The Black Death: A Personal History

by adminEngland

The Black Death: A Personal History

John Hatcher

Language: English

Pages: 352

ISBN: 0306817926

Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub


In this fresh approach to the history of the Black Death, John Hatcher, a world-renowned scholar of the Middle Ages, recreates everyday life in a mid-fourteenth century rural English village. By focusing on the experiences of ordinary villagers as they lived—and died—during the Black Death (1345–50 AD), Hatcher vividly places the reader directly into those tumultuous years and describes in fascinating detail the day-to-day existence of people struggling with the tragic effects of the plague. Dramatic scenes portray how contemporaries must have experienced and thought about the momentous events—and how they tried to make sense of it all.

The Scandalous Duchess

The Birds Fall Down

Birth of Love

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vacant by the death of young William Cranmer, the grandson of old William Cranmer, being read out, so the hayward recited that each year a hen, twenty eggs, a day’s plowing, a day’s harvesting, and 2d in cash were due. The brother and sister smiled with satisfaction as the acre was accepted with enthusiasm by Hilary and Olivia Cranmer, who added it to the plentiful lands they had inherited from their father and grandfather within Walsham manor. Next, it was the turn of Alice Helpe, who had come.

Accoutrements of his office, the Virgin Mary, and the intercession of the saints, strove to extract the contrition and confession that would deliver God ’s mercy and eventual salvation. Repentance and deathbed ministrations by the clergy could save even the gravest of sinners from damnation, but this alone did not purge all the sins that had been committed. Purging was achieved through the pains of Purgatory, though the prayers of the living could assist in speeding the souls of the dead toward.

Letter of the bishop of Bath and Wells is in Horrox, Black Death, pp. 271-273. 103 William Sr. purchased: Details of these arrangements were recorded in the Walsham manor court of October 24, 1348 (Lock, Walsham Court Rolls, I, pp. 312-313, 315). 104 Terrible is God toward the sons: The bishop of London’s letter is in Horrox, Black Death, pp. 113-114. 106 assemble in our churchyard: From a letter sent by the bishop of Winchester on October 24, 1348, to all the major officeholders and vicars in.

Weighed them with false weights and measures, and adulterated their wares. “Do not the alewives mix thin halfpenny ale or even dregs with the good penny ale they charge you for? Do not the bakers add sawdust to their bread? The butchers sell meat and the fishmongers fish which are so rotten they would kill a dog? The hot pies you buy so willingly and consume so greedily are often stuffed full of unspeakable substances. At the moment, these traders spend their days in wealth. Yet as the prophet.

And cups to the bedside. Master John paused for a moment breathing heavily and wiped away the sweat trickling down his forehead and into his eyes. As they settled by the bed, he told Agnes that, from his experience, he feared her husband was going to die soon, and he asked her if John had confessed his sins. Agnes shook her head and explained that she had not thought to do this. “Have you forgotten already the letter from the bishop permitting lay confession in extremis, which I read out in.

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