In writing this chapter, I have relied mainly on the accounts of medieval chroniclers from various European countries, which Dr. Rosemary Horrox translated into English and published in her book, „The Black Death”. This book collects accounts from people who lived at the time of the Black Death and accurately described the events that they themselves experienced. Most of the quotes I reproduce below are from this source. I recommend anyone who wants to know more about the Black Death to read this book. You can read it in English on archive.org or here: link. Some other quotes are from a book by the German medical writer Justus Hecker in 1832, titled „The Black Death, and The Dancing Mania”. Much of the information also comes from the Wikipedia article (Black Death). If the information is from another website, I provide a link to the source next to it. I have included many images in the text to help you visualize the events. However, you should keep in mind that the images do not always faithfully represent the actual events.
According to the commonly known version of history, the Black Death epidemic had its beginning in China. From there it made its way to the Crimea and then by ship to Italy, along with merchants who, when they reached the shores of Sicily in 1347, were already either sick or dead. Anyway, these sick people went ashore, along with rats and fleas. It was these fleas that were supposed to have been the main cause of the calamity, because they carried the plague bacteria, which, however, would not have killed so many people if it were not for its additional ability to spread also by droplets. The plague was extremely contagious, so it spread rapidly across southern and western Europe. Everyone were dying: poor and rich, young and old, townspeople and peasants. Estimates of the number of victims of the Black Death vary. Researchers estimate that 75–200 million people died out of the world population of 475 million at the time. If an epidemic with similar mortality occurred today, the casualties would be counted in billions.
Italian chronicler Agnolo di Tura described his experience in Siena:
It is impossible for the human tongue to recount the awful thing. … Father abandoned child, wife husband, one brother another; for this illness seemed to strike through the breath and sight. And so they died. And none could be found to bury the dead for money or friendship. … And in many places in Siena great pits were dug and piled deep with the multitude of dead. And they died by the hundreds both day and night, and all were thrown in those ditches and covered over with earth. And as soon as those ditches were filled more were dug. And I, Agnolo di Tura … buried my five children with my own hands. And there were also those who were so sparsely covered with earth that the dogs dragged them forth and devoured many bodies throughout the city. There was no one who wept for any death, for all awaited death. And so many died that all believed it was the end of the world.
Agnolo di Tura
It is impossible for the human tongue to recount the awful thing. … Father abandoned child, wife left husband, one brother left another; for this illness seemed to spread through the breath and sight. And so they died. And none could be found to bury the dead for money or friendship. … And in many places in Siena great pits were dug and piled deep with the multitude of dead. And they were dying by the hundreds both day and night and all were thrown in those ditches and covered over with earth. And as soon as those ditches were filled more were dug. And I, Agnolo di Tura … buried my five children with my own hands. And there were also those who were so sparsely covered with earth that the dogs dragged them forth and devoured many bodies throughout the city. There was no one who wept for any death, for all awaited death. And so many died that all believed it was the end of the world.
Agnolo di Tura
Gabriele de’Mussis lived in Piacenza during the epidemic. This is how he describes the plague in his book „Historia de Morbo”:
Scarcely one in seven of the Genoese survived. In Venice, where an inquiry was held into the mortality, it was found that more than 70% of the people had died and that within a short period 20 out of 24 excellent physicians had died. The rest of Italy, Sicily and Apulia and neighbouring regions maintain that they have been virtually emptied of inhabitants. The people of Florence, Pisa and Lucca, finding themselves bereft of their fellow residents.
Gabriele de’Mussis
Recent studies by historians report that 45–50% of the European population at the time died out within four years of the plague. The mortality rate varied greatly from region to region. In the Mediterranean region of Europe (Italy, southern France, Spain), probably about 75–80% of the population died out. However, in Germany and Britain, it was about 20%. In the Middle East (including Iraq, Iran, and Syria), about 1/3 of the population died out. In Egypt, the Black Death killed about 40% of the population. Justus Hecker also mentions that in Norway 2/3 of the population died out, and in Poland – 3/4. He also describes the gruesome situation in the East: „India was depopulated. The Tartary, the Tartar Kingdom of Kaptschak; Mesopotamia, Syria, Armenia were covered with dead bodies. In Caramania and Caesarea, none were left alive.”
Symptoms
Examination of skeletons found in mass graves of Black Death victims showed that the plague strains Yersinia pestis orientalis and Yersinia pestis medievalis were the cause of the epidemic. These were not the same strains of plague bacteria that exist today; the modern strains are their descendants. Symptoms of plague include fever, weakness, and headache. There are several forms of plague, each affecting a different part of the body and causing associated symptoms:
- Pneumonic plague infects the lungs, causing cough, pneumonia, and sometimes spitting up blood. It is extremely contagious through coughing.
- Bubonic plague affects the lymph nodes in the groin, armpits, or neck, causing swellings called buboes.
- Septicemic plague infects the blood and causes gastrointestinal symptoms such as abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea. It also causes tissues to turn black and die (especially fingers, toes, and the nose).
The bubonic and septicemic forms are usually transmitted by flea bites or handling an infected animal. Less common clinical manifestations of plague include pharyngeal and meningeal plague.
- Pharyngeal plague attacks the throat. Typical symptoms include inflammation and enlargement of the lymph nodes in the head and neck.
- Meningeal plague affects the brain and is characterized by neck stiffness, disorientation, and coma. It usually occurs as a complication of another form of primary plague.(ref.)
