FOOTNOTES:
Es vir sacrilegus si res sacras violasti,
Si percussisti personam religiosam,
Vel quem de Clero; nisi percussio sancta,
Doctor discipulum, Confessor probra fatentem.
[91] Cap. XV. Episcopus, Presbyter & Diaconus, peccantes fideles diverberare non debeant.
[92] Card. Pulli sententiarum L. vii. Cap. 3. p. 220. Est ergo satisfactio quædam, aspera tamen, sed Deo tanto gratior quanto humilior, cum quilibet sacerdotis prostratus ad pedes, se cædendum virgis exhibet nudum.
[93] I have in the course of this Work frequently produced the original words of the Authors who are quoted therein, as I thought this precaution would not be disagreeable to the critical part of Readers. In regard to the Abbé Boileau himself, no occasion has offered of doing the same, as he seldom introduces any fact, in his Book, but in the words of the Writer from whom he borrows it: however, as in relating the above story, which he has extracted from a much longer account, he speaks for himself, I shall take this opportunity of introducing him personally to the Reader, and of transcribing his own words, in order to enable the Reader to judge of the goodness of his Latin.——‘Inter exempla tam infaustæ notitiæ non pertimescam Historiam narrare hominis cucullati et cordigeri, Conventus Brugensis, anno circiter MDLXVI, cui nomen erat Cornelius Adriasem, origine Dordracensis, adversus hæreticos Guezios stomachosissimi concionatoris, qui puellas seu fœminas quasdam sacramento fidelitatis & obedientiæ sibi adstrictas, & specie pietatis devotas, non quidem asperatis & nodosis funibus verberabat, sed nudata earum femora & nates, inhonestis vibicibus rorantes, betuleis aut vimineis virgis, ictibus molliter inflictis, perfricabat.’
[94] ‘Domine, tota tenera est; ego pro ipsâ recipio disciplinam: quo flectente genua dixit Mulier, Percute fortiter, Domine, quia magna peccatrix sum.’—Men. Phil. Lib. iv. Cap. 18.
The above story, related by Scot, together with the words he supposes to have been said by the Woman, have since been turned into a French epigram, which I have met with in the Menagiana, as well as in two or three different collections of French Poetry.
Une femme se confessa,
Le Confesseur à la sourdine
Derriere l’Autel la troussa
Pour lui donner la discipline.
L’époux non loin d’elle caché
De miséricorde touché
Offrit pour elle dos & fesse.
La femme y consentit dabord,
Je sens, dit-elle, ma foiblesse,
Mon mari sans doute est plus fort;
Sus donc, mon Pere, touchez fort,
Car je suis grande pecheresse.
The abovementioned flagellating practices of Confessors, are alluded to in several Books; and Confessors are expressly charged with them by several Writers, besides what is said above. Among others, Sanlec, a bel Esprit who lived under Lewis the Fourteenth, and wrote several Satires, in one of them, which he has intitled The Directors, has made the above practices of Confessors, or Directors, the subject of his animadversion. ‘This zealous Confessor (says Sanlec) who, for every trifling fault, with a discipline in his hand, fustigated his female Devotees.’
Ce Confesseur zèlé, qui, pour les moindres fautes,
La discipline en main fustigeoit ses Dévotes.
Among the number of those who have administered disciplines of the kind here alluded to, a few have been so happy as to acquire much more reputation than the others. Among these must be ranked the abovementioned Cornelius Adriasem, whose case is related at length by Meteren, in his Latin History of the Netherlands, published in the year 1568, from which the Abbé Boileau has extracted it. This Cornelius Adriasem (or Adriansen) was a loud declaimer against the faction called the Gueux, whom the Abbé calls Hereticks, but who were, in fact, the same party who opposed the Spanish Government in those parts, and afterwards succeeded in overthrowing it, and founded the Republic of Holland. As the above Reverend Father had thus strongly opposed a powerful, numerous, as well as incensed party, in the State and the Church, the discovery that was made of his frailties, afforded matter of much triumph, as well as made a great noise, and supplied his enemies with an opportunity of inveighing afterwards against him, which they did not neglect, as we may conclude from Meteren’s account of the fact, which he relates at great length, and with much spleen and dulness. However, new names were coined to express that particular kind of discipline which Cornelius Adriansen used to serve upon his female penitents: those who loved to deduce their new appellations of things from Greek words, called it the Gynopygian discipline; and others, who, proceeding upon a more liberal plan, thought that the proper appellation of any particular practice, ought to be derived from the name of some person who has eminently distinguished himself by it, called the discipline in question, from the name of the above Gentleman, the Cornelian discipline: a name by which it still continues to be expressed in those quarters.
