one should not pray" (1 John 5:16)—as if one should pray for sins committed before Baptism, but not for others. Those who understand it thus are deceived. For he would be contradicting himself, since he admonished the church of Pergamum to repentance (Rev 2:5). But there are certain venial sins, which are loosed daily by the Lord's Prayer, when it is said, "And forgive us our debts" (Matt 6:12); and these, as the same author says, are not unto death. Others, however, which are unto death, are not loosed in this way, but through the fruits of penance. He who received Peter weeping did not deny him the remission of baptism. For he had already heard, "To you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven" (Matt 16:19); and although he later denied the Lord and cut off from himself the friends of Christ, through penance and bitter tears he recovered forgiveness (Matt 26:70-75). The Lord calls himself sick, looking upon the members united to himself. These members are those who have been united to God through the sacrament of Baptism. When he recalls himself as sick among them, he does not deny that sins are committed by men, which are destroyed daily through penance.

CHAPTER V. 11. They insist that penance is of no avail if repeated. They are refuted. From God's promises. From the practice of the Apostle and the Church. Why forgiveness of sins is so often necessary. Despair is insulting to God. Nor should the priest despair. Still those faithless ones persist, who think they know better than they ought; not sober, but exceeding the measure. For they say: Even if penance avails for those who sin once after Baptism, yet it will not benefit those who sin often if repeated; otherwise, remission would be an incitement to sin. For they say, Who would not always sin, if he could always return? For they say that God would be an inciter of evil, if He always came to the aid of the penitent: and that sin pleases Him, to which grace is always at hand. But they err. On the contrary, it is clear that sin greatly displeases Him, who is always at hand to destroy it. For if He loved it, He would not always destroy it, but would preserve it, and cherish it as His own gifts. He always destroys the sins He finds; lest what He created be undone, lest what He loved be corrupted. These hypocrites take occasion from the deeds of the Lord. For whom, they say, did He twice make to see? whom twice cleanse of leprosy? whom twice raise from the dead? Not Lazarus, whom He first loved, not the widow's son, whom He mercifully restored to his mother: not the prodigal son is read to have been twice restored, not Abraham's daughter twice freed from a demon. In no person did He repeat an act, teaching, as they say, that remedy is not often given by the Lord.

He said to many, Go, and sin no more, lest something worse happen to you (John 8:11), threatening punishment, not further pardon.

But the fact that he enlightened many blind people, and at different times, and strengthened many weak people, shows that in those different individuals the same sins were often forgiven; so that the one he first healed as a leper, at another time he enlightened as a blind man. For he healed so many feverish, so many sick, so many lame, blind, and withered, for this reason: that the sinner might not despair of repeated forgiveness. For this reason no one is recorded as having been cured except once, so that each person might fear to join himself to sin. We still see daily in the Church that the feverish are often set free, the sick often, those seized by passions often; so that the work of the one showing mercy appears as many times as the confession of the penitent is made. For how could he heal the body, which is more worthless and more unlike himself, so often, and not set free the soul, which is more worthy and has been redeemed, just as often? He calls himself a physician, and one available not for the healthy but for the sick (Matthew 9:12). But what kind of physician would this be, who did not know how to cure a repeated wound? For it belongs to physicians to visit the sick a hundred times, to cure a hundred times. He would be less than the rest, if he were ignorant of things possible for others.

He is mindful of his promise, "I do not will the death of the sinner, but that he be converted and live" (Ezek. 18:32). For whom does he exclude as a sinner? And that he promised pardon to all, he declares by other promises: "Whoever confesses me before men"—that is, every sinner, however great and however often, of whatever rank, even if he be a priest—"I will also confess him before my Father" (Matt. 10:32). For "whoever calls upon the name of the Lord"—that is, according to what the Lord is called, that is, whoever calls upon him by serving him and not contradicting him, as perhaps he has often done—"everyone," that is, whoever that sinner may be, "will be saved" (Joel 2:32). For this promiser has filled every soul with good things, even those sitting in darkness and the shadow of death, excepting no soul. That disciple had understood this master, who wished to correct the Corinthians through his Epistles, and, as he himself testifies, corrected them three times in his Letters (2 Cor. 13:1). For it was fitting that as often as he saw them fall, so often he should help them to rise. For he was mindful of him who had said, "Whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven them" (John 20:23). But we know that the first fathers, when at every time they were to forgive the sins of the Church of God always up to seventy times seven—which is always—how those in power they attempt to take away from the Church of God.

For the Church must believe thus, which confesses that it often sins. For they deny that truth is in those who are deceived, who dare to boast themselves without sin: For in many things we all offend (James 3:2), nor can an infant of one day be without sin upon the earth (Job 25:4). Wherefore this error must be rooted out of the Church, which ever denies indulgence to those who repent. For it does not inquire what the Apostle meant, who said, I am conscious of nothing in myself, but I am not justified on this account (1 Cor. 4:4), meaning that even the just are wont to encounter sins: he did not confirm himself as without sin, who knew himself joined to Christ by the indissoluble bond of charity. For unless he knew that the just often come to pardon; how would he doubt that he sinned, who knew that he had the Spirit of God, and that his intention was most pure in serving Him? For why had the Lord washed Peter's feet, and taught the Church the same (John 13:5, 15); unless because the offense is daily, it is necessary that remission be daily? For why had the Lord Himself taught those praying to say, Forgive us our debts (Matthew 6:12); unless He Himself, the merciful, persevered, who does not wish us to fail in this petition?

Therefore let no one ever be able to sin so greatly that, being penitent, he should wish to despair. For what else is despairing than to compare God to oneself? For he who does not presume upon forgiveness from God does not consider that God's clemency can be greater than his sin. For if he sensed that God is more good than he is evil, whatever righteousness he did not find in himself he would expect from the more good God; and indeed he despairs because he does not perceive the goodness of the highest good to be greater than his own wickedness. Let him alone despair who is able to sin as much as God is good. But since there is no one who can do this, let him who fears concerning his own evil presume upon the better. For the devil and all wickedness are less than God's mercy. For if he himself could hope and perceive guilt in himself, what he does not find in himself he would take up in God's loving-kindness. Still, he who despairs and compares his own wickedness with God's benignity sets a limit to God's power, giving a limit to the infinite and taking away from God the perfection of divinity; from whom nothing is lacking, which cannot even be thought out.

