What is interesting is there is NO RECORD of the apostles ever hearing confessions.. And there were no individual confessions in the early church either until 1214 ...So it appears that neither the apostles nor the ECF thought they could "forgive sin"
Chalk it up to tradition!
“What is interesting is there is NO RECORD of the apostles ever hearing confessions..”
Except perhaps in 2 Cor 2:10. See the KJV or DRV there.
“And there were no individual confessions in the early church either until 1214 ...”
That’s completely false. John T. MacNeill and Helena M. Gamer make clear in the decades old class, Medieval Handbooks of Penance: A Translation of the Principal Libri Poenitentiales and Selections from Related Documents (1938), that private confessions took place before public penances in the early Church. That is why Paulinus, in his biography of St. Ambrose of Milan, could write that Ambrose shared men’s sins confessed to him privately with only God. The evidence is strong enough that anti-Catholic bigots routinely ignore it and make blatantly false statements to the contrary. Paul Haffner, in his book, The Sacramental Mystery, notes that, “The general tendency was that confession became increasingly private in the West after St. Leo the Great and in the East after Bishop Nectarius of Constantinople.” (page 124).
Or how about this: Pope St. Leo the Great in the middle of the fifth century, deserves to be quoted in full. He is writing to the bishops of Campania in Italy, reproving them for demanding a public confession of sins before receiving absolution in the sacrament of Penance.
“I have recently heard that some have unlawfully presumed to act contrary to a rule of Apostolic origin. And I hereby decree that the unlawful practice be completely stopped.
“It is with regard to the reception of penance. An abuse has crept in which requires that the faithful write out their individual sins in a little book which is then to be read out loud to the public.
“All that is necessary, however, is for the sinner to manifest his conscience in a secret confession to the priests alone…It is sufficient, therefore, to have first offered one’s confession to God, and then also to the priest, who acts as an intercessor for the transgressions of the penitents” (Magna indignatione, March 6, 459). http://catholicchampion.blogspot.com/2010/06/private-confession-is-apostolic.html This same document from Pope St. Leo is quoted in Haffner, page 123.
The blog I just linked to also has these quotes (I freely admit I do not know their original source):
St. Athanasius said, “As the Baptized is enlightened by the grace of the Holy Spirit, by means of the priest, the repentant is granted forgiveness of his sins by the grace of Christ, also through the priest.”
St. Augustine said, “The Lord Jesus Christ rose Lazarus from the death and those around him (the apostles) loosed him from the grave clothes that bound him.” Was the Giver of life unable to loosen the grave clothes? By loosening them, the apostles denoted their authority of absolving and forgiving sins, which the Lord granted to them and their successors.”
St. Gregory of Nyssa said, “Regard the church priest as a spiritual father for you, reveal to him your secrets openly, just as a patient reveals his hidden wounds to the physician, and so is healed.”
“So it appears that neither the apostles nor the ECF thought they could “forgive sin””
Except that I showed Ambrose - an ECF - and Pope St. Leo - an ECF - and others most clearly did.
Please note: I did not even bother to bring up the early Irish practice of frequent private confession and penance which took place CENTURIES before 1215. Also, please not the date you probably wanted to post was 1215, not 1214.