MORTALITY.
We have no certain measure by which to estimate the ravages of the
Black Plague, if numerical statements were wanted, as in modern times.
Let us go back for a moment to the 14th century. The people were yet
but little civilized. The church had indeed subdued them; but they all
suffered from the ill-consequences of their original rudeness. The
dominion of the law was not yet confirmed. Sovereigns had everywhere
to combat powerful enemies to internal tranquillity and security.
The cities were fortresses for their own defence. Marauders encamped
on the roads--The husbandman was a feodal slave, without possessions
of his own.--Rudeness was general--Humanity, as yet unknown to the
people.--Witches and heretics were burned alive.--Gentle rulers were
contemned as weak;--wild passions, severity and cruelty, everywhere
predominated.--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; and, moreover, the traditional
statements of the amount of this loss, are so vague, that from this
source likewise, there is only room for probable conjecture.
Kairo lost daily, when the plague was raging with its greatest
violence, from 10 to 15,000; 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, Mesapotamia,
Syria, Armenia, were covered with dead bodies--the Kurds fled in vain
to the mountains. In Caramania and Caesarea, none were left alive. On
the roads,--in the camps,--in the caravansaries,--unburied bodies alone
were seen; and a few cities only (Arabian historians name, Maara el
nooman, Schisur and Harem) remained, in an unaccountable manner, free.
In Aleppo, 500 died daily; 22,000 people, and most of the animals,
were carried off in Gaza, within six weeks. Cyprus lost almost all
its inhabitants;[58] and ships without crews were often seen in the
Mediterranean; as afterwards in the North Sea, driving about, and
spreading the plague wherever they went on shore.[59] It was reported
to Pope Clement, at Avignon, that throughout the East, probably with
the exception of China, 23,840,000 people had fallen victims to the
plague.[60] Considering the occurrences of the 14th and 15th centuries,
we might, on first view, suspect the accuracy of this statement. How
(it might be asked) could such great wars have been carried on--such
powerful efforts have been made; how could the Greek empire, only a
hundred years later, have been overthrown, if the people really had
been so utterly destroyed?
[58] _Deguignes_, Loc. cit. p. 223, f.
[59] _Matt. Villani_, Istoria, Loc. cit. p. 13.
[60] _Knighton_, in _Barnes_, Loc. cit. p. 434.
This account is nevertheless rendered credible by the ascertained fact,
that the palaces of princes are less accessible to contagious diseases,
than the dwellings of the multitude; and that in places of importance,
the influx from those districts which have suffered least, soon repairs
even the heaviest losses. We must remember also, that we do not gather
much from mere numbers without an intimate knowledge of the state of
Society. We will, therefore, confine ourselves to exhibiting some of
the more credible accounts relative to European cities.
In Florence there died of the
Black Plague 60,000[61]
In Venice 100,000[62]
In Marseilles, in one month 16,000[63]
In Siena 70,000[64]
In Paris 50,000[65]
In St. Denys 14,000[66]
In Avignon 60,000[67]
In Strasburg 16,000[68]
In Lübeck 9,000[69]
In Basle 14,000
In Erfurt, at least 16,000
In Weimar 5,000[70]
In Limburg 2,500[71]
In London, at least 100,000[72]
In Norwich 51,100[73]
To which may be added--
Franciscan Friars in Germany 124,434[74]
Minorites in Italy 30,000[75]
[61] _Jno. Trithem_ Annal. Hirsaugiens. Monast. St. Gall. Hirsaug.
1690. fol. 1. T. II. p. 296. According to _Boccacio_, Loc. cit.
100,000; according to _Matt. Villani_, Loc. cit. p. 14. three out of
five.
[62] _Odoric Raynald_ Annal. ecclesiastic. Colon. Agripp. 1691. fol.
Vol. XVI. p. 280.
[63] _Vitoduran_ Chronic, in _Füssli_. Loc. cit.
[64] _Tromby_, Storia de _S. Brunone_ e dell’ ordine Cartusiano.
Vol. VI. L. VIII. p. 235. Napol. 1777. fol.
[65] _Barnes_ p. 435.
[66] Ditto.
[67] _Baluz._ Vitae Papar. Avenionens. Paris 1693–4. Vol. I. p. 316.
According to _Rebdorf_ in _Freher_. Loc. cit. at the worst period,
500 daily.
