penitential
- noun
- /ˌpɛnɪˈtɛnʃəl/
- Archaic
:
penitencial
- Private penance and the penitentials spread throughout Europe in the following centuries, in spite of the resistance from local councils concerned about recidivism and the bewildering variety of inconsistent penalties recommended, not to mention frequent dispensations from them.
- Irish penitentials
Examples
-
The compilers of penitentials include exhortations to discretion and mercy.
Academic text (1993) -
When the penitentials first appear, hierarchies and persons of learning heap scorn upon them.
Academic text (1993) -
The age of the penitentials likewise ends for the same reason.
Academic text (1993) -
Reading the penitentials, one is torn between two judgments.
Academic text (1993) -
The penitentials lack any authority, contradict each other, and promote a mechanistic system of forgiveness.
Academic text (1993) -
The penitentials came into existence when the practices of the earliest centuries collapsed under the weight of their rigidity; pastorally, they were not usable.
Academic text (1993) -
From the days of the early Irish penitentials, there is a presumption that penitents conceal some sins, thus endangering integrity.
Academic text (1993) -
However, because the penitentials fill a need of the uneducated lower clergy and the monks, who find them practical, indeed indispensable, episcopal condemnations are ignored.
Academic text (1993) -
The early penitentials come out of a monastic context; the summists are, with some exceptions, either Franciscans or Dominicans, persons closer to the laity.
Academic text (1993) -
In the early days of Christianity, many clergy relied on penitentials to guide their practices of penance and forgiveness.
Synonyms
A book with example admissions and questions priests use when people tell their sins
Surface Forms
Morphology
penitential = penitential (opaque) = penitent + ial
The noun is a specialized converted use of the adjective 'penitential', and the ecclesiastical sense 'a book of penances' is not predictable from the base word alone.
Etymology
Penitential comes from the Latin paenitentia, meaning 'repentance', and long ago it was used for a book of rules about 'penance' that priests used. That is why a penitential (as a noun) is a list or book that tells what acts someone should do to show they are sorry.
