De peste quaestiones duae explicatae

not act similarly, let alone equally, and indeed that effects vary according to the variety of the passive objects. The sun certainly hardens mud and melts wax. One and the same North Wind does not infest everyone equally with cold. Therefore, everyone sees how weak that argumentation is. But let us grant that individuals are equally disposed everywhere to catch the corrupted air; many things can still occur as to why the same effect does not follow: for example, because one may have taken a prophylactic medicine, while another has not: one has used a convenient remedy immediately, another either late or never. Finally, that must also be observed which is the most important: that God, the Best and Greatest, rules and moderates natural causes and their effects as it pleases Him, and from this it happens that the contagion does not touch all those exposed to it, as is written in Psalm 91:6, nor is it lethal to all those whom it has seized, just as even drunk poisons were not, as is written in Mark 16:18. Therefore, the argument that there is no contagion is no more valid because many who sit with the sick are not touched by the plague, and conversely, those who are absent are seized by that evil. As if the viper’s poison were not lethal, even though Paul felt no harm at all from its bite, Acts 28:5. And so much for the matter of contagion.

Whether and to what extent it is permitted to withdraw during the plague. Now we must speak about withdrawal. For I prefer to call it that rather than flight, although we think that even fleeing from danger is in accordance with the reason of a wise man.