Plague

Time and again it is referred to as the "Black Death". However, the term first appeared in Sweden in 1555 (swarta döden). About fifty years later also in Denmark (sorte dod).¹ In England, this term was first used in 1665 to distinguish between the medieval plague and the "Great Plague".² The name is probably not due to the blue-black skin discolouration typical of the disease, but to a misleading translation of "pestis atra" or "atra mors".³ Although "ater" primarily means "black", it can also stand for "ominous" and "gruesome".

Plague is caused by the bacterium Pasteurella pestis – since its discovery by Yersin also Yersinia pestis. (The Swiss tropical physician Alexandre John Émile Yersin discovered the plague pathogen independently of Koch’s student Schibasaburo Kitasato in 1894). The disease is both enzootic and epizootic. This means that it occurs repeatedly in certain areas, herds or places and spreads among animal populations – primarily rodents and small mammals. Contrary to popular belief, the plague has not been eradicated. In certain regions of North and South America, Central, East and South Africa, as well as Madagascar and Central and Southeast Asia, it still infects animals and can also be transmitted to humans. How exactly this happens is not entirely clear. The primary vector is considered to be the rat flea (Xenopsylla cheopis), but also the human flea (Pulex irritans).⁴ The rat flea transmits the disease not only from rat to rat, but also to humans. Apparently, the human flea can also transmit the disease from person to person.⁵ In addition, there is droplet infection, but only in connection with a certain form of the plague. In the course of cases of plague in the USA, the CRM (Centre for Travel Medicine) in Düsseldorf also speaks of transmission through bites or scratches from animals, which can be ground squirrels, prairie dogs or cats that are not affected by the disease at all.⁶ In earlier times, the Norway rat (Rattus norvegicus) and the house and ship rat (Rattus rattus) were the preferred victims of the rat flea. As with the carriers, there is also a certain diversity in the disease itself. There are four types of plague.⁷

• Bubonic plague: After an incubation period of two to ten days, chills, fever, headache, dizziness, vomiting and diarrhoea occur. A painful inflammation and swelling of the lymph nodes begins near the site of infection, which is usually in the groin area. After about a week, the swellings disappear or ulcerate. This form of the plague is not fatal!
• Plague sepsis: It occurs in twenty-five to fifty per cent of those who contract bubonic plague, so the pathogens enter the blood. However, a primary type also exists, which leads to death within a few days with chills, vomiting, diarrhoea and circulatory failure, without the formation of plague sores.
• Pneumonic plague: On the one hand, this plague pneumonia can be a type of sepsis if the pathogens do not settle in the blood but in the lungs. On the other hand, it can also be transmitted from person to person through droplet infection. Primary pneumonic plague has an incubation period of only one to two days. This is followed by shortness of breath, blue discolouration of the skin and coughing, followed by pulmonary oedema and circulatory failure. Without treatment, it is absolutely fatal after two to five days! In secondary pneumonic plague, a slower course is possible. Due to the nature of the infection, this form of the plague is virtually predestined for rapid spread. Especially since it has now been established that it can also be transmitted from animal to human.⁸
• Abortive plague: This is a milder variant of bubonic plague with mild fever and only one bubo.

In 1346, the plague appeared in Asia Minor and came to Europe thanks to the busy shipping traffic. There, the disease had not been seen for over five hundred years. People had long since forgotten that it existed at all.⁹ By December 1347, it was already ravaging Sicily and soon afterwards the Italian mainland. Florence – one of the largest cities at the time – was particularly hard hit. The most impressive description of the conditions at that time is found in the first chapter of the Decamerone. Boccaccio, who was actually staying in Naples at the time of the plague, describes not only the course of the disease but also a series of taboo breaches that would have been quite unthinkable before the outbreak of the epidemic. Some people barricaded themselves in their houses. Some left all their belongings behind to flee to the countryside. All kinds of riffraff moved into the abandoned buildings. Others, on the other hand, engaged in unrestrained excesses. The farmers neglected their cattle, which roamed the area without a keeper. For fear of infection, neighbours, friends and relatives avoided each other, and even parents refused to care for their children. Women were now being examined and cared for by men for the first time – a circumstance that seemed extremely strange to Boccaccio. The deceased were no longer mourned in an appropriate setting, as was proper. Many died alone and their death was only realised days later. Orders that had been made before death, such as determining the church where the funeral mass was to be held, were no longer observed. Instead of the most honourable citizens of the city, the corpse-servants now carried the stretchers on which the bodies were piled up. Mass graves became something common.

