HomeTHE EPIDEMICS OF THE MIDDLE AGES.FROM THE GERMAN OF J. F. C. HECKER, M.D.PROFESSOR AT THE FREDERICK WILLIAM'S UNIVERSITY AT BERLIN, AND MEMBER OF VARIOUS LEARNED SOCIETIES IN ALBANY, BERLIN, BONN, COPENHAGEN, DIJON, DRESDEN, ERLANGEN, HANAU, HEIDELBERG, LEIPZIG, LONDON, LYONS, MARSEILLES, METZ, NAPLES, NEW YORK, OFFENBURG, PHILADELPHIA, STOCKHOLM, TOULOUSE, WARSAW, AND ZURICH.TRANSLATED BVB. G. BABINGTON, M.D., F.R.S,ETC.THIRD EDITION,COMPLETED BY THE AUTHOR'S TREATISEONCHILD-PILGRIMAGESLONDON:TR ÜBNER & CO., 60, PATERNOSTER ROW,1859ADDRESS TO THE READER. This Volume is one of the Series published by the Sydenham
Society, and, as such, originally issued to its members only. The work
having gone out of print, this new edition - the third - has been
undertaken by
the present proprietors of the Copyright, with the view not only of
meeting the numerous demands from the class to which it was primarily
addressed by its learned author, but also for extending its circulation
to the general reader, to whom it had, heretofore, been all but
inaccessible, owing to the peculiar mode of its publication,
and to whom, it is believed, it will be very acceptable on account of
the great and growing interest of its subject matter, and the elegant
and successful treatment thereof. The volume is a verbatim reprint from
the second edition; but its value has been enhanced by the addition of
a paper on "Child-Pilgrimages," - never before translated, - and the
present edition is therefore the first and only one
in the English language, which contains all the
contributions of Dr. Hecker to the History of Medicine. TR ÜBNER AND CO. 60, Paternoster Row, London, GENERAL PREFACE.THE Council of the SYDENHAM Society having deemed Hecker's
three treatises on different Epidemics occurring in the Middle Ages
worthy of being collected into a volume, and laid before its members in
an English dress, 1 have felt much pleasure in presenting them with the
copyright of the Black Death; in negociating for them the purchase of
that of the Dancing Mania, whereof I could resign only my share of a
joint interest; and, in preparing for the press these productions,
together with a translation, now for the first time made public, of the
Sweating Sickness. This last work, from its greater length, and from
the immediate relation of its chief subject to our own country, may be
considered the most interesting and important of the series. Professor Hecker is generally acknowledged to be the most learned
medical historian, and one of the most able medical writers in Germany.
His numerous works suffice to show not only with what zeal he has
laboured, but also how highly his labours have been appreciated by his
countrymen; and when I state that, with one trifling exception, they
have all been translated into other languages, I furnish a fair proof
of the estimation in which they are held in foreign countries; and, so
far at least as regards the originals, a full justification of the
Council of the Sydenham Society in their choice on the present
occasion. The "Schwarze Tod," or "Black Death," was published in 1832;
and I was prompted to undertake its translation, from a belief that it
would prove interesting at a moment when another fearful epidemic, the
Cholera, with which it admitted of comparison in several particulars,
was fresh in the memory of men. The "Tanzwuth," or "Dancing Mania,"
came out shortly afterwards; and, as it appeared to me that, though
relating to a loss terrific visitation, it possessed an equal share of
interest, and, holding a kind of middle place between a physical and a
moral pestilence, furnished subject of contemplation for the general as
well as the professional reader, I determined on adding it also to our
common stock of medical literature. When the "Englische Schweiss," or
"Sweating Sickness," which contained much collateral matter little
known in England, and which completed the history of the principal
epidemics of the middle ages, appeared in 1834, I proceeded to finish
my task; but failing in the accomplishment of certain arrangements
connected with its publication, I laid aside my translation for the
time, under a hope, which has at length been fulfilled, that at some
future more auspicious moment, it might yet see the light. It must not be supposed that the author, in thus taking up the
history of three of the most important epidemics of the middle ages,
although he has illustrated them by less detailed notices of several
others, considers that he has exhausted his subject; on the contrary,
it is his belief, that, in order to come at the secret springs of these
general morbific influences, a most minute as well as a most extended
survey of them, such as can be made only by the united efforts of many,
is required. He would seem to aim at collecting together such a number
of facts, from the medical history of all countries and of all ages, as
may at length enable us to deal with epidemics in the same way as Louis
has dealt with individual diseases; and thus by a numerical arrangement
of data, together with a just consideration of their relative value, to
arrive at the discovery of general laws. The present work, therefore,
is but one stone of an edifice, for the construction of which he
invites medical men in all parts of the world to furnish materials.[1] Whether the information which could be collected even by the most diligent and extensive research would prove sufficiently copious and accurate to enable us to pursue this method with complete success, may be a matter of doubt; but it is at least probable, that many valuable facts, now buried in oblivion, would thus be brought to light; and the incidental results, as often occurs in the pursuit of science, might prove as serviceable as those which were the direct object of discovery. Of what immense importance, for instance, in the fourteenth century, would a general knowledge have been of the simple but universal circumstance, ___________________________________________ [1] I might here enlarge on the general importance of
the study of epidemics; but this has been so fully set forth in the
author's Address
to the Physicians of Germany, which immediately follows, as well as in
the Preface to the Sweating Sickness, at p. 164, that any further
observations on this subject would be superfluous on my part.
that in all severe epidemics, from the time of Thucydides'
[1] to
the present day, a false suspicion has been entertained by the vulgar,
that the springs or provisions have been poisoned, or the air infected,
by some supposed enemies to the common weal. How many thousands of
innocent lives would thus have been spared, which were barbarously
sacrificed under this absurd notion! Whether Hecker's call for aid in his undertaking has, in any
instance, been answered by the physicians of Germany, I know not; but
he will be as much pleased to learn, as I am to inform him; that it was
the perusal of the "Black Death" which suggested to Dr. Simpson of
Edinburgh the idea of collecting materials for a history of the
Leprosy, as it existed in Great Britain during the middle ages; and
that this author's very learned and interesting antiquarian researches
on that subject, as published in the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical
Journal, have been the valuable, and, I trust, will not prove the
solitary result. As the three treatises, now comprised for the first time under the
title of "The Epidemics of the Middle Ages," came out at different
periods, I have thought it best to prefix to each the original preface
of the author; and to the two which have already been published in
English, that of the translator also; while Hecker's Address to the
Physicians of Germany, although written before the publication of the
"Englische Schweiss," forms an appropriate substitute for an author's
general preface to the whole volume. At the end of the "Black Death," I had originally given, as
No. III. of the Appendix, some copious extracts from Caius' "Boke or
Counseill against the Disease commonly called the Sweate or Sweatyng
Sicknesse;" but this little treatise is so characteristic of the times
in which it is written, so curious, so short, and so very scarce, [2]
that I have thought it worth while, with the permission of the council
of our Society, to reprint it entire, and to add it in its more
appropriate place, as an Appendix to the Sweating Sickness. [1] ὤστε και
ὲλέχθη υπ αῠτῶν ώς οι Πελοπονησιοι φαρμακα εσβεβλήκοιεν ες τα φρέατα Thucyd
Hist. B. ii. 49.
"The disease was attributed by the people to poison, and nothing
apparently could be more authentic than the reports that were spread of
miscreants taken in the act of putting poisonous drugs into the food
and drink of the common people." Observations on the Cholera in St.
Petersburg, p. 9, by O. W. Lefevre, M.D. 8vo. 1831. ADDRESSTOTHE PHYSICIANS OF GERMANYBY J. F. C. HECKERIT has long been my earnest desire to address my honoured
colleagues, especially those with whom I feel myself connected by
congeniality of sentiment, in order to impress on them a subject in
which science is deeply interested, and which, according to the direct
evidence of Nature herself, is one of the most exalted and important
that can be submitted to the researches of the learned. I allude to the
investigation of Epidemic Diseases, on a scale commensurate with the
extent of our exertions in other departments, and worthy of the age in
which we live. It is, with justice, required of medical men, since
their sole business is with life, that they should regard it in a right
point of view. They are expected to have a perception of life, as it
exists individually and collectively: in the former, to bear in mind
the general system of creation; in the latter, to demonstrate the
connexion and signification of the individual phenomena, - to discern
the one by the aid of the other, and thus to penetrate, with becoming
reverence, into the sanctuary of cosmical and microcosmical science.
This expectation is not extravagant, and the truth of the principles
which the medical explorer of nature deduces from it, is so obvious,
that it seems scarcely possible that any doubts should be entertained
on the subject. Yet we may ask, has medical science as it exists in our days,
with all the splendour which surrounds it, with all the perfection of
which it boasts, satisfied this demand? This question we are obliged to
answer in the negative. Let us consider only the doctrine of diseases, which has been
cultivated since the commencement of scientific study. It has grown up
amid the illumination of knowledge and the gloom of ignorance; it has
been nurtured by the storms of centuries; its monuments of ancient and
modern times cannot be numbered, and it speaks clearly to the
initiated, in the languages of all civilized nations. Yet, hitherto, it
has given an account only of individual diseases, so far as the human
mind can discern their nature. In this it has succeeded admirably, and
its success becomes every year greater and more extensive. But if we extend our inquiries to the diseases of nations, and of
the whole human race, science is mute, as if it were not her province
to take cognizance of them; and shows us only an immeasurable and
unexplored country, which many suppose to be merely a barren desert,
because no one to whose voice they are wont to listen, gives any
information respecting it. Small is the number of those who have
traversed it; often have they arrested their steps, filled with
admiration at striking phenomena; have beheld inexhaustible mines
waiting only for the hand of the labourer, and, from contemplating the
development of collective organic life, which science nowhere else
displays to them on so magnificent a scale, have experienced all the
sacred joy of the naturalist to whom a higher source of knowledge has
been opened. Yet could they not make themselves heard in the noisy
tumult of the markets, and still less answer the innumerable questions
directed to them by many, as from one mouth, not indeed to inquire
after the truth, but to obtain a confirmation of an anciently received
opinion, which originated in the fifth century before our era. Hence it is, that the doctrine of epidemics, surrounded by
the other flourishing branches of medicine, remains alone unfruitful - we
might almost say stunted in its growth. For, to the weighty opinions of
Hippocrates, to the doctrines of Fracastoro which contain the
experience of the much-tried Middle Ages, and lastly to the
observations of Sydenham, only trifling and isolated facts have been
added. Beyond these facts there exist, even up to the present times,
only assumptions, which might, long since, have been reduced to their
original nothingness, had that serious spirit of inquiry prevailed
which comprehends space and penetrates ages. No epidemic ever prevailed during which the need of more accurate
information was not felt, and during which the wish of the learned was
not loudly expressed, to become acquainted with the secret springs of
such stupendous engines of destruction. Was the disease of a new
character? - the spirit of inquiry was roused among physicians; nor were
the most eminent of them ever deficient either in courage or in zeal
for investigation. When the glandular plague first made its appearance
as an universal epidemic, whilst the more pusillanimous, haunted by
visionary fears, shut themselves up in their closets, some physicians
at Constantinople, astonished at the phenomenon, opened the boils of
the deceased. The like has occurred both in ancient and modern times,
not without favourable results for science; nay, more matured views
excited an eager desire to become acquainted with similar or still
greater visitations among the ancients; but as later ages have always
been fond of referring to Grecian antiquity, the learned of those
times, from a partial and meager predilection, were contented with the
descriptions of Thucydides, even where nature had revealed, in infinite
diversity, the workings of her powers. These researches, if indeed they deserved that name, were never
scientific or comprehensive. They never seized but upon a part, and no
sooner had the mortality ceased, than the scarcely awakened zeal
relapsed into its former indifference to the interesting phenomena of
nature, in the same way as abstemiousness, which had ever been
practised during epidemics, only as a constrained virtue, gave place,
as soon as the danger was over, to unbridled indulgence. This
inconstancy might almost bring to our mind the pious Byzantines who, on
the shock of an earthquake, in 529, which appeared as the prognostic of
the great epidemic, prostrated themselves before their altars by
thousands, and sought to excel each other in Christian self-denial and
benevolence; but no sooner did they feel the ground firm beneath their
feet, than they again abandoned themselves, without remorse, to all the
vices of the metropolis. May I be pardoned for this comparison of
scientific zeal with other human excitements? Alas! even this is a
virtue which few practise for its own sake, and which, with the
multitude, stands quite as much in need as any other, of the incentives
of fear and reward. But we are constrained to acknowledge that among our medical
predecessors, these incentives were scarcely ever sufficiently powerful
to induce them to leave us circumstantial and scientific accounts of
contemporary epidemics, which, nevertheless, have, even in historical
times, afflicted, in almost numberless visitations, the whole human
race. Still less did it occur to them to take a more exalted stand,
whence they could comprehend at one view these stupendous phenomena of
organic collective life, wherein the whole spirit of humanity
powerfully and wonderfully moves, and thus regard them as one whole, in
which higher laws of nature, uniting together the utmost diversity of
individual parts, might be anticipated or perceived. Here a wide, and almost unfathomable, chasm occurs in the
science of medicine, which, in this age of mature judgment and multifarious
learning, cannot, as formerly, be overlooked. History alone can give it
up; she alone can give to the doctrine of diseases that importance
without which its application is limited to occurrences of the moment;
whereas the development of the phenomena of life, during extensive
periods, is no less a problem of research for the philosopher, who
makes the boundless science of nature his study, than the revolutions
of the planet on which we move. In this region of inquiry the very
stones have a language, and the inscriptions are yet legible which,
before the creation of man, were engraved by organic life in wondrous
forms on eternal tablets. Exalted ideas of the monuments of primaeval
antiquity are here excited, and the forms of the antemundane ways and
creations of nature are conjured up from the inmost bosom of the earth,
in order to throw their bright beaming light upon the surface of the
present. Medicine extends not so far. The remains of animals make us
indeed acquainted, even now, with diseases to which the brute creation was
subject long ere the waters overflowed, and the mountains sunk; but the
investigation which is our more immediate object, scarcely reaches to
the beginning of human culture. Records of remote and of proximate eras
lie before us in rich abundance. They speak of the deviations and
destructions of human life, of exterminated and newly-formed nations;
they lay before us stupendous facts, which we are called upon to
recognise and expound in order to solve this exalted problem. If
physicians cannot boast of having unrolled these records with the
avidity of true explorers of Nature, they may find some excuse in the
nature of the inquiry - for the characters are dead, and the spirits of
which they are the magic symbols, manifest themselves only to him who
knows how to adjure them. Epidemics leave no corporeal traces; whence
their history is perhaps more intellectual than the science of the
Geologist, who, on his side, possesses the advantage of treating on
subjects which strike the senses, and are therefore more
attractive, - such as the impressions of plants no longer extant, and
the
skeletons of lost races of animals. This, however, does not entirely
exculpate us from the charge of neglecting our science, in a quarter
where the most important facts are to be unveiled. It is high time to
make up for what has been left unaccomplished, if we would not remain
idle and mean-spirited in the rear of other naturalists. I was animated by these and similar reflections, and excited
too by passing events, when I undertook to write the history of the "Black
Death." With some anxiety, I sent this book into the world, for it was
scarcely to be expected that it would be everywhere received with
indulgence, since it belonged to a hitherto unknown department of
historical research, the utility of which might not be obvious in our
practical times. Yet I soon received encouragement, not only from
learned friends, but also from other men of distinguished merit, on
whose judgment I placed great reliance; and thus I was led to hope that
it was not in vain, and without some advantage to science, that I had
unveiled the dismal picture of a long-departed age. This work I have followed up by a treatise on a nervous
disorder, which, for the first time, appeared in the same century, as
an
epidemic, with symptoms that can be accounted for only by the spirit of
the Middle Ages - symptoms which, in the manner of the diffusion of the
disease among thousands of people, and of its propagation for more than
two centuries, exercised a demoniacal influence over the human race,
yet in close, though uncongenial, alliance with kindlier feelings. I
have prepared materials for various other subjects, so far as the
resources at my disposal extend, and I may hope, if circumstances prove
favourable, to complete, by degrees, the history of a more extensive
series of Epidemics on the same plan as the "Black Death," and the
"Dancing Mania." Amid the accumulated materials which past ages afford, the
powers and the life of one individual, even with the aid of previous study,
are insufficient to complete a comprehensive history of Epidemics. The
zealous activity of many must be exerted if we would speedily possess a
work which is so much wanted in order that we may not encounter new
epidemics with culpable ignorance of analogous phenomena. How often has
it appeared on the breaking out of epidemics, as if the experience of
so many centuries had been accumulated in vain. Men gazed at the
phenomena with astonishment, and even before they had a just perception
of their nature, pronounced their opinions, which, as they were divided
into strongly opposed parties, they defended with all the ardour of
zealots, wholly unconscious of the majesty of all governing nature. In
the descriptive branches of natura1 history, a person would infallibly
expose him self to the severest censure, who should attempt to describe
some hitherto unknown natural production, whether animal or vegetable,
if he were ignorant of the allied genera and species, and perhaps
neither a botanist nor zoologist; yet an analogous ignorance of
epidemics, in those who nevertheless discussed their nature, but too
frequently occurred, and men were insensible to the justest reproof.
Thus it has ever been, and for this reason we cannot apply to ourselves
in this department the significant words of Bacon, that we are the
ancients, and our forefathers the moderns, for we are equally remote
with them from a scientific and comprehensive knowledge of epidemics.
This might and ought to be otherwise, in an age which, in other
respects, may, with justice, boast of a rich diversity of knowledge,
and of a rapid progress in the natural sciences. If in the form of an address to the physicians of Germany, I
express the wish to see such a melancholy state of things remedied, the
nature of the subject requires that, with the exception of the still
prevailing Cholera, remarkable universal epidemics should be selected
for investigation. They form the grand epochs, according to which those
epidemics which are less extensive, but not, on that account, less
worthy of observation, naturally range themselves. Far be it from me to
recommend any fixed series, or even the plan and method to be pursued
in treating the subject. It would, perhaps, be on the whole, most
advantageous, if my honoured Colleagues, who attend to this request,
were to commence with those epidemics for which they possess complete
materials, and that entirely according to their own plan, without
adopting any model for imitation, for in this manner simple historical
truth will be best elicited. Should it, however, be found impracticable
to furnish historical descriptions of entire epidemics, a task often
attended with difficulties, interesting fragments of all kinds, for
which there are rich treasures in MSS. and scarce works in various
places, would be no loss welcome and useful towards the great object of
preparing a collective history of epidemics. Up to the present moment, it might almost seem that the most
essential preliminaries are wanting for the accomplishment of such an
undertaking. The study of medical history is everywhere at a low
ebb; - in France and England scarcely a trace remains, to the most
serious detriment of the whole domain of medicine; in Germany too,
there are but few who suspect that exhaustible stores of instructive
truth are lying dormant within their power; they may, perhaps, class
them among theoretical doctrines, and commend the laborious
investigation of them without being willing to recognise their spirit.
None of the Universities of Germany, whose business it ought to be to
provide, in this respect, for the prosperity of the inheritance
committed to their charge, can boast a Professor's chair for the
History of Medicine; nay, in many, it is so entirely unknown, that it
is not even regarded as an object of secondary importance, so that it
is to be apprehended that the fame of German erudition may, at least in
medicine, gradually vanish, and our medical knowledge become, as
practical indeed, but at the same time as assuming, as mechanical, and
as defective, as that of France and England. Even these noble
institutions, the Academies, in which the spirit of the eighteenth
century still lingers, and whose more peculiar province it is to
explore the rich pages of science, have not entered upon the history of
Epidemics, and by their silence have encouraged the unfounded and
injurious supposition, that this field is desolate and unfruitful. All these obstacles are indeed great, but to determined and
persevering exertion they are not insuperable; and, though we cannot
conceal them from ourselves, we should not allow them to daunt our
spirit. There is, in Germany, a sufficiency of intellectual power to
overcome them; let this power be combined, and exert itself
in active co-operation. Sooner or later a new road must be opened for
Medical Science. Should the time not yet have arrived, I have at least
endeavoured to discharge my duty, by attempting to point out its future
direction. CONTENTS.GENERAL PREFACE THE BLACK DEATH.TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE CHAPTER I. General Observations CHAPTER II. The Disease CHAPTER III. Causes. - Spread CHAPTER IV. Mortality CHAPTER V. Moral Effects
CHAPTER VI.
Physicians
APPENDIX : - I. The Ancient Song of the Flagellants II. Examination of the Jews accused of poisoning the Wells THE DANCING MANIAPREFACE CHAPTER I.DANCING MANIA IN GERMANY AND THE NETHERLANDS.1. - St. John's Dance CHAPTER II.DANCING MANIA IN ITALY.1. - Tarantism. CHAPTER III.DANCING MANIA IN ABYSSINIA.1 . - Tigretier CHAPTER IV.Sympathy
APPENDIX: -
THE SWEATING SICKNESS.PREFACE CHAPTER 1.FIRST VISITATION. 1485.1. - Eruption 3. - Causes CHAPTER II.SECOND VISITATION. 1506.1. - Mercenary Troops CHAPTER III.THIRD VISITATION. 1517.1. - Poverty CHAPTER IV.FOURTH VISITATION. 1528, 1529.1. - Destruction of the French Army before Naples, 1528 212 CHAPTER V.FIFTH VISITATION. 1551.1. - Irruption CHAPTER VI.SWEATING SICKNESSES.1. - The Cardiac Disease of the Ancients. (Morbus Cardiacus.) 2. - The Picardy Sweat. (Suette des Picards - Suette
Miliare.) THE BLACK DEATH.TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.IN reading Dr. Hecker's account of the Black Death, which destroyed
so large a portion of the human race in the fourteenth century, I was
struck, not only with the peculiarity of the author's views, but also
with the interesting nature of the facts which he has
collected. Some of these have never before been made generally known,
while others have passed out of mind, being effaced from our memories
by subsequent events of a similar kind, which, though really of less
magnitude and importance, have, in the perspective of time, appeared
greater, because they have occurred nearer to our own days. Dreadful as was the pestilence here described, and in few countries
more so than in England, our modern historians only slightly allude to
its visitation : - Hume deems a single paragraph sufficient to devote
to its notice, and Henry and Rapin are equally brief. It may not then be unacceptable to the medical, or even to the
general reader, to receive an authentic and somewhat detailed account
of one of the greatest natural calamities that ever afflicted the human race. My chief motive, however, for translating this small work,
and at this particular period, has been a desire that, in the study of the
causes which have produced and propagated general pestilences, and of
the moral effects by which they have been followed, the most enlarged
views should be taken. The contagionist and the anti-contagionist may
each find ample support for his belief in particular cases; but in the
construction of a theory sufficiently comprehensive to explain
throughout the origin and dissemination of universal disease, we shall
not only perceive the insufficiency of either doctrine, taken singly,
but after admitting the combined influence of both, shall even then
find our views too narrow, and be compelled, in our endeavours to
explain the facts, to acknowledge the existence of unknown powers,
wholly unconnected either with communication by contact or atmospheric
contamination. I by no means wish it to be understood, that I have adopted
the author's views respecting astral and telluric influences, the former of
which, at least, I had supposed to have been, with alchemy and magic,
long since consigned to oblivion; much less am I prepared to accede to
his notion, or rather an ancient notion derived from the East and
revived by him, of an organic life in the system of the universe. We
are constantly furnished with proofs, that that which affects life is
not itself alive; and whether we look to the earth for exhalations, to
the air for electrical phenomena, to the heavenly bodies for an
influence over our planet, or to all these causes combined, for the
formation of some unknown principle noxious to animal existence, still
if we found our reasoning on ascertained facts, we can perceive nothing
throughout this vast field for physical research which is not evidently
governed by the laws of inert matter - nothing which resembles the
regular succession of birth, growth, decay, death, and regeneration,
observable in organized beings. To assume, therefore, causes of whose
existence we have no proof, in order to account for effects which,
after all, they do not explain, is making no real advance in knowledge,
and can scarcely be considered otherwise than an indirect method of
confessing our ignorance. Still, however, I regard the author's opinions, illustrated
as they are by a series of interesting facts diligently collected from
authentic sources, as, at least, worthy of examination before we reject
them, and valuable, as furnishing extensive data on which to build new
theories. I have another, perhaps I may be allowed to say a better,
motive for laying before my countrymen this narrative of the sufferings of
past ages, - that by comparing them with these of our own time, we may
be made the more sensible how lightly the chastening hand of Providence
has fallen on the present generation, and how much reason, therefore,
we have to feel grateful for the mercy shown us. The publication has, with this view, been purposely somewhat
delayed, in order that it might appear at a moment when it is to be
presumed that men's thoughts will be especially directed to the
approaching hour of public thanksgiving, and when a knowledge of that
which they have escaped, as well as of that which they have suffered,
may tend to heighten their devotional feelings on that solemn occasion.
When we learn that, in the fourteenth century, one quarter, at
least, of the population of the old world was swept away in the short
space of four years, and that some countries, England among the rest,
lost more than double that proportion of their inhabitants in the
course of a few months, we may well congratulate ourselves that our
visitation has not been like theirs, and shall not justly merit
ridicule, if we offer our humble thanks to the "Creator and Preserver
of all mankind" for our deliverance. Nor would it disgrace our feelings if, in expiation of the abuse
and obloquy not long since so lavishly bestowed by the public on the
medical profession, we should entertain some slight sense of gratitude
towards those members of the community, who were engaged, at the risk
of their lives and the sacrifice of their personal interests, in
endeavouring to arrest the progress of the evil, and to mitigate the
sufferings of their fellow men. I have added, at the close of the Appendix, some extracts
from a scarce little work in black letter, called "A Boke or Counseill against
the Disease commonly called the Sweate or Sweatyng Sicknesse,"
published by Caius in 1552. This was written three years before his
Latin treatise on the same subject, and is so quaint, and, at the same
time, so illustrative of the opinions of his day, and even of those of
the fourteenth century, on the causes of universal diseases, that the
passages which I have quoted will not fail to afford some amusement as
well as instruction. If I have been tempted to reprint more of this
curious production than was necessary to my primary object, it has been
from a belief that it would be generally acceptable to the reader to
gather some particulars regarding the mode of living in the sixteenth
century, and to observe the author's animadversions on the degeneracy
and credulity of the age in which he lived. His advice on the choice of
a medical attendant cannot be too strongly recommended, at least by
a physician; and his warning against quackery, particularly
the quackery of painters, who "scorne (quaere score?)
you behind your backs with their medicines, so filthy that I am ashamed
to name them," seems quite prophetic. In conclusion, I beg to acknowledge the obligation which I owe to
my friend Mr. H. E. Lloyd, whose intimate acquaintance with the German
language and literature will, I hope, be received as a sufficient
pledge that no very important errors remain in a translation which he
has kindly revised. London, 1833. PREFACE.WE here find an important page of the history of the world
laid open to our view. It treats of a convulsion of the human race,
unequalled in violence and extent. It speaks of incredible disasters,
of despair and unbridled demoniacal passions. It shows us the abyss of
general licentiousness, in consequence of an universal pestilence which
extended from China to Iceland and Greenland. The inducement to unveil this image of an age, long since gone by,
is evident. A new pestilence has attained almost an equal extent, and
though less formidable, has partly produced, partly indicated, similar
phenomena. Its causes, and its diffusion over Asia and Europe, call on
us to take a comprehensive view of it, because it leads to an insight
into the organism of the world, in which the sum of organic life is
subject to the great powers of Nature. Now, human knowledge is not yet
sufficiently advanced, to discover the connexion between the processes
which occur above, and these which occur below, the surface of the
earth, or even fully to explore those laws of nature, an acquaintance
with which would be required; far less to apply them to great
phenomena, in which one spring sets a thousand others in motion. On this side, therefore, such a point of view is not to be found,
if we would not loss ourselves in the wilderness of conjectures, of
which the world is already too full: but it may be found in the ample
and productive field of historical research. History - that mirror of human life in all its bearings, offers, even
for general pestilences, an inexhaustible, though scarcely explored,
mine of facts; here too it asserts its dignity, as the philosophy of
reality delighting in truth. It is conformable to its spirit to conceive general
pestilences as
events affecting the whole world - to explain their phenomena by the
comparison of what is similar. Thus the facts speak for themselves,
because they appear to have proceeded from these higher laws which
govern the progression of the existence of mankind. A cosmical origin
and convulsive excitement, productive of the most important
consequences among the nations subject to them, are the most striking
features to which history points in all general pestilences. These,
however, assume very different forms, as well in their attacks on the
general organism, as in their diffusion; and in this respect a
development from form to form, in the course of centuries, is manifest,
so that the history of the world is divided into grand periods in which
positively defined pestilences prevailed. As far as our chronicles
extend, more or less certain information can be obtained respecting
them. But this part of medical history, which has such a manifold
and powerful influence over the history of the world, is yet in its
infancy. For the honour of that science which should everywhere guide
the actions of mankind, we are induced to express a whish. THE BLACK DEATH,CHAPTER I.GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.THAT Omnipotence which has called the world with all its
living
creatures into one animated being, especially reveals himself in the
desolation of great pestilences. The powers of creation come into
violent collision; the sultry dryness of the atmosphere; the
subterraneous thunders; the mist of overflowing waters, are the
harbingers of destruction. Nature is not satisfied with the ordinary
alternations of life and death, and the destroying angel waves over man
and beast his flaming sword. These revolutions are performed in vast cycles, which the
spirit of man, limited, as it is, to a narrow circle of perception, is
unable to
explore. They are, however, greater terrestrial events than any of
those which proceed from the discord, the distress, or the passions of
nations. By annihilations they awaken new life; and when the tumult
above and below the earth is past, nature is renovated, and the mind
awakens from torpor and depression to the consciousness of an
intellectual existence. Were it in any degree within the power of human research to
draw up, in a vivid and connected form, an historical sketch of such
mighty
events, after the manner of the historians of wars and battles, and the
migrations of nations, we might then arrive at clear views with respect
to the mental development of the human race, and the ways of Providence
would be more plainly discernible. It would then be demonstrable, that
the mind of nations is deeply affected by the destructive conflict of
the powers of nature, and that great disasters lead to striking changes
in general civilization. For all that exists in man, whether good or
evil, is rendered conspicuous by the presence of great danger. His
inmost feelings are roused - the thought of self-preservation masters
his
spirit - self-denial is put to severe proof, and wherever darkness and
barbarism prevail, there the affrighted mortal flies to the idols of
his superstition, and all laws, human and divine, are criminally
violated. In conformity with a general law of nature, such a state of
excitement brings about a change, beneficial or detrimental, according
to circumstances, so that nations either attain a higher degree of
moral worth, or sink deeper in ignorance and vice. All this, however,
takes place upon a much grander scale than through the ordinary
vicissitudes of war and peace, or the rise and fall of empires, because
the powers of nature themselves produce plagues, and subjugate the
human will, which, in the contentions of nations, alone predominates. CHAPTER II.THE DISEASE.THE most memorable example of what has been advanced, is
afforded by a great pestilence of the fourteenth century, which
desolated Asia,
Europe, and Africa, and of which the people yet preserve the
remembrance in gloomy traditions. It was an oriental plague, marked by
inflammatory boils and tumours of the glands, such as break out in no
other febrile disease. On account of these inflammatory boils, and from
the black spots, indicatory of a putrid decomposition, which appeared
upon the skin, it was called in Germany and in the northern kingdoms of
Europe, the Black Death, and in Italy, la Mortalega Grande, the
Great .Mortality.[1] Few testimonies are presented to us respecting its symptoms
and its course, yet these are sufficient to throw light upon the form
of the
malady, and they are worthy of credence, from their coincidence with
the signs of the same disease in modern times. [1] La Mortalega Grande. Matth. de Griffionibus. Muratori. Script. rer. Italicar. T. XVIII. p. 167. D. They were called by others Anguinalgia. Andr. Gratiol. Discorso di Peste. Venet. 1576. 4to. Swedish: Diger-döden. Loccenii Histor. Succan. L. III. p. 104. - Danish: den sorte Dod. Pontan. Rer. Danicar. Histor. L. VIII. p. 476. - Amstelod. 1631, fol. Icelandic: Svatur Daudi. Saabye, Tagebuch in Grönland. Introduction XVIII. Mansa, de Epidemiis maxime memorabilibus, qae in Dania grassat sunt, &c. Part I. p. 12. Havniae, 1831, 8. - In Westphalia the name of de groete Doet was prevalent. Meibom.
