Dancers (Dansatores, Chorizanttes)

DANCERS (DANSATORES, CHORIZANTES): A set of wild enthusiasts in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, whose peculiarities offered one of those strange mixtures of physical, spiritual, and moral elements to be found in the popular life of the Middle Ages. They made their appear ance at Aachen in the Summer of 1374, coming from southern Germany, and then spread east ward to Cologne, southward to Metz, and westward into Hainault. Their membership was numbered by thousands, of both sexes, and almost exclusively from the lower classes. They danced madly through the streets and in and out of the churches for hours at a time, until they were completely exhausted. They paid no attention to the amazed spectators, their minds being taken up with the contemplation of the most fantastic visions. Some times they imagined that they were wading in a stream of blood, to get out of which they leaped wildly in the sir; others saw heaven opened and Christ upon his throne. The morbid mental condition which undoubtedly underlay these actions took the form of the popular notions of the day. It is probable that in many cases it was only simulated, and that lazy rascals joined and imitated the Dancers to get a share in the gifts which were freely bestowed upon them; and these excited mobs offered a natural breeding-ground for immorality of all kinds. The clergy and the people at large, however, sought no natural psychological explanation of the phenomena, but regarded the dancers as demoniacs; the priests attempted to help them by exorcism, while the populace was inclined to attribute their misfortune to unworthy priests, whose baptism had not sufficient validity to expel the demons. The dancers in their delirium invoked St. John Baptist, which may be connected with the fact that the outbreak occurred while the old popular celebration of his festival at midsummer, with its many excesses, was still observed. A Simi lar epidemic occurred at Strasburg in 1418. Here it was customary to invoke St. Vitus for the cure of the malady, on account of the old tradition which has led to the application of the name " St. Vitus's dance " to the disease technically known as chorea. (A. HAucs.) BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. F. C. Hecker, Die growen Voikekrank heiten des Mitteialtars, ed. A. Hirsch, pp. 143-193, Berlin, 1865, Eng. tranal. of earlier edition, pp. 81-138, London, 1846 (where the authorities are given and reference made to similar phenomena elsewhere); Encyyciopadia B ri tannica, xotiii. 60, s.v. " Tarantiem "; P. Fr6ddricq, Corpus documentorum inquisitionis Neerlandica, i . 231 sqq., Ghent, 1889; idem, De wcten des paesslaars to der dansers in de Nedarlanden, Brussels, 1897.

DANCING: Dancing as a religious observance occupied an important place in the ceremonies of all ancient religions. It is connected with sacred processions (as in the Babylonian and Egyptian festivals) and with community rites at the altar, the sacred tree, or the sacred atone (cf., e.g., the account of such dances which comes from Cyprus, M. H. Ohnefalsch-Richter, Kypros, die BiTiel and Homer, Berlin, 1893, Eng. tranal., London, 1893, plates lxxxiii. 6, exxvii. 4, etc.). In the Mohammedan festival at Mecca the march around the Kaaba still ' remains the culminating point of the celebration. The Old Testament reports that at the great Baal sacrifice on Mt. Carmel the priests went " limping " around the altar (I Kings xviii. 26, R. V. margin), and mention is made also of dancing around the golden calf (Ex. xxxii. 19). Sacred processions fell into disuse in the worship of Yahweh after the ark was transferred to Solomon's Temple; but the bringing of the ark into the Temple (I Kings viii. 1 aqq.) and its conveyance to Zion (II Sam. vi. 5) were accomplished in the manner usual in sacred processions. David and all Israel danced before the ark. Processions and dances without the ark formed an important part of festal celebrations (cf. the description of such a procession in Ps. lxviii. 25), at triumphal festivals (Ex. xv. 20; Judges xi. 34), and at the annual festival at Shiloh (Judges xxi. 21). Indeed, the whole celebration takes its name from them, the Hebrew hhagg signifies the festival procession or dance. This remained true till the latest period of Jewish history. For the Psalmist the dance around the altar was part of the proper praise of God (Ps. cxlix. 3, cl. 4). On the evening of the feast of atonement the celebration was closed by dances of the maidens of Jerusalem in the vineyards (Taanit iv. 8). A peculiarity of the feast of tabernacles was the processions of those carrying branches of citron and'��palm around the altar of burnt offering, and even more especially the torchdances of the most prominent men on the night between the first and second days of the festival. .

Naturally, dancing also formed a part of the secular festivals (Jer. xxxi. 4, 13; Matt. xi. 17; Luke vii. 32, xv. 25), and at the banquets of the nobles dancing women could not have been lacking (cf. the Egyptian customs), although they are mentioned nowhere in the Old Testament (but note the dance of the daughter of Herodias, Matt. xiv. 6). I. BENZINQER.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: John Spencer, in B. Ugolinus, Thesaurus antiquitatum s acrarum, gaii. 1133, 34 vole., Venice, 1744 1769; R. Vow, Der Tans and seine GeschiAte, Berlin, 1868; F. Delitsseh, Iris, pp. 189-206, London, 1889; W. Smith, Dictionary/ of (creek and Roman Antiquities, ii. 592-594, ib. 1891; H. B. Tristram, Eastern Customs, pp. 207-210, ib.1894; Mrs. L. Grove, Dancing, ib.1895; M. Emmanuel, La Danse grecque antique, d'aprh lei monuments hgurks,

Paris, 1876; DB, i. 549-551; EB, i. 998-1001; JE, iv. 424-426.

DANEAU, dd"n5' (DANNAZUS), LAMBERT:

French Protestant; b. at Besugency-sur-Loire (15 m. s.w. of Orl4ans) 1530; d. at Castres (80 m. w. of Montpellier) Nov. 11, 1595. He was of Roman Catholic family, began the study of law at Orldans, went to Paris in 1547, :and returned to

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