Universals In Late Medieval Europe

If a problem of universals influenced phenomenal Late Medieval developments, it may be said the Black Death epidemic of Europe 1347-1350 was an inevitable precursor of transitions in human spirituality and intellect. It will be this discussion’s contention to study examples from a primary source to reveal portrayed how intellectual change eradicated Black Death’s fatalistic psychological obstacle between human sin and free will. These were: “The Plague in Avignon,” by Heyligen, 1347; “The Plague in Florence,” by Boccaccio, 1348; “The Astrological Causes of the Plague,” by de Meaux, 1348, for King Philip V1; “The Dangers of Corrupt Air,” by Jacobus,
Chancellor of Montpellier, 1364; “The Treatise of John Burgundy,” a 1365 plague tract;
“Petrarch on the Death of Friends,” c. 1350. Each revealed themes from dogmatic theology to metaphysics and science; this discussion will identify emotional and intellectual progressions that emerged from global death and how the changes were manifested. First, universal hysteria will illuminate self-perception’s influence on human spirituality; then, progression’s impact on life. Last, Petrarch will elucidate pestilence’s cultural impact. “Drought, famine, war” led to urgent impact on spirituality. 1 Horrox isolated
Christianity’s psychologically defeating hurdle: “Universal sinfulness of mankind, which merited a universal punishment, implicitly denied that plague strikes only the individually guilty.” 2
Popes granted plenary indulgences; death failed to elucidate an intellectual link between illness and sin. Superstition weakened morale; “brooding” weakened spirit. 3 Boccaccio and Heyligen validated four ways in which Black Death affected humanity. First, social hysteria ratified
Horrox’s point on inconsistency. Plague was God’s punishment for sin; the reckoning stressed 1 Rosemary Horrox, “Introduction: Part Two, “Response and Reaction,” in The Black Death, Rosemary Horrox, trans and ed (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1994), 99 2 Ibid, 98 3 Ibid, 107
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medieval life. High, universal death tolls invalidated that “God’s righteous anger” 4 shamed
Boccaccio’s faithful Florentines, as it also afflicted the “East”. 5 A densely populated Avignon experienced rapid death. 6
Second, Boccaccio and Heyligen showed pestilence’s brutality was feared; inhumanely, it stigmatized, “allowed no remedy … it would rush…with the speed of a fire…” 7 Survivors
“abandoned their city...” 8 The dying was “abandoned… healthy were too terrified to approach them.” 9 Despite Avignon’s Curia, Heyligen’s priests, “do not hear the confessions of the sick.”
10 Third, “drink” to avert evil created chaos. 11 Fourth, depression warped reality; symptoms foretold “death.” 12 Horrox claimed: “certainties of the ‘high’ middle ages had been swept away;” old concepts fell. 13 On the other hand, dissent was not typical of all populations.
Scientists’ resolve to unravel medicine’s concept as “impious,” and end pestilence amassed hope. 14 Boccaccio’s Florentines did not prescribe an “appropriate cure.” 15 Clerics or doctors prescribed a moderate penitential Christian life to manage pestilence; service or remedy denied spread mistrust. Calls for reform brought new methodology; scientists refuted death as 4 Giovanni Boccaccio, “The Plague in Florence,” in The Black Death, Rosemary Horrox, trans and ed, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1994), 26 5 Ibid, 27.
Boccaccio claimed 100,00 died in Florence alone; pestilence began “years earlier in the East.” 6 Louis Heyligen, “The Plague in Avignon,” in Rosemary Horrox, trans and ed, The Black Death, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1994), 43 7 Giovanni Boccaccio, “The Plague in Florence,” in The Black Death, Rosemary Horrox, trans and ed, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1994), 27-28 8 ibid, 30 9 ibid, 33 10 Louis Heyligen, “The Plague in Avignon,” in Rosemary Horrox, trans and ed, The Black Death, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1994), 44 11 Giovanni Boccaccio, “The Plague in Florence,” in The Black Death, Rosemary Horrox, trans and ed, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1994), 29 12 ibid, 27 13 Rosemary Horrox, “Part Three: Consequences,” in The Black Death, Rosemary Horrox, trans and ed, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1994), 229 14 Rosemary Horrox, “Part Two: Explanations and Responses,” in Rosemary Horrox, trans and ed, The Black Death, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1994), 109 15 Giovanni Boccaccio, “The Plague in Florence,” in Rosemary Horrox, trans and ed, The Black Death, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1994),
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ethical remedy. A faculty aimed to “rebut.” 16 Consequently, new ideology replaced old;
“bleeding” was futile for plague. 17 Avignon’s survival schemes inspired Christians to endure death’s horrific reality.
Spiritually, penitence and prayer were wonted. Flagellant procession, “chanting,” 18
“lamentations and tears” inspired hope over discouragement.19 Despite Black Death’s massive scale, it failed to fracture Continental Europe’s tenacious thrust to unify with saints. Horrox validated spirituality as a persistent improved perception of life purpose: “Flagellants’ penitential fervour” ignited revolutions against over general, inept scientific causes of plague. 20
Intellectual disunity between dogma and plague’s reality sparked revolutions by medieval laymen, clerics, and scholars. Research exposed Europe’s incentive to solidify links between cause, symptom, and remedy. One change was theory’s conjunctive view with allied disciplines.
