Penance Sacramental, and Satisfaction. 106
9. The priest's cut, and the monk's, in ancient time (for all Baronius's talking, annal. tom. 1, p. 631), was both one. For both used to cut all their hair, leaving but a ring round about their ears (see, Tolet., Conc.
4, cap. 40).
10. The beginning of this clergy clipping was thus: the people at the first were delighted with long hair, which afterwards the clergy used to cut for soberness and modesty's sake. And this in process of time through a grown general use became a significant ceremony. So says
Isidore, de offic. eccles. lib. 2, cap. 4: "The cutting of the hair, and leaving a circle below, I take to signify priesthood, and the rule of the church in them." And Amalar., de of., lib. 2, c. 5, says, "We bear our crown upon the lower part (of our head) when we do equalize with reason those necessaries of the world, which we ought to govern."
Thus, of ceremony, superstition is grown.
11. Organs were erected about the year 660, as Platina says, in Vitaliano; about 820, as Aimonius says, de gest. Fran., lib. 4, cap.
114; not until after Aquinas's time, as Navarre witnesses, in lib. de orat. & hor. cano., c. 16. As for church music, in set songs, Gregory, in his 4th book, epi. 44, de gest. Sym, habitae in urbe, disallows it.
12. In the ancient church, such sincere simplicity was accepted that they never used any ceremony in their ordination of bishops, but only imposing of hands upon him. Afterwards crept in the ceremonies of delivery of a book and anointing of the hands of the priest with chrism. The hierarchy under Areopagita's name speaks of imposition of hands, but not of unction at all.
Penance Sacramental, and Satisfaction
1. The sacrament of penance arose from these beginnings: first, in the primitive church, the public penance with its rites was in use; not any private penance used, or at least not imposed. Afterwards about Gratian's time, anno 1130, entered the disputations of the necessity of private confession and satisfaction, getting footing, but not foundation until Peter Lombard. And he was the first that did aver it to be a proper sacrament. And the succeeding schoolmen could not agree about the matter and form thereof, for all his determination.
But in the Council of Laterane, anno 1215, they made a judicial proceeding of confessing and absolution.
2. The fathers' satisfaction was an ecclesiastical and public mulct imposed upon the offenders, as this: that they should be put in some separate corner of the church, and there that in abstinence of meat, drink, and raiment, and also in tears and sorrows, they should at an appointed time acknowledge their offence, testify their repentance, and thereby satisfy the church whom they had offended, and which doubted of their repentance. This Saint Augustine testifies, Enchir.,
65.
3. The satisfactions which are said to be made unto God were no redemptions of temporal pain, but actions and rites whereby the sinner thought to satisfy God's precept, commanding true and unfeigned repentance, and the fruits thereof, according to the manner and measure of the sin, whereby the actions became not only pleasing to the church, but even to God also. In this sense, Radulph.
Ardens, in feria 4, in ca. Ieiunij, says, "Satisfaction for sins done consists in three things: in satisfaction of work, compunction of mind, and confession of mouth. And in this sense are alms called satisfaction; not that they are the price of our sins before God, but because they are signs of true and unfeigned repentance." This the fathers do approve, and Augustine for one, de Dogmat. eccl., ca. 54,
in these words: "The satisfaction of repentance is to cut off all causes of sin, and not to dally with the entrance of their instigations."
"You shall mortify your inborn vices," says Bede, in Psal. 4, "by bringing forth fruits worthy of penitence, everyone afflicting himself for every sin, as far as true and worthy repentance exacts." And how confession abolishes our sins, the canon declares, c. Omnis qui. De paenitentia, distinct. 1, in these words: "Confession is made to show repentance, not to obtain pardon." And in the same distinction, c. 1,
Medicine, the gloss expounds these words, "alms do redeem sins," thus, "do show them to be forgiven."
Paludanus, in 4 dist. 25, denies that works can satisfy for sin, being otherwise due of themselves. And this phrase, "redeem your souls," is reproved by Optatus, lib. 3, contra Parm. And Mark the Hermit, in his book de baptismo, denies that our sins can be abolished by prayer, fasting, gifts, humility, etc., but that such things are means to preserve us from relapse. And his reason for the first is because sins are taken away only by the cross of Christ.
