1 00:00:00,240 --> 00:00:08,000 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:09,160 --> 00:00:12,760 Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class, a 3 00:00:12,880 --> 00:00:18,440 Speaker 1: show that demystifies history one day at a time. I'm Gabelusier, 4 00:00:18,600 --> 00:00:21,400 Speaker 1: and today we're looking at one of the worst bad 5 00:00:21,480 --> 00:00:25,040 Speaker 1: takes in medical history, the idea that the position of 6 00:00:25,079 --> 00:00:38,360 Speaker 1: the planets can unleash deadly diseases on Earth. The day 7 00:00:38,760 --> 00:00:44,000 Speaker 1: was March twentieth, thirteen forty five, the alignment of three 8 00:00:44,040 --> 00:00:49,800 Speaker 1: planets supposedly caused the Black Death pandemic. That mistaken belief 9 00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:53,240 Speaker 1: was first espoused in the fourteenth century by the medical 10 00:00:53,320 --> 00:00:57,080 Speaker 1: faculty at the University of Paris, though many other medieval 11 00:00:57,120 --> 00:01:01,160 Speaker 1: scholars echoed the same idea. At the time time, astrology 12 00:01:01,280 --> 00:01:04,680 Speaker 1: was still a respected science right up there with astronomy, 13 00:01:05,040 --> 00:01:08,679 Speaker 1: and celestial activity was widely believed to have a direct 14 00:01:08,800 --> 00:01:12,640 Speaker 1: impact on everything from the weather, to human fortunes to 15 00:01:12,720 --> 00:01:17,360 Speaker 1: the spread of disease. Special significance was placed on planetary 16 00:01:17,440 --> 00:01:21,480 Speaker 1: conjunctions and alignments, the times when two or more planets 17 00:01:21,520 --> 00:01:24,200 Speaker 1: appear to be close together in the sky, when in 18 00:01:24,280 --> 00:01:28,160 Speaker 1: reality there's still a great distance apart. In other words, 19 00:01:28,240 --> 00:01:32,560 Speaker 1: a planetary alignment is just an optical illusion. The planets 20 00:01:32,600 --> 00:01:35,479 Speaker 1: aren't really lining up in a row. It just looks 21 00:01:35,520 --> 00:01:39,280 Speaker 1: that way from our perspective here on Earth. The alignment 22 00:01:39,319 --> 00:01:44,040 Speaker 1: that occurred in thirteen forty five involved Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars. 23 00:01:44,760 --> 00:01:48,040 Speaker 1: It remained visible for several days and left a powerful 24 00:01:48,080 --> 00:01:52,320 Speaker 1: impression on everyone who saw it. For years afterward, people 25 00:01:52,360 --> 00:01:54,920 Speaker 1: tried to determine what kind of impact it would have 26 00:01:55,120 --> 00:01:58,600 Speaker 1: on human life, and when the Black Death reached European 27 00:01:58,680 --> 00:02:01,520 Speaker 1: shores a few years later, are the greatest minds of 28 00:02:01,560 --> 00:02:05,320 Speaker 1: the era finally settled on an answer. The triple conjunction 29 00:02:05,480 --> 00:02:09,320 Speaker 1: of thirteen forty five was the ultimate cause and source 30 00:02:09,600 --> 00:02:14,760 Speaker 1: of the Bubonic plague, or so they thought. Planetary conjunctions 31 00:02:14,800 --> 00:02:18,560 Speaker 1: and alignments occur at regular intervals as the planets complete 32 00:02:18,560 --> 00:02:22,320 Speaker 1: their respective journeys around the Sun. That means the events 33 00:02:22,360 --> 00:02:26,960 Speaker 1: aren't common, but they aren't especially rare either. However, some 34 00:02:27,080 --> 00:02:31,160 Speaker 1: are certainly more impressive than others. For example, the conjunction 35 00:02:31,240 --> 00:02:36,119 Speaker 1: between Jupiter and Saturn is especially striking. As the largest planets, 36 