Századok – 2003
TANULMÁNYOK - Erdélyi Gabriella: Gyónás és áldozás a késő középkorban 525
548 ERDÉLYI GABRIELLA ben képzelték el az istenhez fűződő viszonyukat is. így Luther teljes joggal rótta fel kortársainak, hogy „nem engedik Istent irgalmasnak lenni, és csak bíróul akaiják, mintha nem bocsáthatna meg semmit ingyen, hacsak nem lett előre megfizetve".13 4 CONFESSION AND COMMUNION IN THE LATE MIDDLE AGES by Gabriella Erdélyi Summary In the high and late middle ages a manifold and complex penitential system took shape both in canon law and theology. Its hierarchic and complementary institutions (sacramental confession, papal dispensations, indulgences) were very popular among contemporaries. The best testimony to this is perhaps the papal office of the Penitentiary (Sacra Poenitentiaria Apostolica). This special tribunal of grace received dozens of requests every day from Christian countries, among them the Kingdom of Hungary. During the fifty years that preceeded the protestant reformation, which would bring radical changes as far as the medieval system of penitence is concerned, more than a thousand supplications were handed in by Hungarians asking for absolution of heavy sins and dispensations of irregularities. The study, however, does not strive to demonstrate quantitatively this intensive spiritual life and relationship of Hungary and the centre of Latin Christendom. The author rather chose a qualitative approach. In other words, with a micro-analysis of the penitential and eucharistie practices, the study aims to get closer to the everyday religious experiences of the laity as well as of the lower clergy. Althoug the individual cases (supplications to the Penitentiary, witness interrogations records), on which the analysis is based, are exceptional ones, but as a result of the explanations of the actors, they open a window on their everyday practices and interpretations. So it can be ascertained, that enmity was one of the primary motivations of those, who refused at Easter to take the Body of Christ, although previously they confessed, as it was generally prescribed. The reasons behind this non-attendance can be traced at many levels: the theologically professed unworthiness of the believer, or the extraordinary and awesome nature of the occasion, which was emphasized by the liturgy. The unworthiness of the transubstantiating priest was even more worrying both for receivers as for the clergy itself. The popular belief that unworthy reception and distribution of the eucharist can cause immediate death, although collided with orthodox theology about the automatic efficacy of sacraments, could have also been deduced by interpreting metaphoric teachings concretely. This kind of materialistic conception of the operation of the sacraments lay also behind the view, that de facto settlement of disputes was a necessary precondition of worthy communion. Without a practical agreement, they could not imagine the „reconciliation of the heart". Peace among the Christians was not only the central message of quadragesimal preaching, but was also realized in the liturgy of the Holy Week. Obligatory Easter confession could be also used by the church as an institution to help to settle conflicts. According to the penitential literature, the sacramental absolution of the priest became effective only after satisfaction of God and neighbour (restitutio) had been accomplished. Obviously, in this way the working of the Holy Spirit was limited, made dependent from factual relations by the church itself. Thus, the author draws the conclusion that the sacraments did not only serve as a rite integrating and segregating the sacred community, but also as a means of ordering (confession) and communicating (refusal and attendance of communion) social relations. The Augustinian friar, Martin Luther, however, proposed a different meaning and usage: instead of a rite purifying before communion, confession should be the event of true penitence and belief. This involved a new logic of things, where objective situations originated from the subjective, as a consequence of which the taking of the sacraments would ideally be less of a public-social event, and more one of God and the individual. 134 Luther M. : A bűnbánat szentségéről 15.
