So, at last, the end is nigh. I have reached the end of my Odyssey through the merciless killer that was the Black Death. A killer, and, if I am correct, one which was both more contagious and more virulent and deadly than anything with which we have to deal with today.

I have dealt with the epidemiology at some length. What about the social effects? What happens when between a third and sixty percent of the people around you died within a period of months or even weeks? And why were some people immune?

There was obvious panic and chaos. Naturally to the Medieval mind the pestilence was analysed as some sort of curse from God. Strange cults grew up. One of the most well known was the Flagellant movement. These religious radicals their faces with red crosses and dressed in sombre garb, armed with some sort whip or lash often inset with sharp spikes or nails, or a leather thong tipped with metal studs with which to tear at the flesh in penitence for their and Mankind’s sins.

The Flagellants marched from town to town in long crocodiles, two by two. Men and women were segregated, with the women at the rear of the column. Apart from occasional hymns they marched in silence, faces hidden in cowls. Some wore hair shirts or covered themselves in ashes.

When they reached a town they would – often with the support of the local population – take over the local church for their own ceremonies, or just commandeer the local market. They would form a large circle and strip to the waist. Sometimes a dead child might be placed at the centre of the circle in some form of attempted magic ritual and the hope it would be resurrected. The Flagellants would then march in a circle until on a given signal hurling themselves to the ground, often adopting the posture of a crucified being. The Master of the group then moved amongst them, administering thrashings. Then came a collective purging. Each Flagellant would then whip himself or herself raw to the beat of chanted prayers and hymns, faster and faster as the ceremony went on. They whipped themselves to a frenzy, collapse and even death.

Henry of Hertford (also sometimes called Henry of Avebury) records this:

“Each scourge was a kind of stick from which three tails with large knots hung down. Through the knots were thrust iron spikes as sharp as needles which projected the length of a grain of wheat or sometimes a little more. With such scourges they lashed themselves on their naked bodies so that they became swollen and blue, the blood ran to the ground and bespattered the walls of the churches in which they scourged themselves. Occasionally they drove in the spikes so deep that they could only be pulled out by a second wrench.” 

This movement of extreme and ultra pious lay people threatened the authority of the Church; they also probably helped to spread the pestilence more quickly.

Another, and also probably predictable, aspect of the plague is something which the 20^th Century might well have recognised: purges, murder and pogroms. No doubt any scapegoat weirdo would do, but a particular target was, as ever, the Jews, who were variously tortured, burned, and hanged, being accused of poisoning the wells and air and so forth. And not always from simple religious piety. As one academic puts it rather neatly “It was an opportunity…to liquidate their debts by liquidating their creditors.” Massacres took place in at least 100 towns across Europe, but we should not think that England was spared. In Norwich, the bodies of 31 individuals have been found cast dumped into the remains of a well, under what is now a shopping centre. Modern DNA analysis and facial reconstruction confirms these were of Eastern European extraction and related, and isotope carbon dating places the bodies as being from the early 14^th Century. Whilst I cannot say for certain that they were murdered (or committed suicide in the face of impending horror) because of the Black Death itself, it is a possibility.

On a wider front, the Black Death changed the Western World for ever. Before the Black Death, many, if not most, of the population were serfs, eking out a living on two or three acres, bound by custom, law and fear to give service to the local magnate or lord. But with up to half or more of the population gone, this changed. Crops went uncollected, animals unfed and untended. Now the surviving “serfs” became owners of larger areas of land, and more – they were no longer serfs, they were valuable workers. An agricultural working class was born, claiming higher wages, mobile if needs be, free – and able to bargain, and even go on strike.

The Black Death freed the oppressed classes, and can be said to be the founding of a robust working class – and broke the yoke of feudalism. Without it, the modern world may never have been born.

And finally, there is one question which has often arisen during the course of this little journey. How is it that whole families died, but perhaps one amongst them survived untouched? Why could some few souls survive infection?

