ed in the
Decretals[8] and is current in the Church, to wit, that every
Christian should once in a year make confession of all his sins
(so the words run), is either a devilish and most murderous
doctrine, or else is sorely in need of a loose interpretation.

Not all sins, I say, either mortal or venial, are to be
confessed, but it should be known that after a man has used all
diligence in confessing, he has yet confessed only the smaller
part of his sins. How do we know this? Because the Scripture
says, "Cleanse Thou me from hidden sins, O Lord." [Ps. 19:12]
These hidden sins God alone knows. And again it says, "Create in
me a clean heart, O God." [Ps. 51:10] Even this holy prophet
confesses that his heart is unclean. And all the holy Church
prays, "Thy will be done"; [Matt. 6:10] and thus confesses that
she does not do the will of God, and is herself a sinner.

[Sidenote: Should All Mortal Sins be Confessed?]

Furthermore, we are so far from being able to know or confess all
the mortal sins that even our good works are damnable and mortal,
if God were to judge with strictness, and not to receive them
with forgiving mercy. If, therefore, all mortal sins are to be
confessed, it can be done in a brief word, by saying at once,
"Behold, all that I am, my life, all that I do and say, is such
that it is mortal and damnable"; according to what is written in
the cxliii. Psalm, "Enter not into judgment with Thy servant, for
in Thy sight shall no flesh living be justified" [Ps. 143:2]; and
in the Epistle to the Romans, Chapter vii, "But I am carnal, sold
under sin; I know that in my flesh dwelleth no good thing; the
evil that I would not, that I do, etc." [Rom. 7:14, 18, 19]

But of all mortal sins, this is the most mortal, not to believe
that we are hateful in the sight of God because of damnable and
mortal sin. To such madness these theologians, with this rule of
theirs, strive zealously and perniciously to drag the consciences
of men, by teaching that venial sins are to be distinguished from
mortal sins, and that according to their own fashion. For we read
in Augustine, Cyprian, and other Fathers that those things which
are bound and loosed are not mortal sins, but criminal offences,
i. e., those acts of which men can be accused and convicted.

Therefore, by the term "all sins" in the Decretal we should
understand those things of which a man is accused, either by
others or by his own conscience. By "conscience" I mean