_Confessors at length assume to themselves a kind of flagellatory
power over their Penitents. The abuses that arise from it._
The submission of Sovereigns to receive disciplines from the hands
of their Confessors, together with the accounts of such disciplines,
which, though they might not always be true, were industriously
circulated in Public, helped much, without doubt, to increase the
good opinion which people entertained of the merit of flagellations,
as well as to strengthen the power of Confessors in general. In fact
the latter, from prescribing Disciplines, soon passed to inflicting
them upon their penitents with their own hands; and, without loss of
time, converted this newly-assumed authority into an express kind
of privilege, to which it was a most meritorious act, on the part
of penitents, readily to submit. On this occasion, I shall again
quote the old French Book, mentioned in p. 218; which, though it be
only a Romance, may serve to shew the opinions generally entertained
by people, during the times in which it was written. ‘If you are
estranged from our Lord’s love, you cannot be reconciled to him,
unless by the three following means: First, by confession of mouth;
secondly, by a contrition of heart; thirdly, by works of alms and
charity. Now, go and make a confession in that manner, and receive
discipline from the hands of thy Confessors; for it is the sign of
merit.’
The power of Confessors of _disciplining_ their penitents, became in
process of time so generally acknowledged, that it obtained even with
respect to persons who made profession of the Ecclesiastical life,
and superseded the laws that had been made against those who should
strike an Ecclesiastic. To this an allusion is made, in the lines of
that Poet of the middle age, who has put the _Summula_ of St. Raymund
into Latin verses. ‘You are guilty of sacrilege if you have violated
holy things, if you have struck a person in religious Orders, or of
the Clergy; unless it be a holy beating, such as is performed by a
Teacher with respect to his Disciple, or a Confessor with respect to
a person who confesses his sins[90].’
Attempts were, however, made to put a stop to these practices of
Priests and Confessors; and so early as under Pope Adrian I. who was
raised to the Purple in the year 772 (which by the by shews that the
power assumed by Confessors, was pretty ancient) a regulation was
made to forbid Confessors to beat their Penitents. ‘The Bishop (it
is said in the _Epitome_ of Maxims and Canons) the Priest, and the
Deacon, must not beat those who have sinned[91].’ But this regulation
proved useless: the whole tribe of Priests, as well as the first
Dignitaries of the Church, nevertheless continued to preach up the
prerogatives of Confessors and the merit of flagellations; and
Cardinal Pullus, that Chancellor of the Roman Church who has been
mentioned in the foregoing Chapter, did not scruple to declare, that
the nakedness of the Penitent, and his situation at the feet of his
Confessor, were additional merits in him in the eye of God, as being
additional tokens of his humility[92].
All these different practices of stripping and flagellating Devotees
and Penitents, at length gave rise to abuses of a very serious
nature; instances of which take place, we may say, every day. Numbers
of Confessors, in process of time, have made such religious acts as
had been introduced with a view to mortification, serve to gratify
their own lust and wantonness. They have tried to inculcate the
same notions, as to the merit of flagellations, into the minds of
their Devotees of the other sex, as they had brought even Kings and
Princes to entertain; and at last have made it a practice to inflict
such corrections on their female Penitents, and under that pretence,
to take such liberties with them, as the blessed St. Benedict, St.
Francis, St. Dominic, and St. Loyola, had not certainly given them
the example of.
Among the many instances that might be recited of the abuses here
alluded to, it will suffice to produce that of a Man who wore a
hood, and was girt with a cord (a _Cordelier_ or _Franciscan_) who
lived about the year 1566. This Man’s name was Cornelius Adriasem;
he was a native of Dort, and belonged to a Convent in Bruges, and
was a most violent preacher against the Heretics, called _Gueux_. He
had found means to persuade a certain number of Women, both married
and unmarried, to promise him implicit obedience, by certain oaths
he made them take for that purpose, and under the specious pretence
of greater piety. These Women he did not indeed lash with harsh
and knotted cords, but he used gently to rub their bare thighs and
posteriors, with willow or birch rods[93].
In order to shew how common the above practices were become, as
well as to entertain the Reader, I shall conclude this Chapter
with the following story, which is to be found in _Scot’s_ Book,
entitled, _Mensa Philosophica_. A Woman, says Scot, who was gone
to make her confession, had been secretly followed by her husband,
who was jealous of her; and he had hid himself in some place in the
Church, whence he might spy her; but as soon as he saw her led behind
the altar by the Priest, in order to be flagellated, he made his
appearance, objected that she was too tender to bear a flagellation,
and offered to receive it in her stead. This proposal the Wife
greatly applauded; and the Man had no sooner placed himself upon his
knees, than she exclaimed, ‘Now, my Father, lay on lustily, for I am
a great Sinner[94].’
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