SOURCE: Ford, Judy Ann. “The Autonomy of Conscience: Images of Confession in Mirk's Festial.” Renaissance and Reformation/Renaissance et Réforme 23, no. 3 (summer 1999): 5-27.

In the essay below, Ford provides an analysis of Mirk's descriptions of confession in the Festial, exploring what they reveal about the roles of parishioner and priest in the late medieval period.

For þus I rede of a woman þat had done an horrybull synne, and myght neuer, for schame, schryue hyr þerof. And oft, when ho come to schryf, scho was yn purpos forto haue ben schryuen; but euer þe fend put such a schame yn hur hert, þat scho had neuer grace to clanse hur þerofe. Then, on a nyght, as scho lay yn hur bed, and þought moch on þat synne, Ihesu Crist come to hur and sayde: “My doghtyr, why wol þou not schew me þy hert, and schryue þe...