Two letters of Alcuin on the confession of sins

Abstract

To his beloved Brethren and Fathers in the Province of Languedoc, the humble servant of the Church of Christ, Albinus, the Deacon, greeting.

1. Often have we heard high praise of your wisdom and religion, as well for the holy living of the monks, as for the pious conversation of the laity ; the former aspiring to wait on God alone, apart from all tumult of worldly disquiet, the latter being reported as maintaining, by consideration of mind a pure life amidst worldly occupations. What can be more delightful than this interchange of brotherly love? The one unceasingly assist their countrymen by their daily prayers·; the others are eager to sustain their intercessors with the comforts of the present life; mutually imparting to each other the bounteous grace vouchsafed of God. Instructed as we are by your exemplary piety, we beg to be brought to the haven of everlasting rest by the succour of your holy prayers.

2. And as a charitable service on our part, we have been minded to send you an humble letter of ghostly advice, by reason of certain customs which are said to have grown up in your country. For it is reported that none of the laity will make his confession to the priests, whom we believe to have received, with the holy Apostles, from Christ our God, the power of binding and loosing. What does the priest's power loose, if he consider not the bonds of him that is bound? The services of the physician will be at an end, if the sick discover not their wounds. If the wounds of the body require the treatment of the bodily physician, how much more do the wounds of the soul demand the soothings of the spiritual one ?...[Excerpt]