However, notwithstanding the doubts of Peter Cerebrosus, and of Cardinal Stephen, the practice of voluntary flagellations soon spread itself far and wide; and we find it to have been adopted, since the times we mention, by numbers of persons, eminent on account either of their dignity, or their merit; several of whom have been mentioned by Father Gretzer. Among them were St. Andrew Bishop of Fiesola, Laurence Justinian, Abbot Poppo, and especially St. Anthelm, Bishop of Bellay, who lived about an hundred years after Dominic the _Cuirassed_ and Rodolph of Eugubio, and gloriously trod in the footsteps of these two holy Men. ‘Every day (it is said in that Saint’s Life, which was written by one of his intimate friends) every day he scourged himself, making lashes fall thick on his back and sides, and by thus heaping stripes upon stripes, he never suffered his skin to remain whole, or free from marks of blows[83].’ Even Sovereigns, and Great Men, in the times we speak of, adopted for themselves the practice of voluntary flagellation. The Emperor Henry, who lived about the year 1070, ‘never ventured (if we may credit Reginard’s account) to put on his Imperial robes, before he had obtained the permission of a Priest for that purpose, and had deserved it by confession and discipline.’ William of Nangis, in the Life of St. Lewis King of France, which he has written, relates that that Prince, after he had made his confession, constantly received discipline from his Confessor. To this the same Author adds the following curious account. ‘I ought not to omit to say, concerning the Confessor the King had before Geoffrey _de Bello loco_, and who belonged to the Order of the _Predicant_ Friars, that he used to inflict upon him, hard and immoderate disciplines; which the King, whose skin was rather tender, had much ado to endure. This hardship, however, he never would speak of to this Confessor; but after his death, he mentioned the fact, somewhat jocularly, though not without humility, to the new Confessor[84].’