Sacrament of Penance: Difference between revisions

The need to confess to a priest wasis promotedtraced byto [[Basil the Great]].{{fact|date=November 2022}} It was seen that God granted forgiveness through the priest. Before the fourth century confession and penitential discipline were a public affair "since all sin is sin not only against God but against our neighbor, against the community."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Eastern Patristic Orthodox Theology|isbn = 0814658016|last1 = Tsirpanlis|first1 = Constantine N.|year = 1991}}</ref>{{rp|140–41}} By the time of [[Cyprian]] of Carthage, confession itself was no longer public.{{sfn|Poschmann|1964|pp=60–61}}

Beginning in the 4th century, with the [[Roman Empire]] becoming Christian, bishops became judges, and sin was seen as breaking of the law asrather wellthan as fracturing one's relationship with God. A new, more legalistic understanding of penance emerged at [[bishop|episcopal]] courts, where it became payment to satisfy the demands of divine justice. According to liberal theologian Joseph Martos, this was facilitated by a misreading of [[John 20:23]] and Matthew 18:18 by [[Augustine of Hippo]] and [[Pope Leo I]], who thought it was the "disciple" and not God who did the forgiving, though only after true repentance.{{sfn|Martos|2014|pp=328–30}} The acts of councils from the fourth to the sixth century show that no one who belonged to the order of penitents had access to [[Eucharist in the Catholic Church|Eucharistic communion]] until the bishop reconciled him with the community of the church. Canon 29 of the [[Council of Epaone]] (517) in [[Roman Gaul|Gaul]] says that from among penitents only apostates had to leave Sunday assembly together with catechumens before the Eucharistic part commenced. Other penitents were present until the end but were denied communion at the altar of the Lord.<ref>Cyrille Vogel, ''Le pécheur et la pénitence dans l'Église ancienne'' (Paris: Cerf 1982) 36</ref>