CHAP. I.
The substance of the reasons given by the Abbé Boileau, for writing his Book. He seems to have been of opinion that voluntary flagellations were no very antient practice.
I AM not, I confess, without fear that the design I have formed of tracing the origin of those Flagellations which have in process of time been introduced among Christians, will be looked upon as a rash undertaking, and that I may be accused of having, in that respect, fallen into the errors of the Protestants, whether Lutherans, or Calvinists.
In fact, those two Sects, under pretence of shewing their obedience to the commands of God, who orders the Israelites not to make incisions in their own flesh for the sake of the dead, trample upon all laws concerning Penitence, extinguish that kind of virtue which consists in repressing the lustful appetites of the flesh, and ridicule those mortifications and penances to which Tertullian advises us to submit.
Indeed, I am far from wishing to favour the relaxed Doctrine of Heretics. That kind of enthusiastic fury which the Calvinists manifestest, in the last Century, against the laborious exercises of the Monastic life, rather heightens, in my opinion, the glory of the Catholic Church. I think that the manner of the antient Anchorites of Syria, of Thebaid, and of Egypt, the purity of their virtue, and the surprising penances to which they submitted, deserve our utmost reverence, however impossible it may be for us to imitate them.
I have no other object in view, on this occasion, than to bring back those happy times of the primitive Church, in which the true Science of conquering lustful appetites flourished among our holy Forefathers. All I propose to myself, is, to render it manifest to every candid Reader, that those methods of doing Penance, which are in our days called Disciplines[4], were unknown in the happy periods of the primitive Church. By Disciplines I mean here to speak of those voluntary Flagellations which Penitents inflict upon themselves with their own hands; lashing their own backs, or posteriors, either with scourges or whips, or willow and birch rods. A practice this, which, we are not to doubt, prevails much in the Societies of modern Monks and Nuns, especially among those who, under pretence of reformation, have abolished their antient Rules, and substituted new Constitutions in their stead.
But before I enter upon this subject, I must inform the Reader of two facts, which it is necessary he should know, at the same time that they are undeniable, and confirmed by every day’s practice. The first is, that Penitents, as we have above-mentioned, both inflict those Disciplines on themselves with their own hands, and receive the same from other persons, either with scourges, or rods, or whip-cords. The second is, that those chastisements are inflicted on them, either on the bare back or shoulders, or on the posteriors: the former method is usually called the upper, and the latter, the lower discipline[5].
Now, that this latter kind of Discipline is a contrivance of modern times, is what I positively aver. It was unknown, as I shall demonstrate to the Reader, among the first Christians; and it is moreover repugnant both to true Piety, and to Modesty, for several reasons which I shall deduce hereafter. I propose, besides, to shew that this practice is an offspring of Idolatry and Superstition; that it ought to be banished from among Christians as an erroneous and dangerous exercise; and that it has only been introduced into the Christian Church by ignorant persons, under the specious appearance of Piety and more perfect Mortification.
Painters, it seems, have not a little helped to establish and strengthen the practices we mention, by their pictures, of which Pope Gregory the Great says, in his Epistle to Serenus Bishop of Marseilles, that they were “the Libraries of ignorant Christians.” In fact, we see they have never represented any of the antient Anchorites, without leaving some spare corner on their canvas, whereupon to place either whips or rods; instruments of which those holy Hermits had not probably made the least use during their lives, and about which they perhaps had never so much as entertained a thought.
A number of able Writers in the last century have, it must be confessed, also contributed to bring into credit the practice we mention. Considering voluntary flagellations in the same light as they did all methods in general of mortifying the flesh, they commended them, and procured them to be admitted. My design here is not by any means to question the good intentions of so respectable persons, who held the first rank among the Society of the Fathers Jesuits, and were looked upon, if I may so express myself, like so many Heroes in the Republic of Letters: but yet, on the other hand, I cannot be persuaded that it is unlawful to animadvert upon the ignorance and impudence of Painters, of which Lucian says that they were “as licentious as the Poets[6];” and to endeavour, if possible, to obtain from the Prelates of the Church, that, since pictures are the books of ignorant Christians, no Fables and lies be represented in them; and that such as contain notorious falsehoods be banished from those Churches and Chapels in which Jesus Christ, who was truth itself, is daily adored. At least this will be admitted, that truth has no need of the assistance of falsehood to protect it: supported by its own strength, it sets at defiance the attacks of both Folly and Sophistry.