Cultural and intellectual responses to the Black Death

From the fall of the Roman Empire to the “Age of Translations,” Western Europe endeavored to rise above the so-called cultural and intellectual “Dark Ages.” That advancement was threatened with the arrival of the Black Death in 1347. Chapter one details the correlation between the spread of the plague and the location of the first universities. It also examines the expansion of the university system throughout the continent in the wake of the plague. The second chapter looks at the cultural, especially religious, explanations of and responses to the Black Death. It examines how medieval society used the religious tools at their disposal to combat the ‘evils’ of the plague.