Historical development of Confession

[babochka]

I’ve pulled the following two quotes from the recent thread “How to confess to a priest” because I didn’t want to further derail the thread, but I’d really like to continue the discussion that began.

I just read an excellent history on the Sacrament of Reconcilliation.

Here are the stages this Sacrament has seen

1. Canonical Penance - early church once off Sacrament that enabled early Christians who sinned to come back into the Eucharist. Note a once of only.
2. Celtic Penance - around 3 rd century Ireland . Monks focussed on giving out Penance. People would come and confess sins, and get something like x time on bread and water. It became a Sacrament that could be repeated.
3. Confession - around 7th century the Irish Monks took Celtic Penance to Europe. The Sacrament was changed over time to absolving the penitent. Penance was lessened greatly to ie. six Our Fathers instead of 10 years bread and water.
4. After Vatican 11 it became Sacrament of Reconcilliation. God’s Love and Mercy became the focus. The penitent seeks to move back into the love of God. The graces are overflowing.

Dempsey 1919 what you described in the Extraordinary form is the pre Vatican 11 form.

I will copy and paste the article in a new thread for everyone’s interest. Once I work out how to do this. I found it very fascinating.

I’ve often heard the story about Irish monks being responsible for our current form of confession and it has always made sense to me. I’ve read it from credible sources and it seems to get passed on often, as indisputable fact. But history is complex and rarely straightforward and I’ve been trying to learn more about the development of this sacrament. How does this narrative explain the reality that confession is essentially the same in all Apostolic Christian Churches: Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox. (This appears to be with the possible exception of the Armenian Apostolic Church, which no longer practices individual confession, but once did.) The Oriental Churches separated in 451, well before Irish monks are believed to have spread their practice throughout Europe.

I’m wondering if anybody has any book recommendations on this subject. Something scholarly, with footnotes and plenty of quotes from the Church Fathers is preferred. I recently found this book books.google.com/books/about/A_History_of_Auricular_Confession_and_In.html?id=5KBMxDMt3vMC on google play. I’ve downloaded it and begun to read it and it confirms my suspicion that the subject is quite complex. Can anybody recommend any others?

I agree. I don’t like the different approach taken to the Sacrament post Vatican II. I can’t prove causation, but the revisions might be the reason people no longer go to Confession as often. In my parish and across my town, the lines for Confession are very small and the scheduled confession times are very short. This is a real shame because Confession is very cathartic - people don’t realise what they’re missing!

How did the approach to the sacrament change after Vatican II? Obviously, the rite changed, but how is the approach to sin and forgiveness different within the sacrament? I was born in 1969, after the council, but before the changes in the rite. Regardless, as an Eastern Catholic, I had my first confession in a different rite altogether. I went to Catholic school, though, and experienced confession in the Latin Rite in the 1970s and 1980s. One of my favorite books on confession is Alfred P. Wilson’s “Pardon and Peace”, which was published in 1947. I don’t find the approach to the sacrament particularly different from similar books published in more modern times. Could it be that our society has changed, while the sacrament remains the same?

 

[twf]

I understand that the Irish monks were influenced by Coptic Christianity (missionaries from Egypt? Not sure of the logistics but this is my understanding). So perhaps the Irish practice evolved from an even earlier Coptic practice?

 

[Vico]

…
How did the approach to the sacrament change after Vatican II? Obviously, the rite changed, but how is the approach to sin and forgiveness different within the sacrament? I was born in 1969, after the council, but before the changes in the rite. Regardless, as an Eastern Catholic, I had my first confession in a different rite altogether. I went to Catholic school, though, and experienced confession in the Latin Rite in the 1970s and 1980s. One of my favorite books on confession is Alfred P. Wilson’s “Pardon and Peace”, which was published in 1947. I don’t find the approach to the sacrament particularly different from similar books published in more modern times. Could it be that our society has changed, while the sacrament remains the same?

In Lumen Gentium (Vatican II) we read:“Those who approach the sacrament of Penance obtain pardon from God’s mercy for the offence committed against him, and are, at the same time, reconciled with the Church which they have wounded by their sins and which by charity, by example and by prayer labours for their conversion. By the sacred anointing of the sick and the prayer of the priests the whole Church commends those who are ill to the suffering and glorified Lord that he may raise them up and save them (cf. Jas. 5:14-16). And indeed she exhorts them to contribute to the good of the People of God by freely uniting themselves to the passion and death of Christ (cf. Rom. 8:17; Col. 1:24; Tim. 2:11-12; 1 Pet. 4:13).”

Orientalium Ecclesiarum (1964), Decree on the Eastern Catholic Churches

1. Without prejudice to the principles noted earlier, Eastern Christians who are in fact separated in good faith from the Catholic Church, if they ask of their own accord and have the right dispositions, may be admitted to the sacraments of Penance, the Eucharist and the Anointing of the Sick.

