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".{{cite book |last=Campbell |first=George |title=The Four Gospels, Translated from the Greek, with Preliminary Dissertations, and Notes Critical and Explanatory, Vol. I |publisher=Gould and Newman |location=New York |year=1837 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DPpJAAAAMAAJ&q=Poenitentiam+agite&pg=PA358 |isbn=978-0-559-84612-0 |page=358}}

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.[http://www.ilgrido.org/Grido%20-%20letteratura/recensioni/fra_dolcino.htm Fra Dolcino] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081119144009/http://www.ilgrido.org/Grido%20-%20letteratura/recensioni/fra_dolcino.htm |date=2008-11-19 }} Il Grido {{in lang|it}}

The term is part of the larger quotation from St. Jerome's Vulgate translation of Mt. 3:2 (as said by John the Baptist) and Mt. 4:17 (as repeated by Jesus of Nazareth): Pœnitentiam agite: appropinquavit enim regnum cælorum ("Repent: the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand").See the translations at {{cite web |url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/vul/mat003.htm |title=Sacred Texts: Matthew Chapter 3}} and {{cite web |url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/vul/mat004.htm |title=Sacred Texts: Matthew Chapter 4 |accessdate=2009-06-18}}

The term is translated from the original Greek command μετανοεῖτε (English transliteration: "metanoeite"),{{cite web |url=http://www.greekbible.com/index.php |title=Greek Bible: Mt. 3:2 |accessdate=2009-06-18}} 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,{{cite web |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=metanoew&la=greek#lexicon |title=A Greek-English Lexicon:μετανοεω |last=Liddell |first=Henry George |accessdate=2010-09-07}} rather than the connotation of engaging in external penitential action.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mkmcaVKsXbgC&q=%22poenitentiam+agite%22+vulgate+translation+greek&pg=PA187 |page=187 |last=McKim |first=Donald K. |isbn=978-0-8308-1452-7 |title=Historical Handbook of Major Biblical Interpreters |location=Downers Grove, IL |publisher=InterVarsity Press |year=1998}} The Greek μετανοεῖτε is alternatively translated within the Vulgate at Mk. 1:15 as "pœnitemini,"{{cite web |url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/vul/mar001.htm#015 |title=Sacred Texts: Mark Chapter 1 |accessdate=2009-06-18}} a translation more similar in connotation to "resipiscite." The translational issue is often used to justify positions on the subject of sacramental penance.