WHITE BRETHREN, CONFRATERNITY OF THE. – Penitents dressed in white, widespread in Italy in the last years of the 14th century.
At Chieri, the Chronicon parvum Ripaltae recounts, some common folk, weary of the damage caused by Facino Cane in the war between Savoy and Montferrat, took to the streets shouting “peace and mercy,” scourging themselves to draw blood as a sign of penance. Thus began the popular religious movement of the “flagellants” known as the B., which spread through Florence
and recited at the Accademia della Crusca, Florence 1766; V. FEDERICI, GIACOMO, Il miracolo del crocefisso della compagnia dei Bianchi a Sutri, in Miscell. nuziale Fedele-De Fabrizii, Naples 1908, pp. 107 ff.; G. M. Monti, Un laudario umbro quattrocentesco dei B., Città di Castello 1920. Benvenuto Matteucci