The clergy, encouraged by the Pope, visited the bedsides of the dying who bequeathed all their wealth to the Church. The plague was considered on all sides as a punishment inflicted by God, and it was this idea that induced armies of penitents to assemble on the public streets to do penance for their sins. Men and women went half naked along the highways flagellating each other with whips, and, growing desperate with the fall of night, they committed scandalous crimes. In certain places the Jews were accused of being the authors of the plague by poisoning the wells; hence the Hebrews were persecuted, sometimes burned alive by the fanatical sects known as Flagellants, Begardes and Turlupins, who were encouraged in their acts of violence by the priests, notwithstanding the intervention of Clement VI. Physicians were not only convinced of the contagious nature of the disease, but also believed that it could be transmitted by look and word of mouth. Such doctors obliged their patients to cover their eyes and mouth with a piece of cloth whenever the priest or physician visited the bedside. “_Cum igitur medicus vel sacerdos, vel amicus aliquem infirmum visitare voluerit, moneat et introducat aegrum suos claudere et linteamine operire._” Guillaume de Machant, poet and _valet de chambre_ of Philip the Beautiful, mentions this fact in one of his poems, _i. e._: “They did not dare, in the open air To even speak by stealth, Lest each one’s breath might carry death By poisoning the other’s health.” And, in the preface of the “Decameron,” Boccaccio remarks in his turn, “The plague communicated direct, as fire to combustible matter. They were often attacked from simply touching the sick, indeed it was not even necessary to touch them. The danger was the same when you listened to their words or even if they gazed at you.” One thing is certain, that is, that those who nursed the patients surely contracted the disease. All the authorities of the Middle Ages concur in their statements as to the contagious nature of the plague. The rules and regulations enforced against the afflicted were barbarous and inhuman. “Persons sick and well, of one family, when the pest developed,” says Black,[14] “were held, without distinction, in close confinement in their home, while on the house door a red cross was traced, bearing the sad and desperate epitaph, ‘_Dieu ayez pitie de nous!_’ No one was permitted to leave or enter the plague-stricken house save the physician and nurse, or other persons who might be authorized by the Government. The doors of such dwellings were guarded and kept closed until such a time as the imprisoned had all died or recovered their health.” We can well judge of the terror inspired by the pestilence by the precautions taken by the physicians in attendance on the sick. In his treatise on the plague Mauget describes the costume worn by those who approached the bedsides of patients: