602 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
other than the Portiuncula decree.^ In Northern Europe the Fraticelli were classified with the Lollards and Beghards or identified with these heretics. The term, however, occurs seldom. Walter, the Lollard, was styled "the most wicked heresiarcli of the Fraticelli, a man full of the devil and most perverse in his errors." ^
Of f ar niore^inter^^t to this age are the Flagellant§,who attracted attention by the strange outward demonstrations in which their religious fervor found expression. Theirs was a militant Christianity. They made an attempt to do something. They^_corrt'.sp(^iid more closely to the Salvation Army of the 19th century than an}- oilier organization of the Middle Ages. There is no record that the beating of drums played any part in the movement, but they used popular songs, a series of distinctive physical gestures and peculiar vociferations, uniforms and some of the discipline of the camp. Their campaigns were penitential crusades in which the self -mortifications of the monastery were transferred to the open field and the public square, and were adapted to impress the impenitent to make earnest in the warfare against the passions of the flesh. The Flagellants buffeted the body if they did not always buffet Satan.
An account has already been given of the first outbreak of the enthusiasm in Italy in _1259j_^which, sorting in Perugia, spread^tO-Njarthern Italy and extended acroaaJJi^ Alps to Austria, Prag and Strassbul;^^2 Similar outbiiaakajjccurrad in 1296, 133371 34 ■■>, 139l>, and again at the time of the Spanish evangelist, Vincent Ferrer.
From being regarded as harmless fanatics they came to be treated as disturbers of the ecclesiastical peace, and in Northern Europe were classed with Beghards, Lollards, Hussites and other unchurchly or heretical sectarists.
1 Lea: Tiignis., IIL 178; Aur. Conf., IIL 377.
2 Bollinger, II. 881, 407 scj. The first three volumes of Fredericq contain the term Fraticelli only twice, III. 17, 225.
3 Vol. v., 1, p. 870s(iq. The Flagellants were also known as Flagellatores, Cruciferi, Pajiiitentes, Discipliuati, Hatti.sti, etc., and in German and Dutch as Geissler, Geeselaars, Cnuisbroeders, Krcuzbriider, etc. The references under Geeselaars in Frederictj 1111 four closely priuted pages of the Index, III. 2!)7- 300.
§ 58. HERETICAL AND UNCHUKCHLY MOVEMENTS. 503
The movement of 1333 was led by an eloc|uent Dominican, Venturino of Bergamo, and is described at length by Villani. Ten thousand followed this leader, wearing head-bands inscribed with the monogram of Christ, IHS, and on their chests a dove with an olive-branch in her mouth. Venturino led hij^ followers as far as Rome and preached on the Capjioline. The penniless enthusiasts soon became a laughing-stock, and Venturino, on going to Avignon, gained absolution and died in Smyrna, 1346.
The earlier exhibitions of Flagellant zeal were as dim candlelights compared with the outbursts of 1349, dimng^thej;ay^ages of the Black Dea^ji, which in contemporary chronicles and the Flagellant codes was called the great death — das grosse Sterben, pestis grandis, mortalitas magna. Bands of religious campaigners suddenly appeared in nearly all parts of Latin Christendom, Hungary, Bohemia, Italy, France, Germany and^ tlieT^etherlands. John du Fayt, preaching before Clement VI., represented them as spread through all parts — per omnes provmcias — and their numbers as countless. The exact numbers of the separate bands are repeatedly given, as they appeared in Ghent, Tournay, Dort, Bruges, Liege and other cities.^ Even bishops and princes took part in them. There were also bands of women.
Our knowledge of the German and Lowland Flagellants is most extensive. While the accounts of chroniclers differ in details, they agree in the main features. The Flagellants clad themselves in white and wore on their mantles, before and behind, and on their caps, a red cross, from which they got the name, the Brothers of the Cross. They marched from place_to place, stoppiiig only a single day and night at one locality, except in case of Sunday, when they often made an exception. In the van of their processions were carried ^rosse^and^hamiets. They sang hymns as they naarche^. The public squares in front of churches ancl fields, near-by towns, were chosen for their encampments and disciplinary drill, which was repeated twice a day with bodies bared to the wai^. A special feature
1 Fredericq, II. 120, III. 19, 21, 33, etc. Also Forstemann, pp. 74 sqq. Runge, 99-209.