Dolber 1 Catherine Dolber Binghamton University 15 December 2010 Containing Contagion: Perception and Prevention of Plague in the Late Middle Ages Although the Medieval period lacked the concept of germ theory and the tools necessary to make such a discovery, the Western tradition of medicine was not unfamiliar with the analytical diagnosis of diseases. When the Black Death, one of the world’s deadliest epidemics, struck the European continent, the people afflicted with plague looked to those already respected in the medical field. With the familiar teachings of Hippocrates and Galen along with newly developed theories, European governments and citizens looked for answers aside from divine retribution. The swift course and immense death toll of the pestilence pushed many to formulate their own theories on generation and prevention of the Black Death and its many reincarnations. Whereas common modern perceptions often actively pit religion against science in this period, the magnitude of the Black Death and the cyclical resurfacing of the plague throughout the Middle Ages and Early Modern era highlights a time in which the comforting words of a religious leader did little to assuage the public’s fears. While medical practitioners assured patients of their authority in the realm of the natural world, when the Church, the representation of the divine in the natural world, was proven fallible, the questioning people of Europe were challenged by a necessary shift in the previously accepted worldview; from blind acceptance of the punishments from the Christian god to a greater understanding of the natural world and man’s ability to effect it. Given the immense impact the Black Death had upon European society, there are approximately six hundred and sixty years worth of scholarship at the disposal of modern academics. Scholarly works written before modern accepted theory serve as artifacts of each  Dolber 2 period’s perception of medical practice, creating a line of theoretical and practical succession. However, with new information becoming available, the best sources for the analysis of a disease itself, as well as the most accurate Late Medieval / Early Modern responses to such an epidemic, are found in the most recent scholarship possible. For the translation and compilation of contemporary documents regarding the Black Death, Rosemary Horrox’s The Black Death brings together many papers from the early years of the outbreak which illustrate the different facets of society that were affected by the epidemic. Through choice scientific and religious explanations and responses and discussing the consequences and repercussions seen throughout European society, Horrox expresses her thesis concerning the fear that accompanied the disease and the varied ways that fear influenced contemporary society. Published in 1994, Horrox’s translation work is utilized in various other compilations, notably that of Faith Wallis’ 2010 publication Medieval Medicine A Reader. Wallis’ work strives to shape the larger medieval social and cultural perspective of medicine and healing through textual records that trace the progression of medical practice and theory.1 Acknowledging the numerous anthologies available containing primary sources on the Black Death, Wallis uses Horrox’s translation of the Report of the Paris Medical Faculty in October 1348 and John of Burgundy’s Treatise on the Epidemic along with Guy de Chauliac’s treatise on the Black Death to demonstrate aspects of medieval thought on medical intervention. While Samuel K. Cohn Jr.’s main focus lies in the Renaissance, the continuing use of earlier health procedures connects treatises from the mid-fourteenth century to measures taken through the sixteenth century. Referencing numerous sources in his article “The Black Death: End of a Paradigm”, Cohn cites Guy de Chauliac’s description of the plague in Avignon as just 1 Wallis, Faith. Medieval Medicine A Reader. Ed. Faith Wallis. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010. Print. xxiv.  