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Essay On Bubonic Plague

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The Bubonic Plague, also known as the Black Plague or the Black Death, ravaged Medieval Europe between 1347 and the early 1350’s. The Plague is caused by bacteria called Yersinia pestis, which lives in rats. Fleas fed on rats then bit people, spreading the plague. The exact origin of the plague remains unknown, however, it is known that the Bubonic Plague traveled to Europe via Genoese trading ships. When the ship docked in Messina the citizens who prepared to greet the sailors were met with twelve ships full of dead or dying sailors. From there, it spread throughout Europe, eventually killing one third of the population. The symptoms of the Black Death included what is described here by Giovanni Boccaccio, “In men and women alike at the beginning of the the malady, certain swellings, either on the groin or under the armpits… waxed to the bigness of a common apple, others the size of an egg, some less, and these the vulgar named plague boils” The boils leaked blood and pus and were accompanied by fever, sweating, vomiting, diarrhea, pain, and eventually death. All of these symptoms made it excruciatingly easy for the plague to travel in addition to the abhorrent hygiene kept at the time. The speed at which the plague spread affected the the lives of both the lower and upper classes and the general public reacted dangerously. The Black Plague was the event which had the most significant impact on every class during medieval times. …show more content…

They believed that the plague was the result of God’s wrath. To appease Him, citizens reacted by beating and killing heretics, which resulted in the deaths of thousands of Jewish people. Others fled the cities and towns to live in the country. Doctors refused to see patients, priests refused to administer last rights, and relatives abandoned dying family members. When people spread, so did the disease. They brought the bubonic plague from city to city and to many

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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.

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It was the Spring of 1348, and the citizens of Europe were malnourished due to limited food supplies for such a large population. This made them more susceptible to the outbreak of the Black Death. The Black Death originated in Asia, then moved westward into Sicily. From Sicily, the plague crept its way up through Europe infecting millions of people, in total killing more than one third of Europe’s population. In fact, over fifty percent of the population of Siena died, along with fifty percent of Paris, eighty percent of Florence, and over two thirds of Venice.

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