A.D. 685, there happened an eruption of Vesuvius.
In the year of our Lord 690, rains deluged Italy: six years after, 696, pestilence prevailed in Constantinople, and during the years 703 and 713, Scotland also suffered from epidemic pestilence. Small-pox caused great mortality in Spain, A.D. 714.
A.D. 717, 30,000 persons were carried off at Constantinople by pestilence: it again appeared in the years 724 and 729. In the year 732 great numbers perished from pestilential disease at Norwich in England, and also in Syria.
A.D. 740, the world was again visited by dismal pestilence, which continued, with varied intensity, for 260 years, until the year 1000. During this period, 749, an earthquake destroyed many cities in Syria. Among the many writers on the subject, Baronius, P. Diaconus, Cedrenus, and Magdenburgh, make mention of an epidemic pestilence which raged in Calabria, in Naples, also in Constantinople; in which latter place the mortality was so great, that the living were unable to bury their dead, cart-loads being huddled together into a vast common excavation of the earth, while great numbers were left unburied. Short mentions the prevalence of a fatal pestilence in Wales, A.D. 762, which afterwards extended all over England, continuing until 771. In Chichester alone it is stated that 34,000 persons perished. Pestilence raged in France A.D. 779, and invaded Scotland 784. Lancisius and Bartianus in their Annals relate the occurrence of disease in various parts of the world, which destroyed immense numbers of cattle, especially in Germany, where the mortality was great among the horned tribe. A.D. 801, St. Paul’s at Rome was thrown down in the month of April; and in France, Germany, and in various parts of Italy also, a severe earthquake was experienced. So intensely cold was it in A.D. 806, that the Rhone was frozen over: the cold was from 18 to 20 degrees centigrade below zero. Lancisius and Bartianus also give an account of a pestilence that arose from excessive rains and cold damp weather, A.D. 817 and 820, and prevailed through all the dominions of Gaul. The crops failed from excess of moisture, and famine ensued. The following winter was very severe: the Rhine and the Danube continued one solid body of ice for thirty days, and epidemic pestilence ensued in the spring, which persisted all the summer and autumn. The succeeding winter, in 822, was very severe: the snow lay on the ground twenty-nine weeks, and caused great destruction to both men and beasts. A long drought followed in the summer, and pestilence was the consequence: it was attended with such fatality, that, A.D. 825, it killed almost all the inhabitants in France and Germany.
In the year 853, epidemic pestilence broke out in Scotland: two years after, earthquakes and violent tempests were experienced; and in A.D. 856 there occurred an earthquake and a tremendous inundation of the Tiber, which were succeeded by severe epidemic sore throats, anginas, &c., as recorded by Baronius, Murator, Short, and Magdenburgh. A.D. 859, the Mediterranean was so frozen over, that carriages were driven on the Adriatic Sea. In 863, epidemic pestilence ravaged Scotland; and in the year 874, myriads of grasshoppers or locusts, of an immense size, with six feet and two teeth as hard as flint, overspread Gaul. They devoured every green thing, and were afterwards driven into the British Channel by a strong east wind; their dead bodies were washed on shore, where they putrefied, and therefore were supposed to have caused the epidemic pestilence, which destroyed a third part of the maritime inhabitants of Gaul. In 883, famine and pestilence afflicted Italy, and the year following, pestilential disease raged at Oxford, which also affected the cattle, destroying great numbers. Soon after this period, when Alfred the Great had just finished the rebuilding of London, which had been burnt and destroyed by the Danes, a plague occurred which raged throughout the land for three years, carrying off many great men and ministers of state, as well as others. About the same time, A.D. 896, a mortal famine and pestilence, from intemperate seasons, happened in Gaul, Germany, Italy, and various other places in Europe. The frost, twelve years afterwards, A.D. 908, was so severe, that most of the rivers in England were frozen over. A.D. 912, a great part of London was again destroyed by fire. A.D. 922, a pestilential fever was prevalent, and very fatal in Scotland.
A.D. 929, the winter was severe. The Thames was frozen over for thirteen weeks: a dreadful famine and disease followed; and in 937, pestilence arising from great heat and long drought again raged for some time in England.
A.D. 940, epidemic pestilence of severe character appeared in the north of Europe amongst the cattle, being fatal to numbers. This murrain amongst the cattle was followed by disease in man, from which in Scotland alone 40,000 persons perished. In the year 964, the emperor Otho’s army was almost entirely destroyed by pestilence. A malignant fever or plague prevailed in London in 965, and a grievous famine happened, in 976, in London, and also in Italy. In the year 981, great mortality prevailed amongst the Lacedemonians; and six years after, 987, England suffered from malignant fevers, which destroyed many of its inhabitants, whilst a sort of flux caused great mortality among the cattle. A.D. 993, there was an eruption of Vesuvius. In 997, burning fevers and agues were fatal in England; and in the year 1005, pestilence, in the shape of the true plague, began and continued for three years in various parts of the globe, more than half the human race perishing therefrom. Thousands died from famine in Italy. A.D. 1007, another eruption of Vesuvius.
Notwithstanding the great length of the pestilential period (260 years) just noticed, in A.D. 1009, the earth became deluged with rains and pestilence, which began among the Saxons. In the years 1012, 1019, 1020, 1021, and 1024, dreadful pestilential seasons followed. A.D. 1017, it rained the colour of blood in Aquitaine for the space of three days.
In the year 1025, the summer was wet and cold, and pestilence raged in England and in other parts of Europe.
A.D. 1027, an extraordinary convulsive disease—which was called ‘the dance of St. John or St. Vitus,’ on account of the Bacchantic leaps by which it was characterized, and which gave to those affected, whilst performing their wild dance and screaming and foaming with fury, all the appearance of persons possessed,—first showed itself in some persons near the convent church of Kolbig, not far from Bernburg. According to an oft-repeated tradition, eighteen peasants, some of whose names are still preserved, are said to have disturbed divine service on Christmas eve, by dancing and brawling in the churchyard; whereupon the priest Ruprecht inflicted a curse upon them, that they should dance and scream for a whole year without ceasing. This curse is said to have been completely fulfilled, so that the unfortunate sufferers at length sunk knee-deep into the earth, and remained the whole time without nourishment, until they were finally released by the intercession of two pious bishops. It is said, that upon this they fell into a deep sleep, which lasted three days, and that four of them died, the rest continuing to suffer all their lives from a trembling of their limbs. This tradition, divested of the embellishments of crafty priesthood, will show the disease to have been what we now call Chorea or St. Vitus’ dance.