Fifth, it has no foundation in the fathers.
Fifth, it has no foundation in the fathers.
§ 28. (V) The sacrament of penance has no foundation in the ancient fathers. Therefore it must not be recognized as a sacrament properly so called.
Dr. Chemnitz proves the antecedent in detail (Examen Concil. Trident.), to which Bellarmine responds quite weakly: “[Even] without a witness, it can be proved that the first beginning of the sacrament of penance was drawn from the spectacles of public repentance which the ancient church preserved with great severity against manifest and savage sins.” The very matter under discussion teaches us that the sacrament of penance was built either out of the testimonies and examples of Scripture or out of those rituals of the primitive church, in which the external signs of contrition, the confession of sins (exomologesis), were required and certain chastisements were imposed, either as an example for others or for the sake of investigation as to whether the repentance was serious. About this subject see B. Rhenanus (Annotat. on Tertullian’s De poenit.), where he proves that the “confession” [exomologesis] was not repentance itself but an outward act or sign of it. But the sacrament of penance was not built out of the examples and testimonies of Scripture, as will appear a bit later [§§ 103–10] and as the Glossa juris canonica demonstrates by denying that auricular confession is part of divine Law. Therefore it remains that it began from the spectacles of public penance in the early church.
Bellarmine objects: “Why is the absolution not a sacrament since it is a divinely instituted external symbol and has a promise of grace and justification?”
We respond. Properly speaking, absolution has no divinely instituted external symbol but announces in particular the forgiveness of sins which the word of the Gospel otherwise asserts for all who truly repent. In addition, Bellarmine earlier asserts that both the word of absolution and the confession of the penitent pertain to the external symbol of this sacrament.