CELTIC CHURCH IN BRITAIN #9

The Celtic Church in Britain #9

Discipline

by Leslie Hardinge (1972)

  

DISCIPLINE

     Discipline in the early Church was concerned with the conduct 

of its members so as to maintain purity of life. As the Church grew 

in popularity its adherents were sometimes such in name only. 

Persecution shook out those who were fearful or weak.

Eventually, when peace returned, some desired to be reunited with

their brethren.

     The problem of how to treat lapsed or fallen Christians was

always a grave one. While privileges were withheld from those 

who had sinned grievously, the Church was always reluctant to cast

off any who might be reclaimed. Some clerical leaders were lax while 

others were rigid. To cope with this uncertainty a system of penance 

gradually evolved.

     Great differences in the practice of discipline may be noted

among early Christians compared with later developments; for

example, primitive confession was public. Numbers were few, 

and the sinner was reinstated as he would be within a family. This

procedure continued for centuries in the Western Church. It was

recommended: "In church thou shalt confess thy transgressions and

shalt not betake thyself to prayer with an evil conscience."

Another directive was: "Every Lord's day gather yourselves

together and give thanks, first confessing your transgressions,

that your sacrifice may be pure." The apostolic advice, "Confess

your faults one to another", was evidently carried out literally.

     Little consideration was shown to the sensitivity of the

penitent's feelings, for his humiliating experience was regarded

as a salutary base on which his later stability might be built.

     At the close of the fourth century, in Rome at least, both

secret and open sins required public penance. Ambrose could well

report: "I have seen penitents whose tears had hollowed a furrow

on their faces, and who prostrated themselves on the ground to be

trampled upon by the feet of every one; their pale faces, worn by

fasts, exhibited the image of death in a living body." But he

recommended that after the sinner had confessed "to a man" he

ought also to make a public acknowledgment. It seems that by 

this time some leaders were advocating private and others public

confession. Sometime towards the end of the fourth century,

presbyter-penitentiaries were appointed to rehabilitate those who

had lapsed. Through scandals which arose, however, this office

was eventually abolished. But the idea that a kindly pastor

should counsel penitents was not a new one, nor did it perish. 

In 470 Pope Simplicius appointed a special week in which 

confession, penance, and baptism would be administered by 

priests  in three churches in Rome. This developed into the 

annual reconciliation on Maundy Thursday.

SACRAMENT PENANCE

     When penance came to be regarded as a sacrament is not

known. The gesture of absolution seems to have been the laying on

of hands, but even its "use was by no means universal". Nor have

formularies of penance and absolution been preserved. For

centuries the reinstatement of the penitent to Communion

"probably took the form of a deprecatory prayer" only. "No verbal

absolution in any form but that of prayer is known to have been

preserved", nor is there any early statement on sacramental

penance.

     The question soon arose whether penance might be repeated

for the same sin. "As one baptism," Ambrose ruled, "so one

penance." The rigour of this order often caused penance to be

postponed until the hour of death. In the West the administration

of this discipline eventually attained a formal methodology. The

priest heard confession privately and assigned penance. For

serious sins the penitent was not allowed to partake of Communion. 

On Maundy Thursday the bishop brought the sinner back

into the fold in a public service of reconciliation. Exceptions

were made for persons involved in accidents or sicknesses in

which there was the possibility of immediate death.

     With the break-up of Roman society, morals rapidly

deteriorated. This had its effect upon the Church. "How changed

is the Christian people now from its former character" sighed

Salvian of Marseilles about the middle of the fifth century. This

ancient historian drew so graphic a picture of the depravity of

his age that it has hardly been paralleled. All seemed bent on

committing the basest crimes even into old age. "Some of them, I

suppose," Salvian said, "are relying on a foolish assurance of a

long life or the intention of eventual penitence." Because it

could not be repeated, "in the fifth century penance in time of

health was nearly lost in the West as in the East". This is one

aspect of the background of the Christianity introduced by

Patrick.

