Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/699

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

PENANCE


635


PENITENTES


Good summaries are also given by some Catholic authors, e. g., MoHLER, Si/mbolism, tr. 1S43 (reprint London and New York, 1S94); ScH\xz, Die Lehre d, heiligen Sacramenten (Freiburg. 1S94). — Among Protestant writers, sec: Posey, Entire Absolu- tion of the Penitent (Oxford. 1846); Maskell. An Inquiry upon the Doctrine of the Church of England upon Absolution (London. 1819): Boyd, Confession, Absolution and the Real Presence (London, 1867); Ackebmann, Die Beichte (Hamburg, 1853): SlEFFERT. Die neuesten theolog. Forschungen Uber Busse u. Glaube (Berlin, 1896); Harnack, Lehrb. d. Dogmengesch., I (1894-7); Drory. Confession and Absolution (London, 1903); Loofs. Leilfaden d. Dogmengesch. (4th ed.. Halle. 1906) ; HoLL. Enthusias- mus u. Bussgewalt beim griechischen Monchthum (Leipzig, 1908) ; Lea, a History of Auricular Confession (Philadelphia. 1898) [for criticism of this work see Casey, Notes on a Hist, of Auricular Confession (Philadelphia, 1899)1; Boudinhon, Sur I'histoire de la penitence in Revue d histoire et de littirature religieuses (1897), 306, 496 ; VacandaRD, Le pouvoir des clefs in Revue du clerge frnn^ais, 1898-99 ; DoHL, Etude sur M. Lea in Revue critique d' histoire et de litterature {189S); Delplace, Hist, of Auric. Conf. in Am. Eccl. Rev. (1899); Graham in Am. Cath. Q. Rev., XXXIV (1909)1.

See also bibliographies under Pexitential Canons; Sacra- ment; Indulgences.

Edwahd J. Hanna.

Penance, Works of. See Mortification; Repa- ration.

Pendleton, Hknry, controversialist, b. at Man- chester; d. in London, Sept., 1.5.57; educated at Brase- nose College, Oxford, where he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity, 18 July, 1552. Though he had preached against Lutheranism in Henry VIII's reign, he conformed under Edward VI and was appointed by Lord Derby as an itinerant Protestant preacher. In 1552 he received the living of Blymhill, Staffordshire. He is described as "an able man, handsome and ath- letic, possessed of a fine clear voice, of ready speech and powerful utterance " (Halley, "Lancashire"). On the accession of Mary he returned to the Catholic Church, and during 1554 received much preferment. He was made canon of St. Paul's and of Lichfield, Vicar of To- denham, Gloucester, and St. MartinOutwichin London ; in 1556 he exchanged the latter living for St. Stephen Walbrook. He was appointed chaplain to Bishop Bonner, for whom he wrote two homilies: "Of the Church what it is", and "Of the Authority of the Church". He also wrote "Declaration in his sickness of his faith or belief in all points as the Catholic Church teacheth against sclaunderous reports against him" (London, 1557). Foxe, who purports to record some of his discussions with persons charged with heresy, states that on his death-bed he repented of his conversion; but the authority of this writer can never be accepted without confirming evidence which in this instance, as in so many others, is lacking.

PoLLiRD in Diet. Nat. Biog. ; Gillow. Bibl. Diet. Eng. Cath.; Foster, .Uumni Oxonienses (Oxford, 1891) ; a Wood, Athence Oionienses (London, 1813-20) ; Donn, Church History, I (Brussels vere Wolverhampton, 1737); Hennessey, Novum Repertorium Parochiale Londinense (London, 1898).

Edwin Burton.

