Rare third edition of an interesting Latin work on confession by the highly respected Louvain (moderate) inquisitor and professor of theology Godschalc Rosemont (1483-1526). He corresponded with Erasmus (cf. Allen Ep. 1153, 1164 & 1172), who called him in one letter: "Vir melior quam pro vulgari sorte theologorum". Rosemondt was less dogmatic than most inquisitors and his writings have been compared with those of Erasmus. He was also known as an eloquent vicar and a friend of the Dutch Pope Adrian VI.
Between 1516 and 1519 he composed many devotional works, all but the Confessionale in Dutch. Parts of the Confessionale are translated from his 1517 Boecxken van der biechten, and it shares that work's amiable tone, but it is far longer, providing considerably more detail. The content reflects the fact that it is intended for a better-educated reader. It is the first book to use the Summa of Thomas Aquinas for resolving conflicts of conscience. Pope Benedict XIV rebuked Rosemondt for his audacious statements in chapter XX, "De excommunicatione", declaring it to be in discord with the views of the church. Although Rosemondt based his arguments on old concepts of Catholic clerical law, he expanded these principles to a much greater extent than the church was prepared to accept.
With a contemporary owner's inscription and occasional contemporary marginal notes and underlining. With a transparent stain at the foot of the title-page, the title-page slightly worn, a couple faint marginal stains, and with the margins trimmed, but otherwise in fine condition. The binding is somewhat worn, and its vellum had been previously used for a book that was only about 2.5 cm thick but had slightly larger leaves. Machiels R267; Netherlandish books 26872; Nijhoff & Kronenberg 1821; for Rosemondt: NNBW V, cols. 612-613.