Gabriele de’Mussis described the symptoms of the Black Death:
Those of both sexes who were in health, and in no fear of death, were struck by four savage blows to the flesh. First, out of the blue, a kind of chilly stiffness troubled their bodies. They felt a tingling sensation, as if they were being prickled by the points of arrows. The next stage was a fearsome attack which took the form of an extremely hard, solid boil. In some people this developed under the armpit and in others in the groin between the scrotum and the body. As it grew more solid, its burning heat caused the patients to fall into an acute and putrid fever, with severe headaches. As it intensified its extreme bitterness could have various effects. In some cases it gave rise to an intolerable stench. In others it brought vomiting of blood, or swellings near the place from which the corrupt humour arose: on the back, across the chest, near the thigh. Some people lay as if in a drunken stupor and could not be roused … All these people were in danger of dying. Some died on the very day the illness took possession of them, others on the next day, others – the majority – between the third and fifth day. There was no known remedy for the vomiting of blood. Those who fell into a coma, or suffered a swelling or the stink of corruption very rarely escaped. But from the fever it was sometimes possible to make a recovery.
Gabriele de’Mussis
Those of both sexes who were in health, and in no fear of death, were struck by four savage blows to the flesh. First, out of the blue, a kind of chilly stiffness troubled their bodies. They felt a tingling sensation, as if they were being prickled by the points of arrows. The next stage was a fearsome attack which took the form of an extremely hard, solid ulcer. In some people this developed under the armpit and in others in the groin between the scrotum and the body. As it grew more solid, its burning heat caused the patients to fall into an acute and nasty fever, with severe headaches. As the disease intensified, its extreme bitterness could have various effects. In some cases it gave rise to an intolerable stench. In others it brought vomiting of blood, or swellings near the place from which the corrupt secretion arose: on the back, across the chest, near the thigh. Some people lay as if in a drunken stupor and could not be roused … All these people were in danger of dying. Some died on the very day the illness took possession of them, others on the next day, others – the majority – between the third and fifth day. There was no known remedy for the vomiting of blood. Those who fell into a coma, or suffered a swelling or the stink of corruption very rarely escaped death. But from the fever it was sometimes possible to make a recovery.
Gabriele de’Mussis
Writers from all over Europe not only presented a consistent picture of the symptoms, but also recognized that the same disease was taking distinct forms. The most common form manifested itself in painful swellings in the groin or armpits, less commonly on the neck, often followed by small blisters on other parts of the body or by a blotchy discoloration of the skin. The first sign of illness was a sudden feeling of chill, and a shudder, as if pins and needles, accompanied by extreme fatigue and depression. Before the swellings formed, the patient was in a high fever with severe headache. Some victims fell into a stupor or were unable to articulate. Several authors reported that the secretions from the swellings and body were particularly foul. Victims suffered for several days but sometimes recovered. The other form of the disease attacked the lungs, causing chest pain and breathing difficulties, followed by coughing up blood and sputum. This form was always fatal and it killed more quickly than the first form.
Life during the plague
An Italian chronicler writes:
Doctors frankly confessed that they had no cure for the plague, and the most accomplished of them died of it themselves. … The plague generally lasted for six months after its outbreak in each area. The noble man Andrea Morosini, podesta of Padua, died in July in his third term of office. His son was put in office, but died immediately. Note, however, that amazingly during this plague no king, prince, or ruler of a city died.
In the notes left by Gilles li Muisis, the abbot of Tournai, the plague is depicted as a terribly contagious disease that affected both humans and animals.
When one or two people had died in a house, the rest followed them in a very short time, so that very often ten or more died in a single house; and in many houses the dogs and cats died as well.
Gilles li Muisis
Henry Knighton, who was an Augustinian canon of Leicester, writes:
In the same year there was a great murrain of sheep throughout the realm, so much so that in one place more than 5000 sheep died in a single pasture, and their bodies were so corrupt that no animal or bird would touch them. And because of the fear of death everything fetched a low price. For there were very few people who cared for riches, or indeed for anything else. And sheep and cattle roamed unchecked through the fields and through the standing corn, and there was no one to chase them and round them up. … For there was so great a shortage of servants and labourers that there was no one who knew what needed to be done. … For which reason many crops rotted unharvested in the fields. … After the aforesaid pestilence many buildings of all sizes in every city fell into total ruin for want of inhabitants.
Henry Knighton
The vision of imminent death caused people to stop fulfilling their duties and buying the needed goods. Demand dropped dramatically, and with it, prices fell. This was the case during the epidemic. And when the epidemic was over, the problem became a shortage of people to work, and consequently, a shortage of goods. Prices for goods and wages for skilled workers increased significantly. Only rental prices remained at a low level.
Giovanni Boccacio in his book „The Decameron”, describes the very different behavior of people during the plague. Some gathered with their families in houses where they lived in isolation from the world. They avoided any immoderation, ate light meals and drank restrained fine wines to forget about the plague and death. Others, on the other hand, were doing just the opposite. Day and night they roamed the outskirts of the city, drinking in excess and singing. But even they tried to avoid contact with the infected at all costs. Finally, others claimed that the best remedy for the plague was to flee from it. Many people left the city and fled to the countryside. Among all these groups, however, the disease took a deadly toll.
And then, when the pestilence abated, all who survived gave themselves over to pleasures: monks, priests, nuns, and lay men and women all enjoyed themselves, and none worried about spending and gambling. And everyone thought himself rich because they had escaped and regained the world … And all money had fallen into the hands of nouveaux riches.
