Sunday, October 26, 2008
Week 9 - The Plague
Why did people believe that sound would drive away the plague? I mean, I can see the connection they made between the stench of the dead bodies and getting sick. But the only viable reason that I can think of for ringing church bells and firing cannons is that that were told it would drive away the sickness and it was purely to make people feel better.
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People didn't have really much knowledge in medicine during that time if any. We read that professors in Paris felt that this "disaster was caused by a particularly unfortunate conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars in the sign of Aquarius that had occurred in 1345. This conjunction cause hot, moist conditions, which cause the earth to exhale poisonous vapors." This is really far fetched to me. I actually laughed when I read this, but these people probably already based a lot on astronomy and the positioning of the stars. Truly, these people didn't know any better. There were no microscopes capable of seeing what they were dealing with. For all they knew they were fighting a ghost. So they did everything they possibly could in hopes that something might work to keep friends, family and themselves from almost certain death.
I see what your saying and I have to agree with you: they were grasping at straws and praying for the best, but they just came up with some of the most rediculous stuff. I just find ringing bells to prevent/cure sickness kinda funny ;)
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