Canon VIII.
those who have twice or
thrice sacrificed under compulsion, be prostrators four years, and
communicate without oblation two years, and the seventh year they shall
be received to full communion.
Notes.
Whoever has sacrificed a second or third time, but has
been led thereto by force, shall be a prostrator for seven years.
This canon shews how in the Church it was a received
principle that greater penances ought to be imposed for the frequent
commission of the same crime, and consequently it was then believed
that the number of times the sin had been committed should be expressed
in confession, that the penance might correspond to the sin, greater or
less as the case may be, and the time of probation be accordingly
protracted or remitted.