Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Death of Avignon

A month after the Black Death landed in Marseille, the Death Knight, riding a gray horse, finally visited the holy city of Avignon, where the Pope was stationed.

And the medium that brought about the Black Death was still the rats on the Rhône ferry, these terrible little things that came with the boat from Marseille.

In fact, the fleas that transmit Y. pestis are not particularly fond of people, as humans do not have fur. In general, they prefer to stay with mice. If the rats die, they will also give preference to sheep, cows, dogs, and so on. It's only when there's really nothing they can do that they pounce on humans. But even so, the Black Death flooded Europe like a tidal wave. This is because Yersinia pestis is far more dangerous to humans than to rodents.

But the only savior who can stop the plague, the cats, has been wiped out by the enchanted Europeans, and now they can only resign themselves to fate.

And so, the flames of the Black Death burned. It was like a wall of fire, advancing from south to north in the Great 6 of Europe, and everywhere it passed, corpses were everywhere.

In those places where the plague had not yet exploded, the news of the Black Death had already been heard, but people could only wait with bated breath in addition to praying

It's like a scene from The Lord of the Rings: people watch the darkness on the horizon grow thicker and the shadow of death draws nearer, but they can't do anything about it.

No matter how devout the Christians of Avignon were, the city, less than a hundred kilometers from Marseille, quickly fell

- In this era, Avignon had seven churches, seven convents, seven convents and a papal palace. It has the largest number of priests and monks in all of Europe, and the most solemn religious celebrations, which deserve the most protection from God...... But they quickly fell.

As in Marseille, Sicily, and Renaia, Death began its routine, leaving only a chilling record:

“…… At the Abbey of Carmelette in Avignon, sixty-six monks died at once before the citizens could hear of the plague. The townspeople thought it was rare, and thought that the monks were killing each other behind closed doors. In Augustinian Monastery, not a single living mouth remained. All dead. And one hundred and fifty Francis monks, all of whom died, and not one of them survived to tell the story of life......"

Within a few days, the situation deteriorated further: corpses piled up and decomposed in the streets, and the authorities were at a loss for what to do about it. In the public places of the city, it is not uncommon to see the dying pestering the healthy with a completely understandable hatred and meaningless hope...... In a state of panic, the Church sent a message that this was God's punishment for those who did not believe in God: "Consider the calamity of God, which has forced the arrogant and the ignorant to submit to his feet, as has always been the case. Get on your knees. "If disaster has befallen you today, it is because the time has come for you to think about it. Good people don't need to be afraid of it, but bad people should tremble. ”

Dominated by a great sense of fear, the vast majority of people bow down to God with great devotion and sincerely reflect on their sins. However, the fact is that the plague does not distinguish between good and bad people, and even many clergy themselves have been killed by the plague.

However, although the church in Avignon was widely criticized in European opinion at the time as a model of stupidity, greed, extravagance and even depravity, the clergy at the grassroots level held the line at the critical moment when death occupied Avignon. They bravely undertook their obligations, did not flinch, and insisted on comforting the sick and officiating at the cost of their lives...... For the first time in many years, the priesthood of Avignon was praised by the world.

Then, having come into contact with too many patients, these brave priests, who had been praised, soon died along with those who praised them.

Seeing that God did not seem to bless them, the citizens of Avignon were so frightened that they even thought that humanity was about to perish

Naturally, desperate people flocked to the Papal Palace to ask the Pope for help. According to the Church of Medieval Europe, the pope was the intermediary between God and the earth, and he could both beg God on behalf of mankind and forgive humanity on God's behalf. He is the only one who has the power to put an end to this catastrophe.

As a result, Pope Clement VI, who was entrusted with "the unbearable weight of life", had no choice but to organize a grand religious procession, mobilizing thousands of clergy and believers, lifting icons and crosses, and singing hymns through the streets in an attempt to impress the cold God, but the result was self-defeating - during the plague, all mass movements such as assemblies and processions would only add to the spread of the Black Death, because it would increase the chance of contact between people, So that a single patient carrying germs can infect hundreds or thousands of healthy people at a time.

