Christian And Christian Response To The Black Death

In 1346 European traders began to hear reports about earthquakes, floods, locusts, famine, and plague in faraway China. They knew very little then that the plague they were hearing about would follow the same trade routes to the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe that they themselves used. (doc. 1) In five short years, the plague killed between 25 and 45% of the populations it encountered. (doc 2) So how different were the Christian and Muslim responses? In 1348 Christianity and Islam came face to face with the Black Death. (doc. 3A) In truth, Muslims and Christians responded in many different ways. Their ideas for what caused the Black Death were somewhat different from each other also. Even the way they thought they could cure the

The Black Death was a plague carried by fleas on rats and it was very deadly. It started in the mid-14th century. The Black Death did not discriminate, anyone could get it. Religion was at its all time high during the time the Plague arrived in Europe. Two major religions that got the Black Death were Christians and Muslims. Muslims got the Plague in 1333 and Christians got the Plague in 1348 but their responses to the Black Death were greatly different but sometimes they were the same.

The infamous plague, known as the Black Death, was a deadly disease which managed to spread throughout Europe and the Middle East in the 14th century. Although both the Europeans and the Empires of Islam experienced the Black Death, each region had different responses and reasons for the causes of the disease. Empires of Islam viewed the plague as a blessing from God while Europeans believed it was a punishment from Him. As a result of the Black Death, Europeans rebelled whereas Empires of Islam respected authority. Europeans used other religions as an explanation for the start of the Black Death while Islamic empires did not blame other religions, but rather had other explanations that caused the disease.

The Black Death was a catastrophic event, it caused many innocent people to lose their lives. The people had different responses to the Plague. In this specific DBQ the topic will be “How Different Were Christian and Muslim Responses” (The Black Death: How Different Were Christian and Muslim Responses, 2010). The Christian and Muslims had somewhat different and the same responses. They would either turn to religion or they divert their own path away from religion. Both Christians and Muslims had different theories on why the Black Death came to be. Either it had something to do with their religion or it was a punishment for their sins or they would blame people such as the Jews.

Relations between the Christians and Jews of medieval Europe were always influenced by their unequal social and economic statuses and the religious competition that existed between them. While the Jews served a purpose in the Christian religion, this purpose meant that the more populous Christians that had come to dominate Europe only tolerated the Jews. No premise of equality existed, and the Jews came to depend on relationships with lower-level rulers to secure their relative safety. Rumors persisted that Jews had poisoned wells, and the Jews were often the targets of violence that the Christians seemed exceedingly willing to deliver. Overall, life was better for the Christians and worse for the Jews, although this would be of no

Along with these people, the Church also suffered. Before the Black Death transpire, the religious groups throughout Europe had strong power. However, once the plague occurred, corruptions became so out of hand that people had second thoughts on the idea of religion. Flagellants assumed the Black Death was the judgment of The Lord on sinful people. The Church could not provide answers for the people, making religion itself suffer even more. The Black Death had reached to an extent where many churches could not run anymore. Mobs and riots occurred, targeting religious groups like the Jews. This was another influence to the decrease of human population. (Black Death and Sin; Section

As a result of the Black Death, Christians and Muslims were the major religions to respond to this event. One would still say, people do not know much about the Bubonic plague. To repeat, Christians were the ones to take this event to the next level, when they started burning the Jews. Muslims just thought of it has a blessing. Muslims was the ones to bring all ethnic groups together in worship and prayer after the plague. Readers would think of it has help to one another or more like allies. For this it proves that religions respond to things different than

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.

Many people of the Catholic religion believed that God could stop the spread of the disease, or even heal their loved ones. However, when The Plague continued to wreak havoc across Europe, many people turned against their religion. There was also a large decrease of priests that had died due to The Plague, so the amount of churches in many areas simply ceased. The Plague also caused a decline in the Jewish population, however, the disease itself wasn’t what hurt them. Because Jewish prejudice was already so high, the Jews were looked at as scapegoats. Much of the population accused the Jews of poisoning the water wells, making them responsible for The Plague. Although this reasoning is highly unlikely, much of the Jewish population fled to Poland and Russia to get away from the

“Because of such happenings and many others of a like sort, various fears and superstitions arose among the survivors, almost all of which tended toward one end-to flee from the sick and whatever had belonged to them. In this way each man thought to be safeguarding his own health. Some among them were of the opinion that by living temperately and guarding against excesses of all kinds, they could do much toward avoiding the danger; and in forming a band they lived away from the rest of the world. Gathering in those houses where no one had been ill and living was more comfortable, they shut themselves in. They ate moderately of the best that could be had and drank

Contrary to the popular view, Muslim scientists and physicians had a tough time believing in these tenets, the third one in particular, due to the increasing amount of evidence that a contagion actually existed. In addition, physicians usually felt it was their duty to treat those infected in any way they could; this conflicted with the theological view held by many Muslims that the Plague was a direct product of God and thus must simply be endured. Even some theologians began to have issues with these tenets when the plague hit the holy city of Mecca in 1349. The Islamic Prophet had promised that no disease would never come to either Mecca or Medina, so when the holy city was devastated by the disease, people began to doubt the disease’s proposed holy origin. Some Muslims reasoned that the Plague's presence in Mecca was a direct result of some of its inhabitants being unbelievers, while others rejoiced that it never spread to Medina. The disagreement between those who believed the Plague was the doing of God and those who did not created tension in medieval Islamic society.

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.

The Black Death took place between 1315 and 1317, this Bubonic plague killed 10 percent The Catholic church failed to explain the cause of the Black Death, many church officials refused to treat the sick; leaving dying people behind. Citizens were desperate during the disaster, some had given up on life. They began living without rules and restrictions, they abandoned themselves into sexual and alcoholic indulgences. People lost their faith in Christianity, some extremists began to blame the Jews for causing the plague. An outbreak of anti-Semitism took place during the Black Death which caused the destruction over 60 major Jewish communities by the year of 1531. The plague also gave birth to a group of extreme believers called the flagellants in Germany who whipped themselves for forgiveness from God. The Black Death damaged the reputation of the church and many people lost faith in God.

During Europe’s boom in trade more advanced ways of cargo shipping and sea travel were developed, but with this advancement also came the transport of disease. The most deadly of these new diseases was the well-known Black Death, which starting in 1347 took its toll on Western Europe. Throughout history, when faced with hard times, the true side of humanity can be seen; during these times humanity often reverts back to their roots whether those be the barbaric or the amiable. During the Black Death civilizations did just that; the chaos stricken communities of Europe responded in various ways some more righteous and beneficial, and others negative and barbaric.

In the Later Middle Ages, from 1300 to 1450, a plague is seen spreading and killing mass amounts of people in Europe, this plague would later be named the Black Death. Starting in China in 1331 and then spreading to Europe by cargo ships in 1347. During the Later Middle Ages the climate also changed, dropping the temperature, killing crops, and freezing water supplies. During this period there were also multiple crisis that began to pop up, and not many can be attributed to the Black Death. One must take each event and look for causation case-by-case rather they labeling all with the same brush stroke.