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In this paper, I will argue that the Bubonic Plague, which began to ravish the
European populations in 1347, would have a lasting impact upon the Medieval World
particularly in manners of religion, science and medicine, art, and the increased use of
common and local vernaculars. These effects would alter the lives of many individuals and
states of the Middle Ages, but also would be the roots of various political and social
movements throughout Europe.
One major area of intellectual life and culture that the Black Death brought upon
Eastern and Western European life was on religion. For the sake of brevity and clarity, I will
focus primarily on the impacts the plague had on the Church and the Jewish people of
Europe. Throughout the many years of the Bubonic Plague, the Church held decisive
position. Much of the scientific knowledge for healing during the medieval era came from
Church theology and spirituality. This meant that those who served the church, priests and
other clergymen were in high demand for healing. Laws were passed in which members of
the church would receive percentages of noble lands and estates, which would act as a
financial shield from the plague (Zapotocsny, 1-2). This mentality is not surprising, though.
With a plague as deadly and hard to comprehend as the Black Death, it is absolutely
reasonable that those with wealth should turn to the church, the only institution which
claimed any understanding of such a deadly manifestation, Gods punishment of man
(Zapotocsny, 3-5). This practice of church member healing of the sick would have two
effects upon the church. Firstly, its members enjoyed supreme wealth all of a sudden. The
Florentine Chronicler stated, Priests and friars went to see the rich in great multitudes and
were paid such high prices that they all got rich (Pennington, Lecture). Secondly, much of
the clergy would be wiped out due to members close proximity with the plague, which,
unknowingly to the medieval mind, was spread through the air. Monasteries were particularly
struck hard by the plague due to the close proximity in which monks lived, as well as their

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responsibility to care for the sick and dying. The severe loss in clergy would create a much
younger generation of Church leadership. Cantor states, Monastic vows could be
administered to adolescents at age fifteen rather than twenty (Cantor, 206). This influx of
less-experienced clergymen would have its consequences, however as there were many cases
of abuse in the years following the plague (Zapotocsny, 4-5).
The Church would lose great credibility in the wake of the Bubonic Plague. With no
clear reasoning for why God would ordain such devastation upon the world, and a slowly
deteriorating clergy population, some medieval populations would turn to other means of
spiritual endeavor. One such group, would be the Order of Flagellants, the self-flogging
collection of people who believed man needed to atone for sins through personal punishment
and physical suffering. Taking this alienation from the Church a step further, there is a sound
argument in proposing that the roots of the great protestant reformation of Martin Luther and
John Calvin could be founded in the Black Death. Although many attribute the beginning of
the Reformation as occurring in the early 16th century, John Wycliffe represented an earlier
critic of Church policies during and after the great plague. According to Slavicek, Wycliffe
not only criticized what he considered as the declining educational and moral standards of the
Catholic priesthood in the wake of the Black Death, he also attacked church leadership for
increasingly turning to the sale of indulgences (pardons for sinful behavior) and masses for
the dead to raise funds during the decades after the Great Mortality (Slavicek, 97) While
John Wycliffe may have lived 200 years before the Reformation period, it is certainly
plausible to assert that the dissent and dissatisfaction with Church practices was commencing,
with origins in the Black Death. The culmination of this dissent would provide Luther,
Calvin, and other reformers reason and guidance towards reforming the Church.
While the Church would be severely impacted by the effects of the Black Death upon
Europe, another religious group would find greater reason for concern. During the centuries

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of confusion and devastation that the Black Death enacted, a scapegoat was needed to help
explain such desolation. Jews in medieval Europe were already subjected to heavy
suppression, confined to the limits of their ghettos. This would prove a saving grace to the
population, however, as rabbinical law, which necessitated a high standard of hygiene and
sanitation, would provide immunity to many Jewish communities from the polluted urban
settings of Europe where the plague festered in fleas upon the rats in squalor (Zapotocsny, 3).
Such immunity would be the cause of great suspicion for non-Jews, however. It was argued
that Jews had poisoned wells in many European citizens, causing great outrage among
citizens. Some, tried to defend the Jewish cause like the physician Konrad of Megenberg,
But I know that there were more Jews in Vienna than in any other German city familiar to
me, and so many of them died of the plague that they were obliged to enlarge their cemetery.
To have brought this on themselves would have been folly on their part. (Skolnik, 733)
These efforts proved relatively futile in the eyes of suspicious gentiles, Richard Levy explains
this phenomenon; Panic emerged again during the scourge of the Black Death in 1348, when
widespread terror prompted a revival of the well poisoning charge (Levy, 763). Attacks on
Jewish communities were numerous and severe, beginning in Toulon, France but quickly
spreading to northern Spain and present day Germany and Switzerland (Foa, 13). Ultimately,
large pogroms (massacres upon ethnic or religious groups) would wipe out many Jewish
communities. By 1351, 60 major and 150 smaller Jewish communities had been
exterminated, and more than 350 separate massacres had occurred (Garrison, 207). Emperor
Charles IV even pardoned his citizens for the massacres they had inflicted upon the Jews in
1350, Forgiveness is (granted) for every transgression involving the slaying and destruction
of Jews which has been committed without the positive knowledge of the leading citizens, or
in their ignorance, or in any other fashion whatsoever (Ben-Sasson, 255). This absolute
exoneration of wrongdoing coupled with the fierce intolerance against Jewish communities

