Concerning confession. To begin, take notice of two things: first, of what efficacy it is; secondly, of what kind it should be. These are two branches; and each of them is divided: the former into six parts; the other into sixteen. Now this is concerning the former.

Confession hath many powers. I will not, however, speak of them all; but only of six: three against the devil, and three concerning ourselves. Confession confoundeth the devil, and hacketh off his head, and disperseth his forces. Confession washeth us from all our filthiness, and giveth us back all our losses, and maketh us children of God. And each of these divisions hath its own three. Let us now prove all these. The first three are all exemplified in the history of Judith. 1. Judith, that is, confession, as was said before, slew Holofernes, that is, the fiend of hell. Turn back to the place where we spoke of the nature of fowls, which are compared to anchoresses. She hacked off his head, and then came and sheaved it to the priests of the city. Then is the fiend confounded when all his iniquities are disclosed in confession. His head is cut off, and he is slain in the man as soon as ever he is truly sorry for his sins, and hath set his heart on confessing them. 2. But he is not yet confounded while his head is concealed, as Judith did at first, nor until it is shewn; that is, until the mouth in confession put forth the capital sin. And not only the sin, but the whole beginning thereof, and the previous circumstances which brought in the sin, which is the devil’s head, which we ought immediately to trample upon, as I said before. “One Hebrew woman hath made confusion in the house of King Nebuchodonosor;” then his army immediately flies, as Judith made that of Holofernes, and his wiles and fraudulent tricks, wherewith he assailed us, all take to flight; and the city which they had besieged is delivered; that is to say, the sinner is delivered. Judas Maccabeus — who stood against him? In like manner, we are told in the Book of Judges, that, after the death of Joshua, when the people asked, “Who should be their leader, and go before them in the army?” our Lord answered and said, “Judah shall go before you: I will deliver the land of your enemies into his hands.” Consider now attentively, what this meaneth. Joshua meaneth health, and Judah confession, the same as Judith. Then is Joshua dead when the health of the soul is lost through any deadly sin. The sinner is the enemy’s land, who is our deadly foe, and this land our Lord promises to deliver into Judah’s hands. For when he goeth before, behold now, confession is the standard bearer, and beareth here the banner before all God’s army, which is good morals. 3. Confession reaveth from the fiend his land, which is the sinful man, and completely defeateth Canaan, the army of the fiend of hell. Judah did it bodily; and confession, which he betokeneth, doth the same spiritually. Now these are the three things that confession doth against the devil. The other three things which it doth to ourselves are those which follow.

1. Confession washeth us from all our defilements for thus it is written, as a comment upon this, “We will confess to thee, O God, we will confess,” etc., and this was figuratively shewn when Judith washed herself, and stripped off the garments of her widowhood, which were a token of sorrow; and there is no sorrow but from sin only. 2. Confession gives us back all the good that we had lost through mortal sin: it bringeth it all again, and completely restoreth it. Joel saith, “I will restore to you the years that the locust, the canker-worm, and the mildew, and the palmer-worm have eaten.” This was figuratively shewn in that Judith clothed herself with holiday garments, and made herself fair without, as confession maketh us within, with all the goodly ornaments which are tokens of joy. And our Lord saith in Zechariah, “They shall be as they were before I had cast them off;” that is, confession shall make the man such as he was before he sinned; as clean, and as fair, and as rich in all the good that appertaineth to the soul. 3. The third thing which confession doth to ourselves is the fruit of the other two, and which completes them both, that is, maketh us children of God. This is represented in the Book of Genesis, when Judah obtained the consent of Jacob to carry Benjamin with him into Egypt. Benjamin signifieth Son of the right hand. Judah, that is, confession; in like manner as Judith; for both have the same meaning in the Hebrew tongue. This spiritual Judah obtained of Jacob his father, that is, our Lord, to be the son of his right hand, and to enjoy, without end, the inheritance of heaven. We have now said how great is the power of confession, and what effects it hath, and we have mentioned six. Let us now consider attentively what sort of confession that must be which produceth such good effects; and to shew it the better, divide we now this part into sixteen particulars.

Confession shall be accusatory, bitter and sorrowful, full, candid, frequent, speedy, humble, with shame, anxious, hopeful, prudent, true, voluntary, spontaneous, steadfast, and premeditated. These now are, as it were, sixteen particulars, which belong to confession; and we shall say a word of each of them separately in order.

