Pope Alexander VII decreed sanitary measures in the seventeenth century that, according to researchers, caused a plague epidemic to have a low lethality in Rome.
He was an intellectual, a fan of art and architecture, a doctor of philosophy, theology and law. When the Italian Fabio Chigi (1599-1667) became Pope Alexander VII, not even in the worst predictions did he imagine that he would have to face an epidemic of plague.
But his reaction was overwhelming.
Although science discovered the bacterium that causes the plague in 1894 – thanks to bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin – the Supreme Pontiff decreed sanitary measures that, according to researchers, contributed to the lethality in Rome was much lower than in other places affected by the same epidemic.
According to a study by Italian historian Luca Topi, a professor at the University of Rome La Sapienza, between 1656 and 1657 the plague killed 55% of the population of Sardinia, half of the inhabitants of Naples and 60% of the inhabitants of Genoa.
In Rome, on the other hand, 9,500 people died out of a total of 120,000, less than 8%. These data were published in an Italian scientific journal in 2017.
It is estimated that various waves of plague have destroyed about half of Europe’s population.
When the first reports of deaths from the epidemic arrived in the then kingdom of Naples, Alexander VII had been pontiff for a year.
Various plagues have killed almost half of Europe’s population.
The pope was not just the leader of Catholicism. If today he is the sovereign of the small Vatican state, at that time he ruled the so-called papal states, which included Rome and much of the surrounding area; practically the whole center of modern Italy.
This fascinating story tells how many of the restrictions applied today against the coronavirus pandemic worked in Rome against the plague 400 years ago.
What were the pope’s measurements?
During the papal reigns, the outbreak took place between May 1656 and August 1957.
As soon as the first news of the plague reached Rome, Alexander VII alerted the Congress of Health, which had been set up in a previous outbreak.
Isolation measures were gradually implemented, as the situation became more dangerous.
On May 20, a decree was promulgated suspending all trade with the kingdom of Naples, which was already severely affected.
In the seventeenth century, the pope was the highest authority in the papal states, which included the region of Rome and its surroundings, virtually the entire center of present-day Italy.
The following week, the blockade was extended and any passenger there was barred from entering Rome.
On May 29, the arrival of the plague was recorded in the city of Civitavecchia, located in the papal states, and quarantine was immediately imposed.
“In the days and months that followed, many other localities in that territory were isolated,” the historian Topi details in his article.
In Rome, the decision was radical: almost all access gates to the city were closed. Only eight remained open, but were protected 24 hours a day by soldiers supervised by “a nobleman and a cardinal.”
Since then, any entry had to be justified and recorded.
On June 15, Rome had its first case: a Neapolitan soldier who died in a hospital. The rules were further strengthened.
On June 20, a law was introduced that required citizens to inform the authorities if they knew a patient.
Subsequently, a new papal device began to oblige each parish priest and his assistants to visit, every three days, all the houses in their constituencies to identify and register the sick.
Then the news of another death spread, this time a fisherman from the Trastevere region.
“The victim’s relatives were also infected and many died,” said Raylson Araujo, a theology student at the Pontifical Catholic University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, who also investigated the problem.
The first idea was to try to isolate the region.
Alexander VII imposed gradual measures until total closure.
“The pope was also the civil authority. As the epidemic began to spread, he implemented measures of isolation. After banning trade with Naples, he decreed other rules of social distancing: forbade meetings, processions and all devotions. popular, “says Araujo.
The tightening of the measures was gradual until it was reached total insulation.
“As time went on, the pope adopted new bans. Church congregations were suspended, diplomatic visits, as well as religious meetings and public meetings, roads were monitored,” Araujo said. “All civilian agglomerations have been suspended.”
“Various economic and social activities have been banned. Public, civil and religious festivals and ceremonies have been canceled,” said seminarian Gustavo Catania, a philosopher at the São Bento Monastery in São Paulo.
As in the case of the coronavirus pandemic, in the seventeenth century it was forbidden to participate in religious holidays in Rome.
“Markets have been suspended and some people living on the streets have been dumped because they could be a cause of contagion. The crossing of the Tiber River at night has been banned.”
The pope also stated that no one should fast so that the population can eat and thus remain healthier if they become infected.
Everyone with at least one infected family member was banned from leaving the home. To guarantee assistance, Alexander VII divided priests and doctors into two groups: those who had contact with the sick and those who did not, who cared for the rest of the population.
