FOOTNOTES:

[114] _Siluerunt tunc tempore omnia musica instrumenta & amatoriæ

cantilenæ. Sola cantio pœnitentis lugubris audiebatur ubique, tam

in civitatibus quam in villis, ad cujus flebilem modulationem

corda saxea movebantur, & obstinatorum oculi lacrymis non poterant

continere._----This Monk of St. Justina, whose account is here

translated at length, was certainly no mean Writer: he was quite

another Man than the _Abbé Boileau_.

[115] It has no doubt been perceived, that, in the course of this

Work, I have commonly taken care to conclude the different Chapters

into which it is divided, with a Note or Commentary of a certain

length, upon the same subject with the Chapter itself, though of a

less grave and serious turn. This precaution I thought necessary

for the relief of the Reader, after the great exertion of his mind,

occasioned by the weighty objects that had just been offered to his

consideration. Such final Note I considered as a farce, after a

serious and moral Drama, and as a kind of _petite piece_, or if you

please, of interlude, calculated to revive the exhausted spirits of

the Reader, and enable him to begin a fresh Chapter with alacrity.

On this occasion, however, I find great difficulty in pursuing the

same plan. The processions of Disciplinants that have just been

described, are such a dismal and gloomy subject, that it suggests no

ideas but what are of a serious kind; it precludes all thoughts of

mirth and jocularity; and I despair, in this Note, of being able to

entertain the Reader so well as I flatter myself I have succeeded in

doing in the former ones.

The flagellating practices and ceremonies alluded to in this Chapter,

are certainly most astonishing facts in the History of Man: and if

any thing renders our surprise less than it otherwise would be, it

is the consideration that such practices have not been imagined on

a sudden, and at once, but have been the result of a long series

of slow innovations, introduced by different persons, at different

times, and in places remote from one another.

Besides, it really seems that there is a secret propensity in

Mankind, for arduous modes of worship of all kinds. The observation

has been made, that in the Science of Moral, speculatively

considered, Men, whatever may be their private conduct, are most

pleased with such maxims as are most rigid; and so, with respect

to religious rites, do they seem to be most taken with, and most

strongly to adhere to, such as are most laborious, and even painful.

We see, in fact, that bodily austerities of a cruel kind, performed

with religious intentions, have obtained among almost all the Nations

in the World; and self-scourgings, in particular, were practised with

views of this kind among almost all the Nations of antiquity of whom

accounts have been left us: on which the Reader is referred to the

sixth Chapter of this Book.

The same practice we mention, besides the advantage of its

obviousness to recommend it, had in its favour, with Christians,

the farther circumstance of its being in a manner sanctified by the

History itself of the facts on which their religion is grounded. As a

punishment of that kind made express part of the ill treatment which

our Saviour underwent, the thoughts of pious persons were naturally

directed to a mode of mortification of which so frequent mention was

made in books, hymns, sermons, and religious conversations: hence

has it happened, that the practices here alluded to, have been much

more constantly and universally adopted by Christians, than by the

professors of any other Religion.

A difference, however, took place in the above respect, between

the Eastern and the Western Christians. As the Christians who were

settled in the East, lived almost always in the midst of hostile

Nations, and besides, never formed among themselves any very numerous

sect, they never went such lengths in their opinions, nor gave into

such extravagant practices, as the Christians in the West. They had

not, for instance, adopted the fond notions since entertained by

the latter, on the efficaciousness of self-flagellations to atone

for past sins. Their religious notions had taken a different turn.

They generally considered a certain deep sense of past offences,

a state of unbounded contrition for the same, as the competent

means of atonement. They considered tears as the last stage of such

contrition, and in a manner a necessary token of it. Shedding tears

was, therefore, the thing they aimed at, in all their devotional

acts: self-scourging was thought by them to be an excellent expedient

for obtaining so happy an effect; and they hence resorted to it, not

(as hath been done in the West) as to a direct and immediate method

of compensating past sins, but only as to a subsidiary operation, and

a means which, they sagaciously thought, would soon bring them to the

requisite state of tears and salutary compunction.

Of this turn of the devotion of the Eastern Christians, as well

as of the ends they proposed to themselves in their acts of

self-flagellation, we find proofs in the few instances that have

been left us in Books, of their having performed acts of that

sort: I shall relate the following one, which is to be found in the

work of Gabriel, Archbishop of Philadelphia, intitled Πατερικὸν, or

Collection of actions of Fathers, or Saints.

A certain Saint had come to a resolution of renouncing the World, and

had fixed his habitation on the celebrated Mountain of Nitria, in

Thebaid; and next to the cell to which he had retired, was that of

another Saint, whom he heard every day bitterly weep for his sins.

Finding himself unable to weep in the same manner, and heartily

envying the happiness of the other Saint, he one day spoke to himself

in the following terms: ‘You do not cry, you wretch; you do not weep

for your sins. I will make you cry; I will make you weep by force,

since you will not do it of your own accord; I will make you grieve

for your sins, as you ought:’ saying which, he took up in a passion a

large scourge that lay by him, and laid lashes upon himself so thick

and in so effectual a manner, that he soon brought himself to that

happy state which was the object of his ambition.

