“It is right to refuse the confession of a person who does not perform penance according to the soul-friend, unless there happens to be a soul-friend near, whom he considers more learned in rules, in the ways of the Scripture, and in the practices of the saints. Let him heed what he receives from the learned soul-friend whom he first met, to whomsoever he may reveal his confession each time, and let penance be enjoined him according to the rules of frequent confession”.
In fine, it is also decreed that the bishop “who confers noble orders upon any one who is not able to instruct in religion and reading, and soul-friendship, and who has not a knowledge of laws and rules, and of the proper remedy for all sins in general, is an enemy to God and man; for that bishop has offered an insult to Christ and His Church, and hence shall do penance for six years, and he shall pay seven cumhals in gold as a penalty to God.[24]”
The Rule of St. Carthage (who was familiarly called Mochuda) has already been published in full in the December and January numbers of the Record. Frequent mention is made in it of the holy sacrament of penance, and as St. Carthage died before the year 640, we are thus enabled to trace back the Catholic tenets of our fathers even to the beginning of the seventh [pg 483] century. At page 116, among the duties of a priest is commemorated:
“If you go to give communion
At the awful point of death,
You must receive confession
Without shame, without reserve.
Let him receive your sacrament
If his body bewails.
The penitence is not worthy