What exactly is a plague?
It’s also life, that’s all.
Albert Camus
“Black Death”, plague, a terrible pestilence - just say these words, even in a low voice, in a whisper, and you will immediately feel how something shrinks inside, goosebumps slide over your skin and you want to “run away like the plague.” No war has claimed as many lives as the Black Death epidemic did. Plague is a word that has long become a household word: “brown plague” (about fascism) or “plague of the 20th century” - about AIDS, etc.
The middle of the last millennium, among other formidable events in world history, was marked by the terrible pandemic of the “Black Death” of 1348–1350. In the West and in the East, entire nations were drawn into its bottomless maw: people, unfamiliar and unlike each other, were thrown out in all directions of the world by the explosion of this worldwide disaster. People fled from death and built new cities, created communities, and began to live anew.
The plague was the most common in the Middle Ages and the most dangerous of the contagious diseases. The Black Death had significant demographic, social, economic, religious and cultural consequences. Perhaps it is this terrible disease that literally devastated Europe in the Middle Ages that people still fear at the subconscious level - historical memory makes itself felt. The flu still claims thousands of lives to this day, but they’re not so afraid of it! We haven’t had the plague for a long time, but you often hear all sorts of tall tales about it. Now imagine the 14th–15th centuries and the horror that appeared on people’s faces just at the word “plague.” In the history of mankind, the devastating visits of the “Black Death” left in people’s memory the idea of this disease as a terrible disaster, surpassing in damage caused the destructive consequences of malaria or typhus epidemics for past civilizations, which “decimated” entire armies. One of the most amazing facts in the history of plague epidemics is their resumption over vast territories after long periods (centuries) of relative prosperity. The three worst plague pandemics are separated by periods of 800 and 500 years. These are the plague of the 6th century (the plague of Justinian in 540–558), the “Black Death” of the 14th century (actually the later Middle Ages) and the plague of the 19th century.
A pandemic is not just a big epidemic. This is a phenomenon of a qualitatively different order. At the level of subjective perception, each new pandemic looks as if it takes into account the failures of the previous one and is at least one step ahead of the capabilities of science of a given historical period. Devastated Europe and Asia in
In the Middle Ages, plague and smallpox could not be stopped by the means available to the medicine of that time. This is the despair with which Giovanni Boccaccio, who was an eyewitness, wrote about the plague of 1346–1351: “Human insight and foresight could not do anything about it, clearing the city of accumulated sewage by the hands of people used for this purpose, prohibiting the entry of the sick, spreading advice doctors, how to protect yourself from infection; The frequent fervent prayers of the God-fearing residents, who took part both in processions and in other types of prayer services, could not do anything about it.” So, when such pandemics occurred, people did everything possible, but death followed them everywhere.
Plague is a disease known from ancient times. The first reliable mention of the plague in history (not a mythological description or an allegory of sacred texts) belongs to the pen, more precisely, to the stylos of Rufus of Ephesus (1st century AD). He described a major epidemic of an infectious disease that had spread to many cities in the civilized world. The disease was accompanied by the development of buboes and high mortality; the pestilence was especially severe in the territory of present-day Egypt, Libya and Syria.
Scattered mentions of plague-like scourges date back to the mid-5th century BC. For example, the plague of Thucydides. She appeared in 430 BC. e. in Athens. It was then believed that the disease was brought to Greece by a ship that came from Asia Minor. Over the next 5 years, three major outbreaks of plague occurred. Their maximum occurred in late autumn (the cold season is of particular importance). People who survived the disease did not get sick again. Livestock were also sick. The mortality rate reached 80%. Many recovered people lost their memory, did not remember themselves and did not recognize those around them. Some patients developed gangrene, the ends of their arms or legs became dead, others lost their sight and hearing. The Soviet epidemiologist G.F. Vogralik believed that this disease, based on its clinical manifestations, cannot be attributed to any one known today.
More famous is the so-called Justinian plague. The first huge pandemic recorded in the chronicles took place during the reign of Justinian, in 540–558. It arose in the Eastern Roman Empire and covered the entire Middle East. More than 20 million people died from this epidemic.
The second largest pandemic, called the Black Death, swept across the world in the 14th century. It claimed, according to various estimates, from a third to two thirds of the population of Europe and led to changes in the spiritual, social and economic spheres of society.
A large-scale plague epidemic once again swept through Europe in the second half of the 17th century. Its consequences were no less terrible than in
XIV century, but this time the epidemic covered a much smaller area and destroyed fewer human lives. The Great Plague in England in 1665 was largely confined to London. In Russia, it began during the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich and spread from Chernigov to Kazan and from Novgorod to Astrakhan. Subsequently, outbreaks of plague were observed in Russia in 1603, 1654, 1738–1740 and 1769.
A severe outbreak of plague occurred in Marseille in 1720. Following these epidemics, local outbreaks were noted in a number of port cities around the world; the plague, however, did not spread deep into the continents. The third true pandemic began in the 19th century in China and reached Hong Kong in 1894. On ships, along with infected rats, the plague quickly spread from this large port and entered India, the Near and Middle East, Brazil, California and other regions of the world. Over a 20-year period, about 10 million people died from the plague. All these epidemics, which claimed millions of lives, left a deep mark on the history of mankind.
But let's return to the pandemic that happened in the middle of the 14th century. It was one of the most terrible events in the medieval history of mankind. The disease was called the “Black Death” because of the black buboes that appeared on the patient’s body. The pandemic swept through Europe between 1346 and 1351 and then recurred every few years, with less intensity, in different parts of Europe for three centuries. The “Black Death” struck all of Europe over the course of some 2-3 years, right down to such remote corners as Norway, and even reached Greenland. It is believed that between 1348 and 1351 the plague destroyed a third of the population of the countries lying between Iceland and India. According to available data, over the years the plague killed about 20 million people in Western Europe alone. At the height of the epidemic in Vienna, 500–800 people died daily, and on other days this figure reached 1200. In Italy, the losses were even greater - almost half of the population died there, in Venice - even three quarters, in Florence - two thirds. The Italian poet and humanist Francesco Petrarca, informing a friend about the devastation caused by the plague in Florence, wrote: “Oh, you happy descendants, you will not know such hellish misfortunes and will consider our testimony about them to be a terrible fairy tale!” The pictures of the epidemic were truly monstrous.
The source of the “Black Death” that came to Europe broke out in the depths of Asia in 1320. After Europe had already encountered the plague in the 6th century, the terrible disaster seemed to go into sleep for seven centuries; from the 6th to the 14th centuries, the bubonic plague did not appear at all! This break is quite mysterious. The life of the people of the Middle Ages did not become more comfortable, satisfying or hygienic. And the plague bacillus, by the way, dies quite quickly in natural conditions without living carriers. Why exactly are the Middle Ages in Europe the centuries of spontaneous epidemics, the centuries of the hurricane-like “Black Death”?
The climatic explanation for the lull in the plague deserves attention. According to some researchers, the climate on Earth became cooler in the 14th century. European weather in the years leading up to the outbreaks of plague was erratic and rife with natural disasters, storms and floods. And this small “ice age” could become a catalyst for the disease. Chroniclers testify that especially many people in cities died on winter days, when a warm wind blew from river or sea ports. After such a “breeze”, piles of dead people were collected from the streets. Of course, the mortus - cemetery workers - were simply not able to bury such a number of dead in a Christian manner. The bodies were thrown into huge pits dug outside the city walls and only lightly covered with earth. The epidemic, which is typical, was not limited to any one region. It originated in Asia, where it became sharply cold at the beginning of the 14th century (for example, in China the population decreased from 125 to 90 million people), and finally the plague came to Europe.
The “Black Death” came slowly from the East, moving at the speed of caravans and sailing ships. Today, by the way, it is possible to spread with the speed of a Boeing 767. The last case of bubonic plague infection in civilized countries was recorded in 2002 in the USA. Doctors, it must be said, continue to record isolated cases of this disease in remote areas of Central Africa and Asia. These cases remain isolated because modern antibiotics successfully suppress the activity of the plague bacillus Yersinia pestis, preventing epidemics. But then, in the distant Middle Ages...
So, apparently, the plague was brought to Western Europe through North Africa from East Asia. It spread throughout the Western world over the course of three years. The plague concentrated near trade routes: the Middle East, the Western Mediterranean, then Northern Europe and, finally, Rus'. The development of the plague illustrates very clearly the geography of medieval trade. Ports were hit first, then cities and rural areas. The path of the plague was the path of trade caravans, along with them it went to the West.
By 1345, the plague was raging in the lower reaches of the Volga, and by 1346 it had reached the Caucasus and Crimea. In 1347, the army of Khan Janibek, who fought in the Kyrgyz steppes, besieged the Genoese colony of Cafu (modern Feodosia) in the Crimea. He came to Kafa with his army, armed with Chinese stone-throwing machines. But the plague, already in full swing throughout the Golden Horde and Rus', penetrated the ranks of the archers of Khan Janibek besieging Kafa and set up its death camp in his military camp. And, as a witness to the events writes, “the plague attacked the khan’s troops gathered near Kafa and claimed thousands of victims.” The besiegers, probably for the first time in military history, consciously used the tactics of using bacteriological weapons. Hoping to cause an epidemic among the besieged and thus force them to surrender, the Tatars used their siege engines to throw plague-ridden corpses over the walls. The besieged picked up these corpses and threw them into the sea. So the plague was not slow to penetrate the city, and the besieged also fell ill. Gabriel de Mussis, a Genoese who described the siege of Kafa, speaks about this. But, despite all this, the defenders did not give up and did not agree to capitulate.
