296 BuoniCattolici
in the garden. ‘‘Sir,’’ said the peasant, ‘‘I want to go to confession.’’ ‘‘When
did you last go,’’ asked the priest. ‘‘At Easter,’’ came the reply. ‘‘Well then,’’
said the priest, ‘‘put something in the alms box and do the same penance
this year.’’^160
The pious laity probably drifted toward the mendicants in the late thir-
teenth century in part because confessors were more available and coopera-
tive at Dominican and Franciscan monasteries. Margherita of Citta` di
Castello went to services daily at the Dominican church, where she could
find a priest to hear her daily confession.^161 Did these clerics favor frequent
devotional confession? The master of the Dominican order Humbert of Ro-
mans spoke for them when he directed that a confessor should ‘‘dissuade
those who want to confess frequently from such excessive and nearly worth-
less repetition; let him assign them a time to confess and refuse to hear
them otherwise. Nor should he make himself available to them for other
conversation, and let him always use hard and strict words with them rather
than mild ones.’’^162 Humbert’s words resonated with parish priests facing
the growing lay demand for devotional confessions. The secular clergy were
probably happy to see such people go to the mendicants, unless there was a
risk of losing donations.^163
The devout who might confess often, even weekly, were certainly a minor-
ity among the Catholics of the Italian cities. More commonly, confession
was the first step to reception of sacramental Communion. This was, no
doubt, the role it played in most people’s piety. Confession was obligatory
before every sacramental Communion.^164 Even the clergy, many of whom
celebrated Mass daily, were expected to confess all ‘‘major’’ sins before doing
so.^165 This rule applied to bishops, too, as the preacher Bartolomeo of Bra-
ganze reminded his hearers.^166 When Vito of Cortona remarked of Umiliana
dei Cerchi that she only went to Communion after confessing her sins, he
was reporting nothing extraordinary. It was the regularity of her Commu-
nions that was remarkable.^167 Miracles could make observance of the rule
possible. Imiglia di fu Benencasa of Monte Molino could not go to Commu-
- Ibid., 93 ,p. 875 : ‘‘Qui conta d’uno villano che s’ando
a confessare. Uno villano se andoaun
giorno a confessare. E pigliode l’acqua benedetta, e vide il prete che lavorava nel colto. Chiamollo, e disse:—Sere, io mi vorrei confessare.—Rispouse il prete:—Confessastiti tu anno?—E que’ rispuose:—Sı.—Or metti un danaio nel colombaio, e a quella medesima ragione ti fo uguanno, ch’anno.’’
161 .Legenda B. Margaritae de Castello, 21 ,p. 125. - Humbert of Romans,De Officiis Ordinis,ed. J. Berthier, Opera de Vita Regulari (Rome: Befani,
1889 ), 46 , 2 : 368 : ‘‘frequenter volunt confiteri, temperet ab huiusmodi nimia et quasi inutili frequentati-
one, et certum tempus eis assignet ad confitendum, extra quod ipsas non audiat, nec in aliis collocutioni-
bus frequentibus se eis exponat umquam, et semper potius duris et rigidis verbis utatur ad eas quam
mollis.’’ On Humbert’s confessional theory, see ibid., pp. 479 – 81 , 360 – 69 , and Rusconi, ‘‘Francescani e
la confessione,’’ 294. - Milan Council ( 1287 ), 25 – 26 ,p. 880.
- Rusconi, ‘‘Francescani e la confessione,’’ 254.
- Novara Synodi( 1210 ), 29.
- Bartolomeo of Vicenza,Sermones de Beata Virgine ( 1266 ),Sermo 21. 2 ,p. 134.
- Vito of Cortona,Vita [B. Humilianae], 1. 5 ,p. 387.