Cities of God: The Religion of the Italian Communes 1125-1325

(Darren Dugan) #1

 290 BuoniCattolici


1215.^117 Casuistic theory predates our period, but council decrees encouraged


its pastoral application.^118 This was to be a moral theology for practical use.


Most early manuals combined schemes for analyzing sin, commonly the Ten


Commandments, the stages of willing and acting, the five senses, the seven


virtues, the fourteen works of mercy, the seven sacraments, and the twelve


articles of the Creed. The most widely diffused of these manuals was that of


Guillaume Perault (Peraldus), although that of Jean Rigaud was also impor-


tant as the first attempt to produce a manual for lay use.^119 Among the


mendicants, theSummaof the Dominican Raymond of Penyafort prevailed.


These moral summae were massive, scholastic, and ultimately impractical.


The elaboration of sin lists, intended to give a structure to all the phenomena


a confessor might encounter, ended up being overly baroque.^120 Within a


few decades of Lateran Counciliv, shorter practical treatises would supple-


ment, if not replace, the manuals.^121 Perhaps because they seemed all-en-


compassing, the seven capital sins became the formula of choice in these


shorter works.^122 Oddly for modern Christian mentality, the Ten Command-


ments did not become popular for the examination of conscience until the


late Middle Ages.^123


Originally, authors paralleled the seven sins with the seven virtues, but


later short forms for confession omitted the virtues.^124 As in Perault’s manual,


the seven sins became an outline for the faults thought typical of laypeople.


Gluttony, for example, included not only rich banquets but love of overly



  1. On these manuals, see Carla Casagrande, ‘‘La moltiplicazione dei peccati: I cataloghi dei peccati
    nella letteratura pastorale dei secc.xiii–xv,’’La peste nera: Dati di una realta`ed elementi di una interpretazione:
    Atti delxxxConvegno storico internazionale dell’Accademia tudertina(Spoleto: Centro Italiano di Studi sul Basso
    Medioevo, 1994 ), 253 – 84 ; for an introduction to confessional summae, see Leonard E. Boyle, ‘‘Summae
    Confessorum,’’Les genres litte ́raires dans les sources the ́ologique et philosophique me ́die ́vales(Louvain: Institut d’E ́-
    tudes Me ́die ́vales, 1982 ).

  2. Ovidio Capitani, ‘‘Verso un diritto del quotidiano,’’Dalla penitenza all’ascolto delle confessioni, 22 – 24.
    For examples, see Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale,msMagl.xxxv. 224 (Latin, early 1300 s
    Francesco of Perugia,Tractatus de Septem Vitiis Capitalibus et Decem Preceptis); Bologna, Biblioteca Universita-
    ria,ms 1563, fols. 37 r– 44 r(vernacular,xivcent.); Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana,msTrotti 541 (xivcent.),
    fols. 135 v– 141 v(vernacular, 1316 ). A search of Morton W. Bloomfield et al.,Incipits of Works on the Virtues
    and Vices(Cambridge: Medieval Academy of America, 1979 ), would reveal others.

  3. Guillaume Perault,Summa de Virtutibus et Vitiis(Venice: Paganinis, 1497 ), is the only printed ver-
    sion. Jean Rigaud is unpublished, but A. Teertaert, ‘‘La ‘Formula Confessionis’ du Fre ́re Mineur Jean
    Rigaud ( 1323 ),’’Miscellanea Historica in Honore Alberti de Meyer(Louvain: Bibliothe`que de l’Universite ́,
    1944 ), 2 : 662 , outlines its contents; on it, see also Rusconi, ‘‘Francescani e la confessione,’’ 299.

  4. Casagrande, ‘‘Moltiplicazione,’’ 281 , seconding a remark by Pierre Michaud-Quantin,Sommes
    de casuistique et manuels de confession au Moyen Aˆge (xii–xvisie`cles)(Louvain: Nauwelaerts, 1962 ), 87 – 88.

  5. On this transition, see Muzzarelli,Penitenze, 63 – 64.

  6. On the seven sins, see Morton W. Bloomfield,The Seven Deadly Sins: An Introduction to the History of
    a Religious Concept, with Special Reference to Medieval English Literature(East Lansing: Michigan State College
    Press, 1952 ); Casagrande, ‘‘Moltiplicazione,’’ 271 ; Sigfried Wenzel, ‘‘The Seven Deadly Sins: Some Prob-
    lems of Research,’’Speculum 43 ( 1968 ): 1 – 22 , esp. 13 – 14 ; and Little, ‘‘Pride Goes Before Avarice.’’

  7. See John Bossy,Christianity in the West, 1400 – 1700 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985 ), 42 – 46 ;
    and on the shift from the seven vices to the Ten Commandments, see Carla Casagrande and Silvana
    Vecchio,La classificazione dei peccati tra settenario dei vizi e decalogo: Teologia e pastorale (sec.xiii–xv),Documenti
    e studi sulla tradizione filosofica medievale (forthcoming).

  8. Bloomfield,Seven Deadly Sins, 93.

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