Dolber 3 one of the primary sources proving the Black Death was not the bubonic plague. Delving into the changing attitudes towards belief in religious aide and medical aide in prevention and treatment of plague victims, Cohn argues that as time passed and the plague continued people shifted favor from religious means to medical treatment. The very authorship and number of available plague tracts, a genre created specifically in response to the Black Death, confirms the public’s confidence in the perceived efficacy of medical treatment.2 Another scholar whose focus lies within the Renaissance is that of Vivian Nutton who published an article on Girolamo Fracastoro’s theory of contagion. Whereas Fracastoro’s publication did not greatly affect his contemporary world of medicine, Nutton argues that he was a man before his time and “physicians everywhere owed Fracastoro a great deal… for the manner in which he had treated this whole subject with great precision and learning.”3 Packing his article with the political upheaval and the numerous hurdles Fracastoro faced with the publication and circulation of is 1546 De Contagione, Nutton’s work proved useful in filling in the Early Modern perception of contagious diseases; connecting its methodology as an extrapolation of the Late Medieval works as well as including the persisting belief in more occult explanations for the infectious nature of the Black Death. Commonly traced from Constantinople and onto Genoa, the plague made its European appearance in 1347 and resurfaced periodically until 1722.4 Just as a society changes over time, so do the words used to define the world. While modern scientists and academics debate whether or not the Black Death was a particular strain of bacteria known as Yersinia pestis, the 2 Cohn Jr., Samuel K. "The Black Death: End of a Paradigm." American Historical Review. 107.3 (2002): 703-738. Print. 707. 3 Nutton, Vivian. "The Reception of Fracastoro's Theory of Contagion: The Seed That Fell among Thorns?." Renaissance Medical Learning: Evolution of Tradition. 6.2 (1990): 215. Print. 4 Sherman, Irwin W. The Power of Plagues. Washington D.C.: ASM Press, 2006. 71-72. Print.  Dolber 4 bubonic plague,5 the people of Medieval Europe could only characterize and define a disease through its symptoms and mortality rate. In this regard, the use of words such as “plague” and “pestilence” were used in their simplest definitions, that of a widespread affliction. The fear and resulting actions taken against the disease mean more to the historical record than the subject of nomenclature. Sources place the European death toll connected to the five-year period of the Black Death at approximately half of the population.6 With scholars in general agreement that the sweeping decrease in population aided in wide-spread socio-economic change, Siraisi states: Not even the mid-fourteenth-century calamity of the Black Death, when disease in the face of which the medical community was totally helpless… was sufficient to produce a general or lasting loss of confidence in established medical theory, education, and practice.7 Early in the European infection, due to the apparent novelty of the disease, explanations of the Black Death were looked for in the wrath of God more so than in the human sphere.8 Historians may comment that medical practitioners of the mid-fourteenth century were helpless against the plague. Regardless, during the epidemic physicians turned to their reliable texts and told the public a Good Story.9 Ever-mindful of the need for patient trust and obedience, physicians strove to maintain their reputations as knowledgeable and consistent sources of healing. In his treatise on the Black Death, Guy de Chauliac lists the general preventative measures taken at the time of the initial outbreak: …nothing was better than to flee the area before becoming infected; and to purge oneself with pills, to diminish the blood by phlebotomy, to purify 5 Theilmann, John M., and Frances Cate. "A Plague of Plagues: The Problem." Journal of Interdisciplinary History. 37.3 (2007): 371-393. Print. 6 Cohn Jr., "The Black Death: End of a Paradigm." 711. 7 Siraisi, Nancy G. Medieval & Early Renaissance Medicine. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1990. Print. 42. 8 Cohn Jr., "The Black Death: End of a Paradigm." 705. 9 French, Roger. Medicine Before Science The Business of Medicine from the Middle Ages to Enlightenment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. 12. Print.  Dolber 5 the air with fire, and to strengthen the heart with theriac, fruits and good- smelling things; to fortify the humors with Armenian, and to resist decay with sharp things.10 At this time, there was controversy over whether or not the plague was a pestilential fever or an apostemic disease in which the fever was an ancillary symptom. Noted by Chauliac, the plague of 1348 was distinguished by “a continuous fever and a spitting of blood… and by apostemes and carbuncles and tumors in the external parts, mainly the armpits and groin.”11 In this case, the issue of nomenclature was an important area of discussion. If the fever was the main illness, the prevention, prognostication, and treatment of the illness would have been affected. While Chauliac advocated the theory of apostemic disease, and others supported the theory of the plague being a pestilential fever, there was a third party which attempted to create a category with a wider scope, in which both fever and swellings were symptoms of a singular contagious disease. This broadening of vision pushed academics of the time to acknowledge that contemporary medicine was reaching beyond the authority of the ancient texts that were integral to academic medicine.12 The divisions that had arisen between the practice of theoretical and practical medicine proved fatal for patients of true physician-philosophers who believed they could operate solely through observation and deliberation. Prior to the epidemic practical medicine had grown in importance and after the Black Death consumed the countries of Europe, theoretical medicine became little more than an introduction to the main events such as blood-letting and surgery.13 The immense death toll also acted as a catalyst for new ideas to come to the fore. When older physicians who held positions of power at medical universities passed away, their younger 10 Trans. McVaugh, Michael R. from Guy de Chauliac, "Ars chirurgicalis Guidonis Cauliaci medici." Medieval Medicine. Ed. Faith Wallis. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010. 421. Print. 11 Trans. McVaugh, from Guy de Chauliac. 419-421. 12 Trans. McVaugh, from Guy de Chauliac, 419. 13 French, Roger. Medicine Before Science The Business of Medicine from the Middle Ages to Enlightenment. 127.  Dolber 6 replacements shifted focus from books to bodies, stretching out into clinical areas such as anatomy.14 When the disease struck France in 1348, King Philip requested the Faculty of Medicine of Paris to address the causes and possible cures of “the present universal epidemic”.15 In a perfunctory statement, the faculty acknowledged that this work was done, “with God’s help”16 and then launched into a complex astrological explanation concerning the cause of the plague on a universal scale; “Found in ancient philosophers…the conjunction of Mars and Jupiter causes a great pestilence in the air, especially when they come together in a hot, wet, sign, as was the case in 1345.”17 Working from the knowledge of the ancients as any learned physician was trained to do, the Faculty moved onto causation on a smaller scale including terrestrial causes such as earthquakes releasing vapors from the center of the Earth into the air and winds carrying “rotten vapors” from noxious locales such as swamps or across “unburied or unburnt corpses”.18 When coupled with climatic disturbances such as unseasonably warm winters or colder and wetter summers, both the heavens and the Earth came into perfect conjunction for a fatal epidemic.19 At such an early stage in the history of the plague’s persistence throughout Medieval Europe, the Faculty concluded its report to King Philip by stating: We must not overlook that the pestilence proceeds from the divine will, and our advice can therefore only be to return humbly to God. But this does not mean forsaking doctors. For the Most High created earthly medicine, and although God alone cures the sick, he does so through the medicine which in his generosity he has provided.20 14 Sherman, The Power of Plagues, 76. 15 "The report of the Paris medical faculty, October 1348." The Black Death. Ed. Rosemary Horrox. New York: Manchester University Press, 1994. Print. 158. 16 "The report of the Paris medical faculty, October 1348." from Rosemary Horrox The Black Death. 158. 17 "The report of the Paris medical faculty, October 1348." from Rosemary Horrox The Black Death. 159. 18 "The report of the Paris medical faculty, October 1348." from Rosemary Horrox The Black Death. 161. 19 "The report of the Paris medical faculty, October 1348." from Rosemary Horrox The Black Death. 161. 20 "The report of the Paris medical faculty, October 1348." from Rosemary Horrox The Black Death. 163.  Dolber 7 At this point in time, science and religion had to work together in order to adequately describe the state of the known world. The belief in the Christian god did not automatically refute the scientific discoveries of the natural world or the explanations of the plague. It stands to reason, if God was the creator of the natural world, he was ultimately responsible for all things found in both Heaven and Earth. John of Burgundy’s Treatise on the Epidemic devotes approximately one-quarter of the work to means of prevention. Written in 1365 and translated from Latin into English, French, Dutch, and Hebrew,21 Burgundy bridges the natural and the divine by outlining how to prevent contracting the disease again, “with God’s help”.22 In an effort to balance the humors Burgundy asserts that over-indulgence in food and drink, baths, and sexual intercourse should be avoided as well as sweet foods such as honey or fruit. In acknowledgement of the theory concerning noxious air as a cause of the epidemic, Burgundy also prescribes aromatics such as a ball of ambergris or burning a powdered combination of frankincense, labdanum, storax, calaminth, and wood of aloes.23 However, stated in practical, Galenic terms, “If the epidemic occurs during hot weather, it becomes necessary to adopt another regimen...”24 Aside from a preventative routine, Burgundy advocates bloodletting and a bit of pharmacology in the form of the pills of Rhazes.25 This practical plague tract on prevention and cure concludes with a religious message to its audience; “I have composed and compiled this work not for money, but for prayers, and so let anyone who has recovered from the disease pray strongly for me to our Lord God, to whom be the praise and glory throughout the whole world 21 Wallis, Medieval Medicine A Reader, 422. 22 John of Burgundy "The Treatise of John of Burgundy, 1365." The Black Death. Ed. Rosemary Horrox. New York: Manchester University Press, 1994. Print. 186. 23 John of Burgundy "The Treatise of John of Burgundy, 1365." from Rosemary Horrox The Black Death. 186-187. 24 John of Burgundy "The Treatise of John of Burgundy, 1365." from Rosemary Horrox The Black Death. 186-187. 25 John of Burgundy "The Treatise of John of Burgundy, 1365." from Rosemary Horrox The Black Death. 188.  Dolber 8 for ever and ever, amen.”26 In the short time between the Faculty of Paris’s publication and John of Burgundy’s tract, firm belief in the ultimate cause of and salvation from plague being in the hands of the omnipotent was still fully acknowledged in academic works. With Chauliac’s Great Surgery being utilized in medical texts until the sixteenth century, academic preventative measures remained more or less the same for centuries.27 Due to the virulence of the Black Death in 1377 the Great City Council of Ragusa established a mandatory isolation period of one month for “citizens or visitors from plague-endemic areas”.28 Those attempting to enter the city were held in isolation and those inside the city were under strict orders to refrain from entering the secluded areas unless they too wished to remain segregated from society for a term of thirty days. At some point the mandated thirty days become forty, changing the Italian practice from trentino to quarantine, the Italian word for “forty” – resulting in the use of the word “quarantine” to describe isolation used for medical purposes from that point onward. There are however, points of contention as to why the mandated isolation was lengthened. “Some authors suggest that it was…because the shorter period was insufficient to prevent disease spread. Others believe that the change was related to the Christian observance of Lent, a 40-day period of spiritual purification.”29 Once again the intrinsic nature of religion in medieval society colored all aspects of life, especially when elements of the unknown were in play. Given that no one could adequately explain the Black Death, supposition in the realm of the supernatural have to be taken into consideration. While the official term “quarantine” and its designated length of isolation began in Italy, the practice of separating contagious peoples from the rest of a healthy community was not a 26 John of Burgundy "The Treatise of John of Burgundy, 1365." from Rosemary Horrox The Black Death. 193. 27 Cohn Jr., "The Black Death: End of a Paradigm." 708. 28 Sehdev, "The Origin of Quarantine." Clinical Infectious Diseases. 35.9 (2002):1072. Print. 29 Sehdev, "The Origin of Quarantine." 1072.  Dolber 9 new concept by the time the plague made its entrance. In the Book of Leviticus, God instructed Moses and Aaron to bring any persons found with a swelling or rash to a priest who was to examine them and declare whether or not the mark was “ceremonially unclean” (Leviticus 13:3). If the ailment was deemed unclean, the sufferer was to be placed into isolation for seven days after which they would be re-examined and potentially isolated for additional time. The biblical chapter goes on to discuss what skin ailment would be harmful enough to society to warrant forced segregation from the rest of the community. Regardless of why medical isolation was advocated by the Bible, the word of God himself, a precedent was set. Despite ignorance of the actual means of infection, there was an inherent practicality to either casting the visibly ill out of the general populace or, if the disease were prevalent enough, evacuating an infected area. In Vienna, just after the Black Death, the documentation concerning quarantine makes “vague references to the use of guards to prevent strangers from entering the city.”30 This was not exactly the highly structured and specific regulations that Italy put into practice. However, when plague hit Vienna again in 1540, the medical faculty of the city authored a treatise for public consumption. This pamphlet would go on to be the foundation for the Infection Decree of 1540 which “was widely distributed and contained two orders: streets must be cleaned twice weekly, and aromatic wood must be burned in order to improve the air of the city.”31 These preventative measures were thought to have been useful against the theory of contagious disease being carried by harmful air. In the same year, the office of magister sanitatis was created for the purpose of acting as a liaison between the Faculty of Medicine and the city authorities. This action in turn sparked the creation of a health council along with a more specific means of protecting the city’s borders 30 Velimirovic, Boris, and Helga Velimirovic. "Plague in Vienna." Reviews of Infectious Diseases. 11.5 (1989): 808- 826. Print. 31 Velimirovic, Velimirovic, "Plague in Vienna." 817.  Dolber 10 and various methods of quarantine; “the door of a house with plague was to be marked with a white cross, and no one was allowed to enter or leave such a house, except for one person appointed to care for the patient.”32 Twelve years after the Infection Decree first went into effect; it was revised in favor of a more openly religious message pertaining to the cause of infection. Despite the advances in medical theory, the Viennese government stated that if, after “accepting God’s punishment”,33 citizens were able to lead lives pleasing to God, refraining from vice and obscene actions, the general consensus was that such pious deeds would prevent the contraction of the plague in and of themselves. Midway between Vienna’s first Infection Decree and its religiously turned revision, Italian poet and pathologist Giromalo Fracastoro published his theory of contagion, De contagione et contagiosis morbis et eorum curatione in 1546.34 Opening his treatise with a general overview of contagion, Fracastoro defined contagion similar to Isidore of Seville in his Etymologies.35 Fracastoro then introduced his theory of contagion which he described as when, “a certain precisely similar corruption which develops in the substance of a combination, passes from one thing to another, and is originally caused by infection of the imperceptible particles.”36 The concept of imperceptible particles took the broad understanding of miasmatic causation and tightened it; from the notion of the air itself being poisonous to undetectable, corruptive material inside the air. Having touched upon the use of the word “seed” or “seedlets” to explain contagion in his earlier work on syphilis, Fracastoro went into detail concerning the various nature of the seeds’ ability to infect based upon their various qualities: “The seeds of syphilis 32 Velimirovic, Velimirovic, "Plague in Vienna." 817. 33 Velimirovic, Velimirovic, "Plague in Vienna." 817. 34 Nutton, "The Reception of Fracastoro's Theory of Contagion: The Seed That Fell among Thorns?." 196. 35 Nutton, "The Reception of Fracastoro's Theory of Contagion: The Seed That Fell among Thorns?." 200. 36 Trans. Wright, Wilmer Cave from Girolamo Fracastoro. De contagione et contagiosis morbis et eorum curatione. (1930) New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons.  Dolber 11 were sharper and harder than those of leprosy and were thus able to penetrate into the deepest parts of the body.”37 Although Fracastoro’s main focus was on that of syphilis, he did not fail to mention plague. Even with his revolutionary look at contagion, Fracastoro supported the main preventative method prescribed by contemporaries of the Black Death some two hundred years earlier, John of Burgundy and Guy de Chauliac: “one needs to be especially on one’s guard when one observes that certain winds are blowing from a quarter where the plague prevails; and one should not merely fear, but flee…”38 With Fracastoro’s published theory claiming new medical knowledge but supporting old intuitive means of prevention, scholars such as Francois Valleriola were able to find fault in the purely scientific nature of Fracastoro’s discussion of contagion. Publishing his own work in 1554, Valleriola cited divine punishment and putrid humors as the real cause of the plague and went on in length concerning the operation of plague infection working through “occult sympathy and antipathy to destroy the patient.”39 Directly refuting Fracastoro’s connection between contagious diseases and putrefaction, Valleriola stated that men may die of plague without such signs of decay. Despite the advances in scientific reasoning and medical theory, there was a great deal left to the unknown and as such it was more easily explainable through the familiar means of the supernatural. Just off the continent, regardless of why or how, the reign of Queen Elizabeth appears to have been rampant with outbreaks of plague. “Because of the long visitation of the plague”40 in the city of Westminster and the duchy of Lancaster in the year 1563, the Lord Mayor and the 37 Nutton, "The Reception of Fracastoro's Theory of Contagion: The Seed That Fell among Thorns?." 201. 38 Trans. Wright, Wilmer Cave from Girolamo Fracastoro, 67. 39 Nutton, "The Reception of Fracastoro's Theory of Contagion: The Seed That Fell among Thorns?." 215. 40 Burghley, William, and Ambrose Cave. "Wyllyam Cecill knight, high stewarde of the citie of Westminster, and Ambrose Caue, knight, chauncelour of the duchye of Lancaster..." 1564. n. pag. Web. 13 Nov 2010. Early English Books Online. metaLink. 2010. Retrieved at Binghamton University Library.  Dolber 12 Alderman of the city of London published a mandate that was to be publicly posted in the name of the Queen. By this time the prescribed length of forty days of isolation had reached England and as such, houses which had been touched by plague were to close all doors and windows that faced the common streets for such a time after the last visitation of the disease.41 The practice of renting rooms to those outside of the family was also addressed. In an attempt to prevent overcrowding and a higher rate of the spread of infection, any families who had occupied rented rooms for less than the twelve months previous were to vacate the premises or face punishment “according to the ancient orders in that behalf heretofore devised.”42 In 1577, the Corporation of London published a flyer entitled, “Articles to be enquired of, what orders have been put in execution, for the reentering of the infected of the plague, within the City of London and liberties thereof”.43 Surprisingly succinct for the period, the leaflet reads akin to a check-list for those overseeing the reentry of citizens. For accuracy of government knowledge, the names of the persons who died of the plague as well as the owners of the household in which they lived were recorded. Also taken into consideration were what orders the household had received and how long the domicile was closed up and marked for pestilence. The fourth item on the list of inquiry concerned what provisions were afforded to the “poorer sort…being by the said orders restrained from going abroad.”44 This brief bullet point illustrates that while the Corporation of London did not want infected citizens inside city limits, they also did not want the disease to be carried elsewhere. 41 Burghley and Cave. 42 Burghley and Cave. 43 Corporation of London, Court of Common Council. "Articles to be enquired of, what orders haue bene put in execution, for the restreinyng of the infected of the plague, within the citie of London." 1577. n. pag. Web. 11 Nov 2010. Early English Books Online. metaLink. 2010. Retrieved at Binghamton University Library. 44 Corporation of London, Court of Common Council.  Dolber 13 Again in Westminster, in 1593, the Queen released a proclamation stating that the usual festivities for Michelmas Day could not be held because “it can not be but dangerous to such her loving subjects.”45 These three publications, spanning thirty years, are just part of the preoccupation with plague that stretched across centuries. Despite unreliable medical preventatives and cures, European governments such as those in Ragusa, Vienna, and the entire country of England, realized the threat was greater than individual measures could hope to contain. While the most notable and commonly referenced epidemic occurred between 1347 and 1352, the impact the plague had upon society influenced the peoples of Europe for centuries. After the initial outbreak took the Western world unawares, physicians publicly accepted their ignorance and inability to prove effective against the plague. However, they were confident in their capacity to learn from the disease in order to be better prepared for the future.46 As evidenced by the three schools of thought on the plague in Chauliac’s time, the use of various governments’ public health mandates, and treatises such as those put forth by Fracastoro, medical theory was constantly expanding in attempts to answer the plague crisis. Conversely, the Church did not offer such a promise of growth. In this circumstance, it was Catholicism’s inflexibility that would aide in its diminished cultural hold over Europe. Whereas the reputation of medical practitioners survived the plague, it is suggested that where medicine prevailed, blind faith of the masses did not. A series of Roman Catholic missteps throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries proved too damaging with the added pressure of the Black Death. One such error was that of the Avignon Papacy which held the 45 England and Wales. Sovereign (1558-1603 : Elizabeth I), . "By the Queene. The Queenes most excellent Maiestie, vnderstanding that the infection of the plague in the cities of London and Westminster doth yet continue." 1593. n. pag. Web. 12 Nov 2010. Early English Books Online. metaLink. 2010. Retrieved at Binghamton University Library. 46 "The report of the Paris medical faculty, October 1348." from Rosemary Horrox The Black Death. 158.  Dolber 14 power of the Church outside the seat of Rome for much of the fourteenth century and as a result grew increasingly influenced by French political matters and agendas.47 In a letter to a friend, Petrarch condemns France, “the Babylon of the West”48, for its poisoning of the holy institution. This condemnation echoed many Christian’s reproachful attitude towards a Church who preached humility and modesty while holy men were “loaded with gold and clad in purple, boasting of the spoils of princes and nations” and living in “luxurious palaces and heights crowned with fortifications…”49 Regardless of the declining favor of the Roman Catholic Church, religion was anchored fast to the culture of the period. Throughout Queen Elizabeth I’s reign – after England’s turbulent schism with the church in Rome under the reign of her father, Henry VIII – along with the public health mandates, many Christian explanations and sermons concerning the plague were published. In 1563, the same year as the government proclamation in the city of Westminster and the duchy of Lancaster concerning quarantine procedures, the Church of England released a short sermon giving thanks to God for the cessation of “the contagious sickness of the plague”.50 Since the Church of England looked toward its monarch rather than the papal authority in Rome as the Defender of the Faith and Supreme Governor of the Church,51 it stands to reason that a sermon of thanksgiving was released as a means of comforting the citizens for whom the Queen has such “compassion for the estate of that her City.”52 47 Williman, Daniel. "The right of spoil of the popes of Avignon, 1316-1415," American Philosophical Society 78.6 (1988): 34. Print. 48 Petrarch. "Letter Criticizing the Avignon Papacy." The Medieval Sourcebook. Fordham University, 1998. Web. 16 Nov 2010. 49 Petrarch. "Letter Criticizing the Avignon Papacy." 50 Church of England. Short fourme of thankesgeuyng to God for ceassyng the contagious sicknes of the plague 1563. n. pag. Web. 15 Nov 2010. Early English Books Online. metaLink. 2003. Retrieved at Binghamton University Library. 51 Miles, Margaret R. The Word made Flesh: a History of Christian Thought. Cornwall: Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2005. 319. Print. 52 Burghley,and Cave.  Dolber 15 Around the same time as England’s governmental press releases, both from the offices of the Queen as monarch and as spiritual leader, Andreas Osiander printed a sermon on “How and whither a Christian man ought to fly the horrible plague of the pestilence.”53 In the introduction to his sermon, Osiander states that the pestilence had caused a great weakness of spirit and a general slacking of Christian morals. In an effort to teach the ignorant and strengthen the weak, Osiander put together “a short instruction and comfort out of the Holy Scripture”.54 Although the sermon was printed in 1563, Osiander attempted to address issues that a citizen of Siena remarked upon in 1358, “Father abandoned child; wife, husband; one brother another; for this illness seemed to strike through the breath and the sight.”55 Despite two centuries of living with the plague, regardless of social and religious upheaval, the fear of death always resulted in a rushed desire to evacuate the area and to abandon those who ought to be shown Christian charity. As evidenced by Osiander’s sermon and Queen Elizabeth’s proclamation, the plague had not ceased in all parts of England in 1563. Despite the Church’s intrinsic nature to Medieval and Early Modern culture, bad political plays and the pursuit of worldly power along with its failing to protect its people in the time of plague, weakened religious authority.56 Published in 1593, Henry Holland put forth Spiritual preservatives against the pestilence: Or A treatise containing sundrie questions; a basic discussion on plague as being a punishment from God. Through highlighted portions of the Bible as well as commentary on the periods in which God was forced to enact such drastic 53 Osiander, Andreas. How and whither a Chrysten man ought to flye the horryble plague of the pestilence 1563. Web. 15 Nov 2010. Early English Books Online. metaLink. 2003. Retrieved at Binghamton University Library. 54 Osiander. How and whither a Chrysten man ought to flye the horryble plague of the pestilence. 55 Miles, The Word made Flesh: a History of Christian Thought., 199. 56 Sherman, The Power of Plagues. 74.  Dolber 16 measures Holland strove to prove his point to those inclined to a more rational approach.57 Whereas physicians were faced with a previously unrecorded disease with the various symptoms of the Black Death and its many reincarnations, Holland did not need specific symptoms to give credit to his long list of holy pestilences starting in the second century and continuing through the last years of the sixteenth century.58 Blaming the wantonness of his contemporary society, and pointing out medicine’s unfortunate inefficacy, Holland echoed a sentiment that was often expressed by the faithful throughout the centuries of the plague’s hold over Europe; “Reason, physic, and daily experience can teach us, that some secret causes work in this plague more than any other.”59 Again, in an effort to discredit the numerous medical theories that were circulating by this time, Holland continued by stating, “Some…are so fool-hardy, that they fear nothing, and think these loving warnings of the Lord to be but ordinary… and neither regard as Christians any amendment of life…”60 Even with such Christian publications, as God’s servants fell victim to the plague, laymen were left to conclude that while God may have been purging a corrupt institution, He was also unable to protect his devoted servants from succumbing to disease. When the general disillusionment towards the hierarchy of God’s servants on earth was met with the unfulfilling nature of the religious explanations for the Black Death, the entirety of Europe was faced with a shaken confidence in their most fundamental beliefs. Between the initial Black Death epidemic and the end of the sixteenth century, the people of Europe witnessed a revolution in medicine – by acknowledging that greater breakthroughs could be made once physicians looked outside of the realm of Antiquity – as well as a revolution 57 Holland, Henry. Spirituall preseruatiues against the pestilence: Or A treatise containing sundrie questions 1593. n. pag. Web. Early English Books Online. metaLink. 2003. Retrieved at Binghamton University Library. 58 Holland, Spirituall preseruatiues against the pestilence: Or A treatise containing sundrie questions 3,5. 59 Holland, Spirituall preseruatiues against the pestilence: Or A treatise containing sundrie questions 4 60 Holland, Spirituall preseruatiues against the pestilence: Or A treatise containing sundrie questions 5.  Dolber 17 in organized religion – in the division of Christian faith. Although medical theory offered growth and a furthering of knowledge that was hopeful in its work toward a true preventative method or cure of the plague, the belief in the supernatural inflicting a viable punishment still proved to be a persuasive argument. There was no great comfort to be found in either the practicality of medicine or the familiarity of scripture. If the general populace had been convinced of the efficacy of faith or medicine, such numerous sermons and treatises need not have been published claiming knowledge of authority over the plague. Whereas many physicians gave public acknowledgement of the hand of the Christian god in their efforts against the plague, which ultimately provided an alleviation of blame when physicians failed, no such acknowledgement of a mutual relationship was as forthcoming in surviving documentation from the church; be it from contemporary Catholic or Protestant publications. Ultimately it was not a matter of comfort, but a matter of accepting authority and obeying whichever influence was deemed more effective.  Dolber 18 Works Referenced Berger, Pamela. "Mice, Arrows, and Tumors: Medieval Plague Iconography North of the Alps." Piety and Plague: from Byzantium to the Baroque. Ed. Franco Marmondo and Thomas Worcester. Kirksville, MO: Truman State University Press, 2007. Print. 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