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Bubonic Plague Dbq

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Europe went through a period of calamities during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Populations were wiped out and the church lost much of its power. The population of Europe faced two main crises during the early Renaissance period: the black plague and the Great Schism, and through their reactions, the Renaissance was allowed to flourish. The black plague, also known as the bubonic plague, swept its way across Europe beginning in 1346 A.D. , killing an estimated thirty to fifty percent of the total population. The plague was spread by fleas infected with Yersinia pestis, and was carried over oceans by hitchhiking rats and pet gerbils. The plague outbreak that decimated the population was transported by infected Christian merchants …show more content…

Some people turned to extremism. For example, the Flagellants, based in Central and Northern Europe, believed that the plague was sent upon the people due to their moral corruption disobeying of God’s will. The extremists traveled from village to village, and whipped themselves in hopes of repenting for the sins of those around them. The population, noticing how many people were dying, and believing it to be caused by God’s unhappiness, began to believe that the clergy had failed them in showing citizens how to be pious. They also saw the clergy’s deaths as proof of the failure of the clergy, as God was angry with them as well. This anger and distrust of the clergy carried on to the next great crisis of Europe, the Great Schism. The Great Schism, a period in which two rival popes claimed the papacy, occurred from 1378-1417. The Great Schism traces back to 1309, when the French king moved the papacy from Rome to Avignon. This caused a large upheaval, as it is believed in the Christian faith that every pope was a success to the apostle Peter, and as such, was supposed to be based in Rome. In Avignon, the men of the papacy lived luxurious lifestyles, and in order to maintain their lives of opulence, the pope raised taxes. The people began to notice their lavish lifestyles, and came to see the papacy as

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