Scarification

2 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Scarification \Scar`i*fi*ca"tion\, n. [L. scarificatio: cf. F.
     scarification.]
     The act of scarifying.
     [1913 Webster]

From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:



  SCARIFICATION, n.  A form of penance practised by the mediaeval pious. 
  The rite was performed, sometimes with a knife, sometimes with a hot
  iron, but always, says Arsenius Asceticus, acceptably if the penitent
  spared himself no pain nor harmless disfigurement.  Scarification,
  with other crude penances, has now been superseded by benefaction. 
  The founding of a library or endowment of a university is said to
  yield to the penitent a sharper and more lasting pain than is
  conferred by the knife or iron, and is therefore a surer means of
  grace.  There are, however, two grave objections to it as a
  penitential method:  the good that it does and the taint of justice.