CH. X.]

SKETCH OF THE FLAGELLANTS.

301

and cries of grief and self-accusation, took their place. Nor was the change merely external. It affected the convictions and conduct of men. Enemies were

reconciled. Usurers and extortioners restored what had been unjustly acquired. Criminals confessed their guilty deeds, and gave evidence of reform. Prisoners were enlarged, slaves were set at liberty, exiles were recalled. Deeds of charity and kindness were performed, while the fear of some near approaching and terrible judgment awed all spirits. Men were astonished at the strange phenomenon. Philosophers could not explain it. The pope had not authorized it. It had not been excited by the eloquence of popular orators. It had no acknowledged leader. Shut out from other countries, it was for a long time mostly confined to Italy, and after a short time its fanatical zeal appeared to be on the decline.

But the scenes of the pestilence, about the middle of the fourteenth century, seemed to kindle it anew. It crossed the Alps, and appeared in Germany with renewed vigor. Two hundred of the sect visited Spires, where their evident devotion secured them a welcome entertainment. At Strasbourg and Aix la Chapelle their appearance is recorded. But, with the progress of things, corruptions had begun to spread among them. They were joined by hypocrites and knaves, who would cloak their deeds under the mantle of the Flagellants. The most grievous charges were made against them. It was said that they accounted it no sin to lie; that they indulged in acts of grossest vice and crime. The tide now turned against them. Popes fulminated bulls, and

the emperor published edicts denouncing the sect. They were driven out of Bohemia, Bavaria, and Poland, and the University of Paris urged, and not without effect, that they should not be tolerated in France. But in vain were they persecuted. Their numbers continued to increase. The Inquisition was glutted with victims; and in the very year when the council of Constance was opened, many were burnt at Sangerhausen by the authority of the Inquisitor of the Faith.

Undoubtedly they had by this time become, many of them, confirmed fanatics. Their leader, a Conrad Smith, is said to have pretended to be the prophet Enoch, and to have been authorized by God to judge the world. He is reported to have annulled the sacraments, and to have put the self-inflicted flagellation of his followers in their place. Some of the reputed doctrines of the sect were far from complimentary to the church. They maintained that God had deposed the entire clergy, from pope to monk, for their corruption, as Christ of old drove the moneychangers from the temple; that since their own institution, churches, cemeteries, and places and objects reputed holy, were such no longer; the churches were but dens of robbers; holy water was poisonous because mingled with sparks of hell; and the offices of the priests, ministering death to themselves and others, were no more sacred than the howling of dogs. Baptism of blood had taken the place of baptism by water; confirmation' was a cheat and a mockery; the real presence was a figment; the sacrament of the altar, a mummery of the priests; and

Cu. X.] VINCENT FAVORS THE FLAGELLANTS.

303

confession to a priest, useless and vain. They rejected the doctrine of indulgences, the worship of the Virgin and the saints, fasts, and purgatory. Some of these doctrines, however, were replaced, according to the charges of their enemies, with others more excessively fanatical and extravagant.

These charges, however, evidently were applicable
to but a small portion of the sect. But what to do
with them was a question that puzzled the wisdom
of the council. Severity had already been employed.
The arm of the Inquisition had grown weary in its
work. Kings and popes had attempted to crush
them, but it was all in vain. The trampled seed
sprang up under the feet that bruised its shell and
pressed it to the earth.
more lenient measures.
the council. They should pity these poor misguided
men. Would he have said this, if the whole sect
had been represented by its leader, chained fast, as
Huss had been, in a Constance dungeon? It seems
doubtful. But one thing may have turned the scale.
The celebrated Vincent of Ferrara was reported to
favor the sect of the Flagellants. We have no reason
to believe that he ever joined them, but they at least
claimed the sanction of his name. Vincent was a
man not to be lightly dealt with. He wielded a
power over the masses at that day, unrivalled by
any other man in Europe. With all the peculiari-
ties of his order,—the Dominican,—that still clung
to him, he was the great popular preacher of his
age. He was the John the Baptist of the European
wilderness. It would not do, even for the council, to

Gerson was now for trying
He urged this policy upon

!

deal harshly with such a man. It could not afford to alienate him. It would only condemn itself in arraigning him. Gerson endeavored to draw him to Constance. He and D'Ailly both wrote to him, urging him to come. They undoubtedly believed that if he were once with them they could bring him over to their views. But he declined their overture. What his reasons were we may surmise. He deemed, undoubtedly, that his presence elsewhere would be more useful, and Constance evidently had no attraction for one whose life is a sort of oasis in the corruption of his age.

But would Vincent have been safe at Constance? If the question of the Flagellants had come before the council, and he, though not of their number, had defended their conduct in many things, as he had enjoyed a full opportunity of inspecting it, would he have left Constance as he entered it-with a reputation and character untarnished? For the sake of our poor weak nature, we may be thankful that he was spared a trial that might not have spared even him.

Gerson's treatise on the sect is, on the whole, a most just and sensible examination of the case. He condemns the immodesty and cruelty which it occasioned, while he places penitence of spirit before God far above all self-imposed austerities. He urges upon those who belonged to it, submission to the council, and prescribes as a remedy for the mental hallucinations of the Flagellants, that they should be required to labor, instead of running from place to place.

This was for the most part sound and sensible ad

CH. X.]

BENEDICT DEPOSED.

305

vice, and the council seems to have acceded to its wisdom. But where was its consistency? If the Hussites were heretics, much more were the Flagellants. Why should Vincent of Ferrara be dealt with so gently, while Huss and Jerome are sent to the funeral pile? Let the assumed infallibility of the council answer.

The fate of Benedict XIII. was at length decided. After all necessary formalities of process and citation, he was deposed by the council, in its thirty seventh session, held July 26th, 1417.1 The Cardinal of St. Mark read the sentence. It declared Benedict perjured, a scandal to the Catholic church, a favorer of schism, a disturber of the peace and union of the church, an obstinate and incorrigible schismatic, a heretic devoid of faith; in a word, a man reprobate of God, and unworthy of every dignity, specially of the pontifical. As such, the council degrades, deposes, and deprives him, and forbids any one to recognize him as pope under the severest penalties.

Thus at last the council might consider the union of the church restored. After nearly three years of study and effort, the work seemed accomplished. But the deposition of Benedict, though uniting the church, more effectively than ever divided the council. The question as to whether measures for reform or the election of a new pontiff should be allowed precedence, acquired a new and pressing importance. The emperor persisted in his efforts for an immediate reform. The cardinals were equally determined in