The Black Plague

A terrible moan of pain, a desperate shout for help, a spine-chilling scream. A new book

detailing a better future and a painting illustrating the fascinating organs of a human body,

neither encompassing religion. Deceased Kings and Popes, leaving people with a horrendous

combination of confusion and fear. Lowest class citizens speaking out for their rights,

demanding equal treatment. All of these scenarios came to life during the era of the Black

Plague. Due to the ailment and its violent spreading, millions of people all over Europe, Asia,

and Africa died; but the virus also encouraged the destruction of the social system most cities

relied on. The breakdown contributed to giving rise to a new epoch in time, filled with

remarkable creativity and the incredible idea of individualism. The change of nearly everyone’s

heart and mind would lead civilization towards a better understanding of self and the world as a

whole. The Black Plague was an event that was both a disastrous tragedy and an extraordinary

triumph.

The Black Plague, also known as the Black Death, was a disaster that devastated the

world for centuries. Not until a hundred years ago did its grip loosen, as the last major attack of

the disease was in California in 1924. The largest outbreak of this infection known to man was

during the mid-1300s, in a time period called the Dark Ages or Middle Ages.

The Black Plague was introduced to Europe in October of 1347 when a dozen ships

arrived at the Sicilian port of Messina. They had come from the Black Sea, harboring a disease

far worse than any criminal. Most of the sailors on the vessel were deceased and the few that

weren't were extremely sick: “...those still alive were gravely ill and covered in black boils that

oozed blood and pus” (“Black Death”). Before the boats had arrived, disturbing rumors
blanketed the streets of nearly every city, describing a ‘Great Pestilence’ devastating the East.

Since the authorities had heard the tales had claimed the ‘Great Pestilence’ would bring “fever,

chills, vomiting, diarrhea, terrible aches and pains - and then, in short, death” (“Black Death”),

they ordered the ships out of the harbor. They called them ‘Death Ships’. But by the time the

vessels had been sent away, the Black Plague had already clawed its way onshore and towards

the innocently terrified onlookers.

It didn’t take long for the infectious tragedy to travel from Messina to “the port of

Marseilles in France and the port of Tunis in North Africa” (“Black Death”). The disease spread

through the filth that littered the streets of nearly every city. Many people in the Dark Ages

would dump the contents of their chamber pots into the streets below, which attracted vermin,

most commonly rats. The rats were infested with fleas that were infected with the agent causing

the Black Plague, a bacteria known as ​Yersinia Pestis​, and carried the disease through the streets.

The sections of Europe, Asia, and Africa that didn’t acquire the disease from the result of their

low standards of hygiene were hand-delivered from trading and exploring vessels arriving from

infected areas. But horribly filthy roadways and ships moving from place to place were not the

only reasons the illness spread so quickly. Europe, specifically, had no natural resistance to the

disease and there was a “...series of famine and food shortages in the region...” (Lambrecht), so

the population was already weak and vulnerable. But no one during the Dark Ages knew exactly

why the Black Plague was spreading or how it stuck its vicious head into cities. Because of that,

the disease persisted for years to come.

Although nobody was exactly sure why the malady spread, eventually most city officials

understood that it hitched rides on boats and ships, traveling back from cities that were already
contaminated. By March of 1348, Venice, Italy began to create protected areas, in which they

would isolate whole cities. They closed off waters and turned away most of the arriving vessels

and travelers for 30 straight days. Later this period was extended to 40 days as the Black Plague

only grew stronger. All of the rules in the protected areas were very strict and prohibiting in an

effort to avoid the turbulent disease. One regulation dictated “...remote cemeteries for plague

victims who in turn were collected, transported, and buried in accordance with defined rules”

(“Brought to Life”). The idea for the secluded cemeteries was seen as a triumph to many cities,

as they had a place to bury the massive amounts of deceased, and the idea spread all over

Europe. Unfortunately, though Venice had good intentions, they were much too late, as tens of

thousands of citizens died the same year. Nevertheless, many cities tried roughly the same plan

as Venice had implemented. In Pistoia, Italy, laws were created for “...restrictions on imports and

exports, travel, market trading, and funerals…” (“Brought to Life”). Again, though they were on

the correct track towards avoiding the infection, there was a major outbreak around the same

time those restrictions were created. More than half of the Pistoia population died in the next

year. In most of the bigger cities, such as Florence, “...the population halved, from 100,000 to

