The Tortures and Torments
of the Christian Martyrs
from
De SS. Martyrum
Cruciatibus
(a Modern Edition)
Chapter IV
Of Different Instruments Employed for Scourging the Blessed
Martyrs
Having
discussed bonds and thongs and the nature of the "wooden horse," we
must next turn our attention to the various kinds of whips and
scourges used in torturing the Martyrs. Indeed, after binding the Christians
to the "horse", it was the frequent practice of the Heathen as we
had seen in many instances already quoted from the History of the
Saints, especially those of St. Crescentianus, St. Regina, virgin
and martyr, and Bishop Bassus to beat them mercilessly with rods,
cudgels, whips, and the like; then to flay them with iron "claws" or
similar devices; and finally to roast them with torches, burning brands,
and red-hot metal plates.
We will now discuss the various
instruments used for scourging in this order: first, whipping instruments,
then, iron hooks, claws, and currycombs; and lastly,
torches, brands, and fiery plates.
As to the first, which were widely
used in antiquity we find lashes, scourges, cudgels, rods, scorpions,
thongs, and loaded whips.
Of Lashes
Plautus speaks of lashes in the
Epidicus, as follows:
Ita non omnes ex cruciatu
poterunt eximere Epidicum. Periphanem emere lora vidi ...
("So all his friends shall not save Epidicus. I saw Periphanes
buying lashes.")
Also Terence, in Adelphi:
Nam si molestus pergis
esse, jam intro abripiere, atque ibi. Usque ad necem operiere loris.
("For if you are going to be troublesome, you shall be rushed
indoors, and there lashed to death.")
And Cicero, as well, in his
Philippics:
Cum eum jussu Antonii in
convivio servi publici loris caeciderunt. ("When the public
slaves scourged him with lashes at a feast by Antonius' orders ...")
Similar mention is found repeatedly
in the Acts of the Martyrs, as, for example, in the account of
St. Asterius and his companions in martyrdom, of St. Euphemia, virgin
and martyr, and many other witnesses of Christ of both sexes.
These lashes used by the ancients were thongs made of leather, usually
employed (as we have seen from the passages quoted from Plautus and
Terence) for the correction of slaves. It is no surprise, then, to find
consistent examples in the accounts of the martyrdom of Christ's faithful
followers being beaten with thongs; for they were always counted by
the Heathen as wretches of the lowest condition. These same lashes served
not only to bind the martyrs and thrash them, but even
to tear them in pieces, as we witness in the Acts of the Blessed
Martyrs concerning the passion of St. Tyrsus:
"His mind (the Governor's)
was suddenly filled with great wrath, and he ordered certain stalwart
young men of a fierce and savage disposition to pummel the martyr
with their fists. Then, after binding him with lashes attached firmly
to his hands and feet, they started strenuously pulling in opposite
directions, so that all the articulations of his joints were broken,
and he was torn limb from limb."
Of Thongs, Also Used
for Scourging the Martyrs
The word "thong" or "nerve" (as
we explained in the preceding chapter) actually appears to have had
several meanings. Sometimes it simply signified a fastening for binding
criminals, as we had previously noted; but at other times it appears
to take the form of a scourge with which the Christians, fired by love
of the only true God, were beaten by the Heathen. It is in this sense
that we presently examine it. So understood, it appears to have been
an animal's nerve that was used for the purpose; and most generally
a bull's. This was the case with those most glorious athletes of Christ,
Saints Ananias, Isidore, Benedicta, virgin and martyr, and many others
whose names are written in the Book of Life.
Of Cudgels and Scourges
Cudgels and scourges were very
often used for thrashing Christ's faithful followers. Scourges are spoken
of by Juvenal in his Satires, Suetonius in his Otho, St.
Cyprian, Eusebius, and other ancient writers. They were thinner and
finer than cudgels, but thicker than rods. We find evidence of this
in the Laws of Theodosius ("Of driving on the public roads, stage-drivers
and couriers") the following provision:
"Decreed, that no man use
a cudgel for driving, but either a rod, or at most a scourge at
the point of which is set a short goad."
This is sufficient to show that
scourges were in use among the ancients as we stated above.
Besides Christians, other persons of the more humble class were condemned
to be thrashed with these instruments, as Plautus, in his Amphitryon,
implies; even the Vestal Virgins themselves, if by their neglect the
fire impiously consecrated to Vesta, the Romans' false goddess, had
been allowed to go out (See Valerius Maximus and Livy the Historian).
However, to return to the Blessed
Martyrs of our Lord Jesus Christ, we find that many of them were beaten
with scourges and cudgels: with cudgels, Saints Felix and Alexander,
Privatus and Bassus, Bishops, Julius, a Senator, and many others; and
with scourges, the Blessed Martyrs Neophytus, Julianus, Tryphon, Sabbatius,
and countless others, whose names are forgotten. Of these we find the
following record in the Roman Martyrology under February 20:
"Commemoration of the Blessed
Martyrs at Tyre in Phoenicia, the number of whom is known only to
God. Under the Emperor Diocletian and by order of Veturius, master
of the soldiers, they were slain with many kinds of torments following
one after the other. First, their whole bodies were torn with scourges;
then they were delivered to various kinds of wild beasts but, by
divine goodness, were in no way hurt by them. Finally, given up
cruelly to fire and sword, they won the crown of martyrdom."
