Authors: Dyan Elliott
48
For William of Auvergne’s analogy of the priest as midwife, see
Tractatus novus de poenitentia
c. 16, in
Opera omnia
(Paris: A. Pralard, 1674; reprint, Frankfurt am Main: Minerva, 1963), 1:591 (cf. chap. 5, pp. 227–28, below); as a doctor,
see
De sacramento poenitentiae
c. 2, ibid., 1:457; for the image of vomiting, see ibid., 1:465, 487. The
Tractatus novus de poenitentiae
was written ca. 1223, while
De sacramento poenitentiae
was written ca. 1228. Cf. Bériou, “Confession,” pp. 268–69, 271–72. On William’s contribution to the significance of the sacerdotal
blessing and the distinction between attrition and contrition, see Paul Anciaux, “Le sacrement de pénitence chez Guillaume
d’Auvergne,”
Ephemerides Theologiae Lovaniensis
24 (1948): 98–118. On William in general, see Noeïl Valois,
Guillaume d
’
Auvergne, ev ê
que de Paris (1228
–
1249): sa vie et
ses ouvrages
(Paris: Alphonse Picard, 1880).
49
William of Auvergne,
De sacramento poenitentiae
c. 3, in
Opera
, 1:460–61; cf.
Tractatus
novus de poenitentiae
, where he outlines a similar plan (c. 1, in
Opera
, 1:571). Also see Bériou, “Confession,” pp. 275–76.
50
William of Auvergne,
De sacramentis
c. 3, in
Opera
, 1:461; cf. 486.
51
Ibid. c. 2, in
Opera
, 1:458.
52
See Bériou, “Confession,” pp. 275–76; cf. Aquinas’s affirmative answer to the question of whether a priest should believe
a parishioner who claims to have confessed to another, which turns on a careful distinction between the two fora (quodlib.
1, q. 6, art. 3 [12], in
Opera omnia
, 25,2:192–93).
53
William of Auvergne,
De sacramentis
c. 2, in
Opera
, 1:459.
54
Cf. Bériou, “Confession,” pp. 276–77.
55
William of Auvergne,
De sacramento poenitentiae
c. 1, in
Opera
, 1:453. Cf. his commendation of self-abandonment to the judgment and torture by another (
De sacramento poenitentiae
c. 3, in
Opera
, 1:461).
56
Cazenave, “Aveu,” p. 337.
57
On Raymond’s career, see Amédée Teetaert, “La doctrine pénitentielle de Saint Raymond de Penyafort, O.P.,”
Analecta Sacra Tarraconensia
5 (1929): 139 ff. Documents pertaining to his lifeand writings have been printed in
Raymundiana
, and in JoséRuis Serra, ed.,
San Raimundo de
Penyafort: Diplomatorio
(Barcelona: Universidad de Barcelona, Facultad de Derecho, 1954). Also see the prologue by Manuel J. Pela è ez and JoséCalvo
in Gonza è lez Fernando Valls Taberner, ed.,
Literatura Jur
i è
dica: Estudios de ciencia jur
i è
da e historia del pensamiento cano
è
nica y politico
catala
è
n, franca
è
n e italiano
(Barcelona: Promociones Publicaciones Universitarias, 1986).
58
On his entrance into the Dominicans, see
Raymundiana
, fasc. 6, 2, pp. 7–8.
59
On Raymond’s resistance, see contemporary accounts by Humbert of Romans, John Colonna, and Nicholas Trevet (
Raymundiana
, fasc. 6, 1, pp. 2, 6, 8). Peter Marsilio, writing in the late thirteenth century, and Raymond’s anonymous vita mention the
papal excommunication (ibid., pp. 13, 24).
60
As master general, he redacted the Dominicans’ constitutions, which were basically in use until the present century. A number
of these revised ordinances pay special attention to sacramental confession within the community (Taberner,
Literatura Jur
i è
dica
1.14, p. 543; 1.18, p. 547; 1.20, p. 549).
61
For Raymond’s commission, see
Raymundiana
, fasc. 6, 2, pp. 23–24. Also see Stephen Kuttner, “Raymond of Peñafort as Editor: the ‘Decretales’ and ‘Constitutiones’ of
Gregory IX,”
Bulletin of Medieval Canon Law
, n.s., 12 (1982): 65–80; and Pela è ez and Calvo’s prologue in Taberner,
Literatura Jur
i è
dica
, pp. 83–87.
