Comparing primary sources on crusades and medieval social history

How Did The “Black Death” Reshape European Society?
As it spread across Europe, the Black Death did more than just wipe out tens of millions of people. Far beyond the impact the Black Death had on individual lives, the disease had a tremendous impact on the evolution of European culture and history. The Black Death flattened the social hierarchy because the disease did not discriminate between rich and poor. As a result, the poor and working classes organized to overthrow the centuries-old exploitative labor systems like feudalism. Because neither church nor state responded credibly to the Black Death, the epidemic weakened the authority of the Catholic Church and fostered populist rebellions. Likewise, the Black Death prompted interest in credible scientific responses to disease, even while superstition and religiosity remained. The disease led to widespread population migrations, the restructuring of society, abandonment of inherited wealth and property, and the renegotiation of labor.
The Black Death represented in some ways the impact that globalization and world trade had on the spread of goods, ideas, and also diseases. Even without an advanced understanding of how infectious diseases spread, the educated sector of Italian society—which was at the time the hub of world trade--at least were aware that the disease had originated in the Levant, and recognized its symptoms from the tales told by traveling merchants (Boccaccio 168). Nevertheless, attitudes and beliefs remained heavily steeped in superstition and pseudoscience. Florentine author Boccaccio speculated that the Black Death was “owing to the influence of the planets, or that it was sent from God as a just punishment for our sins,” (168). In fact, the Black Death heralded a new age of understanding that presaged the downfall of the Catholic Church.
The Black Death led to the breakdown of social order, social norms, and the social contract in European societies no matter how advanced, no matter how wealthy, and no matter how big or small. Lawlessness and chaos naturally ensued, as people died in droves. As Boccaccio notes, “the laws, human and divine, were not regarded...every one did just as he pleased,” (168). The Anonimalle Chronicle likewise details the mob mentality that ensued, calling for the beheading of lawyers and leading to the actual burning down of buildings throughout London. Therefore, the Black Death led to the breakdown of morals, values, and ethics in the quest for self-preservation and survival. Boccaccio observed the “little regard that citizens and relations showed to each other...a brother even fled from his brother” (169). Writing about another Tuscan town Sienna, Di Tura likewise chronicles that to save themselves, “fathers abandon their sons, wives their husbands, and one brother the other,” (169). Perhaps in some ways, the rise in selfish behaviors foreshadowed the age of individualism and the shift from communalism among the general public towards self-seeking entrepreneurial pursuits.
The Black Death led to the reorganization of European societies on an unprecedented level, and at an unforeseen pace. The Black Death led to a flattening of class hierarchies and the beginnings of socialist ideologies, especially evident in the peasant revolts that took place in England (Anonimalle Chronicle). Wealth redistribution resulted from the Black Death. With as many as 80,000 dead, people left their gold and silver behind to flee the pestilence (Di Tura 170). The abandoning of inherited wealth meant that people of lower socioeconomic classes could capitalize on the wealth left behind as all the survivors, from whatever walk of life they previously had “appeared to be rich” (Di Tura 170). Unfortunately for future generations, though, people in the rural communities were also abandoning their farms. Reduced crop production signaled a possible famine in the future, which would impede the recovery efforts.
The Black Death caused dispersal of the population from city centers into the country, but also dissipation of farmers no longer willing or able to work the land—compounding the problems of famine and poverty. Population migrations, which perhaps led to the comingling or integration of otherwise isolated villages, communities, and populations which spoke different languages or which had different traditions: “men and women in great numbers left the city,” and “fled into the country,” (Boccaccio 169).
With the Black Death, the most powerful political institutions—Catholic Church and localized monarchies—lost their credibility. The legitimacy of their power waned, and strategic alliances had to be renegotiated. In England—the peasant revolts. Because of the rapid pace with which city officials and the nobility perished, there were changes to local political structures in Europe. For example, in Siena the leaders of the city hired special citizens to care for or bury the homeless (Di Tura 170). The Black Death therefore created new opportunities within the labor market that had previously not existed.
