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Children and Confession in the Early Middle Ages*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Rob Meens
Rob Meens*
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Extract

The handbooks for confessors known as penitentials are, I shall argue, an important source for our knowledge of early medieval attitudes on the part of churchmen and others towards children. These texts, basically lists of sins with the prescription of an appropriate penance for each iniquity, can be said to reflect widespread practices and ideas. They originated in the Irish and British Churches in the sixth century and spread from there over all of Western Europe, where they remained in use until the twelfth century.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 31: The Church and Childhood , 1994 , pp. 53 - 65
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1994

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Footnotes

*

Research for this paper was made possible by a generous grant from the Niels Stensen Stichting. I would like to thank Rosamond McKitterick and Janet Nelson for their helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper.

References

1 See Maria Guiseppina Muzzarelli, ‘Le donne e i bambini nei libri penitenziali: regole di condotta per una società in formazione’, in Benedetto Vetere and Paolo Renzi, eds, Profili di donne. Mito, immagine, realtà fra medioevo ed età contemporanea (Galatina, 1986), pp. 145-92, who focuses on the relationship between mother and child. It is a pity she does not give sufficient account of the textual history of these texts. Craig B. McKee, ‘Les enfants et la pénitence avant Latran IV (1215). De ludis puerilibus’, La Maison-Dieu, 172 (1987), pp. 89-106, is, as the author himself admits (p. 90), ‘une incursion superficielle dans le sujet’.

2 For a general introduction to these texts see Cyrille Vogel, Les ‘Libri Paenitentiales’ -Typologie des sources du moyen âge occidental, 27 (Turnhout, 1978); Frantzen, A. J., The Literature of Penance in Anglo-Saxon England (New Brunswick, NJ, 1983)Google Scholar, and Kottje, Raymund, ‘Busspraxis und Bussri-tus’, Segni e riti nella chiesa altomedievale occidentale. Settimane di studio, 33 (1987), pp. 360–95 Google Scholar. The Irish penitentials are edited by Ludwig Bieler, The Irish Penitentials, with an appendix by D. A. Binchy, Scriptures Latini Hibemiae, $ (1963) [hereafter Bieler]; most of the texts still have to be consulted in F. W. H. Wasserschleben, Die Bussordnungen der abendldndischen Kirche (Halle, 1851) [hereafter Wasserschleben], and Hermann J. Schmitz, Die Bussbilcher und die Bussdisciplin der Kirche (Mainz, 1883, repr. Graz, 1958) [hereafter Schmitz I], and Die Bussbiicher und das kanonische Bussverfahren (Dusseldorf, 1898, repr. Graz, 1958) [hereafter Schmitz II].

3 Possibly, however, we are dealing here with the ‘long pueritia’, that combines the Isidorian infantia, pueritia, and adolescenza in one class: see Adolf Hofmeister, ‘Puer, iuvenis, senex. Zum Verstândnis der mittelalterlichen Altersbezeichnungen’, in Albert Brackmann, ed., Papsttum una Kaisertum. Forschungen zur polltischen Ceschichte una Geisteskultur des Mittelalters Paul Kehr zum 65. Geburtstag dargebracht (Munich, 1926), pp. 287-316, esp. pp. 296 and 304.

4 P. Theodori Capitula Dacheriana [hereafter ThD], C. 57; P. Theodori Canones Cottoniam [hereafter ThCo], C. 196, ed. Paul Willem Finsterwalder, Die Canones Theodori Cantuariensis und ihre Oberlieferungsformen (Weimar, 1929) [hereafter Finsterwalder], pp. 244 and 283; and P. Theodori Cañones Basilienses [hereafter ThB], C. 86c, ed. Franz B. Asbach, Das Poenitentiale Remense und der sogen. Excarpsus Cummeani: Oberlieferung, Quellen und Entwicklung Zweier kontinentaler Buβbücher aus der t. Hãlfte des S. Jahrhunderts (Regensburg, 1975) [hereafter Asbach], Anhang, p. 87; on the Theodorian traditions see Kottje, R., ‘Paenitentiale Theodori’, in Handwörterbuch zur deutschen Rechtsgeschichte, 3 (Berlin, 1984), cols 1413–16 Google Scholar.

5 Parvulus and baptism: Paenitentiale Vinniani [hereafter PVinn], C. 47-8, ed. Bieler, p. 92, and P. Parisiense, II, C. 47, ed. Schmitz II. p. 330; stealing parvulus: P. Sangallense, II, C. 25, ed. Schmitz II, p. 347 and P. Cummeani [hereafter PCumm], I, 13, ed. Bieler, p. 112; sexually active parvuli and a twenty-year-old parvulus: P. Parisiense, II, C. 53 and 55, ed. Schmitz II, p. 330.

