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CONFESSION
St Dominic in Prayer by El Greco Confession is a ritual closely associated with Catholicism but is also performed in the Orthodox church. Also called reconciliation, it is one of the seven sacrament and is means of achieving absolution from sin. The word reconciliation is used because sin is regarded as a break from God and confession is way of reconciling with God.
Confession is a sacrament through which sins can be repented and absolved, or forgiven. In confession, believers acknowledge their sins and promise to be better in the future. Confession can be done privately, communally with a congregation, or it can be done at a church in front of a priest. Catholics churches generally have confession booths, wooden boxes which stand on the side aisles of churches, where believers tell their sins to a priest who is concealed behind a screen. In many cases, penitents can be received in a small room, in which longer dialogues are possible.
Sins are generally regarded as breaking the commandments. Thomas Aquinas described the Seven Deadly Sins: sloth, gluttony, pride, anger, envy, greed, and lust. In the Catholic church, sins are of two types, minor, or venal, and major sins, or mortal. Examples of venal sins are gossiping, rudeness, and cursing. Examples of mortal sins are sex outside of marriage and divorce. The priest will forgive the sins and give the believer religious duties to perform, such as reciting the Lord's Prayer many times. [Source: Encyclopedia.com]
Contrition, confession and satisfaction are regarded as necessary steps in obtaining absolution. Catholics require believers to engage in confession at least twice a year, often around Easter in conjunction with communion. With the understanding that communion feeds and confession cleanses us.
Websites and Resources on Christianity BBC on Christianity bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity ; Candida Moss at the Daily Beast Daily Beast Christian Answers christiananswers.net ; Christian Classics Ethereal Library www.ccel.org ; Sacred Texts website sacred-texts.com ; Internet Sourcebook sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Christian Denominations: Holy See w2.vatican.va ; Catholic Online catholic.org ; Catholic Encyclopedia newadvent.org ; World Council of Churches, main world body for mainline Protestant churches oikoumene.org ; Online Orthodox Catechism published by the Russian Orthodox Church orthodoxeurope.org
Development of Ideas About Confession, Venial Sins and Purgatory
Confession is often associated with St. Augustine, who recounted is life in his important book “Confessions” In “ Confessions” St. Augustine's described his sinful ways as both an offense against God and a manifestation of self-hatred. He wrote he "has no being of its own" and described his personal struggle against "the lying divinations and impious oaths of the astrologers.” He also expressed the great guilt he felt over stealing pears from a neighbor’s trees when he was a child and confessed the sinful things he did when was a young man.
See Separate Articles: ST. AUGUSTINE: HIS LIFE, CONFESSIONS AND CONVERSION factsanddetails.com ; ST. AUGUSTINE'S TEACHINGS, WRITING AND CONTRIBUTIONS TO CHRISTAINITY europe.factsanddetails.com
Michael J. McClymond wrote in “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices”:A more down-to-earth form of ethical reflection developed in connection with the sacrament of confession. Beginning in the ninth century, guidebooks for confessors ("Irish penitentials") specified what penance was appropriate for a given transgression. [Source: Michael J. McClymond, “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices”, 2000s, Encyclopedia.com]
Over time an emerging tradition of moral theology took into account not only the acts themselves but also circumstances and intentions. Mortal sins concerned grave matters, occurred when the act was done deliberately and with full consent, and blocked a person from receiving grace. Venial sins were less serious, though they still required "satisfaction," or outward actions, to show contrition and to compensate for the wrong committed.
Beginning in the Middle Ages, the church taught that purgatory provided a place where those who died without mortal sin but without having made satisfaction for their venial sins could make reparation through cleansing fire. In the period from the 1600s to the 1960s, Roman Catholic moral theology took the form of multivolume works of casuistry, or moral reasoning, that considered every conceivable sort of transgression. Since the Second Vatican Council, Catholic moral theology has moved away from this formal and legal style to a more personal and humanistic approach.
Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant Confessions
For Catholics confession is officially called the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Reconcile means to restore their relationship with God, which is done by confessing, This can be done sitting face-to-face with a priest and telling the sins one has committed. Confession also happens at regular times in a confessional, a kind of booth where the priest is shielded from the layperson by a screen.