Agnolo di Tura
In the time of the plague, all laws, be they human or divine, ceased to exist. Law enforcers died out or fell ill and were unable to maintain order, so everyone was free to do as they pleased. Many chroniclers believed that the plague brought a widespread breakdown of law and order, and it is possible to find individual examples of looting and violence, but human beings react to disaster in different ways. There are also many accounts of deep personal piety and a desire to make reparation for past wrongs. In the wake of the Black Death, renewed religious zeal and fanaticism flourished. Brotherhoods of flagellants became very popular, having more than 800,000 members at the time.
Some Europeans attacked various groups such as Jews, friars, foreigners, beggars, pilgrims, lepers, and Romani, blaming them for the crisis. Lepers and others with skin diseases such as acne or psoriasis were killed throughout Europe. Others turned to the poisoning of wells by Jews as a possible cause of the epidemic. There were many attacks on Jewish communities. Pope Clement VI tried to protect them by saying that the people who blamed the plague on the Jews were seduced by that liar, the Devil.
Origins of the epidemic
The generally accepted version of events is that the plague began in China. From there, it was to spread with rats that migrated westward. China did indeed experience a significant population decline during this period, although information on this is sparse and inaccurate. Demographic historians estimate that China’s population declined by at least 15%, and perhaps by as much as a third, between 1340 and 1370. However, there is no evidence of a pandemic on the scale of the Black Death.
The plague may indeed have reached China, but it is unlikely that it was brought from there to Europe by rats. For the official version to make sense, there would have to be legions of infected rats moving at extraordinary speed. Archeologist Barney Sloane argues that there is insufficient evidence of mass rat deaths in the archeological record of the medieval waterfront in London, and that the plague spread too quickly to support the claim that it was caused by rat fleas; he argues that transmission must have been from person to person. And there is also the Iceland problem: the Black Death killed over half of its population, although rats did not actually reach this country until the 19th century.
According to Henry Knighton, the plague began in India, and soon after, it broke out in Tarsus (modern Turkey).
In that year and the following year there was a universal mortality of men throughout the world. It began first in India, then in Tarsus, then it reached the Saracens and finally the Christians and Jews. According to the opinion current in the Roman Curia, 8000 legions of men, not counting Christians, died a sudden death in those distant countries in the space of one year, from Easter to Easter.
Henry Knighton
In that year and the following year there was a universal mortality of people throughout the world. It began first in India, then in Tarsus, then it reached the Saracens and finally the Christians and Jews. According to the opinion current in the Roman Curia, 8000 legions of people, not counting Christians, died a sudden death in those distant countries in the space of one year, from Easter to Easter.
Henry Knighton
One legion consists of about 5,000 people, so 40 million people must have died in the East in one year. This probably refers to the period from spring 1348 to spring 1349.
Earthquakes and pestiferous air
In addition to the plague, powerful cataclysms raged at this time. All four elements – air, water, fire and earth – turned against humanity at the same time. Numerous chroniclers reported earthquakes around the world, which heralded the unprecedented pestilence. On January 25, 1348, a powerful earthquake occurred in Friuli in northern Italy. It caused damage within a radius of several hundred kilometers. According to contemporary sources, it caused considerable damage to structures; churches and houses collapsed, villages were destroyed, and foul odors emanated from the earth. Aftershocks continued until March 5. According to historians, 10,000 people died as a result of the earthquake. However, a then writer Heinrich von Herford reported that there were many more victims:
In the 31st year of Emperor Lewis, around the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul [25 January] there was an earthquake throughout Carinthia and Carniola which was so severe that everyone feared for their lives. There were repeated shocks, and on one night the earth shook 20 times. Sixteen cities were destroyed and their inhabitants killed. … Thirty-six mountain fortresses and their inhabitants were destroyed and it was calculated that more than 40,000 men were swallowed up or overwhelmed. Two very high mountains, with a highway between them, were hurled together, so that there can never be a road there again.
Heinrich von Herford
In the 31st year of Emperor Lewis, around the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul [25 January] there was an earthquake throughout Carinthia and Carniola which was so severe that everyone feared for their lives. There were repeated shocks, and on one night the earth shook 20 times. Sixteen cities were destroyed and their inhabitants killed. … Thirty-six mountain fortresses and their inhabitants were destroyed and it was calculated that more than 40,000 men were swallowed up or overwhelmed. Two very high mountains, with a road between them, were hurled together, so there can never be a road there again.
Heinrich von Herford
There must have been a considerable displacement of the tectonic plates, if the two mountains merged. The force of the earthquake must have been really great, because even Rome – a city located 500 km from the epicenter – was destroyed! The Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome was badly damaged and the 6th-century basilica of Santi Apostoli was so utterly ruined that it was not rebuilt for a generation.
Immediately after the earthquake came the plague. The letter sent from the papal court in Avignon, France, dated April 27, 1348, that is three months after the earthquake, states:
They say that in the three months from 25 January [1348] to the present day, a total of 62,000 bodies were buried in Avignon.
A 14th-century German writer suspected that the cause of the epidemic was the corrupt vapors released from the bowels of the earth by the earthquakes, which preceded the pestilence in Central Europe.
Insofar as the mortality arose from natural causes its immediate cause was a corrupt and poisonous earthy exhalation, which infected the air in various parts of the world … I say it was the vapour and corrupted air which has been vented – or so to speak purged – in the earthquake that occurred on St. Paul’s day, along with the corrupted air vented in other earthquakes and eruptions, which has infected the air above the earth and killed people in various parts of the world.
Insofar as the mortality arose from natural causes its immediate cause was a corrupt and poisonous earthy exhalation, which infected the air in various parts of the world … I say it was the vapour and corrupted air which has been vented – or so to speak discharged – during the earthquake that occurred on St. Paul’s day, along with the corrupted air vented in other earthquakes and eruptions, which has infected the air above the earth and killed people in various parts of the world.
