Forgiveness of sins in the early church

God's forgiveness of sins and the means by which it is received. Part of Salvation.

1 Clement 2.3Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · They prayed for forgiveness even of unintended sins.
1 Clement 18.3Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · “Wash me from my sin.”
1 Clement 18.9Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · “Blot out my sins.”
1 Clement 50.5Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Keeping God's commands in love brings forgiveness.
1 Clement 50.6Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Blessed are the forgiven.
1 Clement 51.1Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Seek forgiveness; the ringleaders should consider the common hope.
1 Clement 60.1Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Praise of God the faithful Creator, and a prayer for forgiveness.
1 Clement 60.2Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · A prayer for cleansing and right living.
Epistle of Barnabas 6.11Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · Forgiveness renewed us like newly formed children.
Epistle of Barnabas 16.8Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · Forgiven and made new, we become God's dwelling.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 4.3.3 (31.3)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · New believers receive forgiveness at baptism, not a later repentance.
Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.33.3 (110.3)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · The filled marks are the sins of the repentant, blotted out.
Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 1.2.1 (2.1)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Hermas despairs of forgiveness.
Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 2.2.4 (6.4)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Sins committed until now will be forgiven if they repent fully.
2 Clement 16.4Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · Almsgiving, fasting, prayer, and love: almsgiving lightens sin.
First Apology 61Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Justin describes baptism: instruction, prayer and fasting, then washing in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, called “illumination.”
Dialogue with Trypho 44.4Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The only way to forgiveness is to know Christ and be baptized.
Melito, Fr. 3Melito of Sardis · ca. 160-180 · The ram caught in the Sabek tree prefigures the Lord on the cross at Jerusalem; as Sabek means remission, so Ezekiel's water of remission prefigures baptism, and martyrdom and baptism both bring remission of sins.
Diatessaron, section 7Tatian · ca. 160-180
Diatessaron, section 14Tatian · ca. 160-180
Diatessaron, section 15Tatian · ca. 160-180
Diatessaron, section 27Tatian · ca. 160-180
Diatessaron, section 33Tatian · ca. 160-180
Diatessaron, section 54Tatian · ca. 160-180
The Instructor 1.2.6Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The Word, who made the whole human being, heals both body and soul, as his healing of the paralytic and raising of Lazarus show; he forgives sins and orders all creation for humanity's sake.
The Instructor 1.6.30Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Baptism, the healing medicine of the Word, washes away all sins and changes our character; faith is the one salvation for all, as Paul teaches.
The Instructor 1.8.68Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The Word who judges also forgives; his threats are warnings given out of love, to frighten us away from sin before punishment comes.
Exhortation to the Greeks 11.115Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · God asks only a little faith in return for the whole creation and heaven; let the Word, not amulets, be bound on us, and let the light shine in the heart.
Against Heresies 4.27.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Christ descended to the dead and forgave the righteous of old; we must not judge them but fear for ourselves, since Christ will not die again for those who sin now.
Against Heresies 5.17.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The Creator is the Father against whom we sinned, and only he can forgive; so the Word who said “Your sins are forgiven” is his Word and mediator.
Against Heresies 5.17.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The crowds who saw the paralytic healed glorified the God of the law and prophets, showing that Christ, who forgave sins, came from him.
Against Heresies 5.17.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Christ’s forgiving of sins shows he is the Word of God made man, who cancelled our debt on the tree of the cross.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 39.5Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · Only God forgives sins, and the Lord commands us to forgive our repentant brothers daily.
Miscellanies 2.15.65Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The psalm distinguishes sins wiped out, covered, not counted, and forgiven; this blessing belongs to those chosen through Christ; love covers sins and God, who prefers repentance, wipes them out.
Miscellanies 2.15.66Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Sins not arising from choice are not counted; God, who is both just and good, forgives sins, as Jeremiah says; John's first letter distinguishes sins unto death and not unto death.
Miscellanies 4.24.153Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · What rests with us is choosing between opposites, such as believing or not; God forgives sins before faith, all of them, not only involuntary ones as Basilides held; punishment aims at preventing future sin, not undoing the past.
Miscellanies 7.14.85Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · As God sends sun and Savior to the just and unjust alike, the one who knows forgives seventy times seven and asks forgiveness for his wrongdoers; to pray against them is itself to wrong and defraud them.
Apology 50Tertullian · ca. 197 · Christians suffer as soldiers fight, to win; the pagans praise heroes who died for glory but condemn Christians who die for God, yet every persecution makes more Christians: “the blood of Christians is seed.”
On Repentance 4Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · God promises pardon to all who repent and even swears to it; the sinner should cling to repentance like a plank in a shipwreck, obeying because God commands.
On Repentance 8Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · The letters to the seven churches, the prophets, and the parables of the lost coin, the lost sheep, and the prodigal son show that God welcomes the sinner who repents and confesses.
On Patience 12Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Patience makes peace and forgiveness possible, waits for the repentance of sinners (even a separated spouse), and is the source of the love Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 13.
Acts of Thomas 132Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Thomas speaks of baptism as forgiveness of sins and new birth, anoints and baptizes Siphor's household in the name of the Trinity, and gives them the Eucharist with a prayer over the bread of life.
Didascalia 2.18 (English)Anonymous · first half of the third century
Didascalia 2.20Anonymous · first half of the third century
Didascalia 2.21 (Latin)Anonymous · first half of the third century · A bishop who expels sinners and refuses to receive them back when they repent kills them forever, since Christ commands forgiveness.
Didascalia 5.7–9 (English)Anonymous · first half of the third century
Didascalia 6.14 (English)Anonymous · first half of the third century
Pistis Sophia 44Anonymous · 3rd century
Pistis Sophia 57Anonymous · 3rd century
Pistis Sophia 104Anonymous · 3rd century
Pistis Sophia 116Anonymous · 3rd century
Pistis Sophia 117Anonymous · 3rd century
Pistis Sophia 118Anonymous · 3rd century
Pistis Sophia 121Anonymous · 3rd century
Pistis Sophia 123Anonymous · 3rd century
Pistis Sophia 133Anonymous · 3rd century
Pistis Sophia 135Anonymous · 3rd century
Pistis Sophia 141Anonymous · 3rd century
Pistis Sophia 142Anonymous · 3rd century
Against the Jews 6Anonymous · 3rd cent. (disputed) · Sinners and the lowly are welcome, while those who rejected Christ for Caesar were handed over to conquest, as Isaiah foretold, and God's strength passed to the nations.
Commentary on Daniel 4.31-34Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · The sixty-two weeks (434 years) run from the return to Christ's birth; Christ is the Holy of holies who wipes out sins for believers and seals them for unbelievers, and the Lamb who opens the sealed book of the prophets.
Antidote for the Scorpion's Sting 6Tertullian · ca. 211–213 · Martyrdom is a contest like the athletic games, in which God tests and crowns his people, and a second baptism, in blood, that restores those who have fallen after baptism.
Against Marcion 1.28Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Marcion's god hands sinners over to the Creator's fire, and his baptism makes no sense: he forgives sins he never charged, frees from a death he never imposed, and washes flesh he will not save.
Against Marcion 4.10Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Healing the paralytic and forgiving sins fulfills Isaiah; the title Son of Man, from Daniel, means Christ was born of a human mother, a virgin, and so had a real body.
Against Marcion 4.35Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Christ's warnings about causing stumbling, his teaching on rebuke and forgiveness, the healing of the ten lepers, and his sayings on the kingdom and the days of Noah and Lot all follow the Creator's law and prophets.
On Modesty 2Tertullian · ca. 210–220 · Against appeals to God's mercy, Tertullian sets God's justice and Scripture's warnings, and distinguishes remissible sins from irremissible ones, the “sins unto death.”
On Modesty 3Tertullian · ca. 210–220 · Penance for irremissible sins is not in vain: though the church gives no peace, it seeks pardon from God alone and may obtain it from him.
On Modesty 11Tertullian · ca. 210–220 · Christ's pardon of the sinful woman and the Samaritan woman, given before his passion and the Spirit's coming, sets no precedent for pardoning Christians.
On Modesty 19Tertullian · ca. 210–220 · Neither Revelation's call to Jezebel nor 1 John's promises of cleansing grant pardon for adultery after baptism; John distinguishes daily sins, forgiven through Christ, from deadly sins such as murder, idolatry, apostasy, adultery, and sexual immorality.
On Modesty 21Tertullian · ca. 210–220 · Forgiving grave sins belongs to God's power, not to church discipline; Christ's word to Peter was personal to him, and the church that forgives is the church of the Spirit acting through spiritual men, not the bishops.
On Modesty 22Tertullian · ca. 210–220 · Tertullian denies that confessors or martyrs can forgive adultery for others, since martyrdom washes only one's own sins, and protests that adulterers are readmitted more easily than those who denied Christ under torture.
Fragments on Job, column 95Origen · ca. 220-254 · The sinner must turn to Christ the high priest, who alone heals what is incurable; this age is night, and sin makes a person like the beasts.
PG 12:1573 (Ps 115 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · Notes on Psalm 116:12–19 (LXX 115): what to render to the Lord, the cup of salvation, and the martyr's death as God's breaking of the bonds of sin and of the body.
Refutation of All Heresies 9.12.20Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Hippolytus charges that Callistus founded a rival school and was lax, promising forgiveness to any sinner who joined him.
Refutation of All Heresies 9.13.4Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The book proclaimed a new forgiveness of sins through a further baptism, dated to Trajan's third year (about AD 100), which Hippolytus links to Callistus's laxity.
Refutation of All Heresies 9.15.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The book of Elchasai offers a second baptism for forgiveness to anyone guilty of sexual sins, once they hear the book.
