text: According to my readings about the early church, the sacrament of penance may have developed from the ritual to reconcile people who had sacrificed to the Roman Emperor/gods during the persecutions rather than accept penalties or martyrdom. Later, when Christianity was widespread under Constantine and there were no more martyrdoms, the concept was broadened to include acts that "wounded ecclesial communion" , probably major social offenses.  The early ritual includes words about being reconciled to the church. 
  
  The ritual of confession as we know it may have developed much later with the emergence of the monasteries where monks and nuns withheld nothing from their spiritual fathers (or spiritual mothers, in the case of nuns).  This suggests that the process  and the concepts around confession evolved over a few centuries. At least, that's what I recall , although I confess that my memory can be faulty.  Other sacraments were not established till long after the 1st century, either.