¹ The standard survey is still B. Poschmann, Penance and the Anointing of The Sick. The Herder History of Dogma. Translated and revised by T. Courtney (Freiburg-London, 1964). The early medieval phase of the story is sketched with illustrative documents (translated into French) by Vogel, C., Le pécheur et la pénitence au moyen-age. Chrétiens de tous les temps. (Paris, 1969) [henceforth Vogel, Pécheur]Google Scholar. New perspectives are given by Forshaw, H. P., ‘The Priest-Confessor in the Early Middle Ages, 600–1100’ (unpublished PhD thesis, University of London, 1976)Google Scholar.

² The seal: Honoré, L., Le secret de la confession (Bruges, 1924)Google Scholar. Breaches of the seal are a source and subject of Murray, A., ‘Confession as a historical source in the thirteenth century’, in The Writing of History in the Middle Ages. Essays presented to Richard William Southern, ed. Davis, R.H.C. and Wallace-Hadrill, J.M. (Oxford, 1981), 275–322Google Scholar.

³ Conciliorum oecumenicorum decreta, ed. Alberigo, J. and others (third edn., Bologna, 1973), 245Google Scholar.

⁴ Evidence of these views will be found in Ozment, S. E., The Reformation in the Cities (New Haven and London, 1975), 17, 26–32, 50–6, 67–8, 72–6, 100, 153–60Google Scholar; Bossy, J., ‘The Social History of Confession in the Age of Reformation’, in these Transactions, 5th series, 25 (1975), 21–38Google Scholar; and Tender, T. N., Sin and Confession on the Eve of the Reformation (Princeton, 1977)Google Scholar.

⁵ Lea, H. C., The History of Auricular Confession and Indulgences in the Latin Church, 3 vols. (Philadelphia, 1986)Google Scholar.

⁶ Watkins, O. D., A History of Penance (2 vols., 1920); esp. II, 735–6Google Scholar; referring mainly to the tenth, eleventh and twelfth centuries. Anciaux, P. begins his La théologie du sacrement de pénitence au xii siécle (Louvain, 1949)Google Scholar, with a similar assumption (2–3): ‘jusqu’ à cette époque l'Église avait simplement vécu des richesses de ses sacrements, sans chercher à en approfondir la nature ou à en déterminer les elements et leur efficacité'. The otherwise excellent documentation of Dr Forshaw's thesis (as in n. 1) deserts her when she purports to describe the regular and widespread practice of confession, esp. on 198 and 293.

⁷ Dickinson, J., The Origin of the Austin Canons and their Introduction into England (1950), 228Google Scholar.

⁸ Poschmann (as in n. 1), 140; cf. 139, for the eighth and ninth centuries.

⁹ Barlow, F., The English Church, 1066–1154 (London and New York, 1979), 138Google Scholar [my emphasis]; cf. 147, 164; cf. the same author's The English Church, 1000–1066 (London and New York, 1979), 265, 268, 271Google Scholar.

¹⁰ Gibson, M., Lanfranc of Rec (Oxford, 1978), 244Google Scholar.

¹¹ For lists of authors for and against see Thomas of Chobham, ‘Summa confessarum’, ed. Broomfield, F. (Louvain and Paris, 1968), xliGoogle Scholar; and for an earlier period, Thacker, A., ‘Monks, preaching and pastoral care in early Anglo-Saxon England’, in Pastoral Care Before the Parish, ed. Blair, J. and Sharpe, R. (Leicester, 1992), 137–70, on 161Google Scholar. As for the difficulties inherent to the subject Professor Barlow himself, in English Church, 1000–1066, 259, acknowledges that ‘concrete examples are hard to find’ to show whether the rules were kept,—but at once goes on to assume that derelictions of other duties than confession ‘must have been dealt with through the forum intemum, the confessional’. Cautious authors include Cowdrey, H. E.J., ‘Bishop Ermenfrid of Sion and the Penitential Ordinance following the Battle of Hastings’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, XX (1969), 225–42, on 236–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Referring to ‘the penitential discipline of the Church as it was administered between the Carolingian reform and the beginning of the Crusades’ he adds that ‘as far as the time of the Norman ordinance is concerned, the character of this discipline and the extent to which it was effective are not easy to ascertain.’ Sharpe, R., in ‘Churches and communities in early medieval Ireland’, Pastoral Care Before the Parish (as above), 82Google Scholar, prudently writes that private confession ‘could hardly be reported and so lies beyond the scope of our evidence’. Abbé Joseph Avril recognises similar difficulties in respect of France; ‘Remarques sur un aspect de la vie religieuse paroissiale: la pratique de la confession et de la communion du x' au xiv' siècle’, in L'encadrement religuux des fidèles, au Moyen-Age et jusqu'au Concile de Trente. La paroisse—le clergé—la pastorale—la dévotion. Actes du 109' congrès national des sociétés savantes, Dijon, 1984. Section d'histoire médiévale et de philologie, tome 1 (Ministere de l'éducation nationale. Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques, Paris 1985), 347–63, on 350–1.

¹² Tertullian: Poschmann, 104 (the antithesis is common in Tertullian's De poenitentia). Augustine: ibid., 104 (from Epist., 153 c. 7: ‘ne medicina vilis minus utilis esset aegrotis’).