Therefore, even if a priest has sinned, he ought not to despair, although it is written, Who will pray for him (1 Kings 2:25)? For the whole Church, and another priest, and every order of the saints will pray for him, and Christ himself who offers himself to God for us. But this must be considered by the priest, that he not easily fall, for whom in this a heavier punishment is marked out. Let him say within himself: If the people, fasting from the word of God, has sinned, it will be necessary for me to bear part of the weight; I will not dare to impose unbearable burdens on them, and not to move them with a finger (Matthew 23:4): but if I sin, what shall I do? I will not escape so easily; it will be necessary for me to weep over my misery. For it is not so decreed concerning me as concerning the subject people. So let the priest fear to sin; but more, to despair.

CHAPTER VI. 1. The error of those who presume upon forgiveness without penitence. There are others, enemies of despair, who presume and trust in God so far that they acquire for themselves a certain license to sin, and without penitence expect forgiveness; because they believe that since they are called Christians, they cannot be damned, flattering themselves with what is written, Everyone whosoever shall invoke the name of the Lord shall be saved (Joel 2:32). For they think that they invoke the name of the Lord because they can believe in Christ and receive the sacraments of the Church; not fearing that many are called, but few are chosen (Matthew 15:10).

They think that all Christians are few in number among the multitude of Gentiles and Jews: therefore, even if all believers are saved, the election is still of few in such a multitude. But if anyone wishes to pay attention, they will see that these men are deceived, as the Church will judge, although they trust in Christ’s redemption. For they say, “What good would it have done for Christ to come, if the wicked still perish in as great a number as before His coming?” For before God became man, only the wicked were damned: and if the same were still the case, what good would His coming have done? Much, I say: for every good man before the Lord’s advent was saved through the advent. For no one could leave hell unless he had merited to be drawn out by Christ coming into it: nor would men have such power to do good and to resist the devil, unless Christ had decreed to suffer so much and to rise again. These men pay no attention to the Apostles nor to the words of the Lord, who promise such manifold and other punishments to fornicators and criminal men.

CHAPTER VII. 48. That God renders evil for evil. There is further added a wickedness like the former, though contrary to it. For those who despair judge the mercy of God; these condemn His justice, blaspheming God as unjust, who know not how to render evil for evil, and exalt their own sins. But I marvel why they do not believe the Apostle when he says, Hope confoundeth not (Rom. v, 5), who yet do not fear the punishment which he promises to the same criminals. For if where He threatens He is not truthful, why do they trust that He speaks truth to those who hope? But He who is true in promising is true also in threatening. Yet it is not hope to expect good in return for evil. Nay, he is rash who does not abhor sin. But when he sins, let him have recourse to penitence, let him trust in the Lord, whom let him fear as just and an enemy of uncleannesses.

CHAPTER VIII. 19. That original sin alone is remitted without penitence. One baptized unwillingly. The constant necessity of penitence. Sin grows when neglected: none is small in respect of God. For these things one must grieve continually. Not every sorrow is penitence. What penitence is. It is nothing but the misuse of free will. Venial sins. Since, therefore, penitence is efficacious and fruitful, leaving no one without healing, raising the dead: let us discourse somewhat of its manner and variety. For penitence is not necessary for those to be baptized, but for the baptized there must be grief or penitence for greater and lesser sins.

For by the faith of the Church alone are remitted the sins which man contracted in his origin, so that just as from a sinning father he received condemnation, so through the faith of mother Church he may obtain remission. But he who has sinned of himself has acquired indulgence through his own sorrow and through the faith of the Church. These things through Baptism render a man so clean and new that nothing remains that displeases God. Without repentance Baptism has profited no one who sinned of his own will. But if anyone is baptized unwillingly and has confessed in falsehood, when he has repented he will be saved, with the faith and charity of the whole mother Church spread throughout the whole world aiding him. For this reason catechumens have been established by the Church, so that while they await Baptism, they may be taught wherein they rightly repent. This restores man to the freedom of will of our first parent, still constituted in abundance of virtues.

For repentance is constantly necessary to those who constantly sin. For in many things we all offend, which are daily remitted if they are always wept over. These are ever put to flight by the sacraments of the Church and by prayers, so that they rightly hear, Thou art all fair, and there is no spot in thee. I do not say that it is not done, but that it cannot remain. So great is the power of petition in the unity of the Church that whatever foreign thing has happened cannot endure. For though the feet of those who preach peace, who preach good things, are beautiful.

(52, 7), yet those who have been washed must shake off, in the figure of remission, the dust that is contracted on the way. Even if these sins are small through God's mercy, yet the negligence in sinners is great. For no sin is so small that it does not grow when neglected. For one must not consider what he has done, but whom he has offended: how good, how kind, how pious, how merciful is he who created him from nothing by his most sweet loving-kindness, who led him without merit to Baptism, and raised and nourished him as a son; for whose benefit he created heaven and earth and all things that are in them from nothing, whom all things serve as a son, to whom he sent an Angel as a helper, for whose sake he subdued his ancient enemy, strong and cunning, for whose sake he endured to suffer so many things, so that his Son might die, with whom he deems him worthy to have fellowship; who by his majesty rules and governs all things for his sake by his power. To offend such a father, to commit anything against his will—is it not cruel to those who take heed and do not ignore how cruel it is? Hence those who know themselves, just as they always sin, so they always weep; so that they weep over their whole life, which is a temptation upon the earth, with their whole life.

