In
gevolge de grote pestepidemie die Europa teisterde in de veertiende
eeuw, vielen tussen de 75 en de 100 miljoen doden. Dat aantal komt
overeen met het aantal slachtoffers wereldwijd van de Spaanse griep
uit 1918-19 dat geschat wordt op 50 tot 100 miljoen, wat vijf keer
meer is dan het aantal gesneuvelden in de Eerste Wereldoorlog die
eindigde middenin de tweede golf van de Spaanse griep, op 11 november
1918. De Spaanse griep kwam in drie golven en een eerste golf,
beginnende in maart 1918, was eerder mild; de tweede golf, in het
najaar van 1918, was echter des te dodelijker en het was toen dat de
meeste slachtoffers vielen.
In
1893 publiceerde de Benedictijner monnik en historicus, Francis Aidan
Gasquet (1846-1929), bij George Bell & sons in Londen een werk
over de zwarte dood in de veertiende eeuw, getiteld: "The black
death of 1348 en 1349". De ingescande tekst van de tweede editie
(1908) van de oorspronkelijke uitgave alsook een PDF en een ePub-bestand
kunnen hier gedownload worden:
https://archive.org/stream/blackdeathof1908gasq#page/n7/mode/2up
Opvallend
genoeg begon ook deze verschrikkelijke pandemie in Azië en zette in
Europa voet aan wal in Italië. Als reden wordt vaak aangegeven dat
de grote handelsroutes uit het Oosten naar Italië voeren, denk maar
aan de havens van Genua en Venetië. Toch is dit nu niet langer het
geval en desalniettemin blijkt alweer Italië het eerste besmette
Europese land. Misschien moet men aan andere oorzaken denken, zoals
de trek van vogels, vissen of nog andere dieren? Het huidige
griepvirus zou volgens sommigen van een schubbendier afkomstig zijn
en sinds oudsher is het dierenrijk hoe dan ook het reservoir van
allerlei virussen en dat zou mogelijkerwijze ook de vele besmettingen
kunnen verklaren die kennelijk niet zijn geschied via intermenselijk
contact.
Ofschoon
sommige historici sterk twijfelen aan de onderlegdheid en de
accuraatheid van de historicus in kwestie, volgen hierna alsnog
enkele citaten uit het boek van kardinaal pater Gasquet: vooreerst
uit het voorwoord, vervolgens uit het eerste hoofdstuk over het begin
van de pestepidemie, uit het tweede hoofdstuk over de epidemie in
Italië, uit het derde hoofdstuk over het voortschrijden van de pest
in Frankrijk, uit het vierde hoofdstuk over de verspreiding van de
pest in de rest van Europa, uit het negende hoofdstuk over de
verlatenheid in Engeland en uit het tiende hoofdstuk over enkele
gevolgen van de grote sterfte.
Francis Aidan Gasquet, The Black death, George Bell & sons in Londen, 1908 (The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Great Pestilence (A.D. 1348-9), by Francis Aidan Gasquet), pag. xiii-xiv:
The
story of the Great Pestilence of 13489 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.
Francis Aidan Gasquet, pag. 1-3:
CHAPTER
I. THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE EPIDEMIC.
The
Great Pestilence, which first reached Europe in the autumn of 1347,
is said to have originated in the East some three or four years
previously. So far as actual history goes, however, the progress of
the disease can be traced only from the ports of the Black Sea and
possibly from those of the Mediterranean, to which traders along the
main roads of commerce with Asiatic countries brought their
merchandise for conveyance to the Western world. Reports at the time
spoke of great earthquakes and other physical disturbances as having
taken place in the far East, and these were said to have been
accompanied by peculiar conditions of the atmosphere, and followed by
a great mortality among the teeming populations of India and China.
Pope Clement VI. was informed that the pestilence then raging at
Avignon had had its origin in the East, and that, in the countries
included under that vague name, the infection had spread so rapidly,
and had proved to be so deadly, that the victims were calculated at
the enormous, and no doubt exaggerated, number of nearly
four-and-twenty millions.
A
Prague chronicle speaks of the epidemic in the kingdoms of China,
India, and Persia, and the contemporary historian, Matteo Villani,
reports its conveyance to Europe by Italian traders, who had fled
before it from the ports on the eastern shores of the Black Sea. The
same authority [p002] corroborates, by the testimony of one who had
been an eye-witness in Asia, the reports of certain Genoese merchants
as to earthquakes devastating the continent and pestilential fogs
covering the land. "A venerable friar minor of Florence, now a
bishop, declared," so says Villani, "that he was then in
that part of the country at the city of Lamech, where by the violence
of the shock part of the temple of Mahomet was thrown down."
