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. Thus, after reliance on the future
had died away, the spiritual union which binds man to his family and his
fellow-creatures was gradually dissolved. The pious closed their
accounts with the world--eternity presented itself to their view--their
only remaining desire was for a participation in the consolations of
religion, because to them death was disarmed of its sting.
Repentance seized the transgressor, admonishing him to consecrate his
remaining hours to the exercise of Christian virtues. All minds were
directed to the contemplation of futurity; and children, who manifest the
more elevated feelings of the soul without alloy, were frequently seen,
while labouring under the plague, breathing out their spirit with prayer
and songs of thanksgiving.
An awful sense of contrition seized Christians of every communion; 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 the instruction of future generations. They, however, have
no influence on the course of worldly events. They are known only to
silent eyewitnesses, 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 vigour, the
power of the ecclesiastical 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
lukewarmness, renounced obedience to the hierarchy, and prepared a
fearful opposition to the Church, paralysed as it was by antiquated
forms.
While all countries were filled with lamentations and woe, there first
arose in Hungary, and afterwards 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, honourable
women, and nuns; so powerfully were minds of the most opposite
temperaments enslaved by this infatuation. They marched through the
cities, in well-organised processions, with leaders and singers; their
heads covered as far as the eyes; their look fixed on the ground,
accompanied by every token of the deepest 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 bells, and the people
flocked from all quarters to listen to their hymns and to witness their
penance with devotion and tears.
In the year 1349, two hundred Flagellants first entered Strasburg, where
they were received with great joy, and hospitably lodged by citizens.
Above a thousand joined the brotherhood, which now assumed the appearance
of a wandering tribe, and separated into two bodies, for the purpose of
journeying to the north and to the south. For more than half a year, new
parties arrived weekly; and on each arrival 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
illusion; 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.
It was not merely some individual parts of the country that fostered
them: all Germany, Hungary, Poland, Bohemia, Silesia, and Flanders, did
homage to the mania; and they at length became as formidable to the
secular as they were to the ecclesiastical power. The influence of this
fanaticism was great and threatening, resembling the excitement which
called all the inhabitants of Europe into the deserts of Syria and
Palestine about two hundred and fifty years before. 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. Dominicus Loricatus, a monk of St. Croce
d'Avellano, is mentioned as the master and model of this species of
mortification of the flesh; which, according to the primitive notions of
the Asiatic Anchorites, was deemed eminently Christian. The author of
the solemn processions of the Flagellants is said to have been St.
Anthony; for even in his time (1231) this kind of penance was so much in
vogue, that it is recorded as an eventful circumstance in the history of
the world. In 1260, the Flagellants appeared in Italy as _Devoti_. "When
the land was polluted by vices and crimes, an unexampled spirit of
remorse suddenly seized the minds of the Italians. The fear of Christ
fell upon all: noble and ignoble, old and young, and even children of
five years of age, marched through the streets with no covering but a
scarf round the waist. They each carried a scourge of leathern thongs,
which they applied to their limbs, amid sighs and tears, with such
violence that the blood flowed from the wounds. Not only during the day,
but even by night, and in the severest winter, they traversed the cities
with burning torches and banners, in thousands and tens of thousands,
headed by their priests, and prostrated themselves before the altars.
They proceeded in the same manner in the villages: and the woods and
mountains resounded with the voices of those whose cries were raised to
God. The melancholy chaunt of the penitent alone was heard. Enemies
were reconciled; men and women vied with each other in splendid works of
charity, as if they dreaded that Divine Omnipotence would pronounce on
them the doom of annihilation."
The pilgrimages of the Flagellants extended throughout all the province
of Southern Germany, as far as Saxony, Bohemia, and Poland, and even
further; but at length the priests resisted this dangerous fanaticism,
without being able to extirpate the illusion, which was advantageous to
the hierarchy as long as it submitted to its sway. Regnier, a hermit of
Perugia, is recorded as a fanatic preacher of penitence, with whom the
extravagance originated. In the year 1296 there was a great procession
of the Flagellants in Strasburg; and in 1334, fourteen years before the
Great Mortality, the sermon of Venturinus, a Dominican friar of Bergamo,
induced above 10,000 persons to undertake a new pilgrimage. They
scourged themselves in the churches, and were entertained in the market-
places at the public expense. At Rome, Venturinus was derided, and
banished by the Pope to the mountains of Ricondona. He patiently endured
all--went to the Holy Land, and died at Smyrna, 1346. Hence we see that
this fanaticism was a mania of the middle ages, which, in the year 1349,
on so fearful an occasion, and while still so fresh in remembrance,
needed no new founder; of whom, indeed, all the records are silent. It
probably arose in many places at the same time; for the terror of death,
which pervaded all nations and suddenly set such powerful impulses in
motion, might easily conjure up the fanaticism of exaggerated and
overpowering repentance.
