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THE HUMBOLD T LIBRARY SERIES.
THE BLACK DEATH,
AND
THE DANCING MANIA OF THE
MIDDLE AGES. -
BY
J. F. C. HECKER, M.D.
N E W –YORK :
THE HUMBOLDT PUBLISHING CO.
No. 28 L AFAYETTE PLACE.

OK”
POPULAR SGIENCE LITERATURE.
No. 67.] NEW YORK : J. FITZGERALD. [FIFTEEN CENTS.
April, 1885. Entered at the New York Post-Office as Second-Class Matter. } *::::::...')
YW eſcº 4
Q cº-º-t- *
% - ), G -3 ºf
THE BLACK DEATH .
AN ACCOUNT OF THE DEADLY PESTILENCE OF THE FOUR-
TEENTH CENTURY.
3 3 & 6 |
By J. F. C. HECKER, M.D.
PROFESSOR IN THE FREDERICl willi AM UNIVERSITY, BERLIN ; MEMBER OF VARIOUS LEARNED SOCIETIES IN
LoN DON, LYONS, NEW YORK, PHILADELPHIA, ETC.
TRANSLATED FOR THE SYDENHAMI SOCIETY OF LONDON
By B. G. BABINGTON, M.D., F.R.S.
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, unequaled in vio-
lence and extent. It speaks of in-
credible disasters, of despair and
unbridled demoniacal passions. It
shows us the abyss of general licen-
tiousness, in Consequence of a uni-
versal 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 [the
Cholera] 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 in-
sight 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
connection between the processes
which occur above, and those 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 lose 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

2 |}}SS)
'l lilº BLACK DEATl I.
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 those
higher laws which govern the progres-
sion of the existence of mankind. A
cosmical origin and convulsive excite-
ment, productive of the most impor-
tant 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 organ-
ism, 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 informa-
tion can be obtained respecting them.
But this part of medical history,
which has such a manifold and power-
ful influence over the history of the
world, is yet in its infancy. For the
honor of that science which should
everywhere guide the actions of man-
kind, we are induced to express a
wish, that it may find room to flourish
amidst the rank vegetation with which
the field of German medical science is
unhappily encumbered.
CHAPTER I.
(3 ENERAL OHSERVATIONS.
THAT Omnipotence which has
called the world with all its living
creatures into one animated being,
especially reveals himself in the deso-
lation of great pestilences. The pow-
ers of creation come into violent col-
lision ; the sultry dryness of the
atmosphere ; the subterraneous thun-
ders; the mist of overflowing waters,
are the harbingers of destruction.
Nature is not satisfied with the ordi-
nary 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 pro-
ceed from the discord, the distress, or
the passions of nations. By annihila-
tions 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 depres-
sion to the consciousness of a higher
destiny.
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 civiliza-
tion. For all that exists in man,
whether good or evil, is rendered con-
spicuous by the presence of great
danger. His inmost feelings are
roused—the thought of self-preserva-
tion 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 circumstan-
ces, 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 pro-
THE HI_A C K i) EATH.
duce 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, Eu-
rope, and Africa, and of which the
people yet preserve the remembrance
in gloomy traditions. It was an ori-
ental plague, marked by inflammatory
boils and tumors of the glands, such
as break out in no other febrile dis-
ease. On account of these inflamma-
tory boils, and from the black spots,
indicatory of a putrid decomposition,
which appeared upon the skin, it was
called in Germany and in the north-
ern kingdoms of Europe, the Black
APeath, and in Italy, la Mortalega
Grande, the Great J/orſality.” Few
testimonies are presented to us re-
specting 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
co-incidence with the signs of the
same disease in modern times.
The imperial author, Cantacuzenus, i.
* La Mortalega Grande. Watt/... de Griff.
onibus. aft/d J/u? a ſory, Script. rer. Italicãr.
T. XVIII. p. 167. D. It was called by others
Anglºna'ºfa. Alſº dr. Grafioſ. Discorso di
Peste. Venet. I 576, 4to. Swedish: Z):ger-
...todºn. A.occeſſ. Histor. Suecan. I.. III.
p. 104.—I)anish : d'en sorte ZXod. Aozºan.
Rer. Danicar. Histor. L. VIII. p. 476. Am-
Stelod. 1631, fol. Icelandic : Scarfur Daiza’.
Saabye, Tagebuch in Grönland. Introduction
NVIII. J/ansa, de Epidemiis maxime mem-
orabilibus, quae in Dania grassatae sunt, &c.
Part I. p. 12. Havniae, 1831–8–In Westpha-
lia the name of de groeſe Zocſ was prevalent.
..]/cióom.
f /oann. Cantacuzczz. Historiar. L. IV. c.
8. Ed. Paris, p. 730. 5. The ex-emperor has
indeed copied some passages from Thucydi-
des, as Sørengel justly observes (Beiträge zur
Geschichte der Medicin. Vol. I. p. 73),
though this was most probably only for the
Sake of rounding a period. This is no detri-
[389| 3
whose own son, Andronicus, died of
this plague in Constantinople, notices
great imposthumes * of the thighs and
arms of those affected, which, when
opened, afforded relief by the dis-
charge of an offensive matter. Bu-
boes, which are the infallible signs of
the Oriental plague, are thus plainly in-
dicated, for he makes separate men-
tion 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,f which are no
less produced by plague in all its
forms. In many cases, black spots f
broke out all over the body, either sin-
gle, 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 stupe-
fied and fell into a deep sleep, losing
also their speech from palsy of the
tongue. [This mention of palsy of the
tongue as a Symptom in the Black
Death, occurs also in Procopius's ac-
Count of the plague in the 6th cent-
ury, where it is said to be a sequel of
the plague, So that patients who re-
covered, thereafter as long as they
lived stuttered in their speech, or
could utter only inarticulate sounds.]
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 contin-
ued 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 only the usual
Symptoms of the Oriental plague ap-
peared. Still deeper sufferings, how-
ment to his credibility, because his statements
accord with the other accounts.
# 'ATootácsig pus) d?..at.
f Mežatvat gºvkTidec.
i &or; 0 ort) uara A&cra.
4 |390)
T III. H. L.A.C.R. I.)]. AT ( [ .
ever, were connected with this pesti-
lence, 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
odor,
In the West, the following were the
predominating symptoms on the erup-
tion of this disease.* An ardent fever,
accompanied by an evacuation of
blood, proved fatal in the first three
days. It appears that buboes and in-
flammatory boils did not at first come
out at all, but that the disease, in the
form of [pestilential] affection of the
lungs, completed the destruction of
life before º: 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; f so that
parents abandoned their infected chil-
drem, and ail the ties of kindred were
dissolved. After this period, buboes
in the axilla and in the groin, and in-
flammatory boils all over the body,
made their appearance; but it was not
untiſ seven months afterward 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 vin-
dicated the honor of medicine, by bid-
ding 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,
* Guidon. de Cauliaco Chirurgia. Tract II.
c. 5. p. I I 3. Ed. Lugdun. I 572.
f Et fuit tantae contagiositatis specialiter
qua fuit cum Sputo sanguinis, quod non Solumn
morando, Sed etiam inspiciendo unus recipie-
bat ab alio: intantum quod gentes morie-
bantur sine servitoribus, et sepeliebantur sine
sacerdotibus, pater non visitabat filium, nec
filius patrem : charitas crat mortua, spes
prostrata.
and then twelve years later, in the
autumn, when it returned from Ger-
many, and for nine months spread gen-
eral 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.* 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 con-
tagion, and human aid was as vain as
it was fatal to those who approached
the infected.
Boccaccio, 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.f
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, tumors in the groin
and in the axilla, varying in circumfer-
ence up to the size of an apple or an
egg, and called by the people pest-
boils (gavoccioli). Then there ap-
peared similar tumors 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. 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 or other symptoms. The plague
spread with the greater fury, as it com-
municated from the sick to the healthy,
like fire among dry and oily fuel, and
even contact with the clothes and
* />eguignes, Histoire générale des I ſuits,
des Turcs, des Mongols, etc. Tolm. IV. Paris,
ſ 758. 4to. p. 226.
i ()ecameron. Giorn. I. Introd.
TFIE PLACK IDEATH.
other articles which had been used by
the infected seemed to convey the dis-
ease. Not only men, but animals, fell
sick and shortly expired, if they had
touched things belonging to the dis-
eased or dead. Thus Boccaccio him-
self saw two hogs on the rags of a per-
son who had died of plague, after Stag-
gering about for a short time, fall
down dead, as if they had taken poi-
son. In other places multitudes of
dogs, cats, fowls, and other animals,
fell victims to the contagion ; * and it
is to be presumed that other epizootics
likewise were developed, 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 phenom-
ena. The infallible signs of the ori-
ental bubo-plague with its inevitable
contagion were found there as every-
where else; but the mortality was not
nearly so great as in the other parts
of Europe.f 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 con-
siderable mitigation or modification of
the disease, for we must not only take
into account the defectiveness of the
chronicles, but that isolated testimo-
nies are often contradicted by many
others. Thus, the chronicles of Stras-
burg, which only take notice of boils
and glandular swellings in the axilla
and groins,j are opposed by another
account, according to which the mor-
tal spitting of blood was met with in
Germany; $ but this is rendered sus-
* Auger. de Biterris, Vitae Romanor. ponti-
ficum, apud .]/uratorſ, Scriptor. rer. Italic.
Vol. III. Pt. Il. p. 556.
t Contin. altera Chronici Guil/e/mi de AWazz-
gi's in d'Acher, Spicilegium sive Collectio Ve-
terum Scriptorum, etc. Ed. de la Barre,
Tom. III. p. I IO.
f “The people all died of boils and in-
flamed glands which appeared under the
arms and in the groins.” Jac. c. A on agshoreſt,
the oldest Chronicle of Alsace and Strasburg,
and indeed of all Germany. Strasburg, 1698,
4, cap. 5, § 86. p. 301.
§ Z/au/ur. Á'cèdorff, Annales, apud Marg.
Archer. Germanicarum rerum Scriptores,
Francof. IG24, fol. p. 439.
picious, 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.” In Austria, and espe-
cially 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;f and lastly, very frequent sudden
deaths occurred on the coasts of the
North Sea and in Westphalia, without
any further development of the mal-
ady. ;
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 inhab-
itants 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 conso-
lation only in the absolution which
Pope Clement VI. promised them in
the hour of death.Ş
In England the malady appeared,
as at Avignon, with Spitting of blood,
and with the same fatality, so that the
sick who were afflicted either with this
Symptom or with vomiting of blood,
died in some cases immediately, in
others within twelve hours, or at the
* Aºniº/orcy!, in loc. cit.
t Anonym. Leobiens. Chron. L. VI. . )
A/ier. Acc, Scriptor. rer. Austriac. Illips. 17. . .
fol. Tom. I. p. 970. The above-named ap-
pearances are here called, roſe sprinkel,
sºld rºse cy'ſ, it'en ºr und drugs; under den ilchsen
und' :c d'ez. Scm achſen.
j Č76. A mi muf Rer. Frisiacar. histor. L.
XIV. p. 203. Lugd. Bat. 1616, fol.
§ Giziſk’m its de Vaz'sſis, loc. cit.
(; ;302
THE BLACK TO EATH,
latest, in two days.” The inflamma-
From England the contagion was
tory boils and buboes in the groins carried by a ship to Bergen, the capi-
and axillae were recognized at once as tal of Norway, where the plague then
prognosticating a fatal issue, and those broke out in its most frightful form,
were past all hope of recovery in whom with vomiting (or rather coughing) of
they arose in numbers alſ over the
body. It was not till toward 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 Sup-
puration, 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 heroic-
ally despised it, fell a sacrifice to their
sympathy. Even the eyes of the pa-
tient were considered as sources of
contagion,f which had the power of
acting at a distance, whether on ac-
count of their unwonted luster 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 dis-
ease 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 LOn-
don. Probably few places escaped,
perhaps not any ; for the annals of
contemporaries report that throughout
the land only a tenth part of the in-
habitants remained alive.3
* Ayrſ. Iſood, Historia et Antiquitates Uni-
versit. Oxoniens. Oxon. 1764. fol. L. I. p.
I 72.
7; A/ezeray, Histoire de France. Paris, 1685.
fol. T. II. p. 418.
f Barnes, who has given a lively picture of
the black plague, in England, taken from the
Registers of the 14th century, describes the
external symptoms in the following terms :
knobs or swellings in the groin or under the
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.*
In Poland the infected were at-
tacked 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.f
Finally, in Russia the plague ap-
peared two years later than in South-
ern Europe; again with the same
symptoms as elsewhere. Russian
Contemporaries have recorded that it
began with rigor, heat, and darting
pain in the shoulders and back ; that
it was accompanied by Spitting of
blood, and terminated fatally in two,
or at most three, days. It is not till
the year 1360 that we find buboes
mentioned as occurring in the neck,
in the axillae, and in the groins, which
are stated to have broken out when
the spitting of blood had continued
some time. According to the experi-
ence of Western Europe, however, it
cannot be assumed that these symp-
toms did not appear at an earlier pe-
riod.;
Thus much, from authentic sources,
on the nature of the Black Death.
The descriptions which have been
armpits, called kernels, biles, blains, blisters,
pimples, wheals, or plague-sores. The Hist.
of Edw. III. Cambridge, 1688 fol. p. 432.
* 7 onferas, Historia rerum Norvegicarum.
Hafn. 1711. fol. L. IX. c. 8, p. 478. This
author has followed Æon fanzas (Rerum Dani-
car, Historia, Amstelod. IG3 I. fol.), who has
given only a general account of the plague in
Denmark, and nothing respecting its symp-
to InS.
f /)/ugoss. See Longini Histor. polonic.
L. NII. Lips. 171 I. fol. T. I. p. 1086.
f W. M. A'ichter, Geschichte der Medicin
in Russland. Moskwa, 1813, 3. p. 2 I 5. Kºch-
fºr has taken his information on the Black
I)eath in Russia, from authentic Russian
MSS.
TILE BLACK ID]: ATſ [. |..}}}}| 7
communicated contain, with a few un-
important exceptions, all the symp-
toms 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 poi-
son which it produces, and which is
excreted so abundantly from the body
of the patient, remains unchanged, it
is proteiform in its varieties, from the
almost imperceptible vesicle, unac-
companied by fever, which exists for
some time before it extends its poison
inward, and then excites fever and
buboes, to the fatal form in which car-
buncular 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, can-
not, on a comparison with similar and
familiar symptoms, be considered as
any other than the inflammation of
the lungs of modern medicine,” a dis-
ease which at present only appears
sporadically, and owing to a putrid
decomposition of the fluids, is prob-
ably combined with hemorrhages from
the vessels of the lungs. Now, as
every carbuncle [focus of localization.
Airsch], whether it be cutaneous or in-
ternal, 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 wonderfully in-
creased ; wherefore the opinion ap-
pears incontrovertible, that as the
number of the stricken increased, not
* Compare on this point, Balling’s treatise
“Zur Diagnostik der Lungenerweichung.”
Vol. NVI. ii. 3. p. 257 of litt. Annalen der
ges. Heilkunde. [But Dr. August Hirsch,
Hecker’s latest editor, says the lung affec-
tion was Harmorºhagic Pneumonia, which is
very frequently observed in typhoid fevers
and particularly in Zyphus exanthematicus.
This observation, he adds, is confirmed by
experience with the Indian plague.]
only individual chambers and houses,
but whole cities were infected, which,
moreover, in the middle ages, were
with few exceptions, closely built, kept
in a filthy state, and surrounded with
stagnant ditches.” 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 pestif-
erous atmosphere, and every inspira-
tion imparted to them the seeds of
the destructive malady, which, in the
greater number of cases, germinated
all too readily. Add to which, the
usual propagation of the plague
through clothes, beds, and a thousand
other things to which the pestilen-
tial 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 indefi-
nite period, but also increase its ac-
tivity frightful ill-consequences fol-
lowed for many years after the first
fury of the pestilence was past.
The affection of the stomach, often
mentioned in vague terms, and occa-
sionally as a vomiting of blood, was
doubtless only a subordinate symptom,
even if it be admitted that actual
hematemesis did occur. For the dif-
ficulty of distinguishing a flow of blood
from the stomach, from a pulmonic
expectoration of blood is, to non-medi-
cal 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 2
Only two medical descriptions,f of
the malady have reached us, the one
by the brave Guy de Chau/iac, the
other by Æaymond Chaſin de l’inario,
a very experienced scholar, who was
* It is expressly stated by Chalin de Vin-
ario, with respect to Avignon and Paris, that
uncleanliness of the streets increased the
plague considerably. - *
|i But Hirsch names seven other medical
accounts:
2;
S |}, +
well versed in the learning of his time.
The former takes notice only of fatal
coughing of blood; the latter, be-
sides this, notices bleeding at the
nose, bloody urine and fluxes of blood
from the bowels, as symptoms of such
decided and speedy mortality, that
those patients in whom they were ob-
served, usually died on the same or
the following day.*
That a vomiting of blood may not,
here and there, have taken place, per-
haps have been even prevalent in
many places, is, from a consideration
of the nature of the disease, by no
means to be denied : for every putrid
decomposition of the fluids begets a
tendency to hemorrhages of all kinds.
Here, however, it is a question of his-
torical certainty, which, after these
doubts, is by no means established.
Had not so speedy a death followed
the expectoration of blood, we should
certainly have received more detailed
intelligence respecting other hem-
orrhages; but the malady had no time
to extend its effects further over the
extremities of the vessels. After its
first fury, however, was spent, the pes-
tilence passed into the usual febrile
form of the oriental plague. Internal
carbuncular inflammations no longer
took place, and hemorrhages became
phenomena, no more essential in this
than they are in any other febrile dis-
orders. Chalin, who observed not
only the great mortality of 1348, and
the plague of 1360, but also that of
373 and 1382, speaks moreover of
* De Pesſe Libri tres, opera /acobi Oaſe-
champii in lucem editi. Lugduni, I 552. I6. p.
35. Oa/ec/amp has only in proved the lan-
guage of this work, adding nothing to it but
a preface in the form of two letters. Æay-
//yond Cha/İzz de Vintario was contemporary
with Guy de Chauliac at Avignon. He en-
joyed a high reputation, and was in very afflu-
ent circumstances. He often makes mention
of cardinals and high officers of the papal
court, whom he had treated ; and it is even
probable, though not certain, that he was
physician to Clement Vl. (1342–1352), In-
nocent VI. (1352–1362), and Urban V.
(1362–1370). He and Guy de Chauliac never
mention each other.
') l IE BLACIS I) EATH.
affections of the ///oaſ, and describes
the black spots of plague patients more
Satisfactorily than any of his contem-
poraries. The former appeared but
in few cases, and consisted in carbun-
cular inflammation of the gullet, with
a difficulty of swallowing, even to suſ-
focation,” to which, in some instances,
was added inflammation of the cerum-
inous glands of the ears, with tumors,
producing great deformity. Such pa-
tients, as well as others, were affected
with expectoration of blood; but they
did not usually die before the sixth,
and sometimes even so late as the
fourteenth, day.i. The same occur-
rence, it is well known, is not uncom-
mon in other pestilences; as also blis-
ters on the surface of the body, in
different places, in the vicinity of
which, tumid glands and inflamma-
tory boils, surrounded by discolored
and black streaks, arose, and thus in-
dicated the reception of the poison.
These streaked spots were called, by
an apt comparison, the gird/e, and this
appearance was justly considered ex-
tremely dangerous.f
[* No doubt Diph/heria is here meant
AZirsc/..]—J. F.
i Dalechamp, p. 205—where, and at pp
32–36, the plague-eruptions are mentioned
in the usual indefinite terms: Exanthemata
viridia, caerulea, nigra, rubra, lata, diffusa,
velut signata punctis, etc.
# “Pestilentis morbi gravissimum symp.
toma est, quod zonam vulgo muncupant. Ea
sic fit : Pustulae nonnunquam per febres pes-
tilentes fuscae, nigraº, lividae existunt, in par-
tibus corporis a giandularum cmissariis se-
junctis, ut in femore, tibia, capite, brachio,
humeris, quarum fervore et caliditate succi
corporis attracti, glandulas in trajectione re-
plent, et attollunt, unde bubones fiunt atque
carbunculi. Ab is ſangutam solidus ſyſtidam
ſervats in partem ziciiram disſemſam ac ze/r/ð
convulsione rigenſem produciţur, Žuta brachizºme
ve/ tibiam, nunc rubens, 717/71e ſuscits, 777//ic 06.
scurioſ', 777tnc wirens, ſluic frid's colore, d'itos
ve/quatuor digitos ſatus. Hujus summo, qua
desinit in emissarium, plerumque tuberculum
pestilens visitur, altero vero extremo, qua in
propinquum membrum porrigitur, carbun-
culus. Hoc Scilicet malum vulgus zonam
cinctumve nominat, periculosum minus, cum
hic tuberculo, illic carbunculo terminatur,
quam situberculum in capite Solum emineat.”
p. 198.
THE BLACK l) EAT I I.
C H A P T E R I I I.
CAUSES.—SPREAD.
AN inquiry into the causes of the
Black Death will not be without im-
portant results in the study of the
plagues which have visited the world,
although it cannot advance beyond
generalities 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 in-
formation, had preceded. From
China to the Atlantic, the founda-
tions of the earth were shaken,
throughout Asia and Europe the at-
mosphere was in commotion, and en-
dangered, 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 tra-
dition more than 4oo, ooo people per-
ished in the floods. Finally the moun-
tain Tsincheou fell in, and vast clefts
were formed in the earth. In the
Succeeding year (1334), passing over
fabulous traditions, the neighborhood
of Canton was visited by inundations;
whilst in Tche, after an unexampled
ilrought, a plague arose, which is said
to have carried off about 5,000,000
of people. A few months afterward
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-man
a drought prevailed for five months;
and innumerable swarms of locusts
destroyed the vegetation ; while fam-
ine and pestilence, as usual, followed
in their train. Connected accounts
|}}}|...}} ' ſ
of the condition of Europe before
this great catastrophe are not to be
expected from the writers of the four-
teenth 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 fre-
quent thunder storms, were observed
in the north of France; and so early
as the eventful year 1333, an eruption
of Etna took place.” According to
the Chinese annals, about 4,000,ooo
people perished by famine in the
neighborhood 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
of the harvest; and thenceforth, till
I342, there was in China a constant
Succession of inundations, earth-
quakes, and famines. In the same
year great floods occurred in the vi-
cinity 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 del-
uge ; and in Pien-toheou and Leang-
toheou, 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 be-
came, from this time, more and more
frequent : for they recurred, in 1344,
in Ven-toheou, where the sea over-
flowed in consequence; in 1345, in
Ki-tcheou, and in both the following
* V. Hoff, Geschichte der naturlichen Ver-
ânderungen der Erdoberfläche, II, p. 264.
Gotha, 1824. This eruption was not suc-
ceeded by any other in the same century,
either of Etna or of Vesuvius. -
_1 \ } |}}!)6]
TIIE HLACR IDEATH.
years in Canton, with subterraneous
thunder. Meanwhile, floods and
famine devastated various districts,
until 1347, when the fury of the ele-
ments subsided in China.”
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 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 Ma-
hometan slaves in order that they
might not themselves be subjugated
by them, fled in dismay, in all direc-
tions. The sea overflowed—the ships
were dashed to pieces on the rocks,
and few outlived the terrific event,
whereby this fertile and blooming isl-
and was converted into a desert.
Before the earthquake, a pestiferous
wind spread so poisonous an odor,
that many, being overpowered by it,
fell down suddenly and expired in
dreadful agonies.i.
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 re-
counted to have taken place in the
year 1348. It is therefore, the more
to be regretted, that in this extraor-
dinary period, which, owing to the
low condition of science, was very
deficient in accurate observers, so little
that can be depended on respecting
those uncommon occurrences in the
air, should have been recorded.
Yet, German accounts say expressly,
that a thick, Stinking mist advanced
* Oéguiguzes, loc. cit. p. 226, from Chinese
SOURY CéS.
i Oegºvies, ib. p. 225.
from the East, and spread itself over
Italy;” and there could be no decep-
tion in so palpable a phenomenon.
The credibility of unadorned tradi-
tions, however little they may satisſy
physical research, can scarcely be
called in question when we consider
the connection of events; for just at
this time earthquakes were more gen-
eral than they had been within the
range of history. In thousands of
places chasms were formed, from
whence arose noxious vapors ; 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 hun-
dred leagues, infecting the air far and
wide.i. The consequences of innu-
merable floods contributed to the
same effect ; vast river districts had
been converted into swamps ; foul
vapors arose everywhere, increased
by the odor of putrified locusts,
which had never perhaps darkened
the sun in thicker swarms, f and of
countless corpses, which, even in the
well-regulated countries of Europe,
they knew not how to remove quickly
* “There were also many locusts which
had been blown into the sea by a hurricanc,
and afterward cast dead upon the shore, and
produced a noxious exhalation ; and a dense
and awful fog was seen in the heavens, rising
In the East, and descending upon /taly.”
Mansfeld Chronicle, in M. Cyriac. Spangeſt-
berg, chap. 287, fol. 336, b. Eisleben, I 572.
Compare Staind. Chron. (?) in Sc/717/7'yeſ' .
“Ingens vapor magnitudine horribili boreali
movens, regionem, magno adspicientium ter.
rore dilabitur,” and Ad zon Alcõeſzzva/d/,
Land-Stadt-und Hausarzney-Buch. fol. p. I 5.
Nuremberg, 1695, who mentions a dark,
thick mist which covered the earth. Chaſin
expresses himself on this subject in the fol-
lowing terms —“Coelum ingravescit, ačr in-
purus sentitur : ſtudes erassa ac ºn it!/a Aumino
cap/, offs/ruumſ, ſm muſldus ac Egºza')//5 /e/9)
homimum emol/it corpora, exorieſts so/faſ-
/escit.” p. 50
f Mezeray, Histoire de France, Tom. II.
Compare Onta'ºg/?cers/
418. Paris, 1685.
Antwerp, I 57 I, 4
Chroniques de Flandres.
to. Chap. 175, f. 297 b. , -
# They spread in a direction from East to
West, over most of the countries from which
we have received intelligence. Anonym.
Leobiens. Chron. loc. cit.
THE HIACK DEATH.
enough out of the sight of the living.
It is probable, therefore, that the at-
mosphere contained foreign, and sen-
sibly perceptible, admixtures to a
great extant, which, at least in the
lower regions, could not be decom-
posed, or rendered ineffective by sep-
aration.
Now, if we go back to the Symp-
toms of the disease, the ardent in-
flammation 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 inde-
pendent origin of the Black Plague at
any one place on the globe, which,
under such extraordinary circumstan-
ces, 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 neighboring
countries. Naples, Rome, Pisa, Bol-
ogna, Padua, Venice, and many other
cities suffered considerably : whole
villages were swallowed up. Castles,
houses, and churches were over-
thrown, and hundreds of people were
buried beneath their ruins.” In Ca-
rinthia, thirty villages, together with all
the churches, were demolished ; more
than a thousand corpses were drawn
out of the rubbish; the city of Villach
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, and that
many hamlets were left in ruins.f
It is recorded that, during this earth-
quake, the wine in the casks became
turbid, a statement which may be
.* Gozº. I'i//ajaj Istorie Fiorentine, L. XII.
chap. 121, I:22, in Aſuratori, T. XIII. pp.
IOOI, IOO2. Compare Barnes, loc. cit. p.
43O.
* /. P7ſoduran. Chronicon, in Füss/. Thes-
67.7/s IIistor. Helvet. Tigur. 1735. fol. p. 84.
|:;97 | 11
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 com-
motions might be inferred, yet scien-
tific 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 3
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 un-
usual stupor and head-ache, and that
many fainted away.”
These destructive earthquakes ex-
tended as far as the neighborhood of
Basle,f and recurred until the year
1360, throughout Germany, France,
Silesia, Poland, England, and Den-
mark, and much further north.j:
Great and extraordinary meteors.
appeared in many places, and were
regarded with superstitious horror.
A pillar of fire, which on the 20th of
December, 1348, remained for an
hour at sunrise over the pope's palace
in Avignon is a fireball, which in
August of the same year was seen at
sunset over Paris, and was distin-
guished from similar phenomena by
its longer duration, || not to mentiou
other instances mixed up with won-
derful prophecies and omens, are re-
corded in the chronicles of that age.
* A/berſ. Argºſzººie:gs. Chronic. in Č7's&s.
Scriptor. rer. Germanic. Francof. I 585. fol.
P. II. p. 147. Compare Chaſize, loc. cit.
i Petrarch. Opera. Basil. I 554. fol. p. 2 Io.
Aarºtes, loc. cit. p. 431.
f “Un tremblement de terre universel,
mesme en France et aux pays Septentrionaux,
renversoit les villes toutes entières, deraci-
noit les arbres et les montagnes, et remplis-
soit les campagnes d'abysmes Si profondes,
qu'il semblait que l'enfer eit voulu englouti;
le genre humain.” Alſºscray, loc. cit. p. 418
Aarºes, p. 431. .
§ 1 7//av/?, loc. cit. c. I IQ. p. Iooo.
| Guiſ/c/m. & Aſºgºs, Cont, alt. Chron.
loc. cit. D.. I Co.
T I IE l; LACK IDEATHI.
The Order of the seasons seem to
be inverted,—rains, floods, and fail-
ures of crops were so general, that
few places were exempt from them ;
and though an historian of this
century assures us that there was an
abundance in the granaries and store-
houses,” all his contemporaries, with
One voice, contradict him. The con-
Sequences of failure in the crops
were soon felt, especially in Italy 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 com-
pelled, in the Spring of 1347, to have
recourse to a distribution of bread
among the poor, particularly at Flor-
ence, where they erected large bake-
houses, from which, in April, ninety-
four thousand loaves of bread, each
twelve ounces in weight, were daily
dispensed.j It is plain, however,
that humanity could only partially
mitigate the general distress, not
altogether obviate it.
Diseases, the invariable conse-
quence 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.f
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 pos-
terity, 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. Supersti-
tion, selfishness in a thousand forms,
the presumption of the schools, laid
hold of unconnected facts. They
vainly thought to . comprehend the
* Ibid. p. 1 Io.
i Villani, loc. cit. c. 72. p. 954.
f Anonym. Istorie Pistolesi, in Aſuratori,
T. XI. p. 524. “Negli anni di Chr. 1346 et
1347, fu grandissima carestia in tutta la
Christianità, in tanto che molta gente moria
di fame, e fu grande mortalità in ogni paese
del mondo.”
whole in the individual, and perceived
not the universal spirit which, in
intimate union with the mighty pow-
ers of nature, animates the move.
ments of all existence, and permits
not any phenomenon to originate
from isolated causes. To attempt,
five centuries after that age of desola-
tion, to point out the causes of a
Cosmical commotion, which has never
recurred to an equal extent, to indi-
cate scientifically the influences which
called forth so terrific a poison in
the bodies of men and animals,
exceeds the limits of human under-
Standing. If we are even now un-
able, with all the varied resources of
an extended knowledge of nature, to
define that condition of the atmos-
phere by which pestilences are gener-
ated, still less can we pretend to
reason retrospectively from the nine-
teenth to the fourteenth century; but
if we take a general view of the
Occurrences, that century will give us
Copious information, and, as appli-
cable to all succeeding times, of high
importance.
In the progress of connected mat-
ural 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 succes-
Sion 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
T III. BLACK I) EAT II.
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 pesti-
lences, requires immediate contact,
and only under unfavorable circum-
stances of rare occurrence is commu-
nicated 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 ex-
cluded 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 ap-
pears in Europe, has its origin in
Asia or Egypt. Such a proof, how-
ever, can by no means be produced
SO as to enforce conviction : for it
would involve the impossible assump-
tion, either that there is no essential
difference between the degree of civil-
ization of the European nations, in
the most ancient and in modern
times, or that detrimental influences,
which have yielded only to the civil-
ization 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 ;" hence there is ground
* According to Papon, its origin is quite
lost in the obscurity of remote ages ; and
cv.cn before the Christian Era, we are able to
plague by atmospheric
|39. 1"
for supposing that it sprung up spon-
taneously, in consequence of the rude
manner of living and the uncultivated
State of the earth : influences which
peculiarly favor 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.”
If, therefore, we consider the pe-
culiar 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 influ-
ences of 1342, when it had appeared
for the last time, were particularly
favorable to its unperceived continu-
ance, 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 Eu-
rope 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 atmos-
phere where it had previously ex-
isted.
This source of the Black Plague
was not, however, the only one ; for.
far more powerful than the excite-
ment of the latent elements of the
influences,
was the effect of the contagion com-
municated from one people to an-
other, on the great roads, and in the
harbors of the Mediterranean. From
China, the route of the caravans lay
to the north of the Caspian Sea,
through Central Asia to Tauris.
Here ships were ready to take the
produce of the East to Constanti-
trace many references to former pestilences.
I)e la peste, ou èpogues mémorables de ce
fleau, et les moyens de s'en préserver. T.
II. Paris, An VIII. de la rép S.
* I 301, in the South of France: 13, I, in
Italy; 1316, in Italy, Burgundy, and Not th-
ern Europe; I 335, the locust year, in the
middle of Europe ; 1340, in Upper Italy :
I 342, in France; and I 347, in Marseilles and
most of the larger islands of the Mediterra-
nean. Ibid. T. II. p. 273.
14 |400|
T] IE b LAC l' I) EAT II.
nople, the capital of commerce, and
the medium of connection between
Asia, Europe, and Africa.” Other
caravans went from India to Asia
Minor, and touched at the cities south
of the Caspian Sea, and lastly from
Bagdad, through Arabia to Egypt :
also the maritime communication on
the Red Sea, from India to Arabia
and Egypt, was not inconsiderable.
In all these directions contagion
Tmade its way; and doubtless, Con-
stantinople and the harbors of Asia
Minor, are to be regarded as the foci
of infection ; whence it radiated to
the most distant seaports and islands.
