Why is the Black Death in Western Europe called the grand finale of the old times?

1362 In early summer, a hot and humid sea breeze blew from the vast Mediterranean Sea. Young Dr. Simon stood on the side of the boat, his pale green pupils reflecting the lead-gray sky in the distance. The wind and rain are coming, and the land at the end of the day is dark. The dhow broke through the ups and downs of the sea and sailed for Genoa in the Apennine Peninsula.

This is the second year of the second outbreak of the Black Death, and the whole European continent fell into a gray silence. Once when spring came, Simon went to London to attend the funeral of an old friend. According to the regulations of London City Hall, only two relatives are allowed to attend the funeral of each deceased. However, Simon's old friend has not even made up for two relatives. Most of them died in the first round of the Black Death that broke out in 1348, and the rest were exiled.

My old friend was a devout Christian and doctor before his death. He struggled to run in the forefront of the struggle against the Black Death, but the Lord he believed in did not bless him, and the disease quickly took his life.

In fact, when the Black Death was introduced to Britain in 1348, nearly one million people died of plague in China until the epidemic subsided in 1350. London, with a population of100000, by 1350, more than 50000 people had died of illness, and the population of the whole city did not fully recover to the pre-epidemic level until 50 years later.

Terrible diseases are destroying people's confidence in life step by step, people's belief in Christianity is collapsing, and turbulence and rumors are everywhere in the streets and lanes. After burying his old friend, Simon decided to accept the invitation of another doctor's old friend and go to Siena, an ancient trading city in central Italy, where a group of people are studying the origin and prevention of the current Black Death and fighting a battle that concerns the survival of civilization: the battle against the Black Death.

Diffusion: darkness enveloped the western European continent 1347 10. A fleet from Genoa sailed into the port of Messina in Sicily, carrying several dying sailors. When doctors diagnosed their illness, they found black lumps of different sizes in the armpits and abdominal sulcus of the sick sailors, oozing pus and blood, accompanied by rotten stench.

According to the description of the crew, these sailors set out from the Black Sea port in Crimea and experienced severe cough and vomiting on the way. Doctors in the port are helpless about the mysterious disease and can only sit back and watch the patients suffer in extreme pain. After only five days, all the patients on board died of illness.

The doctor and the crew felt sorry for the sailors who died of illness and invited the priest to hold a funeral for them. Subsequently, the fleet continued to set sail for Marseille, France.

The crew at a loss did not know that a super plague, which was about to affect hundreds of millions of people, was brewing in a hotbed.

At the end of that year, there were infected cases in Marseille, France, and then they were introduced into the hinterland of France through inland river transportation and commerce;

In the coastal trade, the virus started from Marseille and flowed into Spain through ports such as Vigo, Valencia and Barcelona. The following spring, the virus began to wreak havoc in the hinterland of Spain.

In Italy, the virus swept through Rome, Florence and other big cities, and along with the fleet all the way south, through Tunisia into North Africa;

At the same time, in the summer of 1348, the virus crossed the strait into southern England, broke out in northern Italy, crossed the Alps into central Europe, and ravaged Switzerland and Hungary.

By 1349, the virus had spread from England to Ireland and Scotland, and from the southern journey to Norway. Sailors in the Arctic Ocean have a legend that a ghost ship carrying the body of the ship drifted all the way to Sweden and the virus began to spread in Scandinavia.

Whether the rumor is true or not, it is certain that the disease spread from Sweden at 1350. Subsequently, Denmark, Prussia, Iceland and even Greenland fell one after another. 135 1 in the summer of, a large-scale epidemic occurred in most parts of Europe, and even Russia was not spared.

It was not until this time that people realized that this was a plague with rapid spread, high mortality and great danger.

Because all infected patients will have black plaques and purulent blood, people at that time called this disease the Black Death.

Purgatory: the destruction of civilization system. The symptoms of patients with the Black Death are extremely obvious:

At first, the patient will be covered with black plaques, and then he will begin to ooze pus. With the aggravation of the disease, patients will have severe cough and persistent high fever, sweating like rain. In severe cases, there will even be hemoptysis and inguinal gland bleeding, excluding hematuria and black bloody stool, and the stench is unpleasant. The average time from diagnosis to death is three days, and severe patients may even die within one day of onset.

Avignon is a big trading city in the southeast of France, located on the Rhone River, with developed traffic. According to the rough statistics of the church at that time, during the epidemic, more than 400 people died every day in the city (in Paris, the figure was 800 people every day), more than 7,000 houses were vacant because of the death of the population, and some cemeteries received more than 1 1000 bodies within six weeks. When the cemetery can't accommodate a large number of bodies, people have to throw them into Rhone and Hanoi, thus polluting the water source of production and life and forming a vicious circle.

