ty the penitent cannot recover.
Nevertheless he recovers something greater sometimes; because as
Gregory says (Hom. de centum Ovibus, 34 in Evang.), "those who
acknowledge themselves to have strayed away from God, make up for
their past losses, by subsequent gains: so that there is more joy in
heaven on their account, even as in battle, the commanding officer
thinks more of the soldier who, after running away, returns and
bravely attacks the foe, than of one who has never turned his back,
but has done nothing brave."

By sin man loses his ecclesiastical dignity, because thereby he
becomes unworthy of those things which appertain to the exercise of
the ecclesiastical dignity. This he is debarred from recovering:
first, because he fails to repent; wherefore Isidore wrote to the
bishop Masso, and as we read in the Distinction quoted above (Obj.
3): "The canons order those to be restored to their former degree,
who by repentance have made satisfaction for their sins, or have made
worthy confession of them. On the other hand, those who do not mend
their corrupt and wicked ways are neither allowed to exercise their
order, nor received to the grace of communion."

Secondly, because he does penance negligently, wherefore it is
written in the same Distinction (Obj. 3): "We can be sure that those
who show no signs of humble compunction, or of earnest prayer, who
avoid fasting or study, would exercise their former duties with great
negligence if they were restored to them."

Thirdly, if he has committed a sin to which an irregularity is
attached; wherefore it is said in the same Distinction (Obj. 3),
quoting the council of Pope Martin [*Martin, bishop of Braga]: "If a
man marry a widow or the relict of another, he must not be admitted
to the ranks of the clergy: and if he has succeeded in creeping in,
he must be turned out. In like manner, if anyone after Baptism be
guilty of homicide, whether by deed, or by command, or by counsel, or
in self-defense." But this is in consequence not of sin, but of
irregularity.

Fourthly, on account of scandal, wherefore it is said in the same
Distinction (Obj. 3): "Those who have been publicly convicted or
caught in the act of perjury, robbery, fornication, and of such like
crimes, according to the prescription of the sacred canons must be
deprived of the exercise of their respective orders, because it is a
scandal to God's people that such persons should be placed over them.
But those who