Mortification

Use in the book

The earlier use gives mortification a constructive purpose. In consolation for imprisonment, Burton points out that people willingly seek some forms of confinement or retirement. Monks, friars and anchorites abandon the world; the monk-in-a-city comparison leads into “Art in prison? Make right use of it and mortifie thy self.” The addressee is the imagined prisoner. Contemplation and study follow as possible uses of quiet, and the next examples concern intellectual and spiritual achievements under confinement. This is an attempt to revalue an unwelcome condition, not a claim that imprisonment is always beneficial or that mortification requires physical self-injury.

The later sentence belongs to the causes of religious melancholy and changes the agency. The “he” who has baits to entice people further is the Devil, whose means have already been introduced; “they” are the people Burton describes as possessed by blind zeal and nurtured in superstition. To make them “quite mortified and mad” is the alleged goal of that enticement. Burton’s “under colour of perfection” exposes the claimed holiness as a deceptive appearance. His list joins penance, wool worn against the skin, whipping, alms and fasts to an effort to earn merit. The point is the exploitation of devotion under a claim of perfection, not a neutral definition of all penitential practice.

Burton immediately supplies a violent example: he dates a German sect of whippers to 1320 and describes its members lashing and cruelly tormenting themselves. The original margin cites Münster’s Cosmography, book 3, chapter 19. The edition retains the printed date while leaving the precise episode for collation; the citation should not be converted into independent verification. The following paragraph extends the polemic to claims of merit “for themselves and others” and to practices said to make people “macerate and consume their bodies.” Mortified therefore keeps its spiritual aspiration while the adjacent language makes the alleged bodily cost unmistakable.

The qualification arrives within the same argument. Fasting is expressly not to be condemned in itself: Burton praises it as bodily restraint and preparation for devotion, but only when moderately and seasonably used. He then attacks exaggerated merit claims, counterfeit observance and the elevation of food rules above the commandments. The later discussion of visions combines bodily and environmental conditions with demonic exploitation, before again distinguishing beneficial contemplation from abuse. Reading only “mortified and mad” would conceal these limits and make Burton’s denunciation broader than his surrounding prose permits.

“go woolward” reappears in the attack on obedience enforced by fear. Whatever fine or penance is imposed, Burton says, people “dare not but do it.” Wearing wool, whipping and building religious institutions occur in a list that escalates into travel, regicide and mortal danger. The condition of being ordered matters, and the sweeping assertion that the targets perform everything without hesitation belongs to his anti-Catholic polemic. It documents the use he makes of a penitential practice, not the actual conduct of every member of the group he attacks.

The spelling “wollward” also occurs outside the explicitly penitential lists. Burton says poor people eat coarse food, work hard and “go wollward and bare”; the supplied rendering distinguishes wool next to the skin from the accompanying lack of clothing. He then reports Guianerius prescribing haircloth, exposure to cold, whipping and fasting to a patient. Poverty’s conditions and the subsequent deliberate regimen are different subjects and must not be fused into a claim that poor people perform those penances. The edition also notes that the Ovid quotation’s omitted next line does not recommend choosing poverty for this purpose. The body’s abstention from all kinds of food and the margin’s bread-and-water fast have different scopes. Finally, the later exception allows wine and a substantial diet for people deeply dejected, physically weakened and approaching despair. The account illustrates historical reasoning about restraint, not present-day treatment advice.

Related entries

Solitude; Supererogation, for merit beyond obligation; Anchorite, for religious reclusion; Non naturals, for the historical framework of regimen; Zeal, for blind and rightly directed devotion; Fasting; Macerate.

Places to read

1. Member 4 Against Servitude, Loss of Liberty, Imprisonment and Banishment · paragraphs 35–39; Member 4 Against Servitude, Loss of Liberty, Imprisonment and Banishment · paragraph 37the positive imperative “mortifie thy self”; the final printed page number 327 is a misprint for 340.
2. The Cure of Love Melancholy by Work, Diet, Medicine, Fasting and Other Means · paragraphs 19–33; note 10504poverty, the distinct prescribed regimen, the wollward passage and its original medical margin, and the later weakened-patient exception.
3. Causes of Religious Melancholy. From the Devil, Through Miracles, Apparitions and Oracles. His Instruments or Agents: Politicians, Priests, Impostors, Heretics and Blind Guides. In Them: Credulity, Fear, Blind Zeal, Ignorance, Solitude, Curiosity, Pride, Vanity, Presumption and So On. His Devices: Fasting, Solitude, Hope, Fear and the Rest · paragraph 10; Causes of Religious Melancholy. From the Devil, Through Miracles, Apparitions and Oracles. His Instruments or Agents: Politicians, Priests, Impostors, Heretics and Blind Guides. In Them: Credulity, Fear, Blind Zeal, Ignorance, Solitude, Curiosity, Pride, Vanity, Presumption and So On. His Devices: Fasting, Solitude, Hope, Fear and the Rest · paragraphs 39–46the Devil’s means, the pronoun’s agency and the lead-in about blind zeal and hoped-for merit.
4. Causes of Religious Melancholy. From the Devil, Through Miracles, Apparitions and Oracles. His Instruments or Agents: Politicians, Priests, Impostors, Heretics and Blind Guides. In Them: Credulity, Fear, Blind Zeal, Ignorance, Solitude, Curiosity, Pride, Vanity, Presumption and So On. His Devices: Fasting, Solitude, Hope, Fear and the Rest · paragraphs 1–10; Causes of Religious Melancholy. From the Devil, Through Miracles, Apparitions and Oracles. His Instruments or Agents: Politicians, Priests, Impostors, Heretics and Blind Guides. In Them: Credulity, Fear, Blind Zeal, Ignorance, Solitude, Curiosity, Pride, Vanity, Presumption and So On. His Devices: Fasting, Solitude, Hope, Fear and the Rest · paragraph 1; note 12295the central “mortified and mad” passage, its penances, flagellant example and original margin, followed by the explicit limits on the criticism.
5. General Symptoms: Love of Their Own Sect; Hatred of All Other Religions; Obstinacy and Ill Temper; Readiness to Undergo Any Danger or Adversity for It; Martyrs; Blind Zeal and Blind Obedience; Fasts and Vows; Belief in Incredible and Impossible Things. Particular Symptoms Among Pagans, Muslims, Jews and Christians; and Among Christians, Heretics Old and New, Schismatics, Scholastic Theologians, Prophets, Enthusiasts and So On · paragraphs 42–50, 1–2; General Symptoms: Love of Their Own Sect; Hatred of All Other Religions; Obstinacy and Ill Temper; Readiness to Undergo Any Danger or Adversity for It; Martyrs; Blind Zeal and Blind Obedience; Fasts and Vows; Belief in Incredible and Impossible Things. Particular Symptoms Among Pagans, Muslims, Jews and Christians; and Among Christians, Heretics Old and New, Schismatics, Scholastic Theologians, Prophets, Enthusiasts and So On · paragraph 48“go woolward” within the claim of terrified obedience and the contrast with allegedly self-indulgent leaders.

