Mortification and Flagellation: Christian Discipline Throughout History
A discipline is a small scourge (whip) used as an instrument of penance and flagellation by members of some Christian denominations (including Anglicans, Lutherans and Roman Catholics among others) in the spiritual discipline known as mortification of the flesh .
Flogging with discipline as an act of penance has its roots in various historical and religious traditions. This practice dates back to ancient times, where it was seen as a means of purifying the soul by inflicting deliberate physical pain. In the context of certain expressions of piety and devotion, individuals have chosen flagellation as a voluntary act of bodily mortification to atone for their sins and demonstrate their commitment to spirituality. Flogging with discipline has often been associated with rituals of repentance, marking a connection between physical suffering and the search for redemption in various religious practices throughout history.
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Many disciplines include seven ropes, symbolizing the seven deadly sins and the seven virtues. They also often contain three knots on each rope, representing the number of days that Jesus Christ remained in the tomb after bearing the sins of humanity. Those who use the discipline often do so during the penitential season of Lent, but others use it on other occasions, and even daily.
In the Bible, Saint Paul writes: “I punish my body and make it a slave, so that when I have proclaimed to others, I myself may not be disqualified” (1 Corinthians 9:27 NRSV). Christians who use discipline do so as a means of participating in the mortification of the flesh to aid in the process of sanctification; they also inflict agony on themselves to suffer as Christ and the martyrs suffered. In ancient times and the Middle Ages, when Christian monks mortified the flesh as a spiritual discipline, the name of the object they used to practice this also became known as discipline. By the 11th century, the use of discipline for Christians who sought to practice mortification of the flesh became pervasive throughout Christendom.
In the Roman Catholic Church, discipline is used by some austere Catholic religious orders. The Cistercians, for example, use discipline to mortify their flesh after praying Compline. The Capuchins have a ritual observed three times a week, in which the psalms Miserere Mei Deus and De Profundis are recited while the friars flagellate themselves with discipline. Saints like Dominic Loricatus, Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi, among others, used discipline on themselves to aid in their sanctification.
Constituents of some Anglican religious orders practice self-flagellation with discipline. In Anglicanism, the use of discipline has become "fairly common" among many members of the Tractarian movement. Martin Luther, German reformer, practiced mortification of the flesh through fasting and self-flagellation, even sleeping in a stone cell without a covering. The Congregationalist writer and leader within the evangelical Christian movement, Sarah Osborn, practiced self-flagellation in order to "remind him of his continuing sin, depravity and baseness in the eyes of God".
