Blame for The Plague Those who lived during the fourteenth century dealt with the issue of the Black Death in several different ways the blame was often placed on several different races including both the Jews and the Tartars Christians strongly believed that the Jews were to blame for this awful plague Rumors arose that the Jews were guilty of spreading the plague because of reports that there was a poison put by them into the wells springs and other things which the Christians use 1 People would probably have found this accusation to be believable during the time because the Jews did eventually confess to their alleged offenses relating to their hand in instigating the black death after they were severely tortured at Lake Geneva Also there was not a very advanced method to access news and information regarding other cities or areas therefore the people would have been far more likely to believe the inaccurate information that they were obtaining from talking to their close friends and relatives People would have no other choice than to trust the reports coming from the people in their communities considering that this may have been their most accurate source given their limited resources at the time However we can logically deduce that if the plague was caused by intentional poisonings it could not have caused so great a plague nor have infected so many people 2 Some people even used this ridiculous accusation to their advantage it was said that some townspeople were determined to do away with the Jews simply because they were their economic competitors to whom they were indebted for loans 3 Not everyone believed this ridiculous theory but those who did not support the punishment of the Jews were simply forced to allow it to occur For example the town council of Strasbourg wanted to save the Jews 4 but were then deposed Much like the Jews the Tartars were also blamed for the occurrence of plague because they were one of the first groups to be infected by this mysterious illness that brought sudden death 1 And even after this infection they persisted to terrorize the healthy solely out of spite There are even accounts that the Tartars ordered corpses to be placed in catapults and lobbed into the city in the hopes that the intolerable stench would kill everyone inside 1 After time the rotting corpses tainted the air and poisoned the water supply 1 therefore rendering all of the innocent christians in the city infected with the disease Considering this account of how cruel and twisted the Tartars were it is extremely easy to understand why people blamed them for the spread of the black death Living conditions that are to blame for the plague basically involve everything that has to do with interacting with the sick or living in close quarters with others who may become sick For this reason most people avoided those who were already ill because they had learned that if a well man visited the sick he only rarely evaded the risk of death 1 It was remarkable how these people finally discovered that diseases could be contagious Because of this sudden fear of contamination 4 recounts of the plague describe how citizen avoided citizen and that these people were so horrified of the plague that many were often betrayed or forsaken by their own family members 3 there were even occurrences when fathers and mothers were found to abandon their own children 3 Living in cities or areas of dense population was also thought to contribute to the plague and very rightfully so It is in fact true that being in areas where there are many other people around does facilitate the spread of diseases because there are other human bodies around which can host and spread the illness Very many people during the time of the plague noticed that those in voluntary exile were safer because the sickness intended the destruction of such alone as remained within the circuit of the walls of the city 3 It was also commonly thought that the plague was caused by infection of the air and waters 1 this could have been accurate because this assumption could very well be logically and scientifically correct if there was enough evidence to support the claim Individuals or groups of individuals who could be considered to be at fault for the black death include both physicians and sailors The physicians should be blamed for the black death because they were unable to produce medicines or treatments that were effective There was a question whether or not people were suffering from these wretched illnesses simply because these lazy and incompetent physicians had not previously studied them 1 Furthermore these physicians also required vast sums of money before they would treat sick patients and when they did agree to cooperate they were often ineffective in their attempts to cure the disease Sailors could also be blamed for the spread of the plague because they traveled other places and brought home with them any diseases that they had picked up along the way Sailors are depicted as cruel and mindless vessels for the disease because they are accused of bringing evil spirits with them when they landed in a town and mixed with the people there 2 It is understandable why people would believe that sailors are to blame for spreading the disease because they do have a valid point these sailors were carriers of the disease and very well may have been the reason for its spread to many different cities Another group of individuals who were often blamed for the plague were those who did not believe in christianity It is believed by many that the plague began among the unbelievers 1 and therefore this plague is said to have evolved at the hand of god The will of God was a common explanation for this gruesome plague because the people strongly believed that anything this devastating could only be a punishment from a higher power Of course we now know that this notion of the plague having been caused by a divine vengeance 3 is logically unreasonable and most likely inaccurate During the fourteenth century people were so terrified by the Black Death simply because they had no idea where it came from or what could have caused it People began to try to understand or explain either the origin or the spread of the plague through several different theories some more bizarre than others It s easy to understand why people during this time were so quick to come to conclusions about the plague the cause of all this speculation was simply fear they