Here it must be mentioned that
the Christians were sometimes beaten so long with cudgels and scourges
that they died under the lash. Thus perished those gallant soldiers
of Christ, Saints Sebastian; Julius, a Senator; Maxima, virgin and martyr;
Eusebius, Sabbatius, and many more of either sex.
Of Cudgeling, Decimation, and other Military Punishments
We often read in the Histories
of the Saints how Christians, especially Christian soldiers were
ignominiously condemned to dig, beaten with cudgels and rods, stripped
of their military belts, and decimated all of which were forms
of punishment for Roman soldiers guilty of various offenses.
Let us, then, examine each of
these penalties, some of which were less and some more severe. While
within the City walls, the Portian Law safeguarded Roman citizens against
the Magistrates' rods and axes, this was not the case in camps and in
the field. Indeed, the Laws drew a distinction between military and
civil discipline, between the terror needful to bend an army to obedience
and that required to govern a peaceful people. From the orders of a
General in the field there was no appeal.
The lighter penalties inflicted on soldiers were of the nature of disgrace
and degradation only, such as:
-
being dismissed from the service
in ignominy
-
being fined or otherwise having
their pay diminished
-
relinquishing their spears
-
change of their quarters
-
to winter in the open country
-
to eat their rations standing
-
to dig a trench
-
to be unbelted and disarmed
-
to be fed on barley
-
and to be blooded by opening
a vein.
Graver punishments involved causing
bodily harm, such being beaten with rods, sold into slavery, struck
with a cudgel or an axe, to be decimated, or to be crucified. We will
find all these methods well documented in Sigonius, book 1, On the
Ancient Civil Law of the Romans.
First as to dismissal from the service with ignominy:
we find this mentioned and described by the Consul Aulus Hirtius in
the following terms:
"Caesar, speaking from the
suggestus (platform) and addressing the assembled Tribunes
and Centurions of all the Legions, said thus, 'Whereas, Caius Avienus,
in Italy you have stirred up Roman soldiers against the Commonwealth,
and have plundered the provincial towns, I hereby expel you with
ignominy from my army.' "
As to deprivation of pay,
this is clear enough in itself, but I may add that the phrase "broken
in pay" was applied (so Nonius states) to those soldiers whose pay,
in order to brand them with disgrace, was stopped, that is to say, the
sum of money representing their gains for a month, or a year, was confiscated.
So Varro, quoted by the same author, speaking of the life and habits
of the Roman people, writes:
"What was known as a soldier's
pay was the money given him half-yearly or yearly; when his pay
was stopped as a mark of disgrace, he was said to be broken of
his pay." Livy again says: "As a mark of disgrace, it was decreed
this legion should receive a half-year's pay in lieu of a whole
year's."
Now with regard to other punishments,
as that of surrendering the spear, Festus explains the matter this way:
"Penalty of the spear so called
was when a soldier was sentenced by way of punishment for a military
offence to hand in his spears."
As to changing quarters
in camp, Polybius tells us that if it was determined that soldiers
should be punished with disgrace, they were ordered to pitch outside
the camp. Accordingly in Livy, we find the men who had been beaten at
Cannee complaining:
"Now are we reduced to a worse
condition than returned prisoners of war had to suffer in former
days. For only their arms, and their position in the line and the
place where they might pitch in camp were changed, all which they
could recover by one good achievement for their country's good or
one successful battle."
As to winter quarters,
read Livy (book 26.):
"A further disgrace was inflicted
in every case, namely, that they should not winter in a town, nor
construct winter quarters within a distance of ten miles of any
city." As to rations, the same author (book 24.) writes:
"The names of all who withdrew from their post during the previous
defeat, I shall order to be reported to me, and summoning each before
me, shall bind one and all upon oath never, except in case of sickness,
to take food or drink otherwise than standing, for as long as they
shall remain in the service."
As to digging, we may appeal
to Plutarch, who says in his Lucullus that it was an old form
of military disgrace for culprits to be compelled to strip to their
shirts and dig a trench, while the rest of the troops looked on.
For the other penalties mentioned, see Livy again (book
27.):
"The cohorts which had lost
their standards, he ordered to be served with barley; and the Centurions
of those maniples [a Roman Army tactical formation] whose standards
had been lost, he unbelted and deprived of their swords." Polybius
also speaks of barley being served out instead of wheat as a mark
of disgrace.
In the way of letting blood
as a punishment, the historian Aulus Gellius says the following:
"This was another old-fashioned
military punishment, to order by way of ignominy: a vein to be opened
and the offender blooded."
Concerning other and more
severe forms of punishment, the following passages from Livy
provide clear evidence. Writing of Scipio's reform of military discipline
before Numantia, Livy tells us that:
"Any soldier he caught out
of the ranks, he scourged if he were a Roman citizen:
with staves, if a foreigner: with cudgels," and in another place,
"Publius Nasica and Decius Brutus, the two Consuls, held a review
of the troops, on which occasion a punishment was inflicted that
was likely to have an excellent effect on the minds of the recruits,
before whom it was carried out. A certain Caius Matienus, who had
been accused before the Tribunes of the People of desertion from
the army in Spain and condemned to the fork, or pillory, was beaten
with rods for a long time, and then sold into slavery for a sesterce."
Also Cicero, in his Philippics: "The legions deserved cudgeling
which deserted the Consul, if he was Consul."
