The Great Pestilence (A.D. 1348-9), Now Commonly Known as the Black Death

by Francis Aidan Gasquet

FOOTNOTES:

[205] At p. 92 of the printed edition of this chronicle the author describes the breaking out of the plague in France, just after the taking of Calais by the English. He attributes the truce between the French and the English to the epidemic.

[206] Chronicon Galfridi Le Baker de Swynebroke, ed. E. M. Thompson, pp. 98–9.

[207] R. O., Originalia Roll, 24 Ed. III., m. 8.

[208] R. O., Rot. Claus., 25 Ed. III., m. 9.

[209] R. O., Clerical Subsidy, 21/1 (51 Ed. III.)

[210] The author seems to imply that the plague reached Ireland in 1348. It is, however, probable that 1349 was in reality the date, for in that year, on July 14, Alexander de Biknor, the Archbishop of Dublin, died, and also the Bishop of Meath in the same month (cf. Gams, Series Episcoporum, 219.)

[211] Dalkey in the margin.

[212] Friar John Clyn's Annals of Ireland (ed. Irish Archæological Society, 1849).

[213] Rot. Pat., 25 Ed. III., pars 2, m. 19.

[214] Ibid., 26 Ed. III., pars 1, m. 11.

[215] R. O., L. T. R. Memoranda Roll, 27 Ed. III., Hilary term, m. 7.

[216] The following is a table showing the Institutions in some months:—

1349.
May.	June.	July.	Aug.	Sept.	Oct.	Nov.
5	9	23	11	3	5	8

[217] Nash, Worcestershire, i, p. 226.

[218] Green (Worcester, p. 144) speaks of the measures taken by the Bishop for the public safety as relieving the city "from an alarming evil," and by it the parishes of St. Alban, St. Helen, St. Swithun, St. Martin, St. Nicholas, and All Saints, "whose churchyards were very confined and not equal to the reception of the parochial deceased, were permitted to partake of the same advantages of sepulture. . . . Hence St. Oswald's burial ground has accumulated that prodigious assemblage of tumulation which, at this time, cannot be viewed with indifference by the most cursory beholder."

[219] Dated October 26th, 1352.

[220] R. O., L. T. R. Memoranda Roll, 26 Ed. III.

[221] Ibid., 28 Ed. III., Mich. term, m. 19.

[222] The following table gives the number of Institutions in some months:—

April.	May.	June.	July.	Aug.	Sept.	Oct.
4	13	17	20	15	7	10

[223] Dugdale, Warwickshire, (ed. Thomas), p. 147.

[224] Wood, History and Antiquities of the University of Oxford (ed. Gutch), p. 449.

[225] Harl. MS., 1900, fol. 2. Trevisa's translation of FitzRalph's Propositio coram Papa: "So yt in my tyme, in ye University of Oxenford were thrilty thousand scolers at ones, and now beth unneth six thousand."

[226] Gascoigne, Loci ex Libro Veritatum, ed. J. E. Thorold Rogers, p. 202. The editor on the passage says: "They (i.e. the students) come from all parts of Europe. The number seems incredible, but Oxfordshire was, to judge from its rating for exceptional taxation, after Norfolk, then at the best of its industries, the wealthiest county in England by a considerable proportion. . . . This concourse of students was diverted by the great plague. . . . I see no reason to doubt the statement about the exceeding populousness of Oxford in the first half of the 14th century."

[227] R. O., L. T. R. Memoranda Roll, 23 Ed. III., Mich.

[228] Six Centuries of Work and Wages, i, p. 223.

[TOC] [p128]

CHAPTER VIII. STORY OF THE DISEASE IN THE REST OF ENGLAND.

The history of the great pestilence in the diocese of Norwich which includes the two eastern counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, has been graphically described by Dr. Jessopp.[229] The results at which he has arrived by a careful study of the episcopal registers of the diocese and the court rolls of sundry manors may be very briefly summarised here. The epidemic was at its height in the East of England in the summer months of 1349,[230] and the deaths in the ranks of the clergy were very alarming. The average number of institutions in the diocese yearly for five years before the sickness was seventy-seven. In this single year 800 parishes lost their incumbents, 83 of them twice, and ten three times, in a few months; and by the close of the year two-thirds of the benefices in the diocese had become vacant.

Of the seven convents of women in this district, five lost their superiors, and in at least twelve of the religious houses of men, including the abbey of St. Benet's Hulme, the head died. How many of the subjects in these 19 monastic establishments were carried off by the sickness [p129] can never be known; but bearing in mind what was remarked at the time, that the disease hardly ever entered a house without claiming many victims, and what we know of other places of which there is definite information, the suspicion may be allowed that the roll of the dead in the religious houses of East Anglia was very large. At Heveringland the prior and canons died to a man, and at Hickling only one survived; neither house ever recovered. In the college of St. Mary-in-the-Fields, at Norwich, five out of the seven prebendaries were carried off, whilst the Friars of our Lady, in the same city, are all said to have died. Altogether, Dr. Jessopp calculates that some 2,000 clergy in the diocese must have been carried off by the disease in a few months.

From the court rolls the same evidence is adduced for the terrible mortality among the people. Dr. Jessopp had collected many striking proofs of this, from which one or two examples may be quoted. On a manor called Cornard Parva there were about 50 tenants. On 31st March three men and six women are registered as having died in two months. During the next month 15 men and women, seven without heirs, were carried off, and by 3rd November there are 36 more deaths recorded, and of these 13 have left no relations. Thus during the incidence of the plague some 21 families on this one manor had disappeared. The priest of the place had died in September.[231]

To take another example. At Hunstanton on the 16th of October, 1349, it was found that in two months 63 men and 15 women had been carried off. In 31 instances only women and children had been left to succeed, and in nine there were no known heirs. In this small parish, and in only eight months, 172 persons who were tenants of the manor had died. Of these, 74 had left no heirs male, and 19 no blood relations at all.[232]

To these examples may be added one taken from the [p130] court roll of the manor of Snetterton, about the centre of the county of Norfolk. A court of the manor was held on Saturday in the feast of St. James the Apostle, that is July 25th, 1349, and it is called ominously the Curia pestilencie, the Court of the Plague. At this meeting 39 tenants of the manor are named as having died, and in many cases no heir is forthcoming. One tenant is specially named as holding his house and ten acres on condition of keeping three lamps ever burning before the Blessed Sacrament in the parish church. He is dead and has left no other relation, but a son 16 years of age.

