Poenitentiam agite

The Latin term poenitentiam agite is used in the first of the Ninety-Five Theses of Martin Luther, and variously translated into English as 'repent' or 'do penance'.^[1] The phrase was also used as a rallying cry by the Dulcinian movement and its predecessors, the Apostolic Brethren, two radical movements of the Medieval period.^[2]

The term is part of the larger quotation from St. Jerome's Vulgate translation of Matthew 3:2 (as said by John the Baptist) and Matthew 4:17 (as repeated by Jesus of Nazareth): Pœnitentiam agite: appropinquavit enim regnum cælorum ('Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand').^[3]

The term is translated from the original Greek command μετανοεῖτε (metanoeite),^[4] which some post-Vulgate translators (including Erasmus) alternatively render in Latin as resipiscite – a translation that favors the connotation of changing one's internal state of mind,^[5] rather than the connotation of engaging in external penitential action.^[6] The Greek μετανοεῖτε is alternatively translated within the Vulgate at Mark 1:15 as pœnitemini,^[7] a translation more similar in connotation to resipiscite.^[1] The translational issue is often used to justify positions on the subject of sacramental penance.