6 Manselli, Raoul, ‘Vie familiale et éthique sexuelle dans les pénitencieis’, in Duby, G. and Goff, J. Le, eds. Famille et parenté dans l’occident médiéval (Rome, 1977), pp. 363–78 Google Scholar, esp. pp. 366-8.

7 ThD, C. 166; P. Theodori. Cañones sancii Gregorii papae [hereafter ThG], C. 43 and 186; P. Theodori Disàpulus Umbrensium [hereafter ThU], II, xii, 37, ed. Finsterwalder, pp. 251, 256, 270, and 330-1. On this see Mayke de Jong, Kind en klooster in de vroege middeleeuwen. Aspecten van de schenking van kinderen aan kloosters in nel Frankische Rijk (500–900) (Amsterdam, 1986), p. 60.

8 On these, see De Jong, Kind en klooster, Patricia Quinn, Better than the Sons of Kings: Boys and Monks in the Early Middle Ages, Studies in History and Culture, 3 (New York, 1989); and M. Lahaye-Geusen, Das Opfer der Kinder. Ein Beitrag zur Liturgie-und Sozialgeschichte im Hohen Mittelalter, Münsteraner Theologische Ahhandlungen, 13 (Altenberge, 1991).

9 Shahar, Shulamith, Childhood in the Middle Ages (London and New York, 1990), pp. 24—5 Google Scholar.

10 PVinn, C. 46, ed. Bieler, pp. 90-2. On the importance of this canon for all later penitentials, see Kottje, Raymund, ‘Ehe und Eheverstandnis in den vorgratianischen Bussbüchern’, in Hoecke, W. van and Welkenhuysen, A., eds, Love and Marriage in the Twelfth Century (Leuven, 1981), pp. 18–40 Google Scholar, at pp. 32-3.

11 See Noonan, John T., Contraception. A History of its Treatment by the Catholic Theologians and Canonists (Cambridge, Mass., 1966), pp. 152—70 Google Scholar; Honings, B., ‘L’aborto nei libri penitenziali irlandesi. Convergenza morale e divergenze pastorali’, in Muzzarelli, Maria, ed., Una componente della mentalità occidentale: Penitenziali nell alto medioevo (Bologna, 1980), pp. 155–84 Google Scholar; and Maria Muzzarelli, ‘Il valore della vita nell’alto medioevo: la testimonianza dei libri penitenziali’, Aevum, 62 (1988), pp. 171-85, esp. p. 178.

12 Emily R. Coleman, ‘L’Infanticide dans le haut moyen age’, Annales. Economies, sociétés, civilisations, 29(1974). Pp. 315-35.

13 Herlihy, David, Medieval Households (Cambridge, Mass, and London, 1985), pp. 64–8 Google Scholar.

14 For infanticide to hide fornication, see, e.g., P. Ps.-Gregorii, C. 17, ed. Franz Kerff, ‘Das Paenitentiale Pseudo-Gregorii. Eine kritische Edition’, in Hubert Mordek, ed., Aus Archiven und Biblio-theken. Festschrift für Raymund Kottje zum 65. Geburtstag (Frankfurt am Main and Bern, 1992), pp. 161-88, at p. 177. Leniency towards a poor woman (mulier paupercula) who kills her child: ThU, I, xiv, 26, ed. Finsterwalder, p. 309.

15 L. Milis, ‘Het kind in de middeleeuwen. Beschouwingen over onderzoek en méthode’, Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, 94 (1981), pp. 377-90, at p. 382.

16 On this text see Ludger Kõrntgen, Studien zu den Quellen derfrühmittelatterlichen Buflbücher = Quellen und Forschungen zum Recht im Mitlelalter, 7 (Sigmaringen, 1993), pp. 90-205, and Rob Meens, ‘Willibrord’s boeteboek?’, Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, 106 (1993), pp. 163-78.

17 P. Oxoniense II, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodl. 311 (hereafter POxon], fols 76v-77r, canon 31: ‘Si autem mulier in hostem peperit infantem et eum(non)sustulerit a terra nee captauit ad infantem, ilia ieiunet quantum uoluerit.’ Canon 32: ‘Si autem mulier in hostem peperit infantem et tulerit eum a terra et lactauit sibi in filium et iterum proiecit eum nolendo, ille ieiunet ebdomada xxviii.’ Canon 33: ‘De earn qui in hostem inuitum proicit infantem. Si autem mulier inuitus proicit infantem, siue quia non potuit eum portare uel nutrire, illa non est culpanda, sed tamen ieiunet ebdomada III.’ Murder in peacetime, canon 6, fols 72v— 73r.

18 POxon, C. 34, fol. 77r: ‘Si autem mulier Christiana peperit infantem et non sustulit eum a terra, ut non laboret, ñeque nutriat infantem, ut non uidetur(tur)pes uel infidelis coram proprio maritu suo, ille ieunet ebdomada XXXV.’

