22. In the third place We advise confessors to consider the celebrated saying of venerable Cardinal Bellarmine: "there would not be such ready sinning if there were not such ready absolution". We also advise them to recall the propositions Our predecessors anathematized, especially propositions 60-63, condemned by Innocent XI on March 2, 1679, and so to learn the cases in which absolution is to be granted, denied, or deferred. "The diligent priest should understand when and to whom absolution should be granted, denied, or deferred. He should not absolve those who give no signs of sorrow or are unwilling to lay aside hate and enmity, to make restitution to others if they are able, to leave the proximate occasion of sin or to abandon sins in other ways and to change their life for the better. Nor should he absolve those who have given public scandal, unless they make public satisfaction and remove the scandal". These are the words not of a theologian of the stricter school, but of the Roman Ritual. This also commands confessors, in cases where they deny or defer absolution, to explain to their penitents in a mild spirit and gentle words the reasons for their doing so, and show them that it is necessary to do so for the salvation of their souls. Then they should encourage them to return as soon as possible and inspire them to perform properly everything which they are commanded before their return; then when they return to the sacramental court, they may receive absolution. But when they grant absolution, especially to those who seldom approach the sacrament of Penance or only when burdened with many sins, they should exhort them continually. They should emphasize to them the wretched life they have lived under the yoke of sin and explain the vileness of their sins in order, of course, that they may be heartily sorry and seriously resolve to abandon sin in the future. For it is considered that strong serious exhortations by confessors delivered in the forum of Penance are much more effective than the holy sermons of preachers in separating a penitent from his sins. For the hearers of sermons tend to refer the criticism they hear to others rather than to themselves. This, however, cannot occur in the case of a private warning from one's confessor which strikes one individual penitent and is brandished before his eyes unalloyed with any palliation of or excuse for his sins. Confessors should not reply that this is impossible when the large number of penitents encourages brevity, for the golden statement of St. Francis Xavier resolves this difficulty: "He considered that penitents should be helped carefully, not hurriedly, advising that confessors should prefer to hear a few confessions properly than many at a rash speed" (Tursellini in ejus Vita [S. Francisci Xaverii], bk. 6, chap. 17). 23. Our fourth point concerns satisfaction, the final part of the sacrament of Penance and necessary for its completeness. Our loving mother the Church, in sympathy for human weakness, has softened in some ways primitive severity and abandoned the practice of the Penitential canons. "In the weakness of our times when not only men's merits but their bodies are weak, that ancient strict censure is not allowed to remain for all offenses" (in Can. Fraternitatis, dist. 34). Therefore it is not right for confessors to rashly impose a sacramental satisfaction as a whim, but in so doing they should unite the laws of justice, prudence, and fairness. "In ordaining a penalty for satisfaction, the priests will consider that nothing is to be imposed from their own judgment, but all is to be guided by justice, prudence, and piety". This is laid down in the Roman catechism for the use of priests, which was composed at the command of the Council of Trent and published by Our predecessor St. Pius V under the heading de Poenitentia. The Council of Trent ordained these matters when it laid down this salutary doctrine: "Therefore the priests of the Lord should impose salutary and fitting satisfaction as their spirit and their prudence suggest, in accordance with the kind of sins and the means of the penitents. In this way, they can avoid sharing in the sins of others by perhaps overlooking their sins and dealing too leniently with penitents in imposing very light works for the gravest faults. But they should be conscious that the satisfaction is not only a guardian of their new life and a medicine against weakness, but also a punishment and chastisement for their past sins. For, as the ancient Fathers believe and teach, the keys of the priests were given not for loosing alone but also for binding" (chap. 8, session 14, de poenitentia). However, a knowledge of the penitential canons will assist the confessor in getting sinners to readily accept the suitable satisfaction imposed on them. For although he should not resume the practice of those Canons, he can still use them to explain the measure of the penalties formerly laid down for these sins. The penitent as a result will both recognize the great malice of sin and gladly accept the satisfaction imposed on him, although otherwise it might have seemed too severe to him. He will do so, of course, after comparing his punishment with what he would have suffered for the same sins if he had approached a confessor in the far-off days when the penitential canons were in force, before the kind discipline of the Church softened the severity of the old Canons. This is the conclusion too of many authors outstanding for piety and doctrine. We recorded their names in in nostro Tractatu de Synodo, bk. 7, chap. 62, and think it ineffective to repeat them here. We do add, however, that the life and morals of the faithful who come to the sacrament of confession in Our day are far different from the kind of life which once won praise for glorious Agnes, renowned for her imperial rank and her pursuit of piety. For when she came to Rome to do reverence at the tombs of the Apostles, she revealed all the stains of her former life in the sacramental forum to Blessed Peter Damian, an excellent Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, and left the confessional without any satisfaction being imposed on her by a confessor so famous for his goodness and doctrine.