Fragment 9 on John 1:14Origen · ca. 226-254 · On John 1:14: ‘only-begotten from the Father’ means that the Son is from the Father's essence; he is full of grace and truth because he forgives all sins and fulfills every shadow of the law.
Commentary on John 6.221Origen · ca. 230–248 · John baptized beyond the Jordan as forerunner of the one who came to call sinners, since baptism is for forgiveness of sins.
Commentary on John 28.124Origen · ca. 230–248 · Sins before receiving the Spirit may be forgiven;
On Prayer 28.8Origen · ca. 233–234 · Everyone can forgive sins committed against himself; but only one who has received the Spirit, like the apostles, can forgive what God forgives and retain incurable sins.
On Prayer 28.9Origen · ca. 233–234 · As the law's priests could not offer sacrifice for adultery or murder, so the apostles and those like them, taught by the Spirit, know which sins can be forgiven and which must be retained.
On Prayer 28.10Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen criticizes clergy who claim they can forgive idolatry, adultery, and sexual immorality by their prayers, ignoring the “sin unto death,” and contrasts Job's care even over possible sins of thought.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 30Origen · 235 · Since baptism cannot be repeated, martyrdom is a second baptism; the souls of martyrs at the heavenly altar minister forgiveness to those who pray, as priests offering themselves.
Homily on Isaiah 1Origen · ca. 235–250 · Origen reads Uzziah's death as the death of sin's rule in the soul, interprets the two seraphim as the Son and the Holy Spirit covering God's beginning and end, and applies the cleansing of Isaiah's lips to the hearers.
Homilies on Ezekiel 5.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Jerome's translation in the 380s) · Sinners in the Church are punished according to their rank, clergy most of all; and like a vine branch, a believer who bears no fruit is worse than any other wood and is cut off for the fire.
Homilies on Ezekiel 10.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Jerome's translation in the 380s) · Restoration comes only after sins are drained by long punishment, as a quick injury needs a long cure; even when forgiven, the sinner remains ashamed, so believers must stand firm in persecution.
Homilies on Joshua 15.5Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Jesus took all the enemy kings because Christ, the Wisdom of God, overcomes every kind of sin, which baptism washes away; God lets the hostile powers come out so that they may be destroyed, and there are countless spirits of each vice under their princes and one chief prince over all.
Homilies on Leviticus 2.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Against the fear that Christians have only one forgiveness (baptism), Origen lists seven remissions of sins in the Gospel (baptism, martyrdom, almsgiving, forgiving others, converting a sinner, love, and penance) and matches them to the Levitical sacrifices.
Homilies on Leviticus 4.5Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · To 'find perdition' is what heretics do in searching Scripture for their doctrines; sins outside holy things need a ram at an unnamed price, sold by the prophets and apostles, whose price is study, vigils, and obedience.
Homilies on Leviticus 5.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The sin offering slain where the burnt offering is shows God's mercy; Christ is both the holy victim and the priest who 'eats', that is consumes like fire, the people's sins, and the church's priests must imitate him; some mysteries are reserved for God alone.
Homilies on Leviticus 12.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Christ alone is the truly 'great priest', who entered heaven and forgives sins by his own blood; the Jewish high priest bore the title only as a shadow.
Homilies on Numbers 5.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The Levites' “works of works” are works with a hidden meaning, and their ages, twenty-five and fifty, signify perfected senses and the remission figured by the jubilee.
Homilies on Numbers 10.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The priests “bear the sins of the holy ones” because those called holy still sin, as Paul's letters to the Corinthians show, and only those who pursue holiness seek healing for their sins through the high priest.
Homilies on Numbers 10.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Christ takes away sin, and his “sons,” the apostles and martyrs, share in bearing the sins of the holy by offering themselves; Origen fears that in a time without martyrs the church lacks this help.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 2.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · To be subject to the Lord is shown by deeds, not words; Christ, whose members we are, will be “subject” to the Father when all his members are subject to God, and we should cease from sin before asking pardon for past sins.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 9.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · God forgives in the measure of one’s conversion and penance: complete penance washes away every sin, partial penance obtains partial absolution; the prophet asks boldly to be delivered from all his iniquities.
Homilies on Jeremiah 15.5Origen · ca. 240 · Christ owed nothing, since he committed no sin, and “no one owed him” because he forgave all debts, like the lender in the parable who forgave both debtors, the Jewish people and the Gentiles.
Homilies on Jeremiah 16.5Origen · ca. 240 · The reading “I will repay first their sins double” (lost in the Septuagint but found in the other versions) shows that believers who sin after baptism must first receive the purifying consequences of their sins before the reward of their good works.
Against Celsus 3.71Origen · ca. 248 · God does not pardon the wicked out of mere pity; he accepts those who condemn their sins and truly change, as virtue or real progress drives out their former wickedness.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 86Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · Christ will eat and drink the renewed Passover with his disciples in the kingdom, not bodily but as true spiritual food; he always takes the bread and cup from the Father and gives them to the worthy, drinking with them, since he is in each, and his blood poured into the heart remits sins.
Commentary on Matthew 12.14Origen · ca. 246–248 · The keys of the kingdom, one for each virtue, are given to whoever is not overcome by the gates of Hades; bishops who claim Peter’s power to bind and loose judge soundly only if they have Peter’s works and are not themselves bound by sin.
Commentary on Matthew 14.5Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen rejects a literal counting of forgivable offences and interprets Peter's seven and Jesus' seventy-seven by the symbolism of numbers, distinguishing sins in worldly matters from graver sins.
Commentary on Matthew 14.6Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen states the plain moral of the parable of the unforgiving servant, that God's forgiveness can be revoked if we do not forgive others, and lists the questions a higher, mystical interpretation would have to answer.
Commentary on Matthew 14.11Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen follows the parable of the unforgiving servant, notes that the king forgave more than was asked, and confesses that only Jesus can fully explain who the debtor and his fellow servant are.
Commentary on Matthew 14.13Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen interprets the debtor as a ruling power with “wife and children” among the nations, notes details of the parable, and turns it against heretics who reject a God who punishes.
Commentary on Matthew 16.6Origen · ca. 246–248 · The cup and the baptism both signify martyrdom: a cup in the enduring of pain, a baptism in the forgiveness of sins it brings; James and John drank it, James killed by Herod and John exiled to Patmos.
Commentary on Matthew 16.15Origen · ca. 246–248 · Zion and Jerusalem, bidden to rejoice, are the heavenly city; the tied ass and colt are the synagogue and the Gentile people, loosed from sin through the apostles’ teaching so that Christ may ride on them and give them rest.
Commentary on Romans 2.1Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Only God judges according to truth, because he alone sees whether mind and deed agree; and he judges truly even in forgiving the baptized, the penitent, and martyrs, because a reformed soul is no longer the soul that sinned.
Commentary on Romans 3.8Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Christ as 'propitiatory' fulfills the golden mercy seat of Exodus: Origen reads its measures and cherubim as the sinless human soul of Jesus, mediator between the Trinity and humanity, indwelt by the Word and the Spirit; he is also high priest and sacrifice, whose blood brings remission to believers first and then to the whole world, while God now forbears and will judge hereafter.
Commentary on Romans 7.10Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Origen explains that the devil accuses all but cannot prevail against the elect whom God justifies and Christ defends, while warning that Christ, being the truth, will not plead for unrepented sins after baptism.
Letter 55.27Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Novatian's followers cannot claim to shun idolaters, for Paul calls adulterers and defrauders idolaters; and in truth each bears only his own sin, so no one should be denied the hope of peace.
Letter 69.11Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Only those who have the Holy Spirit can forgive sins; since heretics lack the Spirit, converts from them must be baptized by the church.
Letter 73.7Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · The power to forgive sins was given to Peter and the apostles, so only the church's bishops can baptize and forgive; outside there is no one to bind or loose.
On the Lord's Prayer 23Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · God forgives us only as we forgive others; the greatest sacrifice is peace and a people united in the unity of the Trinity.
In Praise of Martyrdom 2Anonymous · 3rd cent. (disputed) · Martyrdom wipes out in a single stroke all the sins contracted in life and is the surest way to the promised reward.
On the Lapsed 36Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · God can forgive the truly penitent and even restore them to fight again and win the martyr's crown.
Against Novatian 11Anonymous · after 251 (disputed) · The sinful woman who wept at Jesus' feet received forgiveness, showing that the Lord receives penitents.
Res. 3.21Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Romans 14:9: the living are the souls, the dead the bodies.
Church History 6.38.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Origen warned against the Elkesaites, who rejected Paul, allowed outward denial under persecution, and offered forgiveness through a heavenly book.
Church History 6.44.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · The sick presbyter sent a portion of the eucharist, to be moistened and given to Serapion, following Dionysius's instruction to absolve the dying.
Church History 6.44.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Dionysius: God evidently kept Serapion alive until he was absolved.
Acta Archelai (Latin) 60Hegemonius · early to mid 4th century (Greek original) · Archelaus argues that a Christ who was man only in appearance could not have been seized, have suffered, or been baptized, and that he was baptized not for his own sin but to bear the Spirit in the body born of Mary.
Prophetic Extracts 4.24Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius applies the second Servant Song, “You are my servant, Israel… a light of nations,” to Christ, who sees God (Israel) and overcame the powers (Jacob), freeing the bound and becoming the light of the Gentiles.
Prophetic Extracts 4.31Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius applies “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me,” which Jesus read in Nazareth, point by point to Christ's ministry of good news, healing, release, and comfort for those who mourn for the heavenly Zion.
Divine Institutes 6.9.12Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · One who knows God but sins still lives, for God forgives.
Divine Institutes 6.12.41Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · God forgives the merciful and judges the unmerciful by their own measure.
