In the Apology [Note 5] to the Confession, Melancthon employs this language:  “Wherefore it would be impious to take away private absolution from the church.” (Quare impium esset, &c.) Luther, in the Smalcald Articles, Art.  VIII., says, confession and absolution ought by no means be abolished in the church, &c., (Nequaquam in ecclesia confessio et absolutio abolenda est, &c.;) and he is speaking of private confession.

The Romish alleged Refutation of the Augsburg Confession, on the above cited Art.  XI., thus expresses its approbation:  “This article (Art.  XI.) that private and special absolution should remain, and be preserved in the churches is Catholic.  Yet two things must be required of them, (of the Reformers,) that both men and women should attend confession at least once a year, &c.; secondly, to confess all the sins you can recollect.” [Note 6]

Dr. Plank, in his celebrated and elaborate History of the Origin and Changes of the Protestant Doctrinal System, [Note 7] speaking of the negotiations between the Reformers and Papists during the Diet of Augsburg, says, “On the subject of the Confessional there was an entire agreement, for they (the Reformers) had declared that they regarded Confession as a very useful institution, and had no idea of suffering it to fall, and also regarded it as good, that the people should be accustomed to confess their sins,” viz., at the confessional.

Siegel, in his Manual of Christian Ecclesiastical Antiquities, [Note 8] after stating that Luther rejected Auricular Confession, as a sacrament, and a means of oppressing the conscience, adds:  “But, on the other hand, Luther was as unwilling as Melancthon, to have private confession abolished, and the latter had, in his Loci Theologici, pronounced private absolution to be as necessary as baptism.”  In regard to confession in the Lutheran Church of Germany, the fact is, that private confession, which the Reformers so earnestly recommended, is almost entirely abandoned and changed into a general (and public) confession, which may with more propriety be termed preparatory services to the Lord’s Supper.”

Finally, we will add the testimony of only one more witness, Prof.  Jacobson, in the excellent Theological Encyclopedia of Dr. Herzog, now in progress of publication in Germany, who says, “Whilst the compulsory part of the institution (private confession,) fell to the ground, each one was left to judge whether and how much he would confess.  The institution itself was retained, and private confession especially recommended.  The Augsburg Confession presupposes it (private confession,) as the rule:” Our custom is not to give the sacrament to those who have not first been confessed and absolved;” and the Smalcald articles [sic] teach that Confession and Absolution must by no means be allowed to be omitted in the church.” [Note 9]