Chapter X.
On the integrity of penance.
Concerning the Sacrament of penance, this must be held: that it is the "second plank after shipwreck," to which one who has suffered shipwreck through mortal sin can have recourse, so long as one is in the state of the present life, whenever and as often as one wills to implore the divine clemency. - Its integral parts are contrition in the soul, confession in word, and satisfaction in deed. From these penance is made integral when the sinner both abandons in deed and accuses in word and detests in soul every mortal fault committed, proposing never to repeat the sin.
When these duly concur together with the absolution given by him in whom there is order, the key, and jurisdiction, a person is absolved from sin and reunited to the Church and reconciled to Christ through the mediation of the sacerdotal key; by whose judgment not only absolution is to be given, but also excommunication and relaxation, which properly belongs to the bishop as the spouse of the Church.
The reason for understanding the aforesaid is this: because our restorative principle, namely the incarnate Word, by the very fact that it is the Word, is the font of truth and wisdom; by the very fact that it is incarnate, is the font of mercy and indulgence; therefore it ought to restore the human race through the medicines of the Sacraments, and especially against the chief disease, which is mortal sin, in accordance with what befits a merciful pontiff, a skilled physician, and a just judge; so that in our healing there may appear the incarnate Word's supreme clemency, supreme prudence, and supreme justice.
First, therefore, since in our healing from mortal fault through penance there ought to appear the supreme clemency of Christ himself, the most merciful Pontiff, and the supreme clemency of the Pontiff surpasses all human sins, of whatever kind and however great they may be and however often they may have been committed: hence it belongs to the most clement Pontiff to receive sinners unto pardon, not once nor twice, but as often as they shall have humbly implored the clemency of God. And because divine clemency is then truly and humbly implored when the lamentation of penance intervenes, and a person can turn himself to this so long as he is in the state of the present life, because he is capable of turning to good and to evil: hence it is that however greatly, whenever, and however often a sinner may have sinned, he can have refuge in the Sacrament of penance, through which there may be made for him the remission of sins.
Again, because in our healing there ought to be manifested the supreme prudence of Christ himself, the most skilled physician, and the prudence of a physician lies in applying contrary remedies, by which not only is the disease removed, but its cause is also cut off; since sin is committed against God by delight, consent, and perpetration, namely by heart, mouth, and deed: hence it is that the most prudent Physician ordained that against the disorder of the sinner according to the threefold power, namely the affective, the interpretive, and the operative, which comes about through the hidden complacency of delight, there should be a reformation of the penitent according to the aforesaid threefold power through a penance of sorrow conceived in the heart through compunction, expressed by the mouth through confession, consummated in deed through satisfaction. And because all mortal sins turn one away from the one God and are opposed to the one grace and pervert the one principal rectitude of man: hence it is that, in order for the medicine of penance to be sufficiently integrated from its parts, it is necessary that penance be had for all sins, both with respect to the past through displeasure at what has been committed, and with respect to the present through cessation from committing sins, and with respect to the future through the purpose of never relapsing either into the same or into another kind of sin; so that by thus totally withdrawing from fault through penance, divine grace may be received, through which pardon for all sins may be obtained.
Lastly, because in our healing there ought to be manifested the right justice of Christ himself as judge; and it is not for him to judge in his own person before the last and final judgment: therefore he had to appoint judges for particular judgments before the end. And because these judges between God who is offended and man who offends are, as it were, intermediaries, as those close to Christ and set over the people: but those are especially close and familiar to the Lord by reason of their office who are especially consecrated to his ministry, namely priests: therefore to all those established in the sacerdotal order, and to them alone, is given the power of the twofold key, namely the key of knowledge for discerning, and the key which is the power of binding and loosing, for judging and bestowing the benefit of absolution.
Because indeed, in order to avoid confusion, not just anyone is set over anyone else in the Church Militant, since the ecclesiastical hierarchy itself ought to be ordered according to judicial power: therefore this power of binding and loosing was granted first to one first and supreme priest, upon whom universal power was conferred as upon the supreme head; and then according to particular Churches it is divided into parts, such that it descends first to bishops and then to priests from one head. Therefore, although every priest has the order and the key, nevertheless the use of the key extends only to those who are ordinarily subject to him, unless it is committed to him by one who has ordinary jurisdiction. Since indeed that jurisdiction resides principally in the supreme head, and then in the bishop, and lastly in the parish priest, it can indeed be committed to another by any of these—sufficiently indeed by the lowest, more fully by the middle, and most of all by the supreme.
And because in the Supreme Pontiff and also in the bishops there is jurisdiction of this kind not only for judging between God and man in secret, but also for judging between man and man in the open, as in those to whom the governance and custody of the Church has been committed, just as a bride is entrusted to her bridegroom: hence it is that prelates have a sword, by which they can strike for the defense of right in excommunication, and the power of dispensing from the treasuries of the merits of the Church, which they have stored up and entrusted both from the Head and from the members, and this in relaxation; so that thus as true judges of God they may possess the integral power of binding and loosing, by which they may strike the impenitent and restrain the rebellious, and nonetheless absolve and reconcile to God and to holy Mother Church those who are truly penitent.