Now, according to Polybius, this
punishment of cudgeling was inflicted in the following
way. First the Tribune took up a cudgel and just touched the condemned
man with it; after this, all who were in camp at the time were set upon
him, beating the culprit with cudgels, pelting him with stones, and
most often killing him inside the camp. Moreover, if any escaped, they
were no better off, since they could neither return to their fatherland,
nor be harbored at home by their relations.
The most ancient instance of decimation is recorded by
Livy and was carried out under his Consulship by Appius Claudius, a
man of a very stern and harsh disposition. To quote the Historian's
words:
"Appius Claudius, the Consul,
called a general muster and rebuked the troops as disloyal to military
discipline and deserters from the colors and not without good
reason. Turning to individual soldiers whom he saw unarmed, he demanded
where their standards and their weapons were, asking a similar question
of ensigns who had lost their colors, as well as Centurions and
double-pay men who had forsaken the ranks, and finally had them
beaten to death with rods. Of the remaining rank and file, each
tenth man was chosen out by lot for punishment."
The mode of carrying out such
an order is detailed by the same author, who writes concerning Scipio's
punishment of his mutinous army at Suero:
"Then was heard the
voice of the herald proclaiming the names of those condemned in
the council. These were now stripped and dragged forward, while
at the same moment all the paraphernalia of punishment were exhibited;
they were then lashed to a stake and beaten with rods or struck
down with an axe."
Crucifixion as a
military punishment is also mentioned by Livy:
"Deserters to the enemy were
more severely dealt with than mere runaways. Those with a Latin
Name were beheaded, while Roman offenders were crucified."
These, then, were the different
sorts of military punishments exercised in the Roman Army. That these
continued in use down to the very end of the Republican period, is clear
from Suetonius when he says of Augustus:
"Any cohorts which had given
ground, he decimated and fed the survivors on barley; Centurions
who had deserted their post and likewise Manipulars in the same
case he punished with death. For other offenses he inflicted various
ignominious penalties such as to stand all day in front of the
Praetorium, or headquarters, in some instances wearing the tunic
only and stripped of their belts, others holding a ten-foot pole
or even carrying a sod of earth."
Regarding Christian soldiers who
won the Crown of Martyrdom at the hands of the Heathen, it is to be
noted (as we find in their several Histories) how they were sometimes
condemned to dig the ground or else were decimated, very frequently
beaten with cudgels and rods, or stripped that is, deprived of their
military belts.
As to Christian soldiers being condemned to dig the ground,
we find the following written in the History of St. Marcellus,
Pope, concerning them:
"At the date when Maximianus
returned from the parts of Africa to the City of Rome, being eager
to please Diocletian and further his design of building Thermae,
or Baths, to be called after his name, he began, out of hatred towards
the Christians, to constrain all soldiers of that Faith, whether
Romans or foreigners, to forced labor, and in many places condemned
them to quarry stone, while others were condemned to dig sand."
[for the construction of the thermae] The same may also be
found recorded in the Acts of St. Severa, a Roman Virgin.
Decimation again
is attested by the Histories of those most Blessed Martyrs of Christ,
St. Maurice and his companions, where we find written, "Let the fatal
lot give every tenth man to death," and what else was decimation but
so putting to death every tenth soldier? The Roman Historian Tacitus,
reports of this practice as well:
"Every tenth man of the disgraced
cohort was chosen by lot and cudgeled to death," and again, "Inasmuch
as every tenth man of the beaten army is beaten to death, even brave
men are at times chosen out by the lot."
The next punishment, cudgeling,
was virtually universal for all those martyred Christian soldiers who
found it an occasion of joy to be rid of this poor, brief life for Christ's
sake.
However, it was not Christian soldiers alone who were beaten with cudgels,
but other faithful servants of Christ as well; for the Laws of the Romans
decreed that whoever professed themselves to be filled with God's grace
should be beaten with cudgels as a penalty.
Finally, further testimony to this effect is to be found in the
Acts of St. Hesychius, of St. Marcellus a Centurion, of Saints
Eudoxius, Zeno, Macarius, and their companions, one hundred and four
in number and many, many others. This is especially true in the
Acts of St. Marcellus, just mentioned, where we see that the military
belt, so often mentioned, was nothing more nor less than the ordinary
soldier's sword-belt, or rather baldric, for in this account we find
the following:
"In the city of Tingitana,
when Fortunatus was Procurator and Commander of the Troops, the
Emperor's birthday came round. So when all were indulging in festivities
and offering sacrifices, one Marcellus, a Centurion of the Legion
of Trajan, deeming the rejoicings to be profane, threw off his military
belt before the standards of the legion which were present, and
testified with a loud voice, saying, "I am a soldier of Jesus Christ,
the King everlasting." Likewise he cast away his Centurion's staff
and his arms, further declaring, "From this day forth I make an
end of fighting for your Emperors ..." But the soldiers, astounded
to hear such words, seized him and reported the matter to Astasianus
Fortunatus, Commander of the Legion, who ordered him to be put in
prison.
Presently when the feasting
was ended, he took his seat at the council board and ordered Marcellus
the Centurion to be brought in; this being done, Astasianus Fortunatus,
the Commander, thus addressed him: "What was your intent when, in
defiance of military discipline, you ungirded your belt and threw
away your baldric and staff? " Then some lines lower down, "This
soldier, in casting off his military belt, has openly proclaimed
himself to be a Christian, and publicly before all the people spoke
many blasphemies against the gods and against Caesar. We now refer
this matter to you, that we may do as you see fit."
