death have been subjects of medical inquiry in all
countries, it remained for our own time to discover a more
scientific explanation than those previously advanced. The
malady is now identified by pathologists with the bubonic
plague, which at intervals still afflicts India and other
oriental lands, and has in recent years been a cause of
apprehension at more than one American seaport.
It is called _bubonic_--from the Greek _boubon_
("groin")--because it attacks the lymphatic glands of the
groins, armpits, neck, and other parts of the body. Among
its leading symptoms are headache, fever, vertigo, vomiting,
prostration, etc., with dark purple spots or a mottled
appearance upon the skin. Death in severe cases usually
occurs within forty-eight hours. Bacteriologists are now
generally agreed that the disorder is due to a bacillus
identified by investigators both in India and in western
countries.
The first historic appearance of the black death in Europe
was at Constantinople, A.D. 543. But far more widespread and
terrible were its ravages in the fourteenth century, when
they were almost world-wide. Of the dreadful visitation in
Europe then, we are fortunate to have the striking account
of Dr. Hecker, which follows.
The name "black death" was given to the disease in the more
northern parts of Europe--from the dark spots on the skin
above mentioned--while in Italy it was called _la mortalega
grande_ ("the great mortality"). From Italy came almost the
only credible accounts of the manner of living, and of the
ruin caused among the people in their more private life,
during the pestilence; and the subjoined account of what was
seen in Florence is of special interest as being from no
less an eye-witness than Boccaccio.
J. F. C. HECKER
The nature of the first plague in China is unknown. We have no certain
intelligence of the disease until it entered the western countries of
Asia. Here it showed itself as the oriental plague with inflammation of
the lungs; in which form it probably also may have begun in China--that
is to say, as a malady which spreads, more than any other, by contagion;
a contagion that in ordinary pestilences requires immediate contact, and
only under unfavorable circumstances of rare occurrence is communicated
by the mere approach to the sick.
The share which this cause had in the spreading of the plague over the
whole earth was certainly very great; and the opinion that the black
death might have been excluded from Western Europe, by good regulations,
similar to those which are now in use, would have all the support of
modern experience, provided it could be proved that this plague had been
actually imported from the East; or that the oriental plague in general,
whenever it appears in Europe, has its origin in Asia or Egypt. Such a
proof, however, can by no means be produced so as to enforce conviction.
The plague was, however, known in Europe before nations were united by
the bonds of commerce and social intercourse; hence there is ground for
supposing that it sprung up spontaneously, in consequence of the rude
manner of living and the uncultivated state of the earth; influences
which peculiarly favor the origin of severe diseases. We need not go
back to the earlier centuries, for the fourteenth itself, before it had
half expired, was visited by five or six pestilences.
If, therefore, we consider the peculiar property of the plague, that in
countries which it has once visited it remains for a long time in a
milder form, and that the epidemic influences of 1342, when it had
appeared for the last time, were particularly favorable to its
unperceived continuance, till 1348, we come to the notion that in this
eventful year also, the germs of plague existed in Southern Europe,
which might be vivified by atmospherical deteriorations. Thus, at least
in part, the black plague may have originated in Europe itself. The
corruption of the atmosphere came from the East; but the disease itself
came not upon the wings of the wind, but was only excited and increased
by the atmosphere where it had previously existed.
This source of the black plague was not, however, the only one; for, far
more powerful than the excitement of the latent elements of the plague
by atmospheric influences was the effect of the contagion communicated
from one people to another, on the great roads, and in the harbors of
the Mediterranean. From China, the route of the caravans lay to the
north of the Caspian Sea, through Central Asia to Tauris. Here ships
were ready to take the produce of the East to Constantinople, the
capital of commerce and the medium of connection between Asia, Europe,
and Africa. Other caravans went from India to Asia Minor, and touched at
the cities south of the Caspian Sea, and lastly from Bagdad, through
Arabia to Egypt; also the maritime communication on the Red Sea, from
India to Arabia and Egypt, was not inconsiderable. In all these
directions contagion made its way; and doubtless Constantinople and the
harbors of Asia Minor are to be regarded as the _foci_ of infection;
whence it radiated to the most distant seaports and islands.
To Constantinople the plague had been brought from the northern coast of
the Black Sea, after it had depopulated the countries between those
routes of commerce and appeared as early as 1347, in Cyprus, Sicily,
Marseilles, and some of the seaports of Italy. The remaining islands of
the Mediterranean, particularly Sardinia, Corsica, and Majorca, were
visited in succession. _Foci_ of contagion existed also in full activity
along the whole southern coast of Europe, when, in January, 1348, the
plague appeared in Avignon, and in other cities in the South of France
and North of Italy, as well as in Spain.
