Plagues and Epidemics Humans are remarkably good at finding a religious scapegoat for their problems. There has always been someone to blame for the difficulties we face in life, such as war, famine, and more relevant, disease. Hitler blames the Jews for economical woes in a corrupt Germany long after the Romans held the Christians responsible for everything wrong in a crumbling, has-been empire. In the fourteenth century, when Plague struck Europe, it was blamed on "… unfavorable astrological combinations or malignant atmospheres…" (handout p2), and even "…deliberate combination by witches, Moslems (an idea proposed by Christians), Christians (proposed by Moslems) and Jews (proposed by