In a Catholic confession, a priests acts as a judge and decides what an individual can do to be absolved of his sin. The priest occupies the seat of judgement and the penitent kneels before him. Priests are given the power from Christ to declare God’s forgiveness and offer absolution to sinners. Those that are forgiven are told to undertake reparation or some form of thanksgiving to show their penitence, usually in the form a few prayers. Those guilty of small are often told to repeat “Hail Mary” and “Our Father” a number of times.
In a Catholic confession, the priest act as a judge and decides what an individual can do to be absolved of his sin. An Orthodox priest by contrast acts as a witness not a judge. He gives an introductory prayer and tells the penitent that only Jesus Christ can heal him. The priest acts as a fellow member of the church and a shoulder to cry on so to speak and offers advise on how the penitent can repent. At the end of the confession the priest asks God to reconcile the penitent to the church and forgive him of his sins.
Orthodox Christians receive their first confession at around age seven. The event is preceded with instruction about moral responsibility. Afterwards they are deemed old enough to fast, reflect on themselves morally and receive confession. In the Russian church the taking of Holy Communion is always preceded by confession. Among other Orthodox groups confessing is not so commonly used. Orthodox Confession is not a simple confession before a priest after one has sinned. In accordance with Orthodox teachings, a sinner is expected to make amends with the people who have been harmed by his actions first . Only then does he go before priest to confess.
Protestant don’t practice confession like Catholics and Orthodox Christians. They believe that no intermediary is needed between humans and God, and therefore confession of sins is a private matter. Anglicans (Episcopalians) have a voluntary private rite of confession similar to that of Catholics, but not all members of the faith use it. General confession during Holy Communion is more common. For all Christians such periodic confession is an important part of the faith. [Source: Encyclopedia.com]
Penance
Penance is regarded by Catholics and some other Christians as a sacrament. It refers to carrying out some act as retribution for sinning. Confession and penance generally go hand and hand. Some Christians go to extreme measures to show their penitence. The customs of self-flagellation and wearing hair shirts as acts of contrition became popular in the 13th century.
While baptism washes away original sin, penance (for reconciliation) cleans up the sins people commit in their daily lives. In the Gospels, Christ affirms that he was give the divine privilege of forgiving sins while curing the paralyzed man. On the evening of his resurrection, he transferred this power to the apostles and from them it was passed on to the church hierarchy of priests. Before sin can be forgiven the sinner must make an act of contrition by confessing the sins and expressing regret.
Mortification of the Flesh
The idea of the “mortification of the flesh” — literally putting the “flesh to death” — has been an aspect of Christianity since its inception with the letters of Paul being the scriptural source of the practice. Romans viii 13 reads: “If you live after the flesh, ye shall die, but if ye live through the Spirit to mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” In Colossians iii 5 Paul says: “Put to death therefore whatever belongs to your earthly nature, sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.”
In medieval times devout Christians often whipped themselves in public and wore course hair garments under their clothes as punishments and resolution for their sins. To reduce their time in purgatory penitents walked around churches on their knees, wore scratchy underwear, climbed long stairways shackled in chains and whipped themselves in Holy processions, with self-castration perhaps being the most extreme form of self denial.
The tradition dates back to the “desert fathers.” who lived hermetic lives in caves of Egypt in the early centuries of Christianity. They laid the ground work for monks and nuns with their vows of celibacy and poverty. Modern studies of self-inflicted suffering in religious observances suggests there are two main purposes: 1) to gain mastery over some perceived weakness or fault, such as lust and desire; and 2) induce a trance-like state that is believed to bring one closer to the divine.
