## 10. Confession

The confessor has a habit of assigning penances "by the tariff" - in exact proportion to the gravity of the sins committed. Thus, before absolving the sin of pride, he requires the penitent to recite the "Te Deum" once and the "Pater Noster" twice. Slander is "priced" at two "Pater Noster" and seven "Credo." Laziness "costs" two "Te Deum." Adultery is only absolved after ten "Te Deum," ten "Pater Noster," and ten "Credo," while gluttony is punished with only one penitential prayer, the "Te Deum." Self-love costs the penitent three "Pater Noster" and one "Credo," while jealousy costs three "Pater Noster." Finally, backbiting is "priced" at seven "Pater Noster" and two "Credo." Suppose since my last confession, I must repent for a dozen sins, for which I will have to recite the "Te Deum" nine times, the "Pater Noster" twelve times, and the "Credo" ten times.

What, then, are my sins?
10. Since I will have to repeat the "Te Deum" only nine times, it is clear that I am not guilty of adultery.

I confess to one instance of slander, for ten "Credo" would be too few for two instances of slander, and if I had not slandered at all, the "Credo" would correspond to such a number of sins of pride and slander, for which more than a dozen "Pater Noster" would be required to atone.

Having fulfilled the penance imposed for slander, I will still have to repeat the prayer "Credo" three more times. This corresponds to three sins of pride or one sin of pride and one sin of slander. But three sins of pride require nine "Pater Noster" for atonement, and since I am also guilty of slander, there will be a total of eleven "Pater Noster," not twelve as required by the condition of the problem; this remains unexplained and, moreover, inexplicable. Therefore, the three "Credo" I must read are for the atonement of one instance of slander and one instance of pride.

There remain nine sins for which there are nine "Te Deum." Thus, these sins can be nothing other than nine instances of gluttony.

Thus, I confess to one instance of slander, one instance of slander, one sin of pride, and nine instances of gluttony.

(We recommend that the reader first prepare a table in which the number of repetitions of each of the twenty prayers is indicated, corresponding to each of the eight named sins.)