Feasting,Fasting,andDoingPenance 285
whether it was best to give heavy penances or light ones, Pietro replied that
if the penitent was truly sorrowful, then light penances were the best—‘‘since
Christ our Savior asked of the sinner only contrition for the sin, and the
intention not to commit it again.’’^85 This was not because Pietro undervalued
confession and penance in the Christian life. He once wrote to two Floren-
tine friends, Bartolomeo and Cerrino, that if they wanted to progress in
holiness, the first thing they needed was a good confessor from a ‘‘proven’’
religious order.^86 Pietro put good confession ahead of frequent church atten-
dance.
Versions of this message made their way into devotional tracts for the
laity, often with odd twists. A set of edifying stories from early-fourteenth-
century Italy focuses almost entirely on the power of contrition to forgive
horrible sins.^87 No sin is too grave for repentance, especially if the sinner has
cultivated a devotion to Christ’s mother, Mary. An abbess sinned with the
cook and was with child. Envious nuns reported the signs of pregnancy to
the bishop. The abbess repented and implored Mary’s help. Mary sent an
angel to tell the abbess that the Virgin’sfigliuolo,Jesus, had two pieces of
good news. First, her sin was forgiven because of her sorrow; second, the
incriminating evidence would be invisible to the bishop. When the bishop
arrived, he could find no sign of pregnancy. The abbess could not help
recounting the vision and its result. The bishop was so impressed that he
adopted the abbess’s child, who grew up to be the next bishop. The bishop
must have procured for the boy a dispensation for his canonical ‘‘defect of
birth,’’ his illegitimacy. The worst sins, even repeated shamelessly, were no
reason to despair. Christ’s Passion was so powerful that it canceled any sin
so long as the sinner asked forgiveness ‘‘willing rightly.’’^88 ‘‘Willing rightly’’
meant intending to go to confession with contrition in the heart.
Confession ofSins
One thirteenth-century Italian preacher told the story of a great sinner who
went to confession to a holy hermit priest. The man confessed his sins, but
the priest could not convince him ‘‘to do satisfaction.’’ Finally, the man
agreed to bring the priest some water from a nearby fountain. When the
man arrived there, he found the well was dry. One single drop came out;
- Pietro of Monterone,Vita del beato Pietro Pettinajo, 9 , pp. 85 – 86 : ‘‘imperciocche
il Salvatore nostro Cristo cercodal peccatore solo la contrizione del peccato e vero proposito in futuro di astenersi.’’ For
criticism of heavy penances in a confession manual, see Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana,ms
Aed. 37 (earlyxiiicent.), fol. 107 v. - Pietro of Monterone,Vita del beato Pietro Pettinajo, 9 , pp. 104 – 6 ; Pietro also urged frequent church
attendance: ibid., pp. 107 – 8. - Bologna, Biblioteca Universitaria,ms 158(xivcent.), fols. 14 r– 24 r; see fol. 20 vfor the story of the
abbess. - To give up on forgiveness was the unforgivable sin. One early-fourteenth-century priest copied
at the end of his copy of Berengario Fredelli’sSumma Confessionisa little treatise on despair: Padua,
Biblioteca Antoniana,ms 217, fol. 98 r.