Robert of Flamborough, Liber poenitentialis
Studies and Texts 18. 1971. xxx, 364 pp. ISBN 978-0-88844-018-1 • $79.95
A critical edition of a manual of instruction for confessors is a useful instrument for research into the religious, moral and social climate of life in the Church. The Liber poenitentialis of Robert of Flamborough is particularly important in this regard. For it was through this work that the new, formal, “scientific” canon law, which had been developed during the eleventh and twelfth centuries, first became available to the ordinary confessor and so began to influence the consciences of individuals in a new, very effective way. The consequences of this will merit much study and investigation; it is hoped that the present edition will prove to be an aid for research of this kind.
Endorsements
“Early in the thirteenth century the Englishman Robert of Flamborough was canon-penitentiary at the abbey of Saint-Victor in Paris, where he heard confessions of clerics studying at the university. Richard Poore asked him to write a manual for the guidance of confessors. The resulting Liber poenitentialis (1208–1213) has until now remained unprinted except for brief citations and Schulte’s partial and scarce edition. In this critical edition, Father Firth’s painstaking examination of the manuscripts yields a text divided into five books, along with an analysis of textual variants. Book I treats requirements for a fruitful confession. Book II discusses marriage, while Book III concerns orders and includes a treatise on simony. Book IV explains the seven deadly sins and their concrete manifestations. Book V lists the traditional penances for specific sins, drawn from Bartholomew of Exeter and Ivo of Chartres. ... Writing shortly before the Fourth Lateran Council made confession obligatory, Robert stood in the vanguard of the movement to reform Christian life, and he composed one of the first examples of the genre of Summae Confessorum that soon included Raymond of Pennafort’s Summa de casibus. Firth’s handsome, careful, and well-documented edition will take its place among recent critical editions of such writers as Peter the Chanter, Alain of Lille, and Thomas of Chobham, and should stimulate further study of Robert’s use of sources and of his influence.” — Frederick H. Russell, Catholic Historical Review
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