1. Confession shall be accusatory. In confession a man ought to accuse himself, and not defend himself and say, “I did it through the fault of others: I was forced to do it: the devil compelled me to do it.” Thus did Eve and Adam defend themselves. Adam through Eve, and Eve through the serpent. The devil cannot compel any man to commit sin, although he instigates him thereto. But he is very well pleased when any one saith

that he made him to sin, as though he had power, who really hath none, except through ourselves. But we ought to say, “My own wickedness did it; and willingly and wilfully I yielded to the devil.” If thou blamest any thing but thyself for thy sin, thou dost not confess thyself; and if thou sagest that thy weakness was unable to do otherwise, thou throwest the blame of thy sin upon God, who made thee such that, by thine own account, thou hadst not power to resist. Let us accuse ourselves; for lo! what saith St. Paul? “If we accuse and judge ourselves well here, we shall be freed from accusing at the great judgment.” Concerning this St. Anselm saith these terrible words, “On this side will stand accusing sins; on the other, the dreadful judgment seat; above, the angry judge; beneath, the yawning horrid pit of hell; within, a gnawing conscience; without, a burning world. Scarcely shall the righteous be saved. Where shall the sinner, thus detected, hide himself? “On Doomsday our black sins on the one side shall sternly accuse us of our soul-murder; on the other side stands justice, with whom there is no pity, dreadful and terrible to behold; above us the angry judge, for as soft as he is here so hard he is there and as mild as he is now here so stern he is there a lamb here and a lion there, as the Prophet testifieth. “The lion shall roar,” saith he, “who is he that shall not be afraid?” Here we call him Lamb as oft as we sing “Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world.” Now, as I said, we shall see above us the same angry judge, who is also the witness, and knows all our guilt; beneath us, yawning wide, the wide throat of hell; within ourselves our own conscience, that is, our mind, reproaching itself with the fire of remorse for sin; without us, all the world blazing in black flame up to the welkin. The unhappy sinner being thus beset, how shall it then stand with him? To which of these four can he turn? There is nothing then but that severe sentence — that awful, and above all terrible sentence, “Go, ye accursed, out of my eye-sight, into the eternal fire that was prepared for the devil and his angels. Ye disobeyed my statutes which I ordained for man, who was appointed to live in toil and in sorrow on earth; and ye shall now, therefore, have the devil’s doom, and burn with him in the everlasting fire of hell.” Then shall the lost utter such wailing that both heaven and earth may fearfully shudder. Wherefore St. Austin affectionately teacheth us, Let man think of Doomsday, and judge himself here, in this wise: let reason sit as judge upon the judgment seat; let his thought then come forth; let his thoughts bring to his remembrance, accuse him, and charge him with divers sins, “O, good friend, thou didst this, and this, and this, in such a place, and in this manner.” Let his conscience acknowledge it, and bear him witness; “true it is, true it is, this and much more.” After this, let Fear come forth, by the judge’s command, who sternly orders, “Take him and bind him fast, for he is worthy of death; and bind him so in every limb with which he hath sinned that he may sin with them no more.” Fear hath bound him, when he dare not, for fear, make any movement toward sin. Yet is not the judge, that is, reason, satisfied, though he is bound and keeps himself from sin, unless he pay the penalty for the sin he has done; and he calleth forth pain and sorrow, and commands sorrow to scourge him within the heart with sore repentance, so that he sigh and punish the flesh outwardly with fasting, and with other bodily pains. He who thus judgeth himself here, before the great judgment, is blessed and happy. For, as the prophet saith, “Our Lord will not suffer a man to be judged for one thing twice.” It is not in God’s court as it is in that of the shire, where they who deny well may be acquitted; and the fool who is detected is condemned. Before God it is otherwise: “If thou accusest thyself well here, God will excuse thee there,” and clear thee also, at the strict judgment—because thou judgest thyself, as I have taught above.

2. Confession shall be bitter, inasmuch as the sin, at one time, was thought sweet. Judith, which signifieth confession, as I have often remarked, was the daughter of Meran; and Judah, which is also confession, wived with Tamar. Merarí and Tamar both signify bitterness in Hebrew. Now, pay earnest attention to the signification. I mention it briefly: bitterness, sorrow, and confession. The one may come from the other, as Judith did from Merarí, and both may be joined together, as were Judith and Tamar; for either without the other is worth little or nothing. Pharez and Zarah never bring forth offspring. There are four things that mortal sin has done to him which, if a man reflect, may make him sorrowful, and embitter his heart. Lo, now, this is the first: If a man had lost, in a single hour of the day, his father and mother, his brothers and sisters, and also all his kindred, and if all his friends that he ever had had died suddenly in a single day, would he not be sorrowful and grieved more than all other men, as he well might? God knoweth he may be, without comparison, more sorrowful who, by mortal sin, has slain God within his soul. For he hath not only lost the sweet Father of heaven, and Saint Mary his Mother, or Holy Church — since he hath nothing more or less from her — and all the angels of heaven, and all the saints, which were formerly as brethren, and sisters, and friends to him. They are dead, as relates to him. He hath slain them all, and is there, where they live for ever, abhorred of them all, as Jeremiah witnesseth, “All they who loved him cried spit on him,” and they all hate him. Moreover, all his children, as soon as he sinned mortally, died every one; which are his good works, which are all lost. And, in addition to all this, he is himself completely changed, and from being a child of God is become a child of the devil of hell, frightful to look upon; as God himself saith in the Gospel, “Ye are of your father the devil.” Let every one reflect upon his own state in which he is, or was, and he may see wherefore he ought to sigh sore. Therefore Jeremiah saith, “Make bitter moan as a woman doth for her child, that hath but him alone,” and seeth him before her suddenly cut off by death. Now the second example which I promised is this: If a man were condemned for a horrid murder to be burned alive, or disgracefully hanged, what would be the state of his heart? Nay, but, thou unhappy sinner! when thou by mortal sin didst murder God’s spouse, that is, thy soul —when thou wert condemned to be hanged on a burning gallows-tree in the everlasting torments of hell — when thou madest a covenant with the devil concerning thy death, and saidest with the lost ones in Isaiah, “We have plighted troth with death, and established a covenant with hell;” for this is the devil’s bargain; he giveth thee sin, and thou gívest him thy soul, and thy body too, to suffer woe and misery world without end. Now, briefly, the third example. Think how a man who had the whole world under his dominion, and had, by his wickedness, lost it all in one hour, would mourn and be grieved! Then oughtest thou to be a hundred times more grieved, who, by one mortal sin, hast lost the kingdom of heaven, and hast lost our Lord, who is an hundred times — yea, a thousand times, better than all this world — both earth and heaven. “For what concord hath Christ with Belial?” Now again, the fourth example. If the king had given his beloved son in charge to a knight to guard, and enemies took away this child, his ward, so that the child himself made war upon his father along with the enemies, would not the knight be grieved and sorely ashamed? We all are the sons of God, the King of Heaven, who hath given each of us in charge to an angel to guard. Sorry is he, as angels are sorry, when enemies lead us away, and when we make war against our heavenly Father, by sin. Let us be sorry that we ever should displease such a Father, and disgrace such a guardian who constantly watches over and protects us from invisible unblest spirits, for otherwise we should stand in evil plight. But, when we commit deadly and foul sin, we contemptuously drive him far away, and the devil leapeth in as soon as he is gone from us. Let us hold him nigh us with the sweet smell of good works, and let us put ourselves in his keeping. Christ knoweth that every one of us pay too little honour to so kind a guardian, and feel too little gratitude for his service. For these and many other reasons, a man may bitterly grieve for his sins, and weep full sore; and well it is with him whoso may, for weeping is health to the soul. Our Lord doth to us as men do to a bad debtor; he accepteth less than we owe him, and yet is well satisfied. We owe him blood for blood; and moreover our blood in return for his blood which he shed for us, were a very unequal exchange. But knowest thou what men often do? We accept from a bad debtor oats instead of wheat; and our Lord accepteth from us our tears instead of his blood, and is well satisfied. He wept upon the cross, and for Lazarus, and for Jerusalem —for other men’s sins! If we weep for our own, it is no great wonder. “Weep we,” quoth the holy man, in the Lives of the Fathers, when he had been long time entreated for a sermon, “shed we tears,” said he, “lest our tears seethe us in hell.”

3. Confession shall be complete, that is, all said to one man, from childhood. When the poor widow would cleanse her house, she gathereth into a heap, first of all, all the largest sweepings, and then shoveleth it out; after this she cometh again and heapeth together all that was left before, and shoveleth it out also; again, upon the small dust, if it is very dusty, she sprinkleth water, and sweepeth it quite away after all the rest. In like manner must he that confesseth himself, after the great sins, shovel out the small, and if the dust of light thoughts fly up too much, sprinkle tears on them, and they will not, then, blind the eyes of the heart. Whoso hideth ought hath told nought; for, be he ever so faultless, yet he is like the man who hath upon him many deadly wounds, and sheweth them all but one to the physician, and lets them all be healed but one, of which he dies. He is also like men in a ship that hath many leaks, into which the water makes its way in, and they stop them all but one, by means of which they are every one of them drowned. We are told of a holy man who lay in his death-sickness, and was unwilling to confess a particular sin of his childhood, and his abbot urged him by all means to confess it. He answered and said that it was not necessary, because he was a little child when he did it. Reluctantly, however, at last, through the searching exhortations of the abbot, he told it, and died soon thereafter. After his death, he came one night and appeared to his abbot in snow-white garments, as one who was saved; and said that if he had not fully confessed that particular thing which he did in childhood, he should certainly have been condemned among those who are lost. We are told also of another man who was well nigh condemned because he once compelled a man to drink, and died unshriven of it. Likewise, of a lady because she had lent one of her garments to a woman to go to a wake. But if any one hath searched diligently all the recesses of his heart, and can discover nothing more, if there yet lurketh any thing unobserved, it is, I hope, thrust out with the rest, since there was no negligence about it; and if he had been conscious of more guilt, he would willingly have confessed it. “If the consciousness is wanting, the punishment makes up for it.” Augustine.