The larger cities of East Anglia, such as Norwich and Yarmouth, suffered no less than the country districts from the all-pervading plague. The historian of Norfolk has estimated the population of Norwich before this catastrophe at 70,000.[233] It was unquestionably one of the most flourishing cities of England, and possessed some 60 parish churches, seven conventual establishments, as well as other churches in the suburbs; and on the authority of an ancient record in the Guildhall, Blomefield put down the number of those carried off by the epidemic at 57,374. Such a number has been considered by many as altogether impossible, but that the city was reduced considerably does not appear open to doubt in view of the fact that by 1368 ten parishes had disappeared and fourteen more were subsequently found to be useless. "The ruins of twenty of these," says a modern writer, "may still be seen."[234]

Yarmouth in the middle of the fourteenth century was a most flourishing port. When, to assist the attack of Edward on Calais, but two years before the plague, London furnished 25 ships and 662 mariners, Yarmouth is said to have sent 43 ships and 1,950 sailors.[235] William of Worcester, in his Itinerary, after speaking in praise of the town, says: "In the [p131] great pestilence there died 7,000 people."[236] This statement is probably based upon the number of persons buried in one churchyard. For in a petition of burgesses of Yarmouth in the beginning of the sixteenth century to Henry VII. it is asserted that the prosperous condition of the town was destroyed by the great plagues during the reign of Edward III. In the thirty-first year of this reign, they say,—probably mistaking the year—7,052 people were buried in their churchyard, "by reason whereof the most part of the dwelling-places and inhabitations of the said town stood desolate and fell into utter ruin and decay, which at this day are gardens and void grounds, as it evidently appeared."

It is, moreover, certain that Yarmouth Church, large as it appears in these days, was, before the plague of 1349, not ample enough for the population,[237] and preparations had already been made for considerably enlarging its nave. Owing to the pestilence the work was not carried out. Nor is this the only instance in the county where the enlargement of churches already vast was rendered unnecessary by the diminution of inhabitants through the sickness. It is impossible to examine the great churches which abound in the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk without coming to the conclusion that they were built to serve the purposes of a large population.

To take one example, the tax on the town of Dunwich had been granted by the King to the monastery of Ely; but in 1351 the inhabitants petitioned for relief as they were quite unable to find the money for the royal collectors. The King gave way to what he calls "the relation of the men of the town of Dunwich," which recited that "the said town, which before this time was completely inhabited by fisher-folk, had been rendered desolate by the deadly plague late raging in those parts, and by our enemies the [p132] French seizing and killing the fishermen at sea, and still remained so."[238]

From Norfolk and Suffolk we pass to the adjoining county of Cambridge, which is conterminous with the diocese of Ely. The Bishop of the diocese, Thomas de Lisle, was abroad at the time when the plague broke out in the county. On the 19th of May he wrote to the clergy of his diocese, forwarding the letter of Stephen, Archbishop of Arles, and Chamberlain of the Pope, already referred to elsewhere. By this anyone was empowered to choose his own confessor, "since in all places now is, or will be, the epidemic or mortality of people which at present rages in most parts of the world."[239] The Bishop had made arrangements for the government of his see during his absence abroad, but on April 9th, 1349, he wrote from Rome, making other dispositions in view of the plague. "By reason of the epidemic, as it is called, wonderfully increasing in the diocese," as he has lately understood by people from thence, he, "for fear his former Vicars General should die," augments their number. And, further, "considering how difficult it is for two people to agree about the same sentence, he appoints John, prior of Barnwell, singly and solely to dispose of all vacant benefices, and in case of his death, or refusal to act, then Master Walter de Peckham, LL.D., to be sole disposer of them," and then six others in order; a provision which itself shows how slight he considered the chance of life for any individual. In other matters any of his Vicars General could act; and "in case of any death putting a stop to business, as was likely in such a mortality," whichever Vicar General was present should act until the arrival of the three specially appointed.[240]

The foresight of the Bishop was not unnecessary. From [p133] the month of April vacancies followed quickly one upon another. For three years previous to 1349 the average number of institutions recorded in the episcopal registers was nine, and in 1348 it was only seven. In this year of the great sickness 97 appointments to livings in the diocese were made by the Bishop's Vicars, and in July alone there were 25.[241] The prior of Barnwell died early in the course of the sickness, probably even before he could have received the Bishop's commission to act for him in the matter of vacant benefices.

In June there are evidences of the mortality in the Cathedral priory of Ely. On the 23rd of the month John de Co, Chancellor of the diocese, acting as the Bishop's representative, according to the commission, appointed a new sub-prior to the monastery, and again on July the 2nd a cellarer and camerarius. A week later, on the 9th of July, 1349, "brother Philip Dallyng, late sacrist of Ely, being dead, and the said brother Paulinus (the camerarius) being likewise dead and both of them buried, he appointed to both offices, namely, brother Adam de Lynsted as sacrist, and brother John of St. Ives as camerarius."[242] At the same time also two chantries in the Cathedral became vacant; one, called "the green chantry," twice in two months.

The number of clergy carried away by the sickness in this diocese may be estimated from the number of vacant benefices. Deducting the average number of yearly [p134] institutions, it is fair to consider that 89 priests holding benefices died at this time.[243] The proportion of non-beneficed clergy to those beneficed was then probably about the same as it was in the second year of King Richard II. The clerical subsidy for that time shows 140 beneficed clergy against 508 non-beneficed, including the various religious.[244] On this basis at least 350 of the clerical order must have perished in the diocese of Ely.

The University town of Cambridge did not escape. On May 24th, 1349, the church of St. Sepulchre's fell vacant, and already in July several of the churches were without incumbents. Towards the end of April the Master of the hospital of St. John died, and one Robert de Spronston was appointed to succeed. Then he died a short time after, and one Roger de Broom was instituted on May 24th; but in his turn Roger died, and another took his place.

