locus poenitentiae
Preserved but no longer current.
Place for repentance —that is, the licence of drawing back from a bargain, which can be done before any act has been committed to confirm it. In the interview between Esau and his father Isaac, St. Paul says that the former "found no place for repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears" (Heb. xii, 17)— i.e. no means whereby Isaac could break his bargain with Jacob.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “locus poenitentiae” mean?
Place for repentance —that is, the licence of drawing back from a bargain, which can be done before any act has been committed to confirm it. In the interview between Esau and his father Isaac, St. Paul says that the former "found no place for repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears" (Heb. xii, 17)— i.e. no means whereby Isaac could break his bargain with Jacob.
Is “locus poenitentiae” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.