During the plague many people who had the means left the cities including many of the priest and high church officials demonstrating even further the break down of society. Where as the church was at the center of the moral shaping of the individual, they were compelled by fear to leave the cities and their spiritual concern for man. As a result of the plague many of the Catholic officials left their duties as spiritual leaders to escape the plague and instead sought refuge in the luxurious comforts of the countryside. The spiritual morale of the people was further weakened by this event. It was evident that the church cared more about their safety than for the spiritual concern of the people. Ziegler comments, "They lost in popularity as a result of the plague. They were deemed not to have risen the to the level of responsibilities, to have run away in fear or in search of gain, to have put their own skins first and the souls of their parishioners a bad second." The Catholic Church was not adhering to the spiritual demands of the people, at a time when they were most needed they left their parishioners and instead focused on their own personal needs going against everything the church stood for.

As a consequence to the plague, social beliefs and ideologies had been transformed. The importance of the needs of the individual had been exulted. As a result of the crisis the worst virtues of man became evident, man lacked a moral character and instead focused on luxury indolence, greed and wild vivacity. The social beliefs had changed, society focused on man instead of Christ. The church being a social entity also changed as society mind set changed. The result was a church, governed by the perverse ideals of society.

In an effort to counter effect the ravages of the plague, the Catholic Church began to recruit new members to join the priesthood. Within an exertion to lure more people, the Church relaxed its discipline, as a result Catholic faith and ideology suffered. Although it was a means to once again increase the importance of the church in the lives of the people by providing more clergy, it further aggravated the social damage done by the plague. The church reemerged encompassing the social ideologies and beliefs that had resulted from the Black Death.

As a result of the churches spiritual absence, society suffered a great deal of moral corruption and degradation, as Boccaccio states "Men and Women encouraged by this way of thinking and caring for nobody but themselves, abandoned the city their houses and estates and even their own flesh an blood." The People of this period did not have a great sense of morale. The church, which placed an emphasis on the ideas of caring for your fellow brother and living a moral and spiritual existence, was no longer present. Society had no other place to turn to for moral support and spirituality; as a result they were forced to rely on their own efforts to survive the crisis. Boccaccio states, that men and women were leaving their children and families behind for their own survival. These ideas are very selfish; parents were placing their own personal needs and wants ahead of their children. In many ways it represents the degradation of the family unit, as the moral fabric which was believed to hold society together. The act of leaving your own children to die for the purposes of your own survival is heartless and goes against morale and the sanctity of the family, which the church upheld to very high esteem.

The plague in Europe devastated the population; many of those most closely effected were members of the church. Their position as social caretakers of society placed them within close proximity of the people they were serving. As a result they were more often exposed to the plague. In The Decameron, Giovanni Boccaccio, a Florentine writer states, "Even the reverend authority of the divine and human law had almost crumpled and fa

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Approximate Word count = 3628
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page double spaced)