Cures For The Black Death In Medieval Europe

These treatments did not work, and over time, doctors began refusing to see patients because they wanted to stay healthy as well. (Trueman, Cures for the Black Death).

Since most of medieval Europe was Christian, people prayed to God for the end of the plague. When the pestilence stormed on, many commoners began to think that they had sinned to cause God to become angry with them. Others began to lose faith. As a result, people became more distant from the church. This led to the decline of the church’s power, and also gave rise to a group called the Flagellants. (Eyewitness to History, The Flagellants Attempt to Repel the Black Death, 1349). These group of individuals sought atonement for their sins by publicly whipping themselves.

They wore white robes and roamed the countryside carrying crosses while whipping themselves and each other in a religious frenzy. Each had in his right hand a rope with nails and three tails on the end. Every night they carried out the same rituals, ignoring the pain and the blood, and only focusing on the sins they had committed. The Flagellants became very popular, and their numbers rose very quickly. The church, seeing that they had competition, persecuted their followers. However, the Flagellants remained strong.
After the Black Death, Europe was affected both positively and negatively.

During the Black Death, the Jewish mortality rate was significantly lower than others. They were accused of purposely spreading the plague and poisoning the waters from which the people drank. This accusation continued throughout the late Middle Ages, although the Jewish people were as innocent as the other Europeans. They probably were more clean and sanitary than others. The manor system, or feudalism, was very popular before the Black Death. Feudalism was a system of promises that governed the relationships between lords and vassals. A vassal was a knight who protected his lord in exchange for land. Since vassals had to farm their land in order to support himself, he allowed peasants to farm for him in exchange for food or other payment. Thus, a new system developed. Medieval lords or knights owned a manor, and the rest of the land were for the peasants and serfs, workers who were tied to the land they lived and farmed on. When the Black Death struck, the lords and knights who were still alive fled to the country. As a result, the remaining healthy peasants found that they did not have to work for their lord anymore. Also, there was a labor shortage, which meant that the peasants found their skills in high demand. When there is high demand and low supply, the prices rise. Suddenly, they can demand wages. As they grew richer, they left their manors and moved to growing cities in search of a more promising future. (Burstein and Shek, World History: Medieval to Modern Times). This helped in the development of the working class. The Black Death also had a major impact on medieval art and literature. Art in this time was morose and tragic. A widespread image was “the dance of death”, or the Dance Macabre, a depiction of skeletons dancing to randomly choose their next victim. (Wikipedia, Consequences of the Black Death). Another contribution the Black Death made was on

medicine. After the plague, there was more emphasis on anatomical investigations. There was also an importance in surgeons. Since the Black Death, people have been looking for answers themselves rather than having the church telling them the answer. This helped later in the development of the study of humanism. The perplexing plague caused people to become interested in other things besides religion. There was obviously a new and higher standard of living, and all the events that took place all helped pave way for the Renaissance, a period of time when there was a renewal of ideas and discoveries. (Wikipedia, Consequences of the Black Death).
The Black Death in medieval Europe affected Europe permanently. Since this plague was new to Europe, it was not treated effectively. Doctors also did not know the cause of the plague, so it was impossible to stop the rampant sickness. When the plague persisted and prayers were not answered, faith in the church wavered, and the appearance of different religious sects took place, An example will be the Flagellants. However, after the plague, positive changes took place, such as a higher standard of living and a new curiosity in the natural world and human anatomy. This may have lead to a period of prosperity, discovery, and culture called the Renaissance. All in all, the infamous plague that struck medieval Europe was devastatingly deadly and changed Europe’s society forever. The Black Death made us learn from our mistakes and to never repeat them again.