The Black Death and its aftermath Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Black Death and its slipstream - Essay ExampleThe religious view argued that the Black Death was created by the Jews so that they could eliminate both the Christians from this world. They believed that the Jews had poisoned all the wells and springs. Therefore, they persecuted the Jews demanding them to confess their evil schemes. Many of the Jews confessed that they obtained this lethal poison from a foreign stain but it was done without the knowledge of the Jewish community. Many communities had to pray hard for rain so that their pot could have pure water to drink and cook. Some of the regions that were severely affected by this disease believed that god would want the Jews to be punished for this act.So they began to burn the Jews for poisoning all the wells and springs. As a result of the torture, many Jews were adopted to the Christian faith through baptism in order to avoid unmerited punishment 2 (Horrox, 1994).The religious view also argued that the plague was a pun ishment from God. They believed that the human be given deserved to be punished because of their disobedience to God. People lived lifestyles that were sinful, unrighteous and not pleasing to him. Because of this, God had to deliver his sovereign power by allowing humanity to suffer. People could be cured from this disease but in order to be healed they had to humble themselves and totally submit to His authority. In comparison, the practitioners from Egyptian and Mesopotamian nations had medicine to make sleep with the gods. They believed that performing certain rituals and incantations before the sick person would cause him to be delivered from the demon spirit, for they all believed that diseases were caused by demons 3 (Horrox, 1994 & Longrigg, 1998). The health check theory presented two main explanations on the plague. Firstly, they believed that the cause of Black Death was associated with miasma which means swelled air. They said that when a person inhales bad air it go es directly into their lungs before it gets transmitted into their blood stream. Therefore, it starts to affect the patients remains by generating various symptoms such as headaches, coughing up blood, and a rain increase in the pulse rate. 2The disease also would spread quickly into the air when the afflicted patient exhaled. This medical theory supported the fact that the air was not the main cause of the plague instead, the plague was a direct result of the pollution or bacteria in the air that which was the cause for the disease. So when a normal individual contracted the disease through an afflicted person, they were both required to immediately get off the town before they passed it on to more people4 (Horrox, 1994). The medical theory also claimed that the plague was caused by an imbalance in the individuals diet. For instance, individuals with in enough nourishment were more vulnerable to the plague than people with malnutrition. People who consume an adequate amount of w ater were less susceptible to the disease. This indicated that the socioeconomic status was a significant factor in determining the rate at which the disease spread. Therefore, people from low class families were mainly blamed for the apex of Black Death. The medical view