     The penitential discipline of the Celtic Church was of Irish

origin. When and by whom it was started cannot at present be

determined. The rules seem to be a synthesis of Christianized

Brehon laws and prescriptions being developed by Cassian and

others for dealing with sin-sick souls. While the church fathers

discussed capital crimes, no logical, formalized catalogue of

human frailties is to be found before John Cassian's list. As

physicians studied the diseases of the body, their causes and

cure, so progressive monastic leaders sought to classify sins,

and to find their motives and their remedies. Under each of eight

heads families of sins were eventually arranged. From these

origins Celtic penitential books seem to have sprung.

SOUL-FRIEND

     While the Celtic Christians were in the flood of their

missionary zeal virtue was probably at is peak. With the passing

years and increasing complexity in organization coupled with

independence in views among the different Celtic communities, 

it soon became apparent that some help was needed for both priest

and layman, to enable each to decide what should be done with the

various classes of sinners. It is probable that in some such way

the Celtic penitential books came to be. At first these slim

volumes contained simple rules. They gradually took on a

systematized form which finally covered every exigency which 

a priest might meet in the confessional.

     It appears from the ancient Celtic laws that a "soul-friend"

functioned even before the arrival of Christianity. The Irish

word anmchara has been rendered "spiritual guide", or "spiritual

direcfor". The glossator felt that "pastors and teachers",

expressions used by the apostle Paul, referred to "soul-friends",

remarking, "good is my soul-friend", that is, Jesus Christ. Every

Celtic chief had a counsellor or druid at his court. While little

is actually known about them, Caesar has left a description of

their position and authority in Gaul:

     They judge in almost all controversies, public and private,

     and if any crime has been committed, or slaying done, or if

     there is a controversy over inheritance or boundaries, they

     determine rewards and adjudge penalties. Whoever, whether a

     private person or a tribe of people, does not recognize the

     award, they interdict from the sacrifices. This penalty is

     with them, most grave. Those who come under this interdict

     are looked upon as in the number of the impious and the

     criminal; these all persons shun, avoiding their touch or

     speech, lest they should be hurt by the contagion. Nor to

     these is justice given if they seek it, nor is any honour

     shared with them.

DRUIDS

     Druids were married, and frequently passed their offices to

their sons. Incantations, fortune-telling, and magical spells

were part of their stock-in-trade. They were the genealogists and

annalists of their tribes, and also acted as leeches.

     Druids were powerful not only in Ireland, but also in

Scotland and Wales. When Columba arrived in Iona, he was believed

to have ousted two druids, who, in the guise of bishops, disputed

his presence. In fact, Iona is still known to some highlanders by

its old name Inis Druineach or Nan Druiliean, i.e. Druid's Isle.

     The ancient Welsh laws included the procedure which was to

be followed in druidical excommunications or banishments. The

outcast was known as a "kinwrecked" man. After the murderer had

been sentenced, the old law required "every one of every sex and

age within hearing of the horn to follow that exile and to keep

up the barking of dogs to the time of his putting to sea, until

he shall have passed three score hours out of sight". Caesar noted 

that these banished criminals were so numerous in Gaul that

they were recruited into companies to oppose him. Druids were

understood to have practised sorcery. Commenting on the coming 

of Antichrist the glossator remarked, "He will perform false marvels

and false signs, as wizards have done through him." The druids or

wizards fulfilled the prophetic picture for the commentator.

     In their social position and political influence the powerful 

saints were, on occasion, seemingly the successors of the druids. 

Druidism and Christianity were superficially similar.

Both had seasons in which fires were ceremonially extinguished,

and were then relighted from a symbolic flame. Both baptized

infants, at which time the child's name was bestowed upon it.

Both claimed to work magical cures to predict events, and to

transfer diseases from human beings to plants or other objects.

Both were teachers of youth and counsellors of kings. Like the

druid, the Christian soul-friend might banish a sinner. Both

cursed their enemies, and, as Senan once exclaimed, "Stronger is

the spell that I have brought with me, and better is my lore."

     Christian religious leaders apparently took over some lands

which had been sacred to the druids. They, too, organized ordeals

by fire and water; they circumambulated sacred places, and taught

the pagans to regard their deities as devils. Patrick was believed to 

have been anmchara to King Loegaire after he became a Christian, 

as Columba was to Aidan, king of Dalriada  and Adamnan

to Finnsnechta Fledach, king of Ireland.  In short, the evidence

seems to point to the fact that "the cleric supplants the druid as 

the king's chief adviser, under the title anmchara, soul-friend".

