A Most Earnest Declaration on the Virtuous and Wholesome Practice of Marking Houses, Which Alone Shall Sufficiently Defend Against the Present Pestilence

Whereby All Good and Honest Citizens Are Assured That No Further Measures Need Be Taken, For the Red Cross Alone Shall Stand as a Most Mighty and Impenetrable Defense Against the Wrath of the Plague

For the pestilence walketh in darkness, and the plague wasteth at noonday.

Psalm 91:6

LONDON — Good Christian Reader,

It hath pleased Almighty God to visit upon our great and populous city a most grievous and dreadful sickness, whereby multitudes are daily swept from this mortal coil and carried forth upon carts to their long homes.

The air is thick with lamentations, the streets echo with the cries of the afflicted, and yet, thanks be unto the wisdom of our most excellent rulers, a remedy hath at last been devised which shall, without doubt, confound the spread of this grievous pestilence — namely, the painting of a red cross upon the doors of all such houses as are visited with the sickness.

And lo! Such a measure hath already proved of most singular efficacy, for hath not the number of dead increased despite its enactment? And yet, let no man doubt the wisdom of the Council, for surely, had the red crosses not been painted, we suppose the death toll would be yet greater!

Yet some foolish and seditious men do persist in raising unnecessary alarms, inquiring whether such lesser matters as the removal of filth from the streets, the avoidance of great throngs, or the cessation of trade in flea-ridden wares avail somewhat in halting the spread. But what need have we of these new and untested innovations, when we have at our disposal the tried and true method of painting a cross and writing ‘Lord Have Mercy Upon Us’ in clear and solemn letters?

Shall the magistrates now concern themselves with the mere air? Shall the pestilence be cowed by the sweeping of a broom? Such idle fancies are the domain of weak minds. The red cross is our defense, our salvation, and all shall do well to put their trust in it.

Meanwhile, in their unfailing devotion to the welfare of this city, our most noble landlords have decreed that, though a house be infected, the payment of rents shall nevertheless continue, for the presence of plague is but a fleeting misfortune, while the obligation of tenants is eternal. And in this we see the true Christian spirit, for doth not Holy Writ declare, Give thus unto landlords the things that are landlords’?

Let all citizens, thus, take heart, and cease their fretting over such trifling matters as hunger, contagion, and premature death. Let them instead rejoice in the knowledge that they are governed by men of great wisdom, whose decrees are infallible and beyond question.

And let no man dare to say otherwise, lest he be accounted a spreader of sedition, a foe to good order, and an enemy of the Lord’s most blessed red cross.

God preserve our noble city, and the paint endure forever. ■

Printed for the Public Good, and for the Advantage of All That Do Not Already Lie in a Plague Pit.