The Black Death in 14th Century Europe
In the mid 14th century, an epidemic plague ravaged Europe, killing as many as 25 million people while affecting short term social and religious practices.
The Black Death or bubonic plague arrived in Italy in 1347, spread by merchant ships coming from eastern commercial port cities like Constantinople. The plague rapidly spread through Europe, following the trade routes along which expanding and densely populated urban centers were located. Within a hundred year period, the disease reduced Europe’s population of approximately 75 million by a third. As the plague frequently returned, some cities lost over fifty per cent of the inhabitants. Commenting on the early responses, Brian Tierney and Sidney Painter state that, “It is not surprising that some of the first reactions to the Black Death were marked by a sort of pathological irrationality.”
Danse Macabe throughout Fourteenth Century Europe
Visitors to Europe can travel from Paris to Lubeck and on to Tallinn and view the murals dedicated to the plague years, the danse macabe or dance of death. The frescoes and woodcuts are a reminder that the plague was no respecter of persons. Dancing skeletons hold the hands of popes and bishops, kings and queens, merchants and peasants. When the plague swept through Avignon in southern France, half of the College of Cardinals succumbed. Because the church was deeply involved with the dying and with dispensing medical relief, albeit very primitive by modern standards, members of the Catholic clergy were reduced by such numbers that subsequent standards for ordination to replace the dead were lowered.
No one knew what caused the plague, which had begun in China and made its way west over the Silk Road and through the Crimea. Scholars at the University of Paris blamed unusual planetary conjunctions that ultimately emitted poisonous vapors. Poison seemed a logical answer and many Europeans, notably in Germany, blamed the Jews, asserting that they had poisoned the wells. Massacres of Jews followed, despite earnest attempts by the Catholic Church to suppress the persecutions.
In most cases, death was swift. Although there were several varieties or strains of the disease, pneumonic plague, which affected the lungs, is considered to be the deadliest. Plague symptoms included high fever and a swelling of the lymph nodes. The disease was spread by fleas, living on black rats. In London, the plague was blamed on cats – long associated in Europe with evil. Huge bonfires consumed the cats, causing the rat population to grow. Poor sanitation, hygiene, and malnutrition helped the disease to spread in cities like London.
Results of the Plague Years in Europe
In some areas, such as in England, the plague left small hamlets deserted. The shortage of farm laborers forced some landowners to raise sheep, beginning, perhaps, a process that would culminate in the rise of English textiles centuries later. Additionally, worker shortages had the impact of increased overall wages. Fewer workers forced employers to pay more for daily labor. As the population corrected itself, these wages would be cut, prompting peasant revolts in several sections of Europe.
The plague also renewed interest in religion and death. Groups of people known as flagellants marched through cities flogging themselves in an orgy of blood and pain, hoping to appease an obviously angry God who was calling people to repentance. With religion came superstition and local remedies as old as pre-Christian Europe. Rhymes like Ring around the rosy date back to the plague in London, ending with the line, “Ashes, ashes, we all fall down,” referring to the certain death that came in a city that some scholars say suffered a 60% population loss.
Charms and amulets were worn to protect against the plague, a favorite charm inscribed with the magical word “abracadabra.” A reverse pyramid decreased the word to a simple “a,” symbolic of the shrinking of plague symptoms. The Black Plague represented one of three population-reducing events of the 14th century. Ultimately, the plague ran its course, returning to some regions briefly. Europe’s population would return to normal growth patterns by 1450.
Sources:
Giulia Calvi, Histories of a Plague Year: the Social and the Imaginary in Baroque Florence (University of California Press, 1989).
William H. McNeill, Plagues and People (Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1976).
Brian Tierney and Sidney Painter, Western Europe in the Middle Ages 300-1475 (McGraw-Hill, 1992) p 482.
Philip Ziegler, The Black Death (Harper & Row, 1969).
See also “Totentanz.” Although in German, the site provides good images of the various Dance of Death murals.
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