Social Changes During The Black Death

1676 Words7 Pages

The Black Death led to social change because it diminished the power of the Catholic church with an increase in heresy, worsened the position of the Jews, and increased social mobility for the lower classes. The pandemic spread through Europe for about 5 years (1347-1352) and it claimed the lives of 25-30 million people. Life over these years changed significantly. One example that was not favorable to many was how the peasants were being treated. They were treated as slaves, and had no rights to demand better even though the agricultural and living conditions were unfair. While the Black Death affected everyone throughout Europe, overtime, many changes began to appear as the pandemic grew larger and larger, and this led to various conflicts, …show more content…

In addition to this, they were also disappointed with the fact that the church was not able to utilize their power to make people do what they thought was right. Instead of trying to make a difference in the community to save lives, it seems that many leaders of the church decided to leave and let their people set off to figure things out for themselves and worship on their own because they were not capable of leading such a big role. Due to the church's decline, many joined a new religion/movement called the Flagellant Movement. A social change like this showed how desperate the people were for an answer to the solution to stop the plague, and this movement was claimed to be one of the most effective …show more content…

This proposes the question to whether the Jews actually poisoned the wells, or if they claimed to admit it so that they did not have to experience more torture. Furthermore, the Christians took their ideas to the government showing that they needed more help to try to decrease the amount of Jews in the city as much as possible. Even the Jews that survived were not able to enter this specific city. The level of animosity towards them was unbearable compared to how they were treated before the plague which shows that no matter the circumstances, the Christians began to dislike Jews even more than ever

Open Document