To Constantinople, the plague had
been brought from the northern Coast
of the Black Sea, f after it had depop-
ulated the countries between those
routes of commerce; and appeared as
early as 1347, in Cyprus, Sicily, Mar-
seilles, and some of the Seaports of
Italy. The remaining islands of the
Mediterranean, particularly Sardinia,
Corsica, and Majorca, were visited in
succession. Foci of contagion existed
also in full activity along the whole
southern coast of Europe ; when, in
January, 1348, the plague appeared in
Avignon, and in other cities in the
south of France and north of Italy, as
well as in Spain.
The precise days of its eruption in
the individual towns are no longer to
be ascertained ; but it was not simul-
taneous; for in Florence the disease
appeared in the beginning of April ; Ś
in Cesena, the 1st of June ; and
place after place was attacked through-
out the whole year; SO that the plague,
after it had passed through the whole
of France and Germany, where, how-
ever, it did not make its ravages un-
til 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
* Compare ZXeguigues, loc. cit. p. 288.
f According to the general Byzantine des-
ignation, “from the country of the hyperbo-
rean Scythians.” Cantacuzcze, loc. cit.
f Guja'. Gauliac, loc. cit.
§ Il/aff. Villani, Istorie, in Muratori. T.
XIV. p. 14.
| Annal. Caesenat, Zöld. p. 179.
reached London.” The northern
kingdoms were attacked by it in 1349.
Sweden, indeed, not until November
of that year : almost two years after
its eruption in Avignon.j Poland re-
ceived the plague in 1349, probably
from Germany, f 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-west-
erly 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 Cen-
tral Europe, England, the northern
kingdoms and Poland, before it reach-
ed the Russian territories; a phenom-
enon which has not again occurred
with respect to more recent pestilences
Originating in Asia.
Whether any difference existed be-
tween the indigenous plague, excited
by the influence of the atmosphere,
and that which was imported by con-
tagion, 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 cer-
tainly 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 infal-
lible 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 or-
ganism—if any disease of Cosmical
* /Sarſues, loc. cit.
i Olof Dalin's Svea-Rikes IIistorie, III.
vol. Stockholm, 1747–6ſ, 4, Vol. II. C. 12,
p. 496. t
f /)/ugoss, Histor. Polon. L. IX. p. ICS6,
T. I. Lips. 171 I, fol.
THE BLACK I) EATIſ.
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
6f all was contagion ; for in the most
distant countries, which had Scarcely
yet heard the echo of the first concus-
sion, the people fell a sacrifice to or-
ganic poison, the untimely offspring
of vital energies thrown into violent
commotion.
CHAPTER IV.
MORTALITY.
WE have no certain measure by
ºwhich 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 domin-
ion of the law was not yet confirmed.
Sovereigns had everywhere to combat
powerful enemies to internal tranquil-
lity and security. The cities were
fortresses for their own defense. Ma-
rauders encamped on the roads; the
husbandman was a feodal slave, with-
out possessions of his own ; rudeness
was general ; humanity, as yet un-
known to the people. Witches and
heretics were burned alive; gentle
rulers were contemned as weak ; wild
passions, severity, and cruelty, every-
where predominated. Human life
was little regarded; governments con-
cerned not themselves about the num-
bers of their subjects, for whose wel-
fare it was incumbent on them to pro-
vide. Thus, the first requisite for es-
timating the loss of human life, name-
ly, a knowledge of the amount of the
population, is altogether wanting ;
and, moreover, the traditional state-
ments of the amount of this loss are so
vague, that at most they only give us
ground of probable conjecture.
|401 | 1.5
Cairo lost daily, when the plague
was raging with its greatest violence,
from Io,000 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 cer-
tainly exaggerated accounts from the
rest of Asia. India was depopulated.
Tartary, the Tartar kingdom of Kapt-
schak, 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 el
nooman, Schisur, and Harem) re-
mained, in an unaccountable manner,
free. In Aleppo, 5oo died daily;
ooo people, and most of the animals,
were carried off in Gaza within six
weeks. Cyprus lost almost all its in-
habitants; * and ships without crews
were often seen in the Mediterranean,
as afterward in the North Sea, driving
about, and spreading the plague wher-
ever they went on shore..t It was re-
ported to Pope Clement, at Avignon,
that throughout the East, probably
with the exception of China, 23,840,-
ooo people had fallen victims to the
plague.f Considering the occurrences
of the 14th and 15th centuries, we
might, on first view, suspect the accu-
racy 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 de-
stroyed 2
This account is nevertheless ren-
dered credible by the ascertained fact,
that the palaces of princes are less ac-
cessible to contagious diseases than
the dwellings of the multitude ; and
that in places of importance, the in-
flux from those districts which have
*) To —
- ~ 3
ºffshº, loc. cit. p. 223, f.
f A/att. Villani, Istorie, loc. cit. p. 13.
# A7 isſhton, in Barnes, loc. cit. p. 434.
16 |402
THE BLACK I) EATH.
suffered least soon repairs even the
heaviest losses. We must remember,
also, that we do not gather much from
mere numbers without an intimate
knowledge of the state of society.
We will, therefore, confine ourselves
to exhibiting some of the more credi-
ble accounts relative to European
cities.
In Florence there died of the Black
Plague . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60,000 *
In Venice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IOO,OOO i
In Marseilles, in one month . . . . . . I6,OOO i
In Siena 7O,OOO ş
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
In Paris. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . SO,OOO ||
In St. Denys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14,000 ||
In Avignon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60,000 *
In Strasburg. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I6,ooo fi
In Lübeck. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9,000 ji
In Basle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I4,OOO
In Erfurt, at least . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16,000
*/no. Trithem. Annal. Hirsaugiens. (Mo-
nast. St. Gall. Hirsaug. 1690. fol.) T. II, p.
296. According to Åoccaccio, loc. cit. Ioo,ooo;
according to Alſatt. Villani, loc. cit. p. 14, three
out of five,
t Odoric. Acaynald. Annal. ecclesiastic,
Colon. Agripp. 1691. fol. Vol. XVI. p. 280.
# Vitoduran. Chronic. in Füssli, loc. cit.
§ 77:omby, Storia de S. Brunone e dell’ or-
dine Cartusiano. Vol. VI. L. VIII. p. 235. Na-
pol. 1777. fol.
In Weimar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,000 *
In Limburg. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,500 f
In London, at least. . . . . . . . . . . . . . IOO,Ooo
In Norwich. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 I, IOO Š
To which may be added–
Franciscan Friars in Germany. . . . 124,434 ||
Minorites in Italy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30,000 ||
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 depopu-
lation 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 citi-
zens 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 church-
es, and laid them at the foot of the
altar; but gold had no charms for the
monks, for it brought them death.
They shut their gates; yet, still it was
cast to them over the convent walls.
People would brook no impediment
to the last pious work to which they
were driven by despair. When the
plague ceased, men thought they were
Still wandering among the dead, so
appalling was the livid aspect of the
Survivors, in consequence of the anx–
iety they had undergone, and the un-
avoidable infection of the air.” Many
other cities probably presented a simi-
lar appearance ; and it is ascertained
that a great number of small country
towns and villages, which have been
estimated, and not too highly, at
Zoff. Hamburg, 1829, 30, 8. P. I. p. 269. App.
47 I.
| Barzies, p. 435.
* Ibid.
* Baluz. Vitae Papar. Aveniomens. Paris,
1693–4. Vol. I. p. 316. According to Keödorf
in Æreſter, loc. cit. at the worst period, 500
daily.
it Aºnigshoven, loc. cit.
if According to Reimar Áork, from Easter
to Michaelmas I 350, 80,000 to 90,000; among
whom were eleven members of the Senate,
and Bishop John IV. Vid. /o/,” Aºud. Acc/er,
Circumstantial History of the Imper. and
free city of I.iibeck. Lubeck, 1782, 84, 1805.
3 Vols. 4. Vol. I, p. 269.71. Although Lübeck
was then in its most flourishing state, yet
this account, which agrees with that of Pau/
Zange, is certainly exaggerated. (Chronic.
Citizense, in I. Pistorius, Rerum Germanic.
Scriptores aliquot insignes, cur. Strºve. Ra-
tisb. 1626. fol. p. 1214.) We have, therefore,
chosen the lower estimate of an anonym.
writer. Chronic. Sclavic. by Zºo'ſ old Zindent-
brog. Scriptores rerum Germanic. Septentri-
onal. vicinorumque populor. diversi, Francof.
1630. fol. p. 225, and Spazigeſtöerg. loc. cit.,
with whom again the assurance of the two au-
thors, that on the Ioth August, I 350, I 5 or
1700 (according to Becker 2500) persons had
died, does not coincide. Compare Chronik
des Franciskaner Lesemeisters /9etmar, nach
der Urschrift und mit Ergänzungen aus an-
deren Chroniken, published by F. II. Grant-
* Förs/emann, Versuch einer Geschichte
der christlichen Geisslergesellschaften, in
Stăud/in's und Zºsch.ir/ley’s Archiv fur alte
und neue Kirchengeschichte, Vol. III. 1817.
f Limburg Chronicle, pub. by C. Z), l osc/.
Marburg, 1828. 8vo. p. 14. :
f /3arnes, loc. cit.
§ Ibid.
| S/ange/10eſ:g. fol. 339. a.
*|| Wºod/wrazy, loc. cit,
TIHE BLACK IDEATII.
200,ooo,” were bereft of all their in-
habitants.
In many places in France not more
than two out of twenty of the inhab-
itants were left alive, f and the capi-
tal felt the fury of the plague, alike in
the palace and the cot. Two
queens, f one bishop, $ and great
numbers of other distinguished per-
sons, fell a sacrifice to it, and more
than 500 a day died in the Hôtel-Dieu,
under the faithful care of the religious
women, whose disinterested courage,
in this age of horror, displayed the
most beautiful traits of human virtue.
For although they lost their lives,
evidently from contagion, and their
numbers were several times renewed,
there was still no want of fresh candi-
dates, who, strangers to the unchris-
tian fear of death, piously devoted
themselves to their holy calling.
The churchyards were soon unable
to contain the dead, and many
houses, left without inhabitants, fell
to ruins. In Avignon, the pope found
it necessary to consecrate the Rhone,
that bodies might be thrown into the
river without delay, as the church-
yards would no longer hold them; "|
so likewise, in all populous cities, ex-
traordinary measures were adopted,
in order speedily to dispose of the
dead. In Vienna, where for some
time 1200 inhabitants died daily,” the
interment of corpses in the church-
yards and within the churches was
forthwith prohibited ; and the dead
were then arranged in layers, by thou-
sands, in six large pits outside the
city, it as had already been done in
|403; 17
Cairo and Paris. Yet, still many
were secretly buried; for at all times
the people are attached to the conse-
crated cemeteries of their dead, and
will not renounce the customary mode
of interment.
In many places, it was rumored
that plague patients were buried
alive, * as may sometimes happen
through senseless alarm and indecent
haste ; and thus the horror of the dis-
tressed people was everywhere in-
creased. 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 lar-
ger cities.i 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 f inhabit-
ants; this country, however, was more
spared than others; Italy, on the con-
trary, was most severely visited. It
is said to have lost half its inhabit-
ants ; $ 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, scarcely a third part of the
population remained alive ; and it is
related of the Venetians, that they en-
gaged 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
$3. A’ebdorſ. D. 630.
f Guille/me. de AWang, loc. cit.
f /o/awina, queen of Navarre, daughter
of Zottis X., and /o/anza of Burgundy, wife
of King Philip de Valois.
§ Aºulco de Charlac.
| Mich. Aelibieſz, Histoire de la ville de
Paris, Liv. XII. Vol. II. p. 601, Paris, 1725.
fol. Cf. Guille/m. de AWangis, loc. cit, and
AXaniel Histoire de France, Tom. II. p. 484.
Amsterd. I 720, 4to.
‘ſ Toºfacus, loc. cit.
* According to another account, 960.
Chronic. Salisburg. in Aeg. loc. cit. T. I. p.
I 2.
fi According to an anonymous Chronicler,
each of these pits is said to have contained
40,000; this, however, we are to understand
as only in round numbers. Anonym. Leo-
biens. in Pec. p. 970. According to this writer,
above seventy persons died in some houses,
and many were entirely deserted, and at St.
Stephen's alone, fifty-four ecclesiastics were
cut off.
* Auger. de Biterris in Aſuratori, Vol. III.
P. II. p. 556. The same is said of Pader-
born, by Gobelin Person, in Henr. Alſeiðoyſ.
Rer. Germanic. Script. T. I. p. 286. Helm-
stadt, 1688. fol.
i Spangezzóerg. loc. cit. chap. 287. fol. 337.
# Aarºtes, 435.
§ 77:ithem. Annal. Hirsaug, loc. cit.
| Loc. cit. L. XII. c. 99. p. 977.
1S [404]
THE J3 LAC IS 1) EATH.
forlorn and desolate.” In Padua,
after the cessation of the plague, two
thirds of the inhabitants were want-
ing; 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.f
We have more exact accounts of
Fngland; most of the great cities
suffered incredible losses; above all,
Yarmouth, in which, 7052 died : Bris-
tol, Oxford, Norwich, Leicester, York,
and London, where, in one burial-
ground alone, there were interred up-
ward of 50,000 Corpses, arranged in
layers, in large pits.j. It is said that
in the whole country, scarcely a tenth
part remained alive; $ but this esti-
mate is evidently too high. Smaller
losses were sufficient to cause those
Convulsions, whose consequences were
felt for some centuries, in a false inn-
pulse given to civil life, and whose
indirect influence, unknown to the
English, has perhaps, extended even
to modern times.
Morals were deteriorated every-
where, and public worship was, in a
great measure, laid aside ; for, in
many places, the churches were de-
serted, being bereft of their priests.
The instruction of the people was im-
peded ;| covetousness became gen-
eral ; and when tranquillity was re-
stored, the great increase of lawyers
was astonishing, to whom the endless
disputes regarding inheritances offered
a rich harvest. The want of priests
too, throughout the country, operated
very detrimentally upon the people,
* Chronic. Claustro-Neoburg. in Pez. Vol.
I. p. 490. Comp. Aarºles, p. 435. A'aynald
Histor. ecclesiastic, loc. cit. According to
this account, a fugitive Venetian is said to
have brought the plague to Padua.
i Giov. Willazzi, L. XII. c. 83. p. 964.
f / arries, p. 436.
§ 14/ood', loc. cit.
| Wood says that before the plague, there
were 13,000 students at Oxford; a number
which may, in some degree, enable us to
form an estimate of the state of education in
England at that time, if we consider that the
universities were, in the middle ages, fre-
Juented by younger students, who in modern
times do not quit school till their 18th year.
(the lower classes being most exposed
to the ravages of the plague, while
the houses of the nobility were, in
proportion, much more spared,) and
it was no compensation that bands of
ignorant laymen, who had lost their
wives during the pestilence, crowded
into the monastic orders, that they
might share in the respectability of
the priesthood, and in the rich herit-
ages which fell to the church from all
quarters. The sittings of Parliament,
of the King's Bench, and of most of
the other courts, were suspended as
long as the malady raged. The laws
of peace availed not during the do-
minion 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 Ed-
ward, with other troops indeed, but.
with the same leaders and knights,
again took the field. Ireland was
much less heavily visited than Eng.
land. The disease seems to have
scarcely reached the mountainous dis-
tricts of that kingdom ; and Scotland
too would, perhaps, have remained
free, had not the Scots availed them-
selves of the misfortune of the Eng-
lish, to make an irruption into their
territory, which terminated in the de-
struction 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 superabundance of all
the necessaries of life; but the plague,
which seemed then to be the sole dis-A
ease, was soon accompanied by , as
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 na-
ture this murrain may have been, can
no more be determined, than whether
it originated from communication with
the plague patients, or from other
i
THE HELACK I) EATH I.
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 some
it was attributed to the wicked de-
signs of the farmers and dealers; but
it really had its foundation in the act-
ual deficiency arising from circum-
stances by which individual classes at
all times endeavor to profit. For a
whole year, until it terminated in Au-
gust, 1349, the Black Plague prevailed
in this beautiful island, and every-
where poisoned the Springs of Com-
fort and prosperity.”
In other countries, it generally
lasted only half a year, but returned
frequently in individual places; on
which account, Some, without suffi-
cient proof, assigned to it a period of
seven years.f Spain was uninterrupt-
edly ravaged by the Black Plague till
after the year 1350, to which the fre-
quent internal feuds and the wars with
the Moors not a little contributed.
Alphonso XI., whose passion for war
carried him too far, died of it at the
siege of Gibraltar, on the 26th of
March, 1350. He was the only king
in Europe who fell a sacrifice to it :
but even before this period, innumera-
ble families had been thrown into af-
fliction.f The mortality seems oth-
erwise to have been less in Spain
than in Italy, and about as considera-
ble as in France.
The whole period during which the
Black Plague raged with destructive
violence in Europe, was, with the ex-
ception of Russia, from the year 1347
to 1350. The plagues which in the
* Barſzes and JVood', loc. cit.
i Goðelin. A crºofſ. in Al/cióom. loc. cit.
f /uan de Mariana, Historia General de
España, illustrated by Don José Saôazi y
A/axco, Tom. IX. Madrid, 1819. 8vo. Libro
XVI. p. 225. Don Diego Ortiz de Ziffiga,
Annales ecclesiasticos y seculares de Sevilla.
Madrid, 1795, 4to. T. II. p. 121. Don Juan
de Ferreras, Historia de España. Madrid,
1721 T. VII. p. 353.
[405] 19
sequel often returned until the year
1383,’ we do not consider as belong-
ing 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 favora-
ble 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.i.
Italy was, in consequence, depopu-
lated anew ; and those who returned
spread poison and corruption of mor-
als in all directions.# It is, there-
fore, the less apparent, how that
pope, who was in general wise and
considerate, and who knew how to
pursue the path of reason and human-
ity, under the most difficult circum-
stances, should have been led to
adopt a measure so injurious; since
he himself was so convinced of the
salutary effect of seclusion, that dur-
ing the plague in Avignon he kept up
constant fires, and suffered no one to
approach him ; Ś and, in other re-
spects, 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—Haken and Knut, half-
brothers of King Magnus; and in
Westgothland alone, 466 priests.|
The inhabitants of Iceland and
* Gobe/in. A erson. loc. cit. Comp. Chaſin,
P. 53. - *
f Gazi//c/m. de AWang is, loc. cit.
f Shange/&erg, fol. b. Limburg.
Chronic. p. 20.
§ Guil/c/m. de AWangºs, loc. cit, and many
others.
| Z)&///w’s Svea Rikes Historie, Vol. II, c.
12. p. 496,
* * *
JJ /*
20 |400|
THE BLACK L)l. ATI [.
Greenland found in the coldness of
their inhospitable climate no protec-
tion against the southern enemy who
had penetrated to them from happier
Countries. The plague wrought great
havoc among them. Nature made
no allowance for their constant war-
fare with the elements, and the parsi-
mony with which she had meted out
to them the enjoyments of life.” In
Denmark and Norway, however, peo-
ple were so occupied with their own
misery, that the accustomed voyages
to Greenland ceased. Towering ice-
bergs formed at the same time on the
coast of East Greenland, in conse-
quence of the general disturbance of
the earth's organism ; and no mortal,
from that time forward, has ever seen
that shore or its inhabitants.f
It has been observed that in Rus-
sia 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 oc-
curred in those nations which had al-
ready passed the ordeal—the same
mode of burial, the same horrible cer-
tainty 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 be-
ing, according to the notions of the
age, the surest way of securing the
favor of Heaven and the forgiveness
of past sins. In Russia, too, the
voice of nature was silenced by fear
and horror. In the hour of danger,
fathers and mothers deserted their
children, and children their parents.f
Of all the estimates of the number
* Saabye. Tagebuch in Grönland. Eineleit.
XVIII. Torſici Histor. Norveg. Tom. IV.
T. IX. c. viii. p. 478–79. A. G. Mazusa, De
epidemiis maxime memorabilibus quae in
Dania Grassatae sunt, et de Medicinae statu.
Partic. I. Havn. 1831. 8vo. p. 12.
f Torfaei Groenlandia antiqua, s. veteris
Groenlandiae descriptio. Havniae. 1715. 8vo.
p. 23. Pontam. Rer. danicar. Histor. Am-
stelod. 1631. fol. L. VII. p. 476.
f Richter, loc. cit.
of lives lost in Europe, the most prob-
able is, that altogether a fourth part
of the inhabitants were carried off.
And if in the fourteenth century the
population was ſoo,000,ooo, then it
may be assumed, without exaggera-
tion, that Europe lost during the
Black Death 25,000,000 inhabitants.
That her nations could so quickly
recover from so fearful a visitation,
and, without retrograding more than
they actually did, could so develop
their energies in the following cent-
ury, 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 in-
consistent with a just view of cause
and effect. Many historians seem to
have adopted Such an opinion ; ac-
Customed, as usual, to judge of the
moral condition of the people solely
according to the vicissitudes of earth-
ly power, the events of battles, and
the influence of religion, but to pass
over with indifference the great phe-
nomena 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 part are con-
vinced, 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 Eu-
rope.
He who studies the human mind
with attention, and forms a deliberate
judgment on the intellectual powers
which set people and states in mo-
tion, may, perhaps, find Some proofs
of this assertion in the following ob-
servations —at that time, the ad-
vancement 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.
• "THE BLACK IDEATH.
º
-ā- e.
After the cessation of the Black
Plague, a greater fecundity in women
was everywhere remarkable—a grand
phenomenon, which, from its occur-
rence after every destructive pesti-
lence, proves to conviction, if any OC-
currence 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 remem-
ber the strange remark, that after the
“Great Mortality " the children were
said to have got fewer teeth than be-
fore ; at which contemporaries were
mightily shocked, and even later writ-
ers have felt surprise.
If we examine the grounds of this
oft-repeated assertion, we shall find
that they were astonished to see chil-
dren cut twenty, or at most, twenty-
two teeth, under the supposition that
a greater number had formerly fallen
to their share.” Some writers of au-
thority, as, for example, the physician
Savonarola, f of Ferrara, who prob-
ably 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 dead were
lamented and forgotten ; and in the
stirring vicissitudes of existence, the
world belonged to the living.f
* We shall take this view of the subject
from Guiſ/c/m. de Mangis and Barries, if we
read them with affenſion. Compare Olof
Da////, loc. cit.
t Practica de aegritudinibus a capite usque
ad pedes. Papiae, 1486. fol. Tract VI. c. vii.
j Limburger Chronik. p. 26. “After this,
when, as was stated before, the Mortality,
the Processions of the Flagellants, the Pil-
grimages to Rome, and the Massacre of the
Jews, were at an end, the world began to re-
vive and be joyful, and the people put on
Inew clothes.”
{407] 21
CHAPTER V.
M O R A L E F F E C T S.
THE mental shock sustained by all
nations during the prevalence of the
Black Plague is without parallel and
beyond description. In the eyes of
the timorous, danger was the certain
harbinger of death; many fell victims
to fear, on the first appearance of the
distemper,” and the most stout-heart-
ed lost their confidence. Thus, after
reliance on the future had died away,
the spiritual union which binds man
to his family and his fellow-creatures
was gradually dissolved. The pious
closed their accounts with the world;
eternity presented itself to their view ;
their only remaining desire was for a
participation in the consolations of
religion, because to them death was
disarmed of its sting.
Repentance seized the transgres-
sor, admonishing him to consecrate
his remaining hours to the exercise of
Christian virtues. All minds were
directed to the contemplation of fu-
turity ; and children, who manifest
the more elevated feelings of the soul
without alloy, were frequently seen,
while laboring under the plague,
breathing out their spirit with prayer
and Songs of thanksgiving.f
An awful sense of contrition seized
Christians everywhere; they resolved
to forsake their vices, to make resti-
tution for past offenses, before they
were summoned hence, to seek recon-
* Chaſize, loc. cit. p. 98. Detmar's Lübeck
Chronicle, V. I., p. 401.
i Chronic. Ditmar: Episcop. Mersepurg.,
Francof. I 580, fol. p. 358. Sºangeſtberg, 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 re-
mained—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 chil-
dren, and instructed them how to pray, and to
submit to the ways of Providence : neighbors
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.”
22 [408]
TI 11, 18 LACK I) 15, ATI I.
ciliation with their Maker, and to
avert, by self-chastisement, the pun-
ishment 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 in-
to 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 vigor, the power of
the religious orders and brotherhoods
was revered by the people, and the
hierarchy was still formidable to the
temporal power. It was, therefore, in
the natural constitution of society that
bigoted zeal, which in such times
makes a show of public acts of pen-
ance, should avail itself of the sem-
blance 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 fear-
ful opposition to the church, paralyzed
as it was by antiquated forms.
While all countries were filled
with lamentations and woe, there first
arose in Hungary,” and afterward in
Germany, the Brotherhood of the
Flagellants, called also the Brethren
of the Cross, or Cross-bearers, who
took upon themselves the repentance
of the people, for the sins they had
committed, and offered prayers and
supplications for the averting of this
plague. This Order consisted chiefly
of persons of the lower class, who
were either actuated by sincere con-
trition, or who joyfully availed them-
* 7orfa. Hist, rer. Norvegic. I, IX, c.
viii. p. 478. (Havn. I7 I I, fol.) Oic Croſſica
zaz, der Williger Stat van Collen, off da/ *
ãoich Coellen, 1499, ſol. p. 263.
Selves of this pretext for idleness, and
were hurried along with the tide of
distracting frenzy. But as these
b. Otherhoods gained in repute, and
were welcomed by the people with
veneration and enthusiasm, many no-
bles and ecclesiastics ranged them-
selves under their standard ; and
their bands were not unfrequently
augmented by children, honorable
women, and nuns; so powerfully
were minds of the most opposite tem-
peraments enslaved by this infatua-
tion.* 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, accom-
panied by every token of the deepest
contrition and mourning. They were
robed in Somber garments, with red
Crosses on the breast, back, and cap,
and bore triple scourges, tied in three
or four knots, in which points of iron
were fixed.j Tapers and magnificent
banners of velvet and cloth of gold,
were carried before them ; wherever
they made their appearance, they
were welcomed by the ringing of
bells; and the people flocked from
all quarters, to listen to their hymns
and to witness their penance, with de-
votion 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 and to the south. For more
than half a year, new parties arrived
* A/her/. Argentinens. Chronic, p. 140, in
Chy". (7.3//sizes, Germaniae historicorum illus.
trium Tomus unus, Francof. I 585, fol. Gyi'.
/c/m. de AWay/g. loc. cit. Comp. also the Sax-
on Chronicle, by Aſaſt/cºs /), ºsserey, Physi-
cian and Professor at Leipsig, Wittenberg,
I596, fol. p. 34o ; the above-named Limburg
Chronicle, and the Germaniae Chronicon, on
the origin, name, commerce, etc., of all the
Teutonic nations of Germany : by Seó. A ranc.
Acy, of Wörd. Tubingen, 1534, fol. p. 201.
f /)///7/07", loc. cit.
Tſ IE [3 LACK. I.) [EAT II.
weekly; and, on each arrival, adults
and children left their families to ac-
company them ; till, at length, their
sanctity was questioned and the doors
of houses and churches were closed
against them.* At Spires, two hun-
dred boys, of twelve years of age and
under, constituted themselves into a
Brotherhood of the Cross, in imita-
tion of the children who, about a
hundred years before, had united, at
the instigation of some fanatic monks,
for the purpose of recovering the
Holy Sepulchre. All the inhabitants
of this town were carried away by the
delusion ; they conducted the strang-
ers to their houses with songs of
thanksgiving, to regale them for the
night. The women embroidered ban-
ners for them, and all were anxious
to augment their pomp: and at every
succeeding pilgrimage, their influence
and reputation increased.t
It was not merely some individual
parts of the country that fostered
them ; all Germany, Hungary, Po-
land, Bohemia, Silesia, and Flanders,
did homage to the mania; and they
at length became as formidable to the
secular, as they were to the ecclesias-
tical power. The influence of this
fanaticism was great and threatening;
resembling the excitement which call-
ed all the inhabitants of Europe into
the deserts of Syria and Palestine,
about two hundred and fifty years be-
fore. The appearance, in itself, was
not novel. As far back as the I Ith
century, many believers, in Asia and
Southern Europe, afflicted themselves
with the punishment of flagellation.
Dominicus Loricatus, a monk of Sta.
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 Asiastic Anchorites, was deemed
eminently Christian. The author of
the solemn processions of the Flagel-
lants, is said to have been St. An-
thony; for even in his time (1231) this
* A jugshozen, Elsassische und Strass-
burgische Chronicke. loc. cit. p. 297. f.
t Albert. Argentin. loc. cit. They never
remained longer than one might at any place.
|400|| 23
kind of penance was so much in vogue,
that it is recorded as an eventful cir-
cumstance in the history of the world.
In 1260, the Flagellants appeared in
Italy as Devoti. “When the land
was polluted by vices and crimes,” an
unexampled spirit of remorse Sud-
denly seized the minds of the Ital-
ians. The fear of Christ fell upon
all : noble and lowly, old and young,
and even children of five years of age,
marched through the streets with no
covering but a scarf round the waist.
They each carried a scourge of leathern
thongs, which they applied to their
limbs, amid sighs and tears, with Such
violence, that the blood fiowed 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 ban-
ners, in thousands and tens of thou-
sands, headed by their priests, and
prostrated themselves before the al-
tars. 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 chant
of the penitent alone was heard.
Enemies were reconciled, men and
women vied with each other in splen-
did works of charity, as if they dread-
ed that Divine Omnipotence would
pronounce on them the doom of an-
nihilation.”
The pilgrimages of the Flagellants
extended throughout all the provinces
of Southern Germany, as far as Sax-
ony, Bohemia, and Poland, and even
further; but at length, the priests re-
sisted this dangerous fanaticism, with-
out being able to extirpate the illu-
sion, which was advantageous to the
hierarchy, as long as it submitted to
its sway. Regnier, a hermit of Peru-
gia, is recorded as a fanatic preacher
of penitence, with whom the extrava.
gance originated. f. In the year 1296,
there was a great procession of the
* Words of A/onach its Padway:/s, quoted
in Æorstemann's Treatise, which is the best
upon this subject.
i Schnurrey, Chronicle of the Plagues, T.
I. p. 291.
24
THE BLACK IDEATII.
|410]
Qö
Flagellants in Strasburg; * and in
1334, fourteen years before the Great
Mortality, the sermon of Venturinus,
a Dominican friar, of Bergamo, in-
duced above Io, Ooo persons to under-
take a new pilgrimage. They Scourg-
ed themselves in the churches, and
were entertained in the market-places,
at the public expense. At Rome,
Venturinus was derided, and banish-
ed by the Pope to the mountains of
Ricondona. He patiently endured all
—went to the Holy Land, and died
at Smyrna, 1346.f Hence we see that
this fanaticism was a mania of the
middle ages, which, in the year 1349,
on so fearful an occasion, and while
still so fresh in remembrance, needed
no new founder ; of whom, indeed, all
the records are silent. It probably
arose in many places at the same
time; for the terror of death, which
pervaded all nations and suddenly
set such powerful impulses in motion,
might easily conjure up the fanaticism
of exaggerated and overpowering re-
pentance.
The practices of the Flagellants
of the 13th and 14th centuries ex-
actly resemble each other. But if,
during the Black Plague, simple cre-
dulity came to their aid, which seized,
as a consolation, the grossest delusion
of religious enthusiasm, yet it is evi-
dent that the leaders must have been
intimately united, and have exercised
the power of a secret association. Be-
sides, the rude band was generally
under the control of men of learning,
some of whom, at least, certainly had
other objects in view, independent
* A 67//gºžove”, loc. cit.
i Försteman//, loc. cit. The Pilgrimages
of the Flagellants of the year 1349, were not
the last. Later in the 14th century this fa-
naticism still manifested itself several times,
though never to so great an extent: in the
15th century, it was deemed necessary, in
several parts of Germany, to extirpate them
by fire and sword; and in the year 17 Io,
processions of the Cross-bearers were still
seen in Italy. How deeply this mania had
taken root, is proved by the deposition of a
citizen of Nordhāusen (1446): that his wife,
in the belief of performing a Christian act,
wanted to scourge her children, as soon as
they were baptized.
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 fe-
males; and if they transgressed these
rules, or acted without discretion, they
were obliged to confess to the Supe-
rior, who sentenced them to several
lashes of the scourge, by way of pen-
ance. Ecclesiastics had not, as such,
any pre-eminence among them ; ac-
cording 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 flagella-
tion, they stripped the upper part of
their bodies and put off their shoes,
keeping on only a linen dress, reach
ing 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 per-
jurer on one side, holding up three
fingers, etc.; and were then casti-
gated, some more and some less, by
the Master, who ordered them to rise
in the words of a prescribed form.*
Upon this, they scourged themselves,
amid the singing of psalms and loud
supplications for the averting of the
plague, with genuflexions, and other
ceremonies, of which contemporary
writers give various accounts; and at
the same time constantly boasted of
their penance, that the blood of their
wounds was mingled with that of the
* A onigshoven, p. 298.
“S/ant ºf durch der reinen Marſc/ eye
(Viza' / riſe d'ich voy" der Siły/dev/ //; cy'.". '
THE BLACK I) EATH I.
Saviour. * One of them, in conclu-
sion, 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 wonder about for thir-
ty-four days and Scourge themselves,
should be partakers of the Divine
grace.i. 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 them-
selves, 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
[411] 25
| crimes were everywhere committed ;
and there was no energetic man capa-
ble of directing the individual excite-
ment to purer objects, even had an
effectual resistance to the tottering
church been at that early period sea-
sonable, and had it been possible to
restrain the fanaticism. The Flagel-
lants sometimes undertook to make
trial of their power of working mira-
cles; as in Strasburg, where they at-
tempted, in their own circle, to resus-
citate a dead child: they however
failed, and their unskillfulness did
them much harm, though they suc-
ceeded here and there in maintaining
some confidence in their holy calling,
by pretending to have the power of
casting out evil spirits.”
The Brotherhood of the Cross an-
nounced that the pilgrimage of the
Flagellants was to continue for a
space of thirty-four years; and many
of the Masters had, doubtless, deter-
mined to form a lasting league against
the church ; but they had gone too far.
