Rhetoric III
Western Civilization
The Black Death
Week 12
Viva Question
How did the Black Death impact European society?
Counter Thesis
Our perspectives on the Black Death are largely limited to examination of the disease’s ramifications on the health of medieval populations. However, these impacts were overwhelming overshadowed by the implications of the disease for societal structures and perspectives which were forever remade by the disease.
Thesis:
More than a pandemic, the Black Death transformed European culture in numerous, fundamental ways.
It impacted European Society
There are many misconceptions about the Black Death
Ring around the rosie,�“Refers to the rosie-red (or purple-ish) round rash marks on the skin —one of the first signs a person had the plague.”
A pocket full of posies;�“One of the superstitious ways used by people in the Middle Ages to try and fend off the plague was to stuff their pockets with posies.”
Atischoo, atischoo,�“Sneezing was also an early sign of the plague if it was a pneumonic plague; however, not all types of plague involved sneezing.”
or, Ashes, ashes�“The dead were often cremated.”
We all fall down.�“Most of the people stricken with the plague died.”
Jon Schladweiler
This is all nonsense. The nursery rhyme dates from the 1800s and the original lyrics were nonsensical, as was the style of the era, and beyond that originally were quite different from those popularly used today.
Ring a ring a rosie,
A bottle full of posie,
All the girls in our town,
Ring for little Josie.
-attributed c. 1790
-William Wells Newell, Games and Songs of American Children, 1883
“The term ‘Black Death’ used to describe the 14th century plague pandemic was not coined in the Middle Ages. The idea that the Black Death originated in the blackened flesh of its victims is, in fact, a popular misconception. In a poem composed around 1350, the Flemish astrologer, Simon de Covinus, described the great pestilence as the mors atra, (literally black or terrible death). For reasons unknown, sixteenth-century translators of the poem opted to use the word ‘black’, rather than ‘terrible’, and thus the famous phrase was born. In later years, the term ‘Black Death’ became a useful way of differentiating between the medieval plague and England’s modern counterpart, the Great Plague of 1665.”
-Kaye Jones
The Black Death had several consequences including medical, economic, and socio-political influences. These changes were both positive and negative and contributed to conditions favorable to the decline of feudalism, the end of the Middle Ages, and the emergence of the Renaissance.
Argument I
It dramatically impacted the health of Europeans
The Plague Arrives
The Black Death arrived on European shores in 1348. By 1350, the year it went into decline, it had killed nearly half of the continent’s population. It would go on to have several reappearances in 1362, 1368, and 1381. ��
Death Came Quickly
The plague hit hard and fast. People lay ill little more than two or three days and died suddenly
“He who was well one day was dead the next and being carried to his grave.”
-Jean de Venette
�
“From his native Picardy, Jean de Venette witnessed the disease’s impact in northern France; Normandy, for example, lost 70 to 80 percent of its population. Italy was equally devastated. The Florentines ‘dug for each graveyard a huge trench, in which they laid the corpses as they arrived by hundreds at a time, piling them up tier upon tier as merchandise is stowed on a ship.”
-Louisa Woodville�
Medicine and the Black Death Source:
Psychological Impact
The pandemic ended up killing approximately half of Europe’s population leading many to fall into depression and religious doubt.
Survivors ‘were like persons distraught and almost without feeling.’
“God is deaf nowadays and will not hear us. And for our guilt he grinds good men to dust,”
The Morbid
The Black Death left a dark legacy in both the arts and in literature. After the plague, European arts turned morbid. An overriding sense of pessimism is palpable when examining the art of the era. The personification of death and the popularity of the dance of death concept, was everywhere on display.
Rich men, trust not in wealth,
Gold cannot buy you health;
Physic himself must fade.
All things to end are made,
The plague full swift goes by;
I am sick, I must die.
Lord, have mercy on us!
Beauty is but a flower
Which wrinkles will devour;
Brightness falls from the air;
Queens have died young and fair;
Dust hath closed Helen's eye.
I am sick, I must die.
Lord, have mercy on us!
