What happened after the terrible plague in European history?

/kloc-The Black Death that broke out in the middle of the 0/4th century weakened the authority of the church, and people began to think about the world around them with their own cognitive abilities.

With the brewing and spreading of these independent new ideas, the traditional social order has been shaken and self-salvation actions have begun to appear.

/kloc-In the middle of the 0/4th century, a great plague called "Black Death" broke out in Europe. According to reports, nearly two-thirds of the students at Oxford University died at that time, and about 25 million people died in Europe.

As an emergency, this plague not only brought catastrophe to mankind, but also had a far-reaching impact on human civilization itself.

Now we look back at this disaster and find that the Black Death played an important role in the process of Europe's coming out of the Middle Ages. It was in silence and darkness that Europe ushered in the dawn of the Renaissance, and a new era of thinking and questioning came quietly.

In this sense, the Black Death has become an important inducement for Europe to get rid of the shackles of the Middle Ages and realize the cultural transformation in Europe, which may be the dialectics of history.

Shake the authority of the church

During the outbreak of the Black Death, panicked people were anxious to find out the cause of the plague. How did the Black Death happen? How to treat or stop its spread? According to the belief system of "original sin-atonement-judgment", the absolutely authoritative church gave the answer of "God's condemnation".

They believe that the Black Death is God's punishment for the sins of the world.

In order to appease God's anger, people must constantly repent and suppress their desires. Some flogging believers even use harsh self-flogging to get rid of their sins in order to get God's forgiveness.

However, the Black Death mercilessly denied the church's explanation. Despite people's constant prayers, thousands of people were taken away, including virtuous priests and nuns.

Therefore, people have raised the question: What behavior has caused God's anger, and why do good people and bad people die in large numbers? If adults pay the due price for crime, why do innocent children have to bear the punishment of death? In particular, what cannot be justified is why priests, as messengers of God, are not spared. These are beyond the reasonable explanation of the church.

The most ironic thing is that Archbishop William Eddington, who declared "the scourge theory", soon became ill and became one of the earliest victims in Britain.

Religious beliefs began to loosen. We saw some changes in people's thoughts in Boccaccio's decameron, which actually expressed people's disappointment with God, because God did not come forward to stop the plague.

When the Black Death showed the cruel face and absurd nature of the world, people doubted the church system.

Since God is silent about human suffering, people need to find new doctrines to explain these sufferings.

As a result, after the Black Death, various new and perhaps equally absurd explanations were staged in Europe, thus shaking the absolute authority of the church to some extent.

The emergence of these heresies led to the division of the Christian world and became a precursor to the great religious change after 150 years.

During the epidemic of the Black Death, people were also disappointed with the performance of some priests in the church.

Due to the terrible infectivity of the Black Death, the death rate of priests was high.

In the face of the threat of death, although some priests with good conduct can stick to their duties, many priests have chosen to escape from the dying, not listening to the confession of the dying, or even escaping from the patients, or "fearing death" or "even ignoring their salaries".

The clergy died and fled, resulting in a shortage of clergy. However, the newly recruited clergy have a low cultural quality and cannot strictly perform their rescue duties. Instead, he took the opportunity to enrich himself and accept a large number of donations from the deceased, thus making a fortune.

These behaviors aroused people's hatred for priests, and also weakened the sense of sacredness of the church in people's minds to some extent.

The seemingly hypocritical but extravagant, lascivious and extortionate priest described in decameron is a new understanding of priests during the Black Death.

The secularism of eating, drinking and enjoying.

At the same time, the ubiquitous shadow of death brought by the Black Death had a great impact on people's concepts and values, aroused people's longing for life, and many people's beliefs were shaken and changed.

In the face of death, people turn their eyes from the expectation of heaven to the enjoyment of the world, and the social psychology of enjoying life is popular. People forget the rules of theology, drink and sing, have fun and stay up all night.

When the threat of death hangs high above your head, it is better to summon up the courage to live and "live to death" than to be afraid of death.

Death may come at any time, but life goes on. People attach importance to individual life and secular happiness, and no longer suppress their own desires. The more you face death, the more you should cherish the life you have.

With the increasing prevalence of the Black Death, people's concept of abstinence began to disintegrate, and various hedonistic lifestyles began to prevail.

The praise of young men and women enjoying love life in literary works of this period highlights the tendency to break through theological asceticism and affirm the value of secular life.

In decameron, Boccaccio described the love life of young men and women through many vivid stories, showing the interest of life and satirizing the hypocritical asceticism of the church.

In those stories, love is no longer a sin condemned by religious theology, but a normal requirement of human nature.

Boccaccio used a new ethical standard to evaluate love and praised the sincere love of young men and women who broke the family background. It is in this sense that the works are especially tolerant to those lovers and mistresses who have true feelings.

The novel further shows us the charm of love, which can not only stimulate people's intelligence, but also have great power to purify people's hearts.

Boccaccio's attitude towards love and church represents the rise of a new humanistic spirit.

Initially establish a sense of autonomy

The outbreak of the Black Death in Europe objectively produced another unexpected driving force, that is, the formation of people's sense of independence.

People in the middle ages lived under the authority of the church, and it was difficult to form the consciousness that people were born free and equal. Obeying God's arrangement has become their creed in life.

/kloc-the plague that broke out in the middle of the 0/4th century weakened the authority of the church, and people began to think about the world around them with their own cognitive ability.

With the brewing and spreading of these independent new ideas, the traditional social order has been shaken and self-salvation actions have begun to appear.

The formation of people's independent consciousness is first manifested in the treatment and prevention of the Black Death.

When the church asked people to endure and submit, but could not stop the spread of the plague, some doctors began to seek solutions to treat patients, although this had little effect.

These attempts by doctors have given people a positive belief, that is, in the face of the merciless plague, only by taking action and taking various measures can we get out of the predicament.

It can be said that people's rescue and prevention behavior has become a rehearsal for the Renaissance to get rid of God's rule and restore people's dominant position.

At the same time, in the face of the ubiquitous death brought by the Black Death, identity, rank and family status lost their meaning, thus objectively promoting the germination of the concept of equality.

Death makes the hierarchical differences among kings, nobles, monks and civilians disappear.

The plague not only changed people's hierarchical concept, but also impacted the hierarchical system in reality.

The plague caused a large population decline, resulting in a serious shortage of labor.

Due to the shortage of surplus manpower and rising labor prices, employers have to recruit labor by raising wages. In this way, it not only constituted the transfer of labor force, but also transformed the dependence between farmers and feudal lords into monetary relations, thus accelerating the decline and disintegration of manor economy.

The measures taken by the rulers to limit wages by enacting laws have not only failed, but have intensified the contradiction between the ruling class and farmers and aroused a series of peasant uprisings aimed at opposing social inequality.

They challenge the principle of inequality that has never been questioned before, thus "showing a new idea that is being formed in human affairs". This new concept comes from the equal needs and identity consciousness of the bottom people, and the flow of labor force makes it possible for the free labor needed for the development of capitalism.

Although the outbreak of the Black Death in the Middle Ages was an accidental factor, it accelerated the historical process in a horrible way and gave birth to the revival of European humanism.

The great pain and fear brought by the Black Death shook the absolute authority of the church, bred the secularism of eating, drinking and having fun in time at the end of the Middle Ages, and cultivated an independent new personality, which to some extent laid the foundation for the coming brilliant Renaissance.