Thus, the religious procession in Avignon had just begun, and many of the participants had already vomited blood and died, and the rest were so frightened that they lost their crosses and icons and fled in all directions...... Pope Clement VI painfully realized that what he had done was nothing more than to make those who trusted him die faster. He had no choice but to reverse his decree and decree that religious processions and gatherings should be banned throughout Europe until the plague was over.

From this point of view, the pope was barely a good man, and when he realized that he had made a big mistake, he reversed his previous decree: at the very least, he did not sacrifice the lives of others for the sake of his own face, which not all great men in history have been able to do.

However, regardless of the Pope's character, good or bad, he failed to find a way to combat the Black Death. From then on, there were no more marches in the holy city of Avignon, even merchants, pilgrims and messengers disappeared, and the streets fell silent—every day the sick suddenly fell and died in the streets, or they were left alone in their homes, until the bodies of the dead were decomposing, and the neighbors knew what was happening next door. The churches, which had been ringing the death knell all day long, soon fell silent, but not because the plague had subsided, but because there were no living people to ring the bells.

In the desperate situation of no hope, people's mentality is constantly changing. Some people, when they were still healthy, set an example and teach others not to pay attention to those who were sick, and then they themselves fell ill and were abandoned by people, and no one took care of them, so they died.

Others left behind their homes, their relatives and their possessions and fled from the city, as if God had sent down a punishment in a fit of rage for the wrongdoing of mankind, but that the punishment had fallen only on those who had remained in the city, and had escaped the calamity as soon as they had left the city. But in fact, the countryside of Avignon is also full of barren countryside uncultivated, open cellars and ownerless cows roaming the roads, but the local population is nowhere to be seen. The roads are littered with rotting corpses and skeletons......

By the time the municipality collapsed, 7,000 houses in Avignon had been haunted (the city had a maximum of 50,000 in total), empty or lying quietly with decomposing corpses. The city's cemeteries were soon filled with corpses, and it was no longer possible to accommodate more dead people for burial. The Pope paid for a plot of land to be used as a new cemetery. As a result, it was soon filled with eleven thousand corpses again. What's even more terrifying is that the cemetery soon became a canteen for pigs and dogs because it was left unattended (the grave keepers were exposed to corpses every day, and the infection was too high, and the first ones died soon). Murderous dogs roam the streets in groups, devouring all kinds of dead bodies, and even breaking into people's homes, biting and devouring the dying sick. And even more showy are the pigs. When it got dark, no one summoned them. All the free-roaming pigs were assembled. They purred and hummed as they reached the cemetery on the outskirts of the city. Then he happily arched his nose there, and nibbled on whatever arched it. After a night of chewing, the pigs left the cemetery with a full burp and scattered back to all corners of Avignon, leaving behind the graveyard's large pits and corpses gnawed beyond recognition. The next day, they come back for supper.

-- Not only the ferocious dogs hurting people, but even the round pigs began to eat people, such a horrific scene made everyone's worldview seem to be shattered, and many confused Christians began to ask themselves, are humans no longer the masters of this world?

But this is not the most terrible thing, what is even more terrible is that people are dying so quickly that even the pigs and dogs do not have time to eat until the end of March, and all the cemeteries cannot bury more corpses, and the gravediggers are dead, and the priests who are willing to preside over the funeral are dead......

Faced with such a situation, His Majesty the Pope, who was almost delirious, had no choice but to turn to the river for help. He consecrated the Rhône, which flowed through the city of Avignon, making it the largest cemetery in the world at the time. Every morning, hundreds of bodies are thrown into the Rhône. If you're lucky, they'll drift down the river into the blue Mediterranean. There, the corpses will rest at the bottom of the sea, turning into sparkling bones.

Day after day, the corpses were thrown into the muddy cemetery and left to be gnawed by the pigs. Day after day. The corpses were thrown into the raging river and flowed into the sea...... Even so, the pious people continued to believe in God and prayed for the Pope's deliverance.

