What did people in the Middle Ages think caused the plague?

The Europeans were so desperate to avoid the plague that many people gave all of their possessions to the church hoping to buy forgiveness and reprieve from the illness. This of course did nothing to save anyone from the plague and left the church very rich in the end. read more

Alongside divine and natural causes, the people of the Middle Ages assumed a human cause and blamed one another. The blame fell upon ‘Others’, people who were seen as different or foreign; someone who is not like you or is outside of your society. In the Black 29 Kelly, p. 27. 30 Deaux, pp. 118-119. 31 Kelly, pp. 18-25. read more