Eyewitness+Testimony

Luckily, there is eyewtiness testimonty to the Black Death, despite it occuring over 600 years ago. The first group of testimoney comes from one source, [|The Decameron] by [|Giovanni Boccaccio] who was an Italian author and poet. Below, are some of the [|passages from the book] that are about the Plague that occurred where he lived in 1349.

toc =Decameron=

The Signs of Impending Death
"The symptoms were not the same as in the East, where a gush of blood from the nose was the plain sign of inevitable death; but it began both in men and women with certain swellings in the groin or under the armpit. They grew to the size of a small apple or an egg, more or less, and were vulgarly called tumors. In a short space of time these tumors spread from the two parts named all over the body. Soon after this the symptoms changed and black or purple spots appeared on the arms or thighs or any other part of the body, sometimes a few large ones, sometimes many little ones. These spots were a certain sign of death, just as the original tumor had been and still remained.

No doctor's advice, no medicine could overcome or alleviate this disease, An enormous number of ignorant men and women set up as doctors in addition to those who were trained. Either the disease was such that no treatment was possible or the doctors were so ignorant that they did not know what caused it, and consequently could not administer the proper remedy. In any case very few recovered; most people died within about three days of the appearance of the tumours described above, most of them without any fever or other symptoms.

The violence of this disease was such that the sick communicated it to the healthy who came near them, just as a fire catches anything dry or oily near it. And it even went further. To speak to or go near the sick brought infection and a common death to the living; and moreover, to touch the clothes or anything else the sick had touched or worn gave the disease to the person touching."

Varying Reactions to Disaster
"Such fear and fanciful notions took possession of the living that almost all of them adopted the same cruel policy, which was entirely to avoid the sick and everything belonging to them. By so doing, each one thought he would secure his own safety.

Some thought that moderate living and the avoidance of all superfluity would preserve them from the epidemic. They formed small communities, living entirely separate from everybody else. They shut themselves up in houses where there were no sick, eating the finest food and drinking the best wine very temperately, avoiding all excess, allowing no news or discussion of death and sickness, and passing the time in music and suchlike pleasures.

Others thought just the opposite. They thought the sure cure for the plague was to drink and be merry, to go about singing and amusing themselves, satisfying every appetite they could, laughing and jesting at what happened. They put their words into practice, spent day and night going from tavern to tavern, drinking immoderately, or went into other people's houses, doing only those things which pleased them. This they could easily do because everyone felt doomed and had abandoned his property, so that most houses became common property and any stranger who went in made use of them as if he had owned them. And with all this bestial behaviour, they avoided the sick as much as possible.

In this suffering and misery of our city, the authority of human and divine laws almost disappeared, for, like other men, the ministers and the executors of the laws were all dead or sick or shut up with their families, so that no duties were carried out. Every man was therefore able to do as he pleased.

Many others adopted a course of life midway between the two just described. They did not restrict their victuals so much as the former, nor allow themselves to be drunken and dissolute like the latter, but satisfied their appetites moderately. They did not shut themselves up, but went about, carrying flowers or scented herbs or perfumes in their hands, in the belief that it was an excellent thing to comfort the brain with such odours; for the whole air was infected with the smell of dead bodies, of sick persons and medicines.

Others again held a still more cruel opinion, which they thought would keep them safe. They said that the only medicine against the plague-stricken was to go right away from them. Men and women, convinced of this and caring about nothing but themselves, abandoned their own city, their own houses, their dwellings, their relatives, their property, and went abroad or at least to the country round Florence, as if God's wrath in punishing men's wickedness with this plague would not follow them but strike only those who remained within the walls of the city, or as if they thought nobody in the city would remain alive and that its last hour had come."

The Breakdown of Social Order
"One citizen avoided another, hardly any neighbour troubled about others, relatives never or hardly ever visited each other. Moreover, such terror was struck into the hearts of men and women by this calamity, that brother abandoned brother, and the uncle his nephew, and the sister her brother, and very often the wife her husband. What is even worse and nearly incredible is that fathers and mothers refused to see and tend their children, as if they had not been theirs.

Thus, a multitude of sick men and women were left without any care, except from the charity of friends (but these were few), or the greed, of servants, though not many of these could be had even for high wages, Moreover, most of them were coarse-minded men and women, who did little more than bring the sick what they asked for or watch over them when they were dying. And very often these servants lost their lives and their earnings. Since the sick were thus abandoned by neighbors, relatives and friends, while servants were scarce, a habit sprang up which had never been heard of before. Beautiful and noble women, when they fell sick, did not scruple to take a young or old man-servant, whoever he might be, and with no sort of shame, expose every part of their bodies to these men as if they had been women, for they were compelled by the necessity of their sickness to do so. This, perhaps, was a cause of looser morals in those women who survived."

Mass Burials
"The plight of the lower and most of the middle classes was even more pitiful to behold. Most of them remained in their houses, either through poverty or in hopes of safety, and fell sick by thousands. Since they received no care and attention, almost all of them died. Many ended their lives in the streets both at night and during the day; and many others who died in their houses were only known to be dead because the neighbors smelled their decaying bodies. Dead bodies filled every corner. Most of them were treated in the same manner by the survivors, who were more concerned to get rid of their rotting bodies than moved by charity towards the dead. With the aid of porters, if they could get them, they carried the bodies out of the houses and laid them at the door; where every morning quantities of the dead might be seen. They then were laid on biers or, as these were often lacking, on tables.

