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The Flagellant Movement and Flagellant Confraternities in Central Italy, 1260–1400

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

John Henderson
John Henderson*
Affiliation:
University of LondonWestfield College
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Extract

The 1260 movement was the first widespread outbreak of popular fervour in medieval Italy to make flagellation the centre of its devotion. Together with subsequent movements it provided a general impetus to lay religious life by leading to the foundation of a large number of confraternities all over the country. In this paper I intend to describe this phenomenon and in this way examine the motivation, collective and individual, which led people to participate. I shall then outline briefly the devotional practices of flagellant companies and show how they came to institutionalise the spirit of this popular fervour.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 15: Religious Motivation Biographical and Sociological Problems for the Church Historian , 1978 , pp. 147 - 160
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1978

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References

1 This movement was the subject of a conference held in Perugia in 1960: Il Movimento [dei disciplinati nel settimo centenario dal suo inizio] . della, Ballettino] R. D[eputazione di storia patria per l]’U[mbria] (Perugia 1962)Google Scholar. See also: Risultati [e prospettive della ricerca sul Movimentodei Disciplinati], BRDU (1972). I am very grateful to Brenda Bolton, Alexander Murray and professor Nicolai Rubinstein for their comments on an earlier draft of this paper.

2 See, for example, Augustine of Hippo, Epist 133: PL 33 (1865) col 510.

3 The councils of Tarragona (1242), Narbonne (1244) and Béziers (1246). The formula can be seen in practice in Bernard Gui’s prescriptions of c1330: Practica Inquisitionis pravitatis, auctore Bernardo Guidonis OFP, ed Douis, C. (Paris 1886) doct XXIX, p 54 Google Scholar.

4 de saint Benoit, La régle II, Série des Textes Monastiques d’Occident 35 (Paris 1972) cap 28, pp 550-3Google Scholar.

5 See Peter the Venerable’s comments in De Miraculis, bk II, cap 9: PL 189 (1854) col 919.

6 Canivez, 1 pp 12-32: statutorum annorum praecedentium prima collectio, 1134, col 76.

7 Gougaud, [L.], [Devotional and Ascetic Practices in the Middle Ages] (London 1927) pp 187-9Google Scholar and nn 43-7.

8 Ibid p 189.

9 Epist ad clericos florentinos: Epist 8: PL 144 (1867) cols 350-1; Epist ad Petrum cerebrosum monachum: Epist 27: PL 144, cols 414-17. See also De laude flagellorum: Opuse 43: PL 145 (1867) cols 679-81 and Epist ad eremitas congregations suae, Epist 34, PL 144, cols 432-4.

10 Vita S. Rodulphi et S. Dominici Loricati: PL 144, col 1011.

11 Gougaud p 191.

12 Epist 27, PL 144, cols 415-17.

13 Moorman, [J], [A History of the Franciscan Order from its Origins to the Year 1517] (Oxford 1968) pp 256-7Google Scholar, and Cummings, J. M., The Christological Content of the ‘sermones’ of St Anthony [of Padua] (Padua 1953)Google Scholar.

14 See [R.] Morghen, ‘[Rainero Fasani e il movimento dei disciplinati del 1260]’, II movimento, pp 29-42. On the origins of this order see G. G. Meersseman, ‘Dossier de l’ordre de la Pénitence au XIII siècle, SpicFr, 7 (1961).

15 Mazzarino, [G.]: [‘La Lezenda de fra Rainero Faxano’], BRDU (1899) 2 pp 561-3Google Scholar.

16 Kern, L., ‘A propos du mouvement des Flagellants de 1260: San Bevignate de Perouse’, Festschrift Gustav Schurer (Paderborn 1930) pp 39–53 Google Scholar.

17 Patavini, [Annales S. lustinae], MGH SS 19 p 179 Google Scholar.

18 [di, Annali Genovesi] Caffaro [e de’ suoi continuatori dal MCCLI al MCCLXXIX], Fonti [per la storia d’Italia] (Istituto Storico Italiano per il medio evo) (Rome 1926) 14 p 39 Google Scholar; [da, Jacopo] Varagine [e la sua cronaca di Genova dalle origine al 1297], Fonti (1941) 85, II, p 390 Google Scholar.

19 Cohn, N., The Pursuit of the Millenium (London 1970) p 128 Google Scholar, and Morghen, p 35.

20 Frugoni, [A.], ‘[Sui flagellanti del 1260]’, BISIMEAM 75 (1963) p 227 n 1Google Scholar.

21 Ibid pp 224-5.

22 Caffaro p 40; Patavini p 179.

23 Ansidei, V., Regestrum reformationum comunis Perusini ab anno 1256 ad annum 1300 (Perugia 1935) 1 p 180 Google Scholar. Frugoni pp 211-18 rectifies the general misconception that the flagellants did not appear until 4 May.

