Based on the information provided in the documents, what did Europeans believe started the plague? Use reasons and evidence from the documents to support your claims.

Sample response: Europeans had no understanding of the cause of the plague. Some, like those in Geneva, blamed it on poisoning carried out by the Jewish population. Others believed it came as a punishment from God or from a conjunction of planets.

Initially, the Europeans thought the the plague, also referred to as Black Death, was a punishment from the Gods, and this was a belief that was started in the church circles, and they thought that God is punishing the people for their sins. This belief was quickly spread around, and people were indeed in big panic because it was a pandemic that was spreading around very quickly and was fatal.