one of the worst natural disasters in recorded history. Just two years before a horrifying disease epidemic struck Florence, Italy. At the same time, the disease was beginning to ravage Greece, Spain, France, and other parts of southern Europe.
People also started contracting it in Palestine, Egypt, and across North Africa. In the short span of about four years, the disease killed at least 25 million people in Europe alone. Many millions more succumbed in the regions bordering Europe. The disease not only killed people with abandon, but it also wiped out the populations of entire towns, destroyed national economies, altered numerous political and social institutions, and changed the way many people felt about God and the church