Download Black Death (Class Notes) May 22, 2012 Three major catastrophes

Black Death (Class Notes)
May 22, 2012
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Three major catastrophes in Medieval Europe
 4th century barbarian invasions- Europe recovers
 9th century Islamic invasions- Europe recovers with feudalism
 14th century Black Death
1918 influenza killed more but a lower percentage of the population
How do you define the Middle Ages?
 No exact date for the beginning and end
When did the Middle Ages begin?
 End of Rome- 180 A.D. death of Marcus Aurelius?
 Romulus Agustulus
When did the Middle Ages end?
 Renaissance
 Great Schism
 1492
 Marco Polo 1215
 1348 Black Death
 1517 Martin Luther
 1789 French Revolution
 1860 end of serfdom in Russia
Break of Roman Empire in the west to the classical Renaissance in the 15th century
Historians have argued that 1000 years is too long of a period and it must be broken down into
shorter periods (Early, High, & Late Middle Ages)
Early Middle Ages the 5th century through end of the 11th century
 5th, 6th, 7th Middle Ages Emerge
 8th, 9th, 10th Dismal
 10th & 11th Recovery
High Middle Ages the 12th century to the mid-14th century
 12th & 13th Magnificence
Late Middle Ages mid-14th century through the 15th century
 14th & 15th Changing
5th, 6th, and 7th centuries was a low point
 Roman, Teutonic, and Christian elements -> emergence of the Middle Ages
 Franks, Vandals, Burundians, Ostrogoth etc.
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8 , 9th, and 10th centuries were dismal, Germanic tribes coming from barbarians, the
Carolingians have formed a relationship with the papacy and the crowning of Charlemagne
 Dismal, series of setbacks, eclipse of civilization
 Valiant light of Carolingians
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800 Charlemagne is crowned Holy Roman Emperor
Carolingian Renaissance- revival but the advance is halted by new barbarian
invasions
 Sons of Charlemagne go to civil war because they want equal inheritance
 Invasions from every direction into Europe
 Sarsens from South
 Muslims (Islamic Lake Mediterranean)
 Vikings from North (Scandinavia Adventurists)
 Magyars, Buglers, Slavs from East
 Europeans do what they can to survive
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11 and 12th centuries Europe makes a recovery
 Institutionalizing of feudalism
 Papacy and Church’s civilizing mission
 The church and monasticism holds Europe together
 New spirits Popes Leo, Gregory, Urban
 Call for a Crusade
 Christianizing the outer parts of Europe and with that they bring Greco-Roman
law and civilization is preserved in the west
 Christendom is formed and the church is an “agency of good” and promotes
“brotherly love”
 Embryonic Nation-States
 Towards the 11th century classic concepts of government forming- nation-states
begin to form (mix of secular and religious governments)
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12 and 13 centuries- lusty progressive time periods- much progress
 Lusty, progressive flowering of Europe
 Crusades open up trade with the east
 Expansion of land and sea trade
 Use of money, new products, industry
 Printing press and movable type
 Trade with China
 Noodles and pasta
 Magnetic compass
 Gunpowder
 Money is back
 Industry and the growth of urban cities
 Consolidation of the feudal monarchies
 Representative governments (Great Council in England, the French Assembly
General, election of the Holy Roman Emperor)
 Close to democracy
 Central and key role of Catholic Church
 Church is a good institution- Dominicans and Franciscans to preach to the poor
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 Church is a popular institution: cathedrals, schools, libraries, a uniting force
 Scholastic philosophy- arts, science, philosophy, architecture
Late Middle Ages- 13th and 14th century
 Changing period
 Switch from deo-centric to homo-centric mentality
 Change in government: National Monarchy
 Expansion in North and South America and India
 Renaissance, decline or development?
 Revival/Rebirth in Italy but decline in northern Europe
 Decline in Northern Europe
 Black Death- never the same after the Black Death
 All the good clergy went to help the people and died
 The bad clergy hid in monasteries and survived
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15 century
 War
 Turning away from God (how could he allow the plague?)
 People blame God when they don’t have an answer for something
 New world and a rise in industry, rise in medicine
 People survive but have to put the pieces back together
The Great Question of the Age: Analysis and Interpretation of the Transition
Emergence into the Modern World
Why study the Black Death?
 To understand Medieval Civilization for its own sake because it is intrinsically
fascinating
 Understand the modern world by understanding its roots
 Hope to the modern world
 Saga of human spirit and creative herculean effort of humankind to overcome
chaos, major problems and threats to medieval society provides an example of
HOPE for present Modern World. “Did it before, can do it again.”
Medieval Research, study, bibliography, and historiography are the most difficult of all time in
the field of history
Problems with Medieval Material
 Quality of Sources
 Scant (nonexistent), geographical, authenticity, destruction by pillage, fire,
ravages of time, language variation (Classic Latin(not vernacular until 9th
century), Church Latin, Degenerative Latin (soldiers at outposts, Legionnaires),
Corrupted Latin with Teutonic inclusions (same words mean different things) of
no universal meaning (no uniform Latin until 840 Strasbourg Oath of
Charlemagne’s grandsons), transitional phases of Teutonic tongues)
 Medieval Mind
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Pseudo-Literary Humility, anonymity, attribution, Interpolation, Marginal
glossing, Metaphorical, Symbolism, Allegorical, mystical Numerology. Medieval
mind does not seek scientific proof of modern writers and scholars.
 Deo-centric mind- put hope in the future (post life), married as soon as you hit
puberty because you were practically middle-aged by then, anything you don’t
understand was the work of God, anonymity, numbers and astrology, symbols
and saint’s symbols- medieval mind did not seek scientific proof
Prejudice of People, Writers, Scholars after 1500
 Renaissance: rejected Medieval as not Classical
 Renaissance switched to homo-centric, went back to the Greek and
Roman society, they rejected the Medieval as the Dark Ages
 Reformation dismissed the Middle Ages too
 Enlightenment- rejected the trinity, reason, and rejection of the Middle Ages
 19th Century Romantics- altered attitude towards the Middle Ages and
embraced the art, architecture, literature, and national origins
 19th Century Scientific Historians- Ranke’s emphasis on objectivity and scientific
inquiry = uncovering the truth of Middle Ages mind, spirit, and glory
 Said to uncover the truth by going to the sources and objectivity
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 20 Century Historians- were open to critical research and understanding of the
Middle Ages
 21st century is the best yet (women’s feminists scholars began studying
the middle ages- some of the women of the Middle Ages rivaled the
men of that time)
Diversity in Topical Areas
 Everything in the Middle Ages is so varied and many different aspects
 For such a long period of time it’s great: most primary sources and later studies
focus on spheres or aspects of the Middle Ages. This is easier and reflects
regionalism, i.e. poetry of Aquitaine, Sagas of Rhine, etc…
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Black Death Defined
 The Black Death was the first epidemic of the second plague pandemic, containing a
combination of plague strains which devastated Europe from 1347-1351 killing 25-45%
of the European population and causing or accelerating dramatic social, political,
economic, religious, cultural, and demographic changes. The Black Death was the single
most important natural phenomenon in European history.
Black Death Bibliography
 Black Death: Selective Bibliographic Supplement
 William Bowski’s Black Death: A Turning Point in History?, 1971 historiographical essayCompared to nuclear threat
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Eyewitness Accounts of Black Death
 Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron
 Chronicle of Agnolo di Tura del Grasso (the Fat)
 Chronicle of Jean de Venette
 Henry Knighton, The Impact of the Black Death, c. 1348-1350
Altman- Compared to AIDS
Bubonic Plague Background
 Black Death- known as Justinian’s Plague 540-544
 Came to Europe from East Africa, down the Nile to the Mediterranean Basin
 476 or 486 Roman Empire in the West has fallen
 Justinian in the east makes an attempt to bring back the Roman Empire
 Belisarius- general who worked to conquer much territory but he was spread
too thin
 Justinian’s problem was that he and his men caught plague
 Empress Theodora- Nike Rebellions, promiscuous
 Justinian’s plague was nearly worldwide in scope
 Eastern and South Central Asia
 Ireland, Denmark, all of Central Europe
 Africa
 Justinian’s Plague Spread
 Autumn 541- Spring 542 (in 4 months) Justinian’s Plague killed 200,000 in
Constantinople
 542-544 it swept through the Mediterranean world, up the Rhine, and into the
Iberian peninsula
 1/5 -1/4 of the population south of the Alps (20-25%) were dead (significant
plague)
 North of the Alps the barbarians didn’t keep good records
 Justinian’s plague’s legacy- established a repository of bacillus among European rodent
fleas which ensured the future epidemics would occur
 For the next 200 years cycles every 10-12 years- the repository of bacillus comes
back
 558-561
 Constantinople to Eastern Mediterranean
 Then west to Italian port cities
o Ravenna
o Genoa
 Southern France
 580-582 (same areas)
 586-591 started in Spain (probably accompanied by smallpox)
 Spain
 Then it went westward
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o Southern France
o Italy
 599-600 starts in Italy (most lethal since Justinian’s plague) a moderate estimate
is that it killed 15% in Italy and Southern France
 Italy
 Southern France
 Not sure how far north it went because of a lack of records
 After 600 successive outbreaks- less virulent it seems but still in 10 to 12 year
cycles
 608
 618
 628
 640
 654
 684-686
 694-700
 718
 740-750
 Localized epidemics
 746 Sicily and Calabria
 767 Naples and Southern Italy
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 Late 8 century the first plague pandemic finally ends in Europe
 Fear, Stories, etc. would spread each time an outbreak took place but there was little
medical knowledge (better as you got towards the Middle East) and record keeping
 The determination that it was a pandemic is based on scientific evidence that it was
from the same plague bacillus
From the late 8th century to the mid-14th century Europe was relatively free of all epidemics
 With Black Death- people who survived once didn’t build an immunity protecting you
from future outbreaks
 Malthusian Crisis- nature’s way of checking the population because it couldn’t be
supported (but there was plenty of land uncultivated- so probably not true)
 Famine before outbreaks- connected to B.D. but probably because less food was grown
so more needed to be imported
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Late 8 -14th century no pandemics
But mold and plant diseases and other diseases
Medical Terminology
 Epidemic- a contagious disease that spreads rapidly
 Pandemic- widespread, universal
 Etiology- causation of disease
 Bubo- inflamed swelling of a lymphatic gland (armpit, groin)
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Pneumonic- of, affecting, or pertaining to the lungs, pulmonary
Septicemic- a systematic disease caused by pathogenic organisms of their toxins in the blood
stream
Enteric- of or within the intestines (enteritis)
Epizootic- attacking a large number of animals simultaneously or prevalent among a large group
of animals
1347 Catastrophe
 In 1347 the European people had old tales about old disasters at the time of the new outbreak
 Not a very good time in history- memories of bubonic plague in the past but no direct
experience with it (over the generations the stories get worse and worse)
 They were especially susceptible- no evidence of immunity though- different strains
 The susceptibility of the new plague from Asia was significant
Scientific and Medical Etiology of the 14th Century Black Death
 The plague was caused by the bacillus Yersinia Pestis
 Y. Pestis can present itself in 3 and probably 4 forms
 Bubonic (lymphatic system)
 Pneumonic (pulmonary system)
 Septicemic (infection of the blood directly)
 Enteric (digestive system)
 The Y. Pestis is a bacillus indigenous to certain areas of the world
 Southern and Central Asia
 Arabian Peninsula
 East Africa
 In those areas Y. Pestis bacillus lived in the stomach of a particular flea
 In the Middle Ages they had no concept of microscopic space
 The particular flea was the Xenopsylla cheopis
 It lives in the fur of small mammals
 Not just rats
 But especially the Rattus rattus (commonly called the black rat)
 Plague is an infection on the fleas of small mammals- how did it impact humans?
 Normally it stays on the small mammals but sometimes there is a disruption in the
natural circumstance
 Nobody still knows why the disruption occurs
 Probably changes in climate and geography cause the disruption and cause a rapid
reproduction in the fleas stomach and cause problems
 When the Y. pestis multiplies in rapid numbers it causes the flea to stop acting like a flea
 It blocks the digestive system of the flea- the flea normally sucks blood but it can’t
digest the food so it is starving
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In response it bites its victims numerous times because it can’t feed as it normally does
and as it does the liquid from the bite is injected into the victim- this is a blocked flea
 The bloodstream of its rodent host then gets the plague bacillus
