In the mid-ninth-century Carolingian
empire, the eminent Irish scholar-cleric Sedulius Scottus urged God to
spare the people from plague. He prayed to God with a poem entitled
“Against the plague {Contra plagam}”:
Would not your people have to drink
now the cup of your anger, deserved wrath.
May you shine upon us your former compassion;
we beg you, you hear us.
Destroy our evil deeds, we pray;
save us, blessed prince.
Disperse dark shadows covering our minds,
faithful light of the world.
Holy of Holies, Lord of kings,
may your right hand be with your lowly ones,