The imperial writer, Kantakusenos, [1] whose own son,
Andronicus,
died of this plague in Constantinople, notices great imposthumes [2] of
the thighs and anus of those affected, which, when opened, afforded
relief by the discharge of an offensive matter. Buboes, which are the
infallible signs of the oriental plague, are thus plainly indicated,
for he makes separate mention of smaller boils on the arms and in the
face, as also in other parts of the body, and clearly distinguishes
these from the blisters, [3] which are no less produced by plague in
all its forms. In many cases, black spots [4] broke out all over the
body, either single, or united and confluent. These symptoms were not all found in every case. In many one alone was sufficient to cause death, while some patients recovered, contrary to expectation, though afflicted with all. Symptoms of cephalic affection were frequent; many patients became stupified and fell into a deep sleep, losing also their speech from palsy of the tongue; others remained sleepless and without rest. The fauces and tongue were black, and as if suffused with blood; no beverage would assuage their burning thirst, so that their sufferings continued without alleviation until terminated by death, which many in their despair accelerated with their own hands. Contagion was evident, for attendants caught the disease of their relations and friends, and many houses in the capital were bereft even of their last inhabitant. Thus far the ordinary circumstances only of the oriental
plague
occurred. still deeper sufferings, however, were connected with this
pestilence, such as have not been felt at other times; the organs of
respiration were seized with a putrid inflammation; a violent pain in
the chest attacked the patient; blood was expectorated, and the breath
diffused a pestiferous odour. In the West, the following were the predominating symptoms on the eruption of this disease. An ardent fever, accompanied by an evacuation of blood, proved fatal in the first three days. It appears that buboes and inflammatory boils did not at first come out at all, but that the disease, in the form of carbuncular (anthrax- artigen) ___________________________________________ [1] Joann. Cantacuzen. Historiar.
L. IV. c. 8. Ed. Paris, p. 730. 5. The ex-emperor has indeed
copied some passages from Thucydides, as Sprengel justly
observes (Appendix to the Geschichte der Medicin. Vol. I. H. I. S. 73),
though this was most probably only for the sake of rounding a period.
This is no detriment to his credibility, because his statements accord
with the other accounts. [3] Μελαιναι φλυκτιδες [4] ωσπερ στιγματα μελανα [5] Guidon. de Cauliaco Chirurgia.
Tract 11. c. 5. p. 113. Ed. Lugdun. 1572. affection of the lungs, effected the destruction of life before the other symptoms were developed.
Thus did the plague rage in Avignon for six or eight weeks,
and the pestilential breath of the sick, who expectorated blood, caused
a
terrible contagion far and near; for even the vicinity of those who had
fallen ill of plague was certain death; [1] so that parents abandoned
their infected children, and all the ties of kindred were dissolved.
After this period, buboes in the axila and in the groin, and
inflammatory boils all over the body, made their appearance; but it was
not until seven months afterwards that some patients recovered with
matured buboes, as in the ordinary milder form of plague. Such is the report of the courageous Guy de Chauliac, who
vindicated the honour of medicine, by bidding defiance to danger;
boldly and constantly assisting the affected, and disdaining the excuse
of his colleagues, who held the Arabian notion, that medical aid was
unavailing, and that the contagion justified flight. He saw the plague
twice in Avignon, first in the year 1348, from January to August, and
then twelve years later, in the autumn, when it returned from Germany,
and for nine months spread general distress and terror. The first time
it raged chiefly among the poor, but in the year 1360, more among the
higher classes. It now also destroyed a great many children, whom it
had formerly spared, and but few women. The like was seen in Egypt. [2] Here also inflammation of the
lungs was predominant, and destroyed quickly and infallibly, with
burning
heat and expectoration of blood. Here too the breath of the sick spread
a deadly contagion, and human aid was as vain as it was destructive to
those who approached the infected. Boccacio, who was an eye-witness of its incredible fatality
in Florence, the seat of the revival of science, gives a more lively
description of the attack of the disease than his non-medical
contemporaries. [3] It commenced here, not, as in the East, with bleeding at the
nose, a sure sign of inevitable death; but there took place at the
beginning,
both in men and women, tumours in the groin and in [1] Et fuit tante contagiositatis specialiter quae
fuit cum sputo sanguinis, quod non solum morando, sed etiam inspiciendo
unus
recipiebat ab alio; intantum quod gentes moriebantur sine servitoribus,
et sepeliebantur sine sacerdotibus, pater non visitabat filium, nec
filius patrem: charitas erat mortua, spes prostrata.
the axilla, varying in circumference up to the size of an
apple or
an egg, and called by the people pest-boils (gavoccioli). Then there
appeared similar tumours indiscriminately over all parts of the body,
and black or blue spots came out on the arms or thighs, or on other
parts, either single and large, or small and thickly studded. These
spots proved equally fatal with the pest-boils, which had been from the
first regarded as a sure sign of death. [1] No power of medicine
brought relief - almost all died within the first three days, some
sooner, some later, after the appearance of these signs, and for the
most part entirely without fever [2] or other symptoms. The plague
spread itself with the greater fury, as it communicated from the sick
to the healthy, like fire among dry and oily fuel, and even contact
with the clothes and other articles which had been used by the infected
seemed to induce the disease. As it advanced, not only men, but
animals, fell sick and shortly expired, if they had touched things
belonging to the diseased or dead. Thus Boccacio himself saw two hogs
on the rags of a person who had died of plague, after staggering about
for a short time, fall down dead, as if they had taken poison. In other
places multitudes of dogs, cats, fowls, and other animals, fell victims
to the contagion; and it is to be presumed that other epizootes among
animals likewise took place, although the ignorant writers of the
fourteenth century are silent on this point. In Germany there was a repetition in every respect of the
same phenomena. The infallible signs of the oriental bubo-plague with
its
inevitable contagion were found there as everywhere else; but the
mortality was not nearly so great as in the other parts of Europe. [4]
The accounts do not all make mention of the spitting of blood, the
diagnostic symptom of this fatal pestilence; we are not, however,
thence to conclude that there was any considerable mitigation or
modification of the disease, for we must not only take into account the
defectiveness of the chronicles, but that isolated testimonies are
often contradicted by many others. Thus, the chronicles of Strasburg,
which only take notice of boils and glandular swellings in the axillic
and groins, [5] are opposed by another [1] From this period black petechiae have always been considered as fatal in the plague. [2] A very usual circumstance in plague epidemics. account, according to which the mortal spitting of blood was
met with in Germany ; [1] but this again is rendered suspicious, as the
narrator postpones the death of those who were thus affected, to the
sixth, and (even the) eighth day, whereas no other author sanctions so
long a course of the disease; and even in Strasburg, where a mitigation
of the plague may, with most probability, be assumed, since in the year
1349 only 16,000 people were carried off, the generality expired by the
third or fourth day. [2] In Austria, and especially in Vienna, the
plague was fully as malignant as anywhere, so that the patients who had
red spots and black boils, as well as those afflicted with tumid
glands, died about the third day; [3] and lastly, very frequent sudden
deaths occurred on the coasts of the North Sea and in Westphalia,
without any further development of the malady [4] To France, this plague came in a northern direction from
Avignon,
and was there more destructive than in Germany, so that in many places
not more than two in twenty of the inhabitants survived. Many were
struck, as if by lightning, and died on the spot, and this more
frequently among the young and strong than the old; patients with
enlarged glands in the axillae and groins scarcely survived two or
three days; and no sooner did these fatal signs appear, than they bid
adieu to the world, and sought consolation only in the absolution which
Pope Clement VI. promised them in the hour of death. [5] [1] Hainr. Rebdorff, Annales, Marq.
Freher. Germanicarum rerum Seriptores. Francof.
1624. fol. p. 439.
the close of the plague that they ventured to open, by
incision,
these hard and dry boils, when matter flowed from them in small
quantity, and thus by compelling nature to a critical suppuration, many
patients were saved. Every spot which the sick had touched, their
breath, their clothes, spread the contagion; and, as in all other
places, the attendants and friends who were either blind to their
danger or heroically despised it, fell a sacrifice to their sympathy.
Even the eyes of the patient were considered as sources of contagion,
[1] which had the power of acting at a distance, whether on account of
their unwonted lustre or the distortion which they always suffer in
plague, or whether in conformity with an ancient notion, according to
which the sight was considered as the bearer of a demoniacal
enchantment. Flight from infected cities seldom availed the fearful,
for the germ of the disease adhered to them, and they fell sick, remote
from assistance, in the solitude of their country houses. Thus did the plague spread over England with unexampled
rapidity, after it had first broken out in the county of Dorset, whence
it
advanced through the counties of Devon and Somerset, to Bristol, and
thence reached Gloucester, Oxford, and London. Probably few places
escaped, perhaps not any; for the annals of contemporaries report that
throughout the land only a tenth part of the inhabitants remained
alive. [2] From England the contagion was carried by a ship to Bergen,
the capital of Norway, where the plague then broke out in its most
frightful form, with vomiting of blood; and throughout the whole
country, spared not more than a third of the inhabitants. The sailors
found no refuge in their ships; and vessels were often seen driving
about on the ocean and drifting on shore, whose crews had perished to
the last man. [3] In Poland the infected were attacked with spitting of blood,
and
died in a few days in such vast numbers, that, as it has been affirmed,
scarcely a fourth of the inhabitants were left. [4] [1] Mezeray, Histoire de France. Paris,
1685. fol. T. II. p. 418. Thus much, from authentic sources, on the nature of the Black
Death. The descriptions which have been communicated contain, with a
few unimportant exceptions, all the symptoms of the oriental plague
which have been observed in more modern times. No doubt can obtain on
this point. The facts are placed clearly before our eyes. We must,
however, bear in mind that this violent disease does not always appear
in the same form, and that while the essence of the poison which it
produces, and which is separated so abundantly from the body of the
patient, remains unchanged, it is proteiform in its varieties, from the
almost imperceptible vesicle, unaccompanied by fever, which exists for
some time before it extends its poison inwardly, and then excites fever
and buboes, to the fatal form in which carbuncular inflammations fall
upon the most important viscera. Such was the form which the plague assumed in the 14th
century, for
the accompanying chest affection which appeared in all the countries
whereof we have received any account, cannot, on a comparison with
similar and familiar symptoms, be considered as any other than the
inflammation of the lungs of modern medicine, [2] a disease which at
present only appears sporadically, and, owing to a putrid decomposition
of the fluids, is probably combined with hemorrhages from the vessels
of the lungs. Now, as every carbuncle, whether it be cutaneous or
internal, generates in abundance the matter of contagion which has
given rise to it, so, therefore, must the breath of the affected have
been poisonous in this plague, and on this account its power of
contagion wonder- [1] W. M. Richter, Geschichte der
Medicin in Russland. Moskwa, 1813, 8. p. 215. Richter has
taken his
information on the black plague in Russia, from authentic Russian MSS.
fully increased; wherefore the opinion appears
incontrovertible,
that owing to the accumulated numbers of the diseased, not only
individual chambers and houses, but whole cities were infected, which,
moreover, in the middle ages, were, with few exceptions, narrowly
built, kept in a filthy state, and surrounded with stagnant ditches.
[1] Flight was, in consequence, of no avail to the timid; for even
though they had sedulously avoided all communication with the diseased
and the suspected, yet their clothes were saturated with the
pestiferous atmosphere, and every inspiration imparted to them the
seeds of the destructive malady, which, in the greater number of cases,
germinated with but too much fertility. Add to which, the usual
propagation of the plague through clothes, beds, and a thousand other
things to which the pestilential poison adheres, - a propagation,
which,
from want of caution, must have been infinitely multiplied; and since
articles of this kind, removed from the access of air, not only retain
the matter of contagion for an indefinite period, but also increases
its activity and engender it like a living being, frightful
ill-consequences followed for many years after the first fury of the
pestilence was past. The affection of the stomach, often mentioned in vague terms,
and occasionally as a vomiting of blood, was doubtless only a
subordinate
symptom, even if it be admitted that actual hematemesis did occur. For
the difficulty of distinguishing a flow of blood from the stomach, from
a pulmonic expectoration of that fluid, is, to non-medical men, even in
common cases, not inconsiderable. How much greater then must it have
been in so terrible a disease, where assistants could not venture to
approach the sick without exposing themselves to certain death? Only
two medical descriptions of the malady have reached us, the one by the
brave Guy de Chauliac, the other by Raymond Chalin de
Vinario, a very experienced scholar, who was well versed in the
learning of his time. The former takes notice only of fatal coughing of
blood; the latter, besides this, notices epistaxis, hematuria and
fluxes of blood from the bowels, as symptoms of such decided and speedy
mortality, that those patients in whom they were observed, usually died
on the same or the following day. [2] [1] It is expressly ascertained with respect to
Avignon and Paris,
that uncleanliness of the streets increased the plague considerably. Raim.
Chalin de Vinario. [1] Dalechamp, p. 205 - where, and at pp.
32 - 36, the plague-eruptions are mentioned in the usual indefinite
terms:
Exanthmata viridia, caerulea, nigra, rubra, lata, diffusa, velut
signata punctis, &c. CHAPTER III.CAUSES. - SPREAD.AN inquiry into the causes of the lack Death will not be
without
important results in the study of the plagues which have visited the
world, although it cannot advance beyond generalization without
entering upon a field hitherto uncultivated, and, to this hour,
entirely unknown. Mighty revolutions in the organism of the earth, of
which we have credible information, had preceded it. From China to the
Atlantic, the foundations of the earth were shaken, - throughout Asia
and
Europe the atmosphere was in commotion, and endangered, by its baneful
influence, both vegetable and animal life. The series of these great events began in the year 1333,
fifteen
years before the plague broke out in Europe: they first appeared in
China. Here a parching drought, accompanied by famine, commenced in the
tract of country watered by the rivers Kiang and Hoai. This was
followed by such violent torrents of rain, in and about Kingsai, at
that time the capital of the empire, that, according to tradition, more
than 400,000 people perished in the floods. Finally the mountain
Tsincheou fell in, and vast clefts were formed in the earth. In the
succeeding year (1334), passing over fabulous traditions, the
neighbourhood of Canton was visited by inundations; whilst in Tche,
after an unexampled drought, a plague arose, which is said to have
carried off about 5,000,000 of people. A few months afterwards an
earthquake followed, at and near Kingsai; and subsequent to the falling
in of the mountains of Ki-ming-chan, a lake was formed of more than a
hundred leagues in circumference, where, again, thousands found their
grave. In Houkouang and Ho-nan a drought prevailed for five months; and
innumerable swarms of locusts destroyed the vegetation; while famine
and pestilence, as usual, followed in their train. Connected accounts
of the condition of Europe before this great catastrophe, are not to be
expected from the writers of the fourteenth century. It is remarkable,
however, that simultaneously with a drought and renewed floods in
China, in 1336, many uncommon atmospheric phenomena, and in the winter
frequent thunder storms, were observed in the north of France; and so
early as the eventful year of 1333, an eruption of Etna took place. [1]
According to the Chinese annals, about 4,000,000 of people perished by
famine in the neighbourhood of Kiang in 1337; and deluges, swarms of
locusts, and an earthquake which lasted six days, caused incredible
devastation. In the same year, the first swarms of locusts appeared in
Franconia, which were succeeded in the following year by myriads of
these insects. In 1338, Kingsai was visited by an earthquake of ten
days' duration; at the same time France suffered from a failure in the
harvest; and thenceforth, till the year 1342, there was in China a
constant succession of inundations, earthquakes, and famines. In the
same year great floods occurred in the vicinity of the Rhine and in
France, which could not be attributed to rain alone; for everywhere,
even on the tops of mountains, springs were seen to burst forth, and
dry tracts were laid under water in an inexplicable manner. In the
following year, the mountain Hong-tchang, in China, fell in, and caused
a destructive deluge; and in Pien-tcheou and Leang-tcheou, after three
months' rain, there followed unheard-of inundations, which destroyed
seven cities. In Egypt and Syria, violent earthquakes took place; and
in China they became, from this time, more and more frequent; for they
recurred, in 1344, in Ven-tcheou, where the sea overflowed in
consequence; in 1345, in Ki-tcheou, and in both the following years in
Canton, with subterraneous thunder. Meanwhile, floods and famine
devastated various districts, until 1347, when the fury of the elements
subsided in China. [2] The signs of terrestrial commotions commenced in Europe in
the year 1348, after the intervening districts of country in Asia had
probably
been visited in the same manner. On the island of Cyprus, the plague from the East had already
[1] V. Hoff. Geschichte der
natürlichen
Veranderungen der Erdoberflache, T. II. p. 264. Gotha, 1824. This
eruption was not
succeeded by any other in the same century, either of Etna or of
Vesuvius.
broken out; when an earthquake shook the foundations of the
island, and was accompanied by so frightful a hurricane, that the
inhabitants,
who had slain their Mahometan slaves in order that they might not
themselves be subjugated by them, fled in dismay, in all directions.
The sea overflowed - the ships were dashed to pieces on the rocks, and
few outlived the terrific event, whereby this fertile and blooming
island was converted into a desert. Before the earthquake, a
pestiferous wind spread so poisonous an odour, that many, being
overpowered by it, fell down suddenly and expired in dreadful agonies.
[1] This phenomenon is one of the rarest that has ever been
observed,
for nothing is more constant than the composition of the air; and in no
respect has nature been more careful in the preservation of organic
life. Never have naturalists discovered in the atmosphere foreign
elements, which, evident to the senses, and borne by the winds, spread
from land to land, carrying disease over whole portions of the earth,
as is recounted to have taken place in the year 1348. It is, therefore,
the more to be regretted, that in this extraordinary period, which,
owing to the low condition of science, was very deficient in accurate
observers, so little that can be depended on respecting these uncommon
occurrences in the air, should have been recorded. Yet, German accounts
say expressly, that a thick, stinking mist advanced from the East, and
spread itself over Italy; [2] and there could be no deception
in so palpable a phenomenon. [3] The credibility of unadorned
traditions, however little they may satisfy physical research, can
scarcely be called in question when we consider the connexion of
events; for just at this time earthquakes were more general than they
had been within the range of history. In thousands of places chasms
were formed, from whence arose [1] Deguignes, loc. cit. p. 225, from
Chinese
sources. [3] See Caius' account of the causes of the sweating sickness, in the Appendix. - Translator.
noxious vapours; and as at that time natural occurrences were
transformed into miracles, it was reported, that a fiery meteor, which
descended on the earth far in the East, had destroyed everything within
a circumference of more than a hundred leagues, infecting the air far
and wide. [1] The consequences of innumerable floods contributed to the
same effect; vast river districts had been converted into swamps; foul
vapours arose everywhere, increased by the odour of putrified locusts,
which had never perhaps darkened the sun in thicker swarms, [2] and of
countless corpses, which, even in the well-regulated countries of
Europe, they knew not how to remove quickly enough out of the sight of
the living. It is probable, therefore, that the atmosphere contained
foreign, and sensibly perceptible, admixtures to a great extent, which,
at least in the lower regions, could not be decomposed, or rendered
ineffective by separation. Now, if we go back to the symptoms of the disease, the ardent
inflammation of the lungs points out that the organs of respiration
yielded to the attack of an atmospheric poison - a poison, which, if we
admit the independent origin of the Black Plague at any one place on
the globe, which, under such extraordinary circumstances, it would be
difficult to doubt, attacked the course of the circulation in as
hostile a manner as that which produces inflammation of the spleen, and
other animal contagions that cause swelling and inflammation of the
lymphatic glands. Pursuing the course of these grand revolutions further, we
find
notice of an unexampled earthquake, which, on the 25th of January,
1348, shook Greece, Italy, and the neighbouring countries. Naples,
Rome, Pisa, Bologna, Padua, Venice, and. many other cities suffered
considerably: whole villages were swallowed up. Castles, houses, and
churches were overthrown, and hundreds of people were buried beneath
their ruins. [3] In Carinthia, thirty villages, together with all the
churches, were demolished; more than a thousand corpses were drawn out
of the rubbish; the city of Vilach was so completely destroyed, that
very few of its inhabitants were saved; and when the earth ceased to
tremble, it was found that mountains had been moved from their
positions, [1] Mezeray, Histoire de France, Tom. II.
418. Paris, 1685. Compare Oudegheerst's Chroniques de
Flandres.
Antwerp, 1571, 4to. Chap. 175, f. 297.
and that many hamlets were left in ruins.[1] It is recorded
that, during this earthquake, the wine in the casks became turbid, a
statement which may be considered as furnishing a proof, that changes
causing a decomposition of the atmosphere had taken place; but if we
had no other information from which the excitement of conflicting
powers of nature during these commotions might be inferred, yet
scientific observations in modern times have shown, that the relation
of the atmosphere to the earth is changed by volcanic influences. Why,
then, may we not, from this fact, draw retrospective inferences
respecting those extraordinary phenomena? Independently of this, however, we know that during this
earthquake, the duration of which is stated by some to have been a
week, and by others a fortnight, people experienced an unusual stupor
and head-ache, and that many fainted away. [2] These destructive earthquakes extended as far as the
neighbourhood
of Basle, [3] and recurred until the year 1360, throughout Germany,
France, Silesia, Poland, England, and Denmark, and much further north.
[4] Great and extraordinary meteors appeared in many places, and
were regarded with superstitious horror. A pilar of fire, which on the
2oth
of December, 1348, remained for an hour at sunrise over the pope's
palace in Avignon; [5] a fireball, which in August of the same year was
seen at sunset over Paris, and was distinguished from similar phenomena
by its longer duration, [6] not to mention other instances mixed up
with wonderful prophecies and omens, are recorded in the chronicles of
that age. [1] J. Vitoduran. Chronicon, in Füssli.
Thesaurus Histor. Helvet. Tigur. 17.35. fol. p. 84.
and the surrounding countries, where, in this year, a rain
which
continued for four months had destroyed the seed. In the larger cities,
they were compelled, in the spring of 1347, to have recourse to a
distribution of bread among the poor, particularly at Florence, where
they erected large bake-houses, from which, in April, ninety-four
thousand loaves of bread, each of twelve ounces in weight, were daily
dispensed. [1] It is plain, however, that humanity could only partially
mitigate the general distress, not altogether obviate it. Diseases, the invariable consequence of famine, broke out in
the country, as well as in cities; children died of hunger in their
mothers' arms, - want, misery, and despair, were general throughout
Christendom. [2] Such are the events which took place before the eruption of
the
Black Plague in Europe. Contemporaries have explained them after their
own manner, and have thus, like their posterity, under similar
circumstances, given a proof, that mortals possess neither senses nor
intellectual powers sufficiently acute to comprehend the phenomena
produced by the earth's organism, much less scientifically to
understand their effects. Superstition, selfishness in a thousand
forms, the presumption of the schools, laid hold of unconnected facts.
They vainly thought to comprehend the whole in the individual, and
perceived not the universal spirit which, in intimate union with the
mighty powers of nature, animates the movements of all existence, and
permits not any phenomenon to originate from isolated causes. To
attempt, five centuries after that age of desolation, to point out the
causes of a cosmical commotion, which has never recurred to an equal
extent, - to indicate scientifically the influences which called forth
so
terrific a poison in the bodies of men and animals, exceeds the limits
of human understanding. If we are even now unable, with all the varied
resources of an extended knowledge of nature, to define that condition
of the atmosphere by which pestilences are generated, still less can we
pretend to reason retrospectively from the nineteenth to the fourteenth
century; but if we take a general view of the occurrences, that century
will give us copious information, and, as applicable to all succeeding
times, of high unportance. [1] Villani loc. cit. c. 72. p. 954.
In the progress of connected natural phenomena, from East to
West, that great law of nature is plainly revealed which has so often
and
evidently manifested itself in the earth's organism, as well as in the
state of nations dependent upon it. In the inmost depths of the globe,
that impulse was given in the year 1333, which in uninterrupted
succession for six-and-twenty years shook the surface of the earth,
even to the western shores of Europe. From the very beginning the air
partook of the terrestrial concussion, atmospherical waters overflowed
the land, or its plants and animals perished under the scorching heat.
The insect tribe was wonderfully called into life, as if animated
beings were destined to complete the destruction which astral and
telluric powers had begun. Thus did this dreadful work of nature
advance from year to year; it was a progressive infection of the Zones,
which exerted a powerful influence both above and beneath the surface
of the earth; and after having been perceptible in slighter
indications, at the commencement of the terrestrial commotions in
China, convulsed the whole earth. 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 unfavourable 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; for it would involve the impossible assumption,
either that there is no essential difference between the degree of
civilization of the European nations, in the most ancient and in modern
times, or that detrimental circumstances, which have yielded only to
the civilization of human society and the regular cultivation of
countries, could not formerly keep up the glandular plague. The plague was, however, known in Europe before nations were
united by the bonds of commerce and social intercourse ; [1] 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 favour the origin of severe diseases. Now
we need not go back to the earlier centuries, for the 14th itself,
before it had half expired, was visited by five or six pestilences. [2]
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 favourable 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; and that 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
harbours 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 connexion
between Asia, Europe, and Africa. [3] 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 [1] According to Papon, its origin is quite
lost in the obscurity of remote ages; and even before the Christian
Era, we are
able to trace many references to former pestilences. De la peste, ou
époques mémorables de ce fléau, et les moyens de
s'en préserver. T. II.
Paris, An VIII. de la rép. 8.
way; and doubtless, Constantinople and the harbours
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, [1] 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, [2] 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; [3] in Cesena,
the 1st of June; [4] 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. [5] 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. [6] Poland received the plague in
1349, probably from Germany, [7] 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 north-westerly 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. [1] According to the general Byzantine designation,
"from the country of the hyperborean Scythians." Kantakuzen, loc.
cit. [5] Barnes, loc. cit.
Whether any difference existed between the indigenous plague,
excited by the influence of the atmosphere, and that which was imported
by contagion, can no longer be ascertained from facts; for the
contemporaries, who in general were not competent to make accurate
researches of this kind, have left no data on the subject. A milder and
a more malignant form certainly existed, and the former was not always
derived from the latter, as is to be supposed from this
circumstance - that the spitting of blood, the infallible diagnostic of
the latter, on the first breaking out of the plague, is not similarly
mentioned in all the reports; and it is therefore probable, that the
milder form belonged to the native plague, - the more malignant, to
that
introduced by contagion. Contagion was, however, in itself, only one of
many causes which gave rise to the Black Plague. This disease was a consequence of violent commotions in the
earth's organism - if any disease of cosmical origin can be so
considered. One
spring set a thousand others in motion for the annihilation of living
beings, transient or permanent, of mediate or immediate effect. The
most powerful of all was contagion; for in the most distant countries,
which had scarcely yet heard the echo of the first concussion, the
people fell a sacrifice to organic poison, - the untimely offspring of
vital energies thrown into violent commotion. CHAPTER IV.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 Kaptechak, Mesopotamia,
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 ei 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; [1] 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.[2] 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.
