The humors

ἔπειτα ἐξ αὐτῶν πταρμὸς καὶ βράγχος ἐπεγίγνετο, καὶ ἐν οὐ πολλῷ χρόνῳ κατέβαινεν ἐς τὰ στήθη ὁ πόνος μετὰ βηχὸς ἰσχυροῦ· καὶ ὁπότε ἐς τὴν καρδίαν στηρίξειεν, ἀνέστρεφέ τε αὐτὴν καὶ ἀποκαθάρσεις χολῆς πᾶσαι ὅσαι ὑπὸ ἰατρῶν ὠνομασμέναι εἰσὶν ἐπῇσαν, καὶ αὗται μετὰ ταλαιπωρίας μεγάλης.

Next came sneezing and hoarseness, and soon the pain moved down into the chest with a hard cough. When it settled in the stomach, it turned the stomach over. Then came vomiting of every kind of bile the doctors have names for, all of it in great agony.

τέως μὲν οὖν ἀντεῖχον οὐδὲν ἧττον τῆς τῶν ἄλλων σωτηρίας ἢ τῆς ἐμαυτοῦ προνοούμενος, ἔπειτα ἐπέτεινέ τε ἡ νόσος καὶ κατελήφθην ὑπὸ δεινοῦ πυρὸς χολῆς παντοίας, ἣ συνεχῶς νύκτα καὶ ἡμέραν ἠνώχλει, καὶ τῆς τροφῆς ἀπεκεκλείμην καὶ ἡ δύναμις κατελέλυτο.

For a while I held out, caring for the others' safety as much as for my own. Then the sickness grew worse, and I was seized by a terrible fever and by bile of every kind, which tormented me night and day without a break. I could not take food, and my strength was gone.

καὶ δῆτα εὐθύς με εἰσῆλθε κλύσματι χρήσασθαι μέλιτος Ἀττικοῦ, καὶ ἐγένετο κάθαρσις χολῆς.

At once I thought of an enema made with Attic honey, and it purged the bile from my body.

Que quidem a principio erant sicut avellane, & oriebantur cum magno frigoris rigore, & in tantum humanum corpus extenuabant & affligebant, quod diucius in se potentiam non habens standi, se ad lectum persternebat, febribus inmensis incitatus, & amaritudine non modica contristatus. Quapropter glandule ille ad modum nucis crescebant, deinde ad modum ovi galline, vel anseris, & cujus dolore non modico, & humorum putrefactione urgebant dictum humanum corpus sanguinem expuere; quod sputum a pulmone infecto perveniens ad guttur, totum corpus humanum putrefaciebat: quo putrefacto, humoribus deficientibus, spiritum exalabant. Que quidem infirmitas triduo perdurabat; quarto vero die ad minus a rebus humanis predicta humana corpora erant adepta.

At first the swellings were the size of hazelnuts, and they came on with violent shivering. They so wasted and tormented the body that the sick could no longer stand and took to their beds, burning with high fevers and in great distress. Then the swellings grew to the size of a walnut, then of a hen’s egg or a goose egg. The great pain and the rotting of the humors forced the sick to spit blood. This spittle came up from the infected lung to the throat and made the whole body rot. With the body rotted and its humors failing, they breathed their last. The sickness lasted three days. By the fourth day at the latest, they had left the world of the living.

Multi etiam mali christiani fuerunt reperti, ut dicitur, qui similiter venena per puteos imponebant; sed revera tales intoxicationes, posito quod factae fuissent, non potuissent tantam plagam et tantum populum infecisse. Alia igitur fuit causa, ut puta, Dei voluntas, ut humores corrupti et aeris malitia seu terrarum; et forte tales potiones, si factae fuerunt in aliquibus locis, ad hoc potuerunt adjuvare. Duravit autem dicta mortalitas in istis partibus gallicanis per magnam partem anni xlviii et xlix; et tunc cessavit, multis villis campestribus et domibus in bonis villis quasi vacuis remanentibus et orbatis. Et tunc ceciderunt domus multae satis cito, et tales et ita solemnes; et plures ceciderunt Parisius, de quarum ruina minus quam de multis aliis apparebat.

Many bad Christians were also found, people say, who put poisons in wells in the same way. But in truth such poisonings, even if they were done, could not have caused so great a plague or infected so many people. So there was another cause, such as the will of God, or corrupted humors and the evil of the air or of the earth. Perhaps such potions, where they were made, may have added to it. This mortality lasted in these parts of France for a great part of the years [13]48 and [13]49. Then it stopped, leaving many country villages, and many houses in good towns, almost empty and bereft. Soon after, many houses fell down, even fine and grand ones. Many fell in Paris, though the ruin there showed less than in many other places.

وأما كثرة الموتان فلها أسباب من كثرة المجاعات كما ذكرناه أو كثرة الفتن لاختلال الدولة فيكثر الهرج والقتل أو وقوع الوباء وسببه في الغالب فساد الهواء بكثرة العمران لكثرة ما يخالطه من العفن والرطوبات الفاسدة وإذا فسد الهواء وهو غذاء الروح الحيواني وملابسه دائما فيسري الفساد إلى مزاجه فإن كان الفساد قويا وقع المرض في الرئة وهذه هي الطواعين وأمراضها مخصوصة بالرئة وإن كان الفساد دون القوي والكثير فيكثر العفن ويتضاعف فتكثر الحميات في الأمزجة وتمرض الأبدان وتهلك

Deaths become many for several reasons. One is frequent famine, as I have said. Another is frequent unrest as the dynasty falls into disorder, so that riots and killing increase. Another is pestilence. Its cause is mostly the corruption of the air when the population is large, because so much rot and foul moisture mixes with the air. The air feeds the animal spirit and is always in contact with it. So when the air is corrupted, the corruption passes into the spirit’s temperament. If the corruption is strong, the sickness strikes the lungs. These are the plagues, and their diseases belong to the lungs. If the corruption is less strong and widespread, rot builds up and multiplies. Then fevers spread through the temperaments, and bodies sicken and die.