Great time travel

Chapter 29. Death of Avignon
A month after the Black Death landed in Marseille, the death knight riding a gray horse finally visited Avignon, the holy city where the pope stayed.

And the agent that brought the Black Death was still the rats on the Rhone ferryboat-these terrible little things came with the boat from Marseilles.

In fact, the fleas that transmit Yersinia pestis aren't particularly fond of people, since humans don't have fur.Generally, they would rather stay on the rat.If the rats die, they also give preference to sheep, cows, dogs, etc.Only when there is really no other way, they will pounce on humans.But even so, the Black Death still flooded Europe like a tide.This is because Y. pestis is far more dangerous to humans than to rats.

But the only savior who can contain the plague—the cat, has been wiped out by the possessed Europeans, and now they can only resign themselves to their fate.

Thus, the flames of the Black Death blazed.It is like a wall of fire, advancing from south to north on the European continent, and corpses are strewn everywhere it passes.

In those places where the plague has not yet broken out, they have already heard the bad news of the Black Death, but apart from praying, people can only wait with bated breath.

This is simply like the scene in "The Lord of the Rings": people watch the darkness in the sky getting thicker and thicker, and the shadow of death is getting closer, but they are helpless.

No matter how devout the Christians of Avignon were, the city, which was less than a hundred kilometers away from Marseilles, fell quickly.

—In this era, Avignon had seven churches, seven monasteries, seven convents, and a papal palace.There are the largest number of priests and monks in Europe, the most solemn religious celebration, and the most blessed blessing of God...but they still fell down quickly.

As before in Marseilles, Sicily and Genoa, death went about its routine, leaving only a gruesome record:

"...in the Carmelite Abbey in Avignon, 66 monks died there at once before the citizens knew the news of the plague. Massacre. In the Augustinian monastery, not a single one was left alive. All dead. And 150 Franciscan monks, all dead! Not a single one survived to tell what happened..."

In just a few days, the situation worsened: bodies piled up, rotting in the streets, and officials could do nothing about them.In the public places of the city, it is not uncommon to see the dying haunting the healthy with a completely understandable hatred and meaningless hopes... Amidst the panic, the church issued a message saying, This is God's punishment for those who do not believe in God: "Contemplating this fact that God has brought down the conceited and the ignorant at his feet, as it has always done throughout history. Kneel Right." "If the disaster befalls you today, it's because it's time for you to think about it. Good people don't need to be afraid of it, but bad people should tremble."

Dominated by great fear, the vast majority of people knelt down to God devoutly and sincerely reflected on their sins.However, the facts were not as the church said, the plague did not distinguish between good people and bad people, and even many clergymen themselves were killed by the plague.

However, although the church in Avignon was a model of stupidity, greed, extravagance and even depravity, and was widely criticized by the European public opinion circles at the time, at the critical moment when death occupied Avignon, the priests at the grassroots level held the bottom line.They bravely assumed their responsibilities, did not flinch, and insisted on comforting the sick and presiding over funerals at the cost of their lives... For the first time in many years, the priests of Avignon were praised by the world.

Then, because of too many sick people, these brave priests who were praised soon died with those who praised them.

Seeing that God didn't seem to bless them, the citizens of Avignon were scared out of their wits. Faced with such a tragic situation, they even thought that human beings were about to perish!Naturally, desperate people flocked to the Papal Palace to ask the Pope for help.

——According to the European Catholic Church in the Middle Ages, the Pope is the intermediary between God and the world. He can either beg God on behalf of mankind, or pardon mankind on behalf of God.It can be seen that he must be the only person in the world who has the power to end this catastrophe.

As a result, Pope Clement VI, who was entrusted with the "unbearable weight of life" by believers, had no choice but to bite the bullet and organize a grand religious procession, mobilizing thousands of priests and believers to hold up icons and crosses , singing hymns and walking around the streets in an attempt to impress the cruel God, but the result is self-defeating-during such an incurable plague, all group movements such as rallies and parades will only accelerate The spread of the Black Death, because it would increase the chances of human-to-human contact, allowing one sick person to infect hundreds or thousands of healthy people at once.

