A Source Book for Ancient Church History - Mirrors

689(d) Bede, Penitential, ch. XI. Haddan and Stubbs, Councils andEcclesiastical Documents, III, 32.The Penitential of Bede is to be distinguished from the Liberde Remediis Peccatorum attributed to him, cf. Haddan andStubbs, op. cit., who print the genuine penitential. It belongs tothe period before 725. In not a few points it closely resemblesthat of Theodore. The concluding passage here given is tobe found in many penitentials with but little variation. It isprobably as early as the work itself, although apparently notby Bede. It is a method of commuting penances. In placeof fasting inordinate or impossible lengths of time, otherpenances could be substituted. In later ages still other formsof commutation were introduced. Even money payments wereused as commutation of penance.XI. On Counsel to be Given.We read in the penitential of doing penance on bread andwater, for the great sins one year or two or three years, and forlittle sins a month or a week. Likewise in the case of somethe conditions are harsh and difficult. Therefore to him whocannot do these things we give the counsel that psalms, prayers,and almsgiving ought to be performed some days in penancefor these; that is, that psalms are for one day when he ought todo penance on bread and water. Therefore he should sing fiftypsalms on his knees, and if not on his knees seventy psalmsinside the church or in one place. For a week on bread and water,let him sing on his knees three hundred psalms in order and in thechurch or in one place. And for one month on bread and water,one thousand five hundred psalms kneeling, or if not kneelingone thousand eight hundred and twenty, and afterward let himfast every day until the sixth hour and abstain from flesh andwine; but whatsoever other food God has given him let him eat,after he has sung the psalms. And he who does not know psalms[630]