Category: Black Death

Introduction

Between the years 1346 and 1353 Europe has suffered from a massive pandemic of a plague that took millions of lives. This event had major consequences for every part of life in the middle ages. One of the fundamental changes that were brought by the plague was a change in the religious attitudes of the people.

Christianity was gradually losing power during these years, people of Jewish faith suffered major persecutions, and heretical movements have become much more common during this time. The reasons for these outcomes are varied, but the widespread of the disease and the lack of effective help from the religious and political leaders facilitated many of these changes. This paper will show that Black Death had a strong effect on religion in Europe.

Before the Plague

To fully understand the impact of the Black Death pandemic, it is important to establish the power of the Catholic Church in the years before the appearance of the plague. In the centuries prior, various denominations of Christianity reigned supreme over Europe, with the Holy Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire having the most religious power in the area. In the 11th century, Pope Leo IX declared papal authority to be absolute in all spiritual matters, which would lead to a variety of conflicts among different denominations.¹

It was also the start of the crusades, as the Emperor Alexius I called for the help of Pope Urban II to help stop the Muslim aggression. The start of the crusades marked a turning point in Papal authority, as it showed that the Roman Catholic Church can amass a serious army capable of both defensive and offensive actions. The idea of Crusades was not unopposed, with religious critics seeing various issues with it. However, the declining power of the Byzantine Empire and the promise of regaining the Holy Land was enough to gain widespread support in Europe when the crusades have proven to be fruitful.²

This success inspired Christians with radical views to organize pogroms against the Jews. Many violent acts were committed against the Jewish population of Europe, as well as the Eastern Orthodox Christians. However, these actions were not supported by any religious leaders, and many churches gave sanctuary to the Jewish people that were targeted by the mobs.³

The 12th century would see the crusades continue, with progressively lesser results. During this century, crusades have spread outside of the Holy Land into the Baltic lands, such as Russia, Norway, and Sweden. Despite the lack of satisfactory results from the later Crusades, the Roman Catholic Church did not lose the support of the people, leaving Christianity with significant political and spiritual power.

The 13th century did not continue this trend as the Byzantine Empire was conquered by the Ottoman Turks, and the Holy Roman Empire fragmented into less powerful states. Crusades during this century have led to the fall of Islam in many regions, but the Northern Crusades became a failure that led to the fall of the Byzantine Empire. This situation has left the Roman Catholic Church woefully unprepared for the crisis that would become the Black Plague.⁴

At the end of the century, people have already lost a part of their belief in the power of Christianity, which would only grow weaker in the coming decades. Popular opinion has started to go against the extravagant nature of the Catholic Church, its focus on wealth and political power, as well as the actions of the Inquisition that was feared by the populous. The hierarchical bureaucracy has started to deteriorate, and with the arrival of the Black Plague, the response from the Church was much too ineffective to reinforce the people’s belief in its power.

The Weakened Structure

The plague spread fast and had a strong effect not only on the general populace but also on the clergy. Catholic Church relied on its complex hierarchical system to exercise its power over Europe. Local Christians would trust their priests and other clergymen in times of need and would have general respect towards them. When the Black Plague first struck, people would go to their priests for spiritual guidance and support.

However, no priest had a viable solution for this, and could only provide a promise of prayer. This would be the first step in the events that led to the loss of belief in Church authority. Many clergymen were responsible for performing last rites to those who passed, did not know how the disease spreads. They were exposed and infected with the plague when performing the last rites. The number of clergymen has quickly reduced over the first years of the plague, leaving many positions in the hierarchy empty or filled with people who were unqualified for their positions.⁵ Many church institutions would be almost abandoned, as no one was able to fill them.

Some regions have lost up to 70 percent of all the clergymen.⁶ Areas such as Barcelona, Winchester, and Exeter have lost the majority of their religious infrastructure. Moreover, the sheer amount of dead people in need of religious burial ceremonies gave the church much more responsibilities than it could answer.

