The Black Death

The Black Death, a plague that devastated Europe in the mid-fourteenth century, resulted in major impacts towards Christian religious beliefs and the church. The interpretation made of the Black Death by the church caused citizens to make accusations and movements that came out of those ideas.

Prior to the Black Death, the Church wielded near-total influence over Europe. When the plague struck, however, corruption grew so widespread that people were less likely to observe canon law. The pandemic was blamed on God by the people, who believed it was a retribution for their sins. The Church began to suffer quickly with thousands of followers before the plague. People turned away from the Church when disaster hit, blaming them for the epidemic. The people were enraged because the Church had no answer for the uproar. Because the people believed the Church to be omniscient, when the priests and bishops were unable to provide them with the answers they desired, the Church began to lose spiritual influence over its people (The Black Death, 2019). Religion had a prominent role in medieval society. Because of a lack of faith among the people of Europe, the plague caused many individuals to alter their lives in a new path. Many areas of religion were altered by the pandemic, including faith levels and attitudes towards other religious organisations. Many people’s lives in the 14th century were dominated by religion, because the church controlled the majority of authority in a normal society in Medieval Europe, their daily lives focused around a lot of religious activities (mvorganizing, 2021). However when the plague hit, it “…shook people’s confidence in conventional beliefs and authority” (Obstfeld 33). The plague had a tremendous influence on religion, since many people felt it was God’s retribution for their sins. As a consequence of the plague, “The monasteries and the clergy suffered the greatest loss” (Ziegler 215).

One medieval Christian perspective on the Black Death was based on the Book of Revelation and its notion of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: pestilence, war, starvation, and death. Christians took use of the religious context to rationalise and endure the dreadful disease that was ravaging Europe. Others thought the Plague was a sign that Christ’s return to govern the world was near. Others blamed egotistical women and deceptive Jews for spreading the Plague over Europe (Wikipedia Contributors, 2018). While others were content with this biblical fact, other groups of Christians were of the view that the plague largely signalled the coming of Jesus Christ to reign the earth and other groups blamed women expressing a lot of pride together with Jews who were fraudsters to be responsible for the plague in Europe (Adalyn Trevino, 2019). The plague, in line with religious beliefs, was a retribution that God was enacting and directing at people as a result of pride. Humans had grown wicked in general, according to Konrad von Megenburg, who authored the Regensburg, and the epidemic was the climax of God’s wrath against humanity’s immoral actions (Adalyn Trevino, 2019). In Henry Knighton’s, Chronicle (c. 1398) it states: “The King of Tharsis, seeing so sudden and unheard of death among his subjects,… proposed to be baptised a Christian, believing that God’s vengeance had fallen upon his people by reason of their evil lack of faith…” aiding the belief that humanity had wronged and needed to be punished.  

The Flagellants were one of the most severe religious movements to develop during the Black Death years. Hundreds of men, women, and children participated in the Flagellants’ horrific acts. They would walk up and down streets in towns and cities, whipping themselves with whips as punishment. The majority of the participants were ignorant common folk, with the exception of a few nobility or priests. They were known as “Brethren of the Cross,” rather than “Flagellants.” They were firm believers that the pandemic was a divine punishment for sin. They imitated Jesus, claiming that they were inflicting pain on themselves in order to atone for the sins of the world. Because they didn’t bathe very regularly, the virus spread quickly among them, killing many people. The Flagellants were despised by Pope Clement and the church, who condemned them in 1349 (The Flagellants – The Black Death, 2019). Following the Black Death, the Jews became targets of the movement’s wrath, with the movement accusing Jews of poisoning wells. Many members of the movement who were involved in enacting the punishment scenario, which was said to be carried out in order to save the world from another catastrophic plague, would gather in market areas and engage in the burning of Jews (Mark, J. 2020). Furthermore, the movement became the totem, or symbol, of European views and reactions to the epidemic, which they claimed was caused by the Jews’ evil conduct, and as a result, the movement played a larger role in persecuting Jews.

The Black Death epidemic has remained a major phase in human history for a long time. Its importance may be traced back to the plague’s destructive impact on humanity’s population. This was a time when the foundations of Christianity were rocked and torn, leading to the Protestant Reformation in following years. At the same time, the flagellant movements were translating their beliefs and becoming increasingly active in social concerns, while also encouraging Jewish persecution. The function and status of the church in society experienced considerable change as a result of this pandemic. Individuals began to distrust the church’s abilities after prayers failed to work and miracles to save people became scarce.