TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE

Footnote anchors are denoted by [number], and the footnotes have been placed at the end of each chapter. Many of the footnotes are long and spread over several pages. Several footnotes have footnotes themselves.

In this book the [Table of Contents] is at the end of the book.

The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.

Some minor changes to the text are noted at the [end of the book.] These are indicated by a dashed blue underline.

MEMORIALS
OF
HUMAN SUPERSTITION;

Being a Paraphrase and Commentary on the HISTORIA FLAGELLANTIUM of the Abbé Boileau, Doctor of the Sorbonne, Canon of the Holy Chapel, &c.

By One who is not Doctor of the Sorbonne.

Honni soit qui mal y pense.

THE SECOND EDITION.

Page. 391.

LONDON:

Printed for G. ROBINSON, No 55, Pater-noster Row.

M DCC LXXXIV.

THE
INTRODUCTION
OF THE
PARAPHRAST and COMMENTATOR.

THE Abbé Boileau, the author of the Historia Flagellantium, was elder brother to the celebrated Poet of that name. He filled, several years, the place of Dean of the Metropolitan Church of Sens, and was thence promoted to the office of one of the Canons of the Holy Chapel in Paris, which is looked upon as a great dignity among the French clergy.

While he was in that office (about the year 1700) he wrote, among other books, that which is the subject of this work[1]. This book, in which the public expected, from the title of it, to find an history of the particular sect of Hereticks called Flagellants, only contained an aggregation of facts and quotations on the subject of self-disciplines and flagellations in general among Christians (which, if the work had been well done, might however have been equally interesting) and a mixture of alternate commendation and blame of that practice.

The Theologians of that time, however, took offence at the book. They judged that the author had been guilty, in it, of several heretical assertions; for instance, in saying, as he does in two or three places, that Jesus Christ had suffered flagellation against his will: and they particularly blamed the censures which, amidst his commendations of it, he had passed upon a practice that so many saints had adopted, so many pontiffs and bishops had advised, and so many ecclesiastical writers had commended.

In the second place, they objected to several facts which the author had inserted in his book, as well as to the licentiousness of expression he had sometimes indulged; and they said that such facts, and such manner of expression, ought not to be met with in a book written by a good Christian, and much less by a Dean of the Metropolitan Church of Sens, a Canon of the Holy Chapel, and in short by a man invested with an eminent dignity in the Church; in which latter respect they were perhaps right[2].

Among the critics of our author’s book, were the Jesuits of Trevoux; the then conductors of a periodical review, called the Journal de Trevoux. The poet Boileau, taking the part of his brother, answered their criticisms by the following epigram.

Non, le livre des Flagellans

N’a jamais condamné, lisez le bien mes Peres,

Ces rigidités salutaires

Que pour ravir le Ciel, saintement violens,

Exercent sur leurs corps tant de Chrétiens austères.

Il blâme seulement cet abus odieux

D’étaler & d’offrir aux yeux

Ce que leur doit toûjours cacher la beinséance,

Et combat vivement la fausse piété,

Qui, sous couleur d’éteindre en nous la volupté,

Par l’austérité même & par la pénitence

Sait allumer le feu de la lubricité.

The first opportunity I had to see the Abbé Boileau’s book, which is pretty scarce, but which I knew from the above epigram, and other books that mention it, was about ten years ago, in a town of Italy, where it was shewn to me by a Quaker, an Englishman, who lived there; not a Quaker, however, of the common sort, that is, a scrupulous observer of the duties prescribed by his sect; for he wore laced cloaths, and played admirably well on the flute.

Having since lighted again on a copy of the same book, I judged that its singularity, and the nature of the facts it contains, rendered it worthy to be laid before the public; and I had the thought of dressing it in vulgar tongue with the less reluctance, as, conformably to the confession I have made in the title-page, I have not the honour to be a doctor of the Sorbonne. However, I found, upon a more attentive examination of the book, that the obscurity and want of meaning of that part of it which properly belongs to the author, who seems to have been as defective in point of clearness of head as his brother the poet was remarkable for that qualification, rendered a translation, impracticable.

