The name _Soul’s-friend_ (in Irish,) was a characteristic title used in
the old Irish language to designate those who are now called _confessors_,
whose mission it is to receive the confessions of the faithful and to heal
by the sacrament of penance, the spiritual wounds inflicted on the soul
after baptism. “Sure we are”, writes Usher, “that it was the custom of the
faithful in our ancient Church, to confess their sins to the priests, that
they might be made partakers of the benefit of the keys for the quieting
of their troubled consciences”—_Discourse on the Religion, etc._, p. 46.
Our old commentator, Claudius, more than once repeats this doctrine, and
teaches that the power of forgiving sins was granted by the divine
Redeemer to His apostles and their successors in the priesthood: “The
power of loosing and binding”, he says, “was granted to all the apostles
by our Saviour, when, appearing to them after His resurrection, He
breathed upon them, and said: Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose sins you
shall forgive, they are forgiven, and whose sins you shall retain, they
are retained. Even to the present day this duty devolves upon the Church
in its bishops and priests, and having examined each sinner’s cause, they
absolve those whom they find humble and truly penitent, from the fear of
eternal death, but such as they find to persist in their sins, these are
bound down unto never-ending torments”—_In Matth. Codex Vatican._, fol.
149, b.
Elsewhere, expounding the history of the man who was sick with the palsy,
he remarks: “The scribes say truly that none can forgive sins save God
alone, who also it is that forgives through those to whom he has given the
power of forgiving”. And again, “St. John teaches us, in regard to the
remission of sins, that our Saviour after His resurrection promised to His
disciples that those shall be bound whom they shall bind, and those shall
be loosened whom they shall loosen”—_In Matth. ibid._, fol. 81, and
_Usher_, loc. cit., pag. 48.
The old penitential canons of our Church will serve as a practical
commentary on these texts of Claudius. Thus, in the synod held by our
apostle, together with Auxilius and Isernimus, about the year 450, we find
the canon:
“A Christian who has committed murder, or fornication, or gone to
a soothsayer after the manner of the gentiles, for every such
crime shall do a year of penance: when his year of penance is
accomplished he shall come with witnesses, and afterwards he shall
be absolved by the priest”.(16)
St. Finnian too prescribes:
“Si quis rixam faciat de clericis aut ministris Dei, hebdomadam
dierum poeniteat cum pane et aqua et petat veniam a Deo suo et
proximo suo, plena confessione et humilitate et sic potest Deo
reconciliari et proximo suo”.(17)
The synodical canons _de Arreis_, in one decree declare as the substitute
for the penance of a year:
“Tres dies cum mortuo sancta in sepulchro, sine cibo et potu et
sine somno sed cum vestimento circa se, et cantatione psalmorum et
oratione horarum per confessionem et votum sacerdoti”.
And in another case they enact a similar penance:
“post confessionem peccatorum coram sacerdote et plebe post
votum”.(18)
The penitential of St. Cummian commands him who had innocently told an
untruth “to confess his fault to the person whom he deceived and to the
priest”.(19) Again, youths before their twentieth year committing certain
sins, were ordered for the first offence “having confessed, to do penance
for twenty days before they should approach the holy Communion”.(20)
St. Columbanus is even more minute in treating of this sacrament. Thus, in
canon the fourteenth, he lays down the penance for the sin of adultery,
and adds that this penance being performed by the sinner “culpa illius per
sacerdotem abstergatur”. Should his sin be a sin of desire, “Confiteatur
culpam suam sacerdoti et ita quadraginta diebus in pane et aqua
poeniteat”.(21) Special diligence, too, was to be observed when preparing
to approach the Holy Eucharist, and not only the heinous crimes, but even
the venial faults were to be confessed. “Confessiones autem dari
diligentius praecipitur, maxime de commotionibus animi, antequam ad missam
eatur, ne forte quis accedat indignus ad altare, id est si cor mundum non
habuerit”.(22)
In the ancient collection of canons made for the use of our Irish Church
about the year 700, there is one book (the 48th) entitled _de
Poenitentia_. The thirty-three chapters into which it is divided are for
the most part moral or disciplinary: as, for instance, the twenty-fifth
chapter, which enjoins that all penitents should receive _imposition of
hands_ from the priests during Lent, moreover, should carry the dead to
the place of sepulture, and there inter them, and, in fine, should present
themselves kneeling at all the functions of the Church from Easter to
Pentecost. There are, however, some incidental passages which beautifully
illustrate the idea entertained by our fathers of the necessity and
advantages of sacramental confession. Thus in the third chapter the words
of St. Augustine are adopted:
“Why will the sinner seek to conceal what he committed in the
presence of God? Why will he blush to confess those sins with
which he did not blush to stain his own soul? Therefore, let him
defray by confession what he has contracted by sinning; let him by
satisfaction wash away the stains which defile his soul; let him
by vigilance supply for his former neglect; let him for the future
be a follower of Christ by virtuous deeds, as hitherto he had
followed Satan by his sins; and he may rest assured that God will
not punish him for those crimes which he has confessed”.