The death toll affected the Church not just by the number of clergymen who died, but also by killing many of the most valuable and experienced members. Even the more privileged classes of religious workers were affected by the plague, and many monasteries would see their population reduced by thousands. Many of them would never be able to recover from these losses, and the lack of resources often prevented the inclusion of new members in those communities.⁷

An important fact to note would be that the religious faith itself has not faltered among the population of Europe. The horror of the plague has led many people to believe that these events are the representation of hell on earth which would lead to the second coming of Jesus Christ. This idea has become more widespread with time, and the need for salvation was paramount among the believers. The members of the Catholic Church were aware of this and tried to reduce the panic among the population. These attempts were highly risky, as every failure to help people was accompanied by a massive loss of Church authority.

With death becoming a part of everyday life, the notion of the afterlife became more prominent than ever, which made the religious ceremonies of transition from life to the afterlife even more meaningful than previously thought. After some time, the number of bodies became too high to bury them in individual graves on the church property. The bodies would be either buried in mass graves outside of town or left unburied, often in the fields, and even on the streets.⁸ Often, priests were either infected or too afraid of being infected to be present even for the final confession of the person.

The opportunistic attitudes shown by some members of the clergy have also benefited the decline of people’s belief in Church authority. Many clerics saw a decrease in the clerical population to be an opportunity to demand higher wages for their work.⁹ This was against the will of the higher members of the Church, but in the chaos of the plague, they were unable to enforce this. What was more distressing is that priests have started trying to gain money not only from their wages but from their services which were supposed to be provided free of charge.¹⁰ The focus on profit among the clergymen would later become one of the main arguments against the Roman Catholic Church during the Protestant Reformation.¹¹

The Flagellants

The general populace could not rely on the Church for salvation, forcing them to turn their sights elsewhere. In 1348, a new religious movement started in response to the horrors of the plague. They called themselves the Flagellants. Members of this group saw the Black Death as a punishment by God for all the sins of humanity. Therefore, they adopted the practice of flagellation. It involved purposeful wounding of their bodies as a religious penance for their sins.

The movement quickly spread across Europe as the fear of the plague grew among its citizens. People were desperate to find a way to protect themselves, and the Flagellant movement was seen as a new alternative to the Church. Their early acceptance was aided by the Pope’s blessing of the movement during its early days. However, their actions soon became very aggressive and dangerous, both to the populace and the authority of the Church. This would lead to a complete denouncement of the movement, but as with all the other operations of the Church during the plague, it has proven to be difficult to enforce.

The power structure among the Flagellant groups was not centralized. Many of them were led by independent leaders sharing the same rituals as other groups, but with time their goals differed from each other. However, discipline was seen as the primary aspect of these organizations, and it was one of the reasons behind their popularity. In times of chaos, Flagellants were seen as a sign of order.¹² With time they have become a threat to the Papacy due to their high numbers.¹³

People were starting to lose all faith in the Roman Catholic Church and were likely to choose the Flagellants as the representatives of their religious beliefs. Some Flagellant groups have asserted power over the forgiveness of sins of the people, which became the main reason for their condemnation by Pope Clement VI in 1349. By then, the group was too large, and the Church held almost no authority for its members. The Flagellants preached to their members of the coming end of the world and the second coming of Christ, held no respect for the clergy, and saw themselves fit to perform the duties that were exclusive to the Church. The conflict between them was inevitable, and with the support of the people, the movement survived for years after the end of the Black Death.¹⁴

Persecution of the Jewish People

According to psychological research, during the time of crisis, a practice of “scapegoating” emerges among the population. Usually, groups that are considered to be outsiders become blamed for the crisis.¹⁵ This theory holds in the case of Black Death. As it was previously mentioned, Jewish people have experienced persecution in the previous centuries despite the opposition of the Pope. These attitudes did not change in the 14th century, and as the Black Death was spreading across the lands, paranoia took hold of people. Jews were seen as outsiders by the Christian community due to their religious differences, and their reputation as moneylenders.

People who held hateful attitudes toward the Jews started blaming them for the plague, arguing that they have poisoned the water in an attempt to exterminate Christians.¹⁶ Jews became hunted by mobs of people looking for someone to blame for this crisis. Thousands of Jewish people were murdered by the rioters, often by being burned alive at the stake. These mobs were focused on performing a complete genocide of the Jews, some in hopes of ending the plague, and some to perform violent acts against the opposing religious group.

