Secondary Quotes

Question 0

Hecker on the plague

Answer 0

A convulsion of the human race, unequalled in violence and extent.

Question 1

Simone Roux effects of plague

Answer 1

The Great Plague of 1348 perpetuated the notion that the poor were lazy and undeserving, ‘men and women were refusing to work if their wages were not augmented, preferring to be idle, frequenting taverns where they gambled and drank’.

Question 2

Nancy Siraisi on the effects of plague

Answer 2

The massive plague outbreaks of the fourteenth century no doubt accelerated existing social, economic and cultural trends, but neither created nor radically changed them; and that the ability of late medieval society to adapt to and absorb such a major catastrophe without collapse is a remarkable tribute to the resilience of the culture.

Question 3

Harold Foster disaster scale

Answer 3

Disasters ought not to be ranked solely by their toll in lives but also by the physical damage and the emotional stress they create… The Black Death of 1347-1350 falls two-tenths of a point short of being the worst disaster in history: on the Foster scale, WWII ranks first, the Black Death second and WWI first.

Question 4

André Maurois on Philippe Auguste

Answer 4

He gave the French monarchy “the three instruments of rule which it lacked: tractable officials, money and soldiers”.