Discipline (instrument of penance) explained

A discipline is a small scourge (whip) used as an instrument of penance by certain members of some Christian denominations (including Roman Catholics, Anglicans,^[1] among others) in the spiritual discipline known as mortification of the flesh.

Many disciplines comprise seven cords, symbolizing the seven deadly sins and seven virtues. They also often contain three knots on each cord, representing the number of days Jesus Christ remained in the tomb after bearing the sins of humanity. Those who use the discipline often do so during the penitential season of Lent, but others use it on other occasions,^[2] and even every day.^[3]

History and practice

In the Bible, Saint Paul writes:^[4] "I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified" (1 Corinthians 9:27 NRSV).^[4] Christians who use the discipline do so as a means of partaking in the mortification of the flesh to aid in the process of sanctification;^{[5] [6]} they also "inflict agony on themselves in order to suffer as Christ and the martyrs suffered."^[7] In antiquity and during the Middle Ages,^[8] when Christian monastics would mortify the flesh as a spiritual discipline, the name of the object that they used to practice this also became known as the discipline.^[9] By the 11th century, the use of the discipline for Christians who sought to practice the mortification of the flesh became ubiquitous throughout Christendom.^[9]

In the Roman Catholic Church, the discipline is used by some austere Catholic religious orders. The Cistercians, for example, use the discipline to mortify their flesh after praying Compline.^[10] The Capuchins have a ritual observed thrice a week, in which the psalms Latin: [[Psalm 51|Miserere Mei Deus]] and Latin: [[Psalm 130|De Profundis]] are recited as the friars flagellate themselves with a discipline.^[11] Saints such as Dominic Loricatus,^[12] Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi,^[13] among others, have used the discipline on themselves to aid in their sanctification.^[14]

Votarists of some Anglican religious orders practice self-flagellation with a discipline.^[15] Within Anglicanism, the use of the discipline became "quite common" among many members of the Tractarian movement.^[1] Martin Luther, the German Reformer, practiced mortification of the flesh through fasting and self-flagellation while still a monk, even sleeping in a stone cell without a blanket.^[16] Congregationalist writer and leader within the evangelical Christian movement, Sarah Osborn, practiced self-flagellation in order "to remind her of her continued sin, depravity, and vileness in the eyes of God".^[17]

