''Handbook for a Confessor'' (also ''Old English Handbook'', or in full, ''Late Old English Handbook for the Use of a Confessor'') is a compilation of
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
and Latin
penitential
A penitential is a book or set of church rules concerning the Christianity, Christian sacrament of penance, a "new manner of reconciliation with God in Christianity, God" that was first developed by Celtic monks in Ireland in the sixth century A ...
texts associated with – and possibly authored or adapted by –
Wulfstan (II), Archbishop of York (d. 1023).
[Wormald, “Archbishop Wulfstan.” p. 10; Heyworth, “Handbook.” pp. 221-2.] The handbook was intended for the use of parish priests in hearing
confession
A confession is a statement – made by a person or by a group of persons – acknowledging some personal fact that the person (or the group) would ostensibly prefer to keep hidden. The term presumes that the speaker is providing information th ...
and determining penances. Its transmission in the manuscripts (see below) seems to bear witness to Wulfstan's profound concern with these sacraments and their regulation, an impression which is similarly borne out by his ''Canons of Edgar'', a guide of ecclesiastical law also targeted at priests. The handbook is a derivative work, based largely on earlier vernacular representatives of the penitential genre such as the ''
Scrifboc'' (or ''Confessionale Pseudo-Ecgberhti'') and the ''
Old English Penitential'' (or ''Paenitentiale Pseudo-Ecgberhti'').
[Fowler, “Handbook.” pp. 12-3; Heyworth, “Handbook.” p. 221.] Nevertheless, a unique quality seems to lie in the more or less systematic way it seeks to integrate various points of concern, including the proper formulae for confession and instructions on the administration of confession, the prescription of penances and their commutation.
[Fowler, “Handbook.” p. 12.]
Manuscripts
The original exemplar is lost, but extracts from the handbook survive in six manuscripts, three of which have been identified by scholars as Wulfstan's so-called '
commonplace book
Commonplace books (or commonplaces) are a way to compile knowledge, usually by writing information into books. They have been kept from antiquity, and were kept particularly during the Renaissance and in the nineteenth century. Such books are simi ...
s', i.e. collections used by Wulfstan for a large variety of purposes.
[Heyworth, “Handbook.” pp. 218-9. The following overview is based on Fowler, “Handbook.” pp. 1-4 and Heyworth, “Handbook.” p. 218.]
*1. Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale, MS 8558–63 (2498), ff. 132–9v. Commonplace book.
*2. Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 201, pp. 114–25, 170. The principal text for Fowler's edition; associated with Wulfstan's commonplace books.
[Wormald, “Archbishop Wulfstan.” p. 10, describes it as a commonplace book, but this is not universally accepted. Heyworth, “Handbook.” 219-20; Fowler, “Handbook.” p. 4.]
*3. Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 265, pp. 72–83. Commonplace book.
*4. London, British Library,
Cotton MS Tiberius
This is an incomplete list of some of the manuscripts from the Cotton library that today form the Cotton collection of the British Library. Some manuscripts were destroyed or damaged in a fire at Ashburnham House in 1731, and a few are kept in othe ...
A III, ff. 55–6v, 94v–7.
*5. Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Junius 121, ff. 23v–4, 54v–7v. Commonplace book.
*6. Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Laud Misc. 482, ff. 28v, 40–3v, 464. Of Worcester provenance.
Contents
The most complete copies of the handbook are represented by CCCC MS 201 and Cotton MS Tiberius A III, while the other four manuscripts present a narrower selection of texts.
[Fowler, “Handbook.” p. 14] As a whole, the collection contains six texts, one in Latin (I) and five in Old English (II-VI).
*I. ''Ordo Confessionis'' (in Latin); broadly similar to the early 8th-century ''Othmarus ad discipulos'' by
Othmar, abbot of St Gall.
[Fowler, “Handbook.” p. 13.]
*II. A confessional formula for recitation, consisting of a list of sins and the penitent's request for forgiveness. A longer version appears in
Cotton MS Vespasian
This is an incomplete list of some of the manuscripts from the Cotton library that today form the Cotton collection of the British Library. Some manuscripts were destroyed or damaged in a fire at Ashburnham House in 1731, and a few are kept in othe ...
D XX (mid-10th century).
*III. General directions for a
confessor
Confessor is a title used within Christianity in several ways.
Confessor of the Faith
Its oldest use is to indicate a saint who has suffered persecution and torture for the faith but not to the point of death.[King Æthelred
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...]
, such as ''V Æthelred'' and ''VI Æthelred''.
[Fowler, “Handbook.” pp. 10-1 note 18.]
*IV. A short
penitential
A penitential is a book or set of church rules concerning the Christianity, Christian sacrament of penance, a "new manner of reconciliation with God in Christianity, God" that was first developed by Celtic monks in Ireland in the sixth century A ...
, based chiefly on the ''
Old English Penitential''.
*V. ''Be dædbetan'' (“For penitents”), further instructions for the confessor, with commentary on types of penance, the attention to be given to the penitent's character and situation, provisions of commutation in the form of monetary payments and alms-giving, and a concluding paragraph on concessions for the sick.
*VI. ''Be mihtigum mannum'' (“For powerful men”), on commutations for the rich.
For three Old English texts, here numbered III, V and VI, no specific relationship to earlier authorities can be pinpointed, except in individual passages.
[Fowler, “Handbook.” p. 3-4.]
See also
*
Works of Wulfstan of York
References
Edition
*Fowler, Roger (ed.). "A Late Old English Handbook for the Use of a Confessor." ''Anglia'' 83.1 (1965). Pp. 1-34; edition of Old English texts (16-34).
Secondary sources
*Fowler, Roger. "A Late Old English Handbook for the Use of a Confessor." ''Anglia'' 83.1 (1965): 1-34: Introduction (1-15).
*Heyworth, Melanie. “The "Late Old English Handbook for the Use of a Confessor." Authorship and Connections.” ''Notes and Queries'' 54:3 (2007): 218-22.
*Wormald, Patrick. “Archbishop Wulfstan: Eleventh-Century State-Builder.” In ''Wulfstan, Archbishop of York. The Proceedings of the 2nd Alcuin Conference'', ed. Matthew Townend. Turnhout, 2004: 9-27.
Further reading
*Cubitt, Catherine. “Bishops, priests and penance in late Saxon England.” ''Early Medieval Europe'' 14.1 (2006): 41-63.
*
Frantzen, Allen J. ''The Literature of Penance in Anglo-Saxon England''. New Brunswick, 1983.
External links
''The Anglo-Saxon Penitentials'' by Allen J. Frantzen including a description and editions.
Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 265 ''Parker Library on the Web''. Subscription required.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Handbook For A Confessor
Old English literature
Penitentials
Latin texts of Anglo-Saxon England