From: Renaissance Quarterly | Date: December 22, 1996| Author: Peterson, David S. | COPYRIGHT 1996 Renaissance Society of America. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information

In the summer of 1399 Italy was swept up in a wave of religious fervor that surprised contemporaries as much as it has perplexed historians. Italians of all social strata were suddenly inspired to don the white penitential robes of flagellants (thus, bianchi), confess, take up the cross, and pledge themselves to nine days of fasting and processions which, in their extra- as well as intra-urban circuits, conveyed the movement from Liguria down to Rome. Crying out for mercy and peace a...