However, it is very unfortunate that in the face of the catastrophe of the Black Death, not to mention sheltering the faithful, the Pope could not even save himself

When the Papal Palace in Avignon also began to emit the stench of corpses, Pope Clement VI's spirit finally collapsed.

Unlike the iron-fisted predecessors in history who went on crusades against the infidels and fought against the Holy Roman Emperor, Clement VI, who was raised by the King of France, was not a strong pope. Although he was corrupt, he liked luxury and pleasure, indulged in music, poetry and painting, and had many mistresses ♀ and illegitimate children, but at the same time he was kind-hearted, gentle and even a little cowardly. You can call him mediocre, you can call him incompetent, you can call him incompetent, but you can't call him brutal, but you can't expect this guy to have a stoic heart.

Therefore, after the plague also broke out in the palace, the pope, who had the "little fresh" style of later generations, also fled. He comforted himself and said that he couldn't do anything anyway, so why should he stay in the city and die in vain? The Pope is alive and is the greatest encouragement to all Christians. What a blow it would be to God's cause if he were to be covered in black spots and die of disgrace!

In normal times, the Pope's actions would have led to criticism from the rest of the bishops, and then they would have been attacked by various political opponents, but at this moment, they have long been too busy to take care of themselves, either dead or fleeing first, and no one can impeach the Pope for cowardice and abandonment of duty.

So, with such lofty thoughts, the Pope fled for his life. He left Avignon and took refuge in a castle on the outskirts. There, he closed his doors, hoping to escape the plague. Two blazing fires lit up in the halls of the castle. His Majesty sat between these two flames all day long, believing that the heat might prevent contagion—he lived for another four years in history, but eventually contracted the plague in 136, when the Black Death was at its end, and soon died, wondering if God was punishing the pope for his escape.

※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※

-- The Pope fled, the bishop fled, the organization of the Holy See was wiped out by the plague, and the Papal Palace, which was once full of people and traffic, turned into a dead silence like a ruin, and the stench of ** was everywhere. But even in such a city of the dead, there are still many ordinary heroes. Their selfless behavior allows those who have a pessimistic view of human nature to see the looming light.

While a large number of sick people were abandoned by their loved ones, the nuns in Avignon bravely opened their doors. The poor who suffered from the Black Death were taken in. They do not die and work day and night to care for the sick. They paid with their lives: almost all the nuns died.

Their account of their deeds writes: "...... We must believe that they will ascend to heaven and rest beside Christ......"

When the Papal Palace was abandoned, the Pope's most important imperial physician, Joric, did not care about the danger of his life, but still stayed to save the wounded. This Imperial Doctor Xi has a bear's back and a thick beard, and walks like a big stupid bear. When talking to people, there is always a strong garlic smell in his mouth, like a rough Viking. But as soon as he picked up the surgical instruments, he became the most dexterous man in all of Europe.

Joelik's life story is a medieval "story of a poor child", he was born in a small village in France, and his parents were ordinary farmers. If nothing else, he should also be a farmer, honestly marry a wife and have children, and farm for the rest of his life. But Joelik has a rare gift for medicine. When he was very young, he learned to treat wounds and correct broken bones without a teacher, and he became famous in the local area. Once, a noble lady fell off her horse and broke her leg. The doctors who had been brought in were helpless, and its leg began to rot and suppurate, and it looked like it was about to be saved. At this time, someone brought Choric here. The illiterate peasant boy treated her wounds. Ten days later, the woman was ready to go to service.

The treatment turned Chorik's fortunes around. When a nobleman heard about this, he was deeply moved. He promised to contribute a sum of money to give this rural child the best medical education. From then on, Jolik left the countryside and went out into the open world.

Later, the peasant boy became one of the best doctors in Europe. He was a professor at the University of Montpellier and the University of Paris. As fate would have favored him again, he was invited by the Holy See to go to Avignon to serve as the Imperial Physician of His Holiness the Pope.

