The Black Death
The Black Death, more commonly referred to as "the plague" was a series of diseases that plagued much of Europe on and off for hundreds of years. The major pandemics occured in the 6th and 14th century. The initial plague from the 6th century reached England in 541 or 546 AD, and ravaged the depleted countryside. Other outbreaks occured in 542, 558, 572, 581, 590, 600. The exact sicknesses that were present during these outbreaks is not known. The second major plague appeared in the 1340's, and was associated with Yersin's Bacillus. The disease was believed to be from central Asia. The reason for this was dry weather causing fleas and rodents to come into contact with humans. The resulting sickness destroyed Europe's population, causing it to lose 1/3 of its people. The main reason for the devastating results of the plague was poor hygiene, and the presence of little medical knowledge because of the fall of the Roman Empire which caused a massive loss in infrastructure, economy, and various works which contained the knowledge of centuries. The limited knowledge of medical science and logical reasoning was demonstrated by an eyewitness's account. " The Jews were suddenly and violently charged with infecting wells and polluting the air."- The Black Death- An eyewitness account The account later goes on to explain the violence and hatred towards these people. This is all too clearly an example of the lack of reasoning and social inequality of the time. The general populace was so desperate and undereducated that they blamed all problems on the easiest target, in this case, the jews. The facts of the stupidity and sheer violence of this time only contributes to the classification and naming of the Middle ages as the decline of society.