Cambridge, too, had probably its common plague pit. "Some years ago," writes the late Professor Thorold Rogers, "being at Cambridge while the foundations of the new Divinity School were being laid, I saw that the ground was full of skeletons, thrown in without any attempt at order, and I divined that this must have been a Cambridge plague pit."[245]

A curious document preserved in the Bishop's archives shows how severely some parishes must have suffered. It is a consent given by the prior and convent of Ely to a proposal of the Bishop to unite two parishes in Cambridge. It mentions the churches of All Saints' and St. Giles', of Cambridge, near the castle, and states that the parishioners of the former are, for the most part, dead in the pestilence, [p135] and those that had been left alive had gone to the parishes of other churches. It also says that the people of St. Giles' have died, and, further, that the nave of All Saints' is in a ruinous state, "and the bones of the dead exposed to beasts." The Bishop consequently proposes to unite these two ancient parishes of Cambridge, and in this consent to the proposal a glimpse is almost accidentally afforded of the desolation wrought in the University town by the terrible scourge.[246]

An example of what was probably very general throughout the county is afforded by a roll of accounts for a Cambridgeshire manor in this year. Considerable decay of rents is noted, and no wonder, for it would seem that 50 tenements and 22 cottages were in hand, and that the services which the holders would otherwise have rendered have to be paid for. At Easter 13 copyholders' tenements are vacant, and by Pentecost another 30 are added to the long list.[247]

The clergy were reduced to the greatest straits in consequence of the deaths among their parishioners, leading to a proportional diminution of their incomes. On September 20th, 1349, the Bishop's Vicar addressed a letter to John Lynot, vicar of All Saints', Jury, Cambridge.[248] "We are informed," he says, "by your frequent complaint that the portion coming to you in the said church is known to consist only of offerings of the parishioners, and that the same parishioners have been so swept away by the plague notoriously raging in this year that the offerings of the said church do not suffice for the necessities of life, and that you cannot elsewhere obtain help to bear the burden laid upon you. On this account you have humbly petitioned [p136] us to be allowed to have for two years an anniversary (mass) for your necessary support. Since your position in God's Church does not make it fitting that you should seek alms, particularly for necessities in food and clothing, we grant you the permission asked on the condition that as soon as the fruit and revenue of the said portion be sufficient to properly furnish you with necessaries you altogether give up the income of this anniversary (mass)."[249] At the same time a similar permission was granted to John Atte Welle, vicar of St. John, "in Melnstreet," Cambridge.

The adjoining county of Huntingdon forms a portion of the great diocese of Lincoln. In it there were some 95 benefices, which may give some indication of the probable number of deaths in the ranks of the clergy of the county.

The abbot of Ramsey died on the 10th of June, 1349, and the King did not, as usual, claim the temporalities during the vacancy, but allowed the monks to pay a smaller sum than was usual; "and, be it remembered," says the document allowing this, "that because of the depression of the said abbey by the present mortal pestilence raging in the country, the said custody is granted to the prior and convent for a lesser sum to pay to the King than at the time of the last vacancy."[250]

Among the Inquisitiones post mortem is one relating to the manor of Caldecot, in Huntingdonshire. It formed part of the estates of Margaret, Countess of Kent, who died on St. Michael's day, 1349. Many houses of the manor are represented as ruinous, and of no value. Rents of assize, formerly worth £8 a year, this time produced but fifty shillings; an old mill, which hitherto had been let with [p137] land for two pounds a year, is now only worth 6s. 8d., "because of the pestilence it could be let at no higher rate." And, lastly, the fees of the manor court had sunk from 13s. 4d. to 3s. 4d. "through dearth of tenants there."[251]

Proceeding westward from Huntingdonshire, the county of Northampton next claims attention. Judged by the lists of institutions given in Bridges' history of the county, there were changes at this period in 131 instances out of 281. In fifteen cases two or more changes occurred in the same place in 1349, and the number of institutions was greatest in August, when 36 appointments were made.[252] From the institutions it appears likely that the town of Northampton was attacked most severely about the October of the year 1349; at least, on November the 1st two appointments were made to livings there.

As to the religious houses, at Luffield all are said to have died of the plague. William de Skelton, the prior, was carried off by the sickness, and the rental of the house was subsequently declared to be inadequate for its support. At Delaprey Convent, Catherine Knyvet, the abbess, fell a victim to the disease. At Worthorp, the superior, Emma de Pinchbeck, died, and probably many of the Augustinian nuns there. The Bishop appointed Agnes Bowes to succeed, but the convent never recovered, and in 1354 was, at the petition of its patron Sir Thomas Holland, [p138] united to the convent of St. Michael near Stamford. In the royal licence it is stated "that the convent, being poorly endowed, was, by the pestilence which lately prevailed, reduced to such poverty that all the nuns but one, on account of their penury, had dispersed."[253]

The inquiry just referred to, as to the estates of the Countess of Kent upon her death in 1349, reports as to the state of a manor in Northamptonshire. It is the same tale of depression and desolation as appears everywhere else throughout England. Pasture formerly worth forty shillings now yields only ten, and some even brought in only five shillings in place of eighteen; and the sole reason assigned is "the mortality." A water mill and a wind mill "for the same cause" was let for 6s. 8d., instead of the old 56 shillings.

The priory of Stamford itself moreover was in sad distress. The rents from five free tenants and eighteen customary tenants, were just one-third of their former value "for the same cause." And the same nuns, in place of 19s. 8d. which they used to get for thirteen tenements, now received only four shillings, whilst their yearly tenants, who should pay 13lbs. of pepper, at 12d. the pound, have paid nothing; moreover the fines of the manor, estimated to produce twenty shillings a year, have brought in but two.

A third example is given in the case of a manor near Blisworth, in which two mills are let for twenty, in place of the old rent of sixty-five shillings; and two carucates of land produced only some fifteen shillings the carucate, "and not more, on account of the mortality in those parts."[254]

Of the small county of Rutland, lying at the north of Northamptonshire, little can be said. It likewise formed part of the diocese of Lincoln, and contained some 57 benefices. From an inquisition we learn that on one manor for nine virgates of land there could be estimated [p139] nothing in the way of rent, "because all the tenants died before the feast of Easter (1349). They (i.e., the jury) also say that the natives and cottars did not work this year." In another place, a house and garden formerly let for forty shillings, now produces only twenty shillings; 240 acres of arable land are let for half their former value, and 180 acres of meadow are worth 10d. per acre, in place of eighteen-pence.[255]

Eastward, the county adjoining Northampton is Leicester. For this county there exists the local account of Knighton, a canon of Leicester abbey. As far as concerns England his relation may fitly find a place here. "The sorrow-bearing pestilence," he writes, "entered the sea coast at Southampton, and came to Bristol, and almost the whole strength of the town died as if struck with sudden death, for there were few who kept their beds beyond three or two days or even half a day. Then the terrible death rolled on into all parts according to the course of the sun, and at Leicester, in the little parish of St. Leonard, there died more than 380; in the parish of Holy Cross more than 400; in that of St. Margaret, Leicester, more than 700; and so in every parish great numbers.

