From History of Flagellation Among Different Nations. New York: Medical Publishing Co., 1930: pp. 83-85.
SO well established was the opinion that saints, and especially the Virgin Mary, were to be appeased by flagellations, and such was in general the fondness of people during a certain period of time for that pious mode of correction, that a Franciscan monk, who wore a hood and was girt with a cord, did not scruple, under the Pontificate of Sixtus IV., to expose to the open day in the public market-place, the bare rump of a Professor of Divinity, and lashed him with his hand in sight of a crowd of astonished spectators, because he had preached against the immaculate conception of the blessed Virgin. The fact is related in a sermon written by Bernardinus de Bustis, which, together with his whole work in honour of the Virgin (Opus Mariale), he dedicated to Pope Alexander VI., and seems therefore to be a fact well enough authenticated. The following is the manner in which Bernardinus gives the account.
“He laid hold of him and threw him upon his knees, for he was very strong. Having then taken up his gown, — because this minister had spoken against the holy tabernacle of God — he began to lash him with the palm of his hand because he had attempted to slander the blessed Virgin by quoting, 84 perhaps, Aristotle in the book of Priors, this preacher confuted him by reading in the book of his posteriors, which greatly diverted the bystanders. Then a certain female devotee exclaimed, saying, “Mr. Preacher, give him four more slaps for my sake,” another presently after said, “Give him also four more for me,” and so did a number of others, so that if he had attempted to grant all their requests, he would have had nothing else to do for the whole day.”
Nay, so proper did Bernardinus de Buftis think the above correction to have been, so well calculated did he judge it to appease the holy Virgin’s wrath, that he did not scruple to declare in the sequel of his Sermon, that the monk who had inflicted it had possibly been actuated by an inspiration from the Virgin herself. “Perhaps,” says he, “it was the Virgin herself who induced him so to do, moreover granting him an exemption from the censures incurred, according to the laws of the Church, by those who strike an ecclesiastic, and relaxing the vigour of these laws in his favour.”
Not only the Virgin Mary but other female saints, inhabitants of Paradise, have also been thought to be extremely well disposed to be appeased when they had received offence by flagellatory corrections. The following story is to be found in the book entitled, 85 “Itinerarium Cambriæ,” written by Sylvester Geraldus, a native of the country of Wales, who wrote about the year 1188.
“In the northern borders of England and on the other side of the river Humber, in the parish of Hooëden, lived the rector of that church with his concubine. This concubine one day sat rather imprudently on the tomb of St. Osanna, sister to King Osred, which was made of wood and raised above the ground in the shape of a seat. When she attempted to rise from the place she stuck to the wood in such a manner that she never could be parted from it, till, in the presence of the people who ran to see her, she had suffered her clothes to be torn from her, and had received a severe discipline on her naked body, and that to a great effusion of blood, and with many tears and devout supplications on her part; which done, and after she had engaged to submit to further penitence, she was divinely released.”