As with the previous pogroms, the Pope completely opposed these actions. Unfortunately, even during the first outbreak of violence, the Church held little authority among the people. This issue was exacerbated by the Church itself. Although the Pope and many clergymen were opposing these acts, this opinion was not shared by all the members of the clergy. Some bishops supported those acts and had openly agreed with the idea that the Black Death was caused by either the actions or the presence of the Jews.¹⁷

Unlike the pogroms after the First Crusade, churches were unable to protect the Jewish people and in some cases would act as supporters of the pogroms. The horror and pointlessness of these pogroms did not soften the negative attitudes of Christians toward the Jewish people. Subsequently, the lack of protection provided by the Church would make it lose more authority, as it was unable to fulfill its promises.

Rebuttal

It is possible to assume that the Church would saw a decline in authority even without the effect of the Black Death. The continued crusades and wars that people of Europe had to endure were already proving to be very taxing on the population, and the negative attitudes toward the wealth of the Church have been present before the plague. Perhaps it would take longer to bring it to the post-plague state, but the signs that the Church was losing power were obvious.

However, the main negative opinions of the Church came specifically because it was unable to provide help to the people in need. People stopped seeing the Church as guaranteed salvation and started looking for alternatives because of it. The high death toll of clergymen would also be impossible without the plague. If those people were alive, the Church would have a higher chance of recovery. Therefore it is hard to believe that the Black Death did not have a strong effect on religion in Europe.

Conclusion

The effects of the Black Death were felt across every aspect of life in Europe. The almost destruction of the Church authority is emblematic of this. After the Black Death ended, the Church would try to regain its authority on the region, but mostly in vain. The lack of control and negative perception of the Church later led to the start of the Protestant Reformation, and the eventual acceptance of other Christian denominations in Europe.

Bibliography

Byrne, Joseph Patrick. Encyclopedia of the Black Death. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO Interactive, 2012.

Johnston, Andrew. The Protestant Reformation in Europe. London: Longman, 2014.

Platt, Colin. King Death: The Black Death and its Aftermath in Late-Medieval England. Abingdon: Routledge, 2014.

Riley-Smith, Jonathan. The Crusades. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014.

Rosenberg, Sheri P, Alex Zucker, and Tiberiu Galis. Reconstructing Atrocity Prevention. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2015.

Ziegler, Philip. The Black Death. London: Faber & Faber, 2013.

Footnotes

1. Jonathan Riley-Smith, The Crusades (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014), 29.
2. Riley-Smith, The Crusades, 26.
3. Ibid., 39.
4. Ibid., 308.
5. Philip Ziegler, The Black Death (London: Faber & Faber, 2013), 212.
6. Colin Platt, King Death: The Black Death and its Aftermath in Late-Medieval England (Abingdon: Routledge, 2014), 97.
7. Ziegler, Black Death, 215.
8. Ibid., 211.
9. Ibid., 214.
10. Ziegler, Black Death, 211.
11. Andrew Johnston, The Protestant Reformation in Europe (London: Longman, 2014), 12.
12. Ziegler, Black Death, 68.
13. Joseph Patrick Byrne, Encyclopedia of the Black Death (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO Interactive, 2012), 144.
14. Ziegler, Black Death, 68.
15. Sheri Rosenberg, Alex Zucker, and Tiberiu Galis, Reconstructing Atrocity Prevention (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2015), 103.
16. Ziegler, Black Death, 74.
17. Ziegler, Black Death, 77.

The Black Death brought to Early Modern Europe considerable and irreversible changes. The consequences of the Bubonic Plague are reflected in the complete destruction of all spheres of life. The rapid contraction of the population had a negative impact on political life and the economy in particular. The demographic changes led to changes in trade, in society’s attitude to church. The overwhelming depression interfered in music and art, and education as well. That horrible event induced people to a reconsideration of the previous conditions of life. Let us consider the main changes caused by the Black Death and its influence on society (Strocchia, Sharon T. 1).

European economy of that time became the weakest point. The decrease of the population had a considerable on commercial relations since due to the disappearance of the working class which the main basis in the medieval economy, peasants become more conscious and prudent. Consequently, the rural population acquired a more beneficial position since that was the main source of profits and, therefore, they were more appraised the richest layers of the city. In their turn, peasants, who had to work hard to put soul and mind together, consider urban layer “parasites that lived off the peasantry.” (Huppert, George 16). They view the city as a “devouring monster in midst of a subjected countryside” (Huppert, George 17). As it can be seen, the urban wealth was due to rural poverty taking advantage of the privileged position.

