Nostradamus free e-book novel - The Greatest Sinner Ever

thousands of victims in the area and the brand new chirurgeon was now
facing a huge challenge. The pestilence was extremely contagious and if
you had a family member who had the disease, the same fate, as a rule,
was awaiting you. Within two to six days, you could be dead and buried.
Dogs, cats, chickens and even horses were also its victims. But the young
physician was resilient and thought he was immune. Fortunately, Saint
Rémy had not been hit with an outbreak of the plague as yet. But the
nearby village of Sainte Doffe had been and public life had come to a
grinding halt there. Dead bodies were rotting in the streets or tossed into
hastily dug graves by shattered loved ones. The unbearable stench of
rotting flesh hung in the air and people were burning fragrant pieces of
wood in an effort to dissipate it. Many villagers had kicked their family
members out of their homes to try to save their own lives. Others had fled
elsewhere. Michel visited his first plague patient in this plagued village
and was brought to a deathly ill child in a little clay hut. The little boy was
spitting up blood, had big black spots and lumps as large as eggs all over
his body. His mother was sprinkling the floor with vinegar to freshen the
air. The brave doctor examined the child, but truth be told, there was really
nothing he could do. No remedy had yet been found for this disease. At
the university they were advising to perform bloodletting, but Michel
wanted nothing to do with such backward practices. Just to give the family
some hope he placed a piece of devil’s dung around the child’s neck; an
herb that was used in exorcism. He wrote down the symptoms of the
extremely contagious disease and left without being able to do anything
substantial. During the days that followed, the physician visited several
plague sufferers, who were initially taking shelter in spiritual peace with
God. Wherever he came in, there was always some anxious priest who
would be taking confession and promising the patient a place in the
hereafter. Medical help, unfortunately, took second place. Ignorance is a
cardinal sin, Michel realized more than ever. However, the abundance of
superstition, the abuse of power and the ignorance stimulated him to
attempt to discover the cause of the disease by using his common sense
and to find a solution for it. He distinguished two types of plague: the one
with lumps forming on the outside of the body and the one affecting the
lungs. After examining the symptoms of the disease, he could see the
importance of hygiene, which, in the Jewish religion had been traditional
for centuries. An interesting case in Milan confirmed his findings. The
archbishop had ordered to brick up the first three houses that had been
attacked by the plague, with the residents inside. As a result of this, Milan
was protected from a further outbreak. This harsh management had shown
that contagion was being passed on invisibly. Nostradamus began to
introduce quarantine for new cases, during which time no healthy citizens
were permitted to have any contact with the patients, who were still being
provided with food and water. This method began to yield some good
results. The researcher also had the idea that the disease could be carried
by the wind and he therefore distributed masks among the population in a
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