¹³ Poschmann, 26–35 (Hermas and the doctrine of ‘one penance’); 35–52 (rigorism of the Montanists and Tertullian); 52–80 (Cyprian, Clement, Origen); 82–4 (effect of Constantine's conversion).

¹⁴ Poschmann, 87–98, 104–6.

¹⁵ Poschmann, 107–8. It was left to Caesarius of Aries to spell out Leo's implicit allusion to soldiers in Epist. 167, ing.. 13, to be repeated in Gratian, Decretum, II, causa 33, q. 2, cap 14, in Corpus iuris canonici, ed. Friedberg, A., (Leipzig, 1879), I, col. 1156Google Scholar.

¹⁶ John Chrystostom (†407) drew blame for reconciling sinners more than once (Poschmann, 104–5). There was room for difference, too, on such questions as what sins were grave enough to invoke the unrepeatable procedure, or the consequences of dying unreconciled (ibid., 44–5, 94–6, 100–2); while the practice of conversio, available to candidates for the clergy and important laity, had the slight but essential difference from penitentia that it was honourable, not defamatory (ibid., 110–6). A wide variety of practices is illustrated in Vogel, C., ‘La discipline pénitenutielle en Gaule des origines au ix' siècle. Le dossier hagiographique’. Revue des sciences retigieuses, XXX (1956), 1–26, 157–86Google Scholar [hereafter Vogel, ‘Discipline pénitentielle’].

¹⁷ Poschmann, 123, quoting Jonas of Bobbio, Vita s. Columbani, c. II: ‘poenitentiae medicamenta… vix vel paucis in illis reperiebantur locis [Gaul, c.590]’, in Migne, , Patrologia latina, XXXVIIGoogle Scholar, col. 1018A [the form Pat. lot. 87, 1018A will be used for references to this work].

¹⁸ Poschmann, 124–9; Vogel, , Pécheur, 42–5, 51–73CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Forshaw (36, n. 2) suggests sources for knowledge shown at Toledo: the see of ‘Britonia’; areas recently influenced by St Martin of Braga; and Byzantine settlements in southern Spain. A pre-Christian origin for Irish practice was proposed with alleged parallels from north-western India (another matter) by McNeill, J. T., ‘The Celtic Penitentials’, Revue celtique, XL (1923, 89–103Google Scholar, with resumé and defence in McNeill, J. T. and Gamer, H. M., Medieval Handbooks of Penance. Records of Western Civilization (New York, 1938Google Scholar; reprinted 1990), 25–6. Sceptical reactions: Frantzen, A.J., The Literature of Penance in Anglo-Saxon England (New Brunswick, N.J., 1983), 23–6Google Scholar.

¹⁹ Poschmann, 124 (the expression); Vogel, , Pécheur, 191–2Google Scholar (context).

²⁰ The suggestion of Kerff, Franz, ‘Libri paenitentiaks und kirchliche Strafgerichtsbarkeit bis zum Decretum Gratiani. Ein Diskussionsverschlag’, Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte, 106Google Scholar. Kanonistische Abteilung, 75 (Vienna-Cologne-Graz 1989), 23–57.

²¹ Ninth-century conciliar acts and episcopal letters, and Pseudo-Isodore, contain frequent examples; see Kottje, R., ‘Buβpraxis und Buβritus’, in Segni e riti nella chiesa altomedioevale occidentale Settimane di studio, XXXIII (Spoleto, 1985), 369–95, on 369Google Scholar.

²² A change noticed by Vogel, , ‘Discipline pénitentielle’ (as in n. 16), 6Google Scholar; and Rubellin, M. ‘Vision de la société chrétienne à travers la confession et la pénitence au ix' siécle’, in Pratiques de la confession, des Pères du désert à Vatican II. Quinze études d'histoire, by the Groupe de la Bussiere [ = M. Sot and others] (Paris, 1983), 52–70, on 59Google Scholar.

²³ Pointed out by Forshaw (as in n. 1), 141.

²⁴ Honoré (as in n. 2), 25–31

²⁵ Vogel, , ‘Discipline pénitentielle’, 23, 26, 163Google Scholar. In the last example a fourth-century bishop strikes the penitent with his pallium with a vigour proportionate to the sin.

²⁶ Circumstance in the Penitentials: J. Gruendel, Die Lehre von den Umständen der menschlkhen Handlung im Mittelalter. Beiträge zur Geschichte der Philosophic und Theologie des Mittelalters, Band 39, Heft 5 (Münster-in-Westfalen 1963), 66–84.

²⁷ Cardinal sins: e.g. Theodulf of Orleans, Capitularia ad presbyteros, c. 31, Pal. lot., 105, 201AB. Contrition: Rubellin (as in n. 22), 57.

²⁸ Dumb penitent: Vogel, C., ‘Discipline penitentieile’, 15Google Scholar, quoting the ninth-century Vita s. Philiberti in Monumenta Germaniae Historica [henceforth Mon. Germ. Hist.], Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum [henceforth Script, rer. Mer.], V, 593. (My ‘moral’ reading of the story differs from Vogel's). The word confessio: Poschmann, 138, modified by M Rubellin (as in n. 22), 58.