The singular contradiction, for instance, between most of the conclusions our author draws from the facts he relates, and the facts themselves, is, (when it is possible to ascertain the meaning of such conclusions) really matter of surprise. The critics of our author, who were sensible of this inconsistency, had derived comfort from it, and hoped that the book would propagate but little heresy, since hardly any body could understand it. However, this very manner in which our author has composed his work, wherein he contradicts not only the facts he relates, but even his own assertions, sometimes two or three times in the same page, leads us to the discovery of his real design in writing it, and clears him from having entertained any views of an heretical or dangerous nature. He only proposed, it appears, to compile together facts and quotations which amused him, and which he thought would also amuse the public; and he terminated them (or sometimes whole strings of them) with seeming conclusions and random assertions, in order to make the reader judge that he had a serious and even theological design, in making his compilation.

Another cause of surprise in our Author’s book, is, the prodigious incoherency of the facts themselves he has linked together. But in this respect, likewise, we discover, after a little examination, that his views were of a perfectly harmless kind, and that this singularity was not owing to any design of his own, as might at first sight be imagined, but only to the manner in which he proceeded in his work. His practice was, it appears, to lay down, at the same time, upon the paper, all the facts to his liking he found related in the productions of the same author; and at other times also, he introduced together, we may suppose, all the stories and quotations the discovery of which he had made in the course of the same morning[3].

A translation of a book thus made, was therefore, as hath been above said, impracticable. And as a number of the facts and quotations it contains are curious, either in themselves, or on account of the authors from whom they are extracted, I have at once enlarged my first plan, and thought of writing another book with the materials contained in that of the Abbé Boileau.

With the facts and quotations, therefore, supplied by the Abbé Boileau’s book, I have undertaken to compose this History of the Flagellants. With these materials, the quantity or number of which I determined neither to increase or decrease, I attempted to write a book; proposing to myself a task of much the same nature with that kind of play which sometimes serves to amuse companies of friends in winter evenings, in which sets of words in appearance incompatible with one another, are proposed, and, without any of them being left out, or even displaced, are to be made into some consistent speeches, by the help of intermediate arguments. Such task I have, as I say, tried to perform, without setting aside any of the facts contained in the Abbé Boileau’s book: only I have taken great liberty with respect to placing and displacing such facts, as, without that indulgence, the task, on this occasion, was not to be performed. The work or problem, therefore, I proposed to myself, instead of being that which more commonly occurs, and may be expressed in the following terms: Certain arguments being given, to find the necessary facts to support them? was this: A certain number of facts, pretty well authenticated, being given, to find the natural conclusions and inductions which they suggest?

To this paraphrase thus made on the materials afforded by the Abbé Boileau, and to a few occasional sentences of his, which I have preserved, I have added an ample Commentary, in which I have introduced not only such facts as either my own memory, or other authors, supplied me: so that the Abbé’s work, a twelves book, printed on a very large type, has swelled into the majestic octavo which is now laid before the public.

In composing this octavo, two different parts I have performed. In the Paraphrase on the Abbé Boileau’s work, I have, keeping to the subject, and preserving as much as I could the turn of my Author’s book, expressed myself in that style and manner, in which it was not unlikely a doctor of the Sorbonne, and a dean of the church of Sens, might have written: in the Commentary, I have followed my own inclination. Conformably to that which is often practised on the Stage, where the same player fills two different parts at the same time, by speedily altering his dress, I have, in the present work, acted in two different alternate capacities, as I changed sides: in the text, I acted the part of a doctor of the Sorbonne; and then, quickly resuming my former station, I expatiated and commented, in the note, upon what the doctor had just said in the text.

Thus much for the manner in which I have accomplished this work. With respect to giving any previous delineation of the substance of it, it is what I find some difficulty in doing; and which, besides, I think would be useless, since I suppose the reader will, as readers commonly do, peruse this Preface only after he has turned the last leaf of the book: taking it therefore for granted that the reader knows, by this time, what the present performance is, I proceed to give an account of my views in writing it.

