The Internal Forum of the Later Middle Ages. A Modern Myth?

Abstract

Scholars today are unanimous about the existence of a forum internum in the Western church since the rise of scholastic theology and jurisprudence in the twelfth century. From that time onward, they agree, an “inner court,” dedicated exclusively to individual believers who confessed their sins in absolute secrecy to a priest was sharply distinguished from the so-called forum externum, which dealt with publicly alleged breaches of the canon law.