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History 104A, November 16: The Aftermath of Death!

Well, let's see. We took the exam. I have not even looked at

them. I've got a tournament of Saturday that I am entering entries

for. And as I indicated, I generally don't grade papers until the

weekend, so I anticipate going through them on Sunday. We had a full

turnout minus one, I think. Is there anyone else besides Jessica that

missed the exam? You missed it. Sickness is acceptable.

A She had the plague.

A He saw me that morning.

A I wouldn't even let her in my car.

THE PROFESSOR: In any case, we're all going to start out with

the plagued today, so it leads us into it.

I brought the album for a reason. I turned on the computer for a

reason too. I wanted to look on-line and maybe I'll get to it on the

stats, for whatever it's worth, that we have on the black plague. We

touched on it perhaps in passing that, in 1347, a major plague

devastated Europe. Minor plagues had devastated Europe in years

previously. And of course there were no knowledge as to what passed

on the plague. We know of course today that it was borne by rats

carrying the fleas that had the plague. And of course we are living

in fear right now, or at least some people are, of chickens. We're

very chicken of chickens. And apparently where there is movement

across the borders -- the avian flue is spreading and they're calling

it a possible pandemic, a major flu like the one in 1918 or

thereabouts that killed like 20 million people worldwide. There's far

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more information on World War I than we have on that devastated flu

itself. Obviously there is at least a vaccine, but they haven't

perfected it. They haven't apparently, can't really deal with it

until they have more information on which particular flu spreads. And

they do anticipate millions of deaths if it really explodes. And

obviously, that is a little frightening. We live in a sort of a sense

of immortality and don't think about how nature can impact us. That

is part of the elements that modern civilization has attempted to

control. And certainly in so many ways, we've wiped out other

devastating diseases like smallpox from the world, smallpox and

measles, were two of the biggest killers from way back. When I grew

up, everybody panicked over polio, and people were crippled through

polio. And it's again gone pretty much, although there have been a

couple of minor cases that have reappeared recently. I don't mean to

create a negative element here, but I guess in the sense that we deal

with the plague. Of course, the closest we have in today is AIDS, yet

we don't necessarily worry as much AIDS in the sense that is something

not just done through the air. It's spread through certain activities

that most of you of course are aware of how to prevent. That doesn't

mean you will, and so it's not something that we have no control over,

but we become more fearful of things that we have no control over.

The point I'm trying to make is that the panic that obviously reached

Europe in 1347 created some strange groups, organizations and actions

due to the panic.

Of course today we do have people like Pat Robertson and others

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who make these comments as far as God's devastation for your evil and

the Sodom and Gomorrah in San Francisco but excluding the, shall we

call them eccentrics or if you prefer nuts. The fact of the matter is

that we may well see you that same kind of a panic. What I'm

referring to is groups, for example, that decided to purify themselves

to avoid the plague by beating themselves. They beat the evil out of

themselves. They walked around the streets swatting, whipping

themselves. We had people all over dragging crosses, big wooden

crosses, in a sense of showing their love of God and following the

direction of the Christ. But more important was the change perhaps

that took place -- again, the little things that occurred, if you

will, in the image of Christ himself.

Previous to the black plague, the crucifix that was seen in

Europe had a sort of mellow ephemeral image of Christ, sort of

God-like and mellow. The images of Christ on the cross, after 1347,

were a suffering Christ, a Christ in pain. And the whole view, the

world view, the view of optimism turned very heavily into the

pessimistic society. And not only the plague itself, but we saw a

transformation into the -- I mean the impact as well with the wars

that expanded in Europe, especially the hundred years war that

continued for a little over 100 years, which also brought tremendous

death to France and, within limitations, to England.

Perhaps on another level we see some other changes in society.

Religion doesn't seem to work for some. People are dying. Many begin

to lose perhaps their faith in an afterlife, their faith in religion.

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God has turned against them perhaps; and therefore, they turn against

God. The title of the subject for the new section, which is section

eight -- what a plague, also the changing face of heresy. By the way,

the waning of the middle ages is basically referring to the end of the

14th and early 15th century, that some also see as the beginning of

the renaissance and the ending, or the slow ending, waning of the

medieval mentality. In other words, it is a transformation taking

place in Europe from a spiritual world directed and derived, lead

through spiritualism, into a world of secularism, secularism meaning

dealing more with humans and humankind. And of course near the end of

this particular waning, we also deal with the expansion of

materialism, economics. By the way, if you have any questions on this

quote/unquote straight lecture, don't hesitant to ask.

