Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 07.djvu/777

* FLAG. with the flag, the salutes are made hy 'dipping* it, usually three times — that is, hauling it down a few feet and then running il up again. In the navy, when the flag is hoisted at 'colors' or hauled down at sunset, all officers and men are required to salute it. Flag captain, or fleet captain, is an unofficial title applied to the captain of the flagship. Be is announced as 'chief of stall" by a general order issued hy a commander in chief upon taking coin mand. A separate officer for this duty is no longer ordered in the United States Navy. The accompanying illustration shows the various United States flags and t he merchant flags of the prominent foreign nations. See plate of Na- tional Coats of Arms with Heraldry. Consult Preble, History of the Flag of lh<- United States (Boston, 1872). FLAG (probably ultimately identical with flag, banner, from its waving in the wind ) . A popular name for many endogenous plants with sword-shaped leaves, mostly growing in moist situations. It is sometimes particularly appro- priated to species of the genus Iris, or flower-de- luce; but is also given indiscriminately to plants of similar foliage, as the sweet flag (Acorns cala- mus) and the catstail reed (Typha). See Iris. FLAG'ELLANTS (Fr. flagellant, It. flagel- lunte, from Lat. flagellare, to scourge, from flagel- lum, scourge, diminutive of flagrum, whip). The name given to certain bodies of fanatical enthu- siasts, who at various intervals from the thir- teenth to the sixteenth century made their ap- pearance in different countries of Europe, pro- claiming the wrath of God against the corruption of the time, inviting sinners to atone for sin by self - inflicted scourgings or flagellations, and themselves publicly enforcing this exhortation by voluntary scourging of themselves, and by other forms of self-castigation. These fanatical move- ments recurred at frequent intervals. The most remarkable, however, are two in number. The first originated at Perugia in 1260. at a time when society in Italy was greatly disorganized by the long-continued struggles of the Guelph and Ghibelline factions. The disorders of the time favored the movement, and it soon became so formidable as to draw upon itself the suspicion of Manfred, the son of Frederick II., by whom it was vigorously suppressed. Early in 12G1 it had died out in Italy. Later offshoots of the party made their appearance in Bavaria, Aus- tria, Moravia, Bohemia, Poland, and France, when to their extravagant practices they added still greater extravagances of doctrine. In virtue of a pretended revelation, they asserted that the blood shed in self-flagellation had a share with the blood of our Lord in atoning for sin; they mutually confessed and absolved each other, and declared their voluntary penances to be a substi- tute for all the sacraments of the Church, and for all the ministrations of the clergy. The Jews were an object of special abhorrence, and suffered dreadfully from the fury of the flagellants in many of the towns of Germany and the Neth- erlands. The second outbreak of flagellantism originated in Germany in 1349. Its immediate oc- casion was the terror inspired by the plague known as the Black Death, which devastated Europe in a fearful manner during 1347-4!' (eon suit Hecker. Epidemics of the Middle Ages, Eng. trans., London, 184G). These fanatics went about 69; FLAGELLATA. the country in organized band each member bound bj an oath to render implicit obedience to i in' leader, to abstain from nil physical pleasures, and to submit to scourgings and tortures for a period of :s:s days in commemoration of the years of 1 1 1 « - life of Jesus. They wore ■< cloak with red crosses sewed upon it, and red crosses on t In- hat. In regular procession thej proceeded from town to town, and in the public place- threw themselves on the ground and scourged one an- other, singing pent itent ial song-., and exhorting the bystanders. The movement, attended with some benclieia I result - at fir I, <oon C0 me to he marked by excesses and immoralities. From Germany it spread to the Netherlands, Switzei land. Sweden, ami even England. The flagellants were rigorously excluded from Prance, but made their way into Avignon, then the Papal residence, and were condemned by (lenient VI. After 1350 hands of flagellants appeared only sporadically. In 1414 a new troop of flagellants, locally called Flegier, appeared in Thuringia and Lower Sax- ony under the lead of one Conrad Schmidt. They renewed and even exaggerated the wildest ex cesses of their predecessors, rejecting all the re- ceived religious usages, and all external worship, placing their entire reliance on faith and flagel- lation. Schmidt declared that the blood of scourg- ing was the true wedding garment of the Gospel, that it was more precious than the blood of the martyrs, and a sure passport to eternal life. The violence of these fanatics drew upon them the severest punishments of the Inquisition. Nearly 100, among them Schmidt, were burned at San- gershausen in 1414, and others perished in other places. Their doctrines, comprised in 50 articles, were condemned by the Council of Constance (1414-18). Nevertheless they appear occa- sionally until 1454, after which year they cease to be mentioned. Independent of this movement bands of 'scourgers' appeared in Spain, southern France, and North Italy toward the close of the fourteenth century, under the lead of Vincent Ferrer. They wore a long white garment, veil- ing head and features, and from this received the name of albi, white. In large companies they went through the towns, praying, singing, and scourging one another. After the Council of Constance they gradually disappeared. Flagellation as an ecclesiastical punishment has been used from the fifth century on clerical, monastic, and lay individuals. As a means of self-discipline and aid in attaining the heights of ascetic piety it found early use in the religious communities. 'The Roman Catholic Church holds the lawfulness, and even the meritorious char- acter, of voluntary self-chastisement, if under- taken with due dispositions, practiced without ostentation or fanaticism, and animated by a lively faith and a firm hope in the merits of Christ (cf. I. Cor. ix. 27; Col. iii. 5). This is the self-castigation known under the name of 'the discipline.' On the general subject, consult : Forstemann. Die christlichen Qeisslergesell- schaften (Halle, 1828) ; Cooper, Flagellation and the Flagellants (London. 189(5) ; Lea. History of the Inquisition (New York, 1875), and History of Auricular Confession and Indulgences (New York, 1890) : Heimbucher, Die Orden vmd Kongre- gationen der Katlwlischen Kirche (Paderborn, 1897). FLAGELLATA, flaj'el-la'ta (Neo-Lat. nom. pi., from Lat. flagellum, whip). In zoology, a