Divine Institutes 6.13.1Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Almsgiving removes sins but is no license to sin.
Divine Institutes 6.24.3Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · As parents forgive repentant children, so God forgives.
Divine Institutes 6.24.4Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · God promises to forgive the repentant.
Divine Institutes 6.25.13Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Always ask God's mercy and forgiveness.
Demonstration of the Gospel 8.2.22Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Because Christ came also for the rising of many, Daniel adds the wiping out of sins.
Demonstration of the Gospel 9.5.8Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The wilderness signifies the end of Jerusalem’s sacrificial worship and the forgiveness given by baptism in the church of the nations.
Demonstration of the Gospel 9.6.8Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The honour of the law passed to the wilderness, where forgiveness of sins was preached.
Book 2, lines 76–100Juvencus · ca. 330 · The paralytic forgiven and healed; Matthew and Philip called.
Demonstration 2.12Aphrahat · 337-345 · Christ commanded his disciples to love one another, to love even enemies, and to forgive again and again.
Demonstration 2.15Aphrahat · 337-345 · The Lord's Prayer, the command to be reconciled before offering, and the parable of the unforgiving servant all require forgiveness.
Demonstration 4.13Aphrahat · 337-345 · Prayer is a sacrifice presented to God by an angel, who will not carry up the prayer of one who asks forgiveness but does not forgive.
Demonstration 7.14Aphrahat · 337-345 · God forgave David when he confessed, and forgave Israel at Moses' intercession.
Demonstration 7.23Aphrahat · 337-345 · Assurance of pardon must not encourage sin, but the fallen should confess with lasting sorrow, as the prodigal, the sinful woman, and Zacchaeus did.
Demonstration 14.44Aphrahat · 337-345 · Leaders entrusted with the power to bind and loose have become jailers, excommunicating those who offend them while freeing those who flatter them, instead of following Christ's way of correction and forgiveness.
Demonstration 20.13Aphrahat · 337-345 · Almsgiving atones for sins, while oppression of the poor brings judgment.
Oration II Against the Arians 67Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · The Word received the works to complete when he became man; only one who is God, not a creature, could join humanity to God and undo God's own sentence of death.
Catechetical Lecture 2.5Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · God’s patience with Adam, Cain, Noah’s generation, Rahab, the people who made the calf, and Aaron shows that repentance is always welcomed.
Catechetical Lecture 2.11Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · David, rebuked by Nathan for his sin, confessed at once without anger and was quickly forgiven.
Catechetical Lecture 3.15Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Baptism forgives every sin, even the crucifixion of Christ, as Peter’s Pentecost sermon shows; whoever has sinned by word, denial, or deed may repent and hope.
Catechetical Lecture 18.33Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Cyril closes the Lenten lectures with Isaiah's promises and Paul's blessings on those saved through the washing of regeneration, and a prayer for the candidates.
Commentary on Matthew 8Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 353–355 · The calming of the storm shows Christ watching over the church; the Gadarene demoniacs and the pigs figure the nations freed and the heretical Sadducees; the healing of the paralytic shows Christ as God forgiving sins and promising resurrection.
Commentary on Matthew 12Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 353–355 · The grain fields, David’s loaves, the withered hand, Isaiah’s servant, the Beelzebub charge, blasphemy against the Spirit, the good and bad tree, the returning unclean spirit, and Jesus’ true family are expounded as figures of the apostles’ mission, Christ’s divinity, and Israel’s unbelief.
Commentary on Matthew 18Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 353–355 · Hilary treats becoming like children, the millstone and stumbling blocks (applied to the Jews’ rejection of Christ), the angels of the little ones, the lost sheep as humanity and the ninety-nine as the angels, correction of a brother, binding and loosing, and unlimited forgiveness.
On Apostate Kings 12Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Lucifer ends by urging Constantius to repent, confess the true Son of God, and receive pardon, citing the prophets, Sirach, the Psalms and Romans on God's patience.
Letters to Serapion 4.8Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Athanasius turns hesitantly to Serapion’s question: why is blasphemy against the Son forgiven but not blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?
Letters to Serapion 4.10Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Origen held that the Spirit dwells only in the baptized, so their sin is against him; Theognostus that rejecting the third “boundary,” the teaching on the Spirit given to the perfected, leaves no pardon.
Letters to Serapion 4.12Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Since the Pharisees addressed by Christ were not baptized, the unforgivable blasphemy cannot simply be sin after baptism; it was their blasphemy against the Godhead itself.
Letters to Serapion 4.15Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · Those who doubt Christ’s divinity because of his body, or his body because of his miracles, can be pardoned; but those who ascribe his divine works to the devil cannot.
Homilies on the Psalms 29.8Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · Basil ends the homily on Psalm 29 (30) with the psalmist's resolve to sin no more and to give thanks forever for pardon.
Letter 143Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · Gregory urges a bishop to forgive those who wronged them, citing Phinehas, Moses, Nineveh, Manasseh, and Christ's refusal of vengeance.
Letter 145Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · Gregory continues: God himself punishes slowly and gives room for amendment, so the bishop should pardon the offenders for the sake of the poor, the monks and the virgins who plead for them.
Letter 147Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · Gregory urges a newly baptized man whose wife and daughter were wronged not to seek the offender's blood under Roman law but to forgive, leaving him to God.
Letter 279Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · Gregory commends the presbyter Sacerdos to two friends; then he asks Bishop Amphilochius to pray for him and loose his sins when he consecrates the Eucharist.
Treatise on the Mysteries 1.10.4Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–366 · Christ's "seventy times seven" answers Lamech's vengeance with forgiveness for those who believe.
Tractates on the Psalms 0.10Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Psalm 50 (51), on forgiveness, is placed at fifty, the number of jubilee, before the historically earlier Psalm 51 (52) on the unrepentant Doeg.
Tractates on the Psalms 52.12Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · God pardons the changeableness of those whose will is good, as with Moses and Peter, who denied through fear but wept and later confessed by martyrdom.
Tractates on the Psalms 66.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Mercy, the free forgiveness of sins, comes first; the blessing asked for is the spiritual fulfillment of the blessing given to Adam.
Tractates on the Psalms 119.11Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · God asks questions, as of Adam, Cain, the woman healed, and Peter, not to learn but to bring confession, which wins pardon or the reward of faith.
Tractates on the Psalms 125.6Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · God turned back our captivity through the forgiveness of sins, freeing the soul from vices and making us the new Zion in the body of Christ, to the wonder of the nations.
Three Letters to Sympronianus 1.6Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian argues that the power to bind and loose given to the apostles has passed to the bishops along with baptism and chrism.
Three Letters to Sympronianus 1.7Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian defends the bishop’s authority to forgive as derived from the apostles and says the pardon of penance is granted only after long and careful testing.
Three Letters to Sympronianus 3.7Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian answers that bishops who discipline penitents do not acknowledge deniers but correct them, and that it is God, through them, who forgives.
Three Letters to Sympronianus 3.11Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian refutes the Novatian claim that the power to bind and loose applied only to catechumens, appealing to Matt 16 and 18.
Three Letters to Sympronianus 3.12Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian distinguishes private forgiveness of a brother from the church’s power to loose any sin, arguing from Matt 18.
Three Letters to Sympronianus 3.15Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian answers that mourning for sin is not limited to martyrs and that the unforgivable sin is ascribing the Spirit’s works to the devil, so every other sin may be forgiven the penitent.
Three Letters to Sympronianus 3.16Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian answers the texts on the barren branch, Eli’s saying, and the “sin unto death” by arguing that they concern unrepented sins, and that God changes his sentence for those who repent.
Three Letters to Sympronianus 3.18Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian argues that Paul’s handing over of the incestuous man to Satan was for his amendment, excluded only him, and was followed by his forgiveness in 2 Corinthians.
Three Letters to Sympronianus 3.20Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian answers the example of Achar by asking whether the Novatians would revive the whole Mosaic penal law, and cites Christ’s mercy to sinners and Paul’s teaching on bearing one another’s burdens.
Paraenesis, or Exhortation to Penitence 12Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian closes with an appeal to do penance now, while there is time, promising God’s forgiveness to those who return like the prodigal son.
Against the Manichees, Greek continuation of book 3, Lagarde p. 96Titus of Bostra · ca. 360s · Paul’s blinding of Bar-Jesus and Peter’s judgement on Ananias and Sapphira show that the apostles too used severe rebukes; and the Law, like the Gospel, has examples of forgiveness after repentance.
Against the Manichees, Greek continuation of book 3, Lagarde p. 97Titus of Bostra · ca. 360s · David’s pardon after repentance matches Peter’s, and the Law and Prophets call all people to repentance as the Gospel does, as Nineveh shows.
Commentary on Ephesians 1.7Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Redemption through Christ’s blood frees souls from the captivity of the world into which they fell and restores them, by grace and not by their own power, to their original spiritual nature.
Commentary on Ephesians 4.32Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Believers must be kind and merciful to one another, forgiving sins as God has forgiven them in Christ, who came to conquer the sin they could not.
Oration 40.33Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Baptism must reform character as well as wash away sins; it does not forgive the continued keeping of ill-gotten goods; those raised from the tomb of sin should not bind themselves again.
Tractates 2.39.1Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno, on Psalm 32:1, describes baptism as a judgment in which confession brings acquittal and the old man dies so that a new one may live.
Tractates 2.40.1Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno contrasts imperial pardons, which free the body but leave guilt, with baptism, which removes sin, kills the old man and gives life.
Homilies 13.4Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · Basil urges self-examination: the baptismal seal marks Christ's own; delaying baptism to enjoy sin is folly, since self-control in old age is mere incapacity and death may come with a fever.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 6:11Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · In baptism the Corinthians were washed of all sins, justified and adopted, benefits they lost by following bad teachers.
Commentary on 1 Timothy 1:15Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Christ came to save sinners, taking flesh without defilement and dying to destroy death, and his mercy to Paul, the chief of sinners, is an example for all who will believe.
Commentary on 2 Corinthians 1:3Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · God is called “Father of mercies” to assure the rebuked Corinthians that repentance brings not only pardon but restoration.
Commentary on 2 Corinthians 2:6–7Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The incestuous man, now grieving, should be forgiven and restored lest despair drive him back into sin; true repentance is ceasing from sin.
Commentary on 2 Corinthians 2:10Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul's forgiveness of the offender, given in the person of Christ, is ratified by Christ, and the Corinthians should forgive likewise.
Commentary on Colossians 1:14Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Through Christ come redemption and release from the underworld; he is the image of the invisible God not as something visible but as equal in nature to the Father, seen through his divine works, while the Father never appeared.
Commentary on Colossians 2:13–15Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Christ forgave all sins, including the inherited sin of Adam that kept the dead in the underworld, by nailing it to the cross; the sinless one, unjustly killed, made the powers guilty and stripped them of their captives.
Commentary on Ephesians 1:7Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Christ both redeemed believers by his blood and forgave their sins.
Commentary on Ephesians 4:32Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Forgiven by God in Christ, believers must forgive one another, or lose the mercy they received.
Commentary on Romans 3:26Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · God showed his righteousness by keeping his long-promised purpose to forgive sins through Christ, for gentiles as well as Jews, justifying the one who believes.
Commentary on Romans 4:6Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Ambrosiaster takes David’s blessedness to refer to the forgiveness given without works in baptism, where the apostle adds justification and adoption as sons.
Commentary on Romans 9:16Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · God’s mercy depends on his judgment, not the asker’s will: David, forgiven, remained humble and patient in trouble, while Saul, refused, turned to idols, which shows that God’s foreknowledge judges justly.
Commentary on Romans 11:28Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Israel’s unbelief opened the way for the gentiles, but the Jews remain beloved for the fathers’ sake, and if they believe, baptism will forgive them freely without the penance required for grave sins.
Question 47, section 5Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Isaiah’s cleansing of the sons and daughters is the forgiveness revealed in Christ, which all need: sinners for their own sins, the righteous for Adam’s.
Question 102, section 1Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Against Novatian, Ambrosiaster contrasts the severity with which the law of Moses began and the mercy with which Christ’s preaching began, as when he spared the woman taken in adultery.
Question 102, section 5Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · David was forgiven murder and adultery and restored, Ahab was spared, and Nineveh was saved, all through repentance, which shows that repentance brings real pardon.
Question 102, section 6Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · If murder and adultery can be forgiven, Novatian’s refusal to forgive sexual sin collapses; the remaining question is idolatry, and sins must be loosed in this life if at all.
Question 102, section 7Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Jeremiah’s promises of forgiveness to idolatrous Israel show that God forgives even apostasy and idolatry when people return to him.
Question 102, section 9Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · In baptism God forgives all sins freely without penance; sins committed afterward can still be forgiven, but through the groans and tears of penance.
Question 102, section 10Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Since no one lives without sin, John promises forgiveness to Christians who confess, and God, who had mercy on his enemies, will not refuse it to his friends attacked by the devil.
Question 102, section 12Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Christ said all sins except blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will be forgiven, so Novatian cannot exclude sexual sin and idolatry, which are forgiven through penance or baptism.
Question 102, section 13Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The unforgivable sin against the Holy Spirit was the knowing malice of those Jews who ascribed Christ’s works to the devil against their own conscience.
Question 102, section 16Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Novatian holds that serious sins after baptism cannot be forgiven, but that would make the New Testament less merciful than the Old and contradict Christ, who came to save and commands us to forgive seventy times seven.
Question 102, section 24Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Peter’s guarded answer to Simon Magus concerned deliberate malice; those who sin from error or under pressure can be forgiven through penance, which the church is authorized to grant.
Question 112, section 2Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · David, knowing his sin was grave, appeals to God’s great mercy, which pardons great sins.
Question 112, section 4Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · David asks to be cleansed completely, so that no trace of sin remains.
Letter 11.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome cites Christ's mercy toward sinners and Paul's warnings against judging others.
Letter 11.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome contrasts human judgment with Christ's, citing Peter's restoration and God's joy over one lost sheep.
Letter 36.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome compares the Hebrew and Greek versions of Gen 4:15 and interprets it to mean that Cain was left to live in torment until his death released him.
Letter 42.1Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Against Novatian, Jerome argues that the unforgivable sin is ascribing Christ's works to the devil, not denying Christ under torture.
Letter 42.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome argues from Peter's denial and restoration that denying Christ under pressure is forgivable, unlike calling Christ's works diabolical.
Letter 69.1Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome opens his answer to Oceanus by insisting that Christ's grace takes away all sins, against those who hold some sins are beyond cleansing.
Letter 69.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome contrasts the honourable first marriage of the accused bishop with the sexual sins of his accusers, which baptism has forgiven.
Letter 69.7Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome cites Scripture on the complete cleansing and newness given in baptism, which leaves no room for a first marriage to count against a man.
Letter 122.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · God’s mercy calls sinners back even after great sins, as Jeremiah, Isaiah, Joel, Hosea and David show.
Letter 122.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Scripture’s examples—David, Ahab, Nineveh, the prodigal son, the sinful woman—show that repentance restores even great sinners, since no one is without sin.
Letter 147.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome warns Sabinianus from Amos, Ezekiel and Isaiah that God pardons the penitent but turns away from the impenitent.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 54.2.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Theodotus argued that denying the Son of Man is forgivable.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 54.2.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ's saying safeguards the salvation of repentant blasphemers.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 54.2.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The saying shows Christ's mercy, not approval of blasphemy.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.5.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Lord commands mutual forgiveness.
On Cain and Abel 2.15Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · God both forgives, through his Word and the priestly ministry, and punishes, through judges, nations, and even involuntary killers; when wickedness is destroyed, holiness enters.
On Cain and Abel 2.34Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · The sevenfold vengeance is explained by the seven irrational faculties ruled by reason, or better by seven as the number of remission: whoever refuses forgiveness loses his own hope of it.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.18.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · Forgiveness is to be granted at once to the sincerely penitent, as to David.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.22.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · The judgment on Manasseh, his captivity in Babylon, and his prayer of repentance (the Prayer of Manasseh).
Apostolic Constitutions 8.9.9Anonymous · ca. 380 · God, who forgave Nineveh and the prodigal son, is asked to receive the penitents.
On the Christian Faith 1.20Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose closes the first book with a prayer, like Isaiah’s, that Christ would cleanse his lips and the emperor’s ears, and that the wine of the cross would fill them with faith.
On Noah 25Ambrose · ca. 378-384 · In the church, a sinner who comes to baptism and is forgiven gains greater honor, as Paul the former persecutor became the greatest of laborers.
On Noah 42Ambrose · ca. 378-384 · The seven days before the flood recall creation and gave the people time to repent, showing God's readiness to forgive.
Life of Macrina, part 8Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380 · Macrina ends her prayer asking for a shining angel and forgiveness, signs herself with the cross, dies at the lamp-lighting, and the virgins break into lament for their mother and teacher.
Psalm 31Apollinaris of Laodicea · uncertain (fourth to sixth century) · A paraphrase of Psalm 31 of the Septuagint (Psalm 32): the blessedness of the forgiven, who confess their sin to God.
On the Lord's Prayer 1177Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · Homily 4 ends: seek the kingdom first. Homily 5 opens on “Forgive us our debts”: forgiving belongs to God alone, so one who forgives imitates and in a way becomes like God, while one who exacts his debts harshly cuts himself off from God’s mercy.
On the Lord's Prayer 1179Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · The petition gives the one who prays boldness and makes him his own judge: if we forgive, God has already forgiven; daringly, Gregory says the order is reversed, and we may ask God to imitate our forgiveness, in proportion to his greater power.
On the Lord's Prayer 1181Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · Gregory lists humanity’s debts to God — desertion from its Maker, slavery to sin, the ruin of the divine image, the prodigal’s squandering — so that no one should pray as though his conscience were clean; he raises the question how the blameless can ask for forgiveness.
On the Lord's Prayer 1187Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380–394 · Sins of thought and will are countless, and no one is pure; so all must ask for forgiveness, but the prayer is useless unless we forgive others, since the creditor who imprisons his debtor and charges interest condemns himself.
Chapter 10Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas explains the church as the one communion of all the saints and angels, distinct from heretical churches, then the forgiveness of sins in baptism, the resurrection of the flesh and eternal life.
Chapter 5Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas holds that the Spirit proceeds from the Father in a way no one can know, is a true person who sanctifies and is not sanctified, formed Christ’s body in Mary, rested on him at baptism, and forgives sins through the apostles.
Liber Orsiesii 9Orsiesius · ca. 380-390 · Superiors must treat all alike, never abandon an offending brother in anger, and forgive as they hope to be forgiven.
Book of Heresies 107.6Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Seventy times seven means unlimited forgiveness.
On the Complaints of Job and David 1.21Ambrose · ca. 383-390 · Job and David ask pardon for the sins of youth, the age most prone to vice.
Second Apology of David 33Ambrose · ca. 384-397 · Christ chose sinners like David, Bathsheba, and Tamar as ancestors, to show that he came to forgive and that grace abounds over sin.
Second Apology of David 68Ambrose · ca. 384-397 · If David and Paul confessed their sins, who are we to deny ours? God pardons and rewards those who confess and amend.
