In anno iubileo Christus per sponsam precepit cuidam confessori, quod omnes confitentes ei libere absolueret nisi in apertis sentenciis Ecclesie.
The Mandate of Mercy
Christ instructs a confessor to offer absolution to all who come with compunction, while respecting the formal judgments of the Church.
The Son says: "Let that good confessor absolve all sinners who come to him with compunction, until someone comes whom I say must not be absolved." But he should be careful regarding the clear judgments of the Church."
A Test of Compassion
A biographical account illustrates the struggle of a confessor faced with a deeply sinful man who seeks grace despite his past.
This is believed to have been Master Peter, Saint Bridget's confessor. In his letter to the late Lord Nicholas—who was then the Bishop of Linköping in the Kingdom of Sweden—he writes about himself as if he were someone else, speaking of the Roman Curia:1 There was a certain priest from foreign parts to whom the Pope's vicar had assigned the task of serving pilgrims in the Sacrament of confession in their own language, giving him the authority to grant absolution in all cases in which he himself had the power to do so. Because of this, many people flocked to him with many serious cases, which he absolved. Among them came a very wealthy, elderly man who said he had sinned with four pairs of sisters—not all of whom shared the same parents, but each pair had their own distinct mother and father. He then added that he had sinned with two hundred women, and that he had never incurred any mark of infamy for it, nor had he ever been accused before a spiritual or secular judge. When the cleric heard this, he began to be repulsed by him and distanced himself from him as much as he could. But that sinner, set ablaze by divine fire, was not allowed to despair.
The Voice of Divine Counsel
Following Saint Birgitta's intercession, Christ clarifies the confessor's duty to balance mercy, penance, and discernment.
Because he wouldn't stop pestering that cleric, he went to Lady Birgitta to complain that the cleric refused to help him through the grace of absolution. So she prostrated herself in prayer, interceding for the aforementioned cleric and for that wicked sinner. At that very moment, she heard the Father's voice from heaven saying: “Tell the priest that, on my behalf, he should diligently help everyone who comes to him from his own language and nation, assigning them penance according to the grace given to him, according to the dictates of his own sound judgment, and according to what the penitent himself is able to bear.” Let him grant absolution with confidence, until such a sinner comes whom I specifically warn him about, saying: "Do not absolve this one." However, he must be careful regarding manifest Church censures and notorious crimes that ought to be judged publicly by the prelates of the Church.
Read the original Latin
Filius loquitur: "Absoluat ille bonus confessor omnes peccatores, qui veniunt ad eum cum contricione, donec venerit aliquis, quem dico non absoluendum. Sed caueat sibi pro iudiciis Ecclesie apertis."
Hic creditur fuisse magister Petrus, confessor sancte Birgitte. Ipse namque de se ipso tamquam de alio scribit in epistula sua ad dominum Nicolaum sancte memorie, tunc episcopum Lincopensem in regno Suecie, de curia Romana dicens:
"Quidam sacerdos fuit ex alienis partibus, cui vicarius pape iniunxit satisfacere peregrinis de lingua sua in sacramento confessionis, dans ei auctoritatem absoluendi in omnibus casibus, in quibus ipse potuit.
Ideo multi confluebant ad illum cum multis grauibus casibus, quos ipse absoluit. Inter quos venit vnus prediues et grandeuus, dicens se peccasse cum quatuor paribus sororum, que non erant omnes ex vno patre et matre, sed quodlibet par suis ex patre et matre distincte fuit.
Deinde subiunxit se cum ducentis mulieribus peccasse et quod super hoc numquam incurrit notam aliquam infamie, nec accusatus fuit vmquam coram iudice spirituali seu seculari.
Clericus prefatus, cum hec audisset, cepit abhorrere eum et, in quantum potuit, se ab eo elongauit. Peccator autem ille diuino succensus igne desperare non permittebatur.
Ideo ab impeticione dicti clerici non cessans accessit ad dominam Birgittam conquerendo, quod clericus ille nollet eum per beneficium absolucionis iuuare.
Ideo ipsa se prostrauit in oracione interpellando pro sepedicto clerico et pro illo scelesto peccatore. Et in eodem puncto audiuit vocem Patris de celis dicentem:
'Dic clerico, quod ex parte mea diligenter expediat omnes venientes ad eum ex lingua et nacione sua, iniungendo eis penitenciam secundum graciam sibi collatam et secundum dictamen sue recte racionis et secundum quod ipse penitens portare potest.
Et absoluat secure, donec aliquis talis peccator venerit, de quo eum premonere facio dicendo: "Istum noli absoluere". Caueat tamen sibi pro censuris Ecclesie manifestis et notoriis criminibus, que iudicari debent publice ab Ecclesie prelatis.'"
Notes
- 1 ↩Linköping (Lincopensem) is the standard historical identification for this Swedish see.
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