Judge and doctor: images of the confessor in printed model sermon collections, 1450–1520*

Abstract

Penitence was a key feature of lay religious experience in late medieval Europe, and the criticisms of the Protestant reformers threw it into high relief in the sixteenth century. The justice of God, according to the preachers, demands that sins be punished. All the collections surveyed present the confessor as a judge as part of their call for a full confession. The confessor must respond to the individual failings of the penitent with the goal of making him or her fit for heaven. The confessor must respond to the individual failings of the penitent with the goal of making him or her fit for heaven. The doctor image is found on rare occasions in the rigorist sermon collections, and as was the case with the judicial image, a comparison of its usage illuminates the differences among groups of sermon collections. As historical sources, printed model sermon collections have the additional advantage of being relatively easy to locate geographically and chronologically.