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throughout Europe would lead to a great eastern migration for many Jews and their families.
They sought refuge under the protection of King Casimir of Poland, and Russia as well. Thus
would be the home to most of the Jewish populations in Europe until the 20th century and the
Holocaust (Garrison, 207). The impact of the Black Death upon the Jewish population of
Europe is one of extraordinary horror. Non-Jews had once again found a reason to be weary
and suspicious of the Jewish people. Even if the Jewish communities were spared from the
deadly plague and its effects, the many massacres and pogroms would lead to the
extermination of some communities along with a great migration eastward. The terrifying fate
of these relocations is well known today, and ultimately this fate can be traced back to the
Bubonic plague.
The impact of the Black Death was great upon religious groups during the 14th century
onwards, but other aspects of the medieval world and life would equally be affected.
Albert Einstein once proclaimed that science without religion is lame, religion without
science is blind. This would certainly apply to the Black Death, demonstrated by the 1348
Report of the Paris Medical Faculty, a collection of some of the top medical minds in Europe
at the time found the possible causes of the plague to be: the configuration of the heavens,
the escape of the rottenness trapped in the center of the earth as a result of earthquakes, and
the fact that any pestilence proceeds from the divine will, and our advice can therefore only
be to return humbly to God (Sanders, 391-2). In times of great plague and death, often,
advancements in science are surely to follow. The Black Death is perhaps one exception to
this occurrence. Norman Cantor contends, there were no such advancements (to science and
social order) (Cantor, 213). Although there may not have been any major revolutions or
advancements to science during the plague era there were some improvements to urban
planning and quarantines. Venetian authorities drafted legislation to limit ship traffic through
the citys port, as well as implementing isolation techniques to prevent the incoming effects

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of disease (Aberth, 70). While only a few of such measures may have been put into place,
they certainly represent a rational reasoning towards quarantine methods to stopping the
spread of lethal diseases. Milan was perhaps one of the most successful examples of
avoidance of the Black Death, utilizing restrictions on imports, travel, and funerals, even
boarding up houses where the plague had been discovered (Aberth, 85).
One particular area of science that intellectuals turned to during the plague era was
alchemy. Alchemy was seen as being potentially effective against the plague, especially since
present day medicine was rather ineffective. Potable gold was seen as a potential universal
medicine, a single substance that could cure any illness, including plague (DeVun, 77).
Gentile da Foligno and Thomas of Bologna both were known to have procured recipes for
potions that involved gold, sometimes through the use of alchemy (DeVun, 78). Others
believed wine-based remedies like the Milanese physician, Maino de Maineri (DeVun, 78).
Goldwasser, a German liquor, was even said to utilize golden specks in a very clever
advertising scheme. The specks were thought to be therapeutic against the plague, and the
liquor can still be found today, demonstrating the effectiveness of such a clever marketing
scheme (Hoyt, 60). The Black Death did not bring about many major developments to the
scientific world, but it did force medieval citizens to attempt to find knew remedies and
answers to how diseases may spread, and how to engage progressive measures to stop such
spread.
The Bubonic Plague would create a transformation in European art. With death and
desolation a part of everyday life, many artists turned to depict this desolation through a
variety of mediums. Painters and sculptors attempted to capture death and the dying. Realistic
depictions of the human skeleton became more and more present in works of art. Arnold
Bcklins 1898 painting, Plague, depicting the grim reaper riding a ghastly bird-like
creature demonstrates the lasting impact that the Plague would have well into the 19th