So early as the first year of their es-
tablishment, the general indignation
set bounds to their intrigues ; so that
the strict measures adopted by the
distinguishable in these hymns, and Emperor Charles IV., and Pope Cle-
especially in the chief psalm of the ment, f who, throughout the whole of
Cross-bearers, which is still extant,
and which was sung all over Ger-
many, in different dialects, and is
probably of a more ancient date.:
Degeneracy, however, soon crept in ;
* Guill. de AWayug. loc. cit.
† 4//cry. Argen///zeſzº. loc. cit.
} We meet with fragments of different
lengths in the Chronicles of the times, but
the only entire MS. which we possess, is in
the valuable Library of President zon Ilſenese-
&ach. J/assman has had this printed, accom-
panied by a translation, entitled Ærſăuterurt-
geſt cum Wessobrunner Gebet des Sten ſa/r.
A lºader's. AWebs? ZWEIEN ſwoch wougedruckſey,
GEDICHTEN DES VIERZE HNTEN JAHRHUND-
ERTs, Berlin, 1824. We shall subjoin it at
the end of this Treatise, as a striking docu-
ment of the age. The Limburg Chronicle
asserts, indeed, that it was not composed till
that time, although a part, if not the whole,
of it, was sung in the procession of the Fla-
gellants, in 1 260—See Incerti auctoris Chroni-
con rerum per Austriam vicinasque regiones
geStarum inde ab anno IO25, usque ad annum
x 282. Munich, 1827–28, p. 9.
this fearful period, manifested pru-
dence and noble-mindedness, and
conducted himself in a manner every
way worthy of his high station, were
easily put into execution.f
The Sorbonne, at Paris, and the
Emperor Charles, had already applied
to the Holy See, for assistance against
these formidable and heretical excess-
es, 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
* 77°ithem. Annal. Hirsaugiens. T. II. p.
206.
t He issued a bull against them, Oct. 20,
349. A'ayyaſa'. Zºff/cm. loc. cit.
f “But as they at last ceased to excite as-
tonishment, were no longer welcomed by the
ringing of bells, and were not received with
veneration, as before, they vanished as hu-
man imaginations are wont to do.” Saxon
Chronicle, by Alſat'. Z)resser, ſt. Wittenberg,
1596, fol. p. 340, 351.
26 |412]
TIIE BLACK IDEATHI,
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 excom-
munication, prohibited throughout
Christendom the continuance of these
pilgrimages.” Philip VI., supported
by the condemnatory judgment of
the Sorbonne, forbade their reception
in France.f 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,f and Preczlav, of Bres-
lau, who condemned to death one of
their Masters, formerly a deacon ;
and, in conformity with the barbarity
of the times, had him publicly burnt.
In Westphalia, where so shortly be-
fore they had venerated the Brothers
of the Cross, they now persecuted
them with relentless severity; $ and
in the Bradenburg, as well as in
all the other countries of Germany,
they pursued them, as if they had been
the authors of every misfortune.
The processions of the Brotherhood
of the Cross undoubtedly promoted
the spreading of the plague; and it is
evident, that the gloomy fanaticism
which gave rise to them would infuse
a new poison into the already de-
sponding 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 ex-
asperation 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 eye-
sight is to them a proof, and they
authoritatively demand the victims in
their rage. On whom then was it so
likely to fall, as on the Jews, the
usurers and the strangers who lived
* Alberſ. Aygen/imens, loc. cit.
f G2////e/wz. de A/a/gris.
f /2///zar. loc. cit.
§ Limburg Chronicle, p. 17.
at enmity with the Christians ? They
were everywhere suspected of having
poisoned the wells or infected the
air.” They alone were considered as
having brought this fearful mortality
upon the Christians.f 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, or-
dered them to be burnt alive. In
times like these, much is indeed said
of guilt and innocence ; but hatred
and revenge bear down all discrimi-
nation, 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 per-
secutions of witches and sorcerers ;
and, like these, they prove that enthu-
siasm, associated with hatred, and
leagued with the baser passions, may
work more powerfully upon whole na-
tions, 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 com-
menced in September and October,
1348, f at Chillon, on the Lake of
Geneva, where the first criminal pro-
ceedings were instituted against them,
after they had long before been ac-
cused 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 im-
* So says the Polish historian Dlugoss, loc.
cit., while most of his contemporaries men-
tion only the poisoning of the wells. It is
evident, that in the state of their feelings, it
mattered little whether they added another
still more formidable accusation.
f In those places where no Jews resided,
as in Leipsic, Magdeburg, Brieg, Franken;
stein, etc., the grave-diggers were accused of
the crime. See A/6% sen’s History of the Sci-
ences in the March of Brandenburg, T. II. p.
o
265.
; See the original proceedings, in the Ap-
pendix.
T I II. I}LACK L EATH.
puted 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 ab-
horred culprits thus appeared justifia-
ble. Now, though we can take as lit-
tle exception at these proceedings, as
at the multifarious confessions of
witches, because the interrogatories
of the fanatical and sanguinary tribu-
nals were so complicated, that by
means of the rack, the required an-
swer 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 desper-
ate exasperation ; yet crimes and ac-
cusations are, under circumstances
like these, merely the offspring of a
revengeful, frenzied spirit in the peo-
ple ; and the accusers, according to
the fundamental principles of moral-
ity, which are the same in every age,
are the more guilty transgressors.
Already in the autumn of 1348, a
dreadful panic, caused by this Sup-
posed empoisonment, seized all na-
tions; in Germany especially, the
springs and wells were built over,
that nobody might drink of them, or
employ their contents for culinary
purposes ; and for a long time, the
inhabitants of numerous towns and
villages used only river and rain
water.” The city gates were also
guarded with the greatest caution :
only confidential persons were ad-
mitted ; and if medicine, or any other
article, which might be supposed to
be poisonous, was found in the pos-
Session of a Stranger, and it was
natural that Some should have these
things by them for their private use,
—he was forced to Swallow a portion
of it.f. By this trying state of priva-
* Aſeryea ºf Gygantis Flores temporum,
sive Chronicon Universale Lugdun, Bat. 1743.
4to, p. 139. A ſer/artzi, a Franciscan monk of
Franconia, who wrote in the year 1349, was
an eye-witness of the most revolting scenes
of vengeance, throughout all Germany.
i Gºtia'. Cauſiac, loc, cit.
27
tion, distrust, and Suspicion, the ha-
tred against the Supposed poisoners
became greatly increased, and often
broke out in popular Cornmotions,
which only served still further to in-
furiate the wildest passions. The
noble and the mean fearlessly bound
themselves by an oath to extirpate the
Jews by fire and sword, and to snatch
them from their protectors, of whom
the number was so small, that
throughout all Germany but few
places can be mentioned where these
unfortunate people were not regarded
as outlaws and martyred and burnt.*
Solemn summonses were issued from
Bern to the towns of Basle, Freyburg
in Breisgau, and Strasburg, to pursue
the Jews as poisoners. The Burgo-
masters and Senators, indeed, opposed
this requisition ; but in Basle the
populace obliged them to bind them-
selves by an oath to burn the Jews,
and to forbid persons of that com-
munity 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 in-
deed would have availed them noth-
ing. 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 favor 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 su-
% A/.” /,"; t \ } // . loc. cit.
28 (414]
TFIE BLACK I) EATHI.
perior clergy, became but the too
willing executioners.” Wherever the
Jews were not burnt, they were at
least banished; and so being Com-
pelled 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 re-
mained were forced to submit to bap-
tism ; 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 forbid-
den to enter the ruins of the habita-
tions 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 Con-
siderable. At Strasburg, two thou-
sand Jews were burnt alive in their
own burial ground, where a large
scaffold had been erected : a few who
promised to embrace Christianity,
were spared, and their children taken
from the pile. The youth and beauty
of several females also excited some
commiseration ; and they were
snatched from death against their
will ; many, however, who made their
escape from the flames, were mur-
dered in the Streets.
The senate ordered all pledges and
bonds to be returned to the debtors,
and divided the money among the
work-people.f Many, however, re-
fused to accept the base price of
blood, and, indignant at the scenes of
blood-thirsty avarice, which made the
infuriated multitude forget # that the
* Albert. Argentiſt.—A onigshoven, loc, cit.
t “This was also the poison that killed the
Jews,” observes A6/aigs/loven, which he illus-
trates by saying, that their increase in Ger-
many was very great, and their mode of gain-
ing a livelihood, which, however, was the
only resource left them, had engendered ill-
will against them in all quarters.
f Many wealthy Jews, for example, were,
on their way to the stake, stripped of their
garments, for the sake of the gold coin that
was sewed in them,-Alberſ. Arge/u/uncils.
plague was raging around them, pre-
Sented it to monasteries, in conform-
ity with the advice of their confes-
Sors. 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 de-
stroyed dwellings, and the tombstones
of the Jews, to repair churches and to
erect belfries.
In Mayence alone, 12,000 Jews are
said to have been put to a cruel
death. The Flagellants entered that
place in August ; the Jews, on this
occasion, fell out with the Christians,
and killed several; but when they
saw their inability to withstand the
increasing Superiority of their ene-
mies, and that nothing could save
them from destruction, they consumed
themselves and their families, by set-
ting 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 un-
bridled spirit of proselytism, a fanatic
zeal arose among the Jews to perish
as martyrs of their ancient religion.
And how was it possible that they
could from the heart embrace Chris-
tianity, when its precepts were never
more outrageously violated 2 At Es-
lingen, the whole Jewish community
burned themselves in their syna-
gogue; * and mothers were often seen
throwing their children on the pile, to
prevent their being baptized, and then
precipitating themselves into the
flames.j In short, whatever deeds
fanaticism, revenge, avarice, and des-
peration, 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
* Spangenberg, loc. cit.
i Guil/e/m, de AVangis.-Z}/ugoss, loc, cit.
THI. I}LACK DEATH,
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
afterward burnt at different times :
for they continued to be accused of
poisoning the water and the air.
Christians also, whom philanthropy
or gain had induced to offer them
protection, were put on the rack and
executed with them.* Many Jews
who had embraced Christianity, re-
pented of their apostasy, Land, re-
turning to their former faith, sealed it
with their death.f
The humanity and prudence of
Clement VI. must on this occasion
also be mentioned to his honor; but
even the highest ecclesiastical power
was insufficient to restrain the unbri-
dled 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 persecu-
tions.# The Emperor Charles IV.
was also favorable 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 fa-
vorable an opportunity of releasing
themselves from their Jewish credit-
ors, under favor of an imperial man-
date. S Duke Albert of Austria,
burned and pillaged those of his cit-
ies 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
* Albert. Argentinens.
t Spangenberg describes a similar scene
which took place at Kostnitz.
f Guille/ml. de Aſang.—A’ayſia/d.
§ Histor. Landgrav. Thuring. in Pistor.
loc. cit. Vol. I. p. 948.
|415| 29
Kyberg, to protect some hundreds of
Jews, who had been received there,
from being barbarously burnt by the
inhabitants.” Several other princes
and counts, among whom was Ru-
precht of the Palatinate, took the
Jews under their protection, on the
payment of large sums : in Conse-
quence of which they were called
“Jew-masters,” and were in danger
of being attacked by the populace
and by their powerful neighbors.
These persecuted and ill-used people,
except indeed where humane individ-
uals took compassion on them at
their own peril, or when they could
command riches to purchase protec-
tion, 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
favorite Jewess, received them, and
granted them further protection : f 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, re-
tained the manners of the middle
ages.
* Anonym. Zeočieſts, in Pºg. loc. cit.
i Spangºzzóczg. In the Margravate, the
Jews were no better off than in the rest of
Germany. Margrave Zudºg, the Roman,
even countenanced their persecutions, of
which A2/.7%.”g, loc, cit. 241, gives the fol-
lowing official account: Coram Cunctis
Christi fidelibus praesentia percepturis, ego
Johannes dictus de Iſºde/ Advocatus inclyti
Principis Domini Zudovici, Marchionis, pub-
lice profiteor et recognosco, quod nomine
Domini mei civitatem Königsberg visitavi et
intravi, et ex parte Domini Marchionis Con-
sulibus ejusdem civitatis in adjutorium mihi
assumtis, /udºos inför moravites igne cremazº,
bonague omnia eorundem Judaeorum ex parte
Domini mei totaliter usurpavi et assumsi.
In cujus testimonium praesentibus meum
sigillum appendi. Datum A.D. I.351, in
Vigilia S. Matthaei Apostoli.
f Baswage, Histoire des Juifs. A la Haye,
1716. Svo. T. IX. Part. 2. Liv. IX. Chap, 23.
Ş. 12. 24. pp. 664. 679. This valuable work
gives an interesting account of the state of the
Jews of the middle ages. Compare / M.
Jost's History of the Israelites from the time
of the Maccabees to the present day. T. VII.
Berlin, 1827. 8vo. pp. 8. 262.
30 [416]
THE BLACK I) EATH.
But to return to the fearful accusa-
tions against the Jews; it was re-
ported in all Europe, that they were
in connection with secret superiors in
Toledo, to whose decrees they were
subject, and from whom they had re-
ceived commands respecting the coin-
ing of base money, poisoning, the
murder of Christian children, etc. : *
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.f Appar-
ently there were but few who did not
consider this extravagant accusation
well founded ; indeed, in many writ-
ings of the 14th century, we find great
acrimony with regard to the suspected
poisoners, which plainly demonstrates
the prejudice existing against them.
Unhappily, after the confessions of
the first victims in Switzerland, the
rack extorted similar ones in various
places. Some even acknowledged
having received poisonous powder in
bags, and injunctions from Toledo,
by Secret messengers. Bags of this
description were also often found in
wells, though it was not unfrequently
discovered that the Christians them-
Selves had thrown them in ; probably
to give occasion to murder and pil-
lage similar instances of which may
be found in the persecutions of the
witches.j.
* Albert. Argentineſis.
f Hermann. Gygas, loc. cit.
f On this subject see A onigshoven, who has
preserved some very valuable original pro-
ceedings. The most important are, the crim-
inal examinations of ten Jews, at Chillon, on
the Lake of Geneva, held in September and
October, 1348.—See Appendix. They pro-
duced the most strange confessions, and
sanctioned, by the false name of justice, the
blood-thirsty famaticism 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.--See also the original document of the
offensive and defensive Alliance between
Aerthold von Götz, Bishop of Strasburg, and
many powerful lords and nobles, in favor of
the city of Strasburg, against Charles IV.
The latter saw himself compelled, in conse-
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 it-
Self to him who is acquainted with na-
ture 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 fami-
lies in Europe, taking into considera-
tion what is peculiar in the manners
of each country.
“When the evil had become uni-
versal” (Says Boccaccio, speaking of
Florence), “the hearts of all the in-
habitants 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 chil-
dren and households, living on the
most costly food, but carefully avoid-
ing 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 ex-
Cess, amusements of all descriptions,
the indulgence of every gratification,
and an indifference to what was pass-
ing around them, as the best medi-
cine, and acted accordingly. They
wandered day and night from one
tavern to another, and feasted without
moderation or bounds. In this way
they endeavored to avoid all contact
with the sick, and abandoned their
houses and property to chance, like
men whose death-knell had already
tolled.
“Amid this general lamentation
and woe, the influence and authority
quence, 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 docu-
ments, which no less clearly show the spirit
of the 14th century, p. 1 oz I, f.
TIII. BLACK IDEATIH.
of every law, human and divine, van-
ished. 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 at from time
to time, in order to invigorate the
brain, and to avert the baneful influ-
ence 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 citi-
zen fled from another—a neighbor
from his neighbors—a relation from
his relations; and in the end, so com-
pletely had terror extinguished every
kindlier feeling, that the brother for-
sook the brother—the sister the sister
—the wife her husband ; and at last,
even the parent his own offspring, and
abandoned them, unvisited and un-
soothed, to their fate. Those, there-
fore, that stood in need of assistance
fell a prey to greedy attendants; who,
for an exorbitant recompense, mere-
ly handed the sick their food and med-
icine, remained with them in their last
moments, and then not unfrequently
became themselves victims to their
ava rice, and lived not to enjoy their ex-
torted gain. Propriety and decorum
were extinguished among the helpless
sick. Females of rank seemed to for-
get their natural bashfulness, and com-
mitted the care of their persons, in-
discriminately. to men and women of
the lowest order. No longer were
women, relatives or friends, found in
|417 | 31
the houses of mourning, to share the
grief of the survivors—no longer was
the corpse accompanied to the grave
by neighbors and a numerous train
of priests, carrying wax tapers and;
singing psalms, nor was it iº
along by other citizens of equal rank.
Many breathed their last without aſ
friend to comfort them in their last
moments; and few indeed were they
who departed amid the lamentations
and tears of their friends and kin-
dred. Instead of sorrow and mourn-
ing, appeared indifference, frivolity,
and mirth ; this being considered,
especially by the females, as condu-
cive to health. Seldom was the body
followed by even ten or twelve at-
tendants; and instead of the usual
bearers and sextons, hirelings of the
lowest of the populace undertook the
office for the sake of gain ; and ac-
companied by only a few priests, and
often without a single taper, it was
borne to the very nearest church, and
lowered into the first grave that was
not already too full to receive it.
Among the middling classes, and ess
pecially among the poor, the misery
was still greater. Poverty or negli-
gence induced most of these to remain
in their dwellings, or in the immediate
neighborhood; and thus they fell by
thousands; and many ended their
lives in the streets, by day and by
night. The stench of putrefying
corpses was often the first indication
to their neighbors that more deaths
had occurred. The survivors, to pre-
serve themselves from infection,
generally had the bodies taken out of
the houses, and laid before the doors;
where the early morn found them in
heaps, exposed to the affrighted gaze
of the passing stranger. It was no
longer possible to have a bier for
every corpse, three or four were
generally laid together—husband and
wife, father and mother, with two or
three children, were frequently borne
to the grave on the same bier; and
it often happened that two priests
would accompany a coffin, bearing the
cross before it, and be joined on the
way by Ševeral other funerals; so that
|418]
TILE BLACK I) EATH.
instead of one, there were five or six
bodies for interment.”
Thus far Boccaccio. On the
conduct of the priests, another con-
temporary observes:* “In large and
small towns, they had withdrawn
themselves through fear, leaving the
performance of ecclesiastical duties to
the few who were found courageous
and faithful enough to undertake
them.” But we ought not on that
account to throw more blame on them
than on others; for we find proofs of
the same timidity and heartlessness
in every class. During the prevalence
of the Black Plague, the mendicant
orders conducted themselves admira-
bly, and did as much good as can be
done by individual bodies, in times of
great misery and destruction; when
compassion, courage, and nobler feel-
ings, 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 consign-
ed to the dominion of her baleful
tyranny.
CHAPTER VI.
PHYSICIANS.
IF we now turn to the medical
talent which encountered the “Greaf
Mortality,” the middle ages must
stand excused, since even the mod-
erms are of opinion that the art of
medicine is not able to cope with the
Oriental plague, and can afford de-
liverance from it only under particu-
larly favorable circumstances.f 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
* Guil/e/m. de Mangis, p. I Io.
f “Curationem omnem respuit pestis con-
firmata.”—Chalin, p. 33.
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 condi-
tion 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, per-
haps, 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 es-
tablished 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 sub-
jected 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 appro-
priate regulations with regard to liv-
ing, during its prevalence. This doc-
ument is sufficiently remarkable to
find a place here.
“We, the Members of the College
of Physicians, of Paris, have, after
mature consideration and consulta-
tion on the present mortality, collected
the advice of our old masters in the
art, and intend to make known the
causes of this pestilence, more clear-
ly 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 con-
THE ISLACK IDEATH.
stellations which combated the rays
of the sun, and the warmth of the
heavenly fire, exerted their power es-
pecially against that Sea, and struggled
violently with its waters. (Hence,
vapors often originate which envel-
ope the sun, and convert his light
into darkness.) These vapors alter-
nately 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 vapor ;
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 vapor spread it-
self through the air in many places
on 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 Mace-
donia ; 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 cor-
rupted sea-wind extends, or has al-
ready extended from India. If the
inhabitants of those parts do not em-
ploy and adhere to the following, or
similar, means and precepts, we an-
nounce to them inevitable death—
except the grace of Christ preserve
their lives.
“We are of opinion, that the con-
stellations, 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, endeavor 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
[419| 33
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 vines,
green laurel, or other green wood;
wormwood and chamomile should
also be burnt in great quantity in the
market-places, in other densely in-
habited localities, and in the houses.
Until the earth is again completely
dry, and for three days afterward, 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 on no account
of a heating and exciting nature.
Broth should be taken, seasoned with
ground pepper, ginger, and cloves,
especially by those who are accus-
tomed 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 some-
what longer. At breakfast, one
should drink little ; supper should be
taken an hour before sunset, when
more may be drunk than in the morn-
ing. 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 pot-herbs, as Sage or
rosemary, are wholesome. Cold,
moist, watery food is in general prej-
udicial. Going out at night, and
even early in the morning, is danger-
ous, 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 em-
ployed in cooking, and every one
should guard against exposure to wet
34 |420
THE BLACK DEATH.
weather. If it rain, a little fine trea-
cle should be taken after dinner.
Fat people should not sit in the sun-
shine. 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 ex-
Cessive abstemiousness, anxiety of
mind, anger, and immoderate drink-
ing. Young people, in autumn espe-
cially, 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.”
On what occasion these strange
precepts were delivered can no
longer be ascertained, even if it
were an object to know it. It must
be acknowledged, however, that they
do not redound to the credit either of
the faculty of Paris, or of the 14th
century in general. This famous
faculty found themselves under the
painful necessity of being wise at
Command, and of firing a point blank
shot of erudition at an enemy who
enveloped himself in a dark mist, of
the nature of which they had no con-
ception. In concealing their igno-
rance by authoritative assertions,
they suffered themselves, therefore, to
be misled; and while endeavoring to
appear to the world with eclat, only
betrayed to the intelligent their la-
mentable weakness. Now some
might suppose, that in the condition
of the sciences of the 14th century,
no intelligent physicians existed ; but
this is altogether at variance with the
laws of human advancement, and is
contradicted by history. The real
knowledge of an age is shown only in
* /acob. A rancischizu de Ambrosiis, in the
Appendix to the Istorie Pistolesi, in
//uratori, Tom. XI. p. 528.
the archives of its literature. Here
alone the genius of truth speaks
audibly—here alone men of talent
deposit the results of their experience
and reflection, without vanity or a
selfish object. There is no ground
for believing that, in the 14th century,
men of this kind were publicly
questioned regarding their views;
and it is, therefore, the more neces-
Sary that impartial history should take
up their cause and do justice to their
ImerltS.
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.” Attached to Arabian
doctrines, and to the universally re-
spected 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 atmos-
phere, and was forthwith communi-
cated 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 con-
formity with notions derived from
the ancients, he depended upon
bleeding and purging, at the Com-
mencement 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 at 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 in-
fluences, so far as respected the
malady itself; on which account, he
* Gen/i/is de Fulgimeo Consilia de Peste.
Cons. I, II, fol. 76, 77. Venet, I S14 fol.
o
THE BLACK DEATH.
did not enter into the great contro-
versies 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.”
On this point, intelligent contempo-
raries were all agreed ; and in truth,
it required no great genius to be Con-
vinced of so palpable a fact. Besides,
correct notions of contagion have
descended from remote antiquity, and
were maintained unchanged in the
14th century.f So far back as the
age of Plato, a knowledge of the con-
tagious power of malignant inflam-
mations of the eye, of which also no
physician of the middle ages enter-
tained a doubt, f was general among
the people; $ yet, in modern times, Sur-
geons 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 ex-
pressive than those in use among
the moderns. ||
Arrangements for the protection of
the healthy against contagious dis-
eases, the necessity of which is shown
from these notions, were regarded by
the ancients as useful ; and by many,
whose circumstances permitted it,
* —“venenosa putredo circa partes cordis
et pulmonis, de quibus exeunte venenoso
vapore, periculum est in vicinitatibus.”
Cons. I. fol. 76, a.
f /)r. A/aclean's notion that the doctrine
of contagion was first promulgated in the
year I 547, by Pope Paul III., etc., thus falls
to the ground, together with all the arguments
founded on it.—See Maclean on Epid. and
Pestilent. Diseases, 8vo, 1817, Pt. II. Book II.
ch. 3, 4.—Transl. note.
f Lippitudo contagione spectantium oculos
afficit.—Chalin de Vinario, p. 149.
§ See the Author's Geschichte der Heil-
kunde, Vol. II. P. III.
| Compare Marx, Origines contagii.
oliruh, et Bad. 1824. S.
Car-
t
[421] 35
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 physi-
cians of the 2d century after Christ,
in order to check the spreading of
leprosy. But it was decidedly op-
posed, because, as it was alleged, the
healing art ought not to be guilty of
such harshness.” This mildness of
the ancients, in whose manner 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 pro-
tection against pestilential diseases,
lay in the general notion and consti-
tution 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 in-
formed on this subject as the mod-
erns; but this was shown where indi-
vidual property, not where human
life, on the grand Scale, was to be pro-
tected. Hence the ancients made a
general practice of arresting the prog-
ress of murrains among cattle, by a
separation of the diseased from the
healthy. Their herds alone enjoyed
that protection which they held it im-
practicable to extend to human so-
ciety, because they had no wish to do
so.i That the governments in the
14th century were not yet so far ad-
vanced, 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 prac-
ticed in ancient times; and they were
obliged to leave it to individual fami-
* Cºl. Aureliavi. Chron. L. T.V. c. 1. p. 497.
Ed. Amman. “Sed hi aegrotantem desti-
tuendum magis imperant, quam curandum.
quod a Se alienum humanitas approbat med-
icinae.”
f Geschichte der Heikunde, Vol. II. p. 248.
36 [422]
THE BLACK IDEATH.
lies, either to seek safety in flight, or
to shut themselves up in their dwell-
ings,” a method which answers in
common plagues, but which here af-
forded no complete security, because
such was the fury of the disease when
it was at its height, that the atmos-
phere 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 con-
vinced as of the fact of its reality. A
grand conjunction of the three supe-
rior planets, Saturn, Jupiter, and
Mars, in the sign of Aquarius, which
took place, according to Guy de Chau-
liac, on the 24th of March, 1345, was
generally received as its principal
cause. In fixing the day, this physi-
cian, who was deeply versed in astrol-
ogy, did not agree with others; where-
upon there arose various disputations,
of weight in that age, but of none in
ours; people, however, agreed in this
—that conjunctions of the planets in-
fallibly 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 prognos-
tics 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 com-
mon with all ideas which inspire and
guide mankind, a high historical im-
portance, entirely independent of its
error or truth—for the influence of
both is equally powerful—but there
are also contained in it, as in alchemy,
* Chalin assures us expressly, that many
nunneries, by closing their gates, remained
free from the contagion. It is worthy of
note, and quite in conformity with the pre-
vailing notions, that the continuance in a
thick, moist atmosphere, was generally es-
teemed more advantageous and conservative,
on account of its being more impenetrable
to the astral influence, inasmuch as the infe-
rior cause kept off the superior.—Chalin, p.
48.
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 dif-
fuses itself throughout the whole uni-
verse, expressed by the greatest
Greek sages, and transmitted to the
middle ages, through the new Platonic
natural philosophy. To this impres-
Sion of a universal organism, the as-
Sumption of a reciprocal influence of
terrestrial bodies could not be for-
eign,” nor did this cease to correspond
with a higher view of nature, until as-
trologers overstepped the limits of
human knowledge with frivolous and
mystical calculations.
Guy de Chauliac considers the in-
fluence of the conjunction, which was
held to be all-potent, as the chief gen-
eral cause of the Black Plague; and
the diseased state of bodies, the cor-
ruption of the fluids, debility, obstruc-
tion, and so forth, as the especial sub-
ordinate causes.f. By these, accord-
ing to his opinion, the quality of the
air, and of the other elements, was so
altered, that they set poisonous fluids
in motion toward 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; afterward, how-
ever, a deposition in the form of glan-
dular swellings and inflammatory
boils. Herein the notion of an epi-
demic 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 means; £ and it was
* This was called Affluxus, or Forma s/e-
cifica, and was compared to the effect of a
magnet on iron, and of amber on chaff–
Chalin de l’inario, p. 23. -
t Causa universalis agens—causa particu-
laris patiens. To this correspond, in Chalin,
the expressions Causa superior et inferior.
f Purging with alóetic pills; , bleeding ;
purification of the air by means of large fires;
the use of treacle; frequent Smelling of vola-
tile 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,
THE BLACK IDEATH.
probably he who advised Pope Clem-
ent 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 physi-
cians himself to afford assistance
wherever human aid could avail—an
advantage which, perhaps, no other
city enjoyed.* Nor was the treatment
of plague-patients in Avignon by any
means objectionable; for, after the
usual depletions by bleeding and
aperients, where circumstances re-
quired them, they endeavored 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 great-
est filth, were most severely visited,
as also the Spaniards, whom Chalin
accuses of great intemperance,i
Still more distinct notions on the
causes of the plague were stated to
his contemporaries in the 14th cent-
ury, by Galeazzo di Santa Sofia, a
learned man, a native of Padua, who
likewise treated plague-patients at
Vienna, f though in what year is un-
determined. He distinguishes care-
fully festilence from epidemy and en-
demy. The common notion of the two
first accords exactly with that of an
epidemic constitution, for both con-
sist, according to him, in an unknown
Change or corruption of the air; with
this difference, that pestilence calls
forth diseases of different kinds ; epi-
a'emy, on the contrary, always the same
disease. As an example of an epi-
demy, he adduces a cough (influenza)
much in vogue, and very improperly used;
and the employment of acescent food, in or-
der to resist putridity. Guy de Chauliac ap-
pears to have recommended flight to many.
Loc. citat. p. I I 5. Compare Chalin, L. II.,
who gives most excellent precepts on this
subject.
* Auger, de Biterris, loc. cit.
i L. I. c. 4. p. 39.
f Fol. 32. loc. cit.
... y =y
•3 |
which was observed in all climates at
the same time, without perceptible
cause ; but he recognized the approach
of a pestilence, independently of un-
usual natural phenomena, by the more
frequent occurrence of various kinds
of fever, to which the modern physi-
cians would assign a nervous and pu-
trid character. The endemy origi-
nates, according to him, only in local
telluric changes—in deleterious influ-
ences which develop themselves in
the earth and in the water, without a
corruption of the air. These notions
were variously 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 festilence is well worthy of
commendation ; and Santa Sofia, in
this respect, not only agrees with the
most intelligent authors 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 investiga-
tions into cosmical influences.* Aes-
filence and epidemy consist not in al-
terations of the four, primary quali-
ties,i but in a corruption of the air,
powerful, though quite immaterial,
and not cognoscible by the senses;–
(corruptio ačris non substantialis, sed
qualitativa) in a disproportion of the
imponderables in the atmosphere, as
it would be expressed by the mod-
erns.# The causes of the pesſilence
and effidemy are, first of all, astral
influences, especially on occasion of
planetary conjunctions; then exten-
* Galeacii de Sancta Sophia Liber de Fe-
bribus. Venet. I 514, fol. (Printed together
with Gazil/e/m2/s Briaviczzsis, Al/arsi/izas de
Sancta Sophia, Ricardias Parisicºsis.) fol. 29.
Seq.
f Warmth, cold, dryness, and moisture.
f The talented Chalin entertains the same
conviction, “Obscurum interdum esse vitium
aëris, sub pestis initia et menses primos, hoc
est argumento, glºod cum mec odore tetro grazºs,
7tec turf; colore fadatus fuerit, sea puriºs, fen-
uis, frigidus, 77talis in movefosis et asſºcris loci's
esse soſet, ef franquillus, z'chementissima sif
famen pesti/entia infestague,” etc. p. 28. The
most recent observers of malaria have stated
nothing more than this.
38 |424)
THE BLACK l) EATH,
sive putrefaction of animal and vege-
table bodies, and terrestrial corrup-
tions (corruptio in terra); to which
also bad diet and want may contrib-
ute. Santa Sofia considers the putre-
faction of locusts, that had perished
in the sea and were again thrown up,
combined with astral and terrestrial
influences, as the cause of the pesti-
lence in the eventful year of the
“Great Mortality.”
All the fevers which were called forth
by the festiſence, 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 festi-
/ence (?), which imparts to it a charac-
ter (qualitas occulta) hostile to human
nature. It originates frequently from
other causes, among which, this phy-
sician 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 East" at
the present day.
In the exposition of his therapeuti-
cal 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, Ist, on an
evacuation of putrid matters, by pur-
gatives 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 (venæ
sectio eradicativa). 2d, Strengthen-
ing of the heart and prevention of pu-
trescence. 3d, Appropriate regimen.
4th, Improvement of the air. 5th,
Appropriate treatment of tumid glands
and inflammatory boils, with emollient,
or even stimulating poultices (mus-
tard, lily-bulbs), as well as with red-
hot gold and iron. Lastly, 6th, At
* Compare AEſtr. de IVolmar, Abhandlung
iber die Pest. Berlin, 1827, 8vo.
tention to prominent symptoms. The
Stores of the Arabian pharmacy, which
he brought into action to meet all these
indications, were indeed very consider-
able ; 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 char-
acter of the Arabian system of medi-
cine, 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,”
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 indiffer-
ence to distinguish, were considered
as proofs of a valuable practical tal-
ent.
The agreement of contemporary and
later writers, shows that the published
views of the most celebrated physi-
cians of the 14th century, were those
generally adopted. Among these,
Chalin de Vinario is the most experi-
enced. Though devoted to astrology,
still more than his distinguished con-
temporary, he acknowledges the great-
er power of terrestrial influences, and
expresses himself very sensibly on the
indisputable doctrine of contagion,
endeavoring thereby to apologize for
many surgeons and physicians of his
time, who neglected their duty.f He
* Tractatus de Febribus, fol. 48.
f De Peste Liber, pura latinitate donatus
a /acobo ZXa/ec/ampio. Lugdun. I 552. IG.
p. 40. 188. “Longe tamen plurimi congressu
eorum qui fuerunt in locis pestilentibus peri-
clitantur et gravissime, quoniam e causa du-
plici, nempe et aeris vitio, et eorum qui ver-
santur nobiscum, vitio. A/oc iſo/?ſe mod'o fi/,
itſ unlius accessat in totam modo ſoºn iliam,
modo civitate//, modo viſ/a/, /es/is 27/28/a/ur.”
