532 
PENANCE. 
of his temper it was a great excitement to know that he 
was working by the piece. He talked himfelf ordinarily 
at ten pfalters and thirty thoufand lathes a-day, at which 
rate he would have redeemed three thoufand tix hundred 
and'fifty years of purgatory per annum ; and, as Domi¬ 
nic is faid never to have committed any other fin in his 
life than that of confenting to the prefent of the furred 
robe, one year of fuch difcipline might have been thought 
full meafure and overflowing for that offence. But, in 
addition to this regular allowance, he ufed to petition 
his fuperior in Lent for a fupplementary talk of an hun¬ 
dred years; and then his day’s work was two pfalters 
and a half, with thirty-four thoufand five hundred 
ftripes. Even this did not fatisfy the ambitious Domi¬ 
nic. He was already creditor to a large amount in the 
angel’s books; but no good works can be loft; all that 
was over and above the fum neceflary for his own re¬ 
demption from purgatory would go to the great finking 
fund of the holy Catholic church; and Dominic there¬ 
fore continued to flog himfelf with more fpirit than ever, 
for the good of his fellow-creatures. He entreated and 
obtained, during another Lent, the impofition of a thou¬ 
fand years; and St. Pietro Damiano affirms, that in thefe 
forty days he aftually recited the pfalter two hundred 
times, and inflifted upon himfelf fixty millions of ftripes, 
working away during the recitation with a fcourge in 
each hand. This was in addition to his regular talk ; 
and I neither know, fays Yepes, how his head thould have 
been capable of repeating fo many pfalms, nor how his 
arms could have had ftrength to give him fo many blows, 
nor how his fleffi, not being of iron, could have endured 
fo inhuman a battery. In him, however, increafe of 
appetite grew by what it fed on ; and like our pedef- 
trians, who go on walking hour after hour, till they 
afcertain theutmoft exertion which their abufed ftrength 
is capable of enduring, he, in an heroic mood, determined 
once to flog himfelf, in the jockey phrafe, a'gainft time. 
’* In this noble feat, he fo far outdid all his former outdo- 
ings, that beginning in the evening, and tinging and flog¬ 
ging through the day and night, at the end of twenty-four 
hours he had gone through the pfalms twelve times, began 
them a thirteenth time, and proceeded as faras Beati qua- 
rum, the 32dpfalm; the quota of ftripes being 183,100, 
thereby reducing purgatory-ftock in the amount of lixty- 
one years, twelve days, and thirty-three minutes, to a 
fraction. 
With regard to the authenticity of this account, it 
refts upon the authority of Pietro Damiano, faint and 
cardinal; and he relates it from his own perfonal know¬ 
ledge, in an epillle to pope Alexander II. It is laid down 
as an axiom by Ambrofia Morales, that whatever one 
fair.t relates of another, is to be implicitly believed ; and 
Calmet, living in a lefs credulous age and country, pre- 
mifing that the ftatement appears incredible, fays, that 
after feeing it confirmed by St. Pietro Damiano, “there 
ought to be no further hefitation ;” la chofe ve doit faire 
imcune dijjiculte. It feems, however, that certain awk¬ 
ward doubts refpedting the poffibility of Dominic’s ex¬ 
ploits obtruded themfelves upon the minds of thofe who 
were very defirous of believing them if they could. It 
appears, upon calculating the great achievement of the 
four-and-twenty hours, that if during the whole of that 
time he had given himfelf two blows (that is, one with 
each hand, for he always ufed both) in every fecond, the 
number would have been 172,800, being 10,300 fliort of 
the ftated amount. Padre Maeftro Caftaniza fuppofes 
that Dominic’s cats had ten tails each, and that every 
tail was reckoned ; but this mode of reckoning would fa¬ 
vour fo much of vain-glory, not to fay deceit, that other 
writers rejeft the folution, as derogatory both to the faint 
and his canonized biographer. They therefore agree 
with Caftaniza, that “ the divine grace which the 
Almighty imparts to his fervants produces in them mar¬ 
vellous eftefts, however weak they may be by nature ;” 
and fo they take the fum total without lcruple. But the 
faying Credo quia impofflbile eft, will not pafs current out 
of the pale of Catholicifm; and a Proteftant may be al¬ 
lowed toalk, how Dominic contrived to reckon the ftripes 
while he was finging the pfalms? Another queftion will 
have already occurred to the reader, was Dominic in his 
cuirafs all the while ? if he were, he might have laid on 
as luftily as Sancho upon the trees, and kept a whole {kin. 