One of the most significant changes to European societies due to the Black Death was the breakdown of feudalism. The Black Death decimated the population without regard for superficial distinctions between the landholding lords and the serfs. Peasant revolts helped to empower the people, who could organize en masse and actually threaten the feudal lords with work refusal. The Anonimalle Chronicle focuses directly on the peasant revolts in England. The author describes how “all cried with one voice that they would not go before they had captured the traitors who lay in the Tower, nor until they had got charters to free them from all manner of serfdom,” along with other key demands (171). Interestingly, the King caved into their demands but the wizened populace did not trust the King’s edicts. The masses became more determined than ever to take back their power from the nobility, so that “no future man should be in serfdom” (172). They demanded no more tributes to the lords, just simple paying of rent to remain on the property. The peasants also demanded “that no one should serve any man except by his own good will,” (172). A harbinger of democratic political institutions, men like Wat Tyler of Maidstone “said in a threatening fashion,” brandishing a knife while having audience with the king, “that the lords of the realm would rue it bitterly” unless they did not get what they wanted. Wat Tyler asked pointedly for equity: “equality among all people save only the King, and that the goods of the Holy Church should not remain at the hands of the religious...the rest of the goods should be divided among the people of the parish,” (172).
Thus, the otherwise illiterate and disenfranchised peasantry became increasingly able to question the authority of established social and political hierarchies. The result was a populist ethos that can easily be considered a precursor to socialism and communism. A woodblock print by Petrarca-Meister entitled The Social Order depicts two peasants sitting on top of members of the clergy and nobility, with one even stepping on what appears to be a bishop. As Sloan points out, the Black Death “reduced the prestige of the Church and off the medical profession, and were a factor in the social unrest which led to the Renaissance of the Reformation,” (646). Indeed, the Black Death was a harbinger of the Renaissance and Reformation—which together signaled the end of the Middle Ages and the dawn of the ages of reason and enlightenment to follow.
In the centuries following the Black Death, there grew an increased interest in secular pursuits of knowledge, and to a degree, increased democratization of power via the dissemination of new ideas throughout the general public. Interest in understanding the causes of the Black Death and how to effectively respond to epidemics led to advancement in the sciences. Unfortunately, the Black Death also led to the persecution of minority groups, particularly the Jews (Cohn 3). The creation of new underclass, and contributed to anti-Semitic discourse throughout Europe. A weakened Church may also have enabled the impending rise to power of Muslim social, economic, and political institutions: particularly the Moors.
The Black Death shifted not just the role of the Church in political, economic, and social life, but also the importance of religion itself. In other words, the Black Death promoted secular values. Disenchantment with the inability of religion to provide a credible explanation for the Black Death, never mind a meaningless response to it, the people became disillusioned by religion itself. Loss of faith became widespread. Even the members of the clergy seemed to have abandoned their posts and their God, for as Di Tura notes, they “do not even ring the church bells anymore” (170). Chroniclers of the Black Death point out the carelessness with which the dead were disposed of in “mass graves,” ignoring Christian customs and burial rites (170). Cohn laments the even harsher reaction towards the Jews, who were burned dead or alive, scapegoated as they were, believed by some to have caused the Black Death itself given in part to the rise in public panic but also to the fact that the Black Death may very well have originated in the Holy Land (3). The loss of faith coincided with fatalism: “everyone believes it is the end of the world,” Di Tura points out (170). Yet this did not necessarily mean that the common people started to value the importance of science. The inability to provide effective cures meant that contemporary medicine was also regarded with suspicion. The “cures do not work...the more medicine people are given the quicker they die,” (Di Tura 170).









Works Cited

The Anonimalle Chronicle: The English Peasants’ Revolt (1381).
Boccaccio, Giovanni. The Decameron: The Plague Hits Florence. (ca. 1350).
Cohn, Samuel K. “The Black Death and the Burning of Jews.” Past & Present, Volume 196, Issue 1, August 2007, Pages 3–36,
Di Tura, Angelo. Sienese Chronicle (1348-1351).
Petrarca-Meister, The Social Order (ca. 1515).
Sloan AW. The Black Death in England. South African Medical Journal = Suid-afrikaanse Tydskrif vir Geneeskunde. 1981 Apr;59(18):646-650.