How did the Catholic Church react to the plague?

Answer 1

Roman Catholic AnswerThe fourteenth century was a nightmare for Christian Europe. Early in the century the weather turned nasty and produced a famine that resulted in mass starvation, up to ten percent of the population died, France was particularly hard hit with seven additional famines. But the middle of that century brought the Black Death, two forms of the plague that resulted, initially in a 30% Death Rate from 1347 to 1350. It returned in 1363 and periodically for the next three centuries, causing a population decline that lasted well into the eighteenth century. One of the worst effects of the plague was a sharp decline in the morals of the surviving clergy and nuns. The more devout nuns and priests tended to the sick and dying, and died themselves. The less committed saved their lives by abandoning their sheep. The Black Death also produced a social rupture unraveling communal ties and the level of education declined precipitously. As one monk wrote "Charity, began to cool, and iniquity with ignorance and sin to abound.

Then, ten years after the Black Death broke out, France and England went to war, the famous "Hundred Year War". There were increasing Muslim attacks on Europe and the Papacy was in a sad state with the Pope moving to Avignon in France and leaving Rome, resulting in the Great Schism.

All of this degradation led right up to the protestant revolt two centuries later.

extracted from What Every Catholic Wants to Know Catholic History from the Catacombs to the Reformation, by Diane Moczar, c 2006 by Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division.