Bubonic Plague has changed European attitude to the church. After pandemics, the clergy lost their power on the villagers and, therefore was redundant. It was explained by the fact that all the bishops and the massagers of God did not a reasonable explanation for pandemics. Angry villagers expressed the burst of indignation through revolt and were discontent by the absence of answers (Huppert, George 144). They lost their faith in the church and believed that plague was the punishment of God. Consequently, the Christian church lost its reputation among the peasants. The rebellion was the result of the peasant discontent with the power and the reaction to the impossibility of the church to give reasonable answers. Peasants’ rebellion was also an outcome of their reluctance to feed the urban population and pay taxes and rent.

The Black Death also influenced less important areas of life such as art and education. The Great Depression after the Plague completely changed the plot of the painting and turning into dull reflection mass extinction of the population. Naturally, the development of music stopped at all except music with grim motives.

Dramatic demographic changes were followed by the rise of migration processes. The extreme decrease in population changed the political and economical system. While searching for a better place for living the survivors discovered new continents and set up new settlements. They tried to invent more means for protection and create a new vaccine for diseases. As a result, people began paying attention to education and science and tried to some scientific explanation of the Plague. Therefore, medieval Europe gradually approached a new era where science and knowledge prevailed. The further coming Renaissance period was a logical outcome of the previous event being the next step in the development of humanity. In addition, loss of faith in God and church shifted their attention to the cult of human creatures and the advance of scientific thought.

Works Cited

Huppert, George After the Black Death: a Social History of early modern Europe. US: Indiana University Press, 1998.

Strocchia, Sharon T. “The Black Death Transformed: Disease and Culture in Early Renaissance Europe.” Journal of Social History 38.2 (2004).

Diseases that cause a massive devastation in a given geographical region pose a major threat. Being contagious can spread easily and their prevention becomes herculean task for health care professionals. The present paper is concerned with highlighting a disease known as plague that caused epidemic in the 13th century in United States. Plague, also known Bubonic plague, is an infectious disease that results from the causative agent Yersinia pestis. Infected rats play role in spreading he disease to humans and it is visually characterized by increased lymph nodes in the regions of neck, groin, armpits and other regions (Plague Glossary, 2012). Plague has derived it’s another name “Black death”. In epic percentages, it has caused death of people and is considered as medieval pandemic in history. In detail, between the years 1348 and 1350 Black Death occurred. European population of nearly 30 to 60% has fallen victims to Black Death which indicates the death of 450 million in the year 1400 (Baxamusa,2011). The disease was first believed to occur in China in the year 1328 when an outbreak had occurred. This made the reduction of Chinese population from 125 million to 90 million in short period of 50 years. The disease next made its way to Bristol, and then to London, England. The reasons for rapid spreading of disease were suspected to be poor living conditions associated with Overpopulation. In London city, from the overall population of 70,000, nearly 20,000 people died. A person could be hanged, if maintained a distance of 12 feet from the infected individual and comes to other or new location. This is because such persons were considered as carriers of disease and could spread (Baxamusa, 2011).

In the year, 1350 Black Death cases were reported to be subsided. In the 19^th century, after being eliminated from Europe, the disease was last reported. Nearly 180 deaths reported in Africa in 2003 and 50 deaths from the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2006.

