Causes Of The Black Death

Rumors of a deadly disease spreading around trading routes were heard by many Europeans. China was the first to be affected in the early 1330’s. Rodents were affected, transmitting them to fleas, which transmitted the disease to people. The disease was called the Bubonic Plague. China sent the outbreak to other countries such as: India, Persia, Syria, Egypt, and majority of countries in Europe. The Black Death was the name it was given by the Europeans. It arrived to Europe in October 1347. Twelve Genoese trading ships where docked at the port in Sicily, Italy. On the ship, majority of sailors were dead and a few that were alive was severely ill. The living sailors were in fear, delirious, couldn’t keep food in their systems, and covered in …show more content…
The rats carrying the disease would be bitten by fleas. The fleas would transmit the disease to the humans. In the cities, they would live in cramped, unbearable conditions. The rats lived in the cities, spreading the disease easier. The unsanitary conditions also weakened may peoples immune system, making the disease easier to catch. The people living in the unsanitary and crowed cities spread the disease to each other by coughing and sneezing around each other. The disease killed every six out of ten London citizens. Stores began to close, doctors refused to help, and priests refused to administer last rites. Those who escaped to the countryside discovered the animals were infected as well. Family members who tried to help the ill ended up ill themselves. Doctors willing to help used unsophisticated techniques like bloodletting, withdraw of blood, boil-lancing, cutting open the boil then applying warm butter, garlic, and onion, or superstition practice, burning aromatic herbs and bathing in rosewater or vinegar. More than twenty million Europeans died from the incurable Black …show more content…
Before the Black Death, the church had a major influence on people’s lives. The church helped and guided people to what was right. When the plague arrived, people thought it was a punishment from God. They turned to the church for help, but with no cure or explanation of the plague, the churches lost its influence on people. Some people continued to pray while others began to commit sins and believed they were going to die anyway. The flagellants, a group of men, traveled from town to town whipped themselves in order to stop the “wrath of God”. They believed whipping themselves would protect them from the plague by punishing themselves from their sins. With faith decreasing from people, churches began to have trouble. Most clergy fled and those who stayed usually contracted the disease themselves. Pope Clement VI allowed people to confess to one another, regardless of gender, and granted remission of sins to all those who died of the plague. Those who died didn’t receive a proper funeral and bodies were thrown in mass graves. The decrease of belief in churches was caused by the lack of trust in them and failing to help the