The Black Death had many titles, such as the Black Death, the Bubonic Plague, and the Black Death. The Black Death struck quickly and without caring who it hit. This disease was the deadliest disaster of the past until the mid-14th century, killing approximately twenty-five million people in just five years (1347-1352). The Black Death spread and wiped out the population of Europe. This scourge has spread across all social classes and killed billions of peasants, lords and queens. This impacted all aspects of life in Europe and all citizens at that time. Different beliefs were common and there was no single intense belief. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Some of these beliefs were that the Black Death was a natural disaster while others believed it was caused by human error. After the initial frenzied explosion of piety and renewal, the Black Death caused long-term damage to religious institutions. During these plague epidemics, some believed that God was punishing humans for their sins. As a result, people publicly whipped themselves until they bled. Some infected people tried to hide in the Holy Land. Others were desperate and reported that God had not lived, or that he had perished, or that he was unconscious, or that he had appeared on humans. The plague was also believed to be caused by lack of food, water and shelter. Farmers and lower-class citizens were the first to become infected with the Black Death. Many people died from this disease, but most died because of poor hygiene and lack of sanitation facilities. Symptoms of this illness included: fever, chills, vomiting and diarrhea. Almost always this was followed by death. To catch the disease, people observed that it only took brief physical contact with the clothing of a sick person to transmit the disease to another. Some doctors insisted that it was the spirit leaving the body of the deceased that infected others as it passed. Few regions, except for a few islands isolated from the rest of Europe by sea, survived the plague pandemic. The rest of the population was not so lucky. Bacteria infiltrated the defenses of every European city and many of those who seemed perfectly healthy one day could die a few days later. It was rare, although possible, for a person to survive a week or two before dying. The plague also reduced livestock numbers and countless pigs, cows, chickens, goats and sheep also died brutal deaths. While many European regions saw a death rate of around 30%, 90% of the Italian city of Florence perished. Sometimes the bodies of the deceased were left where they died because there were not enough people still alive to bury them. Thousands of French villages as well as areas elsewhere found themselves without a soul. The Black Death had easily turned them into ghost towns. In some cases, nature eventually took over and areas that people once called home were reclaimed by the surrounding forest. It took aerial photography after the end of the First World War to rediscover these places as places where men, women and children once lived. Not only did people not understand the causes or modes of transmission of the plague, but there were also countless.