00:02:36,280 --> 00:02:39,120 Speaker 1: they reflect a lot of light from the Sun, making 37 00:02:39,120 --> 00:02:43,120 Speaker 1: them particularly bright when paired together. That was the case 38 00:02:43,200 --> 00:02:47,360 Speaker 1: on March twentieth, thirteen forty five, when Jupiter, Saturn, and 39 00:02:47,760 --> 00:02:51,280 Speaker 1: Mars all appeared to share the same quadrant of the sky. 40 00:02:52,280 --> 00:02:56,800 Speaker 1: Even before it happened, though, astrologers and philosophers across Europe 41 00:02:56,800 --> 00:03:00,720 Speaker 1: had speculated about what the upcoming great conjunction might mean. 42 00:03:01,440 --> 00:03:04,320 Speaker 1: The most famous of those publications was written by a 43 00:03:04,360 --> 00:03:10,120 Speaker 1: French Jewish philosopher named Jersonied. According to him, quote, it 44 00:03:10,200 --> 00:03:13,640 Speaker 1: is known by experience that a conjunction of Saturn with 45 00:03:13,760 --> 00:03:18,640 Speaker 1: Jupiter signifies great and general events. He then noted that 46 00:03:18,680 --> 00:03:22,519 Speaker 1: in thirteen forty five, Mars would also join those two 47 00:03:22,560 --> 00:03:28,519 Speaker 1: planets in the same constellation Aquarius. Jersoned had several theories 48 00:03:28,560 --> 00:03:31,720 Speaker 1: for what that portended, and none of them were good. 49 00:03:32,440 --> 00:03:35,960 Speaker 1: Most ominously, he predicted that the conjunction would bring about 50 00:03:36,080 --> 00:03:40,520 Speaker 1: quote diseases and deaths which will last for a long time. 51 00:03:41,640 --> 00:03:44,560 Speaker 1: In the Middle Ages, many scholars would have considered that 52 00:03:44,680 --> 00:03:49,440 Speaker 1: a pretty obvious conclusion. That's because Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn 53 00:03:49,680 --> 00:03:53,160 Speaker 1: were commonly linked to bodily humors that were thought to 54 00:03:53,200 --> 00:03:57,640 Speaker 1: cause health problems when unbalanced. That said, few would have 55 00:03:57,640 --> 00:04:01,280 Speaker 1: imagined a conjunction leading to a disease is as devastating 56 00:04:01,320 --> 00:04:06,040 Speaker 1: and widespread as the Bubonic plague except, of course, in hindsight. 57 00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:10,840 Speaker 1: The Black Death, also known as the Great Mortality, or 58 00:04:10,920 --> 00:04:14,760 Speaker 1: simply as the Plague, was the deadliest infectious outbreak in 59 00:04:14,880 --> 00:04:19,080 Speaker 1: human history to date, its wre through Asia, the Middle East, 60 00:04:19,120 --> 00:04:22,479 Speaker 1: and Europe during the fourteenth century, claiming the lives of 61 00:04:22,560 --> 00:04:26,919 Speaker 1: between seventy five and two hundred million people. As you 62 00:04:27,040 --> 00:04:32,320 Speaker 1: probably know, the plague was not the result of planetary alignment. Instead, 63 00:04:32,440 --> 00:04:37,240 Speaker 1: it was caused by a bacterium called Ursinia pestis. That 64 00:04:37,320 --> 00:04:40,960 Speaker 1: deadly microbe was carried by fleas that often traveled on 65 00:04:41,080 --> 00:04:45,080 Speaker 1: rats and other small mammals. The plague's origin point is 66 00:04:45,120 --> 00:04:48,440 Speaker 1: still widely debated, but many believe at first appeared in 67 00:04:48,560 --> 00:04:53,239 Speaker 1: humans in Mongolia around the year thirteen twenty, after wreaking 68 00:04:53,279 --> 00:04:56,719 Speaker 1: havoc on the region's nomadic tribes. The plague then moved 69 00:04:56,760 --> 00:05:00,800 Speaker 1: south and east to China and India. It hitched a 70 00:05:00,920 --> 00:05:04,200 Speaker 