[70] The Reader, no doubt, feels a great pleasure in seeing the
subject of pious flagellations among Christians again introduced, and
a fresh Chapter begun upon it: indeed the Author had taken a great
liberty, in losing sight of his main subject for so long a time, and
dwelling, through so many pages, upon the flagellatory corrections
which, after the example of Convents, were, in not very remote days,
practised in the Palaces of the Great: his zeal in the defence of
Friars and Nuns has insensibly carried him these lengths.
In the present Chapter, the Author has also indulged himself in a
piece of great freedom with the Abbé Boileau, his original, or rather
his model: which is no less than to have given a direct contradiction
to the main doctrine advanced by the Abbé in his Work.
Thus, the principal, or rather sole point, which the Abbé labours
to prove in his Book, is, that voluntary flagellations only began
to be practised among Christians, in the years 1047 or 1056; this
is an assertion which he introduces almost at every page, and which
expressly constitutes the title of one of his Chapters (the 7th):
yet he has himself quoted (without disputing the truth of them)
several facts that shew such practice to have been much older: I have
therefore taken the liberty, in the present Chapter, in which those
facts are collected, to dissent from the doctrine maintained by him,
and have advanced, that voluntary flagellations were practised in
early times among Christians, though they began to be universally
admitted only in the years 1047 and 1056.
And indeed if the Reader now asked my own opinion concerning the
antiquity, or novelty, of the practice in question, a subject which
has caused much disputation among Catholic Divines, I would answer,
that I do not think it in the least probable, that a practice like
this, after having been unknown for so many Centuries, should
afterwards have been thought of on a sudden, and then adopted by the
whole Christian world, at the same period.
In the first place it is to be observed, that though the strict truth
of those early instances of voluntary flagellations, which are to be
found in the Abbé’s text, might perhaps be controverted, yet, as the
reader will see, such instances are related by early and contemporary
Writers, as common facts, at which they do not express any surprise.
In the second place, since the opposers of the opinion of the
antiquity of self-flagellations admit, that cruel voluntary penances,
such as wearing iron cuirasses inwardly armed with points, being
continually loaded with enormous weights, dwelling in the bottom
of dwells, or on the tops of columns, were practised by the first
Christians, it is difficult to understand why they make such
objections against flagellations in particular, which they agree
to have been employed, from the earliest times, by Ecclesiastical
Superiors, as common methods of correcting offences of a religious
kind, and which were likewise used for pious purposes, before the
establishment of Christianity.
Nay, beating and lashing one’s self, are means of self-mortification,
which, more readily than any other, occur to the minds either of
superstitious, or hypocritical persons. Practices of this kind
presently gratify the sudden fits of fanaticism of the one, and
serve extremely well the purposes of the other, in that they catch
the minds of the vulgar, by the display of an apparatus of cruel
instruments and a show of great severity, at the same time that they
are in reality much less difficult to be borne than the penances
above alluded to, and want what constituted the most intolerable
hardship of these latter, diuturnity and uninterruption.
Besides, those who make self-flagellation part of their religious
exercises, always have it in their power to take, like Sancho, their
own time for performing them, as well as to choose what station they
please for that purpose. In Summer, they may settle themselves in
a cool place; in Winter, near a good fire; and have constantly by
them some excellent liquor, to refresh themselves with, during the
different pauses they think proper to make.
They may moreover use just what degree of severity they choose. They
even may, like Sancho, who only lashed the trees around him, or
like the Hermit mentioned by La Fontaine, content themselves with
flagellating the walls of their apartment: nay, they may perform no
flagellation at all, and yet make afterwards what boast they please.
Having duly weighed all the above important considerations, as well
as the facts quoted by the Abbé, the truth of which he does not take
the trouble to deny, I have ventured to dissent from his inconsistent
assertions, and have made the abovementioned change in his doctrine.