See also

• Conditional preservation of the saints
• Repentance (Christianity)
• Sackcloth

Notes and References

1. Book: Yates, Nigel. Anglican Ritualism in Victorian Britain, 1830-1910. 1999. Oxford University Press. English. 9780198269892. 60. Self-flagellation with a small scourge, known as a discipline, became quite common in Tractarian circles and was practised by Gladstone among others..
2. Book: Yelyr, R.. The Whip And The Rod - An Account Of Corporal Punishment Among All Nations And For All Purposes. 16 April 2013. Read Books Limited. English. 9781473391857. 24. The favourite time for the infliction of the discipline was during Lent, though it was administered on other occasions..
3. Book: Yelyr, R.. The Whip And The Rod - An Account Of Corporal Punishment Among All Nations And For All Purposes. 16 April 2013. Read Books Limited. English. 9781473391857. 24. And yet again there was the Bishop of Bellay, who, it was alleged, whipped his body every day to such an extent that his skin was never free from weals and bruises..
4. Book: Cultic Studies Journal, Volumes 16-18. 1999. The Foundation. English. 149. Opus Dei is also rebuked for its practice of "taking the discipline," which consists of striking oneself with a rope whip (Walsh, 1991, pp. 110- 112; Tapia, 1997, p. 34). St. Paul states: "I chastise my body and bring it into subjection" (1Cor, IX, 27)..
5. Book: Jones, Lindsay. Encyclopedia of Religion, Volume 9. 2005. Macmillan Reference . English . 9780028657424. Among its most extreme forms are self-flagellation and the wearing of a hair shirt.[...] intended to have a transformative effect, aiding in the transition from a life devoted to the gratification of the desires of the body to a higher, sanctified life in the spirit..
6. Book: The Privilege and the Precept: a Scripture Manual, Containing a Concise Statement of the Leading Doctrines of the Gospel, Proved by Quotations from the Holy Scriptures. 1854. P. Dixon hardy and Sons. English. 108. Sanctification is evidenced by love to God, mortification of the flesh, and habitual holiness of life and conversation..
7. Book: Rutherdale. Myra. Pickles. Katie. Contact Zones: Aboriginal and Settler Women in Canada's Colonial Past. 14 May 2014. UBC Press. English. 9780774851688. 97. Within the culture of devotion, women religious undergo self-mortification by applying the "discipline" – a small whip - to themselves. They inflict agony of themselves in order to suffer as Christ and the martyrs suffered..
8. Book: Stravinskas. Peter M. J.. Shaw. Russell B.. Our Sunday Visitor's Catholic Encyclopedia. 1998. Our Sunday Visitor Publishing. English. 9780879736699. 333. Discipline • A small whip with which some ascetics in antiquity and the Middle Ages lashed themselves to discipline, mortify and punish themselves for their sins..
9. Book: Simon, G. A.. Commentary for Benedictine Oblates: On the Rule of St. Benedict. 1 April 2009. Wipf & Stock Publishers. English . 9781606082669. 65.
10. Book: Attwater, Rev. Fr. Donald. A Catholic Dictionary. 16 December 1997. TAN Books. English . 9781505107456. 293. DISCIPLINE. A small whip or scourge of cords variously arranged, used for self-inflicted mortification (q.v.). Its use is prescribed in the more austere religious orders and congregations; among the Cistercians, for example, it is self-administered on most Fridays of the year after the night-office for the space of a Misere..
11. Book: Black, Christopher F.. Italian Confraternities in the Sixteenth Century. 28 August 2003. Cambridge University Press. English. 9780521531139. 100. Capuchins particularly promoted public flagellation in the confraternities they sponsored, since it was a regular penitential practice for themselves. The constitutional reforms, inspired by Giovanni de Captistrano, ordered discipline to be exercised thrice weekly, with a fixed ritual based on the psalms Miserere Mei Deus and De Profundis. The Biblical inspirations were 1 Corinthians 9:27: 'I bruise my own body and make it know its master, for fear that after preaching to others I should find myself rejected'; and Colossians 1:24: 'It is now my happiness to suffer for you. This is my way of helping to complete, in my poor human flesh, the full tale of Christ's afflictions still to be endured, for the sake of this body which is the church.'.
12. Book: Ranft, Patricia. Theology of Peter Damian: "let Your Life Always Serve as a Witness". 31 October 2012. CUA Press. English. 9780813219974. 164. Because of the example of Dominic Loricatus, renowned for his extreme use of the discipline, "the custom spread in our area so that not only men but even noble women eagerly took up this form of purgatory.".
13. Book: Favazza, Armando R.. Bodies under Siege: Self-mutilation, Nonsuicidal Self-injury, and Body Modification in Culture and Psychiatry. 18 April 2011. JHU Press. English. 9781421401119. 37. Born in Florence in 1566 of an aristocratic family, Caterina de'Pazzi was religiously precocious. At age 10 she made a vow of perpetual chastity, secretly whipped herself, and wore a crown of thorns..
14. Web site: Seeking Sanctification Through the Practice of Mortification. Scheckel. Roger J.. 2006. Marian Catechist Apostolate. English. 14 June 2016. Sacred Tradition expressed through the lives of the saints provides innumerable accounts of the necessity and importance of the practice of mortification.[...] Mortification is a good that is relative to a higher purpose or end, namely the pursuit of holiness. Pain or suffering in and of itself is a physical evil, one of the consequences of humanity's fall from grace; however, when suffering or pain is accepted in faith it can be redemptive and a source of sanctification.. https://web.archive.org/web/20180610110256/http://mariancatechist.com/spiritual_reading/seeking_sanctification.html. 10 June 2018. dead.
15. Book: Marsh, Jan. Christina Rossetti: A Literary Biography. 29 November 2012. Faber & Faber. English . 74.
16. Book: Lindberg, Carter . Martin Luther: Justified by Grace . Graded Press . 1988 . 9780939697557 . 16 . English . Luther subjected himself to long periods of fasting and self-flagellation. He spent many sleepless nights in a stone cell without a blanket to protect him from the damp cold that was characteristic of the area. . registration.
17. Book: Rubin, Julius H.. Religious Melancholy and Protestant Experience in America. 1994. Oxford University Press. English. 9780195083019. 115. 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.. registration.