Another instance of the manner of the devotion of the Eastern

Christians, is supplied by the passage in St. John Climax, that has

been recited at pag. 121. Both the Opposers, and the Promoters,

of the practice of self-flagellation, have gone too far in their

interpretations of that passage. The latter have asserted that

it expressly alluded to religious disciplines, performed in the

same manner, and with the same views, as they now are in modern

Monasteries; while the former have been as positive that it meant no

such thing as _beating_ or _scourging_, and is only to be understood

of the lamentations of the Monks in the Monastery in question, that

is, in a bare figurative manner. The passage in St. John Climax

is this: ‘Some among the Monks watered the pavement with their

tears, while others, who could not shed any, beat themselves.’ The

expression used in this passage, to say that some among the Monks

beat themselves, is certainly as precise as any the Greek language

can supply; yet neither does it supply a sufficient proof that

they performed, in the above Monastery, regular and periodical

flagellations of the same kind with those that have been since used

in the Western Monasteries, in the times of Cardinal Damian, and the

Widow Cechald: the self-flagellations alluded to, in the passage we

speak of, appear to have been of the same kind with those performed

by the Saint of the Mountain of Nitria who has been abovementioned,

and were calculated to enable those who could not weep, to weep

plentifully.

But among the Western Christians, as the extensive Country over which

they became in time to be spread, without any intervening opponents,

afforded a vast field for innovations of every kind, they, as

hath been above said, went the greatest lengths in their opinions

concerning the usefulness of the practices we mention, to which the

History of their Religion had at first given rise.

In the first place, mortifications of the kind here alluded to,

were used among them from notions of much the same sort with those

entertained by the Eastern Christians, that is, with a view of

sanctifying themselves by their repentance, and assisting their

compunction.

In the second place, they were actuated by a sense of love for

Jesus Christ, and a desire of uniting themselves to him in his

sufferings. The intention we speak of, is particularly recommended

in the Statutes of different religious Orders; and the Brothers are

exhorted in them, ‘when they inflict discipline upon themselves, to

call to their mind Jesus Christ, their most amiable Lord, fastened to

the column, and to endeavour to experience a few of those excessive

pains he was made to endure.’ This notion of religious persons, which

proceeds from an unbounded sense of gratitude towards their Divine

Saviour, from a wish of repaying in any manner the immense service he

had conferred upon them in saving them from destruction, and of at

least sharing his sufferings, since they cannot alleviate them, has

certainly something interesting in its principle.

But the most universal use, by far, that has been made of

flagellatory disciplines among Christians, in these parts of the

world, has been to atone for past sins. And indeed it is no wonder

that a practice of so convenient a kind, which enabled every one, by

means of an operation of the duration and severity of which he was

the sole judge, to pay, as he thought, an adequate price for every

offence he might have committed, and silence a troublesome conscience

whenever he pleased, should so easily gain ground, and meet with so

much favour, not only from the vulgar, but also from great Men, and

even Kings; to whom we may no doubt add their Ministers.

Among the superstitious notions that may be hurtful to Society,

it is difficult to imagine one of a worse tendency than that here

mentioned, the immediate consequence of which is to render useless

all the distinctions implanted in the human mind between evil and

good, and, by making offenders easy with themselves, to take off the

only punishment that is left for the greater number of crimes. When

notions like these were adopted by Kings, with respect to whom human

laws are silent, the consequences were pernicious in the extreme;

practices of this sort became as dangerous to the peace and happiness

of their subjects, as they would have been conducive to them, if the

disciplines we speak of, instead of being inflicted upon such high

Offenders, every time they were conscious they deserved them, by the

hands of Confessors aiming at Bishopricks, or under fear of dungeons,

had been dealt them to the full satisfaction of a Jury composed of

impartial persons, and nowise afraid to speak their minds.

These notions of the usefulness of self-flagellations, were carried

to a most extravagant pitch by a Sect formed of those itinerant

Disciplinants, accounts of whom have been above given. Proud of the

cruel disciplines they inflicted upon themselves, they looked upon

them as being of far greater merit than the practice of any Christian

virtue; and they at last formed among themselves a particular Sect

of Heretics, who were called _Flagellants_. The title of _History

of the Flagellants_, which the Abbé Boileau has given to his Work,

might seem to indicate that he intended to write an History of that

Sect, and of those public processions of Disciplinants which have

succeeded it: yet, he only mentions that Sect and those Processions

in his usual loose manner, in his ninth Chapter, without even

distinguishing the one from the other. The proper title of his book

(and of this, which is imitated from it) should be, _The History of

religious Flagellations among different Nations, and especially among

Christians_.

Among the different tenets of the Hereticks we speak of, were

the following. They pretended that the blood they shed, during

their flagellations, was mixed with that of Jesus Christ;--that

self-flagellations made confession useless;--that they were more

meritorious than martyrdom, for they were voluntary, which martyrdom

was not;--that baptism by water was of no use, as every true

Christian must be baptized in his own blood;--that flagellation could

atone for all past and future offences, and supplied the want of

all other good works. To these tenets, and to several others of the

same sort, they added Stories of different kinds; such as that of

the abovementioned letter brought from Heaven by an Angel, to order

self-flagellations; they gave out that a certain Brother of their

Sect, who lived at Erford in Thuringe, was Elias; and that another,

whose name was Conrad Smith, was Enoch, &c. &c.

As the principles maintained by these Hereticks, were destructive of

most of the essential tenets received by the Church, this reason,

together with the cruelties they practised upon themselves, and in

general their fanaticism, which really was of a despicable kind,

caused Pope Clement IV. to issue a Bull against them, in the year

1350; and several Princes expressly prohibited that Sect, in the

places under their dominion.

