So great was the force of all this that the people fell into a state of religious terror.

They believed that the vengeance of a wrathful God must immediately descend upon the country, and as a penance the practice of flagellation was introduced.
Against this horrible atonement came a violent reaction, and out of the reaction attempts to continue in a soberer and more rational form the propitiatory ideas of the flagellants.

The chief furtherers of these reforms were lay fraternities, calling themselves Disciplinati di Gesu Cristo.

From the very outset these fraternities practised the singing of hymns in Italian, instead of Latin, the church language.

These hymns dealt chiefly with the Passion.