4. Confession must also be candid, that is, made without any concealment, and not palliated by comparisons, nor gently touched upon. But the words should be spoken plainly according to the deeds. It is a sign of hatred when men reprehend severely a thing that is greatly hated. If thou hatest thy sin, why dost thou speak of it in gentle terms? Why dost thou hide its foulness? Speak out its shame reproachfully, and rebuke it very sharply, if thou wouldst indeed confound the devil. Sir,” saith the woman, “I have had a lover;” or, I have been foolish concerning myself.” This is not plain confession. Put no cloak over it. Take away the accessories, that is, the circumstances. Uncover thyself and say, “Sir, the mercy of God, and thine! I am a foul stud mare: a stinking whore.” Give thy enemy a foul name, and call thy sin by its name without disguise, that is, conceal thou nothing at all that is connected with it. Yet what is too foul may not be spoken. The foul deed need not be named by its own foul name. It is sufficient to speak of it in such a manner that the father confessor may clearly understand what thou wouldst express. There lieth about sin six things which conceal it; in Latin, circumstances; in English, they may be called adjuncts: person, place, time, manner, number, cause.

[(4.) 1] Person — she that committed the sin, or with whom it was committed. Lay it open, and say, “Sir, I am a woman, and ought rightly to have been more modest than to speak as I have spoken, or to do as I have done; and, therefore, my sin is greater than if a man had done it, for it became me worse. I am an anchoress, a nun, a wedded wife, a maiden, a woman in whom such confidence is put, and one that had before been burnt with the same thing, and ought to have been more on my guard. Sir, it was with such a man;” and then name him — “a monk, a priest, or clerk, and of such an order, a married man, an innocent creature, a woman, as I am.” Thus far as to the person.

[(4.) 2] Also concerning the place: “Sir, I played or spoke thus in the church; went to the play in the churchyard; looked on at this, or at the wrestling, and other foolish sports; spoke thus, or played, in the presence of secular men, or of religious men, in a house of anchorites, and at a different window than I ought; and near something sacred; I kissed him there; I touched him with my hand in such a place; or being alone in the church I thought thus; I looked upon him at the altar.”

[(4.) 3] In like manner as to the time: “Sir, I was of such an age that I ought indeed to have kept myself more wisely. Sir, I did it in Lent, during the fast days, the holidays, when others were at church. Sir, I was soon overcome, and therefore the sin is greater than if I had been overcome by force, and by much violence. Sir, it was my fault, at first, that this thing went forward, through my coming into such a place, and at such a time. Before I ever did it, I reflected well how evil it were to do it, and did it nevertheless.”

[(4.) 4] The manner likewise must be told, which is the fourth circumstance: “Sir, this sin I did thus, and in this manner; thus I first learned it, and thus I came first into it, and thus I went on to do it; and in so many ways; so fully, so shamefully; thus I sought pleasure; how I might give the most satisfaction to my inflamed desires;” and search out all the ways.

[(4.) 5] Number is the fifth circumstance — to tell the whole, how often it has been done: “Sir, I have done this so often; been accustomed to speak thus, and to listen to such speeches, and to think such thoughts, to neglect and forget things; to laugh, eat, drink, less or more than was needful. I have been so often angry since I last confessed, and for such a thing, and it lasted so long. I have so often spoken falsely, so often, and this, and this. I have done this so many times, and in so many ways, and to so many persons.”

[(4.) 6] Cause is the sixth circumstance. Cause is, why thou didst it, or helped to do it, or through what means it began: “Sir, I did it for pleasure, and for guilty love, and for gain, through fear, through flattery. Sir, I did it for evil, though no evil came of it. Sir, my light answer, or my light behaviour enticed him toward me. Sir, of this word came another; of this action, anger and evil words. Sir, the reason why the evil still continues is this: my heart was so weak.” Let every one, according to what he is, tell the circumstances — man, as relates to him; woman, as it concerns her: for I have not said anything here, but to remind man or woman of that which happeneth to them, by what is here said in a desultory manner. Thus strip thy sin of these six coverings. Make it stark naked in thy confession, as Jeremiah teacheth, “Pour out thy heart as water.” For, if oil be poured out of a vessel, yet there will be left in it somewhat of the liquor; and if milk be poured out, the colour will remain; and if wine be poured, the smell remaineth; but water goeth completely out at once. In such a manner, pour out thine heart; that is, all the evil that is in thine heart. And, if thou dost not, behold how terribly God threateneth thee by the prophet Nahum: “Behold, I am against thee,” saith the Lord, “and I will shew the nations thy nakedness, and the kingdoms thy shame. And I will cast abominations upon thee.” Thou wouldest not uncloak thyself to the priest in confession, and I will shew quite nakedly thy wickedness to all people, and thy shameful sins to all kingdoms — to the kingdom of earth, and to the kingdom of heaven, and to the kingdom of hell; and I will bind up all thy vileness upon thine own neck, as is done to a thief when he is brought to be judged; and thus, with all that ignominy packed upon thee, thou shalt be hurled headlong into hell. “Oh!” saith St. Bernard, “what disgrace and what sorrow there will be when all the leaves shall be shaken off, and all that foul corruption is exposed and wrung out before all the wide world,” — the dwellers in earth and dwellers in heaven — not only of works, but of idle words and thoughts that are not amended here, as St. Anselm witnesseth, “Every tide and every time shall be there reckoned, in what manner it was here spent.” “When all the leaves,” saith St. Bernard, “shall be shaken off,” etc. He had seen, as it seems, how Adam and Eve, when they had in the beginning sinned, gathered leaves and made of them coverings to their unseemly members; and thus do many still, after them, “turning their hearts aside to words of craftiness, to justify themselves in their sins.”

