Now, if the first Christians had been used to inflict daily discipline upon themselves, or to receive it from other persons, it is altogether improbable that they would have said that they were exempt from every kind of flagellation. The above lines, it may not be amiss to observe, were thought to have been written by Prudentius, who lived about the latter end of the fourth century. Fabricius, in his Edition of the Christian Poets, ascribes the same lines to one Amœnus, who lived in the eighth Century; and, on the other hand, Johannes Siccardus says, that Sedulius, who lived under the reign of Theodosius junior, is the Author of them. Be it as it may, it does not much matter on this occasion to know who has written them; it is sufficient to observe that they are very useful to confirm the assertion, as to the novelty of voluntary flagellations[42]. Arguments have also been derived by the promoters of flagellations, from those which Jesus Christ was made to suffer, in order to prove that they were practised upon themselves by the first Christians. But though it may be a meritorious action to endure whipping with as much patience as Jesus Christ, and for causes of the same kind as he did, yet it is no proof that the first Christians had any thought of exposing themselves voluntarily to a punishment which had been imposed upon him by force. Besides, the first Christians could not possibly be induced by their desire of imitating Jesus Christ’s whipping (supposing they really had such desire) to flagellate themselves in the cruel manner that has since prevailed; for they did not think that the flagellation undergone by our Lord was in a very high degree painful, and they looked upon it as having been but an inconsiderable part of the punishment he was made to suffer. In fact, St. Chrysostom and St. Austin, as the Reader may see in their works, relate that Pilate ordered Jesus Christ to be scourged after the manner, not of the Romans, among whom the punishment of whipping was inflicted with great severity, but of the Jews, who never suffered the number of forty stripes to be exceeded. And though the truth in that respect, has afterwards been better known, yet, it was only in latter times that the discovery was made, and that St. Bridget, a holy Nun, by means of a revelation she had on that subject, was informed, and thereby enabled to inform the world, that the two holy Fathers were wrong in their opinions, and that Jesus Christ had really been flagellated with great cruelty[43].