 When sufficiently virulent and deadly, it becomes epizootic in the rodents- attacking a
large number of animals simultaneously
 When the plague is deposited into the rodent- it eventually dies and the flea looks for a
new host- when the new host is a human- an epidemic is the result
Plague is comparatively slow to spread in its epizootic form- but when it moves into a specific
area it becomes pandemic- widely universal
The pandemic comes in cycles- it is more cyclical than any other disease except for influenza
Plague is among the most lethal of all infections
Forms
 Bubonic
 In its most benevolent form- it kills 50%
 Buboes or boils covering the lymphatic system are caused by plague
 In order to spread from human to human the flea with Y. Pestis bacillus had to transfer
from one human to the next
 The plague is spread by the habits of the X. Cheopis which is only transmitted between
20-25° Celsius or 70-79° Fahrenheit and therefore is only transmitted in spring, late
summer, and early autumn
 Pneumonic
 Almost 100% lethal
 It is communicable through breath vapor
 The bacillus attacks the pulmonary system
 Pneumonic plague needs the bubonic plague to cause a reaction
 Bubonic transmitted during the same temperature but then there needs to be a sudden
drop in temperature that lasts
 It is so lethal that it kills all its hosts and then self-destructs
 Septicemic
 Almost 100% lethal
 Septicemic and Enteric are the most lethal
 Causes an infection and is an attack of the blood system
 Had to accompany bubonic
 Enteric
 Almost 100% lethal
 Septicemic and Enteric are the most lethal
 Attacks digestive tract
 Had to accompany bubonic
 In all forms it acts in specifically constraining manner
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Nobody in history mentions dead rats
 How long can it survive on dead rats
 Where were the rats? Wouldn’t someone have mentioned them? How many rats were
normal and how many dead were normal? We have little evidence.
 Baby Cradle- cradles were hanging so that rats would not attack and take the babies in
the 14th century
 In the 10th and 11th century there weren’t cradles because everyone slept in one bed
 Covering food became common to avoid having rats from getting the food
People in American History (cowboys) caught Black Death- fleas still have plague
Today it is unlikely for you to die from Black Death because we have antibiotics
Guy de Chauliac
 Doctor to Pope Clement VI
 Trying to cure his own plague but took detailed notes to help others in case he died
 He notes 2 forms
 Pneumonic- spitting of blood, very lethal, and death within 3 days
 Bubonic- swelling of lymph nodes, buboes on the neck, armpit, and groin
 The buboes easily broke down to form carbuncles (usually caused on the skin
when you don’t bathe for days)
The term Black Death was not used until the 16th century
 It may have referred to the dusky blue color of the dying
 Maybe the word black was referring to it as negative
Guy de Chauliac said the only remedy is flight
It takes certain events to set off an epidemic- which took place in the mid-1300s (very unusual)
Plague Origins and Spread 1300-1347
 There are dozens of explanations and none are entirely satisfactory
 The most convincing are a combination
 Mongol domination of the Asian trade routes of the 13th and 14th centuries (Tatar
Mongols)
 Temujin united the Mongols on the 1100-1200s, Genghis Khan and his nomadic
people were united in conquest of its neighbors (60,000 nomadic horsemen)
until his death in 1227. Batu overran much of Russia by 1240. By Nicolo and
Maffero Polo and Marco Polo’s journey to China, trade was opened with the
east. He witnessed Zipangu (Japan), the South China Sea, coal, spices etc. CHINA
WAS OPEN on the Silk Road (every 12 miles or so there was a horse station and
place to stop and rest)]
 Drier climactic conditions
 Yunnan China was one of the hotspots for plague and it was attacked by the
Mongols and they brought it back to the rodent population in Mongolia- (some
scientists believe it was also native to the Gobi area) Almost all scientists agree
that in the 1320s plague was enzootic in the east. 1320s and 1330s (1333 the
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worst) it was incredibly dry. The Steppe nomads were forced to migrate when
their waterways dried up. The flocks and all of the little rodents had to move
either east or west to survive. In 1334 it was a very wet year. Then there was
drought again in 1335 and 1336. In 1337 there was an attack of locusts. Exactly
how nobody knows, but the ecological balance between bacillus and rodent was
disrupted. Early in the 1340s the plague epizootic ensued and then the plague
pandemic of humans occurred. This is the first epidemic of the 1340s.
 Traders along the Silk Road told of suffering (called swarta doden by
Scandinavian historians) and massive deaths in South Asia at Cathay, and in the
Asian Steppes called Tartary but for Europe proper, it was distant and people
did not think it could possibly reach the Christian world. The plague reached the
Crimea region along the Black Sea by 1346, and everything changed.
 Word of the death and devastation traveled quickly- gossip (as the story
passes by word of mouth it gets bigger and bigger and exaggerated)
 Traders, commercial reports (Gottfried 36-43) in 1339 certain areas
were entirely wiped out
 People immediately believed that God was punishing non-believers
 Gabriel de Mussis- believed that it would never reach the western
world
 It reached the Crimea and Black Sea (Caffa (Feodosiya) and Tana- Italian
trading settlement) in the Kirghiz steppes
 The spreading into Europe: Caffa
 A dispute between the Italian merchants and local Muslims in the
streets broke out
 The Mongols were called to help the Muslims and sieged Caffa- tried to
strangle the Europeans out but while they were doing that, plague
broke out in the Mongol army (probably from along the trade route)
 The Khan ordered the loading of corpses of dead plague victims into the
catapult and launched them into the city walls to spread the plague to
the Europeans inside (this is not how the disease spreads- they would
have needed fleas)
 The Genoese traders realized that it was a no win situation for them
with the spread of Black Death inside and fled back to Italy, bringing
Black Death with them
 3 days after the ship arrived back in Italy- black death was spreading in
Italy
 Problem with the story: it would have spread by rodents or fleas not
from the dead bodies- most likely the urban rodents of Caffa were
infected by the rural rodents that infected the Muslim soldier
What seems to have happened is that plague traveled overland until it reached a port
and then it spread as boats sailed over seas to Europe. It then branched out along trade
routes. Finally it made its way back easterly to hit areas that it bypassed when it spread
by sea and trade routes.
 By autumn 1346, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Palestine were affected
 Caffa is interesting- it spread to hundreds of ports in Europe
 By the mid-14th century there was a system of transport and communication
that connected the Middle East to Europe (trade throughout the
Mediterranean)
 Terror, fear, and merciless death throughout Europe
 Death rate varied from place to place
 Milan, Flanders, and Bearn fared comparatively well compared to
others as well as remote Alpine villages
 Other areas were very hard hit, such as Tuscany, Aragon, Catalonia, and
Languedoc (towns fared the worst- and monastic communities fared
worst of all)
o Monasteries had better records but they were also people who
served and nurtured the victims
 Even the rich and powerful were not immune despite the fact that most
of them fled for their life. Many died:
o Eleanor of Aragon
o Peter IV
o Alphonso XI of Castile
o Joan (daughter of Edward III)
o Two successive bishops of Canterbury died: John de Stratford
and Thomas Bradwardine
o Petrarch’s Laura died and his mentor Giovanni Cardinal
Colonna died
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Italy
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October 1347, in the Sicilian port of Messina, the first confirmed death from plague
occurred
Genoese fleet of a dozen ships from the Black Sea put in an order for supplies in
Messina
 Death was already reported among the crew on the ships
 As soon as they landed, the port authority (who knew that there was sickness
on board) did not allow the men to stay long on shore
 Within a few days the population of Messina was infected
 From Messina the disease spread through Sicily
 Michael of Piazza wrote an account of the spread of plague by the Messinese
 Catania was struck by November and it spread through all of Sicily
From Sicily the Black Death spread to the mainland of Italy (which was most urban and
sophisticated area in Europe). It had some of the best port cities.
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Genoa and Pisa were the first west coast cities to be impacted and Bari and Venice
were the first east coast cities to be impacted. From these cities the plague moved up
and down the coast and then it spread inland (fleeing wealthy)
After the big cities it hit the market towns and villages and then the remote areas of
Italy. By March 1348, all of Italy was infected (6 months) with the exception of a few
Alpine Villages.
The best accounts come from Tuscany (Florence and Siena)
 Florence
 It was the cradle of Renaissance Europe, intelligence, art and culture
 20 years earlier Florence faced some financial issues (banks over
extended themselves)
 In the winter of 1348, it hit (probably too cold for bubonic so it was
likely pneumonic)
 Boccaccio’s Decameron (estimate of death was too high 100,000)
 Scholarly death- 45,000-75,000 (beginning populations were not known
so it is hard to give a percentage)
 Shops and factories were closed immediately, and prices for
commodities soared
 The wealthy fled the city and took what they needed with them
(probably grain with rats and fleas)
 Apothecaries charged exorbitant fees
 The streets were covered with dead- the only sound that could be heard
were carts picking up the death
 People were numbed by the death- a dead man would be seen the
same as a dead goat
 Many Florentines adopted an Epicurean attitude (eat, drink, and be
merry and tomorrow we die)
 Parents and spouses left one another (fear or self-preservation?)
 Siena
 Capital of Franciscan piety and devotions
 For a long time historians thought that Siena suffered less than the rest
of Tuscany but it still lost 40%-50%
 Agnolo di Tura del Grasso (the Fat)- buried 5 children with his own
hands
 Building of new cathedral stopped when the Black Death hit- no workers
or money
 Orvieto
 Word reached the town council- meeting on March 12, 1348 that Black
Death was coming to Orvieto in the Italian countryside or contado
 Discussed that nothing could be done to prevent the plague so they
decided to keep news of the coming of the plague to themselves
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It was a progressive northern Italian city
Its medical system was more sophisticated at the time- but was illprepared to deal with the plague
o One municipal doctor
o One surgeon
o 15-20 private doctors
o 1 private and 2 public hospitals
o Sanitation laws to prevent pollution
 Black Death came April of 1348 probably with the ambassador of
Perugia (chocolate making city today)
 It raged through the spring and into the summer. The weather might
have been too warm to support bubonic but the 24-hour death
timeframe indicates septicemic plague
 Estimate 500 deaths per day at its peak (probably high but they
probably lost 50%)
Italy was struck as hard as any part of Europe
Venice
 Trading center- traded with the east
 They believed that they could use quarantine to isolate the plague
 By 1349 the Venetian population was decreased by 50%
 They used certain islands to bring dead bodies etc.
 The word quarantine comes from the Italian effort to isolate the disease
for 40 days (quarantina)
Milan
 Strict ruler of Milan ordered a quarantine
 They walled up the houses of the sick with the sick and healthy inside
 The death rate was lower than other areas because these efforts were
partially successful
France
 France had the largest population at the time
 Italy had large city-states but France was mostly rural
 France was nonetheless devastated by the plague despite being rural
 Marseilles
 January 1348 was struck
 It followed the Rhone River
 Provence
 February 1348
 Urban Centers of the south
 Narbonne
 Toulouse
 Bordeaux
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 Perpignan
 Avignon
 Home of the Papacy
 Since the pope was there we have good records
 February-May 1348 about 400 died per day
 Pope isolated himself by order of his doctor (stayed in the ring of fire)
though he came out once to consecrate the Rhone River for burials
since they ran out of land to bury the dead
 1 in 3 cardinals died
 The total mortality about 50%
 Montpelier
 140 Dominicans lived in the town and only 7 survived
 Midi
 Death 40%
 Languedoc
 Death 45%
Northern France
 Caen, Rouen, Normandy- 40%-50%
 Many of the rural areas suffered less
 Village of Givry in Burgundy
 1,200 people
 1348- 615 deaths in 14 weeks (good records)
 1338-1348- 30 deaths per year
 Paris
 Largest city of northern Europe in 14th century with a population
between 80,000-100,000
 Black Death hit in late spring 1348 probably came along the trade route
from Lyons
 As the summer went on the death toll went up- probably the septicemic
strain
 In late autumn and early winter the death toll continued to rise even as
the temperature decreased so it was probably pneumonic
 In November and December during peak times 800 people died per day
 St. Germain l’Auxerrois- donation records
o 78 people 8 years up to 1348 left a legacy in the will
o 419 legacies in wills in 6 months in 1348
 French nobility- death did not spare them (though fleeing helped some)
 Medical faculty at the Sorbonne in Paris
 Boccaccio urged fleeing to the countryside
 From northern France the plague continued into the Low Countries (Belgium,
Flanders, Luxembourg, Netherlands)