Now these things are [sins] when something is done either short of or beyond measure. For the good things themselves which are good in themselves contract something [of defect] when they exceed. Whatever is lacking from perfection, whatever falls short of man, whatever is ours, must be washed away by weeping. Whatever is done in any way with an intention not most pure, whatever we work in any way and not yet with the most pure love of God, is not free from the operation of frailty. Whoever has loved himself so miserably as to love what is man's, and has not abhorred his frailty but has wholly reserved it to himself, and has tolerated his own being only for the sake of acquiring the true being that God is, adds to the divine work something undoubtedly to be lamented. And let him who knows himself what he is love only that which pertains to him who is. For if anyone thinks wisely, what most foul frailty inheres in him from the very condition [of his nature], how foul and shameful it is in the flesh, how much [is] in the mind; he loves this alone in himself, because such a thing will lead him to God. Even whatever good we do, if we could do it better, it is from us that we are not at the summit of good. If we know some good, and in some way work it less [than we ought], it is not entirely alien to our operation. Let these things be washed away by assiduous confession, and as it were by a certain necessary assiduous compunction restored.

Let us rise up, most pure, toward the most pure perfection, lest by the multiplication of these small things we suffer ourselves to be corrupted and worn away as if by some scab, lest with the richness of charity diminished we be allowed to be afflicted with wasting and to be worn down by the torture of an unclean conscience. Let us always strive toward what is better, always striving toward the purity of Baptism and preserving it with the utmost care, so that when we depart from this life, we may arrive clean before him who is most clean, and be received by him without delay.

Let us grieve that we are exiles from our homeland, let us grieve that we live in corruptible matter. This grief should come more from desire than from vengeance. (Hence it differs from poenileulia. For penitence is a certain vengeance of one who grieves, punishing in himself what he grieves to have committed. But one who grieves that he is detained in a mortal body desires what he loves, weeping that it delays. All penitence is concerning the misuse of free will. But this grief is rather in necessity. Yet no sin is necessary. But original sin itself is evil for this reason, that it was spontaneous in Adam. For the pleasure of his misused free will is punished in us, not because it was necessary, but because it was spontaneous. For nothing is required of us that we committed; nothing is demanded of us now that we did. There remains in children the work of the father's pleasure.)

The devil seeks sons for slavery, whose father's freedom he bought. That sorrow is made, not from a sinning conscience, but from operating charity; not punishing evil, but increasing good; not impatiently held, but received from desire. In this desire was Andrew, who, placed on the cross, asked of the Lord: It is time that you commend my body to the earth. For the people wished to take him down from the cross. But he himself began to ask the Lord: Do not permit me, Lord, to come down alive, but it is time that you commend my body to the earth: for I have already carried it so long, I have watched over it so long when it was commended, and I have labored, that I would now wish to be freed by obedience itself, and to be stripped of this most burdensome garment. I remember how much I labored in carrying it as a burden, in cherishing it as weak, in restraining it as wanton, in subduing it as proud. You know, Lord, how often it tried to draw me back from the purity of contemplation, how often it strove to rouse me from the sleep of sweetest rest, how much and how often it brought pain. Therefore, since for so long, most kind father, I have resisted it as it fought, and by your help have overcome and conquered it, I ask of you, pious and just rewarder, that you commend it to me no longer, but I return the deposit. Commend it to another whom it will no longer hinder, and let him keep it to be raised again and return it, so that he too may receive the reward of his own labor.

Commend me to the earth, so that I need not watch any longer, and let it not drag me back as I strain freely toward you, the fount of unfailing joy, nor hinder me. He grieved that he was not yet with the Lord, and he did not repent that the one commended had risen to the Lord. Thus not every sorrow is repentance. There are also other sins which utterly take away life, unless repentance comes to the rescue. For not everyone who says, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore repentance must be practiced, so that crimes may be blotted out.

CHAPTER IX. 23. Repentance that is sterile, and that which is useful. Let it not be half-done. Without the love of God no one finds grace. But since not every repentance is true, let us state some things that separate the true from the false, the sterile from the fruitful. For there are those who repent of having sinned because of present punishments. For the sins of the thief displease him when they bring punishment. When the vengeance ceases, he returns to his crimes. This repentance, not proceeding from faith, nor from charity or unity, remains sterile and without mercy. It does not cleanse the conscience here, nor wash away crimes. In it there is no hope of pardon, no expectation of indulgence. With this agree those who confess unwillingly, not out of love of the good, but to escape the loss or inconvenience of this world. They serve the world which they love, they seek their own glory for which they pant, they receive the reward which they expect. If anyone has become secure in such repentance, and has not turned from it to true repentance, deceived and wretched he will perish eternally.

Penance will therefore be useful if it is spontaneous, seeking the Lord whom it grieves to have lost, yearning for him apart from whom there is no life.

There are many who repent of having sinned, but not entirely, reserving for themselves certain things in which to take delight; not noticing that the Lord at one time freed from a demon a man who was both deaf and mute (Matt. 12:22), thereby teaching us that we are never healed except of all things. For if he had wished sins to be reserved in part, he could have profited the man who had seven demons by expelling six. But he expelled seven, so as to teach that all crimes must be cast out together. And in casting a legion out of another man (Luke 8), he left not one of them in the one who had been freed, showing that even if sins are a thousand, one must repent of them all. For the Lord was praised when, the demon having been cast out, the mute man spoke. He never healed anyone whom he did not entirely free. For he healed the whole man on the Sabbath, because he freed both his body from infirmity and his soul from every contagion, indicating that the penitent ought to grieve at the same time over every crime arising in soul and in body. For I know that God is an enemy to every sinner; how then would one who reserves a crime receive forgiveness for another? Would he obtain indulgence without the love of God, without which no one has ever found grace? For he is an enemy of God while he offends persistently. For it is a certain impiety of unbelief to hope for half a pardon from him who is just and is justice itself.

For it would already be possible to find grace without penance. For true penance strives to lead the penitent to the purity of Baptism. For it is necessary that the penitent wash away with at least the tears of the mind whatever filth he has contracted after purification. But he is hard enough whose mind's grief the eyes of the flesh cannot declare. But let him know that he is culpably hard who grieves over the losses of time or the death of a friend, and does not show the sorrow of sin with tears. It is not therefore for anyone to excuse himself on the ground that he has no fountain of tears, who shows by tears grief over temporal things.

