We have no certain measure by which to estimate the ravages of the Black
Plague, if numerical statements were wanted, as in modern times. Let us
go back for a moment to the fourteenth century. The people were yet but
little civilised. The Church had indeed subdued them; but they all
suffered from the ill consequences of their original rudeness. The
dominion of the law was not yet confirmed. Sovereigns had everywhere to
combat powerful enemies to internal tranquillity and security. The
cities were fortresses for their own defence. Marauders encamped on the
roads. The husbandman was a feudal slave, without possessions of his
own. Rudeness was general, humanity as yet unknown to the people.
Witches and heretics were burned alive. Gentle rulers were contemned as
weak; wild passions, severity and cruelty, everywhere predominated. Human
life was little regarded. Governments concerned not themselves about the
numbers of their subjects, for whose welfare it was incumbent on them to
provide. Thus, the first requisite for estimating the loss of human
life, namely, a knowledge of the amount of the population, is altogether
wanting; and, moreover, the traditional statements of the amount of this
loss are so vague, that from this source likewise there is only room for
probable conjecture.
Cairo lost daily, when the plague was raging with its greatest violence,
from 10,000 to 15,000; being as many as, in modern times, great plagues
have carried off during their whole course. In China, more than thirteen
millions are said to have died; and this is in correspondence with the
certainly exaggerated accounts from the rest of Asia. India was
depopulated. Tartary, the Tartar kingdom of Kaptschak, Mesopotamia,
Syria, Armenia, were covered with dead bodies--the Kurds fled in vain to
the mountains. In Caramania and Caesarea none were left alive. On the
roads--in the camps--in the caravansaries--unburied bodies alone were
seen; and a few cities only (Arabian historians name Maarael-Nooman,
Schisur, and Harem) remained, in an unaccountable manner, free. In
Aleppo, 500 died daily; 22,000 people, and most of the animals, were
carried off in Gaza, within six weeks. Cyprus lost almost all its
inhabitants; and ships without crews were often seen in the
Mediterranean, as afterwards in the North Sea, driving about, and
spreading the plague wherever they went on shore. It was reported to
Pope Clement, at Avignon, that throughout the East, probably with the
exception of China, 23,840,000 people had fallen victims to the plague.
Considering the occurrences of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, we
might, on first view, suspect the accuracy of this statement. How (it
might be asked) could such great wars have been carried on--such powerful
efforts have been made; how could the Greek Empire, only a hundred years
later, have been overthrown, if the people really had been so utterly
destroyed?
This account is nevertheless rendered credible by the ascertained fact,
that the palaces of princes are less accessible to contagious diseases
than the dwellings of the multitude; and that in places of importance,
the influx from those districts which have suffered least, soon repairs
even the heaviest losses. We must remember, also, that we do not gather
much from mere numbers without an intimate knowledge of the state of
society. We will therefore confine ourselves to exhibiting some of the
more credible accounts relative to European cities.
In Florence there died of the Black Plague--60,000
In Venice--100,000
In Marseilles, in one month--16,000
In Siena--70,000
In Paris--50,000
In St. Denys--14,000
In Avignon--60,000
In Strasburg--16,000
In Lubeck--9,000
In Basle--14,000
In Erfurt, at least--16,000
In Weimar--5,000
In Limburg--2,500
In London, at least--100,000
In Norwich--51,100
To which may be added--
Franciscan Friars in German--124,434
Minorites in Italy--30,000
This short catalogue might, by a laborious and uncertain calculation,
deduced from other sources, be easily further multiplied, but would still
fail to give a true picture of the depopulation which took place. Lubeck,
at that time the Venice of the North, which could no longer contain the
multitudes that flocked to it, was thrown into such consternation on the
eruption of the plague, that the citizens destroyed themselves as if in
frenzy.
Merchants whose earnings and possessions were unbounded, coldly and
willingly renounced their earthly goods. They carried their treasures to
monasteries and churches, and laid them at the foot of the altar; but
gold had no charms for the monks, for it brought them death. They shut
their gates; yet, still it was cast to them over the convent walls.
