Cures For The Black Death In Medieval Europe

These treatments did not work, and over time, doctors began refusing to see patients because they wanted to stay healthy as well. (Trueman, Cures for the Black Death). Since most of medieval Europe was Christian, people prayed to God for the end of the plague. When the pestilence stormed on, many commoners began to think that they had sinned to cause God to become angry with them. Others began to lose faith. As a result, people became more distant from the church. This led to the decline of the church’s power, and also gave rise to a group called the Flagellants. (Eyewitness to History, The Flagellants Attempt to Repel the Black Death, 1349). These group of individuals sought atonement for their sins by publicly whipping themselves.

During the Black Death, the Jewish mortality rate was significantly lower than others. They were accused of purposely spreading the plague and poisoning the waters from which the people drank. This accusation continued throughout the late Middle Ages, although the Jewish people were as innocent as the other Europeans. They probably were more clean and sanitary than others. The manor system, or feudalism, was very popular before the Black Death. Feudalism was a system of promises that governed the relationships between lords and vassals. A vassal was a knight who protected his lord in exchange for land. Since vassals had to farm their land in order to support himself, he allowed peasants to farm for him in exchange for food or other payment. Thus, a new system developed. Medieval lords or knights owned a manor, and the rest of the land were for the peasants and serfs, workers who were tied to the land they lived and farmed on. When the Black Death struck, the lords and knights who were still alive fled to the country. As a result, the remaining healthy peasants found that they did not have to work for their lord anymore. Also, there was a labor shortage, which meant that the peasants found their skills in high demand. When there is high demand and low supply, the prices rise. Suddenly, they can demand wages. As they grew richer, they left their manors and moved to growing cities in search of a more promising future. (Burstein and Shek, World History: Medieval to Modern Times). This helped in the development of the working class. The Black Death also had a major impact on medieval art and literature. Art in this time was morose and tragic. A widespread image was “the dance of death”, or the Dance Macabre, a depiction of skeletons dancing to randomly choose their next victim. (Wikipedia, Consequences of the Black Death). Another contribution the Black Death made was on