Think of them staggering across the great cemetery
and stumbling over the rotting carcases not yet committed to the
earth, breathing all the while the tainted breath of corruption-
sickening, loathsome! Think of them returning as they came, going
over the same ground as before, and compelled to gaze again at
Sights that haunt the soul for ever,
Poisoning life till life is done.
Think of them foot-sore, half-famished, hardly daring to buy bread
and meat for their hunger, or to beg a cup of cold water for Christ's
sake, or entreat shelter for the night in their faintness and
weariness, lest men should cry out at them--"Look! the Black Death
has clutched another of the doomed!"
* * * * * * *
I have said that upwards of 800 of the beneficed clergy perished in
East Anglia during this memorable year. Besides these we must make
allowance for the non-beneficed among the regulars; the
_chaplains,_ who were in the position of curates among ourselves;
the vicars of parishes whose endowments were insufficient to
maintain a resident parson under ordinary circumstances, and the
members of the monastic and mendicant orders. Putting all these
together, it seems to me that we cannot estimate the number of deaths
among regular and secular clergy in East Anglia during the year 1349
at less than _two_ _thousand.
Pages:
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213