Here it is not amiss to recite a saying of Lauspergus, a Carthusian, not so tedious as it is true and religious: "I would not have you think," says he, "that you can do penance for your sins. Do not dream of it. Why? Because your sins are in number above the sands of the sea, too, too many, and all too great. You are not able to satisfy for one; what can you do for many, for innumerable? Think not therefore that you can do works satisfactory for your sins. For what, alas, can you account of these, in respect of the many mountains of your enormities? They that do great good works and commit but small offences, they satisfy for their sins. But whatsoever you do, refer it to God's glory. And what good soever you do, think and resolve you have done it for His pleasure. Let the honor, the love, and
the good will and pleasure of God, be the motives unto all your good works. Do all things to please Him, to win His favor, to purchase His friendship, to honor Him, that fulfilling His pleasure, you be not offensive to Him. And yet think all your works of far smaller moment than able to satisfy for your sins. For, for them you must offer unto
God the works of Jesus Christ, His sorrows, wounds, death, in the union of that love wherein He endured all these for you. These are the means of your satisfaction; but whatsoever you do, or suffer, offer it not unto God for your sins, but for His love and good pleasure; either do, or suffer, still wishing increase of grace from Him, whereby you may perform greater, more and more acceptable works. Wherefore let the love of God be the cause of your good life, and the scope and level of all your good works." Thus said a friar.
4. Among the Latins, the word satisfacere is sometimes used for "to please another in executing of some office." "I," says Tully, lib. 1, epist. 1, "in all duty and zeal, do rather satisfy, or please all others, but not myself at all." Besides, satisfaction among men is the recompense made for an injury, either in retribution of damage, or in obtaining of pardon by submission. And after this second way, are works of repentance termed satisfactory before God, being real supplications for pardon, which God in Christ approves.
"It behooves the deacon whom you write of, to satisfy the bishop that governs him, with perfect humility," says Cyprian, lib. 3, cap. 9. And, lib. 1 epist. 3, "They pray that Christ would be entreated with prayers and satisfactions. And I embrace with ready and perfect charity, those that turn from their sins with repentance, and confess them with humble and simple satisfaction." And, ad Demetrianum, he exhorts the faithful to satisfy God, while they have time here upon earth. But this can be nothing but to beseech Almighty God for remission of sins, and to acknowledge them.
And the effect of this satisfaction he affirms to be the attaining of pardon. "The acknowledging of sin, and entreaty of pardon, is a satisfaction not unto the strictness of the Judge, but unto His mercy," as Cyprian says very well in another place; that is, unto
God's merciful acceptance. And very rightly: "For these acts of the penitent do include in themselves a faith laying hold upon Christ's satisfaction, by which they have their acceptance." And in this sense,
Chrysostom, hom. de B. Philogonio, says that, "If you return from your old sins wholly, and promise unto God truly that you will never turn again unto them, God requires no more for a further satisfaction."
5. "So then the works of piety are called satisfactions, as they are referred unto our prayers. God takes away the sin," says Mark the Hermit, lib. De baptisimo, "which we entreat for by alms, prayers, and patience." "Our sighs and sorrow," says Climacus, de memor. mortis, grad. 7, "do cry out unto God, and our tears do go the embassy of fear." "God's mercy is obtained by the entreaty of alms," says Radul. Ardens, homil. in dom. 1. quad., "so that satisfactions are such, by the means of obtaining in prayer." "Wherefore it behooves us to believe that we must repent," says Ambrose, de paenitent., lib.
1, ca. 8, "and shall obtain pardon, and yet to hope for pardon out of faith, not as of debt. It is one thing to deserve, and another thing to presume. Faith obtains as it were from covenant in writing, but presumption is nearer the arrogant than the suppliant."
6. In process of time the doctrine of satisfaction began to be delivered and taught in unfit and ill-applied terms, as when the fathers say that hereby our sins are redeemed, expiated, purged, and purified, etc. "The general Lord of us all," says Chrysostom, hom. 1, in Genes., "desiring to purge away all that ever we have offended, has found out a cure thereof, which is performed by fasting." "Alms-
deeds do cleanse the whole man," says Prosper, lib. de promiss. & praed., part. 2, c. 7. "If we be contaminated with any spot," says Leo,
Serm. 2, de Collectis, "by conversing in this earthly habitation, it may be wholly washed out by the power of alms-deeds." "The man that has undone himself, by his own satisfaction may redeem himself," says Caesarius, hom. 1. And Chrysologus, Hom. 42, holds that fasting opens the gates of heaven, and lets us in unto God. "Alms extinguishes sin," says Maximus Taurinensis, hom. de diversis, "even as baptism does, and puts out the fire of hell. So that alms is as a second fount of purgation for the soul." But here we must note that the fathers speak not in the papistical sense of remission of any temporal pains, but speak wholly and absolutely of the whole crime, and whole punishment together, so that they speak both in these and in other like cases after a figurative metonymy, by which that is given to the means, way, instrument, and occasion, which in itself is due and proper unto another. For it is the only blood of Christ which is the satisfaction and purgation of all the sins of the world, as the fathers themselves acknowledge. "There is but one expiation for sin," says Basil, in cap. primo Esay, "namely, that blood which was offered and shed for the salvation of all the world." And Ambrose, in Luc. 22, and serm. 46, says that "Tears do wash away and purge our sins," and yet he adds in express terms, "I read of Peter's tears, but not of his satisfaction." "It is a common phrase with us to say, this journey has made me rich; and the pardoning of an injury is not the cause of the forgiveness, but the article and condition upon which the pardon is given." So said Adrian unto Frederik. "We have given you the ensign of the imperial crown, that is, our hands have consecrated and crowned you," Sigon. de Regno Italia, lib. secundo.
7. The fathers say in like manner that the works of penitence do take away our sins, but not by themselves, but only in respect that they are annexed unto that faith which apprehends and lays hold upon
Christ for the remission of sins. Look at the place of Ambrose, cited in the 5th section of this article: "I do not deny," says the same saint,
De paenit., lib. 2, c. 9, "that sin may be diminished by extending often our bounty unto the poor, but then must your faith approve your alms and expenses." Look also at his 1st book, and 30th chapter of his offices.
8. Sometimes the fathers use a hyperbolical metaphor in their phrases. "As oft as we give alms after our sins," says Gregory, in Job
12, cap. 14, "so often we do, as it were, pay a price for our evil deeds."
And lib. 6, in 1 Regum, cap. 15: "The third kind, that is, revenge (for sin), is as a necessary medicine, that the impostume of guilt which we lance in our conversion, be purged by confession, and cured by the salve of affliction." Thus the fathers have alms to obtain us justice and salvation, but this is figuratively spoken, not properly, for such things as we bestow upon the poor, they say we 'lend unto God,' after the Scripture phrase, and that He becomes our debtor, who pays back the whole sum with profit, a hundred fold, as Chrysostom says,
Hom. 3, in Gen. And Gregory, lib. 7, epist. 20, says, "Whatsoever is given unto the poor, if it be well considered, is not given, but lent, because that which is laid out, is doubtless returned with a multiplied gain."
9. Again, "Our sins are taken away after a double manner: first, in respect of the guilt, and fault, and this is called remission, being peculiar unto God alone; second, in respect of the exercise of sin, which is termed purgation, wherein the exercise of sin is ceased." "To have our sins absolved, and to have them remitted," says Jerome, in Isai. 40, "are two several things. For he that has his sins remitted, needs not absolution, but he that has them absolved, has them so because they are purged and loosed by punishment." And in this sense, says the same father, in Jerem. 2, that "Sins are purged by
warnings." "The expiation," says Radulphus, in Levit., lib. 12, ca. 2, "belongs unto Christ, but the cleansing to ourselves." So that there is a double satisfaction in the fathers: expiatory, which belongs unto
Christ alone; and amendatory, or approbatory, which they will have to belong unto ourselves. "Turn unto your Father with true satisfaction," says Pacianus, paranes. de paenit., "running no further in errors, heaping no more unto your old sins, and in saying some lamenting and mournful prayer, as this: 'We have offended before Thine eyes.'" "In this sense," says Hugo de Sanct. Victore, de sacramantis, lib. 2, part. 14, c. 2, "that sin is punished and corrected by satisfaction, and that satisfaction is the correction of the offence."
Eucherius, in lib. Regum, lib. 2, says that "Both David's guilt and ours (for the fault already pardoned) is purged and absolved by afflictions, because God endeavors to wipe away all spots of iniquity from His elect, by temporal afflictions." "It is a worthy satisfaction to correct our offences, and having corrected them to beware of them," etc., says Bernard, de domo interior., cap. 1. And in this sense, they do take redemption.
10. The fathers will have great sins taken away by public penance, and small sins by saying of the Lord's Prayer (see Augustine, Enchir., ca. 71). And Augustine likewise will have this prayer to take away great sins also (de civit. Dei, lib. 22, c. 27). So that this kind of speech is to be understood comparatively: that it should not be thought requisite to use public penance for all sins; the difference is in the exterior discipline, which sets down a diversity of penance in great and small offences. And if that venial sins be taken away by the Lord's Prayer, to what end serves the punishment of Purgatory after death?
11) Secret satisfaction for sins was never used but in the corrupted estate of the church. Besides, satisfaction in the fathers goes before