The devisers of the appellation just now mentioned, did not however mean to say, that Cornelius Adriansen was the inventor of the above kind of discipline, or even the first man of note who had recourse to it: or, if such was their meaning, they were wrong. In fact, Abelard, who certainly is a well-known character, also used to administer flagellatory corrections to his pupil Heloisa, whose name is not less illustrious than that of her Master. The Canon Fulbert, as every one knows, had intrusted him with the care of her education; and as the Canon was very desirous she should become distinguished by her learning, he had permitted him to correct her, whenever she should fail in performing her duty. Abelard, in time, made an extensive use of the power that had thus been conferred upon him; though, to say the truth (and as himself confesses in one of those Latin letters he wrote to her after their separation) he, at last, did not so much use it, when she had been guilty of faults, as when she too obstinately refused to commit any.—Sed & te nolentem (says he) sæpiùs minis atque flagellis ad consensum trahebam.
As Cornelius Adriansen was preceded in the career we mention, by a character as distinguished as himself, so has he been followed by another who was no less so, and who made no less noise in the world. The person I mean, is the celebrated Jesuit, Father Girard; and among the number of his pupils or penitents, was Miss Cadiere, who certainly may also be looked upon as an illustrious character. The Cornelian disciplines which the Father used to serve upon her, were one of the subjects of the public complaint she afterwards preferred against him, about the year 1730; which gave rise to a criminal lawsuit or prosecution that made a prodigious noise, as it was thought to be a kind of stroke levelled at the whole Society of the Jesuits, and was known to have been stirred up by Monks belonging to Orders who were at open enmity with them. The Demoiselle Cadiere likewise brought against Father Girard a charge of sorcery, and of having bewitched her; in order, no doubt, to apologize for her having peaceably submitted to the licentious actions of which she accused the Father, as well as to those disciplines with which she reproached him, which she circumstantially described in the original complaint, or charge, which she preferred against him; for Judges are persons who will not understand things by half words; one must speak plain to them, and call every thing by its proper name.
Among those who have distinguished themselves in the same career of flagellation, Readers (I mean those who possess some patriotism and love of their Country) will, no doubt, be much pleased to find one who belonged to this Nation; I mean to speak of the Reverend Zachary Crofton, Curate of St. Botolph’s, Aldgate, who, on a certain occasion, served a Cornelian discipline upon his Chambermaid, for which she afterwards sued him at Westminster.
The aforesaid Zachary Crofton, as Bishop Kennet relates in his Chronicle, from Dr. Calamy’s notes, was formerly a Curate at Wrenbury, in Cheshire (it was a little before the Restoration) and he used to engage with much warmth in the religious and political quarrels of his times: his refusal to take the engagement, and endeavours to dissuade others from taking it, caused him to be dismissed from his place. He was, however, afterwards provided with the Curacy of St. Botolph’s, Aldgate; but as his turn for religious and political quarrels still prevailed, and he had written several pamphlets, both English and Latin, about the affairs of those times, he was sent to the Tower, and deprived of his Curacy: he was afterwards cast into prison likewise in his own County, and when he procured his liberty, set up a Grocer’s shop. While he was in the above Parish of St. Botolph, ‘he gave,’ as Dr. Calamy relates, ‘the correction of a school-boy to his servant-maid,’ for which she prosecuted him in Westminster-hall. This fact the Doctor relates as an instance of the many scrapes into which Zachary Crofton’s warm and zealous temper brought him; and he adds that, on the last mentioned occasion, ‘he was bold to print his defence.’——Indeed this fact of Parson Crofton’s undauntedly appealing to the Public in print concerning the lawfulness of the flagellation he had performed, places him, notwithstanding what Dr. Calamy may add as to the mediocrity of his parts, at least upon a level with the Geniuses abovementioned, as well as any other of the kind that may be named, and cannot fail for ever to secure him a place among the most illustrious Flagellators.
In fine, to this list of the persons who have distinguished themselves by the flagellations they have atchieved, I think I cannot avoid adding that Lady, mentioned by Brantôme, who (perhaps as an exercise conducive to her health) took great delight in performing corrections of this kind, with her own hands. This Lady, who was moreover a very great Lady, would often, as Brantôme relates, cause the Ladies of her Houshold to strip themselves, and then amuse herself in giving them slaps upon their posteriors, pretty lustily laid on: with respect to those Ladies who had committed faults, she made use of good rods; and in general, she used less or greater severity, according (Brantôme says) as she proposed to make them either laugh or cry. The following are Brantôme’s own words.
