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Thirty-five years after J. Mahoney published The Making of Moral Theology: A Study of the Roman Catholic Tradition, I published A History of Catholic Theological Ethics. Mahoney’s argument was fundamentally an indictment of the moral tradition arguing that it was primarily focused on sin. Building on his research but also on subsequent research that was published since then I argue that from its inception moral theology was primarily interested in pathways of holiness. Even research on the Irish Penitentials shows that the practice of penance there and then was always with an anamchara, that is, a soul friend who accompanied the penitent monk or nun in their struggles to live their life of discipleship. Rather than being fixated on sin, they were aiming to follow and serve Christ in their love of neighbor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Revista de Historia del Derecho is the property of Instituto de Investigaciones de Historia del Derecho and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Canon law and theology were not distinct, well-developed fields in the twelfth century. In theory, many if not all scholars recognise this, and yet, in practice, much scholarship on the intellectual and institutional history of the century operates as if the contrary were true. Often labeled as canonists or theologians, the intellectual figures of the century frequently devoted attention to the church's law and to the Bible, to issues of ecclesiastical structure and discipline as well to theological questions. One way of gauging the scholarly world of the century is to examine the reception of a particular text by various intellectual figures. This article surveys the historiographical problem, explores the reception of Gratian's Tractatus de penitentia from ca 1150 to ca 1200, and attempts to reformulate the nature of the intellectual climate in the period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reconsiders the function of penitentials in the tenth and eleventh centuries; were they used mainly to support priests in the administration of penance, or rather as legal texts in either the episcopal court or in the schoolroom? Through an examination of the evidence of the manuscripts from across Europe, it shows that whilst few new penitentials were composed, many older ones, especially those which gave their authorities, continued to be copied in this period, and that most were preserved in a legal rather than pastoral context. Finally, it suggests that this shift towards collections of a legal nature indicates not only tighter episcopal control, but also a concern for the better legal training of priests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the preliminary results of an investigation into the history of the Penitential of Pseudo-Theodore. It outlines the text's manu-script history, the scope of its contents, and its sources, arguing that it was a comprehensive, systematic collection. It also reconsiders the evidence for when and where it was composed, suggesting it was probably written in north-eastern France or the eastern Rhineland in the 820s or 830s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article outlines the evidence for penance in pre-Gratian canon law manuscripts from southern and central Italy. It includes a handlist of those canon law collections compiled in this area between the tenth and the twelfth centuries which include penitential materials, divided into those manuscripts which were dependent on the south Italian Collection in Five Books, and those which were were not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the south Italian tenth-century Collection in Nine Books, one of the first Italian compilations of canon law to incorporate a penitential handbook. It places this work in the context of other tenth-century collections, investigating its sources, and the way in which its compiler chose to include penitential canons. It therefore contributes to the current debate about the purpose and function of penitentials as a genre in this period, arguing that they were probably intended to support the efforts of bishops to educate priests in the administration of penance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the characteristics and function of Book 19 of Burchard's Decretum. It demonstrates how the penitential questionnaire, usually considered the most original part of this text, was the result of Burchard's systematic expansion upon his main source, Regino of Prüm. It argues that Book 19 was not a conventional penitential, to be used to support the administration of penance by priests, but rather that it was meant to be both an exemplary penitential and a summary of the preceding eighteen books. Burchard thus sought to ensure there was no contradiction between his collection of canon law and his penitential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the character of penitential canons found in the manuscript "Vienna." Description of penance by priests; Legal decisions of Theodore, the seventh-century archbishop of Canterbury, England; Canonical canons which are based upon the penitential of the Irish peregrinus Columbanus.