PENANCE (OF. penance, penaunce, pencanee, from Lat. prenitenlia, repentance, from pcenitere, to repent, f requentat ive of pow ire, pan ire, to punish, from prune, punishment) . The voluntary or accepted punishment by which a repentant sinner manifests his sorrow for sin, and seeks to atone for the sin, and to avert the punishment which, even after the guilt has been remitted, may still remain due to the offense. Roman Catholics number penance among the seven sacraments (q.v.), and believe it to be of direct di vine institution (\latt. xvi. 19; xviii. IS: John xx. 21). The matter of this sacrament consists, in their view, of the three acts of the penitent—con trition, or heartfelt sorrow for sin, as being an offense against God; confession, or detailed ac cusation of one's self to a priest approved for the purpose; and satisfaction, or the accqitanee and accomplishment of certain penitential works, in atonement of the sin confessed; and the form of the sacrament is the sentence of absolution from sin pronounced by the priest who has received the confession, and has liven satisfied of the peniten tial disposition of the self-accusing sinner. Even in the Apostolic times the practice prevailed of excluding persons of scandalous life from the spiritual fellowship of the Christian community (see Excommume,knoN) ; and without attempt ing, to fix the date, it may be stated as certain, from the authority of Tertullian and other writ ers, that from a very early time the persons so excluded were subjected to certain penitential regulations. The class of offenders so treated were those who had been notoriously guilty of the grievous crimes of idolatry or apostasy, mur der, adultery. and other scandalous offenses. The period of penitential probation differed in differ ent times and places, hut in general was gradu ated according to the enormity of the sin, some going so far in their rigor (see NOVATIAN) contrary to the clearly expressed sense of the Church. to carry it even beyond the grave. The penitent, in ordinary eases, could only be re stored to communion by the bishop who had ex chided him. and this only at the expiration of the appointed time, unless the bishop himself had shortened it ; but in case of dangerous illness he might he restored, with the condition, however, that if he recovered from the illness the whole course of penance should he completed. The reconciliation of penitents took place commonly in Holy Week, and was publicly performed by the bishop in the church, with prayer and imposition of hands. It was followed by the administration of communion. This public dis cipline continued in force with greater or less exactness in the fifth, sixth, and seventh centuries, gradually, however, being replaced by semi-pub lic, and ultimately by private penance. In the
eleventh and twelfth centuries the public pen ance had entirely disappeared. The nature and origin of private penance is a subject of contro versy between Catholics and Protestants; the former contending that it had existed from the first, and that it held the same place even in the ages of public penance for secret sins which the public penance did for public offenses. At all events. from the date of the cessation of the pub lic discipline it has existed universally in the Roman Catholic Church. The priest, in absoh in the penitent, imposes upon him the obligation of reciting certain prayers, undergoing certain works of mortification, or performing certain devotional exercises. These acts of the penitent are held to form an integral part of the sacra ment of penance.
Outside of what is explained above as sacra mental penance, devout Roman Catholics have always believed in the infliction of voluntary mortifications as being pleasing to God, since they are based on an intense detestation of sin and realization of its enormity; and many of the saints have gone to almost incredible lengths in seeking suffering as a means of purifying the soul and uniting it more closely with God.
Luther fought stoutly against the doctrine of penance current in his day as being contrary to sonic of what he considered the most essential principles of Scriptural Christianity, particular ly to the doctrine of justification by faith in Jesus Christ alone, on the ground of His complete or 'finished' work ; penance being founded on a doctrine of at least supplementary atonement by the works or sufferings of man—the sinner—him self. 'Hs teaching has been generally followed by Protestants. The outward expressions of humiliation, sorrow, and repentance common un der the Jewish dispensation are regarded as very consistent with the character of that dispensa tion, in which so many symbols were employed. It is also held that the self-inflicted austerities. as fasting, sackcloth and ashes, etc.. of Jewish and earliest Christian times, had for their sole purpose the mortification of unholy lusts and sin ful passions in the people of God; or the ex pression of sorrow for sin, so that others behold ing might be warned of its evil and restrained from it. Accordingly, in the discipline of the Protestant churches penance is now unknown. The nearest approach to the Roman Catholic polity on the subject was that in use among the English Puritans of the seventeenth century. and more particularly in the Church of Scotland during that and the succeeding century, when it was common "to make satisfaction publicly on the stool of repentance." See Ansor.vruix; CON FESSION ; INDULGENCE.