In short, people were aware of a series of earthquakes at the time. One report from that period said that one earthquake lasted a whole week, while another claimed it was as long as two weeks. Such events could cause outgassing of all sorts of nasty chemicals. The German historian Justus Hecker, in his book of 1832, described other unusual phenomena confirming that toxic gases were released from the earth’s interior:
„It is recorded, that during this earthquake, the wine in the casks became turbid, a statement which may be considered as furnishing a proof, that changes causing a decomposition of the atmosphere had taken place. … Independently of this, however, we know that during this earthquake, the duration of which is stated by some to have been a week, and by others, a fortnight, people experienced an unusual stupor and headache, and that many fainted away.”
Justus Hecker, The Black Death, and The Dancing Mania
A German scientific paper unearthed by Horrox suggests that poisonous gasses accumulated in the lowest places near the surface of the earth:
Houses near the sea, as at Venice and Marseilles, were affected quickly, as were low-lying towns on the edge of marshes or beside the sea, and the only explanation of that would seem to be the greater corruption of the air in hollows, near the sea.
The same author adds one more evidence of the poisoning of the air: „It can be deduced from the corruption of fruit such as pears”.
Toxic gases from underground
As is well known, toxic gases sometimes accumulate in wells. They are heavier than air and therefore do not dissipate, but remain at the bottom. It happens that someone falls into such a well and dies from poisoning or suffocation. Similarly, gases accumulate in caves and various void spaces beneath the earth’s surface. Huge amounts of gases accumulate underground, which, as a result of exceptionally strong earthquakes, can escape through fissures and affect people.
The most common underground gases are:
– hydrogen sulfide – a toxic and colorless gas whose strong, characteristic odor of rotten eggs is noticeable even at very low concentrations;
– carbon dioxide – displaces oxygen from the respiratory system; intoxication with this gas manifests itself in drowsiness; in high concentrations it can kill;
– carbon monoxide – an imperceptible, highly toxic and deadly gas;
– methane;
– ammonia.
As a confirmation that the gases can pose a real threat, the disaster in Cameroon in 1986 can be cited. There was then a limnic eruption, that is, a sudden release of a large amount of carbon dioxide dissolved in the waters of Lake Nyos. The limnic eruption released up to one cubic kilometer of carbon dioxide. And because this gas is denser than air, it flowed down from the mountainside where Lake Nyos rests, into the adjacent valleys. The gas covered the earth in a layer dozens of meters deep, displacing the air and suffocating all people and animals. 1,746 people and 3,500 livestock were killed within a 20-kilometer radius of the lake. Several thousand local residents fled the area, many of them suffering respiratory problems, burns, and paralysis from the gases.
The waters of the lake turned deep red, due to iron-rich water rising from the depths to the surface and being oxidized by the air. The level of the lake dropped by about a meter, representing the volume of the gas released. It is not known what triggered the catastrophic outgassing. Most geologists suspect a landslide, but some believe a small volcanic eruption may have occurred on the bottom of the lake. The eruption could have heated the water, and since the solubility of carbon dioxide in water decreases with increasing temperature, the gas dissolved in the water could have been released.
Conjunction of planets
To explain the extent of the epidemic, most authors blamed changes in the atmosphere brought about by planetary configurations- particularly the conjunction of Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn in 1345. There is extensive material from this period which consistently points to the conjunction of the planets and a corrupted atmosphere. A report of the Medical Faculty of Paris prepared in October 1348 states:
For this epidemic arises from a double cause. One cause is distant and from above, and pertains to the heavens; the other is near and from below and pertains to the earth, and is dependent, causally and effectively, on the first cause. … We say that the distant and first cause of this pestilence was and is the configuration of the heavens. In 1345, at one hour after noon on 20 March, there was a major conjunction of three planets in Aquarius. This conjunction, along with other earlier conjunctions and eclipses, by causing a deadly corruption of the air around us, signifies mortality and famine. … Aristotle testifies that this is the case in his book „Concerning the causes of the properties of the elements”, in which he says that mortality of races and the depopulation of kingdoms occur at the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter, for great events then arise, their nature depending on the trigon in which the conjunction occurs. …
Although major pestilential illnesses can be caused by the corruption of water or food, as happens at times of famine and infertility, yet we still regard illnesses proceeding from the corruption of the air as much more dangerous. … We believe that the present epidemic or plague has arisen from air corrupt in its substance, and not changed in its attributes. … What happened was that the many vapours which had been corrupted at the time of the conjunction were drawn up from the earth and water, and were then mixed with the air … And this corrupted air, when breathed in, necessarily penetrates to the heart and corrupts the substance of the spirit there and rots the surrounding moisture, and the heat thus caused destroys the life force, and this is the immediate cause of the present epidemic. … Another possible cause of corruption, which needs to be borne in mind, is the escape of the rottenness trapped in the center of the earth as a result of earthquakes – something which has indeed recently occurred. But the conjunctions could have been the universal and distant cause of all these harmful things, by which air and water have been corrupted.Paris Medical Faculty
For this epidemic arises from a double cause. One cause is distant and comes from above, and pertains to the heavens; the other cause is near, and comes from below and pertains to the earth, and is dependent, by the cause and effect, on the first cause. … We say that the distant and first cause of this pestilence was and is the configuration of the heavens. In 1345, at one hour after noon on 20 March, there was a major conjunction of three planets in Aquarius. This conjunction, along with other earlier conjunctions and eclipses, by causing a deadly corruption of the air around us, signifies mortality and famine. … Aristotle testifies that this is the case, in his book „Concerning the causes of the properties of the elements”, in which he says that mortality of races and the depopulation of kingdoms occur at the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter; for great events then arise, their nature depending on the trigon in which the conjunction occurs. …
Although major pestilential illnesses can be caused by the corruption of water or food, as happens at times of famine and poor harvest, yet we still regard illnesses proceeding from the corruption of the air as much more dangerous. … We believe that the present epidemic or plague has arisen from air, which is putrid in its substance, but not changed in its attributes. … What happened was that the many vapours which had been corrupted at the time of the conjunction were drawn up from the earth and water, and were then mixed with the air … And this corrupted air, when breathed in, necessarily penetrates to the heart and corrupts the substance of the spirit there and causes rotting of the surrounding moisture, and the heat thus caused destroys the life force, and this is the immediate cause of the present epidemic. … Another possible cause of rottenness, which needs to be borne in mind, is the escape of the rottenness trapped in the center of the earth as a result of earthquakes – something which has indeed recently occurred. But the conjunction of planets could have been the universal and distant cause of all these harmful things, by which air and water have been corrupted.Paris Medical Faculty
Aristotle (384–322 BC) believed that the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn heralded death and depopulation. It must be emphasized, however, that the Black Death did not begin during the great conjunction, but two and a half years after it. The last conjunction of the great planets, also in the sign of Aquarius, took place recently – on December 21, 2020. If we take it as a harbinger of a pestilence, then we should expect another catastrophe in 2023!