CHAPTER X. 25. The precept of confessing with one's own mouth. He has mercy together with justice. The power of priests. By whom sacred confessions are to be used. Concerning confession not made to a priest. Let him therefore who repents repent wholly, and show his grief with tears; let him represent his life to God through the priest, let him forestall the judgment of God by confession. For the Lord commanded those who were to be cleansed to show themselves to the priests (Luke 17:14), teaching that sins are to be confessed in bodily presence, not made known through a messenger, not through a writing. For he said, Show yourselves; and all of you, not one for all. Do not appoint another as a messenger to offer for you the gift established by Moses (Leviticus 14:2), but you who have sinned through yourselves, through yourselves be ashamed. For shame itself has a part in remission; for the Lord commanded this out of mercy, that no one should repent in secret.

For in this very act, by which he speaks on his own behalf to the priest and overcomes shame through fear of offending God, forgiveness of the crime is granted; for through confession that which was criminal in the deed becomes venial; and even if he is not at once cleansed, yet what he committed as a mortal sin becomes venial. For he has offered much satisfaction who, mastering his shame, has denied nothing of what he committed to God's messenger. For God, who is merciful and just, preserves mercy in justice and justice in mercy. For it is a work of mercy to forgive sins to the sinner. But it is fitting that the just man show mercy justly. For it is fitting that he consider not only what he grieves for, but in what manner, whether he is worthy—I do not say of justice, but of mercy. For justice alone condemns. But he is worthy of mercy who seeks grace through spiritual labor. For the mind labors by enduring shame. And since shame is a great punishment, he who blushes for Christ's sake becomes worthy of mercy. Hence it is clear that the more people he confesses the shamefulness of his crime to in hope of pardon, the more easily he will obtain the grace of remission. For the priests themselves can now profit more and spare more those who confess: for those whom they forgive, God forgives; for Lazarus, already raised from the tomb, the Lord presented to his disciples to be loosed (John 11:44), thereby showing that the power of loosing has been granted to priests. For he said, Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed also in heaven.

(Matthew 18): that is, I am God; and all the orders of the heavenly host, and all the saints praise you in my glory, and confirm those whom you bind and loose. He did not say, Those whom you think to bind and loose; but, those on whom you exercise the work of justice or mercy. But your other works upon sinners I do not acknowledge. Therefore, whoever wishes to confess his sins so as to find grace, let him seek a priest who knows how to bind and loose; lest, when he has been negligent concerning himself, he be neglected by the one who mercifully admonishes and entreats him, so that both do not fall into the pit which the fool refused to avoid. So great, then, is the power of confession that, if a priest is lacking, one should confess to a neighbor. For it often happens that a penitent cannot feel shame before a priest, for whom, though he desires it, neither place nor time is offered. And if the one to whom he will confess does not have the power of loosing, he nevertheless becomes worthy of pardon, from the desire for the priest, when he confesses the shamefulness of his crime to a companion. For the lepers were cleansed while they were going to show themselves to the priests, before they reached them (Luke 17). Hence it is clear that God looks to the heart, when by necessity they are prevented from reaching the priests. Indeed, often those who are healthy and joyful seek them; but while they seek and before they reach them, they die. But the mercy of God is everywhere, who knows how to spare even the righteous, although not as quickly as if they were loosed by a priest.

Therefore whoever confesses entirely to a priest, let him confess as well as he can.

CHAPTER XI. 26. When private confession suffices. When public confession is required, and whence it has its merit. If the sin is hidden, it suffices to bring it to the knowledge of the priest, so that the offering of the gift may be acceptable. For at the resurrection of the ruler's daughter, few were present who saw it. She was not yet buried, not yet carried outside the gate of the city, not yet brought outside the house into public notice. He raised up within the house her whom he found within, with only Peter and John and James and the girl's father and mother left (Luke 8:51), in whom the priests of the Church are figuratively contained. But those whom he found outside, it must be noted how he raised them. Now the crowd was following the son of the widow; Martha and Mary were weeping, pleading for their brother, and the crowd that had followed Mary was weeping too, warned by Mary's tears (John 11:39): in which we are taught that for those who sin publicly, not their own merit but the Church's suffices. So then let the dead man lie thus, and thus show himself dead, by proclaiming his death publicly, by showing the fruits of penance publicly, so that the crowd may weep for the one lost, and bewail him whom it grieves as dead. By these tears the Lord will be moved, who will restore to his mother her only son (Luke 7:12). If he has persevered less, if he has not declared himself dead through the fruits of penance, so much the more piously ought he to add what may stir up tears, not only of Martha but also of Mary.

Let him afflict himself so greatly, let him show himself to grieve so greatly and to feel himself dead, that those who hear and contemplate him may pray for pardon by weeping, and the Church may imitate their weeping. For whoever has offended many by sinning ought to appease many by making satisfaction, so that the Church, first offended by his fault, may be turned in compassion at his conversion, praying for him whom she grieved as dead, whereby God may be turned to pardon, who first showed mercy.

CHAPTER XII. 27. Penance outside the Church is of no avail. Let the penitent therefore labor to be in the Church, and to strive toward the unity of the Church. For unless the unity of the Church come to his aid, unless it supply by its assistance what the sinner lacks, the soul of the dead man will not be snatched from the hands of the enemy. For it is to be believed, and the piety of faith demands that we believe, that all the alms of the whole Church, and its prayers, and works of justice and mercy, come to the aid of one who recognizes his death and turns to conversion. And therefore no one can repent whom the unity of the Church does not sustain. And therefore let him not seek priests who are divided from the unity of the Church by any fault. For Judas, repenting, went to the Pharisees and abandoned the Apostles: he found no help, only an increase of despair. For they said, What is that to us? See thou to it (Matt. 27:4). If you have sinned, let it be to yourself: we do not help you, we do not charitably take up your sins, we do not promise to bear them with you, we do not teach you how to lay down your burden.

