The Black Death – When Calamities Teach Humanity

There are several ways to read a book. In one of them, a person understands the meaning of the sentences, the simple combination of words, phrases and paragraphs almost mathematically, experiencing a brief dose of impressions that the plot may arouse. When talking to a reader like this, we will notice a shallow analysis of the facts. Why? Considering a second type of reading will give us the answer.

This way is characterized by a careful examination of the text, not just of the lines, but of what is between the lines, trying to fit the episodes described into a broader perspective. Among such readers we find good observers, the learned, the critics and, above all, the men of faith. The latter have the sharpest interpretation of the facts, because they analyse them from a supernatural perspective, trying to understand the events from God’s viewpoint.

In fact, the Divine Writer usually sends signs, as if between the lines, before writing certain pages of history, so that men, by “reading” the events that surround them, can discern in them a heavenly warning, and not a mere series of coincidences.

This is what happened in Europe during the decades preceding one of the greatest tragedies humanity has ever known: the Black Death.¹

Some coincidences…

In 1315, a comet streaked across the sky, leaving in its trail the feeling that something dreadful was imminent. When harvest time arrived, the bad omen seemed to come true. The autumn of 1315 began with a period of severe drought and other terrible weather conditions, which contributed to the ruin of the crops for two subsequent years.

The food scarcity began a time of distressing famine for Europeans, in which frightening scenes took place: crazed by hunger, some peasants began to gnaw on the bark of trees, in the illusion that they would thus be able to satisfy themselves; others, driven by a more violent delirium, went so far as to placate their desperate appetite by practising cannibalism. This horrific situation was further accentuated by the appearance of the children, victims of malnutrition and reduced to skeletons.

Four years later, when the wounds of the famine had barely begun to heal, another tragedy evoked the events that preceded the departure of the chosen people from Egypt: a furious cloud of locusts of unknown origin took over the scene.

The insatiable insects swept away all the crops they found in their path. The method of advance always followed the same order: a small detachment would approach to reconnoitre the area to be the target of the attack; once the sweep was complete, this group would return to the swarm, which would soon return in full force. Anyone who saw the first insects swarming their lands would have little more than two hours to protect themselves.

But what threat did these small invertebrates pose to make people fear them so much? It was not – and is not! – something normal. These locusts seemed to be prefigures of the Apocalyptic ones described by St. John (cf. Rv 9:3-11). And if the reader thinks this supposition is exaggerated, consider the fate of an unsuspecting squire who, while traveling on horseback, was caught unprepared by the immense shadow of the insects. The result became known later: all that remained of the poor man was his skeleton, piled up next to the bones of his animal. But the calamities did not stop there.

Years later, in 1325, astronomers observed a peculiar conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn, which was recorded not only with curiosity, but also with a certain air of alert. In 1341 there was a total solar eclipse, which left thousands of people immersed in darkness. In those days, celestial signs still moved souls. Even though some unbelievers supported the naturalist claim that it was nothing more than a predictable phenomenon without any major significance, the disappearance of the Sun and the momentary darkness in certain regions necessarily brought a premonition regarding the end of time.

The sky having spoken, it was now the earth’s turn: the year 1348 “began with a series of earthquakes of unprecedented force, which shook all of Europe and killed thousands and thousands of people under the collapsed houses […]. For several months a thick and heavy fog hung over Greece; England, from June to December, was flooded with almost uninterrupted rains.”²

In France, the economic situation accompanied the natural disasters. A sharp inflation during the reign of Philip the Fair increased the tension that already existed due to the wars from which the country had not yet recovered. In the social sphere, the state of affairs was even more distressing. Historians point to a serious drop in the general birth rate, beginning at the close of the 13th century. Among other reasons, the demographic decline was caused by a wave of violence arising from various internal and external conflicts.

Europe seemed to be heading, at a rapid pace, towards its own extinction.

Tragedies also in the spiritual order

Astronomical and telluric phenomena, plagues and famines, social calamities and political conflicts… None of these, however, were as devastating as the juncture at which the Mystical Body of Christ found itself. In fact, all of these elements were but a symbol of what was happening in the spiritual order at the end of the Middle Ages.

As an example, let us recall that the 14th century began with the outrageous attack at Anagni, a direct affront by the envoys of the French monarch against Pope Boniface VIII, in 1303. Shortly thereafter, in 1309, the Papacy moved to Avignon, where it would remain until 1377, beginning the “Babylonian captivity,” in the expression used by several historians. Finally, the end of the century would witness one of the greatest internal dissensions seen in Church history: the great Western schism, in which Christianity was divided under the leadership of three “popes.”

This sombre scenario of past catastrophes and future upheavals will have its denouement in the great scourge of 1348, as the conclusion of one era and the preface to another.

It all begins in the East

The reader should have in mind the scene that heralds the arrival of a great tsunami. Before bursting over its boundaries, the sea first recedes extensively, as if gathering strength to throw itself inland. Similarly, the wave that would sweep away millions of lives across Europe would begin its sinister career in the lands of the East and would grow in strength as it approached Europe.

The strange illness which first left China, then known as Katay, travelled on through Armenia, India and Persia. In Syria, the power of the infection grew, reaching fifteen thousand deaths a day in Cairo and twenty thousand in Gaza. Ships travelling from the eastern seas were the fatal means of transporting the disease to the harbours of Genoa and Sicily, from where it spread across the European continent, from Russia to Greenland.

