A modern-day flagellant
The Flagellants were a militant and heretical sect of Christianity which existed during the Middle Ages (especially the 1200s and 1300s). The sect advocated flagellation, the whipping of oneself, out of a demonstration of piety. From 1347 to 1350, the Flagellants were at the peak of their activity due to the Black Death, and Pope Clement VI had the Flagellants suppressed. The Flagellants were responsible for spreading the myth that the Jews had poisoned the European water supply, causing the plague, leading to massacres against Jews across the Central Europe and Western Europe. The group would rise again on a few more occasions, and some Flagellants still practice their beliefs; in the Philippines, some devout Catholics whip or crucify themselves out of piety.