     On one occasion Columba declined the request to become the

soulfriend to Donnan of Eig. It was evidently optional for a

cleric to accept this office, and it was the privilege of the one

so refused to select another. This would suggest that confession

was by no means obligatory, neither in making nor in hearing it.

The position of the soul-friend was an important one; the saying,

attributed both to Brigit and Comgall, Columba's teacher at

Bangor, "anyone without a soul-friend is a body without a head",

became a proverb.

     In early Celtic Christianity, women occasionally filled the

position of soul-friend. Women brought up foster children, and

these, grown to maturity, might return to their "spiritual

mothers" for help and counsel. Ita of Cluain Credill was

confessor to Brendan. Brigit acted in this capacity. Columbanus

confessed to a woman, but later in life he seems to have felt

that this was not the wisest practice, and appointed priests only

for this function.

CELTIC VERSES ROMAN

     J. T. McNeill maintained that the Celtic Christian always

confessed in private in contradistinction to the Roman practice

of public confession. But among Celtic Christians exceptions

abound. There is evidence that both public and private confession

were used. The penitential of Finnian (c. 525-50) suggested that

anyone who sinned in secret should "seek pardon from God and make

satisfaction, that he may be Whole". He further recommended that,

"if one of the clerics or ministers of God makes strife, he shall

do penance for a week with bread and water and seek pardon from

God and his neighbour, with full confession and humility; and

thus can he be reconciled to God and his neighbour". In the

canons attributed to Patrick, of uncertain date but with parts

which very probably go back before Finnian, there was provision

for public confession and retribution: "At the completion of a

year of penance he shall come with witnesses and afterwards he

shall be absolved by the priest." A slanderer was also treated

like the murderer or adulterer covered in the above ruling:

     A Christian who believes that there is a vampire in the

     world, that is to say, a witch, is to be anathematized;

     whoever lays that reputation upon a living being, shall not

     be received into the Church until he revokes with his own

     voice the crime that he has committed and accordingly does

     penance with all diligence.

     Even in the Anglo-Saxon Church, when Cuthbert's preaching

turned men and women to Christ, the record observes that "they

all made open confession of what they had done, because they

thought that these things could certainly never be hidden from

him; and they cleansed themselves from the sins they had

confessed by 'fruits worthy of repentance', as he commanded".

     But, on the other hand, the Old-Irish Penitential (c. 800)

laid down a definite directive for private confession: "Anyone

who is himself conscious of any falsehood or unlawful gains let

him confess privately ..."; while the Irish Canons (c. 675) ruled

that certain works were to be performed "after confession of sins

in the presence of priest and people", and others "after

confession of sins to the priest". An episode in the life of

Samson preserves the belief that public confession was 

permissible on occasion. "When Samson visited his dying father,

the old man was conscience-stricken. And forthwith, having turned

them all out of doors, his mother only remained with those there.

There were Samson himself and his deacon and his father and

mother. Without more ado Amon himself, craving their indulgence,

in the presence of the three already mentioned, confessed in

their midst a principal mortal sin, which he had kept hidden

within himself, and vowed that, from that very day until his

death, he would serve God with all his heart, his wife especially

supporting him in his resolve. He found strength to shave his

head that same hour, his wife, as I have said, very strongly

urging him."

     It would appear that J. T. McNeill's statement that

"according to the penitentials penance is to be administered

privately at every stage; confession is to be made in secret to a

qualified person, who is regularly, of course, a priest",  did

not apply to all sections of the Celtic Church. The evidence of

the penitential books suggests that confession could be made in

public before witnesses or before the church, to an abbot, or

even to a woman.

CONFESSING TO A PRIEST

     While all this is so, the practice of confessing to a priest was 

by no means infrequent among Celtic Christians. The Old-Irish

Penitential recommended both private confession to God, and also

confession to a suitable cleric: "Anyone who is himself conscious

of any falsehood or unlawful gains let him confess privately to a

confessor, or to an elder who may be set over him. If there be

none such, let him make his own confession to God, in whose

presence the evil was done, so that He shall be his confessor."

