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John Ivie – a plague of reforms |
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No cure
Wherever the plague struck, various preventative measures would be employed. Culling of dogs, that were so often running wild in the streets, and rat poisoning went some way to stem the plague's spread. But famine was also a key factor – it reduced the resistance to disease, and with widespread social depravation, was a major cause of death.
Treatment for the plague was inconsistent. Bloodletting, or cutting open the vein nearest the infected part of the body, was commonly thought to be one of the best ways to treat the plague disease. The blood that exuded was black, thick and vile smelling with the added attraction of a greenish scum mixed in it. 
An engraved drawing by Peter Hall of a Salisbury workhouse
© Courtesy of John Chandler |
But despite all the so-called remedies, doctors just had to admit they had no cure. "Pesthouses" were established a few miles away from the areas in which infected people would be sent – very little help was given and food was rarely distributed.
The epidemic that broke out in Salisbury in March 1627 was another such visitation and the wealthy fled Salisbury's city walls only to leave the poor to the grips of the plague. Their only succour came from Mayor John Ivie, a few aldermen, and two petty, or parish constables - the only people of authority to feel the social compunction to remain in the city.
, Principal of Linacre College, Oxford, in his book 'The Impact of Plague in Tudor and Stuart England', said: "It is not difficult to appreciate the feelings of the woman in an infected hovel in Salisbury who told John Ivie that 'my husband and two of my children cannot speak to me' and that she hoped for better days. Plague brought grief shock and a pervasive sense of impotence".
No comfort
"It was the church's business to console the bereaved and fortify the dying; but it is doubtful whether its ministrations were any more effective during epidemics than other times. That many priests fled with their respectable parishioners is evident from the applause given to, or claimed by, those who stayed".
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