ABSTRACT
The order of the Cistercians, founded by Robert Alberic and Stephen, was moderately addicted to the use of the scourge. The male and female Feuillants were more strict in the matter; the nuns being under the monks, received the discipline from them. Several reforms took place, but none of great importance. Port Royal was founded, and promised at first to set a good example in the way of flagellation; but it did not come up to expectation. In that establishment there was also a spiritual union between the sexes, and they chastised themselves in company, but the union did not last; gradually succumbing to the persecution of the Jesuits, it was dissolved in 1709. The next reforms in the Cistercian order—viz., those of La Trappe and Septfons—were much more important. Rancé of La Trappe flourished in the middle of the 17th century, and manifested during his youth a fondness for the fair sex. The death of the Duchess of Montblazan, with whom he was in love, caused him to change his life, and begin a reform of the monastery of which he was Superior. He introduced flagellation, condemnatory labour, and the imposition of silence. His contemporaries styled him an executioner of the brethren. The improvements in discipline introduced by Septfons were also carried on about the same time by Beaufort, a co-reformer, but neither of them was so extravagant as La Rancé. In the exercises of repentance enjoined by the reformers, Rancé and Beaufort, the scourge bore a prominent part. When a lady entered the order she was presented with a fresh sound instrument, and exhorted to use it actively. On the death of a nun, the sisters scourged themselves many weeks for the salvation of her soul. In the Trappist schools which were afterwards established the discipline was excessive: a word, a look, a wink, turning the head, or a smile, were punished by a birching on the bare body, and solitary confinement was frequently resorted to. The innocent were made to share the punishment of the guilty, in order to learn them obedience, and these whippings were continued till their nineteenth or twentieth year. In schools under the charge of nuns, the same practice was carried on. The nuns at Paderborn, as we are told in an old volume, felt a positive pleasure in birching their pupils—indeed, the abuse of the Rod became so notorious that the order was forbidden to keep schools, and a certain Don Augustine, who had achieved fame by his style of discipline, was ultimately forced to flee to Switzerland, where he obtained considerable support for his system.
