Chapter 36: Death comes like a tsunami
As mentioned before, in medieval Europe, divine authority was supreme. Christian ideas have thoroughly penetrated into every corner of social life, dominating everyone's thoughts and behaviors. The omnipotent God is the starting point for all thinking and behavior of believers.
In this way, when encountering an irresistible disaster, the first thought of European Christians was naturally to ask God for help.
Therefore, in the early days of the outbreak of the Black Death, throughout the Papal States in central Italy, and even in places a little further away, there were crying people everywhere, carrying patients who were groaning in pain to kneel in the eternal city of Rome. Pray for God’s salvation in front of St. Peter’s Basilica or some other famous church. There were even many believers who were not sick, but after hearing the bad news that a severe plague was approaching, they hurried to the cathedral in Rome to pray for their families, hoping that God could protect themselves and their relatives and friends from this disaster.
——According to common sense these days, disease is God’s punishment for sinful people. Anyone who is sick or disabled, such as the blind, deaf, lame, mute, hunchback, etc., is because of sin. reason. Salvation can be obtained through sincere prayer and repentance, no medicine is needed at all. The most pious way to repent is to leave home and go on a pilgrimage, go from one cathedral to another, donate a lot of money, and pay homage to the relics and remains of the saints. If possible, it is best to It is a long journey all the way to Jerusalem... Only in this way can we win God's mercy and forgiveness, let the old man appear, and make these pilgrims recover from the disease.
If anyone does recover without medication, it is a miracle from God, and the church will trumpet it to increase its prestige. If there is still no effect, it means that the patient's sins are serious and he needs to undergo more asceticism and go to more distant places to practice and repent...
As for the many unlucky devout believers who have been wandering on the endless pilgrimage road for decades without encountering any miracles, or they encountered various bad luck and died misfortune before going very far... Well, this shows that your If your attitude is not pious enough, you deserve to die. You can't blame God for your rebuke.
——Don’t say that these medieval European Christians were too stupid. Even in the East, where the religious atmosphere is not so strong, there seem to be countless devout Buddhists who spin prayer wheels, kowtow every three steps, and travel thousands of miles to Lhasa every year. Go and pay homage to the human skin drums and human bone instruments of the lamas!
Closer to home, because the above theory is all intended to help the church defraud money, every year thousands of pilgrims with various purposes travel from all over Europe to worship in Rome, the eternal city with many holy relics.
Although the number of pilgrims in Rome has begun to decrease since the Holy See moved to the French city of Avignon, at least the clergy in Rome have been operating this type of money-making routine for hundreds of years, and everyone is very familiar with it. To the patients and their families who come to pray and send money It is even more normal - therefore, in the city of Rome, which has been deserted for a long time, seeing countless patients and pilgrims visiting the city with tumors and black spots all over their bodies, the priests and nuns in various churches beamed with joy, thinking that they had ushered in the new year after a long time. A long-lasting new round of tourism boom.
But the problem is, they don't understand the horror of the Black Death - given the medical and health conditions in medieval Europe, it was almost impossible for patients to recover once infected with the Black Death; the spread was extremely rapid, and it seemed that one person was enough to Infecting the whole world, let alone a city.
As a result, this sudden wave of tourism quickly turned into a terrible tsunami of death - as we all know, large-scale floating populations are synonymous with trouble and chaos in any era. Along with the pilgrims carrying patients to Rome for pilgrimage and prayer, all kinds of pathogens immediately poured into densely populated Rome like a tsunami, and then ushered in a super outbreak that seemed to ignite an ammunition depot!
By the time several municipal bishops and local nobles discovered that something was wrong and wanted to take control, it was already too late!
——In just a few days, the horrific Black Death swept across the city and silently penetrated every street and alley in Rome. Every day you can hear that no one is left in a certain family, and you can see someone falling down on the street at any time. Many handsome gentlemen, beautiful girls, and lively young men had snacks with their relatives and friends in the morning, and by night they were in another world having dinner with their ancestors!
Next, cars full of corpses poured into the churches of Rome like a flood. Churches and monasteries became havens for all living beings seeking relief. People cannot understand the vagaries of life, so they can only come to church and seek spiritual support and comfort from pastors.
However, in the face of this epidemic that seems to be engulfing the world, the church organizations and municipal authorities in Rome are unable to come up with any countermeasures. Thousands of patients have already poured into the city, and issuing an order prohibiting patients from entering the city will not help at all. It is also impossible to expel them. The doctors' bloodletting knives, antibiotics and emetics were of no use against this plague, and the prayers of the priests and nuns even lacked confidence in themselves.
The frightened people soon lost their sense and kindness, and began to drive the still living infected people into the houses, nailing all the doors and windows with boards, and eventually let them die of thirst and starvation inside, and even set them on fire. Burning them along with the houses... But it still didn't help, people still died one by one. Every morning, everyone sits at the dinner table looking at each other, no one knows whose turn it will be next.
——In fact, if they adopted such a cruel approach from the beginning, just like the citizens of Milan did, then there might be a faint hope of defeating the Black Death and keeping death at bay, but by the time the plague had fully spread By this moment in the city, it was already too late.
