Confession slip

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Since the Council of Trent (1545–1563), a confession slip ( Schedula confessionis ) has been used in Catholicism to refer to the certificate of confession made by the confessor .

Specification for confession slip 1792
Mathias Schmidt: Delivery of the confession slip , etching, Die Gartenlaube , 1874

history

The confession sheet as a political and religious control instrument played an important role , especially from the Counter Reformation onwards . Since the recatholicization did not take place without coercion, adherence to the Church bid had "The church member shall at least once a year, preferably in the Easter season, received the sacrament of penance." Be verifiable. This was done by issuing confession slips by trustworthy clergymen (mostly Dominicans and Franciscans ).

Confession slip from Perchtoldsdorf . The lower part is perforated and therefore separable

In practice, after confession in Easter time, the priest presented the confessor with a picture with a Latin text on the reverse side, which has been in the local language since the middle of the 19th century, as evidence of the confession. As soon as Lent was over, the parishes began collecting confessional notes, or “soul descriptions,” in which a trusted clergyman walked the streets and checked the households. So he always collected a detachable section as evidence. In this course he was presented with smaller amounts of money (“confession cruisers”, “confession pennies”, “confessional eggs”) or in kind .

In some cities in Bohemia , in the course of the church restoration, the confessional slips were then handed over to the respective city ​​governor by the Jesuits and Capuchins in order to be able to exclude the Reformed from trade and commerce. However, other Reformed people managed to deceive the commissions by buying confessional slips.

Confession slip from the parish of Deutschlandsberg 1880 (original size approx. 32 × 72 mm)

However, during the 17th century in Bohemia and the New Town of Prague, the illegal and rampant trade in confession slips by some clergymen proved to be a lucrative business, which went far beyond the usual delivery of the Easter egg in the Alpine region and therefore the church and state with high fines tried to prevent up to 10 percent of the property. In 1631, in one case, the death penalty was pronounced against a Catholic clergyman in Prague who had allowed Reformed people to deceive with confessional slips sold on a large scale. Like the town pastor, they were sentenced to death.

In France there were violent conflicts over the trade in confession slips in the dispute with Jansenism . Travelers of the early 19th century complained in their reports about the deplorable trade in confessional slips in Spain , which even prostitutes would do there.

Against the even subliminal trade in confession slips in connection with confession cruisers and confessional pennies, a counter-movement developed in the middle of the 19th century, both in the Catholic lay movement and among theologians , who argued simply with the words of the Synod of Trier of 1549: “For the dispensing The pastor should ask nothing of holy baptism and penance ; He can accept voluntary gifts. "

The control aspect of the confession slip had a certain, albeit slowly weakening, significance up until the 20th century, especially in rural areas. In Austria the farmers controlled their servants with it . This is said to have led to a downright black market in confessional slips: sacristans in the southern German-speaking area sold confessional slips “underhand” and hard-working confessors sold them to interested citizens. Until the 1960s, the faithful procured confession sheets across parish boundaries if no controls were carried out in the neighboring parish.

By Beichtbildchen in Poland with imprimatur accused, the alleged Jewish Altarschänder should be prayed for to God, which was anti-Semitism in Łódź after the devastating pogrom of Przytyk 1936 even stronger.

Confession slip from the parish of Gams 1926 (original size approx. 32 × 72 mm)

Even today there are "confession pictures" or "Easter pictures", mainly for certain occasions (confession during Easter, on pilgrimages, etc.). Due to their size, these pictures are suitable as an insert in the hymn or prayer book. On the front there is usually an image of a saint, an image of Jesus or an image of Mary , on the back there is a spiritual text as an instruction for the believer's prayer and the dates are printed. Confession notes and pictures are also an object of cultural and historical collecting.

See also

literature

  • Gertraud K. Eichhorn: Confession slip and citizenship in Passau 1570 - 1630. Passau 1997.
  • Ernst J. Huber: Confession slip. Functions of ecclesiastical graphic arts in the Easter sacraments . In: Yearbook for Folklore NF 6 (1983), pp. 182-207.
  • Reinhard Kittl: The confession slip through the ages. Edition Tirol, Reith im Alpbachtal 1999.
  • Franz Kohlberger: Easter confessions . In: Collector Journal No. 4 / April 1982, pp. 286-291.
  • Rupert Maria Scheule: Confession. Autobiographical evidence of the Catholic penitential practice in the 20th century . Böhlau, Vienna 2001
Devotional pictures ("Beichtbildchen") from Osterwitz (original size approx. 55 × 75 mm)
Back of the devotional picture from Osterwitz with prayer to St. Mary