From those Hereticks, must therefore be distinguished the common

Fraternities of Disciplinants, which continue in these days to be

established in several Countries. These Fraternities are composed of

good orthodox Christians, who do not in any degree pretend that their

disciplines supersede the necessity of Baptism or Confession, or of

any other Sacrament; who tell no stories about Elias, or Enoch; who

dutifully subscribe to all the tenets, without exception, recommended

by the Church, and above all pay implicit obedience to the authority

of the Heads of it. They are Associations of much the same kind with

common Clubs, or if you please, like Lodges of Freemasons: they have

a stock of effects and furniture belonging to the Fraternity, such

as banners, crucifixes, ornaments for altars, and so on; and each

contributes a certain small sum annually, for keeping the above

effects in repair, and defraying the expences of paying the music,

feeing Priests, and others of a like kind: they have, besides,

peculiar Statutes, not unlike the Articles of a common Club.

The principal engagement of these Fraternities is to discipline

themselves in times of great Solemnities; such as the Sundays in

the Advent, the Sundays before Palm-Sunday, on Maunday Thursday,

and certain days during the Carnival. On these days they walk about

Towns in regular processions. They carry along with them banners,

painted with the appropriated colour of the Brotherhood: the Brothers

are equipped in a peculiar kind of dress for the occasion, all

wearing, besides, masks over their faces. With this apparatus they

visit different Churches, exhibiting an appearance which, when seen

from some distance, is not unlike that of the trading Companies, in

London, on a Lord Mayor’s Day; and their banners, together with the

other ornaments they display, cut a figure not very short of the

_paraphernalia_ of the City.

In the principal Church whence they set off, and perhaps also in

those which they visit, they hear a short sermon from a Priest,

on the Passion of our Saviour; and as soon as the Priest has said

the words, “let us mend and grow better” (_emendemus in melius_)

the disciplines begin with the singing of the _Miserere_, and are

continued in the streets, as they walk in procession. By one Article

of their Statutes, it is ordered that no Brother shall put a Man to

discipline himself in his stead. Plenty of Indulgences are granted

to those who discharge their duty on those occasions. And moreover,

Bishops are ordered to inspect, in their respective Dioceses, the

Fraternities there established, and examine their Statutes, in order

to strike out such articles as may contain seeds of Heresy.

Fraternities of this kind obtain in most of the Catholic Countries

in Europe; though with different encouragement from their different

Governments.

In France they were, as hath been above said, in the greatest favour

at Court, under Henry the Third: this Prince, who, before he was

called to the Throne on the death of his Brother, had given every

hope of an able warrior, and a great King, having inlisted in one of

these Fraternities. As a powerful party was at that time set up, in

France, against the authority of the Crown, and most of the people in

Paris favoured that party, the King had attempted to overaw them by a

display of Majesty, and being constantly accompanied when he made his

appearance in public, by a numerous body of Halberdiers; but this not

having succeeded, he tried to amuse the People by public shews; and

in that view, as a Writer of those times says, instituted in Paris

Fraternities of Penitents, in which he made himself a Brother. This

expedient, however, did not succeed: these disciplining processions

only served to bring sarcasms upon the Court, and the King himself;

and among them that of Maurice Poncet has been recorded, who,

besides other invectives he delivered from the pulpit, compared the

disciplining Penitents, as hath been abovementioned, to men who

should cover themselves with a wet cloth to keep off the rain. This

reflection of Poncet was thought to be the more pointed, as, the very

day before, the King had Walked in a procession of Penitents, during

which a most heavy shower of rain had fallen, and the King with his

Chancellor, and the whole train of Disciplinants, had been thoroughly

soaked. The King was informed, the next day, of the jest of Poncet;

and this, together no doubt with the remembrance of the rain of the

day before, caused him to be much incensed against the Preacher:

however, as notwithstanding his vices and weakness, he was a Man of

the mildest temper, as well as of unbounded liberality, he contented

himself with having the Monk sent back to his Convent.

In subsequent times, that is in the year 1601, under the reign of

Henry IV. a Sentence was passed, as hath been abovementioned, by

the Parliament of Paris, to abolish the Fraternity of the _Blue

Penitents_, in the City of Bourges. The motive of the Parliament was

not, however, their tender care for the skin of these Blue Penitents:

but that Fraternity had been rendered a kind of political Association

against the reigning King, who was during his whole life persecuted

by bigotry, till he fell a victim to it at last; and they had joined

several treasonable declarations and engagements, to their Statutes:

for this reason the Fraternity was forbidden to meet again, under

pain of being prosecuted as guilty of High Treason. From that time

Brotherhoods of Penitents have been constantly discountenanced in

France; and they are continued only in some Towns in the Southern

Provinces, distant from the Metropolis.

But the Countries in which the processions we mention (which

certainly are as extraordinary as any ceremony of which any Religion

affords an instance) are most prevalent, and where they are in a

manner naturalized, are, Italy, and Spain.

In the latter Country, in Spain, the flagellating Solemnities we

speak of, have received a peculiar turn from the peculiar manners of

the Inhabitants; and they are (which is certainly extraordinary) as

well operations or scenes of gallantry, as acts of devotion. Lovers

will frequently go, at the head of a procession of friends, and

discipline themselves under the windows of their Mistresses: or, when

they pass by chance under these windows, with a procession to which

they belong, they redouble the smartness of their flagellations.

All Disciplinants in general, shew attentions of the same kind to

such Ladies as they meet in their way, when these Ladies appear to

them possessed of some charms; and when the latter engage their

attention in a peculiar manner, they never fail, especially if

the procession happens to move slowly or to stop, by means of the

increased briskness of their flagellations and skilful motions of

their disciplines, plentifully to sprinkle them with their blood.

