Amende Honorable

form of punishment in which a person must attend church or court with a rope around his neck and beg forgiveness from God and his fellow man (Latin)

Amende honorable was originally a mode of punishment in France which required the offender, stripped to his shirt, and led into a church or auditory with a torch in his hand and a rope round his neck held by the public executioner, to beg pardon on his knees of his God, his king, and his country; now used to denote a satisfactory apology or reparation.
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Ob. English Law. A penalty imposed upon a person by way of disgrace or infamy, as a punishment for any offence, or for the purpose of making reparation for any injury done to another, as the walking into church in a white sheet, with a rope about the neck, and a torch in the hand, and begging the pardon of God, or the king, or any private individual, for some delinquency.

A punishment somewhat similar to this, and which bore the same name, was common in France but was abolished in 1791.