God and Plague

     In 1347, panic stricken Europe was desperately grasping to find a cause and a solution to the pestilence that was crippling their society and economy. Even though in our modern perspective, this is seen as simple mindedness, most people relied primarily on their faith for guidance. According to church doctrine, the punishment for sin is death, therefore God was cleansing the world of the sinful nature of people through plague. Through this rationalization if people asked for mercy, while making a strong attempt to live good clean lives, then their lives may be spared. However, there were disagreements on which forms of penance were more effective. In order to manage their fear the people living alongside the plague made attempts to reach out to super natural forces asking for mercy and a rescue.

In 14th century Europe, the Holy Roman Catholic Church ruled over nearly all spiritual and religious matters. If this was divine punishment sent from God himself, it would have been the common belief that the church would be the most qualified to devise a way of making amends with the deity. The prescription was penance, lots and lots of penance. This penance would need to be public and elaborate, the correct saints would need to be selected and the right people would need to be in attendance. In a message, from the Archbishop of York to one of his officials, he describes that because of “the sins of men enjoying good times”(Horrax p111) the people of England were in need of  an emergency miracle. He then commands “with all possible haste”(Horrax p111) to hold biweekly processions in all of the churches and to say special prayers during mass. Saints also played an important role in these processions, because they were once human, they were capable of being emotional and they had the ability to pray on behalf of the people in the physical realm. In the specific processions ordered by the Archbishop, the saints that were called upon were the Virgin Mary and a couple of the apostles. These saints were not selected randomly, but because the Virgin mother and the apostles were close friends to Jesus and maybe they could ask him for a miracle on behalf of the Archbishop.

An additional group that emerges in this setting were the Flagellants, who were men that believed the only way God would remove the plague was through direct displays of physical penance lasting for days. In their emotionally charged scenes, they would march two by two singing beautiful songs while beating their bare backs with whips, “men...who lashed themselves viciously...until blood flowed, now weeping, now singing”(Horrox p154). Pictures depict them as thin, probably due to excessive fasting, bare chested, and wearing hoods. Their belief was that through feeling the pains of Christ, God would see that they were truly remorseful. During these dramatic scene onlookers would have been full of emotion and frenzy, “A man would need a heart of stone to watch this without tears”(Horrax p151) and afterwards gave them gifts. However, their message was not just about penance, but also about the individual not requiring the church to intercede to God on their behalf.  Additionally, several people may have followed the Flagellant movement because the processions of the church did not protect clergy from becoming infected and, if it isn’t working for the clergy, then there was no chance for the masses.

  To conclude, when people are trapped in a situation they don’t understand or are in a crisis where no solution seems viable, it is not unusual to see people call for super natural help. It is possible that this could be the origin of religions, when man is in crisis and needs help by something that can only supersede all natural laws and perform a miracle. It is in the form of superstitions for luck all the way to the great cathedrals around the world, equipped with latin masses and jeweled vestments, this need to reach beyond the physical to ask for help and be seen as something special and worth helping.