FOOTNOTES:
[1] By this term the reader is now to understand the “Epidemics of the Middle Ages.” This work not having been published, as a whole, in the original, there is no general preface by the Author. His Address to the Physicians of Germany is therefore prefixed as an appropriate substitute.
[2] Odor. Raynald. Annal. Ecclesiastic. A. 1374. Lucæ, 1752. fol. Tom. VII. p. 252.
[3] Joh. Wier’s ample Catalogue of Spirits gives no information on this point. Pseudomonarchia dæmonum. Opera omnia, Amstelod. 1660. 4to. p. 649.—Raynald mentions the word Frisckes as the name of a spirit; but this mistake is easily accounted for by his ignorance of the language; for, according to the Chronicle of Cologne, the St. John’s dancers sang during their paroxysm: “Here Sent Johan. so so, vrisch ind vro, here Sent Johan.” St. John so, so, brisk and cheerful, St. John. Die Cronica van der hilliger Stat van Coellen, fol. 277. Coellen, 1499. fol.
[4] Cyr. Spangenberg, Adels-Spiegel—Mirror of Nobility, a detailed historical account of what nobility is, &c. Schmalkalden, 1591. fol. Fol. 403. b.
[5] Petr. de Herentals, Appendix, No. I.
[6] Jo. Trithem. Chronic. Sponheimense, A. 1374. Opera historic. Francof. 1601. fol. p. 332. Also: Abrah. Bzovii Annal. Ecclesiastic. Tom. XIV. Colon. Agripp. 1625. fol. Ann. 1374. (Maniaca passio. S. Johannis chorea.)
[7] Jo. Pistorii Rerum Familiarumque Belgicarum Chronicon magnum. Francof. 1654. fol. p. 319. Here the persons affected are called dansatores, chorisantes. See the whole passage in the Appendix, No. II. Compare Incerti auctoris vetus chronicon Belgicum, Matthæi veteris ævi Analecta. Hag. com. 1738. 4to. Tom. I. p. 51. “Anno MCCCLXXIV. the dansers appeared. Gens impacata cadit, dudum cruciata salvat.” This should be salivat; a quotation from a Latin poem not now extant.
[8] The Limburg Chronicle, published by C. D. Vogel, Marburg, 1828. 8vo. p. 27. This singular phenomenon cannot but remind us of the “Demon of Fashion,” of the middle ages. Extravagant as the love of dress was after the middle of the fourteenth century, the opposition of the enemies of fashion was equally great, and they let slip no opportunity of crying down every change or innovation as the work of the devil. Hence it is extremely probable that the fanatic penitential sermons of zealous priests excited this singular aversion of the St. Vitus dancers. In later times also, signs and wonders took place, on account of things equally insignificant, and the fury of the possessed was directed against the fashions. Compare Möhsen’s History of the Sciences in the Mark of Brandenburg, p. 498. f.