The basis of this paper examines the impacts of the social, political, and religious movements through a multi-layer study of the Dancing Plague in Strasbourg from the early 1200s through the early 1500s. By analyzing this historic, but rather odd dancing hysteria, these movements created severe forms of depression, stress, and anxiety that ultimately led to high levels of psychosis within the community. The time period studied includes the Bundschuh uprisings and peasantry gains to Strasbourg citizenship, the religious justifications for diseases and the emergence of powerful saints, and the severe hunger strikes which resulted from years of failed crops and abnormal climate changes.
This analysis uses several major sermons from Lutheran theologians such as Matthäus Zell and Martin Bucer, eyewitness reports of those present in Strasbourg before, during, and after the Dancing Plague, and medical reports from Strasbourg physician, Johann Widmann. Likewise, this study challenges the pre-Reformation argument that the Dancing Plague was a form of punishment sent from God, but rather induced by biological and psychological means. The various Strasbourg movements challenged the inequalities and injustices of the Church towards the peasantry, which created severe and impossible living conditions for the peasantry. This in turn, resulted in approximately four hundred citizens dancing feverishly in the streets of Strasbourg in the summer of 1518.
Located on the southeastern border of the Holy Roman Empire, Strasbourg, flourished as a major agricultural market and transportation center. The region’s landscape provided equilibrium between the two most important natural resources: grain and wine. The plains abundantly provided the city wi...
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...areas designated specifically within the city and were barred from wearing luxurious accessories. Likewise, gamblers were forced to entertain themselves with card and dice players in gambling dens. The crops for the following year improved dramatically, which reinforced the belief that the city was divinely rewarded for purifying the city. However, the excitement was short-lived as Europe became introduced to syphilis.
The first acknowledged record of the reported disease was on February 22, 1495 during King Charles VIII invasion of Naples. Syphilis crept into Strasbourg through mercenary pike men, or Landsknechts, on return from the Italian wars and came in contact with Spanish troops who had sexual relations with prostitutes. In the spring of the same year the executive head of the city, or the Ammsister, reported of having a “bad pox” unseen before in the city.
Crosby, in his chapter regarding syphilis, addresses the controversy surrounding its origins. One theory that Crosby seems to point out is the notion that syphilis may have existed in pre-Columbian Europe. A piece of evidence that Crosby makes mention of is how “neither syphilis nor anything resembling it is mentioned at all in the documentation of the Columbian voyages written prior to the first epidemic of the pox in Europe.” (Crosby 137) This would seem to suggest that the disease had a somewhat presence in Europe, but Crosby refutes the claim, asserting that undocumented information is not a good enough reason to support this theory. One major theory that Crosby describes is the Unitarian theory, or the theory that syphilis evolved over time. The argumentation for this theory is heavily present in Crosby’s book, as he notes how the disease evolved and spread through the armies of Charles VII of France. Because syphilis is a highly transitive disease through sexual intercourse, the fact that many of Charles’s soldiers, following many battles, “engaged in the usual practice of rape and sack” around the mid-1490s, suggests this type of transformation of the disease. (Crosby
"Plague." Renaissance: An Encyclopedia for Students. Ed. Paul F. Grendler. Vol. 3. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2004. 172-174. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 25 Feb. 2014.
In 1348, religious authorities determined that the immodest behavior of certain groups led to outbreaks of ubiquitous plague. The tendency to regard indecency as the cause of plague is displayed in records of the day. Henry Knighton’s description of a guilty crowd attending the tournaments is a telling example. He laments that, “they spent and wasted their goods, and (according to the common report) abused their bodies in wantonness and scurrilous licentiousness. They neither feared God nor blushed at the criticism of the people, but took the marriage bond lightly and were deaf to the demands of modesty” (130). As one can gather from this passage, the 1348 religi...
...such as extreme spiritual austerities can hold their place in history because they mattered to the people who practiced them, not necessarily because they were an agent for driving change. Bynum rejects morally absolutist reconstructions of the past in favour of a more relativistic reading which delves into the imagination and subconscious of the medieval writers themselves. She meets them, as much as possible, in their own milieu rather than projecting modern constructions (such as ‘anorexia nervosa’) into the past where they serve little use in our understanding of the medieval mind. Despite her close work with the Annalist School, Bynum makes no attempt toward ‘l’Histoire Totale’ or some grand narrative of the past, and in this regard the work is most honest, thought-provoking, and definitive for 21st century scholars studying the medieval mind and its times.
Some things are not as they seem. “Ring Around the Rosie” seems like a pleasant children’s nursery rhyme, but many believe it is actually a grisly song about the Black Death in Europe. The Black Death was a serial outbreak of the plague during the 1300s. During the Black Death, more than 20 million Europeans died. One-third of the population of the British Isles died from the plague. Moreover, one-third of the population of France died in the first year alone, and 50% of the people in France’s major cities died. Catastrophic death rates like these were common across all of Europe. However, just like the poem “Ring Around the Rosie”, the true effects of the Black Death differed from what many people believed. Though tragic, the Black Death caused several positive societal changes. Specifically, the Black Death helped society by contributing to the economic empowerment of peasants and disempowerment of nobility that led to the decline of manorialism, as well as by encouraging the development of new medical and scientific techniques by proving old methods and beliefs false.