As a result, the religious parade in Avignon had just begun, and a large number of people who participated in the parade had already vomited blood and died. The rest were so frightened that they threw away their crosses and icons and fled in all directions... Pope Clement VI It was painful to find that all he had done was to make those who trusted him die faster.He had to overturn his decree and ordered that until the end of the plague, religious processions and gatherings were prohibited throughout Europe.

From this point of view, the pope can barely be regarded as a good person. After knowing that he had made a big mistake, he overturned the previous decree: at least, he did not sacrifice other people's lives for his own face—— In fact, not all big names can do this.

However, no matter the Pope's character is good or bad, he has not been able to find a way to fight the Black Death.Since then, there have been no more parades in the holy city of Avignon, and even merchants, pilgrims and messengers have disappeared quickly, and the streets have become silent—every day, patients suddenly fall down on the street and die, or die in their own homes in a deserted place. Neighbors didn't know what was happening next door until the dead man's body gave off a stench of decay.The churches that used to ring the bells all day long soon became quiet one by one, but not because the plague subsided, but because there were no living people to ring the bells.

In the long desperate situation where there is no hope in sight, people's mentality is constantly changing.Some people, when they were healthy, first set an example and taught others not to pay attention to those who were sick. Later, when they fell ill, they were abandoned by people, left unattended, and died like this.

Other residents of Avignon left their homes, relatives, and possessions, and fled the city, as if thinking that the plague was God's punishment for human crimes, and this punishment only fell on those who stayed behind. On the heads of the people living in the city, so as long as they go out of the city, they seem to have escaped from this disaster.But in fact, in the Provence countryside on the outskirts of Avignon, there are also barren fields that no one cultivates, open wine cellars that no one cares about, and ownerless cows wandering on the road, but the local residents are nowhere to be seen.The road is full of carrion corpses and skeletons...

Before the collapse of the municipality, more than 5 houses in Avignon had become haunted houses (the city only has a total of [-] people), either empty or rotting quietly. corpse.The city's cemeteries quickly filled with corpses, and there was no room for more dead to be buried.The pope bought a piece of land with his own money for a new cemetery.As a result, it was quickly filled with eleven thousand corpses again.What's more frightening is that due to unattended care (the cemetery guards have a high probability of infection due to daily contact with corpses, and the first batch of them died soon), the cemetery soon became a canteen for pigs and dogs.Ferocious dogs roamed the streets in groups, devouring all kinds of fallen corpses, and even broke into houses directly, biting and devouring the dying patients.And the more showy is the pig.When it was dark, no one called.All the pigs that can move freely are assembled.They groaned and groaned all the way to the cemetery on the outskirts of the city.Then he happily poked his nose there, and gnawed at whatever came out.After a night of chewing, the pigs were satisfied, hiccupped and left the cemetery and scattered back to all corners of Avignon, leaving behind big pits in the cemetery and corpses that had been gnawed beyond recognition by the pigs.The next day, they will come back here for supper.

——Not only those ferocious dogs are hurting people, even the chubby pigs are starting to eat people!Such a horrific scene shattered everyone's worldview. Many confused Christians began to ask themselves, are human beings no longer the masters of this world?
But this is not the most terrible thing. What's more terrible is that the speed of people's death is so fast that even the pigs and dogs have no time to eat!By the end of March, none of the cemeteries could bury any more corpses, and the gravediggers were dead, as were the priests who were willing to preside over the funeral...

Faced with such a situation, His Majesty Pope Clement VI, who was almost insane, had no choice but to turn to the river for help.He consecrated the Rhone River flowing through Avignon, making it the largest cemetery in the world at the time.Every morning, hundreds of bodies were thrown into the Rhone.If you're lucky, they'll float down the river and into the blue Mediterranean Sea together.There, these corpses will lie on the bottom of the sea, turning into glistening bones.

Day after day, the bodies were thrown into the muddy cemetery to be eaten by pigs.day to day.The corpses were thrown into the raging river and flowed to the sea... Even so, devout people still believed in God as always and prayed for the pope's salvation.

