Black Death Dbq

During the time when the Black Plague struck there were two main religions in the world, Christianity and Islam. Christianity follows the teachings of Jesus Christ, God’s son. The book of the Christian is the Bible. The religion of Islam deals with submission to God, and following the teachings of Mohammed, which are spelled out in the Koran (The DBQ Project, Background Essay). An interesting topic that one might discover of this time is, how did these two religions react to the plague. Could it be possible that they acted as everyone else did at that time, or did they hold strong to their beliefs? When they Black Plague struck, the Christians and the Muslims had similar ways of dealing and responding to it.

Doctors and other scholars have come to the conclusion that the deathly plague was caused by a bite of an infected flea. In the fall of 1347, the Black Death appeared in Europe by sea when trading ships landed at the Sicilian port of Messina after an extended journey through the Black Sea. The people of Sicily went to approach the traders and greet them, instead they were left speechless to what they have witnessed. Almost everyone on the ship were deceased and if one was alive, they would be close to death. They were affected with a fever and was unable to keep food down. Their bodies had these mysterious black boils all over and would constantly bleed and pus. The black boils gave the plague its name. The Sicilian authorities ordered the

The Black Death, also known as the Black Plague, was a rapid infectious outbreak that swept over Europe and Asia in the mid-1300s resulting in the death of millions of people. Tentatively, this disease started in the Eastern parts of Asia, and it eventually made its way over to Europe by way of trade routes. Fever and “dark despair” characterized this plague. The highly contagious sickness displayed many flu-like symptoms, and the victim’s lymph nodes would quickly become infected. The contamination resulted in a colossal and rapid spread of the disease within one person’s body. Due to the lack of medical knowledge and physicians, there was little that people could do to save those dying all around them. Now that a better understanding of

Cantor highlights some of the effects that the Black Death had on religion. The plague had a huge impact on the church because almost forty percent of parish clergy had died from the plague. The change was made to ordain priests at age twenty instead of twenty five, and a priest could take over a church at age twenty. Fifteen-year-olds could receive monastic vows, instead of having to wait until they were twenty. These were "undereducated and inexperienced people" (p. 206) and this indirectly contributed to the spread of the Lollards, who were radical heretics (p.207)

From the depths of the Middle East during the Post-Classical period, two of the most powerful world religions emerged. Islam and Christianity, although sharing many similarities, also had their fair share of disagreements, one being their responses to the Black Death. The religion, demography, and interactions all contributed to the differentiation of Muslim and Christian reactions. Christians thought that the Black Death was sent from God as a punishment and blamed the Jews, while Muslims considered it a blessing and did not accuse any minority of initiating the outbreak.

Between 1347 and 1351, a big disease outbreak happened in Europe that ended up killing over ten million people. People became very sick and they would have a lot of suffering which resulted in a painful death. It took 500 years to discover what the disease really was: the Black Plague. This paper details about how the Black Plague started, the suffering it caused people, and the scientific knowledge that was learned from it.

The black death was a pneumonic plague caused by the yersinia pestis bacteria. “It was the greatest demographic crisis of the medieval period, and in proportion to those killed, the single most calamitous epidemiological event in all of history. In my opinion, the black death has been the greatest challenge to social, political, and economic history.

When the plague was consuming most of the European population, priests, monks, and nuns cared for any who had the plague. They also took the responsibility to bury the dead. This caused the population of the clergy to suffer, showing that all of society was affected by the plague, whether it was caring for others, or suffering themselves. The economy was also affected. Before the plague started to spread, most of Europe was experiencing the affect of overpopulation. With overpopulation came the need for food, land, and anything else needed for survival. When the plague hit Europe, the population naturally decreased meaning labor did as well. This caused the price of most all foods went up, yet also caused wages to go up as well, bringing in

Beginning in the mid-fourteenth century, a plague swept the world like no other. It struck in a series of waves that continued into the eighteenth century. The first wave was estimated to have killed twenty-five million people, about a third of the Western Europe population at that time. Throughout the different outbreaks, the plague, also known as the Bubonic Plague or the Black Death, caused people to react in several ways. Some people believed the plague was a medical problem that can be treated, some found themselves concerned only with their own greed, still others believed there was nothing they could do and reacted in fear, and most people believed it was a form of divine

Prior to the plague the entire legal system relied on the church, the church made all of the decisions. The general population stopped backing the church because they believed that god would never do that to them so god must not be real. There was always the priests who said it was a punishment for sin but nothing added up for the people surrounded by death and loss. Since this abundance people stopped believing the church lost power, ”...the Church’s reputation never quite recovered, as the new priests who were quickly brought in to fill the void were not as scholarly or thoroughly trained as the old. It became more acceptable to malign the clergy in the years that followed…” (“Priests and the Black Plague”

Little was known about the clergy during the Black Death. For a long time people believed that the Catholic Church had fled from its duty to serve the people, but that could not be further from the truth. In recent discovery it was found that greater than 50 percent of clergy were killed during the Black Death. This was not because the clergy were running away; rather, the clergy stayed and helped the people in villages, knowing the likelihood they would survive would be slim throughout this epidemic. It is my goal in this paper to describe what was occurring during the Black Death and how the Catholic Church and its clergy reacted to the epidemic.

Another aspect of life that was highly affected was society. During the plague and after the plague society’s values and faith began to change. When the Black Death began taking the lives of the clergy just as well as everyone else, society began to wonder if the clergy were as powerful and as united to God as they had once believed, because no matter their prayer the plague was still raging. The people lost faith in the clergy and by the end of the plague the Church had lost its authority, not only for the reason

Rather than becoming more religious in thanksgiving to God for survival, people began to harbor doubts. They would turn to the church for an answer to the plague, and the church was unable to help.

Life was very busy for me in 1300’s, I travelled through many countries and continents following the trail of dead bodies. I am death. I have lived forever. I will live until no human lives no more. I will continue collecting the souls of the deceased on earth and taking them to rest in the light blue place beyond. I lived through the Black Death watching on as the world experienced the disastrous effects.

In the 1300s, Europe was thriving with new innovations and huge cities that covered the country. Most of Europe was urban and very crowd with a population of 50,000 (“Middle Ages”). The 1300s was a period known as the Middle Ages, which represents the time where the Roman Empire and the Constantinople fell. During this time around 1350, infectious disease was spreading through the streets of Europe. Approximately, 20 million people died in Europe from the plague, which is roughly around one-third of the population (“Black Plague”). The Black Plague affected European civilization and how European society viewed the world. The renaissance is a prime example of how the Black Plague affected Europe. The Black Plague helped influence people