Sinner’s Confession, Ordeal and Miracle
Bolivian Aymara praying Caesarius of Heisterbach: wrote in between 1220-1235: “Dom Bernard of Lippe, who was once an abbot and is now a bishop in Livonia, is wont to tell a miracle contrary to this last. "I knew, (he said,) a fisher in the bishopric of Utrecht who had long lived incontinently with a certain woman; and, because his sin was too notorious, fearing one day to be accused at the synod then impending, he said within himself: 'What will you now do, poor wretch? If you are accused of incontinence in this synod and must confess, you will forthwith be compelled to take her to wife; or if you deny it you will be convicted by the ordeal of white-hot iron and be still more confounded." [Source: “From C.G. Coulton, ed, Life in the Middle Ages, (New York: Macmillan, c.1910), Vol I, 73-74 [slightly modernized], sourcebooks.fordham.edu]
“So, coming forthwith to a priest (rather, as the event showed, from fear of punishment than from love of righteousness), he confessed his sin, asked from counsel and found it-. 'If,' said the priest, 'you have a firm purpose never to sin again with her, then you may carry the white-hot iron without further care and deny your sin; for I hope that the virtue of confession will free you." And this did, to the amazement of all who well knew his incontinence. Lo! here by God's power, as in former examples, the fire restrained its force against its own nature; and, as you will hear later, it grew hot even more marvelously against nature. To be brief, the man was absolved. Many days afterwards, as he rowed with another fisher at his work on the river, and the house of the aforesaid woman came in sight, then the other said unto him: 'I marvel greatly, and many marvel with me, why the iron did not burn you at the synod, though thy sin was so notorious.' He, boasting unworthily of the grace that had been conferred on him (for he had already conceived the purpose of sinning again), smote the river water with his hand and said: 'The fire hurt me no more than this water!' Mark the marvelous justice of God! who had guarded the penitent in His mercy, punished now by a just and strange miracle the same man when he relapsed: for no sooner had he touched the water than it was to him as white-hot iron. He drew back his hand suddenly cried aloud; but he left his skin in the water. Then, in tardy repentance, he told his comrade all that had befallen him."
“Our fellow-monk Lambert was wont to tell a like miracle to this. A countryman who had a feud against another gave money to a certain wicked man of the Order of wandering Religious, (of whom there are many,) that he might burn the other's house; which this man, entering under the cloak of religion, set afire at a convenient time. Again this abandoned wretch, forgetful of the hospitality he had-received, set fire to the same house for the same bribe, after that it had been rebuilt. The, master, troubled at this double loss, accused all of whom he had any suspicion, but they purged themselves by the ordeal of white-hot iron. Again the burned house was rebuilt; and this iron which had been used for the ordeal was thrown into one corner of it. To be brief, that false religious vagrant came again, corrupted by his former covetousness, and was received with all kindness. He marked the aforesaid iron and asked what purpose it served: to which his host answered: "I know not who has twice set fire to my house; and, though I had suspicion of certain men, they have borne that iron at white-heat and yet were not burned" Then said the other: "The iron might be turned to some use": and lifting it up (as God would have it) he was so burned in the hand that he cried aloud and cast it down. When the master of the house saw this, he caught the incendiary by the cloak and cried: "Thou art the true culprit!" The e man was taken before the judge, confessed his crime unwillingly, and was condemned to be broken upon the wheel.”
Confession Stories from the 12th and 13th Centuries
Caesar of Heisterbach wrote in Dist. III, Cap. II. (Vol. I, pp 112-13.): “A certain soldier dwelt in a certain village with whose wife the priest of the same village committed adultery. The soldier was told that the priest was carrying on an intrigue with his wife. He, since he was a prudent man and did not readily believe the story, wished to say nothing about it to his wife or the priest, but to learn the truth more fully. But he was not without some suspicion. There happened to be in another village, not far distant from the one in which the soldier lived, a possessed person, in whom there was such a wicked demon that in the presence of bystanders she revealed sins which were not cloaked by a true confession. When the soldier learned this from common report he asked the priest, whom he suspected, to go to a certain meeting with him. And the priest promised.
“When they had reached the village where the possessed one was, the priest, conscious of his guilt, began to suspect the soldier, because he was not ignorant that one possessed by so wicked a demon dwelt there. And, fearing for his life if he was betrayed by the demon, feigning some necessity, he entered a stable and throwing himself at the feet of a servant of the soldier, said, I ask you in the name of the Lord to hear my confession." The servant greatly terrified raised him up and heard what he had to say. After the confession had been made, the priest asked that a penance should be inflicted upon him; and the servant replied very prudently, saying, "Whatever you would enjoin on another priest for such a crime, shall be your atonement." [Source: “University of Pennsylvania. Dept. of History: Translations and Reprints from the Original Sources of European history, [1897?-1907?]. Vol II, No 4, pp. 14-17]
“And so going forth now in greater security, the priest came with the soldier to the church. There meeting the possessed one, the soldier "Do you know anything about me?" For he did this on purpose to take away any suspicion that the priest might have. When demon made some reply to him which I do not know, he added "What do you know about that master?" The demon replied, "I know nothing about that one." And after he had said this in German, he immediately added in Latin, "He was justified in the stable." No clerk was present at the time....I heard also the fruit of this confession. The priest, not mindful of the benefit conferred upon him, deserted the world and became a monk in a certain monastery of our order. He is believed to be still living, as I have learned from a certain abbot of the Cistercian order.