The precise days of its eruption in the individual towns are no longer
to be ascertained; but it was not simultaneous; for in Florence the
disease appeared in the beginning of April; in Cesena, the 1st of June;
and place after place was attacked throughout the whole year; so that
the plague, after it had passed through the whole of France and Germany,
where, however, it did not make its ravages until the following year,
did not break out till August in England; where it advanced so
gradually that a period of three months elapsed before it reached
London. The northern kingdoms were attacked by it in 1349; Sweden,
indeed, not until November of that year, almost two years after its
eruption in Avignon. Poland received the plague in 1349, probably from
Germany, if not from the northern countries; but in Russia it did not
make its appearance until 1351, more than three years after it had
broken out in Constantinople. Instead of advancing in a northwesterly
direction from Tauris and from the Caspian Sea, it had thus made the
great circuit of the Black Sea, by way of Constantinople, Southern and
Central Europe, England, the northern kingdoms and Poland, before it
reached the Russian territories; a phenomenon which has not again
occurred with respect to more recent pestilences originating in Asia.
We have no certain measure by which to estimate the ravages of the black
plague. Let us go back for a moment to the fourteenth century. The
people were yet but little civilized. Human life was little regarded;
governments concerned not themselves about the numbers of their
subjects, for whose welfare it was incumbent on them to provide. Thus,
the first requisite for estimating the loss of human life--namely, a
knowledge of the amount of the population--is altogether wanting.
Cairo lost daily, when the plague was raging with its greatest violence,
from ten thousand to fifteen thousand, being as many as, in modern
times, great plagues have carried off during their whole course. In
China, more than thirteen millions are said to have died; and this is in
correspondence with the certainly exaggerated accounts from the rest of
Asia. India was depopulated. Tartary, the Tartar kingdom of Kaptschak,
Mesopotamia, Syria, Armenia, were covered with dead bodies; the Kurds
fled in vain to the mountains. In Caramania and Cæsarea, none was left
alive. On the roads, in the camps, in the caravansaries, unburied bodies
were seen; and a few cities only remained, in an unaccountable manner,
free. In Aleppo, five hundred died daily; twenty-two thousand people and
most of the animals were carried off in Gaza within six weeks. Cyprus
lost almost all its inhabitants; and ships without crews were often seen
in the Mediterranean, as afterward in the North Sea, driving about and
spreading the plague wherever they went on shore. It was reported to
Pope Clement, at Avignon, that throughout the East, probably with the
exception of China, twenty-three million eight hundred and forty
thousand people had fallen victims to the plague.
Lübeck, which could no longer contain the multitudes that flocked to it,
was thrown into such consternation on the eruption of the plague that
the citizens destroyed themselves, as if in frenzy. When the plague
ceased, men thought they were still wandering among the dead, so
appalling was the livid aspect of the survivors, in consequence of the
anxiety they had undergone, and the unavoidable infection of the air.
Many other cities probably presented a similar appearance; and small
country towns and villages, estimated at two hundred thousand
population, were bereft of all their inhabitants.
In many places in France not more than two out of twenty of the
inhabitants were left alive. Two queens, one bishop, and great numbers
of other distinguished persons fell a sacrifice to it, and more than
five hundred a day died in the Hôtel-Dieu, under the faithful care of
the religious women, whose disinterested courage, in this age of horror,
displayed the most beautiful traits of human virtue.
The church-yards were soon unable to contain the dead, and many houses,
left without inhabitants, fell to ruins. In Avignon, the Pope found it
necessary to consecrate the Rhone, that bodies might be thrown into the
river without delay, as the church-yards would no longer hold them.
In Vienna, where for some time twelve hundred inhabitants died daily,
the interment of corpses in the church-yards and within the churches was
forthwith prohibited, and the dead were then arranged in layers, by
thousands, in six large pits outside the city. In many places it was
rumored that plague patients were buried alive, and thus the horror of
the distressed people was everywhere increased. In Erfurt, after the
church-yards were filled, twelve thousand corpses were thrown into
eleven great pits; and the like might be stated with respect to all the
larger cities. Funeral ceremonies, the last consolation of the
survivors, were everywhere impracticable.
In all Germany there seem to have died only one million two hundred and
forty-four thousand four hundred and thirty-four inhabitants; this
country, however, was more spared than others. Italy was most severely
visited. It is said to have lost half its inhabitants; in Sardinia and
Corsica, according to the account of John Villani, who was himself
carried off by the black plague, scarcely a third part of the population
remained alive; and the Venetians engaged ships at a high rate to
retreat to the islands; so that, after the plague had carried off
three-fourths of her inhabitants, their proud city was left forlorn and
desolate. In Florence it was prohibited to publish the numbers of the
dead and to toll the bells at their funerals, in order that the living
might not abandon themselves to despair.
