How did the Black Death affect religious people and their economy?

Answer 1

I'd say that the Catholic church were pretty much running around, being religious people, and claiming that the Lord had not favored the people and their disloyalty to the church.

They weren't too used to the fact that science and disease just happened, because they all believed in the Father that created it all, and everything, from floods to plagues, were "blamed" on Him, so the church had to do something about it.

They were a pretty high status group (the church), so they could advise rulers and people to be more cautious and take more care about everything. The people would probably listen, because so many were lost in the Black Death.

Answer 2

A lot of people thought the Black Death was punishment from God. Further, they blamed the Jews for it. The Jews had better hygiene than most of the other Europeans hence they suffered less from the Black Death, and they kept cats which kept down the rat population in the areas that they lived in--hence less plague for them. This caused more accusations of witch craft. For these reasons there were pogroms against them.

So many people died that there was much land in Europe that was left without owners. Often heirs could not be found. So a lot of land was given to the Church.

Answer 3

The Black Death was an outbreak of bubonic plague that entered Melcombe Regis in 1348, and within a year had killed nearly half the population.

The Black Death, began with a minor outbreak of bubonic plague, medical term Yersinia Pestis, which started in the Gobi Dessert. It was transmitted throughout China and reached Europe when a Kipchak army, besieging a Crimean trading post, catapulted plague-infested corpses over the city walls. Plague spread throughout Europe, carried by fleas in the fur of rats, and eventually reached the Dorset coast on 24th June 1348.

Contagion carried quickly, and about two thirds of the population became infected. The morbidity rate was about 66%, i.e. if you caught it, you had a two to one chance of dying. Chroniclers relate how the disease raged in a town for about a month and then left. It moved gradually northwards until it had burnt itself out. Within twelve months, nearly half the population was dead.

After the problem of burying the dead in plague pits was over, people tried to get back to normality. But life was never the same again. The decreased population meant a shortage of labour and workmen demanded and received pay increases. The government of Edward III tried to cap pay increases by an Act of Parliament, The Statute of Labourers, the first government attempt to control the economy. Workmen who demanded too much were placed in the stocks, that is trapped in a wooden gadget for a day, and employers who paid over the odds were fined. The Act was largely unsuccessful as employers coaxed workers from other employers, with promises abundant pay increases, and wages kept on rising. One recorded case shows that a joiner who built the stocks for the punishment of greedy workers was paid three times the legal rate for his labour.

The government also passed The Sumptuary Act of 1367, making it illegal for the lower classes to spend their new wealth on new apparel of ermine or silk. Only the aristocracy and some senior gentlefolk were allowed to wear these items. Today when barristers are raised to the rank of Queen’s Council, they are said to ‘take silk’, indicating their elevation in status. The Act has never been repealed, so if you wear silk, and if any of Edward III’s commissioners are still alive, you could get put in the stocks!

By the reign of Richard II, the economy had settled down and landowners switched from labour intensive methods, grain production, to low labour processes, particularly sheep farming. Increased wool production boosted the economy and became the nation’s chief export, making England a major economic power.

Answer 4

I am not quite sure what you mean by the religious economy, but while the Bubonic Plague killed 1/3 of the population of Europe, the fraction of clergy who died of the disease was closer to 1/2 due to many priests praying over the sick and dead, causing them to become infected by the airborne disease.

Answer 5

Well, most people were very religious in the Middle Ages.

And considering the Plague killed 1/3 of the population, I don't see how it could NOT affect them.

Answer 6

All of Europe was affected. It started in Italy when sailors and traders coming from Asia Minor infected people in the seaports. They in turn carried it inland and it spread over the entire continent, including England and Ireland. No one group was not affected

Answer 7

They died along with their economy.