"The Bishop of Lincoln sent through his diocese a general power to all and every priest, both regular and secular, to hear confessions and to absolve with full and entire episcopal power, except only in the case of debt. In that case, if able (the penitent) himself was to make satisfaction whilst he lived, or at least others should do so with his property, after his death. In the same way the Pope granted a full remission from all sins, to be obtained once only by every one in danger of death, and he allowed this faculty to last till the next Easter following, and each to choose at will his own confessor.

"In the same year, there was a great mortality of sheep everywhere in the kingdom; so much so, that in one place [p140] there died in one pasture more than 5,000 sheep, and they were so putrid that neither beast nor bird would touch them. The price for everything was low; through fear of death, very few cared for riches and the like. And then a man could purchase a horse for half a mark, which before had been worth forty shillings; a large fat ox for 4s.; a cow for 12d.; a bullock for 6d.; a fat wether for 4d.; a sheep for 3d.; a lamb for 2d.; a large pig for 5d.; and a stone of wool for nine pence; and sheep and cattle roamed about, wandering in fields and through the growing harvest, and there was no one to drive them off or collect them; but in ditches and thickets they died in innumerable quantities in every part, for lack of guardians; for so great a dearth of servants and labourers existed that no one knew what to do. Memory could not recall so universal and terrible a mortality since the time of Vortigern, king of the Britons, in whose reign, as Bede in his 'De gestis Anglorum' testifies, the living did not suffice to bury the dead.

"In the following autumn no one could get a harvester at a lower price than eight pence with food. For this reason many crops perished in the fields for lack of those to gather them; but in the year of the pestilence, as said above of other things, there was such an abundance of crops of all kinds that no one, as it were, cared for them."[256]

In the absence of any definite information as to the institutions made at this time in the county of Leicester it is only necessary to note that the number of benefices was about 250 at this period. There were also some twelve religious houses and several hospitals. In 1351, as we learn from the records, Croxton abbey still "remained quite deserted." The church and many of the buildings had been burnt, and "by the pestilence the abbey was entirely deprived of those by whose ability the monastery was then administered" (the abbot and prior alone excepted). [p141] The abbot was sick, "and the said prior (in November, 1351) was fully occupied in the conduct of the Divine Office and the instruction of the novices received there into the community, after the pestilence."[257]

A slight confirmation of Knighton's account of the distress in the country parts after the plague had passed, if any were needed, is found in an inquisition made upon the death of Isabella, wife of William de Botereaux, who died upon St. James' Day, 1349. The manor held by her was at a place called Sadington, in Leicestershire, and two carucates of land are represented as lying uncultivated and waste "through the want of tenants."[258]

The adjoining county of Staffordshire formed part of the diocese of Coventry and Lichfield. It comprised 165 benefices, which may form some basis on which to calculate in estimating the number of clergy who were carried off by the pestilence. Some lands in this county, near Tamworth, belonged to the Earl of Pembroke. Upon his death, whilst the heir was a minor, they were farmed out at a rent of £38 per annum, to be paid to the King. In 1351 the man who had agreed to pay that sum petitioned to have it reduced, because "the tenements with the said land so let are so deteriorated by the pestilential mortality lately raging in those parts that they do not reach their wonted value." After inquiry, his rent is reduced by £8 the year.[259]

Of the two counties bordering upon Wales, Hereford and Shropshire, not much is known at this time. There can be little doubt, however, that they suffered quite as severely from the epidemic as the other counties of England.

In the diocese of Hereford, including that county and a portion of Shropshire, the average number of institutions to benefices, during three years before and after the epidemic, was some 13. In 1349 there are recorded in [p142] Bishop Trileck's register no fewer than 175 institutions, and in the following year the number of 45 vacant benefices filled up, points to the fact that many livings had probably remained for some months without incumbents. This suspicion is further strengthened by the frequent appearance of the words "by lapse" in the record of institutions at this period, which shows that for six months the living had not been filled by the patron. It is probable, therefore, that in the diocese of Hereford about 200 beneficed clergy fell victims to the disease. Taking the dates of the institutions as some indication of the period when the epidemic was most severe in the diocese, it would appear that the worst time was from May to September, 1349.[260]

One fact bearing upon the subject of the great mortality in the pestilence of 1349 in the county of Hereford is recorded in the episcopal register. In 1352 the Bishop united into one parish the two churches of Great Colington and Little Colington, about four miles from Bromyard. The patrons of the two livings agreed to support a petition of the parishes to this effect, and in it they say "that the sore calamity of pestilence of men lately passed, which ravaged the whole world in every part, has so reduced the number of the people of the said churches, and for that said reason there followed, and still exists, such a paucity of labourers and other inhabitants, such manifest sterility of the lands, and such notorious poverty in the said parishes, that the parishioners and receipts of both churches scarcely suffice to support one priest."[261] The single church [p143] of Colington remains to this day as a memorial of the great mortality in that district. Even among the inhabitants the memory of the two Colingtons has apparently been lost.

In Salop the historians of the county town record that "through all these appalling scenes (consequent upon the great mortality of 1349) the zeal of the clergy, both secular and monastic, was honourably distinguished. The episcopal registers of the diocese, within which Shrewsbury is situated, bear a like honourable testimony to the assiduity of the secular clergy of the district."[262] From the same source it appears that the average number of institutions to benefices vacant by death during ten years before 1349 and ten years after are only 1–1/2 per annum, or 15 for the whole period. In that year the number of institutions to vacancies known to have been caused by death was 29. If this number be taken as a guide for the general mortality, Shropshire would appear to have suffered in an exceptional manner. Besides these, however, there are a number of other institutions registered at this time, the cause of which is not specified, and many of them most probably were also caused by the great epidemic.

As an example of the general destitution caused by the great sickness, Owen and Blakeway quote an Inquisitio post mortem, taken in the year of the plague, upon the estate of a Shropshire gentleman, John le Strange of Blakmere. By that record he is found by the jury to have died, seized with various lands, etc., amongst others, the three watermills, "which used to be worth by the year 20 marks, but now they are worth only half that sum, by reason of the want of those grinding, on account of the pestilence." The same cause is assigned for the diminution of other parts of his revenue, as tolls on markets, rent of assize, etc.

