Pastoureaux

the self-styled “shepherds of God,” who triggered a series of peasant antifeudal and, in part, anti-Catholic uprisings in northeastern France and in Belgium in the 13th and first half of the 14th centuries.

In the Pastoureaux movement, with its mixture of religious fervor and primitive rebellion, the traits of a peasant and plebeian heresy were markedly present. The first uprising of the Pastoureaux occurred in 1214. The most significant uprisings were those of 1251 and 1320, both of which involved the urban poor as well as the peasantry. According to the somewhat inflated figures supplied by chroniclers, more than 100,000 Pastoureaux took part in the uprising of 1251 at its highest point. The 1320 uprising was distinctive in that it was directed against both feudal landlords and urban usurers.