Instances of extraordinary penance abound, beside which the austerities of Simon Stylites almost pale.

And having proceeded three days and nights, that best of women came to an incomparable penance grove of ascetics, resembling in beauty a celestial grove.

And this year must be a penance year; I had made up my mind to that before I fell ill.

But straight, as if it had some penance bore, A mourning garb of thick black clouds it wore.

Yet in her winters bowre not well awake: Tell her the ioyous time wil not be staid, Unlesse she doe him by the forelock take; Bid her therefore her selfe soone ready make, To wayt on Love amongst his lovely crew, Where every one that misseth then her make* Shall be by him amearst with penance dew.

It is said, but I find it not in the Bible, that Solomon repented him much of this sin of idolatry and did much penance therefor, for he let him be drawn through Jerusalem and beat himself with rods and scourges, that the blood flowed in the sight of all the people.

For as the pilgrims, wearing, all, the cross For penance journey to Jerusalem, So will I, conscious of my grievous stain, Lead you against these foes of other faith Who at the bound'ry line, from Africa, My people threaten and my peaceful land.

"Down leap the French, on bended knee They fall for benison; and he Doth lay on all a penance light To strike their hardest in the fight.

And as a penance mark each prayer With the scourge upon your shoulders bare; Nothing atones for such a sin But the blood that follows the discipline.

She vanish'd, we can scarcely say she died; For but a now did heaven and earth divide: She pass'd serenely with a single breath; This moment perfect health, the next was death: One sigh did her eternal bliss assure; So little penance needs, when souls are almost pure.

What mulct, what penance soever is enjoined, they dare not but do it, tumble with St. Francis in the mire amongst hogs, if they be appointed, go woolward, whip themselves, build hospitals, abbeys, &c., go to the East or West Indies, kill a king, or run upon a sword point: they perform all, without any muttering or hesitation, believe all.

We think it is not improbable that it is from the Jews that the Roman Catholics derived their scourging penance system.

The diet is a fast one, just as the hard beds are penance beds, and no one can procure anything different at Novy Afon for any amount of money.

His hands instinctively clasped as he felt the pain of the penance belt, worn in memory of his slain father.