History Of The Rod by Cooper

Author:Cooper [Cooper]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Anthropology, General
ISBN: 9781317847601
Google: HeehAwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2014-05-22T05:56:32+00:00

RUNNING THE GAUNTLET

A PUNISHMENT EMPLOYED IN THE RUSSIAN ARMY.

In 1841, a triple military execution of this kind took place at Moscow. Three soldiers, recruits, were condemned for assaulting and robbing their master, and sentenced, the one to receive three thousand, the others two thousand, blows of the rod; one died after his beating; another received his whole three thousand; and the third, having fainted during the operation, was handed over to the doctor, and after being cured, received the balance of his stripes. A special circular was issued by the police authorities, inviting the citizens of Moscow to witness the flagellation of these men.

The progress of dissent in Russia forms a strange and peculiar chapter in the history of religious fanaticism; and it is not at all wonderful to find in it traces of that mania for self-flagellation which prevailed in other parts of Europe during the Middle Ages. There was a sect of dissenters called Stare-vests, or “Men of the Old Faith,” who met together, men and women, stripped to the waist and barefoot, on a floor strewed with sharp flints, and confessed and scourged themselves till their backs were torn. The religious services of these Khlisti, or Scourgers, is a wild dance, accompanied by severe castigation. In the middle of the room in which they meet stands a vessel containing water, and to this they go from time to time in order to wet their heads, or to drink out of their hands. Then they resume their stamping and their flogging until they fall down utterly exhausted, or convulsions seize them, during which they utter ravings which they call prophecies. Every Easter night they assemble for a great solemnity—the worship of the mother of God. A virgin, fifteen years of age, whom they have induced to act the part by tempting promises, is bound, and placed in a tub of warm water; some old women come and first make a large incision on the left breast, then cut it off; and staunch the blood in a wonderfully short time; while other barbarities follow, too shocking to be told. During these operations a mystical picture of the Holy Spirit is put into the victim’s hand, in order that she may be absorbed in regarding it. Afterwards a wild dance takes place around the tub, kept up by the whole congregation, till their strength is exhausted. The girls who have been thus mutilated are ever afterwards considered sacred. At the age of nineteen or twenty they are said to look like women of fifty or sixty years old, and they generally die before reaching their thirtieth year. Later sects have improved on this leading idea of mortifying the flesh for the sake of saving the soul, and carried out the principle to a much greater extent. The Skoptsi have formed their system on a strict interpretation of Matthew xix. 12. According to this doctrine, they declare the whole human race as wholly sinful and worthy to die out. They therefore regard matrimony as a deadly sin, the very possibility of which must be guarded against.

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