In the manor of Dodinton, proceeds the record of the inquiry, "there are two carucates of land which used to be [p144] worth yearly sixty shillings, and now the said jurors know not how to value the said land, because the domestic and labouring servants (famuli et servientes) are dead, and no one is willing to hire the land." The water-mill has sunk in value from thirty shillings to six-and-eightpence, because the tenants are dead; the pond was valueless since the fish had been taken out, and it had not been stocked again.[263]

This John le Strange, of Whitchurch, died on August 20th, 1349, and the inquisition held upon his estates names three sons—Fulk, the eldest, who was married; Humphrey, the second; and John, who was 17 years of age; and it notes that if Fulk were to die then Humphrey his brother was the heir. The inquiry was held upon August 30th, ten days after the death of John, and at this very time when Fulk was thus declared to be the heir he had himself been dead two days. Apparently also Humphrey was carried off by the sickness as well; because in the inquisition subsequently held upon the estate of Fulk, John, the third brother, is named as the heir. In this inquiry the jury bear out the declarations of that which had testified to the condition of the estates upon the death of the father. On one manor it is stated that the rent of assize, which used to be £20, is now only forty shillings, and the court fees have fallen from forty to five shillings, "because the tenants there are dead." And in another Shropshire hamlet the rent of assize, formerly £4, was now "from the said cause" only eight shillings.[264]

North of a line drawn from the Wash to the Dee, the four counties of Chester, Derby, Nottingham, and Lincoln stretch across England from west and east. A brief record of the pestilence in each of these counties is all that need be here given. In its main lines, and, indeed, almost in its every detail, the story of one county is that of every [p145] other, and it is only by chance that the account of definite incidents has been preserved.

The benefices in the county of Chester numbered some 70. In the four months June, July, August, and September thirty institutions are entered in the registers of Coventry and Lichfield for the archdeaconry of Chester alone. The most numerous are in the month of September.[265] The non-beneficed clergy are, of course, not included in this number; and in the city alone, at the end of Edward the Third's reign, there were at least fifty or sixty of this class. In one parish, for example, that of St. John by the Riverside, there were nine non-beneficed vicars and six chaplains.[266] In August a new prioress was installed at St. Mary's, Chester, and a new prior at Norton.

From the ministers' accounts for the County Palatine of Chester, at this period, some facts can be gleaned as to the general state of desolation to which the great sickness reduced it. Thus, in the manor of Frodsham, the bailiff returns the receipt of only twenty shillings rent for the lands of the manor farm, "received for 66 animals feeding on them." He adds, "and not more this year, because he could get no tenants by reason of the pestilence." Further he notes the general prices as being low, and names a mill and a bakehouse that cannot be let. As an instance of the decay of rent it is noted that in the town of Netherton, more than a year after the plague had ceased, eleven houses and a great quantity of land, which fell into the hands of the lord in the last year through the pestilence, remain yet in his hands;" the same also is remarked of other townships, and in one place the miller had been allowed a reduction in his rent on account of the way his business had fallen off since the disease.[267]

In the same way on another manor, that of Bucklow, at Michaelmas 1350, it is stated that 215 acres of arable land [p146] are lying waste, "for which no tenants can be found through the pestilence, which had visited the place the previous year. Further, those who had held a portion of the manor land during the last year had given their holdings up at the feast of St. Michael at the beginning of the account (i.e., 1349). On the same estate the rent of a garden was put down at only 12d., because there was no one to buy the produce. One of the largest receipts was 3s. 6d., paid by one Margery del Holes, "for the turf of divers tenants of the manor who had died in the time of the pestilence." On the whole of the estate there is represented to be a decrease of £20 9s. 2–3/4d. in the rent of this year, and a good part of the deficit is accounted for by the fact that 34 tenants owe various sums, but cannot pay as they have nothing but their crops, and that 46 of the tenants had been carried off by the epidemic.

On the estate, moreover, it is not uninteresting to note that a portion—no less, indeed, than a third part—of the rent was remitted at this time. The remission, however, hardly appears to have been made willingly, but in consequence of a threat on the part of the holders of the manor lands that unless it was granted they would leave. This is noted upon the roll: "In money remitted to the tenants of Rudheath (some four miles from Northwich) by the Justices of Chester and others, by the advice of the lord, for the third part of their rent by reason of the plague which had been raging, because the tenants there wished to depart and leave the holdings on the lord's hands, unless they obtained this remission until the world do come better again, and the holdings possess a greater value . . . £10 13s. 11–3/4d."[268]

Eastward the adjoining county is Derbyshire. An examination of the institutions for this county has been made by the Rev. Dr. Cox for his work on the Churches of Derbyshire. The result of his studies may here be [p147] given almost in his words. In May, 1349, there is evidence that the plague had reached Derbyshire. At that period the total number of benefices in the county was 108, and the average number of institutions registered yearly during the century was only seven. In 1346 the actual number had been but four, in 1347 only two, and in 1348 it was eight. In the year of the plague, 1349, no fewer than sixty-three institutions to vacant benefices are registered, and "in the following year (many of the vacant benefices not being filled up till then) they numbered forty-one." In this period seventy-seven of the beneficed clergy died; that is considerably more than half the total number, and twenty-two more resigned their livings.

"Of the three vicars of Derby churches two died, whilst the third resigned. The chantry priest of Our Lady at St. Peter's Church also died. The two rectors of Eckington both died, and of the three rectors who then shared the rectory of Derley two died and one resigned. The rectories of Langwith and Mugginton, and the vicarages of Barlborough, Bolsover, Horsley, Longford, Sutton-on-the-Hill, and Willington were twice emptied by the plague, and three successive vicars of Pentrich all fell in the same fatal year. Nor were the regular clergy more fortunate, for the abbots of Beauchief, Dale, and Derley, the prior of Gresley, the prior of the Dominicans at Derby, and the prioress of King's Mead, were all taken."[269]

The same author has called attention to some obituary notes in the calendar prefixed to the Chartulary of Derley abbey.

"A glance at this obituary," he says, "is sufficient to draw the attention of the reader to the remarkable number of deaths in the year 1349. . . . Of the character of the plague we can form some idea when we consider the extent of its ravages in a single household—a household the most wealthy of the neighbourhood, and situated in as [p148] healthy and uncrowded a spot as any that could be found on all the fair hillsides of Derbyshire. Within three months Sir William de Wakebridge lost his father, his wife, three brothers, two sisters, and a sister-in-law. Sir William, on succeeding to the Wakebridge estate, through this sad list of fatalities, appears to have abandoned the profession of arms and to have devoted a very large share of his wealth to the service of God in his own neighbourhood. The great plague had the effect of thoroughly unstringing the consciences of many of the survivors, and a lamentable outbreak of profligacy was the result."

