The Black Death — Part Five
Reactions to the Plague: From Panic to Persecution
One of the most odious, most horrible reactions of medieval society to the Black Death was the desperate search for a human culprit to blame and demonize for the calamity.
Europe’s Jewish population presented the most likely target due to their reputation as existing outcasts of medieval society. (More on this later)
However, other medieval minorities were not spared either.
This might seem surprising, especially given that the majority of Europe’s population saw the Black Death as “God’s will” or “God’s punishment”.
However, according to the twisted logic of medieval thought, it was believed important to find the ‘human instruments’ of God’s will and destroy them in the hope that their destruction might free society from the curse of the Plague.
Then there’s the ingrained human tendency to blame in a effort to explain seemingly unsolvable problems.
In the case of The Black Death, an ignorant population craved a scapegoat upon which to place all their fears, their frustrations and their utter helplessness in the face of this inexplicable disaster.
The term scapegoat dates back to Biblical times when a goat was released into the wilderness bearing, metaphorically, all of the sins of the Israelites, thus ‘freeing’ them. (Leviticus 16).
Persecution of Minorities
In medieval Europe, lepers, already shunned for their disease, became easy targets.
In 1346, even before the onset of the The Black Death, King Edward III banned lepers from entering London: “… some of them, endeavouring to contaminate others with that abominable blemish… and by the contagion of their polluted breath… to the great injury of the people dwelling in the city,” the edict pronounced.
Lepers were accused of poisoning wells with Plague poison and spreading the Plague in the mistaken belief that having leprosy meant they were immune to Plague.
Foreigners, too, were viewed with suspicion.
Traders, travelers, and migrant workers arriving from regions hit by the plague were seen as potential carriers and even accused of poisoning drinking water. If their arrival coincided with an outbreak of Plague, this only added fuel to the fire.
Marginalized groups — beggars, the mentally ill, and anyone deemed different — were similarly scapegoated. Their perceived lack of hygiene, according to medieval standards, made them easy targets for blame.
Neither were Religious minorities exempt.
The Waldensians and Lollards, Christian reform movements challenging the Church’s authority, were seen as a general threat to religion and society. Blaming them for the plague went one step further and became another way to discredit their beliefs and paint them as heretics capable of anything, even causing Plague.
Village “wise women” — healers and herbalists associated with witchcraft — were easy targets and often murdered by panicked communities when Plague hit.
Adding insult to injury, black cats, seen as companions of witches, were brutally culled as it was believed that the fleas from the black cat spread plague.
As an animal and cat lover, this not only saddens but angers me with its utter ignorance. Cats are superb hunters after all, and they might have actually helped control the rat population, the true plague carriers!
Persecution of the Jews
Even before the plague arrived, Jews existed on the margins of European society.
Their role as moneylenders, and their practice of charging interest (usury) — a much maligned practice and banned by the Roman Catholic Church — arose not by choice but because Jews were barred from holding positions in government and the military and from owning land or working as artists or craftspeople. Unfortunately, this practice led to the Jews becoming one of the most hated groups in European society.
Thus did the malicious rumors spread, portraying Jews as usurers, enemies of Christianity, agents of the Anti-Christ and even child killers. That these reprehensible rumors were often fabricated and spread by priests and churchmen beggars belief!
Is it any wonder then that, when the Black Death struck Europe, the Jewish minority became obvious scapegoats?
Phillip Ziegler in his superb book, The Black Death summarized it thus: “The Black Death concentrated this latent fear and hatred of the Jews into one burning grievance which not only demanded vengeance, but offered the tempting extra dividend that, if the Jews could only be eliminated, then the plague for which they were responsible might vanish too.”
Jews were accused of passing around clothes taken from the plague dead and smearing walls and windows with ointment made from the buboes of victims.
However, one of the most dangerous conspiracy theories accused Jews of poisoning water wells, a claim lacking any evidence whatsoever.
There was even a theory that the Jews were working under the authority and orders of a conspiratorial network with its headquarters in Toledo and that the poison (for the wells) was imported in bulk from the Orient.
There is no doubt that many medieval drinking wells were indeed poisoned, but by sewage, not plague poison distributed by Jews!