[3] 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? 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, [1] Deguignes, loc. cit. p. 223, f. [2] Matt. Villani, Istoria, loc. cit. p.
13. 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 To which may be added - Franciscan Friars in Germany .124,434 [14] [1] Jno. Trithem, Annal. Hirsaugiens.
(Monast.
St. Gall. Hirsaug. 1690. fol.) T. II. p. 296. According to Boccacio,
loc.
cit. 100,000; according to Matt. Villani, loc. cit. p. 14,
three out of five. [6] Ibid. [12] Barnes, loc. cit. [13] Ibid.
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
wails. 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. [1] 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 [2] were bereft of all their
inhabitants. In many places in France not more than two out of twenty of
the inhabitants were left alive, [3] and the capital felt the fury of
the
plague, alike in the palace and the cot. Two queens, [4] one bishop, [5] 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 [1] Becker, loc. cit. [3] Guillelm. de Nang. loc. cit.
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. The church-yards were soon unable to contain the dead, [1]
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
churchyards would no longer hold them; [2] 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, [3] 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, [4] 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. In many places, it was rumoured that plague patients were
buried
alive, [5] as may sometimes happen through senseless alarm and indecent
haste; and thus the horror of the distressed people was everywhere
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. [6]
Funeral ceremonies, the last consolation of the survivors, were
everywhere impracticable. In all Germany, according to a probable calculation, there
seem to have died only 1,244,434 [7] inhabitants; this country, [1] 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.
however, was more spared than others; Italy, on the contrary,
was most severely visited. It is said to have lost half its
inhabitants;
[1] 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, [2] 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. [3] 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. [4] 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. [5] It is said, that in the whole
country, scarcely a tenth part remained alive 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. Morals were deteriorated everywhere, 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; 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, through ___________________________________________ [1] Trighem. Annal. Hirsaug. loc. cit. [2] Loc. cit. L. XII. c. 99. p. 977. [6] Wood, loc. cit.
out 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 into 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. At the commencement, there was in England a super-abundance
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 the 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 the 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
everywhere 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
really 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 everywhere
poisoned the springs of comfort and prosperity. [1] 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. [2] 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. Alphonso XL, 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, innumerable families had been thrown
into affliction. [3] The mortality seems otherwise to have been smaller
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
the year 1347 to 1350. The plagues, which in the sequel often returned
until the year 1383, [4] 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 favourable occasion, gained ground anew, as is usually the
case with this frightful disease. 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 a hundred of the pilgrims escaped. [5] Italy was, in consequence, depopulated anew; and those who
returned spread poison and corruption of morals in all directions. [6]
It is,
therefore, the less apparent, how that pope, who was in general so wise
and considerate, and who know how to pursue the path of reason and
humanity, under the most difficult [1] Barnes and Wood, loc. cit. [2] Gobelin. Person, in Meebom.
loc.
cit.
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 [1] and, in other respects, gave
such orders as averted, or alleviated, much misery. 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 - Håken and Knut; halfbrothers of King Magnus;
and in
Westgothland alone, 466 priests. [2] 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.
[3] In Denmark and Norway, however, people were so occupied with their
own misery, that the accustomed voyages to Greenland ceased. Towering
icebergs 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. [4] 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 favour 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. [5] [1] Guillelm. de Nangis, loc. cit. and many
others.
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 contains 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
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; accustomed, as usua1 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 fecundity
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. [1] Some writers of authority, as, for
example, the physician Savonarola, [2] 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. The people gradually consoled themselves after the sufferings
which
they had undergone; the deed were lamented and forgotten; and in the
stirring vicissitudes of existence, the world belonged to the living.
[2] CHAPTER V.MORAL EFFECTS.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, [4] 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. ___________________________________________ [1] We shall take this view of the subject from Guillelm.
de Nangis and Barnes, if we read them with
attention. Compare Olof Dalin, loc. cit.
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. [1] 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 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 14th 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. [1] Chronic. Ditmari, Episcop. Mersepurg, Francof. 1680, fol. p. 358. - " Spangenberg, p. 338. The lamentation was piteous; and the only remaining solace, was the prevalent anxiety, inspired by the danger, to prepare for a glorious departure; no other hope remained - death appeared inevitable. Many were hence induced to search into their own hearts, to turn to God, and to abandon their wicked courses: parents warned their children, and instructed them how to pray, and to submit to the ways of Providence: neighbours mutually admonished each other; none could reckon on a single hour's respite. Many persons, and even young children, were seen bidding farewell to the world; some with prayer, others with praises on their lips."
While all countries were filled with lamentations and woe,
there
first arose in Hungary, [1] 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-organized
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 en the breast, back, and cap, and bore
triple scourges, tied in three or four knots, in which points of iron
were fixed. [3] 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 the 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 the
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 [1] Torfaei Hist. rer. Norvegic. L. IX. c.
viii. p. 478.
(Havn. 1711, fol.) Die Cronica van der hilliger Stat
van Coellen, of dat tyztboich, Coellen, 1499, fol. p.
263. "In
dem vurss jair erhoiff sich eyn alzo wunderlich nuwe Geselschaft in
Ungarien," &c. The Chronicle of the holy city of Cologne,
1499. In this same year, a very remarkable society was formed in
Hungary.
and to the south. For more than half a year, new parties
arrived weekly; and, en 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. [1] 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.
[2] 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
11th 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, [5] 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 [1] Königshoven, Elsassische und
Strassburgische
Chronicke. loc. cit. p. 297. f.
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 chants 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
provinces 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. [1] In the year 1296,
there was a great procession of the Flagellants in Strasburg; [2] 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. [3] 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; [1] Schnurrer, Chronicle of the Plagues, T.
I. p. 291.
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 13th and
14th 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 four pence 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 their
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. [1] Upon this, they scourged
themselves, amid the singing of psalms and loud supplications for the
averting of the plague, with genuflexions, and other ceremonies, [1] Königshoven, p. 298:
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. [1] One of them, in
conclusion, stood 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. [2] 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 Crossbearers, which is still
extant, and which was sung all over Germany, in different dialects, and
is probably of a more ancient date. [3] 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 [1] Guill. de Nang. loc. cit. [2] Albert. Argentinens. loc. cit.
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.[1] 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 authorized; and, on pain of
excommunication, prohibited throughout Christendom the continuance of
these pilgrimages. [4] Philip VI., supported by the condemnatory
judgment of the Sorbonne, forbad their reception in France. [5]
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, [6] and Preczlaw, of
Breslaw, who condemned to death one of their Masters, formerly a
deacon; and, in conformity with the barbarity of the times, had him
publicly burnt. [7] In Westphalia, where so shortly before they had
venerated the Brothers of the Cross, they now persecuted them with
relentless severity; [8] and in the Mark, as well as in all the other
countries [1] Trithem. Annal. Hirsaugiens, T. II. p.
206. [5] Guillelm. de Nangis.
of Germany, they pursued them, as if they had been the
authors of every misfortune.[1] 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
12th 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 as enmity with the Christians? They
were everywhere suspected of having poisoned the wells or infected the
air. [2] They alone were considered as having brought this fearful
mortality upon the Christians. [3] 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 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 14th 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, [4] at Chillon, on the Lake of Geneva, where the first [1] Kehrberg's Deseription of
Königsberg, i. e. Neumark, 1724, 4to. p. 240.
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. [1] 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. [2] 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 [1] Hermanni Gygantis Flores temporum, sive
Chronicon Universale - Ed. Meuschen. Lugdun. Bat. 1743. 4to.
p. 139.
Hermann, a Franciscan monk of Franconia, who wrote in the year 1349,
was an eye-witness of the most revolting scene, of vengeance,
throughout all Germany.
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. [1] 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 inclosed 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. [2] 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. [1] Hermann. loc. cit. 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. [1] Many,
however, refused to accept the base price of blood, and, indignant at
the scenes of blood-thirsty avarice, which made the infuriated
multitude forget [2] 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. [3] 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 ; [4] and mothers were often seen throwing their
children on the pile, to prevent their being baptized, and then
precipitating themselves into the flames. [5] In short, whatever deeds
fanaticism, revenge, [1] Dies was ouch die
Vergift, die die Juden döttete. "This was also the poison
that
killed the Jews,"
observes Königshoven, which he illustrates by saying,
that
their increase in Germany was very great, and their mode of gaining a
livelihood, which, however, was the only resource left them, had
engendered ill-will against them in all quarters. [4] Spangenberg, loc. cit.
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. [1] Many Jews
who had embraced Christianity, repented of their apostasy, - and,
returning to their former faith, sealed it with death. [2] 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. [3] 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. [4] Duke Albert of Austria burned 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. [5] 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 ___________________________________________ [1] Albert. Argentinens.
of being attacked by the populace and by their powerful
neighbours.
[1] 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 connexion with secret
superiors in Toledo, to whose decrees they were subject, and from whom
they had received commands respecting the coming of base money,
poisoning, the murder of Christian children, &c.; [3] 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. [4] Apparently there were but few who did
not consider this extravagant accusation well founded; indeed, in many
writings of the 14th 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. [1] Spangenberg. In the county of Mark, the
Jews were no better off than in the rest of Germany. Margrave Ludwig,
the
Roman, even countenanced their persecutions, of which Kehrberg loc.
cit. 241, gives the following official account: Coram cunctis, Christi
fidelibus praesentia percepturis, ego Johannes dictus de
Wedel Advocatus, inclyti Principis Domini, Ludovici, Marchionis,
publice profiteor et recognosco, quod nomine Domini mei civitatem
Königsberg visitavi et intravi, et ex parte Domini Marchionis
Consulibus ejusdem civitatis in adjutorium mihi assumtis, Judaeos
inibi morantes igne cremavi, bonaque omnia eorundem Judaeorum ex
parte Domini mei totaliter usurpavi et assumsi. In cujus testimonium
praesentibus meum sigillum appendi. Datum A.D. 1351. in Vigilia S.
Matthaei Apostoli. [4] Hermann. Gygas. loc. cit.
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. [1] On this subject see Köningshoven, who
has preserved some very valuable original proceedings. The most
important are, the
criminal examinations of ten Jews, at Chillon, on the Lake of Geneva,
held in September and October, 1348. - V. Appendix. They produced the
most strange confessions, and sanctioned, by the false name of justice,
the blood-thirsty fanaticism which lighted the funeral piles. Copies of
these proceedings were sent to Bern and Strasburg, where they gave rise
to the first persecutions against the Jews. - V. also the original
document of the offensive and defensive Alliance between Berthold
von Gotz, Bishop of Strasburg, and many powerful lords and
nobles, in favour of the city of Strasburg, against Charles IV. The
latter saw himself compelled, in consequence, to grant to that city an
amnesty for the Jewish persecutions, which in our days would be deemed
disgraceful to an imperial crown. Not to mention many other documents,
which no less clearly show the spirit of the 14th century, p. 1021. f.
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 families, 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 Thus far Boccacio. On the conduct of the priests, another
contemporary observes: [1] "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 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. [1] Guilelm. de Nangis, p. 110. CHAPTER VI.PHYSICIANS.If we now turn to the medical talent which encountered the "Great
Mortality," the middle ages must stand excused, since even the
moderns are of opinion that the art of medicine is not able to cope
with the Oriental plague, and can afford deliverance from it only under
particularly favourable circumstances. [1] We must bear in mind also,
that human science and art appear particularly weak in great
pestilences, because they have to contend with the powers of nature, of
which they have no knowledge; and which, if they had been, or could be,
comprehended in their collective effects, would remain uncontrollable
by them, principally on account of the disordered condition of human
society. Moreover, every new plague has its peculiarities, which are
the less easily discovered on the first view, because, during its
ravages, fear and consternation humble the proud spirit. The physicians of the 14th century, during the Black Death,
did what human intellect could do in the actual condition of the
healing
art; and their knowledge of the disease was by no means despicable.
They, like the rest of mankind, have indulged in prejudices, and
defended them, perhaps, with too much obstinacy; some of these,
however, were founded on the mode of thinking of the age, and passed
current in those days, as established truths; others continue to exist
to the present hour. Their successors in the 19th century ought not therefore to
vaunt too highly the pre-eminence of their knowledge, for they too will
be
subjected to the severe judgment of posterity - they too will, with
reason, be accused of human weakness and want of foresight. The medical faculty of Paris, the most celebrated of the 14th
century, were commissioned to deliver their opinion on the causes of
the Black Plague, and to furnish some appropriate regulations with
regard to living, during its prevalence. This document is sufficiently
remarkable to find a place here. "We, the Members of the College of Physicians, of Paris,
have,
after mature consideration and consultation on the present mortality,
collected the advice of our old masters in the art, and [1] "Curationem omnem respuit pestis confirmata." - Chalin,
p. 33.
intend to make known the causes of this pestilence, more
clearly
than could be done according to the rules and principles of astrology
and natural science; we, therefore, declare as follows: - "It is known
that in India, and the vicinity of the Great Sea, the constellations
which combated the rays of the sun, and the warmth of the heavenly
fire, exerted their power especially against that sea, and struggled
violently with its waters. (Hence, vapours often originate which
envelope the sun, and convert his light into darkness.) These vapours
alternately rose and fell for twenty-eight days; but at last, sun and
fire acted so powerfully upon the sea, that they attracted a great
portion of it to themselves, and the waters of the ocean arose in the
form of vapour; thereby the waters were, in some parts, so corrupted,
that the fish which they contained, died. These corrupted waters,
however, the heat of the sun could not consume, neither could other
wholesome water, hail or snow, and dew, originate therefrom. On the
contrary, this vapour spread itself through the air in many places en
the earth, and enveloped them in fog. "Such was the case all over Arabia, in a part of India; in
Crete; in the plains and valleys of Macedonia; in Hungary, Albania, and
Sicily. Should the same thing occur in Sardinia, not a man will be left
alive; and the like will continue, so long as the sun remains in the
sign of Leo, on all the islands and adjoining countries to which this
corrupted sea-wind extends, or has already extended from India. If the
inhabitants of those parts do not employ and adhere to the following,
or similar, means and precepts, we announce to them inevitable
death - except the grace of Christ preserve their lives. "We are of opinion, that the constellations, with the aid of
Nature, strive, by virtue of their divine might, to protect and heal
the human race; and to this end, in union with the rays of the sun,
acting through the power of fire, endeavour to break through the mist.
Accordingly, within the next ten days, and until the 17th of the
ensuing month of July, this mist will be converted into a stinking
deleterious rain whereby the air will be much purified. Now, as soon as
this rain shall announce itself, by thunder or hail, every one of you
should protect himself from the air; and, as well before as after the
rain, kindle a large fire of vine-wood, green laurel, or other green
wood; wormwood and chamomile should also be burnt in great quantity in
the marketplaces, in other densely inhabited localities, and in the
houses. Until the earth is again completely dry, and for three days
afterwards, no one ought to go abroad in the fields. During this time
the diet should be simple, and people should be cautious in avoiding
exposure in the cool of the evening, at night, and in the morning.
Poultry and water-fowl, young pork, old beef, and fat meat in general,
should not be eaten; but on the contrary, meat of a proper age, of a
warm and dry, but of no account of a beating and exciting nature. Broth
should be taken, seasoned with ground pepper, ginger, and cloves,
especially by those who are accustomed to live temperately, and are yet
choice in their diet. Sleep in the day-time is detrimental; it should
be taken at night until sunrise, or somewhat longer. At breakfast, one
should drink little; supper should be taken an hour before sunset, when
more may be drunk than in the morning. Clear light wine, mixed with a
fifth or sixth part of water, should be used as a beverage. Dried or
fresh fruits, with wine, are not injurious; but highly so without it.
Beet-root and other vegetables, whether eaten pickled or fresh, are
hurtful; on the contrary, spicy potherbs, as sage or rosemary, are
wholesome. Cold, moist, watery food is in general prejudicial. Going
out at night, and even until three o'clock in the morning, is
dangerous, on account of the dew. Only small river fish should be used.
Too much exercise is hurtful. The body should be kept warmer than
usual, and thus protected. from moisture and cold. Rain-water must not
be employed in cooking, and every one should guard against exposure to
wet weather. If it rain, a little fine treacle should be taken after
dinner. Fat people should not sit in the sunshine. Good clear wine
should be selected and drunk often, but in small quantities, by day.
Olive oil as an article of food, is fatal. Equally injurious are
fasting and excessive abstemiousness, anxiety of mind, anger, and
immoderate drinking. Young people, in autumn especially, must abstain
from all these things, if they do not wish to run a risk of dying of
dysentery. In order to keep the body properly open, an enema, or some
other simple means, should be employed, when necessary. Bathing is
injurious. Men must preserve chastity as they value their lives. Every
one should impress this on his recollection, but especially those who
reside on the coast, or upon an island into which the noxious wind has
penetrated." [1] Jacob. Francischini de Ambrosiis. In
the Appendix to the Istorie Pistolesi, in Muratori, Tom. XI.
p. 528. The first notice on this subject is due to a very celebrated
teacher in Perugia, Gentilis of Foligno, who, on the 18th of June,
1348, fell a sacrifice to the plague, in the faithful discharge of his
duty. [1] Attached to Arabian doctrines, and to the universally
respected Galen, he, in common with all his contemporaries, believed in
a putrid corruption of the blood in the lungs and in the heart, which
was occasioned by the pestilential atmosphere, and was forthwith
communicated to the whole body. He thought, therefore, that everything
depended upon a sufficient purification of the air, by means of large
blazing fires of odoriferous wood, in the vicinity of the healthy, as
well as of the sick, and also upon an appropriate manner of living; so
that the putridity might not overpower the diseased. In conformity with
notions derived from the ancients, he depended upon bleeding and
purging, at the commencement of the attack, for the purpose of
purification; ordered the healthy to wash themselves frequently with
vinegar or wine, to sprinkle their dwellings with vinegar, and to smell
often to [1] Gentilis de Fulgineo Consilia. De Peste
Cons. I. II. fol. 76, 77. Venet. 1514. fol.
camphor, or other volatile substances. Hereupon he gave,
after the Arabian fashion, detailed rules, with an abundance of
different
medicines, of whose healing powers wonderful things were believed. He
laid little stress upon super-lunar influences, so far as respected the
malady itself; on which account, he did not enter into the great
controversies of the astrologers, but always kept in view, as an object
of medical attention, the corruption of the blood in the lungs and
heart. He believed in a progressive infection from country to country,
according to the notions of the present day; and the contagious power
of the disease, even in the vicinity of those affected by plague, was,
in his opinion, beyond all doubt. [1] On this point, intelligent
contemporaries were all agreed; and in truth, it required no great
genius to be convinced of so palpable a fact. Besides, correct notions
of contagion have descended from remote antiquity, and were maintained
unchanged in the 14th century. [2] So far back as the age of Plato, a
knowledge of the contagious power of malignant inflammations of the
eye, of which also no physician of the middle ages entertained a doubt,
[3] was general among the people; [4] yet, in modern times, surgeons
have filled volumes with partial controversies on this subject. The
whole language of antiquity has adapted itself to the notions of the
people, respecting the contagion of pestilential diseases; and their
terms were, beyond comparison, more expressive than those in use among
the moderns. [5] Arrangements for the protection of the healthy against
contagious
diseases, the necessity of which is shown from these notions, were
regarded by the ancients as useful; and by many, whose circumstances
permitted it, were carried into effect in their houses. Even a total
separation of the sick from the healthy, that indispensable means of
protection against infection by contact, was proposed by physicians of
the 2nd century after Christ, in order to check the spreading of
leprosy. But it was decidedly opposed, because, as it was alleged, the
healing art ought not to be guilty of such harshness. [6] This mildness
of the ancients, in whose manner [1] - "venenosa putredo circa partes cordis
et pulmonis de quibus exeunte venenoso vapore, periculum est in
vicinitatibus." Cons.
I. fol. 76, a.
of thinking inhumanity was so often and so undisguisedly
conspicuous, might excite surprise, if it were anything more than
apparent. The true ground of the neglect of public protection against
pestilential diseases, lay in the general notion and constitution of
human society, - it lay in the disregard of human life, of which the
great nations of antiquity have given proofs in every page of their
history. Let it not be supposed that they wanted knowledge respecting
the propagation of contagious diseases. On the contrary, they were as
well informed on this subject as the moderns; but this was shown where
individual property, not where human life, on the grand scale, was to
be protected. Hence the ancients made a general practice of arresting
the progress of murrains among cattle, by a separation of the diseased
from the healthy. Their herds alone enjoyed that protection which they
held it impracticable to extend to human society, because they had no
wish to do so. [1] That the governments in the 14th century were not
yet so far advanced, as to put into practice general regulations for
checking the plague, needs no especial proof. Physicians could,
therefore, only advise public purifications of the air by means of
large fires, as had often been practised in ancient times; and they
were obliged to leave it to individual families, either to seek safety
in flight, or to shut themselves up in their dwellings, [2] a method
which answers in common plagues, but which here afforded no complete
security, because such was the fury of the disease when it was at its
height, that the atmosphere of whole cities was penetrated by the
infection. Of the astral influence which was considered to have
originated the "Great Mortality," physicians and learned men
were as
completely convinced as of the fact of its reality. A grand conjunction
of the three superior planets, Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars, in the sign
of Aquarius, which took place, according to Guy de Chauliac, on the
24th of March, 1345, was generally received as its principal cause. In
fixing the day, this physician, who was deeply versed in astrology, did
not agree with others; whereupon there [1] Geschichte der Heilkunde, Vol. II. p.
248.
arose various disputations, of weight in that age, but of
none in
ours; people, however, agreed in this - that conjunctions of the
planets
infallibly prognosticated great events; great revolutions of kingdoms,
new prophets, destructive plagues, and other occurrences which bring
distress and horror on mankind. No medical author of the 14th and 15th
centuries omits an opportunity of representing them as among the
general prognostics of great plagues; nor can we, for our parts, regard
the astrology of the middle ages as a mere offspring of superstition.
It has not only, in common with all ideas which inspire and guide
mankind, a high historical importance, entirely independent of its
error or truth - for the influence of both is equally powerful - but
there
are also contained in it, as in alchymy, grand thoughts of antiquity,
of which modern natural philosophy is so little ashamed that she claims
them as her property. Foremost among these, is the idea of the general
life which diffuses itself throughout the whole universe, expressed by
the greatest Greek sages, and transmitted to the middle ages, through
the new Platonic natural philosophy. To this impression of an universal
organism, the assumption of a reciprocal influence of terrestrial
bodies could not be foreign, [1] nor did this cease to correspond with
a higher view of nature, until astrologers overstepped the limits of
human knowledge with frivolous and mystical calculations. Guy de Chauliac considers the influence of the conjunction,
which was held to be all-potent, as the chief general cause of the
Black
Plague; and the diseased. state of bodies, the corruption of the
fluids, debility, obstruction, and so forth, as the especial
subordinate causes. [2] By these, according to his opinion, the quality
of the air, and of the other elements, was so altered, that they set
poisonous fluids in motion towards the inward parts of the body, in the
same manner as the magnet attracts iron; whence there arose in the
commencement fever and the spitting of blood; afterwards, however, a
deposition in the form of glandular swellings and inflammatory boils.
Herein the notion of an epidemic constitution was set forth clearly,
and conformably to the spirit of the age. Of contagion, Guy de Chauliac
was completely convinced. He sought to protect himself against it by
the usual [1] This was called Affluxus, or Forma
specfica, and was compared to the effect of a magnet on iron, and
of amber on chaff. - Chalin
de Vinario, p. 23.
means; [1] and it was probably he who advised Pope Clement
VI. to shut himself up while the plague lasted. The preservation of
this
pope's life, however, was most beneficial to the city of Avignon, for
he loaded the poor with judicious acts of kindness, took care to have
proper attendants provided, and paid physicians himself to afford
assistance wherever human aid could avail - an advantage which,
perhaps,
no other city enjoyed. [2] Nor was the treatment of plague-patients in
Avignon by any means objectionable; for, after the usual depletions by
bleeding and aperients, where circumstances required them, they
endeavoured to bring the buboes to suppuration; they made incisions
into the inflammatory boils, or burned them with a red-hot iron, a
practice which at all times proves salutary, and in the Black Plague
saved many lives. In this city, the Jews, who lived in a state of the
greatest filth, were most severely visited, as also the Spaniards, whom
Chalin accuses of great intemperance. [3] Still more distinct notions on the causes of the plague were
stated
to his contemporaries in the 14th century, by Galeazzo di Santa Sofia,
a learned man, a native of Padua, who likewise treated plague-patients
at Vienna, [4] though in what year is undetermined. He distinguishes
carefully pestilence from epidemy and endemy.
The common notion of the two first accords exactly with that
of an epidemic constitution, for both consist, according to him, in an
unknown change or corruption of the air; with this difference, that pestilence
calls forth diseases of different kinds; epidemy, on
the contrary, always the same disease. As an example of an epidemy,
he adduces a cough (influenza) which was observed in all
climates at the same time, without perceptible cause; but he recognised
the
approach of a pestilence, independently of unusual natural
phenomena, by the more frequent occurrence of various kinds of fever,
to which the modern physicians would assign a nervous and putrid
character. The endemy originates, according to him, only in
local telluric changes - in deleterious influences which develop
themselves in the earth and in the water, without a corruption of the
air. These notions were variously ___________________________________________ [1] Purging with alöetic pills; bleeding;
purification
of the air by means of large fires; the use of treacle; frequent
smelling to
volatile substances, of which certain "poma" were prepared; the
internal use of Armenian bole, - a plague-remedy derived from the
Arabians, and, throughout the middle ages, much in vogue, and very
improperly used; and the employment of acescent food, in order to
resist putridity. Guy de Chauliac appears to have
recommended flight to many. Loc. citat. p. 115. Compare Chalin, L.
II., who gives most excellent precepts on this subject. [4] Fol. 32. loc. cit.
jumbled together in his time, like everything which human
understanding separates by too fine a line of limitation. The
estimation of cosmical influences, however, in the epidemy and
pestilence is well worthy of commendation; and Santa
Sofia, in this respect, not only agrees with the most intelligent
persons of
the 14th and 15th centuries, but he has also promulgated an opinion
which must, even now, serve as a foundation for our scarcely commenced
investigations into cosmical influences. [1] Pestilence and epidemy
consist not in alterations of the four primary qualities,
[2] but
in a corruption of the air, powerful, though quite immaterial, and not
cognoscible by the senses: - (corruptio aëris non substantialis,
sed
qualitativa) in a disproportion of the imponderables in the atmosphere,
as it would be expressed by the modems. [3] The causes of the pestilence
and epidemy are, first of all, astral influences,
especially on occasion of planetary conjunctions; then extensive
putrefaction of animal and vegetable bodies, and terrestrial
corruptions (corruptio in terra); to which also bad diet and want may
contribute. Santa Sofia considers the putrefaction of locusts, that had
perished in the sea and were again thrown up, combined with astral and
terrestrial influences, as the cause of the pestilence in the eventful
year of the "Great Mortality." All the fevers which were called forth by the pestilence,
are,
according to him, of the putrid kind; for they originate principally
from putridity of the heart's blood, which inevitably follows the
inhalation of infected air. The Oriental Plague is, sometimes, but by
no means always, occasioned by pestilence (?), which imparts
to it a character (qualitas occulta) hostile to human nature. It
originates frequently from other causes, among which, this physician
was aware that contagion was to be reckoned; and it deserves to be
remarked, that he held epidemic small-pox and measles to be infallible
forerunners of the plague, as do the physicians and people of the at
the present day. [1] Galeacii de Santa Sophia, Liber de
Febribus. Venet. 1514, fol. (Printed together with Guillelmus
Brixiensi, Marsilius
de Sancta Sophia, Ricardus Parisiensis. fol. 29. seq.)
In the exposition of his therapeutical views of the plague, a
clearness of intellect is again shown by Santa Sofia, which reflects
credit on the age. It seemed to him to depend, 1st, on an evacuation of
putrid matters, by purgatives and bleeding: yet he did not sanction the
employment of these means indiscriminately, and without consideration;
least of all where the condition of the blood was healthy. He also
declared himself decidedly against bleeding ad deliquium (venae sectio
eradicativa). 2nd, Strengthening of the heart and prevention of
putrescence. 3rd, Appropriate regimen. 4th, Improvement of the air.
5th, Appropriate treatment of tumid glands and inflammatory boils, with
emollient, or even stimulating poultices (mustard, lily-bulbs), as well
as with red-hot gold and iron. Lastly, 6th, Attention to prominent
symptoms. The stores of the Arabian pharmacy, which he brought into
action to meet all these indications, were indeed very considerable; it
is to be observed, however, that, for the most part, gentle means were
accumulated, which, in case of abuse, would do no harm; for the
character of the Arabian system of medicine, whose principles were
everywhere followed at this time, was mildness and caution. On this
account, too, we cannot believe that a very prolix treatise by Marsigli
di Santa Sofia, [1] a contemporary relative of Galeazzo, on the
prevention and treatment of plague, can have caused much harm,
although, perhaps, even in the 14th century, an agreeable latitude and
confident assertions respecting things which no mortal has
investigated, or which it is quite a matter of indifference to
distinguish, were considered as proofs of a valuable practical talent. The agreement of contemporary and later writers, shows that
the published views of the most celebrated physicians of the 14th
century,
were those generally adopted. Among these, Chalin de Vinario is the
most experienced. Though devoted to astrology, still more than his
distinguished contemporary, he acknowledges the greater power of
terrestrial influences, and expresses himself very sensibly en the
indisputable doctrine of contagion, endeavouring thereby to apologize
for many surgeons and physicians of his time, who neglected their duty.
