Flagellant processions roam Germany

July 1349

Whipping themselves bloody with iron-tipped scourges, bands of laymen marched from town to town chanting Christ's passion and demanding the plague's end. Their processions drew crowds of thousands across the Rhineland and Low Countries. Clement VI forbade the movement in October. Some flagellant brotherhoods diverted into anti-Jewish rampages. The Church rediscovered its fear of unregulated lay piety.