upon Christ's cleansing the leper.) So shall also he, who with heavy vices within is leprous, come to God's priest, and open his secret sin to the ghostly leech (physician), and by his counsel and aid heal his soul's wounds; doing penance. Some men ween that it suffices them for a perfect cure, if they confess their sins, with contrite heart, to God alone, and that no confession to a priest is required, if they cease from evil. But if their opinion were true, then would not the Lord have sent away him whom he healed himself to the priest with any present. For exemplifying the same thing also he sent away Paulus, whom he addressed himself from heaven, to the priest Ananias; thus saying, Go into the city, and there shall be said to thee what befitteth to be done. The priest made not the man leprous or unleprous, but he judged that he should be separated from the neighbourhood of men, if his leprosy were growing worse, or dwell among men, if his leprosy were growing better. So shall do the ghostly priest: he shall rightly cure God's folk, and separate, and excommunicate from Cristen men him who so leprous is in wicked vices, that he others with his evilness defiles. According to that which saith the apostle Paulus, Separate the evil one from you, lest the one sickly sheep infect all the flock. If his leprosy be growing better, that is, if he cease from evil, and his vices, through God's fear, rightly cure, he may have habitation among Christian men. 22 Crist said to the Apostles, The sins of them whom ye forgive are forgiven, and those from which ye withhold forgiveness, from them it will be witholden. This power gave Crist to the Apostles, and to all bishops, if they rightly hold it. But if the bishop do according to his own will, and will bind the innocent and loose the guilty, then loses he the might which God gave him. Upon those men he shall bestow forgiveness whom he seeth to be contrite, through God's grace, and them shall he harden who have no repentance of their misdeeds. Crist reared from death the stinking Lazarus, and when he was quick, then saith he to his disciples, Loose his bands, that he may go. Then loosed they the bands of the quickened (man) whom Crist reared to life. Therefore should the teachers unbind from their sins those to whom Crist has given life through contrition. Every sinful man who concealeth his sins, he lieth dead in the tomb; but if he confess his sins through contrition, then goeth he from the tomb, even as Lazarus did when Crist commanded him to arise. Then shall the teacher unbind him from the eternal punishment, even as the apostles bodily loosed Lazarus. Bibl. Publ. Cant. MSS. Ii. 4-6. Dominica ia Pascam. p. 350. Wheloc. in Bed. p. 404; where may be seen the Saxon, with a Latin translation. 23 Every man is baptised in the name of the holy Trinity, and he may not be again baptised, lest the invocation of the holy Trinity be despised; but true repentance, and penance, (dædbot,) with cessation from evil, wash us again from the sins which, after our baptism, we have committed. The merciful God says concerning all sinful men two words very profitable, Declina a malo, et fac bonum; that is, Turn from evil, and do good. It is not enough, that thou turn from evil, unless thou, at the same time, according to thy condition, accom post plish good. Penitence, (debbot,) with cessation of evil, and alms-deeds, and holy prayers, and faith, and trust in God, and the true love of God and man, heal and medicine our sins, if we earnestly follow the advice of our physicians. (Brit. Mus. MSS. Cotton. Julius, E. 7. ex Hom. in cap. Jejunii, f. 63. Wheloc. in Bed. p. 422; where may be seen the Saxon, with a Latin translation, and much more matter to the same effect.) It may naturally be supposed, that as the doctrine grew up of an absolute necessity for auricular confession to a priest, passages like this were found by no means satisfactory. Whelock (p. 216.) has furnished some curious evidence to this effect, from a MS. volume of Saxon homilies, in the library of Trinity college, Cambridge. The homilist says, He who is lost in heinous sins shall not dare, though, to taste God's Eucharist, unless he first his sins amend. (zebete.) Some one has written in the margin, against this last word, geandette his seriftan, confess to his confessor. In another place of the same homily, it is said, The man who will not repent of his sins, in his life, he gets no forgiveness in the (life) to come. Against repent (behneoprian) here, is written, hir rcriftan zeandettan, to his confessor confess. Another homily says, If a man would, at least when he is sick, turn to God, and his sins confess with true repentance, the veracious Judge would have mercy upon him. The marginal annotator here has written against geandettan, confess, hir repitan geandettan, to his confessor confess. Even another passage, in the same homily, which evidently rather makes for confession to a priest, does not go far enough for this zeal ous assertor of that doctrine. The homilist says, But the unamended sins will there be manifested. They shall be ashamed and sorrowful in mind, that they before would not confess their sins, and do penance, (Sædbote zedon,) according to their teacher's direction. In this passage, against andettan, confess is written, heoɲa scɲitan, to their confessor. A similar anxiety to press auricular confession upon men appears in the following extract from a Bodleian MS. (Junius 99. f. 78.) in which the homilist is intent upon that object himself, but appears to have gone by no means far enough for some later reader. Lod pýle rpa þeah gemiltrian æzhpýlcum rýnFullum menn þe hir rýnna heɲ andet his serifte · J dædbetan pyle ære zerpican þær unɲihtes þe he æn poɲhte y byde. Eal man ɲceal arpipan rýnna þuɲh abɲýde andetnýrre Єal rpa man deð unlibban þurh zgodne drenco. Ne mæz re preost ænigum rýnfullum men pel dædbote cæcan æn he gehýne hir rýnne *** þe ma þe ænig læce mæg untrumne mann pel lacnian attor ut aspipen þe him on innan ф j pite be to gepir ran hutan ge andettan God will, however, have mercy upon all sinful men who confess their sins here to their confessor, and will do penance, and ever cease from the unrighteousness that they ever wrought and did. Every man shall evacuate sins through contrite confession; just as one gets rid of (something) ф and know ye certainly; unless ye confess your sins; with no thing, neither with prayers, nor with alms, is it well set to rights with God. mortal through a good drink 4. The priest cannot well teach penitence to any sinful man ere he hear his sin *** the more than any leech can well cure a sick man, ere he have evacuated the poison which is within. In this extract, the Saxon words underscored (to which the English words in Roman letters answer) and those placed in the margin are all written in a different hand, and with different ink from the homily itself. To make room for the words underscored, the vellum has evidently been scraped, and the marks of the knife are still rough in the place *** where is now found a lacuna. In Whelock's notes to Bede (pp. 340 et seq.) may be seen three Saxon pieces, with Latin translations, upon Contrition, Confession, and Penitence, (Sæbbot) respectively, which confirm the views of these subjects attributed in the present work to the Anglo-Saxon Church. The learned editor does not seem to have been aware that all these pieces are Alcuin's: being among the Theological Essays addressed by that eminent English scholar to count Guido. They are to be found among the MSS. in the public library at Cambridge. (Ii. 1.-33.) In the printed edition of Alcuin's works they are to be found in the columns 1224, 5, 6, 7. X |