5. Confession ought to be made often. Wherefore we find in the Psalter, “We will confess to thee, O God;” and our Lord himself said to his disciples, “Go we again into Judea.” Judea means confession; and so we find that he went often out of Galilee into Judea. Galilee signifieth wheel, to teach us that we should often retire from the whirl of worldly things, and the wheel of sin, and go to confession. For that is the sacrament which, next after the sacrament of the altar, and that of baptism, is most hateful to the devil; as he hath himself acknowledged to holy men, sorely against his will though it be. Can a web be well bleached, or a dirty cloth washed white, at one turn with a single watering? Thou washest thy hands two or three times in a single day; and wilt thou not wash thy soul, Jesus Christ’s spouse? For the whiter it is, the impurity upon it is always the more apparent and the greater, if it is not washen. Often thou wilt not wash it, for the embrace of God, once a week. Confession, holy water, prayers, and holy meditations, benedictions, kneelings, and every good word and work wash small sins, though we may not say all sins, but confession is always the head of all.

6. Confession ought to be made speedily. If sin occurs by night, immediately, or in the morning; and if it occurs by day, before we sleep. Who would dare to sleep while his mortal foe holds a drawn sword over his head? He who slumbereth upon the brink of hell, often rolleth headlong into it, before he is at all aware. When any one has fallen amid the burning fire, is he not more than man, if he lieth and considereth when he shall arise? A woman who hath lost her needle, or a shoemaker his awl, seeketh it immediately, and turns over every straw until it be found; and God, when lost by sin, shall lie unsought full seven days!

“Many dogs,” saith David, “have beset me.” When greedy dogs stand before the board, is there not need of a rod? As oft as any of them snatch toward thee, and taketh from thee thy food, wilt thou not as often smite? Else it would snatch from thee all that thou hadst. Do thou so then. Take the rod of thy tongue, and as oft as the dog of hell snatcheth any good from thee, smite him immediately with the rod of tongue shrift, and smite him so rudely, that he shall be loath afterwards to snatch at thee. Of all striking this is the blow which is most hateful to him. Men beat immediately the dog that gnaweth leather, or worrieth sheep, that he may understand for what he is beaten, and then he dare not again do the same. In like manner beat thou the dog of hell immediately, with thy tongue in confession, and he will be afraid to do thee again such a spiteful trick. Who is so great a fool as to say of the dog that gnaws leather, “Stay till to-morrow: beat him not yet.” But at once, “Beat, beat, beat, immediately.” There is nothing in this world, that maketh him smart so sore, as doth such beating. There are nine things that ought to urge us to confess quickly. The punishment, that is always increasing with usury. For sin is the devil’s money, which he giveth upon interest, and upon usury of punishment, and the longer the man lieth in his sin, the increase of punishment in purgatory, here, or in hell, waxeth always more. “He shall redeem their souls from usuries and iniquity.” The second thing is the great and lamentable loss that he loseth, that nothing he ever doth is worthy of the approbation of God, nor pleasing to him. Jeremiah. “Strangers have devoured his strength.” The third thing is death — that he knoweth not whether he shall not die suddenly that very day. Ecclus. “Delay not to be converted to the Lord, and defer it not from day to day. For his wrath shall come on a sudden, and in the time of vengeance he will destroy thee.” The fourth thing is sickness: he that is sick cannot easily fix his thoughts on anything but his sickness, nor speak as he ought, but groan and cry out for his pain and suffering more than for his sins. “Thou shalt confess and live.” The fifth thing is, the great shame that it is, after a fall, to lie so long; and especially under the devil. “Arise, thou that sleepest.” The sixth thing is, that the wound is now always getting worse through delay, and is more difficult to heal. “Resist evil in the beginning, lest the remedy should be administered when too late.” The seventh thing is evil habit; which is betokened by Lazarus, who had lain so long in the earth that he stank; over whom our Lord wept, as we are told in the Gospel, and gnashed his teeth, and moaned, and cried aloud upon him. These four things he did before he raised him, to shew how difficult it is for a man to arise from an evil habit, who lies putrefying in his sin. Saint Mary have mercy! When Lazarus stank after four days, how, then, must the sinful stink, after four or five years? “Ο God!” saith St. Austin, “with what difficulty doth he arise who hath lain long under the habit of sin.” The eighth thing is that which Saint Gregory saith, “The sin that is not amended by penitence soon draws on another,” and thereafter a third, and so on, every one giveth birth to another and a worse progeny than the mother herself. Thus the deeper men wade into the devil’s muddy fen they are the longer in getting out of it. The ninth reason is this: the sooner a man begins here to do his penance, he hath the less to amend in the pain of purgatory. Now these are nine reasons, and there are many more, on account of which confession ought to be made quickly.