A similar situation was staged in London:

/kloc-At the beginning of the 0/4th century, London's urban development was facing severe challenges, and the construction of municipal system was far behind the speed of urban expansion.

There are no public sewers and garbage stations in the city. Urban residents directly dump domestic garbage and excrement on the street, and animal carcasses are often left in the street to rot. /kloc-0.0 million residents walk between odor pollution and sewage every day, and the river water source has been polluted for a long time, which also provides an excellent hotbed for virus breeding.

1348 The Black Death was introduced to Britain, and an outbreak broke out in London. When the Thames was almost covered with the bodies of the sick dead, people had to dig huge graves outside the city to bury the bodies. Because there are so many bodies, people have to pile them up layer by layer until they are close to the pit surface.

In Florence, the capital of art known as the "Flower City", more than 40,000 people died of the plague. Relatives throw sick patients in the street or carelessly throw them into a big pit. "Let the dogs in the street drag them out and eat them."

The first round of the Black Death raged for five years and gradually subsided on 135 1, but this did not mean the end of the epidemic:

136 1 year to 1363, 1369 to 137 1 year, 1374 to 1375,/kloc. In the half century when the Black Death raged, more than 24 million people died in Europe, the average life expectancy decreased by 10 year, the death rate of urban population exceeded 50%, and the labor force population decreased by 25%.

Cities are hotbeds of viruses, and monasteries and prisons are another hardest hit area. In densely populated areas, if a person is infected, it often means that the whole army is wiped out. In the Franciscan convent in Marseille, one person was infected and the whole hospital died. The virulence of this virus far exceeded people's understanding and tolerance at that time.

The far-reaching impact of the epidemic lies in the collapse of the civilized system:

The local administrative system is completely out of order, and no one can effectively prevent and control the raging epidemic.

Countless villages and farmland are abandoned, roads are broken but not repaired, food is rotten in farmland, water conservancy facilities collapse, roads and fields are muddy, forming impassable areas.

And the most terrible change lies in people's hearts. In the face of the menacing Black Death, people's trust disappeared, and people rejected each other, attacked each other to prevent themselves from being infected with their loved ones. What's more, some people abandoned their homes and fled, while others gathered to make trouble and opposed the feudal government and church. Continued war and turmoil have aggravated the epidemic, and people's feelings have become numb because of fear. This has become what the church records say: "There is no smile in marriage if there is no sorrow in funeral."

In the face of the Black Death, the color of civilization is becoming gloomy little by little.

Plague: Ancient medieval medicine was rebuilt. The merchant ship docked in Genoa, and Dr. Simon boarded the carriage for Siena. Genoa, ravaged by the Black Death, has lost its former prosperity. Doctors in black robes and beaks hurried by in the sparsely populated streets, with bodies covered with white sheets lying around at will. Nobody wants to get close to them. Dark clouds hung low in the sky, and early summer thunderstorms were brewing on the dome, reflecting the earth in a daze.

Simon knows that some changes are taking place in the medical field, and doctors are gathering together to study measures to deal with the current epidemic. However, doctors of various schools have not reached a unified conclusion about the prevention and treatment of the Black Death.

Medieval doctors generally attached importance to theory and ignored experiments and observations, and knew nothing about pathology and epidemiology. During the Black Death, doctors put forward their own ideas of disease prevention and control according to the old knowledge system. Doctors generally believe that the transmission route of the virus is air, so the first task is to purify the area polluted by plague, and the specific measures are to expel the virus by smoking and baking.

In addition, doctors at Galen School suggested that "political gatherings should be avoided as much as possible, because it may mix infected people with uninfected people." Animal viscera and carcasses should also be disposed of far away from towns, eating healthy food and drinking clean, transparent and flowing water. There are also doctors who believe that human dirt can effectively organize viruses in the air, suggesting that people reduce the number of baths and even advocate not taking a bath.

Although these measures are absurd, some of them are just in line with scientific prevention and control measures. However, under the background of little understanding of plague, these various prevention and control methods have achieved little in the end.

But from a longer-term perspective, the repeated outbreak of the Black Death gradually changed the long-standing medical thought:

Early hospitals were founded by monasteries, and their function was more to isolate leprosy patients than to treat them. After the outbreak of the Black Death, the function of the hospital began to change, from a single isolation function to a variety of functions, with special ward division, providing separate beds and sheets changed regularly, and building special sewage pipes. The experience people gained from the Black Death is gradually transforming ancient medieval medicine, and the modern medical system we are familiar with is gradually taking shape in this process.

With the continuous exploration of the pathology of the Black Death by later generations, we can finally uncover all the secrets of the Black Death.