Some learned Raccoonistas have already hinted at the probable reason, and it is a factor which may well affect current research into HIV/AIDs, and even cancer.

I am not a scientist, and I am happy to be corrected, but as I understand the science is follows. The viruses work by invading and interfering with the genetic structure of the host’s cells. HIV does this by invading the white blood cells and then taking a ride to the lymph nodes, the body’s internal factories of resistance. It then runs riot and destroys the immune system from within.

In America, there is a man called Steve Crohn. He is a gay man, sexually active in the high risk group of the 1980’s in San Francisco. But he did not get sick or die. His friends did. In a chance conversation someone put the question to him: since you are alive, why don’t the doctors test you, and see why you aren’t ill? A simple, obvious, and yet brilliant observation.

Steve offered himself up for tests. One open minded doctor saw the logic, and agreed. Samples of his blood were taken and subject to massive overdoses of the HIV virus. His blood remained supremely unperturbed. In short, he was immune.

The theory is as follows. Significant parts of the European population carry the small genetic mutation known as CCR5 – Delta 32. It appears that this genetic mutation, or protein, coats the cells of the host so that HIV cannot enter. And similarly, it prevented the virus that caused the Black Death from gaining access to the system. In very simple terms this genetic variation makes the potential host immune. It is the huge genetic “bouncer” on the door of the party, singularly unimpressed by the virus’s forged invitation.

Given one parent from which CCR5 – Delta 32 is inherited and the person may contract the Black Death, or AIDS – but after a long time, and with some resistance. Given a genetic inheritance from BOTH parents and you were completely immune.

It may be significant that tests on the villagers of Eyam, in Derbyshire, have revealed that the CCR5 – Delta 32 mutation/variant is, in genetic terms, extremely prevalent. In short, only those who had this mutation survived.

And so, this may yet provide a clue to the resistance to HIV and other viruses, and even cancer – because cancers involve cells going wrong, and multiplying without control.

So, something mutated nearly 700 years ago. It spread like wildfire. It killed maybe fifty per cent of Europe’s population, maybe more. Will something mutate again?

Yes.

A Ring-a-ring of rosies

A pocket full of posies

Atishoo! Atishoo!

We all fall down!  

This series of posts is dedicated to Dr Firenza Pesta; a remarkable woman, and the bravest person I have ever met. 

Gildas the Monk

GKN January 14, 2013 at 13:53

Minor point, the organism involved was Yersinia pests, a bacterium rather
than a virus. I am a medico, not a historian but I enjoyed reading this and
other posts about the Black Death. I am intrigued by the body’s response to
disease and have a number of patients that have survived as many as three
different cancers in their lives.

I love the BBC
January 13, 2013 at 16:16

As far as I am aware, the number of bodies in the well in Norwich was
actually 17, the majority of whom were children.
http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/11720
Norwich holds
the unfortunate accolade of being the site of the first fully recorded ‘blood
libel’ against the Jews (abt 1230), who were said to have murdered young
William (later St William, after whom local roads etc are still named) as part
of a Passover blood-drinking rite. Yes, the authorities to their credit
thought it was damn stupid too, and refused to take action against the local
Jewish community.
This unfortunate group of people, many of whom were
related, quite possibly date from an even earlier time in the late 12th
century, when some Norwich citizens decided to emulate the antics of those in
York.

Engineer January 13, 2013 at 14:55

Gildas, I think you’ve tied up the loose ends very nicely. The four
articles have expanded my understanding of the Black Death and it’s
ramifications hugely, and thank you very much indeed for doing that.

Something I’ve seen propounded in the past is that the Black Death sowed
the seeds of the Industrial Revolution, by releasing the economic and social
freedoms that were a prerequisite to allow the human ingenuity unleashed by it
to take such root. Without those freedoms, it probably wouldn’t have happened
– at least, not as it did, and not on these shores. Quite a thought.

