ON THE MOST HOLY SACRAMENT OF PENANCE

CANON I. If any one shall say, that in the Catholic Church penance is not truly and properly a sacrament, instituted by Christ our Lord for reconciling the faithful unto God, as often as they fall into sin after baptism; let him be anathema.

CANON II. If any one, confounding the sacraments, shall say, that baptism is itself the sacrament of Penance, as though these two sacraments were not distinct, and that therefore penance is not rightly called “a second plank after shipwreck;” let him be anathema.

CANON III. If any one shall say, that those words of the Lord the Saviour, Receive ye the Holy Ghost, whose sins ye shall remit, they are remitted unto them, and whose sins ye shall retain, they are retained, are not to be understood of the power of remitting and of retaining sins in the sacrament of Penance, as the Catholic Church has always from the beginning understood them; but wrests them, contrary to the institution of this sacrament, to the power of preaching the Gospel; let him be anathema.

CANON IV. If any one shall deny, that, unto the entire and perfect remission of sins, three acts in the penitent, which are as it were the matter of the sacrament of Penance, are required, to wit, contrition, confession, and satisfaction, which are called the three parts of penance; or saith that there are only two parts of penance, to wit, the terrors which smite the conscience upon being convinced of sin, and the faith, conceived by the Gospel, or by the absolution, whereby one believes that his sins are remitted unto him through Christ; let him be anathema.

CANON V. If any one shall say, that the contrition which is acquired by means of the examination, collection, and detestation of sins, whereby one thinks over his years in the bitterness of his soul, by pondering on the grievousness, the multitude, the foulness of his sins, the loss of eternal blessedness, and the having incurred eternal damnation, [joined] with the purpose of a better life, is not a true and profitable sorrow, doth not prepare unto grace, but maketh a man a hypocrite and a greater sinner; finally, that this is a forced and not a free and voluntary sorrow; let him be anathema.

CANON VI. If any one shall deny, either that sacramental confession was instituted, or is necessary unto salvation, of divine right; or shall say, that the manner of confessing secretly to a priest alone, which the Catholic Church hath ever observed from the beginning, and doth observe, is alien from the institution and command of Christ, and is a human invention; let him be anathema.

CANON VII. If any one shall say, that, in the sacrament of Penance, it is not, of divine right, necessary unto the remission of sins, to confess all and individually the deadly sins, the memory of which, after due and diligent previous meditation is held, even those which are secret, and those which are opposed to the two last commandments of the Decalogue, as also the circumstances which change the species of a sin; but [saith] that such confession is only useful to instruct and console the penitent, and that it was of old only observed in order to impose a canonical satisfaction; or shall say, that they, who strive to confess all their sins, wish to leave nothing to the divine mercy to pardon; or, finally, that it is not lawful to confess venial sins; let him be anathema.

CANON VIII. If any one shall say, that the confession of all Sins, such as the Church observes, is impossible, and is a human tradition, to be abolished by the pious; or that all and each of the faithful of Christ, of either sex, are not obliged thereunto once a year, according to the constitution of the great Council of Lateran, and that, on this account, the faithful of Christ must not be persuaded to confess during Lent; let him be anathema.

CANON IX. If any one shall say, that the sacramental absolution of the priest is not a judicial act, but a bare ministry of pronouncing and declaring sins to be remitted unto him who confesses; provided only he believe himself to be absolved, or [even if] the priest absolve not in earnest, but in joke; or saith, that the confession of the penitent is not required, in order that the priest may be able to absolve him; let him be anathema.

CANON X. If any one shall say, that priests, who are in deadly sin, have not the power of binding and of loosing; or, that not priests alone are the ministers of absolution, but that unto all and each of the faithful of Christ is it said: Whatsoever ye shall bind upon earth, shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose upon earth, shall be loosed also in heaven; and, whose sins ye shall remit, they shall be remitted unto them; and whose sins ye shall retain, they are retained; by virtue of which words every one is able to absolve sins, to wit, public [sins] by rebuke only; provided the person rebuked yield thereto, and secret [sins] by a voluntary confession; let him be anathema.

CANON XI. If any one shall say, that bishops have not the right of reserving cases to themselves, except as regards external polity, and that therefore the reservation of cases hinders not but that a priest may truly absolve from reserved cases; let him be anathema.

CANON XII. If any one shall say, that the whole punishment is always remitted by God, together with the guilt, and that the satisfaction of penitents is no other than the faith whereby they learn that Christ hath made satisfaction for them; let him be anathema.

CANON XIII. If any one shall say, that satisfaction for sins, as regards their temporal punishment, is in no wise made to God, through the merits of Christ, by the punishments inflicted by Him, and patiently borne, or by those enjoined by the priest, nor even by those voluntarily undertaken, as by fastings, prayers, almsgivings, or by other works also of piety; and that, therefore, the best penance is merely a new life; let him be anathema.

CANON XIV. If any one shall say, that the satisfactions, by which penitents redeem their sins through Christ Jesus, are not a worship of God, but traditions of men, obscuring the doctrine of grace, and the true worship of God, and the benefit itself of the death of Christ; let him be anathema.

CANON XV. If any one shall say, that the keys are given to the Church, only to loose, not also to bind; and that, therefore, priests, when they impose punishments on those who confess, act contrary to the end designed by the keys, and contrary to the institution of Christ; and that it is a fiction, that, after eternal punishment has, by virtue of the keys, been removed, there for the most part remains a temporal punishment to be discharged; let him be anathema.