Medieval Europe (Black Plague)

The Black Plague also known as the Black Death was a tragedy among many people of Medieval Europe in the 1300s. Spreading rapidly from Asia to Europe killing one-third to half of the European population, many citizens went through great depression and fear experiencing friends, neighbours or family members falling to their death. The total loss of population changed Europe economically and socially. This essay will be sightseeing the basic knowledge about the Black Death, and how it changed and had an impact on society which was proven in the art of the time, the medicine, the Jews and the labour. It will also look at how The Black Death had a long term impact ending the Feudal system.

The Black Death started in China, Asia. It travelled along the Silk Road and reached Europe by 1347. It was carried by fleas living on rats that were regular passengers on merchant ships. This disease’s scientific term is Yersinia Pestis carried by fleas infected by the Yellow river in China, Asia.

One way in which the plague was disastrous for the people of Europe was it resulted in a high death toll. Many families had to abandon family members which was very misfortunate. Due to the large number of Deaths, proper funerals were hardly ever held. During the time there would be a person who would collect the dead upon the streets and place the bodies into ditches filled with hundred other plague infested corpses. Agnolo Di Tura described the speed of deaths as followed ‘They died by hundreds, both day and night, and all were thrown in those ditches and covered with Earth. And as soon as those ditches were filled, more were dug…..’ .The short term impact of this was that it wiped out a great number of families and towns. Those who fell ill were most expectedly to have the epidemic and die. Many negative reactions were carried by thousands, such as: shock, grief, horror and sadness. The Black Death killed ‘between 30% and 60% of Europe's population (about 25-50 million deaths).’

For some groups in society the plague was even more tragic than another. Due to the misunderstanding and the conflict between the Jews and the Christians the Black Death was used as a mean to have a religious fight between them, resulting in the massacre of the Christians and the Jews. When people experience great trauma they would normally find someone or something to blame. In this case they would blame on their sins or on the Jews. The population, which was already in deep anti-Jewish, heard by their priests, decided that the Jews were to blame for the Black Death because they were accused of poisoning their wells. Jews were captured and tortured into admitting that they were responsible for the Plague, some Jews to avoid torture would set fire to their homes and to their streets. With all, many Jews perished. The Black Death had created a great conflict between the two religious groups and it became more disastrous because it created a conflict of having the Christians accuse the Jews about the Plague.

The belief that the Black Death was a punishment from God led many to take extreme measures not only against other religions, but themselves. In violent panic, flagellants beat themselves to impersonate Christ’s suffering, believing that this would gain God’s favour and protect them from the plague. Numerous accounts describe the flagellants various opinions on them. Strasbourg chronicler Fritsche Closener recorded the common people’s love of the flagellants. He told “You should know that whenever the flagellants whipped themselves, they were large crowds and the greatest pious weeping that one should ever see.” People would be ready to welcome the flagellants into their villages and towns and homes and gave them donations, as they believed the flagellants were capable of miracles. Some even collected flagellant blood. Eventually, he said, people “got tired of them… they became a nuisance”. The flagellants usually wore white robes, capes and hoods decorated with crosses, which they pulled down around their waist before beating and whipping themselves with a three-thong whip tipped with sharp metal. Flagellants beat their backs, over their shoulders between their shoulder blades with whips and sang as they paraded behind banners and crosses through towns and villages. This practice continued as a believed form of penance.

When the Black Plague arrived to Europe, there were many attempts to cure the victims from the plague. Unfortunately, the cures were mostly useless because of their lack of medical knowledge. The Catholic Church believed it was a punishment from God for their sinful behaviours. Many people believed it, leading to many unusual cures. Some unusual cures was living in a sewer. When people found out that the Black Plague was aerial, they began to visit or live in rancid sewers. It was thought that the sharp stench of rotting human waste would drive off the air from coming and infecting them. But this of course didn’t work as being prone to the plague; they often died from other diseases. Bloodletting was also one of the cures of the Plague as they believed the disease of in the blood. They would cut themselves and allowed the blood to leave the body. Of course this theory didn’t work as they would bleed themselves to death. There were many other methods of curing the plague such as: carrying pockets of sweet-smelling herbs, swallowing a powder of crushed emeralds, rubbing your wounds with a live chicken, no physical intimacy, drinking a glass of your own urine, avoid eating certain foods, praying, smearing yourself in human faeces etc. Many people weren’t safe as the disease was irrespective of age or social status and were not able to indicate how to cure it.

The psychological trauma of the plague can be seen in art. The Black Plague would often be presented as a skeleton as a symbol of death. The "dance macabre" style of brushwork was agreed, where skeletons were seen depicted in daily scenes, socializing with others. It's likely that these skeletons represented death or were a symbol of the desperation and fear everyone was experiencing. Some institutions like Churches even hung the paintings on walls and easels. Soon it became common to see strange elements being merged into pictures. Tomb sculptures showed a rotten, decomposing body, dressed in rags with worms burrowing through the flesh. Previously, these sculptures displayed someone clothed in elegant armour, resting in beautifully decorated coffins. Vastly different to the new sculpting techniques they have now today.

Although the Black Death was disaster during the medieval era but it had a positive impact through society, it seized the Feudal system to collapse. The plague killed off many peasants who worked the land, leaving a shortage of labour for the Lords who ruled their fiefs. As there were now fewer of them, the peasants, carpenters, and other peasant labourers could demand higher wages for their hire, and lower rents. Prices fell, and in the new economic climate, the rising survivors found a profit. This included increasing their land holdings that people had once owned and building stone cottages to replace the wood and mud dwelling. In 1351 King Edward III introduced the Statue of Labourers. This was an attempt to fix rates and wages, but market forces pushed them up regardless. Peasantry found a new economic system, encouraging the protests that lead to the Peasant’s Revolt in 1381. Therefore the plague played a part in hastening a gradual change from feudalism to capitalism.

The political system in Europe had changed forever due to the major changes in that time. The Black Death somewhat brought a positive outcome as a repayment of this society.