The manner and proceedings of the Flagellants of the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries exactly resemble each other. But, if during the
Black Plague, simple credulity came to their aid, which seized, as a
consolation, the grossest delusion of religious enthusiasm, yet it is
evident that the leaders must have been intimately united, and have
exercised the power of a secret association. Besides, the rude band was
generally under the control of men of learning, some of whom at least
certainly had other objects in view independent of those which ostensibly
appeared. Whoever was desirous of joining the brotherhood, was bound to
remain in it thirty-four days, and to have fourpence per day at his own
disposal, so that he might not be burthensome to any one; if married, he
was obliged to have the sanction of his wife, and give the assurance that
he was reconciled to all men. The Brothers of the Cross were not
permitted to seek for free quarters, or even to enter a house without
having been invited; they were forbidden to converse with females; and if
they transgressed these rules, or acted without discretion, they were
obliged to confess to the Superior, who sentenced them to several lashes
of the scourge, by way of penance. Ecclesiastics had not, as such, any
pre-eminence among them; according to their original law, which, however,
was often transgressed, they could not become Masters, or take part in
the Secret Councils. Penance was performed twice every day: in the
morning and evening they went abroad in pairs, singing psalms amid the
ringing of the bells; and when they arrived at the place of flagellation,
they stripped the upper part of their bodies and put off their shoes,
keeping on only a linen dress, reaching from the waist to the ankles.
They then lay down in a large circle, in different positions, according
to the nature of the crime: the adulterer with his face to the ground;
the perjurer on one side, holding up three of his fingers, &c., and were
then castigated, some more and some less, by the Master, who ordered them
to rise in the words of a prescribed form. Upon this they scourged
themselves, amid the singing of psalms and loud supplications for the
averting of the plague, with genuflexions and other ceremonies, of which
contemporary writers give various accounts; and at the same time
constantly boasted of their penance, that the blood of their wounds was
mingled with that of the Saviour. One of them, in conclusion, stoop up
to read a letter, which it was pretended an angel had brought from heaven
to St. Peter's Church, at Jerusalem, stating that Christ, who was sore
displeased at the sins of man, had granted, at the intercession of the
Holy Virgin and of the angels, that all who should wander about for
thirty-four days and scourge themselves, should be partakers of the
Divine grace. This scene caused as great a commotion among the believers
as the finding of the holy spear once did at Antioch; and if any among
the clergy inquired who had sealed the letter, he was boldly answered,
the same who had sealed the Gospel!
All this had so powerful an effect, that the Church was in considerable
danger; for the Flagellants gained more credit than the priests, from
whom they so entirely withdrew themselves, that they even absolved each
other. Besides, they everywhere took possession of the churches, and
their new songs, which went from mouth to mouth, operated strongly on the
minds of the people. Great enthusiasm and originally pious feelings are
clearly distinguishable in these hymns, and especially in the chief psalm
of the Cross-bearers, which is still extant, and which was sung all over
Germany in different dialects, and is probably of a more ancient date.
Degeneracy, however, soon crept in; crimes were everywhere committed; and
there was no energetic man capable of directing the individual excitement
to purer objects, even had an effectual resistance to the tottering
Church been at that early period seasonable, and had it been possible to
restrain the fanaticism. The Flagellants sometimes undertook to make
trial of their power of working miracles; as in Strasburg, where they
attempted, in their own circle, to resuscitate a dead child: they,
however, failed, and their unskilfulness did them much harm, though they
succeeded here and there in maintaining some confidence in their holy
calling, by pretending to have the power of casting out evil spirits.
The Brotherhood of the Cross announced that the pilgrimage of the
Flagellants was to continue for a space of thirty-four years; and many of
the Masters had doubtless determined to form a lasting league against the
Church; but they had gone too far. So early as the first year of their
establishment, the general indignation set bounds to their intrigues: so
that the strict measures adopted by the Emperor Charles IV., and Pope
Clement, who, throughout the whole of this fearful period, manifested
prudence and noble-mindedness, and conducted himself in a manner every
way worthy of his high station, were easily put into execution.
