One of the earliest works that prescribes penances, a short Welsh tract known as The Synod of North Britain (c. 545), stands as an important witness to early Christian confessional practices. Its penitential discipline is aimed primarily at the clergy, as is clear from the passage on illicit liaisons:

The severity of a sinner's punishment here depends on his clerical rank, and his penance – banishment to a monastery abroad and, possibly, exclusion from his order – is centered around monastic life. Insofar as the text outlines a programme of confession and penitential discipline aimed at the clergy, The Synod of North Britain is broadly representative of writing on confession prior to 1250. As we shall see, such writing tended to be directed toward the clergy and read under the careful watch of the Church.

The Synod of North Britain may be one of the earliest works to prescribe penances, but it is not otherwise an outlier. There is nothing unusual about finding a work about confession written before the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215. Moreover, while it is true that manuals for penitents – in the sense of comprehensive guides expressly aimed at coaching an individual through confessional preparation – were an innovation of the thirteenth century, texts that could guide penitents through the process of identifying and reflecting on their sins were not. Nor were such texts new in the twelfth century – which is typically cast as having been particularly concerned with the individual and with the discovery of the self.