Subsequently it adopts the well-known passage from the Homilies of St.
Gregory the Great:
“As the physician cannot apply his remedy unless he knows in what
the malady of his patient consists, so cannot sins be healed
without confession; for, with our heart we believe unto justice,
but with our lips confession is made unto salvation. He who
conceals his sins cannot be directed; but he who confesses them
and relinquishes them all, will obtain mercy”—_Collect. Hib.
Canonum_, xlviii. 3.
In the other fragments which are still preserved of our early literature,
we find many passages connected with the same great sacrament. Thus St.
Mochta, in his _Apologia_, amongst the other articles of faith, professes:
“Poenitentiam peccatorum plenissima fide suscipimus ac veluti secundam
gratiam suspicamur” (see _Essays on the Early Irish Church_, pag. 302);
that is to say, it is the only plank that remains to him after shipwreck.
Amongst the Irish MSS. preserved in the public library of Basle, in
Switzerland, there is one (Ff. iii. 15) which presents a curious form of
prayer to be observed by our clergy when administering the sacrament of
penance. We give it in full in its original language; the reader will
remark that it omits the form of absolution, for which it refers to _the
sacramentary_, and the words which we here enclose within parentheses are
written as rubric in the original manuscript:
“Incipit ordo ad poenitentiam dandam.
“Credis in Patrem et Filium et Spiritum Sanctum? _Respondet_:
Credo.
“Credis, quod istae tres personae, quo modo diximus, Pater et
Filius et Spiritus Sanctus, tres sunt, et unus Deus est?
_Respondet_: Credo.
“Credis, quad in ista ipsa carne in qua nunc es, habes resurgere
in die judicii et recipere sive bonum sive malum quod egisti?
_Respondet_: Credo.
“Vis dimittere illis quicumque in te peccaverint, Domino dicente,
si non remiseritis hominibus peccata eorum, nec Pater vester
coelestis dimittet vobis peccata vestra? _Respondet_: Dimitto.
“(Et require diligenter; si est incestuosus, si non vult ipsa
incesta dimittere, non potes ei dare poenitentiam: et si vult ipsa
incesta dimittere, _fac eum confiteri omnia peccata sua_, et ad
ultimum diecre.)
“Multa sunt peccata mea, in factis in verbis et in
cogitationibus”.
(Tunc da illi poenitentiam et dic istas orationes super eum.)
“Oremus. Praeveniat hunc famulum tuum _N._ Domine, misericordia
tua, et omnes iniquitates ejus celeri indulgentia doleat. Per,
etc.
“Oremus. Exaudi, Domine, preces nostras et confitentium tibi parce
peccatis ut quos conscientiae reatus accusat, indulgentia tuae
pietatis absolvat.
“(Et caeteras, si tempus habueris sicut in sacramentario
continentur. Si tibi non vacat, istae sufficiant. Et si homo
ingeniosus est, da ei consilium ut veniat tempore statuto ad te
aut ad alium sacerdotem in coena Domini et _reconcilietur sicut in
sacvamentario continetur_. Quicquid manens in corpore consecutus
non fuerit hoc est _reconciliatione_, exutus carne consequi non
poterit. Si vero minus intelligens fuerit, quidquid ipse non
intelligit in uno statu reconciliare, potes eum ita dicendo:)
“Oremus. Praesta, quaesumus Domine, dignum poenitentiae fructum
huic famulo ut ecclesiae tuae sanctae a cujus integritate deviarat
peccando, admissorum veniam consequendo reddatur innocens. Per
Dominum.
