Sex and the Penitentials ; The Development of a Sexual Code 550-1150

232 Pages·1984·17.976 MB·English

by  Pierre J. Payer

Sex and the Penitentials:
The Development of a Sexual Code
550-1150

SEX
and the
Penitentials
The Development of
a Sexual Code
550-1150
J.
PIERRE PA YER
University of Toronto Press
Toronto Buffalo London
© University of Toronto Press 1984
Toronto Buffalo London
Printed in Canada
Reprinted in 2018
ISBN 978-1-4875-8074-2 (paper)
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Payer, Pierre J., 1936-
Sex and the penitentials
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
ISBN o-8o20-5649-o
1. Penitentials. 2. Sex - Religious aspects -
Christianity. 1. Title.
ex1939.P45P39 1984 241' .66 c84-098883-4
Sections of the introduction have appeared previously in
P. Payer 'Penance and Penitentials,' in Dictionary of the
Middle Ages ed Joseph R. Strayer, copyright © 1983
Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, and are used and
reprinted with the permission of the publisher.
This book has been published with the help of a grant
from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities, using
funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities
Research Council of Canada, and a grant from the Andrew
W. Mellon Foundation to the University of Toronto Press.
Contents
Acknowledgments / vii
Abbreviations/ ix
Introduction / 3
The Penitentials I 7
Choice of Early Penitentials I 10
Methodological Observations I 12
The Penitentials: Additional Remarks I 15
1 The Penitentials to 813 / 19
The Heterosexual Life of the Married I 19
The Heterosexual Life of the Unmarried I 36
Homosexuality and Lesbianism I 40
Bestiality I 44
Masturbation I 46
Safeguards of Chastity I 47
Seminal Emission I 49
2 The Ninth Century I 55
The Reception of the Penitentials I 55
Ninth-Century Penitentials in the Traditional Style I 59
Penitentials in a New Key I 62
vi Contents
3 Penitential Texts in Canonical Collections after 9o6 / 72
The Collections I 72
Penitential Texts in Some Canonical Collections I 88
4 General Conclusion / 115
Appendixes
A: General Areas of Sexual Behaviour Covered in the Penitentials/ 125
B: Periods of Sexual Abstinence / 127
c: Penances as Measures of Gravity/ 129
o: Homosexuality and the Penitentials/ 135
E: Notes on the Language of the Penitentials / 140
Notes/ 155
Bibliography / 191
Tables of Reference / 205
General Index/ 215
Acknowledgments
This book would not have been possible without the help of a number
of people whose generous assistance l welcome the opportunity to
acknowledge. For information about the penitentials and ongoing re-
search in their regard I am grateful to Franz B. Asbach, Allen J. Frantzen,
and Franz Kerff, and to Raymond Kottje, who graciously responded to
my many epistolary queries. I owe a special debt of thanks to Leonard E.
Boyle, Michael Sheehan, and Roger Reynolds for helpful conversations
and for invaluable comments on earlier stages of the manuscript. I should
like to thank the Rev. D.A. Finlay for making the resources of the library
of the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies available to me.
Readers' comments solicited by the University of Toronto Press and
the Canadian Federation for the Humanities were insightful and most
helpful. I am grateful to Mount Saint Vincent University and to the
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for the finan-
cial assistance to bring this study to completion.

Abbreviations
GENERAL
AkK Archiv fur katholisches Kirchenrecht
Bieler L. Bieler The Irish Penitentials
CC.CM Corpus christianorum. Continuatio mediaevalis
CCSL Corpus christianorum series latina
CSEL Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum latinorum
DACL Dictionnaire d' archeologie chretienne et de liturgie
DDC Dictionnaire de droit canonique
DTC Dictionnaire de theologie catholique
Finst P. W. Finsterwalder Die Canones Theodori Cantu-
ariensis und ihre iiberlieferungsformen
De Clercq 1 C. De Clercq La legislation religieuse franque de
Clovis a Charlemagne
De Clercq 2 C. De Clercq La legislation religieuse franque Vol 2
De Louis le Pieux a la fin du 1x siecle
MGH Capitularia 1 Capitularia regum francorum MGH Legum sectio 2,
volt
MGH Capitularia 2 Capitularia regum francorum MGH Legum sectio 2,
vol2
MGH Concilia 1 Concilia aevi Karolini 1. MGH Legum sectio 3,
part l
MGH Concilia 2 Concilia aevi Karolini 1, part 2. MGH Legum sectio
3, part 2
MHP J.T. McNeill and H.M. Gamer Medieval Hand-
books of Penance
x Abbreviations
Mansi J.D. Mansi Sacrorum conciliorum nova et amplis-
sima collectio
NRHDFE Nouvelle revue historique de droit fran9ais et etranger
PL Patrologia latina, ed J.P. Migne
RDC Revue de droit canonique
RHE Revue d'histoire ecclesiastique
RHLR Revue d'histoire et de litterature religieuses
St H.J. Schmitz Die Bussbilcher und die Bussdisciplin
der Kirche
H.J. Schmitz Die Bussbilcher und das kanonische
Bussverfahren
w H. Wasserschleben Die Bussordnungen der abend-
liindischen Kirche
Wasserschleben Regino of Prum: H. Wasserschleben Reginonis
abbatis Prumiensis
ZSavRG.KA Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung fur Rechtsgeschichte.
Kan Abt
PENITENTIALS
The following are the conventional English or Latin titles to be used most
frequently in this study and the corresponding editions used for each
work, as listed in the Bibliography.
Bede-Egbert (Albers) B. Albers 'Wann sind die Beda-Egbert' schen
Bussbilcher verfasst worden?' 399-418
Bede-Egbert Double
Penitential
Buchard of Worms
s
Decretum 19.5 2.409-52
s
Burgundian Penitential 2.320-2
Canons of Theodore U Finst 285-334 (and see page 157, n 18)
s
Capitula iudiciorum 2.217-51
Excarpsus of Cummean s. 2.597-644
s
Halitgar 6 2.290-300
Merseburg Penitential S 2.358-68
Penitential of Bede W 220-30