Medieval Handbooks of Penance: A Translation of the Principal Libri Poenitentiales - Paperback

by John McNeill (Author), Helena Gamer (Author)

Guidelines for medieval clerics on how to assign appropriate penances for particular sins, in readable translations with detailed introductions.

Back Jacket

'Long understood to be crucial evidence for the nature of the early medieval church, ...[these penitential books] are now used by historians as telling evidence for sexuality, violence, the family, death rituals, witchcraft and other topics central to the so-called new social and cultural history. The readable translations and detailed introductions provided here for each document make the material easily accessible.'-Caroline Walker Bynum, Columbia University