Compare p. 20, “Solae privatorum aedes pes-
tem sentiunt, sº adeaf glaſſ in /es///en/? /oco zerº-
sa/was esſ.”—“Nobis proximi ipsi Sumus, nem-
oque est tanta occoecatus amentia, qui de Sua
salute potius quam aliorum Sollicitus non sit,
maxime in contagione tam cita et rapida.”
Rather a loose principle, which might greatly
THE BLACK IDEATH.
asserted boldly, and with truth, “ that
a// epidemic diseases might become con-
tagious, * and all fevers epidemic,”
which attentive observers of all subse-
quent ages have confirmed.
He delivered his sentiments on
blood-letting with Sagacity, as an ex-
perienced physician; yet he was una-
ble, 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 endeavored
to moderate the inflammation of the
tumid glands by leeches. Most of
those who were bled, died ; he there-
fore reserved this remedy for the ple-
thoric ; especially for the papal cour-
tiers, and the hypocritical priests,
whom he saw gratifying their sensual
desires, and imitating Epicurus, while
they pompously pretended to follow
Christ.f. He recommended burning
the boils with a red-hot iron, only in
the plague without fever, which oc-
curred in single cases; f and was al-
ways ready to correct those over-hasty
surgeons, who, with fire and violent
remedies, did irremediable injury to
their patients.S. 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 foun-
encourage low sentiments, and much endan-
ger the honor of the medical profession, but
which in Chalin, who was aware of the im-
possibility of avoiding contagion in uncleanly
dwellings, is so far excusable, that he did not
apply it to himself.
* Morbos omnes, pestilentes esse contagi-
osos, audacter equidem pronuntio et assevero.
D. I.49.
f Ibid. p. 97. I66. “Qualis (vita) esse
solet eorum, qui Sacerdotiorum et cultus di-
vini praetextu, genio plus satis indulgent et
obsequuntur, ac Christum speciosis titulis
ementientes, Epicurum imitantur.” Cer-
tainly a remarkable freedom of sentiment for
the 14th century.
f Ibid. p. 183. #.
§ Ibid. p. I 59. 189.
~ | •)
|425' 39
dation of his definition of the plague.”
No less worthy of observation are the
views of the celebrated Valescus of
Taranta, who, during the final visita-
tion of the Black Death, in 1382,
practiced as a physician at Montpel-
lier, and handed down to posterity
what has been repeated in innumera-
ble treatises on plague, which were
written during the 15th and 16th
centuries.i.
Of all these notions and views re-
garding the plague, whose develop-
ment we have represented, there are
two especially, which are prominent
in historical importance — 1st, The
opinion of learned physicians, that the
Alestilence, or epidemic constitution, is
the parent of zarious Ainds of disease,
that the plague sometimes, indeed,
but by no means always, originates
from it that, to speak in the lan-
guage of the moderns, the festi/ence
bears the same relation to contagion,
that a predisposing cause does to an
Occasional cause : and 2ndly, the uni-
versal conviction of the contagious
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 protect-
ing whole cities by separation became
gradually more evident ; and so hor-
rifying was the recollection of the
eventful year of the “Greaf Mortality,”
that before the close of the 14th
century, ere the ill effects of the Black
Plague had ceased, nations endeavor-
ed to guard against the return of this
enemy, by an earnest and effectual
defense.
The first regulation which was
issued for this purpose, originated
with Viscount Bernabo, and is dated
the 17th Jan. 1374. Every plague-
* Canonica de Febribus, ad Raynerium
Siculum, 1487, S. I. cap. Io, Sine pag, “Fe-
bris, pestilentialis est febris contagiosa ex
ebullitione putrefactiva in altero quatuor
humorum cordi propinquorum principaliter.”
f I aſcscă de Zºharanta Philonium. Lugduni,
I 535. S. L. VII, c. 18. fol. 401. b. seq.-Com-
pare Astric, Mémoires pour servir à l’His-
toire de la Faculté de Médecine de Montpel.
lier, Paris, 1767. 4. p. 20S.
40 |426
THE BLACK IDEATH.
patient was to be taken out of the
city into the fields, there to die or to
recover. Those who attended upon a
plague-patient, were to remain apart
for ten days, before they again asso-
ciated 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 con-
demned his goods to confiscation.
Finally, none, except those who were
appointed for that purpose, were to
attend plague-patients, under penalty
of death and confiscation.*
These orders, in correspondence
with the spirit of the 14th century, are
sufficiently decided to indicate a recol-
lection of the good effects of confine-
ment, and of keeping at a distance
those suspected of having plague. It
was said that Milan itself, by a rigor-
ous barricado of three houses in which
the plague had broken out, maintained
itself free from the “Great Mortality,”
for a considerable time ; i and exam-
ples of the preservation of individual
families, by means of a strict separa-
tion, were certainly very frequent.
That these orders must have caused
universal affliction from their uncom-
mon severity, as we know to have been
especially the case in the city of Reg-
gio, may be easily conceived; but
Bernabo did not suffer himself to be
deterred from his purpose by fear—
on the contrary, when the plague re-
turned in the year 1383, he forbade the
admission of people from infected
places into his territories, on pain of
death.j We have now, it is true, no
account how far he succeeded, yet it
is to be supposed that he arrested the
* Chronicon Regiense, Muratori, Tom.
XVIII. p. 82.
f Adr. Chezzot, Hinterlassene Abhandlun-
gen über die árztlichen und politischen An-
stalten bei der Pestseuche.—Wien, 1798, 8vo.
p. I.46. 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.
f Chron. Reg, loc. cit.
disease, for it had long lost the prop-
erty 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
of being confined within individual
dwellings, as easily as in modern
tlmeS. -
Bernabo's example was imitated:
nor was there any century more ap-
propriate for recommending to govern-
ments 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 reck-
oning 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 puri-
fied from noxious vapors by fires, and
by fumigations with balsamic and
aromatic substances. Straw, rags,
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 vapor 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. Peo-
ple were, likewise, to avoid, as long as
possible, Occupying houses which had
been frequented by plague-patients.”
We cannot precisely perceive in
these an advance toward general
regulations; and perhaps people
were convinced of the insurmountable
impediments which opposed the sepa-
ration of open inland countries, where
bodies of people connected together
* Muratori, Tom. XVI. p. 560—Compare
Cheſlot, loc. cit. p. 146.
THE BLACK DEATH.
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 remain-
ing domesticated ; which it most proba-
bly was in the more ancient times.
In the 15th century, during which it
broke out seventeen times in different
places in Europe,” 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 Com-
mercial states, however, which were
called on to make the greatest exer-
tions 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 toward
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 naviga-
tors. 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 forbade 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.f
In the year 1485, when, among the
cities of northern Italy, Milan espe-
cially felt the scourge of the plague, a
- - * , e. 75
Special council of health, consisting of
* Papon, loc. cit.
# Chenoſ, p. 145.
|427 || 41
three nobles, was established at Ven-
ice, who probably tried everything in
their power to prevent the entrance
of this disease, and gradually called
into activity all those regulations
which have served in later times as a
pattern for the other southern states
of Europe. Their endeavors were,
however, not crowned with complete
success ; on which account their
powers were increased, in the year
1504, by granting them the power of
life and death over those who violated
the regulations.” Bills of health were
probably first introduced in the year
I 527, during a fatal plague f 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 dispatched with their fami-
lies to what was called the Old Lazar-
etto, were there furnished with provis-
ions 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 an-
other island. All these regulations
were every year improved, and their
needful rigor was increased, so that
from the year 1585 onward, no ap-
peal 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.#
Bills of health, however, were not
general until the year 1665.5
The appointment of a forty-days'
detention, whence quarantines derive
their name, was not dictated by ca-
* Ze Brez, Staatsgeschichte der Republik
Venedig. Riga, 1775. 4, Part II. Div. 2, p.
f Zagata, Cronica di Verona, 1744. 4, III.
P. 93.
# Ze Bret, loc. cit. Comp. Hamburger Re-
marquen of the year 1700, pp. 282 and 305.
§ Göttinger gelehrte Anzeigen, 1772, p. 22.
42 |428]
THE BLACK DEATH.
price, 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 re-
garded as the last of ardent diseases,
and the limit of separation between
these and those 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 foetus, not to mention that the
alchemists 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 ap-
peared reasonable to assume, and
legally to establish it, as that required
for the development of latent princi-
ples of contagion, since public regula-
tions 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 and legal
grounds, which were certainly of
greater weight in the fifteenth century
than in modern times.*
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 impedi-
ment to civilization within the mem-
ory of man ; a means, that, like Jen-
ner'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.
A PPE N DIX.
THE ANCIENT SONG OF THE FLAGELLANTS,
AccordinG TO MASSMANN'S EDITION, COMPARED WITH THE MS. By
|PROFESSOR LACHMAN N.
(Original.)
SVE siner sele wille pleghen
De sal gelden unde weder geuen
So wert Siner sele raed
Des help uns leue herre goed
5 Nu tredet here we botsen wille
Vle wilo de hetsen helle
Lucifer is en bose geselle
Sven her hauet
Mit peke he en lauet
Datz vle wief wir hauen sin
Des help uns maria koninghin
Das wir dines kindes hulde win
Jesus crist de wart ke vanghen
An en cruce wart he ge hanghen
Dat cruce wart des blodes rod
Wer klaghen sin marter unde sin dod
IO
I 5
(Traits/ation.)
WHOE’ER to save his soul is fain,
Must pay and render back again.
His safety so shall he consult:
Help us, good Lord, to this result.
Ye that repent your crimes, draw nigh.
From the burning hell we fly,
From Satan's wicked company.
Whom he leads
With pitch he feeds.
If we be wise we this shall flee.
Maria! Queen we trust in thee,
To move thy Son to sympathy.
Jesus Christ was captive led,
And to the cross was riveted.
The cross was reddened with his gore
And we his martyrdom deplore.
5
IO
I5
* The forty days’ duration of the Flood, the forty days' sojourn of Moses on Mount
Sinai, Jesus's fast for the same length of time in the wilderness; lastly, what is called the
Saxon term (Sächsische Frist), which lasts for forty days, etc.
Compare G. W. Wen'el,
Centuria Exercitationum Medico-philologicarum : De Quadragesima Medica. Jenae, 1701. 4.
Dec. IV. p. 16.
2O
30
35
4O
THE BLACK IDEATH.
Sunder war mide wilt tu mi lonen
1)re negele unde en dornet crone
Das cruce vrone en sper en Stich
Sunder datz leyd ich dor dich
Was witu nu liden dor mich
So rope wir herre mit luden done
Unsen denst den nem to lone
Be hode uns vor der helle nod
Des bidde widich dor dinen dod
Dor god vor gete witunse blot
Dat is uns tho den suden guot
Maria muoter koninginghe
Dor dines leuen kindes minne
Al unse nod si dirghe klaghet
Des help uns moter maghet reyne.
De erde beuet och kleuen de steyne
Lebe hertze du salt weyne
Wir wenen trene mit den oghen
Unde hebben des so guden louen
Mit unsen sinnen unde mit hertzen
Dor uns leyd crist vil manighen smert-
Zen
Nu slaed w sere
Dor cristus ere.
Dor god nu latet de sunde mere
Dor god nu latet de Sunde varen
Se wil sich god ouer uns en barmer
Maria stund in grotzen noden
Do se ire leue kint sa doden
45 En svert dor ire sele snet
SO
55
65
7o
Jºe
5
8o
Sunder dat la di wesen led
In korter wrist
God tornich ist
Jesus wart gelauet mid gallen
Des sole wizan en cruce vallen
Er heuet uch mit uwen armen
Dat sic god ouer uns en barme
Jesus dorch dine namen dry
Nu make uns hir van Sunde vry
Jesus dor dine winden rod
Be hod uns vor den gehen dod
Dat he sende sinen geist
Und uns dat kortelike leist
De vrowe unde man ire tobreken
Dat wil god selven an en wreken
Sveuel pik und och de galle
IDat gutet de duuel in se alle
Vor war sint se des duuels spot
Dor vor behode uns herre god
De e de ist en reyne leuen
De had uns god selven gheuen
Ich rade uch vrowen unde mannen
Dor god gy Solen houard annen
I)es biddet uch de arme sele
Dorch god nu latet houard mere
Dor god nu latet houard varen
So wil sich god ouer uns en barmen
Cristus rep in hemelrike
Sinen engelen al gelike.
De Cristenheit wil mi ent wichen
I)es willan och se vor gaen
Marie bat ire kint so sere
Leue kint la se di boten
Dat wil ich sceppen dat se moten
Bekeren sich.
IDes bidde ich dich
2O
3O
35
4O
45
5O
Óo
65
7o
75
So
[429| 43
“Sinner, canst thou to me atone *
Three pointed nails, a thorn crown,
The holy Cross, a spear, a wound,
These are the cruel pangs I found.
What wilt thou, sinner, bear for me P’’
Lord, with loud voice we answer thee,
Accept our service in return,
And save us lest in hel] we burn.
We, through thy death, to thee have sued.
For God in heaven we shed our blood :
This for our sins will work to good.
Blessed Maria Mother Queen
Through thy loved Son's redeeming mean
Be all our wants to thee portrayed.
Aid us, Mother spotless maid
Trembles the earth, the rocks are rent,”
Fond heart of mine, thou must relent.
Tears from our sorrowing eyes we weep;
Therefore so firm our faith we keep
With all our hearts—with all our senses.
Christ bore his pangs for our offenses.
Ply well the Scourge for Jesus' sake,
And God through Christ your sins shall
take.
For love of God abandon sin.
To mend your vicious lives begin,
So shall we his mercy win.
Direful was Maria's pain
When she beheld her dear One slain.
Pierced was her soul as with a dart :
Sinner, let this affect thy heart.
The time draws near
When God in anger shall appear.
Jesus was refreshed with gall:
Prostrate crosswise let us fall,
Then with uplifted arms arise,
That God with us may sympathize.
Jesus, by thy titles three,t
From our bondage set us free.
Jesus, by thy precious blood,
Save us from the fiery flood.
Lord, our helplessness defend,
And to our aid thy Spirit send.
If man and wife their vows should break
God will on such his vengeance wreak.
Brimstone and pitch, and mingled gall,
Satan pours on such sinners all.
Truly, the devil's scorn are they :
Therefore, O Lord, thine aid we pray.
Wedlock's an honorable tie
Which God himself doth sanctify.
By this warning, man, abide,
God shall surely punish pride.
Let your precious soul entreat you,
Lay down pride lest vengeance meet you.
I do beseech ye, pride forsake,
So God on us shall pity take.
Christ in heaven, where he commands,
Thus addressed his angel bands:–
“Christendom dishonors me,
Therefore her ruin I decree.”
Then Mary thus implored her Son:—
“Penance to thee, loved Child, be done;
That she repent be mine the care;
Stay then thy wrath, and hear my prayer.”
Y”
Ye liars
* We hence perceive with what feelings subterraneous thunders were regarded by the
people.
* For the sake of thy Trinity.
44 [430]
THE BLACK lyLATHI.
Gi logenere
Gy meynen ed Sverer
Gi bichten reyne und lan de Sunde uch
ru Wen
So wil sich god in uch vor nuwen
Owe du arme wokerere
Du bringest en lod up en punt
Datsenket din an der helle grunt
Ir morder und ir straten rouere
Ir sint dem leuen gode un mere
Ir ne wilt uch ouer nemende barmen
Des sin gy eweliken vor loren
Were dusse bote nicht ge worden
IDe cristenheit wer gar vorsunden
De leyde duuel had sege bunden
Maria had lost unsen bant
Sunder ich saghe di leue mere
Sunte peter is portenere
Wende dich an en he letset dich in
He bringhet dich vor de koninghin
Leue herre Sunte Michahel
Du bist en plegher aller sel
Be hode uns vor der helle nod
Dat do dor dines Sceppers dod.
85
95
IOO
Ye that break your sacrament,
Shrive ye thoroughly and repent.
Your heinous sins sincerely rue,
So shall the Lord your hearts renew.
Woe! usurer, though thy wealth
abound,
For every ounce thou mak'st a pound
Shall sink thee to the hell profound.
Ye murd’rers, and ye robbers all,
The wrath of God on you shall fall.
Mercy ye ne'er to others show,
None shall ye find; but endless woe.
Had it not been for our contrition,
All Christendom had met perdition.
Satan had bound her in his chain;
Mary hath loosed her bonds again.
Glad news I bring thee, sinful mortal,
In heaven Saint Peter keeps the portal,
Apply to him with suppliant mien,
He bringeth thee before thy Queen.
Benignant Michael, blessed saint,
Guardian of souls, receive our plaint.
Through thy Almighty Maker’s death,
Preserve us from the hell beneath.
8
S
95
I OO
II.
EXAMINATION OF THE JEWS ACCUSED
OF POISONING THE WELLS.*
ANSWER FROM THE CASTELLAN OF
CHILLON TO THE CITY OF STRAS-
BURG, TOGETHER WITH A COPY OF
THE INQUISITION AND CONFESSION
OF SEVERAL J Ews con FINED IN THE
CASTLE OF CHILLON ON SUSPICION
OF POISONING. ANNO 1348.
To the Honorable the Mayor, Senate,
and Citizens of the City of Stras-
burg, the Castellan of Chillon, Dep-
uty of the Bailiff of Chablais, send-
eth greeting with all due submission
and respect.
Understanding that you desire to
be made acquainted with the confes-
sion of the Jews, and the proofs
brought forward against them, I certi-
fy, by these presents, to you, and each
of you that desires to be informed,
that they of Berne have had a copy of
* An appearance of justice having been
given to all later persecutions by these pro-
ceedings, they deserve to be recorded as im-
portant historical documents. The original
is in Latin, but we have preferred the German
translation in Königshoven’s Chronicle, p.
lo29.
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 destroy-
ing 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 5TH
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, ETC.,
WITH THE DESIGN OF DESTROYING
AND EXTIRPATING ALL CHRISTIANS.
I. Balavignus, a Jewish physician,
inhabitant of Thonon, was arrested at
THE BLACK DEATH.
Chillon in consequence of being found
in the neighborhood. 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 resid-
ed at Chamberi since Easter, sent
him, by a Jewish boy, Some poison in
the mummy of an egg : it was a pow-
der 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 bf Thonon, to poison those
who drew water there. He was fur-
ther enjoined not to communicate the
circumstance to any person whatever,
under the same penalty. In con-
formity 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, ad-
dressed 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 Mon-
cheoli ; and the boy told him that he
had taken many others to different and
distant places, but he did not recollect
to whom they were addressed. Bal-
avignus further confessed that, after
having put the poison into the spring
at Thonon, he had positively forbid-
den his wife and children to drink the
water, but had not thought fit to as-
sign 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.
|431 || 45
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 on re-
turning one day from Tour near Viv-
ey, he had thrown into a well below
Mustruez, namely, that of La Cone-
rayde, a quantity of the poison tied
up in a rag, given to him for the pur-
pose 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 color
of the poison as being red and black.
On the nineteenth day of Septem-
ber, the above-named Balavignus con-
fessed, 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 prop-
erty 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 ac-
cordingly 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, con-
fessed that about two months pre-
viously, 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
answered 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.
46 [432
THE BLACK DEATH,
Jacob also desired him, Balavignus,
to execute the command imposed on
him with due caution. He confessed
that Aquetus of Montreantz had in-
formed him that he had thrown some
of the poison into the well above
Tour, the water of which he some-
times drank. He confessed that Sam-
olet 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 phy-
sician, 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 al-
so happen from the breath of an in-
fected person. This fact he believed
to be correct, and was confirmed in
his opinion by the attestation of many
experienced physicians. He also de-
clared that none of his community
could exculpate themselves from this
accusation, as the plot was communi-
cated to all; and that all were guilty
of the above charges. Balavignus
was conveyed over the lake from Chil-
lon to Clarens, to point out the well
into which he confessed having thrown
the powder. On landing, he was con-
ducted 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 waste-
pipe by a notary-public named Hein-
rich 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 colors, 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 poi-
son to contain a portion of the basi-
lisk, 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 Septem-
ber, subjected for a short time to the
torture. After a long interval, he con-
fessed having cast a quantity of poi-
son, 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, vol-
untarily 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 serv-
ant, some poison about the "size of a
large nut, together with a letter, direct-
ing 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 ad-
dressed 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 poi-
son 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 tor-
ture, 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 be-
lieved that the Jews in the neighbor-
hood of Evian had convened a Council
among themselves relative to this
*
THE BLACK IDEATH.
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 be-
fore the commissioners, and did not
in the least vary from his former de-
position, or deny having put the poi-
son into the said wells.
The above-named Jews, prior to
their execution, solemnly swore by
their Law to the truth of their several
depositions, and declared that all
Jews whatsoever, from seven years old
and upward, could not be exempted
from the charge of guilt, as all of
them were acquainted with the plot,
and more or less participators in the
crime.
[The seven other examinations
scarcely differ from the above, except
in the names of the accused, and af-
ford but little variety. We will, there-
fore, only add a characteristic passage
[433| 47
at the conclusion of this document.
The whole speaks for itself.]
There still remain numerous proofs
and accusations against the above-
mentioned 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 accord-
ing 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 poison-
ing. Very many Christians were ar-
rested 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 acknowl-
edge that they had received the poi-
son from the Jews. Of these Chris-
tians some have been quartered ; oth-
ers flayed and afterward hanged.
Certain commissioners have been ap-
pointed by the magistrates to enforce
judgment against all the Jews; and
I believe that none will escape.
CONT
PREFACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
& HAPTER I. GENERAL OR SERVATIONS. .
{ { II. THE DISEASE . . . . . . . . . . . .
{ % III. CAUSES-SPREAD. . . . . . . . .
46 IV. MORTALITY . . . . . . . . . . . . .
K& W. MORAL EFFECTS . . . . . . . . .
{{ VI. PHYSICIANS . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
jº. PPENDIX :
I. THE SONG OF THE FLAGELLANTS
II.
EXAMINATION OF JEWS ACCUSED OF POISONING WELLS. . . . . . . . & Q º º e e º ºs
ENTS.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * D
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * tº e º e º ſº gº tº e º gº e º g º e
* * * * * * * * * * * * B º º e e º 'º & e g º º 'º e º 'º e s e g º ºs e º 'º
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ºn e º e º sº e º e º a sº a
THE DANCING MANIA
ÖF THE
MIDDLE AGES.
By J. F. C. H E C K E R, M.D.,
AUTHOR of “THE BLAck DEATH.”
TRANSLATED BY B. G. BABINGTON, M.D.,
CHAPTER I.
THE DANCING MANIA IN GERMANY
AND THE NETHERLANDS.
SECT. 1.-ST. 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 convul-
sion which in the most extraordinary
manner infuriated the human frame,
and excited the astonishment of con-
temporaries for more than two centu-
ries, since which time it has never re-
appeared. 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, while performing their
wild dance, and screaming and foam-
ing 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
F.R.S.
neighboring 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, assem-
|blages 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 spec-
tacles: They formed circles hand in
hand, and appearing to have lost all
control over their senses, continued
dancing, regardless of the by-standers,
for hours together in wild delirium,
until at length they 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 recov-
ered, and remained free from com--
plaint until the next attack. This
practice of swathing was resorted to
on account of the tympany which fol-
lowed these spasmodic ravings, but
the by-standers frequently relieved
patients in a less artificial manner, by
* Odor. Raynald. Annal. Ecclesiastic. A.
I374. Lucae, 1752, fol. Tom. VII. p. 252.
2 [58] THE DANCING MANIA
OF THE MIDIDLE AGES.

*
(developed,
with epileptic convulsions.S Those
; St.
thumping and trampling upon the
parts affected. While dancing they
hº saw nor heard, being insensi-
ble to external impressions through
the senses, but were haunted by vis-
ions, their fancies conjuring up spirits
whose namesº they shrieked out;
and some of them afterward asserted
that they felt as if they had been im-
mersed in a stream of blood, which
obliged them to leap
Others, during the paroxysm, saw the
heavens open and the Saviour en-
throned with the Virgin Mary, accord-
ing as the religious notions of the age
were strangely and variously reflected
in their imaginations:
gº Where the disease was completely
the attack commenced
: affected fell to the ground senseless,
panting and laboring for breath.
They foamed at the mouth, and Sud-
denly springing up began their dance
amid strange contortions.” Yet the
: malady doubtless made its appearance
very variously, 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 nat-
ural events with their notions of the
world of spirits.
It was but a few months ere this
* /o/. Wier's ample Catalogue of Spirits
; gives no information on this point. Pseudo-
monarchia daemonum. Opera omnia, Ams-
telod. I660. 4to. p. 659.—A’aynald mentions
the word Friscóes 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, wrisch ind vro, here Sent
Johan.” St. John so, so, brisk and cheerful,
John. Die Cronica van der hilliger Stat
\ van Coellen, fol. 277. Coellen, 1499. fol.
f Cyr. Spangenberg, Adels-Spiegel—Mirror
, of AVobility, a detailed historical account of
what nobility is, etc.
fol. Fol. 403. b.
f Petr. de A/erentals, Appendix, No. I.
§ /o. 77-#/.4m. Chronic. Sponheimense. A.
1374. Opera historic. Francof, 1601, fol. p.
332. Also: Abrak. Bzovii Annal. Ecclesias-
tic. Tom. XIV. Colon. Agripp. 1625. fol.
Ann. 1374. (Maniaca passio. S. Johannis cho-
rea.)
Schmalkalden, I 591.
so high: ;
demoniacal disease had spread from
Aix-la-Chapelle, where it appeared in
July, over the neighboring Nether-
lands.” In Liege, Utrecht, Tongres,
and many other towns of Belgium,
the dancers appeared with garlands
in their hair, and their waists girt with
cloths, that they might, as soon as the
paroxysm was over, receive immedi-
ate relief on the attack of the tym-
pany. This bandage was, by the in-
sertion 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 ex-
cited no less anxiety than the atten-
tion that was paid to them. In towns
and villages they took possession of
the religious houses, processions were
everywhere instituted on their account
sung, while the disease itself, of the
everywhere astonishment and horror.
In Liege the priests had recourse to
exorcisms, and endeavored, by every
means in their power, to allay an evil
which threatened so much danger to
themselves; for the possessed assem-
bling in multitudes, frequently poured
forth imprecations against them, and
menaced their destruction. They in-
timidated the people also to such a de-
gree that there was an express ordi-
nance 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
r——s
* /o. Pistorii Rerum Familiarumque Belgi-
carum Chronicon magnum. Francof. 1654.
fol. p. 310. Here the persons affected are
called dartsatores, chorisantes. See the whole
passage in the Appendix, No. II. Compare
Incerti auctoris vetus chronicon Belgicum,
Matthaei veteris aevi Analecta. Hag. com.
1738. 4to. Tom. I. p. 51. “Anno
MCCCLXXIV. the damsers appeared. Gens
impacata cadit, dudum cruciata salvat.”
This should be salivat; a quotation from a
Latin poem not now extant.
and masses were said and hymns were
demoniacal origin of which no one
entertained the least doubt, excited 3
THE DANCING MANIA
come into fashion immediately after
the Great Mortality, in 1350.* They
were still more irritated at the sight
of red colors, the influence of which
on the disordered nerves might lead
us to imagine an extraordinary ac-
cordance between this spasmodic mal-
ady and the condition of infuriated
animals; but in the St. John’s dancers
this excitement was probably con-
nected with apparitions consequent
upon their convulsions. There were
likewise some of them who were un-
able to endure the sight of persons
weeping.f The clergy seemed to be-
come 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
among the higher classes, for hith-
erto 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 influ-
ence. Some of the affected had in-
deed themselves declared, when un-
der 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
*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 opportu-
nity of crying down every change or innova-
tion as the work of the devil. Hence it is
axtremely probable that the fanatic peniten-
tial sermons of zealous priests excited th’s
singular aversion of the St. Vitus dancers.
In later times, also, signs and wonders took
place, on account of things equally insignifi.
cant, and the fury of the possessed was di-
rected against the fashions. Compare Möh-
sen's History of the Sciences in the Mark of
brandenburg, p. 498. f.
f Petr. de Herentals. Appendix, No. I.
OF THE MIDDLE AGES. [59] 3
clergy. Assertions of this sort, which
those possessed uttered while in a
state which may be compared with
that of magnetic sleep, obtained gen-
eral belief, and passed from mouth
to mouth with wonderful additions.
The priesthood were, on this account,
so much the more zealous in their en-
deavors to anticipate every dangerous
excitement of the people, as if the ex-
isting order of things could have been
seriously threatened by such incoher-
ent ravings. Their exertions were ef-
fectual, for exorcism was a powerful
remedy in the fourteenth century; or
it might perhaps be that this wild in-
fatuation terminated in consequence
of the exhaustion which naturally en-
sued 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 Bel-
gium. The evil, however, was too
deeply rooted to give way altogether
to such feeble attacks. *
A few months after this dancing
malady had made its appearance at
Aix-la-Chapelle, it broke out at Co-
logne, where the number of those
possessed amounted to more than
five hundred,i and about the same
time at Metz, ſthe streets of which
place are said to have been filled '
with eleven hundred dancers.f. Peas-
ants left their plows, mechanics
their workshops, house-wives their do-
mestic duties, to join the wild revels,
and this rich commercial city became
the scene of the most ruinous disor.
der. Y Secret desires were excited, and
but too often found opportunities for
wild enjoyment; and numerous beg-
gars, stimulated by vice and misery,
availed themselves of this new com-
plaint to gain a temporary livelihood.
Girls and boys quitted their parents,
and servants their masters, to amuse
* T ºccti:, he excrcisºs añºl, see E. C.
Förstemann, the Christian Societies of Flag-
ellants. Halle, 1828. 8vo. p. 232.
f Limburg Chronicle, p. 71. Cologne
Chronicle, loc. cit.
and IV.
f Dans la ville y eut des dansans, tant
grands que petits, onze cents. Journal de
Paris, 1785.
See Appendix, Nos. III.
4 [60] THE DANCING MANIA
OF THE MIDI) LE AGES.
Athemselves 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 un-
consecrated places, and the conse-
quences were soon perceived.*
Gangs of idle vagabonds, who under-
| stood how to imitate to the life the
gestures and convulsions of those
really affected, roved from place to
place seeking maintenance and ad-
ventures, and thus, wherever they
went, spreading this disgusting spas-
modic disease like a plague ; for in
maladies of this kind the susceptible
\ are infected as easily by the appear-
ance as by the reality. At last it was
ound necessary to drive away these
mischievous guests, who were equally
inaccessible to the exorcisms of the
priests and the remedies of the physi-
cians. 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 four-
teenth and fifteenth centuries, and
even, though in a minor degree,
throughout the sixteenth and seven-
teenth, 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.f
Strasburg was visited by the “Danc-
ing Plague” in the year 1418, and the
same infatuation existed among the
people there, as in the towns of Bel-
* Scheuk, v. Grafenburg. loc. cit.
f “Chorus , Sancti Viti, or St. Vitus'
Dance; the lascivious dance, Paracelsus
calls it, because they that are taken with it,
can do nothing but dance till they be dead,
or cured. It is so called for that the parties
so troubled were wont to go to St. Vitus for
help ; , and, after they had danced there
awhile, they were certainly freed. . 'Tis
strange to hear how long they will dance,
and in what manner, over stools, forms,
gium and the Lower Rhine.* Many
who were seized at the sight of those
affected, excited attention at first by
their confused and absurd behavior,
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 innumer-
able 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 fam-
ilies. Imposture and profligacy played
their part in this city also, but the
morbid delusion itself seems to have
predominated. On this account re-
ligion could only bring provisional
aid, and therefore the town-council
t| tables; even great-bellied women sometimes
(and yet never hurt their children) will
dance so long that they can stir neither hand
nor foot, but seem to be quite dead. One
in red clothes they cannot abide. Musick
above all things they love; and therefore
magistrates in Germany will hire musicians
to play to them, and some lusty, sturdy com-
panions to dance with them. This disease
hath been very common in Germany, as ap-
pears by those relations of Schenkius, and
Paracelsus in his book of madness, who
brags how many several persons he hath
cured of it. Felix Platerus (de Mentis
Alienat. cap. 3) reports of a woman in Basle.
whom he saw, that danced a whole month
together. The Arabians, call it a kind of
paſsie. Bodine, in his fifth book, de Repub.
cap. 1, speaks of this infirmity; Monavius, in
his last epistle to Scoltizius, and in another
to Dudithus, where you may read more of
it.”—Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, Vol. I.
p. I 5–7% ansl. note.
*J. of Königshoven, the oldest German
Chronicle in existence. The contents are
general, but devoted more exclusively to
Alsace and Strasburg, published by Schil-
term, Strasburg, 1698. 4to. Observat. 21, of St.
Vitus's Dance, p. Io95. f.
“ Viel hundert fingen zu Strassburg an
Zutanzen und springen Frau und Mann,
Am offnen Markt, Gassen und Strassen
Tag und Nacht inrer viel nicht assen.
Bisihn das Wüthen wieder gelag.
St. Vits Tanz ward gemannt die Plag.”
“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 º: and
nights, until their mania again subsided
The plague was called St. Vitus's Dance.”

THE DANCING MANIA OF THE MIDIDLE AGES.
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 per-
haps 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 ceremo-
nies. After divine worship was com-
pleted, they were led in solemn pro-
cession 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 wor-
thy of observation, at all events, that
the Dancing Mania did not recom-
mence 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 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 Chris-
tians, under Diocletian, in the year
303.” The legends respecting him
* Caes. Aaron. Annales ecclesiastic. Tom.
II. p. 819. Colon. Agripp. 1609, fol. See
the more ample Acta Sanctorum Junii (The
15th of June is St. Vitus’s day), Tom. II. p.
Io 13. 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
Aſylas, that he went from thence with Cres-
centia (probably his nurse) and Aſodestles to
Lucania, with both of whom he suffered
martyrdom under Diocleſian. 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 acknowl-
edged throughout Italy. The most cele-
brated of his chapels were situated on the
Promontory of Sicily (called by his name), in
Rome and in Polignano, whither many pilgrim-
ages 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
[61] 5
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).” His altars were
curing wounds of this kind was afterward
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 cent-
ury the veneration of this youthful martyr
extended itself to France, and the honor 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 Aſilauwinus,
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 G. H.
Aertz, 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 men-
tion that Charles IV. dedicated to him the
Cathedral of Prague, of which he had laid
the foundation, and caused him to be pro-
claimed patron Saint of Bohemia, and a
nominal body of the holy martyr was, for
this purpose, brought from Parma. Act.
Sanctor, loc. cit.
* Probably a corruption of Apotropaei.
The expression is constantly met with ; ſor
example, in Agrícola, Proverbs, No. 497.
These are the 9éoi ääeşikákot, the dii averrun-
ci of the ancients. The fourteen saints, to
whose churches (between Bamberg and
Coburg) thousands still annually make pil-
grimages, are the following : I. Georgius.
2. Blasius. 3. Erasmus. 4. Vitus. 5. Pan-
taleon. 6. Christophorus. 7. Dionysius. 8.
Cyriacus. 9. Achatius. IO. Eustachius.
II. A.gidius. I2. Margaretha. I 3. Catha-
rina. I4. Barbara.
6 [62] THE DANCING MANIA
OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
\
multiplied, and the people had re-
course to them in all kinds of dis-
tresses, and revered him as a power-
ful intercessor. As the worship of
these saints was however at that time
stripped of all historical connections,
which were purposely obliterated by
the priesthood, a legend was invented
at the beginning of the fifteenth cent-
ury, or perhaps even so early as the
fourteenth, that St. Vitus had, just be-
fore 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.” Thus St. Vitus
became the patron saint of those af-
flicted with the dancing plague, as St.
Martin of Tours was at one time the
succorer of persons in Small-pox :
St. Antonius of those suffering under
the “hellish fire ;” and as St. Mar-
garet was the Juno Lucina of puer-
peral women.
SECT. 3.-CAUSES.
The connection 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 wor-
shiped afforded an important and
very evident cause for its develop-
ment. From the remotest period,
perhaps even so far back as the fourth
century, St. John's day was solem-
nized with all sorts of strange and rude
customs, of which the originally mys-
tical meaning was variously disfigured
among different nations by superad-
ded relics of heathenism.f Thus the
* /. Agricola. Sybenhundert und fünffzig
Teutscher Sprichwörter. No. 497. Seven
hundred and fifty German Proverbs. Hage-
mau, I 537. 8vo. fol. 248.
f St. Augustine had already warned the peo-
ple against committing excesses and singing
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 pro-
tected for a whole year from fevers
and other diseases, as if by a kind of
baptism by fire.*. Bacchanalian
dances, which have originated in sim-
ilar causes among all the rude nations
of the earth, and the wild extravagan-
cies 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, f and it is more
profane songs at the festival of St. John :
“Nec permittamus solemnitatem sanctam
cantica luxuriosa proferendo polluere.”—St.
August: Denkwürdigkeiten aus der Christli-
chen Archäologie. Vol. III. p. 166. Leipzig.
1820. 8vo. Memorabilia of Christian Archae-
logy.
*wein. Series chronologic. Epis-
tolarum S. Bonifacii ab ann. 716–755, LVII.
Concil. Liptinens. p. 131. XV. De igne
fricato de ligno, id est, Nodfyr. See /o/,.
/ºeiski. Untersuchung des bei den Alten
Teutschen gebräuchlichen heidnischen Nod-
fyrs, imgleichen des Oster-und Johannis-
Feuers. Enquiry respecting the heathen
Nodfyrs customary among the ancient Ger-
mans, and also the Easter and St. John's
fires. Frankfort, 1696, 8vo.
f The Bishop 7%eodoret of Cyrus in Syria,
states, that, at the festival of St. John, large
fires were annually kindled in several towns,
through which men, women, and children
jumped; and that young children were
carried through by their mothers. He con-
sidered this custom as an ancient Asiatic
ceremony of purification, similar to that re-
corded of Ahaz, in 2 Kings xvi. 3. (Quaes-
tiones in IV. Libr. Regum. Interrogat. 47, p.
352. Beati Theodoreti, Episcop. Cyri Opera
omnia. Fól. Jac Sirmondi, Lut. Paris. I 642.
fol. T. I.) Zortaras, A'alsamozz, and Photius
speak of the St. John's fires in Constantino-
ple, and the first looks upon it as the re-
mains of an old Grecian custom. See Reiske
loc. cit. p. 81. That such different nations
should have had the same idea of fixing the
THE DANCING MANIA OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
than probable that the Greeks trans-
ferred to the festival of John the Bap-
tist, who is also held in high esteem
among the Mohammedans, a part of
their Bacchanalian mysteries, an ab-
surdity of a kind which is but too fre-
quently 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 Chris-
tianity has maintained itself in its
primeval simplicity against Moham-
medanism, John is to this day wor-
shiped, as protecting Saint of those
who are attacked with the dancing
malady.” In these fragments of the
dominion of mysticism and Supersti-
tion, historical connection 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 prob-
able that the wild revels of St. John's
day, A.D. 1374, gave rise to this men-
tal plague, which thenceforth has vis-
ited so many thousands with incurable
aberration of mind, and disgusting
distortions of body.
This is rendered so much the more
probable, because some months pre-
viously the districts in the neighbor-
hood of the Rhine and the Maine had
met with great disasters. So early as
February, both these rivers had over-
flowed 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.f
purification by fire on St. John's day, is a re-
markable coincidence, which perhaps can be
accounted for only by its analogy to bap-
tism.
* The Life and Adventures of AWathazzie/
Pearce, written by himself, during a residence
in Abyssinia from the year 1810 to 1819.
Edited by J. J. Aſalls. 2 Vols. 8vo. London,
1831. chap. ix. p. 290.
t Joan't. Trithem. Annal. Hirsaugiens.
Oper. Tom. II. Hirsaug. 1690. fol. p. 263.
A. 1374. See the before-mentioned Chron-
To this was added the miserable con-
dition of Western and Southern Ger-
many. 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 every-
where prevailed; corruption of mor-
als 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 practiced, 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 tor-
mented with the recollection of the
crimes which they had committed dur-
ing the prevalence of the black plague,
we shall comprehend how their de-
spair sought relief in the intoxication
of an artificial delirium.* 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
icle of Cologne, fol. 276. b., wherein it is said
that the people passed in boats and rafts
over the city walls.
* What took place at the St. John's fires
in the middle ages (about 1280) we learn by
a communication from the Bishop Guil. Dur-
anies of Aquitania. (Rationale divinorum
officiorum. L. VII. c. 26. In A'efske, loc. cit.
p. 77.) Bones, horns, and other rubbish,
were heaped together to be consumed in
smoke, while persons of all ages danced round
the flames as if they had been possessed, in the
same way as at the Palilia, an ancient Roman
lustration by fire, whereat those who took part
in them sprang through a fire made of straw.
(Ovid. Met. XIV. 774, Fast. IV. 721.)
Others seized burning flambeaux, and made
a circuit of the fields, in the supposition that
they thereby screened them from danger,
while others, again, turned a cart-wheel, to
represent the retrograde movement of the:
Sll Il,
8 [64] THE DANCING MANIA
OF THE MIDIDLE AGES.
others, had but served to keep up
superstition, could degenerate into so
serious a disease, we must take into ac-
count the unusual excitement of men's
minds, and the 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
eople. In the year 1237, upward
of a hundred children were said to
have been suddenly seized with this
disease at Erfurt, and to have pro-
ceeded 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.” Another oc-
currence 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.j A similar event
also occurred so early as the year 1 oz7,
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 dis-
turbed 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 com-
pletely fulfilled, so that the unfortu-
nate sufferers at length sank knee
deep into the earth, and remained the
whole time without nourishment, un-
til 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 trembling of their limbs.” It is not
worth while to separate what may have
been true, and what the addition of
crafty priests, in this strangely distort-
ed story. It is sufficient that it was
believed, and related with a stonish-
ment 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 beli f in wonders and apparitions.
Tlis disposition of mind, altogether
So peculiar to the middle ages, and
which, happily for mankind, has
yielded to an improved state of civili-
zation and the diffusion of popular in-
struction, 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 ene-
mies and adversaries, was long after
used as a malediction.f The indigna-
* J. Chr. Beckmann, Historia des Fürst-
enthums, Anhalt., Zerbst. . History, of the
Principality of Anhalt. Zerbst, 1710. fol. Part
III. book 4. chap. 4. § 3. p. 467.
t Martini Minoritae Flores temporum, in
Jo. Georg. Accard, Corpus historiae medii aevi.
Lips. 1723. fol. Tom. I. p. 1632.
* 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.
f “Das dich Sanct Veitstanz ankomme.”
May you be seized with St. Vitus's Dance.
t
THE DANCING MANIA OF THE MIDI) LE AGES.
tion 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 adminis-
tered by unholy hands.” We have
already mentioned what perils the
priests in the Netherlands incurred
from this belief. They now, indeed,
endeavored to hasten their reconcili-
ation with the irritated, and at that
time very degenerate people,f by
exorcisms, which, with some, procured
them greater respect than ever, be-
cause they thus visibly restored
thousands of those 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. 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-colored 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
Joh. Agricola, Sybenhundert und fünffzig
Teutscher Sprichwörter.
No. 497. p. 268. º
*Spangenberg (Adels-Spiegel. , Mirror of
Nobility, loc. cit.), in his own forcible manner,
thus expresses himself on this subject: “It
was afterward pointed out by some, that
these people could not have been properly
baptized, or at all events, that, their baptism
was ineffectual, because they had received it
from priests who shamelessly lived in open
cohabitation with unchaste harlots. Upon
this the lower classes rose in rebellion, and
would have killed all the priests.” Compare
Appendix, No. I.
f Bºovii Annal. ecclesiastic. loc. cit. 1468.
Hagenau, I 537, 8.
[65] 9
disease, not even excepting the tym-
pany, 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 treat-
ment 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,” 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 fanat-
ical 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 with-
draw diseases from the pale of miracu-
lous interpositions and saintly influ-
ences, 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 sup-
position, ascribing them rather to
God than to nature, which is but idle
talk. We dislike such nonsensical
gossip as is not supported by symp-
toms, but only by faith, a thing which
is not human, whereon the gods them-
selves set no value.”
Such were the words which Paracel-
sus addressed to his contemporaries,
who were as yet incapable of appre-
* See Appendix, Nos. III. and IV.
10 [66] THE DANCING MANIA
OF THE MIDIDLE AGES.
§
W
chap. 3, p. 501.
l I
Tom. I,
ciating doctrines of 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 thou-
sands were, according to their own
conviction, given up as a prey to the
devil; while at the command of relig-
ion 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, a stimativa), 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 cor-
poreal causes (Chorea naturalis, coac-
ta), 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 laugh-
ter, the blood is set in commotion,
in consequence of an alteration in
the vital spirits, whereby involuntary
fits of intoxicating joy, and a pro-
pensity to dance, are occasioned.*
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 pleasur-
able sensations, and by an extrava-
gant propensity to dance. There
was no howling, Screaming, and jump-
ing, 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 under-
standings, yet were sufficiently self-
* 7%cophrasti 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.
Opera. Strassburg, 1616. fol.
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 ºp disquietude,
which is the usual forerunner of an
attack of this kind, by laughter, and
quick walking carried to the extent
of producing fatigue.* This disorder,
so different from the original type,
evidently approximates to the modern
chorea ; or rather is in perfect accord-
ance 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 com-
mencement of the sixteenth century.
On the communication of the St.
Vitus's dance by sympathy, Paracel-
sus 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 while
“all other qualities and natures " are
subdued, incessantly impel the pa-
tient, in consequence of his original
compliance, and his all-conquering
imagination, to imitate what he has
seen. On his treatment of the dis-
ease 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 excite-
ment, he had a mental remedy, the
efficacy of which is not to be de-
spised, if we estimate its value in con-
nection 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 persos, to set his whole
mind and thoughts concerning these
oaths in the image; ” and when he
had succeeded in this, he was to burn
—w
* Chorea procursiva of the moderns. Bernt,
Monographia Choreae Sti. Viti. Prag. 1810. p.
25.
THE DANCING MANIA OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
the image, so that not a particle of it
should remain.” 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 be-
gun, and the worship of Saints was by
many rejected as idolatrous.f For
the second kind of St. Vitus's dance,
arising from sensual irritation, with
which women were far more frequently
affected than men, Paracelsus rec-
ommended harsh treatment and
strict fasting. He directed that the
patients should be deprived of their lib-
erty; 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 ac-
customed 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
* This proceeding was, however, no in-
vention 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 be-
witched ; and in order to torment him, they
stuck it full of pins, or melted it before the
fire. The books on naagic, 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 cel-
ebrated Storch, of the school of Szah/, pub-
lished a treatise on witchcraft, worthy of
the fourteenth century. “Abhandlung von
Kinderkrankheiten.” Treatise on the Dis-
eases of Children. Vol. IV. p. 228. Eise-
nach, 1751—8.
The ancients were in the habit of employing
wax in incantations.
Thus Simoetha in Theocritus :
‘S2ſ toūtov rôv Kapòv šyā) abv Óaiptovt Táko,
‘Qç Tákout it' porog & Müvówog airika Aé%tc.
See Potter's Antiquities, Vol. II, p. 251.
and Horace—
“Lanea et effigies erat, altera cerea.”
Lió. I. Sat. 8. l. 30.
Zºrants... note.
f See Agricola, loc. cit. p. 269. No. 498.
[67] 11
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 en-
large. 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 Suits our present pur-
pose.
SECT. 6.-DECLINE AND TERMINA-
TION 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 disap-
peared. Paracelsus makes no men-
tion of the tympanites as taking place
after the attacks, although it may oc-
casionally have occurred; and Schenck
von Graffenberg, a celebrated physi-
cian of the latter half of the sixteenth
century,” 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.f The St. Vitus's dance
attacked people of all stations, espe-
cially those who led a sedentary life,
Such as shoemakers and tailors; but
even the most robust peasants aban-
doned their labors in the fields, as if
they were possessed by evil spirits;
and thus those affected were seen as-
Sembling indiscriminately, from time
to time, at certain appointed places,
and, unless prevent by the lookers-on
continuing to dance without intermis-
sion, until their very last breath was
expended. Their fury and extrava-
gance of demeanor so completely
deprived them of their senses, that
*Johann Schenck von Graffenberg, born"
I530, 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.
f /. Schenkää a Graffenberg Observationum
medicarum, rariarum, etc. Libri VII. Lug-
dun. I643, fol. L. I. Obs. VIII. p. 136.
-*
12 [68] THE DANCING MANIA
OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
many of them dashed their brains
out against the walls and corners of
buildings, or rushed headlong into
rapid rivews, 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 men-
tal disorder was calmed by the ex-
treme 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 sen-
sorium to the nerves of motion, and,
at an earlier period, to the abdominal
plexus, where a deep-seated derange-
ment of the system was perceptible
from the secretion of flatus in the in-
testines.
The cure effected by these stormy
attacks was in many cases so perfect,
that some patients returned to the
factory or the plow as if nothing
had happened. Others, on the con-
trary, 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 preg-
nancy 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 unfre-
quent so late as Schenck's time.
That patients should be violently af-
fected by music, and their paroxysms.
brought on and increased by it, is nat-
ural with such nervous disorders;
where deeper impressions are made
through the ear, which is the most in-s
tellectual 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 di-
rected, that athletic men should be
sent among them in order to complete
the exhaustion, which had been often
observed to produce a good effect.”
At the same time there was a pro-
hibition against wearing red garments,
because at the sight of this color,
those 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 fre-
quently tore their own clothes while
in the paroxysm, and were guilty of
other improprieties, so that the more
Opulent employed confidential attend-
ants to accompany them, and to take
care that they did no harm either to
themselves or others. This extraor-
dinary disease was, however, so great-
ly mitigated in Schenck's time, that
the St. Vitus's dancers had long since
ceased to stroll from town to town;
and that physician, like Paracelsus,
makes no mention of the tympanitic in-
flation of the bowels. Moreover, most
* It is related by Felix Plater (born 1536,
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 re-
lieved each other; and this singular mode of
cure lasted above four weeks, when the pa-
tient fell down exhausted, and being quite un-
able to stand, was carried to an hospital,
where she recovered. She had remained in
her clothes all the time, and entirely regard-
less 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. AE/afari Praxeos medicae opus. L. I.
ch. 3. p. 88. Tom. I. Basil. 1656, 4to. Ejusd.
Observation. Basil. 1641, 8, p. 92.
THE DANCING MANIA OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
of those affected were only annually
visited by attacks; and the occasion
of them was so manifestly referable
to the prevailing notions of that pe-
riod, 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
A felt a disquietude and restlessness
which they were unable to overcome.
They were dejected, timid, and anx-
ious; 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 con-
fident 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 na-
ture. 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 dis-
ease was still in existence in the seven-
teenth 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 an-
nually 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 ab-
erration, like persons in an ecstasy,
until they fell exhausted to the ground;
[69] 13
and when they came to themselves
again, they felt relieved from a dis-
tressing uneasiness and painful sen-
sation of weight in their bodies, of
which they had complained for sev-
eral weeks prior to St. Vitus's day.”
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 vis-
ited 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 sta-
tl On.
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.f : Many concur-
rent 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 accompa-
nied by minstrels playing upon noisy
instruments, who roused their morbid
feelings; and it may readily be Sup-
posed that, by the performance of
lively melodies, and the stimulating
effects which the shrill tones of fifes
and trumpets would produce, a par-
oxysm, that was perhaps but slight in
itself, might, in many cases, be in-
creased to the most outrageous fury,
such as in later times was purposely
induced in order that the force of the
disèase might be exhausted by the
violence of its attack. Moreover, by
means of intoxicating music a kind of
demoniacal festival for the rude mul-
titude was established, which had the
effect of spreading this unhappy mal-
ady wider and wider. Soft harmony
was, however, employed to calm the
excitement of those affected, and it is
* The 15th of June. Here therefore they
did not wait till the Festival of St. John.
t Gregor. Horstii Observationum medicina-
lium singularium Libri IV. priores. His ac-
cessit Epistolarum et Consultationum medi-
car. Lib. I. Ulm. I628, 4to. Epistol. P. 374.
*
14 [70]
THE DANCING MANIA OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
mentioned as a character of the tunes
played with this view to the St. Vi-
tus's dancers, that they contained
transitions from a quick to a slow
measure, and passed gradually from
a high to a low key.” It is to be re-
gretted 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 subse-
quent events were altogether adverse
to its continuance. Wars carried on
with animosity and with various suc-
cess for thirty years, shook the west
of Europe; and although the unspeak-
able calamities which they brought
upon Germany, both during their con-
tinuance and in their immediate con-
sequences, were by no means favora-
ble to the advance of knowledge, yet
with the vehemence of a purifying
fire, they gradually effected the intel-
lectual regeneration of the Germans;
superstition, in her ancient form,
never again appeared, and the belief
in the dominion of spirits, which pre-
vailed in the middle ages, lost forever
its once formidable power.
CHAPTER II.
DANCING MANIA IN ITALY.
SECT. I.-TARANTISM.
IT was of the utmost advantage
to the St. Vitus's dancers that they
made choice of a favorite patron
saint; for not to mention that peo-
plc were inclined to compare them
to the possessed with evil spirits,
described in the Bible, and thence
*/o. Bodin. Method. historic. Amste-
lod. 1650, 12mo, Ch. V. p. 99–Idem, de Re-
publica. Francofurt. 1591, 8vo. Lib, V. Ch.
I. p. 789.
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 re-
ligious duty.” Thus, passing over
* A very remarkable case, illustrative in
part of this observation, where, however,
not the person who was supposed to be the
subject of the demoniacal malady, but its
alleged authors, were punished, is thus re-...
ported by Dr. Watt of Glasgow —“It
occurred at Bargarran, in Renfrewshire, in
1696. The patient's name was Christian
Shaw, a girl of eleven years of age. She
is described as having had violent fits of
leaping, dancing, running, crying, fainting,
etc., but the whole narrative is mixed up
with so much credulity and superstition,
that it is impossible to separate truth from
fiction. These strange fits continued from
August, 1696, till the end of March in the
year following, when the patient recovered.”
An account of the whole was published at
Edinburgh, in 1698, entitled “A true Nar-
rative of the Sufferings of a Young Girl, who
was strangely molested by evil spirits, and
their instruments, in the West, collected,
from authentic testimonies.” 2^
The whole being ascribed to witchcraft,
the clergy were most active on the oc-
casion. Besides occasional days of hu-
miliation, two solemn fasts were observed
throughout the whole bounds of the Pres-
bytery, and a number of clergymen and
elders were appointed in rotation, to be
constantly on the spot. So far the matter
was well enough. But such was the super-
Stition of the age, that a memorial was
presented to his Majesty's most honorable
Privy Council, and on the 19th of Jan-
uary, 1697, a warrant was issued, setting
forth “that there were pregnant grounds of
suspicion of witchcraft in Renfrewshire,
especially from the afflicted and extraor-
dinary condition of Christian Shaw, daugh-
ter of John Shaw, of Bargarran.” . A com-
mission was therefore granted to Alexander
Lord Blantyre, Sir John Maxwell, Sir John
Shaw, and five others, together with the
sheriff of the county, to inquire into the
matter, and report. This commission is
signed by eleven privy councillors, consisting
of some of the first noblemen and gentlemen
in the kingdom.
The report of the commissioners having
fully confirmed the suspicions respecting the
existence of witchcraft, another warrant was
THE DANCING MANIA OF THE MIDIDLE AGES,
the innumerable instances of the burn-
ing of witches, who were, after all,
only laboring under a delusion, the
Teutonic knights in Prussia not un-
frequently condemned those maniacs
to the stake who imagined themselves
to be metamorphosed into wolves *
—an extraordinary species of insanity
which, having existed in Greece,
before our era, spread, in process of
time, over Europe, so that it was com-
municated not only to the Romaic,
but also to the German and Sarma-
tian nations, and descended from the
ancients, as a legacy of affliction to
posterity. In modern times Ly-
canthropy, such was the name given
to this infatuation, has vanished
from the earth, but it is nevertheless
well worthy the consideration of
the observer of human aberrations,
and a history of it by some writer
who is equally well acquainted with
the middle ages as with antiquity, is
still a desideratum.f We leave it
——º
issued on the 5th of April, 1697, to Lord
Hallcraig, Sir John Houston, and four
others, “to try the persons accused of witch-
craft, and to sentence the guilty to be
burned, or otherwise executed to death, as
the commission should incline.”
The commissioners, thus empowered,
were not remiss in the discharge of their
duty. After twenty hours were spent in the
examination of witnesses, and counsel heard
on both sides, the counsel for the prosecution
“exhorted the jury to beware of condemning
the innocent : but at the same time, should
they acquit the prisoners in opposition to
legal evidence, they would be accessory to
all the blasphemies, apostacies, murders,
tortures, and seductions, whereof these ene-
mies of heaven and earth should hereafter
be guilty.”. After the jury had spent six
hours in deliberation, seven of the miserable
wretches, three men and four women, were
condemned to the flames, and the sentence
faithfully executed at Paisley, on the Ioth of
!” I697.-Medico-Chirurg. Trans. Vol.
... p. 20, et seq.-Z'ransl. note.
* Compare Olaus Magnus, de gentibus
Septentrionalibus. Lib. XVIII. Ch. 45–47.
p. 942, Selj. Rom. I 555, fol.
i 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.
“Aycanthropia, which Avicenna calls
cucubiath, others lupinam insaniam, or wolf-
madness, when men run howling about
[71] 15
for the present, without further no-
tice, and turn to a malady most ex-
traordinary in all its phenomena,
having a close connection with the
St. Vitus's dance, and, by a com-
parison of facts, which are altogeth-
er similar, affording us an instruct-
ive subject for contemplation. We
allude to the disease called Taran-
tism, which made its first appear-
ance in Apulia, and thence spread
over the other provinces of Italy,
where, during some centuries, it pre-
graves and fields in the night, and will not
be persuaded but that they are wolves, or
some such beasts. Aëtius (Lib. 6. cap. I I.)
and Pau/us (Lib. 3. cap. 16.) call it a kind
of melancholy ; but I should rather refer it
to madness, as most do. Some make a
doubt of it, whether there be any such dis-
ease. AXomat. ab A/tomari (Cap. 9. Art. Med.)
saith, that he saw two of them in his
time : Wierus (De praestig. Lemonum, 1.
3. cap. 21.) tells a story of such a one at
Padua, I 541, that would not believe to the
contrary but that he was a wolf. He hath
another instance of a Spaniard, who thought
himself a bear. Aorestus (Observat. lib. Io.
de Morbis Cerebri, c. 15.) confirms as
much by many examples; one, among the
rest, of which he was an eye-witness, at
Alcmaer in Holland.—A poor husbandman
that still hunted about graves, and kept in
churchyards, of a pale, black, ugly, and fear-
ful look. Such, belike, or little better, were
king Proetus' daughters (Hippocrates lib. de
insaniá), that thought themselves kine; and
Nebuchadnezzar, in Daniel, as some inter-
preters hold, was only troubled with this
kind of madness. This disease, perhaps,
gave occasion to that bold assertion of Pliny
(Lib. 8, cap. 22. homines interdum lupos
fieri; et contra), some men were turned into
wolves in his time, and from wolves to men
again ; and to that fable of Pausanias, of a
man, that was ten years a wolf, and after-
ward turned to his former shape; to Ovid's
(Met, lib. I.) tale of Lycaon, etc. He that is
desirous to hear of this disease, or more
examples, let him read Austin in his eight-
eenth book, de Civitate Dei, cap. 5; Aſizaldus,
cent. 5. 77 ; Schentkius, lib, I. Hildesheim,
Søicil. 2. de manić; Forestus, lib, Io, de
morbis cerebri : Olaus Magnus; Vicentius
Bellavicensis, spec. met, lib. 31. c. 122; Pier-
its, Zvº.e, 2.74sº, Zºar, Aºi, cer, Pºe-
rus, Sºranger, etc. This malady, saith Azi-
cenna, troubleth men most in February, and
is nowadays frequent in Bohemia and Hun-
gary, according to Heurotius. (Cap, de Man.)
Schermitzius will have it common in Livonia.
They lie hid, most part, all day, and go
abroad in , the night, barking, howling, at
graves and deserts; they have usually hol-
16 [72] THE DANCING MANIA
OF THE MIDIDLE AGES.
vailed as a great epidemic. In the
present times it has vanished, or at
least has lost altogether its original
importance, like the St. Vitus's dance,
lycanthropy, and witchcraft.
SECT. 2.-MoST ANCIENT TRACES.—
CAUSES.
The learned Nicholas Perotti º
gives the earliest account of this
strange disorder. Nobody had the
least doubt that it was caused by the
low eyes, scabbed legs and thighs, very dry
and pale (Ulcerata crura; sitis ipsis a dest
immodica; pallidi ; lingua sicca), saith
Altomarus : he gives a reason there of
all the symptoms, and sets down a brief
cure of them.”—Burton's Anatomy of Mel-
ancholy. Tenth Edit. : 8vo. 1804. Vol. I.
Page 13, et seq.
It is surprising that so learned a writer
as Burton should not have alluded to Oriba-
sius, who flourished 140 years before Aëtius,
and of whom Freind says, “In auctore hoc
miri cujusdam morbi prima mentig est; is
Avkáv0póTog sive AvKav000Tria dicitur, estdue
melancholiae, aut insaniae, species quaenam
ita ab illo descripta : ‘Quos hoc malum
infestos habet, nocturno tempore domo
egressi, Lupos in omnibus rebus imitantur,
et ad diem usque circa tumulos vagantur
mortuorum. Hos ita cognosce: pallidi
sunt, oculos hebetes et siccos, non illachry-
mantes, eosque concavos habent ; lingua
siccissima est, nulla penitus in ore saliva
conspicitur, siti enecti; crura vero, quia
noctu saepe offendunt, sine remedio exul-
cerata.”— Quod ad morbum ipsum attinet,
si peregrinantibus fides adhibenda est, fuit
olim in quibusdam regionibus, ut in Livonia,
Hibernia, et aliis locis visi non infrequens,’”
etc.—/. Freind. Opera omnia Med, fol. Lon.
don, 1733.
De hujus morbi antiquitatibus vide ele.
gantem Böttigeri disputationem in Sørengelii
Beitr. z. Gesch. d. Med. II. p. I-45.-
Blancard. Lexic. Med. Edit. noviss. 8vo.
Lipsiae, 1832–7 ransl. note.
* Born 1430, died 1480. , Cornucopiae la-
tinae 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 digi-
tur, et colotes et galeotes, lentiginosus in
cavernulis dehiscentibus, per aestum terræ
habitans. Hic majorum nostrorum tempori-
bus in Italia visus non fuit, nunc frequens in
Apulia visitur. Aliquando etiam in Tarqui-
nensi et Corniculano agro, et vulgo similiter
tarantula woeatur. Morsus ejus perraro in-
teremit hominem, semistupidum tamen facit,
et varie afficit, tarantulam vulgo appellant.
Quidam cantu audito, aut sono, ita excitantatºr,
bite of the tarantula,” 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 Ital-
ians to the stellio of the old Romans,
which was a kind of lizard, f said to
be poisonous, and invested by credu-
lity 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 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 con-
founds spiders and lizards together,
so that he considers the Apulian tar-
antula, which he ranks among the
class of spiders, to have the same
ut pleni laetitia et semper ridentes saltent, mec
rtisi defatigati et semineces desistant. Alii
semper flentes, quasi desiderio Suorum miser-
abilem vitam agant. Alii visa muliere, libi-
dinis statim ardore incensi, veluti furentes in
eam prosiliant. Quidam ridendo, quidam
flendo moriantur.”
* Lycosa Tarantula. The Aranea Taran-
tula of Linnaeus, who, after the technical
description, says, “Habitat in Europa austra-
li, potissimum Apulia, in Barbaria, in Tauria,
Russiaeque australis desertis, in Astracania
ad montes Sibiriae Altaicos usque, in Persia
et reliquo Oriente, in solo praesertim argilla-
ceo in antris, morsu quamvis interdum do-
lente, olimgue famosum tarantismum musica
sanandum excitare credito, vix unquam peri-
culoso, cinerascens, oculis duobus prioribus
rubris, thorace in areas nigras diviso in cen-
trum concurrentes, abdomine supra fasciis
maxillisque nigris.”—Systema Aſatura, Tom.
I. pars v. p. 2956.
For particulars regarding the habits of the
Lycosae, see Griffith's Transl. of Cuvier's
Animal Kingdom. Vol. XIII. p. 427 and p.
480. et seq. The author states that M. Cha-
brier has published (Soc. Acad. de Lille 4°
cahier) some curious observations on the
Mycosa tarantula of the south of France.—
7%rants/. note.
t Matthiol. Commentar. in Dioscorid, L.
II. ch. 59, p. 363. Ed. Venet. I 565, fol.
f Perotti, loc. cit.
THE DANCING MANIA OF THE MIDIDLE AGES.
meaning as the kind of lizard called
àokañagórne,” it is the less extraordinary
that the unlearned country people of
Apulia should confound the much
dreaded ground-spider with the fabu-
lous star lizard, f 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, f 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 dis-
ease 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
perplextrig 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 com-
mon, especially in Apulia, as well as
in some other districts. He de-
serves, however, no great confidence
as a naturalist, notwithstanding his
having delivered lectures in Bologna
on medicine and other sciences. $ He
at least has neglected to prove his as-
sertion, which is not borne out by any
analogous phenomenon observed in
modern times with regard to the his-
tory 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
* Probably Lacerta Gecko, as also the syn-
gºes, KożóTºg and Yahéðrmg, quoted by
III].
f Lacerta Stellio. It need scarcely be ob-
served that the venomous nature of this harm-
less creature was a pure invention of Roman
Superstition.
f See Athan. Kircher, loc. cit.
§ From 1451–1458. Tiraboschi. VI. II. p.
350. *
[73] 17
those unexampled storms which arose
at the time of the Black Death * in
the middle of the fourteenth century
had set the insect world in motion ;
for the spider is little, if at all suscep-
tible of those cosmical influences
which at times multiply locusts and
other winged insects to a wonder-
ful extent, and compel them to
migrate.
The symptoms which Perotti enu-
merates as consequent on the bite of
the tarantula agree very exactly with
those described by later writers.
Those who were bitten generally fell
into a state of melancholy, and ap-
peared to be stupefied, and scarcely in
possession of their senses. This con-
dition was, in many cases, united
with so great a sensibility to music,
that, at the very first tones of their
favorite melodies, they sprang up,
shouting for joy, and danced on with-
out intermission, until they sank to
the ground exhausted and almost life-
less. 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 anxi-
ety. Others, again, in morbid fits of
love cast their longing looks on
women, and instances of death are
recorded, which are said to have oc-
curred under a paroxysm of either
laughing or weeping.
From this description, incomplete
as it is, we may easily gather that
tarantism, the essential symptoms of
which are mentioned in it, could not
have originated in the fifteenth cent-
ury, to which Perotti's account re-
fers; for that author speaks of it as a
well-known malady, and states that
the omission to notice it by older
writers, was to be ascribed solely to
the want of education in Apulia, the
only province probably where the
disease at that time prevailed. A
nervous disorder that had arrived at
So high a degree of development,
must have been long in existence,
and doubtless had required an elabo-
*---—------—
* See p. 11, et seq.
18 [74] THE DANCING MANIA
OF THE MIDIDLE AGES.
}
rate preparation by the concurrence
of general causes.
