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through, plague-stricken towns, and innumerable fetiches. Very- 

 noted in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries were the proces- 

 sions of the flagellants, trooping through various parts of Europe, 

 scourging their naked bodies, and shrieking the penitential 

 psalms, often running from wild excesses of devotion to the mad- 

 dest orgies. 



Sometimes, too, plagues were attributed to the wrath of lesser 

 heavenly powers : just as, in former times, the fury of far-darting 

 Apollo was felt when his name was not respectfully treated by 

 mortals, so in 1680 the church authorities at Rome discovered that 

 the plague then raging resulted from the anger of St. Sebastian, 

 because no monument had been erected to him; such a monu- 

 ment was therefore placed in the church of St. Peter ad Vincula, 

 and the plague ceased. 



So much for the endeavor to avert the wrath of the heavenly 

 powers. On the other hand, theological reasoning no less subtle 

 was used in thwarting the malice of Satan. This idea, too, came 

 from far. In the sacred books of India and Persia, as well as in 

 our own, we find the same theory of disease, leading to similar 

 means of cure. Perhaps the most astounding among Christian 

 survivals of this theory and its resultant practices was seen dur- 

 ing the plague at Rome in 1522. In that year, at that center of di- 

 vine illumination, certain people, having reasoned upon the matter, 

 came to the conclusion that this great scourge was the result of 

 satanic malice ; and in view of St. Paul's declaration that the an- 

 cient gods were devils, and of the theory that the ancient gods of 

 Rome were the devils who had the most reason to punish that city 

 for their dethronement, and that the great amphitheatre was the 

 chosen haunt of these demon gods, an ox decorated with garlands, 

 after the ancient heathen manner, was taken in procession to the 

 Colosseum and solemnly sacrificed. Even this proved vain, and the 

 church authorities then ordered expiatory processions and cere- 

 monies to propitate the Almighty, the Virgin, and the s saints, who 

 had been offended by this temporary effort to bribe their enemies. 



But this sort of theological reasoning developed an idea far 

 more disastrous, and this was that Satan, in causing pestilences, 

 used as his emissaries especially Jews and witches. The proof of 

 this belief in the case of the Jews was seen in the fact that they 

 escaped with a less percentage of disease than did the Christians 

 in the great plague periods. This was doubtless due in some 

 measure to their remarkable sanitary system, which had proba- 

 bly originated thousands of years before in Egypt, and had been 

 handed down through Jewish lawgivers and statesmen. Cer- 

 tainly they observed more careful sanitary rules and more con- 

 stant abstinence from dangerous foods than was usual among 

 Christians ; but the public at large could not understand so simple 



