In 1348, in the major Trade City of Florence, a ship from China docked on the port carrying the rat that would lead Europe through one of the greatest epidemics ever known to man, the Black Death. The virulent plague quickly claimed the lives of a third of the population. There was no escape, as a third of the population quickly perished the social impacts were tremendous. Society had three main options, to run away from the pestilence as many did, having a profound socioeconomic effect in the cities and causing a further spread of the plague. While others instead devoted themselves to God and the faith in hope that God's wrath would spare their lives. Yet others did the complete opposite, knowing that life was uncertain and that not even those of the faith were being spared they opted to celebrate the joys of life. Instead they focused on the importance of the individuals wants and needs, as seen in the beliefs and ideals that governed the Renaissance movement. Under the strain of social pressures caused by the Black Death the medieval Catholic Church went through a profound change, in its place a new morally corrupt church emerged encompassing the social ideologies and beliefs of the Renaissance, which had resulted as a consequence to the plague.
             The plague in Europe devastated the population; many of those most closely effected were members of the church. Their position as social caretakers of society placed them within close proximity of the people they were serving. As a result they were more often exposed to the plague. In The Decameron, Giovanni Boccaccio, a Florentine writer states, "Even the reverend authority of the divine and human law had almost crumpled and fallen into decay for its ministers and executors, like other men had either died or sickened." In many instances the clergy was even greater effected by the plague than the common people. In The Black Death, Philip Ziegler states that n...