9. With The Black Death Came The Flagellants
People thought anything, and everything would stave off the plague from sex to not bathing to not eating certain foods. The flagellants took things to a new level. They would march from town to town whipping themselves to atone for their sins. They thought if they punished themselves, God would show mercy and stop the pestilence. But with the flagellants came the pestilence. They too were infected and spread the plague from town to town. Officials outlawed them, but that didn’t stop them from making their rounds.
This also gave rise to the pseudo-flagellants. These people would also roam town to town but instead committed unusual sex acts public for a fee. Flagellants did not charge a fee but urged people to join them. Officials outlawed them too, but it worked about as much as banning the real flagellants. The most effective way of avoiding the plague was to avoid people with it and avoid fleas. Whipping yourself to atone for your sins wasn’t the way to do it.