Coronavirus & Other Crises: Some Responses Echo Medieval Flagellant Movement

Maybe there’s a pattern to life. The world is plunged into a turmoil by a plague from China. Quarantines are unable to entirely halt the spread of death. A great mass of people lose faith in the ability of their long-lived public institutions to deal with the health crisis. And that lack of faith spreads to the other social evils that the authorized institutions have failed to arrest: the violence endemic in society, and disruptive climate change. A great mass of ordinary people break out of fearful quarantine and take their appeals outside of their inherited institutions and into the streets, for a direct confrontation with evil.

This was the flagellant movement of the mid-14th century. It was composed of men who beat themselves with whips or chains and displayed their bloody backs in public processions, trying to do penance not just for their own sins but for the sins of the world. In doing so, they hoped to move God himself to end the evils of the age.

About the Author

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Michael Brendan Dougherty is a senior writer at National Review Online.

Maybe there’s a pattern to life. The world is plunged into a turmoil by a plague from China. Quarantines are unable to entirely halt the spread of death. A great mass of people lose faith in the ability of their long-lived public institutions to deal with the health crisis. And that lack of faith spreads to the other social evils that the authorized institutions have failed to arrest: the violence endemic in society, and disruptive climate change. A great mass of ordinary people break out of fearful quarantine and take their appeals outside of their inherited institutions and into the streets, for a direct confrontation with evil.

This was the flagellant movement of the mid-14th century. It was composed of men who beat themselves with whips or chains and displayed their bloody backs in public processions, trying to do penance not just for their own sins but for the sins of the world. In doing so, they hoped to move God himself to end the evils of the age.