24 Patavini p 196.

25 [Annales] Foroiulienses, MCH SS 19 p 196.

26 [Annales] Placentini [Gibellini] MGH SS 18 p 512 Google Scholar.

27 [de Adam, Salimbene, Cronica, ed Scalia, G.] (Bari 1966) 1 pp 99–101 Google Scholar.

28 Caffaro pp 39-41.

29 Patavini p 179; In tantum itaque timor Domini irruit super eos, quod nobiles pariter et ignobiles, senes et iuvenes, infantes etiam quinque annorum, nudi per plateas civitatum, opertis tantum pudendis . . . bini et bini processionaliter incedebant; singuli flagellum in manibus de corigiis continentes, et cum gemitu et ploratu se acriter super scapulis usque ad effusionem sanguinis verberantes... Non solum itaque in die, verum etiam in nocte cum cereis accensis, in hyeme asperimma, centeni ct milleni, decem milia quoque per civitates et ecclesias circuibant, et se ante altaria humiliter prosternebant, precedentibus eos sacerdotibus cum crucibus et vexillis.

30 Placentini p 512.

31 “Cronaca Bolognese, Muratori (new ed) 18, pt 1, II, p 157.

32 Varagine p 389.

33 Annales capituli Posnaniensis, MGH SS 29, p 461 Google Scholar and Annales capitali Cracoviensis , MGH SS 19, p 601 Google Scholar.

34 Patavini p 179.

35 On this theme see: Bolton, Brenda, ‘Old wealth and new poverty in the twelfth century, SCH 14 pp 99–100 Google Scholar.

36 (Jonah 3, 4-8) [Memoriale Guilieltni] Venturae [civis Astiensis], Muratori 11, col 153: ‘Tune Eremitae . . . dicebant “Poenitentiam agite, quia appropinquabit Regnum Caelorum” ’. See ako Patavini p 179.

37 On this theme see R. Manselli, ‘L’anno 1260 fu anno Gioachimitico?’, Il movimento, pp 99-108.

38 Salimbene p 677.

39 His Liber de Temporibus is reproduced by Cerlini, A. in ‘Fra Salimbene e le cronache attribuite ad Alberto Milioli), Archivio Muratoriano (Rome 1910) 1, fasc 8, pp 383–409 Google Scholar.

40 Salimbene p 677: ‘Quem stamm inchoatum dicunt in illa verberatione . . .’.

41 Reeves, [M.], [The Influence of Prophecy in the Later Middle Ages] (Oxford 1969) pp 59–61 Google Scholar, 187-8.

42 “Patavini p 179.

43 Reeves p 55.

44 Salimbene p 100: ‘ita erant inebriati amore divino’.

45 Ibid p 676.

46 Caffato p 40: ‘alii dicebant: “bonum signum est”, alii aliter, item alii dicebant: “numquam verberabo me et verberent se quantum volent”, alii aliter’.

47 Varagine p 389: ‘tanquam fatui et deliri deridebantur a cunctis’.

48 Ibid.

49 Caffaro p 40.

50 Patavini p 180. See ako Davidsohn, R., Storia di Firenze, trans Klein, G. D. (Florence 1972) 2, p 742 Google Scholar.

51 Chronica Mediolani seu manipulas Florum, Muratori 11, cob 690-1; Placentini p 512.

52 Salimbene p 676; Placentini p 512.

53 Patavini p 179.

54 Salimbene p 675, mentions that the Modenese were led by their podestà and bishop. See also Memoriale Potestatum Regiensum, Muratori 8, col 1122 and [Chronicon] Parmense, Muratori (new ed) 9, pt 9, p 22.

55 At Asti for example: Venturae col 153, and Modena: Salimbene p 676.

56 Patavini p 179 and Venturae col 153.

57 Patavini p 179.

58 Gougaud p 159, nn 17-18.

59 Most chroniclers talk about flagellants being nudi but they probably followed the monastic example and only exposed their bodies from the waist upwards (see, for instance, Decreta Lanfranci 16: PL 150 (1880) cols 499-500). Only one witness makes this clear: Varagine pp 389-90.

60 Patavini p 170: ‘sed etiam matrone nobiles et virgines delicate cum omni honestate hec eadem faciebanť. See also Foroiulenses p 196 and da Ferrara, Ricobaldo, Historia imperatorum, Muratori 9, col 134 Google Scholar.

61 See, for example, the compagnia della Madonna d’Or San Michele in Florence, whose membership Giovanni Villani characterised as the ‘buona parte della migliore gente di Firenze’: [G.] Villani, [Cronaca], Muratori 13, bk 7, cap 154, col 342.

