From Penitential Tariffs to Canons: the judicialization of confession in the process of subjectivation (c. 500-900)

• Grant number: 25/27115-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: April 01, 2026
• End date: March 31, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Ancient and Medieval History
• Principal Investigator: Neri de Barros Almeida
• Grantee: Arthur Rocha Martins Rodrigues Teixeira
• Supervisor: Ruth Mazo Karras
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
• Associated to the scholarship: 24/22187-0 - Spaces of Confession: Lust and the Construction of the Self in Monastic Communities of the 10th-12th Centuries, BP.DR

Abstract

This project is part of the doctoral research entitled "Spaces of Confession: lust and the construction of the subject in monastic communities of the 10th-12th centuries", which aims to analyze how confessional and penitential mechanisms operated in the constitution of subjects under ecclesiastical jurisdiction. The research stage abroad focuses on the 6th-9th centuries, when penitential practice emerged in the Irish monastic context and was later disseminated throughout continental Europe, especially in the Frankish territories. Direct access to manuscripts and documents preserved in European libraries and archives will be crucial to broaden and diversify the thesis's documentary corpus. The comparative analysis of penitentials, synodal resolutions, conciliar texts, and liturgical sources - especially missals recording confession and penance rituals - will make it possible to move beyond the linear interpretation that opposed public and private penance, revealing their coexistence and interdependence. The project seeks to demonstrate that penitential literature, in dialogue with conciliar norms and liturgical practices, was progressively transformed into a juridical instrument for the administration of sin, closely linked to the regulation of the body and sexuality. This approach sheds light on the process by which penance was formalized and integrated into the canonical collections of the 10th century, consolidating episcopal authority. By articulating the development of penitential practice (6th-9th centuries) and its juridical consolidation (11th-12th centuries), the project highlights how the judicialization of penance was decisive in shaping juridical and moral subjects regulated by an ecclesiastical system of justice. (AU)