The Cause Of The Black Death In Medieval Europe
The Black Death wreaked havoc across most of medieval Europe for nearly a decade. While in the modern age, we know that the disease originated from fleas carried on the backs of rats, the cause of the pandemic remained completely unknown to the people of Europe from a period between 1346 and 1353 AD. As the Europeans were overwhelmingly Catholic at the time, a historian can make the argument that Europeans believed that the Black Death was the wrath of God and punishment for their sins, based on the sources provided. Such evidence includes how Boccaccio recorded in The Decameron
, “Men and women, convinced of this and caring about nothing
but themselves, abandoned their own city, their own houses, their own dwellings, their relatives, their property, and went abroad or at least to the country round Florence, as if God’s wrath would not follow them but strike only those who remained within the walls of the city, or as if they thought nobody in the city would remain alive and that its last hour had come.” This quote can be interpreted as to mean that the Black Death is indeed God’s creation. The perspectives of the authors whose work is portrayed in these passages are that of a saddened writer without hope when it comes to Boccaccio and an English historian who seems to have witnessed a penance ritual by Dutchmen when it comes to Sir Robert of Avesbury. One similarity between the two passages includes how both portray the Black Death as the wrath of God. A difference, however, includes how people ‘combat’ the illness. In The Decameron
, Boccaccio describes multiple groups of individuals who believe in different approaches. For example, groups of content and temperate individuals are depicted, as well as, gluttonous and greedy. In Sir Robert’s text, he describes the penance given by men he sees in the streets of London, who believe that their suffering will protect them from harm. Taking into account how the Black Death occurred across the whole of Europe and that both passages were written within the time frame of the Black Death, it can be inferred that these are both primary sources of information.
, “Men and women, convinced of this and caring about nothing
but themselves, abandoned their own city, their own houses, their own dwellings, their relatives, their property, and went abroad or at least to the country round Florence, as if God’s wrath would not follow them but strike only those who remained within the walls of the city, or as if they thought nobody in the city would remain alive and that its last hour had come.” This quote can be interpreted as to mean that the Black Death is indeed God’s creation. The perspectives of the authors whose work is portrayed in these passages are that of a saddened writer without hope when it comes to Boccaccio and an English historian who seems to have witnessed a penance ritual by Dutchmen when it comes to Sir Robert of Avesbury. One similarity between the two passages includes how both portray the Black Death as the wrath of God. A difference, however, includes how people ‘combat’ the illness. In The Decameron
, Boccaccio describes multiple groups of individuals who believe in different approaches. For example, groups of content and temperate individuals are depicted, as well as, gluttonous and greedy. In Sir Robert’s text, he describes the penance given by men he sees in the streets of London, who believe that their suffering will protect them from harm. Taking into account how the Black Death occurred across the whole of Europe and that both passages were written within the time frame of the Black Death, it can be inferred that these are both primary sources of information.