The Sorbonne, at Paris, and the Emperor Charles, had already applied to
the Holy See for assistance against these formidable and heretical
excesses, which had well-nigh destroyed the influence of the clergy in
every place; when a hundred of the Brotherhood of the Cross arrived at
Avignon from Basle, and desired admission. The Pope, regardless of the
intercession of several cardinals, interdicted their public penance,
which he had not authorised; and, on pain of excommunication, prohibited
throughout Christendom the continuance of these pilgrimages. Philip VI.,
supported by the condemnatory judgment of the Sorbonne, forbade their
reception in France. Manfred, King of Sicily, at the same time
threatened them with punishment by death; and in the East they were
withstood by several bishops, among whom was Janussius, of Gnesen, and
Preczlaw, of Breslau, who condemned to death one of their Masters,
formerly a deacon; and, in conformity with the barbarity of the times,
had him publicly burnt. In Westphalia, where so shortly before they had
venerated the Brothers of the Cross, they now persecuted them with
relentless severity; and in the Mark, as well as in all the other
countries of Germany, they pursued them as if they had been the authors
of every misfortune.
The processions of the Brotherhood of the Cross undoubtedly promoted the
spreading of the plague; and it is evident that the gloomy fanaticism
which gave rise to them would infuse a new poison into the already
desponding minds of the people.
Still, however, all this was within the bounds of barbarous enthusiasm;
but horrible were the persecutions of the Jews, which were committed in
most countries, with even greater exasperation than in the twelfth
century, during the first Crusades. In every destructive pestilence the
common people at first attribute the mortality to poison. No instruction
avails; the supposed testimony of their eyesight is to them a proof, and
they authoritatively demand the victims of their rage. On whom, then,
was it so likely to fall as on the Jews, the usurers and the strangers
who lived at enmity with the Christians? They were everywhere suspected
of having poisoned the wells or infected the air. They alone were
considered as having brought this fearful mortality upon the Christians.
They were, in consequence, pursued with merciless cruelty; and either
indiscriminately given up to the fury of the populace, or sentenced by
sanguinary tribunals, which, with all the forms of the law, ordered them
to be burnt alive. In times like these, much is indeed said of guilt and
innocence; but hatred and revenge bear down all discrimination, and the
smallest probability magnifies suspicion into certainty. These bloody
scenes, which disgraced Europe in the fourteenth century, are a
counterpart to a similar mania of the age, which was manifested in the
persecutions of witches and sorcerers; and, like these, they prove that
enthusiasm, associated with hatred, and leagued with the baser passions,
may work more powerfully upon whole nations than religion and legal
order; nay, that it even knows how to profit by the authority of both, in
order the more surely to satiate with blood the sword of long-suppressed
revenge.
The persecution of the Jews commenced in September and October, 1348, at
Chillon, on the Lake of Geneva, where the first criminal proceedings were
instituted against them, after they had long before been accused by the
people of poisoning the wells; similar scenes followed in Bern and
Freyburg, in January, 1349. Under the influence of excruciating
suffering, the tortured Jews confessed themselves guilty of the crime
imputed to them; and it being affirmed that poison had in fact been found
in a well at Zoffingen, this was deemed a sufficient proof to convince
the world; and the persecution of the abhorred culprits thus appeared
justifiable. Now, though we can take as little exception at these
proceedings as at the multifarious confessions of witches, because the
interrogatories of the fanatical and sanguinary tribunals were so
complicated, that by means of the rack the required answer must
inevitably be obtained; and it is, besides, conformable to human nature
that crimes which are in everybody's mouth may, in the end, be actually
committed by some, either from wantonness, revenge, or desperate
exasperation: yet crimes and accusations are, under circumstances like
these, merely the offspring of a revengeful, frenzied spirit in the
people; and the accusers, according to the fundamental principles of
morality, which are the same in every age, are the more guilty
transgressors.
