Should one confess only to a priest?
Should one confess only to a priest?
Should one confess to any priest? They say that one must confess to his own priest except in an emergency, but they ask further: who is called one’s own priest? Then they list: (1) the pope, (2) the legate in the entire province, (3) the penitentiary [poenitentiarius] of the same legate in the entire province, (4) the archbishop, (5) the bishop in the whole diocese, (6) the archpresbyter of the cathedral church, (7) the vicar of the general bishop, (8) the parochial presbyter of the entire parish, (9) the vicars of the aforementioned, (10) all of the aforementioned who have his permission, (11) one’s own priest elected by the pope and the others; (12) they say that any parish priest is the priest for wanderers. But other questions arise from all this. Can those who do not have the authority of religious orders be licensed to hear confessions? Can students, merchants, soldiers of fortune, etc., staying in some parish be absolved by the priests by whom the parishioners of that parish can be absolved? What should be said about wandering travelers? What should be said about those who stay equally in different places or who have homes in different towns? Can local priests delegate their authority to someone else? Can it be concluded on the basis of custom that one should confess as he will to whomever he will?
Countless questions are asked about the quality of the confessor, about absolution, about imposing penance, etc. In answering these, the canonists and Scholastics provide so many distinctions and subdistinctions, so many exceptions and differences, that it cannot be denied that this Papist confession is a wretched torment of souls.
Here should be placed also the hundreds of questions [centenarii interrogationum] by which those who come to confession are ordered to be examined, of which classes [of questions] are established according to the Ten Commandments of the Decalogue, according to the precepts of the church, the five senses, the seven mortal sins, the seven works of mercy, etc. In regard to these, see the summaries of cases of conscience [Summae casuum conscientiae], the aphorisms of confessions [Aphorismi confessionum] published by various people, and the Liber confessionum by Cardinal von Dietrichstein.