By the way, there is a version that it was the Genoese from Crimea who brought the plague to the West. The ships returning to Italy from Kafa spread the plague to Sicily, Tuscany, Genoa, Ragusa, Spalato, and Venice. This was the beginning of the “black plague” that devastated Europe, an unfortunate consequence of trade relations between the West and the East. The plague came to Cyprus in the late summer of 1347. In October of the same year, the infection penetrated the Genoese fleet stationed in Messina. In the same 1347, death already reigned in Constantinople, Greece, and Dalmatia. In the spring of 1348 she was already in Paris. In the terrible summer of 1348, a black shroud covered most of France and Spain, and in the fall the plague reached England and Ireland. There, according to the chronicler, “because of the plague, entire villages and towns, castles and markets were depopulated, so that it was difficult to find a living person in them. The infection was so strong that anyone who touched a sick or dead person would soon be seized by the disease and die. Confessors and confessors were buried at the same time. The fear of death kept people from loving their neighbors and from fulfilling their last duty to the dead.”
Moving along the Rhine, along trade routes, the plague reached Germany (this means that it was also in Switzerland and Austria). The epidemic also raged in Burgundy and the Kingdom of Bohemia. By the fall of 1348, thousands of people were dying every day... This year was the most terrible of all the years of the plague. In 1346–1348 in Western Europe, the “Black Death” claimed the lives of more than a third (!) of the population.
Scandinavia was hit by the Black Death in 1349. The countries of Eastern Europe felt it only in 1350. By the end of 1350, two-thirds of Europeans had fallen ill, half of whom, about 20 million people, had died. Rus' was struck by the Black Death in 1351. Here the “black pestilence” was especially rampant in Smolensk, Pskov, Novgorod, Ryazan, Kolomna, Pereslavl and Moscow. According to the Nikon Chronicle, only 10 people survived the plague in Smolensk.
A plague, probably from the same source, struck China in 1380, killing 13 million people. The next waves of the epidemic swept across Europe in 1361, 1362, 1369, 1372, 1382, 1388. Local epidemics broke out until the 18th century.
The spread of the plague was actively facilitated by the unsanitary conditions that reigned in the cities. The stench was in the air, and the streets were so buried in mud that it was impossible to walk along them in the mud. It was then, as the chronicles that have reached us say, that stilts appeared in many German cities - the “spring shoes” of a city dweller, without which it was impossible to move around the streets. There was no sewage system, and all the waste flowed straight through the streets as if along a river bed. In addition, in many places cats were declared the cause of the plague: supposedly they are servants of the devil and infect people. The mass extermination of cats led to an even greater increase in the number of rats and, naturally, fleas living on them.
It can be argued that the appearance of the plague in the Middle Ages and its rapid nature are connected precisely with the fact that at that time the technical and hygienic achievements of antiquity, and people’s knowledge in the field of protecting their habitat, were almost completely lost. In medieval Europe, simple means - water and soap (which in the ancient world were not only invented, but also widely used) - were forgotten; In addition, extraordinary crowding reigned in the cities surrounded by fortress walls. Therefore, it is not surprising that epidemics in these conditions spread with terrifying speed.
What is the plague? And how does the “Black Death” manifest itself? Let's turn to medicine. “Plague, an acute natural focal infectious disease of the group of quarantine infections, occurs with an extremely severe general condition, fever, damage to the lymph nodes, lungs and other internal organs, often with the development of sepsis. Its causative agent is the plague bacillus (lat. Yersinia pestis), discovered in 1894 simultaneously by the Frenchman Yersin and the Japanese Kitasato and manifests itself in two main forms - bubonic and pulmonary. The disease is characterized by high mortality. The mortality rate for bubonic plague ranges from 27 to 95%, and for pneumonic plague it is almost 100%. In nature, plague is common among rodents, from which it is transmitted to humans through the bite of infected fleas.
The predominant form of plague in humans, bubonic plague, is characterized by inflammation of the lymph nodes (most often the groin); In appearance, the enlarged lymph nodes resemble beans, which is where the name of the disease comes from: “jumma” - Arabic “bean”. Already in the first days of the disease, an inflammatory process develops in the lymph nodes closest to the site of penetration of plague microbes, with the formation of so-called buboes.” (Medical Encyclopedia, M.: Sov. Encyclopedia)
The plague did not choose between rich and poor, between nobles and peasants. Kings, dukes, counts, barons, and ordinary people became victims of the Black Death. Everyone was equal before her.
Catholic prayer-spell: “A peste, fame, bello libera nos Domine!” (“From plague, famine, war, deliver us, Lord!”) - she listed the disasters from which Western Europe suffered the most. The plague, as we see, comes first on this list. One must think that the medieval consciousness of the Europeans brought the deadly disease to the fore, not only because its visits were especially harmful, but also because of the powerlessness of people before the infection. Here almost everything depended on the Almighty, because in times of famine it was at least somehow possible to get food, and to end the war with a victory or a peace treaty. The plague - inexorable, deadly and merciless - did not choose its victims, it was merciless to both the nobleman and the last beggar.
By the way, some scientists argue that the medieval “Black Death” was not only or not entirely a plague. This is, for example, the opinion of American researchers who suggested that for the bubonic plague, the medieval pestilence spread too quickly and had clinical differences from the typical process. But in order to confirm or refute these theories, it is necessary to examine the DNA of bacteria in the remains of those killed by the Black Death. There are even more exotic versions. Thus, some experts in space biology believe that the pathogen was brought to Earth from the outside, either when passing through a comet trail, or during the fall of a “plague” meteorite.
But the people of the Middle Ages were simpler; they blamed God, the devil, the Jews, or other “infidels” for everything. The official version of the plague sent by God as punishment for mortal sins, as well as the speculations of scientists about the influence of heavenly bodies, did not at all calm the mass consciousness. On the contrary, frightening anomalies clearly appeared in him. Here is an excerpt from the Mansfeld Chronicle confirming this statement: “It happened to be a pleasant sight when people, even small children, either with prayer or with psalmody, said goodbye to this light.”
A rumor was spread among the people that the plague disaster was the result of a conspiracy of Jews poisoning wells and water sources in order to destroy all Christians, that emissaries of Jewish “wise men” and elders brought bags of poison with them - either from Istanbul or from Jerusalem - and the Jews began to systematically poison wells. In most European countries, this accusation led to the destruction of entire Jewish communities. The mass persecution and extermination of Jews is truly one of the most terrible pages in the history of Europe during the Black Death. They were killed and burned in their homes and synagogues from the Mediterranean coast to northern Germany. Even Pope Clement VI and Emperor Charles IV could not resist this collective madness. So, in Western Europe, the plague epidemic and the waves of anti-Semitism caused by it were accompanied by the persecution of Jews and were the reason for their mass exodus to the east of the continent. Many of them flocked to Poland, having received permission to settle in the domains of Casimir the Great (1310–1370).
The search for the perpetrators of the pestilence was not limited to this. Christians often saw the cause of the Black Death in the machinations of Muslims. The adherents of Allah, in turn, also considered the “infidels” to be the organizers of the epidemic. The English believed that the cause of the pestilence was the tricks of the Scots, who considered the English responsible for the plague. In some cities in Germany, gravediggers suffered because they were associated with death professionally and therefore were known among the people as poisoners of wells and carriers of infection. Of course, the witches got a lot from everyone. The rumor among the people that sorcerers and witches sent the plague found support among the priests. The curse of magicians and sorcerers became mandatory in temples. It is no coincidence that the idea of the Sabbath crystallized in the Western Alps by the middle of the 14th century. It was then that Europeans were inflamed with a general hatred of harmful “sects.” At the same time, sometimes the desire to survive gave rise to unprecedented cruelty towards the sick and actions that were far from Christian morality. Many patients were walled up in their own homes and burned alive.
The fact that the “Black Death” that came to Europe, according to contemporaries, took away more than a third of the population of Europe, could not but leave a mark in the consciousness of generations. This is one of the largest turning points in Western European history. The epidemic, whose outbreaks lasted fifty or even sixty years, changed the human worldview. People saw not just death - there was plenty of death, public executions and torture back then - people saw sudden and inevitable death, sparing neither the sinner nor the righteous. New and completely different motives suddenly burst into art: a gloomy interest in death and a craving for pleasure.
The somewhat schizophrenic state of mind of the desperate population everywhere demonstrated paradoxical doubt along with frenzied faith. Many of the wealthy sought to donate to the temples, hoping to save souls. Cases are described when the clergy, who were afraid of infection, locked the gates in front of such people, and they threw donations over the fence - and the plague stick was included free of charge.
The plague epidemic was also reflected in Western European fine art. Paintings and frescoes of that time depicted scenes of death. The canonical and sanctified, and the most popular subject of death is the crucifixion. Numerous crucified Christs are tragic, they cry out for compassion, revealing flesh tormented by torture.
At that time, frenzied repentance and mortification of the flesh were widespread, and crowds of many thousands often participated in collective prayers and mysteries. In 1349, throughout Europe, with the exception of England and Denmark, processions of self-flagellation – “flagellants” – reached unprecedented proportions. Half-naked participants in the processions with red crosses of penitents moved from city to city, in churches in front of the altars they mercilessly lashed each other with whips. In repentant songs and prayers, bloodied people, maddened by suffering, asked God to stop the plague. On the other hand, as if in contrast to this, many historians and chroniclers noted unbridled revelry: entire cities in France and Germany sang and danced. Noisy weddings were held and lavish dinners were given, and magistrates organized pleasure processions in masks. We find the reasoning for this behavior in the common phrase quoted by Boccaccio: “It doesn’t matter, we’ll die soon.”
