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The Hand of Forgiveness

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Medieval Considerations of Incest, Marriage, and Penance

Part of the book series: The New Middle Ages ((TNMA))

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Abstract

Starting with depictions of rituals associated with penance as illustrated in such works as La Fille du Comte de Ponthieu and La Manekine, this chapter considers the subtle changes in attitudes toward contrition, clerical absolution, and penitential acts described by theologians and canonists, and reflected in medieval poems such as Li Contes del graal, La Vie de Saint Gilles, Li Chevalier au barisel, and Le Dit du buef, among others. There remains a need even in the modern age for some kind of public avowal of oneʼs moral failings, serving as a kind of secular penance. The modern public televised admissions of failings by political figures who acknowledge their transgressions (often of a sexual nature) and beg for their constituentsʼ pardon reenact the purifying humiliation of public penance.

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  1. The University of Toledo, Toledo, OH, USA

    Linda Marie Rouillard

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Rouillard, L.M. (2020). The Hand of Forgiveness. In: Medieval Considerations of Incest, Marriage, and Penance. The New Middle Ages. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35602-6_5

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