These same words were addressed
by his jailers, concerning the Blessed Marcellus, to Agricolaus the
Judge, to whom he had subsequently been sent to be tried. Now when we
read at the beginning of this account how Marcellus cast away his military
belt; and again further on, how being charged before the Commander,
he casted away his baldric; and yet again, when the soldiers were stating
the case against him before Agricolaus, his belt once more it is abundantly
clear that these were one and the same thing. In fact, a baldric,
if we may believe the authority of Varro, On the Latin Tongue,
was a belt of leather decorated with studs or bosses and worn aslant
from the right shoulder to the left hip. So Quintilian writes, "That
fold which is carried aslant from right shoulder across to the left
side, like a baldric, must be neither too chokingly tight nor yet too
loose."
One point important to observe
is the constancy of Christian soldiers. It was unwavering; and such
was their burning desire to suffer for Christ's sake, that there is
frequent mention of their having, voluntarily and in contempt
and defiance of the heathen emperors and other great officers cast
off the military belt. Thus we read of St. Hesychius:
"Now he was a soldier, and
having heard read the order of Maximianus to the effect that any
which should refuse to make sacrifice to idols, should lay down
his military belt, suddenly and of his own volition he unbuckled
his own."
We find this again concerning
St. Eudoxius and his sainted companions:
"Eudoxius instantly removed
his girdle and tossed it in the Commander's face. With this act,
seen by his comrades as a direct appeal to them and a call to emulation,
the whole number of them that stood around, one hundred and four
in all, likewise hurled their belts in his face."
Of Rods and Scorpions
Frequent mention is made of rods
with which prisoners were beaten. We find reference to them in different
plays of Plautus, by Valerius Maximus, by Cicero, and by Prudentius
in the Hymn of St. Romanus.
Rods in antiquity were of many sorts some of elm-wood, as Plautus
says in the Asinaria:
Ipsos, qui tibi subvectabant
rure huc virgas ulmeas ... ("The very fellows that used to bring
you your supply of elm-rods from the country.")
And a little further on in the
same play:
Mihi tibique interminatus
est, nos futuros ulmeos.
("He threatened you and me; we should presently feel the elm.")
Thus Plautus shows us that people
in antiquity routinely corrected their slaves with these rods of elm-wood.
Others again, were made of birch, a tree which Pliny describes as:
"This Gallic tree (the birch,
to wit) is of a remarkable glossiness and slenderness, a terrible
material for the rods used by magistrates. Its flexibility makes
it equally convenient for hoops as well as for the plaited work
of baskets."
Yet others again were of oak,
ash, or willow. Rods of the first sort are mentioned in the Acts
of St. Acatius, a Centurion, and of the third, willow, by Prudentius
in his Hymn of St. Romanus in these lines:
Cum puer torqueretur jussu
Praesidis,
Impacta quoties corpus attigerat salix,
Tenui rubebant sanguine uda vimina.
("When the lad was tortured by the Governor's orders, every
time the willow struck and wealed his body, the switches grew wet
and red with drops of blood")
Moreover, in the Epidicus
of Plautus we find:
Lictores duo, duo viminei
fasces virgarum
("Two apparitors and two bundles of willow rods and switches
").
Switches, in fact, were made of
poplar twigs, elm, red wood, birch, vine, twisted hazel, or willow,
the last being best for this purpose.
Of Rods Made of Vine Wood
Rods made of vine wood were used
for beating military offenders; in fact, the Centurions' sign of office
was a vine staff, which they used to chastise soldiers too slow in obeying.
This is shown in Pliny:
"The vine staff in the Centurion's
hand is an excellent specific for bringing sluggish troops to the
colors, and when used to chastise offences makes even the punishment
respectable; "
And Tacitus, as well:
"The Centurion Lucillus was
killed in a mutiny an officer nicknamed in soldiers' slang 'Give
us another,' because after breaking his staff over a soldier's back,
he would loudly call for another, and then another."
So too Juvenal ,writing of Caius
Marius in his Eighth Satire:
Nodosam post haec frangebat
vertice vitem,
Silentus pigra munires castra dolabra.
("Then he would strike you over the head with a knotty staff,
if you were overly slow in entrenching and sluggish in your spade
work.")
Of Rods of Iron and Lead
Although rods for beating offenders
withal were generally made of thin twigs of trees, sometimes they were
made of iron or lead. This is shown in divers Acts of the Blessed
Martyrs, such as those of Saints Paul and Juliana, Saints Christopher
and Callinicus, among others.
Of Prickly Rods, otherwise called Scorpions
Not with smooth rods alone were
those of antiquity accustomed to chastise offenders and Christians as
well, but also with knotty and prickly rods which they appropriately
named "scorpions." Whenever we find record in the accounts of the martyrdom
of the saints that such and such faithful servants of Christ were
beaten with thorny, prickly, and knotty rods it is understood as their
having been scourged with "scorpions".
Rods, then, were of two distinct types; they were either smooth or prickly.
If they are alluded to as of the first sort, smooth, they were either
of twigs or of metal. If of twigs, either of elm, birch, oak, ash, or
willow; but if of metal, then either of iron, and this sometimes red-hot,
or of lead.
Something more may be added to
what has already been said of rods in the Histories of Saints
Hermillus and Stratonicus, to this effect:
"Greatly angered at these
words, Licinus ordered Stratonicus to be stretched face upward and
thrashed on the stomach with rods of a three-cornered shape. Now
this was a grievous torture, scarcely tolerable by the human frame,
for the corners of these rods cruelly cut the flesh like so many
swords."
