A Plague Cross, and a few excerpts from A JOURNAL OF THE PLAGUE YEAR by Daniel Defoe

Plague Cross featuring the Sacred Heart of our Lord and Five Holy Wounds

PROTECTION AGAINST THE PLAGUE: A cross approved in 1575 by the fathers of the Council of Trent as protection against the plague; originally developed by St. Zacharias, Patriarch of Jerusalem in the early seventh century.

The text refers to the prayer that should accompany its appropriate use. It can be placed over a threshold or a door, or possibly used in other contexts.

O Cross of Christ, save me. Z. May zeal for your house free me. + The Cross conquers; the Cross reigns; the Cross rules; by the sign of the Cross free me, O Lord, from this plague.

The Cross of Christ will expel the plague from this place and from my body. B. It is good to wait for the help of God in silence, that he may drive away this plague from me.

I. I will incline my heart to performing your just deeds, and I will not be confounded, for I have called upon you. Z. I had zeal on occasion of the wicked; seeing the peace of sinners, I have hoped in you.

The Cross of Christ puts demons to flight; corrupt air; and drives away the plague. S. I am your Salvation, says the Lord; cry out to me, and I will hear you, and I will liberate you from this plague.

A. Abyss calls to abyss, and you have expelled demons by your voice; liberate me from this plague. B. Blessed the man who hopes in the Lord, and does not look upon vanities, and false extravagances.

May the Cross of Christ, which was once the cause of scandal and indignity, and is now in glory and nobility, be for my salvation, and expel from this place the demon, and corrupt air, and plague from my body.

Z. May zeal for the honor of God convert me before I die, and in your name, save me from this plague. + May sign of the Cross free the People of God, and those who trust in him, from the plague.

H. Will this foolish people return to the Lord? Make good on your vows, offering a sacrifice of praise and faith to him, because he is able to liberate this place and me, from this plague; for whoever trusts in him will not be confounded.

G. If I will not praise you, let me tongue stick to my throat and to my jaws; free those who hope in you; in you I trust; liberate me and this place, O God, from this plague, for your name has been invoked in prayer.

F. At your death, O Lord, darkness fell over the whole earth; my God, render the power of the devil tenuous and dim, for it is for this that you have come, O Son of the living God: so that you might destroy the works of the devil with your power, drive out from this place and from me, your servant, this plague; and may the corrupt air depart from me into the outer darkness.

Defend us, O Cross of Christ, and expel from this place the plague, and free your servant from this plague, you who are kind, and merciful, and of many mercies, and true.

B. Blessed is he who does not look upon vanities, and false extravagances; on the day of evil the Lord will free him; Lord, I have trusted in you; free me from this plague. F. God has become my refuge; because I have trusted in you, free me from this plague.

R. Look upon me, O Lord my God, Adonai, from the holy seat of your Majesty, and have mercy on me, and because of your mercy, free me from this plague. S. You are my Salvation: heal me, and I will be healed; save me, and I will be saved.

Excerpts from A Journal of The Plague Year by Daniel Defoe: Orders conceived and published by the Lord Mayor of the City of London and Aldermen of the City of London concerning the infection of the plague, 1665.

Every visited House to be marked.

'That every house visited be marked with a red cross of a foot long in the middle of the door, evident to be seen, and with these usual printed words, that is to say, "Lord, have mercy upon us," to be set close over the same cross, there to continue until lawful opening of the same house.

Every visited House to be watched.

'That the constables see every house shut up, and to be attended with watchmen, which may keep them in, and minister necessaries unto them at their own charges, if they be able, or at the common charge, if they are unable; the shutting up to be for the space of four weeks after all be whole.

'That precise order to be taken that the searchers, chirurgeons (surgeons), keepers, and buriers are not to pass the streets without holding a red rod or wand of three feet in length in their hands, open and evident to be seen, and are not to go into any other house than into their own, or into that whereunto they are directed or sent for; but to forbear and abstain from company, especially when they have been lately used in any such business or attendance.

[...]

Plays.

'That all plays, bear-baitings, games, singing of ballads, buckler-play, or such-like causes of assemblies of people be utterly prohibited, and the parties offending severely punished by every alderman in his ward. 

Feasting prohibited.

'That all public feasting, and particularly by the companies of this city, and dinners at taverns, ale-houses, and other places of common entertainment, be forborne till further order and allowance; and that the money thereby spared be preserved and employed for the benefit and relief of the poor visited with the infection.

