They intimidated the people also to such a
degree that there was an express ordinance issued that no one
should make any but square-toed shoes, because these fanatics had
manifested a morbid dislike to the pointed shoes which had come
into fashion immediately after the "Great Mortality" in 1350.
They were still more irritated at the sight of red colours, the
influence of which on the disordered nerves might lead us to
imagine an extraordinary accordance between this spasmodic malady
and the condition of infuriated animals; but in the St. John's
dancers this excitement was probably connected with apparitions
consequent upon their convulsions. There were likewise some of
them who were unable to endure the sight of persons weeping. The
clergy seemed to become daily more and more confirmed in their
belief that those who were affected were a kind of sectarians, and
on this account they hastened their exorcisms as much as possible,
in order that the evil might not spread amongst the higher
classes, for hitherto scarcely any but the poor had been attacked,
and the few people of respectability among the laity and clergy
who were to be found among them, were persons whose natural
frivolity was unable to withstand the excitement of novelty, even
though it proceeded from a demoniacal influence.
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