A whose collection, he says, existed in his own time in the library of the Queen of France. However, Pithou is silent as to how extensive or of what nature this work was, and, being absent from the Gallican codex, I scarcely dare indulge in guesswork. Nevertheless, behold, in the Vatican codex, I have found a short little treatise of our Sophron, *On the Confession of Sins* (for this is how I interpret the title, following du Cange, where the holy man insists how important it is that he who receives the confessions of penitents be instructed in moral and canonical doctrine, so that he may both recognize the diverse types of faults and apply suitable remedies). In reality, the wisdom of the priests formerly appointed to hear confessions consisted chiefly in their knowing thoroughly the penitential canons, which no Church—be it Latin, Greek, or finally Eastern—lacked. After Sophronius demonstrated the necessity of this knowledge, he establishes the penitential canons themselves, like penal statutes; these canons, of course, are to be believed to have been in use in the Church of Jerusalem. And since such canons were for the most part accustomed to be established in synods, from this perhaps, if I am not mistaken, the Parisian codex of the Queen called this little work a "collection from synods." But however the Royal codex may be, it pleases me to recite in this place the Vatican lucubration inscribed to Sophron.
ON THE CONFESSION OF SINS
BY SAINT SOPHRONIUS OF JERUSALEM
There are many modes of confessing sins: one is if someone confesses willingly, and another is if someone performs it on account of temptation or infirmity. Some avoid the more rigid and those learned in Scripture to go to the uneducated. But a sick man who seeks health is treated differently by a proven physician than by an unskilled one. Again, there is one mode of confession for those who govern a city, and another for those who lead in military affairs; another for the rich, and another for the poor and needy; another for the old, and another for the young. There is also A a mode for the ecclesiastical order, another for monks, another for those in a cenobitic community, another for those who live in stillness, and another for hermits; he who receives those who present themselves must know these things accurately. Just as an expert physician knows for every pain, suffering, and ache the herbs and purgatives, and the lances and healing ointments, B and understands them, so too those who receive confessions must know what is a sickness of the soul and a bodily infirmity, and a disturbance of the heart and an affliction of the body, and what is fornication of the mind, and adultery of the soul, and gusts of the intellect, and the fluctuations of conscience; what is sin, what is injustice, what is greed, what is a lie, and what is perjury. And just as he who disputes with heretics, if he does not know what substance and nature are, what is hypostasis and inseparable person, what is difference, quality, and property, harms himself and does not benefit others, so too those who receive confessions. Indeed, those who have not healed their own passions, and have not purged the bile of sin and C the phlegm of injustice and the stench of greed from their soul and body by means of scriptural herbs, purgatives, and ointments, and have not healed their own infirmity, and have not been compassionate toward themselves, how will they be able to pity others and help them? For those who do not know the sacred canons and who falsify them for the sake of vain glory and the favor of men, confessiones-
A—having corrupted the divine canons out of vainglory and eye-service while being ignorant of them, have spiritually put to death those who make their confession. Teaching one thing instead of another, they have sent those who have sinned, burdened with death, to their doom; but the blood of those who made confession will the just Judge require at the hand of these teachers on the day of judgment.