[2] He asserted boldly, and with [1] Tractatus de Febribus, fol. 48.
truth, "that all epidemic diseases might become
contagious,[1]
and all fevers epidemic," which attentive observers of all
subsequent ages have confirmed. He delivered his sentiments on blood-letting with sagacity, as an experienced physician; yet he was unable, as may be imagined, to moderate the desire for bleeding shown by the ignorant monks. He was averse to draw blood from the veins of patients under fourteen years of age; but counteracted inflammatory excitement in them by cupping; and endeavoured to moderate the inflammation of the tumid glands by leeches. [2] Most of those who were bled, died; he therefore reserved this remedy for the plethoric; especially for the papal courtiers, and the hypocritical priests, whom he saw gratifying their sensual desires, and imitating Epicurus , whilst they pompously pretended to follow Christ. [3] He recommended burning the boils with a red-hot iron, only in the plague without fever, which occurred in single cases; [4] and was always ready to correct those over-hasty surgeons, who, with fire and violent remedies, did irremediable injury to their patients. [5] Michael Savonarola, professor in Ferrara (1462), reasoning on the susceptibility of the human frame to the influence of pestilential infection, as the cause of such various modifications of disease, expresses himself as a modern physician would on this point; and an adoption of the principle of contagion, was the foundation of his definition of the plague. [6] No less worthy of observation are the views of the celebrated Valescus of Taranta, who, during the final visitation of the Black Death, in 1382, practised as a physician at Montpellier, and handed down to posterity what has been repeated ___________________________________________ [1] Morbos omnes pestilentes esse contagiosos,
audacter ego equidem pronuntio et assevero. p. 149. [5] Ibid. p. 169. 189.
in innumerable treatises on plague, which were written during
the 15th and 16th centuries. [1] Of all these notions and views regarding the plague, whose
development we have represented, there are two especially, which are
prominent in historical importance: - lst, The opinion of learned
physicians, that the pestilence, or epidemic constitution,
is the parent of various kinds of disease; that the plague
sometimes, indeed, but by no means always, originates from it; that, to
speak in the language of the moderns, the pestilence bears
the same relation to contagion, that a predisposing cause does to an
occasional cause: and 2ndly, the universal conviction of the contagions
power of that disease. Contagion gradually attracted more notice: it was thought
that in it, the most powerful occasional cause might be avoided; the
possibility of protecting whole cities by separation became gradually
more evident; and so horrifying was the recollection of the eventful
year of the "Great Mortality," that before the close of the
14th century, ere the ill effects of the Black Plague had ceased,
nations endeavoured to guard against the return of this enemy, by an
earnest and effectual defence. The first regulation which was issued for this purpose,
originated
with Viscount Bernabo, and is dated. the 17th Jan. 1374. "Every
plague-patient was to be taken out of the city into the fields, there
to die or to recover. These who attended upon a plague-patient, were to
remain apart for ten days, before they again associated with anybody.
The priests were to examine the diseased, and point out to special
commissioners the persons infected; under punishment of the
confiscation of their goods, and of being burned alive. Whoever
imported the plague, the state condemned his goods to confiscation.
Finally, none, except these who were appointed for that purpose, were
to attend plague-patients, under penalty of death and confiscation. [2]
These orders, in correspondence with the spirit of the 14th century, are sufficiently decided to indicate a recollection of the good effects of confinement, and of keeping at a distance these suspected of having plague. It was said that Milan itself, by a rigorous barricads of three houses in which the plague had broken out, maintained itself free from the "Great Mortality," for a considerable ___________________________________________ [1] Valesci de Tharanta, Philonium.
Lugduni, 1535. 8. L. VII. c. 18. fol. 401. b. seq.
time; [1] and examples of the preservation of individual
families,
by means of a strict separation, were certainly very frequent. That
these orders must have caused universal affliction from their uncommon
severity, as we know to have been especially the case in the city of
Reggio, may be easily conceived; but Bernabo did not suffer himself to
be deterred from his purpose by fear - on the contrary, when the plague
returned in the year 1383, he forbad the admission of people from
infected places into his territories, on pain of death. [2] We have
now, it is true, no account how far he succeeded, yet it is to be
supposed that he arrested the disease, for it had long lost the
property of the Black Death, to spread abroad in the air the contagious
matter which proceeded from the lungs, charged with putridity, and to
taint the atmosphere of whole cities by the vast numbers of the sick.
Now that it had resumed its milder form, so that it infected only by
contact, it admitted being confined within individual dwellings, as
easily as in modern times. Bernabo's example was imitated; nor was there any century
more
appropriate for recommending to governments strong regulations against
the plague, than the 14th; for when it broke out in Italy, in the year
1399, and still demanded new victims, it was for the 16th time; without
reckoning frequent visitations of measles and small-pox. In this same
year, Viscount John, in milder terms than his predecessor, ordered that
no stranger should be admitted from infected places, and that the city
gates should be strictly guarded. Infected houses were to be ventilated
for at least eight or ten days, and purified from noxious vapours by
fires, and by fumigations with balsamic and aromatic substances. Straw,
rage, and the like, were to be burned; and the bedsteads which had been
used, set out for four days in the rain or the sunshine, so that, by
means of the one or the other, the morbific vapour might be destroyed.
No one was to venture to make use of clothes or beds out of infected
dwellings, unless they had been previously washed and dried either at
the fire or in the sun. People were, likewise, to avoid, as long as
possible, occupying houses which had been frequented by
plague-patients. [3] We cannot precisely perceive in these an advance towards general ___________________________________________ [1] Adr. Chenot, Hinterlassene Abhandlungen
über die ärztlichen und politischen Anstalten bei der
Pestseuche. Wien,
1798,
8vo. p. 146. From this period it was common in the middle ages to
barricade the doors and windows of houses infected with plague, and to
suffer the inhabitants to perish without mercy. - S. Möhsen,
loc. cit.
regulations; and perhaps people were convinced of the
insurmountable impediments which opposed the separation of open inland
countries, where bodies of people connected together could not be
brought, even by the most obdurate severity, to renounce the habit of a
profitable intercourse. Doubtless it is nature which has done the most to banish the
Oriental plague from western Europe, where the increasing cultivation
of the earth, and the advancing order in civilized society, have
prevented it from remaining domesticated; which it most probably was in
the more ancient times. In the 15th century, during which it broke out seventeen
times in different places in Europe, [1] it was of the more consequence
to
oppose a barrier to its entrance from Asia, Africa, and Greece (which
had become Turkish); for it would have been difficult for it to
maintain itself indigenously any longer. Among the southern commercial
states, however, which were called on to make the greatest exertions to
this end, it was principally Venice, formerly so severely attacked by
the Black Plague, that put the necessary restraint upon the perilous
profits of the merchant. Until towards the end of the 15th century, the
very considerable intercourse with the East was free and unimpeded.
Ships of commercial cities had often brought over the plague: nay, the
former irruption of the "Great Mortality" itself had been
occasioned by navigators. For, as in the latter end of Autumn, 1347,
four ships full of plague-patients returned from the Levant to Genoa,
the disease spread itself there with astonishing rapidity. On this
account, in the following year, the Genoese forbad the entrance of
suspected ships into their port. These sailed to Pisa and other cities
on the coast, where already nature had made such mighty preparations
for the reception of the Black Plague, and what we have already
described took place in consequence. [2] In the year 1485, when, among the cities of northern Italy,
Milan especially felt the scourge of the plague, a special council of
health,
consisting of three nobles, was established at Venice, who probably
tried everything in their power to prevent the entrance of this
disease, and gradually called into activity all these regulations which
have served in later times as a pattern for the other southern states
of Europe. Their endeavours were, however, not crowned with complete
success; on which account their powers were increased, in the year
1504, by granting them the right of [1] Papon, loc. cit. [2] Chenot, p. 145.
life and death over those who violated the regulations. [1]
Bills of health were probably first introduced in the year 1527, during
a
fatal plague [2] which visited Italy for five years (1525 - 30), and
called forth redoubled caution. The first lazarettos were established upon islands at some
distance
from the city, seemingly as early as the year 1485. Here all strangers
coming from places where the existence of plague was suspected were
detained. If it appeared in the city itself, the sick were despatched
with their families to what was called the Old Lazaretto, were there
furnished with provisions and medicines, and, when they were cured,
were detained, together with all those who had had intercourse with
them, still forty days longer in the New Lazaretto, situated on another
island. All these regulations were every year improved, and their
needful rigour was increased, so that from the year 1585 onwards, no
appeal was allowed from the sentence of the Council of Health; and the
other commercial nations gradually came to the support of the
Venetians, by adopting corresponding regulations. [3] Bills of health,
however, were not general until the year 1665. The appointment of a forty days' detention, whence
quarantines
derive their name, was not dictated by caprice, but probably had a
medical origin, which is derivable in part from the doctrine of
critical days; for the fortieth day, according to the most ancient
notions, has been always regarded as the last of ardent diseases, and
the limit of separation between these and these which are chronic. It
was the custom to subject lying-in women for forty days to a more exact
superintendence. There was a good deal also said in medical works of
forty day epochs in the formation of the focus, not to mention that the
alchymists expected more durable revolutions in forty days, which
period they called the philosophical month. This period being generally held to prevail in natural processes, it appeared reasonable to assume, and legally to establish it, as that required for the development of latent principles of contagion, since public regulations cannot dispense with decisions of this kind, even though they should not be wholly justified by the nature of the case. Great stress has likewise been laid on theological ___________________________________________ [1] Le Bret, Staatsgeschichte der
Republik Venedig. Riga, 1775. 4, Part II. Div. 2 .p.752.
and legal grounds, which were certainly of greater weight in
the fifteenth century than in modern times.' [1] On this matter, however, we cannot decide, since our only
object here is to point out the origin of a political means of
protection
against a disease, which has been the greatest impediment to
civilization within the memory of man; a means, that, like Jenner's
vaccine, after the small-pox had ravaged Europe for twelve hundred
years, has diminished the check which mortality puts on the progress of
civilization, and thus given to the life and manners of the nations of
this part of the world a new direction, the result of which we cannot
foretell. [1] The forty days'duration of the Flood, the forty days'
sojourn
of Moses on Mount Sinai, our Saviour's fast for the same length of time
in the wilderness; lastly, what is called the Saxon term (Sachsische
Frist), which lasts for forty days, &c. Compare G. W.
Wedel Centuria Exercitationum
Medico-philologicarum. De Quadragesima Medica. Jen,
1701. 4. Dec. IV. p. 16. APPENDIX.I. Das alte Geisslerlied
NACH MASSMANN'S AUSGABE VON HERRN PROFESSOR LACHMANN MIT DER HANDSCHRIFT VERGLICHEN. SvE siner sele wille pleghen Nu tredet here we botsen wille Datz vle wi ef wir hauen sin Dat cruce wart des blodes rod Sunder datz leyd ich dor dich Des bidde wi dich dor dinen dod Al unse nod si dir ghe klaghet
Des help mis moter maghet reyne. De erde beuet och kleuen de steyne Lebe hertze du salt weyne THE ANCIENT SONG OF THE FLAGELLANTSACCORDING TO MASSMANN'S EDITION COMPARED WITH THE MS. BY PROFESSOR LACHMANN (Translation.)
Whoe'er to save his soul is fain, Ye that repent your crimes, draw
nigh. If we be wise we this shall flee. The cross was reddened with his
gore These are the cruel pangs I found.
We, through thy death, to thee
have sued. Be all our wants to thee
pourtrayed.
Unde hebben des so guden louen Dor god nu latet de sunde mere En svert dor ire sele snet Des sole wi an en cruce vallen Jesus dor dine wnden rod Dat wil god selven an en wreken De e de ist en reyne leuen Dorch god nu latet houard mere
De cristenheit wil mi ent wichen Tears from our sorrowing eyes we weep; Therefore so firm our faith we
keep For love of God abandon sin, Pierced was her soul as with a
dart: Prostrate crosswise let us fall, Jesus, by thy precious blood, God will on such his vengeance
wreak. Wedlock's an honourable tie Lay down pride lest vengeance meet
you. Marie bat ire kint so sere Bekeren sich. So wil sich god in uch vor nuwen Ir sint dem leuen gode un mere De leyde duuel had se ge banden He bringhet dich vor de koninghin Then Mary thus implored her Son :
- Stay then thy wrath, and hear my prayer." Ye liars! So shall the Lord your hearts
renew. For every ounce thou mak'st a
pound The wrath of God on you shall
fall. Satan had bound her in his chain; He bringeth thee before thy
Queen.
Benignant Michael, blessed saint, Guardian of souls, receive our plaint. Through thy Almighty Maker's death, Preserve na from the hell beneath. ___________________________________________ [1] We hence perceive with what feelings subterraneous thunders were regarded by the people. [2] For the sake of thy Trinity. II. Examination of the Jews accused
of posioning the Wells [1]
Answer from the Castellan of Chillon to the City of
Strasburg, together with a Copy of the Inquisition
and Confession of several Jews confined in the Castle
of Chillon on suspicion of poisoning. Anno 1348.
To the Honourable the Mayor, Senate, and Citizens of the City
of Strasburg, the Castellan of Chillon, Deputy of the Bailiff of
Chablais,
sendeth greeting with all due submission and respect. Understanding that you desire to be made acquainted with the
confession of the Jews, and the proofs brought forward against them, I
certify, by these presents, to you, and each of you that desires to be
informed, that they of Berne have had a copy of the inquisition and
confession of the Jews who lately resided in the places specified, and
who were accused of putting poison into the wells and several other
places: as also the most conclusive evidence of the truth of the charge
preferred against them. Many Jews were put to the question, others
being excused from it, because they confessed, and were brought to
trial and burnt. Several Christians, also, who had poison given them by
the Jews for the purpose of destroying the Christians, were put on the
wheel and tortured. This burning of the Jews and torturing of the said
Christians took place in many parts of the county of Savoy. Fare you well. The Confession made on the 15th day
of
September, in the year of our Lord 1348, in the
Castle of Chillon, by the Jews arrested in Neustadt,
on the charge of Poisoning the Wells, Springs, and other
places; also Food, &c., with the design of
destroying and extirpating all Christians. 1. Balavignus, a Jewish physician, inhabitant of Thonon, was arrested at Chillon in consequence of being found in the neighbourhood ___________________________________________ [1] An appearance of justice having been given to all
later persecutions by these proceedings, they deserve to be recorded as
important historical documents. The original is in Latin, but we have
preferred the German translation in Königshovens Chronicle, p.
1029. -
He was put for a short time to the rack, and on being taken
down, confessed, after much hesitation, that, about ten weeks before,
the
Rabbi Jacob of Toledo, who, because of a citation, had resided at
Chamberi since Easter, sent him, by a Jewish boy, some poison in the
mummy of an egg: it was a powder sewed up in a thin leathern pouch
accompanied by a letter, commanding him on penalty of excommunication,
and by his required obedience to the law, to throw this poison into the
larger and more frequented wells of the town of Thonon, to poison those
who drew water there. He was further enjoined not to communicate the
circumstance to any person whatever, under the same penalty. In
conformity with this command of the Jewish rabbis and doctors of the
law, he, Balavignus, distributed the poison in several places, and
acknowledged having one evening placed a certain portion under a stone
in a spring on the shore at Thonon. He further confessed that the said
boy brought various letters of a similar import, addressed to others of
his nation, and particularly specified some directed severally to
Mossoiet, Banditon, and Samoleto of Neustadt; to Musseo Abramo and
Aquetus of Montreantz, Jews residing at Thurn in Vivey; to Benetonus
and his son at St. Moritz; to Vivianus Jacobus, Aquetus and Sonetus,
Jews at Aquani. - Several letters of a like nature were sent to Abram
and
Musset, Jews at Moncheoli; and the boy told him that he had taken many
other to different and distant places, but he did not recollect to whom
they were addressed. Balavignus further confessed that, after having
put the poison into the spring at Thonon, he had positively forbidden
his wife and children to drink the water, but had not thought fit to
assign a reason. He avowed the truth of this statement, and, in the
presence of several credible witnesses, swore by his Law, and the Five
Books of Moses, to every item of his deposition. On the day following, Balavignus, voluntarily and without
torture, ratified the above confession verbatim before many persons of
character, and, of his own accord, acknowledged that, en returning one
day from Tour near Vivey, he had thrown into a well below Mustruez,
namely, that of La Conerayde, a quantity of the poison tied up in a
rag, given to him for the purpose by Aquetus of Montreantz, an
inhabitant of the said Tour: that he had acquainted Manssiono, and his
son Delosaz, residents of Neustadt,with the circumstance of his having
done so, and advertised them not to drink of the water. He described
the colour of the poison as being red and black. On the nineteenth day of September, the above-named
Balavignus
confessed, without torture, that about three weeks after Whitsuntide, a
Jew named Mussus told him that he had thrown poison into the well, in
the custom-house of that place, the property of the Borneller family;
and that he no longer drank the water of this well, but that of the
lake. He further deposed that Mussus informed him that he had also laid
some of the poison under the stones in the custom-house at Chillon. Search was accordingly made in this well, and the poison
found: some of it was given to a Jew by way of trial, and he died in
consequence. He also stated that the rabbis had ordered him and other
Jews to refrain from drinking of the water for nine days after the
poison was infused into it; and immediately on having poisoned the
waters, he communicated the circumstance to the other Jews. He,
Balavignus, confessed that about two months previously, being at Evian,
he had some conversation on the subject with a Jew called Jacob, and
among other things, asked him whether he also had received writings and
poison, and was answereth in the affirmative; he then questioned him
whether he had obeyed the command, and Jacob replied that he had not,
but had given the poison to Savetus, a Jew, who had thrown it into the
well de Morer at Evian. Jacob also desired him, Balavignus, to execute
the command imposed on him with due caution. He confessed that Aquetus
of Montreantz had informed him that he had thrown some of the poison
into the well above Tour, the water of which he sometimes drank. He
confessed that Samolet had told him that he had laid the poison which
he had received in a well, which, however, he refused to name to him.
Balavignus, as a physician, further deposed that a person infected by
such poison coming in contact with another while in a state of
perspiration, infection would be the almost inevitable result; as might
also happen from the breath of an infected person. This fact he
believed to be correct, and was confirmed in his opinion by the
attestation of many experienced physicians. He also declared that none
of his community could exculpate themselves from this accusation, as
the plot was communicated to all; and that all were guilty of the above
charges. Balavignus was conveyed over the lake from Chillon to Clarens,
to point out the well into which he confessed having thrown the powder.
On landing, he was conducted to the spot; and, having seen the well,
acknowledged that to be the place, saying, "This is the well into which
I put the poison." The well was examined in his presence, and the linen
cloth in which the poison had been wrapped was found in the wastepipe
by a notary-public named Heinrich Gerhard, in the presence of many
persons, and was shown to the said Jew. He acknowledged this to be the
linen which had contained the poison, which he described as being of
two colours, red and black, but said that he had thrown it into the
open well. The linen cloth was taken away and is preserved. Balavignus, in conclusion, attests the truth of all and
everything
as above related. He believes this poison to contain a portion of the
basilisk, because he had heard, and felt assured, that the above poison
could not be prepared without it. II. Banditono, a Jew of Neustadt, was, on the fifteenth day
of September, subjected for a short time to the torture. After a long
interval, he confessed having cast a quantity of poison, about the size
of a large nut, given him by Musseus, a Jew, at Tour, near Vivey, into
the well of Carutet, in order to poison those who drank of it. The following day, Banditono, voluntarily and without
torture,
attested the truth of the aforesaid deposition; and also confessed that
the Rabbi Jacob von Pasche, who came from Toledo and had settled at
Chamberi, sent him, at Pilliex, by a Jewish servant, some poison about
the size of a large nut, together with a letter, directing him to throw
the powder into the wells on pain of excommunication. He had therefore
thrown the poison, which was sewn up in a leathern bag, into the well
of Cercliti de Roch; further, also, that he saw many other letters in
the hands of the servant addressed to different Jews; that he had also
seen the said servant deliver one, on the outside of the upper gate, to
Samuletus, the Jew, at Neustadt. He stated, also, that the Jew,
Massolet, had informed him that he had put poison into the well near
the bridge at Vivey. III. The said Manssiono, Jew of Neustadt, was put upon the
rack on
the fifteenth day of the same month, but refused to admit the above
charge, protesting his entire ignorance of the whole matter; but the
day following, he voluntarily and without any torture, confessed, in
the presence of many persons, that he came from Mancheolo one day in
last Whitsun-week, in company with a Jew named Provenzal, and, on
reaching the well of Chabloz Crüez between Vyona and Mura, the
latter
said, "You must put some of the poison which I will give you into that
well, or woe betide you!" He therefore took a portion of the powder
about the bigness of a nut, and did as he was directed. He believed
that the Jews in the neighbourhood of Evian had convened a council
among themselves relative to this plot, before Whitsuntide. He further
said that Balavignus had informed him of his having poisoned the well
de la Conerayde below Mustruez. He also affirmed his conviction of the
culpability of the Jews in this affair, stating that they were fully
acquainted with all the particulars, and guilty of the alleged crime. On the third day of the October following, Manssiono was
brought
before the commissioners, and did not in the least vary from his former
deposition, or deny having put the poison into the said wells. [The seven other examinations scarcely differ from the
above,
except in the names of the accused, and afford but little variety. We
will, therefore, only add a characteristic passage at the conclusion of
this document. The whole speaks for itself.] There still remain numerous proofs and accusations against
the
abovementioned Jews: also against Jews and Christians in different
parts of the county of Savoy, who have already received the punishment
due to their heinous crime; which, however, I have not at hand, and
cannot therefore send you. I must add, that all the Jews of Neustadt
were burnt according to the just sentence of the law. At Augst, I was
present when three Christians were flayed on account of being accessory
to the plot of poisoning. Very many Christians were arrested for this
crime in various places in this country, especially at Evian, Gebenne,
Krusilien, and Hochstett, who at last and in their dying moments were
brought to confess and acknowledge that they had received the poison
from the Jews. Of these Christians some have been quartered; others
flayed and afterwards banged. Certain commissioners have been appointed
by the magistrates to enforce judgment against all the Jews; and I
believe that none will escape. PREFACE.The diseases which form the subject of the present
investigation
afford a deep insight into the works of the human mind in a state of
Society. They are a portion of history, and will never return in the
form in which they are there recorded; but they expose a vulnerable
part of man - the instinct of imitation - and are therefore very nearly
connected with human life in the aggregate. It appeared worth while to
describe diseases which are propagated on the beams of light - on the
wings of thought; which convulse the mind by the excitement of the
senses, and wonderfully affect the nerves, the media of its will and of
its feelings. It seemed worth while to attempt to place these disorders
between the epidemics of a less refined origin, which affect the body
more than the soul, and all those passions and emotions which border on
the vast domain of disease, ready at every moment to pass the boundary.
Should we be able to deduce from the grave facts of history here
developed, a convincing proof that the human race, amidst the creation
which surrounds it, moves in body and soul as an individual whole, the
Author might hope that he had approached nearer to his ideal of a grand
comprehension of diseases in time and space, and be encouraged, by the
co-operation of contemporaries, zealous in the search of truth, to
proceed along the path which he has already entered, in prosecuting the
investigation. TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.DR. HECKER'S account ( the "Black Death" having, in its
English
translation, met with a favourable reception, I am led to believe that
the "Dancing Mania," a similar production by the same able writer, will
also prove acceptable. Should this be the case, it is my intention to
complete the series by translating the history of the "Sweating
Sickness," the only remaining epidemic considered by our author to
belong to the Middle Ages. The mind and the body reciprocally and mysteriously affect
each
other, and the maladies which are the subject of these pages, are so
intimately connected with the disordered state of both, that it is
often difficult to determine on which they more essentially depend, or
which they more seriously influence. The moralist will view these records of human frailty in a
different light; he will examine the state of society which favoured
the propagation of such maladies; he will inquire how far they have
been the offspring of the ages in which they appeared, and although he
may not be disposed to think with our author, that they can never
return, he will at least deduce from the facts here laid before him,
that they originate in those minds, whether ignorant or ill-educated,
in which the imagination is permitted to usurp the power of sober
sense, and the ideal is allowed to occupy the thoughts to the exclusion
of the substantial. That such minds are most frequently to be met with in an age
of
ignorance, we should naturally suppose, and we are borne out in that
supposition by the fact, that these diseases have been declining in
proportion to the advance of knowledge; but credulity and enthusiasm
are not incompatible with a high degree of civilization; and if, among
the educated classes, the female sex is more sentimental than the male,
and the affluent are more credulous than those who are dependent on
their own exertions for their support, it is to be accounted for by the
fact, that they usually devote more leisure to the pleasurable
contemplation of works of imagination, and are less imperatively called
on to improve their judgment by the dry study of facts, and the
experience acquired in the serious business of life. But there is no
class, even in this age of boasted reason, wholly exempt from the
baneful influence of fanaticism; and instances are not wanting, in our
own days, and in this very capital, to prove, that disorders (how can
we more charitably designate them?) much resembling some of those
described in the following pages, may make their appearance among
people who have had all the advantages of an enlightened education, and
every opportunity of enlarging their minds by a free intercourse with
refined society. I thus venture to hope, that by bestowing a leisure hour on
this
small portion of medical history, the physician may enlarge his
knowledge of disease, and the moralist may gather a hint for the
intellectual improvement of his fellow-men. The author has, however, a
more extended object in view - the histories of particular epidemics
are
with him but the data from which we are to deduce the general laws that
govern human health in the aggregate. Whether there be such an entity
as collective organic life, and whether, as a consequence,
there
exist general laws which regulate its healthy or morbid condition, I do
not here undertake to determine; but the notion is peculiar, and in
order that it may be more fully exposed to the reader, I have
translated, as an introduction to the present volume, [1] an Appeal
which Dr. Hecker has made to the medical profession of his own country
for assistance in his undertaking. If, in the course of the remarks
contained in this address, he has been somewhat severe in his censure
of the neglect, both in this country and in France, of the study of
Medical History, I freely confess myself to be one of those who are
more anxious to profit by his castigation than to dispute its justice. I have added a few Notes, which I trust will be found not
inapplicable. They consist chiefly of parallel accounts in illustration
of what is set forth in the text; and with the same view, I have thrown
together in No. V. of the Appendix, some Histories of Local Epidemics,
and have referred to some single cases, which seem to me to have a
peculiar interest in connexion with the subject of this work, and to
render it, on the whole, more complete. [1] By this term the reader is now to understand the
"Epidemics of
the middle Ages." This work not having been published, as a whole, in
the original, there is no general preface by the Author. His Address to
the Physicians of Germany is therefore prefixed as an appropriate
substitute. THE DANCING MANIA.CHAPTER 1.THE DANCING MANIA IN GERMANY AND THE NETHERLANDS.SECT. 1. - Sr. John's DANCE.THE effects of the Black Death had not yet
subsided, and
the graves of millions of its victims were scarcely closed, when a
strange delusion arose in Germany, which took possession of the minds
of men, and, in spite of the divinity of our nature, hurried away body
and soul into the magic circle of hellish superstition. It was a
convulsion which in the most extraordinary manner infuriated the human
frame, and excited the astonishment of contemporaries for more than two
centuries, since which time it has never reappeared. It was called the
dance of St. John or of St. Vitus, on account of the Bacchantic leaps
by which it was characterized, and which gave to those affected, whilst
performing their wild dance, and screaming and foaming with fury, all
the appearance of persons possessed. It did not remain confined to
particular localities, but was propagated by the sight of the
sufferers, like a demoniacal epidemic, over the whole of Germany and
the neighbouring countries to the north-west, which were already
prepared for its reception by the prevailing opinions of the times. So early as the year 1374, assemblages of men and women were
seen
at Aix-la-Chapelle who had come out of Germany, and who, united by one
common delusion, exhibited to the public both in the streets and in the
churches the following strange spectacle. [1] They formed circles hand
in hand, and appearing to have lost all control over their senses,
continued dancing, regardless of the bystanders, for hours together in
wild delirium, until at length they [1] Odor. Raynald. Annal. Ecclesiastic. A.
1374.
Luc,
1752. fol. Tom. VII. p. 252.
fell to the ground in a state of exhaustion. They then
complained
of extreme oppression, and groaned as if in the agonies of
death, until they were swathed in cloths bound tightly round their
waists, upon which they again recovered, and remained free from
complaint until the next attack. This practice of swathing was resorted
to on account of the tympany which followed these spasmodic ravings,
but the by-standers frequently relieved patients in a less artificial
manner, by thumping and trampling upon the parts affected. While
dancing they neither saw nor heard, being insensible to external
impressions through the senses, but were haunted by visions, their
fancies conjuring up spirits whose names [1] they shrieked out; and
some of them afterwards asserted that they felt as if they had been
immersed in a stream of blood, which obliged them to leap so high. [2]
Others, during the paroxysm, saw the heavens open and the Saviour
enthroned with the Virgin Mary, according as the religious notions of
the age were strangely and variously reflected in their imaginations.
[3] Where the disease was completely developed, the attack
commenced
with epileptic convulsions. [4] Those affected fell to the ground
senseless, panting and labouring for breath. They foamed at the mouth,
and suddenly springing up began their dance amidst strange contortions.