²⁹ Listed by Avril, J., ‘À propos du “proprius sacerdos”: Quelques réflexions sur les pouvoirs du prêtre de paroisse’, Proceedings of the Fifth International Congress of Medieval Canon Law. Salamanca, 21–25 September 1976 (Città del Vaticano, 1980), 471–6Google Scholar [henceforth Avril ‘Sacerdos’], 474, and in the same author's ‘Remarques’ (as in n. 11), 350–8. The reform: McKitterick, R., The Frankish Church and the Carolingian Reforms, 789–895, Royal Historical Society Publications, (1977)Google Scholar.

³⁰ See nn. 6, 8, 9 and 11 above.

³¹ Mon. Germ. Hist., Leges, II (ii), 270.36.

³² The Aix capitularies of 802–3 tell bishops to make inquisition ‘de incestu, de patricidiis, fratricidiis, adulteriis, cenodoxiis et alia mala, quae contraria sunt Deo’ Mon. Germ. Hist., Capil., I, 170. Kerff (as in n. 20), 42; cf. 26–7, 41. Excommunication: Leclercq, J., ‘L'interdict et l'excommunication d'après les lettres de Fulbert de Chartres’, Revue historique de droit français et étranger, 4^e série, XXII (Paris, 1944), 167–77Google Scholar. On later fortunes of this principle, Murray, A., Excommunication and Conscience in the Middle Ages. The John Coffin Memorial Lecture, University of London (1991), 30–1Google Scholar.

³³ Mon. Germ. Hist., Leges, II (ii), 292, 131–4. the central expression is ‘presbyter inbreviat in sua parrochia’. On bishops' authority over parishes: J. Avril, ‘La “paroisse” dans la France de l'an Mil’, in Le roi de France et son royaume autour de l'an Mil. Études réunies par M. Parisse et X. Barral. Colloque international Hugues Capet 987–1987: La France de l'an Mil (Paris, 1992), 203–18, esp. 206–7, 215–8Google Scholar; and the same author's ‘Sacerdos’ (as in n. 29), 482–6.

³⁴ Esmein, A., A History of Continental Criminal Procedure, with special reference to France (English translation, Boston, , 1913; from the first French edition, Paris, 1882), 47, 65–6, 79Google Scholar; Caenegem, R. C. Van, The Birth of the English Common Law (Cambridge, 1973), 73–6Google Scholar.

³⁵ Meanings of ‘penitential’, Kerff, 39–41; Rubellin, 59. Crimen: Powell, E., Kingship, Law and Society. Criminal Justice in the Reign of Henry V. (Oxford, 1989), 47Google Scholar.

³⁶ Devailly, G., ‘La pastorale en Gaule en ixe siècle’, Revue d'histoire de I'Église de France, LIX (1973), 23–54, at 54CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

³⁷ C. Vogel, Libri penitentiales. Typologie des sources du moyen âge occidental, 27 (Turnhout, 1978); and 27* [mise à jour par A.J. Frantzen] (Turnhout, 1985); Kottje (as in n. 21), 369–88.

³⁸ Kottje, 388–92; Vogel, 213–20 (examples).

³⁹ Examples are easily found in Medieval Handbooks of Penance (as in n. 18); see for instance the penitentials ascribed to Bede, VIII, c. 1, and X, c. 1, 228–9; and to Theodore, II, c. 22, 186.

⁴⁰ Alanus de Insulis, Liber poenitentialis, Bk. II, c. 13. Ed. J. Longère. Analecta mediaevalia Namurcensia, 17. (Louvain-Iille, 1965), II, 55.

⁴¹ Clovesho (747), cap. 27, in Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents relating to Great Britain and Ireland, ed, Haddan, A.W. and Stubbs, W. (Oxford 1869–1872), III, 373Google Scholar.

⁴³ Commutation: Vogel, , Pécheur, 119–28, 200–2Google Scholar. Early alternatives: ‘lying on nutshells’, Forshaw, 317. Payment in ancillae: Poschmann, 127, n. 7.

⁴³ Poschmann, 210–32.

⁴⁴ Kerff (as in n. 20). It is Kerff who also underlines the ambivalence of the priest's role, 44–5. Complaints at rapacity: Kerff, 53; Rubellin (as in n. 22), 69.

⁴⁵ Kerff, 42–50.

⁴⁶ Devailly (as in n. 36), 41. Devailly speaks of the ‘abandonment’ of the rural clergy, 37.

⁴⁷ Gaiffier, B. De, ‘Les revendications de biens dans quelques documents hagiographiques du xi^e siècle’, Analecla Bollandiana, L (1932), 123–38CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁴⁸ Little, Lester K., ‘La morphologie des malédictions monastiques’, Annales E.S.C., XXXIV (1979), 43–60Google Scholar.

⁴⁹ Poschmann, 145, sees the elision as already complete in Burchard of Worms, but the position is less clear for Kerff, 29 and n. 17, and Kottje, 391.

⁵⁰ Poschmann, 163; but see Rubellin, 57 (for earlier use of the term by Jonas of Orleans and Hrabanus Maurus).

⁵¹ Pat. lat., 40, 1113–30; the passage quoted is from c. X, §25 [col. 1122].

⁵² Thomas, of Chantimpré, , Bonum universale de apibus (Douai, 1627), II, c. 51, §7Google Scholar. The priest was Peter of Corbeil. Canon law: Decretalia, Bk. V, tit. xxxvii, c. 8; Friedberg (as in n. 15), II, 886.