VII. 7. Confession ought to be humble, as the publican’s was, and not as the Pharisee’s, who recounted his good deeds, and sheaved openly that which was whole, when he ought to have uncovered his wounds; and therefore he departed from the temple unhealed, as our Lord himself telleth. Humility may be compared to those crafty varlets who expose their dropping ulcers and their running sores, which they always put forth; and if the sore is hideous they shew it the more openly in the sight of the rich, that they may pity them, and give them alms the more readily. They likewise conceal their whole clothes, and put on smock-frocks over them, all torn. Just in this manner, humility happily and humbly beguileth our Lord, and obtaineth good things from him; begging with pious knavery, she always concealeth her good things and sheweth her poverty and weeping and groaning, exposeth her rankling sore in the sight of God; and, without ceasing, beseecheth him by his precious sufferings, and by his precious blood, by his five wounds, by his mother’s tears, by the paps from which he sucked the milk that fed him, for the love of all his saints, for the kind affection which he hath to his dear spouse, that is, to the pure soul, and by his death on the cross for her redemption. Thus doth she, with earnest adjuration, weep and cry for help to the wretched sufferer, wherewith to administer medicine to

the sick, and to heal her festering sore; and thus she adjureth our Lord; and he cannot, for pity, refuse her, nor grieve her heart with a refusal, since he is so exceedingly bountiful that there is nothing more agreeable to him than to find an occasion to give. But, when any one boasteth of his goodness, as the proud do in confession, what need is there to help them? Many have such a way of speaking of their sins, that it is equivalent to a covert boasting and hunting after the praise of greater sanctity.

8. Confession must be made with shame. By the passing of the people of Israel through the Red Sea, which was red and bitter, it is signified that we must go to heaven through red shame and bitter penitence, that is, in true confession. Christ knoweth that it is very just that we should be ashamed before man, who forgot shame when we did the deed and the sin in the sight of God, “For all that ever exists, is naked,” saith St. Paul, “and open to His eyes to whom we must give an account of all our doings.” “Shame is the greatest part of our penance,” as St. Austin saith. And St. Bernard saith that the sight of no precious jewel giveth so much delight to man, as the blushing of a man’s face who truly confesseth his sins delighteth the eye of God. Understand rightly this matter. Confession is a sacrament, which hath an outward resemblance of the effect which it worketh within, as it is in baptism. The outward washing in baptism betokeneth the washing of the soul within. It is the same with regard to confession. The lively red of the countenance tells that the soul, which was livid, and had nothing but the hue of death, hath got the hue of life, and is beautifully reddened.

9. Confession ought to be made with such anxious fear that thou mayest say with St. Jerome, “Whenever I have confessed, it always seems to me as if I had not confessed.” For some of the circumstances are always forgotten. Wherefore, said St. Austin, “The best man of all this world, if our Lord judged him according to strict justice, and not according to mercy, should be in a woful condition. But his mercy toward us always outweigheth his strict judgment.”

10. Confession must be hopeful. When a man saith all that he knoweth, and doth all that he can, God requires no more of him. But hope and fear should always be mingled together. To intimate this, it was commanded in the old law that no man should separate the two grindstones: The

nether, that lieth still, and beareth a heavy load, betokeneth fear, which draweth man from sin, and is loaded here with hard things, that it may be free from harder. The upper stone betokeneth hope, which runneth, and is always actively employed in good works, trusting to receive a great reward. Let no man separate these two from each other. For, as St. Gregory saith, “Fear without hope maketh a man to despair; and hope without fear maketh him presumptuous.” These two sins, despair and presumption, are the devil’s tristres, where the unhappy beast seldom escapeth. A tristre is where men wait with the greyhounds to intercept the game, or to prepare the nets for them. All that he driveth is toward one of these two points; for there are his nets, and there his greyhounds, Despair and Presumption, are met together, and of all sins they are nearest the gate of hell. With fear, and without hope, that is, with despair, was the confession of Cain and of Judas; and, therefore, they died without hope, that is, in despair. Without fear, with presumption, is that unhappy person’s saying, of whom David saith in the Psalter, “According to the multitude of his wrath he will not seek him.” God is not so angry, saith he, as ye pretend that he is. “No!” saith David. “Yea!” and then saith wherefore. “Wherefore hath the wicked provoked God? for he hath said in his heart, He will not require it.” First of all he calleth the presumptuous wicked. The wicked, wherewith provoketh he God Almighty? “Wherewith?” saith he; “with this, that he saith, He will not judge so strictly, as ye say.” “Yea, surely, but he will.” Thus, these two sins are two fierce robbers; for the one, that is, presumption, taketh away from God his righteous judgment and his justice; the other, that is, despair, taketh away from him his mercy. And thus they both are endeavouring to destroy God himself; for God could not exist without justice, nor without mercy. Now then, what sins are worthy of being compared to these which would, in their corrupt manner, kill God? If thou art too confident, and accountest God too mild to inflict vengeance upon sin, according to thy account he is pleased with sin. But consider how he avenged upon his archangel that thought of pride alone, and how he avenged himself upon Adam for the bite of an apple, and how he sunk Sodom and Gomorrah, men, women, and children, and all the famous cities, an entire region of great extent, down to the abyss of hell, where the Dead Sea now is, in which there is nothing that hath life; and how, in

