gellants, which had arisen in the thirteenth century, but
was suppressed by the mandates and strenuous efforts of the Church, was
revived during the plague, and numbers of these advocates of
self-chastisement roamed through the various countries on their great
pilgrimages. Their power increased to such an extent that the Church
was in considerable danger, for these religious enthusiasts gained more
credit among the people, and operated more strongly on their minds than
the priests from whom they so entirely withdrew that they even absolved
each other. Their strength grew with such rapidity, and their numbers
increased to such an extent daily, that the State and the Church were
forced to combine for their suppression. Degeneracy, however, soon
crept in, crimes were committed, and they went beyond their strength in
attempting the performance of miracles. One of the most fearful
consequences of this frenzy was the persecution of the Jews. This alien
race was given up to the merciless fury and cruelty of the populace.
The persecution of the Jews commenced in September and October, 1348,
at Chillon on Lake Geneva, where criminal proceedings were instituted
against them on the mythic charge of poisoning the public wells. These
persecuted people were summoned before sanguinary tribunals, beheaded
and burned in the most fearful manner. At Strasburg 2000 Jews were
burned alive in their own burial-ground, where a large scaffold had
been erected, their wealth being divided among the people. In Mayence
12,000 Jews were said to have been put to a cruel death. At Eslingen
the whole Jewish community burned themselves in their synagogue, and
mothers were often seen throwing their children on the pile, to prevent
them from being baptized, and then precipitating themselves into the
flames. The cruel and avaricious desires of the monarchs against these
thrifty and industrious people added fuel to the flames of the popular
passion, and even a fanatic zeal arose among the Jews to perish as
martyrs to their ancient religion. When we sum up the actual effects as
well as the after effects of the black death, we are appalled at the
magnitude of such a calamity, the like of which the world had never
seen before.

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the plague was generally
diffused throughout Europe, and in the latter half of the seventeenth
century a final Occidental incursion of the plague took place. From
1603 to 1604 over 30,000 people