Plague of the Middle Ages
Kieran Intemann
9/24/12
Plague in the Middle Ages
The main cause of death in the Middle Ages was the Plague, or the Black Death. Beginning in the year 1348, the Plague killed about a third of the population of Europe. Part of the reason was that many of the streets and houses in Europe were disgusting and filthy. Another part of the reason was that the cures were not available to most people. Lastly, a reason that the Plague spread so quickly throughout Europe is that people had no idea that they received the plague until the symptoms appeared, which could take a while.
One reason that the Plague was so effective in destroying the Middle Ages was that the streets and houses in Europe were disgusting and filthy. According to Erasmus of Rotterdam, the Plague and sickness in England was due to the “filth in the streets and the sputum and dogs’ urine clogging the rushes on the floors of the houses.” Also, according to a German physician, about 40 people at Casale in Western Lombardy “smeared the bolts of the town gates with an ointment to spread the plague.” Lastly, because of the conditions, “the roads and highways were guarded so that a person could not pass from one place to another. The plague had its many social reasons for being a factor in the declining Middle Ages, but the rottenness of the cities was a major factor.
Another reason that the Plague was so effective in destroying the Middle Ages was that the cures were not available to most people. According to a Sicilian physician, gold was for “the expense of the pest houses to quarantine the diseased” because of the shortage of cures. Also, according to a French physician, plague-stricken patients had so few cures available that they would “hang around their necks toads, either dead or alive, whose venom should within a few days draw out the poison of the disease.” Lastly according to a Barcelona tanner, “the demand for nurse was so great that they were so hard to find,” another major reason that cures
9/24/12
Plague in the Middle Ages
The main cause of death in the Middle Ages was the Plague, or the Black Death. Beginning in the year 1348, the Plague killed about a third of the population of Europe. Part of the reason was that many of the streets and houses in Europe were disgusting and filthy. Another part of the reason was that the cures were not available to most people. Lastly, a reason that the Plague spread so quickly throughout Europe is that people had no idea that they received the plague until the symptoms appeared, which could take a while.
One reason that the Plague was so effective in destroying the Middle Ages was that the streets and houses in Europe were disgusting and filthy. According to Erasmus of Rotterdam, the Plague and sickness in England was due to the “filth in the streets and the sputum and dogs’ urine clogging the rushes on the floors of the houses.” Also, according to a German physician, about 40 people at Casale in Western Lombardy “smeared the bolts of the town gates with an ointment to spread the plague.” Lastly, because of the conditions, “the roads and highways were guarded so that a person could not pass from one place to another. The plague had its many social reasons for being a factor in the declining Middle Ages, but the rottenness of the cities was a major factor.
Another reason that the Plague was so effective in destroying the Middle Ages was that the cures were not available to most people. According to a Sicilian physician, gold was for “the expense of the pest houses to quarantine the diseased” because of the shortage of cures. Also, according to a French physician, plague-stricken patients had so few cures available that they would “hang around their necks toads, either dead or alive, whose venom should within a few days draw out the poison of the disease.” Lastly according to a Barcelona tanner, “the demand for nurse was so great that they were so hard to find,” another major reason that cures