A Dictionary of All Religions and Religious Denominations/Fratres Albati

FRATRES ALBATI, or White Brethren. They derived their name and origin from a certain priest, who, in the fifteenth century, descended from the Alps, arrayed in a white garment, and accompanied by a prodigious number of both sexes, who after the example of their chief were clothed in white linen. They went in a kind of precession through several provinces, following a cross, which their leader had erected like a standard. The new chief exhorted his followers to appease the anger of an offended deity; emaciated his body by voluntary acts of mortification and penance; and attempted to excite Europe to renew the crusades.