People would brook no impediment to the last pious work to which they
were driven by despair. When the plague ceased, men thought they were
still wandering among the dead, so appalling was the livid aspect of the
survivors, in consequence of the anxiety they had undergone, and the
unavoidable infection of the air. Many other cities probably presented a
similar appearance; and it is ascertained that a great number of small
country towns and villages, which have been estimated, and not too
highly, at 200,000, were bereft of all their inhabitants.
In many places in France, not more than two out of twenty of the
inhabitants were left alive, and the capital felt the fury of the plague,
alike in the palace and the cot.
Two queens, one bishop, and great numbers of other distinguished persons,
fell a sacrifice to it, and more than 500 a day died in the Hotel Dieu,
under the faithful care of the sisters of charity, whose disinterested
courage, in this age of horror, displayed the most beautiful traits of
human virtue. For although they lost their lives, evidently from
contagion, and their numbers were several times renewed, there was still
no want of fresh candidates, who, strangers to the unchristian fear of
death, piously devoted themselves to their holy calling.
The churchyards were soon unable to contain the dead, and many houses,
left without inhabitants, fell to ruins.
In Avignon, the Pope found it necessary to consecrate the Rhone, that
bodies might be thrown into the river without delay, as the churchyards
would no longer hold them; so likewise, in all populous cities,
extraordinary measures were adopted, in order speedily to dispose of the
dead. In Vienna, where for some time 1,200 inhabitants died daily, the
interment of corpses in the churchyards and within the churches was
forthwith prohibited; and the dead were then arranged in layers, by
thousands, in six large pits outside the city, as had already been done
in Cairo and Paris. Yet, still many were secretly buried; for at all
times the people are attached to the consecrated cemeteries of their
dead, and will not renounce the customary mode of interment.
In many places it was rumoured that plague patients were buried alive, as
may sometimes happen through senseless alarm and indecent haste; and thus
the horror of the distressed people was everywhere increased. In Erfurt,
after the churchyards were filled, 12,000 corpses were thrown into eleven
great pits; and the like might, more or less exactly, be stated with
respect to all the larger cities. Funeral ceremonies, the last
consolation of the survivors, were everywhere impracticable.
In all Germany, according to a probable calculation, there seem to have
died only 1,244,434 inhabitants; this country, however, was more spared
than others: Italy, on the contrary, was most severely visited. It is
said to have lost half its inhabitants; and this account is rendered
credible from the immense losses of individual cities and provinces: for
in Sardinia and Corsica, according to the account of the distinguished
Florentine, John Villani, who was himself carried off by the Black
Plague, scarcely a third part of the population remained alive; and it is
related of the Venetians, that they engaged ships at a high rate to
retreat to the islands; so that after the plague had carried off three-
fourths of her inhabitants, that proud city was left forlorn and
desolate. In Padua, after the cessation of the plague, two-thirds of the
inhabitants were wanting; and in Florence it was prohibited to publish
the numbers of dead, and to toll the bells at their funerals, in order
that the living might not abandon themselves to despair.
We have more exact accounts of England; most of the great cities suffered
incredible losses; above all, Yarmouth, in which 7,052 died; Bristol,
Oxford, Norwich, Leicester, York, and London, where in one burial ground
alone, there were interred upwards of 50,000 corpses, arranged in layers,
in large pits. It is said that in the whole country scarcely a tenth
part remained alive; but this estimate is evidently too high. Smaller
losses were sufficient to cause those convulsions, whose consequences
were felt for some centuries, in a false impulse given to civil life, and
whose indirect influence, unknown to the English, has perhaps extended
even to modern times.