In the first place, I proposed to myself the information of posterity. A period will, sooner or later, arrive, at which the disciplining and flagellating practices now in use, and which have been so for so many centuries, will have been laid aside, and succeeded by others equally whimsical. And while the men of those days will overlook the defects of their own extravagant customs, or perhaps even admire the rationality of them, they will refuse to believe that the practices of which accounts are given in this work, ever were in use among mankind, and even matter of great moment among them. My design, therefore, was effectually to remove all their doubts in that respect, by handing down to them the flower and choice part of the facts and arguments on the subject.

This book will likewise be extremely useful to the present age; and it will in the first place be so, the subject being considered in a moral light. The numerous cases that are produced in this book, of disciplines which offenders of all classes, kings as well as others, have zealously inflicted upon themselves, will supply a striking proof of that deep sense of justice which exists in the breasts of all men; and the reader will from such facts conclude, no doubt with pleasure, that even the offenders of the high rank we have just mentioned, notwithstanding the state by which they are surrounded, and the majestic countenance which they put on, sometimes in proportion as they more clearly know that they are wrong, are inwardly convinced that they owe compensation for their acts of injustice.

Being considered in the same moral light, this book will be useful to the present age, by the instances it gives of corrections by which different offences against the peace of mankind have been requited; the consequence of which will be the preventing of such offences. Slanderous wits, for example, to mention only offenders of that class, writers of satires, epigrams, and lampoons, dealers in bon-mots, inventors of anecdotes, by reading the instances of disciplines by which such ingenious pastimes have, on different occasions, been repaid, will naturally be led to recollect, that all possible flagellations (to use the expression of the Alguazil introduced in a certain chapter of Gil Blas) have not been yet inflicted; and sudden considerations like this, which this book will not fail to suggest to them, will be extremely apt to check them the instant they are preparing to make their excursions on the reputation of their neighbours; and by that means the good name of many an innocent person will be preserved.

To the persons themselves who actually suffer from the injustice or wantonness of others, this performance will be of great service. Those, for instance, who smart under the lash of some insolent satirist, those who are disappointed in their expectations, those whose secrets have been betrayed, nay, even ladies, treacherously forsaken by those who had given them so many assurances of fidelity and eternal constancy, will find their misfortunes alleviated by reading the different instances and facts related in this book: they will take comfort from the thought, that what has already happened may happen again; and cheer themselves with the hope, that flagellations will sooner or later be the lot of those persons who cause their uneasiness.

Being considered in a philosophical light, this work will be useful to the present age, in the same manner as we have said it would be to posterity. The present generation, at least in this island, will find in it proofs both of the reality of the singular practices which once prevailed in their own country, and are still in full force in many others, and of the important light in which they have been considered by mankind. They will meet with accounts of bishops, cardinals, popes, and princes, who have warmly commended or blamed such practices; and will not be displeased to be moreover acquainted with the debates of the learned on the same subject, and with the honest, though opposite, endeavours, of a Cerebrosus and a Damian, a Gretzer and a Gerson.

To the critical reader this book will likewise be serviceable, by giving him an insight into the manner of the debates and arguments, and into the turn of the erudition, of foreign Catholick divines, at the same time that the information will be conveyed to him amidst other objects that will perhaps better amuse him: to secure this advantage, I have, as much as I could, preserved the appearance of our Author’s book, using, for that purpose, the titles of several of his chapters; only taking care to keep more to the subject than himself had done.

To the same critical reader this performance will also recommend itself, by the numerous passages from certain books which it gives him an opportunity to peruse. And the generality of readers will not be displeased to meet with a number of short specimens of the style of several authors whose works they never would have read, though they were once conspicuous on the particular line which they followed, and to be thus brought to some slight acquaintance with St. Austin, St. Jerom, and Tertullian, of whom they knew only the names, and with St. Fulgentius, and Peter Chrysologus, of whom they knew nothing at all.

In fine, to these capital advantages, possessed by this work, I have endeavoured to add the important one of affording entertainment; for, entertainment is a thing which is not by any means to be despised in this world. In order the better to attain this end, I have avoided offending against decency or religion; I had of myself too little inclination to be witty at the expence of either, especially the latter, to avail myself of the opportunities which the subject naturally offered; and I should think it a great praise of this book, if I were hereafter informed, that the graver class of readers have read with pleasure the less serious part of it, and that the other class have gone with pleasure likewise through that part which is less calculated for amusement.