Death Through the Ages: A Brief Overview - The Middle Ages

During the European Middle Ages (circa 500–1485), death—with its accompanying agonies—was accepted as a destiny everyone shared, but it was still feared. As a defense against this phenomenon that could not be explained, medieval people confronted death together, as a community. Because medical practices in this era were crude and imprecise, the ill and dying person often endured prolonged suffering. A lengthy period of dying, however, gave the dying individual an opportunity to feel forewarned about impending death, to put his or her affairs in order, and to confess sins. The medieval Church, with its emphasis on the eternal life of the soul in Heaven or Hell, held great power over people's notions of death.

By the late Middle Ages the fear of death had intensified due to the Black Death—the great plague of 1347–51. The Black Death killed more than twenty-five million people in Europe alone. Commoners watched not only their neighbors stricken but also saw church officials and royalty struck down: Queen Eleanor of Aragon and King Alfonso XI of Castile met with untimely deaths, and so did many at the papal court at Avignon, France. With their perceived "proper order" of existence shaken, the common people became increasingly preoccupied with their own deaths and with the Last Judgment, God's final and certain determination of the character of each individual. Because the Last Judgment was closely linked to an individual's disposition to Heaven or Hell, the event of the plague and such widespread death was frightening.