Black Death Essya

To what extent did the Black Death effect early modern Europe?

Early modern Europe was a society that did not included the cleanliness, systematic function or technology that people enjoy in society today, it was an era of discovery, option and a boom of trade. The black death was a tremendous tragedy that swept across Europe and was responsible for the death of millions of people, this disease ‘ravaged the Christian and Islamic worlds, killing perhaps 40 percent of the population’ (Byrne, 2012) it is suspected that the spread of this plague was due to the boom of trade and travel, via the Black sea, it went from Egypt to Italy then spreading through the land of Persia then Ireland and through to Russia. Whatever the cause was, this disease managed to wipe out half of the European population during its years active and in turn directly affected the European ways of life, their economy devastated , religion questions, medical knowledge were outrageous and all in such a vulnerable time period. The black plague came at a truly ironic and inconvenient time for mankind. It had arrived near the end of the middle ages, after this period urban life had re-emerged, manufacturing and business had been innovated, agriculture had matures, commerce over distance had been born, and the population had tripled. However with all these statistics in mind, it truly does show the damage that the Black Death did to early modern European society.

Many historians have plundered the idea of how this outbreak began, however Sean Martins believes that in October 1347 it was twelve Genoese Galleys that carried the sickness that would devastate Europe (Martin, 2001). It is said that these vessels were set to do trade along the silk road, through the Crimea and then across the black sea on to Europe, eventually when the vessels arrive Martin claims ‘ the poor authorities found, to their horror, that scarcely anyone on board the twelve galleys was let alive’ (Martin, 2001). Eventually the galley were deemed a public health emergency and the vessels were gone! However the damage had already been done as the Black Death had now arrived in Europe, and it wasn’t long before there was cases in towns everywhere (Martin, 2011). Throughout history there has always been plagues but were usually contained within a town, none have been as big or as devastating as the Black Death. ‘The Black Death killed over 25 million people in Europe between 1347 and 1350’ (McDonagh, 2006).
Over the last two millenniums there have been many plague pandemics with the biggest one being the Black Death plague of the 14th century. ‘Scientifically the Plague, is caused by the rod-shaped, gram-negative bacterium Yersinia pestis, is a zoonotic infection’ (Sherman, 2009) this infections is transmitted by one of several species of fleas, ‘that predominantly affects small mammals such as rodents; humans actually are accidental hosts’ (Sherman, 2009). The most common case of the plague amongst humans is the bubonic plague, which is resulted from the bite of a flea, usually the common rat flea that has fed on an infected rodent. The bacteria attacks the lymph nodes (armpits and the neck are usual areas) these lymph nodes swell up and create the bubo. Continued symptoms after the bubo sapper are high fever, individual becomes delirious and haemorrhages in the skin cause black splotches, this is what was believed to have created the name ‘Black Death’ (Sherman, 2009)

The first effect caused by the Black Death in early modern Europe was the issue and theme of abandonment, the sickness meant that family member would basically abandon children, parents and sibling. The spread of this disease had frightened society so much that no matter who it came in to contact with, the victim would then be seen as an enemy and alienation was required to survive. In this particular time period religion was a huge factor of day to day life, because of this abandonment theme, Europe was effected because now ‘dying alone was not only a psychic horror, it also meant the one would not receive sacramental Last Rites, the highly desired Catholic spiritual aid for one’s final journey’ (Byrne, 2012) which was something that during normal times, families would witness this in practices, this was a clear example on how the black death effect European society. Society had begun to this that the contagion of the plague was from the victims living or dead, scientifically this was incorrect, the fleas that caused the disease did indeed abandon dying victims in search for ‘fresh flesh’ and spread the disease to new victims. This theme of abandonment didn’t only effect families, but furthermore the whole public, Beresford wrote that ‘inns and households hid away plague victims and sometimes abandoning them to die in the process’ (Beresford & Hurst, 19710. By doing this businesses were able to stay clean and maintain a healthy business. To a worse extent societal abandonment occurred when communities would essentially expel or exile the sick and literally throwing them out of the city to fend for themselves (Byrne, 2012). Not just the peasant and common people were involved in the theme of abandonment, many higher class representatives such as pastors, doctors and city official followed particular medical advice and would abandon their place of living and also abandoned their obligations. All of these issues combined meant that the plague had created a significant stock of loss and eventually meant that urban housing was abandoned or had been left due to victims inside. According to James ‘landlords gained in the short term from payments on the deaths of tenants, but eventually rents dwindled and the land fell to waste’ (James, 2015) .This left survivors no choice but to abandon their community all together (Byrne, 2012). All of these issues show that through the introduction and spread of the Black Death, European society was effected through the common theme of abandonment, common ethic, behaviors, obligations and communities were abandoned which assisted the decline of Europe and heightened the devastation of this disease.

