ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. The book reflects a heightened interest in the history of ecclesiastical penance in the late Middle Ages, the reformations of the sixteenth century, and the confessional age. It gives a better understanding of the process by which the Counter-Reformation reaffirmed the medieval theology of penance and at the same time changed it. The book also deals with the intricate interrelationship between the individual and the community in defining sin and building effective penitential institutions. It supports the call for a modification, not a rejection, of John Bossy’s insight, which is surely correct in identifying an intensification of individual guilt in the early modern period. The book depicts both Catholic and Protestant penitential systems employing all means possible to raise the temperature of ecclesiastically monitored social discipline.
