Among the many things that have been written of the Florentine
Misericordia, I do not think that I have met with the statement that
it used to be universally believed in Florence that the law gave the
black brethren the privilege and the monopoly of picking up any dying
or dead person in the streets, and that it was forbidden to any one
else to do so. Whether any such _law_ really existed I much doubt, but
the custom of acting in accordance with it, and the belief that such
practice was imperative, undoubtedly did. And I have no doubt that
many a life has been sacrificed to it. The half hour or twenty minutes
which necessarily elapsed before the Misericordia could be called and
answer the call, must often have been supremely important, and in many
cases ought to have been employed in the judicious use of the lancet.
The sight of the black robed and black cowled brethren, as they went
about the streets on their errands of mercy, was common enough in
Florence. But the holiday visitor had very little opportunity of
hearing anything of the internal management and rules of that peculiar
mediaeval society or of the nature of the work it did.
The Florentine Misericordia was founded in the days when pestilence
was ravaging the city so fiercely that the dead lay uncared for in the
streets, because there was no man sufficiently courageous to bury or
to touch them. The members of the association, which was formed
for the performance of this charitable and arduous duty, chose for
themselves a costume, the object of which was the absolute concealment
of the individual performing it.
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