Fighting the plague

More than three hundred years have passed since the deadly plague struck again in the Habsburg monarchy.

During 1712 it appeared in Hungary and Vienna. It was not known to be Yersinia pestis, but it was known that the disease could spread rapidly and kill a large part of the population in infected places. It could kill a man within a few days of becoming infected.

At the beginning of August 1713, one of the councillors returned from Prague with the news that the plague, as it was then called, had already struck in the cities of Prague. On 30 July 1713, Emperor Charles VI ordered the royal governors to appoint a special health commission to do everything necessary to contain the plague. No effective cure was available, and so the most important measure to mitigate the epidemic was already then quarantine. But the commission did not meet until August 17, thus losing fourteen days, and the country's physicists and many doctors did not do their work properly at first.

The Pribram City Council introduced the appropriate measures on 18 August. The entry of suspicious persons into the town was prevented by a three-man burgher patrol. No one from Příbram was allowed to travel to Prague and was not allowed to go where the disease was found. Nevertheless, four disobedient inhabitants were found, and on 1 September 1713, after their return from the suspected places, they were escorted out of the town and quarantined. Four other townswomen who, despite the prohibition of the magistrate, deliberately and out of spite went to dangerous places and even mocked the prohibition, were sentenced to four days in the closet, the stricter prison of Pribram. But they did not get infected.

The nightwatchmen were admonished to sleep better and to blow their horns. The townspeople set up watches in which they took turns and were not allowed to watch twice in a row, lest they fall ill from exhaustion. Bollards were built on the access roads to the town to keep outsiders out. The inhabitants of the town and the surrounding villages were not allowed to accommodate strangers under penalty of a fine, especially not beggars and vagrants, and no pilgrims from the Holy Mountain were allowed to enter the town. Dirty water from households was not allowed to be poured into the streets, and manure was to be taken immediately from the town to the fields.

The magistrate suddenly forgot about his disputes with the Jesuits of St. Mary's regarding the brewery and asked their superior if he would send one of the Jesuits of St. Mary's to Pribram to help the dean of Pribram to visit the sick and care for the dying, if "the hand of the Lord with the plague, which God graciously protects all, would touch us." Superior agreed to help the town, and the Jesuits got all the beer they needed.

At the end of September, the town council asked the Jesuits of St. Mary of St. Mount to bring the miraculous statue of Our Lady of St. Mount to Pribram so that a procession could be held around the town and a service could be held in St. James Church to avert the plague. Before the approval of the Archbishop came, the plague had reached Dubno and Nová Hospoda. While ministering to the sick and dying, the popular seventy-four year old dean of Pribram, Václav Ignác Millinger, became infected and was the first to die in the town on 5 October 1713. He was not buried in the new plague cemetery outside the town until two days later, despite orders to bury infected bodies immediately. However, the magistrate ordered that even those who died of the plague should be buried according to Christian custom in the presence of a clergyman.

A procession of supplication was held on 9 October 1713, even though it was already clear that the plague had not escaped Příbram. The people confessed and publicly received the sacrament of the altar so that they could face the danger with a pure soul and peace of mind and be prepared even for death. They prayed that their town would remain as safe as possible. The town scribe made a record of the procession in the town council minutes "for eternal memory", as instructed by the town council.

But life in the closed city did not stop. The town hall was used as an office and disputes between neighbours continued to be settled, but there were those who preferred to reconcile under the threat of possible imminent death. Some people were getting ready to get married, so the brewery was still brewing beer, which was even cheaper because it could not be exported anywhere. In November, the St. Martin's fair was cancelled. The town council asked the parish administrator to celebrate mass early in the morning because few people would attend and the disease would not spread. Felchar Jan Brunner was at first reluctant to visit the infected people, but when the town council threatened to withdraw his salary, he began to willingly demonstrate his services to them, and so they allowed him to give his deputation again. Colonel Bok was also sent to the threatened town several times by the county government, bringing with him protective equipment and medicine. In return, he received from the town, besides money, 92 kg of iron from the town ironworks.

The people were warned that they had to destroy all the belongings of the infected, including the blankets, which was really difficult for everyone, as they were very expensive to acquire. The gravediggers had to swear again at the town hall that they would bury the infected dead with all their clothes and outerwear. In the houses where the plague was found, they were not allowed to do business, which was especially true for bakers who were not allowed to bake bread for sale. People from an infected house were not allowed to meet with other people until their house was officially declared healthy. One old townsman had four close relatives die, and because he was left destitute, the town council had to take care of him. The brave Mates Mayerhofer walked around the town and had to inspect every house for disease. For this he received from the town council half a peck of rye, a peck of wheat and two quarters of peas.

In December, a severe winter set in and the town watches were cancelled. Regular lists of the infected and the dead had to be sent to the regional authority, as well as lists of fallen cattle. At the end of the year, the town council summoned the entire community - representatives of all the families - to tell them that all the established measures, including the separation of the sick, and especially the prohibition of movement outside the town and its villages, would continue to be strictly observed in order to eradicate the plague. The last victim of the plague died here on 14 January 1714, and a total of thirty persons, ranging in age from five weeks to 74 years, were recorded in the parish registry of Pribram, who were proved to have died of the plague. Thanks to strict measures, the number of deaths in Příbram was at least significantly reduced compared to other localities.

The population of Bohemia before the epidemic was estimated at between one and a half and two million. Between 1 January 1712 and 15 March 1714, 778 358 cattle, including 721 336 sheep, died of the plague in the Bohemian regions, and 428 019 serfs, including 263 555 sheep. There were 4 144 farmers or housewives, 8045 children, and 2736 grooms and maids.

When the danger of the plague was averted, the town council decided that a thanksgiving procession would be held from Příbram to Svatá Hora on 9 October 1714. The municipality also had plaques painted with the text that it was through the procession held on 9 October 1713 with the miraculous St. Mary's Mountain statue that the royal city of Příbram was saved from the plague. However, these tablets from Svatá Hora have disappeared somewhere, unlike the Pribram council protocols.

PhDr. Věra Smolová