Second Apology of David 72Ambrose · ca. 384-397 · Since Christ forgives the debt owed to the one who lent it, Father and Son are one; otherwise the Arians fall into the Manichees’ two gods.
Second Apology of David 74Ambrose · ca. 384-397 · The Lord’s Prayer shows that the Father forgives, and the Son’s teaching it shows their one power.
Second Apology of David 75Ambrose · ca. 384-397 · The Son forgives with authority by his word and with judgment, commanding the forgiven to sin no more.
Apology of the Prophet David 19Ambrose · ca. 384-390 · Knowing himself prone to fall, David sought pardon and trusted God’s mercy.
Apology of the Prophet David 23Ambrose · ca. 384-390 · When David understood the mystery of Christ and the church, he confessed his sin, confident of pardon through baptism and the Spirit.
Apology of the Prophet David 39Ambrose · ca. 384-390 · David himself teaches that confessed sins are covered and forgiven, as Nathan confirmed.
Apology of the Prophet David 40Ambrose · ca. 384-390 · David’s sin was forgiven and covered by love and good works, since it was a lapse, not malice, and he confessed it.
Apology of the Prophet David 49Ambrose · ca. 384-390 · Iniquity, the root, is forgiven in baptism; sin, its fruit, is covered by good works and love.
Apology of the Prophet David 59Ambrose · ca. 384-390 · David asks to be sprinkled with the law’s hyssop and washed whiter than snow by the Gospel’s baptism, which he foresaw in other psalms too.
Apology of the Prophet David 61Ambrose · ca. 384-390 · David asks God to turn his face from his sins, not from him, so that they may be blotted out and forgotten.
Apology of the Prophet David 62Ambrose · ca. 384-390 · Sin is forgiven by grace, blotted out by the cross, covered by love; better still is to uproot iniquity, the root of sin.
Apology of the Prophet David 63Ambrose · ca. 384-390 · Christ blotted out the bond against us by nailing it to the cross, erasing with his blood the debt Eve wrote.
Exposition of Psalm 118 3.8.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · From Christ’s pierced side flowed blood and water, the fragrance of forgiveness and redemption.
Exposition of Psalm 118 3.9.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Christ calls the church good and beautiful, which means that her sins are forgiven.
Exposition of Psalm 118 3.10.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Whoever confesses his sins to God is justified and need not fear repayment.
Exposition of Psalm 118 3.26.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Only one whose eyes are opened can see in the law’s offerings the true forgiveness given in the gospel.
Exposition of Psalm 118 4.26.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Forgiveness must remove not only sins but the inclination to sin, with Christ dwelling in the soul.
Exposition of Psalm 118 5.35.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The church’s sacrifice, the forgiveness of sins, is a sweet fragrance.
Exposition of Psalm 118 5.43.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · In baptism Christ washed away every sin and its reproach.
Exposition of Psalm 118 8.24.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · God, knowing man was made from earth and frail in body, justly forgives the sins of weak nature.
Exposition of Psalm 118 10.17.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Having put on Christ, we receive the Spirit, who forgives sins and makes priests to forgive others; the Spirit is God’s hand.
Exposition of Psalm 118 12.3.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Christ is our treasure; though a man, he forgave sins by divine power as God in a body.
Exposition of Psalm 118 12.47.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The prophet saw Christ, the end of all consummation, forgiving every full-grown sin by his cross.
Exposition of Psalm 118 14.42.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Forgiveness of sins, Christ’s inheritance, profits each and the whole body.
Exposition of Psalm 118 16.43.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The promise of forgiveness of all past sins draws the despairing to conversion.
Exposition of Psalm 118 17.6.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · God’s mercies to Abraham and Israel give hope of pardon.
Exposition of Psalm 118 17.6.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Israel’s history shows God forgiving and delivering whenever the people turned back to him.
Letter 104.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · God's counsel about Calama is unknown; better to turn now to Christ, who alone truly fulfils Virgil's words about wiping away the traces of crime.
Letter 153.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The Lord's Prayer, prayed by the baptized, shows that God's adopted sons are good by grace yet still sinners needing daily forgiveness.
Letter 153.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Sins after baptism are expiated by works of mercy; Christ, sinless, did not condemn the adulteress yet bade her sin no more, so intercession is not complicity.
Letter 177.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · To hope for sinlessness by grace is a tolerable error; but no believer may claim not to need “forgive us our debts.”
Letter 185.49Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The unforgivable sin against the Spirit is final impenitence: refusing forgiveness in the church's unity until death.
Letter 187.28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Even after baptism the whole Church prays 'Forgive us our debts'; she will be without spot or wrinkle only in the life to come.
Letter 189.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine urges Boniface to conjugal chastity, sobriety and detachment from riches, to humility and prayer, and to ready forgiveness of others.
Letter 211.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine directs the nuns to end quarrels quickly, ask and give forgiveness, avoid harsh words, and keep their love spiritual rather than carnal.
Letter 265.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine describes the daily penance of the faithful for small sins through the Lord's Prayer, fasting and almsgiving, comparing small sins to water seeping into a ship.
Homilies on Matthew 4.7John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The name Jesus, given from heaven, promises salvation from sins, which only God can give; moral section: the baptized must be recognizable by their life, but many live like the unbaptized, at races and theaters.
Homilies on Matthew 10.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Homily 10 opens with Matt 3:1–2: 'in those days' is an indefinite phrase; Christ was baptized at thirty after fulfilling the whole law; John's baptism did not remit sins but led the self-righteous Jews to acknowledge their sins and seek Christ's remission, and gathered crowds to witness his manifestation.
Homilies on Matthew 19.3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Prayer in church must also be free of display and noise, joining the angels’ worship; then the Lord’s Prayer is expounded: God as common Father, the hallowing of his name by our lives, the longing for his kingdom, his will done on earth as in heaven, bread for the day, and the forgiveness of sins after baptism.
Homilies on Matthew 19.6John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Forgiveness of others is singled out after the prayer because it makes us masters of our own judgment; the last petitions are expounded, the devil being the evil one and God the King to whom all power belongs; and the hearers are made aware of the many sins they commit even in church.
Homilies on Matthew 19.11John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Forgiving enemies is the easiest way to the remission of sins, while praying against them insults God and turns the tongue into a beast’s teeth; Chrysostom rebukes the noise of his congregation during the reading of Scripture and urges reconciliation.
Homilies on Matthew 29.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · In healing the paralytic Christ first forgives his sins and then reveals the scribes’ secret thoughts, proving by deeds what they themselves said belongs to God alone, and so showing his equality with the Father.
Homilies on Matthew 82.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Judas partook of the mysteries unchanged; Christ instituted the Eucharist at the Passover, the type giving way to the truth, as the memorial of his death for the forgiveness of sins—a memorial that refutes those who deny his passion—and after foretelling the disciples’ flight promised to meet them in Galilee.
On Elijah and Fasting 76Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · We can redeem our sins by almsgiving, turning money, the instrument of greed, into an aid to mercy.
On Joseph 69Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · Joseph's forgiving his brothers, ascribing his sale to God's providence, foreshadows Christ's prayer for his crucifiers and his greeting of peace after the resurrection.
On the Blessings of the Patriarchs 39Ambrose · ca. 387-392 · The bread is Christ's flesh, the bread of life, which gives eternal life and forgiveness of sins to those who receive it worthily.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.51.5Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The fallen just man must do penance and rise again; forgiveness is repeated.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.11.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Confession turns sin's venom into a remedy.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.34.4Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · God forgets forgiven sins and "knows" only what endures.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.51.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Do not let rank or shame keep you from asking God's forgiveness.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 38.14.4Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The perfect are secure in God's forgiveness; the imperfect feel the old wound reopened.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 38.37.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Sins must be remitted here; what is loosed on earth is loosed in heaven.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 38.37.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Christ gave the apostles power to loose sins; Novatian denied it.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 38.37.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The church must loose those the Lord wills to be loosed.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 38.38.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Remission belongs to the gospel; pardon must be sought here with tears.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 38.38.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Without remission here there is no rest, life or being hereafter.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 39.25.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The whole psalm is spoken by Christ, who came to establish faith and forgive sins.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 45.16.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The kingdom of sin was the kingdom of death; Christ’s coming brought life and forgave even grave crimes.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 47.4.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · God is great because he spread joy over a world once full of sin and grief, through Christ’s forgiveness.
On Two Souls 18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391–392 · Since the Manichaeans admit that sins exist and are forgiven, and their evil souls cannot sin, they must ascribe sin to the souls they call God's substance, which refutes their claim.
Sermon 5.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Those about to be baptized are warned to forgive, like the forgiven servant in the parable; forgiveness lies in the heart, and loving correction, as God practises it, is not hatred.
Sermon 9.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Avarice and lavish gifts to performers are both condemned; Christ in the poor asks for what we have, and by good works, prayer, fasting and alms, forgiving as we are forgiven, we walk safely on Christ the way to the eternal sabbath.
Sermon 17.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · People neither forgive nor ask forgiveness; Christ's rule of correction ends in treating the unrepentant as a heathen, who, however devout his outward signs, is dead.
Sermon 19.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The penitent acknowledges his own sins instead of judging others'; sin must be punished either by God or by the sinner himself in repentance, which is anger against oneself.
Sermon 20.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The penitent must guard against despair, which drives a sinner to indulge every lust as if already lost, and against presumption, which delays conversion because God promises pardon at any hour.
Sermon 22.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God is both merciful and just: he spares and pardons the repentant now and will judge by deserts; his "repentance" is a change of sentence when the sinner changes, so we should all seek pardon, not acquittal.
Sermon 42.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God wants not sacrifices but ourselves; the Christian’s sacrifice is alms, of two kinds: forgiving those who wrong us, which costs nothing, and giving to the needy, which seems costly.