     So that even at the beginning of the ninth century auricular

confession was not yet mandatory. Advantages were recognized in

both methods. But the work of the confessor was still only to

admonish, advise, and pray for his charge. The discussion as to

whether it was necessary to confess to God only, or to a priest,

went on for many years, and was not settled in the Celtic Church

until the ordinances of the Roman party ultimately prevailed.

(Again it was Rome that finally won out when the Celtic church

was overcome by Rome - Keith Hunt)

     There is no mention in the penitential books of any

sacramental quality to confession and absolution. The priest or

soul-friend served as a counsellor only. The glossator

recommended that the penitent should "purify himself through

repentance, so that there is nothing in him which his conscience

may 'reprehend', for 'the Lord will be with him provided he

cleanse himself by repentance'". The Irish commentator

Malgairmrid noted; "My confession will not be in vain to me, for

whatever I shall pray for, God will give it". Confession to God

and cleansing from sin by repentance through his grace are

stressed in these comments. That there was therefore no ritual

absolution in the Celtic Church is suggested by the OldIrish

comment on the story of Nathan's dealings with David's sin in

connection with Bathsheba: "It was said to David that his sins

were forgiven him, it is not, however, said to us, when our sins

are forgiven us." In his note on the psalmist's assurance that

God will answer their prayer for pardon is this advice: "Pray for

forgiveness and make repentance, even as Hezekiah did. That is,

when any man sins, that he seek the forgiveness of God at that

time." And explaining the psalmist's petition, "Deliver me in thy

righteousness", he noted that it was a request to "God, to

forgive him his sins".

     J. T. McNeill also believed that "public reconciliation was

not in use" But the fourteenth canon attributed to Patrick, of

later date, as noted above, prescribed that "at the completion of

a year of penance he shall come with witnesses and afterwards be

absolved by the priest". This must have been some sort of public

ceremony, but it might also be a local exception. Finnian, on the

other hand, ruled that "sins are to be absolved in secret by

penance and by every diligent devotion of heart and body". 

It thus seems clear that there were no fixed rules.

AND IF THE SAME SIN?

     In the Western Church, as already noticed, penance was

mainly non-recurring, and hence was often postponed till the 

hour of death. But there is no hint in any of the Celtic penitential

books that penance could not be received frequently for the same

sin. It might be prescribed as often as it was needed.

     Several interesting points, which later had far-reaching

effects on discipline in the whole Western Church, had their

roots in the penitential books of Irish Christians. Penance was

described as medicine for sin. This concept originated long

before the origin of the Celtic Church. It grew out of an old

philosophy that "contraries are cured by contraries". The sinner

was regarded as a sick soul needing to be cured. The earliest

reference to the application of this philosophy in the Irish

Church is found in the penitential of Finnian:

     If a cleric is wrathful or envious or backbiting, gloomy or

     greedy, great and capital sins are these ... But by

     contraries, as we said, let us make haste to cure contraries

     and to cleanse away the faults from our hearts and introduce

     virtues in their places. Patience must arise for

     wrathfulness; kindness, or the love of God and of one's

     neighbour, for envy; for detraction, restraint of heart and

     tongue; for dejection, spiritual joy; for greed, liberality.

     Columbanus also accepted this principle. The talkative

person, he maintained, "is to be sentenced to silence; the

disturber to gentleness; the gluttonous to fasting; the sleepy

fellow to watchfulness". Cummean added, "The idler shall be 

taxed with an extraordinary work, and the slothful with a 

lengthened vigil."

     Those whose positions were high and whose knowledge was

great were judged to have deeper guilt. This was very different

from the legal views of the time, which often permitted a king to

go free while his slave would be slain for the same crime.

     Equality of sexes was another feature of penitential discipline, 

at any rate following the law promulgated by Adamnan.

     Another characteristic was composition. This indicated the

kind of satisfaction which should be made to the injured party or

his family by the offender or his relatives. In the old laws of

Ireland and Wales composition had particular reference to

homicide: "At this day ... no one is put to death for his

intentional crimes so long as erec is obtained." If the culprit

fled, his relatives were obliged to pay, or, if the murderer had

not absconded, he was to be handed over, together with his cattle

and land. The erec fine consisted of two parts. The first was the

body-fine for the murdered person, which amounted to seven female

slaves, the usual unit of value. The second was the honour-price

for the insult. This was graded according to the rank of the

injured person, the higher his position, the greater was the

honour-price.