The plague is described in many literary monuments of that era. A remarkable description of the plague epidemic was left in “The Decameron” by the already mentioned famous Italian humanist and writer Giovanni Boccaccio, who was in Florence in 1348 and saw the “Black Death” with his own eyes (his father also died from it). Boccaccio was, perhaps, the only writer who presented the plague not just as a historical fact or allegory, but understood that the plague epidemic was a social disaster and, moreover, a crisis moment in the state of the world, moving from the Middle Ages to the Modern Age.
Indeed, the total epidemic caused the destruction of society; even funeral rites changed in Christian Europe. So many people died that they stopped burying them in separate graves. The impossibility of the traditional burial of many dead in Avignon forced Pope Clement VI to bless the bodies of the dead for “burial” in the waters of the Rhone. At the same time, burning those who died from the plague, common in antiquity, was rarely practiced. Perceiving cemeteries as a “sacred place,” people of the Middle Ages did not dare to arrange burials away from cities or to disinfect plague graves with lime. In general, plague epidemics, from a modern point of view, are rather socio-ecological crises. Moreover, they not only led to significant population losses, which humanity, fortunately, managed to survive, they had a significant impact on the entire history of the Middle Ages, the emergence of reform movements in the church, played a huge role in the development of social relations (peasant uprisings, in particular the Jacquerie, the uprising Wat Tyler and others; the weakening of feudal dependence; the emergence of the first labor legislation). In England, the immediate occasion for the publication of the first Statute of Laborers was the great plague, which had so reduced the population that reasonable wages were dictated by law, and the limits of the working day were likewise dictated.
Did medieval medicine know how to treat plague? The great Nostradamus fought the plague, who told patients that it was necessary to drink spring water, stay in the fresh air as much as possible and use medicines that he made based on medicinal herbs. Nostradamus fought zealously against the plague, but he could not save his family. His wife and two sons died.
In the Middle Ages, the plague was practically not treated; the doctor’s actions most often boiled down to cutting out or cauterizing the plague buboes. But the important fact is that already in those “dark and dense times” they still tried to fight the plague. By the way, even then they resorted to disinfecting things (including money). Vinegar was widely used for this. To protect themselves from illness, people used fragrant herbs as medicine, in particular basil, garlic, and incense. The smell of a goat was considered a very effective remedy against infection, because it repelled fleas - carriers of the plague. It was witty, although not very fragrant. Doctors, of course, did not skimp on traditional medicines and prescribed the classic remedies of that time to patients: bloodletting, enemas, laxatives and emetics. The fact that the sick were bled, vomited, etc. did not help at all, and perhaps killed the unfortunate people faster. There were also very exotic recipes for medicinal products: from fish scales, snake skin, thrush liver, frog heart, cat fur, as well as from the horn of a mythical unicorn and fern flowers. Their therapeutic effect was appropriate.
However, according to the observations of contemporaries and researchers, very often the only radical method of resisting the plague was to flee from plague-prone areas. It was this that remained the most reliable medicine in the Middle Ages, unless people were late in using it. It is no coincidence that expressions linking escape from habitable places with plague have become stable phrases among various peoples. Boccaccio in “The Decameron” specifically distinguishes the category of fugitives from the plague among other heroes.
If it was impossible to escape, one of the most common methods was to limit communication with surrounding people as much as possible. In 1348, according to G. Boccaccio, in Florence many citizens locked themselves in their houses, avoiding contact and trying to observe moderation in everything. For this purpose, at the same time in London the session of parliament was canceled and schools were closed.
Of course, irrational consciousness even then coexisted with completely reasonable ideas about ways to prevent infection. To counter the terrible disease, both authorities and individuals tried to take all sorts of measures: they removed sewage from cities, disseminated medical advice, isolated the sick or called for self-isolation of the healthy, quickly got rid of corpses, used aromatic smoking, and disinfection. To purify the air on the streets and in houses, even in the heat, fires were burned. Unfortunately, by the will of the maddened crowd, not only corpses and contaminated objects, but also the still living “culprits” of the disaster, their houses, etc. ended up in these fires.
They learned to treat the plague effectively only in our days, with the development of science. The first vaccine against this terrible disease was created at the beginning of the 20th century by Vladimir Aronovich Khavkin. Treatment of plague patients is currently reduced to the use of antibiotics, sulfonamides and medicinal anti-plague serum. Prevention involves the use of special quarantine measures in port cities, deratization (extermination of rats and other rodents) of all ships that go on international voyages, the creation of special anti-plague institutions in the steppe areas where rodents are found, the identification of plague epizootics among rodents and the fight against them. But isolated outbreaks of the disease still occur in some countries in Asia, Africa and South America.
Why didn’t the “Black Death” kill humanity, why didn’t it die out from this then incurable disease? Most likely because certain biological regulation mechanisms were activated. The pandemic did not lead to the extinction of the Homo sapiens species, not because it is so valuable to Nature or some Supreme Being, but most likely due to the fact that these pathogens were simply recognized by the immune system of most individuals and some survivors became less susceptible to a new infection. The extension of these pandemic processes in time and space, due to the fact that mass mortality interrupted contacts between infected groups, allowed the formation of populations of people whose resistance to the plague was already fixed at the genetic level.
The plague remains something more than a dark historical memory. In addition, there is serious concern throughout the world about the possible use of plague as a weapon of bioterrorism. For example, a new genetically modified vaccine against bubonic plague has been developed at the British secret chemical and biological weapons center Porton Down. According to the BBC, it will soon begin testing on animals. The vaccine was developed as UK defense experts and the British Armed Forces fear they could face biological weapons being used against them by countries that support and use terrorist methods. Information about past epidemics tells scientists where to expect new outbreaks of the disease, what ways it spreads, and how to combat it as effectively as possible.
This is one of the deadliest diseases in human history, dating back more than 2,500 years. The disease first appeared in Egypt in the 4th century BC. e., and the earliest description of it was made by the Greek Rufus from Ephesus.
From then on, the plague struck first one continent and then another every five to ten years. Ancient Middle Eastern chronicles noted a drought that occurred in 639, during which the land became barren and a terrible famine occurred. It was a year of dust storms. The winds drove the dust like ash, and therefore the whole year was nicknamed “ashy.” The famine intensified to such an extent that even wild animals began to seek refuge with people.
“And at that time the plague epidemic broke out. It began in the Amawas district, near Jerusalem, and then spread throughout Palestine and Syria. Only 25,000 Muslims died. In Islamic times, no one had ever heard of such a plague. Many people died from it in Basra too.”
In the mid-14th century, an unusually contagious plague struck Europe, Asia and Africa. It came from Indochina, where fifty million people died from it. The world has never seen such a terrible epidemic before.
And a new plague epidemic broke out in 1342 in the possessions of the Great Kaan Togar-Timur, which began from the extreme limits of the east - from the country of Xing (China). Within six months, the plague reached the city of Tabriz, passing through the lands of the Kara-Khitai and Mongols, who worshiped fire, the Sun and the Moon and whose number of tribes reached three hundred. They all died in their winter quarters, in pastures and on their horses. Their horses also died and were left abandoned on the ground to rot. People learned about this natural disaster from a messenger from the country of the Golden Horde Khan Uzbek.
Then a strong wind blew, which spread the rot throughout the country. The stench and stench soon reached the most remote areas, spreading throughout their cities and tents. If a person or animal inhaled this smell, after a while they would certainly die.
The Great Clan itself lost such a huge number of warriors that no one knew their exact number. Kaan himself and his six children died. And in this country there was no one left who could rule it.
From China, the plague spread throughout the east, across the country of Uzbek Khan, the lands of Istanbul and Kaysariyya. From here it spread to Antioch and destroyed its inhabitants. Some of them, fleeing death, fled to the mountains, but almost all of them died along the way. One day, several people returned to the city to pick up some of the things people had abandoned. Then they also wanted to take refuge in the mountains, but death overtook them too.
The plague spread throughout the Karaman possessions in Anatolia, throughout all the mountains and surrounding area. People, horses and livestock died. The Kurds, fearing death, left their homes, but did not find a place where there were no dead and where they could hide from the disaster. They had to return to their native places, where they all died.
There was a heavy downpour in the country of the Kara-Khitai. Together with the rain streams, the deadly infection spread further, bringing with it the death of all living things. After this rain, horses and cattle died. Then people, poultry and wild animals began to die.
The plague reached Baghdad. Waking up in the morning, people discovered swollen buboes on their faces and bodies. Baghdad at this time was besieged by Chobanid troops. The besiegers retreated from the city, but the plague had already spread among the troops. Very few managed to escape.
At the beginning of 1348, the plague swept through the Aleppo region, gradually spreading throughout Syria. All the inhabitants of the valleys between Jerusalem and Damascus, the sea coast and Jerusalem itself perished. The Arabs of the desert and the inhabitants of the mountains and plains perished. In the cities of Ludd and Ramla, almost everyone died. Inns, taverns and teahouses were overflowing with dead bodies that no one removed.
The first sign of the plague in Damascus was the appearance of pimples on the back of the ear. By scratching them, people then transferred the infection throughout their bodies. Then the glands under the person's armpit would swell and he would often vomit blood. After this, he began to suffer from severe pain and soon, almost two days later, he died. Everyone was gripped by fear and horror from so many deaths, for everyone saw how those who began vomiting and hemoptysis lived for only about two days.
