Before closing the question now under consideration, it is right that
certain objections, urged oftentimes in good faith, sometimes in
ignorance, sometimes in malice, should be duly met.

1. It is, as was said elsewhere, by no inherent power that the
Apostles and their successors are able to remit sin. God, and God
alone, can do so, though He can delegate this to others. This He has
done. But to secure so transcendent an authority from abuse, two
elements are necessary before it can be exercised.

First, from God, and through the appointed sacrament, must man be
constituted a priest--that is, an offerer of sacrifice. This comes
direct from God, and is called the power of Order, and is obtained by
ordination. This was given to the Apostles at the Last Supper, when
our Lord said: "Do this in commemoration of me." After His
resurrection, there was given the power or capability to forgive sin,
by the words "Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose sins you shall forgive,
they are forgiven; and whose sins you shall retain, they are
retained."

The second element comes also from God, but indirectly, as it reaches
the individual minister through the Church. It is the authority or
commission of the Church to a priest or bishop to exercise the power
of pardoning which he has received of God. This is called
jurisdiction. It is included in the words said to Peter: "To thee will
I give the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatsoever thou shalt bind
on earth shall be bound also in heaven, and whatsoever then shalt
loose on earth shall be loosed also in heaven."[56] Of the which,
Tertullian, writing more than sixteen centuries ago, says: "For if