my reading notes (2)--the influence of Irish monks

The Irish church, generally isolated from the rest of the Church because of the difficulty of travel across the turbulent Irish Sea, developed its own customs. The Irish did not know of the once-of-a-lifetime public penance. The Irish church was organized around the monasteries, and the abbots functioned much like bishops. It is likely that the monastic practice of telling one’s faults to the abbot or to a spiritual director led to the development of a private form of penance. As the Irish monks came to the Continent to Christianize the pagan tribes of northem Europe, they brought their penitential practices with them. In their form of penance, confession and assignment of the penance were handled simply between the priest and the penitent. This form of penance could be received as often as needed, and it did not involve any permanent inferior status.

Scholars suggest that this Irish celebration of the sacrament of penance did not originally have any form of absolution or act of reconciliation. After it became popular on the Continent, however, Church officials added a ritual act of reconciliation or absolution. For several centuries after the introduction of the Irish private penance, the bishops in local synods tried to maintain the discipline of public penance was required for public sins, while private penance was allowed for private sins. That two-track system lasted for a time, but eventually the public discipline was totally abandoned in favor of private penance for all penitents.