Jacob Schulman
AP Euro
February 2, 2007
Mr. Mumma
Practice DBQ: The Plague
One of the deadliest events in all of world history, the Bubonic or “Black” Plague
killed over 25 million people in Western Europe alone. We now know that the cause of
this mass death was infested black rats that were transported to Europe on trading
ships from the Orient. At the time, however, the people of Europe had no real concrete
cause that they could blame for the disease. Thus, many different ideas and theories
were formed by the people of the time. The response to the Plague in Europe was
based on religious and medical beliefs, social problems in Europe, and it created many
political and economic concerns as well.
One of the biggest institutions related to the plague was the church. The people
of Europe were unable to explain the mass death that was occurring on the continent.
For many, God held the answer. For some, like Lisabetta Centenni (Doc 7), God was
responsible for helping her husband Ottavio make it through the plague. She explains
that by feeding him a piece of bread that had touched St. Domenica, his fever broke
instantly. It’s important to note that Centenni lived in Italy, which had always had a
stricter adherence to the church and its beliefs. In Document 8, en English Puritan
ponders the possible events to come in her life with the plague around her. She
meditates for religion, and prays that the sickness doesn’t enter her home. She had no
way of knowing who may get sick next, and she wants to do all she can to prevent the
unfortunate events, that could possibly be prevented. Priests and other members of the
clergy did what they could to help the sick. Father Dragoni, a priest, took care of sick
people, and was able to feed them and keep guards to protect them (Doc 9). As
documented by the painting in Document 15, Emperor Leopold’s creation of the “Plague
Column” was his way of thanking God for ending the plague in Vienna. The presence of
the angel kneeling at the base of the column shows this perfectly. Finally, even some
physicians believed that there was a religious cause of the plague. He believed that it
was a “chastisement exercised by an angry God over a sinful and offending people”
(Doc 16). It’s especially interesting that even a physician, who would usually adhere to
more scientific beliefs, would believe that the plague was caused by divine forces. The
impact of religious beliefs in relation to the plague impacted many different kinds of
people, not just the extremely pious.
Another major response to the plague was regarding social problems in towns
and cities, as well as medical beliefs that arose from physicians. Erasmus of Rotterdam,
a Dutch Humanist, had large concerns that he believed had contributed to the plague
(Doc 2). He thought that the filth and unsanitary conditions that existed on the floors of
English houses was clearly an agent in the spread of the disease. As a humanist, he
had concerns for humans and he didn’t think that these unsanitary conditions were good
for the people at all. Heinrich von Staden, a traveler to Russia, noted that any houses
with had sick people were immediately quarantined and residents were forced to remain
(Doc 5). This suggests that by 1571, fairly early into the Plague, people were already
trying to pare down and stop the spread of disease. Document 6 suggests the plague
was kept under control by 3 simple methods: Gold, fire, and the Gallows. Gold to pay for
quarantine, gallows to those who don’t adhere to the health regulations, and fire to burn
contaminated items. This was coming from a physician, who was correct in believing
that the attempts to keep the spread were effective. Document 3 comes from a
schoolmaster in the Netherlands who is reporting that the Plague is having a terrible
impact on his school. He writes that 20 boys have died, and countless others have left
in fear of the spread of disease. Some physicians also had their own opinions about the
plague. H. de Rochas, a French physician claimed that patients infected with the plague
could hang toads from their neck to remove the poison of the disease from the body
(Document 10). The spread of the plague even drove some nurses to let their patients
die early so they could be paid and move to another patient. Miguel Parets wrote about
this practice in his diary in 1651, which was even fairly early into the plague (Document
11). Social concerns like filth and unsanitary conditions, as well as medical beliefs from
physicians were all made in reaction to the spread of the deadly plague in Europe.
Finally, one of the biggest concerns that arose from the spread of the bubonic
plague was in regard to the business and economic concerns that came from the
declined population. French author Nicolas Versoris describes the complete
depopulation of Paris in Book of Reason. He wrote that the rich had fled early enough to
escape death, but that the poor who were forced to stay behind had all died. He said
that the new population of Paris was now constituted of only a handful of “porters and
wage-earners” (Doc 3). Many people were discouraged from traveling to other areas
during the time of the Plague. Sir John Reresby (Doc 12) writes how he only traveled
with three other men, as the others had opted out of going to Rome, where the plague
was especially deadly. However, the most impacted area of economics was trade. As
portrayed by Daniel Defoe in A Journal of the Plague Year, no ports wanted to take in
goods from other ports (Doc 14). He wrote that the next thing that would happen would
be the stopping of the general trade of manufactured goods. Samuel Pepys, an English
bureaucrat, had his own interest in trade. He was most likely a wealthy man, who made
a fair amount of his money from trade or the manufacturing of goods. He believed that
no one would dare to buy wigs, in particular, for fear of infection. The plague’s result of
depopulation caused many concerns to be raised about the economic and monetary
effects on European life.
Religious and medical beliefs, social problems existent in Europe, and economic
concerns in Europe were all consequences of the Plague’s hitting Europe. For lack of a
true answer as to the cause of the plague, people held to spirituality and looked to god
for answers. Social problems like filth and unsanitary conditions were criticized for
helping the Plague’s escalation and scale. Depopulation from the mass deaths, as well
as fear of infection and further contamination hurt trade and the economy. The Plague
definitely had a devastating impact on Europe, and its impact was surely felt hard for
long after it had passed.