laity will make his confession to the priests, whom we believe to have received from the Lord Christ, the power of binding and loosing, together with the holy apostles."

They had no reason indeed to hold, as Alcuinus did, that they ought to confess unto a priest all the sins they could remember: but upon special occasions they did, no doubt, both publickly and privately make confession of their faults, as well that they might receive counsel and direction for their recovery, as that they might be made partakers of the benefit of the keys, for the quieting of their troubled consciences. Whatsoever the Gothish did herein (by whom we are to understand the inhabitants of Languedoc in France, where Alcuinus lived) sure we are that this was the practice of the ancient Scotish and Irish. So we read of one Fiachna or Fechnaus, that being touched with remorse for some offence committed by him, he fell at St. Colme's feet, lamented bitterly, and "confessed his sins before all that were there present." Whereupon the holy man, weeping together with him, is said to have returned this answer: 66 Risef up, son, and be comforted, thy sins which thou hast committed are forgiven; because, as it is written, a contrite and an humbled heart God doth not despise." We read also of Adamnanus, that being very much terrified with the remembrance of a grievous sin committed by him in his youth, he "resorted unto a priest, by whom he hoped the way of salvation might be shewed unto him, he confessed his guilt, and entreated that he would give him counsel, whereby he might flee from the wrath of God that was to come."

Now the counsel commonly given unto the penitent

e Coram omnibus qui ibidem erant peccata sua confessus est. Adamnan. vit. Columb. lib. 1. cap. 16. (vel 20. in MS.)

f Surge fili, et consolare: dimissa sunt tua, quæ commisisti, peccamina; quia sicut scriptum est; Cor contritum et humiliatum Deus non spernit. Ibid.

g Accedens ad sacerdotem, a quo sibi sperabat iter salutis posse demonstrari; confessus est reatum suum, petiitque ut consilium sibi daret, quo posset fugere a ventura Dei ira. Bed. lib. 4. histor. cap. 25.

after confession, was, that he should wipe away his sins by meet fruits of repentance; which course Bede observeth to have been usually prescribed by our Cuthbert. For penances were them exacted, as testimonies of the sincerity of that inward repentance which was necessarily required for obtaining remission of the sin, and so had reference to the taking away of the guilt, and not of the temporal punishment remaining after the forgiveness of the guilt, which is the new found use of penances, invented by our later Romanists. One old penitential canon we find laid down in a synod held in this country about the year of our Lord CCCCL. by St. Patrick, Auxilius, and Isserninus, which is as followeth: "Ai Christian who hath killed a man, or committed fornication, or gone unto a soothsayer, after the manner of the Gentiles, for every of those crimes shall do a year of penance; when his year of penance is accomplished, he shall come with witnesses, and afterward he shall be absolved by the priest." These bishops did take order, we see, according to the discipline generally used in those times, that the penance should first be performed; and when long and good proof had been given by that means of the truth of the party's repentance, they wished the priest to impart unto him the benefit of absolution; whereas by the new device of sacramental penance the matter is now far more easily transacted; by virtue of the keys the sinner is instantly of attrite made contrite, and thereupon as soon as he hath made his confession he presently receiveth his absolution; after this, some sorry penance is imposed, which upon better consideration may be converted into pence; and so a quick end is made of many a foul business.

But for the right use of the keys we fully accord with

h Confessa dignis (ut imperabat) pœnitentiæ fructibus abstergerent. Ibid. cap. 27. i Christianus qui occiderit, aut fornicationem fecerit, aut more Gentilium ad aruspicem meaverit; per singula crimina annum pœnitentiæ agat, impleto cum testibus veniat anno pœnitentiæ, et postea resolvetur a sacerdote. Synod. Paricii, Auxilii et Issernini MS. in bibliotheca Collegii Benedict, Cantabrig. Wilkins conc. tom. 1. pag. 3.

Claudius, that the office of remitting and retaining sins which was given unto the apostles, "is now in the bishops and priests committed unto every church, namely, that having taken knowledge of the causes of such as have sinned, as many as they shall behold humble and truly penitent, those they may now with compassion absolve from the fear of everlasting death; but such as they shall discern to persist in the sins which they have committed, those they may declare to be bound over unto never ending punishments." And in thus absolving such as be truly penitent, we willingly yield, that the pastors of God's Church do remit sins after their manner, that is to say, ministerially and improperly: so that the privilege of forgiving sins properly and absolutely be still reserved unto God alone. Which is at large set out by the same Claudius, where he expoundeth the history of the man sick of the palsy, that was cured by our Saviour in the ninth of St. Matthew. For, following Bede upon that place, he writeth thus: "The Scribes say true, that none can forgive sins but God alone; who also forgiveth by them, to whom he hath given the power of forgiving. And therefore is Christ proved to be truly God, because he forgiveth sins as God. They render a true testimony unto God: but in denying the person of Christ, they are deceived;" and again: "If it be God that, according to the Psalmist, removeth our sins as far from us, as the east is distant from

* Necnon etiam nunc in episcopis ac presbyteris omni ecclesiæ officium idem committitur: ut videlicet agnitis peccantium causis, quoscunque humiles ac vere pœnitentes aspexerint, hos jam a timore perpetuæ mortis miserantes absolvant, quos vero in peccatis quæ egerint persistere cognoverint, illos perennibus suppliciis obligandos insinuent. Claud. in Matth. lib. 2.

