PASTORELLI. — The name p. (pastoureaux) was given in the Middle Ages to certain bands of peasants, among whom there were many shepherds, who, when 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 Filippo Augusto, in 1185–86, some peasants driven from their huts because of the continual wars between the feudal lords organized themselves into bands and plundered the castles. The young King was forced to undertake a punitive expedition against them personally. They defended themselves vigorously, but were largely massacred. This first revolt of the p., as it was called, was a simple uprising, without religious motivation. 2) Toward the end of the reign of Filippo Augusto, in 1214, a second uprising of p. took place in Berry, but it was quickly suppressed. 3) The principal analogous movement occurred when King s. Luigi was in the Crusade, in 1251. When the news spread that the King had been taken prisoner, during the Easter festivities, a violent emotion seized the countryside. Northern France gave the example: bands of common people, joined by women and children, began to go from village to village, saying that it was necessary to go and free the King and conquer Jerusalem. They soon found a leader, called the “Master of Hungary”: he was an old man of about sixty years, of uncertain origin, pale and thin, with a long beard, who spoke in an enthralling manner. It was believed that he was a Cistercian monk named Giacomo. It is certain, however, that the “Master of Hungary” knew how to speak French, Flemish, and Latin. From Brabant and Hainaut, he crossed Flanders and Picardy; the army continued to grow until it reached Paris. He preached the Crusade not to gentlemen or the rich, whose pride God rejected, but to the poor and humble, to whom God had reserved the glory of freeing the King and the Holy Places. Beneath Paris, the p. numbered “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 instituted a new Baptism and performs false miracles. When he arrived in Paris, popular passion against the priests was such that, within a few days, several of them were killed, thrown into the sea, or wounded” (Langlois, V. BIBLICA., p. 80). The regent, Bianca di Castiglia, impressed by such a display of force, granted an audience to the Master of Hungary; but shortly afterward the p., intoxicated by their successes, committed excesses and crimes against religious persons and property. The Regent therefore ordered them to be attacked. The Master of Hungary perished in combat near Villeneuve-sur-Cher. The remnants of the band were pursued everywhere; some of them were hanged at Aigues-Mortes and Bordeaux, and also in England. This sort of anticlerical uprising had no further consequences.
4) Another analogous movement developed in 1320, under King Filippo V il Lungo. This time too, the p. claimed to be freeing 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, reaching Paris on one side and Avignon on the other. The Pope excommunicated them. Once suppressed, their movement immediately came to an end.