The Peculiar Office (6)

In our previous article attention was called to abso­lution -- an institution which, arising in the early church, was laid hold on by the popes and so altered and remodeled as to constitute finally a fitting basis whereupon the popes were able to found their throne. The ground-work of the institution in question is, so it was pointed out, the proposition to the effect that the pope was appointed to liberate, in the capacity of Christ's vicar on earth, the penitent one from the offence and guilt...