Pen″ance (?), n. [OF. penance, peneance, L. paenitentia repentance. See Penitence.] 1. Repentance. Wyclif (Luke xv. 7).
2. Pain; sorrow; suffering. “Joy or penance he feeleth none.” Chaucer.
3. (Eccl.) A means of repairing a sin committed, and obtaining pardon for it, consisting partly in the performance of expiatory rites, partly in voluntary submission to a punishment corresponding to the transgression. Penance is the fourth of seven sacraments in the Roman Catholic Church. Schaff-Herzog Encyc.
And bitter penance, with an iron whip. Spenser.
Quoth he, “The man hath penance done,
And penance more will do.” Coleridge.