II.

(Clasping the knees of all, p. 86.)

Here is a portrait of the early penitential discipline sufficiently terrible, and it conforms to the apostolic pictures of the same. "Tell it unto the Church," says our Lord (Matt. xviii. 17). In 1 Cor. v. 4 the apostle ("present in spirit") gives judgment, but the whole Church is "gathered together." In James v. 16 the "confession to one another" seems to refer to this public discipline, as also the prayer for healing enjoined on one another. St. Chrysostom, however, reflecting the discipline of his day, in which great changes were made, says, on Matt. xviii. 17, unless it be a gloss, "Dic Ecclesiae id est Praesidibus =proedreuousin." (Tom. vii. p. 536, ed. Migne.)