HISTORY 135F

Infectious and Epidemic Disease in History

Department of History
University of California, Irvine
 Instructor:    Dr. Barbara J. Becker

Week 2.  Calamities excerpt from On the Cause of this General Pestilence... by Geoffrey de Meaux (c.1350)

I have been asked by some of my friends to write something about the cause of this general pestilence, showing its natural cause, and why it affected so many countries, and why it affected some countries more than others, and why within those countries it affected some cities and towns more than others, and why in one town it affected one street, and even one house, more than another, and why it affected nobles and gentry less than other people, and how long it will last.  And they asked that after explaining the cause I should discuss appropriate remedies, drawing on my own opinions and medical advice.... ... it has been, and is, known by all astrologers that in the year 1345 ... there was a total eclipse of the moon, of long duration, on 18 March.  At the longitude of Oxford it began an hour after the moon rose, and at the time the two planets [Jupiter and Saturn] were in conjunction in Aquarius, and Mars was with them in the same sign, within the light of Jupiter. The sun is the lord, the director of all events, both general and specific, and the moon is second to him in dominion and power, and their effect is to intensify the effects of the planets acting with them.  It is therefore in the natural course of events, and not to be wondered at, that such a great configuration should bring about major events on the earth, from the nature of the planets which drew to themselves the natures of the sun and moon.  For when the sun is directly opposite the moon, as occurs in a total eclipse, then the power of each of them reaches the earth in a straight line, and the mingling of the influence of sun and moon with that of the superior planets creates a single celestial force which operates in conformity with the nature of the superior planets, which have drawn to themselves the powers of the sun and moon....  On their own they cannot achieve anything great or universal, but when compounded with the sun and moon ... they bend the nature of the two luminaries to their own nature, and thus with the power of the two luminaries are able to achieve great things which have a general and universal impact.  These natural causes affect the whole inhabited world between east and north.... Saturn ... governs the whole eastern part of the inhabited world; Mars the whole western part; and Jupiter ... rules the whole northern part. Thus the greater part of the earth was influenced.... Not all ... were affected in the same way ... because ... the impact of the heavens cannot affect them all equally for that action of which I speak is natural and operates according to the rules of nature.  It cannot act in the same way in every case, but only has an effect insofar as the ground has been prepared for it. [N]obles and gentry were less affected than the rest of the population [because] at the time of this eclipse the three superior planets were in the sign of Aquarius, where the fixed stars are not of the first magnitude and ... are lesser stars which signify the common people, and therefore the effect of the illness which they brought touched those people more.... Because Saturn was dominant, he brings cold (greater than the sun could counter) to each country under his rule, and because of the sign in which the conjunction occurred men will experience the onset of lingering illnesses such as consumption, catarrh, paralysis and gout; passions of the heart arising from unhappiness; and the deaths of those who have endured long weakness....