A scourge (from the Italian scoriada, ultimately from the Latin excoriare = "to flay" and corium = "skin") is a whip or lash, especially a multi-tong type used in order to inflict severe corporal punishment or self-mortification on the back. Michelangelos Last Judgment - Saint Bartholomew holding the knife of his martyrdom and his flayed skin Flaying is the removal of skin from the body. ... A whip is a cord or strap, usually with a stiff handle, used for delivering blows to human beings or animals as a means of control or punishment or torture. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Corporal punishment. ... Flagellants mortifying the flesh, at the time of the Black Death Mortification of the flesh literally means putting the flesh to death. The term is primarily used in religious contexts, and is practised in a variety of ways. ...

As for most instruments of flagellation, the terms in various laguages are often used imprecisely, so confusion is always lurking.

reproduction of a medieval flagellant scourge

Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2576x1932, 1205 KB) Picture taken by myself in Koksijde august 2005 File links The following pages link to this file: Mortification of the flesh ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2576x1932, 1205 KB) Picture taken by myself in Koksijde august 2005 File links The following pages link to this file: Mortification of the flesh ...

Description

The typical scourge (in Latin: flagrum; flagellum is the English derivative) has several thongs or lashes attached to a single handle, Compare in the Scottish tawse (equally leather, but usually only two or three and without a separate handle) and the cat o' nine tails (the well-known naval version was made from thick ropes, often with knots; the army and prison version usually from leather). A two-tailed leather tawse, produced for the BDSM market, resting on a pillow. ... A leather cat o nine used for BDSM play The Cat O Nine Tails is a type of multi-tailed whipping device that originated as an implement for severe physical punishment as in the British Royal Navy. ...

The scourge or flail, and the solid crook, are the two symbols of power and domination depicted in the hands of Osiris in ancient Egyptian monuments; these show the unchanging form of the instrument throughout the ages. It should be noted, though, that the flail depicted in Egyptian mythology was an agricultural instrument used to thresh wheat, and not a recorded device for corporal punishment. A example of a grain flail A flail is an agricultural tool used for threshing, to separate grains from their husks. ... Crook can refer to the following: Crooking is a verb to refer to the action of creating a bend or curve; for example, crooking a finger. ... For other uses, see Osiris (disambiguation). ... Dennis Fong, also known under the pseudonym Thresh, is a professional gamer best known for winning John Carmacks Ferrari at the Red Annihilation tournament in 1997. ... Species T. boeoticum T. compactum T. dicoccoides T. dicoccon T. durum T. monococcum T. spelta T. sphaerococcum References:   ITIS 42236 2002-09-22 Wheat (Triticum spp. ...

The priests of Cybele scourged themselves and others, and such stripes were considered sacred. Cybele with her attributes. ...

From a Biblical quotation, scorpio 'scorpion' is a Latin term for a severe Roman flagrum. Hard material was fixed onto multiple thongs to give them a flesh-tearing 'bite' [1 Kings 12:11: ...My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions]. The choice of the name testifies how much the hellish pain caused by the small arachnid, which is well-known in the mediterranean world, was feared, as many biblical passages testify. To its generous use in Roman times testitfies the existence of the Latin words Flagrifer 'carrying a whip' and Flagritriba 'often lashed slave'. The Books of Kings (Hebrew: Sefer Melachim ספר מלכים) is a part of Judaisms Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible. ... Orders The arachnids, are a class (Arachnida) of joint-legged invertebrate animals in the subphylum Chelicerata. ...

15th century woodcutting of flagellants scourging themselves

Scourging played a famous role as the punishment inflicted during the Passion on Jesus Christ (together with a crown of thorns on his head) prior to his crucifixion, disabling him from carrying his cross all the way to Golgotha. Scourging was soon adopted as a sanction in the monastic discipline of the fifth and following centuries. Early in the fifth century it is mentioned by Palladius in the "Historia Lausiaca" (c. vi), and Socrates Scholasticus (Hist. Eccl., IV, xxiii) tells us that, instead of being excommunicated, offending young monks were scourged. See the sixth-century rules of St. Cæsarius of Arles for nuns (P. L., LXVII, 1111), and of St. Aurelian of Arles (ibid., LXVIII, 392, 401-02). Thenceforth scourging is frequently mentioned in monastic rules and councils as a preservative of discipline (Hefele, "Concilieng.", II, 594, 656). Its use as a punishment was general in the seventh century in all monasteries of the severe Columban rule (St. Columbanus, in "Regula Cœnobialis", c. x, in P. L., LXXX, 215 sqq.); for later centuries of the early Middle Ages see Thomassin, "Vet. ac nova ecc. disciplina, II (3), 107; Du Cange, "Glossar. med. et infim. latinit.", s. v. "Disciplina"; Gretser, "De spontaneâ disciplinarum seu flagellorum cruce libri tres" (Ingolstadt, 1603); Kober, "Die körperliche Züchtigung als kirchliches Strafmittel gegen Cleriker und Mönche" in Tüb. "Quartalschrift" (1875). Flagellants. ... Flagellants. ... The Passion is the technical term for the suffering and Agony of Jesus that led directly to the Crucifixion, a central Christian event. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... Jesus Carrying the Cross as portrayed by El Greco - Domenikos Theotokopoulos, 1580 In Christianity, the Crown of Thorns, one of the instruments of the Passion, was the woven chaplet of thorn branches worn by Jesus before his crucifixion. ... Crucifixion of St. ... Calvary (Golgotha) was the hill outside Jerusalem on which Jesus was crucified. ... Palladius (fl. ... Socrates Scholasticus was a Greek Christian church historian; born at Constantinople c. ... Saint Caesarius of Arles (468/470–27 August 542), sometimes called of Châlons (Cabillonensis or Cabellinensis) from his birthplace Châlons-sur-Saône but more usually known as Caesarius of Arles (Arelatensis) from the see tha the occupied for forty years, was certainly the foremost ecclesiastic of his... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