Already in the autumn of 1348 a dreadful panic, caused by this supposed
empoisonment, seized all nations; in Germany especially the springs and
wells were built over, that nobody might drink of them or employ their
contents for culinary purposes; and for a long time the inhabitants of
numerous towns and villages used only river and rain water. The city
gates were also guarded with the greatest caution: only confidential
persons were admitted; and if medicine or any other article, which might
be supposed to be poisonous, was found in the possession of a
stranger--and it was natural that some should have these things by them
for their private use--they were forced to swallow a portion of it. By
this trying state of privation, distrust, and suspicion, the hatred
against the supposed poisoners became greatly increased, and often broke
out in popular commotions, which only served still further to infuriate
the wildest passions. The noble and the mean fearlessly bound themselves
by an oath to extirpate the Jews by fire and sword, and to snatch them
from their protectors, of whom the number was so small, that throughout
all Germany but few places can be mentioned where these unfortunate
people were not regarded as outlaws and martyred and burnt. Solemn
summonses were issued from Bern to the towns of Basle, Freyburg in the
Breisgau, and Strasburg, to pursue the Jews as poisoners. The
burgomasters and senators, indeed, opposed this requisition; but in Basle
the populace obliged them to bind themselves by an oath to burn the Jews,
and to forbid persons of that community from entering their city for the
space of two hundred years. Upon this all the Jews in Basle, whose
number could not have been inconsiderable, were enclosed in a wooden
building, constructed for the purpose, and burnt together with it, upon
the mere outcry of the people, without sentence or trial, which, indeed,
would have availed them nothing. Soon after the same thing took place at
Freyburg. A regular Diet was held at Bennefeld, in Alsace, where the
bishops, lords, and barons, as also deputies of the counties and towns,
consulted how they should proceed with regard to the Jews; and when the
deputies of Strasburg--not indeed the bishop of this town, who proved
himself a violent fanatic--spoke in favour of the persecuted, as nothing
criminal was substantiated against them, a great outcry was raised, and
it was vehemently asked, why, if so, they had covered their wells and
removed their buckets. A sanguinary decree was resolved upon, of which
the populace, who obeyed the call of the nobles and superior clergy,
became but the too willing executioners. Wherever the Jews were not
burnt, they were at least banished; and so being compelled to wander
about, they fell into the hands of the country people, who, without
humanity, and regardless of all laws, persecuted them with fire and
sword. At Spires, the Jews, driven to despair, assembled in their own
habitations, which they set on fire, and thus consumed themselves with
their families. The few that remained were forced to submit to baptism;
while the dead bodies of the murdered, which lay about the streets, were
put into empty wine-casks and rolled into the Rhine, lest they should
infect the air. The mob was forbidden to enter the ruins of the
habitations that were burnt in the Jewish quarter; for the senate itself
caused search to be made for the treasure, which is said to have been
very considerable. At Strasburg two thousand Jews were burnt alive in
their own burial-ground, where a large scaffold had been erected: a few
who promised to embrace Christianity were spared, and their children
taken from the pile. The youth and beauty of several females also
excited some commiseration, and they were snatched from death against
their will; many, however, who forcibly made their escape from the flames
were murdered in the streets.
The senate ordered all pledges and bonds to be returned to the debtors,
and divided the money among the work-people. Many, however, refused to
accept the base price of blood, and, indignant at the scenes of
bloodthirsty avarice, which made the infuriated multitude forget that the
plague was raging around them, presented it to monasteries, in conformity
with the advice of their confessors. In all the countries on the Rhine,
these cruelties continued to be perpetrated during the succeeding months;
and after quiet was in some degree restored, the people thought to render
an acceptable service to God, by taking the bricks of the destroyed
dwellings, and the tombstones of the Jews, to repair churches and to
erect belfries.
In Mayence alone, 12,000 Jews are said to have been put to a cruel death.
The Flagellants entered that place in August; the Jews, on this occasion,
fell out with the Christians and killed several; but when they saw their
inability to withstand the increasing superiority of their enemies, and
that nothing could save them from destruction, they consumed themselves
and their families by setting fire to their dwellings. Thus also, in
other places, the entry of the Flagellants gave rise to scenes of
slaughter; and as thirst for blood was everywhere combined with an
unbridled spirit of proselytism, a fanatic zeal arose among the Jews to
perish as martyrs to their ancient religion. And how was it possible
that they could from the heart embrace Christianity, when its precepts
were never more outrageously violated? At Eslingen the whole Jewish
community burned themselves in their synagogue, and mothers were often
seen throwing their children on the pile, to prevent their being
baptised, and then precipitating themselves into the flames. In short,
whatever deeds fanaticism, revenge, avarice and desperation, in fearful
combination, could instigate mankind to perform,--and where in such a
case is the limit?--were executed in the year 1349 throughout Germany,
Italy, and France, with impunity, and in the eyes of all the world. It
seemed as if the plague gave rise to scandalous acts and frantic tumults,
not to mourning and grief; and the greater part of those who, by their
education and rank, were called upon to raise the voice of reason,
themselves led on the savage mob to murder and to plunder. Almost all
the Jews who saved their lives by baptism were afterwards burnt at
different times; for they continued to be accused of poisoning the water
and the air. Christians also, whom philanthropy or gain had induced to
offer them protection, were put on the rack and executed with them. Many
Jews who had embraced Christianity repented of their apostacy, and,
returning to their former faith, sealed it with their death.