The introduction of the plague also directly affected social customs, for example families that suffered a loss would see their decease receive a correct burial and ceremony, however when the plague began this social ‘norm’ had been suspended and had broken down. Instead of the usual burial families now had to begin to ‘surrender their beloved dead to grotesque corpse carriers who carted them off to the plague pits and anonymous grave’ (Byrne, 2012) This is fact because back in 2006 a newspaper article written by McDonagh reported the findings of a black death mass grave in Co Roscommon, ‘DNA test were carried out on the teeth of the 45 skeletal remains found the black plague bacteria present’ (McDonagh, 2006). In relation to this another mass grave had been found located near the tower of London, scientist for Canada and Germany managed to dig up 2500 victims that had y. pestis bacteria on their teeth. (2012)These mass grave had effected and severed family traditions and connections in villages and cities. Families and friend would no longer grieve correctly and it would seem if another person was to do it was just unfortunate. A person’s life had become of lesser value and importance as a direct effect of the Black Death.

The Black Death had been included in the work of many early European scholars, however it is noticed that a majority of the writing on this particular topic is from scholars that were not directly affected nor did they experience the Black Death. Artistes took on a dark humours in order to express their feelings and cope with the tragedy, art was full of death and often mocked the hopelessness. This was due to the fact of the black death being so devastating across all platforms of social living, scholars had either contributed their work on their experiences or had succumb to the tragedy of this disease. It is evident that the lack of scholarly input during this time period is directly linked to the black deaths effect on education. There is still limited sources on this particular effect however the work of Anna Campbell claiming there was a ‘decline or at very least a period of quiescence at various medieval universities in the decades immediately after 1348’ (Campbell, 1931). It is however evident that recognizing the amount of death and its impact on education differed for university to university. The clear effects on education are evident in Courtenay’s writing were it is stated that ‘masters and students fled at the first signs of the plague’ (Courtenay, 1980). This would make for a more un-educated society and a production of unqualified scholars. How could society rehabilitate from the plague if there was a lack of scholars and the quality of education and therefore ideas was low. The spread of this plague also directly affected the economy, these immediate effects consisted of a huge loss of man power due to casualties and a drop in price levels because of suddenly glutted markets. According to Robbins items such as ‘furs, silks, tapestries, luxuries of all kinds fell within the purchasing power of the poor’(Robbins, 1928) however because of the circumstances these effects caused, natural economic principal kicked in and this condition of luxury would soon pass. Offcourse those who had survived did indeed find themselves richer then before but economic factors had directly affected the great extent the value of this new wealth. Due to the famines and mortality rate it brought misery and the effects of this plague would have permanent effects on the economy of Europe. The rate of mortality also meant that cities would have to deal with an incredibly low labour supply, workers in the country side also had low levels of labour but the death rate proved to be a lot higher in the urban areas. The city did have the ability to fix some of the damages though, according to Routt this was done by attracting new workers from the countryside, more workers would pursue work in the city and this would deepen the crisis for the lords and land owners, in the long terms this meant changes to rural settlement (Routt, 2015). Historians argue that the lack of labour due to the effects of the plague caused a resurgence of the slave trade, extra men were found to work in the countryside, however this didn’t necessarily help the availability of labour or the economy, this was because a slave performed an unskilled task adequately but this did not mean they could replace a skill labourer. This meant that ‘The gross loss of talent due to the plague caused a decline in per capita productivity’ (Hunt and Murray, 1999). The inclusion of the Black Death on European economy essentially meant and overabundance of goods, a decrease in the price of goods, a huge surplus of work and therefore a rise in wages. Because the standard of living had increased for the survivors and demand for workers was so high, movement away from feudalism had begun and this would pave the way for the next era of renaissance, a direct effect of the Black Death.

