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What Were The Causes Of The Black Death

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What Were The Causes Of The Black Death
The Black Death started in 1347 and raged on for some years, wiping most of Europe as it spread. Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) wrote of the plague’s symptoms: swellings or tumors in the armpits and groin, which led to blackness on different parts of the body. There’s no doubt that the Europeans had their own opinion on the cause of the plague and how to contain it.
The Black Death was a plague that very unfamiliar to the victims. As a result, they had different beliefs on the cause of the plague; however, they all shared one common belief: the disease was airborne. According to the “Ordinances Against the Spread of Plague, Pistoia, 1348,” “no citizen of Pistoia...shall dare or presume to go to Pisa or Lucca; and no one shall come to Pistoia from those places; penalty 500 pence.” Additionally, the “Plague Regulations of Bernabo, Visconti, Lord of Milan, 1347,” “each person who displays a swelling or tumor shall immediately leave...to the open country [and] those in attendance upon [the diseased] shall wait ten days before returning to human society.” These …show more content…
According to Document 8, “priests cannot be found for love or money...we understand that many people are dying without the [confession] of penance, because they...believe that...an emergency confession of their sins is of no use...unless made to a priest…. [W]e order...you to make it known...to everybody...that if one the point of death [if a priest is not available] to any lay person, even woman if a man is not available.” This suggests that the church has taken it upon themselves to allow anyone to be a “temporary priest,” to hear the confessions of their dying neighbor. Additionally, this shows the degree of the plague, which was great, to even make the priests afraid and the church to resort to such drastic
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