Transgressing the Boundaries of Holiness: Sexual Deviance in the Early Medieval Penitential Handbooks of Ireland, England and France 500-1000.

Abstract

The penitentials were handbooks for priests used in private confession throughout western Europe from the early sixth through the eleventh centuries composed of lists of sins and their corresponding recommended penances.Through the penitentials it is possible to gain a glimpse into the daily lives of early medieval people through the sins they confessed to and which were eventually included in the handbooks.This study will examine how the penitentials were used as teaching tools for the Christianization of sexual morality and as an apparatus for maintaining the separateness between the carnal and the spiritual necessary for the holy to coexist with the sexual.This study will take the form of a closer examination of smaller specific categories of deviance: the nocturnal emissions of clerics, sexual relations during menstruation and pregnancy, homosexuality, bestiality, incest, and adultery.What the penitentials have to say regarding each of these topics will be systematically analyzed for patterns both geographically and temporally as well as being placed within its medieval context.Penitentials Used in this Study' Penitential Collection of Early Welsh Synods Canons of St. Patrick Penitential of Finnian Penitential of Columban Penitential of Cummean Penitential of Theodore Canones Hibernenses Bigotian Penitential Collectio Canonum Hibernensis Burgundian Penitential Bobbio Penitential Clement Penitential Bede's Penitential Pseudo-Bede's Penitential Egbert's Penitential Paris Penitential Fleury Penitential Old Irish Penitential Tripartite Penitential of St. Gall Pseudo

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