RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Penitential Books Penn, William
individual orders have penance as their special object, either to cultivate the spirit of repentance in themselves and obligate themselves outwardly to strenuous works of contrition, or in the mission of charity to afford a rescue for fallen persons and lead them to repentance. The following are mentioned: (1) The Regular Tertiaries of the Orders of St. Francis and St. Dominic. See Francis, Saint, and Order of the Franciscans, IV., h. 3; and Dominic, Saint, and the Dominicans. (2) The Hermits of St. Augustine. See Augustinians. (3) The Order of Fontevraud. See Fontevraud, Order of.
(4) The Carmelite Nuns. See Theresa, Saint.
(5) Orders of St. Magdalen. See Magdalen, Saint, Orders of. (6) The Women of the Good Shepherd. See Women, Congregations of. (7) Ordo pcenitentioe sanctorum martyrum or Ordo Marice de Metro de pcenitentia, which flourished in Poland and Bohemia at the beginning of the sixteenth century; and (8) the Ordo religiosus de pcenitentia called Scalzetti at Rome and sometimes Nazaretti, founded by the Spaniard John Varella y Losada (d. 1769) and approved by Pope Pius VI. in 1784; and a considerable number of organizations of only local significance.
PENITENTIAL PSALMS: The Church catholic classifies under this name Pss. vi., xxxii., xxxviii., li., cii., cxxx., and cxliii. The arrangement of these seven psalms in a class by themselves is probably later than Augustine, but was known in the seventh century (cf . Cassiodorus on Ps. vi., MPL, lxx. 60, cf . 65, and on Ps. cxlii., p. 1014). He associated them with the seven " remissions of sin in the Gospels," viz: baptism, sufferings in martyrdom, almsgiving, conversion of another, charity, forgiveness, and penitence. Since that time the penitential psalms have often been the subject of comment and were used in private devotions and in the liturgy. The Roman ritual prescribes their use in prayer for the sick, during the anointing with the sacred oil. In the Protestant Church the term was retained (cf. Luther's exposition published 1517 and 1525, and in his Werke, Erlangen ed. xxxvii. 340), without, however, making use of the penitential psalms for liturgical purposes. (A. Hauck.)
PENITENTIARY: The term applied in the Roman Catholic Church to a priest who imposes penance, especially one who represents the bishop. The penitentiaries must not be confused with the father confessors. Something of the sort is mentioned at an early date in the East (Socrates, Hist, eccl., V., xix.), and employment of them is enjoined by the tenth canon of the Lateran Council of 1215. Accordingly, in many dioceses episcopal penitentiaries were introduced and specially empowered as members of the chapter. At the same time, the innovation was by no means universal, and some bishops laid stricter claim to jurisdiction in reserved cases (see Casus Reservati). Under the modern organization of cathedral chapters increased regard is shown for the representation of the bishop in reserved cases by the appointment of one of his own canons. A distinct posnitentiarius major (" chief penitentiary ") stands at the head of the Pcenitentiaria in Rome, and is officially represented by the VIII.— 29
pcenitentiarii minores who are stationed at St. Peter's, at the Lateran, and in the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore for the faithful of all languages.
E. Sehling.
Bibliography: Bingham, Origines, XVIII., iii. 11-12; R. Hooker, Ecclesiastical Polity, VI., iv. 8-9 • J. C. W. Augusti, Handbuch der christlichen Archaologie, 3 vols Leipsic, 1836-37; DCA, ii. 1616-17.
PENITENTS: The term applied to those Christians in the early Church who, having fallen into sin, were under Church Discipline (q.v., I.) and were submitting to Penance (q.v.). The essential condition of penitents was that of probation prior to readmission into the Church. This period of probation differed at different times and in different places, varying from a few weeks to twenty years (the last only in a later period). In the early period the penitents were in four classes: mourners, hearers, kneelers, and co-standers, these degrees representing in a rough way progress toward reconciliation with the Church. Duties in the first grade were repeated confession before the church with tears and lamentations, abstention from ornaments of dress and signs of repentance in dishevelled hair and the like, abstention from gratification of the senses, marriage being prohibited during the term; in all grades positive signs of repentance were to be given by works of charity and benevolence. For discussion of the treatment of those who fell under temptation in times of persecution see Lapsed.
Bibliography: The literature and sources are fully indicated in and under the articles to which reference is made in the text.
PENN, WILLIAM: Quaker; b. in London Oct. 14, 1644; d. at Ruscomb (5 m. e.n.e. of Reading), Berkshire, July 30, 1718. His parents were Admiral Sir William Penn and Margaret, daughter of Johann Jasper of Rotterdam. The family-name is Welsh, meaning the crest of a hill. At the age of fifteen he was admitted as a gentleman commoner at Christ Church College, at Oxford, where he made large acquisitions as a scholar, and was distinguished for his excellence in field-sports and manly exercises. The instructions of Dr. John Owen, dean of Christ Church, gave him serious views of life; and he was deeply impressed by the preaching of the Quaker, Thomas Loe, an old Oxford student. Expelled from college for non-conformity (1661), he was harshly treated by his father, who because of his strict life sent him to France with a party of young nobles and gentlemen to be cured of the same. Presented to Louis XIV., he was a great favorite at court, and added to his former accomplishments all the social graces for which the French capital was famed, while at the same time he was kept pure from vice. At Saumur he attended with great interest the lectures of the Calvinistic theologian, Moiise Amyrault (q.v.). After a short stay in northern Italy, he returned to London in 1664, a good French scholar and a finished gentleman, and entered as a student of law at Lincoln's Inn. The great plague, which broke out a year afterward, gave his thoughts again a serious direction, and his father, to distract his mind, sent him to the gay and splendid vice-regal court of the Duke of Or-
Penn, William Pentecost