In 1208, a papal interdict falls over the land. Penance is to be inflicted as well on the healthy as the sick; for in the midst of life we are in death. No Mass can be celebrated, no bodies buried in sanctified ground. Only babies can be baptized, and extreme unction given at deathbed. There will be sorrow, horror, everywhere, and in all the cities the people will suffer, they cannot be confessed, they cannot take communion, the beloved dead will be left to rot and the air fills with the stink of their putrescence.
