Breviloquium

Regarding the Sacrament of Penance, this is to be held: it is “the second plank after shipwreck,”¹ to which one who has suffered shipwreck through mortal sin can have recourse, as long as he remains in the state of the present life, whenever and however often he wishes to implore divine mercy. Its integral parts are contrition in the soul, confession in speech, and satisfaction in deed. Penance is made integral when the sinner abandons in deed every mortal fault he has committed, accuses it in word, and detests it in soul, proposing never to repeat the sin. When these concur in due manner with absolution conferred by one who possesses orders, the power of the keys, and jurisdiction, a person is absolved from sin, reunited to the Church, and reconciled to Christ through the priestly key. By that person's judgment, moreover, not only absolution must be effected, but also excommunication and relaxation, the latter properly being effected by the bishop as the spouse of the Church.²

The reason for understanding the foregoing is this: our reparative principle, namely, the incarnate Word, is, precisely insofar as he is Word, the fountain of truth and wisdom, and, precisely insofar as he is incarnate, the fountain of piety and indulgence. Therefore he ought to repair the human race through the medicines of the Sacraments, especially against the principal disease, namely, mortal sin, in keeping with what befits a merciful pontiff, an experienced physician, and an equitable judge, so that in our healing the highest clemency, prudence, and justice of the incarnate Word may appear.

First, then, since in our healing from mortal fault through Penance the highest clemency of Christ himself, the most merciful Pontiff, ought to appear, and since the highest clemency of the Pontiff surpasses all human sins, whatever their kind or magnitude and however often they may have been committed, it follows that receiving sinners into pardon belongs to the most merciful Pontiff—not³ once or twice, but as often as they humbly implore God's mercy. Since divine mercy is truly and humbly implored when the lament of penance intervenes, and since a person can turn himself toward this as long as he remains in the state of the present life, because he can turn toward good or evil, it follows that however gravely, whenever, and however often the sinner has sinned, he can take refuge in the Sacrament of Penance, through which forgiveness of sins is granted to him.

Again, since in our healing the highest prudence of Christ himself, the most expert physician, ought to be manifested⁴, and since a physician's prudence consists in applying contrary remedies, through which not only the disease is removed but its cause also cut away, while one sins against God through delight, consent, and execution, namely, in heart, mouth, and deed, it follows that the most prudent Physician instituted a reform of the penitent corresponding to the sinner's threefold power—affective, interpretive, and operative, the latter arising through the hidden complacency of delight—by means of the same threefold power in the penance of sorrow, conceived⁵ in the heart through contrition, expressed in the mouth through confession, and completed in deed through satisfaction. Since all mortal sins turn away from the one God, oppose the one grace, and pervert the one principal rectitude of man, it follows that, for the medicine of Penance to be sufficiently integrated from its integral parts, penance must be had for all sins: with respect to the past, through displeasure at those committed; with respect to the present, through cessation from those to be committed; and with respect to the future, through the resolve never to relapse either into the same kind or into another kind of sin⁶; thus, wholly departing from fault through penance, a person receives divine grace, through which he obtains forgiveness of all sins.

Lastly, since in our healing the upright justice of Christ the judge ought to be manifested, and since he is not to judge in his own person before the last and final judgment, he therefore had to appoint judges for particular judgments before the end.⁷ These judges are intermediaries between the offended God and the offending human being, as those who are nearest to Christ and set over the people. Those especially near and familiar to the Lord by reason of their office are those specially consecrated through his ministry, namely, priests. Therefore, to all those constituted in the priestly order, and to them alone, is given the power of the twofold key: the key of knowledge for discerning, and the key that is the power of binding and loosing, for judging and conferring the benefit of absolution.

But since, to avoid confusion, no one is prelate over everyone in the Church militant, and since the ecclesiastical hierarchy itself ought to be ordered according to judicial power, this power of binding and loosing was first granted to the one first and supreme priest, to whom universal power was conferred as to the highest head. Then, according to the particular Churches, it is divided into parts, so that it descends first from the one head to the bishops and then to the presbyters. Therefore, although every priest has order and the key, the use of the key extends only to those ordinarily subject to him, unless it is entrusted to him by one who has ordinary jurisdiction. Since that jurisdiction principally resides in the supreme head, then in the bishop, and finally in the parish priest, it can indeed be entrusted by any of these to another—sufficiently by the lowest, more fully by the middle, and most fully by the supreme.

And since the supreme Pontiff and the bishops possess this jurisdiction not only for judging between God and man in secret, but also for judging between man and man publicly, as those entrusted with the governance and custody of the Church, just as the bride is entrusted to her spouse, it follows that prelates have the sword⁸ by which they can strike in defense of right through excommunication, and the power to distribute from the treasury of the Church's merits, which they have stored and commended both from the head and from the members, and this through relaxation. Thus, as true judges of God in binding and loosing, they possess the integral power by which they strike the impenitent and restrain the rebellious, while nevertheless absolving and reconciling to God and to holy mother Church those who are truly penitent.