Low Countries
 Netherlands
 Mortality in the heavily industrialized areas of Flanders had lower
mortality had a lower death rate than rural areas- inexplicable
Scandinavia
 Norway
 May 1349
 London wool ship was seen drifting in the Bergen Harbor in Norway
 Nobody was sailing the ship- it was sailing itself and ran aground
 Plague had hit the ship and killed all onboard
 Municipal authorities went to the ship and before they could impose a
quarantine- the officials went on the ship and realized they were all
dead from plague but it was too late
 Black Death then spread inland
 The story is captivating and unnerving. It shows the havoc and terror
 All of Scandinavia
 Affected by the end of 1350
 King Magnus II- “God, for the sins of man has struck the world with this
great death. Most of our countrymen are dead.”
 45%-50%
 Greenland
 Since 1000 A.D. there was trade in Greenland and into North America
 Norwegians and Icelanders had established settlements on the east and
west coasts of Greenland
 There were indigenous people there
 Church records of missionaries in Greenland- yearly report to the king in
Norway (which was sent on to the Pope)
o Columbus studied Papal records for proof that there were lands
to the west
 Whale blubber, sheep, seals- trade in Greenland
o It was very cold- sheep had to be kept indoors during the winter
 Winter of 1350 Black Death probably came from a supply ship
 Only scattered records and no population records
 From 1350- sometime in the 1400s nobody went to Greenland
 When people finally returned to Greenland, there were cattle roaming
in vacant villages- where did the people go?
o Some theories that they went back to Europe
o Some think that they sailed onto America
o You would think that there would have been some bodies
 Entire settlement brought to an end 100% (maybe not all Black Death
though)


