icate, yet because they have only
had thought thereof, this very thing _sorrowingly and honestly
confessing before the priests of God, make a confession (exomologesis)
of their conscience_, expose the burthen of the soul, seek out a
salutary cure even for light and little wounds, knowing that it is
written 'God will not be mocked.'"

_In the early part of the fourth century_, Lactantius, who is said to
have been converted about the year 290, and to have been put to death
about 326, writes: "As every sect of heretics thinks its followers are
above all other Christians, and its own the Catholic Church, it is to
be known that is the true Catholic Church wherein _is confession and
penitence_ which wholesomely heals the wounds and sins to which the
weakness of the flesh is subject."[43]

_In the first half of the fourth century_, Eusebius, the well-known
ecclesiastical historian and Bishop of Caesarea, in Palestine, who was
born about 270, flourished during the reigns of Constantine and
Constantius, and died in 340, leaves on record that the Emperor
Philip, who wished to join in the prayers of the Church, was not
permitted to do so "until he made his _exomologesis_ (_confession_),
and classed himself with those who were separated on account of their
sins."[44]

_In the same century_, St. Hiliary, Bishop of Poietiers, in Gaul, who
died in 368, writes: "There is the most powerful and most useful
medicine for the diseases of deadly vices _in their confession_. * * *
_Confession of sin is this_, that what has been done by thee thou
confess to be a sin, through thy conviction that it is sin."[45]

_In the fourth century_, St. Athanasius, Patriarch of Alexandria, born
about the year 296, who lived till 373, and whose name is identified
with the General Council of Nice, is equally explicit. "As man," says
he, "is illuminated with the grace of the Holy Spirit by the priest
that baptizes, so also _he who confesses in penitence receives through
the priest_, by the grace of Christ, the remission of sin."

_In this same century_, St. Pacian, who died Bishop of Barcelona about
373, and who wrote on Baptism and Penance, asserts: "'But you will say
you forgive sin to the penitent, whereas in baptism alone it is
allowed you to loose sin.' Not to me at all, but to God only, who both
in baptism forgives the guilt incurred, and rejects not the tears of
the penitent. But what I do, I do not by my own right, but by the
Lord's. * * * Wheref