soever you shall loose upon earth shall be loosed also whatsoever. criminately, as that every one has the power of for- The holy Synod declares all those doctrines -to be 50 ROMAN CATHOLICISM giving sins public sins, namely, by rebuke, provided THE MINISTRY OF CONFESSION [Chap. 5.] of and embraces, as pious and worthy of being retained. any others soever besides bishops and priests, imagin- a custom which this holy Synod most highly approves ing, contrary to the institution of this sacrament, that are forgiven them, and whose sins you shall retain, false, and utterly alien from the truth of the Gospel, which perniciously extend the ministry of the keys to by a voluntary confession made to any individual he that is rebuked shall acquiesce, and secret sins It also teaches that even priests, who are in mortal was bestowed in ordination, the office of forgiving sins that most sacred and that most acceptable time of Lent in heaven; and: Whose sins you shall forgive, they upon earth, shall be bound also in heaven, and what- those words of our Lord : Whatsoever you shall bind the souls of the faithful, now observed, of confessing at they are retained were in such wise addressed to all the faithful of Christ indifferently and indis- sin, exercise, through the virtue of the Holy Ghost which