Iceland
 Over 50% population loss
England
 First arrived in September 1348
 It probably first arrived by a French Gascon Ship that arrived in the Dorset Port in
Melcombe Regis
 England was an island- but because of trade received Black Death (Bristol,
Southampton, Great Yarmouth, King’s Lynn)
 35%-50% mortality
 Great trading ports
 Bristol and Southampton
 Probably came directly from trade with Italy
 Thames Estuary
 Probably came directly from wine trade with France
 East Anglia
 Probably got Black Death from trade with the Low Countries
 Church officials were dealing with clergy who were fleeing and had to think of ways to
keep them working
 The Bishop of Bathe & Wells who was Ralph of Shrewsbury needed to think of
ways to keep the clergy working
 Ralph of Shrewsbury
 Bishop’s Order- Edict to clergy to stay in their assigned parishes to tend
to the churches and bury the dead- penalty was that they would be defrocked
 In Bathe & Wells
 45% of the clergy died (probably the good ones went first)
 Devon & Somerset
 50% clergy dead
 Oxford
 Great academic faculty clergy
 45% of the town’s non-academic clergy died
 Shire Reeve
 “Sheriff” today
 Foreman of the town
 Administered justice and upheld laws
 Woodstock
 Bicester
 Wycombe
 Buckinghamshire
 Winchester
 Exchequer of England




