During the 4th and 5th centuries numerous councils were held for regulating the nature and duration of ec- clesiastical censures, and for settling the degree of dis- cretionary power to be vested in bishops for the pur- pose of relaxing and shortening them, according to the circumstances of the case. As public confession was soon found to be attended with many inconveniences, offenders were permitted to confess their sins privately, either to the bishops themselves or to priests deputed by them to hear such confessions. When the punish- ment, which was still public, though tlie sin remained secret, was finished, the penitent was formally received into the Church by |)rayer and imposition of hands. In the 5th century public penance was submitted to with difficulty and reluctance ; and it was thought expe- dient to allow penance, in certain cases, to be performed in monasteries, or in some private place, before a small, select iHunber of jjcrsons. This ])rivate penance was gradually extended to more and mure cases; and be- fore the end of the 7th century the ]iracfico of public penance for private sins was entirely abolfshed. Stren- uous opposition was made to this at first, but the laxor custom prevailed. About the end of the 8th century penance began to be commuted : in the room of the an- cient severities, prayers, masses, and alms were substi- tuted; and in process of time the clcrgj- of the Ilomish
Church gained such an ascendency over the minds of the people as to jiersuade them that it was their duty to confess all their sins, however private or heinous, to the priests, who had power to prescribe the conditions of absolution (q. v.).
Tiie nature and origin ofprivaie penance is a subject of controversy between Eoman Catholics and Protes- tants; the former contending that it had existed from the first, and that it held the same place even in the ages of public penance for secret sins which the public penance did for public offences. At all events, from the date of the cessation of the public discipline, it has existed universally in the Roman Church. (See be- low.) According to Protestants, penance has no coun- tenance whatever from Scripture, and is contrary to some of the most essential principles of the Christian religion; particularly to tlie doctrine of justification by faith in Jesus Christ alone, on the ground of his comjjlete or " finished" work ; penance being, in fact, founded on a doctrine of at least supplementary atone- ment by the works or sufferings of man — the sinner — himself. The outward expressions of humiliation, sor- row, and repentance common under the Jewish dispen- sation, are regarded as very consistent with the charac- ter of that dispensation, in which so many symbols were employed. It is also held that the self-inflicted austerities, as fasting, sackcloth and ashes, etc., of Jew- ish and earliest Christian times, had for their sole pur- pose the mortification of unhol)' lusts and sinful passions in the people of God ; or the expression of sorrow for sin, so that others beholding might be warned of its evil and restrained from it; all which is perfectly con- sistent with the principles of Christianity, if kept within the bounds of moderation and discretion. But penance in any other view, as a personal exercise, is utterly re- jected. Arguments founded on the meaning of the two Greek words /.ifravotio and ntTai.d\oi.iai, both translated in our English version repent, are much urged by many Eoman Catholic controversialists, the former being represented as equivalent to the English do pen- ance; but this is condemned by Protestants as incon- sistent with the very use of the words in the New Tes- tament itself. That penance began, as a practice, very early in the Christian Church, is not only admitted by Protestants, but it is alleged in proof of the very early growth of those corruptions which finally developed themselves in the doctrines and practices of the Roman Catholic Church, and of which Protestants also hold that there are plain intimations in the New Testament, not only prophetical, but show'ing the development of their germs to have already' begun during the age of the apostles.
In the Romish Church penance is affirmed to be " truly and properly a sacrament, instituted by Christ our Lord, for the benefit of the faithful, to reconcile them to God as often as they shall fall into sin after baptism" {Council of Trent, sess. 14, can. i). To receive this sacrament three things are necessary : first, sorrow for sins committed, along with a purpose to commit them no more ; secondly, an entire confession of all the sins committed; tkirdhj, the performance of the penance enjoined by the confessor. By penance, as ordinarily employed, at least in Protestant literature, is meant not the entire sacrament, but the satisfaction or the doing of the penance imposed bi/ the priest after confession. According to Roman theologv, by the atonement of Christ and the absolution of the confessor only the eternal punishment of sin is remitted. Where the pen- itent has intense contrition the temporal punishment is also remitted. But ordinarily the temporal penalties remain to be suffered either in this life or in purgatory. "Whoever," says the Council of Trent, "shall aftirm that the entire punishment is always remitted by God, together with the fault, and therefore that penitents need no other satisfaction than faith, whereby they ap- prehend Christ who has made satisfaction for tliem, let ttim be accursed." Penance, accordingl}-, is imposed