Confession and the penalty of excommunication in ordanation of customs (Libro de las Confessions of Martín Pérez - XIV century)

• Grant number: 14/22635-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: April 01, 2015
• End date: December 31, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Ancient and Medieval History
• Principal Investigator: Susani Silveira Lemos Franca
• Grantee: Rodolfo Nogueira da Cruz
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Humanas e Sociais (FCHS). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Franca. Franca , SP, Brazil

Abstract

In the fourteenth century Castile, the growing concern about the misconduct of the clergy along with the growth of heresy led to a set of writings that sought to spread, among the ecclesiastical, precepts for a more orderly conduct, consistent with the Christian faith. At this point, auricular confession, which aimed, among other purposes, to stimulate a reflection on the conducts and errors, becomes an important tool for raising awareness in the faithful about the Salvation paths and deviations, ensuring that those were convinced about these. The confession, which was made mandatory and annual in 1215, becomes one of the links between the prelatures and the faithful, serving to lead to a ponderation over the trajectory of each individual and for the recognition of guilt for sins committed. The Libro de las Confesiones written by Martin Perez, dated around 1316, arises in this context with the aim of instructing a clergy sector that, from his point of view, by not mastering thorough knowledge, was ministering confession in order to make profits and satisfy personal interests, jeopardizing the principles of the Sacrament of Penance. Among the prescriptions aimed at the correction of Christians, those concerning ways to succeed in case of excommunication draw attention because, being excommunicated, the faithful was banished from the Christian community. The question to be raised concerns the relation between confession and excommunication and how these served as moralizing and defining instruments of beliefs and practices in Castile of the fourteenth century.