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

(Darren Dugan) #1

Feasting,Fasting,andDoingPenance 295 


from Catholics by the rigor of the penances they imposed in confession.


Only a Cathar dualist despised confession and penance.


Statutes of lay confraternities invariably required far more confessions


than canon law required. As the thirteenth century progressed, the number


of confessions prescribed by confraternity statutes increased from two or


three a year to monthly or even twice monthly.^149 The Bologna flagellant


statutes of 1298 expected, at a minimum, monthly confession, but still re-


quired only the three traditional Communions a year—on Christmas, Eas-


ter, and Pentecost.^150 This combination of monthly confession with triannual


Communion became the norm by the 1290 s.^151 Was the clerical influence of


the mendicants pushing more frequent confession?^152 I think not. Indepen-


dent lay penitents, especially those outside the tutelage of the orders, show


some of the highest rates of confession. Giovanni Buono confessed to his


parish priest ‘‘daily, once, twice, or several times, as often as his conscience


bit him.’’^153 Lucchese of Pogibonsi confessed twice a week, shedding copious


tears as he pondered Christ’s death on the cross.^154 It was Umilta`of Faenza


who grilled a woman about a sin she had omitted from her general confes-


sion, not the priest who heard it.^155 After her death, Saint Benvenuta Bojani


appeared to a sinner in a dream and reminded him to go to confession.^156


Verdiana of Florence confessed at minimum once a week. She also desired


to receive Communion ‘‘often,’’ but never without confession.^157 This re-


minds us of a peculiarity of lay status: the laity needed a confessor’s permis-


sion to go to Communion; they could confess their sins as often as they liked.


To the pious laity, confession was not merely a penitential act; it was the


one moment when an ordinary person could hope to get spiritual advice or


direction—and demands for such guidance increased as the communal pe-


riod wore on.^158 The medieval Italian clergy, like their modern descendants,


found confessional practices like those of Giovanni Buono a nuisance. By the


fourteenth century, the confessor making light of a devout penitent’s desire


for confession had become a literary topos.^159 The story goes that a peasant


went to church one day for confession. He found the parish priest working



  1. De Sandre Gasparini, ‘‘Laici devoti,’’ 235 – 38.

  2. See the statutes edited by De Sandre Gasparini,Statuti, 3 – 7 , 10 – 59 ; see also her remarks, ibid.,
    234 – 35.

  3. See, e.g., ‘‘Chapitre de Pe ́nitents’’ (Umbria, 1290 ), 3 , Meersseman,Dossier, 177 ; ‘‘Statuti della
    Confraternita dei Servi di Dio e della S. Madre del Duomo’’ (Statuti D, 1298 ), 5 , De Sandre Gasparini,
    Statuti, 12.

  4. As suggested by De Sandre Gasparini, ‘‘Laici devoti,’’ 240 n. 84.
    153 .Processus... B. Joannis Boni, 3. 9. 240 bis,p. 832 : ‘‘confitebatur in die, semel, vel bis, vel pluries,
    secundum quod conscientia sua remordebat eum.’’
    154 .Vita Sancti Lucensis Confessoris, 454.

  5. Biagio of Faenza,Vita [S. Humilitatis Abbatissae], 3. 27 ,p. 213.

  6. Corrado of Cividale,Vita Devotissimae Benevenutae, 14. 105 ,p. 178.
    157 .Vita Sancte Viridiane, 9.

  7. As Muzzarelli,Penitenze, 34 , notes.

  8. E.g., the priest inNovellino, 87 , pp. 872 – 73.

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