But the cardinal mentions that he ftripped himfelf for the 
work. What, then, becomes of the affertion that the 
cuirafs was never taken off till it was worn out ? The 
ftory bears the ftamp of fraud as well as of folly and 
madnefs ; and the church, which has accredited it by ca¬ 
nonizing the man, whether knave or fool, or both, thereby' 
encouraging the groffeft fuperftition and the molt abfurd 
practices, is implicated in the impofture. 
As the mythology of Greece was lefs grofs than that 
of Egypt, and that of Egypt lefs fo than that of India ; 
fo the penances and felf-tortures of the Hindoo fakeers, 
yogeys, and faniaffes, exceed in extravagance and folly 
every thing that we have related above. See the article 
Hindoostan, vol. x. p. 148-52. 
Penance, in our common law, is an ecclefiaftical pu« 
niffiment, ufed in the difcipline of the church of England, 
and affefting the body of the penitent; by which he is 
obliged to give a public fatisfaftion to the church for 
the Icandal he hath given by his evil example. In the cafe 
ofinceft or incontinency, the offender is ufuaily enjoined 
to do a public penance in the cathedral, or parifh-church, 
or public market, barelegged and bareheaded, in a white 
ffieet, and to make an open confeffion of his crime in a 
prefcribed form of words, which is augmented or mode¬ 
rated according to the quality of the fault, and the dif- 
cretion of the judge. So in fmaller faults and fcandals, 
a public fatisfadtion or penance, as the judge ffiall decree, 
is to be made before the minifter, churchwardens, or 
fome of the pariffioners, refpedt being had to the quality 
of the offence, and circumftances of the faSt, as in the 
cafe of defamation, or laying violent hands on a minifter, 
or the like. And, as thefe cenfures may be moderated by 
the judge’s difcretion, according to the nature of the 
offence, fo alfo they may be totally altered by a commu¬ 
tation of penance: and it hath been the ancient privi¬ 
lege of the ecclefiaftical judge to admit that an oblation 
of a fum of money for pious ufes (hall be accepted in fa- 
tisfadlion of public penance. But penance mull be firft 
enjoined, before there can be a commutation; or other- 
wile it is a commutation for nothing. Linwood and other 
canonifts mention three forts of penance : viz. private, 
enjoined by any prieftin hearing confeffion ; public, en¬ 
joined by the prieft for any notorious crime, either with 
or without the bifhop’s licence according to the cuftom of 
the country ; and folemn, the particulars of which are 
prefcribed by the conftitution of archbiftiop Peckham. 
By the ftatute of “ Circumfpedte agatis,” (13 Edw. I. flat. 
4.) the kingtohis judges fendeth greeting: Ufe yourfelves 
circumfpedtly concerning the biftiops and their clergy, not 
punifiiing them if they hold plea in court-chriftian of fuch 
things as be mere fpiritual; that is, to acts of penance 
enjoined by prelates for deadly fin, as fornication, adul¬ 
tery, and luch like ; for the which fometimes corporal pe¬ 
nance, and fometimes pecuniary is enjoined, (2 Roll. 
Rep. 384,) in which cafes the lpiritual judge ffiall have 
power to take knowledge, notwithrtanding the king’s 
prohibitions. By the ftatute of “ Articuli Cleri,” (9 
Edw. II. flat. 1. c. 2.) if a prelate enjoins a penance pecu¬ 
niary to a man for his offence, and it be demanded, the 
king’s prohibition (hall hold place 5 but, if prelates enjoin 
a penance corporal, and they which be fopuniffied will 
redeem upon their own accord fuch penance by money ; 
if money be demanded before a fpiritual judge, the-king’s 
prohibition ffiall hold no place. And by the fame ftatute, 
(c. 3.) if any lay violent hands on a clerk, the amends 
for the peace broken ffiall be before the king, and for the 
excommunication before a prelate, that corporal penance 
may be enjoined; which if the offender will redeem of his 
own 