Series of cataclysms
Earthquakes were very common at that time. One year after the earthquake in Friuli, on January 22, 1349, an earthquake affected L’Aquila in southern Italy with an estimated Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme), causing severe damage and leaving 2,000 dead. On September 9, 1349, another earthquake in Rome caused extensive damage, including the collapse of the southern facade of the Colosseum.
The plague reached England in the summer of 1348, but according to an English monk, it intensified only in 1349, right after the earthquake.
At the beginning of 1349, during Lent on the Friday before Passion Sunday [27 March], an earthquake was felt throughout England. … The earthquake was quickly followed in this part of the country by the pestilence.
Thomas Burton
Henry Knighton writes that powerful earthquakes and tsunamis devastated Greece, Cyprus and Italy.
In Corinth and Achaia at that time many citizens were buried when the earth swallowed them. Castles and towns cracked apart and were thrown down and engulfed. In Cyprus mountains were levelled, blocking rivers and causing many citizens to drown and towns to be destroyed. At Naples it was the same, as a friar had predicted. The whole city was destroyed by an earthquake and storms, and the earth was suddenly overwhelmed, like a stone thrown into water. Everyone died, including the friar who had foretold it, except one friar who fled and hid in a garden outside the town. And all those things were brought about by the earthquake.
Henry Knighton
In Corinth and Achaia at that time many citizens were buried when the earth swallowed them. Castles and towns cracked apart and were thrown down and engulfed. In Cyprus mountains were levelled, blocking rivers and causing many citizens to drown and towns to be destroyed. At Naples it was the same, as a friar had predicted. The whole city was destroyed by an earthquake and storms, and the earth was suddenly overflooded by a wave, as if a stone was thrown into the sea. Everyone died, including the friar who had foretold it, except one friar who fled and hid in a garden outside the town. And all those things were brought about by the earthquake.
Henry Knighton
This and other pictures in a similar style come from the book „The Augsburg Book of Miracles”. It is an illuminated manuscript, made in Germany in the 16th century, which depicts unusual phenomena and events from the past.
Earthquakes were not the only calamities that accompanied the plague. Justus Hecker gives an extensive description of these events in his book:
On the island of Cyprus, the plague from the East had already broken out; when an earthquake shook the foundations of the island, and was accompanied by so frightful a hurricane, that the inhabitants who had slain their Mahometan slaves, in order that they might not themselves be subjugated by them, fled in dismay, in all directions. The sea overflowed – the ships were dashed to pieces on the rocks and few outlived the terrific event, whereby this fertile and blooming island was converted into a desert. Before the earthquake, a pestiferous wind spread so poisonous an odour that many, being overpowered by it, fell down suddenly and expired in dreadful agonies. … German accounts say expressly, that a thick, stinking mist advanced from the East, and spread itself over Italy, … for just at this time earthqukes were more general than they had been within the range of history. In thousands of places chasms were formed, from whence arose noxious vapours; and as at that time natural occurrences were transformed into miracles, it was reported, that a fiery meteor, which descended on the earth far in the East, had destroyed every thing within a radius of more than a hundred leagues [483 km], infecting the air far and wide. The consequences of innumerable floods contributed to the same effect; vast river districts had been converted into swamps; foul vapours arose every where, increased by the odour of putrified locusts, which had never perhaps darkened the sun in thicker swarms, and of countless corpses, which even in the well-regulated countries of Europe, they knew not how to remove quickly enough out of the sight of the living. It is probable, therefore, that the atmosphere contained foreign, and sensuously perceptible, admixtures to a great extent, which, at least in the lower regions, could not be decomposed, or rendered ineffective by separation.
