Gods three arrows plague, famine, sword, in three treatises. I. A plaster for the…Gods three arrovves plague, famine, svvord, in three treatises. I. A plaister for the…

In the reign of Edward 2. there was so grievous a mortality ¹of people, as the quick might uneath bury the dead.

In the raigne of Edward 2. there was so grievous a mortality ¹of people, as the quicke might unneath burie the dead.

1. 1Stow in his general Chron. of Engl. an. 9. Edw 2. Idem. Ibid. an. 22. & 23. Edw. 3.Stow in his generall Chron. of Engl. an. 9. Edw 2. Idem. Ibid. an. 22. & 23. Edw. 3.

In the reign of Edward 3. a far greater plague happened. It came from beyond. sea into the towns and parts of England joining on the sea-coasts in Dorset-shire, where even as in other countries it made the country void of Inhabitants, so as there were almost none left alive. Thence it ⟨p. 118⟩passed into Devon-shire, and Somerset-shire, even unto Bristow, where it much raged. It came also to Gloucester, Oxford, and London, and finally it spread over all England, and so wasted the people, as scarce the tenth man was left alive. When Church-yards were not large enough to bury their dead in, they chose certain fields appointed for that purpose. For the dead in London ^*a piece of ground called Spittle-croft, containing 13 acres, without the bars of West-Smithfield, was purchased, enclosed, and dedicated. In that place were buried the year following more then fifty thousand persons. ^*Two thousand are said to be there buried every day from Feb. 1. till the beginning of May following, besides those which in other places in and about the City were buried. Of that plague there died in Norwich from Jan. 1. to July following, fifty seven thousand an hundred and four, and in Yarmouth seven thousand fifty two.