by Dorothy Baum

Created on: July 24, 2008   Last Updated: February 19, 2009

The fourteenth century seemed like an era that God's wrath was to be profoundly felt throughout Europe. Not from wars or roving bandits, but coming from something infinitesimal and unseen by human eyes. Painful, prolonged and deadly, it was a disease like no other seen in its timeThe Black Death!

A simple nursery rhyme depicts the symptoms of the first pandemic scourge of the fourteenth century, the Black Death, or Bubonic Plague (Yersinia pestis), as it is commonly known today.

"Ring around the rosies,
A pocket full of posies,
Achoo! Achoo!
We all fall down."

"Rosies" was the first telltale symptom of a pink rash that appeared in the lymph gland areas of the neck, armpits and groin. These areas would fill with pus, turning black as the flesh became necrotic. The ensuing smell of rotting flesh was masked with the scent of "posies". A high fever would accompany the swelling, along with chills and sneezing (Achoo! Achoo!) in addition to the rash. The outcome would be a slow death, thus "We all fall down."

Flea-ridden Asian rats found their way aboard commercial ships bound for Sicilian and Messianic ports from trading expeditions in the Orient. Of course, mysterious deaths had already taken its toll on board the ships.

It was through a vicious cycle that the bubonic and septicemia bacteria were passed around. The multiplying bacteria infecting the flea would block its stomach, giving the flea a voracious appetite because it was literally starving to death. Whether its host was human or rat, the host would become infected during this feeding frenzy; the bacteria entering through the wounds left by the fleas bite.

Humans would pass the disease among themselves through pneumonic bacterium. Infected victims' coughing and sneezing would spray bacteria laden, airborne droplets, which were inhaled by others in close proximity; their throat and lungs, were immediately attacked by the bacterium. Poor hygienic practices and the lack of cleanliness in general also had a lot to do with the spread of this insidious disease.

It is almost unimaginable to believe that a bacterium would claim the lives of 25 million people throughout Europe in the period of five years. The plague did more than decimate a third of Europe's population, it radically changed the social structure of the country.

The people of the fourteenth century could not understand the plague, nor could the Roman Catholic Church. Like many things misunderstood, this lead to widespread persecution of the minorities such as the Jews, gypsies, lepers and foreigners. This reduced the work forces. Fields laid to waste and building construction halted. The few survivors fled to bigger towns and cities, unwittingly taking the plague with them. The only areas left untouched by the plague were desolated and mountainous regions. However, even those would soon feel the devastation as more people migrated in desperation to escape death.

The general mood of people became morbid with all this death surrounding them. This can be seen in the contemporary art of the time with dark representations of death. Even religion took a negative view on the plague believing that it was the wrath of God leveled on them for their transgressions. Everything of the time became suspect as being the work of the Devil. Cats, considered to be in league with Satan, were slaughtered en masse. Again, the people had unwittingly eliminated the one thing that might have kept the rat population down and lessen the spread of plague-infected fleas.

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