The Commutations of Penances according to the Irish and British Penitentials
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15633/ps.3569Keywords:
Irish and British Penitentials, commutationsAbstract
This article deals with the commutations of penance in the Irish and British Penitentials published by Arkadiusz Baron and Henryk Pietras in Libri poenitentiales (Kraków 2011, s. 1–259). The penitentials in which we find the commutations are: Irish Canons (Canones Hibernenses, c. 650); Poenitentiale Cummaeani (seventh century); Discipulus Umbriensium; Capitula Theodori; Excarpsum de canonibus catholicorum Patrum vel Poenitentiale ad remedium animarum domini Egberti archiepiscopi Eburacae civitatis (732–766); Sancti Egberti Eboracensis archiepiscopi poenitentiale libri V (eighth century). Most of the commutations give opportunity to change the long and difficult prescribed penance of fasting on bread and water for a shorter and less difficult one and to change its form to repeated prayers (i.e. psalms, canticles, Our Father), genuflections or even in the case of a prosperous man by giving a specified quantity of money as alms to the poor, monks or a church. The commutations could easily be used to minimize and formalize accepted penance. It means, practicing the Christian religion without real metanoia, as Jesus thought.
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