"In this extremity of our city’s suffering and tribulation the venerable authority of laws, human and divine, was abased and all but totally dissolved, for lack of those who should have administered and enforced them, most of whom, like the rest of the citizens, were either dead or sick, or so hard bested for servants that they were unable to execute any office; whereby every man was free to do what was right in his own eyes."¹⁰

From Italy, the plague moved rapidly northwards. Marseille was probably the first French city to be struck by the disease.¹¹ In England, Melcombe Regis, Southampton and Bristol claim this dubious honour. Therefore, it can now only be said that the plague reached the country at the end of June, beginning of August 1348.¹² It is estimated that the English population at that time was between two and a half to four million. About half of them are said to have fallen victim to the plague by 1400. (Although for England the figures are the closest that can be estimated, they make no claim to absolute accuracy, which is evident from the difference alone regarding the assumption of population figures.)¹³ The first English plague wave lasted until 1351, but was followed by a series of further outbreaks. The immense number of casualties was also accompanied by a decline in standards. The chronicler John of Reading reported women going with the first man they met, incest and adultery.¹⁴ The English envoy Sir Thomas Smith wrote to Lord Burghley on the occasion of the plague in Lyon:

"Manchmal liegen zehn bis zwölf Leichen auf der Straße […] einige nackt, und sie bleiben dort liegen bis zur Nacht, oder bis die mit ihrer Wegräumung Betrauten, in Gelb gekleidet, kommen […] Eine große Anzahl werfen sie einfach in den Fluß, denn es ist kein Geld da, um sie zu begraben. […] die Menschen and der Rhône wagen nicht mehr, Fisch zu essen, und die Fischer legen keine Fangvorrichtungen oder Netze mehr aus, weil sie anstelle von Fisch pestverseuchte Kadaver herausziehen, […]"¹⁵

About a third of the European population was swept away by the plague in the 14th century. Initially, this had great social and economic significance. The overpopulation and unemployment that had previously prevailed had disappeared. This reinforced certain developments that were already noticeable before the outbreak of the plague. The sporadic replacement of manual labour by monetary pensions and remuneration gradually became the rule. Because of the lack of labour, serfs could leave their landlords more easily than before – although a certain amount of migration had already existed. Similarly, it was now even easier for craftsmen to break out of the rigid structures. The shortage of skilled workers led to an increase in the price of handicraft products, and at the same time the price of livestock fell because there was suddenly more food for fewer people. Wage levels rose everywhere, which had a particularly devastating effect on landowners, who were now receiving less and less money for agricultural produce and tenant farms. Certainly, feudalism as a whole could not have lasted too much longer anyway. The process was thus merely accelerated by the appearance of the plague.¹⁶ In the cities, many buildings stood empty. Tenants could not be found, especially for those in poorer locations, which is why rents fell. On the other hand, church organisations and guild-like associations experienced a financial boom. Many had died without leaving heirs. Their estates now largely fell to the church. From the legacies that had fallen to the Guild Union of St Mary and Corpus Christi, Corpus Christi College was founded in Cambridge.¹⁷ With all these changes, a rethinking of an extraordinary kind set in at the same time. The effect of the plague on the lower clergy was particularly severe. Those who fulfilled their pastoral duty had little chance of a long life. The number of victims among the clergy was correspondingly high.¹⁸ Between 40 and 50 percent of the English clergy fell victim to the plague.¹⁹ In order to fill the gaps that had arisen, after the plague had subsided, men who were completely unsuited for the job also entered the clergy. At the same time, it was now considerably easier for the survivors of the lower clergy to rise.²⁰ With the high mortality rate, the churchmen had, as it were, forfeited part of their special position among the ordinary citizens. Men of God were still seen as men, but after their consecration they seemed closer to God than the others. Since they had been hit by the epidemic just like all other sections of the population, this belief could no longer be maintained.²¹ Old and new members of the clergy alike wanted to share, sometimes quite vehemently, in the wealth of the church, which enjoyed unimagined prosperity not only thanks to the legacies, but also because of endowments and donations, which flowed into the hands of the clergy, on the one hand in thanks for salvation from the plague, and on the other to appease God.²² The church appeared increasingly secularised and the population remembered that in times of need they had been able to get along without it. During the plague, even lay people and women had been allowed to hear confessions in times of need. The principles of faith were written in the Bible and people could find their way to God in prayer without the clergy. In addition, there was general dissatisfaction with the papacy. Since Clement V had moved the papal seat to Avignon, the head of the Catholic Church had been under the direct influence of the French king, which was not exactly well received in England, which had been at war with France since 1339. The dues of the English citizens, which they passed on to the Pope through their clergy, were not only squandered in Avignon for lavish court maintenance, but were also often used to support the French. The call for reforms in the church system became louder and louder. John Wyclif was particularly committed in this regard. He was born in Spreswell in 1324. After studying at Oxford, he became a professor there. In 1374 he was given the parish of Lutterworth. In his sermons and writings he represented the image of a primitive church with an ideal of poverty, pastoral care and the doctrine of predestination. He rejected the worldly possessions of the church, celibacy, and the veneration of saints and relics. He only allowed the Bible as a source of faith. For this reason, he also began translating it into English, which began to noticeably prevail over French as the official language. To spread his teachings, he sent out itinerant preachers, the so-called Lollards (from the Dutch "lollaert", meaning "murmur of prayers"). It was not until 1381, after the suppression of the southern English peasant uprising of the Lollards led by Wat Tyler and John Ball, that the English Church took action against this movement. Wyclif died in his parish on 31 December 1384. Among his supporters were Richard II, John of Gaunt or Percy of Northumberland.²³ Nevertheless, after Wyclif’s death, repressive persecution of the Lollards began, but their teaching survived. It was not to be long before it became – at least partially – present again when work began on creating a separate church for England, especially as some elements of the coming Reformation could already be read in the church critics of the late 14th century.
The actual points of criticism had nothing to do with the behaviour of the church in times of the plague. They concerned conditions that would come up sooner or later anyway. The plague had only ensured that the discussion had got underway more quickly, because after it, there was

