Debt chapters

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The debt chapter ( Latin capitulum culparum ) is a meeting of members of a convent of religious, at which violations of the rule of the order or the statutes become known to the community.

The holding of a debt chapter existed in almost all religious orders; it took place weekly or less frequently, for monastic orders in the chapter house of the monastery . The chapter of guilt belonged to the pious exercises and, like every confession of guilt, had a sin-eradicating character.

In the tradition of religious orders, independent basic forms and developments developed over the centuries. Even from early monasticism , the monastic custom has been handed down that misconduct against monastic discipline was brought forward in the form of a self-confession before the community; In some orders it was also possible to report a misconduct by another member of the convention, but a correctio fraterna should have preceded it in private. Atonement for the wrongdoing was made through a penance imposed by the superior.

In the Consuetudines of the Benedictine order , the debt chapter appeared for the first time at the end of the 8th century. For lay brothers (conversations) working in the Benedictine order, the rule was that the brothers met every day after the Prim in the chapter house, where a chapter from the Regula Benedicti was read out. After the debt chapter, they received their work assignments.

With the Cluniacens and Cistercians of the 12th to 14th centuries, the measurement of penances was left to the discretion of the superior, but could be regarded as guidelines: “Three or six days in 'slight debt'; one, three or six days in 'serious debt'; often a day or two of it under fasting conditions with bread and water; one, three, seven, or forty corporal punishments in the debt chapter; Twenty or forty days without a seat in the choir for a missing abbot or official; precisely defined duration of the suspension of priest monks; also precisely specified duration of a loss of rank; the requirement to eat while sitting on the floor for several days. "

The public confession of the debt chapter was prescribed for the forum externum , the "outer area" of the visible, publicly gone wrong. With the expansion of religious orders and the emergence of religious associations, so-called visitation and general chapters were introduced, at which the superiors of the order could also be subjected to a debt chapter.

From 1567, the Constitutions of the Discalced Carmelite Sisters provided for the guilty chapter to be held once a week before dinner, as a rule. The sisters' mistakes should be "lovingly corrected" by the prioress , who can also give a short speech for this purpose. In doing so, the prioress can, at her discretion, “at least the first, second or third time lessen or shorten the punishment for a guilt that was not committed out of malice”. Conversely, the Constitutions provide for harsher penance for misconduct, habitually or maliciously. The sister should speak only to report her own wrongdoings and to answer the sister who presides over the chapter if she asks anything. Also, the sisters should not address the misconduct of others in the chapter, but rather, if necessary, present them to the prioress or a visitor in confidence. After hearing the sister and correcting her, she prays the Miserere .

In the rule of the Ursuline order , the chapter of guilt was not explicitly mentioned, instead the “sisterly exhortation” ( exhortation ) is written down.

In some orders it is customary to send the novices out after they have known their wrongdoings, before the chapter of debt continued with the professed , which traditionally began with either the oldest or the youngest professed.

After the Second Vatican Council , in the course of the changes following the publication of the Decree Perfectae Caritatis - on the contemporary renewal of religious life, the debt chapters were abolished in some religious communities, but retained in others.

literature

  • Tezelin Halusa OCist : The Chapter of Debt of Religious: A Study. 2., through Ed., Bonifacius-Druckerei, Paderborn 1912

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Traditional Dominicans in France, Interview with Brother Jordan Grötz, On the daily routine (Page 4) Traditional Dominicans in France Interview with Brother Jordan Grötz
  2. ↑ International Theological Commission, Reconciliation and Penance (1982), Chapter C. Reflections on Some Practically Significant Questions , Section I. Unity and Diversity of Forms of Penance ; in: International Theological Commission, Reconciliation and Penance, Final Documents 1982, June 29, 1983: typewritten original - Italian version: CivCatt 135 (1984) 1/3205, pp. 45-72. [1]
  3. ↑ Jörg Sonntag, Monastery life in the mirror of the symbolic: symbolic thought and action of high medieval monks between duration and change, rule and habit, Volume 35 of Vita regularis: Orders and interpretations of religious life in the Middle Ages , LIT Verlag Münster , 2008, ISBN 3-8258- 1033-X , (digitized) [2]
  4. ^ Stephan Haering: debt chapter . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 9 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 2000, Sp. 285 .
  5. ^ Memoriale qualiter I. (saec. VIII. Fin.); see Thomas Füser: Monks in conflict: on the area of ​​tension between norm, deviance and sanction among the Cistercians and Cluniacens (12th to early 14th centuries). LIT Verlag, Münster 2000, p. 70 Note 42 [3]
  6. ^ Ulrich Lehner: Enlightened Monks: The German Benedictines, 1740–1803, Oxford 2011, ISBN 978-0-19-959512-9 , p. 52.
  7. ↑ Thomas Füser, Monks in Conflict, p. 69
  8. ↑ Thomas Füser, Monks in Conflict - on the tension between norm, deviance and sanction among the Cistercians and Cluniacens , pp. 69–70
  9. ↑ Rule and Constitutions of the Discalced Carmelite Sisters , No. 43–48, Vom Schuldkapitel , 1991
  10. ↑ Christine Schneider, Monastery as a way of life: the Vienna Ursuline Convent in the second half of the 18th century (1740–1790) , Volume 11 of L'Homme Writings: Series on Feminist History, Böhlau Verlag , Vienna , 2005, ISBN 3-205- 77393-4 , [4] , digitized