Annotatio CLXXV

”My sin is always before me.” — Psalm 50:5

Chrysostom, in the second homily on this Psalm, to the exposition of the present little verse inserted some things concerning confession,¹ which John Calvin, in the ninth chapter of his Institutes, and the rest of the Lutherans bring forward (together with very many other sentences of the same Author) against sacramental confession. They run in this manner: “Say thy sins, that thou mayest blot them out. If thou art ashamed to say to anyone that thou hast sinned, say [them] within. [I do] not [say] that thou confess to thy fellow-servant, who may reproach thee; but say [them] to God, who heals them.” A similar sentence, and in almost the same words, Chrysostom inculcates in very many places; of which I shall bring hither some of the more notable, that at one glance I may set before your eyes whatsoever he has said on this subject, and lest it be needful for me again to repeat passages of this kind of argument.

In the fourth homily on Lazarus, on Luke chapter 16: “Why, therefore, art thou ashamed and dost thou blush to confess thy sins? Dost thou tell [them] to a man, that he may reproach thee? Not so; for [thou fearest] to confess to thy fellow-servant, lest he bring [it] forth into public. But thou showest thy wounds to him who is Lord, to him who is physician; for neither is he ignorant [of them], even if thou tell him not — [he] who knew [them] even before thou didst perpetrate [them]. Why, therefore, is there care, that thou tell [them] the less? Not, he says, do I compel thee to come forth into the midst as into a theatre, and to employ many witnesses: to me alone tell thy sin privately, that I may heal the ulcer, and free thee from grief.”

In the homily on the Publican, on Luke 18, he left this written: “I admonish thee that thou confess assiduously. For neither do I lead thee to the theatre of thy fellow-servants, nor do I compel thee to enunciate thy sins to men: unfold thy conscience to God; to him show thy deeds and wounds, and from him seek medicine; show thyself to him who reproaches not, but heals. For though thou be silent, yet he knows all. Tell [them], therefore, to him, that thou mayest depart thence free and loosed from sins, and be freed from that intolerable publication of sins.”

In homily 31 on the twelfth chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews: “Not only, he says, let us say that we are sinners, but let us also compute the sins themselves specially, one by one. I do not say to thee, that thou betray thyself in public, nor that thou accuse thyself before others; but I would have thee obey the prophet, saying, ‘Reveal to the Lord thy way.’² Before God, therefore, confess thy sins; at the true judge pronounce thy offenses with prayer — not with the tongue, but with the memory of thy conscience: and then at last hope that thou canst obtain mercy.”

In the homily On penance and confession he says: “Thou art confounded, and blushest to utter thy sins? And yet it behoved [thee] most of all to say them, and to divulge [them] among men: for to sin is confusion; it is not confusion to confess sins. But now it is not even necessary to confess in the presence of witnesses: let the inquisition of offenses be made by thought; without a witness let this judgment be; let God alone see thee confessing — God, who reproaches not thy sins, but looses the sins on account of [thy] confusion,” etc.

In the eighth homily among those which are titled On penance: “Reveal not, he says, thy sores; do not produce accusation in the common theatre; do not set up witnesses of [thy] offenses: within, in [thy] conscience, no one standing by except him who sees all — God, who both searches and judges concerning [thy] sins, and weighs the judgment of the sins of all, as it were, by a certain balance. Reform that in which thou hast offended; and so, with a pure conscience, approach the sacred table, and be a partaker of the holy sacrifice.”

In the fifth homily On the incomprehensible nature of God he says: “How greatly I exhort and beseech and pray you, dearest brethren, that ye more frequently confess to the immortal God, and — your offenses being enumerated — seek pardon, and [seek] the deity propitious! I lead thee not into the theatre of thy fellow-servants; I do not compel [thee] to detect thy sins to men: unfold thy conscience before God, and explain [it]; show to God, the most excellent physician, thy wounds, and ask from him the medicine; show [them] to him who reproaches not, but heals most humanely. Say to him, that — thy stains being wiped off — thou mayest depart thence clean, and without any disgrace, [and] be freed from that intolerable promulgation of thy offenses.”