Yet the malady doubtless made its appearance very variousity, and was
modified by temporary or local circumstances, whereof non-medical
contemporaries but imperfectly noted the essential particulars,
accustomed as they were to confound their observation of natural events
with their notions of the world of spirits. It was but a few months ere this demoniacal disease had
spread from
Aix-la-Chapelle, where it appeared in July, over the neighbouring
Netherlands. [5] In Liege, Utrecht, Tongres, and many [1] Joh. Wier's ample Catalogue of Spirits
gives
no
information on this point. Pseudomonarchia daemonum. Opera omnia,
Amstelod. 1660. 4to. p. 659. - Raynald mentions the word Frisekes
as the name of a spirit; but this mistake is easily
accounted for
by his ignorance of the language; for, according to the Chronicle of
Cologne, the St. John's dancers sang during their paroxysm: "Here Sent
Johan, so so, vrisch ind vro, here Sent Johan." St. John so,
so, brisk and cheerful, St. John. Die Cronica van der hilliger Stat van
Coellen, fol. 277. Coellen, 1499. fol.
other towns of Belgium, the dancers appeared with garlands in
their
hair, and their waists girt with clothe, that they might, as soon as
the paroxysm was over, receive immediate relief on the attack of the
tympany. This bandage was, by the insertion of a stick, easily twisted
tight: many, however, obtained more relief from kicks and blows, which
they found numbers of persons ready to administer; for, wherever the
dancers appeared, the people assembled in crowds to gratify their
curiosity with the frightful spectacle. At length the increasing number
of the affected excited no less anxiety than the attention that was
paid to them. In towns and villages they took possession of the
religious houses, processions were everywhere instituted on their
account, and masses were said and hymns were sung, while the disease
itself, of the demoniacal origin of which no one entertained the least
doubt, excited everywhere astonishment and horror. In Liege the priests
had recourse to exorcisms, and endeavoured, by every means in their
power, to allay an evil which threatened so much danger to themselves;
for the possessed assembling in multitudes, frequently poured forth
imprecations against them, and menaced their destruction. They
intimidated the people also to such a degree that there was an express
ordinance issued that no one should make any but square-toed shoes,
because these fanatics had manifested a morbid dislike to the pointed
shoes which had come into fashion immediately after the Great Mortality,
in 1350. [1] They were still more irritated at the sight of
red
colours, the influence of which on the disordered nerves might lead us
to imagine an extraordinary accordance between this spasmodic malady
and the condition of infuriated animals; but in the St. John's dancers
this excitement was probably connected with apparitions consequent upon
their [1] 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.
convulsions. There were likewise some of them who were unable
to
endure the sight of persons weeping. [1] The clergy seemed to become
daily more and more confirmed in their belief that those who were
affected were a kind of sectarians, and on this account they hastened
their exorcisms as much as possible, in order that the evil might not
spread amongst the higher classes, for hitherto scarcely any but the
poor had been attacked, and the few people of respectability among the
laity and clergy who were to be found among them, were persons whose
natural frivolity was unable to withstand the excitement of novelty,
even though it proceeded from a demoniacal influence. Some of the
affected had indeed themselves declared, when under the influence of
priestly forms of exorcism, that if the demons had been allowed only a
few weeks more time, they would have entered the bodies of the nobility
and princes, and through these have destroyed the clergy. Assertions of
this sort, which those possessed uttered whilst in a state which may be
compared with that of magnetic sleep, obtained general belief, and
passed from mouth to mouth with wonderful additions. The priesthood
were, on this account, so much the more zealous in their endeavours to
anticipate every dangerous excitement of the people, as if the existing
order of things could have been seriously threatened by such incoherent
ravings. Their exertions were effectual, for exorcism was a powerful
remedy in the fourteenth century; or it might perhaps be that this wild
infatuation terminated in consequence of the exhaustion which naturally
ensued from it; at all events, in the course of ten or eleven months
the St. John's dancers were no longer to be found in any of the cities
of Belgium. The evil, however, was too deeply rooted to give way
altogether to such feeble attacks. [2] A few months after this dancing malady had made its appearance at Aix-la-Chapelle, it broke out at Cologne, where the number of those possessed amounted to more than five hundred, [3] and about the same tine at Metz, the streets of which place are said to have been filled with eleven hundred dancers. [4] Peasants left their ploughs, mechanics their workshops, housewives their domestic duties, to join the wild revels, and this rich commercial city be ___________________________________________ [1] Petr. de Herentals. Appendix, No. 1.
came the scene of the most ruinous disorder. Secret desires
were
excited, and but too often found opportunities for wild enjoyment; and
numerous beggars, stimulated by vice and misery, availed themselves of
this new complaint to gain a temporary livelihood. Girls and boys
quitted their parents, and servants their masters, to amuse themselves
at the dances of those possessed, and greedily imbibed the poison of
mental infection. Above a hundred unmarried women were seen raving
about in consecrated and unconsecrated places, and the consequences
were soon perceived. [1] Gangs of idle vagabonds, who understood how to
imitate to the life the gestures and convulsions of those really
affected, roved from place to place seeking maintenance and adventures,
and thus, wherever they went, spreading this disgusting spasmodic
disease like a plague; for in maladies of this kind the susceptible are
infected as easily by the appearance as by the reality. At last it was
found necessary to drive away these mischievous guests, who were
equally inaccessible to the exorcisms of the priests and the remedies
of the physicians. It was not, however, until after four months that
the Rhenish cities were able to suppress these impostures, which had so
alarmingly increased the original evil. In the mean time, when once
called into existence, the plague crept on, and found abundant food in
the tone of thought which prevailed in the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries, and even, though in a minor degree, throughout the sixteenth
and seventeenth, causing a permanent disorder of the mind, and
exhibiting, in those cities to whose inhabitants it was a novelty,
scenes as strange as they were detestable. SECT. 2. - ST. VITUS'S DANCE. [2]Strasburg was visited by the "Dancing Plague" in the year
1418, and
the same infatuation existed among the people there, [1] Schenk. v. Grafenburg. loc.
cit.
was in the towns of Belgium and the Lower Rhine. [1] Many who were seized at the sight of those affected, excited attention at first by their confused and absurd behaviour, and then by their constantly following the swarms of dancers. These were seen day and night passing through the streets, accompanied by musicians playing on bagpipes, and by innumerable spectators attracted by curiosity, to which were added anxious parents and relations, who came to look after those among the misguided multitude who belonged to their respective families. Imposture and profligacy played their part in this city also, but the morbid delusion itself seems to have predominated. On this account religion could only bring provisional aid, and therefore the towncouncil benevolently took an interest in the afflicted. They divided them into separate parties, to each of which they appointed responsible superintendents to protect them from harm, and perhaps also to restrain their turbulence. They were thus conducted on foot and in carriages to the chapels of St. Vitus, near Zabern and Rotestein, where priests were in attendance to work upon their misguided minds by masses and other religious ceremonies. After divine worship was completed, they were led in solemn procession to the altar, where they made some small offering of alms, and where it is probable that many were, through the influence of devotion and the sanctity of the place, cured of this lamentable aberration. It is worthy of observation, at all events, that the Dancing Mania did not recommence at the altars of the saint, and that from him alone assistance was implored, and through his miraculous interposition a cure was expected, which was ___________________________________________ [1] J. of Königshoven, the oldest
German
Chronicle in
existence. The contents are general, but devoted more exclusively to
Alsace and Strasburg, published by Schillern,, Strasburg,
1698. 4to. Observat. 21, of St. Vitus's Dance, p. 1085. f. "Viel hundert fingen zu Strassburg an "Many hundreds of men and women began to dance and jump in
the
public market-place, the lanes, and the streets of Strasburg. Many of
them ate nothing for days and nights, until their mania again subsided.
The plague was called St. Vitus's Dance." beyond the reach of human skill. The personal history of St.
Vitus
is by no means unimportant in this matter. He was a Sicilian youth,
who, together with Modestus and Crescentia, suffered martyrdom at the
time of the persecution of the Christians, under Diocletian, in the
year 303. [1] The legends respecting him are obscure, and he would
certainly have been passed over without notice among the innumerable
apocryphal martyrs of the first centuries, had not the transfer of his
body to St. Denys, and thence, in the year 836, to Corvey, raised him
to a higher rank. From this time forth, it may be supposed that many
miracles were manifested at his new sepulchre, which were of essential
service in confirming the Roman faith among the Germans, and St. Vitus
was soon ranked among the fourteen saintly helpers (Nothhelfer or
Apotheker). [2] His altars were multiplied, and the [1] Ces. Baron. Annales ecclesiastic. Tom.
II. p.
819.
Colon. Agripp. 1609. fol. See the more ample Acte Sanctorum Junii (The
15th of June is St. Vitus's day), Tom. II. p. 1013. Antwerp. 1698. fol.
From which we shall merely add that Mazara, in Sicily, is supposed to
have been the birth-place of our Saint, and that his father's name was Hylas;
that he went from thence with Crescentea (probably
his
nurse) and Modestus to Lucania, with both of whom he
suffered martyrdom under Diocletian. They are all said to
have been buried at Florence, and it was not long before the miraculous
powers of St. Vitus, which had already manifested themselves in his
lifetime, were acknowledged throughout Italy. The most celebrated of
his chapels were situated on the Promontory of Sicily (called by his
name), in Rome and in Polignano, whither many pilgrimages were made by
the sick. Persons who had been bitten by mad dogs believed that they
would find an infallible cure at his altars, though the power of the
Saint in curing wounds of this kind was afterwards disputed by the
followers of St. Hubertus, the Saint of the Chase. In 672, his body was
with much pomp moved to Apulia, but soon after the priests of many
churches and chapels in Italy, gave out that they were in possession of
portions of the saint's body which worked miracles. In the eighth
century the veneration of this youthful martyr extended itself to
France, and the honour of possessing his body was conferred on the
church of St. Denys. By command of the Pope it was solemnly delivered
on the 19th of March, 836, by the Abbot Hilduwinus, of St.
Denys, to the Abbot Warinus, of Corvey (founded in 822). On
its way thither, which occupied three months (to the 13th of June),
many miracles were performed, and the subsequent Abbots of Corvey were
able for centuries to maintain the popular belief in the miraculous
healing power of their relics, which had indiscriminate influence on
all diseases, more especially on those of a demoniacal kind. See
Monachi anonymi Historia translationis S. Viti. In H. H. Pertz, Monumenta
Germaniae Historica. Tom. II. Hannov. 1828. fol. p. 576. As a proof of
the great veneration for St. Vitus in the fourteenth century, we may
further mention that Charles IV. dedicated to him the Cathedral of
Prague, of which he had laid the foundation, and caused him to be
proclaimed patron Saint of Bohemia, and a nominal body of the holy
martyr was, for this purpose, brought from Parma. Act. Sanctor. loc.
cit.
people had recourse to them in all kinds of distresses, and
revered
him as a powerful intercessor. As the worship of these saints was
however at that time stripped of all historical connexions, which were
purposely obliterated by the priesthood, a legend was invented at the
beginning of the fifteenth century, or perhaps even so early as the
fourteenth, that St. Vitus had, just before he bent his neck to the
sword, prayed to God that he might protect from the Dancing Mania all
those who should solemnize the day of his commemoration, and fast upon
its eve, and that thereupon a voice from heaven was heard, saying,
"Vitus, thy prayer is accepted." [1] Thus St. Vitus became the patron
saint of those afflicted with the dancing plague, at St. Martin of
Tours was at one time the succourer of persons in small-pox; St.
Antonius of those suffering under the "hellish fire;" and as St.
Margaret was the Juno Lucina of puerperal women. SECT. 3. - CAUSES.The connexion which John the Baptist had with the dancing
mania of
the fourteenth century, was of a totally different character. He was
originally far from being a protecting saint to those who were
attacked, or one who would be likely to give them relief from a malady
considered as the work of the devil. On the contrary, the manner in
which he was worshipped afforded an important and very evident cause
for its development. From the remotest period, perhaps even so far back
as the fourth century, St. John's day was solemnized with all sorts of
strange and rude customs, of which the originally mystical meaning was
variously disfigured among different nations by superadded relics of
heathenism. [2] Thus the Germans transferred to the festival of St.
John's day an ancient heathen usage, the kindling of the "Nodfyr,"
which was forbidden them by St. Boniface, and the belief subsists even
to the present day that people and animals that have leaped through
these flames, or their smoke, are protected for a whole year from
fevers and other diseases, as if by a kind of baptism by [1] J. Agricola. Sybenhundert und
fünffzig
Teutscher
Sprichwörter. No. 497. Seven hundred and fifty German Proverbs.
Hageman, 1637. 8vo. fol. 248.
fire. [1] Bacchanalian dances, which have originated in
similar
causes among all the rude nations of the earth, and the wild
extravagancies of a heated imagination, were the constant
accompaniments of this half-heathen, half-christian festival. At the
period of which we are treating, however, the Germans were not the only
people who gave way to the ebullitions of fanaticism in keeping the
festival of St. John the Baptist. Similar customs were also to be found
among the nations of Southern Europe and of Asia, [2] and it is more
than probable that the Greeks transferred to the festival of John the
Baptist, who is also held in high esteem among the Mahomedans, a part
of their Bacchanalian mysteries, an absurdity of a kind which is but
too frequently met with in human affairs. How far a remembrance of the
history of St. John's death may have had an influence on this occasion,
we would leave learned theologians to decide. It is only of importance
here to add, that in Abyssinia, a country entirely separated from
Europe, where Christianity has maintained itself in its primeval
simplicity against Mahomedanism, John is to this day worshipped, as
protecting saint of those who are attacked with the dancing malady. [3]
In these fragments of the dominion of mysticism and superstition,
historical connexion is not to be found. When we observe, however, that the first dances in Aix-la
Chapelle
appeared in July with St. John's name in their mouths, the conjecture
is probable that the wild revels of St. John's day, A.D. 1374, gave
rise to this mental plague, which thenceforth [1] Wirthwein. Series chronologic.
Epistolarum S.
Bonifacii ab ann. 716 - 755. LVII. Concil. Liptinens. p. 131. XV. De
igne
fricato de ligno, id est, Nodfyr. See Joh. Reiskii. Untersuchung
des bei den Alten Teutschen gebrauchlichen heidnischen Nodfyrs,
imgleichen des Oster-und Johannis-Feuers. Enquiry respecting the
heathen Nodfyrs customary among the ancient Germans, and also the
Easter and St. John's fires. Frankfort, 1696. 8vo.
has visited 80 many thousands with incurable aberration of
mind,
and disgusting distortions of body. This is rendered so much the more probable, because some
months
previously the districts in the neighbourhood of the Rhine and the
Maine had met with great disasters. So early as February, both these
rivers had overflowed their banks to a great extent; the walls of the
town of Cologne, on the side next the Rhine, had fallen down, and a
great many villages had been reduced to the utmost distress. [1] To
this was added the miserable condition of Western and Southern Germany.
Neither law nor edict could suppress the incessant feuds of the Barons,
and in Franconia especially, the ancient times of club law appeared to
be revived. Security of property there was none; arbitrary will
everywhere prevailed; corruption of morals and rude power rarely met
with even a feeble opposition; whence it arose that the cruel, but
lucrative, persecutions of the Jews were in many places still
practised, through the whole of this century, with their wonted
ferocity. Thus, throughout the western parts of Germany, and especially
in the districts bordering on the Rhine, there was a wretched and
oppressed populace; and if we take into consideration, that among their
numerous bands many wandered about, whose consciences were tormented
with the recollection of the crimes which they had committed during the
prevalence of the black plague, we shall comprehend how their despair
sought relief in the intoxication of an artificial delirium. [2] There
is hence good ground for supposing that the frantic celebration of the
festival of St. John, A. D. 1374, only served to bring to a crisis a
malady which had been long impending; and if we would further inquire
how a hitherto harmless usage, which, like many others, had but served
to keep up superstition, could degenerate into so serious a disease, we
must take into account the unusual excitement of men's minds, and the [1] Joann. Trithem. Annal. Hirsaugiens.
Oper.
Tom. II.
Hirsaug. 1690. fol. p. 263. A. 1374. See the before-mentioned Chronicle
of Cologne, fol. 276. b., wherein it is said that the people passed in
boats and rafts over the city walls.
consequences of wretchedness and want. The bowels, which in
many
were debilitated by hunger and bad food, were precisely the parts which
in most cases were attacked with excruciating pain, and the tympanitic
state of the intestines, points out to the intelligent physician an
origin of the disorder which is well worth consideration. SECT. 4. - MORE ANCIENT DANCING PLAGUES.The dancing mania of the year 1374 was, in fact, no new
disease,
but a phenomenon well known in the middle ages, of which many wondrous
stories were traditionally current among the people. In the year 1237,
upwards of a hundred children were said to have been suddenly seized
with this disease at Erfurt, and to have proceeded dancing and jumping
along the road to Arnstadt. When they arrived at that place they fell
exhausted to the ground, and, according to an account of an old
chronicle, many of them, after they were taken home by their parents,
died, and the rest remained affected, to the end of their lives, with
the permanent tremor. [1] Another occurrence was related to have taken
place on the Mosel bridge at Utrecht, on the 17th day of June, A.D.
1278, when two hundred fanatics began to dance, and would not desist
until a priest passed who was carrying the Host to a person that was
sick, upon which, as if in punishment of their crime, the bridge gave
way, and they were all drowned. [2] A similar event also occurred so
early as the year 1027, near the convent church of Kolbig, not far from
Bernburg. According to an oft-repeated tradition, eighteen peasants,
some of whose names are still preserved, are said to have disturbed
divine service on Christmas eve, by dancing and brawling in the
churchyard, whereupon the priest, Ruprecht, inflicted a curse upon
them, that they should dance and scream for a whole year without
ceasing. This curse is stated to have been completely fulfilled, so
that the unfortunate sufferers at length sank knee deep into the earth,
and remained the whole time without nourishment, until they were
finally released by the intercession of two pious bishops. It is said,
that upon this they fell into a deep sleep, which lasted three days,
and that four of them died: the rest continuing to suffer all their
lives from a [1] Chr. Beckmann, Historia des
Fürgtenthums
Anhalt. Zerbst. History of the Principality of Anhalt. Zerbst. 1710.
fol. Part III. book 4. chap. 4. § 3. p. 467.
trembling of their limbs. [1] It is not worth while to
separate
what may have been true, and what the addition of crafty priests, in
this strangely distorted story. It is sufficient that it was believed,
and related with astonishment and horror throughout the middle ages; so
that when there was any exciting cause for this delirious raving, and
wild rage for dancing, it failed not to produce its effects upon men
whose thoughts were given up to a belief in wonders and apparitions. This disposition of mind, altogether so peculiar to the
middle
ages, and which, happily for mankind, has yielded to an improved state
of civilization and the diffusion of popular instruction, accounts for
the origin and long duration of this extraordinary mental disorder. The
good sense of the people recoiled with horror and aversion from this
heavy plague, which, whenever malevolent persons wished to curse their
bitterest enemies and adversaries, was long after used as a
malediction. [2] The indignation also that was felt by the people at
large against the immorality of the age, was proved by their ascribing
this frightful affliction to the inefficacy of baptism by unchaste
priests, as if innocent children were doomed to atone, in after years,
for this desecration of the sacrament administered by unholy hands. [3]
We have already mentioned what perils the priests in the Netherlands
incurred from this belief. They now, indeed, endeavoured to hasten
their reconciliation with the irritated, and at that time very
degenerate people, [4] by exorcisms, which, with some, procured them
greater respect than ever, because they thus visibly restored thousands
of these who were affected. In general, however, there prevailed a want
of confidence in their efficacy, and then the sacred rites had as
little power in arresting the progress of this deeply-rooted malady, as
the prayers and holy services subsequently had at the altars of the
greatly revered martyr St. Vitus. [1] Beckmann loc. cit. 1. f. p. 465, where
many other observations are made on this well-known circumstance. The
priest named, is the same who is still known in the nursery tales of
children as the Knecht Ruprecht.
We may therefore ascribe it to accident merely, and to a
certain
aversion to this demoniacal disease, which seemed to lie beyond the
reach of human skill, that we meet with but few and imperfect notices
of the St. Vitus's dance in the second half of the fifteenth century.
The highly-coloured descriptions of the sixteenth century contradict
the notion that this mental plague had in any degree diminished in its
severity, and not a single fact is to be found which supports the
opinion, that any one of the essential symptoms of the disease, not
even excepting the tympany, had disappeared, or that the disorder
itself had become milder in its attacks. The physicians never, as it
seems, throughout the whole of the fifteenth century, undertook the
treatment of the dancing mania, which, according to the prevailing
notions, appertained exclusively to the servants of the church. Against
demoniacal disorders they had no remedies, and though some at first did
promulgate the opinion, that the malady had its origin in natural
circumstances, such as a hot temperament, and other causes named in the
phraseology of the schools, [1] yet these opinions were the less
examined, as it did not appear worth while to divide with a jealous
priesthood the care of a host of fanatical vagabonds and beggars. SECT. 5. - PHYSICIANS.It was not until the beginning of the sixteenth century that
the
St. Vitus's dance was made the subject of medical research, and
stripped of its unhallowed character as a work of demons. This was
effected by Paracelsus, that mighty, but as yet scarcely comprehended,
reformer of medicine, whose aim it was to withdraw diseases from the
pale of miraculous interpositions and saintly influences, and explain
their causes upon principles deduced from his knowledge of the human
frame. "We will not however admit that the saints have power to inflict
diseases, and that these ought to be named after them, although many
there are, who in their theology lay great stress on this supposition,
ascribing them rather to God than to nature, which is but idle talk. We
dislike such nonsensical gossip as is not supported by symptoms, but
only by faith, a thing which is not human, whereon the gods themselves
set no value." Such were the words which Paracelsus addressed to his
contemporaries, who were as yet incapable of appreciating doctrines of [1] See Appendix, Nos. III. and IV.
this sort; for the belief in enchantment still remained
everywhere
unshaken, and faith in the world of spirits still held men's minds in
so close a bondage that thousands were, according to their own
conviction, given up as a prey to the devil; while at the command of
religion as well as of law, countless piles were lighted, by the flames
of which human society was to be purified. Paracelsus divides the St. Vitus's dance into three kinds.
First,
that which arises from imagination (Vitista, Chorea imaginativa,
aestimativa), by which the original dancing plague is to be understood.
Secondly, that which arises from sensual desires, depending on the will
(Chorea lasciva). Thirdly, that which arises from corporeal causes
(Chorea naturalis, coacta), which, according to a strange notion of his
own, he explained by maintaining, that in certain vessels which are
susceptible of an internal pruriency, and thence produce laughter, the
blood is set in commotion, in consequence of an alteration in the vital
spirits, whereby involuntary fits of intoxicating joy, and a
propensity to dance, are occasioned. [1] To this notion he was, no
doubt, led from having observed a milder form of St. Vitus's dance, not
uncommon in his time, which was accompanied by involuntary laughter;
and which bore a resemblance to the hysterical laughter of the moderns,
except that it was characterized by more pleasurable sensations, and by
an extravagant propensity to dance. There was no bowling, screaming,
and jumping, as in the severer form; neither was the disposition to
dance by any means insuperable. Patients thus affected, although they
had not a complete control over their understandings, yet were
sufficiently self-possessed, during the attack, to obey the directions
which they received. There were even some among them who did not dance
at all, but only felt an involuntary impulse to allay the internal
sense of disquietude, which is the usual forerunner of an attack of
this kind, by laughter, and quick walking carried to the extent of
producing fatigue.[2] This disorder, so different from the original
type, evidently approximates to the modern chorea; or rather is in
perfect accordance with it, even to the less essential symptom of
laughter. A mitigation in the form of the dancing mania had thus
clearly taken place at the commencement of the sixteenth century. [1] Theophrasti Bombast von Hohenheym, 7
Buch in
der
Artzney. Von den Krankheiten, die der Vernunft berauben. 7th Book on
Medicine. Of the diseases which produce insanity. Tract I. chap. 3, p.
491. Tract II. chap. 3, p. 501. Opera. Strassburg, 1616. fol. Tom. I. [3] Bernt, Monographia Chorea St. Viti.
Prag.
1810. p.
25.
On the communication of the St. Vitus's dance by sympathy,
Paracelsus, in his peculiar language, expresses himself with great
spirit, and shows a profound knowledge of the nature of sensual
impressions, which find their way to the heart, - the seat of joys and
emotions, - which overpower the opposition of reason; and whilst "all
other qualities and natures" are subdued, incessantly impel the
patient, in consequence of his original compliance, and his
all-conquering imagination, to imitate what he has seen. On his
treatment of the disease we cannot bestow any great praise, but must be
content with the remark, that it was in conformity with the notions of
the age in which he lived. For the first kind, which often originated
in passionate excitement, he had a mental remedy, the efficacy of which
is not to be despised, if we estimate its value in connexion with the
prevalent opinions of those times. The patient was to make an image of
himself in wax or resin, and by an effort of thought to concentrate all
his blasphemies and sins in it. "Without the intervention of any other
person, to set his whole mind and thoughts concerning these oaths in
the image;" and when he had succeeded in this, he was to burn the
image, so that not a particle of it should remain. [1] In all this
there was no mention made of St. Vitus, or any of the other mediatory
saints, which is accounted for by the circumstance, that, at this time,
an open rebellion against the Romish Church had begun, and the worship
of saints was by many rejected as idolatrous. [2] For the second kind
of St. Vitus's dance, arising from sensual irritation, with which women
were far more frequently affected than men, [1] This proceeding was, however, no invention of his,
but
an
imitation of a usual mode of enchantment by means of wax figures (peri
cunculas). The witches made a wax image of the person who was to be
bewitched; and in order to torment him, they stuck it full of pins, or
melted it before the fire. The books on magic, of the middle ages, are
full of such things; though the reader who may wish to obtain
information on this subject, need not go so far back. Only eighty years
since, the learned and celebrated Storch, of the school of Stahl,
published a treatise on witchcraft, worthy of the fourteenth
century. "Abhandlung von Kinderkrankheiten." Treatise en the Diseases
of Children. Vol. IV. p. 228. Eisenach, 1751-8. 'Ως τουτον τον καρον εγω συν δαιμονι τακω, 'Ως τακοιθ' υπ' ερωτος ο Μυνδιος αυτικα Δελφις See Potter's Antiquities, Vol. II. p. 251. and Horace - "Lanea et effigies erat, sitera cerea." [2] See Agricola, loc. cit. p. 269. No.
498.
Paracelsus recommended harsh treatment and strict fasting. He
directed that the patients should be deprived of their liberty; placed
in solitary confinement, and made to sit in an uncomfortable place,
until their misery brought them to their senses and to a feeling of
penitence. He then permitted them gradually to return to their
accustomed habits. Severe corporal chastisement was not omitted; but,
on the other hand, angry resistance on the part of the patient was to
be sedulously avoided, on the ground that it might increase his malady,
or even destroy him: moreover, where it seemed proper, Paracelsus
allayed the excitement of the nerves by immersion in cold water. On the
treatment of the third kind we shall not here enlarge. It was to be
effected by all sorts of wonderful remedies, composed of the
quintessences; and it would require, to render it intelligible, a more
extended exposition of peculiar principles than permits our present
purpose. SECT. 6. - DECLINE AND TERMINATION OF THE DANCING PLAGUE.About this time the St. Vitus's dance began to decline, so
that
milder forms of it appeared more frequently, while the severer cases
became more rare; and even in these, some of the important symptoms
gradually disappeared. Paracelsus makes no mention of the tympanites as
taking place after the attacks, although it may occasionally have
occurred; and Schenck von Graffenberg, a celebrated physician of the
latter half of the sixteenth century, [1] speaks of this disease as
having been frequent only in the time of his forefathers; his
descriptions, however, are applicable to the whole of that century, and
to the close of the fifteenth. [2] The St. Vitus's dance attacked
people of all stations, especially those who led a sedentary life, such
as shoemakers and tailors; but even the most robust peasants abandoned
their labours in the fields, as if they were possessed by evil spirits;
and thus these affected were seen assembling indiscriminately, from
time to time, at certain appointed places, and, unless prevented by the
lookers-on, continuing to dance without intermission, until their very
last breath was expended. Their fury and extravagance of demeanour so
completely deprived them of their senses, that many of them dashed
their brains out against the walls and corners of buildings, [1] Johan Schenck von Graffenberg,
born
1530, took his degree at Tübingen, in 1554. He passed
the
greater part of his life as physician to the corporation of Freiburg in
the Breisgau, and died in 1598.
or rushed headlong into rapid rivers, where they found a
watery
grave. Roaring and foaming as they were, the by-standers could only
succeed in restraining them by placing benches and chairs in their way,
so that, by the high leaps they were thus tempted to take, their
strength might be exhausted. As soon as this was the case, they fell as
it were lifeless to the ground, and, by very slow degrees, again
recovered their strength. Many there were who, even with all this
exertion, had not expended the violence of the tempest which raged
within them, but awoke with newly revived powers, and again and again
mixed with the crowd of dancers, until at length the violent excitement
of their disordered nerves was allayed by the great involuntary
exertion of their limbs; and. the mental disorder was calmed by the
extreme exhaustion of the body. Thus the attacks themselves were in
these cases, as in their nature they are in all nervous complaints,
necessary crises of an inward morbid condition, which was transferred
from the sensorium to the nerves of motion, and, at in earlier period,
to the abdominal plexus, where a deep-seated derangement of the system
was perceptible from the secretion of flatus in the intestines. The cure effected by these stormy attacks was in many cases
so
perfect, that some patients returned to the factory or the plough as if
nothing had happened. Others, on the contrary, paid the penalty of
their folly by so total a loss of power, that they could not regain
their former health, even by the employment of the most strengthening
remedies. Medical men were astonished to observe that women in an
advanced state of pregnancy were capable of going through an attack of
the disease, without the slightest injury to their offspring, which
they protected merely by a bandage passed round the waist. Cases of
this kind were not unfrequent so late as Schenck's time. That patients
should be violently affected by music, and their paroxysms brought on
and increased by it, is natural with such nervous disorders; where
deeper impressions are made through the ear, which is the most
intellectual of all the organs, than through any one of the other
senses. On this account the magistrates hired musicians for the purpose
of carrying the St. Vitus's dancers so much the quicker through the
attacks, and directed, that athletic men should be sent among them in
order to complete the exhaustion, which had been often observed to
produce a good effect. [1] At the same time there was a [1] It is related by Felix Plater (born
136, died
1614)
that he remembered in his youth the authorities of Basle having
commissioned several powerful men to dance with a girl who had the
dancing mania, till she recovered from her disorder. They successively
relieved each other; and this singular mode of cure lasted above four
weeks, when the patient fell down exhausted, and being quite unable to
stand, was carried to an hospital, where she recovered. She had
remained in her clothes all the time, and entirely regardless of the
pain of her lacerated feet, she had merely sat down occasionally to
take some nourishment, or to slumber, during which the hopping movement
of her body continued. Felic. Platen Praxeos medicae opus.
