Letters

⁴ But why do I linger over old and forgotten matters, seeking to excuse a fault for which Fabiola has herself confessed her penitence? Who would believe that, after the death of her second husband at a time when most widows, having shaken off the yoke of servitude, grow careless and allow themselves more liberty than ever, frequenting the baths, flitting through the streets, showing their harlot faces everywhere; that at this time Fabiola came to herself? Yet it was then that she put on sackcloth to make public confession of her error.

It was then that in the presence of all Rome (in the basilica which formerly belonged to that Lateranus who perished by the sword of Cæsar) she stood in the ranks of the penitents and exposed before bishop, presbyters, and people— all of whom wept when they saw her weep— her dishevelled hair, pale features, soiled hands and unwashed neck. What sins would such a penance fail to purge away? What ingrained stains would such tears be unable to wash out? By a threefold confession Peter blotted out his threefold denial. If Aaron committed sacrilege by fashioning molten gold into the head of a calf, his brother's prayers made amends for his transgressions. If holy David, meekest of men, committed the double sin of murder and adultery, he atoned for it by a fast of seven days.

He lay upon the earth, he rolled in the ashes, he forgot his royal power, he sought for light in the darkness. And then, turning his eyes to that God whom he had so deeply offended, he cried with a lamentable voice: “Against you, you only, have I sinned, and done this evil in your sight,” and “Restore unto me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with your free spirit.” He who by his virtues teaches me how to stand and not to fall, by his penitence teaches me how, if I fall, I may rise again.

Among the kings do we read of any so wicked as Ahab, of whom the scripture says: “there was none like Ahab which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord”? For shedding Naboth's blood Elijah rebuked him, and the prophet denounced God's wrath against him: “Have you killed and also taken possession?...behold I will bring evil upon you and will take away your posterity” and so on. Yet when Ahab heard these words “he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted...in sackcloth, and went softly.” Then came the word of God to Elijah the Tishbite saying: “Do you see how Ahab humbles himself before me?

Because he humbles himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days.” O happy penitence which has drawn down upon itself the eyes of God, and which has by confessing its error changed the sentence of God's anger! The same conduct is in the Chronicles attributed to Manasseh, and in the book of the prophet Jonah to Nineveh, and in the gospel to the publican. The first of these not only was allowed to obtain forgiveness but also recovered his kingdom, the second broke the force of God's impending wrath, while the third, smiting his breast with his hands, “would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven.”

Yet for all that the publican with his humble confession of his faults went back justified far more than the Pharisee with his arrogant boasting of his virtues. This is not however the place to preach penitence, neither am I writing against Montanus and Novatus. Else would I say of it that it is “a sacrifice...well pleasing to God,” I would cite the words of the psalmist: “the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,” and those of Ezekiel “I prefer the repentance of a sinner rather than his death,” and those of Baruch, “Arise, arise, O Jerusalem,” and many other proclamations made by the trumpets of the prophets.