Question about early existence of penance...

I wish I still had an account at Puritan Boards to field this question, but I was doing research on the sacraments and penance I found mostly references to Confessing to God or to fellow Christians. For example:

But if shame holds you back, and you blush to reveal them before men, you should not cease to confess them with constant supplication to Him from Whom they cannot be hid (John Cassian, Conference XX, Chapter 8).

“Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another.” For of this also the Lord gave us the example. For if He who neither has, nor had, nor will have any sin, prays for our sins, how much more ought we to pray for one another’s in turn!...It is our part, by His grace, to be supplying the service of love and humility: it is His to hear us, and to cleanse us from all the pollution of our sins through Christ, and in Christ; so that what we forgive even to others, that is, loose on earth, may be loosed in heaven (Augustine, Tractate LVIII on 1 John).

Yet, I ran into the following surprising argument made by St. Ambrose:

"Each is allowed to the Church, neither to heresy, for this power [binding and loosing sins] has been entrusted to priests alone" (Ambrose, Concerning Repentance, Book I, 2:7).

"Consider, too, the point that he who has received the Holy Ghost has also received the power of forgiving and of retaining sin. For thus it is written: Receive the Holy Spirit: whosesoever sins you forgive, they are forgiven unto them, and whosesoever sins you retain, they are retained.John 20:22-23 So, then, he who has not received power to forgive sins has not received the Holy Spirit. The office of the priest is a gift of the Holy Spirit, and His right it is specially to forgive and to retain sins." (Ambrose, Concerning Repentance, Book I, 2:8).

I found this so out of character from what everyone else was saying, and its logic so faulty (all Christians have the Holy Spirit, so shouldn't they have the power to bind and loose sins like Augustine said), it surprised me. I was wondering if anyone else has looked into this, or perhaps knows if there is only one ancient manuscript of On Repentance, perhaps it is corrupted?

I appreciate your help!

So, when we confess to one another, is that the elders? Matthew Henry's commentary takes that approach.

I presume it is the elders/overseers in the church, the office that evolved into the priesthood. I presume the reasoning is that the elders did the Lord's Supper and by hearing confession, made sure that no one took of the Lord's body and blood in an unworthy manner. Physical infirmity is a result of doing so according to 1 Cor 11, so that might be the connection.

JM said:

Is there any evidence that Elders prevented believers from coming to the Table? I thought we are called to "examine [y]ourselves?"

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Good point, but the ancients never credited the Lord's Table with the forgiveness of sins. However, James 5 speaks of forgiveness of sins by confessing, which appears to be the idea Ambrose is talking about.

JM said:

"I will speak briefly of the rite of the early Church, ... By the order observed in public repentance, those who had performed the satisfactions imposed upon them were reconciled by the formal laying on of hands. This was the symbol of absolution by which the sinner himself regained his confidence of pardon before God, ... I consider that ancient observance ... to have been holy and salutary to the Church, and I could wish it restored in the present day." ("Institutes," IV, 19:14)

http://beggarsallreformation.blogspot.ca/2011/09/calvin-and-penance.html

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Interesting. I'm going to speak to my elders about it this weekend.

JM said:

I have access to Penance in Medieval Europe if you want me to send you some pics. I think I still have your email.

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When you have the time. I know you have a family and a job. Thank you for blessing me.