Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/260

 252 FLAGELLANTS stars, when used separately is called the union jack. The United States revenue flag, adopted in 1799, consists of 16 perpendicular stripes, alternately red and white, the union white with the national arras in dark blue. The union used separately constitutes the revenue jack. The American yacht flag is like the na- tional flag, with the exception of the union, which displays a white foul anchor in a circle of 13 stars in the blue field. During the civil war the several seceded states used at first dis- tinctive state flags. In March, 1861, the con- federate congress adopted the so-called " stars and bars, 1 ' composed of three horizontal bars of equal width, the middle one white, the others red, with a blue union containing nine white stars arranged in a circle. The resem- blance of this to the " stars and stripes " led to confusion and mistakes in the field; and in September, 1861, a battle flag was adopted, a red field charged with a blue saltier, with a narrow border of white, on which were dis- played 13 white stars. In 1863 the " stars and bars " was supplanted by a flag with a white field having the battle flag for a union. The flag of 1863 was found deficient in service, it being liable to be mistaken for a flag of truce ; and on Feb. 4, 1865, the outer half of the field beyond the union was covered with a vertical red bar. This was the last flag of the confed- eracy. See " Origin and Progress of the Flag of the United States of America," by George Henry Preble, U. S. N. (8vo, Albany, 1872). FLAGELLANTS (Lat. flagellare, to scourge), a name given during the middle ages to various societies of penitents, who went about scourg- ing themselves in public. The first organiza- tion of this kind arose in 1056, and was due to St. Peter Damian; and his efforts were crowned with such success that persons were everywhere seen scourging and lacerating themselves to appease the wrath of heaven. This practice, though discountenanced by the ecclesiastical authorities, became more and more prevalent. In 1260 the calamities con- sequent upon the long wars between Guelphs and Ghibellines impressed the popular mind with the belief that the end of the world was at hand, and a guild of flagellants was founded in Perugia by one Rainier, a Dominican friar. A branch society was soon after established in Kome, and thence rapidly spread throughout Italy. Vast bodies of men, girded with ropes, marched in procession through the streets, and from city to city, singing lugubrious chants, scourging their naked shoulders, and calling on the people to repent. All hostilities ceased; and the effect of this display, though not last- ing, was at first irresistible. Such processions spread from Italy to other countries. In 1261 large numbers of flagellants were to be seen in Austria, Hungary, and Poland, scourging them- selves publicly during 33 days in memory of the 33 years of Christ's life upon earth. These displays were repressed for the time by the eivil magistrates ; but they recommenced on a FLAGG larger scale about 1349, when all Europe had been desolated by the "black death." The flagellants now proclaimed that Christ was about to come back on earth, that the world was to be purified by the baptism of blood, and that flagellation was to be the sole sacra- ment of this new era. These fanatics spread all over Europe, and a band of 120 reached London in the time of Edward III., but found no sympathy among the English people. On the continent women and boys joined in these processions. But to the excesses which char- acterized their devotion were soon added dis- orders of every kind. In several places they excited the populace to rise against the Jews, whom they represented as the cause of the "black death." In 1349 Pope Clement VI. issued a bull against them, and in 1372 they were denounced as heretics by Gregory XI. Early in the 15th century they reappeared in Germany ; but their leader, Conrad Schmidt, was burned as a heretic in 1414. In France the celebrated Gerson wrote against them in the name of the university of Paris, and a royal edict forbade their processions. In Italy and Spain some good men, like Vincent Ferrer, endeavored to encourage the practice of public flagellation, while restraining every excess and disorder; but after the council of Constance the flagellants disappeared from European his- tory. The name of flagellants was also given to some pious guilds in Catholic countries, ap- proved by the ecclesiastical authorities, but which are now almost entirely extinct. In southern France they existed under the name of the white flagellants (blancs lattus) down to the reign of Henry III., who established a branch of them in Paris, and joined them, with several of his most licentious courtiers. This effectually extinguished them. See Muratori, Antiquitates Italics Medii ^ffvi ; and espe- cially Forstemann, Die christlichen Geislerge- sellschaften. FLAGG. I. George Whiting, an American ar- tist, born in New Haven, Conn., June 26, 1816. His boyhood was passed in Charleston, S. C., where his juvenile portrait of Bishop England excited much injudicious admiration. He soon became a pupil of his uncle, Washington All- ston, whose instruction he enjoyed for two or three years. The pictures " A Boy listening to a Ghost Story," "A Young Greek," and "Jacob and Rachel at the Well," were painted at this time. A picture of the " Murder of the Princes," from "Richard III.," procured him the patronage of Luman Read of New York, through whose assistance he visited Europe and spent three years in study. He residel for six years in London, where he painted por- traits principally, but executed also a few genre pictures, among which the "Match Girl," "Haidee," and the "Scarlet Letter" received the most approbation. After his return he opened a studio in New Haven and painted a number of historical pictures, the chief of which are "The Landing of the Pilgrims," " The Land-