Folia Theologica et Canonica 11. 33/25 (2022)
Ius canonicum
146 GORAN JOVICIC Sozomen, in his Ecclesiastical History,132 gives an impressive description of this rite, which he observed at Rome.133 134 Penitents joined the catechumens at the designated place in the back of the church “locus paenitentium,nM and had to leave the church before the offertory. According to Sozomen, the penitents in the West were blessed at the end of the Mass and, in contrast to the catechumens, were allowed to remain in the church even during the “missa fidelium” (of course abstaining from the Eucharist); unlike the rest of the faithful, however, the penitents had to kneel even on feast-days of joyful character.135 The public penance in the Church of the East on the other hand, as described by St. Basil the Great, bishop of Neo-Caesarea, knew four “stations” or degrees of penitents: weepers, hearers, kneelers, and co-standers.136 d. Absolution The third stage of the penitential discipline of the early Church was reconciliation or absolution. St. Jerome offers a valuable testimony to the Roman practice regarding the reconciliation of sinners: “The bishop {sacerdos) indeed offers his oblation for the layman, imposes his hand upon the subject person, invokes the return of the Holy Spirit, and so with the pronouncement of a prayer before the people, reconciles to the altar him who had been delivered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit might be saved, nor does he restore one member to soundness before all the members have wept together with him.”137 The custom of the Roman Church was the following: whether ,32 “As the custom of doing penance never gained ground among the Novatians, regulations of this nature were, of course, unnecessary among them, but the custom prevailed among all other religious sects, and exists even to the present day. It is observed with great rigor by the Western churches, particularly at Rome, where there is a place appropriated to the reception of penitents, where they stand and mourn until the completion of the solemn services, from which they are excluded, then they cast themselves, with groans and lamentations, prostrate on the ground. The bishop conducts the ceremony, sheds tears, and prostrates himself in like manner, and all the people burst into tears, and groan aloud. Afterwards, the bishop rises from the ground, and raises up the others. He offers up prayer on behalf of the penitents, and then dismisses them. Each of the penitents subjects himself in private to voluntary suffering, either by fastings, by abstaining from the bath or from divers kinds of meats, or by other prescribed means, until a certain period appointed by the bishop. When this time arrives, he is made free from the consequences of his sin, and is permitted to resume his place in the assemblies of the church. The Roman priests have carefully observed this custom from the beginning to the present time.” Sozomen, The Ecclesiastical History, VII: 16; cf. the text: http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/03d/0450-0450,_Salaminus_Hermias_Sozomenus,_The_Ecclesiastical_History_ [Schaff],_EN.pdf (consulted: 1/27/2023). 133 See Poschmann, B., Penance and Anointing of the Sick, 89. 134 Augustine, Serm. 232: 7,8; see Jerome, Ep. 77: 2; 1st Synod of Orange, Can. 3; Epaon (517) Can. 29 and see Poschmann, B., Penance and the Anointing of the Sick, 88. 135 See Poschmann, B., Penance and the Anointing of the Sick, 89-90 and see Statuta Ecclesiae Antiqua, cap. 80. 136 Basil the Great, Ep. 217, and see Eberhardt, N. C., A Summary of Catholic History, 108. 137 See Watkins, O., A History of Penance, I. 409.
