Black Death

I

Introduction

Black Death, epidemic of plague which ravaged Europe in the mid-14th century. Various forms of plague were known in the civilized world since ancient times. Greek and Roman historians described outbreaks of an epidemic disease which were sudden and deadly: at Constantinople in the 6th century ad, for example, as much as half the population may have been killed. The outbreak which reached Europe from China in 1347, and spread rapidly and with disastrous results to most countries, has been given the name the Black Death, though contemporaries did not use this term.

II

Epidemiology of the Black Death

The plague bacillus affects wild rodents and their parasites, especially the black rat and its flea, Xenopsylla cheopis. A diseased rat, carrying the bacilli, may infect the flea which feeds on its blood, and in certain conditions the flea can carry the disease to human beings. It is thought by modern historians that this was the most common cause of the spread of the infection.

There are two main forms of plague, of varying intensity. The more important is bubonic plague, which affects the lymph glands and leads to swellings (boils or “buboes”) in the throat, underarm or, most commonly, in the groin. This type was very familiar to Europeans in the late Middle Ages and Early Modern period, and for those affected mortality was anywhere up to 75 per cent (even greater in some regions): most died within a week of catching the disease. It flourished in the summer months, usually reaching a peak in September. In London and other big European cities these months were often considered unhealthy, and those who could afford to, left town.

More deadly still was pneumonic plague, one of the most infectious and fatal diseases known to man. It was commonest in the cold winter months, affected the lungs and was easily transmitted, for it could be spread by coughs and sneezes. It was 95 per cent fatal, victims normally dying within three days of the onset.

III

Spread of the Black Death

The Black Death of the mid-14th century probably began in the steppes of Central Asia and spread to China and India. Contemporary chroniclers thought that a series of natural disasters, such as earthquakes, had upset the ecological balance there. Merchants travelling from the affected regions may have carried the disease along the usual trade routes to the Middle East and the Mediterranean. It reached Constantinople in 1347, Messina in Sicily (its first European appearance) in October 1347, and Paris and the south coast of England in the summer of 1348. It then spread rapidly to the rest of Europe. That it continued in the winter months as well as the summer suggests that the pneumonic form was also present with bubonic plague, for the former flourishes in cramped living conditions where people huddle together for warmth. The speed with which the disease was spread in a largely rural and, by modern standards, not densely populated, society; the short interval between infection and death; and the high incidence of mortality also point to a particularly virulent strain of the disease. The epidemic was able to cross borders with ease, not only between different countries but species boundaries between animals and men. Observers noted the death of household pets, farmyard animals, and even birds, all of which in later outbreaks would not normally be affected by plague among humans.

There is no doubt of the violence and dramatic impact of the plague in 1347-1351. Many contemporary observers, even the educated and well informed, shocked at the human devastation caused by the disease, believed that almost all the inhabitants in many places had succumbed, and very few had survived unharmed. Giovanni Boccaccio, in his preface to the Decameron, considered that 100,000 had died in his native Florence, which was probably the total population of the city. Estimates of 90 per cent mortality, common at the time, have been, because of the shortage of reliable records, discounted by modern research. Nevertheless, the figures accepted by historians today are remarkable enough. It has been shown that in the areas of Europe most affected, up to half the population perished. Where records are fullest, as in the Italian city states, it is clear that mortality rates were frequently more than ten times greater than normal, with, in larger towns, hundreds of inhabitants dying every day. In other areas of Europe the impact was much less, and later outbreaks of the disease did more damage. It is thought that the Low Countries, for example, largely escaped the Black Death, but were to suffer other outbreaks later.

IV

Responses to the Black Death

Contemporaries were baffled by the disease, as well as inflating its impact. It was not until the early 20th century that it was fully understood and effective treatment made available. There was intense speculation as to the cause of the outbreak. Some believed that the corruption of the air, an invisible but deadly miasma proceeding from the ground, was responsible, and pointed to recent earthquakes which had released unhealthy vapours long trapped underground. Bad smells were of course a common feature of medieval life, and insanitary housing, rubbish tips, butchers' shambles, and stinking ditches—always of concern to the authorities—were especially unpopular when plague threatened. Particularly feared were victims' decomposing bodies, or their goods and clothing. In an early form of germ warfare, a plague-ridden army attempting to capture an enemy fortress would catapult decaying corpses into the town to infect the besieged.

In well-run urban areas, the magistrates developed ways of dealing with the disease, although of course remaining unaware of the real causes of it. As well as the encouragement of better hygiene and sanitation, they ordered the restriction of the movement of people and goods; the isolation of the infected, or their removal to outlying hospitals (“pest houses”); prompt burial of the victims in overflow cemeteries (“plague pits”) outside the walls; and the burning of their clothing. As infected air was thought harmful, popular remedies included the carrying of sweet-smelling nosegays, and the burning of spices and herbs indoors. In later outbreaks, after the introduction of the exotic Indian weed from the New World, the smoking of tobacco was thought effective.

Throughout Europe, the Church, and moralists generally, took the view that the Black Death was a punishment from God for the sins of mankind, and called for a moral regeneration of society. Immoderate eating and drinking, immoral sexual behaviour, and excessive luxury in clothing were all condemned, and the occasion of the plague was employed to bring congregations back to a more spiritual frame of mind. The mood of repentance experienced in many places was sometimes carried to excess. The Flagellant movement grew in popularity: men, stripped to the waist, lashed themselves with steel-tipped thongs as a striking demonstration of humility in the face of divine judgement. As the movement attracted many recruits and operated outside the established Church, it was eventually outlawed by the papacy.

An opposite response of some contemporaries, in the face of a disease which was unpredictable and undiscriminating, so that the virtuous in society were no more immune from sudden death than the wicked, was to live whatever remained of life to the full. Boccaccio's Decameron was cast in the form of a series of stories told by exiled survivors from the plague in Florence, the light and bawdy contents of which were an antidote to the fear of imminent mortality.

For those seeking easy explanations of the spread of disease, the usual outcasts of society could be blamed. In some areas beggars and the very poor were accused of contaminating ordinary folk. In those parts of Europe where Jews had not been expelled, popular fury—fuelled by prejudice—turned against them. In west German and Swiss cities there was a widespread massacre of Jews, some of whom had been tortured into falsely confessing that they had poisoned the wells. The efforts of the Church and the secular authorities to prohibit these activities were largely unavailing.