L. 1. ch. 3. p. 88. Tom. I. Basil. 1656. 4to. Ejusd. Observation.
Basil. 1641. 8. p. 92.
prohibition against wearing red garments, because at the
sight of
this colour, these affected became so furious, that they flew at the
persons who wore it, and were so bent upon doing them an injury that
they could with difficulty be restrained. They frequently tore their
own clothes whilst in the paroxysm, and were guilty of other
improprieties, so that the more opulent employed confidential
attendants to accompany them, and to take care that they did no harm
either to themselves or others. This extraordinary disease was,
however, so greatly mitigated in Schenck's time, that the St. Vitus's
dancers had long since ceased to stroll from town to town; and that
physicians, like Paracelsus, makes no mention of the tympanitic
inflation of the bowels. Moreover, most of these affected were only
annually visited by attacks; and the occasion of them was so manifestly
referrible to the prevailing notions of that period, that if the
unqualified belief in the supernatural agency of saints could have been
abolished, they would not have had any return of the complaint.
Throughout the whole of June, prior to the festival of St. John,
patients felt a disquietude and restlessness which they were unable to
overcome. They were dejected, timid, and anxious; wandered about in an
unsettled state, being tormented with twitching pains, which seized
them suddenly in different parts, and eagerly expected the eve of St.
John's day, in the confident hope, that by dancing at the altars of
this saint, or of St. Vitus (for in the Breisgau aid was equally sought
from both), they would be freed from all their sufferings. This hope
was not disappointed; and they remained, for the rest of the year,
exempt from any further attack, after having thus, by dancing and
raving for three hours, satisfied an irresistible demand of nature.
There were at that period two chapels in the Breisgau, visited by the
St. Vitus's dancers; namely, the Chapel of St. Vitus at Biessen, near
Breisach, and that of St. John, near Wasenwieler; and it is probable
that in the south-west of Germany the disease was still in existence in
the seventeenth century. However, it grew every year more rare, so that, at the
beginning of
the seventeenth century, it was observed only occasionally in its
ancient form. Thus in the spring of the year 1623, G. Horst saw some
women who annually performed a pilgrimage to St. Vitus's chapel at
Drefelhausen, near Weissenstein, in the territory of Ulm, that they
might wait for their dancing fit there, in the same manner as those in
the Breisgau did, according to Schenck's account. They were not
satisfied, however, with a dance of three hours' duration, but
continued day and night in a state of mental aberration, like persons
in an ecstasy, until they fell exhausted to the ground; and when they
came to themselves again, they felt relieved from a distressing
uneasiness and painful sensation of weight in their bodies, of which
they had complained for several weeks prior to St. Vitus's day. [1] After this commotion they remained well for the whole year;
and
such was their faith in the protecting power of the saint, that one of
them had visited this shrine at Drefelhausen more than twenty times,
and another had already kept the Saint's day for the thirty-second time
at this sacred station. The dancing fit itself was excited here, as it probably was
in
other places, by music, from the effects of which the patients were
thrown into a state of convulsion. [2] Many concurrent testimonies
serve to show that music generally contributed much to the continuance
of the St. Vitus's dance, originated and increased its paroxysms, and
was sometimes the cause of their mitigation. So early as the fourteenth
century, the swarms of St. John's dancers were accompanied by minstrels
playing upon noisy instruments, who roused their morbid feelings; and
it may readily be supposed that, by the performance of lively melodies,
and the stimulating effects which the shrill tones of pipes and
trumpets would produce, a paroxysm, that was perhaps but slight in
itself, might, in many cases, be increased to the most outrageous fury,
such as in later times was purposely induced in order that the force of
the disease might be exhausted by the violence of its attack. Moreover,
by means of intoxicating music a kind of demoniacal festival for the
rude multitude was established, which had the effect of spreading this
unhappy malady wider and wider. Soft harmony was, however, employed to
calm the excitement of those affected, and it is mentioned as a
character of the tunes played with this view to the [1] The 15th of June. Here therefore they did not wait
till
the
Festival of St. John.
St. Vitus's dancers, that they contained transitions from a
quick
to a slow measure, and passed gradually from a high to a low key. [1]
It is to be regretted that no trace of this music has reached our
times, which is owing partly to the disastrous events of the
seventeenth century, and partly to the circumstance that the disorder
was looked upon as entirely national, and only incidentally considered
worthy of notice by foreign men of learning. If the St. Vitus's dance
was already on the decline at the commencement of the seventeenth
century, the subsequent events were altogether adverse to its
continuance. Wars carried on with animosity and with various success
for thirty years, shook the west of Europe; and although the
unspeakable calamities which they brought upon Germany, both during
their continuance and in their immediate consequences, were by no means
favourable to the advance of knowledge, yet, with the vehemence of a
purifying fire, they gradually effected the intellectual regeneration
of the Germans; superstition, in her ancient form, never again
appeared, and the belief in the dominion of spirits, which prevailed in
the middle ages, lost for ever its once formidable power. CHAPTER II.DANCING MANIA IN ITALY.SECT. 1 . - TARANTISM.IT was of the utmost advantage to the St. Vitus's dancers that they made choice of a favourite patron saint; for not to mention that people were inclined to compare them to the possessed with evil spirits, described in the Bible, and thence to consider them as innocent victims to the power of Satan, the name of their great intercessor recommended them to general commiseration, and a magic boundary was thus set to every harsh feeling which might otherwise have proved hostile to their safety. Other fanatics were not so fortunate, being often treated with the most relentless cruelty whenever the notions of the middle ages either excused or commanded it as a religious duty. [2] Thus, passing over the innumerable ___________________________________________ [1] Jo. Bodin. Method. historic.
Amstelod.
1650. l2mo, Ch. V. p. 99. - Idem, de Republica. Francofurt. 1591. 8vo.
Lib. V. Ch. 1. p. 789. [1] Compare Olaus Magnus, de gentibus
septentrionalibus.
Lib. XVIII. Ch. 45 - 47. p. 642, seq. Rom. 1555. fol. writer who is equally well acquainted with the middle ages as
with
antiquity, is still a desideratum. [1] We leave it for the present,
without further notice, and turn to a malady most extraordinary in all
its phenomena, having a close connexion with the St. Vitus's [1] Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy,
has the
following observations, which, with the ample references by which they
are accompanied, will furnish materials for such a history. dance, and, by a comparison of facts, which are altogether
similar,
affording us an instructive subject for contemplation. We allude to the
disease called Tarantism, which made its first appearance in Apulia,
and thence spread over the other provinces of Italy, where, during some
centuries, it prevailed as a great epidemic. In the present times it
bas vanished, or at least bas lost altogether its original importance,
like the St. Vitus's dance, lycanthropy, and witchcraft. SECT. 2. - MOST ANCIENT TRACES. - CAUSES.The learned Nicholas Perotti [1] gives the earliest account
of this
strange disorder. Nobody had the least doubt that it was caused by the
bite of the tarantula, [2] a ground-spider common in Apulia;
and the fear of this insect was so general, that its bite was in all
probability much oftener imagined, or the sting of some other kind of
insect mistaken for it, than actually received. The word tarantula
is apparently the same as terrantola, a name
given by
the Italians to the stellio of the old Romans, which was a kind of
lizard, [3] said to be poisonous, and invested by credulity with such
extraordinary qualities, that, like the serpent of the Mosaic account
of the Creation, it personified, in the imaginations of the vulgar, the
notion of cunning, so that even the jurists designated a [1] Born 1430, died 1480. Cornucopin latinae linguae
Basil.
1536.
fol. Comment. in primum Martialis Epigramma, p. 51, 52. "Est
et alius stellio ex araneorum genere, qui, simili modo, ascalabotes a
Graecis dicitur, et colotes et galeotes, lentiginosus in cavernulis
dehiscentibus, per aestum terrae habitans. Hic majorum nostrorum
temporibus in Italia visus non fuit, nune frequens in Apulia visitur.
Aliquando etiam in Tarquinensi et Corniculano agro, et vulgo similiter tarantula
vocatur. Morsus ejus perraro interemit hominem, semistupidum
tamen
facit, et varie afficit, tarantulam vulgo
appellant. Quidam cantu audito, aut sono, ita excitantur, ut
pleni laetitia et semper ridentes
saltent, nec nisi defatigati et semineces
desistant. Alii semper flentes, quasi desiderio
suorum miserabilem
vitam
agant. Alii visa muliere, libidinis statim ardore incensi, veluti
furentes in eam prosiliant. Quidam ridendo, quidam flendo moriantur."
cunning fraud by the appellation of a "stellionatus." Perotti
expressly assures us that this reptile was called by the Romans tarantula;
and since he himself, who was one of the most distinguished
authors of his time, strangely confounds spiders and lizards together,
so that he considers the Apulian tarantula, which he ranks among the
class of spiders, to have the same meaning as the kind of lizard called
ασκαλαβωτες
[2] It is the less extraordinary that the
unlearned country people of Apulia should confound the much dreaded
ground-spider with the fabulous star-lizard, [3] and appropriate to the
one the name of the other. The derivation of the word tarantula, from
the city of Tarentum, or the river Thara, in Apulia, [4] on the banks
of which this insect is said to have been most frequently found, or at
least its bite to have had the most venomous effect, seems not to be
supported by authority. So much for the name of this famous spider,
which, unless we are greatly mistaken, throws no light whatever upon
the nature of the disease in question. Naturalists who, possessing a
knowledge of the past, should not misapply their talents by employing
them in establishing the dry distinction of forms, would find here much
that calls for research, and their efforts would clear up many a
perplexing obscurity. Perotti states that the tarantula, that is, the spider so
called,
was not met with in Italy in former times, but that in his day it had
become common, especially in Apulia, as well as in some other
districts. He deserves, however, no great confidence as a naturalist,
notwithstanding his having delivered lectures in Bologna on medicine
and other sciences. [5] He at least has neglected to prove his
assertion, which is not home out by any analogous phenomenon observed
in modern times with regard to the history of the spider species. It is
by no means to be admitted that the tarantula did not make its
appearance in Italy before the disease ascribed to its bite became
remarkable, even though tempests more violent than those unexampled
storms which arose at the time of the Black Death [6] in the middle of
the fourteenth century had set the insect world in motion; for the
spider is little, if at [1] Perotti, loc. cit. [6] See p. 11, et seq.
all, susceptible of those cosmical influences which at times
multiply locusts and other winged insects to a wonderful extent, and
compel them to migrate. The symptoms which Perotti enumerates as consequent on the
bite of
the tarantula agree very exactly with those described by later
writers. These who were bitten generally fell into a state of
melancholy, and appeared to be stupified, and scarcely in possession of
their senses. This condition was, in many cases, united with so great a
sensibility to music, that, at the very first tones of their favourite
melodies, they sprang up, shouting for joy, and danced on without
intermission, until they sank to the ground exhausted and almost
lifeless. In others the disease did not take this cheerful turn. They
wept constantly, and as if pining away with some unsatisfied desire,
spent their days in the greatest misery and anxiety. Others, again, in
morbid fits of love cast their longing looks on women, and instances of
death are recorded, which are said to have occurred under a paroxysm of
either laughing or weeping. The symptoms which followed the bite of venomous spiders were well known to the ancients, and had excited the attention of their best observers, who agree in their descriptions of them. It is probable that among the numerous species of their phalangium, [1] the Apulian tarantula is included, but it is difficult to determine this point with certainty, more especially, because in Italy the tarantula was not the only insect which caused this nervous affection, similar results being likewise attributed to the bite of the scorpion. Lividity of the whole body as well as of the countenance, ___________________________________________ [1] Aëtius, who wrote at the end of the
sixth century, mentions six which occur in the older works. 1. ραγιον 2.
λικος 3. μυρμηκειον 4. κρανοκαληπτης 5. κεφαλοχρουστης
6. σεληροκεφαλον 7. σκωληκιον. Tetrabl. IV. Serm. I. ch. 18. in Hen.
Steph. Compare Dioscorid. Lib. VI. ch. 42. Matthiol.
Commentar. in Dioscorid. p. l417. Nicand. Theriae.
V. 8. 715. 755. 654.
difficulty of speech, tremor of the limbs, icy coldness, pale
urine, depression of spirits, head-ache, a flow of tears, nausea,
vomiting, sexual excitement, flatulence, syncope, dysuria,
watchfulness, lethargy, even death itself, were cited by them as the
consequences of being bitten by venomous spiders, and they made little
distinction as to their kinds. To these symptoms we may add the strange
rumour, repeated throughout the middle ages, that persons who were
bitten, ejected by the bowels and kidneys, and even by vomiting,
substances resembling a spider's web. Nowhere, however, do we find any mention made that these
affected
felt art irresistible propensity to dancing, or that they were
accidentally cured by it. Even Constantine of Africa, who lived 500
years after Aëtius, and as the most learned physician of the
school of
Salerno, would certainly not have passed over so acceptable a subject
of remark, knows nothing of such a memorable course of this disease
arising from poison, and merely repeats the observations of his Greek
predecessors. [1] Gariopontus, [2] a Salernian physician of the
eleventh century, was the first to describe a kind of insanity, the
remote affinity of which to the tarantula disease is rendered apparent
by a very striking symptom. The patients in their sudden attacks
behaved like maniacs, sprang up, throwing their arms about with wild
movements, and, if perchance a sword was at hand, they wounded
themselves and others, so that it became necessary carefully to secure
them. They imagined that they heard voices, and various kinds of
sounds, and if, during this state of illusion, the tones of a favourite
instrument happened to catch their ear, they commenced a spasmodic
dance, or ran with the utmost energy which they could muster, until
they were totally exhausted. These dangerous maniacs, who, it would
seem, appeared in considerable numbers, were looked upon as a legion of
devils, but on the causes of their malady this obscure writer adds
nothing further than that he believes (oddly enough) that it may
sometimes be excited by the bite of a mad dog. He calls the disease
Anteneasmus, by which is meant [1] Aranearum multae species sunt. Quae ubi mordent,
faciunt
multum
dolorem, ruborem, frigidum sudorem, et citrinum colorem. Aliquando
quaesi stranguria in urina duritiem, et virgae extensionem, intra
inguina, et genua, tetinositatem in stomacho. Lingae extensionem, ut
eorum sermo non possit discerni. Vomunt humiditatem quasi araneae telam,
et ventris emollitionem similiter, &c. De communibus
medico
cognitu necessariis locis. Lib. VIII. cap. 22. p. 235. Basil. 1539.
fol.
no doubt the Enthusiasmus of the Greek physicians. [1] We
cite this
phenomenon as an important forerunner of tarantism, under the
conviction that we have thus added to the evidence that the development
of this latter must have been founded on circumstances which existed
from the twelfth to the end of the fourteenth century; for the origin
of tarantism itself is referrible, with the utmost probability, to a
period between the middle and the end of this century, and is
consequently contemporaneous with that of the St. Vitus's dance (1374).
The influence of the Roman Catholic religion, connected as this was, in
the middle ages, with the pomp of processions, with public exercises of
penance, and with innumerable practices which strongly excited the
imaginations of its votaries, certainly brought the mind to a very
favourable state for the reception of a nervous disorder. Accordingly,
so long as the doctrines of Christianity were blended with so much
mysticism, these unhallowed disorders prevailed to an important extent,
and even in our own days we find them propagated with the greatest
facility where the existence of superstition produces the same effect
in more limited districts, as it once did among whole nations. But this
is not all. Every country in Europe, and Italy perhaps more than any
other, was visited during the middle ages by frightful plagues, which
followed each other in such quick succession, that they gave the
exhausted people scarcely any time for recovery. The oriental
bubo-plague ravaged Italy [2] sixteen times between the years 1119 and
1340. Small-pox and measles were still more destructive than in modern
times, and recurred as frequently. St. Anthony's fire was the dread of
town and country; and that disgusting disease, the leprosy, which, in
consequence of the crusades, spread its insinuating poison in all
directions, snatched from the ___________________________________________ [1] The passage is as follows: "Anteneasmon est
species
maniae periculosa
nimium. Irritantur tanquam maniaci, et in se manus injiciunt. Hi subito
arripiuntur, cum saltations manuum et pedum, quia intra
aurium cavernas quasi voces diversas sonare falso audiunt, ut sunt
diversorum instrumentorum musicae soni; quibus
delectantur, ut
statim saltent, aut cursum velocem arripiant; subito arripientes
gladium percutiunt se aut alios: morsibus se et alios attrectare non
dubitant. Hoc latini percussores, alii dicunt demonis legiones esse, ut
dum eos arripiunt, vexent et vulnerent. Diligentia eis imponenda est,
quando istos sonos audierint, includantur, et post ancessionis horas
phlebotomentur, et venter eis moveatur. Cibos leves accipiant cum
calida aqua, ut omnia ventositas, quae in cerebro sonum facit,
egeratur. In ipsa accessione silentium habeant. Quod si spumam per os
ejecerint, vel ex canis rabidi morsu causa flarit, intra
septem dies moriuntur." Garioponti, medici vetustissimi, de
morborum causis, accidentibus et curationibus. Libri VIII. Basil. 1636.
8vo. L. 1. ch. 2. p. 27.
paternal heart innumerable victims who, banished from human
society, pined away in lonely huts, whither they were accompanied only
by the pity of the benevolent and their own despair. All these
calamities, of which the moderns have scarcely retained any
recollection, were heightened to an incredible degree by the Black
Death, [1] which spread boundless devastation and misery over Italy.
Men's minds were everywhere morbidly sensitive; and as it happens with
individuals whose senses, when they are suffering under anxiety, become
more irritable, so that trifles are magnified into objects of great
alarm, and slight shocks, which would scarcely affect the spirits when
in health, give rise in them to severe diseases, so was it with this
whole nation, at all times so alive to emotions, and at that period so
sorely pressed with the horrors of death. The bite of venomous spiders, or rather the unreasonable fear
of
its consequences, excited at such a juncture, though it could not have
done so at an earlier period, a violent nervous disorder, which, like
St. Vitus's dance in Germany, spread by sympathy, increasing in
severity as it took a wider range, and still farther extending its
ravages from its long continuance. Thus, from the middle of the
fourteenth century, the furies of the Dance brandished their
scourge over afflicted mortals; and music, for which the inhabitants of
Italy, now probably for the first time, manifested susceptibility and
talent, became capable of exciting ecstatic attacks in those affected,
and then furnished the magical means of exorcising their melancholy. SECT. 3. - INCREASE.At the close of the fifteenth century we find that Tarantism
had
spread beyond the boundaries of Apulia, and that the fear of being
bitten by venomous spiders had increased. Nothing short of death itself
was expected from the wound which these insects inflicted, and if those
who were bitten escaped with their lives, they were said to be seen
pining away in a desponding state of lassitude. Many became
weak-sighted or hard of hearing, some lost the power of speech, and all
were insensible to ordinary causes of excitement. Nothing but the flute
or the cithers afforded them relief. [2] At the sound of these
instruments they awoke as it were [1] 1347 to 1350.
by enchantment, opened their eyes, and moving slowly at
first,
according to the measure of the music, were, as the time quickened,
gradually hurried on to the most passionate dance. It was generally
observable that country people, who were rude, and ignorant of music,
evinced on these occasions an unusual degree of grace, as if they had
been well practised in elegant movements of the body; for it is a
peculiarity in nervous disorders of this kind, that the organs of
motion are in an altered condition, and are completely under the
control of the overstrained spirits. Cities and villages alike
resounded throughout the summer season with the notes of fifes,
clarinets, and Turkish drums; and patients where everywhere to be met
with who looked to dancing as their only remedy. Alexander ab
Alexandro, [1] who gives this account, saw a young man in a remote
village who was seized with a violent attack of Tarantism. He listened
with eagerness and a fixed stare to the sound of a drum, and his
graceful movements gradually became more and more violent, until his
dancing was converted into a succession of frantic leaps, which
required the utmost exertion of his whole strength. In the midst of
this overstrained exertion of mind and body the music suddenly ceased,
and he immediately fell powerless to the ground, where he lay senseless
and motionless until its magical effect again aroused him to a renewal
of his impassioned performances. At the period of which we are treating there was a general
conviction, that by music and dancing the poison of the Tarantula was
distributed over the whole body, and expelled through the skin, but
that if there remained the slightest vestige of it in the vessels, this
became a permanent germ of the disorder, so that the dancing fits might
again and again be excited ad infinitum by music. This
belief, which resembled the delusion of those insane persons who, being
by artful management freed from the imagined causes of their
sufferings, are but for a short time released from their false notions,
was attended with the most injurious effects: for in consequence of it
those affected necessarily became by degrees convinced of the incurable
nature of their disorder. They expected relief, indeed, but not a cure,
from music; and when the heat of summer awakened a recollection of the
dancers of the preceding year, they, like the St. Vitus's dancers of
the same period [1] Genialium dierum Libri VI. Lugdun. Bat. 1673. 8vo.
Lib.
II. ch.
17. p. 398. Alex. ab Alexandro, a distinguished Neapolitan
lawyer, lived from 1461 to 1523. The historian Gaudentius Merula, who
became celebrated about 1536, makes only a very slight mention of the
Tarantism. Memorabilium Gaud. Merulae Novariensis opus,
&c. Lugdun. 1656. 8vo. L. III. ch. 69. p. 251.
before St. Vitus's day, again grew dejected and misanthropic,
until, by music and dancing, they dispelled the melancholy which had
become with them a kind of sensual enjoyment. Under such favourable circumstances it is clear that
Tarantism must
every year have made further progress. The number of those affected by
it increased beyond all belief, for whoever had either actually been,
or even fancied that he had been, once bitten by a poisonous spider or
scorpion, made his appearance annually wherever the merry notes of the
Tarantella resounded. Inquisitive females joined the throng and caught
the disease, not indeed from the poison of the spider, but from the
mental poison which they eagerly received through the eye; and thus the
cure of the Tarantati gradually became established as a
regular festival of the populace, which was anticipated with impatient
delight. Without attributing more to deception and fraud than to the peculiar nature of a progressive mental malady, it may readily be conceived that the cases of this strange disorder now grew more frequent. The celebrated Matthioli, [1] who is worthy of entire confidence, gives his account as an eye-witness. He saw the same extraordinary effects produced by music as Alexandro, for, however tortured with pain, however hopeless of relief the patients appeared, as they lay stretched on the couch of sickness, at the very first sounds of those melodies which had made an impression on them - but this was the case only with the Tarantellas composed expressly for the purpose - they sprang up as if inspired with new life and spirit, and, unmindful of their disorder, began to move in measured gestures, dancing for hours together without fatigue, until, covered with a kindly perspiration, they felt a salutary degree of lassitude, which relieved them for a time at least, perhaps even for a whole year, from their dejection and oppressive feeling of general indisposition. Alexandro's experience of the injurious effects resulting from a sudden cessation of the music was generally confirmed by Matthioli. If the clarinets and drums ceased for a single moment, which, as the most skilful players were tired out by the patients, could not but happen occasionally, they suffered their limbs to fall listless, again sank exhausted to the ground, and could find no solace but in a renewal of the dance. On this account care was taken to continue the music until exhaustion was produced; for it was better to pay a few extra musicians, who might relieve each other, than to permit the patient, ___________________________________________ [1] Petr. And. Matthioli Commentarii
in
Dioscorid. Venet. 1565. fol. Lib. II. ch. 57. p. 362.
in the midst of this curative exercise, to relapse into so
deplorable a state of suffering. The attack consequent upon the bite of
the Tarantula, Matthioli describes as varying much in its manner. Some
became morbidly exhilarated, so that they remained for a long
while without sleep, laughing, dancing, and singing in a state of the
greatest excitement. Others, on the contrary, were drowsy. The
generality felt nausea and suffered from vomiting, and some had
constant tremors. Complete mania was no uncommon occurrence, not to
mention the usual dejection spirits and other subordinate symptoms. SECT. 4. - IDEOSYNCRASIES. - MUSIC.Unaccountable emotions, strange desires, and morbid sensual
irritations of all kinds, were as prevalent as in the St. Vitus's dance
and similar great nervous maladies. So late as the sixteenth century
patients were seen armed with glittering swords which, during the
attack, they brandished with wild gestures, as if they were going to
engage in a fencing match. [1] Even women scorned all female delicacy
[2] and, adopting this impassioned demeanour, did the same; and this
phenomenon, as well as the excitement which the Tarantula dancers felt
at the sight of anything with metallic lustre, was quite common up to
the period when, in modern times, the disease disappeared. [3] The abhorrence of certain colours and the agreeable
sensations
produced by others, were much more marked among the excitable Italians
than was the case in the St. Vitus's dance with the more phlegmatic
Germans. Red colours, which the St. Vitus's dancers detested, they
generally liked, so that a patient was seldom seen who did not carry a
red handkerchief for his gratification, or greedily feast his eyes on
any articles of red clothing worn by the by-standers. Some preferred
yellow, others black colours, of which an explanation was sought,
according to the prevailing notions of the times, in the difference of
temperaments. [4] Others [1] Athanas. Kircher. Magnes sive de Arte magnetica Opus. Rom. 1654. fol. p. 589. [2] Joann. Juvenis de
antiquitate et
varia Tarentinorum fortuna Lib. VIII. Neapol. 1589. fol. Lib. II. ch.
17. p. 107. With the exception of the statement quoted, Juvenis has
borrowed almost everything from Matthioli.
again were enraptured with green; and eye-witnesses describe
this
rage for colours as so extraordinary, that they can scarcely find words
with which to express their astonishment. No sooner did the patients
obtain a sight of the favourite colour than, new as the impression was,
they rushed like infuriated animals towards the object, devoured it
with their eager looks, kissed and caressed it in every possible way,
and gradually resigning themselves to softer sensations, adopted the
languishing expression of enamoured lovers, and embraced the
handkerchief, or whatever other article it might be, which was
presented to them, with the most intense ardour, while the tears
streamed from their eyes as if they were completely overwhelmed by the
inebriating impression on their senses. The dancing fits of a certain Capuchin friar in Tarentum
excited so
much curiosity, that Cardinal Cajetano proceeded to the monastery, that
he might see with his own eyes what was going on. As soon as the monk,
who was in the midst of his dance, perceived the spiritual prince
clothed in his red garments, he no longer listened to the Tarantella of
the musicians, but with strange gestures endeavoured to approach the
Cardinal, as if he wished to count the very threads of his scarlet
robe, and to allay his intense longing by its odour. The interference
of the spectators, and his own respect, prevented his touching it, and
thus the irritation of his senses not being appeased, he fell into a
state of such anguish and disquietude, that he presently sank down in a
swoon, from which he did not recover until the Cardinal compassionately
gave him his cape. This he immediately seized in the greatest ecstasy,
and pressed now to his breast, now to his forehead and cheeks, and then
again commenced his dance as if in the frenzy of a love fit. [1] At the sight of colours which they disliked, patients flew
into the
most violent rage, and, like the St. Vitus's dancers when they saw red
objects, could scarcely be restrained from tearing the clothes of those
spectators who raised in them such disagreeable sensations. [2] Another no less extraordinary symptom was the ardent longing
for
the sea which the patients evinced. As the St. John's dancers of the
fourteenth century saw, in the spirit, the heavens open and display all
the splendour of the saints, so did those who were suffering under the
bite of the Tarantula feel themselves attracted to the boundless
expanse of the blue ocean, and lost themselves in its contemplation.
Some songs, which are still preserved, [1] Kircher, loc. cit. pp. 588, 589. [2] Ferdinand. p. 259.
marked this peculiar longing, which was moreover expressed by
significant music, and was excited even by the bare mention of the sea.
