Monks Who Are Not Priests Do Not Have the Power to Bind and to Loose: The Debate About Confession in Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century Byzantium

Abstract

This article focuses on the question whether or not unordained monks can hear confession and give absolution. It argues that until the tenth century this practice was regarded as unproblematic in Byzantium but that after this date the church began to insist on the strict implementation of canon law, which restricted this role to members of the church hierarchy. Through close reading of the surviving evidence it makes the case that this initiative was successful and that many monastic milieus came to accept the position of the secular church.