Over the past few decades, developing nations like India and developed countries like United States have reported plague cases (Baxamusa, 2011).To better control the infection, a US agency named the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC has come forward. The objective of this agency is to track and probe the trends in public health. Located in Atlanta, Georgia, this agency is part of the US Public Health Services (PHS) under the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) (Plague Glossary, 2012).So the US public health system would handle this epidemic by prevention and control measures. These may involve risk reduction where strategies on decreasing wild rodents and fleas in the environment of plague infected areas are targeted. Such approaches would be implemented at work places, houses and entertainment centers which may become the high sources of plague infections (Prevention and Control, 2005). For this, environmental sanitation is important, initially. Sources that supply or synthesize food would be eliminated that are used by rodents, make homes and buildings (Prevention and Control, 2005). As ships were considered the earlier sources of Black Death epidemic, they would be regulated by expert inspecting individuals and for fumigation if needed Educational awareness would be created among the medical community and public to get rid of contacts with infected animals and their fleas (Prevention and Control, 2005). The society would be given many recommendations watching and reporting to the local health officials, eliminating all possible sources that serve as breeding grounds for rodents, and finally making the area rodent proof with use of flea killing chemicals, sprays or disinfectants (Prevention and Control, 2005). Prophylactic measures would also be taken with antibiotics Sulfonamides or tetracyclinesfor a short period to prevent infection from persons bitten with infected rodent fleas or who contacted infected animals during outbreak (Prevention and Control, 2005).

References

Baxamusa Batul Nafisa. (2011).Black Death Facts. Web.

Plague Glossary of Terms. (2012). Web.

Prevention and Control. (2005). Web.

Introduction

The Black Death also called Black Plague, or the Great Mortality, is one of the most appalling diseases in Medieval Europe influencing demographic sustainability. The world knows three plague pandemics: the first, Justinian’s plague (circa AD 541-542), the second called the Black Death (1347-1351) that had secondary waves until the XIX century, and the third that took place in the XIX century. Due to progress in paleogenomics, scientists proved the causing agent of plague was the bacterium Yersinia pestis that is transmitted via contact from an infected animal or human, air, or blood. Three forms of plague are relevant to the forms of the disease: bubonic, lung, and septicaemic.

The most spread forms are bubonic and lung plague, and the latter has shown higher rates of mortality. Bubonic plague received its name due to the appearance of infected lymphatic nodes. The bacterium persists more commonly in the lymphatic system of the groin, armpits, and neck, and increasing pain of the bubonic elements is one of the central symptoms of the disease. The fast spread and its possible causes of the Black Death and its impacts on the European economy are central issues in the history of the second pandemic.

The Acceleration of the Black Death and Its Possible Causes

The spread of the Black Death involved all of Europe, and various data has shown the tendency to acceleration and higher mortality rates within it extend. A study by Earn et al. assessing London Bills of Mortality and Parish Registers has estimated the faster speed of plague spread, so-called acceleration, in XVII century than in XIV century (27707). The possible reasons for that might be the evolution of pathogen or host, shifts in bacterium’s genetic code, ecological and demographic changes, and environmental change (Earn et al. 27708).

The primary issue of plague spreading might be mostly focused on the reservoirs of the disease, which are rats and their fleas, the latter identified as Xenopsylla cheopis. The overflow of bubonic plague mostly spread via rat bites distinguishes the form of the disease among other ones. That is why the Black Death was mostly statistically bubonic plague supported by the big number of rats in European cities. Lung form of plague transmitted from person to person by air took more occasions in XVII century. That can be explained by the increase of human population between XIV and XVII centuries. Closer contact between citizens, low level of hygiene led to a faster spread of the Black Death.

The evolution and gene shift commonly occur with the causing agent when humans create an uncomfortable environment for them. Such changes happen during treatment intake, temperature variations, strong immune system fight, and on many other occasions. One can only suggest the cause of pathogen or human evolution; however, the theory of natural selection should have helped humans to overcome the disease. Europe has lost a significant population after the Black Death, and those who survived the disease or stayed resistant to it should have had genetic specialties in their code or immune system.

Modern research proved that genomes of the pathogens causing the Black Death in London and the Modern Plague are 99.99% similar (Earn et al. 27710). That means, throughout history, the main evolutionary changes happened to individuals, not the bacterium. Humans have always varied with sensitivity towards infection: while some are struggling to fight the disease presenting severe symptoms, the others barely feel it has so-called subclinical forms or even asymptomatic forms.

The Impacts of the Black Death on the European Economy

The demographic changes caused by the Black Death had major impacts on the economy. Using basic economic theory, we see that the population downturn caused an inward shift in both the supply and demand curve. This will lead to a new equilibrium in the economy, with a lower production quantity and lower production price. More trivial, we expect the standard of living to decrease using solely fundamental economic theory, and in this segment, we will explore if this theory holds.

