TIMED HELP Source 1

A caricature of a French medieval death-crier during the Black Plague. The man is wearing an apron with skulls and crossbones ringing a bell and holding a lantern.

An 18th-century rendition of a medieval French death-crier caricature

Source 2

"[The death-crier was a] frequent object of caricature during the ages when [the] terror [that] ruled the minds of men was human life itself—its brevity, its uncertainty, and the absurd, ill-timed suddenness with which [it was sometimes cut] short. . . . The only way to avoid unending anguish was to do what the Church commanded and to avoid what the Church forbade. Terror from that time ruled Christendom. Terror covered the earth with ecclesiastical structures, gave the Church a tenth of all revenues and two-fifths of all property. . . . The tolling of the church-bell spread the gloom . . . over the whole town; and the death-crier, with bell and lantern, wearin