The Black Death and the Middle Ages: Superstition and Fear

The Bubonic Plague
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The Bubonic Plague
The Bubonic plague, also known as the Black Death was a catastrophic and extremely contagious pandemic which devastated Medieval Europe and the Mediterranean region as it wiped an entire half of the population within four years. People who suffered from this disease portrayed symptoms such as high fever and huge black boils which oozed pus and blood and these victims mostly succumbed to it very rapidly hence the name Black Death. The complexities brought about by the plague were so immense to be understood by the people of the Middle Ages whose scientific explorations were not much advanced. The plague led to a society full of mistrust and suspicion with the people accusing each other of superstition and its responsibility for occurrence of the plagueCITATION Byr04 \p " 5" \l 1033 (Byrne 5).
Superstition and Fear
Superstition and fear were extremely common reactions to this occurrence to the extent the residents from Messina ordered the fleet of ships docked with victims to leave their shores immediately, nicknaming them as ‘The Death fleet’. By then it was too late as the disease had already been introduced, wreaking havoc and indiscriminate devastation throughout the following few years, making it one of the greatest pandemics of all time. Superstition was so spread to the core during the Middle Ages to the extent that the people believed God was punishing them against their sins; since even the medical community had failed. Therefore, the atonement and forgiveness of sin was the only way some believed they could be cured or avoid catching the plague. Also, many believed that purging the society off known ‘witches’, ‘heretics’ and other trouble makers who did not believe in Christ could help, hence banishing gypsies and killing Jews. At the height of the pandemic, between 1348 and 1349, thousands of Jews were lashed and massacred. Some individuals also developed the ritual of corporal mortification where they publicly punished themselves, displaying penance by hitting each other with leather strapsCITATION Bed89 \p 17 \l 1033 (Bedani 17).
The church, in as much as they did not condone all these atrocities, was not blameless. Some religious leaders had already cast aspersions on some animals portraying them as a bad omen. Due to the non-subservient nature of cats, superstitious people became suspicious and associated the poor creatures with black magic. Cats and their owners were targeted in the time leading up to the plague, owners being accused of witchcraft. Most of the people killed were suspected of witchcraft with almost all of them either being poor women or the elderly and the eccentric people who kept pets for companionship. These human beings were all executed together with their petsCITATION Byr04 \p 12 \l 1033 (Byrne 12).
The Bubonic Plague filled with mystery with the little technological advancement of the Stone Age brought about fear and chaos. Its spread was untamed and incurable. Some people even believed that the disease spread through an aerial spirit which could jump from an infected person’s eye into another person’s eye! The lack of a breakthrough in its cure also sen...