Such was the multitude of corpses brought to the churches every day and almost every hour that there was not enough consecrated ground to give them burial, especially since they wanted to bury each person in the family grave, according to the old custom. Although the cemeteries were full they were forced to dig huge trenches, where they buried the bodies by hundreds. Here they stowed them away like bales in the hold of a ship and covered them with a little earth, until the whole trench was full."

=Actual Medieval Testimony= [|Taken from Awesome Stories] "This is the end of the world." -Contemporary Chronicler,1348

"Civilization both in the East and the West was visited by a destructive plague which devastated nations and caused populations to vanish. It swallowed up many of the good things of civilization and wiped them out...Civilization decreased with the decrease of mankind. Cities and buildings were laid waste. Roads and way signs were obliterated, settlements and mansions became empty, dynasties and tribes grew weak. The entire inhabited world changed...It was as if the voice of existence in the world had called out for oblivion and restriction, and the world responded to its call." -Ibn Khaldun, Arab Historian, approx. 1349

"But at last it attacked Gloucester, yea and Oxford and London, and finally the whole of England so violently that scarce one in ten of either sex was left alive. As the graveyards did not suffice, fields were chosen for the burial of the dead...A countless number of common people and a host of monks and nuns and clerics as well, known to God alone, passed away. It was the young and strong that the plague chiefly attacked...This great pestilence, which began at Bristol on 15th August and in London about 29th September, raged for a whole year in England so terribly that it cleared many country villages entirely of every human being." -Geoffrey le Baker, an Oxford, 1348

=Other Testimony= These testimonies are historically factual, but attributed to fake "citizens."

//"In one way, the Great Mortality was great for my local church. In my town, about 15,000 people died. People weren't wealthy, but what they did have came to the Church. And as you can imagine, a little bit from 15,000 people is a lot." 1350, Parish Priest Mend Acium, Oxford, England.

"I don't know how we're going to survive without trade. I cannot believe I've survived The Pestilence, but now, no ships are coming to trade. We used to see 3-4 ships a day here, now, it's maybe 2 a week." Trader in London, England, 1351.

"As the sole living Priest for miles around, the Great Plague damage the Church severely. Basic church services couldn't be conducted. I had to hire layman for these services, and often, they didn't speak Latin and couldn't remember their responsibilities. Personally, I saw a lot of people turn from the Church. They couldn't imagine why God would do this to them and why the Church couldn't stop it." 1352, Father Mendacci, France.

"I used to work for Lord Dolus. But when he and his family died, I was free to work. This happened to a lot of people I knew. We no longer had to give our crops or goods to them, they were ours to keep and earn money. The deaths were sad, but for me and those who survived, it meant more money in our pocket." 1360, George Fraus, a villager.

"For the first time ever, someone in my family now owned land." 1370, wife of George Fraus.

"Before my parents died, during the Great Death, we left our home and traveled for weeks before finding a new place to live. It was great to be in a new town. We found work and now I own land and can work for myself." 1361, Meletto Rossi, Forli, Italy.//

=The Jewish Conspiracy= Taken from [|Fordham University], actual testimony The Confession of Agimet of Geneva, Châtel, October 20, 1348 (rewritten)

//On Friday, October 10, 1348 near Strasbourg, France, a judicial inquiry was ordered by a local Prince, Amadeus, Count of Savoy, and his subjects against the Jews who were there imprisoned. This was done after rumors of the Jewish population putting poison into the wells, springs, and other things which the Christians use-demanding that they die, that they are able to be found guilty and, therefore, that they should be punished. Thus, this is a confession made in the presence of a great many trustworthy persons.

Agimet the Jew, who lived at Geneva (Switzerland) and was arrested at Châtel, was tortured a little and then he was released from it. And after a long time, having been subjected again to torture, he confessed in the presence of a great many trustworthy persons. The story goes, that he [Agimet] was going to Venice to buy silks and other things. A Rabbi heard of this and asked to speak to Agimet before leaving for Venice. He did so, saying, "Here I [the Rabbi]am giving you a little package which contains some prepared poison and venom in a thin, sewed leather-bag. Put it among the wells, cisterns, and springs about Venice and the other places to which you go, in order to poison the people who use those wells."

Agimet testified that he took the poison and carried it with him to Venice and scattered a portion of it into the wells of fresh water near the German House, in order to poison the people who use the water of that well. Agimet also says that the Rabbi promised to give him whatever he wanted for his troubles in this business. Of his own accord Agimet confessed further that after this had been done he left at once in order that he should not be captured by the citizens or others, and that he went personally to other cities and threw the above mentioned poison into many wells. He confesses also that he put some of this same poison in the well of the streets of the city of Ballet.

He confesses further that he put some of this poison into the public fountain of the city of Toulouse and in the wells that are near the [Mediterranean] sea. Asked if at the time that he scattered the venom and poisoned the wells, above mentioned, any people had died, he said that he did not know inasmuch as he had left everyone of the above mentioned places in a hurry. Asked if any of the Jews of those places were guilty in the above mentioned matter, he answered that he did not know.//