The aversion caused by the symptoms manifested in the sick, coupled with the speed of their ensuing death, moved the entire population to seek some way to halt this demonic scourge. Some began to employ scrupulous hygiene methods, avoiding the slightest contact with anyone who showed signs of the disease. Others flocked to churches to beg Heaven for mercy. However, “neither the hygienic measures nor the public prayers were enough to stop it.”³

The devastation

The unfortunate sufferer of the disease would feel tumours growing under their arms, and soon their whole body would be overcome by repulsive eruptions. Another obvious symptom was the appearance of the black spots that gave the plague its name. In both cases, the progression was swift and silent, often not even causing a fever. In the best-case scenario, seventy-two hours were enough to kill the unfortunate victim.

The contagion was fulminating: a sick person’s clothing transmitted the plague to anyone who touched them. People avoided greeting one another, the dying languished without company. Port cities such as the majestic Venice, which possessed one of the largest maritime fleets in the West, were hit hardest because they were the first to receive the impact of the epidemic.

French cities took a large part in the continent’s woes: “In Avignon, from January 25 to April 27, 1348, there were sixty-two thousand victims, half the population; and when there was no more room for graves, the Pope authorized burials in the pontifical cemetery, where eleven thousand corpses were buried in March and April.”⁴

Of the one hundred and forty families that made up the village of Soisy-sur-Seine, only six remained at the end of the plague. Seventeen thousand deaths were recorded in Amiens.

To summarize: historians estimate that there were no less than twenty-five million dead in Europe and thirty-six million in Asia. These figures, which are already terrifying if considered within the context of the gigantic world population of today, meant far more at that time. Imagine that this scourge took more than a third of the European population then existent …⁵

God’s hand appears in tribulation

The years marked by pain and death saw various reactions, recorded by historians. Couples living in irregular situations tried to put their lives right. Many who were addicted to gambling exchanged their dice for rosary beads, leaving the tables of fortune to go to the altars. Prayers multiplied and the diligent practice of penance increased everywhere. In the midst of a harsh, cold winter, the widespread threat of an almost sudden death caused flowers of springtime faith to sprout.

Indeed, God’s hand appears no less in anguish than during times of consolation. Often, however, there is a tendency to hide the need for a real change of life behind an ill-conceived notion of mercy: the devil knows that, during a trial, souls are more apt to raise their intense supplications to the Most High and offer Him the incense of a genuine conversion.

Joy is not always enough to move people to practise virtue. Suffering is therefore salutary, as an incentive to take certain steps along the path of holiness. Was it not Heaven’s intention to warn the medieval people of the calamities that would befall all of humanity if they abandoned the fruitful practice of the Catholic Faith that had enlightened the previous centuries?

There is no doubt that the Middle Ages left one of the best memoirs in the pages of history, written by the faithful who resolved to embody the spirit of the Holy Church in their deeds.

The great treatises on theology and philosophy, the universities, the charitable hospitals, the imposing Gothic cathedrals that immortalized the ideal of their builders and so many other achievements of humanity that the modern age boasts are the fruits of this Christian spirit. The artistic production of that era, for example, is an unfailing testimony of its fruitfulness. From 1050 until two years after the plague, artistic creations multiplied, and many of them are still awaiting a worthy replica.

But if Christendom was responsible for so much historically recognized progress, it was due to the fact that men were concerned with putting their mentality into practice in everyday life. And the medieval attitude towards suffering played an essential role in this process.

There was in that era an awareness that “man is incapable of acquiring any degree of spiritual perfection – even the most modest and elementary degrees – without suffering.”⁶

By allowing an entire continent to go through so great a torment as the Black Death, Divine Providence may have been presenting it with a remedy, albeit a bitter one, to cure the decadence that was beginning and which would result in various deviations, along with the gradual deterioration of a society that had originally been built according to evangelical teachings. The emergence of the neo-pagan Renaissance was already imminent…

Those who lived at that time could not excuse themselves by claiming ignorance. If they did not recognize the need for a change of course, all they had to do was stop and analyse the unusual phenomena that preceded the epidemic. These were heralds that proclaimed – without words, it is true, but very clearly – the designs of an outraged Providence. The prophets of the calamities of those times were these prophetic calamities.

Now, God has not changed, and continues to write as He once did: in lines and between the lines. It is up to us, therefore, to read in the events the warning signs that He sends before consummating great interventions. How many comets have streaked across our 21st century skies? How many times has nature seemed to show man its resentment, whether through water, fire, air or disease? What is God’s intention in these momentous emissaries? Let us be vigilant! ◊

Notes

¹ The historical information in this article was taken from the following works: WEISS, Johann Baptist. Historia Universal. Barcelona: La Educación, 1929, v.VII, p.383-387; DANIEL-ROPS, Henri. A Igreja das catedrais e das cruzadas. São Paulo: Quadrante, 1993, p.656-665; BONASSIE, Pierre. Dicionário de História Medieval. Lisboa: Dom Quixote, 1985, p.169-172.

² WEISS, op. cit., p.385.

³ DANIEL-ROPS, op. cit., p.657.

⁴ Idem, p.658.

⁵ Cf. BONASSIE, op. cit., p.170.

⁶ CORRÊA DE OLIVEIRA, Plinio. Conference. São Paulo, 16/5/1964.