On just one April day in 1348, more than 22 thousand people died in Gazza. Death swept through all the settlements around Gazza, and this happened shortly after the end of the spring plowing. People died right in the field behind the plow, holding baskets of grain in their hands. All the working cattle died along with them. Six people entered one house in Gazza for the purpose of looting, but they all died in the same house. Gazza has become a city of the dead.
People have never known such a cruel epidemic. While striking one region, the plague did not always capture the other. Now it has covered almost the entire earth - from east to west and from north to south, almost all representatives of the human race and all living things. Even sea creatures, birds of the air and wild animals.
Soon, from the east, the plague spread to African soil, to its cities, deserts and mountains. All of Africa was filled with dead people and the corpses of countless herds of cattle and animals. If a sheep was slaughtered, its meat turned out to be blackened and smelly. The smell of other products – milk and butter – also changed.
Up to 20,000 people died every day in Egypt. Most of the corpses were transported to the graves on boards, ladders and doors, and the graves were simply ditches into which up to forty corpses were buried.
Death spread to the cities of Damanhur, Garuja and others, in which the entire population and all livestock died. Fishing on Lake Baralas stopped due to the death of fishermen, who often died with a fishing rod in their hands. Even the eggs of caught fish showed dead spots. Fishing schooners remained on the water with dead fishermen, the nets were overflowing with dead fish.
Death walked along the entire sea coast, and there was no one who could stop it. No one approached the empty houses. Almost all the peasants in the Egyptian provinces died, and there was no one left who could harvest the ripe crop. There were such a great number of corpses on the roads that, having become infected from them, the trees began to rot.
The plague was especially severe in Cairo. For two weeks in December 1348, the streets and markets of Cairo were filled with the dead. Most of the troops were killed, and the fortresses were empty. By January 1349 the city already looked like a desert. It was impossible to find a single house that was spared by the plague. There are not a single passerby on the streets, only corpses. In front of the gates of one of the mosques, 13,800 corpses were collected in two days. And how many of them still remained in the deserted streets and alleys, in courtyards and other places!
The plague reached Alexandria, where at first one hundred people died every day, then two hundred, and on one Friday seven hundred people died. The textile manufactory in the city was closed due to the death of artisans; due to the lack of visiting merchants, trading houses and markets were empty.
One day a French ship arrived in Alexandria. The sailors reported that they saw a ship near the island of Tarablus with a huge number of birds circling above it. Approaching the ship, the French sailors saw that its entire crew was dead, and the birds were pecking at the corpses. And there were a great many dead birds themselves on the ship.
The French quickly sailed away from the plague-ridden ship. When they reached Alexandria, more than three hundred of them died.
The plague spread to Europe through the Marseille sailors.
"BLACK DEATH" OVER EUROPE
In 1347, the second and most terrible plague invasion of Europe began. This disease raged for three hundred years in the countries of the Old World and took a total of 75 million human lives to the grave. It was nicknamed the “Black Death” because of the invasion of black rats, which managed to bring this terrible epidemic to the vast continent in a short period.
In the previous chapter we talked about one version of its spread, but some scientists and doctors believe that most likely it originated in the warm southern countries. Here the climate itself contributed to the rapid rotting of meat products, vegetables, fruits, and simply garbage, in which beggars, stray dogs and, of course, rats rummaged. The disease claimed thousands of human lives, and then began to travel from city to city, from country to country. Its rapid spread was facilitated by the unsanitary conditions that existed at that time both among people of the lower class and among sailors (after all, there were a great many rats in the holds of their ships).
According to ancient chronicles, not far from Lake Issyk-Kul in Kyrgyzstan there is an ancient gravestone with an inscription that indicates that the plague began its march to Europe from Asia in 1338. Obviously, its carriers were the nomadic warriors themselves, the Tatar warriors, who tried to expand the territories of their conquests and in the first half of the 14th century invaded Tavria - present-day Crimea. Thirteen years after penetrating the peninsula, the “black disease” quickly spread beyond its borders and subsequently covered almost all of Europe.
In 1347, a terrible epidemic began in the trading port of Kafa (present-day Feodosia). Today's historical science has information that the Tatar khan Janibek Kipchak besieged Kafa and waited for its surrender. His huge army settled down by the sea along the stone defensive wall of the city. It was possible not to storm the walls and not lose soldiers, since without food and water the inhabitants, according to Kipchak’s calculations, would soon ask for mercy. He did not allow any ship to unload in the port and did not give the residents the opportunity to leave the city, so that they would not escape on foreign ships. Moreover, he deliberately ordered the release of black rats into the besieged city, which (as he was told) came off the arriving ships and brought with them disease and death. But, having sent a “black disease” to the residents of Kafa, Kipchak himself miscalculated. Having mowed down the besieged in the city, the disease suddenly spread to his army. The insidious disease did not care who it mowed down, and it crept up on the Kipchak soldiers.
His large army took fresh water from streams that descended from the mountains. The soldiers also began to get sick and die, and up to several dozen of them died a day. There were so many corpses that there was no time to bury them. This is what was said in the report of the notary Gabriel de Mussis from the Italian city of Piacenza: “Countless hordes of Tatars and Saracens suddenly fell victim to an unknown disease. The entire Tatar army was struck by disease, thousands died every day. The juices thickened in the groin, then they rotted, a fever developed, death occurred, the advice and help of doctors did not help...”
Not knowing what to do to protect his soldiers from the epidemic disease, Kipchak decided to take out his anger on the residents of Kafa. He forced local prisoners to load the bodies of the dead onto carts, take them to the city and dump them there. Moreover, he ordered to load cannons with the corpses of deceased patients and fire them at the besieged city.
But the number of deaths in his army did not decrease. Soon Kipchak could not count even half of his soldiers. When the corpses covered the entire coastline, they began to be thrown into the sea. Sailors from ships arriving from Genoa and stationed in the port of Cafa impatiently watched all these events. Sometimes the Genoese ventured into the city to find out the situation. They really didn’t want to return home with the goods, and they were waiting for this strange war to end, for the city to remove the corpses and start trading. However, having become infected in the Cafe, they themselves unwittingly transferred the infection to their ships, and besides, city rats also climbed onto the ships along the anchor chains.
From Kafa, the infected and unloaded ships sailed back to Italy. And there, naturally, along with the sailors, hordes of black rats landed ashore. The ships then went to the ports of Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica, spreading the infection to these islands.
About a year later, all of Italy - from north to south and from west to east (including the islands) - was engulfed in a plague epidemic. The disease was especially rampant in Florence, the plight of which was described by novelist Giovanni Boccaccio in his famous novel “The Decameron.” According to him, people fell dead in the streets, lonely men and women died in separate houses, whose death no one knew. The rotting corpses stank, poisoning the air. And only by this terrible smell of death could people determine where the dead lay. It was scary to touch the decomposed corpses, and under pain of prison punishment, the authorities forced ordinary people to do this, who, taking advantage of the opportunity, engaged in looting along the way.
Over time, in order to protect themselves from infection, doctors began to wear specially tailored long gowns, gloves on their hands, and special masks with a long beak containing incense plants and roots on their faces. Plates with smoking incense were tied to their hands with strings. Sometimes this helped, but they themselves became like some kind of monstrous birds bringing misfortune. Their appearance was so terrifying that when they appeared, people ran away and hid.
And the number of victims kept increasing. There were not enough graves in the city cemeteries, and then the authorities decided to bury all the dead outside the city, dumping the corpses in one mass grave. And in a short time, several dozen such mass graves appeared.
Within six months, almost half the population of Florence died. Entire neighborhoods in the city stood lifeless, and the wind was blowing through the empty houses. Soon even thieves and looters began to be afraid to enter the premises from which plague patients were taken out.
In Parma, the poet Petrarch mourned the death of his friend, whose entire family passed away within three days.
After Italy, the disease spread to France. In Marseille, 56 thousand people died in a few months. Of the eight doctors in Perpignan, only one survived; in Avignon, seven thousand houses were empty, and the local priests, out of fear, went so far as to consecrate the Rhone River and begin throwing all the corpses into it, causing the river water to become contaminated. The plague, which temporarily stopped the Hundred Years' War between France and England, claimed far more lives than open clashes between troops.
At the end of 1348, the plague entered what is today Germany and Austria. In Germany, a third of the clergy died, many churches and temples were closed, and there was no one to read sermons or celebrate church services. In Vienna, already on the first day, 960 people died from the epidemic, and then every day a thousand dead were taken outside the city.
In 1349, as if it had had its fill on the mainland, the plague spread across the strait to England, where a general pestilence began. In London alone, over half of its inhabitants died.
Then the plague reached Norway, where it was brought (as they say) by a sailing ship, the crew of which all died from the disease. As soon as the uncontrollable ship washed ashore, there were several people who climbed aboard to take advantage of the free booty. However, on the deck they saw only half-decomposed corpses and rats running over them. An inspection of the empty ship led to the fact that all the curious were infected, and the sailors working in the Norwegian port became infected from them.
The Catholic Church could not remain indifferent to such a formidable and terrible phenomenon. She sought to give her own explanation to the deaths, and in her sermons she demanded repentance and prayers. Christians saw this epidemic as a punishment for their sins and prayed day and night for forgiveness. Entire processions of people praying and repenting were organized. Crowds of barefoot and half-naked penitents wandered the streets of Rome, hanging ropes and stones around their necks, lashing themselves with leather whips, and covering their heads with ashes. Then they crawled to the steps of the Church of Santa Maria and asked the holy virgin for forgiveness and mercy.
