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The Effects of Black Death

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The Effects of Black Death

Black death was a bubonic plague, which took the lives of millions of people in the mid 1300s. This plague was caused by a bacterium called Yersinia pestis, which lived in fleas. Therefore, transmitting the bacteria to its rodent hosts every time they would feed. The bacteria then killed the rodents leaving the fleas without hosts to feed on and in result they would feed on the humans. (Bailey 7-12) Most people who were infected would last two to three days before they died, no longer than two to three weeks. The plague moved rapidly, medical researchers believe it could have moved as fast as eight to twelve miles a day. The plague was first encountered in China and it spread through Asia and into Europe in a
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His justification was that his wife was old and she would cause no suspicion. (212) The standards and requirements of the Church had lowered tremendously. Placing men in high places whose intentions were immoral. The priests knew the demand there was for them therefore, they raised their fees to make more money. The fees had gone so high that the people began to complain to the archbishop of Canterbury Simon Islip, an he in response issued the constitution Effrenata on May 28th, 1350, which it aimed to keep the priests from charging excessive amounts of money for their services during the plague. The constitution was called Effrenata because that was the first word of the document, which it meant, “unbridled” as in “unbridled greed of the human race”. Islip’s intention to help the people through the constitution of Effrenata did not have much success due to greedy priests taking advantage of those in need. (Byrne 68)

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
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