Popular Religion in Europe
The Flagellants, a fanatical religious group, believed that the Black Death was a punishment for mankind’s wicked nature. This practice was consisted of beating yourself and others until the body was bloody. It was believed that these beatings would “lead God to intervene on humanity’s behalf.”
The whippings were public displays where the participants marched two by two in processions as large as 5,000. They wore undergarments of white linen under black cloaks with hoods and gray felt hats.
When they reached their place of intended self-induced beating, they stripped down to the linen undergarments. They would them proceed to march in a circle as they sung hymns, while at the same time beating each other and themselves. The whips that they used had knots with sharp iron spikes at the end of them. The acts of the Flagellants demonstrate the desperate situation of the plague.
Jews
The Jewish people who lived in Europe during the time
of the plague were persecuted against and blamed for the
plague. Jews were believed to have poisoned the
wells in a large-scale conspiracy against Christians. They also were under
suspected because many Jews traveled as merchants during the plague, thus
the disease spread as they traveled.
Jews during the time were the main money lenders as the
Roman Catholics were advised by the church not to perform this survice.
Since they were the money lenders, the people they lent the money to did
not owe any money to the Jews after they were tortured and killed; they
were dispensable members of society.
Jews also had a cleaner lifestyle and limits on their
diet that aided them in not dying as quickly as the rest of the populous,
further making them under suspect. Anti-semitism had begun in the
early Middle Ages and did not come to the Jews’ aid either.
All of the odds were stacked against the Jews and manifested
itself in many ways. Two-thousand Jews were burned in Strasborg,
Germany in the span of six days. The choice was either to convert
to Christianity or die. As a result of these mass killings, many
Jews would kill themselves as well as each other to avoid being tortured
to convert.
The pope condemned these practices, but the lords and
other people benefited from the mass murders. They were the ones
who owed the Jews money. The lords benefited for the Jews paid a
“Jew” tax and were not allowed to farm or own land. All of this encouraged
the political leaders and the common people to kill Jews.
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Epidemiology
Pre/Post 14th Century Plagues Bibliography
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