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Disease in the Middle Ages
The Black Plague

Lasted from about 1347
to 1350
Approximately 1
million people died…
 1/3 of European
population
 Some towns - 90%
 Believed it was a
punishment from
God - Expected the
start of Armageddon

The Black Plague
•
Bubonic
•
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Pneumonic- worse.
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Dark patches, hemorrhaging,
headaches, vomiting
Tongue turned black
Swollen lymph glands
Madness and death within 4
days when fatal
The victim spit up blood and
died within 3 days.
Treatments•
Blood letting, prayer, herbs,
flowers, superstitious remedies
The Black Plague
•
Bubonic
Dark patches, hemorrhaging,
headaches, vomiting
• Tongue turned black
• Swollen lymph glands
• Madness and death within 4
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• Pneumonicworse.
• The victim spit up blood and
died within 3 days.
•
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•
Treatments•
Blood letting, prayer, herbs,
flowers, superstitious remedies
Impact on Society

economic failure
–
–

Villains demanded freedom
–

criminals released to help dispose of bodies.
The bodies were thrown into mass graves or burned.
–

Prices rose
laborers demanding higher wages
number of deaths prevented proper burial rites
Helped bring about end of feudalism
–
Decrease in population allowed people to market their
skills to different towns
Medieval Medicine


Medicine was affiliated
with astrology. The
position of the stars
decided when a person
could be cured
Physicians were rare.
–
–
–
Most people went to
sorcerers.
The apothecary was the
druggist
monks moonlighted as
doctors.
Medieval Medicine
 Plague
doctors
– Diagnosed
those stricken with the
disease
– a beak full of herbs worn around
the nose
– Heavy, wax lined clothes
 Anatomy
– Knowledge
came from dissecting
corpses
– condemned by church
 Diagnosis
– urine analysis
– outward
appearances
Medieval Medicine
The Barber/surgeon

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In charge of minor surgery,
giving enemas and extracting
teeth.
A hot cloth placed on a
person’s face to hold him
back and the blood was
collected
The barber wrapped the rag
around a pole, hence the red
and white stripes of a
barber’s pole.
Bloodletting

Doctors bled patients for
every ailment imaginable.
–
–
–
–

Pneumonia and fevers
Back pain and rheumatism
Headaches and melancholia
To treat bone fractures and
other wounds.
Most bloodletters would
open a vein in the arm, leg
or neck with small knife
called a lancet.
–
They would collect the blood
in measuring bowls
The Four Humors
One’s state of health
-mind and bodywas dependent on a
balance of the four
bodily fluids
BLOOD
Air
hot and moist
SANGUINE
(amorous, happy,
generous)
YELLOW BILE
Fire
hot and dry
CHOLERIC
PHLEGM
Water
cold and moist
PHLEGMATIC
(dull, pale,
(violent, vengeful) cowardly)
BLACK BILE
Earth
cold and dry
MELANCHOLIC
(gluttonous, lazy,
sentimental)
ROLE OF THE CHURCH
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Two swords of God
 Pope and King—his
representatives on earth
 Church saw itself above
Kings
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church and vice versa
–
Many upper level religious
posts were filled by
aristocratic sons/daughters
whose wealthy parents
“bought” the post
Great Chain of Being



Hierarchy of all things.
Your place in the chain determines your distance from
God.
Within each level, there are further breakdowns
–
–
–
–

Kinglordsknightspeasants (freemenserfs)
Menwomenmale childrenfemale children
Horses above Dogs
Pure breeds above half breeds
Not entirely lineal—religious ranks paralleled secular
ranks in many ways
 Trying to change your place upsets the chain
 Idea: if everyone stays in his or her place, life will be
perfect
Christian Beliefs

Believed the second coming of Christ was imminent

people were focused on the afterlife.
–
the world that man lived in now was unimportant in comparison to
the world to come
Christian Beliefs

Fear of Judgement day
–
–
Focus on sins vs. virtue,
but it was often more of a
“guideline” than a rule.
The belief was always that
Christ’s death on the cross
absolved people from sin,
as long as they were
repentant for those sins.
Christian Beliefs

Repentance required
reparation of sins
–
–



making up for the sin through
charitable deeds, prayers, vigils,
fasting, virtuous teaching
increasingly became a monetarydispensations/indulgences
Limbo: for righteous nonchristians and unbaptized
babies
Purgatory: If people die with
sins on their soul, they must be
“purged” of their sins here
Hell: for unrepentant sinners
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Christian Beliefs

fear of punishment kept people close to the church

confession
Corruption in the Church

Selling of dispensations
–
–
–
An exemption from a law or doctrine
Essentially a forgiveness for sin
Formal document issued by the pope
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Corruption in the Church

Relics - a piece of the body or a personal item of a
saint

Corrupt people would show off the “relics” at a
price, but there was no way of determining if the
relics were real

In the Canterbury Tales, the pardoner is carrying
questionable relics
Modern Relics

St. Bernadette of Lourdes
Modern Relics

The Shroud of Turin
Great Schism (Eastern)--1054
Separation of Eastern Orthodox Church from Western
Catholic Church

Disagreement over the true seat of church
–
Rome
–
Constantinople

Disagreement over key lines in the Nicene Creed

The disagreement weakened peoples’ faith in the
Church as an authoritative source of God’s Word
Papal Schism (Western)--1378

1309--Seat of RCC moved to Avignon, France

1378--Cardinals attempt to elect a Roman pope but
are “forced” to elect a French pope.

