We quote the following from the _Cabinet Cyclopaedia_ history of these
countries:
_The Penitential Habit._
"From the fifth century," says Masden, "or from the beginning of the
sixth, the custom prevailed in Spain of the infirm, when so heavily
afflicted as to be in danger of death, piously assuming the tonsure and
the penitential habit, and engaging to continue both through life, if
God raised them up. As the use of this penance became common enough to
throw discredit on the piety of all who did not thus undertake it, if
the sick or dying man was unable to demand the habit, his relations or
friends could invest him with it, and his obligation to a penitential
life thenceforward was as great as if that obligation had been imposed,
not by others, but at his own request, since, as he was charitably
supposed to be thus piously inclined, he must of necessity wish to
become a penitent. This continued in force until king Chindaswind,
impressed with the abuses to which it had given rise, decreed that in
such cases the obligation imposed by others should be void unless the
patient should afterwards ratify it when in a sound state of mind.
Penitents of this class might remain in their own houses, without
seclusion within the walls of a monastery; but they were for ever
compelled to wear the habit and shaven crown, to shun business and
diversions, to lead exemplary and chaste lives: if single, they could
not marry; if married, they could not enjoy the privileges of the state:
hence, though they inhabited not the cloister, they were of the
religious order, and consecrated to God."
"This penance was not merely assumed by such as were anxious to make
atonement for some heavy sin; it was often voluntarily undertaken by
individuals whose lives had been blameless, and who were anxious by this
work of supererogation to increase their stock of merits. If the
penitent died of his disease, the intention of his sacrifice was
believed to be availing in the sight of Heaven; if he recovered, he
became a monk. No less a doom than excommunication, and a rigorous
penitential seclusion during life within the walls of a monastery, were
hurled against such as married, or used their conjugal privilege, or
laid down the habit. If, however, the married penitents were _very
young_ at the time he or she entered on the monastic obligation, in case
of recovery the bishop had power to permit the use of matrimony a
certain number of years. This was called an _indulgence_ or
_dispensation_, the _debitum conjugale_ being totally annihilated by the
obligations of the new state.
"This custom is not yet extinct in Spain, though, like many others of a
similar kind, its observance is daily weakening since the period of the
French revolution, and of the increased intercourse between the two
nations. Many of the greatest names in the Spanish annals voluntarily
assumed the profession, and thereby ceased to be laymen. Among these was
the author of Don Quixote."
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