PENITENZIALI, LIBRI. — These are collections of canons, more or less extensive, in which the various penances (mortifications, prayers, fasts, almsgiving, etc.) that may be imposed upon sinners are listed, according to the nature and number of the sins committed. At first, the p. were simple tariffs proportioning reparation to guilt; later they became complete treatises for the use of confessors.
They presuppose a form of penance different from the ancient canonical penance: they disregard the ordo poenitentium, the imposition of penance at the beginning of Lent, solemn reconciliation on Holy Thursday, the status poenitentium and the obligations connected with it; finally, they admit the repetition of penance. Thus the state of penitence was replaced by the practice of private penances. Although the idea of proportioning punishment to guilt is ancient (councils, decretals, letters of the Fathers), it was only in the 6th century that similar catalogues were compiled. Often wrongly attributed to some prominent figure (Colombano, Commeano, Teodoro, etc.), the p. arose in Ireland and Scotland through the private initiative of confessors, apparently under the influence of monastic customs and the practice of the Germanic Wergeld; the disciples of Colombano helped to spread them on the Continent. The penalties prescribed by the p. redeem sins just as legal compensation redeems crimes; and, according to the principle of the de arreis, long mortifications may be commuted for shorter but harsher mortifications (e.g., one year of fasting on bread and water may be replaced by three days of complete fasting at the tomb of a saint).
The relations between this tariff-based penance, ancient penance, and present-day discipline belong to the history of penance; here only the established conclusions concerning the origin and development of the p. will be presented.
Despite the research of A. Augustin in the 16th century, and of P. Pithou, Luca d'Achery, E. Martène, and J. Morin, scientific study of the p. began only in the 19th century. Wasserschleben, Kunstmann, and Hildenbrand considered the p. to be of Celtic or Anglo-Saxon origin and saw in them the application to the laity of the private penance of monks. Schmitz, in his 1885 edition, attempted to demonstrate that the Roman Church too had its own p. books, based on authentic texts of the hierarchy. P. Fournier subsequently proved this hypothesis erroneous, since most of the texts cited by Schmitz are of insular origin.
The p. may be classified as follows:
I. INSULAR P
1. The oldest penitentials are Irish. The Synod of s. Patrizio (ca. 450) punishes clerics and laypeople who are murderers, fornicators, or idolaters. There are then the canonesHibernenses, which comprise the de stipulatione Hibernensis Sinodi, the de arreis, the canones Sinodi Hiberniae, and the de icctione; finally, there is the penitential of Vinnian, ca. 550, which considers, among other matters, sins of thought and sexual offenses.
2. The Breton penitentials include the 16 excerpta ad libro Davidis (ca. 550–600), the penitential of Gildas (ca. 550), and Colombano’s penitentials A and B, in 42 canons, which were presumably composed partly at Bobbio and partly at Luxeuil. All these penitentials, which are poorly organized, deal especially with the offenses of clerics and laypeople, and above all with offenses of a sexual nature; the penances imposed include fasting on pane et aqua, exile, almsgiving, fines, and the manumission of slaves. From the seventh to the eighth century, the penitentials underwent a remarkable development. The most important are the following: 1) the penitential of Commeano, in 11 titles, according to the ornade of Cassiano, of Scottish or Irish origin, composed between 650 and 700; the original (cod. Vat. Pal. lat. 485) was published in 1902 by Zettinger. The sources of this penitential are the aforementioned insular collections, arranged methodically according to the principle contraria contrariis sanantur. 2) The Theodorean collections, falsely attributed to Teodoro, archbishop of Canterbury (668–90), in five compilations: the canons published by d’Achery, the canones Gregorii published by Kunstmann, the 214 canones Cettoni, a series from the Sangallense tripartitum, and the discipulus l’intrensium in 2 books. These various collections stand in a relationship to one another that has not yet been established; they were composed in England between 690 and 740. Despite declaring that they followed Rome, they are remarkable for their laxity, especially in matrimonial matters. Many penitentials derived from them must also be added: the penitential of Beda from the eighth century, that of Egberto, whose author was probably the archbishop of York (ca. 732–66), the compilation of the Barberini codex published by Albers (in Archiv für kathol. Kirchenrecht, 81 [1901], p. 393 ff.), the liber de remediis peccatorum, and the confessionale Egberti.
II. CONTINENTAL PENITENTIALS
From the eighth century onward, penitentials were compiled on the Continent, but their sources remained those of the insular tradition, supplemented by extracts from canonical collections. They may be classified as follows:1) The penitentials of Bobbio, Fleury, and Merseburg, deriving from Colombano; 2) Lexcarpism Commeani, the Bigotinum, the Remense, and the tripartite penitentials, deriving from Commeano and Teodoro; in addition, a Spanish penitential of the same period, the Vigilianum. The reforming Councils of 813 reacted against these books, quos poenitentiales vocant, quorum sunt certi errors incerti auctores (Council of Chalon, can. 38), and attempted to replace them with penitentials compiled using authentic canonical collections; the result was the Dacheriana. More useful to confessors were the penitential of Alitgario, in six books, the Quadripartitus, the penitential of pseudo-Teodoro, and the two penitentials of Rabano Mauro, from 841–53.
From the ninth century onward, insular and Carolingian collections competed for the favor of confessors, who were by then obliged to possess a penitential. The most important work of this period is the Corrector sive medicus, composed between 1008 and 1012, which constitutes Book XIX of the Decretum of Burcardo di Worms, in 159 chapters (on the penitentials derived from it cf. P. Fournier, in Revue d'histoire ecclés., 12 [1911], p. 695).
The supporters of the reform later called Gregorian, such as Attone di Vercelli and Pietro Damiani, were unanimous in protesting against penitentials. The only penitential included in a Gregorian collection is that of Anselmo di Lucca, inserted in Book XV of the Decretum of Ivo di Chartres in 1094. Finally, around 1140, Graziano, by inserting certain texts on penance into his Decretum, brought the era of penitential books to a close.
It may be said of these books that they helped to generalize the practice of confession; through their prohibitions they promoted the progress of civilization by defending the weak, suppressing acts of violence, and inculcating certain principles of hygiene; while, by prohibiting sins of thought, they refined the moral conscience of human beings.
Kirchenrechtsquellen, Lipsia 1839; F. Kunstmann, Die latein. Poenitentialbücher der Angelsachsen, Magonza 1844; K. Hildenbrand, Untersuch. über die germanischen Poenitentialbücher, Würzburg 1851; E. Friedberg, Aus deutschen Busbüchern, Halle 1868; J. Zettinger, Das Poenit. Cumeneons (Vat. Pal. Int. 485), in Archiv f. kath. Kirchenrecht, 82 (1902), p. 501 SGR.; P. Oakley, English penitential discipline and anglo-saxon law in their joint influence, Nuova York 1923; R. Otazo, El penitential Silense, Madrid 1928; W. Finsterwalder, Untersuch. zu den Busbüchern des VII. VIII. und IX. Jahrb., Weimar 1929; G. Le Bras, Judicia Theodori, in Rev. hist. de droit français et étranger, 1931, pp. 95-115. Cirillo Vogel