Albati

Albati

a sect so called from the white garments they wore. They entered Italy from the Alps about 1400, having as their guide a priest clothed in white, and a crucifix in his hand. He was deemed a saint, and his followers multiplied so fast that Pope Boniface IX, growing jealous of the augmenting power of the leader, sent soldiers, who put him to death and dispersed his followers. (See Siber, De Albatis, Lips. 1736.) They are said (by their enemies and persecutors, however) to have been dissolute in their habits, while, at the same time, they professed to weep and sorrow for the sins and calamities of the times. Mosheim, Church History, 2, 467.