confesses his sins, grieving but a little, obtains remission of his sins by the sacrament of penance ministered to him by the priest absolving him." So that although God working contrition in a penitent, hath not done his work for him without the priest's absolution, in desire at least; yet, if the priest do his part, he hath done the work for the penitent, though God had not wrought that excellent grace of contrition in the penitent.

But for the contrition itself: it is a good word, but of no severity or affrightment by the Roman doctrine: "One contrition, one act of it, though but little and remiss, can blot out any, even the greatest sin" (always understanding it in the sense of the church, that is, in the sacrament of penance), saith cardinal Tolet." A certain little inward grief of mind is required to the perfection of repentance," said Maldonat. And to "contrition a grief in general for all our sins is sufficient; but it is not necessary to grieve for any one sin more than another," said Franciscus de Victoria'. "The greatest sin and the smallest, as to this, are all alike; and as for the contrition itself, any intention or degree whatsoever, in any instant whatsoever, is sufficient to obtain mercy and remission," said the same author.

Now let this be added to the former, and the sequel is this, That if a man live a wicked life for threescore or fourscore years together,—yet if in the article of his death, sooner than which God hath not commanded him to repent, he be a little sorrowful for his sins, then resolving for the present, that he will do so no more; and though this sorrow hath in it no love of God, but only a fear of hell, and a hope that God will pardon him; this, if the priest absolves him, does instantly pass him into a state of salvation. The priest with two fingers and a thumb can do his work for him; only he must be greatly disposed and prepared to receive it: greatly, we say, according to the sense of the Roman church; for he must be attrite, or it were better if he were contrite; one act of grief, a little one, and that not for one sin more

I Lib. iii. instruc. sacerdot. c. 5. n. 4.

Sum. qu. 16. art. 6.

1 De contrit. num. 107. Quæcunque intensio contra peccatum, in quocunque instanti, sufficiet ad consequendam misericordiam et remissionem. Ibid. n. 106.

than another, and this at the end of a long wicked life, at the time of our death, will make all sure.

Upon these terms, it is a wonder that all wicked men in the world are not papists; where they may live so merrily, and die so securely, and are out of all danger, unless peradventure they die very suddenly, which because so very few do, the venture is esteemed nothing, and it is a thousand to one on the sinner's side.

SECTION II.

We know it will be said, that the Roman church enjoins confession, and imposes penances; and these are a great restraint to sinners, and gather up what was scattered before. The reply is easy, but it is very sad. For,

1. For confession; it is true, to them who are not used to it, as it is at the first time, and for that once, it is as troublesome, as for a bashful man to speak orations in public: but where it is so perpetual and universal, and done by companies and crowds at a solemn set time; and when it may be done to any one besides the parish-priest, to a friar that begs, or to a monk in his dorter, done in the ear, it may be to a person that hath done worse, and therefore hath no awe upon me, but what his order imprints, and his viciousness takes off; when we see women and boys, princes and prelates do the same every day: and as oftentimes they are never the better, so they are not at all ashamed; but men look upon it as a certain cure, like pulling off a man's clothes to go and wash in a river; and make it, by use and habit, by confidence and custom, to be no certain pain: and the women blush or smile, weep or are unmoved, as it happens under their veil, and the men under the boldness of their sex: When we see that men and women confess to-day, and sin to-morrow, and are not affrighted from their sin the more for it; because they know the worst of it, and have felt it often, and believe to be eased by it: certain it is, that a little reason, and a little observation, will suffice to conclude, that this practice of confession hath in it no affrightment, not so much as the horror of the sin itself hath to the conscience. For they who commit sins confidently, will, with less regret

:

(it may be) confess it in this manner, where it is the fashion for every one to do it. And when all the world observes how loosely the Italians, Spaniards, and French do live in their carnivals; giving to themselves all liberty and license to do the vilest things at that time, not only because they are for a while to take their leave of them, but because they are, as they suppose, to be so soon eased of their crimes by confession, and the circular and never-failing hand of the priest; they will have no reason to admire the severity of confession: which as it was most certainly intended as a deletory of sin, and might do its first intention, if it were equally managed; so now certainly it gives confidence to many men to sin, and to most men to neglect the greater and more effective parts of essential repentance.

We shall not need to observe how confession is made a minister of state, a picklock of secrets, a spy upon families, a searcher of inclinations, a betraying to temptations; for this is wholly by the fault of the men, and not of the doctrine; but even the doctrine itself, as it is handled in the church of Rome, is so far from bringing peace to the troubled consciences, that it intromits more scruples and cases than it - can resolve.

