Memorials of Human Superstition / being a paraphrase and commentary on the Historia Flagellantium of the Abbé Boileau, Doctor of the Sorbonne

by Jean Louis de Lolme

CHAP. VIII.

A few more of the Abbé Boileau’s arguments are introduced. It does not appear that self-flagellation made a part of the duties prescribed in the first Monasteries, during the times of the first establishments of that kind. The only positive instances of flagellations suffered by Saints, or the Candidates for that title, in the days we speak of, are those which the Devil has inflicted upon them.

IN the antient Monasteries of Egypt, and of the East, that is to say, in the first regular religious establishments which took place among Christians, it does not seem that self-flagellations were in use, and that they had any notion of those frequent lashings and scourgings with which Monasteries have since resounded.

In fact, we find that that Rule which commonly goes under the name of St. Anthony, who lived about the year 300, and was the very first professor of Monastic Life, is entirely silent on that subject. The same is to be observed of the Rules framed by the Abbot Isaiah, who lived in much the same time as St. Anthony; of those composed by the Fathers Serapion, Macarius, Paphnutius, another Macarius, and several other very antient Rules, framed in the Monasteries of the East, which the learned Lucas Holstenius, Librarian of the Vatican, has published in his Code of Rules.

The Rules of the first religious Orders founded in the West, have been likewise silent as to the voluntary use of thongs and whips. The first Rule, for instance, prescribed to the Benedictines, that antient Western Order, does not mention a word about self-flagellation: and the same silence is to be observed in the Rules framed by Ovisiesius, Abbot of Tabennæ, by St. Aurelian, Bishop of Arles, by St. Isidorus, Bishop of Sevil, by St. Tetradius, and a number of others, whose Rules Holstenius has likewise collected. From thence we may therefore conclude, that Christians, in those times, had no notion of those beatings and scourgings which are now so prevalent; and that the upper and the lower disciplines were alike unknown among them[45].

The only Author of weight, in the days we speak of, who seems to have made any mention of voluntary flagellations being practised in the antient Monasteries, is St. John Climax, who, according to some accounts, lived in the middle of the fourth, and, according to others, only in the sixth Century. This Author relates, that, in a certain Monastery, ‘some, among the Monks, watered the pavement with their tears; while others, who could not shed any, beat themselves[46].’ Several Writers have laid great stress on that passage, and quoted it as an undoubted proof of the antiquity of the practice of voluntary flagellation; yet I will take the liberty to dissent from their opinion, since other Writers have judged that St. John Climax only spoke in a figurative manner, and have translated the above passage, by saying that ‘those monks who could not shed tears, lamented themselves[47].’

Regard for truth, however, obliges us to mention one or two instances of flagellations, which are to be found in the history of the antient Eastern Anchorites, written by Theodoret, who has been abovementioned; but those instances are such, that certainly no argument can be derived from them, to prove that voluntary flagellations were in use in the times in which those Anchorites lived.

One of those instances is to be found in the life of Abrahames. It is related in it, that the Christian populace having attempted to seize the sheets in which the body of that Saint was wrapped, the lictors drove them back with whips. Now, it is obvious to every one, that the lashes which these lictors bestowed, to and fro and at random, upon those men who beset them, were not willingly received by the latter. And the same may certainly with equal truth be observed of the flagellations inflicted upon the people (which is the second instance mentioned by Theodoret) by the Collectors of the public Tributes, who, he says, used to collect them with scourges and whips[48].

To those instances of involuntary flagellations, during the times of the Eastern Anchorites, and the first Monks, we may, I think, safely add those which the Devil, jealous of their merit, has inflicted upon them: a case which has frequently happened, if we are to credit the Writers of those times.

In the life of St. Anthony, which was written by St. Athanasius, we read that that Saint was frequently set upon, and lashed in his cell, by the Infernal Spirit.

St. Hilarion was also often exposed to the same misfortune; as we are informed by St. Jerom, who wrote an account of his life. ‘This wanton Gladiator (says St. Jerom, speaking of the Devil) bestrides him, beating his sides with his heels, and his head with a scourge[49].’

A great many other Saints, which it would be too tedious to mention, have been exposed to the like treatment; and the priest Grimlaïcus, the Author of an ancient Monastic Rule, observes that Devils will often insolently lay hold of Men, and lash them, in the same manner as they used to serve the blessed Anthony.

Page. 126.

That the above-mentioned instances of the wantonness of the Devil, with respect to Saints, were not willingly submitted to by the latter, needs not, I think, to be supported by any proof: it must certainly have been with great reluctance, that they felt themselves exposed to the lash of so formidable a Flagellator[50].