§ 135. THE FLAGELLANTS. 875
nnd the jangle of musical instruments. There he dismounted, was clad in bishop's vestments, and seated on a platform. A banquet and religious services followed, and in turn dancing and other merriment. The cere monies differed in localities and a number of rituals have come down to us.
In the feast of the Ass, — festum asinorum, — the beast that Balaam rode was the chief dramatis persona. The skin of the original animal formed a valuable possession of a convent in Verona. The aim was to give dramatic representation to biblical truth and perhaps to do honor to the venerable and long-suffering beast which from time immemorial has carried man and other burdens. At Rouen the celebration took place on Christmas day. Moses, Aaron, John the Baptist, the Sibyl, Virgil, the children who were thrown into the furnace, and other ancient characters appeared. Balaam, wearing spurs and seated on an ass, was the centre of attraction. A fire was started in the middle of the church around which stood six Jews and Gentiles. The prophets, one by one, made addresses attempting to convert them. The ass spoke when his way was barred by the angel, and Balaam uttered his prophecy of the star. The ass was then placed near the altar and a cope thrown over him. High mass followed.
At Beauvais the festival was celebrated on the anniversary of the Flight of the Holy Family to Egypt, Jan. 14. The ass, bearing " a most beautiful maiden " with a child in her arms, was led into the church and stood before the altar during the performance of mass. At the close of the ritual, the priest instead of repeating the customary formula of dis missal, ite, missa est, made three sounds like the braying of an ass, — sacerdos tres hinhannabit, — and the people responded three times, hinham.
The improprieties and revels which became connected with these celebrations were adapted to bring religion into disrepute and called forth the rebukes of Innocent III. and Innocent IV., the latter mention ing a boy-bishop by name and condemning the travesty upon serious subjects. In 1444 the theological faculty of Paris spoke of grave and damnable scandals connected with the celebrations, such as the singing of comic songs, the men being dressed in women's attire and the eating of fat cakes at the altar. Councils, as late as 1584, joined in condemning them. At the close of Henry VIII.'s reign and at Cranmer's sugges tion the festivals were forbidden in England.
§ 135. The Flagellants.
LITERATURE : The Chronicles of SALIMBENE, VILLANI, etc. : GERSON : Contra sectam flayellantium, 1417, l)u Pin's ed., Antwerp, 1706. Gerson's letter to Ferrer and his address to the council of Constance concerning the Flagellants are given by VAN DER HARDT : Constant, concilium, Frankf., 1700, III. 92-104. — J. BOILEAU: Hist. Flagel., Paris,
876 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
1700, new ed., 1770. — *E. G. FORSTEMANN : D. christl Geisslergtsellschaften, Halle, 1828. — VV. M. COOPER: Flagellation and the Flagel lants, A Hist, of the Bod in All Countries, Lond., 1877 ; new ed., 1896. — FREDERICQ, in Corpus doc. inquis., etc. gives reports of their trials in Holland, I. 190 sqq., etc. — *F. NEUKIRCH : D. Lcben d. P. Damiani, Gott., 1875. —LEA: Hist, of Inq., I. 72 sqq., II. 381 sqq. — Artt. Geissler and Geissdung in Wetzer-Welte by KNOPFLER, IV. 1532 sqq. and in Herzog by Haupt, VI. 432 sqq. For the older lit., see FORSTE MANN, pp. 291-325.
A genuine indication of popular interest in religion within orthodox circles was the strange movement represented by the Flagellants. Gregorovius has gone so far as to pro nounce their appearance " one of the most striking phe nomena of the Middle Ages."1 Although they started within the Church and are not to be classed with the mediae val sectaries, the Flagellants in a later age came to be re garded with suspicion, were formally condemned by the council of Constance, and were even the object of ecclesias tical prosecution. They appeared first in 1259, then in 1333, 1349, 1399, and last at the time the council of Constance was sitting. The most notable appearance was in 1349, at the time the Black Death was raging in Europe.
The movement had no compact organization, as is shown from its spasmodic character. It grew out of discontent with the Church and a longing for true penitence and amend ment of life. The prophecies of Joachim, who set 1260 as the time for the appearance of anti-christ, probably had something to do with stirring up unrest ; perhaps also the famine in Italy, of 1258, which was followed by a strange physical malady, characterized by numbness of the bodily organs. Salimbene reports that the bells were left untolled for funerals, lest the sick should be terrified. The enthusiasm took the form of processions, scourgings, and some novel and strange ceremonies. It was a species of evangelism, and attempted a campaign against physical and other sins, as the Crusades did against the Saracens of the East. It sought
1 Hist, of City of Home, V. 333. They were called flagellarii, flagellantes, crucifratres, verberantes, cruciferi, acephali, or independents, from the charge that they had broken with the heretics.