Abstract

Scholars have long recognized the value of penitentials, or handbooks of penance, as sources for the intellectual and social history of the Middle Ages. Lists of sins likely to be confessed, followed by penances graded according to the severity of the offenses, the penitentials would seem to be richly informative of medieval morality. But they are evidence that must be used with care. Especially for the early medieval period, the texts are available only in old editions which do not offer reliable guides to dating, provenance, authorship, or other criteria without which valid historical analysis is impossible