The responses to the Black Death were vastly different from Christian and Muslim points of view. Although there were some similarities, most things varied based on how the religion itself thought of this disease. Death rates were still high and the disease was a very dangerous one. It killed up one-third to one-half of the world 's population at that point in time.
The Black Death was not just one disease, it was three diseases that were all around at the same time. They were the bubonic, pneumonic and septicemic plagues.They each attacked different parts of the body and were all deadly. The bubonic is the most common one so the other two are often forgotten. Despite the religious views, the plague did not differentiate between race, culture, wealth, gender or religion. It killed almost everyone it came in contact with. The mortality rates were similar for both Christian and Muslim people. The spread of the disease made people start to become paranoid and ready to find a scapegoat to blame this horrible tragedy on.
…show more content…
They believed that praying for the disease to be stopped would be the best thing to do in the time of need. In addition to praying, there were other ways the Christian people tried to cure the victims of the Black Death. They thought that by building fires, covering windows with wax cloth, having flowers around the home, drinking a solution of liquified Armenian clay, and avoiding sleeping on their backs they could prevent the plague. The Christian people quickly blamed the Jews for the creation and spread of the disease. They would capture them and toss them into a pit full of timber and they would light it on fire, burning the Jewish people. It was thought of as the right and just thing to do at that time. Although fact now proves that the Jewish people did not cause this
Most of the known world was devoured by the most notorious epidemic in history. In the 1351 , the infamous Black Death began to chew up and spit out Europe along with Asia and Africa as if being a victim of the Black Death once wasn’t horrific enough, The Great Pestilence hit Europe for the second time in the 18th century, along side that, in the 20th century Asia and Africa were revisited by The Great Plague. According to the background essay, “In five short years, the plague killed between 25 and 45% of the population it encountered.” During the time of the gruesome Black Death, two religions were widely practiced in this region of the world, Christianity and Islam. These were two religions with some different views and reasoning for this merciless period of terror and death.
Therefore, the medicine and treatments that people received for the Black Death were more based upon prayer and miracles, for example, a fifteenth century Italian medical book suggests that plague victims should make a good death through their last rites rather than treating their body . This would have meant that victims would have accepted their fate and exposed themselves to other people, such as the priest that would come to administer their last rites, meaning that the more contagious part of the disease, the pneumonic plague, would have been passed on to more and more people. However, whilst some of the medicines had no use, others did help to prevent the spread of the disease and, while no one had any idea why, some people did survive being infected due to some of the treatments. Lancing the Black Death’s famous buboes was one such treatment .
The Black Death had a big impact on European religion. Because people could not understand the plague, they strongly believed that the plague was a punishment sent by God. The church claimed that God was punishing people because of the sins they have committed. They organized religious marches and told people to pray to get rid of the horrible disease. However, around 1348, Christians started accusing the Jews of bringing and spreading the plague to Europe.
The Black Death ravaged over 20 million people in China, India, Persia, Syria and Egypt during the early 1340’s. Most of these people were in Europe; this was over ⅓ of the population at the time (“BLACK PLAGUE”). This was the First Pandemic of the Bubonic Plague, killing far more than any Pandemic to follow it. Given the knowledge of medicine and science during this era, the Black Plague spread like wildfire, and caused many hideous symptoms which led to several ineffective treatments. Luckily, scientists and doctors worked together to create a cure, and while the Bubonic Plague does still infect people to this day, the wave that killed countless Europeans died out by 1400 (“IN THE WAKE OF THE PLAGUE:
God was questioned, however all the same individuals resorted to prayers to avoid the tortures of hell. Thinking the epidemic was as a result of sinning, public acts of penance would be performed on the streets (Doc M). Whole citiestook half in these acts, they were commencing to feel hopeless. except for praying and soliciting for steering, Christians tried to stop the Black Death by building fires, facing north to avoid southern winds, drinking liquefied Armenian clay, respiratory public convenience vapors, then on (Doc F). whereas Muslims shared similar acts to stop illness, they additionally passed severe laws, stayed inside, and avoided unhappy speak in the least times.everyone everyplace became paranoid in explore for
The Christians thought the Lord was punishing them with the disease, and that when the Lord was enraged to embrace in acts of penance, so that you do not stray from the right path and parish. The Christians pray to their Lord and ask what they should do? A great number of saintly sisters of the Hotel Dieu, who did not fear to die, nursed the sick in all sweetness and humility, with no thought of honor, a number too often renewed by death, rest in peace with Christ, as we may piously believe. People began to think the Jews were guilty for the disease. The Muslims looked at praying for the disease to go away in disgust, because they believe the plague is a blessing from God.
