Confession until the Reformation
By the early 16th century, private
personal confession in the Roman Catholic Church was seen as an evolved form of
absolution. According to Gurrieri, canonical
confession – or “second penance” (after baptism) – could be given only once in
a sinner’s life, only by a bishop, and since it was not repeatable or portable,
preferably as near to his death as possible. [1] Following that
difficult-to-obtain once in a lifetime forgiveness, tariff penance, introduced
by Irish/Anglo monks, was seen as an advance, being between a priest and the
confessor and was repeatable and local. The good news was that confession was
between priest and penitent, and did not involve the church; the bad news was
that the priest could charge a tariff depending on the severity of the sin.[2] Sinners were literally
paying for their sins.
By the middle ages, private confession was the most popular
form remaining.[3]
But how often should one confess? Moving from a tradition of once in a
lifetime, the Fourth Lateran Council stated in 1215 that penitents were
required – obliged – to go to
confession at least once a year and that absolution by the priest was required
for salvation.[4]
Thomas Aquinas, upheld as late as 1551 at the Council of Trent, laid forth the
four-part method of a sinner’s confession, the first three by the penitent –
contrition, confession and satisfaction – and the last by the priest –
absolution.[5]
The Catholic Catechism of today in its Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation
retains this basic formula.[6]
The Absolution Reformation
- When our Lord and Master,
Jesus Christ, said "Repent", He called for the entire life of
believers to be one of repentance.
1st
of Luther’s 95 Theses[7]
Of the many radical changes that came as a result of
the Reformation – justification by grace through faith, the prominence of
Scripture over tradition, the Bible translated into German, married clergy, the
three solas, the emphasis on Law and
Gospel, the wars fought, the priesthood of all believers, and eventually, a
separate branch of Christianity apart from the influence of pope and councils –
it is significant that it all began as a dissatisfaction over the practice of
confession.[8]
Kliefoth claimed that the Protestant Reformation was basically a restoration of
Confession and Absolution.[9]
Luther’s problem with confession – and especially
that of indulgences, or “monetary penalties substituted for performance
penalties”[10]
– was that it promoted a method of personally obtaining forgiveness of sins, a
priesthood of tyrants who could forgive or withhold forgiveness on whim and an
emphasis on human over Scriptural teachings.[11] These were no small
problems, which he not only attacked in the 95 Theses, but The Babylonian Captivity of the Church (1520), and never more
colorfully than in “On Confession:
Whether the Pope has Power to Command It” (1521). Luther accused Pope Leo X
of holding Christians hostage with his false gospel of human achievement. He
called the pope The Antichrist who “breaks open the bridal chamber of Christ
and makes all Christian souls into whores.”[12] Shocking language, but
when one considers the biblical view of the church as the bride of Christ and
that Christians were in a position to pay with money what Christ’s blood won
for free, the metaphor is apt.
Absolution’s reform came in the form of freedom and
frequency. Philip Melanchton, in the Augsburg Confession, states that private
confession should be retained; that penitents are not required to enumerate
their sin; their penance is not to be burdensome; indulgences and pilgrimages
are not required; nor are they obliged to confess a certain number of times a
year. On the other hand, absolution does require a believer’s faith, and
absolution is required for communion (i.e. membership in the Christian church.)
[13]
The Reformer’s greatest fear – that Christians,
newly freed from the obligation to confess, would throw the confessional baby
out with the papal bath water – came to pass. In 1529, Luther railed in his Large Catechism: “Unfortunately, people
have learned it only too well; they do whatever they please and take advantage
of their freedom, acting as if they should or need not go to confession
anymore.”[14]
Luther’s pastors wanted to know further the kind of
confessions that were available for their sinful flocks. Luther obliged in his Eighth Sermon to Wittenberg in which he
enumerated three: a) a corporate confession before the congregation for public
sins; b) confession directly to God for sins one committed against God alone;
and c) private confession, in which “one takes another aside and tells him what
troubles one, so that one may hear from him a word of comfort.”[15] Significantly, Luther
does not say that this “another” needs to be clergy, implying that a
Christian’s confessor need only be another Christian. He also states in this
sermon that although this is the same kind commanded by the pope, he does not
go to confession because the pope commands it. “Nevertheless I will allow no
man to take private confession away from me, and I would not give it up for all
the treasures in the world, since I know what comfort and strength it has given
me.”[16] Luther saw private
confession as one of many tools in one’s Absolution Toolbox: the promise of
forgiveness from scripture, the Lord’s Prayer, baptism and private confession,
for sins which one wants to confess “in secret.”[17]
[1], John A. Guerrieri, “Penance: A Brief
Survey of a Problematic History,” in Whatever
Happened to Private Confession, Lutheran Forum, Vol. 31, No. 3, 1997,
p. 26.
[4] Gunther
Gassmann and Scott Hendrix, Fortress
Introduction to The Lutheran Confession, Fortress
Press, Minneapolis, 1999, p. 101.
[5] ibid.
[6] Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Edition, p. 324-5
(lines 1422-1424)
[7] Martin
Luther,
“Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences Commonly Known as The 95
Theses,”
Last modified 2011, accessed April 23, 2014, http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/history/95theses.htm
[8] “The Reformation began
with a call to reform the practice of repentance in the western church. The
ministry of Jesus and his predecessor John started in the same way. John came
‘preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.’
After his arrest, says Mark, ‘Jesus came preaching…repent and believe the
Gospel’ (1:14f).” Edward H. Schroeder, “Baptism
and Confession,”
Trinity Seminary Review, Vol. 6, Issue 1, 1984, p 13.
[9] Brent W. Kuhlman, “ Holy Absolution:
Rejoicing in the Gift,”
in Whatever Happened to Private
Confession, Lutheran Forum, Vol. 31, No. 3, 1997,
p. 29.
[10] Schroeder, p 16.
[11]Ronald K. Rittgers, “Luther on Private
Confession,”
Lutheran Quarterly, Volume XIX, 2005,
p. 312.
[12] ibid.
[13] Gassmann and
Hendrix, p. 102-04.
[14] Robert Kolb and
Timothy J. Wengert, The Book of
Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, translated by Charles
Arand, et al.,
Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 2000, p. 476.
[15] Martin Luther, "Eight Sermons
at Wittenberg 1522,"
in
55-Volume American Edition Luther's Works
on CD-RO, edited by Jaroslav
Pelikan and Helmut T. Lehman, Volume 51: Sermons, Fortress Press Concordia
Publishing House, 2002, p. 100.
[16] On the other hand,
he wrote: “However, one who has a strong, firm faith that his sins are forgiven
may let this confession go and confess to God alone. But how many have such a
strong faith? Threrefore, as I have said, I will not let this private
confession be take from me. But I will not have anybody forced to it, but left
to each one’s free will.” ibid.
[17] Luther, Eight Sermons,
p. 99.
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