The Priest in the House of Conscience: Sins of Thought and the Twelfth-Century Schoolmen
Susan R. Kramer
To what degree was the inner life of soul considered private by twelfth-century writers? Much current work in areas as diverse medieval penance, theological anthropology, and ethics demonstrates period’s richly complicated conception self. The evidence also reveals, however, contemporary ambivalence to whether this realm should be removed from communal gaze. For discussion author’s approach conceptions interiority soul’s secret is examination changing attitudes towards sins thought. Beginning with a biblical allegory first developed St. Augustine, article traces how privacy Augustine’s metaphorical “house conscience” expanded schoolmen include not only God but priest.
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