Black Death
In the 1340’s, approximately one third to
one half the population of Europe
was wiped out by what was called "The Black
Death". The people of the time
were armed with little to no understanding of
why and how the plague happened
and how to control it; and this allowed for
the vast destruction that occurred
in little more than three years time. The
origin of the epidemic has, with
little doubt, been identified as Lake
Issyk-Koul in what is now a part of
Russian Central Asia. A flood, or
some other natural disaster, drove various
rodents from their habitats around
the lake; and with them they carried fleas
infected with the plague. A
species of wild rodents normally isolated from
humanity spread the plague to
the more common black rat, which has been riding
on board ships since man
first set sail. The plague then followed the trade
routes all over Europe.
"Ships arrived from Caffa at the port of Messina,
Sicily. A few dying men
clung to the oars; the rest lay dead on the decks...
Ships that carried
the coveted goods of the fabled East now also carried death.
The
Pestilence had come to the shores of Europe" (Wark). The accounts of
the
plague tell of the symptoms being ‘tumors in the groin or the armpits’
and
‘black livid spots on the arm or thigh’, typical symptoms of Bubonic
plague.
However, Bubonic plague normally takes several days to kill, and
many accounts
tell of victims falling dead inside one day of contracting the
disease. The
variance in the cases of the Black Death are the workings of
three strains of
the plague: the plague proper; a pulmonary (air-borne)
version, characterized by
the vomiting of blood; and a septicaemic variant,
capable of killing in several
hours, before typical symptoms can even
develop. The people the plague
threatened knew neither the source of the
disease, nor how to protect themselves
from it. "It was said that the cause
of the Pestilence or The Great Mortality
-- 14th-century names for the
contagion -- was a particularly sinister alignment
of the planets, or a foul
wind created by recent earthquakes. Other theories
existed. ‘Looks,’
according to one medieval physician, ‘could kill’ "
(Wark). They believed
their best recourse for avoiding the plague, was to run
from it. When flight
was not an option, they attempted to purify the air by
burning aromatic woods
and powders. They remained inactive, almost vegetative,
holed up in their
homes; if one had to move, he ought to move slowly. Love,
anger, and hot
baths were to be avoided; and, based on the belief that bad drove
out bad,
potential victims would spend a half-hour daily crouched over a latrine
to
build up their resistance. Once one contracted the plague, death was only
a
question of time. Physicians stopped visiting the infirm out of fear and
the
obvious futility of their efforts. They claimed the plague must be
punishment
from God, and therefore beyond their control. Priest still came to
deliver the
last rights, and consequently, they died in droves. The effects
of the plague
went far beyond the obvious death toll, into the souls of men
and women. "
‘Some people callously maintained that there was no better or
more efficacious
remedy against a plague than to run away from it. Swayed by
this argument, and
sparing no thought for anyone but themselves, large
numbers of men and women
abandoned their city, their homes, their relatives,
their estates and their
belongings, and headed for the countryside. They
maintained that an infallible
way of warding off this appalling evil was to
drink heavily, enjoy life to the
full, go around singing and merrymaking,
gratify all of one's cravings whenever
the opportunity offered, and shrug the
whole thing off as one enormous joke.’
-Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron"
(Wark). Still, some people took a
different view of the situation. Germany
was the center for two phenomena
spawned by the plague the Flagellant
movement, and a wave of anti-Semitism. The
Flagellants believed that by
chastising themselves they could avert the wrath of
God.