In England most of the great cities suffered incredible losses; above
all, Yarmouth, in which seven thousand and fifty-two died; Bristol,
Oxford, Norwich, Leicester, York, and London, where, in one
burial-ground alone, there were interred upward of fifty thousand
corpses, arranged in layers, in large pits. It is said that in the whole
country scarcely a tenth part remained alive. Morals were deteriorated
everywhere, and public worship was, in a great measure, laid aside, in
many places the churches being bereft of their priests. The instruction
of the people was impeded, covetousness became general; and when
tranquillity was restored, the great increase of lawyers was
astonishing, to whom the endless disputes regarding inheritances offered
a rich harvest. The want of priests, too, throughout the country,
operated very detrimentally upon the people. The lower classes were most
exposed to the ravages of the plague, while the houses of the nobility
were, in proportion, much more spared. The sittings of parliament, of
the king's bench, and of most of the other courts were suspended as long
as the malady raged.
Ireland was much less heavily visited than England. The disease seems to
have scarcely reached the mountainous districts of that kingdom; and
Scotland, too, would, perhaps, have remained free had not the Scots
availed themselves of the misfortune of the English, to make an
irruption into their territory, which terminated in the destruction of
their army, by the plague and by the sword, and the extension of the
pestilence, through those who escaped, over the whole country.
In England the plague was soon accompanied by a fatal murrain among the
cattle. Of what nature this murrain may have been can no more be
determined than whether it originated from communication with the plague
patients or from other causes. There was everywhere a great rise in the
price of food. For a whole year, until it terminated in August, 1349,
the black plague prevailed and everywhere poisoned the springs of
comfort and prosperity. In other countries it generally lasted only half
a year, but returned frequently in individual places. Spain was
uninterruptedly ravaged by the black plague till after the year 1350, to
which the frequent internal feuds and the wars with the Moors not a
little contributed. Alfonso XI, whose passion for war carried him too
far, died of it at the siege of Gibraltar, March 26, 1350. He was the
only king in Europe who fell a sacrifice to it. The mortality seems to
have been less in Spain than in Italy, and about as considerable as in
France.
The whole period during which the black plague raged with destructive
violence in Europe was, with the exception of Russia, from 1347 to 1350.
The plagues which in the sequel often returned until 1383, we do not
consider as belonging to the "great mortality."
The premature celebration of the Jubilee, to which Clement VI cited the
faithful to Rome 1350, during the great epidemic, caused a new eruption
of the plague, from which it is said that scarcely one in a hundred of
the pilgrims escaped. Italy was, in consequence, depopulated anew; and
those who returned spread poison and corruption of morals in all
directions.
The changes which occurred about this period in the North of Europe are
sufficiently memorable. In Sweden two princes died--Haken and Canute,
half-brothers of King Magnus; and in Westgothland alone four hundred and
sixty-six priests. The inhabitants of Iceland and Greenland found in the
coldness of their inhospitable climate no protection against the
southern enemy who had penetrated to them from happier countries. The
plague wrought great havoc among them. In Denmark and Norway, however,
people were so occupied with their own misery that the accustomed
voyages to Greenland ceased.
In Russia the black plague did not break out until 1351, after it had
already passed through the South and North of Europe. The mortality was
extraordinarily great. In Russia, too, the voice of nature was silenced
by fear and horror. In the hour of danger, fathers and mothers deserted
their children, and children their parents.
Of all the estimates of the number of lives lost in Europe, the most
probable is that altogether a fourth part of the inhabitants were
carried off. It may be assumed, without exaggeration, that Europe lost
during the black death twenty-five million inhabitants.
That her nations could so quickly recover from so fearful a visitation,
and, without retrograding more than they actually did, could so develop
their energies in the following century, is a most convincing proof of
the indestructibility of human society as a whole. To assume, however,
that it did not suffer any essential change internally, because in
appearance everything remained as before, is inconsistent with a just
view of cause and effect. Many historians seem to have adopted such an
opinion; hence, most of them have touched but superficially on the
"great mortality" of the fourteenth century. We for our part are
convinced that in the history of the world the black death is one of the
most important events which have prepared the way for the present state
of Europe.
He who studies the human mind with attention, and forms a deliberate
judgment on the intellectual powers which set people and states in
motion, may, perhaps, find some proofs of this assertion in the
following observations. At that time the advancement of the hierarchy
was, in most countries, extraordinary; for the Church acquired treasures
and large properties in land, even to a greater extent than after the
crusades; but experience has demonstrated that such a state of things is
ruinous to the people, and causes them to retrograde, as was evinced on
this occasion.