62 Sorsa, S. La, La Compagnia d’Or San Michele (Trani 1902) pp 124–58 Google Scholar lists all the captains of this company from 1292 to 1347.

63 Moorman pp 220-25.

64 Although this is never actually stated by the statutes it is an underlying assumption; members are always referred to in the masculine and women never appear in membership lists.

65 de Romani, Humberti, De eruditione religiosorum praedicatomm (Rome 1793) p 348 Google Scholar: ‘in aliquibus nationibus, et maxime in Italia, fiunt interdum alique congregationes sive confratriae in honorem beatae Virginis vel alicuius sancti, ex quibus sequitur multiplex fructus’. The standard works on Italian confraternities are Monti’s, G. M. indispensable but somewhat inaccurate Le confraternite medievali [dell’ alta e media Italia] 2 vols (Venice 1927)Google Scholar and [G. G.] Meersseinan’s invaluable ‘Études [sur les anciennes confréries dominicaines]’: 1 ‘Les confréries de Saint-Dominique’, AFP 20 (1950) pp 5–113 Google Scholar; 2 ‘Les confréries de Saint-Pierre Martyr’, AFP, 21 (1951) pp 51–196 Google ScholarPubMed; 3 ‘La congregation de la Vierge’, AFP 22 (1952) pp 5–176 Google ScholarPubMed; 4 ‘Les milices de Jésus-Christ’, AFP 23 (1953) pp 275–308 Google ScholarPubMed. Detailed surveys of many towns still remain to be done, although work has begun under the auspices of the Centro di documentazione sul movimento dei disciplinati which has published its findings in BDRU. For Florence see de la Roncière, C., ‘La place des confréries dans l’encadrement religieux du contado florentin’, Mélanges de l’école française de Rome, 85 (Rome 1973) fasc 1, pp 31–77 Google Scholar, fasc 2, pp 633-71 and my forthcoming thesis for London University (Westfield College): [‘The Religious] Confraternities of Florence, [CI250-1434: A study of the landest and disciplinati companies’].

66 Meersseman, G. G., ‘Nota sull’origine delle compagnia dei laudesi’, RSCI 17 (1963) PP 395-7Google Scholar.

67 Meersseman, , ‘Études’, 1, pp 40–1 Google Scholar.

68 Ibid pp 40-1.

69 Parmense p 10.

70 Ibid p 117; G. Villani, Cronaca, bk 8, cap 122, col 444; and Ptoleomei Lucensis, Historia Ecclesiastica, Muratori 11, col 1233.

71 Despite the legend, Mazzatinti pp 561-3, there is no evidence that Fasani actually led the flagellants to Bologna.

72 Villani bk 11, cap 23, cols 767-8.

73 Ibid.

74 Storia dal principio del secolo XIII fino al 1351 di uno Anonimo Fiorentino con annotazioni di un Anonimo Lucchese, in Baluzii, Stephani, Miscellanae (Lucca 1764) 4, p 114 Google Scholar, and Cronaca di Agnolo di Tura del Grasso, p 514.

75 Meersseman, , ‘Études’ 1, pp 41–42 Google Scholar.

76 Ibid p 42.

77 The two most detailed descriptions of this movement are: Ser Luca di Bartolomeo Dominici, Cronaca della Venuta dei Bianchi e della moria, 1399-1400, Societá Pistoiese de storia patria (Pistoia 1933)Google Scholar and Le croniche di Giovanni Sercambi Lucchese, Fonti 20 (Lucca 1892) 2, pp 240-375. The most thorough treatment of the Bianchi is Tognetti, G., ‘Sul Moto dei Bianchi del 1399, BISIMEAM 78 (Rome 1967) pp 205–343 Google Scholar.

78 Meersseman, , ‘Études’ 1, p 27 Google Scholar.

79 The three main Perugian flagellant companies of S. Agostino, S. Francesco and S. Domenico, were founded between 1317 and 1320: R. Guèze, ‘Le confraternite di S. Agostino, S. Francesco and S. Domenico di Perugia’, II movimento, pp 606-10.

80 See Monti, G. M., Le confraternite medievali 1, pp 228-49Google Scholar.

81 The earliest record of a flagellant company in Florence is that of S. Giovanni Battista su l’arcora founded in 1320: A[rchivio di] s[tato di] F[irenze], Cap[itoli] Comp[agnie] Rel[igiose] Sopp[resse] 354, fol 3r. By the end of the fourteenth century there were at least fifteen flagellant companies in the city; see chapter 3 of my forthcoming study, Confraternities of Florence.