19 Kõrntgen, Studien, pp. 186-90. Cf. Lex Frisionum V, 2, ed. MGH. F 12, p. 46; Vita Liudgeri, I, 6-7, ed. W. Diekamp, Die Geschichtsquellen des Bistums Mitnster, 4 (Munster, 1881), pp. 10-11.

20 For a treatment of similar cases in the later Middle Ages see Shahar, Childhood, pp. 129-31.

21 H. Storme. ‘Kerkelijke alarmkreten over kinderversmachting door het bij zich in bed nemen van zuigelingen (XVIe-XVIIIe eeuw)’, Handelingen van het Genootschap voor geschiedenis gesticht onda de benaming Société d’émulation de Bruges, 125 (1988), pp. 471-87.

22 POxon, C. 28, fol, 76v: ‘De earn, qui in cunam mortuum inueniet. Si autem posuerit infantem suum secundum consuetudinem siue in cuna siue in alio loco et inuenerìt eum mortuum, non iuxta se, sed si incidi, ubi consuetudinem habebat [habebebat, MS] infans iacere, non est mulieri culpa.’ Cf. Kõrntgen, Studien, p. 190, esp. n. 676.

23 POxon, C. 25, fol. 76r: ‘De mulieris: si inuenerit iuxta se infantem mortuum, si non tenet earn conscientiam eius ut per earn mortuum fuisset infans, sed tamen ad purificandum animam suam ieiunet ebdomada IV.’ Cf. Kõrntgen, Studien, p. 186.

24 POxon, C. 26–30, fols 76r-v.

25 See, e.g. P. Parisiense, II, C. 18, P. Hubertense, C. 19, and P. Burthardi, C. 182-3, ed. Schmitz II, pp. 342, 335. and 449. The question if, and why, a mother had to do penance after suffocating her child unintentionally was amply discussed in the ninth century, though without reaching a satisfactory conclusion: see Gerhard Schmitz, ‘Schuld und Strafe. Eine unbekannte Stellungnahme des Rathramnus von Corbie zur Kindestõtung’, Deutsches Archiv, 38 (1982), pp. 363-87.

26 See, e.g., Herlihy, Households, pp. 126-6, Shahar, Childhood, pp. 1–4.

27 ThU, II, v, 7, ed. Finsterwalder, p. 319.

28 POxon, C. 40, foi. 78r. Cf. Kõrntgen, Studien, p. 190. For the adoption of this canon in several later works see ibid. p. 116.

29 P. Vmniani, C. 47, ed. Bieler, p. 92.

30 PCumm, II, 32-3 and (X), 19-20, ed. Bieler, pp. 116 and 128, ThG, C.103 and 161-2; ThCo, C.23; ThU, 1, xiv, 28-9; 771B, C. 79a-b, ed. Finsterwalder, pp. 268, 272, 310, and Asbach, Anhang, p. 86. Cf. P. Vindobonense B, XI, 14 (= Cummean); Excarpsus Cummeani, VI, 30; P. Remense, VIII, 39 and 66-9; P. Sangallense tripartitum, II, 4; P. Merseburgense A, 111; P: Vindobonense B, XXXIII, 30 (= Theodor); P. Capitula Iudicorum, IV, 2; P. Vallicelliamlm, I, 8; P. Parisiene, I, C. 59-60; P. Ps.-Fulberti, C. 12 (ed. Kerff, p. 30); P. Burchardi, C. 164, 180, 185.

31 ThG, C. 117; ThU, I, xv, 2; ThCo, C. 148; ed. Finsterwalder, pp. 264, 280, 310. P. Vallicellianum, I, 92; P. Parisiense, I, C. 21.

32 E.g., Excarpsus Cummeani, VII, 14; P. Remense, IX, 15; P. Sangallense tripartitum, II, 34; P. Merseburgense A, C. 99; P. Vindobonense B, XXXIV, 14; P. Capitula ludiáorum, XVI, 4.

33 P. Burchardi, C. 179, ed. Schmitz II, p. 448. Aron Gurevich, Medieval Popular Culture: Problems of Belief and Perception (Cambridge and New York, etc., 1988), p. 83, links this up with the healing power attached to the earth, ‘a very characteristic trait of agrarian beliefs’. Cf. P. Arundel, C. 97, ed. Schmitz I, p. 464, and P. Ps.-Ecgberti, written in Anglo-Saxon, IV, 16, ed. J. Raith, Die altenglische Version des Halitgar’schen Bussbuches (sog. Poenitentiale Pseudo-Ecgberti) (Darmstadt, 1964), p. 55. Muzzarelli, ‘Le donne’, p. 182, cites the last text in the Latin translation as it is given in Wasserschleben.