A
quotation from Hecker's "Epidemics of the Middle Ages" will
be a sufficient summary of what was reported of the plague in eastern
countries before its arrival in Europe. "Cairo lost daily, when
the plague was raging with its greatest violence, from 10 to 15,000,
being as many as, in modern times, great plagues have carried off
during their whole course. In China more than thirteen millions are
said to have died, and this is in correspondence with the certainly
exaggerated accounts from the rest of Asia. India was depopulated.
Tartary, Mesopotamia, Syria, Armenia were covered with dead bodies;
the Kurds fled in vain to the mountains. In Caramania and Cæsarea
none were left alive. On the roads, in the camps, in the
caravansaries unburied bodies were alone to be seen. In Aleppo 500
died daily; 22,000 people and most of the animals were carried off in
Gaza within six weeks. Cyprus lost almost all its inhabitants; and
ships without crews were often seen in the Mediterranean, as
afterwards in the North Sea, driving about and spreading the plague
wherever they went ashore."
Francis Aidan Gasquet, pag. 16:
CHAPTER
II. THE EPIDEMIC IN ITALY.
The
great sickness reached Italy in the early days of 1348. The report at
Avignon at the time was that three plague-stricken vessels had put
into the port of Genoa in January, whilst from another source it
would appear that at the same time another ship brought the contagion
from the East to Venice. From these two places the epidemic quickly
spread over the entire country. What happened in the early days of
this frightful scourge is best told in the actual words of Gabriel
de' Mussi, who possessed special means of knowledge, and who has
until quite recently been looked upon, but incorrectly, as a
passenger by one of the very vessels which brought the plague from
the Crimea to Genoa. The history of the progress of the plague may be
gathered from the pages of the detailed chronicles, which at that
time recorded the principal events in the various large and
prosperous cities of the Italian peninsula, as well as from the
well-known account of the straits to which Florence was reduced by
the sickness, given in the introduction to the "Decameron"
of Boccaccio.
Francis Aidan Gasquet, pag. 34-35:
CHAPTER
III. PROGRESS OF THE PLAGUE IN FRANCE.
Almost
simultaneously with the outbreak of the pestilence in Italy it
obtained a foothold in the South of France. According to a
contemporary account, written at Avignon in 1348, the disease was
brought into Marseilles by one of the three Genoese ships, which had
been compelled to leave the port of Genoa when the inhabitants
discovered that by their means the dreaded plague had already
commenced its ravages in their city. It would consequently appear
most likely that the mortality began in Marseilles somewhere about
the first days of January, 1348, although one account places the
commencement of the sickness as early as All Saints' Day (November
1), 1347. The number of deaths in this great southern port of France
fully equalled that of the populous cities of Italy. In a month the
sickness is said to have carried off 57,000 of the inhabitants of
Marseilles and its neighbourhood. One chronicle says that "the
Bishop, with the entire chapter of the cathedral, and nearly all the
friars, Preachers and Minorites, together with two-thirds of the
inhabitants, perished" at this time; and adds that upon the sea
might be seen ships, laden with merchandise, driven about hither and
thither by the waves, the steersman and every sailor having been
carried off by the disease. Another, speaking of Marseilles after the
pestilence had passed, says that "so many died that it [p035]
remained like an uninhabited place."
Francis Aidan Gasquet, pag. 51-57:
After
speaking of the evidence given by a pilgrim to Santiago, Li Muisis
proceeds to relate his own experiences in Tournay in the summer of
1349. This he does in verse and prose. The poem, after speaking of
the manifestation of God's anger, describes the plague beginning in
the East and passing through France into Flanders. (...)
John
de Pratis, the Bishop of Tournay, was one of the first to be carried
off by the sickness. He had gone away for change of air, and on
Corpus Christi Day, June 11th, 1349, he carried the blessed Sacrament
in the procession at Arras. He left that city the next day for
Cambray, but died the day after almost suddenly. He was buried at
Tournay; and "time passed on," says our author, to the
beginning of August, up to which no other person of authority died in
Tournay. But after the feast of St. John the plague began in the
parish of St. Piat, in the quarter of Merdenchor, and afterwards in
other parishes. Every day the bodies of the dead were borne to the
churches, now five, now ten, now fifteen, and in the parish of St.
