punishment, either voluntary or imposed by authority, for the faults a person has committed. Penance is one of the seven sacraments of the Roman church. Besides fasting, alms, abstinence, and the like, which are the general conditions of penance, there are others of a more particular kind; as the repeating a certain number of Ave-Marys, Pater-nosters, and...

wearing a hair-shirt, and giving oneself a certain number of stripes. In Italy and Spain it is usual to see Christians almost naked, loaded with chains and a cross, and laughing themselves at every step.