Sermon 47.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Confess today and clean your heart, so that God may come into it, while he still warns instead of judging.
Sermon 56.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Even the baptized, bishops included, incur daily sins; the Lord’s Prayer and almsgiving are like pumping the bilge, so that small sins do not sink the ship.
Sermon 56.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The petition is a pact with God; the candidates must forgive everyone from the heart before baptism, in which all their sins, original and personal, will be forgiven.
Sermon 56.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · At the very least, forgive an enemy who asks pardon; Christ on the cross and Stephen under the stones forgave even those who did not ask.
Sermon 56.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Forgiving means letting go of hatred, not of discipline; whoever refuses pardon to one who asks harms himself, like the unforgiving servant of the Gospel.
Sermon 57.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Baptism blots out all sins, yet the Prayer teaches that sins follow in life; the candidates must forgive all their enemies, as God, who owes nothing, forgives them.
Sermon 57.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Of all the petitions Christ singled out only the one about forgiving others for comment, because if it is lost there is no remedy for our many daily faults.
Sermon 58.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · No one lives without sin; even the apostles, the rams of the flock, were taught to ask forgiveness; sins are forgiven once in baptism and daily through the Lord’s Prayer.
Sermon 58.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The petition is a binding pact; candidates and faithful alike must forgive from the heart in these holy days, lest Christ, the Sun of justice, set on their anger.
Sermon 58.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Anger is the lust for revenge; nursed, it becomes hatred, the beam in the eye, and whoever hates is a murderer; we must cleanse our hearts and forgive, as God, whom we daily offend, forgives us.
Sermon 58.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Small daily sins must be pumped out like bilge water by prayer with two wings, forgiving and giving; deliverance from evil comes by turning from evil and doing good.
Sermon 59.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Daily bread is bodily food, the eucharist, and the word preached, all needed only in this life; daily sins are washed away by the Lord’s Prayer, provided we forgive those who ask our pardon.
Sermon 67.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Church’s power to loose is like the disciples’ unbinding of Lazarus after Christ had raised him.
Sermon 71.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · If no one who has spoken against the Spirit could be forgiven, the Church’s preaching of forgiveness to converts would be in vain.
Sermon 71.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine rejects the view that the unforgivable sin is a grave sin after baptism, since the Church grants repentance for every crime.
Sermon 71.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The saying is indefinite, neither universal nor particular, so it refers to a certain blasphemy, which the Lord left unstated so that we would seek it.
Sermon 71.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · A parallel: “they would not have sin” means not every sin but a certain sin, so the unforgivable blasphemy is a certain blasphemy.
Sermon 71.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The first gift of the Holy Spirit is the forgiveness of sins, given in baptism and in the Church, which is why John and Jesus began by preaching repentance.
Sermon 71.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The unforgivable blasphemy against the Spirit is impenitence: the hard heart that refuses the forgiveness given by the Spirit in the Church.
Sermon 71.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · A whole lifetime of impenitent contradiction can be called a single “word,” as Scripture often calls many words “the word.”
Sermon 71.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Every other sin is forgiven where impenitence is absent; the word against the Son is forgivable not because the Spirit is greater, but because repentance obtains forgiveness of it.
Sermon 71.24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The difference is not that the Spirit is greater than the incarnate Son; all three persons forgive sins and work inseparably.
Sermon 71.33Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The forgiveness of sins is given only in the Church that has the Spirit; it is the proper work of the Spirit, who is the fellowship of the Father and the Son.
Sermon 71.34Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · In Luke the saying follows the warning about denying Christ, so that Peter, who repented of his denial, shows that only impenitence is unforgivable.
Sermon 71.37Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Every sin is forgiven in the one Church gathered by the Spirit; the only unforgivable sin is impenitent refusal of that forgiveness, which is guarded against by repentance within the Church.
Sermon 77.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Jews converted at Pentecost were the lost sheep to whom Christ was sent; even the killing of Christ was forgiven those who repented.
Sermon 82.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Many perish by saying “tomorrow, tomorrow” like the raven; God promises pardon to the penitent but not a tomorrow, so we must correct ourselves today.
Sermon 83.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine retells the parable of the unforgiving servant, which follows Christ’s teaching on rebuke and his answer to Peter about forgiving seventy times seven.
Sermon 83.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Everyone is God’s debtor and has others as debtors; the two works of mercy, forgiving and giving, are the rule God will apply to us.
Sermon 83.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Forgiveness has no numerical limit; Christ forgave us thousands of sins, and the servant’s debtor owed more than “seventy-seven” and yet had to be forgiven.
Sermon 83.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · In the Lord’s Prayer we ask God to forgive all our debts as we forgive our debtors, binding ourselves to forgive all.
Sermon 83.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Luke’s genealogy of Christ, begun at his baptism, counts seventy-seven generations back to Adam, signifying that all sins are forgiven.
Sermon 83.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Eleven, the transgression of the ten, multiplied by seven, the number of totality, gives seventy-seven, signifying all sins; God will demand back forgiven debts from those who do not forgive from the heart.
Sermon 87.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · All sins are forgiven to those who turn to Christ; despair kills souls, but God calls back the despairing through Ezekiel’s promise.
Sermon 99.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine introduces a sermon on the forgiveness of sins from the story of the sinful woman who washed Christ’s feet in the Pharisee’s house.
Sermon 99.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ, who heard the Pharisee’s thoughts, told the parable of the two debtors to heal his host and assure the woman, contrasting Simon’s cold hospitality with her love.
Sermon 99.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The parable raises the question whether one should sin much in order to be forgiven much and so love more, a danger like the slander Paul rejected, “let us do evil that good may come.”
Sermon 99.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine sharpens the problem with two baptized men, one a great sinner and one a lesser, for Christ’s words imply that the one forgiven less loves less.
Sermon 99.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The one who sinned little must love much too, because he owes to God’s guidance and grace the sins he did not commit, just as the great sinner owes God the forgiveness of those he did.
Sermon 99.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · All present knew that a man cannot forgive sins; the woman who sought forgiveness from Christ thereby believed him to be God, and he answered the others by telling her that her faith had saved her.
Sermon 99.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ foresaw the Donatists, who claim that they themselves forgive and sanctify and who, like the Pharisee, refused at the Conference of Carthage even to sit with Catholics, saying “do not touch me, for I am clean.”
Sermon 99.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ’s gift of loosing sins does not mean that men forgive by their own merit: the Holy Spirit, who is God, forgives through the faithful, who are his temple.
Sermon 114.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ commands us to forgive a brother who repents “seven times a day,” meaning always, as seven stands for all time.
Sermon 114.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Every human being, even an apostle, is a sinner, as John included himself in “if we say we have no sin”; so we who need forgiveness must forgive those who ask and keep no enmity in our hearts.
Sermon 114.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · In the Lord’s Prayer we bind ourselves to forgive as we ask to be forgiven, a condition set by the heavenly lawyer who will judge us; to pray it without forgiving is to lie to God.
Sermon 135.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · No one is without sin: the Old Testament priests offered first for their own sins, Augustine himself is a sinner, and even the apostles were taught to pray daily, “Forgive us our debts.”
Sermon 135.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Even after the resurrection and Pentecost the apostles were not without sin, as John, the greatest of them, confesses in 1 John 1:8–9; so all must keep praying.
Sermon 152.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Baptism removes the guilt of original sin and of all past sins, so there is no condemnation for those in Christ even though desire remains; they must fight it as free men.
Sermon 155.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Law's righteousness is fulfilled now in those who, helped by grace, refuse the flesh's desires; Baptism blotted out past sins, and daily slips are forgiven through the Lord's Prayer.
Sermon 170.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine asks how Paul could count as dung his blameless life under the Law, given by God, while elsewhere confessing he was a blasphemer and persecutor saved by mercy.
Sermon 175.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Pierced by Peter's preaching, Christ's killers asked what to do and were told to repent and be baptized in the name of the one they had killed; they were healed, the answer to Christ's prayer for them.
Sermon 176.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ healed Paul, his fiercest enemy, first, as a new physician first cures the hopeless, so that no one would despair; Paul now tells the sick what was healed in him.
Sermon 181.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The whole Church, apostles included, prays daily “Forgive us our debts,” and Christ explains the debts as sins; whoever will not say it is outside the Church even if present in body.
Sermon 181.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Lord's Prayer belongs to baptized sons, and the whole Church prays it; the Church is made without spot or wrinkle by confession and forgiveness here, stretched like cloth on the fuller's frame of the cross, and is presented spotless in heaven.
Sermon 181.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Confession, humility, prayer, and tears heal the daily sins we cannot avoid, though a good Christian does not commit the deadly sins; God forgives our debts on the fixed condition that we forgive others.
Sermon 211.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Whoever refuses to forgive cannot honestly say the Lord's Prayer, since he must either omit “forgive us” or say “as we forgive” falsely.
Sermon 211.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · One who has been wronged should not falsely ask pardon, but should be ready to forgive from the heart and pray that the offender may seek pardon.
Sermon 213.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The forgiveness of sins in the Church is given in baptism, pictured by the Red Sea in which the pursuing Egyptians drowned, and daily through the Lord's Prayer.
Sermon 226.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The newly baptized are the day the Lord has made: as at creation, the Spirit moved over the waters of their baptism and God said, “Let there be light.”
Sermon 251.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The adversary to be reconciled on the way is the word of the Law; God reconciles us by forgiving sins and inspiring righteousness through the Spirit.
Sermon 259.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Until the eternal rest, works of mercy are the daily remedy for sin; mercy is twofold, forgiving those who wrong us and giving to the needy, and God repays both far beyond what we give.