These facts are attested by all Travellers; and _Madame_ d’Aunoy

among others, a French Lady of quality who in the last Century

published a relation of her journey into Spain, a Book written with

judgment, after giving an account of the same facts with those above

to the friend to whom she wrote, adds that what she relates is

literally true, and without any exaggeration. The Ladies who are the

cause of this increased zeal of the Disciplinants, and to whom such

an agreeable piece of courtship is addressed, reward the latter by

raising the veil which covers their face, or even are obliged by the

Bystanders to do so (_destapar_, as they call it) in much the same

manner as the croud which stands at the door of a House where there

is a masquerade, will, in this Country, oblige the masks, as they get

into, or out of the House, to uncover their faces.

How the Spanish Ladies can be pleased with feats of that kind, is

certainly difficult to understand; unless it be that, with Ladies,

the bare intention of shewing them courtesy, is enough to procure

their good-will; or perhaps also it may be, that the extreme

gracefulness with which the disciplines we mention, are performed,

has the power of rendering them pleasing to the Ladies. An opinion of

this kind has been delivered by the Author of Hudibras:

“Why may not whipping have as good

A grace, perform’d in time and mood,

With comely movement, and by art,

Raise a passion in a Lady’s heart?”

This power of the graces to render whipping agreeable, is certainly a

strong argument in their favour, and well worth adding to those urged

in their behalf, in a certain celebrated publication of late times.

That Disciplinants in Spain, flagellate themselves with the extreme

gracefulness we mention, is a fact about which no doubt is to be

entertained: nay, there are Masters in most Towns, whose express

business is to teach the time, mood, comely movements and arts,

above described, and in short to shew how to perform disciplines

with elegance.----Fielding, in one of his Works, has inserted an

advertisement of the celebrated Broughton which had just made its

appearance, by which the latter offered his services to the public,

to instruct them in the art of boxing, and all the mysteries of it:

that Author thought posterity would be extremely glad to meet with

that interesting and incontrovertible monument of the manners of the

times in which he wrote: an advertisement from one of the Spanish

flagellating Masters we speak of, would, in like manner, be extremely

proper to be produced in this place; and if I do not insert here the

copy of any such advertisement, the reader may be persuaded that it

is solely because I have none in my possession.

When the Gentlemen who propose to discipline themselves in honour

of their Mistresses, are of considerable rank, the ceremony is then

performed with great state and magnificence. Madame D’Aunoy relates

that the day the Duke of Vejar disciplined himself, an hundred white

wax-candles were carried before the procession: the Duke was preceded

by sixty of his friends (vassals perhaps, or dependents) and followed

by an hundred, all attended by their own pages and footmen; and

besides them there were no doubt abundance of Priests and crucifixes.

As these Spanish Gallants have no less honour than devotion, battles

frequently take place between them, for the assertion of their just

prerogatives; and this, for instance, seldom fails to be the case

when two processions happen to meet in the same street: each party

think they are intitled to the most honourable side of the way;

and a scuffle is the consequence. This happened at the time of the

procession of the abovementioned Duke of Vejar: another procession,

conducted by the Marquis of Villahermosa, entered the same street, at

the other end of it: the light-armed troops, otherwise the servants

with their lighted long wax-candles, began the engagement, bedaubing

the clothes, and singeing the whiskers and hair of each other;

then the body of Infantry, that is to say the Gentlemen with their

swords, made their appearance, and continued the battle; and at last

the two noble Champions themselves met, and began a fight with their

disciplines (another instance of Penitents using their disciplines

as weapons, is, if I mistake not, to be found in Don Quixote) the

two noble Champions, I say, began a smart engagement with each

other; their self-flagellations were for a while changed, with great

rapidity, into mutual ones; and their weapons being demolished,

they were about to begin a closer kind of fight, when their friends

interfered, and parted them: the high sharp and stiff cap of one

of the two Combatants, which had fallen in the dirt, was taken up,

properly cleansed, and again placed upon his head; and the two

processions went each their own course, dividing as chance determined

it. The whole ceremony was afterwards concluded with splendid

entertainments which each of the Noble Disciplinants gave in their

Houses, to the persons who had formed their respective processions;

during which abundance of fine compliments were paid them on their

piety, their gallantry, and their elegance in giving themselves

discipline.

If such acts both of devotion and courtship are performed in Spain,

by persons of the first rank, much more may we think that practices

of the same kind prevail among the vulgar: and on this occasion I

shall produce an extract from the Spanish Book intitled, the Life of

Friar _Gerund de Campazas_. As this Novel, which is of a humorous

kind, was written in later times by a native of the Country, and

a Man of learning (a Father Jesuit, I think) an extract from it

may give a surer insight into the above singular customs of the

Spaniards, than any relation of Travellers perhaps can.

‘Anthony was then studying at Villagarcia, and already in the fourth

class, as hath been said, and in the twenty-fifth year of his age.

The fortnight vacation for the Holy and Easter Week arrived, and he

went home to his own town, as is the custom for all those students

whose home is within a short distance. The Devil, who never sleeps,

tempted him to play the penitent on Maunday Thursday; for, as our

young Penitent was now well shot up and his beard grown, he looked

lovingly upon a Damsel that had been a neighbour of his, ever since

they went to School together to the clerk of the Parish, to learn

the horn-book; and in order to court her in the most winning manner,

he thought it expedient to go forth as a disciplinant: as this,

the Reader is to know, is one of the gallantries with which the

Women of Campos are most pleased; for it is a very old observation

there, that the greatest part of the marriages are concerted on

the day of the cross of the May, on the evenings on which there is

dancing, and on _Maunday Thursday_: some of the Women being so very

devout and compunctious, that they are as much delighted with seeing

the instruments of discipline applied, as with the rattling of the

castanets.

