black death
Black Death was the biggest problem in the Middle Ages. It states that, no one (peasant or aristocrat) was safe from the disease, and once it was contracted, a terrible and painful death was almost a certainty. The dead and the dying lay in the streets abandoned by terrified friends and relatives (482). This certainly paints an accurate and horrifying picture of the fourteenth century during the plague. This disease, also known as the Black Death or The Plague, (Hindley 103) was one of the major curses of the Middle Ages. It killed indiscriminately without remorse or thought of consequences. Because the plague was so widespread, theories about causes, blame and a variety of supposed cures abounded. Most of these were without basis or fact and relied on myths and stories. Theories for the causes and blames came from ignorance and hate, two horrifying things married by fear. Some of the cures were not much better than the disease itself. The disease was transmitted to humans by fleas from infected rats that nested in people's roofs (Matthew 154). Fourteenth century man had no concept of how the disease was spread or how it could be stopped. The disease was transmitted to western Europe from China along trade routes (Matthew 154)
The reality according to Herlihy was that, "In the cure of these illnesses, neither the advice of a doctor nor the power of any medicine appeared to help and to do any good" (353). This was supposedly brought on by sins. A popular theory was that the plague was the wrath of God. This horrible disease killed young and old, rich and poor. The first is a "corrupted atmosphere" or bad air, the second was the alignment of the planets, and the third the wrath of God (Ziegler 3). According to Bartel, an internal cure was to "take garlic with, butter, a clove, two or three, according as it shall agree with their bodies" (54). The medical department at the University of Paris told Phillip VI in a report in 1348, that the alignment of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars on March 20, 1345 was the cause of the plague (Ziegler 25). People were aware that if you came in contact with the sick or their belongings (clothing, bedding, etc. Some believed that if they lived moderately, consumed the most delicate foods and wines, and abstained from sex, that their resistance to the plague would be higher.
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