[51] Schiller, Sect. II. c. 1. p. 131. b.
[52] Angelus, p. 253. Spangenberg, M. Chr. fol. 398. b. The scurvy affected society far more in the 15th and 16th centuries than it does at present, and made its appearance on several occasions as an epidemic. Compare, in particular, Reusner, whose work on the history of epidemics is one of general importance. Sennert, Wier, and others.
[53] Schiller, loc. cit.
[54] It was conceived not to bee an epidemicke disease, but to proceed from a malignity in the constitution of the aire, gathered by the predispositions of seasons: and the speedie cessation declared as much. Bacon, p. 9.
[55] The name passed into the French, English, and Italian languages—Lansquenet, Lancichinecho.
[56] ——“flock together like flies in summer, so that any one would wonder where all these swarms have sprung from, and how they are maintained during the winter; and truly they are such a miserable crew, that one ought rather to pity than envy the kind of life they lead and their precarious fortune.” Franck’s Chronicle. “On the destructive Lansquenets,” fol. 217. b.
[57] 1518. “This year there was a great gathering of the Landsknechts, who, as soon as they had assembled, went forth from Friesland, committed great ravages and made an incursion into the country at Gellern, and were beaten by Vernlow.” Wintzenberger, fol. 23. a.
[58] “Not to mention too the curtailment of life, for one seldom meets with an old Landsknecht.” Franck, loc. cit.
[59] Those Moors were so called who, in order to remain in Spain after the conquest of Granada, embraced Christianity.—Transl. note.
[60] The petechial fever which will be spoken of further on.