Ebook: The Irish Penitentials

With an Appendix by D. A. Binchy.

The present edition of the Irish Penitentials has a limited aim: to put before the reader the basic documents relating to the administration of penance in Ireland during the early Middle Ages, and to bring together some material for their literal and historical interpretation. To do this is the first step towards that great desideratum — a fully documented history of penance in early Christian Ireland. The scholar best qualified to write on this subject, the Right Rev. Mgr. Gerard Mitchell, President of St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth, has unfortunately, under pressure of other work, been obliged to abandon the project of contributing to this volume an exposé of Irish penitential history which he had kindly promised. I myself have not been able to do more than give a brief analysis of each text, sketch the manuscript tradition of the Penitentials, and make some general comments on their Latinity.

All the texts of the present edition have been transcribed or collated from photos or microfilms of the original manuscripts; these reproductions have been consulted for the checking of details at every stage of my work. The correction of transcripts and proofs has been shared bravely and patiently by my wife, who has detected numerous errors that might otherwise have gone unnoticed.