The Institution of Christian Religion

The fourth Chapter. ¶That all that the Sophisters babble in their schools of Penance, is far from the pureness of the Gospel. Where is entreated of Confession and Satisfaction.

The fourth Chapter. ¶That all that the Sophisters babble in their scholes of Penance, is far from the purenesse of the Gospell. Where is entreated of Confession and Satisfaction.

Now I come to discuss those things, which the School sophisters have taught of repentance.¹ Which I will run over in as few words as may be, because I mind not to go through all, least this book, which I labour to draw into a short abridgement, should grow to a huge greatness. And the Sophisters have entangled it in so many volumes, being a matter otherwise not very hard, that a man shall hardly find how to get out, if he ones fall into their dregs. First, in defining it, they show that they never understood what repentance was. For they take hold of certain sayings of the old writers, which do nothing at all express the nature of repentance, as that to repent is to weep for sins passed, & not to commit sins to be wept for: Again, that it is to lament evils passed, and not to commit again other evils to be lamented. Again: that it is a certain sorrowful revenge, punishing in himself that which he is sorry to have committed. Again: that it is a sorrow of heart, and bitterness of soul, for the evils that a man hath committed or to which he hath consented. But, to grant these things well said of the fathers, (which a contentious man might easily enough deny) yet they were not spoken to this intent to describe repentance, but only to exhort them to whom they wrote, that they should not fall again into the same offences, out of which they had ben drawn. But if we list to turn all such titles of commendation into definitions, then other may also be adjoined as rightfully as they. As this of Chrysostom, Repentance is a medicine that destroyeth sin, a gift given from heaven, a marvellous virtue, a grace surmounting the force of the law. Yea and the doctrine which they afterward teach, is somewhat worse than these definitions. For they stick so earnestly in outward exercises, that a man can gather nothing else out of infinite volumes, but that repentance is a discipline and rigorousness that serveth partly to tame the flesh, and partly to chastise and punish vices: but