Digital Logos Edition
In Confession in the Church of England Since the Reformation, Berkeley William Randolph puts forth evidence to show that private confession has constantly been looked upon, not as a party question, but rather as a legitimate Church of England practice and a true part of its heritage. He argues that it is the duty of the clergy to put it before their people, so long as they do so with a due sense of proportion—not as if it were necessary that everyone should go to Confession, or as if a high degree of spiritual life were unattainable without it—but rather as a medicine and a means of grace of which church-people are perfectly free to avail themselves, and which under certain circumstances they are even recommended, or even urged, to use.