“Tu es qui neminem vis perire sed omnes vis salvos fieri et ad agnitionem veritatis venire.
“Tu es qui ore tuo sancto et casto dixisti: in quacumque die conversus fuerit peccator, vita vivet et non morietur.
“Ego revertor ad Te....
“Ideo confiteor tibi Domine Deus meus, qui solus sine peccato es: et obsecro te, Jesu Christe, Deus misericordiarum per passionem et per effusionem sanguinis tui, atque per signum ligni salutiferi crucis tuae ut concedas mihi remissionem omnium peccatorum meorum, non secundum meum meritum, sed secundum magnam misericordiam tuam”.
The “Rule for the Celi-De”, composed by St. Maelruan about the year 780, reckons “the divulging of confession, so as to say, this is what the man did”, as so heinous a crime “that it is not penanced in the land of Erinn”.[23] It also contains several regulations connected with the sacrament of penance. Thus, on the eve of the chief festivals, all feasting is prohibited, “because of going under the hand to-morrow”. To which words Dr. Reeves adds the following note: “The priest raises his hand in the absolution, whence the modern expression going under the hand of the priest denotes going to confession” (pag. 202). Subsequently the Rule enacts:
“When they do not go to hand (i.e. to confession) on Sunday, they go on the Thursday after; it would be too long to wait till the Sunday following for the person who habitually goes to hand every Sunday, because these two days are always special with them at Mass.
“It is not necessary to delay minute confessions of thoughts and idle notions, and abuse and anger, till Sunday, but to confess them immediately as they occur.
“He who makes his confession to a soul-friend, if he performs the penance according to his directions, need not confess them to another soul-friend, but only what has subsequently occurred. Frequent confession is not profitable when the transgressions are frequent too”.
Some instructions are also given for the guidance of the confessor:
“Difficult, indeed, is the duty of the soul-friend, because if he gives the proper remedy, it is oftener violated than observed; but if the soul-friend does not give it, its liability falls upon himself; because several are satisfied with making the confession without doing the penance; but it is better to proclaim their welfare to them, though they do not respond to the penance enjoined by the confessor. Another soul-friend may be gone to, if necessary, after the permission of the first soul-friend.