_private_ confession.

The Romish alleged Refutation of the Augsburg Confession, on the above
cited Art. XI., thus expresses its approbation: "This article (Art.
XI.) that private and special absolution should remain, and be
preserved in the churches is _Catholic_. Yet two things must be required
of them, (of the Reformers,) that both men and women should attend
confession at least once a year, &c.; secondly, to confess all the sins
you _can_ recollect." [Note 6]

_Dr. Plank_, in his celebrated and elaborate History of the Origin and
Changes of the Protestant Doctrinal System, [Note 7] speaking of the
negotiations between the Reformers and Papists during the Diet of
Augsburg, says, "On the subject of the Confessional _there was an entire
agreement_, for they (the Reformers) had declared that they regarded
Confession as a very useful institution, and had no idea of suffering it
to fall, and also regarded it as good, that the people should be
accustomed to confess their sins," viz., at the confessional.

_Siegel_, in his Manual of Christian Ecclesiastical Antiquities,
[Note 8] after stating that Luther rejected _Auricular_ Confession, as a
sacrament, and a means of oppressing the conscience, adds: "But, on the
other hand, Luther was as unwilling as Melancthon, to have _private
confession_ abolished, and the latter had, in his Loci Theologici,
pronounced private absolution to be as necessary as baptism." In regard
to confession in the Lutheran Church of Germany, the fact is, that
private confession, which the Reformers so earnestly recommended, is
almost entirely abandoned and changed into a general (and public)
confession, which may with more propriety be termed preparatory services
to the Lord's Supper."