In the Synod of Exeter, in 1287, parish priests are charged “to warn their parishioners, and frequently to exhort them in their sermons, to come to Confession to their own priest thrice in the year--at Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost, or at the very least at the beginning of Lent.” The same synodal instruction warns the parish priests, moreover, to grant permission generously and freely to any one wishing to confess to some other priest, and it adds, “that if any one shall not have confessed himself and communicated once in the year, he shall be prohibited coming to the church, and when dead be refused ecclesiastical burial.” All, rich and poor, noble and simple, on coming to the Sacrament of Penance, were treated alike. An old fifteenth-century book of _Instructions_ says-- “Every body that shall be confessed, be he never so hye degree or estate, ought to shew loweness in herte, lowenes in speche and lowenes in body for that tyme to hym that shall hear hym; and or he begynne to shew what lyeth in hys conscience, fyrste at hys beginnyng he shall say, _Benedicite_: and afturwards hys confessor hath answered _Dominus_. Sume than, whych be lettered, seyn here _Confiteor_ til they come to _Mea culpa_: sume seyn no ferthere, but to _Quia peccavi nimis_; some seyn no _Confiteor_ in latin till at the last end. Of these maner begynnings it is lytyl charge, for the substance of Confession is in opyn declaration and schewyng of ye synnes, in whyche a mannus conscience demyth hym gulty agenst God. In thys declaration be manye formes of shewyng, for some scheme and divyde here confession in thought, speche and dede, and in thys forme sume can specyfye here synnes, and namely in cotydian confession, as when a man is confessed ofte; oythes as every day or every othur day or onus in sevene nyght. Also sume schewe and here confession by declaration of ye fyve wyttes, and all may be well as in such cotydyan confession. Also sume, and the most parte lettyred and unletteryd, schewe openly her synnes be confession of ye sevene dedly synnes, and thane they schewe what they have offendyd God agenste Hys precepts, and then in mysdyspendyng of here fyve wyttes, and thanne in not fulfyllyng ye seven dedus of mercy. And so, whanne they have specyfyed what comyth to here mynde, then yn ye ende, they yelde them cowpable generally to God and putte hem in Hys mercy, askyng lowly penaunce for her synnnes and absolution of here confessor in the name of holy church.”