The Role of Religion

One of the biggest reasons why Europe wasn’t able to handle the situation was because of Christianity. The religion forbids the practice of anatomy, so the Europeans had no clue about the human body. Instead, they follow a concept that the body is composed of four fluids, one of which is blood, and sickness is caused by too much of one fluid. When the Black Death came, people thought they had too much blood and went to barbers to bleed themselves.

Now these barbers take a knife, cut a person, use the knife with the infected blood of another to cut another, and – oops – he cuts himself along the way. All customers and barber are now infected. People are trying to cut/pop the bubbles, spreading them even more.

In the panic, people thought God was punishing them because there are sinners among them. They go to the outcasts, the Jews, the witches, and execute them in belief they will rid them of the town’s sins and stop the plague. This is the first time people have a problem with Jews in Europe.

Despite all the miserable things, people have more faith in the church. People called Flagellants whip themselves out in the street as an apology to God for society’s sins. They get infected easily as their wounds open.

And to strengthen this belief even more, people in monasteries, religious education centers, survived. This led the people to believe that then sinless and the religious are skilled. Actually, it was the fact that monasteries are very isolated.

The effect of all this is a sense that death is all around them. Everyone is miserable and emo.