Post #698

Неожиданное о флагеллантах: It was in the crowded Italian cities that organized flagellant processions appeared for the first time. The movement was launched in 1260 (год, на который в предсказаниях Иоахима Флорского, влиятельного мистика и родоначальника средневекового хилиазма, был назначен конец света — З.В.) by a hermit of Perugia and spread southwards to Rome and northwards to the Lombard cities with such rapidity that to contemporaries it appeared a sudden epidemic of remorse. Led usually by priests, masses of men, youths and boys marched day and night, with banners and burning candles, from town to town. And each time they came to a town they would arrange themselves in groups before the church and flog themselves for hours on end. The impact which this public penance made upon the general population was great. Criminals confessed, robbers restored their loot and usurers the interest on their loans, enemies were reconciled and feuds forgotten. Even the two warring parties which were dividing Italy, the Guelphs or supporters of the Pope and the Ghibellines or supporters of the Emperor, for a moment lost some of their intransigence. Whole towns became involved in the movement — at Reggio the chief magistrate, the bishop and all the guilds took part. As the processions moved along they constantly increased in size, until they were many thousand strong. But if at times people of all classes would join in, it was the poor who persevered; so that in the latter stages of the movement they alone remained. — Norman Cohn, The Pursuit of the Millenium Намеренные (как сказал бы Георгий Иванович), осознанные коллективные жертвоприношения, питающие космос энергией собственного страдания, — и взамен приносящие чудо: долгожданный конец вражде и мир там, где его не должно было быть. Из ныне действующих практик такого рода прежде всего вспоминается главное праздненство шиитов всего мира — Ашура.