It is often assumed that the church is strongly opposed to autopsy, but this is not always the case. Pope Clement VI was a proponent of anatomy, and he even openly encouraged Choric to dissect cadavers "in order to reveal the root cause of the disease." So Choric liked Avignon very much, and he stayed here for more than twenty years, writing a book called "Encyclopedia of Surgical Medicine". For the next three hundred years, the book was enshrined as a sacred medical text.

Therefore, in order to repay the Pope's trust and cultivation, Choric chose to stay in the Papal Palace regardless of the danger of his life, trying all kinds of ways to cure the disease and save people, he did not know what the plague was, and he did not know whether he could help the sick, but he still wanted to do something.

Of course, Jolik also knows that the disease is very contagious and that precautions must be taken. So he put on a black robe that covered his whole body, thick cloth gloves, and a black top hat on his head. Finally, he wears a strange mask in the shape of a bird's beak, which is actually a filter to protect the nostrils and mouth from the plague, and a sponge is stuffed in the middle of the beak, which is filled with vinegar mixed with cinnamon powder.

Dressed up like this, Jolik looked like a weird big crow. The great crow was constantly moving through the dying city of Avignon, trying all kinds of bizarre ways to cure the disease - bloodletting, enema, smoking, taking mineral powder, applying spices and ointments, but the end result was all failure: the European medical level of the era could not effectively cure the plague.

Then, Joelik also fell ill. The crow-like suit had apparently had no effect, and he now had tumors under his armpits.

So, he calmly returned to the Papal Palace, picked up his pen, and prepared to use the last time of his life to record what he saw.

It was the last thing he could do for the world as a doctor and observer.

“…… The death rate is unimaginably high across the country. Travelers who have walked through the country say that in the fields, in the towns, in the deserted land, there are cattle and sheep everywhere uncared for. The barns and cellars were open, and many of the houses were empty...... The town used to have 20,000 people, but now there are only 2,000 people left. The town, which used to have 1,500 people, now has only a hundred people left. Large tracts of land are deserted...... What I have seen, what I have heard, I have recorded here. I'm afraid it will be difficult for future generations to believe this qiē ...... I said."

“…… These shocking facts are frightening, but sadly, we simply don't see some inspiring hero or some earth-shattering feat, as is the case in old stories...... There is probably nothing in the world that lacks more drama than a plague, and the more terrible the great plague, the more monotonous it is because of the long time it drags on. From my own experience, the terrible days of the plague did not seem like a raging fire, but like a stone mill that slowly grinded in, crushed at every turn—just as some people have seen in prison, waiting for death is always the most desperate thing to do, and without knowing when the sentence is, it is ......impossible to even prepare for it."

The handwriting on the parchment suddenly became messy, as a heart-rending cough interrupted Joric's hard work.

“…… Ahem, ahem, ahem, so uncomfortable......" He struggled to raise his hands, looking at the dark spots that were faintly appearing on his arms, and suddenly felt dizzy and tired again. So Joric quickly turned and took out a bottle, poured a few sips of the herb-infused wine into his mouth, though it was at best a placebo in the face of the terrible Black Death, and then turned and struggled to pick up the pen again.

“…… As a doctor, all of my measures and experiences have been declared ineffective. Now, this catastrophe is beyond the reach of mortal strength. We can only let ourselves be at peace and wait quietly for death to come, or hope for salvation from God and fate......"

Joelik's suicide note is only written here, not because his life has ended, but because he has seen an incredible spectacle

As if some kind of hallucination, a group of angels dressed in white robes and winged appeared quietly over the Papal Palace, throwing a soft white light into the earth. One of the holy rays even passed through the open window and fell onto the stunned Joric.

The next moment, he felt a warm current of comfort wash over his body, and the dark spots, abscesses and tumors on his skin healed quickly and visibly. So, as a typical medieval Christian, the papal physician Choric immediately knelt down tremblingly, and looked up at the angels in the sky with an extremely eager gaze, and his eyes were full of tears of joy:

“…… God, true angels...... Great Lord, have you really sent angels to save us lowly mortals? ”

Tips: The new domain name "biquge.info" has been launched by Biquge, and the original domain name is about to be discontinued. Please tell each other, thank you!