Laws

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Laws[edit | edit source]

Laws during the plague were more concerned with public health than any other crime. Various Laws of the time included:

  • Hiding the sick was a crime
  • Secret burials was a crime
  • Gathering in crowds or conducting funerals was forbidden
  • If victims were barricaded in their houses, they became criminals if they opened the doors or windows
  • Possession, trading or selling of clothes, bedding, furnishing, or any other belongings of victims was prohibited

Christian (local) Government regularly passed laws against sexual sins and drunkenness including

  • Gambling
  • Blaspheming
  • Heresy
  • Swearing
  • vagrancy

They also prohibited attending the theatre.

Florence[edit | edit source]

Passed a law banning people and goods from infected places

Various Crimes[edit | edit source]

During the time of the plague, normal criminal activity increased, taking advantage of difficult times

  • Burglary
  • assaults
  • property crimes
  • theft
  • abandonment
  • moral transgressions (often ignored)
    • drunkenness
    • gambling
    • fornication

As people died, wills were disputed over, leading to fraud, identity theft, or despoiling young heirs.

Punishments[edit | edit source]

Punishments could be brutal, involve torture, and very public to enhance deterrence.

Capital punishments included hanging, decapitation, and firing squads

Seville, Venice, Marseille punished lighter offenses with gallery duty, while others imposed plagued-related duties as grave digging

Corpse Carriers[edit | edit source]

Corpse Carriers were often charged with:

  • theft, bribery, physical violence, rape, dereliction of duty
  • murder
    • poisoning
    • smothering
    • violence
  • some were charged with necrophilia and witchcraft

Gravediggers[edit | edit source]

Gravediggers were charged with theft, murder, drunkenness, and being around healthy people

Public Servants[edit | edit source]

Civil and health board magistrates were subject to:

  • flight
  • theft
  • negligence
  • bribery
  • other forms of corruption