However, it is very unfortunate that in the face of the catastrophe of the Black Death, not to mention sheltering believers, the Pope can't even save himself!
When the papal palace in Avignon also began to smell of corpses, Pope Clement VI's spirit finally broke down.

——Different from those iron-fisted predecessors in history who launched the Crusades to crusade against heretics and confronted the Holy Roman Emperor, Clement VI, who was supported by the King of France, was not a strong pope.Although he is corrupt, likes luxury and enjoyment, is addicted to music, poetry and painting, and has many mistresses and illegitimate children, but at the same time he is also kind-hearted, gentle and even cowardly.You can call him stupid, incompetent, or incompetent, but you can never call him cruel, and you can't expect this guy to have a stoic heart.

Therefore, after the plague broke out in the palace, Pope Clement VI, who had a "little fresh" style of later generations, also fled.He comforted himself and said, there is nothing he can do anyway, so why should he stay in the city and die in vain?The fact that the Pope is alive is the greatest encouragement to all Christians.What a blow to the cause of God would be if he were to die with black spots all over his body!
If it was in normal times, Pope Clement VI's actions would definitely lead to criticism from the rest of the bishops, and then be attacked by various political opponents, but at this moment, they are already too busy to take care of themselves, either dead or Fleeing first, no one can impeach the Pope for his cowardice and abandonment of his duties.

Therefore, with such lofty thoughts, Pope Clement VI fled for his life.He left Avignon and hid in a castle on the outskirts.There, he closed the door to thank guests, hoping to escape the great plague.In the great hall of the castle two great fires were ablaze.His Majesty the Pope sat between the two raging fires all day long, thinking that the heat might prevent infection—in the original history, he lived for another four years, but he finally caught the plague in 1352 when the Black Death entered its final stage , died soon, and I don’t know if God is punishing the pope for running away.

※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※

——The pope fled, the bishop fled, and the organization of the Holy See was wiped out by the plague. The Pope's Palace, which was full of people and bustling with traffic in the past, became dead and silent like a ruin, and the stench of corruption was everywhere.But even in such a city of the dead, there are still many ordinary heroes.Their selfless behavior allows those who hold a pessimistic view of human nature to see the looming light.

When a large number of patients were abandoned by their relatives, the nuns in Avignon bravely opened the door.The poor who suffered from the Black Death were taken in.Not all of them died, and they cared for the sick day and night.They paid with their lives for it: almost all the nuns died.

Those who recorded their deeds wrote: "...we must believe that they will go to heaven and rest at the side of Christ..."

When the Pope's palace was abandoned, Jolick, the Pope's most important chief physician, stayed behind to heal the wounded despite the danger of his life.The chief imperial physician has a hulking back, a bushy beard, and walks like a big stupid bear.When talking with people, the mouth is always filled with a strong smell of garlic, like a rough Viking.But as soon as he picked up surgical instruments, he became the most dexterous man in all Europe.

Jorlick's life experience is a medieval story of "The Story of a Poor Child". He was born in a small village in France, and his parents were ordinary farmers.If there is no accident, he should also be a farmer, honestly marry a wife and have children, and farm for a lifetime.But Jolick had a rare medical talent.When he was very young, he learned how to deal with wounds and correct broken bones without a teacher, and he became well-known in the local area.Once, a noble lady fell from her horse and broke her leg.The doctors who were invited were helpless. Its legs began to rot and fester, and it seemed that it could not be saved.At this time, someone brought Jolik here.The illiterate farm boy treated her wound.After ten days, the lady was able to go to church.

The treatment changed Jorick's fortunes.A nobleman was deeply moved when he heard about it.He promised to pay a sum of money so that this rural child could receive the best medical education.From then on, Jolick left the countryside and went to the vast world outside.

Later, this peasant boy became the best doctor in Europe.He has served as a professor at the University of Montpellier and the University of Paris.As fate favored him again, he went to Avignon at the invitation of the Holy See to serve as the chief physician of His Majesty the Pope.