The accounts for the Lordship of Drakelow, some four miles from Burton-on-Trent, may be taken as a sample of what must have been the case elsewhere. There is noted a loss, to begin with, "upon turf sold from the waste of the manor to tenants who had died in the time of the pestilence." The decrease of rent is very considerable. From "the customs of the manor there is nothing, because all these tenants died in the time of the plague." Then follow the names of seventy-four tenants, from all of whom only 13s. 9–3/4d. had been received in the period covered by the account, and practically from the entire manor there had been no receipt except for grass. Then, instead of the harvest being gathered in, as before it had been, by means of the services of the tenants, this year paid-labour had to be employed at a cost of £22 18s. 10d. On the receipt side of the account appear the values of the cows, oxen, and horses of tenants who had died, and whose goods and animals passed into the possession of the lord of the manor.[270]

In Nottinghamshire the proportion of deaths among the beneficed clergy is found, as in other cases, to be fully one-half the total number. Out of 126 benefices in the county the incumbent died in sixty-five.[271]

Eastwards, again, the county of Lincoln lies between [p149] Nottinghamshire and the sea. At an early period Pope Clement VI. granted to the priests and people of the city and diocese of Lincoln great indulgences at the hour of death, "since on their behalf a petition had been made to him which declared that the deadly pestilence had commenced in the said city and diocese."[272] The extent of the county is large, and its endowed livings numerous. In all, not including its forty-nine monasteries, the beneficed clergy of the county numbered some 700, and from this some estimate may be formed of the probable number of clerics who died in Lincolnshire in the year 1349.

The chronicle of Louth Park, a Cistercian abbey in the county, contains a brief note upon the epidemic. "This plague," it says, "laid low equally Jew, Christian, and Saracen; together it carried off confessor and penitent. In many places it did not leave even a fifth-part of the people alive. It struck the whole world with terror. Such a plague has not been seen, or heard of, or recorded before this time, for it is thought so great a multitude of people were not overwhelmed by the waters of the deluge, which happened in the day of Noah. In this year many monks of Louth Park died; amongst them was Dom Walter de Luda, the Abbot, on July 12th, who was much persecuted because of the manor of Cockrington, and he was buried before the high altar by the side of Sir Henry Vavasour, Knight. To him Dom Richard de Lincoln succeeded the same day, canonically elected according to the institutes of Our Lord and the Order."[273]

From a document relating to the Chapter of Lincoln it would appear that the Courts of Law did not sit every term, during the universal visitation. The dean and chapter complain that, whereas "from time beyond all memory" they had received 6s. 8–1/2d. for some 66 acres of arable and four acres of meadow at Navenby, this year they had not done so. Still they were called upon to pay the King's [p150] dues. They appealed; but there was no cause tried at Trinity anno 23º (1349) "because of the absence of our judges assigned to hold the common pleas, by reason of the plague then raging."[274]

The audit of the Escheator's accounts for the county of Lincoln proves that the distress was very real. Saier de Rocheford, who held the office for Rutland and Lincoln in 1351, sought to be relieved of £20 18s. 1d., which he was charged to pay for money he should have received, on the ground that he had got nothing, "because of the mortality."[275] Three years later, moreover, he again pleads that he is unable to raise more, "because of the deadly pestilence of men and of tenants of the land, who died in the year 1349, and on account of the dearth of tenants" since.

The people, he adds, were so impoverished that they could pay nothing for "Wapentakes."[276]

Archbishop Zouche of York was apparently one of the first of the English prelates to recognise the gravity of the epidemic, which in 1348 was devastating Southern Europe, and ever creeping northwards towards England. Before the end of July, 1348, he wrote to his official at York, ordering prayers. "Since man's life on earth is a warfare," he writes, "those fighting amidst the miseries of this world are troubled by the uncertainty of a future, now propitious, now adverse. For the Lord Almighty sometimes permits those whom he loves to be chastised, since strength, by the infusion of spiritual grace, is made perfect in infirmity. It is known to all what a mortal pestilence and infection of the atmosphere is hanging over various parts of the world, and especially England, in these days. This, indeed, is caused by the sins of men who, made callous by prosperity, neglect to remember the benefits of the Supreme Giver." He goes on to say that it is only by prayer that the scourge can be turned away, and he, therefore, orders that in all parish churches, on every Wednesday and Friday, there [p151] shall be processions and litanies, "and in all masses there be said the special prayer for the stay of pestilence and infection of this kind."[277]

Judging from a reply of the Pope to a petition of the Archbishop, it would be necessary to conclude that the plague had reached York as early as February, 1349. It is, however, more probable that the petition was sent in the expectation that the scourge would certainly come sooner or later, and it was best to be prepared. From the dates of the institutions to vacant benefices, moreover, it would seem that the province of York suffered chiefly in the summer and autumn of the year 1349. Pope Clement VI., by letters to Archbishop Zouche, dated from Avignon as early as March 23rd, 1349, bestowed the faculties and indulgences already mentioned as having been granted to other Bishops. This he did, as the letter says, "in response to a petition declaring that the deadly pestilence has commenced to afflict the city, diocese, and province of York."[278]

The county of York contained at this date some 470 benefices; or, counting monastic houses and hospitals, some 550. It has been pointed out that out of 141 livings in the West Riding, in which the incumbent changed in 1349, ninety-six vacancies are registered as being caused by death, and in the East Riding 65 incumbents died against 61 who apparently survived.[279] In the deanery of Doncaster,[280] out of fifty-six lists of incumbents, printed in the [p152] local history, a change is recorded in thirty. It may be concluded with certainty, from an examination of the printed lists of institutions for Yorkshire, that one-half at least of the clergy, generally, were carried off by the sickness. So serious did the mortality among the cathedral officials become that steps were taken to prevent the total cessation of business. In July, 1349, for instance, "it was ordained on account of the existing mortality of the pestilence that one canon, with the auditor and chapter clerk, might, in the absence of his fellows, grant vicarages and transact other matters of business as if the other canons were present, notwithstanding the statutes."[281]

The Archbishop too sought and obtained from Pope Clement VI. faculties to dispense with the usual ecclesiastical laws as to ordinations taking place only in the Ember weeks. "For fear the Divine worship may be diminished through want of ministers, or the cure and ruling of souls be neglected," writes the Pope, we grant leave to hold four extra ordinations during the year, since you say "that on account of the mortal pestilence, which at present rages in your province," you fear that "priests may not be sufficient for the care and guidance of souls."[282] With this the Archbishop gives a specimen of the testimonial letters to be granted to such as were ordained under this faculty, reciting that it was given "because of the want of ecclesiastical ministers carried off by the pestilence lately existing in our Province."