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Century. Human suffering became a central theme depicted in a realist method. Pieter
Bruegels 16th century The Triumph of Death casts a cruel and vast picture to the
devastation of the Black Death. Skeletons of both humans and animals became more present
in pieces of art, as artists began to inquire into the boundaries and surfaces of death and
disease through depiction. John Aberth also alludes to the fact the plague also brought about a
great increase in the amount of individual portraitures in the Middle Ages (Aberth, 212).
Additionally to the changes to the art itself, the Bubonic Plague brought about more wealth
for artists to be hired due to heavy losses to population (Aberth, 212-5).
While art would be greatly affected by the Bubonic Plague, another major cultural
shift that took place following the great plague would be the increasing use of vernacular
languages such as English or German throughout Europe. Due to widespread deaths to
professors across all levels of education, a shortage in individuals capable of teaching Latin
came to light. While Gutenbergs printing press of 1450 would exponentially increase the use
of national vernaculars, the rise of nationalism in Europe, it would be this initial shortage of
Latin teachers that would fuel such a transition in linguistics. Gottfried notes that by 1400,
medical texts were beginning to be written in and translated into vernacular languages due to
the fact that most physicians held only the most basic grasp over the Latin language
(Gottfried, 119). The great mortality among clergymen brought about by the Black Death
would also create a lasting cultural impact upon the use of common vernaculars. The use of
these local dialects would allow for more individuals to reach higher levels of education, as
learning the language one could speak proved easier than studying the Latin language for
most. Consequently, through this revolutionary change, we can see the early development of
nationalism throughout Europe, as language would serve both as a border and sense of pride.
The Black Death had several and severe effects on Medieval life, culture and the
mentality of the people of the Middle Ages. While the plague certainly had a great impact

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upon the so many facets of Medieval life like the European economy, particularly the
weakening of the feudal system the cause of many peasant revolts, I chose in this paper to
focus primarily on the effect of the plague upon the Church, the Jewish people, science and
medicine, art, and the promotion of vernaculars in Europe. Two of Europes strongest and
most practiced religions institutions would suffer, in different respects. The Church would
suffer devastating losses to its clergy and would be unable, despite many claims, to come up
with any answers against the devastation of the plague. The Church would lose much esteem
in the public eye following the plague, and such a loss would lead the way for the reformation
period of Martin Luther and John Calvin. The Jewish people of Europe, while largely free
from the devastation of the plague, would face a different enemy during the plague era.
Pogroms and mass exterminations would lead the Jewish people to migrate east where their
doomed fate is well documented during the mid-twentieth century. Great advancements in
science and medicine would not necessarily be made during the Bubonic Plagues
devastation, but the plague would force states, cities, and individuals to question the manners
by which to quarantine certain diseases, and to inquire into new methods of medicine and
healing. European artists of the mid to late Middle Ages would benefit from the Black Death
both financially and conceptually. There was more money available to patronize artists and
the desolation of the plague gave artists new perceptions to craft and form through art.
Finally, the increased practice of local dialects and vernaculars both in spoken word and
literature would open the door to nationalism throughout Europe as well as allow more
individuals to reach higher levels of education and literacy. The Bubonic Plague certainly
altered the human psyche and culture of Medieval Europe and its foundation in many great
political and national shifts and schisms is evident.

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Works Cited
Aberth, John. The Black Death: The Great Mortality of 1348-1350: A Brief History with
Documents. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2005. Print.

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Ben-Sasson, Haim Hillel. Trial and Achievement: Currents in Jewish History from 313.
Jerusalem: Keter House, 1974. Print.
Cantor, Norman F. In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World It Made. New
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Foa, Anna. The Jews of Europe After the Black Death. Berkeley: U of California, 2000. Print.
Garrison, Jim. Civilization and the Transformation of Power. New York: Paraview, 2000.
Print.
Levy, Richard S. Antisemitism: A Historical Encyclopedia of Prejudice and Persecution.
Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2005. Print.
Pennington. "The Black Death and Religious Impact." Catholic University, Washington, D.C.
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Sanders, T., Nelson, S., Morillo, S., Ellenberger, N. (2006). Encounters in world history:
sources and themes form the global past, volume 1: to 1500. New York: McGraw Hill.
Skolnik, Fred. Encyclopaedia Judaica. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007. Print.
Slavicek, Louise Chipley. The Black Death. New York: Chelsea House, 2008. Print.
Zapotoczny, Walter S. "The Political and Social Consequences of the Black Death, 13481351." Thesis. 2006. 2006. Web. 3 June 2014.
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