⁵³ The council and its background: Tillmann, , Innocenz III (Bonn, 1954)Google Scholar; Foreville, R., Latran I, II, III et Latran IV in Histoire des conciles oecuméniques, ed. Dumeige, G. (Paris, 1965)Google Scholar; Baldwin, J. W., Masters, Princes and Merchants: the Social Views of Peter Chanter and his Circle (Princeton, 1970)Google Scholar. Execution: Gibbs, M. and Lang, J., Bishops and Reform, 1215–72 Oxford, 1934)Google Scholar. See n. 101.

⁵⁴ Entry to the large literature can be gained through R. Rusconi, ‘Ordinate confiteri: la confessione dei peccati nelle “Summae de casibus” e nei manuali per i confessori (metá xii—inizi xiv secolo)’, in L'Aveu: Antiquité et moyen âge. Collection de l'École française de Rome, LXXXVIII (Rome, 1986), 298–313.

⁵⁵ Murray, , ‘Confession as a historical source’ (as in n. 2), 280Google Scholar. Further suggestive material in Anciaux (as in n. 6), 71, 86–7, 149–50, 183–4, 266.

⁵⁶ Avril, ‘Remarques’ (as in n. 11), 355–6f; Insulis, Alanus de, De arte praedicatoria, Pat. lot., 210, 171Google Scholar; quoted by Poschmann, 140.

⁵⁷ Remarks with this implication from theologians are quoted by Anciaux, 167 (‘Eadmer’), 168, 174, 179–80 (Honorius of Autun), 184, 186, 187, 188, 189, 197, 217, 221, 224, 227, 262, 265–6 (Pseudo-Eadmer and Honorius are probably the earliest of these); and Lottin, O., La psychologic et la morale au xii et au xiii siècles, 6 vols. (Louvain and Gembloux, 1942–1960), II, 408Google Scholar, and III, 674–5 (both passages from Peter Chanter). For such allusions in sermons see Tibber, P., ‘The Origins of the Scholastic Sermon, c.1130–c.1210’ (unpublished D.Phil, thesis, Oxford 1983), 197 (Stephen Langton)Google Scholar; 212 (Prevostin, many of whose sermons echo this theme). For Laon see below, n. 140. The ‘independent confirmation’ referred to in the next paragraph will be found in Vitae written in or after the late twelfth-century. Regular lay confession is implied for instance in Vita beati Bemardi Poenitaitis, AS (see n. 72 below) April II (Antwerp, 1675), 674–97, at 685A, 689E; Vita b Alpaidis, AS Nov. II (Brussels, 1894), 174–209, at 192CD; Miracula s. Frideswidae, AS Oct. VIII (Brussels, 1853), 533–90, at 567.

⁵⁸ Hertling, Ludwig, , S.J., ‘Hagiographische Texte zur frühmittelalterlichen Buβgeschichte’, Zeitschrift für katholische theologie, IV (1932), 109–22Google Scholar; and ‘Hagiographische Texte zur Buβhgeschiche des frühesten Mittelalters’, ibid., 274–387.

⁵⁹ As in n. 16. To avoid prejudice to my own sample I have avoided borrowing material from those of Hertling or Vogel. Those of their cases which appear most to challenge my present thesis in fact are in harmony with it, namely (1) Vita Gamalberti presbytari Michaelsbuchensis, Mon. Germ. Hist, Script, rer. Merov., VII (i), 183–91 (Vogel, 161), a life of doubtful Merovingian relevance, and certainly written no earlier than the late tenth century, probably later (see W. Levison's introduction); and (2) the case of Godfrey of Amiens (†1115) (Hertling, 121), whose insistence on lay confession before communion is exemplified only from a leper-hospital, where patients were quasi-prisoners.

⁶⁰ Mon. Germ. Hist., Script., XV (i), 238–64 [henceforth Transl. ss.Petri et Marc.]. Written c.830, the work contains about forty miracula.

⁶¹ Miracula sanctorum in Fuldenses ecclesias translatorum auctore Rudolfo, Mon. Germ. Hist., Script., XV (i), 328–41 [henceforth Mir. Fulden.]. There are some seventeen miracula.

⁶² Ed. Bauch, A., Ein bayerisches Mirakelbuch aus der Karolingerzeit. Die Monheimer Walpurgis-Wunder des Priesters Wolfhard Eichstatter Studien, N. F., Band XII (Regensburg, 1979)Google Scholar [henceforth De mir. s. Waldburgae].

⁶³ Ed. Certain, E. de, Sociétée pour l'histoire de France, 54 (Paris, 1858)Google Scholar [henceforth Mir.s. Maxim. Trev.].

⁶⁴ Miracula sancti Maximini Treverensis, Pat. lat. 133, 967–78 [henceforth Mir. s. Maxim. Trev. J.

⁶⁵ Ed. Bouillet, A., Collection de Textes pour servir à l'étude et à l'enseignement de l'histoire (Paris, 1897)Google Scholar [henceforth Mir. s. Fidis].

⁶⁶ Fulcard of St Bertin, Miracula sancti Bertini, Pat. lat., 147, 1098–1140 [henceforth Mir.s. Bertini].