Boccaccio’s idea “heavenly bodies” caused pestilence implicated ties between minds and bodies.
21 Burgundy validated a conjoint approach: “medicine and science balance each other.” 22
Classical theory dominated; new logical perspectives derived from dogma.
A tie of experience with accuracy, organs, distinctions between multiple, like symptoms, concise visual assessment to ensure effective remedy represented other shifts. Plague doctors were “experienced in treating pestilential epidemic diseases...” 23 A “heart” 24 was key to health; 16 ibid 17 John Burgundy, “The Treatise of John Burgundy,” in Rosemary Horrox, trans and ed, The Black Death, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1994), 192 18 Louis Heyligen, “The Plague in Avignon,” in Rosemary Horrox, trans and ed, The Black Death, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1994), 44 19 ibid 20 Rosemary Horrox, “Part Two: Explanations and Responses,” in Rosemary Horrox, trans and ed, The Black Death, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1994), 96 21 Giovanni Boccaccio, “The Plague in Florence,” in Rosemary Horrox, trans and ed, The Black Death, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1994), 26 22 John Burgundy, “The Treatise of John Burgundy,” in Rosemary Horrox, trans and ed, The Black Death, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1994), 185 23 ibid, 192 24 ibid, 188
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humours, “integral.” 25 To oppress elusiveness, Burgundy stressed tradition, skill, and rational observation, not theory.
Jacobus noted organs as vital: “south wind grieves the body and hurts the heart.” 26 Jacobus explained disease’s pre-instances with Ptolemy; transmission via “heart” was innovative. 27
Of “corrupt” air, 28 Horrox noted Galen’s vapour theory as “inadequate.” 29 Nonetheless, individualized focus improved health, unconstrained man. For instance, urine’s “normal”
look determined that entire, not partial medical history was key to effective remedy and efficient diagnosis. 30 Jacobus empowered; free will dominated. Thus, God created “earthly medicine.” 31
Court astrologer de Meaux echoed empowerment: free will altered life.
Ptolemy and Galen validated plague’s natural causes. “Ptolemy says…not all the things which befall man through the heavenly bodies are inevitable.” 32 Earth’s four regions were
“trigons.” 33 Cosmological chaos, as Heyligen’s “calamities,” 34 occurred due to “pestilence,” 35 not man’s “nature.” 36 God’s omnipotence rendered chaos due to planet orbits. Science propagated intellectual progress; free will replaced fate. Culturally, as Black Death struck
Florence at its eminence, prose intimated humanist themes. 25 ibid, 188 26 Jacobus of Montpellier, “The Dangers of Corrupted Air,” in Rosemary Horrox, trans and ed, The Black Death, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1994), 175 27 ibid, 173-175 28 Ibid, 175 29 Rosemary Horrox, “Part Two: Explanations and Responses,” in Rosemary Horrox, trans and ed, The Black Death, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1994), 106 30 Jacobus of Montpellier, “The Dangers of Corrupted Air,” in Rosemary Horrox, trans and ed, The Black Death, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1994), 174 31 Rosemary Horrox, “Part Two: Explanations and Responses,” in Rosemary Horrox, trans and ed, The Black Death, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1994), 109 32 Geoffrey de Meaux, “The Astrological Causes of the Plague,” in Rosemary Horrox, trans and ed, The Black Death, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1994), 171 33 ibid, 168 34 Louis Heyligen, “The Plague in Avignon,” in Rosemary Horrox, trans and ed, The Black Death, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1994), 41 35 Geoffrey de Meaux, “The Astrological Causes of the Plague,” in Rosemary Horrox, trans and ed, The Black Death, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1994), 171 36 ibid
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Cicero inspired Petrarch’s letters amidst Classical rediscovery and saintly devotion; it promoted idealism, affection for friends, as da Milano, lost to disease and chaos. Emotion and imagery enhanced art’s passion and visual emphasis: “I speak it with many tears …” 37 and
“sweat, pant, toil …pile up riches you cannot keep…” 38 “Preface” exacted nostalgic melancholy: “1348 left us lonely and bereft.” 39 Rationality governed Petrarch’s penitential rant in “Letter from Parma:” “What abyss swallowed them?” 40
Petrarch’s impassioned “Another Letter” saw “loyalty” replace courtly epic militarism. 41 Such was the humanism death and intellectual growth established.
These examples revealed intellectual growth’s and spiritual empowerment’s negation of decadent Late Medieval ideas. Boccaccio and Heyligen showed pestilence weakened humanity.
Spiritually, faith encouraged. Intellectually, disunity between dogma and plague set revolutions that solidified cause, symptom, and remedy. Medicine and astrology were linked; Classical theory dominated learning; new perspectives derived from abstract dogma. Conjoint learning methods beat generality. Chaos occurred due to pestilence, not evil. Free will replaced fate. God loved man.
Black Death struck at Florence’s cultural peak; still, it failed to rupture Europe’s will to unify with saints. Culture saw a rise of mystics and humanists; literature lost feudal militarism.
Petrarch’s emotion and imagery promoted friendship, love of man and life, and idealism. 37 Frances Petrarch, “Petrarch on the Death of Friends,” in The Black Death, Rosemary Horrox, trans and ed (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1994), 249 38 ibid 39 ibid, 248 40 ibid 41 Ibid, 249