“(Si infirmus est homo, statim reconciliare eum debes.)”
Thus terminates this curious fragment of the ritual observances of our
early Church. Another Irish manuscript of the same library in Basle
contains a long penitential prayer, the language of which has a striking
resemblance with the prayers of St. Colgu and Aileran, already published
in the early numbers of the _Record_. It thus begins:
“De conscientiae reatu ante Altare,
“Domine Deus omnipotens, ego humiliter te adoro,
“Tu es Rex Regum et Dominus Dominantium,
“Tu es arbiter omnis saeculi,
“Tu es redemptor animarum,
“Tu es liberator credentium,
“Tu es spes laborantium,
“Tu es paraclitus dolentium,
“Tu es via errantium,
“Tu es magister gentium,
“Tu es creator omnium,
“Tu es amator omnis boni,
“Tu es princeps omnium virtutum,
“Tu es amator virginum,
“Tu es fons sapientium,
“Tu es fides credentium,
“Tu es lux lucis,
“Tu es fons sanctitatis,
“Tu es gloria Dei Patris in excelsis,
“Tu sedes ad dexteram Dei Patris,
“In alto throno regnans in saecula.
“Ego te peto ut des mihi remissionem omnium peccatorum meorum,
Deus meus Jesu Christe.
“Tu es qui neminem vis perire sed omnes vis salvos fieri et ad
agnitionem veritatis venire.
“Tu es qui ore tuo sancto et casto dixisti: in quacumque die
conversus fuerit peccator, vita vivet et non morietur.
“Ego revertor ad Te....
“Ideo confiteor tibi Domine Deus meus, qui solus sine peccato es:
et obsecro te, Jesu Christe, Deus misericordiarum per passionem et
per effusionem sanguinis tui, atque per signum ligni salutiferi
crucis tuae ut concedas mihi remissionem omnium peccatorum meorum,
non secundum meum meritum, sed secundum magnam misericordiam
tuam”.
The “Rule for the Celi-De”, composed by St. Maelruan about the year 780,
reckons “_the divulging of confession_, so as to say, this is what the man
did”, as so heinous a crime “that it is not penanced in the land of
Erinn”.(23) It also contains several regulations connected with the
sacrament of penance. Thus, on the eve of the chief festivals, all
feasting is prohibited, “because of going under the hand to-morrow”. To
which words Dr. Reeves adds the following note: “The priest raises his
hand in the absolution, whence the modern expression _going under the hand
of the priest_ denotes going to confession” (pag. 202). Subsequently the
Rule enacts:
“When they do not go to hand (_i.e._ to confession) on Sunday,
they go on the Thursday after; it would be too long to wait till
the Sunday following for the person who habitually goes to hand
every Sunday, because these two days are always special with them
at Mass.
“It is not necessary to delay minute confessions of thoughts and
idle notions, and abuse and anger, till Sunday, but to confess
them immediately as they occur.
“He who makes his confession to a _soul-friend_, if he performs
the penance according to his directions, need not confess them to
another _soul-friend_, but only what has subsequently occurred.
Frequent confession is not profitable when the transgressions are
frequent too”.
Some instructions are also given for the guidance of the confessor:
“Difficult, indeed, is the duty of the _soul-friend_, because if
he gives the proper remedy, it is oftener violated than observed;
but if the soul-friend does not give it, its liability falls upon
himself; because several are satisfied with making the confession
without doing the penance; but it is better to proclaim their
welfare to them, though they do not respond to the penance
enjoined by the confessor. Another soul-friend may be gone to, if
necessary, after the permission of the first soul-friend.
“It is right to refuse the confession of a person who does not
perform penance according to the soul-friend, unless there happens
to be a soul-friend near, whom he considers more learned in rules,
in the ways of the Scripture, and in the practices of the saints.
Let him heed what he receives from the learned soul-friend whom he
first met, to whomsoever he may reveal his confession each time,
and let penance be enjoined him according to the rules of frequent
confession”.
