Of these, five relate to Jesus Christ. The first is in the xxth chapter of the Gospel according to St. Matthew, v. 19; and in the xxvith of the same, v. 26. In the xvth chapter of St. Mark’s Gospel, v. 33. In the xviith chapter of the Gospel according to St. Luke, v. 33; and in the xixth chapter of the Gospel according to St. John, v. 1[15]. No just conclusion, as the Reader may see, can be drawn from the above-mentioned passages, in support of voluntary flagellations, and of those Disciplines which Monks now-a-days inflict on themselves; since it is plain that our Saviour did not whip himself with his own hands: and we might as well say that we ought to inflict death upon ourselves, and nail ourselves to a cross, as that we ought to lacerate our own flesh with scourges, because Jesus Christ was exposed to that kind of punishment.
The other six passages of the New Testament in which whipping is mentioned, are, first, in St. John’s (c. ii. v. 15.) And when He had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them out of the Temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers of money, and overthrew the tables. The second chapter is in the fifth chapter of the Acts (v. 40.) And when they had called the Apostles and beaten them with scourges, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus; and let them go. The third place in which scourgings are mentioned, is the sixth chapter of the second Epistle to the Corinthians (v. 15.) St. Paul in that Chapter places Stripes among the different methods of persecution which were used against the ministers of the Gospel, and he moreover relates the sufferings to which he himself had been exposed. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one: and in the next verse he says, Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck; a night and a day I have been in the deep. Fifthly, in his Epistle to the Hebrews (xi. 36.) the same Apostle says, speaking in general terms, And others had trials of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonments. Now, from all these passages no authority whatever can be derived to justify the practice of voluntary flagellation. All the persecuted persons above-mentioned suffered those beatings with rods, and those scourgings, much against their will.
The sixth and last passage in which whipping is mentioned, in the New Testament, is therefore the only one from which any specious conclusion may be drawn in support of the practice of voluntary flagellation: it is contained in the first Epistle to the Corinthians (ix. 22); St. Paul in it says, I chastise my body, and keep it under subjection. Indeed this passage is well worth examining attentively. Several men of great authority have given it as their opinion, that the Apostle expressly meant to say, by the above words, that it was his practice to lash himself, in order to overcome his vicious inclinations. Among others, James Gretzer, an able Theologian and one of the Fathers Jesuits, vehemently asserts that the Greek words in the text literally signify, “I imprint on my own body the stripes or marks of the whip, and render it livid by dint of blows,” and the same Father supports his assertion by the authority of Septalius and Guastininius, two celebrated Interpreters of Aristotle, who, in their Commentaries, quote Gallienus as having used the Greek word in question (ὑπωπιάζω) in the same sense which he (Father Gretzer) attributes to St. Paul. To these authorities Gretzer moreover adds those of St. Irenæus, St. Chrysostom, Paulinus, and Theophylactus, who (he says) have all explained the above passage in the same manner as himself does: so that, if we were to credit all the comments of Father Gretzer, there would, indeed, remain little doubt but that St. Paul meant to say, he fustigated himself with his own hands; and that he was thereby left an example which all faithful Christians ought in duty to imitate.
But yet, if, setting aside, for the present, all authorities on this head, we begin with examining attentively into the real meaning of the Greek word which is the subject of the present controversy, we shall see that it cannot have that signification which Father Gretzer pretends. In fact, let us examine if that word occurs in any other place of the New Testament, and in what sense it is employed. We meet with it in the eighteenth Chapter of St. Luke, wherein Jesus Christ says, in the manner of a Parable, that a Widow used to teaze a Judge with her frequent complaints, who was thereby compelled at last to do her justice; and he makes him speak in the following words: “Because this Widow troubles me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming, she weary me (ὑπωπιάζη μὲ.)” Now, who can imagine that this Judge entertained any fear that the Woman should flagellate him? Yet, we must think so, if the Greek word used in the Text (which is the very same as that employed by St. Paul, and on which Father Gretzer builds his system) should always signify, as that Father pretends, to beat, or lash. If a literal explanation of that word, therefore, is in many cases improper and ridiculous, it follows that it is frequently to be understood in a figurative sense, and that it is then only employed to express that kind of hard usage either of one’s self, or of others, which is exercised without any mixture of real violence, or bodily sufferings. To this add, that St. Paul himself, when, on other occasions he really means to speak of blows and actual stripes, never once makes use of the word in question.