Brice sometimes twenty or thirty. In all parish churches the curates,
parish clerks, and sextons to get their fees, [p052] rang morning,
evening, and night the passing bells, and by this the whole people of
the city, both men and women, began to be filled with fear.
(...)
The bodies of the dead were to be buried immediately in graves at
least six feet deep. There was to be no tolling of any bell at
funerals. The corpse was not to be taken to the church, but at the
service only a pall was to be spread on the ground, whilst after the
service there was to be no gathering together at the houses of the
deceased. Further, all work after noon on Saturdays and during the
entire Sunday was prohibited, as also was the playing of dice and
making use of profane oaths.
(...)
I
have tried, says our author, to write what I know, "and let
future generations believe that in Tournay there was a marvellous
mortality. I heard from many about Christmas time who professed to
know it as a fact that more than 25,000 persons had died in Tournay,
and it was strange [p053] that the mortality was especially great
among the chief people and the rich. Of those who used wine and kept
away from the tainted air and visiting the sick few or none died. But
those visiting and frequenting the houses of the sick either became
grievously ill or died. Deaths were more numerous about the market
places and in poor narrow streets than in broader and more spacious
areas. And whenever one or two people died in any house, at once, or
at least in a short space of time, the rest of the household were
carried off. So much so, that very often in one home ten or more
ended their lives together, and in many houses the dogs and even cats
died. Hence no one, whether rich, in moderate circumstances, or poor,
was secure, but everyone from day to day waited on the will of the
Lord. And certainly great was the number of curates and chaplains
hearing confessions and administering the Sacraments, and even of
parish clerks visiting the sick with them, who died."
In
the parishes across the river, the mortality was as great as in
Tournay itself. Although death as a rule came so suddenly, still the
people for the most part were able to receive the Sacraments. The
rapidity of the disease, remarked upon by Petrarch and Boccaccio in
Italy, is also spoken of in the same terms by the Abbot of St.
Martin's. People that one had seen apparently well and had spoken to
one evening were reported dead next day. He specially remarks upon
the mortality among the clergy visiting the sick, and speaks of the
creation of two new cemeteries outside the walls of the town. One was
in a field near the Leper House De
Valle,
the other at the religious house of the Crutched Friars. Strange to
say Li Muisis speaks of the disfavour with which this necessary
precaution of establishing new grave-yards was regarded. People, he
says, grumbled because they were no longer [p054] allowed to be
buried in their own family vaults. The town authorities, however,
were firm, and as the pestilence increased deep pits were dug in
these two common burying places, and into them numbers of bodies were
constantly being thrown and covered up with a slight layer of earth.
Francis Aidan Gasquet, pag. 58-59:
CHAPTER
IV. THE PLAGUE IN OTHER EUROPEAN COUNTRIES.
(...)
From
Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica the plague was carried to the Balearic
Islands. The three streams of infection met with destructive force at
Majorca. The historian Zurita declares that in less than a month
15,000 persons had perished on the island. Another writer estimates
the total loss of life during the epidemic at double that number, and
some ancient records have been quoted as stating that in the island
eight out of every ten people must have died, a proportion, of
course, exaggerated, but sufficient to show local tradition as to the
extent of the misfortune. In the monasteries and convents, according
to this authority, not one religious was left; and the Dominicans are
said to have been obliged to recruit their numbers by enrolling quite
young children.
The
scourge fell upon Spain in the early part of the year 1348. It is
supposed to have first appeared at Almeira, and in Barcelona whole
quarters of the city were depopulated and rendered desolate by it. In
May, 1348, it was already raging in Valencia, and by midsummer 300
persons a day are reported to have been buried in the city. At [p059]
Saragossa, where Pedro IV. then was, the malady was at its height in
September. The people here, as elsewhere, became hardened, and
charity died out in the presence of the terrors of death. They fled
from the sick, leaving them to die alone, and abandoned the corpses
of the dead in the streets. Most of the cities and villages of Spain
suffered more or less severely, and the sickness appears to have
lingered longer here than in most other countries. The new Queen of
Aragon had been one of the earliest victims; Alphonsus XI. was one of
the last. In March, 1350, he was laying siege to Gibraltar, when the
plague broke out suddenly with great violence amongst his troops. He
refused to retire, as his officers desired him to do, and fell a
victim to the epidemic on Good Friday, March 26th, 1350.
Francis Aidan Gasquet, pag. 58-67:
From
Flanders, where the pestilence was at Tournay in December, 1349, as
before reported, the epidemic spread into Holland. Here in the
following year its progress was marked by the same great mortality,
especially among those who lived together in monasteries and
convents. "At this time," writes the chronicler, "the
plague raged in Holland as furiously as has ever been seen. People
died walking in the streets. In the Monastery of Fleurchamps 80 died,
including monks and lay brethren. In the Abbey of Foswert, which was
a double monastery for men and women, 207 died, including monks,
nuns, lay brethren, and lay sisters.
Francis Aidan Gasquet, pag. 162-163:
CHAPTER
IX. THE DESOLATION OF THE COUNTRY.
So
far the course of the epidemic in England has been followed from
south to north. It is now necessary to consider some statistics and
immediate results of the plague.
The
diocese of Salisbury comprised the three counties of Dorset, Wilts,
and Berkshire. The total number of appointments made by the Bishop,
in his entire diocese, is said to have been 202 in the period from
March 25th, 1348, to March 25th, 1349; and 243 during the same time
in the year following. Of this total number of 445 it is safe to say
that two-thirds were institutions to vacancies due to the plague.
Roughly speaking, therefore, in these three counties, comprised in
the diocese of Sarum, some 300 beneficed clergy, at least, fell
victims to the scourge.
The
county of Dorset may first be taken. The list of institutions taken
from the Salisbury episcopal registers, given in Hutchins' history of
that county, numbers 211. During the incidence of the plague ninety
of these record a change of incumbent, so that, roughly, about half
the benefices were rendered vacant. In several cases, moreover,
during the progress of the epidemic changes are recorded twice or
three times, so that the total number of institutions made to
Dorsetshire livings at this time was 110. As regards the
non-beneficed clergy, secular and regular, their proportion to those
holding benefices will be considered in the [p163] concluding
chapter. Here it is sufficient to observe that the proportion
commonly suggested is far too low.
It
is almost by chance that any information is afforded as to the effect
of the visitation in the religious houses. All contemporary
authorities, both abroad and in England, agree in stating that the
disease was always most virulent and spread most rapidly where
numbers were gathered together, and that, when once it seized upon
any house, it usually claimed many victims. Consequently when it
appears that early in November, 1348, the abbot of Abbotsbury died,
and that about Christmas Day of that year John de Henton, the abbot
of the great monastery of Sherborne, also died, it is more than
probable that many of the brethren of those monasteries were also
carried off by the scourge.
In
the county of Wilts the average number of episcopal institutions, for
three years before and three years after the mortality, was only 26.
In the year 1348 there are 73 institutions recorded in the registers,
and in 1349 no less a number than 103, so that of the 176 vacancies
filled in the two years the deaths of only some 52 incumbents were
probably due to normal causes, and the rest, or some 125 priests
holding benefices in the county, may be said to have died from the
plague.
Francis Aidan Gasquet, pag. 194-195:
CHAPTER
X. SOME CONSEQUENCES OF THE GREAT MORTALITY.
It
will be evident to all who have followed the summary of the history
of the epidemic of 1349, given in the preceding chapters, that
throughout England the mortality must have been very great. Those
who, having examined the records themselves, have the best right to
form an opinion, are practically unanimous in considering that the
disease swept away fully one-half of the entire population of England
and Wales.
But
whilst it is easy enough to state in general terms the proportion of
the entire population which probably perished in the epidemic, any
attempt to give even approximate numbers is attended with the
greatest difficulty and can hardly be satisfactory. At present we do
not possess data sufficient to enable us to form the basis of any
calculation worthy of the name. From the Subsidy Roll of 1377or
some 27 years after the great mortalityit has been estimated that
the population at the close of the reign of Edward III. was about
2,350,000 in England and Wales. The intervening years were marked by
several more or less severe outbreaks of Eastern plague; and one
year, 1361, would have been accounted most calamitous had not the
memory of the fatal year 1349 somewhat overshadowed it. At the same
time the French war continued to tax the strength of the country and
levy its tithe upon the lives of Englishmen. It may consequently be
believed that the losses during the thirty years which followed the
plague of 1349 would be sufficient to prevent any actual increase of
the population, and that somewhere about two and a half millions of
people were left in the country after the [p195] epidemic had ceased.
If this be so, it is probable that previously to the mortality the
entire population of the country consisted of from four to five
millions, half of whom perished in the fatal year.
