Articles & Descripions

This article describes preventative orders in which people were to obey if they wished to stay healthy and free of the plague. Before germ theory or the knowledge of how infectious disease is transmitted people believed in the miasma theory. This theory is the belief that “bad air” infects people with disease and that if people breathe in that air they would inevitably come down with disease. Within these orders are instructions on how to prevent any opening in the body from allowing bad air into the body to poison the heart.

London Butchers were slaughtering large animals and leaving the blood and entrails in the city. The courts put a ban on that activity in order to have clean air throughout the city. The courts wanted it banned due to the spreading of disease it does, especially during the time of panic and anxiety about the plague, but this attempt was not used to prevent the spread of the plague itself, just the anxieties. Although the air did not actually result in plague infections, it was still a great Public Health motive that reduced stench and bacteria from raw meat/blood being left in the street.

These are 2 out of the 32 ordinances that had been placed by officials in cities like Pistoia into how to prevent the spread of the plague within and outside the city. Some of the ordinances includes limitations on travel; from inside or outside the city, how a corpse is suppose to handle during a funeral or being being in a coffin and how butchers should handle the meat they cut and sell, with a penance to be paid if one were to break the ordinances. These ordinances and penances may have put increased stress upon the people living in plague infected areas who already had to deal with their loved ones dying, but also having some of their day-to-day activities be restricted or banned to prevent the spread. With the increased stress, to the people it may have seemed like the world was coming to an end and with no power to stop their loved ones from dying, the sense of hopelessness and despair would be cast over their heads.

Although many have fallen ill to the plague, law was enforced. Aymer fitz Waryn, the Sheriff of Devon fell ill and missed his payment of a previous fine. He had to explain to a local jury that he was unable to travel because of health reasons. His penalty was waived by the King, yet Richard de Greencombe, who was his under-sheriff became responsible for paying Waryn’s account.