The humanity and prudence of Clement VI. must, on this occasion, also be
mentioned to his honour; but even the highest ecclesiastical power was
insufficient to restrain the unbridled fury of the people. He not only
protected the Jews at Avignon, as far as lay in his power, but also
issued two bulls, in which he declared them innocent; and admonished all
Christians, though without success, to cease from such groundless
persecutions. The Emperor Charles IV. was also favourable to them, and
sought to avert their destruction wherever he could; but he dared not
draw the sword of justice, and even found himself obliged to yield to the
selfishness of the Bohemian nobles, who were unwilling to forego so
favourable an opportunity of releasing themselves from their Jewish
creditors, under favour of an imperial mandate. Duke Albert of Austria
burnt and pillaged those of his cities which had persecuted the Jews--a
vain and inhuman proceeding, which, moreover, is not exempt from the
suspicion of covetousness; yet he was unable, in his own fortress of
Kyberg, to protect some hundreds of Jews, who had been received there,
from being barbarously burnt by the inhabitants. Several other princes
and counts, among whom was Ruprecht von der Pfalz, took the Jews under
their protection, on the payment of large sums: in consequence of which
they were called "Jew-masters," and were in danger of being attacked by
the populace and by their powerful neighbours. These persecuted and ill-
used people, except indeed where humane individuals took compassion on
them at their own peril, or when they could command riches to purchase
protection, had no place of refuge left but the distant country of
Lithuania, where Boleslav V., Duke of Poland (1227-1279) had before
granted them liberty of conscience; and King Casimir the Great
(1333-1370), yielding to the entreaties of Esther, a favourite Jewess,
received them, and granted them further protection; on which account,
that country is still inhabited by a great number of Jews, who by their
secluded habits have, more than any people in Europe, retained the
manners of the Middle Ages.
But to return to the fearful accusations against the Jews; it was
reported in all Europe that they were in connection with secret superiors
in Toledo, to whose decrees they were subject, and from whom they had
received commands respecting the coining of base money, poisoning, the
murder of Christian children, &c; that they received the poison by sea
from remote parts, and also prepared it themselves from spiders, owls,
and other venomous animals; but, in order that their secret might not be
discovered, that it was known only to their Rabbis and rich men.
Apparently there were but few who did not consider this extravagant
accusation well founded; indeed, in many writings of the fourteenth
century, we find great acrimony with regard to the suspected
poison-mixers, which plainly demonstrates the prejudice existing against
them. Unhappily, after the confessions of the first victims in
Switzerland, the rack extorted similar ones in various places. Some even
acknowledged having received poisonous powder in bags, and injunctions
from Toledo, by secret messengers. Bags of this description were also
often found in wells, though it was not unfrequently discovered that the
Christians themselves had thrown them in; probably to give occasion to
murder and pillage; similar instances of which may be found in the
persecutions of the witches.
This picture needs no additions. A lively image of the Black Plague, and
of the moral evil which followed in its train, will vividly represent
itself to him who is acquainted with nature and the constitution of
society. Almost the only credible accounts of the manner of living, and
of the ruin which occurred in private life during this pestilence, are
from Italy; and these may enable us to form a just estimate of the
general state of families in Europe, taking into consideration what is
peculiar in the manners of each country.
"When the evil had become universal" (speaking of Florence), "the hearts
of all the inhabitants were closed to feelings of humanity. They fled
from the sick and all that belonged to them, hoping by these means to
save themselves. Others shut themselves up in their houses, with their
wives, their children and households, living on the most costly food, but
carefully avoiding all excess. None were allowed access to them; no
intelligence of death or sickness was permitted to reach their ears; and
they spent their time in singing and music, and other pastimes. Others,
on the contrary, considered eating and drinking to excess, amusements of
all descriptions, the indulgence of every gratification, and an
indifference to what was passing around them, as the best medicine, and
acted accordingly. They wandered day and night from one tavern to
another, and feasted without moderation or bounds. In this way they
endeavoured to avoid all contact with the sick, and abandoned their
houses and property to chance, like men whose death-knell had already
tolled.
