Section II: Confession.
SECTION II: CONFESSION
§ 97. That concludes our discussion of contrition. Confession follows. Confession, which is being investigated here, is, in general, the revealing of sins. (Augustine calls it “a confession of crime” [confessio fraudis] and distinguishes it from “a confession of praise” [confessio laudis]. See his Enarratio of Psalms 49 and 115, where he distinguishes between the confessions of one who praises and one who laments.)
** Luther (in his Warnungsschrift an die zu Frankfurt am Main, 1533, Jena German edition, vol. 6, f. 109a, §) writes: “And this Beichten [‘confession’] is an old German word written with two i’s. With the passing of time, one i changed, and the word began to be read as Beichten, as so many other German words were corrupted in this way. From this old German word Beichten, the holy bishops began to be called confessores, Beichter, that is, ‘confessors,’ for beichten means bekennen [‘to confess’]. So also at court the word still in use is Urjicht [‘confession’], and so the saying is das jicht er [‘he confesses that’]; das hat er bejicht, ‘he has affirmed that.’ ”1 **
With respect to the efficient cause, we can divide it in this way: some is claimed to be public, some private.