FLAGELLATION

There are three stages in the history of flagellation in the Christian Church: (1) as a punishment it was in use from the 4th century; (2) as a form of voluntary penance it developed especially from the mid-11th century; and (3) as a feature of public penitential processions it began in the 13th century.

Penal Flagellation. Scourging was frequently a punishment for delinquent clerics. It was also administered to laymen, mostly to slaves, but occasionally also to free men. More generally, however, it was a feature of monastic discipline. In the East it is mentioned in the rule of pachomius (Reg. 163, in the Latin version of Jerome, Patrologia Latina 23:81d); in the West in the rules of caesarius of arles [Opera two (Maredsous 1942) 107], aurelian of arles (Patrologia Latina 68:392), benedict (only in cases of obstinate incorrigibility: ch. 28, ed. R. Hanslik; Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum latinorum 60:84), and frequently in that of columban [Regula coenobialis; ed. G. S. M. Walker, Sancti Columbani opera (Dublin 1957) 142–181]. augustine states that it was used in episcopal courts (Ep. 133; Patrologia Latina 33:510). Councils from the 5th to the 7th centuries legislated for flagellation of monks (C. J. von Hefele, Histoire des conciles d'après les documents originaux, tr. and continued by H. Leclercq, 10 v. in 19 (Paris 1907–38) 2:905), as also did monastic customaries (Usus ordinis Cisterciencis, 70; Patrologia Latina 166: 1444; Lanfranc, Decreta pro ordine OSB, 18; Patrologia Latina 150:504). As a punishment for ecclesiastics it was recognized by Canon Law as late as the 17th century.

Voluntary Flagellation. This was a natural development from the penal form. Its motives are: expiation of personal sin and the sins of others, self-conquest, the impetration of divine graces and favors, and especially conformity with Christ in his Passion. In the early Church the martyrs were regarded as closest to Christ; but after the persecutions, the austerities of monastic life were esteemed the nearest equivalent to martyrdom. Monks were the first to adopt scourging as a systematic ascetic exercise, and the practice spread to the clergy and laity, becoming common throughout the Middle Ages. peter damian, by his advocacy and example, was influential in stabilizing the practice, first at fonte avellana, and later in camaldolese monasteries, at monte cassino, and elsewhere [De laude flagellorum; Patrologia Latina 145:679–686; Epistolae, 5.8; Patrologia Latina 144:350–352; 6.27, ibid. 414–417; J. Leclercq, "Inédits de saint Pierre Damien," Revue Bénédictine 67 (1957) 154].

As penal flagellation had long been part of the regular discipline of monasticism, the term "discipline" now came to be applied to voluntary penance, signifying the usage, the scourge used, or the individual strokes. The "discipline of rule" or custom became part of the observance of medieval religious orders. It was prescribed and regulated for certain days, especially during the penitential seasons. Similarly, provision for this kind of corporal penance was made in practically all religious rules composed or revised from the 16th to the 18th centuries. Undertaken with the sanction of a religious rule or the guidance of a spiritual director, such corporal penance has continued to be sanctioned by the Church. Without such safeguards it can lead to abuses and aberrations.

Penitential Processions of Flagellants. Originating in Perugia in May 1260 amid the misery of the wars of guelfs and ghibellines and the disastrous plague of 1259, processions were stimulated by the eschatological prophecies of joachim da fiore, who had predicted the coming of "the third age" for 1260. Instigated by the Umbrian hermit, Rainier Fasani, hundreds or even thousands, preceded by the cross and the clergy, made their way through the city, chanting and crying out for peace, scourging themselves to blood. Fasani's Disciplinati spread from Perugia throughout central and northern Italy, and beyond the Alps into Alsace, Bavaria, Hungary, Bohemia, and Poland. Good effects were noted in Perugia, but the spirit of the movement rapidly deteriorated. Severe measures were taken against the flagellant bands by the bishops of Poland, and in 1261 the processions were forbidden by the Holy See.

As a result, the movement abated and did not revive until the disastrous years of the Black Death (1348–50), when with astonishing rapidity numerous bands of antiecclesiastical flagellants reappeared throughout Europe. Although condemned and prohibited by clement vi (Oct. 20, 1349), many continued to exist, and in the early 15th century they were reinforced by the adherence of Beghards (see beguines and beghards) and the followers of John wyclif. They were still active in 1481.

Quite distinct from these fanatical and heretical groups were the associations of Disciplinati, common especially in Italy from c. 1350 until the end of the 16th century. These confraternities were under the control of the Church and were approved and supervised by such bishops as Charles borromeo. Similarly, occasional penitential processions of flagellants were held, such as those of vincent ferrer. They provoked the opposition in Paris of Jean gerson, but they were common in the Netherlands and in Austria in the 17th and 18th centuries, and survived in Italy into the 19th. They were encouraged also by Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries in the newly evangelized regions of Asia and Latin America.

Bibliography: p. bailly, Dictionnaire de spiritualité ascétique et mystique 5:392–408. É. bertaud, ibid. 3:1302–11. l. gougaud, Devotional and Ascetic Practices in the Middle Ages, tr. g.c. bateman (London 1927). g. alberigo, "Contributi alla storia delle confraternite dei disciplinati e della spiritualità laicale nei secc. XV e XVI," Il movimento dei disciplinati nel settimo centenario dal suo inizio (Spoleto 1962) 156–252. g. meersseman, "Études sur les anciennes confréries dominicaines," Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum 20 (1950) 5–113; 21 (1951) 51–196; 22 (1952) 5–176. p. tacchi venturi, Storia della Compagnia di Gesù in Italia (2d ed. Rome 1950) v.1.2. w. ferner, Die Geisselmanie oder der Flagellantismus in den Mönchs- und Nonnenklöstern, ed. g. frusta (3d ed. Stuttgart 1922). g. m. monti, Le confraternite medievali dell'alta e media Italia, 2 v. (Venice 1927). o. j. blum, St. Peter Damian (Washington 1947) 114–120. j. leclercq, Saint Pierre Damien: Ermite et homme d'Église (Rome 1960).

[f. j. courtney]