Notes on Black Death

Plague swept Europe in the 1300's
They catapulted dead people into the city.

Rats carried the disease on ships.
No one would let ships dock when they saw that the sailors were sick.
The rats got off the ship and that is how the black death entered Europe.

People looked to the Church for spiritual support.
Within a month, the black death had spread throughout Sicily.
Priests believed that the plague was brought by God.
People thought they were witnessing the end of the world.
They believed it was hell on earth.
Few who caught the disease ever recovered.
When it reached Rome, the Pope surrounded himself with a ring of fire for weeks. This way he would not catch it because no rat could get through.

One man survived the plague and was determined to find a way to cure it.
There were two types of plague, and one was more deadly than the other.
The sick were bricked up in their houses

People accused the Jews, and they were massacred throughout Europe.

In two years, it swept across Western Europe to Scandinavia.
It killed 20 million people, a third of the population.
People believed more in God, but authority and tradition were no longer accepted without question.

Fleas transmitted the disease from rat to man.