flagellants
Penitents who self-scourge
Flagellants are people who whip themselves or others as a form of religious discipline or for sexual gratification.
The religious practice, most associated with medieval Christianity, involved public self-flogging as penance for sins or to share in Christ's suffering.
Bands of flagellants traveled through Europe during the Black Death, believing they could ward off the plague.
The term now extends to anyone who practices flagellation, whether for spiritual mortification or as part of BDSM activities.
Cause of mass suffering
- whipStrikes or aerates
- disciplineTrained self-control or specialty
- processionFormal moving line
- chantingRhythmic repetitive vocalization
bloodletting · public penance · ceremony · congregation · worship · observance · tradition · kneeling
Intense shame or embarrassment
- penanceSelf-mortification for wrongdoing
- atonementCompensation for wrongdoing
- contritionRemorseful state over misdeeds
- repentanceRemorseful rejection of past wrongs
remorse · expiation · confession · absolution · redemption · guilt · purification · sackcloth
Formal moving line
- Black DeathMedieval bubonic plague pandemic
- plagueDeadly epidemic disease
- pilgrimageReligious journey to shrine
- InquisitionChurch tribunal against heretics
monks · friars · Middle Ages · heresy · papacy · crusades · indulgences · relics
Restraining one's own desires
- mortificationIntense shame or embarrassment
- abstinenceVoluntary forgoing of indulgences
- fastingDeliberate food avoidance
- austerityEnforced economic stringency
celibacy · monasticism · hair shirt · renunciation · discipline · spartan · frugality · temperance
scourge
Cause of mass suffering
- whipStrikes or aerates
- disciplineTrained self-control or specialty
- processionFormal moving line
chanting · bloodletting · public penance · ceremony · congregation · worship · observance · tradition · kneeling · prostration
mortification
Intense shame or embarrassment
- penanceSelf-mortification for wrongdoing
- atonementCompensation for wrongdoing
- contritionRemorseful state over misdeeds
repentance · remorse · expiation · confession · absolution · redemption · guilt · purification · sackcloth · ashes
procession
Formal moving line
- Black DeathMedieval bubonic plague pandemic
- plagueDeadly epidemic disease
- pilgrimageReligious journey to shrine
Inquisition · monks · friars · Middle Ages · heresy · papacy · crusades · indulgences · relics · cathedral
self-denial
Restraining one's own desires
- mortificationIntense shame or embarrassment
- abstinenceVoluntary forgoing of indulgences
- fastingDeliberate food avoidance
austerity · celibacy · monasticism · hair shirt · renunciation · discipline · spartan · frugality · temperance · self-punishment
- medievalknights, castles, cathedral, kings, queens
- Black Deathbubonic plague, Black Death, plague doctors, buboes, Yersinia pestis
- Late Medievalfeudal lords, Black Death, knighthood, medieval knights, bubonic plague
- medieval churchabbeys, abbey, abbot, abbots, abbess
- plague historyBlack Death, bubonic plague, pneumonic plague, Yersinia pestis, plague doctor
- Spanish CatholicismCatholic Monarchs, Reconquista, Torquemada, penitentes, Isabella
flagellantssybarites
Devotees of luxury
hedonists · sensualists · epicureans · bon vivants · pleasure-seekers
flagellantshedonists
Pursuers of sensual delight
gluttons · debauchees · revelers · carousers · dissipaters
flagellantstemple dancers
Shrine-dedicated ritual performers