Essay On The Bubonic Plague Dbq

In the mid fourteenth century the first wave of the bubonic plague broke out, but it didn’t stop there. Outbreaks throughout Europe continued well through the eighteenth century. Many people fled, trying to escape the death that lingered everywhere they looked. The plague spread fear, as well as sickness; caused people to turn to the church; and develop different theories as to why the disease plagued them. Because of the plague, fear was spread throughout Europe, in turn causing people to try different ways to rid themselves of the malady. One example of fear was recorded in a letter by a schoolmaster in the Netherlands. He wrote that the plague had killed twenty of his pupils, which scared away many more and kept some from even enrolling their children in the first place. (Doc. 1) The schoolmaster is a first-hand witness to the fear spreading in Europe. Another account of fear was recorded in a diary by an englishman. In his account, he is wondering which person in his household will be taken next. His son? His daughter? Himself? (Doc. 8) Living in England, he is seeing his friends and neighbors dying, causing him to dwell upon …show more content…
In one letter from Erasmus of Rotterdam, he states that the plague is due to the filth in the streets. He is living in England, one of the places infected with the plague. (Doc. 2) A german physician wrote about another reason for the sickness in his book The Deceptions of Demons. He said that a reason for the plague spreading is because people at Casale in western Lombardy coated the town gates with a special ointment. Anyone who touched the gates was infected. (Doc. 4) Because he is a physician, he is higher up in the social hierarchy and may have been looking for a way to blame it on the lower classes. Another physician remarked that the plague was because God was angry with them and that is why no ordinary cures worked. (Doc.