PASTORELS (OF. pastorel, Fr. pastoral, from Lat. pastorals, relating to a shepherd). A name given to certain disorderly bands which appeared in France during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. They were recruited from the lower orders of society, including many shep herds, whence the name. In the year 1251 a certain Jacob, who claimed to be Lord of Hun gary, and is commonly known as Jacob of Hun gary, appeared as their leader in Flanders. He was an unprincipled adventurer and fanatic, but an able man. The King, Louis IX. (Saint Louis), was then iu the East, engaged in the dis astrous Seventh Crusade, and the preceding year had been a prisoner in the hands of the Mo hammedans. Jacob preached that God had rejected princes and the mighty and would free the Holy Land by means of the common people. He claimed to have special revelations and assumed ecclesiastical functions. He formed his fol
lowers in well-organizAA companies. and, osten sibly on the way to Palestine. they began to overrun the country. The true character of the movement soon became evident. The rulers were attacked, property was destroyed, priests and monks were murdered, and the Jews in particular suffered cruel persecution. The disorders were ultimately put down with a firm hand. Jacob was killed while haranguing a crowd in Paris, or, according to another account, in a conflict at Bourges. Seventy years later, under Philip V., similar disorders broke out under the saute pre text. These bands of Pastorels ultimately threat ened to attack Avignon, when the Pope, John XXII., excommunicated them, and the Seneschal of Careassone dispersed them with an army.