A dieta do penitente: a prática do jejum penitencial no Portugal dos séculos XIV e XV

Abstract

In Portugal in the 14th and 15th centuries, the production of works of pastoral edification written in the vernacular became increasingly recurrent, aimed at proposing models of behavior and prescriptions regarding the forms of contact with the sacred and the reparation of sins. The prescriptions referring to these penitential practices proposed that reparation for the sin committed could be achieved by reversing the faulty act and by sometimes ardent gestures and expressions, such as the practice of fasting, abstinence from food. In the Middle Ages, fasting is the main amendment recommended for reparation for carnal sins in the ritual of auricular confession – promulgated by the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 –, the first effective step towards reconciliation with God. This article aims to analyze the role of fasting prescriptions as a practice of remission of sins, based on pastoral treaties written or translated into Portuguese between the 14th and 15th centuries, a period in which the practice of confession becomes a one of the main objects of theological and pastoral literature.