[61] ... Tum Præpositus multum scandalizans, & iracundiæ furore succensus, eisdem Carpentariis disciplinam corporis imponi jussit.
Aulus Gellius, in his Noctes Atticæ, relates a fact which bears much resemblance to the above; though, indeed, much greater Men were concerned in it, than the Prior of a Convent, and Carpenters: the one was a Roman Consul, and the other, the Engineer of a Town, allied to the Republick.
The name of the Consul in question was P. Crassus, who must not, however, be mistaken for the celebrated M. Crassus, the partner in power with Pompey and Cæsar; though both lived in the same times. This Consul P. Crassus, having been intrusted with the conduct of the war that was then carrying on in Asia, laid siege to the Town of Leucas; and wanting a strong beam of oak to make a battering-ram, he recollected he had lately seen at Elæa, a Town allied to the Romans, just such a piece of timber as he wished to have: he therefore wrote to the Magistrates of that place, to request them to send it to him. The Magistrates accordingly directed their Engineer to convey the beam to Crassus; but as there was another in the yards belonging to the Town, which, the Engineer thought, would be fitter for the use Crassus wanted to put it to, he made choice of the latter, and conveyed it to the Roman camp. However, the Engineer had been mistaken in his calculations, and the beam unfortunately proved too small; which the Consul did no sooner perceive, and that his orders had been neglected, than, like the above-mentioned Prior, he fell into a passion, and ordered the Engineer to be stript, and soundly lashed.
Some apology, however, may be made in favour of the action of the Roman Consul. As himself observed upon the spot, the whole business of war would be at an end, if those whose duty it is to obey, were permitted to canvass the orders which they receive, and to set aside what part they please: besides that an allowance should be made for Men of a military life, and who are invested with military command; and some little indulgence, I think, ought to be shewn them, when they happen to inflict flagellations somewhat cavalierly. But as to the above holy Prior, who had made so many vows of obedience, humility, forbearance, and the like, it is not, indeed, quite so easy a talk to excuse him: I shall not, therefore, undertake it; and I will content myself with observing, how advantageous it would have been both for the above Engineer and Carpenters, in the perplexing situations in which they were respectively placed, to have possessed a power of the same kind as that which the Golden Legend (or perhaps some other Book of equal merit) supposes Jesus Christ to have exerted on a similar occasion. Joseph, as it is related, who had the care of the infant Jesus trusted to him, tried to bring him up to his own trade of a Carpenter; and one day, finding that the Boy had sawed a piece of wood shorter than the measure he had prescribed, he ran up to him, full of anger, with a stick raised in his hand, in order to chastise him; but the arch apprentice, who was beginning to be conscious of his power of working miracles, on a sudden exerted it, and lengthened the piece of wood to its proper size.
[62] ... Nec mora, vestes exuit Electus, & Decani validissimam disciplinam accepit: quâ acceptâ, vestibus reindutus, Decano cum maximâ oris gratiâ coram omnibus dixit; gratias ago Deo, & Patronæ Remensis Ecclesiæ ejus piissimæ genitrici, quod te talem in regimine relinquo. Lib. II. Cap. XXXIX. Num. 20.
[63] The arbitrary power of inflicting flagellations, possessed by Abbots, ought, one should think, to insure them in a high degree the veneration of their Monks; yet, from the manner in which St. Romuald is above said to have been used by those under his government, we may conclude the case is otherwise.
A farther proof of the great freedom with which Monks use their Abbots, is to be derived from what Mons. Richelet says, in his well-known Dictionary of the French language, that Monks never trouble their heads about waiting for their Abbot, when he comes too late to dinner. Mons. Richelet informs us of this fact under the word Abbé, when he explains the origin of the French common saying, on l’attend comme les Moines font l’Abbé (they wait for him, as Monks do for their Abbot), which is said jocularly of a person who is not at all waited for: this saying is derived, the above Gentleman observes, from the remarkable expedition with which Monks sit down to their dinner, as soon as the bell strikes, without caring whether the Abbot is come or not.
This singular piece of neglect on the part of Monks, towards a person invested with such formidable prerogatives as those abovementioned, may be accounted for, different ways. In the first place, since Monks are so celebrated for their love of good dinners, and even entertain such high notions of the value of a plentiful table, as to have rated the hardship of living upon bread and water, at that of receiving a hundred lashes a day, we may naturally suppose, that, when their mess is served upon the table, their attention is so agreeably engaged by the presence of that object, that they presently run to it, wholly regardless of any trifling flagellation that may afterward be the consequence of such expedition.
The same neglectful conduct of Monks towards their Abbot, though he is possessed of such a despotic power over them, may also be explained in another manner: for, the subject is deep, and being considered in a political light, may admit a number of different interpretations. In general, it may be observed, that Monks may easily form close combinations among themselves against their Abbots; that as the latter live together with them, within the walls of the same Monasteries, they have it in their power to play them a thousand tricks; and that these considerations are very apt to induce Abbots to make a mild use of their authority, at least with respect to the greater part of their Monks.
Indeed this latter explanation agrees pretty well with several facts. It has frequently happened, for instance, that Abbots who have used their Monks with cruelty, have been made away with, in some way or other, within the walls of their Monasteries. The Abbé Boileau informs us in his Book, that St. Romuald was much maltreated, and at last expelled by his Monks; which, no doubt, was owing to the flagellations he inflicted upon them; flagellations which the Abbé also mentions, though he does not assign the causes of them, whether it was because they did not wait for him at dinner, or for some other reason, but the truth and severity of which we shall the more readily believe, if we consider that the Saint, upon a certain occasion, as will be related hereafter, flagellated even his own Father. Nay, it is not quite unlikely that those flagellations which the Saint used to imagine he received from the hands of the Devil, were the effects of the revenge of his Monks; till at last they openly revolted against him, and turned him out of the Monastery.