There is little doubt that the religious houses of the diocese suffered in a similar way. The abbots of Jervaux and Rievaulx, Welbeck and Roche, the priors of Thurgarton, and Shelford, of Monkbretton, of Marton, of Haltemprice and Ferriby, are only some few of the superiors of religious houses who died at this time.

For one of the monasteries of the county, Meaux, there exists a special account in the chronicles of the house. [p153] Abbot Hugh, it says, "besides himself had in the convent 42 monks and seven lay brethren; and the said abbot Hugh, after having ruled the monastery nine years, eleven months and eleven days, died in the great plague which was in the year 1349, and 32 monks and lay brethren also died.

"This pestilence so prevailed in our said monastery, as in other places, that in the month of August the abbot himself, 22 monks and six lay brethren died; of these, the abbot and five monks were lying unburied in one day, and the others died, so that when the plague ceased, out of the said 50 monks and lay brethren, only ten monks with no lay brethren were left.

"And from this the rents and possessions of the monastery began to diminish, particularly as a greater part of our tenants in various places died, and the abbot, prior, cellarer, bursar, and other men of years, and officials dying left those, who remained alive after them, unacquainted with the property, possessions, and common goods of the monastery. The abbot died on 12th August, A.D. 1349."[283]

In the Deanery of Holderness, in which Meaux Abbey was situated, there is evidence of great mortality. It is striking to observe how frequently the bailiffs and collectors of royal rents and taxes are changed. It is by no means uncommon to find an account rendered by the executors of executors to the original official.[284] This evidence as to the great extent of the mortality here as in other places of England, and as to the consequent distress, is borne out by the Inquisitiones post mortem for the period. In one case, where the owner of the property had died on 28th July, 1349, it is said that 114 acres of pasture were let at 12d. a year, "and not more this year because of the mortality and dearth of men." At Cliffe, on the [p154] same estate, the rents of customary tenants and tenants at will are stated to have been usually worth £10 5s. a year; but in this special year they had produced only two shillings.[285]

The chronicler of Meaux has described the disastrous consequences of the sickness in his own monastery. That this condition was not soon mended appears certain from the fact that in 1354 it was found necessary to hand over the abbey, "on account of its miserable condition," to a royal commission.[286]

The account of the King's Escheator in Yorkshire for the year, from October, 1349, to October, 1350, states that he could in no way obtain the sum of £4 12s. 2d., "due on certain lands and tenements from which he had levied and could levy nothing during the said time because of the mortality amongst men in those parts, and owing to the dearth of tenants, willing to take up the said land and tenements." Then follows a list of houses standing vacant.[287]

As another instance may be quoted a case related in the history of the deanery of Doncaster. "John FitzWilliam, the heir of Sir William, had a short enjoyment of the family estates. He died in the great plague of 1349. I transcribe, to show public feeling at the time, from a chronicle: 'And in these daies was burying withoute sorrowe and wedding without frendschippe and fleying without refute of socoure; for many fled from place to place because of the pestilence; but yet they were effecte and myghte not skape the dethe.'

"In another part of the deanery we find a person willing that his goods shall be divided among such of his children as shall remain alive. In the FitzWilliams' MS. is a contemporary memorandum that John FitzWilliam, the father, gave in the time of the pestilence before his death all his [p155] goods and chattels, movable and immovable, to dame Joan, his wife, John, his son, and Alleyn, late parson of Crosby, amounting to the sum of £288 3s. 8–1/2d."[288]

An incident recorded by the same writer will serve to show how uncertain people, at this time, regarded the tenure of life, a feeling hardly to be wondered at when so many were dying all round them. Thomas Allott, of Wombwell, in the deanery of Doncaster, in his will, proved 14th September, 1349, after desiring to be buried at Darfield, says: "Item I leave, etc., to my sons and daughters living after this present mortal pestilence."[289]

These notes upon the evidence for the plague in Yorkshire may be concluded by a brief account of the state of Hull in consequence of the mortality and other causes. In 1353 the King, "considering the waste and destruction which our town of Kingston-on-Hull has suffered, both through the overflow of the waters of the Humber and other causes, and that a great part of the people of the said town have died in the last deadly pestilence which raged in these parts, and that the remnant left in the town are so desolate and poverty-stricken in money," grants them permission to apply the fines ordered to be imposed on labourers and servants demanding higher wages than before, to the payment of the fifteenth they owe the royal exchequer.[290]

Westward of Yorkshire the extensive but then sparsely populated county of Lancashire stretches between it and the Irish sea. Of this county there is practically little to be recorded. The number of benefices which existed in the county was about 65, whilst the number of chaplains and non-beneficed clergy generally must have greatly exceeded that number. In the deanery of Blackburn alone there were at the close of the reign of Edward III at [p156] least 55 capellani without benefices.[291] One document, of its kind unique, relating to Lancashire and to this great plague, is preserved in the Record Office. It was long ago referred to by the late Professor Thorold Rogers, and is now printed in the English Historical Review. It is a statement of the supposed number of deaths during the incidence of the great pestilence in the deanery of Amounderness. Unfortunately, as perhaps might be expected in such a mortality, when death came so suddenly and men followed one another so rapidly to the grave that vast numbers had to be cast as quickly as possible into the same plague pit, the figures are clearly only approximate, being in every instance round numbers. Still, as they were adduced at a legal investigation and before a jury, when the facts of the visitation of Providence must have been fresh in the minds of those who heard the evidence, it is difficult to suppose that they are mere gross exaggerations, and may at least be taken as proof that the mortality in this district of Lancashire was very considerable.

The paper in question is the record of a claim for the profits received, or supposed to have been received, by the dean of Amounderness, acting as procurator for the Archdeacon of Richmond, for proof of wills, administration of intestate estates, and other matters, during the course of the plague of 1349. Ten parishes are named in the claim, including Preston, Lancaster, and Garstang. In those ten parishes it supposes that some 13,180 souls had died between September 8th, 1349, and January 11th, 1350. In both Preston and Lancaster 3,000 are said to have been carried off, and in Garstang 2,000. Nine benefices are declared to have been vacant, three of them twice, whilst the chapel of St. Mary Magdalene, at Preston, is stated to have been unserved for seven weeks. The Priory of Lytham is also noted as having been rendered vacant by the sickness, [p157] whilst 80 people of the village were said to have died at the same time.[292]

From the Patent rolls it would appear that Cartmel Priory, also, about this time lost its superior, as upon September 20th, 1349, the King's licence was granted to the community to proceed to a new election.[293]

The counties of Westmoreland, to the north of Lancashire, with Cumberland, still further to the north again, carry the western part of England to the borders of Scotland. In the former there were some 57 beneficed clergy, and in the latter about 85. From these figures the approximate number of beneficed priests who died in the pestilence in the two counties may be guessed at about 72.

