Pandemics, Society, and Public Health, 1517–1925

Our latest “Document of the Week” was chosen by our Curator, Hanna Polasky, and written by our Editor, Nishah Malik. It is a pamphlet which outlines a grotesque assassination attempt against a member of the English parliament on 25 October 1641. Titled A Damnable Treason By a Contagious Plaster of a Plague-Sore, the pamphlet recounts the shocking plot against John Pym, a prominent politician. 

According to the pamphlet, a porter was bribed with twelve pence to deliver a letter to Pym at Westminster. The author describes in vivid detail how the letter was enclosed with a "filthy clout with the contagious plaster of a Plague sore upon it”. The letter contained the following “wicked lines”: 

"Mr. Pym, Doe not thinke that a Guard of men can protect you, if your persist in your Traytorous courses, and wicked Designes. I have sent a Paper-Messenger to you, and if this doe not touch your heart, a Dagger shall, so soon as I am recovered of my Plague-sore: In the mean time you may be forborne, because no better man may bee indangered for you. Repent Traytor."

This pamphlet not only presents the letter as a grotesque act of “malice”, but also frames it as morally wrong and unchristian. Throughout the pamphlet, the writer refers to the attempt to infect Pym as shocking because “who could have ever thought that any Christian should have forged such an invention?”. The author goes on to refer to the perpetrator as "the Devil in the shape of a man". 

The pamphlet underscores just how deeply crime and religion were intertwined during this period. In seventeenth century England, treason was regarded as the worst crime and was punishable by hanging, drawing, and quartering. Acts of treachery were often framed as spiritual offenses, with perpetrators painted as evil, unchristian, and devil-like. By linking political crimes to religious transgressions, such writings aimed to evoke moral outrage.

Where to find this document 

This pamphlet is from our collection, Pandemics, Society, and Public Health, 1517–1925. This charts the course and consequences of pandemics over five centuries. Containing over 79,000 images, the collection concentrates on four diseases that have left a significant mark upon British history: plague, cholera, smallpox, and influenza. Visit the collection page to learn more.