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The close links between confession, penance, and extreme unction may warrant discussing these topics together in a single chapter of a book on medieval canon law. For most of the Middle Ages, penance and canon law were closely related and at times even virtually indistinguishable, as the first section of this chapter will explain. This was so even though penance could take many different forms and shapes, ranging from very informal acts of penance more or less fueled by feelings of contrition, on the one hand, to disciplinary penances, which were formally imposed by priests, bishops, and ecclesiastical or even secular courts, on the other, as the second section of this chapter will argue. Confession, moreover, served from very early on as an intrinsic part of the rituals that prepared a Christian for his or her last voyage: the rites of extreme unction. The final part of this chapter will deal with the development of these last rites into a more or less defined liturgical ritual as it emerged in the Carolingian age and lasted through the centuries.
Canon law touched nearly every aspect of medieval society, including many issues we now think of as purely secular. It regulated marriages, oaths, usury, sorcery, heresy, university life, penance, just war, court procedure, and Christian relations with religious minorities. Canon law also regulated the clergy and the Church, one of the most important institutions in the Middle Ages. This Cambridge History offers a comprehensive survey of canon law, both chronologically and thematically. Written by an international team of scholars, it explores, in non-technical language, how it operated in the daily life of people and in the great political events of the time. The volume demonstrates that medieval canon law holds a unique position in the legal history of Europe. Indeed, the influence of medieval canon law, which was at the forefront of introducing and defining concepts such as 'equity,' 'rationality,' 'office,' and 'positive law,' has been enormous, long-lasting, and remarkably diverse.
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