Late Old English Handbook for the Use of a Confessor
Audience
priests
Language
Old English, some medieval Latin
Date
early 11th century
Principal manuscript(s)
CCCC MS 201 and Cotton MS Tiberius A III
Genre
compilation of penitential texts
Handbook for a Confessor (also Old English Handbook, or in full, Late Old English Handbook for the Use of a Confessor) is a compilation of Old English and Latin penitential texts associated with – and possibly authored or adapted by – Wulfstan (II), Archbishop of York (d. 1023).[1] The handbook was intended for the use of parish priests in hearing confession and determining penances. Its transmission in the manuscripts (see below) seems to bear witness to Wulfstan's profound concern with these sacraments and their regulation, an impression which is similarly borne out by his Canons of Edgar, a guide of ecclesiastical law also targeted at priests. The handbook is a derivative work, based largely on earlier vernacular representatives of the penitential genre such as the Scrifboc (or Confessionale Pseudo-Ecgberhti) and the Old English Penitential (or Paenitentiale Pseudo-Ecgberhti).[2] Nevertheless, a unique quality seems to lie in the more or less systematic way it seeks to integrate various points of concern, including the proper formulae for confession and instructions on the administration of confession, the prescription of penances and their commutation.[3]
^Wormald, “Archbishop Wulfstan.” p. 10; Heyworth, “Handbook.” pp. 221-2.
^Fowler, “Handbook.” pp. 12-3; Heyworth, “Handbook.” p. 221.
^Fowler, “Handbook.” p. 12.
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