The Black Plague And Black Death

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Have you ever heard of "The Great Mortality," or maybe "The Pestilence?" (Facts) Probably not, but you most likely you heard of the Black Plague or Black Death. This infection terrorized Europe from 1348 through 1351, killing between 75 to 200 million people. Most of the people who contracted the infection died 3 days after catching it. Only a few people lived 4 days after exposure (“The Black Death of 1348 to 1350). Those who did pass away had no documentation of their death, so the exact death count is unknown to historians. The infection originated from Asia in north-western China and came to Europe on cargo traveling on the Silk Road. It is now known that the infection came from the bacterium Yersinisa pestis, which lives in flea guts (Szczepanski). When the flea bites, the bacterium transfers the infection to the victim, being humans or most likely rodents. Common first signs are swollen lymph nodes and black cyst on the armpit or groin area ( Szczepanski). Victims acquired symptoms similar to the flu, their blood dropping in pressure, heart rate increases, and a fever emerges out of nowhere (DesOrmeaux). The Black Plague, an infection that killed millions, defaced a religion, and managed to eliminate a 1/3 to 1/2 of Europe's population.

The Black Plague changed a large amount of people's beliefs in God. An innumerable amount of people relied heavily on prayer and blessings from priest. Priest who tried to help died because they were in contact with the infected often. Some priest ran off and hid from the general population, they are commonly known, simply as bad priest (Whipps). Many people thought since the holiest of people did not receive God's grace and were not be saved by him, there must be no God. This...

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...as called on by the church to work for free. This resulted in many peasants not being able to raise and tend to their private gardens and farms and starve (Peschke).

The Black Plague, a killer that had no mercy for the lives of others, almost discontinued beliefs of a religion, and almost completely eliminated an entire nation. The infection that travelled hundreds of miles to ruin the sanity and lives of millions. The virus made people do radical things to be saved by God, to only just fade away into the past with undocumented records of their passing. And make the holiest of people of God abandon their religious morals. The Black Death was able to disturb the peace with common folk and nobles, but yet provide the common folk with higher standards of living. "In a sense the Black Death was the prehistory both of the enclosure and of the Reformation" (BBC).

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