Chapter 36: Death Comes Like a Tsunami

It has already been said before that in medieval Europe, theocracy reigned. Christian thought has penetrated into every corner of social life and has dominated everyone's thoughts and actions. And the omnipotent God is the point of thought and behavior of believers.

Thus, in the event of an irresistible catastrophe, the first thought of European Christians was to turn to the gods for help.

So, in the early days of the Black Death, the entire Papal States in central Italy, and even a little further afield, were full of weeping people who came to the Eternal City of Rome with patients groaning in pain, kneeling before St. Peter's Cathedral or some other famous church to pray for God's salvation. There were even many believers who had not yet fallen ill, but when they heard the bad news that some kind of terrible plague was approaching, they hurried to the basilica in Rome to pray for their families, hoping that God would protect them and their relatives and friends from this catastrophe.

-- According to the common sense of these days, sickness is God's punishment for sinful people, and all those who are sick or disabled, such as the blind, the deaf, the lame, the dumb, the hunchbacked, etc., are guilty of sin. Salvation can be achieved by sincere prayer and repentance, without the need for medicine at all. The most devout way of repentance is to leave the house and make a pilgrimage from one cathedral to another, making large donations to see the relics and remains of the saints, preferably all the way to Jerusalem, if possible...... In this way, it is possible to win God's mercy and forgiveness, and let his old man manifest his spirit, so that these pilgrims can be cured without medicine.

If there is anyone who is cured without medicine, it is a miracle from God, and the church will trumpet it in order to increase its prestige. If it still doesn't work, it means that the patient has sinned deeply and needs to go through more austerities, go to a more distant place to practice and repent......

As for the many unfortunate devout believers, they wandered the endless pilgrimage route for decades without encountering any miracles, or they did not go far before encountering all kinds of misfortune and unfortunately died...... Alas, this shows that your attitude is not pious enough, and you deserve to die, and you can't blame God for your back.

-- Not to mention that these Christians in medieval Europe were too stupid, even in the East, where the religious atmosphere was not so strong, it seems that every year there are many devout Buddhists who turn the prayer wheel, take three steps and kowtow, and travel thousands of miles to Lhasa to pay homage to the lamas' human skin drums and human bone instruments

To put it bluntly, because of the above theory that it is all about helping the church cheat money, thousands of pilgrims make a pilgrimage to Rome, the eternal city of relic, with all kinds of holy objects, every year for various purposes.

Although the number of pilgrims in Rome has been decreasing since the Holy See moved to Avignon, at least the Roman clergy have been familiar with this kind of money-trapping routine for hundreds of years, and they are all familiar with the sick and their families who come to pray and give money - so in the city of Rome, where the incense has been deserted for a long time, the priests and nuns of the various churches are smiling when they see countless sick people and pilgrims entering the city with tumors and dark spots. Self-righteousness ushered in a new round of tourism boom after a long time.

But the problem is that they don't understand the horror of the Black Death - with the medical and health conditions of medieval Europe, patients who contracted the Black Death had little chance of recovery; The spread is so rapid that it seems that one person is enough to infect the whole world, let alone a city.

As a result, this sudden wave of tourism soon turned into a terrible tsunami of death – as we all know, mass migration is synonymous with trouble and chaos in all eras. Accompanied by pilgrims carrying the sick to Rome for pilgrimage and prayer, all kinds of pathogens immediately poured into densely populated Rome like a tsunami, and then ushered in a massive explosion that seemed to ignite an ammunition depot

By the time several bishops and local nobles in charge of the municipal administration were in a wrong situation and wanted to start controlling zhì, it was too late

In just a few days, the terrible Black Death swept through the city, silently infiltrating every street of Rome. Every day, I hear that a family is dead, and at any time you can see someone falling down on the street. Many handsome gentlemen, beautiful girls, and lively lads ate snacks with their relatives and friends in the morning, and in the evening they went to supper with their ancestors in another world

Then, carts full of corpses flooded into the churches of Rome. Churches and monasteries have become havens for people seeking liberation. People cannot comprehend the vagaries of life, and they can only come to church and seek spiritual support and comfort from the pastor.

However, in the face of this epidemic that seemed to swallow the world, the church and the municipal authorities in Rome could not come up with any countermeasures, and thousands of patients had already poured into the city. The doctors' bloodletting knives, enemas and emetics were useless against the plague, and the priests and nuns lacked faith in their own prayers.

The frightened populace soon lost their minds and compassion, and began to drive the sick people who were still alive into their houses, nailing all the doors and windows with wooden planks, and finally leaving them to die of thirst and starvation inside, and even set fire to them along with the houses...... But to no avail, people still died one by one. Every morning, everyone sits at the table looking at each other, and no one knows who will be next.

- In fact, if they had resorted to such cruelty in the first place, as the citizens of Milan had done, there might have been a faint hope of overcoming the Black Death and keeping death out, but by the time the plague had spread to the whole city, it was already too late.

