[71] The above fact related by Theodoret is very positive; and it supplies an evident proof, that the practice of self-flagellation was not unknown in the times of that early Writer: the silence of the same Author in other parts of his Writings, concerning the practice in question, shews nothing more, except that the same was not universally adopted in his time, as hath been observed in the Note, pag. 124 of this Work. The hasty assertions of the Abbé Boileau against the antiquity of self-flagellation, which are repeated almost in every page of his Book, in spite of the facts which himself produces, gives just cause to guess that he used to practise but little upon himself that salutary kind of mortification. [72] ... _Tempore quadragesimo, toto corpore nudato, se à quodam discipulo virgis cædi præcipiebat._ [73] Part I. Actor. Ord. S. Benedicti, pag. 208. _Aiunt nonnulli se sæpe pro Christi amore flagellis cædi, nullo alio præter eum qui aderat conscio, jussisse._ [74] ... _Quotidiè acriter se cædendi virgis in domo Capitulari._ [75] The Abbé Boileau, in his Book, concludes the above quotation, with wishing that Baronius had been pleased to inform us of the name of the real Author of the practice of voluntary flagellation. As he thinks that there has existed a certain particular period, at which this practice began to be universally followed, prior to which it was utterly unknown, so he hopes that some undisputed inventor of the same may be fixed upon. [76] _Sæpè pœnitentiam centum suscipiebat annorum, quam per viginti dies, allisione scoparum, cæterisque pœnitentiæ remediis, persolvebat. Psalterium quotidiè, cùm duo non posset unum saltem, non negligebat implere: quod nimirùm cùm esset in cellula constitutus, armatâ scopis utrâque manu, totum cùm disciplinâ continuare consueverat._ [77] _Cap. viii. Hanc autem vitæ consuetudinem indifferenter habet, ut utrâque manu scopis armatâ, nudum corpus allidat; & hoc remissiori tempore. Nam quadragesimalibus circulis, sive cum pœnitentiam peragendam habet, crebro centum annorum pœnitentiam suscipit: tunc per dies singulos, dum se scoparum tunsionibus afficit, ut minus tria Psalteria meditando persolvit._ [78] _Hominem tempore quo viginti Psalteria recitabantur vapulantem, pœnitentiam centenarium explevisse._ [79] Cap. X. _Quod certè quum audivi tremefactus expavi._ [80] _Hoc flagellum, si quando egrederetur, portabat in sinu, ut ubicunque eum jacere contingeret, à verberibus non vacaret, &c._