–
They contested the election, reconvened and elected a
Roman pope
–
Two popes (one in Avignon, one in Rome) until 1417
–
A church council tried to fix it by electing a different pope
(which made three)
Further weakened peoples’ faith in the church
Pilgrimage

Destination: holy places
 taken for religious
purposes
–
–
–

to repent for their sins
to ask to be cured of an
ailment
or to offer thanks
Canterbury Tales--on
Road from Southwark to
the Canterbury Cathedral
Thomas A’Becket

Archbishop of Canterbury
–

Head of Church in England
grew up with King Henry
II
 Archbishop of York sided
with the king against the
pope (a sin in the eyes of
the church)
 Becket asked the pope to
excommunicate York
 Henry - furious
 “will no one rid me of this
meddlesome priest?”
Crusades
Importance of Jerusalem
Judaism

Birthplace
–
Rock where
Abraham almost
sacrificed his son in
obedience to God
–
King David built first
temple here

Destroyed and
rebuilt twice - both
were seen as
punishments by God
for the sins of the
Jewish people
Importance of Jerusalem
Christianity

Birthplace
–
Judaism is the root
of Christianity as
well, so the nearsacrifice of Isaac is
important to
Christians also
–
Also the location of
Christ’s crucifixion
on the cross
Importance of Jerusalem
Islam
 Where Mohamed
ascended to
Heaven
 same location as
the near-sacrifice
 Now known as the
“Dome of the Rock”
Jerusalem-History

The city changed
 Koran commands
hands violently until
them to bring all the
637 AD
world under Muslim
control but live in
 Muslim rule
peace with Jewish and
 muslim faith was less
Christian “brothers.”
than 40 years old
 Jerusalem became a
 Jews, Christians and
location for many
Muslims coexisted
pilgrimages
peacefully within the
city until almost 1095.
Crusades begin

The Turks
–
–
–
had begun to conquer
Muslim lands,
converted to Islam as
they went.
Instead of coexisting
with Christians and
Jews, they began to
persecute them.

Christianity was
“losing” to Islam
–
–
A number of Christian
leaders in Middle East
appealed to the pope
for help
Pope Urban II saw the
situation as a chance
to bring the Holy city
under Christian
control. He called for
a holy crusade in 1095
First Crusade

1099—thousands of
knights took up the
call
 Once the crusaders
overtook the city, they
slaughtered thousands
of Jews and Muslims
 Many knights stayed
to guard the land and
built castles
Crusades




1144—Muslims
regained Jerusalem
1147—second crusade
driven out by Muslims
Over 12 crusades, but
none of them
successfully recaptured
the City.
Even a Children’s
Crusade—50,000
children
–
most slaughtered or
captured and sold as
slaves (pied piper)
The Crusades…
Religious orders of knights
The Knights Templar
Knights of St. John
Teutonic Order
The Crusades

Over all the Crusades failed to achieve their
purpose.
–
They did strengthen the church and helped trade and
economy grew. They helped to end feudalism.
Seven
Deadly
Sins
Outlined in “Parson’s
Tale”
All sin is a reversal to
the natural order of
things
PRIDE

root of all others

Internal—disobedience,
boasting, hypocrisy,
disdain, arrogance,
haughtiness, impudence

External—focus on
appearance that draws
attention to oneself

Remedy: humility

Punishment in Hell:
Broken on the rack
WRATH






Sudden—springs up
without reasoning
Deadly—arises from
long consideration and
intent to harm
Leads to murder, hate,
war
Related to swearing,
lying, flattery, scorn
Remedy—meekness
and patience
Punishment in Hell:
Dismembered alive
SLOTH




indifference or
negligence of spirituality
and/or spiritual or
earthly duty
or belief that one has
sinned too much to be
forgiven (lack of faith)
Remedy: undertake
difficult tasks; faith and
hope
Punishment in Hell:
thrown in snake pits
GREED

Avarice—hoarding things
one does not need, keeping
things from others
 Covetousness—desire for
things one does not have
 Leads to lying, theft, false
oaths
 Equated w/ worship of idols
 Remedy: mercy, pity
 Punishment in Hell:
Cauldrons of boiling oil
GLUTTONY

Overindulging in
food or drink
 Being overly
particular about
food or spending too
much time on its
preparation
 Remedy: abstinence
from food/drink
 Punishment in Hell:
forced to eat rats,
toads, snakes
LECHERY
(lust)

Sexual desires beyond
the purpose of
procreation within
marriage
 Particularly
undesirable in women
 Remedy: chastity
 Punishment in Hell:
smothered in fire and
Brimstone
ENVY

jealousy over
another’s success
or joy in another’s
harm

Green

Remedy: love

Punishment in Hell:
put in freezing water