Note 8 — Chapter I · THE DANCING MANIA IN GERMANY AND THE NETHERLANDS.

The Limburg Chronicle, published by C. D. Vogel, Marburg, 1828. 8vo. p. 27. This singular phenomenon cannot but remind us of the “Demon of Fashion,” of the middle ages. Extravagant as the love of dress was after the middle of the fourteenth century, the opposition of the enemies of fashion was equally great, and they let slip no opportunity of crying down every change or innovation as the work of the devil. Hence it is extremely probable that the fanatic penitential sermons of zealous priests excited this singular aversion of the St. Vitus dancers. In later times also, signs and wonders took place, on account of things equally insignificant, and the fury of the possessed was directed against the fashions. Compare Möhsen’s History of the Sciences in the Mark of Brandenburg, p. 498. f.