The epidemics of the Middle Ages / From the German of J.F.C. Hecker. Tr. by B. G. Babington. Completed by the author's treatise on child-pilgrimages.

  • Hecker, J. F. C. (Justus Friedrich Carl), 1795-1850.
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The epidemics of the Middle Ages / From the German of J.F.C. Hecker. Tr. by B. G. Babington. Completed by the author's treatise on child-pilgrimages. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    In London, at least 100,000 1 In Norwich 51,1002 To which may be added— Franciscan Friars in Germany . 124,434 3 Minorites in Italy 30,000 4 This short catalogue might, by a laborious and uncertain cal- culation, deduced from other sources, be easily further multiplied, but would still fail to give a true picture of the depopulation which took place. Liibeck, at that time the Yenice of the North, which could no longer contain the multitudes that flocked to it, wras 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 impedi- ment 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 un- avoidable infection of the air.5 Many other cities probably pre- sented a similar appearance; and it is ascertained that a great number of small country towns and villages, which have been es- timated, and not too highly, at 200,000,6 were bereft of all their inhabitants. In many places in France not more than two out of twenty of the inhabitants were left alive,7 and the capital felt the fury of the plague, alike in the palace and the cot. Two queens,8 one bishop,9and great numbers of other distinguish- ed persons, fell a sacrifice to it, and more than 500 a day died in the Hotel-Dieu, under the faithful care of the sisters of charity, whose disinterested courage, in this age of horror, displayed the 1 Barnes, loc. cit. 2 Ibid. 3 Spangeiiberg. fol. 339. a. Grawsam Sterben vieler faulen Troppfen. Many lazy monks died a cruel death. 4 Vitoduran, loc. cit. 5 Becker, loc. cit. 6 Hainr. Rebdorf. p. 630. 7 Guillelm. de Nang. loc. cit. 8 Johanna, queen of Navarre, daughter of Louis X., and Johanna of Burgundy, wife of King Philip de Yalois. 9 Fulco de Chanac. %