Church penance
Penance ( lat. Poenitentia publica , gr. Ὑπόπτωσις hypóptōsis ) referred to in the old church public work to be performed acts of penance , the coarse and public sinners were imposed. The regulations about it came partly from councils and partly from church fathers and had the purpose of fulfilling divine justice, of abolishing an offense given and of thoroughly correcting sinners. The penitent was excluded from the church fellowship during the period of penance and was only accepted again after the punishment had been served.
history
The history of this penitential discipline has different periods. In the earliest time there was after the baptism only a unique opportunity lost by mortal sin belonging to the Church regain the bishop, who uttered the expulsion and certain acts of penance had established, had the penitents after serving the penance by laying on of hands and prayer again record, tape.
In the 3rd century the penitential system was fully trained and regulated. Even those Christians who had denied their faith in the Diocletian persecution of Christians could be re-accepted into the church if they had submitted to church penance.
For this purpose, all those who had given offense through serious offenses had to go through four degrees of penance, the duration of which was measured according to the size of the offense:
- The first class was made up of the weeping (gr. Προσκλείοντες proskleíontes , Latin. Flentes , hiemantes ), who had to cry in front of the doors of the church in penitent clothing and plead with those who had entered for resumption.
- The second class of hearing (ἀκροώμενοι akroōmenoi, audientes ) was allowed in the inner vestibule (the narthex of) pre-trade fair to attend, but had to start at the victim exhibition remove; the duration of this period of penance was usually three years.
- The third class, the kneeling class (ποπίπτοντες hypopíptontes , genuflectentes , substrati ), were allowed to kneel at the pre- mass and were dismissed with a blessing before the sacrificial mass ; this period of penance lasted longer, seven years according to the provisions of the Council of Nicaea , and more often the entire lifetime.
- The fourth class of the standing (συστάντες systάntes , consistentes ) were allowed to stand during the entire service, but were not allowed to receive communion . This period of penance usually lasted two years.
During the entire period of penance, the penitents had to appear with their hair cut off or dressed in a sack with a penitential veil, fast and abstain from all public business, bathing and all entertainment. After the end of the penance period in the fourth grade and making a public confession of sin (ἐξομολόγησις exomológesis ) with the request for reconciliation with the Church, they were accepted again by the bishop by granting absolution - usually on Maundy Thursday .
The bishop could also shorten the duration of the church penance, for example in the case of signs of particularly serious repentance and in the event of death. Following the Decian persecution of Christians , leniency was also granted if the outcasts could produce Libelli pacis from martyrs and confessors .
In the course of time, people gradually moved away from the unrepeatable nature of repentance. In the Eastern Church , loosening was already apparent in the 4th century, in the Western Church this became clear by the 8th century at the latest. The differentiation of degrees gradually fell away and the public church penance was transformed more and more into a secret penance of the individual before a confessor . When imposing the penalties, the latter was able to orientate himself on so-called penitential books , as have been handed down in large numbers, for example by Theodor von Canterbury , Beda Venerabilis and others. a. It lists “fine taxes” that are perceived as appropriate for individually specified offenses.
Catholic Church
In the 13th century, the church penance disappeared with a few exceptions. It was replaced by the practice still existing in the Roman Catholic Church today of imposing in secret confession a penance proportional to the gravity of the sins through prayer, fasting , giving alms , etc.
Orthodox churches
It is even more easily practiced at the same time as the ban and excommunication in the Greek Church.
Lutheran Church
The older Lutheran Church rejected the Roman doctrine of penance, but retained the old discipline and practiced it especially against carnal criminals. Their offense was publicly announced by the priest of the community during the service, while the delinquents kneeled at the altar and then had to make a public confession of sins themselves again. Only then could they receive absolution and now partake of the Lord's Supper with the other communicants, but usually last. After its extensive abolition, the stricter church party sought its reintroduction in the form of church discipline .
Reformed and Free Churches
Church penance was handled much more strictly in the Reformed Church , especially in Switzerland, France and Holland through the influence of Calvin , and especially in the Presbyterian Churches through John Knox . The old church tradition was consciously taken up again, whereby here too the ecclesiastical rigor declined, as did the Anglican Church, which used to handle church penance with great seriousness.
In the strictest form, the church penance continued with the Bohemian Brothers , Herrnhutern , Mennonites , Quakers and certain American free churches.
literature
- Karl-Josef Klär: The ecclesiastical penitential institute from the beginnings to the Council of Trient (= European university publications . Series 23: Theology. 413). Lang, Frankfurt am Main et al. 1991, ISBN 3-631-43251-8 (at the same time: Saarbrücken, University, dissertation, 1990).
- Ernst Dassmann : Forgiveness of sins through baptism, penance and intercession for martyrs in the testimonies of early Christian piety and art (= Munster contributions to theology. 36). Aschendorff, Münster 1973, ISBN 3-402-03572-3 (also: Münster, University, habilitation paper, 1968/1969).
- Heinrich Karpp (ed.): The penance. Sources on the origins of the old church penitential system (= Traditio Christiana. 1, ISSN 0172-1372 ). EVZ-Verlag, Zurich 1969.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ William M. Gessel : Bußstufen . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 2 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1994. , Reinhard Messner: Penitential rites. II. "Second Penance" . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 2 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1994.