In the fourteenth century, plagues swept through Europe, killing a quarter of a million people and recurring approximately five times for nearly a century. It made humankind fully aware of life's brevity and of death's pitilessness. This "Black Death" changed history, placed a twelve-year-old-king on the throne and weakened the Church's grip on the people such that it never regained its full power.
Events that would shock future generations occurred daily in this era, when people were so confused, ashamed and helpless that they ignored old customs and religious practices. Pope Clement VI had to consecrate the Rhone River so corpses could be sunk in it, families buried their dead only to have the bodies exhumed a week or two later to make room for more, mass graves were dug outside towns for cadavers to be discarded in. People were blind to the atrocities committed everywhere and accepted them as a typical way of life. (Knox 1)
The Black Death is thought to have originated in Asia's Gobi Desert and was brought to Europe by traveling armies in the 1340's. Plague was perhaps the world's first biological weapon: diseased carcasses were catapulted into besieged cities to kill defending troops. …