[71] The above fact related by Theodoret is very positive; and it
supplies an evident proof, that the practice of self-flagellation was
not unknown in the times of that early Writer: the silence of the
same Author in other parts of his Writings, concerning the practice
in question, shews nothing more, except that the same was not
universally adopted in his time, as hath been observed in the Note,
pag. 124 of this Work.
The hasty assertions of the Abbé Boileau against the antiquity of
self-flagellation, which are repeated almost in every page of his
Book, in spite of the facts which himself produces, gives just cause
to guess that he used to practise but little upon himself that
salutary kind of mortification.
[72] ... _Tempore quadragesimo, toto corpore nudato, se à quodam
discipulo virgis cædi præcipiebat._
[73] Part I. Actor. Ord. S. Benedicti, pag. 208. _Aiunt nonnulli se
sæpe pro Christi amore flagellis cædi, nullo alio præter eum qui
aderat conscio, jussisse._
[74] ... _Quotidiè acriter se cædendi virgis in domo Capitulari._
[75] The Abbé Boileau, in his Book, concludes the above quotation,
with wishing that Baronius had been pleased to inform us of the name
of the real Author of the practice of voluntary flagellation. As he
thinks that there has existed a certain particular period, at which
this practice began to be universally followed, prior to which it was
utterly unknown, so he hopes that some undisputed inventor of the
same may be fixed upon.
[76] _Sæpè pœnitentiam centum suscipiebat annorum, quam per
viginti dies, allisione scoparum, cæterisque pœnitentiæ remediis,
persolvebat. Psalterium quotidiè, cùm duo non posset unum saltem, non
negligebat implere: quod nimirùm cùm esset in cellula constitutus,
armatâ scopis utrâque manu, totum cùm disciplinâ continuare
consueverat._
[77] _Cap. viii. Hanc autem vitæ consuetudinem indifferenter habet,
ut utrâque manu scopis armatâ, nudum corpus allidat; & hoc remissiori
tempore. Nam quadragesimalibus circulis, sive cum pœnitentiam
peragendam habet, crebro centum annorum pœnitentiam suscipit: tunc
per dies singulos, dum se scoparum tunsionibus afficit, ut minus tria
Psalteria meditando persolvit._
[78] _Hominem tempore quo viginti Psalteria recitabantur vapulantem,
pœnitentiam centenarium explevisse._
[79] Cap. X. _Quod certè quum audivi tremefactus expavi._
[80] _Hoc flagellum, si quando egrederetur, portabat in sinu, ut
ubicunque eum jacere contingeret, à verberibus non vacaret, &c._
Carrying a _discipline_ constantly about one, like the above Dominic,
and making an ostentatious display of it, are among the number of
those characteristical circumstances which are looked upon, in
Catholic Countries, as marking hypocrisy: to this notion a frequent
allusion is made both in Novels and Plays; thus, the first words of
_Tartuffe_, or the Hypocrite, in the Play of Molière which bears that
name, who makes his first appearance only when the Play is somewhat
advanced, are to order his Man, with a loud affected voice, to lock
up his hair-cloth and _discipline_. However, we are not to think that
all those who thus make a display of their discipline, use it with
so much earnestness and perseverance as the above-mentioned Dominic
the _Cuirassed_, or Rodolph of Eugubio; though it cannot be denied
that several persons of a gloomy superstitious temper, still practise
in these days mortifications of that kind with great severity; and
indeed, as hath been observed in a former Note, the astonishing
penances practised by Fakirs in the East Indies, which are undeniable
facts, make every account of that sort appear credible to us.
If the evil arising from the above cruel practices, reached no
farther than the useless sufferings which those who follow them,
bring upon themselves, one might sincerely pity their infatuation;
but it is a truth confirmed by experience, that superstitious
exercises or mortifications like these, are seldom introduced but
at the expence of other really essential obligations; and though
the rigour of such mortifications is very wisely abated gradually
every day, so that they are at length reduced to only some trifling
practices, yet, they are made to supply the place of almost every
duty which Men owe to one another: thus, to quote only one striking
instance on the subject, Lewis the Eleventh of France, after he had
paid a few devotions of his own contrivance to a leaden image of the
Virgin he constantly wore stuck to his hat, thought he had fully
atoned beforehand for any crime he meditated to commit.
