Black Death
No one - peasant or aristocrat - was safe from the disease [bubonic plague], and once it was contracted, a horrible and painful death was almost a certainty. The dead and the dying lay in the streets abandoned by frightened friends and relatives (482).This certainly paints an accurate and horrifying picture of the fourteenth century during the plague. The bubonic plague, also known as the Black Death or The Plague, (Hindley 103) was one of the major scourges 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 rumors. Theories for the causes and blames came from ignorance and hate, two horrible things married by fear. Some of the cures were not much better than the plague itself.The plague 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 plague was transmitted to western Europe from China along trade routes (Matthew 154). Once the plague had rea
There were others called flagellants that walked the roads whipping themselves to ward off the plague (Wright 153). There were three main theories about why the plague had stricken an area. Others believed that it was a cloud made from steam that had risen from dead fish (Ziegler 4). The reign of terror lasted for twenty years in the fourteenth century (Cantor 477). Royalty got into the cure game with "the King's Majesty's Excellent Receipt for the Plague" and "a drink for the plague prepared by Lord Bacon, and approved by Queen Elizabeth" (Bartel 55). People also believed that if you burned fires, with "stinkpots" filled with various herbs and other natural ingredients, that it would "correct the infectious air" (Bartel 53). They believed in "heavy drinking", and lots of "cheer" and "singing" (Herlihy 354) to keep them safe. Thousands of Jews were murdered as scapegoats (Ziegler 80). 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).
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Acceptance Essays
