Amongst the various moral and physical remedies introduced by the
priesthood and physicians for the benefit of society, flagellation once
held a most distinguished rank. As a remedy, it was supposed to reanimate
the torpid circulation of the capillary or cutaneous vessels, to increase
muscular energy, promote absorption, and favour the necessary secretions
of our nature. No doubt, in many instances, its action as a revulsive may
be beneficial; and urtication, or the stinging with nettles, has not
unfrequently been prescribed with advantage. As a religious discipline,
for such has this system of mortification been called, it has been
considered as most acceptable to Heaven; so much so, indeed, that the
fustigation was commensurate with the sinner's offence. Under the head of
Daemonomania I have endeavoured to show that whipping was equally agreeable
to the evil spirit, who delighted in flogging the elect.
It appears that at this period a belief prevailed that heavenly mercy
restored the grace that had been forfeited, commuting for temporal
punishment that which else would have been eternal. The monks of Fonte
Avellana, for instance, had decreed that thirty psalms, said or sung, with
an accompaniment of one hundred stripes to each psalm, would be considered
as a set-off for one year of purgatory; and, by this calculation, the
whole psalter, which would have demanded fifteen thousand stripes, would
have procured a relief of five years from the fiery ordeal. It was no
doubt under this impression that St. Dominic the Cuirassier, so named from
his wearing, day and night, an iron cuirass next his skin, and which he
never took off, adopted this same covering when, upon entering into
priest's orders, his parents presented the bishop who ordained him with a
rich fur garment, an offence for which the holy man wished to atone by
donning an iron vestment.
This said madman belonged to the congregation of Fonte Avellana, the monks
of which never touched either wine or oil, and, during five days of the
week, lived upon bread and water; moreover, every day after service they
flogged each other. Dominic, in extenuation of his family's offence in
having presented his diocesan with a luxurious gown, lashed himself at the
rate of ten psalters, and thirty thousand lashes _per diem_; by which he
calculated that he was redeeming three thousand six hundred and fifty
years of purgatorial torments _per annum_: but, in addition to this
wholesome allowance, he humbly petitioned his superior to allow him,
during Lent, a supplementary punishment of one hundred years, when his
day's work was two psalters and a half, and thirty-four thousand five
hundred lashes. This punishment did not seem sufficient in his eyes to
propitiate the Creator; and St. Pietro Damiano informs us that, during the
Lenten days, he actually recited the psalter two hundred times, with a
_crescendo_ accompaniment of sixty millions of stripes. It was on this
occasion that Yepes shrewdly observed, that he marvelled less at a man's
head being able to retain so many verses than that his arm was able to
carry on such a flagellation; or, to use his own words, how his flesh,
unless made of iron, could resist such a castigation. This blessed man
must have been endowed with powers that were increased by exertion, since
we find that his ambition gave him such energy, that once beginning his
operations in the evening, and singing and flogging, and flogging and
singing, _con amore_, through the day and night, at the expiration of
twenty-four hours he had gone through the psalms twelve times, begun them
a thirteenth time, and proceeded as far as _Beati quorum_, the
thirty-second psalm; having inflicted upon himself one hundred and
eighty-three thousand one hundred stripes, thereby reducing purgatorial
stock to the amount of sixty-one years, twelve days, and thirty-three
minutes, to a fraction.
It would be perfectly idle and absurd for any freethinker to doubt this
fact, recorded by an eyewitness--Pietro Damiano, a saint, and moreover a
cardinal; and Calmet himself maintains that no man should dare to doubt a
saint's assertion, more especially when speaking of another beatified
person. Notwithstanding this assertion, a stiff-necked arithmetician
calculated that, if during these twenty-four hours the saint had given
himself two blows every second, the number of lashes would only have
amounted to one hundred and seventy-two thousand eight hundred, being ten
thousand three hundred short of the amount stated! However, this
difficulty was overcome by Father Castaniza, who makes up the amount by
maintaining that he made use of cats with ten tails, and therefore had
actually a balance in his favour in his _winding_-sheet.[28]
_Ubi stimulus ibi affluxus_, has been a physiological axiom since the days
of Hippocrates; and flagellation thus employed is only a modification of
blistering, or exciting the skin by any other irritating method. The moral
influence of flagellation in the treatment of different diseases has been
appreciated by the ancients: it was strongly recommended by the disciples
of Asclepiades, by Caelius Aurelianus, and since by Rhasis and Valescus, in
the treatment of mania. No doubt, the terror which this castigation
inspires may tend materially to facilitate the management of the insane.
To the present day this opinion has prevailed to a revolting degree, and
it is no easy matter for the humane physician to convince a keeper of the
cruelty or inutility of this practice. Seldom or never does this harsh
management become necessary: I had charge of a military lunatic asylum for
a considerable time, and, with one exception, never found myself warranted
in causing corporal punishment to be inflicted, notwithstanding the
association of ideas of discipline which such a chastisement must have
produced amongst men then exposed to the capricious infliction of the
lash. The case to which I allude was one of a Sergeant N--, who had twice
attempted my life, and who fully remembered every circumstance in the
remissions of his malady; so much so, indeed, that doubts were entertained
in the minds of the casual visiter as to the real condition of his mental
faculties; and in the establishment now under my superintendence a keeper
is discharged when convicted of having struck a patient _under any
circumstances_.
