It is not clear where the plague originated. Suggestions have ranged from China (Rice), to Russia (Davis 142), to Italy (Tanner, Previte-Orton, Brooke xiv). Most experts, no matter where they say it originated, agree that from its origin, it was spread to Italy through trade, and grew out from there.

By the end of 1348, all of Italy was blanketed by plague, and most of France was beginning to feel its grim affects. Switzerland was infected by August, as was England, via a ship from Calais that put into the Dorsetshire port of Melcombe. By the end of 1349, Scotland, Ireland, Denmark and most of Germany were under its influence. Norwegian ships carried the plague as far as Iceland, where the entire population would be wiped out, and to Po

Its [The Black Death's] effect on the mentality of Europe seems somewhat similar. There was the usual debasement which follows great disasters. For a while men were more reckless, less dutiful, more callous; and if the old enthusiasms and devotion survived, we have the impression of a certain lassitude in their pursuit. (Tanner, Previte-Orton, Brooke xv)

Because there was really no way of stopping the spread of the plague, it caused mass paranoia. People suddenly hated and feared each other. "Soon men hated each other so much that, if a son was attacked by the disease, his father would not tend him." (Davis 143) Many people began to feel hatred towards God or even to devil worship. The feeling of helplessness fueled a search for scapegoats. Anti-Semitism arose among many Christians. "In May 1348, the Jewish communities in three cities of southern France were exterminated." (Davis 143) In September of that same year, a Jewish physician in Chillon, Switzerland confessed, after having been brutally tortured, that he and other members of the Jewish community had poisoned the wells. (Davis 143) News of this spread all over Europe, resulting in a massive attack against Jews. In about 350 separate massacres, 60 large and 150 small Jewish communities were "utterly exterminated." (Tanner, Previte-Orton, Brooke 658)

The number of fatalities was astronomical. Half of the population of Italy died. Nine out of every 10 residents of London succumbed. In the year 1348, 1,244,434 inhabitants of what is now Germany were killed by the plague. In the Russian city of Smolensk, only five persons remained alive by 1386. (Davis 143)

3) Le Goff, Jacques. Medieval Civilization. Ed. Julia Barrow. 1st ed. New York, NY: Basil Blackwell Incorporated, c 1989. p.241.

It was not a pretty death. According to Michael Plateinsis of Piaza, quoted in Johannes Nohl's study, The Black Death: "Those infected felt themselves penetrated by a pain throughout their whole bodies and, so to say, undermined. Then there developed in their thighs or on their upper arms a boil. . . . Th

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