confess to be a sin, through thy conviction that it is sin."[45]

_In the fourth century_, St. Athanasius, Patriarch of Alexandria, born
about the year 296, who lived till 373, and whose name is identified
with the General Council of Nice, is equally explicit. "As man," says
he, "is illuminated with the grace of the Holy Spirit by the priest
that baptizes, so also _he who confesses in penitence receives through
the priest_, by the grace of Christ, the remission of sin."

_In this same century_, St. Pacian, who died Bishop of Barcelona about
373, and who wrote on Baptism and Penance, asserts: "'But you will say
you forgive sin to the penitent, whereas in baptism alone it is
allowed you to loose sin.' Not to me at all, but to God only, who both
in baptism forgives the guilt incurred, and rejects not the tears of
the penitent. But what I do, I do not by my own right, but by the
Lord's. * * * Wherefore, whether we baptize, whether we constrain to
penitence, or _grant pardon to the penitent_, Christ is our authority.
It is for you to see to it, whether Christ hath this power, whether
Christ have done this. Baptism is the Sacrament of our Lord's passion;
_the pardon of penitents is the merit of confession._"[46]

_In the latter half of this same century_, St. Ambrose, born in Gaul
about 340, who lived till 397, the last twenty-two years Bishop of
Milan, writes: "Sins are remitted by the word of God, of which the
Levite is the interpreter and also the executor; they are also
remitted by the _office of the priest and the sacred ministry._"[47]

"It seemed impossible," says this writer elsewhere, "that water should
wash away sin. Then Naaman the Syrian believed not that his leprosy
could be cured by water; but God, who has given so great a grace, made