This madness, which gripped the most vulnerable part of the population, led to the degradation of society, religious feelings turned into gloomy madness. Actually, during this period many people really went crazy. It got to the point that Pope Clement VI banned such processions and all types of flagellation. Those “sinners” who did not want to obey the papal decree and called for physical punishment of each other were soon thrown into prison, tortured and even executed.
In small European cities, they did not know at all how to fight the plague, and they believed that its main spreaders were incurable patients (for example, leprosy), disabled people and other infirm people suffering from various kinds of ailments. Established opinion: “They spread the plague!” - so mastered people that the unfortunate people (mostly homeless vagabonds) were turned into merciless popular anger. They were expelled from cities, not given food, and in some cases simply killed and buried in the ground.
Later, other rumors spread. As it turned out, the plague was the revenge of the Jews for their eviction from Palestine, for the pogroms; it was they, the Antichrists, who drank the blood of babies and poisoned the water in wells. And the masses of people took up arms against the Jews with renewed vigor. In November 1348, a wave of pogroms swept across Germany; Jews were literally hunted down. The most ridiculous accusations were brought against them. If several Jews gathered in houses, they were not allowed out. They set fire to houses and waited for these innocent people to burn. They were hammered into barrels of wine and lowered into the Rhine, imprisoned, and sent down the river on rafts. However, this did not reduce the scale of the epidemic.
In 1351, the persecution of Jews began to decline. And in a strange way, as if on command, the plague epidemic began to recede. People seemed to have recovered from their madness and gradually began to come to their senses. During the entire period of the plague’s march through the cities of Europe, a total of one third of its population died.
But at this time the epidemic spread to Poland and Russia. Suffice it to recall the Vagankovskoye cemetery in Moscow, which, in fact, was formed near the village of Vagankovo for the burial of plague patients. The dead were taken there from all corners of the white stone and buried in a mass grave. But, fortunately, the harsh climatic conditions of Russia did not allow this disease to spread widely.
Plague Doctor
From time immemorial, plague cemeteries were considered a cursed place, because it was assumed that the infection was practically immortal. Archaeologists find tight wallets in the clothes of corpses, and untouched jewelry on the skeletons themselves: neither relatives, nor gravediggers, nor even robbers ever dared to touch the victims of the epidemic. And yet, the main interest that forces scientists to take risks is not the search for artifacts of a bygone era - it is very important to understand what kind of bacteria caused the Black Death.
It seems that a number of facts testify against combining the “great plague” of the 14th century with the pandemics of the 6th century in Byzantium and the end of the 19th century in port cities around the world (USA, China, India, South Africa, etc.). The bacterium Yersinia pestis, isolated during the fight against this latest outbreak, is by all descriptions also responsible for the first “plague of Justinian,” as it is sometimes called. But the “Black Death” had a number of specific features. Firstly, the scale: from 1346 to 1353 it wiped out 60% of the population of Europe. Never before or since has the disease led to such a complete breakdown of economic ties and the collapse of social mechanisms, when people even tried not to look into each other’s eyes (it was believed that the disease was transmitted through gaze).
Secondly, the area. Pandemics of the 6th and 19th centuries raged only in the warm regions of Eurasia, and the “Black Death” captured all of Europe right up to its northernmost limits - Pskov, Trondheim in Norway and the Faroe Islands. Moreover, the pestilence did not weaken at all even in winter. For example, in London the peak of mortality occurred between December 1348 and April 1349, when 200 people died per day. Third, the location of the plague in the 14th century is controversial. It is well known that the Tatars who besieged the Crimean Kafa (modern Feodosia) were the first to fall ill. Its inhabitants fled to Constantinople and brought the infection with them, and from there it spread throughout the Mediterranean and then throughout Europe. But where did the plague come to Crimea? According to one version - from the east, according to another - from the north. The Russian chronicle testifies that already in 1346 “the pestilence was very strong under the eastern country: both in Sarai and in other cities of those countries ... and as if there was no one to bury them.”
Fourthly, the descriptions and drawings left to us of the buboes of the “Black Death” do not seem to be very similar to those that occur with the bubonic plague: they are small and scattered throughout the patient’s body, but should be large and concentrated mainly in the groin.
Since 1984, various groups of researchers, based on the above-mentioned facts and a number of other similar ones, have come out with statements that the “great plague” was not caused by the bacillus Yersinia pestis, and strictly speaking, it was not a plague at all, but was an acute viral disease similar to Ebola hemorrhagic fever, currently raging in Africa. It was possible to reliably establish what happened in Europe in the 14th century only by isolating characteristic bacterial DNA fragments from the remains of victims of the Black Death. Such attempts have been carried out since the 1990s, when the teeth of some victims were examined, but the results were still subject to different interpretations. And now a group of anthropologists led by Barbara Bramanti and Stephanie Hensch analyzed biological material collected from a number of plague cemeteries in Europe and, having isolated DNA fragments and proteins from it, came to important, and in some ways completely unexpected, conclusions.
Firstly, the “great plague” was still caused by Yersinia pestis, as was traditionally believed.
Secondly, not one, but at least two different subspecies of this bacillus were rampant in Europe. One spread from Marseilles to the north and captured England. Surely it was the same infection that came through Constantinople, and everything is clear here. What is much more surprising is that the Dutch plague burial grounds contain a different strain that came from Norway. How he ended up in Northern Europe is still a mystery. By the way, the plague came to Rus' not from the Golden Horde and not at the beginning of the epidemic, as would be logical to assume, but, on the contrary, at its very curtain, and from the north-west, through the Hansa. But in general, much more detailed paleoepidemiological research will be needed to determine the routes of infection.
Vienna, Plague Column (aka Holy Trinity Column), built in 1682-1692 by the architect Matthias Rauchmüller to commemorate Vienna's deliverance from the epidemic.
Another group of biologists led by Mark Achtman (Ireland) managed to build a “family tree” of Yersinia pestis: comparing its modern strains with those found by archaeologists, scientists concluded that the roots of all three pandemics, in the 6th, 14th and 19th centuries, grow from the same region of the Far East. But in the epidemic that broke out in the 5th century BC. e. in Athens and led to the decline of the Athenian civilization, Yersinia pestis was indeed innocent: it was not a plague, but typhus. Until now, scholars have been misled by the similarities between Thucydides' account of the Athenian epidemic and Procopius of Caesarea's account of the Constantinople pestilence of 541. It is now clear that the latter imitated the former too zealously.
Yes, but what then are the reasons for the unprecedented mortality brought about by the pandemic of the 14th century? After all, it slowed down progress in Europe for centuries. Perhaps the root of the troubles should be sought in the civilizational change that happened then? Cities developed rapidly, the population grew, commercial ties intensified unheard of, merchants traveled vast distances (for example, to get from the sources of the Rhine to its mouth, the plague took only 7.5 months - and how many borders had to be overcome!). But despite all this, sanitary ideas remained deeply medieval. People lived in the dirt, often slept among rats, and they carried the deadly Xenopsylla cheopis fleas in their fur. When the rats died, the hungry fleas jumped on the people who were always nearby.
But this is a general idea, it applies to many eras. If we talk specifically about the “Black Death,” then the reason for its unheard-of “efficiency” can be seen in the chain of crop failures of 1315-1319. Another unexpected conclusion that can be drawn by analyzing skeletons from plague cemeteries concerns the age structure of the victims: the majority of them were not children, as is more often the case during epidemics, but mature people whose childhood occurred during that great shortage of the early 14th century. The social and biological are intertwined in human history more intricately than it seems. These studies are of great importance. Let us remember how Camus’s famous book ends: “... the plague microbe never dies, never disappears, it can sleep for decades somewhere in the curls of furniture or in a pile of linen, it patiently waits in the wings in the bedroom, in the basement, in a suitcase, in handkerchiefs and in papers, and perhaps the day will come to grief and as a lesson to people when the plague awakens the rats and sends them to kill them on the streets of a happy city.”
« However, on the same day, around noon, Dr. Rieux, stopping his car in front of the house, noticed at the end of their street a gatekeeper who was barely moving, with his arms and legs splayed out in an absurd way and his head hanging down, like a wooden clown. Old Michel's eyes shone unnaturally, his breath whistled out of his chest. While walking, he began to experience such sharp pains in his neck, armpits and groin that he had to turn back...
The next day his face turned green, his lips became like wax, his eyelids seemed to be filled with lead, he breathed intermittently, shallowly and, as if crucified by swollen glands, he kept huddling in the corner of the folding bed.
Days passed, and the doctors were called to new patients with the same disease. One thing was clear - the abscesses needed to be opened. Two cross-shaped incisions with a lancet - and a purulent mass mixed with ichor flowed out of the tumor. The patients were bleeding and lay as if crucified. Spots appeared on the stomach and legs, the discharge from the abscesses stopped, then they swelled again. In most cases, the patient died amid the horrifying stench.
...The word “plague” was uttered for the first time. It contained not only what science wanted to put into it, but also an endless series of the most famous pictures of disasters: Athens plagued and abandoned by birds, Chinese cities filled with silent dying people, Marseilles convicts throwing blood-oozing corpses into a ditch, Jaffa with its disgusting beggars, damp and rotten bedding lying right on the earthen floor of the Constantinople infirmary, plague-stricken people being dragged with hooks...».
This is how the French writer Albert Camus described the plague in his novel of the same name.
The plague - a terrible disease that was popularly called the “Black Death” - became a real pandemic in the Middle Ages, which swept not only Europe, but also parts of Asia and Africa, resulting in the death of a huge number of people (about 60 million people). In some countries, this terrible disease wiped out about half of the population, and it took centuries for the population to recover to its previous level. Our review contains little-known and shocking facts about this terrible disease.
