In the second place, they objected to several facts which the author had inserted in his book, as well as to the licentiousness of expression he had sometimes indulged; and they said that such facts, and such manner of expression, ought not to be met with in a book written by a good Christian, and much less by a Dean of the Metropolitan Church of Sens, a Canon of the Holy Chapel, and in short by a man invested with an eminent dignity in the Church; in which latter respect they were perhaps right[2].
Among the critics of our author’s book, were the Jesuits of Trevoux; the then conductors of a periodical review, called the Journal de Trevoux. The poet Boileau, taking the part of his brother, answered their criticisms by the following epigram.
Non, le livre des Flagellans
N’a jamais condamné, lisez le bien mes Peres,
Ces rigidités salutaires
Que pour ravir le Ciel, saintement violens,
Exercent sur leurs corps tant de Chrétiens austères.
Il blâme seulement cet abus odieux
D’étaler & d’offrir aux yeux
Ce que leur doit toûjours cacher la beinséance,