To return from this digression: the authoritative power of man over the
brute creation is daily witnessed, even with unruly and ferocious
animals; and there are, no doubt, cases where bodily punishment becomes
indispensable, when the body will feel what the judgment cannot
comprehend. Boerhaave relates the case of a hypochondriac who swore that
his legs were made of straw; but an officious servant-maid, who was
sweeping the room, struck him across the shins with her broomstick, and
soon brought him to a sense of his erroneous impression.
Flagellation draws the circulation from the centre of our system to its
periphery. It has been known in a fit of ague to dispel the cold stage.
Galen had observed that horse-dealers were in the habit of bringing their
horses into high condition by a moderate fustigation; and therefore
recommended this practice to give _embonpoint_ to the lean. Antonius Musa
treated a sciatica of Octavius Augustus by this process. Elidaeus Paduanus
recommends flagellation or urtication when the eruption of exanthematic
diseases is slow in its development. Thomas Campanella records the case of
a gentleman whose bowels could not be relieved without his having been
previously whipped.
Irritation of the skin has been often observed to be productive of similar
effects. The erotic irregularities of lepers is well authenticated; and
various other cutaneous diseases, which procure the agreeable relief that
scratching affords, have brought on the most pleasurable sensations. There
exists a curious letter of Abelard to his Eloisa, in which he says,
"Verbera quandoque dabat amor, non furor; gratia, non ira; quae omnium
unguentorum suavitatem transcenderent."
This effect of flagellation may be easily referred to the powerful
sympathy that exists between the nerves of the lower part of the spinal
marrow and other organs. Artificial excitement appears in some degree
natural: it is observed in various animals, especially in the feline
tribe. Even snails plunge into each other a bony and prickly spur that
arises from their throats, and which, like the sting of the wasp,
frequently breaks off and is left in the wound.
In the monastic orders of both sexes, flagellation became a refined art.
Flagellation was of two species, the upper and the lower; the upper
inflicted upon the shoulders, the lower chiefly resorted to when females
were to be fustigated. This mode was adopted, according to their
assertions, from the accidents that might have happened in the upper
flagellation, where the twisting lash might have injured the sensitive
bosom. In addition to this device, nudity was also insisted upon. In the
article Daemonomania I have recorded various abominations of the kind. Nor
was it only amongst religious orders and their followers that this custom
obtained. It was practised by ladies of high rank amongst their commensals
and attendants. Brantome gives us a curious and quaint account of this
amusing castigation. Mademoiselle de Limeuil, one of the queen's maids of
honour, was flagellated for having written a pasquinade, in company with
all the young ladies who had been privy to the composition. And on another
occasion he tells us: "J'ai oui parler d'une grande dame de par le monde,
voire grandissime, mariee et veuve, qui faisait depouiller ses dames et
filles, je dis les plus belles, et se delectait fort a les voir, et puis
elle les battait du plat de la main, avec de grandes clacquades et
blamuses assez rudes; et les filles qui avaient delinque en quelque chose,
avec de bonnes verges, et elle les clacquait ainsi selon le sujet qu'elles
lui en donnaient, pour les faire ou rire ou pleurer."
The minions of Henry III. of France, and other princes, were decked in
white robes, then stripped, and whipped in procession for the
gratification of their royal masters. Not unfrequently the ladies
themselves were the executioners in cases where any man had offended them;
and the adventure of Clopinel the poet is worth relating. This unfortunate
wight had written the following lines on the fair sex:
Toutes etes, serez, ou futes,
De fait ou de volonte putes;
Et qui bien vous chercherait
Toutes putes vous trouverait.
This libellous effusion naturally excited the indignation of the ladies at
court, who decided that Clopinel should be flagellated by the plaintiffs
without mercy; and it is difficult to say to what extent they might have
carried their vengeance but for a timely witticism of the culprit, who
piteously addressing the angry yet beauteous group around him with
uplifted arm and rod, humbly entreated that the first blow might be struck
by the honourable damsel who felt herself the most aggrieved. It is
needless to add that not a lash was inflicted.
Medical men were frequently consulted as to the adoption of the upper or
lower discipline, as flagellation on the shoulders was said to injure the
eyesight. It was from the fear of this accident that the lower discipline
was generally adopted amongst nuns and female penitents, as appears by the
following rule: "Quippe cum ea de causa capucini, multaeque moniales,
virorum medicorum ac piorum hominum consilio, ascesim flagellandi sursum
humeros reliquerint, ut sibi nates lumbosque strient asperatis virgis, ac
nodosis funiculis conscribillent."
In a medical point of view, urtication, or stinging with nettles, is a
practice not sufficiently appreciated. In many instances, especially in
cases of paralysis, it is more efficacious than blistering or stimulating
frictions. Its effects, although perhaps less permanent, are more general
and diffused over the limb. This process has been found effectual in
restoring heat to the lower extremities; and a case of obstinate lethargy
was cured by Corvisart by repeated urtication of the whole body. During
the action of the stimulus, the patient, who was a young man, would open
his eyes and laugh, but sink again into profound sleep. His perfect cure,
however, was obtained in three weeks.