“He was worried that the priests would become vectors of the disease,” says Araujo.
“Doctors were forbidden to flee Rome“says Catania, noting that many feared infection.
As patients were isolated, a population support network was created.
“There was a provision of financial aid for families who could not leave home and some people received food through the windowSays the seminarian.
In October and November, when the incidence of the disease was higher, the death penalty was provided even for those who broke the rules.
Deniers and false news
However, not everyone acknowledged the gravity of the situation.
There were those who despised her and even spread tricks.
“The pope has been accused of inventing the disease for his own benefit and to gain popularity,” said Mirticeli Medeiros, a researcher at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.
As in this pandemic, there were deniers at the time who did not acknowledge the disease.
“Many did not want the pontiff to take these measures so as not to alarm the population,” he added.
Even his closest associates advised him not to do so. They feared that once the gravity of the situation was made public, through decrees and revelations, the economy would begin to feel the effects of this type of attitude. But the pope was firm and respected his health policy. “
Araujo compares those events of the seventeenth century with “today’s movement and popular resistance” to accept the severity of the coronavirus pandemic.
“The merchants advised the pope not to take action because the closure affected trade and harvest“, comments the researcher.
“There were groups that came to him to ask him not to take more isolation measures. They wanted to cover the situation so that the panic would not spread and the shops would close,” Araujo continues.
There are reports that a doctor has misled the true motives of the prison.
“The news spread that there were political interests behind the pope’s decisions,” said historian Victor Missiato, a professor at Mackenzie Presbyterian College in Brasilia.
“He was accused of defamation and was sentenced to work in a hospital dedicated to healing the plague.”
Victory against disease
When the outbreak was resolved in 1657, the celebration fell short.
Alexander VII demonstrated the rebirth of the Church with monuments that still mark the Vatican, such as the set of columns in St. Peter’s Square, by the Baroque sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini.
The works of Pope Alexander VII marked the emergence of the Vatican to this day.
“At that time it was very common for the popes to make their sovereignty and power visible. The great monuments of Rome at that time were built with this motivation,” Medeiros contextualizes.
“As in the case of the Fountain of the Four Rivers in Piazza Navona, the Trevi Fountain and others.”
“Alexander VII was passionate about art and a friend of Bernini. His beginning as pope was marked by plague,” he explains.
“It simply came to our notice then investing in colossal works. The columns of St. Peter represent the open arms of the Church. St. Peter’s Basilica has been restored as a symbol of temporal power, not just spiritual.
Other cases
This was not the only historical moment when the Church, in the past, closed its doors due to outbreaks and epidemics.
“There were other cases in some dioceses in Italy, especially in the nineteenth century during the cholera epidemic,” Medeiros recalls. “Then similar restrictive measures were taken.”
During the cholera epidemic of the 19th century, the church took similar restrictions in Italy.
On the other hand, the expert recalls that, in the outbreak of the plague in the fourteenth century, “the exact opposite” occurred.
“Pope Clement VI, isolated in the Pontifical Palace in Avignon, France, did not seem too worried about what was happening outside the walls of his house,” says the researcher.
“At that time, the disease was a divine punishment and processions and other crowds took place to try, according to the religious mentality, to defeat evil.”
In the previous century, the Milan region was severely affected by the plague. Cardinal Archbishop Carlo Borromeo also established strict sanitary measures in his constituency.
“He proposed a general quarantine and people were ordered to stay at home until the situation was resolved. Only those who helped the population spiritually and materially could leave.
The researcher says that really las mIsas is celebratedprohibit “from a distance”.
“A priest went to the corner and celebrated on the street. The faithful were looking out of their windows,” he explains.
Faith in science
When analyzing these episodes from the past, often similar to those of today, it must be borne in mind that science was not as highly valued as it is today and that religion and politics were very intertwined.
“In the seventeenth century, absolutism was very strong in Europe and was linked to the power of the Church. Political power and religious power they were very mixedMissiato explains.
“At that time, the scientific revolution had not yet spread to the various societies of the European world. Faith in divinity as the defining entity of peace and chaos was still seen as a path to salvation.
That is why the closure imposed by Alexander VII is so relevant.
“What has happened shows an alignment between faith and science, an earthly faithSays Araujo.
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