Effect of the Black Death in England on London's culture, population Essay

Effect of the Black Death in England on London's culture, population and economy between 1348 and about 1500 - Essay Example The manner in which the plague quickly spread is rather disheartening. The action of the Sicilians to close their Messina port necessitated the ships from the east to seek available port alongside the Mediterranean. As such, the plague quickly grew and spread into the nations where these plague harboring ships anchored. In this way, the plague was responsible for the demise of approximately one third’s of England’s population. In approximately four years, the plague had covered almost the entire world. This illustrates the grave situation that had been fashioned by the plague. As such, it is imperative to analyze the exact impact of this plague on England as a whole. The steady growth that had characterized England prior to the plague experienced a sudden turn. The extent of deaths that were being realized from the plague has a resounding impact on the religious, economic, social and political structures. The fact that the ships could not anchor in Messina was not enoug h grounds to explain the sporadic nature of the spread of the plague. In sourcing the answer to this question, the situation that existed in England prior to the incidence of the Black Death, has to be highlighted. The source of the plague was from the fleas that were preset in animals. This is especially the big black rats. As long as the animals were alive, the fleas stayed with their host. However, a problem arose when these animals died; and the fleas had nowhere to go. In their search for a new host, they tended to also attack humans. As such, the fact that the plague killed one third of the entire England population, it left a significantly large impact on the political, economic and religious structure of England. At the time of the plague, England had been fiercely catholic; as such it is imperative to outline the impact of the Black Plague on religion in England. The plague had its most catastrophic impact in the cities (Sloanb 45). This is based on the fact that the cities had been characterized by overcrowding. Another factor that aided in this unrestricted spread was the low standards of sanitation in the cities at the time. The relative quick period between infection and ultimate demise had a profound impact on the religious practices at the time. The period of the 14th century was a period of profound religious inclinations. England was largely catholic. As such, it was a convention that people would die with their last rights and having confessed their sins. However, this procedure could not be sustained given the vast number of deaths that were being recorded. This compelled the Pope Clement VI to give remission to all those deaths was a directly sourced from the Black Plague. This is because the clergy were unable to be at the bedside of everyone who died. The religious transformation allowed the dying to confess their sins to anyone at their bedside. So much was the need to have people at the bedside of the dying that people were also allowed to confess to women. This had previously been unacceptable in the catholic religion. However, given the nature of the situation, this had to be accepted. The reliance on the clergy hit low probabilities given the characteristic of the plague in attacking isolated populations exemplified by monasteries. It is no surprise that people thought that the plague was as a result