—_Harleian MS._ 4374
]
From the two passages above, we are informed that the power of whipping,
possessed by bishops, extended to persons of every vocation,
indiscriminately; and with much more reason may we think that those
persons who made profession of the ecclesiastical life, were subjected
to it. In fact we see that even the different dignities which they might
possess in the church, did not exempt them from having a flagellation
inflicted upon them by their bishops, when they had been guilty of
offences of rather a serious kind; and Pope St. Gregory the Great,
moreover, recommended to the bishops of his time, to make a proper use
of their authority. In his sixty-sixth Epistle, he himself prescribes to
Bishop Paschasius, the manner in which he ought to chastise Deacon
Hilary who had calumniated Deacon John. “Whereas,” he says, “guilt ought
not to pass without adequate satisfaction, we recommend to Bishop
Paschasius to deprive the same Deacon Hilary of his office, and after
having caused him to be publicly lashed, to confine him to some distant
place; that the punishment inflicted upon one, may thus serve to the
correction of many.”
[Illustration: