The Great Pestilence (a.d. 1348-9), Now Commonly Known As the Black Death

CHAPTER I.. The Commencement of the Epidemic.

THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE EPIDEMIC.

First reports as to the sickness — General account of the epidemic in eastern countries — The great trade routes between Asia and Europe — The plague in the Crimea — Tartar siege of Caffa — Origin of the name "Black Death" — Symptoms of the disease — Constantinople is attacked; account of the epidemic by the Emperor Cantacuzene — Genoese traders carry the infection to Sicily — Effect in Messina and Catania 1-15

CHAPTER II.. The Epidemic in Italy.

THE EPIDEMIC IN ITALY.

Date of the arrival of the infected ships at Genoa — Striking sameness in all accounts — De Mussi's account of the beginning of the plague in Italy, specially in Genoa and Piacenza — Boccaccio's description of it in Florence — This confirmed by the historian Villani — Progress of the disease in Italy — Pisa — Padua, Siena, etc. — Petrarch's letter on the epidemic at Parma — Venice and its doctors — Description of the desolation by Bohemian students 16-33

CHAPTER III.. Progress of the Plague in France.

PROGRESS OF THE PLAGUE IN FRANCE.

Its arrival at Marseilles — A Parisian doctor's account of the epidemic at Montpellier — Avignon is attacked and suffers terribly — Contemporary account of its ravages by a Canon of the Low Countries — Gui de Chauliac, the Pope's physician — Spread of the infection in every direction — William of Nargis' description of the mortality in Paris — Philip VI. consults the medical faculty — Normandy — Amiens — Account of Gilles Le Muisis, Abbot of Tournay — M. Siméon Luce on the conditions of popular life in France in the Fourteenth century — Agrarian troubles follow the epidemic 34-57

CHAPTER IV.. The Plague in Other European Countries.

THE PLAGUE IN OTHER EUROPEAN COUNTRIES.

From Sicily the pestilence is carried to the Balearic islands — Majorca — The scourge in Spain — The shores of the Adriatic are visited — From Venice the wave passes into Austria and Hungary — It passes over the Alps into the Tyrol and Switzerland — Account of a Notary of Novara — From Avignon the epidemic is carried up the Rhone Valley to the Lake of Geneva — It visits Lucerne and Engelberg — Account of its ravages at Vienna — It goes from Basle up the valley of the Rhine — Frankfort — Bremen — From Flanders it passes into Holland — Denmark, Norway, and Sweden — Account of Wisby on the Island of Gotland — Labour difficulties consequent upon the epidemic 58-70

CHAPTER V.. The Plague Reaches England.

THE PLAGUE REACHES ENGLAND.

Jersey and Guernsey are attacked — First Rumours of the epidemic in England — It is brought to Melcombe Regis in Dorsetshire — Discussion as to the date — Difficulty in dealing with figures in Middle Ages — Value of episcopal registers in giving institutions of beneficed clergy — Evidence of Patent Rolls — Institutions in Dorsetshire — Letter of the Bishop of Bath and Wells — Difficulty of obtaining clergy — Institutions in Somerset — Effect of the disease in the religious houses — Bristol — Evidence of the mortality in Devon and Cornwall — Institutions in the diocese of Exeter — Spread of mortality — Religious houses of the diocese 71-91

CHAPTER VI.. Progress of the Disease in London and the South.

PROGRESS OF THE DISEASE IN LONDON AND THE SOUTH.

Rapidity of the spread of the epidemic — Date of its reaching London — The opening of new churchyards — Number of the dead in the capital — State of the city streets — Evidence of the wills of the Court of Hustings at this period — Westminster and other religious houses — St. Alban's — Institutions of clergy for Hertfordshire — Evidence as to the counties of Bedford, Buckingham, and Berks — Special value of the Inquisitiones post-mortem — State of various manors after the Plague — Institutions for the county of Bucks — The diocese of Canterbury — William Dene's account of the Rochester Diocese — Difficulty in finding priests — The diocese of Winchester — Bishop Edyndon's letter on the pestilence — Date of the epidemic in Hampshire — Troubles about the burying of the dead — Institutions for Hants — Institutions for the county of Surrey — Little information about Sussex 92-115

CHAPTER VII.. The Epidemic in Gloucester, Worcester, Warwick, and Oxford.

THE EPIDEMIC IN GLOUCESTER, WORCESTER, WARWICK, AND OXFORD.

Le Baker's account of the disease — Evidence of it in Wales — Account by Friar Clyn of the plague in Ireland — Institutions for Worcester — New burial ground in the city — State of the county after the plague — Institutions in Warwickshire — The city and county of Oxford — Effect on the university 116-127

CHAPTER VIII.. Story of the Disease in the Rest of England.

STORY OF THE DISEASE IN THE REST OF ENGLAND.

Dr. Jessop's account of Norfolk and Suffolk — Institutions in the diocese of Norwich — Evidence of the court rolls — Norwich and its population — Yarmouth — The diocese of Ely — Preparations by the bishop — Institutions in the diocese — Cambridge — Decay of parishes consequent upon the mortality — Straits of the clergy — Huntingdon — Institutions in the county of Northampton — Effect on religious house of the county — Fall in the value of land — Leicestershire — Knighton upon the plague in the city of Leicester — Fall in prices — Labour difficulties — Staffordshire — Institutions in the diocese of Hereford — Shropshire — Evidence of Inquisitiones post-mortem — Chester — Accounts of the County Palatine — Derbyshire — Derby — Monasteries — Wakebridge and Drakelow — Nottinghamshire — Lincolnshire — Louth Park abbey — Yorkshire — Archbishop Zouche — Vacant livings — Deaths among superiors of religious houses — Meaux abbey — Deanery of Holderness — Doncaster — Hull — Lancashire — Amounderness — Westmoreland — Cumberland — Carlisle — Durham — Northumberland — Alnwick 128-161

CHAPTER IX.. The Desolation of the Country.

THE DESOLATION OF THE COUNTRY.

Vacant livings in diocese of Salisbury — In Dorset and Wilts — Ivychurch priory — Manors ruined by plague — Somerset parsonages — Court roll of Gillingham, Dorset — Stockton, Wilts — Chedzoy, Bridgwater — Carthusians of Hinton and Witham — Exeter diocese — Lydford — North Cornwall — The Black Prince and his tenants — Essex benefices — Lands vacant — Rents lowered — Colchester wills — Talkeley priory — Chesthunt nunnery — Anglesey priory — Kent — Sussex — Hants — Isle of Wight — Surrey — Winchester cathedral priory — Hyde abbey — Nuns of St. Mary's abbey — of Romsey — Decrease among the mendicant friars of Winchester diocese — Debts at the cathedral — At Christchurch — Sandown hospital — Shireborne priory — Hayling Island — Taxation — Gloucester — Lantony priory — Horsleigh cell — Warwickshire — Wappenbury — Whitchurch — Bruerne abbey — St. Frideswide's at Oxford — Barlings 162-193

CHAPTER X.. Some Consequences of the Great Mortality.

SOME CONSEQUENCES OF THE GREAT MORTALITY.

Estimate of population of England in 1377, and before the great pestilence — Social revolution — Dearth of labourers and artisans — The tenantry swept off — Rise in prices — State efforts to depress the working classes — A third of the land falls out of cultivation — Leasehold farming — Serfdom declines — Popular rising of 1381 practically emancipates the labourer — Growth of large landowners — English language spreads as French declines — Effects on architecture — Great works left unfinished — Statistics of clerical mortality — Effects on the Church — Old traditions perished — Decline of public liturgical worship — Young and aged, and inexperienced persons ordained priests — Curious examples of this — Great falling off in number of candidates for ordination at Winchester, Ely, Hereford — Decline of the universities — False views about the preponderance of regular clergy — After the Black Death their number relatively greater — Pluralities — Depopulation of monasteries — Instances cited — Wadding's explanation of Franciscan decadence — The Black Death, a calamity sudden, overwhelming, and of widespread effect 194-219

TO THE READER.

In publishing this story of a great and overwhelming calamity, which fell upon England in common with the rest of Europe, in the middle of the fourteenth century, I desire to record my grateful thanks to those who have in any way assisted me in gathering together my material, or in weaving it into a connected narrative. Amongst these many kind friends I may specially name Mr. F. Bickley, of the British Museum, Mr. F.J. Baigent, the Rev. Prebendary Hingeston-Randolph, and, above all, Mr. Edmund Bishop, to whom I am greatly indebted for advice, criticism, and ever-patient assistance in revising the proof-sheets.

INTRODUCTION.

The story of the Great Pestilence of 1348-9 has never been fully told. In fact, until comparatively recent times, little attention was paid to an event which, nevertheless, whether viewed in the magnitude of the catastrophe, or in regard to its far-reaching results, is certainly one of the most important in the history of our country.

Judged by the ordinary manuals, the middle of the fourteenth century appears as the time of England's greatest glory. Edward III. was at the very height of his renown. The crushing defeat of France at Crecy, in 1346, followed the next year by the taking of Calais, had raised him to the height of his fame. When, wearing the laurels of the most brilliant victory of the age, he landed at Sandwich, on October 14th, 1347, the country, or at least the English courtiers, seemed intoxicated by the success of his arms. "A new sun," says the chronicler Walsingham, "seemed to have arisen over the people, in the perfect peace, in the plenty of all things, and in the glory of such victories. [p-xiv] There was hardly a woman of any name who did not possess spoils of Caen, Calais and other French towns across the sea;" and the English matrons proudly decked themselves with the rich dresses and costly ornaments carried off from foreign households. This was, moreover, the golden era of chivalry, and here and there throughout the country tournaments celebrated with exceptional pomp the establishment of the Order of the Garter, instituted by King Edward to perpetuate the memory of his martial successes. It is little wonder, then, that the Great Pestilence, now known as the "Black Death," coming as it does between Crecy and Poitiers, and at the very time of the creation of the first Knights of the Garter, should seem to fall aside from the general narrative as though something apart from, and not consonant with, the natural course of events.

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