Life and Death: Reactions to the Plague

Natural disasters of the magnitude of the great plague produce extreme psychological reactions. knowing they could be dead in a matter of days, people began living for the moment; some threw themselves into sexual and alcoholic orgies.
The 14th century italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio gave a classic description of this kind of reaction to the plague in florence in the preface to his famous Decameron.
The attempt to explain the Black Death and mitigate its harshness led to extreme sorts of behavior. To many people the plague had either been sent by God as a punishment for humans' sins or been caused by the devil.
The flagellants resorted to extreme asceticism to cleanse themselves of sin and gain god's forgiveness. Their movement became popular especially in Germany. groups of flagellants wandered from town to town, flogging whipping themselves to gain God's forgiveness, whom they believed had sent the plague to punish humans for their sinful ways. The catholic church became alarmed when flagellant groups began to kill Jews and attack clergy who opposed them. Some even adapted to place their emphasis on the coming of the end of the world, the return of Jesus, and the establishment of a thousand-year kingdom under his governance. Pope Clement VI condemned the flagellants in October 1349 and urged the public authorities to crush them. by the end of 1350 most of the flagellant movement had been destroyed.
An outbreak of virulent anti-semitism also accompanied the Black Death. Jews were accused of causing the black plague by poisoning the town wells. Although Jews were persecuted in Spain, the greatest massacres or pogroms happened in Germany, therefore many Jews fled to Russia and Poland where the king granted them protection.
the prevalence of death because of the plague affected people in profound ways. Some came to treat life as cheap and passing, violence and violent death appeared to be more common after the plague. Postplague europe also demonstrated a morbid preoccupation with death.

	Created by valpicco almost 13 years ago

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CH. 11 The Later Middle Ages