Eighteenth-Century Illustrated Aid to Confession

[Illustrated confessional aid].
[Low Countries, 18th century].
Illustrated manuscript on paper. (BRMS 150)

The fifty ink drawings in this volume, all finished in watercolor with Latin captions, provided students with a visually engaging introduction to religious instruction. The pedagogical work, intended to supplement a catechist’s verbal teaching, includes a basic catechism in four pages and a five-page guide to confession. The remaining thirty-six pages serve as an extensive visual catalogue of possible sins for the young penitent to admit and avoid. The crudely drawn yet well-executed hand-colored vignettes in this final section document a variety of sins, all portrayed in the context of domestic life or attendance in church. Sins portrayed include inebriation, being distracted or making distractions during church services, wishing death on others, defying one’s parents or superiors, invoking the Lord’s name in vain, and making improper confessions.  As the characters in the illustrations are almost all female, the manuscript may have been created specifically for female catechumens.