"[…] eine Periode eines neuen und aggressiven Antiklerikalismus, der seine Stärke aus der allgemeinen Unzufriedenheit und dem Zweifel der Leute an der geistlichen Autorität speiste. Es war ein Zeitalter der geistigen Unruhe, ein ständiges Infragestellen des Wertes der Kirche und ihres Verhalten in der Welt, eine Zeit der Geringschätzung überkommener Werte."²⁴

In England, and primarily in London, the plague remained a constant in daily life until the so-called "Great Plague" of 1665. A certain number of plague deaths per month was already something ordinary. In the Cold War era, people spoke of "living with the bomb". Centuries before, the Occident had to live in constant fear of the plague. But fear of the plague also meant fear of its victims, or those who might become victims, because no one knew how the plague was transmitted. Until the discovery of Yersinia pestis, people had no idea what caused the disease and how best to protect themselves against it. With its appearance came the wildest theories about its origin. The most obvious idea was that it was a punishment from God. Like natural disasters, epidemics were seen as punishment for the sins of the general public. These violations of God’s commandments included: Swearing, not attending church enough, going to the theatre or wearing outlandish women’s fashions. In the wake of the emerging interest in the natural sciences, some believed that weather changes or changes in the sky created a climate that made the plague possible. When the plague broke out in 1583, Saturn and Jupiter were conjunct each other. In 1425 and 1485, when the plague also broke out, there were similar constellations, which is why it was thought that astrologers could predict the next plague outbreak. It was only towards the end of the 16th century that critical voices were raised. Another theory was that bad smells were the cause, and one could escape from them by covering oneself in pleasant smells.²⁵ Finally, it was said that certain physical conditions determined someone to be a plague victim. Just as unusual as these speculations appear today the means with which one tried to deal with the disease. The assumption that certain animals could be the carriers led to veritable massacres of dogs and cats in some areas. Interestingly, the rats were never included in such considerations.²⁶

During Marlowe’s lifetime, London experienced three major plague epidemics.²⁷ This means that the weekly number of victims amounted to over thirty.²⁸

This not only meant the death of many people, but each time brought with it all the effects that had been known since 1346. An omnipresent death, which could not only be seen and smelled but also heard thanks to the death bells, brought general life to a standstill.

"Most important of all, plague continued to inflict extraordinary stresses on ordinary men and women and on their social relationships. […] Plague was a reminder of the transience of everything connected with life. […] the social elite […] generally escaped infection. But they could not avoid fear of it, or stop it disrupting their normally being and successful lives."²⁹

So no matter what significance one may attach to the appearance of the Black Death for the history of mankind, one thing was undeniable: wherever it appeared, it caused chaos.