Firmilian of Caesarea, Letter to Cyprian 75, 16 (c. 258 AD)
“‘Receive the Holy Spirit: if you forgive any man his sins, they shall be
forgiven; and if you retain any man’s sins, they shall be retained.’
Therefore, the power of forgiving sins was given to the Apostles and to the
Churches which these men, sent by Christ, established; and to the bishops
who succeeded them by being ordained in their place.”
Lactantius, The Divine Institutions 4, 30, 1 (inter 304-310 AD)
“...let it be known: that is the true Church, in which there is confession and
penance, and which takes a salubrious care of the sins and wounds to
which the weak flesh is subject.”
St. Hilary of Poitiers, Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew 18, 8 (c.
354 AD)
“In our present condition we are all subdued by the terror of that greatest
dread. And now, out in front of that terror, He sets the irrevocable apostolic
judgment, however severe, so that those whom they shall bind on earth,
that is, whomsoever they leave bound in the knots of their sins; and those
whom they loose, which is to say, those who by their confession receive
grace unto salvation––these, in accord with the apostolic sentence, are
bound or loosed also in heaven.”
St. Basil the Great, Rules Briefly Treated 229 & 288 (post
370 AD)
“Just as the diseases of the body are not divulged to all, nor haphazardly,
but to those who are skilled in curing them, so too our declaration of our
sins should be made to those empowered to cure them”.
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