Dear Editor of Medieval Times,

What methods did some medieval doctors use to avoid contracting the plague?

To avoid contracting the plague, some doctors quit or left the city. These doctors did not want to take care of the ill for fear of getting the plague. Other doctors wore bird-shaped masks which had a large beak in which herbs could be stored. These doctors believed the herbs would purify the air so the harmful bacteria would not be inhaled. Doctors likewise wore robes to protect themselves from the contagion.

What might have motivated a person to become a flagellant? Can you think of reasons why the Church disapproved of them?

Failing to rid themselves of the plague, people started to think God had sent this contagion down upon them. Consequently, they believed that if they repented and confessed all their sins, they would survive the epidemic. All those who believed God had sent the plague became flagellants. They whipped themselves and others who believed as they did to rid themselves of their sins. However, they ultimately spread the disease because of the open wounds they created when they whipped themselves. However, the Church disapproved of the flagellants because they actively questioned God’s authority and began to think God was an angry God. The Church also disapproved of the flagellants because they inflicted pain and gashes onto their own bodies.

Do you think morality and human behavior generally improved during the plague years? Explain your reasoning.

The morality and the human behavior of the people who lived during The Black Death contagion did not improve during the years of the epidemic. Some hired nurses to care for sick family members and moved from their family homes to avoid catching the Plague themselves. Others became flagellants who inflicted wounds on their own bodies and ultimately spread the disease because of their open wounds. People set aside their rational thinking in order to put the blame for the epidemic on someone else, the Jews. Although they had no evidence or support for their accusations, they still believed the Jews created this plague. In times of need, people often blame others in order to feel good themselves.

People often relied on magic and the supernatural to ward off the plague during the fourteenth century. Do you think such methods actually helped the sick? Explain your viewpoint.

Methods such as magic and the supernatural did not actually help the sick during the fourteenth century. I observed the devastation of the Black Plague first hand. Although I saw some people trying to use magic and other elements of the supernatural on the sick, I can tell you such methods did not work. People at this time did not understand that the Plague bacteria were spread through the air or through contact with an infected person. Because medical science was not developed during Medieval Times, people tried to find answers to their problems in any way they could.

Cite evidence from your notes on when you traveled back in to the plague years to support the fact that the Jews of Europe were not responsible for the plague.

When I journeyed back in time, I learned the Jews were not responsible for the Plague. Although the flagellants insisted that the Jews were responsible for the infection, I heard enemies attacking the Italians spread the disease using catapults to fling infected corpses into the middle of Italian castles. Others claimed traders coming back from China carried the disease with them on their return trade route. Hundreds of years after the Plague ended, I found out that a scientist discovered that rodents and the fleas that bit them transmitted the disease to humans. Thus, it is obvious that the Jews did not start the plague.
In closing, I hope you find my firsthand report informative and include it in the next issue of Medieval Times. Thank you for your time, and I hope to report for you in the future.

Sincerely,
Jon Michaels