1: ride on tradeships from Asia and the Middle East to Europe, 71 00:05:04,560 --> 00:05:08,520 Speaker 1: spreading infection from one port city to the next. By 72 00:05:08,520 --> 00:05:10,680 Speaker 1: the time the plague had run its course in the 73 00:05:10,680 --> 00:05:15,760 Speaker 1: early thirteen fifties, roughly half of the continent's population was dead. 74 00:05:16,720 --> 00:05:19,760 Speaker 1: In the midst of that first Western outbreak, there was 75 00:05:19,800 --> 00:05:22,599 Speaker 1: a desperate rush to figure out what was causing the 76 00:05:22,680 --> 00:05:26,720 Speaker 1: disease and how to stop it from spreading. Scholars across 77 00:05:26,839 --> 00:05:31,200 Speaker 1: Europe began scrutinizing plague cases from every angle, producing a 78 00:05:31,320 --> 00:05:36,160 Speaker 1: long list of possible origins and remedies. Dozens of plague 79 00:05:36,160 --> 00:05:40,000 Speaker 1: treatises were written and circulated during that time, but since 80 00:05:40,080 --> 00:05:43,320 Speaker 1: no one knew about germ transmission yet, few of the 81 00:05:43,400 --> 00:05:47,920 Speaker 1: explanations shed any real light on what was happening. That said, 82 00:05:48,080 --> 00:05:51,320 Speaker 1: one of the most highly regarded plague commentaries came out 83 00:05:51,320 --> 00:05:55,000 Speaker 1: of the University of Paris in thirteen forty eight. The 84 00:05:55,080 --> 00:05:58,080 Speaker 1: medical faculty there had been tasked by the French King 85 00:05:58,320 --> 00:06:01,560 Speaker 1: Philip the sixth with pro fiding a definitive account of 86 00:06:01,600 --> 00:06:06,440 Speaker 1: the ongoing crisis. Their resulting work was divided into two parts. 87 00:06:06,920 --> 00:06:09,640 Speaker 1: The first dealt with the causes of the plague, and 88 00:06:09,680 --> 00:06:13,400 Speaker 1: the second provided suggestions for how to prevent or treat it. 89 00:06:14,000 --> 00:06:17,200 Speaker 1: The authors wasted no time and got to the scapegoating 90 00:06:17,279 --> 00:06:21,120 Speaker 1: right away, declaring quote, we say that the distant and 91 00:06:21,279 --> 00:06:25,560 Speaker 1: first cause of this pestilence was and is the configuration 92 00:06:25,640 --> 00:06:29,080 Speaker 1: of the heavens. In thirteen forty five, at one hour 93 00:06:29,160 --> 00:06:32,919 Speaker 1: afternoon on March twentieth, there was a major conjunction of 94 00:06:33,000 --> 00:06:37,799 Speaker 1: three planets in Aquarius. This conjunction, along with other earlier 95 00:06:37,800 --> 00:06:41,840 Speaker 1: conjunctions and eclipses, caused a deadly corruption of the air 96 00:06:41,960 --> 00:06:47,600 Speaker 1: around us, signifying mortality and famine. You may be wondering 97 00:06:47,720 --> 00:06:51,720 Speaker 1: how a planetary alignment could lead to a deadly corruption 98 00:06:51,800 --> 00:06:56,360 Speaker 1: of the air. Well, fear not, the authors provided an explanation. 99 00:06:57,000 --> 00:07:01,599 Speaker 1: According to them, quote, Jupiter, being wet and hot, draws 100 00:07:01,720 --> 00:07:05,280 Speaker 1: up evil vapors from the Earth and Mars. Because it 101 00:07:05,360 --> 00:07:09,240 Speaker 1: is immoderately hot and dry, then ignites the vapors, and 102 00:07:09,360 --> 00:07:13,680 Speaker 1: as a result, there were lightnings, sparks, noxious vapors, and 103 00:07:13,840 --> 00:07:18,000 Speaker 1: fires throughout the air. Given the conditions in Europe in 104 00:07:18,120 --> 00:07:21,520 Speaker 1: thirteen forty eight, you can kind of understand why they 105 00:07:21,520 --> 00:07:24,680 Speaker 1: would make that connection. For instance, we know from other 