Heretic Healed by Confession Relapsed and Was Burnt
Christ flagellation by Diego Velazquez Caesar of Heisterbach wrote in Dist. III, Cap. XVII. (Vol. II p. 133-34): “In the same city, namely Argentina which is Strassburg, ten heretics were seized. When they denied their guilt, they were convicted by the ordeal of red-hot iron and were condemned to be burnt. When on the appointed day they were being led to the fire, one of the attendants said to one of them, "Wretched one, you are condemned. Now do penance and confess your sins, lest after the burning of the body, which is only momentary, hell-fire burns your soul eternally." When man replied, "I certainly think that I have been mistaken, but I fear repentance in so great straits is by no means acceptable to God." The former replied, "Only confess from your heart. God is merciful and will receive the penitent." [Source: “University of Pennsylvania. Dept. of History: Translations and Reprints from the Original Sources of European history, [1897?-1907?]. Vol II, No 4, pp. 14-17]
“Wonderful fact ! For as soon as the man confessed his perfidy, his hand was fully healed. While he delayed in confession, the judge summoned him to the punishment. His confessor replied to the judge " It is not just that an innocent man should be condemned unjustly.'' Since no trace of a burn was found on his hand, he was dismissed.
“The man had a wife living not far from the city entirely ignorant of these things which have been related. When he came to her rejoicing , and said, "Blessed be God who has liberated me today from the destruction of body and soul !" and explained to her the cause; she replied, "What have you done, most wretched man, what have you done? Why have you withdrawn from your holy and sacred faith for fear of momentary pain? You ought rather, if it were possible, expose your body a hundred times to the flames than once to withdraw from a faith so well proven."
“Whom does not the voice of the serpent seduce? That man, unmindful of the favor divinely conferred upon him, unmindful of the so manifest miracle, followed his wife's advice and returned to his former error. God, not unmindful truly of the crime, in return for so great ingratitude, tortured the hand of each one. The burn was renewed in the hand of the heretic and, because his wife was the cause of his returning to his error, she was made his companion in the renewed pain. So vehement was the burn that it penetrated to the bones. And since they did not dare in the village to utter the cries which the violence of the pain extorted, they fled into the nearest woods, howling e like wolves. Why protract my words? They were betrayed, led into to the city, and together cast into the fire, which was not yet fully extinguished, and were burnt to ashes.”
Confession Stories Involving the Devil from the 12th and 13th Centuries
In “Through Confession the Devil's Record Blotted Out”, Étienne de Bourbon wrote in No. 176. (pp. 155-156.): “The manifold inconveniences and losses which our enemies suffer from the confession of our sins ought to incite us to confession…“It destroys the devil's records. And note how, when a certain clerk was leading a most holy life so that the devil envied him, the devil by tempting the clerk caused him to fall into grievous sin. When moreover the devil wished to confound him, and having assumed human for had accused him before his bishop, and a day had been fixed on which the devil was to prove his charges, by bringing before the judge his, accounts in which were recorded the place, the time, and the persons to whose knowledge the clerk had sinned, the latter, seeing that he was in hard straits, confessed all, grieving and purpling not to return to sin. When moreover they were in the presence of the judge and the devil said he had much against the clerk which he could prove by writing and witnesses, he unrolled his records and found all that had been in them erased. He said, "All that I had against this man was certainly written here this very day and I do not know who has destroyed it all." Having thus spoken, he vanished. The clerk, moreover, narrated all of these things to the bishop, in the secrecy of confession.
