Thousands of people perished at Norwich, while in Bristol the living were hardly able to bury the dead.

But the Black Death fell on the villages almost as fiercely as on the towns.

More than one-half of the priests of Yorkshire are known to have perished; in the diocese of Norwich two-thirds of the parishes changed their incumbents.

The whole organization of labour was thrown out of gear.

The scarcity of hands produced by the terrible mortality made it difficult for villeins to perform the services due for their lands, and only a temporary abandonment of half the rent by the landowners induced the farmers of their demesnes to refrain from the abandonment of their farms.