"Amid this general lamentation and woe, the influence and authority of
every law, human and divine, vanished. Most of those who were in office
had been carried off by the plague, or lay sick, or had lost so many
members of their family, that they were unable to attend to their duties;
so that thenceforth every one acted as he thought proper. Others in
their mode of living chose a middle course. They ate and drank what they
pleased, and walked abroad, carrying odoriferous flowers, herbs, or
spices, which they smelt to from time to time, in order to invigorate the
brain, and to avert the baneful influence of the air, infected by the
sick and by the innumerable corpses of those who had died of the plague.
Others carried their precaution still further, and thought the surest way
to escape death was by flight. They therefore left the city; women as
well as men abandoning their dwellings and their relations, and retiring
into the country. But of these also many were carried off, most of them
alone and deserted by all the world, themselves having previously set the
example. Thus it was that one citizen fled from another--a neighbour
from his neighbours--a relation from his relations; and in the end, so
completely had terror extinguished every kindlier feeling, that the
brother forsook the brother--the sister the sister--the wife her husband;
and at last, even the parent his own offspring, and abandoned them,
unvisited and unsoothed, to their fate. Those, therefore, that stood in
need of assistance fell a prey to greedy attendants, who, for an
exorbitant recompense, merely handed the sick their food and medicine,
remained with them in their last moments, and then not unfrequently
became themselves victims to their avarice and lived not to enjoy their
extorted gain. Propriety and decorum were extinguished among the
helpless sick. Females of rank seemed to forget their natural
bashfulness, and committed the care of their persons, indiscriminately,
to men and women of the lowest order. No longer were women, relatives or
friends, found in the house of mourning, to share the grief of the
survivors--no longer was the corpse accompanied to the grave by
neighbours and a numerous train of priests, carrying wax tapers and
singing psalms, nor was it borne along by other citizens of equal rank.
Many breathed their last without a friend to soothe their dying pillow;
and few indeed were they who departed amid the lamentations and tears of
their friends and kindred. Instead of sorrow and mourning, appeared
indifference, frivolity and mirth; this being considered, especially by
the females, as conducive to health. Seldom was the body followed by
even ten or twelve attendants; and instead of the usual bearers and
sextons, mercenaries of the lowest of the populace undertook the office
for the sake of gain; and accompanied by only a few priests, and often
without a single taper, it was borne to the very nearest church, and
lowered into the grave that was not already too full to receive it. Among
the middling classes, and especially among the poor, the misery was still
greater. Poverty or negligence induced most of these to remain in their
dwellings, or in the immediate neighbourhood; and thus they fell by
thousands; and many ended their lives in the streets by day and by night.
The stench of putrefying corpses was often the first indication to their
neighbours that more deaths had occurred. The survivors, to preserve
themselves from infection, generally had the bodies taken out of the
houses and laid before the doors; where the early morning found them in
heaps, exposed to the affrighted gaze of the passing stranger. It was no
longer possible to have a bier for every corpse--three or four were
generally laid together--husband and wife, father and mother, with two or
three children, were frequently borne to the grave on the same bier; and
it often happened that two priests would accompany a coffin, bearing the
cross before it, and be joined on the way by several other funerals; so
that instead of one, there were five or six bodies for interment."
Thus far Boccacio. On the conduct of the priests, another contemporary
observes: "In large and small towns they had withdrawn themselves through
fear, leaving the performance of ecclesiastical duties to the few who
were found courageous and faithful enough to undertake them." But we
ought not on that account to throw more blame on them than on others; for
we find proofs of the same timidity and heartlessness in every class.
During the prevalence of the Black Plague, the charitable orders
conducted themselves admirably, and did as much good as can be done by
individual bodies in times of great misery and destruction, when
compassion, courage, and the nobler feelings are found but in the few,
while cowardice, selfishness and ill-will, with the baser passions in
their train, assert the supremacy. In place of virtue which had been
driven from the earth, wickedness everywhere reared her rebellious
standard, and succeeding generations were consigned to the dominion of
her baleful tyranny.