[68] _Königshoven._ Loc. cit.
[69] According to _Reimer Kork_, from Easter to Michaelmas 1350, 80
to 90,000; among whom were eleven members of the senate, and bishop
John IV. Vid. _John Rud. Becker_, Circumstantial History of the
Imper. and free city of Lübeck. Lübeck: 1782, 84, 1805. 3 Vols. 4.
Vol. I. p. 269. 71. Although Lübeck was then in its most flourishing
state, yet this account, which agrees with that of _Paul Lange_, is
certainly exaggerated. (Chronic. Citizense, in _I. Pistorius_, Rerum
Germanic. Scriptores aliquot insignes, cur. _Struve_ Ratisb. 1626.
fol. p. 1214.) We have, therefore, chosen the lower estimate of an
anonym. writer. Chronic. Sclavic. by _Erpold Lindenbrog_. Scriptores
rerum Germanic. Septentrional, vicinorumque populor. diversi,
Francof. 1630. fol. p. 225, and _Spangenberg_. Loc. cit. with whom
again the assurance of the two authors, that on the 10th August,
1350, 15 or 1700, (according to _Becker_ 2500) persons had died, does
not coincide. See Chronik des Franciskaner Lesemeisters _Detmar_,
nach der Urschrift und mit Ergänzugen aus anderen Chroniken,
published by I. H. Grautoff. Hamburg: 1829,--30. 8. P. I. p. 269.
App. 471.
[70] _Förstemann_, Versuch einer Geschichte der christlichen
Geisslergesellschaften, in _Staudlins_ und _Izschirner’s_, Archiv für
alte und neue Kirchengeschichte, Vol. III. 1817.
[71] Limburg. Chronicle, pub. by _C. D. Vogel_. Marburg: 1828. 8vo.
p. 14.
[72] _Barnes._ Loc. cit.
[73] Ibid.
[74] _Spangenberg._ fol. 339. A. Grawsam Sterben vieler faulen
Troppfen. Many lazy monks died a cruel death.
[75] _Vitoduran._ Loc. cit.
This short catalogue might, by a laborious and uncertain calculation,
deduced from other sources, be easily further multiplied, but would
still fail to give a true picture of the depopulation which took
place. Lübeck, at that time the Venice of the North, 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.
Merchants whose earnings and possessions were unbounded, coldly and
willingly renounced their earthly goods. They carried their treasures
to monasteries and churches, and laid them at the foot of the altar;
but gold had no charms for the monks, for it brought them death. They
shut their gates; yet, still it was cast to them over the convent
walls. People would brook no impediment to the last pious work to
which they were driven by despair. 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.[76] Many other
cities probably presented a similar appearance; and it is ascertained
that a great number of small country towns and villages which have been
estimated, and not too highly, at 200,000,[77] were bereft of all their
inhabitants.
[76] _Becker_, Loc. cit.
[77] _Hainr. Rebdorf._ P. 630.
In many places in France not more than two out of twenty of the
inhabitants were left alive,[78] and the capital felt the fury of the
plague, alike in the palace and the cot.
[78] _Guillelm de Nang._ Loc. cit.
Two queens,[79] one bishop,[80] and great numbers of other
distinguished persons, fell a sacrifice to it, and more than 500 a
day died in the Hôtel-Dieu, under the faithful care of the sisters of
charity, whose disinterested courage, in this age of horror, displayed
the most beautiful traits of human virtue. For although they lost their
lives, evidently from contagion, and their numbers were several times
renewed, there was still no want of fresh candidates, who, strangers to
the unchristian fear of death, piously devoted themselves to their holy
calling.
[79] _Johanna_, queen of Navarre, daughter of _Louis X._, and
_Johanna_ of Burgundy, wife of king _Philip_ de Valois.
[80] _Fulco de Chanar._
The church-yards were soon unable to contain the dead,[81] and many
houses, left without inhabitants, fell to ruins.
[81] _Mich. Felibien_, Histoire de la ville de Paris. Liv. XII.
Vol. II. p. 601, Paris: 1725. fol. Comp. _Guillelm de Nangis_. Loc.
cit, and _Daniel_ Histoire de France, Tom. II. p. 484. Amsterd. 1720.
4to.
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;[82] so likewise, in all
populous cities, extraordinary measures were adopted, in order
speedily to dispose of the dead. In Vienna, where for some time
1200 inhabitants died daily,[83] 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,[84] as had already been done in Cairo and Paris.