From the Sacred Canons
If anyone, after the reception of the body and blood of the Lord, shall use a bath, let him be accursed. If anyone while fasting for the purpose of receiving communion shall, contrary to his intent, have water enter his mouth while washing or bathing, he shall not be turned away from communion, lest Satan find a pretext to hinder him. Let him who breaks the obligations of his parents, whether living or dead, be anathema. Whoever shall seize the garments of his parents or strike them on the face, or simply despise them, whether in life or in death, let him be accursed. Whoever shall not permit the poor to glean the fallen ears of corn, let him be accursed. Whoever shall give anything to fortune-tellers for the sake of his life, or receive a written charm, or sing incantations, let him be accursed. Whoever shall not give the first fruits of his threshing floor and wine press to the Church and to the poor, let him be accursed. Whoever shall slander a brother shall be condemned with the slandering devil. If a monk becomes intoxicated, he has committed fornication. If he vomits from overeating, he has committed fornication. If a monk mocks a layman, he has committed fornication. If he contradicts his superior, he has committed fornication. If any monk lies down in his bed ungirded, and sleeps thus, let him have a penance of 150 days. He who prays with a schismatic, let him also be a schismatic. He who prays with a heretic, whether in church or at home, let him also be separated. He who prays with one who is deposed, let him be deposed also. He who communicates with the excommunicated, let him be excommunicated also. C If any bishop, or presbyter, or deacon shall undertake worldly cares, let him be deposed. A cleric shall not give security; if he does so, let him be deposed. A presbyter who strikes a believer or an unbeliever, let him be deposed. Whoever has become a priest for money shall be deposed together with the one who ordained him, in accordance with the judgment against Simon. A priest who demands usury, if he does not cease, let him be deposed. A roaming and drunken priest, if he does not cease, let him be deposed. Whoever casts away his own wife and takes another, let him be separated. A priest who eats in a tavern not because of the necessity of a journey is to be separated. Whoever mocks a lame man, or a blind man, or a deaf man, or one who is otherwise mutilated, let him be separated, because he finds fault with his Creator. A bishop who does not teach piety is to be separated; but if he remains unlearned, let him be deposed. If a bishop does not show kindness to a needy cleric, he is to be separated. Whoever forces a virgin not betrothed and corrupts her is to be separated, and it shall not be lawful for him to take another, but he must keep the one he has defiled, even if she happens to be poor. Whoever partakes of an animal that has been strangled, or caught by wild beasts, or torn by them, if he is a priest, let him be deposed; if he is a layman, let him be separated. A lame man, or one deprived of one eye, may indeed be worthy to be a bishop; however, a blind man or a deaf man shall not be made one. D
If any doubt whether they have been baptized or not, it is better for them to be baptized, lest they be in need of divine purification on account of their doubt.
If any altar has been set up in the fields or vineyards, and the relics of martyrs do not lie there, let it be destroyed. Let those altars also be destroyed that have been built on account of dreams and visions; for since the devil is shadow, he simulates light, and under the pretext of piety, he ensnares the incautious minds of men. If anyone is found cutting hair without the presence of the superior who ought to accept him into subjection, let him be deposed, and let the one whose hair was cut be subjected and delivered to a monastery. If a cleric commits fornication, let him descend from the rank of the priesthood, but let him not be hindered from holy communion; rather, let him communicate with the laity. Assuredly, those who take usury ought not to participate in the divine mysteries, nor should one eat with them while they remain in their iniquity. B Should one polluted by a dream communicate or not? If it was due to the desire for a woman, he ought not; but if he was tempted by the devil, let him communicate in the divine mysteries, for the tempter does not cease to lay snares at the very time one ought to communicate. If it is impossible for you, O bishop, to proceed to the church, summon the people into a house, lest perhaps a pious man should enter into a church of the impious; for the place does not sanctify the man, but the man sanctifies the place. You must flee from them, lest you be defiled; for just as holy priests sanctify, so the unholy defile. If you cannot gather the people at home or in the church, let each one sing for himself, read, and pray; or two or three together. For where two or three are gathered in my name, says the Lord, there am I in the midst of them C (Matt. XVIII, 20). If any priest drinks wine and vomits it, let him not communicate for forty days; and the monk likewise. If any bishop or priest or deacon falls into the sin of a woman, let him be deposed. If one has made a pact with another [for penance] and one part dies, let the living one satisfy the obligation or be ordered by his confessor to offer prayers for the deceased for one year. Those who pour out their wealth to escape torments ought not to be accused; for they preferred to lose their wealth than their soul, and a man’s own riches are his ransom. Nor are those to be accused who obtained their safety by flight, even if others were seized in their place; for those, too, could have fled. If any priest or deacon, having allegedly convicted his own bishop of a crime, departs from his communion before a synodical examination, and does not mention his name, let him be deposed. And if any bishop presumes to do the same against his own metropolitan, let him be deposed. D Likewise, if any bishop or metropolitan presumes to do these things against the patriarch, let them cease from the priestly office. But if any depart from someone not under the pretext of accusation, but because of heresy [condemned] by synods and holy