Note 5 — CHAP. I.

Sursùm & deorsùm disciplina.——All the Women (as the Writer of this Commentary has been told, when in Catholic Countries) who make self-flagellation part of their religious exercises, whether they live in or out of Convents, use the lower discipline, as defined above: their pious and merciful Confessors having suggested to them, that the upper discipline may prove dangerous, and be the cause of hurting their breasts, especially when they mean to proceed in that holy exercise with unusual fervour and severity. A few Orders of Friars, among whom are the Capuchins, also use the lower kind of discipline; but for what reason the Commentator has not been as yet informed.

Perhaps it will be asked here, how Priests and Confessors have been able to introduce the use of such a painful practice as flagellation, among the persons who choose to be directed by them in religious matters, and how they can enforce obedience to the prescriptions they give them in that respect. But here it must be remembered, that Penance has been made a Sacrament among Catholics, and that Satisfaction, as may be seen in the Books that treat of that subject, is an essential part of it, and must always precede the Absolution on the part of the Confessor. Now, as Confessors have it in their power to refuse this Absolution, so long as the Penances or Satisfactions of any kind, which they have enjoyed to their Penitents, have not been accomplished, this confers on them a very great authority; and though, to a number of those who apply to them, who care but little for such Absolution, or in case of refusal are ready to apply to other more easy Confessors, they scarcely prescribe any other kind of Satisfaction than saying a certain number of prayers, or such like mortification; yet, to those persons who think it a very serious affair when a Confessor in whom they trust, continues to refuse them his absolution, they may enjoin almost what kind of penance they please. And indeed since Confessors have been able to prevail upon Kings to leave their kingdoms and engage in perilous wars and croisades to the Holy Land, and to induce young and tender Queens to perform on foot pilgrimages to very distant places, it is not difficult to understand how they have been able gradually to prevail upon numbers of their Devotees of both Sexes, to follow practices which they had been so foolish as to adopt for themselves, and to practise, at their own choice, either the lower, or the upper, discipline.