This rising is said to have been started by a peasant who saw a vision. The movement became known as the laudesi from their constant hymn singing. At its peak, a group of over 15,000 adherents gathered in Modena and marched to Rome, but the movement rapidly faded when one of its leaders was burned at the stake by order of Boniface IX. In Germany
The German and Low Countries movement, the Brothers of the Cross, is particularly well documented - they wore white robes and marched across Germany in 33.5 day campaigns (each day referred to a year of Jesuss earthly life) of penance, only stopping in any one place for no more than a day. They established their camps in fields near towns and held their rituals twice a day. The ritual began with the reading of a letter, claimed to have been delivered by an angel and justifying the Flagellants activities. Next, the followers would fall to their knees and scourge themselves, gesturing with their free hands to indicate their sin and striking themselves rhythmically to songs, known as Geisslerlieder, until blood flowed. Sometimes the blood was soaked up in rags and treated as a holy relic. Originally members were required to receive permission to join from their spouses and to prove that they could pay for their food. However, some towns began to notice that sometimes Flagellants brought plague to towns where it had not yet surfaced. Therefore, later they were denied entry. They responded with increased physical penance.
Modern flagellants
Christianity
Roman Catholicism
Modern processions of hooded Flagellants are still a feature of various Mediterranean Christian countries, mainly in Spain, Italy and some former colonies, usually every year during Lent. They also occur in the Philippines during Holy Week. For example, in the comune of Guardia Sanframondi in Campania, Italy, such parades are organized once every seven years. In Italy, members of the Flagellant movement were called disciplinati, while laudesi never practiced flagellation, but met together in their own chapel to sing laudi (canticles) in honour of the Blessed Virgin, but which gradually assumed a dramatic form and grew into a theatrical form known as rappresentazioni sacre. A play in the Roman dialect of the 14th century, edited by Vattasso (Studi e Testi, no. 4, p. 53), explicitly bears the title lauda. Some Roman Catholics in Philippines practice flagellation as a form of devout worship, sometimes in addition to self-crucifixion. Los hermanos penitentes
In English, "the penitent brothers." This is a semi-secret society of flagellants among the Hispanic Roman Catholics of Colorado and New Mexico. Other religions
Unrelated practices exist in non-Christian traditions, including actual flagellation amongst some Shiites (commemorating the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali AS). See also
Algolagnia
Ashura, Tatbir
Dancing mania
Flagellation
Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which includes a scene of monks striking themselves on the forehead repeatedly with boards while chanting the missal passage Pie Jesu. Khlysts (Imperial Russia)
Penitentes (New Mexico)
Self-harm
The Seventh Seal
Redemptive suffering
La Cercha
Nine Emperor Gods Festival.