The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #30105   Message #391630
Posted By: Abby Sale
06-Feb-01 - 04:45 PM
Thread Name: Origin: Betsy Bell and Mary Grey (Child #201)
Subject: RE: Betsy Bell and Mary Grey
OK. Good as I'm likely to find out. Infected fleas jumping off Delivery Boy is the best guess. As has been said way above. True, Delivery Boy might have been in the early stages of bubonic form and non-ill-appearing. He might have had a groin-area (external) bubo which ruptured and spread during a sexual contact - but this is a low-probability vector. I don't know if you would call that an STD or not. As to the other two forms, they are less likely as the severe illness would have been present before he'd be sneezing/caughing. Ie, he wouldn't have been tromping around the countryside by that time, according to the local head of epidemiology.

What "sin" would have kept them out of hallowed ground is another story. Anyone know any scholars of Church legal history?