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Preface
This article was originally published on Blogger, 2008-10-22. Even though it was kind of a one-off article for me, according to Blogger statistics, it has for years had the most all-time pageviews on this website. I will edit and revise this article for an entry on academia.edu, 2024-01-20.
Historian Cairns states that the Black Death in 1348-49 took away about 1/3 of the persons in Europe with a painful death. Cairns (1981: 248).
Edited portions according to:
Doc Player.net
History Boise State
Edited portions according to:
Doc Player.net
History Boise State
Black Death: ORB
History of Western Civilization
E.L. Skip Knox
Boise State University
The Black Death serves as a convenient divider between the central and the late Middle Ages. The changes between the two periods are numerous; they include the introduction of gunpowder, increased importance of cities, economic and demographic crises, political dislocation and realignment, and powerful new currents in culture and religion. Overall, the later Middle Ages are usually characterized as a period of crisis and trouble. The portrait should not be painted unrelievedly bleak, but the tone is accurate enough and echoes voices from the era itself.
The Black Death did not cause the crisis, for evidence of the changes can be seen well before 1347. But the plague exacerbated problems and added new ones, and the tone of crisis is graver in the second half than in the first half of the century. Standing at the century's mid-point, the plague serves as a convenient demarcation.
The Black Death erupted in the Gobi Desert in the late 1320s. No one really knows why. The plague bacillus was alive and active long before that; indeed Europe itself had suffered an epidemic in the 6th century. But the disease had lain relatively dormant in the succeeding centuries. We know that the climate of Earth began to cool in the 14th century, and perhaps this so-called little Ice Age had something to do with it.
The plague moved along the caravan routes toward the West. By 1345 the plague was on the lower Volga River. By 1346 it was in the Caucasus and the Crimea. By 1347 it was in Constantinople.
It hit Alexandria in the autumn of that year, and by spring 1348, a thousand people a day were dying there. In Cairo the count was seven times that.
The disease travelled by ship as readily as by land—more readily—and it was no sooner in the eastern Mediterranean than it was in the western end as well. Already in 1347, the plague had hit Sicily.
What was this disease? Bubonic plague is the medical term. It is a bacillus, an organism, most usually carried by rodents. Fleas infest the animal (rats, but other rodents as well), and these fleas move freely over to human hosts.
The flea then regurgitates the blood from the rat into the human, infecting the human. The rat dies. The human dies. The flea's stomach gets blocked and it eventually dies of starvation. It's a grim disease for everyone.
Symptoms include high fevers and aching limbs and vomiting of blood. Most characteristic is a swelling of the lymph nodes. These glands can be found in the neck, armpits and groin. The swelling protrudes and is easily visible; its blackish coloring gives the disease its name: the Black Death.
The swellings continue to expand until they eventually burst, with death following soon after. The whole process, from first symptoms of fever and aches, to final expiration, lasts only three or four days. The swiftness of the disease, the terrible pain, the grotesque appearance of the victims, all served to make the plague especially terrifying.
Bubonic plague is usually fatal, though not inevitably so. Today, we have drugs that can cure it, if administered in time. But if the victim is already at risk, through malnutrition or other illness, it is more deadly. There were plenty of people in the 1340s who were at risk.
Even so, historians have been hard pressed to explain the extraordinary mortality of the 1348 outbreak. Our best guess is that there was more than one variety of plague at work in Europe.
There are two other varieties of plague: septicaemic plague, which attacks the blood, and pneumonic plague, which attacks the lungs. The latter is especially dangerous as it can be transmitted through the air. Both these two are nearly 100% fatal.
It seems likely that some form of pneumonic plague was at work alongside the bubonic plague in those awful years. But the many accounts we have describe mainly the bubonic form. The next two pages are two contemporary accounts of the plague. (Please check link)
Contrary to what you might think, the reaction from public officials, and from many churchmen, was that this calamity was not the vengeance of God upon a sinful world but was a disease. Authorities took what steps they could to deal with it, but of course their effectiveness was limited.
When the government acts to prevent or control a calamity, but the calamity persists, people turn to other cures. Many believed that the disease was transmitted upon the air, probably because the smell from the dead and dying was so awful. So, the living turned to scents to ward off the deadly vapors.