At the beginning, people tried all kinds of incredible methods in the hope of driving away the plague. After a while, everyone gave up. Everyone can only sit in despair, waiting for the next draw of the God of Death. Soon, the city's functioning mechanism was completely paralyzed. There were no one to clean up the rotting corpses in the streets. Administrative officials and judicial personnel almost disappeared because, like everyone else, they either died or fell ill, or simply closed themselves off from their families. got up, completely abandoning his duties. Many people abandoned their homes and property and fled to the countryside alone. However, the countryside in the mountains is not a blessed land. Stories of uninhabited villages are also spread everywhere outside the city walls. The whole of Italy is desolate and littered with corpses... People's actions, ranging from rational to almost crazy, have not stopped the ravages of the plague. The specter of the Black Death still laughs in the dark. Panic continued to spread among the survivors.
When hysterical fear swells to the extreme and crushes the last string in people's minds, collapse and riots begin...
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There is an old saying in this world that "the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment."
Faced with the Black Death, which was so menacing that manpower could not withstand it, devout Christians from all over the country came to the Holy City of Rome with their last hope to pray for relief. Unexpectedly, in this holy city that should be blessed by God, The Black Death epidemic was actually more severe in the city than in the countryside!
As a result, hope turned into disappointment, disappointment turned into despair, and despair turned into madness, and finally turned into hysterical venting... I watched familiar people fall down one after another without warning, coughing. Like a bellows, even the most conscientious good people were tortured by the fear of death to the point of mental collapse. In order to relieve the pressure, they released the violent factors in their bones and started burning, killing and looting everywhere.
And the city's security guards who were able to stop these thugs... well, are now either dead or sick, or simply broken and crazy.
Suddenly, the religious holy place in the city of Rome became filled with smoke and flames, as if it was being plundered by pagans or barbarians. The ground was filled with all kinds of waste and garbage, as well as suspicious blood stains. Amid the cries and pleas of women, the screams and roars of men, doors and windows of shops, churches and mansions were broken from time to time, there were loud noises of smashing things and all kinds of crazy cheers, as well as those who gathered in groups The rioting crowds of people running and whizzing by formed a huge wave of sound that almost overturned this ancient city. The few citizens who were lucky enough not to die from the plague and tried to defend their homes were soon beaten to pieces and their heads bloody by a large group of crazy thugs because they were weak.
As for the women, the fate was even worse. There were disheveled women and girls everywhere. They were dragged out of the house, their clothes were torn, their bloated or young bodies were twisted and struggled, their hair or feet were grabbed, and they were pulled. Go deep into the shabby alleys with sewage flowing across them, in order to fully experience the "greetings" from the lower class people - they don't have any hypocritical pretense of pity and cherishment. It didn't take long for a large number of white floating corpses to appear on the Tiber River.
Even though some experienced women had blackened their faces with cigarette ash, messed up their hair, and even put on ill-fitting men's clothes, they were still dragged out of their hiding places one by one in front of these hormonal thugs. , stripped naked, chased and played in the streets, and then were caught by a lucky person, and were pushed down on the dirty streets as trophies... Even some delicate and handsome choir boys were also brutally murdered...
However, the "savior" that these Romans had been waiting for for a long time in their hearts finally arrived at this time.
——When the time traveler and Pope Clement VI walked through the [Random Gate] and brought the volunteer team to Rome, they saw a riot scene with thick smoke and purgatory in front of them. So much so that Wang Qiu thought he had unknowingly stepped into a battlefield somewhere...
So, after a moment of astonishment and daze, the papal guards in bright armor immediately subconsciously raised their flags and shields, took out their swords and spears, and prepared to start a street battle with these unidentified thugs. The time travelers activated the [Angel Suit], spread out their white wings and flew into the sky. While playing solemn songs as the background music of the battle, they prepared to throw lightning to the ground for suppressive bombing.
However, just when a melee or massacre was about to break out, a scene appeared that made the time travelers even more stunned.
——Those thugs who had been burning, killing, looting and committing all kinds of evil a moment ago actually knelt down with tears streaming down their faces, like the purest children.
"...Oh! It's an angel! Merciful God! Have you finally sent an angel to save us humble mortals?"
"...Uh...hell, are the angels really here? (Looking back at the fire scene on the left and right) What did we sinners just do?"
"...The triple crown? And that flag...Is that old man the Pope? Damn it, was I possessed by the devil just now?"
"...Oh! I am guilty! I am guilty! Please punish us severely! But my wife and children are innocent, please save them!"
……
Seeing these extremely vicious thugs, they turned into the most pious and docile lambs in the blink of an eye. They dropped the torches and weapons in their hands and knelt down to worship them with utmost respect. Even those women who were being violated just a moment ago, regardless of their own nakedness, still struggled to get up and kowtow to themselves and pray... The "angels" couldn't help but sigh deeply, fully feeling the piety of the faith atmosphere of this era. , the religious power is deeply rooted. ——But no matter what, things are always developing in a good direction, right?