The concerns of the government due to the plague are best demonstrated by Heinrich von Staden, who stated that "Throughout the country, all the roads and highways were guarded so that a person could not pass from one place to another" (Doc. 5). The purpose of this document was to demonstrate how they were trying to take control of the spread of the disease by limiting travel. Daniel Defoe responded in a document with a similar purpose, stating that "The trading nations of Europe were all afraid of us; no port of France, or Holland, or Spain, or Italy would admit our ships" (Doc. 14). Other European nations were taking similar action in order to quarantine the spread of the plague. .
The plague brought about superstition because people proposed ideas as to what caused it and why it was happening, as well as different methods to remedy the disease. As described by Erasmus of Rotterdam, "The plague and sickness in England is due to the filth in the streets". People of Europe had their own beliefs as to why the nations were being ridden with disease. The point of view here is not from someone that is likely educated in medicine, so they have their own ideas as to what is causing the disease. Document 7 describes how a woman's husband was cured of the illness by "[a] piece of bread that had touched the body of St. Domenica". Here she proclaimed this in court as a legal deposition. From her point of view, this is seen as true due to people having their own superstitious beliefs to remedy or cure the illness. Physicians' concerns as to how to cure the plague are best demonstrated in documents 6, 10, and 16. Physicians in documents 6 and 10 believed that certain things were able to help cure the plague such as "Gold, fire, [and] the gallows" and patients hanging frogs around their necks "whose venom should within a few days draw out the poison of the disease".
