What is "stool of repentance"

Stool \Stool\, n. [AS. st[=o]l a seat; akin to OFries. & OS. st[=o]l, D. stoel, G. stuhl, OHG. stuol, Icel. st[=o]ll, Sw. & Dan. stol, Goth. st[=o]ls, Lith. stalas a table, Russ. stol'; from the root of E. stand. [root]163. See Stand, and cf. Fauteuil.]

1. A single seat with three or four legs and without a back, made in various forms for various uses.

2. A seat used in evacuating the bowels; hence, an evacuation; a discharge from the bowels.

3. A stool pigeon, or decoy bird. [U. S.]

4. (Naut.) A small channel on the side of a vessel, for the dead-eyes of the backstays.
   --Totten.

5. A bishop's seat or see; a bishop-stool.
   --J. P. Peters.

6. A bench or form for resting the feet or the knees; a footstool; as, a kneeling stool.

7. Material, such as oyster shells, spread on the sea bottom for oyster spat to adhere to. [Local, U.S.]

   Stool of a window, or Window stool (Arch.), the flat piece upon which the window shuts down, and which corresponds to the sill of a door; in the United States, the narrow shelf fitted on the inside against the actual sill upon which the sash descends. This is called a window seat when broad and low enough to be used as a seat.

   Stool of repentance, the cuttystool. [Scot.]

   Stool pigeon, a pigeon used as a decoy to draw others within a net; hence, a person used as a decoy for others.

The Stool of Repentance in Presbyterian polity, mostly in Scotland, was an elevated seat in a church used for the public penance of persons who had offended against the morality of the time, often through fornication and adultery. At the end of the service the offender usually had to stand upon the stool to receive the rebuke of the minister.

The humiliation associated with sitting on the stool and publicly repenting one's sins often drove people to suicide, or women to conceal their pregnancy and even to kill their child, rather than face the congregation and Kirk Session.

An alternative to, or commutation of, the Stool of Repentance was payment of buttock mail.

A harp tune commemorates the tradition.

Stool of Repentance is a parlour game for children and adults. The players sit in a circle around a stool.

One of the group (the "victim") leaves the room, and the rest say or write all sorts of things about him or her. For instance, one will say he or she is handsome, another that he or she is clever, or stupid, or vain. The "victim" is called back to sit on the stool, and one of the players begins to tell or read him or her the different charges that were made against him or her. "Someone said you were vain; can you guess who?" If the victim guesses correctly, he or she returns to the circle, and the person who made the accusation takes the stool as the new "victim". If, however, the "victim" is unable to guess correctly, he or she must leave the room again and fresh charges are made against him or her. The game almost certainly takes its name from the old Scottish church custom of the same name.