FLAGELLATION, FLAGELLANTS. I. Flagellation.

Corporal Punishment as a Penalty of the Church (§ 1).

Self-scourging or Flagellation (§ 2).

II. Flagellants.

The Flagellants of 1260. Venturinus of Bergamo, 1334 (§ 1).

The Flagellants of 1348-49 (§ 2).

The Albati or Bianchi of 1399 (§ 3).

Flagellants in Thuringia about 1360. Konrad Schmid (§ 4).

Later Italian Brotherhoods (§ 5).

Later Manifestations and Developments (§ 6).

I: Flagellation: Corporal chastisement as an ecclesiastical corrective penalty for clerics appears in the Western Church as early as the fifth century transferred from the Roman penal law,

I. Corporal but resorted to only in rare instances.

Punish- From the Merovingian times onward,

ment as a it became more widely diffused, and so

Penalty of late as the seventeenth century was the Church. appointed as a punishment in cases of blasphemy, simony, concubinage, and other offenses committed by the clergy. In corrective establishments of the Church, corporal chastisement has continued in practise against clerical delinquents confined in the same, down to the present time. Flagellation as a monastic pun ishment for misdeeds of monks dates back to the earliest period of monasticism, and the rule of Bene dict of , Nursia makes extensive use of corporal chastisement. The congregations which had their origin in the Benedictine Order, as well as the other monastic orders, sisterhoods, and knightly orders founded in the twelfth century and later, adopted flagellation; but various orders which arose after the Council of Trent did not include this penalty in their rules. For certain offenses of laymen, too (desecration of Sunday, fortune-telling, etc.), the Church from the sixth century prescribed cor poral chastisement as the penalty, and flogging in particular was threatened against such offenses until the eighteenth century. Lastly, the Inqui sition applied flogging and flagellation as one of the lightest penalties in case of the voluntary recantation of heresy. In penitential discipline, corporal chastisement and particularly flagellation came to

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have a rapidly increasing importance after the beginning of the tenth century. Corpora, chastisements in this connection are first mentioned (evidently as something newly in vogue) in the collection of canons of Regmo of Prism (c. 960); they appear as a substitute for public penance, and at first were doubtless always executed by some outside hand, mostly by the priest. The sermons of the well-known crusade-preacher Fulco of Neuilly (q.v.) so intensified ascetic zeal in Paris about 1195 that great throngs of the penitent submitted their bared bodies to Fulco's chastising.

The beginnings of ascetic self-scourging, or flagellation proper, are still obscure. It is supposed to have originated about 1000 among certain Italian hermits, whose glowing penitential fervor became heightened into visionary and ecstatic enthusiasm, and started a religious movement which spread throughout all Italy. The hermit s. Self- Marinus, who lived on an island of the

Scourging Po, and his pupil Romuald (d. 1027), or Flagel- as well as the latter's disciples on lation. Monte Sitrio, mutually chastised one another with rods and lashes. Flagellation at their own hands was a customary practise, in the first half of the eleventh century, among the monks of Fontavellana (near Faenza) in Umbria, a foundation of the miracle-working hermit and penitential preacher Dominic of Foligno (d. 1031); likewise among the hermits of Luceoli in Umbria, who styled themselves disciples of St. Romuald. In both places the monk Dominicus Loricatus (d. 1060) distinguished himself by his severe self -caetigations, and they found an enthusiastic admirer and imitator in Peter Damian (q.v.), who entered the cloister of Fontavellana about 1035. To the far-reaching influence of Peter Damian, who also became prominent as the literary a -'0 t of Ila! tion it" rapid extension then and P Zd is p Ltinen'tly afterw due.

The monastic reform movement which emanated from Cluny with the more acute sense of sin awakened by Bernard of Clairvaux, and especially the ascetic enthusiasm propagated among the people by the mendicant orders and their preaching of Christ's Passion speedily made flagellation a most widely extended and impressive means of penance and expiation. Many of the monastic orders and sisterhoods adopted the provision of systematic self-castigation, or flagellation, in their rules. No doubt, mainly through the influence of the two great mendicant orders, this ascetic practise was then further popularized in the ranks of the laity. With most of the stricter orders (among others the Trappists, Carthusians, Priests of the Oratory, Fathers of Christian Doctrine, Discalced Carmelites, Capuchins, Redemptorists, Brothers of Charity), flagellation has continued in practise down to this day. It is exercised for the most part as a devotional act, usually once or several times in the week, according to a definitely prescribed ritual. The opposition to the practise incited by the monastic reformer Jan Busch (q.v.) is an incident without parallel.

II. Flagellants: The great flagellant pilgrimage of the year 1260 was the first of its kind. A sig-

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nificant prelude thereto was the powerful religious movement called forth in Italy in 1223 by the preaching of repentance and pardon by a num- ber of mendicant monks, particularly r. The the Dominican Giovanni da Vicenza.

