[Image] [Hi-Res Image]
Page 323
323 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Placing Flagellation Adami appellationibus et essentia Flaeius main tained that original sin is the substance of man him self and not an accident as Strigel taught. This doctrine was chiefly aimed at the Synergists. Flacius was altogether orthodox on this point. The whole controversy amounted to nothing since he attached to the word substantia two different meanings, it was a mere quibble of words, and yet there were men like Hesshusen (q.v.) who absurdly believed that Flacius considered the devil as the creator of substance. After his expulsion from Strasburg he settled at Frankfort, where he was ably protected by Catharina von Meerfeld, prioress of g. Last the nunnery Zu den weissen Frauen, Days at although the Council of the city had Frankfort. not given him permission to remain. Thanks to entreaties and interces sions his order of banishment was deferred from time to time until his death. In spite of all quarrels and turbulences of his life Flacius possessed such a tenacity and deter mination that he found time for scientific works which required the most extensive preparation and gradual ripening. He was not only Io. Flacius' the most learned Lutheran theolo Literary gian, but also the promoter and foun and der of theological disciplines. He was Scholarly chiefly prominent in the sphere of Work. church history. In Magdeburg he conceived the great plan of two his torical works in which he could deal heavy blows at Romanism. He undertook a catalogue of all those who before Luther had combated the heresies of the papacy, and in this way originated his Catalogue testium veritatis, qui ante nostram eetalem reclamarunt Papte (Basel, 1556) and its complement Varia doctorum pwrumque virorum de corrupto ecclesitv statu poemata [(1557) in which for the first time was printed Bernard of Cluny's De contemptu mundij. Still more important was his other plan to write a church history from the original sources which should show how the Church of Christ had deviated from her right course since the time of the apostles, and include a history of antichristianity from its beginning to the develop ment of its highest power and to the restitution of true religion in its purity by Luther. The out come of this plan was the so-called " Magdeburg Centuries " (Basel, 1562-74; see MAGDEBURG CEN TURIES). Flacius found many patrons who aided his great undertaking financially and he also made extensive travels in Germany, searching for sources and documents. Many assistants helped him. Many manuscripts and books were bought or do nated by patrons. The Magdeburg Centuries denotes a great progress in the science of Church history, not only on account of its extensive tracing of the sources, but also on account of its method. The anti-Roman interest had sharpened the vision and made it capable of critical achieve ments that marked a new epoch. [In reply Baro nius produced his superior "Annals."] Finally Flacius produced two works of importance in the sphere of Biblical science: his Clovis seriP turtB sacra seu de sermons sacraruin literarum
(1567) and Glossacompendiaria in Novum Testamentum (1570).
Flacius compels admiration by his learning and extraordinary scholarly achievements, his inde fatigable capacity for work, his indomitable zeal in defense of pure doctrine, but it is impossible to overlook certain grave defects in his nature, such as arrogance, obstinacy, and even malice-in fact an entire inability to appreciate the rights of others and their motives. [It is more charitable to suppose that he was mentally slightly unbal anced.] (G. KAwERAU.)BIBLIOGRAPHY: Some of his letters are in CR, viii. and ix. and the Supplementum. His merits were long insufficiently appreciated and his rehabilitation is largely due to A. Twesten, Matthias Flaccius Illyricus, eine Vorlesung, Berlin, 1844, and W. Preger, Matthiae Placcius Myricw and seine Zeit, 2 vols., Erlangen, 1859-61 (a list of his many publications is given ii. 539-572). Consult also J. J. I. D611inger, Die Reformation, ii. 224 sqq., Regensburg, 1848; A. Ritschl, Theologie and Metaphysik, pp. 52 sqq., Bonn, 1881; ADB, vii. 88 sqq.
Self-scourging or Flagellation (§ 2). II. Flagellants.
clesiastical corrective pena4y for clerics appears
in the Western Church as early as the fifth century
transferred from the Roman penal law,
I. Corporal but resorted to only in rare instances.
Punish- From the Merovingian times onward,
ment as a it became more widely diffused, and so
Penalty of late as the seventeenth century was
the Church. appointed as a punishment in cases of
blasphemy, simony, concubinage, and
other offenses committed by the clergy. In
corrective establishments of the Church, corporal
chastisement has continued in practise against
clerical delinquents confined in the same, down to
the present time. Flagellation as a monastic pun
ishment for misdeeds of monks dates back to the
earliest period of monasticism, and the rule of Bene
dict of , Nursia makes extensive use of corporal
chastisement. The congregations which had their
origin in the Benedictine Order, as well as the other
monastic orders, sisterhoods, and knightly orders
founded in the twelfth century and later, adopted
flagellation; but various orders which arose after
the Council of Trent did not include this penalty
in their rules. For certain offenses of laymen, too
(desecration of Sunday, fortune-telling, etc.), the
Church from the sixth century prescribed cor
poral chastisement as the penalty, and flogging in
particular teas threatened against such offenses
until the eighteenth century. Lastly, the Inqui
sition applied flogging and flagellation as one of the
lightest penalties in case of the voluntary recanta
tion of heresy. In penitential discipline, corporal
chastisement and particularly flagellation came to