Satisfação: penitências no Portugal dos séculos XIV e XV

Abstract

With the institutionalization of auricular confession, promulgated by the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 and reinforced in the Iberian Peninsula by the Council of Valladolid of 1322, the production of written or translated pastoral works into the vernacular language became increasingly recurrent, meant to teach and prescribe models of behavior based on the main rudiments of the Christian faith, above all, with the purpose of helping the soul shepherds to guide their penitents in the correct examination of conscience, so that they could conveniently receive the sacrament of penance. Among the varied prescriptions, the admonitions regarding the forms of absolution or reparation for maleficence are accentuated. The so-called satisfaction or penance, the third penitential act, sometimes refers to painful experiences of redemption from sins, that is, to the continuous effort to repair the negative consequences of the sin committed against God, against others and against oneself. In this way, this article aims to answer, in the period in which the practice of confession becomes one of the main objects of theological and pastoral literature – as a result of the institutionalization of auricular confession - what motivated the practice of satisfaction, as well as presenting the typologies of penance and their relationships, such as the most recurrent satisfactory amendments – contrition, shame, humility, almsgiving, forgiveness and fasting – based on pastoral treaties written or translated into Portuguese between the 14th and 15th centuries.