From the above stories, as well as from many others related in the same manner, we are therefore at least to conclude, that they bear great resemblance to a number of facts which commonly happened in the times of the Authors who relate them; and we may thence admire the singular licence of manners which prevailed among Monks and the Clergy in general, during a certain period of time: a licence which we find to have especially obtained when, being the dominant, or rather the sole Christian Church that existed, they were without rivals or competitors; and it may really be said, that the event of the Reformation proved, in several respects, as much a reformation for them, as for those who expressly adopted it. CHAP. XXII. _Another Story of a female Saint appeased by a flagellation._ And not only the Virgin Mary, but other female Saints, inhabitants of Paradise, have also been thought to be extremely well disposed to be appeased, when they had received offence, by flagellatory corrections. The following Story is to be found in the Book intitled, _Itinerarium Cambriæ_, wrote by Sylvester Geraldus, a native of the Country of Wales, who wrote about the year 1188. ‘In the Northern borders of England, and on the other side of the river Humber, in the Parish of Hooëden, lived the Rector of that Church, with his Concubine. This Concubine, one day sat rather imprudently, on the tomb of St. Osanna, sister to King Osred, which was made of wood, and raised above the ground in the shape of a seat. When she attempted to rise from the place, her posteriors stuck to the wood in such a manner, that she never could be parted from it, till, in the presence of the people who ran to see her, she had suffered her clothes to be torn from her, and had received a severe discipline on her naked body, and that, to a great effusion of blood, and with many tears and devout supplications on her part: which done, and after she had engaged to submit to farther penitence, she was divinely released[111].’ [Illustration: (end of chapter mark)] FOOTNOTES: [111] ... _Quæ cum recedere vellet, fixis ligno natibus, evelli non potuit, &c.--Itinerarii Cambriæ, Lib. I._ This opinion of Catholic Divines concerning the great power of flagellations to appease the wrath of female Saints, and the content which they have supposed the latter to receive from such ceremonies, after the example of the antient Goddesses, might furnish a new subject of comparison between the Catholic Religion, and that of the ancient Heathens; and if Dr. Middleton had thought of it, he might have added a new article on that head, to his _Letter from Rome_.