The Black Death The Black Death: The Medieval black plague that ravaged Europe and killed a third of its population. It was due to the plague which is caused by a bacterium (Yersinia pestis) transmitted to humans from infected rats by the oriental rat flea. “By all accounts, the Black Death spread from France in the summer of 1348 to the port of Weymouth on the southern coast of England, from whence it travelled very rapidly to other ports in both directions along the coast. It progressed up through the Bristol Channel to Bristol before advancing along the Severn to Gloucester.
The Black Death hits when the church was at one of its most weak and corrupted points in its history. With the spread of disease, many priests were dying, and countless living priests avoided victims seeking last rights out of fear. Faced with the church’s excess, depravity, and lack of empathy, followers began to lose faith. The plague put one of the final nails in the coffin and allowed for the seeds of the protestant reformation to be planted (Link 16). That reformation, famously led by Martin Luther, would end indulgences that took advantage of the poor, advocated for the education of lower classes through the distribution of texts, and strip the church of much of its corruptive power (Link 17).
The survivors could not wrap their heads around the amount of innocent lives that were taken, and the devastation left behind by the plague. The pandemic changed people’s lives forever, and for many changed what they believed in. No matter what religion a person followed, he/she was searching for answers. Christians and Muslims had very different views on why God would inflict such devastation on his people, but they both agreed on the idea the God’s hand played the ultimate role in the disaster. Christians responded to the devastation by claiming God inflicted the plague to rid the world of sin, whereas Muslims believed God
The Black Death The two faiths, Christianity and Islamic, approach the black death in similar ways religiously, medically, and in dealing with the Jews. Religiously the faiths saw the plague as a curse. The Muslims thought of the black plague as a blessing from god. (Document 4, 6, 8) the Muslims and the Christians have their own opinions of what they think the Black Death is.
The Black Death was a plague that was in Asia that also spread to Europe in the Middle Ages. Its took a toll on the society, trading and political development. Since the plague was considered to be bubonic and pneumonic almost anyone could catch it. At the time, there was not much knowledge on how to treat people with the plague. There also wasn’t much knowledge on hyenine, so the plague spread faster.
The Black Death was a disease that had a catastrophic impact on Europe. Reaching Europe in 1347, the plague killed an estimation of one-third of the population in the first wave. Each document varies with its reasons for the cause of the plague and how to deal with it. The first document Ordinances against the Spread of Plague seemed to blame Pisa and Lucca for the plague and thus, began to forbid contact with those places. It was forbidden for citizens of Pistoia to go to, or have contact with anyone or anything from Pisa or Lucca.
During the mid-fourteenth century, a plague hit Europe. Initially spreading through rats and subsequently fleas, it killed at least one-third of the population of Europe and continued intermittently until the 18th century. There was no known cure at the time, and the bacteria spread very quickly and would kill an infected person within two days, which led to structural public policies, religious, and medical changes in Europe. The plague had an enormous social effect, killing much of the population and encouraging new health reforms, it also had religious effects by attracting the attention of the Catholic Church, and lastly, it affected the trade around Europe, limiting the transportation of goods. As a response to the plague that took place
The epidemic affected Europe culturally, as the citizens developed an excessive reliance on religion as an answer for their tragedy. Additionally, the Black Death shifted the people’s social perspectives; they lost compassion for the sick and indulged in selfish desires. Finally, the pestilence altered the Europeans’ mental state, as their appreciation of life itself diminished, since the rapid spread of the plague caused torrential death rates across Europe. In response to the Black Death, the people of Europe became passionately pious, for they viewed their misfortune as a punishment from God and, thus, believed the only way to bring about continental happiness was through religion.
Throughout the Black Plague, the religious standpoint of the population changed, for some, it was a change that came drastically. Throughout the chaos of the plague, many started to question their religious beliefs. Many believed it was a punishment sent down by God directed towards the unfaithful and their wrongdoings. An eruption of religious violence and a period of persecution towards the Jews occurred because they were not Christian.