Not only were the martyrs named
above Saints Acatius, Paul, Christopher, Callinicus, Hermillus, and
Stratonicus beaten with smooth rods, but many others as well,
including Saints Pontianus, Zeno, Theodore, Paula a virgin, Regina,
Claudius, and a vast number of others of either sex. But it was under
knotty and prickly rods, or scorpions, that those glorious soldiers
of Christ, Saints Basil, Cyrinus, Bassus a Bishop, Symphorian, Nicostratus,
Simplicius, and countless others, were mercilessly beaten.
Even while being beaten with rods was an extremely painful form of punishment,
intended to shame the individual as well, it was, notwithstanding,
a lighter penalty than some others. The ignominy associated with it
is clearly shown in various Roman laws such as the Porcian Law, the
Symphronian, etc., as well as from direct statements of ancient authorities,
such as found in Cicero's Pro Rabirio and in
Verrem; it is also found in Josephus' Jewish War, where it
is spoken of as something extraordinary that Caestius Florus scourged
Jews who enjoyed Roman citizenship with rods, and fastened them in the
criminals' collar or pillory.
Even now, Catholics are often beaten with rods by the heretics of our
own time (1591). This is illustrated by Sanders, in The Anglican
Schism, where he says:
"Nor should this be left unmentioned,
that many of the common people, refusing to attend the churches
and profane services of the Protestants, and having no money
to pay the fine, are by the judge's orders, long and cruelly dragged
through the city of Winchester, stripped naked, and savagely beaten
with rods."
The manner in which this is done
is declared in the Theatre of Cruelties in these words: "The
Catholics were tied at the cart's tail, and so whipped through the streets."
Of Loaded Scourges, with which the Martyrs were Beaten
Loaded scourges as the Histories
of the Blessed Martyrs indicate, to say nothing of Prudentius, and certain
paintings which can be seen here in Rome were a sort of whipping instrument
made of cords or thongs, with little balls of lead fastened to their
end. They were liberally used to scourge the loins, back, and neck of
condemned persons. We find this mentioned in many accounts of
martyrdom, as well as by Prudentius, who writes in his Hymn of St.
Romanus:
Tundatus tergum crebris
ictibus
Plumboque cervix vertebrata extuberet:
Persona quaequae competenter plectitur,
Magnique refert, vilis sit, an nobilis.
("Let his back be pounded with quick-falling blows, and his
neck scourged with lead till it swell up: each is appropriately
punished, and it makes no small difference whether he be a common
fellow or a noble.")
The fact nevertheless remains
that it was customary in antiquity to punish only persons of the more
common sort with loaded scourges. The punishment was still in vogue
in the days of the Emperor Honorius, who beat the impious heresiarch
Jovinian and his vile associates with loaded whips, before finally banishing
them into exile.
While scourging with these loaded whips was not meant to kill criminals
and it was actually forbidden by an enactment of the civil law to
beat a prisoner to death, yet many nevertheless died under the blows
of these cruel instruments. This is clear from Ammianus Marcellinus
in an Epistle of Ambrosius, where he writes:
"What answer shall I make
afterward, if it be discovered that, on authority from me, Christians
have been killed, whether with the sword, with cudgels, or with
loaded whips?"
Among Christians who laid down
their lives for Christ under the loaded whip were: Sts. Maximus, Papias,
Severa a Roman virgin, with her brothers Marcus and Calendius, also
Sts. Gervasius, Januarius, Concordia, Privatus, Severus, Severianus,
and countless others, whose names we cannot possibly cover in this volume.
Many were the other faithful servants of Christ who were beaten with
loaded scourges without losing their lives. These were (to name a few
only) Saints Laurence, Artemius, Procopius, Gordian, Erasmus and Theodore
Bishops.
Of Other Ways in which Lead was used for Torturing the
Holy Martyrs
Lead was also used in antiquity
for torturing prisoners in two other ways. First, after stripping them
stark naked, they would pour it, in a boiling state, over their bodies
a form of punishment that we will examine more carefully in Chapter
IX .
The other way in which lead was
used was neither for scourging nor burning, but for straining and dislocating
the several joints of persons condemned to this torture. Arms
being twisted backward and fastened above their heads, they then had
leaden weights hung upon their feet. Such leaden weights are referred
to by Ammianus, when he says, "Then are the leaden weights prepared."
If the reader would like learn more about this form of torture, he should
explore the Histories of the Blessed Martyrs, St. Justus and
St. Mamans.
Of the Manner in which Prisoners were
Beaten in Antiquity
When prisoners were to be scourged
in the days of the early Martyrs, they were first stripped of all clothing,
and then whipped upon the back, stomach, or other part of the body with
rods or other instruments of flagellation. The apparitors carried
this out in many ways. Sometimes they would tie them to stakes set upright
in the ground, or to pillars; sometimes they would stretch them on the
earth, or else over sharp spikes a foot high and fixed in the ground;
at other times they suspended their victims aloft with their bodies
hanging straight down, or else mounted them on another's shoulders as
boys do, and lashed their posteriors.
Another convenient method
was to fix four pegs in the ground, forcibly stretch their victims out
and, binding them hand and foot to these, kindling a fire underneath
them to make their torment more bitter still all the while thrashing
them unmercifully. The magistrates of the Roman people always presided
at these tortures and would command their apparitors, or lictors
as they were called, first to strip their victims and lay them naked
either upon the ground or an instrument of torture as we find in most
of the Acts of the Holy Martyrs, especially those of Saints Ananias,
Secundianus, Clement of Ancyra, St. Barbara Virgin and Martyr, St. Apollinaris
Bishop, among others.
Further corroboration and more certain evidence of this may be gathered
from many writings of the classical authors themselves, in which we
find that the judges and magistrates of the Roman people would order
their officers to strip and punish criminals and to employ their rods
and axes upon them as they lay naked. Thus Livy writes:
"The Consuls command
the man to be stripped, and the axes made ready. 'I appeal', cried
Volero, 'to the People; seeing how the Tribunes had rather see a
Roman citizen beaten with rods before their eyes than themselves
murdered in their beds by you.' But the more furiously he shouted,
the more fierce was the lictor in tearing off his clothes
and stripping him naked."
And in another place, speaking
of Papirius Cursor, Livy tells us:
"He bade the lictor
make ready his axe. At this command the Praenestine stood astounded,
but the other only said, 'Now to it, lictor, and cut
away yonder stump, which is a hindrance to the traffic."
Also, Valerius Maximus, relating
the same story, says,
"He commanded the rods to
be got ready and the man to be stripped,"
Livy once more, in another book
of his History, writes:
"Then Papirius was roused
to fresh anger and ordered the Master of the Horse to be stripped
naked, and the rods and axes to be prepared."
So likewise Cicero, in his speech,
In Verrem:
"Accordingly he commands the
man to be seized and stripped naked in the open forum and bound,
and the rods to be made ready."
All these passages plainly indicate
that prisoners were beaten by the lictors only after first being
stripped of their clothing.
Now the fact that the Blessed Martyrs were whipped with lashes on the
back, stomach, or both, or on any other parts of their bodies, is found
very clearly in the Acts of the Martyrs Saints Clement of Ancyra
and Ananias, mentioned above, as well as of St. Claudius and his companions.
That they were beaten in antiquity
by the Heathen, after being tied up by the lictors to stakes
or pillars, stretched out on the ground, over sharp spikes fixed in
the earth, or else securely bound to four pegs, as described above,
can also be found many, many, Acts of the Blessed Martyrs, such
as those of Saints Paul and Juliana, Eulampius and Eulampia, brother
and sister, Saint Anastasia, a Roman virgin and martyr, and a host of
others. One may return again, in this connection, to what we had already
discussed in Chapter I concerning stakes, pillars and trees, to which
Christians were suspended to be tortured.
Lastly that the Holy Martyrs were beaten as boys are thrashed may be
learned from Prudentius' Hymn of St. Romanus, where Asclepiades
gives orders concerning a boy Barula, whom all unwillingly and unwittingly
was about to be consecrated a Blessed Martyr to Christ:
"...pusionem praecipit
Sublime tollant, et manu pulsent nates.
Mox et remota vesta, virgis verberent,
Tenerumque duris ictibus tergum secent,
Plus unde lactis quam cruoris defluat."
("... He bids them lift the boy aloft and beat his buttocks
with their hands; then after stripping off his clothes, thrashing
him with rods, and rending his tender loins with heavy blows from
which more milk may well flow than blood.")
But it was not only boys, like
Vitus and Barula, that were thrashed in the manner of juveniles, being
mere lads, but others likewise older in age and of either sex a practice
used, it would appear, in order to maximize the ignominy and disgrace.
Thus was St. Thomas, a most reverend Bishop, beaten as we find written
in Victor, On the Vandal War as was also St. Afra.
Of the Officers Whose
Duty it was in Antiquity to Beat Prisoners
The officers charged with the
duty of beating prisoners by order of the Magistrates were called
Lictors. These officers were assigned to Consuls, Proconsuls, and
other Roman officials; Consul and Proconsul having twelve each, other
magistrates six, and the City Praetor only two. The lictors walked
before each magistrate, bearing bundles of rods tied up with an axe
in the midst, and known as fasces, so that whenever ordered,
they might unfasten it, and first thrashing the condemned man with their
rods, afterwards strike him down with the axe.
This can be readily confirmed
from many witnesses among ancient writers. To take Cicero first, he
says in his great speech, In Verres:
"Six stalwart lictors
stand round him, men well practiced in beating and thrashing criminals;"
And also Livy,
"Go, lictor, bind him
to the stake."
The same, too, is proven by the
customary formula by which the lictor was commanded to inflict
this penalty on a traitor, which was:
"Go, lictor, bind his
hands; cover his head; hang him to the accursed tree."
Thus Livy writes of the Publius
Horatius in the matter of the Horatii and Curiatii:
"So the Duumviri condemned
him to death; then one of them addressing Publius Horatius, said,
'I pronounce you, Publius Horatius, guilty of high treason. Go,
lictor, bind his hands';" and a little further on, "This
same man,' he went on, 'whom you saw but now, Quirites, walking
honored, triumphant and victorious, can you bear to behold standing
beneath the gallows, bound and enduring lashes and torments? ' And
when the eyes of the Albans could scarce endure so hideous a spectacle,
'Go, lictor,' he cried, 'bind his hands those hands which
so lately were armed and winning empire for the Roman People. Go,
cover the head of the liberator of this city; hang him to the accursed
tree; scourge him, either within the bounds, that is amid yonder
spears and spoils of the foe, or else without, that is, amid the
tombs of the Curiatii.' "
To complete our account, we may
add further what Aulus Gellius left on record concerning lictors:
"Moreover the lictors
had other duties to perform; it was their office not only to bind
and beat criminals and strike them with their axe, but also to hang
them, if need be; hence the words, 'Go, lictor, bind his
hands, cover his head, hang him to the accursed tree.'"
