The discipline of public confession

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Tertullian is explaining how the one second repentance after baptism must be carried out, namely through the public discipline of exomologesis.

This second repentance is a single one, and the narrower its ground, the more demanding its proof. It must not be carried only in the conscience, but also performed in some outward act. That act, which is better expressed and more often practiced by a Greek word, is public confession. Through it we confess our sin to the Lord—not as if He did not know it, but because making amends is set in motion by confession, repentance is born from confession, and God is appeased by repentance.

Public confession, therefore, is a discipline of prostrating and humbling a person, imposing a manner of life that entices mercy. It commands the sinner to lie in sackcloth and ashes, to darken the body with filth, to cast down the spirit with grief, to exchange for harsh treatment whatever one has sinned with. For food and drink it prescribes what is pure—not for the belly's sake, of course, but for the soul's. Most often it nourishes prayer with fasts, groaning, weeping, and bellowing day and night to the Lord your God, falling before the presbyters, kneeling before God's beloved, and charging all the brothers and sisters to carry the embassies of one's own entreaty.

Public confession does all this to make repentance commendable, to honor the Lord through fear of danger, to stand in for God's indignation by pronouncing sentence against the sinner, and by temporal affliction not—I will not say to frustrate—but to wipe out eternal punishments. When it throws a person down, it lifts him up more; when it makes him filthy, it returns him more cleansed; when it accuses, it excuses; when it condemns, it absolves. To the degree you have not spared yourself, believe that God will spare you.

Latin

Huius igitur paenitentiae secundae et unius quanto in arto negotium est, tanto operosior probatio, ut non sola conscientia praeferatur, sed aliquo etiam actu administretur. Is actus, qui magis Graeco vocabulo exprimitur et frequentatur, exomologesis est, qua delictum domino nostrum confitemur, non quidem ut ignaro, sed quatenus satisfactio confessione disponitur, confessione paenitentia nascitur, paenitentia deus mitigatur. Itaque exomologesis prosternendi et humilificandi hominis disciplina est, conversationem iniungens misericordiae illicem. De ipso quoque habite atque victu mandat sacco et cineri incubare, corpus sordibus obscurare, animum maeroribus deiicere, illa quae peccavit tristi tractatione mutare, ceterum pastum et potum pura nosse, non ventris scilicet, sed animae causa, plerumque vero ieiuniis preces alere, ingemiscere, lacrimari et mugire dies noctesque ad dominum deum tuum, presbyteris advolvi, et caris dei adgeniculari, omnibus fratribus legationes deprecationis suae iniungere. Haec omnia exomologesis, ut paenitentiam commendet, ut de periculi timore dominum honoret, ut in peccatorem ipsa pronuntians pro dei indignatione fungatur et temporali afflictatione aeterna supplicia, non dicam frustretur, sed expungat. Cum igitur provolvit hominem, magis relevat; cum squalidum facit, magis mundatum reddit; cum accusat, excusat; cum condemnat, absolvit. In quantum non peperceris tibi, in tantum tibi deus, crede, parcet.

About this text

Tertullian teaches what true repentance is, and warns Christians not to put it off or treat it lightly.

Tertullian (c. 155–c. 220) wrote this treatise for Christians, especially newcomers beginning to hear divine teaching. He wrote to correct pagan misunderstandings of repentance and to warn believers against presumption that delays or cheapens it. His purpose was to instruct the church on the true nature and discipline of repentance as ordained by God.

The occasion is pastoral instruction within the church. Tertullian argues that repentance must be directed only toward sins, never toward good deeds, and that those who repent must not return to sin, since doing so insults God and exalts the devil. He warns newcomers not to presume on coming forgiveness by delaying repentance. For those who sin after baptism, God grants one further repentance, which must be carried out through public confession, a discipline of confession and humiliation that restores the sinner to God.

A reader will meet John the Baptist, who preached repentance before the Lord's coming, and Adam, the first human, whose sin brought condemnation and who was restored by public confession. Tertullian also cites Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king restored after seven years of penitential humiliation, and Pharaoh, the Egyptian ruler who rejected repentance and perished in the sea. God's words are quoted directly, as are John the Baptist's, and Tertullian argues against imagined objectors who raise rhetorical questions. Tertullian uses the Old Latin version of Scripture, which follows the Septuagint for book names and Psalm numbering, so LXX Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 in modern numbering.

New English from the Latin base text; no published English used as wording.

Printed text used

Translated from Quinti Septimii Florentis Tertulliani Quae Supersunt Omnia Tertullian Franz Oehler T. O. Weigel Leipzig 1853 (Latin)

This work has passed this project's source check. This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Latin on each section (or the Latin source witness link) for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.