The public flagellant movement of 1349 — the *Brethren of the Cross* who marched across plague-stricken Europe whipping themselves in coordinated public ceremonies — was banned in October 1349 by?
Pope Clement VI banned the flagellants in the bull *Inter sollicitudines* on 20 October 1349. The movement had become a parallel religious authority distributing forgiveness without clerical mediation, and was increasingly anti-clerical and anti-Jewish in its public performances. The papal ban was substantively effective: the public movement collapsed across most of Europe within six months. Underground successor movements continued through the 14th and 15th centuries (Konrad Schmid's Thuringian heretics being the best-documented), but the public organised processions ended. Charles IV had no doctrinal authority. The Council of Constance was 65 years later (1414–1418).
Read the full facts →The Reformation was a 16th-century religious movement that split Western Christianity into Catholic and Protestant branches. It began with Martin Luther's challenge to the Catholic Church in 1517 and produced a reorganisation of European religion, politics, and culture that has lasted to the present.
Related questions
- On 31 October 1517, the German Augustinian friar Martin Luther — by tradition — nailed 95 theological complaints to a church door, beginning the Reformation. Which church?
- What did Martin Luther do on 31 October 1517 that triggered the Reformation?
- Where did John Calvin establish the Reformed Protestant tradition?
- During the Black Death of 1349, thousands of penitents marched across Europe in organised processions, whipping themselves twice a day in public, and preaching anti-clerical sermons. The movement was banned within months by?