Edward III spelled out how this worked in a letter to the English bishops in 1349, explaining that “prayer, fasting and the exercise of virtue” would encourage God to “repel the plague and illness and confer peace and tranquility and health of body and soul.”23 Countless other leaders like him urged the same, all to no avail. However, the immediate, religious reflexes that the Black Death set off were only a small part of the human response to the pestilence. The first economic consequence of the pandemic was to wreak havoc on prices and wages.
