Back in the early 3rd century AD, Romans who wanted to get credit for the afterlife, wiping away some of the sins

they committed while living, so they didn't have to do as much penance after death, which was a

core belief of Christianity as practiced at the time, would seek out what was called a

lebele from someone who had credibility within the church. And this

lebele was basically just a signed statement, a reference that indicated the person bearing it

was in good standing, had done some penance while living already, and thus should not have to do

full penance after death.

Usually, the issuer of these spiritual references were confessors or martyrs or other such

holy people, and these same sorts of letters could be issued to people who had in the eyes

of the Christian church betrayed the church by

worshipping some other God or adhering to some non-Christian practice. Those who strayed

from the flock, as it were, would have to perform a sort of living penance, and that period

could likewise be shortened with the proper

libelly.

Though the rules on this changed, in the early 6th century, the punishments were substantially

watered down, ostensibly to make it easier for those who had strayed to come back

into the flock, and penances were standardized when a handbook

of different acceptable punishments for different misdeeds was issued to Christian confessors,

whereas previously they had kind of just used their best judgment case by case.

A few hundred years later, a previously niche penance that was

noted as an option in these handbooks had become quite a bit more common. The confessors

divvying out these punishments for various misdeeds could issue what was originally called a

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