The Cambridge University Press published a very wanted book. Dr Rob Meens (Universiteit Utrecht) wrote an excellent study about the practice of penance from late antiquity to the twelfth century. It evidences how important the concept of sin was in the middle ages and how the practice of penance developed from century to century and place to place. It argues that confession and penance were important instruments on the settlement of disputes, showing that they had an important social role. It also provides a useful overview of the production of penitential literature and manuscripts tradition.
The book can be purchased at the publisher’s website: http://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/history/european-history-450-1000/penance-in-medieval-europe-6001200?format=PB?format=PB
Medieval Penitential Literature 
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