Penance in Medieval Europe, 600–1200

An up-to-date overview of the functions and contexts of penance in medieval Europe, revealing the latest research and interpretations.

Rob Meens (Author)

9780521693110, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 17 July 2014

290 pages, 5 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15 x 1.5 cm, 0.43 kg

'Rob Meens offers new perspectives on penance as a means of repairing a disturbed relationship with both God and society. He successfully challenges the traditional but simplistic understanding of the history of penance as an evolution from public to private practice or ritual. With an admirably nuanced and learned analysis of an exceptionally wide range of original manuscript sources, particularly the confessors' manuals produced between 600 and 1200, he demonstrates how crucial conceptions of sin and atonement were in medieval Christianity. Meens establishes how the history of penance and confession sheds light on the extraordinary diversity of Christian practice, the ritual and ethical aspects of medieval Christianity, and the perception of links between the human and the supernatural.' Rosamond McKitterick, University of Cambridge

Penance has traditionally been viewed exclusively as the domain of church history but penance and confession also had important social functions in medieval society. In this book, Rob Meens comprehensively reassesses the evidence from late antiquity to the thirteenth century, employing a broad range of sources, including letters, documentation of saints' lives, visions, liturgical texts, monastic rules and conciliar legislation from across Europe. Recent discoveries have unearthed fascinating new evidence, established new relationships between key texts and given more attention to the manuscripts in which penitential books are found. Many of these discoveries and new approaches are revealed here for the first time to a general audience. Providing a full and up-to-date overview of penitential literature during the period, Meens sets the rituals of penance and confession in their social contexts, providing the first introduction to this fundamental feature of medieval religion and society for more than fifty years.

1. Introduction
2. The Late Antique legacy
3. A new beginning? Penitential practice in the insular world
4. Insular texts on the move: penance in Francia and England
5. Penance and the Carolingian reforms
6. New penitential territories: the tenth and eleventh centuries
7. The twelfth century
Conclusion
Appendix 1. The manuscripts of Theodore's penitential
Appendix 2. The manuscripts of the Excarpsus Cummeani
Appendix 3. The manuscripts of the Bede and Egbert penitentials
Appendix 4. The manuscripts of Halitgar's penitential.

Subject Areas: Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500 [HBLC], European history [HBJD], History [HB]