Let us immediately clarify that very few written sources have reached us about the times when the Black Death raged on our planet. Therefore, there are a huge number of myths and rumors around the plague, sometimes greatly exaggerated.
Plague and the Church
The Catholic Church has been one of the most powerful organizations in the world for quite some time, so it is not surprising that there are many conspiracy theories about it and the church has become a scapegoat in many situations.
It is believed that the supposedly outdated and unscientific thinking and actions of the church contributed to the active spread of the disease and overall led to an increase in the number of deaths. Currently, the main theory is that the plague was spread by fleas, which were carried primarily by rats.
Due to Catholic superstitions, cats were initially blamed for spreading the plague. This led to their mass extermination, which in turn caused rapid reproduction of rats. They were the cause of the spread of the plague.
But skeptics believe that rats could not contribute to such an active spread of the disease.
Overpopulation, sewage, flies...
Some people do not like to remember this completely unromantic part of medieval history. Researchers believe that one of the main reasons for the plague pandemic was the fact that people did not pay any attention to hygiene.
And the point is not even that people did not wash, but that there was no modern infrastructure, in particular sewerage, constant garbage collection, refrigeration equipment, etc. An example is Bristol, the second largest city in the UK when the plague broke out in Europe. The city was overpopulated and there were open ditches everywhere with human waste and other sewage overflowing. Meat and fish were left out in the open air, and flies lurked in the food. no one cared about the purity of the water. Not only the poor, but also the rich lived in these conditions.
Is the plague native to Asia?
It is believed that the cause of the outbreak of plague was not rats, but the “plague bacillus” bacterium that appeared in Asia, which appeared due to climate changes in this region. In addition, there were excellent conditions for both the spread of pathogenic bacteria and the breeding of fleas. And this fact just confirms the theory that rats are involved in the spread of the disease.
Plague and HIV
After the plague pandemic that killed millions of people, there were several more outbreaks of the disease at different times. Perhaps only those who lived far from large cities and observed the rules of hygiene managed to escape. And some scientists are sure that they have developed immunity.
Approximately the same situation is happening today with AIDS. Scientists have discovered that there are people who are immune to this disease. Some researchers believe that this mutation likely occurred due to the human body's fight against the plague epidemic in Europe. Understanding the mechanism of this rare mutation can certainly help in the treatment or prevention of HIV.
Black Death and nursery rhyme
The nursery rhyme “Round Around Rosie” is popular in the West. While it may just be an innocent song for children who love it, some adults are convinced that the song's origins are very dark. They believe that Circle Around Rosie is actually about the Black Death in Europe. The song mentions bags with bouquets of flowers, and during the plague, bags with strong-smelling herbs were worn by the sick to hide the unpleasant odor emanating from them.
Ash, which is also referred to in the song, is a fairly obvious reference to dead people being burned. However, there is no evidence that the poem has anything to do with the plague. There are several varieties of it, the earliest of which date back to the 1800s. And this was hundreds of years after the plague.
The plague accelerated the onset of the Renaissance
Although the Black Death was an incredible tragedy in human history and led to millions of deaths, this event, oddly enough, also had positive aspects for society.
The fact is that in those years Europe suffered from overpopulation and, as a consequence, unemployment. After millions of people fell victim to the plague, these problems resolved themselves. In addition, wages have increased. Masters are worth their weight in gold. Thus, some scholars argue that the plague was one of the factors contributing to the advent of the Renaissance.
The plague still claims lives today
Some people believe that the plague is a thing of the past. But there are places on Earth where this disease continues to kill people. The plague bacillus has not disappeared and still appears today, even in North America, a continent where plague was unknown in the Middle Ages.
People still die from the plague, especially in poor countries. Failure to comply with hygiene rules and lack of medicines lead to the fact that the disease can kill a person in just a few days.
"Bad Air"
The scientific theory of miasma in relation to disease is quite old. Given that science was in its infancy during the plague outbreak in Europe, many experts at the time believed that the disease was spread through “bad air.” Considering the smells of sewage flowing like rivers through the streets, and the stench of decomposing bodies that had not had time to bury, it is not surprising that the foul air was considered responsible for the spread of the disease.
This miasma theory led desperate people at the time to begin cleaning up dirt from the streets to avoid bad air and help prevent disease. Although these were actually good measures, they had nothing to do with the epidemic.
The concept of "quarantine"
The idea of quarantine did not come with the Black Death; The practice of separating sick and healthy people has existed for a long time. In many cultures around the world, people long ago realized that placing healthy people next to sick people often caused the healthy people to get sick. In fact, even the Bible suggests keeping those with leprosy away from healthy people to prevent them from becoming infected.
However, the actual term "quarantine" is much more recent and is actually indirectly related to the plague. During repeated outbreaks of the Black Death across Europe, some countries forced sick people to live in fields until they recovered or died. In others, they set aside a small area for sick people, or simply locked them at home.
The isolation period typically lasted about 30 days. This may be excessive, but little was known about germs at the time. Eventually, for unknown reasons, the amount of time for isolating patients was increased to 40 days.
Virus or bacteria
Most people believe that the Black Death was caused by a bacterium called plague bacillus (Yersinia pestis), which infected people with bubonic plague. The disease was named so because of the terrible buboes that appeared on the body. However, some researchers have suggested that this bacterium may not actually be the culprit behind the global pandemic that swept across three continents centuries ago.
A number of scientists have spent years exhuming those who died from the plague and examining their remains. They stated that the plague was spreading too quickly, much faster than modern strains of plague. Some scientists are convinced that it was a completely different disease that behaved more like a virus.
Perhaps it was something more similar to Ebola than to modern versions of the plague bacillus. Scientists also recently discovered the existence of two unknown strains of Yersinia Pestis that were present in the remains of those killed by the plague.
BVROPA
1348-1666
During its 300-year invasion of Europe (from 1348 to 1666), the bubonic plague, known as the Black Death, claimed 25 million lives. The reason for her retreat could have been three factors: the fire in London, the change of seasons and improved sanitary conditions.
The incredible, terrible in its scope, the bubonic plague, which ravaged and devastated Europe for 300 years, claimed 25 million lives, or one third of the population of Europe at that time. The Black Death, as it was known, was nature's worst punishment of all time.
More terrible than war, because state borders were unfamiliar to her. More cruel and painful for its victims than earthquakes. More terrifying than a volcanic eruption or an approaching hurricane because of the unknown nature of it. The Black Death, so named because of the invasion of black rats that preceded it, held Western civilizations in its thrall for generations.
In 1347, in the Crimean trading port of Kaffa (Feodosia), a group of enterprising Genoese merchants found themselves under a long-term siege by Khan Janibek Kipchak. Kaffa was at that time the main port where goods from Genoa arrived, but for the khan this did not matter much. He held Caffa hostage, fighting off any incursions other than the Black Death. The disease appeared at the beginning of 1348 and mowed down the huge army of the Kipchak, as if they were enemy forces for it.
This is what is said in the report of Gabriel de Mussis, a notary from Piacenza, who allegedly witnessed the events: “Countless hordes of Tatars and Saracens suddenly fell victim to an unknown disease... the entire Tatar army was struck by the disease... every day... thousands died... juices thickened in the groin, then they rotted, fever developed, death occurred, the advice and help of doctors did not help ... "
Khan Kipchak, as always resourceful and barbarically inventive, decided to use the corpses of dead warriors as weapons. Thus, he was the first person in history to use biological weapons.
“The Tatars, tormented by the plague, an infectious disease, stunned and shocked by the death of their comrades, dying without any hope of recovery, ordered the corpses to be loaded into throwing machines and thrown at the city of Caffa, so that these unbearable projectiles would put an end to the defenders of the city,” Moussis continued to describe. “The city was bombarded with mountains of the dead, and Christians had nowhere to run and nowhere to hide from such a misfortune... They betrayed the dead to the waves. Soon the whole air was contaminated, the poisoned, spoiled water began to rot. The unbearable stench intensified..."
The infected Genoese sailors boarded ships and sailed to Italy. Carrying infected fleas, they brought hordes of the same infected black rats to the Italian port, which abandoned the ships along the anchor chains and overran the city. But the Genoese were not the only ones who brought the Black Death to Europe. The plague was brought to Italy by 16 Galleons, and only 4 of them came from Caffa. Twelve others, carrying crusaders returning from Constantinople, docked at Messina (Sicily) at about the same time. The Crusaders were already infected.
By the end of 1348, all of Italy was engulfed in plague, and its terrible breath began to be felt in France. By August, the infection had spread to Switzerland and England, where it was brought by ship from Calais. This ship moored at Dorchester's Melcombe port. By the end of 1349, the plague had affected Ireland, Scotland, Denmark and most of Germany. Norwegian ships brought it to Iceland, the entire population of which would die out. Poland and Russia were infected by 1351.
The number of deaths increased at an astronomical rate. Half of Italy's population died out. Every 9 out of 10 Londoners fell victim to the disease. In 1348, 1,244,434 residents of Germany died from the plague. By 1386, only 5 inhabitants remained in the Russian city of Smolensk.
This death was not easy. Here is what Michele Platiensis of Piaca wrote (quoted from Johannes Nola's work "The Black Death"):
“Infected people experienced pain that pierced their entire body, as if it was eating away at them from the inside. Then a blister developed on the thighs or forearms... From it, the infection spread throughout the body and penetrated so deeply into it that the patients vomited blood. This… continued for three days without a break, there was no means to cure the disease, and the patient burned out.”