For what have we to do with mercy, we who follow the works of justice? He went to the brethren; he went to those who had prayed for Peter's fever-stricken mother-in-law, who had most mercifully brought the shameless Canaanite woman, who had asked Peter pouring out tears for himself, who had not fled from Mary and Martha, who had obtained life for Lazarus, who had not fled from the weeping crowd, which had gained the only lily of the widow. He went to the divided; and being divided, he perished. This unity, the worker of every good, he felt who said, The vineyard was for the peaceful one, in her who has peoples. For unless he knew the peoples contained within himself in the universal Church, he would not presume himself to be the vineyard. For he knows, and knows by experience, as one who had labored for the salvation of all, that he cannot stand without the help of the Church. For it is no small thing, when every good succors, whether established in heaven or on earth. Losing this through excommunication, unless he recover it through the unity or piety of the holy mother, how will he ever be able worthily to repent? How will he be able to find God favorable, who did not hesitate to offend His most holy bride and mother and daughter and sister, and utterly to despise her help?

CHAPTER XIII. How one must grieve, how long, and from what cause. Let him who repents have faith; let him believe that this is the medicine; let him hold all the fruits of his repentance as small; let him never be satisfied; let him always grieve; let him always be ashamed before the Lord, in whose sight he has sinned; let him end his grief with his life. For if even the Apostle continually weeps over sins forgiven through Baptism, what remains for us, who are placed upon the foundation of the Apostles, except to weep? What, indeed, except always to grieve in this life? For where grief ends, repentance also fails. But if repentance ends, what is left of pardon? For let him rejoice and hope in grace as long as he is sustained by repentance. For the Lord said, Go, and sin no more (John 8:11). He did not say, "Do not sin," but that the will to sin should not arise within. And how shall this be observed, unless grief is continually kept watch over in repentance? Let him therefore always grieve, and rejoice in his grief, and always grieve over the repentance of his grief, should it come to pass. And let it not be enough that he grieves, but let him grieve in faith, and let him grieve that he has not always grieved.

CHAPTER XIV. 29. What must be wept for and confessed, where it treats of the circumstances of sins. He who sins in one point becomes guilty of all. Let him consider the quality of his crime, in place, in time, in perseverance, in the variety of the person, and by what kind of temptation he did this, and in the manifold execution of the vice itself. For the fornicator must repent according to the excellence of his status or office, and according to the manner of the harlot, and in the manner of his deed, and how he carried out his shamefulness. If in a sacred place, or one to which he owed the excellence of faith, as are the houses of lords and of many others; if in a time appointed for prayer, or on the festivity of the saints, and in the time of fasting: let him consider how long he persevered, and weep that he sinned persistently, and by how great an assault he was overcome. For there are those who are not only not overcome but of their own accord surrender themselves to sin; nor do they wait for temptation, but forestall it by their will, and ponder with themselves by how manifold an action of vice they may sin delightfully. All this vanity must be confessed and wept for; so that when he has recognized that his sin is great, he may quickly find God ready to be appeased. In recognizing the increase of his sin, let him find of what age he was, of what wisdom, of what order, and every state of another who does not sin. Let him dwell on each of these things, and feel the measure of his crime; let him wash with tears every quality of his vice, let him bewail the virtue which he meanwhile lacked.

For it must be grieved over and purged by sorrow, not only because he has sinned, but also because he has deprived himself of the virtue that he lacked in the meantime. For although he hopes that he will obtain pardon, he can still grieve because he did not merit that from which he trusts to be rewarded. Let him be anxious and grieve that, now escaping the punishment of past sins, wretched man that he is, he does not thence expect glory; since all his time is most brief, he ought to have striven to obtain the prize. Let him also weep because, offending in one point, he has become guilty of all. For he has been ungrateful who, full of virtues, did not fear God at all. For in this each one becomes more culpable in sinning, the more acceptable he is to God. For Adam sinned the more for this reason, because he abounded in every good. Also in another way, offending in one point, he is guilty of all: because every virtue suffers loss from one vice. For if anyone falls into avarice, he destroys generosity and has diminished chastity. For by the love of money he would violate chastity, or at least love it less. For if for God's sake such chastity is still present in him that he does not wish to lose it, at least with less joy and less affection does he guard it, when he sees loss of money proceeding from it. And so also in other virtues, even if they are not expelled, yet through the conception of one vice they are diminished, whether greatly or slightly, or are made worse by its intensity; whence every virtue, whatever the sin, is to be wept over, and from him indulgence is to be sought for all things.

One must also consider, and by considering lament, the soul of one's neighbor, whom the fornicator has corrupted, or, having snatched it away, has confirmed in evil; also that he has been an example of evil in the working of his crime, when it would have profited him more if he had been a cause of conversion to others. So let him grieve that the life of others has been corrupted by him, or that an uncorrupted life has not been preserved, and that he has lost the neighbor's advantage by the example of good he might have given. Let him grieve with sorrow for the harm he has brought upon the good by sinning, and for the joy he has not brought them. And let him think not only what and how he has done, but how unjustly, as we have said, he has offended God by sinning. Let him fear that sentence of the Truth: You cannot serve two masters (Matthew 6). Let him fear, then, lest all the good things he has done, while he has persevered in one sin, he has lost through the contamination of evil: so that he who has served the devil through crime has lost the service of God which he offered. Yet it is a pious thing to believe that, once the grace of God has been received, which destroys the former evils in him, it also rewards the good things: so that when it has destroyed what it did not find as its own, it may also love and cherish the good which it planted even in the sinner.

CHAPTER XV. 50. How the penitent ought to be affected. Not to confess half to one person and half to another. To separate oneself from the altar. To refrain from games. The fruits of penitence. Grieving in all things, let him either abandon the world, or at least those things which are not administered without an admixture of evil, such as commerce and military service; and other things which are harmful to those who use them, such as the administrations of secular powers, unless he uses them by permission of obedience. Let him place himself wholly in the power of the judge, in the judgment of the priest, reserving nothing of his own for himself, so that at his command he may be ready to do all things for the recovery of the life of his soul, whatever he would do to avoid the death of the body; and this with desire, because he recovers an infinite life as God. For he ought to do with joy, as one who will be immortal, what he would do as one who is about to die to postpone death. Let him always entreat God, certain of pardon, which in every way and without weariness, though doubtful, he would beg of an earthly power. Let him abstain from many lawful things, who in the freedom of his will committed unlawful things. Let him always offer to God a contrite mind and heart, and then also what he can from his possessions. Then let him offer what he offers securely. The Lord looked upon Abel and upon his gifts: but he spoke first to Abel, than to his gifts. For taking his mind, when he knew it humble and pure, he rewarded the gifts of his generosity. But to Cain he did not look, nor to his gifts (Gen. 4:4).