50,000” (Lambrecht). There were some cities that didn’t have as drastic casualties, but that was

most likely due to their extreme orders concerning the Black Plague. In Milan, Italy, there were

three houses sealed up with infected people inside: “From 1350 [Milan authorities] decreed that

all future plague victims and those nursing them would be isolated in a designated pesthouse

built outside the city walls” (“Brought to Life”). Though this did help control the spreading, the

doctors caring for the infected frequently died as well, leaving Milan without many people

trained in medicine.
 However, even though hundreds of doctors passed, often receiving the illness from their

patients, most of them didn’t understand the Black Plague any better than a civilian during the

Dark Ages did. This was one tragedy that made the dire situation incredibly worse. One doctor

claimed that “instantaneous death occurs when the aerial spirit escaping from the eyes of the sick

man strikes the healthy person standing near and looking at the sick” (“Black Death”). Most of

the remedies sick people were offered were altogether fantasized and based on false texts. Not

only did a large percentage of these treatments fail, but most of them were also harmful to the

human body. Most of the unsuccessful cures even contributed to the spread of the disease. The

more hazardous remedies they offered included bloodletting, boil-lancing, and drinking water

laced with mercury or arsenic. This meant, if the patient didn't die of the Black Plague first, they

usually died due to blood loss or poisoning from their own doctor. Some doctors gave less fatal

treatments. One even included strapping live chickens around plague buboes, swollen lymph

nodes usually appearing in the armpit or groin of an infected person. As that obviously didn’t

work, the more common therapies included requesting the patient to carry sweet-smelling

flowers and herbs, placing ornate pomanders around the infected rooms to purify the air, or

bathing in rosewater or vinegar. Even though some of the procedures created a nice smell in the

midst of all of the destruction, they did not help any more than the harmful and unhelpful cures

did. On a positive note, though the treatments didn't perform as they were intended to do, the

Black Plague allowed doctors to test out theories and medicines. In the long run, this was a

triumph, as the medical treatments that didn't cure the Black Plague helped in handling later

diseases.
 However, there were prominent figures during the Renaissance that weren’t too far off on

methods to avoid the Black Plague. These people were called plague doctors and they used much

safer and logical techniques to stay healthy. Despite their famous name, they were not doctors.

Hired by city officials, plague doctors more resembled morticians than medical professionals.

They were extremely important though, as they were the only ones “willing to venture into

plague-stricken areas and tally the number of dead” (Rennie). Not only would they count the

deceased, but they would also take wills and testimonies of the infected and sometimes perform

autopsies. A vast amount of these plague doctors, however, were unscrupulous and would take

advantage of their sick clients, running off with their final testaments. Even so, they were

incredibly vital to society and time after time again were kidnapped and held for an enormous

ransom. Although they were not actual physicians, plague doctors had the best methods during

the Dark Ages to avoid contracting the Black Plague. They wore all-leather outfits covered in

suet (hardened animal fat) called protection suits to deflect fluids such as blood, spit, and any

other substances that came from the infected. The suits were often made of a waxed leather coat,

leggings, boots, and gloves to avoid the “smelly vapors [that] could catch in the fibers of their

clothing and transmit disease” (Rennie). Their famous bird beak masks were a symbol to let

people around the city know who they were. These masks had burning herbs inside:

“Foul-smelling air was…combatted with sweet herbs and spices like camphor, mint, cloves, and

myrrh, stuffed into [the mask]” (Rennie) to avoid breathing in the infected air. Though a very

smart idea in theory, a triumph that would have benefited the mask wearer when caring for

people who were quarantined, the Black Plague was an airborne disease and spread

pneumatically. This meant that, due to the holes poked into the mask to allow the smoke from
burning herbs to drift out, many of the plague doctors became infected despite the clever design

of their outfits. The shortage of plague doctors added to the tragedy of the illness because not

many people were willing to be in contact with those infected. In conclusion, though there were

promising ideas of how to avoid the Black Plague, nobody truly knew how to evade or cure

someone of it.

