The “Rule for the Celi-De”, composed by St. Maelruan about the year 780, reckons “_the divulging of confession_, so as to say, this is what the man did”, as so heinous a crime “that it is not penanced in the land of Erinn”.(23) It also contains several regulations connected with the sacrament of penance. Thus, on the eve of the chief festivals, all feasting is prohibited, “because of going under the hand to-morrow”. To which words Dr. Reeves adds the following note: “The priest raises his hand in the absolution, whence the modern expression _going under the hand of the priest_ denotes going to confession” (pag. 202). Subsequently the Rule enacts: “When they do not go to hand (_i.e._ to confession) on Sunday, they go on the Thursday after; it would be too long to wait till the Sunday following for the person who habitually goes to hand every Sunday, because these two days are always special with them at Mass. “It is not necessary to delay minute confessions of thoughts and idle notions, and abuse and anger, till Sunday, but to confess them immediately as they occur. “He who makes his confession to a _soul-friend_, if he performs the penance according to his directions, need not confess them to another _soul-friend_, but only what has subsequently occurred. Frequent confession is not profitable when the transgressions are frequent too”. Some instructions are also given for the guidance of the confessor: “Difficult, indeed, is the duty of the _soul-friend_, because if he gives the proper remedy, it is oftener violated than observed; but if the soul-friend does not give it, its liability falls upon himself; because several are satisfied with making the confession without doing the penance; but it is better to proclaim their welfare to them, though they do not respond to the penance enjoined by the confessor. Another soul-friend may be gone to, if necessary, after the permission of the first soul-friend. “It is right to refuse the confession of a person who does not perform penance according to the soul-friend, unless there happens to be a soul-friend near, whom he considers more learned in rules, in the ways of the Scripture, and in the practices of the saints. Let him heed what he receives from the learned soul-friend whom he first met, to whomsoever he may reveal his confession each time, and let penance be enjoined him according to the rules of frequent confession”. In fine, it is also decreed that the bishop “who confers noble orders upon any one who is not able to instruct in religion and reading, and soul-friendship, and who has not a knowledge of laws and rules, and of the proper remedy for all sins in general, is an enemy to God and man; for that bishop has offered an insult to Christ and His Church, and hence shall do penance for six years, and he shall pay seven _cumhals_ in gold as a penalty to God.(24)”