It was 1347. The plague had already struck the Far East. He had now reached the gateway to the eastern periphery of Europe.
The Mongols surrounded the fortified Genoese trading post in Kaffa, now called Theodosia, in the Crimea. Decimated by the mysterious disease itself, the Mongols broke off the attack. But before they retreated, they fired a fatal shot. With huge catapults they threw the still hot corpses of the plague victims onto the city wall. When some of the Genoese defenders later boarded their galleys to escape the plague-ridden city, they spread the disease to every port they visited.
All of Europe died within a few months. It quickly spread to North Africa, Italy, Spain, England, France, Austria, Hungary, Switzerland, Germany, Scandinavia and the Baltic States. In just over two years, more than a quarter of Europe's population, or around 25 million souls, was the victim of what is known as "the most brutal demographic catastrophe mankind has ever known": the black plague. * *
Prepare the ground for disaster
The tragedy of the Black Death affected more than the disease itself. Several factors contributed to the exacerbation of this catastrophe, including religious zeal. Purgatory is an example. “At the end of the 13th century there was purgatory everywhere,” explains the French historian Jacques le Goff. At the beginning of the 14th century, Dante produced his influential work The Divine Comedy with its graphic representations of Hell and Purgatory. A religious climate developed in which people tended to face the plague with surprising apathy and resignation, and viewed this as a punishment from God himself. As we shall see, this pessimistic state of mind has really fueled the spread of the disease. "Nothing could have provided more promising material for a pest to feed on," notes Philip Ziegler's book The Black Death.
There was also the problem of repeated crop losses in Europe. As a result, the continent's growing population was malnourished and ill-equipped to withstand disease.
The plague is spreading
According to Guy de Chauliac, Pope Clement VI's personal doctor, two types of plague have invaded Europe: pneumonia and bubonic plague. Describing these diseases graphically, he wrote, “The first lasted two months, with a persistent fever and a bloody cough, and he died of it in three days. The second lasted for the rest of the period, also with persistent fever but with apostles [abscesses] and anthrax on the outer parts, mainly in the armpits and groin. He died in five days. “There was nothing doctors could do to stop the plague from spreading.
Many people fled in a panic, leaving thousands infected. Among the first to flee were nobles and wealthy professionals. Although some clergymen have also fled, many orders have hidden in their abbeys in hopes of escaping the contamination.
In the midst of this panic, the Pope declared 1350 a Holy Year. Pilgrims traveling to Rome would have direct access to Paradise without having to go through purgatory! Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims heard the call and spread the plague on their journey.
Unsuccessful efforts
Efforts to control the Black Death were in vain as no one really knew how it was transmitted. Most realized that contact with the victim or even with their clothing was dangerous. Some even feared the appearance of a suffering man! However, the people of Florence, Italy blamed their dogs and cats for the plague. They killed these animals without realizing that they were releasing a creature that was actually involved in spreading the pollution: the rat.
As deaths increased, some turned to God for help. Both men and women gave the Church all they had in the hope that God would protect them from disease, or at least reward them with heavenly life when they died. He put tremendous wealth in the hands of the Church. Lucky charms, images of Christ and speech bubbles were also popular antidotes. Others turned to superstition, magic, and pseudomedicine to heal. Perfumes, vinegar and special potions are supposed to protect against diseases. Sangria was another favorite. The Paris University Medical School even attributed the plague to the alignment of the planets! However, false explanations and "cures" have done nothing to prevent the spread of this deadly scourge.
Long lasting effect
After five years, the Black Death finally seemed to be over. But before the end of the century it will be repeated at least four times. Therefore, the consequences of the Black Death were compared with those of the First World War. "There is practically no disagreement among modern historians that the emergence of the endemic plague after 1348 had profound economic and social consequences," says the 1996 book The Plague. black in England. The plague wiped out much of the population and it took centuries for some areas to recover. With a reduced workforce, the labor price naturally rose. Long ago wealthy landowners were ruined and the feudal system characteristic of the Middle Ages collapsed to rubble.
The scourge was therefore an impetus for political, religious and social change. Before the plague, French was widespread in the educated class in England. However, the death of many French teachers helped the English language dominate French in Britain. Changes have also occurred in the religious sphere. As the French historian Jacqueline Brossollet points out, "too often the Church recruited ignorantly and apathetically" because there were no candidates for the priesthood. Brossollet explains that "the decline of [ecclesiastical] centers of learning and belief was one of the causes of the Reformation".
The Black Death certainly left its mark on the arts, and death became a common artistic theme. The famous death dance genre, which often depicts skeletons and corpses, has become a popular allegory of the power of death. Many survivors gave in to the plague, uncertain about the future. So morale fell to catastrophic depths. As for the Church, the medieval man felt that his Church had let him down because he could not avoid the Black Death. (The Black Plague) Some historians also claim that the social changes following the black plague encouraged individualism and entrepreneurship, and increased social and economic mobility, precursors of capitalism.
Black death has also prompted governments to put in place health control systems. After the plague subsided, Venice took steps to clean up the city's streets. King João II of France, called Bom, also ordered the streets to be cleaned to contain the risk of an epidemic. The king took this step after learning of the existence of an ancient Greek doctor who saved Athens from a plague by cleaning and washing the streets. Many medieval streets that were open sewers were eventually cleaned up.
What from the past?
It was not until 1894 that the French bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin isolated the bacillus responsible for the Black Death. In his honor it was named Yersinia pestis. Four years later, another Frenchman, Paul-Louis Simond, discovered the role of the flea (carried by rodents) in transmitting the disease. A vaccine was developed quickly with limited success.
Is the plague a thing of the past? Bad. In the winter of 1910, around 50,000 people died of the plague in Manchuria. And every year the World Health Organization records thousands of new cases. the number continues to rise. New strains of the disease that are resistant to treatment have also been discovered. Yes, if basic hygiene standards are not followed, the plague remains a threat to humanity. The book Why the plague? The Rat, the Flea and the Bubo (Why the Plague? The Rat, the Flea and the Bubo), edited by Jacqueline Brossollet and Henri Mollaret, concludes that “in the Middle Ages far from a disease of ancient Europe too be. . . Unfortunately, the plague could be a disease of the future. ""
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