Preserved in the Crypt of St Martin’s Church, London.
]
CHAP. VIII.—_A remarkable instance of flagellation performed in honour
of the Virgin Mary._
So well established was the opinion that saints, and especially the
Virgin Mary, were to be appeased by flagellations, and such was in
general the fondness of people during a certain period of time for that
pious mode of correction, that a Franciscan monk, who wore a hood and
was girt with a cord, did not scruple, under the Pontificate of Sixtus
IV., to expose to the open day in the public market-place, the bare rump
of a Professor of Divinity, and lashed him with his hand in sight of a
crowd of astonished spectators, because he had preached against the
immaculate conception of the blessed Virgin. The fact is related in a
sermon written by Bernardinus de Buftis, which, together with his whole
work in honour of the Virgin (Opus Mariale), he dedicated to Pope
Alexander VI., and seems therefore to be a fact well enough
authenticated. The following is the manner in which Bernardinus gives
the account.
“He laid hold of him and threw him upon his knees, for he was very
strong. Having then taken up his gown,—because this minister had spoken
against the holy tabernacle of God—he began to lash him with the palm of
his hand because he had attempted to slander the blessed Virgin by
quoting, perhaps, Aristotle in the book of Priors, this preacher
confuted him by reading in the book of his posteriors, which greatly
diverted the bystanders. Then a certain female devotee exclaimed,
saying, “Mr. Preacher, give him four more slaps for my sake,” another
presently after said, “Give him also four more for me,” and so did a
number of others, so that if he had attempted to grant all their
requests, he would have had nothing else to do for the whole day.”
Nay, so proper did Bernardinus de Buftis think the above correction to
have been, so well calculated did he judge it to appease the holy
Virgin’s wrath, that he did not scruple to declare in the sequel of his
Sermon, that the monk who had inflicted it had possibly been actuated by
an inspiration from the Virgin herself. “Perhaps,” says he, “it was the
Virgin herself who induced him so to do, moreover granting him an
exemption from the censures incurred, according to the laws of the
Church, by those who strike an ecclesiastic, and relaxing the vigour of
these laws in his favour.”