“ PENITENTIAL (Lat poenitentiale, libellus poenitentialis, &c) , a manual used by priests of the Catholic Church for guidance in assigning the penance due to sins. Such manuals played a large role in the early middle ages, particularly in Ireland, England and Frankland, and their influence in the moral education of the barbarian races has not received sufficient attention from historians. They were mainly composed of canons drawn from various councils and of dicta from writings of some of the fathers. ”

“ Three things tended to develop these rules into something like a system of penitential law. These were the development of auricular confession and private penance; the extension of the penitential jurisdiction among the clergy owing to the growth of a parochial priesthood; and the necessity of adapting the penance to the primitive ideas of law prevailing among the newly converted barbarians, especially the idea of compensation by the wergild In Ireland in the middle of the 5th century appeared the “canons of St Patrick.” ”

“ Disciplinary regulations in Christian communities are referred to from the very borders of the apostolic age, and a system of careful oversight of those admitted to the mysteries developed steadily as the membership grew and dangers of contamination with the outside world increased. ”