the wrath of an angry God, who was punishing his followers. In an effort to appease God, lay religious groups advocated punishing their own flesh to show God how they regretted their personal failures. Depictions of flagellation in confraternal art These battuti or disciplinati confraternities used artists to help dramatize their belief in the importance of flagellation. The gonfalon, or banner carried by the confraternities during their processions, often depicted this concept. Laura Fenley describes the impact of these gonfaloni and their message to the communities of worshippers:One typical plague gonfalone is Benedetto Bonfigli’s painting of 1464, now in the church of San Francesco at Prato in Perugia, which likens the plague to arrows thrown down at a sinful humanity by an angry God. The massive figure of the merciful Virgin protectively envelops the citizens of Perugia with her outstretched mantle while the image of Death below claims the lives of those outside the city walls. Seven years later, Bonfigli was commissioned by the flagellant confraternity of San Benedetto dia Frustati to paint a second banner when the city was free of disease. This second painting, called the Gonfalone di S. Maria Nuova, had two major purposes. The painting was carried by the flagellants during ‘crisis processionals’ whenever the city was threatened by drought, flood, siege, or pestilence. In addition, this gonfalone promoted the flagellant confraternity, which was in rivalry with the city’s other confraternities. As Fenley explains, the painting portrays "Christ brandishing arrows and pointing to his own wounds in reminder of the constant threat of the plague, crisis, and the eternal judgment." Flagellant confraternities like this one frequently reminded their citizens of the flagellation of Jesus in order to promote and strengthen their own devotion to flagellation. Impact of the Black Death on the practice of flagellation With the plague as a reality in their daily life, the populations of these Central Italian cities were no strangers to fear and to the horror of the Black Death. Depictions of the wrath of God and the sacrifice of Jesus in the processional gonfaloni heightened their urgency to find ways to appease God and their own guilt. The confraternity flagellations provided a real and dramatic sense of atonement. Thus, the plague aided in institutionalizing flagellation as part of personal devotion to God. Eventual absorption of confraternities into political structure of the Signori The confraternities were instrumental in providing a smooth