Completely frightened and helpless, potential victims of the disease began to behave inhumanely.
“Not only those who interacted with the sick died, but also those who only touched or used their things,” Platiensis continued. “Soon people hated each other to such an extent that when his son fell ill, his father stopped caring for him. If he nevertheless dared to approach him, he immediately became infected and burned within three days ... "
In Florence, the plague raged with particular frenzy, which is why the “Black Death” was sometimes also called the “Florentine Plague.” Here is an excerpt from “The Decameron” by Giovanni Boccaccio:
“... walked around holding a few flowers in their hands, a few fragrant herbs and spices, which they constantly brought to their noses, believing that such smells were an excellent way to strengthen the brain, especially since the air seemed thick and was thoroughly saturated with the stench emitted by the dead bodies, as well as the sick, as well as the drugs used.”
Francesca Petrarch echoed in Parma: “Alas, my loving brother, what can I say? Where do I begin? What to come to? Everything is sorrow, horror reigns everywhere. In me you can see what you read about the great city in Virgil: “Excruciating pain everywhere, fear everywhere and numerous images of death.” Oh, brother, how I wish I had never been born or had already met death!”
In France, the papal city of Avignon, the seat of Pope Clement VI, was filled with plague. An unknown canon, in a letter to his family in Belgium, described the course of sad events as follows (quoted from George Do’s book “The Black Death of 1347”): “... Half, and maybe more than half of the population of Avignon is already dead. Within the city walls, more than 7,000 houses stand locked: no one lives in them, those who once lived there have died; You can hardly see a living person in the surrounding area. The field near the “Miraculous Madonna” was bought by the pope and consecrated as a cemetery. Since March 13, 11,000 corpses have been buried in it...”
Later, Pope Clementius would consecrate the Rhone River so that the bodies of the dead could be thrown into it. The pope himself survived under the protection of two huge fires, which burned day and night on both sides of him.
In England, a monk from Rochester, William Dean, recorded the following scene: “To our great regret, the plague claimed such a huge number of lives of people of both sexes that it was impossible to find a person who would take the corpses to the grave. Men and women carried children on their shoulders to the church and threw them into a common ditch. It emanated such a frightening stench that people were afraid to pass by the cemetery.”
This was the situation throughout Europe. Desperate people, hoping to get rid of the pain, horror and inevitable death from the plague, turned to doctors who knew no more than they did how to treat this fleeting disease. However, doctors continued to try various palliative methods.
Some doctors advised wearing human feces in a sewn bag around the neck.
Others prescribed bathing in urine and ingesting it. Leeches, dried toads and lizards were applied to the abscesses to suck out the poison. Lard and oil were put into open wounds. Needles were stuck into the testicles. The blood of freshly slaughtered pigeons and puppies was sprinkled on feverish foreheads.
The French doctor Guy de Chauliac opened abscesses and cauterized open wounds with a red-hot poker. This primitive method of purification actually gave results if the person on whom it was applied did not die of a heart attack, did not fall into irreversible shock, or go crazy from pain.
The problem of “poisoned premises” arose - those where people died from the plague. Fresh milk was poured into a large flat dish and left in the middle of the contaminated room to adsorb the contaminated air. An unknown London doctor proposed the following recipe for disinfecting a house in which a plague patient died: “... Take several large onions, peel them, put 3-4 onions on the floor, and let them lie there for 10 days, the onion will absorb all the infection from the infected rooms, only then will the bulbs need to be buried deep in the ground.”
Puzzled by the fact that neither doctors nor clergy were able to help them, the poor either became overly pious, or, disappointed in God, who had “turned away” from them, gave vent to despair by finding “scapegoats”, indulged in debauchery, voluptuousness, and believed in amulets , witchcraft, and even worshiped the devil. In many ways, the Black Death set civilization back many centuries.
True, there were some positive aspects. Some very devout people established traditions that survive to this day. For example, the inhabitants of Oberammergau vowed to carry out regular religious activities if the ominous hand of the plague was averted from them. Their vow lasted until the end of the plague - 1634, and the plague left them. Even today they still present their performance of the Passion of the Lord.
Individual spots of sunlight in those days seemed even brighter due to their rarity. But zealous religious frenzy did much more harm. The country was filled with flagellants of the so-called “Brothers of the Cross”. They staged self-flagellation rituals in village squares to atone for sins that allegedly caused the plague. At the same time, they themselves became carriers of the plague.
The search for scapegoats has fueled anti-Semitism. In May 1348, Jewish settlements were exterminated in three cities of France. Cruel reprisals befell old and young, healthy and weak, women and children.
In September of the same year, a Jewish doctor in Chillon (Switzerland), during the bloody torture, “confessed” that he and several other members of the Jewish community poisoned the wells. The news quickly spread throughout Europe. 50 large and 150 small Jewish communities were destroyed. In total, 350 pogroms were organized.
Some fairy tales and nursery rhymes date back to the Black Death.
There are wreaths of roses on the neck,
Pockets full of bouquets,
Apchhi-apchhi!
Everyone falls to the ground.
No doubt this describes the tradition of wearing garlands of flowers in times of plague to dull the smell of the miasma. The last two lines are evidence of the absence of any effective medicine, if the owners of the bouquets took their last breath and fell dead.
More cheerful is the tale of the Piper from the German town of Hamelin, who was struck in 1358 and 1361 by plague and hordes of rats. Historical facts coincide with the story and poem of Robert Browning: “Hameln was overrun by hordes of rats. The city authorities hired a traveling rat catcher. When he exterminated all the rats and demanded payment for the work, the authorities offered him a pittance. The Pied Piper left the city, vowing revenge. Meanwhile, the children of Hamelin collected the carcasses of rats that littered the streets of the city and threw them into the fast flow of the Weser River. The children died after contracting the plague. They were buried in a new cemetery on the slope of Mount Koppelberg. In the fairy tale, it was in this place that the mountain opened up and swallowed up the Piper and the children forever!”
Having met no resistance from either God or people, the plague continued to reign, leaving its mark on the habits and traditions of people. All kinds of medicines, potions and penances were used. Some were effective, some were not. Dancing was one of the darkest ways to drive out the plague. During the fantastic event, rightly called the “Dance of Death,” thousands of victims participated in frantic dancing in the city squares until they collapsed from fatigue or illness. The rest, meanwhile, continued to dance and trampled those who had fallen to death.
A more effective method of combating the plague was the tradition of establishing quarantine in ports for arriving ships. The ships were ordered to remain at anchor for 40 days (perhaps for religious reasons this was the period). This prevented the spread of plague in cities through the fault of sailors, but often the ships during this time became deserted, as the plague-infected crew died out to a single person.
These were dark times for the whole world, when the population was declining in such a monstrous way, including in Europe. The only weapon that could eradicate the plague - sanitation - would not be used until 1666, when the plague suddenly disappeared. Some considered the fire of London to be the cause of its end, others - the change of seasons. But few people realized at the time that the end of the plague was caused by soap and water.
A detailed description of the end of the Black Death is given in the article “The English Plague of 1665”
Speaking about the plague in European history, we primarily mean the so-called “Black Death”, which swept across the continent in 1346-1353 and wiped out - according to various estimates - from 30% to 50% of the population (15-30 million people) . Some cities and regions lost half (for example, Provence) or even three-quarters of their inhabitants (Tuscany).
Europe has experienced similar shocks before. In the 6th century, a pandemic swept the continent, which went down in history as the “Plague of Justinian.” But since then everything was limited to individual outbreaks - until 1346.
Then a real catastrophe struck - a terrible epidemic, nicknamed by contemporaries the “Black Death”.
The plague came from the East, where it raged at the beginning of the decade, and Crimea was the first to be hit, followed by Constantinople. At that time, trade on the Mediterranean Sea was of great importance and was very active, so it did not take long for the disease to reach the major Italian ports and Marseilles on ships.
Rampant obscurantism and plague pogroms
Medieval people did not have as much knowledge about the world as you and I did, and found it difficult to rationally explain many phenomena - including terrible diseases. Yes, the epidemics themselves were not something out of the ordinary, but the speed with which the black death spread through cities and villages, and its “inexorability” very quickly caused a surge of obscurantism in society.
Many saw the plague as a punishment from above, looking for an explanation for what was happening in distorted retellings of biblical legends, and tried to stop the epidemic with the help of religious rituals. Mass processions with self-flagellation were organized, and low-level priests invented new rituals on the fly, such as stretching a thread along the city wall.
The highest church hierarchs did not dare to intervene in the situation, although real sects of many thousands were being formed before their eyes. The Vatican understood that prayers for illness do not help and people need at least some kind of outlet.
Just recently, the Catholic Church very methodically suppressed major heresies, for example, the Cathar movement, but now it has let go of the reins.
If primitive superstitions forced people to lock themselves in their houses or leave cities, then the inspirers of the movements of self-flagellation flagellants or bianchi walking around the cities in white robes did the opposite. Mass events are not the best idea during an epidemic, to be sure.
Others found more rational explanations: they say, such a terrible misfortune cannot arise on its own, and the Lord is not so cruel - this is the evil intent of either people or the devil himself. Of course, in search of the culprits, they also reached the imaginary sorcerers and the Jewish quarters.
It even got in leper colonies, although they, it would seem, had absolutely nothing to do with it: the difference between their illness and the plague was obvious even to a medieval person.
Here the church no longer stood aside and tried to prevent bloodshed - both with exhortations and direct prohibitions: for lynching they were threatened with excommunication. Alas, this did not always stop the crowd.
