The decree requiring confession was soon obeyed almost everywhere, and the effect on the European soul was profound.8 The mere effort to classify a year’s sins was a greater demand for abstract thought than the common man or woman had experienced before. Guilt flourished, though without as much diminution as might have been hoped in things to be guilty about. Sin and conscience became prominent topics of study, and it is here that much of the subsequent discussion of doubts and their resolution occurs.