A tiny virus doing it’s thing in the fourteenth century ultimately leading
to the modern medical and scientific knowledge to understanding it is quite a
leap. A butterfly flapping it’s wings causing a storm of discovered knowledge
and wisdom. More prosaically, the Black Death led eventually to the
technological wonders of modern communication and transport, the tools
required for scientific investigation, healthcare and comfortable living that
many of us enjoy, and the worst excesses of tabloid journalism – there’s
always a downside, isn’t there?

GildasTheMonk
January 13, 2013 at 15:39

Spot on in so many ways, Engineer!

MTG January 13, 2013 at 17:08

I had always credited the water-wheel as sole Industrial Revolution
‘kick-starter’. But it is entirely reasonable to assume forces for
socio-economic change were additional prerequisites.

Joe Public January 13, 2013 at 11:58

Thank you for sharing your research, Gildas. An eminently readable series
of postings.

Roobeedoo2 January 13, 2013 at 11:33

Dear Gilda, thank you for this Sunday morning series. Serendipidously, I
stumbled across and was fully engrossed with these articles last night:

http://www.sott.net/article/234667-Pestilence-the-Great-Plague-and-the-Tobacco-Cure#

http://joequinn.net/2012/10/09/comets-plagues-tobacco-and-the-origin-of-life-on-earth/

I hope your odyessy is not complete yet.

MTG January 13, 2013 at 10:58

Your well considered observations make you a ‘must read’, Gildas. ‘Why
could some few souls survive infection?’ Every human was born with and
developed unique defences. Evolution favoured survival of the fittest and this
included the additional ‘insurance’ of individuals seeded with special
immunity’.

Span
Ows January 13, 2013 at 10:51

Another great addition to the tome that you should print

I noticed a few area were completely untouched: look at the map of the
advancement of the Black Death here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Blackdeath2.gif

Now at first I thought the Pyrennes would have stayed clear due to
height/cold/snow but other mountainous ranges were affected (whereas Milan nor
a large area around Krakow weren’t)

The Jannie January 13, 2013 at 10:39

Thank you again for an interesting account of fascinating – if horrific –
events.

GildasTheMonk
January 13, 2013 at 10:39

Thanks one and all for kind comments. I was a bit pressed for time and
unable to finish this little piece in the style I had hoped, but for those who
wish to be variously entertained and informed to some degree, I append links
to some documentaries available via the wonder of youtube (although the last
one gets its science of the Black Death wrong, in my view.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsCkgX2epFw&list=FLm0KGiV8R4WI7W44dupzkkw&feature=mh_lolz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs5Uh0Fah_k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZoHVLaF1hs

Finally, I would like to dedicate this little Odyssey to the wonderful Dr
Firenza Pesta – a true “pest” indeed!

G the M

Dai Brainbocs
January 13, 2013 at 10:24

I have little knowledge of the history and none whatsoever of the
epidemiology, but I just love the figure of speech “It is the huge genetic
‘bouncer’ on the door of the party, singularly unimpressed by the virus’s
forged invitation.” A good read!

Wendi January 13, 2013 at 09:35

Very interesting series Gildas.

The description of the Flagellants’ self-immolation reminds me of that
practiced by ‘sinners’ in the Semana Santa (Easter week) processions in every
city and town where droves of ‘fiéles’ dress in long flowing robes with pointy
KKK head-dresses with slits in them to see and are accompanied by barefoot men
dressed in loincloths with heavy wooden crosses chained to their backs, thorns
on their heads and schlepp along whipping themselves with leather straps. When
my Jewish husband saw this for the first time in a town hgh up in the
mountains surrounding Madrid, snow still laying on the ground, he went a
whiter shade of pale and almost puked! I must check this year’s processions
out in Málaga since the country’s in such a bad state these Spanish
flagellants probably won’t be able to afford loincloths!

Will something mutate again? Yes, of course it must and no doubt many
mutations have already happened within the last 700 years we’re totally
unaware of. The next Black Death equivalent would be Nature’s way of dealing
with over-population, leaving behind the immune to maybe ponder and start
over…