judicial sentence of a duly-appointed priest, to whom confession of
all deadly sins has been previously made, is the unanimous teaching of
the Christian writers from the earliest date. The existence of Penance
as the Sacrament of Reconciliation, at all times in the Church, is
permanent evidence to the belief and practice of early Christians.

1. In the History of the Church given in the Acts of the Apostles, we
learn that many of those who believed at Ephesus, after St. Paul's
preaching, "came _confessing and declaring their deeds_. And many of
those who had followed curious things brought their books together,
and burnt them before all."[33] Here is a clear instance of
contrition, confession, and determination of purpose.

Again, the incestuous Corinthian is judged by St. Paul, and sentenced
in the strongest language: "In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, you
being gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of the Lord
Jesus, to deliver such a one to Satan."[34] The offender repented, and
lest he should "be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow," the Apostle
reversed sentence, and forgave the wrong done, "in the _person of
Christ_." A clearer case of retaining and remitting is unnecessary.

These instances are sufficient to show that the Apostles themselves
exercised the power of the keys in binding and loosing.

2. Among the living Greek Communions are to be found descendants of
those sects which either separated from or were cast off by the Church
centuries ago. The Photians date back to the tenth century; the
Nestorians, the Jacobites, the Abyssinians, the Copts, to the fifth
and sixth centuries. Differing as these do in some points of doctrine,
and parted by the bitterest antipathies, yet on the matter of