The humiliation of sinners : public penance in thirteenth-century France /

Mansfield's book challenges long-held assumptions about the disappearance of public penance after the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, and the development of individualism after the 13th century. Drawing on a wide range of sources--liturgical, canonical, theological, and narrative--the author focuses on the politics of penance. Limiting her study to northern France, she demonstrates a continuation of public penance and a transformation of it to a new privacy. Thus a dichotomy developed between private confession and public humiliation. Chapters six and seven are the "meat" of this book; here Mansfield addresses a wide range of issues dealing with the private sphere vis-`a-vis public indignity. This is an important study for specialists in the field. It is sad that Mansfield died in an automobile accident shortly after completing the study, as her monograph shows that she was a young woman of extraordinary promise in the field of medieval studies. Her study is well written, engaging, and heavily documented. The bibliography is more than complete, and the index adequate. One wishes for illustrations, but they are not present. Upper-division undergraduate; graduate; faculty. D. C. West Jr.; Northern Arizona University