Black Death in 14th-Century Europe: A Historical Turning Point

Introduction: The Black Death as a Historical Pivot Point

The Black Death of the mid-14th century in Europe was a major pivot point in history. Three ways it functioned as a turning point can be seen through its impact on social hierarchy, the Roman Catholic Church, and medicine. All three of these domains were shaped in distinct ways before the Black Death arrived, all three failed during the epidemic, and all three were fundamentally transformed after it passed. The Black Death's impact on them makes it a major pivot point in history. In addition, the Black Death became the cause of significant effects: it changed social hierarchy, the Church, and medicine due to the devastating reach of the disease.

Viewed through the lens of 20/20 historical hindsight, the Black Death would also have been treated very differently. At the time, medicine knew nothing about bacteria and leaned heavily toward spiritual and magical explanations and treatments of disease. Knowing what we know today, the Black Death would have been diagnosed through laboratory tests and treated with appropriate modern drugs to kill the responsible bacillus. It would not have become the devastating epidemic that wiped out a significant portion of Europe's population.

Before the Black Death: Society, Church, and Medicine

Though there were pools of disease in Eurasia and Africa, those diseases took a long time to spread. Europe suffered from some illnesses, but it was remarkably free of the most devastating diseases up to the middle of the 14th century (Gottfried, 1985, pp. 4–5). This allowed Europe's population to grow steadily until it reached approximately 75 million by the time the Black Death arrived (Themiddleages.net, 2011). The social hierarchy placed God at the top, followed by Church authorities, royalty, landed lords, and finally serfs and peasants at the bottom (Gottfried, 1985, p. 17). The large population crowded closely together meant that common people rarely owned their own land and that property could not be passed down to their sons. Most people lived as unfree peasants who farmed fields owned by lords and surrendered high portions of their yield as payment (Gottfried, 1985, p. 18). People also treated death as a communal affair: when someone died, the neighboring women would pray over the body in the house while the clergy and men waited outside; those outside would then carry the body to the church or cemetery, where a religious burial was given (Aberth, 2005, pp. 77–78). Before the Black Death, social hierarchy was established, obeyed, and reliable.

The Roman Catholic Church was also extremely powerful in the period just before the plague. Life was considered fleeting, and God's kingdom, salvation, and eternal life were regarded as far more important than earthly concerns (Gottfried, 1985, p. 162). The Church's power of excommunication and its role as the perceived path to God gave it enormous authority, even over the leaders of nations (Aberth, 2005). The Church also extended a degree of protection to Jewish people from Christian hostility, believing that the Jewish people were chosen by God and would convert to Christianity before the Second Coming of Christ (Aberth, 2005, p. 141). Before the Black Death, Europeans relied on the Church to keep them safe, aligned with God's will, and on the path to heaven.

Medicine in the years before the Black Death was very different from today's practice. Physicians relied heavily on the supernatural and on miracles attributed to saintly martyrs (White, 1898). Critically, medicine had no knowledge of germs or bacteria, and therefore knew nothing of antibiotics (Aberth, 2005, p. 38). Physicians employed many unusual treatments for disease, including avoiding baths, burning aromatic herbs, drinking wine (Aberth, 2005, p. 38), bloodletting, special diets, new sleeping positions, and consuming pearls or precious metals (Themiddleages.net, 2011). Before the Black Death reached Europe, social hierarchy, the Church, and medicine all occupied established positions that would be dramatically altered by the coming epidemic.

During the Black Death: Collapse and Failure

In the early 1300s, Europe heard rumors of a deadly plague killing millions in China and Eurasia, though the disease had not yet touched Europe. The continent might have seemed safe, but many trade routes ran directly from China and Eurasia to the major ports of Europe. When eleven merchant ships entered the harbor of Messina in Sicily in October 1347, the people of Messina discovered that the crews were dead or dying of a terrible disease. The authorities ordered the ships out of the harbor, but it was too late: the disease-carrying rats and fleas aboard had already brought the Black Death ashore. From Messina, and by other merchant vessels, the disease spread to Genoa (Themiddleages.net, 2011), Marseilles (Gottfried, 1985, p. 49), London (Ibis Communications, Inc., n.d.), Tunis, Florence, Rome (A&E Television Networks, LLC, n.d.), and other major trading ports throughout Europe. The Black Death began killing Europeans by the millions.

The disease was caused by the bacillus Yersinia pestis, transmitted to humans by rats and fleas (Gottfried, 1985, p. xv). People then spread it to one another through bodily fluids, breath, and clothing (Themiddleages.net, 2011). Those infected developed large, painful swellings called "buboes" in the lymph nodes of the neck, armpits, or groin (Aberth, 2005, p. 24; Themiddleages.net, 2011). These swellings filled with blood and pus until they oozed. Victims also experienced fever, vomiting, chills, diarrhea, and severe aches before dying — sometimes within hours of infection, sometimes within a few days (Gottfried, 1985, p. 8; Themiddleages.net, 2011). A person could go to bed feeling well and be dead by morning (Themiddleages.net, 2011). By the time the worst wave of the Black Death subsided in the early 1350s, more than 20 million people — nearly one-third of Europe's population — had died.

