Fear and Self-Preservation in the Face of the Unknown
In 1347 CE, the European world experienced a disaster on a scale that has remained among the most massive in all of history: the Black Death. Tens of millions of people perished, disease leaving communities, families, long-running institutions crippled and destroyed. The Black Death remained the great killer, the divine punishment for a sinful world, and fractured society, more so than any corrupt government, empire, or person could ever have done. Beyond the staggering loss of human life, something almost as precious was lost- the fundamental unity and care for fellow man that had been commonplace up to that point. Communities turned against each other in fear of the unknown killer, …show more content…
Such is the case with many people groups such as, quite noticeably the Jewish people. A very blatant example of this scapegoating can be seen with the interrogation of the Jews by the castellan of Chillon. Suspecting the Jews of having poisoned wells to spread the disease “in order to kill and destroy the entire Christian religion,” he has several Jews tortured and forced to confess in what is blatantly a biased, illogical investigation that failed to even find any actual poison (Castellan 146.) Before this time, such aggression to Jews was never so blatant, drawn out only by the fear and paranoia caused by the Black Death, and further fracturing societal ties as a result. Beyond simple religious persecution, we can also note bonds fracturing between the working class and the upper class through the documents they left behind. In particular, ordinances and laws, such as the one passed by the city council of Siena, an Italian city-state, provide insight into rising tensions. This particular ordinance, dated in May 1349, stated that “because laborers of the land…extort and receive great sums for the daily labor that they do every day, they have totally destroyed and abandoned the farms and estates of the aforesaid citizens…” (Siena, 90). Such a statement is indicative of the conflict brewing, …show more content…
Prisoners of war were kept under certain conditions, religion and intellectual thought were to be championed, charity and honest living could be championed as far back as the Greeks, and yet, during the Black Death, we can view a European society that did not strive for such social ideals, and was instead dominated by fear and selfishness. One such example can be seen in Boccaccio’s document, where an ill woman raised no objection to being attended to by a male servant act that certainly would have been regarded as more amoral in a more peaceful time (Boccaccio 77). Another more prominent idea comes from Simon Islip, archbishop of Canterbury, who tries to address the clergy that is leaving the public churches to work for more lucrative private chapels. This priest notes the greed that motivates the human race, banishing the idea of charity, and condemns the clergy as a whole who “have no regard for the care of souls,” instead preferring to have higher wages (Islip 104). Such a condemnation highlights the fact that society as a whole had no more constants; families were torn apart, theft of one’s possessions was easily possible, outsiders were looked upon with suspicion, and even the clergy, supposedly the servants of God, were being criticized for abandoning their posts for the sake of greed. As Jean de Venette, a Carmelite friar writes in 1359-60, despite the plague having passed, and more abundant
In 1347 CE, the European world experienced a disaster on a scale that has remained among the most massive in all of history: the Black Death. Tens of millions of people perished, disease leaving communities, families, long-running institutions crippled and destroyed. The Black Death remained the great killer, the divine punishment for a sinful world, and fractured society, more so than any corrupt government, empire, or person could ever have done. Beyond the staggering loss of human life, something almost as precious was lost- the fundamental unity and care for fellow man that had been commonplace up to that point. Communities turned against each other in fear of the unknown killer, …show more content…
Such is the case with many people groups such as, quite noticeably the Jewish people. A very blatant example of this scapegoating can be seen with the interrogation of the Jews by the castellan of Chillon. Suspecting the Jews of having poisoned wells to spread the disease “in order to kill and destroy the entire Christian religion,” he has several Jews tortured and forced to confess in what is blatantly a biased, illogical investigation that failed to even find any actual poison (Castellan 146.) Before this time, such aggression to Jews was never so blatant, drawn out only by the fear and paranoia caused by the Black Death, and further fracturing societal ties as a result. Beyond simple religious persecution, we can also note bonds fracturing between the working class and the upper class through the documents they left behind. In particular, ordinances and laws, such as the one passed by the city council of Siena, an Italian city-state, provide insight into rising tensions. This particular ordinance, dated in May 1349, stated that “because laborers of the land…extort and receive great sums for the daily labor that they do every day, they have totally destroyed and abandoned the farms and estates of the aforesaid citizens…” (Siena, 90). Such a statement is indicative of the conflict brewing, …show more content…
Prisoners of war were kept under certain conditions, religion and intellectual thought were to be championed, charity and honest living could be championed as far back as the Greeks, and yet, during the Black Death, we can view a European society that did not strive for such social ideals, and was instead dominated by fear and selfishness. One such example can be seen in Boccaccio’s document, where an ill woman raised no objection to being attended to by a male servant act that certainly would have been regarded as more amoral in a more peaceful time (Boccaccio 77). Another more prominent idea comes from Simon Islip, archbishop of Canterbury, who tries to address the clergy that is leaving the public churches to work for more lucrative private chapels. This priest notes the greed that motivates the human race, banishing the idea of charity, and condemns the clergy as a whole who “have no regard for the care of souls,” instead preferring to have higher wages (Islip 104). Such a condemnation highlights the fact that society as a whole had no more constants; families were torn apart, theft of one’s possessions was easily possible, outsiders were looked upon with suspicion, and even the clergy, supposedly the servants of God, were being criticized for abandoning their posts for the sake of greed. As Jean de Venette, a Carmelite friar writes in 1359-60, despite the plague having passed, and more abundant