he gospel; and,
on the return of better days, those who sought restoration to Christian
privileges were so numerous that, in the larger churches, it was deemed
expedient to require the lapsed, in the first instance, to address
themselves to one of the presbyters appointed for their special
examination. The business of this functionary, who was known by the
designation of the _Penitentiary_ [496:1] was to hear the confessions of
the penitents, to ascertain the extent and circumstances of their
apostasy, and to announce the penance required from each by the existing
ecclesiastical regulations. The disclosures made to the Penitentiary did
not supersede the necessity of public confession; it was simply the duty
of this minister to give to the lapsed such instructions as his
professional experience enabled him to supply, including directions as
to the fasts they should observe, and the sins they should openly
acknowledge. Under the guidance of the Penitentiaries the system of
discipline for transgressors seems to have been still farther matured;
and at length, in the beginning of the fourth century, the penitents
were divided into various classes, according to their supposed degrees
of unworthiness. The members of each class were obliged to occupy a
particular position in the place of worship when the congregation
assembled for religious exercises. [497:1]

It must be obvious from these statements that the institution known as
Auricular Confession had, as yet, no existence. In the early Church the
disciples, under ordinary circumstances, were neither required nor
expected, at stated seasons, to enter into secret conference with any
ecclesiastical searcher of consciences. When a professing Christian
committed a heinous transgression by which religion was scandalized, he
was obliged, before being re-admitted to communion, to express his
sorrow in the face of the congregation; and the revelations made to the
Penitentiary did not relieve him from this act of humiliation. It must
also be apparent that the whole system of penance is an unauthorized
addition to the ordinances of primitive Christianity. Of such a system
we do not find even a trace in the New Testament; and under its
blighting influence, the religion of the Church gradually became little
better than a species of refined heathenism.

The spiritual darkness now settling down upon the Christian commonwealth
might be traced in the growing obscurity of the ecclesiastical