Ermenfrid Penitential
Haec est poenitentiae institutio secundum decreta Normannorum praesu lum, auctoritate summi pontificis confirmata per legatum suum Ermenfredum episcopum Sedunensem, imponenda illis hominibus quos Willielmus Norman norum dux, suo iussu, et qui ante iussu sui erant, et, ex debito, ei militiam debebant.
1. Qui in magno praelio scit se hominem occidisse, secundum numerum hominum pro unoquoque uno anno poeniteat.
2. Pro unoquoque quem percussit, si nescit eum inde mortuum fuisse, si numerum retinet, pro unoquoque quadraginta diebus poeniteat, sive continue, sive per intervalla.
3. Si autem percussorum vel occisorum ignorat, ad arbitrium episcopi sui, quoad vivit, uno die in hebdomada poeniteat; aut, si potest, vel ecclesiam faciendo vel ecclesiam largiendo perpetua eleemosyna redimat.
4. Qui autem neminem percusserit, si percutere voluerat, triduo poeniteat.
5. De clericis qui pugnaverunt, aut pugnandi gratia armati fuerunt, quia pugnasse eis illicitum erat secundum instituta canonum, acsi in patria sua peccassent poeniteant. Poenitentia monachorum secundum regulam suam et abbatum iudicia statuatur.
6. Qui autem tantum praemio adducti pugnaverunt, cognoscant se sicut pro homicidio poenitere debere.
7. Sed qui in publico bello pugnaverunt pro misericordia tres annos poeni tentiae eis episcopi statuerunt.
8. De sagittariis, qui ignoranter aliquos occiderunt, vel absque homicidio vulneraverunt, tribus quadragesimis poeniteant.
9. Quicunque excepto hoc praelio ante regis consecrationem victus quae rendi causa per regnum discurrerunt2 hostibus repugnantibus aliquos occi derunt, pro singulis uno anno poeniteant.
10. Qui autem non necessitate victus sed praedandi causa discurrerunt et aliquos occiderunt, tres annos poeniteant.
11. Qui autem post consecrationem regis hominem occiderunt, sicut de homicidiis sponte commissis:s hoc excepto, ut si quis de illis quemquam qui adhuc repugnabant regi occidit vel percussit, sicut supra poeniteat.
12. De adulteriis et raptibus et fornicationibus quibuscumque, acsi in patria sua peccassent, poeniteant.
13. De violatione ecclesiarum, similiter. Res quas de ecclesia abstulerunt, si reddere eidem cui abstulerunt possunt, reddant; si hoc non possunt, alii eccle siae reddant. Si autem reddere noluerint, statuerunt episcopi ut neque ipsi vendant, neque alii emant.
ChatGPT translation
This is the institution of penance, according to the decrees of the Norman leaders, confirmed by the authority of the supreme pontiff through his legate Ermenfrid, bishop of Sion, to be imposed upon those men whom William, duke of the Normans, commanded, and those who were previously under his command, and who, by obligation, owed him military service.
1. Whoever knows that he killed a man in the great battle shall do penance for one year for each man.
2. For each person he struck, if he does not know whether that person died from it, if he remembers the number, he shall do penance for forty days for each one, either continuously or at intervals.
3. But if he does not know the number of those he struck or killed, then, at the judgment of his bishop, for as long as he lives, he shall do penance one day each week; or, if he is able, he may redeem it by perpetual almsgiving, either by building a church or by granting a church.
4. But he who struck no one, if he intended to strike, shall do penance for three days.
5. As for clerics who fought, or who were armed for the purpose of fighting, since it was unlawful for them to fight according to the canons, they shall do penance as if they had sinned in their own homeland. The penance of monks shall be determined according to their rule and the judgment of their abbots.
6. But those who fought only because they were led on by reward shall know that they must do penance as for homicide.
7. But those who fought in the public battle, out of mercy the bishops have appointed for them three years of penance.
8. As for the archers who unknowingly killed some people, or wounded them without killing, they shall do penance for three “forty-day periods” (i.e., three quadragesimae).
9. Whoever, apart from this battle, before the king’s consecration, while roaming the kingdom for the sake of obtaining food, killed any enemies resisting them, shall do one year of penance for each person.
10. But those who roamed not out of necessity for food but for the sake of plundering, and killed anyone, shall do three years of penance.
11. But those who killed a man after the king’s consecration shall do penance as for homicides committed voluntarily — except in this case: if any of them killed or struck someone who was still resisting the king, he shall do penance as set out above.
12. For adulteries, rapes, and any fornications, they shall do penance as if they had sinned in their own homeland.
13. For the violation of churches, likewise. Whatever things they took from a church, if they can restore them to the same church from which they took them, they shall restore them; if they cannot, they shall restore them to another church. But if they are unwilling to restore them, the bishops have decreed that neither may they sell them, nor may others buy them.