In addition to this, it belonged
to these same officers to clear people out of' the road, on occasion
to silence those who spoke too much, and even to strangle criminals,
as Plutarch demonstrates in his Life of Cicero, writing of Lentulus:
"First the Consul removed
Lentulus from the Palatium, and marched him along the Sacred Way
and through the midst of the Forum. Then on leaving the Forum and
arriving at the jail, he handed his prisoner over to the lictor,
and ordered him to be strangled."
Still another duty of the lictors
was to visit the houses of persons wanted in Court and to strike on
the doors with a rod to summon them. But enough of lictors
and their offices.
Of Other Methods by Which the Martyrs were Struck and
Beaten by the Heathen
Blows to the face, buffets, and
kicks were commonly inflicted on the Blessed Christian Martyrs. Their
faces were bruised with stones and their jaws broken, or they themselves
were overwhelmed by the stones and so done to death. These afflictions
were the fate of those most glorious heralds of our Faith: Saints Marcellinus
a priest, Epipodius, Aquilina, Tatiana, Felicitas, Speusippus, Eleusippus,
Meleusippus, and lastly Pothenus, or Pothinus, Bishop of Lyons, whose
death is described by Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History:
"Likewise the Sainted Pothenus,
to whom the Bishopric of Lugdunum (Lyons) had been entrusted. He
had now exceeded the ninetieth year of his age, and was so exhausted
with bodily weakness that he could scarcely breathe freely, so extreme
was his infirmity; yet his spirit was greatly refreshed and his
mind grown alert by the burning desire he had for martyrdom. So
he advanced boldly to the tribunal, and although his body was nearly
worn out by the decrepitude of advanced age and the tortures of
disease, yet was his soul preserved intact within him to triumph
gloriously in its steadfastness for Christ. Led by the soldiers
to the bar, the magistrates of the city going with him, and the
whole multitude of the people shouting insults at him as a Christian,
he exhibited a noble testimony to the Faith. For when he was asked
by the Presiding Judge who the God of the Christians was, he answered,
'If thou be worthy to know this thing, thou shalt know it.' He was
immediately and roughly dragged from court and received many blows,
both from those who were standing nearby, who without respect for
his years, struck and kicked him shamefully and insultingly, and
likewise from others further away, who threw at him whatever each
had at hand. They did so because each and all would have deemed
it a great fault and an act of personal impiety had they failed
to punish him, believing that by so doing they were serving the
cause of their false gods. Finally, he was cast, barely breathing,
into the common jail, where two days later he died."
Thus Eusebius writes concerning
the death of St. Pothenus. A similar end was suffered by the Blessed
Martyr, St. Fabius.
Of Blows, Buffets, and Slaps
These three words are held by
some to be synonymous, but that this is not so is plainly shown by many
tokens. Thus in St. Matthew 26 we read:
"Then did they spit in His
face and buffet Him: and some smote Him with the palms of their
hands;"
And in St. Mark 14:
"And some began to spit on Him,
and to cover His face, and to buffet Him ... and the officers received
Him with blows of their hands;"
Likewise in St. John 18:
" ... one of the officers
standing by struck Jesus with his hand."
From these passages it is plainly
evident that the word buffet must be understood of a slap struck
with the palm or open hand, while a blow is one inflicted with
the clenched fist. This is further confirmed by the poet Martial in
his Epigrams:
O quam dignus eras alapis,
Mariane, Latini!
("Oh! how well deserving you were, Marianus, of Latinus' slaps!");
And Terence in his play, Adelphi:
Ne mora sit, si innuerim,
quin pugnus contintuo in mala haereat ("Not a moment's delay,
when I give the sign; but batter his face instantly with your fist");
and a little further on in the same play:
Homini misero plus quingentos colaphos infregit mihi ("Wretch
that I am, he struck me above five hundred blows with his fist ");
and again:
Omnes dentes labefecit mihi;
Praeterea colaphis tuber est totum caput.
("He loosened all my teeth; besides which my head is all swollen
from his punches.")
This distinction between fist
and palm, punch and slap, is well illustrated by a remark Cicero makes
in his treatise entitled The Orator:
"Doubling up his fingers and
making a fist, Zeno was used to say, 'That's what Dialectic is like;'
then loosening his grip and opening his hand, he would add, 'But
Eloquence resembles this open hand.'"
He said, in fact, the Rhetorician
or Orator was like the open hand; the Dialectician like the fist, because
while the former spoke at greater length, the latter argued in a more
compressed and forcible manner. Fisticuffs, or punches, then,
or blows are dealt with the clenched fist, buffets or slaps with the
open palm. But if the reader wishes further information concerning this
form of punishment and ignominy by which women in particular
were punished for the Christian faith let him read what Aulus Gellius
says on the subject.
