Let there be penitence of heart, shedding of tears,
And throwing up of the hands, ...
With confession of vices,
When you come to receive”.
And again, when laying down special rules for monks, St. Carthage commands them to exercise modesty and meekness:
“With inculcation of every truth;
With denunciation of every wickedness;
With perfect frequent confessions,
Under the directions of a holy abbot”.[25]
The testimony of these religious rules is of great importance: they not only convey to us the teaching of individuals remarkable for their piety and learning, but they moreover record for our instruction those disciplinary enactments which received the solemn sanction of the greatest saints of our ancient Church, and which guided in the paths of perfection thousands of our countrymen whose virtues and miracles won for our island a wide-spread fame for sanctity throughout the sixth and succeeding centuries.