Sermon 278.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Lord’s Prayer petition for forgiveness is the antidote against all sins, of which there are two kinds, against God and against neighbor, matching the two great commandments.
Sermon 278.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Whoever refuses to forgive others has no promise of salvation; Augustine will not promise pardon God has not promised, as the serpent did, but only what Scripture promises: forgiveness of past sins to the converted and baptized.
Sermon 278.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Grave sins after baptism are forgiven through the Church’s keys by earnest penance; light, unavoidable sins overwhelm by their number, and God forgives them too, but only if we forgive others.
Sermon 278.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · “Forgive us as we forgive” is like the bucket that bails a leaking ship: daily sins seep in through our frailty, and we must keep bailing until we reach the homeland.
Sermon 295.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The keys given to Peter were given to the unity of the Church, which he represented; the Church binds and looses, outside it nothing is loosed, and as with Lazarus Christ raises the sinner while the Church unbinds him.
Sermon 301.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God was present both to the three young men, whom he delivered visibly, and to the Maccabees, whom he crowned invisibly by ending their life of temptation; those who think happiness is in this world have not ‘passed by’ in heart, and so the impious seem great to them.
Sermon 315.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Anger is the enemy within that blocks the Lord's Prayer at “as we forgive our debtors”; it cannot be killed but can be restrained, and conquering it is greater than taking a city.
Sermon 316.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Stephen imitated Christ's two prayers on the cross, commending his spirit to Jesus as Mediator and asking forgiveness for his killers, perhaps because he himself had been among those forgiven at Pentecost for killing Christ; he stood for himself and knelt for the wicked.
Acts of the Debate with Fortunatus the Manichaean 17Augustine of Hippo · 28–29 August 392 · Augustine argues that sin, repentance, and forgiveness presuppose free will and cites 'by nature children of wrath'; Fortunatus answers that Paul meant this of the body and that the soul is from God.
On Faith and the Creed 22Augustine of Hippo · 393 · Our sins are forgiven only if we forgive others; so we believe in the forgiveness of sins.
The Lord's Sermon on the Mount 1.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 393–396 · Augustine explains the “sin unto death” of 1 John 5:16 as a Christian’s envious attack on the brotherhood after receiving grace, connects it with the sin against the Holy Spirit and with Judas’s despair, and reads the martyrs’ cry for vengeance as a prayer for the overthrow of sin’s kingdom.
The Lord's Sermon on the Mount 2.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 393–396 · Augustine explains the debts of the fifth petition as sins, discusses forgiving money debts, and concludes that all sins against us must be forgiven if we wish to be forgiven.
The Lord's Sermon on the Mount 2.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 393–396 · Augustine matches the seven petitions of the Lord’s Prayer to the seven gifts and beatitudes, and stresses the petition for forgiveness as a pact with God.
Against Jovinianus 2.2Jerome · 393 · Jerome answers from 1 John itself that the baptized can sin and need Christ as their advocate.
Against Jovinianus 2.33Jerome · 393 · Jerome argues from the Gospels (the debtors, talents, minas) and Old Testament examples (cities of refuge, Gibeonites, Jonathan) that there are degrees of merit and reward.
On Continence 15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · God does not take pleasure in sins, though he permits them; his almighty goodness brings good out of evil by pardon, healing, martyrdom and just punishment.
On Continence 18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · Against the Manichaeans, spirit and flesh are both good; their conflict is a sickness caused by sin, forgiven in baptism and healed by continence.
On the Christian Struggle 33Augustine of Hippo · ca. 396–397 · Augustine rejects those who deny that the church can forgive all sins and who condemn remarried widows as adulteresses, against Paul's permission.
On Christian Doctrine 1.18Augustine of Hippo · Books 1–3 ca. 396–397; completed 426–427 · Christ gave the Church the keys to bind and loose, so that those who believe and amend are forgiven within it.
Life of Saint Martin 22Sulpicius Severus · ca. 396–397 · Martin resists the devil's disguises and, rebuking his claim that the fallen cannot be pardoned, says he would promise even the devil mercy if he repented.
Confessions 2.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Augustine thanks God for forgiving his sins and for preserving him from sins he did not commit, urging those kept from such sins to love God no less.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 22.67Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine contrasts David's “I have sinned,” which God accepted, with Saul's same words, which he did not, because God saw their different hearts.
On the Nature of the Good 48Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399 · Augustine closes with a prayer to the patient and merciful God that more Manichaeans may be freed through baptism or repentance, since the keys of the kingdom in the church leave no one beyond hope.
On the Trinity 12.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · The fall in Gen 3 figures how sin arises in one mind: delight in thought is the woman eating alone, and the decision to act is her giving to the man, yet even sins of thought need forgiveness.
On the Trinity 14.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Baptism forgives all sins at once, but the renewal of God's image proceeds gradually, by God's help, until it is perfected in the sight of God.
The Harmony of the Gospels 2.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · Matthew's genealogy signifies Christ taking up our sins, Luke's their removal, and Luke's seventy-seven names signify the forgiveness of all sins.
The Harmony of the Gospels 2.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · Seventy-seven is eleven, the number of transgression of the ten commandments, times seven, and so signifies the full remission of sins.
The Harmony of the Gospels 2.119Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · Matthew's discourse on greatness and forgiveness is partly paralleled in Mark and Luke; Christ said such things, such as the saying on binding and loosing, on several occasions.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 2.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · Parmenian cites Jeremiah and other texts to show that those who forsake God cannot give true baptism; Augustine replies that on that reading the Donatists’ own hidden sinners, ‘dead’ men, and the readmitted Felicianus could not baptize either.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 2.24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · Christ’s gift of the Spirit before the power to forgive sins shows that the Spirit, not the minister, forgives; the Spirit flees a deceitful minister’s heart but not his ministry, as Paul rejoiced that Christ was preached even by envious men.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 104Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · David's pardon for adultery and murder came not from the law, which grants none for such crimes, but from grace, which offers repentance and leads sinners back to obedience; pardon is above the law and on its behalf.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 108Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · The answer argues that the Jews' ignorance in crucifying Christ was excusable only until the resurrection exposed it; persisting in unbelief afterward, they did not receive the pardon Christ prayed for, which is given only to those who acknowledge their sin.
On Holy Virginity 38Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Virgins should learn humility not from repentant sinners but from Christ, who humbled himself out of love, lest they become like the proud Pharisee.
On Holy Virginity 48Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Since all the baptized, virgins included, must pray 'Forgive us our debts', no one should boast of being free from sin.
Canon 115 (Bruns)Anonymous · 401–424 (collection of 419) · Anathema on whoever says that the saints pray "Forgive us our debts" only for others and not for themselves.
Canon 116 (Bruns)Anonymous · 401–424 (collection of 419) · Anathema on whoever says that the saints pray "Forgive us our debts" out of humility and not truly.
Letter 17 to the bishops of Macedonia, chapter 2Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Innocent refutes the view that a marriage contracted before baptism does not count toward digamy, since marriage is not a sin that baptism forgives, and the sons of such a marriage are legitimate.
Commentary on the Apostles' Creed 40Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 404 · Forgiveness of sins rests on God's promise, and it is reasonable, since guilt lies in the will, which God can change from evil to good.
Dialogues 3.15Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · Incited by demons, Martin’s presbyter Brictio insults him after being rebuked for buying horses and slaves; he repents, and Martin refuses ever to depose him: “If Christ endured Judas, why should I not endure Brictio?”
Tractates on the Gospel of John 7.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Pharisees who thought themselves healthy rejected the physician, while the sinful woman, who had no guile, confessed her sins at his feet and was healed; this absence of guile Christ praised in Nathanael.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 11.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Augustine urges catechumens to hasten to baptism, since no one burdened with unforgiven sins will see the kingdom of God.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 13.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Others besides Christ were baptized by John so that John's baptism would not seem superior to Christ's, and no catechumen, however advanced, is forgiven before baptism.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 22.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The “hour” in which the dead hear Christ's voice is the whole present age; the sinner rises by believing, comes forth by confessing, and is loosed by the apostles' ministry, as Lazarus was.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 26.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The fathers who ate manna without faith died, while Moses and others who understood it spiritually did not; so the sacrament differs from its power, and one should approach the altar with innocence and forgiveness.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 31.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Those who killed Christ later sought him and found forgiveness; he is always where he returned to, and “you cannot come” described their present state, not a hopeless one.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 38.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · “If you do not believe that I am” restored hope to those who would believe; even those who shed Christ's blood could be forgiven, as the robber was saved on the cross.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 40.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · “When you have lifted up the Son of man” refers to the cross: some of those who would crucify him were foreknown to believe afterward, so that no one need despair of forgiveness.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 49.24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Lazarus coming out still bound signifies the sinner who confesses; the ministers’ unbinding him signifies the loosing of sins.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 56.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Baptism washes the whole person, but the daily sins of life among earthly things are the feet, washed daily through Christ's intercession, confession and the Lord's Prayer.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 58.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Washing one another's feet means confessing sins to one another, praying for one another and forgiving one another, as Christ intercedes for and forgives us.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 92.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Spirit's witness at Pentecost converted many who had seen and hated Christ, so that they were redeemed by the very blood they had shed.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 121.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The risen Christ comes through closed doors, shows his wounds, breathes the Holy Spirit on the disciples, and gives the power to forgive and retain sins, which Augustine relates to the Church's love.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 1.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · Since God is light and sins are darkness, we can have fellowship with him only because Christ's blood cleanses from all sin, as in baptism; later sins must be confessed.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 1.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · Confessing our sins, even the many light ones, is the beginning of light in us; love then covers sins, while claiming to be sinless makes God a liar.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 1.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · Forgiveness is no licence to sin; but if we sin, we have Christ as our advocate with the Father, to whom we can confess with confidence.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 2.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · Sins are forgiven through Christ's name alone, not through the name of any minister, as Paul told the Corinthians who were dividing into parties.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 7.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · This world is like Israel's desert, and love is the spring God has placed there; it is the theme of the whole Epistle and the condition of forgiveness.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 7.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · The antichrists speak the language of the world, urging revenge against Christ's command to forgive; Christ, who had power, did not threaten but forgave.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 9.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · Those who fear God only as an adulterous wife fears her husband should be displeased with themselves; God, unlike a husband, sees everything, so we must acknowledge our sins for him to forgive.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 10.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · The Donatists claim to have suffered persecution but have themselves divided the Church; they should return like Hagar to her mistress and believe Christ's word that forgiveness of sins is preached in the Church throughout all nations.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.14Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · The gift through Christ exceeds Adam's offense not in the number reached but in that it forgives personal sins as well as original sin.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.16Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · From Adam we inherit only original sin, but through Christ we receive forgiveness of both original and personal sins.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.9Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · “He who is born of God does not sin” does not prove sinlessness: baptism forgives all sins, but renewal is gradual, so the baptized are children of God in so far as renewed and children of this world in so far as still old.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.45Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · After baptism concupiscence remains, forgiven and defeated unless revived by consent; believing spouses use it well in marriage, but their children, born from it, still need rebirth.
