sook their cures in
abject fear, leaving their parishioners to die without the consolations of
the Church, whilst their pulpits were seized upon by Presbyterian
ministers, who embraced the opportunity of publicly declaiming against the
sins of the court and the ill usage to which they had been compelled to
submit.(1291) The first Wednesday of every month was appointed to be kept
as a solemn fast day of humiliation until it should please God to put an
end to the sickness.(1292) Schools were closed and inns and taverns kept
open only for citizens. The streets were cleansed and kept free from
vagrant dogs--always suspected of spreading infection. Nevertheless, the
death rate rapidly increased. Pest-houses or hospitals were opened and the
best medical aid supplied, whilst subscriptions were set on foot for the
benefit of the poor.(1293) The last week of August claimed 700 victims
within the city's walls, whilst in the week ending the 19th September no
less than 1,189--the highest number recorded perished within the same
limited area.(1294) The number of deaths that occurred outside the city,
but within its liberties, was often three or four times larger than of
those within the city's walls. Thus for the week last mentioned the number
of deaths from the plague alone in parishes outside the city, but within
its liberties, is returned in the Bills of Mortality as having exceeded
3,000.(1295) The continued increase in the number of deaths in the first
half of September was a matter of surprise, for cold weather had set in
and the lord mayor had caused fires to be lighted in the open
thoroughfares for the benefit of the poor that lay starving in the
streets, as well as (perhaps) with the view of purifying the
atmosphere.(1296) When the plague was at its height deaths followed in
such rapid succession that the work of burying its victims had to be
carried on night and day. Even then there was only time to huddle the
corpses together in a _fosse commune_, and to cover them with a scanty
supply of earth. Small wonder if complaints were made to the Court of
Aldermen of noisome smells arising from the churchyard of St. Mary's
Bethlem. The court immediately (5 Sept.) gave orders for remedying the
evil. No more pits were to be dug, but each corpse was to occupy a
separate grave, fresh mould was to be laid over places complained of, and
bones and coffin-boards found above ground were to be interred in the
middle of the churchyard.(1297)