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The Black Death did set the stage for more modern medicine and spurred changes in public health and hospital management. Frustrated with Black Death diagnoses that revolved around astrology and superstition, educators began placing greater emphasis on clinical medicine, based on physical science.

generally suffered a communal crisis of faith.

They had turned to the church for an answer to the plague, and the church had been able to offer no help.

celebrate being alive.

The danse macabre, or dance of death, is an allegorical concept that was expressed in drama, poetry, music and visual art.

The range of figures shown is meant to show that death will come for everyone, and the various activities depicted are a reminder that death could always be right around the corner.

The law followed in a feudal court was largely based on old Germanic customs. The court did not act in the public interest, as with us, but waited until the plaintiff requested service. Moreover, until the case had been decided, the accuser and the accused received the same treatment. Both were imprisoned; and the plaintiff who lost his case suffered the same penalty which the defendant, had he been found guilty, would have undergone.

The burden of proof lay on the accused, who had to clear himself of the charge, if he could do so.

Ordeals, however, formed a method of appealing to God, the results of which could be immediately observed. A common form of ordeal was by fire. The accused walked barefoot over live brands, or stuck his hand into a flame, or carried a piece of red-hot iron for a certain distance. In the ordeal by hot water he plunged his arm into boiling water. A man established his innocence through one of these tests, if the wound healed properly after three days. The ordeal by cold water rested on the belief that pure water would reject the criminal. Hence the accused was thrown bound into a stream: if he floated he was guilty; if he sank he was innocent and had to be rescued. Though a crude method of securing justice, ordeals were doubtless useful in many instances. The real culprit would often prefer to confess, rather than incur the anger of God by submitting to the test and ordeals.

a trial by combat.

They compared tree-ring records from Europe with 7,711 historical plague outbreaks to see if the weather conditions would have been optimum for a rat-driven outbreak.

"We show that wherever there were good conditions for gerbils and fleas in central Asia, some years later the bacteria shows up in harbour cities in Europe and then spreads across the continent," Prof Stenseth said. He said that a wet spring followed by a warm summer would cause gerbil numbers to boom.

And because this was a period when trade between the East and West was at a peak, the plague was most likely brought to Europe along the silk road, Prof Stenseth explained.

"Suddenly we could sort out a problem. Why did we have these waves of plagues in Europe?

The team now plans to analyse plague bacteria DNA taken from ancient skeletons across Europe. If the genetic material shows a large amount of variation, it would suggest the team's theory is correct.

Old Karp was usually delighted by the latest innovations that the scientists brought up from their camp, and though he steadfastly refused to believe that man had set foot on the moon, he adapted swiftly to the idea of satellites.

"What amazed him most of all," Peskov recorded, "was a transparent cellophane package. 'Lord, what have they thought up—it is glass, but it crumples!

Karp Lykov fought a long and losing battle with himself to keep all this modernity at bay. When they first got to know the geologists, the family would accept only a single gift—salt

hey took knives, forks, handles, grain and eventually even pen and paper and an electric torch.

The figures are men who seem to be dancing and are naked except for exotic-looking feather head dresses. One appears to have a Mohican-style haircut.

created the work, which shows Jesus' Resurrection, in 1494, just a year after Columbus returned from his first journey of discovery across the Atlantic.

The apartments were named after the notorious Rodrigo Borgia, who became Pope Alexander VI. He commissioned Pinturicchio and his assistants to paint several frescoes for the apartments, which are part of the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace.

abandoned after the death of Pope Alexander in 1503. Subsequent popes did not want to be associated with the scandal-ridden family. They were only reopened in 1889 by Pope Leo XIII, and are now used to display a collection of religious art.

Pope Alexander soon found himself playing a pivotal role in the New World discoveries – he had to arbitrate between the competing claims of Spain and Portugal.

he pope had himself painted into the lavish fresco – dressed in sumptuous golden robes, he is kneeling down on the left hand side, his hands clasped in prayer. He is clearly contemplating Jesus' resurrection, but he also appears to be directing his gaze at the tribesmen – ruminating, perhaps, on the enormous implications of Columbus’s historic discovery

the leader of more than a billion Roman Catholics worldwide — requires “both strength of mind and body.”

resign on Feb. 28 because he was simply too infirm to carry on — the first pontiff to do so in nearly 600 years.

The last pope to resign was Pope Gregory XII, who stepped down in 1415

Vatican to hold a conclave to elect a new pope by mid-March,

All cardinals under age 80 are allowed to vote in the conclave, the secret meeting held in the Sistine Chapel where cardinals cast ballots to elect a new pope. As per tradition, the ballots are burned after each voting round; black smoke that snakes out of the chimney means no pope has been chosen, while white smoke means a pope has been elected.

Jesus of Nazareth founded the church to administer the sacraments, rituals that contain the mystery of grace and the promise of salvation. Salvation comes only through the church; individuals cannot find salvation outside the institution.

At the meetings, the ekklesia made decisions about war and foreign policy, wrote and revised laws and approved or condemned the conduct of public officials. (Ostracism, in which a citizen could be expelled from the Athenian city-state for 10 years, was among the powers of the ekklesia.) The group made decisions by simple majority vote.

The s

important institution was the boule, or Council of Five Hundred.

third important institution was the popular courts, or dikasteria. Every day, more than 500 jurors were chosen by lot from a pool of male citizens older than 30.

the jury had almost unlimited power

Jurors were paid a wage for their work, so that the job could be accessible to everyone and not just the wealthy (but, since the wage was less than what the average worker earned in a day, the typical juror was an elderly retiree).