PENANCE BOOKS. — These are collections of canons, more or less extensive, in which are listed the various penances (mortifications, prayers, fasts, alms, etc.) that may be imposed on sinners according to the nature and number of their offenses. Initially simple tariffs proportioning reparation to guilt, they later became complete manuals for confessors.
They presuppose a form of penance different from the ancient canonical penance: they ignore the ordo poenitentium, the imposition of penance at the beginning of Lent, the solemn reconciliation on Holy Thursday, the status poenitentium and the obligations connected therewith; finally, they allow for the repetition of penance. In this way, the public penitential state is succeeded by the regime 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 such catalogues began to be compiled. Often erroneously attributed to some prominent figure (Columbanus, Cummianus, Theodore, etc.), penance books originated 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 Columbanus helped to spread them on the Continent. The penalties prescribed by these books redeem sins just as legal composition redeems crimes; and, according to the principle of *de arreis*, long mortifications may be commuted into shorter but harsher ones (e.g., a year of fasting on bread and water may be replaced by three days of complete fasting upon the tomb of a saint).
The relationship between this tariff penance, ancient penance, and the current discipline pertains to the history of penance; here only the findings regarding the origin and development of penance books will be presented.
Despite the researches of A. Augustin in the 16th century, of P. Pithou, of Luc d'Achery, of E. Martène, and of J. Morin, the scholarly study of penance books began only in the 19th century. Wasserschleben, Kunstmann, and Hildenbrand consider penance books to be of Celtic or Anglo-Saxon origin and see in them the application to laypeople of the private penance of monks. Schmitz, in his 1883 edition, attempted to demonstrate that the Roman Church also had its own penance books based on authentic texts of the hierarchy. P. Fournier later proved this hypothesis to be erroneous, since most of the texts cited by Schmitz are of insular origin.
Penance books may be classified as follows:
I. INSULAR PENITENTIALS
1. The earliest penance books are Irish. The Synod of St. Patrick (c. 450) punishes clerics and laity for murder, fornication, or idolatry. Then come the *Canones Hibernenses*, which include the *De Stipulatione Hibernensis Synodi*, the *De Arreis*, the *Canones Synodi Hiberniae*, and the *De Lectione*; finally, the Penitential of Vinnian (c. 550), which considers among other sins those of thought and sexual offenses.2. The Breton penitentials include the 16 *Excerpta de Libro Davidis* (c. 550–600), the Penitential of Gildas (c. 550), and the Penitentials A and B of Columbanus in 42 canons, said to have been compiled partly at Bobbio and partly at Luxeuil. All these penitentials, which are somewhat unstructured, focus especially on the sins of clerics and laity, particularly sexual offenses; prescribed penances include fasting on bread and water, exile, almsgiving, fines, and the manumission of slaves. From the 7th to the 8th century, penitentials underwent remarkable development. The most important of this period are: 1) the Penitential of Cummianus, in 11 titles, according to the *Octode* of Cassian, of Scottish or Irish origin, compiled 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, methodically arranged according to the principle *contraria contrariis sanantur*. 2) The Theodorean collections, falsely attributed to Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury (668–90), in five compilations: the canons published by d'Achery, the *Canones Gregorii* published by Kunstmann, the 214 *Canones Cottoniani*, a series from the *Sangallense Tripartitum*, and the *Discipulus Umbrensium* in two books. These various compilations are related in ways not yet precisely determined; they were composed in England between 600 and 740. Despite their claim to follow Rome, they are remarkable for their laxity, especially in matters of marriage. Many penitentials derived from them should be added: the Penitential of Bede (8th century), that of Egbert (whose author was probably the Archbishop of York, c. 732–66), the compilation of the Barberini codex published by Albers (*in Archiv für katholisches Kirchenrecht*, 81 [1901], pp. 393ff.), the *Liber de Remediis Peccatorum*, and Egbert’s *Confessionale*.
II. CONTINENTAL PENITENTIALS
From the 8th century onward, penitentials were compiled on the Continent, but their sources remained insular, augmented by extracts from canonical collections. They may be subdivided as follows:1) The Penitentials of Bobbio, Fleury, and Merseburg, derived from Columbanus; 2) the *Excarpus Cumenani*, the *Bigotianum*, the *Remense*, and the *Tripartita*, derived from Cummianus and Theodore; also a Spanish penitential of the same period, the *Vigilium*. The reforming councils of 813 reacted against these books *quos poenitentiales vocant, quorum sunt certi errores 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 for confessors were the penitentials of Alitgarius (in six books), the *Quadripartitus*, the Penitential of Pseudo-Theodore, and the two penitentials of Rabanus Maurus (841–53).
From the 9th century, insular and Carolingian collections vied for the favor of confessors, who were now obliged to possess a penitential. The most important work of this period is the *Corrector sive Medicus*, composed between 1008 and 1012, which constitutes the 19th book of the *Decretum* of Burchard of Worms, in 159 chapters (on the penitentials derived from it cf. P. Fournier, *in Revue d'histoire ecclésiastique*, 12 [1911], p. 695).
The partisans of the reform later known as the Gregorian Reform, such as Atto of Vercelli and Peter Damian, were unanimous in protesting against penitentials. The only penitential included in a Gregorian collection is that of Anselm of Lucca, inserted into Book 15 of the *Decretum* of Ivo of Chartres in 1094. Finally, around 1140, Gratian, by including certain texts on penance in his *Decretum*, brought the era of penance books to a close.
It may be said of these books that they helped to generalize the practice of confession; with their prohibitions they fostered the progress of civilization by defending the weak, repressing acts of violence, and instilling certain principles of hygiene, while by forbidding sins of thought they refined the moral conscience of men.