Black Death

Black Death was an outbreak of bubonic plague, that struck Europe and the Mediterranean area from 1347 through 1351. It was the first of European plague epidemics that continued until the early 18th century. The plague had been preceded by ancient plagues between the 6th and 8th centuries A.D.; they were followed by other cycle, but less deadly, plagues that began in the late 19th century and continue in the 20th century. The term "Black Death" …

…and the legal limitations on the rights of some peasants. The plague brought few changes in religious life or medical practices. Europeans continued to visit religious shrines. Finally, although, Europeans often complained that physicians were of little help against the plague, traditional medical ideas and practices did not change. In fact the same ideas about fluids, contagion, and quarantine were also first used to fight cholera when that disease appeared in Europe in the 1830s.