Dist. 17, Part 3, Art. 1, Q. 1
by St. Bonaventure
Source text: Public Domain Mark 1.0. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://bonaventure.wrootpress.com/browse/4/d/17/q/bon-sent-IV-d17-p3-a1-q1
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### Article I. *To whom confession is to be made.*

### Question I. *Whether it is sufficient to confess to a layman.*

Concerning the first it is asked whether it is sufficient to confess to a layman. And that it is so seems to be the case.

1. In the last [chapter] of James, where confession is instituted: *Confess your sins to one another*; it is settled, therefore, that he speaks to all: hence that saying was spoken to all, and so was spoken also to laymen: *Confess to one another*.

2. Likewise, the Gloss in the same place says: «Lesser things to lesser persons, greater things to greater»; but it is settled that all greater things are to be confessed to priests: therefore, if he says that lesser things are to be confessed to lesser persons, it seems that confession is to be made to others than priests.

3. Likewise, it seems by reason: because confession is made to a man, not because a man remits the fault, but that the penitent may blush; but sometimes one blushes more before a lay companion than before a priest: therefore the end or usefulness of confession is better preserved there.

4. Likewise, confession is ordered to this, that a man be instructed by a man and recognize the wound of sin; but oftentimes many laymen know this better than even priests: therefore etc.

5. Likewise, confession is for the multiplication of helps or intercessors; but more frequently the prayer of a layman avails more than that of a priest: therefore it is more useful oftentimes to confess to a layman.

6. Likewise, confession is of necessity, as was seen in the preceding: therefore, if God by the Sacraments does not constrain the way of salvation, it seems that the power of hearing confessions ought to have been given to all, and conversely [the power] of confessing to anyone.

**On the contrary:** 1. Augustine, *On Penance*, distinction six: «Whoever wishes to confess his sins, that he may find grace, let him seek a priest»: therefore it seems that to confess to another does not suffice.

2. Likewise, the truth ought to answer to the figure; but under the Law no one was judged cleansed of leprosy nor received into the camp by anyone's judgment, however wise he might be, except by the judgment of a priest: therefore it seems by parity of reasoning that no one can reconcile a penitent to the Church except a priest alone. But confession is ordered to this: therefore etc.

3. Likewise, confession is ordered principally to absolution; but the power of binding and loosing was given principally to the supreme Pontiff, namely to Peter, and to the other Apostles: therefore to priests alone: therefore by them alone can absolution be made: therefore to them alone ought confession be made.

4. Likewise, if it suffices to confess to others, then the power of absolving was granted to priests in vain: if therefore it was not granted in vain, it is clear then etc.

> **Conclusion.** Confession, insofar as it is a sacramental work, is to be made to a priest alone.

**I respond:** It must be said that confession may be spoken of in two ways: in one way, insofar as it is a work of virtue directly opposed to hypocrisy, in which a man accuses himself, lest he appear other than he is, or also lays open his evils for the investigating of the cure of the disease; and in this way confession can be made to anyone who can help by instructing or by praying, before whom a man can blush and be humbled, and be bettered by that example of humiliation, not depraved by the knowledge of his sins; and thus one can confess his sin to anyone, whether cleric or layman.

For as Bernard says *on the Canticle*: «So great a lover of the truth is the perfect man, that he would wish all to know his evils, provided, however, that it be for them an occasion not of evil, but of good». — In another way confession is a sacramental work, insofar as it is ordered to reconciliation, which is made through absolution and binding; and since this power has been conferred on priests alone, as will appear better below: therefore this is to be made to none except priests alone. — And the reasons brought forward for this are to be granted.

**To the arguments:**
*To 1, 2.* To that which is objected: *Confess your sins to one another* etc.; some say that this was said of venial sins, of which, as will appear, it is not necessary to confess. Otherwise it can be said that confession is twofold, namely *in general*, as when one says his *Confiteor*; and *in particular*, when one tells his sins. In each of these confessions there is mutuality; but in particular confession there is mutuality only with respect to priests, while in general [confession] with respect to all. And so both the authority and the Gloss are clear, and this is intimated from many words that are set down in the Gloss.

*To 3, 4, 5.* To that which is objected concerning blushing, instruction, and prayer, it must be said that in all the arguments there is a consequent, for the reason that it does not take the whole cause, nor even the principal cause, which is the reconciliation to be made to the Church; and therefore all proceed from an insufficient [ground] concerning confession, insofar as it is a Sacrament. Yet they truly conclude that it is also sometimes useful to confess to a non-priest; just as I have also heard of a woman who at death confessed to a man to her vehement shame, whose penitence the Lord accepted by very evident signs; yet she had first confessed to a priest.

*To 6.* To that which is objected, that since it is of necessity it ought to have been committed to all, it must be said that it was neither needful nor due. It was not due, because to absolve names the act of some person having authority. Nor was it needful, because no one who wills to have a priest and lacks one is deprived of salvation; for the will to confess suffices for him; and that his will may appear outwardly, the Master gives the counsel that he confess to his own companion, not because that confession is a Sacrament of the Church, but that such a one may show that he has a perfect will and does what is in him.