Using relevant academic sources, the plague was highly disruptive, causing lasting impacts in the short and long run of the economy (Jedwab 17). The surprising finding is that the wages and income per capita grew in the short run. The wage increase cannot simply be explained by simple supply and demand curves, so we need to dive deeper into economic theory. This phenomenon can be explained by the scarcity of labor in the market (in contrast to capital), leading to a higher valuation of the labor as input and the increased wages. The increase in income per capita can partly be explained by the increased wages, but also additional factors. Given the large decrease in the human population, lead to a less competitive environment and an abundance of resources left by the dead. These resources were then taken by the remaining population, leaving them a higher disposable income for additional necessary resources.

Europe was arguably the hardest hit continent by the Black Death leading to the descent of between 30-60 percent of the population. Therefore, it is surprising that the plague led to a growth spurt in Europe comparing to the rest of the world (Jedwab 19). This can be explained by several different factors, but the most crucial was the abolishment of serfdom and feudalism. Serfdom was a political and structural system that tied individuals to the land, limiting their freedom and ability for personal development. With Serfdom eliminated, it left most of the farmers self-employed giving them a higher incentive to work hard and thus increasing the surplus of production in society.

With this larger surplus, it left more of the labor force available to other pursuits, such as science, art, and literature. The further development in these areas, led to much innovation and increased efficiency in production creating an even higher surplus compared to the Middle East and Asia. It also built the foundation for the supreme military technology and global supremacy the European continent would enjoy in later centuries.

The Black Death also started the demise of the religious institutions, simply because people lost faith when they saw the devastation and death surrounding them. The power vacuum left by the religious institutions was filled by stronger states. Paying taxes to a state compared to a religious institution gives higher returns for the citizens. This is because the state utilizes more of the available resources to improve and create new infrastructure projects. This enables trade between more distant regions which leads to higher efficiency. Additionally, the state is more capable of providing security for its citizens by building fortresses and having an army. Thus, the decreased power of the church gave the citizens of Europe a higher standard of living and more developed societies.

Hence, the acceleration of the plague is one of the central topics of its history and spread. Even though the actual causes of the vast spread of the infection can only be guessed, it is essential to study the possible influencing factors to understand the disease better. The Black Death, surprisingly, put a positive impact on the European economy and countries’ future growth due to easier access to a resource, improved infrastructure, higher productivity, and technological innovation.

Works Cited

Earn, J. D. David et al. “Acceleration of plague outbreaks in the second pandemic.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 117, no. 44, 2020, pp. 27703-27711.

Jedwab, Remi, et al. “The economic impact of the Black Death.” GMU Working Paper in Economics, no. 20-45, 2020, pp. 1-52.

Decameron, the classic piece of medieval literature, starts with a depiction of the devastating plague — the Black Death. According to the narrator, that terrible pestilence came from the East and ravaged Europe, killing over one hundred thousand people only in Florence. Nowadays, humanity has an unfortunate opportunity to experience COVID-19 — the modern-day disease, stopping people from returning to normal life. The situations between the two plagues have certain similarities; however, they also have significant differences.

Most importantly, there is one vital difference, for which modern humans should be especially thankful. Healthcare and science made a big step forward since the middle of the 14th century. Nowadays, bubonic plague, the terrible pestilence described in Decameron, can be reliably isolated and cured with an anti-plague serum. Ongoing vaccination waves will hopefully do the same to COVID-19, while the plague from Decameron only stopped after about 50% of Europe’s population died. The authorities are not helpless as well; Boccaccio drew a picture of impending doom and anarchy. In the modern world, governments managed to keep control and stop panic at the cost of massive logistic and economic expenses.

The similarity with the COVID-19 situation lies within the public attitude towards the pandemic. It seems that modern humans have very much in common with their medieval ancestors. Just like in the 14th century, there are groups of citizens which act reasonably and seclude themselves to avoid infection, and there are those who seemingly do not care. Luckily, COVID-19 mortality rates are nothing in comparison with the Black Death. Otherwise, modern-day analogs of people who wandered from tavern to tavern in time of rampant contagious disease would have done way more damage than they already caused. Hopefully, COVID-19 will soon become similar to bubonic plague in another regard: stopping being a significant threat to public health.