John Cassian, consenting to the same opinion of his own preceptor Chrysostom, in book 20 of the Collations, chapter 8, wrote these things: “There is none who cannot say suppliantly to God, ‘My sin I have made known to thee,’³ that, through this confession, he may deserve to subjoin also that, ‘And thou hast remitted the impiety of my sin.’ Because, if — shame drawing [thee] back — thou blushest to reveal thy sins before men, cease not to confess them, by continual supplication, to him from whom they cannot lie hidden, and to say: ‘My iniquity I acknowledge, and my sin is always before me. To thee only have I sinned, and done evil before thee’⁴ — who is wont both to heal without any publication of shame, and to pardon without reproach.”

The Master of the Sentences, book 4, distinction 17, says that these sayings of Chrysostom are not so to be understood, as though it be lawful to anyone — if he has had the opportunity — not to confess to a priest; but that it suffices, where the crime is secret, to tell [it] to God alone [rather than] in secret through a confessor. But I judge that Chrysostom said these things not concerning secret confession — which is a part of sacramental penance — but concerning that theatrical and public confession, which is a part of public penance, which of old the penitents were wont to make, for enormous crimes, as in a theatre, before the bishop, the presbyters, and the multitude of the people. For to this [public confession] Chrysostom would not compel those who had secretly offended: both because those things which are secret he judged ought not to be published before all; and also because, even in his own times, public confession had been abrogated (through fear of the raging people) by Nectarius, bishop of Constantinople, his predecessor⁵ — on account of a matron [who had been] violated by a deacon in the temple, under the pretext of confession: as Sozomen indicates in book 9 of the Tripartite History, chapter 35. From which [chapter] it pleases [me] to relate the ancient rite of public confession and penance, that the aforenoted passages of Chrysostom may be better understood. These, therefore, are the words of Sozomen from that chapter: “Since it is known that altogether not to sin is divine, and beyond human nature — but that God commanded pardon to be given to sinners, and to those doing penance; while those who refuse to confess acquire a greater burden of sins — therefore it seemed [good] to the ancient” certain wise men to appoint over the people certain Pontiffs, that — as it were in a theatre, under the testimony of the ecclesiastical people — offenses might be laid open; and for this matter they appointed a presbyter of good conversation, discreet and wise: to whom, coming, those who had offended confessed their own offenses. But he, according to each one’s fault, appointed also the penalty [the satisfaction to be paid]: which even hitherto is diligently observed in the Western Churches, and especially at Rome — where also there is a fixed place for the penitents. For the guilty stand, and are set as it were amid lamentations. For when the sacred celebration [of the Mass] has been completed, they — not partaking of the communion — with groaning and lamentation prostrate themselves upon the ground; to whom the Bishop, hastening together, himself also prostrates himself with tears and spiritual groaning, and the whole people of the Church is flooded with weeping. But after these things the Bishop first rises, and lifts up those lying on the ground; then, a fitting prayer being made over the penitents, he dismisses them all. But they, of their own accord giving themselves to mortifications — whether by fastings, or by abstinence from the bath, or by the withholding of foods, or by other things which are enjoined — await the common time which the Bishop decrees; and when the appointed time has come, as though discharging a certain debt, [and being] cured of the sin by the affliction, they partake of the communion with the people. These things, therefore, the Roman Pontiffs have observed from antiquity even unto our time. But further, at Constantinople there was a presbyter set over the penitents, until that time in which a certain most noble woman, when she had confessed her sins, and it had been enjoined her by the presbyter that she should fast and supplicate God with [good] works — while she was observing this, confessed that she had more than once lain with a deacon in the church. When the people had come to know this, they raged against the priests, as though through them an injury had been done to the Church. Then Nectarius the Bishop removed the wicked deacon; and, certain persons persuading [him] that he should leave each one to the judgment of his own conscience as to communicating, he ordained that there should by no means [any longer] be a presbyter set over the penitents. And from that [time] the custom of antiquity was taken away — since, as I judge, the lesser sins were being ventured [more boldly], on account of the shame of confession and the [over-]nicety of those who examined [them].” These things Sozomen.