When I say the changing face of heresy, heresy throughout

medieval period dealt with contradictions with people's attitude

towards religion. Heresy meant that people disagreed or acted

contrarily to the basic faith, the faith of the Christian which we now

call the Catholic church at the time. Many wars broke out. Many

hierarchies were put down. And perhaps the largest heresy in the

medieval, late medieval period was the Albigensian crusades. It

basically was in the -- well, the Albigensian crusade was when the

Catholic church went against a large continuously expanding group of

individuals who began to, if you will, the concept of a duality, of

God coming out of Persia. If you remember earlier I spoke about

Zoroastrianism in Persia. There was a God of goodness, a God of

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light, and then a God of evil, a God of darkness. And that having

faith in a Ahura-Mazda would mean have lasting salivation and heaven;

and otherwise, you would be following Ahriman, the God of evil which

of course we refer to as the devil was Ahriman, that sense then that

it wasn't simply a fallen angel. And of course many of us today know

that there are -- what the hell is the world? Wicket -- those who

worship --

A Wicca is not really a satin worship. Some are, but usually it's

more Goddess worship, which I didn't think goddesses are necessarily

satin unless --

THE PROFESSOR: We touched on that with Lilith being sort of seen

as an evil force, although because she rejected the inferiority that

Adam wanted and demand equality with men. And so the wicca says has a

very feminist and even a lesbian overtone for some to it. And perhaps

it does touch with the Satan worship.

The concept goes beyond it. And that is that you have literally

God, all powerful of evil and an all powerful God of goodness and

light who are in conflict rather than simply a force in Satan in hell,

of punishment who was not equal to God but wanted to be and therefore

was thrown out of heaven. Am I getting that somewhat correct? I

always question myself on not being familiar with Christianity within

the limitations.

In any case, that particular sense of faith looking to the

darkness and to the light created a mass movement in southern France,

and to some extent, into southern Germany. And the Pope literally

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ordered a crusade, remission of sin, the term I used before referring

to willingness of Christians to die in a crusade fighting the forces

of evil. And with that, they would go directly to heaven, all their

sins, all the evil that they did were to be forgiven, dying for

Christ. I identified earlier that Saint Francis, the Franciscan of

course, our City of San Francisco named after him, and Saint Dominic,

the Dominicans, right next door here, both of those two movements to

purify religion during that period expanded. Both Dominic and Francis

fought against the Albigensians in those crusades through to about

1225. But while they were defeated, those forces of the Albigensians

continued throughout the 13th century. However, what I'm alluding to

is that basically after 1347 that power of religion over people's

lives dissipates, and now we approach a period where the new

hierarchies are not religion. Religion is still there, but the new

hierarchies are secular, worldly, stately. They're against the

nation, the new emerging nation.

In 1351, because of the loss of life, labor throughout northern

Europe where the black plague hits heavily, has been devastated,

meaning there are less workers. With less workers, there is a demand

for more money by those workers. In 1351, England issues something

known as the statute of labor, fixing the salaries that workers can

make, fixing the jobs that they can hold. Again, as we often argue

today, Halliburton and other businesses control the commercial

interest, control the monarchies. And certainly it is beginning to

occur in this 14th century where monarchies are now aware that by

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taking money, they can now hire professional soldiers and pay them for

their service and their loyalty. And who do they get the money from?

The merchants, the employers.

In England, due to this starvation/taxation, as in many countries

in northern Europe and as far down as northern Italy, we have peasant

rebellions. We have the rebellion of the working class, of those down

below, the underdogs. They rise up. The most famous one in western

history occurs in 1381. It's known as the peasants rebellion. Led by

a miner soldier by the name of Wattyler leading perhaps 10,000

rebellious people around a friar named John Ball. As his religious

leader who he called his Pope, if you will, and was with the aid of

another name that comes forth in English history. It seems to be a

name now in the English parliament, Jack Straw. A rebellion occurs

demanding emancipation of the serfs, demanding freedom and the

elimination of all serf obligations. In other words, to get rid of

the feudal obligations. Devastating the English countryside around

London, they go into the churches which is where the records are kept.

