The Abbé Boileau, the author of the _Historia Flagellantium_, was
elder brother to the celebrated Poet of that name. He filled, several
years, the place of Dean of the Metropolitan Church of Sens, and was
thence promoted to the office of one of the Canons of the Holy Chapel
in Paris, which is looked upon as a great dignity among the French
clergy.
While he was in that office (about the year 1700) he wrote, among
other books, that which is the subject of this work[1]. This book,
in which the public expected, from the title of it, to find an
history of the particular sect of Hereticks called Flagellants, only
contained an aggregation of facts and quotations on the subject
of self-disciplines and flagellations in general among Christians
(which, if the work had been well done, might however have been
equally interesting) and a mixture of alternate commendation and
blame of that practice.
The Theologians of that time, however, took offence at the book.
They judged that the author had been guilty, in it, of several
heretical assertions; for instance, in saying, as he does in two or
three places, that Jesus Christ had suffered flagellation against
his will: and they particularly blamed the censures which, amidst
his commendations of it, he had passed upon a practice that so many
saints had adopted, so many pontiffs and bishops had advised, and so
many ecclesiastical writers had commended.
In the second place, they objected to several facts which the
author had inserted in his book, as well as to the licentiousness
of expression he had sometimes indulged; and they said that such
facts, and such manner of expression, ought not to be met with in
a book written by a good Christian, and much less by a Dean of the
Metropolitan Church of Sens, a Canon of the Holy Chapel, and in short
by a man invested with an eminent dignity in the Church; in which
latter respect they were perhaps right[2].
Among the critics of our author’s book, were the Jesuits of Trevoux;
the then conductors of a periodical review, called the _Journal de
Trevoux_. The poet Boileau, taking the part of his brother, answered
their criticisms by the following epigram.
_Non, le livre des Flagellans
N’a jamais condamné, lisez le bien mes Peres,
Ces rigidités salutaires
Que pour ravir le Ciel, saintement violens,
Exercent sur leurs corps tant de Chrétiens austères.
Il blâme seulement cet abus odieux
D’étaler & d’offrir aux yeux
Ce que leur doit toûjours cacher la beinséance,
Et combat vivement la fausse piété,
Qui, sous couleur d’éteindre en nous la volupté,
Par l’austérité même & par la pénitence
Sait allumer le feu de la lubricité._
The first opportunity I had to see the Abbé Boileau’s book, which is
pretty scarce, but which I knew from the above epigram, and other
books that mention it, was about ten years ago, in a town of Italy,
where it was shewn to me by a Quaker, an Englishman, who lived there;
not a Quaker, however, of the common sort, that is, a scrupulous
observer of the duties prescribed by his sect; for he wore laced
cloaths, and played admirably well on the flute.
Having since lighted again on a copy of the same book, I judged
that its singularity, and the nature of the facts it contains,
rendered it worthy to be laid before the public; and I had the
thought of dressing it in vulgar tongue with the less reluctance, as,
conformably to the confession I have made in the title-page, I have
not the honour to be a doctor of the Sorbonne. However, I found,
upon a more attentive examination of the book, that the obscurity
and want of meaning of that part of it which properly belongs to the
author, who seems to have been as defective in point of clearness of
head as his brother the poet was remarkable for that qualification,
rendered a translation, impracticable.
The singular contradiction, for instance, between most of the
conclusions our author draws from the facts he relates, and the facts
themselves, is, (when it is possible to ascertain the meaning of such
conclusions) really matter of surprise. The critics of our author,
who were sensible of this inconsistency, had derived comfort from
it, and hoped that the book would propagate but little heresy, since
hardly any body could understand it. However, this very manner in
which our author has composed his work, wherein he contradicts not
only the facts he relates, but even his own assertions, sometimes two
or three times in the same page, leads us to the discovery of his
real design in writing it, and clears him from having entertained
any views of an heretical or dangerous nature. He only proposed, it
appears, to compile together facts and quotations which amused him,
and which he thought would also amuse the public; and he terminated
them (or sometimes whole strings of them) with seeming conclusions
and random assertions, in order to make the reader judge that he had
a serious and even theological design, in making his compilation.
Another cause of surprise in our Author’s book, is, the prodigious
incoherency of the facts themselves he has linked together. But in
this respect, likewise, we discover, after a little examination,
that his views were of a perfectly harmless kind, and that this
singularity was not owing to any design of his own, as might at first
sight be imagined, but only to the manner in which he proceeded in
his work. His practice was, it appears, to lay down, at the same
time, upon the paper, all the facts to his liking he found related
in the productions of the same author; and at other times also, he
introduced together, we may suppose, all the stories and quotations
the discovery of which he had made in the course of the same
morning[3].
A translation of a book thus made, was therefore, as hath been above
said, impracticable. And as a number of the facts and quotations it
contains are curious, either in themselves, or on account of the
authors from whom they are extracted, I have at once enlarged my
first plan, and thought of writing another book with the materials
contained in that of the Abbé Boileau.
With the facts and quotations, therefore, supplied by the Abbé
Boileau’s book, I have undertaken to compose this History of the
Flagellants. With these materials, the quantity or number of which I
determined neither to increase or decrease, I attempted to write a
book; proposing to myself a task of much the same nature with that
kind of play which sometimes serves to amuse companies of friends in
winter evenings, in which sets of words in appearance incompatible
with one another, are proposed, and, without any of them being left
out, or even displaced, are to be made into some consistent speeches,
by the help of intermediate arguments. Such task I have, as I say,
tried to perform, without setting aside any of the facts contained in
the Abbé Boileau’s book: only I have taken great liberty with respect
to placing and displacing such facts, as, without that indulgence,
the task, on this occasion, was not to be performed. The work or
problem, therefore, I proposed to myself, instead of being that
which more commonly occurs, and may be expressed in the following
terms: _Certain arguments being given, to find the necessary facts
to support them_? was this: _A certain number of facts, pretty well
authenticated, being given, to find the natural conclusions and
inductions which they suggest_?
To this paraphrase thus made on the materials afforded by the
Abbé Boileau, and to a few occasional sentences of his, which I
have preserved, I have added an ample Commentary, in which I have
introduced not only such facts as either my own memory, or other
authors, supplied me: so that the Abbé’s work, a twelves book,
printed on a very large type, has swelled into the majestic octavo
which is now laid before the public.
In composing this octavo, two different parts I have performed. In
the Paraphrase on the Abbé Boileau’s work, I have, keeping to the
subject, and preserving as much as I could the turn of my Author’s
book, expressed myself in that style and manner, in which it was
not unlikely a doctor of the Sorbonne, and a dean of the church of
Sens, might have written: in the Commentary, I have followed my own
inclination. Conformably to that which is often practised on the
Stage, where the same player fills two different parts at the same
time, by speedily altering his dress, I have, in the present work,
acted in two different alternate capacities, as I changed sides: in
the text, I acted the part of a doctor of the Sorbonne; and then,
quickly resuming my former station, I expatiated and commented, in
the note, upon what the doctor had just said in the text.
Thus much for the manner in which I have accomplished this work. With
respect to giving any previous delineation of the substance of it,
it is what I find some difficulty in doing; and which, besides, I
think would be useless, since I suppose the reader will, as readers
commonly do, peruse this Preface only after he has turned the last
leaf of the book: taking it therefore for granted that the reader
knows, by this time, what the present performance is, I proceed to
give an account of my views in writing it.
In the first place, I proposed to myself the information of
posterity. A period will, sooner or later, arrive, at which the
disciplining and flagellating practices now in use, and which have
been so for so many centuries, will have been laid aside, and
succeeded by others equally whimsical. And while the men of those
days will overlook the defects of their own extravagant customs, or
perhaps even admire the rationality of them, they will refuse to
believe that the practices of which accounts are given in this work,
ever were in use among mankind, and even matter of great moment among
them. My design, therefore, was effectually to remove all their
doubts in that respect, by handing down to them the flower and
choice part of the facts and arguments on the subject.
This book will likewise be extremely useful to the present age; and
it will in the first place be so, the subject being considered in
a moral light. The numerous cases that are produced in this book,
of disciplines which offenders of all classes, kings as well as
others, have zealously inflicted upon themselves, will supply a
striking proof of that deep sense of justice which exists in the
breasts of all men; and the reader will from such facts conclude,
no doubt with pleasure, that even the offenders of the high rank we
have just mentioned, notwithstanding the state by which they are
surrounded, and the majestic countenance which they put on, sometimes
in proportion as they more clearly know that they are wrong, are
inwardly convinced that they owe compensation for their acts of
injustice.
Being considered in the same moral light, this book will be useful
to the present age, by the instances it gives of corrections by
which different offences against the peace of mankind have been
requited; the consequence of which will be the preventing of such
offences. Slanderous wits, for example, to mention only offenders
of that class, writers of satires, epigrams, and lampoons, dealers
in bon-mots, inventors of anecdotes, by reading the instances of
disciplines by which such ingenious pastimes have, on different
occasions, been repaid, will naturally be led to recollect, that
all possible flagellations (to use the expression of the Alguazil
introduced in a certain chapter of Gil Blas) have not been yet
inflicted; and sudden considerations like this, which this book will
not fail to suggest to them, will be extremely apt to check them the
instant they are preparing to make their excursions on the reputation
of their neighbours; and by that means the good name of many an
innocent person will be preserved.
To the persons themselves who actually suffer from the injustice or
wantonness of others, this performance will be of great service.
Those, for instance, who smart under the lash of some insolent
satirist, those who are disappointed in their expectations, those
whose secrets have been betrayed, nay, even ladies, treacherously
forsaken by those who had given them so many assurances of fidelity
and eternal constancy, will find their misfortunes alleviated by
reading the different instances and facts related in this book:
they will take comfort from the thought, that what has already
happened may happen again; and cheer themselves with the hope, that
flagellations will sooner or later be the lot of those persons who
cause their uneasiness.
Being considered in a philosophical light, this work will be useful
to the present age, in the same manner as we have said it would be
to posterity. The present generation, at least in this island, will
find in it proofs both of the reality of the singular practices
which once prevailed in their own country, and are still in full
force in many others, and of the important light in which they have
been considered by mankind. They will meet with accounts of bishops,
cardinals, popes, and princes, who have warmly commended or blamed
such practices; and will not be displeased to be moreover acquainted
with the debates of the learned on the same subject, and with the
honest, though opposite, endeavours, of a Cerebrosus and a Damian, a
Gretzer and a Gerson.
To the critical reader this book will likewise be serviceable, by
giving him an insight into the manner of the debates and arguments,
and into the turn of the erudition, of foreign Catholick divines, at
the same time that the information will be conveyed to him amidst
other objects that will perhaps better amuse him: to secure this
advantage, I have, as much as I could, preserved the appearance of
our Author’s book, using, for that purpose, the titles of several
of his chapters; only taking care to keep more to the subject than
himself had done.
To the same critical reader this performance will also recommend
itself, by the numerous passages from certain books which it gives
him an opportunity to peruse. And the generality of readers will
not be displeased to meet with a number of short specimens of the
style of several authors whose works they never would have read,
though they were once conspicuous on the particular line which they
followed, and to be thus brought to some slight acquaintance with St.
Austin, St. Jerom, and Tertullian, of whom they knew only the names,
and with St. Fulgentius, and Peter Chrysologus, of whom they knew
nothing at all.
In fine, to these capital advantages, possessed by this work, I have
endeavoured to add the important one of affording entertainment; for,
entertainment is a thing which is not by any means to be despised in
this world. In order the better to attain this end, I have avoided
offending against decency or religion; I had of myself too little
inclination to be witty at the expence of either, especially the
latter, to avail myself of the opportunities which the subject
naturally offered; and I should think it a great praise of this book,
if I were hereafter informed, that the graver class of readers have
read with pleasure the less serious part of it, and that the other
class have gone with pleasure likewise through that part which is
less calculated for amusement.