Climatic Changes and the Black Death: Europe's Turmoil in the 1300s

In the 1300s, Europe was in turmoil. Climate change beginning in about 900 A.D. (Britannica) led to favorable growing conditions and lengthened growing seasons this coupled with an improvement in farming techniques had led to rampant, unchecked population growth for hundreds of years. The greatly increased population of Europe was beginning to outgrow the food supply and a severe economic crisis began to take place in the early 1300s as the realities of severe overpopulation began to set in. Social and economic problems plagued all of Europe, and the malnutrition and poor health caused by these problems set the stage for a major epidemic to occur. Beginning in 1339, seven bad years of weather and famine struck Europe and left the already malnourished majority even more susceptible to disease. In 1347 the Black Death began spreading throughout Western Europe, having arrived from Asia where it was already endemic. Over

the time of three years, the plague killed roughly one-third of the population in Europe or nearly 30 million people (Flow).

The Black Death killed more Europeans than any other pandemic or war up to that time and greatly changed the social, economic, and cultural landscape of Europe.
The Sudden death of nearly one-third of the population in Europe had major immediate and lasting social implications. One of the most apparent effects of this was that on religion. After an initial outburst of renewed piety, the Black Plague ultimately weakened the role of religion and specifically the Catholic church. When people started dying in droves, the masses looked to religion for comfort and salvation. Many, believing the plague to be the wrath of God, took up such extreme practices such as self-flagellation hoping for forgiveness. Another extreme practice, although born out of perceived necessity, included burying oneself alive on holy grounds because no priests were left or willing to perform last rites . Due to the lack of priests, who had either died helping the sick or refused to see the sick, the Pope eventually had to declare a worldwide

indulgence which allowed laymen to perform funerals and hear confessions to ensure all the dying would have a chance to confess before death(Wheeler). Even so, the sick and the dead were still not properly cared for concerning religious matters. Bodies were often just left to rot where they were. When there were too many bodies, mass graves were dug and filled. These were against the teachings and beliefs people had had before, but they had no other solution and often just did not care about the teachings of the church anymore (Black Death and the Church). The church suffered from a serious shortage of quality priests immediately following the epidemic, and the church lowered its standards of theological training and literacy in order to attract new members over the next twenty five years. The inability of the church to save people, the fact that most of the “good” priests dying while helping the sick, and the traumatic impression left on those spared of the plague all combined to make the first real diminishing of the importance and power of the church in centuries. In addition, the wealth and greed of the surviving clergy helped to influence the Protestant reformation in the 1500s (Religious impact).
Another important social implication was the bettering of the social status of peasants and laborers. The Plague had resulted in severe depopulation and some immediate economic decline. In this wake, labor demand was high while available labor was low. Cities were especially hard hit by the plague population wise, and many peasants flocked to cities as jobs and opportunities were plentiful. This led to a shortage of workers for farming, and gave the remaining peasants great bargaining power with the wealthy landowners. Overall wages increased, and rent prices for land greatly decreased. At first rulers resisted this increase in peasant status with legislation such as the Statute of Labourers in 1351, but later peasant revolts cemented the change in their social status (Social Effects). Not only did their wages increase, but the peasants now held some tangible power and influence over the previously unchecked noble class. Peasants could easily find work elsewhere so landowners now had an incentive to treat peasant workers well and keep paying them fairly. The feudal system never really recovered due to this as peasants were no longer necessarily tied to a single manor for life. The system gradually declined into non-use as the whole system depended on a subservient class of peasants paid little to nothing. The overall social mobility and standard of living increased greatly due to these new post-plague living conditions. All of these changes helped to pave the way for the coming Renaissance.