     On these points some provisions of the early Celtic

penitentials were based. According to the Irish Canons penalties

were to be calculated with the rank of the injured and that of

the criminal carefully taken into consideration: "The blood of a

bishop, a superior prince, or a scribe which is poured out upon

the ground, if the wound requires a dressing, wise men judge that

he who shed the blood be crucified or pay [the value of] seven

female slaves." This kind of payment had its parallel in the

Anglo-Saxon laws.

     Examples of composition might be multiplied, suggesting

their debt to ancient Celtic usage. But the citation from the

influential penitential of Finnian will suffice:

     If any cleric commits murder and kills his neighbour and he

     is dead, he must become an exile for ten years and do

     penance seven years in another region. He shall do penance

     for three years of this time on an allowance of bread and

     water, and he shall fast three forty-day periods on an

     allowance of bread and water and for four years abstain from

     wine and meats; and having thus completed the ten years, if

     he has done well and is approved by testimonial of the abbot

     or priest to whom he was committed, he shall be received

     into his own country and make satisfaction to the friends of

     him whom he slew, and he shall render to his father or

     mother, if they are still in the flesh, compensation for the

     filial piety and obedience [of the murdered man] and say:

     'Lo, I will do for you whatever you ask, in the place of

     your son.' But if he has not done enough he shall not be

     received back forever.

     The penitential of Columbanus also ordered the murderer to

accept a penance almost exactly like the above.

     Another characteristic of the penitentials was called

"commutation"." This meant the substitution of one form of

penalty for another. Penitents who possessed property or who

could obtain help from their relatives were allowed to pay fines

in place of exile or long penanncs. This idea went wild in the

Irish Table of Commutations some time in the eighth century.  

The principle is well illustrated from the Irish Collection o f

Canons:

     He who has stolen treasure either from a holy church or

     within the city where martyrs and the bodies of the saints

     sleep - the lot shall be cast on three things: either his

     hand or his foot be cut off; or he shall be committed to

     prison, to fast for such time as the seniors shall determine

     and restore entire what he carried off; or he shall be sent

     forth on pilgrimage and restore double, and shall swear that

     he will not return until he has completed the penance and

     [that] after the penance he will be a monk.

     There seems to have been little logic in the substitution of

one penalty for another. The Irish Canons suggested:

     The equivalent of a special fast, one hundred psalms and one

     hundred genuflections, or the three fifties and seven

     canticles. The equivalent of a year, three days with a dead

     saint in a tomb without food or drink and without sleep, but

     with a garment about him and with the chanting of psalms and

     with the prayer of the hours, after confession of sins to

     the priest and after the monastic vow.

     Crucifixion was the equivalent of a fine of seven female

slaves. There is no record that the fine could not be raised.

     Since the penitentials varied so much, it is impossible to

say that any penance was imposed in all the books or in all

places or at all times. The general tendency of the handbooks

may, however, be noted. The earlier the book, the more severe the

penance; commutations there were none, but they came into use in

later books to a degree not originally envisaged. The penalties

prescribed varied greatly. In the early penitentials it was

insisted that sorrow for sin be exhibited, 

     with weeping and lamentations and garment of grief, under

     control, a short penance [is more desirable] than a long

     one, and a penance relaxed with moderation.

     There is required of them also remorse and lamentation for

     their sins, and that they should desire their brethren to

     pray God for them that their sins may be remitted by means

     of penance and penitence.

     In other penances the cries of the repentant sinner were put

to better use, he sang psalms and sacred songs. The number of

songs he was obliged to render varied all the way from three or

six or eight or twelve or fifteen or thirty or fifty to one hundred 

and fifty. In the Lives of the saints, the record of the singing 

of the entire Psalter is not uncommon. Since most of the monks 

would be performing penances, this singing might have given

rise to the idea of "perpetual praise" for which some monasteries

grew famous. On occasion the penitent was ordered to sing the

Psalms in uncomfortable positions, such as "kneeling at the end

of each", or in "cross-vigil", with his arms outstretched, and

"without lowering of arms". At other times saints might spend

entire nights standing in water, or in a tomb with a corpse,

or in a cold church, or even lying on nutshells. An anchorite of

Clonard made 700 genuflections a day and became a cripple "by

reason of the excessive number he had formerly made". Findchu sat

suspended by a sickle in each armpit. Ite kept a stag-beetle

under her clothes to nip her flesh. The list of such bizarre

penances might be enlarged greatly.