Still, the lack of knowledge didn't stop many from trying their own methods to prevent

the black claws of ultimate death from strangling them until they were blue. There were various

retaliations to the disease, all of which had unique rationales behind them. For example, many

royal figures such as King Edward III hired the best doctors around and hid in their castles and

fortresses. Many of the nobility willing to try the method would die because one person would

become infected and in such close quarters, everyone else would catch the sickness too.

Religious figures, such as Popes and monks, tried to convince themselves and the public that the

Black Plague was a penalty from God for being exceedingly sinful. Thousands of citizens were

told the infection was a “punishment from God for the wickedness and immorality of the people”

(Lambrecht). A large sum of the population believed the church and the outcome included plenty

of diverse responses. In Europe, outsiders and religious minorities, such as Jews, were subject to

violent abuse as people tried to atone. Thousands of Jews were killed from 1348 to 1349 and

thousands more ran away to Eastern Europe (“Black Death”). “Pope Clement VI avoided the

plague by isolating himself and by praying between two ‘purifying flames’” (Inglis-Arkell,

Esther); but, after a while, he realized that praying wouldn’t suffice. Pope Clement VI then

secretly ordered autopsies. Autopsy science was previously banned by the Pope himself, but he

wanted it done in order to find a cure, especially since his techniques weren't working. Many
physicians leaped at the opportunity of doing an autopsy, despite the risks, but nobody could find

a remedy or even the cause. Other people formed themselves in wandering groups of penitents

and some got together to perform public displays of penance and punishment in order for

forgiveness called flagellants. They would beat themselves and each other with leather straps

studded with sharp pieces of metal for around 34 days, three times a day, traveling from city to

city to repeat the process. Along their travels, hundreds joined their numbers. The rest of the

public not involved in violence or isolation often fled the city into the countryside.

Unfortunately, some were “under Islamic doctrine, [meaning that the] plague - being the will of

God - was to be endured and fleeing was forbidden” (“Black Death”). Both resulted in

significant tragedy, as the people fleeing spread the disease elsewhere, and people remaining in

groups would all become sick if one person in their ranks became infected.

All of these different reactions aided to the fall of the main custom that governed most

large cities and towns in the Dark Ages. Through the 9th to the 14th century, the feudalism

system existed in Europe and many other places. This system determined that there was a

hierarchy that included royalty, nobles, knights, and peasants, in that order of rank. In between

royalty and nobles was the church. Though not on the chart itself, religion made a lot of the

decisions in the Dark Ages. The lowest class citizens, the peasants, were at the bottom of the

feudalism’s triangular structure and were the stabilizing part. Without the peasants working the

fields and in the homes of the higher classes, the entire network would break apart. During the

Black Plague, however, the very system cities relied on crumbled. Almost immediately after the

outbreak, many fields were left unattended. Crop and livestock numbers dangerously plummeted

and left large parts of Europe and the places they traded within a larger crisis. “As trade
stagnated, businesses failed, and unemployment rose” (Lambrecht), which led to higher prices on

items that nobody could pay and demand for workers that weren’t available. These terrible

economic effects brought “the deepest recession in history” (Galán), that became a continual and

growing problem throughout the crisis. Most people looked towards the royalty and the church

for guidance. When famous and important figures from both sections became infected and died,

panic spread. Especially when religious officials passed away, as new ones were hired with not

as much experience, which resulted in many people losing faith and or respect in their religion.

“Construction of monasteries, churches, and cathedrals halted” (Galán) as people fled when they

were no longer sure about humankind’s power over the Black Plague, which also led religious

beliefs downhill. Though this sounds like a tragedy, it was, in fact, a triumph as it was a step

towards the development of a capitalist system, leading to economic and social prosperity.

Some places had good plans for when the economy fell, but others didn’t. In Northern

Italy “good farmland was plentiful, and wages increased, and the last vestiges of feudalism

disappeared as serfs increasingly could purchase their freedom” (Lambrecht); meaning that area

flourished as long as there were people alive in Italy, no matter their social status. In the South of

Italy, it was quite the opposite: “After the Black Death, the elite responded to the labor shortages

by strengthening the restrictions on the peasants...” (Lambrecht). The lower class stuck in areas

such as Southern Italy began to revolt after still being treated harshly while the world was

‘ending.’ Most everyone began to strive towards the desire to experience the pleasures of life,

even the lowest classes. The peasant riots broke out not only in Italy but in other sections of

Europe too, with demands for higher pay and better treatment. Peasants finally had decided that

“no longer was a person’s destiny to be fixed by their birth” (Lambrecht). As the pyramid
collapsed due to the stabilizer shifting in an effort to become equal, the entire system toppled,

allowing a view around it to a brighter future.