Yet, still many were secretly buried; for at all times, the people are
attached to the consecrated cemeteries of their dead, and will not
renounce the customary mode of interment.
[82] _Torfaeus._ Loc. cit.
[83] According to another account, 960. Chronic. Salisburg, in _Pez._
Loc. cit. T. I. p. 412.
[84] According to an anonymous Chronicler, each of these pits is said
to have contained 40,000; this, however, we are to understand as
only in round numbers. Anonym. Leobiens, in Pez. p. 970. According
to this writer, above seventy persons died in some houses, and many
were entirely deserted, and at St. Stephen’s alone, fifty-four
ecclesiastics were cut off.
In many places, it was rumoured that plague patients were buried
alive,[85] as may sometimes happen through senseless alarm and
indecent haste; and thus the horror of the distressed people was every
where increased. In Erfurt, after the church-yards were filled, 12,000
corpses were thrown into eleven great pits; and the like might, more
or less exactly, be stated with respect to all the larger cities.[86]
Funeral ceremonies, the last consolation of the survivors, were every
where impracticable.
[85] _Auger. de Biterris_ in _Muratori_. Vol. III. P. II. p. 556. In
_Gobelin Person_, the same is said of Paderborn, in _Henr. Meibom._
Rer. Germanic. Script. T. I. p. 286. Helmstadt: 1688. fol.
[86] _Spangenberg._ Loc. cit. chap. 287, fol. 336–7.
In all Germany, according to a probable calculation, there seem to have
died only 1,244,434[87] inhabitants; this country, however, was more
spared than others: Italy, on the contrary, was most severely visited.
It is said to have lost half its inhabitants;[88] and this account is
rendered credible from the immense losses of individual cities and
provinces: for in Sardinia and Corsica, according to the account of
the distinguished Florentine, John Villani, who was himself carried
off by the Black Plague,[89] scarcely a third part of the population
remained alive; and it is related of the Venetians, that they engaged
ships at a high rate to retreat to the islands; so that after the
plague had carried off three fourths of her inhabitants, that proud
city was left forlorn and desolate.[90] In Padua, after the cessation
of the plague, two thirds of the inhabitants were wanting; and 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.[91]
[87] _Barnes._ 435.
[88] _Trithem._ Annal. Hirsaug. Loc. cit.
[89] Loc. cit. L. XII. c. 99. p. 977.
[90] Chronic. Claustro-Neuburg. in _Pez._ Vol. I. p. 490. Comp.
_Barnes_ p. 435. _Raynald_ Histor. ecclesiastic Loc. cit. According
to this, a runaway Venetian is said to have brought the plague to
Padua.
[91] _Giov. Villani_, L. XII. c. 83, p. 964.
We have more exact accounts of England; most of the great cities
suffered incredible losses; above all, Yarmouth, in which, 7052 died:
Bristol, Oxford, Norwich, Leicester, York and London where, in one
burial ground alone, there were interred upwards of 50,000 corpses,
arranged in layers, in large pits.[92] It is said, that in the whole
country, scarcely a tenth part remained alive;[93] but this estimate
is evidently too high. Smaller losses were sufficient to cause those
convulsions, whose consequences were felt for some centuries, in a
false impulse given to civil life, and whose indirect influence,
unknown to the English, has, perhaps, extended even to modern times.
[92] _Barnes_, p. 436.
[93] _Wood_, Loc. cit.
Morals were deteriorated every where, and the service of God was, in
a great measure, laid aside; for, in many places, the churches were
deserted, being bereft of their priests. The instruction of the people
was impeded;[94] covetousness became general; and when tranquility
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 being most exposed
to the ravages of the plague, whilst the houses of the nobility
were, in proportion, much more spared) and it was no compensation
that whole bands of ignorant laymen, who had lost their wives during
the pestilence, crowded into the monastic orders, that they might
participate in the respectability of the priesthood, and in the rich
heritages which fell in to the church from all quarters. The sittings
of Parliament, of the King’s Bench, and of most of the other courts,
were suspended as long as the malady raged. The laws of peace availed
not during the dominion of death. Pope Clement took advantage of this
state of disorder, to adjust the bloody quarrel between Edward III.
and Philip VI.; yet he only succeeded during the period that the
plague commanded peace. Philip’s death (1350) annulled all treaties;
and it is related, that Edward, with other troops indeed, but with
the same leaders and knights, again took the field. 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 discomfiture 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.