34 P. Ps.-Fulberti, C. 11, Franz Kerff’, ‘Das sogenannte Paenitentiale Fulberti. Überlieferung, Verfasserfrage, Edition’, Zeitschrift de Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte. Kanonistische Abteilung, 73 (1987), pp. 1-40, edition on p. 30. Cf. apparatus, pp. 31-2. The similar cases Kerff mentions on p. 36 are not similar, because they imply an appeal to superstitious beliefs.

35 P. Parisiense, I, C. 64. This parallel with P. Ps.-Fulberti, C. 11 is not noticed by Kerff. For the dating of this text, see Rob Meens, ‘Fragmente der Capitula episcoporum Ruotgers von Trier und des Scarapsus Pirminii’, Deutsches Archiv, 48 (1992), pp. 167-74, at p. 168.

36 P. Burchardi, C. 174, ed. Schmitz II, p. 447.

37 Pierre J. Payer, ‘The Humanism of the Penitentials and the Continuity of the Penitential Tradition’, MS, 46 (1984), pp. 340-54. esp. pp. 342-6.

38 PCumm, I, 13, III, 1-2 and (X), 10, ed. Bieler, pp. 112, 116 and 128. For an example of theft and confession by a boy, see the Old Irish Life of Brigid, ed. W. Stokes, Lives of Saints from the Book of Lismore (Oxford, 1890), p. 196.

39 PCumm, (X), 3, 12-14, 19-20 are in fact directed at adults. Quinn, Boys and Monks, p. 160, assumes however that all canons are meant for boys.

40 PCumm, (X), 5: ‘Puer qui sacrificio communicat peccans cum pecode, centum diebus’; ed. Bieler, p. 128. Cf. Pierre J. Payer, Sex and the Penitentials: the Development of a Sexual Code, 550-1150 (Toronto, 1984), p. 44. The canon of Finnian, to which Payer refers, is in fact not Finnian’s but a canon from Cummean’s penitential incorporated in the P. Vindohonense B, which Bieler mistakenly included in his edition of Finnian’s penitential; see Rob Meens, ‘The Penitential of Finnian and the textual witness of the Paenitentiale Vindobonense B’, MS, 55 (1993), pp. 243-55, esp. p. 251.

41 PCumm, (X), 15, ed. Bieler, p. 128, Cf. ThU, I, ii, 4-7, ed. Finsterwalder, p. 290, with harsher penances, but a similar mitigation for boys.

42 PCumm, (X), 9, ed. Bieler, p. 128. P. Ps.-Bedae, III, 32, ed. Wasserschleben, p. 223. Cf. Payer. Sex, p. 42, who suggests that a penance is here imposed for educational purposes; Quinn, Boys and Monks, pp. 163-4, draws attention to the possible therapeutic effects of the imposition of a penance. Though it may have had this effect, I do not believe that this was the intention of this canon.

43 Rob Meens, ‘Het heilige bezoedeld. Opvattingen over het heilige en het onreine in de vroegmid-deleeuwse religieuze mentaliteit’, in P. Bange and A. G. Weiler, eds, Willibrord, zijn wereld en zijn werk. Voordrachten gehouden tijdens het Willibrordcongres Nijmegen, 28-30 September 1989 (Nijmegen, 1990), pp. 237-55, esp. pp. 244 and 249.

44 PCumm, (X), 17: ‘Puer de saeculo ueniens nuper cum aliqua puella fornicari nitens nee coinquinatus, XX diebus; si autem coinquinatus est, C diebus; si uero, ut moris est, suam compleat uoluntatem, ann(o) peniteat’; ed. Bieler, p. 128. Quinn, Boys and Monks, p. 163, n. 19, interprets this passage as referring to a sexual sin committed before entry into the monastery; Bieler’s intepretation of nuper as an adverb relative to ueniens and not nitens seems, however, most probable.

45 ThU, I, ii, 7 and 10, ed. Finsterwalder, p. 290. The reference to Basilius in 7 might, however, imply a monastic context.

46 See Quinn, Boys and Monks, pp. 91 and 127-8.

47 PCumm, (X), 1: ‘Pueri soli sermocinantes et transgredientes statuta seniorum iii superpositionibus emendantur’; ed. Bieler, p. 126, who translates: ‘Boys talking alone’, but ‘boys only talking’ seems also possible.

48 PCumm, (X), 21, ed. Bieler, p. 128.

49 PCumm, (X), 18, ed. Bieler, p. 128. Cf. Excarpsus Cummeani, I, 38, and P. Capitula Iudicorum, XXIII, 3, ed. Schmitz II, p. 608, two penitentials from the eighth century that gained wide diffusion, where this canon is presented among other regulations on food, without any reference to children.

50 EHD, i, pp. 807-8.