After the cessation of the black plague, a greater fecundity in women
was everywhere remarkable; marriages were prolific; and double and
treble births were more frequent than at other times. After the "great
mortality" the children were said to have got fewer teeth than before;
at which contemporaries were mightily shocked, and even later writers
have felt surprise. Some writers of authority published their opinions
on this subject. Others copied from them, without seeing for themselves,
and thus the world believed in the miracle of an imperfection in the
human body which had been caused by the black plague.
The people gradually consoled themselves after the sufferings which they
had undergone; the dead were lamented and forgotten; and in the stirring
vicissitudes of existence the world belonged to the living.
The mental shock sustained by all nations during the prevalence of the
black plague is without parallel and beyond description. In the eyes of
the timorous, danger was the certain harbinger of death; many fell
victims to fear on the first appearance of the distemper, and the most
stout-hearted lost their confidence. The pious closed their accounts
with the world; their only remaining desire was for a participation in
the consolations of religion. Repentance seized the transgressor,
admonishing him to consecrate his remaining hours to the exercise of
Christian virtues. Children were frequently seen, while laboring under
the plague, breathing out their spirit with prayer and songs of
thanksgiving. An awful sense of contrition seized Christians everywhere;
they resolved to forsake their vices, to make restitution for past
offences, before they were summoned hence, to seek reconciliation with
their Maker, and to avert, by self-chastisement, the punishment due to
their former sins.
Human nature would be exalted could the countless noble actions which,
in times of most imminent danger, were performed in secret, be recorded
for future generations. They, however, have no influence on the course
of worldly events. They are known only to silent eye-witnesses, and soon
fall into oblivion. But hypocrisy, illusion, and bigotry stalk abroad
undaunted; they desecrate what is noble, they pervert what is divine, to
the unholy purposes of selfishness; which hurries along every good
feeling in the false excitement of the age. Thus it was in the years of
this plague.
In the fourteenth century the monastic system was still in its full
vigor, the power of the religious orders and brotherhoods was revered by
the people, and the hierarchy was still formidable to the temporal
power. It was, therefore, in the natural constitution of society that
bigoted zeal, which in such times makes a show of public acts of
penance, should avail itself of the semblance of religion. But this took
place in such a manner that unbridled, self-willed penitence degenerated
into luke-warmness, renounced obedience to the hierarchy, and prepared a
fearful opposition to the Church, paralyzed as it was by antiquated
forms.
While all countries were filled with lamentations and woe, there first
arose in Hungary, and afterward in Germany, the Brotherhood of the
Flagellants, called also the Brethren of the Cross, or Cross-bearers,
who took upon themselves the repentance of the people for the sins they
had committed, and offered prayers and supplications for the averting of
this plague. This order consisted chiefly of persons of the lower class,
who were either actuated by sincere contrition or who joyfully availed
themselves of this pretext for idleness and were hurried along with the
tide of distracting frenzy. But as these brotherhoods gained in repute,
and were welcomed by the people with veneration and enthusiasm, many
nobles and ecclesiastics ranged themselves under their standard; and
their bands were not unfrequently augmented by children, honorable
women, and nuns.
They marched through the cities with leaders and singers, their heads
covered as far as the eyes, their look fixed on the ground, with every
token of contrition and mourning. They were robed in sombre garments,
with red crosses on the breast, back, and cap, and bore triple scourges,
tied in three or four knots, in which points of iron were fixed. Tapers
and magnificent banners of velvet and cloth of gold were carried before
them; wherever they made their appearance they were welcomed by the
ringing of bells, and the people flocked from all quarters to listen to
their hymns and witness their penance.
In 1349 two hundred Flagellants first entered Strasburg, where they were
hospitably lodged by the citizens. Above a thousand joined the
brotherhood, which now separated into two bodies, for the purpose of
journeying to the north and to the south. Adults and children left their
families to accompany them; till, at length, their sanctity was
questioned and the doors of houses and churches were closed against
them. At Spires two hundred boys, of twelve years of age and under,
constituted themselves into a brotherhood of the Cross, in imitation of
the children who, about a hundred years before, had united, at the
instigation of some fanatic monks, for the purpose of recovering the
Holy Sepulchre. All the inhabitants of this town were carried away by
the delusion; they conducted the strangers to their houses with songs of
thanksgiving, to regale them for the night. The women embroidered
banners for them, and all were anxious to augment their pomp; and at
every succeeding pilgrimage their influence and reputation increased.
All Germany, Hungary, Poland, Bohemia, Silesia, and Flanders did homage
to them; and they at length became as formidable to the secular as to
the ecclesiastical power. The influence of this fanaticism was great and
threatening. The appearance, in itself, was not novel. As far back as
the eleventh century many believers in Asia and Southern Europe
afflicted themselves with the punishment of flagellation.