Because the nature of disease and its spread was not well understood at the time, Europe had little recourse or response for curtailing the spread of the Black Death. Many believed that the disease was divine retribution, or the work of the Devil, and that strict adherence to Biblical teachings was the only sane response (Olea and Christakos 291)
tend their children (and) a multitude of sick men and women were left without any care" (Williams, 213). In conclusion, the Black Death "became an almost palpable presence" in the form of personified Death, being the now-familiar "Danse Macabre" and the animated skeleton wrapped in black with Death as its horrible face (Kastenbaum, Internet)
. To touch the clothes (which) the sick had touched or worn gave the disease to the person touching" (Williams, 167)
This strain of plague thrived on animals and human alike, mowing down any living creature in its path and giving rise to the scavenger population, which thrived on the remains. The plague is believed to have started in Mongolia, making its way through Constantinople, then spreading like a spider's web throughout Europe, surrounding Italy and reaching as far north as Sweden, and as far south as Cairo (Kelly)
The profession of medical physician was a newly emerging field, and doctors were scarce, their work being heavily monitored and impinged upon by the church. Doctors were powerless to cure the overwhelming number of plague patients and either fled, or became infected themselves (Nohl pg
Interestingly, as Christians watched as their cardinals, bishops, priests and other clergy fall dead, just as vulnerable as anyone else, the religious strength of the feudal structure began to decline, as well. It is thought that these events may have ignited the Protestant Reformation (Uretsky)
We also know that the mortality came to an end in the first outbreak soon after 1350; contemporaries could not have known this would happen -- so far as they were concerned everyone might well die. Some treated each day as if it were their last: moral and sexual codes were broken, while the marriage market was revitalized by those who had lost partners in the plague (James)
Many placed the sign of the cross over their doors, entered seclusion for prayer, or, in the case of the town leaders of Orvieto (Italy), added fifty religious holidays to the calendar. Some individuals became 'flagellants'" (Jones, 2002)
However, one must not marginalize the effects and impact of the disease: after all, it came at a time when the King of France had shown his hand against the See of Peter -- the Bishop of Rome -- the head of the Holy Roman Catholic Church -- the Church of Europe (and moved the papal court to Avignon). The unification of Europe had depended upon the assent of her Kings to Papal Authority -- and at the end of the medieval world that assent was being revoked (Laux, 1989, p
True, there were elements of growth that had been in play for some time: "The agricultural revolution had made food more plentiful than before. More land was being cultivated…despite a famine from 1315-1317 and the onset of the Hundred Year's War" (Peschke, p
That corruption would play a significant role in the power of the Protestants to gain a following -- as Fr. Favre would state when writing to Ignatius in the 16th century: "All the mischief is done by the scandalous lives of the clergy" (Thompson, 2010, p
But Europe had actually been in the midst of revitalization since the time of St. Benedict, the monk who established his own order (and "the most important architect of Western monasticism…the Father of Europe") (Woods, 2005, p
d.), Tunis, Florence, Rome (A&E Television Networks, LLC, n
18). People also treated death as close neighbors: when someone died, the women neighbors would all pray with the body in the house while the clergy and men waited outside; then the people outside would carry the body from the house to the Church/cemetery and a religious burial was given to the person (Aberth, 2005, pp
Before the Black Death Though there were pools of disease in Eurasia and Africa, their diseases took a long time to spread. Europe did suffer from some diseases but it was remarkably free of some of the most devastating diseases up to the middle of the 14th Century (Gottfried, 1985, pp
From there and by other merchant ships, the disease spread to Genoa (Themiddleages.net, 2011), Marseilles (Gottfried, 1985, p. 49), London (Ibis Communications, Inc
Out of the terrible devastation of the Black Death came a new way of curing diseases. Today a doctor can diagnose the Black Death early by doing laboratory tests on blood, sputum or lymph node fluid; then if a person is found to have the Black Death, the doctor can treat it by antibiotics such as streptomycin or gentamycin (MedicineNet, Inc
Finally, Medicine right before The Black Death was very different from today's Medicine. Medicine relied heavily on the supernatural and on miracles brought about by praying to saintly martyrs (White, 1898)
The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 75 to 200 million people in Eurasia and peaking in ...
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