which many landowning nobles died and left their realty to their widows and minor orphans. urban workers in the wake of the drastic population decline brought on by the plague, wages shot up, and labourers could move to new localities in response to wage offers. local and royal authorities in western europe instituted wage controls. the government controls sought to freeze wages at the old levels before the black death. within england, for example, the ordinance of labourers, enacted in 1349, and the statute of labourers, enacted in 1351, restricted both wage increases and the relocation of workers. if workers attempted to leave their current post, employers were given the right to have them imprisoned. the statute was poorly enforced in most areas, and farm wages in england on average doubled between 1350 and 1450, but they were then static until the late 19th century. cohn, comparing numerous countries, argues that the laws were not designed primarily to freeze wages. instead, he says that the energetic local and royal measures to control labour and artisans' prices were responses to elite fears of the greed and the possible new powers of the lesser classes that had gained new freedom. cohn continues that the laws reflected the anxiety that followed the black death's new horrors of mass mortality and destruction and from elite anxiety about manifestations, such as the flagellant movement and the persecution of jews, catalans (in sicily) and beggars. labour-saving adaptations the black death encouraged innovation of labour-saving technologies, leading to higher productivity. there was also a shift from grain farming to animal husbandry. grain farming was very labor-intensive, but animal husbandry needed only a shepherd and a few dogs and pastureland. by 1200, virtually all of the mediterranean basin and most of northern germany had been deforested and cultivated. indigenous flora and fauna were replaced by domestic grasses and animals, and domestic woodlands were lost. with depopulation, the process was reversed. much of the primeval vegetation returned, and abandoned fields and pastures were reforested. changing land-contracts and end of serfdom plague brought an eventual end of serfdom in western europe. the manorial system was already in trouble, but the black death assured its demise throughout much of western and central europe by 1500. severe depopulation and migration of the village to cities caused an acute shortage of agricultural labourers. many villages were abandoned. in england, more than 1300 villages were deserted between 1350 and 1500. wages of labourers were high, but the rise in nominal wages after the black death was swamped by inflation and so real wages fell. labour was in such a short supply that landlords were forced to give better terms of tenure. that resulted in much lower rents in western europe. by 1500, a new form of tenure called copyhold became prevalent in europe. in copyhold, both a landlord and peasant made their best business deal, whereby the peasant got use of the land and the landlord got a fixed annual payment, and both possessed a copy of the tenure agreement. serfdom did not end everywhere and lingered in parts of western europe and was introduced to eastern europe only after the black death. there was also a change in inheritance law. before the plague, only sons, especially the eldest son, inherited the ancestral property. after the plague, all sons and daughters started to inherit property. persecutions renewed religious fervor and fanaticism came in the wake of the black death. some europeans targeted "groups such as jews, friars, foreigners, beggars, pilgrims" lepers and romani, who were thought to have caused the crisis. differences in cultural and lifestyle practices also led to persecution. as the plague swept across europe in the mid-14th century and annihilating more than half the population, jews were taken as scapegoats, in part because better hygiene among jewish communities and isolation in the ghettos meant that jews were less affected. accusations spread/that jews had caused the disease by deliberately poisoning wells. mobs attacked jewish settlements across europe; by 1351, 60 major and 150 smaller jewish communities had been destroyed, and more than 350 separate massacres had occurred. according to joseph p. byrne, women also faced persecution during the black death. muslim women in cairo became scapegoats when the plague struck. byrne writes that in 1438, the sultan of cairo was informed by his religious lawyers, that the arrival of the plague was "allah's punishment for the sin of fornication" and that in accordance with that theory, a law was set in place stating that women were not allowed to make public appearances, as "they may tempt men into sin". byrne describes that law as being lifted only when "the wealthy complained that their female servants could not shop for food". religion the black death hit the monasteries very hard because of their proximity with the sick who sought refuge there. that left a severe shortage of clergy after the epidemic cycle. eventually, the losses were replaced by hastily-trained and inexperienced clergy members, many of whom knew little of the rigours of their predecessors. new colleges were opened at established universities, and the training process was sped up. the shortage of priests opened new opportunities for laywomen to assume more extensive and more important service roles in the local parish. woodcut of flagellants (nuremberg chronicle, 1493) flagellants practiced self-flogging (whipping of oneself) to atone for sins. the movement became popular after the black death. it may be that the flagellants' later involvement in hedonism was an effort to accelerate, to absorb god's wrath and to shorten the time with which others suffered. more likely, the focus of attention and popularity of their cause contributed to a sense that the world itself was ending and that their individual actions were of no consequence. reformers rarely pointed to failures on the part of the church in dealing with the catastrophe. cultural effects the triumph of death (1446) the black death had profound effects on art and literature. after 1350, european culture in general turned very morbid. the general mood was one of pessimism, and contemporary art turned dark with representations of death. the widespread image of the "dance of death" showed death (a skeleton) choosing victims at random. many of the most graphic depictions come from writers such as boccaccio and petrarch. peire lunel de montech, writing about 1348 in the lyric style long out of fashion, composed the following sorrowful sirventes "meravilhar no·s devo pas las gens" during the height of the plague in toulouse: they died by the hundreds, both day and night, and all were thrown in... ditches and covered with earth. and as soon as those ditches were filled, more were dug. and i, agnolo di tura... buried my five children with my own hands.... and so many died that all believed it was the end of the world. boccaccio wrote: how many valiant men, how many fair ladies, breakfast with their kinfolk and the same night supped with their ancestors in the next world! the condition of the people was pitiable to behold. they sickened by the thousands daily, and died unattended and without help. many died in the open street, others dying in their houses, made it known by the stench of their rotting bodies. consecrated churchyards did not suffice for the burial of the vast multitude of bodies, which were heaped by the hundreds in vast trenches, like goods in a ship's hold and covered with a little earth. danse macabre from the nuremberg chronicle (1493). medicine although the black death highlighted the shortcomings of medical science in the middle ages, it also led to positive changes in the field of medicine. as described by david herlihy in the black death and the transformation of the west, more emphasis was placed on "anatomical investigations" after the black death. the way that individuals studied the human body notably changed and became a process that dealt more directly with the human body in varied states of sickness and health. furthermore, the importance of surgeons became more evident. a theory put forth by stephen o'brien is that the black death is likely responsible by natural selection for the high frequency of the ccr5-δ32 genetic defect in people of european descent. the gene affects t cell function and provides protection against hiv, smallpox and possibly plague, but for the last, no explanation exists on how it would do that. however, that is now challenged since the ccr5-δ32 gene has been found to be just as common in bronze age tissue samples. architecture the black death also inspired european architecture to move in two different directions: (1) a revival of greco-roman styles, and (2) a further elaboration of the gothic style. late medieval churches had impressive structures centred on verticality in which one's eye is drawn up towards the high ceiling. the basic gothic style was revamped with elaborate decoration in the late medieval period. sculptors in italian city-states emulated the work of their roman forefathers, and sculptors in northern europe, no doubt inspired by the devastation they had witnessed, gave way to a heightened expression of emotion and an emphasis on individual differences. a tough realism came forth in architecture as in literature. images of intense sorrow, decaying corpses and individuals with faults as well as virtues emerged. north of the alps, painting reached a pinnacle of precise realism with early dutch painting by artists such as jan van eyck (c. 1390 – 1441). the natural world was reproduced in those works with meticulous detail whose realism was not unlike photography.