Besides, if in order rightly to understand the meaning of St. Paul, we consult the holy Fathers and Interpreters (which certainly is a very good method of investigating the truth), we shall scarcely find one who thought that St. Paul either beat or lashed himself, and in the above passage meant to speak of any such thing as voluntary Flagellation. St. Iræneus, Bishop of Lyons, though he has translated the words in question into these, “I chastise my own body, and render it livid,” has made no mention whatever of either scourges, whips, or rods.—St. Chrysostom likewise supposes, that the Apostle in the above passage, only spoke of the pains and care he took, in order to preserve his temperance, and conquer the passions of the flesh; and that it was the same as if he had said, “I submit to much labour, in order to live according to the rules of Temperance. I undergo every kind of hardship, rather than suffer myself to be led astray.” It must be confessed, however, that Benedictus Haeftenus, in his Disquisitiones Monasticæ, quotes a passage from the above Author’s 34th Homily, by which he pretends to prove that self-flagellations were in use in that Father’s time; but the words which Haeftenus has quoted in Latin are not to be found in the original Greek of St. Chrysostom’s Homilies, and are therefore to be attributed to some modern Flogging-Master (Μαστιγοφόρος) who has lent them to him, by a kind of pious fraud. Other passages to prove our assertion, might be quoted from the words of Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrus, of Oecumenius, as well as several other Greek Fathers.
The Latin have also understood St. Paul’s words in the same sense that the Greek Fathers have done. Indeed I do not find one among them but who thought that St. Paul did not actually lash himself with his own hands. St. Ambrosius, Bishop of Milan, expresses himself on the subject in the following words. ‘He who says (meaning St. Paul) I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection, does not so much grieve (contristatur) for his own sins, which after all could not be so very numerous, as for ours.’
St. Fulgentius, Bishop of Ruspe, and an illustrious Discipline of St. Augustin, on this occasion treads in the footsteps of his excellent Master, giving the same sense as him to the words of St. Paul. The following is the manner in which St. Fulgentius explains those words, in his Epistle on Virginity, addressed to Proba. “The spiritual Spouse of Virgins does not seek in a Virgin a body practised in carnal pleasures; but rather wishes she should have chastised it by abstinence. This, the Doctor of the Gentiles used to practice on his own body. I chastise (says he) my body, and keep it under subjection. And again, in watchings often, in thirst and hunger, in fastings often: let therefore the Virgin of Christ forbear to seek after pleasures which, she sees, are equally with-held from the widow.”
To all the above proofs, I know it will be objected that St. Petrus Chrysologus, archbishop of Ravenna, is clearly of opinion that St. Paul lashed himself with his own hands. The following is the manner in which he expresses himself on this head, at least if we are to credit the account given of his words by that great Patron of flagellations, Father Gretzer, in his Book printed at Ingolstadt in the year 1609. “This St. Paul used to do, who wrote in the following words the title-deed of his own Servitude, I render my body livid, and bring it into subjection: like a faithful Slave, himself supplied the rod, (vindictam) and severely lashed his own back, till it grew livid[16].” Now, who would not from these words, thus standing alone, as Father Gretzer recites them, conclude that St. Paul really used to cover his back with stripes? But, if we consult the original itself, we shall see that St. Chrysologus meant no more than to borrow a simile from the punishment usually inflicted on Slaves; which punishment he mentions in the beginning of the very passage we discuss here, and of which Father Gretzer has artfully quoted only the conclusion. “After all (says Peter Chrysologus) if the Servant does not awake early the next day, and rise before his Master, whether he be weary or not, he will be tied up and lashed. If the Servant therefore knows what he owes to another Man, the Master is thence taught what himself owes to the Lord of Lords, and is made sensible that he also is subject to a Master.” ‘This is what St. Paul practised, who wrote the title-deeds of his own servitude, and exposed himself to thirst, hunger, and nakedness. Like a good slave, he himself supplied the rod, and severely lashed himself.’
If we examine into the works of St. Hierom, St. Austin, Pope Gregory the Great, and other Latin Fathers, we shall find that they also understood, that St. Paul had expressed himself in a figurative manner. And it is only by misquotations, or arts of the like kind, that Father Gretzer, Cardinal Demian, and others, have attempted to prove that self-flagellations were in use so early as the time of St. Paul among Christians.