49% of clergy dead
Cathedral was not finished- a temporary west façade was erected and
became permanent
London
 Most populous city in England
 Late September 1348
 The plague came up the Thames River to London and also came in from the port
cities in the west
 It got different strains of plague
 45,000 people in London and was sprawling and was England’s largest town
 It was also the King’s favorite place of residence
 100 Years War was still going on against the French (until the plague hit)
 England was rural compared to France (which was rural compared to Italy)
 Great technology
 Sewers, water, city walls, canons
 Thames was along the south and the tower was in the east so it could have been
isolated
 It was probably devastated because it came from the west
 Municipal authorities thought London would be spared and they established a
quarantine
 Sanitation laws (waste)
 Quarantine- restricted people (but not rats and fleas)
 By the winter the bubonic plague turned to pneumonic plague
 From June to September 1349 civic reports of 290 deaths per day
 Abby of Westminster- no leader
 Bishop of Canterbury died and his successor John Offord died before even
taking the office. His successor Thomas Bradwardine died in August.
 Parliament was to sit in Westminster was to sit in 1349 but it never occurred as
members of Parliament refused to come
 Plague lasted to late 1350 and killed 35% of the population
 London was quick to recover but population would not reach pre-plague level
for 175 years
East Anglia
 Hardest hit region of England
 Rich countryside but surrounded by fen and marshlands (it would have been
easier to sail into it than go through the marsh)
 East Anglia was isolated from England and trade developed with the Low
Countries
 Spring 1349
 People fleeing from London to East Anglia and from Essex and Kent from the
south





1/3 of the people died
In Cambridgesire- 3 small villages that lost 53%, 57%, and 70%
At Cambridge University 16 of the 40 tenured faculty died 40%
 2/3 of the colleges were wiped out
 Learned generation was lost
 Latin is lost because nobody learned Latin anymore so they turned to
the vernacular
o Even Martin Luther- did not know Latin well and mis-translated
from the ancient Latin and Greek
 Sudbury
 Important trading center (ultimate mall of the day) on the Stour River
 107 market stalls in 1340 in 1361 only 62 market stalls
 Bishop Bateman
 English Bishop of Norwich
 In 1349 he moved around his diocese (always one step ahead of the
plague)
 He first headed to Great Yarmouth, then to Ipswich, then to Bury St.
Edmunds, then to Sudbury, and finally to his rural estate at Hoxne
 He survived
 Northern England- as bad as anywhere else
 Newark in Nottinghamshire
 Stowe 57%
 Lincolnshire
 Doncaster
Border of Scotland was always fluid
Scotland
 Delighted in the Black Death experienced by the English but they never thought
it would hit them
 They planned to invade England while the English was weak
 The army assembled but never marched because it was hit by Black Death in
March
 Killed probably 1/3 of the population
5-31-12

Germany
 Less severely affected than Italy, Scandinavia, and England
 By Germany what is mean it German speaking areas (Holy Roman Empire)
 Rhineland lost 40% of the population
 Overall mortality in central Europe was about 25%
 Some regions do better

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



Alsace, Lorraine, Bohemia only 10% loss
Nurnberg 10% loss
Gottfried- came across the Alps but also across the Rhine from the Netherlands
and France (68-69)
2 distinct phenomenon
Flagellant
 Not unique to Germany of the 14th century
 It began in the late 10th century close to the last millennium (around the
year 1000)
 Usually associated with erotic behavior but that is not the case in this
group
 It was a form of penance
 Iberia, France, Low Countries, but especially the Rhineland in 1349
 Jean Froissart- French chronicler: penitents did self-penance with whips
and iron spikes- the object of the penance was to put a stop to the
mortality
 These beliefs come out of a deo-centric mindset
 They moved in long snakelike processions, 2 by 2, in groups of a couple
hundred, led by a master, men and then women, hoods, and chanted
hymns
 KKK adopted the flagellant outfit
 They would go to a town square and flagellate themselves (3 times per
day- twice in public and once in private) and call out “God spare us”
 Tried to recruit new members and have them form a cohort (will join
for 33 1/3 to represent each year that Christ lived)
 Drew their members from all ranks of society- given more credibility
because landed nobility and bourgeoisie supported it at first
 Tolerated by ecclesiastical and secular authorities at first
 Went from Rhine to Low Countries and Eastern Europe
 As time went on and the Black Death got worse- the movement became
more violent (this was especially so when peasants began entering)
 Pope Clement VI asked the faculty at the Sorbonne to provide their
opinion on the flagellants in 1349
 The Theology Faculty recommended that Clement condemn the
movement- he did so in October 1349
 With the Pope’s condemnation lay leaders like the Kings of England and
France also condemned the movement and by the end of 1350 the
movement all but disappeared
Heightened Anti-Semitism
 Common among the flagellants


From the time of the 1st Crusade 1095 (1099 they took Jerusalem), AntiSemitism was commonplace in Europe
 1290-1310 Jews were expelled from England, France, and parts of the
Low Countries
 By the mid-14th century Jews were settled more towards central
Europe- in the Rhineland (deeper into Germany)
 As Black Death continued the common explanation for the plague was
that Jews were to blame (scapegoat)
o There was a secret plot
o Jews had poisoned water wells (ritual)
o It was part of a large plot by the Rabbis of Toledo
o They were providing victims for the Passover Services
 Responsible church officials vehemently denied the allegations
 Pope Clement VI and the medical faculty at the Sorbonne spoke out
against the rumor and anti-Semitism
 Clement even issued a Papal Bull to his clergy to protect the Jews in the
communities
 It was successful in Italy but not in German speaking areas where it was
ignored
 In Strasbourg the town council spoke out against anti-Semitism but the
guild deposed the council and when the new council was appointed
2,000 Jews were burned
 In Basel all Jews were gathered onto an island and burned them aliveno Jews were allowed into Basel for 200 years
 Some places- news of the approach of the Black Death set off hysteria
against the Jews
 1349 the Jews settlement at Frankfurt am Main and Mainz was
destroyed
 By the end of 1349 the pogroms or the periods of annihilation of the
Jews began to wane- wherever the Black Death picked up treatment of
the Jews worsened
 By 1350 16 major and 150 smaller Jewish communities were destroyed
(300 separate massacres occurred)
 Jews who knew that the Black Death was coming fled- kept ahead of the
plague and moved out of Cologne and German-speaking lands known as
Hansa (most of the north of Europe moved to Eastern Europe, the East
Baltic nations, Poland, and Russia)- they remained there until Nazism in
the 20th century
 Most of the Polish monarchy welcomed Jews into the land
Iberia- Aragon, Castile, Andorra, Portugal
 Parts of Iberian peninsula were devastated

 Catalonia was especially devastated
 Portugal fared better
 Eastern Europe
 Probably lost 1/3 of the people
 Poland fared better than the rest
 As plague spun its way around Europe it moved and circled back east to Eastern
Europe
 Some theories are that different strains developed
 By 1351 the plague in western Europe had run its course but by 1351 the plague had
affected all areas of Europe
 The Pope ordered that all diocese to report the number of dead and the number
that resulted was 23,840,000
 Probably safe to say that before the Black Death Europe’s population was about
25,000,000
 31% total if 23,840,000 is accepted
 Some places were higher and some were lower
 It is like the chronicler Froissart said that 1/3 died
 Saint John’s Book of Revelations 1/3 died
 Safe to say
 By the end of the year 1350, 2/3 of all Europeans had been attacked by plague
(the areas in which they lived)
 By 1351 of those 2/3 (50,000,000), half of them died (around 25,000,000)
 In a short period of time- there was massive death
 Another 40,000,000 died in Asia even before coming to Europe
 No reliable figures from Africa
Doctors and the Medical Profession
 The basic premise is that Europe’s medical community was not able to deal with the
Black Death
 They tried but failed miserably
 Medicine had become highly complex by the 14th century
 There was a tripartite division
 University Trained Physicians
 Apothecaries
 Surgeons
 Hospitals began to devote time to healing instead of just isolating the sick (not
just a place to die anymore)
 Greek method was used- observation and debate rather than experimental
science (no hands on experiments or dissection of cadaverous- they dissected
pigs instead of humans- the Church thought it was disrespectful to the Holy
Ghost)


The Greek Method was okay for well-known diseases but there was nothing to
adequately deal with a new epidemic (nothing in recent memory)
 Galen’s Book of Fevers was the most used medical text- ancient book and no
mention of plague so it was treated as smallpox and malaria
 Guy de Chauliac- Pope’s doctor who suffered from bubonic plague and survived
 Medical doctors refused to visit the sick
 They charged enormous fees and became very rich
 In Orvieto
o The stipend paid by the town was from 25 lira to 200 lira during
the Black Death
o The physician was also exempt from municipal taxes
 For Europe’s medical community the Black Death was a crisis, albeit a profitable
one
 The role of fleas and rats were not identified during the 14th century
Responses
 Astral Causation
 They had some knowledge of the starts and space
 The Medical Faculty of the University of Paris believed that the answer
was the Triple conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars in the 40th
degree of Aquarius that took place
 It is hidden by even most intellectuals
 Miasma-Contagion Theory
 General idea that they took from Galen’s Book of Fevers
 Stressed that the plague came from the south and carried by warm,
wet, infected winds
 Accordingly, then marshes, coastal areas and lowlands were dangerous
 Stay to the mountains and the valleys
 All houses should be built so that the doors and windows faced north
 It was wise to burn incense because pleasant smells would chase away
the plague
o Incense
o Juniper
o Rosemary
o Thyme
o The use of rosewater
 Dionysius Colle- Odor Variation Theory
 The disruptive role of bad smelling areas
 Urged people to stay away from latrines, dumps, and places that
smelled bad
 Moving slowly was important especially when infection was suspected
o Warned against exercise
o


Don’t bathe
 If you take baths you will open the pores of the body
and will increase the chances of getting plague
Other medical men (surgeons)
 Phlebotomy- bleeding people
 Cautery (hot sword to cauterize)
 John of Burgundy Plan to take Blood from Certain Veins- depending on where
the plague boils were
 By doing that you will balance the humors
o Blood (heart)
o Phlegm (brain)
o Yellow Bile (Liver)
o Black Bile (Spleen)
 When humors were in equilibrium then you were in good healthEukrasia
 When humors were out of equilibrium then you were sick- Dyskrasia
 First of all patients were encouraged to rest and then the diet was
altered (if the patient is hot- foods to cool the patient were used and
vice versa)
 Bloodletting, phlebotomy, cautery, or cupping
 Lancing the buboes
 At the time the responses were rational and well-advised
 Medical Universities
 Salerno, Montpelier, Bologna, Paris, Padua, and Oxford
 Italian professor of medicine Simon de Corvino
o Pregnant women had to take extra care
o Supported also by Ibn Khatima
 He also worried about people of hot temperament
 Apothecaries (pharmacists)
 Ointments and Potions
o Figs
o Filberts
o Aloe
o Myrrh
o Saffron
o Treacle
 Syrup produced by refining sugar (like molasses)
 All were ineffectual
Environmental Factors
 Probably some truth in many
 All ideas neglected insects and rodents








