This week in Christian history: Self-flagellation, Thomas More, John Scopes

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, October 20, 2019

Pope denounces self-flagellation – October 20, 1349

A nineteenth century painting of Pope Clement VI (1291-1352). | Wikimedia Commons

This week marks the anniversary of when Pope Clement VI issued a papal bull denouncing the practice of self-flagellation, or the whipping of oneself as an act of penance.

The flagellant movement gained strength during the fourteenth century in response to a series of cataclysms, among them the beginning of the devastating plague known as the Black Death.

In response to this rise in popularity for the practice, Clement VI issued the bull condemning the practice and prohibiting flagellant processions.

“This condemnation coincided with a natural reaction of public opinion, and the Flagellants, from being a powerful menace to all settled public order, found themselves a hunted and rapidly dwindling sect,” explained the Catholic site New Advent.

“But, though severely stricken, the Flagellant tendency was by no means eradicated. Throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries there were recrudescences of this and similar heresies.”