The Catholic Church at that time was the most powerful organization in Europe - the Vatican often dictated its will even to kings. But during the years of the Black Death, it turned out to be practically powerless: seeing the real state of affairs, people either rapidly lost faith, or, on the contrary, became uncontrollable fanatics.
Fortunately, in the current situation, there were still those who were ready to act decisively and effectively. Secular authorities came to the forefront of history.
Cold-blooded quarantines and the strengthening of secular power
The image of the plague doctor is well known to everyone, and there really was a point in creating such “sanitary units”.
Of course, they did not know how to truly treat the sick - except to open and cauterize their buboes. And the rats continued to freely spread plague fleas throughout the cities (no one could figure out how the infection actually spreads).
Nevertheless, the presence of people in the epicenters of the epidemic who were able to restore at least some order helped. However, not only plague doctors were thrown into the fight.
The Italian cities that initially suffered the most from the epidemic quickly responded to the terrible events by establishing special commissions designed to deal with this issue. There was no serious experience in dealing with such a terrible scourge, but the authorities, nevertheless, took a number of reasonable measures. First of all, teams were created to collect, remove and bury corpses in separate burial grounds.
Now this may seem like a simple and obvious solution, but in the 14th century it was not easy to organize even ordinary street cleaning, much less clear the city space of bodies lying here and there.
In addition, the authorities have developed a number of serious quarantine measures. Although the efficiency of management in the 14th century left much to be desired and, in order to implement such decisions, remarkable administrative talent was required - the quarantine regime was in force, and the epidemic was at least somewhat contained. The successful experience of the Italian authorities began to be quickly adopted throughout Europe.
Also, despite numerous protests, taverns and brothels were forced to close everywhere. The mayors understood that the population density in their estates was colossal and it would not be possible to completely solve the problem, but limiting contact between people as much as possible was a useful and necessary measure.
The experience of the Venetians, who approached the matter with a cool head, is especially impressive. Panic was suppressed not only by force, but also by personal example: while ordinary people were trying to leave the cities, officials were strictly forbidden to flee. A quarantine was imposed on nearby islands, where all arrivals were checked for symptoms of the disease.
The Black Death became the most serious test for European cities. And the secular authorities, in contrast to the spiritual ones who had faded away, passed it, albeit with varying degrees of success.
For the first time in several centuries, secular government showed itself to be better than the Catholic Church, and from then on its influence began to grow noticeably.
The new look of Europe
It is impossible to overestimate the significance of what happened for Europe. It is difficult to even list all the changes directly or indirectly related to the Black Death. Oddly enough, some of these deepest scars became a real decoration for the portrait of the era: a terrible disaster had a number of positive consequences.
Urban boom and women's emancipation
The value of labor, especially more or less skilled labor, has increased sharply. Many guilds (craft or trade communities), which had previously been relatively closed organizations, now had to actively accept everyone into their ranks.
Of course, after this, a huge number of people wanted to move to cities from villages, especially since the former suffered more from the plague. For example, about a third of property in London remains ownerless.
The incomes of skilled people increased sharply - so much so that in many countries, cities and possessions this quickly met with opposition from the authorities, who tried to reduce wages again. The British in 1349 and 1351 passed special laws limiting the growth of workers' incomes (in the second case it was directly forbidden to pay them more than in 1346).
However, these regulations did not work at all. Firstly, ordinary people felt their own strength: after all, the authorities cannot do without them - someone has to work, one way or another. Secondly, such an order obviously contradicted the basic laws of the market: if supply has sharply decreased (there are simply fewer people of working age), then prices cannot help but rise.
It even got to the point that everyone who tried to change jobs or move was required by law to be sent to prison - but such drastic measures were completely impossible.
A more adequate response of the authorities to the changes that frightened them were some provisional decrees. This term is usually referred to as “luxury taxes,” but in this case we are talking about restricting consumption for the lower and middle classes of society. The assumption was that if people had nothing better to spend their money on, then they wouldn't want to earn it. But despite radical legislative initiatives, governments still failed to stop the changes that had begun.
The lower-ranking townspeople who survived the plague epidemic noticeably improved their well-being.
The lack of hands also affected the position of women - in such a situation there is no time for sexism. Girls' or mixed guilds existed in Europe even before the Black Death, but now women had a real opportunity, so to speak, to advance up the career ladder. This affected village residents to a lesser extent, but a lot has already changed in the rural way of life...
Liberation of the peasantry
Perhaps the peasants benefited most from the plague, so to speak. Serfdom in Western Europe, even before the epidemic, was gradually giving way to a new system of class relations, and a sharp decline in population strengthened this trend: the feudal lords had to enter into dialogue with the people working on the land.
As a result, in almost all of Western Europe, the rights of peasants soon expanded, and various types of taxes decreased. Of course, many feudal lords tried to counteract this, so soon the villagers again had reasons for uprisings. However, it has also become much more difficult for weakened states to suppress their speeches.
The plague undoubtedly played a significant role in the process of liberation of the peasants. A lot of free land was formed - left over from those who simply did not survive the Black Death. A holy place is never empty, and even more so a fertile place: these fields and, most importantly, pastures made it possible to improve the food situation in Europe.
Trade also received a new impetus: for example, England began regular deliveries to Scandinavia and the Netherlands, where conditions for agriculture were far from ideal.
By the way, they began to work in the villages somewhat differently: the role of livestock farming, which required much fewer workers than agriculture, increased noticeably. The plots themselves have fallen significantly in price, and labor on them has become more expensive. This could not compensate for the terrible loss of life, but it served as at least some consolation.
The above is true for Western Europe. In the East, where the population density was lower, mainly cities were seriously affected by the plague, and little changed in the situation of residents of rural areas, which were less affected by the epidemic. Serfdom in some regions persisted here until the 19th century.
Democratization of the Church
The real Reformation is still far away, but already at this time Protestantism was emerging: the previous balance in spiritual life, very stable, was disrupted.
If the bitter example of the Cathars who were cut to pieces discouraged many from any freethinking at the turn of the 13th–14th centuries, now Europeans have clearly seen: the Vatican is not so omnipotent.
Since even in Italy the church really couldn’t (or didn’t want) to do anything about the rampant sects of varying degrees of adequacy, then why shouldn’t people in their right minds, who also have justified claims and demands, come out against it?
The clergy also greatly thinned out during the epidemic, which, alas, was greatly facilitated by the care of the monks for the sick - sometimes monasteries simply died out from the plague. And it was much more difficult to fill personnel gaps here than in the ranks of peasants and workers: we are talking about rather highly qualified specialists.
Throughout the Middle Ages, the church was the best and, most importantly, constantly accessible social elevator. Theoretically, any commoner could begin his career as a servant in a temple or a novice in a monastery, and die as a Pope. This is one of the few areas of activity in the Middle Ages where everything depended on the efforts and talents of the person himself, and not on any external factors such as origin.
Now there are many more “jobs” in the church, which means that many people have a great chance to realize themselves. This even affected women: now they too could achieve more in the monastic service.
The Black Death also played a colossal role in the fate of religious minorities: Jews living throughout the continent and Muslims settled on the Iberian Peninsula. And again we must remember the proverb “if there was no happiness, but misfortune would help”: on the one hand, the people of other faiths suffered greatly from the pogroms, and even after the pandemic they continued to be blamed for all the troubles. The already complex relations between people of different faiths have become strained, as always happens in moments of crisis. But on the other hand, the rise of science and the increased need for well-trained specialists turned out to be a blessing for the same Jews. So the communities oppressed during the disease not only recovered, but in part even became stronger.
Development of medicine and unity of society
And of course, the disaster that befell Europe spurred the development of medicine. The prestige of this department in universities increased sharply, active research began: people wanted to understand what caused the Black Death and how to prevent its recurrence.
Of course, before the discoveries of Louis Pasteur, it was technically impossible to achieve great success in this field, but the positive effect for science is obvious. The same anatomical studies, which traditionally met with opposition from the church, began to be treated more loyally.
In the end, a huge number of noble and influential people, including kings and the highest hierarchs of the church, died from the plague. Among them are the Castilian monarch Alfonso XI, the Queen of Aragon, Eleanor of Portugal, and the Vladimir prince Simeon the Proud (the widespread belief that there was no plague in Rus' is a misconception).
Now everyone understood that illness was a common problem, and not just a problem of the lower strata. You cannot hide from the plague behind the walls of a castle or temple. To some extent, no matter how pathetic it may sound, the misfortune that happened united society, although the Middle Ages still remained the Middle Ages - an era of severe social stratification.
Some scientists even note the role of the Black Death in natural selection, or, if you like, the evolution of humanity. According to them, after the pandemic, genes have spread that have increased people’s resistance to dangerous diseases. But statements of this kind are still quite controversial, and these studies are not directly related to historical science.
After the Black Death
The plague misadventures of Europe did not end there. There will be many more major epidemics. Let's say, in 1664–1665 London will lose about 25% of its population, and in 1720–1722 the same Marseille, which was once the “gateway” for the Black Death, will suffer even more. Let us also remember the plague riot in Moscow - which, by the way, happened during not the largest epidemic that Russia has known.
But none of the subsequent outbreaks of plague or any other diseases became such a shock for European civilization. We can say that the Black Death hardened the Old World.
Despite the terrible damage that all European countries suffered, this tragedy also had positive consequences.
In medicine there is the concept of crisis - a turning point in the course of a disease. The plague became such a “crisis” for the entire region. Europe might not have been able to withstand this test and risked falling back into the “dark ages,” once again finding itself in the state in which it was in the first centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire. But the plague crisis was successfully overcome, and it was not long before the Renaissance.
