ll those who should continue it.

Of the beneficial results of the religious excitement may be named the
earnest labors of the order of Beguines, an association of women for the
purpose of attending the sick and dying, which had long been in
existence, but was particularly active and useful during this period. We
may name also the Beghards and Lollards, whose extravagances were to
some extent outgrowths of earnest piety, and their lives strongly
contrasted with the levity and luxury of the higher ecclesiastics. These
societies of poor and mendicant penitents were greatly increased by the
religious excitement of the time, which also gave special vitality to
another sect, the Flagellants, which, as mentioned in a former article,
first arose in 1260, during the excesses of bloodshed of the Guelphs of
northern Italy, and thence spread over Europe. After a period of
decadence they broke out afresh in 1349, as a consequence of the deadly
pestilence.

The members of this sect, seeing no hope of relief from human action,
turned to God as their only refuge, and deemed it necessary to
propitiate the Deity by extraordinary sacrifices and self-tortures. The
flame of fanaticism, once started, spread rapidly and widely. Hundreds
of men, and even boys, marched in companies through the roads and
streets, carrying heavy torches, scourging their naked shoulders with
knotted whips, which were often loaded with lead or iron, singing
penitential hymns, parading in bands which bore banners and were
distinguished by white hats with red crosses.

Women as well as men took part in these fanatical exercises, marching
about half-naked, whipping each other frightfully, flinging themselves
on the earth in the most public places of the towns and scourging their
bare backs and shoulders till the blood flowed. Entering the churches,
they would prostrate themselves on the pavement, with their arms
extended in the form of a cross, chanting their rude hymns. Of these
hymns we may quote the following example:

"Now is the holy pilgrimage.
Christ rode into Jerusalem,
And in his hand he bore a cross;
May Christ to us be gracious.
Our pilgrimage is good and right."

The Flagellants did not content themselves with these public
manifestations of self-sacrifice. They formed a regular religious order,
with officers and laws, and property in common. At night, before
sleeping, each indicated to his brothers by gestures the sins which
we