anger. It was no
longer possible to have a bier for every corpse--three or four were
generally laid together--husband and wife, father and mother, with two or
three children, were frequently borne to the grave on the same bier; and
it often happened that two priests would accompany a coffin, bearing the
cross before it, and be joined on the way by several other funerals; so
that instead of one, there were five or six bodies for interment."

Thus far Boccacio. On the conduct of the priests, another contemporary
observes: "In large and small towns they had withdrawn themselves through
fear, leaving the performance of ecclesiastical duties to the few who
were found courageous and faithful enough to undertake them." But we
ought not on that account to throw more blame on them than on others; for
we find proofs of the same timidity and heartlessness in every class.
During the prevalence of the Black Plague, the charitable orders
conducted themselves admirably, and did as much good as can be done by
individual bodies in times of great misery and destruction, when
compassion, courage, and the nobler feelings are found but in the few,
while cowardice, selfishness and ill-will, with the baser passions in
their train, assert the supremacy. In place of virtue which had been
driven from the earth, wickedness everywhere reared her rebellious
standard, and succeeding generations were consigned to the dominion of
her baleful tyranny.

CHAPTER VI--PHYSICIANS

If we now turn to the medical talent which encountered the "Great
Mortality," the Middle Ages must stand excused, since even the moderns
are of opinion that the art of medicine is not able to cope with the
Oriental plague, and can afford deliverance from it only under
particularly favourable circumstances. We must bear in mind, also, that
human science and art appear particularly weak in great pestilences,
because they have to contend with the powers of nature, of which they
have no knowledge; and which, if they had been, or could be, comprehended
in their collective effects, would remain uncontrollable by them,
principally on account of the disordered condition of human society.
Moreover, every new plague has its peculiarities, which are the less
easily discovered on first view because, during its ravages, fear and
consternation humble the proud spirit.

The physicians of the fourteenth century, during the Black Death, did
what human intellect could do in the actua