How Did The Black Plague Affect Western Civilization

Rough Draft-Black Plague
One of the greatest disasters of the Western Civilization is without a doubt the Black Plague, but the Black Plague isn’t like any of your other diseases, it was a plague that was determined to reduce more than half of the western population, this disease was destined to end all humankind, given it’s way. With the Europeans trading with the East, a rumor was being spread that an infectious disease was forming in Asia. In Jordan McMullin’s book, “The Black Death”, he discusses, “By September of 1345, the Yersinia pestis bacillus, probably carried by rats, reached the Crimea, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, where Italian merchants had a good number of trading colonies.” Everyone talks about how the spread of the Black Plague happened or how horrible the symptoms to the Black Plague were and but not a lot is discussed about the aftereffects of the Black Plague. By analyzing religion, social and economic artifacts during this time, we’ll see how the Black Plague impacted Western Civilization.
“When ignorant men are overwhelmed by forces totally beyond their control and their understanding it is inevitable that they will search for some explanation within their grasp.” (McMullin, 62).
A lot of fear was happening during the Black Plague, but not just fear but doubt as well, doubt in God, doubt that humanity is doomed to their own impiety. Religion plays a major role for the Black Plague impacting the Western Civilization. An entire civilization, multiple civilizations were facing death, and once a person is almost facing death a natural reaction would be to turn towards the church for support and guidance through a person's final days. The priests during this time were even worried about being infected with the Plague that priests were gaining the reputation for not attending to the decaying bodies in an appropriate amount of time that funerals had no choice to but to perform hasty
funerals.
A lot of doubt in God’s existence was popular during this time. The Church had failed them to save them and humanity from this disease and leading many to question themselves on their beliefs.
“Few doubted that the Black Death was God’s will but, by a curious quirk of reasoning, medieval man also concluded that His instruments were to be found on earth and that, if only they could be identified, it was legitimate to destroy them.” (McMullin, 62) “The position of the nobility was affected by the Black Plague in other ways. Plague did not honor social class, and mortality among the nobility approximated that of the general population.” (McMullin, 82). Social and economic artifacts were greatly altered by the Black Plague due to the nobility not being spared by this disease the peasants during this medieval era was that the peasants saw this as an opportunity to rise themselves to power. Another problem for the Nobility during this time was that children had an extremely high mortality rate as well as maternal mortality at 20%, it was extremely problematic to produce an heir. “High mortality among the aristocracy was more damaging than it was among the peasantry because of the importance to the lord of proper patterns of inheritance.