Of Martyrs Who had Their Faces Beaten with Stones, Features
Bruised, or their Jaws Broken
Among Christians who were subjected
to the above-named methods of martyrdom are Saints Papias, Maurus,
Theodosia, Felix a priest, Apollinaris a Bishop, Felicissima virgin
and martyr, beside the forty soldiers which be mentioned in the Roman
Martyrology under March 9:
"At Sebaste in Armenia, anniversary
of the forty sainted Cappadocian soldiers, who in the days of Licinius
and under the Governorship of Agricolaus, after enduring bonds and
cruel imprisonment, and after their faces had been beaten with stones,
were thrown into a frozen pond, where their bodies, stiffened by
the frost, were broken in sunder, and they consummated their martyrdom
by the fracture of their limbs. And of these, two were of noble
birth, Cyrion and Candidus by name. The pre-eminent glory of them
all has been renowned in the writings of St. Basil and of others."
Polybius, too, dealing with military
punishments, relates how in antiquity soldiers were not only beaten
with cudgels, but likewise stoned.
Of Martyrs Who were Stoned, and so Gave Up their Lives
Among the Saints who were stoned
to death are numbered such renowned martrys as St. Stephen the Proto-martyr,
St. Demetrius and his companions, Saints Cyriacus, Tranquillinus, Diocletius,
and the most glorious Emerentiana and Paula, virgins and martyrs.
Of Great Stones Under
which Christians were Pressed and Tormented
Moreover, the Christian servants
of Our Lord were tortured by means of great stones and rocks in many
different ways. Sometimes we read of their being crushed under great
boulders; thus in the Acts of the Blessed Martyr St. Theopompus
it is written:
"Hereupon the holy man was
led forth from his prison and stretched face upward on the ground
and bound fast to stakes; then a huge boulder, that eight men could
scarce carry, was laid upon his stomach. But the great stone was
lifted up from off him by the divine efficacy ..."
Again in the Acts of the
Martyr St. Victor we find:
"Being brought out of prison
after three days, with his foot he kicked over a statue of
Jupiter which was presented to him that he might offer incense to
it. The offending foot was instantly cut off, and the holy man laid
under a millstone, under which he was cruelly ground. Amazingly,
after a little while the mill broke in pieces of itself, while yet
the Martyr of the Lord was breathing faintly."
And in the Acts of the
most Blessed Martyr, St. Artemius, we read:
"Hearing these words and being
filled with wrath, Julian called stonemasons to him and said, 'Do
you see that block of stone?', pointing to one that had broken from
the front of the Amphitheatre. 'Divide it for me into two halves.
Then, laying the one half flat on the earth, stretch out this criminal
upon it, and then let down the other half heavily upon him, so that
caught between the two he may have both flesh and bones crushed
out of all shape. By this means he shall learn whom he is trying
to resist and what help he may expect from his God.' No sooner said
than done, the holy man was imprisoned between the two stones, and
so great was the weight pressing upon his body that as his bones
broke asunder, a sound of splitting and cracking was actually heard
by many. All his inwards were torn to pieces and the articulations
of his bones crushed while his eyes started out of their sockets.
Yet, even though he was reduced to such a pitiable state, he did
not neglect to sing to God's praise; for he chanted where he lay
between the stones, saying, 'Thou hast exalted and brought me
up, for Thou art my hope, and a tower of strength in the face of
mine enemy; Thou hast set my feet on a rock and guided my steps
aright. Receive therefore my spirit, Thou only beloved Son of God,
and deliver me not up into the hands of my foes!' Finally, after
he had remained a day and a night inside the stones, the wicked
Julian commanded the two blocks to be separated, thinking that he
had surely perished between them and that no vestige of life was
yet left him under so grievous and overwhelming a weight. To Julian's
utter amazement, no sooner was Artemius freed of the stones, than
he came forth walking on his own feet truly a miracle worthy of
all wonder and admiration! A man, naked and unprotected, whose eyes
had started out of his head, whose bones had been crushed and all
his limbs and flesh squeezed into one mass by the weight of the
stone, so that his bowels had miserably gushed out, this man O,
strange and unexampled sight was walking and talking, and speaking
words of rebuke against the tyrant, so that even he was astounded."
Another narrative of a similar
martyrdom by means of great stones is found in the History of
St. Joseph in the following words,
"Then after removing the holy
man to some little distance and binding his hands behind him, they
dug a pit for him and buried him up to the middle. Then they set
round about him the Christians they had arrested, and ordered these
to pelt and assail the noble victim with stones.
But when, among the rest,
they urged the blessed and holy Isdandul to do this, she replied,
'Never before in the world's history was heard such a thing, that
a woman should be compelled to lift her hand against holy men, as
now you would have me do. It is not against your enemies you are
fighting, but against us, your friends, are you taking arms, and
filling with blood and carnage your native land, which was in peace
and quietness.'
They then fastened a spike
to the end of a long reed and bade her prick the holy man with it.
But she cried again, 'Far be it from me to do this thing. Rather
would I drive it through my own heart than inflict the smallest
scratch on his sainted body.' Thus did she manifest a manly constancy,
and showed herself stronger than those murderers had deemed possible.
"But now they proceeded to overwhelm the saint with such a storm
of stones that his head alone remained visible, all the rest of
him being buried beneath a heap of rocks. When one of the ruffians
saw the head still moving, he ordered one of the lictors
to take a stone as big as he could wield and throw it down on him.
When this was done and his head crushed by the weight of the stone,
the saint gave up his precious soul to Christ."
Having examined the methods of
the torments of the Holy Martyrs in this fourth chapter, we proceed
next, with God's blessing, to the fifth chapter.
CHAPTER V
Chapters:
1 -
2 -
3 -
4 -
5 -
6 -
7 -
8 -
9 -
10 -
11 -
12

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