[1] Some, in whom this susceptibility was carried to the greatest
pitch, east themselves with blind fury into the blue waves, [2] as the
St. Vitus's dancers occasionally did into rapid rivers. This condition,
so opposite to the frightful state of hydrophobia, betrayed itself in
others only in the pleasure afforded them by the sight of clear water
in glasses. These they bore in their hands while dancing, exhibiting at
the same time strange movements, and giving way to the most extravagant
expressions of their feelings. They delighted also when, in the midst
of the space allotted for this exercise, more ample vessels, filled
with water, and surrounded by rushes and water plants, were placed, in
which they bathed their heads and arms with evident pleasure. [3]
Others there were who rolled about on the ground, and were, by their
own desire, buried up to the neck in the earth, in order to alleviate
the misery of their condition, not to mention an endless variety of
other symptoms which showed the perverted action of the nerves. All these modes of relief, however, were as nothing in
comparison
with the irresistible charms of musical sound. Attempts had indeed been
made in ancient times to mitigate the pain of sciatica, [4] or the
paroxysms of mania, [5] by the soft melody of the flute, and, what is
still more applicable to the present purpose, to remove the danger
arising from the bite of vipers [6] by the same means. This, however,
was tried only to a very small extent. But after being bitten by the
Tarantula, there was, according to popular opinion, no way of saving
life except by music, and it was hardly considered as an exception to
the general rule, that every now and then the bad effects of a wound
were prevented by placing a [1] For example: - "Allu mari mi portati [2] Ferdinand. loc. cit. p. 257.
ligature on the bitten limb, or by internal medicine, or that
strong persons occasionally withstood the effects of the poison,
without the employment of any remedies at all. [1] It was much more
common, and is quite in accordance with the nature of so exquisite a
nervous disease, to hear accounts of many who, when bitten by the
Tarantula, perished miserably because the Tarantella, which would have
afforded them deliverance, was not played to them. [2] It was
customary, therefore, so early as the commencement of the seventeenth
century, for whole bands of musicians to traverse Italy during the
summer months, and, what is quite unexampled either in ancient or
modern times, the cure of the Tarantati in the different
towns and villages was undertaken on a grand scale. This season of
dancing and music was called "the women's little carnival," for it was
women more especially who conducted the arrangements; so that
throughout the whole country they saved up their spare money, for the
purpose of rewarding the welcome musicians, and many of them neglected
their household employments to participate in this festival of the
sick. Mention is even made of one benevolent lady (Mita Lupa) who had
expended her whole fortune on this object. [4] The music itself was of a kind perfectly adapted to the
nature of
the malady, and it made so deep an impression on the Italians, that
even to the present time, long since the extinction of the disorder,
they have retained the Tarantella, as a particular species of music
employed for quick lively dancing. The different kinds of Tarantella
were distinguished, very significantly, by particular names, which had
reference to the moods observed in the patients. Whence it appears that
they aimed at representing by these tunes, even the idiosyncracies of
the mind as expressed in the countenance. Thus there was one kind of
Tarantella which was called "Panno rosso," a very lively impassioned
style of music, to which wild dithyrambic songs were adapted; another,
called "Panno verde," which was suited to the milder excitement of the
senses, caused by green colours, and set to Idyllian songs of verdant
fields and shady groves. A third was named "Cinque tempi:" a fourth
"Moresca," which was played to a Moorish dance; a fifth," Catena ?" and
a sixth, with a very appropriate designation, "Spallata," as if it were
only fit to be played to dancers who were lame in [1] Ferdinand. p. 260.
the shoulder. This was the slowest and least in vogue of all.
[1]
For those who loved water they took care to select love songs, which
were sung to corresponding music, and such persons delighted in hearing
of gushing springs and rushing cascades and streams. [2] It is to be
regretted that on this subject we are unable to give any further
information, for only small fragments of songs, and a very few
Tarantellas, have been preserved which belong to a period so remote as
the beginning of the seventeenth, or at furthest the end of the
sixteenth century. [3] The music was almost wholly in the Turkish style (aria
Turchesca),
and the ancient songs of the peasantry of Apulia, which increased in
number annually, were well suited to the abrupt and lively notes of the
Turkish drum and the shepherd's pipe. These two instruments were the
favourites in the country, but others of all kinds were played in towns
and villages, as an accompaniment to the dances of the patients and the
songs of the spectators. If any particular melody was disliked by those
affected, they indicated their displeasure by violent gestures
expressive of aversion. They could not endure false notes, and it is
remarkable that uneducated boors, who had never in their lives
manifested any perception of the enchanting power of harmony, acquired,
in this respect, an extremely refined sense of hearing, as if they had
been initiated into the profoundest secrets of the musical art. [4] It
was a matter of every day's experience, that patients showed a
predilection for certain Tarantellas, in preference to others, which
gave rise to the composition of a great variety of these dances. They
were likewise very capricious in their partialities for particular
instruments; so that some longed for the shrill notes of the trumpet,
others for the softest music produced by the vibration of strings. [5] Tarantism was at its greatest height in Italy in the
seventeenth
century, long after the St. Vitus's Dance of Germany had disappeared.
Is was not the natives of the country only who were attacked by this
complaint. Foreigners of every colour and of every race, negroes,
gipsies, Spaniards, Albanians, were in like manner affected by it. [6]
Against the effects produced by the Tarantula's bite, or by the sight
of the sufferers, neither youth nor age afforded [1] Ferdinand. p. 259. Slow music made the
Tarantel
dancers feel as if they wero crushed: spezzati, minuzzati, p. 260. [3] See Appendix, No. V. [5] A. Kircher, loc. cit.
any protection; so that even old men of ninety threw aside
their
crutches at the sound of the Tarantella, and, as if some magic potion,
restorative of youth and vigour, were flowing through their veins,
joined the most extravagant dancers. [1] Ferdinando saw a boy five
years old seized with the dancing mania, [2] in consequences of the
bite of a tarantula; and, what is almost past belief, were it not
supported by the testimony of so credible an eye-witness, even deaf
people were not exempt from this disorder, so potent in its effect was
the very sight of these affected, even without the exhilarating
emotions caused by music. [3] Subordinate nervous attacks were much more frequent during
this
century than at any former period, and an extraordinary icy coldness
was observed in those who were the subjects of them; so that they did
not recover their natural heat until they had engaged in violent
dancing. [4] Their anguish and sense of oppression forced from them a
cold perspiration; the secretion from the kidneys was pale, [5] and
they had so great a dislike to everything cold, that when water was
offered them they pushed it away with abhorrence. Wine, en the
contrary, they all drank willingly, without being heated by it, or in
the slightest degree intoxicated. [6] During the whole period of the
attack they suffered from spasms in the stomach, and felt a
disinclination to take food of any kind. They used to abstain some time
before the expected seizures from meat and from snails, which they
thought rendered them more severe, [7] and their great thirst for wine
may, therefore, in some measure, be attributable to the want of a more
nutritious diet; yet the disorder of the nerves was evidently its chief
cause, and the loss of appetite, as well as the necessity for support
by wine, were its effects. Loss of voice, occasional blindness, [8]
vertigo, complete insanity, with sleeplessness, frequent weeping
without any ostensible cause, were all usual symptoms. Many patients
found relief from being placed in swings or rocked in cradles; [9]
others required to be roused from their state of suffering by severe
blows on the soles of their feet; others beat themselves, without any
intention of making a display, but solely for the purpose of allaying
the intense nervous irritation which they felt; and a considerable
number were seen with their bellies swollen,' [10] like those of the [1] This is said of an old man of Avetrano, who was ninety-four years of age. pp. 254. 257. [2] Idem, p. 261. [5] Idem, p. 256. [6] Idem, p. 260. [7] Idem, p. 261. [9] Idem, p. 258. [10] Idem, p. 257.
St. John's dancers, while the violence of the intestinal
disorder
was indicated in others by obstinate constipation or diarrhoea and
vomiting. [1] These pitiable objects gradually lost their strength and
their colour, and creeping about with injected eyes, jaundiced
complexions, and inflated bowels, soon fell into a state of profound
melancholy, which found food and solace in the solemn tolling of the
funeral bell, and in an abode among the tombs of cemeteries, as is
related of the Lycanthropes of former times. The persuasion of the inevitable consequences of being bitten
by
the tarantula, exercise a dominion over men's minds which even the
healthiest and strongest could not shake off. So late as the middle of
the sixteenth century, the celebrated Fracastoro found the robust
bailiff of his landed estate groaning, and, with the aspect of a person
in the extremity of despair, suffering the very agonies of death, from
a sting in the neck, inflicted by an insect which was believed to be a
tarantula. He kindly administered, without delay, a potion of vinegar
and Armenian bole, the great remedy of those days for the plague and
all kinds of animal poisons, and the dying man was, as if by a miracle,
restored to life and the power of speech. [2] Now, since it is quite
out of the question that the bole could have anything to do with the
result in this case, notwithstanding Fracastoro's belief in its
virtues, we can only account for the cure by supposing, that a
confidence in so great a physician prevailed over this fatal disease of
the imagination, which would otherwise have yielded to scarcely any
other remedy except the tarantella. Ferdinando was acquainted with
women who, for thirty years in succession, had overcome the attacks of
this disorder by a renewal of their annual dance - so long did they
maintain their belief in the yet undestroyed poison of the tarantula's
bite, and so long did that mental affection continue to exist, after it
had ceased to depend on any corporeal excitement. [3] Wherever we turn we find that this morbid state of mind
prevailed,
and was so supported by the opinions of the age, that is needed only a
stimulus in the bite of the tarantula, and the supposed certainty of
its very disastrous consequences, to originate this violent nervous
disorder. Even in Ferdinando's time there were many who altogether
denied the poisonous effects of the tarantula's bite, whilst they
considered the disorder, which annually set Italy in commotion, to be a
melancholy depending on the [1] Ferdinand. p. 256.
imagination. [1] They clearly expiated this scepticism,
however,
when they were led, with an inconsiderate hardihood, to test their
opinions by experiment; for many of them became the subjects of severe
tarantism, and even a distinguished prelate, Jo. Baptist Quinzato,
Bishop of Foligno, having allowed himself, by way of a joke, to be
bitten by a tarantula, could obtain a cure in no other way than by
being, through the influence of the tarantella, compelled to dance. [2]
Others among the clergy, who wished to shut their ears against music,
because they considered dancing derogatory to their station, fell into
a dangerous state of illness by thus delaying the crisis of the malady,
and were obliged at last to save themselves from a miserable death by
submitting to the unwelcome but sole means of cure. [3] Thus it appears
that the age was so little favourable to freedom of thought, that even
the most decided sceptics, incapable of guarding themselves against the
recollection of what had been presented to the eye, were subdued by a
poison, the power of which they had ridiculed, and which was in itself
inert in its effect. SECT. 5. - HYSTERIA.Different characteristics of morbidly excited vitality having been rendered prominent by tarantism in different individuals, it could not but happen that other derangements of the nerves would assume the form of this, whenever circumstances favoured such a transition. This was more especially the case with hysteria, that proteiform and mutable disorder, in which the imaginations, the superstitions, and the follies of all ages have been evidently reflected. The "Carnevaletto delle Donne" appeared most opportunely for those who were hysterical. Their disease received from it, as it had at other times from other extraordinary customs, a peculiar direction; so that whether bitten by the tarantula or not, they felt compelled to participate in the dances of those affected, and to make their appearance at this popular festival, where they had an opportunity of triumphantly exhibiting their sufferings. Let us here pause to consider the kind of life which the women in Italy led. Lonely, and deprived by cruel custom of social intercourse, that fairest of all enjoyments, they dragged on a miserable existence. Cheerfulness and an inclination to sensual pleasures passed
into
compulsory idleness, and, in many, into black despondency. [4] [1] De Contag. p. 254. [2] Idem, p. 262. [3] Idem, p. 261.
Their imaginations became disordered - a pallid countenance
and
oppressed respiration bore testimony to their profound sufferings. How
could they do otherwise, sunk as they were in such extreme misery, than
seize the occasion to burst forth from their prisons, and alleviate
their miseries by taking part in the delights of music. Nor should we
hem pass unnoticed a circumstance which illustrates, in a remarkable
degree, the psychological nature of hysterical sufferings, namely, that
many chlorotic females, by joining the dancers at the Carnevaletto,
were freed from their spasms and oppression of breathing for the whole
year, although the corporeal cause of their malady was not removed. [1]
After such a result, no one could eau their self-deception a mere
imposture, and unconditionally condemn it as such. This numerous class of patients certainly contributed not a
little
to the maintenance of the evil, for their fantastic sufferings, in
which dissimulation and reality could scarcely be distinguished even by
themselves, much less by their physicians, were imitated, in the same
way as the distortions of the St. Vitus's dancers, by the impostors of
that period. It was certainly by these persons also that the number of
subordinate symptoms was increased to an endless extent, as may be
conceived from the daily observation of hysterical patients, who, from
a morbid desire to render themselves remarkable, deviate from the laws
of moral propriety. Powerful sexual excitement had often the most
decided influence over their [1] Georg. Baglivi, Dies. de
Anatome,
morsu et
effectibus Tarantulae. pp. 616, 617. Opp. Lugdun. 1710. 4to.
condition. Many of them exposed themselves in the most
indecent
manner, tore their hair out by the roots, with howling and gnashing of
their teeth; and when, as was sometimes the case, their unsatisfied
passion hurried them on to a state of frenzy, they closed their
existence by self-destruction; it being common at that time for these
unfortunate beings to precipitate themselves into the wells. [1] It might hence seem that, owing to the conduct of patients of
this
description, so much of fraud and falsehood would be mixed up with the
original disorder, that having passed into another complaint, it must
have been itself destroyed. This, however, did not happen in the first
half of the seventeenth century; for as a clear proof that Tarantism
remained substantially the same and quite unaffected by Hysteria, there
were in many places, and in particular at Messapia, fewer women
affected than men, who in their turn were, in no small proportion, led
into temptation by sexual excitement. [2] In other places, as for
example at Brindisi, the case was reversed, which may, as in other
complaints, be in some measure attributable to local causes. - Upon the
whole it appears, from concurrent accounts, that women by no means
enjoyed the distinction of being attacked by Tarantism more frequently
than men. It is said that the cicatrix of the tarantula bite, on the
yearly
or half-yearly return of the fit, became discoloured, [3] but on this
point the distinct testimony of good observers is wanting to deprive
the assertion of its utter improbability. It is not out of place to remark here, that about the same time that Tarantism attained its greatest height in Italy, the bite of venomous spiders was more feared in distant parts of Asia, likewise, than it had ever been within the memory of man. There was this difference, however, that the symptoms supervening on the occurrence of this accident were not accompanied by the Apulian nervous disorder, which, as has been shown in the foregoing pages, had its origin rather in the melancholic temperament of the inhabitants of the south of Italy, than in the nature of the tarantula poison itself. This poison is therefore doubtless to be considered only as a remote cause of the complaint, which, but for that temperament, would be inadequate to its production. The Persians employed a very rough means of counteracting the bad consequences of a poison of this sort. They drenched the wounded ___________________________________________ [1] Ferdinando, p. 257. [2] Idem, pp. 256, 257, 258. person with milk, and then, by violent rotatory motion in a suspended box, compelled him to vomit. [1] SECT. 6 - DECREASE.The Dancing Mania, arising from the tarantula bite,
continued, with
all those additions of self-deception, and of the dissimulation which
is such constant attendant in nervous disorders of this kind, through
the whole course of the seventeenth century. It was indeed gradually on
the decline, but up to the termination of this period, showed such
extraordinary symptoms, that Baglivi, one of the best physicians of
that time, thought he did a service to science by making them the
subject of a dissertation. [2] He repeats all the observations of
Ferdinando, and supports his own assertions by the experience of his
father, a physician at Lecce, whose testimony, as an eye-witness, may
be admitted as unexceptionable. [3] The immediate consequence of the tarantula bite, the
supervening
nervous disorder, and the aberrations and fits of those who suffered
from Hysteria, he describes in a masterly style, nor does he ever
suffer his credulity to diminish the authenticity of his account, of
which he has been unjustly accused by later writers. Finally, Tarantism has declined more and more in modern
times, and
is now limited to single cases. How could it possibly have maintained
itself unchanged in the eighteenth century, when all the links which
connected it with the middle ages had long since been snapped asunder?
Imposture [4] grew more frequent, [1] Adam Olearius. Vermehrte
Moscowitische und
Persianische Reisebeschreibung. Travels in Muscovy and Persia.
Schleswig, 1663. fol. Book IV. p. 496.
and wherever the disease still appeared in its genuine form,
its
chief cause, namely, a peculiar cast of melancholy, which formerly had
been the temperament of thousands, was now possessed only occasionally
by unfortunate individuals. It might therefore not unreasonably be
maintained, that the Tarantism of modern times bears nearly the same
relation to the original malady, as the St. Vitus's dance which still
exists, and certainly has all along existed, bears in certain cases to
the original dancing mania of the dancers of St. John. To conclude. Tarantism, as a real disease, has been denied in
toto, and stigmatized as an imposition, by most physicians and
naturalists, who in this controversy have shown the narrowness of their
views and their utter ignorance of history. In order to support their
opinion they have instituted some experiments, apparently favourable to
it, but under circumstances altogether inapplicable, since, for the
most part, they selected, as the subjects of them, none but healthy
men, who were totally uninfluenced by a belief in this once so dreaded
disease. From individual instances of fraud and dissimulation, such as
are found in connexion with most nervous affections without rendering
their reality a matter of any doubt, they drew a too hasty conclusion
respecting the general phenomenon, of which they appeared not to know
that it had continued for nearly four hundred years, having originated
in the remotest periods of the middle ages. The most learned and the
most acute among these sceptics is Serao the Neapolitan. [1] His
reasonings amount to this, that he considers the disease to be a very
marked form of melancholia, and compares the effect of the tarantula
bite upon it to stimulating, with spurs, a horse which is already
running. The reality of that effect he thus admits, and therefore
directly confirms what in appearance only he denies. [2] By shaking the
already vacillating belief in this disorder he is said to have actually
succeeded. in rendering it less frequent, and in setting bounds to
imposture; [3] but this no more disproves the reality of its existence,
than the oft-repeated detection of imposition has been able, in modern
times, to banish magnetic sleep from the circle of natural phenomena,
though such detection has, on its side, rendered more rare the
incontestable effects of animal magnetism. Other physicians and
naturalists [4] have delivered their [1] Franc. Serao, della Tarautola
o
vero
Falangio di Puglia. Napol. 1742. - See Thom. Fasani, De
vita, muniis et scriptis Franc. Serai, &c.
Commentarius. Neapol. 1784. 8vo. p. 76. et seq. sentiments on Tarantism, but as they have not
possessed an
enlarged
knowledge of its history, their views do not merit particular
exposition. It is sufficient for the comprehension of every one, that
we have presented the facts freed from all extraneous speculation. CHAPTER III.DANCING MANIA IN ABYSSINIA.SECT. I . - TIGRETIER.Born the St. Vitus's dance and Tarantism belonged to the ages
in
which they appeared. They could not have existed under the same
latitude at any other epoch, for at no other period were the
circumstances which prepared the way for them combined in a similar
relation to each other and the mental as well as corporeal temperaments
of nations, which depend on causes such as have been stated, are as
little capable of renewal as the different stages of life in
individuals. This gives so much the more importance to a disease but
cursorily alluded to in the foregoing pages, which exists in Abyssinia,
and which nearly resembles the original mania of the St. John's
dancers, inasmuch as it exhibits a perfectly similar ecstasy, with the
same violent effect on the nerves of motion. It occurs most frequently
in the Tigrè country, being thence called Tigretier, and is
probably
the same malady which is called in the Ethiopian language Astargazu.
[1] On this subject we will introduce the testimony of Nathaniel
Pearce, [2] an eye-witness, who resided nine years in Abyssinia. "The
Tigretier," says he, "is more common among the women than among the
men. It seizes the body as if with a violent fever, and from that turns
to a lingering sickness, which reduces the patients to skeletons, and
often kills them, if the relations cannot procure the proper remedy.
During this sickness their speech is changed to a kind of stuttering,
which no one can understand but those afflicted with the same disorder.
When the relations find the malady to be the real tigretier, they
join together to defray the expenses of curing it; the first remedy
they in general attempt, is to procure the assistance of a learned
Doctor, who reads the Gospel of St. John, [3] and drenches the patient
with cold water daily for the space of seven days - an application that
very often proves fatal. The most effectual cure, though far more
expensive than the former, is as follows: - The relations hire, for a
certain sum of money, a band of trumpeters, drummers, and fifers, and
buy a quantity of liquor; then all the young men and women of the place
assemble at the patient's house, to perform the following most
extraordinary ceremony. "I was once called in by a neighbour to see his wife, a very
young
woman, who had the misfortune to be afflicted with this disorder; and
the man being an old acquaintance of mine, and always a close comrade
in the camp, I went every day when at [1] This may, however, be considered merely as a
conjecture,
founded upon the following passage in Ludolf's Lexicon
Aethiopic. Ed. 2da. Francof. 1699. fol. p. 142. Astaragaza, de
vexatione quadam diabolica accipitur. Marc. 1. 26. ix. 18. Luc. ix. 39.
Graecus habet
σπαραττειν, vellicare,
discerpere. Sed
Ethiopes, teste Gregorio, pro morbo quodam
accipiunt, quo quis perpetuo pedes agitare et quasi
calcitrare cogitur. Fortassis est Saltatio S.
Viti,
vulgo St. Veitstanz.
home, to see her, but I could not be of any service to her,
though
she never refused my medicines. At this time, I could not understand a
word she said, although she talked very freely, nor could any of her
relations understand her. She could not bear the sight of a book or a
priest, for at the sight of either, she struggled, and was apparently
seized with acute agony, and a flood of tears, like blood mingled with
water, would pour down her face from her eyes. She had lain three
months in this lingering state, living upon so little that it seemed
not enough to keep a human body alive; at last, her husband agreed to
employ the usual remedy, and, after preparing for the maintenance of
the band, during the time it would take to effect the cure, he borrowed
from all his neighbours their silver ornaments, and loaded her legs,
arms, and neck with them. "The evening that the band began to play, I seated myself
close by
her side as she lay upon the couch, and about two minutes after the
trumpets had begun to sound, I observed her shoulders begin to move,
and soon afterwards her head and breast, and in less than a quarter of
an hour she sat upon her couch. The wild look she had, though sometimes
she smiled, made me draw off to a greater distance, being almost
alarmed to see one nearly a skeleton move with such strength; her head,
neck, shoulders, hands, and feet, all made a strong motion to the sound
of the music, and in this manner she went on by degrees, until she
stood up on her legs upon the floor. Afterwards she began to dance, and
at times to jump about, and at last, as the music and noise of the
singers increased, she often sprang three feet from the ground. When
the music slackened, she would appear quite out of temper, but when it
became louder, she would smile and be delighted. During this exercise,
she never showed the least symptom of being tired, though the musicians
were thoroughly exhausted; and when they stopped to refresh themselves
by drinking and resting a little, she would discover signs of
discontent. "Next day, according to the custom in the cure of this
disorder,
she was taken into the market-place, where several jars of maize or
tsug were set in order by the relations, to give drink
to the
musicians and dancers. When the crowd had assembled and the music was
ready, she was brought forth and began to dance and throw herself into
the maddest postures imaginable, and in this manner she kept on the
whole day. Towards evening she began to let fall her silver ornaments
from her neck, arms, and legs, one at a time, so that in the course of
three hours she was stripped of every article. A relation continually
kept going after her as she danced, to pick up the ornaments, and
afterwards delivered them to the owners from whom they were borrowed.
As the sun went down, she made a start with such swiftness, that the
fastest runner could not come up with her, and when at the distance of
about two hundred yards, she dropped on a sudden, as if shot. Soon
afterwards, a young man, on coming up with her, fired a matchlock over
her body, and struck her upon the back with the broad side of his large
knife, and asked her name, to which she answered as when in her common
senses - a sure proof of her being cured; for, during the time of this
malady, these afflicted with it never answer to their Christen names.
She was now taken up in a very weak condition and carried home, and a
priest came and baptized her again in the name of the Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost, which ceremony concluded her cure. Some are taken in this
manner to the market-place for many days before they can be cured, and
it sometimes happens that they cannot be cured at all. I have seen them
in these fits dance with a bruly, or bottle of maize, upon
their heads, without spilling the liquor, or letting the bottle fall,
although they have put themselves into the most extravagant postures. "I could not have ventured to write this from hearsay, nor
could I
conceive it possible, until I was obliged to put this remedy in
practice upon my own wife, [1] who was seized with the same disorder,
and then I was compelled to have a still nearer view-of this strange
disorder. I at first thought that a whip would be of some service, and
one day attempted a few strokes when unnoticed by any person, we being
by ourselves, and I having a strong suspicion that this ailment sprang
from the weak minds of women, who were encouraged in it for the sake of
the grandeur, rich dress, and music which accompany the cure. But how
much was I surprised, the moment I struck a light blow, thinking to do
good, to find that she became like a corpse, and even the joints of her
fingers became so stiff that I could not straighten them; indeed, I
really thought that she was dead, and immediately made it known to the
people in the house that she had fainted, but did not tell them the
cause, upon which they immediately brought music, which I had for many
days denied them, and which soon revived her; and I then left the house
to her relations to cure her at my expense, in the manner I have before
mentioned, though it took a much longer time to cure my wife than the
woman I have just given [1] She was a native Greek.
an account of. One day I went privately, with a companion, to
see
my wife dance, and kept a short distance, as I was ashamed to go near
the crowd. On looking steadfastly upon her, while dancing or jumping,
more like a deer than a human being, I said that it certainly was not
my wife; at which my companion burst into a fit of laughter, from which
he could scarcely refrain all the way home. Men are sometimes afflicted
with this dreadful disorder, but not frequently. Among the Anhara and
Galla it is not so common." Such is the account of Pearce, who is every way worthy of
credit,
and whose lively description renders the traditions of former times
respecting the St. Vitus's dance and tarantism intelligible, even to
those who are sceptical respecting the existence of a morbid state of
the mind and body of the kind described, because, in the present
advanced state of civilization among the nations of Europe,
opportunities for its development no longer occur. The credibility of
this energetic, but by no means ambitious man, is not liable to the
slightest suspicion, for, owing to his want of education, he had no
knowledge of the phenomena in question, and his work evinces throughout
his attractive and unpretending impartiality. Comparison is the mother of observation, and may here
elucidate one
phenomenon by another - the past by that which still exists.
Oppression,
insecurity, and the influence of a very rude priestcraft, are the
powerful causes which operated on the Germans and Italians of the
middle ages, as they now continue to operate on the Abyssinians of the
present day. However these people may differ from us in their descent,
their manners and their customs, the effects of the above-mentioned
causes are the same in Africa as they were in Europe, for they operate
on man himself independently of the particular locality in which he may
be planted; and the condition of the Abyssinians of modern times is, in
regard to superstition, a mirror of the condition of the European
nations in the middle ages. Should this appear a bold assertion, it
will be strengthened by the fact, that in Abyssinia, two examples of
superstitions occur, which are completely in accordance with
occurrences of the middle ages that took place contemporarily with the
dancing mania. The Abyssinians have their Christian
Flagellants, and there exists among them a belief
in a Zoomorphism, which presents a lively image of
the lycanthropy of the middle ages. Their
flagellants are called Zackarys. They are united into a separate
Christian fraternity, and make their processions through the towns and
villages with great noise and tumult, scourging themselves till they
draw blood, and wounding themselves with knives. [1] They boast that
they are descendants of St. George. It is precisely in Tigrè,
the
country of the Abyssinian dancing mania, where they are found in the
greatest numbers, and where they have, in the neighbourhood of Axum, a
church of their own, dedicated to their patron saint, Oun Arvel. Here
there is an ever-burning lamp, and they contrive to impress a belief
that this is kept alight by supernatural means. They also here keep a
holy water, which is said to be a cure for these who are affected by
the dancing mania. The Abyssinian Zoomorphism is a no less important phenomenon,
and
shows itself in a manner quite peculiar. The blacksmiths and potters
form, among the Abyssinians, a society or caste called in Tigrè Tebbib,
and in Amhara Buda, which is held in some degree
of
contempt, and excluded from the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, because
it is believed that they can change themselves into hyaenas and other
beasts of prey, on which account they are feared by everybody, and
regarded with horror. They artfully contrive to keep up this
superstition, because by this separation they preserve a monopoly of
their lucrative trades, and as in other respects they are good
Christians (but few Jews or Mahomedans live among them), they seem to
attach no great consequence to their excommunication. As a badge of
distinction, they wear a golden earring, which is frequently found in
the ears of hyaenas that are killed, without its having ever been
discovered how they catch these animals, so as to decorate them with
this strange ornament, and this removes, in the minds of the people,
all doubt at to the supernatural powers of the smiths and potters. [2]
To the Budas is also ascribed the gift of enchantment, especially that
of the influence of the evil eye. [3] They nevertheless live
unmolested, and are not condemned to the flames by fanatical priests,
as the lycanthropes were in the middle ages. [1] Pearce, p. 289. Compare p. 34. - E.
G. Förstemann, Die christlichen
Geisslergesellschaften.
