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Responses To The Black Death

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The presences of various diseases among humankind have led to many philosophical, ideological, and theological perspectives and arguments on its causes. Notably, the Black Death in the West prompted an assortment of theories of and approaches to deadly diseases in response. The responses to the Black Death consisted of both positive and negative (but mostly negative) reactions to individuals afflicted with the plague. Furthermore, mass hysteria, religious persecution, superstitious practices, and pseudoscientific treatments were common happenings throughout the duration of the bubonic plague outbreak. A careful examination of the Black Death and its impact on social relations and religious principles will reveal a stark contrast between Biblical standards and the responses to and handling of the bubonic plague during its outbreak.

The bubonic plague pandemic in the fourteenth century was a frantically contagious bacterial disease that transferred from infected fleas and rodents to humans through bites. Additionally, the Black Death had originated in Central Asia, more …show more content…
It goes without saying that in the wake of the Black Death, the public experienced a communal existential crisis in which precipitated a time of religious turbulence. While a few people abandoned their faith in the church and adapted to lavish and profligate lifestyles, people who had still clung to their faith, conversely, resorted to extreme and reprehensible conduct in order to appease a wrathful God. Accordingly, peoples’ sheer desperation and fear appeared in two extreme forms of religious reactions: a surge of flagellants and an escalation in the persecution of

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