[Measures taken against the plague in Diest in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries]

Older literature about the city of Diest reveals that in 1348 the plague wiped out half of the population; in 1439, 1523 and 1578-1579, the plague struck again. In the course of time the municipal authorities issued ordinances which were aimed at combating the disease and stopping it spreading. These ordinances were first published and then renewed or modified several times. This was done in the years 1469, 1483 and 1519. These texts have virtually the same contents and all contain about twenty articles of a prophylactic nature. A house where people had died of the plague had to remain shut for a number of months, and the relatives were not allowed in public for a while. Dirty water could not be emptied into the gutters, food had to be placed by the door, the clothes of those who were sick or who had died could not be washed in wells or in the river Demer and could not be sold, people caring for the sick had to wear a white sign, no one was allowed to take in any sick person from outside Diest, etc. Other articles are about refuse in the streets and pigs roaming around freely. Infringements were made punishable by fines, or if the perpetrators were insolvent, they had to make a pilgrimage to Strasbourg, Cologne or Rome. The ordinance of 1469 was issued again in 1472. It seems to be based on an ordinance of the city of Louvain, as this indication of the origin in the text was replaced by the word "Diest", and references to places in Diest were added. The ordinance of 1519 was confirmed in 1523, 1532, 1543-1544, 1558, 1574 and 1579. Separate regulations were issued in 1530, 1532-1533, 1573, 1578-1579, 1599. They relate to infected clothes and household articles, dung heaps, dead animals in the Demer, people who came into contact with anyone suffering from the plague, epidemics in the area, such as Beringen (1556) and Turnhout (1571). Diest also had municipal plague masters; these were surgeons. A number of names and data are known to us from municipal accounts from 1516 onward. Diest also had a plague house. From 1470, the Alexians and Black Sisters worked there, joined later by the Grey Sisters. The last sort of prophylactic measures against the plague were of a religious nature. These were the general processions in which the guilds had to participate, as well as one person from every household. Finally, severe fines were imposed for cursing and swearing.