Penitents (II). There are in the Roman Catholic Church several orders or fratei-nitiis (as they are called) of penitents, of both sexes. These are secidar societies, who have their rules, statutes, and churches, and make public processions under their particidar crosses or ban- ners. Of these it is said there are more than a hun- dred, the most considerable of which are as follows:
I. The White Penitents, of whom there are several different bodies at lioinc, the most ancient having been constituted in 1264 by Gonfalon, in the church of San Major: in imitation of which four others were estab- lished in the church of Ara-Cceli ; the first under the title of the Nativity of Christ, the second under the in- vocation of the Holy Virgin, the third under the (irotec- tion of the Holy Innocents, the fourth inuler the pat- ronage of St. Helena. The brethren of this fraternity every year give portions to a certain number of young girls as a marriage dower. The habit of these peni- tents is a kind of white sackcloth, and on the shoulder
White reuitent.
PENKNIFE
893
PENN
is a circle, in the middle of which is a red and white cross.
2. Black Penitents, the most considerable of which are the Brethren of Mercj', were instituted in 1488 by some Florentines, in order to attend criminals during' their imprisonment and at the time of tlieir death. On the day of execution they walk in procession before them, singing the seven penitential psahns and the litanies; and after they are dead they take them down from the gibbet and bury them. These penitents wear black sackcloth, and hence they are sometimes called Friars of the Sack. There are others whose business it is to bury such persons as are found dead in the streets : these wear a death's head on one side of their habit.
3. There are also blue, gray, red, green, and violet penitents, all whom are remarkable for little else besides the different colors of their habits.
4. Penitents or converts of the name of Jesus are a congregation of religious at Seville, in Spain, consisting of women who have led a licentious life. This mon- astery, founded in 1550, is divided into three quarters: one for professed religious, another for novices, and a third for those who are under correction. When these last give signs of a real repentance, they are removed into the quarter of the novices, where, if they do not behave themselves well, thej' are remanded to their cor- rection. They observe the rule of St. Augustine.
5. Penitents of Orvieto are an order of nuns instituted by Antonio Simoncelli, a gentleman of Orvieto, in Italy. The monastery he built was at first designed for the re- ception of poor girls abandoned by their parents, and in danger of losing their virtue. In 1G62 it was changed into a monastery, for the reception of such as, having abandoned themselves to impurity, were willing to re- form and consecrate themselves to God by solemn vows. Their rule is that of the Carmelites.
C. The Order of Penitents of St. Magdalen was estab- lished about the year 1272, by one Uernard, a citizen of Marseilles, who devoted himself to the work of con- verting the courtesans of that city. Bernard was sec- onded by several others, who, forming a kind of society, were at length erected into a religious order by pope Nicholas III, under the rule of St. Augustine. Gesney says they also made a religious order of the penitents, or women whom they converted, giving them the same rules and observances which they themselves kept.
7. The Congregation of Penitents of St. Magdalen of Paris. By virtue of a brief of pope Alexander, Simon, bishop of Paris, in 1407, drew them up a body of stat- utes, and gave them the rule of St, Augustine.
See Hist, du Clerrje secidier et ref)ulier, i, 361 sq. ; ii, 380; iii, 135, 249. See Magdalen, Religious Okdeu OF. (J. H.W.)
Penknife ("'fibtj "'"Pi, tdar has-sdpher, Jer. xxxvi, 23). The translaticm of this phrase by " pen- knife," is substantially correct, but a more literal ren- dering, " the scrivener's knife," would have been pref- erable; this was used to sharpen the point of the writ- ing-reed. See Knife ; Whiting,
Penn, Abram, M.D., a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was born in the county of Patrick, Va., in the j'car 1803. In early life he studied medicine, but while he was absent at Philadelphia, attending lect- ures, his wife died, which was the cause of his awaken- ing. He at once began to seek Christ, gave up the study of medicine, and returned home. Two years after he olTcred himself to the Virginia Conference, and was re- ceived on trial in 1825. He rose rapidly as a minister, and from his reception luitil broken down by disease he exhibited constancy, zeal, and a iniiformity and depth of piet}' seldom manifested. He was eminently success- ful as a preacher, and enjoyed a popularity almost un- bounded. His talents were not of tltc liighest order, yet he possessed a clear, vigorous, and comprehensive mind, well stored with valuable information. With a graceful diction, rich imagination, and great zeal and
earnestness of manner, he took a high position among the ministers of the Church. He was a devoted son of Methodism, an unflinching advocate of her doctrines and rights, of her polity and discipline. The leading feature of his character was a dauntless, straightforward honesty that needed no disguise for itself, and was im- patient of dissimulation and disguise in other men. Yet there was in Dr. Penn a fountain of geniality that made his society peculiarly agreeable, and secured him the ardent attachment of many warm and admiring friends. He suffered much in the later years of his life with a most distressing affection of the heart. Many times it brought him to the very gates of death, but he would rally again, and go on in the path of duty and toil. At length disease gained the mastery, and peace- fully, joyfully, he resigned his soul into the hands of his Creator. A life pious, devoted, and useful was crowned by a death calm, peaceful, triumphant. See Bennett, Mdhodismin Viryiiiia (Richmond, 1871, 12mo), p. 73 1 sq.