For besides that itself is a question, and they have made it dangerous by pretending that it is by Divine right and institution,-for so some of the schoolmen teach; and the canonists say the contrary, and that it is only of human and positive constitution,-and by this difference in so great a point, have made the whole economy of their repentance, which relies upon the supposed necessity of confession, to fail, or to shake vehemently, and, at the best, to be a foundation too uncertain to build the hopes of salvation on it: besides all this, we say, their rules and doctrines of confession enjoin some things that are of themselves dangerous, and

a Vide Biel, lib. iv. dist. 17. q. 1. et Scotum, ibid. et Bonavent. ib. n. 2. Melius dicitur, eam institutam fuisse à quadam universali Ecclesiæ traditione, quàm ex Novi vel Veteris Testamenti autoritate; et tamen negatur hæc traditio esse universalis. Confessio non est necessária apud Græcos, quia non emanavit ad illos traditionaliter. De Pœnit. dist. 5. in principio Gloss. ibid. Vide etiam Panormitan. super Decreta, lib. v. cap. Quod autem, cap. Omnis utriusque sexus, sect. 18. extrav. Gloss. Maldonatus fatetur omnes canonistas in hanc sententiam consensisse. Disp. de Sacram. tom. ii. c. 2. de Confess. Orig.

VOL. X.

lead into temptation. An instance of this is in that which is decreed in the canons of Trent, that the penitent must not only confess every mortal sin, which, after diligent inquiry, he remembers, but even his very sinful thoughts in particular, and his secret desires, and every circumstance which changes the kind of the sin, or, as some add, does notably increase it: and how can this be safely done, and who is sufficient for these things, and who can tell his circumstances without tempting his confessor, or betraying, and defaming another person, (which is forbidden) and in what cases it may be done, or in what cases omitted? and whether the confession be valid upon infinite other considerations, and whether it be to be repeated in whole or in part, and how often? and how much? these things are so uncertain, casual, and contingent, and so many cases are multiplied upon every one of these, and these so disputed and argued by their greatest doctors, by Thomas, and Scotus, and all the schoolmen, and by the casuists; that, as Beatus Rhenanus complains, it was truly observed by the famous John Geilerius, that according to their cases, inquiries, and conclusions, it is impossible for any man to make a right confession. So that although the shame of private confession be very tolerable and easy, yet the cases and scruples which they have introduced, are neither easy nor tolerable: and though, as it is now used, there be but little in it to restrain from sin; yet there is very much danger of increasing it, and of receiving no benefit by it.

SECTION III.

BUT then for penances and satisfactions (of which they boast so much, as being so great restraints to sin), these as they are publicly handled, are nothing but words and ineffective sounds. For first, if we consider what the penances themselves are which are enjoined; they are reduced from the ancient canonical penances to private and arbitrary, from years to hours, from great severity to gentleness and flattery, from fasting and public shame, to the saying over their beads, from cordial to ritual, from smart to money, from

c Sess. 4. can. 7.

heartiness and earnestness to pageantry and theatrical images of penance; and if some confessors happen to be severe, there are ways enough to be eased. For if the penitent may have leave to go to a gentler, or he may get commutations, or he may get somebody else to do them for him and if his penances be ever so great, or ever so little, yet it may be all supplied by indulgences; of which there are such stores in the Lateran at Rome, that, as Pope Boniface said, "No man is able to number them;" yet he confirmed them all.

In the church of Santa Maria de Popolo' there are for every day in the year two thousand and eight hundred years of pardon, besides fourteen thousand and fourteen carentanes; which, in one year, amount to more than a million: all which are confirmed by the popes Paschal I. Boniface VIII, and Gregory IX. In the church of St. Vitus and Modestus, there are, for every day in the year, seven thousand years, and seven thousand carentanes of pardon, and a pardon of a third part of all our sins besides; and the price of all this is but praying before an altar in that church. At the sepulchre of Christ in Venice there is hung up a prayer of St. Austin, with an indulgence of fourscore and two thousand years, granted by Boniface VIII., (who was of all the popes the most bountiful of the church's treasure) and Benedict XI., to him that shall say it, and that for every day toties quoties.' The Divine pardon of Sica gave a plenary indulgence to every one, that being confessed and communicated should pray there in the Franciscan church of Santa Maria degli Angeli,' and this pardon is 'ab omni pœna et culpa.' The English of that we easily understand; but the meaning of it we do not, because they will not own that these indulgences do profit any one, whose guilt is not taken away by the sacrament of penance. But this is not the only snare in which they have inextricably entangled themselves: but be it as they please for this; whatever it was, it was since enlarged by Sixtus IV. and Sixtus V. to all that shall wear St. Francis's cord. The saying a few Pater nosters and Aves, before a privileged altar, can, in innumerable places, procure vast portions of this treasure; and to deliver a soul out of

Eman. Sa, V. Satisfact. n. 10. Tolet. lib. iii. Instr. Sacerd. c. 11. n. 6.