     Blows with a rod or lash are frequently mentioned  A sinner

might be sentenced to "one hundred lively blows"; another to "365

blows with a scourge on every day to the end of a year"; or to

"one hundred blows with a thong on the hand"; or even to "seven

hundred palm thumpings", or beating the palms on the hard ground.

     Columbanus fervently believed in the use of the rod or lash.

Flagellation might have been self-inflicted, but the Irish

penitentials give no evidence on this point.

     Banishment was part of the ancient legal code of the Celts.

For the more serious offences, particularly homicide, the culprit

was exiled from his country. In the Lives and the penitentials

this was called a "pilgrimage". Banishment might be for "seven

years", or "ten years". The exile might roam as did Cain, "a

vagabond and a fugitive upon the earth'", or he might be required

to spend his time in "a monastery of another country"; or even

"in the yoke of exile under another abbot". Judging by the number

of Irish pilgrims who wandered about England and on the Continent

this must have been a popular form of penance.

     It might happen that the pilgrim, sent on a trip for the

good of his soul, was loth to leave. The homilete in the

introduction to the life of Colum Cille declared:

     For when one leaves his fatherland in body only, and his

     mind doth not sever from sins and vices, and yearneth not to

     practise virtues or good deeds of the pilgrimage, then, that

     is made in that wise there groweth neither fruit nor profit

     to the soul, but labour and motion of the body idly. For it

     little profiteth any one to leave his fatherland unless he

     do good away from it.

     By far the commonest of punishments were fasts of various

durations and degrees of intensity. Sometimes the diet was merely

restricted, and certain luxuries excluded. At other times the

sinner went "without supper" only for refusing to bow to his

superior. For another sin he might be required to spend as long

as a year on bread and water, while on occasion a fast for two

days or forty days or any duration might be administered. The

amount and kind of food which might be eaten during a fast also

varied. A modifying recommendation was laid down:

     It is established that after the coming of Christ the

     Bridegroom, he shall set forth no fixed laws of fasting. 

     But the difference between the Novationists and the 

     Christians is that whereas a Novationist abstains continually, 

     a Christian does so for a time only, that place, time, and

     person should in all things be regarded.

     In the preface to the writings of Gildas on penance a very

detailed list of dietary items was given. It is interesting also

as an index of the Celtic bill of fare:

     He shall seek pardon every hour and keep a special fast once

     every week except during the fifty days following the

     Passion. He shall have bread without limitation and a

     refection with some butter spread over it on Sunday. On the

     other days his allowance of bread shall be a loaf of dry

     bread and a dish enriched with a little fat, garden

     vegetables, a few eggs, British cheese, a Roman half-pint of

     milk in considerat?on of the weakness of the body in this

     age, also a Roman pint of whey or buttermilk for his thirst,

     and enough water if he is a worker. Let him have his bed

     meagrely supplied with hay. For the three forty-day periods

     let him add something as far as his strength permits.

     He might be required to "abstain from wine and meats for a

whole year"; or for "two days in each week on bread and water,

and two days at the end of each month"; or just for "seven days".

For murder the penance might be "twelve years on bread and

water". David stipulated "another penance is for three years, but

with a half pint of beer or milk with bread and salt every second

night with the ration of dinner".

     On the other hand so severe might fasts become that death

would result. "A great gathering of the saints of Ireland"

convened because "they were grieved that penitents died on bread

and water in the days of the elders who lived before them. Then

they fasted against God for this." The advice given by the Rule

of Tallaght was that fasting should not be continued to the

endangering of life. An angel was said to have come with a

special message to this effect:

     Wonder not if the bread and the water cannot sustain the

     penitents today. The fruits and plants of the earth have

     been devastated so that there is neither strength nor force

     in them today to support anyone. The falsehood and sin and

     injustice of men have robbed the earth with its fruits of

     their strength and force. When men were obedient to God's

     will the plants of the earth retained their proper strength.