Earthquake Theories
 All connected to Miasma Theory
 The earthquakes released noxious fumes from the
Changes in Ocean Tides
 Killing thousands of fish and caused the Black Death
 There were changes in ocean tides probably due to the astronomical alignment
Wrath of God Theory
 Angry God
Giovanni Villani
 Florence
 Avarice
 Usury
 Adultery
 Blasphemy
Pope Ordered new processions to be dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary- that Mary
might intervene with God on our behalf to stop the Black Death
 Mary did not help
Plague Saint
 Old plague saint was Saint Sebastian
 New plague saint was Saint Roch
 People kept dying
Black Death abated in 1352 but it continued to attack Europe in varying cycles until 1666
when it finally left England, and in the 1720s when it finally stopped in France
 The recurrences were not as virulent
 It was not until the 19th century that we actually began to understand the
plague
 Students of Robert Koch and Louis Pasteur studied the Black Death in
the late 1800s and finally continued scientific research on the Middle
Ages
 Alexander Yersin (Swiss microbiologist who was the first to isolate the
bacteria that causes Black Death in 1894)- a serum is developed
Dramatic and Traumatic Effects of the Black Death
 In a short span of 5-10 years the Black Death had impact on political, economic, social,
religious aspects of Medieval life (every aspect of life)
 Demographic Effects
 Plague bacillus took special advantage of the poor nutrition of Europe and Asia
 For 100 years before 1350 agriculture had been over expended
 Switched out food crops for textile crops






2 years before the Black Death- Famine and food scarcity in Europe (climate and
bad weather) 1345 and 1346- required the transportation of food (cereals and
grains) into Europe
 These were shipped in burlap type bags and exposed to rats and fleas
The staggering death toll of 25%-45%
 Consisted largely of the old and the children, laboring classes and the
poor (poorly fed)
 Mature adults and the rich survived to a large extent
Demographically- end of Europe’s Malthusian Crisis
 Chronic Overpopulation that retarded growth and diminished standard
of living (Europe had over-extended)
When successive waves of the plague became cyclic the epidemic became
chronic
 Major Cyclic Recurrences
o 1361-1363
o 1369-1371
o 1374-1375
o 1388-1390
o 1400
o 1666
o 1720
 Not was as dramatic as the first one- but it kept the population from
recovering quickly
 Early in the 16th century Europe’s population did not recover to preplague numbers
Changes in patterns of settlement
 Wustungen- abandonment of rural villages and rural land- migration to
towns and reduced agriculture workers
 Depopulation- virtually ended serfdom in Europe
o Shortages in agricultural laborers
o Western peasants fled towards better conditions (went east)
o Release of tenurial obligations on manors
o Gottfried 135-137
o Copyhold- rent instead of obligations to the lord
By 1500 Manorialism ended in Europe
Exam Thursday 6-7-12 20% Course Grade
Part I: Objective (5pts)
Fill In, True/False
Part II: Historical Identification Paragraphs (15pts)
Will ask for who, what, where, when, why and historical significance in 1 page in blue book each
(choice of 3 from 10+ choices)
June 5, 2012

Wages and Prices rose during the Black Death and immediately afterward
 In some places wages went up 300% and prices increased 300%
 Food items stabilized over time but luxury goods remained high
 It effected a drop in real prices
 Henry Knighton
o Small prices for almost everything- so there was real buying
power by the peasants
 Cuxham Manor
o Examples of wage increases for ploughman
 Increase in standard of living in society- especially for peasants
 Piers Plowman- hunger is no longer the peasant’s master
o Now higher caloric intake for peasants
o Many beggars were no longer willing to accept bread made with
beans and demanded white bread as well as milk
o Arrogant beggars- beggars were choosers
 Day laborers did better than ever before
o Higher wages
o Good lunch included (meat pies and golden ale)
 New era of plenty but it did not go on unabated
o Mostly late 1350s
o By the later 1380s there were spot famines that arose
 As a general matter, for more than a century the standards of living
increased
 Rising living stands produces changes
o Traditional landlord and peasant roles were altered
o Feudalism and contractual Manorialism- broke down
o No concern over invasions
o Supply and demand were dominant- market economy
 By 14th century Europe still depended on Manorialism
o It depended on cheap immobile labor
o It depended on high food prices
o The Black Death changed both of these things- irrevocably
altered
 Any peasant unhappy with their life on one manor- walked off and went
to another manor in a different geographic area
o Probably would be welcomed at the new manor
o

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


Any lord looking to keep his peasants would be forced to make
the conditions better
 Lower rents
 End of the traditional computation of obligations
By end of the 14th century- most peasants leased their land instead of
owing the traditional obligations to the lord
o Gottfried 137
 New form of land tenure- copyhold (both peasant and
lord had a copy of the contract between them)
 Business deal- peasant got use of the land and the lord
received an annual payment
 Eastern peasants however were not as mobile as the
western peasants- led t serfdom that persisted in some
places until the 19th century (1860 Russian serfs were
released)
Many lords leased their entire estates and began using cash instead of
labor
Labor intensive crops (ones that required weeding and a lot of care- like
grain and wheat) became less common and land intensive production
became predominant
There was a switch from grains to herding and non-food crops
o Woad was grown which is a blue dyestuff
o Food took a back seat to other crops that required less labor
Socio-political Crisis
 As financial distinctions became blurred- the upper classes became conscious of their
financial position (and wanted others to see this distinction)
 Look more noble- dress and fashions become more extravagant and more
colorful the ever before
 Chinese long fingernails to show that they did not work with their hands
 Men wore
 Tight-tailored pantaloons
 Long pointed shoes (with a long string tied up at the knee- which
showed people that they don’t walk, they ride)
 Women wore
 Hairpieces (large and till wigs)
 Dresses with plunging necklines (showing more of their breasts)
 Very risqué
 Mateo Villani- instead of making people virtuous the Black Death left people
very materialistic and looking for even more
 Wage Laws arose
 1349 Statute of Labor in France tried to set wages to pre-1347 levels

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

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 Peasants refused to work without higher wages
 A few years later a new law allowed a 33% raise
 England passed a law in 1349 that set wages at earlier levels from 1346 and also
required people to work. It also set prices of products at former rates.
 Wiltshire, England- Assize Court Roll against offenders of labor laws
(Aberth 91)
 642 were prosecuted in 1352 for violation
 Attempts to enforce wage laws infuriated people
Agrarian Revolts
 Attempts were occasionally made to counter these new wage and labor statutes
 Violence and revolts occurred
 1358 the Peasants of Northern France rose against their masters in an
agrarian revolt called the Jacquerie
 In 1378 a revolt in Italy called the Ciompi
 1382 and 1384 Flanders revolt
 1381 and 1382 Eastern England Wat Tyler’s Rebellion
 The attempt to bring back the pre-plague price and wages- artificially injured
competition and the morale of the peasants
 It is tough to open up opportunity and the shut the door
Decline in Industrial Productivity
 Because fewer people to do the work, though, there was a rise in technological
improvements
 Decline in the trades- and not producing the same quantity of goods
Economic rise
 Southern England
 Southern Germany
 Holland
Economic decline
 France
 Northern Germany
 Flanders
 Italy
Tremendous Educational Changes
 Many faculty and scholars died
 William of Ockham
 Thomas Bradwardine
 There were 39 pre-plague university (papal chartered)
 14 withered away by 1400 for lack of personnel and students (36%)
 After the Black Death the faculty that remained were minute
o The system of rising through the ranks- which used to be a very
demanding system- was gone
o
o

After the plague- less stringent requirements
They were not scholars of the same caliber of those that died
 Vernacular instead of Latin- because they didn’t know
Latin
 Fewer steps to become a faculty member
 A generation of scholars was lost
o Erasure of learned scholars had repercussions for generationsproblems that had been solved centuries before- were back to
square one
 Martin Luther did not understand Greek and Aramaic
and therefore only translated the Bible from Latin to
German and lost the meaning behind a lot
o Philosophy and intellectual life of Europe were severely
damaged- and attitude changed
 After the Black Death optimism was lost and gloom (and mysticism
prevailed)
Religious Effects
 Church
 English and Italian wills
o A large increase in gifts to the church
 Some church lands were not worked for lack of laborers but as a general
matter- papal lands were safe
 The Clergy decreased dramatically
o Franciscans
o Dominicans
 Monastic Mortality in England 51%
o Probably 10%-15% higher than the general population
 Religious Attitudes after the plague
 Attitude of Ambivalence
o Decline in moral standards
o Some individuals- high personal piety and increased spirituality
 Wine, women, and song in great abundance v. family life and prayer
 Protestant Reformation- probably not
 Many believed that it was the Black Death that gave rise to the
Protestant Reformation
o The church was shaken after 1347
 George Coulton’s Black Death in 1908- expresses the thesis connection
between Black Death and the Protestant Reformation but we are still
debating it
o England and Continent but mostly for England
o Priests ran from their jobs due to the plague
o
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

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
4 English diocese- appointment of clergy doubled after the Black
Death
o He argues that it caused a weakening of the clergy- giving rise to
the Reformation
Good Points
o The great number of deaths required religious services
 There is a proper way to bury the dead- respect
o Who buried the dead when the clergy wasn’t there
New priests
o More in touch with the people
o More in touch with human needs less ritualistic
o Not aligned with movements of Wycliffe and the Lollards
Religious Revolution
Religious effects
o Caring, ministering clergy dropped like flies (good priests went
out to help and therefore died
o Replaced by mediocre priests
o Common people shook at the results of the plague
 Why did the best clergy die?
 Why was Avignon affected?
 Why did God refuse to answer the church’s prayers?
 Where was Mary the Mother of God? Why wasn’t she
there for us?
Cultural Effects
 Art
 Ways in which death was portrayed
o The Composanto in Pisa showed death very grimly and devilishsnakelike hair, talons, wild woman, with a scythe to collect
victims
 Funeral brass monuments
o Before Black Death- knights and ladies
o After- images of death changes
 Somber
 Snakes and serpents surrounding death
 Grisly smiles on their faces
 Tuscany
o Wealthy area and many nobles and middle class merchants
would have portraits of themselves
 Person before black death was happy
 After no smile and somber
 Trinity Scenes
o

Before- individualistic touches with elaborate backgrounds,
exuberance
o After- distinctions between artists disappeared entirely, distant,
impersonal, and standard images were created
 Artist’s conception of the resurrection
o This was the big moment in Christianity
o After- the resurrected Christ was changed- he had more
decisive hierarchical superiority (kingly) status was shown and
his humanity was not shown (never a good shepherd portrait)
 Moralizing
o In his Saint John the Evangelist, the artist Giovanni del Biondoshows John as militant- stomping out unfaithful
o The Madonna- portrayed her as a corpse shown consumed by
snakes- injures the status of Mary
 Literature
 Boccaccio
o The Decameron
o His later work shows the sober side
o The Corbaccio
 Gloomy and pessimistic
o 1374 letter Boccaccio condemned his work the Decameron
because it was too positive and false (don’t let young women
read it because it is not true)
 Architecture
Psychological Effects
 Most difficult to assess
 Social and economic continuity- but the loss of 1/3 to 1/2 of the population must have
had a profound effect on even the most stable person
 Death irrevocably changes a family’s relationships
 How do you assess the impact?
 Reactions (Chroniclers and observers) Various results
 Eat, drink, and be merry (Epicurean and pagan)
 Despair and depression
 Increased sense of religiosity and commitment to the church
 Contempt for authority and social hierarchy and church authority
 Low levels of fertility- no medical explanation
o Reluctant to bring children into the world (not having sex
because no good birth control methods)
o Whole families vanished
 Saw terrible things
 12,000 bodies filled 11 mass graves in Erfurt







Pope consecrated the Rhine River as a mass grave
Children singing Ring Around the Rosie
Flagellants people walking around whipping themselves and women
collecting their blood
 Anti-Semitism raged in 1348 and 1349 (scapegoat)
Fear, Hate, Disillusionment
 Produced somber and morbid people obsessed with death and the after
life
 Distrust of strangers (could bring the plague)
 Fear can destroy
Coping mechanisms were learned
Europe’s rationality crumbled so they made things up
Conclusion
 Impact of the Black Death has been compared to all great tragedies since
 World Wars
 Influenza of 1918
 AIDS of the late 20th centuries
 Existing social and political systems changed or collapsed
 Moral, philosophical, religious truths were abandoned and lost
 Expectations changed- more money- change their lives
 Earlier standards no longer applied
 12th and 13th century ideas of self-government were given up for absolutism
 Profound Change- Theme of Depopulation
 Accelerated the change from Medieval to Modern
 Major turning point in the development of Europe and civilization
 Greatest biological and environmental event and catastrophe in history
Gottfried 66-67 Ireland
Ziegler Chapter 12 Ireland