They burn the records. They kill the priests that they get there and

the bailiffs, the political authorities. And they encircle London

forcing the young King Edward, who's 14 years old, to emancipate, free

the serfs and end serfdom. Once of course they get what they want, in

the Maxwellian sense, you give them a little and then when they calm

down, you take it back. Edward comes out and meets with Wattyler,

with his nobles again, because more demands are issued; and he begins

to appeal to the rebels. I am England; I am your king. Now, that

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sense that we have and I guess all people have, is that our leaders

are not the evil people. They're God-like, but they get bad advice;

it's their advisors. Edward is being controlled by the arch bishop.

Bush is being controlled by Cheney. They're not bad because we love

them. In a sense, people are listening to Edward and the rebels are.

In the meantime, one of his retainers stabs Wattyler to death and

kills him. And without the leadership from above, the rebellion falls

apart and the leaders are tortured, confessing their sins, and sent

onto hell and damnation, if you will. And the promises that are

provided are withdrawn. Serfdom is reestablished. Feudal obligations

are reestablished. The only thing, in part, to come out of it, is

that in 1397 certain rights and powers are given to the parliament. A

parliament is formally established with a House of Commons and a House

of Lords and the expansion with the prime minister and, if you will,

the maintaining of the minister of the exchequer, the exchequer

referring to the treasury. As I said, England is more of our

tradition and history, but the same kind of rebellions are taking

place throughout northern Europe and into the Germanys.

I pointed out that the black plagues continued, never as

devastated as 1347, but reappearing to the 17th century. We don't

know why it all of a sudden ceased, but one explanation is that a

different kind of a brown rat was no longer a host to the flea that

carried the bubonic plague.

That same sense of a nation rebellion politicals, as with the

peasant rebellion, occurs on a different level. And of course I've

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spoken about her before with Joan of Arc. I am, as I said, previously

very fascinated with the history of Joan of Arc as many people are.

As I pointed out, one of the least known books I suppose or one of the

books that is not very well-known by Mark Twain is a biography of Joan

of Arc which I did read. It's not very funny like most of his stuff,

but certainly he had a fascination with this charismatic woman who

sees visions and somehow convinces the Charles VII of France who is not yet king to

allow her to put on armor and lead the French military at the age of

17. Don't you feel bad, men or women who are 17 years old, and you

didn't led the military yet, haven't even gone in? With that, it's a

national uprising. Granted, he turns against her and sells her out to

the Burgundians who sell her out to the English and she's burned at the

stake. The spirit of Joan of Arc brings about, as the peasants

rebellion do, is generally an inspiration as John Ball was, but the

heresy, the conflict, is in state.

It's interesting a lot of people have written on the back plague

in essays up here. This might be cute because it's done by a high

school student from Texas. In any case, while it warms up, the next

element here that we're dealing with is economic expansion. And while

I identified that the black plague devastated Europe and to some

extent the economy of Europe, the fact is that the economy tends to

change during this period. It becomes much more efficient. General

information -- I guess this is just a -- like many people, once it's

up here the links are gone. Many years ago I took -- I was at a

veterinarian and they had this sort of flea powder thing that they

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were advertising. And it said in the booklet that the reason cats

became popular during the medieval period was to get the rats because

they would kill the rats and therefore save the plague. The fact is,

they had no idea what caused the plague. Of course many of you have

seen the Monty Python "bring out your dead" and that kind of stuff.

Well, that's interesting. The plague is a fascinating thing, but it

certainly doesn't bring in that sense of romance that we find with the

battles in Europe. This name by the way is a well-known one, Barbara

Tuchman. She wrote a book called A Distant Mirror which, as a

historian, is well written. Most history books are boring as are

history professors. This book deals with the 14th century, the black

plague itself and the wars, the 100 years war, and is one of the top

books ever written. It's about 40 years old now, I think. This is

interesting and I didn't know this. In 1334 an epidemic which

eventually killed two-thirds of China's inhabitants struck the

northeastern Chinese province of Hopei. The black death began to work

its way west striking India, China, and Mesopotamia. You have to

watch these Chinese. Sars and now the avian flu, and you never know.

Q Did Sars really kill that many people? I thought it was only a

total of a few thousand?

