ATTEMPTING TO APPEASE AN ANGRY GOD: THE FLAGELLANTS

Christian flagellants self-harm in an attempt to atone for sins and appease the wrath of God. 15th-c. woodcut.

“In [1349], a race without a head, calling themselves cruciferians [cross-bearers] or flagellants, unexpectedly arose from all parts of Germany, whose number and the suddenness of their coming was a source of universal wonder…[These men] were called flagellants on account of the whips [flagella] with which they were seen to do penance. Each whip consisted of a stick from which hung down three cords tied with great knots on their ends, so that passing through the knots from both sides in the shape of a cross were two pieces of iron sharpened to a point… With these flagella they beat and whipped their naked bodies to the point that the scourged skin swelled up black and blue and blood flowed down to their lower members and even spattered the walls nearby. I have seen, when they whipped themselves, how the iron points became so embedded in the flesh that sometimes one pull, sometimes two, was not enough to extract them.”

- Heinrich of Herford. Book of Memorable Matters (c. 1349-1355). Aberth, Source 31 (for a description of the flagellants in Strasbourg & France see also Aberth, Sources 32-34)