Fourteenth-century Europeans were familiar with the grim realities of sudden death long before the arrival of the Great Mortality. People often died frequently and unexpectedly in medieval manors, villages, towns, and cities across Europe. Warfare, marauders, disease, famine, and poor diets regularly took the lives of young and old alike. Few people ever died at an old age.

But even these experiences did not prepare Europeans for the shock and horror of dealing with millions of the sick, dying, and dead struck down by the Black Death. Nobody escaped the havoc wrought by plague; once it struck a human settlement, dealing with death and dying became inescapable features of everyday life.

The Healthy Versus the Sick

Wherever the Black Death appeared, people generally reacted in the same way. Though no one knew how the plague or any disease...