Posted on 03/16/2020 5:20:22 PM PDT by Zhang Fei
The aftermath of the plague created a series of religious, social, and economic upheavals, which had profound effects on the course of European history. It took 150 years for Europe’s population to recover, and the effects of the plague irrevocably changed the social structure, resulting in widespread persecution of minorities such as Jews, foreigners, beggars, and lepers. The uncertainty of daily survival has been seen as creating a general mood of morbidity, influencing people to “live for the moment.”
Because 14th-century healers were at a loss to explain the cause of the plague, Europeans turned to astrological forces, earthquakes, and the poisoning of wells by Jews as possible reasons for the plague’s emergence. No one in the 14th century considered rat control a way to ward off the plague, and people began to believe only God’s anger could produce such horrific displays. Giovanni Boccaccio, an Italian writer and poet of the 14th century, questioned whether plague was sent by God for human’s correction, or if it came through the influence of the heavenly bodies. Christians accused Jews of poisoning public water supplies in an effort to ruin European civilization. The spreading of this rumor led to complete destruction of entire Jewish towns, but it was caused simply by suspicion on the part of the Christians, who noticed that the Jews had lost fewer lives in the Plague due to their hygienic practices. In February 1349, 2,000 Jews were murdered in Strasbourg. In August of the same year, the Jewish communities of Mainz and Cologne were exterminated.
There was a significant impact on religion, as many believed the plague was God’s punishment for sinful ways. Church lands and buildings were unaffected, but there were too few priests left to maintain the old schedule of services. Over half the parish priests,
(Excerpt) Read more at courses.lumenlearning.com ...
There was also some religious fervor regarding Satan and cats where cats were destroyed by the thousands.
LOL... now the corona cold hits, and we are waxing on about the Black Death. Amazing
Ramp up the panic to 11
I realize that this virus is serious but comparing it to medieval plague pandemic is... Not correct.
Myth
Look at what happened in 1918 -1919 Flu Epidemic. This is a a more modern disease to look at. How did SARS effect the USA. How about the swine flu of 2009. The black plaque was caused by fleas that were infected with the bubonic plaque, the rats spread the disease. Thus in turn many died. Religious superstition caused for the blame to happen. Needless deaths occurred because of the black death religious superstitions. This covid-19 may change the global outlook for a global economy. China has screwed America with its lack of dealing with their problem earlier. Yet America needs to change its reliance on medical equipment, supplies and drugs coming from China. Please note, churches and synagogues will probably grow from this virus
just a tad exited?
Finally, an uplifting article!
Well not from the history books I’ve read. It was one of the reasons the rat population grew.
As noted in the article, Bubonic plague spread along the Silk Road as the Mongols of Central Asia expanded toward Europe.
Today China swells in importance and builds enormous transportation networks toward Europe. And here we are.
But Bubonic Plague killed a third of Europe and (so far) COVID-19 has killed about 6500 worldwide, so I don’t seem them as comparable.
Government is their god now.
So, yes. More people will worship government and look to it to supply all their needs.
Don’t believe everything you read in history books.
There is a really good book out there I’d recommend entitled “Inventing the Flat Earth.”
Short version: Washington Irving invented the flat earth myth in writing a history of Columbus because the truth was too complex and too pro-Catholic to work well in a popular history of his day. A.D. White, first president of the Colleges of Arts and Sciences at Cornell (my alma mater) gave the flat earth myth a boost to get it so entrenched in American intellectual lore that it isn’t going to be uprooted.
Some stories are really good stories and offer tidy explanations, but happen to be wrong.
The left has been trying to sabotage President Trump from day one. From the Russian hoax to the fake impeachment nothing was off limits to the lefts efforts. This virus has been hyped to trash the economy so that Trump can lose, or more likely, make the loss plausible after they steal it.
[But Bubonic Plague killed a third of Europe and (so far) COVID-19 has killed about 6500 worldwide, so I don’t seem them as comparable.]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Death
I've been reading an interesting account of the real plague, Daniel DeFoe's Journal of the Plague Year, in which he details the various religious reactions of the people of London in the face of a disease flareup the like of which hadn't been seen for three centuries, from the fools and fakes who sold phony astrological cures to the courage of the clergy who stood to their posts through it all. A wonderful book, highly recommended, and it is fascinating to see the similarities in reactions of the civil authorities, then and now. For example, this on "bugging in":
I am speaking now of people made desperate by the apprehensions of their being shut up, and their breaking out by stratagem or force, either before or after they were shut up, whose misery was not lessened when they were out, but sadly increased. On the other hand, many that thus got away had retreats to go to and other houses, where they locked themselves up and kept hid till the plague was over; and many families, foreseeing the approach of the distemper, laid up stores of provisions sufficient for their whole families, and shut themselves up, and that so entirely that they were neither seen or heard of till the infection was quite ceased, and then came abroad sound and well. I might recollect several such as these, and give you the particulars of their management; for, doubtless, it was the most effectual secure step that could be taken for such whose circumstances would not admit them to remove, or who had not retreats abroad proper for the case; for, in being thus shut up, they were as if they had been a hundred miles off. Nor do I recall that any one of those families miscarried. Among these several Dutch merchants were particularly remarkable, who kept their houses like little garrisons besieged, suffering none to go in or out or come near them...
Lots to learn there. Best to you!
But comparing the Vatican curia of today to the 15th century is . . . . . . . if you can’t say anything nice .. . . . . . .
Does the Pope weigh the same as a duck?
So who finally realized it was spread by fleas on rats,
and not the wrath of GOD?
As the land owning monarchs died off, land went to dormant and feral. Surviving surfs that wandered in found estates and property with no title of ownership and took over the estates. They themselves became monarchs with maybe different or the same values of what land ownership ment and became.
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