For he did not receive her gifts, because he did not recognize as humble the mind of her whom he had seen. And so in the judgment of the heart must the alms of the giver be weighed. Nor is it now to be considered how much, but with what mind, with what affection one gives what he can. For the widow who had two small coins gave generously, and cast in more than all (Luke 21:1). Therefore, whoever wishes to redeem his sins by the offering of temporal things, let him take care that he first offers his mind.

Let the penitent be cautious, lest, led by shame, he divide confession within himself, so as to wish to make different things manifest to different priests. For some conceal from one what they reserve to be made manifest to another: which is to praise oneself, and to tend toward hypocrisy, and always to lack pardon, while they think that by pieces they arrive at the whole. Let him beware besides, whom true penitence delights, that he not approach the Lord's body before he strengthens it with a good conscience. But in this separation let him think upon the dreadful judgment of God, where the sentence is more terrible, separating sinners into the fire. Let him groan that he does not yet dare to receive the saving food which he greatly desired. These are the worthy fruits of penitence, which tear the captive soul free from snares and preserve it in liberty. Let him restrain himself besides from games, from the spectacles of the world, who wishes to obtain the perfect grace of remission. For if Dinah had restrained herself, if she had remained among her own, she would not have been corrupted by a foreign ravisher (Genesis 34:1).

Therefore, the more should the soul that has often, or even once, been corrupted and defiled be on its guard and restrain itself; let it now fear what has been said by experience, which a virgin does not know. Let her choose whom she may imitate, let her not follow one whom her own mind condemns; for she judges herself who does not separate herself from one who has no fruits of penitence; for she praises and loves those whom she does not fail to recognize as bearing fruit worthily. Let her seek fruits worthy, even if not worthy of penitence. For the fruits of the virtues are worthy fruits, which are not sufficient for the penitent. For penitence demands more grievous fruits, so that the Church may thus be appeased; so that, pacified by grief and groans, it may obtain life for the dead.

CHAPTER XVI. 52. Futile excuses in sins. Condition or nature. God's ordination. The lack of grace, or the efficacy of the divine will. That God does not will sin, yet does not restrain it. What is available to man so that he may keep grace. Let him feel that the fault is his own, and let him not wish to excuse himself, lest he increase the crime, like Adam, to whom it was not enough to have sinned; but he magnified the crime by blaming his wife, and by transferring the fault to the author. This sin is incurred many times, but being neglected it is not known. Let us not, therefore, say when sinning, "I could do no other, since I made myself a thief because God made me poor." Nor is it a wonder if I have given myself over to fornication, because I was created such by nature and of frailty; for frailty, not the will, compels me to commit criminal acts. For he errs who is thus deceived.

For such is nature that anyone can resist the evil to which he subjects himself by his own will. But there are those who lay the blame on God's providence, attributing to God's ordination and necessity what has been left to the will and to the freedom of choice. For God knew what the one who sinned would do; but he who leaves no sin unpunished did not ordain sin. He ordained punishment for those who love guilt. For fire is the work of justice, not of mercy, so that those who do not love to rejoice may have something to grieve over. He did not ordain sinning, who willed to heal sin; but he permitted it to freedom, which the sinner has surrendered to necessity. For if it were not possible to sin, how should he who is wholly justice repay? For this reason he does not sanctify mute animals, because they can commit no crimes. The angels also who persevered—if they had not been free, how should they be crowned? For they could have sinned, whose like fell. Although he created all things mercifully, he who is just ought nonetheless to preserve justice within mercy. But he who does not feel his own guilt says: I can have nothing good unless grace inspires it; for without it I can do nothing. If, therefore, he himself does not keep me, I who can do nothing of myself—what guilt do I have? If I could avoid sin without him, I would feel myself guilty. Furthermore: All things whatsoever the Lord willed, he made in heaven and on earth. What guilt, then, is in me, if he does not will to save?

Much, I say. For although you can obtain nothing without that mercy which you reject, you can nevertheless freely hold fast to grace; and by retaining it you can, if only it please you, avoid guilt. For God, who once began to do good, unless we abandon his benefit—which is entirely within our power—is compelled by a just necessity, he who is merciful in inspiring, that no one can first forsake mercy. For it is not his own to forsake, except one who forsakes him. Therefore it is our fault, because we put to flight the grace which we could have forever; it always withdraws unwillingly, and never forsakes anyone spontaneously. Yet this opinion is not contradicted, but he has done all things whatsoever he willed. For he created whatever he willed, nor did he create more than he willed. He wills good in each one, and evil in none; but he wills it in such a way that man, whom he does not will to sin, does not cease to be man. Yet he does not will man not to sin in such a way as to will to make him a ox; for then he would not have anyone to reward, nor anyone to whom to infuse the splendor of his brightness, nor anyone to appoint as co-heir, nor anyone in whom to find his image and likeness. Nor was it fitting for him who is wholly justice so to form anyone that he could not sin, unless this were merited in human liberty. He wills them to become good, with the being of both preserved, so that he himself remains God, and he himself man. For if he formed man without liberty, he who is God would act against justice; if he took away liberty, human dignity would not remain.

Therefore it was possible for man not to sin, but not to lose human nature. And so he is merciful who wills our salvation, and he is not powerless, since he wills this while preserving the right of both. For he is a just king, and it behooves him to protect the right of each. For grace is always at hand, which never fails unless it has first been expelled. It continually and necessarily inspires what is its own, if there is one to receive it; and once expelled, it returns through penitence. So that the creature might not perish—which by his mercy he created generously and enriched with freedom—he made it to serve freely as an aid for retaining grace, which always precedes every creature. To protect this grace, to keep it from being expelled, he added angels and all blessed spirits, and he added all those established in eternal life, and he added those living in the flesh, and the whole holy Church, which comes to the aid of all in every good of theirs; and, what is greatest, he sent his Son as an aid, whom he decreed to suffer so much for us, and established as a continual intercessor, whom he directed that we not expel, not flee, not disdain the inspiration of his mercy (apart from which he created nothing and saved no one), but that with all these aids we hold fast to it firmly and with thanksgiving. Thus the fault is ours, not that of the creatures given to us as aids, nor of the author who wills nothing unjustly but mercifully, and is all-powerful in every will of his.