Society was certainly never the same after the Black Death, referring to England specifically, the English church certainly suffered. The church began to lose its integrity, this is evident in James’s writing when he stated ‘the black death killed proportionally at least as many clergy as laity’ (James, 2015), new recruits were claimed to be of a lesser quality, of the new clerks, many proved to be illiterate and ‘even if they could read, they could not understand’ (James, 2015). Even after the plague the new clergymen began to ask for twice to ten times more than pre-plague for chaplaincy or vicarage. The decline of the English church was not only because of the mortality of the plague, but also because of some clergy leaving and abandoning their churches. The black death effected European religion as a whole in many ways, naturally people of 14th century society struggled with the failure of their religion, this was because the church could not save nor heal people from the disease, people would begin to question their beliefs simply because there was no direct understanding of the origin of the disease and the ideology of supernatural powers came in to effect, society understood the plague to be a sort of divine punishment. Due to these negative ideologies churches and religions all over Europe suffered a loss of power. Unfortunately fear and tragedy cause’s societies to seek answers, because of this extreme ideologies are born and are at the expense of particular people or practices, during this time period it was the Jews who were accused of poisoning wells and cursing society (Cohn, 2007). European society should have been creating goals and recreating economic, political and social grievance but instead society used violence to ‘ target forces outside of political and economic hierarchies to resolve anxieties, fears and anger, in the case of accusations of well-poisoning it was outside, the Jews’ (Cohn, 2007). It is evident that the outbreak of this disease effected the church and religion as a whole and even effected the practice of another religion with the loss of many Jewish people. Some scholars argue that that the effects of the Black Death on early modern European religion and society planted the seeds for the reformation in the sixteenth century.

As society crumbled under the grip of the plague, society would be further effected by the rise of crime, because of the circumstances at the time crime became an act of both desperation and opportunity. It is known that fourteenth century law realistically only had two punishments, death or mutilation, all sources indicate that society began to think that whether it was the plague or punishment, then end of the world was upon them and they would die either way, this attitude certainly promotes the idea of crime. The most popular crimes that arose was theft but across different platforms, for example according to Munday there was looting from the dying or already dead and a lot of thefts of foodstuffs. The theft of food had increased because the few labourers left that worked on land were too scared to go into the city for fear of getting infected (Munday, 2015) A rise in crime is always linked with an increase in the severity of punishment or the proposition of new laws. The increased crime added more danger to everyday life but new enforcements were also linked to particular ideas and religious views, many believed it was because of the crimes or sins committed that god would continue to punish (Byrne, 2012). However with the inclusion of more crime and punishment meant society would conduct inhumane behaviors, this was most likely due to the fact that many people that were responsible for actually maintaining order would succumb to the Black Death and die, and once again would mean that there would be a lack of quality and experience amongst the new law officials. Because of this lack of experience, many outrageous laws were formed, for example it was now illegal to conduct funerals, hide the sick or their corpses, if families were barricaded in their houses, they were considered criminals if they got out and also any trading of possessions, clothes or bedding etc. belong to victims was a crime. The plague caused the rise in both crime and punishment, because of this society suffered as people would now actively involve themselves in crime purposely or accidently, an increase in moral transgressions is also evident, because the effect of the black plague, people would now gamble, drink and fornicate a lot more because they believed there was nothing better to do to avoid death.

Early modern European society is very different to the society people experience today, whilst our society is totally advanced and if a person experienced the plague now, a simple course of antibiotics would cure the sickness, the 14th century world didn’t have this knowledge nor did they have the resources and it was because of this that one third of the European population perished due to the disease. No matter what the time period, a loss of life to this magnitude would devastate and effect society in tremendous ways, specifically in 14th century Europe the Black Death directly affected everything! This was more extreme because as mention before, the Black Death spread through Europe at a really ironic time, just after the end of the Middle Ages. Society was ready to progress with urban life re-emerging, manufacturing and business had been innovated, agriculture had matures, commerce over distance had been born, and the population had tripled. But it was because of this time that society would be most affected by the disease through the theme of abandonment, social customs were altered, participants in education had declined, the economy declined and then fluctuated, religion was questioned and lost importance and an increase in crime and punishment would directly affect attitudes

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