Morals were deteriorated everywhere, and the service of God was in a
great measure laid aside; for, in many places, the churches were
deserted, being bereft of their priests. The instruction of the people
was impeded; covetousness became general; and when tranquillity was
restored, the great increase of lawyers was astonishing, to whom the
endless disputes regarding inheritances offered a rich harvest. The want
of priests too, throughout the country, operated very detrimentally upon
the people (the lower classes being most exposed to the ravages of the
plague, whilst the houses of the nobility were, in proportion, much more
spared), and it was no compensation that whole bands of ignorant laymen,
who had lost their wives during the pestilence, crowded into the monastic
orders, that they might participate in the respectability of the
priesthood, and in the rich heritages which fell in to the Church from
all quarters. The sittings of Parliament, of the King's Bench, and of
most of the other courts, were suspended as long as the malady raged. The
laws of peace availed not during the dominion of death. Pope Clement
took advantage of this state of disorder to adjust the bloody quarrel
between Edward III and Philip VI; yet he only succeeded during the period
that the plague commanded peace. Philip's death (1350) annulled all
treaties; and it is related that Edward, with other troops indeed, but
with the same leaders and knights, again took the field. Ireland was
much less heavily visited that England. The disease seems to have
scarcely reached the mountainous districts of that kingdom; and Scotland
too would perhaps have remained free, had not the Scots availed
themselves of the discomfiture of the English to make an irruption into
their territory, which terminated in the destruction of their army, by
the plague and by the sword, and the extension of the pestilence, through
those who escaped, over the whole country.
At the commencement, there was in England a superabundance of all the
necessaries of life; but the plague, which seemed then to be the sole
disease, was soon accompanied by a fatal murrain among the cattle.
Wandering about without herdsmen, they fell by thousands; and, as has
likewise been observed in Africa, the birds and beasts of prey are said
not to have touched them. Of what nature this murrain may have been, can
no more be determined, than whether it originated from communication with
plague patients, or from other causes; but thus much is certain, that it
did not break out until after the commencement of the Black Death. In
consequence of this murrain, and the impossibility of removing the corn
from the fields, there was everywhere a great rise in the price of food,
which to many was inexplicable, because the harvest had been plentiful;
by others it was attributed to the wicked designs of the labourers and
dealers; but it really had its foundation in the actual deficiency
arising from circumstances by which individual classes at all times
endeavour to profit. For a whole year, until it terminated in August,
1349, the Black Plague prevailed in this beautiful island, and everywhere
poisoned the springs of comfort and prosperity.
In other countries, it generally lasted only half a year, but returned
frequently in individual places; on which account, some, without
sufficient proof, assigned to it a period of seven years.
Spain was uninterruptedly ravaged by the Black Plague till after the year
1350, to which the frequent internal feuds and the wars with the Moors
not a little contributed. Alphonso XI., whose passion for war carried
him too far, died of it at the siege of Gibraltar, on the 26th of March,
1350. He was the only king in Europe who fell a sacrifice to it; but
even before this period, innumerable families had been thrown into
affliction. The mortality seems otherwise to have been smaller in Spain
than in Italy, and about as considerable as in France.
The whole period during which the Black Plague raged with destructive
violence in Europe was, with the exception of Russia, from the year 1347
to 1350. The plagues which in the sequel often returned until the year
1383, we do not consider as belonging to "the Great Mortality." They
were rather common pestilences, without inflammation of the lungs, such
as in former times, and in the following centuries, were excited by the
matter of contagion everywhere existing, and which, on every favourable
occasion, gained ground anew, as is usually the case with this frightful
disease.
The concourse of large bodies of people was especially dangerous; and
thus the premature celebration of the Jubilee to which Clement VI. cited
the faithful to Rome (1350) during the great epidemic, caused a new
eruption of the plague, from which it is said that scarcely one in a
hundred of the pilgrims escaped.
Italy was, in consequence, depopulated anew; and those who returned,
spread poison and corruption of morals in all directions. It is
therefore the less apparent how that Pope, who was in general so wise and
considerate, and who knew how to pursue the path of reason and humanity
under the most difficult circumstances, should have been led to adopt a
measure so injurious; since he himself was so convinced of the salutary
effect of seclusion, that during the plague in Avignon he kept up
constant fires, and suffered no one to approach him; and in other
respects gave such orders as averted, or alleviated, much misery.
