An obsolete form of honorary satisfaction, customary in the Church in France as late as the seventeenth century. It was performed at the bidding of the ecclesiastical judge, and within the precinct of his court, though at one time it could be enforced at the church door or in some other public place. It was ordinarily inflicted only on condemned criminals, who appeared stripped to the shirt, barefoot and bareheaded, with candle in hand, and begged pardon of God, the king, and of justice.
ANDRE-WAGNER, Dict. de droit can., 3d. ed., I, 93, 94.