Editing Flagellation (section)

===Christianity===
[[File:Flagellants.png|thumb|[[Flagellants]], woodcut, {{circa|15th century}}]]

[[Flagellation of Christ|''The Flagellation'', in a Christian context]], refers to an episode in the [[Passion (Christianity)|Passion of Christ]] prior to [[Crucifixion of Jesus|Jesus' crucifixion]]. The practice of [[mortification of the flesh]] for religious purposes has been utilised by members of various [[Christian denominations]] since the time of the [[East-West Schism|Great Schism]] in 1054. Nowadays the [[Discipline (instrument of penance)|instrument of penance is called a discipline]], a cattail whip usually made of knotted cords, which is flung over the shoulders repeatedly during private prayer.<ref name="Opus Dei Information Office">{{cite news |url=http://www.opusdei.org/art.php?w=32&p=9316 |title=Opus Dei and corporal mortification |newspaper=Opus dei |publisher=Opus Dei Information Office |year=2012 |access-date=3 June 2009 |archive-date=24 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131224151300/http://www.opusdei.org/art.php?w=32&p=9316 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In the 13th century, a group of Roman Catholics, known as the [[Flagellant]]s, took self-mortification to an extreme, and would travel to towns and publicly beat and whip each other while preaching repentance. As these demonstrations by nature were quite morbid and disorderly, they were, during periods of time, suppressed by the authorities. They continued to reemerge at different times up until the 16th century.<ref>{{cite web |title=Flagellants |website=Encyclopædia Britannica |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. |date=6 December 2016 |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/flagellants |access-date=9 October 2018 |archive-date=10 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181010012754/https://www.britannica.com/topic/flagellants |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Flagellants|encyclopedia=The Columbia Encyclopedia|edition=6th|date=7 October 2018|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/philosophy-and-religion/christianity/christianity-general/flagellants|access-date=9 October 2018|archive-date=10 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181010060626/https://www.encyclopedia.com/philosophy-and-religion/christianity/christianity-general/flagellants|url-status=live}}</ref> Flagellation was also practised during the [[Black Plague]] as a means to purify oneself of sin and thus prevent contracting the disease. [[Pope Clement VI]] is known to have permitted it for this purpose in 1348,<ref>{{Cite CE1913|wstitle=Flagellants|author=Leslie Alexander St. Lawrence Toke}}</ref> but changed course, as he condemned the Flagellants as a cult the following year.<ref>{{cite book |title=From the Brink of the Apocalypse: Confronting Famine, War, Plague and Death in the Later Middle Ages |first=John |last=Aberth |edition=2nd |publisher=Routledge |year=2010|page=144  }}</ref>

[[Martin Luther]], the Protestant [[Reformation|Reformer]], regularly practiced self-flagellation as a means of mortification of the flesh before leaving the Roman Catholic Church.<ref>{{cite book|last=Wall|first=James T. |title=The Boundless Frontier: America from Christopher Columbus to Abraham Lincoln |publisher= [[University Press of America]] |page=103 |quote=Though he did not go to the ends that had Luther—including even self-flagellation—the methods of ritualistic observance, self-denial, and good works did not satisfy.}}</ref> Likewise, the [[Congregationalist]] writer [[Sarah Osborn]] (1714–1796) also practiced self-flagellation in order "to remind her of her continued sin, depravity, and vileness in the eyes of God".<ref name="Rubin1994">{{cite book |last=Rubin |first=Julius H. |title=Religious Melancholy and Protestant Experience in America |year=1994 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-508301-9|page=[https://archive.org/details/religiousmelanch00rubi/page/115 115] |quote=In the many letters to her correspondents, Fish, Anthony, Hopkins, and Noyes, Osborn examined the state of her soul, sought spiritual guidance in the midst of her perplexities, and created a written forum for her continued self-examination. She cultivated an intense and abiding spirit of evangelical humiliation—self-flagellation and self-torture to remind her of her continued sin, depravity, and vileness in the eyes of God. |url= https://archive.org/details/religiousmelanch00rubi/page/115}}</ref> It became "quite common" for members of the [[Tractarian]] movement (see [[Oxford Movement]], 1830s onwards) within the [[Anglican Communion]] to practice self-flagellation using the discipline.<ref name="Yates1999">{{cite book|last=Yates|first=Nigel|title=Anglican Ritualism in Victorian Britain, 1830–1910|year=1999|publisher=Oxford University Press|language=en|isbn=978-0-19-826989-2|page=60|quote=Self-flagellation with a small scourge, known as a discipline, became quite common in Tractarian circles and was practised by Gladstone among others.}}</ref> St. [[Therese of Lisieux|Thérèse of Lisieux]], a late 19th-century French [[Discalced Carmelites|Discalced Carmelite]] nun considered in Catholicism to be a [[Doctor of the Church]], is an influential example of a saint who questioned prevailing attitudes toward physical penance. Her view was that loving acceptance of the many sufferings of daily life was pleasing to God, and fostered loving relationships with other people, more than taking upon oneself extraneous sufferings through instruments of penance. As a Carmelite nun, Saint Thérèse practiced voluntary corporal mortification.

Some members of strict [[monastic]] orders, and some members of the Catholic lay organization [[Opus Dei]], practice mild self-flagellation using the discipline.<ref name="Opus Dei Information Office" /> [[Pope John Paul II]] took the discipline regularly.<ref>{{cite web|last=Barron|first=Fr. Robert|title=Taking the Discipline |date=16 February 2010 |publisher=[[YouTube]] |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCts0fjsmug |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211107/VCts0fjsmug |archive-date=7 November 2021 |url-status=live}}{{cbignore}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=April 2025}}