Dancers
Charles Buck Theological Dictionary [1]
A sect which sprung up about 1373 in Flanders, and places about. It was their custom all of a sudden to fall a dancing, and, holding each other's hands, to continue thereat, till, being suffocated with the extraordinary violence, they fell down breathless together. During these intervals of vehement agitation they pretended to be favoured with wonderful visions. Like the Whippers, they roved from place to place, begging their victuals, holding their secret assemblies, and treating the priesthood and worship of the church with the utmost contempt. Thus we find, as Dr. Haweis observes, that the French Convulsionists and the Welch Jumpers have had predecessors of the same stamp. There is nothing new under the sun. Haweis, and Mosheim's Ch. Hist. Cent. 14.
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [2]
a sect which appeared on the Rhine and in the Netherlands about 1374. They paraded the streets, entered houses and churches half naked, crowned with garlands, dancing and singing, uttering unknown names, falling senseless on the ground, and exhibiting other marks of demoniacal agitation. It was customary for persons of both sexes, in their public worship, to begin dancing; and, holding each other's hands, to continue their extraordinary violence till they fell down on the ground breathless. They affirmed that during these intervals of vehement agitation they were favored with wonderful visions. They evinced open contempt for the authority, rites, and doctrines of the Roman Church, and were considered as possessed with devils. The same phenomena appeared at Strasburg in 1418. — Mosheim, Ch. Hist. 2:416; Gieseler, Ch. History, § 121.
