Symbols of Authority

The epidemic touched off long-simmering resentments against the Church as well as against other symbols of authority. The direction taken by the Flagellant movement in Germany provides an illustration. Flagellant processions, especially in Germany, quickly passed out of clerical hands and control. The Flagellants were often highly organized groups, under the direction of a master—a layperson—who heard confessions and imposed penances, thus seemingly poaching on the preserves of the clergy. A millennium was thought to be at hand, in which Christ (perhaps accompanied by the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, awakened from his mountain tomb) would come again, slay the priests who oppressed the people, and take from the rich to give to the poor. Flagellants saw themselves as armies of saints. In some horrific cases the coming of such an army ignited savage massacres of the Jews, the most obvious outsiders who might serve as scapegoats for the tragedy of the epidemic; thus the Jewish popu- lations of Frankfurt, Mainz, Cologne, and Brussels were put to the sword as a part of the mass hysteria. As Norman Cohn describes the episodes, their revolu- tionary potential was very real, not only against the authority of the Church but also against the wealthy and the entitled.