A scourge
(from Italian scoriada
, from Latin excoriare
= "to flay" and corium
= "skin") is a whip or lash, especially a multi-thong type used to inflict severe corporal punishment or self-mortification on the back.
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SCOURGE TICKETS
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Description
The typical scourge (Latin:
flagrum
; English:
flagellum
) has several thongs fastened to a handle; c.f. Scottish
tawse (usually two or three leather thongs without a separate handle);
cat o' nine tails: naval thick-rope knotted-end scourge, the army and civil prison versions usually are leather.
The scourge, or
flail, and the
crook, are the two symbols of power and domination depicted in the hands of
Osiris in Egyptian monuments; they are the unchanging form of the instrument throughout the ages; though, the flail depicted in Egyptian mythology was an agricultural instrument used to
thresh wheat, and not for corporal punishment.
The priests of
Cybele scourged themselves and others, and such stripes were considered sacred.
From a Biblical quotation,
scorpio
'scorpion' is Latin for a Roman
flagrum
. Hard material was affixed to multiple thongs to give a flesh-tearing 'bite' [
1 Kings 12:11: ...My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions
]. The name testifies to the pain caused by the
arachnid. To its generous Roman application testifies the existence of the Latin words
Flagrifer
'carrying a whip' and
Flagritriba
'often-lashed slave'.
Scourging played a famous role as the punishment inflicted in the
Flagellation of Christ during the
Passion on
Jesus Christ before
crucifixion.
Scourging was the first step in the traditional
Roman punishment for
parricide.
Scourging was soon adopted as a sanction in the monastic discipline of the fifth and following centuries. Early in the fifth century it is mentioned by
Palladius of Galatia in the
Historia Lausiaca
,
[1] and
Socrates Scholasticus [2] tells us that, instead of being excommunicated, offending young monks were scourged. (See the sixth-century rules of
St. Cæsarius of Arles for nuns,
[3] and of
St. Aurelian of Arles.
[4]) Thenceforth scourging is frequently mentioned in monastic rules and councils as a preservative of discipline.
[5] Its use as a punishment was general in the seventh century in all monasteries of the severe
Columban rule.
[6]
Canon law (
Decree of Gratian,
Decretals of Gregory IX) recognized it as a punishment for ecclesiastics; even as late as the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, it appears in ecclesiastical legislation as a punishment for
blasphemy,
concubinage and
simony. Though doubtless at an early date a private means of
penance and
mortification, such use is publicly exemplified in the tenth and eleventh centuries by the lives of
St. Dominic Loricatus [7] and
St. Peter Damian (died 1072). The latter wrote a special treatise in praise of self-flagellation; though blamed by some contemporaries for excess of zeal, his example and the high esteem in which he was held did much to popularize the voluntary use of the scourge or "discipline" as a means of mortification and penance. Thenceforth it is met with in most medieval religious orders and associations.
The practice was, of course, capable of abuse, and so arose in the thirteenth century the fanatical sect of the
Flagellants, though in the same period we meet with the private use of the "discipline" by such saintly persons as King
Louis IX of France and
Elisabeth of Hungary.
Metaphoric use
Semi-literal usages such as "the scourge of God" for
Attila the
Hun (i.e. "God's whip to punish the nations with") led to
metaphoric uses to mean a severe affliction, e.g. "the scourge of drug abuse". As a result, some people forget its literal meaning and seem to imagine a connection with "scour" -to clean something by scrubbing it vigorously.
Sources and references
- |scourge}}|edition=11th|year=1911}}
- Catholic Encyclopaedia
- H. H. Mallinckrodt, Latijn-Nederlands woordenboek
(Latin-Dutch dictionary)
Notes
See also
de:Geißel
fr:Discipline (objet)
pl:Bicz
pt:Azorrague
sv:Gissel