The symptoms which followed the
bite of venomous spiders were well
known to the ancients, and had ex-
cited the attention of their best ob-
servers, who agree in their descrip-
tions of them. It is probable that
among the numerous species of their
phalangium,” the Apulian tarantula
is included, but it is difficult to deter-
mine this point with certainty, more
especially, because in Italy the taran-
tula was not the only insect which
caused this nervous affection, similar
Iresults being likewise attributed to
ithe bite of the scorpion. Lividity of
the whole body as well as of the coun-
tenance, difficulty of speech, tremor of
tthe limbs, icy coldness, pale urine,
edepression of spirits, head-ache, a
flow of tears, nausea, vomiting, sexual
..excitement, flatulence, syncope, dysu-
, ria, watchfulness, lethargy, even
death itself, were cited by them as
the consequences of being bitten by
venomous spiders, and they made lit-
itle distinction as to their kinds. To
these symptoms we may add the
strange rumor, 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 those affected felt
an irresistible propensity to dancing,
or that they were accidentally cured
by it. Even Constantine of Africa,
who lived 5oo years after Aëtius, and
as the most learned physician of the
school of Salerno, would certainly not
have passed over so acceptable a sub-
_ject of remark, knows nothing of such
: a memorable course of this disease
: arising from poison, and merely re-
Apeats the observations of his Greek
* Aëtius, who wrote at the end of the sixth
century, mentions six which occur in the
older works. I. bāytov, 2. Atkoç, 3. pluppuhketov,
4. KpavokołóTrng, by others, keſha'oxpołotnc,
5. ak%mpokéjažov, and 6. Oko%ktov, Tctrabl.
IV. Serm. I. ch. 18. in Hen. Steph. Com-
pare Dioscorid. Lib. VI. ch. 42. Matthiol.
Commentar. in Dioscorid. p. 1447. Micarid.
Theriac. V. 8,715.755. 654.
predecessors.” Gariopontus,f a Sa-
|lernian physician of the eleventh cent-
ury, 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 neces-
sary 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
favorite instrument happened to catch
their ear, they commenced a spasmod-
ic dance, or ran with the utmost en-
ergy which they could muster, until
they were totally exhausted. These
dangerous maniacs, who, it would
seem, appeared in considerable num-
bers, were looked upon as a legion of
devils, but on the causes of their mal-
ady this obscure writer adds nothing
further than that he believes (oddly
enough) that it may sometimes be excit-
ed by the bite of a mad dog. He calls
the disease Anteneasmus, by which
is meant no doubt the Enthusiasmus of
the Greek physicians.# We cite this
* Aranearum multae species sunt. Quae
ubi mordent, faciunt multum dolorem, rubo-
rem, frigidum sudorem, et citrinum colorem.
Aliquando quasi stranguriae in urina duri-
tiem, et virgate extensionem, intra inguina, et
genua, tetinositatem in stomacho. Linguae
extensionem, ut eorum sermo non possit dis-
cerni. Vomment humiditatem quasi araneae
telam, et ventris emollitionem similiter, etc.
De communibus medico cognitu necessariis
locis. Lib. Vl II. cap. 22. p. 235. Basil. I 539.
fol.
† He lived in the middle of the eleventh
century, and was a junior contemporary with
Constantine of Africa. J. Chr. Gottl. Acker-
mann, Regiomen sanitatis Salernisive Scholae
Salernitanae de conservanda bona valetudine
praecepta. Stendal. 1790, 8vo. p. 38.
t The passage is as follows: “Anteneas-
mon est species manize periculosa nimium.
Irritantur tanquam maniaci, et in se manus
injiciunt. Hi subito arripiuntur, cum salta-
tione manuum et peatewt, guta intra auriume
cavernas quasi voces diversas sonare falso au-
diumſ, ut sunt diversorum instrumentorºm mu-
sica soni; quibus delectanttur, ut statim saltent,
aut cursum velocen arripiant; Subito arripi-
centes gladium percutiunt se aut alios; morsi-
:
THE DANCING MANIA OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
phenomenon as an important fore-
runner of tarantism, under the con-
viction 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 referable, with the utmost
probability, to a period between the
middle and the end of this century,
and is consequently contemporane-
ous with that of the St. Vitus’s
dance (1374). The influence of
the Roman Catholic religion, con-
nected 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 favorable state for the re-
ception of a nervous disorder. Ac-
cordingly, 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 great-
est facility where the existence of su-
perstition produces the same effect in
more limited districts, at 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 *
bus se et alios attrectare non dubitant. Hos
Latini percussores, alii dicunt daemonis legi-
ones esse, ut dum eos arripiunt, vexent et
vulnerent. Diligentia eis imponenda est,
quando istos sonos audierint, includantur, et
post accessionis horas phlebotomentur, et
venter eis moveatur. Cibos leves accipiant
cuis, calida **!'l--> ut willuis “vºtes, quac im
cerebro sonum facit, egeratur. In ipsa ac-
Cessione silentium habeant. Quod si spumam
per os ejecerint, vel ex canis rabidi morste causa
feerit, intra septem dies moriumtur.” Gario-
portti, medici vetustissimi, de morborum
causis, accidentibus et curationibus. Libri
VIII. Basil. 1536, 8vo. L. I. ch. 2. p. 27.
* /. P. Faport. De la peste, ou les épo-
*
[75] 19
sixteen times between the years 1119
and 1340. Small-pox and measles
were still more destructive than in
modern times, and recurred as fre-
quently. 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 paternal hearth
innumerable victims who, banished
from human society, pined away in
lonely huts, whither they were accom-
panied only by the pity of the benev-
olent and their own despair. All
these calamities, of which the mod-
erns have scarcely retained any recol-
lection, were heightened to an incred-
ible degree by the Black Death,”
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 suffer-
ing under anxiety, become more irri-
table, 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 junct-
ure, though it could not have done
So at an earlier period, a violent nerv-
ous disorder, which, like St. Vitus’s
dance in Germany, spread by sym-
pathy, increasing in severity as it took
a wider range, and still further ex-
tending its ravages from its long con-
tinuance. 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
ques mémorables de ce fléau. Paris, an 8,
8vo. Tome II. page 270. (1119. 1126. 1135.
II93. I225. I227. I231. I234. I243. I254. ºš.
I3OI. I31. I. I316. I335. I340.)
* 1347 to 1350.
20 [76] THE DANCING MANIA
OF THE MIDI) LE AGES.
*
i
i
|
- i
*
susceptibility and talent, became ca-
pable 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 cent-
tury we find that Tarantism had spread
beyond the boundaries of Apulia, and
that the fear of being bitten by ven-
onous spiders had increased. Noth-
ing 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 de-
sponding state of lassitude. Many
became weak-sighted or hard of hear-
ing, Some lost the power of speech,
and all were insensible to ordinary
causes of excitement. Nothing but
the flute or the cithern afforded them
relief.” . At the sound of these in-
struments they awoke as it were 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 practiced 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 vil-
lages alike resounded throughout the
Summer season with the notes of fifes,
clarionets, and Turkish drums; and
patients were everywhere to be met
with who looked to dancing as their
only remedy. Alexander ab Alexan-
dro,f who gives this account, saw a
* Athanasius Aireſher gives a full account of
the instruments then in use, which differed
very slightly from those of our days. Mu-
surgia universalis, sive Ars magna consoni
et dissoni. Romae, 1650, fol. Tom. I. p. 477.
f Genialium dierum Libri VI. Lugdun. Bat.
young man in a remote village who
was seized with a violent attack of
Tarantism. . He listened with eager.
ness and a fixed stare to the sound of
a drum, and his graceful movements
gradually become more and more vio-
lent, until his dancing was convert-
ed 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 treat-
ing 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 ves-
sels, this became a permanent germ
of the disorder, so that the dancing
fits might again and again be excited
ad inſºniſum 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 ex-
pected 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 before St. Vitus's day,
again grew dejected and misanthropic,
until, by music and dancing, they dis-
pelled the melancholy which had be-
—s
1673, 8vo. Lib. II. ch. 17. p. 398. Alex. ab Al-
examdro, a distinguished Neapolitan lawyer,
lived from 1461 to I 523. The historian Gale-
dentius Merula, who became celebrated about
I 536, makes only a very slight mention of .
the Tarantism. Memorabilium Gaud. Me-
*ulae Novariensis opus, etc., Lugdun. 1656.
8vo. L. III. ch. 69. p. 251.
THE DANCING MANIA
come with them a kind of sensual en-
joyment.
Under such favorable 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 who-
ever had either actually been, or even
fancied that he had been, once bitten
by a poisonous spider or Scorpion,
made his appearance annually wher-
ever the merry notes of the Taran-
tella resounded. Inquisitive females
joined the throng and caught the dis-
ease, 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 Za-
ranſati gradually became established
as a regular festival of the populace,
which was anticipated with impatient
delight. .
Without attributing more to decep-
tion and fraud than to the peculiar
nature of a progressive mental mal-
ady, it may readily be conceived that
the cases of this strange disorder now
grew more frequent. The celebrated
Matthioli,” who is worthy of entire
confidence, gives his account as an
eye-witness. He saw the same ex-
traordinary effects produced by mu-
sic as Alexandro, for, however tor-
tured 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 melo-
dies which had made an impression
on them—but this was the case only
with the Tarantellas composed ex-
pressly for the purpose—they sprang
up as if inspired with new life and
spirit, and, unmindful of their dis-
order, began to move in measured
gestures, dancing for hours together
without fatigue, until, covered with a
kindly perspiration, they felt a salu-
tary degree of lassitude, which re-
lieved them for a time at least, per-
haps even for a whole year, from their
dejection and oppressive feeling of
general indisposition. Alexandro's
* -—
* Petr., And. Matthioli Commentarii in
ºrid. Venet. I565, fol. Lib. II. ch. 57.
P. 302.
OF THE MIDIDLE A.G.E.S. [77] 21
experience of the injurious effects re-
Sulting from a sudden cessation of the
music was generally confirmed by Mat-
thioli. If the clarionets and drums
ceased for a single mornent, which as
the most skillful 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 sol-
ace 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, in the midst of this curative
exercise, to relapse into so deplorable
a state of suffering. The attack con-
sequent upon the bite of the Taran-
tula, Matthioli describes as varying
much in its manner. Some became
morbidly exhilarated, so that they re-
mained 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 suf-
fered from vomiting, and some had
Constant tremors. Complete mania
was no uncommon occurrence, not to
mention the usual dejection of spirits
and other subordinate symptoms.
SECT. 4.—IDIOSYNCRACIES.—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 six-
teenth 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.*
Even women scorned all female deli- *
cacy f and, adopting this impassioned
* 4thanas. Aircher. Magnes sive de Arte
magnetica Opus. , Rom. 1654, fol. p. 589.
f /oann. Juvenis de antiquitate et varia
Tarentinorum fortuna Lib. VIII. Neapol.
I 589. fol. Lib. II. ch. 17. p. 107. With the
exception of the statement quoted, ſuzen's
has borrowed almost everything from Aſaf.
thioli.
22 FIS] THE DANCING MANIA
OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
demeanor, did the same ; and this
phenomenon, as well as the excite-
ment which the Tarantula dancers
felt at the sight of anything with me-
tallic luster was quite common up to
the period when, in modern times, the
disease disappeared.* h
The abhorrence of certain colors
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
colors, 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 colors, of which
an explanation was sought, according
to the prevailing notions of the times,
in the difference of temperaments.f
Others again were enraptured with
green; and eye-witnesses describe this
rage for colors 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 favorite color than, new
as the impression was, they rushed
like infuriated animals toward the
object, devoured it with their eager
looks, kissed and caressed it in every
possible way, and gradually resign-
ing themselves to softer sensations,
adopted the languishing expression of
enamored lovers, and embraced the
handkerchief, or whatever other arti-
cle it might be, which was presented
to them, with the most intense ardor,
while the tears streamed from their
* Simon. Alloys. Tudecius, physician to
Queen Christine, saw a case of this kind in
July, 1656. Bonet. Medicina Septentrionalis
collatit. Genev. 1684. fol.
f Epipham. Ferdinand. Centum historiae
seu observationes et casus medici. Venet.
1621, fol. Hist. LXXXI. p. 259. Aerdinazz-
do, a physician in Messapia at the commence-
ment of the seventeenth century, has col-
lected, with much diligence, the various state-
ments respecting the Tarantism of his time.
He “was himself an eye-witness of it’” (p.
265), and is by far the most copious of all
the old writers on this subject.
eyes as if they were completely over-
whelmed by the inebriating impression
on their senses.
The dancing fits of a certain Cap-
uchin friar in Tarentum excited so
much curiosity, that Cardinal Caj-
etano 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 lis-
tened to the Tarantella of the musi-
cians, but with Strange gestures en-
deavored 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 odor.
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 dis-
quietude, that he presently sank
down in a swoon, from which he did
not recover until the Cardinal com-
passionately 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.*
At the sight of colors 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.f
Another no less extraordinary symp-
tom was the ardent longing for the
sea which the patients evinced. As
the St. John’s dancers of the four-
teenth century saw, in the spirit, the
heavens open and display all the
splendor of the saints, so did those
who were suffering under the bite of
the Tarantula feel themselves at-
tracted to the boundless expanse of
the blue ocean, and lost themselves
in its contemplation. Some songs, ''
*—
* Kircher, loc. cit. pp. 588, 589.
t Ferdinand, p. 259.
THE DANCING MANIA OF THE MII) OLE AGES.
which are still preserved, marked this
peculiar longing, which was moreover
expressed by significant music, and
was excited even by the bare mention
of the sea.” Some, in whom this sus-
| ceptibility was carried to the greatest
|
pitch, cast themselves with blind fury
into the blue waves,f 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, ex-
hibiting 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.f. Others
there were who rolled about on the
ground, and were, by their own desire,
buried up to the neck in earth, in or-
der to alleviate the misery of their con-
dition, not to mention an endless va-
riety 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
par-
the pain of sciatica, § or the
oxysms of mania, by the soft mel-
ody of the flute, and, what is still
more applicable to the present pur-
pose, to remove the danger arising
* For example:—
“Allu mari mi portati
Se voleti chemi sanati.
Allu mari, alla via :
Cosi m’ama la donna mia.
Allu mari allu mari :
Mentre campo, t'aggio amari.”
Kircher, loc. cit. p. 592.-Appendix, No. V.
t Ferdinand loc. cit. p. 257.
f A ºrcher, p. 589.
§ Alin. Hist. Nat.
447. Ed. Aſara'.
|Cael. Aurelian.
335. Ed. Amtman.
Lib. XXVIII. ch. 2, p.
Chron. Lib. I. ch. 5. p.
[79] 23
from the bite of vipers * by the same
means. This, however, was tried only
to a very small extent. But after be-
ing 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
ligature on the bitten limb, or by in-
ternal medicine, or that strong per-
sons occasionally withstood the effects
of the poison, without the employment
of any remedies at all.f. It was much
more common, and is quite in accord-
ance with the nature of so exquisite
a nervous disease, to hear accounts
of many who, when bitten by the
Tarantula, perished miserably be-
cause the Tarantella, which would
have afforded them deliverance,
was not played to them. # 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 unexam-
pled either in ancient or modern
times, the cure of the Zarantati 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 neg-
lected 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.|
* Democritus and Theophrastus made men.
tion of it. See Gell. Noct. Attic. Lib. IV. ch.
I 3.
3, Ferdinand. p. 260.
# Bagliv. loc. cit. p. 618. From more de-.
cided statements, however, we learn, that of
those who had been bitten only one or two,
in a thousand died. Ferdinand. p. 255.
6 § Il carnevaletto delle donne. Bagliv. p.
17.
| Ferdinanta. pp. 254. 260.
24 [80]
THE DANCING MANIA OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
The music itself was of a kind per-
fectly adapted to the nature of the
malady, and it made so deep an im-
pression on the Italians, that even to
the present time, long since the ex-
tinction of the disorder, they have
retained the Tarantella, as a particu-
lar species of music employed for
quick lively dancing. The different
kinds of Tarantella were distin-
guished, very significantly, by particu.
lar 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 ex-
pressed 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 colors, and set to
Idyllian songs of verdant fields and
shady groves. A third was named
“Cinque tempi; ” a fourth “Mo-
resca,” which was played to a Moor-
ish dance : a fifth, “Catena; ” and a
sixth, with a very appropriate desig-
nation, “Spallata,” as if it were only
fit to be played to dancers who were
lame in the shoulder. This was the
slowest and least in vogue of all.”
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.j 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.f
The music was almost wholly in
# Ferdinand. p. 259. Slow music made
the Tarantel dancers feel as if they were
crushed: spezzati, minuzzati, p. 260.
f A. Kircher, loc. cit.
f See Appendix, No. V.
the Turkish style (aria Turchesca),
and the ancient songs of the peasan. .
try of Apulia, which increased in num-
ber annually, were well suited to the
abrupt and lively notes of the Turk-
ish drum and the shepherd's pipe.
These two instruments were the fa-
vorites 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 af.
fected, they indicated their displeas-
ure 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 profound-
est secrets of the musical art.* It
was a matter of every day's experi-
ence, that patients showed a predi-
lection 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 soſtest
music produced by the vibration of
strings.f
Tarantism was at its greatest
height in Italy in the seventeenth cent-
ury, long after the St. Vitus's Dance
of Germany had disappeared. It
was not the natives of the country
only who were attacked by this com-
plaint. Foreigners of every color
and of every race, negroes, gypsies,
Spaniards, Albanians, were in like
manner affected by it.; Against the
effects produced by the Tarantula's
bite, or by the sight of the sufferers,
neither youth nor age afforded any
protection ; so that even old men of
* Bagliz. loc. cit. p. 623.
f A. Kircher, loc. cit.
f Aerdinand. p. 262.
\
g
º
h -
ninety threw aside their crutches at W
THE DANCING MANIA OF THE MIDIOLE AGES.
the sound of the Tarantella, and, as
if some magic potion, restorative of
youth and vigor, were flowing through
their veins, joined the most extrava-
gant dancers.” Ferdinando saw a
boy five years old seized with the
dancing mania, f in consequence of
the bite of a Tarantula; and, what is
almost past belief, were it not sup-
ported by the testimony of so credi-
ble an eye-witness, even deaf people
were not exempt from this disorder
so potent in its effect was the very
sight of those affected, even without
the exhilarating emotions caused by
music.;
Subordinate nervous attacks were
much more frequent during this cent-
ury than at any former period, and
an extraordinary icy coldness was ob-
served in those who were the subjects
of them; so that they did not recover
their natural heat until they had en-
gaged in violent dancing. $ Their
anguish and sense of oppression
forced from them a cold perspiration;
the secretion from the kidneys was
pale, || and they had so great a dislike
to everything cold, that when water
was offered them they pushed it away
with abhorrence. Wine, on the con-
trary, they all drank willingly, without
being heated by it, or in the slightest
degree intoxicated." 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 render-
ed them more severe,” and their great
thirst for wine may, therefore, in some
measure, be attributable to the want
of a more nutritious diet; yet the dis-
[81] 25
order 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,” vertigo,
complete insanity, with sleeplessness,
frequent weeping without any ostensi-
ble cause, were all usual symptoms.
Many patients found relief from being
placed in Swings or rocked in cra-
dles;f others required to be roused
from their state of suffering by severe
blows on the soles of their feet; others
beat themselves, without any inten-
tion 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, £ like those
of the St. John's dancers, while the
violence of the intestinal disorder was
indicated in others by obstinate con-
stipation or diarrhoea and vomiting. $
These pitiable objects gradually lost
their strength and their color, and
creeping about with injected eyes,
jaundiced complexions, and inflated
bowels, soon fell into a state of pro-
found 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, exercised a dominion over
men's minds which even the healthi-
est 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 de-
Spair, suffering the very agonies of
death, from a sting in the neck, in-
flicted by an insect which was be-
lieved to be a tarantula. He kindly
administered, without delay, a potion
of vinegar and Armenian bole, the
great remedy of those days for the
* This is said of an old man of Avetrano,
who was ninety-four years of age. Pp. 254.
2S7.
s: Idem, p. 261.
f Ferdinando saw a man who was hard of
hearing listen with great eagerness during
the dance, and endeavor to approach the
§ms and fifes as nearly as possible. P.
2 Kö.
; Idenn, p. 26o.
| Idem, p. 256.
* Idem, p. 26o.
* Idem, p. 261.
* Idem, p.
256.
f Idem, p.
258.
f Idem, p. 257.
§ Ferdinand. p. 256.
23 [82] THE DANCING MANIA
OF THE MIDIDLE AGES.
plague and all kinds of animal poi-
sons, and the dying man was, as if by
a miracle, restored to life and the
power of speech.* Now, since it is
quite out of the question that the bole
could have anything to do with the re-
sult in this case, notwithstanding Fra-
castoro's belief in its virtues, we can
only account for the cure by suppos-
ing, that a confidence in so great a
physician prevailed over this fatal dis-
ease of the imagination, which would
otherwise have yielded to scarcely
any other remedy except the taran-
tella. 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 main-
tain their belief in the yet undestroyed
poison of the tarantula's bite, and so
long did that mental affection con-
tinue to exist, after it had ceased to
depend on any corporeal excitement.f
Wherever we turn we find that this
morbid state of mind prevailed, and
was so supported by the opinions of
the age, that it needed only a stim-
ulus in the bite of the tarantula, and
the supposed certainty of its very dis-
astrous consequences, to originate
this violent nervous disorder. Even
in Ferdinando's time there were many
who altogether denied the poisonous
effects of the taramtula's bite, while
they considered the disorder, which
annually set Italy in commotion, to be
a melancholy depending on the im-
agination.f They dearly expiated
this skepticism, however, when they
were led, with an inconsiderate hard-
ihood, to test their opinions by experi-
ment; 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,
* De Contag. Lib. III. ch. 2, p. 212.
Opera Lugdun. I 591. 8vo.
f De Contag. p. 254.
# Ibid.
compelled to dance.” Others among
the clergy, who wished to shut their
ears against music, because they con-
sidered 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.f Thus it ap-
pears that the age was so little favora-
ble to freedom of thought, that even
the most decided skeptics, incapable
of guarding themselves against the rec-
ollection 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 ef-
fect. s
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, when-
ever circumstances favored such a
transition. This was more especially
the case with hysteria, that proteiform
and mutable disorder, in which the im-
aginations, 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 opportu-
sufferings. ACet us here pause to con-
sider 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
nity of ºß their .
dragged on a miserable existence.
Cheerfulness and an inclination to
* Idem, p. 262.
f Idem, p. 261.
f
THE DANCING MANEA OF THE MIDDLE A.G.E.S. [83] 27
removed.* After such a result, no
one could call 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 fan
tastic sufferings, in which dissimula-
tion and reality could scarcely be dis-
tinguished even by themselves, much
less by their physicians, were imitated,
in the same way as the distortions of
sensual pleasures passed into compul-
sory idleness, and in many, into black
despondency.” Their imaginations
became disordered—a pallid counte-
nance and oppressed respiration bore
testimony to their profound sufferings.
ſº could they do otherwise, sunk as
º #they were in such extreme misery,
ſº 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 here pass
}
!
.
*
unnotićéd a circumstance which illus-
trates, in a remarkable degree, the
psychological nature of hysterical suf-
ferings, namely, that many chlorotic
females, by joining the dancers at the
Carmevaletto, were freed from their
spasms and oppression of breathing
for the whole year, although the cor-
poreal cause of their malady was not
* “The imaginations of women are always
more excitable than those of men, and they are
therefore susceptible of every folly when they
lead a life of strict seclusion, and their
thoughts are constantly turned inward upon
themselves. Hence in orphan asylums, hos-
pitals, and convents, the nervous disorder of
one female so easily and quickly becomes the
disorder of all. I have read in a good medi-
*------------------~x
cal work that a nun, in a very large convent
in France, began to mew like a cat; shortly
afterward other nuns also mewed. At last all
the nuns mewed together every day at a certain
time for several hours together. The whole
surrounding Christian neighborhood heard,
with equal chagrin and astonishment, this
daily cat-concert, which did not cease until
all the nuns were informed that a company
of soldiers were placed by the police before
the entrance of the convent, and that they
were provided with rods, and would continue
whipping them until they promised not to
mew any more.
~"“But of all the epidemics of females which
I myself have seen in Germany, or of which
the history is known to me, the most remark-
able is the celebrated Convent epidemic of the
fifteeth century, which Cardan describes, and
which peculiarly proves what I would here
enforce. A nun in a German nunnery fell to
biting all her companions. In the course of
a short time all the nuns of this convent be-
an biting each other. The news of this in-
atuation among the nuns soon spread, and it
now passed from convent to convent through-
out a great part of Germany, principally Sax-
ony and Brandenburg. It afterward visited
the nunneries of Holland, and at last the nuns
had the biting mania even as far as Rome.”—
Zimmermann on solitude, Vol. II. Leipsig.
1784–7%ransl. note. -
the St. Vitus's dancers, by the impos-
tors of that period. It was certainly
by these persons also that the number
of subordinate symptoms was increas-
ed 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 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 un-
satisfied passion hurried them on to a
state of frenzy, they closed their ex-
istence by self-destruction; it being
common at that time for these un-
fortunate beings to precipitate them-
selves into the wells.f
It might hence seem that, owing to
the conduct of patients of this descrip-
tion, so much of fraud and falsehood
would be mixed up with the original
disorder, that having passed into an-
other complaint, it must have been it-
self destroyed. This, however, did
not happen in the first half of the
seventeenth century; for as a clear
proof that Tarantism remained sub-
stantially the same and quite unaf-
fected 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
ſ
* Georg. Bagjivi, Diss. de Anatome, morsu
et effectibus Tarantulae. pp. 616, 617. Opp.
Lugdun. I7 Io. 4to.
f Ferdinando, p. 257.
28 [84]
THE DANCING MANIA OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
by sexual excitement.* 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 con-
current accounts, that women by no
means enjoyed the distinction of be-
ing attacked by Tarantism more fre-
quently than men.
It is said that the cicatrix of the
tarantula bite, on the yearly or half-
yearly return of the fit, became dis-
colored,i but on this point the dis-
tinct 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 occur-
rence of this accident were not accom-
panied by the Apulian nervous dis-
order, 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 taran-
tula poison itself. This poison is
therefore doubtless to be considered
only as a remote cause of the Com-
plaint, which, but for that tempera-
ment, would be inadequate to its pro-
duction. The Persians employed a
very rough means of counteracting
the bad consequences of a poison of
this sort. They drenched the wounded
person with milk, and then, by violent
rotatory motion in a suspended box,
compelled him to vomit.f
SECT. 6.-DECREASE.
The Dancing Mania, arising from
the tarantula bite, continued, with all
* Idem, pp. 256, 257, 258.
f Idem, p. 258.
f Adam Olearius. Vermehrte Moscowit-
ische und Persianische Reisebeschreibung.
Travels in Muscovy and Persia. Schleswig,
1663. fol. Book IV. p. 496.
those additions of self-deception, and
of the dissimulation which is such a
constant attendant on nervous dis-
orders of this kind, through the whole
course of the seventeeth century. It
was indeed gradually on the decline,
but up to the termination of this pe-
riod, showed such extraordinary symp-
toms, 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.* He
repeats all the observations of Ferdi-
nando, 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.f
The immediate consequence of the
tarantula bite, the supervening ner-
vous disorder, and the aberrations
and fits of those who suffered from
Hysteria, he describes in a masterly
style, nor does he ever suffer his cre-
dulity 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 it-
self unchanged in the eighteenth cent-
ury, when all the links which con-
nected, it with the middle ages had
long since been snapped asunder
Imposture f grew more frequent, and
* Georg: Baglivi, Dissertatio VI. de Ana-
tome, morsu et effectibus Tarantulae (written
in 1595). Opera omnia, Lugdun. I7 Io, 4to,
#is physician once saw three patients,
who were evidently suffering from a malig-
nant fever, and whose illness was attributed
by the by-standers to the bite of the tarantula,
forced to dance by having music played to
them. One of them died on the Spot, and
the two others very shortly after. Ch. 7. p.
616.
f Among the instances in which imposture
successfully taxes popular credulity, perhaps
there is none more remarkable at the present
day than that afforded by the Psylli of Egypt,
a country which furnishes another illustration
of our author's remark at the commencement
of the next chapter. This sect according
to the testimony of modern writers, con-
tinues to exhibit the same strange spectacles
as the ancient serpent-eaters of Cyrene, de-
scribed by Strabo, 17 Dio. 51. c. 14. Lucan, 9.
THE DANCING MANIA
wherever the disease still appeared in
its genuine form, its chief cause,
namely, a peculiar cast of melancholy,
which formerly had been the temper-
annent of thousands, was now pos-
sessed only occasionally by unfort-
unate individuals. It might there-
fore 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 foto, and
stigmatized as an imposition, by most
physicians and naturalists, who in
this controversy have shown the nar-
rowness of their views and their utter
ignorance of history. In order to sup-
v. 894. 937. Herodot. 4. c. 173. Paus. 9.
c. 28. Savary states that he witnessed a
procession at Rosetta, where a band of these
seeming madmen, with bare arms and
wild demeanor, held enormous serpents in
their hands which writhed round their
bodies and endeavored to make their escape.
These Psylli, grasping them by the neck, tore
them with their teeth and ate them up alive,
the blood streaming down from their polluted
mouths. Others of the Psylli were striving
to wrest their prey from them, so that it
seemed a struggle among them who should
devour a serpent. The populace followed
them with amazement, and believed their
performances to be miraculous. Accordingly
they pass for persons inspired and pos-
sessed by a spirit who destroys the effect of
the serpent.
Sonnini, though not so fortunate as to
witness a public exhibition of such perform-
ances, yet, gives, the following interesting
account of what he justly calls a remarkable
specimen of the extravagance of man. After
adverting to the superstitious origin of the
sect, he goes on to say that a Saadi, or ser-
pent-eater, came to his apartment accompa-
nied by a priest of his sect. The priest car-
ried in his bosom a large serpent of a dusky
green and copper-color, which he was contin-
ually handling; and after having recited a
prayer, he delivered it to the Saadi. The
narrative proceeds —“With a vigorous
hand the Saadi seized the serpent, which
twisted itself round his naked arm. He be-
gan to appear agitated ; his countenance was
discomposed; his eyes rolled; he uttered
terrible cries, bit the animal in the head,
and tore off a morsel, which we saw him
chew and swallow. On this his agitation be-
OF THE MIDDLE AGES. [85] 29
port their opinion they have instituted
some experiments, apparently favor-
able to it, but under circumstances
altogether inapplicable, since, for the
most part, they selected, as the Sub-
jects of them, none but healthy men,
who were totally uninfluenced by a be-
lief in this once so dreaded disease.
From individual instances of fraud
and dissimulation, such as are found
in connection with most nervous affec-
tions without rendering their reality a
matter of any doubt, they drew a too
hasty conclusion respecting the gen-
eral phenomenon, of which they ap-
peared not to know that it had contin-
ued for nearly four hundred years, hav-
ing originated in the remotest periods
of the middle ages. The most learned
and the most acute among these skep-
tics is Serao the Neapolitan.” His rea-
sonings amount to this, that he con-
siders the disease to be a very marked
came convulsive: his howlings were re-
doubled, his limbs writhed, his countenance
assumed the features of madness, and his
mouth extended by terrible grimaces, was all
in a foam. Every now and then he devoured
a fresh morsel of the reptile. Three men en-
deavored to hold him, but he dragged them all
three round the chanaber. His arms were
thrown about with violence on all sides, and
struck everything within their reach. Eager
to avoid him, M. Forneti and I were obliged
sometimes to cling to the wall, to let him
pass and escape his blows. We could have
wished the madman far away. At length the
priest took the serpent from him, but his mad-
ness and convulsions did not cease immedi-
ately; he bit his hands and his fury continued.
The priest then grasped him in his arms,
passed his hand gently down his back, lifted
him from the ground, and recited some
prayers. By degrees his agitation dimin-
ished, and subsided into a state of complete
lassitude, in which he remained a few mo-
In entS.
“The Turks who were present at this ridic-
ulous and disgusting ceremony were firmly
persuaded of the reality of this religious
fury; and it is very certain that, whether it
were reality or imposture, it is impossible to
see the transports of rage and madness ex-
hibited in a more striking manner, or have
before your eyes a man more calculated to in-
spire terror.”—Hunter's Translation of
Sonnini's Travels, 8vo. 1799–2Yansl. note.
* Frazec. Serao, della Tarantola o vero
Falangio di Puglia. Napol, 1742.-See
Thom. Fasani, De vita, muniis et scriptis
Franc, Serai, etc. Commentarius. Neapol.
I784. 8vo, p. 76, et seq.
30 (86]
THE DANCING MANIA OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
/ 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 there-
fore directly confirms what in appear-
ance only he denies.* By shaking
the already vacillating belief in this
disorder he is said to have actually
succeeded in rendering it less fre-
quent, and in setting bounds to im-
posture ; f 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 f have delivered their
* Thom. Fasami, De vita, muniis et scriptis
Franc. Serai, etc. Commentarius. p. 88.
t Idem, p. 8
f H. Mercurialis, de Venenis et Morbis Ve-
nenosis (Venet. 1601, 4to. Lib. II. ch. 6. p. 39),
repeats the silly tale, that those who were
bitten continued, during their paroxysm, to
be occupied with whatever they had been en-
gaged in at the time they received the bite,
and proves, by a fact which had been com-
municated to him, that already, in the six-
teenth century, they were able to distinguish
impostures from those who had been really
bitten. A. Cardani, de Subtilitate, Libri
XXI. Basil. 1560. 8vo. Lib. IX. p. 635. The
baneful effect of the venom of the tarantula
was obviated, not so much by music as by the
great exertion used in dancing. Compare /.
Caes. Scaliger. Exoteric. Exercitt. Libri XV.
de Subtilitate. Francof. 1612. 8vo. Ex. 185.
p. 610—/. M. Fehr, Anchora sacra vel Scor-
zonera. Jen. 1666. 8vo. p. 127. From Alex.
ander ab Alexandro, and several later writers.
—Stalpart van der Wiel, Observatt, rarior,
Lugdun. Bat. 1687. 8vo. Cent. l. Obs. C. p.
424. According to Aircher.—Rod. a. Castro,
Medicus politicus. Hamburg, 1614. 4to. Lib.
IV. ch. 16. p. 275. According to Matthioli...—
D. Cirillo, Some account of the Tarantula,
Philosoph. Trans. Vol. LX. 1770, describes
Tarantism as a common imposture. So also
does /. A. Unzer, the Physician, Vol. II. pp.
473. 640, vol. III. pp. 466, 526. 528,529. 530.
533. 553; 11kewise A. A. Azischizºg, Eigene Ge-
danken und gesammelte Nachrichten von der
Tarantel, welche zur gānzlichen Vertilgung
des Vorurtheils von der Schädlichkeit ihres
Bisses, und der Heilung desselben durch Mu-
sik, dienlich und hinlänglich sind. Observa-
tions and statements respecting the Tarantula,
which suffice entirely to set aside the preju-
dice respecting the venom of its bite, as also
sentiments on Tarantism, but as they
have not possessed an enlarged knowl-
edge 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 specu-
lation.
CHAPTER III.
JDANCING MANIA IN ABYSSINIA.
SECT. 1.-TIGRETIER.
POTH the St. Vitus’s dance and
Tarantism belonged to the ages in
which they appeared. They could
not have existed under the same lati-
tude 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 cor-
poreal temperaments of nations, which
its cure by music. Berlin, 1772. 8vo. A very
shallow criticism. —A. Arorest. Observatt. et
Curatt. medicinal. Libri 30, 31 et 32. Fran-
cof. I 509. fol. Ob. XII. p. 41. diligently com-
piled from his predecessors.-Phil. Camerar.
Operae horarum subcisivarum. Francof.
1658. 4to. Cent. II. Cap. 81, p. 317. –K. Mead,
a mechanical account of poisons: London,
1747, 8vo. p. 99, contends for the reality of
Tarantism with Æ. Boyle, An essay of the
great effects of even languid and unheeded
motion, etc. London, 1685. ch. VI.--So also
J. A. Cartheuser, Fundamenta pathologiae et
therapiae. Francof. a. V. 1758. 8vo. Tom.
I. p. 334. Th. Willis de morbis convulsivis.
cap. VII. p. 492. Opp. Lugdun. I 68 I.
4to. According to Gassendi, Ferdinando,
Aircher, and others.-L. Valetta, de Phal-
angio Apulo opusculum. Neapol. I706.
—Thom. Cornelio (professor at Naples in
the middle of the seventeenth century). Let-
ter to /. Alodington concerning some obser-
vations made of persons pretending to be
stung by Tarantulas. Phil. Transactions, No.
83, p. 4066. 1672, considers Tarantism to be
St. Vitus’s dance.—/os. Alanzoni, de Venenis,
cap. 57, p. 140. Opp. Lausann. 1738, 4to.
Tom. I. mostly from Baglivi.-J. Schenk, a
Grafenberg. Observatt. Medicar. Lib. VII.
Obs. 122, p. 792. Tom. II. Ed. Francof.
16oo. 8vo. was himself an eye-witness.-
Wolfg. Senguerd, Tractatus physicus de Tar-
antula. Lugd. Bat. 1668. 12mo,-Herm.
Grube, De ictu Tarantulae et vi musices in
THE DANCING MANIA
depend on causes such as have been
stated, are as little capable of renewal
as the different stages of life in indi-
viduals. 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, inas-
much as it exhibits a perfectly similar
ecstasy, with the same violent effect
on the nerves of motion. It occurs
most frequently in the Tigré country,
being thence called Tigretier, and is
probably the same malady which is
called in the AEthiopian language AS-
tarāgaza.” On this subject we will
introduce the testimony of Nathaniel
Pearce, f an eye-witness, who resided
nine years in Abyssinia. “The Ti-
gretier,” 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 pro-
cure the proper remedy. During this
sickness their speech is changed to a
kind of stuttering, which no one can
eius curatione conjecturae physico-medicae.
Francof. 1679.8vo.—Athan. Aircher, Musur-
gia universalis. Rom. 1650, fol. Tom. II. IX.
ch. 4. p. 218.-M. Köhler, in den Svenska
Vetenskaps Academiens Handlingar. 1758, p.
29. Transactions of the Swedish Academy
of Sciences.—Berlin Collection for the Fur-
therance of the Science of Medicine. Vol. V.
Pt. I. p. 53. 1772.-Burserii Institutiones
medic. pract. tom. III. p. 1. cap. 7. § 219, p.
I59. ed. Hecker.—/. S. Halle, Gifthistorie.
History of Poisons, Berlin, 1786. 8vo.—
Blumenbach, Naturgeschichte, Natural His-
tory, p. 412.-E. F. Leonhardt, Diss. de Tar-
antismo, Berol. 1827. 8vo. and many others,
* This may, however, be considered merely
as a conjecture, founded upon the following
passage in #.'s Lexicon AEthiopic. Ed.
2da. Francof. I699. fol. p. 142. A starāgaza,
de vexatione quadam diabolica accipitur.
Marc, i. 26. ix. 18. Luc. ix. 39. Graecus habet
on upéſ reev, veilicare, discerpée. Sex &thi-
opes, teste Gregorio, pro morbo 7ttodam acciºt-
arti, guo guis perpetuo pedes agitare et quasi cal-
citrare cogitur. Fortassis est Saltatio S. Viti,
vulgo St. Veitstanz.
f The Life and Adventures of Mathaniel
Pearce, written by himself, during a residence
in Abyssinia, from the year 1810 to 1819.
London, 1831, 8vo. Vol. }. ch, ix. p. 290,
OF THE MIDIDLE AGES. [87] 31
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 ex-
penses of curing it; the first remedy
they in general attempt, is to procure
the assistance of a learned Dofter,
who reads the Gospel of St. John *
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 rela-
tions 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 neigh-
bor 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
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 froln
* The Evangelist and St. Johot the Baptist
have been at all times, and among all na-
tions, confounded with each other, so that
the relation of the latter to one and the same
phenomenon in such different ages and cli-
mates is very probable.
32 (S8]
THE DANCING MANIA OF THE MIDIDLE AGES.
all his neighbors their silver orna-
ments, 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
afterward 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.
Afterward 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 de-
lighted. 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 cus-
tom in the cure of this disorder, she
was taken into the market-place,
where several jars of maize or sug
were set in order by the relations, to
give drink to the musicians and danc-
ers. 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 man-
ner she kept on the whole day. To-
ward 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 re-
lation continually kept going after |
her as she danced, to pick up the
ornaments, and afterward 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 afterward, a young man,
on coming up with her, fired a match-
lock 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, those afflicted with it
never answer to their Christian 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 con-
cluded 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 con-
ceive it possible, until I was obliged
to put this remedy in practice upon
my own wife,” 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 per-
son, 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 Sur-
* She was a native Greek.
THE DANCING MANIA OF THE MIDIDLE AGES.
prised, 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 ex-
pense, 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 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 disorder,
but not frequently. Among the Am-
hara 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
skeptical 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, oppor-
tunities for its development no longer
occur. The credibility of this ener-
getic, 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 phenom-
ena in question, and his work evinces
throughout his attractive and unpre-
tending impartiality.
Comparison is the mother of obser-
vation, and may here elucidate one
phenomenon by another—the past by
[89) 33
that which still exists. Oppression,
insecurity, and the influence of a very
rude priestcraft, are the powerful
causes which operated on the Ger-
mans 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 Af-
rica as they were in Europe, for they
operate on man himself independ-
ently of the particular locality in
which he may be planted ; and the
condition of the Abyssinians of mod-
ern 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 com-
pletely in accordance with occur.
rences of the middle ages that took
place contemporarily with the dancing
mania. Zhe Abyssinians have Zheir
Christian ſlage/lants, and there exists
among them a belief in a Zoomorphism,
which presents a Zively image of the Zy-
canthropy 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.*
They boast that they are descend-
ants of St. George. It is precisely in
Tigre, the country of the Abyssinian
dancing mania, where they are found
in the greatest numbers, and where
they have, in the neighborhood of
Axum, a church of their own, dedi-
cated to their patron saint, Oum
Arvel. Here there is an ever-burning
lamp, and they contrive to impress a
belief that this is kept alight by su-
pernatural means. They also here
keep a holy water, which is said to
* Pearce, p. 289. Compare p. 34.—A. G.
Förstemann, Die christlichen Geissler-gesell-
schaften. The Christian Societies of Flagel-
lants. Halle, 1828. 8vo.
34 [90] THE DANCING MANIA OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
be a cure for those who are affected
by the dancing mania.
The Abyssinian Zoomorphism is a
no less important phenomenon, and
shows itself in a manner puite pecul-
iar. The blacksmiths and potters
form, among the Abyssinians, a so-
ciety or caste called in Tigrè Tebbib,
and in Amhara Buda, which is held
in some degree of contempt, and ex-
cluded 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
weverybody, and regarded with horror.
"They artfully contrive to keep up this
31perstition, because by this separa-
tion they preserve a monopoly of their
ºlucrative trades, and as in other re-
‘spects they are good Christians (but
"few Jews or Mahomedans live among
Ithem), they seem to attach no great
, consequence to their excommunica-
ition. As a badge of distinction they
wear a golden earring, which is fre-
quently 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 as to the supernatural
powers of the Smiths and potters.”
To the Budas is also ascribed the
gift of euchantment, especially that of
the influence of the evil eye.f. They
nevertheless live unmolested, and are
not condemned to the flames by finat-
ical priests, as the lycanthropes were
..in the middle ages.
CHAPTER IV.
SYMPATHY.
IMITATION.—compassion—sympathy,
, these are imperfect designations for a
common bond of union among human
wº-y-
* Idem, loc. cit.
f Among the ancient Greeks 3aokhotſ;
This superstition is more or less developed
among all the nations of the earth, and has
not yet entirely disappeared from Europe.
beings—for an instinct which con-
nects 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 im-
pression of a nervous malady fetters
the mind, and finds its way, through
the eye, directly to the diseased text-
ure, as the electric shock is propa-
gated 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 estab-
lished, producing a condition like that
of small animals when they are fasci-
nated by the look of a serpent. By
this mental bondage, morbid sym-
pathy is clearly and definitely distin-
guished 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 ab-
surd fashion, of an awkward habit in
speech and manner, or even of a con-
fusion 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, al-
though often with a considerable ad-
mixture of the latter, is the diffusion
of violent excitements, especially
those of a religious or political char-
acter, which have so powerfully
agitated the nations of ancient and
modern times, and which may, after
an incipient compliance,” 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
* Paracelszzs.
THE DANCING MANIA OF THE MIDIOLE AGES.
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 under-
taking. 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 epi-
demic. In order to make this appar-
ent by comparison, it may not be out
of place, at the close of this inquiry,
to introduce a few striking exam-
ples:–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 3oo 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 Pres-
ton ; 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 thcm and the rest
of the country, strongly impressed
with the idea of the plague being
caught from the cotton. The symp-
toms were anxiety, strangulation, and
very strong convulsions ; and these
were so violent as to last without any
intermission from a quarter of an
[91] 35
hour to twenty-four hours, and to
require four or five persons to pre-
vent 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 as-
sured that the complaint was merely
nervous, easily cured, and not intro-
duced by the cotton, no fresh person
was affected. To dissipate their ap-
prehension still further, the best
effects were obtained by causing them
to take a cheerful glass and join in a
dance. On Tuesday the 20th, they
danced, and the next day were all at
work, except two or three, who were
much weakened by their fits.” "
The occurrence here described is
remarkable on this account, that there
was no important predisposing cause
for convulsions in these young wom-
en, unless we consider as such their
miserable and confined life in the
work-rooms of a spinning manufact-
ory. It did not arise from enthu-
siasm nor is it stated that the patients
had been the subjects of any other
nervous disorders. In another per-
fectly analogous case, those attacked
were all suffering from nervous com-
plaints, which roused a morbid sym-
pathy in them at the sight of a person
seized with convulsions. This, to-
gether with the supervention of hys-
terical fits, may aptly enough be com-
pared 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 teianic spasms, and imme-
diately on entering the ward, fell down
—w
* Gentleman's Magazine, 1787, March, p.
268.-F. B. Osiander, Ueber die Entwicke-
lungskrankheiten in den Blüthenjahren des
weiblichen Geschlechts. On the disorders
: young women, etc. Tübingen, 1825, Vol.
• P. IO.
36 [92]
THE DANCING MANIA OF THE MIDIDLE AGES.
in strong convulsions. At the sight
of her violent contortions, six other
female patients immediately became
affected in the same way, and by de-
grees eight more were in like manner
attacked with strong convulsions.
All these patients were from sixteen
to twenty-five years of age, and suffer-
ed without exception, one from spasms
in the stomach, another from palsy, a
third from lethargy, a fourth from fits
with consciousness, a fifth from cata-
lepsy, a sixth from syncope, etc. The
convulsions, which alternated in va-
rious ways with tonic spasms, were
accompanied by loss of sensibility,
and were invariably preceded by lan-
guor with heavy sleep, which was fol-
lowed 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 par-
alysis, disappeared, returning, how-
ever, after the subsequent removal of
their new complaint. The treatment,
during the course of which two of the
nurses, who were young women, suf-
fered similar attacks, was continued
for ſour months. It was finally suc-
been the case, from the days of the
Milesian virgins to the modern asso-
ciations for self-destruction.* 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 in-
numerable 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 2 ” at the same time
manifesting the greatest uneasiness
and solicitude respecting the condi-
tion of his soul. Some other mem-
bers 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 hun-
dreds of people, who had come thither,
either attracted by curiosity, or a de-
sire, from other motives, to see the
sufferers, fell into the same state.
A cessful, and consisted principally in
the administration of opium, at that
\ time the favorite remedy.” "
The chapel remained open for some
days and mights, and from that point
the new disorder spread itself, with
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 ex-
amples of this afflicting state of tur-
moil, which, when the mind is car-
ried away by the force of a 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, de-
luded by their infatuation, hurry on to
a self-inflicted death. Such has ever
* This account is given by Fritze. Huſe-
land's Journal der practischen Heilkunde,
Vol. XII. 1801. Part I. p. IIo. Hufeland's
Journal of Practical Medicine.
the rapidity of lightning, over the
neighboring towns of Camborne, Hel-
ston, Truro, Penryn, and Falmouth,
as well as over the villages in the vi-
cinity. While thus advancing, it de-
creased 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 con-
vulsions; others cried out, like persons
possessed, that the Almighty would
straightway pour out his wrath upon
them, that the wailings of tormented
* Compare /. G. Zimmermann, Ueber die
Einsamkeit. Liepsig, 1784. 8vo. Vol. II. ch.
6. p. 77. On Solitude.—/. P. Faſret, De
l'hypochondrie et du suicide. Paris, 1822.8vo,
and others.
THE DANCING MANIA
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, earnestly exhorted
them to confess their sins, and zeal-
ously endeavored 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 tor-
ments of hell would be their portion.
The over-excited congregation upon
this repeated their words, which nat-
urally must have increased the fury
of their convulsive attacks. When
the discourse had produced its full ef-
fect, the preacher changed his sub-
ject; reminded those who were suf-
fering of the power of the Saviour, as
well as of the grace of God, and repre-
sented to them in glowing colors the
joys of heaven. Upon this a remarka-
ble reaction sooner or later took
place. Those who were in convul-
sions felt themselves raised from the
lowest depths of misery and despair
to the most exalted bliss, and tri-
umphantly shouted out that their
bonds were loosed, their sins were
forgiven, and that they were trans-
lated 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 stayed two and sometimes
three days and nights together in the
chapels, agitated all the time by spas-
modic movements, and taking neither
repose nor nourishment.
to a moderate computation, 4ooo peo-
ple were, within a very short time, af-
fected 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 rigor 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 labor. The convulsions
then began, first showing themselves
in the muscles of the eyelids, though
According
OF THE MIDDLE AGES. [99] 37
the eyes themselves were fixed and
staring. The most frightful contor-
tions of the countenance followed,
and the convulsions now took their
course downwards so that the mus-
cles of the neck and trunk were
aſſected, causing a sobbing respiration
which was performed with great
effort. Tremors and agitation en-
sued 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 hap-
pened to be seated when the attack
commenced, bent their bodies rapidly
backward and forward 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 commence-
ment in all cases, but as the vio-
lence of the disorder increased,
the circulation and respiration be-
came accelerated, so that the counte-
nance assumed a swollen and puffed
appearance. When exhaustion came
on, patients usually fainted, and re-
mained in a stiff and motionless
state until their recovery. The dis-
order completely resembled the St.
Vitus's dance, but the fits sometimes
went on to an extraordinarily violent
extent, so that the author of the ac-
Count Once saw a woman, who was
seized with these convulsions, resist
the endeavors of four or five strong
men to restrain her. Those patients
who did not lose their consciousness
were in general made more furious
by every attempt to quiet them by
3S [04] THE DANCING MANIA
OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
§
force, on which account they were
in general suffered to continue un-
molested until nature herself brought
on exhaustion. Those affected com-
plained, 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.”
4. For the last hundred years a
nervous affection of a perfectly simi-
lar kind has existed in the Shetland
Islands, which furnishes a striking ex-
ample, perhaps the only one now ex-
isting, of the very lasting propagation
by sympathy of this species of disor-
ders. The origin of the malady was
very insignificant. An epileptic wom-
an had a fit in church, and whether
it was that the minds of the congre-
gation were excited by devotion, or
that, being overcome at the sight of
the strong convulsions, their sympa-
thy was called ſorth, certain it is, that
many adult women, and even chil-
dren, some of whom were of the male
sex, and not more than six years old,
began to complain forthwith of palpi-
tation, followed by faintness, which
passed into a motionless and appar.
ently 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
* This statement is made by /. Cornish.
See Fothergill and Want's Medical and Phys-
ical Journal, vol. xxxi. 1814. pp. 373-379.
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 Sab-
bath in which they did not occur.
Strong passions of the mind, induced
by religious enthusiasm, are also ex-
citing causes of these fits, but like all
such false tokens of divine workings,
they are easily encountered by pro-
ducing 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 “admin-
ister to a mind diseased,” and to ex-
pose 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 consider-
ably 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 parishion-
ers, that no treatment was more ef-
fectual than immersion in cold water:
and as his kirk was fortunately con-
tiguous 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 se-
quel 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 ser-
vice in the kirk of Baliasta, on the
Isle of Unst, a female shriek, the in-
dication of a convulsion fit, was heard;
the minister, Mr. Ingram, of Fetlar,
THE DANCING MANIA OF THE MIDIDLE AGES.
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 Congrega-
tion was thus preserved from further
interruption; yet the effect of sympa-
thy was not prevented, for as the nar-
rator of the account was leaving the
church, he saw several females writh-
ing and tossing about their arms on
the green grass, who durst not, for
fear of a censure from the pulpit, ex-
hibit themselves after this manner
within the sacred walls of the kirk.”
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 mat-
ter 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 symp-
toms developed, and it then depends
on the mental condition of the peo-
ple among whom they appear, whether,
in their spread, they shall take a nar-
row or an extended range—whether,
confined to some small knot of zeal-
ots, they are to vanish without a trace,
or whether they are to attain even
historical importance.
5. The appearance of the Convul.
sionnaires in France, whose inhabit-
ants, from the greater mobility of
their blood, have in general been the
less liable to fanaticism, is, in this re-
spect, instructive and worthy of atten.
tion. In the year 1727 there died, in
the capital of that country, the Dea-
con Pâris, a zealous opposer of the
Ultramontanists, division having aris-
en 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 afterward (in September, 1731),
a rumor was spread, that miracles
* Samuel Hibbert, Description of the Shet-
land Islands, comprising an account of their
geology, scenery, antiquities, and supersti-
tions. Edinburgh, 1822. 4to. p. 399.
[95] 39
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 irreg-
ularity of pulse. This novel occur-
rence excited the greatest sensation
all over Paris, and an immense con-
course of people resorted daily to the
above named cemetery, in order to
see so wonderful a spectacle, which
the Ultramontanists immediately in-
terpreted as a work of Satan, while
their opponents ascribed it to a divine
influence. The disorder soon in-
creased, until it produced, in nervous
women, clairvoyance (Schlafwachen), a
phenomenon till then unknown ; for
one female especially attracted atten-
tion, who blindfold, and, as it was be-
lieved, 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 nerv-
ous 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.*
The disorder itself assumed various
forms, and augmented, by its attacks,
the general excitement. Many per-
sons, besides suffering from the con-
vulsions, became the subjects of vio-
lent pain, which required the assist-
ance 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.
* About this time the following couplet:
was circulated:—
e - |
“T)e par le Roi, defense à Dieu t
De faire miracle dans ce lieu.”
40 [96] THE DANCING MANIA
OF THE MIDIDLE AGES.
The modes of relief adopted were re-
markably 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,
etc., of which treatment the defenders
of this extraordinary sect relate the
most astonishing examples, in proof
that severe pain is imperatively de-
manded 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.” One Sec-
ourist administered to a young wom-
an, who was suffering under spasm
of the stomach, the most violent blows
on that part, not to mention other sim-
ilar 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 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 uncanon-
ized saint. They usually, however,
showed great agility in this respect,
and it is scarcely necessary to remark
that the female sex especially was dis-
tinguished by all kinds of leaping, and
almost inconceivable contortions of
body. Some spun round on their
* This kind of assistance was called the
“Grands Secours.” Boursier, Memoire Thé-
ologique sur ce qu'on appelle les Secours vio-
lens dans les Convulsions. Paris, 1788. 12
mo. 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 Atenault (parish priest at Vaux, near
Auxerre; obiit, 1796), Le Secourisme détruit
dans ses fondemens, 1759, 12mo, and Le
Mystère d'Iniquité, 1788. 8vo.
feet with incredible rapidity, as is re-
lated 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 º A certain Convul-
sionnaire, at Vernon, who had for-
merly led rather a loose course of life,
employed herself in confessing the
other sex; in other places women of
this sect were seen imposing exer-
cises 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.” One Con-
vulsionnaire even made believe to
shave her chin, and gave religious in-
struction' at the same time, in order to
imitate Pâris, the worker of miracles,
who during this operation, and while
at table, was in the habit of preach-
ing. Some had a board placed across
their bodies, upon which a whole row
of men stood ; and as, in this unnat-
ural 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 advo-
cate, 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 Convulsion-
naires lasted, without interruption, un-
til the year 1790, and during these
fifty-nine years, called forth more la-
mentable phenomena than the enlight-
ened spirits of the eighteenth century
would be willing to allow. The gross-
est immorality found, in the secret
* Arouet, the father of Voltaire, visited, in
Nantes, a celebrated Convulsionnaire, Ga-
brielle Mollet, whom he found occupied in
pulling the bells off a child's coral, to desig-
nate the rejection of the unbelievers. Some-
times she jumped into the water, and barked
like a dog. She died in 1748.
THE DANCING MANIA OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
meetings of the believers, a sure sanct-
uary, and, in their bewildering devo-
tional exercises, a convenient cloak.
It was of no avail that, in the year
1762, the Grands Secours was forbid-
den by act of parliament; for thence-
forth this work was carried on in Se-
crecy, and with greater zeal than ever;
it was in vain, too, that some physi-
cians, and, among the rest, the aus-
tere, pious Hecquet,” and after him
Lorry, f 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 eccle-
siastic (obt. 1813), stood forth as the
defenders of this sect ; and the nu-
merous writings # which were ex-
changed on the subject, served, by
the importance which they thus at-
tached to it, to give it stability. The
revolution, finally, shook the struct-
ure 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
Convulsionnaires of various denomi-
nations, have appeared even in the
most recent times, and only a few
years ago (in 1828) this once cele-
brated sect still existed, although
without the convulsions and the ex-
traordinarily 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.S
6. Similar fanatical sects exhibit
--—
* /. Phil. Hecquet (obiit 1737). Le Natur-
alisme des Convulsions. Soleure, 1733. 8vo.
i De Melancholia et Morbis Melancholicis.
Paris, 1765. 2 vols. 8vo.
# Especially from 1784 to 1788.
§ See Grégoire, Histoire des Sectes Religieu-
ses, tome ii. ch. 13. p. 127. Paris, 1828. 8vo.
The following words of this meritorious au-
thor, on the mental state of his countrymen,
are very well worthy of attention. “L'esprit
public est dans un état de fluctuation persé-
vérante; des àmes flétries far l'égoïsme n'ont
que le caractère de la servitude; l'education
viciée ne forme guère que des etres degrades;
la religion est meconnue ou ma! enseignee ;
Aa ſtation fºrésente des symptômes alarmans desa
[97] 41
among all nations * of ancient and
modern times the same phenomena.
An overstrained bigotry 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 favors the most injurious
emotions. Sensual ebullitions, with
strong convulsions of the nerves, ap-
pear sooner or later, f and insanity,
suicidal disgust of life, and incurable
nervous disorders, £ are but too fre-
décrépitude, et presage des malheurs dont on
ne peut calculer l'etendue ni la duree.” P.
I61.
* “I had occasion to witness at Cairo an-
other species of religious fanaticism. I heard
one day, at a short distance from my resi-
dence, for several hours together, singing, or
more properly crying, so uniform and fatigu-
ing, that I inquired the cause of this singu-
larity. I was told that it was some dervise
or monk, who repeated, while dancing on his
heels, the name of Allah, tirl, completely ex-
hausted, he sank down insensible. These
unhappy visionaries, in fact, often expire at
the end of this holy dance ; and the cries of
the one whom I heard, having commenced in
the afternoon, and continued during the whole
of the night, and part of the following morn-
ing, I doubt not that his pious enthusiasm
cost him his life.”—Recollections of Ægypt, by
the Baroness Von Minutoli. London, IS27.
In Arabia the same fanatical zeal exists, as
we find from the following passage of an an-
onymous history of the Wahabis, published
in Paris, in 1810 : “La priere la plus méri-
toire consiste à crier le nom de Dieu, pendant
des heures entières, et le plus saint est celui
qui répéte ce nom le plus long temps et le
plus vite. Rien de plus curieux que le spec-
tacle des Schekhs, qui, dans les, fétes pub-
liques, s'essayent à l'envi, et hurlent le nom
d’Allah d'une manière effrayante. La plu-
part enroues sont forces de se taire, et aban-
donnent la palme au saint à forte poitrine,
qui, pour jouir de Sa victoire, s'efforce et
jette encore quelque cris devant ses rivaux
réduits au silence. Epuise de fatigue, baigne
de Sueur, il tombe enfin au milieu du peuple
devot, qui s'empresse à le relever et le porte
en triomphe. Les principales mosquees re-
tentissent, tous les Vendredis, des cris dictes
parcette singulière emulation. Le Schekh,
que ses pounons ont sanctifie, conserve son
odeur de Saintete par des extases et des trans-
ports, Souvent dangereux pour les Chretiens
que le hazard en rend temoins malgré eux.”—
Transl. ftofe.
t For examples see Osiander, Entwickel-
ungskrankheiten. Loc. cit. p. 45.
i Among IOS cases of insanity, Perfect men.
tions eleven of mania and methodistical en-
42 [98] THE DANCING MANIA OF THE MIDIDLE AGES.
quently the consequences of a per-meeting, so that these assemblages
verse, and, indeed, hypocritical zeal, of the Jumpers resenble, for hours
which has ever prevailed, as well in , together, the wildest orgies, rather
the assemblies of the Maenades and , than congregations met for Chris-
Corybantes of antiquity, as under the tian edification.*
semblance of religion, among the . In the United States of . North
Christians and Mahomedans. © America, communities of Methodists
There are some denominations of have existed for the last sixty years,
English Methodists which surpass, if|The reports of credible witnesses of
possible, the French Convulsion- their assemblages for divine service
naires; and we may here mention, in in the open air (camp meetings),t to
particular, the Jumpers, among whom which many thousands flock from
it is still more difficult, than in the great distances, f surpass, indeed, all
example given above, to draw the belief; for not only do they there re-
line between religious ecstasy and a peat all the insane acts of the French
perfect disorder of the nerves; sym- Convulsionnaires and of the English
pathy, however, operates perhaps |Jumpers, but the disorder of their
more perniciously on them than on minds and of their nerves attains, at
other fanatical assemblies. The sect these meetings, a still greater height.
of Jumpers was founded in the year Women have been seen to miscarry
1760, in the county of Cornwall, by while suffering under the state of ec.
two fanatics,” who were, even at that stasy and violent spasms into which
time, able to collect together a con- they are thrown, and others have pub:
**** tº i. . licly ºp. theºlº and .
rine is that of the Methodists, and into the rivers. They have swoonec
claims our consideration here, only in away $ by hundreds, worn out with
so far as it enjoins them, during their ravings and fits; and of the Barkers,
o º º | * º
devotional exercises, to fall into con- who appeared among the Convulsion-
vulsions, which they are able to effect naires only here and there, in single
in the strangest manner imaginable. cases of complete aberration of intel-
By the use of certain unmeaning lect, whole bands are seen running on
words, they work themselves up into all fours, and growling | as if they
a state of religious frenzy, in which , wished to indicate, even by their out-
they seem to have scarcely any con-
e * * |
trol over their senses. They then be- *John Evans, Sketch of the Denominations
gin to jump with strange gestures, re-' of the Christian World, 13th edition. Lon-
peating this exercise with all their tº: 1814. º ºº:: Grégoire, loc.
º º r Cit. tome lv. Chap. X 11. p. 453.
might, until they are exhausted, so f //rs. Tro/lope's Domestic Manners of the
that it º, º that ſº A º: ºn.” Shak
women, who, like the Maenades, prac-, Ing Quakers, pp. 195, 190. amp Meeting,
-: y º ..., | # In Kentucky, assemblies of from ten to
ried away from the midst of them in ; twelve thousand have frequently taken place.
a state of syncope, while the remaining virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and
members of the congregations, for New York, are also the theaters of these
miles together, on their way home, ter. mºngs ººº...R. 49%
© ºw - $ At one of these camp-meetings a traveler
rify those whom they meet by. the saw above eight hundred persons faint away.
sight of such demoniacal ravings. Idem. He nowhere met with more frequent
There are never more than a few instances of suicide in consequence of De-
ecstatics, who, by their example, ex- monomania, than in North America.
< 2
• e || Idem, p. 498. These are the Barkers.
cite the rest to jump, and these are Numerous other convulsive Methodistical
followed by the greatest part of the sects abound in North America. The Shakers,
who are inimical to marriage, would also have
thusiasm, in mine of which suicide was com- been mentioned, were not their contortions
mitted. Annals of Insanity. London, 1808. much less violent than those of the Jumpers.
8vo. —See Grégoire, tome v. p. 195. Evans, p.
* Harris Rowland and William Williams. 267.
*-
---.
*s-
APPENDIX.
[99] 43
ward form, the shocking degradation | and excessive excitement, will not af-
of their human nature. At these
camp-meetings the children are wit-
nesses of this mad infatuation, and as
their weak nerves are, with the great-
est facility, affected by Sympathy, they,
together with their parents, fall into
violent fits, though they know nothing
of their import, and many of them re-
tain for life some severe nervous dis-
order, which, having arisen from fright
terward yield to any medical treat-
ment.*
But enough of these extravagances,
which, even in our own days, embitter
the lives of so many thousands, and
exhibit to the world, in the nineteenth
century, the same terrific form of men-
tal disturbance as the St. Vitus's dance
once did to the benighted nations of
the middle ages.
A P P E N D I X.
I.
Aefr; de Heremta/s, Prioris Floreffiensis
Vita Gregorii XV., in Stepham. Ba-
Zuzii Vitae Paparum Avenionensium.
T. I. Paris, I693. 4to. ρ. 483.
EJUS tempore, videlicet A. D.
MCCCLXXV., mira secta tam viro-
rum quam mulierum venit Aquisgrani
de partibus Alamanniæ, et ascendit
usque Hanoniam seu Franciam, cujus
talis fuit conditio. Nam homines utri-
usque sexus illudebantur a dæmonio,
taliter quod tam in domibus quam in
plateis et in Ecclesiis se invicem man-
ibus tenentes chorizabant et in altum
saltabant, ac quædam nomina dæmo-
niorum nominabant, videlicet AerisÂes
et similia, nullam cognitionem in hu-
jusmodi chorizatione nec verecundiam
sui propter astantes populos habentes.
Et in fine hujus chorizationis in tan-
tum circa pectoralia torquebantur,
quod nisi mappulis lineis a suis amicis
per medium ventris fortiter stringeren-
tur, quasi furiose clamabant se mo-
ri. Hi vero in Leodio per conjura-
tiones sumptas de illis quæ in catecbis-
mo ante baptismum fiunt, a dæmonio
liberabantur, et sanati dicebant, quod
videbatur eis quod in hora hujus chor-
izationis erant in fluvio sanguinis, et
propterea sic in altum saltabant. Vul-
gus autem apud Leodium dicebat quod
] hujusmodi plaga populo contigisset eo
quod populus male baptizatus erat,
maxime a Presbyteribus suas tenenti-
bus concubinas. Et propter hoc pro-
posuerat vulgus insurgere in clerum,
eos occidendo et bona eorum diripi-
endo, nisi Deus de remedio providis-
set per conjurationes prædictas. Quo
viso cessavit tempestas vulgi taliter
quod clerus multo plus a populo fuit
honoratus. De ista autem choriza-
tione seu secta talia extant rigmata :
Oritur in seculo nova quædam secta
In gestis aut in speculo visa plus nec lecta.
Populus tripudiat nimium saltando.
Se unus alteri sociat leviter clamando.
A'risc/, frisÂes cum gaudio c/avtar vterque sexus
Cunctus manutergio et baculo connexus.
Capite fert pelleum desuper sertum.
Cermtjt AVariæ fi/ium, et cæ/um a/ertum.
Deorsum prosternitur. Dudum fit ululatus.
Calcato ventre cernitur statim liberatus.
Vagatur loca varia pompose vivendo.
Mendicat necessaria propriis parcendo.
* See Perri/t du Lac, Voyage clans les deux
Louisianes. Paris, ISo5. 8vo. chap. ix. pp.
64, 65. chap. xvii. pp. I 28, I 29.—A/fc/iaud,
Voyage à l'ouest des Monts Alleghanys.
Paris, I8o4. 8vo. p. 2 I 2.—/o/i// /V/e/js/i, Trav-
eis in the United States of America, Phila-
delphia, ISI 2. 8vo. vol. i. p. 26.— Lambert,
Travels through Canada and the United
States. London, I8IO, Svo. vol. iii. p. 44.—
/o/im Hovisor, Sketches of Upper Camada.
Edinburgh, 1S22. 8vo. p. I 5o.—Æa' gara A//em.
7 albot, Cinq Années de késidence au Can-
ada. Paris, 1S25. 8vo. tome ii. p. I 47.
44 [100]
APPENDIX.
S7cr/tit videre rubea et persomtam fíentem.
Ad fidei contraria erigit hic gens mentem.
Noctis sub umbraculo ista perpetravit.
Cum naturali baculo subtus se calcavit.
