Pastorelli

PASTORELLI. - The name of p. (pastoureaux) was given in the Middle Ages to certain bands of peasants, among whom numerous shepherds were counted, who in rising up against their masters put forward religious pretexts, such as that of the Crusade.

Several uprisings of p. are known: 1) during the reign of Philip Augustus, in 1185-86, some peasants expelled from their huts because of the continuous wars among the feudal lords organized themselves into bands and plundered the castles. The young King was forced to undertake personally a punitive expedition against them. They defended themselves fiercely, but were for the most part massacred. This first revolt of the p., as it was called, was a simple riot, without religious motivation. 2) Toward the end of the reign of Philip Augustus, in 1214, a second uprising of p. took place, in Berry, but it was rapidly suppressed. 3) The principal analogous movement took place when King St. Louis was on the Crusade, in 1251. Having spread the news that the King had been taken prisoner, during the Easter festivities, a violent emotion took hold of the countryside. Northern France set the example: bands of commoners, joined by women and children, began to go from village to village, saying that it was necessary to go to free the King and conquer Jerusalem. They immediately found a leader, called the "Master of Hungary": he was a man of about 60 years of uncertain origin, pale, thin, with a long beard, who spoke in an inspiring way. It has been believed that he was a monk of Citeaux, by the name of James. It is certain, however, that the "Master of Hungary" could speak in French, in Flemish and in Latin. From Brabant, from Hainaut, he crossed Flanders, Picardy; the army kept growing ever larger as far as Paris. He preached the Crusade not to the gentlemen nor to the rich, whose pride God rejected, but to the poor and the humble, to whom God had reserved the glory of freeing the King and the Holy Places. Near Paris, the p. were "sixty thousand," a very considerable number for those times. "Their leader - attests the guardian of the Franciscans of Paris - blesses the people, preaches, distributes crosses (for the Crusade); he has established a new Baptism and performs false miracles. When he reached Paris, the popular passion against the priests was such that, in a few days, several of them were killed, thrown into the sea, wounded" (Langlois, v. bibl., p. 80). The regent, Blanche of Castile, impressed by such a display of forces, granted an audience to the Master of Hungary, but shortly afterward the p., intoxicated by their successes, committed excesses and crimes against religious things and persons; therefore the Regent gave the order to attack them. The Master of Hungary perished in combat near Villeneuve-sur-Cher. The remnants of the band were hunted everywhere; some were hanged at Aigues-Mortes, Bordeaux, and also in England. This kind of anticlerical riot had no sequel.

4) Another analogous movement developed in 1320, under King Philip V the Long. Again this time, the p. claimed to liberate the Holy Land. They were led by an apostate monk and an excommunicated priest; their fury was directed above all against the Jews. They committed many excesses, reached Paris on one side, Avignon on the other. The Pope excommunicated them. Repressed, their movement ceased at once.

Leone Cristiani