‘The rogue of an Anthony was not ignorant of this inclination of

the girls of his Town, and therefore went out as disciplinant, on

Maunday Thursday, as we have above said. At a league’s distance he

might, notwithstanding his mask, and his hood which hung down almost

to his waist, have been known by Catanla Rebollo, which was the name

of his sweetheart, neighbour, and old school-fellow; for, besides

that there was no other cap in the whole procession so spruce or so

stiff-standing as his, he wore as a mark, a black girdle which she

had given him, upon his taking leave of her on Luke’s-day, to go to

Villagarcia. She never took her eyes from him, during the time he was

passing near her; and he, who knew it well, took that opportunity to

redouble the briskness of his discipline, making her, by the way,

unobserved by others, two little amorous obeisances by nodding his

cap: which is one of the tender passes that never fail to win the

hearts of the marriageable girls, who are very attentive to it;

and the bumkin who knows how to do it with most grace, may pick and

choose among them, though at the same time he may not be the most

expert at the rural games and exercises.

‘At length, as Anthony had made too much haste to give himself a

plentiful bleeding, one of the Majordomos who superintended the

procession, bade him go home and take care of himself, before the

procession was over. Catanla took herself after him, and being a

neighbour, followed him into the house, where there stood ready the

wine, rosemary, salt and tow, which is all the apparatus for these

cures. They well washed his shoulders, and applied the pledgets;

after which he put on his usual clothes, and wrapped himself up in

his grey cloak. They afterwards went to see the procession, except

Catanla, who said she would stay with him, and keep him company, &c.’

The disciplining ceremonies above described, are, as hath been

observed, also admitted in Italy; and they are performed there with

no less regularity and applause, than in Spain. Most Travellers

into that Country give some account of them: Doctor Middleton, for

instance, describes at some length in his Letter from Rome, two

processions of that kind, to and in the Church of St. Peter, of which

he had been a witness.

But, as the ceremonies we speak of, have been made in Spain,

expeditions of gallantry, in which nicety of honour and amorous

prowess are displayed by turns, so in Italy, they have been turned

into perfect farces, and scenes of mimickry.

Father Labat, who has published a relation of a Journey to Spain and

Italy, in which he gives accounts of disciplining processions in both

Countries, recites that in one of these processions he saw at Civita

Vecchia, there were in the first place to be seen at the head of that

procession several figures or persons who represented Jesus Christ

in the different stages or acts of his condemnation: these different

figures are commonly expressed by technical or cant Latin words; and

among those which Father Labat mentions as having made part of the

above procession, was an _Ecce Homo_, which is a figure intended to

represent Jesus Christ when he made his appearance before Pilate,

clad in purple robe, with a reed in his hand, and a crown on his head.

Another personage afterwards made his appearance, who represented our

Lord going to the place of his death: eight Executioners surrounded

him, who teased him, and pulled the chains with which he was loaded;

and a Simeon of Cyrene walked behind him, who assisted him in

carrying his cross. Several Men followed, who were likewise loaded

with heavy crosses, and were meant, I suppose, to represent the

Robbers who suffered on that day. Among these different figures were

abundance of Roman Soldiers, armed with casques and bucklers.

After these came a number of persons who, by their tears and groans,

expressed the deep affliction they felt: and then the train of the

Disciplinants made their appearance, who manifested their grief in

another manner, that is, by their flagellations. Among the latter

were two particular figures who were thoroughly naked, except those

parts which must absolutely be covered, for which purpose they wore

a kind of short apron. These two figures, who were called the two

_St. Jeroms_, on account of the blows with which they at times beat

their breast, possessed a kind of skill not very unlike that exerted

by Dominic the _Cuirassed_, who could discipline himself with both

his hands at once: they performed both the _upper_ and the _lower_

discipline at the same time, and lashed themselves from head to foot,

with large scourges they had provided for the occasion. However, as

the two latter personages exhibited rather a striking appearance,

they were, the ensuing year, ordered to do like the other Penitents,

and to wear breeches.

In the same train we describe, were also the family of Joseph, with

a number of female mourners, and among them Mary Magdalen, with

the Virgin Mary; and, lastly, to crown the whole, there was in the

procession a figure fitted with a red-haired wig, and a red beard,

who represented Judas, and held up with great triumph in his hand,

a purse, in which he shook and jingled a few pieces of money, which

were supposed to be the reward he had received for betraying our

Saviour.

In fine, what much increases our surprise concerning the flagellating

ceremonies and processions we describe, is the great severity and

earnest zeal with which those who perform them, lay these disciplines

upon themselves; different, in that, from the Priests of the Goddess

of Syria mentioned in pag. 87, who, as the Emperor Commodus, and

after him Philip Beroald, shrewdly suspected, only performed sham

flagellations. The cruel severities exercised upon themselves

by the modern Penitents, are facts about which all Writers of

Relations agree; all mention the great quantity of blood which these

Flagellants lose, and throw to and fro with their disciplines. It

is commonly reported, I do not know with what truth, in the places

where such processions use to be performed, that those who have been

accustomed for several years to discipline themselves in them, cannot

leave it off afterwards, without danger of some great disorder,

unless they get themselves bled at that time of the year at which

those ceremonies use to take place[116]. Madame D’Aunoy says that

the first time she saw one of these processions, she thought she

should faint away; and she concludes the account she has given of the

gallant flagellating excursions that have been abovementioned, with

saying that the Gentleman who has thus so handsomely trimmed himself,

is often laid up in his room for several days afterwards, and so sick

that he cannot go to Mass on Easter Sunday. All the above facts shew

how much hardship, practice really may bring Men to bear: and the

feats of the above Penitents are not, after all, much more surprising

than the prowess of the illustrious _Buckhorse_, in this Country, who

submitted to receive boxes upon any part of his body, and as stoutly

applied as people chose to lay them on, for six-pence apiece: he

only covered his stomach with his arms across it; and the whole was

meant as an advantageous exercise for those who proposed to improve

themselves in the art of boxing.