Justus Hecker, The Black Death, and The Dancing Mania
On the island of Cyprus, the plague from the East had already broken out; when an earthquake shook the foundations of the island, and was accompanied by so frightful a hurricane, that the inhabitants who had slain their Mahometan slaves, in order that they might not themselves be subjugated by them, fled in dismay, in all directions. The sea overflowed – the ships were dashed to pieces on the rocks and few outlived the terrific event, whereby this fertile and blooming island was converted into a desert. Before the earthquake, a pestiferous wind spread so poisonous an odour that many, being overpowered by it, fell down suddenly and expired in dreadful agonies. … German accounts say expressly, that a thick, stinking mist advanced from the East, and spread itself over Italy, … for just at this time earthqukes were more general than they had been within the range of history. In thousands of places chasms were formed, from whence arose noxious vapours; and as at that time natural occurrences were transformed into miracles, it was reported, that a fiery meteor, which descended on the earth far in the East, had destroyed every thing within a radius of more than a hundred english leagues [483 km], infecting the air far and wide. The consequences of innumerable floods contributed to the same effect; vast river districts had been converted into swamps; foul vapours arose every where, increased by the odour of nasty locusts, which had never perhaps darkened the sun in thicker swarms, and of countless corpses, which even in the well-regulated countries of Europe, they knew not how to remove quickly enough out of the sight of the living. It is probable, therefore, that the atmosphere contained foreign, and sensuously perceptible, admixtures to a great extent, which, at least in the lower regions, could not be decomposed, or rendered ineffective by separation.
Justus Hecker, The Black Death, and The Dancing Mania
We learn that Cyprus was turned into a desert after being hit first by a hurricane and an earthquake and then by a tsunami. Elsewhere, Hecker writes that Cyprus lost almost all of its inhabitants and ships without crews were often seen in the Mediterranean.
Somewhere in the east, a meteorite reportedly fell, destroying areas within a radius of about 500 kilometers. Being skeptical about this report one can note that such such a large meteorite should leave a crater several kilometers in diameter. However, there is no such large crater on Earth that has been dated to the last centuries. On the other hand, we know the case of the Tunguska event of 1908, when the meteorite then exploded just above the ground. The explosion knocked down trees within a radius of 40 kilometers, but left no crater. It is possible that, contrary to popular belief, falling meteorites rarely leave any permanent traces.
It has also been written that the meteorite impact caused the air pollution. This is hardly the typical result of a meteorite strike, but in some cases a meteorite can indeed cause pollution. This was the case in Peru, where a meteorite fell in 2007. After the impact, villagers fell ill with a mysterious disease. About 200 people reported dermal injuries, nausea, headaches, diarrhea and vomiting caused by a „strange odor”. Deaths of nearby livestock were also reported. Investigations determined that the reported symptoms were likely caused by the vaporization of troilite, a sulfur-containing compound that was present in large quantities in the meteorite.(ref.)
Portents
The report of the Paris Medical Faculty states that at the time of the Black Death similar portents were seen on the earth and in the sky as during the pestilences centuries ago.
So many exhalations and inflammations have been observed, such as a comet and shooting stars. Also the sky has looked yellow and the air reddish because of the burnt vapours. There has also been much lightning and flashes and frequent thunder, and winds of such violence and strength that they have carried dust storms from the south. These things, and in particular the powerful earthquakes, have done universal harm and left a trail of corruption. There have been masses of dead fish, animals and other things along the sea shore, and in many places trees covered in dust, and some people claim to have seen a multitude of frogs and reptiles generated from the corrupt matter; and all these things seem to have come from the great corruption of the air and earth. All these things have been noted before as signs of plague by numerous wise men who are still remembered with respect and who experienced them themselves.
Paris Medical Faculty
The report mentions great swarms of frogs and reptiles created from decayed matter. Chroniclers from different parts of the world similarly wrote that toads, serpents, lizards, scorpions and other unpleasant creatures were falling from the sky along with the rain, and biting people. There are so many similar accounts that it is difficult to explain them only by the vivid imagination of the authors. There are modern, documented cases of various animals being carried long distances by a gale or sucked out of a lake by a tornado and then dumped many kilometers away. Recently, fish fell from the sky in Texas.(ref.) However, I find it hard to imagine that snakes, after a long journey through the skies and a hard landing, would have an appetite for biting humans. In my opinion, herds of reptiles and amphibians were indeed observed during the plague, but the animals did not fall from the sky, but came out of underground caves.
A province in southern China has come up with a unique method for predicting earthquakes: snakes. Jiang Weisong, the director of the earthquake bureau in Nanning, explains that of all the creatures on the Earth, snakes are perhaps the most sensitive to earthquakes. Snakes can sense an impending earthquake from 120 km (75 miles) away, up to five days before it happens. They react with extremely erratical behavior. „When an earthquake is about to occur, snakes will move out of their nests, even in the cold of winter. If the earthquake is a big one, the snakes will even smash into walls while trying to escape.”, he said.(ref.)
We may not even realize how many different creepy crawling creatures live in undiscovered caves and nooks deep beneath our feet. Sensing the impending earthquakes, these animals were coming out to the surface, wanting to save themselves from suffocation or crushing. The snakes were coming out in the rain, because that is the weather they tolerate best. And when witnesses of these events saw multitudes of frogs and snakes, they found that they must have fallen from the sky.
Fire falling from the sky
A Dominican, Heinrich von Herford, passes on the information he received:
This information comes from a letter of the house of Friesach to the provincial prior of Germany. It says in the same letter that in this year [1348] fire falling from heaven was consuming the land of the Turks for 16 days; that for a few days it rained toads and snakes, by which many men were killed; that a pestilence has gathered strength in many parts of the world; that not one man in ten escaped the plague in Marseilles; that all the Franciscans there have died; that beyond Rome the city of Messina has been largely deserted because of the pestilence. And a knight coming from that place said that he did not find five men alive there.
