Note 12 — Part I PENANCE AS A VIRTUE AND AS A SACRAMENT

Such is the teaching of nearly all the moralists; cf. S. Alph. Lib. VI. n. 667; Gury, I. n. 478; Scavini, De Sacram. Pœnit. n. 35. St. Thomas (Suppl. Q. 6. a. 3) teaches that he who has only venial sins to confess, satisfies the precept of the Church if he presents himself to the priest and declares that his conscience is free from mortal sin; this will be counted as a confession. This opinion of St. Thomas is, however, contradicted by a large number of eminent theologians,—St. Antoninus, Billuart, Laymann, Lugo, Suarez, etc.,—who appeal to the Tridentine decree (Sess. 13. cp. 5), which says in respect to the Lateran decree that it is determinativum divini præcepti.