[94] _Wood_ says, that before the plague, there were 13,000 students
at Oxford; a number, which may, in some degree, enable us to form an
estimate of the state of education in England at that time, if we
consider that the universities were, in the middle ages, frequented
by younger students, who in modern times do not quit school till
their 18th year.
At the commencement, there was in England a superabundance of all
the necessaries of life; but the plague, which seemed then to be the
sole disease, was soon accompanied by a fatal murrain among cattle.
Wandering about without herdsmen, they fell by thousands; and, as
has likewise been observed in Africa, the birds and beasts of prey
are said not to have touched them. Of what nature this murrain may
have been, can no more be determined, than whether it originated from
communication with plague patients, or from other causes; but thus much
is certain, that it did not break out until after the commencement of
the Black Death. In consequence of this murrain, and the impossibility
of removing the corn from the fields, there was every where a great
rise in the price of food, which to many was inexplicable, because the
harvest had been plentiful; by others it was attributed to the wicked
designs of the labourers and dealers; but it had its foundation in
the actual deficiency, arising from circumstances by which individual
classes at all times endeavour to profit. For a whole year, until
it terminated in August, 1349, the Black Plague prevailed in this
beautiful island, and every where poisoned the springs of comfort and
prosperity.[95]
[95] _Barnes_ and _Wood_. Loc. cit.
In other countries, it generally lasted only half a year, but returned
frequently in individual places; on which account, some, without
sufficient proof, assigned to it a period of seven years.[96]
[96] _Gobelin Person_, in _Meibom_. Loc. cit.
Spain was uninteruptedly 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. Alphonso XI., whose passion for war
carried him too far, died of it at the siege of Gibraltar, on the 26th
of March, 1350. He was the only king in Europe who fell a sacrifice to
it; but even before this period, inumerable families had been thrown
into affliction.[97] The mortality seems otherwise to have been smaller
in Spain than in Italy, and about as considerable as in France.
[97] _Juan de Mariana._ Historia General de España. Illustrated
by Don _José Sabau y Blanco_. Tom. IX. Madrid: 1819, 8vo. Libro
XVI. p. 225. Don _Diego Ortiz de Zuñiga_, Annales ecclesiasticos y
seculares de Sevilla. Madrid: 1795, 4to. T. II. p. 121. Don _Juan de
Ferreras_, Historia de España. Madrid: 1721. T. VII. p. 353.
The whole period during which the Black Plague raged with destructive
violence in Europe, was, with the exception of Russia, from the year
1347 to 1350. The plagues, which in the sequel often returned until
the year 1383,[98] we do not consider as belonging to “the Great
Mortality.” They were rather common pestilences, without inflammation
of the lungs, such as in former times, and in the following centuries,
were excited by the matter of contagion everywhere existing, and which,
on every favorable occasion, gained ground anew, as is usually the case
with this frightful disease.
[98] _Gobelin Person._ Loc. cit. _V. Chalin_, p. 53.
The concourse of large bodies of people was especially dangerous; and
thus, 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
an hundred of the pilgrims escaped.[99]
[99] _Guillelm de Nangis._ Loc. cit.
Italy was, in consequence, depopulated anew; and those who returned,
spread poison and corruption of morals in all directions.[100] It is,
therefore, the less apparent, how that Pope, who was in general so
wise and considerate, and who knew how to pursue the path of reason and
humanity, under the most difficult circumstances, should have been led
to adopt a measure so injurious; since he, himself, was so convinced of
the salutary effect of seclusion, that during the plague in Avignon, he
kept up constant fires, and suffered no one to approach him;[101] and,
in other respects, gave such orders as averted, or alleviated, much
misery.
[100] _Spangenberg._ fol. 337. b. Limburg. Chronic. p. 20. “Und die
auch von Rom kamen, wurden eines Theils böser als sie vor gewesen
waren.”
[101] _Guillelm de Nangis._ Loc. cit. and many others.
The changes which occurred about this period in the north of Europe,
are sufficiently memorable to claim a few moments attention. In Sweden,
two princes died--Häken and Knut, half-brothers of King Magnus; and
in Westgothland alone, 466 priests.[102] 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 caused great havoc among them. Nature
made no allowance for their constant warfare with the elements, and
the parsimony with which she had meted out to them the enjoyments of
life.[103] In Denmark and Norway, however, people were so occupied with
their own misery, that the accustomed voyages to Greenland ceased.
