Presbyters Uniwersytet Warszawski
ID
ER 2360
Liber ordinum, the ritual in the use of the Church in Iberian Peninsula, probably representing the liturgy from the period between the 7th c. (or even the 6th c.) to 11th c., includes the rite of reconciliation of the penitent by a priest.
XXXV. — ORDO AD RECONCILIANDVM PENITENTEM.
 
Dum uenerit is qui a penitentia soluendus est, siue uir seu mulier, in loco conpetenti consitutus, instigatur a sacerdote, ut susceptum donum penitentie sic semper in sua retineat mente, ne ultra iam illi liceat secularia desideria repetere, et arta ista itinera conseruare: ut post uite huius exitum ad eternam uitam mereatur peruenire.
Deinde, fixis genibus ante altare, indutus uestibus mundis religiosis, iacet in oratione, et dicitur hoc responurium:
 
Here follows the responsory (Deus, cuius ire nemo resistere potest... "God, whose wrath no one can resist ..."), the prayer in which the priests ask God to have mercy on the penitent and accept his penance so that the angels in heaven and the Church could be joyful for his or her reconciliation. The prayer ends with the antiphony. Follow two other prayers, slightly more personalized as the first one as the priest has to insert the name of the penintent in them. Then follows the prayer and the blessing after which the penitent is given communion.  
 
(ed. Férotin 1904: col. 96-100; summary M. Szada)
XXXV. — THE RITE OF RECONCILIATION OF THE PENITENT.
  
When a person arrives who is about to be released from penance, whether a man or a woman, they should be put in a fitting place and urged by the priest to always keep in mind the gift of penance so that they would never return to worldly desires but would always follow these narrow paths and may, after the end of this life, deserve to achieve the eternal life.
 
Here follows the responsory (Deus, cuius ire nemo resistere potest... "God, whose wrath no one can resist ..."), the prayer in which the priests ask God to have mercy on the penitent and accept his penance so that the angels in heaven and the Church could be joyful for his or her reconciliation. The prayer ends with the antiphony. Follow two other prayers, slightly more personalized as the first one as the priest has to insert the name of the penintent in them. Then follows the prayer and the blessing after which the penitent is given communion.
  
(trans. and summary M. Szada)
 
 

Discussion:

Reconciling penitents was restricted for bishops by Canon 7 of the Second Council of Seville in 619 but the fact that the synodal fathers felt it necessary to forbid presbyters to perform the rite might suggest that in some places they were actually "usurping" it. The Liber ordinum is not usually clarifying which rites are for the bishops only and which can be performed either by a bishop or a presbyter. Liber ordinum sometimes singles presbyters out as presiding in rites but also frequently uses the term sacerdos not discriminate between bishops and presbyters.

Place of event:

Region
  • Iberian Peninsula

About the source:

Title: Liber ordinum
Origin: Iberian Peninsula
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian
Liber ordinum is the ritual book used in the Old Spanish liturgy consisting of the various prayers and the sacramental rites performed by the priest or the bishop. It was edited in 1904 by Marius Férotin who based his edition on the four manuscripts - three codices from the monastery of Silos (Archivo del Monasterio, ms. 3 and 4), the first one from 1039 (cod. A in the edition of Férotin), the second from 1052 (cod. B), the third, Rituale antiquissimum, from the eleventh century; and the codex from Madrid, the so-called Manuale mozarabicum (cod. 56, formerly F.224, in the library of Real Academia de la Historia), also from the eleventh century. The copyists used different old books of the Old Spanish liturgy, and various texts included in these Libri ordinum might come from different periods. However, according to Férotin, who based his interpretation on internal evidence, most of it was composed in the sixth and seventh centuries. He dated only a few prayers (e.g. the exorcism of oil, no. 1) to the later period.
Edition:
M. Férotin, Le Liber ordinum en usage dans l’église wisigothique et mozarabe d’Espagne du cinquième au onzième siècle, Paris 1904.

Categories:

Described by a title - Sacerdos/ἱερεύς
    Ritual activity - Presiding at prayer
      Ritual activity - Reconciliation/Administering penance
        Relation with - Woman
          Ritual activity - Blessing
            Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER2360, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=2360