Did the Puritans Prescribe Penance?

[hornj]

Would a conforming English Puritan minister, of around 1600, be expected to give a congregant a schedule of penance? I'm suspecting that this is an inclination against the minister having Puritan leanings, since I would assume the Puritans would see penance as as a relic of Catholicism, and not in accordance with the Bible's teaching on church discipline.

I'm hoping that someone here has some information on this admitted very specific question, as in some research on a specific minister I came across records of penance, and am trying to figure out if it is likely he had Puritan sympathies.

Thanks

 

[The Original Secession]

It would probably he helpful to name the minister and location... You know?

 

[alexanderjames]

How are you defining penance?

The Puritans often urged deeper repentance, in humiliation and mourning with prayer and even fasting, and of course held church discipline in high importance. There was also preaching about making amendment for sins committed in so far as appropriate.

I am not sure of examples about Puritans prescribing certain forms of "penance" for specific individuals.

 

[jacobcandler1689]

The puritans, following the reformers and the early reformed orthodox, denied a divinely-instituted sacrament of penance and would not have prescribed that to members of their congregations.

 

[hornj]

It would probably he helpful to name the minister and location... You know?

Sure, yes. This would be Henry Fletcher curate of Austerfield, Yorkshire. He was involved in the case of Margaret Chatburne, she was prescribed
penitential clothing for fornication by the archdeaconry court in 1621. The catalog records are here and here if anyone is interested.

The reason that he is of interest is that he was the minister in the hometown of William Bradford, the future pilgrim.

How are you defining penance?

The churchwardens and minister one or twice a year were supposed to file what was called a presentment of any issues at their church, whether non conformity, building maintenance, or certain sins that were dealt with by church courts (non attendance, sabbath breaking, sexual sin, witchcraft, etc). This was sent to the archdeaconry court, and if they chose to act, punishments like penance or excommunication would be prescribed.

At least that's how I think it worked at this time, I'd welcome any further information.

 

[Phil D.]

From what I've read, Archdeaconry courts were also known as Bawdry courts, because they dealt mainly with sexual offenses. Sentencing sometimes involved having the convicted do a "penance of sheets," meaning they had to go about dressed in a white sheet for a prescribed numbers of days. The practice is not directly derived from anything in the Anglican documents of faith (BCP, 39 Articles), but rather a holdover practice from England's RC days that later courts sometimes still employed. In terms of something like that being Puritan, I would say that the absence of anything to that effect in writings of those who are commonly categorized as such (so far as I know) effectively answers the question with a "no."