Old Polish and Spanish Penitentials as a Source of Knowledge on Folk-paganism in a Christian Society
Old Polish and Spanish Penitentials as a Source of Knowledge on Folk-paganism in a Christian Society

Summary/Abstract: Some interesting conclusions on folk-paganism are drawn here from a comparison of 16th, 17th and 18th-century confessional handbooks (libri poenitentiales) originating in the Iberian Peninsula and Polish Commonwealth. Four penitentials which include large lists of sins and the penances prescribed for them are the main object of comparison: the 13th-century Latin work Summa de confessionis discretione by Brother Rudolf, the penitential from 1633 Instrución de confesores, como han de administrar el Sacramento de la Penitencia by Spanish Jesuit Antonio Fernandez de Cordoba, El fuero de la conciencia by Valentín de la Madre de Dios from 1704, and the Polish penitential from 1753 entitled Kolęda duchowna parafianom od pasterzów [The Pastoral Visit] authored by Marcin Józef Nowakowski. It proved that the structure and contents of the analysed texts are very similar and remained practically unchanged: despite the lapse of time they continued to play the same role.

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