smite the conscience upon being convinced of sin, and the faith, conceived by the Gospel, or by the absolution, whereby one believes that his sins are remitted unto him through Christ; let him be anathema.
Canon v. If any one shall say, that the contrition which is acquired by means of the examination, collection, and detestation of sins, whereby one thinks over his years in the bitterness of his soul,[1] by pondering on the grievousness, the multitude, the foulness of his sins, the loss of eternal blessedness, and the having incurred eternal damnation, [joined] with the purpose of a better life, is not a true and profitable sorrow, doth not prepare unto grace, but maketh a man a hypocrite and a greater sinner; finally, that this is a forced and not a free and voluntary sorrow; let him be anathema.
Canon vi. If any one shall deny, either that sacramental confession was instituted, or is necessary unto salvation, of divine right; or shall say, that the manner of confessing secretly to a priest alone, which the Catholic Church hath ever observed from the beginning, and doth observe, is alien from the institution and command of Christ, and is a human invention; let him be anathema.
Canon vii. If any one shall say, that, in the sacrament of Penance, it is not, of divine right, necessary unto the remission of sins, to confess all and individually the deadly sins, the memory of which, after due and diligent previous meditation is held, even those which are secret, and those which are opposed to the two last commandments of the Decalogue, as also the circumstances which change the species of a sin; but [saith] that such confession is only useful to instruct and console the penitent, and that it was of old only observed in order to impose a canonical satisfaction; or shall say, that they, who strive to confess all their sins, wish to leave nothing to the divine mercy to pardon; or, finally, that it is not lawful to confess venial sins; let him be anathema.
Canon viii. If any one shall say, that the confession of all sins, such as the Church observes, is impossible, and is a human tradition, to be abolished by the pious; or that all and each of the faithful of Christ, of either sex, are not
- ↑ Is. xxxviii. 15.