The preference of some Jewish communities for drawing water from streams, often due to its higher quality and the perceived cleanliness of running water, was seen as further “proof” of their guilt. Why would a Jewish community shun wells and prefer streams unless they had obviously poisoned the wells, asked the medieval-mob-mind?
Violence against the Jews
The accusation of well poisoning led to a horrific wave of violence.
In 1348, Switzerland witnessed the now infamous “trial” at Chillon, where Jews were subjected to excruciating torture. Under duress, a Jewish physician “confessed” to receiving poison from a Rabbi to contaminate wells. Ten similar confessions were elicited from others, likely false due to the unbearable pain inflicted on the rack.
News of the forced confessions spread rapidly, fueling paranoia and hatred.
European cities reacted swiftly. For example, Zurich voted never to admit Jews to the city again, effectively exiling its entire Jewish population.
From Strasbourg to Narbonne, Jewish communities faced unimaginable brutality. They were either burned at the stake in public spectacles, walled up inside their homes to starve to death, or brutally murdered by mobs whipped into a frenzy by religious and social prejudices.
In May 1348, massacres in Provence, Narbonne, and Carcassonne resulted in the entire extermination of those communities.
In November 1348, Jews were burned at the stake in towns across Germany. In most cities, these pogroms (Jewish massacres) took place while the plague was raging. However, in some towns, the mere news of the Plague’s approach was enough to inflame the population into killing their fellow countrymen, just because they were Jewish.
In February 1349, close to the entire 16,000-strong Jewish community of Strasbourg was murdered. In the spring of 1350, Jews in the north of Germany who escaped burning were walled up inside their houses to starve to death.
March 1349 saw a brief lull in the persecution, perhaps because it became evident that Jews died just as readily from the Plague as Christians. The shared suffering also exposed the fallacy of the well-poisoning accusation.
Nevertheless, persecution resumed when the Flagellants began their marches through the countryside and reignited the flames of hatred and blame.
Driven by a warped sense of piety and fueled by anti-Semitic nonsense, the Flagellants believed public self-flagellation and displays of penance could appease God’s wrath.
The Flagellants saw Jews as outsiders, deserving of punishment for the plague’s ferocity. They preached sermons filled with hatred and accusations, whipping the populace into a frenzy. Their religious fanaticism, mob mentality, and bloodlust, was responsible for some of the most brutal massacres of Jews and, justifiably, the Jews came to see the Flagellants as their most dangerous enemy.
Reaction of Medieval Authorities
So, what was the reaction of the authorities to this needless, senseless slaughter of innocent men, women and children?
The ruling Pope Clement VI acted responsibly, publishing papal bulls condemning the massacres of Jews, even threatening excommunication to those who took part in violence against the Jews.
Emperor Charles IV and Duke Albert of Austria tried their best to prevent violence and Rupert von der Pfalz of the Rhein took some Jews under his personal protection, albeit for a handsome bribe.
By and large, however, their efforts were usually ineffective against the overwhelming anger of a vengeful mob.
Other leaders, motivated by greed or religious prejudice, actively participated in the persecution of Jewish communities. Some rulers even boasted of burning their Jews for the honour of God, while others readily distributed the goods of murdered Jews to their lackeys and favourites.
The only country in Europe where no serious persecution of Jews took place was England.
But before you get too excited, it’s worth knowing that this was not necessarily due to the enlightened tolerance of its leaders or people. In 1290, King Edward I had actually expelled all Jews from England, so very few remained in England to persecute!
The Aftermath
The persecution of the Jews finally waned when the Black Death itself diminished in intensity.
However, coupled with the losses from the Plague, Jewish communities throughout Christian Europe were virtually wiped out of existence. In all, 60 large and 150 smaller communities are believed to have been extinguished. 350 massacres are reported to have taken place.
Rather than use oft-repeated clichés regarding man’s inhumanity to man, I’ll conclude Part Five by quoting the haunting words of Phillip Ziegler from The Black Death :
“It is a curious and somewhat humiliating reflection on human nature that the European, overwhelmed by what was probably the greatest natural calamity ever to strike his continent, reacted by seeking to rival the cruelty of nature in the hideousness of his own, man-made atrocities.”
If you enjoyed this article, you may like to read the previous articles on the same subject:
