CHAP. XVI.
Confessors at length assume to themselves a kind of flagellatory power over their Penitents. The abuses that arise from it.
THE submission of Sovereigns to receive disciplines from the hands of their Confessors, together with the accounts of such disciplines, which, though they might not always be true, were industriously circulated in Public, helped much, without doubt, to increase the good opinion which people entertained of the merit of flagellations, as well as to strengthen the power of Confessors in general. In fact the latter, from prescribing Disciplines, soon passed to inflicting them upon their penitents with their own hands; and, without loss of time, converted this newly-assumed authority into an express kind of privilege, to which it was a most meritorious act, on the part of penitents, readily to submit. On this occasion, I shall again quote the old French Book, mentioned in [p. 218]; which, though it be only a Romance, may serve to shew the opinions generally entertained by people, during the times in which it was written. ‘If you are estranged from our Lord’s love, you cannot be reconciled to him, unless by the three following means: First, by confession of mouth; secondly, by a contrition of heart; thirdly, by works of alms and charity. Now, go and make a confession in that manner, and receive discipline from the hands of thy Confessors; for it is the sign of merit.’
The power of Confessors of disciplining their penitents, became in process of time so generally acknowledged, that it obtained even with respect to persons who made profession of the Ecclesiastical life, and superseded the laws that had been made against those who should strike an Ecclesiastic. To this an allusion is made, in the lines of that Poet of the middle age, who has put the Summula of St. Raymund into Latin verses. ‘You are guilty of sacrilege if you have violated holy things, if you have struck a person in religious Orders, or of the Clergy; unless it be a holy beating, such as is performed by a Teacher with respect to his Disciple, or a Confessor with respect to a person who confesses his sins[90].’
Attempts were, however, made to put a stop to these practices of Priests and Confessors; and so early as under Pope Adrian I. who was raised to the Purple in the year 772 (which by the by shews that the power assumed by Confessors, was pretty ancient) a regulation was made to forbid Confessors to beat their Penitents. ‘The Bishop (it is said in the Epitome of Maxims and Canons) the Priest, and the Deacon, must not beat those who have sinned[91].’ But this regulation proved useless: the whole tribe of Priests, as well as the first Dignitaries of the Church, nevertheless continued to preach up the prerogatives of Confessors and the merit of flagellations; and Cardinal Pullus, that Chancellor of the Roman Church who has been mentioned in the foregoing Chapter, did not scruple to declare, that the nakedness of the Penitent, and his situation at the feet of his Confessor, were additional merits in him in the eye of God, as being additional tokens of his humility[92].
All these different practices of stripping and flagellating Devotees and Penitents, at length gave rise to abuses of a very serious nature; instances of which take place, we may say, every day. Numbers of Confessors, in process of time, have made such religious acts as had been introduced with a view to mortification, serve to gratify their own lust and wantonness. They have tried to inculcate the same notions, as to the merit of flagellations, into the minds of their Devotees of the other sex, as they had brought even Kings and Princes to entertain; and at last have made it a practice to inflict such corrections on their female Penitents, and under that pretence, to take such liberties with them, as the blessed St. Benedict, St. Francis, St. Dominic, and St. Loyola, had not certainly given them the example of.
Among the many instances that might be recited of the abuses here alluded to, it will suffice to produce that of a Man who wore a hood, and was girt with a cord (a Cordelier or Franciscan) who lived about the year 1566. This Man’s name was Cornelius Adriasem; he was a native of Dort, and belonged to a Convent in Bruges, and was a most violent preacher against the Heretics, called Gueux. He had found means to persuade a certain number of Women, both married and unmarried, to promise him implicit obedience, by certain oaths he made them take for that purpose, and under the specious pretence of greater piety. These Women he did not indeed lash with harsh and knotted cords, but he used gently to rub their bare thighs and posteriors, with willow or birch rods[93].
In order to shew how common the above practices were become, as well as to entertain the Reader, I shall conclude this Chapter with the following story, which is to be found in Scot’s Book, entitled, Mensa Philosophica. A Woman, says Scot, who was gone to make her confession, had been secretly followed by her husband, who was jealous of her; and he had hid himself in some place in the Church, whence he might spy her; but as soon as he saw her led behind the altar by the Priest, in order to be flagellated, he made his appearance, objected that she was too tender to bear a flagellation, and offered to receive it in her stead. This proposal the Wife greatly applauded; and the Man had no sooner placed himself upon his knees, than she exclaimed, ‘Now, my Father, lay on lustily, for I am a great Sinner[94].’
