Response To The Plague

Those affected were exiled from their communities and were considered socially dead, isolation going so far as to have funeral services enacted for the leper before they were to be exiled. During the time of the Black Death, Christianity connected disease and sin together, disease being a punishment for sins. When the Black Plague hit towns, many prayed to repent for their sins in the hope that it would stop the spread of disease caused by God’s wrath. Drawing from the actions taken to deal with and to isolate lepers, the Black Death was treated in a similar fashion in that cities would not let people from areas where the plague had been into their cities to stop the spread of disease. The main protection against disease was to avoid infection, consequently, regulations regarding isolation rapidly developed throughout

This Primary Source is an excerpt from "The Cremation of Strasbourg Jewry, St. Valentine's Day, February 14, 1349—About the Great Plague and the Burning of the Jews" This document talks about how the Jews were blamed for the spread of the plague by putting poisons into water and wells. Because of this it was decided that all Jews would be burned to death and none would be allowed to enter specific cities for 200 years. Our primary source gives us an idea of what people thought started the plague. Many people blamed the Jews saying that they had killed christ and that they poisoned the water and the wells with the plague. The Black Plague allowed a new wave of Anti-Semitism to spread through Europe.

They both had many deaths. They also believe the plagues were punishments from the God for their sins. In the Black Plague, people were obessed with death. In the Justinian Plague, he put down the city in lockdown.

The blame lead to the Jewish nation being oppressed and world understanding that the Jewish nation will forever be the easiest to hold responsible. After the plague, Christians declared that very few Jews died from the plague, compared to the rest of the population. The Jewish law orders that Jews must wash their hands before eating and they must bathe before Shabbat. Jews are forbidden to recite a blessing with a stench, they must help the sick and must bury the dead. The rest of the world might have gone half their life without bathing and during the plague, the dead were left on the streets.

Is the historical Black Death similar, in any way, to Albert Camus’s The Plague? Like the hurricane that brings fear and panic along with its powerful winds that sweep out everything with it, the same happened both in real life and the fictional world. Despite the obvious differences between history and Camus’ fictional representation, the novel The Plague manages to accurately depict society’s reaction to the devastation of the plague, similar to the effects of the Black Death. Both Albert Camus’s The Plague and the Black Death, from the 14th century, were similar in this approach, by genesious way in which different churches manipulated this opportunity of the epidemic and the infestation of the disease. Considering how the medieval people

In the early 1300s, the Black Death arose and created massive terror and hysteria throughout Europe (Wein). People were looking for someone to blame and a source for the plague either for info or medical reasons (Wein). Eventually, Christian people began to lose reason in time of terror. People began to blame Jews for this plague by saying they poisoned the water. They continued saying that Jews wanted to hurt Christian just because they were non-Christians (Wein).

The Black Plague is known to be one of the most deadly pandemics in history, estimated to have killed 30-60% of Europe’s population in the series of outbreaks between the 14th and 18th centuries. The devastation of the plague was made much worse by the incomprehension of those affected by it. Y. Pestis, the bacteria which causes plague, was spread by infected hosts, including rats and fleas. However, the sparse knowledge of science and medicine led Europeans to blame other sources for the debilitating disease. Some believed the plague was the wrath of God, punishing the guilty for their sins.

Specific groups were singled out for persecution and the Jews quickly became the primary scapegoat for the 14th century plague. This religious group was accused of conspiring to spread the plague by poisoning the waters and infecting the air, since Jews were often merchants and the infected rats were carried by

The Christians and Muslims were both struck by the Black Death. I will be answering the question “How different were Christian and Muslim responses.” I will also be writing the Christian response. Next, I will be writing about the Muslim response. Finally I will be writing about the Jewish reformation and the scientific inquiry.

Most of the known world was devoured by the most notorious epidemic in history. In the 1351 , the infamous Black Death began to chew up and spit out Europe along with Asia and Africa as if being a victim of the Black Death once wasn’t horrific enough, The Great Pestilence hit Europe for the second time in the 18th century, along side that, in the 20th century Asia and Africa were revisited by The Great Plague. According to the background essay, “In five short years, the plague killed between 25 and 45% of the population it encountered.” During the time of the gruesome Black Death, two religions were widely practiced in this region of the world, Christianity and Islam. These were two religions with some different views and reasoning for this merciless period of terror and death.

The Christians thought the Lord was punishing them with the disease, and that when the Lord was enraged to embrace in acts of penance, so that you do not stray from the right path and parish. The Christians pray to their Lord and ask what they should do? A great number of saintly sisters of the Hotel Dieu, who did not fear to die, nursed the sick in all sweetness and humility, with no thought of honor, a number too often renewed by death, rest in peace with Christ, as we may piously believe. People began to think the Jews were guilty for the disease. The Muslims looked at praying for the disease to go away in disgust, because they believe the plague is a blessing from God.

Europe really didn’t know what to think of all the death that was surrounding them so they tried understanding it the best they could. Some were more rational about it and knew that they should try to avoid the dead and contact with those who may be ill. Others were scared and decided to blame it on those with different beliefs as them. They didn’t want to believe that they had done something wrong for which God would punish them. Europe just didn’t understand what was happening or what to do to make it

The Black Plague had immediate effects on people’s trust in Christianity but also caused a long lasting spilt and lack of power in the

The survivors could not wrap their heads around the amount of innocent lives that were taken, and the devastation left behind by the plague. The pandemic changed people’s lives forever, and for many changed what they believed in. No matter what religion a person followed, he/she was searching for answers. Christians and Muslims had very different views on why God would inflict such devastation on his people, but they both agreed on the idea the God’s hand played the ultimate role in the disaster. Christians responded to the devastation by claiming God inflicted the plague to rid the world of sin, whereas Muslims believed God

The people of Italy thought that the plague was a way to punish people who had been immoral, selfish, wicked, and greedy during their lifetime. The people of medieval Europe saw God as a powerful force in daily life, not as a remote, uninvolved figure (Currie 50). Some Christians turned their anger at the Catholic Church. In fact, many local priests either died of the plague or abandoned their parishes when it struck. People started practicing severe methods to show their devotion to God.