106 00:07:24,720 --> 00:07:28,440 Speaker 1: contemporary accounts that it was an unusually hot year, and 107 00:07:28,560 --> 00:07:31,760 Speaker 1: with dry winds pushing around the smoke and smell of 108 00:07:31,800 --> 00:07:35,040 Speaker 1: millions of burning corpses, it's easy to imagine why the 109 00:07:35,080 --> 00:07:39,360 Speaker 1: air itself would seem hostile. To the medieval scholars, Though 110 00:07:39,440 --> 00:07:42,280 Speaker 1: the polluted air was the result of bodily humors, that 111 00:07:42,360 --> 00:07:45,440 Speaker 1: had been thrown off balance by the planetary alignment a 112 00:07:45,480 --> 00:07:49,320 Speaker 1: few years earlier, and they wrongly assumed that rotten air 113 00:07:49,520 --> 00:07:54,280 Speaker 1: was the immediate cause of their affliction. Unfortunately, their advice 114 00:07:54,320 --> 00:07:57,480 Speaker 1: for how to deal with the plague was equally misguided. 115 00:07:58,040 --> 00:08:01,640 Speaker 1: The medical faculty at the University of Paris suggested people 116 00:08:01,720 --> 00:08:05,080 Speaker 1: purge all of their waste matter as frequently as possible 117 00:08:05,240 --> 00:08:08,080 Speaker 1: in order to keep their bodies dry and therefore less 118 00:08:08,080 --> 00:08:13,360 Speaker 1: susceptible to infection. Adding to the confusion, other medieval scholars 119 00:08:13,400 --> 00:08:17,120 Speaker 1: went the opposite direction, advising people to soak themselves in 120 00:08:17,320 --> 00:08:20,200 Speaker 1: urine or menstrual blood as a way to ward off 121 00:08:20,240 --> 00:08:25,240 Speaker 1: the disease. Similar signs of panic and desperation cropped up 122 00:08:25,280 --> 00:08:28,800 Speaker 1: periodically over the next few centuries, as outbreaks of the 123 00:08:28,880 --> 00:08:33,200 Speaker 1: plague continued to reappear from time to time. Thankfully, the 124 00:08:33,320 --> 00:08:37,280 Speaker 1: plague's mortality rate piqued in the fourteenth century and things 125 00:08:37,360 --> 00:08:41,440 Speaker 1: never again got as dire as they once were. Sadly, 126 00:08:41,600 --> 00:08:45,360 Speaker 1: the same can't be said for junk science theories about disease. 127 00:08:45,960 --> 00:08:50,680 Speaker 1: Those continue to cause problems even today. Planetary alignments don't 128 00:08:50,720 --> 00:08:53,080 Speaker 1: get as much blame as they used to, but as 129 00:08:53,160 --> 00:08:56,280 Speaker 1: someone's uncle will tell you the year twenty twenty did 130 00:08:56,480 --> 00:09:00,280 Speaker 1: end with the closest conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn three 131 00:09:00,360 --> 00:09:05,800 Speaker 1: hundred and ninety seven years. Coincidence, yes, but good luck 132 00:09:05,840 --> 00:09:11,640 Speaker 1: telling him that. I'm Gabelusier and hopefully you now know 133 00:09:11,720 --> 00:09:15,120 Speaker 1: a little more about history today than you did yesterday. 134 00:09:16,040 --> 00:09:18,839 Speaker 1: You can learn even more about history by following us 135 00:09:18,880 --> 00:09:24,400 Speaker 1: on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at TDI HC Show, and 136 00:09:24,480 --> 00:09:27,160 Speaker 1: if you have any comments or suggestions, you can always 137 00:09:27,160 --> 00:09:30,040 Speaker 1: send those my way by writing to this day at 138 00:09:30,080 --> 00:09:34,320 Speaker 1: iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks to Chandler May's for producing the show, 139 00:09:34,360 --> 00:09:36,840 Speaker 1: and thank you for listening. I'll see you back here 140 00:09:36,880 --> 00:09:40,240 Speaker 1: again tomorrow for another day in History class.