On the Spirit and the Letter 59Augustine of Hippo · 412 · Augustine reads Ps 103:2–5 as the order of grace: forgiveness in baptism, healing in this life, resurrection, merciful judgment, and final satisfaction in the vision of God.
On the Spirit and the Letter 65Augustine of Hippo · 412 · Even the lesser righteousness of this life requires consenting to no unlawful desire, yet Scripture shows that no one lives without sin, so all must pray for forgiveness and grace.
City of God 13.7Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Martyrdom for Christ avails the unbaptized for forgiveness as baptism does, by grace, and exceeds the merit of deathbed baptism, though death itself remains no good.
City of God 15.6Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The citizens of God's city, still weak from sin, are healed by mutual correction and forgiveness, but only as the Holy Spirit works within.
City of God 19.27Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine says that in this life the peace and righteousness of the saints consist more in the forgiveness of sins than in perfect virtue, as the Lord's Prayer shows, while in the final peace God will rule the whole person without conflict.
City of God 21.22Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine reports the view that those who give alms and forgive others, however wicked their lives, will escape eternal punishment, relying on James 2:13, Matthew 25, and the Lord's Prayer.
City of God 21.27Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Almsgiving and the Lord's Prayer forgive daily sins of those who are changing their lives, but cannot buy impunity for continued crimes; there is a hidden class of lesser sins pardoned through the intercession of holy friends, but deliverance keeps one from eternal fire, never releases one from it.
On Faith and Works 36Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · The right order is faith in the Trinity, repentance from dead works, and forgiveness in baptism, which forgives sin but does not permit it.
On Faith and Works 41Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · Faith profits by bringing help to live well and pardon for those who turn from sin; Wisdom 15:2 and 1 John 2:1–2 give no security to those who persist.
On Faith and Works 48Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · Life must accord with baptism; there are grave sins requiring excommunication, lesser ones healed by rebuke, and daily sins forgiven through the Lord's Prayer.
On Nature and Grace 20Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine observes that Pelagius asks God only for pardon of past sins, never for help not to sin, though the Lord's Prayer asks for both.
On Nature and Grace 41Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine answers Pelagius' question whether the saints died with or without sin: though they did not live without sin, they could die without it through daily forgiveness sought in the Lord's Prayer.
On Nature and Grace 80Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine owns the passage of his On Free Choice cited by Pelagius, but explains that sin is avoided only with God's help, sought in the Lord's Prayer both to prevent and to heal it.
On Man's Perfection in Righteousness 15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · God justly does not impute sin to those who forgive and ask forgiveness; sin is any lack of due love, avoidable only by a humble will helped by grace.
On Man's Perfection in Righteousness 18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · Our righteousness on pilgrimage is the course of fasting, almsgiving, and prayer toward perfect righteousness; because we still fall short, we rightly pray “forgive us our debts.”
On Man's Perfection in Righteousness 24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · The righteous are found righteous in judgment through forgiveness and almsgiving; to be blameless is possible in this life, to be sinless belongs to Christ alone.
On Man's Perfection in Righteousness 36Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · The upright in heart are on the way; the pure in heart have arrived; meanwhile we must forgive so that our heart does not reproach us when we pray.
On Man's Perfection in Righteousness 44Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · Augustine concludes: no one but Christ has lived without needing forgiveness; he will not fight those who think some saints never consented to sin, but whoever denies the need to pray for grace against temptation is to be anathematized.
Apologetic Book 12.4Orosius · ca. 415–416 · Pelagius presumes to forgive sins by his own power.
Apologetic Book 14.2Orosius · ca. 415–416 · David was forgiven yet punished.
On the Proceedings of Pelagius 26Augustine of Hippo · 417 · Pelagius changed Caelestius's claim that some were without sin before Christ into the harmless claim that some lived holy lives, which the judges approved.
On the Proceedings of Pelagius 28Augustine of Hippo · 417 · Pelagius explained that the church is cleansed in baptism and the Lord wishes her to remain so; the bishops approved this, without ruling on the time of prayer between baptism and the kingdom.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.44Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Concupiscence remains in the baptized but no longer harms them, while it makes their offspring guilty until they too are reborn; its full removal awaits the resurrection, to which baptism leads.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Against Pollentius's objection, Augustine argues that a husband may and should be reconciled to a repentant adulterous wife, since Christ forgave the adulteress.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Reconciliation after a forgiven adultery is possible; if it does not happen, both spouses must remain continent, since remarriage would make four adulterers of two spouses.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Answering the fear that forbidding remarriage would lead husbands to have adulterous wives put to death, Augustine urges mercy grounded in awareness of one's own sin.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Intercourse in marriage beyond the purpose of begetting is pardoned by Paul's concession, which implies some fault, but it is pardoned because of marriage.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · In baptism concupiscence is forgiven as to its guilt but remains, like a languor after illness, until the body is fully healed.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.29Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · As past sins remain in guilt until forgiven, so concupiscence can remain in act after baptism while its guilt is taken away.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.36Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · There is no condemnation for those in Christ, because the guilt of concupiscence is forgiven even though the desire remains.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.37Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Like the olive whose seed yields a wild olive, the forgiven parent passes on to the child the guilt he no longer bears, until the child is reborn.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.38Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Baptism, given once, is the ground for the forgiveness of all later sins and will finally cleanse the church of every spot, including concupiscence itself.
Against Lying 32Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420 · God rewarded the Hebrew midwives and Rahab for their mercy, not for their lies, and pardoned the lies on account of the mercy; but one may not sin deliberately in order to do good.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 1.26Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine answers Julian's charge that Catholics say baptism only 'shaves' sins, affirming that baptism forgives all sins.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 1.28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine explains that daily sins after baptism are cleansed by the Lord's Prayer and almsgiving, and that many believers are without crime but none without sin.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 3.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine answers the charge that baptism leaves people partly sons of the devil, distinguishing 'sons of the world' from 'sons of the devil' and explaining that unbelief is what makes the latter.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 3.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine explains that baptism forgives all sins but does not remove the weakness that remains, which will be removed only in the final regeneration at the resurrection.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 3.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine answers the charge that he attributes sin to Christ, explaining that Paul calls Christ 'sin' because he took the likeness of sinful flesh and became a sacrifice for sin.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine argues that the church, though cleansed in baptism, still prays daily for forgiveness and will be wholly without spot or wrinkle only in glory.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine quotes Cyprian repeatedly to show that he held no one to be without sin in this life and taught daily prayer for forgiveness.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 64Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · After baptism, which removes original and actual sin, the forgiveness of sins remains necessary throughout life, since even the saints, though free of crime, are not without sin.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 65Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Even grave crimes can be forgiven in the Church through penance measured by sorrow; church leaders rightly set times of penance, since sins are remitted only in the Church, which has the Spirit.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 71Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · The Lord's Prayer daily removes light sins, and also forsaken sins, provided we truly forgive others.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 74Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Whoever refuses to forgive a repentant offender cannot expect God's forgiveness, as Christ, the Truth, declared.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 78Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · God alone judges which sins are light or grave; Paul's concessions to the weak, on marital intercourse for pleasure and lawsuits between Christians, show these are pardonable sins, for which we pray daily.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 83Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · The unforgivable sin against the Holy Spirit is to die obstinately refusing to believe that sins are forgiven in the Church.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 119Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Whenever regeneration comes, it forgives all past sins and original guilt; some receive God's help as soon as they receive the commandment.
The Conferences 13.16John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Chaeremon rejects the view that grace is given according to merit and all depends on free will; grace often exceeds human faith, as in the healings of the official’s son, the paralytic, the man at the pool, and the lame man at the temple.
The Conferences 20.7John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Pinufius answers that remembering sins belongs to those still doing penance; once tears and purity of heart have removed the sting of memory, forgiveness is complete.
The Conferences 20.8John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Pinufius lists the many means of forgiveness after baptism and martyrdom, among them love, almsgiving, tears, confession, affliction, amendment, the prayers of the saints, converting others, forgiving others, and above all God’s mercy, and urges mortification.
Part 1, chapter 35Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Moses’ rod that swallowed the magicians’ serpents figures Christ’s teaching consuming pagan and heretical doctrines; his hand made white as snow figures Christ’s intercession cleansing sins.