penance

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Penance. Little is known of the early history of the Sacrament. By the 3rd cent. a developed system of public Penance had emerged. After the sinner had asked the bishop for Penance, he was enrolled in the order of penitents, excluded from Communion, and committed to a course of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving; after a period whose length was determined by the gravity of the sin, the sinner was reconciled and rejoined the congregation. Penance could then be undergone only once in a lifetime and entailed lifelong continence.

A new system was developed in the W. under the influence of Celtic or Anglo-Saxon monk-missionaries. The Penance remained public, long, and arduous, but confession of the details of sin was private and absolution was gradually pushed back until it was granted on confession and before the Penance began. From this developed the ‘private Penance’ of today, with its confession, absolution, and light formal penance. The Fourth Lateran Council (1215) required every Christian to confess his or her sins to the parish priest at least once a year. By 1500 the system of regular confession was sufficiently ubiquitous to be a major target of the Church's more radical critics. In the E. a similar development took place, though here Penance was bound up with spiritual direction, which was not confined to the priesthood, and absolution is not always mentioned. By the 15th cent. private confession to a priest, followed by a prayer for forgiveness, was a generally accepted practice among lay people.

The theology of Penance depends on the ability of the Church to intercede for sinners and the power of its ministers to absolve them. In the W. Church, however, it came to be held that post-Baptismal sin must be atoned for in part by the punishment of the sinner. Owing to the grave inconvenience occasioned by long Penances, the system of commutation grew up. A Penance of years could be compressed into a single day by the payment of money or its place taken by the repeated recitation of the Psalter in an uncomfortable position. This idea of commutation affected the development of indulgences (q.v.).

The 1973 RC Order of Penance provides three rites, one of which allows the granting of absolution without individual confession of sins in the presence of a priest, but its use is severely restricted and those penitents who benefit from it are bound to confess their sins at a later date. In the C of E the use of Penance for those who wished for it was revived in the 19th cent. on the basis of the provisions in the BCP Visitation of the Sick. Several modern Anglican liturgies contain a rite for the Reconciliation of a Penitent.See also SEAL OF CONFESSION.

penance , sacrament of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Eastern churches. By it the penitent (the person receiving the sacrament) is absolved of his or her sins by a confessor (the person hearing the confession and conferring the sacrament). Every Catholic is required to confess all his or her mortal (serious) sins before receiving communion and at least once a year. A penitent need confess only sins committed since baptism or since his or her last confession. To make the sacrament valid the confessor must be a priest and the penitent must be contrite and possess a firm purpose of amendment. Sins inadvertently forgotten after a careful examination of conscience are included in the absolution. Before granting absolution, the confessor, acting as an instrument of both God and the Church, may admonish the sinner, and he imposes a penance (a punishment, usually consisting of prayers). The penitent is required to make restitution for injuries to others. According to a canon of the Council of Trent, Jesus instituted this sacrament when he first appeared to the disciples after the resurrection (John 20.19–23). Following the Second Vatican Council, the Roman Catholic Church introduced the liturgy for a new communal penitential service, during which the individual has the opportunity to confess privately to a priest. Absolution is still granted only on an individual basis. In the Eastern churches confession is required before communion, but there has been no development of moral theology or of casuistry comparable to that of the West. The priest acts in the sacrament only as an instrument of God, who forgives sins by the sacrament.

pen·ance / ˈpenəns/ • n. 1. voluntary self-punishment inflicted as an outward expression of repentance for having done wrong: he had done public penance for those hasty words. 2. a Christian sacrament in which a member of the Church confesses sins to a priest and is given absolution. In the Roman Catholic Church often called sacrament of reconciliation. ∎  a religious observance or other duty required of a person by a priest as part of this sacrament to indicate repentance. • v. [tr.] archaic impose a penance on: a hair shirt to penance him for his folly in offending.

Penance. In Christianity, punishment (Lat., poena) for sin. By the 3rd cent. the system had emerged in which the sinner, after public confession, was placed, once only in his or her life, in an order of ‘penitents’, excluded from communion and committed to a severe course of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving for a specified time. This scarcely workable system gave place to another, originally Celtic, in which confession was made privately. Public penance continued for notorious offences. From all this developed the Catholic practice of confession, absolution, and light penance.

penance Carrying out of a specified act as a mark of sincere regret following the commission of a sin or sins. The most common penance, prescribed by a priest after absolution, is to say a prayer at a special time.

penance †repentance, penitence; penitential discipline or observance XIII; ordinance for administering this (one of the sacraments) XIV. — OF.:— L. pænitentia PENITENCE; see -ANCE.

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