Author Hartmut Lehmann attributes much of the witchcraft crazes in Germany to the attempted restoration of religious harmony within the world. The dominant view of the time, held by both the Catholics and newly reformed Protestants of Germany, was that God brought an equilibrium and order to the world, diminishing the evils of the world and bringing a balanced order. This harmony brought by God also extended to peasant interpretations of life, as “farmers had been given the means to produce enough food, artisans the ability to produce all other necessary goods, and merchants the capability to provide everyone with what he or she needed.” The bliss of the mid 16th century and the apparent bounty God provided to all ended, following a series of cold winters, poor harvests, and the resulting famines beginning in the 1570s. The ‘mini ice-age’ greatly affected agricultural productivity, first in mountainous areas where agricultural productivity was already in lower, but eventually came to affect even the most productive of lands within Germany. Thus, a correlation can be created between the decrease in crop production which led to the decrease in economic condition of peasantry, and the rise of witch trials in 16th and 17th century Germany. Harsh winters forced common folk and intellectuals to develop new ways of
But, what about the enemy that they could not see; the enemy that would plummet Medieval Europe into an age of darkness and, ultimately, death? The Bubonic Plague was a pivotal moment for Europe, bringing forth a new era of social mobility, thought, and artistic expression, leading to the Renaissance. This is very evident, as one looks farther into the supply and demand of labour, the altering perspective of the church, and the new movement in artwork.
Throughout the seventeenth century, Europe was in a state of crisis. In many countries, violent revolts and riots were not out of the ordinary. In most of these cases of violence, human behaviors and actions of the controlling governments and royalty authorities were the underlying factors that set the stage for the chaotic state. However, in all of the instances of revolt and anarchy seen throughout Europe, religious behaviors and influences were the most prominent and contributing cause that sparked the most violence in the general crisis during the 1600’s.
The filth of the cities promoted the spread of disease faster than doctors could discover a cure. This encouraged large outbreaks of many deadly diseases. And it is said that throughout this period there were people who went about the cities and towns with wagons calling "Bring out your dead!" in a fashion similar to that of the Medieval era during the bubonic plague (Which, by the way, was not yet a dead disease).
The epoch of Medieval European history concerning the vast and complicated witch hunts spanning from 1450 to 1750 is demonstrative of the socioeconomic, religious, and cultural changes that were occurring within a population that was unprepared for the reconstruction of society. Though numerous conclusions concerning the witch trials, why they occurred, and who was prosecuted have been found within agreement, there remain interpretations that expand on the central beliefs. Through examining multiple arguments, a greater understanding of this period can be observed as there remains a staggering amount of catalysts and consequences that emerged. In the pursuit of a greater understanding, three different interpretations will be presented. These interpretations, which involve Brian Levack’s “The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe,” Eric Boss’s “Syphilis, Misogyny, and Witchcraft in 16th-Century Europe,” and Nachman Ben-Yehuda’s “The European Witch Craze of the 14th to 17th centuries:
The Plague changed the way European citizens saw the Church and Church power. When people were suffering and wanted to receive Anointing of the Sick, some priest refused to go near the infected. This led to a questioning of the Church and papal power decreased. People no longer went to grand cathedrals for mass, but rather created their own ...
It cannot be argued that the Black Plague was detrimental to every aspect of Europe’s communities. It was a powerful epidemic that wiped out a third of the continent’s population. Out of the midst of all its terror, however, positive after effects presented themselves. Some of these effects included revolutions in the church and society, eventually leading to the separation of church and state. Feudalism was also challenged as peasants demanded wages and revolted. Along with social changes came technological innovations, new inventions, and an attention to hygiene and the beginning of modern medicine. The plague may have devastated Europe, but it also gave way to a new era.
The Black Death plagues had disastrous consequences for Europe in the 14th century. After the initial outbreak in Europe, 1347, it continued for around five years and then mysteriously disappeared. However it broke out again in the 1360s and every few decades thereafter till around 1700. The European epidemic was an outbreak of the bubonic plague, which began in Asia and spread across trade routes. When it reached Europe, a path of destruction began to emerge. Medieval society was tossed into disarray, economies were fractured, the face of culture and religion changed forever. However the plagues devastation was not all chaotic, there were benefits too, such as modern labour movements, improvements in medicine and a new outlook on life. Therefore in order to analyse the impact the Black Death had on societies in the 14th century, this essay will consider the social, economic, cultural and religious factors in order to reach an overall conclusion.
The 14th century is ranked as one of the most distressing epochs in the history of Western culture. With the transformation of the Holy Roman Empire into a greatly destabilized elective monarchy, the transfer in political power from Germany to France and the escalation of England's power comes the end of the High Middle Ages in which Europe sank into a time of despair. Many events were responsible for this decline and loss of hope. Among them, three deserve special attention: the Great Schism, the Hundred Years War, and the Black Plague.
“Dance, the art of precise, expressive, and graceful human movement, traditionally, but not necessarily, performed in accord with musical accompaniment. Dancing developed as a natural expression of united feeling and action.”