I shall conclude this Note with a stroke of ridicule which M. de
Voltaire, in one of his _Pieces mêlées_, throws upon the dangerous,
and at the same time arrogant, pretensions of those persons who
voluntarily submit to mortifications like those here alluded to. He
supposes a conversation to take place with a Fakir, of which a Turk,
then on his travels in India, writes an account to one of his friends.
‘I happened to cross a Fakir, who was reading in his Book: Ah
wretched Infidel! cried he; thou hast made me lose a number of vowels
that I was counting, which will occasion my soul to pass into
the body of a hare, instead of that of a parrot, with which I had
before the greatest reason to flatter myself: I gave him a Rupee to
comfort him for the accident. In going a few paces farther, I had
the misfortune to sneeze; the noise I made roused a Fakir who was
in a trance.--Heavens, cried he, what a dreadful noise! where am
I! I can no longer see the tip of my nose! the heavenly light has
disappeared.--If I am the cause, said I, of your seeing farther than
the tip of your nose, here is a Rupee to repair the injury: squint
again, and resume the heavenly light[81].
‘Having thus brought myself off discreetly enough, I passed over to
the side of the Gymnosophists, several of whom brought me a parcel
of mighty pretty nails to drive into my arms, and thighs, in honour
of Brahma: I bought their nails, and made use of them to fasten my
boxes. Others were dancing upon their hands; others cut capers on
the slack-rope; and others went always upon one foot. There were
some who dragged about a heavy chain with them; and others carried
a pack-saddle; some had always their heads in a bushel; the best
people in the world to live with. My friend Omri carried me to the
cell of one of the most famous of them. His name was Bahabec. He
was as naked as he was born, and had a great chain about his neck,
that weighed upwards of sixty pounds. He sat on a wooden chair, very
neatly decorated with little points of nails, that ran into his
posteriors; and you would have thought he sat on a velvet cushion.
Numbers of Women flocked to him, to consult him: he was the Oracle
of all the families in the neighbourhood; and was, truly speaking,
in great reputation. I was witness to a long conversation that Omri
had with him.--Do you think, Father, said my friend, that, after
having gone through seven metempsychoses, I may at length arrive at
the house of Brama.--That is as it may happen, said the Fakir. What
sort of life do you lead?--I endeavour, answered Omri, to be a good
subject, a good husband, a good father, and a good friend: I lend
money without interest to the rich who want it, and I give it to the
poor: I preserve peace among my neighbours.--But have you ever run
nails into your backside, demanded the Brahmin.--Never, reverend
Father.--I am sorry for it, replied the Father; very sorry for it
indeed. It is a thousand pities; but you will not certainly reach
above the nineteenth Heaven.--No higher? said Omri. In troth I am
very well satisfied with my lot. But pray, what heaven do you think
of going to, good Mr. Bahabec, with your nails and your chain? Into
the thirty-fifth, said Bahabec, &c. &c.[82]’
The above recited feats of Dominic the _Cuirassed_, and Rodolph of
Eugubio, who have had numerous imitators, together with the very
serious endeavours of Men in the station of Cardinal Damian, to
recommend such practices, are very extraordinary facts. It really
seems that, in our part of the world, where the Arts and Sciences
have been promoted to so high a degree, and the powers of the human
mind carried to their utmost extent, we have, in regard to the folly
and ignorance of our superstitious notions and customs, been equal to
any Nation upon earth, to any of those Nations whom we despise most:
nay, perhaps it might be strictly proved that we have been worse.
[81] It is needless to observe that all this alludes to real penances
or practices of the Indian Fakirs.
[82] See Voltaire’s Works, translated by _Smollett, Franklin, and
others_, Vol. XIII. pag. 23, &c.