‘J’ai ouï parler d’une grande Dame de par le monde, voire grandissime, qui ne se contentant pas de lasciveté naturelle, & étant mariée & étant Veuve, pour la provoquer & exciter davantage, elle faisoit depouiller ses Dames & filles, je dis les plus belles, & se delectoit fort à les voir, & puis elle les battoit du plat de la main sur les fesses, avec de grandes clacquades & blamuses assez rudes; & les filles qui avoient delinqué en quelques chose, avec de bonnes verges.——Autres fois, sans les depouiller, les faisoit trousser en robes, car pour lors elles ne portoient point de calecons, & les clacquettoit sur les fesses, selon le sujet qu’elles lui en donnoient, pour les faire ou rire, ou pleurer.’
It is no easy matter to point out what precise views the Lady in question had, when she served the abovementioned flagellations. Brantôme, who had much travelled, and was grown much acquainted with the wickedness of the world, insinuates that she was actuated by motives of rather a wanton kind; but since it is extremely difficult to believe that thoughts like those Brantôme supposes, could be entertained, I shall not say by a Lady, but by a person of the high rank of the Lady in question, I will endeavour to account for her conduct in a different manner; and I shall consider my time as exceedingly well employed, if I can clear her from the aspersion thrown upon her by the above Gentleman.
In the first place, it is very possible, that (as hath been above insinuated) she considered the flagellations in question as an exercise advantageous to her health: and Physicians have often made worse prescriptions.
In the second place, she might, without looking farther, be prompted by a desire of doing justice; for Brantôme makes express mention of Ladies who had committed faults: now, such a conduct on the part of the Lady we speak of, would reflect much honour upon her, and shew that she did not disdain to superintend her own family.
Perhaps also it might be, that the abovementioned flagellations were of the same jocular kind merely, with those which, as hath been related in the sixth Chapter of this Book, were in use in Rome, and were often practised in the presence of the Emperor Claudius, and sometimes upon that Emperor himself. Nor is the circumstance mentioned by Brantôme, of the high Lady in question sometimes using pretty great severity, contrary to this supposition: it is a well-known fact that Great people, when they do their inferiors the honour to play with them, will often carry the joke too far, farther than the latter have a liking to: jokes or tricks of this kind, gave rise to the French common saying, Jeux de Princes, qui plaisent à ceux qui les font. ‘Tricks of Princes, which please those (only) by whom they are played.’
In fine, since the flagellations in question were often carried on, as appears from the account of Brantôme himself, in a manner really very jocular, even so much so as to make the Ladies laugh, it is natural to suppose that they were then executed by the common and perfectly free consent of the whole company. The Ladies possibly proposed to represent among themselves the festival of the Lupercalia, which has been described in a former Chapter: intending to represent it as it was performed in the times of Pope Gelasius, they stripped themselves in the manner Brantôme has related: the great Lady, in consideration of her high birth and station, was permitted to fill the part of the Lupercus; the wielding of the discipline was of course exclusively left to her: nor was this peculiar advantage which the other Ladies granted her, in that kind of farce they agreed to act among themselves, materially different from the favour which certain Clergymen used to grant to their Bishop, when they played at Whist with him, who allowed his Lordship the privilege of naming the trump.
In regard to the Gentlemen who have been mentioned above, it is however pretty evident that (owing, no doubt, to the good-nature inherent in their sex) they used no kind of severity in those disciplines they used to bestow; except indeed Parson Crofton, who, from the circumstance of his writing a pamphlet, and a quarto pamphlet too, in defence of the flagellation he had performed, seems really to have been in earnest, both when he planned, and when he served it.
Thus Abelard, in one of the abovementioned Letters he wrote to his Pupil, while she lived retired in the Monastery of Paraclet, expressly says that the blows he gave her, were such blows as friendship alone, not anger, suggested: he even adds that their sweetness surpassed that of the sweetest perfumes,——verbera quandoque dabat amor, non furor, gratia, non ira, quæ omnium unguentorum suavitatem transcenderent.
Father Girard, as is evident from the whole tenor of the declaration of Miss Cadiere herself, had as little intention as Abelard, to do any kind of injury to his pupil or penitent; and Cornelius Adriansen, as appears from Meteren’s account, used to proceed with the same caution and tenderness for his disciples, as the two above-mentioned gentlemen, and contented himself, as the Abbé Boileau observes, with gently rubbing them with his instruments of discipline;—molliter perfricabat.
That Confessors should contract sentiments of friendship for their female penitents, like those mentioned by Abelard, is however nowise surprizing. La Fontaine says, that
Tout homme est homme, & les Moines sur tous.
