The Irish Penitentials and Their Significance for the Sacrament of Penance Today by Hugh Connolly

Abstract

BOOK REVIEWS 477 communicating Queen Elizabeth, a controversial act about which the author brooks no debate. The current revisionist (and pro-Catholic) reading ofthe English Reformation, led by Eamon Duffy, Christopher Haigh, andJ. J. Scarisbrick, is not mentioned. Cardinal Newman's Second Spring—an admission that the Oxford Movement could not work—is never cited, although Catholic revivals in several countries besides England are given honorable mention. What is worse is the author's inability to resist the occasional irreverent remark , as when he mentions "mating calls"being emitted by cardinals at one conclave (p. 109), and the comment that Cardinal Spellman "owed [Sr. Pasqualina] more favors than we may ever know" (p. 258). This tendency is unfortunate and mars what should have been a helpful book. JohnVidmar, O.P Dominican House ofStudies Washington, D.C. The Irish Penitentials and Their Significance for the Sacrament ofPenance Today. By Hugh Connolly. (Blackrock, Co. Dublin: Four Courts Press. Distributed by International Specialized Book Services, Inc., 5804 N.E. Hassalo Street, Portland, OR 97213-3644. 1995. Pp. xii,256. $45.00.) In five chapters Father Connolly makes his case for the contemporary relevance and significance of the ancient Irish handbooks of penance. After placing the penitentials in their cultural and historical context he undertakes a lengthy textual analysis of the works from the point of view of one of their central organizing principles—the eight capital sins that were inherited from John Cassian (gluttony, avarice, anger, dejection, lust, languor, vainglory, and pride). The fourth chapter reads the penitentials through the perspective and within the framework afforded by the Ordopaenitentiae of the modern Irish Church. He puts it somewhat differently, "an analysis of the sacrament of penance and its parts passed through the filter, as it were, of Celtic penitential theology" (p. 124). Here he shows that the conception and spirit of penance and confession evidenced in the traditional elements of contrition (of heart), confession (by mouth),and satisfaction (through works) are reflected in the penitentials. In the final chapter Connolly takes a broad, interpretative approach to the symbolism of the penitentials through a discussion of three models of penance that run through the texts—the judicial model, the medical model of disease and healing , and the pilgrimage model. The penitentials appeared in Western Europe when the harsh system ofnonrepeatable public penance was waning, to be replaced with repeatable, private penance or confession. It is likely that they both encouraged and facilitated the transition to the more humane system, and it is certain that they set the tone and content for confessional manuals for at least five hundred years (up to the twelfth century). It is ironic that Connolly's book would appear now, at a time 478 BOOK REVIEWS when repeatable, private penance is tending to give way to public, communal penance in many quarters ofthe Roman Church. However ironic it may be, I believe that the author succeeds in showing that the pivotal period of the Irish penitentials has some valuable lessons for the present pivotal period in the history of the development of the sacrament of penance. He demonstrates an insightful reading of the texts and an imaginative interpretation of their (of course limited) contemporary significance. Having said this, I must add that it is disappointing to read a book published in 1995 that shows such little awareness of the careful work that is being done on the textual history of the penitentials. None of the works of the leading scholar in this field (Professor Raymund Kottje) are even listed in the bibliography . Connolly's book is not the book to read if one wants to gain any critical, historical knowledge of the penitentials, Irish or otherwise. It is, however, a reflective , insightful meditation on the theology of the penitentials, and a perceptive guide to their limited significance for today. Pierre J. Payer Mount Saint Vincent University Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada Stratégie Missionnaire du Saint-Siège sous Léon XIII (1878-1903)- Centralisation romaine et défis culturels. By Claude Prudhomme. [Collection de l'École Française de Rome, 186.] (Rome: École Française de Rome, Palais Farnèse. 1994. Pp. iv,621. Paperback.) This very long and detailed...