Noah’s flood, he drowned all the world but eight persons who were in the ark; how severely he avenged himself upon his own beloved people Israel, as often as they were guilty. Dathan and Abiram, Korah and his companions, and others whom, in like manner, he slew, often in many thousands, for their murmuring. On the other hand, if thou hast despair of his unbounded mercy, consider how easily and how soon Saint Peter, who had forsaken him, and that for a word spoken by a maid-servant, was reconciled to him; and how the thief on the cross, who had always lived in sin, obtained mercy of him in an instant, by one candid speech. Wherefore, between these two, despair and presumption, let hope and fear be always joined together.

11. Confession of secret sins ought also to be always prudent, and made to a prudent man, and not to young priests, I mean young of wit, nor yet to foolish old men. Begin with pride, and examine all the branches thereof, as they are written above, which apply to thee. Thereafter, of envy, in like manner; and thus proceed downward, from one to another, until thou comest to the last, and draw to ether the whole progeny under the mother.

12. Confession ought to be truthful. Do not lie concerning thyself, for, as St. Austin saith, “He who lieth concerning himself, through too much humility, becomes sinful though he were not so before.” St. Gregory saith, however, “It is the nature of a good heart to be afraid of sin, often where there is none,” or to ponder his sin somewhat more than he need. To ponder it too little is as bad, or worse. The middle way is always the golden mean. Let us always fear; for, often we think to do a little harm, and we commit a great sin; and often we think to do good, and we do much evil. Say we always, then, with St. Anselm, “Even our good is, in a manner, so tainted with evil that it cannot please God, or rather must displease him.” St. Paul saith, “I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing.” No good that is in us is of ourselves: our good is God’s; but our sin is of ourselves, and is our own. “When I do God’s good,” saith St. Anselm, “my own evil, somehow, so corrodes it that I do it either without pleasure, or too soon, or too late, or I think highly of it. If no man should know it, I either wish that some one might know it, or I do it negligently, or too inconsiderately, too abundantly, or too sparingly. Thus is some evil always mingled with my good, which

the grace of God giveth me, so that it can please God little, and may often displease him.” St. Mary! when the holy man spoke thus of himself, how truly may we unhappy sinners say the same of ourselves!

13. Confession ought to be voluntary, that is, willingly, unasked, and not drawn out of thee, as if it were against thy will. When thou hast any thing to confess, say all, unasked. We are not to put any questions, unless it be quite necessary; for evil may come of questioning, unless it be done the more wisely. On the other hand, many a one puts off confession until he is in the last extremity. But the proverb, “He may not when he would, who would not when he might,” often applieth to him. There is no greater absurdity than to set a time to God, as if grace were one’s own, and a man could take grace to himself at whatever time he set. Nay, my friend, nay! The time is in God’s hand, and not at thy discretion. When God offers, reach forth with both hands; for, if he withdraw his hand, thou mayest afterwards wait long. Should sickness, or any other cause drive thee to confession, behold! what saith St. Austin “Forced services please not our Lord.” But yet, Better is yea than nay.” Before is better than too late. “True repentance,” saith he, “is never too late.” But it is better, as David saith, “My flesh hath flourished again, and is altogether renewed; for I will make my confession, and praise God with my heart.” He saith well, “has flourished,” to signify voluntary confession; for the earth quite unconstrained, and the trees likewise, open themselves and bring forth various flowers. Humility, abstinence, dove-like meekness, and other such virtues are fair flowers in the eyes of God, and sweet smelling in his nostrils. Thus, in Canticles, “The flowers have appeared in our land.” Of these, that is, of such flowers, make thou his bower in thy heart; for he saith his delight is to dwell there: “My delight is with the sons of men.”

14. Confession ought to be our own. In confession, no man must expose any one but himself, as far as possible. I say this because such a case and such an occurrence may happen to a man that he may not be able fully and entirely to confess himself without exposing another. But, yet, let him not mention the name of such a one, even though the father confessor should well know to whom it refers. But thou mightest say thus: a monk, or a priest, and not William nor Walter, although there be no other.

