David, that with him they may find mercy, and say: Lord, my sin shall not remain unpunished : I know his justice, whose mercy I seek. It shall not remain unpunished: but that thou mayest not punish it, I myself will.” Enarrat. in Psal.1. T. viii. p. 197.
St. LEO, L. C.-“ As for those Christians, who are said to have polluted themselves by food offered to idols, my answer is, that they be purified by penitential satisfaction, which should be measured rather by the sorrow of the heart, than by the length of the time.” Ep.cxxix, al. lxxix. ad Nicet. Ep. Aquil. p. 688.—“It is foreign from the practice of the Church, that when a Priest or a Deacon has been guilty of a crime, he should be restored by the imposition of hands. And this, I doubt not, has come down by Apostolical Tradition, as it is written: If the Priest sin, who shall pray for him? (1 Kings, ii. 25.) Wherefore, that such may deserve the pardon of God, it is well, they should retire apart, where their satisfaction, if it be adequate, may be profitable to them.” Ep. iial. xcii. ad Rustic. Ep. Narbon. p. 405.
COUNCIL OF TRENT.
“ In regard to Satisfaction—the Holy Synod declares, that it is false and wholly foreign from the word of God, that the guilt of sin is never remitted by God, without the whole punishment due to it being also remitted. It is an error manifestly refuted-to say nothing of Tradition-by sundry illustrious examples in the holy Scriptures. And truly the nature of the divine justice seems to demand, that they who, through ignorance, have sinned before Baptism, should be taken into favour in a manner different from those who, having been once freed from the servitude of sin and the devil, and having received the Holy Ghost, have not feared, knowingly, to violate the temple of God, and grieve the divine Spirit. Besides it is becoming the mercy of God, not to