The Plague Cross at Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire. - WP

Additional excerpts from A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe

being observations or memorials of the most remarkable occurrences, as well public as private, which happened in London during the last great visitation in 1665. Written by a Citizen who continued all the while in London. Never made public before.

https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/376/pg376.txt

It was about the beginning of September, 1664, that I, among the rest of my neighbours, heard in ordinary discourse that the plague was returned again in Holland; for it had been very violent there, and particularly at Amsterdam and Rotterdam, in the year 1663, whither, they say, it was brought, some said from Italy, others from the Levant, among some goods which were brought home by their Turkey fleet; others said it was brought from Candia; others from Cyprus. It mattered not from whence it came; but all agreed it was come into Holland again. [...]

It was a very ill time to be sick in, for if any one complained, it was immediately said he had the plague; and though I had indeed no symptom of that distemper, yet being very ill, both in my head and in my stomach, I was not without apprehension that I really was infected; but in about three days I grew better; the third night I rested well, sweated a little, and was much refreshed. The apprehensions of its being the infection went also quite away with my illness, and I went about my business as usual. [...]

But we perceived the infection kept chiefly in the out-parishes, which being very populous, and fuller also of poor, the distemper found more to prey upon than in the city, as I shall observe afterwards. We perceived, I say, the distemper to draw our way, viz., by the parishes of Clarkenwell, Cripplegate, Shoreditch, and Bishopsgate; which last two parishes joining to Aldgate, Whitechappel, and Stepney, the infection came at length to spread its utmost rage and violence in those parts, even when it abated at the western parishes where it began. 

It was very strange to observe that in this particular week, from the 4th to the 11th of July, when, as I have observed, there died near 400 of the plague in the two parishes of St Martin and St Giles-in-the- Fields only, there died in the parish of Aldgate but four, in the parish of Whitechappel three, in the parish of Stepney but one. [...]

The apprehensions of the people were likewise strangely increased by the error of the times; in which, I think, the people, from what principle I cannot imagine, were more addicted to prophecies and astrological conjurations, dreams, and old wives' tales than ever they were before or since. Whether this unhappy temper was originally raised by the follies of some people who got money by it - that is to say, by printing predictions and prognostications - I know not; but certain it is, books frighted them terribly, such as Lilly's Almanack, Gadbury's Astrological Predictions, Poor Robin's Almanack, and the like; also several pretended religious books, one entitled, Come out of her, my People, lest you be Partaker of her Plagues; another, called Fair Warning; another, Britain's Remembrancer; and many such, all, or most part of which, foretold, directly or covertly, the ruin of the city. [...]

These things terrified the people to the last degree, and especially when two or three times, as I have mentioned already, they found one or two in the bills dead of the plague at St Giles's. [...]

Next to these public things were the dreams of old women, or, I should say, the interpretation of old women upon other people's dreams; and these put abundance of people even out of their wits. Some heard voices warning them to be gone, for that there would be such a plague in London, so that the living would not be able to bury the dead. [...]

Others saw apparitions in the air; and I must be allowed to say of both, I hope without breach of charity, that they heard voices that never spake, and saw sights that never appeared; but the imagination of the people was really turned wayward and possessed. And no wonder, if they who were poring continually at the clouds saw shapes and figures, representations and appearances, which had nothing in them but air, and vapour. [...]

I could fill this account with the strange relations such people gave every day of what they had seen; and every one was so positive of their having seen what they pretended to see, that there was no contradicting them without breach of friendship, or being accounted rude and unmannerly on the one hand, and profane and impenetrable on the other. [...]

One thing, it is to be observed, was owing principally to the prudence of the magistrates, and ought to be mentioned to their honour: viz., the moderation which they used in the great and difficult work of shutting up of houses. [...]

What variety of stratagems were used to escape and get out of houses thus shut up, by which the watchmen were deceived or overpowered, and that the people got away, I have taken notice of already, and shall say no more to that. But I say the magistrates did moderate and ease families upon many occasions in this case, and particularly in that of taking away, or suffering to be removed, the sick persons out of such houses when they were willing to be removed either to a pest-house or other Places; and sometimes giving the well persons in the family so shut up, leave to remove upon information given that they were well, and that they would confine themselves in such houses where they went so long as should be required of them. [...]