Our navigation bar is loading . . .

Helping San Diego, California and beyond since 1997.

Do you need volunteer, community service, work, military or court hours?

Click here and add this page to your favorites!

Encyclopedia Britannica

PENANCE (Old Fr. penance, fr. Lat. poenitentia, penitence)

This article appears in Volume V21, Page 84 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: PAS-PER

PENANCE (Old Fr. penance, fr. Lat. poenitentia, penitence) , strictly, repentance of sins. Thus in the Douai version of the New "Testament the Greek word erfivota is rendered "

penance

PENANCE (Old Fr. penance, fr. Lat. poenitentia, penitence)

," where the Authorized Version has " repentance." The two words, similar in their derivation and

original

ORIGINAL

sense, have however come to be symbolical of conflicting views of the essence of repentance, arising out of the controversy as to the respective merits of " faith " and " good works." The Reformers, upholding the

doctrine

DOCTRINE

justification

JUSTIFICATION

by faith, held that repentance consisted in a

change

CHANGE (derived through the Fr. from the Late Lat. cambium, cambiare, to barter; the ultimate derivation is probably from the root which appears in the Gr. 冠 urmu', to bend)

of the whole moral attitude of the mind and soul (E7rtarpEaOa1, Matt. xiii. 15; Luke xxii. 32), and that the Divine forgiveness followed true repentance and

confession

CONFESSION (Lat. confessio, from confiteor, acknowledge, confess)

to God without any reparation of " works." This is the view generally held by Protestants. In the Roman Catholic Church the

sacrament

SACRAMENT

penance

PENANCE (Old Fr. penance, fr. Lat. poenitentia, penitence)

consists of three parts: contritio, confhssia, salisfactio. Contritio is in fact repentance as

Protestant

PROTESTANT

theologians understand it, i.e. sorrow for sin arising from love of God, and long before the Reformation the schoolmen debated the question whether complete "contrition" was or was not in itself sufficient to obtain the Divine pardon. The Council of Trent, however, decided that " reconciliation " could not follow such contrition without the other parts of the

sacrament

SACRAMENT

, which form part of it (sine sacramenti voto, quod in ilia includatur). Contrition is also distinguished from " attrition " (atlritio), i.e. repentance due to fear of

punishment

PUNISHMENT (from Lat. punire, to punish, from poena, punishment, Gr. 7rocvil)

. It was questioned whether a state of mind thus produced would suffice for obtaining the benefits of the sacrament; this point was also set at rest by the Council of Trent, which decided that attrition, though not in itself capable of obtaining the

justification

JUSTIFICATION

of the sinner, is also inspired by God and thus disposes the soul to benefit by the grace of the sacrament.
The word " penance," applied to the whole sacrament, is also used of the works of

satisfaction

SATISFACTION (Lat. salisfacerc, to satisfy)

imposed by the priest on the penitent, i.e. the temporal

punishment

PUNISHMENT (from Lat. punire, to punish, from poena, punishment, Gr. 7rocvil)

(poena). This varies with the character and heinousness of the offences committed. In the middle ages " doing penance " was often a process as terrible and humiliating to the penitent as it was possibly edifying to the Church. Public penances have, how-ever, long been abolished in all branches of the Christian Church. (See

CONFESSION

CONFESSION (Lat. confessio, from confiteor, acknowledge, confess)

.)

End of Article: PENANCE (Old Fr. penance, fr. Lat. poenitentia, penitence)

If you wish, you can link directly to this article.

<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/PAS_PER/PENANCE_Old_Fr_penance_fr_Lat_.html">
PENANCE (Old Fr. penance, fr. Lat. poenitentia,...
</a>

(Previous)
PENALTY (Lat. poena, punishment)

(Next)
PENANG (Pulau Pinang, i.e. Areca-nut Island),

JCSM was founded in 1997 and exists to help the community and bring people into a life-changing and productive relationship with Jesus Christ. JCSM offers over 200,000 free web pages, including its weekly inspirational emails that were sent continuously for over a decade.

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries
P.O. Box 9297
San Diego, CA 92169
1-888-887-0417 or Email