The Canon law (Decree of Gratian, Decretals of Gregory IX) recognized it as a punishment for ecclesiastics; even as late as the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, it appears in ecclesiastical legislation as a punishment for blasphemy, concubinage and simony. Though doubtless at an early date a private means of penance and mortification, such use is publicly exemplified in the tenth and eleventh centuries by the lives of St. Dominic Loricatus (P. L., CXLIV, 1017; the surname means 'strapped') and St. Peter Damian (died 1072). The latter wrote a special treatise in praise of self-flagellation; though blamed by some contemporaries for excess of zeal, his example and the high esteem in which he was held did much to popularize the voluntary use of the scourge or "discipline" as a means of mortification and penance. Thenceforth it is met with in most medieval religious orders and associations. Canon law is the term used for the internal ecclesiastical law which governs various churches, most notably the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Churches and the Anglican Communion of churches. ... The Decretum Gratiani or Concordia discordantium canonum (sometimes mistakenly called the Concordantia discordantium canonum by non-specialists) is a collection of Canon law compiled and written in the twelfth century as a legal textbook by a jurist (perhaps) named Gratian. ... Decretals (Epistolae decretales) is the name that is given in Canon law to those letters of the pope which formulate decisions in ecclesiastical law. ... Look up blasphemy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Simony is the ecclesiastical crime and personal sin of paying for offices or positions in the hierarchy of a church, named after Simon Magus, who appears in the Acts of the Apostles 8:18-24. ... Penance (via Old French penance from the Latin Poenitentia, the same root as penitence, which in English means repentance, the desire to be forgiven, see contrition; in many languages only one single word is derived) is, strictly, repentance of sins as well as the actual name of the Catholic Sacrament... Flagellants mortifying the flesh, at the time of the Black Death Mortification of the flesh literally means putting the flesh to death. The term is primarily used in religious contexts, and is practiced in a variety of ways. ... St. ... Pietro Damiani (Saint Peter Damian), (c. ...

The practice was, of course, capable of abuse, and so arose in the thirteenth century the fanatical sect of the Flagellants, though in the same period we meet with the private use of the "discipline" by such saintly persons as King Louis IX of France and Elisabeth of Hungary. The Flagellants were a 13th and 14th century Christian movement. ... Only representation of Saint Louis known to be true to life - Early 14th century statue from the church of Mainneville, Eure, France King Louis IX of France or Saint Louis (April 25, 1214/1215 – August 25, 1270) was King of France from 1226 until his death. ... Infobox St. ...

Metaphoric use

Semi-literal usages such as "the scourge of God" for Attila the Hun (i.e. "God's whip to punish the nations with") led to metaphoric uses to mean a severe affliction, e.g. "the scourge of drug abuse". As a result, some people forget its literal meaning and seem to imagine a connection with "scour". For other uses, see Attila (disambiguation). ... Many historians consider the Huns (meaning person in Mongolian language) the first Mongolian and Turkic people mentioned in European history. ... In language, a metaphor (from the Greek: metapherin rhetorical trope defined as a direct comparison between two or more seemingly unrelated subjects. ... Scour Inc. ...

Homonym

"The Scourge" as used by Modern day Wiccans (especially Gardnerian and New Arthurian), is an instrument to create and return from an Altered State of Consciousness. During Rituals, these sub-groups of Wiccans bind initiates, have them kneel with their heads upon the floor, and strike the tailbone at the base of the spine for a specified number of times in order to induce an Altered State of Consciousness. Furthermore, the scourge has been used to help an initiate return from such an Altered State as well. See also Catholicism, Arwythur's Wicca 101. For the book series Wicca see Sweep (book series) and Circle Of Three. ... Gardnerian Wicca is a tradition of the Neopagan religion of Wicca. ... The coccyx, commonly referred to as the tailbone, is the final segment of the human vertebral column, of three to five (usually four) fused vertebrae (the coccygeal vertebrae), below the sacrum. ...

Sources and references

• 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica
• Catholic Encyclopaedia
• H.H.Mallinckrodt, Latijn-Nederlands woordenboek (Latin-Dutch dictionary)