Whipping
Whipping was a punishment employed in the ancient Church for the discipline of junior monks arid inferior clergy for insubordination. It was also applied to others in certain cases. Bingham (Christ. Antiq. book 7, chapter 3) quotes from Palladius as follows: "In the Church of Mount Nitria, there were three whips hanged upon three palm-trees — one for the offending monks, another for the correcting of thieves, and a third for the correcting of strangers, whom they entertained in a hospital adjoining." Again, in Bingham's Antiquities (book 16, chapter 3), we find these statements: "Cyprian, in the Life of Caesarius Avelatensis, says that bishop observed this method both with slaves and freemen; and that when they were to be scourged for their faults, they should suffer forty stripes save one, according as the law appointed. The Council of Agde orders the same punishment. not only for junior monks, but also for the inferior clergy. And the Council of Mascon particularly insists upon the number of forty stripes save one. . . . The Council of Epone speaks of stripes as the peculiar punishment of the minor clergy" for the same crimes that were punished with excommunication for a whole year in the superior clergy." SEE SCOURGE.