On “Through Confession a Forgotten Prayer Erased From the Devil's Book,” Étienne de Bourbon wrote: “Also it is related that when a certain holy father was at one time engaged with the brethren in some work and had forgotten, on account of his occupation, to say the none at the right time, he saw the devil passing before him, bearing on his shoulders a very large book in the shape of a roll which looked as large as a tower. He adjured the devil in the name of the Lord to drop that book, and when he unrolled the book, he found written on one page that he himself had not said the none on the day and at the hour when he ought to have said it. Moreover, prostrating himself at once at the feet of his companions, he confessed his negligence, and immediately looking again in the devil's roll, he found that what had been written there before was erased, and thereby he knew the efficacy of confession. [Source: No. 177. (p. 156.)]
Impact of Black Death on Penance, Confession and Christianity
The Black Death — the bubonic plague — which began in earnest in Europe in the 14th century, had a strong impact on how confession, penance and Christianity as a whole. Nicole Archambeau of Colorado State University wrote: Religious Christians encountered the sacrament of penance throughout their lives. By the 14th century, penance was a private sacrament that each person was supposed to do at least once a year. The ideal penance was hard work, however. People had to recall all the sins they had committed since the “age of reason,” which started when they were roughly 7 years old. They were supposed to feel sorry that they had offended God, and not just be afraid that they would go to hell for their sins. They had to speak their sins aloud to their parish priest, who had the authority to absolve them. Finally, they had to intend to never commit those sins again. After confession, they performed the prayers, fasting or pilgrimage that the priest assigned them, which was called “satisfaction.” The whole process was meant to heal the soul as a kind of spiritual medicine. [Source: Nicole Archambeau, Associate Professor of History, Colorado State University, The Conversation, January 16, 2023]
Waves of plague and warfare, however, could disrupt every aspect of the ideal confession. Rapid illness could make it impossible to travel to one’s parish priest, remember one’s sins or speak them aloud. When parish priests died and were not immediately replaced, people had to seek out other confessors. Some people had to confess without anyone to absolve them. Indulgences and Masses for the dead proved were popular ways to deal with these issues, but were also problematic. Indulgences were papal documents that could forgive the sins of the holder. They were supposed to be given out only by the pope, and in very specific situations, such as completing certain pilgrimages, serving in a crusade, or doing particularly pious acts. During the 15th century, however, demand for indulgences was high, and they became common. Some traveling confessors who had received religious authorities’ approval to hear confessions sold indulgences — some authentic, some fake — to anyone with money.
Catholics also believed that Masses conducted in their name could absolve their sins after their death. By the 14th century, most Christians understood the afterlife as a journey that started in a place called Purgatory, where residual sins would be burned away through suffering before souls entered heaven. In their wills, Christians left money for Masses for their souls, so that they could spend less time in Purgatory. There were so many requests that some churches performed multiple Masses per day, sometimes for many souls at a time, which became an unsustainable burden on the clergy.
The popularity of indulgences and Masses for the dead helps scholars today understand people’s challenges during the Black Death. But both practices were ripe for corruption, and frustration mounted as a sacrament meant to console and prepare the faithful for the afterlife left them anxious and uncertain. Criticisms of indulgences and penance were a focus of reformer Martin Luther’s famous “95 Theses,” written in 1517. Though the young priest did not originally intend to separate from the Catholic Church, his critiques launched the Protestant Reformation.
But Luther’s challenges to the papacy were not ultimately about money, but theology. Despair over the idea of never being able to perform an ideal confession led him and others to redefine the sacrament. In Luther’s view, a penitent could do nothing to make satisfaction for sin, but had to rely on God’s grace alone.
For Catholics, on the other hand, the sacrament of penance stayed much the same for centuries, although there were some changes. The most visible was the creation of the confessional, an enclosed space within the church building where the priest and the penitent could speak more privately. The experience of penance, especially absolution, remained a central ritual meant to heal Catholics’ souls in times of trouble, from the Black Death to the COVID-19 pandemic today.
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons
Text Sources:Internet Sourcebook sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; “World Religions” edited by Geoffrey Parrinder (Facts on File); “ Encyclopedia of the World’s Religions” edited by R.C. Zaehner (Barnes & Noble Books, 1959); King James Version of the Bible, gutenberg.org; New International Version (NIV) of The Bible, biblegateway.com; Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ccel.org , Frontline, PBS, Wikipedia, BBC, National Geographic, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Live Science, Encyclopedia.com, Archaeology magazine, Reuters, Associated Press, Business Insider, AFP, Library of Congress, Lonely Planet Guides, Compton’s Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.
Last updated March 2024