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16 Dreadful Details about the Black Plague

Shaina Lucas September 18, 2018 18 min

The Decameron - Black Death — A 14th-century etching by L. Sabatelli depicting the Black Death in Florence as described in Boccaccio’s Decameron. Wikimedia Commons.

9. With The Black Death Came The Flagellants

People thought anything, and everything would stave off the plague from sex to not bathing to not eating certain foods. The flagellants took things to a new level. They would march from town to town whipping themselves to atone for their sins. They thought if they punished themselves, God would show mercy and stop the pestilence. But with the flagellants came the pestilence. They too were infected and spread the plague from town to town. Officials outlawed them, but that didn’t stop them from making their rounds.

This also gave rise to the pseudo-flagellants. These people would also roam town to town but instead committed unusual sex acts public for a fee. Flagellants did not charge a fee but urged people to join them. Officials outlawed them too, but it worked about as much as banning the real flagellants. The most effective way of avoiding the plague was to avoid people with it and avoid fleas. Whipping yourself to atone for your sins wasn’t the way to do it.

Written by

Shaina Lucas

Shaina Lucas is an avid historical buff. She graduated in 2013 from York College of PA with her BA in Professional Writing, Creative Writing, and World History. She then graduated from SNHU in 2015 with her MA, and in 2018 graduated with her MFA in Creative Writing from National University. She is a local actress in York, PA and specializes in Shakespeare, Medieval history, comic history, and the French Revolution. She is also an avid collector of swords and knives from various time periods.