«The Great Plague – the term ‘Black Death’ is not invented until the nineteenth century – is one of the most horrific events in human history, comparable only with those traumas which people have inflicted on each other in modern times. Arriving at the eastern end of the Mediterranean in 1347, spreading along the sea lanes to «France, Southern Spain and Italy, and making its way up across the continent to England by August 1348, it shakes society in every conceivable respect. It destroys large portions of the population and leaves parts of the country completely empty of people. It starkly reveals the limits of both professional and amateur medical assistance. No doctor of medicine can help the victims; no one can attend the dying with any feeling but revulsion and despair. It reveals the inadequacy of a concept of society based on the ‘three estates’. Frankly, if ‘those who pray’ cannot protect the population, and ‘those who fight «simply run away, why should ‘those who work’ feed them? Similarly, the plague forces men to reappraise the fundamental relationship between themselves and God. This horrific disease does not just affect the sinful; it kills the innocent too. If this is the work of God, then He is indiscriminate in his judgements.»

The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England
Ian Mortimer