A remarkable instance of this power of _use_, to enable us to bear

hardships, and even blows, occurs among the Chinese. It appears, from

the accounts of Travellers, that there are Men, in China, who make

it their trade, being properly fee’d for it, to receive bastinadoes

in the room of those who are sentenced to it by the Mandarine; in

the same manner as there are Men about the Courts of Law, in this

Country, ready to bail upon any occasion. As the bastinadoe is

inflicted on the spot, while the Mandarine is dispatching other

business, the thing is to bribe the Officer who is to superintend the

operation: the real Culprit then flips out of the way; the Man who

is to do duty for him comes forth, suffers himself to be tied down

to the ground, and receives the bastinadoe; which is laid on in such

earnest, that a fresh Man, or Executioner, is employed after every

ten or twelve strokes.

However, there is perhaps something in all this, arising from the

peculiar constitution and frame of the body, besides practice and

resolution. This disposition to bear blows without being disturbed,

is greatly valued by Boxers, who set it almost upon a par with skill,

agility, and real strength. I hope the Reader will thank me if I

inform him that this advantageous capability to receive blows without

minding them, is technically called by Boxers, _a Bottom_: at least

as it seems from certain publications of those days when the art of

boxing was encouraged by the Public in a higher degree than it is at

present.

The use that has been made of flagellations in public shows and

processions, the different Edicts of Princes for prohibiting or

permitting such ceremonies, the Bulls issued by different Popes to

approve or condemn them, and the decisions and regulations of a

number of Men invested with the first dignities in the Church on the

subject of voluntary discipline, are not the only circumstances that

prove the great importance of which these practices have gradually

grown to be in the Christian World: we ought not to omit to say that

they have been the cause of much difference in opinion among the

Learned; for something essential would certainly be wanting to the

glory of flagellations, had they not been the cause of dissentions

among Men, and if at least Treatises _pro_ and _con_ had not been

written on occasion of them.

Some among the Learned have, it seems, blamed the pious exercises

here alluded to, without restriction: such were the Cardinal Stephen,

and Peter Cerebrosus, who have been mentioned in a former place, as

well as certain learned Ecclesiastics in Rome, against whom Cardinal

Damian likewise wrote. Others have condemned the cruelty with which

the same exercises were sometimes performed: among them was Gerson,

whose arguments, together with those of the Advocate-General Servin

in his speech against the Blue Penitents of Bourges, are recited at

some length in the Abbé Boileau’s ninth Chapter.

Debates have, moreover, taken place among the Learned, concerning

the precise views with which disciplines ought to be performed, as

well as on the properest occasions. And disputes have in particular

run high, concerning the degree of efficaciousness of such pious

exercises: on which the Reader may remember what has lately been said

of the doctrines advanced by the Hereticks called _Flagellants_.

Differences in opinion have also prevailed with respect to the

manner in which disciplines are to be executed: some asserting that

penitents ought to inflict them upon themselves with their own hands;

and others being equally positive that they ought to receive them

from the hands of other persons; this was one of the arguments of

Gerson.

In fine, debates have taken place concerning the properest situation

for penitents to be in, when undergoing such mortifications. Some

have objected to the disciplining persons laying themselves bare for

that purpose, as being contrary to decency; while others, at the head

of whom was Cardinal Damian, have strenuously declared for a state

of unlimited nakedness. The following is one of the arguments of the

Cardinal on the subject.

‘Tell me, whoever you may be, who are actuated by so much pride as to

deride the Passion of our Saviour, and who, refusing to be stripped

along with him, ridicule his nakedness, and call his sufferings

mere dreams or trifles, tell me, pray, what you prepare to do, when

you shall see this heavenly Saviour, who was publicly stripped and

fastened to a cross, clad with majesty and glory, accompanied by

an innumerable multitude of Angels, surrounded by incomparable and

inexpressible splendours, and infinitely more glorious than all

visible and invisible things? what will you do, I say, when you shall

see him whose ignominy you pretend to despise, seated upon a Tribunal

exalted and surrounded by fire, and judging all Mankind in a manner

both equitable and terrible? Then will the Sun lose its lustre; the

Moon will be involved in darkness; the Stars will fall from their

places; the foundations of mountains will be shaken; only a few

scarce gloomy rays will be sent from the skies; the earth and air

will be consumed by impetuous fires, and all the elements confounded

together: what, once more, will you do, when all these things shall

happen? of what service to you will these clothes and garments be,

with which you now are covered, and which you refuse to lay aside,

to submit to the exercise of penitence? with what presumptuous

audaciousness do you hope to partake of the glory of Him whose shame

and ignominy you now refuse to share?’----The above is certainly the

best argument I have hitherto read in favour of nakedness; and it

reconciles me to Cardinal Damian, whom I find to have been no bad

Writer.