A change was made in the 1983 Latin canon law, from the 1917 Code. The reserved sins which are used in the eastern Catholic churches and were in the Latin Church before, were eliminated in favor of reserved penalties.

Some history of the The Sacrament of Penance is here, from before Vatican II:

Hanna, E. (1911). The Sacrament of Penance. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. : newadvent.org/cathen/11618c.htm

 

[Roseeurekacross]

The only thing I have to correct about what I said were the Celtic monks were in the 5th Century.

What I get home later tonight I will type up the words of the document I am working from. I haven’t worked out how to copy and paste it.

This document is written by a Priest who is also a Professor and Theologian. The Church gave us this information in a recent theological reflection group. It’s accurate.

I think the document is a weird margined scanned article.

But the History of the Sacrament of Reconcilliation is fascinating, and it’s sense has changed too. This Priest says the changes are in some a cultural response to the Sacrament as the Holy Spirit invests the Holy See with increasing understanding.

 

[Monte_RCMS]

Explain forgiveness of sins … examination of conscience.

Are some things not sins at all?

Explain what actions, thoughts, are sins.

 

[rabbitdonkey]

I read that in the early Church confessions were done privately to a priest but if the person comitted a public sin that cause scandal he confessed it publicly and did penance.

God Bless

 

[MorEphrem]

Syriac Orthodox priests were influenced by the Latin Church via the Jesuits in the 17th-19th centuries, for example, in wall-supported altars (as opposed to free-standing with a baldacchino), and the wearing of the Roman soutane. The idea of being “out of communion” wasn’t so definitely clear cut as we make it today, nor do/did the Oriental Churches have the hostility of the Eastern Orthodox, nor does lack of formal communion equate to lack of influence (another example, Armenians wearing Renaissance mitres).

That being said, auricular confession was mostly likely exported by local Catholic practice. If you attend a Syriac Orthodox or Armenian Orthodox/Apostolic, you most likely will still receive a general absolution before communion. Likewise, our sacramental theology doesn’t make such a sharp divide as the Latin Church before the different forms of liturgical absolution, and if you asked me, I’d say that the usus antiquior itself has the equivalent of a general absolution in the penitential rites, both in the absolution after the Kyrie and before communion.

 

[Bookcat]

How does this narrative explain the reality that confession is essentially the same in all Apostolic Christian Churches: Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox. (This appears to be with the possible exception of the Armenian Apostolic Church, which no longer practices individual confession, but once did.) The Oriental Churches separated in 451, well before Irish monks are believed to have spread their practice throughout Europe.

The fact the frequent and private confession was spread via monasticism in the west in the 600’s --does not exclude any private confessions prior to that time…

Indeed - the Celtic (Irish) Monks were influenced in general by Eastern Monasticism…

It simply means that the practice took off in the west …via the Irish Monks that that time (who where influenced by those in the Eastern part of the Catholic Church (this was prior to the Schism…).

(ps I may or may not be able to respond further - I have been away from the site for a month due to vacation and searching for employment…)

 

[Roseeurekacross]

Babochka, I will type out the article when the forum moves in a few weeks, in case it’s lost.

 

[babochka]

Babochka, I will type out the article when the forum moves in a few weeks, in case it’s lost.

Thank you! I’m looking forward to reading it. If you don’t want to type it out, you can pm me and I’ll send my email address. But if you don’t mind typing it out, I’m sure the forum would enjoy the article as well.

I’m in the middle of the book that I mentioned in the first post. It is a lengthy (3 volumes!) and very thorough treatment of the history of confession in the Latin Rite. I would highly recommend it. The history is fascinating and complex.

 

[babochka]

Syriac Orthodox priests were influenced by the Latin Church via the Jesuits in the 17th-19th centuries, for example, in wall-supported altars (as opposed to free-standing with a baldacchino), and the wearing of the Roman soutane. The idea of being “out of communion” wasn’t so definitely clear cut as we make it today, nor do/did the Oriental Churches have the hostility of the Eastern Orthodox, nor does lack of formal communion equate to lack of influence (another example, Armenians wearing Renaissance mitres).

That being said, auricular confession was mostly likely exported by local Catholic practice. If you attend a Syriac Orthodox or Armenian Orthodox/Apostolic, you most likely will still receive a general absolution before communion. Likewise, our sacramental theology doesn’t make such a sharp divide as the Latin Church before the different forms of liturgical absolution, and if you asked me, I’d say that the usus antiquior itself has the equivalent of a general absolution in the penitential rites, both in the absolution after the Kyrie and before communion.

I have read that the Armenian Church no longer practices individual confession, but once did. Can you give some of the history of how this came to be?