penance vs tormenting

penance

noun
  • Any instrument of self-punishment. 

  • A voluntary self-imposed punishment for a sinful act or wrongdoing. It may be intended to serve as reparation for the act. 

  • A sacrament in some Christian churches. 

verb
  • To impose penance; to punish. 

tormenting

noun
  • The act by which somebody is tormented. 

adj
  • Involving or causing torment. 

How often have the words penance and tormenting occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )