_The subject of voluntary flagellations among Christians is at last
introduced. That method of self-mortification appears to have been
practised in very early times; but it does not seem to have been
universally admitted before the years 1047 and 1056; which was the
time Cardinal Damianus wrote[70]._
Voluntary flagellations were not a practice that was contrived on a
sudden, and then immediately diffused over the Christian world.
Long before the period in which their use began to be universally
adopted, they were practised by divers persons, in different times
and places, as we may judge from the accounts that have been left
us, of several early facts; a few of which I here purpose to relate.
One is contained in the Life of St. Peter, the Hermit of the _Pont
Euxin_, which was written by Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrus, who has been
mentioned in a former Chapter, and lived about the year 400. This
holy Hermit having found means to rescue a young Woman from the hands
of a military Officer, who wanted to seduce her, was much perplexed
afterwards how to prevent the effects of both the wrath and lust of
that impure man; nor could he, in the issue, compass this any other
way than by locking himself up, as Theodoret relates, and severely
flagellating himself, in company with the Mother of the young
Woman[71].
Palladius, Bishop of Hellenopolis, in his History of the Lives
of several holy Solitaries, which he wrote in the year 420, and
dedicated to Lausus, whence the Book was called _Lausiacum_, relates
a fact which incontestably proves that flagellations voluntarily
submitted to, by those persons who underwent them, were in use so
early as the fourth Century. He says, in the Life of Abbot Arsisius,
that on the mountain of Nitria, in Thebaid, there was a very large
Church, in the vicinity of which stood three Palm-trees, on each of
which hung a scourge: the one served to chastise such Monks as proved
refractory against the Rule; the other to punish Thieves; and the
third served to correct such _accidental comers_ as became guilty of
some fault: the delinquents, according to what class they belonged,
embraced one of the Palm-trees, and in this situation received a
certain number of lashes with one of the above scourges.
It is expressly said of St. Pardulph, a Benedictine Monk and Abbot,
who lived during the time of Charles Martel, about the year 737,
that he used in Lent-time to strip himself stark-naked, and order
one of his disciples to lash him. The fact is related in the life of
that Saint, formerly written by an Author who lived about the same
time; and it was, two hundred years afterwards, put into more elegant
language, by Yvus, Prior of Clugny, at the desire of the Monks of
St. Martial, in the Town of Limoges: Hugh Menard, a Benedictine
Father, and a very learned Man in all that relates to Ecclesiastical
Antiquities, has inserted part of it in his Book, intitled,
_Observations on the Benedictine Martyrology_. The following is the
Passage in St. Pardulph’s Life, which is here alluded to. ‘St.
Pardulph seldom went out of his cell; whenever sickness obliged him
to bathe, he would previously make incisions in his own skin. During
Lent, he used to strip himself intirely naked, and ordered one of his
disciples to lash him with rods[72].’
St. William, Duke of Aquitain, who lived in the time of Charlemain,
that is, about the year 800, and many years before Cardinal Damian,
is said to have also used flagellations, as a means of voluntary
penance. Arduinus, the Writer of the holy Duke’s Life, and a
cotemporary Writer, says, that ‘it was commonly reported that the
Duke did frequently, for the love of Christ, cause himself to be
whipped, and that he then was alone with the person who assisted
him[73].’ Haeftenus, Superior of the Monastery of Affligen, relates
the same fact, and says that the Duke of Aquitain ‘took a great
delight in sleeping upon a hard bed, and that he moreover lashed
himself with a scourge.’ Hugh Menard, the learned Benedictine just
now mentioned, has adopted the testimony of Arduinus, and upon that
Writer’s authority inserted the above fact in his _Observations on
the Benedictine Martyrology_.
Other persons, who lived before the times of Cardinal Damian, are
also mentioned by different Writers, as having practised voluntary
flagellations. Gualbertus, Abbot of Pontoise, who lived about the
year 900, upon a certain occasion, ‘severely flagellated himself (as
M. Du Cange relates in his Glossary) with a scourge made of knotted
thongs.’ And the abovementioned Haeftenus, Prior of Affligen, has
advanced that the same practice was followed by St. Romuald, who
lived about the same time as Gualbertus, and by the Monks of the
Camaldolian order, who were settled in Sitria.
Another early instance of voluntary flagellations occurs in the
Life of _Guy_, Abbot of _Pomposa_. Heribert, it is said, Archbishop
of Ravenna, formed the design of pulling down the Monastery of
_Pomposa_; and this piece of news caused both Abbot _Guy_ and his
Monks, ‘to lock themselves up in the Capitular House, and to lash
themselves every day, for several days, with rods[74].’ Abbot Guy
was born in the year 956; and he was made Abbot of Pomposa in the
year 998, in which capacity he continued forty-eight years.
All the facts above related were anterior to the year 1056, the time
at which Peter Damian _de Honeslis_ was raised to the Cardinalship
by Pope Stephen IX; and it is evident from them, that the practice
of voluntarily flagellating one’s-self, as a penance for committed
sins, had been adopted before the period in question; though it
cannot be said to have been then universally prevalent: at least,
only a few instances of it have been left us by the Writers of those
times. But at the æra we mention, this pious mode of self-correction,
owing to the public and zealous patronage with which the above
Cardinal favoured it, acquired a vast degree of credit, and grew
into universal esteem; and then it was that persons of religious
dispositions were every where seen to arm themselves with whips,
rods, thongs, and besoms, and lacerate their own hides, in order to
draw upon themselves the favour of Heaven.
We are informed of this fact by the learned Cardinal Baronius, in his
Ecclesiastical Annals: ‘At that time (he says) the laudable usage of
the faithful, of beating themselves with whips made for that purpose,
though Peter Damian may not be said to have been the author of it,
was much promoted by him the Christian Church; in which he followed
the example of the blessed Dominic the _Cuirassed_, a holy Hermit,
who had subjected himself to his authority[75].’
The same Cardinal Damian has moreover left numerous accounts of
voluntary flagellations practised by certain holy Men of his times;
but these are surely more apt to create our admiration, than to
excite us to imitate them, indeed, the flagellations he mentions
cannot be proposed to the Faithful as examples they ought to follow,
and they were executed with such dreadful severity, as makes it
impossible for the most vigorous Men to go through the like, without
a kind of miracle.
In the Life of the Monk St. Rodolph, who was afterwards made Bishop
of Eugubio, the Cardinal relates, ‘That this holy Man would often
impose upon himself a penance of an hundred years, and that he
performed it in twenty days, by the strenuous application of a
broom, without neglecting the other common methods used in doing
penance. Every day, being shut up in his cell, he recited the whole
Psalter (or Book of Psalms) at least one time when he could not two,
being all the while armed with a besom in each hand, with which he
incessantly lashed himself[76]’
The account which the Cardinal has left of Dominic, sirnamed the
_Cuirassed_, is not less wonderful. ‘His constant practice (he says)
is, after stripping himself naked, to fill both his hands with rods,
and then vigorously flagellate himself: this he does in his times of
relaxation. But during Lent-time, or when he really means to mortify
himself, he frequently undertakes the hundred years penance; and then
he every day recites the Psalter at least three times over, all the
while flogging himself with besoms[77].’
Cardinal Damian then proceeds to relate the manner in which the same
Dominic informed him he performed the hundred years penance. ‘A Man
(said he) may depend he has accomplished it, when he has flagellated
himself during the whole time the Psalter was sung twenty times
over[78].’ The same Author adds several circumstances which make the
penances performed by the holy Man appear in a still more admirable
light. He, in the first place, was so dextrous as to be able to use
both his hands at once, and thus laid on twice the number of lashes
others could do, who only used their right-hand. In one instance, he
fustigated himself during the time the whole Book of Psalms was sung
twice over; on another occasion he did the same while it was sung
eight times; and on another, while it was repeated twelve times over;
‘which filled me with terror,’ the Cardinal adds, ‘when I heard the
fact[79].’
Cardinal Damian also relates of the same Dominic the _Cuirassed_,
that he at last changed his discipline of rods into that of
leather-thongs, which was still harsher; and that he had been able
to accustom himself to that laborious exercise. Nay, so punctual was
he in performing the duties he had imposed upon himself, that, ‘when
he happened to go abroad (being an Hermit) he carried his scourge in
his bosom, to the end that, wherever he happened to spend the night,
he might lose no time, and flog himself with the same regularity as
usual. If the place in which he had taken his refuge for the night,
did not allow him to strip entirely, and fustigate himself from head
to foot, he at least would severely beat his legs and head[80].’
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