ore, whether we baptize, whether we constrain to
penitence, or _grant pardon to the penitent_, Christ is our authority.
It is for you to see to it, whether Christ hath this power, whether
Christ have done this. Baptism is the Sacrament of our Lord's passion;
_the pardon of penitents is the merit of confession._"[46]

_In the latter half of this same century_, St. Ambrose, born in Gaul
about 340, who lived till 397, the last twenty-two years Bishop of
Milan, writes: "Sins are remitted by the word of God, of which the
Levite is the interpreter and also the executor; they are also
remitted by the _office of the priest and the sacred ministry._"[47]

"It seemed impossible," says this writer elsewhere, "that water should
wash away sin. Then Naaman the Syrian believed not that his leprosy
could be cured by water; but God, who has given so great a grace, made
the impossible to be possible. In the same manner, it seemed
impossible for _sins to be forgiven by penitence_. Christ _granted
this_ to His Apostles, which has been from the Apostles _transmitted_
to the offices of the priests."[48]

And, in similar strain, does St. John Chysostom, Archbishop of
Constantinople, who was born about 344, and died in 407, comment on
the words "Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth," etc., etc.: " * * *
this bond touches the very soul itself, and reaches even unto heaven;
and _what the priests shall do below_, the same does God ratify above,
and the Lord confirms the sentence of his servants."[49]

The great St. Jerome, born in 342, and after a life spent at
Alexandria, at Rome as Secretary to Pope Damasus, in Syria, and
finally in Bethlehem translating the Scripture, died in 420. He
writes: "In the same way, therefore, that _there_ (among the Jews) the
priests make the leper clean or unclean, so also here (in the Church)
does the _bishop or priest bind and loose_ not those who are innocent
or guilty, but, according to his office, after _hearing the various
kinds of sins_, he knows who is to be bound and who loosed."[50]

And St. Augustine, born 354, who was converted by the preaching of St.
Ambrose, mentioned above, who was later made Bishop of Hippo, in North
Africa, and who died in 430, writes: "For this end are sins signified
by these curtains, that they may be _expressed by confession_, and
may, by the grace which _is given to the Church, be abolished_."[51]

This same Father says: "Let a man judge himself of his own will,
whilst he ha