Therefore whoever takes note of this in confession, or at least has not defended his guilt against these things, will obtain pardon through repentance. This is true repentance, which is thus fruitful: may he grant it to us who is wholly true mercy.

CHAPTER XVII. 53. Late repentance. Which is true, and how rare. Let no one therefore wait until he can no longer sin. For let him seek the freedom of the will, so that he may be able to blot out what he has committed, not the necessity. Therefore he who is forsaken by his sins before he himself forsakes them condemns them not freely, but as if by necessity. For although the thief merited pardon at the end for his every crime, he nevertheless did not give to the baptized the authority to sin and to persevere. For he was baptized then, who then first confessed Christ on the cross (Luke 23:43). For repentance, if it arrives in the last gap of life, heals and liberates in the washing of baptism: so that those who are baptized at the end do not even experience purgatory; but they, enriched by the goods of the holy mother the Church, will receive a manifold good in true blessedness. But those who, when they could, never wished to be converted, confessing when they can no longer sin, do not so easily acquire what they wish. For it is necessary for the sinner, in order to be fruitful in repentance, to obtain life for the dead. For it is written, without charity no one is saved (1 Cor. 13:2). Therefore man does not live in fear alone.

Therefore, the one who repents late ought not only to fear God as judge but also to love him as just: let him not be feared for the sake of punishment, but loved for the sake of glory. For he ought to grieve over the crime, and over all the variety of it that we have set forth. And since this is scarcely possible, Augustine could doubt concerning his salvation. I believe that he who said, "In whatever hour the sinner has groaned and turned, he shall live" (Ezek. 33:12), said that the one turned lives, not merely the one turned aside. I consider him turned aside who grieves over the crime; turned, who grieves over all the variety of it that we have set forth. He is turned aside from sin who now wishes to dismiss sin; he is turned, who is now wholly and entirely turned, who now not only does not fear punishments, but hastens to press on to the good God. If this turning should happen to anyone even at the end, his remission is not to be despaired of. But since such a turning is scarcely or rarely so just, the late penitent is to be feared for. For the one whom sickness presses and punishment terrifies will scarcely come to true satisfaction, especially when the children whom he loved unlawfully are present, and his wife and the world call him back to themselves. Late repentance is wont to deceive many. But since God is always powerful, he can always help even at death those whom he pleases. Since, therefore, fruitful repentance is the work not of man but of God, his mercy can inspire it whenever he wills, and recompense from mercy those whom he can condemn from justice.

But since there are many things that hinder and hold back the languishing, it is most dangerous and close to destruction to put off the remedy of penitence until death. But great is the one to whom God then gives inspiration. If anyone, therefore, is one who then seeks true penitence, let him await God's clemency, feeling God's goodness to be greater than his own wickedness.

CHAPTER XVIII. 54. Late penitence is subject to the fire of purgation. Eternal punishments are just. But even if the converted person lives his life and does not die, we do not nevertheless promise that he will escape every punishment; for he must first be purged by the fire of purgation, who has deferred the fruit of conversion to another age. But this fire, even if it has not been eternal, is nevertheless in a wondrous manner severe; for it surpasses every punishment that anyone has ever suffered in this life. Never in the flesh has so great a punishment been found (although the martyrs suffered wondrous torments, and many wicked men suffered wickedly), as great as the torments they have often endured. Let each one, therefore, strive so to cover over his offenses, that after death he may not have to endure punishment. For certain sins are mortal, and in penitence become venial, yet are not immediately healed. Often indeed the sick man would die, unless he were treated, nor is he immediately healed; he languishes to live, who was about to die. But he who dies impenitent dies utterly, and is tormented eternally.

For he who is smeared over while impenitent, if he were to live forever, would sin forever; but it is the part of God's mercy that he brings the sinner's life to an end: for this reason also he is tormented without end. Because he is never enriched with virtue, always full of iniquity, always without charity, he is tormented without end. All these evils penitence avoids, which always drives out the pain of that punishment.

CHAPTER XIX. 35. The etymology of penitence. For one must always grieve over sin, as the very force of the word declares. For to be penitent is to hold to the penalty: that one may always punish in oneself, by avenging, what one committed by sinning. For penalty properly denotes the injury that punishes and avenges what each person has committed. He holds the penalty who always avenges what he grieves to have committed. Penitence, therefore, is the vengeance always punishing in oneself what one grieves to have committed. In the ways mentioned above, then, let him who grieves over his fault seek indulgence. Let him not be ashamed to confess his sins to a sinner. For if a priest had no sin, one who made his sins manifest to him might be ashamed.

CHAPTER XX. What sort of man a confessor ought to be. When he is to be removed from office, and when restored. The authority of the Roman pontiff. Therefore every priest to whom the sinner comes forward, before whom every sickness is set, ought to be judged guilty in none of those things which he is quick to judge in another. For he who judges another while himself deserving of judgment condemns himself. Let him therefore know himself, and purge in himself what he sees in others to be offered. Let him beware that he has cast away from himself whatever harmful thing he has reproved in another. Let him take note of what is said: He who is without sin, let him first cast a stone at her (John 8:7). For he freed the sinful woman for this reason, that there was no one who might justly cast a stone at her. How would he stone her, who would know himself to be stoned? For there was no one without sin, in which it is understood that all had been guilty of crime. For venial sins were always forgiven through the ceremonies. If therefore there was any sin in them, it was criminal. Therefore priests who do not first build themselves up are worse in this respect, and they observed the Lord with snares to enjoy them. In this therefore the crime of priests is most manifest, and beyond measure detestable—those who do not first judge themselves, and yet bind others. For they ought to fear in themselves the crime which they feared in others, and those men perceived it to be detestable, who were so blind that they hoped to capture the highest Wisdom by their snares. What was plain to them, what each one then avoided, let the priest avoid, who in this error has shown himself worse than those Jews.