Haste, therefore, each degree,
To welcome destiny;
Heaven is our heritage,
Earth but a player's stage;
Mount we unto the sky.
I am sick, I must die.
Lord, have mercy on us!
-Thomas Nashe "A Litany in Time of Plague"
Polemical woodcut deriding Nashe as jailbird. From Richard Lichfield's The Trimming of Thomas Nashe, Gentleman (1597)
Targeting of Minorities
Contemporary chronicles tell of random eruptions of violence:
‘Christians massacred Jews in Germany and other parts of the world where Jews lived, and many thousands were burned everywhere, indiscriminately.’
-Richard A. Newhall, The Chronicle of Jean de Venette, Columbia University Press, 1953, pp. 48-51
Piety and Pleasure
“The people gave themselves over to pleasures: monks, priests, nuns and lay men and women all enjoyed themselves....Everyone thought themselves rich because he had escaped and regained the world.”
“How many valiant men, how many fair ladies, breakfast with their kinfolk and the same night supped with their ancestors in the next world! The condition of the people was pitiable to behold. They sickened by the thousands daily, and died unattended and without help. Many died in the open street, others dying in their houses, made it known by the stench of their rotting bodies. Consecrated churchyards did not suffice for the burial of the vast multitude of bodies, which were heaped by the hundreds in vast trenches, like goods in a ship’s hold and covered with a little earth.”
-Giovanni Boccaccio
Thinking about causation
Struggling with the complex problem of the Black Death led many in Europe to redouble their commitment to their faith. Others instead sought alternative means of explaining the massive mortality rate. This began a widespread growth in interest in causation, which may eventually have played a role in the scientific revolution, but for the time being largely led to a rise in interest in astrology. �
Thinking about the body
“Although the Black Death highlighted the shortcomings of medical science in the medieval era, it also led to positive changes in the field of medicine. As described by David Herlihy in The Black Death and the Transformation of the West, more emphasis was placed on ‘anatomical investigations’ following the Black Death. How individuals studied the human body notably changed, becoming a process that dealt more directly with the human body in varied states of sickness and health. Further, at this time, the importance of surgeons became more evident.”
-Sarah Vanneste, The Black Death and the Future of Medicine��
As I am, you will be...
“Researcher Stephen O'Brien has argued that the Black Death is likely responsible, for the high frequency of the Ccr5-32 genetic mutation in people of European descent. The gene affects T cell function and provides improved immune protection against HIV, smallpox, and plague. This protection, in particular the protection against smallpox, was to prove decisive during the European colonization of the Americas.”
The Plague slowed Europe’s population growth.
�“Between 1347 and 1352, the Black Death killed more than 20 million people�in Europe. This was one-third or more of Europe’s population. The plague began in Asia and spread to Europe on trading ships. At the time, no one knew what caused the plague. Many years later, the source was found to be bacteria from black rats and fleas. The fleas infected rats, and the rats infected people after they hopped aboard ships and sailed to Genoa, Venice, Messina, and other European ports. From these cities, the plague spread quickly throughout Europe.”
“So lethal was the disease that cases were known of persons going to bed well and dying before they woke. So rapidly did it spread from one to another that...it seemed as if one sick person could infect the whole world.”
-Rondo Cameron and Larry Neal. A Concise History of the World
Thinking about genetic inheritance.
“The most recent common ancestor of every European today (except for recent immigrants to the Continent) was someone who lived in Europe in the surprisingly recent past—only about 600 years ago. In other words, all Europeans alive today have among their ancestors the same man or woman who lived around 1400. Before that date, according to Chang’s model, the number of ancestors common to all Europeans today increased, until, about a thousand years ago, a peculiar situation prevailed: 20 percent of the adult Europeans alive in 1000 would turn out to be the ancestors of no one living today (that is, they had no children or all their descendants eventually died childless); each of the remaining 80 percent would turn out to be a direct ancestor of every European living today.”
