Outbreaks of bubonic plague were a regular feature of the Medieval Period though never as severe. Those who survived the plague were compelled to adjust to a new social and economic reality. Such a multitude of people had perished that a severe shortage of labor ensued which improved wages and living conditions for urban and rural workers. While these economic changes were permanent in some regions, in other areas the nobility and landowners successfully maintain the status quo. For example, in England when peasants attempted to take advantage of the favorable new conditions for workers after the plague, an assortment of peasants forces the King Richard II to meet with the rebels and agree to their stipulations. Yet, as soon as he was strong enough, Richard went back on his word and the peasant rebellions leaders were executed. Despite these setbacks, no monarch could stem the changes for long which resulted from the plague and tenured serfdom in England was abolished in the next century. Beyond its impact on serfdom, the drop in population due to the plague produced an increase in per capita wealth as defined by land ownership. A new type of consumer known as burghers started to reside in both the towns and the countryside. Outside of this class, regular people who could not be sure if they would be alive the next week due to the Black Death spent their money pumping new money into the economy. Furthermore, nobles and wealthy merchants commissioned churches and religious paintings, to express their thanks for surviving the epidemic. Scholars agree that the artistic styles which developed in the Medieval period were tremendously influential in the proceeding Renaissance.[footnoteRef:10] [10: Collins, R. 1999. Early Medieval Europe: 300...
New York: St. Martin's Press. pp. 142-211.]
..To speak to or go near the sick brought infection and a common death... To touch the clothes (which) the sick had touched or worn gave the disease to the person touching" (Williams, 167). This description is quite accurate, yet even well-educated and enlightened Boccaccio himself did not know how the plague was spread from one person to another. It is also true that the plague bacillus could be spread
Laborers began to demand a wage for their efforts, which led to the rise of a money-based economy as opposed to the earlier land-based economy (middle-ages.org). Europeans in the middle ages tended to be superstitious in their religious beliefs. As they searched for something or someone to blame for the wrath of the plague, all of their praying and blind faith did not protect them from being infected. Comets, earthquakes, astrological
Black Death in 14th Century Europe Pivot Point In History causes and effects in history 20/20 HISTORICAL HINDSIGHT The Black Death of the middle 14th Century in Europe was a major pivot point in History. Three ways it was a turning point can be seen through social hierarchy, the Roman Catholic Church and Medicine. Social hierarchy, the Church and Medicine were all different before the Black Death, they all failed during the Black Death,
14th Century Western Civilization Social Criticism on a Patriarchal and Christian Society in Giovanni Boccaccio's "The Decameron" Western civilization during the 14th century is characteristically considered as the "rebirth" of Greek and Roman cultures, which have declined after its glorious classical and Golden Age revolution during the Middle Ages. This 'rebirth' is referred to as the Renaissance movement, which are the revival of classical cultures and the emergence of the humanist movement.
Black Death and its impact on Western Civilization Black Death and Religion The Black Death adversely impacted the reputation of the Catholic Church since its own adherents (including clergy) were ill and dying and the Church proved impotent to cure them. This feeling of disillusionment towards the church was reinforced by oen of the theories of its transmission that speculated that it was disseminated through the air by way of "miasma'
One of the most significant economic consequences affected the feudal system in that "whole villages vanished in the wake of the plague" (Craig 430). As death struck every area of life that meant that there would less people to take care of every day business and an increased need for physicians. The labor supply decreased while wages for labor increased. Many serfs replaced their "labor services with money payments
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