Unit 1:"The Plague in France"

Author Bio: Jean De Venette(ca. 1307-1370CE)- A French Carmelite friar who became the prior of the carmelite monastery. He was raised a peasant, but became a master of theology at the University of Paris.
Speaker: Jean de Venette.

Date/Context: August 1348; France is greatly affected by the plague; France has not been hit by an epidemic worse than war; Pope Clement VI granted absolution to the sick and dying.

Summary: The Plague had struck hard in France, leaving people to believe that it was the doing of bad Christians and Jews. They had believed that the water and air was corrupted by the Jews. Jews were massacred and burned in Germany and other countries where Jews lived. After the ending of the plague. Men and women who had survived the plague married each other, and gave birth to many more children that had less teeth than the normal child. The new population was not a blessing but a curse. France and the Church’s enemies had become much wickeder and stronger than before. As there was an abundance of food and sin, there became a lack of charity and people no longer taught children the importance of grammar.
Key Quotation:

• “In Germany and other parts of the world where Jews lived, they were massacred and slaughtered by Christians, and many thousands were burned everywhere, indiscriminately.”
• “This plague, it is said, began among the unbelievers, came to Italy, and then crossing the Alps reached Avignon, where it attacked several cardinals and took from them their whole household”