Heinrich von Herford
Gilles li Muisis wrote how many people died in the land of the Turks:
The Turks and all the other infidels and Saracens who currently occupy the Holy Land and Jerusalem were so severely hit by the mortality that, according to the reliable report of merchants, not one in twenty survived.
Gilles li Muisis
The above accounts show that terrible disasters were occurring on Turkish soil. Fire was falling from the sky for as long as 16 days. Similar reports of rains of fire falling from the sky come from South India, East India, and China. Before that, around 526 AD, fire from heaven fell on Antioch.
It is worth considering what actually was the cause of this phenomenon. Some try to explain it with a meteor shower. However, it should be noted, that there are no reports of rains of fire falling from the skies in Europe or in many other parts of the world. If it were a meteor shower, it would have to be falling all over the Earth. Our planet is in constant motion, so it is not possible for meteorites to always fall on the same place for 16 days.
There are several volcanoes in Turkey, so the fire falling from the sky could have been a magma blown up into the air during a volcanic eruption. However, there is no geological evidence that any of the Turkish volcanoes erupted in the 14th century. Besides, there are no volcanoes in other places where a similar phenomenon occurred (India, Antioch). So what could the fire falling from the sky have been? In my opinion, the fire came from inside the earth. As a result of the displacement of the tectonic plates, a huge rift must have formed. The Earth’s crust cracked throughout its thickness, exposing magma chambers inside. Then the magma spurted upward with tremendous force, to finally fell to the ground in the form of a fiery rain.
Terrible cataclysms were happening all over the world. They also did not spare China and India. These events are described by Gabriele de’Mussis:
In the East, in Cathay [China], which is the greatest country in the world, horrible and terrifying signs appeared. Serpents and toads fell in a thick rain, entered dwellings and devoured numberless people, injecting them with poison and gnawing them with their teeth. In the South in the Indies, earthquakes cast down whole towns and cities were consumed by fire from heaven. The hot fumes of the fire burnt up infinite numbers of people, and in some places it rained with blood, and stones fell from the sky.
Gabriele de’Mussis
The chronicler writes about blood falling from the sky. This phenomenon was most likely caused by the rain being tinted red by dust in the air.
The letter sent from the papal court in Avignon provides more information about disasters in India:
A huge mortality and pestilence started in September 1347, as … terrible events and unheard of calamities had afflicted the whole of a province in eastern India for three days. On the first day it rained frogs, snakes, lizards, scorpions and many other similar venomous animals. On the second day thunder was heard, and thunderbolts and lightning flashes mixed with hailstones of incredible size fell to earth, killing almost all the people, from the greatest to the least. On the third day fire, accompanied by stinking smoke, descended from heaven and consumed all the remaining men and animals, and burnt all the cities and settlements in the region. The entire province was infected by these calamities, and it is surmised that the whole coast and all the neighbouring countries caught the infection from it, by means of the stinking breath of the wind which blew southwards from the region affected by plague; and always, day by day, more people died.
The letter shows that the plague in India began in September 1347, that is four months before the earthquake in Italy. It began with a great cataclysm. Rather, it was not a volcanic eruption, as there are no volcanoes in India. It was a heavy earthquake that released foul-smelling smoke. And something about this toxic smoke caused a plague to break out all over the region.
This account is taken from the chronicle of the Neuberg Monastery in southern Austria.
Not far from that country dreadful fire descended from heaven and consumed everything in its path; in that fire even stones blazed like dry wood. The smoke which arose was so contagious that merchants watching from a long way off were immediately infected and several died on the spot. Those who escaped carried the pestilence with them, and infected all the places to which they brought their merchandise – including Greece, Italy and Rome – and the neighbouring regions through which they travelled.
Monastery of Neuberg chronicle
Here the chronicler writes about a rain of fire and burning stones (presumably lava). He does not specify which country he is referring to, but it is probably Turkey. He writes that the merchants who watched the cataclysm from a distance were struck by poisonous gases. Some of them suffocated. Others were infected with a contagious disease. So we see that another chronicler states outright that the bacteria came out of the ground along with the toxic gases that were released by the earthquake.
This account comes from the chronicle of the Franciscan Michele da Piazza:
In October 1347, at about the beginning of the month, twelve Genoese galleys, fleeing from the divine vengeance which Our Lord had sent upon them for their sins, put into the port of Messina. The Genoese carried such a disease in their bodies that if anyone so much as spoke with one of them he was infected with the deadly illness and could not avoid death.
Michele da Piazza
This chronicler explains how the epidemic reached Europe. He writes that the plague arrived in Italy in October 1347 with twelve merchant ships. So, contrary to the official version taught in schools, seafarers did not contract the bacterium in the Crimea. They became infected on the open sea, having no contact with sick people. From the chroniclers’ accounts, it is clear that the plague came out of the ground. But is this even possible? It turns out that it is, because scientists have recently discovered that the deep layers of the earth are full of various microorganisms.
Bacteria from inside the Earth
Billions of tonnes of tiny creatures live deep beneath the Earth’s surface, in a habitat nearly twice the size of the oceans, as stated in a major study of „deep life”, described in the articles on independent.co.uk,(ref.) and cnn.com.(ref.) The findings are the crowning achievement of the 1,000-strong collective of scientists, who have opened our eyes to remarkable vistas of life that we never knew existed. The 10-year project involved drilling deep into the seafloor and sampling microbes from mines and boreholes up to three miles underground. The discovery of what has been dubbed a „subterranean Galapagos” was announced by the „Deep Carbon Observatory Tuesday”, which said many of the life forms have lifespans of millions of years. The report says that the deep microbes are often very different from their surface cousins, having life cycles near to geologic timescales and dining in some cases on nothing more than energy from rocks. One of the microbes the team discovered can survive temperatures of 121 °C around thermal vents at the ocean floor. There are millions of distinct species of bacteria as well as archaea and eukarya living beneath the Earth’s surface, possibly surpassing the diversity of surface life. It is now believed that about 70% of the planet’s bacteria and archaea species live underground!