Clerum habet odio. Nom curat sacramenta.
Post sunt Leodio remedia inventa,
Hanc nam fraudem qua suggessit satham est
convictus.
Conjuratus evanescit.
benedictus.
Hinc sit Christus
II.
Jo. Pistorii Rerum familiarumque Bel-
gicarum Chronicon magnum. Fran-
cof. 1654. /o/. ρ. 319. De chorisan-
tibus.
Item Anno. IDn. MCCCLXXIV.
tempore pontificatus venerabilis Dom-
ini Joannis de Arckel Episcopi Leodi-
ensis, in mense Julio in crastino divi-
sionis Apostolorum visi sunt damsa-
tores scilicet chorisantes, qui postea
venerunt Trajectum, Leodium, Tun-
grim et alia loca istarum partium in
mense Septembri. Et coepit hæc dae-
moniaca pestis vexare in dictis locis et
circumvicinis masculos et foeminas
maxime pauperes et levis opinionis ad
magnum omnium terrorem ; pauci
clericorum vel divitum sunt vexati.
Serta in capitibus gestabant, circa ven-
trem mappa cum baculo se stringe-
bamt circa umbilicum, ubi post salta-
tionem cadentes nimium forquebantur,
et ne creparentur pedibus conculca-
bantur, vel contra creporem cum bac-
ulo ad mappam duriter se ligabant,
vel cum pugno se trudi faciebant, ros-
tra calceorum aliqui clamabant se ab-
horrere, unde in Leodio fieri tunc vet-
abantur. Ecclesias chorisando occu-
pabant, et crescebant numerose de
mense Septembri et Octobri, proces-
siones fiebant ubique, litaniæ et mis-
sæ speciales. Leodii apud Sanctam
crucem scholaris servitor in vesperis
dedicationis, coepit ludere cum thuri-
bulo, et post vesperas fortiter saltare.
Evocatus a pluribus, ut diceret Pater
noster, noluit, et Credo respondit in
diabolum. Quod videns capellanus,
allata stola conjuravit eum per exor-
cismum baptizandorum, et statim
dixit: Ecce inquit, scholaris recedit
cum parva toga et calceis rostratis.
Dic, tunc inquit, Pater noster et Cre-
do. 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 Le-
odienses occiderent. Canonicus qui-
dam parvæ mensæ minister Simon in
claustro Leodiensi apud capellam Bea-
tæ virginis, in Deo confortatus, sca-
lam projecit in collum unius, dicens
Evangelium: In primcipio erat verbum,
super caput ejus, et per hoc fuit libera-
tus, et pro miraculo statim fuit pulsa-
tum. Apud S. Bartolomæum Leodii,
præsentibus multis, cuidam alii exorci-
santi respondit dæmon : Ego exibo li-
benter. Expecta, inquit presbyter, volo
tibi loqui. Et postquam aliquos alios
curasset, dixit illi, loquere tu personali-
ter et responde mihi. Tum solus re-
spondit dæmon : Nos eramus duo, sed
socius meus nequior me, ante me exivit,
habui tot pati in hoc corpore, si essem
extra, nunquam intrarem in corpus
Christianum. Cui presbyter : Quare
intrasti corpora talium personarum ?
Respondit: Clerici et presbyteres di-
cunt tot pulchra verba et tot orationes,
ut non possemus intrare corpora ipso-
rum. Si adhuc fuisset expectatum per
quindenam vel mensem, nos intrasse-
mus corpora divitum, et postea princi-
pum, et sic per eos destruxissemus cle-
rum. Et hæc fuerunt ibi a multis au-
dita et postea a multis narrata. Haec
pestis intra annum satis invaluit, sed
postea per tres aut quatuor annos om-
nino cessavit.
III.*
Die Limburger Chronik, herausgege-
ben von C. D. Vogel. Marburg,
I828, 8vo. s. 7 I.
!
Anno I 374 zu mitten im Sommer,
da erhub sich ein wunderlich Ding
*The substance of Nos. III. and IV. hav-
ing been embodied in the text, it seems only
necessary to insert here the original öld Ger-
man, which is couched in language too coarse
to admit of translation.— 7 rams/. mote.
APPENDIX.
auff Erdreich, und sonderlich in Teu-
tschen Landen, auff dem Rhein und
auff der Mosel, also dass Leute anhu-
ben zu tantzen und zu rasen, und
stunden je zwey gegen ein, und tant-
zeten auff einer Stätte einen halben
Tag, und in dem Tantz da fielen sie
etwan offt nieder, und liessen sich
mit Füssen tretten auff ihren Leib.
Davon nahmen sie sich an, dass sie
genesen wären. Und lieffen von einer
Stadt zu der andern, und von einer
Kirchen zu der andern, und huben
Geld auff von den Leuten, wo es
ihnen mocht gewerden. Und wurd
des Dings also viel, dass man zu
Cölln in der Stadt mehr dann fünff
hundert Täntzer fand. Und fand
man, dass es eine Ketzerey war, und
geschahe um Golds willen, das inr ein
Theil Frau und Mann in Unkeusch-
heit mochten kommen, und die voll-
bringen. Und fand man da zu Cölln
mehr dann hundert Frauen und Dien-
stmägde, die nicht ebeliche Männer
hatten. Die wurden alle in der Tânt-
zerey Kinder-tragend, und wann dass
sie tantzeten, so bunden und knebel-
ten sie sich hart um den Leib, dass
sie desto geringer waren. Hierauff
sprachen ein Theils Meister, sonder-
lich der guten Artzt, das ein Theil
wurden tantzend, die von heisser Na-
tur wāren, und von andern gebrechli-
chen natürlichen Sachen. Dann de-
ren war wenig, denen das geschahe.
Die Meister von der heiligen Schrift,
die beschwollren der Täntzer ein
Theil, die meynten, dass sie besessen
wären von dem běsen Geist. Also
nahm es ein betrogen End, und wah-
rete wohl sechszehn Wochen in die-
sen Landen Oder in der Mass. Auch
nahmen die vorgenannten Täntzer
Mann und Frauen sich an, dass sie
kein roth sehen mächten. Und war
ein eitel Teuscherey, und ist verbott-
Schaft gewesen an Christum nach
meinem Bedtinken.
|101] 45
IV.
Die Chronica van der hilliger Stat
van Coellen. A.D. MCCCLXXIV.
fol. 277. Coellen, 1499. fol.
In dem seluen iair stonde eyn
groisse kranckheit vp vnder den myn-
schen, ind was doch niet vill me ges-
yen dese selue kranckheit vur off nae
ind quam van natuerlichen ursachen
as die meyster schrijuen, ind noemen
Sijmaniam, dat is raserie off unsynni-
cheit. Ind vill lude beyde man ind
frauwen junck ind alt hadden die
kranckheit. Ind gyngen vyss huyss
ind hoff, dat deden ouch junge meyde,
die verliessen yr alderen, Vrunde ind
maege ind lantschaff. Disse vurss
mynschen zoetzlichen tzijden as Sij
die kranckheit anstiesse, so hadden
Sij eyn wonderlich bewegung yrre
lychamen. Sijgauen Vyss kryschende
vnd grusame stymme, ind mit dem
wurpen Sij sich haestlich up die er-
den, vind gyngen liggen up yren rugge,
ind beyde man ind vrauwen moist men
vmb yren buych ind vimp lenden gur-
delen vnd kneuelen mit twelen vnd
mit starcken breyden benden, asso
Stijff vind harte als men mochte.
Item asso gegurt mit den twelen
dantzten Sij in kyrchen ind in clusen
ind vp allen gewijeden Steden. As
Sijdantzten, so sprungen Sij allit vp
ind rieffem, Here sent Johan, so so,
wrisch ind wro here sent Johan.
Item die ghene die die kranckheit
hadden wurden gemeynlichen gesunt
bynnen. V.V. dagen. Zom lesten
geschiede will bouerie vnd droch dae
mit. Eyndeyll naemen sich an dat
Sij kranck weren. vp dat Sij mochten
gelt dae durch bedelen. Die anderen
vinsden sich kranck vp dat Sij moch-
ten vnkuyschheit bedrijuen mit den
vrauwen. jnd gyngen durch alle lant
ind dreuen vill bouerie. Doch zo
lesten brach idt vyss ind wurden ver-
dreuen vyss den landen. Die selue
dentzer quamen ouch zo Coellen tuss-
chen tzwen vnser lieuen frauwen mis-
sen Assumptionis ind Natiuitatis.
46 [102]
APPENDIX.
V.
In the third volume of the Edin-
burgh Medical and Surgical Journal,
p. 434, there is an account of “some
Convulsive diseases in certain parts
of Scotland,” which is taken from Sir
J. Sinclair's statistical account, and
from which I have thought it illustra-
tive of our author's subject to make
some extracts; the first that is no-
ticed is peculiar to a part of Forfar-
shire, and is called the leaping ague,
which bears so close an analogy to
the original St. Vitus's Dance, or to
Tarantism, that it seems to want only
the “foul fiend,” or the dreaded bite,
as a cause, and a Scotch reel or strath-
spey as a cure, to render the resem-
blance quite complete. “Those af-
fected with it first complain of a pain
in the head, or lower part of the back,
to which succeed convulsive fits, or
fits of dancing, at certain periods.
During the paroxysm they have all
the appearance of madness, distort-
ing their bodies in various ways, and
leaping and springing in a surprising
manner, whence the disease has de-
rived its vulgar name. Sometimes
they run with astonishing velocity,
and often over dangerous passes, to
some place out of doors which they
have fixed on in their own minds, or,
perhaps, even mentioned to those in
company with them, and then drop
down quite exhausted. At other times,
especially when confined to the house,
they climb in the most singular man-
ner. In Cottages, for example, they
leap from the floor to what is called
the baulks, or those beams by which
the rafters are joined together, spring-
ing from one to another with the agil-
ity of a cat, or whirling round one of
them, with a motion resembling the
fly of a jack. Cold bathing is found
to be the most effectual remedy; but
when the fit of dancing, leaping, or
running comes on, nothing tends so
much to abate the violence of the disease,
as allowing them free scope to exercise
themselves, till ſtature be exhausted.
No mention is made of its being pe-
culiar to any age, sex, or condition of
life, although I am informed by a
gentleman from Brechin, that it is
most common before puberty. In
Some families it seems to be hered-
itary ; and I have heard of one, in
which a horse was always kept ready
saddled, to follow the young ladies
belonging to it, when they were seized
with a fit of running. It was first ob-
served in the parish of Kenmuir, and
has prevailed occasionally in that and
the neighboring parishes, for about
seventy years : but it is not now nearly
so frequent as it was about thirty
years ago. The history of this singular
affection is still extremely imperfect:
and it is only from some of the med-
ical practitioners in that part of the
country where it prevails, that a com-
plete description can be expected.”
Our author has already noticed the
convulsive disease prevalent in the
Shetland Islands, and has quoted
Hibbert's account of it. The follow-
ing, however, from a very valuable
manuscript account of the Orkney and
Shetland Islands, drawn up about
1774, by George Low, with notes, by
Mr. Pennant, is given in the journal
already cited, and will be read with
interest. The facts were communi-
cated to Mr. Low by the Rev. Wm.
Archibald, parochial clergyman of
Unst, the most northerly of the Shet-
lands.
“There is a most shocking distem-
per, which has of late years prevailed
very much, especially among young
women, and was hardly known thirty
or forty years ago. About that pe-
riod only one person was subject to it.
The inhabitants gave it the name of
convulsion fits; and, indeed, in ap-
pearance it something resembles epi-
lepsy. In its first rise it began with
a palpitation of the heart, of which
they complained for a considerable
time; it at length produced Swooning
fits, in which people seized with it
would lie motionless upward of an
hour. At length, as the distemper
gathered strength, when any violent
passion seized, or on a sudden Sur-
prise, they would all at once fall
down, toss their arms about, with their
APPENDIX.
bodies, into many odd shapes, crying
out all the while, most dismally, throw-
ing their heads about from side to
side, with their eyes fixed and staring.
At first this distemper obtained, in a
private way, with one female, but she
being seized in a public way, at church,
the disease was communicated to
others; but, whether by the influence
of fear or sympathy, is not easy to de-
termine. However this was, our pub-
lic assemblies especially at church,
became greatly disturbed by their
outcries. This distemper always pre-
vails most violently during the sum-
mer time, in which season, for many
years, we are hardly one sabbath free.
In these few years part, it has not
prevailed so extensively, and upon
the whole, seems on the decline.
One thing remarkable in this distem-
per is, that as soon as the ſit is over,
the persons affected with it are gen-
erally as lively and brisk as before ;
and if it happens at any of their pub-
lic diversions, as soon as they revive,
they mix with their companions, and
continue their amusement as vigor-
ously as if nothing had happened.
Few men are troubled with this dis-
temper, which seems more confined
to women; but there are instances of
its seizing men, and girls of six years
of age. With respect to the nature
of this disease, people who have made
inquiry about it differ, but most imag-
ine it hysterical; however, this seems
not entirely the case, as men and chil-
dren are subject to it; however, it is
a new disease in Shetland, but whence
imported, none can imagine.
“When the statistical account of
this parish was published, this awful
and afflicting disease was becoming
daily less common. In the parishes
of Aithsting, Sandsting, and North-
maven, in which it was once very fre-
quent, it was now totally extinct. In
the last of these the cure is said to
have been effected by a very singular
remedy, which, if true, and there
seems no reason to doubt it, shows
the influence of moral causes in remov-
ing, as well as inducing, convulsive
disorders.” The cure is attributed to .
[103] 47
a rough fellow of a kirk officer, who
tossed a woman in that state, with
whom he had been frequently trou-
bled, into a ditch of water. She was
never known to have the disease aſt-
erward, and others dreaded the
Same treatmefit.
It, however, still prevails in some
of the northern parishes, particularly
in Delting, although, according to the
description given of it, with Some al-
teration in its symptoms.
“Convulsion fits of a very extraor-
dinary kind seem peculiar to this coun-
try. The patient is first seized with
something like fainting, and immedi-
ately after utters wild cries and shrieks,
the sound of which, at whatever dis-
tance, immediately puts all who are
subject to the disorder in the same
situation. It most commonly attacks
them when the church is crowded, and
often interrupts the service in this and
many other churches in the country.
On a sacramental occasion, fifty or
sixty are sometimes carried out of the
church, and laid in the churchyard,
where they struggle and roar with all
their strength, for five or ten minutes,
and then rise up without recollecting
a single circumstance that happened
to them, or being in the least hurt or
fatigued with the violent exertions
they had made during the fit. One
observation occurs on this disorder,
that, during the late scarce years it
was very uncommon, and, during the
two last years of plenty (1791), it has
appeared more frequently.
“Similar instances of epidemical
convulsions are already upon record ;
but the history of that which occurred
in Anglesea, North Wales, is the most
remarkable, as its progress was, in all
probability, checked by the judicious
precautions recommended by Dr.
Haygarth,
“In 1796, on the estates of the Earl
of Uxbridge and Holland Griffith,
Esq., 23 females, from Io to 25, and
one boy, of about 17 years of age, who
had all intercourse with each other,
were seized with an unusual kind of
convulsions, affecting only the upper
extremities. It began with pain of
48 [104]
APPENDIX.
almost to meet by the exertion.
the head, and sometimes of the
stomach and side, not very violent;
after which there came on violent
twitchings or convulsions of the upper
extremities, continuing with little in-
termission, and causing the shoulders
In
bed the disorder was not so violent :
but, in Some cases at least, it contin-
ued even during sleep. Their pulse
was moderate, the body costive, and
the general health not much impaired.
In general they had a hiccough ; and,
when the convulsions were most vio-
lent, giddiness came on, with the loss
of hearing and recollection. During
their convalescence, and they all re-
covered, the least fright or sudden
alarm brought on a slight paroxysm.
“Dr. Haygarth, who was consulted
on the means of relieving these un-
fortunate people, successfully recom-
|
mended the use of antispasmodics;
that all girls and young women should
be prevented from having any com-
munication with persons affected with
those convulsions; and that those
who were ill should be kept separate
as much as possible.”
The same paper from which the
above extracts have been taken, quotes
a remarkable instance in which relig.
ious enthusiasm was the exciting cause
of a convulsive disease analogous to
those already noticed. The account
is given by the Rev. Dr. Meik, at
great length. It appears that in Jan-
uary, 1742, about 90 persons in the
parish of Cambuslang, in Lanark-
shire, were induced to subscribe a
petition to the minister, urging him to
give them a weekly lecture, to which
he readily assented. Nothing partic-
ular occurred at the first two lectures,
but, at the third, to which the hearers
had been very attentive, when the
minister in his last prayer expressed
himself thus, “Lord, who hath believ-
ed our report; and to whom is the
arm of the Lord revealed 2—where
are, the fruits of my poor labors
among this people ** several persons
in the congregation cried out publicly,
and about fifty men and women came
to the minister's house, expressing
strong convictions of sin, and alarming
fears of punishment. After this pe-
riod, so many people from the neigh-
borhood resorted to Cambuslang, that
the minister thought himself obliged
to provide them with daily sermons or
exhortations, and actually did so for
seven or eight months. The way in
which the converts were affected, for
it seems they were affected much in
the same way, though in very differ-
ent degrees, is thus described.
“They were seized, all at once, com-
monly by something said in the ser-
mons or prayers, with the most dread-
ful apprehensions concerning the
State of their souls, insomuch that
many of them could not abstain from
Crying out, in the most public and
frightful manner, “bewailing their lost
and undone condition by nature;
calling themselves enemies to God,
and despisers of precious Christ ; de-
claring that they were unworthy to
live on the face of the earth; that
they saw the mouth of hell open to
| receive them, and that they heard the
shrieks of the dammed; ' but the uni-
versal cry was, ‘What shall we do to
be saved ’’ The agony under which
they labored was expressed, not only
by words, but also by violent agita-
tions of body; by clapping their hands
and beating their breasts ; by shaking
and trembling ; by faintings and con-
vulsions; and sometimes by excessive
bleeding at the nose. While they
were in this distress, the minister
often called out to them, not to stifle
or Smother their convictions, but to
encourage them : and, after sermon
was ended, he retired with them to the
manse, and frequently spent the best
part of the night with them in exhor-
tations and prayers. Next day, before
sermon began, they were brought out,
and, having napkins tied round their
heads, were placed all together on
seats before the tents, where they
remained sobbing, weeping, and often
crying aloud, till the service was over.
Some of those who fell under convic-
tion were never converted; but most
of those who fell under it were con-
verted in a few days, and sometimes in
APPENDIX.
a few hours. In most cases their con-
version was as sudden and unexpected
as their conviction. They were raised
all at once from the lowest depth of
sorrow and distress, to the highest pitch
of joy and happiness; crying out with
triumph and exultation, “that they had
overcome the wicked one; that they
had gotten hold of Christ, and would
never let him go ; that the black cloud
which had hitherto concealed him
from their view, was now dispelled ;
and that they saw him, with a pen in
his hand, blotting out their sins.”
Under these delightful impressions,
some began to pray, and exhort pub-
licly, and others desired the congre-
gation to join with them in singing a
particular psalm, which they said God
had commanded them to sing. From
the time of their conviction to their
conversion, many had no appetite for
food, or inclination to sleep, and all
complained of their sufferings during
that interval.”
The following account, which closes
the paper whence the above quota-
tions have been extracted, is taken
from an Inaugural Essay on Chorea
Sancti Viti, by Felix Robertson of
Tennessee, 8vo. Philadelph. 1805.
“The Chorea, which is more partic-
ularly the subject of this dissertation,
made its appearance during the sum-
mer of 1803, in the neighborhood of
Maryville (Tennessee), in the form of
an epidemic. Previously to entering
on its history, I think it necessary to
premise a few cursory remarks on
the mode of life of those among
whom it originated, for some time be-
fore the appearance of the disease.
“I suppose there are but few indi-
viduals in the United States who have
not at least heard of the unparalleled
blaze of enthusiastic religion which
burst forth in the western country,
about the year 1800; but it is perhaps
impossible to have a competent idea
of its effects, without personal observa-
tion. This religious enthusiasm trav-
eled like electricity, with astonishing
velocity, and was felt, almost instanţa-
“neously, in every part of the states of
Tennessee and Kentucky. It often
{105} 49)
proved so powerful a stimulus, that
every other entirely lost its effect, or
was but feebly felt. Hence that gen-
eral neglect of earthly things, which
was observed, and the almost perpet-
ual attendance at places of public
worship. Their churches are, in gen-
eral, small and every way uncomfort-
able; the concourse of people, on days
of worship, particularly of extraor-
dinary meetings, was very numerous,
and hundreds who lived at too great a
distance to return home every evening,
came supplied with provisions, tents,
etc., for their sustenance and accom-
modation, during the continuance of
the meeting, which commonly lasted
from three to five days. They, as well
as many others, remained on the spot
day and night, the whole or greater part
of this time, worshiping their Maker
almost incessantly. The outward ex-
pressions of their worship consisted
chiefly in alternate crying, laughing,
singing, and Shouting, and, at the same
time, performing that variety of gestic-
ulation, which the muscular system is
capable of producing. It was under
these circumstances that some found
themselves unable, by voluntary efforts,
to suppress the contraction of their
muscles; and, to their own astonish-
ment, and the diversion of many of
the spectators, they continued to act
from necessity, the curious character
which they had commenced from
choice.
“The disease no sooner appeared,
than it spread with rapidity through
the medium of the principle of imita-
tion ; thus it was not uncommon for
an affected person to communicate it
to the greater part of a crowd, who,
from curiosity or other motives, had
collected around him. It is at this
time in almost every part of Tennessee
and Kentucky, and in various parts
of Virginia, but is said not to be con-
tagious (or readily communicated), as
at its commencement. It attacks
both sexes, and every constitution,
but evidently more readily those who
are enthusiasts in religion, such as
those above described, and females;
children of six years of age, and adults
,50 [106]
APPENDIX.
of sixty, have been known to have it,
but a great majority of those affected
are from fifteen to twenty-five. The
muscles generally affected are those
of the trunk, particularly of the neck,
sometimes those of the superior ex-
tremities, but very rarely, if ever,
those of the inferior. The contrac-
tions are sudden and violent, such as
are denominated convulsive, being
sometines so powerful, when in the
muscles of the back, that the patient
is thrown on the ground, where for
some time his motions more resemble
those of a live fish when thrown on
land, than anything else to which I
can compare them.
“This, however, does not often oc-
cur, and never, I believe, except at
the commencement of the disease.
The patients, in general, are capable
of standing and walking, and many,
after it has continued a short time,
can attend to their business, provided
it is not of a nature requiring much
steadiness of body. They are incapa-
ble of conversing with any degree of
satisfaction to themselves or company,
being continually interrupted by those
irregular contractions of their muscles,
each causing a grunt, or forcible ex-
piration ; but the organs of speech do
not appear to be affected, nor has it
the least influence on the mind. They
have no command over their actions
by any effort of volition, nor does
their lying in bed prevent them, but
they always cease during sleep. This
disease has remissions and exacerba-
tions, which, however, observe no reg-
ularity in their occurrence or dura-
tion. During the intermission a par-
oxysm is often excited at the sight of
a person affected, but more frequently
by the common salute of shaking
hands. The sensations of the patients
in a paroxysm are generally agreeable,
which the enthusiastic class often
endeavor to express, by laughing,
shouting, dancing, etc.
“Fatigue is almost always com-
plained of after violent paroxysms, and
sometimes a general Soreness is ex-
perienced. The heart and arteries
appear to be no further affected by
the disease, than what arises from the
exercise of the body; nor does any
change take place in any of the secre-
tions or excretions. It has not proved
mortal in a single instance within my
knowledge, but becomes lighter by
degrees, and finally disappears. In
Some cases, however, of long continu-
ance, it is attended with some degree
of melancholia, which seems to arise
entirely from the patient's reflections,
and not directly from the disease.
“The state of the atmosphere has
no influence over it, as it rages with
equal violence in summer and in
winter; in moist and in dry air.”
In the above examples, nervous
disorders, bearing a strong resem-
blance to those of the middle ages,
are shown to exist in an epidemic
form, both in Europe and America, at
the present time ; but in these in-
stances some general cause of mental
excitement—and none is more power-
ful than religious enthusiasm—seems
to have been requisite for their prop-
agation. Their appearance, however,
in single cases, is occasionally inde-
pendent of any such origin, which
leads to a belief, not without support
in the experiments of modern physiol-
ogists, that they occasionally proceed
from physical causes, and that it is
therefore not necessary to consider
them in all cases as the offspring of
a disordered imagination.
A well-marked case of a disease
approximating to the original Dang-
ing Mania, is related by Mr. Kinder
Wood, in the 7th volume of the Med-
ico-Chirurgical Transactions, p. 237.
The patient, a young married woman,
is described to have suffered from
headache and sickness, together with
involuntary motions of the eyelids,
and most extraordinary contortions of
the trunk and extremities, for several
days, when the more remarkable
symptoms began to manifest them-
selves, which are thus recorded :—
“February 26. Slight motions of
the limbs came on in bed. She arose
at nine o'clock, after which they in-
creased, and became unusually severe.
She was hurled from side to side of
/
APPENDIX. [107] 51
the couch-chair upon which she sat,
for a considerable time, without inter-
mission ; was sometimes instanta-
neously and forcibly thrown upon her
feet, when she jumped and stamped
violently. She had headache : the
eyelids were frequently affected, and
she had often a sudden propensity to
spring or leap upward. The affec-
tion ceased about eleven o’clock in
the forenoon, the patient being very
much fatigued; but it returned about
noon, and a third time in the after-
noon, when she was impelled into
every corner of the room, and began
to strike the furniture and doors vio-
lently with the hand, as she passed
near them, the sound of which af-
forded her great satisfaction. The
fourth attack was at night; was very
violent, and ended with sickness and
vomiting. She went to bed at half-
past eleven. Her nights were invari-
ably good. The last three attacks
were more violent than the former
ones, but they continued only half an
hour each.
“February 27. The attack com-
menced in bed, and was violent, but
of short duration. When she arose
about ten, she had a second attack,
continuing an hour, except an interval
of five minutes. She now struck the
furniture more violently and more
repeatedly. Kneeling on one knee,
with the hands upon the back, she
often sprang up suddenly and struck
the top of the room with the palm of
the hand. To do this, she rose fif-
teen inches from the floor, so that the
family were under the necessity of
drawing all the nails and hooks from
the ceiling. She frequently danced
upon one leg, holding the other with
the hand, and occasionally changing
the legs. In the evening, the family
observed the blows upon the furniture
to be more continuous, and to assume
the regular time and measure of a
musical air. As a strain or series of
strokes was concluded, she ended
with a more violent stroke or a more
violent spring or jump. Several of
her friends also at this time noticed
the regular measure of the strokes,
and the greater regularity the disease
was assuming; the motions being evi-
dently affected, or in some measure
modified, by the strokes upon the sur-
rounding bodies. She chiefly struck
a small slender door, the top of a
chest of drawers, the clock, a table,
or a wooden screen placed near the
door. The affection ceased about
nine o'clock, when the patient went to
bed.
“February 28. She arose very
well at eight. At half-past nine the
motions recommenced; they were
now of a more pleasant nature; the
involuntary actions, instead of pos-
sessing their former irregularity and vi-
Olence, being changed into a measured
step over the room, connected with
an air, or series of strokes, and she
beat upon the adjacent bodies as she
passed them. In the commencement
of the attack, the lips moved as if
words were articulated, but no sound {
could be distinguished at this period.
It was curious indeed to observe the
patient at this time, moving around
the room with all the vivacity of the
Country dance, or the graver step of
the minuet, the arms frequently
carried, not merely with ease, but
with elegance. A Occasionally all the
steps were so directed as to place the
foot constantly where the stone flags
joined to form the floor, particularly
when she looked downward. When
She looked upward, there was an
irresistible impulse to spring up to
touch little spots or holes in the top
of the ceiling; when she looked
around, she had a similar propensity
to dart the forefinger into little holes
in the furniture, etc. One hole in the
wooden screen received the point of
the forefinger many hundred times,
which was suddenly and involuntarily
darted into it with an amazing rapid-
ity and precision. There was one
particular part of the wall to which
she frequently danced, and there,
placing herself with the back to it,
stood two or three minutes. This by
the family was called ‘the measuring
Alace.”
“In the afternoon the motions re-
52 1108)
APPENDIX.
turned, and proceeded much as in the
morning. At this time a person pres-
ent, surprised at the manner in which
she beat upon the doors, etc., and
thinking he recognized the air, with-
out further ceremony began to sing
the tune; the moment this struck her
ears, she turned suddenly to the man,
and dancing directly up to him, con-
tinued doing so till he was out of
breath. The man now ceased a short
time, when commencing again, he
continued till the attack stopped.
The night before this, her father had
mentioned his wish to procure a
drum, associating this dance of his
daughter with some ideas of music.
The avidity with which she danced to
the tune when sung as above stated,
confirmed this wish, and accordingly
>
ſ
a drum and fife were procured in the
evening. After two hours of rest, the
motions again reappeared, when the
drum and fife began to play the air to
which she had danced before, viz. the
‘Protestant Boys,’ a favorite popular
air in this neighborhood. In what-
ever part of the room she happened
to be, she immediately turned and
danced up to the drum, and as close.
as possible to it, and there she danced
till she missed the step, when the in-
voluntary motions instantly ceased.
The first time she missed the step in
five minutes; but again rose, and
danced to the drum two minutes and
a half by her father's watch, when,
missing the step, the motions in-
stantly ceased. She rose a third
time, and missing the step in half a
minute, the motions immediately
ceased. After this, the drum and fife
commenced as the involuntary actions
were coming on, and before she rose
from her seat; and four times they
completely checked the progress of
the attack, so that she did not rise
upon the floor to dance. At this pe-
riod the affection ceased for the even-
11) 9.
“March 1. She arose very well at
half-past seven. Upon my visit this
morning, the circumstances of the pre-
ceding afternoon being stated, it
appeared clear to me that the attacks
had been shortened. Slow as I had
seen the effects of medicine in the
comparatively trifling disease of
young females, I was very willing
that the family should pursue the ex-
periment, while the medical means
were continued.
“As I wished to see the effect of
the instrument over the disease, I
was sent for at noon, when I found
her dancing to the drum, which she
Continued to do for half an hour with-
out missing a step, owing to the slow-
ness of the movement. As I sat
Counting the pulse, which I found to
be 12 o, in the short intervals of an
attack, I noticed motions of the lips,
previous to the commencement of the
dance, and placing my ear near the
mouth I distinguished a tune. After
the attack, of which this was the be-
ginning, she informed me, in answer
to my inquiry, that there always was
a tune, dwelling upon her mind,
which at times becoming more press-
ing, irresistibly impelled her to com-
mence the involuntary motions. The
motions ceased at four o'clock.
“At half-past seven the motions
commenced again, when I was sent
for. There were two drummers pres-
ent, and an unbraced drum was
beaten till the other was braced.
She danced regularly to the unbraced
drum, but the moment the other com-
menced she instantly ceased. As
missing the time stopped the affec-
tions, I wished the measure to be
changed during the dance, which
stopped the attack. It also ceased
upon increasing the rapidity of the
beat, till she could no longer keep
time ; and it was truly surprising to
see the rapidity and violence of the
muscular exertion, in order to keep
time with the increasing movement of
the instrument. Five times I saw
her sit down the same evening, at
the instant that she was unable to
keep the measure; and in conse-
quence of this I desired the drum-
mers to beat one continued roll, in-
stead of a regular movement. She
arose and danced five minutes, when
both drums beat a continued roll ; the
APPENDIX.
motions instantly stopped, and the
patient sat down. In a few minutes
the motions commencing again, she
was suffered to dance five minutes,
when the drums again began to roll,
the effect of which was instantaneous ;
the motions ceased, and the patient
sat down. In a few minutes the same
was repeated with the same effect.
It appeared certain that the attacks
could now be stopped in an instant,
and I was desirous of arresting them
entirely, and breaking the chain of
irregular associations which consti-
tuted the disease. As the motions at
this period always commenced in the
fingers, and propagated themselves
along the upper extremities to the
trunk, I desired the drummers, when
the patient arose to dance, to watch
the commencement of the attack, and
roll the drums before she arose from
the chair. Six times successively the
patient was hindered from rising, by
attending to the commencement of
the affection; and before leaving the
house, I desired the family to attend
[109] 53
to the commencement of the attacks,
and use the drum early.
“March 2. She arose at seven
o'clock, and the motions commenced
at ten ; she danced twice before the
drummer was prepared, after which
she attempted to dance again four
several times; but one roll of a well-
braced drum hindered the patient
from leaving her seat, after which the
attacks did not recur. She was left
weakly and fatigued by the disease,
but with a good appetite. In the even-
ing of this day an eruption appeared,
particularly about the elbows, in dif-
fused patches of a bright red color,
which went off on the third day.”
Other cases might be adduced (see
23d vol. of the Edinburgh Medical
and Surgical Journal, p. 261 ; 31st
vol. of ditto, p. 299 ; 5th vol. of the
Medico-Chirurgical Transactions, pp.
I to 23, etc.), but as there is none
more striking than this, they would
unnecessarily swell this number of the
Appendix, which has already extended
to an undue length.
C O N T E N T S.
CHAP. PAGE
I. THE DANCING MANIA IN GERMANY AND THE NETHERLANDs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I
Sect. I. St. John's Dance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I
“ 2. St. Vitus's Dance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.
“ 3. Causes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
“ 4. More Ancient Dancing Plagues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
“ 5. Physicians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
“ 6 Decline and Termination of the Dancing Plague. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . II
II. DANCING MANIA IN ITALY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I4
Sect. I. Tarantism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I4
“ 2. Most Ancient Traces.—Causes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I6
“ 3. Increase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
“ 4. Idiosyncracies.—Music. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 I
“ 5: Hysteria. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
“ 6 Decrease. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
III. DANCING MANIA IN ABYSSINIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3O
Sect. I. Tigretier. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3O
IV, SYMPATHY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
APPENDIX I. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
£6 II. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * s • e e s e s e e º e s e s e e s e e s e 44
6& III. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
(I& IV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
46 W. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * g e e s e º sº e º e º e 46
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