Plague Many Of The Priest example essay topic

The Black Death The Black Death was a plague that carried a disease that ravaged its way through the world, eventually causing economic, political, and cultural disruptions. It came like a murderer in the night, when no one was expecting it. This mysterious disease first attacked the people living near the Black Sea in what is now called Southern Ukraine. It came without mercy, like a warrior coming for revenge.

It struck, and within days hundreds of people fell ill. The first symptoms were severe headaches and redness of the eyes. These were followed by inflammations of the tongue, hoarseness and a hacking cough. Then came severe intestinal upsets, including vomiting and acute diarrhea.

Temperatures rose, and at the fevers height the body broke out with reddish spots. By the third day, the lymph nodes in the sufferers" groins, neck, and occasionally the armpits began to swell. Eventually the swelling would increase from the size of a hazelnut to the size of walnut, then to the size of a hen's egg. The swelling would bulge out making it easily visible; its blackish color giving the disease its name: The Black Death. The swellings would continue to get bigger and extremely painful causing the victim to vomit blood. Eventually the swelling would burst, and the victim would die soon after.

The whole process, starting from the first symptoms to the final expiration would last as little as 3 days to as long as 9 days. It was a terrible and excruciating disease that was given the title of the Bubonic Plague, a medical term. The swelling that the victims received became known as buboes, the Greek word for groin, bourbon. Therefore giving the disease its official name: the Bubonic Plague.

There were three forms of the plague: Bubonic, Septicaemic, and pneumonic. Th Bubonic plague was the main disease that tormented the people of the Black Sea region, but there was another disease that inflicted the people also. It is called Pneumonic. The Bubonic plague as well as some form of Pneumonic plague was at work destroying the lives of innocent people during those awful years. The Bubonic Plague is a disease that infects the lymph system. It is usually fatal (60%), but today doctors have drugs that can cure it.

The disease is bacillus, an organism, usually carried by rodents, primarily rats. Rats carried this deadly disease, but they did not spread it. The fleas that infest the animals did. When the flea feeds off of the rat the bacteria in the rats blood infects the flea.

The bacteria is known as Yersinia Pestis (Y. Pestis). This bacteria would block the "throat" of the infected flea so that no blood could reach its stomach. Therefore the fleas grew ravenous since they were starving to death. When they would attempt to suck blood up from their victims, they would have to disgorge it back into their prey's bloodstream, only now the victims blood was mixed with Yersinia Pestis (Y Pestis).

Therefore the pattern of infection is this: the rats begin with the disease, they spread it to other rats before dying from the disease. The fleas that infest the rat feeds off the rat, and they become infected with the disease. When the rat dies the flea has to move to a new rat or perhaps even a human. Therefore the disease gets spread to the human hosts.

There are two other varieties of the plague: septicaemic plague and pneumonic plague. Septicaemic plague occurs when the bacteria infects the bloodstream and then spreads to other parts of the body. Pneumonic plague occurs when bacteria infects the lungs. Pneumonic is especially dangerous though because it can be transmitted through the air by sneezing and coughing. Both of these two are nearly 100% fatal. These two were evident during the Black Death, but the Bubonic plague was the main disease that infected the people of the Black Sea region.

The Black Death left a great impact economically. Cities were hit hard by the plague. Financial businesses were disrupted because as debtors died the creditors found themselves without recourse. Everyone died so their was no one to collect money from.

Construction projects stopped for a time or were abandoned all together. Guilds lost their craftsmen and could not replace them. Mills and other special machinery would break down, and the only man in town who had the skill and knew how to repair it would have died in the plague. Therefore towns would advertise for specialists who could do the jobs of men who died, offering high wages. The labor shortage was severe because of all the men dying, and consequently wages rose.

Because of the mortality, there was an oversupply of goods, therefore prices dropped, the price of everything became cheap because people were so afraid of death. Effects in the country were just as severe. Farms and entire villages died out or were abandoned because surely survivors would not stay only to die too. Animals were left to roam the abandoned villages because there was no one to go after them or collect them.

Whole families died, with no heirs to take on the houses, the houses stood empty. Labor shortage was also a problem, so landlords stopped freeing their serfs. There were fewer peasants to be had. Peasants in many areas began to demand fairer treatment or lighter burdens. There were many revolts which all showed how seriously the mortality of the plague had disrupted the economic and social relations. The plague touched everyone, rich and poor alike.

The plague left Cultural disruptions also. Priests died, so no one could hear confession. Bishops also died, and so did their successors, even the successors successors died. The loss of so many lives brought despair to everyone everywhere. People would ask, why would God do this, is it a punishment for something we have done wrong The people saw so many die and no longer carefully thought about death, and when their time was coming. They believed that the end of the world was at hand.

The plague shattered peoples' faith. Priests sacrificed their lives to help the sick and dying, while others fled to isolate themselves. Whether the priests stayed or fled, it became apparent that none of them could explain why God had permitted such devastation. Although, after the worst of the plague was over, survivors felt the need for religious belief and hoped that their faith in God and the church might be restored. But after the plague many of the priest who had fled went to other towns and cities in search of wealthier parishes. Despite all that had happened the church still remained to be one of the most powerful forces.

However, it never regained the complete authority it had enjoyed before the plague had tore apart most peoples' religious ways and thoughts. The plague had no permanent effect on the course of politics, but it did take its toll. Parliaments were adjourned when the plague struck, though they were reassembled. The effect at local levels was more severe, city councils were ravaged.

Whole families of local nobles were wiped out. Courts were closed down and wills could not be carried out. However new courts were reconvened. The legal mess caused by so many deaths was eventually sorted out, and political life went on.

Respect for the law dwindled and crime soared. No one expected to live long enough to be brought to trial and punished. So many people died. The plague was like a plague of gnats, in this case fleas uncontrollably killing almost everything in its path. It was a terrible disease of agonizing pain with little hope of survival.

A huge amount of victims died everyday. There was no one to bury them, so bodies were left dead in the streets, in their beds, or wherever the infected died. No one was able to look after the sick anymore. People were just left to die. Although some people did survive. Those few lucky people who did survive were not left untouched though, some were left with terrible scars, some lost their eyesight, while others lost their memory.

The bubonic plague did not go away. It still exists everywhere in the world. It is still quite common among rodents, rats of course, but squirrels, rabbits, and skunks as well. It is still widespread in some places, but there is a cure for it. The plague is still very much with us. The plague tore its way through many countries destroying many lives, it could not be stopped.

Population decreased, and because of the tremendous amount of deaths, many problems and disruptions resulted. Economy fell. Religion was abandoned, but grew even stronger following the plague. Politics were suspended, but were later carried on. Some good came out of the plague, not much, but some. For instance, today, we have a treatment for it.

Although, the disease does spread rapidly, therefore it is severely important that we catch it instantly when it decides to emerge once again. There was never a single epidemic disease as overwhelming as the Black Death. But it cannot be disputed, by turning the world upside down, the Black Death helped pave the way for a new beginning.