-Steven Olson
If your ancestors came from Europe, you can likely trace your lineage to every European alive as recently as AD 1000. Interestingly, this means that every European descended-person is a direct descendent of Charlemagne. At an event more mind-blowing level every human can trace their ancestry to a shared ancestor as recently as 3500 years ago, around about 1500 BC. These close connection help to explain the power of genetic inheritance, and why an event such as the Black Death, was so important to understanding our history.
II
The Black Death transformed Europe’s economy
Economics
The Black Death had a tremendous impact on Europe’s economy. It meant that trade essentially stopped, as movement around the continent became too risky. To be fair, not many trade goods were being manufactured in the first place as artisans were largely too sick to complete any work, and the number of customers to buy trade goods dwindled. Much like in the wake of COVID-19, the number of workers no longer matched the amount of workers needed leading to a labor shortage and rising wages.
Workers demanded higher wages.�
“The plague had an important effect on the relationship between the lords�who owned much of the land in Europe and the peasants who worked for�the lords. As people died, it became harder and harder to find people to plow�fields, harvest crops, and produce other goods and services. Peasants began to�demand higher wages. European rulers tried to keep wages from rising. An English law in 1349 tried to force workers to accept the same wages they received in 1346. A similar law, the Statute of Laborers, was issued in 1351. The statute said that every healthy unemployed person under 60 years old must work for anyone who wanted to hire him. Workers who violated the Statute of Laborers were fined and were put in stocks as punishment for disobeying the statute. In 1360, punishments became worse. Workers who demanded higher wages could be sent to prison and—if they escaped—branded with the letter ‘F’ on their foreheads.” -Barbara Tuchman. A Distant Mirror – The Calamitous 14th Century
Fewer workers leads to higher wages
�“Although worker population decreased because of the plague, the amount�of land and the tools did not change much. Some farm animals died when the people who took care of them died. Because the remaining workers had more tools and land to work, they became more productive, producing more goods and services. When workers are more productive, employers are willing to pay higher wages. The Statute of Laborers and similar laws in other countries were not very effective. Some lords avoided violating the statute by making in kind payments—paying workers with food or other goods rather than wages—or providing other fringe benefits. Some lords began to pay illegally high wages. Wages increased because there were fewer workers—labor had become more scarce.”
-Stephen Broadberry, British Economic Growth, 1270-1870
European agriculture changes
“Before the plague, the large population kept wages from rising. Most peasants did not consider leaving their villages to find work somewhere else. After the plague, workers asked for higher wages and better working conditions. Many lords agreed to these demands, and those who didn’t soon found that other lords would. Lords began to realize they had less control over workers and began to change what they produced. Many workers were needed to grow and harvest grain, so some lords began to raise sheep instead. Raising sheep required fewer workers and there were more customers for the meat and for woolen clothing. As their incomes rose, people were able to buy more vegetables, fruits, and clothing. Production of these goods increased. Peasants eventually became free to move away from estates owned by lords; some were even able to buy their own land.”
-David Routt, The Economic Impact of the Black Death�
European Forests
“By 1200, virtually all of the Mediterranean basin and most of northern Germany had been deforested and cultivated. Indigenous flora and fauna were replaced by domestic grasses and animals and domestic woodlands were lost. With depopulation, this process was reversed. Much of the primeval vegetation returned, and abandoned fields and pastures were reforested.”
-Robert Gottfried, Black Death
Monasteries
The Black Death had a particularly deadly impact on Europe’s religious institutions. Monasteries, long the heart of medieval healthcare ended up having disastrously high mortality rates. Without clergy, religious orders were forced to rely on poorly trained monks and priests. Additionally, many orders were forced to reduce the rigor of their organizations leading to the laxness which may have helped trigger the concerns that mobilized the Reformation.
