St. Donat, Archbishop of Bezancon, in the Rule he has framed for Nuns, has expressed the same paternal disposition towards them, as Archbishop Cesarius has done: he recommends flagellations as excellent methods of mending the morals of such of them as are wickedly inclined, or careless in performing their religious duties; and he determines the different kinds of faults for which the above correction ought to be bestowed upon them, as well as the number of the blows that are to be inflicted. The above Rule of St. Donat has been mentioned with much praise by the Monk Jonas, in his Account of the Life of St. Columbanus, which the venerable Beda has inserted in the third volume of his Works.
In that Rule, commonly called the Rule of a Father, which St. Benedict, Bishop of Aniana, in his Book on the Concordance of Rules, and Smaragdus, in his Commentaries on the Rule of St. Benedict, have both mentioned, provisions of the same kind as those above, are made for the correction of Nuns. ‘If a Sister (it is said in that Rule) that has been several times admonished, will not mend her conduct, let her be excommunicated for a while, in proportion to the degree of her fault: if this kind of correction proves useless, let her then be chastised by stripes.’
Striking a Sister, has likewise been looked upon as an offence of a grievous kind; and St. Aurelian, in the Rule he has framed for Nuns, orders a discipline to be inflicted on such as have been guilty of it.
To the above regulations, Archbishop Cesarius has added another, which is, that the corrections ought, for the sake of example, to be inflicted in the presence of all the Sisters. ‘Let also the discipline be bestowed upon them in the presence of the Congregation, conformably to the precept of the Apostle, Confute Sinners in the presence of all[67].’
FOOTNOTES:
[66] Num. XII. “Disciplinam lubens habeat, metuens imponat.”
[67] The Abbé Boileau, after the manner of the Learned of former times, has added to his quotations on the flagellations of Vestals, a string of names of Writers who have also occasionally mentioned that custom; such as Rosinus on the Roman Antiquities, Fortunius Licetus on the Lamps of the Ancients, Josephus Laurens of Lucca, Polymathias in his Dissertations, and Jacobus Ghuterius on the rights of the ancient Pontiffs. These Writers, as far as I can perceive, have neglected to inform us of an important circumstance, which is, of what kind those disciplines were, that were inflicted upon Vestals; whether upper or lower disciplines. However, they have informed us of a fact about which the Reader, no doubt, particularly wishes to be satisfied; which is, that a great regard was paid to decency in the above flagellations; and that, as the correction was inflicted in an open place, and by the hands of a Priest, the guilty Vestal was wrapped in a veil during the ceremony.
The flagellations which persons who live in Convents, are upon different occasions made to undergo, the obligation they are under, of receiving such corrections before the whole Brotherhood or Sisterhood, together with the companions which the holy Founders of religious Orders have made of them with naughty children, have drawn numerous jests upon them; but such jests can only come from persons who have not paid a sufficient attention to the subject.
Politicians inform us, that it is absolutely necessary that, in all States, there should be Powers of different kinds, established to maintain the general harmony of the whole, and that Legislative, Executive, Military, and Judicial Powers, for instance, should be formed, and lodged in different hands. Hence we may conclude, that some power analogous to these, ought to exist in every numerous Society either of Men or Women, for the preservation of good Order, and that it is necessary that, in such Societies, a power of flagellation should be lodged somewhere.