Discipline (mortification)

A discipline is a small scourge (whip) used by members of some Christian denominations (including Anglicans, Lutherans, and Roman Catholics, among others) in the spiritual discipline known as mortification of the flesh. Many disciplines contain 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, and some have used it every day.

In the Christian Bible, Saint Paul writes: "I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified" (1 Corinthians 9:27 NRSV). 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; they also "inflict agony on themselves in order suffer as Christ and the martyrs suffered." In antiquity and during the mediæval era, 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. By the 11th century, the use of the discipline for Christians who sought to practice the mortification of the flesh became ubiquituous throughout Christendom.

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