It's often assumed that the church is adamantly against dissection, but that wasn't always the case.Pope Clement VI was a supporter of anatomy, and he even openly encouraged Jolick to dissect the corpse, ''in order to be able to discover the origin of the disease''.So Jorlick liked Avignon very much. He stayed here for more than 20 years and wrote a "Compendium of Surgery and Medicine".For the next 300 years, this book has been regarded as the holy book of medicine.

Therefore, in order to repay the Pope's trust and cultivation, Jolick chose to stay in the Pope's Palace regardless of the danger of his life, and tried every means to cure and save people. He didn't know what the plague was, and he didn't know whether he could help the sick. But he still wanted to do something.

Of course, Jolick also knew that the disease was highly contagious, and protective measures had to 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, a strange mask in the shape of a bird's beak was worn. The beak was actually a filter to prevent the plague from being infected through the nostrils and mouth. The middle of the beak was stuffed with a sponge filled with vinegar mixed with cinnamon powder. .

Dressed up like this, Jolick looked like a big, weird crow.This big crow kept shuttling through the city of Avignon, which was gradually dying, and tried all kinds of unimaginable methods to cure the disease - bloodletting, smoking, taking ore powder, applying spice ointment... But in the end The results of the treatment are still all failures: the level of European medicine in this era is simply unable to effectively treat the plague.

Then, Jolick got sick too.This crow-like protective suit obviously didn't work, and he found that he also had tumors growing under his armpits.

So, he calmly returned to the Pope's Palace, raised his pen, and prepared to use the last time of his life to record everything he saw.

——This is the last job he can do for this world as a doctor and observer.

"...the death rate in the whole country is unimaginably high. Travelers who have walked through the country say that in the fields, in the towns, and in the deserted fields, there are everywhere untended cattle and sheep. Barns and wine cellars The gates of the city are open, and many houses are empty... A town of 2 people now has only 2000 people left. A town of 500 people now has only 100 people left. Large areas of land are abandoned I have recorded everything I have seen and heard here. It will be difficult for future generations to believe what I have said..."

"...these shocking facts are frightening, but sadly, we don't see an inspiring hero or a earth-shattering feat, as is so often the case in old stories...there is probably no There is nothing less dramatic than a plague, and the more terrible a great plague is, because it drags on for a long time, it is often very monotonous. From my own experience, the terrible days of plague are not like raging fire, but Like a slowly grinding stone mill, everything is crushed as soon as it reaches - as some people have seen in prison, waiting for death is always the most desperate thing for people, and the sentence is unknown Under what circumstances, it is even more difficult for people to prepare mentally..."

The handwriting on the parchment suddenly became messy, because a heart-piercing cough interrupted Jorlick's vigorous writing.

"...cough cough cough—so uncomfortable..." He raised his hands with difficulty, looked at the faint black spots on his arms, and suddenly felt dizzy and tired again.So, Jolick quickly turned around and took out a bottle, and poured a few sips of wine infused with herbs into his mouth—although in the face of the terrible Black Death, this thing could at best have a placebo effect, Then turned around and struggled to pick up the pen again.

"...As a doctor, all my measures and experience have been declared ineffective. Now, this disaster is beyond the power of mortals to resist. We can only calm ourselves down and wait for death to come quietly, Or look forward to the salvation of God and fate..."

Jorick's suicide note is only written here, not because his life is over, but because he saw an incredible spectacle!
——As if it were some kind of hallucination, a group of angels in white robes and with wings appeared quietly above the Pope's Palace, throwing clusters of soft white light to the earth.One of the holy lights even passed through the open window and fell on the stunned Jorick.

The next moment, he felt comfortable warm currents washing over his body, and the dark spots, abscesses and tumors on his skin healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.So, as a typical medieval Christian, the Pope's chief physician, Jolick immediately knelt down tremblingly, looked up at the angels in the sky with an extremely eager gaze, and his eyes were filled with tears of joy. :

"...God! It's a real angel... Great Lord, did you really send an angel to save us humble mortals?"