The accounts of the advances Ladies have made to the above holy personages, must certainly give pleasure to the judicious and sensible Reader. Considering the opinion entertained by a number of persons, that Rakes, Coxcombs, and in general the most worthless part of the male sex, are commonly the most welcome to the favours of the Ladies, I think it reflects much honour upon them all, that several have gone the greatest lengths in favour of Saints, and have set aside, out of love for them, those rules of reserve and decency which Ladies are otherwise so naturally inclined to respect.
In regard to the manner in which the Saints themselves used the Ladies, it is certainly somewhat singular: however, I must postpone giving my opinion about it, till a few remarks are made, on what more precisely constitutes the subject of the foregoing Chapters, which is the great merit and dignity of flagellations. In fact, we find that Great Men, Conquerors, and Kings, have publicly submitted to receiving them; and they have moreover occasionally inflicted them with their own hands. The Reader may remember the method mentioned at pag. 54 of this Work, which was adopted by the Grecian Heroes, for conveying to their vanquished Opponents, a proper sense of their superiority and indignation. And the same magnanimous kind of admonition was also commonly made use of by the Romans, in regard to those Kings or Generals whom they had taken in war.
Caligula, a Roman Emperor, did not disdain, as we read in Suetonius, to use the same kind of correction, for silencing those who happened to make a noise near him in the Theatre, and thereby prevented him from attending to the play, and especially to his favourite Actor: the culprit was instantly stripped; and the Emperor himself did the rest[103].
Another Emperor we may name here, viz. Peter the First, of Russia. He frequently condescended to bestow, with his own imperial hands, that kind of Russian flagellation, the Knout: at other times, when he could not attend to the business, he trusted the care of it to his Buffoon Witaski; who was moreover invested with an unlimited power of cudgelling those who came to pay their court to his Czarian Majesty.
The instances of flagellations above produced, have however been confined to actions of Kings, Conquerors, Emperors, and Saints, or to cases of great emergency, in which whole Nations were concerned, such as the confutations of heresies, and the acquisition of Sovereignties and Kingdoms; but if we descend into the different spheres of private life, we shall find their advantages to have also been very extensive.
Thus, flagellations have been useful to several persons, to make their fortunes. Not to mention here the common story about those who have been flagellated, when Boys, in the room of the Heir to the Crown, we find that the two abovementioned Gentlemen, Messrs. D’Ossat and Du Perron, who had had the honour to be disciplined at Rome, on the account of their Royal Master, were afterwards, through his interest, promoted to the high dignity of Cardinals, besides obtaining considerable emoluments.
Others, though they have not gained such substantial advantages as places and pensions, have acquired, which in the opinion of many judicious persons is not less valuable, extensive reputations. Some have acquired such reputations, by the flagellations they have inflicted,—among these are to be ranked Cornelius Adriansen, Zachary Crofton, and the Lady mentioned by Brantôme; and others, by the flagellations they have undergone; such was Titus Oates, so well known in the History of this Country; Bishop Burnet expressly observing, that this treatment did rather raise Oates’s reputation, than sink it. (A. 1685.)
In the intercourse of private life, though among persons distinguished from the vulgar, flagellations, being employed as corrections, have also proved of very great service.