When you see the offender,^[1] with severity command him to be cast out. As he is going out, let the deacons also treat him with severity, and then let them go and seek for him and keep him out of the church. When they come in, let them entreat you for him. For our Savior entreated his Father for those who had sinned, as it is written in the Gospel: Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.^[2] Then order the offender to come in. And if on examination you find that he is penitent and fit to be received at all into the church when you have assigned him his days of fasting, according to the degree of his offense—as two, three, five or seven weeks—so set him at liberty and speak such things to him as are fit to be said by way of reproof, instruction and exhortation to a sinner for his reformation, so that he may continue privately in his humility and pray to God to be merciful to him, saying: If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? For with you there is forgiveness. This sort of statement contains what is said in the book of Genesis to Cain: You have sinned; be quiet;^[3] that is, do not continue in sin. That a sinner ought to be ashamed for his own sin, the oracle of God delivered to Moses concerning Miriam is a sufficient proof, when he prayed that she might be forgiven. For God said to him, If her father had spit in her face, should she not be ashamed? Let her be shut out of the camp for seven days, and afterwards let her come in again.^[4] We therefore ought to do the same with offenders, when they profess their repentance, namely, to separate them for a period of time, according to the degree of their offense; and afterwards, as fathers deal with their children, receive them again on their repentance.

But satisfaction must not be ruled out or absolution denied to those who in time of necessity or in the moment of pressing danger beg for the protection of penance followed by absolution. For we cannot put limitations on the mercy of God or fix limits to times. With him there is no delaying of pardon when the conversion is genuine, as the Spirit of God says through the prophet: If being converted you lament, you will be saved;^[1] and elsewhere: Tell me your sins first in order that you may be justified;^[2] and again: Because with the Lord there is mercy; and with him plentiful redemption. Consequently, we must not be stingy in dispensing the gifts of God or disregard the tears and groans of those accusing themselves, since, in our opinion, the very desire for penance was conceived through the inspiration of God, as the apostle says: Lest by chance God give them repentance . . . so that they may recover themselves from the snare of the devil, at whose pleasure they are held captive.^[3]