The Church-centered world
before the plague had been oddly timeless. Now
people worked long hours, chasing capital gain, in
a life that could end at any moment. The first new
technology of the plague years was time-keeping --
mechanical clocks and hourglasses.
Medicine had been a function of the Church before
the plague. Physicians were well-paid,
highly-respected scholars. They spun dialectic
arguments far away from unwholesome sick people --
not unlike some of today's specialists.
13th-century medicine, like the 13th-century
Church, had failed miserably in coping with the
plague. Both medical and religious practice now
shifted toward the laity. Medicine was redirected
into experimentation and practical pharmacology.
Medical books were now being written -- not in
Latin -- but in the vernacular, and by a whole new
breed of people.