82 Meersseman, , ‘Études’ 1, pp 41-7Google Scholar.

83 Lucca had four main flagellant companies: S. Francesco, S. Maria Maddalena, S. Lorenzo in Servi and the confraternità della Croce, all founded between 1300 and 1380: Andeucci, S., ‘La compagnia dei Disciplinati di S. Francesco e S. Maria Maddalena in Lucca’, BDRU 68 (1971) fasc 2, pp 233-40Google Scholar.

84 Gaudenzi, A., Statuti della società del popolo di Bologna, 2 (Rome 1896) Fonti 4, p 423 Google Scholar: ‘hec sunt ordinamenta facta et conposita . . . sub annis Domini MCCLX, indictione tertia, tempore generalis devotionis’.

85 Ibid cap 3, p 424.

86 The phrase ‘per memoria della passione di Cristo’ recurs in the statutes of all flagellant companies. See, for example, the 1354 statutes of the Florentine [compagnia della] Misericordia] del Salvatore: I capitoli della compagnia di Gesù Pellegrinio], ed Ferrato, P. (Padua 1871) (Nozze Carlotti-Citta della Vigodorzere) cap 12, p 11 Google Scholar.

87 Meersseman, , ‘Études’ 1, p 71 Google Scholar: ‘E la decta compagnia si rauna nel decto luogho certi di ordinati a disciplinarsi lo corpo e fare memoria della passione del nostro Signore Yhesu Christo crocifisso en remissione de’ peccati nostri et a utilità delle nostre anime . . .’.

88 Each company would hold a commemorative service each month, in the case of the compagnia della Misericordia del Salvatore this was on the third Sunday, Mis del Salv (1354) cap 12, pp 11-12, and usually an annual commemorative meal. At this company it was on 2 November: ibid (1354) cap 43, pp 38-40.

89 See, for example, the compagnia di S. Andrea at Vico: ASF, Cap Comp Relig Sopp 444, caps 7-8, fol 2r; the compagnia dei Raccomandati di Gesù Christo Crocifiso which met under S. Maria della Scala in Siena: Banchi, L., Capitoli della compagnia dei disciplinati di Siena (Siena 1866) cap 15, p 17 Google Scholar.

90 For example, the Florentine compagnia della Misericordia del Salvatore, Mis del Salv (1354) cap 12, p 11, and the compagnia di S. Domenico of S. Maria Novella: Florence, Biblioteca Riccardiana, MS 3041, cap 2, fol 2r. Also the compagnia di S. Agostino in Prato: Guasti, C., I capitoli di una compagnia di disciplina, compilati nell’anno MCCCXIX, Miscellanea pratese inediti o rare, antiche o moderne, fasc 10 (Prato 1864) cap 11, p 20 Google Scholar.

91 See Charles de la Roncière, ‘La place des confréries dans l’encadrement religieux du contado florentin’, fasc 1, p 48.

92 In Florence, for example, see the compagnia della Misericordia del Salvatore, Mis del Salv (1354) cap 37, p 31, of S. Maria Novella and the compagnia di S. Niccolò of S. Maria del Carmine, ASF Cap Comp Relig Sopp 439, cap 9 fol 3V.

93 See the prohibition of 19-20 October 1419 in ASF Prov[visione] Reg[istri] 109, fols 160r-2v and two laws of February 1444 and June 1455, Prov Reg 134, fols 208r-9v, and ibid 146, fols 147r-8V.

94 Flagellant companies could be as small as twelve members (see the compagnia di S. Niccolò of S. Maria del Carmine, Florence: ASF, Cap Comp Relig Sopp 439 cap 1, fol 1v, although the majority of companies were somewhat larger. For Florence see chapter 9 of my forthcoming Confraternities of Florence.

95 See, for example, the prayers said in the compagnia di S. Agostino in Prato: C. Guasti, I capitoli di una compagnia di disciplina, pp 32-5.

96 The provisions of the 1354 statute of the Florentine compagnia della Misericordia del Salvatore are representative of most companies: Mis del Salv (1354) cap 37, pp 31-2.

97 For the punishments given to members of the Florentine compagnia della Misericordia del Salvatore between 1364 and 1404 see their records in ASF, Comp Relig Sopp 910 cap 7, fols 3r-77v.

98 Eph 4, 24. This example was taken from the compagnia di S. Domenico in Prato: Meersseman, , ‘Études’ 1, pp 79–80 Google Scholar.

99 Ibid p 8o, nn 11-13.

100 Fredericq 1, nos 202, 200-1.

101 For an account of the northern flagellants see Giles Li Muisis’s Chronica in Fredericq 2, no 61 (194) pp 100-9Google Scholar, esp 108-9.

102 For a general account of this see Leff, G., Heresy in the Later Middle Ages (Manchester 1967) 2, pp 485-93Google Scholar, and DSAM 5 cols 395-9.