[De veritate dicenda aut tacenda]

but reserved this confession for later times more suitable, as is clear in Acts 19.

A large decorative red Lombardic initial 'S' begins the word 'Second'.

Second proposition: A confessor, existing as a spiritual guardian and judge in the forum of conscience for the one confessing, is bound by his office—not merely by brotherly charity, but also by the authority of the keys committed to him—to tell the truth to the penitent in those matters that concern the penitent's conscience, according to discernment and the quality of the penitent. For such a confessor does not consider himself exempt from this sentence of God: "I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; and I will require his blood from your hand, if you do not announce to the wicked so that he does not sin" (Ezekiel 3:17-18).

With the other things that Truth says there and threatens: "If the watchman sees the sword coming and does not sound the trumpet, and the people guard themselves and the sword comes and takes an soul from them: he indeed is captured in his own iniquity, but I will require his blood from the hand of the watchman" (Ezekiel 33:6). And just as this text speaks of a multitude of people, so it is to be understood regarding each individual; for the same reason applies in both, although the method must be varied in instructing, arguing, admonishing, and exhorting—in the multitude, for the sake of public knowledge; in secret, however, for the sake of the reformation of conscience and the correction of life. For if the one confessing is ignorant, he is to be instructed. If he is knowledgeable and wise, he is to be admonished and exhorted piously, if at least it was by chance and not from malice, and he has not been accustomed to relapsing frequently. But if he is knowledgeable and has become accustomed to sins, he must be rebuked harshly, yet in such a way that he is not cast into the pit of despair. If, however, he shows defiance and attempts to defend his sin, not admitting the hand of the healer but raging against the physician, is he to be cast out and repelled? Certainly not.