How the Presbyter over Penance Was Abolished

About this time Nectarius abolished the office of the presbyter whose duty it was to preside over the imposing of penance. This was the first time that this office was done away with in the church, and the bishops of every region followed his example. Various accounts have been given of what this office was, how it began, and why it was abolished. I will give my own view of the matter. Never to sin belongs to God, not to human nature. That is why God has decreed that pardon should be given to those who repent, even after many sins. Since, in asking for pardon, it is necessary to confess the sin, it seems likely that the priests from the beginning thought it a heavy burden to make this confession in public, before the whole assembly of the people. So they appointed a presbyter of the greatest holiness and the most proven prudence to act on these occasions. The penitents went to him and confessed their sins. It was his task to point out the kind of penance suited to each sin, and then, when they had made amends, to absolve them. [a]

Since the practice of doing penance never took hold among the Novatians, arrangements of this kind were naturally unnecessary among them. But the practice prevailed among all the other heretics, and it prevails to this day. It is kept with great strictness by the Western churches, especially at Rome. There a place is set apart to receive the penitents. In that spot they stand and mourn until the end of the service, for they are not allowed to take part in the mysteries. Then they throw themselves face down on the ground, with groans and lamentations. The bishop, who leads the ceremony, sheds tears and prostrates himself in the same way, and all the people burst into tears and groan aloud. Afterward the bishop rises first from the ground and raises up the others. He offers prayer for the penitents and then dismisses them. Each penitent then submits in private to suffering he takes on of his own will, by fasting, by keeping away from the bath or from various kinds of food, or by other means prescribed for him, until a certain time set by the bishop. When the time comes, he is freed from the consequences of his sin and gathers at the church with the people. The Roman priests have carefully kept this custom from the beginning to the present day.

In the church at Constantinople a presbyter was always appointed to preside over the penitents, until a woman of the nobility made a statement. She said that when she went as a penitent to the presbyter, to fast and offer prayers to God, and stayed in the church for that purpose, the deacon raped her. When this became known, the people were greatly angered because of the disgrace it would bring on the church, and the priests above all were deeply scandalized. After much hesitation over what ought to be done, Nectarius deposed the deacon. Then, on the advice of certain people who urged that each person should be left to examine himself before sharing in the sacred mysteries, he abolished the office of the presbyter who presided over penance. From that time on, the doing of penance fell out of use. It seems to me that extreme laxity was thereby put in place of the severity and strictness of the old days. Under the old system, I think, sins were committed less often, because people were held back from them by the dread of confessing them and of laying them open to the scrutiny of a severe judge.

I believe it was for similar reasons that the emperor Theodosius, who was always zealous for the glory of the church, issued a law that women should not be admitted to the ministry unless they had had children and were over sixty years of age, according to the instruction of the apostle Paul. This law also decreed that women who had shaved their heads should be put out of the churches, and that the bishop who admitted such women should be deposed from his office as bishop.