     At that time water was no worse for sustaining anyone than

     milk is today. Then the angel told them to mix some meal

     with their butter to make gruel, so that the penitents

     should not perish upon their hands [?], because the water

     and the bread did not suffice to support them.

MONSTROUS PENANCES

     Monstrous penances were sometimes imposed. "Crucifixion",

amputation of hand or foot or both, perpetual slavery, going

without sleep, repaying twofold or fourfold of what had been

stolen, and periods of silence, This list is illuminated by an

amusing anecdote. Two clerics went into the wilderness together

under a vow of silence. After a year one observed,  "'Tis a good

life we lead." After the lapse of another year in silence his

companion exclaimed, "If I cannot have peace and quiet here, I'll

go back to the world!"

(Well now that is a good one - joke that is - Keith Hunt)

     With the collapse of law and order which followed the

invasions of Europe by the barbarians during the fifth and

following centuries, the Irish penitential books played an

increasingly important role on the Continent. Their influence

tended in the direction of order and discipline, exercising a not

inconsiderable influence towards civilizing the rude pagans with

whom the Celtic missionaries laboured. These little books,

however, marked a departure from previous practice. They formed

convenient handbooks to help confessors in their tasks. They

might also have been permitted to laymen, to teach them the

degrees of guilt and the kinds of redress which ought to be made

to the injured.

     The penitentials were moulded by many of the social and

legal practices of the pagans. J. T. McNeill concluded that "we

may feel confident that the rise and success of the penitentials

as a basis of discipline was aided by the accommodations they

made to pre-Christian elements in the life of the Goidels, or

Irish Scots, and of their close relatives, the Britons of Wales".

     And so the little books grew popular among the Anglo-Saxon

Christians as well as those on the Continent, and were

extensively used. But they rendered the priest to some extent

independent of the bishop, and hence were regarded as suspect by

well-organized mettopolitans. Celtic penitentials were not

written by any ecclesiastical body. They were the product of

individual clerics, and differed among themselves, even the names

of their authors being sometimes lacking. Several of them were

fathered on early saints to add some measure of authority. After

years of miscopying and adaptation they became confused and

inaccurate. Commutations tended to neutralize any sense of guilt

which sins might engender in the conscience.

NINTH CENTURY

     At the beginning of the ninth century the Synod of

Chalonssur-Saone (813) angrily decreed that the "libelli called

penitentials, of which the errors were certain, the authors

uncertain" should be abolished.  The Synod of Paris (813) ordered

the bishops to look for these "booklets written in opposition to

canonical authority" and to burn all they could find, "that

through them unskilled priests may no longer deceive men". 

But although sentence to extinction might be passed by synodical

decree and carried out by episcopal authority, the penitentials

were too useful to be destroyed so easily. A compromise seems to

have been unconsciously reached. The materials and methods of the

penitentials were rearranged with sufficient modifications and

corrections, and brought into harmony with canon law. H. S. Lea

thus succinctly observed:

     Crude and contradictory as were the penitentials in many

     things, taken as a whole their influence cannot have been

     but salutary. They inculcated in the still barbarian

     populations lessons of charity and loving kindness, of

     forgiveness of injitries and of helpfulness to the poor and

     to the stranger as part of the discipline whereby the sinner

     could redeem his sins. Besides this, the very vagueness of

     the boundary between secular and spiritual matters enabled

     them to instil ideas of order and decency and cleanliness

     and hygiene among the rude inhabitants of northern Europe.

     They were not confined to the repression of violence and

     sexual immorality and the grosser offences, but treated as

     subjects for penance excess in eating and drinking, the

     consumption of animals dying a natural death or of liquids

     contaminated by animals falling into them; the promiscuous

     bathing of men and women was prohibited, and in many ways

     the physical nature of man was sought to be subordinated to

     the moral and spiritual. It was no small matter that the

     uncultured barbarians should be taught that evil thoughts

     and desires were punishable as well as evil acts. Such were

     their tendencies, and though at the present day it is

     impossible to trace directly what civilizing influence they

     may have exercised on the peoples subject to them, ... they

     exercised [such] influence.