⁶⁷ Historia miraculorum sancti Amandi, Pat. lat., 150, 1435–48 [henceforth Hist. mir. s. Amandi].

⁶⁸ Miracula sancti Nicholai in Catalogus codicum hagiographicorum latinorum Bibliothecae nationalis Panstensis, Analecta Bollandiana, Subsidia hagiographica, No. 2, II (Brussels, 1890), 405– 32Google Scholar; [henceforth Mir. s. Nich]. Date: ibid., No. 22, 417 (a miracle of December IIII). The work has about forty stories and was written between 1095 and 1129.

⁶⁹ Libri duo de miraculis ed. Bouthillier, D., Corpus christianorum, Continuatio mediaevalis, LXXXIII (Turnhout, 1988)Google Scholar [henceforth Petr. Ven., De mir.].

⁷⁰ Pat. lat., 156, 961–87 [henceforth De mir. s. Mariae Laudun.]. The dating by Niemeyer, G., ‘Die Miracula s. Mariae Laudunensis des Abts Hermann von Tournai. Verfaβer und Entstehungszeit’, Deutsches Archiv, XXVII (1971), 135–74, esp. 163–74Google Scholar, is mainly concerned with the Norbertine material in Bk. III. She convincingly assigns this to Hermann, former abbot of St Martin's in Tournai, who lived in St Vincent's in Laon c.1143–6. But the anomalies she notes in Bks. I and II, written as if by a participant, (172) imply that Hermann was using an earlier account for these two books, doubtless one related to that used by Guibert of Nogent when, before 1121, he put a shorter version of the two journeys in his De vita sua, III, xii–xiii, ed. E-R. Labande, Les Classiques de l'Histoire de France au moyen âge (Paris, 1981), 378–92 (date, xv). The account in De mir. s. Mariae Laudun. must be after 1123, when William or Corbeil became archbishop, see 78–9 below.

⁷¹ Vita sancti Anselmi episcopi lucensis, auctore Bardone presbytero, Mon. Germ. Hist., Script., XII, 13–35 [henceforth Vita s. Anselmi luc.].

⁷² Vita sancti Petri episcopi Anagniae. Acta Sanctorum [abbreviated AS], Aug., I (Antwerp, 1733), 230–42 [henceforth Vita s. Pet. Anagn.]. On the significance of this and the next two Lives as portraits of the Gregorian ‘model’ bishop: Toubert, P., Les structures du Latium médiévale (Paris and Rome, 1973), 43–7, 803–40Google Scholar.

⁷³ Vita sancti Brunonis episcopi Signiae, in AS, July, IV (Antwerp, 1725), 471–84 [henceforth Vita s. Brun. Signiae].

⁷⁴ Vita sancti Berardi. AS. Nov., II (Brussels, 1894), 128–35Google Scholar [henceforth Vita s. Berardi].

⁷⁵ Vita et miracula sancti Petri de Chavanon in Spicilegium, ed. d'Achery, L., II (Paris, 1723), 155–9Google Scholar [henceforth Vita s. Petri Chav.]

⁷⁶ Vita sancti Hugonis episcopi Gratianopolitani, auctore Guigone prime Carthusiensi, Pat. lat., 153, 759–84 [henceforth Vita s. Hugon. Grat.]. I have commented on this life in ‘The Temptation of St Hugh of Grenoble’, in Intellectual Life in the Middle Ages: Essays presented to Margaret Gibson, ed. Smith, L. and Ward, B. (London and Rio Grande, 1992), 81–101Google Scholar, on 84–9 (the Life), and 92–3 (confession).

⁷⁷ Vita sancti Giraldi Andagavensis, AS Nov., II (i) (Brussels, 1894), 493–509Google Scholar [henceforth Vitas. Gir. Andag.]. Approximate date: §24, 499EF (a vision dateable to 25 Nov. 1120). Cf. Herding (as in n. 58), 122.

⁷⁸ I have used the section on Wazo in Anselmi Gesta episcoporum pontificum Tungrensis, Traiextensis sive is aecclesiae Leodiensium, Mon Germ. Hist. Script., VII, 189–34Google Scholar [henceforth Gesta episc.… Leod.].

⁷⁹ Vita Johannis Morinensis episcopi (by Walter, his archdeacon, writing in 1130), Mon Germ. Hist., Script., XV (ii), 1138–50Google Scholar [henceforth Vita Joh. Morin. episc.].

⁸⁰ Vita beati Wulfrici anchoretae Haselbergiae (by John, , abbot of Ford, ), ed. Bell, M., Somerset Record Society, XLVII (1933)Google Scholar [henceforth Vita b. Wulfrici].

⁸¹ The life of Christina of Markyate. A Twelfth Century Recluse, ed. Talbot, C. H. (Oxford, 1959)CrossRefGoogle Scholar [henceforth Life of Christina].

⁸² Transl. ss. Petri et Marc., Bk. II, c. 2, 246.40–1.

⁸³ Ibid., Bk. II, c. 16, 262.11–12. The word confessio is used in Bk II, c. 1 (246.18–19) but in an untechnical sense.