In the beginning, people tried all kinds of unthinkable ways to drive out the plague. After a while, everyone gave up. Everyone could only sit in despair, waiting for the next draw of the Grim Reaper. Soon, the city's functioning was completely paralyzed, the streets were littered with decomposing corpses, and the magistrates and the judiciary were all but gone, because, like everyone else, they either died or fell ill, or simply closed themselves and their families and abandoned their duties altogether. Many others have abandoned their homes and possessions and fled to the countryside. However, the mountains and countryside are not blessed land, and stories of uninhabited villages are also everywhere outside the city walls, and the whole of Italy is full of desolation and corpses...... The actions of the people, from rational to almost insane, did not stop the plague from raging, and the ghosts of the Black Death were still secretly laughing. Panic continues to spread among the survivors.

When the hysterical fear swells to the extreme, crushing the last string in people's minds, the collapse and riot begins......

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There is an old saying in this world that "with great hope, great disappointment".

In the face of the menacing and irresistible Black Death, devout Christians from all over the country came to the holy city of Rome to pray for salvation with the last hope

As a result, hope turns to disappointment, disappointment turns to despair, despair turns to madness, and finally to hysteria...... Seeing one familiar person after another fall without warning, coughing like a bellows, even the most good people who are usually the most dedicated, were tormented by the fear of death to the point of mental breakdown, in order to relieve the pressure, they released the tyrannical factor in their bones, so they started to burn and loot everywhere.

And the city security guards who were able to stop these rioters...... Well, now it's either dead or sick, or Yu Crisp has also collapsed into madness.

All of a sudden, the religious shrine of Rome was filled with smoke and flames, as if it were being plundered by heretics or barbarians, and the ground was covered with rubbish and rubbish, as well as suspicious bloodstains. Amid the cries and cries of women, the screams and roars of men, the broken doors and windows of shops, churches, and mansions, the loud clamours of smashing things and all sorts of crazy cheers, and the rioting crowds that rushed by in droves, all converged into a huge wave that almost toppled the ancient city. The few citizens who had not yet died of the plague and who tried to defend their homes were soon beaten to the ground by the frenzied mob and their heads bleeding.

The fate of the women was even worse, with disheveled women and ladies being dragged out of the house, shredding their clothes, writhing and struggling bloated or young bodies, grabbed by their heads or feet, and dragged into the depths of the pulpit alleys where the sewage flowed, in order to fully experience the "greetings" from the lower classes, who had no hypocrisy of pity for the jade, and it was not long before a large field of floating corpses with white flowers appeared on the Tiber River.

Even if some experienced women have blackened their faces with cigarette ash, messed up their heads, and even put on ill-fitting men's clothes, they are dragged out of their hiding places one by one in front of these hormonal-overloaded thugs, stripped naked, chased and frolicked through the streets, and then caught by some lucky person, and pushed down the dirty streets as trophies, and even some delicate and handsome choir boys are also brutally murdered......

However, the "savior" that these Romans had been waiting for for a long time in their hearts and had been waiting for until despair came at this time.

- When the Traveler and Pope Clement VI walked through the Gate of Randomness and arrived in Rome with a team of volunteers, they saw a scene of purgatory-like riot filled with smoke and smoke. So much so that Wang Qiu thought that he had unknowingly stepped into a battlefield somewhere......

So, after a moment of stunned and stunned, the brightly armored Papal Guards immediately subconsciously raised their flags and shields, took out swords and spears, and prepared to start a street battle with these unidentified thugs. And the traversers even moved the [Angel Suit], spread their white wings and flew into the sky, while playing a solemn song as the background music of the battle, while preparing to throw lightning into the ground and carry out a suppressive bombardment.

However, just when a scuffle or torture was about to explode, there was a scene that made the traversers even more stunned.

-- The thugs who had been burning, killing, plundering, and doing all kinds of evil a moment ago actually knelt down with tears streaming down their faces, like the purest children.

“…… Oh, angels, merciful God, have you finally sent angels to save us lowly mortals? ”

“…… Belch...... Hell, the angels are really coming? What did we sinners just do? ”

“…… Triple tiara? And that flag...... Is that old man the Pope? Damn, was I demon-possessed? ”

“…… Oh I'm guilty, I'm guilty, please punish us harshly, but my wife and children are innocent, please save them"

Seeing these vicious thugs, in the blink of an eye, they became the most pious and docile lambs, dropped the torches and murder weapons in their hands, and knelt down to worship with great respect. Even the women who were still being violated a moment ago struggled to get up and kowtow to themselves despite being defenseless...... The "angels" could not help but sigh deeply, fully feeling the piety of the religious atmosphere and the deep-rooted religious power of this era.

-- But things are always going in a good direction anyway, aren't they?

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