Although the sampling only scratched the surface of the deep biosphere, the scientists estimate that there are 15 to 23 billion tonnes of microorganisms living in this deep biosphere. In comparison, the mass of all bacteria and archaea on Earth is 77 billion tonnes.(ref.) Thanks to ultra-deep sampling, we now know that we can find life just about anywhere. The record depth at which microbes have been found is about three miles below the earth’s surface, but the absolute limits of life underground have yet to be determined. Dr Lloyd said that when the project began, very little was known about the creatures inhabiting these regions and how they manage to survive. „Exploring the deep subsurface is akin to exploring the Amazon rainforest. There is life everywhere, and everywhere there’s an awe-inspiring abundance of unexpected and unusual organisms”, said one team member.
The Black Death coincided with powerful earthquakes accompanied by significant shifts in tectonic plates. In some place two mountains merged, and elsewhere deep fissures formed, exposing the Earth’s interior. Lava and toxic gases gushed out of the fissures, and with them flew out the bacteria living there. Most species of bacteria probably could not live on the surface and quickly died out. But the plague bacteria can survive in both anaerobic and aerobic environments. Clouds of bacteria from inside the earth have appeared in at least several places around the world. The bacteria first infected people in the area, and then spread from person to person. Bacteria living deep underground are organisms as if from another planet. They live in an ecosystem that does not penetrate our habitat. Humans do not come into contact with these bacteria on a daily basis and have not developed immunity to them. And that is why these bacteria managed to wreak so much havoc.
Weather anomalies
During the plague, there were significant weather anomalies. Winters were exceptionally warm and it rained constantly. Ralph Higden, who was a monk in Chester, describes the weather in the British Isles:
In 1348 there was inordinately heavy rain between midsummer and Christmas, and scarcely a day went by without rain at some time in the day or night.
Ralph Higden
Polish chronicler Jan Długosz wrote that it rained incessantly in Lithuania in 1348.(ref.) Similar weather occurred in Italy, resulting in a crop failures.
The consequences of failure in the crops were soon felt, especially in Italy and the surrounding countries, where, in this year, a rain which continued for four months, had destroyed seed.
Justus Hecker, The Black Death, and The Dancing Mania
Gilles li Muisis wrote that it rained in France for four months in late 1349 and early 1350. As a result, flooding occurred in many areas.
End of 1349. The winter was certainly very odd, for in the four months from the beginning of October until the beginning of February, although a hard frost was often expected, there was not so much ice as would support the weight of a goose. But there was instead such a lot of rain that the Scheldt and all the rivers round about burst their banks, so that meadows became seas, and this was so in our country and in France.
Gilles li Muisis
End of 1349. The winter was certainly very odd, for in the four months from the beginning of October until the beginning of February, although a hard frost was often expected, there was not so much ice as would support the weight of a goose. But there was instead such a lot of rain that the Scheldt and all the rivers round about overflowed, so that meadows became seas, and this was so in our country and in France.
Gilles li Muisis
Probably the gases that escaped from the Earth’s interior were the cause of the sudden increase in rainfall and flooding. In one of the following chapters I will try to explain the exact mechanism of these anomalies.
Summation
The plague began suddenly with the earthquake in India in September 1347. At about the same time, the plague appeared in Tarsus, Turkey. By early October, the disease had already reached southern Italy along with the sailors fleeing the cataclysm. It also quickly reached Constantinople and Alexandria. After the earthquake in Italy in January 1348, the epidemic began to spread rapidly throughout Europe. In each city, the epidemic lasted for about half a year. Throughout France, it lasted about 1.5 years. In the summer of 1348, the plague came to the south of England, and in 1349 it spread to the rest of the country. By the end of 1349, the epidemic in England was basically over. The last major earthquake occurred in September 1349 in central Italy. This event closed a fatal cycle of disasters that lasted two years. After that, the Earth calmed down, and the next earthquake recorded in encyclopedias did not occur until five years later. After 1349, the epidemic began to subside as pathogens evolve over time to become less virulent. By the time the plague reached Russia, it was no longer capable of causing as much damage. In the following decades, the epidemic returned again and again, but it was never again as deadly as before. The next waves of the plague mainly affected children, that is, those who had not previously come into contact with it and had not acquired immunity.
During the plague, many unusual phenomena were reported: masses of smoke, toads and serpents, unheard-of tempests, floods, droughts, locusts, shooting stars, enormous hailstones, and rain of”blood”. All these things were spoken about plainly by those who witnessed the Black Death, but for some reason modern historians argue that these reports about rains of fire and deadly air were all just metaphors for a horrible disease. In the end, it is science that must win, as completely independent scientists studying comets, tsunamis, carbon dioxide, ice cores, and tree rings, observe in their data, that something very strange were happening around the world as the Black Death was decimating the human population.
In the following chapters, we will delve deeper and deeper into history. For those who would like to quickly refresh their basic knowledge about historical eras, I recommend watching the video: Timeline of World History | Major Time Periods & Ages (17m 24s).
After the first three chapters, the theory of resets clearly begins to make sense, and this ebook is still far from over. If you already have a feeling that a similar catastrophe may soon return, do not hesitate, but share this information with your friends and family right now so they can become familiar with it as early as possible.