In fine, it is also decreed that the bishop “who confers noble orders upon
any one who is not able to instruct in religion and reading, and
soul-friendship, and who has not a knowledge of laws and rules, and of the
proper remedy for all sins in general, is an enemy to God and man; for
that bishop has offered an insult to Christ and His Church, and hence
shall do penance for six years, and he shall pay seven _cumhals_ in gold
as a penalty to God.(24)”
The Rule of St. Carthage (who was familiarly called _Mochuda_) has already
been published in full in the December and January numbers of the
_Record_. Frequent mention is made in it of the holy sacrament of penance,
and as St. Carthage died before the year 640, we are thus enabled to trace
back the Catholic tenets of our fathers even to the beginning of the
seventh century. At page 116, among _the duties of a priest_ is
commemorated:
“If you go to give communion
At the awful point of death,
You must receive confession
Without shame, without reserve.
Let him receive your sacrament
If his body bewails.
The penitence is not worthy
Which turns not from evil....
If you be anybody’s soul-friend,
His soul thou shalt not sell;
Thou shalt not be a blind man leading the blind;
Thou shalt not allow him to fall into neglect;
Let them give thee their confession
Candidly and devoutly”.
Whilst confession was thus enjoined on the faithful, it was not less
necessary for the religious themselves:
“When you come unto the mass—
It is a noble office—
Let there be penitence of heart, shedding of tears,
And throwing up of the hands, ...
With confession of vices,
When you come to receive”.
And again, when laying down special rules for monks, St. Carthage commands
them to exercise modesty and meekness:
“With inculcation of every truth;
With denunciation of every wickedness;
With perfect frequent confessions,
Under the directions of a holy abbot”.(25)
The testimony of these religious rules is of great importance: they not
only convey to us the teaching of individuals remarkable for their piety
and learning, but they moreover record for our instruction those
disciplinary enactments which received the solemn sanction of the greatest
saints of our ancient Church, and which guided in the paths of perfection
thousands of our countrymen whose virtues and miracles won for our island
a wide-spread fame for sanctity throughout the sixth and succeeding
centuries.
We may now refer to facts connected with these sainted fathers of our
Church which throw much light on the practice of confession, from the
earliest period of faith in our island. Thus, of St. Adamnan we read that,
being troubled about some sin of his early youth “he resorted to a priest
from whom he hoped to learn the way of salvation, and confessing his fault
prayed for such counsel as might enable him to flee from the avenging
anger of God”.(26)
In the life of St. Columba, too, it is recorded that one day an Irishman
from Connaught, by name Ildran, landed on the beach of Iona and proceeded
to the guest-house of the monastery. On the following morning he made
known to the saint the object of his journey, viz.: to do penance for his
sins, and “at the same hour he confessed all his sins and promised to
fulfil the laws of penance”.(27) On another occasion St. Columba was
visited by a person named Fiachna, who, being touched with remorse for
some crime, fell at the saint’s feet and “confessed his sins before all
that were there present”, whereupon the holy man weeping embraced him, and
said, “Arise, my son, and be comforted; thy sins are forgiven thee, for,
as it is written, the contrite and humble heart God doth not despise”.(28)
In the case of a chieftain named Suibhne, it is mentioned that, though
truly penitent, he was ordered by St. Pulcherius to confess his sins.(29)
We find also St. Maidoc of Ferns earnestly soliciting to have a wise
confessor divinely destined for his guidance. St. Molua of Clonfert-molua
was the person chosen by him, and hence, amongst other titles given to
this last-named saint, is “Father of the Confession of Maidoc”.(30) Again,
in the life of St. Finbar it is mentioned that a young man from Leinster
went to Iona to be guided by Columba: being obliged soon after to return
to his native country, he thus affectionately addressed the holy abbot: “O
sancte Dei! quomodo in patria mea vivam et tibi confitear peccata
mea?”(31)
In the _Martyrology of Donegal_, St. Meallan of Loch Oirbsen, in
Connaught, is styled the _Anmehara_ of St. Furse, who since the middle of
the seventh century is venerated as patron of Peronne in France (pag. 40,
I.A.S., 1865). In the _Felire_ of Aenghus, St. Donnan of Eigg is also said
to have gone to St. Columcille “to make him his soul’s friend” (Reeves’
_Columba_, p. 305). This title of _Anmchara_ is given to the divine
Redeemer himself by St. Aileran, in the beautiful prayer printed in the
_Record_, pag. 64, and, as we have already said, was the name given by the
faithful in our early Church to those who in the Latin records are styled
_Confessarii_, or _Patres Confessionis_. The _Book of Fenagh_ in one of
its most ancient records states, that “Columba plus venit ad S. Kilianum
et ei confessus est peccata sua” (I.A.S. _Miscellany_, vol. i., pag. 118).
