Paraenesis, or Exhortation to Penitence

Contents

1. 1Pacian introduces his exhortation on penance, fearing that, as with his earlier tract against the “Little Stag” festivities, censure may teach vice rather than restrain it.
2. 2Pacian asks to be heard in love, says his sermon on penance concerns the whole church, and sets out its four parts.
3. 3Pacian distinguishes the many minor faults from which Christ has freed believers from the few grave sins that remain binding.
4. 4Pacian cites the apostolic decree of Acts 15, which he reads as naming the three grave sins: idolatry, bloodshed, and sexual immorality (the rest of the chapter is missing from this text).
5. 5Pacian shows from Scripture that idolatry, murder, and sexual immorality are deadly sins, and warns against flattering those who have committed them.
6. 6Pacian warns those who receive communion after grave sin without penance, citing the death of Uzzah and the law on eating sacrifices while unclean.
7. 7Pacian applies Paul’s warning against eating the Lord’s body unworthily to sinners who receive communion without penance.
8. 8Pacian urges sinners not to endanger the community and the priest by hiding their sins, but to confess them, as the sick show their wounds to physicians, since the church grieves with them.
9. 9Pacian rebukes those who confess but will not perform the works of penance, and holds up David and Nebuchadnezzar as examples of severe penance that God accepted.
10. 10Pacian rebukes penitents who live in luxury and describes the works of public penance: weeping before the church, squalid clothing, fasting, prayer, almsgiving, and abstaining from baths and banquets.
11. 11Pacian urges sinners to use the remedy of penance as animals use healing herbs, and warns of the eternal fire that awaits the unrepentant in body and soul.
12. 12Pacian closes with an appeal to do penance now, while there is time, promising God’s forgiveness to those who return like the prodigal son.