This necessity of nakedness to complete the merit of Penance, has

been insisted upon by other Men of importance besides him whom we

have just spoken of; and without alledging any further authority on

this subject, it will suffice to observe that the greatest personages

have submitted to that part of Penitence we mention; several

instances of which have been produced in a former Chapter.

Nay, the more complete was this privation of clothes, the more

merit there was thought to be in it: hence we find that several

Offenders have proportioned their freedom from habiliments, to the

greatness of the sense they entertained of their offences; and on

this occasion may be recited the penance performed by Fulk, surnamed

_Grisegonnelle_, about the year 1000.

This Fulk, who was a very powerful Man in France, being the Son of

the great _Seneschal_ of the Kingdom, had been a most bad and violent

Man in those times of feudal Anarchy, when force was almost the only

law that existed, and the Nobles and Lords were rather Heads of

Robbers, than persons invested with any precise dignity. Among other

crimes the above Fulk had committed, he had killed with his own hand

Conan, Duke of Britanny. He had performed three pilgrimages to the

Holy Land; and on the last, meaning to render his penance complete

and perfectly unexceptionable, he caused himself to be drawn naked

upon a hurdle, with a halter round his neck, through the streets of

Jerusalem. Men who had been directed so to do, lashed him by turns,

with scourges; and a person appointed for that purpose, cried at

certain intervals, _Lord! have mercy on the traitor and forswearer

Fulk._ He lived very devoutly afterwards, and founded several

Monasteries. An account of this Fulk, and his penance, is to be found

in Moreri’s Dictionary.

Others have carried their notions on the present subject still

farther, and have thought that bare freedom from habiliments, had

some sanctity peculiar to it, and possessed, of itself, a great

degree of merit. The Cynic Philosophers in Greece, among whom

Diogenes was particularly remarkable, frequently made, we find,

their appearance in public, without even a single rag to cover their

nakedness; and the Indian Philosophers called _Gymnosophists_,

constantly appeared in the same light kind of dress, as we learn

from their appellation itself, which signifies _naked Sages_.

Sages of the same kind still continue to exist in the same quarters

we speak of; and we have likewise had, in our parts of the World,

particular Sages or Sectaries, who have attributed no less merit to

a state of nakedness. Such were the _Adamites_, mentioned by St.

Austin. These Adamites, thinking they would effectually assimilate

themselves to our first Parents before their fall, if they appeared

in the same habit, would put themselves in a compleat state of nature

during certain solemnities of their own, and either ventured to make

their appearance in the public streets in that condition, or did the

same, both Men and Women together, in private conventicles or houses,

which, if it was winter time, they took care to have well warmed

beforehand.

About the year 1300, a Sect of the same kind, called the _Turlupins_

(which word rather seems to have been a nickname, than a serious

appellation of that sect) made their appearance in France, again

declaring themselves, as well by their example as by their words,

for freedom from accoutrements. To these the _Picards_, a century

afterwards, succeeded in Germany, who carrying their opinion on the

sanctity of nakedness, and their abhorrence of such unhallowed thing

as clothing, farther than the Adamites had done, made at all times

their appearance in a perfect state of nature. A certain party of

Anabaptists, adopting the doctrine of these Picards, tried, on the

thirteenth day of February in the year 1535, to make an excursion in

the streets of _Amsterdam_, in the hallowed state we mention; but the

Magistracy, not taking the joke so well as they ought to have done,

used these Adventurers in rather a severe manner.

In fine, to the instances of nakedness we have just recited, we

ought not to omit to add that of Brother _Juniperus_, a Friar of

the Franciscan Order: and the merit of this Friar was the greater

in that, different from the abovementioned partisans of nakedness,

he performed his own processions alone, with great assurance and

composure.

‘Another time he entered the Town of Viterbo; and while he stood

within the gate, he put his breeches on his head, and, his gown

being tied round his neck in the shape of a load, he walked through

the streets of the Town, where he suffered many tricks from the

inhabitants; and still in the same situation, he went to the Convent

of the Brothers, who all exclaimed against him; but he cared little

for them, _so holy was this good little Brother_[117].’

This account of Brother Juniperus, is extracted from the Book called

“Of the Conformities” (_De Conformitatibus_) or rather from that

called the _Alcoran of the Cordeliers_, which is an extract from the

former: for this Book of the _Conformities_ exists, it is said, no

longer; or at least only two or three Copies of it are to be come at,

in certain Libraries, the name of which I have forgotten. The Book in

question, which is well known from other old Books that mention it,

was a compilation made by Franciscan Monks: the design of it, besides

reciting pious Anecdotes relative to the Order, was to investigate

the _conformities_ between Jesus Christ, and their Founder St.

Francis; and the advantage commonly was, in these comparisons,

modestly given to the latter. After the period of the Reformation,

the Monks of the Order we speak of, became somewhat ashamed of the

performance, and have since succeeded in suppressing it, only two

or three copies, as hath been above observed, being now left: a

Protestant Minister, who procured sight of one of them, has, in this

Century, done the Cordeliers or Franciscans the charitable service

of giving an extract from the most remarkable Articles to the World,

under the abovementioned title of the Alcoran of the Cordeliers.

