Boccaccio

After the Black Plague it had become more frequent to make a satire of the Roman Catholic Church along with their priests, and religious beliefs; as we can see evidenced in The Decameron by Boccaccio’s use of them as a sort of comedy relief throughout the story. There is also a huge sense of the time periods sense of number related mystical ideas, such as some believe that the seven young women are meant to represent the Four Cardinal Virtues and that the three men are to represent the classic divisions of the Soul. Boccaccio himself even reveals this saying that each name is chosen as “appropriate to the qualities of each”. Giovanni I believe wanted to make somewhat a satire of the current time and what was going on. He wanted to make aware what was going on in that day in time that many people could have been blind to or just didn’t realize. I do find it interesting that many of the plots Boccaccio uses in his stories are actually borrowed from other major stories.

As far as the correctness to leave those who are plagued and establish myself in my own kingdom I would have to say no. During the black plague Christians made a huge influence by not moving away from the cities but rather some actually moving into to cities to take care of the dying. The humanistic view would say look out for yourself and move away. However the action of not moving away but reaching out I believe is the correct one although sadly enough I do not believe exist in many Christians or churches even today.