Let the spiritual judge take care that, just as he has not committed the crime of wickedness, so he not fail to possess the knowledge of how to act. He ought to know how to recognize what he must judge. For judicial power demands this, that he discern what he ought to judge. Therefore let him be a diligent inquisitor, a subtle investigator, and let him question the sinner wisely and, as it were, shrewdly about what the sinner perhaps does not know, or wishes to conceal out of shame. So then, once the crime is known, let him not hesitate to investigate its varieties—the place, the time, and the other circumstances we mentioned above—by setting forth their qualities. When these are known, let him be present as one benevolent, ready to raise up and to carry the burden with him. Let him have sweetness in affection, compassion toward another's crime, and discretion in the variety of cases. Let him assist the one confessing by praying, by giving alms, and by doing other good works on his behalf. Let him always help him by soothing, consoling, promising hope, and, when it is needed, even by rebuking; let him teach by speaking, instruct by acting. Let him be a sharer in the labor who wishes to become a sharer in the consolation; let him teach perseverance. Let him take care lest he fall, lest he justly lose the judicial power. For although penitence can acquire grace for him, it does not at once restore him to his former power. For although Peter was restored after his fall, and the power of dignity has often been given back to priests who have fallen, it is not therefore necessary that this be granted to all as if by authority. For authority is found that grants it, and, as it were, commands it.

There is found also another kind which by no means concedes, but forbids. These things do not conflict with the Scriptures, but agree with them, if time and place and manner of penance apply an equal measure. For since there are so many who fall, that they defend their former dignity by authority, and as it were make bold to sin, that hope must be cut off. But if there is a place where these things do not happen, those who sin can be restored. Therefore a just and discerning pontiff is not compelled always to cast off his priests, nor immediately to restore them, unless it has been decreed by the Roman pontiff.

From the above, therefore, it appears that penance is useful to all, neither taking away hope nor granting rashness, but worthily and truly undertaken, it promises not only indulgence, but certain rewards. These things we write to you, studious of truth and lover of certainty, concerning true penance, separating the true from the false. May he grant us to know it by experience, and to feel its sweetness even to the end, who has conferred upon you by the illumination of his light the prerogative of goodness, and in that of stability, for an odor of sweetness. Amen.

NOTICE CONCERNING THE FOLLOWING LITTLE BOOK.

The treatise On the Antichrist has also been printed among the works of Alcuin and of Rabanus Maurus: in Alcuin's works it is indeed complete and full; here, however, and in Rabanus, it is imperfect. For some things are omitted here which are found both in Alcuin and in Rabanus; and in turn some things are wanting in Rabanus which are lacking neither here nor in Alcuin. It is cited by Rupert, abbot of Tuitium, in his book on the Apocalypse, chapter 13, but with the author's name suppressed, in these words: "Some hand down," etc. "As, they say, our Lord and Redeemer provided Bethlehem for himself," etc.; nor have we ascertained from what source the Louvain theologians learned what they noted in their censure on this treatise, namely that Rupert acknowledges the work to be Rabanus's. Rabanus inserted the doctrine and the same opinions of this little book into his work on Paul, book 22, chapter 2, since he plainly transcribes Albinus himself, just as he does other earlier authors, in various places. The codex of Thuaneus, by whose authority it was first printed under the name of Alcuin, is supported by the Royal codex marked 4411, which presents the same little book with this inscription: "Here begins the Life of the Antichrist, edited by Alcuin for Charlemagne." Compare Alcuin's book On the Faith of the Holy Trinity, chapter 19. Yet one may scarcely doubt that it should be ascribed to Adso, abbot of the monastery of Derb, given the manuscripts in which the prefixed letter is exhibited, which it will not be out of place to subjoin here in full. This, then, reads as follows:

TO GERBERGA THE QUEEN, WIFE OF LOUIS ULTRAMARINUS, KING OF THE FRANKS, FROM ADSO THE MONK.

To the most excellent Queen, who shines with royal dignity, beloved of God and lovable to all the saints, Mother of Monks, and Lady of holy ladies, GERBERGA, Adso his brother, the last of all his servants, wishes glory and everlasting peace.

Since, Lady Mother, I have obtained the seed of your mercy, I have always been to you in all things as your own servant. Therefore, although the prayers of my petition are worthless before the Lord, yet for you and for your lord the King, and also for the safety of your sons, I entreat the mercy of our God, that he may deign to preserve for you the summit of the Empire in this life, and make you reign happily with him in heaven after this life. For if the Lord grants you prosperity and gives your sons a longer life, we know without doubt and believe that the Church of God will be exalted, and the order of our religion multiplied more and more. This I, your faithful servant, desire and greatly long for; and if I could acquire the whole kingdom for you, I would most willingly have done so. But since I cannot do that, I will entreat the Lord for the salvation of you and your sons, that his grace may always go before you in your works, and his glory follow after in piety and mercy; so that, intent upon the divine commandments, you may be able to fulfill the good things you desire, whence the crown of the heavenly kingdom may be given to you.

Therefore, since you have the pious zeal to hear the Scriptures and to speak frequently of our Redeemer, and also to know of the impiety and persecution of Antichrist, and likewise of his power and origin, as you, my lady, deigned to enjoin upon me, your servant, I wished to write something to you and to make you in part certain concerning Antichrist; although you have no need to hear these things from me, since you have with you a most prudent pastor, Lord Rorico, bishop of Laon, a most brilliant mirror of all wisdom and eloquence, and that in this our age.

After these things Adso continues: "Therefore, you who wish to know concerning Antichrist," and the rest as they stand in the following book of our Appendix; except that at the end, after the word "he set before," he again turns to the Queen with this brief peroration in this manner: "Behold, Lady Queen, I your faithful servant have faithfully fulfilled what you commanded; ready to obey in the other matters which you have deigned to command.