⁸⁴ De mir. s. Waldburgae, 206.7–10 (‘pro commissis a primaeva viridine facinoribus universis rea tunderet pectora pugnis’); 208.3–6 (‘ipsa mihi viam, quam peccata tulerunt, misericordissima… reparavit’); 212.6–7 (‘ream et miseram se intimo cordis archano clamabat’); 230.5–16 (‘si me reum ac miserum corde contrito superna respexerit pietas’); 232.5–6 (‘rem quae acciderat ore veridico recitavit’); 264.3–4 (‘venit… pro peccatis admissis veniae indulgentiam quesitura’); 274.17–18 (‘ob culpam… ignaviae tale in se meruisse confessa’); 286.29–30 (‘contritione indulgentiam postulavit’: the woman was mute, and did it with her heart); 290.25–6 (‘salutifera confessione peracta’: it is a question of publicly confessing to a crime). On 328–33 a man ‘confesses’ to a nun; parallels in Hertling (as in n. 58), 117; Vogel, , ‘Discipline penitentielle’ (as in n. 16), 163–6Google Scholar.

⁸⁵ Mir. s. Benedicti, Bk. I, c. 27, 62–3.

⁸⁶ Ibid., Bk. VI, c. 13, 238. The absence of confession in these places is the more conspicuous for its presence in exceptional circumstances in Bk. VIII, c. 14, 294–6, where it is a question of a monk on his deathbed, urged to seek solace ‘confitendo… proprium alicui religioso commissum’.

⁸⁷ Mir. s. Maxim. Trev., c. 12, col. 973B. The first story in the collection tells of a blasphemous magnate who ‘ex toto corde… dicti poenituit’ but with no hint of ceremony, ibid., c. 9, col. 971A.

⁸⁸ Mir. s. Fidis, Bk. I, c. 18, 55; Bk II, c. 11, 120; Bk. Ill, c. 21, 164; cf. Bk. III, c. 17, 157.

⁸⁹ Ibid., III, c. 21, 164 (‘fatens coram astancium corona’); Bk. I, c. 22, 59 (‘fit palam injuriose culpę confessio’). ‘Pęnitentia’: Bk. II, c. 24, 64. ‘Verecundię pęnas’: Bk. II, c. 11, 120. Cf. Bk. I, c. 25, 65: ‘misericordiam sepissime repetens exclamabat’.

⁹⁰ Ibid., Bk. I, c. 18, 15; App. IV (xxx), 229.

⁹¹ Mir. s. Bertini, Bk. I, c. 12, col. 1108B. Other ‘penance’: Bk. I, c. 3, col. 1101C; Bk. II, c. 25, col. 1137B.

⁹² Hist. mir. s. Amandi. §8, col. 1440D; §15, col. 1443C.

⁹³ Vita s. Petri Chtw., esp. 255–6 (preaching).

⁹⁴ Vita s. Anselmi, §36, 23.36–41. Anselm urges ‘poenitentiam’ on Henry IV in §38, 24.17–18.

⁹⁵ Vila s. Brun. Signiae, Day 4, lectio iv, §22, 482F (‘Veniam peterent’). When John, the next bishop of Segni, visited Monte Cassino, some of its monks ‘eidem episcopo peccatum, quod in B. Brunonem commiserant, cum magna sunt contritione cordis confessi, suppliciter rogantes, et postulantes ab eo’ for a relic of Bruno; Day 5, lectio ii, §26, 483F.

⁹⁶ Vita s. Pet. Anagn., c. 24, 238A. Note the absence of confession in c. 31, 240AB.

⁹⁷ Gesta episc.… Leod., 233.45–6; and 232.45–7: ‘se peccatorem esse… est confessus… sese coram Deo accusaret’.

⁹⁸ Vita Joh. Morin. episc, 1144. 25–7. The witness is the more interesting for its reference to pastoral reform through Austin regulars, 1143.46–1144.27, 1145.33, 1145.38–41. Cf. below, 78–9.

⁹⁹ Constable, G., ‘Monasteries, Rural Churches and the Cura animarum in the Early Middle Ages’, in Christianizzazione ed organizzazione ecclesiastica delle campagne nell' alto medioevo: espansione e resistenze. Settimane de studio del Centro italiano di studi sull'alto medioevo, 28 (Spoleto, 1982), 349–89, at 372Google Scholar.

¹⁰⁰ Vogel, , Pécheur, 225–30Google Scholar.

¹⁰¹ ‘Attempts’ because twenty years later a new-broom Franciscan archbishop of Rouen found numerous monasteries ignoring Gregory IX's statute on the subject or indeed unaware of it: Regestrum visitationum archepiscopi Rothomagensis, ed. Bonnin, T. (Rouen, 1852Google Scholar, (ignoring the statute) 60, 70, 76–8, 82, 99; (not possessing the statutes as such), 45, 61, 71; (or even the Rule!), 78, 374, 636. These are a mere selection of such references which, from a bureaucratic age and monastic milieu, induce caution in the reading of earlier lay pastoral practice from canon law.

¹⁰² Mir. s. Nicholai, §33, 429.31–2.

¹⁰³ Mir. s. Mariae Laudun., Bk. II, c. 4, col. 976A–B.

