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Cultural Approach to Medieval Women focused on the Penitentials Yong-Ku Cha The confessional manuals known as penitentials were very popular until the twelfth century, when they became suppressed and the newly developed system of Church (canon) law filled the need. Their use spread from Ireland to Britain, then to northern France, Italy, Spain and finally to Germany. Twenty-five percent to forty-five percent of the sins listed in extant penitentials are sexual sins, including all forms of non-reproductive sex, oral and anal intercourse, and sex at various banned times. So penitentials can be used as valuable sources in the study of gender history of the early Middle Ages. While the significance of the penitentials as historical evidence was not always appreciated by earlier socio-economic historians, the present study does purpose to investigate the cultural meanings contained in the penitentials. It has focused on the issues concerning women such as divorce, remarriage, practicing magic, concubinage, rape, abortion, contraception and lesbianism. In short, this research sheds a useful light on the new aspects of gender problems: the penitentials play a central role in comprehending everyday life of women in the early middle ages. After this journey through the penitentials, one might speculate that: the penitentials were engaged in the church's strenuous combat against the groups, who had a strong attachment to more diversified, open, and freely expressed sexuality than could be countenanced by the Christian sexual ethics. Furthermore, the many canons of the penitentials, such as sexual abstinence at various banned times and possibilities of divorce/remarriage, indicate that the medieval Church was ‘neither’ anti-sexual ‘nor’ misogyn, as usually suspected. (Chungang University / ygcha@cau.ac.kr)