Another contribution to the fall of feudalism and the rise of a new era was the fact that, in

fear that death from the Black Plague was inevitable, people began to do exactly what they

wanted with their lives. Hundreds began to paint and write and study, mainly about the tragedy

occurring around them. Before the Black Plague, lots of artforms were restricted to those of

religious subjects. As the illness raged on, ripping out the still-beating hearts of cities and leaving

people gasping on the street, hundreds of artists began to express the horrors through their own

eyes. “[People] no longer accepted things because they were sanctioned by tradition”

(Lambrecht), as many Italians looked for solace in art and literature that had previously been

incredibly uncommon. For example, Giovanni Boccaccio, an author who lived in the midst of the

Black Plague, began writing his most famous book called ​The​ ​Decameron​, during the epidemic’s

ending years. Even though the infection wasn’t spreading as fast or as drastically as it had in

years prior, his book details the horrors of living in an area plagued by the infection. He wrote,

“In men and women alike at the beginning of the malady, certain swellings, either on the

groin or under the armpits, whereof some waxed to the bigness of a common apple,

others to the size of an egg, some more and some less, and these the vulgar named

plague-boils.”

Not only could others see these artistic representations of their terrible reality and become

inspired to create their own, but paintings and literature froze the disease in time, allowing others

to study it. All of these factors eventually weighed down the Dark Ages enough for a new era to

take its place.

individualism and the creativity of the human mind. The extremely terrible epidemic led to “one

of the greatest epochs for art, architecture, and literature in human history” (Lambrecht). This era

was called the Renaissance. Though the Black Plague lessened in the early 1350s, the people

who started changing during the surge of destruction didn’t stop, which encouraged the rest of

the world to transform too. Hundreds of famous artists, artwork, and discoveries came from this

age and the Black Plague helped fuel the start of it all. Even nobility changed, as most were in

debt after the infection stopped drastically spreading. Most royalties sold freedom to their slaves

and sold land to lower classes. Often the people who bought those lands because rich merchants

and would sponsor and support the rising artists. In addition, the Black Plague “ended half a

century of religion-induced medical ignorance” (Esther) and lit a new desire to study the

anatomy of the human body. The disease had begun “...wide-ranging social, economic, cultural

and religious changes” (Lambrecht). Though the Black Plague killed “over a third of the

population in Europe and half the population in Asia” (“Brought to Life”) in the short span of

half a decade and destroyed a system most people relied on, the malady also helped shape the

world into what it is now.

As the feudalism system fell, people became more equal. On a more even playing

ground, even if it was still rocky, more opportunities arose for everyone. This included more

jobs, higher pay, and even some land for peasants. Not only did the Black Plague contribute to

starting the Renaissance, but it also allowed great leaps in medical knowledge and marked a fatal

drop in religious dependency. People were allowed more freedom with their lives, a luxury that

is taken for granted today. Millions began to express themselves in new independent creativity,
many making names for themselves that will never be forgotten. The advancements achieved in

the Renaissance provided the tools and intelligence needed to push humankind further than it

ever had gone before. Though the Black Plague was a disastrous infection that devastated

civilization, the fear caused people and, in due course, the world to jump into action to become a

better version of itself.

A viewing of an autopsy, a creative church art piece. A sculpture standing in the middle

of town square, a book published about the inner workings of the human body. An artist debuting

their first piece, a new religion with different views. All of these wonders appeared in the

Renaissance. But the Renaissance could not have arisen without the Black Plague. Countless

died, leaving better jobs open for peasants. Kings and Popes died, which forced people to rely on

themselves and their own instincts. New though dangerous treatments were attempted, and

though most only led to the accidental demise of their patients, doctors made giant leaps and

strides instead of small, insignificant steps in medicine. Most of these factors added on top of

each other to build first the Renaissance and then the world as we know it today. The Black

Plague was an event that was both a disastrous tragedy and an extraordinary triumphant.
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