62
See Amédée Teetaert, “La
Summa de poenitentia
de Saint Raymond de Penyafort,”
Ephemerides
Theologiae Lovaniensis
5 (1928): 60–62; Michaud-Quantin,
Sommes de casuistique
, pp. 34–42. The very contours of Raymond’s manual were an essential impetus to the casuistic inquiries of Dominican theologians
like Aquinas (Leonard Boyle,
The Setting of the
“
Summa Theologicae
”
of Saint Thomas
, Etienne Gilson series, 5 [Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1982], p. 6). Peter Marsilio claims that
Aquinas wrote his
Summa against the Gentiles
at Raymond’s request (
Raymundiana
, fasc. 6, 1, p. 12).
63
Raymond of Peñafort,
Summa de poenitentia
, preface, p. 1. On Raymond’s introduction of the penitential forum, see Michaud-Quantin,
Sommes de casuistique
, p. 37; idem, “A propros des premi[egrave]res
Summae confessorum
,”
Recherches de th
è
ologie ancienne et m
è
di
è
vale
26 (1959): 305.
64
Raymond of Peñafort,
Summa de poenitentiae
3.34.28, pp. 462–63. The excerpt is from Gratian,
de poen
. Dist. 6 c. 1.
65 “Quis, quid, ubi, per quos, quoties, cur, quomodo, quando / Quilibet obseruet, animae medicamina dando,”
Summa de poenitentia
3.34.29, p. 463. Note that the earliest
summae
, written around the time of Lateran IV, anticipate Raymond’s use of interrogation. See Michaud-Quantin,
Sommes des casuistique
, pp. 21–24. Alan of Lille has a parallel verse: “quis, quid, ubi, quibus auxiliis, cur, quomodo, quando” (
Liber poenitentialis
bk. 1, prol., p. 15; cf. the section on the priest’s interrogatories, 1.4, pp. 26–27). As Alan’s editor, Long[egrave]re, points
out, this line of inquiry is ultimately derived from Burchard of Worms’s
Decretum
20.8,
PL
140, cols. 979–80.
66
See his discussion of the inquisitional process in the context of criminous clerics in
Summa
de poenitentia
3.31.2–5, pp. 364–67.
67
Raymond consolidated the important decrees on inquisitional procedure instituted by Innocent III and his successors. See
n. 40, above; and Célestin Douais,
L
’
Inquisition: ses origines
—
sa
proc
è
dure
(Paris: Librairie Plon, 1906), pp. 6 ff.
68
Cf. an anonymous English manual (ca. 1400) intended for a penitent preparing him-or her-self for confession, concluding with
a section
De inquisitionibus
(
Tractus breuis: penitentibus
tamen utilis. de modo confessionis. ac et inquisitionibus faciendis de peccatis
, Bodleian MS 555, fols. 110r ff.).
69
For competing theories on the origins of the inquisition, see Douais,
L
’
Inquisition
, pp. 18 ff. Gregory IX’s decretal
Ille humani generis
(1232), addressed to the Dominicans at Regensberg regarding the organization of (translated in
Heresy and Authority
in Medieval Europe
, ed. Edward Peters [Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1980], pp. 196–98). Note, however, that the term “inquisition”
does not signify a coherent, freestanding institution, since tribunals were organized on a local level. See the introduction,
n. 1, above.
70
This is not immediately apparent in his assemblage of the
Decretals
. Title 7 of book 5,
On
Heretics
, contains recent papal sanctions levied against heretics but does not associate the method of their persecution with the
inquisitional procedure. Similarly, the section treating heretics in his confessors’ manual is preoccupied with enunciating
punishments (Raymond of Peñafort,
Summa
de poenitentia
1.5, esp. c. 1–9, pp. 38–44).
71
For an overview of his activities, see Taberner,
Literatura Jur
i è
dica
, pp. 111–17.
72
For instance, the question is raised of whether a person should continue to speak or cohabit with a heretical spouse (
Raymundiana
, fasc. 6, 2, pp. 32–33). Cf. his consultation of 1235 with the archbishop of Tarragona, where he discusses the question of
heretical spouses again (ibid.,fasc. 6, 2, p. 42).
73
See ibid., fasc. 6, 1, p. 12. Peter Marsilio was also an intimate counselor of the king, which further endorses his report.
For Gregory’s bull to the archbishop of Tarragona, see ibid., fasc. 6, 2, pp. 14–16, and pp. 16–17, n. 2. King James’s constitutional
initiatives against heresy are reproduced in ibid., fasc. 6, 2, pp. 39–40 n. 2. Also see Célestin Douais, “Saint Raymond
de Peñafort et les hérétiques: Directoire a` l’usage des inquisiteurs aragonais, 1242,”
Le Moyen Age
12 (1899): 313.
74
See Raymond’s anonymous life, in
Raymundiana
, fasc. 6, 1, p. 24. The bishop in question was removed from office in 1237, however (ibid., fasc. 6, 2, pp. 61–62).
75
See ibid., fasc. 6, 2, pp. 41–44. He already presumes the possible presence of an “Inquisitor a Sede Apostolica constitutus”
(p. 42).
76
Raymond of Peñafort, “Directoire [agrave] l’usage des inquisiteurs aragonais,” in Douais,
L
’
Inquisition
, pp. 275–88. This was first edited by Douais in his “Saint Raymond de Peñafort et les hérétiques,” pp. 315–25. Although this
document does not circulate under Raymond’s name, the preface states very clearly that it was the result of conversations
with him (ibid., p. 312); also see Douais’s historical notes in ibid., pp. 305–6, 312–15. Cf. Antoine Dondaine, “Le manuel
de l’ inquisiteur(1230–1330),”
AFP
17 (1947): 96–97; Cazenave, “Aveu,” see p. 337; Edward Peters,
Inquisition
(Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1989), pp. 63, 76. The protomanual is included under the Council
of Tarragona for 1242, in Mansi, vol. 23, cols. 553–58. See Peters’s translation in
Heresy and Authority
, pp. 198–99.
77
Cazenave, “Aveu,” esp. pp. 333, 335, 337, 347.
78
Raymundiana
, fasc. 6, 2, p. 43. Note that this was a relatively generous reading from the perspective of the incriminated penitent. The
Council of Narbonne of 1243 (or possibly 1244) says tentatively that a confessor should not be believed with regard to the
absolution from penance of either the dead or the living. The council deferred to the pope on this difficult question, however,
and claimed to be awaiting his response (see Mansi, vol. 23, col. 363, c. 28; note that the incorrect date of 1233 appears).
79
“Directoire,” in Douais,
L
’
Inquisition
, p. 279.
80
Ibid., p. 284. See Gy’s “Le précepte . . . et la détection,” pp. 446 ff.
81
Raymond compiled this work in case “some brothers of our order, or others, were in doubt about the judgment of souls in the
penitential forum,”
Summa de poenitentia
, preface, p. 1.
82
Ibid. 3.34.59, pp. 489–90; cf. Lat. IV, c. 21, Tanner, 1: 245. As noted above, Raymond included this canon in the
Decretals
(X.5.38.12). But he leads off with the warning of Gregory the Great as transcribed by Gratian (
de poen
. Dist. 6 c. 2) that a priest revealing a confession would be deposed and relegated to a life of ignominious wandering.
83
Raymond of Peñafort,
Summa de poenitentia
3.34.60, pp. 490–91. This contradicts Raymond’s general view that one should not denounce someone for a hidden crime already
committed (ibid., 1.9.3, pp. 89 ff.).
84
Ibid. 3.34.60, pp. 490–91.
85
Ibid. 1.5.10, p. 44.
86
This initiative was taken at the Council of Tarragona of 1279. It was not acted on until the fourteenth century, however.
See the process of 1318 and 1321 in Serra,
San Raimundo de Penyafort
, pp. 205–65.
87
Raymundiana
, fasc. 6, 1, p. 24. Under the rubric “De disciplinis et afflictione corporis,” however, there is only one feeble sentence,
Raymundiana
, fasc. 6, 1, p. 30.
88
Ibid., p. 23.
89
Ibid., pp. 22, 23.
90
Ibid., pp. 25–26. Appended to this miracle, within the hagiographal text itself, moreover, is a legal probate of the miracle
by two priests.
91
Stephen of Salagnac’s account is preserved amid the documents collected for Raymund’s canonization (ibid., fasc. 6, 2, pp.
75–76).
92
Gui’s account is an excerpt from his
De tribus gradibus prelatorum
, written between 1300 and 1304, in
Raymundiana
, fasc. 6, 1, p. 9; also see n. 1. He apparently had access to Stephen of Salagnac’s account (see ibid., fasc. 6, 2, p. 76
n. 1). Note the interesting Latinization of Raymund’s place of origin as “Poena forti” or “Strong Punishment” in Gui’s life
of Gregory IX (
RIS
, 3,1:571).
93
The life does, however, mention his zeal in converting Jews and Saracens (
Raymundiana
, fasc. 6, 1, pp. 31–32).
94
For efforts toward Raymond’s canonization, see AndréVauchez,
Sainthood in the Later Middle
Ages
, trans. Jean Birrell (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), pp. 81–82; idem,
BS
, vol. 11, col. 22. See Michael Goodich’s “The Politics of Canonization in the Thirteenth Century: Lay and Mendicant Saints,”
in
Saints and Their Cults
, ed. Stephen Wilson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), p. 79.