Flagellants Deeper causes of both movements were of :260. the religious excitement and peni-

Venturinus tential disposition of the populace of Bergamo, consequent upon the phenomenal

1334; activity of St. Francis; the extreme i tension of feeling because of the pas- sionate conflicts between papacy and empire; and the general disorder and ruin induced by these factional contests. The situation, again, was aggra vated in 1259 by the outbreak of a violent epi demic; and above all by the expectation that was widely propagated by the adherents to the teaching of Joachim of Fiore (q.v.), that in the year 1280 there would occur a general revolution of things, especially a purification and renovation of the Church. The direct occasion for the flagellant crusades of that year was furnished by the advent of the venerable hermit Raniero Fasani, who as early as 1258 is alleged to have founded the first flagellant fraternity in Perugia, proclaiming that an impending visitation of judgment had been revealed to him. In the autumn of 1260 the movement overflowed all of Central and Upper Italy, still in the same year crossed the Alps and spread itself over Upper Germany and the neighboring Slavic domains. In GermanYvhowever, both spiri tual and temporal powers, as they perceived in the movement elements hostile to ecclesiastical and civil order, very decidedly opposed it as early as 1261; and with the exception of Southern France, public flagellationa and flagellant crusades north of the Alps in the period between 1261 and 1349 manifested themselves only in quite isolated in stances. In Upper Italy, however, the peniten tial sermons of the Dominican Venturinue of Ber gamo gave occasion, in 1334, to an extensive new flagellant movement which came to a standstill in the very next year.

The great flagellant movement of the years 1348-1349 is very closely connected with the apparition of the terrible pestilence known se the black death.

Originating in the East, by 1347 the a. The plague had found entrance into DalFlagellants matia, Upper Italy, and Southern of r 348-49; France, and from these three centers of contagion it spread toward Central Europe in 1348. Probably attempts to avert the threatening disaster by organizing flagellant processions were first made in Italy. . From Upper Italy the movement then took its course, as precursor of the plague-, by way of Hungary into Germany, then into Holland; Bohemia, Poland, Denmark, and even England, and reached its climax in the summer of 1349. The populace was already highly stirred up by apocalyptic expectations, and the plague was regarded as the premonitory sign of the great revolution of all things. Flagellation seemed the fitting preparation for the coming kingdom of God, and a substitute for the clergy, grown faithless to their charge. An apocryphal letter of Christ, originating in a much earlier age,

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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

Flagellation

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 3. The "Whites" (Albat%, Bianchi); from Albati or Provence the movement spread over Bianchi France, Spain, and Italy. The im- of 1399. pulse in this case was given by fic-

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 4. Flagel- about 1360 through the apocalyptical lants in Konrad Schmid. He calculated the

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

Konrad undertook to prepare themselves for Schmid. the event by penitential flagellation.

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

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many cities, as for instance, in Gubbio, Perugia, and Fabriano, no fewer than three, in Padua six, existed side by side at the same 5. Later time. The direction of a number of Italian these brotherhoods, though not of all,, Brother- was vested in the mendicant orders. hoods. A good many of them devoted them- selves also to the care of the poor and the sick, and maintained hospita ls. The Italian flagellants occupy an important position in the history of Italian literature as creators of the popular religious lyric and the spiritual drama. Even the early flagellants of 1260 had sung religious hymns in the popular speech (laude). Subsequently the vernacular spiritual song was zealously- cultiva- tad in the flagellant brotherhood more and .pore crowding out the Latin hymns, and soon becoming the most richly developed litery form in the Italian language. At an early period certain dramatic elements found their way into the spiritual popular song, the singers, for instance, turning with appeals and questions to Christ or Mary, and receiving answers from them. From this point it was but a alight step to complete dramatization of the laude, and the creation of the popular religious play. The stage presentation of these dramatic laude, whose theme, of course, purported to be first and foremost the history of the life and Passion of Christ, is to be rated henceforth among the principal services of the Italian flagellant brotherhoods. See Religious dramas.

From the sixteenth century onward, the Society of Jesus wrought with impassioned zeal toward the diffusion of self-castigation, especially in the Marianite sodalities under Jesuit direction. In close touch with the Jesuits were also the French penitential and flagellant brotherhoods of the six-

teenth century, which had much in6. Later fluence in the political life of France Manifests- under King Henry III (1574-89).

tioas and In Germany, too, owing mainly to the Develop- influence of the Jesuits and Capuchins, meats. the self-castigation of laymen was again widely espoused in the sixteenth century. The most notable German scholar of the Jesuit Order, Jacob Gretscher (q.v.), compiled (1806-13) a comprehensive history and vindication of self-castigation, with a view to promoting its diffusion as widely as possible. Thanks again to the Jesuits' propaganda, flagellation celebrated brilliant triumphs, after the sixteenth century, in parts beyond Europe; especially in India, Persia, Japan, the Philippines, and particularly in the American provinces of Spain. Indeed even to the present day flagellation has stoutly asserted itself in South America, Mexico, and in the southwestern portion of the United States- the brotherhoods (Ht;rmanos pen.itentes) of New Mexico and Colorado recently numbered their members by thousands, and pushed their fanaticism to the point of cruci fying their members, insomuch that Leo XIII. felt prompted to interpose against their processions. In South America. flagellation of laymen is still in many places a customary and regular practise, in specified churches, and according to ritual forms. In like manner the practise of self-castigation in public maintained itself to the nineteenth century and in some cases to quite recent date, in East India, the Azores and the Canary Islands, Italy, and the southern Tyrol. Flagellation of laymen in private at present is confined to somewhat narrow circles; thoroughgoing directions with regard to the most suitable kind of flagellation and the in struments to be applied are given by C. Capellmann in his Pastoralmedicin (12th ed., Aachen, 1898, p. 175). In the Greek Church flagellation has ap peared only here and there in certain monastic circles. Some Russian sects, however, are said to practise it in their so-called services after a fashion reminding of the dervishes.

Herman Haupt.

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