Besides those Fathers who have been quoted above, as having made no mention of flagellations in their writings, except in a figurative manner, there are others no less commendable for their learning, who have been equally silent on that subject. St. Jerom, among others, deserves to have particular notice taken of him; and he once had, we are to observe, a very natural opportunity of mentioning voluntary flagellations, if he had had any notion of such a practice. I mean here to speak of the letter he wrote to Deacon Sabinus, in order to admonish him of his sins, and exhort him to repent of them. This Sabinus was a most profligate man, who was publicly known to have been guilty of the crime of adultery, and who had, in one instance, carried his wickedness so far as to attempt to ravish a girl in the very manger in which Jesus Christ had received the adoration of the three Eastern Kings. St. Jerom exerts the utmost powers of his eloquence in order to bring that man to a sense of his crimes, and engage him to do a suitable penance for them, and yet he makes no mention whatever about whipping or discipline. Now, is it in any degree credible that he would, on such an occasion, have been silent as to the use of whips, leather-thongs, or scourges, if they had been commonly in use, and avowed by the Church? The supporters of flagellations, however, urge that the same St. Jerom, in his Epistle to _Eustachius_, says, speaking of himself, ‘I remember to have many a time spent the whole day in loud lamentations, and to have only ceased to beat my breast when the admonitions of our Lord restored tranquillity to me.’ But this very passage, which is made use of to prove that voluntary flagellations were in use during the times of the primitive Church, manifestly proves the contrary, and that St. Jerom was an utter stranger to the use either of scourges or rods. It is true, he lamented, as he says, for his sins, and beat his breast, in order to expel by this natural method of venting his grief, the wicked thoughts with which he felt himself agitated; but in doing this, he employed, and could employ, only his fists: the short distance between his arms and his breast made it altogether impracticable for him to use rods, thongs, straps, sticks, scourges, besoms, or whips.