At this time, even the Jewish population was blamed for the plague. Some people thought that the Jewish people poisoned the wells and brought the plague upon them. This was impossible due to Edward I kicking out the Jews in 1290. Christian Europeans believed that the pestilence was God's wrath acted upon humankind. People in Europe thought that their sins caused God to release this terrible pestilence among mankind. They stayed in Churches for confessions to be guarded from the pestilence. However, when that many people got together in one location it was easy for the slowly progressing disease to travel even faster.
Another superstition was based on humorism which basically states that human bodies had four main substances in them; Blood, Yellow bile, Black bile, and Phlegm. What some Europeans at this time believed was that the air was filled with bad humors that caused the pestilence to march across Europe.
Aside from the aforementioned superstitions, people received peculiar advises from officials on how to survive the plague. They were told to open their windows only facing the north because the wet air from the south were believed to be dangerous.
Another superstition was based on humorism which basically states that human bodies had four main substances in them; Blood, Yellow bile, Black bile, and Phlegm. What some Europeans at this time believed was that the air was filled with bad humors that caused the pestilence to march across Europe.
Aside from the aforementioned superstitions, people received peculiar advises from officials on how to survive the plague. They were told to open their windows only facing the north because the wet air from the south were believed to be dangerous.
An example of a primary source of information on the superstitions would be from the Sloane Manuscripts:
If I am asked what is the cause of pestilence, what is its physical cause and by what means can someone save himself from it, I answer to the first question that sin is the cause. To the second question, I say that it arises from the sea, as the evangelist says: "There shall be signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, by reason of the confusion of the roaring of the sea and of the waves." For the devil, by the power committed to him when the seas rise up high, is voiding his poison, sending it forth to be added to the poison in the air, and that air spreads gradually from place to place and enters man through the ears, eyes, nose, mouth, pores and other orifices. Then, if the man has a strong constitution, nature can expel the poison through ulcers, and if the ulcers putrefy, are strangled and fully run their course, the patient will be saved, as can be clearly seen. But if the poison should be stronger than his nature, so that his constitution cannot prevail against it, then the poison instantly lays siege to the heart and the patient dies within a short time, without the relief that comes from the formation of ulcers. (Anon. BL Sloane MS 965, folio 144.)
If I am asked what is the cause of pestilence, what is its physical cause and by what means can someone save himself from it, I answer to the first question that sin is the cause. To the second question, I say that it arises from the sea, as the evangelist says: "There shall be signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, by reason of the confusion of the roaring of the sea and of the waves." For the devil, by the power committed to him when the seas rise up high, is voiding his poison, sending it forth to be added to the poison in the air, and that air spreads gradually from place to place and enters man through the ears, eyes, nose, mouth, pores and other orifices. Then, if the man has a strong constitution, nature can expel the poison through ulcers, and if the ulcers putrefy, are strangled and fully run their course, the patient will be saved, as can be clearly seen. But if the poison should be stronger than his nature, so that his constitution cannot prevail against it, then the poison instantly lays siege to the heart and the patient dies within a short time, without the relief that comes from the formation of ulcers. (Anon. BL Sloane MS 965, folio 144.)