The History of the Popes Author:Ludwig, Freiherr Pastor Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: PREVALENCE OF PESTILENCES. and on into the i6th. It was not only the large and low-lying places that suffered; even such salubrious situations as Orvieto wer... more »e not exempt, and again and again were turned into pestilential charnel-houses. Whenever the dreaded sickness appeared in any place, every one who could, fled. Large bonfires in all the open spaces were supposed to constitute the best preservative for those who were left behind. The pious spirit of the time manifested itself in processions, public acts of penance and prayers to appease the Divine displeasure. Recourse was had especially to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin and of S. Sebastian, who, from its earliest days, had always been regarded throughout all Christendom as the great protector against pestilences. Many beautiful votive pictures, such, for example, as Benozzo Gozzoli's fresco, painted in 1464, in the Church of S. Agostino in S. Gimig- nano, date from these days of distress. The partiality for S. Sebastian as a subject, displayed by so many painters, as, for example, Antonio Pollajuolo, Mantegna, Foppa, Peru- gino, Becchietta, and Benedetto da Majano, though partly due to artistic considerations, derived an additional impulse from faith in his power to preserve his clients from infectious diseases. A similar efficacy was attributed to the prayers of S. Roch. On the banner painted for the Church of SSml Trinita at Citta di Castello by Raphael, both Saints are depicted, with uplifted eyes, beseeching the Holy Trinity to protect the land from pestilences and plagues.j- In someplaces, even in those days, really rational precautions were adopted by energetic municipalities and intelligent physicians ; " but these were purely local, each Commune acting only for itself. No sort of common effort was made to p...« less