     The penitential books were designed specifically for

Christians. The presence in them of warnings against heathen

practices shows to what extent these customs were still followed

by the believers. In some areas, Christianity in Celtic lands was

grafted on to heathenism. When the chiefs accepted the message of

salvation from the first missionaries to Ireland the people

followed their example. Such mass influxes were bound to include

pagan people only nominally subscribing to the principles of

Christ. It would seem logical to think that, the earlier the

penitential book, the more references there would be to the sins

which the new Christians had been used to committing as pagans.

But this is not so. It is the later books which contain more

references to heathen practices. This probably reflects a lapse

into heathen ways of some who were descended from the early

converts. The very hagiographers are the writers who have clothed

their heroes in many of the trappings of paganism, as they try to

outmagic their heathen opponents!

     The First Synod of Patrick warned against any cleric who

"becomes surety for a pagan", and any "Christian who believes

that there is a vampire in the world, that is to say. a witch".

The Old-Irish Penitential made rules regarding "anyone who gives

drugs or makes a bogey". There are several warnings against

making lamentations or dirges for the dead. Generally chanted by

women, these songs of grief evidently were so hard to eradicate

that they were eventually carried over into the modern Christian

wake.

     The penitential of Theodore contained an entire section on

the worship of idols and other heathen practices such as

sacrificing to devils, exposing children on roofs or placing them

in ovens to cure fevers, burning grains of wheat where a person

had died, incantations, divinations, and other magical practices.

The eating of horse flesh, drinking of blood or semen, and other

items which are all part of the customs of the pagans, are

expressly forbidden in the penitentials. The clue which indicates

the depth to which these heathen customs had penetrated among

Christians is the expression, "if they belong to the clergy",

found in the penitentials.

     But while these little books acted their part in combating

paganism and helping to establish discipline among Christians who

were converts from heathenism, they were also contributory to

grave evils. C. Plummer long ago gave his sober verdict of what

the penitential books eventually became:

     The penitential literature is in truth a deplorable feature

     of the medieval Church. Evil deeds, the imagination of which

     may perhaps have dimly floated through our minds in our

     darkest moments, are here tabulated and reduced to system.

     It is hard to see how any one could busy himself with such

     literature and not be the worse for it.

     Another evil of the penitentials was the corrupting effect

of commutations in money, which seem incredible to a present-day

moralist. Vicarious penance, by means of which the wealthy and

powerful were able to go free, was a further ill effect. It is

possible that this was a feature of medieval theology which led

to the invocation of saints and angels, and the substitution of

their merit for the sinner's guilt. Devised by earnest

religionists eager to uphold high standards of conduct, the

penitential books eventually caused more problems than they

solved, and were ultimately given up entirely.

..........

To be continued with "Monasticism"

NOTE:

WE  SEE  HERE  HOW  SOME  OLD  TESTAMENT  PUNISHMENTS  WERE 

BROUGHT  INTO  THE  BRITISH  CHRISTIAN  CELTIC  CHURCH.  AND  

HOW  OTHERS  WERE  INVENTED.  ROME,  AS  IT  GAINED  INFLUENCE 

AND  POWER  ALSO  BROUGHT  ITS  FORM  OF  DISCIPLE  AND  PENANCE. 

EVENTUALLY  THE  CONFESSIONAL  BOOTH  AND  THE  PRAYING  AND  

PAYING  TO  GET  DEPARTED  SOULS  OUT  OF  THE  MIDDLE  GROUND   

OF  PURGATORY  INTO  HEAVEN.

SOMETIMES  IT  IS  NATURAL  FOR  US  TO  HAVE  A  SOUL-PARTNER, 

OR  SOMEONE  WE  CAN  TALK  TO  IN  THE  DEEPEST  AND  MOST  OPEN  WAY.  

THAT  THOUGH  SHOULD  BE  NOT  PRESCRIBED  BUT  A  NATURAL  FORMING  

OF  A  SPECIAL  CHRISTIAN  FRIENDSHIP.

FOR  THE  STUDY  ON  HOW  A  CHURCH  CONGREGATION  

IS  TO  WORK  IN  THE  SITUATION  OF  OPEN  DEEP  SIN  WITHIN  

ITS  CONFINES,  IS  FULLY  EXPOUNDED  UPON  IN  MY  STUDY  

"CHURCH  DISFELLOWSHIPPING"  ON  MY  WEBSITE.

Keith Hunt