Response to Pandemic Death: The Black Death in Europe

Response to Pandemic Death: The Black Death in Europe In his what some perceive to be his best known work, The Decameron, Boccaccio writes about his experience as a witness to the infamous 1348 pandemic known as the Black Death. The Decameron is a collection of stories about the Black Death, in one of which he wrote "The healthiest of all humans ate breakfast in the morning with their relatives, companions or friends, and had dinner that evening in another world with their ancestor"(Boccaccio)! This image suggests the rapid and serious nature of the Black Death that killed nearly 25 million people in Europe from 1347-1352(Janis, Rice, Pollard). As would be expected, a pandemic such as this had immense effects on the people of Europe who witnessed it; people reacted in a variety of ways, some rejected religion and lived a more "sensual life," others lived in seclusion, or even resorted to self-inflicted punishment. So how exactly did the Black Death effect the people of Europe? What were their responses to the pandemic? How did these responses effect the social, religious, political and economic structures of medieval Europe? Some, like Zeigler would say that the course of Europe "changed by the coming of the Black Death, which did but accelerate a movement already in being,"(258) suggesting that the Black Death was merely a catalyst for change. Perhaps this is true, but

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T o what extent does the Demographic Transition Model provide a reliable and accurate representation of Europe's demographic past? What are the main problems of measuring the chief variables in the model?

T o what extent does the Demographic Transition Model provide a reliable and accurate representation of Europe's demographic past? What are the main problems of measuring the chief variables in the model? The demographic transition is a term that describes the complex process of passage from disorder to order and from waste to economy. Demographic growth takes place with varying degrees of intensity within a fairly large strategic place, therefore rates of growth or decline can lead a population to rapid expansion or extinction. During the past two centuries western populations have passed through all phases of the trajectory of the modern demographic cycle. In Europe population has multiplied fourfold, life expectancy has increased from 25-35 to 75-80, the average number of children per woman has declined from 5 to less than two and both fertility and mortality rates have declined from 30-40 per 1000 to approximately 10 per 1000. Thus significantly altering the demographic structure. In this essay I intend to discuss the extent to which the Demographic Transition Model provides a reliable and accurate representation of Europe's demographic past. Demographers describe the history of population growth in Western Europe in terms of a process of "demographic transition," a model that charts three aspects of population growth. The model describes how the separate factors that

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Did the state of the English Church by the 1530s mean that it was "ripe for reform"?

Did the state of the English Church by the 1530s mean that it was "ripe for reform"? Before the 16th century, nearly without exception, the whole of English society adhered to Catholicism and as R.N. Swanson states; "the church in medieval England was closely integrated into the life of the nation." The Reformation that occurred in the 16th century drastically changed this situation, eventually producing a system where both Catholicism and Protestantism existed and competed. This change in the religious aspect of society was not as severe, violent or fast-paced as the reformations witnessed on the continent and there has been some debate as to its existence in English history. There is little doubt that it was indeed a process that occurred, in English history Christopher Haigh uses the concept of reformation to represent the collection of social and political changes that eventually contributed to the alteration of the religious system. These changes are essentially indicative of a suppression of Catholicism, the growth in secularism and the general Protestantisation of society. This was achieved through a break from a church controlled by the Pope and a codified prohibition of Catholic practices, fundamentally reformation was a process linked with the development of the state and its relentless incursion on society. If it is reasonably clear how the reformation

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What were the main causes of population decline in England from the beginning of the fourteenth century?

What were the main causes of population decline in England from the beginning of the fourteenth century? In the fourteenth century there was a huge demographic crisis and England's population fell dramatically taking centuries to fully recover. The most obvious cause for this was the Black Death that swept through Europe arriving in England in the summer of 1348. However the population of England was already falling by the time the plague arrived. Figure 1 shows that the population reached a high around 1300 but started to decline for the next 50 years until the plague where population drops and by 1525, when these figures end, the population has not even reached half of the 1300 levels. In his early work Postan argues that the decline cannot be purely blamed on the plague but that there must have been other more fundamental reasons such as over population and exhaustion of the land. I will examine other causes of population decline such as famine, war and fertility rates as well as disease to determine the main cause of this decline. However this is complex to examine as this was "a period with no parish registers, no hearth taxes, no large scale censuses excepting Doomsday book and few serviceable taxation returns excepting those of 1377."1 The records left are mainly of the wealthy and the monks who kept detailed records which although useful is frustrating as

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If sodomy/homosexuality was 'unmentionable' in the Middle Ages, how can we write its history?

If sodomy/homosexuality was 'unmentionable' in the Middle Ages, how can we write its history? The study of gender, specifically homosexuality, is a relatively new invention. Tied up in the rise of feminism and the documentation of females in history, as a tributary of this, is the study of homosexuality through the ages. This essay is therefore part of an ongoing field of relatively new study. John Boswell, in my opinion clearly describes the difficulty of the study in such an "unexplored" area. Indeed, writers are often forced down "wrong paths" as well as "dead ends". However the comfort lies in the knowledge that we have "opened trails" and "posted landmarks" so others can "reach destinations beyond his furthest advance".1 In order to answer this question, one needs to ascertain, clearly, what this question is demanding. Within this essay I am going to clearly define "homosexuality" and "sodomy" within the boundaries of the Middle Ages. Whether, it was "unmentionable" and to what extent this contributes to our ability to record its history. Of the evidence available to us, we must also deem its effectiveness, in enabling us to accurately access homosexuality in the Middle Ages. In this essay, I am going to argue, that, through the study of primary sources relating to the existence of homosexuality, we can, indeed, write its history. However the evidence available to

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