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and purporting to have fallen to the earth at Jerusalem, which with menace of frightful vindictive judgment called men to repentance, was everywhere read aloud by the wandering flagellants, and appears to have been one of the most effective instruments in their hands for extending their doctrine of penance by flagellation. In more than one instance the flagellants took a hostile stand against the clergy. They also were active in the persecutions of the Jews in 1348-49, though these, indeed, were already incited before the flagellants' appearance. Probably here also apocalyptic anticipations of a general social convulsion were a contributing factor.

As in 1260, so again in 1348-49 the flagellants formed themselves into fraternities, which usually bound their members to a penitential season of thirty-three days and a half. At such times they generally wandered far away from their homes in extended processions. Admission to the brotherhood had to be preceded by an act of general confession, reconciliation with enemies, and formal promise of unconditional obedience to the fraternity superior. All intercourse, even all conversation, with women was forbidden in most of the fraternities. The flagellants generally wore white undergarments, with mantles and hats marked with red crosses; whence they were commonly known in Germany as Kreuzbruder (" Brethren of the Cross "; Crucifratres, Cruciferi). Selfeastigation was performed twice a day, preferably in public squares, amid the intonation of hymns and according to a definitely prescribed ceremonial. Their hymns especially attracted the attention of their contemporaries. Quite a number of those of the German flagellants are recorded in the chronicles of Hugo von Reutlingen and Fritsche Closener, as well as in the Limburger Chronik (cf. P. Runge and H. Pfannensehmied, Die Lieder and Melodien der Geisaler des Jahres 13.1,9, Leipsic, 1900). There does not appear to have been a very close connection between the hymns of the Italian flagellants and those of their German brethren; but the German flagellant hymns became the basis of the hymns of the Bohemian, Polish, and Walloon flagellants. Beside the pilgrim flagellants, there also arose penitential associations which bound their members to the act of self-castigation at the brotherhood's abode. In the Netherlands there were penitential associations, organized according to parishes, which practised flagellation on Sundays and festivals, and attended to the burial of the dead (see ALEXIANS).

The effect of the movement of 1348-49 was powerful. In many towns for several weeks running, and almost daily, there would appear new companies of pilgrims to the number of several hundred persons. At last processions of flagellant women and children appeared. For the Church, whose influence over the multitudes for the time being was completely paralyzed by the flagellation movement, it became a simple act of self-defense to oppose the movement with the sharpest weapons. On Oct. 20, 1349, Pope Clement VI. issued a bull, condemning the Flagellants and their cause in the severest terms and demanding

their suppression; self-castigation was to be tolerated only within bounds of ecclesiastical regulation. The popular ferment subsided as suddenly as it had risen. By the early fifties of the same century, flagellation in Germany was nearly everywhere suppressed, and such as remained loyal to the cause were driven back into privacy as proscribed sectaries.

In 1399, a new flagellation movement of wide extent broke out in the Romance countries in

the appearance of the so-called

titious revelations of future divine judgments, and the alleged command of the Virgin Mother. The movement was much enhanced by the advent of the well-known Spanish Dominican and popular saint, Vincent Ferrar (q.v.), who prophesied the immediate approach of the end of all things. Endless throngs of flagellants followed him in the wanderings through France, Spain. and Upper Italy in the years between 1400 and 1417. These flagellant crusades filled the Council of Constance with no small anxiety; Jean Gerson, in 1417, presented to the Council a memorial in which he pronounced decidedly not only against the flagellant processions, but also against self-castigation for the laity in general.

The procedure of the Church against the German flagellant brotherhoods in the period after 1349 had its equal in the fact that out of these associations there grew up a heretical flagellant sect, the combating of which occupied the Church till the end of the Middle Ages. This sect possessed an espe-

cially strong organization in Thuringia

Thuringia date of the final judgment as the about i36o. year 1369, and his numerous adherents

It is probable that Schmid and his followers were also strongly influenced by the doctrines of the Waldenses, which were widely disseminated in Thuringia. The Thuringian flagellants are alleged to have rejected all sacraments and the entire ceremonial and hierarchical system of the Church; there was to arise instead a chiliastic kingdom, to whose government Schmid believed himself called. In 1369 many flagellants, among them Schmid himself, were burned at the stake. But his followers thenceforth identified him with Enoch and Elijah, and expected him shortly to hold the final judgment in place of Christ. From the close of the fourteenth century the Church repeatedly interposed with sanguinary severity against the Thuringian flagellants; but they furtively held their ground until the end of the fifteenth century.

The Italian flagellant associations, after their first appearance in 1260, complied in all points with the rules of the Church, and experienced no small measure of Church favor. Flagellant associations were organized in nearly all the cities of Italy; in