292 BuoniCattolici
he ate more than he had need for and so overburdened his stomach. Yes, he
drank too much.^132 Since the formula had no other place to put them, the
man also listed other sins he had committed with his mouth: vulgar language
and gossip.^133 He then returned to Johannes and wrote down that he had
violated church fasts—this does not seem to have been a major fault, since
he merely stated the sin generally, not using the formula’s list of fasts and
the ways of breaking them. Finally, he confessed his general failure in his
own words: ‘‘I am a pig, filling my mouth with every good thingnimis
lauta.’’^134 Probably because he or his priest could not translate the Latin
phrase, which means ‘‘excessively lavish,’’ the man left it in the original
Latin. And so the penitent went on for the other six capital sins. He repeated
some of his actual sins several times. He excessively enjoyed holding public
office. Thus he committed the sins of pride (he liked people to admire him),
avarice (he liked the money involved), and sloth (officers had servants to wait
on them). So many sins; so many possibilities.
What this man did in preparation for public penance other penitents did
for private confessions. In the early 1300 s, the owner of a codex of Saint
Augustine’sOn the Truth of the Catholic Faith,perhaps a Bolognese Augustinian,
wrote out his confession on the back flyleaf. From its generality and scope, it
seems to be a general confession, preceded and followed by elaborate Confi-
teor sections. Perhaps it was a penitential exercise rather than notes for an
actual confession. Like the previous official, this man used conventional for-
mularies and adapted the sections pertinent to him. The result is a litany of
generic sins, mostly involving failures in chastity. The result was so vague
that the draft might have helped the penitent organize his sins, but a consci-
entious confessor would have wanted details on the exact nature of the sins
listed, in particular those of usury and theft.^135 The penitential self-discipline
of examination of conscience, and the need to prepare for confession, sug-
gested this kind of written exercise to the pious laity, especially with the
increased literacy of the late communal period. One fourteenth-century nun
wrote out her confession in a book of prayers and devotions.^136 Like the
government official, the sister used a formula, but this one was already in
vernacular. She adapted—omitting the many sins inapplicable to a nun—as
she went. She included sins of the five senses and the violations of her monas-
- ‘‘Descintomi a tavla per mangiare asai.... Abbo mangiato piu
che non estato bizogno, stom-
acho n’era gravato a ritenello.... Item, bevuto espesse volte intanto che fummi m’anno facto male, e la
lingua ingrossare, e dormire.’’ - ‘‘In immunditia, scurilita`, favellare, troppo usatomi.’’
- ‘‘Son porcino empiere la bocha d’ogni cosa nimis lauta.’’
- Josephus Maria Mucciolus,Catalogus Codicum Manuscriptorum Malatestinae Caesenatis Bibliothecae Fra-
trum Minorum Conventualium(Cesena: Blasinus, 1780 – 84 ), 1 : 66 , has (inaccurately) edited this text, which is
found in Cesena, Biblioteca Comunale Malatestiana,msD.xvi. 3 (earlyxivcent.), fol. 342 v. - Florence, Biblioteca Riccardiana,ms 1422(latexivcent.), fols. 143 v– 144 v, contains the confession.
The truncated confessional formula found in the more or less contemporary Florence, Biblioteca Riccar-
diana,ms 1316, fols. 22 r– 24 v, seems to represent her model, or one very close to it.