The changes which occurred about this period in the north of Europe are
sufficiently memorable to claim a few moments' attention. In Sweden two
princes died--Haken and Knut, half-brothers of King Magnus; and in
Westgothland alone, 466 priests. The inhabitants of Iceland and
Greenland found in the coldness of their inhospitable climate no
protection against the southern enemy who had penetrated to them from
happier countries. The plague caused great havoc among them. Nature
made no allowance for their constant warfare with the elements, and the
parsimony with which she had meted out to them the enjoyments of life. In
Denmark and Norway, however, people were so occupied with their own
misery, that the accustomed voyages to Greenland ceased. Towering
icebergs formed at the same time on the coast of East Greenland, in
consequence of the general concussion of the earth's organism; and no
mortal, from that time forward, has ever seen that shore or its
inhabitants.
It has been observed above, that in Russia the Black Plague did not break
out until 1351, after it had already passed through the south and north
of Europe. In this country also, the mortality was extraordinarily
great; and the same scenes of affliction and despair were exhibited, as
had occurred in those nations which had already passed the ordeal: the
same mode of burial--the same horrible certainty of death--the same
torpor and depression of spirits. The wealthy abandoned their treasures,
and gave their villages and estates to the churches and monasteries; this
being, according to the notions of the age, the surest way of securing
the favour of Heaven and the forgiveness of past sins. In Russia, too,
the voice of nature was silenced by fear and horror. In the hour of
danger, fathers and mothers deserted their children, and children their
parents.
Of all the estimates of the number of lives lost in Europe, the most
probable is, that altogether a fourth part of the inhabitants were
carried off. Now, if Europe at present contain 210,000,000 inhabitants,
the population, not to take a higher estimate, which might easily by
justified, amounted to at least 105,000,000 in the sixteenth century.
It may therefore be assumed, without exaggeration, that Europe lost
during the Black Death 25,000,000 of inhabitants.
That her nations could so quickly overcome such a fearful concussion in
their external circumstances, and, in general, without retrograding more
than they actually did, could so develop their energies in the following
century, is a most convincing proof of the indestructibility of human
society as a whole. To assume, however, that it did not suffer any
essential change internally, because in appearance everything remained as
before, is inconsistent with a just view of cause and effect. Many
historians seem to have adopted such an opinion; accustomed, as usual, to
judge of the moral condition of the people solely according to the
vicissitudes of earthly power, the events of battles, and the influence
of religion, but to pass over with indifference the great phenomena of
nature, which modify, not only the surface of the earth, but also the
human mind. Hence, most of them have touched but superficially on the
"Great Mortality" of the fourteenth century. We, for our parts, are
convinced that in the history of the world the Black Death is one of the
most important events which have prepared the way for the present state
of Europe.
He who studies the human mind with attention, and forms a deliberate
judgment on the intellectual powers which set people and States in
motion, may perhaps find some proofs of this assertion in the following
observations:--at that time, the advancement of the hierarchy was, in
most countries, extraordinary; for the Church acquired treasures and
large properties in land, even to a greater extent than after the
Crusades; but experience has demonstrated that such a state of things is
ruinous to the people, and causes them to retrograde, as was evinced on
this occasion.
After the cessation of the Black Plague, a greater fecundity in women was
everywhere remarkable--a grand phenomenon, which, from its occurrence
after every destructive pestilence, proves to conviction, if any
occurrence can do so, the prevalence of a higher power in the direction
of general organic life. Marriages were, almost without exception,
prolific; and double and triple births were more frequent than at other
times; under which head, we should remember the strange remark, that
after the "Great Mortality" the children were said to have got fewer
teeth than before; at which contemporaries were mightily shocked, and
even later writers have felt surprise.
If we examine the grounds of this oft-repeated assertion, we shall find
that they were astonished to see children, cut twenty, or at most, twenty-
two teeth, under the supposition that a greater number had formerly
fallen to their share. Some writers of authority, as, for example, the
physician Savonarola, at Ferrara, who probably looked for twenty-eight
teeth in children, published their opinions on this subject. Others
copied from them, without seeing for themselves, as often happens in
other matters which are equally evident; and thus the world believed in
the miracle of an imperfection in the human body which had been caused by
the Black Plague.
The people gradually consoled themselves after the sufferings which they
had undergone; the dead were lamented and forgotten; and, in the stirring
vicissitudes of existence, the world belonged to the living.