One of the worst effects of the plague was that it came not once, but over and over. It was never as bad as the first instance. In some cases the plague was as virulent but it was more limited in geographic scope. A couple of times it covered Europe again, but not with such devastation.
It was this recurrence that so reduced the population of Europe, as countries never really had the chance to recover properly before another outbreak would occur. All through the second half of the fourteenth century, every generation was visited by the plague. It struck again and again in the 15th century, but less frequently.
Those were the worst centuries, but there were local epidemics for another two hundred years. Parts of Europe did not recover their pre-plague population until the 17th century.
New World Encyclopedia: Black Death
History of Western Civilization
E.L. Skip Knox
Boise State University
The Black Death serves as a convenient divider between the central and the late Middle Ages. The changes between the two periods are numerous; they include the introduction of gunpowder, increased importance of cities, economic and demographic crises, political dislocation and realignment, and powerful new currents in culture and religion. Overall, the later Middle Ages are usually characterized as a period of crisis and trouble. The portrait should not be painted unrelievedly bleak, but the tone is accurate enough and echoes voices from the era itself.
The Black Death did not cause the crisis, for evidence of the changes can be seen well before 1347. But the plague exacerbated problems and added new ones, and the tone of crisis is graver in the second half than in the first half of the century. Standing at the century's mid-point, the plague serves as a convenient demarcation.
The Black Death erupted in the Gobi Desert in the late 1320s. No one really knows why. The plague bacillus was alive and active long before that; indeed Europe itself had suffered an epidemic in the 6th century. But the disease had lain relatively dormant in the succeeding centuries. We know that the climate of Earth began to cool in the 14th century, and perhaps this so-called little Ice Age had something to do with it.
The plague moved along the caravan routes toward the West. By 1345 the plague was on the lower Volga River. By 1346 it was in the Caucasus and the Crimea. By 1347 it was in Constantinople.
It hit Alexandria in the autumn of that year, and by spring 1348, a thousand people a day were dying there. In Cairo the count was seven times that.
The disease travelled by ship as readily as by land—more readily—and it was no sooner in the eastern Mediterranean than it was in the western end as well. Already in 1347, the plague had hit Sicily.
What was this disease? Bubonic plague is the medical term. It is a bacillus, an organism, most usually carried by rodents. Fleas infest the animal (rats, but other rodents as well), and these fleas move freely over to human hosts.
The flea then regurgitates the blood from the rat into the human, infecting the human. The rat dies. The human dies. The flea's stomach gets blocked and it eventually dies of starvation. It's a grim disease for everyone.
Symptoms include high fevers and aching limbs and vomiting of blood. Most characteristic is a swelling of the lymph nodes. These glands can be found in the neck, armpits and groin. The swelling protrudes and is easily visible; its blackish coloring gives the disease its name: the Black Death.
The swellings continue to expand until they eventually burst, with death following soon after. The whole process, from first symptoms of fever and aches, to final expiration, lasts only three or four days. The swiftness of the disease, the terrible pain, the grotesque appearance of the victims, all served to make the plague especially terrifying.
Bubonic plague is usually fatal, though not inevitably so. Today, we have drugs that can cure it, if administered in time. But if the victim is already at risk, through malnutrition or other illness, it is more deadly. There were plenty of people in the 1340s who were at risk.
Even so, historians have been hard pressed to explain the extraordinary mortality of the 1348 outbreak. Our best guess is that there was more than one variety of plague at work in Europe.
There are two other varieties of plague: septicaemic plague, which attacks the blood, and pneumonic plague, which attacks the lungs. The latter is especially dangerous as it can be transmitted through the air. Both these two are nearly 100% fatal.
It seems likely that some form of pneumonic plague was at work alongside the bubonic plague in those awful years. But the many accounts we have describe mainly the bubonic form. The next two pages are two contemporary accounts of the plague. (Please check link)
Contrary to what you might think, the reaction from public officials, and from many churchmen, was that this calamity was not the vengeance of God upon a sinful world but was a disease. Authorities took what steps they could to deal with it, but of course their effectiveness was limited.