Web links

Commons : confession slip  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Confession Slips  - Sources and Full Texts
Wikisource: Delivery of the confession slip  - sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Friedrich Hauck, Gerhard Schwinge: Theological specialist and foreign dictionary: with a list of abbreviations from theology and church and a compilation of lexical reference works . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2002, p. 178.
  2. ↑ Manfred Heim: From indulgence to celibacy: small encyclopedia of church history . CH Beck, Munich 2008, p. 51.
  3. ↑ Dietmar Schiersner: Politics, Denomination and Communication: Studies on the Catholic denomination of the Margraviate Burgau 1550–1650 . Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2005, p. 363.
  4. ↑ Codex Iuris Canonici , Can. 989
  5. ↑ Quoted from: Michael Vennemann: Do not be afraid, Petrus Romanus . Part 2, Hamburg 2008, p. 468.
  6. ↑ See: Reinhard Kittl: The confession slip in the course of time . Edition Tirol, Reith im Alpbachtal 1999.
  7. ^ Rupert Klieber: grass roots movement or instrument of church domestication? Characteristics and dimensions of the modern brotherhood system in southern Germany . In: Rudolf Leeb, Thomas Winkelbauer: State power and salvation of the soul: Counter-Reformation and secret Protestantism in . Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, p. 161ff., Here: p. 179.
  8. ^ Martin Heckel: Germany in the confessional age . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1983, p. 134.
  9. ^ Christian Adolph Pescheck: History of the Counter Reformation in Bohemia: edited from documents and other simultaneous sources, Volume 2 . Arnold, Leipzig 1850, p. 179.
  10. ↑ Joachim Bahlcke: Religious Refugees: Causes and Effects of Confessional Migration in Early Modern Eastern Europe . LIT Verlag, Münster 2007, p. 181.
  11. ↑ Arno Herzig : The compulsion to true faith: Recatholization from the 16th to the 18th century . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2000, p. 198.
  12. ↑ Georg May: The right to worship in the diocese of Mainz at the time of Bishop Joseph Ludwig Colmar, 1802-1818 . BR Grüner, Amsterdam 1987, FN 8, p. 569.
  13. ^ Johannes Ignaz Weitzel: Contribution to the history of the manners and customs of the Spaniards . From the French. In: Nicolaus Vogt, Johannes Ignaz Weitzel (eds.): Rheinisches Archiv für Geschichte und Litteratur, Volume 6, 10th issue, Mainz 1811, p. 122ff., Here p. 159.
  14. ↑ The preacher and catechist. A practical, Catholic magazine for preachers and catechists in the countryside and in small towns. Published with the participation of several Catholic clergy. by Ludwig Mehler Volume 5, published by Georg Joseph Manz, Regensburg 1855, p. 610.
  15. ↑ For practice in Austria: Berthold Unfried: "I confess": Catholic confession and Soviet self-criticism . Campus, Frankfurt / Main New York 2004, p. 40.
  16. ↑ Norbert Ortmayr: Rural household in Upper Austria 1918-1938 . In: Josef Ehmer; Michael Mitterauer : Family structure and work organization in rural societies . Böhlau Verlag , Vienna 1986, p. 325ff., Here: FN 210, p. 392.
  17. ↑ Bernhard Kittl: The confession sheet through the ages. Edition Tirol, Reith im Alpbachtal 1999, p. 25.
  18. ↑ Berthold Unfried: "I confess": Catholic confession and Soviet self-criticism. Campus, Frankfurt / Main New York 2004, p. 40.
  19. ↑ City tour in Zwiesel 2015: Description of the religious practices under the influence of the English lady
  20. ^ Georg W. Strobl: The multinational Lodz, the textile metropolis of Poland, as a product of migration and capital migration . In: Hans-Werner Rautenberg (Hrsg.): Hikes and cultural exchange in eastern Central Europe, research on the end of the Middle Ages and the more recent modern times . Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, Munich 2006, p. 163ff., Here: p. 205.
  21. ↑ On the effect of the pogrom on the Jews in Poland: Joseph Marcus: Social and political history of the Jews in Poland, 1919–1939 . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1983, p. 395f.
  22. ↑ Kurt Bauer: Bauernleben: from the old life in the country . Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 2007, p. 32.