However, these stark-naked processions performed by the Cynic

Philosophers, by the Adamites, the Turlupins, the Picards, and by

Brother Juniperus, never met, we find, with any great and lasting

countenance from the Public; and, as beatings without nakedness, that

is mere bastinadoes, have generally been considered as being but dull

and unmeritorious acts of penance, and accordingly never experienced

any degree of encouragement, so, nakedness without beatings, has been

but indifferently practiced or relished. But when flagellations have

been employed, then has the scene become cheered and enlivened; then

have Penitents entertained sufficient consciousness of their merit,

to continue their exercises with perseverance and regularity; then

have numerous converts contributed to perpetuate the practice; then

have the World thought the affair worth engaging their attention, and

public shews, ceremonies, and solemnities, have been instituted.

Ceremonies of this kind have, however, been planned with different

success, by which I mean with different degrees of ingenuity, among

different Nations.

The flagellating Solemnities, for instance, that took place in

Lacedæmon, are not in any degree intitled to our approbation; very

far from it. The cruel advantage that was taken in them, of the silly

pride of Boys, to prevail upon them to suffer themselves to be cut

to pieces, rendered such ceremonies a practice of really a brutish

kind; and it is difficult to decide whether there was in them more

inhumanity, or stupidity. The same is to be said of the Solemnities

of a similar kind that were performed among the Thracians.

Less exceptionable than those just mentioned certainly were the

ceremonies exhibited by the Egyptians, and by the Syrian Priests of

Bellona; since it is evident that no kind whatever of compulsion took

place in them, in regard to any person.

The same observation is to be made in favour of the processions of

modern Flagellants, in which every one has the scourging of his own

skin; and at the same time it must be owned that the gallantry and

courtship paid to the fair Sex, which so eminently prevail in those

processions, are circumstances that greatly recommend them. On the

other hand, the gloomy affectation of sanctity which is mixed with

the festivity and pageantry of those disciplining solemnities, gives

the whole an air of hypocrisy, which is in some degree disgusting,

and the degree of real cruelty with which they are attended, cannot

but compleat the aversion of such persons as use has not reconciled

to the thought of them.

The festival of the Lupercalia that was performed in Rome, had

indeed greatly the advantage of all the ceremonies of the kind that

ever were instituted. It really deserved to have been contrived,

or continued, by a People more polite and refined than the Romans,

especially in early times, are represented to us to have been.

Among other excellencies the Festival we speak of possessed, it

was performed but once a year, and only continued a few days: for,

ceremonies of this kind ought to occur but seldom, and be only of

short duration; and it was like a short time of _Saturnalia_, during

which each Sex kindly exhibited to the sight of the other those

personal charms and advantages which they wisely kept hidden during

the rest of the whole year.

In the second place, the real design of the whole transaction was

pretty openly and candidly acknowledged: and if we except the few

religious rites by which the ceremony was begun, which served to

give dignity to it, and the notion of the power of the slaps of the

_Luperci_ to render Women fruitful, which served to give importance

to the whole solemnity, it was agreed fairly enough on all sides,

that no more was meant than temporary pastime and amusement.

In the third place, no cruelty whatever took place in the performance

of the Festival we speak of, nor was it possible any should; and

from the lightness and the breadth of the straps which the Luperci

employed, we may judge of their tender anxiousness not to do, through

zeal or other cause, any injury to the fair objects who made

application to them.

When one of the three bands of Luperci (out of which every Man

who wanted an excellent shape or elegant address, was no doubt

irremissibly blackballed) had been let loose out of the Temple of

the God Pan, and after the coming of a Lupercus into any particular

street had been announced by the flourishes of the haut-boys, the

clarinets, the trumpets, kettle-drums, and other musical instruments

that were stationed near the entrance of it (for we are absolutely to

suppose that music contributed to embellish so charming a festival)

some one of the amiable persons who proposed to receive benefit from

the Lupercus’s services, moved out of the croud, and threw herself

into his way.

On sight of her, the whole fierceness of the Lupercus became

softened. However kindled his spirits might have been by the

religious rites by which the ceremony was begun, by the course he

had just performed, and the sight of the multitude of spectators who

lined the streets, whatever in short might be that state of fever in

which Festus seems to represent him, the _februans_ Lupercus, at the

sight of the lovely creature who obstructed his passage, felt his

agitation succeeded by sensations of the most benevolent sort.

So far from entertaining designs of a severe of cruel nature, he

scarcely possessed sufficient power to raise his arm, and perform

with a faint hand the office that was expected from him. His

bosom was filled with the softest passions. Intirely lost in the

contemplation of the lovely object that made application to him,

already did he begin to have thoughts of employing remedies of a

more obvious and natural kind,--already, forgetting all Mankind, did

he attempt to inclose her in his arms; when the acclamations of the

spectators and the sudden explosion of the musical instruments, at

once recalled him to himself; he flew from the amiable person who

had thus so thoroughly engaged his attention, and hastened to other

objects equally amiable, who likewise came to crave his assistance.

If I was called upon to give my vote for any ceremony of the kind

here mentioned, I would give it for the festival of the Lupercalia,

especially with the improvements that had been made in it about the

time of Pope Gelasius. (See p. 94.)

[116] In a certain Spanish book, the name of which I do not remember,

a Man is reproached with having besmeared himself with sheep’s blood,

in order to make people believe he had flagellated himself in a

distinguished manner.

[117] _Aliâ vice intravit Viterbium, & dùm esset in portâ,

fœmoralibus positis in capite, habitu in modum fardeli ligato ad

collum, sic nudus ad plateas ivit civitatis, ubi multas verecundias

perpessus est; & nudus ad locum fratrum ivit, omnibus contrà eum

clamantibus, ipso tamen de us parùm curante, tam sanctus fuit iste

fratricellus._