Sanitation and public health
In a number of places, authorities became more aware of the need to take responsibility for the health of the population. In Italian cities such as Venice and Milan, public health boards were set up to deal with the plague, and these continued after the disease had moved on. These boards gradually gained extra powers and became a valuable means of preventing the spread of illness. In London, the city council brought in regulations to clean up the city. Laws to prevent littering, the employment of street sweepers and heavy fines for dumping waste in the river were all implemented in the years following the Black Death. Religion The devastation of the Black Death weakened the influence of the previously all-powerful Catholic Church. The inability of religious leaders to deal with the plague through prayer and the fact that so many priests had died of the disease led to many people losing some respect for the Church. In the 1360s and 1370s, English theologian
SOURCE2 As shown in this fifteenth-century illustration, the desire of doctors to find out more about the human body led to an increase in dissections, which improved knowledge of human anatomy.
John Wycliffe wrote a number of works critical of the papacy and of the role of monasteries in society. He gained a strong following among people whose recent experiences had led them to question the power and influence of the Church in society. Many of Wycliffe’s followers were executed for heresy.
SOURCE3 Muhammad ibn Sasra wrote about the changes he noted in his Chronicle of Damascus .
Men’s occupations have ceased, the hearts of the rulers have become hardened, the rich have become haughty toward beggars, while the subjects perish and misfortunes increase.
Class changes
The huge decline in the numbers of peasants and agricultural workers meant there were fewer people left to perform their tasks. This meant that peasants were able to demand higher wages. However, these demands were often resisted by those in power. Peasants and workers in various parts of Europe rose up to demand their rights in the years following the Black Death. The social and economic elite were extremely worried about the desire of those beneath them to affect change in the social hierarchy, leading to laws such as King Edward III’s Statute of Labourers in 1350. This essentially prohibited requesting or offering wages higher than those offered before the plague, creating a legal limit to force people to stay in their class.
SOURCE4 The Jacquerie uprising in 1358 was an attempt by French workers to improve their conditions.
TOPIC3 Medieval Europe 105
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