![Incipit_Poenitentiale_Vinniani_Cod](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Incipit_Poenitentiale_Vinniani_Cod._Sang._150.png)
A penitential is a book or set of church rules concerning the
Christian
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
sacrament
A sacrament is a Christianity, Christian Rite (Christianity), rite that is recognized as being particularly important and significant. There are various views on the existence and meaning of such rites. Many Christians consider the sacraments ...
of
penance
Penance is any act or a set of actions done out of Repentance (theology), repentance for Christian views on sin, sins committed, as well as an alternate name for the Catholic Church, Catholic, Lutheran, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox s ...
, a "new manner of reconciliation with
God" that was first developed by
Celt
The Celts (, see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples () are. "CELTS location: Greater Europe time period: Second millennium B.C.E. to present ancestry: Celtic a collection of Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient ...
ic monks in
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
in the sixth century AD. It consisted of a list of
sin
In a religious context, sin is a transgression against divine law. Each culture has its own interpretation of what it means to commit a sin. While sins are generally considered actions, any thought, word, or act considered immoral, selfish, s ...
s and the appropriate penances prescribed for them, and served as a type of manual for
confessors.
Origin
Before the church was formalized, there was nothing to correspond with the modern conception of absolution – the pardon or remission of sin by one human being to another.
Capitular confession was the ancient public confession. In the primitive Church, confession to God was the only form enjoined. According to St. Clement of Rome the Lord requires nothing of any man save confession to Him. The Didache shows us that this confession was public, in church, and that each believer was expected to confess his transgressions on Sunday, before breaking bread in the Eucharistic feast, for no one was to come to prayer with an evil conscience.
The early church taught that the Eucharist itself secured pardon ("...public confession was voluntary and for secret sins; this he says procures admission to the sacrament which removes the sin, showing further that it was the Eucharist that secured pardon").
Even at the end of the 11th century, so indefinite as yet was the value assigned to sacerdotal ministrations that
Urban II, at the 1096
council of Nîmes
A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/ shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or nati ...
, promulgated a canon asserting that the prayers of monks had more power to wash away sins than those of secular priests.
Confession was not generally recognized by the bishops as a sacrament in the first 1000 years of the church.
Proof texting of various "church fathers" and non-canonical books provides the following: public penance did not necessarily include a public avowal of sin, but was decided by the confessor, and was to some extent determined by whether or not the offence was sufficiently open or notorious to cause scandal to others.
Oakley points out that recourse to public penance varied both in time and place, and was affected by the weaknesses of the secular law. The ancient praxis of penance relied on papal decrees and synods, which were translated and collected in early medieval collection. Little of those written rules, however, was retained in the later penitentials.
The earliest important penitentials were those by the Irish abbots
Cummean (who based his work on a sixth-century Celtic monastic text known as the ''Paenitentiale Ambrosianum'') and
Columbanus
Columbanus ( ga, Columbán; 543 – 21 November 615) was an Irish missionary notable for founding a number of monasteries after 590 in the Frankish and Lombard kingdoms, most notably Luxeuil Abbey in present-day France and Bobbio Abbey in pr ...
, and the
Archbishop of Canterbury
The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...
,
Theodore of Tarsus
Theodore of Tarsus ( gr, Θεόδωρος Ταρσοῦ; 60219 September 690) was Archbishop of Canterbury from 668 to 690. Theodore grew up in Tarsus, but fled to Constantinople after the Persian Empire conquered Tarsus and other cities. After ...
. Most later penitentials are based on theirs, rather than on earlier Roman texts.
[ The number of Irish penitentials and their importance is cited as evidence of the particular strictness of the Irish spirituality of the seventh century. Walter J. Woods holds that "over time the penitential books helped suppress homicide, personal violence, theft, and other offences that damaged the community and made the offender a target for revenge."]
According to Thomas Pollock Oakley, the penitential guides first developed in Wales, probably at St. David's
St Davids or St David's ( cy, Tyddewi, , "David's house”) is a city and a community (named St Davids and the Cathedral Close) with a cathedral in Pembrokeshire, Wales, lying on the River Alun. It is the resting place of Saint David, ...
, and spread by missions to Ireland. They were brought to Britain with the Hiberno-Scottish mission
The Hiberno-Scottish mission was a series of expeditions in the 6th and 7th centuries by Gaelic missionaries originating from Ireland that spread Celtic Christianity in Scotland, Wales, England and Merovingian France. Celtic Christianity spre ...
and were introduced to the Continent by Irish and Anglo-Saxon missionaries.
Praxis
As priests heard confessions, they began to compile unofficial handbooks that dealt with the most confessed sin
In a religious context, sin is a transgression against divine law. Each culture has its own interpretation of what it means to commit a sin. While sins are generally considered actions, any thought, word, or act considered immoral, selfish, s ...
s and wrote down set penances for those sins. Penances would vary given both the severity of the offence and the status of the sinner; such that the penance imposed on a bishop would generally be more severe than that imposed on a deacon for the same offence. For stealing, Cummean prescribed that a layman shall do one year of penance; a cleric, two; a subdeacon three; a deacon, four; a priest, five; a bishop, six.[
The list of various penitential acts imposed on the sinner to ensure reparation included more or less rigorous fasts, prostrations, deprivation of things otherwise allowable; also alms, prayers, and pilgrimages. The duration was specified in days, quarantines, or years.][ Gildas lists the penance for an inebriated monk, "If any one because of drunkenness is unable to sing the Psalms, being stupefied and without speech, he is deprived of dinner.""Gildas on Penance"]
The penitentials advised the confessor to inquire into the sinner's state of mind and social condition. The priest was told to ask if the sinner before him was rich or poor; educated; ill; young or old; to ask if he or she had sinned voluntarily or involuntarily, and so forth. The spiritual and mental state of the sinner—as well as his or her social status was fundamental to the process. Moreover, some penitentials instructed the priest to ascertain the sinner's sincerity by observing posture and tone of voice.
