In this second part of my three-part series on Christian Domestic Discipline, we explore the polar opposite positions of Augustine and John Chrysostom on the morality of the corporal discipline of wives. In this podcast we will also explore the differences between Roman and Greek cultures which affected the views of these two great church fathers.
Augustine Versus John Chrysostom on the Corporal Discipline of Wives
You might already know this, but regardless of St. John Chrysostom’s personal opinion on the subject, not all of the Orthodox Church rejected the corporal discipline of wives. In Orthodox Russia, for example, the “Domostroi” recommended the practice in the 16th century.
“If your wife does not live according to this teaching and instruction, does not do all that is recommended here, if she does not teach her servants, then the husband should punish his wife. Beat her when you are alone together; then forgive her and remonstrate with her. But when you beat her, do not do it in hatred, do not lose control. A husband must never get angry with his wife; a wife must live with her husband in love and purity of heart. Only if your wife or children did not pay attention to scoldings, if they show no respect and refuse to do what they were told to do, should a husband or father bring understanding with the lash. But do not beat the culprit before others; punish him alone, then talk to him, and grant him forgiveness.”
And as recently as 2017, President Putin signed a law to reduce the punishment for so-called “domestic battery”
https://www.cnn.com/2017/02/07/europe/russia-domestic-violence-bill-putin/index.html
Very interesting! Thanks for letting me know. I wonder though, since Domostroi comes about 1000 years after after John Chrysostom that maybe Domostroi was more influenced by Western thought on the corporal punishment of women. I could not find Eastern teachers around the time Chrysostom who disagreed with him. Not saying there were not, but so far I cannot find them. In fact from what I saw – the Greeks in general which affected that whole region looked down on the corporal punishment of wives. But I certainly would be happy to be proven wrong in this regard.
Well, for what it’s worth, St. Basil of Caesarea (an Eastern teacher from around the time) does say “In the case of her being beaten, and refusing to submit, it would be better for her to endure than to be separated from her husband”
https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3202188.htm
However, this isn’t necessarily an endorsement of the corporal discipline of wives (he could just be describing what the wife should do if she is beaten, rather than what the husband should do if his wife refuses to submit)
And in 1831 (yes, I know this is a later text than even the Domostroi) there seems to have been a Greek saying recorded, “My husband does not love me, because he has not beaten me”
https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Dictionary_of_Modern_Greek_Proverbs/IjdSAAAAcAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22my+husband+does+not+love+me+because+he+has+not%22&pg=PA24&printsec=frontcover
On the flip side, not all Western teachers seem to have fully supported the corporal discipline of wives either. Bernard of Siena, in the 14th and 15th centuries, “had exhorted his male parishioners to exercise more compassion for their wives by treating them with as much mercy as they would their hens and pigs”
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Woman_Abuse/hK-xooF0ECgC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22on+the+other+hand+bernard+of+siena+a+predecessor+of+cherubino%22&pg=PA3&printsec=frontcover
I wonder if Friar Cherubino was specifically trying to refute Bernard’s teaching when he wrote “Rules of Marriage”