There is no doubt that The Black Death, also known as the Pestilence, the Great Plague or the Plague was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history resulting in an estimated 75-200 million deaths in Eurasia over the 4 years starting in 1347 and ending in 1351. The Black Death was thought to of originated in East Asia but no one is sure. to this day there is still no cure or treatment for the plague which is ferociously problematic as this illness is still active to this day, coming back every at least 15 years. With the panic this apocalypse caused, came mayhem this mayhem was built by religion (God’s Punishment, the economy, and flagellants.
The first Enormous impact the black death brought with it was the huge spike in the number of flagellants which was most common in 14th century Europe. Flagellants were essentially upper-class men who went from town to town for 32 and a half days at each town whipping each other over and over. In more detail, there were upper-class mean and religious zealots who traveled from towns infected with The Black Death and they would partake in public shows of torture and punishment. They would beat and whip one another's skin often drawing blood to remorse for their sins they used heavy leather belts with sharp metal studs glued on while civilians watched on, they did this for 33 and a half days and then traveled to the next town to begin the process once again. These acts of punishment provided some comfort to people who felt powerless in the face of tragedy. The things that flagellants wore and did are depicted in source 4 a painting from 1815 showing flagellants partaking in a show of torture to win God's forgiveness this tells us that people didn't understand what the Black Death was as they conducted acts of cruelty for the wrong reasons. flagellants often did these atrocious acts of punishment as a way to rid themselves of sins which were necessary to survive because of the theory it was God's Punishment. Which I will cover in the next impact because it was in my opinion the biggest impact the Black Death had on Medieval Europe.
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The second huge impact The Black Death had on Medieval Europe was a religious theory called god’s punishment, it is called god’s punishment as people thought god was punishing those who sinned and those who sinned got the plague. This theory led thousands of normal people to become Christian and leave their faith in god. This theory is what led flagellants of the 14th century to become popular. God’s punishment also led to purging but that's for the next impact so let's talk more about what most of Medieval Europe was believing in. What looks to be God “punishing” sinners with the black death is shown in source A. This is evidence to support my statements that people believed god punished them. because of the limited knowledge and care for hygiene no one in those ages knew or understood what was causing the plague nor did they know the biology of the black death this led many people to believe it was a punishment of god, to people who have sinned, this made nearly everyone want to win god's forgiveness by preaching and going to church.
Without a doubt the black death was one of the most tragic epidemics in human history and along with it came death, just plain old death, but in this case, there were a lot of deaths some due to the outbreak and some due to the cruel purging. As I said in the last paragraph some people who went to church believed that to win god’s forgiveness they had to purge their communities of heretics and troublemakers. These beliefs lead to thousands of Jews being massacred from 1348 through 1349. Some people even believed that they had to purge their neighbors. As the plague swept across Europe in the mid-14th century along with it was the annihilation of nearly half the population. jews were targeted, as people took them as scapegoats because they were accused of poisoning wells.
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Black Death Christianity Essay.
(2024, July 31). Edubirdie. Retrieved November 21, 2024, from https://edubirdie.com/examples/black-death-christianity-essay/
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2024 Jul 31 [cited 2024 Nov 21].
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