The Priest in the House of Conscience: Sins of Thought and the Twelfth-Century Schoolmen

To what degree was the inner life of the soul considered private by twelfth-century writers? Much current work in areas as diverse as medieval penance, theological anthropology, and ethics demonstrates the period’s richly complicated conception of the inner self. The evidence also reveals, however, contemporary ambivalence as to whether this inner realm should be removed from the communal gaze. For this discussion the author’s approach to medieval conceptions of interiority and the soul’s secret life is the examination of changing attitudes towards sins of thought. Beginning with a biblical allegory first developed by St. Augustine, the article traces how the privacy of Augustine’s metaphorical “house of conscience” was expanded by twelfth-century schoolmen to include not only God but also priest.