While Europe suffered, its social hierarchy, the Church, and medicine were all perceived to have failed the people. The social hierarchy disintegrated as panic spread and the usual social bonds broke down. Some people abandoned their own parents, children, and friends to die alone (Themiddleages.net, 2011). Others became recluses, cutting off all contact with the outside world (Themiddleages.net, 2011). Still others adopted a fatalistic attitude, eating, drinking, and doing as they pleased since nothing seemed capable of stopping the plague (Themiddleages.net, 2011). So many authority figures and community members died that villages and towns lost their basic services, could not collect all the dead, and saw their governments and social systems collapse (A&E Television Networks, LLC, n.d.). The social hierarchy that had been built over centuries was devastated by the Black Death, making the epidemic a major cause of substantial change in social organization.

The Church, too, was hit hard. Many people believed the Black Death was God's punishment for human sin and turned to the Church for help — but the Church could not save them. When prayer and the intercession of martyrs failed, people began looking elsewhere (White, 1898). Groups of men known as the Flagellant Brethren traveled from village to village dressed in hoods and white robes marked with red crosses, whipping themselves with leather straps tipped with metal spikes (Themiddleages.net, 2011). They believed that demonstrating mankind's repentance would appease God and end the plague. Over time, many people came to see these men as martyrs and began listening to them rather than to Church officials (Themiddleages.net, 2011). Resentment grew further when priests were seen to attend only to wealthy and important plague victims while ignoring common people (Themiddleages.net, 2011). Some people blamed the Jews for bringing the plague upon them and carried out murders of Jewish communities in revenge, hoping to please God and end the epidemic (A&E Television Networks, LLC, n.d.). With millions dying, widespread panic, and the Church unable to stop the suffering, the Church lost a great deal of its power. In this way, the Black Death became a pivot point in religious life and a cause of the Church's diminished authority.

Medicine also failed catastrophically during the Black Death. Physicians applied only their traditional treatments — bloodletting, avoiding baths, and similar remedies — while patients continued to die in enormous numbers. People could see that doctors were helpless, and many individuals with no medical training began presenting themselves as physicians (Ibis Communications, Inc., n.d.). Medicine had no understanding of the true cause of the Black Death and possessed no effective treatments. This failure forced medicine to eventually abandon old ways of thinking and search for new approaches, making the Black Death a major turning point in the history of medical practice.

Conclusion

Before the Black Death struck between 1338 and the mid-1350s, social hierarchy, the Roman Catholic Church, and medicine all occupied traditional positions and structures that had developed over centuries. The Black Death was a major pivot point for all three. It was the cause of sweeping changes in social hierarchy, in the power and character of the Roman Catholic Church, and in the practice of medicine. Finally, the Black Death would have been treated very differently through the lens of 20/20 hindsight — and that difference would have prevented the devastation that made it one of history's most consequential catastrophes.

Before the Black Death, social hierarchy kept peasants unfree and bound to land they did not own, working for lords who did. The millions of deaths caused by the epidemic collapsed local governments and destroyed the social bonds that had held communities together, while simultaneously freeing up vast amounts of land. After the plague, survivors thought in new ways, staged uprisings, and found the courage and freedom to try new approaches to living. When the old ways collapsed, those who survived rebuilt society on different foundations.

Before the Black Death, the Roman Catholic Church wielded enormous power over both ordinary people and the rulers of nations. During the epidemic, the Church could not help people and was perceived as favoring the wealthy. After the plague, people began thinking differently about religion, Martin Luther emerged to challenge Church authority, and Lutheranism took root. Many survivors no longer believed that the Roman Catholic Church represented God or could keep them safe. As a result, the Church's power was reduced, Christianity was practiced in new ways, and — in an unexpected consequence — the altered worldview inspired Europe's clockmakers and explorers.

Before the Black Death, medicine relied on unusual treatments such as bloodletting, avoiding baths, and burning aromatic herbs. During the epidemic, medicine was powerless to save people, and even individuals with no medical training began practicing as physicians. After the plague, medicine abandoned its old remedies and began searching for treatments that actually worked. This was the beginning of empirical, experimental science. People who survived the Black Death understood that they had to find better ways of treating disease and kept searching until they succeeded — and that is precisely how modern medicine and science approach disease today.

Because of the ways the Black Death changed social hierarchy, the Roman Catholic Church, and medicine, many historians regard it as one of the most significant pivot points in all of European history — a cause of profound and lasting effects in each of those three domains, and an event that, with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, we know could have been diagnosed and treated far more effectively than it was.