Editing Flagellant (section)

== History ==
[[Image:Spanish flagellant (Christian mystic) · HHWXI26.svg|upright|thumb|1904 illustration of a medieval Spanish flagellant.]]
[[Flagellation]] (from Latin ''flagellare'', to whip) was quite a common practice amongst the more fervently religious throughout antiquity. The practice became popular in 1260 thanks to the example of Blessed [[:it:Raniero_Fasani|Raniero Fasani]] of Perugia,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Flagellant Confraternities and Italian Art, 1260–1610: Ritual and Experience |url=http://www.caareviews.org/reviews/3621 |access-date=2024-06-19 |website=Flagellant Confraternities and Italian Art, 1260–1610: Ritual and Experience}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Riniero de' Barcobini Fasani e Bonaparte Ghisilieri {{!}} Storia e Memoria di Bologna |url=https://www.storiaememoriadibologna.it/archivio/opere/riniero-de-barcobini-fasani-e-bonaparte-ghisilieri |access-date=2024-06-19 |website=www.storiaememoriadibologna.it}}</ref> a saintly hermit who began scourging himself publicly after receiving an apparition of the Virgin Mary and St. Bevignate who told him to start preaching penance for sins and to establish peace.<ref>{{Citation |title=Raniero Fasani |date=2023-10-03 |work=Wikipedia |url=https://it.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Raniero_Fasani&oldid=135792439 |access-date=2024-06-19 |language=it}}</ref> He attracted followers and the movement grew in popularity throughout Italy and the rest of Europe.

[[Christianity]] has formed a permanent tradition surrounding the doctrine of [[mortification of the flesh]], ranging from self-denial, wearing hairshirts and chains, to fasting and self-flagellation using the [[Discipline (instrument of penance)|discipline]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Grayling |first1=A. C. |title=Religion and its mortifying history of self inflicted pain |url=https://www.thetimes.com/best-law-firms/profile-legal/article/religion-and-its-mortifying-history-of-self-inflicted-pain-dkd8z2wlxlb |work=[[The Times]] |date=29 August 2008 }}</ref> Those who practice self-flagellation claim that [[St. Paul]]'s statement in the [[Bible]] ‘I chastise my body’ refers to self-inflicted bodily scourging ({{Bibleverse|1 Corinthians|9:27|KJV}}).<ref>Tierney, John. “Flagellation.” The Catholic Encyclopedia. Last modified September 1, 1909. Accessed March 5, 2020. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06092a.htm .</ref> There are prominent Christians who have practiced self-flagellation. [[Martin Luther]], the Protestant [[Reformation|Reformer]], self-flagellated among other ascetic practices during his early years as an Augustinian friar (although he later condemned such practices).<ref name="Mansch Peters 2016 p. ">{{cite book | last1=Mansch | first1=L.D. | last2=Peters | first2=C.H. | title=Martin Luther: The Life and Lessons | publisher=McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers | year=2016 | isbn=978-0-7864-9854-3 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CA3MDAAAQBAJ | access-date=2022-05-12 | page=30}}</ref> Likewise, the [[Congregationalist]] writer [[Sarah Osborn]] also practiced self-flagellation in order "to remind her of her continued sin, depravity, and vileness in the eyes of God".<ref name="Rubin1994">{{cite book|last=Rubin|first=Julius H.|url=https://archive.org/details/religiousmelanch00rubi/page/115|title=Religious Melancholy and Protestant Experience in America|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1994|isbn=9780195083019|page=[https://archive.org/details/religiousmelanch00rubi/page/115 115]|language=English|quote=In the many letters to her correspondents, Fish, Anthony, Hopkins, and Noyes, Osborn examined the state of her soul, sought spiritual guidance in the midst of her perplexities, and created a written forum for her continued self-examination. She cultivated an intense and abiding spirit of evangelical humiliation--self-flagellation and self-torture to remind her of her continued sin, depravity, and vileness in the eyes of God.|url-access=registration}}</ref> It became "quite common" for members of the [[Tractarian]] movement within the [[Anglican Communion]] to practice self-flagellation using a discipline.<ref name="Yates1999">{{cite book|last=Yates|first=Nigel|author-link=Nigel Yates|title=Anglican Ritualism in Victorian Britain, 1830-1910|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1999|isbn=9780198269892|page=60|language=English|quote=Self-flagellation with a small scourge, known as a discipline, became quite common in Tractarian circles and was practised by Gladstone among others.}}</ref>

Historically speaking, in the 11th century, [[Peter Damian]], a [[Benedictines|Benedictine]] monk in the [[Roman Catholic]] tradition, taught that spirituality should manifest itself in physical discipline; he admonished those who sought to follow Christ to practice self-flagellation for the duration of the time it takes one to recite forty [[Psalms]], increasing the number of flagellations on holy days of the [[liturgical year|liturgical calendar]].<ref name="Fudgé2016"/> For Damian, only those who shared in the [[Passion of Christ|sufferings of Christ]] could be saved.<ref name="Fudgé2016">{{cite book |last1=Fudgé |first1=Thomas A. |title=Medieval Religion and its Anxieties: History and Mystery in the Other Middle Ages |date=20 October 2016 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-137-56610-2 |page=243 |language=English |quote=As justification for the mortification of the flesh, Peter Damian argued that only those who participated in the sufferings of Christ could be partakers of the promise that the faithful, one day, would inherit the kingdom of God and thereby join Christ in glory.}}</ref><ref name="Jeremiah2014">{{cite book |last1=Jeremiah |first1=Ken |title=Christian Mummification: An Interpretative History of the Preservation of Saints, Martyrs and Others |date=10 January 2014 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-8979-4 |page=92 |language=English}}</ref> Throughout Christian history, the mortification of the flesh, wherein one denies physical pleasures, has been commonly followed by members of the clergy, especially in Christian monasteries and convents; the 11th-century [[Dominicus Loricatus]] repeated the entire [[Psalter]] twenty times in one week, accompanying each [[psalm]] with a hundred lash-strokes to his back. The distinction of the Flagellants was to take this [[mortification of the flesh|self-mortification]] into the cities and other public spaces as a demonstration of [[piety]].<ref name="Nethersole2018"/>