1347–1350

The Black Death

The bubonic plague began on the Black Sea and spread along trade routes to Italy and Northern Europe. Within three years it killed about a third of the continent's population. Outbreaks then recurred every 10–12 years.

The epidemic undermined the economy and deepened doubts about the world's rational order. It fueled superstition, pilgrimages, and the relic trade, against the prohibitions of the Fourth Lateran Council. It also led to mass killings of Jews accused of "poisoning wells".

Among those who died of the plague were William of Ockham and Thomas Bradwardine. Johannes Tauler devoted himself to nursing the sick. Some popular movements, such as the flagellants, intensified ritual self-scourging, called a "second baptism". This brought subsequent persecution of them by the church.