Feasting,Fasting,andDoingPenance 287
The ritual books of Bishop Ugo of Volterra and the church of Verona,
both dating to the mid to late 1100 s, give the forms for private confession
typical of the early communal period.^98 The penitent knelt, and the priest
recited a litany, including prayers for the sinner. The priest also requested
prayers from others present, that the sinner make a good confession. In
Verona, the priest then asked whether the penitent accepted each article of
the Creed. He then interrogated the sinner concerning a list of sins (for each
of which there was a specified penance) and about general violations against
charity. The Verona rite included whole passages lifted from early medieval
penitentials, in particular the ‘‘Roman Penitential’’ sections on homicide.^99
The ceremony ended with the imposition of a fast, or a commutation of that
to almsgiving, and then a deprecatory absolution. The rite shows its roots in
the ancient penitentials, with their tariffed sins. The confession envisioned is
‘‘general’’: it assumes that the penitent will confess all the sins of his entire
life up to the present. As devotional confession proliferated, forms became
simpler and more personalized. This is not to say that penitents in the later
communal period did not make ‘‘general confessions.’’ Don Zambono, arch-
priest of Santa Gabiana in Cremona, explained how Armanno Pungilupo,
on at least five or six occasions, had confessed all the sins he had committed
since his youth.^100
In contrast, the rites for private confession found in thirteenth-century
manuscripts were based on the generic confession of sins made at Prime and
Compline in the daily Office. Sinners recited the Confiteor formula, doubt-
less to the best of their ability, and then listed their sins.^101 The priest gave
absolution and imposed a penance—fasts or repetitions of the Pater and Ave
seem the most common.^102 As the old interrogation model disappeared from
use, ever greater responsibility fell on penitents to prepare what they in-
tended to say. This could cause anxiety. Saint Anthony of Padua suggested
to a nervous penitent that he prepare by compiling a written list of his sins.^103
Giovanni Pilingotto, the ‘‘saint from Urbino,’’ kept a list of the sins he com-
mitted during the week and brought it with him to use at his regular Friday
confession.^104 Pietro Pettinaio of Siena did not use paper and ink for his
routine confessions, but when he decided to make a general confession for
his entire life, he did.^105 A manuscript of Latin classics from northern Italy
98 .Rituale di Hugo [di Volterra], 290 – 300 , and Verona, Biblioteca Capitolare,ms mcix, fols. 15 r– 20 v.
99. Verona, Biblioteca Capitolare,ms mcix, fols. 20 v– 23 v. Pont. Rom. (xii), 48. 1 – 2 ,p. 265 (text
Edmund Marte`ne,De Antiquis Ecclesiae Ritibus, 2 d ed. [Antwerp, 1736 ; rpt., Hildesheim: Olms, 1967 ],
1 : 818 – 20 , Ordo 17 ), gives formulas for absolution of private penitents taken from the rites for public
penitents on Holy Thursday in Pont. Rom. (xii), 30 a. 17 – 18.
100. ‘‘Acta contra Armanum [Punzilupum],’’ 68.
101. For a thirteenth-century Milanese example, seeManuale Ambrosianum, 1 : 167.
102 .Ordo Officiorum della cattedrale [volterrana], 210 – 13.
103 .ChronicaxxivGeneralium Ordinis Fratrum Minorum, 154.
104 .Vita [Sancti Pilingotti Urbinatis], 1. 17 ,p. 148.
105. Pietro of Monterone,Vita del beato Pietro Pettinajo, 6 , pp. 75 – 78.