Of St. Finbarr it is also recorded that, on the death of his spiritual
director, he went to St. Olan to make him _patrem confessionis suae_, or
at least to be directed by him as to the person whom he should select; and
the legend adds that St. Olan replied: “Christ Himself will be your
confessor, and He will receive your hand”; meaning, probably, that the
hour of his death was come, for the next fact mentioned in St. Finbarr’s
life is his happy passage to eternity (_Life of St. Finbarr_, edited by R.
Caulfield. London, 1864, pag. 21).
Probus, in the life of our great Apostle (chap. 20), mentions that one of
the chief petitions which he made to God, during the time of his
penitential retirement on Croaghpatrick, was: “Ut unusquisque homo fidelis
Hibernorum per poenitentiam et confessionem Deo satisfaciens licet in
extremo vitae suae spatio, ab ipso elementer suscipiatur”. It was to
become sharer of this great privilege that St. Cormac, Bishop and King of
Cashel, baying foretold his death, summoned to him St. Macsuach, Abbot of
Castledermot, to whom he made his confession, and received from his hands
the holy sacrament of the Eucharist. (I.A.S. 1860. _Annals_, pag. 203).
The confession even of venial faults was especially dwelt upon by St.
Molua. One of his religious was negligent on this head, and St. Molua took
occasion to correct him by his own example. As they were journeying
together on a certain day, St. Molua said to him: “Peccavi vere hodie quia
confessionem alicui seniori non feci de his quae egi hodie: me igitur hic
sustine modicum donec vadam illuc et confitear”. The religious was struck
with terror, and asked “would it not suffice to confess these sins to God
alone?” but the saint replied that unless we confess even our venial
transgressions, we can only obtain pardon for them by severe penitential
deeds here and hereafter, and added the well-known illustration: “Sicut
pavimentum domus scopâ quotidie tergitur, ita anima quotidianâ
confessione”. The ancient life concludes; “Hoc audiens monachus a suo
sancto Abbate, promisit confiteri sua offendicula; et confitebatur
fideliter, et sanatus est ille frater a sua praeterita audacia” (_Vita ex
Vet. Cod. Armac._, edited by Fleming, cap. 32.)
There is only one document to which the enemies of our holy faith can
appeal as evidencing a disregard for the sacrament of penance in our early
Church: it is a letter of Alcuin, addressed, in the text of Canisius,
_dilectissimis viris fratribus et patribus __ in provincia Scotorum_, in
which he mentions the rumour which had reached him, that the laity had
refused “confessionem sacerdotibus dare”. Here (writes Dean Murray) is a
clear rejection of Popery. However, antiquarians have long since decided
that this text has no reference to sacramental confession (see Lanigan,
iv. 67): and as the good Protestant dean had given his citation from
Usher, he should have added that in Usher’s opinion the title of this
letter of Alcuin was erroneous, and that it was addressed to some faithful
quite distinct from our old Celtic forefathers. This opinion no longer
admits of any doubt. Canisius himself remarked “that in the MS. from which
he published this letter, it was addressed _de dilectissimis, etc. in
provincia Gothorum_”, and he merely substituted the word _Scotorum_, as a
conjecture, not knowing that there were any people in the days of Alcuin
who still retained the name of _Gothic_. Later discoveries, however, have
proved that the very province of Languedoc, in which territory Alcuin
lived for a long time, was designated by this name. The learned
Quercetanus discovered a letter of Alcuin himself (ep. 99), addressed to
the faithful “_in diversis Gothiae partibus_”; and Baluzius, in his
_Miscellanea_ (i. 377), published another letter of the same Alcuin, “_iis
qui sunt in Gothiae partibus_”. The errors of Felix Urgellitanus, which
are here referred to, fix more and more the district to which this letter
was addressed; for whilst they had begun to creep in amongst the faithful
of France, they were wholly unheard of in the Island of Saints.