15. Confession must be made with a firm purpose to do the penance, and to leave off the sin. Thou must say to the priest, “I am firmly resolved, in my mind and heart, to leave off this sin, and to do the penance.” The priest ought not to ask thee if thou wilt then furthermore vow to leave off thy sin. It is enough that thou hast it in thy heart faithfully to do it, through God’s grace, and if thou fallest afterwards into it, that thou wilt immediately arise, through God’s help, and come again to confession. “Go,” saith our Lord, “and resolve that thou wilt no more sin.” Lo! thus he asked no other security.

16. Confession ought to be long premeditated. By reflecting upon five things, recollect thy sins. Of every age of thy life, of childhood, of youth; bring them all into remembrance. Thereafter recollect the places in which thou dwelledst, and think earnestly what thou didst in each place separately, and at every age. Thereafter, seek and trace out all thy sins in thy five senses, then in all the members wherewith thou hast sinned, and in which thou hast sinned most or oftenest: lastly, on particular days and times.

You have now had, as I think, all the sixteen parts, into which I promised to divide the subject, and I have broken them all to you, my dear sisters, as is done to children, who might die of hunger if they had not their bread broken; and, as ye know, many a crumb hath fallen from me. Seek and gather them up, for they are food for the soul. Such confession, that hath these sixteen parts, hath those same great powers of which I spoke first; three against the devil, and three against ourselves, more precious than all treasures of gold, and than all jewels of India.

My dear sisters, this fifth part, which is of confession, belongeth to all men alike. Wherefore do not wonder that I have not spoken to you in a particular manner in this part. Take, however, to your behoof this short and concluding summary of all mentioned and known sins, as of pride, of ambition, or of presumption, of envy, of wrath, of sloth, of carelessness, of idle words, of immoral thoughts, of any idle hearing, of any false joy, or of heavy mourning, of hypocrisy, of meat and of drink, too much or too little, of grumbling, of morose countenance, of silence broken, of sitting too long at the parlour window, of hours ill said, or without attention of heart, or at a wrong time; of any false word, or oath; of play, of scornful laughter, of dropping crumbs, or spilling ale, or letting a thing grow mouldy, or rusty, or rotten; clothes not sewed, wet with rain, or unwashen; a cup or a dish broken, or any thing carelessly looked after which we are using, or which we ought to take care of; or of cutting, or of damaging, through heedlessness. Of all the things in this rule which are neglected, let her confess once a week at least, for there is none of these things so small that the devil hath not written in his roll. But confession eraseth it, and maketh him to lose much of his labour. And all that confession doth not erase he will read full readily on the day of judgment, in order to accuse thee with it; a single word shall not be wanting. Now, therefore, I advise that we give him the least to write we ever can; for no employment is more gratifying to him. And whatever is written be careful to erase it cleanly. With nothing may ye overcome nor defeat him better. An anchoress may confess to any priest such open sins as all men are liable to fall into; but she must be well assured and confident of the integrity of the priest to whom she sheweth unreservedly how it stands with her in regard to carnal temptations, if she hath them, or if she is tempted with them, except it be under the fear of death. I am of opinion, however, that she may say in this manner, “Sir, carnal temptations which I have, or have had, prevail over me too much on account of my weakness. I am afraid lest I should go driving on sometimes much too far upon foolish, and, at times, foul thoughts, as if I were hunting after pleasure. I might, through God’s powerful help, often shake them off me, if I were promptly and stoutly to exert myself. I am sorely afraid lest the pleasure in the thought should often continue too long, so that it might well nigh attain the consent of the mind.” I dare not recommend that she should confess more fully concerning this to young priests, but to her own father confessor, or to some other man of holy life. If she may have him, let her pour all out that is in the crock; there, let her vomit out all that perilous stuff; there, with words foul as its own filth, let her censure it, so vehemently, that she may be afraid lest she offend the ears of him who heareth her sins. And, if there is any anchoress who is ignorant of such things, let her heartily thank Jesus Christ, and let her continue in fear. The devil is not yet dead; let her know that, though he may be asleep.

Trivial faults correct thus, immediately, yourselves and yet, mention them to the priest, when ye think of them in confession. For the very least of them, as soon as ye are conscious of it, fall down in the form of a cross to the earth before your altar, and say, “Mea culpa;” I am guilty; Lord, have mercy. The priest need not for any fault, unless it be the greater, impose any other penance upon you than the life which ye lead according to this rule. But after the absolution, he shall say, “The merit of all the good thou mayest have done, and all the evil thou mayest have suffered for the love of Jesus Christ, within thy monastic walls, I grant thee, and I apply it all to thee, towards the remission of these, and towards the remission and forgiveness of all thy sins.” And then he may impose some small thing upon thee, or upon you, as a Psalm, or two Paternosters, ten or twelve Ave Marys. He may add flagellations too, if he think fit. According to the circumstances, which are written above, he shall judge the sin to be greater or less. One venial sin may be very deadly, through some evil circumstance that is joined with it.

After confession, it is proper to speak of penance, that is, amends-deed, and thus we have a way out of this fifth part into the sixth part.

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