The state of this borderland county of Cumberland was, even before the arrival of the plague in the district, deplorable. The Memoranda rolls of the period contain ample evidence that the Scottish invasions had rendered the land desolate and almost uninhabitable. Still the mortality added to the misery of the people. The few Inquisitiones post mortem afford little knowledge, beyond the fact that here also the dearth of tenants was severely felt.[294] The audit of the accounts of Richard de Denton, late Vice-Sheriff of the County, is more precise in its information. He declares, in excuse for the smallness of his returns, that "the great part of the manor lands, attached to the King's Castle at Carlisle," has remained until the year of his account, 1354, waste and uncultivated, "by reason of the mortal pestilence lately raging in those parts." Moreover, for one and a half years after the plague had passed the entire lands remained "uncultivated for lack of labourers and divers tenants. Mills, fishing, pastures, and meadow lands could not be let during that time for want of tenants willing to take the farms of those who died in the said plague." [p158]

Richard de Denton then produced a schedule of particulars, which may now be seen stitched on to the roll. This gives the items of decrease in rents; for instance, there are houses, cottages, and lands to let, which used to bring in £5, and now but £1; "the farm of a garden belonging to the King, called King's Mead, is rented now at 13 shillings and fourpence less than it used to be," and so on. The jury, who were called to consider these statements, concluded that Richard de Denton had proved them, and they enter a verdict to that effect, giving a list of the tenants, and adding "the said Richard says that all the last-mentioned tenants died in the said plague, and all the tenements have stood since empty through a dearth of tenants."[295]

An indication of the same difficulties which beset the people of Cumberland at this time is found in the case of the prior of Hagham, an alien house, to farm which, during the time it was in the King's hands on account of his French war, the prior had been appointed, on condition of his paying the sum of threepence a day in rent to be paid to the Bishop of Carlisle. At this time he could not get even this out of the land, and could not live, by reason of the great dearness of provisions.[296]

The city of Carlisle also in 1352 was relieved of taxation to a great extent, because "it is rendered void, and more than usual is depressed, by the mortal pestilence lately raging in those parts."

The two remaining counties of England, Durham and Northumberland, were no exceptions to the general mortality. In the former there were some 93 beneficed clergy and in the latter about 72, figures from which, on the usual calculation, may be deduced the numbers of the beneficed clergy who died at this time.

In the Durham Cursitor records of this time a glimpse is [p159] afforded of the state of these northern counties. The Halmote courts were similar to the manor courts, and were held by commissioners appointed under the great seal of the Palatinate of Durham, by the Bishop's certificate, to receive surrender of copyhold lands, to settle fines, contentions, and generally to transact the business of the estates. At one of these Halmote courts, held at Houghton on the 14th of July, 1349, it is recorded: "that there is no one who will pay the fine for any land, which is in the lord's hands through fear of the plague. And so all are in the same way of being proclaimed as defaulters until God shall bring some remedy." At another court "all refused their fines on account of the pestilence." In another, after stating the receipts, the record adds: "And not more on account of the poverty and pestilence;" and one tenant "was unwilling to take the land in any other way, since even if he survived the plague, he absolutely refused to pay a fine." There are many similar instances in the records at this period, and in one case it is noted that "a man and his whole family had fled before the dreaded disease."[297]

In Northumberland the case of the people was so desperate that in 1353 more than £600, which was owing to the King for taxes for five and twenty parishes named, was allowed to stand over for some months since it was hopeless to press for payment.[298]

Of Newcastle the same story is told. "It has been shown us," writes the King, "in a serious complaint by the men of Newcastle-on-Tyne, that, since very many merchants and other rich people who were wont to pay the greater part of the tenth, fifteenth, and other burdens of the town, have died in the deadly pestilence lately raging in the town, and since the population remaining alive, who were wont to live by their trading, are by the said pestilence and other adverse causes in this time of war, [p160] so impoverished that they hardly possess sufficient to live upon,"[299] they cannot now pay what is due.

At Alnwick, still further north, the plague may be traced into the spring of the following year, 1350; at least, the chronicle of the abbey there states that "in the year 1350 (which for them began March 25th) John, abbot of Alnwick, died in the common mortality."[300] Lastly, it is related by two contemporary authors that the Scotch carried the disease over the borders into their own country. "The Scots," writes Knighton, "hearing of the cruel pestilence among the English, thought this had happened to them as a judgment at the hand of God. They laughed at their enemies, and took as an oath the expression, 'Be the foul deth of Engelond,' and so thinking that the terrible judgment of God had overwhelmed the English, they assembled in the forest of Selkirk with the intention of invading England. The terrible mortality, however, came upon them, and the Scotch were scattered by the sudden and cruel death, and there died in a short time about five thousand."[301]

An account of the visitation given in the continuation of a chronicle, probably written at the time, and possibly by a monk at Tynemouth, may fitly conclude this review of the course of the epidemic in England; telling, though it does, ever the same story, and reading like an echo of the plaint first raised in Europe on the shores of the Bosphorus and in the islands of the Mediterranean. "In the year of our Lord 1348, and in the month of August," writes this chronicler, "there began the deadly pestilence in England which three years previously had commenced in India, and then had spread through all Asia and Africa, and coming into Europe had depopulated Greece, Italy, Provence, [p161] Burgundy, Spain, Aquitaine, Ireland, France, with its subject provinces, and at length England and Wales, so far, at least, as to the general mass of citizens and rustic folk and poor, but not princes and nobles.

"So much so that very many country towns and quarters of innumerable cities are left altogether without inhabitants. The churches or cemeteries before consecrated did not suffice for the dead; but new places outside the cities and towns were at that time dedicated to that use by people and bishops. And the said mortality was so infectious in England that hardly one remained alive in any house it entered. Hence flight was regarded as the hope of safety by most, although such fugitives, for the most part, did not escape death in the mortality, although they obtained some delay in the sentence. Rectors and priests, and friars also, confessing the sick, by the hearing of the confessions, were so infected by that contagious disease that they died more quickly even than their penitents; and parents in many places refused intercourse with their children, and husband with wife."[302]