¹⁰⁴ Mir. s. Benedicti., Bk. VIII, c. 14 [294–61]: ‘admonetur quatenus, sui memor in extremis, abbati seu cui liberet seniorum propria confiteretur peccata.… Miror nimirum quae oblivio illius insederet menti, cum id maxime studium omni fore debeat Christiano, praesertim monacho, si peccaverit, quod humanum est, ut statim currat ad medelam, confitendo scilicet proprium alicui religioso commissum’. Eventually the sick young monk confessed, received the viaticum, and died. The early twelfth-century author, the Fleury monk Raoul Tortaire, invokes the authority of St Benedict to recommend confession for humility's sake alone, even in the absence of sin. Earlier books in the collection refer to public confession prostrati ante ostium… cum lachrymis, I, c. 27 [62]; and magnis vocibus: VI, c. 13 [238].

¹⁰⁵ Vita s. Gir. Andeg., §§33, 34 [501B–E]. We learn in §21 [498EF] that Abbot Gerald nevertheless often heard confessions from the laity. A senior, guilty of habitual incontinence, ‘lacrimis perfusus et ad genua eius prostratus, peccata sua humiliter confessus est et, promissa emendatione, a beato viro paenitentiam accepit; quam tamen ipse pro eodem dimidiam fecit’. The biographer adds ‘istud miraculum pan modo multotiens de pluribus operatus est, ut frequenter audivimus, plane possumus astruere quia, quotiens illud egit, totiens mortuorum resuscitator exstitit’.

¹⁰⁶ The nine are Petr. Ven., De mir., I, c. 2 [10.41–5]†; c. 3 [11–13]; cc. 4–6 [13–21]*; c. 23 [69.15–25]; c. 24 [73.22–5]†; II, c. 33/32 [164–6]*. I have classed the following cases as ‘uncertain’: I, c. 1 [8.45–8]; c. 7 [23.51–2] (a layman dies as a monk)*; c. 8 [34.324–8]*; c. 26 [81.25–6]; II, cc. 20 [133.29–33] and 22 [136.4–11] (both references to Matthew, Bishop of Albano)†. An asterisk (*) here marks cases involving monks, a dagger (†), priests. For laity see nn. 111–13 below.

¹⁰⁷ Mir. s. Nicholai, §23, 418.38 and 419.24. The other approximations to confession in this collection are in §32, 426.40–2, where a man ‘confesses’ publicly while under threat of the gallows; and in §27, 422.28, where an iron hoop is worn as a ‘penance’.

¹⁰⁸ As in n. 103.

¹⁰⁹ I, c. 23 [69.15–25] and the two following cases.

¹¹⁰ Ibid., I, c. 27 [83.24–8]: ‘…penitentia et confessione Christiana… Deo satisfaciens’.

¹¹¹ Ibid., I, c. 3 [12.8–11].

¹¹² Ibid., I, c. 5 [15.8–10].

¹¹³ Ibid., I, c. 6 [19.70–24 and 91–2].

¹¹⁴ Ibid., I c. 6 [18.49–19.69].

¹¹⁵ Mir. Fulden., 330.51–4.

¹¹⁶ Mir. Fulden., 331.44–7.

¹¹⁷ Mir. Fulden., 333.52–4.

¹¹⁸ McKitterick (as in n. 29), esp. 97–104.

¹¹⁹ See nn. 71–74.

¹²⁰ See n. 76.

¹²¹ Vita 5. Hugon. Grot., c. 3, §14, col. 771CD.

¹²² Vita s. Hugon. Grat., c. 4, §16, col. 773B.

¹²³ Vita s. Hugon. Grat., c. 5, §20, col. 776B.

¹²⁴ Guigo, , Meditationes, Ed. Chartreux, par un. Sources chrétiennes, no. 308 (Paris, 1983), 202Google Scholar.

¹²⁵ Vita s. Anthehni, §33; ed. Picard, J., Vie de St. Anthelme, évêque de Bellay, Chartreux, Collection de recherches et d'études cartusiennes (Bellay, 1978), 28Google Scholar.

¹²⁶ Vita b. Wulfrici., c. 16, 30–1.

¹²⁷ Ibid., c. 87, 113.

¹²⁸ Ibid., c. 17, 31–3.

¹²⁹ Ibid., c. 69, 96.

¹³⁰ Ibid., c. 71, 97–9 (the story was public knowledge in the household where it had occurred); c. 23, 42–3 (Wulfric's own public confession).

¹³¹ life of Christina, 84. The word ‘confession’ or a cognate is used on 108, 190 and 192, but not in the sense in question. The absence of formal confession is noticeable on 120 (where a woman acknowledges her sin to Christina;) and on 158 (where a monk receives the Eucharist on his deathbed with no mention of previous confession). The tribute to Ralf's learning, quoted below, is from Bk. VIII, c. 8 of The Ecclesiastical History of Ordericus Vitalis, ed. Chibnall, M., IV (Oxford, 1973), 168Google Scholar.

¹³² Guibert de Nogent, De vita sua, III cc. vii–xi (as in n. 66), 317–76.

¹³³ De mir. s. Mariae Laudun (see n. 71). Still useful as a general description of the work is Tatlock, J.S.P., ‘The English Journey of the Laon Canons’, Speculum, VIII (1933), 454–65CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Martinet, while S., ‘Le voyage des Laonnois en Angleterre en 1113’, Mémoires de la Fédération des sociétés d'histoire et d'archeologie de I'Aisne, LX (1963), 81–92Google Scholar, briefly describes MS Laon, 166 and summarises the narrative.