Penelakut Indians, a small tribe of Salishan stock, speaking a dialect of the Cowichan language and occu- jiying a limited territory at the south end of Vancouver Lsland, B. C, with present reservations on Kuper, Tent, and Galiano Islands and at the mouth of Che- mainus River, included in the Cowichan agency. From disease and dissipation introduced by the coast- ing vessels of early days, from changes consequent upon the influx of white immigration about 1858, and from the smallpox visitation upon Southern British Columbia in 1862, they are now reduced in number from 1000 of a century ago to about 250, of whom 140 live at the Penelakut village. They depended upon the sea for subsistence, and in their primitive cu.stoms, beliefs, and ceremonials resembled their kindred, the neighbouring Songish, and the cognate Squawmish about the mouth of Eraser River on the opposite coast. Some of them may have come under the teaching of Fr. Demers and the .Icsuits as early as 1841, but regu- lar mission work dates from the arrival of the secular


priest, Fr. John Bolduc, who was brought over by the Hudson Bay Company in 1843 to minister to the Indians about the newly established post of Camosun, now Victoria. The mission work of the Oblate Fathers in the Vancouver and lower Eraser River region began with Fr. Paul Durieu in 1854. Like most of the Sali- shan tribes of British Columbia they are now entirely Catholic and of exemplary morality. The Penelakut live by fishing, boat building, farming, labouring work, and hunting; have generally good health and sanitary conditions, fairly good houses, kept neatly, and well-cared-for stock and farm implements. They are an "industrious and law abiding people, temperate and moral, a few of them only being addicted to the use of liquor". The centre of instruction is a Catholic boarding school maintained on Kuper island. (See also Saanich, Songish, Squawmish.)

Bancroft. History of British Columbia (San Francisco, 1887); Dept. Ind, Affairs, Canada, annual repts. (Ottawa); Reports on the Northwestern Tribes of Canada by various authors in British Association for the Advancement of Science (London, 1885-98).

James Mooney.

Penitentes, Los Hermanos (The Penitent Broth- ers), a society of flagellants existing among the Span- ish of New "Mexico and Colorado. The subject will be considered under two headings: I. The Practices of the Penitentes. II. Their Origin and History. I. — Practices. — The Hermanos Penitentes are a society of individuals, who, to atone for their sins, practise pen- ances which consist principally of flagellation, carry- ing heavy crosses, binding the body to a cross, and tying the limbs to hinder the circulation of the blood. These practices have prevailed in Colorado and New Mexico since the beginning of the nineteenth century. Up to the year 1890, they were public; at present they are secret, though not strictly. The Hermanos Penitentes are men; fifty years ago they admitted women and children into separate organizations, which, however, were never numerous. The society has no general organization or supreme authority. Each fraternit}' is local and independent with its own officers. The chief officer, hermano mayor (elder brother), has absolute authority, and as a rule holds office during life. The other officers are the same as those of most secret societies: chaplain, serjeant- at-arms, etc. The ceremony of the initiation, which takes place during Holy Week, is simple, excepting the final test. The candidate is escorted to the morada (aboile), the home, or council house, by two or more Penitentes where, after a series of questions and an- swers consisting in the main of prayer, he is admitted. He then undergoes various humiliations. First, he washes the feet of all present, kneeling before each; then he recites a long prayer, asking pardon for any offence he may have given. If any one present has been offended by the candidate, he lashes the offender on the bare back. Then comes the last and crucial test : four or six incisions, in the shape of a cross, are made just below the shoulders of the candidate with a piece of flint.

Flagellation, formerly practised in the streets and in the churches, is now, since the American occupation, confined generally to the morada and performed with a short whip (dlmplina), made from the leaf of the amole weed. Fifty years ago the Hermanos Penitentes would issue from their morada (in some places, as Taos, N. M., three hundred strong), stripped to the waist and scourging thera.selves, led by the acorn panadores (escorts), and preceded by a few Penitentes dragging heavy crosses {maderos) ; the procession was accompan- ied by a throng, singing Christian hymns. A wooden wagon {el carro de la muerte) bore a figure representing death and pointing forward an arrow with stretched bow. This procession went through the streets to the church, where the Penitentes prayed, continued their scourgings, returned in proce.'ision to the morada. Other modes of self-castigatiou were often resorted to: