_The same discretionary power of inflicting disciplines, has been
established in the Convents of Nuns, and lodged in the hands of the
Abbesses, and Prioresses._
Nor have the holy Founders of religious Orders considered
flagellations as being less useful in the Convents of Women, than in
those of Men; and in the Rules they have framed for them, they have
accordingly ordered that kind of correction to be inflicted upon
those whose bad conduct made it necessary.
This chastisement of flagellation, upon Women who make profession
of a religious life, is no new thing in the world. It was the
chastisement appropriated to the Vestals, in antient Rome; and we
find in the Historians, that when faults had been committed by them
in the discharge of their functions, it was commonly inflicted upon
them by the hands of the Priests, or sometimes of the Great Priest
himself.
Dionysius of Halicarnassus relates, that the Virgin Urbinia was
lashed by the Priests, and led in procession through the Town.
The High-priest, Publius Licinius, ordered, as we read in Valerius
Maximus, ‘that a certain Vestal who had suffered the sacred fire to
be extinguished, should be lashed and dismissed.’
Julius likewise relates, ‘that the fire in the Temple of Vesta,
having happened to be extinguished, the Virgin was whipped by the
High-priest, M. Æmilius, and promised never to offend again in the
same manner.’ And Festus says in his Book, that ‘whenever the fire of
Vesta came to be extinguished, the Virgins were lashed by the Great
Priest.’
Severities of the like kind have been deemed necessary to be
introduced into the Convents of modern Nuns, by the holy Fathers who
have framed religious Rules for them.
In that very antient Rule for the conduct of Nuns, which is contained
in Epistle CIX. of St. Augustin, the mortification of discipline is
prescribed to the Prioress herself. ‘Let her (it is said in the above
Rule) be ever ready to receive discipline, but never impose it but
with fear[66].’
Cesarius, Archbishop of Arles, in the Rule framed by him, which is
mentioned with praise by several antient Authors, such as Gennadius,
and Gregory of Tours, prescribes the discipline of flagellation to
be inflicted upon Nuns who have been guilty of faults; and enters,
besides, into several particulars about the propriety as well as
usefulness of this method of correction. ‘It is just (he says) that
such as have violated the institutions contained in the Rule, should
receive an adequate discipline: it is fit that in them should be
accomplished what the Holy Ghost has in former times prescribed
through Solomon. _He who loves his Child, frequently applies the rod
to it._’
St. Donat, Archbishop of Bezancon, in the Rule he has framed for
Nuns, has expressed the same paternal disposition towards them,
as Archbishop Cesarius has done: he recommends flagellations as
excellent methods of mending the morals of such of them as are
wickedly inclined, or careless in performing their religious duties;
and he determines the different kinds of faults for which the above
correction ought to be bestowed upon them, as well as the number of
the blows that are to be inflicted. The above Rule of St. Donat has
been mentioned with much praise by the Monk Jonas, in his Account of
the Life of St. Columbanus, which the venerable Beda has inserted in
the third volume of his Works.
In that Rule, commonly called the _Rule of a Father_, which St.
Benedict, Bishop of Aniana, in his Book _on the Concordance of
Rules_, and Smaragdus, in his Commentaries on the Rule of St.
Benedict, have both mentioned, provisions of the same kind as those
above, are made for the correction of Nuns. ‘If a Sister (it is said
in that Rule) that has been several times admonished, will not mend
her conduct, let her be excommunicated for a while, in proportion to
the degree of her fault: if this kind of correction proves useless,
let her then be chastised by stripes.’
Striking a Sister, has likewise been looked upon as an offence of a
grievous kind; and St. Aurelian, in the Rule he has framed for Nuns,
orders a discipline to be inflicted on such as have been guilty of it.
To the above regulations, Archbishop Cesarius has added another,
which is, that the corrections ought, for the sake of example,
to be inflicted in the presence of all the Sisters. ‘Let also
the discipline be bestowed upon them in the presence of the
Congregation, conformably to the precept of the Apostle, _Confute
Sinners in the presence of all_[67].’
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