1 Verum dicunt scribæ, quia nemo dimittere peccata nisi solus Deus potest; qui per eos quoque dimittit, quibus dimittendi tribuit potestatem. Et ideo Christus vere Deus esse probatur; quia dimittere peccata quasi Deus potest. Verum Deo testimonium reddunt; sed personam Christi negando falluntur. Id. in Matth. lib. 1.

m Si et Deus est, juxta Psalmistam, qui quantum distat oriens ab occasu elon gavit a nobis iniquitates nostras: et filius hominis potestatem habet in terra dimittendi peccata: ergo idem ipse et Deus et filius hominis est ; ut et homo Christus per divinitatis suæ potentiam peccata dimittere possit; et idem Deus Christus per humanitatis suæ fragilitatem pro peccatoribus mori. Ibid.

the west; and the Son of man hath power upon earth to forgive sins: therefore he himself is both God and the Son of man; that both the man Christ might by the power of his divinity forgive sins; and the same Christ being God, might by the frailty of his humanity die for sinners;" and out of St. Hierome: "Christ" sheweth himself to be God, who can know the hidden things of the heart; and after a sort holding his peace he speaketh. By the same majesty and power, whereby I behold your thoughts, I can also forgive sins unto men." In like manner doth the author of the book of the wonderful things of the Scripture observe these "divine" works" in the same history: "the forgiving of sins, the present cure of the disease, and the answering of the thoughts by the mouth of God who searcheth all things." With whom, for the property of beholding the secret thoughts, Sedulius also doth concur in those sentences: "God alone can know the hidden things of men. To know the hearts of men, and to discern the secrets of their mind, is the privilege of God alone."

That the contract of marriages, was either unknown or neglected by the Irish, before Malachias did institute the same anew among them (as Bernard doth seem to intimate) is a thing almost incredible; although Giraldus'Cambrensis doth complain, that the case was little better with them after the time of Malachias also. The licentiousness of

n Ostendit se Deum, qui potest cordis occulta cognoscere; et quodam modo tacens loquitur. Eadem majestate et potentia qua cogitationes vestras intueor, possum et hominibus delicta dimittere. Ibid.

• In paralytico a quatuor viris portato, quatuor divina opera cernuntur. Dum dimittuntur ei peccata, et præsentis ægritudinis plaga verbo tunc solvitur, et cogitationibus in ore Dei omnia scrutantis respondetur. Auth. lib. de mirabilib. S. Scriptur. lib. 3. cap. 7.

P Deus solus potest occulta hominum scire. Sedul. in Rom. cap. 2.

a Corda hominum nosse solius Dei est, et mentis secreta agnoscere. Id. ibid.

r Nondum decimas vel primitias solvunt: nondum matrimonia contrahunt; non incestus vitant. Girald. Cambr. Topograph. Hibern. distinct. 3. cap. 19. Vide etiam Lanfranci epist. ad Gothricum et Terdeluacum reges Hibern. apud Baronium, ann. 1089. num. 13. et 16. Lanfranc. op. pag. 318, 319.

those ruder times, I know, was such, as may easily induce us to believe, that a great both neglect and abuse of God's ordinance did get footing among this people. Which enormities Malachias, no doubt, did labour to reform and withal peradventure brought in some new matters, not known here before, as he was very desirous his countrymen should generally conform themselves unto the traditions and customs of the Church of Rome. But our purpose is here only to deal with the doctrine and practice of the elder times: in which, first, that marriage was not held to be a sacrament, may be collected from Sedulius, who reckoneth it among those things, which are "gifts indeed, but not spiritual.”

Secondly, for the degrees of consanguinity hindering marriage, the synod attributed unto St. Patrick seemeth to refer us wholly unto the Levitical law; prescribing therein "neither less nor more than the law speaketh :" and particularly, against matching with the wife of the deceased brother (which was the point so much questioned in the case of king Henry the eighth) this synodical" decree is there urged. "The brother may not ascend into the bed of his deceased brother: the Lord having said, They two shall be one flesh. Therefore the wife of thy brother is thy sister." Whereupon we find also, that our Kilianus did suffer martyrdom for dissolving such an incestuous marriage in Gozbertus Duke of Franconia: and that Clemens Scotus for maintaining the contrary was both by Boniface*

• Videtur indicare, esse aliquid quod donum quidem sit, non tamen spirituale: at nuptiæ. Sedul. in Rom. cap. 1.

De consanguinitate in conjugio. Intelligite quid Lex loquitur, non minus nec plus. Quod autem observatur apud nos, ut quatuor genera dividantur; nec vidisse dicunt nec legisse. Synod. Patric. cap. 29. Wilkins conc. tom. 1. pag. 6. " Audi decreta Synodi super istis. Frater thorum defuncti fratris non ascendat Domino dicente, Erunt duo in carne una. Ergo uxor fratris tui soror tua est. Ibid. cap. 25. et in excerptis e jure sacerdotali Egberti archiepisc. per Hucarium Levitam. MS.

w Vit. Kiliani, tom. 4. antiqu. lect. Henr. Canisii, pag. 633, et 634.

* Judaismum inducens, judicat justum esse Christiano, ut si voluerit, viduam fratris defuncti accipiat uxorem. Bonifac. epist. ad Zachar. tomo 3. Concil. part. 1. pag. 382. edit. Colon. ann. 1618.