The Powers of the Mortification of the Flesh

Some of the most interesting theological reasoning that appeared in christian europe in response to the plague, which is picking up pre existing ideas about the powers of the mortification of the flesh. These groups practising the mortifying of the flesh in public rituals as a meansof seeking penance during times of great suffering and fear. You find these during the thirteenth century. They had already reached the point of heresy, or the charge of heresy by the church, as it became a sort of grass roots means of removing one's sin effectively. Because what do you need church for when the power to remove sins resides in your own hands and your own flails? Even more so when the