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"No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal—the redness and horror of blood." (Edgar Allen Poe The Masque of the Red Death.)



Many thought the Black Plague was a curse from God; punishment for the sins the infected had committed. Those that survived were the chosen people, the ones who abided by the laws of the Church. Scientists know now that the devastating disease was not a result of sins or spiritual inadequacy, but the terrible illness was caused by a strain of bacteria called Yersinia pestis. The bacteria were carried by fleas on rats, which were quite abundant in Medieval towns due to unsanitary conditions and overpopulation. The fleas would bite the rats and become infected with the diseased blood. The fleas would then jump from the rats onto people, thus infecting the host. Because the plague was spread easily, through sneezing and coughing as well as the fleas, the infection spread like wildfire. By the end of the 1300s......

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Approximate Word Count: 688
Approximate Pages: 3 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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