506 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
Oct. 20, 1349. Flagellants starting from Basel appeared in Avignon to the number, according to one document, of 2000. Before issuing his bull, Clement and his cardinals listened to the sermon on the subject preached by the Paris doctor, John du Fayt. The preacher selected 13 of the Flagellant tenets and practices for his reprobation, including the shedding of their own blood, a practice, he declared, fit for the priests of Baal, and the murder of Jews for their supposed crime of poisoning the wells, in which was sought the origin of the Black Plague. Clement pronounced the Flagellant movement a work of the devil and the angelic letter a forgery. He condemned the warriors for repudiating the priesthood and treating their penances as equivalent to the journey to the jubilee in Rome, set for 1350. ^ The bull was sent to the archbishops of England, France, Poland, Germany and Sweden, and it called upon them to invoke, if necessary, the secular arm to put down the new rebellion against the ordinances of the Church.
Against such opposition the Flagellants could not be expected to maintain themselves long. Sharp enactments were directed against them by the Fleming cities and by archbishops, as in Prag and Magdeburg. Strassburg forbade public scourgings on its streets. As late as 1353, the archbishop of Cologne found it necessary to order all priests who had favored them to confess on pain of excommunication. ^
We are struck with four features of the Flagellant movement during tlie~Black Death, — its organization, the part assumed in it by the laity, the use of music and, in general, ife strong religious and ethical character, In Italy, before this time, these people had their organizations. There was scarcely
1 Clement's bull is given by Fredericq, I. 190-201, and in translation by Forstemann, p. 97 scjq. Du Fayt's sern\on is full of interest, and is one of the most important documents i^iven by Fredericq, III. 28-37. Du Fayt a.scribed the Hlack Death to an infection of the air due to the celestial bodies — infectiunem oeris creatam a corpuribus c(elestibus. The deliverance of the University of Paris is lost. See Chartul. III. 055 sqq.
2 Fredericq, II. 116, etc. The magistrates, as at Tournay, sometimes found it necessary to repeat their proclamations against the Flagellants as often as three times.
§ 58. HERETICAL AND UNCHURCHLY MOVEMENTS. 507
an Italian city which did not have one or more such brotherhoods. Padua had six, Perugia and Fabiano three, but the movement does not seem to have developed opposition to Church autliority. In some of the outbreaks priests were the leaders, and the permanent organizations seem to have formed a close association with the Dominicans and Franciscans and to have devoted themselves to the care of the poor and sick.
On the other hand, in the North, a spirit of independence of the clergy manifested itself. This is evident from the Flagellant codes of the German and Dutch groups, current at the time of the great pestilence and in after years. The conditions of membership included reconciliation with enemies, the consent of husband or wife or, in the case of servants, the consent of their masters, strict obedience to the leaders, who were called master or rector, and ability to pay their own expenses. During the campaigns, which lasted 331 days, they were to ask no alms nor to wash their persons or their clothing, nor cut their beards nor speak to women, nor to lie on feather beds. They were forbidden to carry arms or to pursue the flagellation to the limit where it might lead to sickness or death. ^
Fixe pater 7iosters and ave Marias were prescribed to be said before and after meals, and it was provided that, so long as they lived, they should flagellate themselves every Friday three times during the day and once at night. The associations were called brotherhoods, and the members were bidden to call each other not chum — socium — but brother, " seeing that all were created out of the same element and bought with the same price." ^
The leaders of the fraternities were laymen, and, as just indicated, the equality of the members before God and the cross was emphasized. The movement was essentially a lay movementa_a21_expressiori of the spirit of dissatisfaction in
1 Usque ad mortem vel infirmitatem. See especially the 35 articles of Bruges, Fredericq, II. Ill sqq. ; 50 articles given by Forstemann, p. 164 sqq. and the several codes given by Range, 115 sqq. Hugo of Reutlingen, in Range, 27, mentions the strict prohibition against bathing, balnea fratri non licet ulli tempore tali.
2 Fredericq, III. 15, Range, pp. 25, 41, 118, etc.