When the government acts to prevent or control a calamity, but the calamity persists, people turn to other cures. Many believed that the disease was transmitted upon the air, probably because the smell from the dead and dying was so awful. So, the living turned to scents to ward off the deadly vapors.
One of the worst effects of the plague was that it came not once, but over and over. It was never as bad as the first instance. In some cases the plague was as virulent but it was more limited in geographic scope. A couple of times it covered Europe again, but not with such devastation.
It was this recurrence that so reduced the population of Europe, as countries never really had the chance to recover properly before another outbreak would occur. All through the second half of the fourteenth century, every generation was visited by the plague. It struck again and again in the 15th century, but less frequently.
Those were the worst centuries, but there were local epidemics for another two hundred years. Parts of Europe did not recover their pre-plague population until the 17th century.
New World Encyclopedia: Black Death
This is a new source for the 2024-01-20 article revision, as the second source I had used previously no longer has a link.
Cited excerpts
The Black Death, also known as the Black Plague, was a devastating pandemic that first struck Europe in the mid-late-fourteenth century (1347–1351), killing between one-third and two-thirds of Europe's population. Almost simultaneous epidemics occurred across large portions of Asia and the Middle East, indicating that the European outbreak was actually part of a multi-regional pandemic. Including Middle Eastern lands, India, and China the Black Death killed at least 75 million people. The same disease is thought to have returned to Europe every generation with varying degrees of intensity and fatality until the 1700s. Notable later outbreaks include the Italian Plague of 1629–1631, the Great Plague of London (1665–1666), the Great Plague of Vienna (1679), the Great Plague of Marseille (1720–1722), and the 1771 plague in Moscow. The disease was completely eradicated in Europe only at the beginning of the nineteenth century, but survives in other parts of the world such as Central and Oriental Africa, Madagascar, Asia, and the Americas— including the United States. The initial fourteenth century European event was called the "Great Mortality" by contemporary writers and, with later outbreaks, became known as the "Black Death." It has been popularly thought that the name came from a striking symptom of the disease, called acral necrosis, in which sufferers' skin would blacken due to subdermal hemorrhages.
References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees
Appleby, Andrew B. “The Disappearance of the Plague: A Continuing Puzzle.” Economic History Review 33(2) (1980): 161-173.
BBC. Black Death and Plague “Not Linked.” Retrieved September 3, 2019.
Boccaccio, Giovanni. The Decameron. NY: Penguin, 2003. ISBN 0140449302
Deaux, George. The Black Death 1347. New York: Weybright and Talley, 1969. ISBN 0241015146
Derr, Mark. "New Theories Link Black Death to Ebola-Like Virus." New York Times. Science Section. October 2, 2001.
Dols, Michael W. The Black Death in the Middle East. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University, 1977. ISBN 069103107X
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Ibeji, Dr. Mike. Black Death. Retrieved September 3, 2019.
Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities. Plague and Public Health in Renaissance Europe. Retrieved September 3, 2019.
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Physorg.com. Biologists discover why 10% of Europeans are safe from HIV infection. Retrieved September 3, 2019.
Scott, Susan, and Duncan, Christopher. Return of the Black Death: The World's Greatest Serial Killer. West Sussex; John Wiley and Sons, 2004. ASIN B000PY4534 B000PY4534
Slack, Paul. “The Disappearance of the Plague: An Alternative View.” Economic History Review. 34(3) (1981): 469-476.
Urban Legends Reference Pages. Ring around the Rosie. Retrieved September 3, 2019.
Velendzas MD, Demetres. CBRNE-Plague. Retrieved September 3, 2019.
Ziegler, Phillip. Black Death. NY: HarperPerennial, 1971. ISBN 0061315508
Opine
Quote
Contrary to what you might think, the reaction from public officials, and from many churchmen, was that this calamity was not the vengeance of God upon a sinful world but was a disease. Authorities took what steps they could to deal with it, but of course their effectiveness was limited.
Without direct knowledge of God's plans, I would not opine that problems of evil such as the Black Death are primarily a result of God's vengeance. The Church exists in a sinful, fallen, corrupt creation. A sinful, tainted Church is Biblically consistent with human corruption described in Romans 3. All humans beings have sinned and fall short of the glory of God as in Romans 3: 23. People will die as sinful (Romans 6: 23), the salvific work of Christ, for everlasting life, the only remedy, post-mortem.
