Even sovereigns and great men, in the times we speak of, adopted for
themselves the practice of voluntary flagellation.
The Emperor Henry, who lived about the year 1070, “never ventured (if we
may credit Reginard’s account) to put on his imperial robes, before he
had obtained the permission of a priest for that purpose, and had
deserved it by confession and discipline.”
William of Nangis, in the life of St. Lewis, King of France, which he
has written, relates that that prince, after he had made his confession,
constantly received discipline from his confessor. To this the same
author adds the following curious account: “I ought not to omit to say,
concerning the confessor the king had before Geoffrey de Belloloco, and
who belonged to the order of the Predicant Friars, that used to inflict
upon him hard and immoderate disciplines; which the king, whose skin was
rather tender, had much ado to endure. This hardship, however, he never
would speak of to this confessor; but after his death, he mentioned the
fact somewhat jocularly, though not without humility, to the new
confessor.”
An instance of much the same nature with the facts above recited, is to
be found in one of Osbertus’s books. A certain English count having
contracted an unlawful marriage with one of his near relations, not only
parted afterwards with her, but requested besides to be disciplined in
the presence of St. Dunstan, and of the general assembly of the clergy.
“Terrified” says Osbertus, “by the greatness of his offence, his
obstinacy ceased; and after having renounced his unlawful wedlock, he
imposed upon himself the task of penitence. As Dunstan was then
presiding over a meeting of the clergy of the kingdom, which was holden
according to custom, the count came into the middle of the assembly,
barefooted, clothed with wool, and carrying rods in his hands; and threw
himself, groaning and weeping, at the feet of St. Dunstan. This instance
of piety moved the whole assembly, and Dunstan more than the rest.
However, as his wish was thoroughly to reconcile the man with God, he
preserved an appearance of severity in his looks, suitable to the
occasion, and for a whole hour persevered in denying his request: when,
at last, all the prelates having joined in the entreaties of the count,
St. Dunstan granted him the indulgence he was suing for.” From the above
fact, we might conclude that flagellations voluntarily submitted to, had
become, even before the era of Cardinal Damian, a settled method of
atoning for past sins, since St. Dunstan lived about an hundred years
before the Cardinal; that is about the year 950.
Instances of sovereigns and great men requesting to undergo
flagellations, must have been pretty common in the days we mention,
frequent allusions being made to it in old books; among others in that
old French romance, entitled, The History of the Round Table and the
Feats of the Knights, Launcelot du Lac. King Arthur is supposed in it,
to have summoned all the bishops who were in his army, to his chapel;
and there to have requested of them, a correction of the same kind as
that undergone by the count mentioned by Osbertus.
[Illustration:
STROUD, THE NOTORIOUS CHEAT, WHIPPED AT THE CART’S-TAIL FROM CHARING
CROSS TO WHITEHALL.
]
From the times we mention, we find numerous proofs of self-flagellation
being used in convents: and indeed it would have been a very
extraordinary circumstance if, while the persons above-named adopted
that practice, monks had rejected it. In the fifty-third article of the
statutes of the Abbey of Cluny, which were collected by Peter Maurice,
surnamed the Venerable, who was raised to the dignity of Abbot in the
year 1122, the following account is given. “It was ordained (it is said
in that Article) that that part of the Monastery which is on the left,
beyond the left Choir, should remain open to no strange persons, whether
Ecclesiastical or Lay, as it was formerly, and nobody admitted into it
except the Monks. This was thus settled, because the Brothers had no
place, except the old Church of St. Peter, in which they could practice
such holy and secret exercises as are usual with religious persons; they
therefore claimed the use of the above new part of the Church, both for
the night and the day, that they might constantly therein make offerings
of the perfumes of their prayers to God, supplicate their Creator by
frequent acts of repentance and genuflexions, and mortify their bodies
by often inflicting upon themselves three flagellations, either as
penances for their sins or as _an increase of their merit_.”
The practice in question gained so much credit, about those times, in
Monasteries, that St. Bruno, who, a few years after the death of
Cardinal Damian, founded the Carthusian Order, thought it necessary to
restrain his Monks in that respect; not unlikely, perhaps, with the view
to check the pride which they used to derive from such exercises. In one
of the statutes laid by that Saint, which Prior Guiges has collected,
the following regulation is contained. “In regard to such disciplines,
watchings, and other religious exercises as are not expressly enjoined
by our Institution, let nobody among us perform them, except it be by
the Prior’s permission.”