2nd–8th centuries

Penance after baptism: from Hermas to private confession

Baptism could not be repeated, and sins committed after it became a serious problem. Hermas affirmed that one further repentance is possible after baptism; by the late 2nd – early 3rd century Hippolytus, Tertullian and Origen held that the Church cannot or should not forgive murder, fornication and apostasy, while the Roman bishop Callistus offered penance and restoration to those guilty of fornication, for which Hippolytus accused him of laxity. After the Decian persecution Cyprian secured at a council that the lapsed be received with discipline, by decision of the bishops. In the patristic period penance was public and unrepeatable; the Celtic church developed a repeatable private penance before a priest, which in the 7th–8th centuries spread throughout the Latin church. Gregory the Great named contrition, confession and satisfaction as the parts of penance.