Cairns explains that medieval church history went from 590-1517 Cairns. (1981: 163). He notes that church-state relations were very important in this era and a distinct Western Civilization emerged from both Christian and classical foundations. Cairns (1981: 165). Cultural Christianity was the norm in the 14th Century in Western Europe. A church-state reality means that is difficult to measure how many people in existence were actually biblical Christians, trusting in the applied atoning and resurrection work of Jesus Christ for justification and sanctification in salvation.
Jesus stated in regard to knowing God in Matthew 7:13-14, that few persons enter by the narrow gate, and the wide and broad way of destruction is found by many. William Barclay points out, that Luke 13:24 is presenting a similar idea which may have come from the same original source, but reached the author of Luke from a different tradition. Barclay (1975: 97). In Luke, Jesus explains that many will strive to enter by the narrow gate, but shall not be able to. Barclay (1975: 97).
I reason that a society of cultural Christianity in a fallen world does not necessarily and likely produce a society where most of the citizens are actually Biblical Christians. Only God himself can provide election/salvation as he wills (Romans, Ephesians). Christ noted that few found salvation and so I can reasonably conclude election to salvation is also given to few.
BARCLAY, WILLIAM (1975) Introduction to the First Three Gospels, Philadelphia, The Westminster Press.
BRUCE, F.F. (1987) Romans, Grand Rapids, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
CAIRNS, EARLE E. (1981) Christianity Through The Centuries, Grand Rapids, Zondervan Publishing House.
CAIRNS, EARLE E. (1981) Christianity Through The Centuries, Grand Rapids, Zondervan Publishing House.
CALVIN, JOHN (1539)(1998) The Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book II, Translated by Henry Beveridge, Grand Rapids, The Christian Classic Ethereal Library, Wheaton College.
CALVIN, JOHN (1539)(1998) The Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book IV, Translated by Henry Beveridge, Grand Rapids, The Christian Classic Ethereal Library, Wheaton College.
CALVIN, JOHN (1543)(1996) The Bondage and Liberation of the Will, Translated by G.I. Davies, Grand Rapids, Baker Book House.
COAD, F. ROY (1986) ‘Galatians’, in F.F. Bruce (gen.ed.), The International Bible Commentary, Grand Rapids, Marshall Pickering/ Zondervan.
COURSON, JON (2005) Application Commentary, Thomas Nelson, Nashville.
CRANFIELD, C.E.B. (1992) Romans: A Shorter Commentary, Grand Rapids, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
DUNNETT, WALTER M. (2001) Exploring The New Testament, Wheaton, Crossway Books.
ELWELL, WALTER AND YARBROUGH, ROBERT W., Third Edition (2013) Encountering The New Testament, Grand Rapids, Baker Academic.
ERICKSON, MILLARD (1994) Christian Theology, Grand Rapids, Baker Book House.
FOULKES, FRANCIS (1989) Ephesians, Grand Rapids, Inter-Varsity Press.
FRANCE, R.T. (1985) Matthew, Grand Rapids, IVP, Eerdmans.
ELLISON, H.L. (1986) ‘Matthew’, in F.F. Bruce (ed.), The International Bible Commentary, Grand Rapids, Zondervan.
ERICKSON, MILLARD (1994) Christian Theology, Grand Rapids, Baker Book House.
GUNDRY, ROBERT (1981) A Survey of the New Testament, Grand Rapids, Zondervan.
HARPUR, GEORGE (1986) Ephesians in The International Bible Commentary, Grand Rapids, Zondervan.
HOEHNER, HAROLD, ThD, PhD (1985) The Epistle To The Romans, Institute of Theological Studies.
MOUNCE, ROBERT H. (1995) The New American Commentary: Romans, Nashville, Broadman & Holman Publishers.
SCHRECK, ALAN (1984) Catholic and Christian, Ann Arbor, Michigan, Servant Books.
SHEDD, WILLIAM G.T. (1874-1890)(1980) Dogmatic Theology, Volume 1, Nashville, Thomas Nelson Publishers.
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WHALE, J.S. (1958) Christian Doctrine, Glasgow, Fontana Books.
