Kind of like Irish penitentials.
The great thing about baseball is that it’s been around for so long that there are weird little rules for every possible freak scenario. Pitcher moves his foot or spits too much? Ball stuck in wall? Ball hits bird?!?!?
November 1, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Kind of like Irish penitentials.
this diagram is a flowchart based on the rules for when you can fuck your wife from Penitentials, where were a type of early modern catholic document that explained all the various types of penances you should do based on which sin you committed.
October 25, 2025 at 8:08 PM
this diagram is a flowchart based on the rules for when you can fuck your wife from Penitentials, where were a type of early modern catholic document that explained all the various types of penances you should do based on which sin you committed.
“But the Brehon laws!”
Oh, reading medieval canon law and the Irish penitentials will set one’s views on medieval Ireland aright.
Oh, reading medieval canon law and the Irish penitentials will set one’s views on medieval Ireland aright.
September 29, 2025 at 7:24 PM
“But the Brehon laws!”
Oh, reading medieval canon law and the Irish penitentials will set one’s views on medieval Ireland aright.
Oh, reading medieval canon law and the Irish penitentials will set one’s views on medieval Ireland aright.
The next thing I’m gonna be cranky about is people taking monastic penitentials out of context and acting like they applied to the whole population.
Monks and nuns were ascetics, they were supposed to voluntarily adopt a lifestyle that most people couldn’t handle.
February 8, 2026 at 3:14 AM
The next thing I’m gonna be cranky about is people taking monastic penitentials out of context and acting like they applied to the whole population.
Turns out most people do this, and don't try to create individual monks out of the impersonal mass of saint's lives, penitentials, and canon law codes.
I also have no comment on the Charity and Sylvia situation because I've only half aware of what's going on but low key I sorta forgot that it's possible to write historical fiction about people with published biographies.
July 3, 2026 at 5:15 PM
Turns out most people do this, and don't try to create individual monks out of the impersonal mass of saint's lives, penitentials, and canon law codes.
Laundering Penitentials as a side hustle...
August 25, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Laundering Penitentials as a side hustle...
Everyone wants "celtic Christianity," no one wants the Irish Penitentials, which are some of our oldest extant "celtic Christian" texts!
I made a meme inspired by an r/Episcopalian post. ⚓
September 30, 2025 at 3:34 PM
Everyone wants "celtic Christianity," no one wants the Irish Penitentials, which are some of our oldest extant "celtic Christian" texts!
Celtic spirituality would have big things to say about this in penitentials 📕
October 12, 2025 at 4:05 AM
Celtic spirituality would have big things to say about this in penitentials 📕
It actually is really interesting to read the penitentials and see which forms of affection were permitted (among monastics; expectations for laypeople were much looser).
January 19, 2026 at 8:10 PM
It actually is really interesting to read the penitentials and see which forms of affection were permitted (among monastics; expectations for laypeople were much looser).
(Of course the cultural prestige of Rome and the alliances it helps you make are hugely important! But the evidence from penitentials also makes me think that the Roman church was just a bit more willing to be realistic and forgiving about human nature…)
July 30, 2025 at 8:45 AM
(Of course the cultural prestige of Rome and the alliances it helps you make are hugely important! But the evidence from penitentials also makes me think that the Roman church was just a bit more willing to be realistic and forgiving about human nature…)
Even the strictest medieval monsteries didn't actually protect men from lust, because it followed them in, was with them always. Their penitentials list different penances for anal, inter-thigh & oral sex between them, as well as for masturbation. As a medievalist, I've read some of them.
July 23, 2026 at 10:36 AM
Even the strictest medieval monsteries didn't actually protect men from lust, because it followed them in, was with them always. Their penitentials list different penances for anal, inter-thigh & oral sex between them, as well as for masturbation. As a medievalist, I've read some of them.
Medieval penitentials assigned clerics penance for forgetting the psalms but I wonder if you got anything for singing them badly.
June 19, 2025 at 4:41 AM
Medieval penitentials assigned clerics penance for forgetting the psalms but I wonder if you got anything for singing them badly.
Gosh. Can you imagine the writers of the Irish Penitentials if we asked them about today and what the appropriate remedies would be?
February 15, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Gosh. Can you imagine the writers of the Irish Penitentials if we asked them about today and what the appropriate remedies would be?
This is obvious but another tricky thing wrt research on medieval attitudes towards X is that there were general trends but attitudes weren’t all the same. Like, different penitentials prescribe different penances for the same sins, for example.
