The people of Europe responded to the Black Death with three types of fear. They isolated themselves from the sickness, tried to explain the sickness, and/or blamed someone for the plague. Avoiding the sickness seemed to be the most common reaction to the fear of the plague. Giovanni Boccaccio had said in the introduction to The Decameron “almost all of them adopted the same cruel policy, which was entirely avoid the sick and everything belonging to them.” He had said this about those who stayed completely shut-in, away from everyone else and lived a moderate life, and those who decided to fulfill their every last wish. Gabriele de Mussis had also written of avoidance, explaining how “dear friends would hide themselves away, weeping” and