“The economy underwent abrupt and extreme inflation. Since it was so difficult (and dangerous) to procure goods through trade and to produce them, the prices of both goods produced locally and those imported from afar skyrocketed. Because of illness and death workers became exceedingly scarce, so even peasants felt the effects of the new rise in wages. The demand for people to work the land was so high that it threatened the manorial holdings. Serfs were no longer tied to one master; if one left the land, another lord would instantly hire them. The lords had to make changes in order to make the situation more profitable for the peasants and so keep them on their land. In general, wages outpaced prices and the standard of living was subsequently raised.”��“As a consequence of the beginning of blurring financial distinctions, social distinctions sharpened. The fashions of the nobility became more extravagant in order to emphasize the social standing of the person wearing the clothing. The peasants became slightly more empowered, and revolted when the aristocracy attempted to resist the changes brought about by the plague. In 1358, the peasantry of northern France rioted, and in 1378 disenfranchised guild members revolted. The social and economic structure of Europe was drastically and irretrievably changed.”
-Leonard Courie, The Black Death and Peasant's Revolt.
Economic Impact Source
III
It dramatically changed Europe’s social and political culture.
Monarchs
“Most monarchs instituted measures that prohibited exports of foodstuffs, condemned black market speculators, set price controls on grain, and outlawed large-scale fishing. At best, they proved mostly unenforceable. At worst, they contributed to a continent-wide downward spiral. The hardest hit lands, like England, were unable to buy grain abroad: from France because of the prohibition and from most of the rest of the grain producers because of crop failures from shortage of labour. Any grain that could be shipped was eventually taken by pirates or looters to be sold on the black market. Meanwhile, many of the largest countries, most notably England and Scotland, had been at war, using up much of their treasury and exacerbating inflation.”
-Walter S. Zapotoczny, The Political and Social Consequences of the Black Death
Jews
“Renewed religious fervor and fanaticism came in the wake of the Black Death. Some Europeans targeted "groups such as Jews, friars, foreigners, beggars, pilgrims", lepers and Romani, thinking that they were to blame for the crisis.”��“Differences in cultural and lifestyle practices also led to persecution. As the plague swept across Europe in the mid-14th century, annihilating more than half the population, Jews were taken as scapegoats, in part because better hygiene among Jewish communities and isolation in the ghettos meant that Jews were less affected. Accusations spread that Jews had caused the disease by deliberately poisoning wells. European mobs attacked Jewish settlements across Europe; by 1351, 60 major and 150 smaller Jewish communities had been destroyed, and more than 350 separate massacres had occurred.”
-Dorsey Armstrong
“Christian[s] ...had ceased to view Jews as a separate subculture, protected but despised, a population that must be endured if not fully tolerated. By the time of the plague, Jews were perceived as enemies.”
-Dan Freedman
Serfdom
The plague, perhaps most impactfully, helped to end the manorial system in Europe. Already challenged by the enormous economic changes sweeping the continent, population decline and the movement of populations into the burgeoning cities emerging at the time led to serious shortages of farm workers. Indeed, many European villages appear to have been abandoned at this time. In the aftermath of the Black Death, England saw a decline of more than 1000 small towns more than 1300 villages were deserted between 1350 and 1500.��
Labor
“Labor was in such a short supply that Lords were forced to give better terms of tenure. This resulted in much lower rents in western Europe. By 1500, a new form of tenure called copyhold became prevalent in Europe. In copyhold, both a Lord and peasant made their best business deal, whereby the peasant got use of the land and the Lord got a fixed annual payment and both possessed a copy of the tenure agreement. Serfdom did not end everywhere. It lingered in parts of Western Europe and was introduced to Eastern Europe after the Black Death.” -David Routt�
Inheritance Law
There was change in the inheritance law. Before the plague, only sons and especially the elder son [primogeniture] inherited the their family’s property. Post-plague with a clear absence of sons available, laws had to flex with the times.
�
Major Aesthetic Changes Occurred in the Years Following the Black Death
The Renaissance
“The Medici family, important patrons of Italian Renaissance culture, originated in the rural area of Mugello in Tuscany and moved to Florence soon after the plague. They initially established their fortune in the wool trade and then branched out into banking. As the family achieved wealth and power, they promoted such artists as Filippo Lippi, Sandro Botticelli, and Michelangelo—not to mention producing four popes and two regent queens of France. Would such mobility have been possible without the social and economic upheaval caused by the Black Death? Historians will likely debate this question for many years.”
-Louisa Woodville