Before Augustine had built up that sublime and imperishable monument against auricular confession, St. John Chrysostom had raised his eloquent voice against it, in his homily on the 50th Psalm, where, speaking in the name of the Church, he said: "We do not request you to go to confess your sins to any of your fellow-men, but only to God!" Nestorius, of the 4th century, the predecessor of John Chrysostom, had, by a public defense, which the best Roman Catholic historians have had to acknowledge, solemnly forbidden the practice of auricular confession. For, just as there has always been thieves, drunkards and malefactors in the world, so there has always been men and women who, under the pretext of opening their minds to each other for mutual comfort and edification, were giving themselves to every kind of iniquity and lust. The celebrated Chrysostom was only giving the sanction of his authority to what his predecessor had done when, thundering against the newly born monster, he said to the Christians of his time, "We do not ask you to go and confess your iniquities to a sinful man for pardon--but only to God." (Homily on 50th Psalm.) Auricular confession originated with the early heretics, especially with Marcion. Bellarmin speaks of it as something to be practiced. But let us hear what the contemporary writers have to say on the question: "Certain women were in the habit of going to the heretic Marcion to confess their sins to him. But, as he was smitten with their beauty, and they loved him also, they abandoned themselves to sin with him." Listen now to what St. Basil, in his commentary on Ps. xxxvii, says of confession: "I have not to come before the world to make a confession with my lips. But I close my eyes, and confess my sins in the secret of my heart. Before thee, O God, I pour out my sighs, and thou alone art the witness. My groans are within my soul. There is no need of many words to confess: sorrow and regret are the best confession. Yes, the lamentations of the soul, which thou art pleased to hear, are the best confession." Chrysostom, in his homily: De paenitentia, vol. IV., col. 901, has the following: "You need no witnesses of your confession. Secretly acknowledge your sins, and let God alone hear you." In his homily V., De incomprehensibili Dei natura, vol. I, he says: "Therefore, I beseech you, always confess your sins to God! I in no way ask you to confess them to me. To God alone should you expose the wounds of your souls, and from him alone expect the cure. Go to him, then; and you shall not be cast off, but healed. For, before you utter a single word, God knows your prayer."