¹³⁴ De mirac. s. Mariae Laudun. I cc. 3–13 [cols. 967D–72D].

¹³⁵ De mirac. s. Mariae Laudun. II c. 1 [col. 973AB]. The miracles performed on French soil early in Bk. II (cc. 1–3) still ignore confession.

¹³⁶ De mirac. s. Mariae Laudun. II c. 6 [col. 977C–8B; esp. 978AB].

¹³⁷ De mirac. s. Marine Laudun. II c. 7 [col. 978C]; c. 8 [col. 979A]; c. 12 [col. 982B]; c. 13 [col. 982C]; c. 17 [col. 984B]. In c. 22 [col. 986CD] a boy is cured without confessing; he was twelve years old.

¹³⁸ De mirac. s. Mariae Laudun. II c. 8 [col. 979A].

¹³⁹ De mirac. s. Mariae Laudun. II c. 12 [col. 982CD].

¹⁴⁰ The interest of the Laon school in penance in confession is abundantly illustrated in the sententiae examined by Lottin, Psychologie et morale (as in n. 57), vol. 5 (e.g.) 102, §128; Anciaux (as in n. 6), 149–50; and L. Hödl, Die Geschichte der scholastischen Lileraiur und der Theohgie der Schlüβelgewalt, Erster Teil. Beiträge zur Geschichte der Philosophic und Theologie des Mittelalters. Texte und Untersuchungen, Band 38, Heft 4, pt. 1 (Münsterin-Westphalen, 1960); with references to further publications. Indications in theology of the practice of confession in the Laon region may be read in Guibert of Nogent, Mor. in Genesim. IX, Pat. lat., 156, 259CD and Opusc. de virginitate, c. 15, ibid., col. 603D–4A.

¹⁴¹ Smalley, B., The Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages (Oxford, 1941), 35–45Google Scholar.

¹⁴² Orderic Vitalis, Hist, eccles. (as in n. 131), Bk. XII, c. 25, Vol. VI (1978), 292. Orderic's autograph MS of this commentary is MS Alencon 25; see Chibnall, M., The World of Orderic Vitalis (Oxford, 1984), 95–6Google Scholar.

¹⁴³ Mir. s. Mariae Laudun. II, c. 6 [col. 977B] (William of Corbeil on the assumption that he was present in Canterbury though not archbishop, see below); c. 12 [col. 982A] (Archdeacon Robert); c. 13 [col. 983A] (Alexander and Nigel le Poore); c. 15 [col. 983BC] (Algar/Algard).

¹⁴⁴ Mir. s. Manae Laudun. II, c. 1 [col. 973AB].

¹⁴⁵ Dickinson (as in n. 7) remains authoritative, despite assumptions about confession and related pastoral matters. For William of Corbeil see Bethell, D., ‘William of Corbeil and the Canterbury-York dispute’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, XIX (1968), 145–59CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

¹⁴⁶ Normannus: Hodgett, G.A.J., ed., The Cartulary of Holy Trinity Alagate. London Record Society, VII (1971), 226Google Scholar: ‘cum Anselmo in Gallia litterarum habuit exercicium ubi sciencia preditus…’ The editor does not identify this Anselm with the master of Laon, doubtless reading him as Anselm of Canterbury. But the latter, frequently mentioned in the same document, is usually referred to with an expression like ‘saepedictus pater Anselmus’, making the Laon identification of the other doubly probable.

¹⁴⁷ Brett, M. The English Church Under Henry I (Oxford, 1975), 138Google Scholar.

¹⁴⁸ Webber, T., Scribes and Scholars at Salisbury Cathedral, C.1075–c. 1125 (Oxford, 1992), 82CrossRefGoogle Scholar: Guy of Étampes, first magister scholarum, sent to Salisbury soon after 1107, had been a pupil of Anselm of Laon (ibid., 82). For the pastoral and reforming interests of the Salisbury school in general, ibid., 82–139. I am grateful to Dr Webber for showing me proofs of these chapters before publication.

¹⁴⁹ From c.1140, as kindly pointed out to me in a letter from Dr N. Vincent of 9 March 1992, quoting episcopal acta in Saltman, A., Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury 1956), 37; Landaff Episcopal Acta, ed. Crouch, D. (Cardiff 1988)Google Scholar; English Episcopal Acta, II: Canterbury, 1162–1190 (1986), No. 72, 53.

¹⁵⁰ Scammell, J., ‘The Rural chapter in England from the eleventh to the fourteenth century’, English Historical Review LXXXVI (1961), 1–21CrossRefGoogle Scholar, emphasises the brisk, ‘Anglo-Norman’ character of the archdeacon's court. That the separation of confession from the church courts engendered that of theology and canon law is the thesis of Francois Russo, ‘Pénitence et excommunication. Étude historique sur les rapports entre la théologie et le droit canon dans le domaine pénitentielle du ix^e au xiii^e siécle’, Recherches de sciences religieuses, XXXIII (1946), 257–79, 431–61Google Scholar; discussed in my Excommunication and Conscience (as in n. 32), 15–17. A contemporary perception of the issues raised for confessors by a ramification of jurisdiction is that of Alan of Lille (as in n. 40), III, cc. 1–7, 127–31.

¹⁵¹ The best modern discussion: Constable (as in n. 99), esp. 366–89.