“Every Man is a Man, and Monks above all others.” He might at least have said, “Every Man is a Man, and Monks as well as others;” and to this have added, that their virtue, especially that of Confessors, is exposed to dangers of a peculiar kind. In fact, the obligation which those who perform that office are under, to hear, with seeming indifference, the long confessions of Women of every age, who frequently enter into numerous particulars concerning the sins which they have either committed, or had distant wishes to commit, is no very easy talk for Men who, as hath just now been observed, are after all nothing but Men; and they are, under such circumstances, frequently agitated by thoughts not very consonant with the apparent gravity and sanctity of their looks. Nay, raising such thoughts in them, and in general creating sentiments of love in their Confessors, are designs which numbers of female penitents, who at no time entirely cease being actuated by womanish views, expressly entertain, notwithstanding the apparent ingenuity of their confessions, and in which they but too often succeed, to their own, and their frail Confessors, cost. Thus, it appears from Miss Cadiere’s declarations, that she had of herself aimed at making the conquest of Father Girard, though a Man past fifty years of age, being induced to it, by his great reputation both as a Preacher and a Man of parts; and she expressly confessed that she had for a long while been making interest to be admitted into the number of his penitents.
Indeed, these dangers to which Confessors are exposed from their continual and confidential intercourse with the Sex, (for, to the praise of Women be it spoken, they are infinitely more exact than Men in making their confessions) are much taken notice of in the books in which directions are given to such Priests as are designed for that employment; and they are warned against nothing so much as an inclination to hear preferably the confessions of the other Sex.——St. Charles Borrommee, as I have read in one of those books, prescribed to Confessors to have all the doors wide open, when they heard the confession of a Woman; and he had supplied them with a set of passages from Psalms, such as, Cor mundum crea in me Domine, and the like, which he advised them to have pasted on some conspicuous place within their sight, and which were to serve them as ejaculatory exclamations by which to vent the wicked thoughts with which they might feel themselves agitated, and as kinds of Abracadabras, or Retrò Satanas, to apply to, whenever they should find themselves on the point of being overcome by some too sudden temptation.
Numbers of Confessors however, whether it was that they had forgotten to supply themselves with the passages recommended by St. Charles Borrommee, or that those passages really proved ineffectual in those instants in which they were intended to be useful, have, at different times, formed serious designs upon the chastity of their penitents; and the singular situation in which they were placed, both with respect to the Public, and to their penitents themselves, with whom, changing the grave supercilious Confessor into the wanton lover, was no easy transition, have led them to use expedients of rather singular kinds, to attain their ends. Some, like Robert d’Arbrissel, (and the same has been said of Adhelm, an English Saint who lived before the Conquest) have induced young Women to lie with them in the same beds, giving them to understand, that, if they could prove superior to every temptation, and rise from bed as they went to it, it would be in the highest degree meritorious. Others, Menas for instance, a Spanish Monk whose case was quoted in the proceedings against Father Girard, persuaded young Women to live with him in a kind of holy conjugal union, which he described to them, but which did not however end, at last, in that intellectual manner which the Father had promised. Others have persuaded Women that the works of matrimony were no less liable to pay tithes than the fruits of the earth, and have received these tithes accordingly. This scheme was, it is said, contrived by the Fryars of a certain Convent in a small Town in Spain, and La Fontaine has made it the subject of one of his Tales, which is entitled The Cordeliers of Catalonia, in which he describes with much humour the great punctuality of the Ladies in that Town, in discharging their debts to the Fathers, and the vast business that was, in consequence, carried on in the Convent of the latter.
Lastly, other Confessors have had recourse to their power of flagellation, as an excellent expedient for preparing the success of their schemes, and preventing the first suspicions which their penitents might entertain of their views.
In order the better to remove the scruples which the modesty of these latter caused them at first to oppose, they used to represent to them, that our first Parents were naked in the garden of Eden; they moreover asked, whether people must not be naked, when they are christened; and shall not they likewise be so, on the day of Resurrection? Nay, others have made such a state of nakedness, on the part of their penitents, a matter of express duty, and have supported this doctrine, as the Author of the Apologie pour Hérodote relates, by quoting the passage of Jesus Christ, in which he says, Go, and shew thyself to the Priest.
However, instances of the wantonness of Priests like this latter, in which a serious use was made of passages from the Books on which Religion is grounded, in order to forward schemes of a guilty nature, certainly cannot, in whatever light the subject be considered, admit of any justification: though on the other hand, when the national calamities produced by sophisms of this kind and the arts of Men of the same cloth, are considered, one cannot help wishing that they had constantly employed both these sophisms and their artifices in pursuits like those above-mentioned, and that, ensnaring a few female penitents (who were not perhaps, after all, extremely unwilling to be ensnared) and serving flagellations, had been the worst excesses they ever had committed.