Towering ice-bergs formed at the same time on the coast of East
Greenland, in consequence of the general concussion of the earth’s
organism; and no mortal, from that time forward, has ever seen that
shore or its inhabitants.[104]
[102] _Dalin’s_ Svea Rikes Historie, Vol. II. c. xii. p. 496.
[103] _Saabye._ Tagebuch in Grönland. Einleit. XVIII.--_Torfaei_
Histor. Norveg. Tom. IV. L. IX, c. viii. p. 478–79. _F. G. Mansa_,
De epidemiis maxime memorabilibus quæ in Dania Grassatæ sunt, et de
Medicinæ statu. Partic. I. Havn. 1831, 8vo. p. 12.
[104] _Torfaei_ Groenlandia antiqua, s. veteris Groenlandiæ
descriptio. Havniæ, 1715, 8vo. p. 23--_Potan._ Rer. danicar. Histor.
Amstelod. 1631, fol. L. VII. p. 476.
It has been observed above, that in Russia, the Black Plague did
not break out until 1351, after it had already passed through the
south and north of Europe. In this country also, the mortality was
extraordinarily great; and the same scenes of affliction and despair
were exhibited, as had occurred in those nations which had already
passed the ordeal. The same mode of burial--the same horrible certainty
of death--the same torpor and depression of spirits. The wealthy
abandoned their treasures, and gave their villages and estates to the
churches and monasteries; this being, according to the notions of the
age, the surest way of securing the favor of Heaven and the forgiveness
of past sins. 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.[105]
[105] _Richter_, Loc. cit.
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. Now, if Europe at present contain 210,000,000 inhabitants,
the population, not to take a higher estimate, which might easily be
justified, amounted to at least 105,000,000, in the 16th century.
It may, therefore, be assumed, without exaggeration, that Europe lost
during the Black Death, 25,000,000 of inhabitants.
That her nations could so quickly overcome such a fearful concussion
in their external circumstances, and, in general, without retrogading
more than they actually did, could so develope 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 every
thing remained as before, is inconsistent with a just view of cause
and effect. Many historians seem to have adopted such an opinion;
accustomed, as usual, to judge of the moral condition of the people
solely according to the vicissitudes of earthly power, the events
of battles, and the influence of religion, but to pass over with
indifference, the great phenomena of nature, which modify, not only the
surface of the earth, but also the human mind. Hence, most of them have
touched but superficially on the “great mortality” of the 14th century.
We, for our parts 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 fertility in
women was everywhere remarkable--a grand phenomenon, which, from its
occurrence after every destructive pestilence, proves to conviction,
if any occurrence can do so, the prevalence of a higher power in the
direction of general organic life. Marriages were, almost without
exception, prolific; and double and treble births were more frequent
than at other times; under which head, we should remember the strange
remark, that 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.
If we examine the grounds of this oft-repeated assertion, we shall
find that they were astonished, to see children cut twenty, or at
most, twenty-two teeth, under the supposition that a greater number had
formerly fallen to their share.[106] Some writers of authority, as,
for example, the physician Savonarola,[107] at Ferrara, who probably
looked for twenty-eight teeth in children, published their opinions on
this subject. Others copied from them, without seeing for themselves,
as often happens in other matters which are equally evident; and thus
the world believed in the miracle of an imperfection in the human body
which had been caused by the Black Plague.
[106] We may take this view of the subject from _Guillelm de Nangis_
and _Barnes_, if we read them _with attention_. _Olof Dalin_, Loc.
cit.
[107] Practica de aegritudinibus a capite usque ad pedes, Papiae,
1486, fol. Tract, VI. c. vii.
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.[108]
[108] “Darnach, da das Sterben, die Geiselfarth, Römerfarth,
Judenschlacht, als vorgeschrieben steht, ein End hatte, da hub die
Welt wieder an zu leben und fröhlich zu seyn, und machten die Männer
neue Kleidung.” Limburg Chronik, p. 26. After this when, as was
stated before, the mortality, the processions of the Flagellants, the
expeditions to Rome, and the massacre of the Jews, were at an end,
the world begun to revive and be joyful, and the people put on new
clothing.