The Black Death (1347-1352) was 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 (MedicineNet, 2018). There are three main forms of plague in humans: bubonic plague (the commonest form of plague in humans, characterized by fever, delirium, and the formation of buboes), septicemic plague (an especially dangerous form of plague in which the infecting organisms invade the bloodstream), and pneumonic plague (a severe lung infection caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis). There are a few factors in explaining plague in the Middle Ages: religion, medieval medicine, and modern science, and I will be discussing religion in the Middle Ages as well as …show more content…
The Flagellants were men who punished themselves by whipping each other to get rid of their sins. The Flagellants that came to England from Flanders went barefoot in procession in front of other ordinary people usually twice a day. All they wore was a linen cloth that reached from the loins to the ankles, including a hood painted with a red cross at the front and the back. They, too, carried their whips with them in their right hands. The flagellants would whip themselves and others as they chanted and sang (some in their own languages) and prayed. Three times during every procession they would lie face down on the ground, forming the shape of a cross. The rest of the men would walk over their backs and continuously whip them. They believed that all this would bring them closer to God. That is because; they believed that by suffering themselves, they would be brought closer to Jesus and his fate of his crucifixion. People were so devoted to religion at that time that they performed acts like this to show how faithful they were to the