In this edition

“quite mortified and mad” becomes “utterly mortified and mad”. Utterly explains quite, while mortified remains to preserve the religious vocabulary and its bitter turn. The earlier “mortifie thy self” becomes “discipline your worldly desires”. That is an explanatory construction: the modern identifies the desires to be subdued rather than mechanically replacing each word. “going wolward” becomes “wearing wool against the skin,” and “go woolward” becomes “wear wool next to the skin.” These two renderings explain the same clothing practice. “go wollward and bare” becomes “go with wool next to their skin and with little clothing”: wollward supplies the wool next to the skin, while and bare separately supplies the lack of clothing. The three spellings are related forms, not three different penitential acts.

The note labelled Burton, the accompanying note, has two layers. “Flagellatorum secta. Munster. lib.3. Cosmogr. cap.19.” is the original marginal wording; “The sect of flagellants. Münster, Cosmography, book 3, chapter 19.” is the editorial translation and expansion that follows it. The latter is not another quotation by Burton. Related passages are already explained under monk in Celibacy and vows, Macerate, fasting and fast (fasting · local use 1 and fast · local use 1), and opportunity/occasion. Those shared attestations remain complementary reading routes rather than new discoveries.

mortifie

To discipline or subdue one’s worldly and bodily desires, here in an exhortation to make spiritual use of confinement.

Original text: “mortifie thy self”. In the modern column: “discipline your worldly desires”. Turn self-restraint into a use of confinement, alongside contemplation and study. Art in prison? sets up the addressee; the imperative is Burton’s historical consolation to that imagined prisoner. It is not an instruction to torment oneself or proof that every recluse is imprisoned. The modern makes the object of the ascetic action explicit: the reflexive thy self is recast as your worldly desires. It is an explanatory local paraphrase, not a word-for-word replacement of self by desires.

mortified

Subdued by ascetic discipline, with the religious ideal bitterly turned toward bodily exhaustion and madness in this polemical construction; not simply embarrassed.

Original text: “quite mortified and mad”. In the modern column: “utterly mortified and mad”. The supposed perfection of devotional self-subduing becomes the destructive end of the Devil’s alleged enticement. He is the Devil, them those described as possessed by blind zeal; to make gives the alleged intended result. Under colour of perfection marks the deceptive appearance, not Burton’s endorsement of the practices as meritorious. Quite contributes utterly; mortified and mad are retained as coordinated descriptions. The sense of spiritual self-subduing requires explanation rather than the modern embarrassed.

go wollward; go wolward; go woolward

To wear wool directly next to the skin. The practice can describe poor people’s coarse clothing or a deliberately penitential observance; the word itself does not establish the motive.

Original text: “go wollward and bare”. In the modern column: “go with wool next to their skin and with little clothing”. Wearing wool next to the skin and having little clothing, here part of Burton’s depiction of poor people’s coarse conditions rather than an assertion that they are performing penance. Because introduces Burton’s account of why poverty supposedly restrains love. Poor people are the first subject; Guianerius then prescribes a deliberate regimen to his patient. The body’s food abstention and the margin’s bread-and-water fast differ, and the later exception permits a fuller diet for weakened, despairing patients. Wollward supplies with wool next to their skin; and bare supplies and with little clothing. The following haircloth prescription is a separate clause with Guianerius and his patient as its agents, not an alternative translation of wollward.

Original text: “going wolward”. In the modern column: “wearing wool against the skin”. A penitential clothing practice in the list of means by which the Devil allegedly exploits blind zeal. Listed alongside penance, whipping, alms and fastings under colour of perfection. Their occurrence in one hostile list does not prove that Burton condemns every possible use of every listed practice. Going is recast as wearing, the manner-word wolward unpacked as wool against the skin. No movement toward wool or a particular named garment is implied.

Original text: “go woolward”. In the modern column: “wear wool next to the skin”. The same penitential clothing practice now included in an accusation of unquestioning obedience to imposed penance. Whatever penance is imposed governs the list, and dare not but expresses alleged compulsion to obey. Burton’s universal performe all and the adjoining violent claims are polemical generalizations, not established conduct of all Catholics. Go woolward is explained with wear wool next to the skin; the extra o is a printed spelling variant, not a different practice.