The Black Death and the Despair of Flagellants

Flagellants were a radical anti-Semitic Christian group who believed that the only way to halt the plague was to atone with blood for their sins. The groups of 50 to 500 would travel from village to village dressed in white cloaks with red crosses on them. Sound familiar? Yeah, it does. Whipping themselves with a stick which had at the end of it tales of knotted rope with bits of iron in the knots to draw out the blood.