'Short and harsh'. Is this a fair description of life for the majority Essay

'Short and harsh'. Is this a fair description of life for the majority of 'ordinary' rural Scots between 1300 and 1500 - Essay Example It was essentially a pandemic which had severe social and drastic economic consequences therefore a discussion of these effects becomes very important when we are dealing with the social issues of the time. The Plague came to Europe from the East through trade routes that had ships which carried the Bubonic Plague. It hit Europe during an economic recession and only caused the economy to go down further (Bolton, 1970). Anyone struck with the plague would be dead within three to five days and some towns lost as much as 90% of their population within a matter of months. The rural areas were also affected by the plague even though the extent of the disease was comparatively lower. It was indeed a horrible experience as major European cities such as Venice and Pisa lost more than 70% of their population. Modern estimates show us that 25 million people died in Europe within a period of just five years between 1347 and 1352. The reaction to so many people dying at once was naturally one of fear and hatred. Fear of the wrath of god which started the Flagellant Movement and the fear of the outsider such as Jews who were blamed for having caused the plague. Artists also created works of art to deal with the huge number of dead and dying they saw around them and saints were made of individuals such as St. Roch and St. Sebastian who took it upon themselves to help the sick in those times. While Scotland was already in trouble before the plague, the coming of the plague only made matters worse (Hale et. al., 1965). The agricultural system in particular suffered greatly since the output was not high enough during those years to create food surpluses. In this manner, the plague only lowered the standard of living for many Scots. The church which was present in Scotland and across Europe was simply unable to deal with the disease and