294 BuoniCattolici
tents on the use of magic and usury, on visiting prostitutes, and on leading
the innocent into sin by corrupting stepdaughters. This author then focused
on gluttony and drunkenness, in particular the vices associated with the lat-
ter, such as listening to jongleurs and gossips. The last section of his treatise
is a list of the typical sins of various professions. That inventory would later
be perfected by the great canonist Hostiensis.^141
Confession andLayPiety
Understanding the place of confession in lay piety entails, first, discovering
how the laity made use of it. Illuminations in manuscripts of the sectionDe
Penitentiaof Gratian’sDecretumare suggestive. The earliest manuscripts never
illustrate confession with images of a penitent whispering in the priest’s ear
or of the priest imparting absolution. No, the universal image is that of a
priest scourging the penitent with a rod (see, e.g., fig. 35 ). Only in the late
communal period do images of confessional self-accusation, like the penitent
reciting sins, and ecclesiastical authority, like the act of absolution, appear.^142
The ethos of the earlier image makes confession principally an act of pen-
ance, a way of humbling the self before God and accepting the consequent
mortification.^143 When Ranieri Fasani of Perugia, the founder of the flagel-
lant movement, gave himself the discipline privately, he invariably linked it
to making confession.^144 Flagellant confraternity statutes link the discipline
to confession.^145 The statutes of the lay penitents, likewise, list confession
among penances, along with fasting, almsgiving, and prayers.^146 When Al-
berto the priest gave his deposition about the ascetic practices of Armanno
Pungilupo, he mentioned his frequent confessions, not his apparently annual
Communion.^147 Even heretics paid homage to the discipline of confession.
Ugonetto Gobaudi went to a Waldensian preacher, Martino Pastre, for con-
fession. The ‘‘good man’’ not only heard his confession but assigned Ugo-
netto a forty-day fast on bread and water and recitations of the Pater Noster.
Giovanni di Martino got a similar penance from the Waldensian preacher
Francesco Marengo. He was to perform it every Friday from the feast of
Saint Michael to Christmas.^148 Waldensian heretics distinguished themselves
- Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana,msAed. 37 (xiiicent.), fols. 107 r– 109 v.
- On this suggestive change, see Roberto Rusconi, ‘‘Immagine della confessione sacramentale
(secolixii–xvi),’’Dalla penitenza all’ascolto delle confessioni, 272 – 74 , commenting on the images in Anthony
Melnikas,The Corpus of the Miniatures in the Manuscripts of ‘‘Decretum Gratiani’’(Rome: Studia Gratiani, 1975 ),
3 : 1069 – 84. - A point made by De Sandre Gasparini, ‘‘Laici devoti,’’ 226.
- See E. Ardu, ‘‘Frater Raynerius Faxanus de Perusia,’’Il movimento dei disciplinati nel settimo centenario
dal suo inizio (Perugia, 1260 ),ed. Lodovico Scaramucci (Perugia: Deputazione di Storia Patria per l’Umbria,
1965 ), 95 , and, on this text, De Sandre Gasparini, ‘‘Laici devoti,’’ 226. - So De Sandre Gasparini, ‘‘Laici devoti,’’ 228 , commenting on Meersseman,Ordo 1 : 482 (chap.
14 ). - On confession in confraternity statutes, see De Sandre Gasparini, ‘‘Laici devoti,’’ 212 – 14.
- ‘‘Acta contra Armanum [Punzilupum],’’ 87.
- Alberto of Castellario, ‘‘Inquisicio’’ ( 126 ), p. 216 ;( 175 ), p. 232 ;( 102 ), p. 204.