THE PROFESSOR: No. It didn't kill many because they caught it

finally. What the issue was, that China refused to recognize it and

covered it up for a while. And then there were greater fear of what

might happen because of the lack of knowledge. It was like a few

years ago, a plague that, if you will, they had no idea what it was

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and it killed a few people and people panicked. It was a legionnaires

whatever they call it. My mind is blanking here. What I'm trying to

identify is, it's not what we know, it's what we don't know that

scares us. And Sars certainly was finally closed off. It was panic

stricken from my perspective because my son was in Shanghai at the

time taking courses as a transfer student. And they closed the

program down, ordered all of the Americans to return home. He refused

to go and he stayed there. Others had left even before because of the

fears that had been generated. And again, I think it's tough time to

deal with it.

In 1646 the plague came to Kaffa, which by the way, is northern

Italy and a port successful to the central trade. And then in 1647,

to the Italians delight, their opponents began to die off at an

alarming rate. In other words, it passed on throughout. Well, I

didn't find what I really wanted which were some charts. I should

have looked this up beforehand.

-- (end PowerPoint) --

Okay. With the crusades we saw a new change in the economic

system of Europe. I didn't get into it because, while I talked about

the crusades, I didn't talk about what was basically modern Europe.

There are certain elements to modern Europe and to the modern world.

And one of those elements, besides nationalism, which I talked about,

and I touched on the unicorn and I'll go into that a little more

thoroughly. One of the elements is capitalism. Again, a simple

definition, if you will, of capitalism -- the means of production

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which is land, label, and capital. Now, capital, we're not just

talking about money. We're talking about anything that produces

another product which can produce a form of wealth. Land, labor, and

capital are controlled or owned by the businessmen, by the

entrepreneurs, by the bourgeoisie. And goods and services are

distributed through supply and demand. Capitalism is the antithesis

of exhibition. What it is argued under supply and demand is that the

selfish businessman will sell a product at the highest worth he can

get, and he will not make something unless there's a demand for it.

He will not make something if he can't make a large profit selling it.

For example, it may cost only 10 or 20 cents to make a contact lens.

They're sold for three or $400 because people are willing to pay that

money for that particular product.

In medieval times, we dealt with the sense of worth of quality

and fair trade, a fair price, a just price. You sold it, not for what

you could get, but for what the product was worth and nothing more.

If you tried to rip off your customer, that was considered a sin, a

sin that required confession. People therefore didn't share freely,

but they sold things at a profit that was minimal and was regulated by

the guilds. Usury was prohibitive, meaning, lending money at an

exorbitant rate. What is exorbitant? Every God dam credit card you

have, every loan you take out in a bank. Translation, most loans

today for houses are sitting at about 7 percent. Bank cards are

running 15 to 21 percent interest. That's usury. In the medieval

times, if you lent money, it was anticipated that you would charge 1

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or 2 percent. Nice. Unless you were a money hungry Jew or Muslim,

because you were not Christian and therefore you could demand a pound

of flesh in return. That's from The Merchant of Venice, if you didn't

pick up on it, which again explains, in part, another reason that Jews

and Muslims were hated in Christian Europe. Nobody loves bankers.

Nobody loves money lenders.

However, with the new secularization, the new worldliness, if you

will, the rejection of the church and perhaps even better said, the

extreme wealth the church was itself accumulating, we began to see a

new beginning, bullionism, mercantilism, and capitalism we're going to

talk about. What came back from the crusades was keeping up with the

Joneses, which translated to people who went there, found products

that they brought back to Europe, that had been there but not in the

abundance. If somebody came back with a silk dress, every noble

wanted a silk dress. But more important was the change in food.

Spices coming out of the East preserved foods. And we talked about

what it did in also creating beer. But the spices themselves were

used to make sausages and frankfurters or whatever, which stayed

longer than just a few days. Remember refrigeration did not exist as

such. And for some reason, incense. I mean, I can understand with

the French because they smell terribly. And so we purified the house

and got rid of evil and got rid of disease by burning incense. And so

that became extremely popular coming out of the East.

Many of you have heard of Magellan and how Magellan circumcised

the world, circumnavigated, I'm sorry. And as many of you know, he

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dies, was killed before returning. And of the three ships that went

out with Magellan in 1519, only one returned to Portugal. That ship

had enough wealth to cover the expedition 100 times over in spices and

in silk. And from time to time, something we refer to as China which

is porcelain. With that and those dreams of wealth running through

your heads, we'll see you Wednesday.

A Friday. Today is Wednesday.

THE PROFESSOR: What happened to my Monday? I gave an exam.

I'll see you Friday.

---oOo---