Чин исповести у јужнословенским рукописним књигама од почетка XIII до почетка XVI века

Abstract

This study is the result of research conducted on the text of the rite of confession based on approximately 50 unpublished South Slavonic manuscripts dating from the early 13th to the early 16th century, up to its first printed edition. The research offers much more accurate and detailed evidence confirming observations on the heterogeneity of the South Slavonic confessional rite. The study classifies the text of the rite of confession based on the type, the contents and the preserved South Slavonic manuscripts. Research suggests two main textological circles that determine the order of the enactment of the rite. One group of texts belongs to the type of the service of confession of the Euchologium Sinaiticum, a Glagolitic service book dating from the 11th century, and the other belongs to the service of confession found in the Penitential Nomokanon of John the Faster (John Nesteutes). Both groups contain models that dictate the framework of the ritual for the Sacrament of Penance. These models could include questionnaires with premade questions, but usually there were long lists of “secret” sins about which the penitent needed to be asked. Over time, owing to the influence of practice and the reconsideration of existing forms, the texts of the above-mentioned types of confession became entwined, creating new compilations and recensions of the text. By the end of the medieval period, the “Sinaitic” model survived as the main pillar of priestly ministry but in several younger recensional and sub-recensional forms. Research has distinguished its two late-medieval recensions (one of them had prevailed since about 1350) and thus there seem to have been three recensions of the “Sinaitic” service of confession in the period from the 11th to the early 16th century.