This
is the last of a six-part series about the Middle Ages with the goal of giving
casual readers of medieval romances a better understanding of the time period. Today's topic is the Black Death and end of the Middle Ages.
Previously
In
First the Fall, Then the Barbarians, we
discussed the macro trends of the early medieval period and how they set the
foundation for the Early Middle Ages. We painted kings and knights with a broad
brush and learned the benefits of political stability in Huzzah! Knights, Kings and Living the High Life.
We looked at war and social change in Ideals of Chivalry and Realities of War and
discussed the lives of medieval women in Wives, Mothers, and Nuns. We considered the
difference between ‘the church’ and ‘The Church’ in The
Desire for God, Power, and Learning.
Some scholars put the
beginning of the Renaissance—or the end of the Middle Ages—as early as 1215
with the reign of Frederick II, whose personality and intellectual curiosity
heralded the Renaissance. Others put it as late as 1469, the year Lorenzo de
Medici began ruling Florence and who could arguably be called the patron of the Italian Renaissance.
If I had to pick a date
and defend it for a dissertation, I would argue for 1352, the year after the first
wave of the plague burned itself out and the shattered survivors began the
painful process of rebuilding their world.
The beginning of the End
 |
| Numerically, more died in the Spanish Flu epidemic between 1917-18, but total deaths were 3 percent to 5 percent of the global population. |
Yersinia
pestis, the bacteria associated with the Great Mortality, touched
European shores in 1347, and in the course of five years, killed an estimated
50 million people from the Mediterranean to the North Sea. That’s 60 percent of
the European population. In other words, every six out of 10 people living in
Europe died; in some places, however, mortality was 80 percent. That would be
30 million to 48 million dead in California and 12,000 to 18,000 where I currently live.
Scholars will argue the exact number, but noodle the idea of at least half (if not more) of the people in your town dying of disease within a month. If
you live in a town of 25,000, you will have ~15,000 people die in a few weeks. You have to find those people, bury them, divvy up their goods, and fill
their place in the town’s social structure.
The Black death, also
called Bubonic Plague because many victims suffered from swollen lymph nodes or
buboes in the neck, armpit or groin, is often attributed to infected fleas
biting humans after their preferred host, the black rat, died. However, based
on the speed, virulence, and rapidity of transmission, many Plague scholars believe
there were at least three strains of plague circulating Europe, including a
pneumonic strain that appears to have been airborne.
Most scholars believe Yersinia pestis originated in central
Asia and spread through China along the main east-west trade routes through
commerce and war. It came to Europe in the fall of 1347 on Italian merchant
ships fleeing Caffa (sometimes spelled Kaffa). In what might well be the most
effective instance of germ warfare ever, when Mongol leader Jeni Beg realized
he could not take the city because plague had destroyed his army, he lobbed the
plague-riddled corpses over the wall, infecting those within the city (although rats came and went unimpeded by
either army, so Jeni Beg can’t take all the credit or the blame). Defenders,
fleeing plague, brought the disease to Marselles in the second week of
September. By November, it was in Genoa, Venice and Pisa. These cities served
as bridgeheads from which the plague conquered all of Europe.
Nothing to do but Wait and Pray
Horrifyingly, people
knew it was coming. Stories arrived in a town or city weeks or months in
advance of the assault. As people fled cities to avoid the plague (often
bringing it with them) they told stories of thousands dead in a few weeks, of
people dancing in the morning, feeling ill in the afternoon, and being dead
by evening, and of whole families lost and no one realizing it because their
neighbors were dead, as well.
Surviving accounts tell
us of mass burials and wild pigs and dogs digging up the shallowly buried corpses
and of rivers being consecrated to handle the dead because a city ran out of land
and people to bury its dead. One Italian man wrote of burying his wife and
five sons with his own hands.
Modern epidemiologists
may debate the exact cause of the Plague, but the key point from a societal
point-of-view is simply this: all efforts to contain or stop the plague failed.
- Medicine failed.
- Human sacrifice failed (i.e. the slaughter of thousands of urban Jews accused of poisoning wells to kill Christians).
- Prayer failed.
As a result of the horror and the failure of social systems to contain the suffering, the plague altered how people saw themselves and each other, weakened their faith in institutions and God, and bestowed unprecedented opportunities for mobility and prosperity on survivors.
Loss of Faith
As we discussed in an
earlier post, the church (local parish priests and monks) and The Church (the
institution) were the driving force of medieval society, but when society turned
to the church in both forms for comfort, for answers, for intercession, the
Church failed. It could neither offer answers nor comfort for the dying. Many
churchmen fled their posts in an attempt to save their own lives and those that
stayed, usually died.
Then—as now—people searched for reason behind the plague and in
the absence of answers, many people believed the plague was divine punishment
for sins. When prayers, votive churches, and the various fasts days called for
by the Church failed to even slow the plague, people began to question the
righteousness of the church and its divine role in society. This change in
perception weakened people’s faith in the church, which led directly to the
Reformation, as well the Enlightenment, separation of Church and State, the idea of upward mobility and concept of to individual liberty.
It also changed individual lives—often for the better.
Moving on Up
To be honest, if you survived plague, your life was almost
immediately materially better off than it had been or would have been if the
Black Death hadn’t overrun Europe. That’s harsh, especially to the millions who
died horrific deaths, but it’s also true.
Prior to 1347, Europe was over-populated and culturally stagnant.
The 12th century intellectual blossoming that led to the High Middle
Ages had faded. Social mobility had come to a standstill and Europe struggled
to feed itself, which means the majority of the population was malnourished and
one bad harvest from starvation.
As Plague wiped out the population, many people found themselves
the sole heirs to their extended family. When consolidated, this inheritance
was often substantial enough to change the life of the survivor. This wealth
included food animals as well as tools (looms, hence the word heirloom) and
money. Food was no longer scarce or unaffordable, which means diet and overall
health improved, as well.
Our survivors had health and wealth, skills that were
in demand, and an understandable skepticism of the church. They could afford to
educate their children. They were willing to risk their noble lord’s wrath and
move to the city or to another estate where that lord offered a relief of
heriot and daily wages, and were no longer content with their place in the Great Chain of Being. They were needed enough by society that they could ignore
efforts from the nobility and the church to reinstitute “traditional values,” and efforts to put the lower orders back into their place failed.
Many of the social changes brought by the plague would have
happened anyway, but probably not for another century or two. What the plague
did was concentrate these changes into a few painful decades.
A New Outbreak
The plague resurfaced in Europe every decade or so until 1666, but
we are not free of the bubonic plague. An outbreak occurred in the early 19th century in China and southeast Asia. Much of our medical knowledge of the
plague comes from this outbreak.
And in 1994, bubonic and pneumonic plague surfaced in Surat India,
killing only 56 people thanks to the quick and efficient response of India's government and
modern antibiotics. Of note, however, is how people reacted to this outbreak.
As with the 14th century outbreak, Doctors and nurses refused to
treat the sick. People fled the city of Surat in packed trains going to New
Delhi and other cities. The plague traveled with them. Others blamed local
Muslim populations for poisoning the city’s water supply. Sigh.
About 20 people in the U.S. are infected with plague every year
and a few die, mostly because the medical community doesn’t recognize symptoms
in time.
If you’d like to learn more about the plague, let me know and I
can most links and suggestions in the comments. Overall, though, the clearest
learning from a study of plague, is simply this: individuals are fragile, but
humanity is resilient.
I hope you have enjoyed this blog series of medieval Europe. I
have only skimmed the surface of long and complex time period, so please ask
questions. However, I am on a plane from Hawaii today, so feel free to discuss
among yourselves until I land stateside.
