Case study - the Black Death

• Medicine in medieval England was based on religious, supernatural and rational ideas
• The Church held great power over the practice of medicine
• The Black Death reached Britain in 1348
• The Black Death affected both the rich and the poor, and those who lived in towns and the countryside
• Symptoms of the Black Death

  • Buboes in the armpit or groin, chest pains and a fever
  • People could die within days
• Treatments used for the Black Death


  • Confession of sins or prayer
  • Smelling strong-smelling herbs, sweet-smelling flowers or lighting a fire
  • Bloodletting or purging (e.g. vomiting or use of laxatives)
• Herbal remedies were an important treatment for all types of illness, including the Black Death
• Attempts by individuals to prevent the spread of the Black Death


  • Confession, prayer, fasting, carrying posies (bunches of flowers) and herbs
• Attempts by authorities to prevent the spread of the Black Death


  • Quarantine laws - people new to an area had to stay away from others for 40 days, houses were placed in quarantine where there had been an outbreak, strangers were not allowed to enter a village
  • Stopping street cleaning as they believed the smells from the waste would drive away any bad air
  • Banning events that attracted large crowds, such as religious processions
  • Creating huge burial sites where the dead would be buried in mass graves
• All of these actions were difficult to enforce because the Church continued to have a lot of power, and individuals continued to follow the advice given by the Church
• Label

  A) Earthquakes

  B) Imbalance of the four humours

  C) Miasma

  D) Alignment of the planets

  E) Punishment from God