Today, we can basically confirm that the Black Death is the current plague, which was caused by a bacterium called Yersinia pestis. Although this pathogen was not discovered until the end of 19, it has been 500 years since the Black Death. Plague can be spread through the bite of rats or fleas or through the air.

In medieval Europe, the rapid expansion of cities, piles of garbage and dense population created excellent conditions for the spread of plague. The full name of this plague is bubonic plague, which is generally divided into two types: one is that fleas and mosquitoes bite into the blood, producing black spots, pus and stench; What is even more frightening is the second kind, the scientific name pneumonia plague. The virus can invade both lungs, cause inflammation, cause fever and severe cough, and can spread through the air, which is highly contagious.

The mortality rate of patients infected with both types is still high. Once infected, the medical conditions at that time often mean the end of life.

In Europe in the14th century, doctors knew little about the Black Death, but they still devoted themselves to fighting against the plague one after another. Because of close contact with patients, countless doctors fell to the front line, including many prestigious authorities at that time.

Court doctors in Germany, France and Burgundy, three physicians and two surgeons serving Pope Clement VI, and all doctors in Montpellier, France ... Because of lack of records, it is difficult to count how many doctors died during the plague. Although most of them insist on outdated or even wrong medical theories, their courage and responsibility still make future generations admire them.

Trend of Thought: After a storm, the Renaissance was bright and rainy, and the world was shrouded in a thick water curtain. The carriage passed a long Christian procession on the way to Siena. They numbered more than 1000 and headed for Rome under the guidance of the priest. They want to pray for the people who suffered from the Black Death, which is the last effort the church can make.

Nowadays, almost everyone knows the corruption and incompetence of the church. The extreme ascetic oppression of the church is in sharp contrast to its own internal dissolute indulgence. Countless people's faith in God was shattered in the epidemic, and new ideas were quietly brewing in people's hearts.

The civil rights movement is spreading in Europe, and even in Italy, there has been a "timid and cautious criticism" of the Bible. In Kent, England, Father John Ball preached to the British people that all men are created equal, and the curtain of theology was severely opened. Countless people have opened their eyes from ignorance under theological oppression and realized that they are "independent spiritual individuals".

The Black Death has stimulated the tenacious vitality of civilization, and the introspection of civilization itself has gradually taken shape, and will soon set off a magnificent ideological trend called "Renaissance" in the next few decades, leaving a deep impression on history.

In the field of urban construction, new ideas are constantly being put forward:

135 1 year, the position of street cleaner was established for the first time in London, which was the first civil servant position to keep the city clean in the modern sense. The government unifies the management of public health affairs through legislation and popularizes public health knowledge.

136 1 During the second round of the Black Death, Italy set up a permanent public health committee to uniformly dispatch and supervise medical activities during epidemic prevention and control food quality and drug production. In the field of medical system, with the increasing importance of doctors, the construction of hospitals and the establishment of medical theories are put on the agenda.

Although the above-mentioned reform measures encountered many difficulties in the Middle Ages, the embryonic form of modern public health system began to be gradually established.

Praise the fruits of courage and struggle. The ancient city of Siena is just around the corner. From 1 186, the city and the Pope launched a protracted territorial war in Florence, but the war did not crush the residents' insistence on the life of the city, even in the case of the Black Death.

Not far away, a huge and magnificent church emerged, which is the Siena Cathedral under construction. If completed, it will be the largest church in the world. However, due to the influence of the Black Death, half of the residents were killed, and the church was forced to stop work, and the start date was far away.

In fact, until the 20th century, Siena Cathedral was not fully built. This incomplete cathedral seems to be a witness of that gloomy era, recording and telling the plight of people in that era and their unparalleled courage in the predicament.

On the way here, Simon read a monk's dying record. John Paul Kline, a friar from the Franciscan order in kilkenny, was the only survivor of the monastery. He recorded in detail everything that happened in the monastery, people's struggles, their longing for life, and the withering of those fresh lives. He wrote at the end:

"Time has diluted the memory that should not be forgotten, and future generations will forget it. It seems that the whole world has fallen into the hands of the devil. I waited for death and saved parchment for it. If there are survivors, if there are people like Adam who have been freed from the plague, I will continue my unfinished work. "

Simon stared at the ruined Siena Cathedral in the hazy drizzle in the distance. He knew that this would be the battlefield of his own struggle.

From London to Moscow, from Norway to Florence, he saw the grief and courage of human beings emerge at the same time, saw the confused or enthusiastic eyes of countless people, and saw that the old era disappeared in the vast land like a flood, and the new era slowly rose in the ruins.

The experience and cognition accumulated in the struggle against this unprecedented catastrophe in the history of human civilization will be passed down like a torch until it becomes the new courage for people to fight the virus in the new era.

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