August 8, 2025 at 9:32 PM
This is obvious but another tricky thing wrt research on medieval attitudes towards X is that there were general trends but attitudes weren’t all the same. Like, different penitentials prescribe different penances for the same sins, for example.
My guest on today's PREVAIL is the brilliant Jessica Cale, host of the @dirtysexyhistory.bsky.social podcast. We talk piracy, syphilis, medieval penitentials, the Oneida colony, the Comstock Act vis a vis Project 2025, history of abortion, coitus reservatus, & more.
open.spotify.com/episode/0nez...
open.spotify.com/episode/0nez...
Piracy, Penitentials, Comstock, and Flatware (with Jessica Cale)
Listen to this episode from Prevail with Greg Olear on Spotify. In this, the penultimate episode of Season 7 of the PREVAIL podcast, Greg Olear discusses (for a solid 20 minutes, which is probably too...
open.spotify.com
July 26, 2024 at 11:57 AM
My guest on today's PREVAIL is the brilliant Jessica Cale, host of the @dirtysexyhistory.bsky.social podcast. We talk piracy, syphilis, medieval penitentials, the Oneida colony, the Comstock Act vis a vis Project 2025, history of abortion, coitus reservatus, & more.
open.spotify.com/episode/0nez...
open.spotify.com/episode/0nez...
Last ep season 2! We chat to the erudite @elainepf.bsky.social re the Penitentials, some of the earliest written texts from the 'Insular world'. Back in Sept, have a lovely summer! Thanks all esp @tiagoovsilva.bsky.social @ceilteachomn.bsky.social @researchireland.ie open.spotify.com/episode/3I9T...
Sin and Penance with Dr Elaine Pereira Farrell
The Medieval Irish History Podcast · Episode
open.spotify.com
July 1, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Last ep season 2! We chat to the erudite @elainepf.bsky.social re the Penitentials, some of the earliest written texts from the 'Insular world'. Back in Sept, have a lovely summer! Thanks all esp @tiagoovsilva.bsky.social @ceilteachomn.bsky.social @researchireland.ie open.spotify.com/episode/3I9T...
And of course queer men suffered along with straight men: this too is recognized in the medieval penitentials, though considered even worse than mere lusting after women.
July 23, 2026 at 10:38 AM
And of course queer men suffered along with straight men: this too is recognized in the medieval penitentials, though considered even worse than mere lusting after women.
Penitentials, I hope? They're so much fun!
A magnificient Irish legal treasure – The Collection Canonium Hibernensis - a collection of canon law compiled in the 8th century (St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 243 : Collectio canonum hibernensis)
iiif.biblissima.fr/collections/...
#medievalsky
iiif.biblissima.fr/collections/...
#medievalsky
September 29, 2025 at 7:58 PM
Penitentials, I hope? They're so much fun!
*whispers* oh no
April 17, 2025 at 4:23 AM
*whispers* oh no
A nuisance that the online translations of the Old English penitentials seem to succumbed to the passing of time...
October 19, 2024 at 7:56 AM
A nuisance that the online translations of the Old English penitentials seem to succumbed to the passing of time...
have 18 lectures with me on history, literature & law, spanning Ireland and Celtic-speaking Britain from the 5th century to the 12th. We will look at medieval Irish & Welsh law pertaining to marriage, paternity, divorce & sexual offences; early Irish penitentials; hagiography of male & female
2/3
2/3
March 23, 2026 at 10:35 AM
have 18 lectures with me on history, literature & law, spanning Ireland and Celtic-speaking Britain from the 5th century to the 12th. We will look at medieval Irish & Welsh law pertaining to marriage, paternity, divorce & sexual offences; early Irish penitentials; hagiography of male & female
2/3
2/3
V proud of my PhD students yesterday at the Harvard Celtic Colloquium: Lydia Hursh: "Women & Politeness in Aided Óenfir Aífe", Viktoriia Krivoshchekova: "Thought Crimes: Punishment for Mental States in Early Irish Law & Penitentials", & Seungyeon Lee: "Gender & Penance in Medieval Ireland & Korea".
October 13, 2024 at 9:11 AM
V proud of my PhD students yesterday at the Harvard Celtic Colloquium: Lydia Hursh: "Women & Politeness in Aided Óenfir Aífe", Viktoriia Krivoshchekova: "Thought Crimes: Punishment for Mental States in Early Irish Law & Penitentials", & Seungyeon Lee: "Gender & Penance in Medieval Ireland & Korea".