The
Christian Societies of Flagellants. Halle, 1828. 8vo. CHAPTER IV.SYMPATHY.IMITATION - compassion - sympathy, these are imperfect
designations for
a common bond of union among human beings - for an instinct which
connects individuals with the general body, which embraces with equal
force, reason and folly, good and evil, and diminishes the praise of
virtue as well as the criminality of vice. In this impulse there are
degrees, but no essential differences, from the first intellectual
efforts of the infant mind, which are in a great measure based on
imitation, to that morbid condition of the soul in which the sensible
impression of a nervous malady fetters the mind, and finds its way,
through the eye, directly to the diseased texture, as the electric
shock is propagated by contact from body to body. To this instinct of
imitation, when it exists in its highest degree, is united a loss of
all power over the will, which occurs as soon as the impression on the
senses has become firmly established, producing a condition like that
of small animals when they are fascinated by the look of a serpent. By
this mental bondage, morbid sympathy is clearly and definitely
distinguished from all subordinate degrees of this instinct, however
closely allied the imitation of a disorder may seem to be to that of a
mere folly, of an absurd fashion, of an awkward habit in speech and
manner, or even of a confusion of ideas. Even these latter imitations,
however, directed as they are to foolish and pernicious objects, place
the self-independence of the greater portion of mankind in a very
doubtful light, and account for their union into a social whole. Still
more nearly allied to morbid sympathy than the imitation of enticing
folly, although often with a considerable admixture of the latter, is
the diffusion of violent excitements, especially those of a religious
or political character, which have so powerfully agitated the nations
of ancient and modern times, and which may, after an incipient
compliance, [1] pass into a total loss of power over the will, and an
actual disease of the mind. Far be it from us to attempt to awaken all
the various tones of this chord, whose vibrations reveal the profound
secrets which lie hid in the inmost recesses of the soul. We might well
want powers adequate to so vast an undertaking. Our business here is
only with that morbid sympathy, by the aid of which the dancing mania
of the middle ages grew into a real epidemic. In order to [1] Paracelsus. . 1. "At a cotton manufactory at Hodden Bridge, in Lancashire,
a
girl, on the fifteenth of February, 1787, put a mouse into the bosom of
another girl, who had a great dread of mice. The girl was immediately
thrown into a fit, and continued in it, with the most violent
convulsions, for twenty-four hours. On the following day, three more
girls were seized in the same manner; and on the 17th, six more. By
this time the alarm was so great, that the whole work, in which 200 or
300 were employed, was totally stopped, and an idea prevailed that a
particular disease had been introduced by a bag of cotton opened in the
house. On Sunday the 18th, Dr. St. Clare was sent for from Preston;
before he arrived three more were seized, and during that night and the
morning of the 19th, eleven more, making in all twenty-four. Of these,
twenty-one were young women, two were girls of about ten years of age,
and one man, who had been much fatigued with holding the girls. Three
of the number lived about two miles from the place where the disorder
first broke out, and three at another factory at Clitheroe, about five
miles distant, which last and two more were infected entirely from
report, not having seen the other patients, but, like them and the rest
of the country, strongly impressed with the idea of the plague being
caught from the cotton. The symptoms were anxiety, strangulation, and
very strong convulsions; and these were so violent as to last without
any intermission from a quarter of an hour to twenty-four hours, and to
require four or five persons to prevent the patients from tearing their
hair and dashing their heads against the floor or walls. Dr. St. Clare
had taken with him a portable electrical machine, and by electric
shocks the patients were universally relieved without exception. As
soon as the patients and the country were assured that the complaint
was merely nervous, easily cured, and not introduced by the cotton, no
fresh person was affected. To dissipate their apprehension still
further, the best effects were obtained by causing them to take a
cheerful glass and join in a dance. On Tuesday the 2oth, they danced,
and the next day were all at work, except two or three, who were much
weakened by their fits." - [1] Gentleman's Magazine, 1787, March, p. 268. - F.
B.
Osiander, Ueber die Entwickelungskrankheiten in den
Blüthenjahren
des weiblichen Geschlechts. On the disorders of young women, &c.
Tübingen, 1820, Vol. 1. p. 10.
The occurrence here described is remarkable on this account,
that
there was no important predisposing cause for convulsions in these
young women, unless we consider as such their miserable and confined
life in the work-rooms of a spinning manufactory. It did not arise from
enthusiasm, nor is it stated that the patients had been the subjects of
any other nervous disorders. In another perfectly analogous case, those
attacked were all suffering from nervous complaints, which roused a
morbid sympathy, in them at the sight of a person seized with
convulsions. This, together with the supervention of hysterical fits,
may aptly enough be compared to Tarantism. 2. "A young woman of the lowest order, twenty-one years of
age, and
of a strong frame, came on the 13th of January, 1801, to visit a
patient in the Charité hospital at Berlin, where she had herself
been
previously under treatment for an inflammation of the chest with
tetanic spasms, and immediately on entering the ward, fell down in
strong convulsions. At the sight of her violent contortions, six other
female patients immediately became affected in the same way, and by
degrees eight more were in like manner attacked with strong
convulsions. All these patients were from sixteen to twenty-five years
of age, and suffered without exception, one from spasms in the stomach,
another from palsy, a third from lethargy, a fourth from fits with
consciousness, a fifth from catalepsy, a sixth from syncope, &c.
The convulsions, which alternated in various ways with tonic spasms,
were accompanied by loss of sensibility, and were invariably preceded
by languor with heavy sleep, which was followed by the fits in the
course of a minute or two; and it is remarkable, that in all these
patients their former nervous disorders, not excepting paralysis,
disappeared, returning, however, after the subsequent removal of their
new complaint. The treatment, during the course of which two of the
nurses, who were young women, suffered similar attacks, was continued
for four months. It was finally successful, and consisted principally
in the administration of opium, at that time the favourite remedy." [1]
Now, every species of enthusiasm, every strong affection,
every
violent passion, may lead to convulsions - to mental disorders - to a
concussion of the nerves, from the sensorium to the very finest
extremities of the spinal chord. The whole world is full of [1] This account is given by Fritze. Hufeland's Journal
der practischen Heilkunde, Vol XII. 1801. Part 1. p. 110. Hufeland's
Journal of Practical Medicine. sensual impression that destroys its freedom, is
irresistibly
propagated by imitation. Those who are thus infected do not spare even
their own lives, but, as a hunted flock of sheep will follow their
leader and rush over a precipice, so will whole hosts of enthusiasts,
deluded by their infatuation, hurry on to a self-inflicted death. Such
has ever been the case, from the days of the Milesian virgins to the
modern associations for self-destruction. [1] Of all enthusiastic
infatuations, however, that of religion is the most fertile in
disorders of the mind as well as of the body, and both spread with the
greatest facility by sympathy. The history of the church furnishes
innumerable proofs of this, but we need go no further than the most
recent times. 3. In a Methodist chapel at Redruth, a man, during divine
service,
cried out with a loud voice, "What shall I do to be saved?" at
the same time manifesting the greatest uneasiness and solicitude
respecting the condition of his soul. Some other members of the
congregation, following his example, cried out in the same form of
words, and seemed shortly after to suffer the most excruciating bodily
pain. This strange occurrence was soon publicly known, and hundreds of
people, who had come thither, either attracted by curiosity, or a
desire, from other motives, to see the sufferers, fell into the same
state. The chapel remained open for some days and nights, and from that
point the new disorder spread itself, with the rapidity of lightning,
over the neighbouring towns of Camborne, Helston, Truro, Penryn, and
Falmouth, s well as over the villages in the vicinity. Whilst thus
advancing, it decreased in some measure at the place where it had first
appeared, and it confined itself throughout to the Methodist chapels.
It was only by the words which have been mentioned that it was excited,
and it seized none but people of the lowest education. Those who were
attacked betrayed the greatest anguish, and fell into convulsions;
others cried out, like persons possessed, that the Almighty would
straightway pour out his wrath upon them, that the wailings of
tormented spirits rang in their ears, and that they saw hell open to
receive them. The clergy, when, in the course of their sermons, they
perceived that persons were thus seized, [1] Compare J. G. Zimmermann, Ueber die
Einsamkeit.
Leipsig, 1784. 8vo. Vol. II. ch. 6. p. 77. On Solitude. - J. P.
Falret, De l'hypochondrie et du suicide. Paris, 1822. 8vo., and
others.
earnestly exhorted them to confess their sins, and zealously
endeavoured to convince them that they were by nature enemies to
Christ; that the anger of God had therefore fallen upon them; and that
if death should surprise them in the midst of their sins, the eternal
torments of hell would be their portion. The overexcited congregation
upon this repeated their words, which naturally must have increased the
fury of their convulsive attacks. When the discourse had produced its
full effect, the preacher changed his subject; reminded those who were
suffering of the power of the Saviour, as well as of the grace of God,
and represented to them in glowing colours the joys of heaven. Upon
this a remarkable reaction sooner or later took place. Those who were
in convulsions felt themselves raised from the lowest depths of misery
and despair to the most exalted bliss, and triumphantly shouted out
that their bonds were loosed, their sins were forgiven, and that they
were translated to the wonderful freedom of the children of God. In the
mean time, their convulsions continued, and they remained, during this
condition, so abstracted from every earthly thought, that they staid
two and sometimes three days and nights together in the chapels,
agitated all the time by spasmodic movements, and taking neither repose
nor nourishment. According to a moderate computation, 4000 people were,
within very short time, affected with this convulsive malady. The course and symptoms of the attacks were in general as follows : - There came on at first a feeling of faintness, with rigour and a sense of weight at the pit of the stomach, soon after which, the patient cried out, as if in the agonies of death or the pains of labour. The convulsions then began, first showing themselves in the muscles of the eyelids, though the eyes themselves were fixed and staring. The most frightful contortions of the countenance followed, and the convulsions now took their course downwards, so that the muscles of the neck and trunk were affected, causing a sobbing respiration, which was performed with great effort. Tremors and agitation ensued, and the patients screamed out violently, and tossed their heads about from side to side. As the complaint increased, it seized the arms, and its victims beat their breasts, clasped their hands, and made all sorts of strange gestures. The observer who gives this account remarked that the lower extremities were in no instance affected. In some cases, exhaustion came on in a very few minutes, but the attack usually lasted much longer, and there were even cases in which it was known to continue for sixty or seventy hours. Many of those who happened to be seated when the attack commenced, [1] bent
their
bodies rapidly backwards and forwards during its continuance, making a
corresponding motion with their arms, like persons sawing wood. Others
shouted aloud, leaped about, and threw their bodies into every possible
posture, until they had exhausted their strength. Yawning took place at
the commencement in all cases, but as the violence of the disorder
increased, the circulation and respiration became accelerated, so that
the countenance assumed a swollen and puffed appearance. When
exhaustion came on, patients usually fainted, and remained in a stuff
and motionless state until their recovery. The disorder completely
resembled the St. Vitus's dance, but the fits sometimes went on to an
extraordinarily violent extent, so that the author of the account once
saw a woman, who was seized with these convulsions, resist the
endeavours of four or five strong men to restrain her. These patients
who did not lose their consciousness were in general made more furious
by every attempt to quiet them by force, on which account they were in
general suffered to continue unmolested until nature herself brought on
exhaustion. These affected complained, more or less, of debility after
the attacks, and cases sometimes occurred in which they passed into
other disorders: thus some fell into a state of melancholy, which,
however, in consequence of their religious ecstasy, was distinguished
by the absence of fear and despair; and in one patient inflammation of
the brain is said to have taken place. No sex or age was exempt from
this epidemic malady. Children five years old and octogenarians were
alike affected by it, and even men of the most powerful frame were
subject to its influence. Girls and young women, however,
were its most frequent victims. [1] 4. For the last hundred years a nervous affection of a
perfectly
similar kind has existed in the Shetland Islands, which furnishes a
striking example, perhaps the only one now existing, of the very
lasting propagation by sympathy of this species of disorders. The
origin of the malady was very insignificant. An epileptic woman had a
fit in church, and whether it was that the minds of the congregation
were excited by devotion, or that, being overcome at the sight of the
strong convulsions, their sympathy was called forth, certain it is,
that many adult women, and even children, come of whom were of the male
sex, and not more than [1] This statement is made by J. Cornish.
See Fothergill and Want's, Medical and
Physical Journal, vol.
xxxi.
1814. pp. 373 - 379.
six years old, began to complain forthwith of palpitation,
followed
by faintness, which passed into a motionless and apparently cataleptic
condition. These symptoms lasted more than an hour, and probably
recurred frequently. In the course of time, however, this malady is
said to have undergone a modification, such as it exhibits at the
present day. Women whom it has attacked will suddenly fall down, toss
their arms about, writhe their bodies into various shapes, move their
heads suddenly from side to side, and with eyes fixed and staring,
utter the most dismal cries. If the fit happen on any occasion of
public diversion, they will, as soon as it has ceased, mix with their
companions, and continue their amusement as if nothing had happened.
Paroxysms of this kind used to prevail most during the warm months of
summer, and about fifty years ago there was scarcely a Sabbath in which
they did not occur. Strong passions of the mind, induced by religious
enthusiasm, are also exciting causes of these fits, but like all such
false tokens of divine workings, they are easily encountered by
producing in the patient a different frame of mind, and especially by
exciting a sense of shame: thus those affected are under the control of
any sensible preacher, who knows how to "administer to a mind
diseased," and to expose the folly of voluntarily yielding to a
sympathy so easily resisted, or of inviting such attacks by
affectation. An intelligent and pious minister of Shetland informed the
physician, who gives an account of this disorder as an eye-witness,
that being considerably annoyed, on his first introduction into the
country, by these paroxysms, whereby the devotions of the church were
much impeded, he obviated their repetition by assuring his
parishioners, that no treatment was more effectual than immersion in
cold water: and as his kirk was fortunately contiguous to a fresh-water
lake, he gave notice that attendants should be at hand, during divine
service, to ensure the proper means of cure. The sequel need scarcely
be told. The fear of being carried out of the church, and into the
water, acted like a charm; not a single Naiad was made, and the worthy
minister, for many years, had reason to boast of one of the
best-regulated congregations in Shetland. As the physician above
alluded to was attending divine service in the kirk of Baliasta, on the
Isle of Unst, a female shriek, the indication of a convulsion fit, was
heard; the minister, Mr. Ingram, of Fetlar, very properly stopped his
discourse, until the disturber was removed; and, after advising all
those who thought they might be similarly affected, to leave the
church, he gave out, in the mean time, a psalm. The congregation was
thus preserved from further interruption; yet the effect of sympathy
was not prevented, for as the narrator of the account was leaving the
church, he saw several females writhing and tossing about their arms on
the green grass, who durst not, for fear of a censure from the pulpit,
exhibit themselves after this manner within the sacred walls of the
kirk.[1] In the production of this disorder, which no doubt still
exists,
fanaticism certainly had a smaller share than the irritable state of
women out of health, who only needed excitement, no matter of what
kind, to throw them into the prevailing nervous paroxysms. When,
however, that powerful cause of nervous disorders takes the lead, we
find far more remarkable symptoms developed, and it then depends on the
mental condition of the people among whom they appear, whether, in
their spread, they shall take a narrow or an extended range - whether,
confined to some small knot of zealots, they are to vanish without a
trace, or whether they are to attain even historical importance. 5. The appearance of the Convulsionnaires in
France,
whose inhabitants, from the greater mobility of their blood, have in
general been the less liable to fanaticism, is, in this respect,
instructive and worthy of attention. In the year 1727 there died, in
the capital of that country, the Deacon Pâris, a zealous opposer
of the
Ultramontanists, division having arisen in the French church on account
of the bull "Unigenitus." People made frequent visits to his tomb, in
the cemetery of St. Medard, and four years afterwards (in September,
1731), a rumour was spread, that miracles took place there. Patients
were seized with convulsions and tetanic spasms, rolled upon the ground
like persons possessed, were thrown into violent contortions of their
heads and limbs, and suffered the greatest oppression, accompanied by
quickness and irregularity of pulse. This novel occurrence excited the
greatest sensation all over Paris, and an immense concourse of people
resorted daily to the above-named cemetery, in order to see so
wonderful a spectacle, which the Ultramontanists immediately
interpreted as a work of Satan, while their opponents ascribed it to a
divine influence. The disorder soon increased, until it produced, in
nervous women, clairvoyance (Schlafwachen), a phenomenon
till then unknown; for one female especially attracted attention, [1] Samuel Ribbert, Description
of the
Shetland Islands, comprising an account of their geology, scenery,
antiquities, and superstitions. Edinburgh, 1822. 4to. p. 399.
who blindfold, and, as is was believed, by means of the sense
of
smell, read every writing that was placed before her, and distinguished
the characters of unknown persons. The very earth taken from the grave
of the Deacon was soon thought to possess miraculous power. It was sent
to numerous sick persons at a distance, whereby they were said to have
been cured, and thus this nervous disorder spread far beyond the limits
of the capital, so that at one time it was computed that there were
more than eight hundred decided Convulsionnaires, who would
hardly have increased so much in numbers, had not Louis XV. directed
that the cemetery should be closed. [1] The disorder itself assumed
various forms, and augmented, by its attacks, the general excitement.
Many persons, besides suffering from the convulsions, became the
subjects of violent pain, which required the assistance of their
brethren of the faith. On this account they, as well as those who
afforded them aid, were called by the common title of Secourists. The
modes of relief adopted were remarkably in accordance with those which
were administered to the St. John's dancers and the Tarantati, and they
were in general very rough; for the sufferers were beaten and goaded in
various parts of the body with stones, hammers, swords, clubs, &c.,
of which treatment the defenders of this extraordinary sect relate the
most astonishing examples, in proof that severe pain is imperatively
demanded by nature in this disorder, as an effectual counter-irritant.
The Secourists used wooden clubs, in the same manner as paviours use
their mallets, and it is stated that some Convulsionnaires have borne
daily from six to eight thousand blows, thus inflicted, without danger.
[2] One Secourist administered to a young woman, who was suffering
under spasm of the stomach, the most violent blows on that part, not to
mention other similar cases, which occurred everywhere in great
numbers. Sometimes the patients bounded from the ground, impelled by
the convulsions, like fish when out of water; and this was so
frequently imitated at a later period, that the women and girls, when
they expected such violent contortions, not wishing to [1] About this time the following couplet was circulated "De par le Roi, défense à Dieu [2] This kind of assistance was called the "Grands
Secours." Boursier, Mémoire Théologique sur ce
qu'on appelle
les Secours violens
dans
les Convulsions. Paris, 1788. 12mo. Many Convulsionnaires were seized
with illness in consequence of this singularly erroneous mode of cure.
A Dominican friar died from the effects of it - though accidents of
this
kind were kept carefully concealed. See Renault (parish
priest at Vaux, near Auxerre; obiit, 1796), Le Secourisme
détruit dans
sas fondemens, 1759, l2mo., and Le Mystère d'Iniquité,
1788. 8vo.
appear indecent, put on gowns, made like sacks, closed at the
feet.
If they received any bruises by falling down, they were healed with
earth from the grave of the uncanonized saint. They usually, however,
showed great agility in this respect, and it is scarcely necessary to
remark that the female sex especially was distinguished by all kinds of
leaping, and almost inconceivable contortions of body. Some spun round
on their feet with incredible rapidity, as is related of the dervishes;
others ran their heads against walls, or curved their bodies like
rope-dancers, so that their heels touched their shoulders. All this degenerated at length into decided insanity. A
certain
Convulsionnaire, at Vernon, who had formerly led rather a loose course
of life, employed herself in confessing the other sex; in other places
women of this sect were seen imposing exercises of penance on priests,
during which these were compelled to kneel before them. Others played
with children's rattles, or drew about small carts, and gave to these
childish acts symbolical significations.[1] One Convulsionnaire even
made believe to shave her chin, and gave religious instruction at the
same time, in order to imitate Pâris, the worker of miracles, who
during this operation, and whilst at table, was in the habit of
preaching. Some had a board placed across their bodies, upon which a
whole row of men stood; and as, in this unnatural state of mind, a kind
of pleasure is derived from excruciating pain, some too were seen who
caused their bosoms to be pinched with tongs, while others, with gowns
closed at the feet, stood upon their heads, and remained in that
position longer than would have been possible had they been in health.
Pinault, the advocate, who belonged to this sect, barked like a dog
some hours every day, and even this found imitation among the
believers. The insanity of the Convulsionnaires lasted, without interruption, until the year 1790, and, during these fifty-nine years, called forth more lamentable phenomena than the enlightened spirits of the eighteenth century would be willing to allow. The grossest immorality found, in the secret meetings of the believers, a sure sanctuary, and, in their bewildering devotional exercises, a convenient cloak. It was of no avail that, in the year 1762, the Grands Secours was forbidden by act of parliament; for thence ___________________________________________ [1] Arouet, the father of Voltaire, visited,
in
Nantes,
a celebrated Convulsionnaire, Gabrielle Mollet, whom
he found occupied in pulling the bells of a child's coral, to designate
the rejection of the unbelievers. Sometimes she jumped into the water,
and barked like a dog. She died in 1748.
forth this work was carried on in secrecy, and with greater
zeal
than ever; it was in vain, too, that some physicians, and, among the
rest, the austere, pious Hecquet, [1] and after him Lorry, [2]
attributed the conduct of the Convulsionnaires to natural causes. Men
of distinction among the upper classes, as, for instance, Montgeron the
deputy, and Lambert an ecclesiastic (obt. 1813), stood forth as the
defenders of this sect; and the numerous writings [3] which were
exchanged on the subject, served, by the importance which they thus
attached to it, to give it stability. The revolution, finally, shook
the structure of this pernicious mysticism. It was not, however,
destroyed; for, even during the period of the greatest excitement, the
secret meetings were still kept up; prophetic books, by
Convulsionnaries of various denominations, have appeared even in the
most recent times, and only a few years ago (in 1828) this once
celebrated sect still existed, although without the convulsions and the
extraordinarily rude aid of the brethren of the faith, which, amidst
the boasted pre-eminence of French intellectual advancement, remind us
most forcibly of the dark ages of the St. John's dancers. [4] 6. Similar fanatical sects exhibit among all nations [5] of
ancient
and modern times the same phenomena. An overstrained bigotry [1] J. Phil. Hecquet (obiit
1737). Le
Naturalisme des Convulsions. Soleure, 1733. 8vo.
is, in itself, and considered in a medical point of view, a
destructive irritation of the senses, which draws men away from the
efficiency of mental freedom, and peculiarly favours the most injurious
emotions. Sensual ebullitions, with strong convulsions of the nerves,
appear sooner or later, [1] and insanity, suicidal disgust of life, and
incurable nervous disorders, [2] are but too frequently the
consequences of a perverse, and, indeed, hypocritical zeal, which has
ever prevailed, as well in the assemblies of the Maenades and
Corybantes of antiquity, as under the semblance of religion among the
Christians and Mahomedans. There are some denominations of English Methodists which
surpass,
if possible, the French Convulsionnaires; and we may here mention, in
particular, the Jumpers, among whom it is still more difficult, than in
the example given above, to draw the line between religious ecstasy and
a perfect disorder of the nerves; sympathy, however, operates perhaps
more perniciously on them than on other fanatical assemblies. The sect
of Jumpers was founded in the year 1760, in the county of Cornwall, by
two fanatics, [3] who were, even at that time, able to collect together
a considerable party. Their general doctrine is that of the Methodists,
and claims our consideration here, only in so far as it enjoins them,
during their devotional exercises, to fall into convulsions, which they
are able to effect in the strangest manner imaginable. By the use of
certain unmeaning words, they work themselves up into a state of
religious frenzy, in which they seem to have scarcely any control over
their senses. They then begin to jump with strange gestures, repeating
this exercise with all their might, until they are exhausted, so that
it not unfrequently happens that women, who, like the Maenades,
practise these religious exercises, are carried away from the midst of
them in a state of syncope, whilst the remaining members of the
congregations, for miles together, on their way home, terrify those
whom they meet by [1] For examples see Osiander, Entwickelungskrankheiten.
Loc. cit. p. 5.
the sight of such demoniacal ravings. There are never more
than a
few ecstatic, who, by their example, excite the rest to jump, and these
are followed by the greatest part of the meeting, so that these
assemblages of the Jumpers resemble, for hours together, the wildest
orgies, rather than congregations met for Christian edification. [1] In the United States of North America, communities of
Methodists
have existed for the last sixty years. The reports of credible
witnesses of their assemblages for divine service in the open air (camp
meetings), [2] to which many thousands flock from great distances, [3]
surpass, indeed, all belief; for not only do they there repeat all the
insane acts of the French Convulsionnaires and of the English Jumpers,
but the disorder of their minds and of their nerves attains, at these
meetings, a still greater height. Women have been seen to miscarry
whilst suffering under the state of ecstasy and violent spasms into
which they are thrown, and others have publicly stripped themselves and
jumped into the rivers. They have swooned away by hundreds, worn out
with ravings and fits; and of the Barkers, who appeared among the
Convulsionnaires only here and there, in single cases of complete
aberration of intellect, whole bands are seen running on all fours, and
growling [5] as if they wished to indicate, even by their outward form,
the shocking degradation of their human nature. At these camp-meetings
the children are witnesses of this mad infatuation, and as their weak
nerves are, with the greatest facility, affected by sympathy, they,
together with their parents, fall into violent fits, though they know
nothing of their import, and many of them retain for life some severe
nervous disorder, which, having [1] John Evans, Sketch of the Denominations
of
the
Christian World. l3th edition. London, 1814. l2mo. p. 236. - Se Grégoire,
loc. cit. tome iv. chap. xiii. p. 483.
arisen from fright and excessive excitement, will not
afterwards
yield to any medical treatment.' [1] Sec Perrin du Lac, Voyage dans les deux
Louisianes.
Paris, 1805. 8vo. chap. ix. pp. 64, 65. chap. xvii. pp. 128, 129. -
Michaud Voyage I'ouest des Monts Alleghanys. Paris, 1804. 8vo. p.
212. - John Melish, Travels in the United States
of
America.
Philadelphia, 1812. 8vo. vol. i. p. 26. - Lambert, Travels
through Canada and the United States, London, 1810. 8vo. vol. iii. p.
44. - Joh Howison, Sketches of Upper Canada.
Edinburgh, 1822. 8vo. p. 150. - Edward Allen Talbot, Cinq
Années de APPENDIX.I.Petri de Herentals, Prioris Floreffiensis Vita Greqorii
XL, in Stephan. Baluzii Vitae Paparum
Avenionensium. T. I. Paris, 1693. 4to. p. 483. Eius tempore, videlicet A. D. MCCCLXXV., mira secta tam
virorum
quam mulierum venit Aquisgrani de partibus Alamanni, et ascendit usque
Hanoniam seu Franciam, cujus talis fuit conditio. Nam homines utriusque
sexus illudebantur a daemonio, taliter quod tam in domibus quam in
plateis et in Ecclesiis se invicem manibus tenentes chorizabant et in
altum saltabant, ac quaedam nomina daemoniorum nominabant, videlicet Friskes
et similia, nullam cognitionem in hujusmodi chorizatione nee
verecundiam sui propter astantes populos habentes. Et in fine hujus
chorizationis in tantum circa pectoralia torquebantur, quod nisi
mappulis lineis a suis amicis per medium ventris fortiter
stringerentur, quasi furiose clamabant se mori. Hi vero in Leodio per
conjurationes sumptas de illis quae in catechismo ante baptismum fiunt,
a daemonio liberabantar, et sanati dicebant, quod videbatur eis quod
in hora hujus chorizationis erant influvio sanquinis, et propterea sic
in altum saltabant. Vulgus autem apud Leodium dicebat quod
hujusmodi plaga populo contigisset eo quod populus male baptizatus
erat, maxime a Presbyteribus suas tenentibus concubinas. Et propter hoc
proposuerat vulgus insurgere in clerum, eos occidendo et bona eorum
diripiendo, nisi Deus de remedio providisset per conjurationes
praedictas. Quo viso cessavit tempestas vulgi taliter quod clerus multo
plus a populo fuit honoratus. De ista autem chorizatione seu secta
talia extant rigmata: Oritur in seculo nova quaedam secta Deorsum prosternitur. Dudum fit ululatus. II.Jo. Pistorii Rerum familiarumque Belgicarum
Chronicon
magnum. Francof. 1654. fol. p. 319. De chorisantibus. Item Anno. Dn. MCCCLXXIV. tempore pontificatus venerabilis
Domini
Joannis de Arckel Episcopi Leodiensis, in mense Julio in crastino
divisionis Apostolorum visi sunt dansatores scilicet chorisantes, qui
postea venerunt Trajectum, Leodium, Tungrim et alia loca istarum
partium in mense Septembri. Et coepit haec daemoniaca pestis vexare
in dictis locis et circumvicinis masculos et feminas maxime pauperes et
levis opinionis ad magnum omnium terrorem; pauci clericorum vel divitum
sunt vexati. Serta in capitibus gestabant, circa ventrem mappa cum
baculo se stringebant circa umbilicum, ubi post saltationem cadentes
nimium torquebantur, et ne creparentur pedibus conculcabantur, vel
contra creporem cum baculo ad mappam duriter se ligabant, vel cum pugno
se trudi faciebant, rostra calceorum aliqui clamabant se abhorrere,
unde in Leodio fieri tunc vetabantur. Ecclesias chorisando occupabant,
et crescebant numerose de mense Septembri et Octobri, processiones
fiebant ubique, litani et missae speciales. Leodii apud Sanctam crucem
scholaris servitor in vesperis dedicationis, coepit ludere cum
thuribulo, et post vesperas fortiter saltare. Evocatus a pluribus, ut
diceret Pater noster, noluit, et Credo respondit in diabolum. Quod
videns capellanus, allata stola coujuravit eum per exorcismum
baptizandorum, et statim dixit: Ecce inquit, scholaris recedit cum
parva toga et calceis rostratis. Dic, tunc inquit, Pater noster et
Credo. At ille utrumque dixit perfecte et curatus est. Apud Harstallium
uno mane ante omnium Sanctorum, multi eorum ibi congregati consilium
habuerunt, ut pariter venientes omnes canonicos, presbyteres et
clericos Leodienses occiderent. Canonicus quidam parvae mensae minister
Simon in claustro Leodiensi apud capellam Beata virginis, in Deo
confortatus, scalam projecit in collum unius, dicens Evangelium: In
principio erat verbum, super caput ejus, et per hoc fuit liberatus, et
pro miraculo statim fuit pulsatum. Apud S. Bartolomum Leodii,
praesentibus multis, cuidam alii exorcisanti respondit daemon: Ego
exibo libenter. Expecta, inquit presbyter, volo tibi loqui. Et postquam
aliquos alios curasset, dixit illi, loquere tu personaliter et responde
mihi. Tum solus respondit daemon: Nos eramus duo, sed socius meus
nequior me, ante me exivit, habui tot pati in hoc corpore, al essem
extra, nunquam intrarem in corpus Christianum. Cui presbyter: Quare
intrasti corpora talium personarum? Respondit: Clerici et presbyteres
dicunt tot pulchra verba et tot orationes, ut non possemus intrare
corpora ipsorum. Si adhuc fuisset expectatum per quindenam vel mensem,
nos intrassemus corpora divitum, et postea principum, et sic per eos
destruxissemus clerum. Et haec fuerunt ibi a multis audita et postea a
multis narrata. Haec pestis intra annum satis invaluit, sed postea per
tres aut quatuor annos omnino cessavit. III
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