As the idea of purgation gained footing in the early medieval Church there quickly became a need for a system of penitence that could give clear assurance that one’s sins were forgiven. Penance as an early practice consisted of a priest proscribing acts of penance and charity based on the gravity of one’s sins. Further it was believed that the sin could not be forgiven until the penance was complete. But just as the doctrine of purgatory was redefined throughout the Middle Ages, the sacrament of penance underwent major reform in the ninth century. It was at this point that the modern sacrament of penance was adopted. Previously penance was understood as long and rigorous acts which had to be completed before the sinner could be discharged from both the guilt and the punishment. After the reformation of the sacrament, however, it became understood as absolution and satisfaction carried out in two stages. First, a priest had to absolve the sin after hearing it confessed and impose a penance. Second, the process of satisfaction could then be continued into the next life and could be finished in purgatory.
Saint Thomas Aquinas, a theologian and doctor of Christian theology, wrote extensively on the concept of sacramental forgiveness as a gift of God. His writings formed the basis for the understanding and actual practice of the sacrament of penance. Such works today provide profound and incomparable explanations of the medieval sacrament of penance.
Aquinas first defines penance as an act necessary for man, not God. He writes that God does not need penance in order to forgive man for his sins, but rather man needs penance to bring him into the spiritual realm of God. Further, he goes on to explain the sacrament of penance and its necessity in four points: the need for sacramental forgiveness, the effective signification of the sacrament, the act of the sacrament itself, and the justification of faith in the sacrament. Through these points the sacrament finds it form and its practice.
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