Penitentials were soon compiled with the authorization of bishops concerned with enforcing uniform disciplinary standards within a given district.
Commutation
The Penitential of Cummean counselled a priest to take into consideration in imposing a penance, the penitent's strengths and weaknesses.[ Those who could not fast were obliged instead to recite daily a certain number of psalms, to give alms, or perform some other penitential exercise as determined by the confessor.][
Some penances could be commuted through payments or substitutions. While the sanctions in early penitentials, such as that of Gildas, were primarily acts of mortification or in some cases excommunication, the inclusion of fines in later compilations derive from secular law, and indicate a church becoming assimilated into the larger society.] The connection with the principles embodied in law codes, which were largely composed of schedules of wergeld or compensation, are evident. "Recidivism was always possible, and the commutation of sentence by payment of cash perpetuated the notion that salvation could be bought".
Commutations and the intersection of ecclesiastical penance with secular law both differed from locality to locality. Nor were commutations restricted to financial payments: extreme fasts and recitation of large numbers of psalms could also commute penances; the system of commutation did not reinforce commonplace connections between poverty and sinfulness, even though it favoured people of means and education over those without such advantages. But the idea that whole communities, from top to bottom, richest to poorest, submitted to the same form of ecclesiastical discipline is itself misleading. For example, meat was a rarity in the diet of the poor, with or without the imposition of ecclesiastical fasts. In addition, the system of public penance was not replaced by private penance; the penitentials themselves refer to public penitential ceremonies.
Opposition
The Council of Paris of 829 condemned the penitentials and ordered all of them to be burnt. In practice, a penitential remained one of the few books that a country priest might have possessed. Some argue that the last penitential was composed by Alain de Lille
Alain de Lille (Alan of Lille) (Latin: ''Alanus ab Insulis''; 11281202/03) was a French theologian and poet. He was born in Lille, some time before 1128. His exact date of death remains unclear as well, with most research pointing toward it bei ...
, in 1180. The objections of the Council of Paris concerned penitentials of uncertain authorship or origin. Penitentials continued to be written, edited, adapted, and, in England, translated into the vernacular. They served an important role in the education of priests as well as in the disciplinary and devotional practices of the laity. Penitentials did not go out of existence in the late twelfth century. Robert of Flamborough wrote his ''Liber Poenitentialis'' in 1208.
List of penitentials
*''Paenitentiale Vinniani''
*''Canones Adomnani''
*''Paenitentiale Gildae''
*''Paenitentialia Columbani''
*'' Paenitentiale Cummeani''
*''Paenitentiale Theodori
The ''Paenitentiale Theodori'' (also known as the ''Iudicia Theodori'' or ''Canones Theodori'') is an early medieval penitential handbook based on the judgements of Archbishop Theodore of Canterbury. It exists in multiple versions, the fullest a ...
''
*''Paenitentiale Ecgberhti
The ''Paenitentiale Ecgberhti'' (also known as the ''Paenitentiale Pseudo-Ecgberhti'', or more commonly as either Ecgberht's penitential or the Ecgberhtine penitential) is an early medieval penitential
A penitential is a book or set of church ...
''
*''Paenitentiale Bedae
The ''Paenitentiale Bedae'' (also known as the ''Paenitentiale Pseudo-Bedae'', or more commonly as either Bede's penitential or the Bedan penitential) is an early medieval penitential
A penitential is a book or set of church rules concerning ...
''
*''Excarpsus Cummeani
The ''Excarpsus Cummeani'', also called the ''Pseudo-Cummeani'', is an eighth-century penitential, probably written in the north of the Frankish Empire in Corbie Abbey. Twenty-six copies of the manuscript survive; six of those were copied before ...
''
*''Paenitentiale Halitgar Halitgar (Halitgarius, Halitcharius, Halitgaire, Aligerio) was a ninth-century bishop of Cambrai (in office 817–831). He is known also as an apostle to the Danes, and the writer of a widely known penitential.
Life
In 822 he travelled to Denmark ...
i''
*''Collectio canonum quadripartita
The ''Collectio canonum quadripartita'' (also known as the ''Collectio Vaticana'' or, more commonly, the ''Quadripartita'') is an early medieval canon law collection, written around the year 850 in the ecclesiastical province of Reims. It co ...
''
*''Handbook for a Confessor
''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 and Latin penitential texts associated with – and possibly authored or adapted by ...
''
Notes
Sources
* Allen J. Frantzen. ''The Literature of Penance in Anglo-Saxon England''. 1983.
*John T. McNeill and Helena M. Gamer, trans. ''Medieval Handbooks of Penance''. 1938, repr. 1965.
*Pierre J. Payer. ''Sex and the Penitentials''. 1984.
*
''Catholic Encyclopedia'':
"Penitential Canons" "...have now only an historic interest."
External links
*
The Anglo-Saxon Penitentials. A Cultural Database
', by Allen J. Frantzen.
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