History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene Christianity. A. D. 100-325
particular form of the penances, in the second century, was left as yet to
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- Bu səhifədəki naviqasiya:
- Classes of Penitents.
- Restoration.
- Two Parties.
The time and the particular form of the penances, in the second century, was left as yet to the discretion of the several ministers and churches. Not till the end of the third century was a rigorous and fixed system of penitential discipline established, and then this could hardly maintain itself a century. Though originating in deep moral earnestness, and designed only for good, it was not fitted to promote the genuine spirit of repentance. Too much formality and legal constraint always deadens the spirit, instead of supporting and regulating it. This disciplinary formalism first appears, as already familiar, in the council of Ancyra, about the year 314. 272
72 Classes of Penitents. The penitents were distributed into four classes:— (1) The weepers, 273
73 who prostrated themselves at the church doors in mourning garments and implored restoration from the clergy and the people. (2) The hearers, 274 74
hear the Scripture lessons and the sermon. (3) The kneelers, 275 75
(4) The standers, 276
76 who could take part in the whole worship standing, but were still excluded from the communion. Those classes answer to the four stages of penance. 277 77
three or four years long, but, like the catechetical preparation, could be shortened according to circumstances, or extended to the day of death. In the East there were special penitential presbyters, 278
78 intrusted with the oversight of the penitential discipline. Restoration. After the fulfilment of this probation came the act of reconciliation. 279 79
a public confession of sin, received absolution by the laying on of hands of the minister, and precatory or optative benediction, 280 80
kiss, and admitted to the celebration of the communion. For the ministry alone was he for ever 272
Can. 4 sqq. See Hefele, Conciliengesch (second ed.) I. 225 sqq. Comp. also the fifth canon of Neocaesarea, and Hefele, p. 246.
273 Προσκλαίοντες, flentes; also called χειμάζοντες, hiemantes 274 Ἀκροώμενοι, audientes, or auditores. The fourteenth canon of Nicaea (Hefele I. 418) directs that "Catechumens who had fallen, should for three years be only hearers, but afterwards pray with the Catechumens." 275
Γονυκλίνοντες, genuflectentes: also ὑποπίπτοντες , Substrati. The terra γόνυ κλίνωνas designating a class of penitents occurs only in the 5 th canon of the Council of Neocaesarea, held after 314 and before 325. 276 Συνιστάμενοι, consistentes. 277 Πρόσκλαυσις, fletus; ἀκρόασις auditus; ὑπόπτωσις, prostratio, humiliatio; σύστασις, consistentia. The last three classes are supposed to correspond to three classes of catechumens, but without good reason. There was only one class of catechumens, or at most two classes. See below, § 72. 278 Πρεσβύτεροι ἐπὶ τῆς μετανοίας, presbyteri poenitentiarii 279 Reconciliatio. 280 The declarative, and especially the direct indicative or judicial form of absolution seems to be of later origin. 121 Philip Schaff History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene Christianity. A.D. 100-325. disqualified. Cyprian and Firmilian, however, guard against the view, that the priestly absolution of hypocritical penitents is unconditional and infallible, and can forestall the judgment of God. 281 81
In reference to the propriety of any restoration in certain cases, there was an important difference of sentiment, which gave rise to several schisms. All agreed that the church punishment could not forestall the judgment of God at the last day, but was merely temporal, and looked to the repentance and conversion of the subject. But it was a question whether the church should restore even the grossest offender on his confession of sorrow, or should, under certain circumstances leave him to the judgment of God. The strict, puritanic party, to which the Montanists, the Novatians, and the Donatists belonged, and, for a time, the whole African and Spanish Church, took ground against the restoration of those who had forfeited the grace of baptism by a mortal sin, especially by denial of Christ; since, otherwise, the church would lose her characteristic holiness, and encourage loose morality. The moderate party, which prevailed in the East, in Egypt, and especially in Rome, and was so far the catholic party, held the principle that the church should refuse absolution and communion, at least on the death-bed, to no penitent sinner. Paul himself restored the Corinthian offender. 282
82 The point here in question was of great practical moment in the times of persecution, when hundreds and thousands renounced their faith through weakness, but as soon as the danger was passed, pleaded for readmission into the church, and were very often supported in their plea by the potent intercessions of the martyrs and confessors, and their libelli pacis. The principle was: necessity knows no law. A mitigation of the penitential discipline seemed in such cases justified by every consideration of charity and policy. So great was the number of the lapsed in the Decian persecution, that even Cyprian found himself compelled to relinquish his former rigoristic views, all the more because he held that out of the visible church there was no salvation. The strict party were zealous for the holiness of God; the moderate, for his grace. The former would not go beyond the revealed forgiveness of sins by baptism, and were content with urging the lapsed to repentance, without offering them hope of absolution in this life. The latter refused to limit the mercy of God and expose the sinner to despair. The former were carried away with an ideal of the church which cannot be realized till the second coming of Christ; and while impelled to a fanatical separatism, they proved, in their own sects, the impossibility of an absolutely pure communion on earth. The others not rarely ran to the opposite extreme of a dangerous looseness, were quite too lenient, even towards mortal sins, and sapped the earnestness of the Christian morality. It is remarkable that the lax penitential discipline had its chief support from the end of the second century, in the Roman church. Tertullian assails that church for this with bitter mockery. Hippolytus, soon after him, does the same; for, though no Montanist, he was zealous for strict discipline. According to his statement (in the ninth book of his Philosophumena), evidently made from fact, the pope Callistus, whom a later age stamped a saint because it knew little of him, admitted 281 Cypr. Epist. LV., c. 15: "Neque enim prejudicamus Domino judicaturo, quominus si penitentiam plenam et justam peccatoris invenerit tunc ratum faciat, quod a nobis fuerit hic statutum. Si vero nos aliquis poenitentiae simulatione deluserit, Deus, cui non deridetur, et qui cor hominis intuetur, de his, quae nos minus perspeximus, judicet et servorum suorum sententiam Dominus mendet." Comp. the similar passages in Epist. LXXV. 4, and De Lapsi, c. 17. But if the church can err in imparting absolution to the unworthy, as Cyprian concedes, she can err also in withholding absolution and in passing sentence of excommunication. 282 1 Cor. 5:1 sqq. Comp. 2 Cor. 2:5 sqq. 122 Philip Schaff History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene Christianity. A.D. 100-325. Yüklə 5,76 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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