For the magic spreading of the plague in general, see Littre, pp.

492 and following.
As the seventeenth century went on, ingenuity in all parts of Europe seemed devoted to new developments of fetichism.

A very curious monument of this evolution in Italy exists in the Royal Gallery of Paintings at Naples, where may be seen several pictures representing the measures taken to save the city from the plague during the seventeenth century, but especially from the plague of 1656.

One enormous canvas gives a curious example of the theological doctrine of intercession between man and his Maker, spun out to its logical length.

In the background is the plague-stricken city: in the foreground the people are praying to the city authorities to avert the plague; the city authorities are praying to the Carthusian monks; the monks are praying to St.Martin, St.Bruno, and St.Januarius; these three saints in their turn are praying to the Virgin; the Virgin prays to Christ; and Christ prays to the Almighty.
Still another picture represents the people, led by the priests, executing with horrible tortures the Jews, heretics, and witches who were supposed to cause the pestilence of 1656, while in the heavens the Virgin and St.Januarius are interceding with Christ to sheathe his sword and stop the plague.
In such an atmosphere of thought it is no wonder that the death statistics were appalling.