Coping with epidemics in early modern chronicles, the Low Countries, 1500–1850

Historians have hypothesised that the increase of medical knowledge in the early modern period led to a shift away from religious towards ‘scientific’ explanations and prophylactic measures. The writings of contemporaries belonging to the ‘middling’ ranks of society tell a different story. This chapter presents a long-term perspective on how 104 non-medical experts coped with and reflected upon epidemics in the Low Countries. By using the corpus of the Chronicling Novelty project, I demonstrate that the middling sort used both religious and non-religious practices side-by-side. I show that between 1500 and 1850, natural explanations became more detailed and complex, but they remained in service of, or subordinate to, divine explanations. Moreover, although the idea of an angry and vengeful God was never far away, the notion of a benevolent God gained prominence in the seventeenth century.