Black Death

(1347–1352)

   The advent of the Black Death followed hard upon the Great Famine (1315–22), the worst famine in the history of Europe, in which at least 10 percent of the population died over the course of seven years. The Black Death itself was a combination of three related diseases: bubonic plague, pneumonic plague, and septicemic plague. The name “black death” probably originates from one of the common signs of infection: The lymph nodes of victims, usually those in the groin, would swell and darken. These swellings were also called buboes, hence the term “bubonic.” The plague was extremely contagious, particularly the pneumonic variety, which could be contracted by inhaling the droplets produced when an infected person coughed or sneezed. The third and rarest form, septicemic plague, was the most horrifying because the plague bacteria entered the bloodstream directly, causing death in mere hours. A person might go to bed seemingly hale and hearty, only to be found dead in the morning after what must have been a night spent in agony. Mortality rates for bubonic plague were between 60 percent and 90 percent, while pneumonic plague was usually fatal within a matter of days. All three forms of the plague originated with rats and the fleas they carried, and rats were absolutely everywhere in medieval Europe. These plague-infested rats arrived in Europe on merchant vessels, appearing first in Sicily and Sardinia by way of the Asian steppes and the Crimea. The population of Europe had been greatly weakened through malnutrition as a result of the Great Famine, and under such circumstances, weakened immune systems were no match for the virulent plague. The Black Death advanced across Europe at a terrifying pace, carrying off one-third of the population and as many as half of the residents of towns, where the effects of malnutrition were further exacerbated by the cramped living conditions and general lack of sanitation. Those who cared for plague victims often succumbed themselves, and monasteries and convents had a high mortality rate as monks, priests, and nuns contracted the disease from those in their care. Coffins for the dead could not be manufactured quickly enough, and often corpses were consigned to large mass graves. While the causes and transmission of the plague bacillus are understood today, in the Middle Ages the process of infection was a terrifying mystery. Many contemporary theories were formed as to how this catastrophe might have been caused. Some attributed the onset of the Black Death to the configurations of the stars or other natural phenomena, such as earthquakes or even thick fogs. However, these causal theories were not restricted to nature, and marginal groups might also be blamed. Jews were accused of poisoning wells, while in Spain, the blame was placed on Arabs. The Jewish communities of the Rhineland paid a particularly high price as Jews in Strasbourg, Frankfurt, Mainz, and Cologne were massacred in 1349.Most considered the plague an expression of God’s wrath and believed that the only way to escape the plague was to live in perpetual quarantine or flee. The DECAMERON by Giovanni BOCCACCIO (1313–73) is set during the plague years and details the attempt of a group of young Italian nobles to avoid the contagion rampant in Florence by quarantining themselves in a country villa and then passing the time by inventing a series of tales.

   Despite attempts to avoid the effects of plague, outbreaks recurred throughout the remainder of the 14th and 15th centuries. The recurrence in 1361–62 was notable for the number of children who were killed and is often called the children’s plague.Having been born after the main onslaught of the Black Death, these children lacked the immunity that came from prior exposure. The unpredictable but ever-present threat of plague, which claimed both peasant and noble, meant that levels of anxiety remained at a constant high from one generation to the next.

   While the Black Death itself was a horrific event in the history of Europe, its onset acted as a catalyst for developments in medieval society. The Black Death acted as an impetus for the development of Christian spirituality as an increasing number of people sought to understand the seemingly arbitrary nature of the Black Death as well as their own mortality and purpose in life. On a more practical level, greater resources, such as land and food, were available for those who survived, and laborers could expect higher wages as a result of the shortage of manpower. For landowners, hiring the workers necessary for the cultivation of their demesne lands became prohibitively expensive. This, in turn, led to a decline in serfdom and the onset of several popular peasant rebellions, notably the Jacquerie in France and the PEASANTS’ REVOLT of 1381 in England.

   Bibliography

   ■ Jordan,William C. The Great Famine: Northern Europe in the Early Fourteenth Century. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1996.

   ■ Nirenberg, David. Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1996.

   ■ Shrewsbury, J. F. D. A History of Bubonic Plague in the British Isles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970.

   ■ Swanson, R. N. Religion and Devotion in Europe c. 1215–1515. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

   ■ Ziegler, Philip. The Black Death. Stroud, U.K.: Sutton Publishing, 2003.

   Diane Korngiebel