Perstat adhuc, templumque gerit veneranda Columna,
Nosque docet cunctis immunes vivere flagris.”
Now, if the first Christians had been used to inflict daily discipline upon themselves, or to receive it from other persons, it is altogether improbable that they would have said that they were exempt from every kind of flagellation. The above lines, it may not be amiss to observe, were thought to have been written by Prudentius, who lived about the latter end of the fourth century. Fabricius, in his Edition of the Christian Poets, ascribes the same lines to one Amœnus, who lived in the eighth Century; and, on the other hand, Johannes Siccardus says, that Sedulius, who lived under the reign of Theodosius junior, is the Author of them. Be it as it may, it does not much matter on this occasion to know who has written them; it is sufficient to observe that they are very useful to confirm the assertion, as to the novelty of voluntary flagellations[42].
Arguments have also been derived by the promoters of flagellations, from those which Jesus Christ was made to suffer, in order to prove that they were practised upon themselves by the first Christians. But though it may be a meritorious action to endure whipping with as much patience as Jesus Christ, and for causes of the same kind as he did, yet it is no proof that the first Christians had any thought of exposing themselves voluntarily to a punishment which had been imposed upon him by force. Besides, the first Christians could not possibly be induced by their desire of imitating Jesus Christ’s whipping (supposing they really had such desire) to flagellate themselves in the cruel manner that has since prevailed; for they did not think that the flagellation undergone by our Lord was in a very high degree painful, and they looked upon it as having been but an inconsiderable part of the punishment he was made to suffer. In fact, St. Chrysostom and St. Austin, as the Reader may see in their works, relate that Pilate ordered Jesus Christ to be scourged after the manner, not of the Romans, among whom the punishment of whipping was inflicted with great severity, but of the Jews, who never suffered the number of forty stripes to be exceeded. And though the truth in that respect, has afterwards been better known, yet, it was only in latter times that the discovery was made, and that St. Bridget, a holy Nun, by means of a revelation she had on that subject, was informed, and thereby enabled to inform the world, that the two holy Fathers were wrong in their opinions, and that Jesus Christ had really been flagellated with great cruelty[43].
Besides those Fathers who have been quoted above, as having made no mention of flagellations in their writings, except in a figurative manner, there are others no less commendable for their learning, who have been equally silent on that subject. St. Jerom, among others, deserves to have particular notice taken of him; and he once had, we are to observe, a very natural opportunity of mentioning voluntary flagellations, if he had had any notion of such a practice. I mean here to speak of the letter he wrote to Deacon Sabinus, in order to admonish him of his sins, and exhort him to repent of them. This Sabinus was a most profligate man, who was publicly known to have been guilty of the crime of adultery, and who had, in one instance, carried his wickedness so far as to attempt to ravish a girl in the very manger in which Jesus Christ had received the adoration of the three Eastern Kings. St. Jerom exerts the utmost powers of his eloquence in order to bring that man to a sense of his crimes, and engage him to do a suitable penance for them, and yet he makes no mention whatever about whipping or discipline. Now, is it in any degree credible that he would, on such an occasion, have been silent as to the use of whips, leather-thongs, or scourges, if they had been commonly in use, and avowed by the Church?
The supporters of flagellations, however, urge that the same St. Jerom, in his Epistle to Eustachius, says, speaking of himself, ‘I remember to have many a time spent the whole day in loud lamentations, and to have only ceased to beat my breast when the admonitions of our Lord restored tranquillity to me.’ But this very passage, which is made use of to prove that voluntary flagellations were in use during the times of the primitive Church, manifestly proves the contrary, and that St. Jerom was an utter stranger to the use either of scourges or rods. It is true, he lamented, as he says, for his sins, and beat his breast, in order to expel by this natural method of venting his grief, the wicked thoughts with which he felt himself agitated; but in doing this, he employed, and could employ, only his fists: the short distance between his arms and his breast made it altogether impracticable for him to use rods, thongs, straps, sticks, scourges, besoms, or whips.
Nor is any argument to be drawn from what is related of the same St. Jerom, that the Angels once fustigated him in the presence of God, and covered him with stripes, because he was fired with an ardent desire of acquiring the style and eloquence of Cicero: for it is evident, that this flagellation was imposed upon him by force, and as an involuntary chastisement. Besides (which would make it completely unjust to draw any inference from this fact) St. Jerom only suffered the flagellation in question in a dream, as himself with great wisdom observes, in his Apology against Ruffinus: ‘I was asleep (says he) when I promised before the tribunal of God never to engage in the study of worldly letters; so that the sacrilege and perjury he charges me with, amount to no more than the violation of a dream.’
If we peruse the History of the Lives of the ancient Anchorites of the East, we shall find great reason to think that they likewise were strangers to the practice of self-flagellation. Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrus, who distinguished himself so honourably in the fifth Council of Chalcedon, has, for instance, written the lives of thirty of these Solitaries, who were particularly celebrated on account of the great austerities and mortifications which they practised, and who were afterwards on that account raised to the dignities of Priests or of Bishops; and yet, he has made no mention of their using either rods or whips, in the numerous and different penances which they performed.